A Sweet Treat...

My family has enjoyed this delightful treat :) It is super easy to make and taste delightful. Now, I love chocolate chip cookies so that could play a big role in why I like this treat so much.

I found the recipe here:
http://www.julieseatsandtreats.com/2011/03/blonde-brownies/


"Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely." Psalm 37:3

Loving motherhood...

This school year has brought a lot different emotions but one that has remained the same is being in awe of the Lord by watching my little ones. How He has blessed our home.

Prayerfully seeking God...

Wow...I can't believe it has been this long since I have posted here. Time simply continues to press on no matter what we say about it, right :)
There has been so many things weighing heavily on my heart lately...I have to say I am just prayerfully seeking the Father for direction. No matter what.... I have decided to dive into the things of God and take every necessary step that He calls me to. This pushes me out of my box.

Have you ever felt like you just want/need to draw close to HIM?

There is a point that goes beyond just a day to day seeking; it's a desperation for more of HIM!

"Let me experience Your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You. Reveal to me the way I should go because I long for You." Psalm 143:8

God has been so faithful to me. I can't begin to express the magnitude. Yet there is a longing in my spirit for more. Another verse that has been ringing in my spirit is this:

"Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn." Psalm 57:8

I don't fully know where He is leading me on this journey but I know He is with me on it. In the days to come I will be in continual prayer. I ask you to come along with me? On this journey of prayer; a deeper longing for more of Him?

His Presence...

"If your presence does not go,.....Don't make us go up from here." Exodus 33:15

I have longed for His presence lately, more than usual. I realized that this truly is my hearts desire, that I be in His presence. For a long time I wanted to just be good on the outside....you know having right words, the right modest attire, well behaved kids.....having a godly appearance. Don't misunderstand me, I wanted the ways of the Lord.In doing all those things, I thought, I must be pleasing the Father which meant I belonged to Him. First let me say, If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you belong to Him ; therefore being declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). 

You see in the passage of scripture above, Moses realized that there was nothing of greater value than to have the presence of God with him. Being able to talk with God and know Him. He would rather stay in the wilderness  and have the presence of God, than to go to a land of continual riches and the best of all things good. God told Moses in Exodus 33 that He would send an angel with him and that He would fulfill his promise to the children of Israel only He was not going up with a stiff-necked people.

And Moses essentially said, 
No, please don't tell me to go without you, Lord! 

How often do we just go through the motions of a christian life doing good things, accomplishing much but not seeking His presence?Maybe we say a quick prayer and read a verse here or there; but never have enough time to actually enter in.What if we make it to church on time every Sunday and leave, not being moved with compassion? What if  our prayers slowly become more and more about making our lives a little bit easier and better; leaving out the widowed, the orphaned, and the sick?

"How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us?" Exodus 33:16

I am learning that even in my vain attempt to walk this thing out right; I missed a vital part of the journey.
That is to know HIM.
 And not just to know Him, having only a head knowledge, but to know Him presence to presence.To begin to take on the very heart of God. Realizing that He has called us all to enter behind the veil.

End of our school year continued.....

Now that we are well into our summer, I have managed to do a large amount of decluttering. This was a major problem during the school year because nothing seemed to really be clean. We did not have a lot designated places for certain things. So those things just got stuffed somewhere. So chore time has been pleasant this summer. With many hopes we can continue this during our 2012-2013 school year.

Some of the things that I absolutely loved this school year were...... my weekly planning times, arranging my active teaching time where I began with the little's(2yo and 4yo) first and ended with my 5th grader, realizing that it is okay to school after lunch time, this did wonders to keeping me stress-free.....starting a load of laundry first thing in the morning, and the most important of all; getting up about 45 mins. earlier and working out and having a devotion time before the kids got up.

And just letting go...and trusting God to take care of the things I couldn't 

or

 did not have strength to do.

Some things that I was not pleased with were......not completing as much of the curriculum that I had planned on, implementing more character skills, being too busy outside the house, not doing nearly enough service time, and just being consistent.

And so, we bring another school year to a close with many ups and a few downs.....but we survived by the grace of God and infused with more love and joy because of His mighty hand in our lives. I am convinced that there really is nothing impossible with God; I've seen first hand the extreme change He has done this year as a whole with our family :) And what He is continuing to do in and through us. Our school this year looked completely different than the previous year. My prayer is that we continue to grow in the ways of the Lord and that our lives be living testimony of what God can do if you "put your trust in Him."(Psalm 2:12)


"Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed." Isaiah 49:23


"May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:4

End of our school year....

Our school year started so much better than I had expected....I was so happy with all the energy and preparations that were actually used through out the year. I don't know about you but I tend to not follow through with all my plans....I somehow just like the idea that they are out there somewhere..LOL! So this year was a real treat :)

So with that in mind, I decided for this year to be more relaxed and focus more on my organization. I didn't try to mass produce lesson plans before the year started. I decided to have lesson planning Sunday's. I would plan out my lessons for each week on Sunday afternoon while the children played outside. It would take me maybe an hour to plan for 2 children (my third child just did the next page in her text book and I would read to her and my youngest). I put each lesson and child in a time slot. If you are wondering what I mean by that the book "Managers of the home" by Steve and Teri Maxwell gave me this idea. You can find there products at www.titus2.com .

I also set up a specific chore time and big clean up/declutter time. Which was a big improvement from last year. In the previous years, I would get so frustrated and stressed when I woke up to a huge mess of a house that school would be the last thing on my list to do. The cycle of that led me to feeling so guilty and like a failure that I would further slip away from school work and later try to push to finish the year without over working the kids. Which left me a very frustrated mama. I thought, "If God is calling me to this...there has to be a better way." And there was. Though I am still tweaking it all....I have realized that being a wife and mother to four kids organization is a major key. And while my house is not as neatly organized as I would like for it to be; we have clean and clear spaces to actually live in. 


And on another note :)



Guitar lessons have come along beautifully and he is still really enjoying it. We also decided to do American Heritage Girls for my Indya and she really enjoyed it, as well. She learned a lot and developed new friendships. We discovered that she really is a servant. When given the opportunity; she opened up.


........more to come on how we schooled this year..........

"You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you." 

Isaiah 26:3

Going natural.....

Wow! Let me say this....... In the beginning when i began transitioning May of last year; I was beside myself with so much excitement. Through out the year I walked the road of knowing my hubby was not to keen on my decision but settled, knowing that I had very little knowledge of how to care for my hair in this state, and really there was no one around me that looked like me. Okay i know what you are thinking.....

.....hello...!! 

why do you care what everyone else thinks?

Well apparently I cared a whole lot more than even I knew. God did though... and He knew exactly the liberty He was ushering me into. Not only was He leading me into a more natural lifestyle for myself through hair, cloth diapering my little one, and food changes; He planted me in a Beth Moore bible study that would eventually shake me to the core. He began a process of showing me how I truly saw myself and it was not how He saw me. Without going into all of that, I will say He is "...renewing a right spirit within me..."(Ps.51:10)

 After transitioning for 9 1/2 months, I decided to braid my hair up to push through the last 2 months. Since I wanted to transition for a year. Well, that was fine until I took them out with a month to go. And to my dismay my relaxed hair was all dreaded up and had to be cut. Leaving me with no choice but to do my big chop at 11 months transitioning. I discovered that I was no more ready to do my big chop at 11 months as I was at the first month. I literally cried. I had everything i needed for natural hair as I had been collecting all year. But that wasn't my problem......

Will I no longer be beautiful?
A question that rolled around in my head more times than i  can count.
I was about to discover that God had a different meaning for beauty....and I was far from understanding.

When we tell our children that they are so beautiful, we can believe it for them. We know and understand that God made them beautiful just the way they are.

But do we always believe that for ourselves??


To know that this is all part of the journey....a journey worth taking.










" In her chamber, the royal daughter is all glorious.........." Psalm45:13a


"Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines  have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. " Psalm 16:5-6