Do you ever have one of those days?



Some how I wish I was in this picture,
called Peaceful Winter Evening


I am having one of those days, actually it is getting close to a week...it just seems that I have so many things on my mind.  Here's a summary...

     1. When will it snow?
          2. What is happening with my friend Virginia?
     3. How is the family doing that recently lost a baby?
          4. Should I go to the funeral?
     5. Will Tim get a Christmas surprise this year?
          6. Is my youngest son upset about anything?
     7. How can I help with a pregnant daughter, who has morning sickness,    
         a lot?
          8. How and what should I do for my youngest daughter?
     9.  Am I being a good wife?
          10. What will the new year bring, as far as taxes?
     11. What should I write about tomorrow?
          
Can you tell I have a lot on this little pea brain of mine?  And most of these things I struggle with just because I haven't any answers to these questions.

What I have done in the past is to turn everything over to God.  Why I didn't consider this before now (I mean this week)....I just realized what Jesus did.  Hah, caught you, and Thank you Jesus.  Jesus just said to me, "Kirsten, I want you to tell the people that they can turn it all over to me, anytime, anywhere, just turn your problems, cares, concerns over to Me."  You know it says in the Bible that Jesus died for our sins, well He didn't just die for our sins, He died for us!  He was our sacrifice that we couldn't come up with.  My husband Tim has been working on me as for this particular learning that I need. When we ask for something to be done, we don't continue to ask that this same thing be done we generally expect that it will be done, so why do we pray to God, over and over and over again concerning the same thing, He hears us the first time, and we should then just go about our business and expect an answer, it may not be the answer we want but we will get an answer.

When I turn my cares and concerns over to the Lord, they are no longer anything that I need to be concerned with, once you have given something over to God, you are done with it.  It is finished as far as you are concerned.

Okay we are finished with this subject, now I want to ask you all, do you know what an opinion is?  According to Merriam, let's see, she says:

Definition of OPINION

1a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter

  b : approval, esteem

2a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge

  b : a generally held view

3a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert

  b : the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which   a legal decision is based.

 

Now I would like to see where wisdom is:

Definition of WISDOM

1a : accumulated philosophic or scientific learning : knowledge

  b : ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : insight

  c : good sense : judgment

  d : generally accepted belief <challenges what has become accepted wisdom among many historians —  Robert Darnton>

2 : a wise attitude, belief, or course of action

3 : the teachings of the ancient wise men

 

I had always thought that wisdom comes with age, perhaps it doesn't, God I pray for wisdom.  And God said, "But you know having wisdom doesn't generally make things any easier.  You will still have difficulty with people hearing what it is that you say.  People , not all, but some people have stopped up ears, and they will not hear you until they clean out there ears!"

 

Okay, so God I will ask you for patience, "Ah that is a good thing to ask for Kirsten, patience is always a good thing." And God continues, "I know everyday that you suggest that people go and be a blessing, and that is a very good thing to do, who are you going to bless today?"

God is so Good, All the Time, Even in Saddness.....

Isn't this an awesome picture?  This past Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with most of the family,  there were a few missing that were definitely missed!  But as you can see we made the most of it.  This picture is taken by one of my daughter's who has an amazing photographic talent.  In fact most of the pictures here today are taken by my Jen! 

After we had dinner we decided to go outside and go and visit the goats, then we decided to take the goats for a walk and go see my friend Jack, the donkey.  So off we went; some of the grandchildren and the boys! (The goats, I call them my boys)  In the picture above we have Michael, Madison, Mam-Maw, Comet, Jacob, and Starr.  In this next picture, Madison wanted to see the steers, so I held her up so she could see.  Maddie may be four and speak like she's, at least 30, but she is such a little peanut.  Just the cutest little one. 

Living on a farm, while it is not ours, is wonderful.  Especially when the children come for a visit.  There is always so much to see whether it is warm or cold outside.    And these children prefer being outside rather than in.  Which I am very thankful for.  Two of the familys live in small city's and one lives in the suburbs so when they are on the farm they have a lot of freedom, that they don't have at home.  It can be a little bit of a challenge keeping track of where everyone is.  But we manage. 

In the next picture that Jen caught

you can see me feeding Jack animal

crackers.  Before we went outside, I had filled the pockets of my jacket with animal crackers, the boys just love them and now I know that Jack loves them also!  Jack wasn't entirely sure of the goats.  They did come pretty much noses to nose, Starr isn't as curious as is Comet,  Comet will investigate just about anything, but not Starr.  You know I look at these pictures and I am in awe of the wonders of being a grandparent.  God has a wonderful plan for us as families.  And it is truly a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful family.  We have one child, who is yet to settle down and be married...we are really blessed by all of our children and grandchildren.  I look at other family's and I really hope that they can feel that they are blessed as well.  I have a friend who has recently experienced the death of a grandchild, I am not sure just how you would go about doing this.  If a mommy has a miscarriage, that is one thing, and certainly there is sadness there, but when a child has been born and has blessed us with their presence for a time; I can't help but feel that the pain from this kind of loss would be a bit more profound within the family as a whole.  Mostly because not just the mommy got to know the child but, the parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, all of the family.  Perhaps it is more pronounced just because more of the family knew of the child.  Knew his spirit, and some of his little actions, knew his smile...Even in the sadness there has to be joy in knowing that this little child is now with his heavenly Father, and will never again suffer any pain or belly aches, or diaper rash.  All is well, with his soul. 

In this picture I have lost some children, I think they may be behind me a bit, but we are walking back down to our house...everybody is ready to go inside now and maybe play a few games.  We have lots of those.  And the children all seem to enjoy playing them and so do some of the grown-ups  Jen, sometimes Celeste, and I like playing Banana Grams, it's a fun game that even the children, who can spell enjoy playing also.  And there's the piano...(above)and sitting in Pappy's lap, next to the wood stove to get warm...

Maddie loves her Pappy....and playing games..Maddie loves getting these games out and frequently they have to be finished by someone else, but she does try and doesn't hand it over until she feels she just cant get it!  Well I have just looked out my window and the sky is brightening up quite a bit, with a beautiful sunrise, but uh-o, red sky at morning sailor take warning, I wonder what the weather has instore for us today....Time to go and get ready for work and to find someone to bless!  How about you?

Respect, Self-Respect, Dis-Respect, Martyr Syndrome

Have you ever considered, and I mean really considered what it means to respect others and/or to have self respect?  I was looking for a picture to go with this post but I think I will start out with a definition instead, so first of all we have the definition of respect. (This is from Merriam)

 Definition of RESPECT (as a transitive verb)

1a : to consider worthy of high regard : esteem

   b : to refrain from interfering with <please respect their privacy>

2: to have reference to : concern

Synonyms: appreciate, consider, esteem, regard, admire

Now let's see what she has to say about self respect...

Definition of SELF-RESPECT

1: a proper respect for oneself as a human being

2: regard for one's own standing or position

Synonyms: ego, pridefulness, self-esteem, self-regard, self-respect

Now for dis-respect

Definition of DISRESPECT

1: to have disrespect for

2: to show or express disrespect or contempt for : insult, dis <disrespected the officer>

Synonyms: affront, dis (also diss) [slang], insult, offend, outrage, slap, slight, wound

So I think that what the dictionary is saying about respect, is that when we hold someone or see someone thru eyes of love, we also are probably respecting them.  Do you hold the people that you love in high regard?  Do you admire them?  I know that I do.  Especially my family members.

Why is it frequently said that we can't respect others if we don't respect ourselves?  I have spent a great deal of time in the last eight hours considering this...I should have been sleeping, but every time I woke up last night I found myself considering these things....I found a link about respect, and rather than reword things, this is the link.  And if you have issues with respect for others and/or for yourself, this is a very good page.

http://www.wikihow.com/Respect-Yourself

Wow! Have you ever had an epiphany!  I have just had one.  As I was reading on this page on wikihow.com/Respect-Yourself, there was a place at the bottom of the page that you could click on and go some place else, to another subject.  The next page I clicked on was:

How to Overcome Martyr Syndrome

I think that over the years I have been affiliated with someone (Perhaps even a little bit myself.) who has this particular problem and hasn't even know it...and I think that I have been confusing it all up with be self-respecting, and disrespectful, and respect!  This reading that I have just done was a real epiphany!  (Oh and just incase you want to read this: http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Martyr-Syndrome )

Pulling ourselves out of the Martyr Syndrome does have something to do with learning to respect ourselves and our own wishes. 

Some time back I wrote a little about the ability to say NO....when we say yes, but really want to have said no, we are working against ourselves.  I mean that we are not being true to ourselves and we are letting others actually control us like a little puppet on a string.  If you feel the need to say NO, than say NO.  This may be the first step for some of us to get out of the Martyr Syndrome.  If however you like being there, then go for it, I myself, am out of here.  I don't feel that I have ever really suffered from this, but I can sure tell you about some others that I have been around in the past, that have definitely suffered from this and I don't think that they even knew that, that is what they were doing.  I believe they got so good at manipulating circumstances with this condition to meet their own needs that they didn't realize they were being martyrs, as well or, as part of their deception.

Having said this, I believe my mother was a great sufferer of this condition, and I wonder if I may have taught others along the way how to have this condition and I myself didn't actually realize I was doing this! Hmmm! Now what do I do?  Any thoughts out there?  Is anyone there...knock, knock, knock...

Come on, I could really use some feed back on this.  But for now I will go and be a blessing to someone today!

Will today, Nov. 27, 2012, be the first real snow of this winter?



Piney Winter

 I don't know about you, but I could live here!  Do you see the smoke curling from the chimney?  It looks so cozy!

I have always liked cozy, I think that may be why I prefer winter to summer, it's somewhat difficult to be cozy, naturally, in the summer.  And by naturally I am referring to the temperature; cozy to me is a nice fire in the wood stove, cookies or something else tasty cooking in the oven, filling the house with warm wonderful smells.  Being curled up with a good book or a great movie on the box and maybe, for me knitting.  I know not everyone knits, but some of us do and knitting scarves in the summer is not anywhere near as much fun as knitting scarves in the winter....

Doesn't this little narrative sound awesome?  To me it does...because I am lucky enough to know the reality of this kind of home.  Sure my husband and I have to work to have this kind of home, but God has blessed us and everyday I see more blessing from God that I didn't even realize were there.

When my children were small...


http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-small/sharing-rebecca-smith.jpg

I used to sing a song to them and with them...Count your blessing name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has Done, count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings see what God has done!

This is probably still one of my favorite songs especially for teaching the wee ones.

We need to understand that our God wants to bless us, even in our adverse situations.  Your baby is crying none stop.  Okay, he has a belly ache, well I can feel sad for the situation, but, look how many babies will not make it thru the next five minutes, because of infant deaths, abortion, or a tragic accident.  I will take the blessing of a belly ache any day, wont you mommies out there.

We can always see a blessing, in any situation; our God is so good that he has provided us with this ability.  I know that when a loved one passes away, there can be profound sadness.  And it seems that the younger a person is the more profound is the sadness.  What we must look at is that this person, if very young, or shall I say before the age of accountability, is in heaven with our Lord.  What place could possibly be better?  Oh sure, I know we, the alive ones, are missing out on a lot of joy that we anticipated,  but what of the joy, that is now being showered all over our loved and departed one!  We couldn't possibly deny them this!  Wow!  Just the thought of denying them this amazing joy, now that would be sad!

Okay so now we have talked about a profound sadness and seeing the blessing in it.  I know that this isn't a happy thought, but it is definitely something to consider.

God has provided a way (Another great song) for us to deal with things. wither they are a sad or an aggravating situation...you just need to look for the blessing, there will be one, even if we can't find it, God knows...Well I just looked at the weather map and it looks like we may be getting some snow today.  I especially like the snow if I don't have to go out in it.  But, and here is my blessing, I have a very short drive to work, actually in good weather it takes me eight minutes or so to drive to work, but a little longer if I get behind a tractor...

Now you need to go and be a blessing to someone today and keep your eyes open for someone, anyone, who may need your assistance!

Abundantly

This field is not very far from my house.  And as you can see there are a lot of purple flowers in this picture.  These are Grape Hyacinths; around here they are referred to as blue bells.  And there is an Abundance of them; it is an awesome sight to see!



Yesterday in church (Harvest Chapel, rte 30, Abbottstown, PA) our pastor asked us if we are living abundantly.  And I thought this would make a great topic for this morning and, well, every morning.  Do you know in the King James Version of the bible, abundantly is mentioned 32 times.  So in my estimation this is a pretty important word...I looked it up and this is what I found:

Definition of ABUNDANT

1 a: marked by great plenty (as of resources) <a fair and abundant land>

   b: amply supplied : abounding <an area abundant with bird life>

 

2 : occurring in abundance : ample <abundant rainfall>

— abun·dant·ly adverb

 

However, I am not speaking of abundant things in this writing; I am referring to an abundant life!  A life that is overflowing with God's greatness and love and grace. 

 

When you are living in the love of God, and living in His goodness and living in His grace.  You are living an abundant life.

 

Now you might ask, "How do I do this?"  As you are a child growing up, hopefully in a good home or at least in a decent home, you are living under the love and tutelage of kind parents.  These people you have a relationship with, and they love you and care for you, at least that is what they are supposed to do.  They feed you and clothe you and provide you with a warm and safe place to live and sleep and play and learn.  (This is what good parents are supposed to do.) Parents generally surround their children with love and goodness and grace.  But in order to have this with your parents you have a relationship with them, you converse with them, you play with them, you do kind things for them, you do as you are instructed.  These things are all parts of having a relationship with your parents. 

 

Now I would like you to consider these things, only I want you to imagine them so much greater, that you have a difficult time conceiving of how great this can all be!  This is living abundantly....

http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=abundantly&c=&t=kjv&ps=10&s=Bibles 

If you go to this link you will see how this word is used in the bible...Our God takes amazing care of us if we will but let Him.  When you are a born again Christian, God is simply standing in front of you...and He is always standing right with you.  What does always mean?   He is there constantly...Now just imagine that God has in His hand a present, and He is offering this present to you....For days and months and years, you have ignored Him...and yet He is still standing there, very patiently...and one day you turn to Him and say, "Okay God I think I will take that present that you have so patiently been waiting for me to take..."  You open the present and God has given you the gift of eternal life with Him, and all He asks is that you follow Him...it's time, don't you think?  So try to get a hold of a bible if you can and read and read and read...and learn from God what it is that He wants you to do with your life, and if you follow Him, you will live an abundant life.

 

God is so Good and it is easy to be a blessing to others when we are constantly being blessed by God!

A Story for all the Grandchildren

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving!

Trenton, Ryan, Shawn, Jacob, Madison, Daisha, Michael, Brandon, and Zoe, the younger grandchildren, all waited patiently for the Thanksgiving celebration; they knew that on Thanksgiving was when the decisions were made about who was getting presents for whom.  And boy were they excited!  They all loved going to Mam-maw's house...Ya know, over the river and thru the woods....it was always fun with everybody all together, and the silly stories Pappy told along with the uncles putting in their two cents.  Oh and the wrestling that always gets Mam-maw upset!  We have to be careful with that, they each thought, we don't want anybody getting hurt.

But what the little guys didn't know was that Mam-maw and Pappy had something else in mind....They had decided to have a little camp out day.  Instead of being in the house all day as they frequently were, why not spend the day outside.  The house was neat and ready to go though, just in case of inclement weather.
The children grew more excited as the day drew near...and it was finally here!

Ring, Ring...oh Mommy's phone is ringing said Jacob. 

Well it turns out that today is the day but we are supposed to dress different than we usually do...Hmmm, what's going on thought Jacob? 

Ring, Ring...uh-oh Mom's phone is ringing said Daisha...turns out it's Mam-maw, she wants us to dress in warm clothes, instead of what we usually wear.  Oh phooey thought Daisha and Zoe, the boys won’t care, but we wanted to wear dresses ...Phooey, phooey, phooey. 

And the same story ensued at Ryan's and Madison's.  Trenton, he didn't care. He just liked going to the farm.

Meanwhile the matriarch and the patriarch of the family were getting things ready for the day.  Oh this was going to be so much fun!  They were just about as excited as the children.  Maw had cooking and baking to do.  There were sweet potatoes to peel and bake with brown sugar and butter, oh and white potatoes; Great Maw was going to bring those and oatmeal cookies with the cranberries instead of raisins.  And the pumpkin pies and apple pies with the brown sugar crumbs on top were already baking.  Oh the food will be so good.  Pappy was out in the shed working on the big potato chip can that they were going to use to bake the turkey in over the wood fire.  And as every moment passed Pap was getting more, and more excited, too.
 

Well not only were the grandchildren getting exited, so were the grown-ups, Samuel and  Mary and Baby Levi were driving over from Millersville and Ruth had already arrived and was taking a shower and getting ready to help Mom with the food and with carrying things outside.  We still have about two hours till everyone arrives, thought Ruth.

Pap, after getting the chip can ready to go decided that he had better get started on the wood for the fire, after all we were pretending to be Pilgrims today, even though we had plastic plates and regular silver ware, we were going to be sitting at a table made from slabs of wood and sitting on stumps.  I really think that the Grandchildren are going to have a new appreciation of what the pilgrims may have had to deal with by having this experience, Pap thought.

Maw was busy in the kitchen, and she was thinking about the day ahead, I am glad as the dickens that it's not really cold today so, Baby Levi will be able to be out with us, at least for a little while.

Well Ruth was done with her shower and getting ready and came out to the kitchen were Mom was. 

Mom asked her if she would please go to Pap Tim and get the chip can, so that as soon as the fire had some good embers we would be able to get the turkey started. 

Ruth soon came back with chip can in her hand and thinking how in the world are we going to cook a turkey inside a chip can....What she didn't know was that Mom had already done this once before, a long, long, long time ago. 

Mom must have seen the perplexed look on Ruthee's face and she told Ruthee, "don't worry, it will work!"   Mom then asked Ruth to take the lid off the can, and inside the can was a little rack for the turkey to sit on.   And there were several vent holes in the top to let steam out as the turkey cooked.  Maw put the turkey on the rack that was now on the inside of the can and put the lid back on.  Maw looked out the kitchen window to see how the fire was doing and Pap seemed to have it going pretty well.
“I think we’ll wait just a little bit for the fire to die down and then we can pull some hot coal over a little out of the way and put the turkey in the can on the coals,” said Mom.  "You know back in the time of the Pilgrims this turkey would have been cooked on a stick over the fire...Hmmm, they didn't have potatoe chip cans...a little flaw in our thinking for today,  oh well we cant have everything..." said Mom to Ruthee.

Ruthee was thinking, I can’t wait to eat, it’s been awhile since I’ve had Mom’s home cooking, and it will be so good.  Just then there was a knock at the door…knock, knock, knock.  There were Great Maw and Great Pap and Grand-maw Chris.  Everyone greeted everyone else and they all agreed that this was going to be fun and that the children will probably learn from the experience.

Since everyone was dressed in warm clothes they went outside with some of the food that didn’t need to stay warm, like the celery and carrots and the pies and a big jug of milk and a jug of ice tea for the grown-ups.  And Maw took the chip can out to put on the coals that Pap had raked to the side for just this purpose. 

Pap and Great Pap continued to work on getting the stumps around the table that Pap had already put together.  Ruthee helped in directing so that all the children would have a stump that was just the right height for them to be able to sit on, so that they would be just the right height themselves at the table!  Cool no-one was going to need a booster seat this year!

Ruth decided it would be a good idea to make place cards, so that everyone would know where they were supposed to sit.  So she ran in the house to get paper and crayons and a little tack hammer and some thumb tacks so that they wouldn’t blow away.  It wasn’t terribly windy, but just a little breeze was blowing.

As Ruthee was just getting started on the name tags, everyone arrived at once…oh boy, such confusion, thought Maw…Oh well now we can explain what we are doing.

Great Maw and Great Pap, Grand Ma Chris, Maw and Pap explained that we were going to have a pilgrims Thanksgiving, which was why we are all dressed in warm clothes because we were all staying outside for the day…

Hmmm, thought the children, this was going to be a fun day…All the children started to take off in different directions…but…Aunt Ruthee had a different idea.  She rounded up the children and got them to make their own name cards.  They didn’t have to have their names on unless they wanted them on.  And then she tacked them to the table where they were each supposed to sit.

The children then had to try out their stumps to see how well they fit…it was great!

Well there was a lot of excitement, the little girls got over not being able to wear their pretty dresses and played and played.  This was the first time that Daisha and Zoe and Madison had an opportunity to spend time together and play and they were having a grand time.  Mam-maw got a few dolls from in the house that were dressed as a pilgrim babies.  They were wearing long dresses and wrapped up in warm blankets.  Mam-maw also had pilgrim hats for everyone to put on.  Even the grownups!

Then the boys big and little decided they had enough time for a short game of football before dinner was ready, but Maw had to get the football…it was rags, from everywhere on the farm…all tied up with bailing twine, and it kind of looked like a football, but not exactly.  Great Pap saw it and he chuckled and chuckled, Great Maw saw it and she said, “Well would you look at that!”
Well the boys didn’t seem to mind, it worked pretty well.

As time was getting closer for dinner Ruth, and Shea, and Shea’s girlfriend went to the stream between the farm house and Mam-maw and Pappy’s house and got buckets of water, so that everyone could wash up before dinner…they then all joined hands and Uncle Samuel said the blessing and they sat down at their designated spots and enjoyed having a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.  During dinner they went around the table and everyone listed the things that they were each thankful for.  (As you read this prepare your children for doing just this very thing) 

After dinner there was some time spent playing football again and then finally everyone gathered around the huge fire to stay warm.  Pappy and Mam-maw asked everyone what they thought of celebrating Thanksgiving in this fashion…and if anyone had learned anything…. 

Well Jacob asked the first question…What would the pilgrims have done if it had rained….That was a very good questions, and it was decided amongst the family that they may have all gone to one of the Indians long houses.  Were everyone could be together and in out of the rain. 

Shea and Elijah were curios about the way that people lived in general back then.  These two didn’t so much ask a question as much as they gave us all some things to think about.  They are very good at this, they are both so bright (that’s a grandmother talking, but it so true).

Madie and Zoe wanted to know, were did they go potty if they didn’t have a house…we all told them that they went potty in the woods.  Hmmm they had to think about this answer. 

Jacob and Ryan decided that life must have been very different back then, and Daisha and Trenton, now fast friends, wondered about going to school, were did they go and what was there school like?  This one question garnered the most discussion, with all involved, the children really wondered about not being able to have school, because of there not being a building.  With the number of building being so many, they had a hard time thinking in terms of NO buildings at all. 

Well my friends and family, I was really hoping to get this out to you all yesterday, but my brain froze, and I was having a little difficulty.  But I have come to an end and I really pray that you all had wonderful Thanksgivings, at least here in the US.  If you all are reading this in other parts of the world then this is what we could have experienced had we lived about 250 years earlier here in this country.  I also pray that you realize how terribly important it is for the world to be able to worship in freedom.  And to not have to worry about being killed because of your faith whatever it may be.

For me God is good, and all His people said, “All the time!”
Now go and be a blessing!

How Do You Celebrate Thanksgiving?



Levi two Months

 Every morning when I come to my computer this is what I see...how cute is this?  This is currently my youngest grandchild.  And what a little cutie.  Am I thankful for him, you had better believe it.  As well as for the lovely young women who is mother and wife to our youngest son.  They are a wonderful family with their priorities mostly in the right places...I have to say mostly because I don't want to swell any heads.


What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

We are celebrating by having dinner with my husband's in laws, from his previous marriage, my husband's ex-wife, and other family members from that side of the family.  I have a sister who lives, by car, only about two hours away, and busy with her husband's side of the family mostly, and I have a dad who lives in Florida, with his dear lady friend.  And I have an aunt in north central PA, along with three cousins.  So while everyone is busy with their own families, so are we busy with ours. 

There are so many blended families anymore and that is how we came up with a different way of celebrating our holidays.

We have our children and grandchildren come on the Saturday following the original day of celebration.  However, since this is really the first time we have Samuel and Mary with their new little guy, they will not be able to make it.  Mary is from Rhode Island, and that is pretty far away, so they will be spending some time up there with Mary's family, which, since we are closer and can see them more often, we, Tim and I don't begrudge them this precious time.  So we will have to wait till our Christmas and New Year celebration for literally all the children and grandchildren to be together.  And to take a new family photo, you will have to wait for January to see this, so sorry, but that is the best that the Smith's can do!

I am working today but, when I get home I will be making a Crunchy Munchy Apple Cake, to take along with us tomorrow.  Oh this is a wonderful cake with hunks of apple, and raisins, and walnuts, thru out and I have discovered how to make a wonderful brown sugar glaze to just pour over the top that is just awesome,  AND, I make it with gluten free flours so I can eat it to!  Yup I have celiac disease, no biggy, believe me I still eat really well!

I have never been one to cook out of a box, so that has really been a help to me in walking this path that I am on now for about eight year.  It was a little difficult at first, but I have prevailed!  Enough said about this if any of you out there have any questions for me about this just get in touch with me.

Back to Thanksgiving...wow I really can get side-tracked!  This year, well actually all of my grandchildren can thank Trenton for this one; we are going to have a very child friendly Thanksgiving meal.  Tim was telling our one son Scott and our grandson Trenton that we are having ham instead of turkey.  And Trenton said to his Pappy that, "Mac and cheese would be really good to have," and of course Pappy told Mam Maw.....so we are going to have a kid friendly Thanksgiving dinner.  Which I can only tell you that Mac and Cheese will be part of it and the rest I will tell you about at a later date.  I don't want to ruin the surprise.

I will be here tomorrow, Thanksgiving day with a special little story for the children, your children if you have them and for my grandchildren.  It is something that I have been working on for a little bit of time and I do believe you all will enjoy it.  So while I will be here tomorrow, Thursday I may not be back after that until Monday the 26th, I will have to see how it all plays out.  So for now God Bless you all and go and be a blessing to some one else today.

How's Your Spirit Today?



Reaching   http://rebecca-smith.artistwebsites.com/featured/reaching-rebecca-smith.html

Yesterday a friend of mine put something on "facebook" about seeds. 

 "Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds,

     you can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds." 

 Thank you Kristi!

As you can see by the picture above I do like flowers.  My thought for today's was spoken to me by our Father, I was standing in the kitchen, preparing the coffee and just having one of my conversations with God, and I was asking Him, Father, what direction this morning...and you know some mornings I feel like What am I going to say to people, but this morning it was literally a conversation with God, we talked about a few different directions.  But this is the one we agreed upon...So how is your spirit today.  Are you reaching as the flowers are in the garden above?  Are you reaching for the Son?  Or is your spirit more like the next picture?



Room for Company!



Not mine...I can remember when I was a child, we would go to Deer Camp, up above State College, PA, in the Bald Eagle State Park.  Oh what wonderful memories, but I really didn't like going to the outhouse.  It was really smelly! And not something I was at all used to doing.  I never had outdoor plumbing.  Although I know that my husband did when he was very young.  They had running water in the house, just not a potty.   I really hope that your spirit isn't in the out house!



Climbing the Hill, Hand in Hand



My spirit is more like this, constantly climbing the hill towards God's House...That is where I will someday be and although I am constantly walking uphill, or so it would seem, my Lord is with me all the way. 

The reason for life feeling like we are constantly walking up hill is that we are constantly fighting the flesh and the onslaughts of the devil.  We as Christians, are pretty much constantly under attack.  But I have found that my life is less stressful and less painful, as long as I constantly have Jesus with me.  I have been having a bit of difficulty with my back and I have asked God to remove me this from me and it has lessened.  However I want it gone.  A friend of mine said that sometimes our infirmities are because we are under attack. Or because there will be some Glory that comes out of this for the Lord.  When I am at church and fully surrounded by God's love my back feel s fine!  I am trying to figure out what I have in church that I do not have when I am out of church.  I still love God just as much when I am out of church...I will have to work on this with God, but for right now, I am okay, I can deal with this little bit of discomfort, it isn't as bad as it was.  Thank you God.  To God be the Glory, in all things.  Because our God is so great and awesome and worthy to be praised. 

This picture of the two boys is great, it express how we can walk hand in hand with the One who protects us in all things, if we will but let Him.  God wants to be our protector, as is this big brother to the little guy.  So keep climbing the hills of life and as long as you are walking with our Heavenly Father, you will be able to rest at times, and then keep climbing, always walking towards our Father's home.

Yup, it's time for the rest of the morning ritual...and then out the door to work...go be a blessing... to someone...anyone...they don't have to know who blessed them that can be between you and God.

Yay, It's Monday

We got to spend some time this weekend with this little guy and his mommy and daddy.  Oh what fun we had.  He is so dear!  Holding him was like going back 22 years and holding his daddy, they look so much alike, the only difference I see really is that Levi has dark peach fuzz like his mommy and Samuel; Levi's daddy had no peach fuzz untill he was two years old and then it was blond.



Did you all get to go to church this weekend?  We did, and as usual Pastor Don nailed everything he touched on for Jesus. 

I really hope you all do not mind me rehashing the Sunday teachings that we had; I do this because they are so good I want to share them!

So Pastor Don's sermon was titled, "Thankful Heart."  Do you know what it is like to have a thankful heart?  I do!  It's knowing:

          1.  That your family is well and healthy.

          2.  We do everything we can to provide for ourselves and our families.

          3.  That we have good health, we quit smoking this year, about June.

Do you have any idea, how much money we are saving since we are not smoking our pipes anymore?  We are almost caught up on bills, almost...

          4.  We now have an amazing church family to be a part of!

          5.  That we love going to church...

And there are so many more things that we are thankful for I could go on all day.

Pastor Don told us a story yesterday about a boll weevil, which is an insect that comes from Mexico.  This critter somehow ended up in Enterprise, Alabama, and ate the cotton crop.  Well this was the area's way of supporting itself.  And when this was removed from them they figured out that something else need to happen or they would be no more.  So a man by the name of H. M. Sessions convinced a farmer who had his own property, to plant peanuts.  This turned out successfully and the area then discovered that it was a good idea to plant various things rather than the same things all the time.  The town did so well that a monument was erected to remind the townspeople and I suppose anyone who made there way to this town that a disaster is sometimes all it takes for a positive change to be made.

Story Time: Another Illustration!
A young woman with several children has a nice home in a warmer climate.  And this young woman, being the kind of person that she is, not able to turn her back on anyone in need, has opened her home to shelter a few extra people.  Contributions are made to the household.  But are they sufficient? 
So one day the young woman sat down in her own private quarters and made a few list.  The first list was what is cost to run the house with this many people living in it.  The next list was looking at each family unit that lived there and there ability to contribute to the household.  And this was divided into two lists as it were.  The ability to contribute financially and the ability to contribute physically, like cooking, cleaning, and doing chores in general.
Since everyone had lived there for some time, the young women decided that it was the responsibility of all to help with the recent changes that had occurred to set them all back a bit.  And in this fashion, if there were changes within any of the other family units, all would help again.  She set about establishing house rules....
There would have to be time spent each day, at least a minimum of 10 minutes with the Lord.  And it didn't matter to the young woman when this was accomplished as long as it was accomplished.  Everyone would have chores to do, from the oldest to the young, but capable children.  And if a child was ill than it became that child's parent's responsibility.  In other words, everything didn't fall back on the young woman. And there was also time spent discussing things...things that were happening and positive changes that could be made (Therapy sessions).  But and this was very important, there always must be one person to head up such a venture, and since the young women had been the one to invite these people to stay in her home it was the young woman who had the final say.  After all she had many years of both good and bad experiences to call upon for knowledge.  And if she didn't know an answer, she was capable of saying this, and finding out the answers. 

Time went by....eventually the young woman was able to move everyone into larger accommodations; the new house was called The Walk Out House.
She decided to call it this because, although some people were only able to crawl in, they were eventually able to Walk Out.  Standing tall and proud and capable, but mostly thankful.  So perhaps this young woman has her boll weevil moment, here catastrophe is her catalyst for a positive change. 

When you pray don't just ask for things from God, express your thanks as well!  And remember that if you are walking with God, you will still have adversity, but since you are walking with God you will know how to handle the adversity!  Guess what it is time for me to get ready for work and to go and be a blessing to someone to day, I wonder who that will be?     

Who am I in Christ?

Who am I in Christ?  I was given some papers Wednesday evening when I was at church; and the title of the paper is, "Who I am in Christ."  I have changed this to: Who am I in Christ.?  Changing it from a statement to a question.
Okay, so this is a picture of me.  Alright, but who is "me."  More importantly who does God think I am and what does God think of me?  

I have so many flaws!  Have you ever sat down and seriously listed all your flaws?  If I do this, I think I will do it privately, rather than for the all world to see.

I was told as a little girl that we weren't supposed to air our dirty laundry.  And that statement never really made a whole lot of sense to me.    I could understand hanging out our wet laundry, but way would you waste time hanging out dirty clothes when they hadn't been washed yet?

God just told me something!  Hahaha, it's really fun when God speaks to me, especially when I am writing my blog...it's like He is saying to me, "Kirsten, come on write this..." and He barely gives me a moment to catch it!  Okay this is what he said..."All the unsaved people out there, are walking around in their dirty clothes, in unwashed bodies, smelling up the place that I created, we must do something about this,"  I am trying Lord, "TRY HARDER KIRSTEN!"  Okay God!  So I sit here and say to myself, and to God, what do you want me to do?  I am listening....okay I will keep writing my blog.  For starters that does seem to be reaching a bit of an audience.

I have readers in the United States, that has the most and then there is Russia, then Germany, France, Sweden, and finally Malaysia.

And so far I have gotten only two comments, one from my sister, yay Olwen, ([pronounced All-When and my name is pronounced K-ear-s-tin] I know, our Mom had quite the sense of humor, she gave us each names that we have had to fight with people our whole lives to get them to pronounce them correctly!)  The other comment came from a friend of my daughter's down in South Carolina, which I have to say was an awesome comment, she told me that she hadn't spoken to God in a long time, but after reading my blog one day , she did.  I really thank God for this comment, it told me that I am reaching someone out there and this really blessed my heart and still does.

I think, for me, I need affirmation that I am doing a good thing and that I am reaching people and that in receiving this affirmation, I am also receiving the impetus to keep going, and God talking to me while I am writting is just the coolest!  Okay, okay  I know I am giving my age away, well what can I say, yes I was a flower child,  BUT NOW, I am a child of the most high King!  Yay Daddy!  Maybe this is way I like flowers so much, I must be obedient to God, "No you like flowers because I did such a good job creating them!"

Okay so back to the question at hand...Who am I in Christ,  well I am a servant.  And I do not mean as in a maid.  I mean as in, when I do something for someone else, like bringing in wood for the wood stove for my husband,  he is always thankful to me when I do this, but I am not doing it for his Thanks, I am doing it because I want to help him.  But it is nice to hear the Thank you.  But when we are doing things with a servant's heart, we should not be looking for the thank yous!  It is really best if you can do something anonymously, but when you live in a house with only two people it's kind of easy to tell when one has done something for the other.

Instead of my examining who I am in Christ (and publishing it here) I think that I will allow my God to direct my paths and for me to do as He wants me to do...He know what I do, and He know what I do not do.  I hope that when it all comes down to it, that He will see that my doing far out weighs my not doing.  Be open to God's direction, He will not push you to do anything that is not good.  He will only push you to do the things that will be of benefit to either you or to someone else.  And when I say push you, I mean that somehow you will come under conviction from the Holy Spirit.

Now it is time to go and be a blessing to someone else! How about you?

Reveal

Do you ever ask God to reveal things to you?  Do you know what this picture is a picture of?  This is a fishing shed I believe.  But you can't really see it very well can you. But if you look at the next picture, more is revealed.  I had not considered asking God to reveal Himself to me.  But why not consider this?  I am not asking God to help me to be a fortune teller.  I am asking God to Reveal Himself to me.

Okay now when we look at this picture we can really see clearly what this little building is!  Wow!  Can you imagine spending time in this little building?  I can.  I live in the country and one of my favorite things to do, is go to bed with a window open, especially in the spring.  Do you know what spring peepers are?  They are little tree frogs, which make an amazing racket, especially at night.  I really like the sounds of nature.  Any way back to the pictures.

I have an awesome program on my computer for pictures.  These two pictures that you see are actually the same picture.  One is just cropped and then resized.  It is a closer picture in essence.  Like I had a telephoto lens, which I do not, they are a bit expensive.

Alright, if we want God to reveal Himself to us, we have to get closer to Him.  And the only way to do this is to spend time with Him.  When we are in a new relationship, and not necessarily a romantic relationship, perhaps a platonic type of relationship.  The only way to have a strong platonic relationship is to get to know the person that you share this affection with. Example, your very best girl-friend that you had as a child growing up.  You shared everything!  I can remember my best friend as a child, and we did share everything.  It was wonderful! Okay now imagine that relationship but carry it further...get closer, just as I did with the picture.  The picture is the same one, just closer!

That is the kind of relationship to have with our Father in heaven.  And the closer we become to Him, the more time that we spend in His word, and not just reading His word, but practicing His word, (see you don't have to be reading the bible 24-7) the more the Lord will reveal to us.  I don't know about you, but I would really like our Lord to reveal Himself to me.  I want to know Him more and I want to Love Him more.  God is so good and He will only reveal to us what we can deal with.  I do not believe that I could handle the knowledge of how He created the universe.  I think my mind would be blown to bits.  Too much knowledge for this simple girl.  But I do want to know other things, like how to love someone who doesn't want me to love them...Now there is a good thought to close with. 

Yup you know what I am about to say, go and be a silent blessing to someone today!

Where is your Hope....

Have you ever really looked at an anchor, or considered what an anchor does?  If you are a Christian, then you are anchored or should I say that you should be anchored in Christ. I really like this picture, not only because it is an anchor but also because it has the word "hope" included on it.  This picture was taken in Narragansett, Rhode Island, when my husband and I were up there for our youngest sons wedding, which was last June 2011.  And we did a little sight-seeing while we were there.  This is on a bridge as a decoration, and I really wish I had more information around this particular design, but alas I do not.  I can tell you that is comprised of tiles set into the concrete.  And I just like the symbolism of having our Hope anchored in Christ.  

(All of the pictures in this writing today were taken in Rhode Island and they are just pictures of my choosing...)

Last evening when I got to church and went to the classroom were our ladies meet for our Wednesday night class I was really surprised to see the room rearranged...but it was all good.  God is always good.  Even when bad things happen, God is still good. 

We had a speaker last evening and even though I wasn't expecting this it was great.  And of course I learned a lot.  Virginia, our gracious and wonderful teacher, was acting under God's tutelage.  Our speaker was Pamela Smith and she was awesome.  I have never been around someone who is so capable of keeping her perspective of God so central in her life as she is able to do.  This woman lost one of her sons to the war effort on the other side of the world three months back.  Now I am sure there is still a great deal of sadness at this loss, but Pamela is so positive and she see the goodness of God, rather than the, "oh poor me," attitude that she could have; she is seeing God's glory in her sons life.  I don't think that she realized what a blessing she was to us last evening. 

I think that her goal for us is to make sure that we know who we are in Christ!  And the only way for us to know who we are in Christ, is to spend time in His word and with Him.  And I must confess I do not feel that I spend enough time in His word, at least not as much time as I would like to spend.  I said last night at our gathering that I really need to stop working because I just don't have time to do all that I feel that I should be doing in Christ. 

I get up in the morning at 4:30 and my day starts.  I don't quite know how I am going to handle the next week because after today my husband is off and I have to wake myself up until after Thanksgiving weekend.  Hmmm.  This should be interesting.  Because in order for me to get done in the mornings what I am currently getting done I MUST get up at 4:30.  We will see.  Anyway back to our writing for this morning.

I am also listening to the 700 Club each morning and right now they have started a series on hope.  And it seems that I really like this subject.  We as a people need Hope...not just any hope but the hope that we find in our relationship with God.  Do you ever ask God, "God, teach me whatever You want me to know and teach me in whatever way You deem necessary?"  Hmmm, this could be uncomfortable, but you have to understand, God knows us, and He knows how each of us learns.  So for some of us it may be more uncomfortable to learn something than for others.  But we will learn whatever it is that God wants us to learn.  The most important thing that I think we can learn is that we MUST die to ourselves, in order to live for Christ.  I know I have a long way to go to learn this one thing, and I would ask you to not be cocky, because if you think to yourself, "Oh I have this down," look out!  God will have to teach you that you do not have it down.  Anyway I will ask you again, where is your hope.  Is it in the Lord, or is it in wealth, or is it in food, there are so many places that our hope can be, but only one place where it should be. 

Our God is so good.  Make me into Your image Lord.  Now as God would want us to do, go and be a blessing to someone today and do it as God would have you to do it.