| Heritage Acres Farm |
Schooling the Littles Sometimes I get busy with school and forget to spend a little one-on-one time schooling the littlest of my littles. What a difference it makes when I do. They are SO excited to have their own one-on-one School time with Moma. :) So much so that afterwards, I hear... "Moma, is it our school time now?" quite a lot. :)Now don't get me wrong, they school right alongside the older children, while we are having school time they are coloring or learning the Presidents or writing their letters... but it helps a lot to spend a little time to work with just them, one at a time.  What a blessing it is to me, to be the one who sees their children learn new skills, what a joy it is to be the one who is there helping them, teaching and nurturing them and watching them learn. There just is NOTHING like it. Enjoy them being close to you, being with you, so much so that it is an ache in you to be away from them... Children are a gift, given to US... from the Lord. Cherish, Enjoy, Treasure every moment. No, it is not always easy for me to do that either, but when I realize that the next time I blink my eyes that they will be grown, it makes it a lot easier for me to slow down, breathe deeply and know how incredible my life truly is. I hope you have a great day and enjoy time with your littles, big, small and in-between. :) My Cup Runneth Over... 
09:11 - Thursday, January 8, 2009 - comments {1} - post comment
We made butterOne day last week I remembered that I had bought some heavy cream over the holidays for Moma's Favorite Cookie, which I am GOING to post the recipe for! REALLY! :) Well, I thought with this much cream, it would be a good time to show the children how to make butter... well the easy way to make butter.We pulled out the ole food processor.  Poured in all that cream and turned it on... There were a few different stages that I told them we would see...First of all we saw it just as a liquid, as it is as cream. We would start seeing the cream slowly becoming thicker, until we had it at the whipped cream stage. They all tried it at this point and sneered... sadly they thought it would taste like cool whip. Pitiful, huh? I told them at the enormous amounts of 'stuff' added to cool whip and this was so much better, and that we could add a little sweetner if we wanted whipped cream, but we want butter!  Keep it moving, keep it moving...FINALLY! BUTTER! :) HURRAH!  Please forgive the skunk stripes down my child's hair... our New Years Party got a bit crazy! :) haha Mmm... this butter is good, Mom!We even took the buttermilk and put it in a jar to use later and washed the curds with ice water to help get all the milk off so the butter would last longer. Now a solid. How crazy are we? Doing school when we are supposed to be on holiday? haha... so is the life of a homeschooler. I hope you have a great day friends. My Cup Runneth Over...
08:33 - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - comments {6} - post comment
Aprons Like I told you... I have been excitedly sewing again. I am so happy. :)I decided the other night to make myself a new apron. I like the smock type of aprons so I went for that. This one is modified a bit from my original purple smock that I love. This fabric was my Grandmothers/Nannie Red's. I only had a smallish remnant and sadly the smock is a bit too short for me. I am considering what I want to do with it now... try and sell it in my Etsy or possibly wait and see if I can refashion it to make it work somehow. I LOVE how it turned out... the colors are wonderful and vibrant and I adore the fabrics.  I finished the edges with bias tape and made 2 pockets on the front... perfect for clothes pins on wash day or running out to the garden to pick a few peppers. The rick rack was a tribute to a dear friend of mine and I just love it. :) I hope to find the time to get back in the sewing room again soon... to make one equally as cute that I can wear. I LOVE my aprons, I love wearing them... I actually do wear them. Putting one on helps me feel ready to get to work. :)Here is a little something a friend sent me about aprons, I was reminded of it when I saw it on a message board that I frequent... Grandma's Apron The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes. REMEMBER: Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron ! Have a wonderful day. My Cup Runneth Over...
07:10 - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - comments {12} - post comment
The Sewing Bug...I have been bit by the sewing bug again, finally. I haven't been in my sewing room since the craft festival. I have thought about it, only to say, "No way". I don't know, it must have been all those nights of being in there until 3 am that helped me to shun my love of sewing for all this time.So I had been thinking of making my children some colored pencil rolls. I thought they would be a nice thing to have to take along to church, on field trips, to have on hand when they want to sketch something... I also thought I would make them a bag to hold their pencil roll, their Bible, and a sketch pad... I still have to make those. :) So Saturday afternoon, I seized my opportunity to go into my sewing nook. And here is the outcome.  The one above is Cameo's. She loves the fabric. I made 14 slots in hers... 12 is because colored pencils come in a 12 pack at the dollar store and then I wanted her to have a place for a pen and a pencil.  It was a strange thing when I went to the sewing nook to pick out the fabric... I pulled most of the fabric off the shelf, sorted, folded some neatly and came to realize that the deer/elk fabric was the only boyish fabric that I own! NO JOKE! How sad is that! I know that there is some really cute boyish fabric around but I own only the half a yard or so I used to make these roll ups. So I had to make two different colored ties for Eli and Abrams so they could tell them apart. I ended up making myself an apron after I finished the pencil rolls and I will show you pictures of that later on. And if that didn't tickle me enough, I taught myself how to knit a little. Oh, am I awkward and silly looking right now... but I figure in time it will become easy to me. I know how to cast on, and how to do the knit stitch. I am so tickled. I have been practicing over and over and am so slow. haha. Next I will learn the purl and hopefully try and make something... hooray! :) Have a great week friends. My Cup Runneth Over...
06:36 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - comments {7} - post comment
Ringing in the New Year Isn't it exciting how a new year seems to bring forth a clean new slate, all kinds of new possibilities are just waiting... everything seems a bit more doable. We/I feel that, "Yes, I Can" mentality. :) In all honesty we can feel that way all the time if we are believers in the Lord Jesus. He gives us all the hope that we can ever need. Our New Year's Eve was a lot of fun, somewhat quiet, but still very fun. The children and Shannon and I played games, had a new homemade pizza concoction I came up with, and ended up falling asleep before midnight... Shannon was the only one awake at exactly midnight because he wanted to get up and pray. I woke up 7 minutes later. :) Pretty close... Well, I am excited for the New Year. And as for resolutions.... one of mine is, to treat each day as a gift. That is of course why it is called The Present. :) Happy New Year my Friends, My Cup Runneth Over...
06:51 - Friday, January 2, 2009 - comments {5} - post comment
Debt Debt... what a terrible word, what a terrible way to live, but how many of us do live this way? With a huge weight on our backs because we just 'have to have' this or that, or you know we just have to have the best of, or lots of times, we want it NOW and we DON'T have the money and so we pull out the old credit card and the cycle continues...The above picture is not our debt, but last night I sat down and wrote out a debt list very much like the one above. It listed our mortgage, a loan for our roof we had to replace, credit cards and a couple of doctor bills that are lingering from Shannon's stay in the hospital. It truly was appalling to look at the debt that we have accumulated. Most of which was our home loan. I have to take a lot of the credit for the shape we are in financially. I have been very naive and blind to the burden of debt... I had the 'worldly' mindset for the longest time... Meaning, instead of remembering the verse, Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. *I* had the mindset, EVERYONE has debt, I mean, how on Earth do you have anything if you don't???? Like I told you earlier this week the revelation about Self-Control, this has been on my heart also... a by-product of the lack of my Self-Control. I keep saying MY, but obviously it was OUR, because my husband and I are one... but honestly, I was not a very submissive wife in the beginning of our marriage and I was the one who nagged about this or that until my dear husband agreed. BUT... that is another story, and thankfully God has changed my heart drastically. This is something Shannon and I eagerly want to overcome. We want to be able to be Debt-Free before we are old and gray. It CAN be done, I know it. One aspect of our trouble is that Shannon is still in the waiting stages of finding out where God wants him... he has a job now, but we don't believe the position he is in right now is where he should stay... we are seeking God on where He wants him to be. Your prayers are very much appreciated. Nevertheless, we KNOW God will bless, He always does. We will continue to be faithful in our little... we KNOW He is always Faithful. My Cup Runneth Over...
06:40 - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment
Year-End Liquidation Sale!!!!!
06:42 - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment
Productive Days Aunt Chassy and wee nephew, Baby Greyson... can you say, pure bliss??? Ahhhh..Good Morning my friends! I hope you are having a great week so far. I am up this morning baking up the Cinnamon Roll dough I put in the fridge last night. Wow, they look GREAT! :) Things have been going pretty well around our little homestead lately. Since Christmas I have been really productive, making lists and checking them off. I love it. :) Yesterday morning we(the children and I), set out to 'declutter' the boys room. And we did! We pulled out bags of junk and clothes that were too little and too big and too many. We cleaned under and around and above everything and by lunch time we had accomplished a great work! Today is the girls room...ACK! I am concerned that it might take us a bit longer there since I have to deal with my pack rat daughter, Cameo. :) It feels so good to get some much needed tasks completed... A tidy home helps me to work better, to be much more at ease. After we finished the boys room I worked and worked on laundry to get us caught up. I am happy to say that I have one more load to wash and 2 to fold and we are completely caught up... for a minute at least. haha. I also went through books and papers and folders yesterday in the schoolroom. Shannon and I bought the children a few new-to-us books for Christmas and they needed a place on the shelves... so we had to rearrange. Can you EVER have enough bookshelf space? I need a full room for a library. Or at least a few floor to ceiling bookshelves. THAT would be nice. :) Mmmm... I can smell the cinnamon rolls and so I had better go and pull those out of the oven. I hope you have a super day! My Cup Runneth Over...
06:37 - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - comments {4} - post comment
The Fruit of the Spirit... Last night I tossed and turned for a good long while, one because I had a horrid dream, the other because I believe God finally got something through my thick skull. As a family we have been talking about the 'Fruit of the Spirit' a lot lately, sharing with the kids that as believers and followers of the Lord Jesus, we should see these attributes in our life. And we do see some, and then there is one that, in my life... needs some work. I finally saw that was a far deeper problem than I had ever realized.... Don't ask me why I have taken so long to figure this out... but God's timing is perfect, right? :) Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Temperance...Self Control... Moderation... Restraint Wow... who knew this thing went deeper than being overweight, huh? Well, it does. I have told you many times before how I need to lose weight... no surprise there that I need self control for that... BUT I also need self control in my life to keep my temper, to tame my tongue, to watch our budget, to not be lazy, to teach my children, to make sure I get up at a decent time in the morning, how much time I spend doing what *I* want, taking care of our home, to get out of debt, to study my Bible, to not be snarky... and so on. Does this blow your mind??? Probably not, but the Lord revealed this to me. And I am so thankful for His beautiful, still small voice that whispered to my heart... Chas, you belong to me, bear fruit. And I want to bear fruit, desperately! Also, self control helps to make the other fruit sweeter... if you have self control, you won't be harsh with your words, you will be much gentler with your words...Gentleness If I use self control I am being very aware of how great my life is, when I keep my eyes open to my blessings, JOY follows... Peace Like I said, you may have come to these revelations already and God bless you if you have... but I was so thrilled that I just had to share. And, if you haven't... maybe the Lord is using what He taught me, to help others. Praise the Lord, You are worth of our praise! I pray that you will have a glorious day, aware of just how much the Lord loves you, I pray that His love will flow from us so much that it will bless all those who comes in contact. We need the Lord. Bless you and thank you for your visit today. My Cup Runneth Over...
07:14 - Monday, December 29, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment
Whew... Whew... "Christmas" is over... the activities are over, the gatherings, the presents, the food.CHRISTmas however will remain in us... the thankfulness for HIS Birth, the Joy of our Salvation!!!! I hope CHRISTmas was a beautiful time for your family this year... We certainly had a great one. We enjoyed some wonderful family time with our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and cousins, nieces and nephews... Today will be spent cleaning and organizing the house. Getting things in order for the new year. Feeling very ready for the new year, ready for new adventures, new challenges, new possibilities. Eager to see what this year will unfold. I pray your day is wonderful, that your weekend is super, may God bless each and every one! My Cup Runneth Over... xoxo
07:47 - Saturday, December 27, 2008 - comments {1} - post comment
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Welcome to the Journey of our lives here at our place on this Mountain, our Heritage Acres Farm. My name is Chas and here you will find my thoughts, my ideas and my accomplishments of my life as a Christian wife to my Sweetheart of many years, and as a Homeschooling Moma to my 4 beautiful blessings. We are making the most out of what God has abundantly blessed us with! Truly, My Cup Runneth Over... I hope you enjoy your visit here and come back soon! .gif)
Home User Profile Archives Friends Heritage Acres Farm Homeschool My Clothesline & Etc. (My Online Yard Sale) Country Girl (Cameo's Blog) These are the Day's of Elijah (Eli's Blog) Down---to---Earth Little Jenny Wren Little Homestead in the City Steve & Terry Maxwell Rabbit Trails Bible Gateway Beeyoutiful Posie Gets Cozy Raising Godly Tomatoes The Way of the Master Motherease Like Merchant Ships The Evearitts of New Salem How I See It Team Bettendorf Hind's Feet Vision Forum Farm Girl Fare Hillbilly Housewife Train Up A Child Friendship Threads Solar Family Farm Recent Entries - Schooling the Littles - We made butter - Aprons - The Sewing Bug... - Ringing in the New Year  What's For Supper?  Foods Put By ~2008~On my Bookshelf Today
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