Abundant Blessings Farm

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Simple Time for You

One issue I have struggled with is making time each day just for me. Seems like I get up each morning (still exhausted from the previous day’s activities), my feet hit the floor, and I keep moving until it is time for bed late into the next morning. Then I start all over again. It’s a well known fact that if I stop for any reason, my eyes will shut and I will be slumber mode for several hours. Oh, you think I am kidding? One of my family members’ favorite sources of laughter is getting me to agree to watch a movie. Yes, they pop in the little video watch me stop moving and time how long it takes for me to start snoring.

My life is busy, but with rewarding simple activities. Having a large family, it takes much time to be certain that I am spending time with each family member each day. Those simple activities are wonderful and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. However, I also had to learn to schedule time for myself. Those periodic times of refreshment are wonderful. Having quiet time with God each day is the best source of daily encouragement to accomplishing the goals for each day. Yet I have learned there is another important part of the day that is crucial to my mindset, and it is so simple.

I try to be certain to schedule five minutes each day just for me. Because my family is busy and we are LOUD, I make those five minutes silence. Mostly, I go outside (by myself) for 5 minutes. There are times that I may have to use my bathroom as my area of respite. But I can sit on the edge of the tub and soak in the silence. It is AMAZING how much that silence helps me to be a better wife and mother! So, don’t wait until you can schedule time to do something simple. Take a few small minutes each day to refresh yourself!

Now, this all makes me sound as though I have had some mental breakthrough or God given revelation, but I haven’t. I learned this from my friend Kathy. She has taught me so much about silence and solitude in a way that I never thought I had time for. God has truly blessed her with a heartbeat for helping. If you like this idea, I HIGHLY encourage you to visit her site and sign up for her free e-zine and e-votional. Her words will get you thinking and help you move towards a more simple life.

Garlic, Parsley, Long Shadows and a Little House on the Prairie

Today has been one of those lovely mid-winter days. It didn't warm up until after lunch when we all went outside to get some much needed sunshine and to plant the rest of our garlic. I have eight rows in now, and approximately 10 garlic cloves per row. It's the first time I've tried growing garlic.

Here is a picture of my parsley bed. I don't actually know why I planted so much parsley as it is my least-liked herb, and it has done really well, even though I have neglected it. But we had some visitors the other day who were admiring it and they said there is an old wives tale (or an old Maori tale - I forget which now), that says if you have abundant parsley beds, then you're going to have an abundant (large) family! We did have to laugh at that! We're onto our fourth - not exactly large to many, but large to some! When I'm in the throes of really bad morning sickness I will recite to myself over and over, 'do not plant anymore parsley!"

Here is a picture of my late-afternoon shadow. You can see I'm starting to get a baby bump.

My children have been enjoying the fine weather and have made the most of the mud and being outdoors. The result of many days cooped up indoors and watching Little House on the Prairie episodes has resulted in our own very little house on the prairie. Yesterday some neighbours came over to play and this was the outcome of an afternoon's work. I loaned the Little House DVD's to my neighbour who is from England and she had never seen them! She'd heard of the books, but never read them, and certainly never knew there was an entire tv series out. How deprived is that! I so love being the one to introduce people to lovely worlds like Little House.

When I went out to take a picture this afternoon I also found this out there....

And I found this - which used to be a highly prized ornament for decorative candles that my husband and I bought on our honeymooon 10 years ago! Does anyone else find valuable household articles buried in the dirt where their children have been playing?

Daily Devotion 190

July 8

Habits

Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Romans 12:9b

We are creatures of habit. Good habits have to be developed, while bad habits form without effort and are not easily broken. There are simple habits like good personal hygiene, such as brushing your teeth and washing your hands. Other habits, such as regular church attendance, daily devotions, and continuous heartfelt worship, praise, and

Prayer, contribute to our spiritual well-being. Loving responses, deeds of kindness, and edifying speech are godly habits characteristic of the Spirit-filled life.

We may not be enslaved to sinful habits like smoking, drinking intoxicating beverages, or using illicit drugs, but what about habits like evil speaking, bitterness, unforgiving attitudes, wrong thoughts, or gluttony? Such habits are also wrong and displeasing to God.

Do you find yourself struggling with a habit that may be causing you spiritual defeat? Praise God, there is victory and freedom in Christ through His shed blood. Here are some suggestions that may help you gain the spiritual victory God desires.

1. Truly repent of and confess all known sin.

2. Confide in someone you can trust, and make yourself accountable to that person until you are free.

3. Be honest and open with others about your temptations and struggles. We need the prayers and encouragement of fellow saints. We need each other in our pilgrimage to heaven.

4. Do not neglect your devotional life. Spend time daily with God and His Word. Fasting is a helpful practice, along with earnest prayer.

5. Claim the promises of God’s Word.

6. Put on the whole armor of God. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”

We are in a spiritual warfare. God has made every provision for our victory if we do our part by meeting the conditions of His Word. Through the power of Jesus, we can be “more than conquerors.”

Mark Kropf, Cataldo, ID

O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever.

—Eugene M. Bartlett, 1939

Bible Reading: Romans 6

One Year Bible Reading Plan:

Acts 15:1–21

Job 38, 39

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PO Box 190, Harrisonburg, VA 22803

Phone: 877-488-0901

E-Mail: [cs@vision-publishers.com]

Snow Photos

When we had the snow last week I had lost the cord to download my pictures from the camera onto the computer, so I am late getting these up, but here is one of my favourite pictures taken from my son's bedroom and looking west just as the snow started falling. I love the way it sticks to the window.

And here are some pictures from our larger dumping a few weeks previous, taken the day after. This first one looks west towards the southern alps over my neighbour's land.

And this last one is looking over the south end of my vegetable garden (buried way in there) towards the Port Hills in the distance. Between our land and those hills is the city of Christchurch and we are half an hour's drive out from the city limits, so those hills look a whole lot closer than they really are.

Dead Limp Fish

Did I get your attention with the title? Now for the question - Who taught someone the Dead, Limp, Fish Handshake, and then allowed them to pass it onto millions more? I only ask, because I received one yesterday when meeting my daughter's swim teacher for the first time. It was wimpy and limp and didn't leave me with a lasting impression.

I was taught by my father, many years ago, a firm handshake speaks confidence, trustworthiness and honesty. It affects first impressions for both men and women. What are some good characteristics of a firm handshake: strength, vigor, duration, eye contact and completeness of grip.

There is nothing worse than meeting someone for the first time, expecting to receive a firm handshake, only to get that wimpy, dead, floppy half of a shake. I can understand when woman to woman, the shake is a little weak, but it bothers me when men shake my hand with this handshake. It tells me that they don't think enough of me, that somehow I'm not worthy of their respect.

If you've forgotten how to shake hands properly, watch this video for a refresher course. Please, oh please, can we ban these dead, limp fish handshakes!

Surgery Tomorrow...

I just wanted you to know that I am having some outpatient surgery tomorrow. I have a voice disorder that has been with me for the last 25 years. Periodically, I need to have the growths removed from my vocal cords. I will be on voice rest for 3 days which is much better than the 7 days it used to be when I was young. I have to be careful not to bend and lift for the next few weeks as I heal. I will have to get those children doing most of the garden work.

Thank you God for a stocked Pantry and Freezer

With several things happening lately asking for large sums of money in the last month (the medicare story......we owed our 1/3 of my parents house sale which is 15,0000 and we only had 5,000 on hand. My brother paid the other 10,000 for us and now we owe him that 10,000 back and plan to pay him in full over the next year and a half) plus the fact that my car needed new tires, and while they were working on it, they found out it had a bent tire iron as well. That costs us a small chunk of our emergency cash to fix (thank goodness we had it to spend). Matthew's car needs new tires SOON as well.

We spent about half of our tax incentive check on stocking up the pantry a few months ago, as well as stocking up on disposable diapers, toliet paper, light bulbs and other household goods. Now that we are running tight, with very little in our emergency fund and looking at refinancing the house (the last time we tried this a few months ago, it was a no charge refinace, but our house appraised at TOO MUCH...........LOL and we did not get the refinancing. How weird is that?? Most of the time, houses get appraised at too little to obtain a loan. We bought a 60,000 house for 42,250, and now the house appraises for too much and we are having trouble refinancing. We have a company that can help us, but we will have to pay a fee this time.) , we are thankful for the stocked pantry and the whole hog and other things in our large freezer.

We are trying to use our grocery budget to still stock up on items we know we need regularly and to stock up on grocery items that can be stored, or frozen easily. And we are shopping from the pantry as much as possible right now. I am so thankful that God placed it on our hearts months ago to stock up on items that are now going sky high (rice, grains, etc). We were able to buy them just before the prices skyrocketed and have been careful to ration them out so they last the longest time possible. I know some people thought we were crazy for "hoarding" as they call it, and when girlfriends see my pantry they are in shock and awe at all the stuff we have. But I don't have to worry too much on groceries now because of it, and when a friend is in need, I have enough for our family, that I am able to help out. We have helped one of Matthew's friends who was short on cash and didn't have any food in the house back in February with a car trunk full of food for his family. And several times since then I have been able to help a few friends who were running a tight budget, or in between paychecks with bread, meats and milk, etc.

I am so glad we listened to God's urging for us to completely stock our pantry and freezers~!~

Plans for the extra Overtime Hubby has been getting

During the rainy season of the year, my husband Matthew seems to be very busy with rebooting towers, and changing out injectors on the internet towers in town. (He works for the city in the utility company, internet department) It seems these towers and the computer parts of them are super technical and the slightest temperature change (hot or cold), makes them act weird, so this last weekend he was called out several times to reboot, change out injectors and one time had to turn on the AC in the tower room because the computer was overheating. They also start being tempermental when it rains, or they are hit by lighting, which happens OFTEN!!!

Matthew stayed at work late last night due to in house internet problems with the networking and obtained another 2 hours of over time (I think we are at 11 hours on this paycheck so far, and we have until the 15th of the month to obtain more. I am assuming he will obtain at least 2 more hours between today adn the 15th)

Matthew wants to SPEND IT on toys of course. A computer game, or more memory for the computer, or a new MP3 player. He truly is a kid at heart, and takes after his father on this. My hubby and his father are into every electronic out there. We don't have the money to waste on such luxuries, but it sure is nice to dream about it. Honestly, we have more than most people do in the area of elctronics probably, but no where near all the electronic toys that his father has (9 cameras and you can only shoot one at a time. LOL His father also has several computers, etc. etc.)

So we have decided to build up our emergency savings account again. We had to almost clear it out recently when Medicare came back on us asking for the sales money of my parents house after they both died. At first they told us they were not coming for it, and myself and my two brothers has received our 1/3 of the house sale. We spent part of ours, and then had to pay the rest back to Medicare, so that almost cleared us out!! We currently have $1000.00 in savings and we would like to build it back up soon. So we are taking anything above and beyond Matthew's regular paycheck and putting it into this emergency fund savings account.

We are also trying to build back up our personal Christmas account money, since some of the money we had to give Medicare was earmarked (but not in a separate account), for Christmas presents this year!! I plan on making many gifts this year and have already gotten a good head start on them, but we will buy Noah some gifts (at 2 he isn't much into homemade gifts. LOL But I do plan on making him some flannel PJs with some cute frog flannel I already have on hand).

This is just something on my mind right now I guess. FINANCES!!! It is a bad word in this house. LOL Almost as bad as a four letter word in some cases. LOL We are blessed though, I must say. My brother payed for our other portion of the money owed to Medicare ($10,000.00. OUCH!!), and besides that, we only owe our mortgage. We have a plan to pay my brother back and should be done with this $10,000 debt to him (interest free....thanks bro) by December 2009!!! We have no car payments, no credit cards, no hospital or doctors bills, and no bank or other personal loans except the mortgage and this loan, so we are very lucky. I just HATE oweing money, and especially to family like this!!!

Debit Card Charges we DID NOT MAKE!!!

I try to keep a close eye on our banking accounts now, because some mysterious charges started popping up lately. I hate numbers, and balancing the check book. And I do mean HATE it. LOL We have started using more cash because of this!! I hate writing out checks and mailing our bills (and buying stamps and more stamps), so most of our bills are paid online is at all possible!!

I checked our accounts last night (we have two bank accounts, and one savings account),and was shocked at what I saw. On our account with the debit card (Matthew uses this account so he doesn't have to carry alot of cash, or a checkbook with him) there were two charges on Sunday for gas. One was for $50 and the other for $65.00!!! Now to some of you, this may not be shocking, comsidering the high prices of gas lately. The suprise is because, we had decided since it was my car, and it mostly sits in the driveway most of the time until I need it, and because there are people out there draining your gas tanks while you sleep, we would NOT fill it up, but simply put $20.00 of gas in it!!!

As soon as Matthew came back downstairs I mentioned to him that I thought we only put $20.00 of gas in the tank. He said I did hun, why what is wrong??? I showed him the computer screen showing the two debits. And neither were for $20.00!!!! So Matthew is calling the store where we bought the gas today and asking them to remove BOTH charges and then charge us for only $20.00. If this doesn't work, we will have to fight the bank over the charges.

I thought using a debit card for purchases like this was safe, because no one else handles the card. Matthew swipes the card at the pump and then the password, and collects his receipt each and every time we do this. If this continues to happen, I am going to have to make Matthew carry a small amount of cash for gas purchases! Crazy!!! I hope he gets this settled quickly today.