A Christian Woman Thinks (And It's Dangerous)

Room Renovations

{ Posted by Karmann }
{ 09:21, Sunday, November 30, 2008 } { 1 comments } { Link }

My daughter wanted to redecorate her room. She's almost 19, in college, but lives at home. I told her I would buy the paint and the molding to go around the floor, but she would have to do the work, except for the molding, which I would install. She wanted crown molding. I told her she would have to buy that. Inwardly, I groaned. I don't do well at cutting crown molding. She also had to save some money to buy the crown molding.

She had to scrape and remove wallpaper. She scraped the popcorn texture off the ceiling. This took about 2-3 weeks. She was going to paint on her break from school, but my husband had other ideas. He wanted everything finished by Thanksgiving, since we were having some dear friends over for dinner on Thanksgiving. He started painting. I ended up helping, as did our daughter.

Wednesday it was time for the molding. I found a very informative video clip online that showed the correct way to cut crown molding. 4.5 hours later, I had all the molding cut and installed.

The walls are a brown called "fudgesicle", and that is the perfect description. Exactly the color of those fudgesicles we used to eat as kids. The ceiling was painted a pale tan, and all the molding is white. There are oak floors in the room. It turned out really well, and my daughter got a lesson in working hard to accomplish something. She's got a new comforter that is mostly blue with some green in it. She wants some blue curtains, so we will be shopping for those this week. She is very pleased with the results. I was pleased with the effort she put forth to scrape the wallpaper and the ceiling.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Blessings to you all,
Karmann

Basketball

{ Posted by connie }
{ 08:44, Sunday, November 30, 2008 } { 0 comments } { Link }

My boys have started basketball and are thoroughly enjoying it. The coach is fabulous and they are having so much fun while really learning the game. It is so cute to see them out there.

Coach going over the rules.

Gotta stretch!!

Parker playing defense

Dribble, Dribble, Dribble

And that was all I could take before my camera died. I was so upset!!! I LOVE to take pics of my kiddos and now I am camera-less. I did get a video of each boy doing their warm-up drills. For some reason they are not going onto the entry page. To watch them click on the comments button and go to the end of the entry. If anyone knows how I can fix this....please let me know! Thanks!!

Prayers for Jeanine Taylor and Family

{ Posted by FaithfulAcres }
{ 6:56 PM, Sunday, November 30, 2008 } { Posted in Fruit Of The Womb } { 2 comments } { Link }

Could you all pray for Jeanine and her family, they were so kind to us when we were expecting Daniel and they are experiencing a miscarriage. This is so hard on the children as well they were so excited as they had lost one baby stillborn in 2007. Their excitedness when we were expecting daniel was shown in pictures drawen and the gifts sent to us. I can only imagine how hard this is on the whole family. Please pray for her to be able to pass everything on her own and that all will be well physically and that the Lord would heal their hearts.

Jeanine, I am here praying if you read this know that I am so sorry and yet I am so thankful to you Sis.

Your loved and cared for....

Linda, Mark, Faith, Hope, Daniel Josiah...

And so it begins

{ Posted by Kitty }
{ 6:06 PM, Sunday, November 30, 2008 } { Posted in Just my thoughts } { 1 comments } { Link }

Tomorrow is December 1st and with that begins the gift giving for me. I not only have Christmas gifts to purchase but I also have over a dozen or so birthdays, including my husband and three kids. This madness will continue untill my dd's 26th birthday on January 31st. There is almost one every week with 2 nephews, 1 niece, my 3 kids, one dh, 2 brothers in law, a mother in law, a brother, a best friend, and a cousin or two for good measure. With times being the way they are, some of these special people will get some baked goods and maybe a card or two. All this gift giving also comes with a whole lot of baking added in too. That's not too good for someone who is on a diet, ME. I think that's going to be the toughest of all things to handle, not being able to eat cake and other goodies. Oh oh.

Well the weekend was a rainy one for a couple of days, so Zach and I decided it was a good time to take out the Christmas decorations and do up the house. I ended up going through each box and decided that I had way too much "stuff", so I've put aside a car trunk full of thrift store donations. It's all still good stuff that I hope someone else might need. I tend to keep ALL the handmade thing-a-ma-jigs that the kiddos made growing up. You know how that is, you just can't let go of those. That's the stuff you give to your new son and daughters in law. LOL I can't wait for that.

I waited untill today to do the outside of the house. I had to go get some new red ribbon and bows for the porch post. I love the red, green, and white look of decorations. I'm not much for shinny items or too many lights. I don't remember the last time I put lights on the outside of the house, probably years ago when my son Eric was helping and climbing the ladder for me. Since I broke my foot five years ago, I do not climb up anything higher than a chair, and even that gives me the willys. LOL.

Well everyone has finished supper, so I'll head off to do some dishes. Then later I think I will pop some popcorn and catch a Christmas movie or two. I saw White Christmas last night, LOVED it.

Travalogue, chicken pox, swimming, and pancakes

{ Posted by Morning Sunshine }
{ 09:01 AM, Sunday, November 30, 2008 } { 1 comments } { Link }

I have 5 turkey carcasses in a cooler on my deck. I need to go get my pots and fill them with water for boiling. I should have done ti the moment we walked in the house yesterday..... but I was too foggy to think properly. sigh. so now, that is one day of simmering I have not got done, extending the process out later this week. I guess I shouldn't complain, since it will probably be a 7-8 day process anyway.... but still....
We got to my mom's on Thursday morning. My bro and his family showed up soon after. we ate veggies and cheese and then had dinner. I made my children have 2 bites of everything - even stuff I know they don't particularly like (squash, stuffing, sweet potatoes made even nasty-sweeter with brown sugar and maple.... it is so sweet and sugary it is gaggy! anyway....) And they ate it. Good little children.

Of course, I did that as well. Need to be a good example. But I let them eat as much of the other stuff that they wanted after that, so they filled up on mashed pots and turkey. And then we took a walk to the park where we walked (or ran or played) the food off. Then home for hot chocolate and pie. I managed to score 3 turkey carcasses from my mom's neighbors. My brother, who went to massage therapy school, but RARELY ever uses his talents to bless his family, was convinced to massage my back and shoulders while I sat on mom's massage chair in the kitchen. It felt good, but my back was so tight, he could only do so much. When he was done, I just sat there not moving, and my ds7 came over to do what he saw his uncle doing. he was very good. what a sweet boy I have.
Saturday morning, we left the children at grandma's to make gingerbread houses. We went to IHOP for breakfast. We went to a specific one close to the movie theater at which we had tickets fro Twilight at 10:30. Unfortunately, it is smack dab in a shopping center, and had a 30 minute wait "at least" - at 7:30 am!!!! So we decided to head to my SIL's to pick-up/drop off some stuff in the meantime. She pointed out that there was an IHOP right across the highway from her, so we went there; twice as big, and EMPTY (well, not completely) and we sat down just as dh's 30 min alarm went off. I had their yummy yummy "coffee cake pancakes" - the lemon blueberry (except I had strawberry) - and I LOVED them!
Then we went to the movie. I was very disappointed. First, let's start with all the garbage ads I had to sit through. Movie starts at 10:30. NOT. Ads start at 10:30.... movie at 11:00. As for Twilight itself, well, it was as true to the book as it could be, I like how they portrayed Charlie, the Blacks, Alice, Carlisle, and Jasper. It had a good Bella and Edward and I liked the kids at the high school. But I did not like the way it condensed the book. I guess there was only so many choices, but this reaffirms: NEVER WATCH MOVIES BASED ON BOOKS THAT YOU LIKE!!!!!!! I watched the first two HP's, but refused after that. I do not like the LotR books, so the movies were great for me. But I have not and will not watch the Narnia movies. The books are too much part of me, and my visions of them are the best, and I will NOT have those corrupted.
Then we went back to mom's for a few hours where I learned that my midwife's children have the chicken-pox. very exciting, and I was planning to head right over to expose my children.... but.... dh has never had them, and he is unsure about the wisdom of purposefully getting our healthy children sick. and, this is probably not the best time for getting the house sick with this. Especially since dh has not had it. We do not have time for THAT! Hopefully we will get another chance in the next few years. And we can decide what to do with dh in the meantime.
We went and did a bit of clothes shopping, and found our favorite pizza place closed - it was a small mom-n-pop shop with the BEST breadsticks you have ever had! They were immigrants from Bosnia, and they worked so hard to make it. Very sad. Then back to mom's where we got all the kids ready to go swimming. Oh dear, it has been too long. My little swimmer babies were afraid of the water! We used to go weekly, and my older two were swimming laps and playing in the deep (for them) without life jackets. They were 2 and 4 when we moved and quit. Friday night they would not let go of the edge. and dd2 was scared to death and would not let go of anyone. But by the end of the night, ds7 was swimming around easily (as long as he had on his life jacket) and dd2 loved the water and would "swim" (we push her away and tell her to "hum" when her face goes under) 3 feet to her other loved one. and dd4 - she refused to get out of the water until it was almost a threat of consequences. We need to find a pool here.
Saturday morning, I woke up, and took the olders on a date to breakfast (back to IHOP for more of those pancakes); g'ma came with us. we took some home to daddy and Lion (dd2) and then we played a game, cleaned up our room, packed our stuff and waved goodbye. Stopped at a friend's house for a moment, then on to home. And that was our Thanksgiving weekend.

Home Remedy Needed

{ Posted by Ye Olde Scarecrow }
{ 08:03, Saturday, November 29, 2008 } { 4 comments } { Link }

I need a home remedy for pink eye, seems my wife Lily has developed it last night. Thanks for any suggestions.

Now if I can just find a home remedy for getting my lazy butt up off my chair in front of the computer and do something... LOL

my misery

{ Posted by Morning Sunshine }
{ 05:24 PM, Saturday, November 29, 2008 } { 1 comments } { Link }

I am sick. ugh
headache (I have an ice mask on right now.... but it warms so fast, and soon it will have to go back to the freezer)
earache (I put in some GOOT and that took care of the pain, but the ringing is still there anytime my children sing or hum repetatively - which is ALL the time, and normally, I love the songs they sing...)
sore throat (I am making some lemon herb tea with Eucalyptus honey - that is always good)
tired body (I am headed upstairs to sleep)
floaty head - do you know what I mean? My head and body feels like it is floating around, not really connected to anything. That probably has something to do with my ears, eh?
slight nausea - is this a symptom of whatever I have right now, or is it a side effect of all the mucus hanging out in my throat aggrevating my all-too-sensative-because-of-pregnancy-gag-reflex?

and other side effect - I cannot spell today. so I apologize for my worse-than-usual spelling. ow - I need more goot in my ears. good night.

Christmas Tree Is Up

{ Posted by Ye Olde Scarecrow }
{ 01:34, Saturday, November 29, 2008 } { 2 comments } { Link }

We spent the day putting up our Christmas tree, the day after Thanksgiving is the day we do that. Its a lot safer than going shopping on black friday. LOL

Lookin' Good.

A Lot of Changes

{ Posted by CandyFoote }
{ 09:05, Friday, November 28, 2008 } { Posted in Living Off Grid } { 3 comments } { Link }

There have been a lot of changes in our family lately!

As most of you know, we are making plans to leave New York and live in Alaska.

Our oldest son, Jud, moved ahead of us at the end of August.

My husband left for Alaska a month ago!

The ten kids that we still have at home and I have been at home preparing for our big move.

We are just waiting for the word that Daddy has everything set up and ready for us in Alaska.

Well, things have not gone as well as I had hoped!

We have lived off-grid for the past two and a half years. Although I have really enjoyed living off-grid, I have found that it is A LOT easier to live off-grid when you have a husband at home with you!

The solar panels don't work as well this time of year as they do in the summer months. To supplement, we use a generator. The thing is, when the generator isn't working right, we usually have no worries. Daddy to the rescue normally. Well, he just can't travel 4,200 miles home in order to fix a cranky generator!

The generator just hasn't wanted to cooperate with us! The adds up to the batteries not being fully charged - meaning no lights!

On top of that, we had a minor fire behind our wood stove. Although it was extremely minor, it really frightened us!

At this point we are staying with my father. What a brave man!

He seems to be enjoying it - so far!

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we are a blessing to my dad, and not a burden. Pray for God to open things up for us in Alaska quickly. Pray for God to bring us back together as the family soon. We are hoping to be there for Christmas!

Thanks! I hope you enjoyed this little update.

Candy

http://candyfoote.com/

A Great Thanksgiving Day

{ Posted by Linda }
{ 05:21, Friday, November 28, 2008 } { Posted in Family } { 1 comments } { Link }

We had a super great Thanksgiving with most all my love ones here. Our new little granddaughter sure made for a special time. I didn't get to hold her much b/c of cooking but GreatGrandma sure did .

We had 14 people in all, 5 being our grandkiddies, our new SIL parents even shared our Thanksgiving with us, what fun. His Mom got right in the kitchen and help make gravy while her DIL (our DD) was helping with the other goodies. I loved it.

Lots of food and of course we overate. In the warm afternoon we all went walking on the trails (except new grandbaby, mommy and greatgrandma) and checked out the Outpost. In the 50's, I was sure tempted to camp out but I will wait for the snow.

Heres our cutie,she changes a little bit each time I see her.

We have the cradle which my Dad gave me for my babies, in the living. Not knowing at the time how many more beautiful babies would be sharing a sweet nap. A ture Blessing.

I did some junk store finds and found this neat hat holder with hats, perfect for the kiddies playclothes in the spare bedroom. I'm decorating it up Christmascy for them this weekend.

Here they all are in their new/old dress up clothes, hamming it up for gandma. The littlest guy didn't have any playclothes so he found a knit hat to put on, thata work. So I will be looking for lots of play clothes for them.

What fun they have dancing and singing in the living room.

Tomorrow DH and I will go to town and find a Christmas Tree. We use to take the family out to a Tree Farm and cut the most beautiful tree on the farm, (we always told ourselves this). Some would be whoppers up to 14ft tall , using extention ladders to decorate. But we have scaled down to 9ft and 10ft trees after the kids left home. Last year I think I got a tree leaning against the Hen House store while my sister looked on in the warm truck. This could be payback from a time when Mom, sis and I were getting a tree and sis got out in the rain as we had thumbs up or down for the perfect tree. Poor wet sis,

Oh and all the orange comes down, orange wreaths, orange pumpkins, oranges decorations and even the orange slipcovers in the living room. Its red and green time. Inside and out. And speaking green we are scaling down the lights on the house this year, kinda sad but DH needs a break. I put up the garlin and lights over the front door and will be putting out the sleigh and iceskates and pincones. But if I get a second wind I might put up more lights and light the trails. Just not sure yet. Less is more but then again someone told me more is more and less is really less. And then we got the being green going on too.

Chickens:

Oh boy are they doing well, up to 20 eggs a day. Nothing like cracking an egg for the Thanksgiving peacan pies, just freshly laid that day.
Go Girls Go!!!

Just for fun:

In some past post I share of a group I have joined late this summer. Mary Jane Farm Connection. I was new to the magazine and new to the forum. What a great connection from the get go. This "get er done" Mary Jane inspired me to make up my Outpost, she and other "out their women" inspired me to camp out for 13 weeks in my own Outpost. Make a reading tree for my grandkiddies and take a bath in the woods again like I use to.

Now I'm on a major cleanup here on the homestead, when you got a big roll off dumpster , its major clean up. One thing that I was going to toss out was my kids Barbie dolls, oh they were a mess and no way I want my grandkiddies playing with these , so why would I give them away to good well. Yucky, I tell ya, they were in very bad shape.

Now just before the toss I had a moment, a moment that I could not do, I'm throwing away my girls dolls : (, how could I do such a thing. Then the light bulb came on, I thought how Mary Janes Farm and the sisterhood is all about women Who Can and to raise little farmgirls Who Can as well. So why not clean up these dolls and make farmgirl Barbies for my own gandgirls to play with, a good wholesome image and recycle at the same time. And there it was, Farmgirl Barbie, Mary Jane style.

I shared with my farmgirl friends in Mary Janes forum and it was a hit, with the thread stating "What do you do with a big bag of wild-haired naked Barbie dolls?" Many ideas and others wanting to do the same with their DD Barbie dolls, and many wish they had not thrown their dolls away.

Heres a picture of one of those dirty wild-haired Barbie dolls that I cleaned up and made an apron for her (Mary Jane believes in aprons, there is power in an apron). She is called Farmgirl Barbie the Herb Gatherer

Barbie cleans up pretty nice.

Now all this gets even better.

Mary Jane herself has an artical about this in her Nov /Dec magazine.

I was so surprise that she liked my idea that she featured it heading and all "What do you do with a bag full of wild-haired naked Barbie dolls. Her write up was wonderful and I'm so honored to be mention in your magazine. Thank you Mary Jane .

This is a wonderful magazine so do check it out. I got my copy at Borders but you can also subscribe. Check out her forum to Mary Janes Farm , lots of wonderful Farmgirls, all ages from all over the world, country and city. Talk about Kindred Spirits. You will find many there. I sure did.

Happy Holidays to you all , thank you for stopping by.

My heart and prayers go out to those in India. What a sadness this brings. A sadness for the loss but also a sadness that many have so much hate in their hearts to do such things. May Peace On Earth happen soon.

Blessings
linda

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