Missing in Action!

Sunrise from my parent's doorstep

Hi Everyone!
Yes--I have been missing in action for quite some time.  It's not that I don't have anything to share--it's just that I haven't found that secretary who is going to follow me around all day as I dictate to her what I would like to write here on my blog! ;)  But yes, I really am still here!  And my computer broke.  And then my iPad started having major trouble.  But I "think" those problems are either solved or getting solved. . .

We have been busy with school.  And cooking.  And laundry.  And pet care.  And--well, with any number of good things.  They all keep me very very busy.  Which is why it is SO nice when something comes along to change that just a bit.  In this case, that something is called SPRING BREAK!!!!

My wonderful parents

So we loaded up the ol' mini-van and headed south---to visit my very favorite Snowbirds, my parents! :)  Yes, it is a sacrifice.  I mean, SOMEONE has to enjoy all that Florida sunshine and beaches!  And I suppose it is just too big of a job for my parents to enjoy it all by themselves, so we MUST go help them enjoy it!  ;)

My favorite shell collector

Making family memories.  The long drive.  The getting lost in Atlanta when everyone else in the car thought my sweetie didn't need any more directions, and he was just assuming we would tell him when to turn!  Ah--the things that will be remembered and joked about forever more. . . 

My Sweetie and favorite college student

Looking for birds.  Trying to capture them with our cameras!

Sunset

Beautiful cloud pictures.  Trying to find just the right setting on our cameras to have the picture show what our eye sees.

A tree just around the corner from my parent's place

Finding a tree that with the sunset behind it looks to me just like something from Africa--not that I have ever been to Africa, of course!

Under the moon with my Sweetie

Walks with my Sweetie, taking our cameras and watching for beauty around us.

It was good to get away. . . 

What do you notice when you step away from your regular day to day tasks?

Have a beautiful day with your beautiful Savior--who made a world filled with beauty for our enjoyment!

~Susan

Are you Counting your Blessings?

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share a few thoughts I have been having lately, and some nice resources that I ran across to help our little home school in a good direction.

First of all, we have a student in our home school (I won't name any names here, but let's just point out that we currently only HAVE one student in home school--ahem!) who does tend towards being a perfectionist.  This--in and of itself--is NOT a bad thing.  I am firmly convinced tht God made all of us with our unique blend of personality traits.  However--

in this world filled with sin, each personality type does have it's positive as well as negative traits that we need to learn to overcome.  With God's strength, that is.

Being a perfectionist has MANY positives in being able to know how things "should" be, and being able to quickly analyze things.  BUT--one of the negatives tends to come out as complaining and criticism, even if the person does not feel themselves to be criticizing.  THEY view themselves more as merely stating what they see as the facts.  But it so easily slips into that slippery slope of complaining. . .

Anyway, I began to feel strongly in my heart that a certain little member of our school might need a bit of help in focusing on positive things, rather than seeing the negative.  I have prayed about this, and God helped me remember a song from my childhood that is perfect for this situation.  It is a simple message, but oh so powerful if we actually do it.  So with that in mind, a quick YouTube search brought me to this version, and I have been dutifully starting our home school out each morning with this song ever since.  While at first it was VERY difficult to get the ENTIRE student body to sing this song along with me, as I have continued playing this song each morning and singing  along with it myself, a certain unnamed little girl does seem to be coming around and singing better and better with the song each morning.  And with putting these messages into our minds each day, I am convinced that it will help good things grow.  Anyway, if you would like to check out the same song, here is the link we are using:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ox75f3HWBA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1Ox75f3HWBA


The second thing I wanted to share with you is along the same lines--but something I am using for myself during my own quiet time each morning, not something I am using in home school, though I  certainly   think it would also fit well in a home school setting.  Anyway, this second thing is --quite literally--a list where I am counting my blessings.  Nothing complicated.  No precise rules.  Just counting blessings--three blessings every day.  My goal for the year is to count one thousand blessings.  One thousand gifts from God.  One thousand things that I might have otherwise breezed past in my busy day, but instead I am giving myself permission to slow down long enough to notice them.  Long enough to list them.  Yes, I am sure there will be some "repeats."  That's o.k.  If God gives me the gift of a sunrise today, is it any less of a gift if He gives me a sunrise tomorrow?  I think not.

Anyway, while I realize we are already a couple of weeks into our new year, I would encourage you to also start right now and make a list of three things you are thankful for today.  Tomorrow, just add three more things.  Do you know that if you did this every day this year by the end of 2014 you would have listed one thousand ninety five blessings from God?  What a beautiful thing to be focusing on, instead of all that may be "wrong" in your life.  I read that people who keep a gratitude list increase their happiness by 25%!  Wouldn't you like to be 25% happier than you are right now?  I know I would take that any day!  I already consider myself to be a happy person, but hey--one can always enjoy being even happier, right?

One of the resources I found to help me in this gratitude list is a free little set of cards, one card for each month.  On these cards are listed some ideas of things to look for and record on your list.  Again, these are not hard and fast rules, but just ideas so you don't keep listing the same one thing!  Sometimes the ideas will be something like "3 things that are blue," or "a gift outside, inside, on a plate."  Just a variety of different ideas, and I have enjoyed using the card for this month very much--I just look to find the date for that day, and then read what area is suggested for finding three gifts.  Sometimes it is "3 gifts that you hear," and I focus on the soft purr of my cat, the lazy snore of our dog, the beautiful songs of the birds.  Things that I might otherwise miss in my busy day, these ideas help me to slow down and notice.

If you are interested in printing off a set of these cards for yourself, you can find them free over at this site:
http://www.aholyexperience.com/joy-dares/

I hope you are each having a beautiful day today--and don't forget, count your blessings! :)

~Susan

Happy Birthday Uncle Arthur!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Uncle Arthur, Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuu!

No, Uncle Arthur isn't my REAL uncle, but I would sure claim the man even though I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person as he was born before "my time."  One hundred and seventeen years ago today--January 14, 1896, Arthur Stanley Maxwell was born in London, England.  During his lifetime, he served in many different positions, including author, editor, and administrator.  But what he is remembered for the best is as the author of the famous "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories" set.

When I was a child, these were my FAVORITE books in the whole world!!!  They are all stories of children--some made the right choice when facing a hard situation, and some did not, and I would read for hours at a time, knowing that these stories were about REAL kids just like me!  At that time, they were a huge twenty volume set.  My mom would sometimes buy one of us kids a volume for Christmas, or one volume for Easter, until our family had the whole set.  When we grew up, my older sister married someone who had his own childhood set--so she did not take her volumes with her (yea!), my older brother never had kids, so he said that I could have his volumes (double yea!) so that left our family set of books to be divided between my younger sister and myself.  Unfortunately a couple of the books were never found in the house, but we divided up what we did have.  Later, I found some volumes being sold on-line, so I bought them and shared the duplicates with my sister as we each had different volumes to start with.  I have 18 out of the original 20 volume set--I think I will forever be searching on-line for volumes 15 and 16!   Now a days they still publish Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, but they have condensed the 20 volume set down to only 5!  It's not the same!  Arthur Maxwell also published a 10 volume set  of "The Bible Story," which is still in publication today.  Many thanks to my brother-in-law who helped me purchase the Bible story books at a discount when our son was a little boy.

So there you have it--the reason why today is a very special day.  And while I never had the pleasure of meeting Uncle Arthur myself, my husband did teach at a college for ten years where Uncle Arthur's son was the president.  And if the father was anything like his son, then I know Uncle Arthur was indeed a wonderful Christian man and I look forward to meeting him some day in heaven and telling him what a blessing his books were to me growing up--and to my children as well!

Makes me wonder--what kind of influence am "I" leaving behind in this world?

Blessings you can eat!

Aren't these pretty?

O.K.  I know they are all different sizes.  And there are lumps and bumps.  And a few stray ants here and there.  All right, so they actually aren't all that pretty after all.

BUT--

They are ours.  They grew from trees that we planted in our yard when we moved in several years ago.  So to us--they are beautiful.  (And they really are quite tasty too, once you cut out all the bad spots!)

Do I look this way to God?  Filled with lumps and bumps.  Some things spoiled by sin.  But He loves me anyway.  Why?  Because I'm His.

God Provides!

Happy Sabbath!

I couldn't resist a short post tonight, telling you all about God's provision for our little Princess today. I know God provides for us each and every single day, every hour and every second of the day--but you know how every once in a while there is something that happens that you just look at and say "WOW!" Well, we had a "WOW" provision happen to us today.

I had an errand to run--had to return some socks I had bought for the Princess that didn't fit. While I was down in the shopping area, I thought maybe I would pop into JCPenney's store and see if they might have some socks on sale that would fit her. So I was heading over to the socks area, but right before I got there they had these racks of clothes that were marked with big 80% signs on them. Well, what mom can resist peeking anyway, so I kind of broused through them but the prices were still higher than I wanted to pay, so I was just leaving that area when a sales lady came over to us and announced that she had JUST put everything that was on the 80% off racks down to $2.97. That's right, every single item on those racks now had the very same price--$2.97. I almost couldn't believe my ears. She left, and another sales person arrived with a price machine and started to change the pink sales tags on the clothes. I went back to take another look, and saw this one rack with some winter coats on it. I couldn't believe that they would sell winter coats for $2.97, so I went over to the lady who was marking the price tags and asked her, and she said "All I know was that was what I was told to do", as she continued to mark tags.

SO. I carefully searched through all the racks--lots of things were too small for my Princess, but I ended up finding not one but TWO winter coats and a new Sabbath dress--all of them in a size or two big to grow into, and every item was $2.97! Both the coats were originally $70, and the dress was originally $60--Praise the Lord! He knows what we need, and He knows what our wallets have in them!

I couldn't help but remember one of my favorite Bible passages--Matthew chapter 6. Here is the part that describes today's shopping trip:

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matthew 6:28-30

Isn't that neat? Love that chapter. Lots of other good things in it too. God wants to give us so much more than we ask of Him. I only hoped for socks, and He provided so much more.

Happy Sabbath! Enjoy your day with the One who never forgets us.