Archives for April 2006

Tuesday….

I need to look back over my blogs and see if Tuesday is my “muck” day. I feel as if I'm having a lot of them lately. Today I just wanted to crawl in a hole and sleep. Someone feed me chocolate!!

I've done well on the diet. Today wasn't as good but overall I'm doing well. I need to go for some of that yummy asparagus tomorrow. Mmmm, I didn't know what I was missing as a child. I've even braved brocolli twice. I hate that stuff.

Hubbie's gone. Oldest son took photos of his baptism to school today. Too cool!!!!! My middle and youngest son are still struggling getting along. They are like oil and vinegar.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with a friend. Hopefully it will be much needed rest and time away.

Thursday will be painting and yoga. And hopefully Friday we'll be able to move the guys up in the loft to their new room…YEA.
The bathroom was completed yesterday. We have running water. I was so excited.

I'm bushed. See you tomorrow. I'm hitting the hay.
IN HIM
julie

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Posted: April 11, 2006 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

I need to ask for help…

I need help with a couple of things that need prayer:

Whether to homeschool my oldest next year or send him back to Montessori School
An affordable wheat grinder. I want to make my own bread.
The strength to eat just fruits and veggies for the next 6 weeks in order to feel better and loose weight. Wisdom in my vitamin regimen.

Thanks so much for those prayer warriors out there. I'll keep you informed. If you haven't read the Butterfly Resurrection Story I posted a day or two ago. Keep scrolling down. It's worth the read.

IN HIM
julie

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Posted: April 10, 2006 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Resurrection

Okay, get this.
We're on our way out of Ingles (local grocery store) today and there is this butterfly lying right outside the automatic doors on the ground. He appears very dead. But all the kids notice him and so I pick him up to bring him home thinking I'll pin him on some foam board or something and we can start an insect collection.

By the time we get to the car my oldest son is talking about how God can bring it back to life if He wants to. And I began explaining how it may not be God's will to bring him back to life but if he wanted to pray for that he could.

So as I'm loading the groceries into the car he's just “apraying” away. I had set the butterfly in the front seat and all the kids are huddled around watching it. So I'm thinking “Oh God….please show yourself to my son.” You know, one of those “I sure hope this works.” prayers.

As I sat down behind the wheel of the car the butterfly's legs start moving. By the time we get home his wings are slowly moving up and down. So I tell oldest son to keep praying and set him gently on the flowers. About 10 minutes later my son comes running inside with the butterfly in his hands and the thing jumps out of his hands and flies all around the kitchen. Alive as alive can be.

So after catching the thing again. This time it was much more difficult! I take it outside to gently place it back on a flower but it flies from my hands happy and alive and flutters off into the spring air.

As I walk back inside I think…
“Faith like that of a child”

Thank you God for showing my child (and ME) pure and simple faith. …………..julie

7 Comments

Posted: April 9, 2006 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Field Trip Day

Today we visited New Hope Farms and Gardens (located in Walhalla SC ((try that name on for size.)) and named for the new hope we have in Jesus Christ. Cool huh??? You know it's gotta be good.

New Hope Farms is a working farm where we experienced the sights, sounds and smells of a family run farm. The benefits of homesteading are evident in the vegetable garden complete with novelty crops such as broom corn, popcorn and peanuts. Fiber animals, such at the angora goats and rabbits, give visitors an understanding into the fiber produced, spun and knitted for garments. Along with the goats there are two HUGE saint bernards and a great white pyrenees. The great white protects the goats. One of the saint bernards must weigh 250 pounds (he's pictured below).

Their tour is really wonderful. All through the tour they present the gospel. It's wonderful the way they weave it into what they do there. The goats are raised for their fiber. Then it is cleaned, spun and either made into garments or just sold to others. All of this is demonstrated by a quirky sweet woman who is not afraid of words like “poo poo” which made all the kids laugh. The hayride around their 13 acre farm provided all kinds of interesting things to see……..plants, an organic garden, and a pond they are making into a duck sanctuary. Enjoy the pictures. IN HIM…Julie

This is the barn

We were guests of honor to a goat sheering.

This is the sweet lady *Ms Christianson who showed us how to spin the fiber on a spinning wheel made from recycled material. The wheel is an old wheelchair wheel and the rest is PVC pipe.

Here is everyone watching the demonstration and feeling all the different types of fiber. She also had something she'd made out of Saint Bernard hair. In the cage is an angora rabbit and their “meat rabbit”. She said rabbit taste better than chicken and is better for you. “Oh Thumper!!!”

The angora rabbit. Isn't she pretty?

Demonstrating the fiber after spinning.

The four year old who wasn't paying attention

Our turn at feeding the goats hay and feed.

And we got to make bird feeders from pine cones, crisco and seed.

Baby Girl

Baby Goat

Another baby goat

And ANOTHER (trying to eat the wagon)

All the babies together

One of our homeschoolers holding a baby goat.

The beginning of our tour.

The GI-NORMOUS Saint Bernard

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Posted: April 7, 2006 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

Another DAY, Another chance to LOVE GOD

Today was different. Thank God!!!!
I decided I needed some time alone and went to a friend's house and sat in her back yard. I knew she would be at work so I'd have the place to myself. We swim there a lot in the summer and I love her place. It's like a little piece of heaven on earth. I had a card to write to a dear friend who delivered her baby girl, Andie, at 25 weeks. Andie is doing well but her mommy is not. She seems just so frazzled. She isn't sleeping, spends 1/2 her life pumping and is in the middle of a move and a new job for her hubbie. Talk about stress. Andie was born at 1 lb. 13 oz. and is up to 2 lbs. From all I know about premmies she is doing really well.

So…..
After perusing the Christian bookstore for about an hour I set out with a fist full of cards to spend some time alone, with God, and enjoying the day. It was beautiful today. As I wrote I heard a cow mooing and a rooster crowing. It was wonderfully peaceful. Every once in a while the horses would neigh. I could smell cut grass, flowers blooming and feel the cool breeze blowing. The sky was bluer than blue. Heaven on earth!!!

I just had to share. (Pictures above)

I also had my morning Bible study this morning. We discussed Jesus' death on the cross in the 18-19th chapter of John. It was awesome. I kept thinking about The Titanic and God's love for us. I'm so thankful we have a God who chases after us, who loves us with a wild and unabandoned love.

Thank you Jesus!!!!

IN HIM
julie

7 Comments

Posted: April 5, 2006 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

A wealth of information

I don't have time to properly blog about it now but check out this website. This is a homeschool mom of 10 and God has blessed her with much wisdom.

The Tomato Lady

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Posted: April 5, 2006 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

What to blog about today…

Well, I've had another one of those LOVELY “feel bad” days AGAIN. I don't know if the antibiotics I'm taking for my sinus infection have me feeling all wierd or what. So feeling bad physically evolves into feeling bad emotionally, snapping at my kids and being on overall bear in desperate need of hybernation.

We did manage to get some school work done today however. I'm having such an attitude and behavior problem with my 6 year old right now. He's always been my easy one yet turning six has evolved into a “momma's nightmare”. His attitude just stinks right now and as I pray asking God what might be going on I try to rest in that it may be a stage. Our oldest (a whopping 7 years) has traditionally been the most difficult one but since his salvation he's a jewel to be around.

So please pray for this less than friendly homeschool mom. And be glad you don't live near me lest you get bitten by the grizzly bear I've become.

GRRRRRR……….
julie

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Posted: April 4, 2006 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

Daylight Savings

Boy has daylight savings messed me up. I woke up at 4 am this morning wide awake. Yesterday morning I couldn't drag myself from the bed. Never has the time change affected me the way it has this year. My body is tired but even lying down for a nap didn't work. It's like my body jolts itself awake after lying down. I have massage therapy tonight & hope that might help. I need sleep!

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Posted: April 3, 2006 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

The Titanic And God's Call

I just love the movie The Titanic. I'll never forget the night in KY when God told me to go and rent the movie. I'd already seen it at the movies when it was playing there and it moved me greatly. But I could not understand why God wanted me to go rent it. So many Christians had Xed the movie for the love scenes and stuff. BUT off to Blockbuster I went to rent it. My husband was out of town so I nestled down for a night with The Titanic.

Never would I have imagined what the Lord showed me during the movie. As Rose was meeting Jack God had me paying extra attention. As she ran with him around the ship experiencing things she had never before allowed herself to experience because of her position in life the Lord whispered to me, “This is what I want our relationship to be like Julie.”

Me…“What Lord?”
The Lord….“I want you to trust me enough to take you to places you've never been before.”
Tear filled my eyes.
“I am wild. I am beyond anything you've experienced before if you will just trust me. Do you trust me Julie?”

I watched the movie with new eyes as Jack drew Rose to himself. Oh, how the Lord wants to romance me and draw me to Himself. He wants me to learn to spit overboard, dance in the depth of the ship, stand poised at the bow, follow Him into the unknown. He loves me. He's crazy about me. He wants to rescue me from myself. He wants me to chase him around with passion in my heart. He wants me to trust Him.

And in the end, just like Jack died for Rose, He died for me. He died to give me life. And as in the ending of The Titanic HE is waiting for me in Heaven. Having made a place for me, maybe even my very own color. But He waits for me with love and passion and a longing for one God has given Him to be his own.

His bride.

If you've never watched the movie maybe you can do so with a new set of eyes. If you've seen it before maybe another run through will show you the loving wild abandon of Jesus.

He's nuts over us.

Resting in His Wildness tonight….
Julie

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Posted: April 1, 2006 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags: