Book Review: Do Hard Things

I first saw this book on the Vision Forum website and thought it might be interesting soI borrowed it from the library and never got around to reading it.....sound familiar?  A few weeks ago, we received the latest catalog from Christianbook.com.  We enjoy getting these because our daughter finds great reading material from these catalogs.  She reads at an adult level and it is impossible to stay one step ahead of her while safeguarding her and what she reads.  We look a lot to Vision Forum and a few other sources to give us a good foundation in what we choose to allow her to read.  This summer, she has entered two different reading programs and spends all of her extra time reading.  Upon getting this Christianbook catalog, she quickly began to make her list for us to look at on which books she would like to get.

When I saw that she had asked for this one, I wasn't sure she was old enough to read it.  Sure she is plenty capable of

Making an Amish Dress

 I'll give you a bit of history about this subject in order for you to grasp our familiarity with the Amish community.  We live next to six large, Old Order Amish communities.  We spend a lot of time with several different Amish families and have made some great friends.  Our daughters play together.  This picture is of our daughter (which explains the white tennis shoes) trying on one of their dresses.  She absolutely loves these dresses.  Trying to make one of these dresses isn't because we feel she needs to wear these dresses, however, they

Can you sleep when the wind blows?

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.  He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic.  They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.  As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. 'Are you a good farm hand?' the farmer asked him. 'Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,' answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. 

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.  Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, 'Get up! A storm is coming!  Tie things down before they blow away!'  The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, 'No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.'

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.  To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins.  The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred.  The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. 

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while  The wind blew. 

MORAL OF THIS STORY
When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?  The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.  We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. 

We don't need to understand, we just need to hold  
His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.

This story is one that caught my attention a long time ago.  It's one of those that sticks in my mind when I try to take short cuts or procrastinate......I like my sleep, so things get put up and tied down, life is prepared for......prayers are prayed,  soft quiet moments are taken with my husband and children, we are grateful for the simpler things in life and we sleep very well.

Resurrection Day...Rejoice!!!

 

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner...

This powerful video can say more than my words could ever say on this Resurrection Day.  May we all truly remember His sacrifice, 

His gift of grace, 

His enduring love.

What's For Dinner?

I know I'm not the only one spending more time outside than inside these days and if you're like me, you lose track of time trying to get one more plant transplanted or one more garden bed tilled and fertilized.  Today was one of those days.  There was only enough time to throw some odd thing together, but what?  While I cooked up some hamburger meat I tried to figure out what to do with it and began going through the cupboards.  There was some whole wheat spaghetti noodles so I boiled some water for those...grabbed a jar of fresh spaghetti sauce and coated the bottom of a cake pan with some sauce.  Drained the noodles and put them in the cake pan, swirling them through the sauce and then added the hamburger....sprinkled the top with some rainbow garden peppers and covered it with shredded and Parmesan cheese, then put it in the oven for 20 minutes on 350.  The family loved it and it was one of the easiest things I've done.  Colorful too with red, yellow, green and purple peppers on it!

Do you remember in my last post that none of the chicks were supposed to be named?  Well meet Amy, the local

Spring Time on the Homestead

 

Nothing says spring like new chicks!  Lots has been going on here on the ole' homestead with spring being well under way.  The peach blossoms have come and gone, the Magnolia blooms are falling, the gooseberry bushes are blooming, the chicks are cheeping and there is

Free 3 Month Trial with HSLDA

Don't miss out on this wonderful offer!  If you have heard of HSLDA, or if you home school and haven't heard of them.....this is an excellent opportunity to familiarize yourself with who they are and how they will protect you as homeschoolers.  HSLDA stands for Home School Legal Defense Association.  Here is a small paragraph from their information page to tell you who they are....

Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.  

 HSLDA is offering 3 free months as a trial offer.  After that, the monthly fees are only $10.  They are an incredible legal force to have for protecting our rights as homeschoolers and