....More in Number....

When we were at the ocean last month I was amazed at how fine the sand was. It brought to mind this verse in Psalms about the thoughts of God towards me His child, being more in number than the sand! What an amazing thought!

"How precious also are Your thoughts to me O God! How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand..." Psalm 139:17-18

"Nothing can surpass in number the grains of sand which belt the main ocean and all the minor seas. The task of counting God's thoughts of love would be a never-ending one. If we should attempt the reckoning we must necessarily fail, for the infinite falls not within the line of our feeble intellect. Even could we count the sands on the sea-shore, we should not then be able to number God's thoughts, for they are "more in number than the sand." This is not the hyperbole of poetry, but the solid fact of inspired statement: God thinks upon us infinitely: there is a limit to the act of creation, but not to the might of divine love."

~C. H. Spurgeon

Way Back When-sday

These pictures are of my Great-Grandpa's rose bush...which we have in our garden now.

A few years ago, when Grandma moved from her big house in town to a smaller one, she gave us her dad's rose bush.  It  produces many fragrant, dark pink roses each summer, (and lots of thorns too)!  I enjoy have a living piece of history in our garden. :)

~Alyssa

A Birthday and Creamy Lime Coolers

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANA!!

I love you!

This past Saturday was Ana's Golden Birthday...she was 21 on the 21st!  Amy and I made her birthday meal for supper, and then in the evening we all watched the old film You Can't Take it With You.  :)

This is a delicious drink Ana asked to have with her meal.  Dad said tasted like a fruit salad.  

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice, chilled
1 T. Lime juice
1-2 T. powdered sugar
1/4 t. grated lime peel
1 cup vanilla ice cream, softened

In a blender, combine the pineapple juice, lime juice, powdered sugar, and lime peel; cover and process until blended.  Add ice cream; cover and process until smooth.  Pour into chilled glasses.
Yield: 2 servings  (I doubled it when I made it.)

ENJOY!

~Alyssa

"If you give a Homeschooling Mom a cookie..."

A cute retelling by Sher Birmingham of the story "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff. :)

If you give a Homeschooling Mom a cookie, she'll want the recipe.

She will plan a complete unit study on the History of Cookies.

The family will take a field trip to a farm and see where we get eggs, milk and grain.

At home they will make butter out of milk.

The children will want to start grinding their own grain.

Mom will purchase a Bosch Universal Kitchen System.

She will remember she will need a new list of cookbooks.

So she will order "An Introduction To Whole Grain Baking w/CD", "Desserts", "The Cooking With Children CD", and "Lunches & Snacks Cookbook" by Sue Gregg, also "Whole Foods for Kids to Cook".

Mom then orders a 100 lb bag of wheat berries.

Now she will grind her own wheat grain into flour.

The children remember the farm field trip, and knowing they can't possibly get a cow, they beg for a few chickens.

So they take a trip to the library to research how to build a chicken coop and to how to care for chickens.

On the way out the door Mom see the book, "Chicken Tractor" by Andy Lee & Pat Foreman.

They stop by the Feed and Seed to pick up materials and ask where to purchase the chicks.

There the clerk tells them about eggs that can be incubated.

He sells them a book on hatching eggs, an incubator, and some eggs to hatch.

At home Mom and the younger children set up the incubator while Dad and the older children build the chicken tractor.

Back to the library to pick up gardening books and more books on chickens.

The oldest daughter now starts a business grinding flour for her friend's families; while her younger sisters are selling homemade cookies to their neighbors.

The boys have started building a new chicken tractor because they want more eggs for breakfast.

That cookie that started all this - the homeschooling mom's three year old ate it.

Way Back When-sday

~Alyssa

A Wissmann Family Concert

The Wissmann family gave a concert a couple weeks ago at a church not too far away from us. We've enjoyed their singing on CDs and so we were excited to hear them in person.

Mr. Wissmann and his girls singing the song "Daddy's Song" that Rachel wrote. (She is the one playing the keyboard.)

Andrew and Ruth

We thoroughly enjoyed the concert! We appreciated the gospel message in the songs and in what Mr Wissmann shared between the songs. They all seemed to really enjoy singing together, and when the concert was over and people were milling around, some of them started playing and singing some more...just for fun!

If they are ever in your area be sure to go hear them. :)

~Alyssa

Good Advice!

  I just read this article by Mr. DeMar and wanted to share it here.  The title is kind of funny but the content is very practical!

How to Make Yourself Indispensable: Advice for Young People

By Gary DeMar

1. Read at least 10 pages every day of a non-fiction book in various fields: science, history, literature, music, art, science fiction, theology, economics, etc. Increase it by one page per day until you get it up to 20 pages per day. R. J. Rushdoony read at least one book a day—“underlined, with a personal index in the back cover—six days a week for 25 years. He then followed suit with another 25 years of the same schedule.” Go and do likewise. In ten days, you will have read a 200-page book. That’s more than 35 books per year. In ten years, 350 books. In 40 years, 1400 books. Increase the number of pages per day, and you will have read in a lifetime more books than most people have seen in their local public library.

2. Learn how to skim a book to determine if it’s worth reading all of it. Learn how to speed read to mine books for information.

3. Keep a notebook of insights, facts, well stated truths, and new vocabulary words. I use “Moleskin Notebooks.” I carry one with me everywhere I go. You can’t trust your memory.

4. Each year, read at least one book in a category that you find difficult and even boring so you are able to discuss five principles about that subject. Think of yourself stuck with some guy at a party who is fascinated with celestial mechanics. You will make a friend.

5. Take the initiative and ask questions of people who know more than you do. If you’re young, that means almost everybody you meet. Listen more than you speak. If an answer is not clear, ask for clarification. Learn at least ten new things every day.

6. Be able to do a job interview without using the word “like” more than three times unless the word is absolutely called for as in “I would like to work for you” and not “Like, I would like really like to like work for you.”

7. Be able to give a talk for 12 minutes without using notes. If ever called on to give an impromptu talk, be ready to give one that lasts for about 3 minutes. Less is often more. When someone asks you to speak and gives you a time limit, DO NOT go over. You want people to say, “I wish he had more time” rather than “When will he shut up?”

8. Start your own business so you will know how much work goes into running a company and how difficult it is to make a profit, hire and fire employees (most of whom aren’t qualified for the work), market, fill out forms, pay taxes, fill out forms, pay taxes, fill out forms, pay taxes.

9. Don’t be afraid to fail. Some of the best lessons you will ever learn come from failures, but only if you decide to learn from them.

10. “Power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Sometimes (most times?) God uses your weaknesses over your strengths to turn you into the person He wants you to be.