Candle By Night

Can you guess what my devotion was on today? Yes...it was on Matthew 5:44. It can be so hard to put that into practice sometimes. But the Lord has given me a lot of practice over the past 4 years....mainly with my own family. It is really hard to love someone who mocks you and persecutes you isn't it? It goes against our "human nature." My devotion said it best today. To fulfill this command you need to have creativity. It said "creativity is cultivating wise thoughts, prudent words, and skillful actions to carry out God's will." I think that puts it very well. You have to be creative when you are persecuted so you can turn things around. My challenge to all today is to love your enemy. Make sure you bless them...that always throws them for a loop. ;) Also..I started working more on the afghan for my son's birthday which was 2 months ago. ( I know...bad Mama.) That garden just took up so much time. At least I don't have to worry about weeding it..si...

I finally can post the pictures of the Easter Song Ensemble I made for DD for her 2nd birthday (not till March) I put the buttons on while I was at the craft show on Saturday. Everyone loved it and couldn't believe that I crocheted it! So... Here are the pictures. Oh yes...I tested this for Anna over at Lullabies and Lace. Check out her patterns..there is some great stuff there!

Well...I went to the craft show, but...not too many people showed up. I think they only had an ad in the paper twice. Oh well...I wasn't out anything. MIL paid for my table and it was only $10. I am going to try another one at a local church on November 4th. At least I don't have to make a lot of stuff for it. Everything is already made. I did sell some of my broom corn, all my twinkies, and most of the truffles. Everyone loved my items, but not enough to purchase I guess. Hopefully this next show will be more publicized. Plus it will be closer to the holidays. Besides the craft show I dropped off our rent check to Becky. She is the one in charge of running the rental and all. After we moved in Ralph..the owner... passed away and Becky took over. Well...I guess things are not going well. Her sister wants "her money." She wants the property sold by Dec. 31 of this year. So...Becky didn't say we had to move out, but I think it would be best. (She would have liked u...

Here are some more pictures of items I hope to sell at the Craft Show. This evening I am going to make homemade "twinkies" and oreo truffles. I also have a few other things to sell but no pictures as of yet. ;)

Since I finally figured out how to download photos from my "new" digital Camera...I thought I would. Here are pictures of some of the items I hope to sell at a small Craft Show/Fair tomorrow. These are 2 bunting dolls that I crocheted. Aren't they just adorable? ;) This photo and the next are jean purses that I made from Dresses that where given to me and I would never let my daughter wear. I thought they came out really cute. Hopefully someone else will think so and want to purchase one. This last one if of "Mommy and Me" aprons. I don't know how well they came out in the picture but I hope you can see them okay. I have a set of pink, blue, and lime green aprons.

This morning as I was reading in Matthew 5:37, I believe, it spoke of your yea, being yea, and your nay, nay. It says that anything more comes from evil. So...do you mean what you say? Are you a person that makes promises to your spouse or children and doesn't fulfill them? I know I catch myself saying, "I promise I will read to you shortly." When shortly never comes. :( I am trying to watch how i word things to my children so promises and the like are not turned merely into words that are just said at a whim. I also wanted to comment on my Hubby's new position. I don't know exactly what the position is...and he doesn't fully know yet either, but he enjoyed himself yesterday. It looks as though he is the "go-to" and they will be looking to him to streamline things. Yesterday he fixed a computer problem, went to Mansfield to pick up computer parts, and traveled to Lexington to do some measuring for a job the closet organization people will be doing. S...

Okay I know there are lots of you out there that love to win things and there are a lot of you that love the Vision Forum catalog. Well Kim over at Life in a Shoe is having a contest where you can win $700 worth of Vision Forum stuff! You have got to check this out. My family loves the catalog. If we had the funds we would purchase a lot from them, but that is going to have to wait. We do have some DVD's and wonderful books from them though. So like I said. Go check it out!

I received my "new" digital camera from Peggy yesterday. I am so excited that I will soon be able to post pictures on this site of things I talk about! Once I figure everything out that is. Once the leaves start changing colors you can be sure you will be seeing pictures of it here. I love fall! My favorite tree in the fall is in the backyard of my inlaws. Their maple turns a beautiful bright orange! It even "lights" up their back room in orange on a sunny day. Oh...I can't wait! I hope to purchase some apples next week too! I love making applesauce and thanks to Marci I hope to be making some apple pie filling as well! Being Reconciled was part of my devotions this morning. The text was from Matthew 5:24-25. "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee: leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to they brother and then come and offer thy gift....." It...

I can finally get my laundry done on my regularly scheduled day (at least most of it). It seems so long since I had a Monday that was sunny...it is just colder now, but that is just fine with me. Just something about hanging clothing on the line makes me happy inside. I love to see it blowing in the breeze. I have 3 lines, but it is made for 4. We ran out of money for the 4th line and have just never gotten around to getting it. That is okay though. Next spring I will definately need that 4th line though. Baby clothes may be tiny, but they tend to take up a lot of room! ;) I can hardly believe that I have half way through this pregnancy. I have so much to get done. Right now I am trying to get things together for a craft fair that is this Saturday where my beloved MIL works. Last year I didn't sell anything except bread, but after the hurricanes last year nothing (like craft fairs) seemed to do well. At least...everyone I talked to. So I am busy trying to get all of that done. At l...

Matthew 5:16- "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" This was the verse for my devotion today and it definately gives you something to think about. Some people like to "brag" about what they have done for the Lord and they use this verse to supposedly back them up. Well...we are not to seek the approval of men. As Christians we are to love the Lord with all of our heart and good works will just be an outpouring of that love for Christ. If no one notices...so what. Our heavenly Father knows about it and that is the most important thing. I am very happy on how well my devotion time has been going this week. Oh...guess what! I am going to be getting a digital camera. Peggy wrote and offered it to my family. I am so excited. It doesn't really matter that it is not the latest and greatest, but it is at least something for us and we are very grateful for it! Now I can post more pictures on ...

This is just a short post as I will be soon heading to a friends home to can up some Bacon and Bean Soup. I cooked my 10 pounds of bacon yesterday, saved the grease, cut up the carrots and the celery. I also am taking about 1 1/2 gallons of tomato juice. I hope we all have enough. Hope all have a great day! Matthew 5:12- Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prohets which were before you.

My day started out very well. I have been able to get more on a schedule the past two days. Due to this I was able to make Hubby breakfast and pack his lunch...which he enjoyed very much. After my devotions I checked our e-mail and then I heard my "sweetie" coming down the stairs. Her favorite saying right now is..."Awwwwww, Cute." I love to hear her say that. It is so adorable. She will hold her babies and say, "Aww Cute." I just can't get over it. We all love to hear her say it. After that she went and woke "bubby" up. I then heated up their breakfast. Well after all that it seems as though the children grew horns. ;) Not really, but I couldn't believe it. Next thing I know..DS has dumped 1/4 of the powdered laundry detergent on the floor (neither one has ever bothered it since we moved here in January), he got into the refrigerator, and then the freezer and pulled all sorts of items out. It seemed that everywhere I walked I found som...

My day started off very interesting. I got up this morning with Hubby...I know..It's a shock to me too! Anyway, I made his lunch while he made his breakfast. After I made myself some to and was going to sit down to do my devotions I figured I better check the mouse trap. When I went to find it...it wasn't there..it was gone! Well...this is the sort of trap that this never happens with and we couldn't find it anywhere near the spot we laid it. After searching for a few minutes I finally saw it sticking out from underneath my piano! It had caught the mouse by the foot, which I haven't figured out yet! Anyway..hubby went to grab the trap and was shocked to still find the thing alive and well. So needless to say I had him take care of it before he went to work! I am so glad I checked the trap! I am also going to try my best to get my swap tea cosy sent out to my partner today since I finally got her address. I thought I had it but then realized it was only her street addr...

As summer turns in to fall...we have to prepare for the winter. Today my family and I worked outside the entire day. After breakfast I went straight for the garden to get the broom corn stalks, sunflower stalks, and corn stalks down. I did the broom corn and the sunflower stalks, but Hubby got most of the corn stalks for me. It was quit a workout and I had to take a lot of rests. I also mowed the lawn today while hubby went around with the trimmer. I started pulling a few things up from the garden, but will tackle that more when I get the last of the tomatoes on Tuesday. Of course I also made lunch and supper. Oh..most of you will never believe this! I went to Sam's on Friday to pick up bacon for a group of us getting together to can Bacon Bean Soup. Guess how much I bought for 3 of us. 40 pounds !!! The lady at the checkout couldn't believe it. So..Monday is Laundry, Tuesday is going to grocery to get the veggies for the soup and cleaning and then on Wednesday we are making so...

Well..I do love Autumn. It is my favorite time of year, but the cooler weather didn't have to come at me so quickly! It probably seems that way since we had two days of rain this week. I have had to dig out a couple of sweaters as I get cold easily. I am not looking forward to turning on our propane furnace though. It costs over $600 to get the thing filled!!! That is a lot of money in one chunk. I pray that one day we can heat with wood, but that time is not in the near future. So...I will be looking at ways to "tighten" our budget so we can handle the fills that we will need for the winter. We did a summer fill and will have to fill it probably 2 more times this winter. I pray that is all we will need. It will be very tempting once the baby is here to turn up the heat, but I will just have to make sure the little one is swaddled well! I just get more and more excited every week thinking about another new one in the home. Something about babies, warm sweaters, the smell ...

I just wanted to post an update on the Godfery family. Their website again is http://susangodfrey.blogspot.com Here is another update. Susan has a webpage for Gabriel at http://www.freewebtown.com/gabrielpaul/ I have to admit that I cried when I read the birth story.

All I want to do is to be able to do my laundry!! The rain has another idea. I am very grateful for rain, but couldn't it rain on Wednesday and Thursday instead of my laundry day which is Monday and Tuesday. Monday is my usual laundry day, but since I needed to see the midwife and take care of some other errands it was going to be today. Needless to say I was so dissapointed when I awoke to the sound of rain. I am trying to cut back on all of our expenses and I really don't want to use the clothes dryer. My two drying racks are quit large, but it just seems like things take so long to dry. But as a "old southern Proverb says", Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without . So I guess I am going to make do. The good Lord above has provided me with them and I shall use them. I was so excited to mail out my tea cosy for the swap at the 'ville, but when I went to address the package...I found I only had my partners house number and street. She forgot to send me h...

Well...Today was a very interesting day...For sure. I was supposed to see my midwife today, but there was a twist thrown in. She called this morning and said she was at a birth in Martinsburg (where we used to live about 30-45 minutes away) and that I could come down there for the visit. I guess the woman's labor wasn't progressing and she didn't mind if I "invaded" there home to have my check-up. All is well. Everything checked out just fine. I love getting to hear the babies heartbeat! It is so exciting to think that I am almost half way through my pregnancy! I still can't believe that I am going to be the Mama to 3 little ones! God has truly blessed our family in so many ways! As for the apples we stopped by an orchard to purchase some. They tasted soooooo good. My favorite ones will be ready in October, but I wanted some fruit to munch on and I need to be eating better anyway. As for the insulation....well... My hubby hangs insulation for a living right no...

Today has been about the same as all the rest..except I am making a more conscience effort to train my children and correct them as soon as they do something unacceptable. I used to be very good at this and then...I got lazy. It seems when we moved here in January...with all the circumstances we had (grandpa dieing, landlord dieing, moving...etc) things fell apart so to speak. I let myself get caught up in so many things that I wasn't taking time for the Lord or my family. I get compliments when we "visit" other churches or go to the store that my children are "so well behaved." I think they are behaving terribly and everyone else thought they were perfect angels! I think I listened to others too much also and that may be one reason I started to slip. I thought...well DS just did a tiny thing wrong...I will just warn him. Well, we all know where it goes from there! Soon...there are a lot of warnings and no consequences. Things have been different around here jus...

Last night was such a blessing. A dear sister from church invited myself and another sister out to Friendly's for the evening while our husbands watched the children. It was actually her hubby's idea! Anyway we had a wonderful time eating and fellowshiping with one another. We don't get to do that often enough and her hubby suggested we do it every couple of weeks or so. I said, "I won't turn down that offer!" I love my family, but it is nice to have time with other women to talk and not have to worry about children, dinner, etc. Yesterday I realized that I need to guard my speech better than I have been doing the past month. I catch myself raising my voice to the children. God spoke to my heart and helped me to realize what I was doing. Whatever I say to my children my children repeat. Someone told me about a craft their son made that said "Speak kind words...hear kind echoes." That is so try. If I speak kind words and show the love of Christ to my ...