Friday Encouragement

Every once in awhile something gets thrown at me that catches me off guard. These things often cause me to search and research. Sometimes it's medical, sometimes it's behavioral, sometimes it's spiritual, sometimes it's relational... Often it will lead me to a deeper level of knowledge.

Recently I had something that threw me for a loop in a spiritual sense. It's an on going journey/roller coaster that really has caused me to search and contemplate what I believe and why. Not really a really questioning my faith, but a questioning of what I believe about certain things.


Living a life of faith takes courage, prayer and discernment.

I am currently reading two books, both books I have read before, but needed to read again. Together.

The Best Yes and Crazy Love are two very different books with very different messages, yet they have the same foundation.

I have been reading through Crazy Love, it is a reminder why I do what I do. Why I parent 6 kids. Why I homeschool.

The book reminds me why I chose to live for Jesus.

*People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another. Obsessed people believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was really important to him. (1 John 2:4-6: Matt 16:24-26)

*Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I'm crazy, that I am taking the bible to literally.

*My existence was not random,nor was it an accident. God knew who he was creating and He designed me for a specific work.

I love this one. I need to be reminded that I was born for this. I was made for this. This means that if I live filled with Christ I will have peace and strength. It doesn't mean it will always be easy.

*Our culture says anything goes; Gear of God is almost unheard of.

* stress and worry, These two behaviors commnicate that it's ok to sin and not trust God, because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.

Francis Chan challenges us to live in such a way that others think we are crazy. He challenges us to live in such a way that there is no doubt in anyone's mind who we serve.
He challenges us to give, beyond ourselves, to give and serve in the strength of Jesus.


The Best Yes..

I am doing a bible study on that one right now. I absolutely love it.

The study is on slowing down in life. Stopping the rush of live, finding ways to "just be" so that we can serve Jesus. The importance of making  wise decisions in serving and where we give our time.

** “Today’s choices become tomorrow’s circumstances.”

**“Your decisions will determine direction. Your direction will determine destination.”

**Cure the disease to please with a biblical understanding of the command to love.
Escape the guilt of disappointing others by learning the secret of the small no.
Overcome the agony of hard choices by embracing a wisdom-based decision making process.
Rise above the rush of endless demands and discover your Best Yes today -


Trying to find answers to the questions in my life. Directions for these big decisions in my life... I found these two books to be so helpful. I love learning new things and digging deeper in the Word to find answers.


*www.crazylovebook.com

**See more at: http://proverbs31.org/online-bible-studies/#sthash.zLs1E9mC.dpuf

"Guest Post" by my kids. :)

Lee says:
On Saturday, Sept. 21 we went to Dutch Wonderland with Mr. and Mrs. S.  We got there early, so we had to wait awhile. When we finally we got in. The first ride we rode was the carousel. The second ride was the kite flight.

We went on a couple more rides. Then we for lunch we had pizza. We went on the train ride and the sky ride. Once we were tired and finished, we got ice cream. Then we wanted to go on one more ride, but Mr. S said it was time to go home.

When we got home, mom had a hot dinner waiting for us. Mr. and Mrs. S ate dinner with us.

My favorite part was going on the sky ride.


David says:

First we went on airplane ride, then we went on a merry go round. We went on a slide. Then we had pizza. We did bumper cars. Mom said that we Mr. and Mrs. S could come for dinner.

My favorite part was flying on the airplane.

Elizabeth says:
We ate pizza for lunch. We went on some rides. We went on this ride, where I drove. Fayth was in the passenger seat. Then we got some ice cream. We went on other rides and the roller coaster twice. Then we went on the bumper cars.
We went on a couple more rides than it was almost closed. The last ride was the train. After we went on the train ride we came home.

My favorite part was the bumper cars. The second favorite was when I drove the car.

Oh, I wanted to tell you about the dinosaurs.  There was this sand place, where you can wipe sand and there was going to be dinosaur bones. Then after we played there for awhile we walked through the pretend dinosaurs. Then we got to see the dinosaurs move, not all of them but lots of them. Then when we came out there was a big humongous egg with baby a dinosaur. Then there was two other eggs. Kids could come in and peek through the holes, parents could take pictures of them.

Fayth says:
First we went on the merry go round. We went on the airplane ride and the sky ride and the bumper cars. That's all  I want to say. Oh, I forgot about the slide. We went on the slide too. That's all.

My favorite ride was the sky ride.

Not Your Typical Once a Month Freezer Meals Part 2

So now that I shared about how  and where I get most of my supplies for freezer meals

I had someone come in and help with cleaning, babysitting and doing meals for me. It worked for a little while, but I soon felt like I didn't need weekly help. But I still  needed some thing to make life more manageable.


With school starting back up, health issues acting up, and babysitting again, I really didn't have the brain power each day that I needed to think up and prepare meals.

After much prayer and consideration, I posted on facebook asking if anyone was interested in making freezer meals for me, in their home with my supplies.


So several weeks later a fb friend, M.R. messaged me asking if I still needed meals done... after a bit of back and forth we worked out the details and she started the first batch of freezer meals.

We are now on a monthly schedule. She picks up all the supplies that I have gathered and takes them back to her house, where over a week or two she preps the meals for me.

So as you can tell, the actual prep work is several stages. This is not an easy thing and takes planning and thinking far in advance in order to do it as economically as possible.

The first round of meals, I was behind in my schedule and ended up buying more then I wanted to. Therefore my meals were a good bit more expensive.

So this is what each month's prep will look like:

I start by going through my freezers, assessing my home canned shelves and my bulk items. I prefer to work with the items I already have, so as to buy as little as possible.

I have chicken and turkey in my freezer from last year's meat sale. It is not the best meat but works great in  one dish meals. I also had just a little bit of venison left in the bottom of my freezer.
I also had a good bit of rice lasagna and rice pasta from BB's (my favorite bent and dent store) .
I  buy rice in 20 lb bags, so always have rice on hand for meals.

So now I was ready to look at recipes. I have a collection of amish cookbooks. I have probably 15 of them!! I find that many of these cookbooks have recipes that use items I often have on hand, are meant to feed large families with growing boys and are meant to be budget friendly.

I try to have similar recipes and recipes with only a few ingredients.

 I also like to have the dishes include, meat, starch and veggie, so then we have a complete meal in one dish. 

I also use pinterest... I love pinterest for gluten free options.

Now is the not so fun part. I start by copying or printing out the recipes and placing them in plastic sleeves for easy access.  I try to find 4-5 recipes and have her make 4-5 meals of each.

I, then need to assess what each dish needs and how much. I generally start 2 lists, one for the grocery store and one for the basement. I go through each recipe first and write down each item needed on the correct list. Then I go back and figure out how much I need of each item.  This can be tricky since I buy things in bulk and having to figure out, sometimes 10x the recipe can be hard.

I go grocery shopping with my list. I know which little stores have the best prices and try to find the cheapest options. I try to find ways to buy things in bulk as much as possible which really saves on the costs.

The day before pick up day, I take my lists and make new ones. I now make a freezer/cold food list and a ready to go list. All the items on the "ready to go" list are placed in a  box ready to go. The list of freezer/cold foods goes into a cooler right before M.R arrives to pick up supplies.

I also supply foil pans, ziplock bags, and other freezer containers. I like to have some containers for the crockpot and some that I can pull out, thaw out and pop right into the oven.

M. R picks up each month's worth of supplies and a week or two later returns with a month's worth of freezer meals!

Look for Post #3 for recipes. (Nothing fancy or particularly healthy, but good, belly filling foods!

Friday Encouragement

Birthday Girl

It's birthday time..
We had Miss A over for cake and ice cream to celebrate Nesiah's birthday!


Nesiah got lots of cool socks for her birthday! 

When you have a none verbal child, it can be hard to find an ice breaker when taking the child out in public. We find that fun socks are an excellent conversation piece, plus they are cute!! 

Big sis baked and decorated this cake! It was a gluten free layer cake with a peanut butter filling. Very Yummy!

Not Your Typical Once A Month Freezer Meals Part 1

I read the blogs. I search pinterest. I studied, mulling and figured. But reality is, most of these recipes don't work for my kids. The foods needed don't work with what is available for me.

We use a lot of food bought at the amish/mennonite bent and dent stores. (There are tons in my area) We also buy food in bulk from a foster parent food program. We get our venison from relatives who hunt but don't need all the meat. We also can a lot of tomato products.  This makes it a bit more complicated to follow your typical OAMC plans, but it allows me to cook for way less money.

Dietary restrictions, the only one we have is gluten intolerance. We have found using potatoes and rice pasta are good substitutes. When I find a good deal on GF pasta, I stock up. I recently bought 30 bags of rice pasta for .75 each!  We can get fairly inexpensive produce from local produce stands, plus we grow some of our own. (not much, I simply can't keep up with a garden)

So I have in my basement, 2 large shelves of home canned goods, 3 shelves and 3 totes of bulk items from the Food Program, and 3 freezers.. a large, medium and small freezer.  

                                        

                                           

Medium and small freezer, prior to purchasing my large upright freezer!

I share all this to help you understand how it all works for me. In order to fit my budget, I use what we have... It is not your traditional "make a list and go to the closest Aldi's" OAMC.

Zoo..

We have many medical and foster care appointments, the require us to drive an hour or more.  When your childcare providers are expensive, sometimes it is cheaper to take the kids along and do a field trip before/after the appointments. The idea is, you don't need to pay a sitter and you get to do fun fieldtrip you might not otherwise.



Last week we had quite a few appointments and a crazy week, so I decided to make Friday a fun day.

                                     
                                        We packed a picnic that morning, loaded the van for a full day of fun and headed out around 8:30.

                                     

We were happy to have our friend Miss. A along for this fun day! The kids were so excited. 

We arrived at the zoo at 10 am. We had to wait a couple minutes for them to open, the kids were antsy to get going! 

The bears were a huge hit, the kids loved them!

We made it through the zoo in almost exactly an hour. 

We left the zoo and headed to the park. The kids love packing lunches and each carry their own lunch box. We try to pack special lunches instead of getting fast food. 

We enjoyed our lunch then had an hour of playtime at the park. It was a beautiful day to sit and chat while the kids ran and played. 

Finally it was time to clean up sweaty, dirty kids and head the the hospital for tests. Thankfully the park had a nice bathroom and everyone washed up nicely.

We were early to our appointment but they took us right back.
Now this is when you know you are homeschoolers... everyone crowded around, watching in awe, and asking questions as they did the test. It was really quite interesting, despite the level of stress involved for the momma.

The kids did a great job all day so Miss A offered to treat everyone to ice cream on the way home. Oh, the joy! Getting out of the car, going into the restaurant and buying ice cream cones, then sitting outside to eat them! Momma is NEVER patient enough for that! This was def a special day!


We arrived home just in time to get Nesiah off the bus! It was a day not soon to be forgotten by my kiddoes. It has been a long time since we did a fun day like this and it was much needed. 

God's Provision

Every year I get venison from relatives who are hunters.They shoot the deer, I pay the butcher for the butchering.  We get mostly burger and for the past 2 years have not had to buy any beef. It is a huge blessing.

Last year we got 4 deer butchered.  I used up the very last 2 packages on Sunday. I had looked into purchasing beef to hold me over until deer season.   But had not gotten it done.

On Monday morning, my father in law called to tell me that they had a doe for me. The meat would be ready the end of the week!

Today I picked up a huge laundry basket full of 2 lb packages of venison burger for $100!!! So incredibly blessed!

Second provision of this week. We have been  incredibly busy and I had need for sitters 3 days this week. A crazy week of appointments, some where I could easily take the kids and others where I truly needed sitters.
I was able to get friends to watch the kids, they even offered to watch the kids on days when they could go with me. The kids love this friend's house. They do their schoolwork and help her with her littles, so it can be helpful to both of us.

This morning once again this friend offered to watch my kids, so they didn't have to ride in the car with me for the two hours. #blessed

Friday Encouragement..

We would appreciate your prayers today as we go through today..

We trust God to show Himself to us today.

We trust His Peace goes with us, no matter where we go..

We trust His provisions.

School and Schedule

Each day brings a new challenge, on some days it's each hour bringing a new challenge.

We seem to have the home maintenance well under control. My kids like a posted schedule. I have several goal oriented kids. They like knowing what is expected each day. They are pretty good at going with the flow when schedules change as long as the basic schedule stays the same.

This year I have 4 jobs each day and it seems to be working well. The goal oriented ones work well through each one and there is minimal nagging needed. The other's usually need no more then one reminder.

The school work load. Now that is a different story. We are rather relaxed homeschoolers. We have focused on healing emotions/trauma while working on the basics of education. We have come so far. But this year, this year I had big ideas. Workbooks. School that requires dedication and shows results. Lot's of reading and learning new things.

It's going fairly well for my readers, my kids who explore the whole world by reading. My one who doesn't read, yea it's an uphill battle. We are doing upwards of 5 hours of school every day. I. can. not. deal. with. that.  
We spend 15 minutes trying to work through the instruction "draw a line through the sentence" today. Yes, this is my 4th grader. I would appreciate some heavy prayer. ;)


We dropped co op. Sadly our babysitting job interfered with the schedule,  it kept changing and keeps changing. I struggled fiercely with this one. It was to be our out.. But once I made the decision and said no, I felt like a 100 lb weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was immediately filled with peace. It was the right decision.

Babysitting.. I am driving to the local public school each day, waiting in the kindergarten line to pick up kiddoe and bring her back here until her momma gets off work. Her momma has some health challenges and that has effected our schedule tremendously. Kiddoe is sweet and Fayth is in HEAVEN, with another little princessy here! They play nicely for hours.

Fostercare and health challenges continue to throw us curve balls. We continue to persevere in prayer.

We have a full day of Wednesday appointments, a day at home on Tuesday and Thursday, and trip to the city on Friday. Kids are going to a local amusement on Saturday with mentors. It looks to be another crazy busy week.