Our Homesteading Quest

Justice Is Served!

We finally went to court today over Stacey's dead-beat dad. I did my research, as always, and was able to prove (After allowing him the proper time to perjure himself in court, of course.) that he was nowhere near being as broke as he said he was. 

The judge was not impressed with him. In fact, he got so irritated with the situation that he sentenced him to 6 months in jail with a very lengthy explanation as to what amount the bail was being set to and why. He set the bail at $2100 and you'll never believe how quickly $2100 just mysteriously appeared in the form of a cashier's check from his bank.

The judge told me I did a great job presenting my evidence and doing the research. I told him thank you and that it wasn't the first time I've had to do this sort of thing and that Gary was great at trying to hide things.

I wonder if we'll have to do this again in 30 days?

Life Lessons...Through Cake

We've been dealing with a lot of issues lately. We're just tackling it all head on, or trying to. Recently, we've had another issue crop up...again. Let me explain. Public school is not an option for our family. I'm sorry. Well, actually I'm not. I've prayed about it many times and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that homeschooling is what God has called us to do. Now I realize that some might say what about socialization. Click on the word and look up the definition. This is one of the many reasons why we home school our children. We're not interested in our children "adopting the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture". They will not be freaks or social outcasts simply because they didn't spend all day five days a week in a classroom full of other children their exact same age. Quite the contrary. I don't want to get on a homeschooling soapbox simply because I know that homeschooling is NOT for everyone, for whatever reason. However, if you want to know more just leave me a comment. On to the lesson...

I was torn about posting this because I knew that immediately some of you would be thinking "Well you can't protect them forever" and I know that I can't. However, I was talking to a friend who said that someone else had put it to her this way, raising her children was like pouring concrete for a foundation. She has to work at smoothing it out and getting everything just so. She doesn't want someone coming along before it has time to set and writing their name or marking up her foundation. You could use that same analogy with cake or whatever else relates best.

I thought that it was a good analogy, however I was pretty upset when I went to bed the other night. So, I began to pray about it, again. That night is when God showed me just how relevant that analogy was. I woke up with an assignment for Stacey. I told her that I would pay her $20 to make me a cake, but it had to be done just as I said. Once she accepted the challenge, she would not be allowed to give up, she would have to complete the task no matter what. She could use any recipe, any flavors, but there had to be FIVE layers. It had to be a recipe that could use the ingredients we already had on hand (we were out of butter). I also said it would be nice if she could do five different colors or flavors, but she didn't have to. It didn't have to be perfect, but it did have to be presentable enough to give as a gift. AND it had to be completed by a set time (8 p.m. that night).

I think she really thought that I had lost my mind, but she accepted the challenge. Here's where God stepped in again. I left to go to the DMV (this was blogged about in this post) and I got stranded! I was not here to help her a single bit, to hear her frustration, or to intervene in any sort of way. Although, all of her little siblings were. I finally got home around 7:30 p.m. She had just finished the cake!

 

Then I proceeded to explain this all to her as I'm twirling the cake around on the counter. She of course, had her jaw dropped in horror knowing that this cake could very well start to fall over... This cake represents our family. There are five layers. One to represent each one of you. Each one of the layers is a little different, but together it still makes one cake. You can choose to make your cake any flavor or any way you choose. You can make it one or two layers or five (or 3, or 6, or whatever). The end result is still the same...a cake.

I asked her how she would have felt if someone would have stopped by and while visiting, decided to scrape their finger across the top layer of the icing, or worse yet, actually tore off a piece of cake from the top. She said she would have been pretty mad. Then I asked her if it would have ruined the whole cake. She said yes. I then explained, this is my cake. It may not be perfect, but it's mine. If you mess up even just the top layer, it affects the whole cake! While the cake is mine, I am responsible for what happens to it.  There were MANY other points that we touched on, but to sum it all up:

I only have a set amount of time to make my five layered cake. It doesn't have to be the same kind of cake as yours. It doesn't have to be perfect. It will still be a cake. My cake is still a work in progress. I am working very hard, with what I have, to make my cake presentable. Please don't come along and try to write your name in my frosting. You may ruin my whole cake. I have to make my cake presentable. Presentable to God!

It was really neat watching her eyes light up as I explained all of this. Knowing that she truly understood the point I was trying to make. One more thing, we got so caught up in the lesson that night that we all missed one very important fact. NONEof us noticed after two days of eating this thing until YESTERDAY when Mendy, my sister-in-law, pointed it out from this picture Stacey had posted on Facebook. There are actually SIX layers in the cake! How did we all miss that? How funny is that? She baked two layers at a time, three times, one of which got stuck to the pan so she and the kids ate it. So, where did the sixth layer come from? Maybe God really isn't done with this lesson yet? I guarantee Stacey didn't do it on purpose!

Murphy Has Moved In

I guess someone forgot to tell "him" that we're short on space, that we have five kids, or maybe he just doesn't care. Either way, he's here...again. I think he's also set on spending every penny of our income tax return before it ever even gets here.

Along with the $450 balance due this month that we owe to the termite guy, my car is still not running so we will have to get it fixed. Then, yesterday I borrowed Stacey's car to go the DMV to fill out the proper forms for my hand gun carry permit. I knew something was wrong when I was able to get in and out, with everything completed including my picture, in less than 5 minutes. Sure enough, I got out to the car and it wouldn't start. A few hours and many attempts later, we finally had to have the car towed home. We now have 2 broken vehicles in the driveway.

I'm not stressing it though. It will eventually all be ok. We have our second FPU class tonight and soon we will be kicking Murphy to the curb. If you don't know what FPU is make it a priority to find out TODAY. It will change your life (and your family tree) forever.

 

I Love My Husband

My husband is such a romantic. To celebrate Valentines Day, we went today and took a handgun safety class together. Isn't that sweet!

I was trying to be funny, but actually I was very excited about taking the class. He's had much more practice shooting than I have (I've only shot three times including today) so naturally he shot a little (OK, a lot) better than I did. However, I scored higher on the test. OK, so I scored 100% and he only missed one question.  My point is......we both did really well and had an extreme amount of fun! What can I say, we're boring people. Our idea of fun is not generally the same as everyone else's. 

Lest I leave someone with a bad impression of my wonderful husband, I should also tell you that much to my surprise, he also gave me more traditional Valentine's gifts as well. Which consisted of a card, flowering plant, and chocolate covered strawberries!

   

Gosh, it's not even Valentine's Day until tomorrow! I bet I'll get that sixth one yet.

Fluffy Little Fur Ball

Does anyone want a sweet, adorable little kitten? She was found abandoned at the library and was in very poor health. At the time she was probably only 4 weeks old. She is currently around 6 weeks old. She's a typical kitten now, doing great, and full of energy!

We would really like to keep her, but we already have 5 cats (all rescues). Although they are all outside cats, I'm afraid that if given the chance, one will hurt her. With five kids constantly running in and out, there's always a chance.

She's now healthy, litter boxed trained, and ready for her new home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything but The Kitchen Sink

Actually, this post really is about the kitchen sink. Better yet, it's about one of my favorite books Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley- The FlyLady.

I've been in the mood for Spring cleaning lately and we really want to get the house listed back up for sale again. I was pondering where to start and then I remembered my good friend whom I had stashed away on one of my many bookshelves. Because of this book, I immediately remembered where I needed to start... My kitchen sink!

I know that shining the kitchen sink as a first step probably sounds silly, but trust me it works. She also leads you step by step in clearing up and cleaning out all of the other rooms of your home. She does it all in baby-steps so you won't get overwhelmed! 

By the way, FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself and she also talks about CHAOS which stands for Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. I highly recommend this book, but she also has all of it up on her website: flylady.com or flylady.net (which are the exact same).

Now what are you waiting for? Go shine your kitchen sink!

 

Wordle Me Too

Rhonda first put up a post about this site and told me that I should check it out. Thank you Rhonda! The site is called Wordle.  "Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like."

The way it works is simple. You enter your blog or website address and then hit Randomize. You can continue to hit randomize until you find the one you like best. Here's mine:

 

I then used a screenshot to copy the picture and use it here. It's a lot of fun! I tried this out on some of my favorite blogs as well. By the way, Kerrie, you have to try it on your blog. I think it's neat because it puts Kendal's name really big!

Intimate Encounters

We went to our first class last night. It's the same class (Intimate Encounters) that we took at our church about five years ago (before Mark went to Iraq). The class did wonders for our marriage back then and I can't wait to see how God will work again! 

Now don't misunderstand me. We have a good marriage. Of course, we have our fights, but the D word never comes up. It's just that with five kids keeping us busy, the issues of his deployment, and everything else that happens in the span of five years, we just knew we were long overdue for a refresher course.

The class is a tough one. It requires you to do things outside of your comfort zone like praying out loud to God for specific things that you've done to hurt your spouse and asking for forgiveness from God and your spouse, all while looking into the eyes of your spouse. Wow! You want to talk about true intimacy! Thankfully, this all comes much later after you've had a chance to build up to this point through weekly prayer and class exercises. This week we are supposed to take a Marital Intimacy Inventory and then have a marriage staff meeting before our next class. That's easy enough to start with.

I truly can't express to you just how amazing this class is for any marriage. "Whether you want to prepare for getting married, improve a good marriage, or rebuild a troubled relationship, Intimate Encounters gives you the tools you need to find the closeness you desire." 

I'll be sure to keep you updated on how God reveals Himself and how He works in our marriage over the next several weeks.

I May Be A Sucker, but I'm Not The Only One.

It's been really busy around here, as usual. To add to our already chaotic lives, we've added a new little addition. At least temporarily. To make a long story short... One of my friends said she found this tiny little kitten that had been abandoned at her place of employment. She had taken it in and wanted to know if we wanted it. Of course, I said NO. Then, she brought it out. I'm a sucker. What else can I say?

I knew Mark was going to throw a huge fit. Which he did. Although, in his defense, we do already have five outside cats that were all "temporary rescues" (one of which HE brought home). Yesterday, I asked him to hold the kitten for a few minutes while I took care of a few things. He protested heavily, but complied. When I came back to get the kitten I got the evidence that I needed. I'm not the only sucker around here.

 

That is Mark's jacket that the kitten is so snuggly tucked into. If the tiny little kitten doesn't melt his heart, he doesn't stand a chance against Maddy's blue puppy dog eyes.