This article was an encouragement to me today.  I have to include the famous disclaimer that I may or may not agree with other articles you might find on that blog.

just for fun....

I thought this was a really cool idea.  We know babies love to play with tags!  Check my friend Kelly Jo's blog Happy Homemaker and Momma to see how she made it.  If you like her idea, please send her a note telling her so!     

Hello, everyone.

It's pretty quiet at our house.

I have been whispering all day.

I'm not playing a game.  I'm not trying to prove a point.

I just lost my voice.

When I yell it sounds like this:

"You-[squeak]-KIDS-stop-[painful swallow]-JUMp[squeak]ing ON the [cough cough] bed [croak]!"

The kids look at me like they want to laugh but are not brave enough.

They sit down very slowly with twinkles in their eyes and a slight grin on their lips.

I can't swallow anything, so I guess I'll just have to have ice cream for supper.  (Now I have the twinkling eyes.)  Maybe I'll have ice cream for dessert, too!  wink

I love

cool summer mornings

tiptoing through the house

sitting on the front porch

calves in foggy pastures

the smell of the neighbor's woodsmoke

horses neighing

 

my coffee in my hand

my Bible on my lap

I'm a tiny dot.

Sometimes I feel very insignificant.

But every once in a while, God pricks a hole in my ignorance

and allows a tiny part of His wonderful, enormous plan to shine through. 

Something was accomplished, someone was influenced, without my knowledge.

I am not nothing; I am a tiny little dot.

My dot has a purpose.

What you do, and what you say, matters.

Hannah Mix

Letters to my children #5

Dear Elizabeth,

Today we went in the woods to pick blackberries.  You LOVE blackberries!  You picked them as fast as you could, and you promptly put them in your mouth.  Then you would grab a handful of the berries from my basket and pop them in your mouth before I could stop you.  I kept moving my basket, but you were intent upon getting to it.  By the time we came home,you had eaten all but 10 berries!  Oh, well, someday we'll laugh about you and those berries!  And you are such a trooper for walking through that high grass!

We had so much fun today!!!

I love you!

Mommy

Hannah Mix

Chubby arms around my neck

Chubby arms around my neck

Loud cries that turn into contended sighs

Baby spit-up on my shirt

That special smile for "Mumma"

I love my precious little boy.

Hannah Mix

Good Intentions?

(I wrote this post a few days ago.  We had VBS this past week, and I was too busy to post it then.)

I had a very sobering thought today during VBS.  The lesson was from 1 Corinthians 3:12-13, "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."  

This was my thought: 

"How much of my life right now, as a mom with young children, is based on good intentions instead of actually doing?" 

I have intentions of building my home like the wise woman in Proverbs 14, but am I actually doing those things that are needed?  Am I, right now, doing the actions of the woman in Proverbs 31, or am I just making plans of what I am going to do someday? 

Here are some excuses that pop up in my head sometimes:

• I'll start doing ____________ once the baby is sleeping through the night.
• As soon as we get that, I'll do _______________.
• As soon as (insert someone's name) does this, then I'll be able to do ___________.
• Once the kids are older, I'll ____________________.

The whole purpose of my blog is to encourage myself and other women to do those things that we can, and should, be doing right now.  What can I do right now, in my present circumstances, to please the Lord?  Titus 2:4-5 says, "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."

So I'm taking a closer look at what I actually do every day, to see what is getting left out.  I'm going to make one small change each week to my routine to be sure I am building and not just drawing blueprints. 

This week I'm going to be more consistent about reading to the children from the Bible every day.  I can do this even as I'm nursing the baby, so there's no excuse not to.  I've heard that one minute per year of age is a good limit of how long a child can listen, so I think Psalm 1 will be just about right.  And, now that I think about it, I can picture an art project with a trees and paper apples...hmmmm...yeah, I think we'll be studying trees this week. I can hardly wait! 

Hannah Mix

I thought I'd share a few ideas for helping young children learn Bible verses, especially children who don't know how to read.  Abbey (4) and Lizzie (2) learn verses this way, and it's a lot of fun! 

1. Make the verse into a song.  You don't have to come up with a new melody; you can probably find another melody that fits the verse (something that they already like to sing).  "I May Never March in the Infantry"; "B-I-N-G-O"; "Deep and Wide"; "The B-I-B-L-E"; and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" have easy melodies that can be adapted to fit a Bible verse.
2. Write it in big letters and let them trace it.  They may not be able to read it, but pretending makes it more fun.
3. Let them bang something while they sing it--wooded spoon on a bowl, kabob sticks on the table, etc.
4. Make a video clip of them playing their "instrument" while you sing it to them.  My kids love to see themselves in a "movie," and they will gladly watch it a hundred times.  (I have it looped so it starts over by itself.)  They can learn their verse while I'm washing dishes or cooking supper.
5. Little kids have little attention spans, about 1 minute for each year of their age.  Let them have a lot of mini-practices instead of a long practice.  As part of a practice, let them teach their dolls or each other!

This is one of Abbey's videos.  It's definitely not professional, but it's just an idea how to make learning fun!

Hope you like these ideas!  Do you have any suggestions for how you teach your children their verses?  I'd love to hear from you!

Hannah Mix

Something Old, Something New

Today I tried a different version of my yeast dough recipe, and it turned out so good!

I blended 3 cups of old fashioned oatmeal in my blender until it was kinda ground up.  Then I poured it into a big bowl.  I added 3 cups of coarse ground wheat, 2 cups of white flour, 1 tsp salt,  and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. 

In another bowl I put 4 cups warm water, 2 tbsp oil, 2 eggs, and 2 1/2 tbsp yeast.  I let this sit until it was bubbly, about 5 minutes.  (I did this the old-fashioned way because the flour is pretty heavy.  It might work to mix all dry ingredients together; then add the wet ingredients, but I didn't try that.)

I mixed the dough and added 3 more cups of white flour, kneading in the last little bit.  I let it sit on the table for about 20 minutes.  Then I shaped it, let it rise until double, and baked it with a pan of water in the oven..  It was so good!  It had a lot of texture but was still light and fluffy!   Mmmmmmmmmm!!   :)

This amount made 1 country loaf, one French loaf, 12 rolls, 2 miniature loaves, and 23 little doughnut holes.  To make the doughnut holes, I made little balls about the size of 3/4 inch.  I let them rise and deep fried them in medium hot oil.  I let them cool for a couple minutes on a plate lined with napkins.  Then I tossed them in a baggie with some powdered sugar.  The girls ate them on toothpicks.

Sticky Popcorn

We're making sticky popcorn today.  YUMMM!!!!

1. Melt 6 tbsp of margerine in a saucepan. 
2. Add 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3 tbsp pancake syrup to the pan. 
3. Stir ingredients, and bring to a boil.  Let boil on medium heat for five minutes. 
4. Add 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp vanilla, and pour over 8 cups of popped popcorn. 
5. Stir until popcorn is well coated with the caramel mixture.

Let cool about a minute.  Be sure to wash pan right away--the caramel mixture is almost impossible to wash off once it harderns. If you forget, just soak the pan in HOT water for a while.

"How come all I get is this old cereal?"

Enjoy!

Hannah Mix



Not my will...

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD:

and he delighteth in his way."  

Psalm 37:23

The way that we surrender to the Lord is not just a one-time surrender.  It is over and over again, choosing to do the right thing in daily situations.  We are called to follow the Lord's leading in the "small stuff."  At the end of my life, I hope to be able to look back and see that God enabled me to do something wonderful, because I followed Him one small step at a time.

Hannah Mix

Not my will...

Surrendering our will means changing our desires.  It means letting go of our plans.  It means giving up our ambitions. 

Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the LORD;

trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Psalm 37:4-5

An un-surrendered Christian is about as useless as a black crayon on black paper.

See?  The black words don't show up at all.

Not my will...

...means giving a soft answer instead of spewing angry words.

"A soft answer turneth away wrath:

but grievous words stir up anger." 

(Proverbs 15:1)

For the next few days, I'm going to be blogging about surrendering my will to God.  I'd love to hear what that means to you.  Please comment!  

Hannah Mix

Not my will...

Letters to my children #4

Dear Abbey,

One of the things I admire about you is your strong will.  Once you learn something, that "thing" is set in stone, and no one will change your mind.  Certain rules like staying away from the road, not talking to strangers, and wearing your seat belt in the car are unchangeable in your mind.

I pray so much for you to surrender your whole will to the Lord.  You are still young, but you are building the character that you will have for the rest of your life.  Like Jesus said to Paul in the last part of Acts 9:5, "...it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."  As long as you resist obeying, you will not be happy.

Even I, as a grownup, sometimes struggle with following God's plan.  Usually it's a heart struggle, not something that you or anyone else can see.  But I know I have to keep surrendering my heart's will to the Lord.  I have to keep doing His will and following His plan.  He can see the bigger picture.  He knows exactly what would be best for me.  When I obey, everything eventually falls into place.

Even Jesus surrendered to the Father's will, when He said in Luke 22:42, "...Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.  He obeyed the Father's will even to the cross, where He died to pay the punishment for our sins.

If you will learn this now as a young girl, I know you have the strength to live it for the rest of your life.  People will try to make you change your beliefs, but you will stay strong.  You are a natural leader.  You will be a good example of a Christian lady, and you will encourage others to follow the Lord.  You will stand up for what is right.

When we walk with the Lord,

In the Light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way.

While we do His good will,

He abides with us still

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,

For there's no other way

To be happy in Jesus,

But to trust and obey.

Someday, you will be all grown up.  You will start a new life.  I will watch you with a hint of pride, because I know you will DO RIGHT.  You just have to decide to do things God's way. 

I love you so much, and I want all the best for you.

 Mommy