Fall Bucket List

Who do you imitate?

Finally, I am happy to be me. I am not always happy with myself, but I am happy that I am me. For my entire life I have always looked at different people and wished my life was more like theirs. They have the perfect home, the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect homeschool, and a perfect life.  How can I make my life look just like hers? I would ask myself. Maybe she will tell me what school curriculum they use and what schedule they follow. If I just imitate them, my life will be so much better. I just want to know how they have made their marriage so successful and if I implement that exactly then I will have a great marriage also. 

Sounds like it should work that way, right? It doesn’t. It took me many years to realize the mistakes I had been making by trying to imitate my life after someone else’s. I would try to imitate my friends, family, blogs, books, and anything I could. Why if I have spent so many years trying to be like others I looked up too, does my life look nothing like theirs? Then it hit. I could hear God saying, imitate me. I have been trying to make my life loo

k like something it’s not and was never intended to look like. God made me unique in every way. My family, kids, marriage, homeschool, and life will never look like anyone else’s.

I had to except my uniqueness before I could be content. I had to call out to God for direction and ideas for my life. I read a great book recently, Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl, by Lysa TerKeurst, and she talks about how she would not want the good and the bad of someone else’s life. They may seem to have a perfect marriage now but would you want to go through the long trials and tribulations they have had to go through to get where they are today? Probably not.

My life is so much calmer now that I do not need to know what everyone else is doing. I am not constantly looking for something different to do. I do not need to follow the crowd anymore. I have my own opinions instead of taking on others opinions. The freedom that I have found in only trying to imitate God is tremendous. I do what works for me and my family. I do what I feel God is leading me to do and no one else.

 My prayer is Lord, let me imitate you and not worry about what others think or do because if I base my life on you I can’t go wrong. I know your perfect will for my life is not to try to be like someone else but to except that where I am and what I am doing here and now is in your sovereign will. Please help me to remember just because other people may tell me what I should be doing or not doing that it is not them who will judge me Lord, but it is You I will one day stand before and only You I will answer too.  Amen

Prioritizing your Life

Our lives are so busy. You here some people complain about having too much to do and others thrive on constantly being busy.  When you are in a season of life that you are so busy do you feel closest to God and worry free? Maybe it is just me but I know when I am constantly busy that’s when I feel the farthest from God.  I feel like I don’t have enough pieces of myself to go around. My husband needs a piece, my kids need a piece, other moms need a piece, my son’s soccer team needs a piece, moms group needs a piece and there is no pieces left to give to God. How come I gave all my pieces away to temporary things and not the everlasting God who can make my pieces last longer and go farther than anyone else? Living like this is exhausting. You crawl into bed each night with a big messy empty plate and God is calling you and saying, Hey, Give me your pieces and I can multiply them.

It’s getting closer to the time where people start making resolutions for the upcoming year. Maybe yours is keeping the house cleaner, go on more date nights, lose weight.. again, or so many other goals we put for ourselves. Last year I decided to slow things down. Not to do any “extra” activities but to spend the year at a slower pace spending more time with family. It is hard sometimes saying No to people but it has been worth it. I have said no to awana, a moms group, children’s sports, swimming lessons, and so on.

How do you figure out what to say yes to and what to say no to? First you need to make a list of what is the most important to you. For example my list is first God, second my husband, and third my children. So when things come up I can take them to my list. First, does it glorify God? Will it help me to grow in the Lord and would He approve of my decision.  Second, will my husband approve of my decision? Will it be profitable for him and build up my husband? Will it show him my respect for him? Third, Will it cost my children? Will my decision effect the time or the quality of time I have with my children? 

Say for example my daughter wants to take swimming lessons. First I don’t think swimming lessons are bad and I don’t think God would either. Second, if I did let her do that it would mean I would have to be gone 2 nights a week driving her to and from. Dinner would be sloppy because I would be in a hurry. The house, dinner, husband and budget would all be negatively affected and my husband would get a more frazzled wife at the end of the day. He also likes me home when he is home from work and that would cut into our family time.  Maybe swimming lessons in not an obstacle for you but you have been invited to join another bible study. First, being in a bible study is a great thing if it isn’t going to negatively affect your time with your family. Yes, Bible studies are nice but if you can’t participate in that one study is God going to be disappointed? You can study your bible at home and God can show you things in your quite time that you would have never seen because you were too busy doing your bible study homework to have quality quiet time with God. Second, again if it requires me to be gone from my family one night week it may not be worth it.

It’s easy to say yes but it’s also easy to say no when you get used to it. It’s like exercise, when you first start it’s really hard to do a push up but the more you practice the easier it becomes. This year I could have been busy 3 or 4 nights a week if I would have kept saying yes. My kids want to go to Awana and that’s not bad for them but it’s not at my church. So, that’s another night gone and being busy. Even though I know that is good for them, this year we had to make that sacrifice.

This year has been an amazing year. It has been slow and more peaceful then ever. Yes, I will continue this on to next year except I have started a book club that will meet once a month.  One night a month I will get my mommy break. Where I can get out of the house and spend time just with other moms and we can talk and learn from each other. My husband will miss me but I have his full blessing because it is only once a month. As a family we do church on Sundays and we have a small group from our church that meets once a week. Those are important to me and our family does attend those two things weekly. It is one of my goals for the year that we only have that to do weekly. One night a week we have our family small group from church and that is the only constant outing from home each week.

It is hard to prioritize your life according to what’s important. Sometime I feel like my kids are really missing out. Instead of being at home doing chores I feel like they should be taking dance or something. However, I know that being at home as a family and spending time teaching my kids about life and God is much more important to their future then taking dance class for a few years. Which will last an eternity? 

Cake Batter Fudge

This stuff tastes just like cake batter and takes less then 10 minutes to make. It is so easy to make and so quick to clean up the mess. The kids will love it.  I have to make mine dairy free so i used 1/8 cup soy milk and soy butter.

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cake mix

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup butter or margarine

¼ cup milk

Sprinkles (optional)

First you mix the cake mix and confectioners’ sugar together in a microwavable bowl. Add the Butter and Milk..(DO NOT MIX)

Place in microwave for 2 minutes

Take it out and stir immediately

Mix in sprinkles and pour into a greased  8 x 8 pan

Refrigerate for 1 hour, then cut into squares

Enjoy!

Sausage with Potatoes and Green Beans

I have had sausage, green beans, and potatoes before but never has it tasted as good as it did tonight. This recipe has so much flavor to it my husband said he wants me to add this to our regular recipe rotation. I am totally okay with that because it is so easy.  I did not measure any of the ingredients just kind of threw in what I thought would be right but I will try to make a guess so you can enjoy this recipe too.

Ingredients:

•  Green Beans (¾ lb fresh, frozen or canned. I used 1 jar of ones I have canned myself)
• 1/2 pound red potatoes, quartered
• 1/2 Onion, sliced
• 1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 clove minced garlic
• Red pepper flakes (i just added a dash but add more if you like it spicier)
•           3 tsp Vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425.  Heat skillet (I used a cast iron skillet) then add 2 tsp of oil and cook sausage with the sliced onion jut until onion starts to become tender about 3-4 minutes stirring frequently. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish. 

Then add the potatoes and 1 tsp of oil to skillet and cook another 3-4 minutes, pour that into the baking dish. 

Add the green beans, salt,pepper, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes to skillet and cook about 1 minute. Add to baking dish and give it a quick stir. Cover with foil and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Where will Joy find you? pt.1

As a homeschool mom I know how it is to lose sight of Joy. There are days when joy wants to find me but I hide from her. Joy will then come looking for me but when she finds me I have already buried myself in pity and disappointment that she knows it is too late for me. Why do I hide from Joy? I don’t wake up planning on it. It’s those days where the kids don’t want to listen, I have so much going on where the day feels like a rat race, or the day just isn’t going as scheduled. I get so stressed I will bury myself in the disappointment of the day because it’s just not going as planned.

It’s so easy to be busy. It is so easy to feel the need to be busy in this day and age. Why in our culture is business so appraised? I don’t want to be so worn out at night from all the days running around from place to place that I don’t have time or energy to read my kids a bedtime story or spend some alone time with my husband before bed. When I am constantly out and about Joy can’t find me. As soon as she finds me I have to get up and run off again.

I used to feel so useless staying at home. Like staying at home to raise my children wasn’t important.  When Joy would come knocking on my door I would answer and then send her away because that’s what I was supposed to do. I was not supposed to be happy and Joyful unless I worked outside the home.  How Miserable I was. I wanted to stay at home but I also wanted to work. I was never content with my decision. Joy found me here but I did not want her.

I realized I could not keep going on without Joy. I needed her and I craved her. I realized that the more and more I ran from Joy or wouldn’t let her in. The less and less she would try to find me. She had stopped looking for me every day she had stopped knocking.  I knew it had to change. Joy wasn’t finding me anymore and I staring noticing the lack of Joy in my children too. I had to go looking for Joy. She has to know I want her back.

Where are you when Joy comes looking? I didn’t have Joy. I didn’t know what it meant to be Joyful.  I had to hunt for Joy and figure out what Joy really was. Figure out what it took to invite her in even on days i would rather send her away. I will share how my hunting for Joy took place in Where will Joy find you? pt.2

Crockpot Beef and Noodles

Beef and Noodles are one of my favorite foods. I usually go to Amish Country once a year to get some.  I found a beef and noodles recipes that is the best beef and noodles I have ever had. They are also so easy to make in your crock pot, it doesn’t seem right they are so delicious.

Ingredients:

2-3lb Beef Roast

1 envelope Dry Beefy Onion Soup Mix (or the plain dry onion mix would work)

1 can Campbell's Beefy Mushroom Soup

1 tsp. of salt (if you like things saltier add another tsp)

7-10 cups of water (depends on the size of your crock pot)

1 package of Amish style noodles

The night before add all the ingredients to your crock pot except the noodles. Cook on low until about 1 ½ hours before you are ready to eat.Take the meat out and shred it with two forks. Since it cooked all night and all day it should be very very tender and my house smelled so good. I wanted to eat this for lunch but i made myself wait until dinner and I was happy I did.

 Put the meat back into the crock pot and add the noodles. Only stir when you first put the noodles in and do not stir again until your ready to serve. Cook for 1 ½ more hours.  I like my beef and noodles thicker so ½ hour before its done I will mix some flour and water together then add that to the beef and noodles to thicken it up.

This is so easy and I normally have all the ingredients on hand because I will buy my beef roast on sale and freeze it. Its great served with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots.