Three Words I'm Thankful For {Thankful Thursdays}

When Jesus came to earth, he had a job to do. He willingly came to seek and to save those who were lost. He was the sacrificial lamb that God had promised when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. While Jesus knew what lay ahead of him, he cared enough for humanity to be born and then later hang on the cross like a common criminal for our sins. While Jesus hung on that rough, rugged cross he spoke

THREE WORDS I'M THANKFUL FOR

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Three Words I'm Thankful For

It is finished!

Three simple words detailing the suffering of Christ had stopped and he completed the job he came to do – pay the sin debt and obtain eternal salvation for those who accept him.

But it didn't stop there. Just as Jesus promised, he arose from the grave on the third day.

It Is Finished!

There’s a line that’s been drawn through the ages;

On that line stands the old rugged cross.

On that cross a battle is raging

For the gain of a man’s soul or its loss.

On one side march the forces of evil,

All the demons and devils of hell;

On the other the angels of glory,

And they meet on Golgotha’s hill.

The earth shakes with the force of the conflict;

The sun refuses to shine,

For there hangs God’s Son in the balance,

And then through the darkness He cries—

Yet in my heart the battle was raging;

Not all pris’ners of war have come home.

These were battlefields of my own making;

I didn’t know that the war had been won.

Then I heard that the King of the Ages

Had fought all my battles for me,

And vict’ry was mine for the claiming,

And now, praise His name I am free!

Chorus

It is finished! The battle is over.

It is finished! There’ll be no more war.

It is finished! The end of the conflict.

It is finished! And Jesus is Lord!

~Bill and Gloria Gaither

IT IS FINISHED - THREE WORDS I'M THANKFUL FOR

Weekend Wanderings in Southeastern Montana

My husband and I miss our weekly dates to our favorite place to enjoy a milkshake back home. We’ve learned to get creative. Since we live in such a HUGE sprawling area with scenery that is just amazing, we enjoy our Weekend Wanderings after we stop for our favorite soft drink and a bag of popcorn and ramble up and down the open road just the two of us every weekend for a couple of hours.

Believe it or not, I still have not been on all the roads in this area, and I probably never will get them all covered. But I enjoy seeing the scenery and just hanging out with my sweet husband.

Here are a few places we have seen the past two weekends.

We are thankful for the invention in the next two pictures! The turbines help keep our power bill at a reasonable rate of about $50 every month unless we turn the fans on during the summer or a space heater during the winter.

This is the Hillside school that is in the northern part of our county. Yesterday, the cows were enjoying just hanging around the old schoolyard.

Mikey is my little buddy who usually rides along with us on our drives.  He loves riding in the back seat of the truck with his nose stuck out the window. Maybe one day, I can catch a good picture of him enjoying his trips.

Do you enjoy just rambling up and down the road with your honey?

A Learning Experience {A Home Education Update}

Biology! It is the subject that my sweet son long-awaited for. Now that the year is down to seven weeks left, I wish I would have looked at our Biology book a little more than I had last summer. Better investigating, would have led me to work the last three chapters first so we could have enjoyed them last summer and early fall. These chapters are all based on plant and animal life. Oh well, it’s a learning experience.

A Learning Experience

We are using Apologia’s Exploring Creation through Biology, while these books are not my favorite, they are written in conversation style and my son learns from what he reads and he doesn't have to suffer through me teaching him another subject. It did take a little digging in of our heels to not give up on this book like we did on the General Science book.

Biology is a subject I really missed out on when I was in high school. We were in a small school and my Biology teacher, well let’s just say, he was better suited as a coach. Even though I missed things back then, I was able to enjoy them this year with my son. All the lab work we’ve done has been enjoyable – even the dissecting!

You know you're a home educating mom when dissection is happening on the kitchen table.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, we have only 7 weeks of school left. I can’t believe this year is almost over! When we started school last July, I doubted myself and the whole year round school thing. All I can is, I should have started this sooner.

This year we were able to work without feeling rushed. We were able to spend two weeks enjoying family while they were out here without the thought of missing school work. We were able to enjoy the work holidays my husband has off with him and spending that time with him without school work hanging over our heads. I evenly spaced a week off from school every six weeks and stuck with them this year. What a breath of fresh air those weeks can bring, especially in the dead of winter and when the wintertime blues has set in.

Usually by this time of year, I have begun researching curriculum for the new school year. Not this time, because I already know what we’ll be using. This great accomplishment,for me, has to do with making a high school plan last year. While I was digging around for ninth grade, I practically fell over things for our tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade years. My precious son had a hand in choosing, so I know he’ll be eager to learn.

Spring is in the air here, finally and that means calving season on the nearby ranches.

Living Life As an Introvert

I am sharing a little about myself today with a little honesty. I want to be a “what you see/read is what you get” kind of person. This post is hard for me to write because I’m sharing something I have dealt with all my life. I AM AN INTROVERT, and now the world knows my secret! I’ve mentioned this

one other time in the past

, but I have not written about it since.

Being an introvert

is hard

. Not everyone "gets" us, not everyone understands what we deal with. In fact, some will pass judgment out of sheer ignorance of whom introverts really are. I’ll never forget the day when I was teaching school and another staff member told me, “

You are just prideful, your heart is full of pride, and that is a sin”

and

“You are causing your husband to miss times of fellowship.

” Those statements cut me to the core and to this day when I think about the conversation, it opens the hurt.

I was newly married and in a conversation, I mentioned that we did not attend many of the dinners at our church because we didn’t care for that kind of fellowship. I did not go in detail that my husband knew I loathed dinners because of being in a large room with a crowd. Prideful, my heart was full of pride, really?

Living Life As An Introvert

While few introverts may enjoy going to parties and dinners, I don’t. I don’t care about meeting new people and I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m the only one in the crowd even with people I know.

Just because I’m quite, doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say. When I want to talk to you about something, I will. I don’t care for small-talk; in fact, I will avoid it at all costs. You can ask my family, I don’t call them to just talk. When I’m done with what I want to say, I’m hanging up. Don’t try to pull me into a conversation with small-talk, because it will not happen and I'll come across as rude, when I'm not trying to be.

I care about what people think of me, but then I couldn’t give hoot what they think. Confusing? I care about my testimony and if people think of me as being a good wife, mother, and a good person in general. But my beliefs, looks, introvert oddities, I couldn't care less what people think. They can either accept me as I am, or move on; it makes no difference to me.

I’m extremely choosy with people I let into my world - I spend time “reading” them while not saying anything - I absorb as much about someone before opening the door to them - I want to know if I’m going to have my ears talked off, or if I’m going to be dealing with someone I can’t trust. I have one very close friend that I grew up with, who knows the real me and understands me.

I DO NOT LIKE when people DROP IN for a visit! I'll fuss you out behind the closed door and hide in the back of the house and you'll never know it. If I do decide to open the door, you won't be invited in because it is just plain rude to not call ahead!

As an introvert, I have a quite a few interests. I love cooking and baking, knitting, sewing and caring for my family. I’m learning to love quilting and I dream of one day being a painter.

It’s a good thing God allows opposites to attract. My sweet husband who is also my best friend is an extrovert and he totally gets me. Although, he says when we were dating it was a little difficult, but he knew what he wanted and he learned how to get around the quirkiness.

Whatever you do, don’t tell me to work on coming out of my shell. I grew up hearing this from the time I was young until I got married. I’m not in a shell. I am not shy. I am not scared. I am not weird.

I am me and I am an introvert

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Are you the parent of an introvert? I have shared a little about

Raising an Introvert

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Are you curious about being friends with an introvert? My friend Jamie (who is also an introvert) shared

10 tips on how to be friends with introverts

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Rest In Peace {Psalm 4:8}

There are a lot of things happening in our world today. Wars, threats of wars, national leaders bullying other leaders, job loss, sickness, death, marital problems, and the list goes on. No matter what is going on around us, Christians can REST IN PEACE knowing the Lord is in total control.

Rest In Peace 

Reading and watching the news is discouraging. Every day something changes in our world and in our community. While some are in Biblical prophecy others are shocking and heart breaking. No matter what the circumstance is God knows about it and he has already been there working things out for our good.

In Psalm 4:8, David puts his faith in God and lays down to sleep peacefully because he knows he has God’s protection. It's a little hard to imagine all the things David went through and still slept peacefully.

"It's a great day to be alive, I know the sun's still shinin' when I close my eyes", are lyrics to a song. Those words make pretty good sense when you think about it. Anytime our eyes close, we know the sun is still shining even if we’re facing a dark moment in our life. We don’t have to worry about opening our eyes to darkness.

 There is nothing wrong with calling out to the Lord and telling him of your worries.(I Peter 5:7)
The Bible teaches our faith will be tested and for us to be strong during those times. (James 1:3-4) Lastly, God promises he is with us and he will strengthen us in times of need.(Isaiah 41:10)

No matter what we are going through, we can Rest in Peace.

7 Tips to Help When Buying in Bulk

When I began buying in bulk, I started out slowly because I did not have space for a lot of items and I wanted to make sure it was going to be worth the effort. I’ll never forget the first shopping trip to Sam’s. I was still teaching school and used quite a bit of convenience items when I saw the total of $380, I panicked. I could not believe I was spending so much money on items and I was still not finished with my shopping. My husband reassured me we were spending money on food items that we had planned for the next month and a half. I’m glad he felt secure with that thought because I sure didn’t.

7 Tips to Help When Buying in Bulk

After moving two and half years ago to an area where I would be driving anywhere from 150 – 550 miles (round trip) to grocery shop, leisure shop, etc., I knew I was going to have to quickly get used to buying in bulk for just about everything. Since we’ve been here, we have only been to Sam’s three times; most of my bulk items come from Albertson’s, Walmart, and online.

I don’t plan to bulk-buy every time I’m shopping. If I do find a buy, it’s because something like diced tomatoes, butter, and cheese is extremely lower than what I have bought recently.

Two weeks ago, I spent $76 on two weeks’ worth of groceries; all food items, no paper products, no health/beauty items. I even splurged on a few family favorites. How did I do that? Having bulk items already in the house and creating a meal menu that used a variety of those items kept me from spending an extra $100.

If you are just starting out with bulk buying it can be overwhelming if you let it, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here are 7 tips to help you get started:

• Most used items

Start with items you use daily or almost daily and then work from there. Bathroom items are a great place to start.

• Compare prices

Some sales in your local grocery store will blow Walmart, Sam’s or Costco out of the water.

• Compare product size and price

Sometimes, it cheaper to buy 5 five-pound bags of flour than it is to buy a 25-pound bag.

• Know your budget and stick with it

If you are starting out, double-check your budget with the items you want to buy. If there is more bulk than dollar bills, cut your list down and plan for a future shopping trip.

• Don’t be a store snob

While I have found most of my bulk items at Walmart. I don’t let the case lot sale at a small local grocery store pass without picking up bags of rice and dry beans along with cans of diced tomatoes.

• Storage space

While space is a necessity, you don’t have to live in a 4000 square foot house to buy in bulk. Don’t allow yourself to overbuy unless you want to find yourself sleeping on bags of beans and rice.

• Online Shopping

While most people go to Amazon and/or Walmart first, I don’t. I shop smaller businesses like Dollar General for my tea and coffee.

Saving money with buying in bulk boils down to research: know who has the better price and pay attention to that little price per unit label on the shelves. If you are a couponer, don’t forget to watch for those sales and stack those coupons.

Here’s a list of a few of the items I buy in bulk.

Are you a bulk buyer? If not, what is keeping you from it?

Having Peace within Ourselves

Peace. Having peace within ourselves.  I don’t mean the kind where someone focuses on that inner being, but rather, the inner PEACE we can have when we put our focus on where it is meant to be.

When I chose the word PEACE to focus on this year, I did it because I am working towards living a more peaceful life. I want those around me to feel at PEACE, I want to be the one to bring PEACE to the table. But lately, I’ve been thinking about finding PEACE within ourselves. I don’t mean the kind where someone focuses on that inner being, but rather, the inner PEACE we can have when we put our focus on where it is meant to be – the LORD.

There is no way we can have true PEACE if we don’t have the Lord in our lives. He is the one who gives a true peace like no other, John 14:27. He doesn’t promise us a life of easy traveling while we are on this earth. But the Lord does give us hope because he has already overcome everything we could possibly face, John 16:33.

Three things we can do to help in HAVING PEACE within OURSELVES:

Acceptance - We are our own worst critic. When we begin to love ourselves for who we are and what we look like, then we can focus on accepting others and their imperfections. No, we are not perfect, but we are created in the image of God, Genesis 1:26-27. He created us just the way we are and we need to learn to accept that.

Forgiveness – We have all been hurt by someone, forgive them and move on. How can we expect the Lord to forgive us when we sin if we don’t, Matthew 6:14-15? Sometimes, it’s easier said than done because we are reminded of a terrible hurt. While we are reminded of it, we need to not dwell on it. We need to not allow ourselves to be put into a situation for that hurt to happen again, Proverbs 22:3.

Simplicity - Many times, we find ourselves overextended. While it could be that we are about to end up on the TV show Hoarders because of the way we live, or we are spending more time doing for others while our family suffers, and of course all the carting around of our children to different sports practices every night. We need to learn it is okay to limit ourselves. The earth is not going to tremble and shake when we simply say “No” to those around us.

“For He is our Peace”