Are You Enjoying The Beauty of His Handiwork? {Thankful Thursdays}

We serve a beauty loving God and it shows in all of His creation. We’ve all seen pictures of beauty the Lord has created and we probably even have a bucket list of beautiful places to visit one day. We can’t get enough of natural beauty – a beauty that only God can create. The Beauty of His Handiwork.

 

It’s hard for me to believe there are people in the world who refuse to acknowledge God and His creation. When I see all the beauty God has created, it makes me realize even more I serve a mighty God.

The Beauty of His Handiwork

These are just a few of the beauty I’ve been able to enjoy seeing.

Just this week, we were able to see the Northern Lights.

... and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Psalm 19:1

Seeing the beauty God has created is amazing
and HE DESERVES our PRAISE.

In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind He speaks with majesty,
Though He ruleth over land and sea,
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
For it has a place in history,
Sure, He came to set His people free,
What is that to me?

Till by faith I met Him face to face,
and I felt the wonder of His grace,
Then I knew that He was more  than just a
God who didn't care,
That lived a way out there and

Now He walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching o'er me lest I stray,
Helping me to find that narrow way,
He's Everything to me.   ~ Ralph Carmichael

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah 40:26

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today, I’m thankful for the beauty of God’s handiwork, what are you thankful for?

I'd like to thank my husband for allowing me to share some of his work with you.

How We Save Money on Our Home Phone Service

There is nothing like the opportunity to SAVE MONEY. Last year, I wrote about our move to Roku boxes, and we are still happy with them. Not long after we moved here and had the home phone turned on, we turned it off because of craziness with the phone company. Today, I’m going to share with you how we save money on our home phone/cell phone service.

How We Save Money On Home Phone Service

Seriously, living in this area is like living in the 1980’s when it comes to phone service. We are 13 miles from the next town and it is LONG DISTANCE to call there. For an extra $10 a month, we could get 1,000 minutes to call other customers of that phone company. Then we would have to find a long distance company to deal with out of state and InterLata (outside our calling area ) calls. I don’t know about you, I don’t have time to deal with a separate long distance company and my goodness, I’m not paying between 10-20 cents per minute to make a long distance phone call. Calls to my sister would break the bank and I’d have to learn how to send smoke signals.

In January 2013, I signed us up with Vonage. We paid $20 for the box and $15 a month for our service and we were under a contract for one year. For two years, the monthly bill climbed up over $35 a month. We had unlimited phone calls –local and long distance. While $35 is relatively a good price for the service we had, there were also some drawbacks to using Vonage. Dropped calls and calls not going through – I lost count on how many times I had to call or log into the Vonage website to get help for calls not going through or being dropped. Sometimes, it took several days for them to get all of their thing-a-ma-bobs straightened out. Their service relies on the internet – if the internet goes down or the power goes out – there is NO phone service. I will give them credit for their customer service – it rocked! If you needed help, they were more than willing and knowledgeable in helping with the problem.

A little about how we settled on the Verizon Wireless Home. We are a one cell phone family and just recently upgraded to a smartphone for my husband’s business. I never go anywhere without my husband, so spending money on a cell phone for me is throwing money out the window. When he attended two weeks of training in Helena, we knew I needed access to a cell phone because I had errands to run while he was away. When we visited our local Verizon store, we told the salesman what I needed and asked about a prepaid phone. He suggested the Wireless Home line since it can TRAVEL with me, all I would need is a cheap wired phone to plug into it. After hearing the box would be FREE, the service a guaranteed $20 a month for unlimited phone calls (local/long distance), with only a $40 activation fee, which was billed, and no depending on the internet, we decided to give it a try. Sadly, there is a two-year contract, but with the guarantee of not spending more than $20 a month + tax,  two years is not that hard to swallow. The taxes for this line are only $3.92 (in our area) a LOT less than all the fees we were paying on top of the taxes with the other company. You can pay for the box up front if you’d rather not have a lengthy contract, we choose to save money by signing a contract.

The one thing I really like about the wireless home box is that it HAS a battery backup when the power is out and if you are traveling with it. Although, you will need a corded phone as a backup if you use a cordless phone like we do. As you can see in the picture above, it doesn’t take up a lot of space; our box is sitting on the edge of my dresser. I can’t remember the length of the battery life, but if you have a plugin converter for your vehicle, then you’ll be all set for traveling with your home phone.

With the wireless home box, you have the Verizon voice mail. I’m not too crazy about this one thing since I have to call into the voicemail to get any messages that I may miss while I’m out in the yard. But, it is just a minor detail I can get used to doing.

The sound and clarity is amazing!  In every corner of our house, basement included, the sound is AMAZING - no scratches, no dead air sounds, nothing but whomever you are talking to. We are able to walk out into the yard with the range of the wireless without any problems. No more having to be chained to a 5-foot range. :)

The only thing wrong with going wireless, if you live in an area like we do where Verizon bounces from another company’s tower, you might find yourself without service. A contractor cut a fiber optic line not too long ago, causing cell phone, cable, internet – everything to be out in this area, and we were left with no service for a couple of hours. Just another little hiccup to deal with.

I’m not a salesperson, so I’m not going to try and sell you one this product, but you can check it out if you’re interested.  This is just another option to help save you money like we are doing.

I’ll be posting again about this new way of saving money on our home phone after we’ve had it awhile, and I have a follow-up post on our Roku box coming up in the next week, so be watching for it.

6 Things My Dad Taught Me

In honor of Father’s Day, I want to share with you SIX THINGS MY DAD TAUGHT ME as his eldest daughter after having three boys. My Dad respected me as a girl, but he didn’t keep that from letting me do things that my brothers did. I was the rough and tumble little girl tagging along with my brothers. I was the one who was told to not tell Momma about the makings of the homemade wild cherry wine going on in the basement. No, I didn’t try it and I don’t believe my brothers did either at least I hope they didn’t since the cherries are poisonous. I even had to keep quiet about the secret campfires and popcorn being popped in an old soup can over those fires in the back corner of the backyard.

 

6 Things My Dad Taught Me

My Dad taught me how to FISH. I remember (barely) the day when we picked up our brand new boat that my Dad worked so hard to buy. He even put my name on the back of it; I loved seeing my name in those sparkly letters. I loved climbing into the boat whether it was at the lake or in the backyard while pretending to be fishing. I was taught how to put a sinker and hook on my line along with worms and crickets. I was taught how to tie a lure on and the first time I did it was the day I hooked my biggest bass ever. I’ll never forget thinking I got tangled up in some brush and he came and shined a light down in the water to see if he could save the lure. I’ll never forget the jumping up and down in the boat when I saw that fish and I’ll never forget how I cried because there was nothing he could do to save the lure and pull the fish into the boat.

My Dad shared his love for WRESTLING with me. Every Saturday night, we watched Georgia Championship Wrestling and the NWA on channel 17.  For many years, it was taco and pizza night at our house every Saturday; fun foods and wrestling went together for all of us. As the years went on and wrestling was on more hours in the evening, we spent the whole time glued to the TV. Once the GCW and the NWA changed, the realness of wrestling ended and so did our love for it. :)

My Dad taught me how to shoot a gun. I always looked forward to going to my great aunt’s house because I knew the guns would be taken and I would be allowed to shoot them. The first time I shot his 44 magnum ‘hog leg’ he stood behind me to keep me standing while I shot it. I’m glad he thought about standing there because sure shooting, I would have hit the ground.

My Dad taught me how to walk on the roof of a house and lay bricks. I was probably about 4th grade age when our house needed a new roof, because all my brothers were still at home. While they removed the shingles, I took them water. I thought I was hot stuff climbing up there laying shingles while my Dad hammered them down until I was told to go inside so he could work a little faster.

Not long after the new roof, my Dad enclosed our carport and turned it into a family room. Every day after spending all day working, my Dad came home and worked on that room for several months. He taught me about making sure the first brick and row was perfectly even so the rest of the wall and fireplace would be even. He showed me how to lay bricks once he was well on his way to having a perfectly squared wall. He even showed me how to mix the mortar for those bricks.

My Dad taught me about HARD WORK and to have a strong WORK ETHIC. While growing up the only time I remember my dad not going to work was because he had been laid off. There was never a day he called in sick to do something else. If it was a work day, he was there. He was at work when he didn’t feel well; he was at work when there were other things that needed to be done. It was not until after I graduated from high school when I remember my dad being so sick with the flu he was not able to go to work. If my Dad was not at death’s door, he was at work.

My Dad started his own business cutting trees when I was little. This was a part-time business he and my brothers did on the weekends to help provide for our family. No, we really didn’t have the money to attend the Christian school, but my Dad felt the need for us to be there and he did whatever it took to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, pay the tuition, and kept a roof over our heads. My Dad was and is not afraid of hard work.

My siblings and I were taught if you want something, you have to work for it; we were not entitled to handouts. I’ll never forget my first real paycheck from my first job. The only thing I remember buying with that check was my first pair of REAL LEATHER shoes, from Famous Footware, I was so proud of them.

My Dad taught me to be independent if I ever needed to be. I was taught how to read a map, how to read the mileage number signs on the highway, how to check the oil, use jumper cables and even fix a flat tire. Thankfully, I have not had to do the last two.

While my Dad has never made the national headlines, he was famous for a moment when his name was written in on a ballot during one of the local elections and it made the local newspaper. My husband is the one who wrote his name in and we still laugh about it when the subject is brought up. We all would have been extremely surprised if he had won the mayoral race.

I’ve learned so much from the World’s Best Dad over the years.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy, I love you!

There's Only One Way {Thankful Thursdays}

My favorite yarn store back home is right in the middle of downtown Lawrenceville. When my husband and I got married, all the roads through town were two direction roads. I’ll never forget when they changed all the roads to ONE WAY to help accommodate all the traffic in the area. Talk about confusing! It was as if everyone was having to learn their way around a new town – everyone driving around the square trying to get back to the road they missed or traffic stopping because one person refused to drive around the square to keep from spending that extra time and causing everyone else a headache. M-A-S-S-I-V-E  C-O-N-F-U-S-I-O-N

There's Only One Way to Heaven

Anytime I went to the store, I knew which road I was to be on and which lane I need to be in so I could swing into the parking lot across the road. Sometimes, I would have to drive around the square to get back to where I needed to be because of inconsiderate drivers trying to make their way through the mess. Once I walked across the road and entered that quaint little shop, all the stress from the mass confusion was gone; I was able to enjoy my time shopping.

I’m thankful I am the child of God who only requires ONE WAY to Him. There is no mass confusion, no driving around in circles, no backtracking to get into the correct lane. All it takes is ONE WAY - Jesus Christ - to get to God.

 All it takes is ONE WAY - Jesus Christ - to get to God.

While there are many beliefs that teach there is more than one way to God, that is not what the Bible says. In John 14:6, Jesus specifically says that no man can come to the Father but through Him. Acts 4:12, salvation can’t be found in any other. I Timothy 2:5, there is one mediator between God and man – Jesus Christ.

Although our daily life throws us some confusing decisions we have to make, we can know that there is only ONE WAY to God – Jesus Christ and I am THANKFUL for Him.

10th Grade Curriculum Choices

This past month has flown by and we’ll be starting back to school in a few short weeks, July 6th to be exact. I wanted to start sooner, but I put off buying school books longer than I had planned. I finally got them ordered last Thursday. When we began this journey 11 years ago, I never thought I’d make it this far. It was our plans for me to return to teaching and Jamie to a high school, but the Lord’s plans were definitely different from what we wanted. I would not change a thing and I’m excited about our 10^th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2015-2016.

This post contains affiliate links.

When I made my  High School Plans last year, I knew some of them would probably change, and they did. A couple of examples would be my son requested to not do sign language this year, but to go ahead and focus on German and he choose to not do Driver’s Ed but rather wait to get his learner’s permit at 16 and drive the required amount of hours and then take the driving test in 6 months. I think that was a wise choice on his part and honestly, my husband did not like the idea of solely turning his driving education over to someone else (which is required in MT).

BIBLE – we will be studying Baptist History as part of our Bible time this year. We are using The People Called Baptists by Michael Johnson as a spine along with The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller. I have seen too many of my friends leave our belief because they did not know why we are Baptist and why we believe the way we do. I don’t Jamie to one day wonder and look elsewhere.

MATH – we will be working on Algebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks.

SCIENCE – This is hard for me this year because Dr. Jay Wile's Exploring Creation through Chemistry by Apologia was on the list. Since the book is no longer in print because of a newer revised edition not written by Wile, I have had problems tracking one down that is not used with a bunch of highlighting and writing in it. Although, Dr. Wile does have a new Chemistry book that is set to ship in August. Jamie's second choice was Advanced Biology - same problem. The third choice is Marine Biology.  For this year, we'll be going with the Marine Biology and waiting another year for Chemistry.  I’ll be ordering our lab kit 1 and lab kit 2 from Home Science Tools; they have never let me down on their kits and they have the cheapest prices around.

EDITED TO CHANGE: 
 SOCIAL STUDIES –  United States History from Abeka is what we chose to do this year.  We sent back our first choice because of some things we did not agree with that was included in the book.  While Abeka has been around since the 70's and they are not as independent learning as I want, it is the company I always fall back on when a problem arises.

Language Arts – For Literature, we are using Lightning Literature again. We’ll be using the Early to Mid 19th Century American pack. We loved this curriculum last year and I’m expecting we’ll be just as happy this year. For Vocabulary, we went with Critical Thinking Word Roots 1B. We went with this book because Jamie and I both felt that the other program we used for many years became a “busy work” curriculum and he wasn’t getting anything from it. This year we are taking a break from an actual grammar curriculum and putting our focus on composition. Since grammar makes up writing, it will be covered in the process. We’re also not using a writing program since there is a lot of writing in our Literature, History, and Bible assignments.

Career/Technical – We will be typing up a storm this year with Typing.com. Be sure to sign up as a teacher, so your student can have their own account and you can keep up with their progress. I love that option.

PE/Health – Since we are required to do two years of one or the other, we are focusing on health and will be using ACE Health paces. Jamie is also cutting grass and helping some of the older ladies on our road with whatever they need. During the winter, he’ll be shoveling snow for one of them.

Fine Arts – While Jamie loves oil painting, he has decided to watercolor paint this year since there is LESS clean up and we’ll be using Jerry’s Artarama again. Jamie has also started violin lessons and doing a mighty fine job in the short amount of time that he has been working on this.

Foreign Language – This year we are talking German. We are using Duolingo to get started with.  We'll  also be implementing some of the Paul Joyce German Course if needed and I’m still wading through the links found at Study.com to see if there are any other free resources for German. We’ve also signed up with italki.com and I'll be working on finding a German tutor to help with our learning when it gets to that level.

Woodworking – Jamie loves working with wood and tools. This is right up my husband’s alley, so he’ll be in charge of all the teaching and creations that will be built. This will be our only elective for the year.

I still can't believe this is our ELEVENTH year of schooling at home! Are you in the planning mode for  your school year? I'd love to hear about it.

Thankfulness Leads to Contentment

Several years ago, I shared about being CONTENT during a situation in my family’s life and  three years later I revisited that time of CONTENTMENT.  While I was reading over both of those posts earlier this week I remembered the pain my family went through and old wounds became tender. It was a time we drew closer to God as a family and it was a time I had to draw closer to God as Christian and I am thankful for this part of our lives.

Thankfulness leads to Contentment

During that time, I was longing for several things: earthly possessions, return to a work God called us to, and a place to hide from everything that had happened. No matter what I was longing for, they were not the REAL things I needed. My deepest need was God and God alone.

Thinking back to praying for peace about items we were going to have to let go, I am thankful God heard those prayers. I am thankful He gave us sweet peace because if He hadn’t, I would probably still be standing at that storage building crying over boxes of our childhood things, my son’s baby and toddler things, and a beautiful dining room table, chairs and hutch my husband worked so hard to give me.

All of those items belonged to God and He saw fit to allow our family to give them back to Him. You know, God could have taken everything that was in that building away from us, but He didn’t. He listened to our prayers and He allowed us (ME) to be content with what He wanted us (ME) to have. Being thankful leads to contentment.

Contentment means you are at peace

no matter what is going on in your life or what you have.

Pompey's Pillar and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

My love of American history is huge and living in Montana helps feed the love I have for this great nation’s history. While there are not as many ‘historical’ places like back home and up the eastern seaboard, Montana is home to many historical events that happened during the 1800’s. Pompey’s Pillar is just one of those places because it has the only physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition – William Clark’s signature.

Pompey's Pillar and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

 In 1806, on the return trip from western Montana, William Clark and nine men along with York (his slave), Toussaint Charbonneau (explorer/trader) his wife Sacagawea and their son, Jean Baptiste stopped at Pompey’s Pillar. In his journal, Clark wrote:

at 4 P M arived at a remarkable rock Situated in an extensive bottom on the Stard. Side of the river & 250 paces from it. this rock I ascended and from it's top had a most extensive view in every direction. This rock which I shall Call Pompy's Tower is 200 feet high and 400 paces in secumphrance and only axcessable on one Side which is from the N. E the other parts of it being a perpendicular Clift of lightish Coloured gritty rock on the top there is a tolerable Soil of about 5 or 6 feet thick Covered with Short grass. The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year.”

**Stard. Side would be the starboard (right) side of the boat.

Little Jean Baptiste was nicknamed “Pomp” by Captain Clark and so Pompy’s Pillar was named after him. The editor of the journals, Nicolas Biddle changed the name to Pompey’s Pillar.

The visitor’s center is pretty awesome, even with it being small. There’s a 10-minute video and there are several cabinets with pull out drawers with hands-on learning. You’ll even meet William Clark, Sacagawea, Jean Baptiste and York. I totally missed a picture moment with a hands-on hook of the type of clothing they wore. There is a shirt, dress and child’s shirt made from buckskin that you can hold or even try on if you’re inclined to do so. Believe it or not, there is a good amount of weight in the dress. Although the buckskin is very soft, I can’t imagine wearing one for too long and in the hot summer time.

You’ll also find a smaller replica of the bullboat Sgt. Pryor built on July 26, 1806. Can you imagine floating up the Yellowstone River in one of these? I can, and I would love to give it a try one day. Yes, the Yellowstone River flows north, how cool is that?

In 1882, the Northern Pacific Railroad saw the need to preserve William Clark’s signature, so they placed an iron grate over the area; the picture below is the actual grate. In 1954, a former landowner replaced the grate with a brass and glass case around the area.

When you leave the visitor’s center and enter the back of the park, you will see an old dugout canoe and massive cottonwood trees. I didn’t take any pictures of the trees because of some tree removal going on and the view was not that pretty that day. The stairs! There are roughly 215 steps to view the signature and many more to the very top. We didn’t climb all the way to the top because it was HOT - the weatherman really missed his temperature prediction that day!

Once you make it halfway up the steps, you see some amazing views of the land around the pillar and, of course, William Clark's signature.

My World War II era loving son who tries not to smile for the camera never lets me know if he is enjoying our early American history moments, but those dimples are proof of him enjoying his visit.

You can explore the National Park's Lewis and Clark's Expedition website. If you click on the little tent icon, it will take you to a page about that area. Free downloadable vacation maps of the trail are found at the Lewis and Clark Country website.

If you travel with man's best friend, the park is very welcoming for dogs except for the steps up to the top are off limits along with inside the visitor's center. The walking trails are open for your furry family member.

Thankful in the Bad Times

It’s easy to be thankful when everything is going the way we think it should. It’s easy to be thankful when our income exceeds the monthly bills. When our family’s health is good, it’s easy to keep that thankful attitude. It sure helps in staying thankful when we are not faced with any unexpected trouble. But what about being thankful in the bad times?

Being Thankful in the Bad Times

When I started back writing Thankful Thursday posts, I knew it was going to be a little difficult in sharing the things I’m thankful for without sounding like a 5-year-old that is thankful for their cat. I started today’s post several times and erased those few words I typed because I felt as if I sounded like that 5-year-old. When I read I Thessalonians 5:18 on a note card while in the kitchen, I had a light bulb moment – Being Thankful in the Bad Times in our lives.

When we are thankful during the good, we are showing our gratitude and hopefully giving God the glory for those times. But when we are faced with the bad, being thankful during that time shows we have FAITH in the Lord and what He is doing in our lives. It’s okay to be sad and heartbroken over bad situations, but we need to remember God is good even during those moments. He wants us to remember all the good things that He has done for us and to not take our eyes off of Him.

I’ll be the first to admit, it’s not easy to keep a thankful spirit when things are going wrong. Those moments are when I focus on five very special verses to help me keep my eyes focused on the Lord.