A Guest {Thankful Thursdays Linkup #67}

I know a thing or two about being vertically challenged. There are times I need help to reach things even when I’m standing on the step stool. Or to sit behind a much taller person or a person with a big hair style and not be able to see around them. I’ve even stood in the midst of a crowd while standing on my tiptoes and craning my neck trying to see on the other side of a wall of heads and shoulders. Life as a short person can be difficult. No matter how tall or how short we are, we have A Guest who wants a permanent place in our lives and have fellowship with us.

A Guest

I love the story of Zaccheus. (Luke 19:1-10)  Of all the people in the crowd, Jesus called to Zaccheus. Jesus knew how much he wanted to see Him, the trouble Zaccheus had just to catch a glimpse of  Him has He passed by. While others may have missed the adventurous climb into a tree, Jesus didn’t. He knew where Zaccheus was and He even invited Himself to his house where He was welcomed.

Not caring what others thought Jesus spent time with this little tax collector, a man many disliked. They went as far as calling Zaccheus a sinner without considering their own sin. They pointed fingers at Jesus for entering this man’s home and being a guest there. While there is no record of the conversation, something Jesus said made a huge impact on the life of Zaccheus. He told Jesus, he would give half of his goods to the poor and return four times more of what he took from anyone.

Blessed is he that considers the poor (Psalm 41:1)

The Bible says Zaccheus received Jesus joyfully. I can imagine the scene with all the excitement around Jesus going to his house. He probably stopped off at the gates of the homes of his friends and neighbors telling how Jesus was coming home with him. The excitement Zaccheus shared with others.

 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16)

What about you? Many of us would bounce off the walls with excitement if someone notable was coming to our home. We would call, email, or Facebook the exciting news. But to tell others of the One who lives in our hearts, we shy away from talking about. Of all the guests we can have enter our lives, only One is worthy to be shared with others - The King of glory, the One who holds the world in His hands, the One who lives inside of you and me.

Zaccheus was a wee, little man,
And a wee, little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way,
He looked up in the tree,
And he said, “Zaccheus, you come down”
For I’m going to your house today,
For I’m going to your house today.

Visit this week's linkup HERE.

Homeschool High School Curriculum Choice {Grade 11}

I let this year’s curriculum choice post sneak up on me. We started back to school in the middle of June after a six-week break and I’m glad to be back at it. This year is a little different for me because I didn’t have to spend very much on curriculum and we started back a little earlier than past years. It is planned for us to take off the whole month of December. It will be a month of playing catch up if needed because of our move.

2016-2017 Curriculum Choice

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Bible

This year we are doing something a little different. Along with our daily Bible reading, we will read books by some of our favorite pastors. Another thing we are doing is a creative writing course based on Bible stories. In Their Sandals by Rand Hummel combines writing and Bible study to encourage meditating on God and the Bible. My reluctant writer loves this book!

Math

We're using Geometry by Teaching Textbooks . Since Jamie likes to work more than one lesson a day several days a week, we don’t start math until September.

English

This year we are focusing on composition. After several months of researching and reading reviews, I settled on Elements of Writing by James L. Kinneavy. I found an older pre-common core edition for you groaning, eye rolling mommas out there. We’ll be implementing Quizlet again for the ACT vocabulary again this year. Literature, I found the Grade Saver website. I purchased a month’s subscription and downloaded all the literature guides we will use this year and next. Jamie started the year with Of Mice and Men.

Science

Jamie chose his science this year. He has always had a love for astronomy and after a year of Chemistry I agreed this year needs to be something he is interested in and loves. I dug around for several days and found a free Astronomy course in the legacy courses from Saylor Academy. This is a college level course, so if he doesn’t make it all the way through, the workload is  more than enough for high school credit.

Agriculture

This is a required course here in Montana. I bought the textbook on Ebay, with shipping I paid less than $20 for the book. The book is an older edition from what Christian Light requires, but I’ve notated the differences. Jamie is doing well and he’s enjoying it. Since we’ll be moving soon, this course will help him with some of the changes we will make in our lives.

Government & Economics

We are using Understanding the Constitution 10 Things Every Christian Should Know by David Gibbs. (I found a new older edition of the book and workbook on Ebay.)* I highly recommend the book for any American who cares about our constitutional rights. I’ve even learned a few things myself. We’re also using resources from American Heritage. For economics, we are using Economics Work & Prosperity from Abeka.

Game Design

Jamie is planning on pursuing a degree in game design or game programming for college. For this type of degree, he needs to have a portfolio of what he has done. Living where we do with no access to any game designers/programmers or schools close by I had to search online. Garage Games has moved into creating a game development curriculum for schools. Homeschoolers can register for these also.  I recently found this course so Jamie doesn’t have an opinion on the software yet.

Graphic Design

This will be an elective. We will start out with the basics using Adobe Photoshop along with the hundreds of tutorials on YouTube. Once he has mastered the basics, we’ll be moving over to Photoshop Illustrator. I haven’t even mastered the basics, so he’ll probably teach me a thing or two about Photoshop.

ACT Prep

We are using an online test prep from our library. I don’t want Jamie to find himself overwhelmed with so much work this year, so this is a two day a week study time.

That's it for our curriculum choice for the year. After Jamie spends enough time on the game design program, I'll let you know how he likes it and what he thinks.

If your a home education family, do you have our curriculum planned for the new year?

Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers

I made Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers on Saturday for the first time. When I share a recipe, I usually cook it more than once just to be sure I have the ingredients correct and my family approves of the recipe. I don’t take pictures during the first run since I don’t want to create a picture and us not love the food enough for the recipe to be shared. Something told me to grab the camera and take pictures even after I put everything in the pan. I’m glad I did, this recipe is fantastic!

Do you like stuffed bell peppers? Would you believe I have never had them, it’s true...

The first time I heard about stuffed bell peppers was in my 9th grade Home Ec class. As a silly 15-year-old girl, I crinkled my nose at the thought of them. Listening to my teacher talk about her recipe, I couldn’t picture them in my mind since they were not being prepared in class. My mom cooked for our family what she knew, the foods she grew up on and bell peppers were not part of the trusted camaraderie.

My husband had stuffed bell peppers once and since his mother never made them either, he has never requested them. Funny, both of us never remember eating anything with bell peppers while we were growing up.

I found this RECIPE two weeks ago and wanted to try it since I’ve never had stuffed bell peppers. I used ground turkey with chicken broth since we’ve cut out beef for health reasons. The skeptic in me caused me to check recipes on allrecipes.com to see if the ingredient amounts were about the same with regular stuffed bell peppers and they were. I mentioned why I do that here. For the bell peppers, I used ½ each of a green, yellow, red, and orange bell pepper since they were in my freezer. When Jamie came to eat, he asked why there were no stuffed peppers; I just smiled. He gave my creation the name Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers and I loved it. He named one other recipe as well that we all love.

This is one of those recipes you can make it your own. Use ground beef and beef broth, more or less garlic and bell pepper, and any kind of cheese your family likes. It really is the perfect recipe to

Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2-4 minced garlic cloves (I used 4)
• 2-4 TBSP oil
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 bell peppers, diced
• 1 onion
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• 1 TBSP Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 oz Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded

Directions:

In a hot skillet cook ground meat and garlic, chopping into small pieces, until done and remove from pan.  * Add the rice to the pan with a little oil and cook until it browns about (4-5) minutes.  When the rice is golden, add the meat and all the other ingredients except for the cheese, stirring well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and cover. Let simmer for about 20-25 minutes. When the rice is cooked through, add half the cheese and mix it in well. Top with the remaining half and cover with the lid for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

*I cooked the rice like I do at the beginning of my Baked Mexican Rice recipe. You want golden colored rice.

If you try making Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers, let me know. I love to hear about you using the recipes I share.

A Homeschool Momma's Interview

I am so excited about being part of a year long home education series with Jenny at Faith and Good Works. Every month she is sharing two interviews of mommas who have chosen to home educate their children. As we all know every one is different the same thing goes with those who choose to home educate their children. Homes are different. Methods and learning styles are different.

I can’t believe we stared our 12^th school year last month. I never would have imagined teaching a junior! It seems just like yesterday we were sitting at the table learning to cursive write and sounding out words in the Abeka Basic Phonics Readers.

When I look back over the years, I'm amazed at how the Lord worked. I was never going to homeschool but my heart was softened to this lifestyle. While I don't necessarily believe it is for everyone, it works for our family.

Over the years, I've shared about our home education journey. But I don't think I really went in detail about the methods we used. In the beginning it was school at home, because of being a teacher I was in a mindset after being in the classroom for so long. The method worked for us until third grade math hit. I knew then, I was going to have to change things if we were going to continue. During the early years, an influx of curricula designed for home education came on the market and it opened the door to a whole new world for me. I'm so glad it did because it brought about a peace we both needed.

Since we've started year round school, would you believe this year was the hardest to start on the first day. It was,  so I allowed Jamie to ease back into school - another moment of peace.

Since this is an interview, you can continue reading my interview with Jenny over at Faith and Good Works and while you are there don't forget to look for the other interviews.

A Refuge from the Storm {Thankful Thursdays}

When you are raised in an area that is susceptible to tornadoes, you grow up being taught what to watch for when dark clouds move in.  Watching the sky, it didn't take long to know something was brewing.

It was a month ago when the storm came from the south-west and the sky turned an eerie black with mammatus clouds. Seeing those, I knew something was brewing, so I kept an eye on the radar.  It wasn't difficult to see that our area was in for a doozy of a storm. When I looked out the front door one last time I saw the sickly green and red colors in the sky. I hollered to Jamie to put his shoes on and grab the leash and Mikey. My creative husband was out in that storm shooting lightning pictures, so Jamie and I sat in his room and we prayed that nothing would come of what I saw. Twenty minutes later a tornado drop out of those clouds but in the next town over destroying several homes; thankfully there was no one killed. Our two small towns were in the path of that storm; it was unavoidable.

A Refuge from the Storm

We all experience dark storms in our lives. We face storms in our health, our marriage, our families, our jobs, our finances, and even in our faith. While many of these storms are unavoidable, some happen because of our own devices. Whichever kind of storm we are in, we can know there is a Refuge we can seek and be sheltered from that storm.

No matter how dark the storm is, there is One we can run to and find refuge in.

Throughout the Bible, there are symbols of what and who God is for Christians. A Refuge from the Storm is one of the most comforting reminders we have of Him. When we run to the Lord at anytime, we can rest a sure He will be our refuge. He will keep us safe when the wind and waves are beating round about us. The Lord is a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). He cannot fail us.

a strength for the poor,
a strength to the needy in his distress

Some of us may be dealing with hatred and persecution as a storm. Yes, the evil that spews from another’s mouth hurts. The “cute” children’s saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", is the biggest lie we can teach our children. Words hurt. They hurt worse than having a broken bone and for many the hurt from words never heal. You know, Jesus and His disciples dealt with hatred and persecution as well. Jesus knows how you feel; He has been in the very shoes you are standing in at the moment. He is the perfect Refuge from the Storm.

a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
when the blast of the terrible ones
is as a storm against the wall

If it were not for the storms of life, we would never fully realize the value of the Lord’s presence and of His love and power. Storms are scary and hard to face, but with the help of our Refuge from the Storm, we can face anything.

I’ve found a refuge now from every sorrow,
Joy everlasting and sweet;
I see this world, with all its sinful follies,
Conquered at my feet.

Oh, blessed thought, my sins are gone!
I lean on Jesus’ breast,
And while the storm without is madly raging,
I have perfect rest.

I've Found a Refuge - Daniel O.Teasley

You can view the Linkup HERE.

Easy Flavorful Baked Beans

Baked beans are my favorite childhood food memory. Behind my Maw Maw’s biscuits, baked beans were what I looked for next on her kitchen table during the holidays. Holiday meals at her house brought every family member and a smorgasbord of food with tons of yummy goodness.

No fancy table setting, the kitchen table was spread with food and the counters lined with more food. Because our family was so big, you got your plate and looked for a place to sit and eat. Many times I sat in her back bedroom on the bed or we stood at the dresser in the room. Every room was full of people, many standing to eat and it never bothered them because of the fellowship with each other. Every holiday throughout the year was like that. Everyone enjoyed getting together and eating their favorite foods.

Easy Flavorful Baked Beans

Some aunts became famous for their roast beef or banana pudding while others are not remembered for what they brought. The aunt who brought the baked beans, I don’t remember, but I remember the smoky taste from bacon along with the right amount of sweetness. A comforting food memory I will always cherish.

Over the years, I have been asked to bring a certain chocolaty dessert or salad for gatherings and I have taken one dish on occasion – my baked beans. When I still lived at home, I played with the ingredients my momma had in her pantry while trying different recipes in the old cookbook from the 70’s that our school put together as a fundraiser.

Because each of those recipes called for plain old pork and beans that is what I only use in my recipe and I remove that creepy little piece of pork. Is that even pork? Because it is the texture of a squishy, wet marshmallow. The cans of “baked beans” you cook on the stovetop with crazy flavors are not for me. I want to create a flavor similar to my childhood memory.

It wasn’t until I discovered one ingredient that changed my baked beans – molasses! In the beginning of making brown sugar, I used too much molasses once and had a very dark brown sugar. When I made baked beans with that brown sugar I was amazed! The taste equaled perfection so I knew I had to add molasses to my beans.

This recipe makes a 9x13 pan full, so if you need a smaller batch of beans, just cut the recipe in half. The leftovers, if there are any are even better the next day.

Easy Flavorful Baked Beans

Ingredients:

• 4 (15.5oz) cans pork and beans
• 1 pound bacon chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 TBSP molasses
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 3 TBSP ketchup
• 1 TBSP yellow mustard

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drain the juice off of one can of beans and set aside.

In a skillet, fry bacon until crisp and remove. Add the onion to the bacon grease and sauté until translucent and drain.

In a large bowl add all ingredients and mix well. If your beans seem a little dry add a tad bit of the reserved bean juice but not too much or they will become very juicy while cooking. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover your beans and continue cooking for 10 minutes.



Do you have a favorite childhood food memory? Let me know, I love reading what you have to say.

The Peace Offering {Thankful Thursdays Linkup #64}

He was standing there hat in hand and a small bouquet of flowers. The look on his face broke her heart because she knew she was in the wrong for listening to unkind words of another. He had done nothing wrong, just the loss of a job, something that was beyond his control.

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Even with no wrongdoing he came with a peace offering and four words, give me a chance. After a tearful apology from the young woman, standing on the doorstep, the couple took each other’s hands and promised to never allow outside influence to come between them. Years later, I still feel stupid for listening to someone who was so inclined to give unsolicited advice when it was unneeded.

The Peace Offering

One of my favorite symbols of Jesus is the Peace Offering. Without Jesus, we would not be able to come before the throne of God.  God’s perfect holiness and our sinfulness - we can’t meet and fellowship without Jesus.

And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering...he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. (Leviticus 3:1)

How signification is the plan of God for bringing us into fellowship with Himself! God longs for our fellowship and love.

The work of Jesus brings peace.

Jesus made peace – through the blood he shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:20)

Jesus proclaimed peace – Jesus preached peace everyone, because of Him we have access to the Father. (Ephesians 2:17-18)

Jesus is our peace – when Jesus died on the cross, He cleared out the “differences” among people;  We are all the same – sinners needing the blood of Jesus. (Ephesians 2:14)

In Christ, God and the sinner can meet peacefully. God is satisfied with what Jesus has done, and we can be equally satisfied knowing there is nothing else to do to have a relationship with God. (Romans 3:24-25)

Without Jesus, there is no peace!

This week's featured post is from Michele at Living Our Days and she shared Filling the Love Tank which is a book review of  A Teen's Guide to the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  If you've not read any of his books, I highly recommend them. A good one to start with is The 5 Love Languages.