You know you have had too much coffee when....

You Know You've Had Too Much Coffee When . . .
* You can type sixty words a minute with your feet.
* Instant coffee takes too long.
* You chew on other people's fingernails.
* You answer the door, before people knock.
* You sleep with your eyes open.
* You go to sleep, just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.
* You don't even wait for the water to boil anymore.
* You're the employee of the month at Starbucks - and you don't even work there.
* You help your dog chase its tail.
* You lick your coffeepot clean.
* You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee.
* You're so wired you pick up FM radio.
* You have a picture of your coffee mug, on your coffee mug.
Thank you for "Today's Clean Laugh" by Crosswalk.com

Entry Before

OK-After much ado, here are my before pictures. You walk through my front door and this is what you see. So your back would be to our front door. I just woke up and had my daughter take the pictures. No cleaning or messing it up to look better.

OK now cock your head to the left to see the rest of the pictures....

Sorry about the sideways pictures. I had such a hard time getting these on the blog that I was happy with anything.

This is looking a tad left from the front door.

This is looking to the right from the front door.

It is a hatrack that has been overtaken.

Also you can see our floors. We ripped out all the carpeting about 2 months ago. We are saving for hardwood flooring.

Here we are standing on the left side of the entry taking a sideways shot. You can see the white front doors on the right. You can see the wooden entry table on the left for reference. There is the same hatrack on the left as well. We have marble flooring right when you walk in so that is the beige you see at the base of the front door.

Entry Update

AHHH. I have been holding off posting this because I wanted to get before and after pictures posted with it. I have been having great difficulty so I decided to update you now and get the pictures posted as I am able. The entry was in great dissaray. It is now tidy and welcoming.
Yay!

Home Making Challenge-The Entry

OK Ladies-Our first Home Making Challenge is THE ENTRY

Walk in your front door with the eyes of a stranger. How does your entry look to you? Cluttered, fingerprinted, jackets, umbrellas, the dog leashes?

Take notes of everything that needs to be done for maintainance such as repainting, tightening door knobs, hanging a picture.

Now go around and declutter. Get rid of everything that does not have a purpose for that area. It either graces your home or is useful. Everything else-out! Now put all that other stuff away. Dog leashes-away! Mail-away! Shoes-away! Empty gum wrapper-throw away!

Now clean whatever is left. Dust, spit and polish all that remains behind.
Sweep and mop or vacuum. Look up and remove cobwebs...yes before Halloween!

Step back and review again through the eyes of a stranger. Does your entry reflect what you want it to. I want my entry to say "You are welcome here. This is a cozy, safe place and we are glad you are here."

Now put your long-term list in your home making notebook. You will be referring to it shortly.

Don't have a Home Making Notebook? Well go choose a binder and put your list in it. Now you have a HMN. I have one that has a blank cover. I have put all kinds of silly photos of my family on the cover. It helps me remember who I am doing this for.

Now enjoy your new entry. You may enter and exit your home as many times as you prefer so as to maximally enjoy your newfound cleanliness.

I am so thankful to know, love and serve such a wonderful, glorious God!! He is so involved in our lives it amazes me. I see this a lot in our homeschooling. He leads and guides us in our studies and lets us know He is on our team or I guess we are on His team.

We had changed curriculum this past September away from what we have been doing for years to something a bit new. Just last week it became obvious to me that we needed to go back. I realized it one afternoon as I was talking to a friend who was using our old curriculum. I told my husband that evening I thought we needed to go back and then prayed about it that night. Now we have everything we need to go back. It's not a matter of money but of knowing the plan. If we would go back I would need to know soon. We were finishing one area of study and moving on to another this Monday. I would have to buy more books if I were to stay with the newer curriculum.
I woke the next morning and attended a brunch pot luck. At the woman's home I entered the kitchen and there on her fridge was a verse about JOY. (Joyfulness would be the unit study we would study if going back to KONOS our original curriculum we used for years) At one point this friend and several others were trying to remember the lyrics to a song and everyone kept getting stuck at the same point..."Fill me with your.....what? Love, Word? One of the ladies suddenly throws her hands up and yells JOY! The word was joy. Ok God had my attention but He usually confirms things to me in 3s. I guess two could be a coincidence but 3 is a God-incidence.
Fast forward to Saturday. I am at my Father's house in Oceanside and am looking for a magazine to read. There were only 3-two Rachel Ray and one more....what does it say?...Oh it has the word JOY!!!! written across the top. I think it was a Good Housekeeping or something of that sort and it was a Christmas special. So there it was, just in time, for you know that God is never late.
I looked over the Joyfulness unit that we will start tomorrow and am very excited. We will be focusing on JOY for the next four weeks. It fits in perfectly with our schedule as just as we are finishing that unit, we will be going on a 6 day fishing trip.

Here is a short devotional from The Women's Devotional Bible 2. This devotion is written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta

JOY
"Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love. Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful giver. One gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen. This I tell my sisters. This I tell to you."

Who am I??

Who am I?....
Today I was speaking with a very dear friend and she posed this question..... "I recently realized that I am nothing like I really want to be. And my life is nothing like I want it to be. It doesn't really reflect who I really am. What do I do about that?"

At first my mind flashed to a lot of books about excavating your authentic self, writing out your goals and setting up routines to get you closer to the life you want. It was just a flash of ideas. I felt her desperation and wanted to support her. Just the flash of human responses and then the Truth was there...bolder and brighter than any idea or plan.

God knows you more than anyone else. He knows you better than you do. He created you to be a particular person at a particular time. If you have gotten off His path then step back!! Get on His path. It requires you get on your face before Him. Confess your self-centered ways. Let Him know He is your Potter and He can mold you and make you any which way. He can get you to your authentic self faster and more accurately than any human plan. He gives us His Word which is living and the breathing Word of God. He speaks to us through His Word. He can convict us, encourage us, bless us, guide us with His Perfect Word.

My prayer is for all of us wherever you are. If you are lost I pray you would find Him quickly. If you seek Him with all your heart you will find Him. If you have strayed...turn your heart to Him. He is the Author and Perfector of your faith. If you realize you are not what you were created to be....His mercies are new every morning. May He plant your feet firmly upon His path.

Home update

OK I am really behind on my declutter. I need to push the restart button. Actually, I have maintained the work I have done but I haven't done anything in a week or so. My dear friend is visiting from out of state and I have been taking time out to visit with her and her family. We also attended a fabulous Bible study yesterday morning. I have had a large amount of new students for piano (9 total). So now that everything has settled I need to do a "super clean". What is a super clean? Well see SuperCleaner up there at the beginning of this post. I need to be that person. Every room in my home needs some major loving care. Today I will do the laundry room and van.
Thursday the Family Room, Living Room and Kitchen. Friday the Dining Room, landing, kids room. Saturday the outside and the stairs.
My plan is to quickly go through each room for about 15 minutes and pick up any trash or items that don't belong. I will rotate 3 15 minute cycles and then take a break. Then rotate again, the second time, doing a better cleaning (wiping, washing etc). This way every area gets attention and I don't burn out on the first room I'm in.
Sooooo.....How is your house looking? Remember we are doing this to create a loving home environment that is a safe haven for your family and any visitors that wander by. We want to bless them and attend to their needs, not be embarrassed and apologize for the condition of our homes. We are not looking for perfection but progress...

Wonderfully Made

I am reading a wonderful book and wanted to share some pearls with you. The chapter title is "Free to Enjoy God's Lavish Love" by Judy Halliday

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."-Zephaniah 3:17

Oh what a privelege it is to serve a God who is so attentive to us. So aware of our needs. More aware even than we are. At times we think we know exactly what we need but it is that very thing that may become our undoing. God knows our hearts. He knows our desires. He knows best.

"No matter where you have been or how you have fared, we rejoice that God has allowed our paths to merge. Our Mighty Way Maker will direct our steps as we continue down this path of discovery and adventure. During this time you will find yourself drawn closer to God, the lover of your soul and the designer of your body, the one who purchased your liberty. He longs for you to see his handiwork displayed in a most miraculous masterpiece-you." -Halliday

"He wants to impress deeply into the soft clay of your heart His unfathomable love for you. This love is not based on your performance."-Halliday

"The simple fact is God is crazy about you. There is absolutely nothing you can do to make Him love you more or less."-Halliday

I take great comfort in knowing God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. You are wonderfully made. It is true that God does not make junk but we can certainly turn his masterpiece into junk. It is never too late, though. He is always just a prayer away. Pour out your hearts to Him today. Tell Him all the ways you have mistreated His masterpiece. Repentence means to turn away. So after you have told Him all, turn away. Turn away from speaking poorly about His creation. Turn away from bad habits that mar His masterpiece. Do all that you can to live a holy life. Ask Him to help. He wants us to live a life that glorifies Him. Call on Him and He will rescue you. What a mighty God we serve.

God's Garden

A scientist once said that a thorn on a rosebush is flower that hasn’t bloomed yet. Some of us a christians go through the growth process and develop into beautiful roses. Some don’t (Don’t worry I won’t name names) and become thorns in the Body of Christ, always sticking and hurting people if they are touched wrongly. People go out of their way to deal with them in a certain way so they won’t get upset or hurt another person. So you can see this growth process is very important. 2 COR 5:17 says Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!



When you are born again 9 seeds were planted. These are the seeds for growing the fruit of the spirit. The nine seeds are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are found in Galatians 5 and are referred to as the fruit of the spirit. I will be focusing on one aspect of these fruit over the next few postings. Today we are going to consider the growth process. "Gardening"
Once a seed is planted it goes through a process from
seed
tender sprout
young seedling
Tree with leaves
Tree with blossoms
Tree with fruit
flower and vegetable seeds as well as our Holy Spirit Seeds need four types of nourishment to continue growing.





The first thing a seed needs is SOIL or a -Good heart to receive God’s Word
a seed also needs WATER . Water keeps the soil of your heart soft and pliable in God’s hands. Water is the-Holy Spirit and The Word which cleanses us in(Eph 5:26) says Jesus gave himself for the church to make the church holy, cleansing the church with water and the WORD
a seed also needs light- which is the Word of God (Ps 119:105) Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. and Light is also fellowship with Christians as their light or testimonies can be sunshine to your heart.
A seed also needs TIME-Eccl 3:11 He makes everything beautiful in its time.
A seed does not become a full blooming tree overnight. Growth is a process









There is another picture that God gives us in the Bible to understand how we are designed. John 15:1-8.
Jesus is speaking here-I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So We are the branches and the vine, which is Jesus, is what brings the nourishment out to the branches.
If you are walking and find a branch lying on the ground would you expect to be able to plant it and have it grow into a full blossomed tree-no way! It just stays a broken branch.
If even a TINY branch stays on the vine IT continues to grow into a strong, thick, healthy branch.

Can a branch by itself grow fruit-no it has to stay on the vine. Do not allow yourself to be broken off of the vine. Without the vine you can do NOTHING.
Now once you have a plant you need to be careful of a few things. If you get too dry-you have to be watered of course , we talked about the four things you need to GROW, but also there are pests-bugs, slugs and wormy things that can chew your leaves. There are weeds that can choke your healthy plant right out of there. So For bugs and slugs you need a pesticide. For each of the fruits there are several bugs and slugs like discouragement-the pesticide would be Joy. Impatience- the pesticide would be patience. Anger, gossip, critical speech, behaving out of control, buying too many shoes, laziness, pridefulness, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy, worry -all these are bugs and slugs and need to be taken care of with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Weeds are much the same. They can choke out your beautiful roots and kill your plant or your tree. Weeds are sins that need to be uprooted. Now the only way to get rid of sin is to confess it and to turn a way from it. But one way of turning from it is to apply the word of God. One weed is fear. The bible says perfect love casts out fear. So you apply the love and the fear is uprooted and thrown out.
Just like an abundant garden which takes good earth, sunshine, water and time. We don’t become mature the moment we are born again. Maturity is sure come but it will take a process of time. Keep pressing on to maturity, but remain in peace and rest during this season of growth. Pray to be content at each stage of your growth in the Lord, pressing upward and onward daily.