Housewifing

Pressure to spend

A friend called and left a message to see if I wanted to go in on a birthday gift for another friend (a casual friend).

I don't.

I won't.

I just recently passed over my niece's birthday who I have daily interaction with; and my best friend's birthdays, both last week (without gift or cards).  Sometimes I think "we" give gifts to people on their birthdays just because we are expected to.  I think gifts for birthdays are important if your gift receiver is under the age of 18.  I don't like giving gifts to people who are spoiled, ungrateful, and gluttenous and have enough money to spend for themselves on theirselves.  And I don't think a gift should be given to the folks under 18 if it is just because custom says to.  For example, if some folks think my kids are spoiled, rotten, unappreciative brats who don't need another thing, giving them a dollar store gift isn't the best gift. Nothing is.

I also don't like paying the meals at a restaurant/ coffee shop for the same above mentioned individuals.  The last time I went out to eat.  I paid for them.  In fact I can remember paying for almost all the meals that I have eaten out when in the company of others.  I think going out to eat is a rip off anyway, even if I don't get left paying  (which is really my husband paying; and my choosing to let my family go without, because I'm spending my husband's money on a friviolus meal that the person I spending on doesn't even appreciate once it gets past the mouth and into the stomach).  Anyway, it is much more thrifty and wise to invite people over your own house and cook for them.

Wright is right.

I got to listen to Wright's speech in its entirity today and also the question/answer period.  By the end of it all I decided Wright is more right than what his accusers are making him out to be.  Not only that I got to see the press in action on Fox and Msnbc on how they twisted and mostly left out huge blocks of what he said.

Let me quote something.  Then let me leave out something.  And you can see how it changes what is said.

"Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through/by Him."  That's a complete thought.

Now let's leave some of it out.  "Jesus is the way the truth and the life."   Now the last part is left out.  You can say, well it's still true.  Yes, I agree.  But when you leave the last part out, "No one comes to the Father except through/by Him."  You are missing the "except" part.  The part of the thought that the whole thing pivots around.  You can introduce half-truths, heresies.  You could say like Satan would say, "is Jesus really the only way the only  truth or the only life?"

The part about Wright's speeches that were right were his quoting of scriptures.  The news media left all that out.  For example:  Wright would quote Scripture and then he would say some somewhat outrageous statement and then he would explain why it applied to Scripture.  All the press printed or quoted was Wright's outrageous statement.  Like The United States be Damned or that 911 was deserved.

I still don't agree with everything Wright says or said.  But I'm sure not going to gulp down the camel of what the press says, when I realize we may just be dealing with a gnat.

If you are inflamed by what the press says that Wright says, then take a little more time and listen to the lengthier versions, of what he really says/said.

declutter

wrote 3/18/8

Since January I've been trying to lose weight, get healthy, eat better, be better, lose the critical mind, lose the critical spirit, declutter my house and organize.

I lost 8 pounds and kept them off.  I took a truck load to Salvation Army, had Purple Heart take two more load, lots & lots of trash donations.  I have completely changed the way I eat.  How can I judge if I am less bitter?  That's like a buffon saying he's humble.  I'm working on the critical, bitter spirit-THAT HAS GOT TO GO!

Today I am working on the decluttering.

I plan to do a school supplies dresser in the kitchen, and one junk drawer in the kitchen, the laundy, and my bedroom ----all today.  Let's see how I do.

Obey your mother and father

wrote 4/1/8

Obey your mother and father.  It is a command that actually has a promise attachted to it.  A blessing.

Now I gotta get up and look it up, because I have a point to make here.   ...and...well, I can't find it, but I found: IITim3:2 (Beware, this is pretty blunt.)  For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters.  They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy profane.

What does being a "lover of self" and "money"; and a person who is greedy; and an "arrogant" and "proud" individual have to do with being "disobedient to (your) parents"?  Deuteronomy 5:16

Getting real

This blog would be a lot more interesting if I started to tell you what I really think.

Aches and pains

This morning I was getting the kids ready for school and starting the mountain of laundry piled on the floor in our laundry room.  I twisted wrong when I was loading the dryer.  I pulled or yanked something wrong in my back. owaf.  That hurt.  I haven't (and can't) taken a deep breath all day. 

My chest also hurts.  I'm upset internally about a few things.  It feels like I have to cry, but its all caught up and can't get out.  It makes my chest feel like I'm gonna explode.

My core area inside my stomach hurts too.  It's curse time.  Intermittently it feels like prelabor.

I don't know what to do.  I just feel like crying.

whine........

when Chritians do the most damage

Maybe a better title would be, Are you a Christian lamb or a christian goat?  One way to find out is to put a Christian under a trial.  Does the "fire" reveal and purify gold or does the fire burn the chaff?

An immature Christian was right in the fire today.  Dealing with a tough situation.  What did the mature Christians in the midst show as an example as they went through the same trial?  Did they hold up under the scutiny?  Did the stress reveal a goat?

My stepmom is going in for heart surgery tomorrow.  I got the privilige of talking to her a couple of times today.  I got to be with my dad through this.  My stepmom really impressed me.  I got to see her without make-up on; but oddly, I think this was the most beautiful I have ever seen her.  It was amazing seeing how she handled the critical "moment", dealing with the seriousness of going through surgery tomorrow.  She was funny, and exposed, and fragile and tough.  My dad was all of that, too.  I learned a lot today.

God, you gave us your Son, your One and only Son, my Jehova Rapha, the Lord who heals us from all sicness and sin.  Heal Donna completely.  Comfort her with your loving peace.  Give her doctors the wisdom to perform the surgery.  Lord let this experience that brings a healing to all our hearts.  In Jesus' Name I pray.

I put the kids to bed (one at a time reading to them).  Matthew picked Solomon being granted his heart's desire from God.  God asked him what he wanted most of all, and I paused and asked Matt what he would ask for at this moment.  He said, "for Satan to go away."  I thought, that was a powerful, excellent answer.  I even thought of ending our reading there.  Then we read on and Matt thought it was great that Solomon didn't ask for riches, but for godly Wisdom to rule and take care of His people- then God granted that and gave him the riches and abundance even so.  He gave him over and above what Solomon asked for.  That's how God works.

I pray for my immature Christian to grow up.  To grow from the trials.  To reach for God.  I have the resources to help this person.  I feel strongly that it is my place, rather, to offer support but not help.  I pray for Wisdom in this situation.  I pray for the left hand to not know what the right hand is doing.  I pray to do exactly God's will.

Pheww! I am not really a true soccer mom

Soccer season has started. 

Having boys and training them the way they should go is not an easy thing.  I am always looking ahead.  When they are teenagers I want them to be well rounded.  I want them to know and thirst for the Word.  I want them to be A-students.  I want sex to be after marraige (and marraige after the age of 25 and college).  I want drugs to mean aspirin.  I want their bodies to be healthy and fit and hopefully to be on all the athletic teams.

In order to make the team, they have to begin their training, NOW.  Otherwise in the community that we are in, they will not only not be on the bench, they'll be at home.  Not the future I want.

So They are in soccer.  (And baseball will be coming up soon).  Because of the age differences, and now sex differences, Rachel will be on a separate team.  So we have soccer for the boys, soccer for Rachel, and baseball for the boys and baseball for Rachel.  A very busy schedule.  Summer will be here in the blink of an eye.

I said I wasn't a soccer mom.  I'll tell you about a soccer mom.  The boys were at their first soccer practice.  I talked to a true soccer mom the whole 11/2 hours.  (Mike talked to the male counter-part, some distance a way.)  Her son has been in travel soccer all winter.  She talked about some dome her son has been practicing in.  For 2 months that was $2K.  She talked about soccer camps he has gone to throughout the winter too.  (I saw no discernable difference between her son's finese and my kid's; Matthew even beat her son on the sprinting runs).  Her son wears red nike soccer shoes- they were $200. (My kids got one pair of cleats from a neighbor, and another from my favorite shoppe, the Salvation Army.)  I thought Soccer was a practical sport.  Throw some cleats on, some lower leg padded gear, make the kids follow some rules, let the parents and coaches fight; and the goal of the game: Motivate the kids to run for an hour straight by chasing a ball.  Now that's SOCCER!

Mike's going to help coach.  Sounds like a fun spring!

Last year because of the madness of running around; I did a McDonald's run, or a Little Ceasar's $5 pizza- a little too often.  We also rewarded the kids with good play at Dairy Queen.  That will not be happening!  I am spending my time during the day and bringing "bag" lunches, dinners, snacks, and rewards.  DQ is the starbucks of icecream.  What I mean is:  I find it CRAZY to pay $5 for one coffee, when you can buy a whole can of many pots of coffee.  Same with DQ.  I can buy a whole box of icecream sandwiches or whatever for the price of one sundae.

Why am I so cheap?  We're thinking of buying another house.  Flipping it or renting it out.  Now's the time to invest.  Buy low, sell high.  It's a biblical principal.  Reproduce those talents given to you, that you are blessed with.  Have some thing to show for what you are blessed by.  Don't bury them in the ground.  You are accountable.  That is how I feel about soccer.  I gotta train these kids to have fit and functional little bodies.  When they are a little older hard practice will be a piece of cake.  When they are a little older, sacrifices will seem beneficial to them.  Training a young one is a lot easier than to change an old geezer like me.

by the blood of the lamb and the power of their testimony

This was first published (unfinished on 4/4/8)

We are supposed to conquer (in this battle that we are in) by the blood of the Lamb and the power of our testimony.  I do not know exactly what the "testimony" is. 

Is the testimony my testimony how Jesus is my Lord and Savior.  Is the testimony the testimony of Jesus and showing everybody the gospel?  The testimony is a pretty crucial thing to get.  It is how I conquer.

Psalm 25:10 says "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and steadfast love, even truth and faithfulness are they for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies".  Revelation say this: Rev 12:11 "And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death[holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].

Along with using this testimony to conquer I am to weild a double-edged sword.  Hebrews 4:12-13 "For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effectiv]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow, exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.  And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do."

There are people in my family by blood and by friendship that I have not shared Jesus with.  To me that means that I am not a Christian.  So here I go.  Here is my testimony.  I'm risking it all; laying myself out totally exposed.  For who do I have to fear?  When it is all said and done, if some man wishes to disrespect me after I reveal my testimony to them, so be it.  It is God who I am already naked and exposed to.  It is God who I wish to please.   I am not ashamed of my testiomony and I think somebody might gain by my loss.  I want God to count me on his side.  I want Him to declare, "well done, my good and faithful servent."

I have personally felt, experienced, seen, perceived, been deceived by, lied to tricked by Satan.  Satan is as real as you and me.  I most definitely need my Savior, my Lord Jesus to be in me and save me; and I know with all certainty that everyone needs Jesus to be saved from Satan, too.

No one can discount what I have to say.  No one can say that it isn't true, because it is my testimony and not theirs.  One could say that I am a lier or I'm deceived, or I'm crazy or whatever.  This is what I have seen and I have lived through:

When I worked in automotive; I was training as a tool & die maker.  I completed all the schooling.  The college and training is equivalent to a bachelor's degree in manufacturing engineering.  Near the end of my training I was involved in CNC machining (computer numerical control).  After setting up the job and writing the program I had to attend and monitor the milling and lathe machines.  During one of these jobs a co-worker came up to me and tried to stir up an argument about women's lib.  I had my Bible open at my working station because I was reading it on my breaks.  Whatever he had said, I remember my response to him was that he was right!  And I was telling him about Adam and Eve and what responsibility Eve had in the downfall of mankind to sin (delivered by Satan).  He didn't want me to tell him that he was right; and he most assuredly didn't want me to tell him that the Bible supported what he was trying to taunt me by.  Now this is where my story goes beyond this world and it goes beyond what I can explain, but it really happened.  He ran away from me to an area in the tool room that was about a football field away.  And I chased him down, because I thought he needed to hear that the Bible supported what he was saying.  I ran down the aisle chasing him.  If you can imagine a tool room, you would never expect to see two diemakers running full blast, one chasing and one trying to get away.  He made it to his work station and was cornered behind a cast iron table.  He (it) turned around and faced me and a demon came out of his front, face.  Up and out of him.  It didn't scare me, but it came out of him so forcefully as if in defense of the man, and against me.  That it stopped me in my tracks in what I can best describe as suprise.  The demon was fierce and sickly smiling, it was demented, troll and leprechaun-like.  As far as I know, it went back into him and he turned to his workstation behind a heavy and bolted down cast iron work table.  It ended there but actually that's when the debris hit the fan (for me).  I endured at work from that moment on severe oppression and flagrant harrassment.  Until the moment I quit the job (a 60K+ job which had the potential of my making 100K) the harrassment increased.

My work boots got peed on (or somebody saturated them in deer hunter's scent).  Many of the Bibles I had given as gifts were returned back to me.  Pornography was everywhere.  We had a room with work computers in it (about 10 PCs) and the guys would pull up pornography and make sure I would see it when I walked by.  Some guys told me that they put sexual graphiti in the men's bathroom about me.  Then the union called me into a meeting (unannounced beforehand) with about 30 union members and accused me of harrassing the man that had had the demon come (and return back into) out of him.  That same man would

lately...

Today is the first day back from Easter break.  The kids are back in school...almost.  Patrick and Rachel are sick.  Patrick stayed home and Rachel BEGGED to go to school.  They have colds and sore throats.  Rachel caught her cold from some other kid that circulated those germs to her, when they should have stayed home.  It's a viscious cycle.  I told Patrick that he couldn't watch tv if he was going to stay home, sick.  He said he still wanted to stay home.  That's the litmus test.  Sick enough to stay home and not being alowed to watch tv; means he's not faking it.  Anyhow, all the kids were too sick to go to church yesterday, and they never want to miss church.

Taxes have taken up a lot of time lately.  I had to drive to Caseville to go before the accessor because the raised the taxes on our cottage.  If the accessment was accurate, then we would be makin $100K profit and would be able to sell the cottage, now.  Whatever.  We had to fight the taxes on our house, too.  Plus we have to get our taxes in to our accountant. 

I have been redecorating the kids bedrooms.  (No I don't spend money to do it, at least not more than taking back the returnable cans would bring.)

I went to Sears and bought their "oops" colors.  I got a real nice yellow for $2.  I got a very nice rich olive for $3.  This works great because Rachel's room is Spring with flowers and a mural of Bobby Jack.  Matthew's room is camaphloge army-hunter-like.  Patrick's room is a game room.  I had midnight blue in the basement.  (His room was that color 5 years ago.)  I am painting the bottom half the midnight blue.  It has a mid-length border of motorcycles on a black backround.  The top portion is white, with a few walls very pale blue.

So I have been painting, decluttering, and organizing.