Its truly been one of those weeks you just wish you could start over.  I feel like I wasted the majority of it.  Our family web site crashed.  MMMMMMMMMM????????  I spent most of yesterday on the phone with Yahoo trying to figure it out.  This morning I just decided I wasn't going to worry about it today.  One of our does kidded and never let down her milk.  Thankful I had frozen extra last year for us and baby goats.  I went out to check on goat momma's and babies and found a dead baby.  Better me than my youngest finding the baby  but still not something that makes me happy.  

Events can either control you or you can control ourselves in events.  Despite the weeks issues I have a lot to be grateful for.  We were able to see new life born this week which is a blessed thing.  Despite the loss of the goat, it truly reminds us how precious life is!

The web site, well small in comparison to anything else but it can be a frustration, however I have learned so much working on it and have had many people stop by and made some new friends.  In time it will be fixed so why waste any more time worrying?

God has given all of us roses amongst the thorns.  Sometimes we just have to pull the thorns out as we enjoy the beauty. 

Funny, I found myself wanting to come to Homesteaders to read others blogs for a source of encouragement.  A blessing you all are to me, to be sure.

May you find the good in all things as "...we know that all things work together for  good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

God's blessings,

Lea

Living on a homestead is very demanding at times but very seldom does the demand ever go without rewards.  One of the most tiresome times of years is when our milk goats start "kidding".  Middle of the night checks on the soon to be mommas, concern during delivery for both mommas and babies.  Feeding 3 times a day and milking twice.  Added dishes from bottles and milk equipment  and often times I find a cage or 2 of newborn kids in my kitchen if the weather is too cold or if they appear to be sluggish.  But always the beauty of God's ways amaze us and all the extra work is soon forgotten.   Birth on the homestead is an event shared and praised by the whole family.  Life, especially new life is amazing.  Here are some photos of kids from the beginning of this years kidding season.

Our dogs love to play momma and clean the kids faces off.

The picture below is of a kid from last year.  I had to share this sense shes so photogenic

God's blessings

Lea

We have a white board in our home mounted on a wall for school but often times I find that I put down a "thought for the day" when one pops into my head.  Leaving it for myself and my family to ponder.  Usually proposed via question.  Lately it seems my  my thoughts have been directed towards purposefully drawing closer to God through service.  Something that sometimes comes naturally and sometimes I have to travail through to get a clearer understanding of what service really means.

Early this morning during my time with my Lord I knew I had a thought to put down.  It read "What did I do with my Lord yesterday?"  I put the marker down and read it again.  At first it hit me a little strange how it was worded and I was ready to erase the "with" and put "for".  But I immediately knew that "with" was the correct word.

I've been serving the Lord for a good many years and like many Christians I've had my mountains and my valleys, highs and lows, times of extreme dedications and deep love of purpose and other times where my commitment to commitment to my God has been the only thing seeing me along.  I have served and I have been served.  I have been directed and focused in the moment and also lost by it too.

Being a servant or serving someone is the heart of God.  It moves Him, it is what He did when he robed himself in flesh ( 1 Timothy 3:16) Serving the lost, hurt, heathen and brothren or for us mothers, serving our family is a ministry.  A full time one.  Doing the work of the Master, being a servant can be time consuming.  The ministry of service along with daily life can eat up the day.  Being a servant is what it is all about along with guarding our own salvation.

As I said, I've been serving my Jesus for a long time and I've seen many people work with great vigor for the Lord but I've also seen many be too busy with the act of service they don't spend time with Jesus.  Building that personal, one on one, needed, must have relationship.  God is a God of personal relationship and sacrifice through service.  He made for each person is enough to drive us to seek out service for Him.  But living in the world and time we live in it is very, very easy to let that relationship come in last.  Despite how things may appear we can't effectively do His work without His relationship.  We might find we end up trying to do God's work without God.

Regardless of whether our ministry is the Sunday School, the homeless, the lost, the elderly, our own family, homes and husbands (the last 3 are for sure and for certain as important as any other ministry God gives us) in order for our ministry to be at it's fullest, directed and guided by Him, we must make sure we have spent our time with Him.  In His word and in prayer.

So when looking over yesterdays acomplishments concerning the Lord the first question isn't "What did I do for the Lord" but first should be "What did I do with the Lord?"

God's Blessings,

Lea

Today often, my children, even my 16 soon to be 17 year old will see a sky line, a bird, a sunset or sunrise, a leaf of dazzling color or even a cloud and call for me and my husband to share in the moment.  Sometimes they call us to share a moment of amusement from an animal or even their selves. 

If you don’t stop and look for the beauty that God puts all around us or brings our way it will pass you by and you will miss life’s little pleasures.  Next time you see a flower newly opened, a bird gathered with its mate or a sunrise that makes the sky explode, stop and give God glory and find someone to share it with.

God’s blessing to you,

Lea

Here are some blessing from my today.

A cactus bloom at the end of January

 A faithful friend

Papa and Momma Cardinal in a bush

Last night the boys and I made pizza. It was just basic cheese but we had a fun time doing it. We made a wheat crust put some sauce and cheese on it and threw it in the oven and presto, dinner was done. Here are some photos of us enjoying the night.  My oldest is grinding the wheat for the crust, my youngest is grating the cheese and one of our dogs is whishing for a handout.

God's blessings to you and your home,

Lea

I am getting ready to adjust our daily schedule here at home.  My husbands shift at work has greatly effected our normal schedule and we are having a hard time adjusting.  He went from first shift to a long second (10-12).  It is the job that the Lord has provided him for now so we are grateful but must adjust.  I was wondering if anyone had any words of wisdom from their schedules that they might like to share.  In a day we have homeschool, chores (twice, soon to be 3 times daily as we will be having goat kids) housework and meal prep.  I get my Bible and prayer time first thing in the morning as I am a morning person but rest of the day seems unsettled lately.

Lord's blessings,

Lea

Music is very powerful.  God found it powerful enough to commission an arch angel as minister of music at the onset of creation.  Heavens sang the praises of the Lord.  The Word says if we don’t praise Him then the rocks will cry out, Luke 19:38-40.

 Scriptures to instruct us to sing are:

·                        "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives" (Matt. 26:30)

·                        "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God" (Acts 16:25)

·                        "I will confess thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name" (Rom. 15:9)

·                        "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also" (1 Cor. 14:15)

·                        "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:19)

·                        "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts..." (Col. 3:16)

·                        "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee" (Heb. 2:12)

·                        "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name" (Heb. 13:15)

·                        "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms" (James 5:13)

 Singing is Bible.  However it is very possible to take singing in praise and thanksgiving and turn it into something very unpleasing to God.  We can get confused with our songs of praise and worship and turn it into something that entertains our flesh or is void of feeling and emotion toward God, just going with the motions.  Not only can we turn it into those two things we can also turn it into a form of idol worship.  This is done for the most part unintentionally but we can admire someone’s ability so much that we start to find it impossible to worship without their assistance.  We can also make it a stumbling block for the one performing by exulting their gifts/abilities.   Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with being moved by someone’s song or even the instrumental music.  The Bible instructs us to not hold back a kind word so to let someone know they moved you in song is okay but I believe we as a Christian people with our “Christian” music can fall pray to all of the snares set before the secular society with their music.

We check ourselves in our household.   First we ask is it simply entertaining Christian music or is it music that is meant to draw unto the heart of God, real lyrics of worship.  Then we have to establish when we find ourselves listening to what might appear to be too much music, are we doing it because we are really focused on praising God, do the words of the song  stir us to draw nigh unto God or are we listening more because we are entertaining our flesh even though its labled "Christian music". Maybe we like the beat and aren’t paying attention to the words.  Are we listening to so much music that we haven’t been listening for the voice of the Lord.  We remind our children and ourselves that sometimes we just need quite.  You can’t listen for the voice of God when other things are drowning Him out.  God is such a gentlemen he often won’t over ride what we are doing.  We have to choose to listen for Him. Sometime we as Christians can entertain our flesh under a Christian label and make ourselves believe its unto Go when its really just self indulgence.

My family and I were listening to an old time preacher last night and he simply spoke this song.  There was no music, no choir but the words moved the heart towards it’s creator and the heart reached out to God and God moved. May God bless you and you bless God in your worship and praise.

Down from His glory, ever living story,
My God and Savior came, and Jesus was His name;
Born in a manger to His own a stranger,
A man of sorrows, tears and agony!

Oh how I love Him!  How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all!
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God's fullness dwelleth in Him!

What condescension, bringing us redemption,
That in the dead of night, not one faint hope in sight,
God gracious, tender laid aside His splendor,
Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul!

Oh how I love Him!  How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all!
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God's fullness dwelleth in Him!

Without reluctance, flesh and blood His substance,
He took the form of man, revealed the hidden plan;
O glorious myst'ry sacrifice of Calv'ry!
And now I know He is the great "I AM"!

Oh how I love Him!  How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all!
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God's fullness dwelleth in Him!

Heart of the Home

 Sadly for many reasons the kitchen has lost its honored place in many homes.  None of which I feel like going into right now.  But in our home our kitchen is the heart of our home.  It serves a multitude of purposes, the least of course not being food preparation.  However that is just one of many things that takes place in my kitchen on a daily bases.  Food preparation of course is a large part and it truly is a love hate relationship.  I have few greater joys then putting something before my family that pleases their palate nourishes their body and that was made with my hands.  I do enjoy, for the most part doing the dishes.  The hate part comes in when I feel rushed or I’m exhausted from the days work and clean up becomes the last thing on the list.  But that is all part of memories made.  You take the good with the bad and there is an awful lot of good that comes from “the heart”.  Our kitchen holds our family’s source of heat for, yes, the whole house.  We heat our home with a  wood cook stove.  It cooks our food, dries our clothes, heats a lot of our water and as stated, heats our humble abode.

It demands a lot from us in terms of cutting and splitting wood and tending it through out the day but it gives us a lot back. 

 Also in our kitchen at our table is where our children our school, Bible lessons are given, bread is broken and friends and memories are made. 

 I love things from the past and the history that comes with it.  Recycling unwanted pieces of old furniture is a hobby my whole family loves.  Years ago when we started keeping house we kept our eyes open for what I refer to as backyard antique stores, also known as garage sales.  One income and a growing family made it important to be frugal.  We found some really good deals and a couple well, weren’t such good deals but what we considered investments, like our woodstove.  The one we currently have we just got.  Our previous one is a 1928 model but it worked well for the most part but it wasn’t until we got the new that I realized how much it was worth the investment.  We also have had a tendency over the years to move so we made sure that our kitchens were decorated with cupboards so they could move with us verses cabinets.  My floors, walls and ceiling need to be refinished but even left undone its still home to us.

 I wanted to post a couple of photos and see if anyone wanted to share pics of their homestead kitchens.I put a few pictures on here but have a couple pages of pics on our website at  http://plainandsimplysaid.com/    If you get a chance and would like to stop by the pics are under Heart Of The Home.  My site is still very young; we are still working out the bugs and have a whole lot of adding to do to it but its fun to play with and hopefully entertaining.

We never watch anything above a PG rating but have found that even when a movie claims to be family friendly it often times does not hold Christian family friendly values.  So needless to say I am very leery about new movies and many old ones also.  The older ones are harder to find a complete review of.  In the book of Psalms 101:3 the psalmist writes “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes…………………..”  So much of what people get through what seems to be the most harmless TV shows or movies gives our children little amounts of evil.  Because it’s so little we don’t see it as evil because we hardly recognize it to years of being desensitized.  It just kind of sneaks up on us.  In Proverbs we are told to guard our hearts, Proverbs 4:23 says “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”  What better reason to be skeptical about what Hollywood does.

My youngest son got a movie for Christmas from a relative called Facing the Giants.  I had heard a little of it but not much and I knew it was about a football team.  I am not a sports fan.  I find team sports and the idol worship that comes with it completely out of control, the same with movie star worship.  I realize to some I sound way over board but it is the convictions the Lord has given us.  I see this even on a high school level in sport, it often becomes a god.  I believe playing sports as a fun family thing is fine but beyond that I have serious issues.  Anyways I say all this to say, I was somewhat hesitant about watching this movie even with its G rating and the fact that it was directed towards Christian. The truth is that a lot of people in this world use the word “Christian” to make a buck, so yes I was skeptical. I was so shocked at that movie though.  It was awesome.  It was about a high school football coach with a loosing team that got the vision of what the whole thing really was about, and that was giving God the glory.  It had real life problems in it, a risk of loosing his job, low income, a car that kept breaking down and him and his wife unable to have children.  When the revelation came about it being all about God those things were no longer the focus point in their lives.  This movie was beautifully done and I believe directed with the heart of God. I was in tears through it.  It went beyond the superficial level of so many movies and made you stop and think, “Have I really given God the praise”.   I even enjoyed the energy given to the sport in the movie.

It was a great reminder, no matter what is going on in our lives, whether we are on the mountain peak or in the valley below, God is worthy to be praised!

 May God bless and Guide you,

Lea

I have been fighting with my blog account to sign on for over 3 days now.  I don't know why but all of a sudden I couldn't sign on and no matter what I seemed to do it wouldn't allow me to even after requesting a new password.  I have enjoyed this website with everyone so much from just the short time I've been blogging that I finally just decided to sign on as a new account.  I went from user clw @ happytobeahomemaker to this site.

I appreciate everyone that shares their wisdom on their blogs.  It certainly has been refreshing.  I have missed it these past few days.

God's blessings,

Lea