Pregnancy Countdown

The Simple Women's Daybook March 30th Edition

For Today...

Outside my window... Sunshine! After the week of rain we had nothing could be better!

I am thinking...how wonderful spring is and I can't wait for all the fresh fruit and veggies from the garden and from the farmers market.

I am thankful for... Ben

From the kitchen... cinnamon Rolls

I am wearing... Jammies

I am reading... Nothing at the moment I just finished The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality.

I am hoping...to get my garden going this weekend!

I am creating...A crib skirt

I am hearing... The tv

Around the house...more space it is so nice to have everything organized.

One of my favorite things...My Kitchen aid standmixer!

A few plans for the rest of the week...Cleaning for the weekend, shopping for groceries, a little gardening this weekend and then a basketball game saturday night.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you..



A picture of the curtians I made for the nursery!

We can't pick and choose!

I found this blog while I was browsing the Internet and thought it was very true. I can't tell you how many people now a days seem to want to make up their own version own Christianity. Not to mention interpret scripture however they feel necessary so that it fits whatever kind of lifestyle they think is right. So many people have the idea that anything goes. Christianity is not like Burger King! You can not just have it your way. If that where the case what would be the point of it all?


We can’t pick and choose20 Feb 2009
I am reading a book called How Good is Good Enough by Andy Stanley. I ordered this short book (92 pages) a few weeks ago and I finally sat down and read most of the book today. Something interesting struck me in the book. On page 78 Stanely wrote:

“For most people, choosing a religion is like choosing a flavor ice cream- we pick what we like, what we are comfortable with, what suits our taste. That’s understandable, but it’s not very smart. The issue is not What do I like? or How was I raised? or What makes me comfortable? The issue is What is true? I find that people don’t like to be backed into a corner and forced to discuss religion in terms of true versus false. Again, understandable. But once you decide that people live forever somewhere, you are staking your eternity on what you choose to believe is true. So it is entirely appropriate to discuss religion in terms of what is and is not true.”

I know many people who believe in Jesus, but don’t really believe all of what Jesus claims. They pick and choose what they want to believe in. Almost like we were creating our own pizza and we could put on as many toppings as we want or leave off the toppings that we don’t care for. Stanely has pointed out an issue that is very prevalent in our society. We want to believe in what we want to believe in. We don’t want to compromise our life style or choices so instead we just pick and choose what we want to believe in or is convenient for us.

For instance I know many people who believe in Jesus- believe that he is the son of God, came to earth, died on the cross, and was raised from the dead. But at the same time, these people also believe that if your a good person and live a good life, that you’ll go to heaven even if you don’t believe in Jesus. This just does not measure up. If you are a Christian then you must believe in what the bible teaches about Jesus. Jesus taught, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” So if you proclaim to be a Christian, you would also believe that you must believe in Jesus to go to heaven and be with God (the father) one day. All the good things we do here on earth will not earn us a free ticket to heaven. Rather, Jesus calls us to trust and believe in him– that is the only way to heaven.

The “good people go to heaven” idea just does not hold up if you claim to be a Christian. The bible points out that not one person on earth is perfect or good- not even Mother Teresa. “There is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10).” We can never be good enough to go to heaven. We make small mistakes daily. We are angry drivers, tell a little white lie, gossip about a co-worker, the list goes on. Maybe these sins are not as bad as murder or adultery, but they are still sins. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” That is why Jesus died on the cross, because we all fall short of God’s glory and standard of goodness. In the old testament Jews had to sacrifice animals when they made mistakes (sins) in order to be forgiven. Jesus sacrificed himself by dying on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven. All we have to do is ask God for forgiveness and believe that Jesus died to be the sacrifice for our sins.

So as Christians, we cannot subscribe to the “good people go to heaven” idea. Jesus’s teachings points us in a different direction. We cannot pick and choose the parts of Christianity that we want to believe in–it would no longer be Christianity. Just as if you were to bake a cake and leave out the eggs, would the cake turn out right? No. You need the eggs in order to bake the cake correctly. Just like we need to believe that Jesus is the only way we can go to Heaven. Being good is not enough alone. We need to believe that Jesus died so that we might be forgiven for our sins and one day spend eternity with God (our father).

Posted by Chris @ 3:17 pm

The Simple Woman's Daybook~March 23rd Edition

For Today...

Outside my window... warm sunshine

I am thinking...about getting dinner started.

I am thankful for... The fact that I do not have diabetes. I love my sugar.

From the kitchen... Hotdogs on the grill!

I am wearing... A blue tank top and jeans.

I am reading... The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality. I think every girl should read this.

I am hoping...the next two months go by fast.

I am creating...A crib skirt, and a glidder cover to match the nursery.

I am hearing... Silence

Around the house...no more clutter. I finnally got all of my closets cleaned out!

One of my favorite things...my sewing machine!

A few plans for the rest of the week...My moms B-day and then gardening this weekend.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you..

For Expectant Mothers

Almighty and everlasting God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you prepared the body of the Virgin Mary to be a worthy dwelling place of your divine son. You sanctified St. John the Baptist, while still in his mother's womb. Listen now to my prayer. Through the intercession of St. Gerard, watch over my child and me; protect us at the time of delivery. May my child receive the saving graces of Baptism, lead a Christian life, and, together with all the members of our family, attain everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.

What St. Patricks day is really about!

St. Patrick: Pilgrim, Patron and Model
By Deacon Keith Fournier
3/17/2008
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The Pilgrim Patrick is a model for our age and for the new evangelization that we so desperately need. We live in a new missionary age.


The Pilgrim Patrick is a model for our age and for the new evangelization that we so desperately need. We live in a new missionary age. Patrick’s progression of faith must become our own.
LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - He was raised in a Christian home in Britain toward the end of the fourth century. This was an age much like our own, gripped by a “culture of death” and filled with a spirit of lawlessness.

(St. Patrick on Catholic Online Saints)

Tragedy struck Patrick at sixteen years old when he was kidnapped by Irish Pirates and taken to the Emerald Isle. This was the first experience he would have of the land that he would later come to love and for which he would give himself away in tireless missionary service.

Upon arrival in this plush, green, breathtaking and beautiful land, he was sold as property to a petty chieftain who put him to work with his herds of swine.

Patrick could have become embittered. In fact, the reaction would have been understandable. Instead, he became holy. When this young man recalled these traumatic events in his marvelous work “The Confession”, he perceived the tragedy not as a victim but rather as a penitent:

“I was then about sixteen years of age. I knew not the true God; and I went into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of persons, according to our deserts, because we departed away from God, and kept not His commandments, and were not obedient to our priests, who used to admonish us for our salvation”

While he was a slave, Patrick recalled his Christian upbringing and turned back to that true God of whom he wrote so eloquently. He became a pilgrim, turning his captivity into a time of spiritual growth. He learned to walk the way of love. He wrote of that time:

“Now, after I came to Ireland, tending flocks was my daily occupation; and constantly I use to pray in the daytime. Love of God and the fear of Him increased more and more, and faith grew, and the spirit was moved, so that in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night nearly as many, so that I use to stay even in the woods and on the mountain to this end. And before daybreak I use to be roused to prayer, in snow, in frost, in rain. And I felt no hurt, nor was there any sluggishness in me- as I now see because the spirit was then fervent within me”

After six years of unjust captivity, during which this pilgrim had become a mystic, Patrick escaped with the help of some friendly traders. He pledged that he would never return to Ireland. However, the God whom Patrick had fallen in love with had other plans for his life.

In the middle of the night the Lord gave Patrick a vision which he recorded for posterity. Because he responded to the invitation contained in that vision, this wonderful man was used by the Living and true God to literally change the history of not only Ireland but the rest of the world:

“And there verily I saw in the night visions, a man whose name was Victorius coming as it were from Ireland with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter, which was entitled “The Voice of the Irish”;

and while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letter, I thought that at that very moment I heard the voice of those who lived beside the wood of Folcut, which is nigh unto the Western Sea. And thus they cried, as with one mouth: “We beseech thee , O holy youth, to come and walk once more among us.” And I was exceedingly broken in heart, and would read no further. And so I awoke. Thanks be to God, that after very many years the Lord granted to them according to their cry”

Through much perseverance, Patrick finally returned to Ireland, now an ordained servant of the Church of that true God. His “Confession” tells of his experience of being used to transform that beautiful land into a seedbed of Christianity through his evangelization and missionary work.

The Pilgrim Patrick is a model for our age and for the new evangelization that we so desperately need. We live in a new missionary age. Patrick’s progression of faith must become our own.

Patrick chose to reject “victim-hood” and self-centeredness. Instead, he embraced the way of the Cross, carrying on the redemptive mission of Jesus. He fell in love with the Lord by developing a profound and transforming interior life, a personal relationship with God.

He did this through deep, constant and abiding prayer. In this way of life, the Christian way, he learned to discern the voice of the Lord in his daily life, developed the eyes of faith and responded with perseverance to the call to become a missionary. Each of us is invited to do the same.

On this day, when the entire world pauses to remember Patrick’s life and his legacy, to rightly celebrate a full and meaningful life- and to honor to a beautiful country and people who have sent missionaries to the rest of the world to carry Patrick’s work forward through the ages, let us truly honor his memory by choosing to walk in His way.

Like Patrick, let us follow Jesus Christ. Let us make Patrick’s wonderful prayer, which reflects his very real life, our own. Let us march into the Third Christian Millennium called, as was this wonderful saint and hero, to proclaim, demonstrate and live the Gospel:

“Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me never to part. Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me shield in strife; Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising light of my life. Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me never to part.”

Wife's Prayer

Wife's Prayer

O merciful Lord God, who in the beginning didst take Eve out of the side of Adam and didst give her to him as a helpmate: grant me grace to live worthy of the honorable estate of matrimony to which Thou hast called me, that I may love my husband with a pure and chaste love, acknowledging him as my head, and truly reverencing and obeying him in all good things; that thereby I may please him, and live with him in all Christian serenity. Keep me from all worldliness and vanity. Help me, O Lord, that I may, under him, prudently and discreetly guide and govern his household. Let no fault of mine aggravate any sins by which he may be especially tempted; enable me to soothe him in perplexity, to cheer him in difficulty, to refresh him in weariness, and, as far as may be, to advise him in doubt. [Give me understanding so to fulfil my part in the education of our children, that they may be our joy in this world and our glory in the next.] Grant that our perfect union here may be the beginning of the still more perfect and blissful union hereafter in Thy kingdom; and this I pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Simple Woman's Daybook~March 2nd Edition

For Today...

Outside my window... SNOW!

I am thinking...about how much I like this blog. Now I have somewhere to post about things I really care about and read other like minded women's blogs!

I am thankful for... Ben! Thank God I found one of the few real men left.

From the kitchen... Homemade Chicken Pot Pie...so much better than that boxed frozen stuff!

I am wearing... well it is late so my pj's and my robe

I am reading... Nothing at the moment. I am waiting for the book I ordered today called The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality.

I am hoping...It is warm enough to wear my new dress this weekend!

I am creating...I think I will make a pillow this week. Seems like an easy project.

I am hearing... The TV. Ben is watching some show about logging.

Around the house...Baby items scattered here and there.

One of my favorite things...right now my body pillow. It makes sleeping with this belly a lot easier.

A few plans for the rest of the week...home tomorrow then groceries on Wednesday and then my pillow sewing project this weekend. oh and shopping for paint for the nursery.


Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...




6 months down!

Chicken Pot Pie

Nothing is better than homemade chicken pot pie on a cold day! Here is an easy recipe.


Double Pie Crust


Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold
12 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.

place bottom in pie pan


Filling

two cans cream of chicken soup

chicken broth

frozen peas and carrots

4-5 cooked chicken breast shredded or chopped

Directions

mix all ingredients

place in pie pan

cover with top crust and cut holes to vent!

Bake 30-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Pope again defends traditional family, says marriage of man and woman is indissoluble bond

Pope again defends traditional family, says marriage of man and woman is indissoluble bond
The Associated PressPublished:

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday reiterated his defense of the traditional family, saying real marriage is only between man and woman and that such a union is indissoluble.

The remarks to a Vatican tribunal were the latest by Benedict on the issue, as the pontiff keeps up a campaign against unmarried couples and same-sex unions.

The pope warned against what he said was a "cultural context marked by relativism" and against any views of marriage as merely a legal union "that human will could manipulate as it pleases, even depriving it of its heterosexual nature."

"Each marriage is certainly the fruit of free consent between man and woman," the pope said in an audience at the Vatican marking the beginning of the judiciary year.

He added: "The union occurs because of the design by God, who has created them male and female and gives them the power to unite those natural and complementary dimensions forever."

Today in Europe
Tensions rise in fragile Bosnia as Serbs threaten to seek independenceEast-West divide plagues EuropeVatican says bishop's Holocaust apology is insufficientThe pope went on to say the bond is indissoluble because "it is so in the design of creation."

The Vatican opposes divorce and other challenges to church doctrine that have become increasingly common in Europe and elsewhere.

It allows annulment, a process by which the Church effectively declares that a marriage never took place, leaving faithful free to remarry and receive Communion.

In his remarks Saturday, the pope appealed to the Roman Rota — the annulment-deciding tribunal — not to grant annulments too easily and be alert against the risk of relativism.

There are a little more than 1,000 cases — mostly annulments — pending before the Roman Rota at the beginning of the year, top tribunal official Monsignor Antoni Stankiewicz said. Of those, the majority comes from Europe (687) and from North, Central and South America (413).

Circumstances for granting annulments include refusal by a husband or a wife to have children or the psychological incapability of one of the spouses to contract a valid marriage.

Benedict has condemned same-sex unions as anarchic "pseudo-matrimony," and has launched a campaign for the protection of families based on marriage between a man and a woman. The Vatican also has consistently criticized movements in Italy and other countries that call for granting legal rights to unmarried couples.

Last year, the Pontifical Council for the Family issued a document in which it said that the traditional family has never been so threatened as in today's world.

The pope's speech Saturday angered leading Italian gay rights activist Franco Grillini, a leftist lawmaker, who said "the Vatican and the ecclesiastical hierarchy represent the main obstacle to the country's modernization." Italy's center-left government has vowed to introduce legal recognition for unmarried couples.

Pope says family key to peace

Pope says family key to peace
Tue Jan 1, 2008



VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict ushered in the New Year on Tuesday by criticizing policies that undermine the traditional family, saying they eroded one of the most important foundations for peace in the world.

The Pontiff, delivering a traditional New Year prayer for peace, appeared to take a swipe at efforts in several countries to grant legal recognition to gay and unwed couples -- although he did not single out any policies by name.

He said the traditional family led by a husband and wife instilled values that promote peace, and added it was an "irreplaceable" institution.

"Those who are hostile, even unknowingly, to the institution of the family ... make peace fragile for the entire national and international community," the Pope told crowds gathered in a sunny St. Peter's Square.

The German-born Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority since being elected Pontiff in 2005 following the death of John Paul II, focusing much of his attention on Europe.

Gay marriage is legal in several European countries including predominantly Catholic Spain, where hundreds of thousands of Catholics rallied on Sunday in favor of the traditional family. The Pontiff had addressed the Spanish rally via a live video-link.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday at St. Peter's Basilica, the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics urged followers to reject challenges to the family "eclipsing the truth of man".

"I wanted to shed light on the direct relationship that exists between the family and peace in the world," the Pope said.

"The family is the primary agent of peace and the negation or even the restriction of rights of the family ... threatens the very foundations of peace."

Quoting from a message he issued in December to mark the Church's World Day of Peace on January 1, Benedict said the family was "the first and irreplaceable educator of peace".

He also said that if the world wanted to live in peace, it would need to recognize those universal values that all people share as part of a single, "human family".

(Editing by Keith Weir)

Motivation for Good Home Management

Motivation for Good Home Management


Home management includes a doing a lot of 'dirty work' which is seldom noticed or appreciated, unless it is not done and so we need encouragement and motivation in this never-ending cycle.





Scripture Verses to Motivate You

Help with Home Management


This article is adapted from my meal-planner/recipe ebook, Prepared to Cook


“Modern women are used to being told we can do anything we want. So when God says to stay home and work there, it grates harshly on our ears. Stay home and be housewives? How legalistic and enslaving! Surely an intelligent woman has better things to do than wash dishes for the rest of her life!” (Mary Pride, The Way Home)

Before anyone allows the above quote to offend them, let me write the following:

Opinions are like armpits. Everyone has them and they stink!

I think they stink especially when you don’t agree with them.

Opinions about Home Management and Gender Roles

Having said that, it is my belief that married women should make homemaking and good home management their #1 priority, that a wife’s primary responsibility is to give of herself, and her energy to her husband, children and home. However, I realise that in the culture in which we live, by their choices, many show that they do not agree, while others have not even realised that they have just accepted our culture’s norms and values as their own, especially regarding home management.

“Modern girls argue that they have to earn an income, in order to establish a home, which would be impossible on their husband’s income. That is sometimes the case, but it must always be viewed as a regrettable necessity…” (Catherine Marshall, A Man called Peter)

I believe that there are only a few cases, where it is genuinely a regrettable necessity that a wife has to work outside the home. For many, a career is a choice. Many choose a particular standard of living and thereby create the necessity to work outside the home. We modern women have also believed the lie that, "Only men’s work has worth. Women’s traditional work is useless. Therefore, I must get a job to prove I am somebody. If all the action is out in the men’s 'economic-opportunity sphere,' we’ll all have to crowd that end of the bus.” (Mary Pride, The Way Home)

I can testify, that my husband and I are now financially much better off, with five children to support, than we were when I was also working in a job and we had no children! Yes, we had some very hard times when I quit, but if we obey God’s Word in Titus 2:3-5 and become homeworkers, He will provide for all our needs.

“Feminists have foolishly claimed that woman’s roles as a homeworker is the result of male patriarchal bias. The opposite is true. Non-Christian male patriarchal societies have always enslaved women outside the home; Christianity sets us free.” (Mary Pride, The Way Home)

Now, whether you agree with my opinion about the role of women or not, as a woman, whether you work primarily at home or not, providing meals and home management is most probably your responsibility, and at times, a heavy one at that, especially if you have an outside career as well.

My Home Management Experience

I had a nasty experience just after I got married. My husband, who used to cook meals for himself and sometimes for both of us at his own flat prior to our wedding, stopped cooking and washing dishes as soon as the rings were on our fingers! This job became solely mine as at first, he was supporting me financially.

I was devastated and sulked, complained and argued to no avail. I made our lives miserable. I could not believe that there in the 90’s, where men and women had equal opportunities that these responsibilities of cooking and home management were now mine alone. (I later got a job, but nothing changed and then I finally 'came home' for good!)

Not surprisingly, because of this and other such issues, there was quite a bit of conflict in our marriage. Somehow, I had naively believed that the fairytale wedding was the beginning of ‘happily ever after’! What a shock. I became so desperate that I began reading everything I could about what a Christian marriage should be…and there I discovered God’s plan for the roles of husband and wife – and that home management was entirely my responsibility. When I understood that these roles were for our mutual benefit, I became more willing to embrace my role, but it was not all fun.

"When a man tries to be a 'better' father by acting like a mother, he is not only less fulfilled as a father, but as a man, too. A father's relationship with his children can't be built mainly around child-caring experiences. If it is, he's a substitute mother - not a father! Similarly, under this 'petticoat rule' if a tired father is bludgeoned into serving as a kitchen aide and handy man, it doesn't enrich his fatherhood either. Actually, a wife who shifts her unpleasant household chores to her husband is downgrading her own activities in her children's eyes.” (Larry Christenson, The Christian Family)

As a young girl, I had never had much interest in home management skills. The only cooking I enjoyed was baking sweet treats to enjoy, so I had never really bothered to learn cook much more than a few elementary meals and some microwave recipes, while living on my own as a student. I now began to learn to cook more traditional meals to try and please my husband. I found myself having to measure up to my mother-in-law’s culinary skills! My teachers were the authors of recipe books. It has been a long road of trial and error, with many of my new dishes being dismissed as not acceptable to my husband’s tastes.

The Art of Good Home Management

"Let’s get back to that sinkful of dirty dishes we started the chapter with. Feminists think housework, symbolized by dishwashing, is demeaning for a talented woman. I prefer to think of it as art. Is a sinkful of dirty dishes, after all, more beautiful than a cupboard full of clean ones?" (Mary Pride, The Way Home)

After 11 ½ years of marriage I am still working at creating a clean, comfortable and cosy home that is a place of refuge for my husband. Having a tasty home-cooked meal ready on his arrival after a day’s work, is part of that. For me, this is always a challenge.

A Change in Attitude towards Home Management Responsibilities

In order to enjoy some of the rather mundane and to me uninteresting tasks that home management requires, including cooking, I have had to change my attitude. I have come to believe that God sometimes requires us to do things that we do not enjoy in order to teach us to learn to do all things “unto the Lord”. It is easy to do the things we are good at or like doing for the Lord, but who really likes washing dishes (or cleaning toilets)?

"Homeworkers who love their husbands and children, instead of trying to escape into a career or becoming gadabouts, are building the precious resource of a home where people will be attracted to the Lord, and where the hurts of God’s people can be healed and they can find new strength. We build up our homes not just for ourselves, not even just for our families, but for the church, and after that for the world.” (Mary Pride, The Way Home)

Biblical Perspectives of Home Management Duties

In Biblical times, part of offering hospitality included washing the feet of a guest. Jesus, too, used foot washing to demonstrate the love that we should have for one another, when he washed his disciples’ feet. God requires us to do foot washing too. Since washing feet is not a part of our western culture in the 21st century, foot washing represents all ‘dirty work’ done to bless others. Mary Pride says that “ministry that doesn’t include foot-washing is mere pride and arrogance.” (The Way Home, p190)

In the Bible, Jesus said; “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23, 11-12)

I had to consider whether I was willing to humble myself, was I prepared to do the unglamorous tasks that are required of a mother and wife, was I prepared to cook and do it joyfully! I find cooking a frustrating and messy job. To me it is shooting myself in the foot, to clean and polish my kitchen, and then mess it all up as well as dirtying pots, pans and bowls while preparing the meal, then serve the food and dirty more dishes, possibly mess on the tablecloth and with children, even the floor. Cooking creates a whole lot of other work too!

Some women have told me that they love cooking as they find it a relaxing and creative past-time. “I love combining different flavours,” one young wife, a professional chef, told me. Not me! I would never cook to earn my living, but now that I have faced the truth about it, I do it to bless my family, to keep myself humble and as far as I can, to glorify the Lord.

Perhaps you also enjoy cooking, but struggle with being disciplined in other areas of home management and house keeping. Consider printing and pasting the Scriptures and other motivational verses that follow in a place where you can see them often.




Scriptures Verses to Motivate You With Home Management

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14:33
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,” Colossians 3:23

“She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:27

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:36

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3

“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42

“The greatest among you will be your servant.” Matthew 23:11

“Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ” Luke 17:8-10

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.” Matthew 24:45-47

“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” Matthew 20:26

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.’ James 4:10

”Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2

”And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,” Colossians 1:10

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Corinthians 15:58

Protecting Family Values

The family is the most basic unit of any society or nation. Without healthy, functioning families, a culture cannot survive.

God created marriage as the unity of one man and one woman. This has been both the legal and traditional understanding of a marriage – literally – for millennia, since Eden.

Sadly, many radical activist groups in the U.S. are attempting to twist the law to change the definition of marriage and the family to include same-sex "marriage," polygamy, polyamory, and other structures. These groups scoff at the idea that there is any fixed or known set of values or beliefs that is generally good for families or culture

Weakening the family and undermining the values that support it will ultimately destroy our society and dramatically impact religious civil liberties.
Weakening the family harms individuals, and especially children.

Fading Home Management Skills

Fading Home Management Skills
1. Sewing
Why it’s useful: You can make your families’ clothes and tailor them specifically to size, color, and style; you can also custom-make your home textile furnishings. You can make purses, baby accessories, stuffed toys - the options are near endless.

Why it’s dying: It’s quicker, easier, and sometimes cheaper to go to your local store and buy it.
But it’s finding a resurgence because: Sewing is the latest knitting craze. The younger generation of home managers are finding reasons to use the skill, and fashionistas see the value that it adds to their creativity.

How I’m doing: Decently. I have a new-but-simple sewing machine.
Useful sites to learn how you can keep it alive: Sew, Mama, Sew! • J Caroline Creative • The Sewing Republic • Chickpea Sewing Studio

2. Gardening
Why it’s useful: You can nourish your family from your own plot of land, year after year. You’re eating locally, organically, and cheaply.

Why it’s dying: It’s quicker, easier, and sometimes cheaper to go to your local store and buy it.
But it’s finding a resurgence because: environmental issues no longer belong to just the minority folk, and gas prices mean a hike in groceries, too.

How I’m doing: Great I have more peppers than I know what to do with in my freezer.
Useful sites to learn how you can keep it alive: You Grow Girl • Backyard Gardener • Organic Gardening

3. Canning
Why it’s useful: You can extend the life of your garden’s crops and your farmer’s market purchases, and eat your homemade concoctions year-round. And it’s usually healthier than store-bought canned goods.

Why it’s dying: It’s quicker, easier, and sometimes cheaper to go to your local store and buy it.

How I’m doing: Awesome at this point it is so easy.

Canned Laughter • The Simple Woman’s Cannery




4. Cooking (from scratch)
Why it’s useful: You’re actually cooking food, instead of chemical-ridden boxed goods. It’s cheaper, it’s way healthier, and it’s a community ritual - you can cook together as a family and bond.

Why it’s dying: Fast food chains have large marketing budgets, and people simply aren’t aware how easy cooking from scratch really can be.
But it’s finding a resurgence because: the pitfalls of artificial food are becoming mainstream information.

How I’m doing: Well. I haven’t cooked boxed food in years.

Useful sites to learn how you can keep it alive: Tammy’s Recipes • All Recipes • Cooking Light • Everybody Likes Sandwiches

5. Knitting and Crocheting
Why it’s useful: You can keep your family snugly warm with personalized sweaters and accessories. The skill also provides great gifts.

Why it’s dying: It’s not exactly a necessity in climates that don’t demand it, and it requires quite a bit of patience.
But it’s finding a resurgence because: there’s simply something in people that yearns to create, and these skills provide a creative outlet while doing other things like watching tv or chatting with friends.

How I’m doing: ok but i need to put more time into it.
Useful sites to learn how you can keep it alive: Craftster • Mason Dixon Knitting

6. Hospitality
Why it’s useful: You provide warm food and a safe haven for countless friends and family, and you expand your community to more than just your immediate circle. And you’re giving your kids a good environment for practicing manners and serving others before being served themselves.

Why it’s dying: Crammed daytimers. Families don’t make the time to sit down over dinner together these days, much less with guests.
But it’s finding a resurgence because: people are getting tired of running around like headless chickens, and they want to know their neighbors.

How I’m doing: Great! We have people over at least once a week for dinner sometimes more.
Useful sites to learn how you can keep it alive: Epicurious • That’s the Spirit • DIY

Baby's First Blanket

Here are some pictures from my first sewing project. I must say it was not as hard as I thought it would be. I have much room for improvement though!