Everything is Because of God!

As I was reading Psalms 65 this morning, the Holy Spirit enlightened my understanding: Everything is because of God. Every blessing, every good thing, every breath we take and even our very existence. From the beauty of nature to the blessing of spiritual gifts; it is all because of God. HE is our source, the author and finisher of our faith. His name is great and greatly to be praised. 

I couldn't help myself. I just had to share this.  

My Bible commentary says this about this chapter (and I didn't even read this part until just before I was going to share here): 

"This is a praise psalm, full of hopeful, confident, even enthusiastic feelings in response to God's goodness with no complaints or curses. The setting is a celebration at the tabernacle, perhaps at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring, or the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacle in the fall. 

I. Praise for Spiritual Blessings (65:1-5)

II. Praise for Natural Blessings (65:6-13)"

Psalm 65

There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,

And to You the vow will be performed.

2 

O You who hear prayer,

To You all [b]men come.

3 

[c]Iniquities prevail against me;

As for our transgressions, You [d]forgive them.

4 

How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You

To dwell in Your courts.

We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,

Your holy temple.

5 

By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,

You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest [e]sea;

6 

Who establishes the mountains by His strength,

Being girded with might;

7 

Who stills the roaring of the seas,

The roaring of their waves,

And the tumult of the peoples.

8 

They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;

You make the [f]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

⁹ 

You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;

You greatly enrich it;

The [g]stream of God is full of water;

You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare [h]the earth.

¹⁰ 

You water its furrows abundantly,

You [i]settle its ridges,

You soften it with showers,

You bless its growth.

¹¹ 

You have crowned the year [j]with Your [k]bounty,

And Your [l]paths drip with fatness.

¹² 

The pastures of the wilderness drip,

And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

¹³ 

The meadows are clothed with flocks

And the valleys are covered with grain;

They shout for joy, yes, they sing.

Glory to God! Glory to God!


Linking up with Fellowship Fridays 

Frugal Gift-giving

Shopping at home for a gift? Yep. I did it. I "shopped" for a birthday gift at my own house. What can you do if you don't have the money to go out and purchase something? We could've made something, but we're talking about giving a birthday gift to a 7 year old boy. Now, I'm sure our friend would've loved anything we gave him, b/c he's just like that, but we really ran out of time for that kind of activity. So I started looking around our home for some items that we haven't used yet. If we haven't used these things by now, chances are, we aren't going to.

What did we gave away?  I'm so glad you asked.  :-D

        

 

A long time ago, over a year at least, I bought several pads of drawing paper that was on sale for a super good deal at a teacher store here in town. We had one last pad that we hadn't used yet, so we put that into a gift bag.

We had a huge box of colored pencils that I had bought at the beginning of the school year that hasn't been touched, so placed that into the gift bag also.  Our little friend enjoys drawing/coloring and creating pictures. So we knew he'd like those things.

I always enjoy giving books to kids as a way of encouraging them to read. Reading can open up a whole world of adventures and learning, but that is a post for another time. I looked on our bookshelf for a book or two to give away.  

We had two copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One was a very old copy (I love those) and another was a newer copy that was in great condition. I thought that would be a good read aloud for our friends to read together, so we packed that one up.

We also found another good book that we decided to pass on.

We already owned the birthday bag b/c I crazy save all gift bags we receive that are in good condition as well as the tissue paper - if it doesn't get too crinkly. The children made their birthday cards also.

I was really amazed that my children didn't ask why we were giving away our stuff. Hopefully that means they aren't attached to all of the things we have lying around our house. We don't really need all this stuff anyway.

Great gifts don't always have to be bought from a store. It's always a win as long as your gifts are in great condition and are given from the heart.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday SugarBear!

Then

Now

Linking up with:

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday ~ Family Devotions

                          

                          

                                 

                     

Linking up with:

Wordless Wednesday

and 

Fellowship Fridays

Garage Sale Math

We had a garage sale over the weekend, Friday and Saturday. We had a LOT of stuff to sell. We did pretty well too! And I thought the yard sale signs I made wouldn't work, but they did, and to my surprise! Anyway. This was our very first garage sale. It is a ton of work! I knew it was going to be some work, but I didn't realize just how much went into it, but it was well worth it.

Whew!   :-D

The children had a lemonade/snack stand while we were selling everything else, so they were adding up money amounts (quarters) all day Friday and all Saturday morning.... Well, you know, when customers wanted to purchase snacks. You know what I mean, I think. 

We were exhausted by the time Saturday evening came. No energy left to count anymore. We placed the money we made in a bag and hid it away until we were able to count it. The time to count didn't arrive until this morning in our math lesson. I threw out the today's curriculum math lesson and we focused completely on counting the garage sale profit. 

The first thing we did was sort out all the coins and bills. They made dollar stacks of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies while I sorted the bills. After everything was sorted, we started counting. I had them make a list of each coin and bill.

We counted the coins first.  After we counted each coin group and counted it again, they listed the amount for each coin.

Then we counted the bills, twice, and listed those amounts. This was especially fun for them as they have only handled coins up to now. 


At this point, Jonathan was done. He was just done. So I let him run off some energy out in the back yard while Adelle then added up each amount together. 

First she wrote down the 20's amount, lined up the 10's amount under that and added them. Took that total and wrote the 5's under that and added again. We followed that pattern until we got all the way down to pennies. 

This was a fun way to practice adding skills and reviewing place value while learning how to write dollar and cent amounts together. And I just now stumbled onto a website that has posted a Yard Sale Board Game. We might have to make and play this one through the summer. It looks like fun!

I won't announce publicly exactly how well we did, but, to the glory of God, we raised enough money to begin ordering curriculum for next school year! 

The Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ April 17, 2015

In our homeschool this week -

We haven't gotten very far in the curriculum we're using and we left the arithmetic as Adelle was having a difficult time with it. So we started to use Easy Peasy free online lesson plans for a while, but this week we came back to our curriculum arithmetic. We went to a materials display. I asked questions and received a few ideas from the representative on how to help Adelle excel in this area. So far, she is doing great.

My favorite thing this week was -

Adelle actually enjoying the math facts flashcards game we played.

My children's favorite thing this week was -

Adelle - Taking a tour around Whole Foods Market. Her favorite part about that field trip is having control of the camera. She took some still-shots as well as video. I'll have to give her some photo-taking basics. 

Jonathan - Getting ungrounded. We are working very hard on his unacceptable behavior. Fit-throwing  (at 6 years old) and flat out ignoring me is not ok. Grounding him to his room with no toys or books seems to work for him.

I am inspired by -

The Bible. 

Seriously. 

It is so rich and full of God's truths. Every time I read it, no matter how few or many chapters/verses,  my spirit and soul are fed. God's Word uplifts, encourages, teaches and also corrects & reproofs, all for training in righteousness. Painful as it is, I do welcome the Lord's reproof. It is my desire to be made conformed in the image of Christ, giving God all the glory, which is the chief end of man indeed.   

In my life this week -   

With the Bible being my inspiration, which isn't only for a single week, I have been doing some soul searching lately. I have finally learned that God's love and salvation isn't a gift to be earned, which is something I have been doing all my life. When we understand the enormity of our sin and the amazing thing Christ did for us, taking His Father's wrath upon Himself, we would then be amazingly thankful, giving our lives over to Him; yoking ourselves to Christ, obeying His commandments because we love Him. 

With all that being said, and with God's Word as my inspiration, I am constantly examining myself. I am questioning my motives often. It seems that I still have the mind-set of trying to earn salvation rather than just accepting that free gift and then letting the Holy Spirit teach and sanctify me.  That tells me that I haven't totally surrendered myself. 

I could go on and on about this subject, but the bottom line is this: Am I truly in the faith? Am I truly following Him? 

Scripture of the week -

1 Corinthians 10:31 - Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 

Let's Catch Up

There is a big gap between the last post before I stopped blogging and the first post when I started up again. I thought it'd be nice to catch up on what we've been doing during that time. 

 Back in December, we went to a local nursery where we learned about poinsettias. That was pretty interesting. Being this trip took place a few months ago, remembering the information we received is a little difficult. LOL

We also traveled back to my hometown for a funeral. It was a bittersweet visit, but the kids had the privilege to experience the Country Club Plaza at Christmas time.  

Adelle got her hair cut off just before Christmas.  Training this girl to take care of her hair has been a challenge. I had been threatening to cut her hair off for months. I finally decided it was time to follow through. She cried at first, but by the end of the first day, she liked it very much! Now she wants to keep it short. 

     

We participated in 2 Valentine's parties this year. That's pretty cool, right?  The children made play dough to hand out as their Valentine and I made these bulletin boards to use for decorations. 

 Jonathan turned 6 years old! I can't believe he is such a big boy already.  Why does the time have to fly so fast?

 It's always tons of fun and excitement when our cousins visit from Wisconsin.  

In spite of the challenges, we've had a pretty fun-filled school year.