The 3 "C"'s

I have found a rule of 3 "C"'s to help me in my marriage. Many women prepare for their wedding day but how many prepare for their marriage anymore? Not many. How they will be in their marriage is often found in what they learned or didn't learn from their parents marriage. How is their relationship with their Heavenly Father?
Compassion is the first. We need to be forgiving, understanding and willing to forget their imperfections. Our Heavenly Father has forgiven us and loved us enough to send His son to die on the cross for us. He grants us grace in our sinful nature. We can never be perfect but He loves us anyway since we are one of His children. Remember that when you get upset about your spouse maybe making a decision you don't agree with. Our husband is head of the household and as such, no matter if you think he is doing it right, we should follow his lead.
Compromise is a hard one to follow. We need to be willing to 'pick our battles'. We don't always have to be. Even if he is wrong we need to remember anger and hurt feelings are not worth it. We need to be willing to make them first in our life. Make them feel they are the most important and work our schedules around him. We are showing we care enough about them that nothing else is as important.
Communication is essential in any relationship. Especially in a marriage if it is to work. Some people have trouble communicating with their spouse and that just means it may take longer for roads to be paved for that to happen. It is part of their personality. Accept them for who they are. I have to work at making sure I talk to my hubs about everything. He is a natural talker. I am too but often don't discuss how I may feel about something. He makes sure I am open with him on everything. Sometimes that is hard for me but I know in my heart I need too. Because we make an effort to do this it has made us closer and made our marriage stronger than ever.
Overall I know there are some exceptions to the rule. If you are working at your marriage everyday, praying for wisdom in your marriage then you will know how to handle these. After many years of marriage we are still working at it everyday. It's worth it. We just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and we are closer now, stronger, better friends and partners than when we started.
My Thirsting Soul

Meatless Monday

Dad's amazing dip
2 pints of sour cream
1 pint of plain yogurt
2 pkgs of Mrs. Grass veggie soup mix
2+ Tbls salsa
1 tsp powdered garlic
Mix in a large bowl and let sit a few hours before serving with patato chips, tortilla chips or pretzels. Enjoy! My Thirsting Soul

Joy and heartbreak

It's always hard when our children learn another lesson in life. We are avid hunters and fishermen and our children know about the cirlce of life. However, it seems that every once in a while they learn about it another way.
Yesterday our kids were moving their small pool and found a garter snake. Not a big deal since last year we had 14 of them living in our house.
The reason we had 14 of them is my kids and lil sis caught a 2' long garter snake in the spring last year. Unbeknownst to us she was preggers. In august she gave birth to 13 little garter snakes. It was amazing being able to watch the birth. A couple of weeks later we found a small corn snake in our basement. That brought us up to 15 snakes in my house. Remember buddy wants to be a herpetologist and this was a dream come true for him. Good thing their mama is a country girl and is pretty laid back about critters in the house.
So, now the garter snake is in the aquarium in their room living high in the hog with tons of insects to eat.
The lesson they learned today was a little harder on them. Tater tot (5 years old) found a cedar wax wing juvenile in the yard. It had all it's feather but could not fly yet. Buddy adopted it and it stayed on his shoulder. They fed it insects and enjoyed it immensly. The heartbreaking part for them was when alley cat (that is our cats name that lives outside) grabbed the bird and ran off with it. They chased alley cat till they caught her but by then the bird was dead. Bubba cried about it and the others were very upset. It took a little while reminding them that our cat was behaving perfectly normal and took the bird since it was an easy meal.
An hour or so later the boys found another cedar wax wing juvenile and they promptly took it inside to another aquarium it could stay in. So, now they are happy once again that they have saved a bird and the cat didn't get this one.
So, over all it was a good day for them and they are happy to have critters living in their room.
My Thirsting Soul

Wonderful Wednesday

Pictures of the beauty around us that the Lord made for all to see.
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
~Psalms 9:1

Typical Tuesday

Since we are not starting school this year till September 10th we have a pretty easy schedule.
Most days around here we do chores and then spend time outside if it is not raining.
Today however we are working on getting our basement prepped for winter. It may not seem like much but we have to finish clearing space for 2 weeks worth of wood, cleaning the fireplace and just straightening everything up down there.
It's amazing how many things have to be stored for 7 people. Talk about a crazy amount of totes. Clothing saved for the kids, school books stored for every grade and a mirade of other things you collect over time. I am going to be sorting through all of our things next week with hubby and down sizing it all. We are talking (and praying hard) that the Lord will lead us in the right direction for a new job for hubs. That would possibly mean leaving our family and a majority of our posessions behind for a year. That will be another post though.
Have a wonderful Tuesday
My Thirsting Soul

Meatless Monday

Portabella mushrooms caps with sauteed kale
At least one cap person eating them
1 bunch of kale per 2 caps, chopped
1 Tbls minced garlic
Parmesan cheese
Almond slivers
Olive oil or butter

Wash your kale and mushrooms while your grill is heating up.
Put mushroom caps on the grill for 5 minutes (roughly) on each side.
While those are cooking add enough olive oil to the bottom of a large pan or wok. Heat oil and add garlic. Saute for about a mintue and add chopped kale. Cook until slightly wilted. Add parmesan to taste. By now your mushroom caps should be done. Top caps with sauteed kale and sprinkle almond slivers over the top.
It is amazingly delicious!

*Some variations you can do is saute onions with the garlic before adding the kale. Use feta cheese instead of parmesan. Add smaller mushrooms chopped with the kale if you can't always get the mushrooms caps and serve as a side dish. Blue cheese would work as well and chopped walnuts would be perfect on top of this. Play around with your favorite ingredients and see what you can create. :)

Not everyone's cup of tea

Train up a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

I get asked quite often why we chose to homeschool. Well, we have several reasons. I know homeschooling may not be for everyone but these are our reasons for doing it. It has been the hardest adventure I have endevoured on yet. But it is also the biggest blessing in my life.
Having 5 children in the house 24/7 may seem like a little too much for some people. It is a bit trying at times I will admit but it is also a lot of fun. My children are my biggest helpers and playmates. We are supposed to enjoy our children being around and so many parents don't see it that way.
Reason #1 we homeschool. We have the chance to spend all the time we want with our children and have a flexible schedule. We did 2 years of public school and it was terrible. My hubs works a late shift and while the kids were in school he was sleeping. Then he left for work just before they got out of school. He was only able to see them on Friday after school, Saturday and Sunday morning. It was so very hard on all of us making sure everyone stuck to a very strict schedule. Bed by a certain time, up by a certain time, homework done by a certain time, showers done by a certain time, reading assignments done by a certain time, chores done by a certain and meals done by a certain time. You get the idea. It was a huge stress. I almost never saw my hubby because of it either.
Reason #2 we knew our children were not challenged in public school. They easily made honor roll and had perfect grades. They were bored with the school work and one of their teachers was not very organized. It was frustrating to find out what the kids needed for different things after they needed them. It always made me look inept as a parent. It just added frustrations to my life.
Reason #3 we did not feel that learning about evolution in science and nothing about creation to be a total fraud. They present darwinism as fact and leave out any other teaching. Despite proofs to the contrary and they only taught one part of evolution when in fact there are 6 and the 6th one being what everyone is taught as fact. As christians we should teach our children about creation and help strengthen their faith in a living God that is powerful enough to make something out of nothing. Mind boggling isn't it? Reason #4 we wanted our children to have a 'living' education as Charlotte Mason taught to children in England many years ago. Our children get a wide variety of subjects to learn about and are also taught how to use what they learn in daily application. How people do you know (and maybe even yourself) that finished high school, went onto college and had no clue how to handle what the professors wanted? When you learn how to study something on your own you have limitless ways of finding information since you tend to 'think outside the box'. I am not saying that is the case for everyone that comes from a public school or from being homeschooled. We all learn differently and think differently.
Reson#5 we love having our kids all the time. I am not saying don't ever spend time away. My hubby and I LOVE to catfish and doing that late at night is hard on the kids. We usually go out one night to do this and they stay with their grandparents. It is fun for hubby and I to spend time together and the kids love to be able to spend a night with their grandparents. Wins for everyone.