The Joys Of Family and Hearth

"It isn't so much what's on the table that matters, as what's on the chairs." ~William S. Gilbert Came across this quote on facebook, and loved it. Often times we as busy people tend to forget about what is important. Especially when we think about entertaining others. We look at joyful fellowship as entertaining.  People will often say to me "oh you like to entertain".  And I really don't "entertain" I break bread, I fellowship, I visit, I invest, I listen, I hug, I cry and I laugh, with each person that comes into my home. As Christians if we adapt the worldly way of entertaining we miss the above. The world says make sure you house is 100% complete before you have people in. Make sure the drapes are hung, there is fancy new furniture in each and every room. China to serve a meal on. Alcohol to serve, 4, 5, 6, 7 course meals. Show your friends how accomplished you are by serving filet mignon and lobster tails. Talk about th...

This year was probably the first year in 18 years that I didn't spend Mother's Day in tears. Eighteen years ago, my grandmother passed away on Mother's Day.  She was such a sweet, compassionate woman.. always ready to feed anyone who walked in.  This is definitely one thing I've picked up from her!  This was also the first time in 5 years that we didn't spend camping. With hubby's new job, we are experiencing a lot of change. Change is good though. SO this year, I was determined to make Mother's Day Special for me and my children, especially with all the changes. I started with preparing on Saturday Night. I set the table with fancy plates. I set out the punch bowl, and we had a wonderful breakfast early Sunday morning before Church. It was quite pleasant. We had: blueberry muffins, pancakes, biscuits with sausage gravy, ambrosia, a delicious cranberry pomegranate punch, and fresh coffee. My daughter bought me a beautiful centerpiece of flower...

As a stay at home, homeschooling, run two at home businesses,  mom of many.. I have dubbed a certain time of day as "Chaos Hour".. For us this is usually the hour before my husband is due home from work. I am usually in the midst of making dinner, setting table, cleaning up from whatever project we had done during the day etc. etc. Because I try to create an atmosphere of peace for when hubby comes home, chaos hour.. is just that complete and utter chaos. It's the time of day when my phone will ring the most. It's the time when my little ones will want immediate answers to the worlds biggest questions.. Like "why are duck feathers green?" and it's is asked with such urgency.. like they must know NOW!! :) It's the hour when my oldest ones are either leaving for work, coming in from work, coming home from an outing etc. etc. It's also the time when someone gets hurt, someone needs me to talk to them privately, or the baby is crying and nee...

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20680580,00.html It is so exciting to me to see this young family fulfill their desires to follow the Lord by turning over their fertility to him. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” Genesis 9:7 When hubby and I were younger and started our family, we were pleasantly surprised to find out we were expecting, albeit it wasn't the perfect of circumstances. We weren't married, we weren't saved..I was on birth control and yet we knew that the life that was given to us was so special, and a gift. You see even tho, we weren't so many things, God had his hand on us. He was protecting us and guiding our ways even though we hadn't fully come to him yet. When we had our first child we decided that if God could bless us while using birth control then we knew it wasn't something under our control. So we at that time, still not saved yet.. decided we would leave it ...

While dh was unemployed we lost all sense of routine! Because our normal "routine" was that when Daddy was home it's all about him and what he wants to do. Well when he lost his job and was home everyday we continued in that pattern. It's all me and my children had known for the past 25 years! Now that he is back working again, Thank GOD!!! We are back to our normal routine! Yeah.. and hubby is feeling back to normal himself! Yea!!! With that being said I wanted to talk about being prepared for a storm.. As a christian woman God calls us to be certain things..  Think Proverbs 31.  I'm going to focus specifically on the ones below and how they help me to be prepared for what is to come. 15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. . Providing a nourishing, healthy meal for my family is important.. The more I read about what is in our foods the more I realize I have to be more dilige...

Proverbs 3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. For many months now we have lived this scripture.. When I say lived it I mean LIVED it. I know many will say they are a faithful people or person.. That they live this way.. But my experience has been a bit different. Yes, I would say I've lived a life of faith.. Sure.. But my husband had a job that provided well for us, we had health insurance, we had good vehicles, we "had" it "all" ... in the eyes of the world. We did not worry about where our next meal would come from. We didn't worry about friends we had many.. And then the bottom dropped. And now we LIVE a different type of faith. One that truly does depend on God for our every need to be met.. Our every desire to be fulfilled.  It's amazing how when one loses everything we learn to rely on our Lord so much stronger then we ever have. When my husband lost ...

It's been a while since I've updated my blog.. my apologies.  Our life was substantially turned upside down when Sandy hit just a little over 6 weeks ago. The cliche' of "you don't know what have until it's gone" is something we have been hearing over and over again over the past 6 weeks. The isolation of our neighborhood is mocking to those of us still here. Our close knit shore neighborhood was hit extremely hard by Sandy. She wiped most of it out. 90% of it at least is uninhabitable. People are gone, Homes are gone, Memories remain, but the place where those memories we made are GONE. This blog post is even hard for me to write.. How do I effectively communicate the loss, yet expressly communicate how blessed we were through it all? My heart is torn between those who lost it all..and myself who by the grace of God did not. I still have a hard time fathoming why... I know I can't question God or why he does what he does. I know only th...