Thoughts on a Possible Nonapocalypse*

An old picture, but pretty awesome, no?

I thought I may do some writing in the next few days or possibly weeks about some of the ways my mind is being renewed (I hope it's renewing and not malfunctioning..lol).



The main theme for this line of thinking is that Jesus may or may not be coming back very very soon, but that is okay, either way. It is now becoming more important to me what I am doing to show His love in these last or maybe not so last times.



Eschatology is something that I have always been very passionate about, right from the very beginning of my walk. The thought that we were in the final generation and Christ could come back any second was something that never really disturbed me. Others would say things like they wanted to see their kids grow up or they were not ready and such and I couldn't imagine why.





So here is me, little miss end times, making sure all my loved ones know that Jesus is coming back any minute and they had better be getting it together. Meanwhile, Lazarus (proverbially) is lying outside my gates.





Not that there is anything wrong with being prophetically minded, but something was certainly lacking in my spirituality. I was becoming a big noisy noise. I had no love. It was about this time last year that the Lord started to shake things up, force me to think about how I saw Him, my family, and people in general.





And here is something I found out:

Upon listening to some teachers who focus was on love, it just so happened that a couple are not premillenial (gasp!) and even though I don't agree with them, I was able to give their eschatology a hearing and discovered that they (this man was a preterist) aren't scripturally illiterate monsters, but have taken what they honestly feel the text says. The verses they have to explain away are no more ridiculous or numerous than the ones we futurists do.

I'm not ready to jump camps at all, I just realized that we are all imperfect, we are all trying to make sense of it, and we are all His children.



Paul says:
...for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;  and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.



more to come...perhaps.

*title disclaimer...I do believe that Jesus will physically return to this earth, and that there will be an end times scenario...just maybe not as soon as I once thought.

Tree Fun

Remember the drum set from last summer?

Mr. Invention (my second-born: this is now his bloggy name) built this on a super-hot Sunday afternoon

It soon moved into the garage to keep him out of the elements





 Then it's pieces were dispersed for other things.





It's back baby!

Behold the tree drums!

Clouds XVII

 

Upon looking outside, my six year old exclaims:

"Wow! Blue Clouds"

Wow:)

Cleaning FInals

The final day of my cleaning weeks was a very nice one.  After Thursday's day of rain and gloom, here comes sunshine.

It is easier to climb this way.

I got some of the windows done, sunshine and all, and gave the dining room chairs a good scrub and dry outside.

Just catchin' some rays

I see a helper in the background

For all of you keeping score:

• Wash all living room/ dining room/ kids' room curtains (DONE)
• Ditto on the windows (MOSTLY DONE)
• Clean all living room and dining room upholstery (DONE)
• Wash down all furniture (SORT OF)
• Dust (or wash if needed) the walls and baseboards in these areas (KIND OF)
• Mop all area floors (SOMEWHAT)
• Organize the linen closet (CHECK!)
• De clutter, give or throw stuff away. (YES)
• Get fall/winter clothes ready to go for the kids. (FINIS)

Yay for cleaning.

The Whole Yard is Getting Lazy

I was discussing my lazy basketball hoop the other day.

Slacker

Mr. (or Mrs.) Tree thought he/she would also have a lie down.

Wind and rain did it in Wednesday night.

I'll just put up my roots and some of your yard, too.

It will be easier to climb this way.

The "pine cone" tree is threatening to strike as well.

One good gust and I'm outta here!

Curds and Whey

whey and curds

Take off the whey and it's cream cheese, who knew?

That's all the "yogurt" left after straining out the whey

I got this crazy idea to use whey to soak grains and such (see here).




Whether I actually do it or not, we'll see.  At least I can make some cheesecake:)

I see you over there...I'm getting to you.

Don't Sit There I Just Cleaned That!

I'm thankful for removable cushion covers and a nice line-drying day!

Just kidding,



I won't say that;)



I decided not to clean windows yesterday as it was sunny and I remember from last year's window washing that it is best to clean them on a cloudy day. So I'm hoping for some cloudiness this week without rain for just a little bit.



Instead I removed what could be removed from the other two couches and threw 'em in the machine. I will clean the rest the hard way later. 


I also seem to have an awful lot of kitchen work that is keeping me busy, but I guess that just goes with gardening, and /or buying fresh food in bulk. Whew!

Hello wheat spout-lets

So far the week has started on a good note, and I'm taking some advice that it isn't important if everything is super clean! If my whole list gets done and I lose my peace, or neglect to show the love of Christ (i.e. giving my children the impression that clean windows are more important than they are) then it is definitely not worth it.

Our neighbor's fire pit. An inviting area for the kiddos to roast weenies or just sit and talk to him....a great neighbor.

Monday Facts

Fact: I'm lacking motivation to keep posting about my two week fall clean.

Fact: I didn't get much done on Friday.

Fact: I still have about half of my list to do and I wanna do none of it!

Fact: It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days after today, so I guess I'm going outside to clean windows.

Good Morning world!

Fact: I will take baby-steps, set my timer and go.

Fact: We went to the apple orchard yesterday after church.

Fact: I bought a bushel of apples.

Fact: That is a lot of apples.

Fact: My dear family is expecting me to make some apple butter.

Fact: I don't like apple butter, applesauce, or apple pie.

Fact: I did have some warm apple crisp at the orchard that was topped with ice cream. (I also suspect it was drugged since I wanted to sleep immediately after eating it).

Fact: I had to wash caramel out of my two year old's hair upon getting home.

That's only about half of them..and FACT my fridge needs cleaning.

Fact: I've linked up my Monday Facts here.

Distracted...but Still Chugging Along

Still blogging away about my adventures in fall cleaning here. 



'Twas kind of a strange day yesterday...rainy and blah (not complaining) after being spoiled with several days of unseasonably warm and sunny weather.

See?...blah. About the basketball goal on its side...don't ask.

I lacked...the motivation.  Plus, seeing as it were rainy, I chucked any and all window washing plans and just decided to go with the flow.





On a break, I popped on over to one of my fav-or-ite blogs which led me to this blog and several subsequent youtube videos and I kind of blew some of my afternoon project time...but that's okay.






We are on break after all. I have been pondering about some food preservation ideas (more later) and this went right along with it, so I'll count it as home-economics research.





Actual WORK done:


I washed up one of the couches (we have three) and got one of the boys outfitted for the winter.  I also found a few boxes of clothes that everyone here has outgrown and marked those for giving away.




And the research.;)

Big Box O' Weeds

Or as I see them, very useful and beautiful plants.

Ahhh, my lovelies

Very useful and also overgrown  and neglected plants that the Mr. was asking me to do something about. The motherwort is taking over the box. Hubby keeps assuring me that we can take a whole bunch out next year (and I would never miss it) to make room for other things... I don't know.

Remember me? I'm still here ya know.

Sure, it's more than I will ever use, but still. She's so happy there and that makes me happy, but a new friend has joined the box (more on this later) and I'd like to give it some room.





So I took a detour from my fall cleaning to deal with that and some tomatoes (more on that later too).  I did get the window and curtains washed in the girls' room.  The dining room curtains took a ride with them in the washer and are now clean as well.

Clean curtains and trimmed-back weed plant box.

Boys and Dollar Store Curtain Rods...

Don't mix.

Flimsy white-painted metal is no match for 4 energy monkeys

The rod had been twisted for some time, but I knew once taking it down to wash the curtains, that it wasn't going back up.  After trying to bend the rod back into place and realizing that is was pretty much done (as in one more move and snap), I had an idea!

The top of the blinds I kept...for JUST this kind of thing;-)

We never did take down the hanging hardware from our old roller blinds. Since I kept the top of them for some bizarre reason (the blinds themselves long torn to shreds), I figured I would try this out for awhile...at least until I get to the store to buy a new rod.

I made the curtains myself..check it:)  They hang a little lower this way, but totally acceptable.

So today's work produced clean windows, clean curtains, and one slightly skeptical mama that I will be able to make it through the entire list.

I've linked up this post at This Good Steward for WOW (World of Work Wednesday). Pop on over and share your work!

Fall Clean Kick-Off

I'm documenting my fall cleaning this year just for accountability fun.



I admitted in an earlier post that my housekeeping had become pretty lax over the last several years and I was ready to stop the madness.




Last year we took one week off, and I was very excited to get my big ol' list done. What was left of me at the end of the "break" wasn't very rested, so I have been setting more realistic goals.  The section of the house for fall is the living room/dining room area, and since I've added an extra week, I'm going to try to get to the kids' rooms too.


Over the next two weeks I my goals are to:

• Wash all living room/ dining room/ kids' room curtains
• Ditto on the windows
• Clean all living room and dining room upholstery
• Wash down all furniture
• Dust (or wash if needed) the walls and baseboards in these areas
• Mop all area floors
• Organize the linen closet
• De clutter, give or throw stuff away.
• Get fall/winter clothes ready to go for the kids.

So yesterday, day one, I was really easy on myself. I mapped out my goals and then tackled the linen closet. Done and done.

I'll spare you the before picture (since there isn't one.)   Hey guess what else? I finally remembered that my camera has a flash...duh! So enjoy a well-lit pic;)

I removed about half of what was in there that we will no longer be needing (crib sheets..sniff) and full sheets since the girls are now in bunk beds. They will be finding a good home, I hope!

No Complaining Fail

We had a really blessed but busy weekend. Some awesome people from our church took us out for a ballgame and lunch on Saturday.




Sunday, I had some extremely tired and coughing kids that had to stay home from church while one of them and I went it alone. The Mr. was on cough patrol.




Then it was off to Grandma's house for the day (she doesn't care if the kids are sick). A nice time was had by all; dinner, family, and such.



By the time we got home last night I was toast. And then it happened...resentment started rearing it's ugly head. (How's come I gotta do all this stuff while the kids and the Mr. get to just relax?) I mean, I have lunch to pack, laundry that has been neglected for the better part of the weekend, dishes to do, and tomatoes that need to be dealt with.

Deal with us!

Yeah, where've you been?

I didn't ask anyone for help, but just got huffy. FAIL

The kindnesses of Jehovah! For we have not been consumed, For not ended have His mercies.

New every morning, abundant [is] thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23



We are taking a fall break from school this week so I can do some fall cleaning (and catch up on your blogs out there!)

Friday Fun

ht- Watcher Meetup;)

Pesto!

Today I'm linking up with Petra's Wednesday's World of Work at This Good Steward.

Basil from our garden...check!

Walnuts I bought from the Farmer's market that no one wanted to fight with...check!

Fancy food processor....no check.

There's no way I'm going to do all of that...Mr. Blender says.

My lofty goal was to pesto up all that basil, but after finding out my blender wasn't up for the task, and neither was I doing it by hand, I did a little pesto and the rest of my basil is being frozen and dried.

No one but me eats it anyway.

Mmmmm: frozen pesto cubes:)

No Complaining

I don't normally do the link up or blog button/challenge thing, but this was just perfect for me at this time.

Petra has posted this challenge and I'm taking it up:

Visit This Good Steward :)

31 days of no complaining! What a great exercise. Will I mess up? Probably. Will I try? Certainly!

What did do I complain about most?

1.) My aches/pains

2.) Having so much to do at times

3.) Having my schedule changed/rocked by unannounced guests, emergencies, acts of God, etc.

4.) The weather

5.) Lastly, I need to be more hospitable. This I will just leave at that so as not to name names:)

How can we flip these around?

1.) I am in pretty good health and nothing is so bad that it is debilitating.

2.) My busy-ness is a direct result of the many little blessings the Lord has given me to care for. I should never be irritated at this wonderful task.

3.) Sometimes we need a change of pace and unexpected changes test our flexibility.

4.) This one is just silly....but we all do it. Besides, the Lord has well taken care of us in this area, too. In cold and heat.

5.) Hebrews 13:2

Please visit Petra and grab a button!

What are your areas of complaining weakness?

One of the boys made this in Sunday school some months back.  I stuck it here in the Footprints poem frame temporarily because I thought it was a good reminder. It's funny, I stare at this thing everyday from my teaching seat:)

Resolutions ~ Being Slow to Speak

Here's another one.





It's a tough one...but I know that spiritually, the rewards are beyond measure.





James wasn't kidding when he writes about the tongue! Do you ever find yourself just blabbing on about someone.....it's not gossip, it's information. Yeah right.




This is my next resolution. I have nothing nice (or productive, or edifying) to say I will do my best to stay silent. Of course there is time for rebuke and such with the children, but I'm not talking about that. I resolve not to pick fights, tear someone else down, or just plain be a talebearer. This is a hard one for the ladies, but with His spirit, I am willing to try!