I can’t believe that it is already November and that we are streaking toward Thanksgiving already!!! It also means that the weather is calming down so it is time for comfort food!
Monday: Vacation Food!!!
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: Corned Beef, Potatoes, Broccoli
Thursday: Chicken Pot Pies
Friday: Chili Mac and Cheese for the kiddos!
My women’s Bible study has been doing a time of corporate stillness (we don’t wanted to use the word journaling;). This is just what I was mulling over on Tuesday….
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Lord, how this verse has always called to me. At first it was just the first part of the verse, that all would work out for my good. I held to that to get me through life for years. I have always had a lot of frustration over having my family, my upbringing, and the family issues that I still have. But I knew it had to be good for me, right? So where was my good? Where was my happy? But Lord, You don’t just give us good things that we want and make us happy.
As my faith in the Lord grew, the second part of the verse began to make sense to me. Lord, I finally realized that is was not only good but the Lord’s plan. I have been called according to the Lord’s plan and the Lord’s purpose. That good wasn’t necessarily my happiness but the Lord’s glory. I was created to bring the Lord glory so as long as that happens through the plan of my life, it is for my good.
Now I see how the Lord has used the bad in my life for my good and and for His glory. Help me to always focus on that!
“And no good thing will You withhold from him who walks with You. Oh my Lord, blessed is the man who trusts in You” (It is from a song that I used to hear, I think it is from Psalms)
That is my contribution to Theology Thursday. If you have written anything this week that has anything to do with your theology, please link up! It can be straight from scripture or just an inspired thought that has to do with your relationship with God and Jesus Christ! Make sure that you link to your specific piece and not your blog, or the link will be removed. Also, please only submit a piece that fits this subject or it will be removed. And please link back here so that everyone else knows where the fun is!
Here is another fun picture from our big fair trip! They had these huge bubble set ups! So fun!
I love snickerdoodles! Not only and they yummy, they are a perfect recipe to make with your kids. Even if you don’t have them actually mix up the dough, they can roll the balls to shape them and roll them in cinnamon sugar!
Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
cinnamon and sugar (in a 1/2 ratio)
Process:
1. Mix shortening, sugar and eggs. Then blend in the dry ingredients.
2. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and then roll in the mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
OK, this post has been mulling around in my head and I have sat down to write it multiple times this weekend. But I have been hesitant because I am not sure of the response that I will get from my friends;).
I was listening to a local radio guy, Austin Hill I think, and he was talking about how some states are fighting the feds over the health insurance issue and Arizona fighting over immigration. But he said that to take on the Federal government over pot (Proposition 19) was stupid. Well, I strongly disagree! I think this is the one issue that the liberals and the conservatives can come together. Health care is a definite party issue as is immigration. This is an issue that we can unite on. But let’s back up to why I think we should be taking on the Federal government to begin with.
I know that I am not the only person who thinks that the Federal government has overstepped their purview time after time. Here in Central California we had our water shut off over a fish, they tell us how to run our schools and legislate in various areas that they just don’t belong in. Other than being annoyed, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution tells us that the Federal Government is over stepping.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This is commonly known as the States Rights Amendment. It basically means that anything that wasn’t included in the Constitution was up to the States to legislate or regulate. I think that the Federal government has forgotten that it exists merely to support the States and protect basic individual rights.
I feel that Proposition 19 gives us the opportunity, nay the responsibility to take our government back!
Now before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, there are lots of things that I don’t like that are legal. I think smoking is bad for you and strip clubs are stupid. But people have a right to be stupid;). Why to we have to outlaw pot? Do you realize that alcohol was never as popular as it was during prohibition. Not to mention the fact that prohibition made gangsters like Al Capone. Maybe, just maybe legalizing it would take the thrill out of people who are just using it to rebel. Not to mention the fact that it is seen as a reasonable treatment in some medical conditions.
I don’t think I will ever smoke pot and that isn’t why I want to vote to legalize it. I could go down the road explaining the tax revenue that our state could acquire but that isn’t the real issue either. I want to take back our rights and stop allowing Big Brother to be well, Big Brother. This can be our first battle! I say vote yes on Proposition 19!!!!
The We are Clark Kent Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up over on Corn and Oil! Go check it out!
It is time for some free/nearly free tech! This week we look at 3 Bible study resources!
First up is the most commonly known, Bible Gateway. Bible Gateway has a super easy to use interface. You can put passages in and then chose which one of many versions (in many languages) you want so see the passage in. You can also do a topical search for verses based on Nave’s Topical Bible. Bible Gateway also has audio Bibles, commentaries and Bible dictionaries. I find the searches a little hit and miss, personally.
E-Sword is a free downloadable tool. It can compare various versions, had all the Strong’s Greek and Hebrew numbers. It also has some commentaries and some versions that come with it. You can purchase other translations and commentaries fairly inexpensively, then you are buying the access codes so you can can put them on all your computers. E-Sword also has dictionaries, journaling abilities, scheduling and more included for free. We really like it and I paid the $20 to NASB so I could be off line. I haven’t been using it all that long so I am still discovering all the hidden features;).
The last tool I have for you today is my personal favorite, Blue Letter Bible. Blue Letter Bible has all the features in the other tools, except the audio reading of the Scripture, and so much more! They have maps, audio commentaries, timelines, introductions to the Books of the Bible and more. This is free, online and my all time favorite!!
So here is a little tech for your Bible study. Is there any other tools that you like to use?
Make sure you come back next Tuesday to see what free (or nearly free) tech resource I am going to blog about on Tech Tuesday!
It is time to think about food again! Another week and another 5 dinners!
Monday: Beans, Rice with Spinach and Tortillas
Tuesday: Spinach Sausage Casserole, French Toast
Wednesday: Dinner at Church
Thursday: Corned Beef, Buttery Rolls, Broccoli, Potatoes
Friday: Pasta Bake, Buttery Rolls
This week’s Monday Mingle is all about shoes! What kind, how many, and a couple crazy shoe stories! So are you a shoe person?
Romans 6:13 (New American Standard Bible)
13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
As some of you may have deduced, I am working through a Bible Study in Romans;)
We were asked what the use of the word “instruments” suggested to us. And something a little different popped out to me. The use of the word instrument talks about our bodies as a tool or something used to help accomplish something. So that implies that neither sin nor righteousness is actually a part of us but something we allow to use us.
That is both a refreshing and humbling. I am a person who is good at guilt. Even though I am forgiven of my sins, I tend to hold onto the guilt because that wrong must be part of me. That situation where you have been forgiven but you worry that that past sin defines your personality. So it is hard to move on sometimes. So it is refreshing to think that I was a tool that sin used instead of it being a defining character trait.
But it is also humbling because that also means that the righteousness I do is not intrinsic to me. That righteousness is working through me.
Of course, I know what I want to be a tool for but it isn’t by my strength but through Christ alone.
That is my contribution to Theology Thursday. If you have written anything this week that has anything to do with your theology, please link up! It can be straight from scripture or just an inspired thought that has to do with your relationship with God and Jesus Christ! Make sure that you link to your specific piece and not your blog, or the link will be removed. Also, please only submit a piece that fits this subject or it will be removed. And please link back here so that everyone else knows where the fun is!