God’s Great Covenant~Review

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of pretty much everything Classical Academic Press puts out, it’s thanks to the Old Schoolhouse Crew that I discovered them last year.  So every time an opportunity comes up for me to review another set of their books I jump right on it, I want to see if they are consistently as wonderful as I think they are.  I’m happy to say that God’s Great Covenant, New Testament 1 does not disappoint!

Written for children ages 4th grade and up, God’s Great Covenant teaches the amazing story of Jesus, from birth to his sacrificial death.  It covers the importance of who Jesus was and the significance of what He did for us.  This is so foundational to our faith!  There are 36 weekly chapters divided into 4 themed units.

          

Each chapter contains a memory verse, charts, questions, worksheets, quizzes and a reading portion.  The set I received to review included the MP3 files, which I think are just fantastic.  Christopher Perrin (he is the narrator for The Tale of Two Princesses on Headventureland) has a very appealing voice and my children are already familiar with him, so it’s like being read to by a friend!  Here’s a link to view a sample of the student workbook.

There is very minimal teacher prep required.  This is pretty much an open-up-and-work-your-way-through book.  The teacher book has extra information to share with your child, it’s up to you if you want to teach that to your child or not.  Depending on their age and attention span you might not use the extra information, but it’s fascinating to read anyway!  Here’s a link to see a portion of the teacher’s book. 

I love that this book focuses on fact…this isn’t a book of theory and speculation, it’s a line up on line, precept upon precept teaching of who Christ was and is and more importantly the proof that confirms it all.  This makes it PERFECT in my opinion.

God’s Great Covenant bundle, which includes the student workbook, the teacher book and the MP3 downloads,  sells for $56.95 from the Classical Academic website. 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

To see what other Crew Members thought of the God’s Great Covenant, visit the Crew Blog!

Disclaimer-I was given this book bundle from Classical Academic Press for the purpose of this review.  All opinions expressed here are my own, I was not paid.

A message to young ladies~Move Quickly!

As a family we have a goal of reading through the Bible this year, as I’ve mentioned before.  One day last week when we were reading through Genesis and the account of how Rebekah became Isaac’s bride, I was struck with something, she moved QUICKLY!

Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her.  And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher and came up.  And the servant ran to her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”  So she said, “Drink my lord.”  Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink.  And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”  They she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for his camels.  Genesis 24:16-20

Then a few verses later…

So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household of these things. vs. 28

Her quick movements got the attention of Abraham’s servant when he recapped what had happened, here he is speaking to Rebekah’s family,

And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. vs. 46

There is more evidence of her moving quickly throughout the rest of this story, but I don’t want to focus on their short engagement, I want to focus on the way she physically moved-quickly!

Noah Webster defines quickly as: Speedily; with haste or celerity (Rapidity in motion; swiftness; speed).  Rebekah was not lollygagging, she was not slow and mellow, she was purposed, earnest, FAST!  I love it!  It’s attractive in a young lady to see her moving quickly about her tasks.  It’s a beautiful thing to see a young lady know her position and purpose and do it with elegance and joy.  Being quick speaks to her commitment to doing the thing which she set out to do or was asked to do.  It’s no small task watering 10 camels until they have had enough!  Quickness testifies to determination, exuberance, passion. 

Think about the opposite of Quick:  lazy, slow, sluggish.  I hope I never have to use those words to describe my daughters!  And I hope they never use those words to describe me!

There is a young lady in my life that reminds me of Rebekah.  In her purposed joyful movements I can see a glimpse of the woman that she will become.  A woman who will (and does) approach every request with determination, every situation with exuberance and joy.  She has pizzazz and it’s attractive, she has a million friends because of it!  She will be a fantastic wife and mother one day, using that energy, that quickness to do the things she needs to do, honoring her husband and her Lord!  I have no doubt she will be able to keep up with whatever surprises the Lord sends her way because she’s quick, like Rebekah!

So my exhortation to the young ladies who read my blog and the young ladies in my life, be quick, be purposed, be swift! Do the things you need to do and do them with joy and gusto, without hesitation.  The blessings of God followed Rebekah and I wouldn’t be surprised if they follow YOU too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Balancing the Sword Giveaway!!

My super awesome husband is giving away a set of Balancing the Sword books!  Our heart’s desire is to get people into the Word, and since many people resolve to read their Bible more in the new year, what better way to help them reach their goal than to give away a set of books!!

There’s still a week left to enter!  Please read the directions carefully and have fun! Click here to enter!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

The World’s Greatest Story~Review

My latest review for the Old Schoolhouse is called The World’s Greatest Stories.  If you are anything like us, you love to have wonderful CD’s and possibly even a few Cassette Tapes around for your children to listen too.  We have been collecting CD’s for YEARS!  My little ones are listening to CD’s that we bought when my teens were little.  Even my teens enjoy listening to those CD’s, now that they are older, and the happy memories they invoke.

Well, here’s a new set of CD’s to add to your collection.  The World’s Greatest Stories is the Bible, alive on CD. 

We received Volume 1-The Prophets.  George W. Sarris is the mastermind behind this high-quality production.  His CD’s are Bible and nothing more but so much more.  He reads the Bible, word for word, from either the KJV or NIV version of the Bible.  His voice changes with the reading, appropriate to who is speaking and what is being said.  There’s also sound effects and music.  You can hear a sample here.

I love it that he’s reading the Bible, not adding to it, not taking away from it.  My children loved it too! 

Turning it UP!  He didn’t want to miss any of it!

The price is very affordable as well, $7.95 for a CD or Cassette.  He has several different portions of the Bible to choose from.  Visit the The World’s Greatest Story Website to learn more about Mr. Sarris and his vision.  And visit the crew blog to see what other Crew Members thought!

Merry Christmas!

Mrs. Taffy

Taffy, Dolls and Offenses

So this weekend I got to feel the pull of the Great Candy Maker once again as He stretched this piece of taffy and exposed some things in my heart.

It all started on Friday when Mr. Taffy was offered a full-time job at a regional bank.  His title is Vice President, Senior Product Manager.  Tears of joy leaked from my eyes as I saw that title and heard all the benefits that come with it.  God is so faithful!  Since word of the new job we decided to go ahead with our plans to find a shed for our backyard.  We found a cute one on Craig’s list and Saturday morning went to see it in person. 

The house and neighborhood we went too was AMAZING!  Amazing in a wealthy sort of way.  Huge homes, 4 car garages, acreage surrounding each house.  In particular, the house we visited had a full size tennis/basket ball court, two trampolines, an indoor swimming pool…on the list went.  They clearly were doing well financially.  Guess what else?  They are believers, with 6 children too!  After the Mr. of the house showed us the shed he showed us other numerous things that he was selling, they are moving to Florida, to a plantation.  Lovely home, lovely family, evidence of a relationship with Christ everywhere.  So where was the pulling exactly?

It’s not that I was jealous.  I am very much thankful and content in our home and in the belongings we have, sure sometimes I get iPad envy, but other than that I’m not generally jealous of wealthy people or other people’s stuff. I have to tell you that I got a little offended and here’s why.

He started saying talking about blessing someone, then called his daughter who proceeded to show us a box full of  various dolls, two of which were Bitty Baby dolls.  Not only were there Bitty Baby, but there were a couple of those Bitty Baby wicker suitcases and three generic baby dolls.  He told us how his daughter had already sold $1200 worth of American Girl stuff.  She must have had a lot!  Anyway, he asked her how much she wanted for the dolls.  He made an assumption here, that I wanted the dolls (1st offense).  He then did some strange sort of negotiating, probably somewhat how he’s been so successful, it was little over my head, but he offered the dolls to us for $25.00 and asked his daughter if that was what she wanted for them.  His daughter was extremely shy and uncomfortable and just kept saying she didn’t care. “I don’t care Daddy.”  “I don’t care Daddy.”  Clearly she did though because she eventually ran out of the garage in tears.  So, in typical garage sale fashion I made a counter offer.  I offered $10.00 for one doll and one basket, seemed far since 1) I didn’t really want the dolls and 2) he started the bidding at $25.00 for all of it. 

The next thing I know Mr. Taffy is offering $100.00 for the whole lot!  WHAT?  (Offense #2)  Apparently while all this was going on the Holy Spirit had already told Mr. Taffy to offer the girl $100 for it all.  Who am I to argue with Holy Spirit?  My third offense came when I focused on how I felt manipulated to buy a bunch of junky dolls.  Instead, my focus should have been on the joy that comes when being obedient.  Really, the dolls aren’t the issue.  Lord knows I love dolls, the Lord also knows I love a good deal, this scenario wasn’t about either.  It was about the little girl who needed to know that God knew her and what she wanted for those dolls that were once very precious to her.  Her dad later told us that yes indeed, $100 was what she wanted for those dolls but was too shy to say.  I don’t know exactly why he said the whole blessing thing and $25.00 thing from the start, but that doesn’t really matter (that’s where I felt manipulated).  What matters is how I let myself focus on my offenses instead of the joy and blessings that come from being obedient and from blessing somebody. 

Bubble Gum Taffy is very happy with her new Asian Bitty Baby and Wicker Suitcase.   I have the second Bitty Baby to pack away and save for Marshmallow when she gets older and I have some dolls to donate to the Thrift store that sends all it’s money to an orphanage in Honduras, there’s a very happy little girl in a mini-mansion in small town Minnesota and I was blessed to have the Lord reveal some issues with my heart.  Phew! It’s been a busy weekend!

“For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.”  Proverbs 3:12

“ My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”  Hebrews 12:5-6

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S.  As a side note…Mr. Taffy did assure me that he KNEW that wasn’t a deal, it was all about the little girl and had nothing really to do with the dolls.  I’m so relieved to know that he knows that!  lol

Go Wash Your Hands!

Do you find yourself saying this as much as I do? When my children come in from playing outside they always want to come talk to me right away. They want to tattle or they want to tell me a funny story or they want to complain about a “buzzing sound” or some swing set injustice. Whatever it is, I find myself telling them to go wash their hands-FIRST. It’s almost like I can’t even hear them without clean hands. They aren’t thinking about all the dirt or sand or mud they are leaving on my walls and railings, they just want to be able to instantly tell me what’s on their mind.  To read the rest click here…

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Who Is God?~Review

Who is God?  And Can I really Know Him?  Written by John Hay and David Webb, published Apologia.  Hard Cover, 252 Pages.

This beautifully constructed and well-written book is the first in a series called What We Believe.  There are only 10 Lessons in this book, but they are BIG lessons!  Each lesson is designed to last approximately 2 weeks but this is an incredibly flexible book and each lesson can take longer or shorter as needed.  Aimed at children between the ages of 6 & 14, and designed to be used independently or taught, depending on the ages of the children learning from it.

Here’s a few Lesson Titles to give you a small sampling of the topics covered:

• Where Am I Building my Life?
• How Can I Know What is True?
• What is God Like?  (part 1 & 2)
• If God Created the World, Why isn’t it Perfect?
• Is Jesus the Only Way to God?

It’s suggested that children make a notebook while going through this book, to keep track of notes, scriptures and activities associated with each lesson.  Elements of the child's notebook would include:

• The Big Idea
• Words You Need to Know
• Hide it in Your Heart
• Prayer
• World View Study
• House of Truth

The introduction of the book has a handy sample lesson plan and a website and password to give you MORE resources to help teach this important subject.  The website includes Teacher Helps for each lesson and several downloadable note-booking pages for each lesson.  Also, there are many, many important links included on this special website including but not limited to: on-line study Bibles, books on Apologetics and movie/game reviews.

My favorite part of the book is the Short Story section of each chapter that shows this Godly worldview in a relevant and active way.

Apologia sells Who is God?  And Can I Really Know Him? for $39.00.  To see a sample lesson click here.  To see other topics in the What We Believe Series click here.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-As part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew I was given this book in exchange for my honest review.  I was not paid.  To see what other members of the Crew thought click the picture below.

Idleness

We’ve all read Proverbs 31, most of us have probably read it more than once and maybe we have even tried to master a few of the virtues this amazing woman accomplished seemingly daily.  There’s  one part that has been on my mind lately, it’s verse 27.

“She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

I’ve been thinking about what “bread of idleness'” means.  Since I make my own bread I figured I should be able to pull some deeper truth out of this statement.  We’ll see!

To read the rest of the article click here.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Conspiracy’s

Have you ever been convicted of something or had a strong passion about something but never had the exact Biblical Proof to back up that conviction or passion? For example, when I was a teenager, I KNEW that I had to be a stay-at-home mom and have a houseful of children, but I didn’t know that the Bible spoke specifically to that until a few years later.

It’s happened again recently…I’m so excited to share with you the proof I found for another conviction I have!

To read the rest, click the picture above!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

God’s Formula for Peace

While reading through Philippians I discovered this nifty little formula. Maybe you’ve already discovered it but it seemed new to me this time reading through.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

See the formula? Prayer + Thanksgiving= Peace in our heart and mind

I think the reason this is so significant to me right now is because I have joined another blog in making an effort to create a peaceful home. Surely every time we try to make this kind of change all manner of unpeacefulness erupts!

If you want to read more click here.

 

Preparing for a Crowd

We have home fellowship that meets in our home every other Saturday evening.  This has been a wonderful blessing to our family.  A while back I prayed and asked the Lord to send a family with teens, for my teens.  Most of the children at our fellowship are under 12.  I was so excited when my husband told me that a family with 14 children (yes you read that correctly) was coming to fellowship with us!  And in that crowd of children-14 and 15 year old boys!  God is so Good!  I’m not stuck on making sure my children have friends that are their age, but with my sons working in a secular environment they need Christian peers.  With that said, I want to show you how I got set up for our night of fellowship.

We had the potential of having a total of 39 people over, only 30 could make it.  Still, I wanted to be prepared.  Here’s the transformation of our main floor:

We had all children 12 and under take a seat first, and their parents or older sibling served them.  This was to avoid the potential grid lock at the serving counter.  This worked great!  What was on the menu you ask?

Spaghetti and Meatballs- I used 6 boxes of Wal-Mart brand whole wheat spaghetti noodles, 4 of those big Prego spaghetti sauce jars from Sam’s Club and 200 Venison meatballs that I made.  One family brought a huge salad.  Another brought bread, and we had loads of cookies!

This picture is before I got done adding all the noodles.  I can’t believe it but we have some leftovers!  Not a ton, but one of the things I worried about the most was having enough food, there was plenty!

We drink Reverse Osmosis water, which can be slow in the making, so throughout the day I filled up our big water cooler and 6 of these big mason jars full of water.  I put two on each table to keep thirsty little people in their chairs.

Another area of concern was shoes.  It’s a MN tradition to remove your shoes when you come into somebody’s house, especially if it’s snowy outside.  Sure enough, it was snowy yesterday.  We dealt with this by having our children be runners and as people took off their shoes, they would run them into another room and set them on a rug.  This worked really well, we don’t have that much room right at our front door and 60 shoes takes up a lot of room! (Mr. Taffy gets all the credit for this idea!) Another child was running coats back to the office.

The secret to our successful evening was hearts willing to serve-not just mine but my children’s also!  I couldn’t have done all of this without them!  And leaning heavily on God, who knew exactly how the evening would play out.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship, we made new friends and reconnected with old ones!  My husband taught us about what communion is and isn’t and I got to rejoice with my bestest, she newly pregnant and I’m SOOO excited we are pregnant at the same time! 

If God asks you to do something hard or out of your comfort zone, do it!  Don’t panic, don’t fret.  He wouldn’t have asked you to do it if He didn’t KNOW you could!

Why do we do this you may be wondering?  Here’s the simple reason…

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”  Hebrews 10: 23-25

As believers we need each other.  Our fellowship time gives us a tiny glimpse of heaven and is a wonderful faith building, joy producing, belly filling reminder that we are not alone!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Thankfulness Challenge

It seems everywhere I turn in the Bible lately I’m reading how the Lord wants us to be thankful.

First in Philippians I learned that praying with thankfulness is the key to peace and a sound mind.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

In Romans Paul writes, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” 1:20-21

What? That almost sounds like their futile thoughts and darkened hearts were in part due to unthankfulness! Scary!

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations!” Psalm 100: 4-5

When we come before the Father in prayer, not only do we need to come with a humble heart, and a repentive heart, but also with a thankful heart!

You know some day’s it’s near impossible to think of something to be thankful for, those are the days that I usually find myself praying more frequently too. I wonder if being thankful allows God to hear our prayers better, respond sooner. I’m pretty sure God knows it’s part of our sinful nature to be ungrateful, that’s why He filled His word with reminders!

I remember reading about Corrie Ten Boom, she thanked God for the lice in prison, because it kept the guards away so they could talk about the Lord! Can you imagine? Isn’t that humbling?

This month of November I am going to strive everyday and in every situation to find things to be thankful for! I want my heart filled with thankfulness so their isn’t room for bitterness and strife, envy and malice. Will you strive with me? Will you join me in this thankfulness challenge? The world needs to see God’s children as thankful and happy, not discontent and ungrateful! We are children of the King and one day our longings and sorrows will disappear as we kneel before the King of Kings! That alone should keep our hearts filled with thankfulness for at least a hundred years! I can’t wait for that day!

Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Thankfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S. Don’t be surprised if your thankfulness is contagious! :)

Keep Standing

Last week, as a family, we went through the book of Ephesians. What a great book of the Bible! During our fellowship time my husband had all the adults and children alike share what impacted them most in the book. It’s great to hear children talk about scripture, their interpretation is so pure. I’m going to share the part of Ephesians that impacted me the most and hope it encourages you too.

Remember a while ago when our family was going through a tremendously looooooonnnnngggg trail of joblessness. During that same time we came under persecution from our friends and leadership. It was an extremely hard time. I haven’t thought about it much since we’ve made it to the other side, but reading Ephesians and seeing all my underlining and circling, reminded me of that struggle and what the Lord spoke to me during that time.

Stand.

To read more click here…

Fickle Apples

Every morning Laffy Taffy wakes up begging me for food. He wakes up before everyone else and is usually famished! So he’ll ask me for a yogurt or a string cheese. This morning he woke up asking for an apple. Cherishing the quiet of the morning and loathing the idea of him crying if I said no, I gave it to him.

To read more click here…

Job-As in the book of the Bible

Not to be confused with a job...which we are praying for and may actually have an answer too... but that will have to wait for another post. :o) Job. I think we all have an opinion of the book of Job, whether we've read it or not, we think that Job was a righteous man, that God allowed the devil to basically torment Job-but not kill him and we know that Job lost everything. We might even know that Job had some friends that talked a lot and if you've studied creation science you might know that Job talks about dinosaurs and the ice age and all that. We've just finished the book of Job in our BTS time. Wow. As a young person, honestly I couldn't relate to Job. Sure I had troubles in my life but my scope of life and the things I worried about were very limited and superficial. But now that I'm "oldish" and have children that are on the edge of adulthood and little ones still being nurtured in my home...Job has and had so much more meaning to me.



You know it would be so easy to take parts of Job out of context. His friends said some pretty "good" sounding things. Things like "God never allows bad things to happen to people who are righteous" or "you must have sinned somewhere for God to have let all this stuff happen to you." Not to step on any toes here, but really his friends were preaching the "prosperity gospel." The whole time his friends talked at Job, Job stood fast to his conviction that he was Righteous and he had no idea why God was allowing this to happen to him. Right from the beginning, when the news started pouring in that his possessions and children were destroyed, he fell on his face and worshipped. Who does that? Not me! I might cry and feel sorry for myself and pull my hair out in grief...but Job worshipped. Oh the example.



And personally as we've gone through this strange season of joblessness, to no avail, we've been told the same things that Job was told. "You must be doing something wrong, there must be some reason, you aren't trying hard enough, you aren't believing hard enough, God must be mad at you"...on and on. All well meaning of course. We aren't offended, but Job was so comforting and the end made me cry, in front of all my children and my nieces, I could barely talk because you know what God said?



"And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord spoke to Eliphaz the Temanite (his friend that was talking at him),'My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.'" 42:7



God goes on to tell Job's friends to make burnt offerings and to let Job pray for them, "for I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has." 42:8 The bottom line is: Job's friends did not KNOW God. Job knew God. Still chokes me up. That I would KNOW God in a way that allows me to speak the truth, unto death. "And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." Wow. Not that I can even begin to expect God to restore to us what He's taken away because we can't stand and say we were righteous like he was, only righteous because of Jesus' blood, not because of our conduct. But we can, wholeheartedly, and without a doubt trust the Lord and all that He allows or doesn't allow to happen to us. I am deeply grateful that the same Creator God that set the boundaries for the waters and hung the stars in the sky and created the mighty Behemoth, would take notice of me and my family and love us so much. God is so much MORE than we think. Our puny minds can't really grasp the greatness of who He is. But we should strive to know who He is and who He isn't. Because in this twisted world where truth is relative and justice is perverted, we can count on a Holy God who loves us more than we deserve. And as believers we MUST KNOW what we believe. Therein lies the secret to true peace.



Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Something to think about...

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Colossians 3: 12-15

A timely confirmation.

My blog. Why do I blog? I think I originally started to blog to communicate with my family. Some of my family read my blog, some don't. I've also discovered that it's possible to make friends on-line, so now I blog so people can get to know me. Today I've been thinking about another reason I blog, could be the most important reason of all really. At the end of the day, I want my blog to be an encoragement to women who are trying to live their lives according to the biblical ideal. Meaning: stay-at-home-mom's. Homeschooling or not. Ever since I can remember I've always had it in my heart and in my mind to be a stay-at-home mom, even raised in a non-believing home. As a teen, living in a believing home, I told the Lord my requirements for a husband were: Loves/Obeys God, He must be someone I can actually and truly talk to and who will talk to me and he must let me stay home with our children. Short and sweet! I'm not picky, just know what I need. :o) Well, let me just tell you I got exactly what I asked for. In fact, my husband spends so much time talking to me it sometimes frustrates our children...I'm not a real big talker, but I love being talked too! I'm not sure my husband really believed as strongly as I do about me needing to raise our babies myself, but he never ever made me feel like I should be out working or gave me grief for being home. Since we've been doing this in depth Bible study using Balancing the Sword, he's come to be my biggest supporter at being home! It's just wonderful because God's word has it covered!!



So now we are reading both Ezra and 1 Timothy at the same time. Ezra is more history, but 1 Timothy is wonderful for confirmation that being home, raising your children and running your household is a good thing to be doing. The whole letter is loaded with instruction for women, but the icing for me is when Paul is talking about the widows. Chapter 5:14. Paul is talking about the younger widow and how he desires that she get remarried to: "bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully." This is a wonderful confirmation because it shows God's heart towards women and what He loves for them to be doing! This verse is written about widows but it's for all women, whether a first marriage or a second marriage! For whatever reason, this really brought me comfort this morning. Not because I'm a widow, but because this is the life I am living and the life Paul is encouraging the young widows at Timothy's church to live! GOD IS FOR YOU!



This same letter talks about some other issues that some times people think aren't relevant to this day and age, but I think if Paul wrote it them, under their current persecutions, oppressive Roman government, etc, it still applies to us today! Books like this bring me such joy because I love clear guidelines. I don't like to play "mind-games" and I don't like to assume. I like to KNOW what is expected and what is right and what is godly! There's freedom in the fences, so to speak!



So, if you've been feeling a little shaky on the ground you've been standing on and like what you're doing day in and day out isn't important, let this post just confirm to you also that God is for you and what you are doing is God's will for you, at this time, in this season!



Joyfully (with a cyber-hug),

Mrs. Taffy

Follow Me

This is a blog post I wrote a while back...I sent it to another blog I write for but I think she may be saving it for next Easter. I really wanted to share this since it was so profound to me recently and still is. My hope is that it encourages you too!

During the Easter Holiday we were reading the different accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all offer a slightly different account, all true just different perspectives for us to learn from. I found a treasure in the account by John; I can’t stop thinking about it! I think it is an encouraging word for all God’s people, but especially for us moms.
Most people know the end of John for the famous, “Peter, Do you love me?” words of Jesus. Here is where I found the treasure. While Jesus was asking Peter these questions, Peter was also questioning Jesus about John, comparing himself to John if you will. Jesus’ answer surprised me and convicted me and encouraged me all at the same time. Clearly Jesus had a different plan for Peter and John and when Peter questioned this Jesus said, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.” These are the words that have been floating around in my head every time I start to compare my life to another mom’s life…How come they get to have so many children, how come they get to live in the same house for a decade, how come I have to follow my husband all over the country? You can put your own questions there. We mom’s are good at comparing ourselves to other mom’s, but what’s it to us? God has called us to do this thing at this time in this way. Will I follow HIM? Even if it’s not in the way I want or somebody else’s life looks better or easier than mine? Will I follow HIM?

Please Lord; give me the heart to follow You, no matter what or where. You are worthy and I am so thankful!

Holding Fast,
Mrs. Taffy

Waking up in the dark

She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants. Proverbs 31:15

This is the scripture I go to bed thinking about. It is my goal each morning to get up before the rest of my family. Here's how it goes for me. I wake up between 5 & 5:30. Get right into the shower and get myself completely ready for the day, including make-up! Then I go downstairs, start the coffee, turn on the Christian Radio station and make breakfast. Around 6:15 I start waking up children, one by one, oldest to youngest, so that they can take a shower if they need too. We have breakfast at 7. I have found that when I do this faithfully, wake up before the children and in the quiet of "night" get focused on my day to start serving my family, we all have a much better day. The morning goes smoother, there is less chaos and we get more accomplished in a day. It leaves us time to read the Word together as a family and it makes us (me) ready for any change of plan that may come up in the morning.

I've had to re-train myself in this discipline recently because while we were moving and traveling, I DID NOT get up while it was still night. It's true, even in the hotels I woke up first, but I was pretty lax and usually the last one down to breakfast.

So this morning for breakfast I made my family something good. And this time I mean it!

Here's our favorite healthy pancake recipe:

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp. salt

8 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon (opt)

1/2 tsp. nutmeg (opt)

4 Tbls. Raw Sugar or Honey (opt)

4 eggs

2 1/3 cup milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla (opt)

4 tsp. olive oil (opt)

Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients, mix well. Make them like you normally make pancakes. Sometimes I add mashed bananas if I have over-ripe ones around and these are great with blueberries too.

Our list of toppings include:

pure maple syrup

blueberry syrup

raspberry jam (homemade)

butter

powdered sugar

cinnamon sugar

natural peanut butter

On the side we had scrambled eggs with turkey-ham and cheese. I thought some protein would do my growing boys some good. The nice thing about whole wheat pancakes is that they are more filling and keep them full longer, so there are a few left over for snacks or another breakfast someday! So I guess really I fulfilled both parts of that scripture, my household and my maidservants (my freezer is storing some leftovers for me!).

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Some more 'around the house'

Here's a few more pictures for you...
This room here is our family room, it's three steps down (sunken) from the main level. That hallway that you see on the left leads to a bedroom (office), bathroom, and to the garage. Across from that hallway, not shown in the photo is a sliding glass door that leads to a deck in the backyard. I took these next two pictures from the top of the stairs. This is our dining room, I think it's supposed to be a living room, but this way works better for us. The front door is right next to the long window on the right. Mr. Taffy bought me that rug...it's covered in Roosters! LOVE IT!This is my kitchen, not as fancy as the Farm House, but I still have a double oven and this refrigerator is by far much larger than my other house! I love this kitchen because it's really bright, there is a tube light right above the peninsula counter top. The space under the ceiling fan is supposed to be the dining room. We USED to have a second table there, but we gave it away back in WA, that's one of the things I'll be looking for at garage sales this spring.Here are the girls making a few casseroles for the freezer. Mr. Taffy bought me a case of hamburger so in between unpacking and painting I have been cooking hamburger like crazy!

There are more rooms to this house as well, but I want to keep you coming back so I'll save those for another day! :o)

I pray Easter Sunday is a glorious day for you and your family as you celebrate our risen Lord and remember all that his death and Resurrection mean to us as believers!

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that he died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen and Amen!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy