This week

Psalm 32: 11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not Abram: I am thy shield, and they exceeding great reward.

Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God.

Happy Thanksgiving and recipes

Happy Thanksgiving. I get the idea that every American woman is supposed to know how to put on a beautiful, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Since I am still a student in the cooking department (I am known to treat my husband as a god, I serve him burnt offerings 3 times a day LOL) I need all the cooking help I can get. I get a lot of my recipes from ALL Recipes.com . and Taste of Home magazine.
Here is the Menu for Thursday at the Stedmans
Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Green Bean Casserole
sweet potatoes with marshmallow
Dessert: Pumpkin pie and Cheesecake
Here is the recipe I am using for the Cheesecake from Allrecipes.com  and some other recipes of my own.

Easy Sour Cream Cheesecake
Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9 inch cheesecake

Ingredients

1 (9 inch) prepared shortbread pie crust
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
 2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 1 cup sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at time, blending well. Add vanilla and sour cream. Pour into shortbread crust.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cake jiggles evenly across the top when lightly shaken. Run a knife around the outside edge, but leave the cake in the pan. Let cool on counter, then place in refrigerator. Remove from pan when completely chilled, and serve.


Crock Pot Sweet Potatoes
4-5 large sweet potatoes or yams, washed peeled and sliced
2 tbs butter in the bottom of the crock pot
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Place all ingredients into crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Add marshmallows shortly before serving.

Ezekiel Bread stuffing
Begin saving small pieces and  ends of Ezekiel bread throughout the year, add them to a freezer bag, place in the freezer. The day before you want to use it, take the bag out of the freezer.
When thawed, tear up in pieces and add Ezekiel bread to pot of:
1 stick butter
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 small can of mushrooms
1 box seasoned stuffing mix
Heat and add extra water if needed. Cover with foil and chill overnight. Warm in the oven about 20 min on 300 and serve with gravy.

Graphics by Emmashome.com

Psalm 92:1 Its is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name O most High.

Psalm 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving: and pay thy vows unto the most High.

Psalm 121:1,2 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Holiday Homeschool savings and random Bible verses

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

grace

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.Amen.

To all who have allowed me grace in my life, thank you. To the Lord Jesus Christ who has given me mercy and grace, I am thankful.

Luke 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following : for it cannot be said that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.



Walk today. Then get up again and walk tomorrow.

Salsa

I went shopping yesterday planning to make tacos for dinner. I looked at the large jar of salsa in the store and it was almost $8.00, not sure how many ounces the container was...but less than 2 quarts I would guess.  I decided to make my own and see what the cost difference was.
 I bought 2 large cans of whole tomatoes $3.00
1 bunch of cilantro (only used half) .50
3 cloves garlic                                 .10
1 jalapeno                                        .08
1 large white onion                          .51
assorted spices, chili powder, garlic salt, cumin . I ran it all through the food processor and $4.18 total for almost 2 quarts of salsa. my #2 son said it was not hot enough for his taste, but for everybody else it was great.

Lists

For many years it has been a hobby or habit of mine to write lists. Lists of "Things to Do" , shopping lists, prayer lists, lists of  things I have done, things I want to do, places I would like to go, books I have read, places I have been etc. David Letterman has his Top Ten Lists.  There are lists kept of who won the Super Bowl over the years. There are lists of who won Miss America. I decided that these are all lists of things that MAN has done and I wanted to make a list of what God has done. Obviously, God has done many more things than are on this list, but you get the idea. It is good for me to remind myself of what God has done in my life and in the lives of my family and friends.

Lists in the Bible of what God has done:

Genesis 1:1 God created the heaven and the earth
Exodus 15 The Song of Moses- Moses sings a list of things that God did for him. ie: I will sing unto the Lord , for he hath triumphed gloriously : the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Luke 2 God gives us a saviour, his description of how he sent Jesus to be born on this earth
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Acts 9  is a list of what happened to Saul (Paul)
Acts 16 is a list of what happend to Paul and Silas- God rescued them!
Psalm 105  O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his nam, make known his deeds among the people. This Psalm is a list of many things God has done for many people, including Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Aaron and the children of Israel.
Psalm 106 is a list of  some of God's "mighty acts"

Some things God has done for my family and friends, I am so very thankful for :

1. Jesus saved my soul November 9, 1992
2. Jesus saved my mom in 1994.
3. He gave a great victory to me in 1996 in a custody battle of my daughter.
4. We almost lost our house in 2007 due to lack of work for my husband and the Lord gave him a job with just the right pay and just in time to pay the bill before they forclosed on us.
5.He gave us 6 healthy children.
6. He has answered many many many many many prayers.
7.God gave me a loving husband.
8.God did a miracle with our granddaughter Adyson, being born preemie at 22 weeks gestations and weighing 1 lb 5 oz at birth. She is now 1 year old and doing well.
9.God gave us a good church, Heritage Baptist Church in Post Falls Idaho
10. God gave us a loving church family.
11.God has given me some very special sisters in the Lord, that pray for me and encourage me to keep on doing right

Torchlighters Review

The Torchlighters series (VisionVideo) has come out with a set of Heroes of the Faith dvds, including stories on Jim Eliot, Richard Wurmbrand, Eric Liddell, Gladys Aylward, John Bunyan, William Tyndale. We received these as a gift, a set of   6 dvds.
These videos are colorful and entertaining for children. They give a short story of these missionaries and other Christians serving the Lord with their lives, without going into gory details of their deaths, and giving the glory for their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.  I believe these give children a "taste" of learning about these Heroes, that may spark their interest to learn more about them later. The videos include some scripture and the music is tastefully done in a way that is appealing to all ages. My personal favorite is the Eric Liddell Story. Do all for the glory of God.

Books I have read in 2009:

Diabetes Solution byDr. Bernstein
Queen's Smuggler -About William Tyndale, a childrens book
Lord's of the Earth by D. Richardson, I am still working on this one.
Life Skills for Kids by Christine Field
A Quilters Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini
The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem
Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn

                                              

Mystery of History and Legos

We learned about the Egyptians and the pyramids today.See photos below.

Old Schoolhouse Holiday Fun and Healthy living

While my kids were sick this last few weeks, we purchased some great deals from our friends over at Allstar Health. We ordered Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc lozenges, Cal/Mag Citrate, Spirulina and others..Good quality and good prices. We are all feeling much better, thank the Lord.

Owl on the roof

At sunset this evening EMily looked outside and saw an Owl flying and it landed on our neighbors roof. Here are the pictures. Thank you Lord that we got to see it and enjoy it.

It was the best i could get , its starting to get dark...

Tuesday Oct 27 School day

Today was one of our best days of school ! So many things made it nice. Rachel is home now. I got up early and read my Bible and then did a 5K walk before breakfast.Everything just seemed to go well. It even went well considering the kids are sick. I have 3 children that are sick, they have the CROUP cough...but they were well enough to do school work and be done by 11:30 am!!
Be sure to click on the link for Currclick, one of my favorite websites to get fun and interesting curriculum for my children and lots of FREE stuff....................

Planner schedule: Prayer and Bible memorization. Mystery of HIstory- Lesson on Sumerians. Phonics/Reading/Spelling and Copywork with E and J. Math with E and J . C and A had Poetry lesson 4 today along with Spelling, Copywork, Reading, Math, History, Science/Health.
Now the boys are outside building something with wood and nails and I am sitting here listening to Rachel play the piano. it is lovely...

book review The Blood of Lambs

I dont know much how to write a book review. This will be my first one. A friend of mine encouraged me to do it.
I just finished reading The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem. I really enjoyed this book. I was very encouraged to hear about God's working in his life and his salvation thru Jesus Christ. It was convicting to read about the faithfulness of his dear Muslim mother, reading him the Koran and teaching him about special, holy things of God. He explained the mental/emotional/religious connections of the Muslim faith and the terrorism training he received at the ripe old age of 7. It was eye opening, to read about the infiltration that is happening in the good old USA and his prayer at the end "that you never meet a man like me" . Good reading but not for children, there is definitely some very dramatic and violent scenes described in this story.

Distractions,crazy schedules and sickness, oh my

Baseball...we got out for a few hours of fun in the 60 degree weather last week.......

Our pumpkins from the garden. 2009 was our first successful year in the Pumpkin growing arena!! We are so excited and happy about this. We have given some of them away and I began cooking them and freezing them, but this is a picture of some of the lovely orange pumpkins grown right here in North Idaho. (the lady at the hardware store said it couldnt be done lol)






SO far October has been pretty eventful. Health problems, aches, pains , sickness....crazy work schedule for DH. School has been getting done, although not the way I really like it to go...I sometimes think I should set up a school room in my garage, away from the washer and dryer , the kitchen sink full of dishes and the phone that rings whenever we try to start school and other things that distract me, and then distracts the children from getting school work done. I am beginning to drift into a different way of schooling that I never thought I would do before. I am getting the idea that God wants me to be flexible and not always have MY way....that I must adjust to HIS schedule. The children learn alot about God and prayer and life thru all of these distractions. For example, we got a call last week about a dear friend of ours who was in a car accident and has broken ribs and so we immediately we stop school work and pray for him. This is a rich experience and something the children will remember and is far more important than filling in a spelling workbook. ( Did I REALLY TYPE THAT!! ) God is working on me and that is good.
recent pictures;

school started

School started and as soon as we started we begin to have distractions. There are always some type of distractions to try to keep you from the things that need to be done. Sometimes they are just amusements, things that you would rather be doing than the present work.....and sometimes they are "emergency" things that you must handle before going on with regular day to day activities. Our first week of school went really well, then on Saturday dh got sick with vomiting /stomach sickness.. The week following , each of the other family members got sick, 1 each day until Friday. Then there were bank emergencies, pet emergencies, dh phone calls, dh pulled hamstring, friends that need you for one thing or another.

I am learning that I have a choice to make in these situations, to allow my flesh to be irritated and angry at the distraction or I can ask God to bless it and use his Holy Spirit to direct me in handling the situation. To use the situation for God's glory.

a poem by #1 son

The Bible is amazing
The men who wrote the Biblewere inspired by God.
The Bible is like some water and we need to be like sod

The Bible is a very good readyou should read some every day.
If you should do that it would help,you in every way.

If your checking out the Bible it will check out you.
And don't worry about it saying something wrongwhatever it says is true.

The Bible is a book of history it's an amazing book,so now if you don't mindI think I'll go and take a look.

Garden victory

July 2009

June 2009

These pictures are in reverse, this was in May 2009

We have tried various gardening projects over the last 10 years. This has been our most successful year. We are growing romaine lettuce, chinese cabbage, radishes, carrots , zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes and pumpkins.

Caleb is hoping for a pumpkin or 2. It looks like he may end up with Caleb's Pumpkin Patch.