Hearts in Service Blog

Psalm 150 ~ 1  Praise the Lord . Praise God in his sanctuary;      praise him in his mighty heavens. 2  Praise him for his acts of power;      praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3  Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,      praise him with the harp and lyre, 4  praise him with timbrel and dancing,      praise him with the strings and pipe, 5  praise him with the clash of cymbals,      praise him with resounding cymbals. 6  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord . Praise the Lord . This week I'm thankful for blessings #1,111-1,125. ♥ A new friend to ease the pain of losing an old one. ♥ A gift of tickets to go see a play. ♥ Farm fresh eggs each week. ♥ Large, beautiful loaves of bread. ♥ Voices lifted in worship. ♥ A new air conditioner. ♥ Emily who is being able t...

Some beauty for you on this Saturday morning.

I have had a friend for almost twelve years whom I've grown to love.   She has offered me sound, Godly advice time and time again.  I don't think I've ever heard her say an unkind thing and she is truly very wise in her counsel. And....she has written a new e-book called, Cut It Out! How I Feed My Family of 10 for $500 a Month Without Coupons !   (Click on the title to go to the book website).  I've always been amazed at how Kate Megill feeds her large brood in such a thrifty manner.  In this day and age with grocery prices on the rise, it's an amazing feat!  I especially love the idea of doing this without having to deal with coupons.   If you are like me, you purchase store brand items and coupons don't work anyway.  So the idea of being able to save even more was especially appealing. Kate is offering a giveaway of 5 of her books.  So today I want to give you the link to her blog and the opportunity to enter. ...

I'm continuing to add to my list of blessings.  God is good all the time!  This week I'm thankful for blessings #1,096-1,110. ♫ A successful day at the farmer's market. ♫ Seeing Nathan's excitement as he got ready to go camping with friends. ♫ Encouragement from friends. ♫ Stephen who works hard all day and still comes home and trims trees. ♫ An offer of 14 laying hens. ♫ An unexpected gift. ♫ Finishing my daughter's room. ♫Butterflies in my garden. ♫ Prolific tomato plants. ♫ Emily who had a wonderful time at camp and made it home safely. ♫ The possibility of a regular bread making opportunity in September for the local gun club.  ♫ A freezer from a friend. ♫ Cats who think they are the king of the beasts. ♫ People who volunteer their time and money to help out at church. and finally... ♫ Deep sleep at the end of a productive day.

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for their encouraging comments and emails yesterday.  I really appreciate that!  We are pressing on and trying to stay positive.  It's the only way to manage and stay sane! :-) Every muscle in my entire body is aching right now because of the project I've worked on all week while Emily is away at camp.  One of her Christmas presents was the promise to paint her room.  Yes, I know it's 7 months late, but it's July so I REALLY meant it to be a Christmas in July present! ;-) I'm not going to even edit these as I'm too tired so let me apologize now for the giant sized pictures.  She wanted polka dots and while I'm not crazy about the color combo, that is what she wanted and I think it turned out kind of cute. Before: After: For my sanity I only added dots to one wall! She has a fake window at one end of the room that was part of the old house.  Whoever added the bathroom onto the house left the...

Counting....counting...counting. I keep thinking that at some point I should just stop.  I mean how many things can you actually be thankful for in the midst of struggles?  Isn't it kind of silly to ignore the multitude of problems in front of you to count the smell of grass after the rain?  Surely God doesn't expect me to keep on counting all these little things?   Or does He? Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name." Sacrifice.  Praising til it hurts.  Praising when you don't feel like it.  Praising when you want to complain.   The funny thing about praise is that it actually changes your attitude.  Your thoughts.  Your heart. You can look at the multitude of problems and really, truly see past it and feel thankful for the smell of wet grass.   Praising puts the problem in the proper p...

G.K. Chesterton ~ “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.     But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.    It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

My friend, Heidi Corley Barto, recently wrote a book called, The Natural Soap Chef , and today I wanted to write a review of this book and encourage you to purchase it if you are at all interested in soap making.  You will not be sorry!  This is Heidi's first book and she did a wonderful job.  Heidi began to be interested in making her own soap after purchasing her first bar from a craft fair.  Then her daughter began to develop skin issues which fueled her desire to find the perfect oil-based soap.  So many of the recipes she found used a soap base where you melt it and then add fragrance or rebatching where you shred existing soap and add liquid to it to make your soap base. She wanted total control over the process so started looking at the cold process method of soap making.  This process allows you to create soap from the basic ingredients.  She began experimenting with different oils and the resources available to her at this point helped...

In my post yesterday, "A Square Peg in a Round Hole" I said the following:  I'm a stay at home Mom but don't feel like being a wife and motherhood is a "high calling".  I think it's an important role and perhaps one of the most important I play, but my high calling is to serve the Lord wherever He puts me.   I wanted to clarify this a bit because I was doing bullet points and didn't really elaborate what I meant.  Anyone who has read my blog or knows me in real life knows that I love my children with all my heart!  Nothing hurts me more than when they are unhappy or hurt and I can honestly say that I would lay my life down for anyone of them.  I thank God every single day for the opportunity I have to be their mother.  Besides my relationship with the Lord, my family is my top priority. I know in recent history, motherhood has gotten put way down at the bottom of many women's list of priorities.  In fact, most people sneer at wome...

I often feel like a square peg in a round hole.  I don't seem to fit anywhere.  ► I'm a stay at home Mom but don't feel like being a wife and motherhood is a "high calling".  I think it's an important role and perhaps one of the most important I play, but my high calling is to serve the Lord wherever He puts me.   ► I homeschool and have my reasons for homeschooling but disagree with many of the philosophies of most homeschoolers.  I don't view the public school system as the enemy and I certainly have many friends who teach there and I know how dedicated they are and how much they love their students.  I hate sitting through meetings where I have to listen to everyone talk about the evils of "government schools", the government and pretty much everything outside their family!  I think that many people are in danger of setting up "family" as an idol. ► I'm a pastor's wife and that is a very weird role.  I have wo...

Summer is here and things are a lot more laid back than they normally are.  Actually, given the fact that the boys are done with high school and I'm going to be homeschooling Emily, I have to figure out what my new normal is going to be starting in September! In the meantime, I follow the same routine each day. § I get up around 5-5:30, depending on my internal clock. § I feed the rabbit and the kitten. Her eyes look weird in this photo.  They are actually a beautiful gray color. § I grab a cup of coffee, my Bible and journal and head to the back deck to spend time with the Lord. § I then shower & dress and head outdoors (weather permitting).  I always stop and check on the progress of the baby birds on my porch.  They are getting real feathers and don't look hideously bare anymore. § I check the "have-a-heart" trap to see if I've caught that pesky woodchuck.  Now that I have the trap there, it won't go near my garden!  One morning I cau...

It's Loving Our Children Tuesday at my friend Kate's blog and I'm joining in today. I consider myself a pretty strong person.  I've been through my share of knocks in life and have come out on the other side with scars, but able to deal with many things. When it comes to my children, it's harder for me.  I think most mothers find that they bleed when their children bleed.  In fact, if you are like me, you probably bleed worse when they are hurt!  I find myself walking around with knots in my stomach because I want their lives to be good.  I want them to be happy and content.  I want better for them than it was for me. My children have been hurt and disappointed in a few ways this past week and it's been hard for me.  In a few of the instances, it's been through other people being extremely unkind.  That one is harder for me to deal with than just something happening that's a disappointment.   My children are no...

Hard times.... We all go through them.  We all dread them.  We can either come out the other side of them stronger and closer to God or bitter and angry. There will be times when we face... ► The death of a loved one. ► Financial hardships. ► The unkindness of friends. ► Marital issues. or ► Our life doesn't turn out as expected. Has God forsaken us?  Did He wind up the universe and then sit back and watch what would happen?  Is He indifferent? Or are there lessons to be learned?  Are the hard times an opportunity to cling to the Lord and His promises?  Is God with us in the midst of the trial? I've always loved the following story.. Footprints in the Sand  by  Carolyn Joyce Carty One night a man had ...