Answered my own question

I posted a couple of weeks ago about how we as christian women are supposed to do what the Bible says about visiting the sick and elderly. I have since figured it out by some careful reading and studying and visiting with a couple of older ladies in the church.

We as women have a responsibility first to God. He is our first priority and in this we are supposed to do as he says. He tells us first to be wives and keepers at home (Titus 2). I have personally fought this one in the past because I felt I could contribute more to our household if I finished college and worked. I have since figured out that I am better serving HIM if I follow his commandment and stay home and manage my home and my children. I have started doing this by scheduling my time to better serve my household needs and my husband and still putting GOD first by scheduling HIM for first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I know it seems weird to have to schedule HIM into your day but when you werent taught (for lack of a better word and no offense to my mother honestly she probably did this and we never saw her) But until it becomes and everyday thing I have to be reminded to pay reverence to HIM. The rest of my day is scheduled to keep my house clean, my kids occupied and my husbands needs met. I of course come in the middle somewhere. (For right now.)

In answer to my question about seeing the sick and the elderly. I have to schedule it in there. God doesn't want me to give up a clean house or my christian duties to my family in order to visit. I have to put it in my schedule. Now of course if One of my sisters or brothers falls deathly ill in the middle of the week, i will drop my schedule for the day and go visit and pick up my schedule when i am no longer needed at the bedside of my brother or sister. But just ordinary visits can be made on my scheduled day. Which for me is going to be Tuesday's but only after I get the rest of my schedule working like it is supposed to.

I havent wrote this to offend anyone or to make anyone mad but only to maybe help those that are struggling with how to do everything that we are supposed to do. It is not that hard if you stop and study about what you are supposed to do first. I have been following my schedule as closely as I can excluding days that I hurt so bad I can't do anything. But as time gets closer for Jason to come I find I hurt less unless I do something really stupid. Now this means that i have had to delegate some of my chores to Paul on the weekends or in the evenings but only if he is available and has nothing else to do. He does not forgo what he has to do in order to do my bidding. If it doesnt get done oh well it will be there when I am able to do it. I have found that by scheduling my time, my house is a lot cleaner, my kids are happier when they are occupied and not just told to "go play" and I am also teaching them the art of Christian Homemaking. I get laughed at because I tell people that Kylie gets mad if I dont let her do laundry. She loves to take clothes out of the dryer and put them in as i hand them to her and to give me clothes for the washer. she also loves to fold washclothes and put them away. And she really does get mad if I dont let her help.

Right now my kiddos just woke up from nap so it is snack time and then time to really clean that kitchen......Kylie and Alaina both help with this one too...

Crockpot Enchilada (Beef)

This recipe works great for my family because we are not that crazy about red enchilada sauce and my husband is not that crazy about chicken.

1 lb ground beef
1can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can rotel
4 cups grated cheese
6-8 corn tortillas
1 small onion (chopped)

Scramble beef and onion until beef is brown. In seperate bowl, mix mushroom soup, chicken soup & rotel. (do not add water) In a lightly greased crockpot, put either 1 or 2 tortillas depending on size, you want them to cover the bottom. then start layering sauce, meat, cheese, tortillas. Finish with the top layer being sauce and cheese. Cook on low 4 to 6 hours. Serve with your favorite mexican dish toppings.
This is really cheesy also and it ends up making just enough for the four of us so I will probably have to start doubling it and cooking for the full 6 hours. But it is delicious.

Catching Up

Last week was a really bad week for us. I didn't feel good, the kids were cranky and we were house bound because of the cold.........weather and Paul had the truck which was the only means of getting out because of the road. We now have gravel on our road and it is not nearly as cold but we are out of gas in the truck. lol.....gotta love it until payday. We did get to go outside last thursday. Paul came home a little early to help the guy spread some of the gravel and when he got done we took the girls outside and while they played, we discussed where we are going to put the garden and the clothesline and the swingset and the playhouse. I cannot wait to get the garden started. I have never had my very own garden and am so excited. It may totally flop this year because i know nothing about them but i will try. I also cant wait to get my clothesline up. I hate waisting money on the electric bill for using the dryer. That and being outside hanging up clothes has always been one of my favorite things to do. I made an enchilada cassarole in the crockpot for supper saturday night and was told i could make it at least once a week if not more....!!!!! I was so excited that it was something that everyone liked. I have never felt that i am a very good cook and was really wary because my brotherinlaw was over too....

But anyway. I have got to catch up on homeschooling. Kylie decided last week that she just did not want to do it and i am not going to make a 3 yr old do stuff if she doesnt want to but she told me today that we needed to do it tommorow so that goes back on the schedule. I am going to try and post some new stuff on the side bar but I don't know if it will work i cant seem to get that figured out.

Love and Prayers..

Anxious

Hello all who read this. I have not had a good weekend. I had a pretty good week last week and got a lot of things done. but started hurting this weekend and now my house is a wreck, i am behind on laundry and I need to do some serious cooking. I will probably feel better by tommorow so maybe i can catch up. I think the hurting was because I went with Paul Saturday to pass out fliers for our tshirts. we are trying to go wholesale with some of them and so i rode in the car mostly all day with only one hour of walking in wal-mart. I did alot of walking yesterday though to see if i just needed to stretch the muscles but ended up hurting worse last night so I am taking it easy today. well as easy as can be when i have to take care of two toddlers. If i felt worse i would call my mother in law to help but our driveway is like a swamp. they would get stuck trying to make it. Paul about got the car stuck yesterday so he took the truck to work today and will probably have to most of the week. Which will cause more gas money out of our budget. But oh well at leas he was able to go to work.

Our homeschooling did not go to well last week. Kylie got agitated alot because Alaina was getting into stuff so we will try it again this next week if feeling better. I have been researching cloth diapers and reusable baby wipes. I think i am going to try them with this baby just to save money.. But I got to looking and their are not that many places that sells them cheap. I mean you can get the old fashioned kind but not the new kind that has elastic int he legs and all the neat preventative stuff for very cheap. One place they are $18 apiece!!!!!!!!!!!!Can you believe that for a cloth diaper. Anyway, I gotta get up and move around so I will write more later.

Love and Prayers

Not enough time.

First of all, Today is my moms Birthday so Happy Birthday Mom (granny). I came across a blog today that was talking about how we as Christians are supposed to avoid the rat race of life. I completely agree with this. I really do believe that the rat race will get you in trouble. Not only financially but spiritually as well. I personally try to stay home as much as possible. I find that if we have to run to town for something one night we end up spending twice as much as we had budgeted because we see stuff we WANT........I have also found that if I go to visit people, I end up spending because it is too tempting to stop on the way home and get something to drink and the kids then want something and what was going to be a $1. stop then becomes a $3 or $4 stop. Now I know that it is part of my Christian duty to visit the sick and the elderly I just wish I could do it without spending. And I can I just have to tell myself that nasty word NO... I have been cooking at home for all of our meals for the past 3 weeks and it is going okay. I haven't worked in the time to do a lot of baking (biscuits, bread, etc. ) I also do not have all of the neccesary tools to do this with. But we have been doing better since i have started cooking. We still like to grab the occasional frozen pizza for the girls or go out to eat on Sunday for lunch (which we can't currently do(Pauls sis treated us this past Sunday) I really think that if we keep on trying to not spend any extra that we can get somewhere. But that figures into the time issue to. Like I said, I have not found the time to bake which would save us money. I also am wondering how it is going to work out with a new baby. Will I be able to prepare meals like I do now. We may get tired of omeletts which is what hubby makes when i can not stand long enough to cook supper and have not cooked anything in the crockpot.

I guess I am just wondering out of the few who get to read this blog if any of you have ran into these problems? I just wish I could make more time to do my Christian and wife and mother duties without taking away from one of them.

Anyway, gotta go cook supper now.

ICE Storm

You Know It is funny but it hasn't hit us as hard as they expected. We only got a little ice last night and not enough to ice the roads. We were sort of hoping that it would hit hard and Paul wouldn't have to go to work. But he went ahead and tried it today. He may come back and he may be able to go on. Don't get me wrong, it is not that we can afford to have him take a day off, but it is nice when the weather doesnt allow him to go in. We get extra time with him and that seems to not be enough anymore.

I have added a book list to my blog. I hope to add more books as I go. I really like this blog thing. It lets me keep everybody informed of what is going on and I can still send personal emails when I want to. But since I only have limited computer time. I dont get to do that very often.

Gotta go it is 7:25 and time to wake the precious little monsters.

Busy, Tired, Accomplishments

Hey, I have not been on in a while. I have been busy trying to get moved in and get organized before the baby gets here. I have a few accomplishments that i have gotten done. I have finished my home management binder. For those who have not heard of this, it is my organizational binder. It has my schedules, my menus, my budget, and my homeschool stuff for the girls. I finally found a curriculum that i like and am going to start with in the school work. It is http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html I love the way that she does something everyday with so many different areas of learning. Since I have been at a loss as to what to do or where to go with homeschooling, I think this is as good a place as any to start.

Alaina has given up her pacifier. Yippeeeee......no more trying to find it in the dark car when she decides to throw it down. Kylie is potty trained except for at night. I don't know what to do about this. Alaina is pretty much potty trained but still has a few accidents and at night.

I have almost gotten my house completely organized. Paul is supposed to help me this weekend to do things that I cannot do right now. All I have left is to get started with Homeschooling and to get ready for the baby. I cannot believe only 6 more weeks till due date. It doesnt seem like I should be there yet.

Anyway.
Love and Prayers