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Showing posts from November, 2008

Preparing your heart for Christmas!

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The glitter, the tinsel, the decorations, trees, candles, stockings... the money we spend to bring Christmas into our homes... the time we spend getting ready for the holidays. Shopping, making gift lists, digging in attics, cooking, writing and mailing Christmas Cards, singing carols, standing in lines, looking for deals, wrapping packages, planning menus, mailing gift boxes, taking Santa pictures, going on candlelight tours, celebrating at parties, having 'dirty santa' gift times, hosting dessert or a festive open house or ladies Christmas tea. These are all the things that come to mind when we are preparing for Christmas. I have an important question: Are you preparing your heart for Christmas? Are you taking time to be still in God's presence, contemplate the history of the coming of Christ and the future return of Christ? How much of what you are doing is about Christ? Is He the focus of your season... or just part of it? Have you ever tried to prepare your heart with

Twitter - Why Join, Why Bother, Why Follow

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Twitter! What is everyone on the internet all a twitterabout? http://www.twitter.com/ is one of the coolest sites on the internet. It is a healthy exchange of people's chat about what they are doing and what is currently going on in their life. The best part is that you are limited to 140 characters. For someone who is extremely long winded, this has been a sharp learning curve. You have to learn to make every word count. Twitter can be very good for your emotional, spiritual, social health. When you are impressed by something in life, you have a deep longing to express it to someone. Twitter gives you that place. By expressing what has impacted you, depression is much less likely, because you are connected to others and sharing. Not only do you share outward, but people express input and you are able to receive affirmation, accountability, assistance, prayer, love, empathy, and so much more. God made us to be relational. Twitter is helping fill that need/ void. Twitter has

Is Repentence Needed for Salvation?

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Many of us pretend to have it all together...we don't want to be needy...we don't want people to know that inside of us it may feel like our wall is crumbling down and overgrown with weeds. The truth is every single person is needy, whether they admit it or not. Every person has a need to be loved, accepted and to know that he/she matters (that they have purpose to living). God is the only true, complete solution/ answer to meet every single one of our needs, and to make us know we are fully loved, and accepted. He is the only healer, restorer, able to tear down our old broken walls and make it to be new! He isn't in the fire protection, get out of hell business...what good would this broken down wall be with just protection against fire? It needs to be restored, redeemed. You also need redemption....and redemption begins with repentence. I knew before I type one word...there were already readers lining up their point of view along strongly and dearly held doctrinal t

Fun Ideas for Playing in Snow with Children (All Ages)

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So you want to entertain your children playing in the snow...here are some great ideas that I have used over the past 15 years. Put food color and water in spray bottle and play as you would with sidewalk chalk. Use a black piece of paper like construction paper and catch the flakes to see how each are different -use to teach how creative our God is. Make small or miniature snowmen on desk or patio close to windows so children can watch from inside. Use twigs for decorating. Use pails, shovels, shapes as you would on the beach with sand to make designs. Have a snow ball fight (lots of snow lands on cars). Take the first crunchy walks onto the snow making a path (this is so fun! early in morning after night snowfall) SnowAngels are fun to make and easy! (try to do last, because back side can get wet and cold. Collect some to put in freezer and look at another day. (don't eat...can have dirt/pollution/ etc in it...unless you live in country/rural area and you know area is clean) Mom

Secret to Moist Turkey

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Turkey gets a bad rap on Thanksgiving because most people over cook it! Making a moist turkey is so easy. First buy a good bird. Spending the extra dollars to get a free-range can be worth it in taste, but I have often used butterball tender young birds. Buy a turkey no more than 12-14 lbs. If you need more meat cook 2. Put in roaster upside down...yep, you read it right! Breast side down. Put meat thermometer in meat part (each poke lets out juice) No need to spice, but doesn't hurt it if you do. Bake on 325 degrees until temperture reaches 170. Final temp 180! To brown breast, turn turkey over about 20-30 minutes (170) before done and butter (with real butter). Put back in over for final baking. (I use strings under turkey or have used meat forks or tongs) This will be the juiciest, most delicous turkey you have ever had on Thanksgiving day! (beautiful turkey picture by George M. Bosela at http://www.morguefile.com )

Easy, Moist Dressing

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This recipe is so easy and delicious. It is from my sister in Boston, that not only cooks for about 40 people every year on thanksgiving but she teaches girls at Harvard how to cook thanksgiving meal the weekend prior to every thanksgiving. Terry's Dressing 1 diced bell pepper, onion, 2 sticks of celery and 2 crushed cloves of garlic 1 bag of Pepperidge Farm yellow cornbread 1 stick of BUTTER 2 Campbell chicken broth cans 1/2 tsp ground sage Pepper to taste. Sautee diced/crushed veges in butter. When soft (onions clear), add chicken broth, and sage. Warm. Put cornbread in mixing bowl and add warm broth mixture. Stir until cornbread is moist. Pepper to taste. Put into greased 9X13, Bake uncovered 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until warm through and through. Can be made early and refrigerated, and warmed. Hope you enjoy.

Welcome to the Simple Life

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Simple is good. In living a simple life, our needs are met, and we are content. Our life is full, and we are able to focus on two very essential foundations of building a family - love and respect. Simply put - Homeschooling builds families! Homeschooling is not essential to building a simple family life - love and respect is! Homeschooling, though, is a great advantage to having the time necessary to love your children and to respect them individually. Don't casually read over those two essential foundations of your center life: 1) Love God, yourself, your spouse and your children 2) Respect God, yourself, your spouse and your children individually. Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy and light. So many people have come up with complicated programs, techniques, steps to follow for building families. God's plan is easy and light.... it flows out of His grace and provided strength you receive in your personal walk with Him. At the core of every family is the need to love and

Four Most Important Communication Words

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So many books have been written on the topic of communication. Poor communication can be a relationship killer. I don't know about you but I am a slow learner! It has taken me about a year to not only hear four healing words, but to learn to put them in practice. "What Do You Need?" It is such an easy question, but so necessary if we want to genuinely restore trust in hurting and broken relationships. The same four word can bring comfort, love and significance to those that we really care about to ensure that communication doesn't need to be repaired. Teen years can be very difficult. Children are learning to think for themselves and make decisions about who they want to be and how they want to live. Parents often find themselves scrambling to learn how to adjust to a child that is changing right before their eyes. A few weeks ago I was walking down the street with my 13 yo ds, Teddy Bear. I could tell something was wrong ... he had a teen attitude...

Do We Still Have Free Press?

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I want as many people as possible to read this post before Tuesday, November 4th. Please feel free to write about it yourself, put it in emails, send it to editorials or anything else you can think of to get this truth and any other truth that you have become aware of out into the light. America is in a spiritual war! I may be one little lady in TN, but as long as I still have a voice and my hands still can type, I am going to keep seeking for truth and telling as many people that will listen or read. I have watched this year unfold, reading newspapers, posts, blogs, listening to radio shows, all TV stations... in an attempt to find Truth. So many sources that we have been relying on in the past, are questionable. I just received information last week that Snoops.com which I faithfully have used to test any e-mail before I forward it, had fallen to Obama workers and was not reporting Truth on questions or comment about Obama. I was warned to not use them as a truth checking source