Saturday we celebrated BabyGirl's 15th birthday. Her birthday was actually on Sunday but with church and stuff it was easier to have her party on Saturday. Today she got her driver's permit. Wow , where does the time go? The years are passing too quickly. I have some pictures and stuff I want to post but not tonight. I feel really tired for some reason. A quick question before I go. Does anyone know if someone is doing the Homeschool OpenHouse this year? I really had fun doing that last year. ~ Nikki
It has been an early morning for some of us here. BabyGirl, T, Roosie and I have been up since before dawn watching the Perseid meteor shower. This morning was peak but you will still be able to see them til about August 24.We saw some great fireballs. Needless to say we were very excited. It was a beautiful morning to be stargazing. The temp was about 60 degrees and the sky was super clear. The stars were so bright and beautiful.What an awesome Creator we have!
Last night we did some work around the house. My aunt gave me a matching washer/dryer set since mine was on its final legs. (My dryer door was held shut by a big magnet and took 2 hours to dry a load of laundry and my washer liked to leave grease stains on my white clothes). We put our new to us appliances (PTL! He provides!) in the laundry room.We also mowed the yard and cleaned up outside. This morning everything looks so good.
I'm still working on some stuff for school. Our first day will be here before long. I look forward to it but then I dread it at the same time. I enjoy teaching and learning with my kids but it is sad to see the summer days slip away.
Please remember to keep my cousin Jamie and his family in your prayers. he entered the hospital for emergency surgery Saturday and will probably not leave it unless God sees fit to give him his healing here on earth. His cancer has spread and the dr says there is nothing more they can do. They don't expect him to last a week. But my friends , we serve a great and awesome God! Jamie's life is His to control. Jamie has been a good and faithful minister for the Lord and I know God will do what is best for him. I believe "Cuz" himself would say
Phippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Pray for Jamie, his wife and children and his parents. Pray that Jamie's loved ones will be prepared for whatever God decides. Remember my friends:
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. (James 5:15-18)
I have something very funny to share with you today. Julia at CLM Henhouse posted this video on her blog and I had to share. It is so funny and oh so true !
Wednesday was my 34th birthday. My parents and my brother brought supper over for me.It was nice to have the family with me to share my day. I have more to post later but I gotta run for now. Have a great day! ~ Nikki
I'm back again ! First ... I forgot to let everyone know this morning that I did get the pickles made. We made 6 pints of dill pickles. We thought we would start small and see how they turned out. I have some links I would like to share with you too. Please be advised that these site offer some free printables or ideas. Not all of these site will have a Christian or Creation Science point of view but they do offer some great things. You will just have to sort out what you need. You can see what our daily schedule looks like for this school year by clicking here.
Hey everyone! It has been a busy week. a little stomach bug came to visit . Most everyone was feeling better in a couple of days but T has been sick since last Monday (fever,chills,achy ,flu-like). yesterday morning he broke out in this real bad rash. We took him to the Dr. but they said it was viral , probably the stomach bug, and said to give it time. Of course she also told us not to give him benadryl since it wasn't a reaction to something it was just a viral symptom.Then last night it gets really, really bad and uncomfortable so I took him to the ER. The Dr. there said she thought it was related to the virus too or brought on by the stress of the virus on his body and prescribes a steroid for him so he can get some relief and get this this ... she said it was fine to give him benadryl. So they dosed him there and he was able to rest good last night. He is still feverish today so keep him in your prayers.If he isn't better in 2 days its back to the Dr. for blood work. Also pray for my Mom. She had an MS flareup Sunday that left her right foot kind of paralyzed (like it was "asleep"). It doesn't seem to be a long lasting flare up but it is painful none the less.
Some of you may have been to this blog through my friend's list Prayer Basket. Colleen passed away on August 2 after a brave battle against cancer. She was an amazing woman with a lot of faith and she was eager to meet our Lord. Her prayer requests were not for herself but for her family, that they would be comforted.Take time to stop by and read her blog and leave a comment for her family if you haven't before. I assure you , you will be blessed by her faith.
I have some new links I have been wanting to share but the time ...where does it go? HEE HEE! I will work on it today if I can and get them posted for you all to enjoy. Have a great day ! ~Nikki
I'm so excited ... Pam (Blessedwith2angels) posted my 100th comment ! Thanks Pam ! I appreciate all you come here and read my ramblings. It is great to know that you have other people who pray for you and uplift your name to the Lord.
I made a blinkie for Pam's blog and put it on my sidebar so be sure to check out her blog(s). Pam , if you want here is a blinkie I made for my 100th commenter ,
you can put it on your blog if you like. Have a great day everyone! ~ Nikki
I guess you have noticed the new look here on the blog.I snagged this neat template from Recycled Templates and BabyGirl worked her magic on it for me and made it so pretty. We need your prayers everybody . Friday Toodles' vehicle tore up and we had to have it towed. He worked on it all day Saturday and it was running great ... til early this morning when we had to have it towed again. So today has been one of those crazy run here run there type of days. Can we say STRESS! Toodles is irritated and I am cringing because it seems like "car payments" are in our future. *sigh* It's a great thing we have a big God who can take care of things like this isn't it?! Pray also for my Brother. His car broke down Sunday and he is quite discouraged over that and a few other things too. So lift him up in prayer too.
I have been able to work on some school things tonight though. I was able to finalize our school calendar and set up my grade book.I found an awesome sight over the weekend. Its called Homeschool Launch and it is a place where you can upload/download files you made for your homeschool so that others can use them too. Best of all its FREE! Go sign up even if you don't make hs printables. You can download all kinds of neat forms and notebooking pages. Hey , don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to. Right?! You can even get a neat widget to add to your blog that lists your newest printables available for download.
Sad to say the pickles didn't get made over the weekend so we are hoping to get them done Wednesday or Thursday. Be sure to check out all the stores this weekend for great deals on school supplies. Tax free weekend for Tennessee is Friday August 1 - Sunday August 3. Well I guess that is all for now. God Bless ! ~ Nikki
Ok. Plain and simple it's like this. I love to spend as little money as possible. I like to buy stuff I just don't like to spend big bucks doing it. Especially when you are a one income family.I love to shop thrift stores and yard sales and more often than not we buy store brands at the grocery store. (I earned $20 in free gas doing that). Well last night Toodles took me out for dinner for our anniversary , thanks Momma for watching our kids:) , after we were done eating we went to a neat little place called "Home Accents". It is a cute little mall that has a little bit of everything in it . Even used books which were on sale for .50 each. YEAH ! I bought the diary of Anne Frank and the Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. We needed both for school this year. PTL ! You all should really be praying for me . We are trying to go back to the "basics" on some things.We bake our own bread and little stuff but this weekend I'm going to make pickles and not just any pickles , Aunt B's pickles. They are of course the best pickles in the world , yes I'm partial cause Aunt B is my "aunt" by marriage and she is awesome :) but truly her pickles are outstanding. i have been "making" them for years and just never got around to it but the time has come. I used to help my Mamaw can all the time when I was younger but you know how it is when you get out of practice . Oh yeah , I will try to post a picture of the flowers Toodles gave me for our anniversary . He bought me a bouquet of roses and one of sunflowers ~ how sweet is that ?! They are so pretty! Be sure to check out my friend Shirley's blog (finally the elusive S****** in some of my posts has a name) She is new here. Stop by and say hi ! ~ Nikki
After being together for 2 1/2 years Toodles and I were married on July 23, 1999 , 9 wonderful years ago. We didn't have much money so there wasn't a huge wedding. We just had a simple ceremony with family and friends and a wonderful reception provided by our loved ones. We honeymooned in Gatlinburg in a perfect country cabin owned by some people we worked with at one time. The place where I worked always got discounted and free stuff from local attractions for us employess so I ended up with a free white water rafting trip for two. Toodles and I had a great time doing that. Our favorite part ? ... Coming around a bend in the river and seeing this huge curtain of rain coming at us while thunder and lightning were crashing all around us ... wouldn't you know that a thunderstorm would sneak up on us !
Toodles is my best friend in the whole world. He became a father Daddy to my two children and in time to the two we biologically share. It takes a special man to step into the position of instant fatherhood and he wears that mantle well. Times have not always been easy but we have been blessed. My Mamaw once told me when Toodles and I were having a disagreement , " Don't expect your garden to grow if it never rains on it." Wize words !
I love you Papa ~ Big as the sky !
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
(Colossians 3:18-19)
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
(1Peter 3:5-7)
This is one of our favorite pictures of our family. When I came across it today I knew I had to add it here because it always makes Toodles laugh. Of course our Blessings are much older now but they were such cuties (still are). Once again Papa ~ we love you ~ always!
I just wanted to come and praise the Lord a little bit this morning.Yesterday was just an awesome day for me. Nothing "exciting" happened really , as a matter of fact a couple of the Blessings weren't feeling well.We did have a great time at church though and some relaxing family time at home watching a movie . The "awesome" part is just that for a while now I have been asking God to renew my heart , my mind and my spirit (having some David moments) and yesterday it happened. I woke up feeling renewed. I felt joy within me , not bursting forth like a volcano , but kinda budding out like a flower. Now I haven't been down or anything like that it's just for a while I had been feeling like I was "stuck" if that makes sense. I wasn't unhappy. I just didn't feel joyful. Toodles preached at our evening service last night and he was talking about how we let Satan hinder us in every aspect of our our Christian life. We let him affect our witnessing, our personal walk with Christ and even our joy.(Now I haven't told Toodles how I've been feeling lately so I KNOW it was God speaking to me , just a friendly reminder from the Lord) The thought that came to my mind last night was this , Satan is indeed a powerful enemy but he is subject to a more powerful LIVING God! Why is it so easy for us Christians to forget that ?! Satan hinders us because we let him. Why don't we cry out to Jesus at those time? The Bible tells us Satan must flee at Jesus' name so why do we so often keep silent when he starts picking at us? We as the Army of God have an arsenal that can change the world and defeat our enemy , why don't we use it? Jesus is our fearless General and Prayer our greatest weapon but so often we don't use it to its full effect. Casting Crowns has a song that says"fearless warriors in a picket fence". How true is that sometimes? We are gung ho about fighting for the Lord as long as the battleground is inside our "comfort zone". But it's not...it's out in the world and Satan wants nothing more than to keep us from the front lines.I believe he is the furnisher of our"comfort zone". Well sorry if I've been rambling this morning. I'll hush now. God Bless Everyone ! Keep my Momma in your prayers please ! ~ Nikki
I had my first weigh in on Monday and PTL I had lost 5lbs ! I was so excited. I went in thinking I hadn't lost anything so I was really surprised. I will weigh in again this Friday and be measured so I'm praying for good results then too.
If anyone is interested in "Homesteading" or getting back to simpler things , Homeschool Freebie of the Day has a great download available today , Homestead Simplicity: A Primer .
If you need a funny pick me up , be sure to check out this blog : Spirited Sons . Today's post is sure to bring a giggle bursting forth .
In the Sparrow's Nest has some great info and pics about taking a Wildflower walk so be sure to check it too.
Well I'm off to work on some of the cleaning "zones" around the house . First I will tackle my desk . Hopefully I won't throw anything important away ...:)
Hey ! First I would like to say welcome to my friend S****** . She joins us in blog world today and you can visit her here at My Thr33 Sons. Be sure to stop by and say hi. I am posting a slideshow of some of our VBS pics. I didn't get a good pic of one of the classrooms. Don't know where my mind was . (No comment from the peanut gallery S****** ! ) Anyway hold your mouse over each pic and it will tell you a little bit about it.Most of the costumes you see in these pics were made by the aforementioned friend S****** . She is very talented . She did an awesome job on the Roman Soldier costume . He was everyone's favorite this year. I am working on our Science goals for this year . We will be doing units and mostly notebooking . As soon as I get it together I will post it . If your like me you enjoy digging through other peoples links and stuff cause sometimes you find some neat stuff. I have to tell you about the neat stuff I found at the $ Tree this week . Of course I got a couple of the wall calendars so I won't have to put so much time into making them this year. But the great find was the flash cards and workbook from the Planet Earth series.Here is what I got : ( I had to take out the pictures . They were messing up my template but you can check out the stuff I got at Modern Publishing.)
Planet Earth : Animals of the Seas , Animals of the Air , and Geography flashcards. I also got the Animals of the Air Workbook. I wish I could have gotten the other cards in the series , Planet Earth Land Animals, and the other books but they didn't have them but I will check again. I just love the $ Tree ! Another great place to check out if you live in this area is The Teacher's Pet at Governer's Crossing. They have some great stuff , even for church, and the prices are very reasonable.
Also friends I have some prayer requests to leave with you . First my Mom , she has MS and many other health problems and she really needs prayer right now. Second my cousin who is having surgery tomorrow. Pray for calming peace for her and a speedy recovery . Third , my DH Toodles who has problems with his heart and some GI problems too. He is waiting to get scheduled to have an endoscopy. And last but not least please remember me. I have started a program to help me lose A LOT of weight. My goal weight is 150 lbs which I hope to reach by March of 2009. Pray that I hold true to my part cause I know God will hold up His side of the bargain to help me:) Thanks everyone. Also I guess I should apologize to all my friends here at HSB. I have not been doing a lot of commenting lately due to shortage of time these days trying to get all our school stuff done and our house organized before the new school year starts. But I promise I have been lurking on your blogs and keeping up with all the latest . I will be leaving comments again very soon . Thanks ! God Bless ~ Nikki
Well , VBS is over and I am tired ! We had a great time though. One was saved , Thank You Jesus! There were a few others who were close to the decision so we will continue to pray for them . We ended with fireworks again this year because the kids really loved it last year.It went over well this year too. I will post a picture of the fireworks . I am in the process of making a video so I am sorting through all our VBS photos and I will post those promised pictures soon. I took several hundred through the week.Now it is time for me to concentrate on school for next year.I believe we will relax this week and enjoy the holiday before I get truly started though :)
I found this great post by Angela on THL this morning . She is having a contest to give away one free copy of TOS Planner .I want to win ! I have checked out the preview and it is packed full of neat stuff. Go here to check out what I am talking about. Well have a great day today everyone ! ~ Nikki
Just a quick note to let everyone know VBS is going great ! Everyone is having a great time . I will post some awesome pictures later in the week. Keep praying , we have new kids come every day. Another local Church donated 3 huge boxes of crafts to our Jr Church that they had left over from their VBS. Toodles and I are so excited !
I heard about this neat giveaway on another blog. There are 3 copies of Biology 101 to be given away. It sounds awesome . I hope I win ! Go on and check it . Biology 101 Giveaway
Gin asked for some details of our VBS . I thought I would post a slide show of some of our decorations. We are doing a HolyLand Adventure from Group publishing. We have used their HLA themes for the last 3 years. We started with Bethlehem Village and last year we did Galilee by the Sea. This year is about the death and resurrection of Christ. The one thing I don't like about it is they don't have their curriculum in KJV which I prefer ( I know others have opinions on it but that is mine and I wont argue about it). That is something that is easy to work around though. The first year we had our Tribes outside in tents but last year we moved inside for Tribe time because of the heat and we will do the same this year.Our Marketplace shops will be outside as will the Gathering which is a time of singing.To decorate the rooms we use brown wrapping paper and an old chipped white board and draw "block' walls with cracks and chips in it . Plus we add a little friendly creature in each room to see if the kids can find it. I don't have pictures yet of the decorated rooms but I will post some later. We are just finishing up with them. Be much in prayer for us that we will see children and parents led to the Lord during VBS. ~ Nikki
We had a great time camping with our family this weekend. My brother came up too so we were able to have a wonderful weekend as a family.We were camping in Cades Cove so we were able to see lots of wildlife . I will post some pictures on my other blog. I have to encourage everyone who can to go to Cades Cove and watch the lightning bugs (fireflies). It was so beautiful ! Let me tell you about it . We drove around the loop about sundown . As we were getting to the backside of the loop deep twilight was falling and the lighting bugs(fireflies) were flashing over the valley and it was awesome. It looked ,like the twinkling lights of a city from a great distance. There were thousands of them . Everyone was pulling over just to watch them. I of course can't find the words to truly describe it so you have to go for yourself. You will love it I promise ! ~ Nikki
Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know I added the link to the F.R.O.G. Binder printables to the side bar. I have also updated my Women's Ministry website. Yesterday was Toodles' birthday ~ Happy Birthday DH ! The kids are camping with my parents this week and we are going up today . So have a great weekend everyone and I will "see" you next week. :)
Well here it is my 100th entry milestone...and I can't thing of anything to blog about. Sad isn't it? Well actually I do have some things to yap about.First , I changed my template back to 2 columns while BabyGirl works all the kinks out of the other template.She is really good at it so it shouldn't take too long. ThanksPam for the heads up about the viewing problems. Roosie is healing very nicely and Hoopy feels better so thank you for your prayers.I am working on VBS stuff trying to tie up all the loose ends.I created some printables for a FROG Homeschool Binder (Fully Relying On God) for my friend S******. It is going to be a surprise for her .I'm putting all kinds of homeschool stuff in it. This will be her first actual "homeschooling" year.I put the printables on my Yahoo Group plus I will add them to the sidebar and you can download them from Mediafire.com.Here in our are we have been hearing the Cicadas(deafening at times)and I have some neat pictures of them we took at my cousins house. We have pictures of them coming out of their exoskeletons.I have been thinking about putting together a unit about them.Well my thoughts are running dry so I'm gonna go for now .I'll probably be back later and add to this post. I have to ! I mean it is my 100th and I have to say something interesting don't I don't I ?
. Oh yeah , I will try to post a picture of the flowers Toodles gave me for our anniversary . He bought me a bouquet of roses and one of sunflowers ~ how sweet is that ?! They are so pretty! Be sure to check out my friend 
) She is new here. Stop by and say hi ! ~ Nikki
) and yesterday it happened. I woke up feeling renewed. I felt joy within me , not bursting forth like a volcano , but kinda budding out like a flower. Now I haven't been down or anything like that it's just for a while I had been feeling like I was "stuck" if that makes sense. I wasn't unhappy. I just didn't feel joyful. Toodles preached at our evening service last night and he was talking about how we let Satan hinder us in every aspect of our our Christian life. We let him affect our witnessing, our personal walk with Christ and even our joy.(Now I haven't told Toodles how I've been feeling lately so I KNOW it was God speaking to me , just a friendly reminder from the Lord
) The thought that came to my mind last night was this , Satan is indeed a powerful enemy but he is subject to a more powerful LIVING God! Why is it so easy for us Christians to forget that ?! Satan hinders us because we let him. Why don't we cry out to Jesus at those time? The Bible tells us Satan must flee at Jesus' name so why do we so often keep silent when he starts picking at us? We as the Army of God have an arsenal that can change the world and defeat our enemy , why don't we use it? Jesus is our fearless General and Prayer our greatest weapon but so often we don't use it to its full effect. Casting Crowns has a song that says"fearless warriors in a picket fence". How true is that sometimes? We are gung ho about fighting for the Lord as long as the battleground is inside our "comfort zone". But it's not...it's out in the world and Satan wants nothing more than to keep us from the front lines.I believe he is the furnisher of our"comfort zone". Well sorry if I've been rambling this morning. I'll hush now. God Bless Everyone ! Keep my Momma in your prayers please ! ~ Nikki 
Sad isn't it? Well actually I do have some things to yap about.First , I changed my template back to 2 columns while BabyGirl works all the kinks out of the other template.She is really good at it so it shouldn't take too long. Thanks