Quotes I adore...

from Patches of Godlight by Jan Karon


"The ultimate effect of our mass culture is to make children older than their years, to turn them into the knowing cynical pseudo-adult that is by now the model kid of the TV sitcom. It is a crime against children to make them older than their years. And it won't do for the purveyors of cynicism to hide behind the First Amendment. Of course they have the right to publish and peddle this trash to kids. But they should have the decency not to. Let us therefore take a pledge, a stand, a covenant, against such rubbish, and recommit ourselves to the great civilizing impulse that gave rise to such things as LIBRARIES." (emphasis mine!) ~Charles Krauthammer  (LOVE this!)


"The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." ~Abraham Lincoln 


"It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible reading people." ~Horace Greeley  (Amen!)


"I sought for the greatness and genius of America...Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." ~Alexis de Tocqueville  (May our pulpits still be aflame!)


"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." ~William Yeats 


"I cannot live without books." ~Thomas Jefferson (me neither!)


"Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks." ~Charles Dickens  : )


And these just made me laugh: 


"A real Christian is the one who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip." ~Billy Graham 


"Noah was a brave man to sail in a wooden boat with two termites." ~ Anonymous  


Have a glorious day!
~Becky

In awe of coconut oil

I knew zip, nada, nothing... about coconut oil, except that a friend cooks with it, until a couple of days ago and I am BLOWN AWAY by the uses for it. If my library had "The Coconut Miracle" I would SOOO be checking it out right about now, but unfortunately, it doesn't.

Apparently it is: antibacterial, anti fungal, antimicrobial and antiviral! That is a whole lot of 'anti-s' in
 one place. ; )
This post would be a lot shorter if I were writing a list of what coconut oil is NOT good for! lol

Here is what I've read that it is good for: (externally)

as a moisterizer, make-up remover, spider repellent, sun screen, diaper cream, lip moisterizer, burns, cold sores, hemmoroids, eczema, psoriasis, cuts, hair conditioner and ear infections. 

The internal list:

 thyroid issues, diabetes, aids your metabolism, good for your dog's skin and coat, boosts your energy level, lowers cholesterol and protects from heart disease. 

Last but not least:

 is great for baking (use in place of butter or shortening) is apparently amazing on toast, great for frying foods and makes your homemade popcorn yummy as can be.  

WOW!

It is not an "artery clogging fat" which I read was a lie spread by the soybean industry. Interesting!

So, I bought some today and I plan to slather it on and cook with it and who knows what else. : ) If I'm missing any uses you know of, I'd love to hear about them in my comments!

It's surely going to smell pretty tropical around here soon,
~Becky

This and that

Not too much going on her lately...just a little of this and a little of that.

~Teaching our puppy to walk on a leash, which resembles being attached to a rocket
~Our sweet, Joy has been sick for weeks : ( 
~Busy college guy started his second semester
~Care-giving stress is improving, thanks for the prayers!
~More Jane Austen for another one of our boys.  -Thankfully, Pride and Prejudice is an easier read than Emma was for our last guy. (this mom doesn't mind a bit! Love me some Jane Austen!) lol
~Signing Joy up for high school softball, hooray!
~Seeing God move in the lives of our kids (the best thing ever!) 
~Fun date with my wonderful man -"Outback" which was really "out back" and NOT the restaurant (lol) 
due to care-giving and our sick girlie (he's one creative and romantic guy!)
~Youth revival services this week at church and a girls' night out with my BFF




Being stretched and blessed,
~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

This blessed my socks of today. I just love, love, love Oswald Chambers. 

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." 2 Cor. 3:18


"We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through. Let the other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is "hid with Christ in God." Never be hurried out of a relationship of abiding in Him....Keep beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." AMEN! 

Desiring to keep beholding,

~Becky

Happiest of Mondays!

Making these and enjoying the holiday!

Here is the Pioneer Woman's recipe! : )

Have a great day!
~Becky

Of men, dwarfs, elves and dragons

Years ago we heard about a home educated young man who wrote a novel when he was 15, and being intrigued, we gave it a try.

Soon after, our whole family was hooked on these books: 

I tried reading them to the kids, until we found out that they were available on c.d. from the library!

 I certainly couldn't do the voices of dragons, orcs and elves anywhere close to as well as Gerard Doyle, 

so why try. : ) He is amazing!

For Christmas, our family received the last book in the series, by Christopher Paolini on c.d. 

 We have been enjoying (all 24!) of them ever since on our various ipods. Yay!

Yes, we are a little on the nerdy side. : ) But a quote I love, goes something like this "If you don't read with your children, how will you know who their friends are?"

We've certainly made some interesting 'friends' here!

Embracing the science fiction geek in us all,  ; )
~Becky and family

Wednesdays in the Word

Remembering that this world is not our home:

"We live as those who are on a journey home; a home we know will have the lights on and the door open and our Father waiting for us when we arrive. That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure..." ~John Oxenham

 "If I discover with myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." ~ C.S. Lewis

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it." 1 Thess. 5:23

~Becky 

Legoland Florida -in pictures!

I thought it would be crowded since a thousand homeschoolers were signed up to go, but since the rest of the world was in school, it wasn't! They were able to ride all the roller coasters over and over and they had a blast! : )

~Becky

Happy Monday

So, there is a LEGOLAND in Florida now! Yippee. And we just barely have one kiddo young enough to enjoy it! I'm so happy about that because who could pass up a $5 admission fee with the home school group!? Amazing! We went to the one in CA once when Andrew was a baby and had a blast with about 12 of our relatives! But he, of course, doesn't remember it. Joy only remembers being afraid of the statue of a Lego witch. What I remember most, is being afraid when she followed a Lego employee and wandered off. Ahh! -We seem to loose our kids when there are a bunch of cousins around. (ask Nathan) ; )   

Things being the way they are around here, it wasn't looking like I could be far away from home, all day long. Thankfully, my hubby was able to take the day off and he and Andrew are off having a great father/son memory making day. 

Wasn't that an amazing pass by Tim Tebow last night? I think the whole neighborhood could hear our family and the boys' friends shouting!!!

I'm wondering if a puppy during this season of care-giving was a good idea after all. Here's hoping that Bree can go a day or two without destroying something expensive. Some of the kids Christmas presents have been chewed already. -Sad!   Joy and I took her on a two mile drag walk, in hopes of wearing her out. I got blisters on my hands from gripping the leash so hard and trying to teach her to walk next to us. Hopefully this will help. 

We could use prayer in the area of care-giving, which is a challenge for us and we could use some encouragement. Maybe it is just the busy season of life we are in with: 4 teens, homeschooling and a puppy -who is becoming the size of a small horse, but it isn't easy. Thanks. 

Blessings, 

~Becky 

Painting with the fam

During the holidays we did some painting.... My hubby has made sure that over the years all of us have learned to paint!

This time we had the opportunity to do it for a children's home.

This is cottage is going to house orphans who are siblings so that they can be together as a family instead of being separated in dorms for boys and girls.

Here are a couple of our boys masking the windows. Not an easy job.

Here's our girl who looks pretty even when she paints!

Unlike her mom! -I look like a mess when I paint. LOL!!!

                                                                        

 Had fun burning some Christmas calories, making memories and doing something for someone else! : )

~Becky

Celebrating...

the day I became a mother and the life of our 19 year old today! What a blessing on both accounts! The Lord has been good to us.

We are proud of our college guy who got great grades in his first semester. And he's making us proud over at Starbucks! ~His boss told me that he is awesome the other day when I was in the drive thru and he got a text from him on Christmas Eve saying what a great job he's been doing. He must be since his shift supervisors were fighting over him. : )  Glad that he is being 'Jesus disguised as a barista' out there in the world. 

It is hard finding the time to celebrate with such a busy guy, though... Since our youth service was cancelled, we ended up getting a chance to do it last night! When we celebrate Zac, that always means FETTUCCINE ALFREDO with chicken and sun dried tomatoes! So, that is what we had. We enjoyed an ice-cream bar, since he isn't a 'cake guy' then we took a quiz about his favorite things and listed all the things we love about him. Lots of fun! After that it was off to the movies to see Mission Impossible. Fun night. Happy Birthday, Zac! We are always so proud of you!  

~Mom

Maybe not an elven princess but always God's

We are now on purity ring #2.
Guess who found out that she is allergic to sterling silver?
So, Joy's replica of Gladreil's ring had to go back. And it was a sad day because that ring had quite the 'wow factor.'
What we found to replace it is a simple, delicate looking promise ring of white gold with tiny diamonds. Very feminine and pretty.
 But this is much better. Sterling silver has to be taken off every time you get your hands wet and it was already starting to tarnish after only a month or so.
So, all and all, we are happy with the new purity ring!

~Becky

Frying in the New Year

We laid low this New Year's Eve and didn't attend the fun parties we were invited to even though we wanted to.We still had a fun night as a family, watching movies and frying everything we could think of in the deep fryer that Zac gave us for Christmas! Yum!!! Until we ran out of oil and I headed to Publix and it looked like the rapture had taken place because they closed early. ; ) We have some practicing to do. -The fried cookie dough didn't turn out too well...the onion rings were good but the mozzarella sticks were the best! Hubby can't wait to do wings once we get the hang of it. And speaking of deep frying everything known to man, I better add some exercise to my new year plans. : )

~Becky 

A family tradition

One of our Christmas traditions is to go eat at Cracker Barrel during the Christmas season. 

This year we didn't get to pull that off until after Christmas.

 We said the food 'made us want to slap our mamma' and we looked to see if we were 'seated under the cow castrater' because we've been watching Tim Hawkins "I'm No Rock Star" dvd. LOL He's SO funny describing the Cracker Barrel.

Every year the kids each pick out a new ornament that I write their name on and store away in their own ornament boxes. That way, someday they will have a good start when they live on their own and decorate their first trees. 

Those cute curls of Joy's are from the Conair You Curl that she got for Christmas. I'm just getting the hang of it.

~Becky