Daybook, January 7 2014

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

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FOR TODAY
Outside my window…a cold night, but not quite as cold as it has been
I am thinking…how nice it is to have 4 meals of the 24 freezer meals by Feb 1 goal, in the freezer.  Our home school co-op starts up mid February and for 12 weeks after Tuesday & Wednesday are crazy busy days.  These 24 meals will help us avoid the drive through temptation at the end of the day when I am worn out.  We also have minestrone soup for tomorrow and a little less than 1/2 gallon chicken broth to make another soup later in the week.
I am thankful…for so many things tonight.  Esp the helping hands of my two youngest, tackling a thorough cleaning of the dining room and kitchen this evening.  Dishes, flat surfaces wiped down, floors swept and mopped.  Very nice way to wrap up all the food prep we’ve worked on today.
In the kitchen…one of my sweet daughters has been sick with a nasty cold virus since Sunday morning.  That afternoon I cooked 3 chickens and boiled the bones for broth.  We’ve had chicken noodle soup, and minestrone soup from the broth.  There is enough left over soup for lunch tomorrow and enough broth for another soup later in the week.  Cooking 2 or 3 chickens on Sunday afternoon might become a regular thing for the rest of the winter.  It provides meat and broth for many meals during the week.
I am going…to meet with 2 women from our church on Friday afternoon.  We are planning Sunday School lessons and service projects for our middle school and high school girls.
I am reading…The Lordship of Christ by MacArthur and Twice Freed by Patricia St John.  A couple of weeks ago I asked one of my daughters for book recommendations.  Her eyes lit up and she ran off!  When she returned she had a stack of her favorite books.  I choose Twice Freed from the stack as I have seen her reading it on many occasions.  Asking for book recommendations from my daughters is one of the things I am doing to be intentional about connecting with them.  The rest of the books in this photo are the titles I hope to read this month.
I am looking forward to…Saturday!  I am really hoping (and planning) to sew all afternoon.
I am studying… peacemaking and I John.  I have had The Peacemaker by Sande since early last year.  And my memory work plan for this season is from 1 John so I decided to also spend some time in deeper study of that book.
A quote for today… “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” Mother from Man of the Family by Ralph Moody.
Around the house…a lot of clutter right now.  We are all trying to get back into the swing of routine, but there are still items from traveling that need to be put away.  Again, looking forward to Saturday i am hoping to see sunshine and warmer temperatures so I can take the most of the clutter out to the garage and shed.

A few plans for the rest of the week…Another day of trying to get organized and ready before we start back to school on Thursday.
A picture from the day…

Just Write {001}

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

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The first full week of 2014 has begun and with it goals and hopes and relief even, that 2013, the year of FULL, HARD and GOOD has passed.

My goal setting is completed and I am pretty excited about the simple and specific goals for this year.  Writing is high on my list of goals so tonight I decided, to just write.

As is becoming a tradition, my Beloved was home for the week of Christmas, and we ladies headed to my Dad’s place to spend New Year’s week with my Dad, my Sister and her family.  Sweet times of refreshment and also growing insight & gratitude.

Learning how to use my new camera ~ lighting & buttons…

The way the calendar falls this time around, I had penciled in a school start day for TODAY but this morning, to sighs of relief all around, the decision was made to start back on Thursday.  That gives me a couple days of prep time and putting the house back in order from all the holiday hoopla, crashed computer, curriculum tweaking & travel messes.  Not really messes, but the suitcases go behind the tubs of Christmas decorations.  We pulled out the suitcases as we put away the Christmas tubs. Now the tubs will have to be pulled out to put the suitcases away.  No one was feeling that ambitious today! 

The magic box that will take my 11 month, 26 day old Dell Computer to the hospital is due any day and Miss Sunshine has taught me about External Hard Drives.  What an amazing little tool this black box of terabytes is!  Thankfully we haven’t lost any thing, although my goals were sketched out in a spiral notebook last week because I was very afraid of loosing everything.  BUT the Terabyte holder?  Wow.  I’ve figured out how to have iTunes on only 1 computer and have any computer available to the kids without thinking about which one has my files.

What a ramble post this is, but maybe letting these words splash the page will allow for some deeper thoughts to settle in and develop.

linking with extraordinary ordinary

Reading for Christmas

29 Sunday Dec 2013

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This month I enjoyed and found the season enriched by two books that became available in the fall.  Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift was a wonderful read that brought me encouragement during a season of challenge and mild disappointment.  (Hubby’s company did not get the job that would have brought him home from Canada)  And The Woman of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs was a gentle read that was comforting and quieting for my before bed read.

As I finished reading “The Women of Christmas” I was very surprised by the direction my thoughts went.  There is a study guide at the end that I decided to simply read through instead of grabbing pen and paper as I often do.  There is this ~ “What things in your life seem to hard to handle?  Make a list.  Then write across the top your favorite translation of Luke 1:37.  If you truly believe that nothing is impossible with God, what must you do right now to embrace that reality.”

Sweet encouragement, the realization that even while I grieved and gave thanks and pressed on through this Christmas season without much Christmas spirit, that God had gone before me again.  He had lead me through this book to this place in the study guide to gently ask me to trust Him,  to Believe that He is at work and He has not forgotten us.

Also from the study guide of The Women of Christmas I got a start on my goal setting and planning for the new year.  I am excited to spend some time looking over my goals for 2013 without beating myself up for what isn’t accomplished and to look forward with hope and anticipation for what God is doing instead.

Another book, that was sent to me for review, “The War on Christmas, Battles in Faith, Tradition and Religious Expression” was started and set aside.  Maybe it was because of all that has been going on around us, I just could not press on with this book.  Maybe when life is pressing in it isn’t the right time to try and read this particular kind of book. I am putting it on my nightstand with the thought that I may read though it from time to time.

I hope this holiday season for you has been a joyful celebration of that everlasting gift Jesus came to fulfill the very first Christmas.  What a comfort I continue to find in the parallels between his Birth – in a messy, dirty stable and my life, messy, broken life.  The tremendous hope that comes from His love for each of us settles the dust a little and allows me to just rest and breathe.

Thanks be to God for His immeasurable gift.

Stationery Card
View the entire collection of cards.

Bring Hope and Help to a Child in Poverty

13 Friday Dec 2013

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Would you like to know how to spread the message of hope to a child living in poverty this Christmas season?

 The following children are available for sponsorship through Compassion International.  They each live in deep poverty, in communities that lack many of the basic things which are readily available to our own children.

 

 

  • One in six children 5 to 14 years old — about 16 percent of all children in this age group — is involved in child labor in developing countries.

  • In the least developed countries, 30 percent of all children are engaged in child labor.

  • Worldwide, 126 million children work in hazardous conditions, often enduring beatings, humiliation and sexual violence by their employers.

  • An estimated 1.2 million children — both boys and girls — are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work.

  • The highest proportion of child laborers is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 percent of children (49 million) are involved in work.

    In a world where more than a billion children live on less than U.S.$2 per day, connecting one child with one sponsor is the most strategic way to end child poverty.

    Through monthly gifts, prayer and letter writing, sponsors invest in the lives of children living in extreme poverty. This relationship communicates, “You are an important little person!”

    Children attend church-based child development centers where they receive life-changing opportunities that would otherwise be out of their reach. All Compassion-sponsored children have the opportunity to develop their God-given potential and be released from the poverty that has trapped their families for generations.

    Contact me at byquietwaters at gmail dot com for more information, or to sponsor one of these children.

It is almost time!

11 Wednesday Dec 2013

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Sponsorship Request

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

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Jill over at Compassion Family received word recently that two of her correspondent children have lost their financial sponsors.  She is hoping that someone in our blogging community can help find sponsors for these two precious children.

Click over to Jill’s blog for details!

Hope

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

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“The mattering part is never what isn’t.  The mattering part is never the chopped-off stump.  It isn’t what dream has been cut down, what hope has been cut off, what part of the heart has been cut out.

The tender mattering part is– you have a Tree.”  Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift

As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

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It’s a quiet Saturday here at By Quiet Waters and I’m enjoying having a stuffed turkey in the oven, kids quietly puttering and the opportunity to clear off some of my to-dos.  As I was doing some online decluttering I found a review that I neglected to post.

As Silver Refined (Answers to Life’s Disappointments) by Kay Arthur

Maybe the reason this post was “shelved” for a while is because I struggled greatly to get through this book.  Not at all becuase it is poorly written or irrelevant.  But because when life is busy or I am deeply focused on a particular thing other things just do not “stick”.

The analogy to the refiner’s work on silver is a beautiful one and I do hope to approach this book again in the future, to soak up the word pictures and spend time reflecting on the Refiner, His fire and the outcome of the Refiner’s Fire.

This book was sent to me by Blogging for Books (WaterBrook Press, Multnomah Books and Shaw Books) in exchange for my thoughts and opinions.

Domestic Violence

14 Thursday Nov 2013

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As a woman, a mother, a daughter, and an adult survivor of horrific childhood abuse I so appreciate others who have the courage and ability to communicate well and share their story.

Shine the light in the dark places.  Speak life.  These words are taking on a deeper meaning today.