Exciting changes ahead...

I like to make goals for myself. Why? What is the point? Mainly because I see so much work that needs to be done in me! If I hope to improve, I must set goals and work to achieve them (with the Lord's help) or else I will always be stuck back in the same old rut. I also find goals to be fun and exciting. I love to learn new things and new goals keep life interesting and fresh!

Recently, I revised my goals for this year. My new ones are as follows:

1. Be ACTIVE at least 45 minutes everyday. (Sunday is my only exception. If I want to just rest that is fine, although generally I like to do a little something in the afternoon as well.) I have been implementing this goal for the most part for about a month and a half. I feel like a new woman. I never want to go back to a more sedentary life again! Life is for the living!! Bring it on!! Whoot!

2. Learn to drive a standard. Yup. I will learn THIS year.

3. Be confident using firearms. I know the basics, but still do not feel comfortable using them. This is mainly from lack of experience. My goal is to target practice at least once every two weeks in warm weather.

4. Get out on the water at least once a week, either in my kayak or in my canoe. Also, I would like to become confident enough with my kayak that I could just take it and go paddling by myself. I so enjoy the water. For me it is very close to being a spiritual experience. It is calmly and comforting, (yet can be exciting, too.) Somehow, when I am on the water, I feel at home. It is as though there is a need in me to be out there. If you are a "water" person, you will understand this. For years, I did not get out on the water and I missed it terribly. It is also great exercise. I plan to be out there every chance I can get.

5. Build up the soil in my garden. My garden was just a piece of lawn two years ago and the soil is very poor. I am working diligently this year to build it up and have a bumper crop of produce in my little garden! As of right now about 1/5 of my garden is done. This is hard, satisfying work. I will reap the benefit of better veggies and herbs and am also reaping the benefits of the hard physical labor on my body.

6. Keep my furnace room organized. This room is the catch-all of the house. It is nearly always a mess. My goal is to KEEP it organized and tidy! So often people come through this room from our garage to enter our home, I cringe each time at the mess!!

7. One day out of every 10, visit shut-ins, people who aren't feeling well, etc. I SO often overlook this opportunity to be a blessing and be blessed! That's right, I go with the intent of being a blessing to someone and every time I leave I realize I was the one who was blessed!!

8. Be bold about sharing Christ with others- get myself and my pride out of the way! Our church has a visitation program once a week in the summer. We go door-to-door and meet people, invite them to church, etc. I look forward to being involved with that again this summer. I also want to be bolder in my day to day life to share Christ. By bolder, I do NOT mean shoving it rudely in any one's face but rather, telling others of the GREAT and awesome blessing I have in being a child of the King and that they can KNOW Him and have their sins forgiven, too!

9. EVERY day, spend time talking to my Lord and drinking from the Water of His Word. NO excuses. NO exceptions. Time spent with Him is the most productive time of the day and it is so precious!! All too often I do not "make the time" to be with Him. - I need to change that and do it each and every day!

10. Number 10, not my final goal by any stretch, but the last one I will post here. ~smile. This one I expect to hear a great "Hurrah" from many people in response to it! My goal is to be ON TIME from now on!! Yes, no more "doing one last thing before I go." I will be ON TIME or even early... is that applause I hear???

Don't Give Up

Source: Uploaded by user via Karin on Pinterest

"I think Christians fail so often to get answers to their prayers because they do not wait long enough on God. They just drop down and say a few words, and then jump up and forget it and expect God to answer them. Such praying always reminds me of the small boy ringing his neighbor's door-bell, and then running away as fast as he can go."

 

                                                                                           - E. M. Bounds



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Easy, inexpensive, EXCELLENT dishwasher detergent

I have been using this "detergent" in my dishwasher for the past week.
It is

inexpensive,
easy to use,
and won't harm the environment. 

The best part is...

it works great!!

My dishes are sparkly clean!

Dishwasher Detergent

In the compartment where you would normally place your store-bought detergent, place:

1 tsp Borax
1 tsp Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)
1 squirt of Dawn dish soap

Close the lid and run cycle as usual.

Is there an answer to this question?

I woke up early this morning. 

I grabbed my Bible, 

notebook, 

my snuggly fleece throw,

and sat on my couch.

As I sat there reading in the book of Romans, 

a thought kept running through my mind.

 A thought that stems from an entirely different passage of scripture.....

 2 Timothy 1:8-9,"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 

God has called me with a holy calling before the world began. Hence, He knew me before the world began. 

This is an wonderful fact, but not the persistent thought that was running through my mind. ~smile

Since God has known me since before the world began... 

then in a sense... 

{and someone feel free to correct my line of thinking if this sounds way off base.... }

then would it not appear...

 that my soul existed before the world began? 

Certainly not in the sense that it does now- but... 

if God KNEW me than I had to exist.. one could not be known who does not exist...could one?

I know this is a strange line of thought... but since He did indeed know His calling for me before the world began... then if my soul existed by the world began..

(and again I am open for clarification and correction from God's Word on this, please share if needed.)

This was the thought that kept running through my mind....

How old is my soul?? 

This is something I have spent a little time thinking about before... I find the thought fascinating..... Knowing that God's sense of time is not like ours and that He has always existed... our human minds may not be able to fully comprehend such things (my mind anyway).... yet, I do find it interesting to think over.... and it makes me feel blessed that God does make some things a bit more difficult to comprehend with our human minds. It thrills me as I rest in the fact that He is in control and knows everything.. and that He allows me to have little puzzles to ponder over. ~smile.

 For me, it makes life more interesting.

Correction

I don't know if the anonymous commenter on my last post will visit here again or not. But I would like to thank them for the correction of my error. A hastily written post resulted in my confusion/blurring of 2 separate passages of scripture. Not revisiting the post again, resulted in my not catching the confusion until just now. I am sincerely thankful for the correction! I have deleted the post.

God bless!

One Fine Chick

Would I sound a little crazy to you if I said one of my best friends is a chicken? Hmmm.... just maybe. ~wink

I promise this post isn't about my chickens... well... mostly not anyway. ~smile

I have 8 Rhode Island Reds that are a delight to me. Seven of my girls are big, red and beautiful. Feathers nearly always in place and they are so beautiful to look at in the sun.

(Photo copyright Penni Hill, March 2, 2012. Please do not use or pin without permission.)

Then there is Prunella.

 Pru isn't as plump as the other girls. She is nearly always missing at least a few neck feathers - sometimes most of them are gone on the front. When wet her feathers totally "deflate" and she looks down right pitiful. To top it off, she is missing the end of three toes. Yeah, physically she is a wreck.

Here is the thing though, Prunella is very dear to me. She is the first one out of the hen house when I open the door, she will follow closely at my heels when I walk around in the yard, and she loves to have me pat her and pick her up. She is my favorite - I love that silly little chicken. She isn't much to look at, but she brings a lot of joy to my life.

This is Prunella.  ~love~  (photo copyright Penni Hill, 3-2-2012)

At my church there is a dear sweet older lady who doesn't have a lot of money and doesn't wear the latest fashions. She has a hard time understanding how things work sometimes. Yet, this little lady always has a smile. She never lets me pass by her without speaking to me and each church service when she first spots me, she calls out to me. She doesn't have an outstanding singing voice, yet she joins in singing groups and sings with a heart so cheerful and joyous that her voice is indeed beautiful to listen to. She is a loveable soul and a precious friend. I have learned a lot about joy from this woman.

Now, do not misunderstand me, I am not comparing my friend to a chicken!! However, it does make me think of how we look at the people around us. Sometimes we look at the bright and beautiful, the well spoken and think "Wow, they have so much to offer." (This brings to mind a message our Pastor did recently Three Cautions and a Call ) We look at those who are so obviously gifted with looks, intellect, etc. and so often pass right bye those who don't appear to offer as much. Sadly, many times we overlook the Prunella's of this world.

But here is the thing....

When we pass them by or don't take them seriously, we are missing out on knowing and receiving a real treasure.

Because they have a lot to offer...



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Valentine's Day (a short history)

A short article from the old "Harvest Times" newsletter I used to produce for home educators in the Bangor area. I debated adding more to it, it is quite short (there was limited spaced in HT), but I decided to leave it as it is, including the jokes at the end ~smile. I found the vintage Valentines on Pinterest.com. Aren't they great?

Valentine's Day, A Holiday of Love

by Penni Hill

Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day? Where did the customs we use today come from and when did they begin? There are several ideas of why we celebrate Valentine's Day the way we do.

Thousand's of years ago, February 15 was the day the Romans held a festival to honor one of their gods, Lupercus. It was a day of games, music and dancing. This was also the day the Roman’s had their “love raffle”. The names of young women were written on pieces of paper and put into a jar. The young men would draw out the name of their sweethearts for the coming year.

On February 14, 269 A.D. a Roman priest named Valentine was put to death for teaching about Christ.  In 496, Pope Gelasius named Valentine as a saint and made February 14 a special day to honor him.

Over the years we have combined many of the customs of these two holidays. Today, we consider Valentine’s Day as the holiday of love. We send beautiful cards of love, give chocolates and flowers, and have romantic evenings out. It is definitely a day for romance, but is romance love?

            1 John 4:7-10 gives us the definition of true love. "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins."

This Valentine's Day, let’s remember the man for whom this holiday was named and why it was named for him. And on this day may God’s love through His Son Jesus Christ become real to you.

Valentine Activities (for children and families)

Make some Valentine cookies. Put them in a pretty box and take them to an elderly neighbor or someone you know who is sick. Be sure to include a Valentine with a verse from God’s Word on it.

Visit a nursing home and take along Valentine’s you have made for all the patients (call ahead for exact number). While there sing love songs such as “Love Lifted Me”, quote scripture or put on a skit that tells what love really is.

 

 

Study about the human heart. Draw a picture of what a real heart looks like and learn how it works. Learn how to take your pulse rate.

Do a study on chocolate. When was it first made? What exactly is it made of? What place in the world makes the most of it? Where do most of the cocoa plants grow that we get our cocoa from here in the USA?

 

Be sure to send your loved ones a valentine this February 14. Why not take this chance to let them know how much they really mean to you!

Valentine Jokes 

from the book "Valentine Fun" by Judith Stamper

1. How do vampires fall in love?

2. Which month has twenty-seven days?

3. What flower is used most on Valentine’s Day?

(Answers at the bottom of page)

 

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Olive.

Olive who?

Olive you.

Answers to jokes

1. It's love at first Bite

2. All of them

3. Tulip

Happy Valentine's Day!