2008 August

blessing you enemies, love for real

August 29, 2008 By Penny Leave a Comment

This is from our ministry newsletter I sent out Tuesday, I had so many responses that said it ministered to them personally that I thought I would share it here also, it also fits in with Robin’s new meme, Fruit Of The Spirit Friday, be blessed, Penny

Blessing your enemies

Do you know what it means to truly bless your enemies?

Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

“Bless them that curse you”, hmm, seems simple enough. Just don’t curse back, right? No not right, not good enough. We have friends, acquaintances, family members, just like many of you have, at one point they met the Lord, maybe walked with Him for a season, maybe even heard his voice. But they wouldn’t lay down their own will, and so they are no longer walking with Him. They want the benefits of His Kingdom, but since they can’t have them, they don’t want anyone else to have them either. They have a place in your heart so their words count for something. When they speak bad things against you, out of jealousy or envy or just plain maliciousness it takes root and actually becomes a curse over your life. Happens all the time.

Well some time ago, we knew that because things didn’t work out the way someone thought they would that their words had cursed us. We knew it, we hear God, we see things, we discern things, and the Lord gives us very very detailed dreams. We knew in what area of our lives we had been cursed and we knew why. But not too long ago I was praying desperately and really asking the Lord what was going on. He spoke very clearly and said, “so and so cursed you”. Well, I already knew that but this was writing on the wall. So my next question was, “and what do we do about it?” Can you guess what He said? He said, “bless them, pray for them”. Well I must admit at this point I really had no compassion for this person. Because it wasn’t a one time cursing, it was continual. It was intentional. So, I sent up a token, “uh Lord, bless them with a great job opportunity in Alaska.” He said that wasn’t good enough. So I spent 2 days praying for my heart to be right, I wasn’t full of hate or bitterness, or unforgiveness. But I honestly didn’t care if I ever saw this person again. I just figured he was the Lord’s project and not mine. But no, Jesus made him my project. He said to bless him. So after seeking the Lord’s love and seeing this prodigal as someone the Lord loves, I began to pray for him. Earnest, from the heart, prayer. Asking the Lord’s blessings upon this person.

I wouldn’t even call this person an enemy, but I guess he is, he is not for us but rather against us. That is what it means to bless your enemies, and you can’t do it on your own.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Favorite Friday Freebies

August 29, 2008 By Penny 1 Comment

Ok, here we are our first Favorite Friday Freebies! This is the place we get to share where you can get great things for free. Well, first off today I am going to give away a book, Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl. This is a one day drawing, I will choose a winner late tonight and post it tomorrow, the winner will be responsible to get in touch with me with their mailing address, (sorry but US only). To get in this drawing, join the meme, post about it, and leave me a comment. Here are more Favorite Freebies for this Friday.
Homeschool Freebie Of The Day- it doesn’t get much better than this- several freebie links

FREE Healthy Samples from REMEDYLife. You can get Brand name samples like Crystal Light, Blistex, Purell, and many more! Great Healthy Samples from the Award Winning REMEDY Magazine team. Click here to get started! Click Here

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free samples
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free hair color
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Get a Facial Cleansing Cloth Sample. Click Here

Free Personalized Diet Plans. Start Losing Weight Today. Click Here this one expires tonight

Chic-fil-a is giving away free food monday, click here for details

I am putting this up now but I have several more freebies to add, so keep checking back

Please join in, post something on your blog about a link to get something free, it can be anything you like, family friendly of course, and it can be a freebie give away of your own. Add a link to my blog and a little bit about Favorite Friday Freebies in your post and the graphic if you like, and then leave your name and link here.

Filed Under: Favorite Friday Freebies, freebie

What’s in season?

August 29, 2008 By Penny Leave a Comment

I think my best Frugal Friday tip ever is to use what is in season. Sure frozen fruits and veggies are great especially if you put them up yourself, and blackberry jam is wonderful in the winter. But fresh is best. This week we are swimming in apples. We have different types of apple trees and some were ready a month ago but now we are really getting the harvest. Add to that, our dear older neighbor called the other day and said if the children wanted to come over he would put them on his front loader of the tractor and lift them up to get the fruit from the tall branches. Wow that was fun! They brought home 4 5gal buckets of apples and pears. So, what has homemaker Hannah been making? Apple muffins, apple sauce with oatmeal or over pancakes, and every other yummy thing she can think of.

We are also swimming in tomatoes. Here is our famous salsa ingredients list, you will have to figure your own amounts as we cook for an army and like it hot.

tomatoes – jalapeno peppers – habanero peppers – onions – cilantro- garlic – all diced, and mixed, let set for 1 hour in fridge and add salt.

So, what is in season at your house?

be sure to check my front page today as I have lots of freebies coming up

Filed Under: cookin it up, income and outgo

slow motion internet

August 28, 2008 By Penny 1 Comment

As if I hadn’t had enough internet woes lately, last night I went over my allotted amount with the Fair access Policy. I don’t really know what did me in, except that I have been visiting lots of Christian sites that have Entrecard. And my good friend Jennifer from www.quiverfulfamily.com has posted a whole list of Christian sites with Entrecard. So maybe I can blame it on her since she showed my so many great new sites. :lol: just kidding.

Let me give y’all a bit of netiquette, don’t ever put more than one video on a blog page at a time, and don’t send youtube videos by email. Just give folks the link instead. If they have dial up, you may crash them completely, and if they have satellite it may put them over their limit. And what happens when you go over the limit? They slap your hand and send you to your room. Well, that is what it feels like anyway. What they really do is limit you for the next 24 hours. That means your internet moves in slow motion, if it moves at all. Like ummm, ten minutes to check your bank balance. And for this privilege us “country folks” get to pay $79.99 a month + tax. What a deal huh? Well no more. Not here, not now. Because cable internet has come to the country. At least I hope so. I have an install date tomorrow, and they do have my address, so hopefully things go well. I will get much faster unlimited use AND save $55 a month. Thank you Lord, I hope you have found me faithful in the patience dept. It was a challenge describing to the sale rep that I wanted internet ONLY and not TV. I know I am an alien (1 Peter 2:11) . Only here for a short while. But while I am here I want to accomplish something!

Filed Under: thoughts & ponderings

got debt? how to dig out- guest post by Tawra Kellam

August 28, 2008 By Penny Leave a Comment

Surviving and Saving When Your Sick

by Tawra Kellam

http://www.LivingOnADime.com/

My husband and I paid off $20,000 in debt and medical bills in five years on $22,000 per year averaged income, and I am disabled with Fibromyalgia and ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Here are some of the ways we lived frugally and made it work:

#1 Keep meals simple. Try any of these simple meals:

-Chicken, with a bottle of hot and sour sauce dumped over the top and served with rice.

-Taco salad made with bagged lettuce, hamburger browned with taco seasoning, sour cream, salsa and olives.

-Baked chicken with freezer rolls and sliced cucumbers, peppers, carrots, tomatoes and ranch dressing.

Most of our meals take under 20 minutes to prepare. Write down 10 quick meals that are family favorites. Keep the “quick favorites” list in a specific spot and always keep the ingredients for these favorite meals on hand. Then, when you are sick and can’t spend a lot of time cooking, you can make something quick and easy.

Also, make as much of dinner as you can when you are feeling your best. Then if you aren’t feeling well come dinner time it will be almost all done and you won’t be tempted to send for take out.

#2 Get the kids to help with daily cleanup. Kids can help pick up most of the house with proper direction. Mine are 10, 9, and 5 and have been helping since they were 3. I ask each of them to pick up toys. Then I ask each of them to pick up four more things. Later, I might ask them to empty all the trash cans and the dishwasher. Let the kids help as much as possible. Mine spend about 10 minutes a day helping and it makes a world of difference!

#3 Use paper plates. They are cheap, come from a renewable resource and can be composted – use them! They cost about one cent each, so spending five cents for our family of five is way cheaper than the $40 take out!

#4 Give each person his own color of drinking glass. This way, you can prevent family members from getting confused about whose glass is whose and constantly getting out new glasses.

#5 Try to do at least one load of laundry a day. That way you won’t get overwhelmed or behind.

#6 Let non-critical things go! Ignore the dust, the dirty windows, and other things like that. If you are lying sick on the couch where you look right out a dirty window, then ask your kids or hubby to clean it, but otherwise forget it until later!

By doing just these few things, you can keep yourself from going insane and save some money, even when your sick.

Tawra and her mother, Jill Cooper (who also has ME/CFS) are frugal living experts and the editors of http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ , a website filled with tips on how to save time, money, and energy – all of which are often in short supply for most of us! They have helped thousands of people all over the world to save money and get out of debt.

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Filed Under: friend's articles, income and outgo

free online tutor

August 27, 2008 By Penny Leave a Comment

This is a homeschooler gotta have, 30 free minutes for online tutoring. Actually it is an anybody with children gotta have. Did y’all get in on the free vitamin offer I posted a couple weeks ago? I got mine in the mail yesterday. Hope you didn’t miss out. Don’t miss this one. I am starting a meme Friday with freebies like this, but I was just notified of this one and couldn’t wait. Be blessed.