Creating a Monster.

"Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world."
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

This is such a powerful and very truthful quote. I watched a clip today of The Octomom admitting that she regrets her decision to have so many children thus ruining her life. Every news stand has either photos of Jon Gosselin and his new pick of the week or Jon and Kate pointing fingers. Just like young stars of the past I believe children of reality television will face a whole new set of problems. These children will have documented memories of their families falling apart or in those 8 babies case a mom stating she regrets her decision to bring them into this word. I can't even imagine the effect that will have on these lives. I can tell you one thing only by the grace of God will these children overcome the choices their parents have made.

I'm reminded of the story of the Isrealites found in Deuteromoy Chapter 1. In verse 21 it says "Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged." But instead they rebelled and did their own thing. Then we read further down in verse 35 "Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers." These people then wondered for 40years before they entered the promise land. This chapter sets an example for us, showing what happens when we do not strive for holiness. It will effect generations. What blessings are we missing because of our rebellion?

To be perfectly honest I'm scared for my children, grandchildren, and so on. I see things today which are deamed acceptable for children and I'm dumbfounded. Like take "KidsBop" for instance. If you haven't seen the commercials you're not missing anything. This company takes popular hits by the likes of Brittney Spears, Rhianna, etc. and has children sing these songs. Promoting inappropriate lyrics among our children. I don't know about you but I do not want my 5 year old singing about "fine ladies" and "break-ups". As a generation and I mean my generation, the one which is now raising our future, needs to get our heads out the sand. When correcting our children we often remind them that when they do bad things bad things happen (our consequence) but when they do good things good things happen. I'm fearful that we will see more bad than good in future generations.

Please do not assume that I am judging in any way I am only sharing my feelings and observations. I too am not perfect and make parenting mistakes often, too often. But thank God I am promised new mercies each day.

"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."
Lamentations 3:22-23

To Can or Not to Can...

Canning. It really is a wonderful thing. My inner farmgirl (cause we all know that "farmgirl" is a condition of the heart) dreams of the day when I will have a massive garden and spend summer days filling my pantry till my little heart is content.

You probably would never know it now but I grew up a city girl. We didn't do much canning in the suburbs of Long Island, okay we didn't do any canning at all. But a lot has changed over these last 10 yrs in the south. Last year was my first attempt at canning. My mother in law brought me a huge box of Tomatoes, Granger County Tomatoes. This county is known for their maters, the best in Eastern TN. Remaining true to my roots I decided the first thing I would can would be Marinara Sauce. With little help from my Mother in Law I fumbled through my first go at it.

Let me back up here. Before I even started canning I researched oh boy did I research. I know you true blue southern girls out there are probably lettin' out a big ol' "OH LAWD". But I really didn't know what the heck I was doing. I felt pretty confident but there was one thing that freaked me out. HEADSPACE. I mean geeze don't tell someone who is OCD if you don't leave enough headspace bacteria can form. Maybe I shoud have titled this post OCD instead.

So back to canning. Last week my kitchen was flooded with 3 pecks of peaches. So I plugged away. Excuse me while I clean the peach butter out of my ears. I had so much peach butter I had to brake out the jars again. It went great. I was thrilled. That was until I took a picture to show you. That does not look like a 1/4inch headspace to me! Please Lord don't let bacteria grow in my peach butter.

Thank God for Good Friends

I had great plans for Thursday night. I was going to put the boys to bed on time and we were going to watch this. Then Todd went and messed up a good thing. He was weed eating at about 8:30 last night and a rock flew up and shattered (basically destroyed) the sliding glass doors. We've been wanting to replace the sliding doors with french doors for awhile but this wasn't the way we were thinking. So it was off to Lowe's to get a new door.
We found everything we needed and made it out of there just before closing. Well once outside with door literally in hand we found out it was not going to fit in our truck bed thanks to the camper shell. The store was closed and we forgot our cell phones. So I left Todd in the parking lot holding this 60"x 80" door and went home to get our phone. We're talking 11pm now people. He called some good friends and THANK GOD FOR THEM! Would you believe 4 PEOPLE showed up at Lowe's 11:30pm on a work night. 3 of the 4 were able to stay and help install the door. The job was completed at 12:45pm. Seriously I can't be more thankful for them because it was either that or Todd was going to have to "borrow" a Lowe's cart and push it home. LOL

Templates!

I love Martha Stewart. There I said it. No really, I've always loved the idea of home-making. I remember back in my early Middle School days I would stay home sick from school and watch her on TV. I was probably the only kid in 7th grade who read her Biography. I've always had a desire to create "home" and she had and still has great ideas/tips. Recently I went on her site and found these amazing templates and labels you can download and print off. Thanks Martha!

Weekend Finds

How cute are these? I am such a coffee junkie so I was thrilled when I found these. First off I don't know about you but I love these monogramed mugs, but they have been out of "C" forever! I found these at Homegoods (that place is dangerous). So now my freshly ground coffee grinds have a pretty home and my coffee tastes even better this morning in my "C" mug. Not too bad for a total of $7.


Okay, first off please don't judge me when if comes to the paint color in this room it was formally the playroom. When we officially decided to homeschool I wanted to make a classroom vs. teaching at the dinning room table. I know there are some who are against that, saying the whole point of homeschool is to get away from "formal teaching" but I knew this would be best for us. My boys are soooo active and I am going to need a place where there are no distractions and everything is school focused. Our church had a school back in the day so I inquired about getting desks for the boys from there. Thank the Lord they gave me 2 precious little desks for FREE. I do plan on redoing them though, they're in need of alittle TLC. I also needed a desk to where I can just spread my lesson stuff out on, so we went antiquing. I found this sweet little piano table. It is a flat surface and then just like opening a piano it has a great writing/storage space inside. The shop keeper said it's from the 1800's but I always take them very lightly. When my antiquing day's began I was told by the shop owner that I was buying a pretty little enamelware bowl to put fruit in but I was later informed by my husband it was a pee pot. My pee pot now holds flowers on the deck. Yeah so back to what I was saying, I'm not really too sure how old it is.




Come back for a visit and I'll show you how it looks all painted and decorated. Hope your Monday is filled with sweet blessings!