White (well, now it is) Wicker!

So here it is, my newest garage sale find! I was on the way to our local farmer's market and, while driving, I saw this set on the driveway of a home I was passing. I thought to myself, "if that is still there when I am on my way back from the market, I will stop in and check on it." I know, you are asking why I didn't simply stop then.

I needed eggs from the farmer's market, and they go really fast because the restaurants snatch them up if you are not there early! The previous week, I'd gotten there when the market opened and I was too late. Mmmmmm, nothing like real farm fresh eggs!

Anyhoo, as we were driving home from the farmer's market (with the eggs), I saw that this lovely wicker set was still there (an hour and a half later! Can you believe it?). I turned in and walked straight over to the chair, took a quick look at it, and asked the owner how much she wanted for it.

"Ten dollars," she replied. I couldn't believe it. I was sure that the reason that it was still sitting there had something to do with the price being too high.

When she answered me, another lady turned and said, "Only ten dollars?" I quickly replied with, "MINE!"

I know, I know, I sound like one of my small children when they don't want to share! Truth be known, I could have talked her down on the price because it had been sitting there for so long, and she really wanted to move her items out the door, but, with competition looking at the same item and announcing that the price was "ONLY" ten dollars, I had to move fast if I wanted to get it.

So, that weekend was spent in grungy clothes and spray paint. And here are the beautiful results:




I am so happy with them... I had been looking all summer for a chair and some tables just like these for my front porch, and the Lord provided!

Now, another cold weather project for me: sewing some lovely shabby chic pillows and throws to adorn these with the comfort and beauty that I want to give to my family as a gift for all the love they give me. I can just picture us next Spring sitting on these and having a relaxing time reading aloud together, all nestled in pillows and comfort and enjoying tea!

I want my children to remember hours of loving family time snuggled together on this porch while talking of the day's events, what we have read, and the Lord's goodness to us.

I, of course, will also have my morning coffee out there too!

What projects are you doing in your home to reflect the love of the Lord and His goodness to you in blessing you with your family?

Lots of love to you,

The Aftermath

Well, I'm back to my regularly scheduled programming now that my in-loves have ended their visit and are on their way back to Texas this morning.

We had a lovely visit with Jim Bob's parents. While they were here, they nailed down a time for a family trip to Hawaii next summer. There were lots and lots of details to sift through since it will be them, us, and Jim Bob's sister's family all going on this trip (fourteen people in all: seven adults, seven children!). What a generous and sweet offer! We are looking forward to this trip so much!

Today, though, I will be lying around like a slug with my children and simply resting in the Lord's goodness to us through family that lifts our spirits, makes us laugh, and shares their sunshine with us.

Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful day!

I will have more before and after photos of some new projects and fall decorating coming soon.... stay tuned!

Love,

Family

Jim Bob's parents are in town this week and we have been super busy going places, doing things, and talking each other's ears off. It's been wonderful!

We are having a very nice visit and are sad that we only get to have them for the next few days, but we are enjoying them to the fullest while we can!

Thank God for family!

We are so very blessed to have family. The Lord has given us each other to hold one another up, pray for one another, and love. I am thankful for the provision of my in-laws. We have been through so much together, and we've seen God's grace displayed in our relationship. He is so very good to us.

Hug your family today if you are able. At the very least, let them know that you love them and how much they mean to you. The years go by so fast.

I love you, Jan and Larry!

A Baby is Born... and Amy was there!

I just received the following photo of Amy who is still at the hospital with our friends who are now the proud parents of their ninth child, fourth son.

A covenant child is born... and a faithful friend is there!

What a blessing it is for me to be able to work from home, so that she can minister to others like this!

--Jim Bob, for...

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!

I'm off this morning to help a friend who is in labor with her ninth child! May God bless this precious family and this new covenant child!

Please pray for a healthy and safe labor and delivery for this sweet friend and sister in the Lord.

Thank you!

A Father's Vision for Designing Children's Rooms

In a previous post, I wrote about the melding together of "his" and "hers" to make a home "theirs." But, should that carry over into every room in the house, including the children's?

Today, I have asked Jim Bob to write a guest post regarding his vision for our children's room design. —Amy Joe

When designing the children's rooms, they should be gender-specific. I want them to thank God for their God-given gender, and their environment should celebrate the way God made them.

Especially in our home, I want them to each identify with their "element" in the home. I want them to see the strength, stability, and security that being a servant leader requires. The design of the house and the boys' room should solidify that aspect of design in their minds, especially as to the part that is "theirs."

I also want them to see the beauty that a helpmeet brings as she adorns her husband in loveliness. The design of the girls' room should also give them license to gardenize and beautify everything they touch. The rest of the house will be a display of how that plays out in our marriage and family.

When Men Were Men, and Women Were Women

Think of the pioneers: When they moved out West, he cut down trees and built a sturdy home that would protect the family from the elements. She decorated it on the inside, making it a warm inviting place for the family, and any guests that came along.

Once the house was built, he took horse and plow and dug up the rocks, turned over the ground, and turned all the green stuff brown... so that she could come behind and plant flowers and herbs and vegetables to beautify their home and provide delicious meals. Neither would have made it without the other. And each role was very clearly defined and displayed.

Be Ye Separate

In our post-modern feminized world where men no longer provide for their families by the sweat of their brow, and women muscle their way into the world of effeminized men, we've lost sight of the important God-given roles of each. I want my girls to be feminine, and my boys to be masculine. Not to the exclusion of the other, but in great appreciation of the other.

The boys' room, for all of its potential to be cave-like, should not be a cave or even a smelly locker-room, because mom still needs to go in there!

The girls' room, for all of its potential to be lacy and frilly, should recognize that Dad and the boys come in there, too... and if everything is uber-delicate, it's going to get broken.

In the rest of the house, the same is true. The furniture and design should display that a man lives here, but not alone. And the boys should be able to be boys by having sturdy furniture to live on. The accessories and utensils should display that a woman lives here, but not alone. And the girls should be able to be girls by having a tea party in the living room without being trampled on.

Further Up and Further In

Yes, there are gender-specific elements in each room, to bathe them, and establish and ground them in their God-given gender, but they are also given a glimpse of melding the two together in their own home one day, as they move further up and further in into their future roles and husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Those future roles become a more full expression of who they are now.

For all the strength the boys bring (and I don't want it to be wimpy by any stretch), they must also live in understanding with the females in their lives by taking care of the delicate adornments in the home. For all the frilly, roses and lace the girls bring (and I don't want that down-played at all), they must also live in understanding that flowers are fragile and the males in their lives bring stability and protection so that they can blossom and bloom.

When either tries to do the other, the walls crumble from weakness and the flowers are trampled by brute force. Balance and completion is the key.

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. ‚Genesis 2:18

Story of My Life...

My dear husband forwarded me today's Baby Blues cartoon, which often makes me think the artist has me on Candid Camera. After reading it, I thought... "

Uh huh, story of my life.

I am blessed, however, I have four who call me "mom." It's what I wanted my whole life, and God saw fit to make me the mother I wanted to be....

Sometimes we just don't realize when we ask for things what we are getting ourselves into, do we? But I am blessed, and very, very thankful to be Jim Bob's wife and the mother of his children.

Jim Bob's 40th Birthday "Party"
I love you, Jim Bob!

Happy Anniversary To My Hubby

This is a post I intended to place here last Friday, but we were in the throes of a stomach virus around here... yours truly being the one affected that day ;-/

On August 22, 1993, I became the happiest woman in the world. No, really, I did! No one else could compare their joy to mine that day because that was the day that Jim Bob proposed to me, and I accepted with an "absolutely, positively, definitely YES!!!!!" (I really knew what I wanted ;))

We've seen our share of struggles, joys, dreams come true, and some broken times, but here we are, four children, at least four homes, and four states later, just the same and yet completely different, and I love him more each day.

I bless that day, the day I became his bride! Little did I know then that it was just a simple foreshadowing of the joy I will feel when my Heavenly Bridegroom comes to take me as His own.

I am blessed. Truly, I am.

Father, I thank you for making me Jim Bob's bride that day fifteen years ago. You were so gracious to me then, as You always have been. Thank you for Jim Bob. Please bless him in all he does, and keep him strong in You. Thank You for preserving us to this point... please never stop. I ask, more than anything, that our love for each other will continue to grow strong in the years to come, and glorify You in the process.

You have been so gracious to us, Father. I bless Your holy Name. I ask that our marriage will always be a beacon of hope to our children and all who know us. In Jesus' Name I ask it.

Amen.

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” —Matthew 22:37-40

LORD, You will establish peace for us,

For You have also done all our works in us. —Isaiah 26:12

The Waiting Game

So, I got a call from my best friend in Texas last night telling me that she was on her way to the hospital to have her baby. We were all excited because it means that this baby will be born on my mother's birthday, which is today. Happy birthday, Mom!

I still haven't heard anything from my friend. She said she would call me as soon as she could, but we are going on twelve hours now, and I'm getting a little anxious for her.

This is her eighth baby, fourth boy. Her children are precious and I love them dearly.

Please be in prayer for my friend and her new baby. I was with her for the birth of her sixth baby, a precious little girl who is just like her mama! I wish I could be there with her right now also.

I'll leave an update as soon as I hear something. Thank you for praying!

EDIT: My dear friend in Texas has FINALLY had her baby!!!! After a very long 24 hours (maybe more) of labor, she ended up with a C-section this evening. Both mommy and baby are doing well and in recovery as I write this! Praise Jesus!!!!

Thank you for joining me in prayer for my sweet friend and her new baby boy!

Amy

P.S. My next post will be on budgeting for the decor of your home, stay tuned...

Lovingkindness and Faithfulness

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night." —Psalm 92: 1-2

Mental note to self:

1. Give thanks to Him right away every morning
   
   This will get me off to thinking in the right direction first thing. No room for negative or ugly thoughts when I'm thanking Him for everything I can think of as soon as I awake.



2. Declare His lovingkindness every morning
   
   If I'm alive and breathing, He has been gracious to me and has shown me great lovingkindness to allow me to see the faces of those I love once again.



3. Every night, review His faithfulness to me and mine
   
   If we made it through the day intact, and we had everything we needed along the way, He has been most faithful to us, and I should declare it to Him in a prayer of thanks, and teach my children the same.

That's pretty straightforward, I think. I'll spend some time praising Him now. How about you?

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for....

A Wife Adorns Her Husband

From a very young age, I often dreamed of designing and decorating my own home. Now that I am a wife and mother, my dream has come true.

Problem is, however, that it is not only my home. I share this home with others, most noteably, my husband.

Many times in the past, as we were about to move into a new home, I would find myself falling asleep dreaming about all of the decor changes I would make, or how I would paint, or how I would use a piece of furniture in a way that is a bit “out of the box,” so to speak.

Too often, however, I would forget to ask my husband what he wanted in all of the design, except for making sure that we had the budget to make the changes I wanted. But, since it was what I wanted and not what he wanted, when it came time to do the parts that required his help… well, let’s just say a lot of my projects were left unfinished.

Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s much easier to get my husband’s help if he likes what I’m doing, if he feels that I recognize that it’s his home, too. It is in honoring my husband that we were finally able to figure out our style.

In light of this, I thought a post on determining what your husband desires in the decor of your home would be essential to blessing my readers with the ability to create a home that adorns your husband’s vision.

Interviewing Your Husband

Any good interior designer will sit down with her client and have a lengthy discussion about what the client’s desires are for their space—be it the whole house, or an individual room. The purpose of this conversation is to make sure that the designer is equipped to make the dreams of the client—not the designer—come true. This would include such topics as budget, overall look, color scheme, style preference, likes/dislikes, lifestyle, traffic patterns in the home, and overall vision for the space.

Since your husband is the vision setter for your home, it would be appropriate to sit down and discuss these things with him.

Your questions might include:

• What is your vision for this space?


• What type of lifestyle do you want us to have?


• What are some of your favorite things you would like to see incorporated into this space?


• What colors would you enjoy living with on a day to day basis?


• What are some of your favorite types of artwork?


• What things can you not stand to see in your home?


• How would you like our family to use this space?


• What makes you feel “at home?”


• What type of budget can we realistically afford to make this space “ours?”

Looking through some decorating magazines might help with this discussion, especially if either you or your husband need ideas to get the conversation rolling. Have fun with this! Make it a date-night for the two of you, complete with a little dessert and soft music, maybe even a little candlelight!

Discuss openly what you both like, but be sure to really listen to your husband when he speaks. Bite your tongue if necessary… don’t cut him off mid-sentence to talk about your ideas, just listen out of love for that wonderful man the Lord placed in your life. Don’t cheat yourself out of the opportunity to get to know your husband on a whole new level! He might very well surprise you.

You can even take this time to begin cutting out some of the ideas and pictures from magazine articles and placing them into a three ring binder to keep all of your ideas together in one place. Sheet protectors and tab dividers are a wonderful help in keeping this organized.

It probably won’t surprise you to find that you both have many different preferences. Don’t worry about that, just pull out what speaks to either one or both of you. This is simply time to get a conversation going regarding what you both like.

Remember that you are two individuals with many different tastes. He may really like the rustic or minimalist design, and you may really enjoy shabby chic or the posh glamour hotel look. It’s likely that neither of you would like these looks all the time. The idea is to get the ideas flowing so that you have a place to start. Don’t worry if your ideas and your husband’s ideas don’t match up, just be open to each other’s ideas and start talking. Be sure to include laughter about how different your ideas are! And rejoice in the journey you about to take to discover how to combine the things each of you enjoy.

Two Great Tastes… Making Them Taste Great Together

It may take a while to figure out what you both can live with on a regular basis, and that is OK. The most warm and lovely homes I have been in took years to collect all of the things that give it a cohesive look. They took their time and discovered a look that suits the couple to a tee!

I know, I know, you where hoping to have this all done by the time the holidays rolled around so that you could show off your new look to the your holiday guests, right? Remember, our culture is steeped in the “me-first”, and “I have to have it right now” philosophies. You cannot have a home that truly reflects who you are as a family as quickly as you can go through a drive through window and order a burger! It takes time and patience…especially if your budget is limited. But don’t let that dissuade you from making tracks in the right direction. Study what will work for you both and for the needs of your family, and you are already working in the right direction.

And you don’t have to break the bank, and live in debt just to get a “look.” You don’t want a designer showroom, you want a home.

This is a home for both of you. I know we women can come up with all sorts of creative ways to decorate our homes, but we cannot decorate solely based on our likes/dislikes alone. Remember, this man is your best friend, your leader, your soul-mate. Make sure that however you design/decorate your home reflects the love you share that makes you a family.

Your husband will feel honored if you ask him these questions and he will more than likely have some input you didn’t think of. Some of these ideas may even give you a glimpse that you have never had before into the soul of that great man you married!

Take notes (literally write them down so you won’t forget what he said and you can refer to them when you begin to lose your vision).

Here is a lady who has kept her husband in mind as she decorated her home: Mrs. Catherine

Here is a picture of another wife adorning her husband:

The teacups are hers, the antler chandelier is his.

Together, they’re a blissful union.

Next time I will discuss the importance of decorating on a budget. Until then, I hope you have a blessed day and enjoy getting to know your husband on a new level through this interview process! You will both be blessed!

Best friends

Have you ever had a really rough time over a very long haul, and then the fog clears long enough to help you realize that the Lord was allowing the hard times to grow you in certain ways?

Growing up, I never considered my immediate family to be the ones I should confide in, or the ones with whom I should rest my weary heart during long trials. I think this is commonplace for so many these days. But is it biblical? I think not.

While driving home from an exhausting day, I was thinking on how lonely and rough things have been for far too long, and suddenly I realized, that in mourning all of my losses, the one place that I felt safe and protected, loved and understood, was in my own home. What blessing, what joy overwhelmed me at that moment!

Until now all I've been able to focus on are all my failures as a parent, spouse, and friend. But at that very moment I focused in on the fact that I am exceedingly rich, for I have the heaven on earth that so many desire: I have the love and loyalty of my husband and children. I can truly be me with them.

For one who finds it hard to relate to many (I'm not a very extroverted person, I just play one on T.V.), I find it hard to make new friends everywhere I go. Really. I want to trust people, but experience, and the Bible, tell me otherwise. I also am the kind of person who takes a long time to feel that I can take others into my confidence, and even when I do, it's not a bunch of folks who will fit my criteria of a trustworthy person. I'm content with just a handful.

I have one very close friend outside of my family whom I miss very dearly because we are 1200 miles apart, but other than that, I don't let too many get to know the real me - the true heartfelt and emotional side of me. Maybe I'm strange, but that's all that I can handle.

All at once, as if the heaviness over my soul was lifted, the Lord opened my eyes to see how blessed I am. My family are the few people in this world that I can really be me around... and who I am is o.k. with them! They love me for who I am, and the feeling is mutual. We have every personality type under the sun in our home, but together we are one in Christ.

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (psalm 133:1)

Now that's something for which to praise the Lord! I am blessed! I want to shout it from the mountain tops! O.K., maybe that's a bit much for someone as introverted as I am, but inside that is how I feel (and I do live in the mountains, after all!). And that exuberant joy is just fine with my family.

I can't wait to see their shining faces this morning.....

Changes to My Blogging and My Husband's Job

As much as I love to post new things for my family, friends, and children to read, I am realizing that I simply just don't have the time. My children are so little still, and they deserve the better part of me.

But, I don't want to stop keeping track of our daily happenings around here as I believe it is an important tool to teach my children to walk in their faith. So, I will be starting a new way of doing this.

Jim Bob has taken on the privilege of being the new Editor-in-Chief of Homeschooling Today® Magazine effective immediately. This is going to cut into my blogging time since I will be helping him with edits and other responsibilities associated with running the magazine. He would also like for me to write periodically for the magazine, so this will be more the outlet for my ponderings than this blog. In fact, my first article is due out in the upcoming issue!

I would still love to hear from those of you who so sweetly follow my blog, so I will post new things periodically at the Homeschooling Today website along with writing for the Homeschool Helper email. You can still comment here if you wish to contact me, however, be advised that I won't be checking it quite as frequently as in the past.

We are excited about the changes the Lord has brought into our lives and we are thrilled to share them with you. God is so good to us... better than we can ask or imagine. Please praise Him with us for this new season in our lives!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Too Much Going On...

To my dear blogging friends who so graciously read my posts and even check in frequently when I haven't gotten around to posting anything for a couple of weeks,

Thank you for your continuing interest in my random postings, thoughts, dreams, and adventures. I will be posting more heartfelt musings and ponderings of our great Lord and King before long, but for now I must be content only with a brief check-in from time to time. Many things are going on here in the Howard home, too many for me to write about at present, but as soon as I can, I will fill you in. Suffice it to say that we are in a time of refining around here. We are praising the Lord for His graciousness to us in this time and for making us more like Himself in the process. Where refining is happening, there is gold to be had in the end, and we have no doubt that He is hard at work to reveal greater treasures in us that are of Himself than we could ever have asked or imagined. He is so very faithful.

So, in the meantime, I will be posting pictures of some of the cute things my children have done, or of the incredible beauty of autumn in our area, curriculum for this year, or of things we've done (like an upcoming picture of my first venture into making sourdough bread from scratch and an art project for the living room that we are all going to work on!)

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Amy

Peas and Carrots

Now that our latest visitors are gone, we're turning our attention back to our much-neglected garden... before our next visitors arrive.

I wanted you all to see the picture I took of a carrot from our garden.

These long-awaited (and blogged about) beauties were sweet, just as the snow promised.

The children were very excited to pick these with us. They LOVED pulling on the tops and seeing the carrots pop up out of the ground. We had quite a few of them, too...

And since the peas were ready for picking, too, we decided to put the peas and carrots together one night and saute them up for a side dish:


Lest you think that I grew giant peas, please understand that a very valuable lesson was learned in our home about soil conditions in far southwest Virginia. Apparently, carrots just don't do well in our soil, and they never get much bigger than this! Ahhh! But a lesson lived is a lesson learned! We'll be buying our carrots next year!

The peas were very good (and of normal size!) so, we probably will endeavor to grow those again.

Total Control

Over the years, if I have learned anything it has been to allow the Lord total control. He has all the control anyway, but so often I try to take it back, put myself on the throne and make all the decisions for myself. Isn't this what Eve did? Didn't she decide that she would rather be in control than surrender?

Surrender. Do you know what that word means? Webster's 1828 dictionary defines it as: "The act of yielding or resigning one's person or the possession of something, into the power of another." All the rights we think we have, all of the wants, desires, dreams, and goals we have... surrendered into the power of Another.

Sound scary? Of course it does. Know anyone trustworthy enough to be that safe-haven to which one could give all of this? There is no mere mortal to whom I could entirely give myself with reckless abandon. There is only One Who is worthy of this distinction, and that is Christ.

When I became a Christian, I didn't really realize what the Lord would ask of me. Marriage, children, ministry, friends. Give, give, give.

What I also didn't realize is that I would not be alone to find the strength with which to continue after I had given what I thought was my all. No, Christ reigns supreme in me and, as such, fills me with His life in order for me to continue to give, give, give. No, no "pity parties" allowed here. I have all I need to go on daily... I have Christ. I will never thirst for I have been given Living Water to sustain me (John 4:13-15). To surrender to this kind of captivity is to be taken hold of by the kindest Captor ever known to man, the One who surrendered His all... for me.

"For the Lord will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone..." (Deut. 32:36)

Service As A Privilege

While spending some time with the Lord one morning last week, I read my ususal round of devotions to go along with the Word, and in the process found this from Elizabeth Eliot:

"The job has been given to me to do.
Therefore it is a gift.
Therefore it is a privilege.
Therefore it is an offering I may make to God.
Therefore it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him.
Therefore it is the route to sanctity.

Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God's way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness. The discipline of this job is, in fact, the chisel God has chosen to shape me with--into the image of Christ."

My entire life long this passage, Romans 8:28-29, has followed me in every situation. My mother had this verse hanging on my bathroom wall:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

The "route to sanctity," as Elizabeth Eliot puts it, is exactly why He allows those challenges that we must accept in our lives. Those challenges come in so many forms, whether it be marriage, childrearing, financial pressures, illness of self or another loved one, etc..

The key to joy isn't how few of those things from which we can escape, rather it is in seeing the challenge rightly. It lies in seeing it clearly through Christ's eyes. When we realize that He is treating us as real sons and daughters when he chastens us is key to understanding that His love knows no bounds and certainly only wants the best for His own. The key to joy is realizing that all that He allows in our lives is mercy and grace. The very air I am allowed to breathe is grace overflowing.

So, if we are chosen to endure hardship, or simply given a job that is very demanding (Hello, any of you mothers out there agree with me on this one?), we need to look at it as stated above:

"The job has been given to me to do.
Therefore it is a gift.
Therefore it is a privilege.
Therefore it is an offering I may make to God.
Therefore it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him.
Therefore it is the route to sanctity."

Even this HARD thing I have to do? Even this pain I must endure for His name's sake? Even when I feel so overwhelmed?

Yes, Yes, and still again I say, Yes! It is a privilege to serve Him in this way... no matter what it is. As painful as that may seem, it is God's honest truth... His best for us. And therein lies hope. Hope that He is indeed changing us into the image of His Son. What higher privilege could I ask? I must make this offering to Him wholeheartedly in order to know Him more, to love Him and Him only. This and this alone is my purpose... not some contrived, man made hope of sharing God's glory. That would be vanity, pride. No, my purpose is to bring Him glory, to reflect Him. And when I do that, I will truly be entering into His presence and able to understand what it means to enjoy Him. No best-seller can help me find a purpose higher than this.