Blessings

Well it is now less than a week until Lindsey leaves to go to AMTC.....she is so excited and I am excited for her and for time to be with her! She is so gifted and she is already using her gifts. She loves to use drama to reach others whether she is in the drama or writing and directing it for middle school.

She has worked for the past 5 months to save every dime that she earned toward going to AMTC. We have helped and so have grandparents. We got it all except for the travel. So we sent out 200 fliers to local businesses as AMTC recommended....not a single response??!!! This wouldn't be so bad but the postage alone could have paid for gas there! So we began to pray! Lindsey was so sweet about it...she would say, "Lord you have opened EVERY door so far..I am trusting that if you want me there you will continue to open doors and if this is the end...help me to see your hand."

One of Lindsey's good friends gave her an envelope and basically told her that while she was sitting in church the Lord had challenged her to give Lindsey her babysitting money from the summer? She went on to give an amazing testimony about how talented she thinks Lindsey is and how Lindsey has always stood for what is right and she thinks that the Lord is going to use her and she wanted to be a part of making that happen. What teenager does that??? The one's who are all about more than themselves!!

We were planing on driving Eric's car down...now let me just tell you why I dreaded this....I hate to drive! Especially 8 hours!!! Both mine and Eric's cars are high mileage and Eric was worried about such a long trip. His car's shocks are gone so I was worried about a headache? My car is in a little better shape but it gets 12 miles to the gallon..yep you saw that correctly. We couldn't afford a rental so off we were prepared to go. Someone told me that I might try bidding on a flight. Sometimes the airlines will try to fill the plane at the last min. but I couldn't find the site so I asked if anyone on facebook knew where I could find the site.....you will have to tune in later to hear what the Lord did!!! :)

Snacks

I LOVE frozen blueberries! I buy them now when they are on sale...wash and freeze them in a freezer bag. They are great in smoothies or put a hand full in yogurt but I love to grab a handful at night or anytime I need a snack. They are so good! So sweet and such a great snack. Enjoy!

By the way...enough money trickled in for us to get paid last week. Not enough for this week..but the week isn't over yet :)

Answers to questions

Could we scale down in expenses is the question that I get the most from those of you who do not know us. Good question...Fair question. We have 2 cars..both paid for...both with over 140000 miles on them. Our house was a fore-closer 3 bed 2 bath and we finished the basement and added a bedroom and bathroom. Our house payment is 750. If we were living in an over sized house and we could downsize or even rent but we couldn't rent a house for the 7 of us for less than 750.

What I am trying to say is this....yes...there is always room to scale back but we feel that we are living modestly and and frugally.

Update on Ministry

Yes...Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for asking and for praying! Yes the money finally did trickle in so that we were able to get a paycheck for last week...about 5 days late. We did not get paid yesterday and we do not foresee getting paid next week or being able to pay our health insurance. It is all very frustrating! Wish I knew what GOd was up to. I want to have faith like Mueller and the Bible says that it is a small as a mustard seed which only makes me feel more discouraged...a mustard seed is VERY small and apparently I do not even have that much ??? :/ Please keep us in your prayers! I am not in this place of dispare...well hardly ever!

On a better note....Lindsey's did get enough money from her babysitting to pay for AMTC! We are very excited about going!!!! I am so grateful to get to spend this week with her and watch her do what God has blessed her to do!

Tip for Laundry Soap

I have so many questions about the homemade laundry soap that I use...I thought I would give some clarification. First you can get the recipe that I use HERE

The pictures above show the first step...you can cut the soap into small pieces but it will melt much faster if you grate it. Also after you have it all combined into the large bucket...keep stirring it until it is cooled....I leave it sitting in my kitchen floor for a few hours and stir it when I walk by...of course I don't have little ones who might want to "play" in it.

After it sits..it WILL be lumpy....it is OK....really...I promise!!! Every time before I refill my container..I have to really stir the bucket....and still it will be thick and clumpy as I dip it into the funnel but after I add the last part of water and shake like crazy it is just fine!

I have been using it for almost a year and I love it! Smells good! Saves me a HUGE amount of money!

Fathers Day

Oh how I LOVE my man! I am so blessed to have a husband who loves Jesus, loves me and loves my babies! He is an amazing father...he is crazy and fun, loving and kind! He teaches them to love Jesus not only in what he says but in what he does! I pray he feels honored EVERY day!

Birthday Boy

Friday Marshall turned 14...WOW...I am so very proud of him! What a precious young man he is to this mama! I love him so much and I can't wait to see the plans that the Lord has for him!!!

Perfect Green beans

Think that green beans are hard to cook? I have a fool proof solution. I use canned cut green beans from Del Monte or Green Giant...sometimes I use blue lake cut green beans. For each can(do not drain the juice) that I use I put 1/4 teaspoon olive oil (I like the extra light)and 1/4 teaspoon beef bouillon granules or you can use 1/4 of a bouillon cube. Bring all to a boil for 10 minutes then reduce heat to low for 20 minutes.

If you prefer frozen...add enough water to cover completely and follow the same portions as above except cook for 40 minutes on low after boiling.

Try it...I promise they will not dissapoint!

Friday

Thank you all for emails and even phone calls of encouragement. Today is Friday and we were not paid. Eric will have to make a decision tomorrow. All I can really say right now is that I do not understand! Eric spent the whole week mentoring kids and then today speaking to over 200 young men at a basketball camp where 17 kids trusted Christ...God is using him!!!! There are many things running through my head right now...most of them I feel like I am not supposed to verbalize but I will say...It is EASY to have faith and trust the Lord when you are getting paid in ministry....It is not so easy right now...for me anyway. After 3 1/2 years of this...I am VERY weary!

I love you all very much and appreciate your prayers and concerns!

Bible Study

I wanted to go through the Bible in chronological order so I went to the Christian bookstore and found the above book. There is another one coming out in a few months that looks even better...but I really like this one. I do not usually read NIV but I am enjoying it. I am taking notes...asking questions and asking the Lord to give me a fresh perspective on some of the passages that I have been reading since I was a child. Every morning before I get out of bed I tell the Lord that I want Him to pour Himself out in my life. I am loving it!

Eye contact

I am working really really hard on making and keeping eye contact. It is soooo hard for me! I have never thought of myself as ADD but I really think I have ADECD that would be Attention Deficit Eye Contact Disorder..is that a disease???? If I am talking to anyone longer than a few minutes then I am looking all over the place. I look away...I look at the persons face, hair,shirt...it is crazy.....I have talked to people who do the same thing and I become so self conscience...like do I have a booger in my nose or do I have spinach in my teeth??

I am making a real effort to keep eye contact...it is such an effort that sometimes I realize that I have no idea what the person just said because I am concentrating so hard NOT looking away. I know it is rude....so if you are talking to me and I seem distracted...just ignore me and keep talking...or feel free to stop me and remind me to pay attention :)

Please pray for us!

Hello my sweet friends. I need your prayers!!

I have always handled our finances. We have been married for 20 years and this has always been my job. Money..or the lack there of has always stressed Eric out...so I took that job. I do not have regret about doing the finances but I will tell you that I fed a beast! I knew that Eric would get frustrated easily and I would rob peter to pay paul many times over the years. Eric knew that we were tight and he is NOT a spender nor am I but when something would come up..like a car repair..instead of telling him that we didn't have the money and letting him... as God appointed head of our home..figure it out..I would come up with all kinds of creative ways to make iy work. I have even sold things that were precious to me just to get extra money. This was soooo wrong of me....I wanted to protect him but that was not my job!!!

About 4 years ago we had a "come to Jesus meeting"...if don't know that term it means I showed up in his office one day and had a breakdown...apologized for taking on the role of protector and then laid it all out on the table. He was great and we decided that I would still handle the books but that he would make all the decisions and he would figure out how to get "extra" money for things that came up.

Well wouldn't you know it...we started DTEM 3 years ago...we couldn't even pay our bills much less hire a secretary so guess who has handled the finances...ME! Eric has been involved all the way but it is me who looks at it EVERY DAY for the past 3 years. I went to Eric 3 months ago and said, "I can't do this anymore. I am so weary about worrying over money. I will handle personal money but you have to take DTEM books....just pay us and if you can't pay us then you tell me what to do."

He gladly took it and I am in the process of teaching him. Which means that I still have to look at it everyday!! Well as of next week we will have to go to half pay. I can't even express to you how heavy this is for me....it is so hard to enjoy ministry when you always have to cut every corner! I hate money! I hate that I allow the enemy to steal my joy. Please pray for me!!! Please pray for Eric....he has never had to handle this stuff before! Please pray that the Lord would give us understanding....he has placed so many dreams to reach the lost here and all over the world but the bottom line is that it takes money for this to happen! I love you guys so much! Thanks for praying on our behalf!

Twitter

So do you Twitter? I said that I would not!!! The twitters that I had read were things like...going to the store....cooking dinner,,,,,washing dishes....And I was thinking.....are you kidding???? I don't want everyone reading this stuff about me and I certainly don't want to read it about anyone else??!!

Somewhere along the way I started realizing that many of them were so much more. I love shouting out a short word of encouragement. I don't really like to read long passages on blogs...so twitter is great 140 characters...enough to make you think about what you really want to say without the fluff! I love the people that I follow...I laugh...I am interested...I am convicted ...I am encouraged.

It is easy and it is free....you do not actually ever have to write anything if you don't want to just follow others.

Packrat??

I am not a pack rat in general. I try really hard to ask myself..have I used this...will I "seriously" be using this in the near future. As far as my kids are concerned I do keep special or sentimental things they have given me and I keep their very favorite things...blankets, dolls, trucks...etc but for the most part I do not keep stuff.

I have a summer and Christmas ritual of cleaning out closets, rooms and the basement...I do enjoy this although my whole house is a complete mess right now...the process is always disastrous looking???

In the top of one closet are a few things from my childhood that I will always keep but one of the things that I have kept all these years is a baton. When I was 7 my parents let me sign up for baton lessons and they bought me a "real" baton. Not the thick kiddy kind but the heavy slender real kind! Why have I saved this...I thought that my kids might play with it...well maybe...but they haven't....no the real reason is because my parents did not have much money and anything that we did meant a big sacrifice for them....it represents a sacrificial gift of love to me. I'm never going to use it and neither are my kids..I can't really display it...so I am going to take a picture of it and I am going take it out of the closet.

I sure do love my mama and daddy and the way they loved me and my sisters. They gave me a godly heritage....and that my friends is PRICELESS!!

Summer

I thought summer was supposed to be "lazy" someone forgot to put that on our calendar! It has been off the hook busy! Marshall is in scouts and is away at scout camp this week...first time ever he has been away without Eric or myself...I'm not sure how I feel about that yet??? He is swimming 5 mornings a week...I am up at 7.....that for sure is not summer schedule??? The other 2 have to be at swim for a neighborhood team 5 mornings a week at 9:00. It is all good!!

Lindsey is so excited about AMTC....if you think about it pray for her....she has worked so hard to earn money toward the trip and now we are down to the wire for her hotel and travel expenses and it just isn't there. The Lord has opened EVERY door along the way and we are sure he will continue to provide but these are the moments that stretch you and build faith. Hard!

The Lord is opening some cool doors....please pray that we would be ready for where He leads! I love ya'll!