Before and After

Our friend had already tilled for us, but from all the rain the dirt had become so compacted that we needed to get the tiller out and loosen things up.   This was Monday.

Almost done.  There are 55 tomato plants, 8 zucchini, 4 rows each of green and yellow beans and 8 yellow squash planted on the bottom end.  The space in between is for the 48 pepper plants and whatever else we can fit in.   If we have room, we'll let the kids plant some cantalope and watermellon.  :0)

Drawing your attention to the far right of this picture, you'll see some dirt there.  We have Yukon Gold and Red Potatoes planted there.  Beyond that is another 10 x 85 bed with 2 rows of onions-yellow and white and between those two rows are beets and turnips.

It has been a very busy week for us thus far.  :0)

Frugality Means Work!

I have been looking for a wing backed chair for a couple years. I started by browsing online to get an idea of the new prices of them and found they range in price between $175 to $250 and more. I knew people often set furniture out at yard and garage sales, so I just tucked it away in the back of my mind. Yesterday while yard saling, we came upon a place that had quite a bit of furniture for sale. One of the pieces was a wing backed chair. I was so excited, but needed to conceal my excitement. I sent my oldest son to ask them what the price was on the chair and they said $20, but it was negotiable. I looked around at everything else and picked up some primitive prints that I liked and made my way over to pay for them. I asked them if they'd take $15 for the chair and they said yes! Hooray! That is a savings of at least $160!!!

We loaded it up and my wonderful oldest son scrubbed it with the upholstery cleaner attachment on our carpet scrubber. It now resides in our bedroom. I wanted a smaller chair for our room to just sit on without reclining because recliners take up more space. Plus this chair helps to bring out more of the mauve in my tan/brown curtains. ;) Now, to focus more on some masculine colors for our bedroom. I'm working on that though.

I also thought I would take a few moments to share some other beautiful yard sale finds that are in our bedroom now as well.

This is last year's yard sale find. It reminded me of the garden mentioned in the Song of Solomon. I still have some things to add to the wall with this picture, but with the ruggedness of grape vines and such, I'll be able to pull it all together with minimal cost. This is the one thing that simply must be understood~Frugality takes patience and time.

On the opposite wall is this lovely wire rack type of thing. I thought it looked neat and it mimicked the above picture with the curves and vines, so it is on the opposite wall. Yes, there are things to add to this wall, but I am not in a hurry. Usually when one is impatient, one spends more money than is necessary. It still looks nice, but will be completed in due time.

This particular combination is simple and elegant. I think the only thing I would add is perhaps something to cover up the nail hole on the hanger. This is a small wall space with the moulding for the closet doors on either side of the berries.

This is what the edging of our curtains look like. There is very little mauve in them, but there is also green and some browns. This is where I am pulling colors in for our bedroom. I like taking something so simple and pulling colors off of it to decorate our home. Of course, there are times when I buy things at full price. The small picture in the above photo that says, "I have found the one my soul loves." was bought at full price. My curtains were full price, but they were used in our living room at our old house before we moved here. The quilt for our bed is also new. Our quilt is a cream color with very very tiny flowers on it edged in one of the greens in the curtains in scallops as well.

Another purchase made yesterday was 2 dish sets. They were "incomplete", but filled our needs perfectly. I'm not bothered by having mismatched dishes. I am bothered by chipped and cracked dishes, however. It was time to keep my eyes out for more. The first running of the new dishes went in to the dishwasher last night before bed. The second running is just now coming out. Yes, there were that many dishes! Some of them, in fact, are being packed away to go in to the attic for future use. I spent $15 on 2 sets of dishes, which by the way, were probably more like 3-4 sets now that I think of how many pieces there were. I've looked at "new" sets and when you're looking at a 4 piece place setting for 4 people for $36, I've saved at least $57.

Now, mind you, when looking for things, I am very picky. It has to go with my basic color scheme that I have in my home and it has to look nice. I won't pay money for it if it doesn't follow those very basic criteria. All of my house is pretty much decorated in blues, greens, mauves, reds and tans, so that gives me quite a wide variety of things to choose from. One of those basic rules that I go by is that if it is an electrical item, I need to make sure it works before purchasing it. If I haven't done so, it is my fault if and when the item doesn't work.

For clothing, it has to have a size tag. If it doesn't I hold it up to the person it would be for. If it is a shirt or a jacket, where the shoulder seams meet the sleeves, it has to go down past their shoulders by at least an inch. If it hits them right at the shoulders it probably isn't big enough. If it is pants, skirts or shorts, I hold it up to them again like shirts and it has to meet with the side seams of the garment they are wearing or just a little passed it. I can take things in, but I can't add more material to the sides when there isn't material there to add. LOL

We found 2 skirts and 2 shirts for my precious daughter all for under $10.

I just love her eyes in this picture.

Frugality takes a lot of work, but the pay off is a wonderful sense of satisfaction that you've saved money on something you needed or wanted. You have more money in your pocket for other more needful things. It is all about choices. Each of us have choices in how to spend our money that God has blessed us with. Everything that we have is the Lords, so we need to decide how to manage HIS money and be good stewards over the things He has blessed us with. For us it means something different than someone else. The good thing is to know there are choices we can make. Knowing this is a powerful thing in and of itself.

What does your time translate in to? Are you choosing to be more frugal in your choices? If so, let me know how! I would love to hear from you! We spent 6 hours yard saling yesterday. We saved OVER $250 easily with our choices. That translates in to paying OURSELVES $41.67 per hour of work in looking at yard sales.

Joy Comes in the Morning

My front island perrennial flower garden. The lillies are coming up nicely, the clematises are in full bloom, the honeysuckle still has yet to bloom and my gladiolus are still underground. :0) This is what the Lord blesses me with in the morning.



Another of my clematises with the lillies behind them and the honeysuckle overflowing my half wishing well that my husband made as a support for it. :0)



As my lilac bush sheds its flowers, this is what the ground looks like. My HJ saw it and thought it was so pretty she asked me to take a picture of it. :0)



My Mother's Day window boxes in the morning. Aren't they gorgeous?! I just love all the colors in them! :0)

Black Sheep? Washed White!!

There are times when one comes to a realization that our choices are "not the norm". The mainstream, anticipated, usually done, expected choices that everyone usually makes are not chosen.

This is, oddly, the choice I had made from the very beginning of my married life. Before I chose to marry my husband, I shared my deepest desire to be a wife and a mother to whatever children the Lord saw fit to bless us with. Back in 1989, to choose to stay home with children, especially living in San Diego, California was almost unheard of. But, my step-mom had done it. Why couldn't I?

When our baby son was born in 1995, I nursed him longer than 2 months. *gasp* I nursed him for 3 years. I nursed him completely through my pregnancy with my daughter AND *gasp* tandem nursed both of them at the same time! My daughter nursed and weaned herself at 13 months old. I had our youngest and he weaned himself at 18 months. I am such a rebel! LOL

After sending our oldest son to preschool for 2 years, we sent him to all day Kindergarten. Within a few months, if not before, it became glaringly apparant that we needed to pull him out of school to homeschool, but my husband was not convinced right away. So, I prayed. I prayed for God to protect my young son, but use a situation with him to completely convince my husband that we needed to home school. God kept my son safe AND convinced my husband. We've home schooled ever since then.

Since that time we've been asked questions like, "Since you've moved to such a wonderful school district, you're going to put your kids in the school, right?" No, we're not. There is no school that could do what we do as parents for our own children. Another statement I field is, "Since they're in High School now, you'll be able to take a break and put them in real school." Uhm, no. We're both knowledgeable people. We can handle this. ;)

In the not so distant future, my husband will be able to retire from his job with the state. Once he's able to retire, we will be moving south. There is a very large chance that we will still have 2 children to home school and provide insurance for, but my husband's heart is to be an herb farmer. With everything that my husband tells me that he feels we should do, I ask him, "Do you feel that the Lord is leading you this way? Do you get that peace?" When he tells me yes, I know that I know...that the Lord has given my husband direction in that way. This is how he feels toward being an herb farmer. My response? "How can I help you accomplish that goal now?"

How does this translate in to being a "black sheep?" We've always gone against the grain, against expectations. What we've done in our home schooling is draw nearer to God. Once we'd done that, we've been so very blessed with peace. Why is that such a black sheep? If your family is use to doing what everyone else does, following the pack, when you divert from that direction you're considered a black sheep. I've stood up for my husband and not let any family members walk all over him in his God given role as head of our home...with "my" side of the family. Some take it well and respect that my husband is the head of our home. They see the fruit that has come from it and have respected our way of honoring God's plan for families. Others haven't spoken to me for almost 3 years. Still others, upon reconnecting after a while of no contact, see that nothing has changed with us and have become reclusive.

I've longed for years to have a close knit family (extended family) who loves one another. The bitterness that is taking hold of the women on my side of the family is so very heart wrenching. The ostrasizing that has been done in this bitterness has caused me to feel more like the black sheep of the family. But, more recently, God has seen fit to bless me with lovely and wonderful Christian sisters who call me, email me and ask me for forgiveness for the smallest things...things that I didn't know existed. *huh* What a blessing this has been for me. Additionally, with changing churches, there have been opportunities to forge new friendships with lovely and wonderful people. People who hold scripture at face value and impliment 2 Timothy 3:16-17. What a blessing! I don't feel like a black sheep any more. The love of Christ that I've found in the love of fellow Christians around me has made me white as snow. It has healed my heart. Although my heart continues to ache for those who are stuck in the mire of bitterness, rebelliousness and manipulation; I am not held by those bonds, but bound by love to my Jesus and His followers.

While this is being written on the 24th, it is being posted on the 26th. The 26th is our 21st wedding anniversary. This week I have posted on my husband's wall on Facebook daily things that I love about my husband. I chose to post on my husband's Facebook wall because....yes, his friends and colleagues see it as well. He is such a blessing to me and I want him to know it...publicly too. This is something that is so very important in a marriage...to build one another up. Never tear each other down...especially in front of others. That shows disrespect and it hurts, even if they did something so minor as to accidentally mow down a lilac bush. A lady a few nights ago mentioned this to me in front of her husband. *sigh* For some reason people feel they have the right to cut one another down publicly. I resolved quite a few years ago to stop doing that and instead build my husband up publicly whenever I have the chance. Is this the entire "secret" to having a marriage that lasts this long? No. But it is a very small part of the whole picture. In a very short synopsis, we've strived to follow God's word on marriage. We're actively pursueing God's will for our lives, right where He's planted us. This takes a lot of selfLESSness and servanthood, which goes against the "worldly grain" for many people. The feministic view of "I have rights" so selfishly proclaimed is very self serving and not God serving.

I've not been able to find this little gift that I wanted to get for him, but we'll see what happens. I have found him a wonderful t-shirt with a cross on it and a watch. Yes, I know...not very spectacular of a gift. But, with my husband he loves Celtic and Gaelic crosses.

He says it is a Maltese Cross that he likes, so I'll be looking around for something like that for him. :0)

This shirt has a cross on it that is so very similar to those types of crosses. I'd also like to get him a couple different things, but I won't divulge here right now because he's sure to read this. LOL ;) We are planning to take the kids and go out to eat at a local place in the evening. Yes, we're celebrating this year WITH our children. This was a concious decision for us this year. We go out weekly alone, so we thought that we needed to celebrate together with our children. While none of this stuff seems so very spectacular to some, to us it is lovely. I have gone against the grain, as has my husband for a long time that it actually feels natural to go against the grain. LOL (Yes, you can laugh at that).

How have you gone "against the grain?"

Saturday Bliss

My beautiful lilac bush in full bloom. What a wonderful scent to be blessed with while hanging out clothes.



A beautiful daughter diligently working on her section of the onion patch.



Beautiful petunias.



Strong son doing his part.



Younger son working too.



Biscuit in rare form...panting!



We tried catching a bumble bee from this vantage point, but it didn't work.



Beautiful...and smells heavenly while trying to take pictures!



A lovely bunch! My favorite flower! :0)



Turning around, I found a monkey in a tree. LOL



And later when we came inside, beautiful jewelry made by my daughter.

Be Still and Know...

This morning I was awakened at 5:30AM. This is my normal time to wake up, when it seems the Lord has something to teach me. I've learned that when I wake this early, unable to go back to sleep that I need to get up and petition the Lord, seeking His face.

This morning was beautiful, as if the Lord was telling me, "Come see what I've made for you to soak in, revel in and enjoy!" I watched the chipmunks scamper across my front island flower bed where my honeysuckle is not yet blooming, the clematis is getting ready to burst in to bloom, the lillies are filling in the space behind my clematis' trellis and my gladiolus are still sleeping. My locust tree is budding out in bright yellow-y green leafettes and gives our yard quite a bit of beautiful color. The burning maple tree is completely full and gives our front yard glorious shade and a bit of privacy from one direction. What a lovely and glorious morning! I listen to the birds sing such beautiful songs that I've dubbed "The Dawn Chorus" for a few years now. Honestly, I believe I'd heard it on a Winnie-the-Pooh animated show one time when owl wanted to be a part of the dawn chorus of birds and woefully failed. After hearing it in our old town when my children were little, then moving here to our current home and actually hearing a dawn chorus, the name fits so well.

It was as if the Lord was soothing my soul, loving me, long before he began to gently teach my spirit.

I logged on to my computer to read scriptures and to think and pray about the day ahead as well as a dear friend whose daughter had been in labor for 2 days. This weighed heavily in my mind, many times throughout the past few weeks, in fact. But none so much as it did this morning. As my thoughts went to my day yesterday, I had to laugh because I told God my plans yesterday. LOL And suddenly, I put my laptop aside to kneel in front of the couch, as if it were drawing me there. No one was awake, so I was all alone with my Lord. What peace! But wait...

...and my own gentle, loving, humbling lessons began.



I was so very exhausted afterward that I could have gone back to sleep. I didn't, but just sat on the couch watching and praying in thanksgiving for a God who loves me enough to not only teach me, but to humble me...ever so gently.

And for that I am thankful....

Introductions...

This is a picture of my husband and I taken on Easter Sunday 2011.

These are our 3 blessings~(From left to right) DA-(15), HJ-(13), JL-(11).

The only name I use in this online venue is my first name, Regina. 

Now that the formal introductions have been made, welcome to my blog!  :0)

Proverbs 31:28

Pro 31:28 "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

There have been so many times since becoming a mother that I have put my own wants (though they be few) and needs on the back burner so that my kids could have all they needed. I don't share this for your pity, no dear readers, not at all! If you are a mother yourself, I'm sure you've found yourself doing much the same thing in many different and varied ways, just because you're a mother. It is something that mothers all over the world do and if given the choice, they would do it all over again for their children.

This year for Mother's Day, my children and husband were in kahouts with one another! My husband told me on Saturday that he was going to go with the children and pick out my flowers for the year. Ok, I could stay home and enjoy some alone time. Ha! Usually when I have alone time I just really don't enjoy myself much because it is TOO quiet. LOL This changed within a short time and my dearly beloved told me that he'd changed his mind and wanted the whole family to go. I'm sure I looked a little puzzled, so he said, "I want to make sure you get all that you want to pick out." Uhm, ok! I can do this! Needless to say, my dear husband was so very generous! I have been wanting window boxes for my bay window for years and this year was the year they were bought! Hooray! I love flowers! (That is an understatement for those of you who do not know me very well. One can never have too many flowers!)



What a blessing!

Proverbs 31:13

Pro 31:13 "She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands."



My sock wool arrived in the mail today. My HJ helped me by holding the hank while I rolled the ball. I was able to get the ribbing started this afternoon. I love the colors she chose. My only problem is with the glare from the bay window, I'll have to sit in another place while I work on her socks. That's alright. This is a new pattern I'm working with also. It is the Gumperina sock pattern that I found through Ravelry. If you have a Ravelry.com account, just log on and do a search.

I've been working like a mad woman on dishcloths-both knitted and crocheted, aprons and getting portfolios taken care of for the year. This year it doesn't seem too bad getting things together. I get the priviledge of going through pictures of my kids, putting them all in one place and burning everything on to a CD. It isn't too bad. I'll need to do a little bit of book documentation, but nothing too harrowing.

Today my beloved took me and the children to look for some of our flowers. We found some window boxes and some very beautiful flowers. Now I can enjoy my flowers from the inside of the house as well as the outside. :0)

What have your hands been busy with?

Finding Contentment and Peace Through Seasonal Depression

As fall approaches the clouds descend upon Pennsylvania. The sun seems to not really want to peak it's face out from behind the clouds for days. Thus begins our multi season of cloud cover.

As you can see by the picture here, ALL of PA is covered by clouds. Some of it more than others, but still this gives you a good picture of what I am talking about. This picture was a screen shot of a weather website's satelite imagery taken about 8:40PM on May 3, 2011. It is officially spring right now and the clouds look much like the ones in the above picture. My hubby tells me that the clouds will go away soon and we'll have a nice summer.



Living in northwestern Pennsylvania for the past 21 years, I've realized that there can be days, if not weeks when we don't see the sun. I have learned so very much about myself and the Lord during these times. Much like we rely on the sUn to naturally give our bodies vitamin D, we need to rely on the SON to give our spiritual bodies what we need.



When the sun does shine, there is more than one creature in our home who loves to bask in it.

Do you remember this picture from last week?

Notice the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday weather forecasts.

How do we find contentment day to day as well as peace in our current living circumstances when everything is so cloudy 85+% of the time? It has not been easy for me. Depression hit me so hard in the early 90's when my birthday came around in the fall. My mother always told me that I was depressed because I was a year older. I just replied, "No, it isn't that at all mom. It is something totally different that I just can't put my finger on." I remember crying, sobbing in my pillow when Fall came around because the trees were dying and the flowers were too. I didn't care too much for the bugs, so that didn't matter. But truly, there was something wrong. I knew many people who would say, "Pull up your big girl pants and get over it!" Ugh! It's easier said than done.

How did I cope?

Truth is, I didn't cope very well. I moved out here from living for 7 years of my life in sunny California. It was definately a welcoming thing to me to be living in a family centered welcoming area. For that I was thankful. I was blessed so very much by the Lord giving me a wonderful and precious friend during that time. She's still a wonderful friend! :0) I cried a lot. I missed my family in California a lot. I thought that's what I needed was to go back and see them, but it truly wasn't.

So I prayed.

I began thinking that I needed to just get busy with things. I went back to school to get my mind off being so dependent upon the seasons to make me happy. I took classes full time plus worked and took care of my home. I was able to get my mind off the seasonal depression, although I didn't know it was that until quite a few years later.

One day I was thumbing through a catalog that had just come in the mail and came upon a "natural sunlight" lamp for those who had seasonal depression. I had not ever heard of this! I took it to my husband to read and we decided that it was something to look in to.

We started noticing more as time went on. When we were able to get outside during the winter to play with the kids, walk around, just do some physical labor, things were a little better. But, the problem was still there.

Through the years, we've come upon some interesting information. The first thing we noticed was the increase in sunshine helps. Whenever there is sunshine outside, I need to sit by the window in the dining room. This way I get more sunshine. I know, it may be a very short "fix" in some people's eyes, but it does help. Secondly, what helps is increased oxygen. No, we do not walk around with an oxygen tank hooked up to us. We get more exercise! Oxygen helps to clear the mind, so increasing it by getting 30 minutes of exercise a day helps. Thirdly, what we've discovered this past year is vitamin D suppliments. This has helped immensely. Since vitamin D is naturally produced by our bodies when the sun shines on us, it stands to reason that we ought to take vitamin D if we don't have much by way of sunlight. This premise was confirmed by my father-in-law when we visited them in December. He had mentioned that they use to need to take vitamin D when they lived up here in PA. Now, they don't have to take it since they live in Florida now. And lastly, prayer. Prayer changed everything for me. Years ago when I noticed this occuring, I started praying for answers. The answers did not come right away. As a matter of fact, my prayers changed from "please give me answers" to "please help me appreciate each season for the uniqueness it lends to our lives." What a blessing that was to me!

It helps immensely to have something growing all year around. It also helps to decorate as the seasons change. This simple act of changing decor helps to enjoy the season. I'm planning to do more of this as time goes on. The little things help to pick up a dreary day. :)

These are simple things that have helped me. I still have seasonal depression, but with the wonderful understanding of my beloved, some discussion with my doctor, prayer and just acceptance of my current place of living, peace has helped me to see the beauty of the seasons that God has given to us. I no longer get as depressed now as I use to. It is still there. I just know that I need to go sit in the sun by the dining room window when I teach my children in the afternoon, or sew right there. I need to make sure I take my daily vitamin D capsule and get my exercise.

Disclaimer: Please be sure to discuss all of this with your physician before trying. And with all things, pray for God's guidance and direction in your life.

Blessings,

Regina