Somewhere along the way we began naming the houses that we lived in. I don’t know if it because we’ve lived in so many and needed to differentiate between them or if it is just something we did because it was part of who we are.

When we were first married we lived at Crestview apartments and after a year we lived in the “house on 160.” Which was the house I hated so it became known as the “house I hate.” After that was the “trailer on the hill.” It had to be “on the hill” because it was on the biggest hill across from the river outside of town. These names – while not exciting – we how we explained to our small children where we lived before they were born. Petra was born while we lived in the “trailer on the hill” but we moved when she was a baby.

We moved into the much loved “little house.” When we moved there it was the perfect quaint two bedroom house for parents with a new baby. Before we were even in it two months we found out it was going to be too small since I was pregnant again. During my fourth pregnancy we moved to a bigger house.Which is where we are now. Officially dubbed the Creek House because of the creek and the bridge beside it. My Grandma Marjory would have called it the Crick house.  Between children and different jobs we lived in the “Poplar Bluff House” and the “Brick House.” And like Winnie the Pooh we always seemed to end up at the same spot as before. Now here we are nine years later bursting out the seams of the Creek House with six children and two adults.

On New Year’s Eve we got a phone call from some good friends who now live out of town but still own a house here. The need someone to sit house for several years and would we be interested in renting a five bedroom, huge laundry room, huge kitchen, dining, and living room, lots and lots of windows house as a favor to us and to them. We reviewed the finances found a great workable solution to it all  and so we went and took a look and we are like YES! We want to do this. So the LOTS and LOTS of windows has earned this house its name already. Welcome to The Glass H0use.

Now this is all kosher with a decision Jerry and I have been tossing around for a while to put the Creek House back on the market. However, it has thrown a major kink in to my garden planning since I am not sure if or where I will be able to put a garden on this very shady several acres. Of course, I already have one spot in mind but I need to clear it with the owners. It will probably only get 6 hours of direct sun (which may be a good thing). Jerry thinks we shouldn’t worry about it this year because the yard is probably twice as large as ours is now and that will be plenty to keep up with. If that ends up being the case we will be planting decorative swiss chard in the front garden box by the porch along with some spinach. Free range chickens will be essential on this acreage to keep down tick populations.

I’m trying to contain my excitement about it all because it will be at least 8 weeks before we begin to move in. The present owners have some things to get out and tidy and of course before we move in I will tidy some more. I’ve been having trouble sleeping the last two nights arranging the house in my head, especially the beautiful kitchen.

View from the front entrance. Kitchen on right, living room on the left

The doorway on the right enters a huge laundry area and I may finally attain my dream of a family closet! I find stuff like this exciting! Up the stairs are three bedrooms with HUGE HUGE closets and the second bathroom. Behind the stair area is the master bedroom on the left, bathroom in the middle, and to the right the “nursery room” as I will call it; although I may call it the school room yet. Still tossing that one around since there are SO MANY possibilities.

The property has a well (that isn’t on bottom land, woo hoo). A beautiful camp fire spot and a tree house (that still need some work to make it playable).

Here we go again….

Posted in Changing Times ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/the-glass-house/feed/ 0 Jonine glass house Kitchen Inside the front doors http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/a-sermon-on-the-doxology/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/a-sermon-on-the-doxology/#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:58:28 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=942 ]]>

Praise Jehovah. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the expanse of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the harp and lyre. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and pipes. Praise Him on the sounding cymbals; praise Him with the resounding cymbals. Let everything that breathes praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah! - Psalms 150:1-6

~Doxology~

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father,Son and Holy ghost.Amen.

Quite often do I sing the Doxology and every time I would not here the song I was singing. So I took the time to look at the words I was singing.  A lot can be seen in this little song. I missed it all until I read it by itself and then I saw what I was missing. As there are many passages of praise in the bible we will only focus on this one.

The first  word I will look at is praise. This word does not mean to just worship but to give glory to and extol. But what do we praise, the answer is the next name GOD. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The rest of this line caught my attention it made me be grateful about what we already have because it all came from God.

The next line is praise him all creatures here below. Which means give glory to God ye inhabitants of the earth. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. This line says for all of the heavenly hosts to praise God. A heavenly host would be the soldiers of Christ which are also mentioned in Luke 2:13 where it says, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host.”

The last part of the song says, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Which means give glory to the triune God. Amen.

Christmas is behind us and the New Year before us. What does the approaching New Year mean? Is it time for reflections and resolutions? Emphatically I say NO! It means BREAK OUT THE SEED CATALOGS! Woo HOO!!!

There are only two and a half months here in Missouri until it is time to plant those hardy plants in the ground. Visions of spinach, swiss chard, beets, and the like are dancing in my head. It has been a real trial not to start my garden planning before now. I kept telling myself that if I did it in November and December what in the WORLD would I have to do in January? Well, the catalogs are pouring in and since Christmas is over I have allowed myself the delight of circling prospective seeds with red ink.

As soon as the New Year comes and goes I’m going to break out my garden map and start placing things where they will go. I have SO much fun with this that I usually redo it several times because I rearrange items for better placement. Last year Jericho watched over my shoulder as I mapped and mapped and finally I handed him a piece of graph paper and off he went making his own map like an old pro! I was so proud.

We have eaten our way through half of our sweet potato harvest and I’m rationing what it left until May. I’m intending to start my own sweet potato slips about mid – March. If you want to do this then cut your sweet potato in half lengthwise. Place these halves on some moist potting soil and cover them with a couple more inches of soil. The slips should be ready in about 6 weeks. This website is a great resource for information on starting your own slips if you are interested.

So…tick tock and Happy New Year to you and yourn and remember that when the gun endowed citizens of the country side shoot their guns at the moon at midnight it is officially Garden Planning Season!

by Petra

It was Christmas day and it was snowing. A wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father. The day had just begun and there were still more surprises in store. About ten o’ clock that morning we,(my family) all sat down in the living room. Since  there weren’t any gifts this year I wondered what could be going on. My mom had brought in a bowl of water and still, I wondered. Then my dad started reading from the passages of the bible that referred to baptism. I then realized what was going on, and my heart gave a joyous leap. I was going to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

After my dad finished reading from the Holy Bible, he stood behind the bowl of water, and he baptized me and my siblings one by one.Then we joined hands and dad prayed over us. This is the best gift I could have ever received. To be baptized in the name of the trinity is a wonderful gift from the most  Holy God.

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

For the first time in my entire life there were no presents on Christmas. It was a conscientious decision on our part not to exchange gifts but the focus on the gift. The gift of grace and mercy bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father in the birth and death of His Son. I must confess that on Christmas Eve I had a a momentary pity party about it all and wished whole heartedly that we had bought some gifts for the children and I had my “boo hoo” and prayed about it. And you know what? I was all better after that. One of the things that surprised me was that as we passed up present buying how much Christ came to mind instead.

We baptized the children on Christmas Day. It brought a lump to the throat and joy to the heart. Later that day I heard Christian say to Petra that he thought this was the best Christmas we had ever had. It truly was wonderful. There was peace in our home instead of chaos. It was also quite gratifying as I listened to friends complain or sigh about all the shopping they had to do still and ALL the presents they were going have wrap. It was nice to avoid the stress. Not one child in the house moped because he did not get what they wanted. Not one child had a frown on their face because they didn’t get any presents. We played games and shared the evening with my parents. The next day we had Christmas dinner with Jerry’s family. My heart is full of things that don’t come from the store.

Next year we’re adding something to our annual boycott. Christmas sweets will be marked off the list of things to do. We overindulged in that area way too much to the detriment of our health now and in the future. If we can deny ourselves the indulgence in things it may be more appropriate to deny ourselves the indulgence in all that sugar as well. Every time we pass up a sweet we can do it all the glory of Christ (and the health of our body).

This where I got the inspiration for the name of my blog…

Profile of A Godly Mother by John MacArthur

Read this yesterday and it was certainly some food for thought.

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. … Society in ever state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worse state an intolerable one…

~Thomas Paine (first paragraphs of Common Sense)

In the spring I bought the boys a book. The kind of book that every boy devours and pours over for hours and hours. It is the kind of book that is more than just a good read – it also inspires. The American Boy’s Handy Book is the type of book that ought to be in the hands of every boy from 3 to 103. It inspires the mind to move the body and the body moves and the mind grows. It was written by Daniel Carter Beard, the co founder of the Boy Scouts of America.

Last week this appeared at the edge of my woods as a direct result of this book….

Every new idea that you research and try gives you two things: insight and experience. We have now realized that it would cost us more money to switch over to the non electric life than what we originally thought. (I’m terribly great at underestimating the costs of things) However, we have reaped the rewards of researching this particular area and have moved into an area of embracing conservation of resources.

Having gotten rid of the deep freeze was a big step. I have truly found that we don’t need it. I canned most of our deer meat this year and made sausage out of the rest. It fit neatly in our freezer in the house and I’ve discovered I am more likely to hurry up and use something out of it so that I can have the space instead of running electricity to preserve it forever and ever amen.

Since the summer has ended and the A/C is off our electric bill has once again slipped under 100 dollars. I wish I could do something about my light bulb habit now. I HATE walking around in a dark house and I’ve tried really really hard to live without turning the lights on as much as possible but when those terribly cloudy days roll around it just about kills me. So here I sit under the many brightly burning light bulbs in my dining room & kitchen. (All bedroom/bathroom lights are off) I had dedicated myself to cutting back on the light bulbs I use and I was doing great for a while until all the cloudy days  but now I’ve unscrewed the light bulbs once again.

Despite our dedication to use less energy we – unfortunately – have an electric heater as  back up for when the wood stove runs out of logs in the middle of the night. This is precisely the worst time for it to run and I’ve been researching how to make a fire last all night. If I were not so lazy more ambitious when the baby wakes up I could throw a long on the fire but stoking the fire at 3:30 causes me an inability to sleep. See my dilemma!

Posted in Everyday Life, Frugal Tips, No Electricity Tagged: electric conservation, electricity, energy conservation, frugal living ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/lower/feed/ 0 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/what-is-the-difference/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/what-is-the-difference/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:45:58 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=897 ]]>

Asked of  Petra back in November and she didn’t know what to say and so asks me~ “Mom, If you are reading, what is the difference between Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien?

CHARACTER! Specifically Biblical character and an upright life of faith that doesn’t contradict itself in real life. We judge who  or what we read by the character of their life.

I’ve read both sides of the story and have increasingly found that those against paedocommunion hold empty arguments, dissecting scriptures beyond recognition or intention and that they strain at a gnat and swallow the camel. God gave His ministry to uneducated disciples and sent them out to proclaim the gospel. God did not make scripture difficult to understand – indeed he gave it to the simple and the poor and the Holy Spirit reveals knowledge and while I believe whole heartedly in exegesis there comes a point that you are so busy with it that you can fail to hear what the Spirit is saying. Maybe someday someone will convince us from scripture clearly why children are to be “starved.”

I would like to make some clarification about the above statement that I made yesterday in my blog on paedocommunion. The above quote is in reference to those in the church who believe that their education gives them the “right” to discern and divide scripture (which reeks of Popery) when it is the Holy Spirit’s job to reveal and illuminate. This does not mean that I think those are invalid and mine valid. Just a note that we should be careful that we have “ears to hear” no matter what our education level.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. — Isaiah 57:15

Lord, may I be of a lowly spirit and contrite in my heart! Amen

Sometimes I get tired of controversial discussions but sometimes I just can’t help myself because I love a great discussion. So here it is for what it is worth-why we believe in paedocommunion. Respectful comments are great, rude comments will not be welcome.

Luke 18:15-17   People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” (Matthew Henry Commentary here.)

1. The Lord’s Supper was instituted at Passover. The entire household was present. The youngest child in the house was to ask questions regarding “why?”(I’ve read arguments that the rules regarding Passover were changed by the Lord later but no one can show absolute proof that the children were no longer present. They just speculate and mutilate verses. These people also make the point women were not present so based on that it would be in error for me to take part in communion as well.)
2. At what age do we come to an excellent and full understanding of the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we as adults, imitating the pharisees,  expect that we have obtained full knowledge of this sacrament and forget this it is because of God’s great mercy that we even understand what we do.
3. We are a covenant family and as such believe our children have rights to the sacraments as part of our family, not that it is the guarantee of their salvation but a sign that we are a covenant family. (I understand that this point of view regarding covenant families is not accepted by all which is why I list it as a reason.)
4. What age is the age of accountability? We have found no such scripture. Indeed, I do find that we were accountable from birth as being totally depraved and unworthy of the grace and mercy of the Father. Year to year I grow and find just how unworthy I really am as I understand God’s law more and more. Doesn’t this hold true for children as they also grow and are taught in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord?
5. When we partake of communion we are commanded to do so in remembrance of Him who was sacrificed – our Lord Jesus.
6. God imparts grace to us through this meal – why would we deny this grace to our children?

I’ve read both sides of the story and have increasingly found that those against paedocommunion hold empty arguments, dissecting scriptures beyond recognition or intention and that they strain at a gnat and swallow the camel. God gave His ministry to uneducated disciples and sent them out to proclaim the gospel. God did not make scripture difficult to understand – indeed he gave it to the simple and the poor and the Holy Spirit reveals knowledge and while I believe whole heartedly in exegesis there comes a point that you are so busy with it that you can fail to hear what the Spirit is saying. Maybe someday someone will convince us from scripture clearly why this can not be so.

Thanks to Laurie H. I had to blog about this…

Several years ago when I was a single lass I went to a friend’s house to cook dinner. In the middle of cooking one of my favorite Chinese dishes (Mongolian Beef) in walked my friend’s eight year old niece. She was very inquisitive and watched me cook for a while before she asked what I was cooking. My reply, of course, Mongolian Beef. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that she was searching very hard for something and I asked what she was looking for. “I’m looking for the box.” said she. “The box?” said I. “Yes,” says she, “the box the food came in that you are cooking.” I could barely contain my laughter as I replied, “there isn’t a box.” Her eyes got big as dinner plates, she just couldn’t believe that it.

“Yes, Virginia, you can cook “outside the box.”

I am extremely grateful for a mother who taught me to cook from scratch. Not that we never used boxes but they weren’t so common that at the age of eight I thought you couldn’t cook without them. In my teenage years my Mom and I explored the world of Chinese cooking. While our goal was not to achieve real ethnic Chinese cooking my goal was to cook what I had eaten at the local restaurant and beyond.  Although I won’t brag, It is enough to say that certain of the dishes I cook leave the restaurants in the dust. Being modest – maybe it is just because it is “fresh.”

The other day I was excited to figure out how to professionally roll an egg roll so that it looks like one from a restaurant. Here follows my personal recipe:

1. One package of egg roll wrappers (I DO know how to make my own but OH the WORK!!) You can usually find these in the refrigerated produce section of your supermarket. Walmart, of course, is the cheapest.
2. 1 lb. shredded cabbage (I cheat and buy cole slaw mix)
3. 1 lb. cooked ground turkey (we used wild, fresh ground) or ground pork, some people like sausage. Whatever your taste.
4. 3-4 green onions, diced
5. 1 tsp. ground ginger
6. 1 tsp. garlic powder
7. 2 tbsp. soy sauce
8. 1 -2 tbsp. hot chili sauce (or more if you can take it)

Toss ingredients 2-8 together and spoon about 1/3 cup into the egg roll wrapper. Follow the wrapping directions on the package. Notice I do NOT put only 2 tbsp filling in it as the package suggests. What a joke! You’ll have to figure out for yourself how to make it look restaurant style on your own. If I was there I’d show you. Fry in hot oil (375 degrees) for 5-6 minutes. Makes approximately 20 egg rolls.

Posted in Cooking & Cleaning & Other Crisis, Frugal Tips, Recipes Tagged: chinese cooking, egg rolls, Recipes ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/cooking-outside-the-box/feed/ 0 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/doing-the-egg-dance/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/doing-the-egg-dance/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:39:35 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=882 ]]>

Just about the time I had given up hope that these chickens would ever lay eggs a small brown freckled one appeared in the nesting box yesterday. I’m really frustrated however that we have been feeding them for six and half months before the arrival of their first egg. This particular breed that was given to us is a slow growing meat bird and is not one that I would have chosen for myself. Cornish eat massive amounts of feed compared to the Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons that we have had in the past. These latter two breeds would have started laying in October. Nevertheless, I am excited to have our first egg from the Cornish and am doing the happy egg dance.

The garden is already starting to bounce around in my mind and  there are “places” for certain things such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, field peas, pole beans, corn, and winter squash. The spot for the swiss chard and beets has been planned and only the tomatoes, peppers, and zuchinni need a spot. It will be quick work once I put it all on paper. We’ve decided not to plant lettuce since my stomach can barely take it anyway and focus on spinach & greens. My fingers are just itching to get it all on paper.

The biggest decision falls on what type of tomato to plant next year. Whatever it turns out to be there will definitely be some different approaches this year. Never in my life would I have dreamed that I would read an entire book about dirt, soil, and compost but I devoured it and have learned some techniques that I am going to experiment with next year like double digging the ground and adding compost as the bottom of the trench as well as the top. In my clay soil I think that I will see some serious results from this technique.

Posted in Gardening, Homesteading, Poultry Tagged: eggs, Gardening, Homesteading, Poultry ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/doing-the-egg-dance/feed/ 0 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/are-you-frugal-ten-clues/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/are-you-frugal-ten-clues/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:53:45 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=877 ]]>

1. You eagerly pick up your first “How To Be Frugal” book only to find you could have written it yourself.
2. You’ve stretched a leftover meal by adding some ingredient and making yet another superb dinner from it.
3. That superb dinner from the left over meal – you managed to stretch it again for yet another dinner or lunch.
4. You get laughed at when you ask someone if they want to save their Easter grass for next year.
5. You even reuse as much of your garbage as you can for some other purpose. (i.e. paper for starting fires, scraps for the compost, cans for crafts)
6. You save as many seeds as you can from your garden so that you don’t have to buy seeds again.
7. You build an outhouse to save on your water bill. (dropped our bill by 4000 gallons last month which will save us approximately $264.00 per year)
8. You found that if you can your own beans and chicken broth that the price is pennies on the dollar instead of a dollar.
9. You burn dead trees from your property to avoid an outrageous winter electric bill.
10. You are on developing friendship with all the workers at the local resale shop and they are always happy to see you walk in. They may even know you by first name.

Some serious sinus drainage had turned into a bought with bronchitis several weekends ago and I was terribly disturbed to realize that we had used all the canned chicken broth. (At this point I seriously do not recommend taking medicine to dry up the drainage from your sinus passages because it also dries out your lungs making coughing phlegm a really painful experience.)

All that aside,  I went to the store today and bought a 10 pound bag of leg quarters and have boiled them according to this recipe here. DO NOT leave the dill out of the recipe! (Benefits of dill) Initially the dill added a unique subtle flavor that I didn’t care for but it grew on me. I’ve toyed with the idea of adding tons of garlic to the broth. Currently, I have 7 quarts of chicken broth in the canner and would like to add another canner full to my shelves in the next week or two. It really helps you to rally after stomach bugs in particular since dill is antiviral.

The hustle and bustle of summer has come to an end and slightly slower fall days are settling in; which allows more time for reading, silent planning and contemplation of all things garden.

Being outside in sunny crispy cool weather inspires all types of new projects concerning chickens and gardens. The garden is particularly stuck in my mind right now and the specific subject: soil improvement. (Secrets to Great Soil by Elizabeth P. Stell) Which through no fault of my own also involves the unpenned roosters that remain uneaten.  (Even when I garden I can’t get away from chickens – can’t even get away from them when I blog apparently!)

His ears must have been ringing as I was blogging. Malachi tried to run him out but he decided to run the wrong way so I had to get him out of the house.

Last year at this time, Jerry and I built a movable chicken pen for roosters but alas PVC and chicken wire DO NOT hold up to 2 inches of ice. It was beyond repair. *sigh* The plan is to rebuild the movable pen and once again use PVC. The last pen was 8 foot long and 4 foot wide and difficult to move. Difficult not because it was heavy but because the PVC bent when we picked it up. This time it will be 4×4x4 foot. One thing that I’m unsure about is whether or not it will be predator proof . The old pen couldn’t be overturned by a dog but maybe this smaller one could be? (and you think – what does this have to do with the garden. Just hang on. I’m getting there. I digress once again.)

Let’s just pretend I have my new cage built and here is the plan. Take the pen and put it in the garden. Fill it one fourth of the way up the four foot  height with  straw or hay or leaves, throw in some roosters, drop corn and compost to them everyday and those lovely little roosters will be a self contained compost bin right into my garden. Have you seen how fast those birds can compost hay and straw! When they get done with one spot move them on to the next and spread out the compost. I’m telling you – its pure genius. (yes, I know that fresh chicken poop is “hot”)

It has come to my attention lately that I’ve been blogging less and less and I had to ask myself, “why?” Homeschooling takes a lot of my time and cooking and planning school and taking care of a newborn are all things that consume my time as well. I love writing but lately it has taken a back seat to all these important things.

Lately, during “down time,” I find myself sitting in front of the computer screen riffling through page after page on Facebook trying to find out what all my friends are saying to each other while I sit and nurse the baby. After all,you can mouse one handed but it takes forever to type that way. It becomes a challenge to find everything as FB keeps changing things around just about the time you get used to them. Immediately after the change the comments on my status updates dropped and I stopped commenting as well wondering where everyone had gone but I digress. (I love that word – digress)

I’m really trying to get to my point here but it is difficult for me to arrange my thoughts in paragraph order. It seems I’m losing the ability to write, not only on the paper but the thoughts aren’t even flowing in my mind they way they used to. This is THE problem with Facebook for writers and the educated.

1. It creates short term focus.
2. It handicaps your thinking because of number 1.
3. No one likes it if you leave overly long comments.
4. If you post long statuses inevitably your “friends” hide you because they don’t have the “time.”
5. Very few actually appreciate educated comments.
6. Those who appreciate educated comments fear to post their thoughts because they don’t want to be torched.
7. After much time spent on Facebook it seems the ability to form intelligent writing begins to wane as you become stuck after the first sentence or two.
8. You begin to wonder if anyone can post anything intelligent and then realize that you really don’t either. “Jonine is staring blankly at the computer screen. Jonine is going to get another cup of coffee. Jonine wonders where her mind has gone.”
9. The more challenging things I post the less response from people I get.
10. People write before they think and hit the post button – me included.
11. Time wasted on FB instead of on your favorite hobbies such as herbs, crocheting, sewing, and gardening limits your experience and hampers continuing your education with new research and information.
12. FB makes you lazy in regards to spelling and grammar. I would love to see one well punctuated sentence. FB doesn’t make a way to edit typos.

I could go on but to be truthful I’ve been hard pressed to get this far. I know what I mean and what is bouncing around back there but I haven’t worked on it in my mind for a day before I typed this like I normally do.

So here is my advice….

1. Ignore what everyone else is saying unless it is longer than a sentence.
2. Type something educational into your status and force people to learn something new.
3. Don’t forget how to write! Use your “leave a note” page.
4. Abstain from putting your bodily aches and pains in your status box. Unless, of course, you really need the prayers. (I’m guilty here) And please, if you do put your aches and pains don’t be angry at me if Ican’t resist giving some herbal advice. After all, I’ve been reading about it for 10 years and I’m just telling you what I’ve learned.
5. Everyone needs a happy thought – don’t spoil their day. (Jonine Blackshear is grumpy today.)

Okay, I’m going to go follow my own rules now. Happy Facebooking and don’t let it make you stupid!!

Posted in Random Thoughts Tagged: education, Facebook, stupid ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/facebook-is-frequent-use-making-you-stupid/feed/ 1 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/installation-of-a-green-bathroom/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/installation-of-a-green-bathroom/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:27:14 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=852 ]]>

We’re moving up in the world with the addition of a third bathroom with two toilets! I can’t tell you how excited we are about this and what a great job my husband has accomplished. Not only is it a needed addition but it will also be green. All waste will be composted naturally instead of wasting water on flushing and holding the waste in a cement tank for permanent  storage. The waste will return to the land.

The bathroom will complete as soon as we install a permanent door. Right now we are using a tarp for the job. The boys find it exciting and Petra has decided to be generous and let it be their bathroom and not hog it all for herself. I happily grin each time the boys use it as I know I’m saving money on my water bill.

So without further ado…

As I listened to this in whole hearted agreement with John Piper, his statement about WHY don’t these preachers go into the hospital emergency rooms or cancer wards or places like this if they are such servants of Christ hit me like a ton of  bricks. In all the years that I used to follow this line of prosperity gospel I don’t know why it never crossed my mind. A religion of selfishness and greed in the name of Christ.

¹BUT UNDERSTAND this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].²For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.

³[They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.

⁴[They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.

⁵For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].          2 Timothy 3:1-5

In celebration of my 36th birthday I’m going to post 36 things about myself.

1. I am a sinner, born totally depraved  just like everyone else.
2. I believe in Christ through no merit of my own.
3. Nothing good have I done save by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I rejoice that my name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
5. Once again, his grace and mercy have sought me and bought me.
6. I am not my own but the servant of the Lord.
7. On my best day my works are nothing but filthy rags.
8. I do not do the things I want to do &  find myself doing the things I hate.
9. My faith is a gift from God.
10. I am co-heir with Christ.
11. God removed my stony heart and has  replaced it with a heart of flesh.
12. Am being equipped with everything good so that I can do His will.
13. God is working through me to do that which is pleasing in His sight.
14. I bless the feet of those who brought me the Good News.
15. I’ve been called according to His purpose.
16. The law has condemned me.
17. Christ has justified me.
18. I am sanctified by His word.
19. I am a new creation, the old has fallen away.
20. I reap what I sow.
21. I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing Christ Jesus.
22. I am redeemed by His blood by his lavish grace.
23. I was chosen before the foundation of the world was laid.
24. When I heard the gospel I was sealed by the promised Holy Spirit.
25. In Christ I have obtained my inheritance.
26. Called to hope.
27. I’ve been made known the mystery of His will.
28. I get the do the good works He has prepared for me to do.
29. My flesh will always be at war against my spirit.
30. The Lord is my strong tower and refuge.
31. I am delivered from the dark domain.
32. I was created for His own glory.
33. I was created by Him.
34. I have been reconciled.
35. He will present me one day holy and blameless.
36. So you see, I can not boast of myself  but only in Christ.

For those of you holding your breath and waiting anxiously for me to blog don’t despair for my personal health or anything like that. Once again writer’s block has struck. I think it is connected to have a new baby as I remember that I went through something like this after Malachi. All my genius is going into making rich baby milk and the rest of it is being driven off by having to wake up two or three times a night. And while I’ve become very good at giving excuses lately I’ve really been very busy with carrying on the basics of life in a large household.

I really have lots of genius things to say  but I just can’t form my thoughts. Like how I read Sam Harris’s book called Letter to A Christian Nation and it got me all riled up to respond to his atheist rubbish and then I discovered that Douglas Wilson already had with his book Letter from a Christian Citizen, which is now on my must read list and since Wilson has done all the work already I don’t have to. Recently, I’ve discovered that you should NOT read C.S. Lewis while very sleepy at night as it has a numbing effect on the brain after reading the same paragraph six times and still not understanding exactly what it was he just said I put it down and promptly snored. Finally Alive by John Piper has been a very good book about the new birth. The first time I’ve read something doctrinal on the subject from the correct point of view. It has been most enlightening.

Grammarland by M. Nesbitt has been a very charming book that I’ve been reading to the children. I purchased it from Yesterday’s Classic after discovering them through Ambleside Online. It is on grammar usage and has been a very fun read aloud learning experience. I’m looking forward to the other books purchased from there. A few months ago I was delighted to find a book called Bible Characters written by D.L. Moody and some others. Just short commentaries on the life of certain figures in the Holy Bible and we’ve been reading that out loud as well.

Emma Rose is becoming a very chubby bundle of sweetness. She is starting to share her smiles with us as she approaches her six week mark tomorrow. The children are going to have her truly spoiled and she probably will never be happy as an adult unless there is someone to entertain her.

This week we’ve been preparing for our annual Blackshear Birthday Bash by tidying up the house and catching up with minor projects that I put off while I was pregnant. And now you know I’ve not been translated like Enoch or gone off in a chariot of fire like Elijah or fallen down dead like Sapphira and been carried off.

Posted in Book Review, Everyday Life, Homeschooling ]]> http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/still-here/feed/ 0 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/swaddle-that-baby-colic-revisited/ http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/swaddle-that-baby-colic-revisited/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:09:04 +0000 Jonine http://amiableimpressions.wordpress.com/?p=834 ]]>

Last night, almost by instinct, I picked up my sweet Emma Rose who was fussing with her colic and bound her up in her blanket – a full swaddle. She immediately quieted right down and seemed very content. The difference was amazing. As a matter of fact, I held her facing away from me in a transverse position (her favorite position “in utero”). In twenty minutes she was totally asleep. She slept through the night too. Hmmm…. I really hope this isn’t a one time thing. I’m doing it again tonight!

Curiousity always gets the better of me and I looked up swaddling babies with colic and found a few interesting links.

Colic Baby Boot Camp (about swaddling)

Swaddling Calms a Colic Baby

It appears that Emma has a small issue with colic. I can almost set the clock by it for the last week as it happens exactly from 10:00 at night to 11:00 or 11:30. It is really strange because she will stop crying as mysteriously and suddenly as it started and go right to sleep. I’m really not sure what to do for her and it is easy to get frustrated because she seems to think she is hungry when I know that she is definitely not.  Jerry seems to be able to comfort her the best if he puts her on his chest while in bed.

I’m coping with it fairly well by distracting myself and just realizing that I can’t sleep while she fusses. Last night I read while she cried and tonight I’m blogging. The first couple of nights were terribly stressful because I was exhausted from a bladder infection and then sleep deprived by a screaming baby and I had not put 2+2 together yet and realized that this was/is colic. (after all, breast feed babies are supposed to not get that right?!)

Oh ya, and such helpful advice from breastfeeding websites…”here is a list of foods you should stop consuming to see if it helps.” If I did it their way I would be a dried up skeleton since the list is so long that I would officially have to stop eating to avoid them all. The first night I thought it was because I ate beans, the second garlic, the third…. well you get the idea (and don’t point your finger at the milk). So just calm down (I’m telling myself) and realize this is normal and it is okay to not be stressed when she cries.

(p.s. – Jerry is sleeping on the couch so he can energize for work and I’ve always been the night owl anyway although as I’ve gotten older my definition has changed)

Emma is beginning to wind down now…last night she went straight from screaming to totally asleep in one second flat. I checked her breathing while be very careful not to wake her and sure enough she was fast asleep. Then she was a little sweety and did not wake until 4 hours later to nurse.

P.S. – Emma is now suddenly asleep just like last night and I’m going to sign off.

For those of you who have read Persimmon Traditions and wonder what the persimmon seed holds this year…it is a spoon again. I’m going to stock my pantry with canned goods and candles.