Monday, February 23, 2015

Christmas Candy with Meaning?

Nice service yesterday, though I haven't felt good the last couple of days. Joy and Jessie were down Saturday too, mildly. Jennifer yesterday. Seems we are still being sick often, but the illnesses are more mild and shorter. Hopefully we are on the way up, health wise.


Almost time for Easter. Not a good thing for health. I wonder if I can make some treats that won't be so bad. Maybe sugar cookies in the shape of Easter eggs, colored by the kids (instead of dying eggs which is just a waste since we don't like eating boiled eggs that much), but made of wheat that has had the phyctic acid neutralized. Maybe sweetened with Stevia? Or at least honey and maple syrup. Wonder if there is a candy I can make in a healthier way, too.

You see, I mentioned that we always get sick the week I intend to start school back after Christmas, and my brilliant daughter Joy asked if it could be that we eat so much worse (lots of candy) at Christmas time.

Oh.

Duh.

So I've been toying with the idea of changing Christmas around. Not happy with the random candies we've been buying just to fill the stockings anyway. No sentiment there at all.

It occurred to me the other day that Easter is the same way. So onto today's "to do" list will go researching some healthier alternatives to the normal Easter candies, and maybe getting an order ready from Amazon or Oriental Trading company for some little toys to put in the plastic Easter eggs we hide, instead of candy (oh, we'll probably still buy some candy, just not nearly so much.)

Hiding plastic Easter eggs? Each younger child gets their own color of egg with treats in it. The older ones hide them and then help them find them if needed. The older ones just get their treats straight in their baskets, since they don't care about either hunting eggs or having them to play with later.

Works great.

The toddler of the year (Josh at the moment) simply looks for his own color. No one gets more or less than anyone else:-)

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Praise

Bought a new app for hymns. This one has them sorted by theme, focusing on the worship of Christ.

While waiting for a business meeting a few months ago, a lady saw me reading my Bible and talked to me. She gave me a word from God, part of which was to focus on praising Jesus. Since I pick the music for worship service, I think I'll take that word there as well as in my own devotions.

Mom was doing much better yesterday. I saw some of the old decisiveness come back for a bit :-) It was very nice.

I was doing something for Dad on his computer and while I sat there he had a Trojan attack! I immediately began to run Malware-bytes. It caught 1925 malware programs, and I saw McAfee catch about four others before they got as far at Malware-bytes. Never seen anything like it! But these programs caught everything and when I left his computer was as good as new :-)


Friday, February 20, 2015

Of iPhones and Dreams

Trying to get all my business done and get the shopping/coupons/rebates caught up. Quite a job. It will be better once I get the hang of my iphone.

iphone?

Yeah. My brother, a yuppie, bought himself and his wife new phones and then changed carriers. The new company couldn't use the phones he just bought, so he had to buy all new ones. Instead of selling these barely used ones, he gave them to my mom and I. Makes a great tablet! We'll go down today and see what it would cost to actually have a smart phone, but I wouldn't be surprised if the money is just too much it stays a very small tablet.

No matter. It works fine off the house's wifi, and it will work with all the rebate/electronic coupons sites, so it serves my purpose.

And I really, really like my stupid phone anyway :-)



How do you give up a life long dream? I should ask my brother, actually. He always loved baseball. Wanted to play professionally, in fact. But he had a serious foot injury in high school that still hurts him today, 30 years later, and that ended any hope of a sports career at all. Today, he is a high school special ed teacher, music leader at his (mega) church, and dad to seven kids, 12-25 (3 adopted, 4 steps kids). He's happy.

I have always wanted a farm, always been a country girl at heart. Hubby doesn't really care what I do while he's at work, and he likes living in the quiet country, but we just don't have the money to farm. Yes, it takes money, especially for those of us in the west. You see, 1.35 acres of rocks, sagebrush, and clay simply won't produce food for animals. Fact, I can't produce even something so simple as tomatoes! They just can't handle our random frosts or dehydrating winds in August (Seriously. You stand there watering the plant and gust of wind comes along, and you watch the plant wilt before your eyes, while still watering it!)

Hubby, on the other hand, is now looking at condos in the nearest city for the day when we can't drive anymore:-( Yeah, I know that's a ways off (we're both still in our 40's), and a lot can happen between now and then, but truthfully, his heart isn't and never has been in farming. I need to realign my thoughts to become a better help meet for him, to take on his dreams instead of my own. This is my job from God, to help Hubby achieve the goals God has given him. And if that means living in the city (where, honestly, we would have more chance to minister to others than we do out here in the boonies) than so be it.

But it's hard.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

I hate money

Working on the Ezekiel book. Never been a favorite book. Parts are kind of interesting though.

Mom is doing better but still sick. She isn't thinking right either. Hopefully the farther away we get from chemo the better that will be.

Dad hurts so bad he can't hardly walk. His color is often off too. But he's still going to his meetings and puttering around the garage.

The sunrise is beautiful this morning. Just enough clouds to give us color. Hopefully we get some rain. Been way too dry and warm this winter. More like fall.

Why does life need money? I hate it. Today I have to make a shopping list for the weekly shopping. I want to quit buying at Walmart, but I'm not sure I can. The fresh stuff at Smiths is better quality but the canned and frozen is so much more expensive.....Amazon has a couple of programs that might be able to cover some of the staples. Need to check out the .99 frozen food store in town and see if that will take care of the rest.

Laundry room is 1/3 painted. Buttercup yellow. No one like it, lol. Just wait until I get the white shelves with the white boxes, the white trim and the blue and red flowers painted on that I want. :-) It will be weeks before I can afford to buy anything else (but a caluking gun- $3) for it, but I have some white paint left over from doing the store room last year that should do the trim. Mom has some stencils, and I can make some of what I want from pieces of plastic laying around. And mom has some old art paints laying around that need to be used up. I might can get quite a bit done while waiting for more money. If I can stay off facebook.

I've been without fb for a week now and find my mood much better. This may become a permanent thing. If I write on here a few times a week those concerned about mom and dad can check in. Maybe they would leave comments to how their families are doing too? That is why I was on fb in the first place; to reconnect with friends and family. Their new algorithm keeps me from seeing most of that in favor of commercials anyway.

I'm posting my other interests (politics, Bible, health, homeschooling, etc) to other blogs. I will eventually put the links on the sidebar here so any of you faithful 40 or so readers who are interested can go to the subjects you want.

Well, need to get back at Ezekiel and get my 2 chapters for the day done. Hope to have it published in four formats by the end of March. :-)