Differences

* Another post taken from the archives of way back in the day, a whole 1 1/2 years ago. :)

The more God changes me (and He's done a whole whack of changing in this girl) the more I feel alienated from everyone around me. I will admit, embarrassingly so, that I do not really have any relationship on any level with a professing non-Christian. It's hard to when I'm always home with the kids or grocery shopping, not really a whole lot of time to make new friends. I do have 4 little people in my charge that I am responsible for disciplining to the end that they will know Christ one day, but outside of my little sphere I am not witnessing. That has got to change!
But I have also been on the other end and had many unsaved people I spent time with. My hubby and I spent lots of time just being around unsaved people over the past few years while he was pastoring and I didn't really notice that it made much difference to them and it certainly wasn't a good environment for the kids to be in. The times when we had opportunity to speak about Christ with them was usually one on one, helping them out with fix-it jobs, giving them drives into town, having them over for coffee etc. The times we 'hung out' with them on their own turf was a completely different story. Nobody was interested in listening to 'God talk'. They were drinking, listening to ungodly music, smoking, horrible language, and the stories they like to tell are not worthy of the "whatsoever things are pure" verse. After many years of trying to meet them on their own ground we realized that wasn't what God had purposed for us to do. He wants us to bring them out of it, not get in there with them.
And lets face it, if we were truly living the sold-out kind of Christianity that God calls us to they wouldn't want us around. "What fellowship has light with darkness"? Yes, Jesus spent time with sinners but He used every single opportunity with them to witness and lead them to Himself. Let's be honest, how many times have we as Christians sat down and really shared Christ with our unsaved friends? Not just a "I go to church on Sundays, would you like to go with me?", or "I'm praying for you", or even a "Jesus died for you". Do we take every opportunity to speak about Christ or are we talking about how much we love shopping or the latest movie we watched?
I'm not saying we have to walk around yelling on the street corners that people need to get saved, but I do mean that we do not live with eternity in mind. These people are going to hell, how can we be best buddies with someone who is going in the complete opposite direction as us? We should desire to 'spend' less time with them and desire to 'use' the times we have with them more wisely. God doesn't bring unsaved people across our path so we can have lots of friends, there's a much bigger picture here. He brings them to us so we can lead them to Him. That's very difficult to do when we do everything they do and go everywhere they go and look no different than them. If that is the case why would they think they have to change, if we're good they must be good?
I believe from reading about how the disciples were treated that when we are living for the Lord and we meet people, the will either be drawn to us because they want what we have or they will shun us because we aren't like them and we make them feel uncomfortable.
I am so thankful for my life. This new thought sprouts from an invitation my sister & I had from our new neighbors to their 'house-warming' party. We have enjoyed talking to them a bit and getting to know them over the past 2 weeks, they are nice people. But when we were invited to come over today I had forgotten that we were not going to a church function. Since we moved from Ontario I haven't really spent very much time around unsaved people and I had a wake up call all over again. I will not say any more about those we met and spent a whole 1/2 hour with this afternoon but I will say this: I am so thankful for my saved family. I am so thankful for my church family. I am so thankful that we know how to have fun without alcohol. I am so thankful we have 4 kids. (apparently it's 'sick' to have a lot of kids, as we were told today) I am so thankful that the women we spend time with know how much skin should be covered when in company with anyone other than their husband.
I found out that there are things that we have in common with the unsaved. We all eat, drink, work, and play, but we do those things completely differently. I must ask why anyone who is truly saved would want to spend time in the company of those who are not. They don't listen to good music, they like to go places that are ungodly, they think kids are baggage, they don't care about anything we should care about. If anything, spending time with unsaved people pulls us away from everything that's worth anything.
I think I'll just avoid communing with unsaved people and just keep chatting with them and throwing out the seeds God wants me to plant along the way. I am so glad I'm saved and I'm so sad that these people have no idea what they are missing out on.
When we get together with other Christians we get so excited. I know what I will see before it even starts. There will be my whole family there. Dad, Mom, all the sisters and cousins running around. A whole bunch of church family coming with a snack or two and lots of smiles. Probably a hug or two going around and punch bowls being filled a number of times over. Kids climbing in the fences and adults actually having conversations with the children from time to time. Women by the sink doing up some dishes. You may here a 'God has been so good!' or "I'll be praying for you." here and there. I can say all that, but there's nothing to describe the whole overtone of an event with a bunch of other Christians. There's just something special about it and I'm glad I can be part of it.
Keep near the cross.

A Friendly Pop Quiz :)

One of our family gifts under the tree this year was a pack of Bible quiz cards. Hubby went through a bunch of them a couple nights ago before the chillins went to bed. I was surprised when the kids new many of the answers, and I was excited that I knew many of the ones they didn't. This book review Bible reading pays off in many different ways you know, you can look so Bible savvy when these quiz cards show up. :) And so now I pass on a few questions to you fellow readers. See how many of these you can answer (without looking it up!). They are all taken from books of the Bible we've read but in no particular order :)

1. What did the Israelite spies sent into Canaan bring back?
2. What creature ate the vine that gave shade to Jonah?
3. Who threshed wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites?
4. Where were Abraham's family living when they first set out for Canaan?
5. Where did Sarah's slave girl, Hagar, come from?
6. Where did Moses flee to escape the death penalty after killing an Egyptian?
7. Where was the burning bush?
8. Who held up Moses' arms so that the Israelites could defeat the Amalekites in battle?
9. How many sons did Moses and his wife, Zipporah, have?
10. What were their names?
11. Where did the feeding of the 5000 take place?
12. Which disciple did the boy go up to with his food?
13. Where did Jesus tell his disciples to stay after his resurrection?
14. What were the tongues of fire a symbol of?
15. Which king believed in the God who had saved Daniel from the lions?
16. Who visited King Solomon with a caravan of camels carrying precious gifts?
17. Whose clothes were made out of camel's hair?
18. Which Canaanite commander did a woman kill with a tent peg?
19. Who rewarded Mordecai by letting him ride through the city on the king's own horse?
and finally,
20. What did Samson tie to the tails of 300 foxes?

If you don't know the answers to many of these take heart, I didn't either. :) But what is truly exciting is that I knew what story they were asking about and knew which book to look it up in if I had to. So even if we don't remember exact names at this point, we are doing well if we know more answers to these than we would have a year ago. Let me know how you think you did and I'd love to hear that someone actually got %100.
Once we go through more of the cards here at home I'll post some more questions for ya'll. :)

Book Review Friday Returns :)

Okay, so I learned something these past couple of weeks. I need Book Review Friday! Without that accountability I totally lost the gumption to keep reading by the end of the holiday stretch. So whether you all are in on it or not, I must do it for me. If you are new to the whole idea please check it all out here:

Book Review Friday

One thing I noticed in Exodus as I was reading a while ago was how quickly the Israelites turned away from God. They were saved from being slaves in Egypt and saw miraculous things happen by God's hand on their behalf. As soon as Moses left them to go commune with the Lord they all melted their jewelery and started worshipping a golden calf and doing perfectly wicked things. Just like that! No backsliding bit by bit, they went full throttle into major sin. We can do the same thing. It scares me that I can not only become complacent in my walk with the Lord, but I can actually desire and enjoy sin, and become that way overnight.
When given their freedom the Israelites showed their true colours. As soon as they were on their own and the accountability of Moses was gone we see where their hearts really were the whole time. God can show us the true state of ourselves in the same way. I cancelled the book reviews for a short time and already started finding reasons that I couldn't fit reading in each day. I'm not proud of it. It's just one small/big step in the completely wrong direction.
And so with that all said I reinstate Book Review Friday and call on all ladies out there to join in. It's worth it.

For the next week I'll try to start things up where we should be (not where I actually am). How about Exodus chapters 35-40 until Jan 4th? I'll read through the chapters I missed to catch up and not miss exactly what's going on. :) I'm really looking forward to getting back to the basics and I really hope there are others out there who want to do the same. :) :)
Besides, when I told my hubby a couple weeks ago that I was considering doing away with the book review, my blog.... everything, he told me that really wasn't a good idea. I wasn't expecting him to encourage me to keep blogging, but since I always try to be oh-so-submissive I'll keep things going here at Watch the Sky. :)

Let's do another head count and see just who is joining us so far in this new year coming up with our weekly readings. Leave a comment if you're up for being a part of book review Friday, whether you have a blog to post your review or not does not matter, just let us all know if you are actually reading. :)

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and are encouraged for the new year to come!
~Shannon

Braggin on my men.

Merry Christmas again. Although things are still pretty busy around here I have to take a minute to let you all see what I was given for Christmas. You see, I had this dream of the perfect coffee table for us. It would be large and have a built in puzzle table. That was all I needed to say and for the past month hubby & my oldest son have been puttering away out in the barn. This is what they came up with....




The best part about it is that it didn't cost a cent. Hubby just used old barn boards and leftover stuff from our almost 200 year old home. I love it. The picture is awful and doesn't show just how nice it is. My son was the one who built the puzzle shelf that so neatly slides in under the top to hide when we're not working on it. Mr.Man-let-me-tell-you, it's cool. :)

Another bit of news that I know you will all be so impressed with is that we didn't spend any money we didn't have this Christmas. It meant we couldn't do a few things that we normally would do, but we made it without bringing out the Visa. Woo Hoo! I would have failed the test big time, but hubby said a big fat 'NO!' when I was tempted to falter. :) Good thing. I feel better knowing that we pulled it off for the first time ever.

I'm off to clean up a bit and maybe find time to sit down beside my new table with a cup of hot apple cider in the new dishes I was given. Love Christmas! :)

Merry Christmas!

It's finally here. My kids are saying over and over again how they can't believe it's here already. Tell me about it. But I think I'm ready. I'll spend today making a couple pies and those great peanut butter balls. I'll take care of the last of the gifts for the family, and then big time clean up time. I just can't stand the thought of tomorrow with dust or dirt anywhere and I simply must change all the bedding. Not sure why that's an issue for Christmas this year but it is. Gotta have fresh bedding for Christmas eve ya know.
I'll leave you with a couple pic's from our little Christmasy neck of the woods. And you all make sure you have a great day with family and friends tomorrow always remembering that it's because of God's perfect Son, Jesus Christ, that we have this wonderful time of year. Merry Christmas!

Go outside..... please.

The kids are so excited to have a white Christmas. Totally white. (Watch, it'll rain hard and warm up big time tomorrow.) They are so looking forward to sliding at Grampie & Grammie's place on Christmas day. But of course we don't wait for that special day to take advantage of the cool weather. This mean mommy makes her kids go outside to play every afternoon. I don't really have to tell the older 3 to go out but little #4 would prefer the warm indoors to a winter wonderland. I don't blame him, I would too. But I'm following in my mothers footprints and sending them out. I now know why she wouldn't let us come in for a long time when we were kids playing in the snow.
"Hey mom, I'm coming in now."
"No you're not."
Out we go again to dig yet another tunnel in a snowbank.
Moms are smart. :)

Here are my 4 explorers today. We'll try to forget about the part when they were all walking back to the house and #4 decides it would be more advantageous to sit down in the snow and scream, yell, and cry about not being able to catch up to the others. Loved that part. Loved it SO much.

A bit of Christmas music for ya'll

Found this video today on another blog. Love it. You'll love it too. Honest!!! :)

Sparrow's Nest Cookie Exchange

Over at the

Sparrow's Nest

Mrs.Wilt is hosting a Christmas cookie exchange. I love cookies!? :) And just because I do love treats so much I'll put in two recipes. Woo hoo!

Graham Cracker Squares
1 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
30 Graham crackers broken into quarter size pieces

In medium saucepan, whisk together egg and brown sugar.
Whisk in cocoa and vanilla.
Add shortening and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Boil 1 minute. Immediately pour over graham wafers.
Put in 8x8 pan. Press down slightly to smooth top.

Icing:
1 Cup Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Flour
1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Tbsp Vanilla
Lump of Butter
1/4 tsp Salt

Mix with milk to make icing and spread over top of graham wafer mixture.
Put in fridge 1 hour or more to set.

* I must say it is very important to mix the egg with the sugar, cocoa and vanilla before heating!


Peanut Butter Balls
We love baking with peanut butter and this is so easy and tasty it's scary. No actual 'baking' involved. :)
All you need:

1 Cup Peanut butter
1 Cup Icing sugar
1 Cup Rice Krispies
1/4 Cup Butter softened

Mix the butter with the peanut butter and add the icing sugar.
Add the Rice Krispies and mix all up.
Roll into 1 inch balls and then roll in icing sugar to coat.

Another option if you don't mind a little mess is to melt milk chocolate chips and use spoons to dip and cover peanut butter balls and let harden on wax paper. That's the way I usually do them. These never last long around the kids and have become an expected holiday treat. Just remember that you may need to store them in the fridge for a while so they don't get too soft. All thanks to Grandma for this recipe.

Make that 3 recipes. :)
Melt in your mouth Shortbread
You may think you have the best shortbread recipe in the world, and I don't mean to be rude, but you don't. If you want total melt-in-your-mouth shortbread, just like the olden days, then we've got the recipe for you just in time for the holidays. It is pictured just under those yummy peanut butter balls on the cute snowman plate.
I took a whole big tin of this to a little gathering in Ontario and didn't get to bring a speck of it home. Everyone wanted to know who brought the shortbread and where the recipe was.
And believe me, you have to use your hands to do all the mixing. It really does make a difference. Once I was so energetic I mixed it for 20 minutes instead of 10 and it was even better.
Another must with the recipe is to use Splenda whether you need to or not. Using regular sugar just ruins it for some reason.

1 lb Butter, softened
1 pkg Rice Flour
1 Cup Splenda white sugar
3 1/2 -3/4 Cup All purpose flour

Mix all together with hands only 10 - 15 minutes at least. (The longer you mix it the better it is.)
Make into 1 ball and roll out to 1/2" thickness on floured area.
Cut into bars (just like you were cutting squares to serve) and place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
Bake at 225 F for about 40 min. Until top is dry and dusty. (It's hard to tell until you've done it once. Just brush it with your finger to see if it's dusty or damp.) It's another one of those times when you take it out when you think they aren't quite done.
Place on cooling rack and taste test as soon as your lips won't get burned. :)

~Shannon

As little hearts ponder.

Warning** The following post is a reprint from back in the day, like last year.**
My daughter was quite deceived as to the man's work ethic.
It was just me and her waiting in the van for the rest of the family to come out of Canadian Tire (hubby's favourite store) and there wasn't anything to do. I had already put all the garbage in a bag, cleaned out my purse and organized a few things, then a man came out to gather the carts for the nearby grocery store. My daughter's comment had something to do with his hard work and I refrained from saying something to the effect of, " He's a lazy idiot is what he is" and tried to find a more suitable way of explaining that she was entirely wrong. Then, because I was feeling perky & organized and ready to take on the world, I figured why not bring up the subject of who she should marry. Boy, did that get her thinking.
My little girl is a very serious little girl, if you knew her well you would know that. She's shy and squishes up her nose if you talk to her and she can be very silly. But, I knew if I brought something like this up she will mull it over time and time again and take it all very seriously.
So we studied that man and how hard he really was working. She started noticing he didn't care about how quickly he got his job done (he was taking his sweet time that's for sure), and how many trips in and out of the store it took him to get the very few carts all put back in order. I started explaining to her about how she needs to study boys like that over the years to know what they are really like so that when she is all grown up and ready to get married she will know if the man will take care of her or not.
We talked about how if a boy works really hard at his job (& quickly), whether he enjoys it or not, then he will be the type of man that will work hard to take care of you and provide for the family. If he is very kind & caring to his mom, sisters, and other girls, then he will be kind and caring as a husband.
We also talked about being the kind of woman that a man like that would want. That part was a little humbling. I had to tell her we would learn together to be like that because I had a lot to learn too. I couldn't say like it says in Prov.23:26 " give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways".
And of course, I realized once again the huge job in front of me of raising 3 boys to be the kind of men that will be 'that good husband'. Oh my, I could get tired just thinking about it. It's terrifying! But one thing at a time. I had a little talk with my little girl and she has another 11 years (at least) to ponder on a few things, and learn to become a psychologist when it comes to finding the perfect man.

Gotta be one to know.

There was one day I wished I weighed a bit more, or was at least 6 months pregnant. Because I'm as skinny as a rake and very un-pregnant I was called upon to ignore my fears and fix the dryer. Yep, I was scared. You see, the dryer won't budge from it's place in it's closet in the bathroom. Just enough space for it.... and me apparently.

It doesn't matter if you 'know' that being a mom is a big lesson in unselfishness, you have to become one to really know what that means. Motherhood has been one of the biggest struggles in my life thus far. The dryer incident being one of the latest trifles to deal with. I love motherhood but it's hard work. Sometimes it calls me totally out of my comfort zone. I'm claustrophobic. So me having to hang upside down in a very small space to fix the dryer while hubby handed tools down to me and explained each step clearly to this dyslexic momma took my breath away a few times. I actually was too panicky to scream most of the time. (Maybe this isn't the best example to give for unselfishness, after all I really wanted to have a dryer back again. But it's the only one I have a picture for.:)

It all starts when you bring that little cutie home and there are no more nurses to take care of it while you rest. It's all up to you. You have discovered a totally new level of tiredness and wonder if you will ever feel perky again. But even then you just don't really get it. I think you need to have at least 2 or three children before you really understand. Having a newborn to feed and diaper and hold and feed and diaper and hold and feed and diaper and hold, along with those other little kids that are old enough to walk around and get into things, and ask a million questions before lunch, and start potty training .... that's when you start to see that this is going to cost you something. It's going to cost you yourself.

My dream growing up was to get married young and have lots of kids and be the perfect family. Me in my apron getting gorgeous tasty meals ready, my kids all freshly bathed and in spiffy outfits waiting for daddy to arrive home for supper. Of course I would always be the epitome of patience and love ruling my little ones with tender correction. Oh yeah, that's me. Whatever. I did get married young, I did have a few kids, I do bath them, we do our best to find spiffy outfits at Frenchy's..... ummm as for the meals, I try to enjoy cooking. Patience, love, and tenderness are slowly becoming part of my life. All this after 9 years of having children to care for.

Big lessons come in ordinary experiences. Just learning to say 'no' to my wants and tend to my families needs instead is a lifelong thing. Most women today, including Christian women, have been brainwashed into thinking they aren't doing anything important if they just stay home and take care of house & home. We're told that you aren't living up to your full potential if a women chooses to hold her family more important than a career. Well ya know what!?!? It takes a whole lot more strength to stay home and stick it out than to escape from our responsibility and spend most of our time away from it. When you stay home you see all the housework that needs to be done and kept up with, you see more of your children and start noticing how much work there is to do with their character and attitudes. Because everyone is home most of the time it creates more housework, and naturally more cooking because there are 3 meals to make and then 3 meals to clean up after. Then we have to fit half a day of schoolwork into the mix and the list goes on and on. Do I sound like I'm complaining? I'm not. I love it. But a lot of my days I start out thinking I'm really not up to the challenge. I'm tired and just want to sleep in, I don't want to make lunch, I'd rather check my email or go visit someone for a cup of tea. I don't want to make sure there is a clean bathroom for everyone to use in the morning. But thats when I pray and the Lord reminds me that this life isn't about all the 'I's', it's all about Him. This is the task He has called me to. This is the life He has blessed me with. Those tired days are the days He will give me supernatural strength for.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well, I might trade it for a bigger closet for the washer & dryer. :)

92 year old says "No" to theif!

My mother was telling me about a story she heard. I looked it up and thought I'd pass it along to you. I still want to read my Bible everyday and underlining it when I'm 92. And I want the courage to witness to the very people that put my life in danger too. Check out the video to see what I'm talking about. :)

News clip

The best turkey ever!!

I thought I'd pass along the perfect turkey recipe from Smockity Frocks. She claims that your meal will turn out perfect every time.

Here's hoping!

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds really good. Check it out and let me know what you think. I'll be giving it a try over the holidays myself. :)