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an amazing Easter weekend with blessings #803-816

Written by Joy
an amazing Easter weekend with blessings #803-816

We had the most amazing weekend.  It was a weekend of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It was a weekend of celebrating family.  God has been so good to us.  He has been so good to our family. We are alive and healthy.  We are together.  Yes, it was a good weekend.

Blessings have been so plentiful to us.  We have so much to be thankful for.  I haven’t shared them in a long time and thought it was fitting to share after the weekend we had.

Starting on Friday, we woke to it being my birthday.  I am 37 years old and thankful that God has given me the life He has.  We woke to it being a cloudy day, but headed to a birthday breakfast at the Waffle House.  I was told the day was mine and I could do whatever I wanted.  I was also told that the housework was off limits to me.  It would be taken care of.  So I definitely had a day off.  Supper was chicken wings and chocolate cake.  I couldn’t of asked for a better day.  But the day did get better when the kids asked about Good Friday.  Telling them of Jesus’ love and why he died on the cross and them understanding, truly made it the best day ever.

Saturday morning came early.  My son had a basketball game at 8:00 am.  My daughter cheered at 9:30am.  after a wonderful morning of seeing them have fun, it was nice to come home to do nothing but relax and be with one another.  Something my family and I have learned is family time is most important in the world we live in.  While we do enjoy activities outside of the house, it is even nice being able to come home to one another.  We want to make sure out children know we love them and more importantly, God loves them.

My favorite day of the weekend came next.  Sunday.  The day the tomb stone was rolled away and it was empty.  Jesus had risen just like it was foretold. We woke up  and started getting ready for church.  Oh what a glorious day it was!  The song and worship service was amazing.  The preaching was just beautiful.  I love our church and how they try so hard to make sure everything is scriptural and encourage us to hold them accountable if we find they missed something.

We then came home to a wonderful lunch and we hid eggs for the kids to find.  It was amazing to have all of my kids outside together, laughing and joking with one another.  We don’t have our kids for very long and I am doing my best to soak  up all the time I have with them.

Yes, blessings have been abundant for me and my family.  We are truly blessed.  While I spoke of a few blessings above, I want to share a few more.  I have missed sharing and hoping to get back on a more regular schedule.

803- My health

804- My families health

805- Having my brother stay with us

806- my children’s laughter

807- family time together

808- celebrating another year

809- chocolate birthday cake 😉

810- seeing my children learn something new

811- a massage and adjustment

812- hugs and kisses from my family

813- a chance to go to the 2:1 Conference (Thanks See The Light!)

814- birthday cards sent with love

815- An awesome blog makeover from Honeycomb Design Studio

816- Celebrating the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ!

 

Luke 24

The Resurrection

24  But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

7  that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

2012, , ,

from Blogger to WordPress

Written by Joy
5 Comments
from Blogger to WordPress

I have been working on building a WordPress site for a while. My hubby had taken time to help me get the blog set up, widgets loaded and my content transferred. Then just within a day or two of announcing that I was moving to WordPress, I won a blog makeover at a 2:1 Conference twitter party. I was shocked but also surprised and thrilled. The awesome company who had donated their time to do the blog makeover was Honey and Jonah from Honeycomb Design Studio.

  Creative Honeycomb

I contacted Honey letting her know I had won and asked her what she needed me to do. She was very quick to respond and sent me a list of things to consider and asked me to make a list of things that I wanted or needed for my blog. Honey and Jonah are awesome people and they do a wonderful job. We have been in contact once, sometimes twice a week going over designs. They care about their work and the people who they are working for.My design is almost finished and I should be moving to WordPress soon. I just wanted to give you a heads up that my new site will be at www.myhomeinthesmokies.com (This is not my new look. It should be installed sometime this weekend!). I also wanted to give a big shout out and thank you to Honey and Jonah from Honeycomb Design Studio. If you are looking to change your look, I highly recommend contacting them. You won’t be disappointed, I promise!

WordPress

iFellowship – Prayer

Written by Joy
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iFellowship – Prayer
iFellowship

It has been a while since I have joined in with iFellowship and I have truly missed it. I am hoping to change that, starting today.Before, I used this time to share scripture that has touched me during the previous week. I want to continue that as well.

James 5:13-18

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 
18  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

 Today, I wanted to share a few verses on prayer. I love to pray. It is something that I can do anytime and anywhere that I can. Praying is a quiet conversation between me and God. An intimate time that I can praise Him, worship Him, pour my heavy heart to Him and lift others up to Him. You see, there was a time I wanted to be more involved in the ministry at my church. However, I have children and through the grace of God, the last few years, I have learned that my main ministry and mission field at this time is my children and being at home with them. Yet, I still felt like I could still do something more. Then God finally spoke to heart        that I could do something more.  I could pray.

Prayer works!!  I have seen miracles happen.  God may not always answer the prayer right away, but He does answer them!  He may not answer them the way you think it should be answered, but He ANSWERS!

Do you have a burden and would love for someone to pray for you?   If you do and feel comfortable leaving it in the comments section, please do so.  I will pray for you.  If you don’t want to leave it in the comment section, that is perfectly alright.  You can e-mail me at jumpforjoy (at) gmail (dot) com.

Blessings!
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iFellowship, prayer, Seeds of Faith

Garden Link-Up with The Homeschool Village!

Written by Joy
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Garden Link-Up with The Homeschool Village!

I am so excited about the 2nd Annual Garden Challenge link-up that The Homeschool Village is doing.  I participated last year and had a lot of fun.  In the past we have never had any kind of unit study or book to go along with our garden.  We just helped dad get the soil/ground ready, helped get some seeds started in small containers, planted the seedlings, watered the plants and check for weeds.

This year, the kids and I are a little better prepared.  We have been using Apologia’s Botany book.  It has helped us a lot in knowing how the seeds actually sprout and what it takes to help plants grow.  It will be good to see the kids put to use what they have learned.  We are looking forward to getting our hands dirty!

We have cleaned out the one bed that we have.  My husband has plans to build at least one more this year.  We have bought more potting soil and peat moss for the plant bed and containers that we will be using.  We picked up brussels sprouts, crooked neck squash and cucumbers.  We haven’t gotten them in the ground yet, but plan too this next week.

 

We have already planted the onions, thyme, chives and oregano in the bed next to the steps.

Here is a picture of the broccoli that we planted.  I didn’t get a picture of the rosemary bush that we planted last year that is still growing strong.
 

We also have many containers that do not have anything in them yet.  We have seeds for tomatoes, bell peppers, okra, green beans and eggplant.  I also did not show pictures of the strawberries and asparagus that we have planted.  We are looking forward to eating fresh veggies and fruits soon.  I am hoping to do some canning this year.  I would love to put up some tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, soup, pickles and possible green beans.

Does your family have a garden?  What is your favorite vegetable/fruit?  I would love for you to share with me your garden secrets!

Be sure to stop by The Homeschool Village and join in the garden challenge this year.  They will be giving out a prize each month to someone who links up!

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Apologia Botany Review

Written by Joy
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Apologia Botany Review

I have used a couple of the Apologia Elementary science books in the past.  So when I had the chance to review their Botany book, I was extremely excited! One of the main reasons why I love their science books so much is because they are creation based.  I also enjoy how the curriculum goes in-depth of the topic.  Each chapter is broken down into different sections making it simple enough to read a portion each day.

The Botany book starts out teaching on the nature of botany and the process of classifying plants.  It will then go into chapters talking about how plants start as seeds, how reproduction works in plants, how they make their food and how plants get water and nutrients.

 

Throughout the book, in each lesson, they have sections called “What Do You Remember”, “Notebook Activities” and then the “Projects”.  The projects are well explained and use a lot of items that you have around the house.   Botany Lab Kits (that has everything you need for the projects) are sold through various homeschool curriculum catalogs.  Apologia also has a Note-Booking Journal, and Lap Books that you can also purchase to use to reinforce the lessons.

While this book is geared for Kindergarten-6th grade age group, my oldest daughter who is 14 also listens in on the lessons and even participates with her younger siblings on the projects.  
 

My kids have thoroughly enjoyed using the Botany science book.  They enjoy when we go on nature walks and are able to point out what we have read in our lessons. 


(By the time this picture was taken, she was tired of me taking pictures!  )

Overall, we have truly loved using the Botany book by Apologia.  The kids are already asking which book we will be using next!

Have you used an Apologia Elementary Science book?  Did you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed their Botany book?

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2012, homeschooling, review, The Homeschool Village