Holiday Happenings

Well the 4th is over… I think.  I’m still hearing a ton of firecrackers through the afternoon and through the night.  It’s rather annoying now, because the holiday is over and we’ve been listening to fire crackers for about the past month to begin with!  Every time a fire cracker goes off, my youngest (Kaitlyn, 11 months) wakes up.  I’ve gotten very, very little done the past month during the evening hours.  I was rather disappointed to wake up on the 5th and find my street lined with paper from fireworks, beer cans, clothing and other trash.  Most of it is still in the road.  Remember, I come from the country.  We shoot shotguns on the 4th (at targets… we won’t fire into the air uncontrolled) and except for maybe a few firecrackers, we’re done celebrating until next year.  We clean up after ourselves and don’t waste a bunch of money on something we’re going to light on fire anyway.  We’re supposed to be living in the area with the highest poverty rate in the county but there sure is a lot of money being blown up around here on a very frequent basis!  I’m trying not to judge, maybe the 4th is the holiday everyone saves up for and they go all out buying nifty fireworks and firecrackers but I could think of much better things to spend my money on.  For us and the kids we only spent about $5 (and opted out of shotguns this year… LOL)

We did see the city fireworks on the 4th.  We parked on the side of the road and got great ’seats’ and the kids enjoyed it.  We also did a little garage saleing.  My husband was going to buy me a dehydrator or a pasta machine for my birthday, and I managed to find both for $4 total (I prayed before we went, asking the Lord to show us our needs and help us be wise with our spending).  Another woman was offering two big totes of maternity clothing for free, so I picked out a whole new wardrobe (a very nice feeling considering my maternity wardrobe for the past three children has been the same 3 summer shirts, two winter shirts, a pair of shorts and a pair of pants!) That same woman also had a big tote of boys toys for free, so I picked out a play tool belt, tools and a construction hat for my son, and a baby toy for kaitlyn.  There wasn’t anything in the way of girl stuff my daughter would be interested in, but she has had a blast sharing the tools with her brother.  I also found clothing in the next few sizes up for both the older kids at a sale where the woman was having everyone stuff a grocery bag for $1.  I couldn’t pass that deal up – I even got a few shirts for myself once I have the baby and everything fit into one bag.  Another woman gave away a bunch of plastic plant pots (large ones, perfect for herbs and smaller vegetables).  I couldn’t believe what luck we were having, but I realised I DID ask the Lord to guide us, and I praised him every step of the way.

Meanwhile things have been going great at our new church.  I think we will be joining officially soon.  My husband missed todays service because he wasn’t feeling well but I took the kids and learned a lot.  The older two went to Sunday School and the Toddler nursery (Alexis is in Sunday School preschool, Andrew is still in the toddler nursery), and Kaitlyn fell asleep as usual during the service (it’s her naptime).  Todays sermon was on integrity and idolitry. Very good points were made and I was all the more inspired to continue doing right and not fall for the way the world does things (the best I can!  I still make a lot of mistakes), not push God off for something that seems more important, and not giving in to do worldly things with the plan to ‘repent later.’    We’re going to start a homeschooling meeting later this month and figure out what the moms want to do in terms of the support group – is it going to be a coop where we teach the kids, just a support group for the moms, or both.

And the Lord has put a ministry on my heart that is slowly coming along – one in which myself and anyone else with the desire to help can help people in the city learn how to become more self sufficient.  I’d like to see more gardens, more cooking from scratch, more basic skills coming back into every day life.  I’d love a chance to talk to people about God, and be a blessing to those in need of help.  I dont’ have all the details yet, those are slowly being ironed out according to Gods timing.  I would love it if you could pray for me about this though.  Titus 2 meetings will also be a part of this ministry, to help encourage Christian women (and those curious) in our lives as wives, mothers and women, teach one another frugal living, homesteading and other skills we can use every day.  We’ll see where the Lord leads this.  It’s all in His hands, I’m just trying to make it happen as He sees fit.