Prayer

Here is a great post about making a time and place for prayer. Inspiring and practical. I'm also adding a link to the book The Psalms for Prayer. I love this book and it has been a huge help to me in learning how to pray and what to pray for.

Lastly, my husband recently sent me a helpful quote:

The three duties of reading Scripture, meditation, and prayer belonged together, and though each could be done occasionally on its own, as formal duties to God they were best done together. ~ Peter Toon

So as you read the bible, pray. As you pray, use your bible as a guide. And during both make some time to meditate on what God is saying to you, today, through each one.

Memorization for Kids

Here is a TERRIFIC post about scripture memory for kids. Here is another one that describes this family's system for organizing verses in an index card box...genius! Thanks Raising Olives for all of your terrific ideas!

Cinnamon Toast

Did you know that there is one right way to make Cinnamon Toast? Check out this entertaining post by Pioneer Woman. According to my family, her version WAS the best!

Boys

Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession... —R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

Refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffins

*UPDATED* I had a typo where the oil and sugar was concerned. It has been corrected :0)

This is such a handy recipe because it makes a TON! You keep the batter in the fridge (for up to 6 weeks!) and only bake as many as you need at one time.

Refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffins

4 eggs
15 oz box of Raisin Bran Cereal
4c buttermilk (1 quart)
1c vegetable oil
2 1/2c sugar
Mix and set aside.

5c flour
5 t baking soda
2 t salt
3 t cinnamon
Mix and then stir into wet ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours before baking (and up to 6 weeks). To bake, fill greased muffin tins and bake at 375 degrees for 18-22 minutes. Yield 5 dozen muffins.

Children's Education

The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it all politics, all war, all literature, all money-making, ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that, next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God- this is his task on earth.

R.L. Dabney
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Judges 2:10-15

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the LORD’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the LORD gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
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We must make sure that our children know what God has done. We must make time for them to be well acquainted with the scriptures. If we don't then the next generation might grown up and know "neither the Lord nor what he [has] done for Israel" and for us.

Relationships with Children

I would love for you to print off a terrific piece by Doorposts entitled Making Relationships With Your Children a Priority. It is very short and easy to read (bullet style), but packs a punch with terrific ideas and practical application. Click here and scroll down to Doorposts on the left. Click the link to Making Relationships With Your Children a Priority. Thanks Tricia for posting it first!

Can 'O Paint

This is the bathroom in our little rental house. It needed a face lift :0)

BEFORE


AFTER

Your Marriage Needs Some More Resurrection

"The usual mark of all dysfunctional families is that they are serious. Very serious. Now, our problems are serious, very serious. God took them seriously and showed His grief in the Crucifixion. But the Resurrection is God’s laughter and God’s joy. And if our religion cannot make us joyful, and very light, and make us float with laughter, then it is not worth much. The Tea Party scene in Mary Poppins is a very Christian scene. That was a very Christian tea party. If we are not laughing often, then we do not have enough Resurrection in us.

Anxious, sexless, uncommunicative marriages need more Resurrection. Lots more Resurrection."

This is a quote from a terrific article about marriage by Rich Bledsoe (a pastor for many years). The entire article is great and can be found here.