Who needs Halloween? This is Sca-a-a-ry!

OSLO (Oct. 9) -- President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said.

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U.N. panel on climate change.

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize.
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."
Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death.
The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.
—
Associated Press Writer Ian MacDougall contributed to this report.

The Frugal Gourmet

Jeff took the kids to the new house so I could work but they had too good a time! They walked around the 80 acre forest, much to my chagrin!! But they explored, saw bear tracks and the neighbors bull mastiff...lol. Had fun and Kate went too and she had a great time the whole way through! (she is one not to like grass or sand or ants so the girls were shocked)

Well since we are on the budget, well, we haven't actually MADE the budget yet but I know we are going to so I made due with what I had in the house instead of shopping and spending money! Yay for me! Took Chicken breasts and made baked garlic and basil chicken...sliced a few tomatoes and my last two bluebell cheese rounds and doused them with Italian dressing/salt & pepper for a good ride in the fridge before eating...butter noodles with garlic, parmesean and the diced ends of the tomatoes thrown in gave color (and no waste!) and butter biscuits from Save-a-Lot. (last minute run I couldn't resist but cheap and they consider a real treat)

Looked good to a hungry crowd and they ate EVERY bite. LOL

Stream of Thought

We are taking a 14 week Dave Ramsey class and it is changing our family's life. At this very minute, I am printing my credit report as homework. We will be making a cash flow plan and let me tell you, I am HOOKED. The kids are totally changing and we can already see the blessing in what they are learning. More regular posts on this to come.

We stayed up until 1:00 AM last night chatting with friends about all things God, reformed living, revolutionary thinking, the Muslim uprising, kids, debt, the mainstream church (yeah, you really gotta talk about that!) and any number of other things. So wonderful.

Yes, we are actually this late behind in OCT issue but it has prompted some great changes in how we roll. We are currently looking for a managing partner or some such thing. Couple of ideas.

Looks like we will be moving in about 4 months. One more Christmas. Everyone is anxious to go now and we are spending more and more time there.

Kate and I are taking Sunday mornings off for awhile to continue training at home so you will be seeing more of Jeff and the girls, than of me. We had such a wonderful time Sunday reading about creation, discussing what God made, talking about Adam and Eve and praying and of course, coloring, swinging and making chicken salad for lunch. This is going to be a sweet time and I did not know what a great thing it would be.

Thanks to the best reviewer in the world, our own Amy A. I have a new writing curriculum and FINALLY a basic root word program. That has launched my excitement back into homeschooling.

I did not do my evals in August and am acting like "it will just go away"....denial. It is such a killer.

My Utmost for His Highest

As I take some serious beatings lately and admittedly try to hide in the gutter instead of the light, I am thankful, so thankful for Oswald Chambers. If you are taking some beatings financially, emotionally, physically or spiritually, take heart dear saint. He knows us, sees our plight and loves us through to the end. This made me want to take my beatings while still living in the light and reflection of His vision for me. I'm going to make it!!!

Read on! Read on!

October 4, 2009

The Vision and The Reality

. . . to those who are . . . called to be saints . . . —1 Corinthians 1:2


Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little "I am" always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little "I am" be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation--"I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you" ( Exodus 3:14 ). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.

Happy Birthday

Yep, it's the big 41 today...we're heading up to Celebration of Praise in Clermont to do a big kid-fest gig up there. I am missing my own celebration of praise at Calvary that bums me but I have actually wanted to do this event as a vendor since the get go so I am going to consider it a blessing and go have fun behind a table for a change instead of managing 50 others behind their own tables.

Rachel is making me a peanut butter silk cake later and I suppose a few presents will be in store.

My bd falls on a non-bd caring heart this year but I will put on a happy bd heart for the kids.
There is too much to do to have a bd!

We continue our Dave Ramsey class tomorrow evening with some friends. For 14 weeks we meet Sunday nights with their 5 kids (and one on the way!!)
We all have dinner here and then leave them behind as we make our way across to class at Faith Lutheran. You've heard of Dave Ramsey right? Good stuff.

I haven't done our homework either and it likely won't get done unless I do it. Not mentioning any names or anything. lol

It has been a good training for the girls to prepare that much food at home. 13 people and then to manage the home without parents with all those kids,
They did great though and with a second family of reformers, that equaled everyone wanting to sew or bake bread and loving taking care of the little bits.

Harmless and the kids were glad to have some like minded friends around again. You know, they just speak the same language which we don't have in our lives right now.

Off to the CF Kids Fest at Celebration of Praise!

Cool name for a church.

Love and War

I took Lauren and Rach to Walmart today after a 2 week long endeavor to make Lasagna.
Yep, that's how we roll these days.
Got all the ingredients but by the time we got around to it I only had 1/2 the ingredients and kept having to go to the store to replace ingredients when we finally got around to trying to make it.

So the big thing now is to let them, her, whomever go into the store by themselves as they are growing in their training....Lauren has been wanting to go since she was 7 and I am STILL sending an older one with her..though she does handle smaller stores just fine, but Wal Mart? I dunno, I still want Rach or Sloan with her.

So I was driving along in and out of aisles looking, waiting, peering to see if I can see them in there...up down, in, out, I go... and while I go up one aisle I see a Hispanic Father pushing a cart to the car fast and seriously with Mom holding her toddler and walking behind.

I do NOT know why I immediately thought this, but Jeff and I never walk that way and I thought wow, does he beat her? Is she walking behind so the child doesn't irritate him?
Is she living a life she needs, hopes, PRAYS she gets rescued from? From this terrible man????

And I round the corner to go back toward the entrance and start peering again to look for the kids.

But I steal one last look at the family and he has turned around to say something to her and she throws her head back laughing unabashedly and totally NOT like an abused woman would.

And I was relieved for her. And remembered that women tend to always go to the most dramatic response. Or at least I do. And that they probably had a very happy life but by the meer fact that he was walking ahead of her purposely made me think something.

And of course their life wasn't perfect but at least at that last moment I saw them, it all seemed ok. And I was thankful for them and the relief I felt for them.

And for right now, the world's ok.

The blog revisited

Wow. This is weird. But I had to do it. I missed it! Well, I missed it just today long enough to do it. I won't alert anyone in case I change my mind. (who me?) But someone is bound to find it eventually. Maybe.
I think I just wanted to see my past posts.

Those kittens are done grown up! And mine are a gittin' purdy big too!
How are YOUR kids???