Happy

Someone asked me the other day what it was that would make me happy in my life.  I did not really know how to answer the question at the time, I tried to analyze everything and try to figure out what specific area they were asking about.  I never did answer the question.  This morning I woke up and realized what I wanted in life, well actually to be able to put it into words at least.  First and foremost, I want God to be the center of my life.  I want to be the woman He wants me to be, I want to see the world through His loving eyes and be able to look at people and see them the way He does. Reminds me of this song.

 I want to be a woman like this:

Proverbs 31

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Words of King Lemuel

31 The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: ² What are you doing, my son?  What are you doing, son of my womb?  What are you doing, son of my vows?  ³ Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.  ⁴ It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, ⁵ lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.  ⁶ Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; ⁷ let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.  ⁸ Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.  ⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

The Woman Who Fears the Lord

¹⁰ An excellent wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels.  ¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.  ¹² She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.  ¹³ She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. ¹⁴ She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar.  ¹⁵ She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.  ¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.  ¹⁷ She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.  ¹⁸ She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.  Her lamp does not go out at night.  ¹⁹ She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.  ²⁰ She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.  ²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.  ²² She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.  ²³ Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.  ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.  ²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.  ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.  ²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.  ²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ²⁹ “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” ³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.  ³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

I want a man whose first priority is God and I want to have a man that I mean everything to.  I want a man who loves me more than himself.  I want him to think of me in every choice he makes and think of how it will affect me.  I want him to value my opinion, ask for my opinion and actually listen to it and take it to heart.  I want a man who cooks meals for me once in a while, who surprises me with a wonderful date night all planned out and catered specifically to me.  I want a man who will bend over backward to make me happy because it makes him happy to see me happy.  I in turn want to do everything in my power to make him happy, because I love seeing him happy.  I want a man who only has eyes for me.  A man who says I look beautiful, not the next door neighbor, not the lady at the grocery store, or gas station, ME and only ME.  I want him to only see me.  I want him to notice only me.

These are the things that are needed.

• Constantly nourish the relationship.
• Preserving the individuality of the other person, what they are, their personality, and development
• Respect freedom of the other person.
• Kept are the engagements towards one another.
•  Best friends.
• They have a flexible volume of positions of power at home and in the family.

So let me make a few things perfectly clear:

• If you expect your wife to follow you blindly and unquestioningly, you’re being an idiot.
• If you expect your wife to respect you when you haven’t earned it, you’re being equally stupid.
• If you don’t respect your wife, you don’t deserve her respect in return.
• And don’t even think of telling her: “God has commanded you to respect me even if I don’ deserve it.”

God has called you, dear husband, to sacrifice everything for your wife. It is your duty and honor to love, cherish, defend, protect, uplift, serve, and otherwise give everything you’ve got for her, second only to the Trinity Themselves.  Show love and respect for your wife first, and she will be more likely to return the favor.

Ephesians 5:25-30.  25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also [does] the church, 30 because we are members of His body.

I want that kind of love.

I want a house on 3-5 acres, with fruit trees, fruit bushes like strawberries, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, a stocked pond, a greenhouse, chickens, bees and maybe rabbits, a wood burning fireplace, high speed internet, and working toward self sufficiency and sustainability.  I would love to be off the grid.  I want to continue to homeschool my boys.  I want to have a place where they can play their instruments loudly and often.  I want to have a place where my boys can build stuff and tear stuff apart.  I want someone who wants this too, to help me work it all and gather eggs with me in the morning, To sit by the fire pit outside and drink homebrewed wine and honey mead and stare at the stars together, Someone to make love with by the fire pit under the stars.  I want to live close enough to civilization to easily get the things we need but far enough away to be able to have quiet and peace. 

I want good health and long life and laughter.  I want a simple life enjoying the fruit of our labor.  I want to help other people.  Help them be happy, help them learn new skills, help them be the best them they can be.

our projects so far

here are a few pictures of my garden i did 2 weeks ago as well as my apple trees and my tire garden i made last summer. hope you like them. get out and plant and plant some more. plant a few plants to share with your neighbors. most of my tires need to be repainted i think that will get done today or this weekend.

Weekend Homesteading projects

This weekend was so good. I rented a rear tined tiller and cut up my yard for my garden. i dont think i went big enough but it is a great start. it is about 20x20. put up some fencing so my lovely digging dog does not get into it. also i went and bought 2 apple trees and planted them. got a fuji and a honeycrisp tree. my neighbors have said they are stealing all my bounty in the middle of the night so next weekends project is gonna be security cameras so i can go hand them their bill in the morning. lol. so far garlic, onions, some carrots, and bush yellow beans have found their way into the ground as well. need to do a rain barrel soon too. i love this adventure. what are you doing in your yard with this beautiful weather upon us?

How to make green tea, honey and aloe salt scrub

ok so i am being cheap for christmas gifts this year and making all my own gifts for my friends and family. if i do not make it then it was free from somewhere like a free magazine subscription that i found. so i like salt and sugar scrubs and they are expensive. yeah yeah you know the shpeal. here is the recipe... 2 cups salt (i used what i had on hand and that was regular table salt cause i realized i had like 4 of them in the cabinet) 1 cup oil (again used what i had on hand just plain ole veg oil, i did not want to feed it to my family because of all the GMO outrage and bla bla bla, you can use coconut oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, whateva) 3/4 cup freshly scooped aloe vera (yes straight from the plant and it is sticky and slimey and gooey and it was way too much fun and my kids were mad i would not let them help) 2 tablespoons of honey (the better the honey the better health benefits will help heal cuts bruises and all that. i had some on hand that my kids help remove from the hive) 2 tablespoons of loose leaf green tea, the bigger the leaves the better it looks. ok so for the aloe plant break off a leaf at the bottom split it open with a knife and just scoop out all the slimey pulpy goodness into a measuring cup until you get 3/4 cup. throw out the green skin. seriously just that easy add all the ingredients to a big bowl and get in there with your hands and squish it all together it will end up kind of like wet beach sand. then just stick it in a jar and call it a day. you can pretty up the jars and give them as gifts. now i think this would be super duper for feet. word of caution dont use it while standing up in the shower. you will fall on your butt and it will hurt. you know that addage water and oil dont mix yeah so slippery slippery. i tried to upload pics but for some reason it is not letting me so i will try again later. P.S. yes i know there are spelling errors, i am sure there grammar errors, i dont mind i am sorry if you do. i hate editing it requires too much left brain stuff and i just dont use mine often. so dont hate. :-)

hmm

so i watched this movie called, forks over knives, on netflix. i have decided we are going vegan. plain and simple. i was amazed at what i saw and what i learned. ok so amazed is not the correct word, more like disgusted, grossed out, nausiated, horrified, and possibly a little ashamed. a friend of mine recommended me to this movie and i had been like "yeah right, crazy lady rebecca wants me to watch a movie about why i need to give up meat. yeah right it ain't happening." so i was bored and there was nothing on t.v. hubbs was not home blah blah blah, i gave in and watched it. you need to watch it, seriously, WATCH IT! so now i guess i need to figure out how to make meatloaf without meat. grr any suggestions would be appreciated.

An odd thought.....

so just a warning, i do not generally check my punctuation, my spelling, my grammer or any of that.  i start in on a thought and frankly i am just too lazy to do a "final draft" as my high school english teacher would require.  OK. so on with my stuff.

i sit here in my big comfy chair at 11:15pm with a major case of snack attack.  I go to the cupboard and find that almost of my cookie crisp cereal has been eaten.  yes i know there are 4 tiny little people in this house who also enjoy them but really i dont want to share.  do you think that our parents ever had thoughts like that?  do you think that our parents were like, "step away from the cookie crisp cereal and no one gets hurt!' i am not a big fan of whiney kiddos and sometimes i really just dont want to fight the battle of why you have to eat your green beans or why you have to have some chicken before you eat half of a pan of brownies, BLAH BLAH BLAH.  because honestly there are days i just wanna skip the chicken, the green beans, the tossed salad ALL OF IT and just dig into the pan of brownies and ice cream and chocolate syrup and sprinkles and chocolate chips.  But i dont think my mom ever had those thoughts.  i swear the woman was perfect.  and dont even get me started on my gram.  she has perfectly portioned meals all the time and a wonderfully clean house, change subject because my organization skills and "womanly" duties really need work.  ok so what was i saying?................oh yeah junk food.  do you think as parents we will ever just "grow up" and become that adult that we laughed at when we were younger.  because i swear to you i do not feel like i am 25 plus shipping and handeling.  (yes speaking of my age, no you dont need to know what it is)  i still feel like the day i graduated from high school, well aside from the 30 or so (maybe more) pounds i have put on since that day or the single grey hair i found (shh i plucked it no one knows about it lets keep it between us) but i do not feel like i am getting older, yeah sure my kids are getting older, the people around me are getting older but i am not.  so anyway, i am sure i had a point somewhere but i am failing to remember it right now.  so anyway tomorrow for breakfast cookie crisp for everyone, brownies and ice cream for lunch, and pizza for dinner (no green things though).  i really hope that one day when my kids grow up (yes i will still be 25 plus shipping and handeling) they will look back and say, "back away from the cookie crisp and no one gets hurt!"