Have you read this?

A Beautiful Life

These are some of the secrets of a beautiful life.

We ought not to be content to live otherwise than beautifully.

We can live our life only once. We cannot go over it again to correct its mistakes or amend its faults. We ought therefore to live it well.

And to do this we must begin at the beginning, and make every day radiant as it passes. Lost days must always remain blanks in the

records, and stained days must carry their stains.

Beautiful days make beautiful years, and

beautiful years make a beautiful life at its close.

~ JR Miller

I love free!

Want some free stuff? Who doesn't?

Here are some of my favorites:

Vision Forum Free Downloads - everyday is a different download. Life-changing!'

Home School Freebie of the day - always something fun and relevant.

Itunes podcasts - go to itunes store and click Jane Austen Podcasts. I now have Persuasion and Cranford downloaded on my ipod for free. Cranford is my favorite!

You can also do a search on Adventures in Odyssey Podcasts and get a full length episode delivered to your itunes library each week. We listen to these often!

Classics for Kids - we use this to help enrich our music study. It's fun and free!

Librivox - Free Audio books! Love.it!

What are some of your favorite places online to find free things?

A Missionary at Home

This devotional is from a site I visit often Above Rubies.

It puts to words what I have been feeling and praying about lately.

MY MISSION FIELD

Matthew 9:37-38, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”

Do you sometimes hanker to be doing some great work for God? You feel as though you are wasting your life in your home. You would love to serve the Lord in some harvest field. Yes, it is true, the harvest is great and the laborers are few. But why are they few? Because mothers have not understood God’s purpose.

Are you looking for an easy path in life in life or do you have a heart to serve God as a missionary? Dear mother, you are already a missionary. God has chosen your specific mission field for you. It is your home and family. You are employed by God to train laborers for His harvest field. You don’t raise children and then send them to Bible College to prepare for service. You train them for God’s service from the time they are little. They should be ready to labor in the harvest field when they come forth from your home.

Is a missionary’s work easy? No, it takes sacrifice. Is motherhood easy? No, but it will be worthwhile. It takes everything you’ve got—all your resources of time, energy and strength—but you will influence nations. It takes sacrifice--many mothering days are exhausting and overwhelming--but you will receive the fruit of your labors and an eternal reward. It will take committed prayer and intercession, but your prayers will be answered. Remember, you are not on vacation; you are on the mission field!

Maybe God has only given you one laborer to prepare for Him—that His is plan for you. Maybe he has given you six, or even twelve! Wow, would twelve be too many? Jesus trained twelve disciples who impacted the world. How would you like to train laborers who “turn the world upside down”?(Acts 17:6)

What kind of laborers does God want us to faithfully prepare for His service? The following is my vision for our children, grandchildren and future generations. I believe He wants us to prepare children who are…

Baby lovers

Blessing imparters

Bible believers

Bible obeyers

Committed laborers in God’s harvest

Courageous overcomers

Demon destroyers

Diligent workers

Evil haters

Faithful servers

Fearless soldiers

Freedom fighters

Fruit bearers

God fearers

God lovers

God pleasers

God worshippers

Gospel preachers

Holy Spirit empowered witnesses

Home lovers

Israel supporters

Jesus fanatics

Justice keepers

Life choosers

Light shiners

Liberal threateners

Obedient listeners

Parent honorers

Responsible citizens

Sharp arrows

Tomorrow’s leaders

Truth bearers

Truth keepers

Truth lovers

Truth preservers

Truth seekers

Truth speakers

Persecution endurers

Prayer warriors

Righteousness lovers

Uncompromising disciples

Valiant conquerors

Wisdom getters and

Zealous servants of the Living God!

Wow! Can you imagine anything more exciting and fulfilling that raising laborers such as these? You couldn’t have a greater mission field or a greater vision.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Thank you, Lord, for showing me my mission field. Help me to serve you faithfully and to raise prepared laborers for your great harvest field. Lord, I am open for you to give me all the laborers you have planned for me to train. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am a full-time missionary, recruiting and training laborers for God’s harvest field.

It all comes back to a list

The problem with having too much to do is this...
You don't have a direct thought process. It is a stream of nonsense.
So I have resorted to updating all of you via a list.
Not great writing, but effective in getting a point across, right?

1. Our house has SOLD! I can't believe it. Actually we are a bit nervous about it until settlement is final.
Is it just us or do other people have problems with trust that everything will work out with home sales?
We keep holding our breath (and praying) that all is well with the buyers, banks, etc.
We have the option to rent back until the end of the year, but our goal is to be out of this house and in a rental home by December 1st.

2. New rental home is not definite yet. This makes me a bit crazy.

3. We are looking to move in the city, rent for a year or two - pray for where God will send us next? Here - there - anywhere?

4. Sean is looking to start online courses in January - not sure of degree or certificate yet. (Do you all sense a theme of our life right now - it looks a lot like this { ? }! Our life is a question mark.

5. The girls are doing great! They are so .... what's the word....adaptable. Is that a word? They have been troopers through the 24 house showings in one month. That's a lot of "quick-hurry-clean the house, people are coming!" I think they have done more cleaning than Sean and I.

6. Home school is wonderful. It's nice to know that as we are looking at properties, school districts do not matter. That makes life a bit easier.

Okay - now I feel like friends know a bit about whats going on in our world! Now tell me whats going on in your world.

Moved by a cartoon?

Is it possible to find lifelong meaning in a Cartoon for children?

If you haven't seen UP, you really should.

I laughed, I cried, I cried some more.

I also told Sean that he could preach an entire sermon from this clip.

It is so true that we live our life day by day, forget our dreams, and when we blink - life is over.

The moral of the story - don't forget your God-given dreams. He gave us them for a reason.

Enjoy!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

A poem lovely as a tree.

Each month the girls choose a poem to memorize and recite.

This month Liza picked one of my favorites.

Hope you enjoy it too!

TREES

by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

"Trees" was originally published in Trees and Other Poems. Joyce Kilmer. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1914.