Our Anniversary

May 10th is not only Mother's day, but also our anniversary!

Douglas and I have been married for 23 wonderful and exciting years.
I thought you would all enjoy a "portrait" of the past 23 years.


Douglas and I were married on May 10th 1986.
Even though we were both unsaved at the time it is amazing and wonderful how the Lord brought us together.

Our first anniversary!

I love you!!!!!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

And They Two Shall be One Flesh

This past Monday I was asked to write a guest post for a dear blogging friend who has a great burden for married couples. Michelle from By His Grace and for His Glory has done a month long series on the subject of Marriage and I would like to encourage all of you to visit her blog and to read the other three posts. They were a great blessing and I am sure will greatly bless and encourage you.

I asked Michelle if it was okay to post here what I had written for her and she said that would be great

And They Two Shall be One Flesh

My name is Kathy and I am wife to my wonderful husband Doug. We will soon be celebrating our 23rd wedding Anniversary We have been blessed with eight children ages 20- 2years old. We are a home schooling family and have home schooled for the past 13 years.

My husband and I were saved in 1992. Since then our lives have changed miraculously.

The Lord has done a great work in our marriage so I thought I would share a few things that I have learned along the way.

In the book of Genesis we read that God created Adam and Eve. We read that Eve was taken from Adams rib and Adam states that she is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.

Do you know that we are also created for our husbands? God prepared us for the exact man that he has chosen for us

Ephesians Chapter 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh..

We are no longer single before God but we become one with our spouse.

In Ephesians 5:21-32 the bible compares marriage between a man and a women as a picture of the lord Jesus marrying His Bride the church and the type of relationship that we are to have with our husbands.

When we unite in matrimony, when we say those vows before God we promise that this union is for life.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 5 * 4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. * 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

When we make a vow before God we are to stand by that vow. Todays view of marriage is “If I do not like how things are going I can just throw in the towel and quit”. This is not Gods plan at all. When I finally realized this in my marriage it was a great turning point.

I thought I would share a little testimony from my life since my daughter said that this might be a blessing to someone out there who might be struggling in their marriage.

****************

Before my husband and I were saved our marriage was very different. We followed the philosophy of the world. I should say that I did. My husband was from a divorced home and this was something that he had decided that he never wanted for his own life. I on the other hand had come from a home where my parents remained married.

I must say I was young and so foolish. I did not love my husband as I should and I was very selfish. I wanted things my way and I was difficult to please. If my husband and I got into an argument I foolishly thought that the best thing was for us to just separate and get a divorce. The way of thinking by most people in todays world.

After we were saved for a couple of years the Lord really began working in my heart and life and in my husband’s. I started to learn what a God Honoring marriage was suppose to be like and I knew that I had to make some changes in my life.

One afternoon my husband and I had a disagreement. I was upset and my emotions finally took over. I was ready to say those terrible words again “if you do not like it here you can just leave” Instead the Holy Spirit got a hold my heart and I realized what I was about to say. I quickly changed my words to this - “If you do not like it here that is just too bad. The Bible says that you are stuck with me ” My husband just looked at me, I think in shock. This is when I finally realized that I made this commitment and it was for life

As I share this testimony it is in hopes of encouraging anyone who is struggling to see that God has a greater plan and that through His grace we can have a marriage that is heaven here on earth.

In our church we have a yearly couples retreat I love attending these. My husband and I have learned a lot about having a God honoring marriage. I would encourage all of you to take advantage of such retreats it will strengthen your marriage and your home.

Did you know that marriage can be a part of heaven here on earth?

Here are a few things that I have learned that have really been a great blessing to our marriage.

Share terms of endearments, My husband loves to call me his Sweet Gal :)

Love your man- We need to stop looking through dark color glasses and start looking for the good.

Pray for your Husband! ( I daily pray that the Lord will use my husband in a mighty way to bring Glory to His Holy Name!) (I added this one here. I forgot to write this in my post for Michelle:) this one is the most important !

Be his helpmeet- There can be great satisfaction in helping your man :)

Make him his favorite meal.

When he comes home give him a great big hug and a big smooch and tell him how much you missed him
(Just as a side note our children love to see Daddy and Mommy being affectionate with each other)

Listen to him and make him feel important to you.

Talk some love talk. You know, tell him how handsome he is, tell him how strong he is and what a good provider he is. When I look at my husband in this way things really sweeten up in our relationship. How very blessed we are to have that special someone in our lives to share life with.

As I began to allow the Lord to work in my life he also began working in my husbands life.

Through these past 23 years together things have grown sweeter as we grew closer in our walk with the Lord.

May you all be blessed as you walk together with your spouse in the newness of life.

God Bless, Kathy

I hope that you will hope on over to Michelle's Blog I am sure you will truly enjoy the other posts.

I Need Thee Every Hour

 I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
no tender voice like thine can peace afford.

 I need thee every hour; stay thou nearby;
temptations lose their power when thou art nigh.


I need thee every hour, in joy or pain;
come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need thee every hour; teach me thy will;
and thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son.

****

I need thee, O I need thee;every hour I need thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

Trusting in My God!

Psalm 9:9-10
The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

During my devotions this morning I came upon this passage of scripture that was a great comfort to me.

Last week on Thursday afternoon I received a phone call from my husband telling me that he had just been laid off from his job. As the feeling of panic gripped my heart I tried to say words of comfort to my husband.

As the weekend came the Lord had calmed my soul and reminded me that I was to trust in him.

We have heard a lot on the news about so many people being laid off. We have heard about the recession that we have been going through. We have heard about how the government was going to try to fix all of these problems. But you know I always knew down deep inside that our God is in control.

This is not a new thing for us that we are going through. In 1993 when I was eight months pregnant with my 3rd child my husband was laid off. We were new Christians. Saved not even a year. We did fear and wonder how we would ever be able to go through such a great trial.

God did some miraculous things during that time. We never missed a mortgage payment. We never missed a meal. All of our bills were paid and on the very week that I was due to deliver the Lord provided my husband with a job that put us on the insurance the day he walked into the shop and I gave birth to our beautiful son Collin. All bills paid.

We serve a wonderful God.

It is easy to go back to our flesh and to try to figure out what are we going to do to get through this but this time I want to see what my great God will do to get us through this!

I want to give him all of the Praise!

This week our church is having a revival meeting. I had determined last week even before we knew that my husband had been laid off that I was going to go to every meeting at the night services. It is running from Sunday through Thursday. Having little ones makes this a great challenge but I knew that I needed to be there.

Last night the message really spoke to my heart. It spoke about being separate. The Lord has been speaking to my heart about this for a while now and I really want to please him. I am looking forward to the next few precious evenings of some good preaching and some words from my God.

I think of that song often "Count Your Blessings Name Them One By One" How we have so much to thank our God for!

I want to encourage all of you that are maybe having the same struggles that we are having or maybe some other type of struggle and right now you are going through the valley. Keep your eyes on the Lord! He promises to never leave us or forsake us!

May God richly bless you all! Kathy

Proverbs 3:5&6
Trust in the Lord with all of thine heart; and
learn not unto thine own understanding.
In all of thy ways acknowledge him,
and He shall direct thy Paths!

Happy 20th Birthday Rebecca!

Our oldest Daughter is turning 20 today!


How times flies by!

I know that we hear that saying often but it is so true.

Rebecca has grown into a lovely young lady. She has a heart for God and a sweet and warm spirit.

Our prayer that God will use her in a mighty way to glorify Him!

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Love your Family!


You can check Rebecca's Blog Here !

Daily Devotions

("Girl Reading" by Charles Edward Perugini, 1878)

A Dear Friend of mine blessed me this Christmas with a devotional to use to help me read through the entire Bible this year. I am really enjoying this devotion so I thought I would share it with all of you.

A Heart Devoted is the name of the book.

Every day it has a little devotion written to women to encourage us in our daily walk with the Lord.

I love these little devotions. They have really encouraged me. It always seems to be about something I am going through that day and it just comforts my soul. It is a blessing to know that other women have the same struggles. And they share their wisdom on how the Lord has worked in their hearts.

I hope to share some of the things in the week that God speaks to me about.

May God Bless you as you serve Him,
Kathy

Saving Saturday!

Here are the deals that I was blessed to find this past week.

Rite Aid:

They had Bounty Paper Towels B1G1 Free. At our local store they were 1.29 each reg price.
I had a $1.00 Mfg coupon for 2/1.00 .
I had two coupons so I was able to purchase four rolls for .15 cent each !



Shoprite:

This is a local grocery store up here in New England and lately I have really be finding some great deals.

Here is what I purchased last week.

4- Colgate toothpaste
On sale for .99 cents each (reg 2.19)
I had 4 $1.00 Mfg coupons so they were Free

4- Mennen Speed stick deodorant.
On Sale for .99 cents each (Reg 1.89)
I had 2 Mfg coupons for 2/1.00
.49 cents each

4- Robitussin cough Formula 4 oz.49*
On sale for 1.99 (reg 4.99)
I had 4 Mfg coupons for $1.00
.99 cents each

3- Sucrets Ice 6 pk
On sale 1/2 price 1.49 (reg 2.99)
I had 3 Mfg coupons for 1.50
Free for all of these!

$47.83 worth of items for $6.53 oop

Praise the Lord! :)

Have a great day God Bless, and Happy shopping! Kathy

Books, Christmas, and More!

Hi to all!

I am so sorry that I have not had a chance to post this week. It has been so busy this past week!
I am sure that you all know what I mean. With Christmas coming things never seem to slow down. :) We have been quite busy. We have enjoyed two Christmas parties. One last Saturday and one this past Thursday night.
The party that we attended last week was wonderful. It was a community party and there was a young lady there who had collected a lot of books from people in the community. She allowed all of the children to pick out some books. God was so good! We took home two boxes full of books!
Our children were so excited! I love it.

We love to go to our local public library so this was like having a library right in our home.
We have been trying to find better things for our younger children to do during the day. I love when they read books, build puzzles, and play games.

In the winter we tend to be in the house more so I want to find things that they can do instead of sitting in front of the TV.

With that said we are still trying to do a little Christmas shopping too.

I hope that all of you are doing really well! I am sorry that I missed my Thursday post I will try to catch up for next week.

God Bless, Kathy

Raising Children to Serve the Lord!

My son Jeremiah in the Nursing home being a blessing!

This is my greatest desire to have children that will walk in truth and serve the Lord.

I was reading over at Crystals blog Biblical Womanhood about the older women teaching the younger women and I often ask the Lord when do I become that older women?

My oldest daughter is nineteen and our youngest child is 2 years old so I still feel like I am in the mist of training our children and raising them for the Lord. My husband and I were saved when our oldest two children where 3 years old and 1 years old.

I have thanked the Lord so many times for saving my husband and I while our children were still so young.

So am I an older women? I just turned 45 years old so I feel old some days :) But than I have my struggles and I do not feel worthy of being able to give advise to the precious young wives out there desiring to do what is right.

I prayed about it and I feel that I can at least share some of the lessons that I have learned since I was saved in 1992.

I have been married for 22 years now and the Lord has richly blessed my marriage to my wonderful husband Doug.

So I thought I would start there. I hope that this series can be a blessing and encouragement to some one out there.

Raising our children for the Lord has to start with ourselves. The Lord has really been impressing on my heart that I need to be the example in my Christian life if I desire to see my children serving God. Lately I have felt frustrated because I do not seem to have the quiet time that I need with my savior every day. So this morning the Lord helped me and I was up at 5:00am to do my devotions. Now I am not saying this to make any of you feel that you have to get up at 5:00am to do your devotions I just find that for myself if I do not get up that early I just cannot find a quiet time with no one else up .

With that said I must say that I am not a morning person so getting up at 5:00am is not easy for me but I am praying that the Lord will help me to continue this. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me in this matter. :)

I can always tell when I have not had my devotions my day seems to go wrong in every area and I just do not have the peace that only comes from walking in the spirit and not in my flesh.

I have learned that I can not train my children for the Lord in my own power. I need Gods intervention.

After my personal relationship with the Lord my relationship with my husband is the next most important thing.

If I desire to have children that will live for the Lord than my relationship with my husband has to be right.

Oh how I struggle with this. I desire so much to have a meek and quiet spirit and to be submissive to my husband in every area of my life. I know that God has commanded me to be in submission to my husband and this is something that he has been working on in my life.

If we do not have the right kind of relationship with our husbands one of respect and honor than our children will not respect the authority in our home.

Also our children need to see that mommy and daddy are happy together and that they have a stable home and a place of love.

I do struggle with this. I love my husband but so often I find myself not talking to him in a respectful tone and I have to ask him to forgive me.

Praise the Lord that he does not give up on me and that he promises to keep working in my life to make me the godly women that he desires me to be.

I have read several books about being a godly wife so I thought I would mention a couple.
The Excellent Wife, and Created to be his helpmeet. I would recommend you to read these books as a help and an encouragement.

God Bless, Kathy

(What adorable little peacocks!)

Lord, Teach Me!

I Love Sunday school!

Yes, even at the age of 19 I really do love Sunday school!
I had been attending the "College and Career" Sunday school class for almost a year
(although I currently am not in college nor have a "career" it is my age group, . . . well, they had to put me somewhere!! :)

Anyways, I was really enjoying the class, then summer came. Since our church has a college, many students were gone. Then my Pastor announced a summer Sunday school class for all couples, married or engaged.

So my parents who both teach/help in Sunday school went to that class. (And they REALLY enjoyed it!)
What was left of my Sunday school Class became Sunday school Teachers/helpers!

I was asked to help in the Pastor's wife's class. My mother was originally the helper.
The pastor's wife teaches 1&2 grade.
I was very excited, God had given me a small summer ministry! I was also able to teach the class a few times as a substitute teacher.
As Much as I enjoyed helping I did look forward to returning to my Sunday School Class as the teacher taught wonderful lessons.

10 weeks later The couples' class ended.

The Pastor's wife needed surgery. She would be unable to walk for6 weeks.
So I stayed in the class with my Mother as the teacher.

This past Sunday was the 6th week.
I was really excited to go back to my class in just a week.

But, I found out, I might be needed to help teach a little bit longer.

I was tempted to be upset. I talked to my Dad about it.
He said that he understood, and that he thought I should stay on because I would be impacting these kids lives for eternity.

I suddenly realized how foolish I was being! Here God was giving me an opportunity to serve, the very thing I had been praying for! And now I was pouting?
I asked God to forgive me.





I sometimes wonder how many opportunities God has given me that I have rejected and then lost those precious opportunities!







I have a rock in my room.



I bought it at a homeschooling convention for $3
When we got home My Dad got out his hammer and a wedge and gave the rock a few hard taps
And viol`a The rock broke in half revealing the beautiful crystals of this geode inside it.



The rock had to break to reveal the beauty inside.



This rock is very, very special to me.

Just like the rock, I too have to be "broken" to let the beauty out.
I have my own ideas, plans and ambitions, and sometimes will not listen to God's will.
I have to constantly hand my will over to God.

Just like my dad broke the geode for me, so God has to "break" me so that He can use me!

God has taught me alot, and I still have so much more to learn!

God Bless~ Rebecca

A few weeks ago we celebrated my Mom's Birthday!

We had 2 cakes because I made one and so did my Grandpa!

My Mom with a card made by Stephanie!

My Dad and I bought Mom a Special gift.

It is the complete DVD collection of the 1950's TV show "I Love Lucy"!

We LOVE You Mom!

~Rebecca

Having a " Meek and Quiet Spirit"

IPeter 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

A meek and quiet spirit. Something I greatly desire to have in my life but something I still struggle with so much.

The Lord has really been speaking to me lately about having a meek and quiet spirit.

The Lord has blessed my husband and I with eight children.

Lately things here have seemed to be a little strained and when ever I pray about it I feel the Lord telling me that a meek a quiet spirit from me would make a huge difference in our home.

We home school so our days are quite busy and full and there are so many things that can rob me of that sweet spirit.

Still this is my hearts desire. So I am trying to make some changes in my day that would hopefully help me to keep that sweet spirit through out the day.

Of course I can not have a meek and quiet spirit with out the Holy Spirit doing a work in my heart and life. I know that I need to walk in the Spirit and not in my flesh.

One of the things that the Lord has impressed on my heart is that I need to take better care of my dear husband. It is so easy to forget this from day to day with all of the other responsibilities that always seem so pressing.

So what can I do to help me to achieve this great desire of a meek and quiet spirit?

Well I know that one of the most important things that I can do is to spend some time with my Lord. As Mary did sitting at the feet of Jesus.

(Painting by Mary Casset)

With eight children this can be quite a challenge! I have tried having my quiet time with the Lord really early in the morning. I am not a morning person by nature so this is really difficult for me. If I wait until 6:00am in the morning this time already seems to late. My husband is getting up at that time and my little ones begin to emerge out of their rooms.

But I have to ask is my time with the Lord more precious to me that that extra hour of sleep?

My spirit says YES! My flesh still struggles though.

Another way to help me to have a meek and quiet spirit is to determine in my day what are the little issues that arise and cause me to loose that meek and quiet spirit?

There are so many things that can cause me to loose that sweet spirit..

A huge mess in the house,
Getting up to late.
Feeling like I am running behind in my day.

And the list can go on.

I have set up a schedule to try to direct our day so that we can try to accomplish the things that need to get done during the day.

Today I decided to make a little list of things that I really need to get accomplished so I feel like my day is being productive, and to remind myself of little things like doing something sweet for my husband.

I am sure that many of you would have other ideas that help you with having that meek and quiet spirit.

In my devotions I have been reading in I Peter. Peter mentions that having a Meek and Quiet Spirit was so important. That struck me as this was coming from a man who was a bold person.
He knew that having a meek and quiet spirit is of a great price to the Lord.

I know that this is a process in my life that the Lord is working on.

Hopefully someday I will be able to look back on my life and see that finally the Lord allowed me to have that much desired Meek and quiet Spirit!

God Bless, Kathy

Bible Club sure is Fun!

This past summer we had a CEF 5-day club at our house.

My Brothers (Brandon and Collin) and I scoured our neighborhood, knocking on doors and inviting kids to come.

We received varied responses.
Some wives said yes, but their husbands said "no" flat out.
Some said they would come and never showed up.
Some were interested till they heard the word "Bible" then they wanted nothing to do with us.
Some told us they had nothing to do with "religion"or the Bible.
Others "didn't believe that kind of stuff."

We were chased by 3 dogs.
Told to "go away" quite loudly.
And one person swore while we were there because his dog got outside.

It was quite discouraging.

BUT. . .
We Had 3 different families respond and bring their kids!


Isn't God good?

We had a team of 5 girls teach our club. They did a great Job!

These 4 girls taught


This young Lady was the Team's Leader
(My sister is in her lap)


This boy is our next door neighbor, I was able to lead him to the Lord in July of 2007. His twin brother accepted Christ a month later at a VBS.



This is a Picture of me, The girl in front of me is my sister, and the one next to me is a neighbor.



This is the neighbor girl's big sister, and of course my little sister!



I love this song!


The Kids were enthusiastic!



I love this pic of my little sister telling her little Brother to "SHHHHH!"


Please enjoy this SmileBox of that Week!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Little Gentleman

Little Gentleman

It was Sunday Morning and my 2 younger Brothers were all dressed up. Their shirts were clean and wrinkle free, their ties were free of tooth-paste, and their pants were presentable.

We had about 20 mins before it was time to go to church, so I grabbed my camera to snap some pics of my brothers before they mussed up their clothing.

For the most part they cooperated, gave really big smiles, and sat nicely. . .

But Matthew (he's 6) and Jeremiah (he's 8) had other ideas. . .

They soon began giggling and hugging each other.

I kept taking pics and let them fool around a little bit.

All in all, we had a great time!

God Bless, Rebecca