Beth Moore "Unhindered" Conference in "Girlsie, Idaho"

Recently I was privileged to be invited to my first Beth Moore Conference in Boise, ID with my twin sister (yep, we're identical!) and two of her good friends whom I feel are becoming my good friends, too. With over 5,000 women and a few brave men in the audience, Beth affectionately renamed Boise, "Girlsie, ID". It was an awesome experience, to finally see my favorite bible teacher in person! 

The conference was not about being entertained (although the praise and worship time with Travis Cantrell and his team was amazing), but about diving into the living Word of God. I've never seen such a humble person placed in a position like that in all my life. God is using this little "blonder than she pays to be" woman to start a revival among women by simply getting them into the Word and letting the Holy Spirit do the rest. Passion for the Word of God is growing!

We got there two and half hours early so we could have seats close to the stage. It was so worth the wait! She even smiled at my sister. No one in the room could have needed a smile of encouragement from Beth more than my sis that weekend. Click here for my sister's recent heart-breaking story that God is using in a mighty way.

Beth doesn't even know what she is going to talk about until about a week before each conference. She prays and asks God to give her a word to speak about and He always does. This time, she felt the word was "Unhindered". We need to get unhindered so we can walk out God's calling on our life. Here a seven basic points from her teaching based on the verse in Hebrews 12:1:

1. We're here to throw off everything that hinders us!

(My Life - Hindrance = My God Ordained Destiny)

2. Except a Holy Hindrance, that is God does the hindering, although He Himself can't be hindered.

"Not every ball thrown our way is ours to pick up!" Oh, did I need to hear that! He gives us priority over the things He wants us to do, which involves hard choices. Don't feel judged or condemned by man when you have to say "no" to something. -Beth Moore (scripture to back it up -->Rom 14:14)

3.  We can be assured that Satan can scheme to hinder us.

4. People can hugely hinder one another.

1 Thess 2:16, Gal 5:7

"Both legalistic and overly liberated Christians can hinder us. Both can have wrong hearts that lead to sin." -Beth Moore

5. Satan and humans can hold hands to hinder us so he can ruin or destroy our testimonies.

Matt 16

"When it begins with the lying, things start dying." -Beth Moore

Prov 25:28, "A man with out self control is like a city left without walls". 

"If we don't hinder our flesh, our entire fortification comes crashing down." -Beth Moore

"The Spirit and the flesh never cooperate. If we hinder the flesh, we enhance the Spirit. If we hinder the Spirit, we enhance the flesh." -Beth Moore

"All the addiction takes the hurt out of our hindrance, when the hurt is what can bring us out of our pain." -Beth Moore

"Leader doesn't mean 'higher', means you are lower than everyone else" -Beth Moore

6. Glory happens when a manifestation of God's presence is unhindered.

"Do a few things to the glory of God"-Beth Moore

Acts 28:31

7. No one knows the ecstasy of the 'unhindered' like those who have been hounded by hindrance!

After the conference, I had a lovely time with Margaret, Stacie and Catherine. We stayed an extra night so we could relax and do a little shopping in Boise, a treat for us small town girls. We had lunch at PF Chang's which was right by the conference center, then we went to a thrift store and found some good deals there. Then back to the hotel for a nap and chatting. After than we went to Ross Dress for Less and scored on some really cute new good quality clothing and shoes for dirt cheap. For dinner we had authentic Thai food at "Taste of Thai". It wasn't hard for us to decide where eat because we all love Asian food! I thought we were compatible travel companions and can't wait to go to another Beth Moore conference with these gals when next she travels to the Northwest.

Currently, I'm doing her James study, which is excellent! I also just started her Revelation bible study with my regular Wednesday group. I've done this one before on my own last year, but it is fun to do it in a group setting this time. As always, I'm super excited to see how the Lord is going to use these studies as we learn more about His word and how it applies to our lives. 

If you haven't done a Beth Moore bible study before, I would highly recommend you start with "Breaking Free" or "Believing God". Both are an excellent place to begin. She makes the Word come alive. The Holy Spirit is clearly working through her as her passion for the Word is being passed to other women all over the world. 

May God bless each of you as you become women of the Word!

In Christ, Our Precious Savior,

Jackie

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Thanks to all who sacrificed their lives to allow the rest of us to live this beautiful American life!

God Bless,
Jackie

Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

I had some extra milk the other day and found this recipe in "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll. I tweaked it a bit to make it healthier. It is easy to make, just takes awhile to simmer it down to the right consistency. This recipe made nearly a half gallon of pretty thick caramel sauce. I used sucanat, and skimmed milk, making it low fat and healthier in the sugar department. It is so yummy on ice cream, but my favorite is putting it on French toast. It is super yummy to dip apple slices in, too.

Homemade Caramel Sauce:
2 Tbl organic cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp baking soda (make sure it is aluminum-free)
3 quarts milk (I used skimmed raw cow's milk)
3 cups sucanat

1. In a 4 quart pot, mix together the cornstarch and soda in 1 cup of the milk, stir well.

2. Add in the rest of the milk and sucanat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook, stirring often, until it is the consistency of caramel sauce.

3. Pour into clean jars. Store in fridge.

This makes for a unique gift that people love :)

T-Bucket Progress/Snowmobile Blessing

Michael is a project guy. He isn't happy unless he is tinkering on something. Lately, Michael has been very busy working on his 1923 T-Bucket Roadster project car. This is his third year of working on it. He has pieced it together with parts that were given to him or he found super cheap. Even though he has a long way to go on it, it is really starting to come together. 

1949 Flat Head 239 motor

He is having difficulties with the ignition system right now, but hopes to get it figured out soon, so he can get this puppy running. After he gets the motor running good, he wants to finish the body work and get it painted so he can finish the assembly and interior. After that, he'll start saving for the tires.  

Michael, adjusting the radiator cap.

He just got the radiator custom built to match the car and motor, which was the most expensive piece so far. 

Here was a surprise blessing! Just goes to show that good things come to those who wait. Michael has been wanting a snowmobile for years. He came home yesterday and told me had bought a snowmobile for $100 from a coworker who just wanted to get rid of it because he was tired of mowing around it. I thought it would be a piece of junk, but when he hauled it home, I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent snowmobile, in really good shape. It needs to be cleaned and tuned up, but other than that it runs great. 

The bad news is that all the snow is melting off the mountains, so we will have to wait until next year to try it out. We did take it for a spin around the yard a couple of times and that was fun :) 

I love it when God blesses us when we aren't expecting it! My husband is so delighted! He really deserves it, too. He never goes out and buys toys when we can't afford it. I really appreciate that about him. Thanks to the Dave Ramsey "Zero Balance Budget" we use, Michael has been able to save his mad money to keep the T-Bucket project going against all odds. He will wait months to buy a part. Again, good things come to those who wait!

Do you have a story about a blessing you received because you waited? If so, please leave a comment and share it with us.

God Bless,

Jackie

Date Night With My Son

Josiah has been begging to take me on a date for awhile now. Things have been so crazy with Michael being gone for military schools that it took awhile for it to happen. By the end of the evening, I realized just how important it is for me to take time and just have fun with Josiah, apart from being his mom and his teacher. We had THE MOST delightful time! 

We've been working on our table manners as well as how to treat a lady. I had him open all doors for me and hold out my chair and them push it in. I'm so glad I brought my camera because I will treasure this date forever in my heart.

We went to a new restaurant call, Magnoni's at Hot Lake Resort. It has recently be restored and is absolutely gorgeous. See here for pictures of all the rooms. Just a few years ago, this place was literally inhabited by nothing but bats, birds and rodents and now it is a beautiful bed and breakfast with a salon, theater, museum, hot springs baths, gift shop and bronze foundry. 

As soon as we pulled up, Josiah spotted some eggs laid by one of the many geese and ducks that live in the parking lot area. I told him to be careful, but he had to get closer to examine it. Sure enough, he got chased by a big goose. It was hilarious! Josiah is pointing to the peacocks in the above picture. He was absolutely fascinated by them.

Josiah, just after he seated me. Such a little man.

I let him uncork the sparkling cider and do all the pouring of the  beverages. He managed to not spill a drop. I could tell he loved being the "man". I really hope his future wife will benefit from all this "tutoring".

Cheers!

Josiah has such personality! I was able to snap this picture of him as he received the relish tray. He was pretty excited until he took a bite and realized they were sweet pickles, LOL. He loved the green olives though.

This was our the only mistake of the evening. When he was reaching for a pickle and bringing it back to his plate, it slipped out of his fingers and dropped right into his water glass. He fished it out with his hand. We were both giggling pretty hard over this incident. Slippery little things!

God blessed us by bringing a peacock right next to the window. Then a female arrived and he displayed all his beautiful feathers. Josiah was in awe! I grew up with peacocks on our ranch, so peacocks don't really do a lot for me, but that night, I saw them again through Josiah's eyes and really appreciated their beauty. It also generated a little "birds and the bees" talk since he was wanting to know why the male peacock was showing off for the female. Thank goodness, they didn't actually start mating, or that would have been a whole different discussion! I was able to recollect the names of many wild birds outside the window, too. Josiah is so much like me. He loves to know the names of things - birds, rocks, animals and plants. It gives us a connection to those things by just knowing what they are called.

We had a delicious all-you-can-eat lasagna dinner with the must amazing garlic,cheesy bread sticks, topped off with a beautiful dessert. Josiah actually ate more than I did, and I was practically waddling out of there.

Josiah wanted me to take his picture by the buffalo. He made it an hour and half through the meal and did just fine. The birds outside the window kept him quite entertained.

A complimentary movie and popcorn were part of the price, so Josiah and I settled down in the theater and watched "Night at the Museum". We laughed and talked through the whole thing as we had the place to ourselves almost the whole time. Josiah even managed to eat some popcorn. Where does that kid put it all? He's just like his dad. I can't believe how much that kid can eat!

When we came home that night, Josiah declared our date "a success" and the second best day of his life. Wow, what a compliment! I realized I really need to do this more often. One on one time with him is his love language. 

Not to be left out, Michael took Hailey out for dinner and ice cream that same night. He treated her like a lady and worked with her on her table manners. She was so excited to have some daddy time. Michael isn't one to take a lot of pictures, so alas, this is the only one we have them. 

If you want to delight your children and help build your relationship with them, take them out for a date! Now, Michael and I need to find time for a date night! We are planning on an anniversary overnight trip to the bed and breakfast in the tiny town of Flora next month. It is a good motorcycle trip. Can't wait!

Hope you all enjoy the week and you are getting awesome weather like we are finally enjoying in Eastern Oregon!

Kid Antics

Josiah and his toe slingshot. He was pretty proud of himself for coming up with this one.

I saw this T-Shirt and it was so Josiah, I just had to get it for him. It is a Christian t-shirt that says, "Weapons of Warfare - Called to Duty" and shows a soldier praying. He loved it!

I got this 50's dress at a yard sale and it is the right length for Hailey to make into a "Little House on the Prairie" outfit. Plus it has a great twirl factor. When you're a girl, it all boils down to how it twirls!

When I visited my sister's house about a month ago, I brought along this "Tangled" wig. My nephew confiscated it to help with his "Hippie" look. Too funny!

Josiah and Hailey were making cookies yesterday and I look over to see this scene. All I can say is, "Don't ask me!". Not sure what the flotation device was all about, but as us homeschoolers often say, "OK, then!" When he comes up with these crazy outfits, I always tell him he looks like a homeschooler to which he proudly declares, "That's 'cause I am, Mom!" 

So I've got a good one on me! When my sis was up for a visit, we got all 7 kids in the van and pull up to church (quite a feat in itself). When Josiah got out of the van, I noticed he was wearing his snow boots. I got after him and continued to walk towards the church. Something felt funny. I looked down and I was wearing my slippers! Needless to say, we ended up going home to change shoes. Talk about the pot calling the kettle  black! LOL!

A couple of weeks ago, we got to go to a really cool juggling presentation about gravity that OMSI put on. The guy was amazing! We were really blessed to be able to go. Best part is that it was free!

I thought this short video of Hailey acting like she was a fish playing the piano was cute.

Hope you are all having a great week. We are still waiting on our house to sell in God's timing. Things are gradually wrapping up for the year, AWANAS, Creation Science Class and soon MOPS. It is kind of nice to be slowing down.

God Bless,

Jackie

Sister Visit

I was so blessed to be able to have my twin sister, Stacie, from afirefighterswife.blogspot.com, visit me along with my nieces and nephews last weekend. We always have a great time together. Hailey and Lily are the best of friends. They both love to play "mother" games. Lily was in this oh so cute outfit and we had to take a few shots as she was playing with her baby. This stroller has gotten a lot of use!

On Friday we went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City. It is free to homeschoolers, so we thought we would get one last trip in before we moved even further away from it. Unfortunately the speaker system wasn't working correctly, but if you leaned in, you could hear the "Wailing Woman". My sister has a hysterical story about the "Wailing Woman" on her blog. Click here for that one.

We walked around some of the trails and found a sluice box for mining gold. Only found some pyrite and fake gold, but it was fun for the kids to look  for treasure.

Also found an old mine. Love this pic of my kids with my niece, Lily. She and Hailey are just the best of friends. They are so cute together. 

We found a stage which was fun for our little princesses to perform a dancing number for our entertainment. What a gorgeous view of the Elkhorn Mountains in the background.

Hiking along the Oregon Trail. It always gives me goosebumps to think about all the people who traveled over that trail to a new life. The heartache and pain, yet hope they must have felt as they trudged through in the dust and sagebrush to a better life. 

My sister helping Lily who liked to walk over the sagebrush, not around it. 

We did a little geocaching at the Chinese cemetery. Didn't find the cache, but found where the cache had been. That was pretty much our story with all the caches we found that weekend. Kind of frustrating to tell the truth. They kids aren't into it because we've only actually found a cache once! Either they've been taken or we couldn't even find the location. I'm hoping we can get better at this! 

The kids were so tired that night. I snapped a quick pic of Hailey as I found her. Apparently my sister and I must have been too loud at bedtime because she got into the closet and found Michael's ear protection for shooting. She was sound asleep with these on when we went to bed that night. Too cute! Hey, whatever works, LOL. 

On Saturday, my sister and I were able to go to a wonderful ladies tea put on by a local church. The food was delicious and the testimonies even better. I even got to wear one of my vintage hats!

After church on Sunday, the weather was beautiful. The kids played outside while Stacie and I brought the Scrabble game out on the deck. We must have played 8 or 9 games that day. It was a Scrabble marathon!

I was so glad nobody came to look at the house while my sister was in town. It is super hard to keep the house clean with that many people and suitcases and bedding tucked into every corner. We had a realtor walk-through today, so we hoping we get some bites on the house this weekend. Thank you for all your prayers regarding God's timing!

Blessings, 

Jackie

House For Sale - Huge Life Changes Ahead

We did it! We put our house on the market and just as soon as it sells, we will be moving 50 miles closer to my husband's job. My husband's job is an hour and half away now and it is just too far to commute. We needed to reduce the commute by an hour. We are moving to the other side of the mountain range. 

My feelings are so bitter sweet, but I know God will bless us. We've lived in this community for nearly 17 years (our entire married life!). We are hoping to fulfill our homesteading dream! We will be looking for a few acres just on the outskirts of the new town. 

This was a very sudden decision, but we know it is the right one without a doubt. Seeing Michael in the evenings is more important than a house or even a beloved community. I know God will bless us with many friends in the new town we are going to. I know he will provide a good homeschool support network, plus we are close enough to sometimes join in with our current homeschool group's activities. So we will have the best of both worlds!

At first Josiah was really sad. It took about 3 days for it to really process, but when we told him we would try to find a place where we could have animals, he started getting excited about it. Another plus is that my mom and step-dad live in that town. It will be so nice to have family around, especially with if my husband gets deployed again. We are closer to most of our family now, which is exciting! 

Please pray our house sells exactly when it is supposed to. Please pray the right house/acreage will come available at the same time we sell our house and that it will be in our price range. We are blessed to be able to live with my parents after our house sells if we need a place to go before we get into another house. The military is moving us, so that is another thing to be thankful for. 

The other really hard decision we had to make was quitting my in-home job entering doing soil data entry. Today was my last day. It is difficult to say good-by to a 15 year career, but it has served me well and enabled me to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom when times were tough financially. I will be homeschooling Hailey next year in addition to Josiah and will need the whole day to do so. I know that having a degree in Soil Science will continue to benefit me as I homeschool my children, so I refuse to look at it as "giving up on my career". I'm just going to use it for my next career as a homeschool mom! Who knows how God will continue to use it even after my children are grown and gone. I'm giving it to Him. He knows the plan!

So just after we made the decision to move and sell our house, I asked the Lord to confirm our decision. He led me to Psalm 107:6-9:

"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things."

The verse I underlined is now on my scripture board and whenever I start getting overwhelmed or scared, I look to that verse and know that He will give us good things if we obey. It is hard to leave the home we just remodeled and harder still to leave such beloved friends who truly have become family. However, we know that God asks us to get out of our comfort zones now and again for our own good, but more importantly for His Glory! 

God Bless,

Jackie

Resurrection Day 2012

I always give the kids little gifts instead of candy (although I do get them each a Lindt chocolate bunny) at Easter time in honor of the greatest gift of all -  OUR SALVATION THROUGH JESUS THE RISEN MESSIAH!  Here are my kidlets, just having woken up. Next year, like Christmas, we'll read the resurrection story first, before opening the gifts. My hubby's idea. I'm so proud of that man as I watch him taking the spiritual reins from my hands as he grows stronger and stronger in the Lord. The movie, "Courageous" really hit home for him and I see him stepping up as a father and husband. What an answer to prayer and a test of patience on my part through the years. He is who God says his is, and he CAN do what God says he can do!

Hailey was super excited to get her sock flashes to go with her kilt.

Josiah got a small Lego Star Wars set and another Jonathan Park volume. Both he and Hailey absolutely love them. I also gave them another Torchlighter series about William Tyndale. 

Before church pictures. We are trying very hard to teach Josiah how to protect and love his sister and how to treat her appropriately at all times. We are teaching them to guard their modesty as well as each others. They love each other so much even though they can fight like cats and dogs sometimes.

We found this suit for a good price and Josiah loves wearing it. I think it is great!

Hailey got to pick out her dress, too. It is the only time I ever buy new clothes for my kids. We almost always do hand-me-downs, yard sales and thrift shops. But it is nice to be able to buy one nice dress/suit a year for my kids.

After church, we were invited to my sweet friends' house. Thank you again, Katie and Jerry!! The kids got to participate in an egg hunt and we all ate until we hit critical mass. It was wonderful to not have to do a full meal, since we had celebrated the Passover meal the day before. Josiah was still enjoying his skull cap, but I made him take it off when he was eating the ham despite us being Gentiles, out of respect for the Jewish culture. 

I love this picture of Hailey as she thinks about where she's going to look for eggs next. The bent wrist is so her :) 

Hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Day!

God Bless,

Jackie