Spiritual Warfare

From very small I was taught about the spiritual warfare.  My mom understood it and spoke about it in prayer or about different situations. 
I didn’t really have a very good understanding about what she meant until years later as an adult I read the book This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti.  This book gave me a visual, at least in my mind, of what the spiritual realm is about and how it can effect my life. 

Just recently I was reading Hinds' Feet on High Places [Illustratred] by Hannah Hurnard.  I started to read one version that was forwarded by Jars of Clay but I just got lost.  The book that I am now reading is the Illustrated version.(I am a visual person)  I started by just reading it to my children, but found it very interesting.  The book talks about things like fear and doubt as people.  It gave the spirit of fear a face and sort of opened my eyes a little more to the spiritual world around me. 

Now, I don’t see demons and things, I just see that the anger that may come out of nowhere in me or the unexplained fears that rise up in my children, are not just part of life.  They are a part of a life that we can not see, but affect us greatly.

The wonderful thing about all of this is that the part of Spiritual Warfare that I did understand as a child, was the fighting it part.  I was raised to know that, I as a believer, had power through the name of Jesus to get this evil out of my life. 

The demons shriek at just the name of Jesus. (I have not heard this sound.  I just read about it in the bible.)  If you say “In the name of Jesus, spirit of fear get out of here”  it has to leave you or the person you are praying for.  We see an example of Paul doing this in Acts 16:18.


I really recommend taking a look at these two books and researching from the word of God, to learn to understand the power that you have over things like fear, doubt and depression in your life and the lives of those in your family.

Jeannie

Addition War

This is a fun game that we used to teach Bella her Addition facts and now we are bringing it back for 5 year old Jacob.  You use the same rules that you use for the game war, except you use addition cards.  The person with the highest answer wins the round.
(For those who have never played War.  Deal out all of the cards to the players.  I would recommend 3 or less players.  Then each player flips one card from the top of their pile.  The person with the highest card wins that set of cards, they take the cards played and place them on the bottom of their pile of cards.  You repeat this until someone runs out of cards or Mom just gets tired of it.)

In this round, two of us had the same highest answer.  At this point you have to do a play off.  Each player lays down two cards, face down.  Then one more face up, the highest answer on the last card flipped is the winner of the entire group of cards.

Just a couple of pictures of my goofballs sucking on suckers while we play the game. 
You will love this game, you will see their math skills improve so quickly and they don’t know they are learning.  When we first started playing this we used homemade flash cards, then we found a set at a garage sale.  I am not really that cheap it just worked out that way.  You can get them in the Target $1 section also.  Have Fun!!!
Jeannie

Free Club House Magazine-Focus on the Family

 

Focus on the Family is giving away a 3 month trial offer for Club House and Club House Jr. Children’s Magazines.  Head on over here to get one for your child.

    

 

Jeannie

The Ultimate Blog Party!!

Today is the first day of the Ultimate Blog Party.  I am all about parties.  Here at 2 better than 1, we love to talk about life, motherhood, marriage, and Jesus.  He is the reason for this blog and we want to give Him all of the glory! 

Our posts include recipes for great food:

Homemade skin care:


Life with Kids:

Teenagers:



Homeschooling:


Marriage:



And Anything Else that Comes to Mind.
Jeannie

How to Make Milk More Fun

Around our house we have no problem getting anyone to drink milk.  We go through about 7 gallons a week when all of the kids are home. 

One day we found banana milk at the Grocery store and my kids love anything banana, so we tried it.  They of course loved it.  For a half gallon it was about $2.40.  I thought there has to be a way to make this.  I found banana extract in our grocery store that I picked up and just added about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to a small cup of milk.  They love it.  I know artificial flavor and sugar, but come on they get 3 times the junk in just a piece of candy.



We have tried lots of flavors.  We made strawberry syrup from the strawberry jam that I made last summer.  Also, if you have Nesquick you can add that instead of the sugar in the banana milk. 




The stores have all sorts of extracts in the store.  If you are concerned about chemicals you can try to find natural extracts or make you own.  Just have fun.  Milk is a plain base that goes well with most flavors.  Hey, I just thought of Peach milk, you know peaches and cream.  I might have to find some peach preserves and melt it on the stove and add a little water.  Yum!!  Have fun!!
Jeannie

How Hospitable is your Home?

We received, what I thought was a great compliment the other day.  My oldest daughter asked if a few of her friends from college could come and stay with us for Easter since they lived so far away. 
During a late night talking session, one of them, who goes to a Christian college but grew up in an unbelieving home, said that our family was way more normal than they thought we would be.  I guess they thought that Christian homes were stuffy and unfun.




I took this as a compliment that someone would come to the realization that being a Christian can be a fun and “normal”.  We did have bunches of fun, going to the park to play basketball and tag, also playing games at home and just hanging out.  I hope that we gave them a good picture of what their family life could look like one day, in their Christian home.


I wanted to remind you all too, to have a home that has boundaries and rules to follow and yet is still a great place to be.  After all getting down and playing right at the stage that they are in is they best way to have the opportunity to teach them.

Jeannie

Hope you all had a great Easter!!

We sure did.  It was a different Easter than we normally have but great.

We did do our annual Easter Egg Hunt with Melissa and Family.  This year we did it at a park instead of one of our yards.

The kids collected tons of eggs, hidden by the Daddy bunnies.

   


That night Allie,my Dad, and two friends came into town.  So nice to have my big girl home it has been 3 months.  The next day, all of the kids colored eggs.  It was so much fun to watch a 16,18 and two 20 year old kids have so much fun coloring eggs. 







The next morning before church at 7:30am we went down to see what the Easter bunny had brought. 

I held the camera.  No way your going to catch me on camera at that time of the morning.  After that we went to church for a great Easter service.  Lots of praise and a good message.


This morning we had to say goodbye to my Dad and the kids left after lunch.  Dad left at 6:00am and these were the only kids that stayed awake long enough for a picture.  Jacob was so enthusiastic.  Nice face!  This was our Easter, post a few words about yours.  I would love to hear.
Jeannie

DIY All Purpose Citrus Cleaner

I love making my own household cleaners and I just found this one over at The Prairie Homestead.com .

I love the ingredients in this one.

And I love how easy it is to make.

DIY All-Purpose Citrus Cleaner

You will need:

• 1 or 2 quart sized mason jars
• A spray bottle (a repurposed one is just fine!)
• White vinegar (around 1-2 quarts)
• Orange, grapefruit, lemon, or lime peels (any combination of these will work, too)
• 3 -4 drops of lemon, grapefruit, or orange essential oil (optional)

I want you to go on over to her site and check out how to make it.  That is why I left the directions off.  It just looks so easy. 
I have some oranges so as we use them I am going to save the peels and then I will let you know how it goes. 
Happy Cleaning!!
Jeannie

Summer with your Kids

 

School is going to let out for the summer soon. Are you dreading each day? Wondering what in the world you are going to do with your children home.

These thoughts take me back about 5 years to a day about this time of year. A great friend of mine (fairly new at the time), said "I can't wait for summer to start I get my kids back at home with me!". She loves to have her kids with her, she looks forward to that time. I thought at first "what is wrong with this woman?", but God spoke to me that day and reminded me of how much I loved being with them when they were tiny. From that point on, I worked on looking forward to them coming home, summer break and all of the days they had off. Don't get me wrong, about August 15th or so, both they and I are ready to go back to our old routine , but we have had our bonding time together and enjoyed each other.

The thing to focus on here is that it was just a little change in attitude on my part that altered our summers and our time together forever. I had decided that I was going to make the best of these days ahead for the sake of our relationship. I wanted to build those relationships.

There are so many great things to do in the summer, beaches, gardening, parks and water fun. Teach your children how to have fun and how to relax with a good book.

Summer can be a time when you teach them anything and everything, you finally have the time. The school year is so rushed and busy we don't have time to teach them about life and relationships.

My two older children are in Jr. High and High School and I am realizing how few years I have left with them under my wing. I am so thankful for my friend's great attitude and to God for showing me, early enough, to just relax and enjoy my children when I get them.

P.S. Something we are finding successful is for the kids to earn screen time. What I mean is, to earn the right to watch T.V., play video games or use the computer. I am using school and Bible work. They get minute for minute. If they do 30 minutes of work they have earned 30 minutes of screen time of their choice. I have them get this done first thing in the morning before they do anything else.

Kids have so much structure at school that when they are just given a loose schedule, they don't know what to do with themselves. Try to keep some structure and I think you will find that you and your children will be happier.

P.P.S. (is that how you do that) I wrote this several years ago I now have one in college and the other three are homeschooling with me now. God really did change my heart and my attitude.

Jeannie

Completely Homemade Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Chocolate cake.  I didn’t have a mix or frosting, so I started digging through my cook books.  I told you a while back that one of the ways that I store recipes, is in a photo album that my mom gave to my for a Christmas gift one year.  I found this recipe in that photo album. 
Wacky Chocolate Cake
I don’t know where my mom got it but, it is so easy and so good.

I mix together the dry ingredients first.
3 cups Regular Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Cocoa

Next I added in:
2 cups Cold Water
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons +2 teaspoons Vinegar

Whirl them together for 1 minute.  Fold into a 9x13 ungreased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. 

As you can see, nothing by looking at it is wacky.  I think it gets it’s name from the unusual way it is made.  NO Eggs?, Don’t grease the pan?  So, Wacky!!
The frosting is a regular butter frosting that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This is my favorite Cookbook.  It has everything in it.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
8 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
Beat this altogether and have a little milk on hand in case it is to heavy.  You want it to be kind of light and fluffy.  By the way this makes a ton of frosting.  You can either store it for later or cut it in half.
Hope that you enjoy this Cake as much as we did.  Oh yah!  It’s gone!  I can only make this every once and a while or I will be as big as a house.  So Good.
Jeannie

On American Motherhood

I found this speech from Theodore Roosevelt the other day when I was looking for material for my son’s schooling.  As I read it I knew that I needed to share this.  He puts, the way that I feel about Motherhood and what I feel is the problem with our society today, so well.  It's just amazing, this was written in 1905.  It is a little long but so worth reading.
Head over here to read.
Enjoy!!

Jeannie

An Internet Surfing Accessory

As I was writing a post the other day I was about to put a link into the post to a scripture verse, which I forgot to do, because I was thinking about…

What a great internet surfing accessory- The Bible.

So many of us look around at the inspirational blogs and run across a post that has a reference to God’s word.  Many times the person who posted will put a link or will even write out the verse they are speaking about.  I want to remind you of how God works.  You all know this but I’ll say it anyway.  God teaches us through things that we run across in our daily life, a song, a radio program and also a blog posting.  So, if a post or verse really jump out or speak to us then what a better time to pull out you Bible and see what else God has to say to you.



You may not need it every time you poke around the web, but you just never know and if you have it handy you are more likely to grab it and surf the Bible as well.  This is just a tip on making you internet time purposeful and meaningful.





Happy Blog Hopping!!

Jeannie

What do you Put on your Face in the Morning?

I have been reading in I Peter this month.  Today I was in chapter 3, it was about wives submitting to their husbands and I won’t get into all of that today but after that part it talked about not adorning yourself with braids and gold jewelry.  Does that mean I can’t wear jewelry? No!  What it says is that we can’t have our beauty come from our adornments. 


A woman with eyes that sparkle with the love of Jesus, cheeks that glow from being madly in love with your husband and smiles that send messages of love to your children.  Those are the adornments that make us beautiful. 
If your face is unable to display any of those things, turn your heart towards Jesus and ask Him to clothe you with the character necessary to possess such lovely adornments.
Ladies, those last two paragraphs are straight from the Lord to you.  All of that came to me this morning and I just knew I needed to share it with you.  I hope it blesses you on this possible bad hair day. 
Ask anyone what they remember most about their favorite Grandma and I tell you, it won’t be her earrings or her lipstick. 
Thank you Lord for that reminder. 

Jeannie

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This is my all time favorite household cleaner.  I use it for everything.  It is especially great on Carpet stains.  The main thing I use it for is my kitchen cleaner.  Between the alcohol and the tea tree oil you have a great disinfectant.
  plus   
I am currently out of the Castile soap.
This is the recipe:
1 cup Castile soap with Tea tree oil
1/4 cup of Rubbing Alcohol
1 teaspoon Baking soda
Fill the remainder of the spray bottle (32 oz.) with water.  Fill very slowly or you will end up with tons of bubbles.
Once you have add the Water, put the top on the bottle and then gently shake until baking soda is dissolved, check the bottom.

Jeannie

Confident Mom Organizing Planner Review

I just ran across this planner recently.  It is a great weekly planner that helps you to remember to get each and every thing done in your home and yet is not overwhelming.  Below you can view an example of the planner.

http://www.theconfidentmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Page1-Weekly-Household-Planner-2012.pdf

She has thought of everything.  She has a check off for daily tasks to help you get it all done and to help you see it all done and feel accomplished.
Some of the features are:

• A daily quiet time with scripture references to get you through the Bible in one year.
• A place to put “What’s for Dinner”
• A place for notes
• Weekly inspiration
• and More…

Check out the PDF above and take a look.
Jeannie