Exodus 2:25 the last of that verse says “…-God knew”
In this chapter, God knew about the suffering of His children
when they were in bondage
to the Egyptians- you know the years before Moses.
What a blessing that NOTHING surprises Him.
NOTHING……
Not that pop quiz.
Not the rain (or ice or snow) when the weatherman predicted the opposite.
Not the early death of a loved one.
Not the surprising medical test results.
NOTHING !!!
He sees you.
He loves you.
He knows.
The most recent parenting book I have read, was when my 8 year old was a newborn.
In my muddled, sleep deprived, adrenaline flowing, happy postpartum state, I should
have been confident. I already raised 4 kids who were ages 14 and up,
when this baby was born.
Yet, at 6 weeks, I felt lost on the path of motherhood. I was feeding,
on demand E-V-E-R-Y time the baby fussed. And yet never clued in on why the baby
fussed- because my take from all the breastfeeding books, was feed/comfort/nurse
that baby every time they fuss.
My husband, the father of all our children didn’t understand why I had lost my way
in mothering. The Pediatrician, who knew me from my other kids, dismissed my concerns.
I knew I needed help. Two things happened here.
First, wonderful women, trained as lactation consultants, entered my life.(If you are breastfeeding and having issues related to your baby and breastfeeding, Please, please, please, please find a lactation consultant in your area and give them a call).
AND I read yet another book Baby-Wise.
Baby Wise, (Love it or hate it, please save that discussion for another post) figuratively hit me upside the head with the realization, I had to bring MY brain to this job of mothering. All the other baby books I had read, were specifically on breastfeeding, and encouraged feeding on demand. To me that meant every time the baby fussed, whip out the breast to comfort, feed and care for that baby.
Baby Wise allowed me to bring my brain to the equation and think about why the baby might be fussing.
In my life, the power of the written word influenced me greatly – to the point of loosing my direction in mothering, and then in finding it again.
I haven’t blogged in a bit, and today is busy so this will be quick.
What are you focusing on this year?
I would like to work on my health and my fitness- both in a physical and spiritual sense.
And to regain control of my kingdom (by way of de-cluttering). And also to write MORE.
To those ends, I am going to try to share some links I have found helpful.
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1/2/2014 No book or magazine article is for “everyone” so know your audience then target them with your writing.
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I don’t know where I got this recipe from. I tend to collect sugar cookie recipes. And not too long ago, I never thought to include the URL from where I copied it. Many recipes call for the dough to be chilled (anywhere from 2-24 hours) BEFORE you can roll it out and cut it. This one DOES NOT call for pre-chilling!
This recipe is very forgiving. I mix it with my hand electric mixer, and then when you add the flour, I transfer it all to the bread machine and mix it on the dough setting. (wish I had thought of that before I burnt the motor of my last hand mixer).
For my turkey creations, I used the recipe below, but didn’t roll them out, we simply rolled them into a ball, and flattened with the bottom of a glass. Also, I used cooking spray for the first tray, and when we did these 48 hours later, I did not. 
Below it is copied exactly and in quotations. I left out the two references to the original photos as I didn’t copy those…. I just wish I knew who to credit with it.
“Do you want to make the best sugar cookies in the world? Look no further! I have a recipe for sugar cookies that will blow your socks off… t is, if you are into sugar cookies that are unbelievable soft and thick and melt in your mouth. Seriously …these are amazing. (The trick is to roll them out thick and bake them for less time than you think they need)
You’ll need:
1 Cup butter ** 2 Cups sugar ** 2 eggs ** 3 tsp. vanilla ** 1 Cup of sour cream ** 1 tsp. salt ** 2 tsp.baking soda ** 5 and 1/2 Cups flour ********** In mixer, cream butter and sugar, and then add eggs and vanilla. Add sour cream. Combine salt, soda, and flour, and add to the first mixture.
Roll out on floured surface to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. Really.
Use a spatula to carefully slide under each cookie and place onto greased (with pam) parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 375* for 7-8 minutes. THEY WILL NOT LOOK DONE! But don’t give in to your temptation to cook “just a little longer” or you will get crunchy cookies instead of soft, pillow-like cookies.
They are still very pale and have no browning anywhere. If you have a golden brown color along the edges then you have baked them too long.
Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer carefully to a cooling rack. If you wait longer they will get soggy on the bottom of and sometimes get stuck to the parchment paper.
Once they have cooled they are ready for frosting.
Note: I know that there are people who make amazingly beautiful iced sugar cookies. I am not one of them. I’ve seen some sugar cookies out there that are smooth, glossy, beautiful pieces of art. For those of you who hare the talent and patience to make such beautiful masterpieces… I envy you on many levels. But me?I prefer cookies that taste good and I don’t really care so much about what they look like. the one time I made royal icing, I thought it ruined my sugar cookies. Just my tow bits. Here is the simple butter cream frosting I use: 1/2 Cup butter, softened *** 4 Cups powdered sugar **2 tsp vanilla extract ***1/4-1/3 C milk
In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in Sugar and vanilla until crumbly. Gradually add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add desired food coloring.
And there you have it. Heaven on a plate. This recipe makes about 30 extra large cookies or up to 4 dozen smaller cookies.”
Obviously, I did not frost mine. We added a Hersey Kiss to most, and turkey feathers (actually candy corn) to some.
Sugar cookie base with Hersey kiss turkeys and candy corn tail feathers
A Confession:
10 Sundays ago, we said “Good-bye” to OUR church. If you live in my area and asked for a recommendation of a good church, I would suggest you attend where we left. The preaching is good, the Bible is taught, and the people are great.
That’s the backdrop of where I am. For the last 9 weeks, I have been drifting. Looking back on the last 9 weeks, I should have at least 2-4 hours more of family/home time every Wednesday afternoon. (Time I would have spent preparing to teach on Wed. night.) I should have hours of free time on Sunday (we usually attend Sunday morning, have choir practice Sunday afternoon, followed by the evening service.) Not being anchored anywhere, we have enjoyed NOT rushing back on Sunday afternoon, and I admit it, we have simply stayed home.
Yet, my family time, my house and my spiritual life look no better for all this “free time”.
So, I am starting today. Attempting to redeem the time. (see Ephesians 5:16) I start with a confession of wasting my days and asking God’s forgiveness.(I really should apologize to my husband- if you saw my house, you would understand)
I am starting the day with my cup of coffee and my Bible. Making a realistic to-do list, planning my day. Putting the big rocks in the jar of my day first.
In the coming days I will post how I am doing, and some of the resources I have found helpful.
How is your walk with the Lord today?
Throwback Thankful Thursday here under the maple leaves.
10 days, and 30 years ago, I said “I do” to my husband.
As I think back over the last 30 years, I think I got the better end of that deal.
A friend said of her husband, “We have been happy together and we have been miserable together.
The key word there is together. ” I like that observation.
My husband and I have had much happy together, much wonderful together,
and yes, even a little miserable together. But again, the key word there is together.
Having been everything from a size 8 to 18, I have often joked that my husband loves me
through thick and thin. But what started as a joke about my size, is a resounding truth in my life. It has been said that in every joke there is a nugget of truth, and there is whopper of
truth in that statement. He does love me through the thick and thin, the good and bad, grumpy and pleasant, for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health.
Over the past 30 years, he has loved me, for me, He has loved me even when I frustrate him and growl and get loud.
( Truth be told, yes, he has had his time of being a bear, he is human after all.
And I love him for him too,-not just for his rugged good looks
dry sense of humor, generosity, or just for his thoughtfulness and chivalry.
He can make me madder than anyone else,
and hurt my feelings deeper than anyone else. Those things happen when humans
love humans deeply and live together day in and day out.)
But as I look over the past 30 years, I see a man who has grown in wisdom, gown in grace,
who loved me and continues to love me day in and day out. I have seen first hand the love of Christ in our marriage as both have forgiven me of some really BIG,
really stupid, really expensive mistakes. My husband has encouraged me
to be a godly wife and mother-sometimes in word, but often just by
his character. He is diligent and hard working. He is a planner.
(Boy I must be a thorn in his flesh at times).
He is the love of my life and I am extremely grateful that God blessed me with him.
Early in our marriage, I wondered if I married the “right” man. (That thought process
was really kind of foolish-not to mention extremely selfish and prideful- because I believed divorce was not an option for me, and I knew once I said “I do” he BECAME my Mr. Right.
At this stage of our lives, I am extremely thankful for the right man I married.
I love you Mr. Prahl, and am so thankful you chose me as your Mrs.
My first blog address was Messymommussings@wordpress.com
Unfortunately, I can no longer get into that account.
So in an effort to connect the two, I am copying it here.
“I’m on a journey and I’m inviting you to come with me.
I’ve been married for 29 years, I have 6 kids and I am a messy mom.
I wasn’t always messy. Before the kids came, my house was fairly neat.
But that was then and then started 26 years ago.
I love my kids and as life got busy, somehow along the way things started to slip.
Until I’m where we are today. I’m not proud of my messiness- but I’m being honest about it.
And I figure if I’m having issues with keeping it all together, maybe you are too.
Maybe along the way as I make discoveries, something I learn will help you too.
So join me as I journey on the quest toward a cleaner more livable house.”
After that first post, I was also a bit intimidated. For one thing, my life is about so much more
than the struggle to keep up with the house, and I want to discuss many things,
not just my housekeeping or lack of.
I did have 2 comments to that post, and if you would like to view it, you can find it here: http://messymommusings.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/life-is-a-journey/
As with my Mapleleaves account, I tried it out on Blogger also, and that one also had a few comments. You can view them here
http://messymom-musings.blogspot.com/2012/04/life-is-journey.html#comment-form.
Recently, on Facebook, a friend asked homeschool moms “Why do you homeschool?”
The complete answers to that question are probably as varied as the families
that choose to homeschool. My answer seemed like a great blog idea.
(insert smile here)
We homeschool because we feel it is the best choice for our family.
We homeschool because we felt it was what God wanted us to do for our family.
We homeschool because it is less expensive than private Christian school.
(It may even cost less than public school when you factor in supplies,
field trips and other expenses).
Obviously, as the number of your children in Christian School increases,
so does the bill. Depending on your curriculum, the cost of homeschooling
multiple children may NOT increase at all.
Speaking of curriculum,
We homeschool because even though the county public schools are good schools,
and many classes are blessed with Christian teachers, the curriculum they teach is still
ungodly filled with the religions of humanism, socialism (and if common core is accepted
here, communism.)
We homeschool because we wanted to have a say in what materials were used to teach
our children (curriculum is something to think about in relation to why are you homeschooling.
If you are using the online public school material, you are basically public schooling in your home).
We homeschool because we can tailor the curriculum to meet our child’s specific learning style
and needs (we might do grade level math, and reading 2 levels above or vice-versa.)
I homeschool because if my child is struggling to learn, as the mom, who wants to see my
child succeed, I will figure out how to help him/her learn. Whether that means figuring out
that child’s learning style (auditory, kinesthetic or visual) or changing curriculum or methods till we get the one that works best for that child (and not have to worry about 20 other kids in the class.)
I homeschool because as the mom, I have a desire like no one else to see my children succeed.
I homeschool because I enjoy learning WITH my children. You would be surprised what YOU learn as
you go over things with your kids. You will be smarter for homeschooling your children.
I homeschool because it helps me become (27 years and I’m still becoming)
a better mother.
As I see attitudes in my children’s heart I can work on those immediately and not have
to wait till they are home from 8 hours of class work. (It also helps me to see where I
need to be more patient, kind, organized and all those other wonderful attributes we as
mom want to be.)
I homeschool because I enjoy spending my days with my children, and realize they are
my God given responsibility, and homeschooling gives me the opportunity to spend more time with them.
We homeschool because it gives us the flexibility to do school on our schedule.
We may choose to work late in the evening, or to do Saturday school (or to not work,
but take a family vacation or other fun filled trip INSTEAD of or in place of book work)
We homeschool because we want our children to be well rounded and socialized with people
of all ages, not just the ones in their 12 month age range.
We homeschool because we don’t want to worry about the negative things our children
might learn in traditional “brick and mortar” school: pornography (friends in 2nd grade
had a classmate bring a playboy magazine and show the entire class BEFORE the teacher saw it),
drugs, peer pressure,”alternate lifestyles” etc.
We homeschool because when our oldest child was in public school, 1/2 way through first grade,
even though we had discussed with the home teacher, that our child had a hearing issue,
the teacher never informed the other teachers (music, art, PE etc) and never thought to
tell us that we needed to personally inform those teachers in writing.
We homeschool because when our child was in public school, in first grade, there were 3 or 4
incidents, where something had really bothered our child. When I asked the teacher about it,
EVERY TIME,the teacher started with how she was responsible for X# of other kids and
couldn’t come to parents with every little thing that happened in school that day.
(Every incident was big enough to our child that she lost sleep over it. Can you say mama bear?)
We homeschool because the only crazy people we have to worry about breaking into our school,
are the family members who have already graduated from our homeschool. LOL
You can spend nothing and homeschool with a Christian curriculum.
See easy peasy all in one ( sorry, I am new to blogging and don’t know
how to add the link. Google or Bing it and you will find it).
Or you can spend as much as you want.
If God is calling you to it, you just have to do it.
Homeschooling: is mom qualified?
Through a very specific set of circumstances, I realized my high school diploma,
coupled with my mothers heart made me as qualified as any teacher; even a good teacher
with a masters degree in elementary education.
As long as I am at least one day ahead of my kids (in the lesson plan), I know enough to teach
them that day’s lesson. (There are many ways to handle even the harder high school subjects:
co-ops, on-line classes- again google or bing currclick, taking the harder subject like Science
or Math at a local Christian School, or taking dual credit classes at your local College
and that’s just to name a few.)
Christian schools are a great alternative to public schools, but consider that not all send
their kids to Christian school for a Christian education. Some families only put their children
in Christian school to avoid public school or because they have been thrown out of public school.
Four of my Children have already graduated from our homeschool. I may not have all the answers,
but can point you in the right direction to get those answers. If you want to talk with me,
send me a message.
Do you homeschool? Were any of your reasons similar to mine?
Underthemapleleaves 
