Dear Georgene,

This is just a word intended to stir you up and remind you of some very dear truths that you seem to have been wavering on these past few days.

 Your life will not always be ‘easy’ or as you have ‘planned’ it. You have choices to make in those times. You can either choose to dwell on what you want changed (and be miserable) or you can trust God and be content! Believe me.. you ARE making a choice each and every moment of the day! Will you allow yourself to be discontent or will you make a decision  to trust that He is perfectly and wholly in control of every detail in your life?

(Ahh… therein lies the peace that settles my heart… therein is the soft pillow of rest for my soul. My God is in control! He does not sleep nor slumber. He has not taken off on vacation. He is the ruler of THE universe and my own personal circumstances.)

Nothing, Georgene, including your present circumstances are out of His control. The economy is not in control! The real estate market is not in control. Your husband is not ultimately in control of your family’s decisions. The job market is not in control. All is overseen by the loving hand of your heavenly Father who sovereignly rules  in wisdom, love and power for your good and His glory.

Will you trust His will for your life when your circumstances are not as ‘YOU’ would choose? Do you mistakenly think that you have more wisdom than He to know what is best for you?  Do you believe that He has all power to redeem even your sinful choices and those of others? Whom will you trust to know what is best for you? Yourself or the God who loved you enough to send His one and only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to die in your place for the sins you have and will commit?

Will He not much more give you only what is best each and every day as He weaves together your joys, sorrows, disappointments, blessings into a beautiful tapestry that is purposed to bring Him glory?

Rest in His love for you! Rest in His plan for your life as it unfolds each and every moment of your day!

Signed, (umm…….*S*)

Yourself!!!

 (Thanks self! I needed that! *S*)

Job 42:2.. I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Isa 14:24… “As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,”

Isa 14:27.. the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?

Eph 1:11 -who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Ps 103:19 - The LORD has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.

(Scriptures taken from the new ESV version)

Do you think you’re a good enough person that God would allow you to enter heaven? Here is a test you can take with God’s answer to the question. Be sure to read the entire message. Click on the link below.

 Are you a Good Person?

I’m still reading a page or two of The Tightwad Gazette every night before I go to bed. I started at the beginning and read Amy’s testimony. I haven’t read it for a year and it always inspires me. She was determined to prove that their family could live off of one salary. Her husband’s average salary was less than $30,000 a year.  In less than 7 years they saved 49,000.00. They put a large down payment on a pre-1900 rural farmhouse plus made purchases such as cars, appliances and furniture adding up to $38,000 and were debt free. They saved an average of $12,500 per year or 43% of their gross income.

The one thing I came away from this time as I read her testimony is that the ‘small’ things matter when trying to live on one-income.

I’ve been thinking lately of older women  I know and their practices of frugality. I know quite a few widows living on $600-800 a month who have paid off their homes and have a savings account. As I look around their homes and watch their lifestyle it becomes obvious that they are not ‘spenders’ but ‘stretchers’.

I can’t remember a Christmas where my mother hasn’t sat off to the side of the gift opening frenzy and quietly folded the wrinkled tissue paper,  separated the bows and folded the larger pieces of wrapping paper that haven’t been ripped. She learned this practice from her mother.

Small boxes are another thing my mother has always saved. She never purchased those fancy plastic organizers but would save good, sturdy small boxes to use as dividers in her drawers and larger ones in her closets. This past week I saved a Velveeta box and a few small boxes that my checks came in. It didn’t take long to find a good use for them in one of my bathroom drawers.  Mother always lined hers with shelf paper.

Mother hasn’t bought any rubber bands, safety pins or paperclips for years. She bought a package years ago and saves others that come her way. I also save my rubber bands from the vegetables, buttons from shirts, elastic from pants, etc.  

One thing I must say is that the older women I know who are ‘stretchers’ are NOT hoarders or clutters. They do not have piles and mounds of saved items in their homes. They are very organized. Organization is essential to being a ‘stretcher’.  These women are simplywilling to find ways to make things last and do without more stuff in order to make their money stretch.

I’m realizing more and more that it is a mentality that our generation has pretty much lost.

So, here is what I have done this week to be a ‘stretcher’. I’m trying to practice the mentality  to USE IT UP, DO WITHOUT, MAKE DO, SHOP AT HOME FIRST, MAKE IT LAST and DO INSTEAD OF BUY!

1.  I finally found a use for leftover small slivers of bath soap. It’s always bothered me to just throw them away. I’ve tried putting them in a bottle with water to make hand soap but that was a flop. I read that someone saved their soap and grated the small pieces into their laundry soap. Perfect solution for me since I make homemade laundry soap!

2. My mop broke and I was going to buy a new one when I remembered that my pastors wife shared her secret for mopping floors and exercising at the same time. She takes a wet rag and uses her foot to ‘mop’. I tried this and it works great and you get a good workout at the same time! So, I’m putting off buying a mop for right now.

3. I’m washing out my baggies and tinfoil (not the ones used with meat items or dairy).

4. I need to use up some instant oatmeal so I’m mixing it in my old fashioned oats for my breakfast in the mornings.

5. I use the paper towel cardboard in the middle of the towels to roll my reused tinfoil around and then fasten with a rubber band.

6. I broke my toothpick holder last time we had company. Normally, I would have gone to the Dollar Store and bought a new one but I looked around the house to see ‘what I had in my hand’ and came up with my husband’s medicine bottles. The toothpicks fit perfectly. I also took a metal mint holder (Eclipse Mints) and used that to send toothpicks in my husband’s lunch.

But godliness with contentment is great gain: for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; but having food and covering we shall be therewith content.
1 Tim 6:7-8

 Jonathan Edwards Resolution :

31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution

Copied from Bible Memory.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience —   among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved… Eph 2:1-5

 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…Titus 3:3-5 

 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law…Rom 3:20-21

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,  so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 5:20-21

(Bible Verses are taken from the English Standard Version)

My husband and I don’t drink as much milk now since our children have grown and moved out. But, I think this little discovery will help stretch my food budget anyway. I didn’t write down the source but it may have been Hillbilly Housewife.

Here it is:

I tried this and it works great! We normally drink 1 % milk so I bought 2 % instead and followed the directions above. I couldn’t tell the difference and my husband hasn’t mentioned noticing a change, either! Better yet, my gallon of milk has lasted so much longer.

I’ve been reading a page or two of The Tightwad Gazette at night right before I go to bed. I was very encouraged by the author’s testimony. She made it her goal to ‘save instead of buy’. So, I started thinking that I would make that my goal, too! I’ve made it my goal this last week to see how many ways I can not spend money throughout my day. I left lights off that I normally use ($ saved on electricity), I hung my clothes on drying racks ($ saved on electricity), made wood fires to avoid using the heater and I  had dinner made at home instead of buying dinner in town.

Use it up: I have a favorite chapstick that was running low. I was going to buy a new one but decided to check my bathroom drawers and see if I had an old one and I did. So, I used it instead and saved myself the price of buying a new chapstick. I’m learning to MAKE DO and USE UP what I have on hand. It’s normally a brand that I didn’t like and set it aside.

Do instead of buy:  I had a small toothpick holder that I dropped and broke a few weeks ago.  I kept the toothpicks next to my stove so that they are handy to test cakes. I didn’t want to spend money for a new holder so I began thinking what I had on hand that would hold the toothpicks. I realized a pill bottle was about the same size. It worked and it didn’t cost me a penny.

Have a great weekend!
Georgene

If you look very close at the lovely grey haired beauty above you will see one of the truest examples around of a Titus 2 woman! And if you listen very closely you will hear Jesus spilling out through her words and actions to everyone she meets.

I met Sister Ellis over 20 years ago at a little country church. She was the WM (Women’s Missions) leader and met with a group of ladies each Friday. Her little group made quilts for missionaries and the needy in our church and community. Sister Ellis is 87 years old and continues to hold these meetings in her home every friday! Imagine that! How many 87 year olds do you know that are actively serving Christ?

If I were to list all that I’ve learned from Sister Ellis the list would be very long. If I had to pick just one thing it would be the fact that she has enlarged my own personal picture of a Titus Two woman. Sister Ellis loves her own children and grandchildren. Her family and home are very important to her and she does not neglect them. But, her service to the Lord does not stop with her family. She also uses her home as a outpouring of ministry to those in her neighborhood, church and beyond. If we look at all the scriptures describing the duties of a godly woman you will surely see that it not only includes her husband, children, home but she is also commanded to use her gifts in her own church body, to make disciples, to feed the hungry and help the poor, to visit the orphans and widows in their distress, care for the affliction and show hospitality. (This list is not exhaustive to say the least.) She is to be known by others as being a woman of ‘good works’. (1 Timothy 5:9-10, James 1:27, 1 Cor. 12, Mt. 28:19-20) 

Sister Ellis rarely leaves her home, except for family and church functions, yet her influence has reached around the world. Many of us lovingly refer to her home as the ‘hospitality house’. You never know who will show up to visit her in a days time. No matter when you stop by you will always be welcomed to sit down for a cup of coffee and a homemade goodie. 

The Apostle Paul once mentioned that there were few that cared about the interests of Christ. Sister Ellis cares about the interests of others.

They all seek their own interests ,not those of Jesus Christ. Phil 2:21

Let each of you look not only to his own interests , but also to the interests of others. Phil 2:4

I found this quote in a book called, All the Women of the Bible. It reminds me so much of Sister Ellis and all I hope to be in Christ.

“.. it is encouraging to know that there are those Christian women – spinsters, wives and mothers – who strive to keep themselves unspotted from the world. Books are not written about their true love, loyalty, sacrifice and uncomplaining days. These precious women are writing their history in the lives of those around them whom they love and serve. Although often weary in their task – for theirs is no forty-hour week job – they are never weary OF their task. They spend their lives unknown by the world in their narrow circle of their home within which they labor unceasingly for God and others, but they will not lose their reward. God’s eye is upon them as they live out their lives in the orbit of His will amid all the cares, trials and sorrows of the home. One day, when the books are opened, their devotion will be commended by Him who sees and knows all.”

I’m still using the free bible memory program online called BIBLE MEMORY. The verse I am practicing is:

Isaiah 55:8-9.. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I absolutely love this program!  I customized my own bible memory program to include the scriptures I want to learn. You can also just use the ones that the program already has assigned. Each day you receive an email with one scripture to practice. There will be a word missing and you try to fill it in. You continue practicing it until you can fill in all the blanks. It’s such an easy, effortless way to memorize scripture. After I practice my verse each day I click on over to the homepage and read Jonathan Edwards Resolution for the day, read the specific prayer request for the President (and say a prayer for him) and check on the weather in my area. This year I need to remember and review the previous scriptures I’ve memorized.

We live in California and the rains are really coming down hard the past few days! We’ve had 3 storms back to back. Today they let up for a short while so I ran to the corner market to buy a gallon of milk, picked up our mail at the little country post office and then headed back home. My husband and I brought about a 1/4 cord of firewood up to the house. That should give us enough to keep the house warm for a few days. Hubbins has a nice fire going in the family room.

I love to cook on stormy days. I had some potatoes that needed to be used up so I decided to make a pot of Potato and Corn Chowder.  It was so good! My husband said that he wants it for dinner, too!  I found the recipe at Recipezaar which is the best place I’ve found to hunt for recipes. Each recipe is rated by people who have actually tried them. I only try recipes with 5 stars.

Here she is:

Corn and Potato Chowder

I’m going to spend an hour working on a new housekeeping schedule for this coming year. I’ve been using FLYLADY for a long time. It works great but I’m ready to try something new. Grannyfox has a new schedule that looks interesting. I’m going to check out a few others while I’m at it. I already have a notebook for my housekeeping so I need to pull that out to see what changes need to be made.

Are any of you gals working on your housekeeping schedule for the year? I find I do better if I have a plan. How about you?

Hugs,

Georgene