Wendy's Wanderings

1/4/08

Today Kayla, Maddie and I read from Genesis about Noah, his sons, and the tower of Babel. We are attempting to read through the bible in a year, together. We then went to Sam’s club where Maddie spied a “Groovy Girl” set on sale for 10.37. It was regularly 24.97. Since they had about 35 boxes on hand, I convinced Maddie that if she waited a few days the price would probably go down more. I also decided that I need to take the girls through a bible study about how to be good stewards of their money. It seems that as soon as one has money in one’s pocket, so begins the battle for choosing to love God more than money and what it can buy. I am looking into some Larry Burkett material.

After buying vegetarian fed organic eggs (2.84 for 18) and 2 gallons of nonfat milk (about 2.00 gallon) at Sam’s Club, we drove over to Valley Foods. Here we picked up about 7 pounds of very fresh and tender green beans (2 lbs for 1.00). I will freeze some of them. We also picked up about 8 lbs of apples. Kayla and Maddie are going to make homemade apple sauce today. We got the apples for about 2.00 as they were marked down due to some bruising. We also picked up several pounds of delicious seedless tangerines (2 lbs for 1.00). Since we are cutting way back on our sugar consumption, I have notices a much greater desire to eat fresh fruit.

Next, we walked over the Fashion Sol. Maddie purchased a very cute yellow sun top for 3.00. By this time Allison had to go the bathroom and it was beginning to rain, so we headed home.

After we had a lunch of left over beef soup with some rice, I began tackling my ever present pile of laundry. Kayla and Maddie washed and began to peel the apples with potato peelers. We decided they could put down a sheet in the office and listen to Paw’s and Tales on the internet while they peeled the apples. We have found that www.oneplace.com is a very good resource for free Christian audio programs of all sorts for all sorts of audiences. About half-way through the apple peeling the girls started to whine a bit and want to quit. I encouraged them to be diligent and follow through with the task they had started. By the end of the job, they had become quite proficient at using a peeler.

While folding laundry I had Allison and David sitting at the table to have some Pomegranate 7-up. It was a new flavor, so I folded when they asked to try it at the store. It was on sale for 99 cents, so I said “sure”. Lately Allison and David have been fighting quite a bit. Because of David’s younger age & communication deficit, I encouraged Allison that she has a greater responsibility to decline the invitation to sin against God in fighting with her brother. As I was putting another load of laundry in in the garage I could see her sitting at the table, not declining, but accepting the invitation to sin and bicker with David. As she caught my eye, she knew she was doing wrong and was “caught”. I came in and signed to David to be nice to his sister and “don’t fight”. I turned to Allison and asked her what it is that she wants so badly that she is willing to sin against God and fight with David. She said she just wants her way when David wants his way. I got out my book Proverbs For Parenting and I read to her Proverbs 16:7: When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. We talked about what this verse meant in her situation and then I asked her to practice it until she knew it by heart.

Since our gas & electric bill was very high last month, Tim has asked me to be more careful with being wasteful with these commodities. Since then I have used the heater much less and been trying to keep all the unused lights off in the house. I wear socks on my feet, and put on a sweatshirt and this helps a lot with the cold.

Yesterday I took the kids to the Glendale Galleria. First time I have been in over 10 years. I was so disappointed to see all the immodest displays there. They were actually promoting a show called “How to Look Good Naked” or something like that. They were handing out DVDs promoting the show and I watched in surprise as they handed one out to a perplexed little girl no more than 5 years old in front of us. As we walked by they approached me and attempted to give me a packet. I said “no, thank you” in a firm but polite manner. I walked forward more and turned around to check if all my little chicks were behind me and I saw a gal trying to give Allison (5) something. I said more firmly this time, “No, Thank you!” I am not a real quick thinker, but later wished I had asked these women how they could promote something so inappropriate to young children. Also, a warming about a store called "Hollister", please avoid it! I have never seen such a disgusting display. Without getting too graphic it shows much more of the male anatomy than any God fearing person would ever want to see. It is a good idea to sit one's family down before going to the mall and prepare them for what they might see. We have a policy to “look away and pray”. Our prayer is for His kingdom to come and save us from our (humanity’s) own perverse hearts….

Tonight we will have Korean Bar-B-Que, courtesy of my wonderfully generous friend Miyon, and a wonderful green vegetable I discovered at Super King market. I believe it is called Mangda. Apparently it is loaded with vitamins. I asked a lady at the market about it and she said “It has too much vitamins. Oh, too many vitamins!” We will also have fresh pineapple which I picked up for 1.00 at Valley Foods. I had found a great pineapple corer, sliced gadget at a garage sale a few months ago for .50 cents. It makes serving fresh pineapple a snap!

Well that’s all for now! We are going to work on the older girl’s book reports. And finish that pile of laundry. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all you creatures here below.

PS: We are now enjoying a sampling of about a gallon of fresh, sugar free, homemade applesauce, all for $2.00, plus the girls learned a lesson in cooking, diligence, resourcefulness and enjoying the fruit of one's labors!