I had a pile of clothes to fold today. As I stood there folding, it hit me. I’m folding clothes with joy!

God has really been teaching me so much about what kind of wife and mother I am to be. He has been convicting me of laziness when I spend too much time on the computer, and convicting me of a bad attitude when I complain to myself that Stephen isn’t helping me. (Why should he? He works all day – he does not need to come home to more work that I should have done in the first place!)

I won’t say that I’m perfect – I’m so far from there! But it’s been so neat to watch as God has been changing how I see things – my attitude especially.

But still – JOY? Really? Me?

Isn’t it neat?????

Stephen told me when he got home today that gas had gone up to $2.89 overnight. Now I’m just wondering how high it will get before it’s all over with.

Oh my goodness. Gas is at a total premium right now, isn’t it? We went over to Mom and Dad’s for the evening, and on the way home we passed a gas station. Now, we don’t usually gas up there, because it’s usually $.02 or so more than the gas station up the road.

Gas there was $2.79. It was in the $2.40′s this morning. Well, sometimes, the station up the road (a Hot Spot gas station) still hasn’t raised their prices, so we went to go see. When we got there, regular was still $2.38. We drove around to find a pump…and noticed that the only gas in the entire place was premium gas! They were out of both regular and midgrade.

Before we drove off with an empty tank (in the van, no less, with me driving 3 hours coming this Friday), we decided to check the price for premium gas. We figured if it was below the $2.79 of the other station, we were still doing good. Stephen went to pump gas, and discovered that the price of premium gas was $2.38! We filled the van up. $49 for a tank of gas. I know to some, that might not sound bad, but to us…after filling up on a regular basis for only $20, sometimes $30, it was still a shock. I’m afraid of what the gas prices will look like by the end of the week.

I’m very thankful that we were able to get the gasoline so cheaply. Premium at this station has been running $2.60, so this was nice. Our timing was good too. That parking lot was absolutely packed when we left.

Then, on the way home, we started to notice a knocking sound in Betsy the van’s floorboard. I could have cried! I’m meeting my Hannah girls on Friday! I have to have a vehicle to get there! But upon listening to the location, and when I heard the knocking, I told Stephen that I thought it sounded like the muffler was loose. Wouldn’t you know it, when we got home, that was the exact problem! I, Melody, figured out a car problem before Stephen did!!!!!!! Wonders never cease!

And the blessing in that situation is that we’ll be able to coat-hanger the muffler for a temporary fix.

As soon as we got home, Stephen took the rest of the cash I had and took the Geo back to the gas station to see if he could top off his tank for the lower price. I’m pretty sure they’ll run out of gas anytime now, they were so full, but we wanted to try and see.

And as for the cash – I had to run to Walmart today for some things. I paid by debit as I usually do, but when the Cash Back screen came up it beeped before I could click the “no cash” option. Apparently, the little stylus that I was holding in my hand hit the $100 button!!!!! I was shocked! Thankfully, we had the money in that account, so we won’t overdraft, but I was really upset that it happened at all. The cashier told me it happens a lot with that machine, but that sure didn’t make me happy it happened to me! I decided on the way home to just keep the cash instead of re-deposit it into our account. I figured we could just pay cash for gas this week. I guess keeping the cash out was a good idea.

Stephen just got back. He was able to get gas, but it still cost $17 for his little bitty car – and it was still fairly full. I guess I should be thankful we don’t live in a state where gas is more expensive. I will choose to be thankful! But I will say – I’m not going anywhere for the rest of the week, except church tomorrow night, and the mall on Friday to meet my Hannah girls!

When I played for the funeral last week, I did not expect to be paid. I’m still fairly new to how things are done here in the South, so I figured I wouldn’t worry about itl. Then, at the funeral, I didn’t play very long, so when it was all over, I thought, “Well, that wasn’t very much playing – nothing really to get paid for.”

Lest you think I am materialistic…this is part of the life of a musician. When there are weddings, or funerals, or other events that require music, musicians always wonder who is playing. When I hear of an upcoming wedding, I wonder who the pianist is. I have always wondered. In a way, it’s as if I’m trying to somewhat mentally prepare for an event. “Will I need to be at the rehearsal?” “Will I need to practice?” Questions of this sort always come to mind. I enjoy playing for special events, and I’m always curious who the musicians will be.

Well, the funeral went as expected, and I came home and pretty much forgot about it.

Tonight at church, one of the family members (a friend of mine, and the one who had requested that I play for the funeral) handed me a card and thanked me. I told her it was no big deal to play. I really didn’t mind.

When I opened the card later, tears came to my eyes. They had paid me. More than I expected. But it was such a blessing…at a time when money is tight, and there are many things on our grocery list…and God chooses to use someone in this manner to provide for us.

I really didn’t expect it. It was such an incredible blessing.

We’re making a list, and checking it over, and over, and over, and over…

We’re ordering new chickens! Yay! We’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but we’ve been waiting until we finish our new coop first. See, the demand for our eggs is really increasing, and we’re having a hard time keeping up with demand, and still having eggs left over for ourselves. (Small problem, right?) Our current coop is devided in half, with one rooster in each side with his own batch of hens. One of the groups isn’t laying. They’re a little older birds, and they just don’t lay well in general. So our plan is to butcher that group of hens, since they don’t lay. We’ve been wanting to put some more chicken in the freezer anyways. Then, we’ll order some young hens (purebred this time), and raise them. So far, we haven’t decided exactly which breed we want. Well, we have (Buff Orpingtons), but the company we’ll be ordering from requires that you select a 2nd and 3rd choice in the event that they don’t have the right breed. And we can’t decide what breed to choose as our 2nd and 3rd choices.

Stephen is coming along well on the new coop too. So we’ll butcher Red’s group of hens, move him out, and then put the new hens in there until Stephen can get the new coop completely done. We’ll leave Mr. Mack’s group alone, since they’re our good layers. (Mr. Mack and Red are our roosters)

We hope to have them ordered this week, but we’ll see. I took this picture today of a dozen of our eggs. Aren’t they beautiful?

While Stephen was taking some pictures of me today for my Skirts page, I had him take a couple pictures of me holding Little man while we were both dressed for church. He got a couple of really good shots! My favorite, though, is the one where he’s laughing.

As our children learn and grow, there are several things that we will be working on with them. Little man is 16 months old, and we’re starting to teach him Scripture memory by using short verses. I realize that right now, he can’t say all the words yet. That’s ok. But he learned to sing The B-I-B-L-E by hearing it over and over, so he can learn verses that way as well.

An HP friend of mine sent me this list one time (thanks Anne!), and these verses are what we’re starting with.

All we like sheep have gone astray Is 53:6
But He was wounded for our transgressions Is 53:5
Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right Eph 6:1
Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you Ja 4:8
Even a child is known by his doings Pr 20:11
For the wages of sin is death…(you can finish this one out) Rom 6:23
God is our refuge and strength Ps 46:1
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…Ps 23:2
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. Jn 14:14
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever Heb 13:8
Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile Ps 34:13
Look unto Me and be saved…Is 45:22
My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. Jn 10:27
Now is Christ risen from the dead. 1 Cor 15:20
Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good…Ps 118:1
Put on the whole armor of God,…Eph 6:11
Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5:19
Remember now thy Creator in the days of the youth. Eccl 12:1
Sing to the Lord, bless His name… Ps 96:2
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart…Pr 3:5
Unto you therefore who believe, He is precious. 1 Pet 2:7
eVening and morning and at noon I will pray. Ps 55:17
We love Him because He first loved us. 1 Jn 4:19
eXalt the Lord our God…Psalm 99:5
You are the light of the world. Matt 5:14
Z-they have for Zacchaeus…learning the story, not really a verse.

This is the devotional that I gave today at the God’s Ideal Woman class. It’s just my outline, but I wanted to share it because I learned even more about it while I was studying.

Becoming a Proverbs 31 Woman
Proverbs 31:10-12

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

I wonder if Proverbs 31 women were hard to find in Solomon’s day, because he says, “who can find?”

Rubies of great size are rarer and more valuable than diamonds. Does that mean that virtuous women, though very valuable, are very rare?

11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

She is trustworthy. Her husband trusts that she will manage their house well, instead of ruining him and his testimony

If not married, ladies need to treat their parents as they would their husbands. It is just as important that a woman’s parents be able to trust her. This includes not just obedience, but keeping her word (where she’s going, when she’ll be back, keeping promises)

12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Regardless of her circumstances, she is to do him good. Like the saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” She strives to build up her mate so he can become the man God intends him to be.

If she is not married, her actions need to honor her parents. Ladies with a bad testimony who are living at home can bring her family a bad name as well.

She doesn’t get in the way of what God is doing in his life. She lets God work.

I just got home from another God’s Ideal Woman class. Those are so much fun! Last time we met, we took the girls to the craft store to pick out aprons. Today we decorated them. It was so neat to watch each of the girls, because each apron suited their personalities.

As I write this, I hear Stephen’s growling in the next room, and squeals of laughter from Little man. He just loves it when his daddy acts crazy, and I love hearing the laughter!

This is just the neatest concept! I wrote a bit about it on my You Don’t Wear Pants? page. It all started with one blogger putting out a call to other ladies to post pictures of themselves in modest dress throughout the week.

I’ve been checking out some of the links to blogs posted, and it has been really fun to see what other ladies wear. I’m really enjoying it tonight, because I’m getting ideas for new clothes for me to make.

It’s getting late, so I’m going to turn the computer off now and get ready for bed. I hope to post some more pictures of me in modest dress.