God gave us even more food at church last night! I am so humbled. We had one pound of ground beef left in the freezer, so I had decided to save it for a nicer meal. I was just thinking the other day how nice it would be to have more ground beef (or venison – we eat a lot of ground venison burger, and we use it interchangably with ground beef). I told myself to be content with the meat we do have in the freezer, and promptly forgot about it.

Last night at church a lady came up to me and told me that she had put a care package of meat in our van. Woo hoo! In it was 6 packages of ground venison burger, a package of sausage, a package of sliced ham, and a package of pork chops. Several families at our church have had pigs slaughtered, and many of them have shared some of the meat with us. It is such a blessing!

…was incredible! Because this is the 2006 Year of Revival at Pilgrim Baptist, we had Dr. Phil Kidd come preach Saturday night and Sunday. He is an amazing preacher. I had only heard him on tape, so hearing him in person this weekend was a real treat.

We had 5 people saved yesterday! It’s been amazing to watch as God is moving at our church. Preacher Holbrooks mentioned that God will do amazing things this year, and it’s already been very true. I told Stephen on the way home last night that I can’t wait to see what all God has planned for the church this coming year. Wow.

Each year I make tons and tons of Christmas cookies, and freeze the extras for us to enjoy throughout the year. The other day, Stephen wanted some cookies, so he got a bag from the freezer.

When we left the bag sitting on the kitchen counter, I didn’t think a thing of it.

Today I was working on something and had my back turned to Little man. He came running to me, saying, “Cookie! Cookie!” He brought me the bag as if to ask, “Mama, can I have a cookie?” I told him no, and to go put the bag back on the counter. Then I turned around to continue what I was doing.

The next thing I know, I hear “Mmmmm” coming from the hallway.

Little man decided he didn’t want to wait after all and helped himself to some cookies! Thankfully, the cookies were only about an inch long, and there were only a couple left in the bag.

I learned my lesson: Don’t keep ziploc bags of cookies out on the kitchen counter! LOL!

It is so nice outside! My windows are open today. It’s so warm (my Weatherbug says 63 right now) that I just went outside with a t-shirt and flip flops on.

Absolutely gorgeous weather for February. The violets are blooming already too…they’re a bit early, but I’ll enjoy them anyways.

…and it’s not even 4pm yet!

The day started with Stephen telling me that the new owner of the Taurus was coming by today to pick it up (it’s been this family’s car for a while, but they’ve not had a chance to come get it yet). I figured that was no big deal. I laughingly told Stephen that with them coming this morning, and with lessons this afternoon, that today would be the day that our property manager would call saying she had someone who wanted to see the house.

Then the phone rang. It was a business Stephen had applied for in Indiana, calling him to arrange for an interview! YAY! We are very disappointed though; they want him to work every other Sunday. Not gonna happen.

So I called my mom to tell her. I figure people calling about Stephen is a good thing – even if the terms of the job don’t work out.

While I was on the phone with her, the line beeped. It was our property manager. She had someone who wanted to come by the house this morning. (poetic justice, or what?) And by the way – they would be at the house in 30 minutes.

While I was on the phone with her, the line beeped again. It was the family coming to get the car. “We’re leaving right now.”

Aarrgghh! Mass confusion!

The lady coming out to look at the house was late, and didn’t actually end up gettin in the house until noon – an hour later. Oh well. The property manager told me that she liked the house and picked up a renter’s application.

So now we wait. (again) Hopefully this lady’s background checks will come back good and we’ll have a tenant soon!

There’s a photo gallery here now. I was adding a gallery for Stephen’s farm blog, and I thought that I’d add it here too. Then while I was at it, I figured I’d add the garden gallery here too.

Farm Gallery

Garden Gallery

This is the before picture of our pantry. I didn’t bother to photograph the upper shelves because they just have canisters on them. We were almost out of food. I had been making a grocery list, but hadn’t had a chance to make it to the grocery store yet. Sunday morning, I prayed that God would provide for us.

Sunday night, a friend came up to me and told me to meet her after church because she had something for me in her car.

She had cleaned out her pantry and brought me all of this food! One other thing that’s not in the picture is the cooler full of meat that she brought me. Wow.

This is the after picture of our pantry. It amazes me how God provided. One thing that I think is so neat: we were almost out of rice (we eat a lot of rice). One of the bags of food had a 10-lb bag of rice. Isn’t that cool?

Then, we had a ladies’ meeting at church Monday night. This same friend pulled me aside again, telling me to meet her out at her car. She had brought me another bag of food, and another cooler full of meat. Again, God provided something we were out of. We had just used the rest of the pancake syrup on Little man’s breakfast that morning. Wouldn’t you know it – in that bag was a bottle of syrup! God sure knows our needs…and syrup isn’t even a need…

This was such a blessing. I just wanted to share it with everyone!

I called our property manager today to see if she had any updates for us. We wanted to know if anyone had expressed interest in our home.

She told us that there had been a lot of interest (yay!), and that she had just given directions to someone to drive by the house right before I called. That was kind of a weird feeling – to know that a potential tenant might drive by and see me in my home. Eeehhh. Gives me the willies! I don’t like the feeling that I’m being watched. That said, I want people to come out here. We want people to see the house and like it.

The property manager also told me that she had one lady who was really interested, but the lady wanted to pay $100 less a month than we’re asking. I don’t think so – at that price, we wouldn’t even break even. Not smart. But that’s why I’m thankful for a property manager. She handles all that stuff, and then we don’t have to be the “mean one.” Makes life a lot easier.

So now I continue doing what I’ve been doing: pray for a tenant to come soon.

I got an email earlier this week from a friend of mine from Lincoln Lake. I haven’t talked to her in ages! We used to write all the time, but when we each got married, letters got few and far between.

In my reply, I asked her if she had heard that I got saved in ’04. (yes, I think it has been that long since we’ve corresponded) I didn’t go into details in that email, but then I got another email from an email list I’m on. The topic: What has God done for you? One lady shared her testimony, and it was so similar to mine that I just had to share my testimony. By the way, if you haven’t read my testimony, you can read it here.

As I typed out a shortened version of my testimony, I was just overwhelmed at what God has done for me. Tears came to my eyes – I am constantly amazed at how He saved me! I never realized just how heavy that burden I was carrying really was until it was gone. Wow.

Now, I love to share my testimony. In some ways, I enjoy the shock factor of it – the “What? What do you mean you got saved? I thought you already were!” Both Stephen and I were so immersed in doing, doing, doing, and there are a lot of people who never suspected that we weren’t really saved. I really enjoy being able to share with people who I’ve known for a long time, and be able to share with them what God has done for me.

Again I am amazed at how amazing our God is…

This just struck me as hilarious, so I wanted to share it.

Yesterday, Stephen went into the bathroom so he could get ready for the day. Little man waited just long enough for the door to close before he started his I’ve-gotta-go-to-the-bathroom-now dance. I yelled to Stephen, “Quick – get him on the potty!”

Stephen opened the door and went to unsnap Little man’s overalls so he could remove the diaper and set him on the toilet, but his diaper was already off. Somehow he managed to get his diaper off – without unsnapping his pants. His diaper was in the leg of his pants. The only thing I can think of is he got his hands inside the bib of his overalls and took his diaper off that way.

What a little goof! I’m a little afraid of what he’ll think of next…