Our pastor’s sermon this morning was out of Ephesians 2 and was titled “Was I So Bad?”

Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

I was dead, but God loved me anyway.

The whole time all I could keep thinking of was the night I accepted Christ. Yes, I was that bad that God had to send His precious Son to die for me. I was that bad. And He still saved me.

I love the way the song God Saves Old Sinners is written:

The drunk on the street, the rich in the palaces
The poor and unlearned and the men of degree
They all have a soul in need of salvation
And they all have to come by Calvary

I am so glad God saves old sinners
I’m thrilled and amazed how He sets them free
But the biggest surprise in redeeming old sinners
Is that He could save an old sinner like me

Was I so bad that I needed forgiveness
Was I so wrong I had to be redeemed
Well, I wasn’t a thief yet I lived in sin’s prison
So I was wrong as a sinner could be

I am so glad God saves old sinners
I’m thrilled and amazed how He sets them free
But the biggest surprise in redeeming old sinners
Is that He could save an old sinner like me

Yes, I was so bad that I needed a Savior. I’m so glad He chose to come and die for me, even though I don’t deserve it!

Just wondering here. . .does anyone do much freezer cooking? I’d like to start doing more, to get food put back for when this little one arrives. I’m just not sure what to put up, and am a little limited on energy at the moment too. ;O)

We have a huge upright freezer but will be downsizing to a somewhat smaller one because this one doesn’t work that well. Instead of stocking up on huge 9×13 casserole size dishes, I’d like to put some components up – like cooked taco meat, cooked and seasoned ground beef, etc. because they’ll take up a little less room than a bigger dish would.

In the past, I’ve done pizzas (make crust ahead of time, assemble, then freeze), chicken and broccoli casserole, lasagna, shepherd’s pie, and I forget what else.

What are your favorite freezer meals? Got any good sites to link to?

Thanks so much!!!!

Watching the Army band concert

Getting balloon animals at the concert

Playing the crane my dad made for my brother 25+ years ago

Grandpa and Anna

Cousins

Having a tea party with Grammy’s tea set

This is too funny. . .he had way too much fun!

Anna LOVED her ice cream!

Samuel decided to have his own “yard sale.” Here he is watching his sale, hoping for customers

The tags he made for each item

Explaining to me the price of each item at his sale

Being a great big brother and cousin. With Grandpa’s help, he actually pulled the girls all the way around the block.

Our trip was wonderful and we have a lot of good memories!

Last week we took a last-minute whirlwind trip to see my family in Michigan. It was wonderful seeing family again.

We got home late last night after getting stuck on the interstate for over an hour due to an accident. I’m just thankful we weren’t in that accident. We’re tired, the kids are too, and it is a lot warmer here in SC than it was back in MI. But I’m glad we went. My mom, sister-in-law, and I went to a bunch of garage sales, we took the kids to an Army band concert, Mom had a ton of extended family over, we had to take Anna to the ER (she’s fine now), and we visited the church I grew up in. It was a short trip but it was really nice to be back again for a little while.

Now. . .back to our regular schedule. . .and hopefully there’s some rest in it somewhere. Our garden is about to explode and it looks like there will be lots of canning needing to be done in the next couple weeks.

So. . .off to get more done before piano students start coming through the house. I am SO glad to be home!!!

This is the first project I’ve tried to make out of the Little Girls, Big Style book. It was very easy to make and went together really quickly. The hardest part about it was deciding on the fabrics to use.

I’ve made peasant dresses before, but it was nice to just trace a pattern this time instead of having to draw and measure and redraw and hope I had the right size like I’ve had to do before.

This was the first time I’d tried to really mix and match fabrics. I think it works ok on this dress, but for the next one I’d really like to head to the quilt store and pick a couple fabrics from the same line. Too bad that doesn’t always work with stash sewing though (which was what this dress was).

This particular dress is a size 3, though Anna’s measurements were closer to a 2. There is plenty of room in it for her to grow, which is what I was hoping for.

I love the book, the way it’s written, and the patterns. I’m excited about sewing more from it!

Today there were two new books in the mail.

Large Family Logistics has been on my to-get list for quite a while now. Their website was very helpful to me several years ago, so I was looking forward to reading the book once it came out. A lot of the info seems to be the same as what’s on the website, but it is so nice to have a copy that I don’t have to be sitting at the computer to read.

Little Girls, Big Style. . . .This book. . .oh my. A friend on an online forum recommended it, and I LOVE it so far! The projects are so easy to understand – which seems like it will make them go quicker, and they are so CUTE! I am absolutely itching to start sewing some of the projects for Anna. It is also making me want to go to our local quilt shop, but I’m trying to postpone that trip because they have SO much in there it’s easy to spend a fortune.

The pictures above link to the books on Amazon. I’m not an Amazon affiliate or anything, but thought it would be easier for those interested to learn more about the books to do so that way.

Stay tuned for more about the books. . .I’m sure I’ll post pictures of any of the sewing projects, at least. . .

Brushing bees off a frame of honey so we can take it in the house

We harvested more honey over the weekend. It was probably the last super we will take off the hive for the year. They’re still bringing in a good bit of pollen, but we want to make sure the hive has enough honey stores to make it through the winter.

Here you can see the different colors of honey we’ve gotten from the same hive. It’s amazing the color difference, but the flavor difference is pretty drastic too. The darker honey is very strong flavored, and the lighter honey is very mild. We prefer the lighter ourselves.

This is the amount of honey we got from the first super of honey I blogged about a couple weeks ago. We now have the bucket filled again, and we need to get some more jars so we can bottle it as well.

What absolutely blows me away is that most of this honey is spoken for already. It’s amazing how once people find out you’re a beekeeper, how quickly they line up to buy the honey. Stephen said he has a customer at work who wants an entire gallon of honey! I’m not sure if we’ll have enough for her to get an entire gallon, but we’ll see.

Stephen also got some really neat pictures when he was examining the hives. I like this one – he took it right after he removed a couple of frames to examine them.

Can you find the queen in this picture? She’s the bigger, lighter colored bee right in the center.

Building new comb:

I love beekeeping!