"Return on His Investment"

This morning, as I was cutting up a pineapple for us to eat today before it went bad, I started to consider the leftovers in the fridge that needed to be thrown out and the leftovers I had thrown out earlier this week.  Such a waste!  Such poor stewardship!  I started adding up in my head how much money was quite literally going in the trash.  I couldn't help but think about how that money could have been used to feed other people.  For $38 a child can be fed for a month through Compassion.  I'll have thrown out about $10 of food this week alone.

Then the Parable of the Bags of Gold came to mind.

Matthew 25:14-30

14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The man who hid the money and gave it all back was wicked and cast from the sight of his master.  How much worse must it be to throw the Master's money away!!!!  That is what we do when we waste what the Lord has given us.  You see, the money we have isn't ours.  It ALL belongs to the Lord!!!  He gives each as He sees fit, but he expects us to be faithful and give Him a "return on His investment."  

There are so many ways to waste His money besides just throwing food away.  He promises to provide for all of our needs, and I don't believe He minds when we spend time together building relationships and enjoying ourselves, but when we live outside of our means and start living on debt, we waste away His money with the interest we pay.  Blowing money on yet ANOTHER "toy" is a waste as well.  A smartphone is an absolute NEED because a basic flip phone isn't good enough, right?  And apparently, for a teenager, that $200 phone with the $70 a month phone plan is something they can't live without ...

But where is His "return on investment" in all of these things?  So often we say that we wish we had more to give, all the while finding it so tempting to waste so much.  It must the "flesh and blood" thing and the "need and want" thing.

So here is the challenge I am taking:  Each time I find myself throwing food out, I am going to take the time to add up the cost of that food.  Then each week I am going to remove it from my grocery budget and put it in a jar for His work.  If the next week I still throw food away, I will start removing that additional amount of money from my budget as well until there is no more food waste.

I am excited to see how much work can be done for His glory through this simple act of waste cutting!  I may not see the "interest" until I one day kneel at His feet, but it excites me just the same! 

The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus!

When I hear this song I am amazed at where I am now and where I was just a few years ago.  I thank and praise the Lord of Hosts for His deep and unimaginable love, forgiveness, and redemption!!!

Death of a Friend

A friend of mine died of a brain aneurysm around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  He was buried today.  I've never had a friend my age die.  He was just 3 or 4 years older than my husband.  His wife is left to raise two high schoolers and two elementary children alone.  Three of them are boys.  I talked to her this evening on the phone.  She's exhausted.  We talked.  We laughed.  We cried for about ten seconds.  She's too tired to cry and I can't expect a widow to carry my grief over the death of her husband.  His 24-year-old son from his first marriage is moving down to help his step-mother and his siblings.

My friend was a Christian.  He was a real person.  Not phony.  He was who he was and he was wonderful.  My husband and I loved him.  And now he has gone home.  His wife is trusting the Lord to provide.  And He already has.  His employer paid the over $10,000 for his funeral and is going to pay for his family's health insurance for 6-8 months while she sets up life without him.  His burial plot was given to them by the church.  I know He will carry them through.

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
   extol him who rides on the clouds;
   rejoice before him - his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling.

                                ~Psalm 68:4-5~

An Example for Christians on Giving ... by Creator of the Simpsons

Sam Simon is dying from cancer and is giving his fortune away.  "He founded his eponymous charity in 2011, an organization that provides food for families in need, spays and neuters cats and dogs for free and trains service dogs to help vets who are hard of hearing.  He established the nonprofit entirely with is own funds and the organization does not accept public donations, according tot he charity's website."

I don't know if he is a Christian or not, but the last two paragraph are an amazing lesson for Christians who give money grudgingly, give only the tithe they believe is required of them (if you study the Law of the OT, Jews actually gave away 1/3 of their income, but that's for another time), or don't give at all:

As for what's motivated Simon to give so gernerously, he says that's pretty simple.

"One thing is, I get pleasure from it," he told the Hollywood Reporter.  "I love it.  I don't feel like it is an obligation."

He gets pleasure from it.  "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remember the words of the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to GIVE than to receive.'" ~Acts 20:35

He doesn't feel it is an obligation. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a CHEERFUL giver." ~2 Corinthians 9:7

Is there really anything else to say?

IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!

Okay ... I get a bit excited when school books arrive.  But as I've already admitted,

I have an addiction.

As much as I enjoy pulling out the books that my previous children have used, new ones in the mail are just joyous!!

I have more coming, but this is what arrived yesterday.  I've spent yesterday afternoon and this morning doing lesson plans for the new ones so we're all set to go in a couple weeks.

Let's see ... for my SENIOR we stuck with Power Basics.  Physics worked wonderfully for us last year.  It was enough to give him a good understand of the basic fundamentals of physics without overwhelming him.  I strongly suggest these for those amazing children who are busily conquering mountains!  This year we will be doing Chemistry and School to Career.  According to CBD.com, it,

"Give students the skills they need to succeed on the job!"

• Helps students transition from school to career
• Provides helpful information to assist students in getting a job
• Covers the skills needed for success on the job
• Addresses workplace communication, evaluations, and challenges

I spent an hour going through it.  I'm going to use this with my other children when they get older.  It gives a lot of practical advice and the workbook activities present possible situations for the student to consider and learn how to respond in order to prepare them for the workforce.  I can't wait to use it!

Our senior will also be doing Math-U-See's Stewardship (he did great in MUS Geometry and wanted to stick with their program).  Again, spent time looking through it and I wish I had something like this before entering the real world.  I love that there is a devotional for each lesson to teach the Biblical principles along with the "mathy" practical side.

The senior is also doing Easy Grammar again, a tried and true staple,  but we are trying the Progeny Press study guide for The Scarlet Letter.  I am interested to see how this works for him.  I am really hoping that we will be able to do three more books for a more rounded out English IV.  I want him to know that he CAN do this.  We're going to take a full quarter for the book.  I may have our 8th grader do it as well later on, but I believe he'll be able to do it in about 3-4 weeks.  We've never had a study guide that had us look up Scripture and use it to analyze the book.  Can't wait!


Our 6th and 8th graders will be doing History Speaks...Bill of Rights.   It's a unit study.  They learn each right and then read about actual cases/situations where these rights came into question, such as the Brady Bill.  They analyze each situation and draw conclusions using what they've learned.

Finally we have Learn to Write the Novel Way.  This is put out by KONOS and it directs the student in how to write a book.  Of course the length of the book will depend on each person and their age, but this gives .  My 8th grader has been wanting to write a book for quite some time and has even started a few, but he gets stuck.  I came across this by accident while perusing CBD and thought of him.  It had two five star reviews.  I really hope he likes this.  He sounded excited when I told him I was ordering it.  My daughter isn't interested in writing a book, but she's going to do the exercises to write short stories and poems instead.  At the end of the year we're going to have their books published at a local printer.  It says it's a full year of English Composition and that no other grammar is needed, but we are doing this in addition to Rod and Staff's grammar program.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE Rod and Staff Grammar.

13 DAYS AND COUNTING!!

School is almost here!!!

Yes, yes.  I am an addict.  Here is a list of signs that you may use to check yourself for homeschool addiction.  It is not complete.  Feel free to add your own symptoms (or call me with them).

1.  You start making plans for the next year before finishing the current one.
2.  Lesson planning is fun and you have tables and Excel files to prove it.
3.  Your house has enough books in it to start a public library.
4.  You have enough homeschool books to start a private school.
5.  You get excited for the school year to end, but  jump for joy when the new one begins.
6.  School supplies are fun to shop for.
7.  Your school supplies are color coded for each child.
8.  Art supplies are the BESTEST!
9.  You get a rush when ordering school books for the new year.
10.  You get another rush when the boxes arrive.
11.  Your favorite curriculum is as warm and cuddly as a teddy bear.
12.  You consider your yearly reporting/portfolio as a work of art.
13.  You spend your free time studying homeschool curriculum.
14.  The thought of your last one finishing school gives you a tinge of sadness.  Fortunately for me, we have a three-year-old!!!

Expecting books next week!!!!  YIPPIE!!!!!!!

It's been a while...

It's been crazy around here while we prepare to move.  Our eldest graduated from bootcamp and is now a MARINE!!!!  Oooooooooo-Rah!  We are so proud of him!!!!

I hope to post a REAL post soon.  So for those few who read this, and you know who you are (yes, people actually do read this, not many, but a few, and they call, text or email instead of posting online ... I'm not sure why) I have tales to share.

Many blessings!!!

OH!  I made some lavender soap today, and I promise to share!!!!