GIVEAWAY!!!

So here is the deal...

I was cleaning my minivan out this afternoon (don't laugh, I know you love to rock the minivan) and I found some pretty interesting things. Not only was it absolutely disgusting, there were some objects that should never belong in a vehicle.

You ask what I found....

A outlet cover
melted crayons
spoons (that had some unidentified leftovers on them)
Diaper cream (hasn't been used in YEARS)
m&m's (melted and gross of course)
Hand wipes
many many many rocks (okay these were from trips to the park...last year)
barbies
A statue of a pilgrim (my family will understand this one)
and just plain old garbage...GROSS

So my idea was to do a little giveaway. I want you to go out to your vehicles and find something strange or tell me about something strange you have found in the past. Post it on here and you will be entered in a chance to win either a bonnet or a dress made by me!! You pick the size (and item) and I will pick the colors!! If you only have boys, I will make you a pair of PJ shorts for the summer time instead! The giveaway will close on Thursday May 6th so make sure you get your comments in before then!

Want extra chances to win...write about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook it, or twitter it and let me know!!

What are you waiting for...GO...

money money money money...MONEY

She considers a field and buys it;

out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

Money...

It can bring out good or bad feelings in us. Right? Some of us have a lot of money and do just fine with it. Other of us are just barley making ends meet...if that. So what does this verse really have to do with finances?

I will start by saying, this was a difficult verse to talk about. A lot of the literature out there talks about how this is encouraging mom's/wives to work or start up their own business.

Although I agree that it could mean this, I do not feel this is what God wants. I believe that God wants us to put our energy into being mom's and not into our careers right now. Yes, I know some of you don't agree and I respect that...really I do but I believe differently. Even so, it doesn't mean we cannot be entrepreneurial. We all have gifts that God has given us. For me, I like to make things and would love to sell them some day. To have money that my hands have earned is rewarding to me. I love what this Pastor had to say about it.

Okay, so, what do I think this means....

"She considers her field and buys it". The word "considers" pops out to me. She doesn't just go out and buy because she feels like it, she considers it. I am sure that she weighs how this purchase will effect her family. Is it something that is necessary for survival? Can we do without it? Can I find something just the same for a cheaper price? Do I need it or is just a want? Will spending my money this way bring glory to God? All of which are extremely important questions to ask yourself when making a purchase.

I can hear you saying, "really...you really want me to go through these questions when I am considering buying grapes instead of apples? Seriously?". Well maybe. I guess it depends. Personally, I do these things. I think of the food we NEED for nutrition and the MONEY (there is that word again) that we have set aside to purchase food. It's not just for those major purchases, it for those little ones as well. Try it next time. God will provide.

And the whole "vineyard" thing...I think this represents our future. Vineyards are not the easiest to grow. They require a lot of attention and only produce more when in a prime environment. So the Proverbs 31 woman invests in her vineyard so that it will produce the most fruit.

hmmmmm...

Are you investing in your "vineyard"?

Would love to hear your thoughts girls... (or guys)

Oh the outfits these kids come up with

Kylie loves color and by color I mean EVERY single color! She defiantly has her own sense of style!!

what's for breakfast?

¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

I sure do! Many many MANY days I get up before the sun. As you know, Cooper is an early riser. By early I mean 5:30am!!! Most mornings I ignore him until 6 at the earliest but he is my alarm clock. Not to mention that the baby usually wakes up between 4:30-5:30 for a morning feeding so by the time Cooper comes in, I have just drrriifffttteeddd off into dddrrreeeaaammmm llaanndd...

*Yawn*

But this verse says it all my friends. The Proverbs 31 woman is suppose to get up before her family and provide food for them. (I would provide for my servant girls if I had any, but none here...).

I have always felt it was important to start the day off fresh. I would love to wake up before the crack of dawn and have a hot breakfast all ready for my family but that just doesn't happen...right now that is. As I said earlier, it is impossible to get up before Cooper so I have to make due. I get up WITH Cooper and make a meal for him. Many mornings this is before the other two get up so I have everything in order by the time they come down to eat. I also strive to "serve" them breakfast each morning. It may be the usual...yogurt, granola, and emergen-c or something different like waffles but it is breakfast.

You hear of some many kids who just get a bowl of cereal and milk (if they are lucky) for breakfast or have to wait until school to eat and this is just not how we are suppose to start the day. We are suppose to have a good start! A start with food and family.

So girls, lets serve our family this week. Make them breakfast and make sure they are ready to start the day.

Sailing...Sailing

¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,

bringing her food from afar.

The first thing I felt necessary to do before writing this post was to do a little research. I thought it was pretty straight forward...you know..she goes out of her way to bring food to her family. I came across a few good posts about the topic but both seemed a little different. So I thought I would start by looking at the analogy of a merchant ship...

Merchant ships in the day did NOT use propellers. They relied on their sails and ores to get them where they needed to go. I think of my dad in his sailboat. There are times when he FLYS and the waves jump over the sides of the boat and other times where he slowly sits and waits for a little bit of wind to push him 5 feet. There is no telling how long it could take him to go for a "short" sail. I am thinking it was the same in Biblical times as well. It could take a ship months just to get to their destination or it could take just a few weeks.

Talk about relying on God! I think of the young man on the ship who NEEDS to get back before his wife has a baby or the woman who so desperately needs to see her child again. There is no timeline to give their loved ones. They just go. They trust...

TRUST. There is that word again. Trust! They trust that God will get them where they need to go. Not on their own time line but on HIS time line!

The proverbs 31 woman needs to TRUST that God will provide for her family. He will take her where she needs to go to get food for those she loves.

John 15:7-9 says, "⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. ⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."

To remain in God would be to trust God with everything. He has promised that if we trust (remain) in Him, he will PROVIDE!

Another point made about this verse is that the merchant ships often times carried new fruits, spices or grains that were not available at the times. They were nutritious and different from those they ate everyday.

As the other of Keep it Simple says, " Spice it up ladies!". Give your family some variety in the foods you prepare. Make a HOT meal once in a while and actually put some seasoning on that chicken!

My challenge today is How are you going to rely (trust) in God to keep you sailing today?

I am going to pray. Pray, pray, pray. The devil has a way of getting in the way sometimes. Since I have started this journey of becoming the Proverbs 31 woman, the devil has made it VERY difficult to apply some of the principles taught here. My kids will just be plan old naughty and not listen to me so I respond in anger and not patience or my husband will come home grumpy from a hard day at work and I will just snap at him for not helping clean up. The devil has a way of TRYING to get in the way. I need to make a conscious effort to pray in these moments, knowing it is the devil. I will TRUST that God will keep me on my journey and help me provide for both my husband and my children!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the promise of providing for those who "remain" in You. Just knowing that You will be there at the end of the day can make it all better. I pray that the devil would stay FAR from me. Help me to stand up to him when things are going sour. Help me to provide for my family the way you want me to. Thank you Lord! Amen

Wool and flax!

¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

Wool and flax huh? Wool (as you know) is taken from sheep and then used in many different articles of clothing. While flax is a fibrous plant used in making linen. The most famous flax was grown in Egypt at the time due to ideal conditions. There was no better linen than that grown in Egypt.

So they were both pretty valuable at the time and necessary to make clothing.

I am going to take this a step further and say that wool and flax could mean things of value or things of importance to her family.

Now...EAGER hands! Eager is defined as keen or ardent in desire or feeling; impatiently longing. If you are eager for something, you just cannot wait to do it! Not only can't you wait, you WANT to do it. You do it willingly.

Now lets put this into "Kara's" terms. For me, I actually like to make things from scratch and I feel as though God wants me to do things this way. No, I do not go shave a sheep and bring home the wool to spin but I do make a lot of our things (or contrary to my friend Loren's believes, I do not grind my own wheat with a stone in the backyard). Not only do I make most of our food, I make the kids PJ's, the girls hats, mittens, curtains for the house, and many other various things. This could lead into another conversation (once again) about a need verses a want and how we are to use the things God provides instead of always wanting...

But I digress..

I will be the first to admit that I do not always do this willingly or eagerly. There are many times when my to-do list gets WAY to long and I get overwhelmed by doing things this way. I personally want to scream and say, "lets just go to the store and buy it". Even so, I know that this is what God wants me to do.

I can see you all shaking your head saying, "really...you really want me to do THAT". No, I don't. I don't believe that everyone has to do things the same way. For you it may be something like having a hot meal ready when you hubby gets home or taking walks with the family on a weekly basis. Pray about it. Let God show you what he wants your "wool and flax" to be and then EAGERLY work with your hands to make it happen.

My little one

Ya, I'm talking to YOU

12 "She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life."

Pressure, Pressure (in the words of Billy Joel) is all I have to say after reading this verse. Who is to bring their husband good...don't look around the room for the "other" person who isn't there...yup it's YOU!

SHE brings him good....

In Genesis 2:18 the Lord says, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.".

And guess what...that "helper" is you friend. YOU are the one God choose to do your husband good!

Charles Bridges says,“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband...she is his crown; his brightest ornament, drawing the eyes of all upon him, as eminently honored and blessed.”

Remember verse 10...rare and beautiful?

But we don’t always feel like bright ornaments, do we? Especially during those "ugly" times! You know, those times when we are NOT doing our husbands good but harm.

Here, we are told that we are to do HIM GOOD. Now, how do we do him good?

For me, I need to focus on my husband MORE than I focus on my children. I think many times, as busy mom's, we forget about our husbands. He is the man who makes the money, disciplines the kids, mows the grass, and sleeps next to us in bed. I know that is a little harsh but lets face it, sometimes that is how he is treated. Now look at the verse again, "she brings HIM good, not harm, all of the days of her life". It doesn't say, "she brings (her children, neighbors, friends, family, and her husband) good, not harm, all of the days of her life"...it says, "HIM".

God certainly made this clear that our husbands are suppose to be our priority.

So how do you bring your husband good?

Why don't you ask him. Ask him what things you are doing now that are not *respectful to him and ask him what things you do that bring him good already. I know I have a list a mile long of things I do that don't bring my husband good. It can be overwhelming at first but just take one at a time and work from there.

* A GREAT book to work through is called "Love and Respect" by Eggerichs. It will really really REALLY key in on that respect piece and how to actually bring our husbands some good!

For all my CDing mamas

I had to share this with all of my cloth diapering mamas....FREE BG diaper with purchase of $10....

Seriously..I just did it!

Check it out.

Good luck!!!

Trust me...

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

Trust.

That is what I see when I read this verse. He TRUSTS his wife. He has nothing, nothing, NOTHING to worry about! He is confident in her faithfulness to him.

As I was researching this verse I came across a sermon which spoke of the part of the verse, "lack nothing of value". The pastor (sorry I cannot remember his name) said that a man can leave his wife with all of his treasures and not have to worry that they will disappear while he is gone. This made me think of how MY hubby goes to work so that I can stay home. He earns the money and trusts that I will not go out an blow it all on a new pair of shoes. He is confident that I will buy what is necessary for the house and not go above and beyond that. This leads into a whole new topic of a need verses a want but I think I will leave that one for later. TRUST....

Not only does this apply to our husbands, but to our children as well. I read it phrased this way, "Her children have full confidence in her and they lack nothing of value".

That is a pretty big load to take on my friends. I don't know about you but my role as a wife and a mother can be totally overwhelming at times. Not only does my husband need to have full trust in me, my children need that as well. I personally feel this is extremely important in the development of a child. They need to learn how to trust the important people in their lives.

How do I encourage trust you ask?

By being a loving, consistent, their-for-you, boo boo kissing, disciplinarian, boundary setting, snuggling, listening mama.

Am I perfect at this? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But I try and I strive to be a trustworthy person. Remember what I said in the initial post...this was written as an example of the woman God has called us to be.

So today I challenge you with being a woman of trust. Make sure you husbands, children, (or others) can say you are a woman they can be confident in. You can be trusted!

How will you show this today? Curious on your thoughts...

I am rare and beautiful

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

The first part of this passage refers to a woman's character as a wife.

Noble character...Noble is defined as a person of an exalted moral or mental character or excellence, of an admirably high quality; notably superior.

And rubies...they are up there with diamonds. Rare and beautiful.

What a hard thing to live up to. Not only do I need to be noble, a person of excellence, but I also need to act in a way that is rare and beautiful...all the time.

There are days when I don't think I could be worth more than a piece of coal let alone a ruby. My attitude does not reflect the attitude of a woman who is noble or worth more than rubies!

.hmmmmm how can I portray this in my everyday work? Maybe by believing it. God made ME...Kara! Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart for my holy purpose. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations." He made me to do His work! What a privilege. I am rare..and (at times) beautiful. I think if we believe we are these things, we will portray them in our everyday interactions with our husbands.

Dear Lord, Help me to believe that I am a person of excellence. You created me, therefore, I am rare and beautiful. One of a kind. Help me to daily display my qualities to my husband. Amen.

Are you a Proverbs 31 woman?

Who hasn't heard of the Proverbs 31 woman?

Yes, if you were raised in the church, you probably heard of this passage. But what does it mean? Does it mean we need to be JUST like this woman or do we just need to strive to be the woman described here? There are many many many books and articles on the topic but I feel that God wants me to personally focus on this passage and see what it means to ME.

Therefore, over the next few weeks I will be taking a verse and giving you my take on it. Well I guess it isn't my take, but what God wants me to hear from it! So sit back and enjoy...because heeerrreee weeee goooooo (yes, that was from Little Einsteins.

Proverbs 31: 10-31

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

²⁹ "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

³¹ Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Some notes about the passage as a whole first....

1. This is NOT what is expected of us but what we are to strive for. It is impossible (as a human who sins) to become this woman. God gives us this as an example of the "perfect" woman. As Pastor John MacArthur said in a his sermon, "Now this is an ideal, this is a model. This doesn't describe some particular woman, this describes the ideal woman."

2. I, personally, will be exploring this passage as a young mother who would like to be a called a homemaker. Not a housewife...but a homemaker. A place where I make a HOME for my family. This passage can be translated a NUMBER of ways and if you are not a homemaker, feel free to add your 2 cents as to what it might mean to you.

3. I am no perfect. Nope, not me, not ever. So I may not be accurate all the time. I am praying that God will guide me through this journey. Again, feel free to challenge my interpretations...I am a big girl, I can handle it!

4. I will try my best to list all of my resources but some of my ideas will probably come from a vast amount of resources I come across. Know that the FIRST and FOREMOST resource is the BIBLE. The NIV version of the Bible and from what God speaks to my heart.

Enjoy...

We are back!

Had a great vacation in AZ for Easter. LOTS and LOTS of sun! I don't know if you could possibly live there and be depressed. It is just beautiful.

I have lots of funny (and not so funny) stories for you all but I am still running around like a crazy lady trying to get the laundry done, bread made, and my seeds in the ground. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good stuff for you...