WOW!!

 In all the years that we have lived here - we have never seen a coyote in our back yard - till this evening. When I went to check on the baby chicks at about 7:30pm - I noticed something move quickly and it caught my attention. Thankfully there was a fence between us. I called my husband to come outside. He was able to see it and identify it. Then it rain off. We spent some time looking all over to see if we could see him again, but we did not. 

Tomorrow I will be spending some time looking to see how he might have gotten into our yard and then I will take care of it. So thankful that I noticed it and hopefully scared it off. 

Monday night was very windy here and when I went out to check on the babies I noticed a try we have that is leaning over towards our house was blowing around quite a bit. I asked for prayers on our churches prayer chain - I was scared that it could brake and land on our house. Thankfully God protected us throughout the night. I was also able to get a name of someone to give us a quote on taking the tree down. And they came out to give us quote today. Hopefully we can get that job done soon. 

With our electric bill being so much higher than usual because of inflation, ect, we have decided that we have got to get our ducting on our AC/Heater unit redone and then we will be spraying insulation up in the attic. We feel that this will make a difference in the bill. We have known we needed to have this done for quite some time but had so much other stuff to do that we had not gotten to this job. We are hoping to get this stuff done in the next month. 

So much going on around here. Just is just the tip of the iceberg as they say. Ya'll take care. :O) 

Best Deal

See the bag in the background? I got it for free on this shopping trip. You probably saw it on another post - I found several awesome deals on this one trip. I found the bag in the store - wanted to get it so I loaded it with my treasures and when I checked out - the sweet lady said I could have it! Awesome!! 

Now onto our best deal of the day! This Vtech spin and learn flashlight!! When you spin it - it changes colors of the light it gives off! And has all sorts of learning things about it!! Saw it several places on the internet for anywhere from $9.99- $20.00! 

 But I only paid $1.00! What a Deal!! 

I love finding great deals. It makes it where I am able to have a good amount of awesome things here for our grandchildren to play with - without spending a whole bunch of money! 

# 13 Jack Sequeira- Universal Sin Problem

Hello! :O)

 Just a little update while my grandson sleeps and while our lunch is cooking. 

So our little chicks are a little over a week old and doing well. Sadly, we lost 2 of them and have since learned an important lesson about some of the special care involved with new baby chicks. And I have since written these things in my little chicken booklet that I have. It has come in handy when we have gotten baby chicks. And I am glad I thought of doing this years ago. We did start off with 29 and how have 27 babies. They are doing so well and bring not only a lot of extra work, but extra joy! 

Gardening is going great. I have 4~ 1020 trays of starts - some of which I am in the process of hardening off so that in the next week or so I can get them planted outside. I have my garden space mapped out - this takes quite a bit of time and thought. And I have my plan for my next 2~ 1020 trays. 

Well my time is up. Hopefully I can jump on here and again soon for another update. Hope you are all doing well. :O) 

Just a little thing that just happened and I had written it up on facebook- will share here: 

You know those big black birds that many people think are a nuisance? They are among my list of favorite birds. One of the main reasons they rate so high me is because they help protect my chickens! Just know as I was in the kitchen - I heard one of my chickens squawking, differently than usual so I looked out and what did I see? A huge hawk in the tree with 2 black birds trying to get him to move on. That hawk was quite determined and I had to run out and help with the job. Hopefully that hawk will find somewhere else to find his meals from now on. I purposely put bread and pieces of tortillas and such for the black birds when I take scraps out in the morning. It helps to keep bringing those birds back to my yard. It's a good investment into a little bit of a security system, I think. And a great reason for them to be on my favorite birds list! 

Behold the Man!

 Behold the Man!! 

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One day as Napoleon Bonaparte was talking to his attendant in the place of his banishment on the island of St. Helena regarding the heroes of history, he suddenly turned and asked the question, "can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" As the officer hesitated, Napoleon said; "well, then, I will tell you. I think i understand somewhat of human nature, and I tell you all these were men, and I am a man, but not one is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than man. . Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded great empires: but upon what did the creations of our genius depend? Upon force, Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for Him... 
He asks for the human heart: He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! All who sincerely believe in Him experience that remarkable supernatural love towards Him. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this flame.

The gospel is no mere book," said he (Napoleon "at another time, ' but a living creature, with a vigor, a power, which conquers all that opposes it. Here lies the Book of books upon the table (touching it reverently); I do not tire of reading it, and do so daily with equal pleasure. The soul, charmed with the beauty of the gospel, is no longer its own; God possesses it entirely; He directs its thoughts and faculties; it is His. What a proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ! Yet in this absolute sovereignty He had but one aim- the spiritual perfection of the individual, the purification of his conscience, his union with what is true, the salvation of his soul. Men wonder at the conquests of Alexander, but here is a conqueror who draws men to Himself for their highest good; who unites to Himself, in corporates into Himself, not a nation, but the whole human race!! 

(Signey Collett; "The Life and Words of Christ," Cunningham Geikie, pages 2,3) 

Found in my "Behold the Man!" pages 10-11 

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My Best Deal

Sometimes I find things at thrift stores that I have no idea I even want! That is one of the funnest things about going to Antique Malls- walking around till something captures my attention!! This is what happened at my favorite little thrift store recently. I was looking through a container of a few cookie cutters. I am so thankful that I even looked because I was NOT looking for cookie cutters but something told me to look through the container. And I found these two little treasures!! 

I love raggedy Ann and Andy!! 

I had no idea that these had been sold back in the 1970's! But I am SO happy I found them!! 

at only 50 cents each - I got a GREAT deal!!! 

 

# 12 Jack Sequeria- Sabbath rest

They are Here!!!

 On Valentines Day - our sweet little chicks hatched and believe it or not my husband picked up the little box of chicks from the post office at about noon today!! 

Here is the box they arrived in: 

Don't worry - they are no longer in the box. Our cat just thought she needed to check it all out once I placed the box on the table to get a photo. 

My husband took a little video of the babies once he got them. I was going to try to share it here with you but couldn't get it to work. Sorry. So you will have to make do with this photo of them in the box once they had gotten their water and their little butts checked. Then we got them out to their new home! 

They arrived quicker than we expected. It seems like last time we got baby chicks it took 2 days to get them to us. So we were shocked this morning to see they are already in a town about 1 1/2 hours away. But it still took them several hours to make it to our post office. That gave us a bit of time to finish getting ready for them. 

So we ordered 25 and usually they send an extra chick - just in case there are chicks lost en route. Well they did not have one varieties that we had ordered so they substituted another - cheaper chicken - barred rock in their place and then threw in several extra because the ones we had ordered that they did not have were more money$$$ anyway we think we ended up with 29 babies. And we have 5 adult chickens. We lost one last Friday night :( 

Anyway - This will add quite a bit of work for a while - but they are so cute and it is rewarding so it is worth it. Just like gardening- lots of work but well worth the efforts put in!! 

Behold the Man! ....series

Behold the Man!!! 

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 The Scriptures were written, not so much to record the history of the past, or to forecast the events of the future, or to enunciate a system of theology, although they do all this, but to reveal to the human family a Person. The Bible is not so much a book of theology as it is a biography of its author and chief subject, Jesus Christ. The Bible deals with the various sciences, so that scientists, while searching for light in their particular fields, might discover the science of salvation. It deals briefly with geology, that men interested in that subject may be led to discover the Rock of Ages. The Scriptures contain a great deal of invaluable information regarding medical science, so that men who devote their lives to the science of healing might become acquainted with the Great Physician, who alone can heal the malady of sin and give eternal life. Astronomers may find much to inspire them in the Bible; but, best of all, it will lead to the discovery of "the Bright and Morning Star" and "the Sun of Righteousness." In the Holy Word botanists may find "the Lily of the valley" and "the Rose of Sharon," and zoologist will have revealed to them "the Lam of God" and "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." The principal purpose of the Scriptures is to make know to man "the One altogether lovely," "the Chiefest among ten thousand." 

page 11

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Natural Femininity Cancelled | The War on Women | Episode 3

Today's episode resonated with me. I have a loved one who I feel has been influenced with all the attention that comes along with some of these things that she talks about today. There was a term she used - I just can't remember it. Anyway I just also wanted to share that the youtube channel that these posts are coming from" "Little House on the Mountain" has some lovely videos. Very calming and helps you see the peace that comes from attending to your home. I highly recommend this channel. Be blessed :O) 

My Best Deal

About a month ago I noticed this box in the storage room of my favorite little thrift store. I instantly knew I would want it if the price was reasonable. At first one of the helpers seemed to think that they would wait till summer to sell it but thankfully the very next time I went to the thrift store - it was out and ready to sell!! My lucky day!!! 

So I looked this up on Target and they were asking $42.99 for it!!! You can find it cheaper a few other places but then will the shipping add to this price? Maybe. ,,,,

Anyway I thought the $10.00 that they asked was VERY reasonable!! 

And the awesome thing is that even without water - all of my grandkids have enjoyed it!!! 

 

# 11 Jack Sequeira- The investigative judgement

Might or Might Not Be....

 Hello! Just had a little bit of free time and thought I would do a bit of a catch up post. Things have been busy around here. We have a lot to do and the weather has NOT been being helpful at all. Today we had about an inch of rain. We really do need the rain - really bad in fact- but we have work that needs to be done and we have deadline. 

So our baby chicks are suppose to be hatched on Monday or there abouts. And then will be shipped to us and will take 2 -3 days to get here. It is SO up in the air of when we will get them. So we have to hold our plans loosely.  But we still have ALOT to do to get the coop and everything ready for them. Our sneak attach of the ice storm last week did not help at all. That took quite a bit of the time we had planned to work on our coop. Slowly we have made progress.

If it were up to me alone- we would have the coop done and everything ready for the babies. But it looks like we will be cutting it close. And there is so much to do to prepare for them. Plus I am nervous about adding all of that work on top of everything else. Taking care of the grandbaby 3 days a week has already added so much. Then Last week end I started my first set of seeds and then Tuesday I started the 2nd set of sees. I already have little seedlings coming up from the first planting!! So exciting. I can not wait to share more about that with you. I have regular basil, opal basil, Mizuna Beni Houshi (this is my first year to try these seeds- they are from Baker Creek- and were actually a packet of free seeds that I  received with a seed order last year.) I also got a free packet of Cabbage - Nero Di Toscana - I plan to start those for the first time this year- probably in the next week. I love growing plants - but it is whole lot of things to do added to my already busy schedule. And then the baby chicks - they take quite a bit of work as well. A lot of enjoyment, but a lot of work. 

So I might or might now be feeling quite a bit of pressure. But hey- it will all work out. I will just have to take it all day by day. The best way to deal with life.

I am feeling a bit discouraged because my husband has been able to do home basing since 2020 because of Covid. And it looks like Friday will be his last day. It does not help that he works 49 miles away!! And that the price of gas being anywhere from $2.90-$3.29 around here right now. So this will be quite a bit of money out just in gas. And of course, I am sure you all are feeling the crunch of alot your bills increasing. Everything I turn around another one goes up. Anyway please pray that maybe a miracle will happen and that he will be able to contiue to home base- some workers are still being able to. We live outside of the amount of miles from work that they have- but he lived within that area until that work location closed and he was moved - and then moved again - each time a little further and a little further- till he is now 49 miles away. Thank you for taking this issue to the Lord in prayers. 

Well I better get off of here and get a few thing done. I do hope you all are doing well, staying warm, and healthy. :O) 

Behold the Man...series

 Today we are going to start a new series. I am reading a new book. 

"Behold the Man!!" 

by Taylor G. Bunch 

This is one of my favorite authors. 

There are so many wonderful treasures in this book - I decided to share some with you each week! 

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True History is really "His story." Jesus Christ is the creator, preserver, benefactor, and redeemer of all mankind,. He is "the first and the last" in all that is worth while; He is the "Alpha and Omega" of all that is to be desired. He is the author of all light and truth, and the finisher of all righteousness. 

Though written by more than forty men, covering a period of fifteen centuries, the Bible is the only history that gives the proper place in its records to the Creator and Ruler who presides "over the kings of the earth;" who "ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Revelation 17:18; Daniel 4:32...

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Next weeks post is even better! Can't wait for you to get to read it! See you then :O) 

The Toxic Body Positivity Movement | The War on Women | Episode 2

Good Morning - today is part 2 of this series - "The War on Women"  

Best Deal

So it is a good thing that I have found some great deals over the last several weeks and just had not had the chance to get posts written up about them because last week I did not get to do any fun thrift store shopping. :O( 

This first toy is a Baby Einstein toy. I thought it was amazing. It is a wooden surface and yet it is touchable and does all sorts of things - tells about colors, animals, musical instruments and it also have a couple of different language options! What a great toy!  

I am sure this can be found at all sorts of different prices- I just screen shot one of the options. 

So the $2.00 that I paid for this was a great deal!! 

 

Postponed but Working on a Plan

I have spent a good amount of time over the last month or so getting ready for the new gardening season. But I still had plenty of things to work on this week, while we had bad weather. 

When I went through my seed packets and used my post-it notes to write the dates to plant on them- there were a good number of them that suggested January 28th. So my plan had been to start seeds on Sunday, but when the cold front came through early and it was already 30 degrees outside on Sunday I soon realized it would be dumb to start plants at that time. It would mean I would have to run a space heater in our sunroom and with our electric bill already running almost double what he has been running - I knew it would be a bad idea to add on top of all our other usage- running space heater as well. 

So during our major ice event. Yes  - we had a couple of inches of ice in places. It looked like it could be snow- but we did not get snow, we got ICE! A lot of ice! Anyway so some of my extra time during this weather event- I sat down in my sewing room and I worked on planning out my garden. I already know what all I want to plant, I just needed to figure out where I would going to put everything. 

I have kind of hit a brick wall - I think it is because there are several things that I plan to plant but I have not received the seeds yet. And I know I should just move forward with plan but I guess I just want to make sure that I actually get those seeds before I set my plan totally up. 

It feels good to have this much of my plan set up and I can not wait to get some seeds planted. There is one of the varieties of Kale that I ordered  - Dazzling Blue Kale from Baker Creek that I am still waiting on. And it is one of the things that I need to get started. Hopefully that order will arrive soon so I can get things planted. If not I will just have to move forward and then just start that kale when it comes in. At least I have a plan. 

Working on planning your garden like what you will grow and where you will grow what are great things to do during yucky weather. It helps distract and gives you hope for sunny days to come. 

# 10 Jack Sequeira- Significance of the resurrection

Happy Sabbath! I hope you all are doing well and staying warm! :O) 

Learn from our experience.... please

 If you have spent anytime watching preppers youtube channels- you are aware of all the tactics that they use to try to get your attention to watch their videos. And I know that many people shy away from that kind of thing. I do not like those types of videos either. But what I do know is that it is best to be prepared than to find yourself without the things you need and no way to get them. 

Today I want to share an experience that helps reinforce the importance of being prepared. Last week - my main focus was on the 4 appointments that my husband and I had coming up on Monday and Tuesday. Oh and throw in the mix a mri of the brain - which by the way - thankfully was normal. And I did not get the message that this week we would be in the middle of an ice storm. I wonder if it got past me or if the weather people did not realize it would be this bad... I don't know... what ever the case here we are. On Monday, thankfully we were able to get at least 2 of our important appointments taken care of and got home safely. We have not left the house since then. I had not intentionally prepared for an ice storm - but thankfully we have had mostly everything we would need or a way to work around it. Thankfully I even had bandages, gauze and medical tape to help my husbands 2 infected in grown toe nails that had to be cut out on money. This I am very thankful for. 

Had I not learned with 2020 the importance of having what you need and extras if possible - we might have been up a creek over the last several days. Oh and I have seen on Facebook where people have talked about going to store to get groceries because they were running out of food and guess what? Many stores don't have basics that are needed. I am guessing we will probably be smartest to wait till Sunday or Monday to go get groceries if possible. It would be better to wait and have the possibilities of getting more of what we need then to have to make several trips. 

So basically what this blog post is about- if you don't already do a bit of prepping for the possibility of not being able to get to the store or not being able to find what you need at the store- then the best time to prepare for those times is when there is not an emergency going on. It is on your weekly trip to the grocery store- to pick up an extra one of these and an extra one of those. And slowly have extras of what you use on a day to day basis. You do not need to do this all at one time. Nope. Just slowly get the things you need. With prices of things going up and up. It has been a bit helpful to have a few extras of things put aside so that maybe I can wait till something goes on sale before I buy more. Anyway I do hope that you learn form our experience - you never know when something might happen and you will not be able to get to the store for a few day or a week or what ever. Start now - doing a bit here and a bit there. 

Need Help in Setting Up a Seed Starting System?

Good Morning! Today I want to share a great video about a great seed starting system! Ever since my sister shared this video with me, I have wanted to share it with you guys. It is really a great system and really helps in the planning stages of gardening. And since we are having some icy weather -I decided to get this set up to share with you just in case you are stuck at home like I am. 

The good news is there are still things we can do to prepare for the upcoming gardening season!!! Since I have not been able to start any of my seed yet - because of the extreme cold weather right now, I have been working on getting important information together. I have a notebook that I am gathering information I will need - all in one place. I have the name of seeds, when to plant, depth, spacing apart, transplant date, container size, and how many seeds I want to plant of each item. All this information is important and when it come time to plant this first round of seeds, hopefully within the next week, I will have easy access to all this important information. 

Thankfully over the weekend when the weather was much warmer - I was able to get out and measure all of my garden beds. I will be transferring this information onto my master copies of the layout of the garden so that each year when I am in the planning process I will be able to easily figure up how many plants will fit in each bed, depending on what I am planting in the garden boxes.

Last week end I also got my green stalk planter set up. I will be giving this one more year before I totally give up on it. I am hoping that I had just used the wrong type of soil for them and with this issue fixed- I am hoping for success. I plan to plant my different lettuces in it and a row of arugula. It will be interesting to see how it does. In the past I have been very disappointed in it, but maybe it was user error. We shall see. 

I do hope you all are staying warm and safe. Here is a little video to help you pass the time and learn some helpful information for helping you get your garden planned. 

Enjoy! :O)