We've had a lovely trip so far.  Everything has gone just right.

We left the house right on time at 5 AM.

We made great time on the drive, and I didn't do it by speeding.

We had a wonderful visit and tour of Samantha's blackberry farm!  Her family also had ducks, chickens, turkeys, milk goats, lavender, figs, pomegranates, tomatoes, retired meat rabbits, a guard-pony, and border collies.  Nearly every one of those items were ideas that we are considering for our own homestead, so it was fascinating to see how their family is implementing them.

After the berry farm, we joined the Reins for dinner and lodging.  We've had a very relaxing evening getting to know them better.   We enjoyed a delicious dinner, played pictionary for our first time ever, admired their chickens, and noticed that they too have blackberries.  We can't wait to start some on our land!  Now I'm up much too late kicking myself once again for not getting the camera out.  I suppose I could get it out now, but snapping pictures of our sleeping hosts might not be the best manners.

We're looking forward to meeting some friends and readers in the D/FW area tomorrow afternoon, but now there might be a new twist.  Does anyone think the possibility of chicken pox adds a little excitement to the event?  Bethany woke up with a bit of a fever Wednesday morning, but it passed.  She's had a few bug bites on her arms and legs the last few days, but I assumed it was because we sleep with the windows open at home.  Now that we're away from home the bites should go away, right?

But maybe I should put bug bites in quotes, like this:  She's had a few "bug bites."  I'm suddenly not at all sure that bugs are to blame.  Instead of getting better, they seem to be getting worse.  One or two are beginning to look a bit blistery.  And my normally cheerful baby is very clingy and prone to cry.

Here are my observations:

Proof that it's not chicken pox:

1. She has few or no "bites" on her torso, where chicken pox typically show up first.
2. Although she may have been exposed to chicken pox, it was only in the last few days.  My little nephew was playing with a boy 2 weeks ago, and the boy came down with the pox a day or two later.  Bethany has spent time around my nephew who could be carrying the virus, but the incubation period is typically 10-21 days, so she wouldn't have time yet to be infected by him.
3. She also has something like heat rash around her neck and diaper area.  Maybe the bigger bumps are part of an allergic reaction?  We've been using up an old box of store-bought laundry soap, and she is wearing disposable diapers for the first time in months, though neither one ever bothered her before.

Proof that it IS chicken pox:

1. Her bumps are getting more prominent day by day.
2. She had a brief mild fever.
3. She may have been exposed to somebody with shingles about 10 days ago.   This particular carrier doesn't often hold Bethany, but though shingles carriers are not highly contagious, they can occasionally transmit chicken pox.
4. Murphy's Law.

My six oldest children have already had chicken pox.  In all honesty, I would be delighted for my 3 youngest to catch it while they are young.  I'm just not sure I would have chosen this week to do it.  But on the bright side, did you know that if you've already had the virus, each exposure acts as a booster to your immune system and reduces your chance of developing shingles later in life?

Does anyone want to join us for a chicken pox party tomorrow?

I'm not ready to proclaim a diagnosis, but it could happen.

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Filed under: gone awry | 9 Comments »

We weren't sure it would happen, but it did.  After all the suspense, our van was ready this morning in time for our scheduled early-afternoon departure.

David Colbath Transmission came through for us.  A few days earlier, they had given us an estimate to replace the torque converter.  It wasn't the lowest estimate in town, but it was reasonable.  Nonetheless, we decided that we needed to save the money by doing the work ourselves.

That was Plan A, but the parts shop gave us the wrong part.  It looked right and it was close enough to fit, but it didn't work.   Not only did it fail to work, it damaged other parts.

When we finally brought it to them 3 days later, out of time and with 2 additional repairs needed, we were victims waiting to happen.

They knew we were in a hurry, and they knew we weren't paying the bill ourselves.  They knew we had practically been given a blank check for repairs.  But they are Christians, and evidently they understand that true religion extends beyond Sunday morning and affects every area of life.

Would you believe that even with the new problems created by our incorrect part, they came in less than $100 over their original quote?  They actually knocked $80 off the bill to keep it at less than $1,000.

We had intended to do the work ourselves and save several hundred dollars on labor.  Instead, God provided the parts and labor.

Man proposes, God disposes.

But you'll never guess what happened while I was driving the van home from the repair shop.

The plan was to get home, load up, and leave.  The children had everything ready and were waiting like a pit crew.  Then my sister-in-law in Waco called.   We were to spend tonight with them, but it's not going to work.  They had a mean bug recently, and relapsed.  We don't want it, and you don't want it.  We're keeping our distance.

The children are disappointed, but they're young.  They'll learn.  In the meantime, I consoled them with a dollar-menu lunch at Sonic in the nearby small town.  We ate late so we could enjoy half-price Cherry Limeades.

And so we move on to Plan B:  leave bright and early tomorrow.  We're planning to wake up and leave around 5 AM.

We are not early morning people, so this will be either a brave new adventure or mass torture.  Or both.  Who wants to suggest a cheap, fun place for breakfast?  Maybe a McD's with a big playplace?  We hope to be passing through the Austin area between 8 and 9 AM.  Unless something unexpected happens.   Nah...

Man proposes, God disposes.

Filed under: gone awry | 6 Comments »

edited to fix the unmatched fonts, because it was making my left eye twitch.  all fonts must match.

We're planning to hit the road Wednesday afternoon, and the last 2 days have been full of preparations.

• Book orders and Geneva Bible Page orders have been shipped.
• Extra feed has been purchased and animal care is planned.  The Yorkie has gone to visit her favorite neighbor lady, who lets her sleep on the bed.  The other dog is learning to use the auto-waterer in the outdoor run, which is in a nice shady spot.  She doesn't approve of the outdoor run, but she doesn't have a choice.
• Errands are done.  Lots of errands.
• Bags are packed.
• A few essential kitchen items are set out and ready to go: roaster, crockpot, 9x13 baking dish, 8 qt. stock pot filled with a small stack of plates/bowls/cups/silverware, baking powder, salt, coffee beans & grinder.  We'll buy groceries when we get there.
• I even bought a new card reader so we could upload photos again, and disposable diapers so we can have a little vacation from swishing things in the toilet.

We just need our van.  Will it be ready?

Our itinerary:

• Wednesday: drive to Waco to visit and spend the night with my brother and his family.
• Thursday afternoon: Press on to Fort Worth and stay with the Reins of Ah, The Life.
• Friday morning:  Visit our blog friend Jeana.  Descend upon her house at lunchtime like a cloud of locusts.
• Friday afternoon: Get together with any and all readers in the area at Grace Fellowship Church from 1-3 PM.  Bring a snack.  Children are welcome.  If you have more than 14 children, please call for reservations.  I'm kidding, though we might stare at you if you do show up with more than 14 children.  But you're probably used to that, right?
• Friday evening: Spend the night with friends in Weatherford.  I think.  We still need to confirm this.
• Saturday morning: onward and upward to Branson.  The girls would love to schedule a quick visit with a favorite author and friend of theirs in the Plano area on our way out of town, though we haven't contacted him yet.

Filed under: Everyday life, blogging and business, mom is neurotic | 11 Comments »

The kids and I are taking a long slow drive to Missouri this week, with a 2 day stopover in the Fort Worth area.  Our friend-and-reader Paulette, whom I can't wait to meet in person, has arranged for a meeting at her church on Friday, July 3 from 1-3 PM.

Any readers who would like to meet us in person are invited to join us there.  Just bring snacks and a sense of humor - and don't expect too much.   I'm a wallflower so it could be a bit awkward if you're shy and quiet too, but my children can talk the legs off a chair so they'll pick up the slack.  If you're a talker, please come.  We'll need your unique skills and abilities!  If not, I will have to force my children to sing for us as entertainment and they have threatened to sing every modern pop/rock song they know.  I'll be ruined.

If all else fails, we'll just sit and watch Bethany scootch around on her bottom.  It's pretty entertaining...especially when she's diaper-less and her bottom sticks to the floor...

At any rate, we would love to meet you.  Come see us!  No need to RSVP, though I'd love hear in the comments if you'll be coming!

Who is invited:

Readers of Life in a Shoe, friends, acquaintances, mommy bloggers, mother of many young children, aspiring mothers of many young children, children of any of the above, and benevolent onlookers who want to know what a family of 11 looks like.

NHMs are not invited. Don't worry.  It's an inside joke.  If you don't know what it means, you are not an NHM.   Even if you do know, you're not one.  Karen? Jenny?  No telling.

Time:

Friday July 3rd, from 1-3 PM

Place:

Grace Fellowship Church (view map)

1516 W. Pioneer Pkwy.

Arlington, Texas 76063

***go around back to the gym***

Filed under: blogging and business, friends | 20 Comments »

I don't know if you follow me or hubby on facebook, but our upcoming trip to Branson, Missouri for a family reunion has been in jeopardy.

Let me preface this li'l story by telling you that our vacations have always been a quick visit to out-of-state relatives.  We have never taken the sort of vacation where you check into a condo with your own hot tub, lounge around one of the 4 pools or walk down the lake to swim and picnic, and just generally relax.

Let me also emphasize that even though this sounds really fun, we never would have come up with the idea ourselves.  My grandparents, who live 1400 miles away, planned an entire family reunion and made it very clear that it was very important to them that any of their descendants who are able to attend do so.

So we planned to go in order to honor them.  It's a sacrifice we were willing to make. 

But we hit a few bumps along the way.

First, Vision Forum asked our family to drive to Boston and help staff the Reformation 500.   It ends the same day our family reunion begins, with about 24 hours of driving betwixt the two.  Try as we might, we simply couldn't see a way that it was going to work.  We would have missed the first 2 days of the reunion and arrived exhausted.

Plan B was for VF to fly Perry alone to Boston and send him to join us in Branson when the festivities were over.  Did I say Perry? I meant Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell. You should see him.  If you're going to the Reformation 500, you will see him.  Send me photos, ok?

In Plan B, he kids and I would be driving up to Branson alone.  We would make a long slow trip of it, since Perry was leaving us several days early.  We would visit friends along the way, taking 3 days to make a 13 hour drive.  It was a beautiful plan.

But.

The van needed a bit of work before we left.  And then it needed more work.  And then it needed a torque converter.  Since we were conserving every bit of money we could for the privilege of selling our white elephant, hubby decided to do the torque converter himself.

My hero came home from work on Friday with a new torque converter and a rented tranny jack, and crawled right under the van.  With the help of my uncle and my 13yo brother, he worked straight through the night.  My uncle has changed many-a-torque converter, and my brother makes a good go-fer.  Together they pulled the drive shaft, unbolted the starter, dropped the transmission, and did a lot of other cool, manly stuff.

It was a lot of work but a straightforward job, and went very smoothly.  They changed the torque converter and put everything back together.  They stopped once or twice to run to town for more tools, a new gasket, a few more quarts of transmission fluid.  Finally it was done and ready for a test drive.

Then bad stuff happened.

Many long hours pass, in which my husband still does not sleep.  Counting his full day at work Friday, he has now been working for over 30 hours straight.

He made some calls and I made some calls, looking for someone who could offer a clue why the van wasn't fixed.  We consulted all the mechanics in the family, and those in the families of friends.  We consulted our favorite neighborhood redneck mechanic, a very nice man who once gave us 5 used children's bicycles.

At hubby's request, I called our pastor's wife to tell her what was going on, and that we wouldn't be at church the following morning.  I asked her to pray for us, because it looked like our trip was in jeopardy.  Hubby was flying out Monday afternoon and our van wasn't running.

He got some sleep, and the following morning he went back to work at pulling the ox out of the ditch on Sunday.

Finally, they realize that the highly reputable shop which sold us the torque converter gave us the wrong part. Close, but no cigar.  Just plain wrong.

He was willing to stay up all night again, but the parts just weren't available until Monday morning.  I made dozens of phone calls and it just wasn't happening.  He simply didn't have time to exchange the part and install the correct one.

We had resigned ourselves that he was not going to have time to fix it, and were wondering what to do. We sat down on the deck to think and talk about our options.

• Should we pay Big Bucks for someone else to do it?  Even though the funds were earmarked for the white elephant?  If so, would it be done in time?
• Should he put the old torque converter back on and let the kids and me take it on a road trip, far from home?  After all, it probably would have been fine if we had waited to fix it.
• Should we pay Big Bucks to rent a van for the trip? Then when we got back we would still have to repair it, but at least Perry would have time to fix it himself.
• Could he ask Vision Forum to move his flight back one day, so he would have time to fix the van?  It would probably cost them some money.  Would it be right to ask, and should we cover the add'l cost?
• Should he bow out of his trip to Boston, after commiting to go?  VF had already bought his ticket, and was counting on his presence and labor.
• Should we cancel the trip? We could always plan to visit my grandparents later, but it seemed important to attend the reunion.  This wasn't just a trip for our own pleasure.

The phone rang. The voice at the other end said to have it fixed, and forward the bill.

We were stunned, and grateful.  The van was towed this morning by a wrecker who arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and the shop that is fixing it assures me that it will be ready in time.

Lately I've been reading 5 chapters in my Bible every morning.  This morning, I started at Psalm 20.  I was shocked at how appropriate it was.   I've purposely left out some details  of our story that make it fit even better.

Silly me.  Why would I be surprised that the God of all creation could orchestrate a little "coincidence" like that?

Psalm 20

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
² May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
³ May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice.  Selah

⁴ May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
⁵ We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
⁸ They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

⁹ Save, LORD!
May the King answer us when we call.

Filed under: thankful thoughts | 15 Comments »

Posted By: Lydia Mae & Meg

Megan and I have some stuff for sale,

• 3 copies of The Family the lower right corners of the books are bent forward in the front and the back. Retails for $20.00 will sell for $5.00 2 PENDING; 1 LEFT!
• 1 copy of Backyard Ballistics like new condition except for a little bit of shelf wear. Retails for $17.00 will sell for $7.00 PENDING
• 1 copy of How to Build Tree houses, Huts and Forts almost perfect condition except for the top right corner is a little bent. Retails for $15.00 will sell for$7.00 PENDING
• 4 copies of  Backyard Homestead with minor damage on the spine.  Paper is a bit "chewed" in one small spot on each, but damage is not structural. Retails for $19.00 will sell for $7.00 each.  4 PENDING
  
• 1 copy of Backyard Homestead perfect condition retails for $19.00 will sell for $9.00  SOLD

• 1 Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary edges of pages are wrinkled in one spot from MAY thru RUD. retails for $75.00 will sell for $25.00.  PENDING
  

Note: Shipping is $3 for the first item, and $1.50 for each add'l. Please add $4-5 dollars for shipping to Canada.

Paypal is our favorite method of payment!

Remember to check the For Sale page for more great deals on Vision Forum products!

Filed under: Vision Forum, books | 5 Comments »

I don't remember how many weeks it has been since I started using baking soda and vinegar instead of shampoo, but I think it was at the end of February.  It's been a while since I posted any sort of update, so I guess this is a good time for a recap.

The first several weeks were rough. My hair has always been very oily and I have shampooed daily for 25 years.  The baking soda/vinegar kept my scalp healthy and dramatically reduced my persistent dandruff, but it did NOT get rid of the oil.  It was difficult.  I was sure that eventually the oil production would slow down, but I didn't see it happening.

Then I discovered that because my water is very hard, the baking soda doesn't work the same for me as it does for those with soft water.  I started adding some baking soda to boiling water and letting it cool before I used it.  It made a world of difference!

Suddenly my hair was clean and soft! I still use the soda/vinegar every 2 or 3 days, but my hair is nice and soft, clean and shiny.  I can do this forever.  I would like to be able to go longer between washes, but I seem to be in a holding pattern.  Maybe in the winter, when the weather is cooler and drier.

My children have all made the switch as well though some of them switch back and forth, occasionally using shampoo/conditioner for the fragrance.  Some are old enough to have an opinion.  A few held out longer than others, but our discovery about boiling the water encouraged the reluctant ones to give it a try.

One daughter who has had eczema on her scalp for over 5 years found that her eczema was gone after a week of baking soda and vinegar.  When she shampooed the following week, it was back.  She is now a convert.

I would love to wrap up this post with a wise and witty comment, but my laptop is used for movies in our house.  It's Friday night.  There are about 5 smallish people leaning over me, whispering into both ears, "mom, turn the movie back on.  mom, can we watch the movie now?  how 'bout now?"

Quite understandably, my wit is nowhere to be found.  Instead, I'll find the "play" button.

Filed under: crunchy stuff, frugal | 9 Comments »

The winner of a free family pass to the Christian Families conference in Columbus, OH:

Breezy, who said:

“What is going to happen to the American economy and life in the city?” definitely interests me. Since we’ve registered already, it would be great if my cousin and her parents could join us all.

Thank for offering this!
-Breezy
(Emily Rose’s sister)

If you didn't win, it's not too late to register for this very reasonably priced conference.

The winner of our own Geneva Bible Pages giveaway, happy new owner of 4 products or $200 cash:

Marci, who said:

I blogged about it.

Didn't win?  We still have everything at 40% off!

Want more chances at free goodies?  Marci is having a giveaway of her own!

Filed under: giveaways | 1 Comment »

I'm not an experienced seamstress.  I know just enough to be dangerous.  Or just enough to muddle my way through a project.  Either characterization works.

Right now, I'm stitching up some gloves to complete hubby's Oliver Cromwell costume.  You're impressed, right?  Please tell me you're impressed.  I didn't know a real person could make real gloves until a few short days ago when hubby sent me a link suggesting that I ought to make some for him.  I was dubious, but willing to try.  Just a day later I was admiring the gloves of a certain young ship's captain, and  I learned to my surprise that he had made them himself.

A 14yo young man made his own gloves.  How hard could it be?  When he offered to loan me his pattern, I jumped on the opportunity.  He warned me not to expect the first one to turn out just right.  He had made a mock-up first, then adjusted the pattern to fit better.

I had no idea what I was getting into.  After 4 solid hours, I finished a mock-up of muslin - just the hand, fingers and thumb, mostly handsewn because there was simply no room for a sewing machine.  I didn't even try the fancy wide lace-up cuff yet.  I'm expecting that part to be easy.  You can stop laughing now.   I hope to finish the first real glove tomorrow.  You're still laughing, aren't you?

Let's just say I have far more respect for a certain young ship's captain whom some of you will meet at the Reformation 500.  Be sure to sneak a peek at his gloves, but don't tell him I told you.

If you run into Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell, on the other hand, kindly avert your eyes from his gloves which he may or may not be wearing.  Just check out what our 14yo Kaitlyn made: the awesome doublet with removable sleeves, the shirt, the breeches...you get the idea.

Who ever knew Oliver Cromwell was so handsome?

Filed under: homemaking | 19 Comments »

Last night we were getting ready to go to my sister's house for Tuesday potluck.  This is a weekly family & friends event that rotates between 3 households.

Kaitlyn wanted my opinion on the outfit she was wearing, but 4yo Rachael jumped in first.

"Just wear something really pretty, because boys will be there," she offered.

We both smirked as we eyed her little pilgrim-style dress, oversized cowgirl boots, and flowery pink headband.

"Oh...is that what you're doing?"

She smiled primly and looked down to admire herself.

"Yes, see?  I look kinda like a princess."

Filed under: humor, little bellas | 6 Comments »

Remember last summer when our swallows got swallowed by a huge rat snake?  This year they tried again, but their first brood was eaten by blue jays.  Scrub jays, actually, but I suspect most people aren't as bird-geeky as I used to be.  Blue jays are close enough.

That's when they finally got bolder than their predators and built a new nest just 2 feet from our front door.

At first, we gave them a wide berth, trying not to intimidate them unduly.  We worried that their eggs wouldn't hatch because they were frightened away every time somebody hung about the doorway.  They didn't seem to spend enough time in the nest, but lo and behold!  A couple of weeks ago they hatched out 4 babies!

The babies have rapidly gone from tiny, silently bobbing heads to 4 feathered birds, hunched on the edge of the nest, peering down at us curiously as we go about our business.  We've all agreed that they look strangely like tiny vultures, perched over us and fixing us with their gaze.  More specifically, they look like Snoopy when he pretends to be a vulture.  Remember those comics?

Now all bets are off.  The parents come and go every 60 seconds all day long, swooping in to drop a bug in a gaping little mouth, chattering warnings at us as they swoop off again.  They dive and circle through the air, cutting dramatic arcs around the house, under the eaves, and in the living room.

Yes, today our swallows came to visit us in our home.  We're not entirely sure if they were hunting insects in the house, lost, or just paying us back for all the times we invaded their personal space.  The first one caroused through the house for at least 10 laps, passing the open front door countless times.  She finally perched on the curtain rod, panting, and thought about her predicament.  We closed all the interior doors in the house, turned off the ceiling fans, and waited for her to hatch a new plan.  Her second plan was just like the first one.

The kids begged to be allowed to catch her and hold her, but I didn't want to instill any unnecessary fear of humans.  She finally [finally, finally] found her way out, and we breathed a sigh of relief and went back to our business.  Not 5 minutes later, another bird had joined us in the dining room.  Somehow most of the children missed it this time, and the bird immediately settled in the window sill.

Kait and I caught each other's eye, and I gave her a quick nod.  This time, she scooped up the panting swallow - a much smaller one - a baby flying already? - and tossed it out the door.  It soared and dived and swooped outside, like nothing unusual had happened.

We did our best to count the little heads in the nest, but couldn't be sure if it was one of our babies or a stranger.

This morning, it was confirmed.  One happy little swallow was swooping and diving in small beginner's circles around and about the deck, chattering excitedly the whole time while 3 others watched from the nest.  "Show off!" they whispered to each other, but still they watched.

Filed under: Everyday life | 5 Comments »

at the library!

My printer is down and I needed to print a form for the short sale tomorrow.  We stopped in at the picturesque little library in a nearby town to see if we could do it there.

Yes, and we can blog too.  See?

What about you?  Did you try anything new today?

Filed under: blogging and business | 2 Comments »

If you're Bill Cosby, that title rhymes when you yell it.

Happy Father's Day to the guy who isn't afraid to serve doughnuts for breakfast to an entire herd of children.  That takes guts, and my man's got 'em.

Filed under: Huh? Category? | 3 Comments »

I've been blogging for nearly 4 years now, and I've been reading blogs for the same length of time.  I was always a little annoyed when my favorite bloggers got too busy to post regularly during summer.  What were they doing?  Did they really think there were more important things to do than keep one's blog updated?

This year I finally understand.  Over the past several weeks,

• We built a chicken house. Actually my uncle did most of it for us.  It's a very nice one, I'm told.  My dad calls it our chicken palace.  We still need to cut out the 2nd window and add the trim.  This house just might be more finished than our own.  Not that I'm inclined to swap with the chickens, of course.
• We acquired 25 chickens of varying ages. We raised some from the age of 1 week, and others came to us a bit older.   We haven't had any casualties since the 2nd night.  We suspect 3 of being young roosters, but that's ok.  We'll have choices when it comes time to cull.
• I built a ginormous auto-feeder for the chickens. In theory, it holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 lbs. of feed, though I have no intention of filling it that much.  I just hope I won't be auto-feeding all the rats and mice for miles around.
• We joined Swagbucks and became utterly obsessed. Thanks to our own searches and our friends who signed up, we have done very well.  We have $5 Amazon gift certificates galore.
• We built a frame to hold a sunshade over our deck. Yay for shade!  Our house is cooler and more comfortable, even on 100 degree days.  Even though we're not running our a/c.  The very fact that we're still alive and breathing is proof that it works.  I think photos are even better proof, and will be happy to provide some.
• We stained our deck. That was a lot more work than it sounds like.  We scrubbed.  We doused it with chemicals and scrubbed.  We invited friends out to eat a meal and help us scrub.  We even scrubbed the underside.  We replaced the bad boards, and scrubbed.  Then we stained the deck.
• We rebuilt the stair rail leading up to the deck. The old rail was weak and inadequate, especially at the bottom where I backed in it with the van.  Oops.  Did I say that out loud?  I mean, somebody backed into it.  Anyway, now you could drive a small car up the rails.  Not a 15 passenger van, but a small car.  Not that I plan on trying, or expect it to happen accidentally.
• My uncle is using my brother's Bobcat to rebuild & beautify our rough & rugged country driveway. Ya gotta love family.  He works for the cost of the diesel to run the machine, and my brother insists that his Bobcat is better off being used and maintained while he's otherwise occupied.
• We made great progress at clearing a targeted portion of our land. If you've never tried to make your way through the scrubby cedar in the Texas Hill Country, then you can't begin to appreciate the work involved.  Trust me, it's good.
• We have nearly reached the point of closing on our short sale! This is some of the best news we've had in many years!  Our 7 year stupid tax just might be coming to an end!  We are scheduled to close on Tuesday!  Did you notice that every sentence in this item ends with an exclamation point?!
• We received and completed a very large order of framed Geneva Bible pages to be shipped directly to 14 separately recipients as gifts. At least one of the names is somebody nearly everyone in the country would recognize.  I don't want to say who right now, because he might be keeping an eye on where his name shows up on the internet and it would spoil the surprise from his benefactor.  We think the whole order is very exciting, and hope that all of the recipients are delighted enough to order more as gifts for people in their lives.

I'm sure there are far more items to go on this list, but - guess what?  I don't have time to blog any more right now.  Important stuff to do!

Filed under: Everyday life, blogging and business | 8 Comments »

Hubby will be playing the person of Oliver Cromwell in Boston at the Reformation 500, and our resident seamstress is hard at work on his costume.  Ebay has also played a part in outfitting him.

In preparing to play his part, Hubby has become even more interested than before in the part Cromwell played in history.   Some of us have been listening to lectures by Joe Morecraft, and I am finding biographies of Cromwell all over the house.  :)

Because of our current sale on Geneva Bible Pages, I have the Geneva Bible on my mind.  This morning a book on our shelf caught my eye, and as I idly flipped through it,  I stumbled across this interesting tidbit:

From A Pictorial History of our English Bible, by David Beale.

In 1643 Oliver Cromwell published appropriate passages from the Geneva Bible for his troops.  He called this selection "The Souldiers Pocket Bible: containing the most (if not all) those places contained in holy Scripture which doe shew the qualifications of his inner man, that is a fet Souldier to fight the Lord's Battels, both before the fight, in the fight, and after the fight."  Approximately 50,000 copies - five distinct editions - of this biblical ammunition were reissued to the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War.

I'm not sure why this caught my eye, but doesn't it present an amazing contrast to today's military?  My understanding is that Cromwell's "New Model Army" stood in stark contrast against armies of his own day as well.   I think this short paragraph speaks volumes about the character of the man and his priorities as a leader.

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