Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Songs

The DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room has a post every Sunday called Sunday Hymn Post. I've enjoyed it very much especially since I really miss singing hymns regularly at church. A good old hymn is hard to come by. So I've decided to copy her idea and post a hymn here each Sunday. Since I like many different types of church songs I may post something other than a hymn here sometimes too. Whatever strikes my fancy or whatever song God is using to minister to me. That's why I'm calling it Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, a phrase I borrowed from Ephesians 5:19: speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

Refrain

But I know Whom I have believèd,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

Refrain

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing us of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

Refrain

I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.

Refrain

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

Refrain

Words: Dan­i­el W. Whit­tle, in Gos­pel Hymns No. 4, 1883.
Music: James Mc­Gran­a­han

Source: CyberHymnal.org

Cousins Camp 2007

My daughter, Rebecca, has posted her Cousins' Camp report on her blog, Just Horsin' Around. Give her a thrill and go read and comment.

peanut butter, paws, & predicaments

Updated*

Okay, Internet, I've got a question for you.

First I have to tell you that I've been doing a pretty good job of transforming my life into a frugal lifestyle. Okay...I've made a few positive changes. Not a major transformation, yet. But it's happening. It's mostly in my head but a frugal lifestyle IS mostly about attitude and how you view life. To quote the DeputyHeadmistress in her latest article on the new Frugal Hacks website,

"the most important frugal tool you have is the way you think about things. All the frugal buys in the world won’t help us live within our means until we change the way we think about what we need and what we want."

So, to get to the point, I bought a new jar of peanut butter. We had used it once. It was left on the table after breakfast (we gotta have peanut butter on our pancakes!), and the @#^!%$& cute, loveable cat got to it.

Here's the question: What would you do? Go ahead and vote. I've already made my decision. I'll tell you what I did later.




*For some reason when I posted this voting thingie, a strange color bar appeared at the top and bottom of my blog. I don't like that color! It doesn't belong but I can only make it disappear when I remove this post. Strange! I guess it will just have to stay there until this post is archived unless someone out there can tell me how I can fix it....

Favorite (F)oto Friday

Menu Plan Monday - Sept. 23, 2007

Sunday- Go Out
Monday- Sub Sandwiches, Fruit
Tuesday- Chicken Salad, French bread
Wednesday- Baked Potato Bar
Thursday- Swiss Steak & Rice, Salad (from the freezer - I made a double batch a few weeks ago)
Friday- Grilled Hamburgers
Saturday- Leftover Buffet

Be sure to check out the other menus this week at Organizing Junkie.
You can also check out my handy, standard breakfast menu.

Menu Plan Monday - Sept. 16, 2007

Wow! I haven't posted a menu plan in months. Really, I have been using menus I just haven't gotten around to posting them. But I'm back now.

Sunday- Spaghetti
Monday- Grilled Pork Steaks & Zucchini, Applesauce, Salad
Tuesday- Chicken Enchiladas (make double batch)
Wednesday- Grilled Salmon, Steamed Baby Reds, Salad
Thursday- Beef Stroganoff (from the freezer - I made a double batch a few weeks ago)
Friday- Homemade Pizza
Saturday- Deer Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Pan Gravy, Salad

Be sure to check out the other menus this week at Organizing Junkie.

The Monstrous Regiment of Women

Thank you KimC for the heads up on the following video:

I'm thankful for men like Colin Gunn who are willing to fight the culture war.

I can't wait to see the movie.....the official site for The Monsterous Regiment movie is here.

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

This post: It's coming ..... are you ready? was written by KimC @ Life in a Shoe.

More on Overpopulation

Or should that be moron overpopulation? Sorry.

My sister sent me an article that is a startling contrast to my last post. She doen't agree with it, by the way, she just sent it because of the contrast. Here's an excerpt:

Global Swarming
Is it time for Americans to start cutting our baby emissions?

By Daniel Engber Posted Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, at 4:49 PM ET

Oh, if we all just disappeared. According to The World Without Us, Alan Weisman's strangely comforting vision of human annihilation, the Earth would be a lot better off. In his doomsday scenario, freshwater floods would course through the New York subway system, ailanthus roots would heave up sidewalks, and a parade of coyotes, bears, and deer would eventually trot across the George Washington Bridge and repopulate Manhattan. Nature lovers can take solace in the idea that the planet will thrive once we've finally destroyed ourselves with global warming. But Weisman takes the fantasy one step further: Let's not wait for climate change, he says. Let's start depopulating right now. (Read the rest...)

In the third paragraph of the above article is a link to another article that I think is worth reading. It's not for the faint-hearted, easily angered, or for children. Read a little:

Cases of Forced Abortions Surface in China
by Louisa Lim ~ Morning Edition, April 23, 2007

During the past week, dozens of women in southwest China have been forced to have abortions even as late as nine months into the pregnancy, according to evidence uncovered by NPR.
China's strict family planning laws permit urban married couples to have only one child each, but in some of the recent cases — in Guangxi Province — women say they were forced to abort what would have been their first child because they were unmarried. The forced abortions are all the more shocking because family planning laws have generally been relaxed in China, with many families having two children. (Read a little more...)

This is just wrong, folks. And terribly sad. We'd be foolish to think it can't happen in the U.S.

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5)

Who am I to tell God to stop giving me gifts? How do I know when my quiver is full? I believe God is the best judge of that. He knows me, He knows His plans for me. He knows where He wants me to be and He knows how to get me there. How can I think that I would do a better job of directing my life that my Maker would? My only task is to submit to His will and let Him form me in to the person He wants me to be. C.S. Lewis states it very well,

Christ says `Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.' (from Mere Christianity [chapter 30])

It's as simple and as difficult as that. I don't think overpopulation is our problem. I think SIN is our problem. Only God has the solution for that and it's offered as a free gift to us. We'd be foolish to squander that gift.

******************************
Updated to add link:
China to crack down on rich flouting one-child rule

Overpopulation?

I've never believed it. Apparently the governor of a central Russian province doesn't believe it either!

Skip work, make babies, says Russian governor
By James Kilner Wed Sep 12, 6:02 AM ET

The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work on Wednesday and m@ke love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate.
And if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months time -- on Russia's national day on June 12 -- she will qualify for a prize, perhaps even winning a new home.
"It's normally something for the home -- a fridge or a television set," Yelena Yakovleva at the Ulyanovsk regional administration press office, said.
"It doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy."
Newly-weds Karina and Anton Bukhanovsky walked hand in hand down the main street of the regional capital of Ulyanovsk. They live in St Petersburg but travelled to Ulyanovsk to soak up the atmosphere on Wednesday.
"I used to live here," said Karina, aged 19.
"We plan to come back on the same day next year and try for a baby and the prize nine months later," she said.
Anton, aged 21, kissed her gently on the cheek and they strolled off arm in arm.
Regional governor Sergei Morozov told employers to contribute to a Kremlin campaign to boost the birth rate by giving couples Wednesday off to have s&x.
Russia wants to reverse a trend in which the population is shrinking by about 700,000 people a year as births fail to outpace a high death rate boosted by AIDS, alcoholism and suicide.
This is the third year Ulyanovsk region, famous as the birthplace of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, has dedicated a day to encouraging couples to produce more babies.
Prizes will extend equally to unwed women who produce children on the right day, though the biggest prizes will go to married couples.
On Russia Day this year, a family won a jeep after their fourth baby was born on the holiday.
Next year, the top prizes will include an apartment, Morozov told Reuters. "We need more people," he said.
This year a record 78 babies were born on June 12 at the main hospital in the regional capital of Ulyanovsk, beating the 2006 total of 26, said chief doctor Andrei Malykh.
"The scheme is working. People want the prizes," he said.
A mass wedding and special lessons for children at school on how to deal with having a brother or sister are also planned in Ulyanovsk city, which is about 900 km (560 miles) from Moscow.
At the town's central post office, a sign urges locals to write love letters for free to anywhere in Russia, with postage pre-paid.
This week First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, said he wanted to stabilise the population at about 142 million by 2015 and boost it back to 145 million by 2025.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070912/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_
russia_sex;_ylt=AlixwWWvxDK4iO7gaXxomnwuQE4F

I don't really know what to say about this but I wanted to share it. I'd like a new house or a new fridge, but we didn't get this Wednesday off. We should start a program like this here in the states. July 4th is a good national holiday for us to aim for, eh? So how about Thursday, October 4th? National Trying To Conceive Day. Whaddya think?

I think it's late and I should get to bed. I'm starting to get punchy.

WFMW - Line Drying Towels

Do you line dry towels and find them rather stiff and abrasive? Well, I learned a trick from my mom. Throw them in the dryer for about 10 minutes on the no-heat setting, THEN hang them on the line. Ten minutes is enough to fluff them up and remove the wrinkles from the spin cycle and you still get the sweet smell of line drying and you've still reduced your energy usage.

Check out what works for others at the Works For Me Wednesday home: Rocks In My Dryer.

*************************************************
My previous WFMW posts:
Brand Loyalty
Breakfast Menu
Rinsing Toddler Hair
Measuring Honey & Molasses
Precooking Hamburger
Holey Jeans, Batman?!
Cleaning out the fridge
Trimming Baby Nails

WFMW - Brand Loyalty

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer has asked that: "Everybody post about what brands (any products) you cannot do without."

Here's my list:

• Jif peanut butter
• Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Toothpaste
• Arm & Hammer laundry detergent
• Arm & Hammer dryer sheets
• Crayola crayons
• Clorox bleach & Clorox 2
• Plain or Honey Nut Cheerios (other generic cereals are okay but NOT Cheerioes!)
• Premium Saltines
• Van Camp's Pork 'n Beans
• Gorton's Fishsticks
• Scott's toilet paper
• Band-Aid's
• Dove bar soap
• Q-tips

There might be a few others but I can't think of them now. The cool thing is I just got a BUNCH of coupons for the name brand things that I like. I spent a total of $6.18 on ebay for a huge amount of coupons (from three different sellers). I'm so excited for payday because then I get to use them and see exactly how much I'll save! Check back later and I'll record my savings. The trick with coupons is to ONLY buy the coupons for things you already buy anyway. Otherwise it turns into more spending instead of more saving. I've been bitten by the coupon bug!

Anyway, back to WFMW... What's on your list?

***********
Updated to add: After reading a few other brand loyalty lists I had to hurry back here and add NETFLIX!! Yes, of course! Goodness, it's even in my sidebar. I can't believe I forgot that one. Netflix is so great. I can't tell you how I DON'T miss going into the video rental store and having to avert my eyes from the evil that abounds there.