Turning to God

When faced with a life changing circumstance, who do you turn to?  I turn to God.  He answers my questions, He puts my mind at ease, He hugs me like no other person can.

Today, I am doubting everything.  I am doubting who I am, what I want to be, and how I got here.  I know, as soon as I turn it all over to Him, He will make it all clear.  And honestly, I have known this was coming for some time, I just kept pushing on thinking everything was going to be ok (in other words, I was stubborn).

Did you know that doubt is a silent killer of your faith?  You think, why has God done this to me?  Why am I here?  Why should I continue turning to Him, when all I get is grief and things are taken away from me?

It is understandable to have feelings like this after a terrible loss.  It takes time to come to terms with the situation that has destroyed you in every possible way you can imagine.  However, God works in, and through every situation we face.  Nothing takes God by surprise.  He can make good out of an impossible situation (even if you think nothing ever will be good again).   In cases where something awful has happened, God is so patient with us.  He knows it will take a toll on us. And He is the answer to getting us back on our feet through hope and faith. 

In times of doubt, turn to God.  He will guide you in the way He wants you to go.  And we must be humble about it (I am preaching to myself here).  We cannot expect God to work in our lives if we are bull headed and only want things the way we want them. 

It is absolutely imperative to understand that God has a plan for us, even if we have to go through heartache to get to the goal, He is with us. 

It is never ever fun to go through tough times that threaten to knock us out for the count.  God sees the Big Picture and knows exactly what he is doing.  We cannot see that big picture, therefore we MUST trust in Him to show us the big picture.

I hope this is speaking to you.  I know, I have to put this out there because I cannot keep it bottled up inside much longer.  Yes, I am going through this and am working my way to the Big Picture through God.  I pray many times a day for Him to show me the route in which I should go.  And I can honestly say, He is guiding me in some directions and not in others.  That just tells me that those other directions that I don't feel God's guidance are ways I should not be going.

I pray that if you are going through grief and depression that you will turn to God for guidance and not try to go through it alone.

~Sherie

Depression........

Depression is the worst thing in the world for a business owner to experience.  Last Monday, I lost a significant portion of my income.  So much so, that it has thrown me into the deepest depression I have ever been in.  Can you see my depression on the outside?  No, I hide it really well.  My family probably doesn't even know that I am experiencing it.  It feels as if you have run into a brick wall and cannot push your way past it. 

What am I doing about it?  I am turning to the most powerful person I know.  I am turning to God.  I started my Bible studies back up.  I also am doing a Bible study with my boys and let me tell you,  today's devotion for the boy's, really spoke to me.  I am also researching every possible means of income I can.  You have to be passionate about what you do, so I am looking at things and thinking to myself, can I be passionate about that?  If the answer is questionable, I strike it off the list.  If I am leaning more to yes, I write it down.  Once I get my list down, I will be praying about it.  Then, I will go back and take a second look at things and eliminate more.  Then, I will pray again.  And repeat, until I know what I will be passionate about going forward.

I'm going to share with you the verses of the Bible that touched my heart today.  Yes, they are ones you have heard before, yes you probably memorized them when you were a kid, but they still speak to people as if you are reading them for the very first time.

Matthew 5:1-10  - "Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.  And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying;  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:43-48  - "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For he makes his sun rise and the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just  and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you ding than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.?

Matthew 6:24-34  - "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.  Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air:  they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying What shall we eat?  or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Matthew 7:7-12  - "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?  So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 7:24-28  - "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell, and great was the fall of it.  And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching."

1 John 4: 7-8  "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

I hope these verses speak to you like they spoke to me.

~Sherie

Book Review - Darker Than Night, by John Lutz

Have you ever read a book and at the end, your heart was beating so fast you couldn't go to sleep or wind down for a while?  Well, this is one of those books.  I finished this book last night around midnight and could not go to sleep for a while after finishing it.

At first, I thought there were too many plots going on at the same time.  Every chapter seemed to start a brand new story.  New characters were introduced throughout the book.  Yes, there was some sex and some very graphic descriptions of the murders.  But, in order to really get the reader into any book, you have to be graphic.  I didn't think it was too much, it was just the right balance.



By the end of the book, everything wrapped together and became clear as to why the author included it in the book.

This is definitely an adult book, no one younger than 18 should read this. 

I am on to the next book in this series now.  I will review it once I am done.

Darker Than Night is only $3.03 on Amazon (kindle store)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Greek Theatre and a Recipe

Yesterday was our first official school day of the 2014-2015 school year!  We did our normal schedule, although I had an appointment right in the middle of the day, so even though we got it all complete, it was broken up into morning session and afternoon session.

Today was about the same.  You see when you own your own business, you have to meet clients when they are available.  So, today we did the morning session and afternoon session as well.  This actually seems to be working out pretty good.

On to what we are learning!  We are still studying Mystery of History Volume 1.  We are up to 478 - 399 BC when Greece was at its prime and they were not afraid of war, so they explored art, theatre, etc.  My boys actually understood this time period.  There are some time periods that at their young age, they have no idea what its all about. 

Anyway, we learned about how plays were sometimes played out by only 2 actors.  The actors would change their masks to show the change of characters and their moods.

Today, my boys created their own masks.  And here they are.

Yes, this one is upside down.  He wanted it that way.

And now for a recipe!

I wanted something today that was going to change up what our menu.  I am tired of the same ole same ole.  So, tonight I took a recipe and made it my own.  It's Super easy and was very good!

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Dry Ranch Dressing Mix
1/3 Cup Louisiana Hot Sauce
1/4 Cup Butter, melted
4 Chicken Breast, boneless, cut into strips

Directions:
Non-hot strips (for the boys)
Coat the chicken strips with the ranch dressing mix and place on a baking sheet covered in wrinkled up tin-foil.  Drizzle butter on chicken.  Bake for 40 minutes in an 350 degree oven.

Boneless Hot Wings

Mix the Ranch Dressing Mix with the hot sauce.  Then, coat the chicken strips with the mixture.  Place chicken on a baking sheet that has been covered with a wrinkled up piece of tin-foil.  Drizzle butter over chicken.  Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I ate mine on a bed of spring mix lettuce, with black olives, and ranch dressing. 

After this picture was taken, I added french fried onions to the salad.

Everybody loved it!  I hope you do too!!!!!

Back to the grindstone

As many of you have noticed, or maybe you didn't, I have not been blogging for a while.  I was blogging about homeschooling.  We are still homeschooling, I just stink at blogging about it.  So, I am going back to what I like to do, I'm going to use this blog as my own diary of sorts and also a place to keep the recipes that are hits at the A Estate.

I hope you enjoy reading about out crazy life and that may be a recipe or two that you try and actually like.

So, today during reading with my seven year old, he's reading How Oliver Olson Changed the World.  He reads about Neil Armstrong's quote "that's one small step for man, one giant step for mankind."  He says, its a giant step for mankind, and a small step for girlkind.  LOL!  I laughed so hard.  No, he's not sexist, he's seven.  And that is just how seven year olds think.

Here is a little recipe for today.  I don't have any pictures, but maybe the next time I cook it, I will add the pics.


BUFFALO CHICKEN SANDWICHES/SALADS (hubby ate it as a salad, I ate it as a salad)
2 bottle of buffalo sauce, I used whatever I had on hand
2 Tablespoons of  ranch seasoning
4 chicken breasts


In your crockpot, pour 1 of the bottles of buffalo sauce.  Then add the ranch and stir.  Next add your chicken.  And top it off with the other buffalo sauce bottle (I actually only used 1/2 bottle here).  Cook on low 8-10 hours.

Before serving, shred chicken.

Delicious!!!!!

Enjoy!
Sherie