Miscellany Monday

I've had some serious thoughts lately and I feel compelled to share:

1. I love the wet foot prints my son leaves behind on the bath mat afterI lift him out of the tub.  These may be the cutest imprints ever.

2.  I've become a coupon nerd.  However I have made two foolish purchases including scented dryer sheets and spray-n-go lotion simply because I had a coupon.  The lotion is actually pretty awesome but the dryer sheets give me a headache and I decided to throw them out.  All in the name of saving some money.

3.  I think my dog eats more dog food since we give her free choice.  I am considering limiting her intake to reduce the amount of the dog food we go through. 

4.  I uploaded close to 1,000 pictures from 2012 using my cell phone as our Wifi hub last month.  I received notice from Verizon when I was uploading the November pictures that we had used 75 percent of our data allowance and we stilll had two weeks to go.  I went without Facebook (gasp) for two weeks and only sporadically checked my email so I didn't have to sell my firstborn just to pay our cell phone bill.  Hubby and I both survived.  And I think we're better for the time spent away from Facebook.  Praise the Lord for the forced separation.

Pretty serious stuff, no?  Okay, here's one serious bit of miscellany.

5.  Hubby and I are fixin to lose an estimated $4,000 to $5,000 out of his paycheck next year due to higher healthcare insurance premiums caused by Obamacare.  I was devastated when I found out, and now I am mostly frustrated.  We are praying that God moves in BIG ways where our finances are concerned so that I can continue to stay home with our kiddos.  This quote from the September 5 Investor's Business Daily sums it up nicely: "Some consumers will have subsidies and may not pay these higher rates, someone will pay for the increased premiums, whether it is the consumer or the federal government. (Emphasis mine.) The reason for my frustration is underlined above.  I am really struggling to understand why the middle class is going to have to take a huge hit for the citizens (and yes, non-citizens) who apparently are "too poor" to pay higher insurance rates (oops, and too poor to pay taxes) yet are more than able to receive every benefit.  I continue to stand by the biblical teaching of no work, no eat.  (If you want the scriptural address for that, leave a comment.)  I realize I left the realm of Monday Miscellany and am firmly standing on a soapbox, but my ire has been raised.  If you are able to receive a benefit from the US Government (driving on public roadways, access to public libraries, enrolling children in public schools, fire protection from your city fire department.....) then you should be contributing to the cost of all these "free" benefits.  Oh wait, they aren't free.  People including my husband and I are paying taxes so others can utilize these "free" benefits.

Okay, soapbox vacated.  But for real, please be praying for our family.  This is a huge loss.  Please pray that we would remain confident in the Lord's provision AND plan for our family through this.  Please also pray that my faith would increase because I am straying constantly from trust and faith in the Lord that he will provide.  I know my worry and stress are not productive and will not bring any good about so please pray that I would re-focus my thought life and energies on the Lord.

Miscellany Monday

In an effort to blog more (twice in almost two weeks, what?) I am going to make my first Miscellany Monday post today. I don't know how to link to the Lowercase Letters blog other than creating a hyperlink like I just did. Can anyone help this technologically disabled, in a constant rush person??

1. My hubby and I drove to Lubbock, Texas this weekend on a whirlwind trip to pick up 10 of our ewes from another club lamb breeder. They had spent 42 days in with some rams and we are excited to see the babies they produce come March. I LOVED the time locked up with my hubby in a truck because we had lots of great time to visit however I don't recommend driving 13 hours straight and then turning around immediately and doing the same thing to get home.

2. We bought a colt! Wright Club Lambs officially now has a cattle and horse division although I don't know if 2 heifers and 1 colt qualifies as "divisions." I will post a picture of "Dib" our almost yearling Quarter horse soon.

3. I think a pack of hungry coyotes made off with one of my chickens this morning:( Not really sure though since I don't actually keep a head count on our poultry "division." I just hunt down eggs in all the odd places they lay them. I guess I'd rather lose a chicken than a sheep though.

The End of Accomplishment

Apparently I have no original thoughts to share at this point. Ha. I'm just kidding....I think I'd rather give you excerpts from articles rather than work on articulating my own brilliant thoughts into text. For now, it will suffice. Maybe after school gets underway and my student teacher begins teaching I'll get back on track with my own thoughts. Oh wait, my student teacher doesn't come for another five months. Boo. Well then, article excerpts it is for the time being.

The following excerpts were taken from Janie B. Cheaney's article "The End of Accomplishment" in the July 31, 2010 edition of WORLD magazine.

With bureaucracy's triumph over excellence, big and important projects have stalled.

(after talking about landing on the moon for the first time...)
The rest is history, but history may have turned downhill. Bruce Charlton, blogger and university professor, believes it did. "The landing of men on the moon and bringing them back alive was the supreme achievement of human capability...and I suggest the real reason we have not been to the moon since 1972 is that we cannot any longer do it. Humans have lost the capability."

Three reasons why: a preference for diversity over excellence in hiring, the expansion of committees and regulatory agencies, and the erosion of individual responsibility. These were the trends that had begun decades before, but by 1970 "the human spirit began to be overwhelmed by bureaucracy."

That's a depressing thought. But one mighty force remains, of individual souls freed from bondage, pledged to a common cause, inspired by a common vision, under perfect leadership. It's called the church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, much less the muddle of bureaucracy. Where human progress falters, there the church rises. We have God's word on that; it's time to believe it.

(Katy's note: Amen!)

Worth Quoting

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke


I'm not sure if Mr. Burke ever thought of Jesus when he said this, but I sure do. Praise God for Jesus doing something and His subsequent victory over death.

I'm sorry I've been AWOL for awhile - I no longer have internet at mi casa, so I type blogs and then post them at work before or after school. I have a blog ready to go but am having trouble copying and pasting it into the blog. (Sorry, I'm a techno peasant sometimes!) Anyway, I promise to get another blog up by weeks end.

God bless!

A Quick Update

I know, I know, it has been a loooong time since I've posted. I'm on my lunch break now so I thought I'd try to give a quick synopsis of the big and little happenings of my life as of late. I was in desperate need of spring break two weeks ago, and God was surely good to me over my week-long break. I soaked up some precious time with my family and loved every second. The weather has been awesome, and I love spending time outside.


My sister took me to the little mining town of Bisbee in southeastern Arizona. Anna and I both love this part of the state and plan to rendevouz down there again sometime. While in Bisbee we toured the Queen mine, ate at Jimmy's Hot Dog stand and enjoyed some great Mexican food. And one of the best part's was getting to catch up with a good friend of our's from college, Brita. We headed to Douglas on Saturday night to eat dinner with Brita and her boyfriend (Randy smoked chicken, salmon and pork....and it was awesome) and then kicked up our heels at the Douglas Fairgrounds for a late St. Patty's Day celebration. We're sitting on the steps of the Bisbee public library in the picture below (L-R: me, Brita and Anna).

The week following spring break was awesome - teaching went well and I enjoyed seeing my students again. I invited a bunch of friends over this past weekend for a big chile relleno fest. It was my first time to make this concoction in my kitchen and it turned out pretty well. I also made homemade beans and spanish rice to go along with it. I'd like to post recipe from this past weekend's cooking fest, so I'll try to get to that soon.

Hope all is well in your world. Thanks for checkin' in!

The ABC's of Me!

I've seen several blogger buddies post their ABC's in the recent weeks, so I thought I would too.

A- Age: 27

B- Bed size: full; my parents refinished my great-grandmother's bedroom set and gave it to me as a birthday gift in high school so I've had a full bed since then. And I love it!

C- Chore you hate: pulling weeds

D- Dog's name: Johnnie Reb (referred to as JR on my blog, and yes she is a female, hence the "ie" on the end of her name)

E- Essential Food/Item: mini-food processor. It changed my life, my cooking life that is.

F- Favorite color: yellow

G- Gold or Silver: silver

H- Height: 5' 8 1/2" - I believed I was 5' 9" for most of my adult life until my sister made me measure my height and to my dismay I discovered I had lost a half inch. I guess I didn't really lose it, I never really had it. But it felt like I lost it. I've since moved on:-)

I- I am: daughter, sister, aunt, granddaughter, cousin. Daughter of the Living God.

J- Job: High School Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor - sometimes I can't believe I still go to high school everyday.

K- Kids: none, unles you count the 130 students I interact with on a daily basis.

L- Living Arrangements: 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom house that I bought after teaching only two weeks. I was really greedy about purchasing a house as soon as I got a "real job" but am so thankful the Lord has provided.

M- Mom's name: Mary Beth

N- Nickname: KJ, Katy-Joanie-Bonie, Ms. G, Kate-dawg, The Terminator (my student's call me that behind my back...j/k)

O- Overnight hospital stay: when I was born

P- Pet peeve: when people guilt me into socializing with them. Sometimes after I've been surrounded and questioned by 130 needy students all day the last thing I want to do is make small talk or hang out. I know, I know, I sound like a loner, but sometimes I just need a little peace and quiet.

Q- Quote from a movie: I can't remember any lines from a movie. I have a terrible memory.

R- Right or Left Handed: right

S- Siblings: Paul (older) and Anna (younger), both married to wonderful people!!

T- Time you wake up: please don't freak out...4:30am

U- Unique thing about your car: I have two decals on it stating that I'm an alum from the University of Arizona AND Florida!

V- Vegetable you hate: green olives...are the even a veggie?

W- Ways you run late: late bus drivers on school trips and late students

X- X-rays you've had: feet, ankles, chest and teeth

Y- Yummy food you make: I'm making refried beans tonight...and I hope they change my life. Other things I like to make and think I'm pretty good at: Shepherd's pie, peanut butter/chocolate chips/oatmeal cookies....that's about all I can think of while smelling these yummy beans in the background right now.

Z- Zoo favorite: elephants!

Is this enough to say?

Do you ever feel inadequate when praising God? I do, all the time. I wanted to share something from an insert in our church bulletin this past week. It's nice. (For those who know me well, you know that when I say nice, I say it in the most sincere manner.) But truly, it's far more than nice. Let this really soak in. Meditate on the characteristics of God which almost seem to be in opposition to each other, but are not, because it's God.

"You my God are supreme, utmost in goodness, mightiest and all powerful, most merciful and most just. You are the most hidden from us and yet the most present amongst us, the most beautiful and yet the most strong, ever enduring and yet we cannot comprehend you. You are unchangeable and yet you change all things. You are never new, never old, and yet all things have new life from you. You are the unseen power that brings decline upon the proud. You are ever active, yet always at rest. You gather all things to yourself, though you suffer no need. You support, you fill, and you protect all things. You create them, nourish them, and bring them to perfection; You seek to make them your own, though lack for nothing. You love your creatures, but with a gentle love. You treasure them but without apprehension. You grieve for wrong, but suffer no pain. You can be angry and yet serene. Your works are varied, but your purpose is one in the same. You welcome all who come to you, though you never lost them. You are never in need yet are glad to gain, never covetous yet you exact a return for your gifts. We give abundantly to you so that we may deserve a reward; yet which of us has anything that does not come from you? You repay us what we deserve, and yet you owe nothing to any. You release us from our debts, but you lose nothing thereby. You are my God, my Life, my holy Delight, but is this enough to say of you? Can any man say enough when he speaks of you? Yet woe befalls those who are silent about you! For even those are most gifted with speech cannot find words tod escribe you."

Augustine, Confessions, Book1, Part 4