My Peacefully Chaotic Life

2 pounds ground beef 1 can broccoli and cheese soup 1 cup cheddar cheese 1 pkg tater tots Brown beef. As it cooks you may leave it plain or season it or add onions/garlic, whatever you like. Drain. Stir in soup. Spread in casserole dish. I use a square one. Top with cheese and then tater tots. Bake at 350 degrees until it browns app. 30-40 minutes.

I hope this post makes sense. It's just a collection of thoughts I had in my quiet time and I thought I would share. Forgive me if it seems to ramble. Hope....is how we should look to our future. It is the encouragement of knowing good things are to come. Faith....is how we should live today. It is the encouragement of knowing God is at work RIGHT NOW on your behalf. Trusting and abiding....means living in the moment with the assurance of victory. Situations may look bleak. People may disappoint you. You may feel misunderstood in your endeavors. But all of this pales in comparison to the victory we find in Christ. It's not just a matter of getting your foot in the door of heaven. It's about allowing Him to mold you and change you for the better. Pressure hurts but it is necessary to bring about change. We should have a hunger for discipleship so that we can look beyond those pressures to the hands that hold us. It is essential to look beyond ourselves to others and find op...

Oh, what a pleasant, cool day! We homeschooled outside this morning and the children played. They also enjoyed a nice picnic. I heard from The GuitarMan today and that was a sweet "interruption." He went home with friends this weekend so we didn't get to see him. Next weekend he has plans again. The he leaves the following week to go on tour with the chorale where they will end up in New Orleans. Well, he has it all planned out so we will get the chance to see each other in between all of that. It made this mom happy to know his family is important to him. Cornbread suddenly wound up with a stuffy nose during the night and still has it. He is sleeping in my lap now. I've been blog-hopping while he rests. Blogger keeps irritating me lately because I'll leave these well thought out great comments (well, I think so anyway, ha!)on people's blogs and then it doesn't go through. Instead I get the page cannot be found thing. Arghh! Then if I try to go back to...

I can't believe the house is still so quiet this morning! I am enjoying my Hills Bros. cappucino and doing a little blog hopping. In a little while, the little ones will start wandering into the living room with tousled hair, blankets and lovies. They'll ask to "watch shows." Then will come the task of finding something to watch that isn't all about Halloween. We choose to not celebrate Halloween with our children. We never thought too much of it until (when GuitarMan was a baby) a man came to our church and did a fantastic seminar. This was a long time ago obviously but basically the gist of it was th evil in our society and how we unknowingly expose our children to it. He covered a lot of material. Part of his lectures dealt with Halloween. After that we have always felt convicted that we shouldn't take part in it. Now it covered way more than just this topic, but for this post, Halloween and our family is what I will talk about. We don't dress up in ...

Not much time this week for contemplating life and its ins and outs. Henceforth not a lot of blogging either. I'm learning about this Facebook thing. It's been neat to find old friends and chat. Tuesday The GuitarMan and the crew of regulars from the college came to the game. Afterwards we all headed over to Taco Bell. They surprised The FisherMan with a birthday cake loaded with 68 candles followed by a silly string attack in the parking lot. And, no, he isn't 68 years old. :) The GuitarMan had therapy again today and it's going well. They hope to start strength therapy next week using putty. Just tellin ya' what they said. :) All joking aside, I think he will be able to start putting some pressure on it next week. Which means he may be able to start playing guitar with it, instead of just the other 3 fingers. FlowerChild had her last soccer game of the season tonight. I think she might be a little sad. She so enjoys it. She is such a little sprite out there on the...

Well, we have reached a few milestones around here and I thought I would catch everyone up. First.....The GuitarMan got the pins out today! Yes! Still in the custom brace, still healing, but no pins to contend with now. Therapy still for a while. However the therapist mentioned if his range of motion continues to improve, he may be able to cut it back to once a week. He and Z had a concert Sunday night at a church over in the next county. It was pretty freaky to see him play with the pins. But the thing that took the cake was on the last song when he went all out and put the electric guitar behind his head and played it! There were some pictures made at the concert. His doctor is hoping there might be a good shot of him playing that shows his pins. He wants to use it when he does seminars and presentations! Second.....In other news, I am officially hip now. Well, probably not since I just used the term hip but anyway...up to date....cool....whatever. I'm on Facebook now. The only t...

Elisabeth Elliot said, "Sometimes obedience means the willingness to do the useless thing in order that God may do the great thing." I read this quote this morning and even though I really should be dressing for church I felt an urge to share my thoughts with you in the hopes that it might encourage someone today. Sometimes the things God calls us to do seem useless or small. Sometimes it feels as though we are endlessly banging our heads against a wall and only getting a headache for our reward. It is only when we acknowledge our Creator and His work in us and through us that we realize He has purpose in everything! But when we get too full of ourselves we usually start to whine because there may be no instant results. There may not be the level of appreciation we hope for. It is at this point that we shift our focus from others to ourselves. From God's will to our wishes. We begin to perceive the smallest slight or disappointment as major cause for our feelings. We may ...