Thanksgiving Bandits

What 2 fun girls do with the Thanksgiving napkins while they're supposed to be folding them. =D

    (Only posting this 7 months late!)

sMiLeS,

Whew! The drivers in Holland these days! (lol)

I have no idea....

View Larger Map

Use the controls to pan around and see the car at different angles.
sMiLeS,

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

You may not know that my real name is Mary!  "Marty" is just a nickname, but it is what I've gone by all my life, and when I got married, the preacher who had known me for practically all my life could not remember my given name.  So I whispered it to him, lol.

So, how does my garden grow?

When you have a garden, do you pull only a few weeds, or do you try to get them all?
Sometimes we just pull off the top part of the weed so that it looks better, but the roots are still there.
If you don't get them all, what happens pretty quickly?
If you want good fruit, you need to get rid of the weeds.

It's the same way in our life.  If we get rid of some sin, but not all, it will cause problems.
We tend to think if we get rid of a "big" sin, then whatever we are still doing is not as bad.  Maybe it is small in the eyes of others, but God wants us to get rid of it all.

In Numbers 33, the LORD told the children of Israel to take possession of Canaan.  He told them to "drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places."  (v. 52)
And then read v. 55-56.
55.  But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your side, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
56.  Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

If we get rid of some sin, but not all, we are still sinning.
It's just like someone spitting in your drink.  It's just a little spit.  But who'd want to drink that?
God doesn't want just some of our life.  He wants our life.
What are you holding on to?




I Will Give My Life

V.1 I will give my life unto the Lord, I will give myself unto His word. All that He has granted unto me shall be His own. (!)  He is Oh, so worthy of the best, I will serve through His own righteousness.  All the Glory give to Jesus' name and His alone.

V.2 I will give my heart unto the Lord, I will give my hopes for God to fill. All that I desire, all my dreams, shall be His own. He is Oh, so worthy of this rest, I will wait through His own righteousness.  All the Glory give to Jesus' name and His alone.

V.3 I will give my lips unto His praise, I will fix my eyes upon His gaze. All my reverence, all that I adore, shall be His own. He is Oh, so worthy to be blessed, I will worship His own righteousness. All the Glory give to Jesus' name and His alone.

V.4 I will give my life unto the Lord,
                              I will give my heart unto the Lord,
I will give myself unto His word.
                      I will give my hope for God to fill.
All that He has granted unto me shall be His own.
                       All that I desire... shall be His own.
He is, Oh, so worthy of the best,
                    He is, Oh, so worthy of this rest,
I will serve through His .............................own righteousness. 
                               I will wait through His own righteousness.
All the Glory give to Jesus Name………….….and His alone.
                     All the Glory give to Jesus Name …..….lone.
 Tag: All the Glory give to Jesus Christ the Lord and Him alone.

sMiLeS,

♥Keep the Heart

I first heard a lady named Mrs. Francie Taylor speak at a Ladies' Conference in April of this year.  She only spoke 2 times during the conference, but both times were such a blessing!  Down to earth, practical teaching -- I just loved her teaching!  And I know it is God through her, but He uses us to the extent we let Him, right?  I am so glad she's letting Him use her to speak to other ladies!
Her website is ♥KeeptheHeart.com.  She also has an Ask the Teacher section and a blog section.  She writes some really helpful and encouraging articles.
And she's also on facebook.  I love reading her short words of wisdom each day.  A real blessing!
This is one thing she posted today:

Ask yourself on a regular basis, "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" Motives matter. When we're doing things for the right reasons, the Lord will be magnified. When we're doing things to impress others or to earn praise, our motives are misdirected. Scratch below the surface of a dissatisfied life and you'll often find a problem with motives.
"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." (Col. 3:23-24)

She uses this verse as her motto:
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

I just wanted to share this with my readers!

sMiLeS,

Happy 4th!

   `°º·¤.¸¯`°º·¤.¸¯`°º·¤.¸ ♥ ¸.¤·º°´¯ ¸.¤·º°´¯ ¸.¤·º°
~~~¤-¤- Happy 4th of July!!! -¤-¤~~~
   ¤·º°´¯ ¸.¤·º°´¯ ¸.¤·º°´¯ ♥ ¯`°º·¤. ¸¯`°º·¤. ¸¯`°







sMiLeS,

Avoiding Temptation

Proverbs 4:13-15, KJV
13.  Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
14.  Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15.  Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

Verse 14 says, "go not in the way of evil men."  Don't even be there!  There are many verses in proverbs that talk about the company you keep.  Proverbs 1:10-16
That last verse (in chapter 4 above) means to do a 180, and don't even walk by temptation!
Don't discuss it.  Don't consider it.  Don't click on it just to see what it is!  Don't give it a second thought, for the moment you do, you are treading dangerous ground.
Proverbs 7:8 talks about a young man who walks by "her" corner...  And sadly, verse 26 (of chapter 7) is true. =(
None of us are immune.

Proverbs 4:23-27, KJV
23.  Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out if it are the issues of life.
24.  Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25.  Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26.  Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27.  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Keep your heart! ♥

sMiLeS,

My kids!

My kids and my niece and nephew went to a formal banquet this past weekend.

Rebekah (17½), JohnDavid & Bethany (almost 15), Caleb (15), Abigail (16½)

sMiLeS,

The funniest conversation! =D

I had the funniest conversation with my daughter the other day!

Rebekah called me on my cell phone and the conversation went something like this:

"Hey, Mom, do you know where the sister is?"
[well, it's what I thought she said!] 😊 

"Um... the sister?"

"Yes, I can't find it anywhere."

"What do you mean?"

"The sister!  You set fire with it."

"What!?!"  I'm chuckling by now, knowing my failing hearing is getting the better of me.  "Spell it, please."

"S-I-S-T-E-R."
"You want to set fire with your sister???"  LOL!!! 😆😊

"Yes, and I looked all through the cabinet and can't find it anywhere!"

"OHHHH..." [I finally get it] "The SIFTER!  You want to sift flour with it!  Haha, oh, the sifter is in the dishwasher!  I thought you wanted to use Bethany to set fire to something!"

ROFL!!! 😂😂😂 

sMiLeS,

Happy Birthday, ♥Mama!

My mom♥ went to heaven in August, and one of my facebook friends said that today she's having the best birthday ever!  Another friend reminded me that I will be with her longer than I will ever be without her.
Sometimes we refer to death as losing a loved one.
But she isn't lost!  Because I know where she is!!!
So thankful that I can say this!♥

sMiLeS,

Social Media: the Bermuda Triangle of Productivity

(source)

sMiLeS,

My kids are funny!

I am still getting over having lost my voice for 2 weeks!

So two weeks ago, when it was beginning to be at its worst, the kids and I were in JC Penny.  I croakingly whispered to the kids not to get too far so that when I had to leave, I could find them.
Mischievously, Rebekah grinned and said, "Okay, just hollar!"
A nearby employee just started laughing and said, "That's funny!"  😂

The other day, my two teenage daughters came combat-crawling through the living room. 🤔 When they got past me, they looked at each other, and one said, "Do you think she saw us!?!"
I love them!  They are so fun. 😄

The other day we were looking through movie and documentary titles, and we saw one called Switched at Birth.  JohnDavid grinned and said that he thought he and Bethany (twins) were switched at birth.  LOL!!! 🤣


sMiLeS,

I love Travis!!! =)

sMiLeS,

Is it Right or Wrong?

I found this yesterday.
It was something Travis had typed out a long time ago on an electric typewriter, and had stuck it in the pages of one of the reference sources he has.

WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG

1.  Do you ask other people's opinion about what you are doing, if it is right or wrong.
2.  Do you argue with yourself about it.
3.  Do you feel uneasy about what you have decided that's for you to do; had you rather no one else see you do it.
4.  Can you say, "Lord, I thank you for providing this for me."


I'm so glad I have Travis!♥

sMiLeS

"My words shall not pass away"

So excited!  
This will seem dull to some, but to me it's exciting! =)
I was reading where Abram, his wife, his father, and his nephew Lot left Ur to travel to Canaan, but went around by Haran and stayed there awhile.  So I looked up Haran, and found that it was about 600 miles from Ur (a long way to travel back then, esp. with all they had to take with them!), and read that there are frequent references to Haran in Mari tablets and in other cuneiform sources, and that evacuations have revealed a continuous history from about 2000 B.C. to around A.D 1000 or later.  A few ruins have been discovered as well.
I got excited, because earlier this year, we had learned about how archaeologists use three tests to confirm accuracy of *historical documents.*
►The internal test checks to see whether or not the document in question has any contradictions within itself.  We also discussed some Biblical accounts that are assumed to be contradictory, and how they aren't contradictions.
►The external test compares the document with outside sources - other historical facts - and compares to archaeological facts (like the existence of a city, etc.)
The Bible passes this test very well!
[see why I am excited!!!]
►The bibliographic test is the most important.  The document must contain direct eye-witness accounts, or second-hand accounts.  So these were usually recorded shortly after the actual event, and that is a good thing!
Since there are virtually no original documents from any truly ancient work of history (there are always copies of copies), the bibliographic test also asks how may different copies exist that were made by different people.  The more people who give the same account, the better.  This shows that it would be unlikely that the original was modified.
Of course, the Bible passes this test with ease!  =)
• Isaiah 40:8   "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
• Matthew 24:35   "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

And I love finding things that match up.  A reference to a place is also mentioned somewhere else, and I figure out who was at the same place at the same time, or accounts line up in different places.  Too much to explain.  It just amazes me how things just fit together!
I guess that's the part of me that likes how cool it is to find the answer to an algebra equation.  It just all works out so perfectly!  =D  Yes, my kids think that's weird, haha! ;)

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 13, The Human Digestive System

►Videos and Resources for M13

First, a magic trick.
Watch this boiled purple cabbage water turn red the instant it hits the glass!

Wasn't that awesome!?!

Well... I didn't say the glass was empty.  =)
Actually, in the bottom of the glass was a teaspoon of the Works.  →
When I bought it, I made sure it had hydrochloric acid (also called hydrogen chloride), was non-clinging, and I thought it was colorless until it was poured.
It was clear-blue, but apparently it was light enough, because it worked perfectly.

So what does a 'magic trick' have to do with digestion???

Experiment 13.2 was about Stomach Acid and Antacids.
Stomach acid contains hydrochloric acid.
Purple cabbage juice can be used to measure pH, and indicate the presence of chemicals that are either an acid or a base.
The chemical in the cabbage juice that does this is called an indicator.
When the cabbage juice hit the hydrochloric acid in this toilet cleaner, it turned red!  I had hoped for at least pink, but this was great!  The white TUMS was to act as an antacid, but didn't dissolve readily.
So I did what my mom always did when we kids had to take medicine, but couldn't swallow pills yet.  I put a TUMS in a larger spoon, and crushed it with the back of another spoon.
Easy-peasy, powdered TUMS.
Dropping the powder into the red liquid gave us this instant, foamy result:

TUMS have an ingredient that helps to neutralize acid.  That ingredient is calcium carbonate.
Cabbage juice indicates the presence of a base by turning blue/purple.
I wish I had the whole thing on video from start to finish, but we had to figure out the crushed TUMS (In the video above, you can hear my pollen-induced laryngitis voice instructing them, lol).

Then we needed to find out what would happen if there was more hydrochloric acid than calcium carbonate.
So pretty...  =)



Before you even start eating, you smell food which triggers your salivary glands.  In saliva are enzymes that help you start digesting starches.
If you remember from the last module, starch is a polysaccharide (many sugars).  The enzymes in saliva break polysaccharides down into disaccharides.
So digestion starts in the mouth!

Just lovely.  bleh!

Experiment 13.1, Seeing a Part of the Digestive Process showed that saliva does indeed break down polysaccharides.
One of the boys chewed half a cracker, then spit it into a small dish and mixed it with a tablespoon of water.  The other half of the cracker was crunched it up in a baggie and also mixed it with a tablespoon of water.  A few drops into each dish, and you could see the difference.
Iodine is used as an indicator of starch.  When starch is mixed with iodine, the iodine turns the mixture a deep blue color, and this is what happened when the iodine hit the crunched up cracker mixture.
The iodine in the chewed cracker mixture turned kind of dark and brown.


(We had no results before when using clear iodine from my SIL on the potato in Experiment 9.2, Finding Food in Plants.  So I emailed Apologia about what kind to use, and they said either betadine or tincture of iodine work best.  So dh found this for me, and it worked.
It says 10% Providone-Iodine, and in the yellow circle it says Compare to Betadine® Solution Active Ingredient. 
I do not know what the bottle of clear iodine said on it.)


When your food gets to the stomach, it churns the food with gastric juice until it turns into a liquid mush called chyme (kime), then sends it to the small intestine.
The small intestine cannot work properly in the presence of acid.  So if your stomach contains acid, what happens to it?  The pyloric sphincter (a ring of muscles) allows small amounts chyme to pass in spurts into the top section of the small intestine, called the duodenum.  There, the pancreas produces a base called sodium bicarbonate that mixes with the chyme, neutralizing the stomach acid in the chyme.
God just thought of everything, didn't He?  =)


We skipped Experiment 13.3, because it seemed redundant to do it right after doing Exp. 13.2 (the Works and TUMS), and I just explained about the pancreas producing sodium bicarbonate that was a base just like the calcium carbonate in the TUMS.
Also we needed to play a game!  =)
The kids have learned to listen well, because they like chocolate!  =)
We went over the parts of the digestive system first, seeing what they knew and explaining all the parts of the diagram.

Yes, I know that the pink line indicating the digestive tract goes right through the trachea!
(choke, hack, suck air!)  The kids caught it and corrected me though. (yay!)

I had 6 kids and 18 labels (super-sticky notes, cut into thirds), so I divided the labels in to easy, medium, and hard.  One at a time, I gave each kid three labels, and they put them on the diagram.
If it was a small organ, they had to specify what they were labeling.  The other kids had to pay attention because we planned to do it a few times, and I would give them different organs each time.
After each turn, we went over the three labeled organs, and I gave points for correct answers.  After a couple of rounds, they were doing pretty good!

I got most of this diagram here (and tweaked the position of the pancreas to match our textbook), and added everything else from the neck up.

We learned about the role and composition of each of the organs of the digestive system, and that some organs were part of the digestive system, but not part of the digestive tract.
The salivary glands, liver, gall bladder, and pancreas contribute to digestion, but no food passes through them, so they are not part of the digestive tract.
Some of the organs on the diagram aren't part of the digestive system at all.  The larynx, trachea, and lungs are used for breathing.  We learned about them because of the need to differentiate between the larynx (top of the trachea) and pharynx (throat); the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus; and the soft palate (keeps food and liquid from going into the nose) and the epiglottis (keeps food and liquid from "going down the wrong way").

We also learned about the micronutrients, which are vitamins, and which were fat-soluble and which were water soluble, and a bit more about those.

I really liked this module, but some of the kids do not like talking about intestines and organs, LOL!
(I also watch documentaries about other body systems, or how the brain works, etc, and yes, my kids do think that's a bit strange, haha.)
I'm amazed at the complexity and know that only God could have created our bodies, that for the most part, work the same with each new baby born into the world.  =)


sMiLeS,

My 3 Kids! =)

... at the Teen Spring Banquet at my brother's church.
Aren't they beautiful?  =)

sMiLeS,