Just to chat

Hey, Everyone. I hope you are enjoying your summer. Just wanted to share a few words. Nothing really important. What do you think of the new blog header? I created that with Stampin' UP!'s new My Digital Studio. I am very slowly getting the hang of using their digital crafting software. It's fairly intuitive, but I am a slow learner. It doesn't help that I don't get on it enough to really practice. I need to so I can teach John and Nathan how to use it for scrapbooking and school projects. I need to do some Christmas presents on it too.

Um, on a totally different note, can I say I love the Pioneer Woman's recipes. So straight forward, non-fussy, but totally de-lish. I just made her meatloaf on Friday. Super yum, but I would suggest using only half the amount of salt and seasoning salt she calls for. I learned my lesson about salt in most recipes with another meatloaf recipe by someone else. Can we say way tooo salty. So I usually err on the side of less salt. I also made her Rosemary rolls. Oh, my. Yum, yum, yum! Okay too yummy cause I ate like 3 of them. I so do not need to eat three rolls at any time. Hence my walk around my neighborhood and the one down the hill this evening. It felt good.

On a homeschooling note, I think I am dreading this school year already. We school pretty much all year, but I do a very very light schedule in the Summer: math and reading. We got behind on our history reading this past year, so we have been catching up. Please tell me someone else's sons take 1 1/2 -2 hours to do their math. Now I am not talking about hard stuff here. We are talking basic addition and subtraction for 1st and 3th grade, basic multiplication and division for Nathan too. And can anyone tell me why my oldest can speed through this in less than 30 minutes one day , and then low and behold it takes him 3 times as long the next two days? It's getting ridiculous. John just sits and twiddles his thumbs, looks at the wall, pays attention to Nathan, or whines. I'm sorry but math is not a flashy thing. It's not something you can make too super exciting. You just have to learn the basic facts.

How in the world are we going to get through our school day and do writing, history, Bible, math, current events, science, field trips, co-op classes, and what not if they can't do their work promptly? I need electric shock therapy on their chairs, so I can gently zap them when they are idle. Okay, I am totally joking about that. :)

UPDATE: well, my boys have been brought back to me and the alien imposters have gone back home. Wednesday both boys did their math in under 30 min. John who has been the worst at dawdling got his done in 15 minutes!!! Nathan finished his problems (he had quite a few and he has to write them down too) in a little less than 25 minutes. Hallelujah!! I told them they had 30 min to get it done and they were to keep that pencil moving, head thinking, and no talking. We'll see if they can repeat that tomorrow. Oh, I pray they do. I told them that what they did on Wed. needs to be the new normal not the exception. We'll see. God, please let that become the new normal!!

I am praying for guidance on how to sell my handmade goods. I really really want to sell my cards and gift ensembles. I am running out of room to put stuff I have made too;). I have so much fun making stuff, but I know I need to keep my focus on God, my family, homeschooling and the like. I need a very flexible venue for selling that has good visibility but very low fees. My other blog isn't cutting it, cause no one visits it. Can you spread the word about it? Please, please, pretty please! See my header or sidebar to find it. Oh, but wait, maybe no one visits here either. :(

Etsy.com gets a lot of hits, but I need a way to distinguish myself from the rest. One of the reason's I worked on new Title header graphics here was to prepare for maybe using that venue. I want it to look professional. And then there is the dilemma of shipping. I hate that it costs so much to ship something 3-D. Card shipping is relatively cheap, about $1.50 or so to ship in a small padded envelope. Add another $.50 for each additional card. But to package up a gift ensemble or stationary set and you get into some fairly good expense; at least $5 minimum. I just want to cover the cost of my supplies when selling this stuff and a small profit to allow our family some fun money; you know, money for a meal out, movie, outings to parks like the zoo or a national park/cave, etc. Play money. But no one has a lot of extra money for getting stuff shipped. I know I only buy stuff online anymore unless they are running free shipping with another discount promo.

Any ideas would be helpful on how to do this. Etsy.com charges a fee to list each individual item, and then a small fee on sales. The listing fee is for 4 months. So if an item doesn't sell in 4 months, you have to pay the fee again to keep it listed. I guess I could put up my best cards and see what happens. I just need a good way to get the word out about my store, whether it's my blog or Etsy.com or Ebay.

UPDATE: I decided to donate most of the cards I had for sale to my church for the senior sunday school class to use. They send out birthday cards and other cards to all church members, so I figured they would appreciate them. I am going to focus on making more gift items for my friends and if I made an extra or two I might post them on Etsy or something to sell.

Okay well I gotta go to bed. Been up way to long already. Talk to you soon later. Thanks for letting me ramble. Not sure who is out there looking at this blog, but I am glad you are there. Good night.

Happy July 4th. It's America's Birthday!!

It's America's Birthday so to speak tomorrow. I am so honored to live in a country founded on the Godly principles of freedom, liberty, life, and the opportunity to pursue happiness. I am very saddened these days by the bent of our Federal Government to go against these principles. They have been traveling in that direction now since the early 1900's with President Woodrow Wilson and all who have followed him. Our Federal Government has become a lot like the King we declared our independence from in 1776. Our Federal Government today does not listen to us. They enact laws whose intent is to take away our freedoms, our rights to life, and the pursuit of happiness. Our President and our elected representatives and senators do not listen to the will of the people when we call them, write them and tell them that we do not want higher taxes, Healthcare/Obamacare, Cap and Tax, Financial Reform (aka punish business owners), and the confirmation of nominees to the Supreme Court who are clearly activist and unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court. They snub their noses at we the people. They are not interested in upholding our rights, protecting us from foreign threats and threats in our own country (securing our borders and fighting terrorism). Instead they are only interested in their pursuit of power and creating an ever more centralized and socialized government that seeks to confiscate our property, our hard earned income to redistribute to those they think have been slighted, and punishing us for our country's success and accomplishments.

We need to seriously think about another Revolution of sorts, not to get rid of the government that was established in 1776 and after the Revolutionary war when the Constitution was drafted and ratified, but to reinstate it as the law of the land again. We need to repeal several of our amendments, like the one that allows Senators to be elected directly by the people so as to reassert states rights and checks and balances in the government, the amendment that gave Congress the right to a federal income tax, and also the provision that makes our country legally bound by provisions of treaties made with foreign countries. We need to get out of the UN and disband that bastion of terrorism and anti-American policies.

Read the Declaration of Independence and our Founding Father's grievances with the King and England. See if a lot of those things don't ring true to what is going on with our own President and Congress today. They are doing the very same things to us. How long will we let them bring us under tyranny. How much will you allow us to suffer before we say, "ENOUGH" and "NO MORE!" ? It's time to rally around our founding principles and tell Congress we aren't going to let them continue in their tyranny. It's time they get their powers from the consent of the governed again, instead of taking it through unjust laws and policies. It's time to wake up, America and live as a country UNDER GOD, self governing ourselves according to biblical principles.

Happy Birthday, America! May God reign in our country again and restore his hand of blessing and grace.


IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton