Day 8 - Mercy

Day 8 - Mercy: "May my children always be merciful, just as their father is merciful."
 - Luke 6:36

Day 7: Justice

Day 7 - Justice: "God, help my children to love justice as You do and act justly in all they do."
 - Luke 6:36

Day 4, 5 and 6!

Okay so I never promised that I was on time and ready for everything:)  But I'm trying....
This weekend was very crazy Football Pics, Soccer Game, Parents coming in town for Jake's big day(more on that soon), and then just regular every day life for the wheelers:)....So here I sit Sunday afternoon catching up:).

Day 4(Friday) - Honesty and Integrity: "May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection."
 - Psalm 25:21.

Day 5(Saturday) - Self-Control: "Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be alert and self-controlled in ALL they do."
 - 1 Thessalonians 5:6

Day 6(Sunday) - Love for God's Word: "May my children grow to find Your Word more precious than pure gold and sweeter than honey from the comb."
 - Psalm 19:10

I'm all caught up:)....

Let me know your thoughts....or any special sweet prayers you have for your children or loved ones.....

Lindsey

Pray for your Children - Day 3

Prayer for Day 3...

Love: "Please grant, Lord, that my children may learn to live a life of love, through the Spirit who dwell in them." 

Galatians 5:25
Ephesians 5:2

Pray for your Children - Day 1 and 2

Day One - Salvation:  "Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." 

Isaiah 45:8
2 Timothy 2:10

Day Two - Growth in Grace:  " I pray that my children may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

2 Peter 3:18

God's Day

I received this poem from a very special lady - Belva Sue Porter - some years ago....As I was going through my filing cabinet...spring cleaning if you will...I came across this...written in her beautiful handwriting, waiting for me to read it again yet one more time.....How many times I go through my day and forget to thank the one that allowed me to have that day...good or bad!  It is my Lord and Savior that allows my every waking moment!  How often I forget to thank Him for the children he has placed in my hands for a little while.....How often I forget to thank Him for the home He has given me.....How often I forget to thank him for my legs that allow me to walk to and fro.....With Jacob's recent decision to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior and his promise to live for Him...It has caused me to examine myself and realize I have not been  a very good example for him.  It has caused me to pick up my bible and learn along side him....It has caused me to grow closer to the one I claim as my very own Heavenly Father...... It has caused me to look deep and change many things in my life......Thank you Lord for that!  Thank you for opening my eyes and helping me realize I am not being what and who you called me to be!  I am starting a 31 day Prayer Challenge for myself and all who would like to join....I will be posting a prayer daily to pray for my children and I encourage you to do the same.  If you do not have children pray the prayer for children you are close to, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, school mates....all children need people praying for them:).....I am already a day late however I will put up two post today with those prayers..

Hope you all have a Blessed Day!!

Lindsey



God's Day

All night long, I watched you sleep,
Snuggled in your bed.
I whispered softly My Love for you
And stroked your weary head.
I cradled you til the sun came up
And you rose to meet the day.
I was anxious to hear your wakening thoughts,
But you didn't take time to pray.
I knew what the day would hold for you,
A new struggle in every task.
I knew you would need My strength,
But you didn't take time to ask.
With arms out stretches; I walked with you
As you face a trying day.
I was ready and willing to carry your burdens,
But you never glanced My way.
I showered you with blessings,
And you accepted them all with glee.
I waited patiently for your thanks,
But you had not a word for Me.
The day is coming to a close.
The end is drawing near.
I walked beside you all the way,
But you forgot that I was here.
You faced your troubles on your own,
And now your worries fill your head.
How different your day could have been,
If you had leaned on me instead.
Tomorrow is a new day,
And I will walk with you again.
I hope that you will turn to me -

Your Savior, Your Father, Your Friend

Green Beans wrapped with bacon

These green beans are the best snack, appetizer, or part of a meal. I got the recipe from Jon Wheeler(not related), a man I used to work with.   The best recipe ever!!!  I don't measure the ingredients anymore...I just eyeball it and it always turns out great!


4-6 cans of WHOLE green beans.  Each serving is 6-8 beans.
Brown Sugar, Around 1 cup
1 stick of butter
Soy Sauce
Garlic Salt
Bacon - we use both turkey bacon and reg bacon....Jeremy likes turkey - I like regular
Toothpicks

Bundle 6-8 green beans and wrap with bacon(I cut my bacon in half) and secure with a toothpick.  Place other ingredients in saucepan and heat til butter and sugar are melted and dissolved. Place bundles in baking pan and drizzle sugar mixture over bundles.  Cover with foil and bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes....I take off the foil and cook until bacon looks a little crisp:). 

TaDa!!!  They are delicious!

You can see they are almost all gone at Thanksgiving....I make them for every gathering we have!

Lindsey

Easter 2012

Easter 2012....the little kids and I boiled and dyed eggs yesterday!  We started with 30 eggs and by the time we dropped some and they ate a few I think we ended up with 25 or so....I really had planned 10 eggs for each kid to dye....however I think Jake thought he was to old to dye eggs cause he didn't dye with us:(....he IS almost FOURTEEN you know...(I guess thats too old) !!!!  So I will share with you all a million pictures of our egg dying time!  I wondered while we were dying the eggs, Why do we only do this on Easter?  ......it is so fun!.....We really enjoyed it....anywho...now for all the pics....

 

 

EASTER 2012 @ MDBC and then to the WHEELER HOUSE



 Now for today:)....When we got to church this morning we noticed there were quite a few people standing outside.  We thought that's strange....Low and behold the electricity in the building was out!  Thank goodness we are a church that believes in having windows, that way at least some of the classrooms had light and could still have class.  Our classroom does not have windows so we had class on the church "porch".  It was actually kinda nice.....except for the few men that felt the need to hot rod down Faudree ..... All the classes prayed for the lights to come back on before service and guess what???? God heard our cries.....the lights came back on during class and stayed on all the way through service.....God is soooo good....As always Jared had a great message....we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids after service on the church lawn!! It was nice... After wards we came home to get dinner ready!!!   Ribs, Sausage, Bacon wrapped green beans, bacon wrapped jalapenos, veggie trays, meat trays, brownies, baked potatoes and salad!  I got to meet Jeremy's sweet girlfriend, Reagan.  Really sweet girl....And even though Steven couldn't be here with us Larissa came to church with us and had dinner with us...we are so blessed to be able to feed all those kiddos!!!Below are a "few" pics from today!!  I know this is a long picturey blog, but it is for those who couldn't be here so they can see what they miss:)  JK..kinda!...Enjoy

 Diesel being Diesel

 And Again

 he is soo tough

 Angels

 I think this is Allie's sho stoppa face

  I must have said something funny:)

 D and CT

 Yes I am carrying my shoes in the church parking lot.......

 Larissa, BK, and CT.....Jeremy in the back ground cooking......

 I am not sure where I was focusing my attention.......

 

HOLLA!!!

There you go.....a little look into our Easter weekend!  I did not take a family pic...not sure why not...anywho....Hope you all enjoy!



Jacob Vernon Wheeler

April 4, 1998......my little bouncing back boy was to arrive in this world....however God had other plans for him....He needed to bake a little longer...10 days to be exact.  Every year on April 4 I have this strange feeling...weird feeling....I don't really know how to describe it...like all day I am waiting for something....like I should be celebrating that day....something...   You see, I was 19 when I had Jacob and when the OBGYN tells you (at 19) that your baby boy will be coming on a certain date you almost ENGRAVE that date in your brain..at least I did.....  I have always wondered why he couldn't just come on the day he was supposed to come on....:):).. 

Fast forward 14 years.....yes I said 14 years...(you do the math:) )......On April 4, 2012, Jacob comes in from school....plays with his friends..and then comes in frantically, like he does every Wednesday and says mom I am supposed to go to Chick fil A and meet the youth group to eat and then go to the revival....Okay Okay.....well Dad comes in right about that time and he has had a not so good day at work and isn't in the mood for anything other than a shower and food.....He asks Jacob what he is doing...Getting ready to go with the Youth.....Do you have homework, Dad asks?  Yes I do, Jacob says..... Well then you need to get that homework done....( he hasn't been doing well in school).  Please dad can I go?  Jeremy tells him to go ask his mother.... Of course I say yes.....So he finishes getting ready....since he had never been to a revival he was texting Maurie to see what to wear.  I was thinking like Dress Casual.....pants or jeans and a polo style shirt... He comes out and he is wearing his purple TCU hoodie, black Permian basketball shorts, I think his black Nike socks and his slides..Jordan slides....lol......Is this important....it is to me:):)....We load up and take him to Chick Fil A.....that was at 6.....

At 9 or so...he comes home....I was texting with Misty at the time...she asked me if Jacob had said anything to me....I told her no he was just walking in the door....I could tell he had been crying....I asked him how it went and he told me good...really good....He said, I made a decision tonight for Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.  I was speechless....I said really????  Yes MOM! He said, you know I was thinking mom, if I didn't make a decision now, when was I going to make it?.....He started telling me about the speaker and what he took from the message and that God just really touched his heart.  He told me he always wondered what it would be like, what it would feel like, how he would know when it was time to make such a huge and important decision...He decided last night was that night....Such a courageous young man to walk that isle without mom or dad by his side, amongst hundreds of strangers to say, I want to live for Christ and Christ alone.  I was still in awe, trying to take it all in, I didn't know whether to cry, not to cry (didn't want to freak him out), what questions to ask, how to even talk to him about such an important decision in his life. ( more on why later).....he went to the bedroom to tell his dad...he was on cloud 9!  I was texting away....He comes back in and asks me, So when am I going to get baptized and get my new Bible and all that stuff....I told him we would get with Jared(our pastor) and discuss it.... I think he is wanting a certain Maurie Bratcher to take him for the Bible....Like she did his cousin Jordan:)....

Back to the April 4, 1998 date....I now know why he didn't come into this world at that time through me......The Lord knew he was going to be coming to Him on that date.....He was Born Again on April 4, 2012!  Now every year I will have reason to feel happy instead of "weird"......

Thank you Lord for pricking his heart in such a way that made him respond and go up in front of hundreds of strangers to proclaim You as his Lord.  I am blessed to be his mother...I thank You that You hand picked me for that very important job! 
Sunday will be a very emotional day for our family!  We are truly blessed....

Lindsey

Laundry and the sorts

Laundry - My worst nightmare:).....But you know, I still have to make sure it gets done.  I had a couple of helpers with this for a short while and they would forget to put the dryer sheet in the dryer...so I bought the BOUNCE bar...that way I wouldn't have to worry with staticky laundry.....Well the Bounce Bar is supposed to last like three to four MONTHS...and mine only lasted like 3 WEEKS...I knew I did alot of Laundry but didn't think I did that much...that brought me to my next thought...if I am going through that much softener I must be going through that much soap and just not realizing it.   I have seen on Pinterest where people are making their own laundry soap and thought to my self...that is my solution....I can make my own laundry soap and save some money:)....so when I added it up I figured I spent around 180.00 on laundry soap a year...big whoop right...then I would by downy stuff to make my laundry smell fresh and then bounce sheets to make them not be staticky....and then Oxy Clean or something of the like for Jeremy's work clothes.....I don't know how much all that is but its enough to make me want to do something different.....Plus I always love a challenge:)......So...I looked up online at what I would need to make this happen...I would like to thank the Duggars for that information....and a couple other sources.......and I made my trip to Wally World...I bought some FelsNeptha soap, some Arm& Hammer Washing Soda and a box of Borax....Oh and a five gallon white bucket....and I was on my way home to make me some LAUNDRY SOAP....Lindsey's Lovely Laundry Soap is what I am naming it....:)  I only had about 30 min before needing to go get kids from school...and I had it made in that amount of time...with a few minutes to spare....  You can find the directions here if you are interested in making your own....

Grated Fels-Naptha ....looks like cheese

Three Ingredients ...and water..

TA....DA......

Another wonderful thing came from looking online for ways to save around the house was the use of Vinegar....people are using this in the rinse cycle in place of Downy....strange I thought but at this point if I am using my own soap I will try using Vinegar in the rinse cycle....I was leery at first so I still put in a dryer sheet....and then after a couple of loads I just relied on the little bit of BOUNCE bar I had left to make sure my clothes didn't have static...and then.......I thought what the heck... I am going to go out on a limb and take out my Bounce bar and not use a Bounce sheet and see if this Vinegar thing is LEGIT....and guess what my friends.....it is truly LEGIT.....no static and I have clean clothes....for alot less:):):).....I am so thrilled.....oh and no you can not smell the Vinegar when the wash cycle is complete....:):).....I put the vinegar in a Downy ball:). 

One more thing I have learned about this week.....if you know me very well, then you know I also hate doing dishes:)....so I usually wait until I absolutely have to before I wash them....Well yesterday I was running my water and I thought I would like to see if Baking Soda has any impact on washing dishes....just for grins I put some in my dishwater...with Dawn of course...and it was the best dish washing experience every...My dishes came clean with little effort and my hands were soft when I finished...I tried it again today on my chili dishes from last night and below are the pictures of that:):)  worked like a charm:).... Here are a list of other things you can use baking soda for.

I am a lover of Clorox Clean-Up....bleach in a spray bottle pretty much....However I would like to get away from using.......So to try to go along with my theme of vinegar and Baking soda I had a stain on my Formica this morning from a little girl pouring some red Crystal Light by herself that I would have usually grabbed my bleach for ....but instead I grabbed my box of Baking soda and Bottle of vinegar and combined the two on the stain.....with a little scrubbing it came clean!!!!  I could not believe. it...I have tried every other cleaner I could think of to try to replace Clorox but could not find one I was satisfied with ......until now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Baking Soda and Vinegar are my new best friends.....


I will list a few websites where I found this great wealth of information.....

http://thenewhomemaker.com/bakingsoda

http://duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes

http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-your-own-laundry-soap.html


Just going to Pinterest and typing in Laundry Soap you will find a wealth of information....

Any other ideas you would like to share I would appreciate your comments.


Yours Truely

Lindsey