The new year is the best time of year to start the organization process. Today I downloaded my 2011 full sized version of the Motivated Moms calendar! I encourage you all to do so as well! And if you do, please use my affiliate link on the right. It will take you to the Motivated Moms website and you can buy (for $8....or $7 if you use the coupon code "giveaways" or "NEWYEAR") whatever version best suits your needs.
Last year I was a half-page with bible reading gal. This year I went full sized original to try that out. :) I'll let you know what I think about it. I just didn't like printing out a bazillion pages last year. I did like the appointment spaces and half page per day...but I think I'll do fine with the checklist version I got this year.
So...click on the icon, add the version of your choice to your cart, use the code "NEWYEAR" and get an amazingly easy organizational tool for less than 60 cents a month. :) Have a clean house without long days of slaving over chores. You can thank me later. :)
Happy New Year!
Sunday, January 2
Saturday, December 18
Homemade yogurt
So here's the 411 on making yogurt (at least the way I do it. There are other ways....)
When I realized that The SB is sensitive to pasteurized milk and loves yogurt I knew I had to do something so he could enjoy that food and not break out with eczema on a daily basis. So I started looking into different ways to do it, trying to find a way that would be easiest with our lifestyle.
I came across this site: Nourishing Days, Crockpot Yogurt. It seemed easy enough so I gave it a try and it worked....so here's how I do it. (Or you can just follow the instructions in the link above :)
Pour half a gallon of raw milk in a crock pot. Mine is big and oval shaped...not one of the tall deep circular ones. (This is what you get for asking a non-cooker to explain how I do things! haha).
Turn the crockpot on the LOW setting (not keep warm) for 2.5 hours. I usually do this at about 2 PM so the yogurt will be finished the next morning.
Then turn the crock pot off for three hours. **Don't remove the lid at any point. I don't stir or do anything other than push buttons on it once I put the milk in. :)
After the three hours, take 1 to 2 cups of the warm milk out into a bowl (I recover the crock pot immediately) and mix in roughly 1 cup of plain yogurt for the cultures. I use organic as-high-fat-content-as-I-can-find and non-hormone Greek style yogurt. It seems that if I don't use Greek yogurt then my yogurt is runnier. If I use the Greek style as my starter then it is at least the consistency of our "normal yogurt" and sometimes as thick as the Greek style. (Even if you don't go raw with your milk I encourage you to look into why hormone free is important and make informed decisions.)
Once the warm milk and yogurt for starter have been mixed, then I put it back in the crock pot and mix it with the rest of the milk. Wrap the entire crock pot in a big beach towel to insulate and leave it sit for about 10 to 12 hours (overnight in my case).
The next morning I get up and scoop it into glass containers and put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours to help it "set" a little more....and because warm yogurt sounds nasty to me. :)
I have made this probably 20+ times and I've only had failures twice....both times were when I didn't follow the times listed above. My old crock pot made better yogurt. I just got a new one two weeks ago and it's not as thick as I would like. I'm sure the new pot heats higher or faster than my old one. If I knew all the temperatures the milk had to be at at all of these stages I would use my kitchen thermometer to perfect it in my new crock pot....but I'm too lazy to go digging for the appropriate temperatures. :)
You can order cultures specific to the type of yogurt you want to make and make your own starter that way, but for me it's just easier to use the regular stuff. That 1 cup of pasteurized milk product added to a half gallon of raw milk to make yogurt doesn't affect The SB's eczema so that's good enough for me. :)
We eat it with granola in the morning a lot for breakfast. I use it often in place of sour cream. I like to add it to brothy soups to make them a little creamier. Or we eat it plain with a little honey or fruit or jam mixed in. I usually make a 1/2 gallon every week using the raw milk we get weekly.
When I realized that The SB is sensitive to pasteurized milk and loves yogurt I knew I had to do something so he could enjoy that food and not break out with eczema on a daily basis. So I started looking into different ways to do it, trying to find a way that would be easiest with our lifestyle.
I came across this site: Nourishing Days, Crockpot Yogurt. It seemed easy enough so I gave it a try and it worked....so here's how I do it. (Or you can just follow the instructions in the link above :)
Pour half a gallon of raw milk in a crock pot. Mine is big and oval shaped...not one of the tall deep circular ones. (This is what you get for asking a non-cooker to explain how I do things! haha).
Turn the crockpot on the LOW setting (not keep warm) for 2.5 hours. I usually do this at about 2 PM so the yogurt will be finished the next morning.
Then turn the crock pot off for three hours. **Don't remove the lid at any point. I don't stir or do anything other than push buttons on it once I put the milk in. :)
After the three hours, take 1 to 2 cups of the warm milk out into a bowl (I recover the crock pot immediately) and mix in roughly 1 cup of plain yogurt for the cultures. I use organic as-high-fat-content-as-I-can-find and non-hormone Greek style yogurt. It seems that if I don't use Greek yogurt then my yogurt is runnier. If I use the Greek style as my starter then it is at least the consistency of our "normal yogurt" and sometimes as thick as the Greek style. (Even if you don't go raw with your milk I encourage you to look into why hormone free is important and make informed decisions.)
Once the warm milk and yogurt for starter have been mixed, then I put it back in the crock pot and mix it with the rest of the milk. Wrap the entire crock pot in a big beach towel to insulate and leave it sit for about 10 to 12 hours (overnight in my case).
The next morning I get up and scoop it into glass containers and put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours to help it "set" a little more....and because warm yogurt sounds nasty to me. :)
I have made this probably 20+ times and I've only had failures twice....both times were when I didn't follow the times listed above. My old crock pot made better yogurt. I just got a new one two weeks ago and it's not as thick as I would like. I'm sure the new pot heats higher or faster than my old one. If I knew all the temperatures the milk had to be at at all of these stages I would use my kitchen thermometer to perfect it in my new crock pot....but I'm too lazy to go digging for the appropriate temperatures. :)
You can order cultures specific to the type of yogurt you want to make and make your own starter that way, but for me it's just easier to use the regular stuff. That 1 cup of pasteurized milk product added to a half gallon of raw milk to make yogurt doesn't affect The SB's eczema so that's good enough for me. :)
We eat it with granola in the morning a lot for breakfast. I use it often in place of sour cream. I like to add it to brothy soups to make them a little creamier. Or we eat it plain with a little honey or fruit or jam mixed in. I usually make a 1/2 gallon every week using the raw milk we get weekly.
Tuesday, December 14
My direction
For the last few months we have been making some overall lifestyle changes. It's been a slow progression and sometimes convenience still wins over principle.
I think the first change we made was to go from pasteurized milk to raw off-the-farm milk. The SB started having eczema reactions to store bought milk and yogurt, which is a problem because he loooooves yogurt! So we went to soy milk and soy yogurt. And then found out that soy is not all it is cracked up to be and acts as an estrogen supplement within the body. (Here is one of many articles I read with sources...there is some opinion thrown in, but it all makes sense to me and is backed by some other things I have read: Soy Information) A friend of mine alerted me to this and then mentioned raw milk. So I started looking into that.
That lead me to the Weston A. Price Foundation and to realmilk.com. My friend who had mentioned the raw milk is part of a local milk co-op. So I looked into it and joined. I want to say here that raw milk is AWESOME but it is very important to know what your source is and how the animals are fed and treated for illness and how they live. We get ours from The Kvam Family Farm. They are a very nice family on a small farm who have been providing raw milk and other healthy foods to the public for years. Raw milk regulation also varies state to state. Here in Nebraska, the seller cannot advertise or deliver. Thus, we have a co-op. We all take turns going to the farm and picking up everyone's milk. We meet at the same place and time weekly to get the milk, eggs, chicken, honey and beef we all may have ordered. I enjoy when it is my turn to drive. It's about 1.5 hours from my house and believe it or not, it is through some beautiful Nebraskan farm land. :)
I get a gallon of milk every week. Half of that I turn into home-made yogurt. The other half we drink or use in other things in place of pasteurized milk. We use the yogurt often in place of sour cream and our breakfast is usually yogurt with Cascadian Farm organic honey oat granola cereal.
The other major change is adding raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey and probiotics to our diet. I was first told about this from a friend who has seen allergies go away after a few weeks. She recommended it for the perpetual runny nose Sean had earlier this spring. He gets 1T raw honey mixed with 1T raw apple cider vinegar sprinkled with some Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotics for Kids in a sippy every day. He calls it his "medicine juice" and he loves it. After about six weeks of that his runny nose went away.
I started with 2T raw honey and 2T of raw apple cider vinegar with Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotics and saw a minor improvement, but nothing too significant. Then I was talking to this same friend who said I really should take the Ultra probiotic because I have so many allergies and asthma. I have been on that for just over two months. Two weeks ago I decided to try stopping my allergy meds (I have taken an allergy pill every day for as long as I can remember in order to function....while still sneezing and having asthma difficulties). I haven't had any allergy flare ups or issues! BigDaddy even commented the other day that I haven't been sneezing nearly as much. I used to be a 3-sneezer as he called it. :) I would sneeze at least 3 times in a row every morning.
In other areas we have tried to go with less processed food items, more organic and more animal fats because I also discovered that our bodies use/need and process animal fat much better than most of the vegetable fats and oils we have in our diets now. So we are back to full fat meat, real butter, and the raw milk we have is not skimmed at all. We try to stay away from refined sugars as well. I have attempted home made bread. The only bread I can get to come out nicely has ingredients I'm not crazy about. I just got a new recipe (from the friend who mentioned the vinegar/honey/probiotics) that has a great ingredient list...but this morning was my first test run with it and the bread doesn't look like I would prefer it look. We'll see when it cools what it tastes like. :)
There are other things I am learning and doing, but I won't continue to ramble on in one post. :) I am almost done reading Folk Medicine. I think some of his evidence is anecdotal but a lot of what he says I think is solid. It is an older book, but he is talking about much older "medicine" techniques even from when he wrote the book in the early 50's. He talks a lot about the vinegar and honey.
The book The Maker's Diet was just recommended to me by another good friend. I have ordered it but haven't received it yet. After I ordered it, my cousin's mom talked about him and it turns out he's the man who started the Garden of Life company! So I'm even more interested in reading it now. Apparently he was sickly and went back to biblical principles of eating and became much healthier. I will post a review once I've read it. :)
And I will post later some of the recipes I am using. I've had a couple requests. I haven't created any of them, but I would be happy to share my sources! :)
Til I talk again....
TR
I think the first change we made was to go from pasteurized milk to raw off-the-farm milk. The SB started having eczema reactions to store bought milk and yogurt, which is a problem because he loooooves yogurt! So we went to soy milk and soy yogurt. And then found out that soy is not all it is cracked up to be and acts as an estrogen supplement within the body. (Here is one of many articles I read with sources...there is some opinion thrown in, but it all makes sense to me and is backed by some other things I have read: Soy Information) A friend of mine alerted me to this and then mentioned raw milk. So I started looking into that.
That lead me to the Weston A. Price Foundation and to realmilk.com. My friend who had mentioned the raw milk is part of a local milk co-op. So I looked into it and joined. I want to say here that raw milk is AWESOME but it is very important to know what your source is and how the animals are fed and treated for illness and how they live. We get ours from The Kvam Family Farm. They are a very nice family on a small farm who have been providing raw milk and other healthy foods to the public for years. Raw milk regulation also varies state to state. Here in Nebraska, the seller cannot advertise or deliver. Thus, we have a co-op. We all take turns going to the farm and picking up everyone's milk. We meet at the same place and time weekly to get the milk, eggs, chicken, honey and beef we all may have ordered. I enjoy when it is my turn to drive. It's about 1.5 hours from my house and believe it or not, it is through some beautiful Nebraskan farm land. :)
I get a gallon of milk every week. Half of that I turn into home-made yogurt. The other half we drink or use in other things in place of pasteurized milk. We use the yogurt often in place of sour cream and our breakfast is usually yogurt with Cascadian Farm organic honey oat granola cereal.
The other major change is adding raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey and probiotics to our diet. I was first told about this from a friend who has seen allergies go away after a few weeks. She recommended it for the perpetual runny nose Sean had earlier this spring. He gets 1T raw honey mixed with 1T raw apple cider vinegar sprinkled with some Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotics for Kids in a sippy every day. He calls it his "medicine juice" and he loves it. After about six weeks of that his runny nose went away.
I started with 2T raw honey and 2T of raw apple cider vinegar with Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotics and saw a minor improvement, but nothing too significant. Then I was talking to this same friend who said I really should take the Ultra probiotic because I have so many allergies and asthma. I have been on that for just over two months. Two weeks ago I decided to try stopping my allergy meds (I have taken an allergy pill every day for as long as I can remember in order to function....while still sneezing and having asthma difficulties). I haven't had any allergy flare ups or issues! BigDaddy even commented the other day that I haven't been sneezing nearly as much. I used to be a 3-sneezer as he called it. :) I would sneeze at least 3 times in a row every morning.
In other areas we have tried to go with less processed food items, more organic and more animal fats because I also discovered that our bodies use/need and process animal fat much better than most of the vegetable fats and oils we have in our diets now. So we are back to full fat meat, real butter, and the raw milk we have is not skimmed at all. We try to stay away from refined sugars as well. I have attempted home made bread. The only bread I can get to come out nicely has ingredients I'm not crazy about. I just got a new recipe (from the friend who mentioned the vinegar/honey/probiotics) that has a great ingredient list...but this morning was my first test run with it and the bread doesn't look like I would prefer it look. We'll see when it cools what it tastes like. :)
There are other things I am learning and doing, but I won't continue to ramble on in one post. :) I am almost done reading Folk Medicine. I think some of his evidence is anecdotal but a lot of what he says I think is solid. It is an older book, but he is talking about much older "medicine" techniques even from when he wrote the book in the early 50's. He talks a lot about the vinegar and honey.
The book The Maker's Diet was just recommended to me by another good friend. I have ordered it but haven't received it yet. After I ordered it, my cousin's mom talked about him and it turns out he's the man who started the Garden of Life company! So I'm even more interested in reading it now. Apparently he was sickly and went back to biblical principles of eating and became much healthier. I will post a review once I've read it. :)
And I will post later some of the recipes I am using. I've had a couple requests. I haven't created any of them, but I would be happy to share my sources! :)
Til I talk again....
TR
Tuesday, November 16
Seasons
There has been a long long loooong blogging drought. I have felt a lot like a hamster in a wheel for a long time. Only I was running in place because we have been in a season of waiting.
Waiting for Lost and Found Ministries to take off. Waiting to hear what the USAF was going to do...would Big Daddy get cut in the RIF, would we move to Langley, would Big Daddy get into AFIT?? All waiting for life changing events that were out of our control.
It appears that our season for waiting is over.
Lost and Found Ministries was officially granted 501(c)3 status by the IRS this month. The USAF did not cut Big Daddy, he DID get into AFIT so we will not move to Langley. We get to stay here until next summer when we will move to Ohio.
And just like that we feel refreshed and ready to run the courses set before us! It is a hard thing to try to be ready to run when you aren't sure which way you will get to run once you are given leave to run.
In regards to Lost and Found, we have been waiting so long that it almost doesn't seem real even now.
The last four or five days EVERYTHING I have heard in church and at the ladies' retreat and in my personal time has been directed at me in applicable, challenging and encouraging ways. I don't know why the season of waiting is so hard, but it is. It seems harder than the season of running. One would think the season of waiting would be a season of rest. And maybe it is supposed to be and I just was striving within the waiting and the rest I was supposed to be having.
The sermon two weeks ago by Ty Schentzel of The Hope Center was about the crock pot of character and letting God "cook" that character in us while we are in the crock pot and that most of our life is lived in a crock pot rather than a microwave. The reason? Success before character development is disaster. Think about that.
Success before character development is disaster.
That is absolutely the truth. He talked about becoming "pregnant" with his vision for The Hope Center and waiting 7 years in that crock pot from conception to birth of the vision God gave him. The week after that sermon, we heard from the IRS. It has been 9 years from vision to "birth" for Lost and Found Ministries. I look back on those 9 years and wow have tons of things happened and changed and molded all three (and now four) of us into who we are and the team we have come to be at this point. I see how God has woven things together in regards to contacts and support we have and character development in each of us. I know I am not the same person I was 9 years ago...or the same person I was four years ago when we were state recognized but not IRS-recognized.
I could go on about the other nuggets I've been given through speakers lately. But instead I will share what I came across this morning. I've read Acts a lot. It's one of my favorite books. I love the missionary-ism of the book. :) The stories and miracles and the way God was moving is just exhilarating. So I actually read a verse I had previously highlighted....though I don't know that I had ever read it like I read it this morning. This is after Christ's death and resurrection when he was meeting with his disciples in Jerusalem before his ascension. I will back up a verse for context:
Acts 1:6-7, "So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority."
The disciples weren't asking for Him to do something bad or wrong. They were just wanting something prematurely....and 2000 years later, it is still premature. Talk about a season of waiting!
So then the next verse is one that is often quoted and the one I had focused on primarily in the past:
Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
Cool, eh? Here's my paraphrase:
"Don't worry about when I'm going to do what...that's for Me to know and you not to worry about. But, here's what I need for you...I'm going to give you power through the Holy Spirit and that will enable you to be witnesses for my power and salvation everywhere you go....while you wait and while you run the course I put you on."
This post doesn't really have much of a specific point other than after I read Acts 1:6-8 this morning I felt like sharing....so this is me sharing. :)
Maybe this means a blogging drought will be over...and maybe not. I learned over the weekend the importance of margin in my life so the last thing I'm going to do is add one more task I feel like I need to do. :) I'm working on tending the fields I have already purchased and tending those to grow fruit before I buy any more fields. :) (Prov 31:16)
Til next time--
T-Rae
Waiting for Lost and Found Ministries to take off. Waiting to hear what the USAF was going to do...would Big Daddy get cut in the RIF, would we move to Langley, would Big Daddy get into AFIT?? All waiting for life changing events that were out of our control.
It appears that our season for waiting is over.
Lost and Found Ministries was officially granted 501(c)3 status by the IRS this month. The USAF did not cut Big Daddy, he DID get into AFIT so we will not move to Langley. We get to stay here until next summer when we will move to Ohio.
And just like that we feel refreshed and ready to run the courses set before us! It is a hard thing to try to be ready to run when you aren't sure which way you will get to run once you are given leave to run.
In regards to Lost and Found, we have been waiting so long that it almost doesn't seem real even now.
The last four or five days EVERYTHING I have heard in church and at the ladies' retreat and in my personal time has been directed at me in applicable, challenging and encouraging ways. I don't know why the season of waiting is so hard, but it is. It seems harder than the season of running. One would think the season of waiting would be a season of rest. And maybe it is supposed to be and I just was striving within the waiting and the rest I was supposed to be having.
The sermon two weeks ago by Ty Schentzel of The Hope Center was about the crock pot of character and letting God "cook" that character in us while we are in the crock pot and that most of our life is lived in a crock pot rather than a microwave. The reason? Success before character development is disaster. Think about that.
Success before character development is disaster.
That is absolutely the truth. He talked about becoming "pregnant" with his vision for The Hope Center and waiting 7 years in that crock pot from conception to birth of the vision God gave him. The week after that sermon, we heard from the IRS. It has been 9 years from vision to "birth" for Lost and Found Ministries. I look back on those 9 years and wow have tons of things happened and changed and molded all three (and now four) of us into who we are and the team we have come to be at this point. I see how God has woven things together in regards to contacts and support we have and character development in each of us. I know I am not the same person I was 9 years ago...or the same person I was four years ago when we were state recognized but not IRS-recognized.
I could go on about the other nuggets I've been given through speakers lately. But instead I will share what I came across this morning. I've read Acts a lot. It's one of my favorite books. I love the missionary-ism of the book. :) The stories and miracles and the way God was moving is just exhilarating. So I actually read a verse I had previously highlighted....though I don't know that I had ever read it like I read it this morning. This is after Christ's death and resurrection when he was meeting with his disciples in Jerusalem before his ascension. I will back up a verse for context:
Acts 1:6-7, "So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority."
The disciples weren't asking for Him to do something bad or wrong. They were just wanting something prematurely....and 2000 years later, it is still premature. Talk about a season of waiting!
So then the next verse is one that is often quoted and the one I had focused on primarily in the past:
Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
Cool, eh? Here's my paraphrase:
"Don't worry about when I'm going to do what...that's for Me to know and you not to worry about. But, here's what I need for you...I'm going to give you power through the Holy Spirit and that will enable you to be witnesses for my power and salvation everywhere you go....while you wait and while you run the course I put you on."
This post doesn't really have much of a specific point other than after I read Acts 1:6-8 this morning I felt like sharing....so this is me sharing. :)
Maybe this means a blogging drought will be over...and maybe not. I learned over the weekend the importance of margin in my life so the last thing I'm going to do is add one more task I feel like I need to do. :) I'm working on tending the fields I have already purchased and tending those to grow fruit before I buy any more fields. :) (Prov 31:16)
Til next time--
T-Rae
Wednesday, February 17
Rainbow Brite Giveaway!!!
For those of you who don't know/don't remember, I was Rainbow Brite for Halloween. While I was doing some research to find my costume, I found out that they were doing a 're-release' of Rainbow Brite this year! So cool.
Well, one of my blogging friends was given a Rainbow Brite doll to review and one to giveaway...and I'm posting here to spread the news...and gain some entries in the giveaway. :)
So, if you are interested, head on over here:
Mommy Mentor's Rainbow Brite Giveaway
Check out the rules and enter to win! So fun!
Well, one of my blogging friends was given a Rainbow Brite doll to review and one to giveaway...and I'm posting here to spread the news...and gain some entries in the giveaway. :)
So, if you are interested, head on over here:
Mommy Mentor's Rainbow Brite Giveaway
Check out the rules and enter to win! So fun!
Tuesday, February 9
Still a Motivated Mom
Just want y'all to know that I am STILL going strong with Motivated Moms and STILL loving it.
My house is clean, I have way more time in a day than I used to and The SB and I are having a blast with blocks and cars and crafts and chase and catch and whatever else we decide to do....
So...if you are interested in knowing more about this great program that has kept my house clean and organized and given me oodles of time for over a month now, click on the little button to the right that says "Motivated Moms". If you order through that link, I get $1. :) AND if you use the coupon code "giveaways" then YOU get $1 off...win/win.
It makes the planner $7 to download...
I got the planner/chore list combo in half-sheets with daily bible reading for those of you who might want to know.
So go check it out and if you hate it, it's only $1/day for seven days to find that out...if you love it...what a cheap investment in something that helps you manage time and chores! :)
My house is clean, I have way more time in a day than I used to and The SB and I are having a blast with blocks and cars and crafts and chase and catch and whatever else we decide to do....
So...if you are interested in knowing more about this great program that has kept my house clean and organized and given me oodles of time for over a month now, click on the little button to the right that says "Motivated Moms". If you order through that link, I get $1. :) AND if you use the coupon code "giveaways" then YOU get $1 off...win/win.
It makes the planner $7 to download...
I got the planner/chore list combo in half-sheets with daily bible reading for those of you who might want to know.
So go check it out and if you hate it, it's only $1/day for seven days to find that out...if you love it...what a cheap investment in something that helps you manage time and chores! :)
Tuesday, January 19
Waiting, frustration, waiting, peace, waiting
I am assuming most of you know about Lost and Found Ministries, Inc. For any of you who don't...nutshell: it's a missions organization made up of two of my dear friends, and my cousin who is more of a twin sister than a distant cousin and me. Basic focus: organize and facilitate short term mission trips domestic and foreign for people of all ages.
LaF was born in a vision in 2002 while I was on a mission trip to Nicaragua with WEGO Ministries. At the initial time God laid it on my heart, my feeling was that LaF would be something "down the road" for me.
In 2004 on another mission trip, it became evident to me that LaF would be less "down the road" and more "in the near future"....I was thinking along the lines of when BigDaddy and I moved back from Germany.
In 2005 on another mission trip, it became evident that LaF would be even more "in the near future" and come together before BigDaddy and I moved back Stateside from Germany. Through a series of super cool God-timings and miracles, we had Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws and a Registered Agent for the State of Wyoming submitted to The Secretary of State by the end of 2005.
We officially became a Wyoming State recognized non-profit organization on January 6, 2006.
And now we wait...even still...to be a 501(c)(3) organization. We have had so many apparent open doors to this process, and worked hard on that scary huge packet of information ourselves, only to have those doors closed and be so discouraged. The last 3 years have been some ups and downs...and incredibly frustrating to me and to my ministry partners as well.
Last spring another door opened that has yet to close...and we really thought we would be THERE by the first of this year. Sometime around mid November, it became clear our first thoughts were wrong...that we would wait longer.
And then I started to doubt....and get frustrated.....and then I went back to the beginning, read through the timeline and realized that when the initial vision was given to me, "down the road" is what I was thinking...and somewhere along the line I got ahead of myself and have been thinking it should be "now" for the last 3 years.
Part of it is because I'm antsy to get going on what I know to be my heart's calling. I long to be on mission trips, to facilitate trips and see lives changed...the lives of those on the trips and the lives of those we minister to on the trips. I tear up when I see a mission trip video or see pictures and now that people are starting to talk about what will happen for summer trips this year, there is an aching inside me....that is what I LONG to do!
But our hands are tied as a ministry until we have non profit status in the eyes of the IRS.
And another part of it is there is a group of people who have come around us to support us and I feel like this waiting is letting them down. I feel like they are thinking at this point that we are dreamers without action. I feel like once it is our time, they will have moved on or will roll their eyes with "yeah...I will believe it when I see it." Those are my own insecurities, and I know that. They are hard insecurities to overcome. My personality is to follow through with what I said I will do and I don't want someone to think I'm not doing that, especially people I look up to.
And then...in the last two weeks through reading and reviewing this timeline and praying and listening to my pastor preach, something has become evident to me...
Three years of waiting is NOTHING in the realm of eternity and the time that He has for us to be doing this work when it is HIS TIME. And from all things going on right now, it is evident that this season right now is not HIS time for us to be working in that capacity.
I am feeling like I can relate a little to Abraham and Sarah. They were promised a son and more descendants than can be counted....and yet they grew old and it seemed physically impossible to them that what God had said would happen. And then, when they had lost all hope, God followed through on His promise. They never needed to doubt that what He told them would happen would indeed happen!
Sunday I went to church with one of my ministry partners who was in town this weekend. I almost didn't go because we had been out late with friends Saturday night and I was SO tired....but she said she would like to go with me if I went...and that cinched it. We went! And the sermon could have been addressed: T-Rae--this one is for YOU!
It's there if you want to watch it.
So this week I am feeling a renewed sense of focus. I love the people who have supported us and I don't want to let them down, but that cannot be my focus. My focus has to be on God's will and God's timing and moving when the pillar of cloud moves and stopping when it stops. Right now apparently it is stopped. But that doesn't mean my relationship with my Savior or my day to day ministering has to stop...only that for right now, LaF is in a waiting period...perhaps a growing period or a preparation period. So....I now gladly wait with my three ministry partners and dear friends. I am excited for the time when that pillar of cloud starts moving and we can move forward!
LaF was born in a vision in 2002 while I was on a mission trip to Nicaragua with WEGO Ministries. At the initial time God laid it on my heart, my feeling was that LaF would be something "down the road" for me.
In 2004 on another mission trip, it became evident to me that LaF would be less "down the road" and more "in the near future"....I was thinking along the lines of when BigDaddy and I moved back from Germany.
In 2005 on another mission trip, it became evident that LaF would be even more "in the near future" and come together before BigDaddy and I moved back Stateside from Germany. Through a series of super cool God-timings and miracles, we had Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws and a Registered Agent for the State of Wyoming submitted to The Secretary of State by the end of 2005.
We officially became a Wyoming State recognized non-profit organization on January 6, 2006.
And now we wait...even still...to be a 501(c)(3) organization. We have had so many apparent open doors to this process, and worked hard on that scary huge packet of information ourselves, only to have those doors closed and be so discouraged. The last 3 years have been some ups and downs...and incredibly frustrating to me and to my ministry partners as well.
Last spring another door opened that has yet to close...and we really thought we would be THERE by the first of this year. Sometime around mid November, it became clear our first thoughts were wrong...that we would wait longer.
And then I started to doubt....and get frustrated.....and then I went back to the beginning, read through the timeline and realized that when the initial vision was given to me, "down the road" is what I was thinking...and somewhere along the line I got ahead of myself and have been thinking it should be "now" for the last 3 years.
Part of it is because I'm antsy to get going on what I know to be my heart's calling. I long to be on mission trips, to facilitate trips and see lives changed...the lives of those on the trips and the lives of those we minister to on the trips. I tear up when I see a mission trip video or see pictures and now that people are starting to talk about what will happen for summer trips this year, there is an aching inside me....that is what I LONG to do!
But our hands are tied as a ministry until we have non profit status in the eyes of the IRS.
And another part of it is there is a group of people who have come around us to support us and I feel like this waiting is letting them down. I feel like they are thinking at this point that we are dreamers without action. I feel like once it is our time, they will have moved on or will roll their eyes with "yeah...I will believe it when I see it." Those are my own insecurities, and I know that. They are hard insecurities to overcome. My personality is to follow through with what I said I will do and I don't want someone to think I'm not doing that, especially people I look up to.
And then...in the last two weeks through reading and reviewing this timeline and praying and listening to my pastor preach, something has become evident to me...
Three years of waiting is NOTHING in the realm of eternity and the time that He has for us to be doing this work when it is HIS TIME. And from all things going on right now, it is evident that this season right now is not HIS time for us to be working in that capacity.
I am feeling like I can relate a little to Abraham and Sarah. They were promised a son and more descendants than can be counted....and yet they grew old and it seemed physically impossible to them that what God had said would happen. And then, when they had lost all hope, God followed through on His promise. They never needed to doubt that what He told them would happen would indeed happen!
Sunday I went to church with one of my ministry partners who was in town this weekend. I almost didn't go because we had been out late with friends Saturday night and I was SO tired....but she said she would like to go with me if I went...and that cinched it. We went! And the sermon could have been addressed: T-Rae--this one is for YOU!
Salmon - God's Will from Shadow Lake Community Church on Vimeo.
It's there if you want to watch it.
So this week I am feeling a renewed sense of focus. I love the people who have supported us and I don't want to let them down, but that cannot be my focus. My focus has to be on God's will and God's timing and moving when the pillar of cloud moves and stopping when it stops. Right now apparently it is stopped. But that doesn't mean my relationship with my Savior or my day to day ministering has to stop...only that for right now, LaF is in a waiting period...perhaps a growing period or a preparation period. So....I now gladly wait with my three ministry partners and dear friends. I am excited for the time when that pillar of cloud starts moving and we can move forward!
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