The boys have become very good at building shelves. Our newest set is for the bottom of the basement stairs. Anna's waiting for a job 🙂 .JosephJesse has been working diligently on the yard.Mom has labeled each cabinet in the kitchen, to help us get used to where things belong. It has been a great help!
Speaking of Mom, if you think of it, please pray for her. She has a bad cold which is wiping her out and making her feel miserable. She has spent much time over the last few days (and nights!) resting and coughing. (April 9th update–Mom is doing much better today 🙂 . Thanks for your prayers!!) One lady requested we do pictures of the kitchen, and we will try to do that. We’ll wait until Mom is better 🙂 .
Sarah for the rest
“My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise” (Psalms 57:7).
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole from Allison W., Georgia
2 pkgs. Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice Mix, prepared according to package instructions 2-3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces 16 oz. sour cream 2 cans Cream of Chicken & Herb soup (or plain Cream of Chicken) 2 sleeves Ritz (or similar) crackers, crushed 1-2 T. poppy seeds Butter
Spray 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and spread cooked rice evenly on bottom. In a bowl, combine chicken, sour cream, and undiluted soups. Spread evenly over rice. Cover with crushed crackers, sprinkle with poppy seeds, and dot all over with butter pats. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
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Enjoy! This is a delicious casserole that was served to us on our last trip!
In a recent blog comment, a reader asked about how building a house has affected our homeschooling. The past two years, we have not only had the major project in our daily schedule of building a house, but also of three months or so of being on the road for conferences. The children are still on track with their school, and they should be finished or almost finished by our usual school year completion date of Memorial Day.
Joseph, age 19, had graduated from high school before we began building our house so he was available full time to help with the house. John, who is 18 and graduating this year, did bookwork school in the morning and apprentice work with his dad on the house in the afternoons. Since John is planning to work in the construction field, the afternoon school hours were profitable for him as vocational study time.
As a side note, Joseph and John are the ones who initially volunteered to build the house. They said they would build it while Steve wrote books. They since realized that was a bit ambitious and that they needed their dad’s expertise and help continually, but we were grateful for their desire to bless our family and our ministry. In addition, in the midst of building the house Steve and I were even able to write our most recent book, Managers of Their Schools.
The other three children did their normal school and then would help at the house after school. We have a four day school week so everyone helped with the house on Fridays and Saturdays. The children all worked all day on house building projects during the past two summers. Most generally building work ended at dinner time so that evenings were reserved for showers, family Bible time, music practice, and family fellowship.
Jesse and I doing Algebra together.
The children are motivated to get up at 5:45 a.m. so that they can have their personal Bible time, eat breakfast, do a couple of chores, and be ready to start school no later than 7:30 a.m. This allows them to finish school earlier in the day.
Steve is a dad who encourages his family that we work while we have breath, and we rest in heaven (in addition to the Lord’s day). That work is both spiritual and physical. So much of what the Lord has taught us through our years of homeschooling and why we have been able to do what we do plus homeschool is laid out in these books: Managers of Their Homes, Managers of Their Chores, Managers of Their Schools, and Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single-Income Family. We are not “Super Family,” but we do make choices with our time and our activities because we want to do all that we can for the Lord Jesus Christ while we can.
Trusting in Jesus, Teri
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6-8)
Our hearts are full of gratitude to the Lord as we spend each day in the house. Truly, the ministry has room like we’ve never had before 🙂 . No more tripping over boxes in the hallway and side-stepping more boxes to get around the corner.
We’ve been doing odds and ends and living “normal” life again. Yet, is any Christian’s life normal? Each day is a gift from the Lord, and one in which we have opportunities to share Jesus with others and see His working in our lives.
Dad is working on scheduling stops for the Fall trip, and it’s possible we may be doing a West Coast trip and then an East Coast trip. If you’re interested in coordinating a stop on those trips, please e-mail us.
In the process of continuing to settle in, Joseph unloaded and organized Dad's shop! The cabinets you see in the background are actually from an old kitchen we tore out years ago. They make great shop cabinets!Last week, Dad hung blinds!Christopher helped with wiring things in the basement. Nathan and Joseph have spent many hours working on a phone system for the ministry, which will be a real blessing! Last week, for several days, Melanie helped me organize the ministry things in the basement. We made wonderful progress!Yesterday afternoon, a log splitter was rented. Dad and the boys set to work splitting an enormous pile of wood. The wood came from trees we had to take down that were either diseased or in the way of the building process.JesseJohnJosephAnna helped this afternoon, and one of the boys said she had the neatest stack of wood 🙂 .Honey was happy to be outside, and she grabbed sticks whenever she could.
Only for Jesus, Sarah
“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13).
The Maxwell family and ministry blog of Titus2.com.
