Sweet Blessings

Sweet Blessings to you while visiting!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back in time
knowing what you know now?

Would you go back in time?

May your home be a haven,

Deanna

My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

Beloved,
Welcome to my blog.
Blessings to you this day.

All the debate that I have heard over the years about religion, church, the way to heaven, piety, the right way...the wrong way to live, church is doing this wrong and church is doing that wrong, is on going.
The discussions, the conversations, the magazine articles, the conferences, the comments, the opinions, the this and the that. Can we take a break? Yes.

Remember the classic hymn The Solid Rock? Maybe you haven't heard it before. I will have to google it and see if there's a decent version on the internet. If you come across one, will you let me know? (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/)

BORN IN 1797, Edward Mote later wrote the words to this tune, The Solid Rock.
He wasn't raised in a Christian Home.
Ignored by his parents that ran a pub, he played in the streets.
Trained in the cabinetry business, at age 16 he was BORN AGAIN after being taken to hear the esteemed preacher John Hyatt when he was genuinely converted to Christ.
Running his business and being a Christian Businessman, he then became a Baptist Preacher that was so loved by the congregation they offered the church building to him.
He said, "I do not want the Chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that."

Before his death, he was known to say, "The truths I have been preaching, I am now living upon, and they do very well to die upon."

AND now the lyrics to the song of
The Solid Rock (My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less)
Words by Edward Mote (and the melody by William B. Bradbury)

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus's blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

REFRAIN
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand all other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil.
REFRAIN

His oath, His covenant, His blood Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
REFRAIN

When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

REFRAIN
ON CHRIST, THE SOLID ROCK, I STAND- ALL OTHER GROUND IS
SINKING SAND,
ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND.


If you have a loved one or friend that doesn't have a personal relationship with Christ, there is hope.
Edward Mote was one that didn't even have the knowledge that there was a God.
Then it happened, he was introduced to: there is a God and this is who He is...
CHRIST, THE SOLID ROCK.

Now I feel rested. I can carry on. Let the conversations continue!
God richly bless your home as it is transformed into a haven,
Deanna

Weather Update

Blessings to you!

How are you today?
I am so very thankful that SPRING is here. I just love those days that the skies are light blue with fluffy white clouds slowly floating by. Temperatures about 73 degrees with a gentle breeze.

Yesterday wasn't one of those days. The wind blew extremely hard through out the day and by 4:30 in the afternoon, tornadic weather was upon us. A community near ours had 3 hours of hail with hurricane winds of 91 mile per hour. 3 hours of hail? I thought how can it hail for 3 hours?
It just did.

I know that a year and a half ago, we had 4 hail storms in one night. These were spaced out over a couple hours between storms. I don't remember ever having more than 2 hail storms on one day until then.

In May 2008, we had baseball size hail. I was home babysitting at the time and the sound of the hail was so loud as it hit the roof and sides of the house. Our main auto wasn't home at the time and my daughter's auto had one deep dent on the hood of the car by the time the storm passed. I felt that we had been very fortunate to only have the one dent. Other cars in the area were totalled.

I am so glad that I have an open line of communication with the creator of the universe to ask for protection, etc.

Many times I have wondered why God has made the weather the way He has. The extreme cold and the miserable heat. He knows why. It gets our attention, that's for sure.

Til next time,
This is Farmer's Almanac Deanna wishing you a peaceful and quiet life.

Blogging Fun With Awards

Well Watered Woman

The Schoolhouse at Deerun

Simple Beauty

What an awesome start to the week this has been...

THANK YOU DEAR BLOGGER FRIENDS FOR THESE WONDERFUL AWARDS!!!!!!!

I am honored that you blessed me with these.

Hope every one will check out and visit these fine sites and read what's going on in each of their blogworld. One of the neat things I think is great about the internet is that it usually only takes a few seconds to travel to where ever they are and say hello!

I continue to learn from all of you.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you for this Lemonade Award to Well Watered Woman.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you for this I Love Your Blog Award to the Schoolhouse at Deerun.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you for this Sisterhood Award to Simple Modest Beauty.

You have really encouraged me and touched my heart!

Deanna at Home Haven Ministry Blogspot from the Kansas Flinthills

Thanks you and sends warm wishes and God Blesses

to you.

Red Jello Express

Hello Beloved,Welcome from the Kansas Flinthills. How are you? Life too busy? Too much to do? Feeling overwhelmed or stretched too thin? Jello to the rescue!
With life so busy at times, have you ever fixed jello for a quick, easy and economical dessert to help stretch your time and budget? I have. So glad God allowed someone to come up with j-e-l-l-o. With being a full time homemaker I haven't always had all the time in the world to do what needed to be done before another task would come along that needed my attention. Jello desserts have saved the day many times.
Close to 20 years ago, my husband and I remodeled our kitchen and turned it into a bright cheery WHITE Kitchen. We'd worked so hard to create this atmosphere.

I was so pleased with the work counter it had. Room enough to prepare dream desserts and prized meals that I prided myself in attempting to fix to feed my family and entertain friends. I was a Martha Stewart wannabe before I knew that there was a Martha. I was so proud of that WHITE Kitchen.
Blessed to belong to a young women's group where the Ladies were all about my age stay-at-home mommas to young children, we'd have monthly get togethers. What a treat it was to have fellowship. We seemed to have similar challenges and it was rewarding to be friends. We could bark and blab just about anything.
With so much going on my life, I had to strive for simple and fast everything. Convenience was the name of the game. What's easier than a jello dessert, right? Right. So on one of those busy days where I was wanting to fix a quick and easy dessert for one of our gatherings, I got the red jello out, emptied the jello into the blender, added hot water, placed the lid on it and pushed the on switch.

To my surprise the blender decides to take a walk across the counter top as the lid pops off allowing red jello to spray all over the WHITE cabinet fronts. Have you ever tried to catch a seemingly demon-possessed appliance as it violently vibrates toward the edge of the counter top where it will fall to the floor while spraying you in the face? I had to pull the plug on this one. No red jello dessert today.

There I stood soaked in sticky jello and seeing splashes of red ooze everywhere. I was a mess from head to toe and the kitchen would have to be cleaned. How convenient was that?

Our good intentions sometimes back fire on us and we find ourselves in a mess not knowing where to begin cleaning up.

I don't remember what I substituted this dessert with, but if it hadn't gone the way it did, I wouldn't have this red jello express story to remember and laugh about now. That special day when I was a young wife and mother trying to fix a dessert that was quick and easy would become a sweet memory that money can't buy.
This story had a good ending! It all worked out.

Your home is a ministry. May your home haven be filled with sweet memories that money can't buy.
God bless you real good,Deanna

P.S. My Mom still fixes orange jello with grated carrots in it. It's tasty and brings alot of good childhood memories to mind.

Laugh a Little With "I LOVE LUCY"

Hello Beloved,

So very glad you've stopped by for a spell. Hopefully when you leave this blog and go on to the rest of your day, you'll leave here feeling better!

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Laughter does a body good. How's about taking a break from so much heaviness and lighten the load with some healthy laughter.

I just love, I LOVE LUCY. Had to post this clip. Laugh with me.

Bless your soul with God's goodness and know that He loves you and is pleased that you want to Bless your loved ones with a home that's a haven from the ugliness of the world. The darkness doesn't have to be in your home.

There's so much that goes on in our world that's aweful and can weigh us down. But we can rejoice...It's good to know that God's STILL on the throne and prayer changes things. He has a good plan for our lives. A good plan. Can you say AMEN? AMEN. And again I say AMEN.

God Bless you real good,

Deanna

Aint aint a word, is it?

Beloved,
Would you be willing to chat for awhile?
The art of conversation aint what it used to be or is it?
When I first met my husband, he used the word aint way too much.
I'd tell him, "Aint isn't a word." Like I knew so much. (I thought really uneducated people used this word.)
I about fell over when I read for myself the definition of AINT out of the dictionary.
Tis true...aint is a word.
Tell me it taint so!

Aint it great weather we're havin' ?

May the words we all speak toward one another in our homes be words of love, encouragement and pleasant.

God Bless you real good,
Deanna

Help Me, DADDY!

Blessings to you and thank you for taking the time out of a busy life to stop by and see what's going on at Home Haven.

"Help me, Daddy!"

With Spring here, I hope to take some long walks that aren't all at a fast pace.
Over the years my husband and I have gone through cycles of walking a great deal at a high speed to work those muscles. In our younger days, our walks were romantically slow, arms wrapped around one another and stimulating conversation going on. Just being together was enough.

On one of our walks, we saw a young father walking along side his little boy that was wearing a safety helmet on his head and doing his best to balance himself on a small two wheeler bicycle with training wheels on it. The boy appeared to be about 3 years old and enjoying his bike ride until his bike got stuck between the grass and the sidewalk. The sidewalk barely had a slant to it, but it was a mountain to this child. He couldn't get the bike in motion. He was truly stuck on this slope. He needed a savior, someone to rescue him.

In a shaky tiny voice, the bike rider said "Help Me, Daadee. Help meeeeee."

His Daddy came to the rescue and off they went.

I can still see and hear this event in my memory. It has put a smile on my face many times.
Not only was this little tyke cute on his bike, but his innocence was precious. He was so pleased and relieved that his daddy came to the rescue and off he could go.

Have you ever raised your arms into the air, reaching out to God in total surrender and in desperation cried out "Help me, Daddy. Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." ????
I have. Many times.

Does He hear me? Yes, He does.
Does He help me. Yes, He does.
Am I grateful? Yes, I am.
Do I thank Him? Yes, I do.

We are God's creation, but that doesn't make us His child...yet.
We have to be adopted into His family.
This is achieved when His son Jesus becomes our personal Savior.
By embracing the Messiah (Jesus), we will be filled with God's Holy Spirit.
We aren't born with this spirit in us as we come into the world as a baby.
This Spirit of God enters in when we become a Christian and this happens when Jesus is our Savior.
Our human spirit is regenerated and we experience being BORN AGAIN.
That THING that was missing in us as a human is now THERE.
We can begin to understand the things of God.
We are now a CHILD OF GOD.
A child.
An Heir.
Royalty.
Forgiven.

Original sin that we are born with as a human is forgiven when Jesus is our Savior. We are forgiven.

We are a new Creation. The one that we were has changed.

Not only will eternal life come, but abundant living is ours because of Christ in us, the hope of glory!

He will hear your cries of "Help me, Daadee! Help meeeeeeeeeee!"


*****************************************************************************
In order for my home to be a more refreshing haven,
I need help getting a huge amount of paperwork gone through and filed.
I feel like I am stuck on that slight slant that feels like a mountain.
Help.

Dear God, Help me.
Let my attitude be relieved and the task lightened.
In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen.

Blessings to you,
Deanna

Spring 2009

Praise the Lord!!!
Praise the Lord!!!
It is officially SPRING 2009.
It is officially SPRING 2009.

This season, I hope to:
get pictures on my blog
catch up on paperwork
edge the lawn and sidewalk
wallpaper the family room
wash parlor curtain panels
wash windows
beadboard a bedroom
have the house and garage reshingled
bedroom ceiling redone
paint the master bedroom
stitch balloon shades for the master bedroom
eat more salads
take vitamins
drink more purified water
pray more for family members
pray more for political officials
sing
take long walks
open up some windows and let the rooms breathe
and blog

Summer will come and go.
Fall will approach.
And by then hopefully the garage will be all organized.
Then Christmas to celebrate.
Wait a minute...didn't Spring just start?

I am so pleased that SPRING is here.
Flowers are starting to bloom and I can see some of the trees are starting to bud out.
Red Robin Birds are showing up and chirping.

To those people that think there is no God...
I pray that God becomes real to them and a beautiful spiritual birth is begun.
Spring has sprung and so has a new hope.

May your home have a sweet fragrance of peace and order that refreshes your loved ones and renews your souls.
God Bless,
Deanna

Just How Much Socializing Does A Child Need?

Hello Beloved,
This will be short and sweet.

There are so many people out there that believe that if you homeschool your children, they won't get enough socializing.
I ask, just how much socializing does a child need?
If we go off of what Public School students receive, how much socializing have they received?
When the students graduate and go out into "the real world", what becomes of them?
It seems that unwanted pregnancies are on the rise.
Abortions are on the rise.
Divorces are on the rise.
Just living together is on the rise.
Not paying the bills is on the rise.
Credit card debt is on the rise.

Did these people not get enough socializing skills while in public school?

So just how much socializing is needed to prevent calamity in the lives of people?

Are these hardships brought on due to too much socializing or too little of it?

Do you suppose the type of socializing had anything to do with the social ills mentioned?

Will write more later.
Hope things are going well with you and yours.
How's your home life going?

God Bless,
Deanna

Old Time Religion

Hello from Kansas.

Be sure and listen to the CARAVANS singing OLD TIME RELIGION in the previous post.

After years of researching Religious Movements and being interested in Spiritual matters, I find this sound clip refreshing. Makes me want to tap my foot and sing along.

May you feel comfortable in your own home and comfortable visiting with God as a dear friend.

Now...give me some of that Old Time Religion!
Hope to hear from you.
Would like to know how you're doing.

Deanna

Old Time Religion

Modest Fashion Week

Hear ye
Hear ye

Hello out there in blog world!
Joy over at THE STAY-AT-HOME MISSIONARY blog is having a celebration this week with drawings for give aways.
Check out her site and make a comment to be considered for a prize.
Just click on the Modest Fashion Week button to be directed to her site.
She will be having some interesting articles to read and be blessed by.
See you there.

God Bless you real good,
Deanna

Political Pride

Dear Ones,
Time for a change?
Music Lovers, what would you think if the 181-year-old traditional U.S. Presidential formal introduction of "Hail to the Chief" that's usually played by a Marine Band was substituted by a rock band accompanied by a Muslim female vocalist performing a contemporized version of a Chopin cantata?
(Awe, that's alright...change is good.)

Time for a change?
Patriotic Supporters, what would you think if our new President gave his first presidential interview to a Muslim TV news service instead of to the American people?
(Awe, that's alright...change is good.)

Time for a change?
American Citizen, what would you think if our President's first official act was to make a call to a terrorist organization instead of respecting what our own government labels as terrorist against our country?
(Awe, that's alright...change is good.)

These things did happen.

Noah Hutchings reported these facts in his March 2009 newsletter.
Noah has a ministry called Southwest Radio Ministries out of Oklahoma which has a newsletter called Prophetic Observer. Noah is a watchman.
You can listen to daily broadcasts on the Internet at http://www.swrc.com

Isaiah 21:6
Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

My question is, "How can these types of changes be good for the United States of America?
Got any ideas?
Please tell me about them.

I am no longer what you call Politically Correct.
We may find ourselves no longer able to share our point of view inside the borders of this fine country of ours called the United States of America.

We will have to hush.
Deanna

Thrifty Tuesday

Dear Blogger Friend,
Hi from the Kansas Flinthills and my humble abode!

Truely had a great week.
Sunday: Traveled home from Oklahoma after celebrating my Grandson's second Birthday.
Monday: I participated in a blog party. Titus 2 Blog Party. So much fun.
Later in the evening, found out that Grandbaby number 4 is in the making!!!! Due in October.
Tuesday: I was out and about and went 'JUNKIN'. Bought some treasures that I will talk about.
Wednesday: Paperwork.


Thursday: Girls Night Out with Daughter and Granddaughter. Had a great cup of coffee.
Friday: Got to sleep in...awe.

I am in such hopes that over this week-end pictures will pop up on my blog so you can see the treasures I came across to enrich my home haven. If you're reading this and the pics are there, well how about that and thank you very much. It's heck to be so out of date concerning the techie world.

Salvation Army Treasures found on Tuesday were:

3 Milk Glass Goblets at .79 cents each

Glass Cake Plate for $2.00

Various children's VCRs (Barney, Winnie the Pooh, Bob the Builder, and Veggie Tales) each priced at $1.59. Will provide many hours of entertainment for grandchildren for little of nothing.

Macrame Hand Bag with phone pouch $2.50


I just love it when I come home with thrifty bargains to add to the charm of our estate.

God's richest blessings to you,
Deanna

TITUS 2 BLOG PARTY THANX

Hello! I have had such a great time participating in this week's Titus 2 Blog Party.
To you that have visited my blog, I hope you'll return and let me know what's happening in your life. It's been a pleasure to meet you via blogging.

Where I am in life right now, the new environment of the Blogworld that I've come to enjoy is a fun adventure and BLESSING.

Lord knows all that's going on in "my world" and has allowed this arena to be here for me and many others that are encouraged and BLESSED BY BLOGGING.

From the light hearted stories to the more in-depth thoughts;
from the nutritional food recipes to frugal decorating ideas and organizational ideas;
from Family activities to Godly Devotions;
from encouraging words to new found blogger friends;
from clothing designs to SPIRITUAL MAKE OVERS...
THIS HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL BLESSING TO ME.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG DURING TITUS 2 BLOG PARTY WEEK.
IT'S A PLEASURE TO HAVE MET YOU AND I WILL ENJOY GETTING BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH YOU THRU YOUR BLOG.

A special thank you to Michelle over at She Looketh Well for hosting this event!
How wonderfully fun this has been.

God Bless you,
Deanna from the Kansas Flinthills

TITUS 2 BLOG PARTY

Glad you have stopped by.
Hello and welcome to my Blog. I'm coming to you from the Kansas Flinthills.
This is "My Introduction to the Titus 2 Blog Party."
New to Blogworld, but really enjoying it.

Hopefully by tonite, my sweet husband will have walked me through and I will have an official Titus 2 Blog Party Button displayed on this space.
Think I qualify as one of the OLDER WOMAN desiring to be helpful...
I'm a real woman!!!!! Does that count? I need God's help every day.

I am a Child of God.  Born again, Spirit filled, Bible Believing Christian.
Still finding out that life is full of challenges and surprises!
Presently learning how to juggle being a stay-at-home wife, homemaker and Grandma with some health issues that babysits full time an overly active toddler in a 123 year old 2 story native limestone house in serious need of tender loving care and remodeling.
Consider myself BLESSED and continually learning new things about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while living in a very small town nestled in the beautiful Flinthills.

Due to my husband's career, we've moved and relocated 17 times up and down the Mid-west.
Have been a community member in medium, small and large towns as well as cities, suburbs and country living.

Have been up and down and all around the financial economic ladder, battled health issues, walked through relational struggles and spiritual situations that cause one to pray.
Each place has had different challenges and rewards as I have desired a closer walk with God.

My name's Deanna.
53.
Married 34 and a half years to the same man.
Mother to 3.
Mom-in-Law to 2 young ladies.
Grandma to 3 grandchildren.

Welcome to my Blog and hopefully you'll come to visit more often.
May your home be a haven that you use your God given talents in to shower others with God's love and comfort those that are on your watch.

God richly Bless you,
Deanna from the Kansas Flinthills.