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More or Less?

Valerie Basham

July 16, 2012

I saw this blog post floating around on Pinterest, where a lady shares things she will do less of this year in her homeschooling. It got me thinking about what I would do less of. That, in turn, led me to thinking about what I’d do more of. I thought I’d share my thoughts here. I’d love to hear your “more or lesses”, too!

More ~

1. Laugh more. I’m really bad about getting in “serious mode” and staying there. Yes, mothering requires many serious moments, but there are times when I need to lighten up and laugh out loud.
2. Relax more. When I get stressed (almost daily), my husband will say to me “Relax.” I hate it when he does that! I’m not able to just flip a switch and suddenly “relax”. I wish it were that easy, though. However, my man is right. I need to relax. Inhale. Count to ten. Remember that in 100 years, most of what I fret over will not matter.
3. Read aloud more. This always seems to get pushed to the end of the day! I have it near the top, but it works its way down, down, down and then poof! the day is done and we didn’t enjoy a single book together. I have done really well in making read aloud time a priority this summer. My goal is to continue this into the school year.
4. Pray more. Without ceasing, as a matter of fact. (1 Thess. 5:17)
5. Depend on God more. It’s so very easy for me to reason things out, plan, research and plan some more! That’s the kind of person I am by nature – if there is a problem, I usually analyze it, come to the conclusion that I did something wrong, and therefore, I can fix it. Sometimes, though, I am not the problem.(gasp!) Sometimes it’s just life. In those times, I need to look up and rely on my Father. In fact, even when I am the problem, I need to depend upon Him. The task of raising and training children (whether I homeschool or not) is too great for me to carry alone.

Less ~

1. Worry less. Ah yes, I’m a worrier! I need His help each and every day in every facet of my life to let go of the problem and let God have it.
2. Spend less. I am so pleased that this year I have only spent about $400 to educate four children! This includes a math program for my son, a science program (with lab materials) for my oldest, a K5 packaged curriculum, and several other miscellaneous books. Last year, I spent around $700 for teaching three children. I felt compelled to lower that figure this year, and praise the Lord, I have done so! I have hunted around online to find gently used materials, been given a truck load of books, and am re-using several books that have been sitting on my shelf since my oldest finished using them.
3. Yell less. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m a little yeller. No, I don’t mean I’m a coward. I mean that I raise my voice too often.I caught myself just today starting to yell out something, and I stopped. It’s a nasty habit and I hope you’re not like me! It’s something I’m working on this year. And forever.
4. Say “no” less. “No, you can’t play in the mud.” “No, we can’t go there.” “No, you can’t do that.” No, no, no. I want to think of things that I can offer as alternatives so that “no” becomes a “yes”. I’m not saying I’m never telling my kids no again, I just mean that sometimes I say no because it’s easy for me. I want to try to find the positive more this year, and inconvenience myself if it will benefit my children.
5. Sigh less. I’ve noticed that it’s my way to sigh when I’m discouraged. Next comes the outright complaining. (Mostly to my husband.) I complain far too much. I hope that by stopping the sighing, which always leads to the complaining, that I can stop the complaining! I hope it works. {crossing fingers} I am blessed to have a *very* longsuffering husband who puts up with my many faults, including my complaining. (Love you, Terry! I want to do better on this. This is a test to see if you’re reading. muhahaha!) 😉 My goal is to memorize a Bible verse and quote it to myself when I feel the pangs of disappointment rising.

So that’s it. Those are my “mores” and “lesses” for this school year. I have plenty to keep me busy this year! 🙂 Thanks for reading!

For Matthew Ron

Valerie Basham

2 comments

July 14, 2012

In 2012, I’m writing a little poem for each of my children. Here are a few words about my baby (who’s not a baby anymore! *sniff sniff*). Thanks for reading. 🙂

My sweet Matthew Ron,

Where has the time gone?

None can refute

That your smile is too cute!

You run around all day,

You love the words “No way!”

You open all the doors,

Make a mess on the floors!

You giggle and laugh,

You love to splash in the bath.

You give the best hugs,

Roll around on the rugs.

You jump on the bed,

And get bumps on your head,

But you keep on going

With no sign of slowing!

You now love good books,

You will sit and laugh and look.

The world is brand new

Now that you’re TWO!

He got a Dananino yogurt out of the fridge, opened it, tried to get a spoon, but was only able to reach a plastic medicine syringe. He ate the yogurt with the medicine syringe! I had to take a picture! 🙂

He’s TWO!

Early morning birthday gift! He’s riding his new tricycle in his jammies. 🙂

Happy birthday, to my sweet, cuddly boy! Mommy loves you, forever and always.

Blogging Break

Valerie Basham

4 comments

July 9, 2012

This is my 777th blog post! The number of perfection? I wish! I’m just dropping in to say I’ll be out for a bit. I’m busily preparing our homeschooling schedule and work for this coming year. (I hope to post about that soon!) I’m busy reading. (I hope to share about that, too!) I’m busy taking care of my husband, children and home. I’m busy teaching Sunday School. I’m just…busy. I’ve ordered our last few school books and am eagerly awaiting their arrival! (Oh look! They just came! Yea!) Lauren is away at teen camp for the first time ever this week – the same camp where I met her dad and future in-laws nineteen years ago! I miss her. I’m wondering what she will learn and experience, and of course, the people she will meet. I’m nervous for her as she competes in the solo piano competition. I admire her for wanting to go alone – she is with my home church, but still, she doesn’t know anyone there that well. I’m also fully aware that the days are slipping by and, one day, she will be away more than she’s home.

So much is going on and Satan is really fighting. I feel that a step back from this blog for a few days will be good for me. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, but I don’t think it will be long. In the meantime, feel free to browse my archives or my blogroll. Oh! And I’ve recently discovered a brand new blog – The Lighthouse Letters. It’s written by Robyn, a sweet pastor’s wife whom I hope to meet someday! Also, our wonderful piano teacher, Susanna, has started a blog, called Fluid Writings. Perhaps you can check these out and say hello! I know they would like it.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

A Dream Come True

Valerie Basham

6 comments

July 2, 2012

Life is tough, isn’t it? Everyone has times of darkness and loneliness. Sometimes, the Lord seems very far away. Just when you’re on rock bottom, though, the Lord sends a blessing. A kind note from a friend, an unexpected check for $10 (or more!), a box of clothing from your Mother-in-law (Thanks, Kathy!), or an email saying the article you submitted nine months prior is appearing in The Old Schoolhouse magazine! It was an exciting day last fall, when my article was accepted and I received my first contract in the mail. The editor was so kind and helpful. It was a wonderful experience. It was, to me, a dream come true! 🙂

If you are just coming here from reading in TOS, I’d like to thank you for dropping by. I hope you’ll stay a while and say hello!

If you are interested in reading my article, you can do so by clicking HERE.

Thanks for reading. (Here or there!) :-]

Powdered Laundry Detergent

Valerie Basham

7 comments

June 28, 2012

Ingredients:

1 Fels-Naptha bar, grated and/or processed

1. c. super washing soda (NOT baking soda, must be sodium carbonate)

1/2 c. Borax

Optional: 1 to 1.5 caps full Purex Crystals Laundry Enhancer, any scent.(I picked purple!) :]

First, I grated the Fels-Naptha bar, (in above photo) and then placed the shavings into my small food processor for finer chopping. It might have been fine to just break the soap into chunks and then process it, but I was worried that larger chunks would damage my processor.

After processing.

Mix together all of the ingredients and you’re done!

Use 1 tbsp. for small loads, and 2 tbsp. for larger or heavily soiled loads.

As an addition to the above ingredients, I wanted to share something that my husband and I spotted while on our date to the grocery store (Yes, I take what I can get in the way of dates! lol! Any time alone with my man is a good time, no matter where we are.). Anyway, I saw this:

Now, I’ve been making my own liquid laundry detergent for a while. However, I was never able to add a scent to it because I don’t have a place nearby to get essential oils. Our clothes looked clean, but didn’t have that “fresh” scent. So, I thought I’d add this Purex Crystals Laundry Enhancer into this powdered detergent recipe to see how it worked. I put it into my most recent batch. I used a cap full, plus another half of a cap full, and it works GREAT! The laundry smells so fresh and clean. I will probably only add one cap full to the recipe next time. I think I like this dry recipe better than the liquid because it’s easier to make and store. I hope this is a help to someone. I’m grateful to the Duggar family for sharing their money saving tips! 🙂

Little Girl’s Slip {Tutorial}

Valerie Basham

5 comments

June 27, 2012

My daughter Laci, is needing a new slip for some of her Sunday dresses. It is *very* hard to find her size slip at an affordable price. I am not a seamstress. I’ve sewn a lined vest in high school, a jumper for Lauren when she was two, and a few aprons. That’s about it. I’ve done a lot mending with my sewing machine and made some curtains, things like that. However, I break out in a cold sweat and feel quite nervous whenever I get out my sewing machine. It just isn’t my forte.

I think it’s been over a year since I bought this material to make a slip, which originally was for my oldest daughter. She grew tall enough to be able to wear an adult ladies’ slip, so I didn’t need to make her one. Phew. But, I have two other daughters! I dug out of storage one slip that fits my 7 year old, but we still needed one for the 5 year old. What should a girl with minimal sewing skills, without a pattern, do? Well, if you’re like me, you risk it. My mother used to say “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I ventured, and I gained! 🙂 I was so shocked! I photographed the process “by faith”. After all, if it was a failure, I could just delete the photos. 😉

Okay, I guess I did sort of have a pattern. I cut up her old slip along the seams and used that as a guideline. It still fit her on the width, so I didn’t need to add anything that way, we just needed some length. I have no idea what this fabric is. Broadcloth? Is there such a thing? This is some kind of white fabric. Not stretchy or silky, just plain. I wasn’t sure if I could sew very well on slick fabric.

Here are the steps I used to do this. You might call this “slip making by a dummy” (It’s not for dummies, you people are NOT dumb!) I’m sure there are dozens (perhaps scores?) of my readers who could do better, but, just in case someone out there would like an easy way to sew a slip, here ya go.

Cut apart an old slip on the side seams.
Line up the straps along the fold of the fabric.
Using a tape measure, find the length and/or width that you want the new slip to be.
Cut along your markings, making the front of the slip neckline a bit lower than the back.
Slide the slip over your girl’s head, to be sure the neck and arm holes do fit her, checking also that the sides will meet.
Sew side seams.
I didn’t have any pretty lace or bias tape to put on the edges, but that would make it really cute. Maybe even a little pink bow on the front? I didn’t have that, either. I also didn’t make a ruffle or even a hem! After all, no one will see it. I could have hemmed it, but I wanted to have all the length from it possible. If it needed to be shorter, I would have hemmed it.
Stitch unfinished edges using a zig-zag stitch (or hem).

The finished product: not pretty and not fancy. But, it fits, and it hides unmentionables, so it worked! 🙂

The Saint’s Highest Calling

Valerie Basham

3 comments

June 26, 2012

I’ve owned the book, Suffering and Death: The Saint’s Highest Calling since about a year after my dad went to heaven. I can vividly recall the first time I ever saw this book. It was lying on my brother’s desk, many years ago. We were working in the church he pastored in Hot Springs, where I often did a few secretarial jobs for him.One day, while in his office for such a reason, I saw this book. I shuddered as I read the title and avoided it like the plague! I knew where I was going when I died, but I had no desire to dwell on death – or suffering – for very long. I was only 23 years old. I had endured a few hard times, but nothing that I would have called “suffering”, and I’d never lost a close loved one to death, either. No, I was not interested in reading that book.

Years passed. I began to go through some significant valleys. The biggest was the sudden death of my dad when I was 26 years old. Two years later, darkness shrouded my life again in a trial which I am unable to share. It was between those two trials that we bought this book from our very good friend, Evangelist Tim Green. My mother had just read it, and commented on how good it was. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I thumbed through it, but that was all. I didn’t want to acknowledge suffering. It was as though if I kept thinking that life wouldn’t be hard, then it wouldn’t be.

Here I am, almost six years from that time. Trials have continued to wash onto the shore of my life. The raging waves have left me heartbroken, defeated, depressed and hopeless. I have been ashamed of myself. How could I doubt God? How could I feel that He had left me? In a tearful time of prayer, asking God to please help me, it is no coincidence that my eyes fell upon this book on my shelf. The book I shuddered to look at; the book I couldn’t bring myself to read; the book I had wished I’d never seen. I decided to read it. I started reading it a few chapters each day during my Bible time. It didn’t take long to finish, it’s only about one hundred pages. And yes, it was a blessing! It was not at all the dreaded monster that I’d made it out to be in my head. I had assumed that page one would say, “So, you’re a Christian? A servant of the Lord? Suffering is your future. Get used to it.” I was wrong. And, no, it wasn’t the first time. 😉

The book shares the testimony of the author, missionary Randy Pike. He tells how God used trials and suffering in his life to bring glory to the Lord, to direct his life’s work and to see souls saved. He hammers away at the “prosperity” preachers, revealing them for the lying charlatans that they are. Saved people are not promised a life of success, fame, riches and ease. If so, the author points out, then John the Baptist, Elijah, Peter and John the Beloved were not saved! He says that not everyone will be healed of their illnesses. Look at Elisha. He died because he was sick. The book is replete with scripture, many of which I looked up for myself. It offers hope to those of us who are suffering, a reminder that this world is not our hope, Heaven is, and it’s wonderful. He shares insight into making sense of the sufferings that we must endure, and he offers comfort from the Holy Scriptures.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from this book.

We must never conclude that we have taken the wrong path in Christian service when the storms fall suddenly upon us without warning. Oddly, that is the way God often works. Christ was there near His disciples only a few feet away! He was with them through it all. When a boat full of water (see Mark 4:37), will not sink, something wonderfully divine is about to happen.

Suffering is universal to every true child of God. If you are a servant of the living Christ, you too must be tried – as gold is tried. It is part of your divine calling. And in a majestic sense – almost sacred – somehow, God’s glory shines through His suffering, weeping saints.

Our Lord is more interested in what we are gradually becoming through our trials and sufferings, than what we presently are. The ugly, repulsive caterpillar of today, through struggle and death, becomes the beautiful butterfly of tomorrow. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)

Though frequently very difficult to do, we are called upon to thank God “IN everything”, but not “FOR everything” unless it is “unto Himself”.

When everything seems to indicate failure, when nothing makes sense anymore, and when our sufferings and sorrows appear to smother the promises of our Lord’s help, the Bible declares “…(God) hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5) The responsibility lies squarely on Him to do this. And He will!

At no time did God rebuke Paul for such “mood swings” in his missionary experiences. He was only being normal. Beware of those “spiritual leaders” who condemn God’s people for being normal Christians.

This book, which I had feared for over ten years, was nothing to be feared. It offered me strength as I journey through my life on this Earth. It offered me the hope that God is there, even when He seems so far away. It reminded me of the beauty of life in Heaven. And, best of all, it helped me see that I’m not insane, I’m actually normal! (That alone made it worth the read!)

If you are interested in ordering this book, you may do so by visiting Tim Green Ministries. Scroll down the page until you see this book pictured and click on it.

Thanking God IN everything,

Laci Was in the Paper!

Valerie Basham

2 comments

June 25, 2012

Our library has been hosting some very exciting summer reading story hours. The theme is “Dream big: READ!”. This last week, June 19, they had a magician. He was very funny and all five kids enjoyed it.When David Scott, the magician, asked for volunteers, Leslie raised her hand, but when he picked her, she pulled her hand down and shook her head “no”, smiling. Next, he picked Laci! She, on the other hand, was happy to take the chance! Leslie was eager for her to go.

The photographer from our newspaper was there while Laci was helping, and she got her photo in the paper!

Hard to see, but she’s on the left.

Click HERE for the online version.

The Lord’s Protection

Valerie Basham

3 comments

June 24, 2012

As I was working last Tuesday, I heard a loud cracking sound outside. I then heard yelling children. Lauren said, “I’m so glad Matthew was over by the swing!” I looked out the window of my bathroom and saw the large tree limb that had fallen. It was a dead limb, left over from the severe ice storm of 2000. It hit the roof of the tree house, then the ground below, where several of my children have been known to gather and play. Praise the Lord, they were not there when this limb fell, they were off in another part of the yard. Also, we are grateful that the tree house wasn’t damaged. There are more dead limbs that could potentially fall, but they are too high for us to reach. We are continuing to trust in the Lord’s protection.

The kids with the dead limbs.

Matthew doing his share.

Tossing it onto the burn pile.

Father’s Day 2012

Valerie Basham

2 comments

June 23, 2012

Father’s Day should be a difficult day for me, and in some ways, it is. After that first Father’s Day without my dad, however, it did get easier. I was, and am, comforted by the fact I will see him again. He was faithful to the Lord, his wife and his children until the very end of his days. I am blessed to have been able not only to have Ron Courtney for a dad, but for a friend, too. I miss him. I live the remainder of my life to bring honor to my heavenly Father, and my earthly one. I never want anyone to have to shake their head in disappointment at Ron Courtney’s youngest daughter. I am thankful that he left this Earth knowing that I loved him, and that he was my hero.

Me & Dad on my Senior trip to D.C. Summer, 1996.

I am doubly blessed by my husband. He is is a wonderful Father. He loves his children very much. He has given up his own pleasures so that they can have the things they need. He sacrifices and never complains. He is hard working and fun loving. He is, in a word, the best.

I’m never very good at planning ahead for seasonal crafts. This is an area in which I’m trying to improve. Because of this, I don’t have any one cute thing that we did for Terry. We bought him a couple of movies that he likes and then I got out the craft box (or maybe Lauren got it out?) and they dug in and made whatever they wanted for their dad. Here’s what they came up with: {click to enlarge}

Leslie found these wooden letters. She needed an “E” and a “Y”. She used an “F” and drew in the line to make an “E”. She used “l” to make a “Y”! 🙂 This is a picture of her with her dad.

I traced Matthew’s hand, and he wanted to do the other one, too! So, I tried to color them to show up, but it didn’t turn out very well. *sigh* Inside, I wrote, “You hold my hand for only a moment, but you hold my heart for ever. I love you!”

Mitchell made his dad out of a paper doily! 🙂 He also used the wooden letters, and needed an “A”, so he drew a line across a “U”! 🙂 He cut a feather to make his hair and the pen (on right, like it’s in a pocket), which Dad always carries!

Lauren drew this dress shirt for her dad. This is so precious to me. It epitomizes her dad completely. One look at this and we see that he is a soul winner (see tract in pocket on your left), that he is studious (see pen on right), and that he wears a tie, which in our case, means he is a preacher. The tie is made from a piece of felt, with a ribbon cut up and glued on for the pattern.

The night before Father’s Day, Lauren had drawn and cut from paper a little “medal” for her dad. It said, simply: “Bravery”. He is brave. He has faced opposition after opposition, and then goes back for more! He serves God when it’s not easy. I happen to know that at the moment he saw his “medal” for bravery, he wasn’t feeling very brave. The Lord used our precious daughter to “…lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;” (Heb.12:12) What a blessing!

We didn’t spend a lot of money for Father’s Day this year, nor are we able to any year. But you don’t have to spend a lot of money to show someone that you love them. And we love the man of our house very much.