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How to Add "Add This"

Valerie Basham

September 4, 2011

I’ve been under the weather all day, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Because of this, I’ve been put on “bed rest” by my husband and kids. This has given me extra time to catch up on my blogging. It’s been nice to have some time to do something I enjoy. I only wish it were under happier circumstances. I am hoping to contact the doctor on Tuesday, if I’m not better by then. (Naturally, this would be over a holiday weekend! Ah well, the Lord knows. He will take care of me.)

I’ve been meaning to share about “Add This” for some time now, so it’s nice to get the chance finally. 🙂 Blogger has a built in set of share buttons that show up below each post. They are okay. I wanted something bigger and prettier. I guess that’s just me. Anyway, I thought I’d share about these buttons from Add This for Blogger.

First you’ll want to “turn off” the little buttons that Blogger gives you. To do this, go to “layout” and select “edit” on “blog posts” – the main portion of the blog, where your posts appear. Then, un-tick the box that says “show share buttons.”

Next, click HERE. Once you are at their site, click the style of buttons you desire, there are three styles. Then click “Get Add This”. Copy the code and add it to an HTML gadget and place the gadget near the bottom of your blog. It’s that simple! Enjoy!

Mrs. Angry Eyebrows

Valerie Basham

6 comments

September 3, 2011

Lately, I’ve caught myself frowning a lot. Most of the time, it’s when I’m trying to do something – like write, read an article online, read a book, or any task that requires concentration. Which, is most tasks, now that I think about it. Most things don’t come “naturally” to me. Anyway, I have found that the online world is a great distraction to me. I want to see what all of my Facebook friends are doing, I want to follow up on those for whom I’m praying, I want to write on my blog, or edit photos to put on my blog. I want to read your blogs…all the while five little children are needing something from me. They want to tell me about a funny thing that happened, or about something that they read or saw on a show. They want to ask me to save apple seeds for them so we can grow an apple tree. They want me to read a book. But I’m too busy – reading articles by people whom I’ve never met, in most cases, so I frown at them and say, “Later.”

At one point, I thought I could really make this blog a success, in the worldly sense. I thought I could possibly even earn a small income from ads, if I had a enough readers. But, it didn’t take long to see that the really popular bloggers worked hard at social networking – getting their name out there. A lot. Getting readers to link to them by shamelessly saying “I linked to you, you link to me”. I don’t want that anymore. Getting readers and making some extra money is not worth my sacrificing personal dignity. If readers like me, if they can relate to me, then they’ll visit. And, maybe, they’ll appreciate an ad-free site in the process? So, I’ve given up the idea that I’ll ever have sponsors or make an income from ads. And that is a very freeing feeling!

I love getting comments, but even that can be stressful. The pressure to follow up by visiting blogs can weigh me down. My thought is, “If I don’t visit so-and-so, they’ll quit reading!” You know what? I’ve left comments at new blogs, just to never hear from that person again! So, it doesn’t always work.

My children are growing up. They will be leaving soon! Okay, it’s years away, but it will feel like “soon”! I’ll blink my eyes and they will be gone. I can’t miss out on their lives because of blogging – which started out as just a hobby – I can’t be so wrapped up in a hobby that I miss out on their lives.

Is there a time and place for a hobby while raising young children? Oh yes! I believe there is! But I have to have my priorities straight. I have to have the time set aside just for that, and when the time is up, that’s it. If I don’t visit every fellow blogger, then I don’t. I don’t think it’s as big a deal to them as I’ve imagined it to be!

All of this to say, I’m tired of frowning at my kids because they’ve interrupted me while I was on Facebook or blogging. I’m tired of letting it rob me of my joy toward the most important people in the world.
I’m not quitting blogging or leaving Facebook, but I’m re-prioritizing.

If you have something you’d like to share with me, personally (not the world at large), please e-mail me directly or write on my Facebook page. If you are a fellow blogger whom I follow, I will still be following, but I may not comment very often. I may not blog as often as I used to. (I will post each weekday morning on my devotional site. Those posts are often short and always image-free, so I can blog faster.) I will also be posting less on Facebook. Oh and one more thing! I will now always reply on my own blog to comments. I used to track you down in the blogosphere and reply on your blog, or your e-mail. If you’re looking for a response please check back here. I’ve added a “Recent Comments” list on the right hand sidebar, so you can check quickly and easily for a response. I will always respond to personal e-mails and I sincerely love hearing from you in any fashion! 🙂

Thank you for your understanding and friendship!

~~“Mrs. Angry Eyebrows”~~

Listening Sheets

Valerie Basham

4 comments

September 2, 2011

When I was 8 years old, a visiting preacher’s wife took me under her wing during a revival at our church. She and her husband stayed at our house in the spare bedroom while they attended the revival our church hosted. One night just before the service started, I complained about being bored during the preaching. She happily pulled out a piece of paper, wrote down a few words, and asked me to keep track of how many times the preacher used those words. It was fun, and I still remember one of the words was “love”! And that was….a long time ago.

I’d forgotten all about that experience until I read THIS. I used the sheets on this website, but decided I’d like to make a few of my own, as well. Below are links to print out my “listening sheets.” For pre-readers, go HERE for some great sheets! I’m in the nursery with our baby quite a bit these days, and, well, my husband is at the pulpit preaching. That means our other four children must sit alone. These sheets are a great help during those times. 🙂

I recently had a woman tell me that kids don’t get anything out of preaching, but it ought not be that way. If they can’t quite comprehend the truths being taught, they can at least learn to listen.

Listening Sheet 1
Listening Sheet 2
Listening Sheet 3

**Update: I recently found a printable sermon note taking sheet for older children at Ministry To Children.
Thanks to Vickie at He Holds My Right Hand for posting about it! 🙂

Lauren’s 12th Birthday

Valerie Basham

1 comment

September 2, 2011

Are you sick and tired of hearing me say how fast time is going by? Yeah. Thought so. So….I won’t say it.

(Awkward silence)

So…um….Lauren is now twelve! We had a small celebration for her with my Mom on her actual birthday (August 27th) and then Terry and I hired a baby sitter and took Lauren to Texarkana to Texas Roadhouse restaurant for a steak dinner the following Monday evening. (She loves steak!) After the meal, we took her shopping to buy something from us, as well as to spend some of her birthday money. We did do more for her twelfth birthday than we’ve done for past birthdays. We also wanted to make this birthday extra special in some way. When Jesus was 12, we read about His teaching in the synagogue. I don’t believe for a second that Lauren is capable of teaching adults, as Jesus did, but I know she could handle a class of pre-schoolers or even young elementary age children. I can’t begin to share some of the burdens my sweet girl has had to bear in her life, but I can share that her reaction to them has been one of grace and wisdom beyond her years. Oh yes, she has much growing to do, but I’m so pleased with her progress!

Here are a few photos of her happy days! 🙂

Lauren loves Star Wars and chocolate! I made her a chocolate cake. I bought Star Wars stickers and placed them on card stock and cut them out. I taped toothpicks to the back and placed them on the cake. The sign that Yoda is holding says “Birthday Happy, Lauren.” (Notice I mixed up the order of the words, trying to be “Yoda-like”. Lauren got a kick out of it. 😉

Aunt Melanie has made all of the girls these cute little purses for their birthdays this year. 🙂

Nana gave her a card and money, as did Great Grandma, Grandma & Granddad in Ohio, and my Aunt Dorothy! 🙂 Yep, she raked it in! lol!

Group photo, with me & Mom.

Group photo with Dad.

She blew them all out with one try! 🙂

I think Matthew liked this cake better than his own birthday cake!

Lauren enjoying the Baby Blossom onion at Texas Roadhouse. Yummola!

The servers gathered around and announced her birthday to the folks in the restaurant. She’s a tad bit embarrassed! 🙂

She wanted a game for her DS from us. She picked out Mario Kart. We also took her to look around Hobby Lobby and Wal*Mart. She ended up spending some of her birthday money on a new scooter. 🙂

We are so thankful for our sweet twelve year old girl! I look forward to seeing how God will use her. I pray she will continue to submit to His guidance throughout her life.

Why So Troubled?

Valerie Basham

1 comment

September 2, 2011

John 14:1-2 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

These seemed like fitting words with which to end my week. I have been so troubled about many things this week. I didn’t think I’d get much out of my regular Bible reading today, and guess what?! I was right! I put my Bible away, sighed, wanted to cry, got up and took care of my precious little ones, and went on with the day. I thought for a moment that I should just sit down somewhere and wait for nightfall – surely nothing would happen if I just sat and held my breath? Of course not, that doesn’t work! (Does it?)

I just now picked up my Bible again, trying again to hear from Heaven. I opened up to my reading from today, part of which was from John 12. My eyes rested upon an underlined verse, the one above. I wanted to weep! I could practically hear the Jesus saying these words, in a compassionate voice – “Let not your heart be troubled, Valerie.” He says to me tenderly. “You believe in God, believe in me. Remember, I’ve not forsaken you! I’m preparing a place for you, and you for that place. Keep going.” Okay, none of that is in the Greek, and perhaps some would be right to accuse me of heresy, but I’m hoping you understand my meaning. It seemed so personal, so special. Just how I love my devotional time to be!

I know problems will come and problems will go in this life, some of which can be debilitating. This verse reminds me that I am just a pilgrim, my home is not here, well, not for long, anyway! Jesus is preparing a place in a land with a very stable economy! 🙂 And as I walk this road of life, I have a friend beside me, reminding me that there is an unseen purpose to my life. May I give Him my all.

Visit My NEW Blog!

Valerie Basham

no comments

September 2, 2011

I began writing a daily e-mail devotion back in August. I found that it was very hard to save the e-mails, and I was limited in how many people could be e-mailed at once. If you have too many addressees, they flag your e-mail as spam. So, it seemed logical to move the e-mails over to the blog for safe keeping, as well as start posting them there daily.

If you’d like to drop by, please visit me over at Morning By Morning. I’ll be posting Monday – Friday each week.

I will still be posting here, too, so don’t touch that dial! 🙂

Welcome, September! {Potato Soup}

Valerie Basham

4 comments

September 1, 2011

After enduring an excruciatingly hot August, we rang in September with some yummy potato soup! It’s still over 100 degrees outside, but we’re hoping for cooler weather, almost willing it to come, by pretending it’s cool outside! This has been a record breaking summer, and for us, that’s really saying something. We have plenty of heat and humidity every year, but never in my life have I experienced 119 degree actual temperature until this year. I was thankful for the cold winter we had last year, for I well knew what summer was preparing for us! Turns out I was right. Hmmm…that’s probably a first! I should write that down in my diary! Oh wait, I just did. Sort of.

Okay, sorry. On to the soup!

I originally found this recipe at my friend, Paula’s, blog. I searched for it to link you to her recipe, but I can’t find it now. So, here’s the recipe that was (is?) on her site.

Slow-Cooker Potato Soup

Ingredients:
3 lbs. red potatoes (or whatever kind you like)
1 small onion cut into wedges. (I just chop mine up)
1 lb. hickory smoked sausage
32. oz. chicken broth
1 tsp. dill weed
salt and pepper to taste
6 oz. half & half

Directions:
Chop potatoes into chunks, chop onion as you like, and slice sausage into bite-size pieces. Combine everything except the half & half in slow cooker and stir. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Add half & half to slow cooker 30 min. before serving. We have rolls with our soup. 🙂

Whether it feels like autumn where you are or not, this will certainly bring it to your soul.

Dying to Self

Valerie Basham

4 comments

September 1, 2011

John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who is convicted by this verse. Just yesterday, I was dealing with a mini-crisis and I don’t think I handled it well. Reading this verse today is a light-bulb moment for me – I think this is what was missing from my reaction – dying to self. How many of life’s problems would vanish if we all died to self? I can’t go into detail regarding my situation, but let’s just say that I need to die to self in many areas of my life. Dead people don’t get offended, they don’t get puffed up with pride, they don’t “mouth off”, they don’t gossip! Not only that, but when I die to myself, I’m allowing the Holy Spirit to control me, so I want to serve, I want to give, I want to love, I want to be merciful and on and on. That’s what a seed does – the seed coat (picture of the flesh) dies and the life of the seed (the Holy Spirit) takes root in the soil (the Word of God) and the plant (us) bears fruit (the list is given in Gal. 5:22-23).

But it all begins with death. Before you get all depressed, rest assured I’m not talking about physical death. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal.2:20) It’s death to our desires, and life to His.

I asked my husband “How can I ignore my flesh? I wish there was a button I could push that would automatically make me ‘spiritual’ “. He told me that it’s not a supernatural thing that happens to the believer. We can’t pray and ask God to kill our flesh and be done with it. We must die to self by constantly choosing the spiritual over the fleshly. For instance, I didn’t want to get up this morning. Thinking about reading my Bible and praying didn’t exactly make me want to get up,either. I made myself get up, I made myself come read the Bible, and the God blessed me for my efforts by speaking to me through His Word. Most Sundays and Wednesdays, I don’t want to go to church. I’m tired, I’d like to just put my feet up. But, I make myself go anyway, I never regret it! That’s walking in the Spirit – doing what HE wants rather than what I want. But, it can get much more complicated than just going to church. It could mean giving up something I want to do, giving up my money or keeping my mouth shut when my flesh wants to give someone a piece of my mind. Those things, for me anyway, are harder than just going to church. Sometimes, I do want to do spiritual things, but often only because of some fleshly desire (I’ll get to eat good food or I’ll get to see my friends, etc). Dying to flesh is a daily – perhaps moment by moment – discipline. (Especially if you homeschool your children! haha!)

I’m pretty sure I’ll be tested on dying to my flesh more than ever today, seeing as I just wrote this all out. So, if you think of me, please pray for me, that I will, in fact, die to self. I hate hypocrisy, I like real. I want to really be dead to self.

Jesus Wasn’t There

Valerie Basham

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August 31, 2011

John 11:15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

John chapter 11 is about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This was probably one of, if not the most, amazing miracles Jesus did. Jesus knew that Lazarus was sick, but in verse 4, he says that this sickness was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” Whatever happened in this situation, it was all meant to bring glory to God. What caught my attention this morning was that Jesus says in verse 15 (above) that he was glad hewasn’t there.

How many times have I felt like Jesus wasn’t around? How often have I felt forsaken, abandoned and utterly alone? Sometimes, it’s just my flare for the dramatic. Other times, it could be that Jesus “isn’t there” in a visible, powerful way because He has a greater purpose to accomplish than just rescuing me – He could be working in me, to bring glory to God.

Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus arrived. I’m sure all hope was lost of his healing by that time. In fact, I’m pretty sure all hope was lost the moment he breathed his last breath.In verse 40, Jesus says to Martha, “Said not I unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Believe. That’s hard to do when one has no hope, isn’t it? Yet, that is exactly what we should do.

Forgetfulness and Fruitfulness

Valerie Basham

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August 30, 2011

Genesis 41:51-52 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. And name of the second he called Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Joseph had been done many wrongs in his young life. His brothers threw him in a pit, then pulled him up just to sell him into slavery. As a slave, he was falsely accused of trying to rape Potiphar’s wife and then sent to prison. In prison, he interpreted dreams for Pharaoh’s butler and baker, and was forgotten by the butler. Finally, in God’s perfect plan and timing, Joseph was brought out of prison to interpret a dream for Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh was so impressed, that he made Joseph second in command.

When his wife had their first child, Joseph gives us a peek into his emotions regarding the pain he suffered.He names his children Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh means “forgetting”. But notice that Joseph didn’t just “forget”, no, God made him to forget. Have you noticed that if you stop re-playing past hurts over and over, that eventually you forget? It’s like our brains sort of block the memory. It’s happened to me, I’ve tried to recall some hurt from long ago, but can’t quite remember. Some hurts, however, are still fresh even after years have passed. Why is that? Because some things, you just can’t forget. That’s when God will have to step in and “make” us to forget.

Ephraim means “fruitful”. I think everyone wants to be fruitful. We want enough money, good health, popularity, and so forth. But, how can one ever be successful as a slave in a foreign country? Only God can do something like that; only our Heavenly Father can turn dire circumstances into opportunities to flourish. But we have to let Him do that. We must acknowledge Him all that we do. (Prov.3:6) We must trust Him for the grace to keep going.(2 Cor.12:9) We must also forget before we can be fruitful. Notice that’s the order Joseph named his boys- forget, then you can be fruitful, unencumbered by the pain of the past.