10 Things You Must Do With Your Kids

Your kids are only small once. Take the time to do these ten things with them and teach them lessons that will last a lifetime.

1. Read to Them

Reading to your children will help to give them a love for books and will provide you with wonderful quality time together. If you do it often you will introduce them to a wide vocabulary and they will subconsciously know that books, and the reading of them, are important. Also, you will be able to 

monitor the books you read to your children and will be able to instil in them a love for quality, pure books.

2. Plant a Garden

There is no limit to what can be learnt from a garden. Whether it’s the way that a seed grows or how a plant turns sunlight into food or the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Through planting a garden you can teach your children about working hard, nutrition, patience and the joy of being outdoors and alive.

3. Tuck Them In

To this day, I can still remember being tucked into bed each night by Dad and having long talks with Mum. This is a special time for making life long memories and building binds that will strengthen relationships for years to come.

4. Bake a Cake

Not only is this a perfect opportunity for teaching fractions, addition and nutrition, cooking with your children also teaches them life skills that will not only be of help to you as they grow up, but will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

5. Play a Game

Take the time to teach and play a game with your children. It might be anything from a simple card 

game to an intensive team sport. Teach your child strategy, teamwork, healthy competitiveness and good sportsmanship. Also, a quick game or two is good exercise for their minds (and yours!).

6. Teach Them About God

This is by far the most important thing you can ever teach your child. Take every opportunity to explain to your child God’s character and His wondrous works. When a sunny day turns to rain, teach them how God controls the seasons. When they get upset with another person, teach them about how God wants us to love and forgive each other like He does us. When someone’s baby is born, tell them about how God creates and fashions every living thing with amazing detail. Most importantly, live your 

Christian life before them. See that you are in tune 

with God yourself and ask Him for the wisdom on how to share Him with your children.

7.Draw With Them

Drawing is a lovely pastime, whether you are 2 or 62 or Leonardo or a happy scribbler. Spend time

with your child drawing together. Encourage them in their creativity. Even if you don’t know much about drawing you can learn some basics and pass them on 

or you can simply encourage your child in their attempts. But remember, your child will only count something as important if you count it as important. Either way, your child will appreciate you just being there.

8.Show Them Your Work

Whether you work from home or away, you have so much to teach your child. You might teach them all the ins and outs of your occupation, or simply add to their general knowledge. You never know, they just might be interested in taking up the trade for themselves or there might come a time in their lives when they’ll need that knowledge or skill. (This is more aimed towards Dads, but counts for the Mums too!)

9.Sing!

Singing is a lost art these days. The Psalms allude to singing praises to God 43 times and we are outright told to 43 times! In Ephesians 5:19 we are instructed to be “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves, and making music to the Lord in our hearts.” What a wonderful way to praise the Lord! You do not need to have a great voice to sing with your children, you just need to be able to hold a tune. Even the ‘tone deaf’ can get around this by using CD’s and recordings. And there’s no reason to be shy, it’s just your kids. Besides, it’ll help boost their confidence too.

10.Give Them a Job

It might be sweeping the floors every day or cleaning the bathroom once a week or painting the back fence. Whatever it is, let it be age appropriate and something that they can actually finish. Help them to learn responsibility, diligence, perseverance and accountability. But don’t make it something they dread each morning when they wake up. Praise them when they do something right or well and use tact in how and when you correct them in their weaker areas.

These 10 things are not all diabolical to a good life for you and your child, but they can certainly be

some of the things that add to the journey’s joy!

My Story ~ Christian Romance Fiction

I have always loved reading. I love the feeling of getting so wrapped up in a story that you feel like you've gone and lived it. When I was a young girl, I would rummage through op shops to find exciting stories of mystery history and the ever popular horse stories. I loved the prairie era and some of my favourite books were the ‘Little House’ series. Around the time I was fifteen, I stumbled across the fascinating realm of ‘Christian Historical/Romance Fiction’. I was hooked. The heroine was always so beautiful, courageous and smart and the hero was inevitably so brave, exciting, an amazing leader and, of course, dashingly handsome. It was thrilling to imagine myself making Godly, against the flow, decisions in trying times and then get swept of my feet by my hero when those choices or pure chance got me into sticky situations. The story line is nearly always the same:

1. Hero and Heroine are in different streams of life

2. There’s a chance meeting

3. They notice each other but won’t admit it

4. They get thrown together by life

5. Affection deepens

6. Then they’re separated by circumstance and/or an argument

7. Life then throws them back together

8. Hero rescues heroine from some great trouble and they make up their argument if they had one

9. They admit their love to each other

10. They get married or they promise their love to each other and the author sets up for a sequel.

Pretty soon, I was getting quite used to this story line and I began to make up more exciting endings to the stories, molding it to my likes and dislikes and wrapping the story around me more and more. In reality, that’s what it is like. It’s like wrapping yourself in coloured plastic wrap; the colour of everything you see around you is tainted by its shade. I began to think of the stories more and more, every walk on the veranda became a stroll on the deck of a buccaneer’s ship, with me making up a yet another scenario and deciding how I would feel and act if it was true. Real life became less and less exciting and romance and boys filled my mind more and more. Inwardly, I knew it was affecting me, but I had no idea how deeply. It was a slow process as God began to open my eyes to what was happening. Through my Mum and my sister, who was also being challenged about this, though perhaps she was not so deeply affected, I was challenged about the purity of the content I was consuming. I decided not to read anymore romance/historical fiction and, for a time, went off fiction altogether. I had no idea how addicted I was. I would catch myself stuck in the story line of one of the books almost every time I turned around. Regularly, I was strongly tempted to find one of my books and read one of the ‘exciting’ parts to get my fix. Regretfully, I gave in to those temptations more times then I want to remember. I found it wasn't till I threw the books in the trash and surrendered the fight over to Jesus that I gained any ground in my struggle. I had to face my sin for what it was and first ask for forgiveness and then for strength. God is the only one who can fight this fight for you and heal your mind.

I am convinced that what pornography is for men, romantic fiction is for women, whether it be ‘Christian’ or otherwise. I have no right to be feeling emotions for a man in some book that I should only ever share with my future husband. How many times have I given a part of my heart to some ‘hero’ in a book, something I would be horrified to think I had done in real life? What passionate emotions had I enjoyed that should not have been awakened until I get married? Romantic fiction leaves a heart and mind that are damaged and scarred. Only God can restore a heart to purity and heal a mind stained with memories.Mothers, please protect your daughters from this poison. Know what they are filling their minds with. Daughters, please guard your eyes. Please protect your heart and mind. To this day, I struggle in this fight. It is a lifelong battle that will continue while we are daughters, wives, mothers and grandmothers and won’t end until we are home with our Maker. But it is a battle that must be fought and the resulting purity leads to a life of love that is more amazing than the most exciting romance story.

Your sister in Christ,

Sabrina

P.S. This truth applies to movies as well

P. P. S. If you to have fallen prey to this war, you are not beyond repair. Your innocence may have been stolen, but your purity is not lost. I have discovered there is a difference. We are born innocent, but we are not born pure, for we are all born as sinners. Purity is not our default and it can only be given to us by Christ. Purity is a journey, not an event. As we allow ourselves to be changed by God into the likeness of Christ, we are growing closer and closer to the ultimate purity that God desires for us and that will be ours when we are forever in His presence in Heaven. So, if you, like me, have been taken down by this trap, take heart and know that being knocked down doesn't mean you’re out. It is the same purity that God wants for all of us and God will give all the strength needed to attain it, to anyone who asks.

This article was also posted as part of a link up at 'A Wise Woman Builds Her House'

Healthy Dog Food on a Budget

Having a dog around the house can be a wonderful asset. It will teach you and your children a LOT about animals and can serve as an effective security measure. It doesn't have to be expensive! You can feed your dog nutritious food that doesn't cost much to produce, and it will save you dollars on vet bills and medication, because you will have a healthy and happy dog!

Our Story

We have had Rottweiler dogs in our family for many years. We chose this breed because their temperament is great for our family. Although calm,trainable, courageous, loyal, protective, highly intelligent, docile etc.,they are powerful, massive dogs that need to be fed well.

Years ago, when we did not know better, we fed our dogs anything from tin food to dry biscuits, keeping in mind our budget. Our dogs were mostly healthy when they were young, but did not maintain their health as they aged.

One day one of our dogs started yelping every time he sat down or tried to get up. He was in a lot of pain and seemed to have pain in the joints like arthritis. At the time we lived in remote Australia and thought that we might have to put the dog down to let it out of its misery. It was like, all of a sudden, the dog became very old. We had heard that rolled oats, the food of racehorses, was a great nutritious food for dogs, so we had a try. We would soak the oats all by themselves with some hot water, let them soften, and then feed it to our dog with some table scraps for flavour. The difference in our dog was almost overnight. He stopped his yelping within a week and never looked back after that. It was like he became a young dog again, with heaps of energy, a glossy coat and he put onmuscle.

A Bonus

Not only had we stumbled across a super food for our dogs but we hadfound a most affordable dog food to produce. Rolled oats can be boughtin your supermarket or stockfeed for a minimal price and making it is easy!Why don’t you try it? Just soak some rolled oats overnight in cold wateror warm water with some table scraps. It will be ready to serve in themorning. If you forget then just add hot water and wait about 10 minutes. You can also cook it up like porridge. Your dogs will be the judge but Ithink they will love it.

Add to the Recipe

Don’t throw out your off milk or dairy products. Dogs love it and it is good for their digestive system. Just add it to the porridge. You can also add vegetable oil and eggs for their coats, fresh garlic for worms and general health, salt etc. Boil up bones to make broth and add the rolled oats. The possibilities are endless and you won’t waste any food in your house!

Evelyn Hair

Homemade Pasta

I started making homemade pasta about one and a half years ago on a hand cranked pasta machine that we bought for $25 on clearance somewhere. Using the recipe that came with the machine and ingredients from our pantry, pretty soon there was flour all over the bench and fresh pasta hanging up all over the house. Homemade pasta is really easy to make and you don't need any special equipment, not even a pasta machine. The recipe is quite simple:

• 
  Eggs
• Flour

   

- 1egg for every 100g of flour 

Method:

Mix together the eggs with two thirds of the flour to form a soft dough. Knead in

the rest of the flour and form dough into a ball. Wrap in a clean tea towel and let

rest. At this point you can either set up your pasta machine or get out your rolling

pin.

Pasta Machine

 Cut your dough into slices and coat them in flour. Run the slices through the rollers

 in your machine. When you have gotten the slices to the thickness you want,

flour them again and run them through your machine's cutters. *Note - if you don't 

cut your pasta and leave it as it is, you have great lasagna sheets.

Rolling Pin

Roll your dough out on a heavily floured surface and keep rolling until the dough is the thickness you want. Flour your dough and roll up into a scroll. Cut into thin strips with a knife or egg flip, depending on what you're cutting on. It is important that your dough is well floured so that it doesn't stick together.

Drying

You can cook your pasta the way it is or dry it for future use. This is helpful if you are making your pasta in bulk. Pasta has been dried by hanging over anything from purpose made pasta dryers to broom sticks to clothes hangers. Just make sure that what you are hanging your pasta on is clean and hygienic, that there is plenty of airflow and that there is a sheet or something underneath to catch any flour or falling pasta. You could also dry your pasta by putting flour on a clean sheet and laying you fresh pasta  on to that, but you will need to move your pasta quite often to make sure it dries evenly. If you dry your pasta for 24 hours, pasta should keep well in an airtight container for up to twelve months.*Note - Pasta can be stored by simply freezing the fresh pasta in bags or containers.

Cooking

To cook your pasta, fresh or dried, you can either put it into a pan filled with cold water and then bring it to the boil, turn it off and then let it sit until the pasta is soft enough for you or you can bring the water to the boil first and then add your pasta and just keep the water boiling until the pasta is done enough. Test a bit to see.

*Note - You can make pasta with water instead of eggs, you just add the water to the flour until it becomes the right consistency.