Springtime Peace on the Farm

The cows have stopped their fussing, eaten their hay, and bedded down with their calves in the pasture grass. They lay south of the haystacks to be out of the blast of the cold evening air. The wind which blew mercilessly all day. The treetops are swaying and rustling just a bit, but the cold is felt after so much spring rain.

We wrap a blanket around our shoulders and go out into the dark farm night.

Finally, after the wind, there is peace.  Peace on the farm. An owl call from the creek bank and is directly answered from another from the trees around the pond back of the orchard. Soon they are conversing with calls and who-whos and we smile at the notes they throw in their little exposition.

Treefrogs keep up a steady calming rhythm––a chorus that rises and falls like the washing waves against a boat left tied to a pier. An adagio that never crescendos or dies out just sings a steady easy song. Cicadas and crickets join the music and a leafhopper in the crape myrtle bushes beside the porch adds his trill too.

A coyote sets up a whopping at the clouds passing darkly and quickly across the paperwhite circle of the moon. His crew joins in until the whole clearing fills with their yipping, howls, and barks. It is an amazing and almost comical Capriccio to the night’s program. Those coyotes seem to be laughing at some unknown joke or perhaps just laughing at us sitting still to listen on the porch swing.

Our firelight comes from a wood fire in our firepit stove. We watch it flicker and dance to the nocturnal concerto. In a while, one of us will get up slowly and add another stick of firewood. Sparks will fly upward like unspoken prayers.

The night is peaceful even with the distant barking of dogs at neighboring farms, the tree frogs, coyotes, owls, and the creak of the porch swing all these things add to the peace on the farm.

Peace; sometimes we mothers must track it down––find it––make it–– feel it. We need to know it and hold onto it a while. The worries and work of the day melts and it heals us.

Carry a sweater, Momma, leave your phone, your watch, and your troubles to go sit outside a while of an evening.

Go listen to God’s medley–– His chorus, His cantata of creation. Your soul needs it. Let your mind rest as the moon rises in the star-studded sky and wind dances with the treetops.

Whether you have peace on the farm or find peace in the city…seek it out.  Peace. Sit and drink it in. Find it.

Elece Hollis is a mother to seven and grandmother to 24. She lives in Oklahoma where she is retired from homeschooling. She is a freelance writer and a photographer and helps her husband tend their eighty-acre farm with the cows and a pecan orchard.

Elece is the author of several books with a new book The Heart of Spring––Prayers for Teachers,  Her other two most recent books are What’s Good about Home! And  Life With Mama. These can be found on Amazon.

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Our family views family worship as an integral part of our daily life.  To seek the Lord’s face morning and evening is a high priority.  My husband as the head of the home, leads our family and teaches us out of God’s word, day by day.  These have been times of rich blessing.  I would encourage you to read more of the benefits of daily family worship.

George Whitefield says “For has God given us so much time to work for ourselves, and shall we not allow some small pittance of it, morning and evening, to be devoted to his more immediate worship and service?”

A.W Pink says, “At least twice each day—in the morning and in the evening—the whole household should be gathered together to bow before the Lord—parents and children, master and servant — to confess their sins, to give thanks for God’s mercies, to seek His help and blessing. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with this duty: all other domestic arrangements are to bend to it. The head of the house is the one to lead the devotions. but if he be absent, or seriously ill, or an unbeliever, then the wife should take his place. Under no circumstances should family worship be omitted. If we would enjoy the blessing of God upon our family then let its members gather together daily for praise and prayer. “Them that honour Me I will honour” is His promise.”

I would encourage you to read more quotes from godly men such as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon HERE.

So how do you have family worship as a large family when Daddy is gone?

In my husband’s absence, during the workweek, I lead my children in going before the Lord.  It does not always happen first thing in the morning, but we try our best to make it the priority of the day, before other things crowd it out.  I find, as a mother, it is a great joy to share the nuggets God has given me with my little ones.  Sometimes I feel like I am the one getting the most blessing from it. Yes, there are  many times of temptation to leave it off, feeling the resistance of the flesh from my children.  We are not naturally given to these things and there is much against it.  The enemy would love to have us be discouraged from pressing into the Lord’s kingdom. But,If no other school gets done, if no other rooms get cleaned, if no other laundry gets folded, if we have spent time together gathering around the Word of God, then we have attended to the one thing needful.

We keep it simple and follow this basic pattern:

• Brief prayer for the Lord to open His word to us.
• We sing a Psalm.  Our family loves to sing Psalms. (I plan on another post on this).  We have several memorized that we rotate through.
• We read a passage of Scripture.  Sometimes I read, other times I have one or more of my children read. We are going through bit by bit the book of Genesis now. Other times, we review a passage that our pastor recently preached on, or I will chose a portion that has to do with an area of sin we are needing to address in our lives.  I seek to apply God’s word practically to the children in challenging them with a lesson to be learned from what we have read.  This is such a good exercise for me, because it causes me to have to think and apply these things, to give back to my children.
• Lastly, we pray as a family. Most of the time I pray, but occasionally we will all take our turns praying. I pray for Daddy at work, for the day ahead, for application of what we have just read and talked about, and for other needs upon our hearts.

Our family worship each morning may be as short as 10 minutes or as long as 30 minutes.  But, we have found it to be such a blessed time.  I, as a mother, get to pour out my heart to my little ones the things God has placed within me for them.

There have been times because of intense sickness that I have been unable to have this daily practice.  For those times I know that the Lord has grace upon his frail children.  But, when I am faithful and can even with frailty lead my little ones, there is a rich blessing in it, even for me.

I would encourage you as mothers, in your husband’s absence, to take time each day to lead your little ones to God.  Whether you call it family worship, devotions, or Bible time, matters not. Whether it is long or short, plain or eloquent is not important.  But, daily time of quieting your hearts together will be a rich blessing to you and your children!

Jenny is the blessed mother of 8 children ages 21-6 and happy wife of 23 years to Steve.  She has been a blogger since before the internet (not really  ) and is the owner of amothersheritage.com.  She has a home business serving entrepreneurs at Concordia Virtual and is a certified birth and labor doula with Cradled in Love Birth Services. 

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Are All Your Eggs In One Basket?

How do you carry eggs from the chicken coop to the house without breaking some? Use a basket, of course. How would you carry a week’s worth in a wagon or by foot to town to sell? There is a question I won’t personally face. But If I were living back in the day when this amount of eggs and baskets came into use, I’d say carry them in several baskets, thereby averting the possibility of a farm-to-market disaster. If one basket were upset, you wouldn’t lose all the fragile produce. So the wisdom would be to not have all your eggs in one basket.

We mothers who value and cherish our children deeply; we who despite any and all difficulties, disabilities, and discouragements want to raise them––we mothers––tend to put them in our one basket. That basket is full––full of mothering, nurturing, cooking, cleaning, teaching, comforting, leading. Other things get crowded out.

These are the treasures of life we wanted desperately. We gathered them all in––as many as God would give us and we were excited about each precious blessing.

As a young mother, I was thrilled with my first baby. I was happy for the second, the third, and the fourth baby. I danced around the living room when I found I was carrying the fifth. I was thoroughly pleased to gain the sixth and cheered for the seventh. I wanted each and every one of my children.

All my hopes,
All my dreams,
All my wishes, plans, and schemes
Were for children.

I have always been glad to have them, often tired, and frustrated, but glad. They are my treasures. But wanting them so hard and investing every bit of my strength in them was maybe not right. I saw after a while that my husband didn’t feel love from me somedays. He often felt that I wanted him only for the children and for financial support. Not true, but nevertheless, how he came to feel.

My relationship with the Lord also was often neglected as all my time and emotion was invested in those children I loved mothering.

Could I succeed as a mother and wife if I did not put God and my husband before my children? That is the question I faced. Did I love them too much? Did I maybe even make them my one basket and not fulfill my other callings in life?

I had a huge job being the mom and it was good. It wasn’t wrong to love them and enjoy them, but there were other parts of my being, my calling, my lifeblood that got pushed aside. I allowed my other talents and gifts to languish.

All my children needed me. Yet there were others too––friends, neighbors, extended family members who needed pieces of my heart. I learned to give those pieces. And like mother’s love it was not lessened by dividing, it was somehow multiplied like the loaves and fishes. I learned that my big strong capable husband needed my attention and my touch also and that my children did not need me so continuously as I thought.

Now they are grown and had I not taken home educational courses read books, written stories, and letters, ministered to others, joined a club or two, visited my neighbors, reignited my faith and my marriage, reached out…. well…. outside my basket, I would have found myself left alone rocking an empty cradle, setting an empty table, filling empty hours, with an empty soul.  If my children were my idol, when they were gone what would be left?

My grown children still need me. They need me to comfort them at times, to lend them a hand, to pray for them, to cook them a “home” meal every now and then. They need advice, and friendship which I can give them freely because I learned to carry my eggs in more than one basket.

Elece Hollis is a mother to seven and grandmother to 24. She lives in Oklahoma where she is retired from homeschooling. She is a freelance writer and a photographer and helps her husband tend their eighty-acre farm with the cows and a pecan orchard.

Elece is the author of several books with a new book The Heart of Spring––Prayers for Teachers,  Her other two most recent books are What’s Good about Home! And  Life With Mama. These can be found on Amazon.

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First of all, I absolutely love how versatile this recipe is.  This is a cranberry/orange version, but the sky is the limit on the flavor combination possibilities! To keep this an S recipe, you can use any berry or nut in place of the cranberries – but stay away from other fruits (and dried fruits) to avoid a Crossover.  You could even make these without any add-ins as a delicious shortbread cookie!

What is a scone?  According to Webster’s Dictionary, scones originated in Scotland in the early 1500s. There is some debate as to the origin of the word “Skone”, some say it comes from the Dutch word ‘schoonbrot’, which means beautiful bread, while others argue it comes from Stone of Destiny, where the Kings of Scotland were crowned.  I totally thought they were a British thing!  All I know really is that I feel I need to not be in my pajamas while eating these.  Scones must be eaten while properly dressed, hair done, and maybe even a touch of make-up, right?  Do we use a fork or pick it up with our hands?  Can I dunk it in my tea or coffee?  I’m not used to such fancy-fare!

The THM Baking Blend in this recipe saves you a ton of calories, fat, and keeps these scones from being too dry.  It’s also very affordable for a healthy, low-carb gluten free flour blend!

The baobab boost powder in these gives them a nice super-food kick with a hint of creamsicle flavor and if you’ve had any of my sweet recipes in the past, you know that I love the sugar-like taste of THM Gentle Sweet.

But, what I am MOST excited about is the new THM extracts! I was blessed to be able to preview the new flavors and let me tell you, they do NOT disappoint.  Butter that tastes and smells like butter (not butterscotch!), apricot, peanut butter, chocolate, banana, and vanilla!  I have used them all in various ways and I’m tempted to just drink them from the bottle or use them as a perfume as they smell so good!  And I love that they are all natural!

I put some of my flavor combination ideas in the scone recipe notes section for you, but I’d love to hear what combo you’re excited to try.  This recipe is super easy to throw together and tastes so indulgent.  You absolutely MUST pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee to have alongside.  Each scone is about 200 calories, 19 grams of fat, 2 net carbs, with 6 grams of protein.  So, they make a great S afternoon snack or breakfast! If you want to add a bit more protein, consider a scoop of collagen in your tea or coffee.

My family and I are feeling so fancy enjoying our scones and tea this afternoon.  Pinkies up, mamas!

Print

Ultimate Scone Recipe (THM-S)

Remember, this is an example recipe - OWN IT!  Use whatever kind of berry, nuts, or extracts that you like! 

Course Dessert

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 207kcal

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup Blanched Almond Flour
• 1 cup THM Baking Blend
• 2 Tbsp THM Baobab Boost Powder
• 1/2 cup THM Gentle Sweet
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Mineral Salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
• 2 eggs (large)
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add-ins

• 1 cup cranberries (frozen is fine)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet or stone with parchment paper. 
• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
  
• In a separate bowl whisk together the coconut oil, eggs, and extracts.
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms.
• Gently stir in the cranberries. 
• Turn the dough out onto a large cutting mat and divide the dough into 5 even dough balls. Form each ball into a circle (I just use the palm of my hands... no need to get out a rolling pin) and then cut the circle in half making 2 half moon shapes. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. 
• Place all 10 half-moon shaped doughs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Start checking on these after about 20 minutes.  Mine took 40 minutes, but I've heard some feedback from others that there's didn't need that long.
  
  Let cool and enjoy alongside a cup of tea or coffee (not optional!)  

Notes

You can replace the cranberries with other berries or nuts of choice!  And replace the extracts here with other flavors too.  Here's some ideas for you! 

* Blueberries w/ lemon extract
* chocolate chips w/ chocolate extract
* pecans w/ maple extract
* strawberry w/ apricot extract
* raspberry w/ almond extract

Be creative and let me know what combo you love! 

Jessica is a Christian homeschooling mom of five and married to her knight in shining armor for over 20 years. She is a THM Certified Coach and loves to share her recipes while managing the huge THM online community. After a lifetime of unsuccessful dieting, she has lost over 100 pounds and found food freedom through Trim Healthy Mama! Some of the links in her recipes may contain affiliate links to products she uses and loves.  If you make a purchase, using these links, she’ll earn coffee money, which she promises to drink while creating more recipes that you’ll love.

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The aroma of coffee fills the air as the pot gurgles to a conclusion, signaling the completion of the afternoon java. The mother sighs with anticipation as she thinks of the warm drink awaiting her after her final duties are done. Her dear husband has so kindly taken all the children for the day so she can finally scrub and clean her home from top to bottom. He understands how much it helps her to make some traction in this area.

Working feverishly to not waste a single moment, she has accomplished her delightful goal. Every area, from top to bottom, has been cleaned to her standard. As the last corner is mopped on her gleaming floor and the stray cobweb that eluded her eyes before is conquered… she is ready for her break.

She is ready to sit down and enjoy the fruits of her labor.

Coffee mug in hand, she plops down on the couch. A deep exhale relaxes her weary body. She is happy with the order around her.

The clutter-free room…
Shining glass, free of every smudge…
DVDs arranged in perfect order on the shelf…
The tidiness takes a weight off her shoulders.

“Why can’t it always stay this way?” she wonders.

“Maybe if I just reorder my schedule, rework something I am missing, so we can have that magazine-perfect home all the time?”

But even as she thinks this, she knows it is not so. She knows the Lord is working patience in her, and a home of love is filled with joyous messes that mean productivity. She just needs more patience, and right now, she is pretty sure she has patience.

Smiling to herself as she enjoys the dust-free cabinet that hasn’t looked so nice in months, she looks out the window… and catches her breath.

Driving into the driveway is the family van, filled with all her mess-making lovelies.

Puzzled and a bit panicked by their early return, she runs to the door, ready with a rug in hand to throw down at the back entrance. As the patience she was sure she had a moment ago suddenly vanishes, she doesn’t know what she will find in a moment. Mentally preparing her marching orders for shoes to be taken off, coats to be hung in the closet, and toys to be banned from the living room, the door erupts open.

Father quickly comes in with an armful of curly-headed boys. He heads down the hall, and before any questions can be asked, a projectile of lunch spews through the air, hitting the wall and sliding down to the previously sparkling clean floor. As he takes the sick child into the bathroom to gently care for their son, anger boils up inside the mother. As she looks at the pile on the floor, she sinks to the ground. She is ashamed that her first thought was about the floor instead of concern for her sick son.

Before she can get ahold of her heart, child after child comes running in. Muddy footprints, coats flying, laughter and giggling ensue. Fat, chubby hands of a toddler thrust a bouquet of “fwowers” into mommy’s nose. She smiles, but inside, she is crying.

Where is her “perfect world”? Where is her order and peace? Where? Oh, where is that patience?

Her head spins, and she realizes she needs to read a book called Embracing the Mess!

Two hours later, toys are strewn about…
The children are sucking their thumbs and listening to daddy tell a story.

Stroking the head of her child in her lap, she finds it. She finds her peace is in dying to self. She finds her peace in Christ’s emptying her of her and filling her with Him.

Her “perfect world” is pouring out the love of Christ to her lovelies. And in the end, as she embraces the mess, as she dies to her gleaming counters and outward order, as she embraces the muddy footprints as gifts from God… she finds life.

This story is a fictitious story (sort of).

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Preparing for Life’s Storms | Lessons from the Heart

Hay in huge round bales wrapped with a green net, stand like a windbreak against the fence to the north of our house. In the pastures, hay fills each of three blue metal feed rings. Cows crowd around them in the winter cold to eat their share. In the evenings we feed them alfalfa for some extra nutrition to get them through the night. We buy alfalfa cubes to soften for the fast-growing calves. To run out would be to leave bawling cows waiting for their winter sustenance. But there is plenty standing waiting.

What about my soul in the cold days of this life? Have I fed it God’s Word in preparing for life’s storms, frosty icy days and nights? I know these wintry days can sneak up and with a wind from the north strike me when I don’t expect them.

I relish the lazy hot days of summer. Cheerful and unaware, I trundle through the orange pumpkin scented days of autumn. The first days of winter seem clear and bright, maybe with some gentle snow and chilling rain that makes me happy to fire up the woodstove and put on a kettle of soup.

Then one night, temperatures turn harsh and a blizzard strikes, or an ice storm shuts us in, or a polar snap freezes the water in the cow’s troughs. The wind sweeps in from the northwest and we retreat! We’d better be prepared with supplies, candles, heat, food, and water to tide us over.

The unprepared, like the women with oil lamps waiting idly for a wedding who found themselves out of oil, out of light, and out of the wedding party, rush to a store to buy bread and milk.

Storms, attacks, trials, troubles––we’ll have plenty in this world. The Bible says it is as sure a thing as the sparks that fly upward from a fire.  These storms may be sickness, disease, a sudden death in the family, house fire, an accident, job loss, heartbreak, a church breakup, a marriage breakdown, even a literal storm like a hurricane, or here in Oklahoma, a tornado. Am I ready? Have I been faithful in preparing for life’s storms?

Is my spiritual pantry empty or full? Is my stockpile of supplies low and dwindling? Is my cache of necessities to maintain my hope, my well-being, and my life empty? I am the one who must be responsible for filling the shelves, for preparing a heart that will stay strong, for putting in a provision of what I will need when crisis comes, when storms of life roar into my neck of the woods.

Will I be ready? Will I know where my strength lies? Will I have prayers, songs, and the scriptures there when I need them? Will I find courage, faith, and strength? I hope so.

I hear a cold wind blowing. The sun is shining, yet I’d best get busy preparing for life’s storms.  I best go check my pantry

Elece Hollis is a mother to seven and grandmother to 24. She lives in Oklahoma where she is retired from homeschooling and writes full time. Elece likes to paint, write poetry, and is a photographer who enjoys shooting nature, especially flowers. She helps her husband on their 80-acre farm where they grow pecans and raise beef cattle. Elece blogs over at EleceHollis.com. Elece is the author of several books including Life with Mama, What’s Good About Home and her newest book being Prayers for Teachers,  Life with Mama, What’s Good About Home 

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Magnify Small Mercies

The call to magnify small mercies is something I don’t think about near enough. I have been pondering on that today as I just got out of the shower.

You see, our family has been hit with sickness pretty hard this week. When you have a large family and it goes from one person to the next it can be a while before you feel a part of society again.  For me, in particular, it has been a long time since I have felt really well.  The other day after struggling for weeks with a cough that just wouldn’t go away I finally went into the dr.  I also took my 6-year-old who had been hit with a very high fever.  He was diagnosed with Influenza Type A.  Not only did the dr tell me I most likely had the flu as well, but he diagnosed me with an upper AND lower respiratory infection.  By the next day, there was no doubt I did indeed have the flu.  Which leads me to my shower today.

After feeling so ill and laying in bed with zero energy I was reminded of the days when I had my chronic illness.  And I realized again how I can take things for granted.  This is where it comes in to magnify small mercies.  When I was in the depths of my adrenal fatigue, the simplest small task became huge.  Little things were overwhelming, simple decisions impossible to make.  As I recovered my strength and began to feel somewhat normal again, every ability became a mercy to me.  To be able to go to the store and not crash afterward, was a mercy.  To go on a field trip with my little boy and not have to be on the couch the next day, was a mercy.  And yes, to take a shower was a mercy.

When you are stripped away of the little things that everyone takes for granted and then those are returned to you, gratefulness abounds and you learn to magnify small mercies. Today as I was taking a shower and it did not hurt for the water to touch my skin, and I could shampoo my grimy hair and crawl back into bed feeling fresh and clean, it was a mercy.

Life has been super busy for us the past few months.  We have had wedding planning, senior graduation events, and our virtual assistant business has been thriving. These are all good things, even happy stress, can take its toll and I had been feeling more and more like I have been running at a pace that is not good. And in all the busyness, have I been magnifying small mercies, or have I been hurried along in the bustle of life?  Have I been grateful to be able to take a warm shower, snuggle with a little one, or go to the store with strength?

How can you, dear mama, magnify small mercies today? I would encourage you stop and write down 10 things right now and magnify small mercies that the Lord has given you today.

Maybe you do have chronic affliction, daily pain or limited strength. I also exhort you to magnify small mercies from the Lord in your life.  Is there sunshine out your window?  If it’s cloudy and rainy, do you have warm heat and cozy blankets?  Has a family member brought you something and served you today?  Has a friend encouraged you?  Or most importantly, has the Lord given you a verse of comfort today?  Where is your focus?  Where are your eyes looking?

To magnify small mercies can make all the difference in our perspective.  My dear sister Sarah has been a huge example to me in this.  If you haven’t read her post Sanctification in Afflictions please do so.

P.S. As I was preparing this post from my bed my daughter came in with a flower she had picked and presented to me with a kiss.  I thank the Lord for this small mercy today.

Jenny is the blessed mother of 8 children ages 21-6 and happy wife of 23 years to Steve.  She has been a blogger since before the internet (not really ) and is the owner of amothersheritage.com.  She has a home business serving entrepreneurs at Concordia Virtual and is a certified birth and labor doula with Cradled in Love Birth Services. 

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You can add some optional stevia-sweetened chocolate chips to the top if that’s how you roll.  There’s some debate in our family which version is better so I add the chocolate chips to half the batch only!  I love crunchy peanut butter, but you can use smooth too!  Or if you like crunchy but can’t find it in a sugar-free variety, just add about 1/4 cup of finely chopped peanuts to your cookie dough!

1 cup natural Peanut Butter (sugar-free)
6 Tbsp Gentle Sweet
3 Tbsp THM Peanut Flour
2 Tbsp Flax Meal (or THM Baking Blend)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp mineral salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup Trim Healthy Chocolate Chips (optional)

Jessica is a Christian homeschooling mom of five and married to her knight in shining armor for over 20 years. She is a THM Certified Coach and loves to share her recipes while managing the huge THM online community. Some of the links in her recipes may contain affiliate links to products she uses and loves.  If you make a purchase, using these links, she’ll earn coffee money, which she promises to drink while creating more recipes that you’ll love.

The post Peanut Butter Cookies (THM-S) appeared first on A Mother's Heritage.

Happy New Year from the Ervin Family!    

We pray the Lord’s blessings on you all as we enter into 2019.  As we were reminded by a recent sermon: each year we are given is a gift and it makes us consider how have we spent our past year and will we use this new year we have entered wisely and for His glory? Our blessings are so many and we surely take them for granted too often.  We are here for a season and seek to daily live for eternity.  The passing of time is highlighted very poignantly to us as we see how quickly our children are growing up and watch our family change from season to season.

It seems that every year we feel that there have been so many changes, but this year we are especially feeling the fast changes of seasons within our family.  It seems like yesterday, two very young people sat on a bench in Texas dreaming about what their lives would be like as a married couple and we have blinked and well, let’s just say we are now two not so young people, with a houseful of children who are beginning to venture out into their own lives.  

Joseph is 21 and recently moved out to rent his own place with a friend.  This was very significant to us having our first child move away.  While we know it is the right time and are excited for him, it is a surreal feeling to have such a marked change in seasons.  When he comes home now it is very special as the little ones hug and love on him and realize how much they miss him.  J continues his pursuit to get his Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. He works full time at Granger and is a top employee.  Granger has treated him so well and has such favor towards him, we even wonder if once he has his degree he might make it a career to move up within this company. His favorite pastime is to go biking in the mountains on his motorcycle, working out at the gym, or spending time with his girl.  

William is 19 and while still at home is looking to buy his own place as soon as possible.  In fact, he is in the process of getting approved by the bank right now and just waiting for the go-ahead to make an offer on a place. Will is in a very sweet spot right now of deciding where he is headed in the next few months career-wise. His previous job is asking for him back with a lot of wonderful perks, where he works currently is very stable, but he also now has an opportunity to go full time with a possible dream job.  He would be running a local sheet metal shop where he would have the freedom to create and design to his heart’s content while overseeing the quality of workmanship with the other employees and all other aspects of running the shop. He also would have the potential to training in other valuable skills as well. So things are very exciting at this juncture for him.  Not to mention a certain young lady that we can’t wait to welcome into the family in the future.  Nothing official yet but, Will and Ariana are pretty inseparable and we joke about how they are already like an old married couple.  It’s been wonderful to watch their relationship grow. 

Rebekah is now 18.  She is enjoying being a Senior this year and all the fun and excitement that goes with that.  She only has half days of school which gives her a lot of freedom.  She loves school and being super involved in volleyball and is a cheerleader again this year. She is excited and yet sad to be having this season draw to a close. But, she hopes to come back as an assistant volleyball coach for her school next year.  She babysits a sibling group from the school several days a week and also is working for Jenny.  Her plan after she graduates is to continue training under Jenny and preparing to have a home of her own someday. Yes, Ren and Beka are moving forward in their relationship and we already love him like a son.  While they are not allowed to be engaged for a while yet, we don’t think it will be terribly long until there will be some more excitement around here.  

Emily is 16 and in 10th grade. She stays very busy as well.  She loves school.  In fact, she has the opportunity to skip 11th grade and graduate next year.  However, she is leaning towards staying on the track she is on and graduating in 2021 because she is enjoying this season of life so much.  She also played volleyball and wowed everyone by her vast improvement this year.  She has also found that she enjoys basketball so this is a very busy season for her.  She was super happy to get to shift rooms around when Joseph moved out and has set up her little corner of the world in a very cozy way upstairs. When the basketball season is over she is hoping to begin working at Chik-Fil-a. 

Daniel is 14 and is changing so rapidly you can almost see him grow daily.  He’s just like the rest of the Ervin’s and will probably be just as tall or maybe taller than his brothers. Dbo also loves school and plays basketball.  We were so happy for him when he scored the very first point of the entire season for his team.  His grades make us so proud and he has become a very hard worker. Daniel is still our caring, compassionate young man who has a strong love for the Lord and things of the heart.  He is praying about chiropractic or something along those lines for the future.  We are excited to see what God has for him.

Hannah is about to turn 13.  As you may know, that is a big birthday in our home.  That is when mom takes them out to get a fancy dress, get their ears pierced and nails done and all ready for their date with daddy.  Then they get to go out with their dad for a fine dining and special evening experience.  So she is really looking forward to February 18th. Hannah is still our bouncy bubbly girl and you better watch out if you mess with any of her siblings at school, because they will have to deal with the protective sister.  Hannah also played volleyball and now is playing basketball. 

Matthew is 7 and quite the young man.  It is fun watching the wheels turn in his head as he starts to reason out things and go beyond the surface.  He loves his older siblings, but his little brother is his best friend and he cares for Jed in such a sweet way.  Speaking of sweet, Matt is known to have a very compassionate, tender heart at school and will come and comfort his classmates if they are having a bad day.  The transition into second grade was a big one for Matthew because of the heavier workload but he has really grown and carried it well and we are amazed at all he is learning.  

Jed is 6!  How is that even possible?  In a houseful of adults and young people, this little guy gets pretty well loved.  It’s been hard for mama to let him grow up and she still loves the opportunity to rock him to sleep.  He was very apprehensive about going to Kindergarten this year.  But, after a couple of days, he was convinced he loved it.  In fact, if you suggest he skip school his response is, “But I love school.”  His teacher, “Miss Jennifer” is his hero and I think he’s kinda captured her heart as well.  

We love seeing the older children interacting with the younger ones.  That is one of the best things about a large family is to see the adult ones loving on the little ones.  Having one of our grown sons putting together a little wooden project with their little brothers just warms our hearts. Because of the wonderful little Christian school, it is such a blessing to see my nearly grown girls, holding their little brother’s hands walking in for the new day. They also check in on the younger ones as they are on break.  Being such a small school they are very interactive throughout the day.  

Jenny’s life has significantly changed over the past year. As a partial empty nester, her days look very different from the many years of a busy active house 24/7.  The home business that both Steve and Jenny had thought held so much promise, and which Jenny had put so much effort into, because of mismanagement from the overseas corporate headquarters, completely imploded. Jenny was not at all interested in pursuing anything more regarding direct marketing companies and began praying for direction.  Even though things seemed so discouraging from that last experience there were substantial skills that she had learned and thousands of dollars worth of training that she had been given. After a series of providences, the Lord opened the doors for her to begin her own freelance company.  Concordia Virtual has now grown to such a thriving business that Jenny is training Rebekah and has brought her on board as a team member.  This will, Lord willing, give Rebekah an income from home in the future as well.  Concordia Virtual is a Virtual Assistant/Executive Assistant service.  In a nutshell, they assist entrepreneurs and small businesses with all their online needs.  For some, it is simple admin/secretarial services, but CV’s niche and real expertise is in online content marketing and everything that has to do with the online business presence of a company. This would include, advertisement and lead generation, landing pages and lead funnels, website, and blogs with social media management..doing the copy work, maintenance, scheduling, and marketing as well as graphic design for many of these things.  You can check out the website at www.concordiavirtual.com. The internet has changed everything as far as what an assistant can do virtually these days and things have really taken off.  We love the fact that Jenny can make such a good income while still here in the home.  She can take time off for field trips or sick days, and arrange her hours around the needs of the children. She loves her office setup and is especially proud that she has been able to actually keep a pretty office plant alive for longer than a 2-month span. 

Jenny is also still pursuing her passion in all things pregnancy, birth, and babies.  She is a doula with Cradled in Love Birth Services and actually has a mama and baby due in Feb. She is gearing up for that so that means the whole family will probably start hearing talk of nothing else but babies and labor up to the delivery.  Jenny has actually been binging on Call the Midwife lately also.   

Steve is still at Caterpillar.  We are so blessed by the steadiness of his job.  It is such a provision for us and he loves what he does.  There are many perks with his position, one being that he gets to work from home when he needs/wants to.  He also goes to Griffin, Georgia 4 times a year and Jenny and Steve take that time as a little getaway to enjoy time together.  This fall Caterpillar flew him up to the headquarters in Peoria and he loved seeing the roots of the company and getting to tour the big plant up there.  This coming spring they will be flying him back and this time he wants to bring Jenny with him around the time they will be celebrating their 24th anniversary.  

Steve is also still a deacon at Greenville Presbyterian Church and leads the psalm singing. He has also been overseeing a big project we have had going this fall/winter. We are currently producing a recording for the use of the church to commend the psalms.  Our hope is that it will be used to the glory of God.  There are 8  (Steve, Jenny, Beka, Emily and 4 others in the congregation) of us recording and it is a big project but will be wondering when it is completed.  

Steve’s parents are still well and we enjoy seeing them several times a year. They come and visit us when they can, and it’s such a treat to still be able to go to the lake about twice a year.  Jenny’s parents still live on the property also in their own cottage.  Both Jenny’s dad and mom are still working.  Jim while retired, still works in construction/maintenance work.  Nancy works for Habitat for Humanity at one of their stores in the area.  Our niece Lily-Ann moved over here from the UK a couple years ago and is soon to be married at the end of this month to a young man from our congregation. Most of our children are in the wedding.  The wedding and a brief reception will be at our church, and then there will be a wedding party/family more intimate reception back here at our house.  So much to prepare for. 

You probably see now how we feel a bit overwhelmed by how quickly things are changing in our lives.  Between the graduations, weddings, looking at buying houses, and all the other “adult changes” that are happening, we are certainly not those two young people sitting on that bench by the pond wondering what life will hold.  Instead, we are 2 rapidly aging parents very grateful and thankful for our young people around us, and praying for wisdom as we help them navigate into the world themselves.  It is so beautiful to see our children take on adult responsibilities and sometimes scary as well. It’s hard to stand by and let your children make their own mistakes, and it’s also rewarding when you see them make the wise choices as well. Our roles are rapidly changing to be advisors and supporters and yes, our children’s biggest prayer warriors.  

Parenting adult children is hard, but has such amazing sweet moments within it.  Not to mention we still have two little ones that need lots of loving, attention and playfulness.  We still have little voices coming through the house, voices that we hope stay high pitched for just a bit longer. 

Our prayer for you this coming year is that King Jesus will reveal Himself to you more and more in your homes and bless you abundantly with His peace.  We love each and every one of you and our doors are always open for a visit.  (Just maybe give us a 30-minute warning so we can clear the laundry off the couch.)  

Love,

The Ervin Family

The post Happy New Year Family Newsletter appeared first on A Mother's Heritage.

One of the key ingredients here to keep this weight loss friendly and low-carb is THM Gentle Sweet. This is the absolute best sweetener that tastes the most like sugar without any bitter aftertaste.  It also comes in Xylitol-Free if you prefer not to keep xylitol in the house due to dogs.

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Lemon Curd No-Bake Cheesecake

Ready for the best, most-indulgent low-carb and sugar-free treat ever? Here we go... 

Course Dessert

Servings 12 slices

Ingredients

For the Lemon Curd Topping

• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh or from concentrate)
• 1/2 cup THM Gentle Sweet
• 1 stick butter (salted or unsalted, it doesn't matter)

For the Crust

• 1 cup almond flour
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp THM Gentle Sweet

For the Cheesecake

• 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1.5 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 24 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese (or full fat if you prefer)
• 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh or from concentrate)
• 1.5 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup THM Gentle Sweet (Plus 3 more Tbsp... adjust to taste!)

Instructions

First, make the lemon curd!

• Heat up the egg yolks, lemon juice, and sweetener in a pot over medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened and bubbly.  
  
• Remove from heat and whisk in the chunks of butter.
• Pour curd into a mason jar and store in the fridge until ready to top your cheesecake (don't use it warm over your cheesecake!).

Now, let's make the crust! This is technically optional and you do need to bake it, but I love this bit of crust on the bottom!

• Add the melted butter to the almond flour and sweetener and press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. 
  
• Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Make the cheesecake filling!

• Whip the cream with 1.5 Tbsp vanilla into stiff peaks and set aside.
  
• In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese, lemon juice, 1.5 Tbsp of vanilla, and Gentle Sweet until smooth and creamy.
• Gently fold the whipped cream mixture into the cream cheese mixture.

Assemble your cheesecake!

• Plop cheesecake mixture by spoonfuls onto cooled crust and smooth top.
• Spoon the lemon curd over the cheesecake, smoothing the top again.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours (or overnight).

Jessica is a Christian homeschooling mom of five and married to her knight in shining armor for over 20 years. She is a THM Certified Coach and loves to share her recipes while managing the huge THM online community. Some of the links in her recipes may contain affiliate links to products she uses and loves.  If you make a purchase, using these links, she’ll earn coffee money, which she promises to drink while creating more recipes that you’ll love.

The post Lemon Curd No-Bake Cheesecake (THM S & Sugar Free) appeared first on A Mother's Heritage.