Welcome to This Journey of Love

Nov.16,2013

Welcome to my world!

I hope you’ll stay.

Since Father’s love changed me

I have something to say.

The One who loves me,

See, He also loves you

The things He’s done for me

He will do for you, too.

So come with me

As I follow the Lamb

Wherever He goes.

My life’s in His hand.

I trust Him and follow Him

No matter the cost.

Without His great love for me

I would be lost.

The words that you find here

I hope will breathe life.

In each day and moment

You’ll find His delight.

For surely His love for you

Is greater than you know.

Come with me now

To His presence we’ll go.

P.M.D.

Changed By Love and Still Changing

Oct.26,2011

York, Pennsylvania 2011

Katy, Texas 2012

Mary Jo Peckham Park

Katy, TX 2013 Mary Jo Peckham Park

Katy, TX Honey Farm, 2014

Katy, TX Honey Farm, 2015

Katy, TX – MKT Railroad Park Caboose and Depot, 2017

Katy, TX – Heritage Park, 2020

Hi, I’m Penney Douglas. I have been married to my precious husband for 33 years. We have been exceedingly and abundantly blessed with 10 children. They all belong to me and my husband. And to think that I was afraid I would never get married! I got a late start (married at 25 and first child at 27), but I guess late bloomers can blossom profusely once they get started.

I blog for several reasons. I like to keep a record of what we’re doing in our homeschooling and share ideas for other homeschoolers or moms who like to work and play with their kids. I try to encourage families to keep Christ first in their homes so they can be all that they were made to be. I want to help others to draw closer to God. I hope to glorify God and give Him praise for all that He does for us.

I am constantly learning, changing and growing. Sometimes I feel like a beginner even though I’ve been a Christian since I was 4 years old and I’ve been homeschooling for about 25 years. And I’ve been living for __ years (long enough!).

But the Lord has been faithful to keep me and my family on an upward climb drawing nearer to Him in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes.

He has led us on a crooked path across the United States and back and then some. (From Ohio to Kansas City to Arizona to Colorado, back to Kansas City to Illinois to Pennsylvania and now to Texas!) We are still looking for that place to call home. We hope to find it before the oldest chicks are ready to fly from the nest! But our desire is that they land somewhere near us even when that time comes.

We are believing God for miracles of provision. We have already seen many. We suffered the loss of our home 16 years ago. Now we live in a different state, and my husband is making more money than ever before. But the money is beside the point. What God did in each of our hearts, convincing us of His reality and His love for us, is worth more than all of the houses or money in the world. But now He has enabled us to help others in need, and we are grateful for the opportunity to bless others.

Our children are truly gifts from God. They learn from us and teach us so much. I would never have known even a fraction of how much God loves me if I had never had the opportunity to be a mother to my precious children. They are teaching me even more as they grow in wisdom and understanding and we share together what the Lord is teaching us.

Family was God’s idea. Marriage was His idea. God has good ideas. His ideas work.

He wants our families to be training grounds for children (and adults) to learn His ways and right ways of relating to God and to people. We learn how to die to ourselves when others are dependent on us, and when we have to learn to get along with the people around us in order to experience peace and harmony. The rough edges are rubbed off as we care enough to be honest with each other and humble ourselves to receive correction even from those younger than ourselves.

God created us because He wanted a family. That’s more than a trite saying. He created us in His image so that He could have sons and daughters that would look like Him, act like Him and love Him. He wanted to be a father.

He created you so He could love you. Receive His love for you. Let Him be your Daddy.

Safe Haven News for May

May.13,2022

Safe Haven News for May 2022

What a difference a month has made!

Since I last wrote, we have stayed in 4 more Airbnb’s! We stayed in one in Texas that was more suburban than the first one that was in downtown Houston. From there, I tried to find another place in Texas and even made reservations at three of them, but they all fell through. So we started looking elsewhere. Gary showed me a cabin in Tennessee, and I suddenly knew! We were supposed to go to the state that I really want to live in. That is, Tennessee or North Carolina. So I started checking out Airbnb’s in Tennessee, and I found a beautiful cabin that I just had to have! So a friend helped us, and we were able to rent this amazing, fabulous cabin that was like a dream. The view from the deck was breathtaking. I sat out there every day and did my tutoring and my praying and listening to the Lord. We were living in luxury.

After that, we went to one in North Carolina. We had to drive through the Smokies to get there. What a beautiful drive! I have been getting my love tank filled up with nature. We ended up on a mountain with some real mountain people, many of whom have lived there all their lives and their families have lived there for generations. We had to drive past several shacks and impoverished houses. It was quite a culture shock for our kids. But the house we stayed in was nice. Once again, I had a deck with a fabulous view to do my tutoring and praying, and listening. Our second Airbnb had 2 really nice gazebos. I spent every day out in a gazebo doing my daily tasks. I have become an outside girl! I didn’t realize how much I had missed nature. Now I just can’t get enough of it. As soon as I get up, I head outside.

Now we’re in a beautiful mountain house and cabin. The kids have the house, and Gary and I have the cabin. And guess what – there’s a deck! This one is built further down the mountain from the house. So I’m getting some exercise walking down the stairs (and back up) to do my tutoring, praying, and listening on a beautiful deck in the middle of the forest!

When we started in March, we didn’t have any money. We couldn’t leave the house, even though the landlord was insisting and we ourselves wanted to get out of that house. We couldn’t afford to move anything or to put it in storage. A series of very fortunate events started happening so that now we have been able to afford to stay in some beautiful houses worth a small fortune! The Lord provided abundantly above all that we could ask or think. We didn’t have any idea that we were going to stay in one Airbnb after another. We couldn’t see how we could do that. We only knew that we would stay in a hotel for a week. After that, we had no plan, no idea. Possibly going to stay with family who didn’t really have room for us. But that didn’t work out. So the Lord said, “Look for an Airbnb.” And the rest is history! And probably an Airbnb record!

We’re still waiting for our time to settle in our own home. We feel like pilgrims wandering from place to place. But good things are being accomplished during this time. I met a couple of friends in person that I have been friends with online for quite a while. We are checking out the area that we think we want to settle in and finding out what we want and what we don’t want in a house.

Our hearts are set on pilgrimage. We must be some kind of pioneers.

Psalm 84:5-7 says, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.”

Or, as The Passion Translation puts it:

“How enriched are they who find their strength in the Lord; within their hearts are the highways of holiness!”

Psalm 84:5 TPT

“Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears…”

Psalm 84:6 TPT

“They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward, and the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion.”

Psalm 84:7 TPT

Doug Addison wrote a very good post about 3 Keys from Psalm 84 here

that gives us great encouragement and outlines a blueprint for how to walk through the dark days that we are in.

I want to encourage you to keep your eyes on Jesus as you hear about food shortages, wars, rumors of wars, and economic meltdown. Keep trusting Jesus to take care of you and your family.

As the song goes, “I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor, to the ground. My hope and firm foundation. He’ll never let me down.”

Promises (feat. Joe L Barnes & Naomi Raine) | Maverick City Music | TRIBL

“Great is Your faithfulness to me. From the rising sun to the setting same, I will praise Your name.”

And I’ll end this newsletter with another song from Maverick City.

A “Million Little Miracles” is what we have seen, especially during the month of April. I wrote a caption on one of the pictures I posted on Facebook of me and Gary standing on the deck of the house in Tennessee that said, “Pinch us, we must be dreaming.” That’s how I feel. God has been doing miracle after miracle for us. We are so grateful.

You can find “Million Little Miracles” here:

Million Little Miracles | Elevation Worship & Maverick City

I pray that this little letter encourages you all.

~ Homeschool Corner ~

If you are a homeschooler, I hope that you can see that homeschooling does not have to be perfectly planned and executed. We are amazed to see the plan that God had for us, but we sure didn’t plan any of this. My husband always says we’re strapped into the seat of a roller coaster and we can’t control where it goes or how fast or what curves are coming up or anything else. Our faith is in Jesus as far as taking care of our family, but also in our homeschooling. I could be worried and fearful about the lack of consistent “schooling” I’m able to do right now, but I’m not. I know that the kids are learning important life skills through all of this, including trusting God for everything. And that’s really the most important life skill of all!

The kids are a little tired of having to move so often, but they are real troopers. Morgan has become our chef. He fixes delicious, nutritious dinners for us every night, and sometimes makes crepes for us in the morning. He is constantly searching out inexpensive recipes that stretch really far and taste good. He makes the grocery list and tries to keep the bill as low as possible. The girls pitch in and help him cook, and they are learning some new recipes too. Gary fixed pancakes for everybody the last couple of mornings. We’re so thankful to be in Airbnb’s instead of hotels.

It almost feels like we’re camping. We had a bonfire last night and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Fiona made smores for us.

And we pray together, asking the Lord, “Where to next?” And we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives and in our nation.

We’ve seen parts of the country we’ve never seen before. It’s a great geography lesson for all of us!

So I’m not concerned about book learning that isn’t happening. We’ll do some more of that when we get settled. Right now it’s all about finding God’s will for our lives and learning how to live by faith.

The theme for this season is Trust and Obey. With a lot of waiting, endurance, and perseverance thrown in for good measure.

What is your theme for this season?

If you need some new curriculum to change things up a little here at the end of the year, check out my Charlotte Mason-style journals here.

Oh yeah! Happy Mother’s Day!

I have a great idea! Tell your husband and your kids that you NEED Short, Powerful Prayers for Busy Homeschool Moms for Mother’s Day. You can get it and my other books here. 🙂

Have a blessed Mother’s Day and a blessed May!

Penney Douglas, B. S. in Ed.

Safe Haven Homeschooling

Linktr.ee/penneydouglas

Changed By Love blog – my homeschool and personal blog

Safe Haven Homeschooling Curriculum

2000 Mules – That’s a lot of Mules!

May.13,2022

2000 Mules?

That’s a lot of mules!

But we’re not talking about the 4-legged kind here. We’re talking about the 2-legged, CHEATING kind.

If you haven’t heard about the new movie by Dinesh D’Souza called 2000 Mules, it’s a must-see! There was so much election fraud that occurred. And this movie covers the ballot drop boxes that were only one aspect of the massive voter fraud that took place.

“Zuckerberg money was a huge catalyst,” he continued. “You take dirty voter rolls, you mail everyone an application whether they ask for it or not, whether they’re even legitimately on the rolls or not, and then you provide a means to stuff them in there.”

These mules were paid to stuff ballot drop boxes with illegal votes. Then those votes got counted as legitimate votes. And guess who they were all for? That’s how a candidate who didn’t even campaign and can hardly remember his name “won” the election with the most votes in history.

Here’s a table of some of the states that had the most offenders.

State	Mules Identified	Drop Boxes	Estimated Illegal Votes
Pennsylvania	1,150	45	275,000 *
Michigan	500	50	125,000
Wisconsin	100	28	14,000
Georgia	250	24	30,000 *
Arizona	200	20	20,000 *
TOTAL			380,000

What can we do to defeat the ballot laundering cartel? The solution has “four pillars”. We must:

Clean the voter rolls. True the Vote has set up a website, www.iv3.us, that helps citizens review their voter rolls and challenge inaccurate records;
Stop mass mail-in voting and abolish the drop boxes;
Eliminate private funding of elections;
Impose punishments that fit the crimes. “Put some people in jail,” Gregg said. “If you put somebody in jail for 10 years for this, you’ll stop it.”

This information is from Electionfraud2020.org

To watch the movie go here – Salem Now.

Here’s a video by Johnny Enlow that gives some information about the movie, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hga4vr2Rtys

Whatever you hear about “false”, “faulty”, “dishonest” and “irredeemable flaws” in the movie from fake media and fact checkers, realize the agenda they all push. They will fact-check and debunk anything that goes against their narrative. They do not like Dinesh D’Souza. If you know about his earlier movies, you will know why. They try to make it seem like he is just trying to help President Trump because Trump pardoned him back in 2018.

They use lots of words that convey lots of skepticism, ridicule, and accusation when they describe anything that a Conservative puts out. It’s all called “disinformation”. They will try to plant doubt in your mind before you ever watch. Beware of fact checkers. Many of them are paid to tear down anything conservative.

And don’t get me started on the “conspiracy theorist” label. The conspiracies are no longer theories. They are proven fact. But the media will continue to lie and attempt to debunk even proven facts.

Think for yourself, and research using other media besides the mainstream media.

Use the Brave browser. Use media sites that are not using the Reuters news feed.

Search for truth, and find out what is really going on. Be aware and awake, and spread the truth that you discover.

We need to take back our homes, our families, and our country.

Safe Haven Newsletter for April

Mar.28,2022

Hello Safe Haven Family!

Coming to you from a lovely Airbnb in downtown Houston. God has blessed us with the sweetest place

while we wait for the next amazing adventure and His miraculous provision.

As Kristene DiMarco says in her song “Take Courage”:

“Take courage, my heart, stay steadfast my soul,
He’s in the waiting. Hold onto your hope. Watch your triumph unfold. He’s never failing.”

He’s here with us in the waiting. Waiting is so hard. It’s actually a form of suffering. My husband and I have spent most of our lives waiting. But we have faith that God is going to bring us into our Promised Land. We are waiting for a home of our own, for a ministry that reaches families and children, and the resources to make all of this happen. We have big dreams and big plans. The Lord told me a couple of years ago to think bigger. And later He told me to dream bigger.

Then an opportunity to invest came along, and we were told to write down our plans and dreams. So we have been doing that for the last several months. We had always prayed specifically for the things that we wanted for our family. But now our prayers and dreams expanded to how we could touch lots of other people. Now we are ready to launch. Whenever the investment pays off, we will step into a whole new world.

We pray for that for each one of you, too. In fact, I encourage you to start writing down your dreams and desires that you would love to do if money were no object. I believe that we are coming into a time where you will have more money and less drains on your money. Write down your ideal life. Make a list of the people and organizations you want to bless. Write out how you will help humanity and use your gifts and talents that you have put to the side because you were so busy working. Write out your most ridiculous, ludicrous dreams that you never thought were possible. The personal things and the things you want to do to help others.

“Faith for the impossible is not just a nice concept; it’s an essential tool for living in these times.” – Jodie Hughes

Courage and faith are so necessary in these times. Don’t let fear control you. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and trust Him with all your heart. No matter what is happening in the world or in your personal life, keep it in the forefront of your mind that this will not last forever. Things are going to get better.

I can’t prove it, but I believe that God is going to take us into a better time than we have ever experienced. His people will be blessed in ways that they’ve never imagined. I’ve heard prophecies, and I’ve seen signs that corruption in the high places of government, business, medicine, and education is being cleaned up. All we have to do is wait a little longer and keep trusting God to take care of us and our families in the interim.

In the meantime, we are enjoying our time here as a vacation. We went to the Museum of Natural Science. We really enjoyed it.

And our son Morgan is spoiling us with gourmet meals every day. Breakfast and dinner!

Waiting with anticipation and hope,

In His Grace and Truth,

Penney Douglas, B.S. in Ed

Safe Haven Homeschooling
https://penneydouglas.com
https://facebook.com/kingdomhsmom
amazon.com/author/penneydouglas
linktr.ee/penneydouglas

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Just Start Writing

Mar.28,2022

Just start writing!!!

Huge opal at the Houston Museum of Natural Science

Wow! I have been inspired to create lately! I knew an accountability session was coming up in a coaching group I’m in, so I thought I’d better look again at my goals and try to get some of them done. Do you ever do that? Thank goodness for accountability. I saw that I had said I would make a copywork journal for homeschool students. So I opened up Canva and started figuring out how to make a copywork journal. It started flowing, and I worked on it all day and had it finished by the end of the day. It’s here on Amazon.

Then today, I looked at my goals again and saw that I had said I would write a journal to go with one of the books I wrote, the book called “Short, Powerful Prayers for Busy Homeschool Moms”. I put some thought to how I wanted to do it and realized that it’s going to involve just adding lined pages to the prayer book in its original form. Gary can do that for me when we get back to a place where we can set up our desktops in our own home someday.

So then I looked at the next thing on my list and saw another journal – I’m really into making journals right now! I was kind of unclear on what kind of journal I wanted to design. I had seen some journal pages by a Facebook friend, and they inspired me. In fact, I had a great epiphany in the shower about how I wanted to design my next journal. But when I got back to my laptop, I couldn’t remember what it was!

So I just started thinking about any kind of journal I could make. Then I remembered that I had considered making a journal to go along with the book I wrote called, “5 Steps to Becoming a Great Homeschool Parent”. So I just started creating in Canva, and next thing I knew I was writing and writing about why homeschooling is so great, and how we should do it so that it’s a joy and not drudgery by making it a learning adventure for the whole family.

So I finished writing my 5 Steps Journal today. I’ll have Gary finish that up for me, too, and publish it on Amazon. I’m glad I just started writing!

Getting out of that house that had so much pressure hanging over our heads seems to have broken the dam that was holding back my creativity. Or maybe it’s this great Airbnb that we’re staying in. Or maybe just the change of scenery. Maybe it was the trip to the museum…

Whatever it is, I’m thankful for the burst of creativity.

Check out my Author Page at Amazon to find my other bursts of creativity.

Amazon.com/author/penneydouglas

And my curriculum page at:

Amazon.com/author/safehavenhomeschooling

Other places you can find me: linktr.ee/penneydouglas

Love,

Penney

Update on My Family’s Situation: God’s Favor is Here But Please Keep Praying

Mar.24,2022

Update on Our Family’s Situation

We are out of our house. We moved all of our stuff into storage on Sunday, March 13. We stayed in a hotel for a week. Now we are in a lovely Airbnb. We all love it!

We are near the Museum District in Houston, so today we went to The Museum of Natural Science. It was really nice. It was also Free Day, so it was very affordable. 🙂

We saw lots of mollusks. Some of them were HUGE! And I learned today that squid and octopus are mollusks. I really do learn something new every day. We also saw lots of gems. They were beautiful.

We gave our car to our son, Patrick. So now all we have is our 12 passenger van. It’s not the easiest thing to maneuver in these close quarters in the downtown Houston area. But we do have 6 kids with us, so we need the larger vehicle.

But we feel so blessed and highly favored.

We know that God has something really good for us just around the corner.

It has been a long time since we’ve been in this kind of situation. It’s not the most comfortable, I must admit. But God has always come through for us. If you don’t know our testimony of how God miraculously provided for us before and after we lost our house in 2005, you can read it in my book, “Refined By Fire: Our Family’s Journey”.

Things just happened to line up perfectly for us to have enough money to rent a moving truck and rent a storage unit that’s big enough to fit almost all of our furniture and boxes of personal possessions. And then enough to afford a hotel for a week and now 11 days or more in a beautiful, roomy Airbnb. Before that we had no money. We have not had a job in 2 years. We have been living very frugally, so to speak.

But God has been so good to us, and we know He won’t stop now.

So for now, we’re in the big city and actually enjoying it. It’s not what I had in mind for our next jump. I’m a country girl at heart trying to get back to the country. But God knows what He’s doing, and I believe He put us here for a reason. He’s doing things in our hearts and strengthening our faith every day in every way.

I am not anxious. Because He told me Himself not to be. Let me tell you about it.

At a time when we lived in Illinois, the owners were trying to make us move out of a rental house before we were able to. We knew that we might be moving out of state any day because of the job offers Gary was getting, so we needed to hang tight just a little bit longer. It’s not that easy to move a family of 12 around from place to place. And that would have wasted so much money and time for us. But we were lowly renters, so none of that mattered to them. They brought people in to see the house while we were still living there. They changed the trash pickup out of our name. And generally harassed us. So I was feeling extremely anxious about what was going to happen. I cried out to God for help. I asked Him to give me a word or a scripture or something. I started to hear in my mind (spirit) “Phil. 4:6”. Well, I had no idea what Phil. 4:6 said, but I thought I should check it out in case there was something in it for me. When I opened my Bible and read what was there, I was shocked. It really was what I needed to hear. Phil. 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

So I straightened up and went back to trusting God. And He delivered us out of that bad, stressful situation. He provided a job for Gary that paid a lot more, in Pennsylvania, and we moved into a much nicer home than the one in Illinois.

So here we go again. Favor, favor. Just like our twins represent. If you would like to read that story, it’s here.

This little adventure feels kind of familiar, but our attitude is better this time. We have more hope and faith that something good is coming. Those other times, we felt very insecure and unsure about what was going to happen next. But this time, we have an expectancy that God is going to do something really wonderful for us. We are able to enjoy this time in between, knowing that God is good and always takes care of His children. He has been faithful, so our hearts are full of faith.

I will keep you updated on the next phase of this faith journey that will hopefully lead us home – soon.