Katy, TX – MKT Railroad Park Caboose and Depot, 2017
Hi, I’m Penney Douglas. I have been married to my precious husband for 30 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 21 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 13 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.
Here is my latest newsletter with some new insights I’ve been gaining from some very interesting books. They are even making Christmas more meaningful.
Here’s the big idea that is changing my perspective:
“From man’s perspective, Calvary came about because of man’s sinful state. From God’s personal purpose, the human race was created to produce Calvary.” !!!!!
Why did God want to do such a thing? Because He wanted to demonstrate to all of His creation what motivated Him to do all that He did. He wanted to reveal that His core being, His nature and His motivation were love. The only way He could show the depth of His love was by sacrificially giving Himself.”
I highly recommend reading “God’s Weapons of Warfare” by Dr. Bill Hamon and “The New Era of Glory” by Tim Sheets.
I pray that God will reveal the length, the width, the depth, and the height of His love for you this Christmas. And bless your family with every blessing, spiritual, physical, financial, and relational.
Speaking of which, make sure you join me and Gary on Facebook Live on Friday nights for Relationally Speaking! We would love to see you there.
Click on this link and enlarge it so you can see all of the titles they have at YWAM Publishing. It looks like everything is on sale! They have books and audiobooks about heroes in missions and heroes in history. They encourage kids to hold up great, godly people as heroes.
I highly recommend these books. They are very well-written and inspiring.
Wow, I was just looking at Pinterest for Thanksgiving ideas. Overload! I have some favorite activities that I would like to share with you, and maybe you’ll find one or two things that interest you. I always go for simple. So, if you’re like me, these easy, inexpensive ideas will be doable and not overwhelming.
The first thing I recommend is a book to read aloud, of course.
A book about William Bradford, the first governor of The Plymouth Settlement. Here is a blurb from the website:
“The New World beckoned as a land of freedom and possibility. Yet wild waters, icy winters, Indian attacks, starvation, and treason threatened the European settlers’ very existence. Through William’s vision and steadfast leadership, the people of Plymouth Colony would endure, their future descendants forming the cornerstone of a great nation (1590-1657).”
This is a great way to remember the Pilgrims and the struggles they went through to settle this nation as a bastion of freedom for all.
This is a good telling of the story of the Mayflower featuring Peanuts characters. It’s part of a series called “This is America, Charlie Brown”.
This is a varied playlist of Family Thanksgiving Movies. There’s an old black and white movie about children being thankful even though they couldn’t afford a turkey that year. It’s a good reminder of some of the things we have to be thankful for. It’s very old, but we can learn from it how things were a generation ago. And the lesson about being thankful in spite of temporary circumstances is always in order.
And there are several cartoons, including Berenstain Bears, Care Bears, Mickey Mouse, Martha Speaks, Maya and Miguel, Sesame Street, and a TV movie from 1986, among others. Tell me the ones you watched and liked!
A very funny story about a turkey named Thelonius is “Thelonius Turkey Lives”. https://amzn.to/32MIGD7
Another fun book to read is A Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. It is a very popular book. Here’s a summary of the story:
“Every year Grandmother invited a guest for Thanksgiving dinner and allowed Maggie to do the same. “Ask someone poor or lonely,” she always said. Thanksgiving was Grandmother’s favorite day of the year. The cooking was done and her famous cranberry bread was cooling on a wooden board. But she wasn’t happy to find out Maggie had invited the unsavory Mr. Whiskers to dinner. Would her secret cranberry bread recipe be safe with him in the house? After a long absence this delightful 1971 classic is back. So is Grandmother’s secret recipe!” The recipe is included at the end of the book.
These are our favorite cookies to make for Thanksgiving. We make cookies that look like turkeys. We use Fudge Stripe cookies, candy corn and bonbons. And put them together like this:
I hope these ideas help you to find some fun and educational things to do to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.
Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the holidays with your family!
I was asked for a list of good books to read to make studying History much more enjoyable and thorough than a textbook, so I put together this list of books that we have loved and learned the most from.
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
I also recommend books by G. A. Henty. They are fantastic!
Books about seafaring adventures that the whole family will love:
Books by R. M. Ballantyne are full of adventure, pirates, sailors, storms, intrigue, and being stranded on islands. Rollicking adventures, I guess you could say! The Coral Island is one of his best-known stories. But he wrote over 90 books, so there are many to choose from!
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham. I have heard so many people say that they really enjoyed this story. And we did, too!
Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester. This is a whole series about a young man who starts out as a seasick midshipman and works his way up to Admiral of the Fleet during the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
These are some of my favorite books to cover American History and some World History. I hope you can find something from this list that will inspire and inform you and your young men.
Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/penneymaried
Mother and Child
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
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"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
