Our backyard yesterday morning. :)

Sewing on patches tip

My husband is a Cub and Boy Scout leader, so he needed the Cub Scout pack number AND the Boy Scout troop number on his shirt, in the same location. I know not too many people will have this same dilemma, but if you do, I have a wonderful and EASY solution to make this work. And this was actually my brilliant hubby's idea.

VELCRO. The stuff is amazing.

1. Choose which Velcro will best fit the patch(es) you need to sew on. You can get the kind with sticky backs or not. If you get the sticky back, you will still need to tack them down BY HAND, but it is so sticky that you may not have to do it right away. I wanted to stitch with the machine, but I also wanted them to all stay in place while tacking them down, so I chose the sticky.
2. Be sure to take off any price tags or bar codes that do not need to be on the patch, then arrange the Velcro onto the back of it.
3. Tack them down, by hand or by machine, if possible.
4. On the SHIRT, be sure you put the Velcro on OPPOSITE of how you put it on the patch. For example, if you put the teeth part onto the back of the patch, make sure you put the fuzzy part on the shirt. I actually used both on mine, so I just made sure that whatever I put on the top for the patches was on the bottom part of the shirt (see picture below).
5. Be sure to put the set you are not wearing in one of the shirt pockets, so it will always be handy and never get lost.

I tried using the machine, but it didn't work so well. I plan to redo this (and I'll replace the picture), but it will work for tonight!

It really is that easy. I'd been putting this off for so long because I thought it was going to take me forever and be difficult to line them up just right, but WOW, that was easy!

And it looks nice, right?

Sorry, ladies. Man not included. ;)

And here is another tip. Those things on the shoulders called epaulets, my husband had to switch those out too, blue for Cub Scouts and green for Boy Scouts. Again, this was his idea, and it is just so simple.

Just put one inside the other, wrong sides together, and all you need to do is flip them. So you're wearing both sets the whole time. Brilliant.

This is how we do it.

This song has been stuck in my head for days now. I only know it from the commercial, so we only know like two lines. Every time someone sings it, my husband does this --

.....and I bust out laughing! Last night he had me in tears, I was laughing so hard!!!

Fun with friends

Our TORAH Homeschool group met up at a baptist church, who actually allows anyone to use their facilities! Gasp! (Sorry, that has *always* been a pet peeve of mine in the Christian church, that they say we need to reach out but then are extremely stingy with "their own possessions" and limit them to members only!) Anyway, I actually used to be a member here, but it was before this building existed. It is nice! I'm sure they went into a ton of debt for it, but at least they really do use it to reach out to the community, and I think that is wonderful.

It was a lot of fun to play there with our friends, and I hope to do it again soon!

Baby Joe stands up!

For his first time to really stand *on purpose*, for a while without falling.....

This was on January 24th, just two days short of 14 months old.

And no pictures yet, but he took his first steps (to Daddy) just two days ago! My baby isn't much of a baby anymore! :(

Chicken Butchering

This was our first. It was quite comical at times, but we definitely made sure it was as quick and painless as possible for the bird. We thank Yah for providing for us!

This rooster's name was Black Forest, so I had to look up a recipe for Black Forest chicken! I didn't have all the ingredients on hand (and we don't eat pork, so I left out the ham), but I used what I had and improvised, and BOY was it good! Myles had a really hard time eating it. Oh, and by the way, he wanted NOTHING to do with butchering it either. He's not quite ready yet! LOL!

Fun Pancakes!

Cookie cutter almond flour (gluten-free) pancakes! Everyone loved them. We'll definitely have to do this often!

A Different God?

I have been in deep thought again this morning about Christianity, which I grew up in. Yeshua (or Yahoshua or Yahsua or some variation) is the actual Hebrew name of the Messiah (anointed one or Christ in Greek), so most people just simply change their conversation from  using Jesus to Yeshua, but are they really one in the same? Let me share some questions that came to mind so that *you* can ponder this as well.

For me, it is a simple matter of obedience. Breaking the Torah is sin (1 John 3:4), so I want to keep the Torah, not for salvation, but because I love my Father. In John 14:15 Yeshua says that if we love Him, we will keep His commands. What are His commands?

Do you believe that it was the Messiah Who gave the Torah at Mount Sinai? He is, after all, the image of an invisible God, right? (Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17) 


So if we understand that the Torah given at Mt. Sinai was given by the Messiah, then we agree that they were His commands, right? So what about the commands given in the gospels? Were they new? Actually, it may be better (for you) to look them up yourself, but He never gave any new commands, they were all repeated from the Torah! (I was shocked to discover this myself.) Yeshua simply lived the Torah (obeyed the Father) and took it (actually, took the understanding of it) to a whole new level, that if we even LOOK at someone lustfully, it is committing adultery, or if we just HATE someone, it is the same as murder. But none of His commands were new.


John tells us that in the beginning, the Word (Yeshua, the Alef Tav) was *with* God and *was* God, so the two are definitely not separate gods. But does Christianity treat them as such?

Mal. 3:6a - “For I the LORD do not change;

Heb. 13:8 - Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So we see clearly here that they both stay the same, and they are both ONE GOD. Let's look at another verse or three.

John 3:28 - So Yeshua said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

John 5:19 - So Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.


John 15:31 - but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.


So it is pretty clear that Yeshua was following the Father's commands, not making up new ones. Also, in Matt. 5:19, Yeshua says, "Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."


So Christianity, *as a whole*, really does not teach people to follow the commandments of YHWH, our heavenly Father. In fact, I was taught (perhaps not directly, but the guidance was still there) to NOT keep the commandments. It's almost as if, when we do keep the commandments, we're automatically trying to earn our salvation. Actually, that is exactly what Christianity (as a whole) teaches. It is what I had always believed, though probably never voiced out loud, and as soon as we became Torah observant, my family's concern was that we were trying to earn our salvation! No, not at all, I simply love my Father and want to obey Him, just as Yeshua did!


Back to my original question......So if Christianity teaches that we should not follow the Torah, but Yeshua actually teaches that we should, then is Christianity serving a false god? Hmm.......