I have always enthusiastically supported Israel. Getting to tour Israel was one of my favorite experiences in my life. So, as you can imagine, this Israel goodie box is right up my alley.

Here’s a photo of the box I ordered, and of course I did an unboxing video below as well.

Did you know that many Israeli businesses face boycotts on the international level?

We have all seen how powerful boycotts can be, especially lately.

Buying these surprise boxes of Israeli goods is a fun and useful way to support small businesses in Israel. This is not merely a “good deed” though because the stuff that you are ordering in these boxes is of the highest quality.

Everything in the box is made in Israel.

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Let’s take a look at what came in my first Lev Haloam Israel subscription box.

Remember, each package is different. So if you order one too, your box will have slightly different things. Dried fruit, chocolates, oils, wine, ceramics, and personal care products are all common things you will find in your box.

I cannot promise that all of the boxes will have a delightful theme like this one did, but my box was completely themed out to Song of Songs/ Song of Solomon.

My husband loves dates, so he will be excited about these.

These caramelized pecans were so delicious, I ate almost the whole box for breakfast! Then I finished them off at lunch. So delicious!!!

I have already eaten a bunch of these mixed nuts too. They are also very good.

Notice all of the Song of Solomon theming on each individual item. Such a creative touch!

This book about the Song of Songs is beautifully illustrated by Israeli artists. If you watch my Instagram video up above, you can see some of the artwork that is in this book.

This hand crafted soap is so nice. I have already taken it out of the box and placed it by our sink. Many people like to collect pretty soaps like this and not ever actually use them. Not me. I enjoy taking them out and enjoying using my pretty soap!

This exquisite wall art piece is my favorite thing in the box! I adore these colors and all of the different flowers. And of course, it carries on with the Song of Songs theme.

This caramel liqueur looks like a serious luxury. My cousin jokingly sent me a message to “make sure I do not pour this caramel on the kids’ ice cream.” Don’t worry, we won’t.

And last but not least, I am excited to try this:

I have thick, wavy hair that is prone to high amounts of frizz, so I am excited about this bottle of Shine hair serum.

Want to order a box for yourself?

Or if you just want to learn more about this program, click here go to the Lev Haolam website and try out a box for yourself!

Lev Haolam has been in business, sending packages of Israel made goods all over the world, since 2014. This is a company you can trust.

The post I got this fun surprise box in the mail from Israel, and here is how you can get one too. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Daniel 3:29

Do you love a good rescue story? Man, I am a sucker for a rescue.

Lately, I’ve been feeling down. I’ve been letting circumstances get to me. I’m still pouting over losing my people in this move. I still have my family, my most important people. But I lost my support groups. I lost my friends. Friends are a tricky thing to replace. The thing is you can’t replace them because no two people are the same. It’s not possible. So you have to keep your old friends, but you have to find new friends too. I’ve met some ladies I like here, and I’ve already leaned on a few of them. We’re getting there. It’s promising. These things just take time.

Alan was gone for a great part of November for work, and it was a hard month. It was getting to me big time.

But this morning these verses in Daniel spoke to me. 

“No other god can save in this way.”  –Daniel 3:29

And those lines were spoken by the King of Babylon, who had just erected a giant gold statue of himself and proclaimed that everyone must worship it or burn.

But he saw the results. He couldn’t deny them. He SAW Jesus rescue those three Jews out of that fire when they refused to worship his ridiculous gold statue.

And that’s when he stood amazed, and he proclaimed a decree that no one was to say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “because no other god can save in this way.”

I’ve seen the results too. I might not have been there all those years ago for the fiery furnace rescue, but I have seen one rescue after another in my own time, and it lights a FIRE in my soul, let me tell you.

The Bible is not just any other book, y’all. And God is not just any statue. He’s not a statue at all. Why would you worship something so small you could DIY????

This year my parents had their own fire. In case you missed that, I talked about that here. It was a burn-it-to-the-ground kind of house fire. This thing was so impactful. I would never wish it on anyone.

But God’s raising up something beautiful from those ashes. He’s staging another rescue. My parents will move into their new house, probably next month, just in time for Christmas.

He’s making everything new and everything beautiful, and he’s blessing my parents with a new home. It smells like new paint, it is handicap accessible, and it has the prettiest master bathroom shower I have ever seen. I am so excited for them. And you know what I said at the beginning about the hardship of finding new friends? They won’t even have to worry about that because he’s building it right where their old house stood, on the same plot of land I grew up on.

They will still have their neighbors and their church family right down the street.

Don’t you love a rescue like that?

And I want to say a special thank you to the members of Victory Baptist Church and to their neighbors on their street. They blessed them in ways that I, far away in California, did not. They were there for my family when I wasn’t really. You have no idea how much that means to me. Thank you!!!

Remember the kind of God we serve. Amen. Amen. Amen.

The post I am a sucker for a rescue. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This post is sponsored by seedsfamilyworship.com. They are here to teach the Bible through songs.

John David is 3 years old, but he already knows that Christmas equals presents.

He is also fully in love with Santa Clause, aka the King of Christmas. And in all fairness, who wouldn’t love a man who shows up once a year just to give you all the things you wanted???? Sign me up for that!

My sweetie-pie professional product tester. He accepts payments of hugs and toy airplanes.

So you might be wondering why I’m talking about Christmas in October, but the thing is that if you are planning a children’s ministry or want to teach your kids an awesome song to perform at Christmas for their grandparents, then now is the time to order your material.

We got this lovely Christmas DVD and accompanying CD in the mail called Seeds of Christmas. By the way, it’s also available digitally if you don’t want to have to fool with a hard copy DVD and CD.

I tried it out the first time with just John David because he’s the only guinea pig hanging out with all day while I’m working. He is also a lover of all things music.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Oooo, John David, I have a new Christmas movie for us to watch. It has songs! (JD loves songs.)

JD: Yay!!!  It has Santa Clause?

Me: Well, um, I don’t know. Let’s watch it. We’ll see what it has. I’ve never seen it before, but I do know it’s Christmas.

JD: Yay!!!

Some of the songs are fast, but most of them are slower, very worshipful. I’m going to include a preview below for you to see what I mean.

Every single song line is a Bible verse.

We watched it without hand motions, but if you are teaching a class or your kids happen to like doing the motions, that’s all on there for you. I have four BOYS. They dislike singing in public, and they especially dislike hand motions.

The last video on this disc is BEAUTIFUL.

They were all good, but this one was my favorite. It has that wow factor you would want for a program, if you are performing these.

We are only using it at home, but I just adored that last video, called “Joy.” You can’t tell from the preview online just how powerful that video actually is. Watch it without the hand motions, and focus in on the whole Bible story of Jesus’s birth played out in front of you.

So this is what sold me on this video:

We were watching the Joy video at the end, and JD could not stop asking questions!

“Who’s that?”

JD had to know who each little figure at the bottom was and what they did.

“That’s Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus.”

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Jesus.”

“Jesus died.”

“Yes, but this is when Jesus was born. Jesus is God’s son.”

“He died?”

“Well, yes, later on, but this is about when he was born. See, he was a baby, born in a manger in a barn. Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus, not about Santa Clause and what we can get from him.”

I can’t remember the entire conversation, but you get the idea. This opened the door to talk about these important things. That’s right. Christmas isn’t just about presents. What a great reminder.

When the video was over, JD actually asked to watch it again!

Now here’s the other unusual thing about this company, Seeds Family Worship. All of their songs are 100% Bible verses. There are no fillers or added words. They are literally just singing the Bible!!

They call it family worship because their stuff isn’t just for kids or just for adults. Anyone can enjoy it and learn. You could get the music to help you learn scriptures! You could use it to help teach your children memory verses. You could even use it for your Bible class or children’s choir. I am impressed with the versatility.

Click here to go to their website and see a preview!

I was excited to learn that Seeds Family Worship is also a touring group. They are traveling performers, and because I have readers in Bowling Green, Kentucky let me tell you: they will be in your city in January. I found this on their website:

Bowling Green, Kentucky: God’s Awesome Word Event, Living Hope Baptist Church, January 8. You can click here for more info on that.

Two more pieces of good news:

1. The Christmas Set is on sale now for $19.99. You get BOTH the DVD and the CD for that, so it’s an awesome deal.
2. We’re giving one set away!!!!  Wahoo!!! Click to enter below:                                  a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Fun Way to Teach the True Meaning of Christmas, with Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

“Cheese.” Sweet deal: I eat some dirt. I get a bath. I knew I left my cow in here!

I’ve been struggling lately. It’s been a year of lots of change, it’s overwhelming, and Alan is so busy with his engineering classes. Some days I have been a borderline bitter/icky person. I didn’t realize just how gloomy I’d gotten until I was at Bible study Thursday night with some gals in my neighborhood, and I just HEARD MYSELF. Woah. I need to get it together!

This week I really hit a low point, and I just sat on my balcony (love that thing) and cried and prayed. I prayed something like, “God, I don’t know how or what, and I’m not even 100% sure what my problem is, but I need help.” And just like he ALWAYS does…..

God sent help. I didn’t have any ideas for Him on how He could help me. I just knew I needed help.

My patience has been tried and found wanting.

But God. But God.

God answers prayer. I remember in 2011, Daniel was a newborn, our third baby. The other boys were ages 5 and 3 1/2. Alan got orders:  Afghanistan for 6 months. There I was with three small boys, and no relatives nearby.

God provided. He always does. This wonderful mentor of mine, Deborah, sent me help in the form of her daughter and a couple of their friends. They took turns staying at my house from Sunday night through Wednesdays, every single week, just so I could have the help I needed. I was actually able to go to the grocery store by myself–and make dentist appointments. Such a luxury!!

Then when JD was born–I was such a pitiful c-section recovering, anemic, postpartum MESS. God was there. I just prayed, “God help.” He sent my mom. My neighbors brought food, constantly. It was such a blessing.

Dear God, I’m sorry you have to keep bailing me out of troubles!!!

I get the feeling he doesn’t mind doing it, though. I was just reading in the book of Jeremiah today. (Yes, I’m still in Jeremiah. I’m calling it the read-the-Bible-through-in-two-years plan this time.) I’m plugging away, but I’m also doing a new Bible study now.

Thursday nights I am now going to a Ladies’ Bible study group in my neighborhood. I’m excited about this, and it’s after 8pm, so I don’t have to feel guilty about leaving my husband, who desperately needs to be doing homework, alone with four little boys because they are all already in bed. This group is going to be a great blessing. I can see that already.

Then the very next night, Friday, I went to my homeschool moms’ group’s “Moms’ Night”. Lacy is uniquely talented at coming up with questions to get the group talking. When she announced the question this week, “How full is your tank right now, and what do you do to fill it back up when it’s low?”………..Oh, I knew I was in trouble. I knew I could not answer this question without crying.

“Maybe no one will notice if I slip under the radar and don’t take a turn at answering the question,” I thought.

hahahahaha Well, that didn’t work. So of course, I bawled like a baby, in front of a whole group of women that I only met less than two months ago. What else could I do? Say, “Oh, I’m great. My tank is so full. I love getting lost all the time, missing all my friends and family, and never getting to just hang out with my husband.”  Don’t get me wrong. Alan faithfully comes home everyday, in time for dinner, and he even manages putting the boys to bed. Usually, he tucks in all the boys and I do the baby. But once that is done, Alan stays up until at least midnight doing homework, just to keep up. We rarely ever get to just chill.

So there you go. These are not the easiest of times for us. I don’t know many people. It’s not perfect.

However, I totally think God put me in this position on purpose. I think God wants me to focus more on my own house and children right now. He knows I need as few distractions as possible to survive this FIRST year of home schooling.

The only hitch is that I tend to fill my tank by hanging out with friends. I hardly even get to hang out with my best friend, Alan, much less others, so it’s hard to keep my tank running.

This isn’t all bad either. It has forced me to depend more on God, to pray more, to humble myself more. I needed this, whether I like it or not.

Well, I told the Friday group some of this, through the crying, which probably made it impossible to understand anything I said. So embarrassing. They were wonderfully understanding though.

I even got the BEST compliment ever:  One of these sweet, sweet women said to me, “You remind me so much of Anne of Green Gables.”

YA’LL!!!  Best compliment.

I told you that God has answered my prayers again, right? He did. First, I got to go to the Bible study on Thursday and the Ladies’ Night on Friday. Both nights were so helpful.

Then today, two of these women invited me to two different things. I had to turn down both invitations because of Alan’s studies, but it felt so good to be invited.

THEN, and this is really exciting, Alan’s mother called and said that they are coming in just a few weeks for a help visit!!!  They want to come and help us!!  They want to take care of our children while we tend to the jobs we can’t get to. They want to be here on Saturday so Alan can actually work at the library.

Now we have this beacon of hope to look forward to! Help is coming, and we need it. I can’t even explain why we need it so much, but we just do.

I love my job. I love teaching the boys. I love holding my babies. I love getting to watch Daniel go from baby to big boy. I love writing my blog and growing it into something that more people will want to read. I love cooking. I love keeping a house that looks nice–haven’t actually managed that last one in a while. I love it all, but I just can’t DO it all lately.

My prayers have been answered. I feel so full of hope today. God is a gentleman. God will not force his blessings upon you. Just think how many atheists would be disappointed if he did!! It’d be like those women that get angry at men that hold doors. He will gladly help those who ask him to, though. He only asks that you obey his commands, but he does not force us.

Jesus summed up God’s commands in two things, in Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

That brings me back to what I was saying earlier about reading in Jeremiah. In today’s reading, Babylon had taken over Judah, and the remaining remnant went to Jeremiah and said, “Pray to God for us, and ask him what we should do, and we will do whatever he asks us to do.”

Jeremiah prayed on their behalf, and God told him that if the people would obey Him and stay in Judah through this time of Babylonian rule, there would be no famine or hardship. God promised to look over this remnant of people, if they would only trust him and not flee to Egypt. If they left for Egypt, all of these horrible things would happen to them as a result of their disobedience.

This should have been a true comfort to these people. Just trust God! He will take care of you! The prophet Jeremiah said it, and he had a spotless record!!! He’d been warning them that the Babylonians were coming if they didn’t cut out their evil ways for YEARS!

Well, in true faithless “do what we wanna do” form, the people ran off to Egypt. Of course, Nebuchadnezzar crushed Egypt too, so that turned out to be the wrong decision, just as God had said. If only they had listened. The thing is, God will not make us listen. He only asks us to. He is a gentleman.

I don’t want to be like the remnants of Judah. I want God in my life. God is always FAITHFUL. I know I can follow him anywhere, and so far he has brought us to such wonderful places, given us a precious family, and overwhelming peace in the midst of all storms. We know this too will pass, and we are seeing our God carrying us through already.

So today I’m praising him, and nothing else is going to get me down.

The post God provides, as always. Hallelujah!! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

When Alan and I were getting ready to move here, people just went on and on, telling us how beautiful it is here. Everyone seemed completely in awe of the place, describing the weather as “perfect, though cool, all year round”, mosquitos non-existent, perfect, perfect, perfect.

“Okay.” Alan told me, “This place has been so built up. I’m going to be completely disappointed if this isn’t paradise itself. I am fully expecting there to be a tree in the middle that you aren’t allowed to eat from.”

As we drove here, across the country, through the California desert, we began to have our doubts….

But I have to admit, it really is pretty amazing. We’ve been too busy to enjoy it much until this past week.

This morning my parents left, and they are now on their way back to sweet home Alabama. We were so sad to see them go that every single boy, except JD, got up at 6:30am, just to say good-bye.

JD would have, but the thing is that he was awful tired from waking up constantly between 8pm and 12am. Awful tired. I can’t imagine how that feels..

We had such a FUN visit. The eight of us really took on the adventures. Not only did we see the whales and the sea lions, but we also traveled Big Sur, ate clam chowder in Monterey, tried out our new wetsuits, and took a couple days off from work and school. It was a much needed vacation. We’re having just a little trouble now getting back into the swing of things. I finally gave up at 2pm and let all little boys run free.

Oh, and by the way, every single restaurant in Monterey boasts that it has “the #1 award winning clam chowder from this contest or that contest”. I guess you can’t go wrong.

My parents even made time to see the redwood forrest in Santa Cruz. Daniel got to go with them. The boys and I had to go back to school. (Boo fun.)  We live here though, so we have plenty of weekends to go see the redwoods. Some of those trees were truly, impressively large! Exciting!

More photos of that on the next post!

Of course, Alan and I took advantage of the babysitter situation and went kayaking. Oh wow, that was a surreal experience, with seals and sea otters popping out of the water to check us out. Alan took those pictures on his phone, so I have to wait until I can get my hands on his phone to share those!

And now it’s back to work. My goals this week:

1. Find better projects to keep Daniel busy during instructional times.

2. Assess Caleb’s new reading level. (He has DEFINITELY risen above the 1st grade level that I assessed him at before school started. His progress will knock the socks right off ya.)

3. Finish reading Preteen Wise,  complete with all the best points underlined for Alan.

4. Go to bed by 10:30pm every night.

5. Dig into Classical Conversations Connected.

6. Buy cornmeal and make cornbread. I NEED cornbread.

7. Blog at least 4 times.

8. Cook a real dinner every night, except Friday.

9. Remember to teach the children the character lessons I downloaded from http://thecharactercorner.com/lads-ladies-character/   (Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Shannon at ihavenogreaterjoy.wordpress.com.)

10. Finish reading Isaiah. Begin Jeremiah.

11. Spend at least 1 hour each day cleaning house. (I got that tip from my friend Barbara, back in Virginia. Thank you, Barb!)

12. Put all the laundry AWAY before going to bed–hardest thing ever for me. No me gusta el laundry.

A beautiful thought for today– Jesus will return again to Earth, and the Bible tells us that ALL will be at PEACE.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”   Isaiah 11:6

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:  for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek:  and his rest shall be glorious.”  Isaiah 11:9-10

The post The California Coast: Just don’t eat from that tree in the middle. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I love going to Point Lobos State Park. You are always guaranteed to find seals.

To kick off Alan’s big week of vacation time, we’re enjoying a big, fat staycation. First stop: Point Lobos State Park. I took such a ridiculous amount of pictures that I will have to split it into two posts. No surprise there, eh?

There’s something extra exciting about seeing ocean waves crash into mountains of rocks!! Point Lobos is situated on the north end of Big Sur, and I cannot wait to explore Big Sur further this week!!

Yeah, actually that’s not a sea lion. He’s a seal. Doh!

The boys had so much fun climbing on the big rocks, wading in the water, and running the trails. Even John David got down at the end of the day. He sat down in the pebbles and just dove in. He literally laid down in the pebbles and rolled around in them. It was adorable. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead by that point…

Caleb keeps asking to go back. I wish, Caleb!!! Soon!!!

“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”        Isaiah 1:17

Hope you all have a great week of doing well!!!

The post We Love Seals! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

It’s easy to feel happy and hopeful when life is going pretty well. Sure, life is hectic always with little boys to take care of, but at least you can find some sort of ‘normal’ in that. We are all healthy. Things have been okay. Isn’t it funny how easy it is to shake your head at the whiners when your life looks pretty good? I think it’s pretty common to become annoyed with people who are going through a hard time and are constantly whining about it.

Proverbs 14:20:

“The poor is hated even of his own neighbor:  but the rich hath many friends.”

There are many Bible verses that echo that sentiment.

No, we are not poor, not even a little bit. However, hard times do come to all of us. I have been without a place of my own since June 13th. Alan has his little hotel room in California, but the boys and I have gone between my parents’ and Alan’s parents’ houses in Alabama. We’ve been sleeping in their living rooms, invading their beds and kitchens, and in general totally disrupting their way of life.

THANKFULLY, both sets of them seem to be happy to have us. My parents were terribly sad to see us leave last week. (Sorry, ya’ll!! We do miss you!)

The thing is it’s been 40 days now, and we are ready to have our own place to call home, you know?

No problem, right? My house is mine in only one more week. We pick up our keys on August 1st. Hurray! Plane tickets are purchased, and movers are booked…..

WAIT! Not so fast. The current tenants have decided to delay a week. Oh, now, isn’t that cute?

grrrr

Do I get angry? Do I cry into my pillow and pound my fists on the floor? *Sigh* Why bother? That’s just life. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “Life is just a series of problems to be solved.” Ha! It’s true, and you know it! But as Alan’s dad recently said, “It really is just a series of problems to be solved, but thankfully there are enough good moments sprinkled in there to make it worth it.”

🙂 Sprinkle. Sprinkle.

chubby baby cheekies and Daniel quotes: At least I still have those!

Watching Joshua study animals and checking out Caleb’s latest fort–that he has constructed–in the hallway, blocking all hallway traffic…..how I love it.

children on slip-n-slides, mint Klondike bars, hearing from someone who says that they enjoy reading my blog, and big giant hugs from my handsome and amazing husband (I MISS that right now!) These things DO make it worth it.

Plus, we’ve had bonus grandparent quality time, so at least we haven’t been living in a hotel all this time!

So what now? Will we rearrange Nonna’s plane ticket for later? Will that work? She was going to help us unpack, but there will be nothing to unpack until at least August 11th. I actually will have to live in a hotel for 11 days…..yikes! Is that even possible with four children???

Ya’ll! How is this four kids/hotel thing going to work? Anyone have any advice!?

The thing about problems is that they DO happen to everybody. Do you think I’m excited about spending two months (when it’s all said and done) of this year, basically homeless? Do you think I’m not worried about how this anxiety is affecting my children? Let me tell you. They are greatly affected.

We all have hard things to deal with sometimes, right? The important thing is HOW we handle our problems. You probably think I’ve handled this well, but that’s only because you haven’t had to live with me. Ha!!  Not kidding. I have been impatient with my children and probably also a slightly ungracious house guest. I do want to do better. It reminds me of that country song, “Heaven knows she’s not an angel, but she’d really like to be….”

Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, DaddyO and Nonna, for helping us through this time. Thank you to my brother for driving Alan’s truck across the country!

I hope to do better than my best through the rest of this stressful moving process. I hope to tackle the difficulties while still managing to share God’s love with others and decrease the amount of sighing and complaining.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog. It has been the perfect outlet during these years of figuring out the whole parenting/military life thing! I know it bothered a few of you when I made the blog public last year, but thank you for sticking by me anyway.

Now let’s just pray the tenants don’t push this back any more, or we will have to find another house. I really have my heart set on living on the military base. I like the efficiency of the move-in/move-out system. I also like the whole “no security deposit” thing. Pretty awesome, huh?

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”        Psalm 34:19

“though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:24

The post Bad news from the summer that just keeps on giving appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.