Protecting The Seeds

Happy Valentine’s Day…

2012-02-14T17:17:00.001-08:00

I do not need a set day during the year to show my husband and my family how much I love them. But I’m a sucker for a good party, so I love all of the holidays. I love Valentine’s Day, and Sweetest Day because they help me FOCUS on what I love so much about my husband, why I married him, and what he means to me.

This was the best Valentine’s Day ever. Seriously…I loved it! I had thought about going out for dinner tonight, but our kids hate it when we do that. They LOVE to celebrate with us. On our anniversary I’m adamant about having that time be just for Andy and me, but Valentine’s Day is fine with me to share with the kids. I didn’t want to mess with crowds tonight, so we stayed in. I’m glad we did.

Earlier today there was a knock at the door. It was a delivery man bringing a beautiful bunch of flowers from my husband. I think I have shared here before, that flowers is not really his thing. So I was very pleasantly surprised when they arrived today.

I baked a heart shaped meatloaf for dinner, and chilled a bottle of sparkling grape juice. Here is what our table looked like with the candles.

My heart shaped meatloaf…

This is what it looked plated…with sauteed mushrooms and mashed potatoes…

Later on, we will dig into this heart shaped cake!

We had a nice skype session with our sister in law and her kids in Arizona, and we always enjoy that. Then my love and I had a nice little dance in the family room to Carly Simon’s “My Romance”.

It has been a lovely Valentine’s Day, another day to reflect on the beautiful marriage God has given me, and also love on the littles He has given us. God is good, and we are grateful! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Peanut Butter Goodness…

2012-02-13T18:56:00.001-08:00

I have been married to my dear husband for nearly 17 years. How is it that I could be married to him that long, and NOT know that his favorite cookie is peanut butter? I assumed he loved chocolate chip cookies like almost every other person in the world! :) When I asked him this week what my favorite cookie is, he knew right away…I love snickerdoodles! I felt like a ditch dog for not knowing what his favorite is.

To make it up to Andy, I found a simple recipe on Allrecipes.com, and for the first time in my life, baked a couple batches of peanut butter cookies tonight. They turned out great (you never know with me and cookies!), and Andy said they are the best he has ever had :)

Here are the little golden lovelies…

I found a very easy recipe to make these…

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg

Mix all ingredients together in mixing bowl. Place dough on cookie sheet formed in 1" balls. Bake at 325 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Leave on cookie sheet to cool until they set, and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

***Baker’s Note*** I made my cookies a little bit bigger, so I baked them for closer to 10 minutes. The recipe didn’t call for the fork imprint, but my mom always made them that way. You just fill a small bowl with milk, dip your fork in it, and make the imprint on the cookies two ways. The milk helps the batter not stick to the fork. I also sprinkled my cookies with sugar as soon as they came out of the oven. It soaks into the cookies as they set, and tastes so good! My mom also did that.

This was my first time ever making peanut butter cookies, and I love how they turned out. I’ll be making them again soon!

No Sew Blankets….And Scarves :)

2012-02-06T14:29:00.001-08:00

A few years ago my mom made no sew blankets for my littles. They LOVE them. They still sleep with them every night, take them on all of our trips, and snuggle up with them on the couch.

About a year ago, my mom taught me how to make them. I wanted to make one for a dear single lady in our church. I thought that would be the perfect gift for her, as she had no place of her own, and was struggling to make it financially. When I gave it to her, she was appalled that I would do something so special for her. It was just a no sew blanket. In return, she paid for my daughter and I to go to a mother and daughter retreat at our favorite Christian camp. I did NOT expect anything in return, but she was so touched by receiving that blanket.

I have always wanted one myself, and wanted to make one for my husband as well. I bought some fabric a while back that would match the colors in our bedroom. The base of both blankets would be a lovely kelly green, and Andy would have blue on the top of his, and I’d have burgundy on the top side of mine. This fabric has been sitting in the closet for quite a while.

Today my daughter found it, and asked if she could make a blanket. She did the whole thing from start to finish, and the end result is lovely. She made my husband’s blanket, and he is very happy with it.

Here she is lining up the fabric and getting ready to start cutting…

Next came the tying stage…

The final result…a lovely blanket!

This is the fun part. There was a long leftover strip of the green fabric, so Morgan created a no sew scarf with it. I love it! I’m sitting here with the scarf wrapped around my neck right now! I think Morgan is a better model though :)

I took these pictures with my iPhone, so they are a bit grainy. Tomorrow, Morgan will make my blanket with the burgundy and green material. She had so much fun working on the blanket today!

When the Night is Rough…

2012-02-05T04:45:00.001-08:00

I had one of those nights. It started with great sobs and feeling like the tears wouldn’t stop. They did. I could not sleep though. I tossed and turned all night, and couldn’t fall into a good sleep.

If you have had a night like that recently, or are going through things you never in a million years imagined you would, here are a few reminders that His mercies are new EVERY morning, and that in spite of what we’re going through, God is STILL good, and we should praise Him still…

Mercies Anew

Every morning that breaks there are mercies anew.
Every breath that I take is Your faithfulness proved,
And at the end of each day, when my labors are through,
I will sing of Your mercies anew

When I've fallen and strayed, there were mercies anew.
For you sought me in love and my heart you pursued.
In the face of my sin, Lord, You never withdrew.
So I sing of Your mercies anew.

And Your mercies they will never end;
For ETERNITY they remain.
And when this world's beauty has passed away,
Your mercies will be unchanged

And when the storms swirl and rage, there are mercies anew.
In affliction and pain, You will carry me through.
And at the end of my days, when your throne fills my view,
I will sing of Your mercies anew. ~ Sovereign Grace Music

When All Thy Mercies

When all Thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.

Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestowed
Before my infant heart could know
From whom those comforts flowed

When worn with sickness, oft hast Thou,
With health renewed my face,
And when in sins and sorrows bowed,
Revived my soul with grace.

Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I'll pursue,
And after death, in distant worlds,
The glorious theme renew. ~ Fernando Ortega

I Will Praise Him Still

When the morning comes on the farthest hill
I will sing His name, I will praise Him, still.
When dark trials come and my heart is filled
With the weight of doubt, I will praise Him, still.

For the Lord, our God, He is strong to save
From the arms of death, from the deepest grave,
And He gave us life in His perfect will,
And by His good grace, I will praise Him, still. ~ Fernando Ortega

Shredded Apple Pie…

2012-02-04T19:23:00.001-08:00

I found this wonderful recipe on Life As A Lofthouse’s blog. It is a recipe from a steakhouse down south, that went out of business. I thought it looked so yummy, that Morgan and I just HAD to try to make it. You’re supposed to serve it with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, but I only had whipped topping tonight. Next time I will be equipped! The pie is REALLY RICH, so the whipped cream was probably plenty. FYI…I don’t skimp on my dessert recipes, so no low fat, or no fat ingredients here. You can do that if you want…but like I said…no skimping here!

Here we go…

(In my best Julia Child voice) First…you peel the apples…The recipe calls for Red Delicious, but I used Honey Crisp. They are so sweet and flavorful. I don’t care for Red Delicious, personally. To each his own… :)

Then you shred the apples…being very careful not to shred any fingers. Morgan wanted to do this part, so I only had her shred until she got close to the core. I wanted her to have enough apple to hold onto, that her fingers would not come near the grater…She did a great job!

Next you mix all of the ingredients together, and bake all of this yummy goodness! Pay no attention to the dirty oven :(

Just out of the oven…beautiful! We put foil around the edges of the crust for the first half of baking time, so the crust would not burn.

A close up of how beautiful the crust turned out…

Cutting into our beautiful pie after we let it cool for a while…

Plating pieces of pie…

The finished product….complete with a lovely dollop of whipped cream…

Click on the link at the top of my post, and that will take you straight to the recipe for this yummy pie!

Sweetness…

2012-02-03T14:15:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, he peered over the top of my laptop, and said, “Hi, Momma S.” He melts my heart. Thankfully my phone was nearby and I was able to capture his sweet little face. We love our little Gray man…

A Trip to the Hospital…and More Food!

2012-02-02T10:58:00.001-08:00

My sweet mom “failed” a stress test at the cardiologist’s office this week, so she was scheduled for a heart catheterization the next morning. She was so scared, and worried that the cath wouldn’t be the answer and she’d have to have bypass surgery. Her heart has not been in very good shape, and because of that, she has not been able to have knee replacement surgery she desperately needs.

The heart cath was done yesterday, and the doctor was able to use a new trans-radial approach. Normally the catheter goes in through the groin, and after the procedure you have to lie very still on your back for HOURS. The trans-radial goes through your wrist, and is so much better for the patient. My mom only needed to keep her arm still, and did not have to spend the night in the hospital.

The procedure went really well, and mom is doing great. The doctor was able to repair the blocked artery with a balloon, as opposed to a stent, and said her heart is fine and she can have her knee surgery. I got to whisper that in her ear as she was coming out of her sedation, and she got the sweetest groggy grin on her face. :) She will be so glad to have that done.

I saw her today, and she is looking great. She gave us the fixins’ for a turkey dinner tonight, including my favorite….turnip!

Mom instructed me on how to cook it, and I can’t wait to try it. I’m the only one here that likes them, so I’ll be having some for lunch tomorrow. It’s great with a little butter and sea salt on it! Yum!!

I was browsing my favorite cooking blogs and came across these wonderful cookies for Valentine’s Day. I am not a fan of Oreos, but these homemade strawberry Oreos look great! I found them at Six Sisters Stuff, and can’t wait to make them with Morgan sometime next week. Ah, who am I kidding? I can’t wait to EAT them! :) Don’t they look yummy?

In addition to my favorite recipe blogs, I also find a lot of great ideas on Pinterest, and Punchfork.com. Not many people know about Punchfork. It is very similar to Pinterest, except it is ALL recipes. You can type in a dish, and TONS of recipes will pop up for it. I really like that site.

I’ll be back with more fun food ideas soon!

Great Lunch Ideas…

2012-01-31T10:10:00.001-08:00

I don’t know about you, but I always struggle to come up with new lunch ideas for my kids. We home school, so I don’t just pack a lunch and send them off with it. I like to make a warm, filling lunch for them, so they are nice and full when we do our afternoon lessons. I hate to stop for snacks :(.

As I have said before, I plan my menus 2 weeks at a time and buy groceries every 2 weeks for those menus. I decided to start planning breakfast/lunch menus as well so I wouldn’t have to figure out every day what to fix. I like the items I chose for those menus, but I also wanted to find some ideas so we can change things up a bit from time to time. The key for me is “simple”. I don’t have a lot of time to make anything fancy, but I want it to be simple and yummy.

In the course of my decreasing the number of blogs I follow, I kept all of the cooking blogs, and blogs that share recipes. I love Jamie cooks it up, Life as a Lofthouse, Six Sisters Stuff, and Many’s Recipe Box. I have gotten some great ideas for dinners, lunches and desserts from those blogs. I thought I would share a couple with you!

Taco Cupcakes! If I was having a Super Bowl party this weekend, I would so make these! They are easy, and they look delicious. You can substitute low-fat, or non-fat ingredients as you need to, and that is the beauty of it. This idea came from Life as a Lofthouse, and I can’t wait to try them…Don’t they look yummy?! :)

Taco Cupcakes
Recipe by: Plain Chicken

1 lb lean ground beef (I used 96% lean)
1 packet taco seasoning
2/3 cup water
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
36 wonton wrappers
Favorite Taco toppings: salsa, sour cream, etc

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain grease. Stir in taco seasoning, water and black beans. Bring mixture to a boil, and then reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 10 minutes, or until water is absorbed.
Spray 18 regular muffin cups with cooking spray. Place one wonton wrapper in each muffin cup. Divide half of the meat mixture between muffin cups. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the meat. Repeat layers with another wonton wrapper, taco meat and cheese.
Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and wrappers are golden brown. Serve with your favorite taco toppings!

Then today, I was looking at the same blog, and found these little beauties…my kids will love these! They would also be great for a party, but my kids will love them for lunch too!

Pepperoni Rollups

Pepperoni Roll Ups
Recipe from: Taste of Home

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated Pillsbury crescent rolls
32 slices pepperoni (I used Hormel's turkey pepperoni slices)
4 pieces string cheese, cut in half
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
Marinara or Pizza sauce, for dipping

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll crescent dough; separate into 8 triangles. Place 4 pepperoni slices on the large end of each triangle. Place one half string cheese on the top of the pepperonis. Roll up towards point. Place roll ups atleast 2 inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Mix together Italian seasoning and melted butter. Brush over the tops of the roll ups. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm!

I’ll share some of the great dessert and dinner ideas I have gotten later!

Real Marriage…

2012-01-29T10:55:00.001-08:00

I am reading a GREAT book right now. Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and his wife Grace, wrote a wonderful book called, “Real Marriage” (there’s more to the title, but it uses the “s” word, and I’m afraid that will put me on some weird search engines :). It is a book like NO OTHER I have read on the subject of marriage. I just started it yesterday, and I can’t put it down.

As we came into 2012, I was very convicted about how I am investing in my marriage and my family. What things am I doing to bring us closer, and what things am I doing that are driving us apart?

I realized how important it is for my husband and my family, that my relationship with God is of utmost importance to me. I began to work harder to cultivate that. My standing with Christ is not based on my works, but His grace that saved me, and my faith and belief in Him. But it takes work to be a Christian in today’s culture, and I have been intentional about doing that work. It’s important for me to be in the Word every day, and to spend time in prayer every day.

It is important to cultivate my friendship with my husband. Mark, in his book, made the point that many of the “self help” books out there on marriage, don’t even comment on friendship being a significant and important part of a couple’s marriage. Couples, when they get to the empty nest years, find they have nothing in common, nothing to talk about, and don’t really want to spend time together. That is because they didn’t work hard to cultivate a friendship. If a couple is friends, all of the other “stuff” will fall into place…parenting, responsibilities, intimacy..you get my drift.

The book gives several ways you can cultivate your friendship with your spouse, and one of those is “to respect him technologically”. I love that term. What it means is that when you have an ounce of free time (which is iffy for a part-time working, full-time mommying, homeshcooling, house cleaning mom), you are not curled up in a corner on your computer, on your cell phone, or watching tv. Instead you are curled up in a corner with your best friend, cultivating your friendship, and spending time together. I LOVE that.

I have been contemplating that a lot in the last 24 hours, and have decided what that means for me. It means scaling way down on my computer time, reducing my Facebook friends to only friends I know personally and family (I don’t mind missing out on news from people I know and family, because I know I’ll eventually hear it in person), deleting unnecessary apps off of my iPhone so I’m not tempted to sit and play with them when I have a free minute, reducing the number of blogs I follow/read to just my favorite jeweler, and my closest online friends, and recipe blogs because I LURVE them, and they are a great help to me. :) It means only blogging when I have a free minute during the day, and NOT when my man is in the vicinity. It means cultivating and growing my relationship with God so that I can love Andy better. It means tuning all the “noise” of the world out when my husband is home, so I can truly be his “helper”, and whatever else he needs from me. If he truly becomes my BEST friend, then he will be the best everything else we are together as well. I.Want.That. Do you?

My blog posts may not be as often, but they will be about things I love, things I’m learning, fun things we’re doing, ways we’re growing, things we’re reading, and how God is growing us. I think that is how God can make His name great through this blog.

I’m just getting to the good part of the book (the “you know what” chapter). Just keeping it real… I’ll let you know what I thought about the whole book when I’m done with it. Mark & Grace are living examples of how God can heal a marriage, make two people the best of friends, and redeem the “years the locusts have eaten”. You know I’m all over that…He’s done it for us too.

Real Marriage, by Mark & Grace Driscoll…you.must.read :)

**EDIT** Andy asked me if I would read the book with him, so I started over, and we’re reading the book together :) LOVE it!

Weekly Menus…

2012-01-21T18:00:00.001-08:00

I have talked about my cooking software on this blog before. For Christmas this year, my husband bought me the latest update. It has made my meal/menu planning that much easier, and I absolutely love the software. It is so easy to make up menus, generate grocery lists, and print up menus/recipes so they are on hand and ready to go each week. I thought I would start sharing my menus on my blog again. You’ll see that my meals are very easy, and don’t involve a lot of preparation. I’m not a great cook, so “easy” is my theme song. :) I’ll post my menus each week, and if you see a recipe you think you’d be interested in, let me know and I’ll post that too. I get many of my recipes from other blogs and websites, so I’ll give credit to those sites, and you can visit them…especially if I have to “tweak” the recipe at all for our tastes.

So…here is our dinner menu for this coming week. The picture is of our dish for Thursday night ~ Three Cheese Pasta Bake.

Sunday ~ Cheese Dreams

Monday ~ Amy’s Chicken Casserole
Green Beans

Tuesday ~ BLTs

Wednesday ~ Creamy Velvet Chicken Soup

Thursday ~ Three Cheese Pasta Bake
Green Beans

Friday ~ Tacos
Refried Beans

Saturday ~ Pizza

Sunday evenings we get home late, so we need something quick and easy. Cheese dreams are very easy to make, and we will either have those on Sunday evenings, or Sloppy Joes, or hot dogs. Something quick and easy. Saturday evenings will be pizza night at our house. We start with simple frozen pizzas, and buy the toppings to doctor them up. I tried making a whole pizza from scratch once, and it didn’t go well. It’s easier to just buy a frozen cheese pizza, and add what we like.

I am also planning our breakfast/lunch menus, but those items are the same every week. There is enough variety that we won’t get bored, and again, I needed things on the list that are easy and quick to prepare. We home school here, so I don’t have a lot of time to prepare extravagant breakfasts and lunches. I want something good, healthy, and filling, and I think I have come up with those things in my menus. All that to say, since they’re the same every week, I’ll just share our dinner menus with you.

Don’t forget to comment if you would like the recipe for one of our meals!

Reflections Of The Way Life Used To Be…

2012-01-20T16:06:00.001-08:00

I am not a very big fan of change. 2011 for us was a BIG year of change. We had changes in our church that were SO painful to go through…dear friends leaving after being there for years with us. This caused an uneasiness in our hearts and caused us to question ourselves if we were where God wants us to be.

We watched friendships that were once close, all but disappear before our eyes. Contact was less and less before it just stopped. Beloved family members no longer have relationship with us. One so hateful and angry that his words bite and sting our hearts. Others, just no words at all where there was once a treasured friendship.

We came to the end of 2011 with hurting hearts. We entered 2012 praying that it would be a better year. We came into it with a new attitude. Our only comfort in life is that God is our Father, He is our friend, He is our brother, He is the only constant, and truly the only One we can depend on. That is as it should be, and may be why we have watched Him strip almost every relationship that was important to us away, until our only focus is Him. Maybe those very relationships we treasured became an idol, because they kept us from the One who deserves our love, affection, and time.

What we did see God do in 2011 that was good, is that He brought us closer together as a family than we’ve ever been. We love each other more than we ever have, the four of us, and our marriage is stronger than ever. It has been a fight with all that came against us.

We did not come out of 2011 unscathed or unscarred. But we came out with renewed hope and trust that God knows all things, He is in control of all things, and He has our best good in mind ALL THE TIME. He is changing US, and molding and making us into the family that He wants us to be. There are no 3 people on this earth that I would rather spend time with than the 3 I have right here in my home.

So, though I don’t like change, and I reflect on how things used to be, I’m grateful for all that God has done in our lives, and all that He has taught us as a family, and as a couple. It has deepened our affections for Christ, and made us love Him more…I wouldn’t trade that for anything we have lost in the process…

I love these 3 with all of my heart, and I’m grateful that they are part of my life. God is good….ALL THE TIME!

An Update…

2012-01-20T15:08:00.001-08:00

We got back into the swing of school just in time for me to come down with the flu. Blech! I would almost rather have a cold any day! I thought it would just be a 24 hour thing, but it seems to be hanging on. Morgan has also come down with something in her eye. It doesn’t look like pink eye…maybe a blocked tear duct or something like that. I’ll be taking her to the doctor in the morning.

While I was resting yesterday, Morgan took it upon herself to do school on her own. She asked for some cardboard from a box in our laundry room, and about an our later came up with this…

A darling little project on Africa! She had all sorts of fun facts on the board, and did a little presentation to show it to me. It was great. She did the presentation again when Daddy got home. I think the “principal” was very impressed!

Hopefully I’ll get better soon, and we’ll be able to get back to our lessons on Monday. I hope no one else gets this either!

Prayer Week…

2012-01-08T12:46:00.001-08:00

This was prayer week at our church. I miss the prayer weeks gone by where we would gather for a “Concert of Prayer”. I would either play softly under the prayers, or just get to sit there and participate. At the end of the week we used to have a prayer vigil that went until just before midnight. At 11:30 we would gather to have the Lord’s Supper together…I loved it so much.

Our church has moved prayer week to the first week in January, which didn’t work out for us to really participate with our church family. There was no Concert of Prayer this week, and no vigil on Friday night :(. So most of our participation was just as a family at home.

Our Pastor suggested the book, “A Praying Life” by Paul Miller to use as a companion this week. I had started reading the book months ago, but got distracted. This week I have really tried to read it in earnest, and not get distracted. That has not been a problem. I can hardly put it down. My favorite quote in the book so far has been this one: “If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life. You'll always be a little too tired, a little too busy. But if, like Jesus, you realize you can't do it on your own, then no matter how busy, no matter how tired you are, you will find the time to pray.”

I have been convicted in the past about my prayer life, and really want to embrace it this year and move it from being the “spare tire” of my life to the “steering wheel”. I want it to be what precedes ANYTHING I do in my life. Jesus never did anything without the Father, that’s why the crucifixion was so painful for Him…God had to turn His face away. I don’t want to do anything without Him either. I want to be in constant communication with Him, so I don’t go about any little thing in my day without Him being in it with me.

I have also been convicted about the time I spend in the Word. I have always wanted to read through the Bible, but the plans that are out there seemed to have an overwhelming amount of reading per day, and I have great struggles with keeping my mind focused on ANY reading…let alone tons of it. A friend of mine posted a link to a reading program through the Gospel Coalition, and it’s a 2 year read through the Bible program. I started it January 1st, and it is going well. It gives me 2 catch up days a month, but so far I have not needed them. It’s not a great deal of reading a day, so it allows me to really contemplate what I have read, and meditate on it.

I can always tell when God is IN something. In the first week of reading, I have found many verses that I’ve thought would minister to someone and I’ve either shared them on my Facebook, or with someone personally. Not only is God teaching me as I read, but He’s ministering to others through what I’m reading as well. I love that.

I’ll probably be sharing posts as the reading progresses, as well as how our lives unfold in 2012. The year is off to a good start here at PTS Academy. We are grateful to God for the many ways He has, and continues, to bless us…

More From Christmas Week…

2011-12-30T17:32:00.001-08:00

Our fun week with family is almost over. There have been ups and downs this week. Thankfully, the ups have outweighed the downs, but the downs have been painful. It’s sad to me that this has to happen with family. I guess it makes me more grateful for the 3 that I have right here to love on. God has knit us together in such a way that all the extended stuff doesn’t get to me like it used to. I’m grateful for what God has given me…

Here are some more favorite pictures from a great week so far…

No one was paying attention in this picture except Andy’s brother. It’s a great picture of him waving at the camera!

This is one of my favorite pictures…the four grandsons watching the Harlem Globetrotters…

Morgan and her best friend cousin Caterina… these girlies are like sisters!

Our family room with girls on the couch, boys on the floor for our super fun cousins sleepover…

Another view of the fabulous sleepover…they don’t know how blessed they are. I never got to do this with my cousins…

The three granddaughters…

This next one makes me cry. It goes oldest to youngest R-L, and we’re missing one girl on the right. How I wish she could be in this picture too. Then we’d have four boys and four girls. :) Athena, the youngest, LOVED hanging out with the big girls. They were so sweet to include her.

We had Christmas today with my family, and Morgan got to hang out with her best friend cousin on my side. They look more like sisters to me. They planned their matched outfits this morning, and even put on a lovely musical for us at the gathering. On my side, these girls are the youngest. :)

We got Andy’s sister to take a picture of our family for us…

Lastly all of the children together at my MIL’s house…

I think we’ll see each other tomorrow, and then our dear cousins will head back to Arizona, and the others will slip back into their busy lives…as will we. It’s been a great time together…though different. People change, hearts change, relationships end, and we are left to deal with those changes. God has given us great grace to do that, and has reminded us over and over this year that He WILL NEVER LEAVE US, NOR WILL HE FORSAKE US. We carry that into 2012 with us, and pray that God will make us a light in the darkness, and allow us to be the instruments He uses to bring hope to those who are without Him. He has been everything to us, and He is the reason that at the end of 2011 we still stand together as a family, stronger, more in love with each other than we’ve ever been, and going hard after God because HE IS FAITHFUL!

If I’m not back with anymore pictures/reports, I wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR. Take Jesus with you into 2012…you will not regret it. My only resolution this year is to know Him more…and as a result…love everyone that He has placed in my life BETTER.

Grace to you all in 2012!

Pictures From Our Day…

2011-12-28T20:24:00.001-08:00

We took the kids to see “Tintin” at the theater today. All 7 cousins were there today, but 3 came as the movie was starting, and then left as soon as it was over. So I didn’t get any pictures of them. But here are the famous four posing by the Tintin sign…

And true to form, when these kids get together, you KNOW there just has to be a silly picture in the bunch!

They’ll be here until Sunday, so I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to share. We got to have them all to ourselves last night for a sleepover, so that was the HIGHLIGHT of our week…how we love these children!

Christmas 2011…

2011-12-27T12:26:00.001-08:00

We had probably one of the best Christmases we have ever had. I came down with a horrible bug late last week, so getting ready for Christmas was a bit difficult. We went to our Christmas Eve service at church, but sat in the back as I was coughing so much.

Christmas Day it was just the four of us, and I would love for it to be that way EVERY year. We just relaxed, had a couple yummy meals together, read Scripture together, opened gifts together, and just enjoyed each other’s company. Not one of us got out of our pajamas that day, and it was WONDERFUL!

Yesterday we got together with our Arizona family who are in town for the week. My kids were SO excited to see their favorite cousins, and they had a blast hanging out with them. My FIL got tickets for all of us to go see the Harlem Globetrotters, and that was really fun….and they won! ;) Don’t they always???

In a bit we’re going to go meet everyone at a yummy burger joint downtown, and hopefully hang out for the evening. My kids want to be with their cousins every possible minute they can.

Here are some pictures from the festivities so far… My littles posing on the church platform for their annual Christmas picture. Look how tall my boy has gotten!!!

Lovely vintage earrings I treated myself to this Christmas…

Our lovely pre-lit Christmas tree! LOVE this tree…hardly any work, and it’s so pretty. We strung lights around the windows this year too!

A lovely tradition that I hope we keep up until they leave home. SO fun to look back at the pictures over the years…

A bundle of presents, and tiny Christmas Tree Village (GREAT find at the dollar store!)

My favorite gift…a darling ornament that Morgan bought for me. She knows how important it is for me to include Madison in our celebration somehow. I had not had a chance to buy her ornament, so Morgan found this one…I LOVE it!

Cousins so happy to be together again…they adore each other so much, and it’s as if they’ve never been apart when they get together!

And since there must ALWAYS be one silly picture taken…this is CLASSIC of these goofy kids!

Fun with the Harlem Globetrotters!

Took this shot of my FIL’s beautiful mantle, and put the oil painting effect on it…love it.

More fun to come this week! I’ll post more as I can!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours!

Best Christmas Memory…

2011-12-16T14:04:00.001-08:00

I believe that nothing can top your first Christmas together as a married couple. You begin to establish your own traditions, divide your time between both sides of the family, and you have your own celebrations that will make memories never to be forgotten.

In the summer of 1996, we realized that we would celebrate our second Christmas with a baby. We would have a family, new ornaments, and the joy of a little one to share those precious times with. It was a dream I had had since I was a little girl, and there was nothing in the world I wanted more than to be a wife, and a mother.

Many of you know that the latter part of that dream crashed and burned for us in August of 1996. That baby we had so looked forward to sharing Christmas with, died. She died. In only our second year of marriage we buried a child.

Instead of joy, I looked forward to that Christmas with dread. I didn’t even want a tree. We received ornaments to put on the tree for a little girl that would never be in our home. We had a third stocking that would never be filled with Christmas goodies. Instead of baby gifts, I bought a grave blanket and trudged through the snow to uncover my daughter’s grave and rest the blanket there. I hated that Christmas. The whole focus was on a baby, and my baby was dead. I could barely stand to sing the Christmas carols, and could barely tolerate the family get togethers. My SIL had had a baby 5 weeks after we lost Madison, and though she was very sensitive to us during that time, it was still so difficult to watch everyone hold him, and not be able to share our daughter in the same way. It was the most painful holiday season I have ever been through.

The next spring, we found out we were expecting another baby. Because we were “surprised” with Madison, and she ended up dying, I never got to call her by her name or know while I was carrying her what sex she was. I decided that I would not go through that again. At our ultrasound appointment I found out I was carrying a baby boy. We had already picked his name, so we began calling him “Parker”, and using his name when we talked to him.

Parker’s due date was January 3, 1998. For me, that meant ANOTHER Christmas with no baby. There was the anxious hope of one, but he would not be there for Christmas. I remember crying out to God one evening in the fall and saying, “Jesus, I KNOW this is selfish, but I just CAN’T go through another Christmas without a baby in my arms.” I didn’t believe God would answer that prayer in my favor, but I wanted to let Him know my heart.

All through that pregnancy I was high risk, and watched closely because of what happened with Madison. Late in my pregnancy, it was determined that a normal birth would not be safe or wise for Parker and me. I had a lot of things going on medically, and our biggest priority was to bring a LIVE baby into this world. I wanted the normal birth (I got to have that with Madison), but not at the cost of my baby’s life. It was determined that the safest and best route for us would be a scheduled c-section. My doctor felt it was best to not let Parker go past 37 weeks in my womb, because that is when we lost Madison. I had the same health struggles, and for safety reasons we agreed to it.

37 weeks for me meant that the baby would be born in 1997, and most likely right before Christmas! If I went into labor before 37 weeks my doctor would go ahead and deliver, but he wanted to keep Parker baking as long as possible because an amnio at 36 weeks had determined his lungs were not ready (due to my diabetes). We scheduled the c-section for December 17th.

On December 17, 1997 I gave birth (by c-section) to the most beautiful little boy I have ever laid eyes on. He was not breathing on his own when he was born, so I was only given a split second to see him before he was whisked off to the NICU, where he remained for the next 5 days.

15 hours after my surgery, our nurse (a dear friend who was also with me for Madison’s normal birth) put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me to the NICU. It was 3:00 in the morning, and the lights were dim. I watched a nurse lift a tiny bundle out of an incubator. He had seemingly hundreds of wires and tubes attached to him. She walked over to me, and placed that bundle in my arms for the first time. He was wide awake, and two of the biggest, most beautiful brown eyes locked with mine, and I was in love! I got to hold him for 30 glorious minutes while the nurses tended to other little ones on the other side of the room. Parker watched me as I spoke to him, kissed his face, and sang to him. Those little eyes looked at me with recognition, and I was thrilled to realize he was mine, he was breathing, (with help), and he was alive. This little man would come home with me.

Once I was able to get up and walk on my own, I was down at the NICU every second I possibly could be, spending time with my little man. I was allowed to try to nurse him a few times, but he had to be on the oxygen so we couldn’t keep him out of his bed long. I remember weeping uncontrollably the day I got to wheel him out of the NICU and bring him to my own room to stay. I will never forget the feeling of picking him up and sitting in the rocker with him, knowing he was my son, and he was safely here. This time, I would leave that hospital with a baby in my arms…

One week after his birthday I packed him up and took him to our church’s Christmas Eve service. I have never been more proud in my life, as I was when I walked to the front of the church carrying my beautiful baby boy, to pick up a candle for “Silent Night”. How grateful I was that God had given me the desire of my heart….a Christmas baby. The early birth was the safest thing for both of us, and Parker got strong and thrived fast. He has been healthy as a horse since, and has been the most delightful son ever a mother could ask for.

Parker is my favorite Christmas memory… God’s gift to this world was the birth of His Son, our Savior. God’s gift to me that Christmas was the birth of my son, bringing healing and joy back to our home, and fulfilling a lifelong dream for me.

Tomorrow that precious gift will turn 14! He is becoming a man, and I can hardly believe it. I look up to his face now, and listen to his voice deepen. His eyes are the same, that darling grin is still there, and when we sit together on the couch, he will still take my hand and play with my pinky finger…who needed a pacifier? He just wanted to hold momma’s hand :) I love that boy with all of my heart, and thank God every day for the extraordinary gift that Parker was and is to me.

Happy Birthday Parker Andrew…my heart overflows with immense love for you!

Here is Parker’s first picture in the NICU. His Oma took this, because I was still recovering from the surgery, and had to wait until the anesthesia wore off to get up and walk. I was sad that others saw him before me, but I’m glad to have this first picture of him.

Here is our little pumpkin a week later. We laid him on the couch next to a stocking to show how tiny he was :)

Here is my sweet boy today…sigh…

Happy Birthday darling boy! God has used you to do wonderful things in our family, and I know He will use you throughout your life for His glory. We are blessed to call you our son!

Easy Lunch Idea…

2011-12-05T15:17:00.001-08:00

My parents were here for Thanksgiving, and my mom and I were talking about things I make for the kids for lunch. I always struggle with that meal, because my husband takes our dinner leftovers, and I don’t want to just feed them soup from a can. I have made quesadillas for lunch, and a few other things, but needed some more ideas. We home school, and take care of a little three year old in our home, so lunch prep must be simple and fast.

My mom gave me this great idea for Tortilla Pizzas. She makes them for my dad, and they take just minutes to make. All you do is put all of the pizza fixins on a flour tortilla (gluten free or wheat can also be used), and bake. I baked 2 of the pizzas today, but they didn’t turn out that great. So the third one I put under the broiler, and it turned out perfect. The tortilla was a bit crispy around the edges, and it was great. I put pizza sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms on mine, and it was so yummy. I used the huge fajita sized tortillas, and cut the pizza in half with my pizza slicer. I was able to fold each half over when I ate it, and it was like a pizza sandwich. It only took me a little over 10 minutes to make lunch for the 3 of us. Here’s what mine looked like…

I’d love to find some more easy ideas for lunches, so if you have any leave me a comment!

A Thanksgiving Collage…

2011-11-29T12:39:00.001-08:00

Just a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend…

We had my parents over for Thanksgiving, and the turkey was SO GOOD…if I do say so myself. My mom taught me her “secret” to the perfect gravy, and my son is one happy boy! He LOVES gravy.

The day after Thanksgiving we headed over to the west side of our state (the same beach we spent a week at this summer). It sure is a different place this time of year. The marina is empty, the beach is empty, and we got into our favorite restaurant without an hour wait! We met my SIL and her kids, and had the best time with them!

Andy and I came home sick with this upper respiratory gunk that we just can’t kick. I’ve been coughing up a storm, and just resting the past few days. We did manage to put up the Christmas decorations on Sunday evening, and I was so glad to get that done. The house looks so pretty with all of the decorations out. The tree is beautiful, and we even strung lights around our living room window…we’ve never done that before!

Right now our power is out, and the battery on my laptop is about to give out, so I’ll have to close for now… I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! On to Christmas!!!

Happy Thanksgiving…

2011-11-23T18:57:00.001-08:00

I’ve been missing from my blog for a bit. I took it offline while I prayed about continuing it, and it removed some of the blogs I follow. I had to go find everyone tonight, and re-follow :)

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is already here. My mom and dad are coming over for the day. I get them all to myself. :) This is only the second time in our marriage that I have made the turkey, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m doing the turkey, the stuffing, the potatoes, and a mixed vegetable. My mom is bringing turnips (my FAVORITE), cranberries, pickles, and pies. She will also make the gravy once the turkey is done (she makes the BEST).

My family sweetly helped me get the house cleaned up tonight. All we have to do in the morning is clean the bathroom after showers, and do all the cooking. Dinner will be around 1:30 or so. I LOVE Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to spend that time with just my parents and my little family.

On Friday we’re heading off to see my sister in law Cathy, and her kids. It’s just an overnight visit, but our only chance to see her before next summer. Then we’ll be back and will decorate for Christmas on Sunday afternoon/evening. I can’t wait for that. Since my family helped so willingly tonight, I gave in to their pleas for Christmas music tonight. Normally we don’t play it until after Thanksgiving…I like to celebrate one holiday at a time here! :)

The decorations and music will all come out on Sunday, and I even have a blog background that is festive for Christmas ready to go. I’m back for now :) Not sure how much I’ll be able to post as our home school, part-time jobs, and church responsibilities are much more involved this year. I’ll be here when I can! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I’ll see you soon!

Fall Festival…

2011-10-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

A nature center not far from us has a fall festival every year. I don’t know why we never went before, but this was our second year going. There were lots of fun things to do. There was a hayride through the woods (no wait this year, but a GREAT LONG ride), a petting zoo that was so great, lots of pumpkins to buy, a climbing tower (had to be taken down because of the wind), a train ride for the little ones, live folk music, a campfire for roasting marshmallows, pumpkin bowling, and free cider and donuts (my dad’s rotary club was there serving them). They had popcorn and candy to give out, and free face painting also.

I decided this year not to lug my big camera bag around with me, and just take my iPhone. I think it takes some pretty wonderful pictures. I mainly use my good camera now for pictures at home, and photo shoots.

We had a lot of fun at the festival, and I got some fun pictures. The fun thing about taking photos on my iPhone is that I can edit them right on the phone. There are lots of fun photo editing apps available, and that is right up my alley. The newest app I found with the software update is a photo collage app. I used that today, and made a collage of our day at the festival. It has some fun backgrounds, and lots of ways to tweak the pictures to make them fit different ways. I like how it turned out…

The animals were great, though I didn’t groove too much on the snake around my girl’s neck :(. I took that picture from a distance :). I can almost feel the heat of that campfire though, and smell the burning leaves….mmmmm…

We had a great time at the festival, and look forward to doing it again next year!

I LOVE Photography….

2011-10-10T13:20:00.001-07:00

I LOVE to take pictures! I LOVE my camera, and I love my most favorite subjects…my littles! Each year I take their school pictures. I’ll bet we could get much better pictures if we had them done professionally, but this saves us money, I love to do it, and I think they turn out just fine. :)

Saturday, late afternoon, we grabbed some “props”, and my camera bag and set off to find a location. We settled on a lovely old estate not too far from us. It’s much smaller than another nearby estate which seems to be my “go to” location. This one was very nice. It involved a lovely fountain, and lots of trees. The colors weren’t as vibrant there as I had hoped they would be, so we’re going to go back out next week to another location, and shoot some more. The kids REALLY want me to shoot them on a railroad track, so we’ll do that then too. :)

Both of my kids are pretty photogenic (If I do say so myself), but Parker just wants to shoot and get it over with. I usually only get around 10 shots of him if I’m lucky. Morgan, on the other hand, WORKS that camera! She is so fun to shoot. I don’t even have to tell her what to do. She just poses, and I shoot. It’s so much fun.

Here are some of our pictures for our FIRST fall shoot…

I just think she is stunning :)

We got one fun one before Parker pooped out on us… :)

Parker and Daddy went on a hike, and I just shot some pics of my girl for a bit…

Finally…oil painting of brother and sister walking off together…

Can’t wait to take them out again next week!

I Love Fall!!!

2011-10-01T13:51:00.001-07:00

Haven’t been around the blog for a bit, so I thought I should pop in and say hello! I’m cleaning my house today, and FINALLY getting my decorations out…all 3 of them! :) I’ve never really collected fall decorations, so what I have is just from gifts I’ve been given. Here are a couple pictures of what I put out today. These tables are both in the family room, which is where we spend most of our time.

I don’t even know where I got that little apple, but it’s cute just sitting on that table with my littles :)

The apples on the next table I got from a “Secret Sister” that sent me a whole package of fall stuff one year. These sit on a hope chest in our family room that sort of serves as a coffee table/foot rest. That is my favorite fall candle from Yankee Candle in the middle. It’s called “Autumn Leaves”. Next to my very favorite which is “Cinnamon” at Christmas time, I just love the smell of the autumn candle. It’s so beautiful…

I was moving some stuff around today and found these coasters. I received them as a Christmas gift years ago. I love them, because each coaster has a place for a picture under the glass. I have been filling them with fall 2010 pics of my littles, and they are so much fun to see when I go to use one with my cup of tea. I moved them into the family room today, and set them on the table that is next to my favorite chair. Now I will see their smiling faces each time I have a cup of coffee/tea! I love them!

Post some of your favorite things, or fall decorations, and I’ll come and check them out! Happy fall everyone! Can you believe it’s October??? :)

The Lazy Days of Summer…

2011-09-02T10:54:00.001-07:00

I’m trying to console myself over the fact that today is the last day of summer. We have a long weekend, and then on Tuesday we are full swing back into school. My kids have a lot on the docket this year. Aside from the stuff we will do at home: English, spelling, math, history, reading, copywork, Bible…they will have 3 courses they will take at our co-op. They will be doing this… Introductory Logic

And this… Apologia Physical Science

They will also be taking a civics course, but I’m not sure what book they’ll be using for that.

We’ll be continuing with the Queen’s Copywork series, because I LURVE it!. There are some great quotes, Scripture verses, and poems the kids have to copy, it gives them great writing practice. Our Rod & Staff English also has writing lessons every few lessons, but they are pretty tedious, and my littles hate doing them. My friend Heidi gave me a great idea for writing practice, and it will also give my kids typing practice. They already practice their handwriting with the Copywork, so learning typing skills will be an asset too.

Once a month both children will put out their own one-page newspaper/newsletter. They will review the books they have read on their reading lists, will review what they’ve been doing in their lessons, and will update on any family news. There will be a small section for a comic/picture that they will each draw. The newspaper will be printed and sent to my MIL so she knows we are actually teaching our children at home :). It will also give them writing/typing practice. Great idea huh? I loved it!

We don’t have a reading curriculum per se, but we will be heading to the library next week and the kids will pick 10 chapter books that must be read by the end of the semester. They are not the biggest fans of reading, so we’ll start with 10 and see how they do. I’ll give bonus points for extra books read. The books they pick will be the ones they review in their newspapers, and they must write a book report on each book they read as well, so I know they read it. :)

It’s going to be a fun, but busy year….I’m really looking forward to it! I’ll post our annual first day of school picture on Tuesday! :) You’ll be able to tell by the looks on their faces how THRILLED my littles are to be back to school! ;)

50 Years…

2011-09-01T13:12:00.001-07:00

We celebrated my Mom & Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary last weekend. We had a lovely ceremony at our church with our pastor, and then we headed to the Royal Park Hotel for a reception. It was a great day of celebrating with my parents. My Mom and Dad were like two kids during the ceremony…so cute. My dad went to kiss my mom before it was time, and she smooshed his face back…it was so funny. The dinner at the hotel was out of this world, and we had a great time visiting with family, and my parents’ closest friends. My Uncle even flew my dad’s sister in for the occasion as a surprise. We haven’t seen them since the 40th celebration, so it was great to have them here. I got to play for the ceremony, and my precious niece Ellen sang the song my dad taught her when she was just a toddler, “Amazing Grace”. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures of the occasion…

My oldest sister and my brother stood up with my parents…

My niece Ellen singing…

The ring ceremony…they gave each other new rings :)

A final blessing…

The paparazzi :)

The gorgeous cake…yummy too!

The happy couple on the terrace at the Royal Park Hotel… I thought my mom looked stunning in this color…

I wanted to get a really nice photo of my sibs and me with my parents….this is what they did :) Notice who is cooperating in the picture :)

Here are my parents with my dad’s brother and sister and spouses…Dad’s brother and sister are in the middle…

Lovely view from the hotel terrace…

Our Pastor Brent, and his lovely wife Kathy…

A sweet kiss at the reception…

It was a great evening, and I think my parents really enjoyed themselves. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

15 Years…

2011-08-31T11:16:00.001-07:00

On this day 15 years ago, Andy and I rode in a limousine for the first time. The limousine carried us to the cemetery, with our little daughter in a tiny casket between us on the seat…

Madison would have been 15 years old on August 26. I can hardly believe that, as some days I can remember the events of that day so vividly it feels like yesterday to me.

We had a pretty tough week last week for a lot of reasons. I won’t go into all that…I didn’t feel much like posting last week, so this will be it. I have come to the conclusion that people don’t understand grief, and especially grief over the loss of a child, unless they have walked that journey. It is excruciating sometimes. Even 15 years later. I wrote quite a bit on my Facebook statuses last week, just because I feel like I’m fighting to keep her memory alive. God put us on the hearts of many friends/sisters in Christ last week, and they were a great encouragement to me. Someone remembered…

I’m writing a book…I don’t mean this post is long…I’m really writing a book. I have waited for the right time to tell Madison’s story and the horrific years that followed, and I believe that is now. I have had SEVERAL people encourage me lately to do it, and I’m going to go for it! One friend has some publishing contacts for me, and my dear Ellen has offered to read it/edit it for me as she walked through much of the journey with me. I feel very strongly that GOD wants me to write this story, for the women out there who like me “didn’t do it right”. I have read so many stories of women who have lost children that grieved in a very God-glorifying way. Though the books are a great encouragement to me, sometimes it can be discouraging, because I didn’t grieve that way. I went down a VERY dark road on my grief journey, letting it consume me in a horrible way. I know there are other ladies out there who have done the same thing (I have spoken to a few), and those are the ladies this book will be for. I want to show the power of Christ to redeem a life, turn it around, and make all that was awful turn out for that person’s good, and the glory of God. I paid a high price for that sinful time in my life, and still continue to with broken relationships, and struggles in my home because of the level I sunk to. But Joel 2:25 says, “I will restore to you the years the swarming locusts have eaten”, and we have been seeing God mercifully do that in our lives for the past 6 years. It has been amazing to watch. THANK GOD I am not that momma anymore. I accepted Madison’s death as the sovereign will of God in my life, and I do not try to hold onto her anymore.

It occurred to me last week on one particularly hard day, that though it seems each year I get farther and farther away from her, I’m actually one year closer to her…that is a comforting thought. One day my sweet girl and I will be reunited, and there will be no more tears, or deep heart ache. We will be in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, TOGETHER…totally gives me shivers to even think of!

Writing will take some time, and so will home schooling, and all of my responsibilities at church that increase in the fall. My blog will have to take a back seat for a bit…but I promise I’ll keep you as updated on our lives as I can, what fun things we’re studying, new recipes we’re trying, and also how the book is coming. I would greatly appreciate your prayers. It will be painful to “relive” that time in my life…

Have a great fall, and a great school year my friends!

*** Just want to clarify that I would pray that this book would speak to ANYONE grieving ANY kind of loss…I just mentioned writing it for women who have lost children, because that is the kind of loss I suffered. ***

I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff…

2011-08-16T16:01:00.001-07:00

And I’ll blow your house down! Remember the story of the 3 little pigs? Well I love to make a snack called a “Piggy House”, that goes along with that story. :)

Growing up, I spent time at my Grandma’s house in Ontario during the summers. One of our favorite things to do was to sit out on her front porch and watch the traffic whizz by (busy street), drink tea, eat piggy houses, and listen to my G-pa sing and play his ukulele. To make the piggy houses, my G-pa would take 2 slices of Kita’s bakery bread (the BEST), slice them into strips and then stack them to look like a piggy house. We were the wolves, and we’d blow the house down by eating it strip by strip. I LOVED piggy houses, and now I have passed that fun delicacy onto my children :) We had them last night, and this is what they look like!

I like mine with just bread and butter, but you could put peanut butter, jam, or honey on them as well! They’d be a little messier to slice, but still yummy!

My Budding Artist…

2011-08-14T17:39:00.001-07:00

Both of my kids love to draw. I have several of their masterpieces all over my house. :) I love to display their creativity. This is one of my favorite drawings by my daughter Morgan. It is a picture of all of her cousins on her dad’s side of the family, including the pets. :) I LOVE how she has Madison and Jake the dog sitting up in the clouds. She never forgets Madison. :) Even Sammy the cat made it into the picture. Take special note that Morgan and Madison look alike. Morgan likes to believe that if Madison were here, she would look just like her! :) I love this drawing, and it is hanging in my office at church.

Chocolate Chip Dreams…

2011-08-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

I was taking a nap this afternoon, and I had a dream about chocolate chip cookies. I woke up to these cooling on racks in my kitchen…

My little girl has taken an interest in baking, and she doesn’t need her momma to help her. Daddy was up and he supervised, but she did it all herself :) Doesn’t this look delicious? It tasted great too!

S’more Cups…

2011-08-12T13:23:00.001-07:00

I LOVE a campfire. We don’t have a fire pit, or really any place to have a campfire. We used to have campfires at my SIL’s house, but that won’t be happening again anytime soon. So imagine my delight when I discovered a way to have some GREAT s’mores without having a campfire! Everyone loves s’mores, don’t they? They are the highlight of every campfire!

I found these darling little s’more cups at Texas Cottage, and I can’t wait to try them this fall. I may not even be able to wait until fall! They look like so much fun to make!

You can find the recipe here, complete with Sallie’s step by step pictures when she made them! (Original recipe from Pampered Chef)

Our Fried Rice Recipe…

2011-08-12T13:08:00.001-07:00

The other day I showed you this picture…

My kids love fried rice, and since we don’t have the money to eat out right now, and I don’t like all of the additives in chinese food, I make ours at home. That way I can control what goes into it.

My kids like fried rice just plain. They don’t like veggies, meat, or much else in it. So this is what I do…

I cook 2-3 cups of minute rice (because it’s quick). While the rice is cooking, I cook 3-4 eggs (that’s our protein). I mix some seasonings with the eggs, like garlic salt, chicken bouillon, onion salt, and then I mix it all in with the rice. I cook all of those ingredients together, and then just add a touch of some low-sodium soy sauce for color, and call it dinner. I’m sure it would be much better if we could add chicken, bean sprouts, mixed veggies, etc. But my kids like things simple for lunch.

They told me it was the best they had ever had last week, so I’ll keep doing it!

A Fun Treat…

2011-08-11T12:57:00.001-07:00

I LOVE Pina Coladas! I have never been a fan of alcohol in any form, so I just drink them “virgin”. I love the coconut and pineapple flavors together. I found these really fun cupcakes at The Pastry Affair today, and I’m going to make them with my girl one of these days! I won’t bother with the little umbrellas, but aren’t they fun? They sound so good to me, and LOOK even better! I’m going to have to get one of those frosting pipers so I can make my frosting look like this too!

I’ll let you know when I make them, and I’ll show you a picture of how they turn out!

Rolo Cookies…

2011-08-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

I have been loving the things I have found on Pinterest, especially in the food department. I rarely eat Rolos, but I like them. How can you go wrong with Chocolate and Caramel? I Found this recipe at Six Sisters Stuff, and I WILL be trying it in the near future! :)

1 pkg. Rolo's
1 box Devils Food Cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil
Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)
Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

I’ll let you know how they turn out! :)

A Family Favorite…

2011-08-09T11:46:00.001-07:00

We are big fans of Chinese food around here. I don’t like all of the msg in so many of their dishes, so I’ve been trying to make fried rice at home. The kids really like it. I made this batch today, and apparently it was the BEST in the WHOLE WORLD! I love to hear that :)

Starting School Soon…

2011-08-05T14:56:00.001-07:00

In our home we are in the throes of back to school preparation. I LOVE this time of year. I LOVE the new curriculum coming in, and getting lesson plans ready. I found this WONDERFUL FREE homeschool planner on the New Beginnings Blog, and I just printed it out. I tried to design one myself last year, and it just didn’t work. I homeschool two children, and it would just work better for me to have their lesson plans together on one sheet. I also found planning calendars, attendance sheets, Reading list sheets, and some “tracking my week” sheets. This will all be a great help to me. I can’t wait to get it all ready to go! Go check it out and see what you can find!

Reinventing My Blog…

2011-08-05T14:50:00.001-07:00

I just got an account with Pinterest. I have loved getting so many good ideas on there, and sharing some of mine. That gave me the idea of doing more of that kind of thing on my blog. So I’m doing a bit of reinventing so to speak. I’ll keep the name, because that has been my blog name from the beginning, and is the name of our home school (we shorten it to PTS Academy). I’ll still share my pictures, and what we’re doing, but probably won’t be as personal or as LENGTHY as I have been in the past. This year is going to be a tough one academically, so I won’t have a lot of extra time. :) I think you’d enjoy the blog more if I share things I’m interested in, or things I have found to be useful for us as a family. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

A Lovely Vacation…

2011-07-24T18:33:00.001-07:00

We just got back from the most wonderful vacation ever! I’m busy unpacking, getting laundry caught up, and getting our lives back to some semblance of normalcy. I’ll be back soon with some posts about our vacation, complete with some fun pictures. Maybe I’ll do posts for each day of our trip like I did last year. This year’s vacation involved me participating in a sort of dare-devil situation. Nothing I EVER want to do again, but it was fun. For that, I’ll include video, or you’ll never believe in a million years that I did it! :)

Be back soon when I get caught up! :)

On The Mend…

2011-07-13T11:02:00.001-07:00

First of all, let me apologize for my “rant” about the care I received at the hospital the other day, and for stating they had lost my business. I was reminded yesterday that ER doctors are NOT specialists. They do what they were trained to do, and that is help people, to the best of their ability in emergency situations. Most of the time they are “fixing things” until the specialist can come and evaluate the situation. Sometimes they do things that were not necessarily in your best interest, but I believe they do their best. I was not treated poorly at all throughout my stay, and I was wrong to say they would not get my future business. In fact, I had the best nurses, very caring techs, and the two doctors I saw were genuinely concerned for my well being. So I apologize, dear Beaumont…you have always given me the best of care, and will continue to…though hopefully not in the near future.

That said, I saw the specialist yesterday. I’m REALLY glad I saw him. He is the one that set me straight regarding the ER doctors. He was baffled by some of their choices, but explained that they are not specialists, and can only evaluate and treat the situation based on their level of expertise.

Dr G. on the other hand, is AMAZING. He had the most beautiful, comfortable, inviting, relaxing office I have ever set foot in, the nicest staff, and GREAT care. He is a teaching physician, so I got to listen to/watch him teach a resident all about my condition. I got to look at the diagrams as well, hear why he didn’t agree with the radiologist’s rendering of the CT scan (again, he is trained to read what he sees, it may not always be absolutely what is there), and be the guinea pig for her to take a peak and get to see it all up front and personal. It was fascinating to me.

Dr. G began by making sure the good ear was clean and not starting an infection itself. Then he VERY GENTLY checked out the bad ear, being as careful as he could not to hurt me. He took a culture, and then explained to me that my infection is very severe and one of the worst he has seen.

I do NOT have mastoiditis. What the radiologist thought was mastoiditis was fluid that has built up because of the infection, and because my ear canal is so swollen, it has had no place to go. The ER doctor that saw me first did one thing that he should have done. He inserted a “wick”, or rather JAMMED it into a very swollen ear. It is a tube full of antibiotic that is inserted in the ear canal. It touches the ear canal on all sides, and distributes antibiotic to places that drops would just pass right by. The bad thing, is that the second doctor that saw me in the ER removed it for some reason. Had he left it in, I might have been much better by the next day. They also switched my drops to one that Dr. G felt was not fighting the infection hard enough. So he switched me back to the one I was prescribed at Urgent Care the night before ER.

Yesterday, Dr. G put another wick in, and told me it would fall out when the swelling has gone down. I just touched my ear a second ago, and I can feel the tip of it right at the entrance to the ear canal, so it is on its way out! :)

Today, I feel like a new woman. I do not have that constant awful throbbing pain in my ear and neck area. It is more like an ache now, and getting much better. I can hear a little in my ear today, and I think once the wick is out I will have my complete hearing back.

The best part…I am heating pack free!

I am not to let any water get in my ear for the next week, and will keep taking my oral antibiotic, and use the drops. I’ll use my Ibuprofen for any pain I experience, and will see Dr. G when I return from my vacation next week. I’m guessing the wick will fall out in the next day or so…

I am almost over this horrible ordeal! Thanks for your prayers!

Now what kind of person would I be if I did not give you a warning based on my experience? This was my first ear infection, and what a way to break myself in! I have had problems in the past with my ear clogging up, and have had to go to the doc to get it taken care of. If you go through this, DO NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to flush it out yourself with a home remedy, or let Urgent Care irrigate it with great flushes of water. You can do terrible damage to your ear that way, and can make an already brewing infection MUCH WORSE. Been there done that. ENTs prefer a gentle suction method they can do in their office, or a small instrument that I hardly felt (they did this in the good ear…the bad ear was not ready for that yet.). Do not take your ears for granted, and see a regular doctor when you are having a problem with them. I will never do that again. I now have an ENT I trust, and he is the one I will see for any further ear problems. They SPECIALIZE in every aspect of your ear, and know what to do for it.

I’m glad I went to the ER, because they steered me in the right direction, and did the best they could to get me out of the worst pain I have ever experienced to date. I never want to go through that again…horrible horrible horrible is an understatement. I will NEVER EVER be annoyed by a crying child with an ear infection. It has never annoyed me, but now that I have experienced it myself, OUCH, and I know what you’re going through…cry away! It stinking HURTS! I was in fact in tears when the ER doctor first came in to see me.

Please take care of your ears and treat them carefully. You cannot replace them… Ok….I’m stepping off of the box now…

***The wick just fell out, and I CAN HEAR!!!!! WOOHOO!!!***

Still waiting…

2011-07-11T16:42:00.001-07:00

I’m still in a lot of pain, still swollen, still fighting infection. I was not able to get an appointment with the specialist today as promised, but he will see me tomorrow at 3:30…it cannot come soon enough. I am really looking forward to relief.

We have not been happy with the hospital that cared for us this time. Things were not handled in a timely manner though we stressed that I have no spleen and things were urgent. It’s a very LARGE hospital system, and out of that whole system they apparently could find only ONE ENT specialist to look at me. He couldn’t come to the hospital when I was there, so I had to wait to see him in his office until this week. That boggles my mind when I sit and think about it.

My dad was in a hospital 90 minutes away when he went through all of his heart stuff. It was a LONG drive, but well worth it for the great care he received, and the care his family received while we waited for him to get well there. I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

The hospital we used has always been very good, and I even had a baby there. Up until now, I’ve had no complaints. This time was awful. I don’t think I ever should have been sent home in the condition I was in, knowing I am diabetic and have no spleen. I have a friend whose husband was in the ER just a couple nights before, and he was treated terribly. I don’t think there’s any excuse for that. People are sick and hurting, and should never be treated in a way that makes them feel like they are a burden, or that they are not being taken seriously.

In any case, I’ll be seeing this specialist tomorrow, and I hope he can help me get some relief. In the future, I’ll be going to my little country hospital nearby, or making the LONG trip to the other one for the care that patients deserve when they are feeling awful. Sad to say…the other place has lost my business…

A Very Different Week…

2011-07-09T19:54:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I noticed that I was having a hard time hearing out of my left ear. I have had to go to my doctor on occasion and have her flush it out when the wax has built up for some reason, so I figured that was what was going on here. Monday was a holiday, so my doctor was not in. I went to my sister’s house that day, and noticed that my ear was feeling increasingly more “stuffed up”. I went on Facebook that night and some friends suggested some home remedies. I tried the solution of peroxide with water, and let it sit in my ear for a few minutes before letting it drain out. Nothing helped. It seemed to plug back up in just a few seconds.

Wednesday morning I woke up with terrible pain in my ear. I had never had that before. I suspected an ear infection, so I called my husband and asked if he would take me to Urgent Care when he got home. We went right after work, and only had to wait for them to prepare a chart for me. I explained what was happening to the doctor, and she looked in my ear. She saw wax, and that was pretty much blocking her view from anything else. She said she would put drops in my ears, and then the nurse would flush it out for me. She would check it after that to see if I had an infection. All of this took place over about 30 minutes. The flushing out hurt, but it also seemed to bring relief. I remember the moment that the nurse seemed to break through whatever was blocking my hearing. But when she showed me the little basin of what she got, it didn’t look like times past when I had had this procedure done. My ear still hurt. When the doctor came back in, she accidentally looked in the wrong ear, and we all got a chuckle out of that. When she looked in my left ear (for 2 seconds), she told me I had an infection, wrote me a script for oral meds and drops and sent me home. End of story? Uh, not by a long shot.

The next morning I woke up, my ear was completely plugged again, and the pain was like nothing I have ever felt in my life. It had me in tears several times throughout the day. My husband called my doctor, and she told me to come right in. Andy was still at work, so I had to drive to the office feeling like that, and my head practically resting on my shoulder because the pressure helped a bit.

When my doctor went to look in my ear after I described the last few days to her, she could not even get her instrument into the ear canal. It was not wax, it was completely swollen shut. In fact, my whole face and cheek surrounding it were swollen. She was VERY concerned, as was I. Because I don’t have a spleen and ANY infection can be very serious for me, and I am also diabetic, she thought it best to send me to the ER. I agreed.

We left for the ER as soon as my husband was able to join us. I sat in triage for nearly 90 minutes in EXCRUCIATING pain, fighting back tears it hurt so bad. I was finally taken to a room, and I could hold the tears no longer. The doctor came in as I was wiping my eyes. He said this didn’t look good if ear pain was causing me to cry. He took the same instrument my doctor had checked my ear with. He barely put it up to my ear and said, “You’re not going anywhere…we’re keeping you, and I’m going to have a specialist look at this”.

I was immediately started on an IV, which in and of itself would normally send me into an anxious fit…I didn’t give a rip. I just wanted her to get that thing in there, because I knew it meant GOOD pain meds were soon to follow. I have had both Vicodin and Dilotid before, and they stop any pain I have had, and wipe me right out. They gave me Dilotid first, and though it made me more comfortable, it didn’t take away the pain :(. That told me I was in serious trouble.

The nurse ran some blood tests to check my kidney function for a CT scan, and to check my white blood count. It came back very high which means a serious infection. Next the doctor came in with a tiny tube called a “wick”. He needed to insert that in my ear to “open it up” to be able to get drops in. Yeah, right. This would hurt… I could not bite my lip or clench my teeth, because it hurt my ear too much (I had not been able to eat or drink anything all day). This was a very painful procedure, but it enabled the doctor to put 5 glorious numbing drops into my ear. Again, it didn’t take away the pain, just soothed it a bit.

Next I went for a CT scan. I warned the tech of my fear of the contrast because it made me nauseous each time, and I didn’t like the closeness of the machine. She said she would be with me most of the time, explained the whole procedure in detail to me, so I was able to relax. It was over before I knew it.

I was taken to a room on the ER Observation unit,and there I stayed until Friday night. The CT scan came back showing that I have Mastoiditis, which is an infection of the mastoid bone, or temporal bone of the skull behind the ear. It usually is the result of an ear infection gone bad, but not having a spleen probably greatly contributed. This is a very serious infection any way you slice it because it can lead to more serious infections like meningitis, or inner ear infections. I was immediately put on IV antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory medication to take the swelling down, and dilotid every 4 hours, and the numbing drops. Needless to say, I stayed in my bed the whole time I was there. No tv,no phone, no lights. I just slept when the pain didn’t keep me awake.

The ENT was unable to make a consult at the hospital, so I will be going to his office on Monday. They sent me home Friday night with oral antibiotics, a script for Vicodin for the pain, those numbing drops, and 600mg of Ibuprofen to try to take this swelling down. That is the reason I have no hearing, or very little in my left ear right now.

I have very little pain for a couple hours until the meds wear off, and then I’m miserable until I can take the next dose. One of my nurses fashioned a wonderful little heating pad for me yesterday, and I kept that pressed against my ear and face most of the time. When the heat wore off, I just kept it there for the pressure. My husband took a picture of the patient using it… I know, bed hair! :) I didn’t care, believe me…

I am home now, resting in my own bed, taking the meds prescribed for me, and praying for some relief soon. I’m praying that God will protect me from the side effects of this condition, and that no further infections will develop. If my symptoms worsen at any time, I am to go right back to the hospital. Otherwise, I will see the ear specialist on Monday and see where we go from there. We leave for vacation a week from Monday, so I’m hoping I’ll be better by then. In worst case scenarios, that bone has to be surgically removed because of the damage to it, or the risk of further dangerous infections. I’m praying it will not come to that. I’m praying that my feeble immune system will be able to kick this infection’s tail, and get rid of it. I don’t really want to go through a major neck surgery right now. :(

I’ll keep you posted as I can. It’s painful to sit up for too long right now, so I’m pretty much just keeping up with Facebook and emails on my iPhone because I can lie down. I have a hard time getting on my blog on there… If there is an update and I’m unable to write it, perhaps I’ll have a friend do a guest post for me.

I hope we’re able to get relief, healing, and solutions soon. I also hope they can give me some preventative measures to keep this from happening again, as it seems I may be prone to it now with a weakened immune system…I’ll let you know how it goes…

Summer Loveliness…

2011-07-05T10:47:00.001-07:00

Morgan went for a walk with her daddy the other day in our park, and came back with this lovely flower. She had a handful of them, but this is the only one that survived. I have this fun app on my iPhone that I’ve been wanting to try, called “Colorblast”. It takes your photo and turns it black/white, and then you color the part of the picture that you want colored. It’s a lot like focal black/white on the editing software I have. I really like how this picture turned out…and I LOVE her little toes peeking out at the bottom.

Since I have gotten my iPhone, I’ve barely taken out my good camera :). It’s SO easy to snap pictures on the phone, and they turn out so much better than the ones on my old phone. Videos are much easier to take, and it’s all so much easier to get online from my phone as well. Never fear…I still LOVE my “real” camera, and when we go on vacation in a couple weeks it will get a WORK OUT. We’ll be on the beach, and that is one of my favorite places to shoot pictures. I’ll also be doing a very emotional/sentimental photo shoot with my dear SIL Cathy, and I can’t wait for that. I look forward to taking pictures of my most favorite people…sadly it will not be Andy’s whole family like in past years…but we will take what we can get. I’m also hoping to get in some shots of a darling little 2 month old baby girl while we’re there. I can’t wait to get my hands, and my camera on her! I shot our niece Athena on the beach a few years ago, and got some fun shots of her. This one with her big brother is my favorite…

It’s a fun shot in color too, but I couldn’t find it right now. I can’t wait to come back from vacation and share some fun photos with you…but I don’t want to wish that time away. We can’t wait to go, and have a great week with the dearest people in our lives…

Happy Anniversary…16 years!

2011-06-27T17:21:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, Andy and I celebrated 16 years of marriage. If you knew our “story”, 16 years is pretty amazing. There was a time when I wasn’t sure I’d make it to 10. Andy would have gone the distance…I on the other hand, was ready to bail on everything in my life, including my marriage. How dare God disrupt the perfect life I had imagined for myself…yep, that bad.

Thankfully, in 2005 God knocked me off of that “high horse” I was on, helped me see my sin, and forgave me. I paid a HIGH PRICE for that sinful time in my life, but not at the expense of my marriage…thank the Lord!

God knew that Andy was the perfect man for me. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me. I could not have walked the journey I have the last 16 years, with anyone but him. I would not want to walk it with anyone else. We have a marriage that is built on love, trust, honesty (wasn’t always there), grace, forgiveness, and hope. This man God has given me points me to Christ DAILY. He loves me like I’ve never been loved by another person in my life. He accepts me for who I am, and doesn’t try to change me and make me into who he thinks I should be. He encourages me to keep striving to be the woman GOD wants me to be, and just loves me, differences and all.

There has never been another man in my life that I can talk to like Andy. I have never been afraid to talk to him, and that is a big difference from other men in my life. From the moment I met him, I have never been uncomfortable with him. He has always been the perfect gentleman with me, and has treated me like a princess.

Andy loves me through the way he loves our three children. He only has two here to raise, but he still loves Madison, and talks of her often. That is one way he loves me. I LOVE to talk about her, and I love that Andy will do that with me. He grieves with me…deeply. He is the best father to our children, and supports me in my care of them on a daily basis. When he comes home at night, he is husband/dad, nothing else. I love that about him. I have never met another person so family oriented than he is…

For our anniversary this year, Andy took me to one of our favorite restaurants…just the two of us. Our littles are old enough to stay home now without a sitter :(. While we were away, our children set up a party for us, complete with streamers, a “wedding toast” with apple juice, and our wedding video cued up to watch. It was precious, and one of our best anniversary celebrations ever.

Here is a short video of the “Party”.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

Wordless Wednesday…

2011-06-22T10:56:00.001-07:00

Little flower girls and ring bearers…all in college or the military now :(

Father’s Day….

2011-06-18T17:10:00.001-07:00

I am very grateful to have my dad here for Father’s Day this year. He had a rough winter. He had heart valve replacement surgery in March, and had a pretty rough recovery from that. He had another stint in the ICU a bit later, and that was very scary for us as we weren’t sure what is going on. But now he is doing really well, and I’m very grateful that God has healed his body.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of me and my daddy…

Happy Father’s Day Dad! I love you!

Menu Planning…

2011-06-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

I can’t say enough about menu planning. It is something that has made my life as a wife/mother/homemaker so much easier. It has taken quite a bit of stress out of my life that used to be there. At one point I had 15 weeks of menus planned. That’s right…15 weeks. I didn’t repeat a meal ONCE in that whole 15 week period. I was loving life, because I didn’t even have to THINK about what would be for dinner. It was all there in my cooking software, ready to be printed out, shopped for, and then carried out…

Then last night….I got this hair brained idea to rework my menus, rename some cookbooks in my cooking software, and move some recipes around so it all would be easier to access. In doing that, I wiped out those 15 weeks of menus. I didn’t realize that if I changed the name of the cookbook the menu took a recipe from, it wouldn’t know where to find it. :( 15 weeks of menus GONE.

At first I was REALLY upset. That was A LOT of work to put those all together. But when I looked back over some menus that I had printed out, I realized that I had planned them ALL based on our school year schedule. We have a very different schedule in the summer. I really needed to rework many of my menus anyway.

I’ve been reading a few blogs lately where my friends have talked about their own menu planning. The underlying point in all of the blogs was that you need to plan your menus in such a way that fits your family’s schedule/routine. I thought it would be much better if I just planned my menus 2 weeks at a time (since we shop every two weeks), and did it based on what we would be doing during those two weeks. That way I would not purchase ingredients for a meal that we would not be home to prepare/eat. I also decided to go back to planning my breakfast and lunch menus as well. Having the whole day of meals planned means I don’t have to figure out anything as far as food for the day goes. It’s all posted on my fridge, and I just have to make it happen. All of the ingredients are in my fridge or pantry. This GREATLY reduces the temptation to pile my littles in the car and drive somewhere for carry-out which adds up after a while.

Last night I sat down with my cooking software. I reworked all of my cookbooks and recipes so that they are better organized, easier to access, and will make my menu planning a quick, stress-free, enjoyable task for me to do. I will do it the night before we shop for groceries. Menus will be posted on the fridge each week with the recipes for each meal attached, so that it is all easy for me to find when I need it. If something is frozen and needs to be thawed for the next day’s meal, we will do that as soon as dinner dishes are washed the night before.

One thing I plan to implement is bringing our favorites around more often. It just was not realistic to not repeat a meal for 15 weeks. We tried a lot of new stuff, and we still will, but we’ll also bring out the things we enjoy more often. Parker and Morgan are each going to help me plan a menu from time to time. When they do, it will include all of their favorites for that week. They will also be required to help me cook one of those meals that week. They will also get to pick a dessert to make for that week. I think it will be fun, and will allow my kids to be in the kitchen more. I’m looking forward to it.

My usual format is to pick one chicken dish, one beef dish, one Mexican dish, one pasta dish, and one breakfast entree dish per week. I don’t plan meals for the weekends, because we just eat leftovers or soup/sandwiches. Sometimes I double up on the chicken dishes and exclude a breakfast entree. It depends on what is going on in our week.

So yes, I lost a LOT of work, but it helped me do some things to make our meal preparation easier, and a better fit for our family. I can’t say enough about the cooking software I got for Christmas, or what a stress reliever meal planning has been for me. I am happy to help anyone get started on it, or to share more of my ideas here, or even share some of my menus/recipes. I never used to enjoy cooking, but I think it was because I didn’t have a system in place that removed the stressful part of it for me. I have done that, and now I enjoy making good, nutritious meals for my family.

I am diabetic, so most of my recipes have to be tweaked or even some rewritten. I will post the recipes exactly as I got them from different cookbooks, blogs, websites, etc. You can feel free to tweak them to fit your family as I have had to do (subbing fat-free for whole fat items, sugar-free for sugar-filled, etc. :). I hope the meal preparation part of your life as a wife/mother is as enjoyable to you as mine is to me. :)

Wordless Wednesday….Sprinkler Fun!

2011-06-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

He Knows My Name…

2011-06-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

Today I ran into the church to copy music for this Sunday’s service. I do that every week. We just have a few songs this week, but one stuck out to me. “He Knows My Name” is a great song. I read the words this morning, and they were such a help to me. I came home and listened to the Maranatha Singers sing it on Youtube, and thought I’d share it with you. It is beautiful. He KNOWS your name. It is engraved on the palm of His hand, and NOTHING can erase it. It doesn’t matter what you are going through, or what life is throwing at you at this moment in time. God is THERE. He knows your every need, and He is there to pick up the pieces when life falls apart. He is your FATHER, and He will never leave you or forsake you. LIsten to the words and let them fall over your spirit today…I can’t wait to sing this with our worship team on Sunday. Kelly, I can just HEAR a violin part on this one…I would not be able to sing if I heard it :)

A Few Lovely Things…

2011-06-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

I don’t often have fresh flowers around, and certainly not many plants because I have been known to kill them :(. Occasionally Morgan will go on a walk with daddy, and will bring back some fresh flowers from her travels. She did that yesterday. She decided to put them in a little glass pot that was sitting on our kitchen counter, and then made a pretty little centerpiece out of it with a couple mason jars she found in the pantry. I’m going to try to find some colored rocks to fill the jars with that match the tablecloth. Until I do, I think it looks lovely as is…I love her creativity.

I got some lovely vintage juice glasses from my Grandma’s collection a few months ago. I only got four of them, and I’m so afraid they’re going to break that I don’t use them often. :( I got them out for breakfast this morning… aren’t they lovely?

I’m trying to get more creative in making our house lovely with what we have, and not spending a ton of money to do it. I love that Morgan has some great ideas too!

Mini Frittatas….Yummo!

2011-06-12T15:36:00.001-07:00

This weekend I spent time revamping the kids’ chore list, and decided that we will get back into a bit of a routine for summer. We just function so much better as a family when we have a routine. I love to be flexible, spontaneous, etc., and there is room for that, but I love a routine.

In the midst of trying to work out our summer routine, I decided that in addition to planning my evening menus, I would go back to planning breakfast and lunch menus as well. There are no surprises for meals when I do that, and it takes away the temptation to throw my littles in the van for a run to Culver’s for a quick lunch…those add up.

So….I’ve been looking at breakfast recipes. I like the recipes that I can make up the night before and refrigerate, and then bake in the morning while I get ready for the day (which will be 6am from now on…summer or no summer. Saturday will be our sleep in day as a family). I like the idea of us all sitting down to breakfast together as a family and having a good, filling meal for that. I feel like I send Andy off to work with a full stomach, and the kids and I start the day better as well. Breakfast will consist of dry cereal, oatmeal (the creamy way!), breakfast burritos, breakfast casseroles, pancakes/french toast/waffles, mini frittatas, and just simply eggs and toast some days. My favorite way to eat eggs is “sunny side up”, and then plop them on top of a mound of shredded hash browns and mix them all up. My mom taught me to do that, and it is SO good. I do that in the restaurants when we go for breakfast. Now I can just do that at home from time to time.

In looking through recipes this week, I found one on a friend’s Facebook for mini-frittatas. They looked really good, and looked easy to make, so I decided to try it Saturday morning. The only thing I would be sure to do next time, is spray my muffin pan with cooking spray. I forgot that on Saturday, and cleanup was a bit of a pain.

Here are the frittatas I made on Saturday…this is taken with my iPhone, so not the greatest picture.

I posted this picture on Facebook, and what do you think I got the compliments on? The cool striped tablecloth and blue plates! :) I LOVE them! The frattatas didn’t turn out like the picture on the recipe I found, but they sure tasted good (and the picture was taken after I had already eaten one. Next time I’ll take a picture of the mound of them on the serving platter)! Maybe this week I’ll find the recipe and post it! :) If…I get any comments telling me to! :)

Wordless Wednesday…

2011-06-08T12:37:00.001-07:00

A Toddler In The House…

2011-06-02T13:52:00.001-07:00

I have the absolute joy of watching a darling little toddler 2 days a week while his mom goes off to work. His name is Grayson, and he will be 3 next month. He is the most darling, most polite, most funny little toddler I have encountered in quite some time. He loves to have his picture taken, and yells “Cheeeeeeeeese” when I do it.

Grayson absolutely adores my littles. He goes to another home the other three days of the week, but he LOVES to come and play with Parker and Morgan. He is a StarWars fan like Parker, but will also run around and play with Morgan.

Gray is in the potty training stage right now, and is doing very well. Today he went #2 on the BIG potty, so that called for a special treat. Here he is enjoying his ice cream bar :)

Gray decided to dress himself today, and this is what he came up with…quite the ensemble! :)

Here he is with his favorite buddy Parker at the park…

And my favorite shot of the day….You might as well JUMP!!!!

We are having so much fun with this little boy in our home a few days a week. He is such a delight. Today was the first time I’ve ever heard him cry, and it was because he bumped his noggin coming down the slide. After “Momma S”, as he calls me, wiped away the first tears, he said “I want Parker” :)

I’ll share more pictures of our days with Grayson as the summer goes on… :)

Behold Our God…

2011-06-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

I have not been blogging much lately. It seems in life there are seasons that are busy, and others that are not. I just came through a season that was very busy. We are done with church programs for the year, we’re done with school for the year (except for catching up a bit of math), and that allows more time to be on the computer. Our summer vacation has officially begun, and I could not be more ready for it. This was an exhausting year in many ways, a trying year in many ways, a frustrating year in some ways, a heart breaking year in some ways, and a confusing year in some ways. But in all of those things God proved to be faithful, trustworthy, gracious, and GOOD…just like He’s always been. I hope to be around my blog more in the coming weeks, and I hope I have things to share that are worthy of you stopping by to read.

Sunday we introduced a song to our congregation that has been on my mind since. Because I’m the music admin at our church, I have the responsibility of copying our music and getting it ready for Sunday. That means I see it ahead of time, and a lot of times I listen to it ahead of time if it’s new and I need to learn a piano part. This was one of those songs. I listened to it all week.

I want to share the song with you, because the words are so powerful, and the melody is different but lovely. It was a very easy song for the congregation to pick up, and many said it will become a favorite, much like “Before The Throne” has been.

I hope you enjoy it…. “Behold Our God”

Wordless Wednesday…

2011-06-01T10:04:00.001-07:00

A Lovely Tea…

2011-05-22T11:32:00.001-07:00

At our home school co-op this year, Morgan took a Keepers of the Home class. She really enjoyed it. The ladies taught the young girls manners, hospitality, things about keeping a home, and all of the girls had a great time. Each girl made a darling trivet for their mom to end the semester. Morgan gave me mine last week, and of course it has a giant butterfly on it…she knows how much I LOVE them.

This past Saturday all of the moms were invited to a tea with their daughters. We sat out in the backyard of one of the teacher’s, and enjoyed fresh fruit, chicken salad on tiny pieces of toast, some desserts, and lovely iced tea. The girls had to sit with their moms, and take care of any needs they may have. It was really a lovely day, and a great end to the class.

This first picture is of the whole class of girls… Morgan is just behind Madeline, the darling little redhead in the front row.

Here is a picture of the girls with all of their moms. I was taking the picture :) Morgan is sitting down in front with the white headband…

Here is my beautiful girl…

Here is a picture of Morgan’s BFF, Julia. We adore this little girl… I just love the little freckles on the bridge of her nose. :) Isn’t she lovely?

Now you’ll see where she gets her lovely looks. Here is a picture of Julia’s Mama, and her little sister Becca…

Caught sweet Madeline REALLY enjoying that food! LOVE the red hair!

Just caught one of the other moms enjoying a strawberry. I forgot I had my zoom lens on, but I like how it turned out. I decided to have a little fun with it, and put a focal black/white effect on it. I likey :)

It was a really fun morning, and I really enjoyed getting to have that special time with my daughter hearing about all she learned this semester, and just enjoying her company! Thank you Katrina, Amy, and Ann for teaching these little girls to be Godly keepers of their homes!

My Mother’s Day Gift…

2011-05-15T17:31:00.001-07:00

Hubby and I decided to get rid of our land line, and just go with our cell phones like many of our friends are doing. It costs so much now to have both, have internet, cable, etc. So we are keeping the internet and our cell phones, and getting rid of cable and our land line. So, for Mother’s day, since our cell contract was up and we needed to renew it, Andy and I got iPhones! Mine was my Mother’s Day gift, and his was his Father’s Day gift. We got a GREAT deal on them (we got the 3G version as opposed to the new 4G), and so far they are so much fun. I can do everything I could do on my laptop, and more. I can take it with me, and have that stuff at my fingertips all the time. It’s a great help, and my purse is lighter since I don’t have to carry a planner anymore. The kids will be using my old cell phone for emergencies, and when they are home alone to call us. That is the only time they will use it. They are homeschooled and with me all the time, so there is no need for them to really have a cell phone. I just don’t want them to be without a phone if my husband and I are out.

The new iPhones take great pictures, they can shoot videos, and the internet access is great. I uploaded several games for the kids to play in the car, and some fun resources like Web MD, a world atlas, Google Earth, a language translator, a virtual piano so Morgan can even practice on vacation, the Weather Channel, Food Network, and even a small Kindle app. I already purchased some free books (the Secret Garden, Little Women), and they are so easy to read. It will make waiting in doctor’s offices bearable. :)

I am down with a flare up of my fibromyalgia today, and I have had to stay in bed all day yesterday and today. I didn’t have to drag my laptop in there though, because I had my iPhone, and kept myself from getting bored playing with that. I have created fun ringtones for all of my contacts, and even recorded part of a sermon from my former Pastor as my default ringtone. It’s so good to hear his voice when the phone rings :)

Needless to say, I am enjoying my Mother’s Day gift immensely. We would not have gotten them for full price, so I’m thankful that we got such a great deal, one that will cut our monthly phone bill by more than $50. I’m all for that! :)

Here’s one of the fun pictures I took on the phone. There was an app to doctor it up a bit, so it turned out looking like a picture from the 70’s :) It even puts a cool border on it. Pretty good for coming from a phone. :)

I’m sure I’ll be sharing more pictures as I take them, and maybe even some video too!

A Quiet Blog…

2011-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

I’m so sorry I have not been posting much. I am just a bit overwhelmed with life right now. We are wrapping up our church programs for the year, finishing up our home schooling for the year, and then it will be summer break. Once we get to break, I promise I’ll be around more. I hope you’ll stick around. In the meantime, I’ll post when I get a chance! :)

Mother’s Day…

2011-05-05T11:01:00.001-07:00

All of my life, I dreamed of being a mother. I played with dolls well past the age I should have, I never aspired to be anything more than a wife/mother. That is what I dreamed of, that is what I wanted. God didn’t bring my husband into my life until I was 28, so by the time we got married we were ready to start a family. Finally…my dream was coming true.

For those of you who know me, and know my story, you know that the dream became a nightmare when our first baby, Madison Elisabeth, died at 37 weeks. She was stillborn. On my first Mother’s Day I should have been holding a 9 month old and having her dedicated in our church service. Instead, I sat there in tears, newly pregnant with my SECOND baby, my heart aching for the little girl that was not with me. Mother’s Day was ruined for me. It has since been a day that is extremely difficult for me. Please no “get over it” comments…you’d have to go through this to understand the emotions behind it. Yes! God graciously gave me two more beautiful babies to raise, and I am IMMENSELY grateful to Him for that. There is always a baby dedication at our church on Mother’s Day, and it just causes deep pain to course through my heart…not that I’m not excited for the families involved. I am.

On Facebook right now, there is a post circulating for Mother’s Day. It says to post a favorite picture of your mom, or you with your mom, or you with your child. The picture I picked is just minutes after Madison was born. My mom was the first one into the room, and the first one to meet our baby girl. She came right to me, and kissed Madison’s head, and Andy snapped a picture. It is one of my favorites.

This Mother’s Day weekend will be particularly hard for us, and I’m asking for your prayers. I walked into our home school co-op last week, and a friend told me that a friend of hers had delivered a stillborn baby girl at 32 weeks, that morning. She asked for some suggestions as to how her church body could help this lady. I gave her a few suggestions off of the top of my head, and told her I was available if this girl wanted/needed to contact me. I didn’t really think she’d take me up on it, but she did.

I’m not sure how God is going to work in this situation. I’ve never reached out to someone in a situation like this, except online. It’s a whole different ballgame when you’re in person. Online, a person can’t see my emotions, and I can remain somewhat guarded. Not in person…and I think that’s a good thing. I believe GOD Himself has given me this opportunity, and I’m praying for grace and strength to step up any way He would have me to.

Andy and I will be going to the baby’s memorial service tomorrow evening. We have not been to another funeral for a child, let alone a baby, since Madison’s death. This will be hard…made even harder by the fact that this darling little girl was also named Madison. What are the chances of that? Totally looks like a God thing, right? I know… I will sit in a service with a tiny coffin once again, my daughter’s name spoken several times, and watch the faces of people grieving in the same way I have. How my heart aches for them.

I would appreciate your prayers that God would allow me to stay strong, and to be a help any way I can tomorrow, and in the future as Donna needs me. She may not…but I want to be available in case she does. I didn’t really have anyone do that for me the whole first year after Madison’s death…it was deeply painful. I withdrew from the world, and didn’t allow anyone to reach out to me. I don’t want someone else to go through that…

I will let you know how things go, and covet your prayers for the Blue family. Pray for ALL of the mothers you know who have lost little ones. Sometimes Mother’s Day is more painful than the child’s birthday/death day…I know it is for me. Reach out to a mom you know has suffered a loss…even if it was years ago. The hurt never goes away….they still want to be remembered and encouraged. If one person came up to me on Mother’s Day and told me they were remembering me and MADISON, I’d cry…but not out of pain. I’d be THRILLED that someone remembered her, as she is all but forgotten outside my little family of four.

I wish all of you moms out there a HAPPY Mother’s Day. Hold onto those littles that God has blessed you with. LOVE on them, and thank God for them. Thank Him that He allowed you to raise them, and they are there with you. If you have suffered a loss, I FEEL your pain, and I’m right there with you. I will pray for you this weekend….whether you lost the one that made you a mother like I did, or you lost one that you mothered until God took him/her home. My heart aches for your loss, and I will remember you. I have several names in my mind already…

Grace to all of you this day…HAPPY Mother’s Day!