Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. My prayer is that everyone who reads this blog has received the best gift of all. God gave His very own Son as a gift to be received by everyone. His sacrifice was given that we might have eternal life.

Verse for thought: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Acts 16:31

A Tooth's Tale

Today I had my teeth cleaned and they told a story. The hygienist told me that it looks like my teeth have more wear on them then a normal person my age, caused by grinding which is caused by stress. She said she guesses that three children can do that to you. I had to correct her. Actually, I don't grind my teeth any more. I used to when I was a teenager and my jaw used to click from it (a symptom she told me about). She said something about the teen years being stressful. I agreed and left it at that.

That little conversation made me realize anew just how difficult my growing up years were. I'm not going to get into all the details, but I will say a few things.

Most importantly, I love my mom very much and she has taught me many good things. She has taught me, by example, how to build my children up with words. She has never put me down nor belittled me in any way. I am very thankful for that, because it comes natural for me to act in such a way towards my own children now.

My mom, named Patricia, is a very forgiving person. She doesn't hold grudges towards anyone. She is also very giving. She never has money, but no matter how little she has, she's willing to give it away to someone who may need it at that moment. Also, and this means a great deal to me, she loves to do puzzles! ~smile~

Even though she has all of these wonderful qualities she has a MAJOR flaw. You can watch this video of David Hasselhoff. There were many scenes like this when I was growing up. Watching this video brought back a lot of memories and some tears. Alcohol ruins lives. Like I said, I'm not going to get into all the details, but my teeth told the story that things indeed were stressful.

Even though, at one point, I was walking along the same path and would have ended up in the wrong direction, God snatched me from the wide road to destruction and planted my feet on the narrow road which leads to eternal life. I am so thankful for Christ's saving power.

Verse for thought: "And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

'Blessing and honor and glory and power

Be to Him who sits on the throne,

And to the Lamb, forever and ever!' " Revelation 5:13

Hyperactivity

The other day I was doing some blog reading and I came across an important piece of information. I decided to do my own research and I found this article.

Here is the jist of the whole thing:

"A carefully designed study published in the British journal the Lancet shows that a variety of common food dyes and the preservative, sodium benzoate-an ingredient in many soft drinks, fruit juices and salad dressings-do cause some kids to become measurably more hyperactive and distractible."

When I read this I immediately thought of Seth. I think if anyone knows him they could understand exactly where I'm coming from.

 So, I decided to try and steer clear of this sodium benzoate fellow and keep a closer eye on Seth's actions. I noticed him to be active and playful and sometimes even a little rough, but not too bad. This afternoon, however, it was like the Seth that drives me up the wall. He was thrashing around instead of going to bed (he never did fall asleep). Later it seemed like every minute I had to yell at him for hurting Tabitha, knocking down Patricia, ripping the cushions off of the couch, etc, etc. I thought to myself, "in my mind he's acting like how I'd assume he'd act if he ate sodium benzoate." Wouldn't you know it....I checked the package of pierogies that we ate for lunch and they had it in them! They're a frozen food item, why do they need a preservative? Somebody please clue me in on this one.

I think I've been doing pretty good with the foods they get, but now I really have to keep a watchful eye, especially for Seth's sake. Even some bakery goods contain the stuff. Oh well, I guess that means more baking for me! 

Has anybody else had any experience with this? Please do impart some wisdom.

Verse for thought: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8

Menu Plan Monday

A few notes about last week's menu first. I was surprised with the Reuben casserole. It did taste just like a Reuben sandwich. Tabitha is generally our good eater, with Seth being a little more on the picky side. But with this dish it was the opposite. Tabitha didn't care for the sauerkraut or the rye bread. Seth enjoyed it! 

I had chips on our menu for a couple of the days. I didn't actually buy any, instead I made tortilla chips. I took some store bought tortillas and lightly covered them with butter, then sprinkled them with salt and cumin. I cut them up into about the right size triangle and then cooked them in a single layer on my griddle. The kids really like those a lot. I think the way I make them could use a little tweaking, but they turned out pretty good and I'm pretty sure they're healthier, too!

We didn't get to all of the recipes for last week, so those will be repeated on this list.

Here goes:

Monday- Chicken quesadillas

Tuesday- Greek chicken stirfry

Wednesday- Spaghetti and meatballs

Thursday- Tex Mex skillet

Friday- Chicken Kiev

Saturday- Pork chops with Bleu cheese dressing

We'll also have sides with these, but those won't be anything fancy. 

To check out more recipes visit Organizing Junkie.

Verse for thought: "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:6

Beautiful Surprise

There is a couple at the meeting we go to that celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary today. Their children threw them a most lovely luncheon at a fancy restaurant. There was a lot of out of town guests and sweet fellowship. The couple has raised four children, all of whom, are in fellowship here. 

Beatty, the wife, has a phenomenal talent of china painting. So, as a "party favor" (I hate to call it that, because the term seems so cheap), she decided to paint a plate for each guest. There were over a hundred of us there! I don't know when she did this, but look at each picture carefully. They are all beautiful. That's what I call a servant's heart!

Verse for thought: "Remembering without ceasing you work of faith and labour of love..." I Timothy 1:3

Motherhood

Tired...cranky...sick...angry...frustrated...just plain mean. I don't know about you, but these are some feelings that creep up within me at times. Any other job you can drag yourself through the 8 hours or so, then take a break. BUT, as we all know, moms just don't get to take time off when they're sick or tired or any of the above. As a matter of fact, if we do decide that we need our break, then our kids take full advantage of the situation. The end result is worse than the beginning. I know these days will soon pass and I'll look back on many incidents and laugh (or so I'm told!), but that knowledge doesn't typically help me through the present.

Today I was comforted by the following verse in Isaiah:

"He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."

Can't you picture a shepherd gently leading the sheep that have young ones? I think we're harder on ourselves than the Good Shepherd is. We end up feeling guilty because we're not able to keep up with everyone else's activities. Or we don't feel spiritual enough at times. We get upset that we haven't done any holiday baking this year or we haven't had guests over in more than a month. I don't think the Lord expects that much from us. We're at a very special time in our lives when we have little ones. We should be focused on them and not everyone else. The Lord is dealing gently with us. Let's take comfort in that.

Menu Plan Monday

Today I made a menu plan. WooHoo!!! I haven't done that for a while, so hopefully our family will have better meals this week, instead of scrambling at the last minute. All of these dishes will be made, Lord willing. But, things change all the time, so we'll see!

• Monday: Main Dish Tuna Salad
  
• Tuesday: Reuben Casserole (using leftover beef brisket)
• Wednesday: Picadillo (easy Cuban dish, using leftover spaghetti sauce)
• Thursday: Portabello Burgers, coleslaw and chips
  
• Friday: Sausage with peppers, coleslaw and chips
• Saturday: Chicken drumsticks (with Tabitha's help from her cookbook), coleslaw (when I make it there's a lot and I don't want it to go bad!) and biscuits
• Sunday evening: Greek chicken stir fry (my adventure of the week)
• Sunday afternoon: Chicken quesadillas

For more menu plans check out Organizing Junkie. Maybe you'll find some inspiration there.

Verse for thought: "I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." Job 23:12

Winter Time Fun

Today we got to spend some time together as a family. Yippee! We went to the ice skating rink. Enoch and I took turns sitting out with Patricia and one or two of the other cuties.

Tabitha was crying the first round, not wanting to try it, afraid of falling, etc. But, as you can see from this picture, her attitude changed by the end:

Enoch didn't complain at all even though he spent most of the time on the bench holding Patty cakes. Next time we'd really like to make a point for the two of us to get on the rink together.
Seth had a hard time standing up. He liked it when I held him from behind and skated. It was fun to glide:

We were happy to have Carol and Lily join us. It was Lily's first time, but she did great. By the end she was able to skate by herself.
Patricia was tired out from watching all the action. It's a hard job, ya know?

Verse for thought: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

Frugal Friday

Improvise-that's one of my favorite words. I really think it's one of the best ways of saving money. The other day when it snowed I didn't yet buy the kids' winter boots, so I had to cover their feet in plastic bags.  Yesterday I mentioned how our dryer needs to be serviced, so in the meantime I'm drying the clothes in our bedroom, which also gives us the much needed moisture. When Seth cut his forehead, I wasn't able to get to the Pharmacy to buy SteriStrips, so I doctored up a regular bandAid so that it would have the same effect. 

Today I was thinking about our gloves and hats. They are all shoved on to this tiny shelf, as you can see below. I thought maybe one day I'll get a Longaberger basket to put them all in. That got my dials turning. 

I thought about the different baskets we have in the house. None of them were suitable, but then I remembered a lovely EMPTY hat box we had laying around. It's perfect and it still fits on the shelf. Problem solved without going to the store!

Now in our case, it's not that we can't afford the above mentioned things, but its a whole lot easier than packing three kids in the car and going to a store. Not to mention that it feels good to know you saved yourself money at the same time. Next time you feel like you HAVE to get a new item in order to fulfill a present need, rethink. Is there anything in your house that could serve the same purpose? 

For more Frugal Friday tips, please visit Biblical Womanhood.

Verse for thought: "Who then is a faithful and wise steward...?" Luke 12:42

Our day today

This morning when I went to get a load out of the dryer they were all still wet. I ran the dryer again, but quickly stopped it, because it was smelling like burning plastic. I am well aware of fires that have started, so I decided not to take any chances. The service guy is able to come on Monday. That seems like forever away to me! Every day I do at least one load, but sometimes two or even three. Yet, Enoch always manages to run out of undershirts and I am always scrambling for kids clothes. I'm not a clothes line drying kind of person, so I came up with a different solution. I'm drying the clothes in our bedroom. It's been kind of dry in there at night and I think I can dry a load a day up there. That will put the much needed moisture into the air!

This afternoon Tabitha finally got a chance to use her cookbook. She made apple crisp (with a little help, of course). It was so yummy! The kids and I just gobbled it up. We halved the recipe and omitted the walnuts, so Patricia could also enjoy it (besides, we didn't have any in the house). Here's the recipe (it's super easy, thus kid friendly):

• 4 medium peeled, cooking apples sliced (about 4 cups)
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Spread the apple slices in an ungreased 8"square pan.

3. Mix remaining ingredients with a fork; sprinkle over apples.

4. Bake uncovered until the topping is golden brown and apples are tender, about 30 minutes.
Makes 6 servings.

Last but not least, Patricia turned 10 months old today!!!

Verse for thought: "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!" Psalm 144:15

Our First Snow

I took Tabitha and Seth out for ten minutes today to play in the snow. 

Every time I turned around, Seth was eating a handful.

Tabitha must've heard about snow angels somewhere along the way, because every 2 minutes or so she'd say, "LET'S MAKE SNOW ANGELS!!!" and plop she'd go.

Here is the reason we came in after only ten minutes. Seth tripped over one of the tree roots and hit his face on the tree. He had a small gash on his forehead that had dark blood dripping out. I got a lot of it on that towel you see him with. His mouth was also bleeding. Poor little guy!

Verse for thought: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

Chocolate is yummy!

She was crying, but then I lured her with and M&M




Seth had to have a picture. That's chalk on his pants (an everyday look)

Here comes miss chocolate face herself.





Verse for thought: "Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly...but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he does meditate day and night." Psalm 1:1,2

I'm back!

Tabitha is sitting on our first packed box. On January 21st Enoch will be starting his new job in Oklahoma City. He'll work on site for a week or two (or three) then come back to Maryland and work from the DC location for up to six months until we can sell our current house. He will try to tell you that we don't know for sure yet and it might not happen, etc., etc. But I'm pretty sure that's the way the Lord is leading. If I waited for a firm "yes" from Enoch, I wouldn't be packing until two weeks before!

In other news, Patricia started walking. She's almost ten months old, but can toddle across the room. I have laryngitis or something else that has robbed my voice. Enoch was kind to me and took the day off, so I could give my voice rest. Seth is at the learning stage of things. He can count to ten, name his colors and shapes and recognizes many numbers and letters. Tabitha spent over 2 hours the other day working on a 100 piece puzzle. She shooed me away when I tried to help. She finished it! The next day it only took her one hour.

Verse for thought: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Hebrews 11:8