Kayla To The Rescue

Elijah is starting to skip naps here and there. All of my children stopped napping at this age. I don't really mind, because it just means they are in bed nice and early, around 7 or so, and it gives my beloved and I some alone time every evening, which is so nice. Anyway, at 12:00 I said, "Elijah, it's time for your nap. Mommy will lay down with you." He said, "I take a nap tomorrow." I said, "no, let's take one today. Come, I'll lay down with you." He said, "I only take a nap with daddy." He stressed the word only, more like oooonly. When my beloved is home, they will nap together. My beloved says he's helping me out, but I think he's trying to sneak a nap in. Hmmm.... Anyway, I knew he needed a nap today, because he woke up extra early.


And I was right.

Some Of My Goals

Ya'll are probably tired about hearing me starting school/therapy on Monday already. ;0) I love the beginning of a new school/therapy year. There are a lot of things I will be starting up again, or starting for the first time. Some of my goals starting next week are:
1) Start exercising again. Before my beloved started working at his current job (about a year ago) I was running 3 miles at least 3 to 4 times a week. Then with the new job, he started working more, etc. and I got thrown off. Now that he is settled, I should be able to figure out a good time to start that up again.







2) I would like to start a few feminine things. With the rush rush of the day, I'm happy that I get a shower every day. Forget about putting lotion on, trying to shave for my beloved, and not just for church (I know, too much info)etc. I'm being brutally honest, alot of these nice girly things get pushed to the side. (am I the only one who feels this way?) I am constantly on my feet, and they are pretty rough. URGH!! Sorry, I don't mean to gross you out. lol But I purchased a few things to help my feet and hands feel nice and soft. I purchased a pair of gloves and little booties. You are supposed to put lotion on first, and then put them on overnight. I don't know how thrilled my beloved will be to have me climb into bed with gloves, but I'll figure something out. lol ;0) Anyway, the point is, is that I want to start feeling and acting more girly, obviously without overdoing it with vanity!!









3)I want to start having my morning quiet time with the Lord outside. One of the reasons we did the screened in patio was for this. So Monday I will start going outside nice and early for that.










4)I want to start doing more reading outloud for ALL the children, including Kayla. Britney normally has 1 hour of me reading outloud for her therapy anyway, so I just have to do more for the rest of the children.












There are a few more things, but for right now I need to go finish some of my cleaning and prep for next week. I'm almost completely caught up with laundry. I just want to have the house spotless, so it will be easier to start on schedule. Oh scheduling, I have to go do that as well.... lol ;0)

What Will You Do?

Do you remember the post I did on the inspiration video and story of the father and son. I have seen the video a few times. (at least 4) I shared it will my beloved, my mom, my dad, and when I originally saw it. After seeing it so many times, I started really listening to the words of the song. The words are great. The song might be a little beaty ;0), but at least read the words if you don't want to hear it.

I Can Only Imagine
I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine
CHORUS:
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine
(c)1999 Simpleville Music(ASCAP)
Words and Music by Bart Millard

I was trying to imagine what I would do when my face is before His. Oh my!! I really don't know what I would do. Listening to the song, I think I'd be the one that won't be able to dance, or stand or sing. You will see me in awe, on my knees, unable to speak. ;0) What do you think you will do when that day comes and you are standing before Him?

Here is the original post that has the song. The video is at the end of the post.

Worship Basket

I wanted to share with you my worship basket. It's a basket that I put my Bible and other things that I use for my personal worship in.

Here is a plain basket, which you can buy at Walmart, Michael's, etc. I

I just decorated it with some little flowers, etc. You can decorate it with whatever you'd like, or leave it plain.

Right now I have my Bible, my box of index cards(I will explain about this in another post), my colored pencils, my concordance(not pictured, Kayla borrowed it), paper, and any book that I might be reading along with my Bible. You can make your basket as simple or as fancy as you'd like.

This is the other side of the basket. I'm not sure which one looks nicer. ;0)


I used to have one a long time ago, but it got destroyed with all the moving we did. So in preparation for starting school/therapy on Monday, I made one up again. When my beloved saw it, he asked me what it was for. I explained to him, and he remembered the old one I had. He asked me, "can I put my things in there as well?" lol It kind of surprised me. I immediately started thinking of ways to make him a manly basket. But then the Lord brought to my mind that my beloved asked me to share it with him, not make him one. And to tell you the truth I feel honored that my beloved would care to share something so simple as a basket with me. ;0)

p.s. In another post, I will explain what I am doing for my personal worship, and what the colored pencils and index cards are for.

For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, visit Rocks In My Dryer

YIPPEE!!

YAY!!! My beloved is home. Thanks for all the prayers. Here he is with half of the welcoming committee.

Storm/Beloved Update

I got a little nervous, because I saw a house across the water put their shutters up, and a house across the street as well. I really despise those shutters. It makes the house SO dark from the inside. I enjoy being able to look out the window. ;0) I know it's for our safety though.







This is the latest news on Ernesto.

Tropical Storm Ernesto (45 mph) is swirling northwest at about 14 mph toward south Florida this morning. The center of the storm reemerged over water last night after meandering over Cuba for almost 20 hours. The storm will likely regain a little strength today, but probably will have trouble recapturing its former hurricane status. Heavy, flooding rainfall on the order of 5 to 10 inches (locally 15 inches) will be the main threat from Ernesto as it grinds over south Florida and the Keys later today and tonight.

So at least it probably won't turn into a hurricane, which is great. I spoke to my beloved last night and again this morning. We moved his flight to 12:40 this afternoon. The only problem is that his meeting is supposed to end at 11:30. I know it's cutting it really close. There were no other flights available today. So he was just going to arrive at the customer's office 1/2 an hour early, hoping that they would understand, and see him early.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, concern, and for thinking of me during this pending storm. It means a lot to me.

Tackle It Tuesday/Labels

I wish I could tell you I planned on redoing these labels. The truth is, the last time I went to home depot they had this handy dandy label maker on the clearance rack, and I couldn't resist. I had no idea what I was going to use it for. Then it hit me this morning when I was thinking about what I would do for my Tackle-It-Tuesday post. A lot of my labels had fallen off of the Tupperware containers. I know the clear label with black letters looks a lot better than the ones I did today, but for now it will have to do.

Here is the before:




After

I am happy though, because at least now Britney can help me get ingredients ready for meals, because she can read the containers, and not try to guess what is inside. YAY!!
For more Tackle It Tuesday Posts go visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Hunkering Down

Okay, I think I got my priorities all wrong. I went quickly to Joanne's to see if I could find a roll of tracing paper. Christina over at HsKubes Haven for Home shared how she traces her patterns, so that she can reuse them. I thought this would be perfect, being that Kayla and Brit are one size apart. As I was driving, I noticed EVERY gas station I passed had at least 50 plus cars in line waiting to get gas. YIKES!! I guess that is the bad thing about not having a TV. lol We had no idea it was headed toward us until yesterday, when our neighbor mentioned it to us. And now seeing all the cars in line for gas, kinda scared me. My beloved just left for Jacksonville. He was scheduled to have three meetings tomorrow, and due to come home in the evening. Now he's trying to change it to one meeting so that he can come home tomorrow afternoon, just in case we have to put the hurricane shutters up. If his flight gets cancelled, he said he will just drive back down. I think it's about 7 hours. We're hoping there won't be any traffic, as I don't think anyone will be driving into the storm, right? I don't know, I'm a little nervous. I guess I just need to give those feelings to the Lord. I'm not sure if Brit's evaluation appointment will get cancelled. Her neurodevelopmentalist will be driving down from GA.

I felt so guilty, happily shopping at Joanne's while everyone is preparing for the hurricane. We do have to go buy some water. I'm going to start filling up any containers we have now.

They didn't have the roll of tracing paper that Christina shared about ;0( the ladies over there told me to try muslin, but I think that will be more expensive in the long run. I bought enough to just trace the Regency Pattern, until I am able to order that roll.

If you get a chance, please pray that my beloved will have a safe flight, and that he gets home to us with enough time.

Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup Recipe

This is the recipe I used for the asparagus soup. Since I am vegan, I used soy milk. Obviously, you can convert it and just use regular milk. I also didn't use the black pepper. Mrs. Jessica, sorry it took so long.

1 bunch asparagus (frozen works fine)

1 large onion, sliced in large slices

1-5 clove garlic

2 cups vegetable broth

1/4 cup unbleached flour

2 1/2 cups soy milk

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

2 teaspoons dried basil
salt and pepper

Chop the asparagus (if using frozen, steam or microwave it a little first), reserving the tips.
Put the asparagus, onion, garlic and broth in a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
Put contents of saucepan into blender.
Add the flour, soy milk, soy sauce and basil.
Process until smooth.
Return the soup to the saucepan and add the asparagus tips.
Cook over medium heat until the soup thickens and is heated through.
Season to taste with salt and fresh cracked pepper and serve.

Mix of Things

Hi there. It's nice to be blogging again. ;0)
Yesterday I was going to go out and run some errands and my beloved was going to stay home with the children. We figured it would be faster. My beloved thought we should all go. We sort of missed being alone together as a family, so we all went. His reasoning was, "don't you want to all go, so we can get "the stares" when they realize we have four children, and then while they try figure out if they are all mine?" lol We got a good laugh about that, and off we went.
As we were about to leave, I noticed that Britney is fitting into Kayla's dresses. I guess that's a good clue that I need to sew Kayla up some more dresses. Last time I just got an easy jumper pattern and sewed up a bunch of dresses from the same pattern, just different fabrics. lol ;0) Yikes, I didn't realize how much sun they got this week.



Of course we stopped by Barnes and Nobles, which we enjoying going to. Kayla got the rest of the Anne of Green Gables set, and for the boys, it's simple, they always get some animals books. However, for Britney I noticed all they have is a bunch of foolishness. I guess I have to check Grace and Truth books for her as well.










I have ALOT to do this week. Next week we start school and therapy again. So this will be my prep week. Britney gets evaluated on Friday, so on Monday we start. I want to make sure everything is decluttered and clean, so that next week can run smoothly. I have to work on menus, scheduling, gathering school supplies, therapy supplies, etc. I will share as I go along.
Well, I better get moving over here. My beloved is off to Jacksonville this evening, and God willing will be back tomorrow night, just in time to possibly put up the hurricane shutters. URGH!!
How are you all doing? What are you up to? Mrs. Jessica, how is the painting coming along? Wilma, did you finish up your schedule?

Inspirational Father/Son Story & Video

**Since I don't have a lot of time to post this week, I just wanted to share something quickly. My beloved and I found this story and video VERY touching and inspirational. I hope you enjoy it. I flat out cried, and my beloved got misty-eyed. I don't know if it got to me so much because even though my daughter is not this "special needs" I know the feeling of wanting to do as much as I can for her. And at the same time, I think about how much our Heavenly Father DID for us by dying on that cross. Our sins make us spiritually disabled, and by Him dying on that cross, not only is He pushing us in that wheelchair or pulling us in the dingy, it's as if He gave us new legs, a new body. The video link is at the end of the story. Please read and watch, it really is worth it.**

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick,26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cordduring birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable tocontrol his limbs."He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.''But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rickwas 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way,'' Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.''"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed.
Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to controlthe cursor by touching a switch with the side of hishead, Rick was finally able to communicate. Firstwords? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out,"Dad, I want to do that.''Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker''who never ran more than a mile at a time, going topush his son five miles? Still, he tried."Then, it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.''That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "whenwe were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that heand Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon."No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and theyweren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and rananyway, then they found a way to get into the raceofficially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn'tridden a bike since he was six going to haul his110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.Well, now they've done 212 triathlons, including fourgrueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't youthink? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finishedtheir 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out ofmore than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours,40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time."No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.''And Dick got something else out of all this too. Twoyears ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95%clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,''one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago.''So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care)and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always findways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but thething he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types,"is that my dad sit in the chair and I push himonce.'' (Now, watch the video and turn on your speakers)...

Recaulking Our "Boat"

Hey there!! I just wanted to quickly share something. As I have mentioned before, my parents arrive here tomorrow. This week I have been doing some things that have been on my to do list for a while, but kept getting pushed back. My parents coming to visit was the perfect motivator I needed to finally do it. This is the bathroom that the children use. I will say that it gets neglected sometimes, as you can see in the picture below. I guess from the moisture in that corner, the mildew was building up on the caulking. That's normally where they put their shampoo, or I will find a crumpled washcloth in that corner sometimes as well. Anyway, as you can see, I had already started scraping the old caulking off(in the tub), when I decided to take pictures to share with you all how easy this is.


They sell some gel that can put on top of the cauling to remove it, but it has to sit for over an hour. I didn't have an hour to spare, I was nervous one of the children would touch it, and the smell is really strong. I decided to just use some elbow grease. I took a blade and just scraped all the old caulking off. When it got really hard, I grabbed a flathead screwdriver and shoved it where I had already lifted it with the blade.



This is how it looked once I removed all the old caulking.

This is the caulking I used. You just cut the tip off and put it in a caulking gun.

I just squeezed a thin, even bead all the way across. Then I wet my finger and ran it across the caulking to flaten it out, and that's it. My bathroom looked a lot better than when I started. So if your bathroom needs a little touch up, go ahead and try it.

Side note: As I was hunched over doing this, after about a minute, I realized it was easier to get into the bathtub. Two minutes later, Britney passes by and says, "oh, mom, you're in a boat, can I get in?" She gets in behind me and starts pretending we're in a boat. Micah passes by and she invites him into the "boat." He climbs in behind her. Elijah passes by, and of course, they invite him in. Elijah climbed in behind Micah. So they're playing while I'm scraping away. All of a sudden Britney says, "Elijah is peeing." (He's newly potty trained) We all abandoned ship with lightening speed. So we're just standing there sort of staring at his urine slide down the tub, sort of in disbelief, and Micah(who is 3) says, "look, it looks like Florida." ;0) I tell you, I have never taught that boy his states. How he knew the urine looked like the state of Florida is beyond me. Never a dull moment, I tell ya.

Opposites Attract/Damsel Fly

The other day my beloved came running in to get his camera. It's a regular camera with film, but it has a really good lens. He went back outside with the children. He excitedly reported back that he got some great pictures of a dragonfly. The dragonfly was eating a damselfly. He was so happy that he got some great pictures of the damselfly fly half in and half out of the dragonfly's mouth. He got a really close picture of both of them.

Now fast forward to today. Micah asked me if I could open the screen door, because he wanted to help a damselfly. We have a container with balls, bats, etc. in the yard. The other day it rained really hard and the container got pretty full of water. Micah saw the damselfly in the container, and wanted to help it. I opened the door and he scooped it up. He came back into the patio and said, "oh, it's dead already." Elijah asked to see it, and Micah put it on his hand. When I went to look, the little body of the damselfly straightened up and it was moving. We were so happy. A few minutes later, Micah told me, "Elijah broke it." URGH!! Micah said it was an accident. Apparently Elijah was trying to give the damselfly back to Micah, and he picked it up by the wings. I'm not sure if you have seen damselflys, but they are very delicate. I went to check and the wings were completely twisted and crushed, and the little stick like body was bent down. But when I looked really close, it was still alive. The legs were still in tact, and it could walk around perfectly fine. I felt horrible. It can't survive if it can't catch its food. I put it in the grass and came back inside. Then I went back outside, and it was on the same blade of grass I put it on 20 min. ago. I called my beloved, who is all the way in Jacksonville, 7 hours away, about to go into this huge meeting over that 2.5 million dollar deal, to ask him, "babe, what do damselflys eat?" I explained the story to him, and told him I put a piece of banana(that's all I had) out for it to eat. My beloved was laughing at me, he said I was trying to convert the damsel fly to vegetarianism. Apparently they eat insects. He told me to kill it so it doesn't die of starvation, a long painful death. I felt horrible. I left it with the piece of banana and came inside trying to figure out what to do. I went back out 15 min. later and it looked like it had died, the legs had curled up and it looked dead. I lifted it up, and I went to look at it from the side, he turned his little head and just looked at me. Then it just lifted his head, as if looking up toward heaven, and it died. If you enlarge it, you can see the little head facing up. If you have read all this up until here, you probably think I have lost it. I felt really bad, we rescued it from the water, only to kill it accidentally.

There is no lesson to this...well, I think of Matthew 10:29 that mentions how a sparrow shall not fall to the ground without the Father. If I cared so much about this little damsel fly, think about how much the Father cares about a lost soul.

It's kind of weird how my beloved and I both reacted to the death of a damselfly. I guess opposites do attract, huh? He doesn't kill any animals either, but he's big on letting nature take its course, so he just let the dragonfly feast.

I know you all have left me some lovely comments, I will respond a lot better once my parents leave. They get here on Sunday, and I'm still trying to get everything in order before then.

Books

On Sunday we went for a family bike ride. My beloved and I take turns going in the front, and then the children in the middle and either him or I at the end. We normally race at some point during our ride, and we end up switching whoever was in the front, etc. Anyway, I was in the front this time around, and I saw these little brown things going across the sidewalk. I thought they were leaves again. Anyway, when I got closer, I saw there was a man in front of us picking something up from the floor, and I noticed they they were not leaves, but little tiny soft shelled turtles. Since I was in the front, I turned around, raised my hand and yelled, "stop." Thankfully, first time obedience really payed off this time. Everyone hit their brakes as soon as I said stop. My beloved said when he looked down, his tire was less then 3/4 of an inch from a baby turtle. He said if the head of the turtle was out, he would have hit it. They were all headed towards the middle of the street, I guess to go to the other side, where there is more water. Anyway, we scooped all of them up. There were over 20 I think. We put them back in the water.
Later on in the day we went to Barnes and Nobles, which we all really like going to. Everyone was allowed to pick up some books. Kayla was ecstatic because they had a book on Rosa Parks that she kept looking for every time we went. She picked up a book on Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the first book of the Anne of Green Gables series. Remember, this was on Sunday. As of yesterday, she had already read the Rosa Parks one (221pgs) and the Eleanor Roosevelt one(198 pgs), and was about 1/3 of the way into the Anne of Green Gables one. When she was younger, I thought I would always pre-read the books she wanted to read. HA!! what a joke. She is a speed reader, to put it mildly. We normally buy books from Grace And Truth Books or from Keepers of the Faith . I can pretty much trust the majority of the books that they carry. She has a pretty good judge of books. Of course I read the back of the book and look through it, but sometimes I might not see something. For example, the Rosa Parks book, the last time we were at Barnes and Nobles, she picked one up, but when I looked through it, there was a section talking about how they were r*p*ng women during the time period that everything was happening with Rosa Parks, etc. She has never even heard of that word. This was in the children's section. So we kept waiting for the Rosa Parks book from a specific series that I know is okay for her to read to come out. What do you ladies do? I am at a loss. Any other reputable websites that you know of?
By the way, we also saw a black racer snake on the way home. All in all, we had a great day.
She is really looking forward to reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I was thinking of reading it with her, but first I would have to catch up. ;0( I have SO many other books that "I" want to read about being a helpmeet, or obedience, etc., but I really feel the Lord impressing me to read them with her. There are EIGHT books in the series. I guess I need to learn first time obedience with the Lord, huh?

Completely Unsolicited TWICE

For more Wordless Wednesdays go visit 5 Minutes For Mom

What Should I Do?

Do you remember my wreath from here . Well look at what it looks like now. At first I thought maybe I didn't put enough glue. I had put ALOT of glue to hold it together well. No one uses that left door, and we have a huge archway above the door, so it doesn't get wet when it rains, etc.

But then... look at who my beloved found living in our wreath. ;0)

I don't know what to do now. I guess I will wait until he's not there and put more glue. I don't want to take his home away, just fix it a little, because it looks pathetic. lol

Giving Things To The Lord

I know it's not easy sometimes to give certain things to the Lord. I can SO relate to that. It might be a sin, a temptation, a thought, a habit, etc. Whatever the situation is, He can help us. I am saying this in faith, because I am having a REALLY HARD time with giving something to the Lord. I'm sure we all have something that we need help with. Now if I tell you what my "thing" is, you might think it is silly. And the chances are, that it is silly to you. However, I have a problem with it, so it's BIG for me. You might have an issue with....I don't know, fill in the blank. Umm...submitting to your beloved. For me that might not a problem. The enemy knows with what he can tempt us with. So the purpose of my post is not to be nosy and see what you have a problem with ;0) but rather to encourage you to give it the Lord, He will help us. I am well read on all the verses concerning this, and like I said, I am saying it in faith. I KNOW HE WILL HELP ME. I am starting tomorrow. I already messed up today so....;0(...tomorrow is a starting point for me.
I started thinking about this, because I went out Saturday evening and I guess I took a little longer than expected. My beloved always teases me and asks me, "were you driving in reverse again?" lol ;0) Anyway, he said that when I got out and I get in my car, to him, it's as if I am in my little 4 door car, and everyone else is in a Ford F150, and all the drivers of the F150's are drunk, all the street lights aren't working, and the stop signs have been knocked over. His description, not mine. lol He has a fear of something happening to me and him having to live his life without me. I have noticed that when I need something from the supermarket, he offers to get it for me. Of course, he's being nice, but in the back of his head, he has that whole scenario playing out. He said he needs to give those feelings to the Lord.
I might has well share mine, being that I done spilled the beans on my beloved's "thing"
As healthy as I eat, I absolutely love "junk food." It doesn't have to be a massive amount, but I need to eat something junky EVERY DAY. Whether it's a cookie, a piece of cake, etc. You all might think what's the big deal, there are people being tempted with committing adultery. But you know what, Eve was tempted and sinned just by eating a piece of fruit. I feel that eating is connected to a lot of things, one of them being temperance Then I also think of Peter's Ladder.

And beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue;
and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance;
and to temperance patience;
and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness charity.

These are successive steps in my spiritual walk. I seem to be stuck in temperance. Temperance is connected to patience. If I want to be patient in all things, I need to learn temperance.

So is there anyone out there who wants to give their "thing" to the Lord with me? You can share if you want, if you don't, that is fine. I will be praying for all who may read this post, and have something to give Him.

This hymn came to mind as well.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

2Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

3Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee;
thou wilt find a solace there.

You can haer the music to the hymn here . Sorry, I don't have time to add the hymn automatically to the blog.

Toasted Coconut Cream Tort Recipe

Roasted Almond Nut Crust

10 graham crackers
3/4 cup toasted almonds
2 Tbsp Sucanat(healthy version of brown sugar, stands for SUgar CAne NATural I buy mine at the health food store, if not I guess you can substitute brown sugar)
2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
3 Tbsp. water

Roast almonds in the oven @ 350 for about 20 minutes; check often. They should brown. In a food processor turn the graham crackers and almonds into meal. Add rest of ingredients and pulse just until crumbs form. Press into a 10 inch spring form pan or quiche dish, 3/4 inch up sides and on bottom. Bake @ 350 for 12-15 minutes.


Toasted Coconut Cream Tort
2 2/3 cups coconut milk
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, divided
pinch salt
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup cornstarch

In a 350 degree oven toast coconut in an 8 by 8 inch pan until browning around edges and bottom; about 5 to 8 minutes; watch carefully. Stir and set aside. In a small measuring cup whisk 1/3 cup of coconut milk into cornstarch. Use a spoon to press out any lumps. In a medium sauce pan heat the remaining 2 1/3 cups coconut milk, salt, and syrup. Whisk in cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Simmer on low for a minute or two. Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 cup of the toasted coconut. Pour into Roasted Almond Nut Crust and sprinkle with remaining coconut for garnish. Refrigerate before serving. Filling thickens as it cools.
*I like this dessert because it's not very sweet at all. The crust is the best crust I have ever eaten. Everyone who has eaten this always asks me what's in the crust. It has a very nice subtle nutty flavor.*

Toasted Coconut Cream Torte

Crushed graham crackers


Toasted unsweetened coconut

Toasted almonds

Crushed graham crackers and chopped almonds

I added the wet ingredients

Before it went into the oven

Coconut milk mixture

Coconut milk mixture once it thickened

I added the toasted coconut and poured it into the crust

Garnished with left over toasted coconut.

There you go.

Mrs. Jessica, let me know if you want the recipe, or anyone else for that matter. Blessings. Happy Sabbath.

Organizing My Prayer Life

I really like to organize things. Somtimes thing don't go too far from my head to reality because of the children, but that's another story. Somtimes when I pray I feel like I am just hopping all over the place, from one thing to another. A long time ago I purchased a book called "My Prayer Notebook." It was pretty much a small 3 ring binder with blank papers inside. I probably could have made one myself for a lot cheaper, but the reason I purchased it was because it had some great ideas in the first couple of pages. I would like to share with you how you can organize your prayer life, if you so choose. You can assign a topic to the days of the week. For example-

Monday: Personal
Tuesday: Husband/Future Spouse
Wednesday: Family
Thursday: Friends
Friday: Church/Country
Saturday: Sabbath blessing
Sunday:Any Prayer Request

For personal, it could be anything pertaining to yourself, your personal walk with the Lord, your role as a wife, mother, homemaker, if you work outside of the home; your career, etc.

For your husband, his role as head of the household, husband, father, church leader(if it applies), his career, etc.

For your family, children, grandchildren(if it applies), and any extended family

For your friends, prayer request from special friends, if you belong to any ministry at church or a prayer group, etc.

For church and country, for all the wars going on, church leaders, your pastor. Sabbath prep,(if it applies) etc.

Sabbath and Sunday you can chose what you want. Prayer request they might mention in church, misc. things, your garden, etc.

Now just because it is broken up like this, it doesn't mean you don't pray for you beloved or children every day. The topics mentioned on specific days is for going into deep prayer and praying for their EVERY need that you know of, on that day. Clear as mud?? lol For example, if your sister calls you on Monday with a prayer request, you don't tell her, "Sorry sis, you have to wait until Wednesday." Does that make sense? I hope this helps someone out. I am going to start this up again for myself on Sunday, so I just wanted to share.

Hmmmm.... maybe I can organize my blog posts too, Mondays personal things, Tuesday beloved related things, Wednesday child related......Hmmmm.... See that's how I get started, I go from one thing to the other. lol ;0) Doesn't sound like a bad idea, though.

Lunch 5, 6, and 7

Okay, I had been taking pictures, but not downloading them. So here are three lunches, no particular order. Now all I owe you all are some breakfasts. ;0)

The first meal is some orzo noodles, which is a very small pasta.

I chopped up some green, yellow, and red peppers, with some onion and garlic. I saute it in a little bit of olive oil.

Then I add some spinach on top until it wilts.

Then I add the orzo noodles.

And that's it. We had it with a chik pattie and carrots, as we were running behind schedule, so I didn't make the patties. These are store bought.

Next we had some mashed potatoes with veggie loaf, some asparagus, corn, and carrots. One thing I added to the mashed potatoes was some breaded eggplant. I cooked the eggplant separately in a pan.

Then I just layered the mashed potatoes, some sauce, eggplant, and repeated it again. I put it in the oven for a couple of minutes, and that's pretty much it. I sauted the asparagus and carrots in a little bit of sesame oil.

And last, but not least we had some veggie chicken cream sauce over some pasta with some veggie patties and carrots. I hope you enjoyed our week of lunches. I will finish up the breakfasts next. I think I might have one on the computer already.

What Are You Going To Do?

Yesterday it felt like I had a really long day, and a rough one at that. It just felt like the children were extra busy. Well, at least the boys anyway. ;0) I speak to my beloved several times a day, through IM, email, etc. He had an equally rough day. I would dare to say moreso than mine. He didn't get home until 11:00 last night. Now that he got that big deal, which I thought was the hard work, turns out was only the beginning. The hard work is starting now. ;0( Anyway, we spoke yesterday while he was at work, and he vented a few times about what was going on, etc. When all the children were asleep, around 8 or so, I just wanted to crawl into the fetal position and go to sleep. lol I forced myself to get up and pick up the house. The bathroom floor was soaked. The boys seemed to have splashed a little extra.(that's putting it mildly ;0)) While I was picking up, I had the "woe is me" attitude, to be honest. I took my mind off of that, and I started thinking about my beloved's rough day. I tried thinking of something to make his day a little better. I remembered that yesterday morning he saw a can of cream of coconut in the cabinet and said, "wow, we haven't had a pina colada in a while." A-ha!! I took the blender into my bathroom so as not to wake up the water splashers and I made him a pina colada(no alcohol, by the way). He got home just as I was finishing it.

You can tell by looking at this picture how rough my day was by the stains on the placemats, and the uprooted pitiful plant on the left. If you enlarge it, you can see the roots sticking out. Guess who uprooted it, yep, Elijah, while at the same time getting soil all over his plate of food.
Anyway, the point of this post is not awww... look what I did, but rather, what can you do? I just wanted to encourage you do something nice for your beloved, even if you're not in the mood ;0) I know this is very small, but it was enough, because this morning I got a thanks for the pina colada again. If you decide to do something, please share. It doesn't hurt that I drank one too.
Recipe:
1 cup of pineapple juice
1 cup of cream of coconut
4 cups of crushed ice
Just mix in blender and add a cherry and a pineapple slice on the rim of the cup.

Kayla's Crocheting Frenzy

A few months ago Kayla expressed an interest in crocheting. I had to learn in order to be able to teach her. Of course I got hooked in the process (no pun intended, lol.) Anyway, she recently got the hang of it. Can you tell? She is crocheting something for everyone. She crocheted Britney something. It started out as a blanket, but Britney got impatient, and asked for it now, so it became a shawl of some sort. And then Micah's pig got a blanket, and Elijah's piglet got one to boot. ;0)

Help!!

Is this how everyone else sees my posts? You see how my post is shifted all the way to the left? Is that how you see it, or do the words go all the way to the right? My beloved said on his laptop it goes all the way to the right, but his resolution is different. My resolution is set for the way my monitor said it needed to be. URGH!! Help. I don't like seeing all that empty space on the right. Does anyone have any idea? I know to change the margin is here:
#main-content
{width:700px;
background:#FFFAF0;
margin:0;
text-align:center;
display:block;
But nothing happens when I change the margin.

Boys!!

I walked into our breakfast nook to find this. I always have a tablecloth on this table. So when I saw this, I found it very strange. As I walked away trying to find out what happened, I see Elijah(24 months) walking towards the hamper with a big bundle. Then Micah (3 1/2) tells me," Elijah spilled the butter. I told him to put the tablecloth in the hamper. I put the plant back."



When I got closer to my hamper, this is what I found. This is BUTTER!! Elijah had it in his hair, hands, everywhere.

I found this so strange. First of all, boys are so incredibly different than girls. I was able to leave my girls to roam around the house playing without a problem. I HAVE to know what the boys are doing at all times. Obviously, I failed here. I guess I need to hold off on using the bathroom from now on. On another note, Micah seems to cover everything up for his brother. The one above is only one example. Yesterday Elijah spilled his juice, and Micah covered it up with a small rug, so that I wouldn't see he spilled it. I could go on and on. My girls never did that. They would have bought me a handful of rocks and said, "she spilled her juice, stone her."

So is this a boy thing?

Do You Think He Has Enough Mousse?

For more Wordless Wednesdays visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Lunch 4

YAY!! We got a new camera. I know the lighting is a little off. I have to learn how to use it properly. Okay, this is one of my quick meals, can you tell? lol The children and I ran some errands today, so this is just some store bought healthy tortellini, stuffed with spinach. I made pesto sauce, with pine nuts, basil, etc. Then we just had some green beans, carrots and potato bread. Sorry, I fell asleep early last night and didn't get a chance to post the recipes. Hopefully tonight.

Taste And See That The Lord Is Good

I recently received this comment, "Wow Shereen. I've read your last three posts and I have to tell you...I have never really believed that God micromanages our lives. I've never really prayed about every day things..unless they were strength, faith, moral, ethical type issues..but never just for day to day things. I am always flabbergasted by the way your life seems so directed by God every second..and it's not just that hindsight way of looking and convincing yourself that it just worked out alright...it's so obviously guided. You ask, you seek and he says "go here, do this" and you do and, while I know things aren't always perfect, they are always right. You are making me see things in a different way and I appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your life with us."
To tell you the truth, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I never really thought about it, it's just the way it's always been. I will say however, that in our home we do what we call "laying a fleece." We got this term from the story of Gideon. Those who aren't familiar with it, it is found in Judges 6:
36And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,
37Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
38And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
40And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
So when I am unsure of something, I pray about it, and I "set a fleece." ;0) The Lord always answers. I must admit, that sometimes I am just like Gideon, in that one fleece is not enough, and I must shamefacedly say, Lord, please forgive my lack of faith, and I lay another fleece. Sure enough, the second fleece is always the same answer as the first fleece layed. It has never been different. The Lord really does care about our every day actions, no matter how small they are. Yesterday, my beloved went out for a run, and it was REALLY hot here yesterday, he really didn't want to just give up, he wanted to finish the allotted distance he had set for himself. Just as he was thinking about this, a man came up next to him and asked him, "do you mind if I join you?" My beloved said, no problem. The man started talking about wanting to lose weight, and he was hoping if he ran with someone it would help, etc. There is alot more to it, but you get the idea. My beloved didn't want to "let the guy down" so my beloved finished his run. He felt the impression from the Lord, "I sent that man to run by you, so you could finish. I care even about the little things in your life."
Another one, my beloved has been working on that huge deal for work for the last few months. He had one specific meeting that stood out to him. We were actually speaking about it this morning. The customer was asking him about my beloved's plan of action, so to speak. My beloved had NO IDEA what it was. My beloved's engineer is the one who is supposed to figure that out and put it together. The engineer had sent the customer an email detailing it, but for some reason, the customer was asking my beloved. They were sitting down, just as the customer asked my beloved. When my beloved looked over the customer's shoulder, he noticed that the customer's laptop was opened up. When he looked at the screen, it was opened up to the email that his engineer had sent. He was able to read it, and summarize everything. lol I will say that my beloved got nervous at one point, because his screen saver I guess kicked in, and the screen went blank. LOL But by that time, he had memorized a lot of it. ;0) We can honestly say that the Lord does care about every little detail of our lives.
Another example of someone praying or laying a fleece is found when Abraham servant was looking for a wife for Isaac, in Genesis 24:
12And he said O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.
13Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:
14And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.
15And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
How quickly the Lord answered that prayer for him. Amen!! If he did it for him, he can do it for us.

This is the one fleece story that my beloved always shares, maybe it's because it makes him look good. lol ;0) One more, I think it was when we changed the clocks, and we were still out of sorts that week. My beloved and I woke up late. He had a meeting he really had to be at. Anyway, being that I got up late as well, my day was off to a rocky start as well. I accused or blamed my beloved for something. I don't even remember what it was. Nothing major, but still, I shouldn't have done that. He finished getting ready for work, and he left rushing out the door. Right after he left, the Lord convicted me of speaking to my beloved the way I did. As hard hearted as I was, I said Lord, I am going to lay a fleece, if I am really in the wrong, and I need to apologize to him, then allow him to go buy me a Jamba Juice. (my favorite smoothie drink, remember that's where I went on my alone time bike ride) I knew that was almost impossible, as remember, he was running late for his meeting. Anyway, I went along my morning, getting the children their breakfast, etc. Ten minutes later, the phone rang, and my beloved said, open up the front door. I opened up the door, and what did I see on the floor? A Jamba Juice!! He was so late, that he put it there and took off. Of course, I called him and apologized, etc. He said he struggled with the Lord. He was in the car, and he felt the impression from the Lord to go buy me a Jamba Juice. He said he remembers telling the Lord, "you gotta be kidding me. I'm late as it is. There is no way I will make my meeting on time. It will take me 10 min. to get there, 10 min. to take it to her, and then another 5 minutes to get to the highway." The Lord impressed him again, to go buy it. He listened, and sure enough it was an answer to my fleece. I was WRONG in telling my beloved what I told him, and the Lord showed me.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn out this long. Does anyone else live their lives like this? Walking with the Lord moment by moment is an exciting way to live. If you don't, I suggest you try it.
Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
If you have any fleeces that you have set before the Lord, and you would like to share them, I would love to read them and post them. Or just let me know the link to your blog, so we can go read it. Have a great day in the Lord!!

My Electric Bill

I opened up my electric bill yesterday, and it was a whopping $241.43. After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I realized I HAVE to do something. Remember this post on living frugally? Well, I guess I haven't kept up with it too well. Just an update on that post, my beloved applied to the school, and we are just waiting for his transcript to arrive. I guess I haven't been a good Proverbs 31 woman when it comes to our finances. ;0( Being that everyone is in and out of the screened in patio now, I'm sure a lot of the AC air is escaping out anyway, so I turned the AC off this morning. I don't think it bothers the children, so I just have to learn to deal with it. On a good note, I have been drinking a lot more water than I normally do. ;0) I received this lovely email just in time from Heather. Here is just a part of it.
"I think it is great that you are cutting back things to save money. I know it sounds silly, but one of the ways we save money is with our dryer. It cost soo much money to run your washer and dryer. If you put a couple of new tennis balls in with your laundry when it's drying, the balls bounce around and keep your clothes from clumping together and they really do dry more efficiently. We also try not to use the AC in our car. (Well, when I'm driving I do, my hubby is another story) but it really pulls your gas mileage down when you run your AC a lot. We have a digital- mile per gallon gage, on our car and I can watch it go down when the air is on. Since the price of gas has gone up so much I try to get all of my shopping/errands done in one trip to town. As to where I used to would go out a few times a week. I also save on my grocery bill by baking bread, (and it's way more yummy) not buying prepackaged juices or snacks for the kids, and by buying things in bulk. That really helps save a lot."

There was a lot more to it, but I share the rest of her email in another post. Thank you so much Heather for that great tip. When I go out this evening, I definitely will be picking up some tennis balls. ;0)
In the meantime, I'll try not to melt before my beloved gets home.

Let The Countdown Begin

It's official. My parents get here in 13 days. They will be visiting with us for 6 days. The children are very excited. Surprisingly, Elijah is too, even though I'm sure he doesn't remember them. The last time they saw him, he was 10 months, when my beloved surprised me with a trip to NY for my sister's graduation. I only went with Elijah, because I was still nursing him. Then the other three haven't seen them in almost 2 years. ;0( They speak on the phone at least once a week though, so they are still pretty close.
Let the cleaning frenzy begin!! I am not kidding when I say my father somehow ends up looking in my closets, cabinets, drawers, or every nook and cranny there is to find. Either if he's looking for something or to see how something works or to check if there is a leak or to put something away for me, or blah, blah, blah. ;0) So my goal is to do a quick clean and decluttering in all of my closets, cabinets, etc. I'm sort of happy to be doing this now, because when they leave, a couple of days later Britney gets evaluated for a new therapy schedule, and I will start my strict daily schedule again. Then we will begin painting, and the house will be relatively clutter free.
p.s. Can you tell my camera still isn't working? Ya think I went overboard with the clipart? ;0) My beloved wants me to do research on a camera before we go buy another one. I was going to post some of the recipes when I finished the week of meals, but since I can't take any more pictures of the meals for now, I will post the recipes later on tonight. I know there are a few emails that I need to respond to from you lovely ladies, and I promise I will respond when I have a little bit of free time.

Little Bit of This and That

Do you remember Kayla's poem from this post , well, it's in the semifinals, and it's getting published in a book. I found out that the reason she wrote it was because she saw an ad for a contest in a mail circular. The grand prize is $10,000. She wanted to give us the money to buy furniture. :0) She's so cute. I explained to her that we could have purchased furniture a while ago, but we didn't want to owe a penny of it. We didn't want to have a nice furnished house and get into debt at the same time. We have 6 rooms to furnish in total. Anyway, she got a notice in the mail yesterday explaining how she has to proofread it and make sure that is the way she wants it to go to print. It will have an entire page to itself. We don't have to pay for that. If we want the opposite page to be her's to explain why she wrote the poem, her inspiration, etc., then we have to pay. I think it was like $15 or something. It explained how the poem is still hers and she has the copywrite ownership to it even though it is in their book, etc. We're so proud of her!!
My beloved was leaving this morning to go to our Pastor's house for an Elder's breakfast meeting, and Micah looked like he was going to cry saying that he wanted to go to Peru with him. Then we remembered that the day they left to Peru, we dropped him and Kayla off at the Pastor's house. I felt so bad.
My beloved was laughing at me last night. I went to the supermarket to buy a few things, and I picked up one of those home decorating magazines. He said, " I haven't even got the purchase order, and you have the money spent." I'm just so excited. You see, we thought we were going to sell our house a few months ago. We spoke to a realtor, and they said a lot of times a house sells faster if it's empty, because prospective buyers can picture their own things in the house. We had thought that was a great idea, because our furniture was pretty old. We had purchased it when we got married when we were 19, and at the time, the furniture we could afford wasn't very sturdy or of good quality. Then one year we moved to 3 different states. All that moving banged the furniture up pretty good. So we threw everything out. Then we found out it wasn't the Lord's timing for us to move. Uh-oh. We weren't bothered. We were actually pretty happy that we decluttered so much. While my beloved was on the missionary trip to Peru(there went the furniture money the first time) I surprised him by getting the floor redone , which he had wanted to do, but didn't have the time. (there went the furniture money the second time, ;0) lol) I want the house to be livable, I don't anything fancy that I will constantly be worried that the children will accidentally ruin it. Anyway, I have rambled enough!! Can you tell my beloved is not home ;0( lol
P.S. My camera seems to have died again. As soon as it starts working again I will continue with the week of meals. I think I only have a couple of days left.

He Got The Deal!! He Got The Deal!!

My beloved just called me. He was able to meet with the client, and the client told him he got the deal. YAY!! Yesterday morning my beloved and I held hands and knelt down on the floor next to our bed to pray. After we finished praying, he felt the Lord impress him not to call the customer AT ALL during the ENTIRE day. He felt Him telling him to leave it in His hands. It was kind of hard, but my beloved did not call. He flew out last night, hoping to meet with the client this morning. During their morning meeting, the client tells my beloved "you know, your competitor was driving me insane calling me all the time." lol It's so good when we listen to the promptings from the Lord.
So now that we got the deal, (here I am already spending it lol)I have a question, we are going to finally start furnishing this house. Do we paint first and then look for furniture to match, or do we buy furniture and then paint the walls to match? I have a lot of questions to answer from some of your comments and a few recipes to post. I will really try to today, but I have to prepare for the Sabbath first. How is everyone doing today?

How The Lord Works Things Out

It's funny sometimes how we stress out trying to manage things in our lives. We need to just let the Lord work it out. He does a MUCH better job than we do anyway. ;0) My beloved preached in our church last Sabbath, and a pastor from Jacksonville, which is about a 7 hour drive from us, invited him to preach in his church this Sabbath. We were trying to figure out what to do, as my beloved had invited a family. We didn't want to cancel with them, as we had already canceled once before. My beloved emailed the pastor on Monday and said he wouldn't be able to preach. On another note, my beloved has been working on a really BIG deal at work. It was coming down to the wire, where the company was going to decide whether they were going to buy from my beloved or from someone else. We have been praying about this deal for a while now. Yesterday the customer had a call with someone, and my beloved didn't feel too good that it would go in his favor. He decided to fly out last night to try to get a breakfast meeting with the customer for this morning to try to solidify the deal. Just as my beloved was landing, the family that was to come for lunch tomorrow called and asked if they could come next week instead. I said sure, not a problem. Guess where the customer is that my beloved had to visit this morning? Yep, Jacksonville, the city they wanted him to preach in. ;0) My beloved called the pastor this morning to see if he still wanted him to preach, thinking maybe it was too late. After all, he wanted him to preach for tomorrow. He called the pastor, and the pastor said he had been praying all week, because he had no one to preach. He said when he heard my beloved's voice on the phone, he instantly knew the Lord had answered His prayer. I know this is getting pretty long, sorry, but I just wanted to share one more thing. Yesterday morning during my personal study time in the morning, I was reading about how Moses had asked the Lord to go before him, so that he could know he had found grace in Lord's sight. Exodus 33:13Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. 14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. We need to ask the Lord to shew us the way for everything, whether we are going from the house to Walmart or from home to Jacksonville. He will guide our every step. It might be hard, because sometimes we might want to do something, that is not in the Lord's will. But we need to pray, that if His presence will not go with us, then we need to not go. I wish I had more time to word it better, but I hope you get the idea. I have lots to do today, as I am without my beloved today, and tomorrow. ;0(

Lunch 3 and Breakfast 4

Okay. Here we have some brown rice with red kidney beans, vegeterian chicken fajitas, avocadoes, homemade whole wheat bread and some cream of asparagus soup. I was able to find a vegan recipe for the soup, which I was happy about.




For breakfast this morning we had some waffles. The base of these waffles is oats, pecans, etc. All my mixtures sort of look the same, huh? lol

We like to put a sweet almond cream sauce on top of our waffles. However, the sauce calls for blanched almonds, which are more expensive, if you buy them already blanched. So if you put the almonds to boil for a minute or two....

...the peel slides right off. You see the peel on the left is still whole. If you pinch it, it comes off. I have pinched them too hard, and the almond goes flying across the room. lol

Here is a waffle.

And here is a little hand trying to grab it. lol

Lunch 2 and Breakfast 3

This was yesterday's lunch. It was a simple one, because I had my doctor's appointment, which went well by the way. I will write about it later on. We just had lasagna with veggie meat, soy cheese, etc., with some green beans, corn, and garlic bread on the side. You could put whatever you want in your lasagna. It's nice to hide some of the veggies your children might not be too fond of in there. ;0)

This morning for breakfast we had some nut french toast with sliced peaches and bananas. Everyone was too full for a bowl of cereal with it. This is what the mixture looks like once I blend it. It has some cashews, almonds, etc.

I just spread it on both sides of some whole wheat bread with a spoon.

Then I just heat it up in a pan on both sides with a little bit of butter on the pan.

That's about it. Hope you enjoyed it!!

Q & A

Maybe you posted this already, but what made you decide that you wanted this kind of diet for your family? Was it hard adjusting to it? Where did you get your info? Hope you don't mind all the questions. --Leigh Ann

I don't mind the questions at all. I actually enjoy them. Okay, let's see. I had just graduated from high school, I was 17 years old, and about to start school to study to be a court reporter. I was out at a park with my family and my beloved. Well, he was my boyfriend at the time, but still my beloved. ;0) As I was laying on a blanket, I mentioned how my knees were hurting me. My mom looked over and said they were swollen. They thought I was just under stress from starting a new phase in my life, etc. Little by little all my joints started to hurt. If it was a bendable body part, it hurt.
After a few days, when we saw it wasn't going away, we went to the hospital. My dad worked in a hospital, so my beloved and I left to work with him, and we went to the emergency room. We were there all day. They were poking and prodding me for hours on end. They called in a rheumatoid specialist. They suspected Lupus, but couldn't say right away. They told me in order to diagnose me with Lupus, I needed to have at least, I think it was 7, of the 13 symptoms. I had appointments every week. Every week they took blood. I started getting a lot of urinary tract infections and it started to affect my kidneys. They put me on Naprosin to take away the joint pain. When that wasn't helping much they wanted to put me on some steroids, I believe it was prednisone. The side affects were typical of any steroids; possible facial hair, swollen face, etc. At that point my parents decided to try something else before they committed to the prednisone. They took me to a naturalist, which I hated going to. They would do these colon cleansings which were horrible. Well, I guess at 17 they were. I'm not sure if you know how that works, but I will spare you the details. ;0) Anyway, they gave me a whole bunch of things to take, like liquid chlorophyll etc. They also told my parents to switch over from anything white and refined to natural whole foods. I remember wanting to eat a bowl of cornflakes, and my mom handing me the honey instead of the sugar, and I just started crying. It stunk to have to change all of my food habits. My parents threatened me, that if I didn't change the way I ate, I wouldn't be allowed to see my beloved. ;0( lol Needless to say, that *helped* me to eat healthier. It really does become like second nature. It was a hard adjustment in the beginning. I wasn't Christian at the time,(I went to Catholic school, but I didn't know the Lord personally) and I was living off of Pepsi and donuts. At the time I was still eaching white meats. Then I saw some turkeys at a butcher shop. It was Thanksgiving, and they were showcasing them in the window. I felt absolutely horrible. And that was the last time I ate any sort of meat. lol I know I have mentioned before how I can only kill mosquitos, oh, and I've added waterbugs to that as well. ;0) However, my beloved did eat meat when we got married. I still prepared and cooked it for him. Thankfully he was at work while I cooked it, and he didn't see me gagging while I seasoned it. lol He is now vegetarian as well, so no more gagging for me!! YAY.

There are some other questions that I will answer in a bit. I have some cleaning to do. I have been trying to post pictures of our lunch from yesterday, and today's breakfast, but blogger is not behaving.

Calluses From Sweeping/Sad!!

For More Wordless Wed. posts, visit 5 Min. For Mom

Homemade Songbooks

*Sorry, for recycling this post. lol ;0) I just wanted to share it with the Works For Me Wed. list. Reminds me, I need to add more songs. For more WFMW, visit Rocks In My Dryer
I just wanted to share our homemade song books with you. We use these for family worship. I made one for each member of our family for Christmas last year.

I just typed up all the songs that we normally like to sing, and I copied some little pictures to go in between each song.

I added some new songs that I would like for them to learn.

These pictures are from family worship this morning. Everyone has bed-head. lol

The girls and I have pink ones, and my beloved and the boys have light green.

Breakfast 2

For today's breakfast we had oatcakes with warm strawberries on top. I know you might think, that's not breakfast for a king, it looks like so little. However, these oatcakes are VERY filling. My beloved who normally eats 2 or 3 plates of food, gets full off of one. Probably too much info here, but.... they are also very good if you have issues with using the bathroom. *blush, blush* I normally can make it really fast, as it's a dump and pour recipe, but I ran out of whole wheat flour this morning, so I had to grind some more.


As you can see, we use a lot of oats in our house.

This is what they look like coming out of the oven, after I cut them. ;0)

I normally just warm up some strawberries. I guess you could use whatever fruit you want. Since the oatcakes are dry, the fruit helps.

That's it. I normally offer the children something else, like a soy yogurt, etc., but everyone is always too stuffed to eat anything else. lol

Tackle It Tuesday

I know this is really late, but I couldn't let a Tuesday go by without tackling something. I was trying to think of something quick, lol, and this was the only thing that came to mind. ;0) I told you my house needed some TLC since we had been working outside all of last week. So my laundry closet had gotten a bit out of hand. I will admit that I just cleaned it, I didn't declutter it. Last year our dear neighbor moved away and she gave me a whole bunch of cleaning products. I normally clean with a steamer, so as not to use all those chemicals. I would feel horrible throwing them out.


Before

After

After

Nothing fancy, but it got done!! For more tackle it Tuesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Lunch 1

Okay, for lunch we had Italian Potatoes with oat patties, corn on the cob, and then a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I'm not sure why they are called Italian potatoes,lol, but that's what the recipe said. This is what the oat pecan mixture looked like when I was mixing it.




I had other pictures of when I was cooking the potatoes, but for some reason my camera is not transferring them to the computer.

Our motto is breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, and dinner like a pauper. It is better if we go to sleep with a stomach that is not full of food. We will have a better night's rest if our stomachs aren't working hard digesting a big meal. It's been proven that you wake up feeling more restful, as if you slept more, if your stomach isn't digesting food all night long. So for supper we will eat something light, like yogurt and a slice of bread with peanut butter, etc.

I hope you have enjoyed day one of our meals so far. Tomorrow shall be interesting, as I have an appointment for my ear, so my beloved will probably be helping out with meals if I don't get a chance to precook it.

Breakfast 1

Okay, Mrs. Jessica kindly reminded me that I never finished my week of vegetarian meals. I figured if I could, I would add our breakfast meals as well. We are also vegan, meaning no dairy or meat. So here is the first breakfast. We had tofu omelets with peppers, onions, and tomatoes and some vegetarian bacon (striplets) on an English Muffin with a side of hash brown with some blueberries and bananas.

This is the tofu that we use. It is water packed and can be found in a refrigerated section in the supermarket.

I love how colorful all the peppers, etc. look. On the right is the mixture I made that resembles egg. It has cashews as a base.

This is how the tofu omelet looks when it's already cooked, and also the striplets.

I got so hungry I started eating, and then I realized I never took the final picture. lol ;0) Sorry. I know it might look like a lot of work, but you sort of get used to it. These meals are very filling and we don't seem to gain much weight eating this way.
The potatoes I just shredded them and added some seasonings. If anyone wants the specific recipe, feel free to ask.

I will post the next meal later on today.

Final Post On Patio

My beloved did such a great job with the patio. I am so proud of him. This is the first home improvement project that we have undertaken. We saved about $1700 by doing it ourselves. YAY!! With that money we can now buy some patio furniture. lol All that is left is to trim that lower left screen, mop the tile a few more times to remove the haziness on it, clean up all the tools, put the plants, etc. back in place and put the toys back where they go.
Oh, and my beloved still has to put the handle on the door. lol That is a piece of tape holding it closed for now.

I wanted share how the Lord really does care even about the simple things. Do you see how I had to trim a piece of this tile off, in order for it to fit? When I turned around, I realized that the same piece that was trimmed off, fit perfectly......

...over here. lol The Lord saved me from having to make a whole bunch of extra cuts. We need to bring EVERYTHING to Him in prayer. These pictures are from a few days ago, before I grouted everything.

Even though I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the comments, I must say that neither I or my beloved are handy people at all. My beloved laughs at himself all the time, because it is just something we don't really know. We had two tiles in our hallway that needed to be done (this was before we replaced the tile with the wood) I didn't nag my beloved, but I mentioned (according to him, alot lol) how that needed to be done. I never said, "you need to fix it, etc." but I just said it in general. One day the Lord impressed me that I should try to do it. While my beloved was at work, I went with the four children to Home Depot, I bought the wet saw, and got to work. I hopped online and found out all the information I could. I will admit that I went through about 5 tiles before I cut the two tiles the way that they needed to be done. ;0) After you are able to accomplish one task, it does give you the umph you need to try and tackle something else. Just always remember, Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. So with that said, I KNOW you can tackle something that you have been wanting to do. We have the promise that we can do all things through Him. You can find so many self help, do it yourself type of information online. Could you believe the internet can be used for things other than blogging? Who knew? ;0)

p.s. If you do decide to try something, please let me know, we can keep it in prayer. Up next for us is installing some crown molding.