A post by Neal

My husband, Neal, wrote part of the next post. I am proud of him and thankful for him.

I am relieved yet anxious over our new adventure. 

I turned to Psalm 66 on a whim this morning and read it. Something that encouraged me and strengthened me was verse nine.

"Our lives are in His hands, and He keeps our feet from stumbling."

Father, please bless us and help us.  Please provide for us both spiritually and physically.  Guide our steps and don’t let our feet slip.  Show us how to bear eternal fruit and to make you proud.  God, I pray that you would forgive all my sin so that my heart can be clean and so I can be in right relationship with you.  Father, I desperately need your guidance to know what to say and do.  Please guide me as I guide my family.  Amen

Neal

It is wonderful to know that the Lord has us in His hands and to have a husband who desires to be lead by the Spirit.

Yesterday the girls and I were playing a guessing game, "which hand is it in?". I'm sure you've played it before. Placing a penny in my hand and mixing it up, the girls would try to guess where it was. Towards the end of our game, with laughter ringing out, I didn't open my hand. They pulled and pulled trying to pry my fingers off the penny. Being nearly 4 times their size it was easy for mommy to hold it secure. They could not take it out. It reminded me of being in the hand of my Heavenly Father. "Girls" I said, "did you know that when you are a Christian, it is like being this penny?" "Your're silly mommy!" one of them said. "It's true Honey! when we are God's children He holds us and never lets go. We will always be His girl!" "It's good to be a Christian" said my Abby girl. "Yes, sweetie it is very good."

"Our lives are in His hands, and He keeps our feet from stumbling." Psalm 66:9

The last day

Today was Neal's last day at the Northeastern Center.  It is bitter-sweet. More sweet than bitter though!!! Not exactly how we expected this job of 4 years to end but we'll take it. It was hard. Hard on Neal and hard on the family. He won't miss the solitude, being the only person working with a house full of clients. We won't miss the long shifts. A 24 hr one on Saturdays with him getting home at 1:00 am Sunday morning made for very sleepy Sundays...for years. I won't miss him being on third shift 2 nights a week, I feel safer when he is here, especially with tornado season coming up!  (When there were just two girls I figured I could grab one under each arm and run for it...and maybe even with 3 if I got creative but it scared the snot outta me to think about having to get all 4 girls awake and carry them outside and down the ladder into the basement in the dark, in a storm, by myself.) The unusual schedule made it hard to keep things going around the house, a regular bedtime will be new and wonderful!

So what's next? We don't know exactly. We have some ideas... Neal loves literature. He loves teaching. He is good at both. So, he is thinking about Taylor University's on-line Transition into Teaching program. Would you pray with us for wisdom on the finances for this? We already have big school bills we are still trying to pay off and feel uncomfortable with going into more debt.

We knew what was going to happen today and to make a difficult day more enjoyable we celebrated! Celebrated the fact that God is in control and He is our Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Celebrated a new path that is before us, a new way of life. It may at first seem "too" light hearted for the circumstances but I guess it was our way of dealing with it. We had a party!

Neal invited his 'old' co-worker, Jacob, over for the party.

You can't be picky with the cake design on half off Tuesdays!

On to the next chapter of life. It may turn out to be harder than the last or it may not.

We don't know what our future holds but we know who holds our future!!!

Healthy Valentine's Day Chocolate!

Yes it's true, I just used the word 'healthy' right next to the words Valentine's Day chocolate, crazy I know! But you could also use the following descriptive words....Gluten free, dairy free, raw, packed full of magnesium, vitamins E and a whole slew of Bs, full of protein, great source of fiber, and high in iron. Oh the list could go on...Ready? Here we go!

   

They look like truffles here, sometimes we just eat it by the spoonful....is your mouth watering? Mine is!

Ok, start with some good raw almonds, about a cup and a half.

Chop them in a food processor, until they look like this. Put in a separate bowl for later.

Then take a heaping 1 1/2 cups of pitted dates. I always check each one to make sure the pit is out by bending them in half, I usually come across at least one every time and they are as hard as a rock, nothing you want to take a bite of!

Process until it just starts to form a ball

Now, add your almond 'flour', about a 1/3 cup of cocoa powder, and 1 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes.

Process. Pinch a bit of this deliciousness to see if it stays together. If it is a bit dry you may have to add a tablespoon or two of water, coconut, or almond milk. Usually by this point everyone has their spoon ready and it is polished off but if you want to serve it a little more fancy you can try this...

Roll them in the coconut flakes or cocoa or save some of the almond 'flour' too. They all look and taste great!

This was Daddy's Valentine's gift from his girls.

My sister shared this recipe with me. She sometimes uses oatmeal instead of coconut, a little bit like no-bake cookies I guess.  I was also thinking how wonderful they would be if you chopped dried tart cherries and stirred them in at the end...

Selah just minutes before loosing her first tooth...it was hang'n by a thread! How did she loose it? At dinner while eating spinach. It fell out onto the floor and she stood up with a shocked look on her face and announced, "I losth my toof!"

Yippy!

The girls and their valentine gifts

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!