Glitter Giggles and Blessings

Friday, February 24, 2012

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

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

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!!!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Reading

This weather is wonderful for reading. I love curling up with a good book and a cozy blanket. Here are a few that I've just read and would highly recommend...

The Epic by John Eldredge. A great little book on playing our crucial part in the much Larger Story we are born into. This guy has a gift for reminding the reader about such truths.

The Duggars 20 and Counting. Loved this. A great resource for homeschooling hints, encouragement on training children, their humble story as well as some great recipes that will feed a crowd!

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn, oooohhhh. Shall we say life changing? A must read.

The Lord of the Rings. In Sunday school, Neal mentioned we were reading the book and one of the teens piped up and said "why would you read it when you can watch it! that book is loooong!" True, true, it is over 1000 pages. Well, we watched the first movie the other day and I decided right away that I like the book better. Why? Because in my imagination Orcs were not so ugly! Eww!

So what's new? Well, Selah has a very loose top front tooth. This is big news in the family! A new stage in life. Will she be like her daddy when he was a little boy, tough and brave and yank the thing out?! or will she be like her mommy, letting it hang there by it's last thread for days? I have an inkling but will wait to see what happens. We have notified the tooth fairy and she is on standby.

My sister took these pictures...didn't she do great!?!

I'll close out with a yummy recipe for some easy brownies

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Mix this together well, then add

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix well and spread into an 8 by 8 greased brownie pan. Bake @ 350 for 20-25 min.

As easy as a boxed mix and so much better!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

The end of December 2011

Almost the new year. What a year this past one has been. The biggest blessing is little Chloe` Avynle`. She just melts my heart with her smile and loves to cuddle. Grace Anne is talking now, a big step that I thought would take a lot longer for her to reach. Abby just loves to sing and boy, can she carry a tune, I just love it! Selah is reading...really, really well! I can't get over how fast she has learned.
Let's see what this new year brings...whatever it is, I am so grateful that My Jesus will be with me.
My Mom shared this passage with me the other day and it seems so applicable to my life lately....and maybe yours?

Psalm 77

For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of Asaph.

¹ I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
      Oh, that God would listen to me!
² When I was in deep trouble,
      I searched for the Lord.
   All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
      but my soul was not comforted.
³ I think of God, and I moan,
      overwhelmed with longing for his help.
                         Interlude
⁴ You don’t let me sleep.
      I am too distressed even to pray!
⁵ I think of the good old days,
      long since ended,
⁶ when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
      I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
⁷ Has the Lord rejected me forever?
      Will he never again be kind to me?
⁸ Is his unfailing love gone forever?
      Have his promises permanently failed?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious?
      Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
                         Interlude
¹⁰ And I said, “This is my fate;
      the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
¹¹ But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
      I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
¹² They are constantly in my thoughts.
      I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
¹³ O God, your ways are holy.
      Is there any god as mighty as you?
¹⁴ You are the God of great wonders!
      You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
¹⁵ By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
      the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
                         Interlude
¹⁶ When the Red Sea^[a] saw you, O God,
      its waters looked and trembled!
      The sea quaked to its very depths.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down rain;
      the thunder rumbled in the sky.
      Your arrows of lightning flashed.
¹⁸ Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
      the lightning lit up the world!
      The earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹ Your road led through the sea,
      your pathway through the mighty waters—
      a pathway no one knew was there! ²⁰ You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
      with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

God is with us friend. His ways are not our ways or His thoughts our thoughts. And I am glad for it. He is the creator of the stars that sing, the minnow that swims, and for me, His girl. We are not forgotten by Him. The path in our life may not be the one you or I thought we were going to take, in fact if there was a choice it may not have even been chosen, but guess what? He is with you and He knows. Just like He knew of the path through the Red Sea. What a miracle and awesome display of His power and knowledge. Take heart dear friend. He will hold us in the storms and carry us when we are weak, He will rejoice with us and cry with us, He always listens and wants to. He loves us. He is love.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A Long Time

I'm not sure how I missed the month of November but it is now December 3rd, and only for about 20 more minutes. Haven't had too much time to think about turning 30. Probably a good thing since I cried when I turned 10 (you know, no longer in the single digits...ha ha ha).
The beginning of November we had the flu, not the stomach bug kind but the real influenza, achy body, high fevers and coughs. It felt miserable but it was a family bonding experience, especially since it took about 2 weeks for it to finally be gone! We watched lots of nature movies, Disney Earth being our favorite.
We were without internet for the last half of November. Celebrated Thanksgiving and a few days later enjoyed a snow storm on the 30th.