Friday Linky Love...

Katherine Stone on blogging and popularity contests.  Can I get a hall to the luyah and an amen sistah.

As I contemplate whether or not the dresses I have picked out for our upcoming summer wedding are too froofy... This couple has decided to keep their baby's gender a secret AFTER the baby has been born.  "
“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” says Stocker."  Yeah.  Cause we all know that 3 years old can make great choice. 
We'll discuss it in the comments.

This is a great article written by Vicki Courtney, author of the most recent bible study I've done on "Glee".  Which up until lately I had been a fan.  However, I am not a fan of explaining to my 6 year old daughter why two high school boys are kissing. 

And some funniness on dealing with teenagers. One of which I will have in less than 8 months.



And although the world did not end on May 21st, it has come to an end for many in Joplin.  Please be in prayer for those who have endured so much pain and destruction...

Summer Bucket List

As a mother of three, I have now entered panic mode ya'll.  Pan.  Ick.  Why you ask?  Two words.  Summer.  Vacation.  I've now got three kids at home all day from sun up to past sun down every single day for nearly three months.  Oh please, don't get me wrong I love my children.  Love.  LOVE.  LURVem.  Then why the panic.  Well....  one pre teen boy, one six year old and one three year old + one husband who will shortly be working nights = one mamma who needs to find a whole hoopla of stuff for my kids to do out of the house.  So I've come up with a bucket list of sorts that we can go back to when we run out of ideas of things to do...

1.  San Antonio Zoo
2.  Beach
3.  Aquarium
4.  Have a picnic at the park
5.  Go for a nature walk
6.  Have a backyard bar- b-que
7.  Have a movie night with popcorn & slumber parties
8.  Get through our book lists
9.  Go to a baseball game
10.  Go to the Lexington
11.  Children's Museums
12.  water parks
13.  go to the public library
14.  craft time
15.  learn to ride our bike with no training wheels
16.  sports camps
17.  vacation bible school
18.  Dallas Wedding
19.  date nights
20.  Outdoor movies
21.  camping
22.  Cole Park
23.  Horse Back Riding
24.  bake
25.  garden
26.  swim lessons
27.  make homemade ice cream
28.  build a fort and have breakfast for dinner in it
29.  ride the city bus
30.  botanical gardens
31.  national seashore

Blessings Unlimited...

I have read Ann Voskamp's Book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are recently.  It has been an inspiration to me to look at the everyday moments of life and give them to our Savior with gratitude.  This is more for me, for God, but I encourage you to start your own list. 

"Gratitude in the midst of death and divorce and debt -- that's the language I've got to learn to speak -- because that's the kind of life I'm living, the kind I have to solve.  If living eucharisteo is the key to unlocking the mystery of life, this I want.  I want the hunt, the long sleuth, the careful peiceing together.  To learn how to be grateful and happy, whether hands full or hands empty.  That is a secret worth spending a life on learning. "

1.  For warm hot (and ok, warm too) coffee with cream and sugar first thing in the morning.
2.  Quite mornings with birds chirping to seek God.
3.  Disrupted mornings by waking children seeking me.
4.  Time spent with family
5.  hard workouts and sweat and perseverance
6.  warm cinamon rolls baking in the oven
7.  Little hands with dimples helping to prepare breakfast

5 minute Friday

Today at The Gypsy Mama, for 5 Minute Friday, the prompt is....

When Seasons Change...

We sit on the brink of summer.  A season of swimming and sunscreen and hats and leisure days of sleeping late and ice cream and melted sticky popsicle hands.  When seasons change I change.  My house changes, our clothes change.  But does my attitude?  Am I always grateful to move into a season of heat.  With summer comes heat.  IN South Texas...  sometimes intense heat.  We prepare, we spring clean, we find swimsuits, and pack for camps.  My house may be ready.  My children are certainly ready.  Am I ready to look at my God and consider him good if he decides it is time for a different season. 

We pray for more awareness, we pray for closeness, we pray for God's blessing.  What if God's blessing comes in the midst of change of season.  In the heat.  What if closeness comes with the shedding of spiritual clothes that we no longer need.  Can we only be aware of God's goodness if it makes us happy? 

To live with joy is to see God's goodness...  even in the midst of change.

There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Lord help us to prepare for change. Help us to see your goodness when you aask us to change. Help us to realize that there is a time and a season for everything under your glorious sun.  And even though we may not like it, and even though we may not understand it, help us to continue to strip off anything that hinders us.  Help us to recognize when you are calling us into a different season so that we may look at things with heavenly eyes and see your goodness in everything.

Life is like a marathon...

It's been almost a year since I started running.  In fact, I started my first "jog" (if you could call it that) on May 12, 2010.  The ten year anniversary of my dad's death.  I have never been a runner, I have never liked running per say.  But it is one of a very few things that I have found that really gives me a good sweat.  It helps relinquish my stresses, my worries, and frustrations.  Not that this stay at home mom (SAHM for those of you who are into anagrams) has a huge amount of stress compared to some of you reading this, but let's just say that I have learned to strap on my tissues (as my three year old calls tennis-shoes) and some great devotional music and spend some one on one time with my Father.  It has taken a good year for me to get up to feeling comfortable with running five miles in one run...  which takes about an hour...  which with three kids, that's really all I have time for right now. 

I started out with a small goal of being able to run a mile.  And I can remember the first time I set out to do so, it took me almost 45 minutes.  yes, FORTY FIVE MINUTES.  That's how out of shape I was.  skinny, yes.  but in shape I was not.   Since last year, we have joined a gym, I've started working out regularly, and I feel so much better.  I have way more energy and am way less emotional.  The funny thing is, once I started getting into the groove of exercising, my desires for junk food diminished. I think the same thing could be said of our spiritual lives...  Our Father wants us to crave Him.  To spend time with Him.  To get into HIS groove.  And once that happens, our lives will start to look and feel better.

This Saturday, I have the privilege of  running a relay marathon with my beautiful mom and my two beautiful sisters.  My sisters and I  got to talking the other day about how hard it has been to train for this race while balancing family and daily life and still finding the time and the "want to" to keep running.  We shared how we all had our ups and downs of training and how our bodies had all at one point or another had screamed... "I WANT TO QUIT!"  That's when I thought "Man!  Life is so much like running a marathon!"  Our glorious Father wants to see us to the finish line.  But getting there can be tough.  Life is so scary and short and unpredictable and unfair and (fill in the blank with whatever tough situations you are going through)....

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2

Imagine standing in a crowd of runners waiting for the start.  You have trained, you are hydrated.  You are ready.  You've got the best pair of running shoes, you know the route, you know your limits.  You are ready.  You strap on your backpack full of rocks and wait for the starting gun.  Wait, huh wha??  Backpack full of what?  You think...  wait a second...  but I didn't sign up for this????

The verse above tells us to lay aside everything that holds us back.  Holding onto things like unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, and sin is like trying to run a marathon with a backpack of rocks strapped to your back.  Sure, you can do it.  But it takes more work, more effort, and more than likely you won't win.  In this marathon that we call life - let's resolve to take of our backpacks of rocks.  Let's realize that Christ has allready carried our backpack for us...  all the way to the cross.  And when we focus on what he has allready done for us, then reaching our finish line seems to get a little easier.

Best Brisket EVAH!!

Being from the south and all, we love us some bar-b-que.  This recipe makes for a perfectly tender fall apart brisket that is perfect for leftovers!  Mixed with potato salad and some beans and you can't go wrong!! 

Ingredients:
5 pound brisket, trimmed
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons Kosher or Sea Salt
2 teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon cumin

Directions:
Mix ingredients together in bowl. Prepare meat by brushing the surface with oil before applying rub. Apply rub 2 to 4 hours before cooking. The rubbed meat can be refrigerated overnight, as this will increase the flavor slightly.

 Place brisket fat side up in a large disposable aluminum pan and place in the center of the grill.  Slow grill the brisket until tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the meat reads about 190 degrees F, about 6 hours.  Could also be slow cooked in the oven if necessary.

Don't forget a good ole southern dessert!!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

It may not be the prettiest dessert, but it ranks right up there with creme brulee for me!  Still not sure why it's called "sopapilla" cheesecake...  cause if you've ever had a real sopapilla, then you know it doesn't really even compare.  But after you have a bite...  you don't care! 

Ingredients:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 2 (8 ounce) tubes refrigerated crescent dinner rolls (Pillsbury brand)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

Directions:
Using a greased 9 x 13 baking pan, unroll one package of refrigerated crescent rolls. Line the bottom of the pan and flatten, pinching seams together as you go. In a medium bowl, add together the cream cheese, sugar and extract. Mix until well blended. Spread mixture over the crescent rolls.  Resist the temptation to lick the spoon.  Or not.
Unroll the other can of crescent rolls and place on top of cream cheese mixture.
Pour one stick of melted butter over the top.  Yes.  The whole stick.  Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, eat at room temperature or serve chilled. Hide any leftovers.

Ten Things... you should know about Texas.

1. We say things like Ya'll and Well bless your little heart and fixing to, and might could. For example...  Oh ya'll...  bless her little heart.  She might could go back to the haidresser and fix it a tiny bit right thar.  I'd go tell her myself, but I'm fixin to go to Wallyworld.
2. Unlike the rest of the country, we only have two seasons.  hot.  and hotter.  Occassionaly we will have to switch from a/c to heat in the same day.
3. Don't Mess With Texas is an anti-litter campaign.  Not a phrase that a bunch of drunk & angry cowboys decided to have made into bumper stickers. But seriously, don't mess with Texas, mkay?
4. If we had to name a famous battle, 10 out of 10 Texans would name The Alamo among the top 2, the other one might be that really good fight we all saw in high school.
5. Every Texas at birth is determined to be either a Texas Longhorn or a Texas Aggie. Like Romeo and Juliet, we are hence segregated to lives of bitter torment, taunting, and teasing from one side or the other.   
6. From August to January, we live, eat, and breathe football.  nfl, college, high school, peewee...  doesn't matter.  And we all believe that the Dallas Cowboys are God's favorite football team ever. None of us really understand why the Houston Oiler's left.
7. Going to the store is referred to as goin walmartin or goin to wally world.  Or in South Texas....  going to Wally Martinez.
8. It's not the ocean.  It's the Gulf. 
9. There are four basic food groups:  Whataburger, Chips & Salsa, Bar-B-Que, and Taquitos.  And when you order a coke, you may get coke, dr. pepper, pepsi, mr. pib, or anything brown and wet.
10. It is a common misconception that women from Texas have big hair.  In fact, this was out-lawed in June of 1989.  There is a special big hair task force (B.H.T.F. if you will) and they are doing their best to reach every last woman, bear with us. 

How to win at H.E.B. monopoly

*I am coming back in here to say that I AM NOT A COUPON BLOG, and this post is really intended for people who live in Texas and have to deal with the grocery monopoly known as HEB*

For those of you who read my blog and do not live in Texas, H.E.B. is a grocery store. If you live in Texas (or more particularly South Texas) we have two choices of grocery stores - Super Walmart or H.E.B. (we have CVS's and Walgreens, but for major grocery shopping and produce that's it). For ages I have read blogs and watched shows like like Extreme Couponing and have become quite envious of how these people manage to rack up $500.00 grocery bills and pay only dimes. Since this show has come out, I have paid attention to what these people are actually buying. I have no need for 35 boxes of hair dye or 56 packages of hot dogs. I am not willing to go to five different places to buy my groceries, nor am I willing to drag my 3 children at dawn to scour yards of foreclosed homes to steal sunday newspapers. I'll pay my $2.00 and snip like everyone else thankyouverymuch. I am also not wiling to sit for hours and hours scouring websites and papers, but I am willing to get a little organized.

Just a sampling of the plethora of processed pleasures available from the fine shopping establishment of H.E.B. 

But still, the most I had been able to save in the past was $30-$40.00 at a trip. Now most people would say that's pretty darn good considering our limited choices in grocery stores, I have tried to figure out a way to duplicate these results WHILE not wasting huge amounts of time. For the longest time, I was convinced that H.E.B. would not double ANY coupons. Well, I was delighted to discover today that this myth is not ENTIRELY true. Instead of trying to explain it myself... CLICK HERE to view their coupon policy.

Ok...  so anyone who knows H.E.B. knows about these little yellow coupons:

You can find them all over the store.  You can also find them on one big rack somewhere up near the front of the store.  In some stores they are by the entrances, other stores they are by the customer service desk where you would go to pay a bill or buy tickets for something.  It's not a big secret that they have them, cause they are everywhere, and sometimes there are some in the front of the store that are not on the aisles.  Sometimes there are some on the isles that are not on the big rack (like the meal deals).  According to the H.E.B. coupon policy page...  "Combining a manufacturer issued coupon with an H-E-B issued manufacturer coupon (Type M) on the same item is not permitted"  but directly under that it states... "H-E-B will combine store sponsored yellow coupons with manufacturer coupons for the same product."  So being the obsessively compulsive person that I am on a mission to beat H.E.B. at grocery monopoly, I printed the page out and made a plan to take it with me and point out that H.E.B. does infact double coupons for yellow coupon items.  Ha!  Now I started developing a plan.... 

Now remember...  my goal is to save money on things my family needs.  We don't have cats, so I'm not going to EVER waste my time clipping or printing out coupons for cat food, even if it is free cause I don't even know anyone who has cats and as much as I'm into charity and all, I'm more into my free time.

STEP ONE - PREPARING TO ORGANIZE:
I purchased a binder, dividers, and sheet protectors.  I had seen on the crazy coupon shows all the coupon gal's had some nifty way of organizing their coupons.  I've been around the grocery block once or twice, and I knew I needed to start here.  Three kids outnumber one mom, no way I was adding in 89,305 coupons to the mix without a way to keep them from spilling all over the isles.  Plus when I HAVE to take my kids with me, it will give my 12 year old something to hold.  Or to hit his sister with, so maybe scratch that.  He can hold the list.

STEP TWO - GATHER THE COUPONS:
***I will actally make a trip to H.E.B. to pick up some yellow coupons or browse through their online ads (on this page where it says view this week's ad).  They expire pretty quickly, so if you are really wanting to make your couponing dollars count, knowing what the meal deals are and knowing the yellow coupons is essential.

***Then comes the printing and the clipping.  and the clipping and the printing if you prefer it that way.  Ok gals (and guys too, if you're into this kinda thang).  Here's the time consuming part.  I use a variety of coupon gathering methods.  I'm not gonna lie, it does take time, but I have found that after a couple of weeks of buying the Sunday paper and clipping the coupons and sorting them away into my binder, I have used some that I didn't think I would.  Like for these to fix our smoke detector that decided to start beeping once every half second the other night promptly at 3am:

They were on my list and I got free orange juice, which was also on my list.  SCORE!!

There are some things that I have discovered are just a flat better bargain if you just buy the generic.  Laundry detergent for example.  There were 5 coupons for different kinds of laundry detergent in my binder, none of them lead to a lower price than the generic that we usually buy anyway.  And believe you me, I have done a test and it does get our clothes just as clean as the $15.00 box of Tide.  However, sometimes H.E.B. has a yellow coupon for a different kind that I can combine with a manufacturer coupon and it is a little cheaper.  And if one is pretty close to expiring and I know I won't be using it, I like to pretend that I'm the coupon fairy and I'll leave it by the expensive laundry detergent and walk away all happy like.  I know, I'm delusional. 

So here are a list of resources that I use that are free (both monitarilly free and free of malicious spyware crud that your computer will spit out like a baby choking on spinach). 
http://www.coupons.cm/
http://www.redplum.com/
http://www.couponnetwork.com/ (you have to register, but it's free)
http://www.heb.com/weekly-ads/show-coupons.jsp (mostly the same as coupons.com)
http://www.couponmom.com/ (is also good, but really more for kroger cities)
http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/brandsaver-coupons.jsp (once you register with them, they send you coupons in the mail)
http://www.pillsbury.com/coupons-promotions (you have to register as  member and then you can print coupons)
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/registration/contextualsignuplogin.aspx?redirect=1 (pretty good about emailing coupons)
**You can also search on facebook for products and brands and get a coupon for liking that page...  For example Freschetta pizza has a $2.00 coupon for their pizza on facebook right now.  H.E.B. had a yellow coupon for $1.50 off - The pizza costs $4.00 so I got two pizzas for about $1.00.  SCORE!
 ** I also visit product websites and google around to see if there is a printable coupon out there if something is on my list. 

STEP THREE - ORGANIZE THE COUPONS:
*** Usually on a day when my husband is off or my kids are not too crazy.  I pull out my recently purchased Sunday paper, cut and print the relevant coupons for our family and organize them into my binder:

 That's my grocery list on the left, and the HEB coupon policy on the right.  It's come in handy on more than one occasion. 

 When a clerk tells me that I can't use a manufacture coupon with a yellow coupon, I pull out this bad boy all professional like. 

Then behind are my dividers.  They are categorized into these fun categories which i'm putting in pink cause pink is fun and so is saving money:
1.  Bath & Body
2.  Home Cleaning
3.  Laundry
4.  Dishes (there are usually lots of sunday coupons for these and laundry so they needed their own slot)
5.  Pets
6.  Spices & Condiments
7.  Baking (sometimes there are good coupons for flour or sugar or chocolate chips, etc.)
8.  Snacks (both for kids and grownups)
9.  Desserts
10.  Frozen Food
11.  Lunchmeat & Hot Dogs
12.  Entrees
13.  Sides
14.  School (coupons for stuff like glue, crayons, markers, etc.)
15.  Toys (occasionally)
16.  Misc.

Whew!  So not all slots are filled up, and this is just what works for me...  you may have your own system and I'd love to hear about it!  I put a few page protectors behind each divider and stash my coupons in that.  When I find some baseball card holder page thingies, I might try that, but I haven't been able to find any like the real coupon gals have yet. 

STEP FOUR - LIST MAKING:
I use my calendar when making my grocery list.  Why?  So that I can remember that we have a birthday party to go to and to look in the toy coupon slot.  So that I can remember that I am suppossed to bring snack to bible study, and I can use my crescent roll coupon to make something.  My husband gets paid every two weeks.  So that means I go to the grocery store once every two weeks.  No more... no less.  Well, we do run out of mik pretty frequently, but does that count?  I keep a running list of things that we run out of on a pad on my fridge, and when it's time to go to the store, I make out two lists....  one for dinners that will last us about two weeks, the other is the actual grocery list.  Also using my calendar, I add in the scheduled events like when Gracyn is suppossed to bring snack, etc.  I also review the yellow meal deal coupons from H.E.B. and plan out some meals aroun those.  Then I go to my coupon binder and see if any yellow coupons match up with any manufacturer coupons.

I write my dinner menu on this little black frame with a dry erase marker so I can erase something once we've eaten it.  It helps me to remember what we've got available to cook or eat and keeps me sane when the kids ask "what's for dinner?".

I'm still making my list based on what we need.  I do not buy something just because I have a coupon for it.  But because I have been cutting coupons from the sunday paper for a few weeks now and have some other coupons that were mailed to me, I was able to save a significant amount today by combining yellow coupons and manufacturer coupons.  My biggest score was this:

This is why club sandwhiches are on our dinner menu this week..... I had two manufacture coupons for $2.00 off Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Meat.  (They cost around $3.50.)  I also had two manufacturer coupons for Kraft Cheese for .50 off (they cost about 1.50) I bought one turkey and one ham, which meant that I got two loaves of bread, two corn nuts (which Chris loves to eat in the car on the way to work as he tries to quit dipping), two Mac&Cheeses, and two bottles of mayo for free.  So in total 14 items for $5.00. 

Somewhere about ten coupons into this, she stopped and pulled the ole "HEB doesn't double coupons ma'am."  And I pulled the ole...  "I get that all the time, and that's why I have printed the HEB coupon policy out for you to read."  Believe me, it was not fun standing in line having her go through all of these coupons listening to lady behind me moan at how long it was taking.  I think at one point, my hair actually caught on fire from the flames shooting from her eyes.  Which reminds me that I forgot to get hairspray.  sonfofanutcracker there's always something.  I just kept thinking....  oooohhhh lady.....  you oughta be glad I don't have my three kids with me. 

When she handed me my receipt, and said I had saved $89.00...  I slighty turned back and repeated very loudly...  "I SAVED $89.00 DOLLARS???"  Take that flame throwing eye lady.

On ruining the life of a pre-teen...

My 12 year old son left at the crack of dawn yesterday for a field trip.  Let me re-phrase that...  my preteen son who never wants to throw anything away, move anything to dust, who saves the wrappers to old candy bars cause they look cool, and still has popsicle stick projects from 1st grade collecting dust in his room was going to be out of the house yesterday from sun-up to midnight. 

So what would any good parent do while their obsessive compulsive pre-teen with an extremely dusty dog-hair filled room do?  They would wait until their obsessive compulsive pre-teen son returned from the field trip to clean the room together and discuss what needs to be thrown away, kept, or put into a keepsake box and packed neatly away in the attic.

I'm not that parent. As he pulled out of the driveway, I waved good-bye with empty trash bag in hand.  literally.  Then I marched myself upstairs and began the purge.  and the sneezing.  This could have been an episode of Hoarding:  Buried Alive, pre-teen edition.  Many claritins later...  I emerged from the pre-teen cave intact.  I stripped the bed, I sorted clothes.  I removed candy wrappers, and soda cans, and organized play station games and rock collections.  I vacuumed, washed base boards and fan blades, and hung pictures and posters, and organized markers and folder and colors, and trophies, and ribbons.  I moved furniture and vacuumed again.  Finally I stepped back and looked around at the organized closet and shelves, proud of the progress I had made.  Clean at last, clean at last....  thank God almighty we're clean at last!

I went on to sleep, being past Cinderella's curfew and all, and was awakened around 1:45 in the morning with ".....MY LIFE IS RUINED!!!"  He was very upset that I had thrown away everything that was precious to him....  Things that were growing mold & collecting dust and causing unhealthyness in places that he could not see. "But I have nothing left!  She got rid of everything & I don't even know what to do!!"

So at 2:30 in the morning, we listened from bed as our son tried to find the things that I had thrown away.   Around 3:00, he collapsed with exhaustion into his (completely clean) bed.  Early this morning, I went up to inspect and was pretty impressed that it was relatively the same.  I stood in his doorway watching him sleep, sipping my coffee, and this verse came to mind...

 ¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:1-4).

I thought about the dusty moldy areas of my life where God has tried to prune.  Areas that are bearing no fruit that I am clinging to like an emotional pre-teen.  I spend my quiet time today trying to recognize the areas that ARE bearing fruit, and are also being pruned so that they will be EVEN MORE FRUITFUL.  And God whispers to me in the quiet to seek Him more so that I will learn to recognize the difference. 

As I thought about the spring cleaning that I had done in my son's room, I thought about how I also needed to let God do some spring cleaning of my soul.  In order to have a beautiful garden in my heart and mind, the weeds need to be pulled, the dust cleared away, and some things need to be rearranged, priorities shifted.

Therefore, putting away lying, "let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,"  for we are members of one another.  "Be angry, and do not sin":  do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamo, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  (Ephesians 4: 25-32)

Here are some ways that I can do a little spring cleaning of my soul:

1. Speak truth to my husband.  When he asks how I am feeling or if anything is wrong...  tell him the truth.
2. Realize that it is ok to be angry.  But also realize that there is a difference between righteous anger and pouting when I don't get my way.  And if I don't get my way, let that anger go and don't go to bed angry at my husband or children (or whoever).
3. Quit stealing.  Stealing the time and resources that God has given me, wasted away on things that are not important, focus more on things that are important to Him, using my resources wisely so that I can give to others in need.
4. Let no corrupt words come out of my mouth...  which begins with what comes into my mind from TV, radio, etc.  Realize that my words are important and they make a diference. 
5. Bury bitterness.  Bitterness and unforgiveness over life situations in which I had no control. 

Father God, I ask you to come into my life and prune.  Even though it may hurt.  Even though I may not understand why.  Even though I may throw a fit and try to reclaim the things that are dusty and moldy and causing me unseen harm.  Even though I may exclaim with my attitude that you are ruining my life...  Lord, I ask you to prune.  To snip away the bitterness, to chop away the unforgiveness.  To bring to mind the areas of my life that steal away precious time with my family and with you.  I pray that you reach into the depths of my soul and clean out the evil words and put in me a desire to keep clean the wellspring of life.  I thank you Father that you love me enough to prune away the dirty, the dust, the unhealthy, the unneeded and that you will not leave me alone and freshly exposed...  that you will guide me and lead me.  Lord accept the anxiety of my heart as a child afraid of the unknown and make known to me your presence so that the harvest of the fruit will be your glory.

deep breath

I am participating in Gypsy Mama's 5 minute friday....  her prompt today is deep breath....
here we go.................

I sit here watching Becoming Chaz...  an Oprah documentary on the gender switch of Cher's daughter Chastidy who started life as a budding beautiful blonde headed blue eyed girl.  My thoughts flash between my two budding beautiful blonge headed daughters and an old woman in the grocery store line commenting on a recent magazine cover, shocked.  I switch the channels as my son walks in and out to "shelter" him and breathe in anxiety over rising gas prices and the failing heartbeat of the world that my children were born into.  I breathe deep as I flip channels between Mob Wives and Bin Laden and Sister Wives and fires and droughts and famine and back to this documentary to catch a lady professing her thoughts on how the he/she has so much courage to truly be himself and my thoughts flash to small bald children shaved by chemotherapy and I wonder where the definition of courage has gone.

I breath deep watching my daughter hop so happy out of the car each morning and hold up i love you in sign language and pray with each step that she takes further away that she has the courage to say no to crystal meth and tatoos and gossiping.  and the world.  and the courage to say yes to christ.  I take a deep breath and pray that I have strength... courage to NOT do what is easy but to do what is right.  That when all other parents say yes to going to a rated R movie, that I stand firm.  I breathe in deep the strawberry scented bubble bath and lock away the memory of mispelled words and dimpled hands.  I breathe in deep the chaos and the busy and the mundane and look to the source of breath for strength and courage and exhale gratitude.  grace.  in abundance.

Sopaipillas (Soap-uh-pee-ya's)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup warm water, plus more as needed
• Peanut oil, for frying
• Honey or cinnamon sugar, for serving

Directions

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and water, work them in with your hands to make a soft, pliable dough. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the dough feels too dry. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Put the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour so it will firm up a bit and be easier to roll and cut. (Dough can be prepared 1 day ahead, refrigerated.)

Unwrap the ball of dough and put on a lightly floured surface, cut in half. With a floured rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into a circle, about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut the dough into triangles as you would a pizza. You should end up with 6 or 8 triangles per circle.
Heat 2-inches of oil  in a heavy skillet or deep pot over medium-high heat.
Fry a few of the sopapillas at a time, keeping an eye on maintaining the oil temperature. As the sopapillas puff up and rise to the surface, flip them over with a slotted spoon, skimmer, or chopsticks; about 2 minutes on each side. Carefully remove the sopapillas from the oil and drain on several layers of paper towels or a brown paper bag. Cool slightly. Serve hot with honey or cinnamon sugar.

Allergic to Shots

So I took my beautiful, fun, spunky, and lately overly snotty-nosed Gracyn to the doctor the other day.  She has a birthmark under her chin, which you can slightly see here:

She calls it her angel kiss.  I noticed a few weeks (or perhaps months) ago that it had gotten darker and possibly bigger, and there was starting to get some hair on it.  And more than anything, I didn't want her to turn 13 and look like this:

So we trucked ourselves into the doctor Monday morning to have my furry little monkey checked out.  While we were checking in and handing over our autobiography of illnesses, Gracyn started coughing and sneezing.  And while the nurse was wiping snot off the back of her monitor, she explained that the doctor was also an allergy specialist and had I ever had my little furry monkey tested for allergies.  Um, yeah, I've thought about it, yeah, she always coughing and sneezing, so we signed up for that too.

So they shuffle us back to the waiting room, and I smile past the eye rolling on our third trip to the potty, where I decide to consult with the greatest doctor on earth, Dr. Google, about what allergy testing actually consists.  With my i-phone in one hand and my 3 year old in the other, I am wiping butts and trying to pinch squeeze enlarge the microscopic print, where I see ".....pricking or puncturing the skin with a needle or similar device."  Whaaa Huh??? puncturing? Needle?? craptastic.  Gonna be a great time!

So we return to the waiting room, which is approximately 3feet by 3feet, where my children rapidly accepted the challenge of turning tongue depressors into weapons, using the bed as a trampoline, playing basketball with the jar of cotton-balls and the trash can, transferring all band-aids and q-tips from their glass containers into the magazines below the examining table, and blowing the latex gloves into ballons. A sterile preschool nirvanna.  The nurse finally decided to come in just in time to join us for our hand-sanitizer bath.  Followed shortly by the dermatologist/allergist doctor who was informed by my middle daughter that the Little Mermaid tie that he had on was confusing her because Little Mermaid was for girls and ties were for boys. 

Meanwhile I'm trying to download a few new games on the phone that is limping along on a sliver of a battery so that my 3 year old has something to do while her sister starts swelling up like this:

So Whitley is whining mad that the phone is now dead, Gracyn is mad cause she can't play the new game and panicked that she is about to be turned into a human pin cushion, and they come in with over 100 needle looking items.  Let the fun begin. They then begin the scratch and prick test that ends up looking like this, which she did amazingly well with:

So you are looking at her sweet little back.  There are approximately 100 blue lines and she received a little scratch on either side of the lines, and then some more on her arms.  We were then released from jail to enjoy a one hour lunch at the fine dining establishment of McDonalds.  When we returned, we were informed that she was allergic to everything that they tested her for.  And not just allergic, but severly allergic. 

They suggested that I try to keep my house free of dust...  that maybe vacuuming and washing her sheets daily would help to improve her symptoms.  To which I replied, "Oh yes, I love to clean and I do it every day, I will most certainly vacuum and wash as much as I can."  as if.  They went down the list of common things that she was allergic to...  cats, dogs, dust, mold, grass, trees, planet earth... To which Gracyn replied...  "Um, I'm not allergic to candy!" 

So she received her first allergy shot like a champ, and will now need to go twice a week to receive an shots, which should be great entertainment in and of itself.  In the car on the way home, we were discussing what would happen at the doctor for her next "shot"...  to which she replied "Mom, I think I'm allergic to shots."  Me too, dear.  Me too!

Ten Things... I do even though I know I shouldn't

1. Drink coffee at all hours of the day or night even though I know I may be up late at night listening to my husband snore.
2. Let my laundry build up and then let my children hide in it.
3. Buy all kinds and varieties of strange and exotic fruits and vegetables only to throw them out after they have gone to rot.
4. Let my kids skip bath if they have played in the water outside.
5. Sleep in late on Sundays and watch TBN and try to make myself believe it counts as going to church.
6.  Occassionaly let my children eat cereal for dinner on my white couches.  While watching
   movies.  So I can facebook and blog.
7. Hit snooze three times, every morning.  And then gripe to my son that he shouldn't use his snooze button. go ahead, call me a big fat hypo.
8. Buy used furniture off of craigslist.  the same way I buy produce.  Eventually I get tired of it
   and it ends up in our garage or goodwill.
9. Go all day and realize that I'm really thirsty because I've only had three cups of coffee
   and a gatorade to drink and down a 44 oz cup of water because you know you should have lots of water during the day, only to wake up in the middle of the night to pee 45 times...  that is if the coffee or the snoring husband actually allowed you to sleep. 
10. Record my husband snoring on my iphone to prove to him that yes, he really does wake himself up and then play the track of him snoring on my blog to prove to your friends that yes, he really does wake himself up because hey, what else are you going to do between pee breaks on a caffeine high?
11. see...

Have you been tackled by God lately?

I’m pretty hard headed. Ok, I’m real hard headed. For many months, we have struggled with a pretty bad situation with our house/morgage. A situation that would take WAY too long to explain, but that is based on a tax mistake made by the title company that has caused our monthly payments to go up almost $700/month. Since then, I have fought and struggled with anyone and everyone that will listen to try and remedy this mistake. I’ve prayed – and in desperate attempts to get more money have looked for worked, which I don’t really feel is in the best interest for our kids, but neither would foreclosure. In all of this process, I have at times forgotten how to trust God, and have decided at times that I am tired of waiting on him for an answer, and have tried to take things into my own hands – despite what I feel God says is right or wrong. The trouble is this – that anything that I have tried to do has fallen apart, caused me to stumble, doesn’t quite work out, and has ended up costing us more in the end than it would have if I would have just waited.

Right after Christmas, we were all outside playing with our new bikes and scooter and skates and such. Whitley – my very hard headed two year old, insisted on testing the boundaries between the sidewalk and the street. I normally do a pretty good job of staying on top of her and making sure that she remains on the sidewalk – but the phone rang and because we were expecting a call from our mortgage company, I insisted on taking the phone outside with me and answering it. Well – like they say – in a split second, here’s pretty much what happened:
*phone rang
*mom turns around to go into the garage to answer the phone
*Whitley sees her opportunity to dart into the street and makes a break for it
*Whitley does not see the giant SUV speeding around the stop sign corner right in front of our house headed straight for her and I doubt that the driver saw her
*Nathan, my ten year old sees Whitley, sees the car, and sprints down the driveway yelling
*I answer the phone back turned, in the garage
*Nathan continues yelling, Whitley does not stop
*Car does not stop
*more yelling
*crying
*I turn around and see Nathan on top of whitley, the car fairly far away, and Whitley screaming and crying, hang up the phone and run down the driveway.
My first reaction was to yell at Nathan for tackling her to the ground. He is eleven, he should no better. I let him have it – when are you going to learn, you can’t hit your sister… much less SHOVE HER TO THE GROUND????

Then he explained. “She was running, mom… she wouldn’t stop she wouldn’t listen, I couldn’t get her attention – so I didn’t know what else to do. You weren’t here, so I was just trying to protect her. That car would have hit her.” Tears streaming down my cheek, I just thanked God for his protection and for allowoing my eleven year old son to be so vigilent. She wasn’t hit. Thank God. Thank Nathan.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.
2 Timothy 4:18

Then it hit me. Like a bolt of lightning sent straight from heaven. Many moments in these past few monthsI have felt shoved down. I’ve cried in agony over what this mortgage situation is doing to our marriage – to our finances, to our family. But inside of this moment, I realized that I am a child of God. That I may feel tacked to the ground, but if I stay inside of God’s will that even though I may feel hurt and rejected and insufficient, that God is looking out for me. Like that oncoming car, He can see the bigger picture that I cannot. Sometimes I won’t listen. God can’t seem to get my attention because I am so focused on what I want to accomplish, that He has to TACKLE ME TO THE GROUND to protect me.

I know, ouch. Have you been tackled lately? Not so much fun huh? But hang in there – God see’s the bigger picture and He loves you! And so do I!!

Saying no can be expensive.

As a general rule, I do pretty well with stress related issues and deadlines.  You know, important things like kindergarten homework, making pig costumes for the school play, and making sure there are plenty of clean sippy cups.  As a general rule, I do pretty well with keeping up with responsibilities like getting my son to baseball practice, making sure my daughter has her pig costume for the school play, and buying presents for upcoming birthday parties.  But somewhere around last Friday, the various stresses and responsibilites caught up with me like a cop chasing after a wanted thief. 

In any given month, we are invited to no less than three birthday parties.  We don't always attend, because sanity is one of my best friends and I'd really rather not offend her.  So this past weekend we had two birthday parties...  one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  One for a boy, one for a girl.  We declined to go to the Saturday party because of previous engagements.  Saturday being the boy party. 

So I went ahead sometime in the middle of making pig costumes, preparing for a church luncheon, and volunteering at kindergarten splash day and bought one barbie and one very boyish looking hot wheel car wash thingamajig.  So I packed up the presents and sent the very boyish present to school with my daughter on Friday with a note explaining we were not going to be able to make the party, but here is his present, so sorry, etc...

Sunday rolls around and the family is loading up in the car to go to the other party.  Here we go...  everyone is in, we're rolling out, got the present, and we're off, for once we're not gonna be late.  I hear a voice from the back ask "Mom, whadwe'd get Kaelin?"  A barbie, I answer.  Oh, I wanna see!  So I grab the bag and pull out.....  yep...  the thingamajig.  Stop at walmart with three kids, toy isle, forget being on time.

So I walked the very boyish-hotwheelcarwash-thingamajig into the school this morning with another note.  Here's to hoping that the boy has a sister.

Happy Mudders Day!

Because I was really hoping for breakfast in bed and instead I got a breakfast taco... Because we woke up too late to go to church today and I'm avoiding Mount Laundry... And because my children are currently in our living room arguing over who gets to hold the pink wii remote... I present you with my favorite mothers day link....



and also this little gem...


And last but not least, meet Jennifer, her husband and their new baby Benjamin:

Jennifer had noticed that after giving birth, her memory was suffering. Dr. Oz confirmed that Jennifer was indeed suffering from “Mommy Brain”, a condition where babies suck the life out of their Mother’s by stealing her omega-3 fats. As you can see, Benjamin was quite enthralled with Dr. Oz’s theory. Either that, or all that brain sucking really wore him out.

So here's to all the mother's out there... whether new or old or as busy as Joan River's plastic surgeon, go take a hot bath, relax for a while, then suck it up like the rest of us and go do your laundry!

Who Are We?

Nathan, age 12
Loves: hunting, fishing, camping, hunting, antagonizing his sisters, and hunting.
Hates: giving his sisters hugs, when he is not hunting or camping.

Gracyn, age 5
Loves: pink, Barbies, lipstick, nail polish, dancing, and generally being pretty sassy.
Hates: minding, going to bed, relaxing, picking up her toys and being quiet.

Whitley, age 3
Loves: Barbies, whining, taking her clothes off, pwincesses, elmers glue, permanent markers. Hates: the word no. unless she is saying it.

Jenny, aka Mommy.
Loves: coffee, Jesus, baking, eating, good bible studies.
Hates: lack of sleep, whiny children, stepping on legos in the middle of the night.
Chris,aka Daddy
Loves: his kiddos, his family, date nights, barbque, anything spicy.
Hates: moody wives, moody children, chocolate, anything sticky, laundry

Surviving in the wild

Last week, while watching sesame street, my four year old asked me what a zoo was. As I tried to explain, I was a little saddened by the fact that we did not live close enough to a zoo to go and visit. The closest zoo to us is like 2.5 hours away. She continued to ask questions like why do animals live in the zoo, why do people catch animals and put them in cages, etc. At one point,
I must have really struck a nerve, because she asked why would God put animals in jail?

Half laughing, half sad, I told her that God does not put animals in jail, that people put animals in jail, I mean zoo, and God intends for animals to live in their natural habitat where God gave them gifts and talents to survive, and that it’s wrong to put animals in cages, but ok for zoos to put animals in cages, and well…. which only lead to more questions. It was just one of those times where you try and explain something that in a four year old’s eyes just doesn’t add up to what we have been teaching her the entire four years of her life…. So yeah, we don’t put animals in cages, but we can go see animals at the zoo… in. cages.? *cue dad, anytime here!*



I thought about her questions alot over the week. I remembered how several years back, I got to take my son to the zoo in Chicago, and I rememberd seeing the Lions and Tigers, and alligators with just a thin layer of glass or skinny little fence between us. It was amazing to see how big they actually were, and I remembered thinking on the catastrophic damage those animals could do if they were not in their cage. Then I learned from one of the keepers that once they are in captivity for a certain period of time, wild animals loose their ability to survive in the wild. The movie Madagascar reminds me of what this handler said every time I watch it.

So there we were, staring at these huge wild animals knowing that they had lost their ability to do what God had intended them to do. There was no question that they could have shred me to pieces, but in the wild… they had lost their ability to survive in the wild because of their captivity.

I can’t help but think that as a Christian, I have become like these caged animals. Full of powerful potential, but lacking ability to survive in the real world. Is being a Christian a destination or a starting point? Are we surviving day to day and focusing inward on our own ability to get our laundry done, our dishes, to make sure our children have clean teeth and rooms and plates and forgetting to focus from time to time on the outside world in which we are training our children to interact?

Are we acting like domesticated lions and tigers… who have lost their potential to survive in the wild? When the outside world interacts with us, do they walk away unimpressed and unchanged, or can they see the potential power that they could have by having a relationship with Christ? Following Christ should be risky, eventful, meaningful – and instead I have made it mundane and meaningless, will my children be able to survive in the wild based on what I am teaching them? I’m sure that as moms, we worry too much over a clean house, dishes, soccer practices, shedules, dinner, and running the everyday that we forget to let it go sometimes and be a little risky for Christ. Myprayer is that I will begin living an uncommon life, to embrace God’s willinstead of trying to create my own way. I want to stop worrying about laundry and dishes and cleaning and organzing and being perfect. I want to beundomesticated.



and wild. (well – wild-er, anyway) How aboutyou? Will you make your life a little more wild for Christ? What are you going to do to teach your children to survive in the wild?

These are the things I’m going to do:

*instead of reading a book to my 2 year old and four year old at bedtime, we will read a bible verse and a bible story.
*I am going to start a prayer journal, for my kids, and today after church, we are going to write down the things that we want to pray about, and keep adding to it as the week goes. We can then take the journal and pray for those things before bed.
*I am going to be intentional about saying a prayer at bed with my eleven year old.
These are things we do not do pretty regularly. I want for my children to know that they can pray at anytime, not just before eating. I’m starting there… were are you going to start?

Are you ready for a change?

Why having a toddler is like being at a frat party...

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room and bathtub.

9. There's always that one girl, bawling her eyes out in a corner.

8. It's best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone's going to start banging on the door.

6. 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You've got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There's definitely going to be a fight.

3. You're not sure whether anything you're doing is right, you just hope it won't get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed next to you got there.

Have you read your owner's manual lately?

I had such a revelation yesterday morning about following God’s will for our lives and not only reading his word, but following…. I think this came from Joyce Meyer, and I am certainly parapharasing, but it is worth repeating because it certainly hit home with me!
I love my car. It is big and fits every purpose of why I bought it – to fit all of our family, plus friends, plus hauling anything that I might want to haul around with plenty of room to spare. I don’t want anything to happen to my car. Not only would I not be able to afford it if something were to break – from time to time I make major investments in my car to keep it running the way it is suppossed to run. I change the oil regularly, I wash it regularly, and have it serviced regularly. When I, or the mechanic, it not sure about what to do, the owner’s manual is checked. I could be pretty correct in assuming that most of us are the same way with our vehicles. We depend on them, so we take care of them because we can not afford to have them break down or replace them.

Because of this, I am certainly not going to read the owners manual and think ‘Ha!’ I bet that the manufacturer is just trying to keep me from having fun and throw the owner’s manual away and do whatever I want to with my car. If I were to do that, then we all know what would happen – the car would not work and I could not get where I wanted or needed to go.

So why do we ignore the only owner’s manual that was made for us? The Bible. Made by God. B.I.B.L.E. basic instructions before leaving earth. If God created the universe, and everything in it, then he’s got to know what is best for me.

I am currently going to re-evaluate my goals, thoughts, and actions. I want to try and listen to God more and try to hear what he is telling me he wants from me. He has big plans for me. He has big plans for you too! Are you ready to read the owner’s manual?