Family pics....Finally! :)

It only took us 6 years..but we finally got family pictures! He-he....we are really bad at this..but hey at least we did it! :)

Hmmm.....

Today my thoughts are nonstop for some reason. I am really pondering the love of God today. For one I am really thankful that he loves me even in my shortcomings and all, Lord knows there are soooo many! I had a situation happen today where I left feeling very misunderstood and inadequate. So I took my thoughts to the Lord and asked Him to reveal if there was any wrong that I had done and to please show it to me and forgive me. And continued to ask for Him to speak into my life freely about the situation. All he keeps reminding me of is that He loves me sooo much and He is pleased with my decision to follow Him with my WHOLE heart, mind and soul. Sometimes I think others around us can tend to think we are too radical in our stance for the Lord. But I was thinking today.....why is being too radical wrong? I mean, if it is affecting the way you view others in a way that is not Christlike, then of course.....but I am simply talking about being sold out for Jesus Christ...not loving any part of the world...being in it, but not of it. I think because of where I came from....a total world lover!.....I am eternally grateful to be a Christ Lover with everything in me and have abandoned my love for the world gladly. I never want to return to where I was! I pray the Lord continues to ignite my fire in spite of those around me who would have a differing opinion on the "radicalness" of my walk with Jesus. Lord, keep me humble and most of all, let Love shine forth more than anything else!! May my life be a reflection of you...and if it is not, please change me!!!

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Dunkin' Donuts Coffee sample!! :)

This one is a shout out to you Laura ;) love you...xoxo

REALLY good cookies!!!

So I made some really good cookies tonight!! (yes cheat Day is over..but I really wanted something yummy!) :) So here is the recipe to share with you all, but I did modify it a bit. I added Peanut butter (just a couple scoops), toffee bits, flax seed and wheat germ (to get some good nutrients into my kids ;), and extra choc. chips. They were a hit with the fam! Enjoy everybody!!

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies I

SUBMITTED BY: sal PHOTO BY: kittengirl

"This cookie is practically nutritious with applesauce, raisins and nuts. So chewy! Great with a glass of milk!"

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PREP TIME	20 Min
COOK TIME	15 Min
READY IN	35 Min
Original recipe yield 3 dozen

SERVINGS

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Servings
US METRIC

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

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DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, applesauce, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda, then gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the oats, raisins, nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Be Careful how we treat our families!!!

I saw this on Peter-Jon Courson's blog and it really impacted me. I think so often we forget about how we are treating our kids and spouse and treat others so much nicer when in the process we are tearing our homes down. Lord, help me to lift my family up at all times!!

Really cool recipe website!

I just thought I would share this with y'all! I love this site..you can put in ingredients you want or don't want, can change the recipe to fit the serving size you want, and they have great recipes for just about anything....check it out! I go here when I have a few things and don't know what to make with it....:)

http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx

Enjoy the sun while it is here!!

We went to the beach last weekend and had a blast..it was beautiful!! I love the seasons changing...it is such a unique and beautiful time. The kids had a blast!! We brought hundreds of toys..it truly seemed as if we brought our whole backyard ;), they swam in the sand...(they were covered!!), and we basked in the sun! I loved it, and I loved watching my kids be kids!!!!

Turning over a new leaf...just in time for fall! :)

I have been really blessed lately. I have been praying for a long time for patience to discipline not only with spankings and prayer, but with explanation backed with longsuffering to get the point across effectively. I feel like the Lord is fulfilling that in me...Praise Him! It has been a refreshing season with my kids, not only have I been able to discipline in the way I have wanted to for a long time, but I have been so enjoying them. I thank the Lord for the changing seasons he takes us through! I know the hard ones are rough, but when he takes us out of the valley and up to the mountain top and we can look around and see the beautiful things he is doing in our lives, I am soooo blessed beyond measure!! I am also seeing some fruit in my kids in this process as well. They have been working together as a team cleaning their room, obeying quicker with less resistance....not that there aren't still some rough times! :) But I truly am rejoicing at seeing me grow along with them and it all being a neat picture of Him completing the work he begins!! :) I am far from being completed but I know he is working in us gradually. It is awesome. Have a blessed day everybody! God is good ALL the time!

2 year old art!! Gotta love it!

Eva got some tub crayons the other day...and so she had the ENTIRE tub colored tonight, and she was having such a great time I had to take some pictures~She is at such a fun age! I am enjoying her a whole bunch...keep creating Eva!! :)

Acacia's 7th birthday....We had a rockin' slumber party!!! :)

We had such a great time last sunday!! Jeremy took Elijah camping for the night and we filled up the house with a bunch of girls for the night! We painted nails, had a fashion show, played musical chairs, painted their own pillowcases, pinned the ice cream cone on Strawberry shortcake....etc...oh my...we had a blast! Thanks to all of the girls big and small that came

Night out for all the mommy's and daddy's!!

We had a great time last night. We had a couple's night out with 14 other couples at Sophia's...a great little Italian place in Grants Pass! After we had a nice romantic dinner with our spouse, we went bowling and at both places we got to play our own cd...The Psalms Project....it was truly blessed by the Lord! I hope to be able to do it again..we had a great time. I was glad everyone came.

Immigrant Waterslides!!

We had soooo much fun last weekend, it started off with a SURPRISE birthday party with most of my close friends and family....Laura got me good!! With the help of some other sneaky peeps!!! :) On Saturday, she threw a surprise party for her sister Danelle at the waterslides..we had a blast! It was the first time for the kids..so they were sprinting to the top to go down again as soon as they got out of the water...ahhh...memories! I can totally remember being their age and loving these slides! It was cool to go there with my kids..they haven't changed a bit! :)

A Little encourager.....

I was really encouraged by this as I read it this am. Thought I would share it with you all..I know there are others out there who struggle like I do ;)....

Encouragement for Today - Aug. 14, 2008

August 14, 2008

Great Sermons are Not Preached, They’re Lived

Lysa TerKeurst

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 (NIV)

Devotion:

What if someone followed me around with a video camera all day documenting my every move? Catching on camera all of my words, facial expressions, actions, and reactions. And then what if someone packaged it all together and played it on some sort of reality TV show for all the world to see. What would be the glaring message of my life?

I am convicted thinking about this.

You see, if someone were to ask me, what are you all about? I would have some nice sounding answers. But what actually happens during the strains of everyday life can sometimes betray my best intentions.

I want to be a loving wife. Yet I can sometimes be found in a grumpy, selfish mood and view my husband as a business partner that better hold up his end of helping out.

I want to be a wise and patient mom. But my kids know the exact buttons to push that send me into a tailspin of emotion and exhaustion.

I want to be a strong witness for Christ. So why is it that I can read my Bible first thing in the morning and then find myself honking at the person that cuts me off in traffic just an hour later?

I realize there is a place for God’s tender mercies for me in all this. But I also know that while no TV cameras are following me around, my life is speaking a message about what I really believe and I want that message to honor Jesus. I once heard, “Great sermons are not preached, they are lived.” Oh how I long to live a message that speaks loud and clear, “Jesus is true and the principles found in His teachings work!”

Let’s just be honest, it’s tough being a sold out soul for Christ stuck in a flesh-filled body. That’s why it is essential that I view my time with God each morning as a preparation and an invitation. Every verse, devotion and prayer is all part of God’s preparation for me that day. Instead of just using it to quiet my soul for the few minutes of devotion time, I must with allow it His teachings to seep into my heart and mind. Then I must ask God to interrupt my natural flesh response throughout the day the truths He taught me that morning. That’s the preparation part.

The next essential view of my quiet time each morning is the invitation part. Spending time with God first thing invites His presence into my life and acknowledges, “Not my will God, but Yours be done.” So if my husband forgets to do something he promised, or my kids push my buttons, or a person cuts me off in traffic, or one of the other one million things happens that causes my flesh to want to rear up and act ugly… I can say, “Not my will God, but yours be done.”

This slight pause and acknowledgement of God redirects my frustration and replaces it with grace. Then and only then will my life speak to the fact that I have spent time with Jesus.

Dear Lord, please teach me how to reveal more and more of You through the way I live my life. I want to tell the whole world about You using words only when necessary. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

A Wake Up Call.....In my dreams.

So, the last week has been a real struggle around here. The kids have been extra rambuncous and disobiendient to top it off. Not sure if it is in the air or what..I have heard from a few friends it is the same way at their house....School come back to us!! :) Any how....Yesterday was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, It was quite possibly the worst day we have had around here in quite a while. So I sent the 2 older kids off to church with J, and I stayed behind to listen to Jon online and spend some quiet time reflecting on my heart in this whole matter.

I am really struggling more than ever in this, because I so badly want to do it right (i.e. discipline, working out their fighting,have a cheerful heart in the process), but am having a hard time. Hmm..reminds me of a verse.....:) Almost like God knew...;) So, by the time everyone got home at 10:15, I felt refreshed, had put plans for a slumber party for Acacia together and was glad to have my kids home.

During the night the Lord gave me one of those dreams that seems like it lasts ALL night long..ever have one of those??? I had a dream that I had to go into the military.....the dream was filled with the emotions of leaving my kids and husband behind, my life could really be over in a flash;especially when guns were pointed at me then entire time in my dream....it was really intense. I so badly just wanted to be with my family and safe! So when I woke up this morning all I could do was Praise God for my kids and husband! I had prayed last night that he would give me a refreshed heart, and boom...I had it this AM! Truly though, it was neat..the Lord spoke something to me as I was laying just barely awake in bed. He reminded me that even though it is not likely I am going off to war:

1. Many moms are right now away from their families..I need to pray for them.
2. Any moment my kids could be taken from me or vice versa...We just don't know when our call to go home is. So I need to make the most of every moment...even the hard ones!

So, I feel very blessed this morning by God's grace and new mercies for today! I know today might be a challenge as yesterday was, but I pray that I grow in my walk with Jesus that I am able to make seize the moments.....even the hard ones and in the end they might be sweet to me! Thankyou Lord for answering my prayers....in an unexpected way!

Jeremiah was a bullfrog...dun nuh nah!!!!

So Jeremy was coming home from working out this morning and found this thing in the middle of the road...so he brought it home for the kids to play with for a bit....it was such a crack up....I have never seen such a big frog...pretty funny.

We went to the river on sunday and had a fun time with some friends from church. The kids had a blast swimming and Eva loved throwing rocks into the river and watching them splash. Our friend Paul found a lizard and brought it to Elijah...he loved it...he carried it around for the rest of the time. It was a nice relaxing day...Thankyou Lord for a day of rest....;)

We had so much fun camping once again..this time at our 2nd annual Indian Mary Campout....we were river rats for 2 days straight, EJ finally decided he would give up training wheels forever and in about 2o minutes was off and riding....forever more on 2 wheels!! :) We didn't really give him a choice..his bike came to the campground with only 2 wheels..and the training wheels mysteriously missing ;0....he did great! Was a total blast..I look forward to next year.




This video was so sweet I just had to put it on here. I am going to put it on you tube as well...every night Carmel makes Laura sing "Yearn" by Shane & Shane with her...she got hooked because that is what they listen to now when they go to sleep. So while we were camping we had the girls sing it....so sweet!!!