Winter Joys!

One of the most lovely things about the cool weather is the food and drinks we consume during the cold evenings. I. Love. It.

Here is a very simple recipe for "apple cider".

Ingredients:

1 package of red hots

1 bottle of apple juice

Directions:

Pour the red hots into the part of the coffee pot where the coffee grinds normally go.

Pour the apple juice into the back, turn on the pot and there you have it. Delicious!

This is a picture of my husband's apple cider.

It's in a Coca-Cola glass because our mugs are

mysteriously disappearing one by one...

Life...

The 5 of us went to see Toy Story 3 today.
What a bittersweet movie!
It was so great to watch it together as a family.
We love our kiddos so much and thank God so much for them!

During part of the movie I had 2 of the kids snuggled in my lap.
Little Man reached over and put his hand on
Irish's arm and just left it there. It was so sweet.
I squeezed the children tight and thought,

"Cherish this moment and hold them close,
because it won't be long before you have to let them go."


Why does time fly by so fast?

Tamale Casserole and Pinto Beans

This is a pretty good-tasting vegan dish that I made for the first time tonight. Not sure where it's from, just found the recipe mixed in with a bunch of papers from my mom. I served it with homemade pinto beans (see recipe at bottom):

Tamale Loaf (or Pie or Casserole)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 chopped green pepper (optional)
3 cups tomatoes, fresh or canned
2 cups corn, whole or creamed
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 can olives, quartered

1. Cook first five items in water until tender and bring to a boil. Add salt, cumin, and cornmeal gradually, stirring constantly, and cook over low heat until thick. Then add olives.
(You can also use other seasonings such as paprika, sweet basil, thyme, oregano, or bay leaf.)
2. Bake in casserole dish for 1 hour at 325 degrees.
The loaf will be firmer if made a day ahead, refrigerated, and then baked before serving. It will also freeze well.
Serve with tomato sauce, if desired. (or salsa; or make it non-vegan like I did and use sour cream : )

I used sliced olives, no bell peppers, and additional seasonings of bay leaves, oregano, and paprika.

Here's an option that was written at the bottom of the recipe. I didn't try it but in case you want to, here it is: "Millet may be substituted for the cornmeal, but it needs more liquid and longer cooking either on top of the stove in a double boiler, or crockpot, or longer baking in a covered casserole. Instead of corn, you might wish to use 1/2 cup of cashew nut pieces and substitute green ripe olives for the black olives."

I used this recipe for the pinto beans, omitting the steps involving ham hocks and streak-o-lean. Really tasty without that!

Bean and A Balloon

Tonight I watched my 3 year old playing with a balloon
and I pondered so many things.

She was so full of joy as she ran around chasing that thing.

She was free.

She was happy.

She was having fun.

She wasn't distracted by what other people were thinking or doing or saying.

All that mattered was her and that little red balloon.

Bean, I want to be more like you.

Being a Parent is...

Being a parent is about letting go of the little things...

Letting my child's creativity soar...

Not holding on to things that don't matter...

Changing my no to a yes

and letting my 5 year old wear pink and red
together.

(Even though she knew it didn't match :)

On Being a Mom to My Munchkins

I thought I was a complete person.

I was an adult.

I was in possession of unique gifts and talents and abilities.

I had a "profession".

I was me.

And then I became a mother.

And everything changed.

A whole new me was birthed.

New thoughts. New ideas. New creativity.

Just because I was in the presence of my beautiful blessings.

Learning from them.

Growing up with them.

My house is messier. The dirty dishes pile up in the sink a lot faster.

But the trees are greener.

The sky is bluer.

The clouds are so much puffier.

Because my children bring them to life in a whole new way.

Seeing life through their eyes is amazing.

Helping them discover the world and their gifts and dreams is creativity in action.

The joy of being their mother is indescribable. I thank my Heavenly Father for the gift of these beautiful babies.

Thanks for the image

Thinking of my King. And a rocking chair.

A few weeks ago I closed my eyes and thought about my God.

My Father.

His love for me and me being with Him.

And what did I see?

This big huge rocking chair at Country's Barbecue:

When I was a little kid we would go to this restaurant and climb up into the chair.

It was fun, of course and I enjoyed it.

I remember climbing from the ground, up the side of the chair,

all the way into the seat - it was SO high!

Well, as I closed my eyes and just thought of God's love for me,

I pictured Him as big as this chair.

He was sitting and I was climbing up His leg, into His lap,

just like I did on that chair at Country's Barbecue.

And when I got into His lap, I was so little,

I could just sit there in perfect peace,

knowing that I was fully loved

and completely protected

by the God Who made me and loves me.

That's where I always want to be.

A child of the King, rocking in the arms of my Daddy.

Become a fan of Country's Barbecue here. Which is where I found the picture : )

Change of Faith Week 1 Review

So, this is the end of the week of my new plan to walk in faith.

It wasn't too bad *smile*

On Tuesday I was called about a possible temporary job offer and I had to let them know for sure by Wednesday morning. I thought about it, prayed about it, tried to figure out what to do, and then decided I'd tell them what dates I was available and see if that worked for them. Well, Wednesday morning rolled around, I told them when I could work, they said my dates didn't work for them, so, end of story. When I hung up the phone I realized that I had been stressing over that whole job issue since the day before. Not good. If I trust God to direct and guide my steps, if I really trust Him, then there is no place for worry.

Fears may come and go, but I will not live my life out of a place of fear. Life is too short to be held back by lies. I will walk ahead in truth and joy and peace!

Day 2 of Change of Faith

This morning Irish left before the kids were awake. He's going to be gone for 2 nights. I saw him off as he rode his scooter for the first time. I turned into the house and checked on the sleeping ones before going back to bed. And as I looked at them I found myself thinking, "I sure hope everything goes okay while he's gone."

And almost instantly a whisper in my Spirit reminded me that even though my husband is gone, I am not alone. My God was with me while Irish was here, my God is still with me while he is away.

It's nice to have him around - to have someone to share the responsibility with, etc. But I can't put my hope and trust in him. That's too much pressure for him and not much faith for me.

So, I will trust in the God I can't see and realize that He is taking care of us - all the time.

Day 1 of change of FAITH

For day 1 I was made aware of at least 4 times when I was living in fear, instead of faith.

One specific instance was when we were supposed to be leaving the house at 1230 to meet someone. It was 12 and there was no way we were all going to be ready to leave by then. I was stressing out and running around like crazy when I suddenly realized that I was letting worry control me. I reminded myself of the truth - we didn't have to meet the guy at a specific time, he was flexible and nothing was important or urgent. So, I didn't need to stress about that. Wow, that totally helped me relax.

Later in the day we were driving and we all smelled a really bad, messed-up-car smell. The first thing I thought was, "Oh, I hope that's not our car. We don't have the money to get it fixed if it is and what if it breaks down right here on the freeway? What will we do?" Etcetera. I almost immediately realized I was being too fearful about it all and reminded myself of the rational truth - if our car broke down, someone would help us get home and God would provide a way for us to drive around. That's all there is to it. Trust God to be faithful because He is.

Later in the evening, we went to eat with someone and the woman mentioned something about fear and faith. I told her what God had shown me about fear and my kids and wanting to change and she encouraged me by saying that "the Holy Spirit is faithful to show us what we need to know to help us change." Awesome : )

p.s. By the way, the car smell wasn't from ours! : )

For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

My 30 Day Challenge to trust my Father God

I want to trust my Maker with my heart, my life, everything.

It's hard to put your hand into the hand of Someone you can't see.

It's difficult to keep taking steps forward when you aren't hearing the voice of Someone guiding you.

It's not easy to live your life to the tune of another world you don't see, when most everyone around you is living their life by what they see and hear and feel.

Especially when there aren't rules to how to live this life. I can try to make rules for it, but then I end up living in religion. Living by the law. Which is what I did my whole life. It's freeing to live by the Spirit, but also difficult and confusing for me to figure out what that looks like!

(I want to be like a baby, with COMPLETE peace and assurance in my Daddy.)

I'm quite sick of living in so much fear. Fear of what I will do if this happens, or what I should do if that happens. It's just wondering and worrying about the stupid little word IF.

I've lived in a ridiculous amount of fear since I was little, I've said I was sorry, tried to not live that way, and did it yet again. But, when I see my children reacting and responding out of fear, that really bothers me. This is not something that I want to pass on to them. Yes, I may be confused about how to live my life, but I don't want them to grow up with confusion, doubt, etc. I want them to start out with the peace that I am still searching for.

And the thought occurred to me, "It takes 21 days to break a habit."

I grew up living in fear. It is a way of life for me. I can repent of it all I want, but something has to change. I have to learn how to live differently.

So, I'm going to take a 30 day challenge. I am going to try to make myself completely aware of all of the times throughout the day when I am tempted to fear. Instead of listening to the lie of fear, I will replace it with the truth.

Because the truth is that Every good and perfect gift is from above. The truth is that God wants good things for us. The truth is that God wants us to live in victory HERE ON EARTH. The truth is that God will work everything into good. The truth is so much more than I am able to grasp right now.

My view of God is that He can do everything and anything, but He doesn't want to do it for me. He might step in and help me if He thinks I REALLY, REALLY, need it, but He wants me to figure out everything for myself. But that's not true! I want to quit living life realistically. I want to quit being self-reliant. I want to walk in faith and live by the Spirit. Exciting, fun, and a huge adventure.

Here I go...................................Day One starts...............NOW!!!!!!!!

Thanks to pdphoto for the photo.

Passover and Easter and Family Traditions

Now that my oldest is 5, I'm really starting to think about traditions and why we celebrate what we celebrate. I had a lot of traditions growing up, my husband had next to none. So, it makes me really think about what I want to do with my kids; they are at the age where they will remember what went on during the holidays.

Thinking about this past weekend of Easter was interesting. Easter is a holiday that is traditionally celebrated by the church as the day of Jesus' resurrection. Many "church people" are offended that Americans celebrate it as a bunny day, easter egg hunt day, etc. However, a couple of hundred years ago, the Puritans didn't celebrate Easter at all - it was determined that it was a pagan holiday. Because that's what it was originally. Christians in other countries were actually killed if they celebrated the Passover and they were ordered to celebrate Easter instead.

I didn't celebrate the Jewish holidays when I was a child and I don't plan to celebrate them all now; however, the Passover is a very amazing holiday. If one can truly understand the culture and holidays and traditions of the people of Jesus' life, it is AMAZING how much more clearly it is to see that Jesus is the Messiah.

I don't think there is any point to dressing up in fancy clothes, going to church, and having an easter egg hunt. We didn't even go to church this year for Easter though we did make resurrection cookies and have friends over for a good meal. I want our traditions to be centered around fun and friends and family and relationships.

Jesus' death and resurrection completely restored our relationship with our Father God and provided a way for us to be a friend with Him once again. For this reason, I want to start celebrating Passover. Small, large, with friends, with just the family at home - I'm not going to be a stickler about tradition, but I do want to celebrate Jesus, my Passover Lamb. And if we end up doing an easter egg hunt every so often, and eating ham and potato salad on Easter, so be it.

In regards to the Passover, I'm just going to mention a few incredible things about the crucifixion of Jesus and the Passover Lamb. This is from Chuck Pierce and Robert Heidler.

1. The Passover Lamb had to be selected on the 10th day of the 1st month. During Jesus' time, the Passover lambs were born in Bethlehem and led to Jerusalem by the Mount of Olives and through the sheep gate. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, went to the Mount of Olives, and entered Jerusalem through the sheep gate on the 10th day of the 1st month.

The people chose Jesus as the Messiah and Passover Lamb as they waved palm branches and shouted "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the LORD! Save us, Son of David!"

2. The Lamb had to be examined. Only an umblemished, spotless, perfect lamb was chosen for the Passover. While Jesus was in Jerusalem, He was thoroughly examined - He was asked many trying questions by teachers of the Law. They tried over and over to trap Him but they admittedly could find no fault, no blemish in Him.

3. During Passover the people had to cast all the leaven out of their house. The leaven represented impurity. When Jesus was in Jerusalem, He purged the house of God completely of the moneychangers. He cleaned out His Father's house.

4. The Passover Lamb was taken to the altar for public display. This occurred on the 14th day of the 1st month. Everyone saw the lamb on the altar. Jesus was nailed to the cross and lifted for everyone to see of the 14th day of the 1st month.

5. The Lamb was killed at 3 p.m. every Passover. One priest blew a shofar at the temple, another priest killed the lamb and said, "It is finished!" Jesus was on the cross on the day of Passover and at 3 p.m. He cried out, "It is finished!" and gave up His Spirit. That phrase, "It is finished," means, "The debt has been paid in full."

Thank You, Jesus, for being My Passover Lamb and restoring me to fellowship with my Father and Creator. I love You.

Thanks to www.pdphoto.org for the image. :)

Choose Life!!

We all went to the abortion clinic today to hold signs and pray. We're nearing the end of the 40 Days For Life campaign so there were a lot of people out there standing together.

Last week a woman showed up with her granddaughter - a little girl who had been saved from an abortion last year and then been adopted.

Here is a picture of one of my kids sitting in the stroller holding a sign (sideways : )

Locks Of Love

Little girls playing princess - without any hair to comb.

Fixing the hair of their little dolls - but with no hair of their own.

I didn't mean for that to rhyme. But seriously, I can't imagine being a little girl (or boy even) with no hair. I've been thinking about it lately and, inspired by my cousin Emily, who has given her hair 4 or 5 times, I decided to chop off my hair so a little child can have some of her own to play with.

It had to be at least 10 inches so here we go....

I miss it. But I think it will make a nice wig.

And mine will grow back.

Locks of Love provides hairpieces for children who suffer from hair loss. It can be short term (radiation therapy, severe burns) or long term (alopecia, genetic conditions).

Check out www.locksoflove.org

Mid night ramblings

It is 6 in the morning. I have been up since 3:40. I woke up with bad dreams and asked Irish to pray for me and then he got up at 4 to get ready to go to work, so I got up and got some food together for him....and I didn't want to go back to sleep so here I sit.

I found this great song on youtube by John Waller. click here to listen It has some really powerful words. It's called "Our God Reigns Here"

I came across this interesting blog. Don't you want to make this yummy dessert? SO GROSS! Kitty Litter Cake


Ok. I should try to get some sleep in before the kids wake up! In an hour! Yowzers!

Jay Leno Show/Jessica Alba

I got to see the taping of the Jay Leno Show on Monday. That was really neat. It was my first time sitting in on a show like that and it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of "hurry up and wait" going on but it was an experience.

The instructions specifically stated that you could not bring a cell phone, bags, etc. into the taping and you might as well just leave them in the car. They took all of our cell phones at the taping of So You Think You Can Dance, so I decided it would be best to just leave my phone behind. As I walked away from the car I realized how weird it felt to not have a form of communication on my person. To think that I used to never carry a cell phone around!

Irish was at home with the kids and it felt weird to be gone from them so long (well, 4 hours isn't that long) without a way to get in touch with anyone.

And as soon as I got in line I thought, "Why in the world did I come here by myself?" I realized I was going to have to wait in line for about 2 hours with nothing to read, no one to text, and no one to talk to in person! And I am not the kind of person who is good at making little small talk!

But there was a service dog there who broke the ice for a lot of us, so I pushed myself a little bit and had some nice conversations with interesting people:

2 middle aged men from San Diego, visiting for the day with their daughters who were close to my age. They made sure to let me know those were their daughters and that they would never date anyone that young : )

A guy from New Jersey who was visiting his brother. He definitely had a Jersey accent although he lived in Texas for the first 16 years of his life! He told me that he dropped his accent overnight because he was bullied in school for his Texas drawl!

An older couple with their service dog. He is paralyzed from the waist down and the dog picks up things for him, brings him his clothes in the morning, opens and shuts doors, etc. She's been with him to see a TON of shows and I hear she likes Alex Trebek. :)

The show was fun. I got to sit on the 2nd row which was awesome! Jessica Alba was a guest and was just on the stage right near to where I was sitting. Seeing her up close and off-camera (she's a really nice person) made me see for the first time how actors are just people doing their job. Yeah, they make a lot of money and have to deal with annoying papparazzi, but at the end of the day, they just want to go home to their family and live their life. The attention and the glamor are just normal to them, a part of everyday life. I always knew that but now I actually know it : )

So, Jessica Alba came down and sat right in front of us to get her picture taken before she left. A girl jumped in front of me before the pic was taken so you can only see the top of my hair. Oh well.....I'm to the right of the blond with the scarf. (I signed up for Twitter just to get this pic off of JA's page! ha ha! I'm crazy I know!)

The guys in the front with her were hilarious.

So, that's it, I guess. I'm grateful Jonathan stayed home with the kids so I could do something fun by myself, even though it was a little weird trying to talk to complete strangers! Oh well, I've got to learn sometime!

Live IN the moment, not in the future!

18January2010

The way I view life has changed during this past week and all I can say is, FINALLY! Whew! I am so glad!

Our car broke down back in June and we couldn't afford another one (and didn't want to go into debt) so I put my life on hold for a little while. "We can't go to church because we don't have a car." "We can't meet up with friends because we don't have a car." I thought that we would be without a car for a month or more and I could put life on hold for that amount of time. Well, then October rolled around and I was tired of not having fellowship with other Christians, so I finally looked up a church we knew about and found out we could get there in 45 minutes on the bus. So, that was feasible and we started going on Tuesday nights and it was a great blessing. But the rest of the time I lived within a mile radius of my house, trying to be a good mom to my kids while Irish worked long hours. We'd walk to the grocery store for a few items that we could carry in the stroller and when Irish was home, we would push a random buggy to the store and bring all of our groceries home in that! Thankfully, we live in an area where we can walk to a LOT of places. It was just a matter of making myself get out of the house to walk with the 3 kids using a regular stroller (our double stroller broke).
This December we went on vacation to visit family and while we were gone I started to realize a few things. 1. Life is SO MUCH bigger than the little 1 mile radius I've been living in. And guess what? I CAN be a part of it! So I need to GO be a part of it! 2. SO many people don't visit the things that are near to them. They live within an hour of NYC and have been once in their whole lives. They live by Six Flags and have never been. People travel all over the world to visit places that the natives don't even take time to see. And I don't want that to be the way I am. And 3. Life is too short to waste a second of it. So, instead of waiting for the future - waiting til I get more money, waiting til I get a car - I need to start living in the present and working with what I have.

So, I decided that I would go and be a tourist in Los Angeles and see the things that tourists come to see that I have yet to take advantage of after living here over 1 1/2 years! We arrived home and Irish spent the whole next week working in Hollywood and I realized that we could easily get down there. Public transportation cost $5 for the whole day (for myself - he had a week pass and the kids were free). AND it included a ride on the subway - my girls have been wanting to ride a train for the longest time and here was one right down the street!
We left around 11 on Saturday morning and caught a 45 minute bus ride to the train station. We arrived there and Sissy and Bean were so happy to get to ride on a real train! We arrived in Hollywood and spent the next few hours being tourists. It was so amazing. I felt like I was in a different world and here it was - barely 15 miles from my house! It felt bittersweet - I was having a nice, fun time and could have done it over a year ago! But oh, well, I said to myself, suck it up and quit living in the past and enjoy yourself today!
We had a great time. My 4 year old, a little bent toward the dramatic, looked around at the architecture near the Kodak Theatre and said, "I can't even say anything!" I asked her what she meant and she said, "I can't say anything - I just can't believe we're here!" I think she was trying to say she was speechless : )
We visited some friends on the way home and by the time we got back, it had been a very long day. But we had all enjoyed our time together as a family and the kids really enjoyed themselves. We spent hardly any money and had fun!
I was talking with my brother-in-law the next day and he said that he's been learning that we don't need to live for the moment but we do need to live in the moment. That is really true. I want to take each minute, squeeze everything I can out of it, and quit looking at my limitations. I want to do what I can with what I have and not waste my life or my time.

Also, living in Los Angeles is teaching me to be so grateful for little things that I always took for granted - a quiet neighborhood, a spacious house, a washer and dryer in my own home, inexpensive rent, a car that will take me 10 miles in 10 minutes (instead of the bus that takes 50!). Oh so many things!!

A friend commented on my new outlook on life and said that not only is it easier for me (and others) to live with myself, it also makes it easier for me to be able to hear from God.

So, that's all. Here are some pictures from our Hollywood trip:

Sissy waiting to get on the train

Mickey Mouse, Irish, and Bean

Little Man and myself in front of the Hollywood sign

Looking up in front of the Kodak Theatre