I have decided that I want to get into the habit of trying 1 new dinner recipe and 1 new desert recipe every week....so for this week, I decided to make Fresh Strawberry Bars..the recipe came out of Better Homes and Gardens and had been beckoning me to try..so I did. It was fairly easy, other than the fact that I don't have a mixer, so I had to do it all by hand...I am sure most women older than me would laugh, having cooked and baked without special tools..but I am a wimp. I put it in the oven and 25 minutes later it was nice and done. After cooling, I topped it with fresh preserves and fresh sliced strawberries...yummy! The cake/bars are kinda like peanut butter cookies, in cake form. Yum. I can't quit saying that. Yum. My two taste testers, Ethan and Aimee agreed that they were yummy and Ethan begged for seconds, I allowed him to have 2 total. So my first recipe was a success and I will undoubtedly make them again, next time probably with the use of a nice mixer to save my arthritic hands..
Sweet nectar of the Gods...okay, so not really, but I have found a new favorite in my breakfast foods...its called Mountain Medley. Its by Kashi. I love Kashi foods. I have loved them since I was acquainted with them a couple of years ago, but sometimes they are so pricey that I just try to walk fast past them and cover my ears so I won't hear the boxes crying..or is that me? I buy on a budget, sorta, I mean, I try to buy what seems to be a better deal at the time. I know I should plan better...but back to this cereal. It is awesome. It has pecans, almonds, cranberries, raisons, oats, sunflower seeds...health. It is great with soy milk, some people shoot down soy milk without giving it a try, I LOVE it. I don't care for it in sugar cereals, but it is wonderful on Kashi cereals. Health and health just go hand in hand. I also figure, I get plenty of calcium from the other dairy foods that I consume such as yogurt and cheese. I can just grab a glass of milk if I need to. Kashi = goodness, wholesome...yummy. So try it.
So, I decided to make a normal lunch today fun for Ethan and also give me some time to talk about his morning at VBS. I packed a lunch for both of us, sandwiches, chips, banana and drinks, put it in a basket(he requested this specifically) and picked him up from VBS. He said he loved it, it was a great morning for him. He told me part of the Lord's prayer...it was so funny to hear him try to pronounce "hallowed". He kept say How would it be your name...lol. We pulled up to the park and sat at a little table and ate beneath the trees by the playground...in the wonderful breeze...it was lovely. He ate(pretty fast) and then rushed over to join another child on the playground. He loved it. I sat by the other child's mother and we talked a little, but not much. It is so wierd how I never meet a stranger, yet sometimes the words just don't come out like I want them to. I always think of nice things to say once that person is already gone...I have been trying to work up ways to share how much God loves us, in small talk with people I meet. I have been unsuccessful thus far. The words just leave me, or is it my courage...anyhow, I smiled and made small talk about how cute her little boy was. He was 2 and imitated everything Ethan did. Makes me think of just how impressionable children are. Well, lunch was great, the company was even better and the weather was perfect enough to keep us on the playground for more than an hour. Praise the Lord.
So...I started off the morning much better than in recent months, read from 1 Peter and was encouraged. I couldn't get enough of God(don't think I ever will) last night before bed, so I listened to another one of my Dad's sermons online. This one was about the Joy of God Calling. I felt even more broken while reading it. God has called us to live holy, to be holy as He is holy. I have such a struggle with the way that I am lately. Sometimes I find myself envying other Christian woman and their lives, their passion. But instead of doing anything about it, I just get down on myself and then slowly the void just seems to disappear with more and more sin and then I have forgotten. God is not letting me forget this time. He has broken my heart and I see my sin, I see myself in the mirror, the real me.
I do not plan to daily blog about what I have done for the Lord or what have you, I have read in scripture somewhere (I will find it) that it is better to serve in secret, to not let your deeds be known to man, you know, so that we can not be boastful. But I will tell you this, GOD IS GOOD. I am going to be trying to get as close to my Savior as possible, get to know him and learn what pleases Him. He is, after all, MY LORD.
So, I have done the first of important little things for the day and that was spend some time with the Lord. I am not done with that yet, I need more of Him, all throughout the day, so I will pray as unceasingly as possible and meet again with Him as soon as possible.
The next little thing I wanted to focus on was my family. I so often take for granted the time that I have with the precious four that I have. So today I have planned something fun for Ethan and I to do when he returns from Bible school. Now, I want to also mention that usually the mornings with the girls are hectic and lots of the time I fail to give them lots of hugs and kisses and grace in their slow dressing and frequent trips to the potty, but this morning, I tried harder to smother them with love. I felt good as Hailey, the last one out the door because she couldn't pick out which shoes to wear waved at me and probably would have come back for one more hug if I would have let her. Tomorrow, maybe I will let her. God has apparently given me some grace in patience this morning. I love my girls. I enjoyed them this morning, even though it was just getting them out of bed and dressed.
My next little thing, I will blog about later. Got to get to it!
So, for the start of my "Little Things", I have made a little scrapbook type cover for my journal binder thingee....Flylady would call this my "control journal" (flylady.com) but, since I am NOT in control, I am going to try and figure out some other cool name for it. In the mean time, I have a date tonight with my husband, whom I love SOO much and I can't wait for the evening. By the way, the pictures on this scrapbook page are old, but I chose them for the looks on their faces and the day we spent outside in the backyard, discovering and marveling over the "littlest" things, like grass =) Love the faces. More to come.
I am going to be starting a new "theme" for my blogging(and pray that this time I can keep up). My new thing is IN THE LITTLE THINGS...Little changes that I am praying will in the long run make big differences. Each day, I am going to try and talk about a change and keep updating how that change is affecting my family, positively or negatively. I am doing this for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is because at times(a lot times lately) I feel very unmotivated and unhappy with my home, my children, my faith...you name it, I am struggling.
Something I have always longed for was the prioritized life that started out with FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDS and Career. Faith has always been a big part of my life, but lately, I have seemed to fizzle away...I believe it, I pray it, sometimes I say it, but it hasn't seemed that my relationship with the Lord is how it needs to be. I neglect my daily quiet time and my children are lacking the kind of mother so deserve, a Godly one.
I listened to a message this morning, it was one of my father's from Bible Church in Cabot and it struck a cord with me. He said, "a little faith can send a soul to heaven, great faith brings heaven to the soul." He was quoting Charles Spurgeon I believe. I need some heaven in my soul, and being that heaven is all about worshipping and praising the Lord, my faith is crucial right now.
I am going to blog again later this evening, when my children aren't chasing each other around the house and I am not having to deal with an overflowing bathtub(more on that later!).
I am a 31 year old mother of 4, my oldest is Ethan, he is 7 and my youngest(s) are 6, Aimee, Hailey, and Meredith. I love being a mother! I recently moved to Cabot. I know that in all trials there is a purpose and I am confident that God can use all things for good.
