Pure and Innocent Daughter of a Wise Leader.
This is my second eldest. She’s 7, going on 27.
I know lots of parents say that. But I really mean it.
She loves helping me with book keeping our business.
When I sort receipts: “Can I help Mom?”
“Sure. ” I say. “Here’s how you do it….”
My instructions are quickly followed by a: “This would be easier if you highlighted the dates, Mom.”
“Um… yeah. I’ll get to that….” oh, wait… too late, she’s already got the highlighter in hand.
Later, I had to run to the movies and leave all the paperwork for later, she looks up at me, with those big sparkley eyes: “Um, Can I finish this while you’re gone?”
Yeah, 7 goin on 27.
She has an uncanny memory, she remembers scriptures she only heard once, and where I left my chapstick.
She’s dedicated. Hardworking. And motivated by a burning desire to always do her best.
She is notoriously hard on herself. She always wants to do better.
But, to us, no one could be more perfect.
Fair and Beautiful Annointed One.
This is my oldest. She’s 10. The BIG sister. She loves being the big sister. She loves her sisters.
She likes to read. She loves anything creative. (Art. Music. Drama.)
She loves being outside. She digs snowboarding with her Dad and his lame friends in the winter. (She can beat me down any slope.) She catches frogs, butterflies, toads, crawfish and worms in the summer. (Some of them even survive long enough for her to let them go.)
She can cook up a mean corn chowder and a batch of brownies, but is still perfecting her recipe for oatmeal no bakes.
I love to watch her growing in mind and spirit. Our exchanges are becoming more and more meaningful everyday.
She loves her Savior with all her heart.
And we love her with all of ours.
Oreo Bon Bons
Recently I’ve discovered the happiness that is Oreo Bon Bons.
Let me share this happiness with you. And if you ask nicely, I will make you a batch.
Take one whole package of regular Oreos. Put em in your food processor. Make Oreo dust. (I never had a food processor until now. I never knew I needed a food processor, then I found these cookies and knew that life would not be complete without a food processor.) If you don’t have a food processor, put all your Oreos in a bag and bang the heck out of em with a rolling pin until you make Oreo dust.
Let a package of cream cheese soften, I like the fat free kind, cuz it’s softer and easier to mix and no one will ever know that there is a lack of fat, cuz of the existing heart clogging fat in the entire package of Oreos. Ahem.
Blend the Oreo dust and cream cheese in a bowl.
Roll into 1 inch balls. Place them on wax paper or foil. You should be able to make 100 lil balls. (Cue: all guys to giggle. “She said balls.”)
Wrap up the balls in foil and put em the freezer. Chill a few hours at least or overnite.
Later that day, or the next day:
Put a bag of white chocolate melting chips in a bowl. Microwave em for 45 seconds and check to see if they’ve melted. Not melted? Put em back in for another 45 seconds. Repeat until smooth and melty.
Take those balls out of the freezer. (Cuz that’s just not sanitary.)
Dip them in the chocolate and set aside on wax paper.
After they are all dipped, you can drizzle white chocolate on them, or dark milk chocolate.
Now, you’ll have a Merrier Christmas than what you would have without these glorious Oreo Bon Bons.
Let’s all give the good Lord praise for addictive desserts like these. And all God’s children said? Amen.
For my Pumpkin.
Alina, likes to read my blog, (what can I say… she’s a fan.) Anyhow, her Grammy sent her this story and she liked it so much she asked me to post it so everyone can read it.
Hope everyone’s having a great Fall so far!
Living for Christ is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff– including the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.
Bric a brac.
I’ve been putting of posting cuz, well, I feel there ain’t much to discuss, but for the tens of you who listen…
Summer is almost over and quite frankly, I am happy to see it go. I love fall. It’s my favie! Cool air. The trees in color. Taking walks in the woods behind our house. Hayrides. Bonfires. Pumpkins. And the welcome return of hearty soups. I am such a cheesball!
On a similar note… School has started. All hail the public educational system! I gaze in happy wonder as all but one of my offspring are carted away on a yellow bus of glory! I am now the proud owner of 2 hours of personal time. Which is no easy task.
6:00 Wake up (truthfully, it’s more like 6:30)
7:00 Alina on the bus
8:00 Mackenzie on the bus (Alina goes to middle school now so they start at different times and ride different buses,)
8:30 – 11:30 Chasing Reggie and Reese, cleaning and whatnot.
12:00 Reggie on the bus. (She’s in half day kindergarten.)
12:30 Reese in bed.
12:30 – 2:30 Here’s my personal time. (Rejoice with me, won’tchanow?)
2:30 Alina gets out of school.
3:45 Keni and Reggie get home.
3:46 Chaos ensues.
In other news… Charlie is having a birthday tomorrow. Turning 33. Yep. 33. I asked him if he feels old, to which he replied, “I feel as cool now as I did when I was 23.”
Ah, the wealth of ego that lies in that man’s brain. I could read an endless pile of self help books and NEVER feel as good about myself as he does on a perpetual basis.
My good friend Lauren had her baby, Emma Rose. I have yet to see her and her little one, but have seen the video and hope to get to the hospital today for a sneaky peek.
Also, let’s take a moment and pray a new lawnmower (with one of those baggers on the back?) into my life. The one I have is over 10 years old and only works in one gear and only starts when Chuck opens the metal thingie and sticks two screwdrivers inside its belly until sparks fly then the engine starts. It’s like he’s magic or something.
So let’s pray… so I can mow on a regular basis… so I won’t have to rake piles of clippings… and Chuck will be able to stop his use of black magic as I am sure our good Lord doesn’t approve.
The apple trees are pregnant with apples a plenty. I think I might make a pie.
All in all, not much is ahappening.
My life is certainly something to be envied forsure.
Every once and while.
I am funny about music. Normally, I love change. But when it comes to music… give me the same old, same old.
See, when I listen to music I HAVE to be able to sing along, it’s another compulsion I have. If I am forced to listen to a new CD, you’ll find that I’ve taken out the CD insert so I can read along with the music.
But, every once and a while, I am drawn to new music.
THIS… this CD brings me one of those times. You must grab a listen this morning. Let it play while you shave your legs, put on your makeup or just close your eyes.
Look! Up in the sky… it’s a…
Yesterday while I was driving to Niles with my fam for some Chipolte and Coldstone. (I know, you’re jealous.) I spotted something in the sky I’d never seen before.
Did anyone else catch this?
Apparently, it’s call a circumhorizontal arc, and it’s extremely rare.
“It looks like a rainbow that’s been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice.
The arc isn’t a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What’s more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.
When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus’s crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.”
God didn’t have to create such things for us. But He did.
It was amazing. I was amazed. But I couldn’t get Chuckie off his cell phone. Men.
Once upon a time there were three men, all building the same structure. A back breaking job, chipping rock to form the wall that would surround a new building.
A stranger happens by and asked the first worker, “What are you doing?” He responds gruffly with, “What does it look like I’m doing, I’m breaking rocks!”
The stranger moves on down the sidewalk a bit and asks the second worker, “What are you doing?” The second worker responds in a tired worn voice, “I’m chipping stone for this stupid fence.”
The stranger goes a bit further and sees the third worker and asks, “What are you doing?” The worker looks up, wipes the sweat from his brow, smiles, and with a sweeping gesture toward the location of the new building says, “I’m building a cathedral, and it will be magnificent!”
Three laborers. All doing the same job. All received the same pay. Each with a different view of his work.
I have to admit that my view isn’t so positive most of the time. A lot of the time I’m just face down in the sticky ceramic tile. Or the stained berber carpeting. Or the piles of smells laundry.
In the midst of all the cooking, cleaning, teaching, and mothering, I can feel very much like the first laborer. I can be bitter and indifferent. Sometimes being a wife and mother can feel like such a thankless job. I never seem to accomplish anything, and the work is endless.
Oh God, I want to be like the third worker. I want to see the bigger picture. To have abundant joy and take pride in what I’m called to do. I want to see that the work that I’m doing here is much bigger than even I can imagine.
Today, they are mess makers. Snack sneakers. Fight pickers. Fussin Nellies. May God help me to see past that. When I wipe my brow, I shall choose to smile, look at them and say, “I am building a cathedral. One day I will stand and see four God serving women.”
Juicy.
So I was at one of my daily stops on my blogroll, Mr Greathouse’s blog. And read a post that inspired me.
This morning, Neil asked, “What makes you furious?” I didn’t need one moment to think about it.
This is what I can’t stand anymore.
10 year old girls who wear shorts with the phrase “wild ride” on the butt of them.
When I overhear girls taking about sex, how much they have it and with whom. Like they are talking about going to the mall.
When I see a girl whose eyes look empty when she says those things, but her friends are laughing.
That girls aren’t taught about sex… really. (Aside from the fact of where they can get free condoms.)
The media perpetuates an idea of a standard that is dangerous to EVERY female out there.
The Church needs to stop the silence NOW about this. Where we are silent our students WILL struggle. They NEED us to say something, to DO something!
Christians should be at the forefront showing these girls where our self esteem should be safely placed. They should be exposing the lies that are being dished out about sex, dating and how they deal with guys in general.
I love the feeling of starting off the day in Holy Discontent.
The Written Word.
What I’ve just finished:
Where my book mark’s at now:
