Happy Birthday Marine Corps! (a day late)

The other night at church, all the kids were told to wear red, white, and blue in honor of veteran's day. Of course, we had to participate (although, to my dismay, many other people did not). I am insanely proud that Daniel served in the Marine Corps, so I had to sneak this in somehow. And let's face it, I doubt many other children there have a dad who was deployed shortly after they were born.

Hoorah!

Happy 236th Birthday, Marines!

Cultivating a heart towards service

When I first graduated from college, I started praying about where the Lord wanted me to serve. It wasn't long before we were married and then pregnant. I started reading Christian-based motherhood books and decided "This is my ministry!" Something was missing, though. Not that motherhood isn't a ministry. I strongly believe it is the most important ministry there is. Let's face it... as parents, you are raising the next generation to do great works for the Kingdom of God. Sort of gives you chills to think about, right? What I am doing right now will hopefully have an everlasting effect to further God's plan through the generations.

Getting back to serving... I read a book this spring, Crazy Love, that really gave me a wake up call. It showed me just how little service I was doing that Christ has called me to do. I also realized that I wanted to start cultivating a heart towards service in my children NOW. It wasn't just going to happen on its own, and I wanted it to be something that they just grew up naturally doing. All of my service activities growing up revolved around clubs and organizations. I can't say I did one thing that wasn't put on, supported, or required by something I was involved in. Not that this is wrong, but I want service to be something that my children do naturally all the time. I want them to be aware of the need around them and aware of how much the Lord has blessed our lives. I want them to jump into action because they feel called, and not only because someone is organizing a drive.

Right around this time I was asked to be the service coordinator for MOPS. Of course, I jumped at the chance, since this was something the Lord had recently placed on my heart. I am excited about all of our activities. Some are quite easy and don't require anything more than at-home participation and some are more organized. My goal is to give monthly activities for the moms to do with their children to start planting those service seeds.

One service project I shared today was homeless bags. Simple enough, they are bags of goodies that you pass out to homeless people you see. In the book Crazy Love, I also came across 1 John 3:17... "Whoever has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" I always feel at a loss when I see the homeless around Houston. I hate giving money, and on top of that, I never really have free cash in my purse. This is the perfect alternative. Plus, what preschooler does not love to sort and assemble bags?

I explained to the girls that we are so blessed to have a warm bed to sleep in every night and food on our table. Some people aren't as lucky and do not have a home and are very hungry. These bags would hopefully bring a little joy to their life and make things a little easier. Immediately, Emily became more aware of the people on the side of the road and was excited to pass out our bags. Planting seeds... mission accomplished!

I got everything from the dollar store and Tuesday Morning. All together, I spent about $20 to put 8 bags together. After you make these (because you are going to, right?), I encourage you to pray over the bags with your children, and also pray for the specific person whenever you pass out a bag. 9 times out of 10 people will take the bag thankfully. Of course, every once in a while, someone will decline because that is not exactly what they are looking for. I think it is important to realize that some people have some pretty heavy strongholds in their life and these people need even more prayers. You can explain to your children that some people are really lost and don't even know what they really need. Pray that the Lord may bring someone into their life to put them on the right track and also introduce the Lord to them.

The day I presented this activity with my MOPS group, we had an educational roundtable. We had representatives come from the various schooling options we have in Houston... public school, a private school, a university-model school (blend between traditional school and homeschooling), and a homeschooling parent. The director of the private school came up to me at the end of my talk and asked if I included any religious material in the bag. I told her that I meant to, but have not gotten around to printing anything to put in the bags. She said the school would love to donate pocket Bibles or spiritual foundation handouts for the bags. I got chills when she told me. So exciting!

We are called to help the homeless. Have you done anything for them recently??? Here are some ideas of things to include in your homeless bags...

- chapstick

- package of tissue

- toothbrush and toothpaste

- mouthwash

- comb

- soap and washrag

- handwipes

- socks

- bottled water

- non-perishable food: granola bars, peanut butter crackers, trail mix, etc.

Multitude Mondays - Preschool Edition

I found this idea on Pinterest and knew we had to make it. I have been looking for more ideas to add homemade fall decorations that the children could help with, and who doesn't love preschool handwriting? All of my old scrapbooking supplies sure are coming in handy these days!

It was cute to see some of Emily's ideas of things we are thankful for. After the basic list of immediate family and grandparents, she came up with some funny things. All very fitting for her, though.

Emily's List (these are in no particular order)

1. Scissors

2. Poppy

3. Butterflies

4. Books

5. Milk

6. Goldfish

7. Friends

8. Olivia

9. Mommy

10. Mimi

11. Nonny

12. Lunch

13. Ladybugs

14. Daddy

15. Our house

What's on the table

All of these recipes are thanks to Pinterest, my new found love. I guess it isn't really new, anymore. Let's just say the honeymoon period hasn't worn off yet!

I LOVE pumpkin, and although I do not bake, this is the one season I venture into baked goods and sweets. I have a go-to recipe for pumpkin muffins/bread which my family ABSOLUTELY LOVES. I will have to post later. Pinterest has helped me reach out to some other pumpkin products, though. The past couple of weeks we have made pumpkin gooey butter cake and baked pumpkin donut holes. Both were winners.

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This appetizer is way too easy to not make, and it was gone in about 5 seconds. Everyone raved about it, which reminds me that I should make it again. Who wants to come over for a party?

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I really don't understand pasta dishes in the crockpot. I think you could get the exact same effect if you cooked this before dinner on the stove, but let's face it... who doesn't love a crockpot meal? I didn't have to think at the dinnertime hour AND there was very little cleanup that evening. It was definitely a keeper!

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We LOVE pad thai, so I am always looking for recipes to make at home. I refuse to cook with fish sauce or oyster sauce, though, after a bad recipe we tried once. It sort of makes it difficult to make pad thai when you refuse to touch a main ingredient. This recipe fit the bill, though, and actually satisfied our pad thai craving. We will be making this again really soon!

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We love gyros and this recipe was easy to throw throw together and healthy. Good to have a recipe like this on hand when my Greek cravings hit.

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We tend to stay away from cheap chain restaurants as much as we can, but there are certain times when a craving hits. I often want Chili's southwestern egg rolls, so I was excited to find a copycat recipe that I could make at home. These take the exact same! They are SO good!!! I have used large tortillas for dinner, but also small tortillas, which would be perfect for parties or football games. To make healthier, I wrap in tortillas, brush with olive oil, and bake them at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

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The Girls' Room, Part 2

Like I said, the room sat there for almost a year in pitiful condition.

Luckily, Emily didn't mind. I mean, what three year old does? I set a goal in my head to have the room ready by the time the new baby came, since that is when Olivia would be kicked out of the nursery. Oh, how the second child gets everything.

So this huge roadblock, let's face it... it is money. Isn't it always? My house would be amazing if I had the money to decorate it the way I wanted. I have these grand visions, but no means to follow through right now. Someday. For the girls' room, I had to be resourceful and figure out what my priorities were. I really wanted the room to turn out exactly how I wanted, versus go the cheaper option and never really be fully content with the outcome. Hence, the long time it took to get the ball rolling.

I thought long and hard about what to do for the bed skirt. It couldn't be solid, since I knew I wanted to layer patterns and I would already have solid headboards. That is when I remembered some striped bedding I had when I was younger.

My mom had mentioned that she was holding on to it for me, so I called her up. I had queen bedsheets and a bed skirt in this striped fabric, and I knew I could easily make two twin bed skirts out of all the material. Striped bedding in hand, we were on our way. And that is where things got crazy.

So, the bedding had most of the colors I wanted, but was missing turquoise (the color of the headboards) and purple (the color of the sheets I had already gotten and Emily's favorite color). I had read this blog post once, in which someone painted extra colors onto some pillows in their living room. I know this is so incredibly insane, but I actually painted more stripes onto the bedding. Seriously. What was I thinking??? This is really why it took me so long to get the room started. It must have been a 6 month ordeal. I mean, with two little kids, I could only paint once they were in bed and when Daniel was not home, since it consumed all my attention. Little by little by LITTLE it came together.

I used painters tape to mark everything off.

And the final product. Lighting doesn't do the colors justice, but it is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank goodness, after all those long hours!

Multitude Mondays - Week Twenty-Six

401. Olivia's new found love of playing with dried beans (We pour into containers, pour into more containers, and pour into even more containers. We generally are making some kind of soup or drink that gets passed out to everyone in the family.)

402. Getting a 24 hour stomach virus while Daniel was off (Although this sounds like bad timing, at least he was there to take care of the kids as I finished the cycle off. Olivia started with it on a Friday, Daniel was out on Wednesday, Emily experienced the least symptoms on Friday, and I was out for the whole day on Friday, as well.)

403. My cleaning routine (It always seems like such a disaster when we get back from any trip. I was slightly overwhelmed, but the cleaning schedule that I planned out previously has really helped me get on top of things.)

404. Getting to see cousins!!! (The Kenny's were in town and my girls LOVED getting to hang out with them. Emily had a huge grin on her face the whole weekend. Oh, how we have missed them!!!)

405. The Aggies winning... finally.

406. Celebrating my mother-in-law turning a year younger

407. Starting to read chapter books with Emily (Today we started our first chapter book. I have to say, it is such a delight to read a story that lasts longer than 5 minutes! I definitely wish I had started this earlier, though, because I can see she was ready for it. I had these plans of checking out a basic chapter book a week from the library, but we started and finished our book in the same day. We always check out so many books each week and by day 1 we have read them all. More chapter books will be checked out from now on, though.)

408. Crockpot recipes (It is such a blessing to have simple recipes that can be thrown together. Plus, I love the minimal clean-up. The little things in life that matter to pregnant women...)

409. Emily's sweet disposition. (I really think I may have the sweetest little girl in the world. She blows me away every day and makes my heart melt. If only I could figure out how to clone more children just like her.)

410. Sister hugs (It is such a blessing how much they love each other. I try to tell them often how lucky they are to have each other. I was an only child and would have loved to have a best friend who was my sister. Let's hope it stays like this for some time!)

Multitude Mondays - Week Twenty-Five

391. meeting new women at MOPS and Emily making a little friend

392. a wonderful Sunday dinner with Daniel's family -- it has been a long time, I feel like

393. an early Christmas present from our parents... dining room chairs!

394. God's gift of salmon, coffee, tea, and pumpkin

395. amazing weather that has allowed me to run somewhat comfortably

396. a week off and a trip up to Austin

397. the sweet heart of Emily Grace (I just can't get over the kid sometimes. She has such a sweet, delicate soul!)

398. stuffed animals and the comfort the bring

399. a crazy toddler who loves to cuddle

400. a fun weekend with the boys that Daniel got to partake in