Crepes

A couple of weeks ago, Dakota checked out a cookbook for teens from the library. She's been dying to try a recipe out of it, but we never seemed to have all the ingredients she needed or the time to experiment with something new. Finally, she found a recipe for crepes with strawberries and cream and I agreed we would try it on Saturday for breakfast.Neither of us had ever cooked or even eaten crepes before, but it seemed like an easy enough recipe, kind of like pancakes.

We started with the filling-cream cheese, whipping cream, powdered sugar, and strawberries-yum!

 

Then we whipped up the batter in the blender and started making the crepes.

 

They actually turned out pretty close to the picture in the book!

 

And they got the thumbs up from most of the family.



 

Overall, the crepes were a success. The major drawback is that you have to cook them one at a time in the skillet, which takes forever when you have to feed a family of 6. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to  cook them and everyone else had been finished eating for about 20 minutes by the time I got to the table. I'd much rather make pancakes 4 at a time on the griddle so we can all eat together.

We saved the leftovers in the refrigerator for the kids to eat later this week. We also had a ton of the filling leftover, so we are going to have it on waffles in a day or two.

It was fun to try a new recipe. A friend suggested we try them with Nutella and bananas sometime. That sounds really yummy!

If anyone has any suggestions for how to cook crepes faster, I'd love to hear! Leave me a comment and let me know.

Pretty Packages

 Around our house, it is well known that Daniel is the gift-wrapper. His gifts are always perfect-the paper is exactly the right size, the edges are nice and straight, and the paper is smooth with no wrinkles or little tears. Mine, not so much. So when I can, I always get Daniel to do the gift wrapping for me. But sometimes, like on HIS birthday, I have to do it myself.

 

Sometimes I cut the paper too small and I end up having to make a kind of patchwork wrapping on the back to hide the gap. Sometimes, I cut the paper way too big and the ends are too long. But, what I do really well is I make the FRONT of the gift look good. Kind of like this



 

It may not be perfect, but it's pretty. Since I didn't have the right sized box, I had to put the gifts into a paper grocery bag and then wrap that, which made it a little odd shaped. I cut the paper a little big, so the sides are a little overlapped. But, it's presentable. Something I would gladly display on the gift table at a party, right?

 

Well, I might, as long as I could be sure that the only side that would be seen was the front and as long as I knew no one would look at it too closely. Because if you looked from a different angle

 

and got a little closer

you'd see that it's not quite as pretty as what I let you see from a distance.

 

Isn't that the way a lot of us are with our lives? We spend a lot of time making sure that the image we put out there for other people to see looks good. We are very careful which pictures of us make it to facebook and which ones are quickly deleted from the memory card. All of our posts are inspiring quotes or uplifting scriptures. We put on our smiling, happy faces when we go out and when someone asks us how we are, the answer is always "Couldn't be better."

 

And we keep everyone at arm's length so that's ALL they see.

 

We avoid invitations for dinner at friends' homes because our children may misbehave and we'd have to discipline them, thus shattering out image of being perfect parents with perfect children. We push aside the urge to invite friends over to our home because we don't want them to see that the floor hasn't been mopped or the furniture is a little worn. What would they think? And, for sure, we don't ever share a problem or ask for prayer from our friends. We don't want people to know we have problems and issues in our lives.

 

But, this is not the way God intended for us to live. He wants us to be connected to those around us. He wants us to be real. And the only way we can really be real is to let people in. We have to let them see our "not so pretty" side. We have to share with them when we have a problem so that they can help us.

 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 in the NIV says,

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor; if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. And, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Bible Gateway.com

 

I hesitate to publish this post because I know these words are mostly speaking to me. This is on my mind for a reason-God is asking me to get out of my comfort zone and get connected with people more. I'm doing my best to do just that. I've recently joined a ladies' Bible study group on Saturday afternoons. We're studying the book of Luke and each week we read a chapter at home and answer some questions, then discuss what we read on Saturday. Of all the questions over the 3 weeks of the study so far, the hardest one was "Tell us about yourself."

 

So, if I can do it, you can too. My challenge to you is to do something this week to connect with someone in a real way. It may be inviting someone over for dinner, even though your house isn't "company ready". Or it may be that when someone asks how you are, you say "You know, I'm having kind of a hard day today and things just aren't going my way. Would you please pray for me?" Whatever it is, step out and do it. Take a chance and let God bless you for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday!

Last week, this awesome guy

                                                                                                                        had a birthday.

 His "real" birthday was on Monday but since he was going to be at work, we started the celebration early. We had dinner at one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants then came home for some cake and ice cream.
Let me tell you just how great he is. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He said "How about some strawberry?" Strawberry cake happens to be MY favorite. Yes, I got a good one!

This may or may not be his actual age...okay and it may or may not be mine too.



 

Doesn't it look so much cooler in the dark?

 

We had a great time on Saturday, but the fun was not over yet. We had a surprise up our sleeves.

 

 On Monday, the kids and I surprised Daniel with a second birthday cake. They were so excited to show it to him.

 

 3...2...1...Surprise!





The kids loved that we got to "shave" Daniel's beard.

 

Happy Birthday, Daniel! We love you!

 

Thank you to the Clumsy Crafter for the inspiration!

Good intentions

Has God ever asked you to do something and you had every intention of doing it, but just never got around to it? Maybe it was a phone call or a note to a friend that you meant to write "tomorrow" but when tomorrow came, you were just too busy and then you forgot about it. Maybe it was a kind word that you wanted to say to someone at church or at the store but you were afraid it would be too awkward and by the time you worked up the nerve to actually do it, the person was already gone. Maybe it was a project you wanted to do with your kids for a holiday that you just never found the time to do. Or just maybe, it was a blog post that you were supposed to write but didn't...

So many times over the past several months since I last posted to this blog, God has put something in my heart that I knew I needed to write. I would have the whole post going in my head and would be so excited to get the kids to bed so I could get to writing. But then, we'd have a 4-H meeting or Tae Kwon Do or church, then dinner and dishes, then showers, then tucking kids in...and by the time I did all that my brain was mush and I just wanted to check my facebook and go to bed. I didn't have the energy left to put two sentences together, much less a whole post. So I'd promise myself that I'd get up early in the morning and do it.

Then in the morning, I'd convince myself that I could sleep just 15 more minutes and still have time before the kids got up to get it done. Of course, that would be the day the kids would decide they also needed to get up early and the opportunity would be gone. No matter how good my intentions were, I just never seemed to get it done.

But this week, I had an experience that opened my eyes to something I'd been missing.

There had been a day a while back where God prompted me to pray for a friend of mine. I felt it so strongly but I resisted. She hadn't asked me to pray. In fact, it had been quite some time since I'd seen or even talked to her. But, when I was having my quiet time that morning, I began to write in my journal what God had put into my heart to ask for. Once I finished, I put my journal away and didn't really give it another thought...

...until last week when I read a post from my friend that brought tears to my eyes. God had done something amazing in her life and it was exactly the thing that I had prayed about months before. So awesome!

Then, I started to think-what if I hadn't followed the prompting I felt to pray for my friend? What if I had just rested on my good intentions of praying for her "later" without ever actually doing what I knew I needed to do?

 I am completely convinced that God would have still provided the miracle my friend received, for God doesn't need my prayers to "talk him into" anything. He already knew what He was going to do for her. It would have happened with or without my asking. Our prayers aren't for God, they're for us.

God prompted me to pray for my friend as a way of blessing ME. When I read my friend's post telling of what God had done, it was not just a cool story of what God had done for someone else. Instead, it was a personal and very real answer to my prayer. Through my prayer, my heart was opened to know God in an even deeper way. God hears my prayers and answers, they aren't just out there bouncing around in space where they MIGHT somehow get to God. How amazing to think that the creator of the universe is also so near that he hears even ME!

So, I've been thinking...how many blessings have I missed out on because I had "good intentions" but no action to go with them. Have I missed out on making a new friend because I didn't give a word of encouragement to the new mom with the crying baby at the grocery store? Have I missed out on seeing God work in someone's life because I said, "I'll be praying for you about that" and then promptly forgot about it. How many people did I not reach with God's words of encouragement because I didn't take the time to write that blog post I had on my heart?

So, I'm back to Dancing with Cinderella. Will you join me? Let's move beyond just having good intentions! Let's put our intentions into action. I can't wait to see what God has in store!

Fruit of the Spirit Unit-Love

We started the second day of school by playing a three-digit-addition bump tournament. I discovered this game last year and we love it! I love that there are so many different versions available online so I don't have to try to create my own. I found this one on teachers pay teachers  right here. (I love this website! So many awesome resources!) Cheyenne was the champion of the day.

 

After the tournament, I had them draw their beginning of the year self-portraits. I've had them do this at the beginning of each year so far and also at some point later in the school year. It's fun to see their personalities come out in their pictures of themselves.

Next, we talked about ways to show love and I read the story of The Good Samaritan. We watched all three parts of this video on youtube. I almost didn't show it to them because I was afraid it wouldn't keep the interest, but they LOVED it. I'm sure we'll be watching it again sometime.

We also watched this video and sang along. It's been stuck in my head ever since!
We talked about ways to show love and things that were not loving. I gave them a piece of paper with several hearts on it and had them write ways to show love on half of the hearts and things that are not loving on the other half. They cut them out and put them in an envelope in their lapbook.

I also printed out these mini-books for their lapbooks. We used them to write a verse for each fruit. The verse for love was 1 Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."

After a little recess, we finished up with journals, apple experiment notebooks, and reading from our science textbook.

Another busy and fun homeschool day!

First day of school 2012!

After our looooooong school year last year (our last day was August 20), we finally started back to school on September 24. Our break was just a little over a month long, but some days it felt so much longer than that. We actually got a lot accomplished during that month, but that's a story for another post. I discovered this year, that a month is about all the break we  need, though. By the end of the last week, they were bored and grumpy. It was definitely time to get back into the school routine.

Here are the kiddos' first day of school pictures.

A special start to our first day of school-chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!

7:00 came really early after getting to sleep in for so long!

I didn't get to place my curriculum order until last week, so we are improvising for the first week or so until everything comes in and I have a chance to organize it. After searching everywhere for a topic we could all do together, I decided we would do a unit on the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). I found some things that they all can enjoy and some things that I can adapt a little for the older two.

First, I read to them Galatians 5:22-23 and the Fruit of the Spirit story I found at DLTK. Next, we made a "fruit of the spirit tree" on the sliding door.

 For the first day, we just added the leaves, then we'll add one fruit each day as we talk about it. We're using the fruit from this craft from Christian Preschool Printables for our tree. The kids like that it's kind of silly with all the different kinds of fruit growing on one tree.

Next, we made mini-books, also from Christian Preschool Printables, that will go in our lapbooks at the end of the unit.

As each child finished their book, I sent them outside with a timer to jump on the trampoline for 5 minutes to give them a little break. Landon did his five minutes and came in asking for another five so he did Sierra's five minutes with her. As they came in from their break, they did copywork (followed by another 5 minutes on the trampoline for Landon) and journal (followed by 5 minutes on the trampoline for Landon. ha!) then went back outside for some free time.

I surprised them when they came in by telling to sit down at the table immediately. They were all wanting to go wash up, but I told them they had to wait. I had a plan!

We were going to start a science experiment that I found at Growing in PreK. I cut an apple in half and we passed one half around the table touching it with our dirty hands. It was pretty gross by the time it went all the way around.

We put that half in a jar labled "dirty".  The other half we put in a jar labeled "clean".

We're going to watch it for a week or two and look at the difference. I haven't decided totally on how I'm going to make the connection between the moldy fruit and the Fruit of the Spirit, but I have some ideas.

I had them all go wash their hands then and we started science journals for our apple experiment. I love how you can see the progress from Landon's through Dakota's books. 

Next, I cut apart a copy of the mini-book we made earlier and we used it to help memorize the Fruits of the Spirit. We started with them face up on the table. Each person took a turn reciting the fruits in order while looking at the cards. For the next round, we turned the first card over and did it again. Then, turned the second card over, then the third, etc until we could name them all without looking.

By that time, it was time to eat lunch and get ready to leave. I had an afternoon appointment in town so we had to call it a day a little earlier than normal. 

It was a pretty good first day!

Camp Wow part 2

 So, yesterday I told you all about the fun the kids and I had at Camp Wow. Today, I want to share a little bit about my experience at camp as an adult. It was truly a life-changing week!

I signed the kids up for camp all the way back in November, right before Thanksgiving. At that time, I already had decided that I was going to be going down to help (it's only about 25 miles from our house) during the day with whatever needed to be done-making sure kids got to where they needed to be, watching kids at the waterfront, sitting next to kids during service to help with behavior, etc. The main reason I was going was for Landon. He'd never spent the night anywhere other than grandma's house and because of his school experience, I was a little nervous about how things would go at camp. For multiple reasons, I didn't want to stay at camp at night, but planned to stay until lights out and then head home.

As soon as the kids were signed up, I began to pray for camp-not everyday, but a couple times a week at least. Mostly, I prayed for the kids to be safe and healthy during camp and that they would grow closer to God. I also prayed that they would have fun and make new friends or get closer to their old friends.

A few days before camp, we had a meeting and were given our leader packets. In them, were the schedule for the week, the devotion topics for each day, the kids' cabin assignments, and team assignments. That's when I learned that I wasn't going to just be a "helper", I was going to be a co-leader of a team! For someone who's main goal is to be invisible, this was a big deal. To say I was nervous about this is definitely an understatement.

That same evening, during our Wednesday night service, Pastor T. had two posters at the front of the church-one for youth camp and one for kids' camp. He asked us to write some specific things that we were praying for our kids during camp week on each one. Since I had kids going to both camps, I wrote on both of them. For youth camp, I wrote friendship and for kids' camp, I wrote confidence. Those are only two of the million things I prayed for my kids to get from camp, but at that moment they're the things that were most on my heart.

The day of camp arrived and I had to be at the church early for a leaders' meeting and to help get kids' checked in. We took over 100 to kids' camp alone, so it was a bit crazy for a while. Once things settled down, the kids went to the gym for lunch and pictures. I stayed with a couple of other ladies in the lobby to catch any late arrivals. We had such a good time just hanging out and getting things ready to go. It was a great way to get my camp week started.

When we got to camp, the kids headed into the cafeteria for orientation while several of us ladies stayed at the cabins (or dorms or whatever you want to call them) and unloaded luggage from the trailers. Then, we helped the kids get settled into their bunks. Making beds for 20+ little girls is a big job. There were 4 other moms in my cabin. I had talked with them some at church, on facebook, and one mom is even in our homeschool group, but I didn't really feel like I knew any of them well. That was definitely going to change! I have to say that those four ladies are some of the funniest ladies I have ever met. We laughed so much!

Cheyenne took this picture of me from her top bunk on day one. 

I told you a little about how we spent our camp days in my last post. Remember the picture of Landon playing the game with the cotton balls on his nose? Well, I failed to mention that there was also a competition each night between the leaders of each team. Again, not in my comfort zone AT ALL. I try really hard not to draw attention to myself (in person anyway. Online is a different story-ha!) But when you're standing in front of 100 kids and your team is cheering you on, it tends to draw attention to you. 

This is me on day one playing the oreo game. You had to move the oreo from your forehead into your mouth using only your facial muscles. I'm not sure if it was legal for me to have my hands up there or not, but after I dropped the first one within 30 seconds, I wasn't taking any chances.

Luckily, I had an awesome teammate who gave me some good advice for round two. 

 Each night, one team was eliminated from the competition. Wouldn't you know, our team stayed in the whole week, so I got lots of chances to get out of my comfort zone and in front of the group.

There were so many more amazing things that happened during that week, more than I could ever fit into one post. Times I felt loved, accepted, appreciated, and valued just for being who I am. Times I did things that I never  thought I would do. 

One night, as I was walking to my van at the end of the night-way later than I should have been leaving-a group of ladies pulled up in an ATV. I won't give away their identities, but it was 4 of these lovely ladies (you know who you are!) 

They told me that they had found something cool that I needed to see and asked me to jump in with them. When I got in, they said "put on your seatbelt." Uh-oh! As soon as I was buckled up, the crazy driver hit the gas and we took off. It was a crazy, fast, bumpy, buggy ride (I think they really just wanted me in the front seat as a bugshield!). If I had known what they were up to, I NEVER would have gotten in. But it was SO MUCH FUN! I haven't laughed like that in so long! After a few minutes of fun, we switched drivers and took off again. I think the second driver was a little crazier faster than the first. At the end of her turn, she pulled  back up to the parking lot by my van, got out, and said "Your turn!" I tried to resist, but when they started chanting my name (peer pressure anyone?), I gave in. I still can't believe I drove that thing! We somehow managed to make it back to the van in once piece. I headed home and they headed back to the cabin. (Thank you, ladies, you'll never know how much that little buggy ride meant to me!)

Here they are showing their true colors-hahaha!

 Everything that happened that week was fun and I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. But, the best part didn't come until the last night during the evening service. At the end of the service, Pastor B. asked the leaders to come to the front as the kids came forward for prayer. I had the opportunity to pray over several kids, something I had never done before except little bedtime prayers or at mealtime with my own kids. I don't know that I was very eloquent in my prayers or that I even did it right, but I do know that it doesn't matter because I did it from my heart. I can't even describe the feeling I had that night! 

After we were home and I had a chance to reflect back on my week at camp, I realized that the things I had prayed over my kids for their camp week turned out to be the things that God chose to bless me with. Health, safety, fun all were a part of my camp week. But the most amazing thing to me was that He chose to give to ME the two specific requests that I prayed for my kids on that Wednesday night before camp-frienship and confidence.

And I will never be the same!