A Visit with Grandma Nancy

My mom, a.k.a. Grandma Nancy, came to visit us for Thanksgiving! I had a vacation of sorts: I got in touch with my crafty side, went shopping all by myself and even went on a coffee date with David (and Matthew)! All the kids had a lot of fun playing with Grandma Nancy. Here are a few pictures from the visit:

Here we are at our Thanksgiving meal, which I couldn't have pulled off without Grandma Nancy's help!

Mary and Maggie ran the Turkey Day Race on Thanksgiving!

This is a picture of my freezer--Grandma Nancy brought me six 24 oz. bags of chocolate chips!  She also brought us hot chocolate, candy bars, and tootsie rolls.  Those didn't make it to the freezer!

This is a picture of Grandma Nancy playing Blue's Clues with the girls.  I think they played this game at least 20 times while she was here!

Matthew went on a sleeping strike, no pun intended!

This is a picture of Grandma Nancy playing doctor with Maggie and Abraham.  She even brought a real stethoscope for the job!

And of course there was a lot of soccer involved!

Grandma Nancy did lots of shopping for us!  She bought the girls new slippers and filled up everyone's drawers with some great thrift store finds!  Actually, some is really a huge understatement.  I am so thankful for all her shopping because I can't seem to find the time for it these days.

And, of course, no visit is complete without a trip to Morning Call for cafe au lait and beignets:)

True Rest

I read this quote in Victory in Jesus by P.G. Mathew this morning.  It really touched my heart and brought me great joy in reflecting on the recent death of my Aunt Mary Jo, a wonderful woman full of love for her Savior, Jesus Christ:

The people of Israel enjoyed a certain rest when they received their portion of land in Canaan, but the rest Christ gives us has nothing to do with real estate.  Paul spoke of this greater rest: "I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far" (Phil. 1:23).  So the farewell message of Joshua son of Nun to us is this: "Look not to me, but to the greater Joshua, Jesus Christ.  He is the Lord of salvation, and he will give you the true rest of heaven." The future rest for believers is eternal glory and everlasting bliss.  It is living in the house of the Lord and seeing him face to face.  It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.  It is life with Christ forever. (emphasis mine)

Our Thanksgiving!

We had a full day of activities on Thanksgiving this year.  Jonathan was an early bird and got to have a good morning tea party with Mary and Maggie.  Everything was very nicely organized with matching cups and saucers, until the guest of honor arrived!








 After breakfast, everyone ran off to the Turkey Day Race, an annual run in nearby City Park.  There is a five mile run and a half-mile run.  We signed up as a family.  David was planning to push Maggie in the stroller and run with Mary in the half mile, but Maggie decided she wanted to run, too.  All three ran together with Grandma Nancy cheering them on every step of the way!  I have had a chest cold, so I sat this one out and stayed home with the boys.




David's student Anu went to India to visit her family and brought each of the girls a special outfit back.  The girls thought Thanksgiving was the perfect occasion to wear their special Indian clothes!  We're not sure if we got everything on correctly because their middles were showing quite a bit, but it was fun:)









David has a culturally diverse group:  Anu and Sreeja are both from India; Shuai is from China; Pavel is from Russia; Vivian is from Iran; Jessica is from America.  We invited everyone over to join us for our Thanksgiving meal.   Some couldn't make it or already had plans, but we had a nice group: Anu and her family, Sreeja and her husband, Shuai, and Grandma Nancy.  Everyone brought something from their homeland, so we had a wonderful mixture of Chinese, Indian and American food!  We are so thankful that God has brought us together during this time in our lives!

Mary and Varshini, Anu's daughter, had a great time playing and reading in Mary's bed!  They are also eager to have another playdate with Shuai!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Here's an appropriate song for the day, one of my favorites! 


We Bring the Sacrifice  of Praise

We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.
We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.

And we offer up to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving;
And we offer up to You the sacrifices of joy.

In Him we live and move and have our being.
In Him we live and move and have our being.

Make a joyful noise, sing unto the Lord, tell about your love, dance before Him.
Make a joyful noise, sing unto the Lord, tell about your love, hallelujah!

In Him we live and move and have our being.
In Him we live and move and have our being.

Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power.
Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee, nothing is too difficult for Thee.
O great and mighty God, great in council and mighty in deed!
Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing is too difficult for Thee.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High.

And I will praise Thee, O Lord, my God, with all my heart, with all my heart;
And I will glorify Thy name forevermore with all my heart.
For great is Thy mercy for me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
And I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, with all my heart.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High.

"We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise" by Kirk Dearman 1984, Stamps-Baxter Music (BMI), ARR, UBP.
"Ah, Lord God" by Kay Chance, 1976, ARR, ICS, UBP.
"It is a Good Thing To Give Thanks" by Judy Horner Motemayor, His Eye Music/Cherry Blossom Music Co., ARR, ICS, UBP.

Ultra Quick Yeast Buns

Have I mentioned that I love making bread?  I found this recipe in the David Food Co-Op newsletter nearly ten years ago and have been making these buns for special occasions ever since.  I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to make these rather than the bread machine. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk scalded
6 T butter
1 t salt
1 T honey
1 T sugar
1/4 c warm water
2 t yeast
1 t sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 c wheat flour
2 T gluten flour (I didn't have this, so I just substituted whole wheat flour)

1. Scald milk and add butter, salt, honey, and sugar.  Set aside to cool.
2. Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl and set aside to proof.
3. When milk mixture is lukewarm, add to yeast mixture along with egg.
4. Beat in gluten flour (if using) and 1 cup white flour.  Stir in whole wheat flour and remaining white flour.
5. Knead, adding more flour as needed to make a firm but moist dough.  Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
6. Divide into 12 pieces and shape into buns.  Place on lightly greased cookie sheets.  Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 25 minutes.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes.

How To Avoid Criticism

I read this quote by Aristotle in a Dave Ramsey book and I love it!  I definitely do not like criticism, but after reading this quote, I think I'm going to try to think differently:
"Criticism is something we can avoid easily by doing nothing, saying nothing, and being nothing."

The iTunes Visualizer

Honestly, my first plan of attack for a fussy baby is to nurse.  All of my children have found it really comforting.  Plan B in our house, though, is the visualizer.  Open up iTunes; play some soothing music; press apple and T simultaneously.  Voila!  Graphics set to music.  Mesmerizing!  This has worked wonders for all four kids when they can't sleep because of teething or ear infections or whatever reason.  To this day, Mary, age five, asks me to play the visualizer for her when she is sick! 

Picture Books We Love: What Do People Do All Day?

The condition of our copy of What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry evidences that is has been well-loved and read often!  We haven't lost any pages of the book yet, but they have had a falling out with the binding!

This book describes many different occupations in Busytown and how they are interrelated.  The book begins with an explanation of how everyone is a worker and basic economics.  Farmer Alfalfa grows food and sells some to Grocer Cat.  Farmer Alfalfa then uses that money to buy a new suit from Stitches the Tailor, a new tractor from Blacksmith Fox, and some other presents.  The rest he deposits in the bank.  Stitches the Tailor, Blacksmith Fox, and Grocer Cat then use the money they earned to buy a few things they need now and deposit the rest in the bank to save for later.  I think Dave Ramsey would approve:)

Other topics included in this book are: Building a New House, Mailing a Letter, Firemen to the Rescue, A Visit to the Hospital, The Train Trip, The Story of Seeds and How They Grow, Wood and How We Use It, Building a New Road, A Voyage on a Ship, and, my favorite, Where Bread Comes From. 

We have on occasion read this book from cover to cover.  We have also read one or more sections at a time.  The girls have really enjoyed the illustrations, which are comical yet educational.  For example, the illustrations depict plumbing and ducting inside a house, the operations of a flour mill and a sawmill and even the inner workings of a ship's engine!  We especially enjoy trying to find Lowly Worm on each page!  Of course, it certainly has helped their interest levels that the residents of Busytown include many different kinds of animals: cats, lions, pigs, rabbits, foxes and more.

The girls are particularly fond of A Visit to the Hospital where Abby goes to the hospital to have her tonsils taken out and comes home with a brand new baby brother! 

Tomato Corn Soup

This is one of our favorite soup recipes, adapted from one I found in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, well, actually my only vegetarian cookbook: The New Laurel's Kitchen.  (I'm a minimalist at heart!)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

1 lb. frozen corn
28 oz. canned diced tomatoes
14 oz. water
1 t salt

1.  Saute onion, celery and garlic in a heavy pot.
2.  Add corn, tomatoes, water and salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered about 1/2 hour.
3.  Puree it all!  (I tried using the food processor this time, but the blender works a lot better for this step.)
4.  Season to taste with Tony's and serve with cornbread.  YUM!

This also makes for a great pizza sauce!

Short Haircuts for the Girls

After we got married, David wanted me to cut his hair.  Terrified does not even fully describe how I felt about this.  I went along with him and watched him get a hair cut, so that I could learn how to do it myself...ummm multiple times.  He even bought me clippers, but I was too afraid to use them.  When I couldn't avoid it any longer, I did it.  I actually cut his hair.  And the results were not very good.  I think I cut his sideburns completely off.  Over time, through trial and error, I've improved maybe a little bit.  Maybe I've just grown wiser--I let him do his sideburns now:)  This saves us a ton of money each year--I figure about $180.

Enter two little girls into the equation.  Every time I cut Daddy's hair, they want theirs cut, too.  I avoided cutting the girls' hair for a long time.  I told them I really like long hair on little girls.  You can do so much with long hair: braids, ponies, etc.  The truth is I was again more than terrified.  Well, last year, Mary took the scissors to her hair, so I was forced into the realm of girls' haircuts.  It actually turned out really cute, despite my trepidation.

A few weeks ago, I went and had my hair chopped again.  It had been EIGHT months since I had it cut.  (Ordinarily, haircuts are not particularly memorable for me, but this one had been on my day of grace before the boys were evicted.  Unforgettable!)  At last, the girls wore me down begging and pleading for haircuts, too.  I think they turned out pretty cute this time.  And, you know, what I've realized about kids and haircuts?  Kids are cute no matter how much you screw up their hair:)

Chocolate Overload

 

Today, I had my best Whole Foods shopping experience ever!  15 bags of chocolate chips for 50 cents each!  I don't ordinarily shop at Whole Foods, otherwise known as Whole Paycheck, but a Living Social deal combined with an in-store coupon made for an awesome deal on a household staple! 

Homeschool Resources: Hand that Rocks the Cradle

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably have picked up on this: I LOVE read-aloud time!  We have an hour scheduled in our afternoon every day for reading aloud.  An hour is the goal.  Sometimes, we get caught up in something else and have less time to read.  Sometimes, we are just captivated by what we're reading and can't stop!  During read-aloud time, the girls either snuggle up beside me on the couch or sit on the carpet playing quietly with a manipulative (like Legos or blocks).  Honestly, I think it's their favorite time of day, too! (The boys either nurse or sleep.)

In the beginning, I had a hard time selecting books to read aloud.  There are just so many to choose from!  Then, I found Hand that Rocks the Cradle by Nathaniel Bluedorn.  Nathaniel was homeschooled in a Christian family that also found great delight and value in reading aloud.  This book contains summaries of 400 classic children's books.  The books were chosen from those his mom and dad read aloud during his childhood as well as books that he and his siblings read on their own.  The books are organized by author's last name.  Each book is assigned a reading level of 1, 2, or 3, with 1 being appropriate for all ages, 2 for ages 10 and up, and 3 for ages 13 and up.  Bluedorn also includes the time the story takes place, the geographic setting of the story, and the date of publication.  Additionally, following the summaries, there is a listing of the books by subject.   

This year, I made a reading list by selecting level 1 titles from this book.  Of course, we have gotten a little sidetracked reading the My Side of the Mountain Trilogy:)  Thus far, we have not been disappointed with any of the selections!

Surrender!

I love this quote from Victory in Jesus by P.G. Mathew in reference to Joshua 5:13-15:

The man then identified himself in response to Joshua's inquiry, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"  "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."  What is the significance of such an answer?  It indicates that Jesus Christ cannot be recruited.  He is God Himself.  He is Savior and Judge.  He does not answer to us; we answer to him.  We may not enlist God for our projects, but he may enlist us in his.  Yet how many people come up with their own ideas and then ask God to bless them! Let us avoid reductionism, reducing God into someone who will cooperate with our plans, someone we can control.  He is the commander, and we must surrender to him.  We may want to adjust his word, but we cannot.  This King of kings requires our complete surrender.  In this surrender lies our salvation.

Picture Books We Love: Maisy Books

Both Mary and Maggie have adored the Maisy books by Lucy Cousins!  I was first introduced to these books by everyone's Nona, a wonderful grandmother who shares her love of reading with preschoolers frequently!  We started out borrowing these books from the library.  When we began to plan our five-day road trip from Davis to New Orleans, though, we purchased several to read to Mary in the car.  As an adult reading these books, you may think B-O-R-I-N-G!  But, kids love them, well, at least my kids love them and ask me to read them over and over again.  Why do kids like these books so much?  The illustrations are vibrant.  Maisy spends time with her friends, Charley, Eddie, and Tallulah.  Maisy is a mouse and each of her friends is a different animal.  The sentences are short and simple.  The stories are either about normal everyday activities (like going to bed or shopping or cleaning) or special activities that kids love (like going to the fair or making lemonade or playing in the wading pool). Plus, Maisy's toy bear, Panda, even joins in on the fun!

Children develop at different rates, but both my girls were really interested in these books when they were two.  Maggie is three now and still really enjoys these books. They are a frequent choice for Quiet Time.  Lucy Cousins has written many of these books, so you've got a lot to choose from.  We own the following:

The Path Chosen For Us

I really liked this quote that I read in Victory in Jesus by P.G. Mathew. I wanted to share it because I know some of you reading this are going through very difficult trials right now.  The quote is in reference to Joshua 3:17.

Crossing an overflowing river was not what the people would have chosen for themselves.  But when we walk with the Lord, we do not have to worry about the unforeseen difficulties we will face.  We can have confidence that they are appointed by God, and that he wants to take us through them to make us spiritually strong.  The way may be new to us, but it is not new to God, and we can be assured that God, who has been faithful to us in the past, will be faithful to us in the future.

This word is encouraging to me.  The past year has been a tumultuous time for us.  We experienced tremendous joy at the birth of our sons.  However, intermixed with this joy was a heavy dose of anxiety.  Jonathan stayed in the NICU for 12 days.  Matthew stayed at Children's Hospital for 5 days.  Since their release, weight gain has been slow and not exactly steady.  My heart sank as my beautiful babies were labeled Failure to Thrive at six months of age. (Numerous blood tests were conducted, all of which came back normal.)  The saga continues and, in the next few weeks, they will be evaluated for developmental delays.  OUCH!  I certainly did not choose to travel this route.  Yet, I know that the Lord marked out this path for me.  I do not fully understand why I have to go this way, but I know that God is faithful and this is all part of His plan to strengthen me spiritually. 

Super Easy Chicken

I recently signed up to take someone dinner on a Saturday.  Super brilliant given that Saturdays are already jam-packed with soccer and grocery shopping and yard work and Sunday School prep and lesson plans.  I decided to try out a new crock pot recipe that I found in Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly.  This has got to be the easiest recipe on the planet and filled our house with a wonderfully delicious aroma.

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 package Italian dressing mix
1 cup chicken broth (I used 1 bullion cube dissolved in 1 cup boiling water)

1. Put chicken breasts in crock pot.
2. Sprinkle Italian dressing mix on top.
3. Pour chicken broth over top.
4. Cook on low for 8 hours.  

Sorry there's no picture, but trust me, this recipe is a winner!

Picture Books We Love: A Wing and a Prayer

After I posted about filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, my wonderful friend Michele loaned me A Wing and a Prayer by Franklin Graham.  This is a wonderful book to read to children to help them understand how God can use them to impact the life of another child.  This story is so touching that it brought tears to my eyes!  In this story, a recently orphaned boy residing in a poor village receives a shoebox filled with gifts packed by a boy in the United States.  His village comes under attack, but the missionaries are able to relocate the children to a safe village.  Not only does Raimundo find salvation in Jesus Christ, but he is also adopted by the missionaries who brought Christmas to his village!

Thanks, Michele!

Life Is Relationship!

I am reading another book by P.G. Mathew on the book of Joshua, called Victory in Jesus.  (You can order a copy here.)  I really appreciated one of the applications of Joshua 1:

Second, we must realize that true riches consist in relationships.  Our relationship with the Lord, the relationship between a husband and wife, the relationship of parents and children, our relationship with our brothers and sisters--these are the treasures of life.

One of the things that I remember hearing P.G. Mathew say often is, "Life is relationship."  Because of some things happening with some members of my family, I have been realizing the profound truth of these words.  So much individualism abounds in our culture.  We get caught up in the busyness of our own lives and walk through life with tunnel vision.  We are focused--focused on ourselves and our own agenda.  We think we don't have time to read our Bibles and pray.  We think we don't have time to nurture our relationship with our spouses.  We think we don't have time to play with our children.  And we certainly don't have time to call Betsy Sue! After all, we're BUSY! 

Jesus himself demonstrated that life is relationship.  He loved the Father, and he loved those around him.  He invested in the disciples.  He healed the blind, the lame, the deaf.  He welcomed little children.  He was poor in the worldly sense but rich in the spiritual sense.  Since He is our example, then we ought to prioritize relationship in the same way.

I definitely cannot toss the to-do list. Without it, I am aimless. However, I am endeavoring to change what goes on my to-do list and the prioritization of the items on it.  Life is relationship!

Golden Sweet Cornbread

Truly, every southern cook should be able to whip up a tasty cornbread for the family.  I have not been happy with the cornbread recipes in any of my cookbooks.  Maybe that has to do with the collection of cookbooks I own: Better Homes and Gardens, Laurel's Kitchen, and Whole Foods for the Whole Family.  An Internet search a few years ago led me to this tasty recipe.  I am used to serving cornbread in squares rather than triangles, so I make it in a square 9x9 pan rather than the round pan called for in the recipe. 

This is especially good served with tomato corn soup, which I hope to post in the future.