A Christmas Full of Blessings & Generosity

What a wonderful time we had celebrating our Lord's birth this year with dearly-missed friends and family in Minnesota! It was so much of a blessing and encouragement to our hearts and spirits. (The picture above is Vince's special creation. It's tradition for us to bring a birthday cake and sing "Happy Birthday Jesus" at my mom's annual Christmas party.)

This blurry picture was taken at my dad's Christmas party. On the left is my little-big brother, the middle is my older sister with my 8-month old niece Katrina (whom I hadn't had the pleasure of ever meeting until that day), Vince on the right (filling his big, hungry teenage belly!) and I think it's my stepmom in the background but am not sure:)

Here's Dad's party again. The three teenage girls are my beautiful nieces with their dad and my brother-in-law Steve (my twin sister's husband) in the middle. Dylan and Faith love hanging out with this group!

Here's Pete with his younger brother. We met him, his wife, and their son for lunch and had a great time catching up.

Here's our kids with Pete's brother's son Matthew who was born just 3 months after our Gabie. What a cutie, huh?!

And evidence of our white Christmas. We thought we would have to be in Minnesota for a white Christmas but had our Okie friends tell us about the 10" of snow that arrived on Christmas. That broke all of the old records for snowfall in December for Oklahoma. At least this way we got to have a white Christmas with so many good friends to go sledding with! This picture was at our awesome friends' the Minks' home where we stayed during our visit. Not only did they have awesome, comfortable accommodations for us, but with them and their two boys, we also had great company during our stay. (Their youngest son is the one in the background ready to whip a snowball at Pete!)

Here's what 10 kids eating Christmas dinner together looks like, although two of them wouldn't like being called kids (and one of the little ones is hiding behind someone)! This was our Christmas party with our dear friends the Padillas. They have six children with one on the way and we have our four with one on the way. Next year, there'll be 12 children around the table! Our kids have so much fun with the Padilla children. We're so glad to have met them during our time living in Zimmerman four years ago. Their friendship has been such a blessing!

Faith and the Padilla's daughter Haruka are absolutely best buds. These two princesses are two peas in a pod and treasure their time with each other every Christmas! Because they're the same age, I'm guessing we can expect Faith to start losing her teeth soon too!

Here's what we came back to in Oklahoma! If you look carefully, you can see Gabie's two little snowmen by him. Faith and Gabie said the two little ones are Peanut (our unborn baby's current name until we find out the gender) and Gabie, and the big one is Mommy. Too bad these guys are melting so fast since it's been over 32 for the last two days. Well, it was fun while it lasted!

Before I end this post, I would like to thank everyone for the incredible generosity and hospitality you have shown us this Christmas. Some of them must remain confidential, but some of them I would like to list. For those not shown for confidentiality reasons, please know how much your gifts blessed our lives! Some of the other ones are:

1. The gift of a wonderful place to stay for free. Had it not been for that, our trip to see everyone and spend Christmas with loved ones would not have been possible. Thanks again Minks family! Not only did you give us a place to stay but you gave us so much more, including, as always, spiritual encouragement and inspiration.

2. The wonderful anonymous Christmas gifts from our church down here in Oklahoma and the mystery gifts that showed up at our back door after church one Sunday. They were a blessing beyond description. Our prayer is that God will put us in a position to do the same for others in the future.

3. Kind words and encouragement from our extended family members and our church family at River of Life. What a gift those things can be for hearts that have long-awaited familiar faces. Thank you for showing us how much we mean to you.

Finally, thank you everyone for so many things, big and small. It all meant so much and will live forever in our memories. Each and every one of you gave us something whether you think so or not. You are all in our hearts, prayers, and thoughts. What a way to start a new year! Bless you all!

Been So Long. . .

Wow! I lived for years without a computer and then suddenly, three months without it seems excruciating! Our house was struck by lightning and it fried my computer's motherboard AND our modem. Geek Squad couldn't seem to fix it successfully and after three attempts and three months, they decided to give us a replacement.

What a lot has happened in those three months too. The most notable, of course, is an unexpected but much celebrated pregnancy. We thought we should be done having children, God thought otherwise. For two months, I was incredibly sick and tired and completely unable to do anything. Thankfully, I am now eating and maybe even gaining the weight back that I lost while I was sick. We are very excited and will be finding out in just a few short weeks if God is adding a boy or a girl to our family. Of course there'll be a post for that (provided we don't have any more computer problems!).

Also by God's grace, we are planning a much anticipated trip to see so many of you for Christmas soon. It will be wonderful to see everyone and rejoice together over the many wonderful things God is doing! So we'll hope to see y'all soon!!! In the meantime, may your Christmas be a wonderful time of new life and blessings!

Fruits & Veggies--Oh the Possibilities!

Wow--could a person ever fully come to know all of the possibilities that fruits and veggies offer? Do you ever have one of those weeks where suddenly no one eats the bananas? We had a week like that recently and as I watched that bunch of bananas begin to decay, I rushed through my virtual memory of recipe ideas to make sure they didn't go to waste. Here's the result:

Homemade banana creme pie; even the crust had to be homemade. Not only does it save a ton of money that way but it also is made with only natural, healthy ingredients. I didn't have one of those fancy pastry bags so I just used a zipper bag with the corner tip cut off. Not as professional looking but still yummy!

Next up on the menu is one of my all-time favorite lunches: veggie wraps. First, I mix creme cheese with garlic seasoning, a tablespoon of salsa, and lots of chopped, fresh spinach. After spreading it all over a whole-wheat tortilla (see picture above), I roll up whatever fresh, sliced veggies we have on hand in it. Usually it's cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded cabbage/carrots mix, and sliced red onions (onions for mom and dad only). We've used this lunch for picnics, lunches at the zoo, and lunch at our homeschool co-op group on Tuesdays. I just make the wraps the night before and they're ready to go in the morning! You can cut them into one-inch strips and make them into pinwheels for parties or easier finger food for kids.

Last year, my good friend borrowed me some of her cookbooks. I really enjoyed one of them; "Deceptive Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. I got it again from the library and went on a puree rampage.
In this picture we have broccoli puree, sweet potato puree on the right, and butternut squash puree in the baggies. The farm where we volunteer has had an excellent crop of butternut squash this year and we have enjoyed the fruits (or veggies) of that harvest! I made one of the muffin recipes in the book with butternut squash puree and everyone loved them! Pete said they kept him full at work all morning, which says a lot considering how many calories he burns at his job! Other than using the purees with the recipes in "Deceptively Delicious," I plan on using these purees for many other things. For example, any of these would work spread on tortillas with some cheese to make veggie quesadillas. Spinach puree can be hidden into italian dunkers for lunch or even a dab in smoothies. The possibilities are endless!

Finally, although it's not a fruit or veggie, here is the result of our cheese-making adventure. It was really fun and it went right along with our readings in Little House in the Big Woods. The kids learned about curds and whey and we all got to enjoy some delicious cheese. To be quite honest, I didn't expect it to taste that well. Boy, was I surprised! If you'd like to try this yourself, go to my homeschooling blog (link to the right). There you will find a step-by-step video that is really helpful. Have fun and let me know how it turns out!

Inspiration from the Duggars

As some of you already know, I was incredibly blessed to recently have a telephone interview with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar from TLC's show "18 Kids and Counting." I was working on an article for a Christian magazine on the topic of modesty and they were the first ones that came to mind. Graciously, they accepted my request and gave me 90 minutes of their time! What a blessing it has been! Not only did I get amazing advice and tips for my article on modesty but I was given so much encouragement and inspiration.

Halfway through the conversation, I realized one thing about this couple: SELFLESS FAITH. Through all of their stories and experiences, that was the underlying principle behind everything. Selfless faith is a hard thing to understand, but I really felt like that was what God was having me investigate. So I read and prayed a lot, listened to some praise music, and researched online. Basically, it seems selfless faith comes down to sacrifice; having a belief in God that makes us put aside our own ambitions and desires. It requires us to relinquish absolute control to God through a sacrifice of our own life since that's all we can offer Him. I found a website detailing a sermon on selfless faith and found this about sacrifice:

"Sacrifice is:

1. Inconvenient: It's costly and and challenging and scary and it makes you think twice.

2. All about love: It's about loving God and surrendering completely to His agenda and His plan."

(Ah, this is where it's got me! I've found it very difficult to let go of my own agenda!)

"3. Rewarding: God blesses and rewards the sacrificial gift, service, and worship."

(Found on briandolleman.com)

Those things seem to definitely describe the Duggars. They made the decision to put aside their own agenda for their lives and let God decide it for them. In exchange, they have been rewarded with abundant blessings. It's given me so much to think and pray about lately! In the meantime, may God continue to abundantly bless the Duggars for the light they shine for Him! I've put a link to Michelle's blog page on my list of blogs. I've also changed the first song on my playlist to be "Hosanna," a song that talks about selfless faith. Hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me!

New School Year 2009-2010

As promised, here is the first-of-the-new-school-year update! Homeschool has and continues to be such a blessing to us and this year we were also blessed to be able to purchase some fun, new school materials. Vince is technically in 8th grade, although he will be doing a physics class with our homeschool co-op and is already halfway through Algebra. Dylan is entering the 3rd grade and consequently received the right to move up from Explode the Code workbooks to an official BJU Spelling workbook. Faith is officially 1st grade and learning at an amazing rate. Gabie follows in PreK and likes to make his own pace in life!

In the picture above, you'll see my favorite homeschool curriculum addition to our new year: The Prairie Primer. This unit study curriculum is based on the Little House on the Prairie books. Each month, we read one of the books (in chronological order) and do activities each day based on what the chapter discussed. For example, when Pa encounters a black bear in the woods, we learn about bears and their habitat. Recently, we read about Ma making butter. Even though we've made it a few times before, we weren't about to miss another opportunity to do it again. (Notice Gabie in the picture with his piece of fresh bread and butter--He wasn't about to put it down for anything!) (You can visit our homeschooling website for video directions on making your own butter.)

Of course, since we had fresh butter, it was only right to make pancakes for lunch to have fresh butter on!

Here's Gabie enjoying one of his new school materials: a Thomas the Train puzzle. When we first bought this puzzle, Gabie couldn't do it at all. He would get frustrated and we thought none of the pieces would make it longer than a couple of days without being destroyed. Within 6 days, however, he was doing it all by himself. We think the only reason he kept trying every day, all day long was because of his love for Thomas the Train!
Before we started our new year, I made sure to get us nice and organized. I usually try and organize throughout the year, but I think I'll make sure to save some for the beginning of each school year. It was a really fun way to get the kids motivated for a new school year. As unbelievable as it is, the kids loved doing it! (I wouldn't make any bets about one or two of them being disorganized adults though, but I won't name names!) They each got one of these cool new bins for their own things and it really made the house look much better!

The kids still like the pick-a-piece-of-carpet method for school. In our first year of homeschooling, I had considered getting school desks. I'm glad I didn't! Homeschooling is not like public school, even when it comes to where they sit. Our kids pick a spot in the house and start. If they feel like laying in their beds, that's where they go. If it's nice outside, we do it outdoors. The only rule I have about that is that all handwriting must be done at the kitchen table. Gabie gets in on it by getting some paper and a pen and saying "I'm doing my schoolwork." He would scribble little pictures all day long if I let him.

I like the following picture because it shows how the kids have to learn to do their schoolwork without being distracted by their surroundings! As you can see from Dylan's reaction, he's pretty much got it mastered!

Even though it's not their handwriting, here's Faith doing her phonics and Dylan doing his math at the kitchen table. If I'm in the kitchen making something or cleaning up, I ask them to do it in there so that I can help them at the same time.

Well, there you have it. I can't even put into words what homeschooling has meant to our family. I love spending time with the kids and seeing them learn and grow, not just academically but spiritually and in their relationships with each other. I pray God will make it possible for us to do it for many more years!

More Good Times (Especially Cuz They're Free!)

When the school year starts around here, it doesn't necessarily mean summer's done. With temperatures still in the 90's, there's still lots of fun to be had. Fishing, of course, continues. This time, however, Gabie started getting in on it. He's great when he gets to hold what he calls a "fish pole."
As soon as there's something on it, though, that's a different story! Last week, Gabie had the attention span and patience enough to wait for a fish to hook on his line and caught his first fish! Look carefully at his face in the following picture to see what he thought about it:
Poor Gabie; he didn't like Mommy holding the fish that close and Mommy couldn't stop laughing! After that, he went back to exploring the rocks and sand around the lake! In our other activities, Gabie has remained cautious at first while observing the older kids. After a free summer movie at the theater, we walked to a nearby fountain where kids can often be found running through it wearing their clothes. It's just too fun to resist. We knew this would happen ahead of time, so we packed extra clothes and towels in the van. It didn't take Faith and Dylan long to get completely soaked.
Cautious Gabie would go close to the water and then run away for the first 10 minutes.
Once Mommy picked him up and swung him around in the water, though, he didn't mind getting soaked after that!

Yesterday, we got a wonderful surprise. During our recess break, we started picking up chalk when a city worker stopped in front of our house. Leaning out his truck window, he asked if the kids would like to play in the water. The fire hydrant was scheduled to be flushed for 45 minutes and he didn't mind if the kids wanted to play in it. Are you kidding? How many times have we watched it get flushed from inside the house and never played in it!! So Faith ran in and got her bathing suit on while the boys just got their clothes wet.
The water current was so strong that the kids could slide down the road on their bottoms with the current taking them down the road. We made sure they didn't get too close to the fire hydrant but they got a lot closer than in the above picture.

The water filled the sides of the road where it would get very hot right away. The kids picked a spot down the road where the water pooled and called it their "hot tub." Then they'd run back up to the hydrant and get blasted a little while. Right after my camera's battery died, a couple of neighbor kids that were home came out to play in it too. Afterwards, the city employee had to test the water and gave Vince a science lesson on chlorine residual testing. We made sure to thank our friendly city worker over and over again for this opportunity.

Our cul-de-sac has also come in very handy for our favorite outdoor activity: basketball. Everyone's game has improved dramatically since we installed the hoop this spring, even Faith's.

And the kids' favorite Saturday-night treat: sleeping in the living room. Since all of the main floors down here are on concrete, we use our mattresses! Every mattress in the house comes out and is squeezed together in the living room. We make three big bowls of popcorn and get it all over our beds while watching a movie. Then we sleep in and go to the second service at church on Sunday morning.

I have so many wonderful childhood memories of traditions like these; fishing, basketball, swimming in ditches after a heavy rain; and I hope our children enjoy carrying on memories like these to future generations!

Homeschool Updates

I have recently posted some additions to our homeschooling website, including some videos on fun homemade projects (like butter and cheese), and a new study released detailing homeschoolers. If you're interested, click on the link to the right for our other blog, Free Christian Homeschooling or go to http://freechristianhomeschooling.blogspot.com.

I'll also work on posting some pictures and updates on here of our first day of homeschool and some of the fun we've been having already! See you soon!

Beautiful 6-year old Faith

Another year and our Faith has just grown more and more beautiful, inside and out! We celebrated her sixth birthday with lots of free (or mostly free) fun. When asked to choose the activity for her birthday (bowling, fishing, or a trip to the zoo), she chose the zoo. Well, we ended up doing all three! Her birthday was on a Sunday and the night before on Saturday, we had a peaceful trip to the lake for fishing. On Sunday, she chose her meals: peanut butter pancakes for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for lunch (which worked out great for a picnic lunch at the zoo), spaghetti for dinner,
and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for her birthday cake.
Sunday's trip to the zoo was what all of our trips there have become since we got our membership; a ride on the train (mostly for Gabie) and an hour or more in the Nature Exchange Center (mostly for the other three kids). Funny, the zoo used to be about ANIMALS! That's okay; we've been there probably 8 times in the last 6 months so we've seen our share of animals for the year! On Monday, we decided to go bowling also since it's virtually free. We signed up for the kids' free summer bowling program--it gives you two games free for each kid every day of the summer! (You just have to pay shoe rental and for mom & dad's games.) This time around, I brought my camera. Here's Faith:

And Gabie (with Daddy's help):
Dylan:

Vince:

Pete:
And a picture Vince snapped of me bowling (the little stinker!):

We are so thankful for all the fun we got to have and for the beautiful little girl the Lord has blessed us with. Faith is so proud to be starting 1st grade homeschool this year and I am so grateful that God continues to give me the opportunity to watch her learn and grow each and every day alongside her family!

Comedian Tim Hawkins

This guy is a riot; check out his videos on YouTube and you will laugh so hard! (Pause the Playlist on the right before playing the video.)

Gardening=Cooking

We've learned a lot this summer out at the farm. I realized this is the perfect way to start gardening: by working in someone else's garden. They have the land, the seeds, and the majority of the responsibility. We help out when we're there one or two days a week and the owners are generous enough to send us home with half of our harvesting. So the latest farm fresh goodies have included cukes, bell and banana peppers, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, and blackberries. The harvest schedule is very different down here. For example, I learned that because of how hot it can get down here, you can't wait to harvest potatoes when the vine dries up like in Minnesota. Grandma Wilma taught us that the potatoes will literally boil/bake in the ground with the summer temps. Although this year has been much different; we are enjoying many days with highs only in the 80's and 90's.

While the owners of the farm are gone on a mission trip to Africa for a couple of weeks, we were "ordered" to take home all of the ripe vegetables from the garden. Consequently, we ended up with a few tomatoes. I decided to give homemade spaghetti sauce a try. The recipe I found said to have 20 pounds of tomatoes.

First, we boiled the tomatoes for 45 seconds and gave them an ice bath. After peeling the tomatoes and squeezing all the juice and seeds out, we simmered them for half an hour. Then I cooled them off to put them in a blender really quick to get the consistency our kids like. Back into the pot it went with lots of seasonings, including fresh herbs also from the garden. It was a lot of work and all these tomatoes only made about 2 jars worth of sauce! But boy was it good. We put it on our homemade pizzas.

We also used some tomatoes and fresh banana and bell peppers to make some homemade salsa. Yummy!

But everyone's favorite crop this year: BLACKBERRIES! We have never got to have fresh blackberries. The kids didn't care much for the picking; it was thorny and we were out in the fields with the sheep with the guard dog keeping both eyes on us. But they sure made sure to help eat the blackberries. I couldn't believe the taste difference compared to store-bought ones. Gabie could not stop eating them. While we were out in the field picking them, he was eating them just about as fast as I was picking them!

Since we had so many of them (after I got Gabie to slow down), I also made blackberry jam. I found a really great, quick recipe that used just enough sugar to make it into preserves.

Here's peanut butter pancakes with blackberries. Definitely a family favorite!

Of course, I haven't been doing all this work myself. The kids are becoming professional culinary chefs! Vince was really itching to make homemade pasta, so he chose lasagna noodles since it requires less cutting and doesn't require a pasta machine. He did a great job; his homemade noodles were so much more delicious than store-bought! (This picture was taken of cold leftover lasagna to show the layers and Vince's homemade noodles.)

Dylan's new favorite thing to make is cornbread muffins. He does such a good job too! (Notice his apron; it's his Lowe's Build & Grow Workshop one. We do the workshops there once a month and he figured out another use for that apron. Makes sense to me!)

And of course, the grand finale, Vince's homemade ice cream sandwiches. Well, partially homemade anyway. We didn't make homemade ice cream this time; the dairy farm keeps running out of cream in the summer! (Gee, I wonder why?!) So he made homemade cookies and used the runner up, all-natural and delicious Breyers vanilla. Lip-smacking good!