We are Walking for Life!

This year our family is walking for life because life is priceless! Our local Pregnancy Resource Center puts on "Walk for Life" every year to raise money to support their ministry efforts.

As their website states: "Last year’s Walk for Life raised over $50,000 allowing the PRC to continue toward the goal of converting to a Medical Clinic in order to increase our effectiveness in saving the lives of preborn babies. Last week our new Ultrasound Machine arrived – Praise the Lord! The money raised by this year’s Walk for Life will allow us to open our Medical Clinic and begin the process of reaching out to our target client."

If you would like to sponsor Mya, Simon and Jonah as they walk for life - please visit their special website at: http://hopeforafuture.ewalk.org/kaebfam

Thanks for helping us support this important work!

The Battle of M&M

I have been waging war all week long. We are nearing the end of the battle and I think I lost!

Let me explain:

Last week I met some friends at Fired Up to paint pottery. Some of us brought snacks. I brought a LARGE bag of peanut M&Ms. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, Jessica brought M&Ms as well (a smaller bag). Her bag was the one that was opened and eaten. Mine came home with me. And the battle began.

I have been eating peanut M&Ms all week long (against my better judgment). They call to me like a siren from the cupboard. I eat them in secret so I don't have to share them with my kiddos. They have made me sick. They sound gross to me. And STILL I eat them.

The bag is almost empty. Do you know what that means? It means I ate a LARGE bag of peanut M&Ms all by myself. I eat them even though I don't want to eat them.

There is only one thing to be done. I must finish the bag. I must purge the house of this temptation that mocks me from the cupboard. I must finish this battle, take the lessons I have learned from this morbid, self-indulgent tale, and move on.

You win peanut M&Ms. You win.

Worry is a Waste of Time

We watched a little bit of the news last night before bed. It stressed me out. We heard about a little boy drowning in the local YWCA pool, a young man who was messing around with his friend and pushed him out into traffic - the friend died, and a memorial for a little boy who was brutally murdered 5 years ago.

As I was trying to fall asleep I started to worry about our boys. I felt the worry in the pit of my stomach and it wouldn't leave. Life is full of struggle and tragedy. When will it touch our family? Worry is paralyzing. It shuts out joy and leaves me in a pit of fear and depression.

Life is hard. I know that. Life is also full of joy. If I choose to focus on the hard, I loose the joy. If I choose to focus on the joy, and release the hard (including worries) to my heavenly Father, I get to live in the joy.

The hard comes and goes, I know that. I also know my Father is at my side to help me through it. Worry robs me of the joy of today and brings no help when the hard comes. Worry is a waste of time.

Heavenly Father, I release my worries to you. Help me focus on the joy of today. Amen.

Wordless Wednesday - Potty Training

 

Successful and Not-so-Successful

We had our first victory in the potty-training arena! One twin, who will remain nameless,went pee in the potty! Unfortunately, as we were celebrating, the other twin, who will also remain nameless, had an accident. Apparently, identical twins pee at the same time. This potty training thing could be more difficult than I originally thought. I wonder if I can convince Kory to put a second toilet in the kid's bathroom. :)

Potty-Training part 1

I began attempt #1 at potty-training yesterday. Jonah was pretty excited to wear his Thomas underwear. Simon responded, "me underwear, not", but after a little convincing was able to muster up some excitement at the thought of wearing cars on his butt!

About ten minutes into the great adventure I had two small accidents to clean-up. Simon was pretty upset about his. Jonah, not so much. The rest of the morning both boys spent a lot of time on the potty to no avail. Once Simon even told me he had to go potty, but again nothing. Three hours later, and about 20 trips to the potty, and it was naptime. On came the diapers.

I should have probably continued the "training" into the afternoon, but honestly it sounded like too much work! I think we will attempt another session this afternoon. Wish me luck!

If anyone has any success stories on what worked for you or any fun little potty-training tips or stories, please pass them along!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The topic at my MOPS group this morning was on ecology (you know, go green, save the planet, etc.). It was very interesting and we even got to watch a video that was almost non-political. The video kind of brought me back to the educational videos of my school days, only then it was filmstrips (does that make me seem really old!).

Anyway, I was struck by a few things she said. The statistic was thrown out that Americans are only using 1% of the items that they bought one year ago (or something like that), and we are living in a consumer crazy society that encourages us to buy, buy, buy (whether we need it or not). We are in a cycle of working, going home and watching TV, seeing things (through commercials) that we need to buy, going to the mall to buy them and then working some more to pay for all the things we just bought.

I fall into this cycle. I want to buy, buy, buy when I really don't need more stuff. It was a good reminder to be content, and along with that, to look for more ways I can reduce what I buy and reuse what I have (or go garage-saling and reuse what other people have!). I appreciated the reminder to think about where all that stuff comes from and where it goes. Hopefully it will affect my buying habits.

I have been trying to be more environmentally conscious. I want to be a good steward of the world God created. I have started recycling and I even bought those reusable grocery bags at Meijer. If I would remember to take them with me when I shop, that would be even better!

So, what are you doing to reduce, reuse or recycle? I would love your input and your ideas!

Wordless Wednesday - "So we can be Safe"

 

The Comparison Trap

Hearts at Home was this past weekend. I left the conference refreshed, encouraged, and wanting to be a better mom!

This year I got to attend Susie Larson's workshop,"Living the Promised Life" with my mom! Susie's words blessed and challenged me. "God is good. His promises are true and He will make a way for me."

One thought from the workshop especially challenged me. "The only thing comparison does is produce pride because we have more or discontentment and jealousy because we have less." There are so many times when I compare myself to others or make decisions based on what others may be thinking of me. I was reminded that I was created by God to be me. He loves me just the way I am. He has a plan for my life. He will make a way for me.

When I compare myself to others, when I wish I was more like someone else, I cheapen the work my Father did when he created me. When thoughts of comparison start to creep in, I am trying to cast them out with the thought, "I was created to be me. My Father does not make mistakes."

This line of thinking can be a little dangerous if I start to think too highly of myself. One of the songs Cheri Keaggy sang this weekend contained the line, "We love because He first loved us." Any good in me comes from Him and His work in my life. All glory goes to Him.

How about you? What do you do to combat the comparison trap? And, if you were at Hearts at Home what was your take away? How were you encouraged as a wife, mom and child of God?

I want to close this post with Zephaniah 3:17. (This verse was shared in two of my workshops!) I hope it blesses you and reminds you how loved you are by our Father.

"The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

Wordless Wednesday

 

A Recipe Swap

If you are in a "recipe slump" and need some fresh ideas, head on over to Lysa TerKeurst's blog today and check out her recipe swap. You will find a plethora of new recipes to try

Here's my addition to the swap.

Easy No-Mess Chicken Pot pie.

Seriously there is not an easier recipe out there and the only dishes you have to clean-up when you are done are the spoon you used to stir and the pie plate you made the dish in!

Ingredients:

1 box refrigerated pie crust (two pie crusts)
1 can mixed veggies (drained)
1 can chunk chicken (with juice)
1 can cream of chicken soup (the low fat kind works great)

Instructions:

Lay first pie crust in 9 inch pie plate. Add can of veggies, can of chicken and cream of chicken soup to pie plate and mix. Lay second pie crust on top, seal edges and cut two slits in top. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until top golden brown.

That's it! If you want you can bake your own pie crusts, substitute chicken you cooked and cubed yourself, and add veggies you chopped and cooked yourself. But then it wouldn't be easy, there would be a mess and the above recipe would be pretty much obsolete!

Happy cooking everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Just Hanging Out

 

And the winner is...

Sharlin!

I will mail your copy out to you in the next week or so.

Thanks everyone for participating.

It's Here!

I am very excited to announce that Hearts at Home's newest book has finally been released! I'm Glad I'm a Mom contains over 50 stories written by moms (including me!). I am so excited about this book. There are stories that will make you laugh and cry! If you are interested in purchasing this resource it can be found at the Hearts Shoppe (www.heartsathome.org) as well as amazon and cbd.com!

I will also be giving away one copy of the book, so leave a comment on why you are glad you're a mom and I will have a drawing on Tuesday afternoon at 5 pm.

To find out why I'm Glad I'm a Mom, you'll have to read the book!