I finally feel that I have a day with a second to update. We have been busy doing things, busy visiting people, busy driving, and BUSY RELAXING :P
Anyhow, I thought I would grab the trusty, albeit neglected, laptop and update with some photos from our trip to Tucson. Hope you all are have a great week :)
Here are the kiddo's with their PAPA hiking in Tucson...
and here they are also hiking in Tuscon with thier Uncle Jeremiah...
Here they are decorating cookies :)
And last but not least here is Jakey with his favorite person in the world...Grandma
Finally a day I can update.
The Blessings of Christmas.
Now as I shared a little in my last post, my husband and I seem determined to re-think Christmas every year. Part of that is because we do not like what Christmas has become. On the flipside, we also aren't particularly excited about the origins of the Christmas holiday either. So where does that leave us? Well that leaves us...... praying. And praying is always a good thing. We rediscover our passions to hold fast to the word of God every year and try not become people that would contradict our Christian walk during this very tempting time of year. Soooooo my husband and I discuss EVERY single detail of EVERY single American holiday tradition we have been raised in. We abandon some, tweak others, and discuss all. I love what that process has done for us. It has driven us to want to know the Lords heart more on everything we do.
Now, as far as Christmas is concerned, we have believed in the past so much of it was almost irredeemable, with all the materialism, self love, magic talk, and pagan backgrounds. HOWEVER, we have seen this year the amazingness (<--I am certain that is not a word, but I love it anyhow) of handing it all over to Christ. We decided to celebrate Christmas this year again and see how it goes with our limitations in place. I think God has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, He can be a light and prove himself mighty in ANYTHING! I am really enjoy this Christmas season. I am enjoying my conversation with others. I am enjoying the teaching of Advent to my children. I am enjoying the beautiful Hymns of songs of believers that sing out praises for bringing the Son to this Earth. What a miracle it was that He came to save us. That is my focus this year. We have decided to give gifts this year in much moderation, and thoughtfulness. We are excited to give to those we love. We are excited to travel to Arizona this year to visit my in-laws who we miss desperately. We are in love with Christ and celebrating His birth this year. So that's where we are at :) How about you?
Pondering Christmas
I want to start a Blog session on our thoughts on Christmas. I want to know what other Sisters in Christ are doing and thinking about his holiday too. I found a link to this post on another blog I read Called Pursuing the Old paths. I love the link and I love that Jamie at Pursuing is pondering Christmas too. More to come on what Me and my DH are thinking about Christmas lately. I strongly urge you to read the short post, I think it will get you thinking as it did me.
More to come....
My own family UNIT.
I was thinking tonight about how excited I should be about being in my hometown for Thanksgiving. We have traveled back this way once or twice for thanksgiving in the last 6 years, but for the most part, we have lived too far away to come. My mother LOVES Thanksgiving and always does it up big, so there was never a chance at my family coming to visit me during this special holiday.
However, as I was driving home tonight from cooking with my mom at her big beautiful house, I realized something. As much as I love my family, and I do love them tons, I couldn't wait to get home to MY OWN little family in our cozy little apartment. I pulled into my apartment (just down the street from my moms) and thought how grateful I am to be with my husband and kids. We have lived a pretty hectic life since my husband and I have gotten married. We have dealt with YEARS of separation due to military service, and have moved more times than I care to count. I realize how true it is when God says "And he shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife". My husband and I have had our issues for sure, but the one thing we have been able to do well is leave our fathers and mothers and cleave to one another. My husband, my daughter, my son, and I are so very very close. Wherever we go, we make it because of God, and because of the blessing of being a family unit. We are small, but we are strong in the Lord. So tonight, as I reflect on Thankfulness to the Lord, I realize that being here in Cali near my mom and brother and sister, is not what I am most thankful for. It is being where God has placed me, WITH my precious family. "Thank you God that my husband is not in a foreign country this year. Thank you Father for granting us health, that we are not confined to hospitals or beds, and thank you God for healing a broken marriage and making all things new. Lord please be with my Dad in Oklahoma, bless him this day and open His eyes to see and know you. Please show all my family their great need for your Son. Amen.
Using what you got.
I have found that with the ongoing issues concerning the food we eat, I am finding it more and more necessary to fork out much more money to buy healthy, fresh, organic, and preferably local foods. This is not a cheap task. It does bite my bank account quite a bit more than my old shopping days at Walmart did. But with information that has been brought out about what exactly is in our foods today, I find I have little, to no choice, in the matter. Health is far more important than almost any other thing we can buy. We are just so used to spending so little on cheap packaged foods, with our coupons, that when we see the price of "organic" or natural/fresh foods, we panic and say "sheesh!! that is double what my -fill--in--the--blank--- cost!
But I digress......
The topic of this post is about saving money by using what you have. OK ladies, just so I don't feel totally alone and guilty, raise your hands if you ever let any good food just sit and go bad and are forced then to throw it away. Or how about, raise your hands if you throw away leftovers because you just don't want o go through the trouble of saving it and trying to re-eat at another time. Well since I cannot see your "hands" I will assume that I am not alone in this. I cannot even count how many times I bought those good veggies only to put off using them because....well....everything always looks more appetizing to cook and eat than healthy stuff. Can I also admit....*gulp*....that I also throw things out on a pretty consistent basis because I refuse to plan my meals? OK now, stop shaking your head in disgust, I am just not that kind of person. Organization is a fun "hobby" for me, but it is not something I like to do on a regular basis. For instance, I love to sit down and organize a messy room. I just don't want to do the work it takes to keep it from getting messy again. Are you getting what I am saying? I love to organize a project, but I just cant seem to organize my life.
Soooo..... it's baby steps for me. Instead of telling myself that I have to organize everything, I have simply challenged myself to do one thing. USE WHAT I GOT!
See this is all going to tie together soon, just watch ;)
So I figure that with the organic and natural foods prices being what they are in Southern California, I have to do something to keep the costs at bay. One way I am doing that is by making sure NOTHING goes to waste. If we make lunch and have something left over, it gets used in an "in-between" snack, put into the freezer for a later date, or put into the next meal. Simple as that. Have I mentioned that I like simple? ha!
I have to say I really really really like how this is turning out. I even get to use my creative side in my cooking! Almost daily I look at my food and say (for example)"what can I make with this ground chicken, my leftover vegetables, that box of crackers that needs to get eaten before they go stale, and all those organic potatoes I bought in bulk from Azure?"
That leads to making a "Shepherds pie/casserole with crackers cooked on top". Was it the best thing ever? Not really. Was it culinary excellence? Ummm not much. Was it a pretty darn good tasting meal that used what I had, filled my family up, and made enough to use for two meals? you betcha!!
Truly though, I challenge you to look in those cupboards, freezers, and pantries, and get busy cooking some yummy and interesting meals.
For more info on the state of our foods, you can watch some of the following documentaries...( I do not agree with all things in any of these movies, but they definitely make an excellent point about nutrition, and what is lacking in our foods at the super market)
1~Food Inc.
2~Corn King
3~Food Matters
4~Fresh
5~The Future of Food
P.S. most of these are available on Netflix.
Are we really Pro-life?
I know I haven't posted in a while, but that is due to a fantastic thing happening to me.......no longer addicted to the Internet, yay! No but seriously, my drive for Internet has decreased so dramatically in the past month that really all I want to do is hop on and check my email, and then hop right off again. It's been great, and my kids are really appreciating the all the fantastic cooking that has come from less time on the computer :) Since the first few weeks of our move transition were so stressful, I am taking time to do more things that bring me joy, i.e., taking my kids to the park, doing a bible study (Kay Arthur: Lord I Want to Know You has been great so far. It's right where I am at in my walk), cooking good healthy meals, and reading lots and lots of great Christian fiction :)
Sooooo, now that you know why I have been blogging ridiculously little lately, let's dive straight in to a controversial subject.
On to the topic at hand.
Are we pro-life? In asking that question I am going to present to you a scenario.
Imagine an Abortion clinic. It has a 6ft chain link fence around it, so that Christian protesters have to stand far enough away from the clients coming in to get their abortion.
A young woman pulls up in a beat up old car that spits and sputters and squeals until it comes it a jerky stop at the clinic. She slowly, sadly, but determinedly gets out, and begins to walk to the door when she hears a woman yell from the fence,
Protester: "Don't kill your baby! Please, God loves children, and He will provide for you, just trust Him!"
Young unwed teen: "Are you a Christian, lady?"
Protester:"Yes ma'am I am. Please choose life, God will work out all the details. He loves children and He loves you"
Young unwed teen: "Do you have a husband? A house? A car that works? Does your husband have a job?"
Protester: "Yes I do, actually."
Young unwed teen: "How many children do you have?"
Protester: "One boy and one girl......why do you ask?"
Young unwed mother: "Is that all you plan to have"
Protester: " OH yes, we decided our family was complete and my husband got a vasectomy 4 years ago. Again, why do you ask??"
Young unwed teen: "So your telling ME, a non believer, with no husband, no money, and no house, I should trust in "God" to provide for me when it comes to children, and to welcome that unwanted child into my life with open arms because God loves children. And YOU a Christian who trusts in the God I do not know, who has a husband, and money and a home, and a car that works, wont even DARE let the chance of conception happen because your so scared of having more."
Protester: "............choose life.............please....."
Young unwed teen: (as she turns to walk back to the abortion clinic she says over her shoulder) "yeah right......Hypocrite. IF you can't even trust him to take care of you and more children, why should I?"
She rings the bell and an Abortion nurse opens it for her. As the nurse is letting her in, she gets a glimpse of a different young lady among the protesters, and mumbles to herself "didn't I see that young woman in here a few weeks ago to pick up her birth control pills?"
So I ask you again, are you REALLY pro-life?
Let's be clear and make no confusion about my heart on this. I am not saying at all that if you use birth control of any kind, you are pro-abortion. I know many different families with many different views on children, and I know how much each one of them loves the Lord. I try and support all my friends in their personal decision that are between them, their husbands, and God.
But I cannot get away from the hypocrisy of it all when it comes to the pro-life movement in general.
Some of the women I knew, who I KNOW are pro-life, were so horrified when they found out my husband and I were getting a reversal and decided to let God bless us with more children. As many as He wanted actually. They were absolutely disgusted. How can I translate that with their STAUNCH pro-life stance? I just can't.
I volunteered as a counselor/client advocate at a crisis pregnancy resource center and all the while, my hope was that I could encourage, love on, and bring hope in the name of Christ to some of these hurting women. Not all women who came in wanted abortions, some just wanted a free pregnancy test. But some, whom I will never forget, where hurting, and scared, and desperately wanted to keep the baby, but didn't know how to make it work. They reminded me so much of myself at nineteen, pregnant, unmarried and scared to death , when I too had to walk in to a crisis pregnancy center because I couldn't even afford the ten dollar test. I remember the feelings of fear, hurt, and joy that you experience all at the same time when you find out your are expecting a VERY unplanned ill-timed pregnancy.
So I would comfort these women, and tell them about resources in the area who can help them with food, housing, and medical care. Then I would take them to the back room and give them maternity clothes so they could finally get out of their size 5 jeans that are being held together by a rubber band. I wanted so badly for them to know the love and peace of God. The peace that I had found. That is, in every area BUT children. My husband had a vasectomy when our second was only 2 weeks old. We loved the freedom that came with unprotected sex with no complications of having to deal with another pregnancy.
As I look back now I am filled with shame over my hypocrisy. Had any one of those women looked at me and asked "Do you trust God to take care of you if you get pregnant?". I would not have been able to answer.
Thank God that he has shown me the folly of my thinking in that area.
Some people reading this may think my judgments are harsh upon women unwilling to bear any more children for God. But the opposite is true. I RELATE! I remember the decision to get that vasectomy. I remember being sick my whole pregnancy, I remember my husband and I fighting so much, we walked the edge of divorce on more occasions than I could count. I remember feeling like, "I cannot do this again!"
But it was earthly, temporary and drenched in fear, not faith. It would not stay that way for long. Soon God would grow me and teach me to trust in Him. Soon my barren womb would cry out for life, only to be told every month, NO. My husband would also come under the same conviction and reverse what we had done.
I sit here now, 2 years after that reversal with no child to hold, no baby for my womb to nourish and grow, as it begs me each month to do. I grieve as all the women before me have grieved over infertility. Only mine was self inflicted. Fertility was a gift that I took for granted. Something I once had, but we broke.
BUT AT LEAST now I can say honestly to any woman who asks, I am pro-life. I will welcome any child God chooses to give me. And if you choose not to raise your child, I will gladly welcome that child into my home also.
In closing I say with love, don't just be pro-life in your politics.....be pro-life in your homes.
Kids Room.
OK, so a while back (about a year and a half ago) I typed out a post about how great it was for kids to share a room. I still think its great, and I think it teaches a lot about life when they do. However, a few months after that post was written we moved into a MUCH larger house that had 4 bedrooms (and only four people in our family). So we decided this would be a good time to let the kids have their own bedrooms. They did, they enjoyed it.......it didn't last long. Before we knew it (9 months later) we were moving again and this time from a 2000 square foot house with a garage, to a 1000 square foot apartment with two bedrooms. Needless to say the transition from sharing to not sharing, is way easier then not sharing to sharing. Did that make any sense what so ever? Probably not. What I am saying is that "stuff" accumulates when you have a whole room to fill. But when you try and take two filled rooms and attempt to condense that into one small room, things have to go. We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff and in the end the kids room ended up looking halfway decent instead of cluttered with things exploding out of every crevice. Although I do have to say the room does hold a remarkable amount of "stuff".
So how do you do it? Very carefully :)
And since the two who are sharing are opposites in gender, one got to put flowers on the wall.......
And the other got to put dinosaur stickers on the door. See, Mom's can solve all the worlds big problems.
