the most precious thing, ever November 25, 2008

When Sophia was just a few months old and we talked about having another baby soon people were a little stunned – and that’s an understatement. Why would we want another time-consuming, money-consuming, wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-creature so soon after having one. We even got advice that it was not fair to your first child to have another baby before the first was 3 years old. Well we had many reasons why we wanted another baby so soon – but I see the wisdom of our choice most of all in how good of friends our girls are. They do fight over things on occasion everyday – but they also have the most tender moments that I sometimes catch on film digital picture card.

This morning when Ellie woke up we brought her into our bed to cuddle for a while. Often times she will just lay between us, other times she will crawl right into our arms on top of us. This morning when she heard Sophia awake she quickly lowered herself off of our bed and all I heard was quiet for the next 5 minutes. Very unusual. Our girls normally wake up with lots of energy. So, being curious, I got up and peeked into their bedroom. This is what I found.

They really do love each other more than any other siblings I have seen. They are not perfect and they do fight – but it never prevents them from still loving each other and having these tender moments. Giving Sophia a constant friend was the best thing we have done for her (besides of course sharing Jesus with her).

Compassion bloggers November 6, 2008

If anybody has been paying attention to by blog the past few days, particularly my links, they will have noticed my newest link is to Compassion International. I love this organization. During a mission conference at Briercrest a representative was there with the profiles of many children awaiting sponsorship. I looked through each one wondering about the lives of these children; if they had enough to eat, or a warm clean house to live in, or access to an education. How could I chose just one? But I did. I chose a little boy from Honduras. That was eight years ago. Through the years I/we have gone through periods of unemployment, one income – sometimes not much more than minimum wage. God has always provided enough for us to give to our little guy. What we gave was but a small portion of our income – what was given to Luis was much more priceless.

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Compassion is an organization that understands both needs of children and families; physical and spiritual sustenance and provision. With the $32 monthly donation the child is provided with access to an education, better food, and health care. This is all done through local churches where the children are also taught the gospel. When you sponsor a child you also get to correspond with your child. In the letters that I get from Luis he is always full of praises to God, and always tells me he loves me and is praying for me. Sponsorship through Compassion really is priceless!

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This week several sponsors are visiting families, children and communities where Compassion has impacted and blogging about it. It is well worth the ten or fifteen minutes it will take out of your day to check out some of these links and read about the work of Compassion – to be convinced if you are not already that sponsorship does make a difference. In many cases, an eternal one.

A Tale of Two Houses – by The Pioneer Woman’s Husband, Marlboro Man

When Need and Ability Collide – by Brian Seay at A Simple Journey

Yes We Can – by Shaun Groves at Shlog: Section B

Dominican Diaries: Day 3 – by Challies Jr

Domincan Republic – God’s Hidden Gifts – by Challies.com

A Room Full of Hope – by Mary at Owlhaven

Thirty-two dollars AND . . . – by Jennifer at 5 minutes for Mom

The Irony is that I’m eating Oreos right now – by Melanie at Big Mama

“She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20

Fall November 5, 2008

Last Thursday the trees in front of our house looked like this; the very tops with just a hint of fall. Just four short days later . . .

the trees are brilliantly yellow and orange! I’ve never really observed how quickly the trees change but with these two beautiful massive trees in our front yard. Apparently other people in our neighborhood also appreciate these trees too. Yesterday I got a knock on our door while the girls were napping. It was a couple with their children asking if they could take some pictures in our front yard! Certainly if they could go to all that trouble I could throw some clothes on the girls, wash their faces, comb their hair and mosey on outside for some pictures of our own.

Of course, 4 o’clock on an empty stomach right after a nap is not the best time for pictures, but I was motivated! Another few days and the trees will be bare naked . . . and that would not be appropriate for family pics.

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I put this one of Ellie up on facebook and I struggled to come up with a suitable caption. Within seconds Leah commented with a line from “The Sound of Music”: “the hills are alive, with the sound of music”. Very appropriate.

My beautiful family!

And just to keep it real – Ellie with her finger up her nose. I challenge anyone with a two year old to get through a photo session without a photo a little nose-picking. I think I’ll frame this one.

A menu plan, finally! November 3, 2008

For the past few months, since moving back to Alabama, I have been faithfully writing a weekly menu plan. I got thrown of track when my family came to visit because of all the eating out, and driving to and fro. The week after my Mom left I was in a funk and we ate, but I also made too many trips to the grocery store. Finally, today, I made a menu plan! I always do it in my hand drawn chart with 3x 7 columns. I am not going to recreate that here so I will just share our breakfasts and suppers.

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UPDATED WITH LINKS FOR RECIPES

Breakfasts

Stone ground oats and banana

Whole wheat blueberry pancakes with cinnamon cream syrup

Pumpkin muffins

Yogurt (homemade) smoothies – blueberry, raspberry, banana

Cold cereal

Suppers

Paste e Fagioli soup and corn bread

Turkey Burgers on whole wheat rolls and butternut squash oven fries

Ham and Potato soup with whole wheat biscuits, fruit

Pork chops, rice pilaf, oven roasted brocolli

Sassy Sausage and Black bean soup and corn bread

Spaghetti Pie and butternut squash oven fries

Pizza or Calzones

With Christmas coming up, hopefully we can stick to our menu’s and save money for gifts!