Today, the sermon at church was focused on Matthew 19:13-15 and the topic of children.  I was so excited for this message because the focus of so much of my time, is in fact, children. A brief overview of the main points of today included Jesus' love for and focus on the importance of children and how we need to be aware to not lessen the value of these humble, wide-eyed, pride-less beings.  We are all born sinful and need the love of Jesus and children are no exception.  From catechism to family worship nights to bible studies with our children; these things are of so much more value than television shows and sports games. We have such a small amount of time with our children and it is gone in the blink of an eye. I for one, do not want to be one who regrets the faith I have instilled in them.  That being said, I left feeling very proud of the job Cory and I are doing as parents. Even the resources our pastor mentioned are ones we have in the home and I know at the end of every day that even though I am far from a perfect parent, they are in a home where they are praying often, learning about Jesus and learning what love is all the time.  Cory has done an amazing job being a spiritual leader in our home and we both know there is always more ways to improve and improve in this area. 
But then it hit me... yes, my children hear bible stories on the regular, yes we pray before bedtime and meals and in between, yes we do devotionals every night and worship nights often and yes they live in a home where they see two parents who love eachother and their kids and work daily at making this all happen but they also have a mother who has put so much focus on these things along with their meals, daily activities, art projects and all the chaos of motherhood that she has forgotten to nourish her own soul more often than not.  Most days I am running so hard and fast to keep up with my family that by the time bedtime comes, I am dozed off before the boys are even into a rem cycle yet. Naptimes consist of laundry, dishes, couponing and the like that the Bible or even time for prayer is nowhere near my mind.
In my attempt to become the exemplary mother, I have become the opposite, even a fake if you will.  Yes, I can talk all day long and read bible stories until my voice is gone but what I am doing with my life is going to speak volumes and volumes louder than any of this! How I treat people, how I speak of people behind closed doors, the television shows I watch, the books I chose to read and every other area of my life is what is going to have major impact, especially if it doesn't coincide with what I am teaching them daily.  When my children enter Heaven's gates at the end of their lives, I want to be there waiting for them.  I want my husband and I to be open-armed and full of joy at their arrival and in order for this to happen we need to be putting God at the focus of every area of our lives, even as tough as it is for us moms who want to make everyone else's life great and tend to forget ourselves. 
Today's message was an eye-opener for me in a completely different way than maybe our pastor intended, but exactly in the way that God has intended for it to be.  Let us not forget what we are here on this earth for and what a blessing these children are even in the most difficult of times.

ART!

We recently redecorated our master bedroom and I could not find any art for the wall we face when in bed. Everything seemed to have either quotes I find tacky or was just plain boring and ugly. I decided there is nothing more I would like to look at than family art! Above are the boys small canvases they painted. Cory and I have yet to paint ours but I have great ideas! Rocklyn's painting is the left canvas and Ryder's the right. I was super impressed at both of them but especially at Ryder's ability at 1 year old.
After we finished the canvases we let them finger paint on cardstock paper with paints and karo syrup. It was so messy but they loved it. Ryder ended up picking up his paper and licking the paint syrup mixture up because, well, it's Ryder and if he can eat it he will lol.

Here is Rocklyn painting who is always so precise and not one for messiness. He prefers the paintbrushes over his hands by far!

It was so fun and the canvases are something that brightens me up whenever I look at them!

More Paula Please

I was walking around a local bookstore recently and was browsing as the boys continued to pull books off the shelves and send the cashier into a mild panic attack and before I headed to the cash register with some Yo GabbaGabba coloring books I kept being drawn back to Paula Deen's Memoir "It Ain't All About the Cookin'". I was almost embarassed to even check out the back of it because, having never watched the show, I had this opinion of the woman formed in my head.
So, I put it back on the shelf for the fourth time and headed towards the register and as the man scanned my last book I made him wait and ran back to grab this book. I swear it was as if I did not have control over it, I just had to have this book for some reason.

I now must say, this woman is like a soulmate I have never met! You know those very few people who come into your life and you just know they are meant to be a part of you forever? That is how I felt after getting to know Miss Paula in this book. I actually took such a long time reading this book because I never wanted it to end.

I am amazed to learn how she suffered from agoraphobia for more than 20 years and yet became this cooking superstar with more personality than most. She was tired of where she found herself in life and gave it her all and made her dreams come true. Not only her dreams, but beyond anything she could imagine. Miss Paula's book came into my life in a time when I needed this most and her honesty in this book is appaling and much appreciated as she reveals family fights, sex advice and more.

All this being said, I got a big slap in the face to never judge a book by its cover because this woman I once assumed to be an annoying, loudmouth slob is now a woman to admire and I hope Cory will bring me down to visit her restaurant the Lady and Sons this year and maybe get a chance to meet the Lady herself! Highly recommend this woman's story as I now feel she has a place in my heart forever.

STORY BOARDS

A quick and easy learning tool I have been putting together for my kids

is finally complete!

Cookie sheet learning story boards!

A very simple use is to learn counting and alphabet with magnets without having to be at the fridge with a distracted child!

Rocklyn is up to counting to five now and we are working on letters!

Another great activity for the cookie sheet learning boards is laminated photos with magnets on the back!

We use these to learn animals by their names or by the sounds they make to identify.

We live far from all of our family and so these laminated photos are great to learn and remember the names of people and we use people we know as characters in stories we make up!


I found background photos in magazines, such as a window in a kitchen or a beach. I put the boys or people they know into a story such as Great Grandma visited us and surprised us at the kitchen window with her dog and cat! I also have photos of knights and footballs and more to let my kids use their own imagination and to provide visuals to our make believe stories!

When I was young, I had a great imagination and I want my children to develop (and maintain!!!) this too and I think story boards are an excellent way to do this!

Two New Favorites

For my vegetarian friends, here are two recipes that have been delicious and simple as can be in our home over the past few weeks:

CHILI WITH TEMPEH:
SOAK KIDNEY BEANS OVERNIGHT. PAN-FRY CUT UP PIECES OF TEMPEH AND ADD TO BEANS, TOMATO SAUCE, CORN, TOMATO PASTE AND ANY OTHER VIEGGIES YOU WOULD ENJOY! SIMMER FOR 25 MINUTES, STIRRING THROUGHOUT AND TOP WITH SOUR CREAM AND CHEESE.

STIR FRY WITH TOFU:

PAN-FRY TOFU IN CUBES WITH OLIVE OIL. COOK BROWN RICE, STEAM BROCCOLI, CARROTS, SNAP-PEAS, PEAS AND OTHER VEGGIES YOU ENJOY. MIX ALL TOGETHER AND LET SIMMER WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF WATER AND SOY SAUCE AND VOILA!

SIMPLE AND QUICK!!!!

Growing Deeper With Christ

Lately I have been running in to so many incidents with fellow Christians and people in my life. I have had so many things said to me that have hurt me more deeply than I have been by words before and have been brought to a place emotionally that I do not like to be. I have been asking God and searching for why these incidents have been brought before me all in such a small period of time. I have been struggling with not wanting to attend church lately and wanting to close up into my home with just my family and avoid the outside world even. Through these trials I began by rejecting Christ and closing off and have slowly turned to embracing my love for and relationship with Him more than ever before. Three weeks ago I could not even pay attention to the message on Sundays and fidgeted in my seat the whole time and a few weeks later I am more in a state of worship on Sundays than ever before. I stayed awake praying the other night and it hit me that this was the plan all along. I was putting more emphasis on the church and works than on Christ Himself. Somehow I had slipped into this pattern and this thought process that the church was there to somehow fulfill what only God can. Our church is a wonderful place but it is full of sinful people as are all churches and is not there to fill in you what only God can. I had to realign my faith and my thoughts back to what they originally were and realize this in order to grow deeper with Christ and to understand why I was feeling so down about those I was surrounded with. So I challenge you to take a step back and re-evaluate where you are standing in your faith and where you are putting your need for fulfillment... is it with church? family? a job? Or is it where it is supposed to be, in God?

Mother Knows Best

We grew our children inside our bodies and we know them as we know ourselves. God has blessed us with a mother's instinct that goes far above and beyond what any doctor, teacher or relative can tell us about our children. Rocklyn has been struggling with a severe cough and wheezing for almost a year now and it has been a battle. Since the early stages I knew it was asthma and have been spending months trying to tell pediatricians otherwise yet no one would listen and kept prescribing antibiotics (of which the prescriptions would end up ripped up in the trash after the second one had not worked). It recently got to a point that I became so angry with thesee doctors that I demanded they see him immediately and diagnose this. God answered my prayers big time with a new pediatrician who spent five minutes with us and knew it was clear to see he is asthma. He now has to do two breathing treatments a day and has an emergency inhaler and in just three days it has turned around tremendously!

The point of my writing this is to give mothers and women an encouragement to trust their instincts. God speaks to us and gives us a gift that doctors do not possess and while they may be more educated, when we feel something is wrong we are more than likely right. While pregnant with Ryder, I continuously told my obgyn that my uterus was ripping open and she kept writing off what I was saying. I called I made extra appointments and I knew what was happening to my body yet she ignored it. I had a c-section two weeks before my due date and thank God I did because my uterus had ripped open and if I had gone into labor it would have ruptured and Ryder and I would have bled to death almost immediately.

As women, we possess powers that we need to trust and have amazing capabilities so whether it is second opinions or taking matters into your own hands, sometimes it must be done. Trust yourself.