Testimony Tuesday - God's Answer

A while back I had asked you all to pray about something that was on my heart.  Well, God answered that prayer.  He said, “No.”  or at least, “Not right now.”  God does that sometimes.  But no is still an answer and I am ok with that.  For the time being, that door has been shut. 

 

I do believe that God has a different adventure ahead for our family.  Something very similar, and possibly a little more within arm’s reach at the time being.  I’m very excited about this as well, and of course, praying about it.  Will you pray with us?  I know I’m being vague, and it’s probably driving some of you crazy, but I don’t want to rush ahead prematurely if we don’t even know if it’s right for us yet.  I hope you understand. 

This morning while I was reading to the children we came across a verse in Psalms that I just love!  It really fits with what I’m talking about above.  

Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

-         Psalm 37: 3-4

I was so excited when I read that!  How fitting!  I know what I want, but more importantly, I need to know what God wants.  I need to trust Him and while I’m waiting to hear from Him, I’m supposed to be doing good, as in service to my family, to others, following God’s word and reading it, etc. etc.  I believe through this verse that God is instructing me to “sit tight” (dwell in the land) and everyday be filled with (feed on) His faithfulness and steadfastness.  I love the fact that when God says He is going to do something, He does it.  The end.  That’s why we call Him faithful.  So, until the time is just right in God’s eyes, I’m going to continue on delighting myself in Him, counting my blessings, seeking after a heart filled with joy and thanksgiving, studying His word and living it out before others (especially my husband and children), and just being excited about every little or huge thing that He does in my life and the lives of those around me.  I’m going to wait patiently until He answers or prayer, and, hopefully, gives us the desire of our hearts.  :]

Circle Time - *Something I Made Monday!*

I just want to say this before we get started... I love watching the snow out the window right now.  It's very snowy.. and pretty :]  Ok, Ok, Ok.. let's get to it!

Something I Made Monday!!!

Circle Time Board

 This is so much fun.  Something I love to do and the children adore it.  I learned a few tips and tricks while I was in high school volunteering for a club called "Future Teachers of America".  I got to help out in a Kindergarten classroom and learned a lot myself. 

Circle Time is a scheduled part of our day where we go over the calendar (the current day of the week, month, date, and year).  We also do songs, the weather, Bible verse memorization, and read a Bible story during this time.  Before we start, to let the children know it's time for Circle Time, I start singing a song I made up while doing day care, but it stuck with me.  Circle Time, Circle Time.  Grab a mat and have a seat.  It's Circle Time!!  We repeat that a few times until everyone has grabbed a pillow off the couch and is sitting down.

How To:
          The fun thing about this project is.. you can do WHATEVER you want!  And you can make it HOWEVER you want!  For ours, I used a tri-fold presentation board from Hobby Lobby.  It's very sturdy and folds up.  When we're done, we fold it up and put it away.  The end.  The children know that our Circle Time board is not a toy, although it's very tempting because it's pretty fun!  I'll go more in depth on how I made each section of the board below.

Here are some close-up photos along with descriptions of what we do and how we do it:

 The calendar itself is made of a large piece of poster board.  I drew the lines on with a ruler and king size sharpie marker.  Be sure to make enough squares for those few months where the calendar that hangs on your wall has to split the day to get both to fit in the space.  Does that make sense?  Anyway.. you have to make more than just 31 squares.  There, how's that.  I "laminated" the calendar with packaging tape.  (Just an FYI.. I cover almost everything that I make that's going to be handled a lot with packaging tape.  I don't have a laminating machine, and really have no desire to buy one, but this preserves our things for a long time.)  Place a piece of sticky back velcro on each calendar space AFTER you've laminated it.  I like to put the rough, scratchy side on the board so the pieces that we actually touch have the soft side on the back.  I printed out my days on the computer and cut them out into squares.  I laminated those also.  I use a star to show what day we're on that day (also laminated).  You'll have to place velcro on the front and back of the star.  It's just a helpful visual aid for children.  Above the blue calendar I typed out all the days of the week and taped them on.  I traced around the area where our month goes with the king size marker.  There is velcro to hold our month in place as well. 

These are all the months of the year.  I cut them all out by hand on cardstock paper from my scrapbooking supplies.  I tried to pick colors and themes that went with the month.  January has snowflakes, November has leaves, etc. etc.  These are also laminated and have a strip of soft velcro on the backsides.  When we're talking about the months, we sing the song I learned to memorize them while I was in 1st grade.  It goes to the tune of Jingle Bells.  January, February, March, April, May!  June, July, Au-gust, Sep-tem-ber, HEY!  October, November, De--cem-ber.  Those are the twelve months of the year that we need to know!!  It works.  Roen already has them memorized.  Everything is always easier to remember if you can put it into a song! 

This is how we learn what day of the week it is.  We go across the board above the blue calendar and we say, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat-ur-Day.  When we come to the star on the calendar, we know we're on the right day.  So I'll stop when we get to that point and let the children answer what the day is.  For each day of the week we say one of these:  Mountain, Monday starts with M.  M makes the mmmm sound.  Toe, Tuesday starts with T.  T makes the tuh-tuh-tuh sound.  We, Wednesday starts with W.  W makes the wuh-wuh-wuh sound.  Thunder, Thursday starts with T-H.  T-H makes the thh-thh-thh sound.  Fun, Friday starts with F.  F makes the ffff-ffff-ffff sound.  Silly, Saturday (Or Sunday) starts with S.  S makes the ssssss sound.  When we get to "Yesterday was:"  we say, "Yesterday is the day BEFORE today."  And I can point to the space BEFORE the yellow star on the calendar.  For "Tomorrow will be:"  we say, "Tomorrow is the day AFTER today."  and point to the space AFTER today on the calendar. 

These are all the days of the week.  Once again, all cut out by hand and all laminated with packaging tape with soft sticky velcro on the backside.

 This space changes every week.  We try to memorize one hymn a week from our song book.  This week we'll be working on Nothing But the Blood of Jesus song #269.  We also try to learn an easier song for Audrey.  This week we'll be working on Deep & Wide, one of Roen's favorites.  This space is made of Dry-Erase Paper.  That's right!!  You can get it at Hobby Lobby in the art department.  I think I paid $1.99 or close to that for like 3 or 4 sheets.  This one I cut because I didn't need a full sheet of the paper for this space.  You can write on it with dry erase markers and erase it as often as you like.  It's cool stuff.  I used a sheet of cardstock to make a boarder around the dry erase paper. 

To the tune of Oh, My Darlin'.  What's the weather?  What's the weather?  What's the wea-ther, everyone?  Is it windy?  Is it cloudy?  Is there rain?  Or is there sun?  Wave your hands in front of you like the wind is blowing, cover your eyes like it's cloudy, trickle your fingers down like it's raining, and circle your arms over your head like it's sunny.  We look out the window and we see what the weather is doing outside that day.  This day it is cloudy, snowy, and windy.  After we put them on the board we like to say, "Hi, Cloudy!  Hi, Snowy!  Hi, Windy!"  Just for fun ;]
These are all cut by hand, laminated, and velcroed. 

 These are our choices for weather:  partly cloudy, snowy, windy, rainy, cloudy, and sunny.  Am I forgetting anything?

 In this section we write our current Bible verse that we're memorizing.  We usually keep the same verse for two weeks because some are longer, some are shorter, and it usually takes Roen this long to fully get it memorized, along with the reference.  Our verse is "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." The words of Jesus from John 14:18.  This is also made of dry erase paper.  I think I used a full sheet here.

 This is our cute pointer that I picked up at Dollar Tree.  I use it to point to things on the calendar.  It's fun.  :] 

 

I have some empty space on our Circle Time board that I'd like to fill, I'm just not sure what to put there.  Any suggestions?  I hope everyone takes the time to make one of these.  You can get as crazy or as simple as you'd like!  But I believe your children will really benefit from it, and it's a really fun way to learn basic things that they'll need to know for school.  You can do like I did and add your own extra learning bits in there.  Whatever you believe to be necessary and valuable to your child's education.  It takes us about 30 minutes to get through everything.  We have this scheduled into our day.  I hope you'll schedule it into yours!! :-D

Could really use some encouragement..

Today we could really use your prayers.  We're just a young family trying to do what's right in God's eyes.  We don't claim to be perfect... we're far from it actually.  We're just trying to raise our children, love each other, honor the Lord, and enjoy our short time together, but sometimes people try their very best to bring you down.  I won't go into details because it's not necessary.  I would just like to ask everyone to please, whenever you think of us, please uphold us in prayer.  It amazes me the things we've been through as a family in the last 6 months and how God has been very faithful to us, even when we've failed to be faithful to Him.  But sometimes just a little thing can throw a big wrench in our day and just really sour our attitudes and scatter our vision.  Sometimes it can be hard to get back on course, but God is very gentle and loving and helps us regain our footing.  I'm so thankful He's there to catch me when I stumble.  And I must be very clumsy because I do that a lot!

Today Derek and I got to go alone to get our taxes done.  We do this in the small town of Rowan, IA.  Tax time is always an exciting time of the year!  :]  Grandma Kerri and the girls spent the afternoon with the children for us.  She took some adorable pictures of Hannah.  I had to steal them and repost!

Just the sweetest little girl ever!  SO smiley!  She makes her mommie and daddy proud.  So do Brother and Sissy :] 

Funny story.  Audrey was going potty on the toilet when daddy got home.  I had every intention of putting a diaper on her when she was done, but hey, we were rushed and it's not a good idea to distract a momma.  After we dropped the children off at Grandma's about 15 minutes later, I got a call from my mother-in-law and she said, "You guys must think you're really funny!"  I said, "What do you mean?"  She said, "Ethan (one of Derek's brothers) was holding Audrey and she peed all over him!  She wasn't wearing a diaper!" bahahaaaaa!!  Sorry, Ethan!  My bad! ;] 

After taxes we did a little running in Mason City so I could pick up some supplies.  I've got gooood news!  I'll be sharing very soon.  ;]  Another fun opportunity the Lord has provided!

I hope everyone is well and counting your blessings every day.  We all have so much to be thankful for, really.  Let's all strive to praise God for every THING He gives us.  Let's look at every situation, circumstance, whatever and find SOMETHING in it for which we can give thanks to God!  If we truly want our hearts to be full of joy, we have to start with giving thanks for all things.  The key to changing your thoughts is by first changing your heart, and we can do that by filling it with things we're thankful for.  Hope this makes sense!!  Remember, Think Thankful Thoughts!! ;]

My Baby Brother

My Step mom just sent this to me.  I wanted everyone to see so you could get a little glimpse of my brother.  It's very hard for me to watch.  I miss him so much.  Just click on his name and it will take you to a different webpage.

Taylor Ryan Carr 

Parable of the Talents

I’m going to start something new.  On Tuesdays I’d like to post about something God has been showing me lately, either through His word – The Bible, or through answered prayers.

This morning during Children’s Church we had a really good devotional.  Roen remembered that recently somebody jokingly told him that when her child was naughty, she put her in a cage.   I asked him if he thought naughty children should be put in cages.  He said yes.  I told him no, because children are not animals, children are gifts from God.  Then I quoted Psalm 127 to him, “Lo, children are an heritage from the LORD…” 

Then I remembered the parable of the talents that Jesus shared.  Here it is:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. "And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. "Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. "And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. "But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money. "After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. "So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' "He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.' "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' "But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 'So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 'Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' (Matthew 25:14-30 NKJV)

I likened this parable to God giving us children.  The talents, a piece of money in Bible times, I likened to children that God has given to us and commanded us to look after, nurture, teach, and train them to recognize and answer their God-given desire and love to serve Him.  It says in the parable that God gives to us “to each according to his own ability.”  God would never give you more than you can handle, and that also goes for children.  Whether God gives you 5 children, 2, or 1, you are responsible for the nurture and admonition of that child.  They are not ours, just like the money, but they are His.  We are simply stewards of them, until He calls them back to Himself, and He will.  He expects us to have something to give back to Him, just like the master expected his money back plus more.  I think sometimes we forget how fragile life is and how short it can be for some.  We think that the children we have are ours forever.  We never know when their time will come, when God will call them back to Himself.  Just like the servants had no idea when the master would return and ask for an account of his money.  What will we have done with our children that would be pleasing to God – the Master??  Will we have let them go, do their own thing, raise themselves while we seek after our own selfish desires?  Will someone else have raised them for us?  Will we have taught them Truth?  Or will we have filled them with the world’s lies?  Will we have taught them to multiply by loving and serving others, and spreading the love of Jesus Christ?  Or will we have taught them to sit and stagnate by loving themselves above all else?  Nowadays the world is so set on me, me, me.  That is not God’s plan for His children.  He expects us to take what He has given freely and to spread, and spread, and grow, and grow.  Above all else, He expects us to teach our children His commandments, and to teach them about the selfish desires we are all born with, and how His Son, Jesus Christ, was born very humbly as a baby, lived a life free of sin, and willingly was nailed to a cross, a very gruesome and painful death, and had the wrath of God poured out on Him, when it was supposed to be poured out on us.  His own Father in Heaven had to turn His face away from His only Son while He suffered and died because the sins that He bore that day on that cross where too horrible for a Holy and Just God to look upon. 

Now, when the weight of this hit me, 5 years ago, it hit hard.  My eyes were opened and I realized that Jesus died for ME…  He took the place where I should have been.  He bore the sins that I would commit, even though I wouldn’t be born for another nearly 2000 years.  He also died for YOU and He bore the sins you would commit.  And He bore the sins of your mother, and your father, and your children, and your friends, and you cousins, and your grandparents, and your aunts and uncles, and your neighbors, and the guy you saw at Wal-Mart whose name you don’t even know, and the man living in the jungles of Africa, and the terrorists in Al Qaeda, and the gay man and the lesbian, and the atheist college student, and the abortionist at the Planned Parenthood Clinic, and so on and so on and so on.  Every human being that has ever been conceived…Jesus Christ died that that person might live.  Not just in this life, but for eternity in Heaven.  Do you realize that we’re all going  to one of two places when we die?  There is no third option.  It’s Heaven or Hell, my friends.  And God has given some very clear instructions on how we can avoid what awaits those who have rejected His Son.  We are not commanded to worship Jesus just to avoid Hell.. we’re commanded to worship Jesus because  He alone is worthy of our worship!!!

  

What would you prefer?  To lay down your life for… Buddha?   What has Buddha done for you?  Does he give you your every breathe?  Did he create the heavens and the earth and everything in between?  Does he freely offer his life as a ransom for your own?  No, he does none of those things for you.  Would you rather lay down your life for.. the environment?  And worship the creation rather than the Creator?  How about.. sports?  Because athletes have proven to be of very high character and deserving of praise for the things they can do.  But wait, weren’t they GIVEN those wonderful abilities that they are paid big bucks to show off?  How about… politics?  Because..  politicians and their personal agendas have no flaws. 

Consider this..  Jesus Christ.  Humble and lowly.  Of a meek and gentle spirit.  Sinless.  A part of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Love in the flesh.  Have you ever considered that, but for Jesus Christ, we wouldn’t know what love is?  He was betrayed by one of His own disciples for you.  He was humiliated and stripped of His clothing in front of many for you.  He was beaten and had His beard ripped out for you.  He had a crown of thorns pressed into His head for you.  He was whipped until the flesh on His back was flayed off and then forced to carry a large wooden cross for you.  He was laid on his back on that cross with His hands and feet stretched out for you.  He received nails, more like stakes, into those same hands and feet for you.  He was lifted into the air to hang on that cross for you.  He was forced to support His weight on those feet with stakes hammered through them has He struggled for every suffocating breath for you.  He was forced to look down on His mother, crying in agony for her Son, as He suffered a very slow and agonizing death for you.  He watched as the sky turned completely black in the middle of the day and He knew that His Father, God in Heaven, had turned His face away from His son for you.  As He hung on that cross, He bore all your sin, for you.  And after nine hours of this torture, He cried out “It is finished.”  And He died for you.  And Satan smiled.  And all those who loved Him wept.  And He was placed in a tomb to rot.  But… Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him from rising again for you.  He defeated death so you would never have to know it.  After three days He ascended from the tomb and was seen by many hundreds of people.  He revisited His disciples and told them to tell the world of His love and of His payment for their debt.  He did this for you.  He offers His life for yours, free of charge.  Every other religion this world has to offer requires much from you.  All He asks for is obedience.  Lay down your life and take His.  I did it.  How about you?

Club Roll-Ups & Tootie Frootie Salad - Something I Made Monday RECIPE

Occasionally, I will slip in a tasty recipe as my "Something I Made".  This is what we had for supper tonight. It was fun to make and very filling!!  I doubled the recipe, but it turns out I didn't need to -- we couldn't eat it all!  I hope everyone gets a chance to try this and I hope you enjoy it when you do! :]

**  Club Roll-Ups **

Ingredients:

                   2 cups baking mix

                   1/4 cup water

                   1 egg

                   4 sticks mozzarella string cheese

                   8 slices thinly sliced cooked ham 

                   8 slices thinly sliced cooked turkey 

                   honey mustard and mayonnaise

                   1 tablespoon milk

*Makes 4 servings

I get all my ingredients at Aldi's.  We love that store so much!  I don't know what I would do without it!  Just wanted to add this photo .. I love the company they buy eggs from.  On the inside of every carton they include the Bible verse from Psalm 118:24 "This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

How to:

1.)  Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, stir together baking mix, water and egg until dough forms.  On a surface sprinkled with baking mix, knead the dough about 10 times.  Divide the dough into fourths.  It should look like the photo below, but remember, I doubled my recipe.

2.)  Place a piece of dough on surface sprinkled with baking mix.  Press or roll into a rectangle shape.  In a small bowl, combine honey mustard and mayonnaise to make a sauce.

3.)  Spread each dough rectangle with the sauce.  Wrap each cheese stick with the ham and turkey slices.  Place the bundle lengthwise on one end of the dough and wrap it up; pinch to seal.  Pinch ends and tuck under.  Place the rolls seam side down on an ungreased baking sheet.  Brush tops with milk.

4.)  Bake 18-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!! :-D

We enjoyed this with some seasoned french fries, a simple lettuce salad, and my Tootie Frootie Salad.  It's a 

salad that I just threw together one day, but it's so good!  All the ingredients compliment each other so well!  You'll love it!

** Tootie Frootie Salad **

Ingredients:

                  2 cans mandarin oranges, drained

                  2 bananas

                  strawberries

                  whipped topping, thawed

                  fruit-flavored mini marshmallows

How To:

1.)   Drain the mandarin oranges in a strainer.  Let them sit while you prepare the rest of the salad to make sure as much liquid drains as possible.

2.)  Slice the bananas and strawberries.  

3.)  In a cute serving bowl, combine all the fruit.  Spoon whipped topping onto the fruit and stir.  Add enough topping so the fruit is all covered.  

4.)  Add the fruit-flavored marshmallows on top.  Stir them into the salad and add more, as needed.    Serve chilled.  Try and eat this without smiling, I dare you!! ;]

                 

Fav Finds/Week of Photos

Yesterday I got to enjoy my solo shopping trip.  I needed it so badly.  I got a very late start, so I had to rush, rush, rush to get my grocery shopping and Hobby Lobby shopping done before they closed at 8pm.  My mom met me while getting groceries, and after stopping at a couple places we ate supper together at her fav restaurant, Culver's.  We got to eat super cheap because I had a coupon for "buy 1 basket, get a 2nd free" and she had a $5 gift card.  Our total came to a whopping $2.21!!!  Cheap date!  It was nice to sit and talk. Hi, mom ;]

After supper (we left the restaurant at 10pm... bahahaha) we parted ways.  The only place left I could go was Wal-Mart because everywhere else was closed.  Bum bum bummer!  Oh well.  I did enjoy my time out, even though it was very fast paced.  I'm not built for speed.  I think I might have snail blood running through my veins.  My mom would definitely agree to that.

******* FAV FINDS!!! *******

It's that time again!  I don't have a whole lot to share because I didn't get to hit up many stores this trip.  But I did find a few fun things!!

I love this table-top chalkboard easel that I got at Hobby Lobby.
I'm going to use it for something I'm planning to do this summer.
I'll keep you posted when I have more details! :]

This is Key Lime cookie mix AND frosting.
I got it for my mother-in-law because she loves key lime!

I got these for Aunt Carol.  I think she'll get a kick out of them!!
She HATES peas!!
These are orange sherbet and green apple flavor.
This way she can finally say she ate peas and LIKED them! ;]

Today we got a visit from Grandma Muriel and my brother-in-law, Austin, who is moving to Denver, CO soon.  :[  We got to visit all afternoon while Derek was doing afternoon chores at work and then we ordered pizza for supper.  We'll be sad to see you go, Austin!  But now we get to come see you in Denver!!! :D

How about some photos of the fam?!?!  Ok, why not!! ;]

Here is our positive pregnancy test from last Sunday night.
We always try to take a pic.
Very unfortunately, this pregnancy ended on Wednesday due to a miscarriage :[
(see the blog post "Sad News :[")

We helped celebrate our niece, Cammie's, 9th birthday!
Hard to believe she's already 9!
We love you, Cam!

Hannah Grace being adorable.

Trying her out in the highchair.  She's so itty bitty! 

Great Grandma Muriel and Hannah