Praying the Psalms

A blog I like to read because it speaks peace into my heart is hosting Praying the Psalms on the weekends. I've decided to join her. I think she may have started in the beginning but this Psalm is speaking to my heart today. (I also love how she formatted her prayer so you'll have to forgive me copying that--I just think it adds a little something.) *wink, grin*

Psalm 61

Father, I so need You to hear me--to know You are listening to me. I know that You do and am so grateful that You notice me. I feel like I am at the end of the my world calling out to You. You are my strength, my rock, my protection. You gave me these verses long ago when I needed them and they have stuck with me all these years. Thank You for providing them. You bring them back to me every time I need them. 

I long for your presence--to be with you forever. It seems I've prayed a million times, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." I want the peace of Your presence--the joy of having my last tear wiped away and being in Your house for all of eternity.

You heard my prayer all those years ago as a small child and accepted me. Thank You--thank You for making me Yours. Thank You for the beautiful heritage that comes from being adopted into Your heavenly family.

You call me to pray for those in leadership over me. I pray for our president. I pray that he will make decisions for our country that will glorify You. I pray that you will protect his life, send Your love and faithfulness to fill his life and home. Draw his heart to Yours.


I will sing praises to You all the days of my life. I will continue to follow You and fulfill my promises to You all the days of my life.

I've Been Reading . . .

SimpleMom brought back her book club this year. I really tried to do it last year! Six books seemed doable but with learning how to be a mom and all . . . well, it just didn't happen. This year there are only 4 books--one per season. This seems even more doable. So here we go again!

The first book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. I'm enjoying it so far. The other 3 books look good too so I hope I can keep up with it when Bonzo comes!

I've also been digging back in to The Power of a Praying Wife. This is such a wonderful resource--I feel like it gives meat to my prayers. I really believe specific prayers are important--they give me such a clear picture of God working in my life. I know that the Spirit can intercede for us when our groanings are too deep for words but I think most days that does not describe my prayers. Have you found any resources that are speaking to you right now?

For fiction, I'm reading Nicholas Sparks' The Choice. As usual, it has a beautiful story line and then the sad part hits. I'm not sure why I do this to myself--especially pregnant! It just exacerbates the sadness of the story. I'll have to finish it though, his books are compelling like that. What are you reading?

Hope you have a great weekend! I'll be trying to find my rhythm again after working Thursday and Friday nights! See you Monday!

Finding A Rhythm

I'm feeling good about what I've accomplished this week:

• 7 loads of laundary
• A dozen homemade buns
• A loaf of homemade bread
• 3 homemade pizzas frozen for future meals
• 7 lb pork roast cooked and ready to be made into other meals
• I've stayed on top of the dishes
• We've picked up after Nugget every night and located all her toys each day
• I've fit in a nap most days
• Nugget's been bathed on her "designated" days
• Changed our sheets

Now, before you think I'm super woman, here's what's NOT been accomplished:

• Christmas is still up
• I haven't cleaned my house since we've been home
• There are still pumpkins on my front porch
• The dogs haven't been walked in months
• I haven't worked out in months
•  At least 4 of those 7 loads of laundry needed to be done since before Christmas!
  

I am choosing to focus on what I have accomplished while working night shift and 30+ weeks pregnant. Someday I pray homemaking and mothering will be my full time and only job. For now, I do what I can and be excited about what I do get accomplished. What did you do that put a smile on your face this week?

Yummy recipes

I realize food posts are so much better with pictures. Unfortunately, at 30 weeks pregnant--oh, who am I kidding?! I am ALWAYS too hungry to think about taking pictures! I borrowed the above photo from Recipezaar. It was taken by Baby Kato. *grin* Tonight we made Kittencal's Easy and Delicious Ranch-Parmesan Chicken. It was AWESOME! We used bone in chicken breasts (that's what we had on hand)--2 VERY large ones. They took closer to an hour to cook but we expected that with the change from boneless to bone in. We then cut up 3 sweet potatoes into fries, added some EVOO, a packet of ranch dressing powder we had sitting on the shelf and baked those for about 30 minutes. It was a very yummy meal. We will have to repeat this in the near future. I may want to try this on other meats--I wonder what it would taste like on my venison chops? Hmmmm.

A New Project

I started it! Nugget's new baby for when Bonzo comes! I am so excited. A wonderful friend provided some beautiful "scraps" for what I HOPE will be a beautiful rag baby.

Nugget's Activities

Our little pumpkin has been up to so many things lately. She is walking. Adding words to her vocabulary (some of them we can even understand!). Getting better at her signing and trying to learn new ones. Climbing. It's so fun to see her grow and change and develop a personality.

She loves her laptop! When we were at Grandpa and Grandma Weinert's she would run around with her laptop and "coffee mug." Can't imagine where she's seen that!

She loves her rocking snail! Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma!

She has her own "spot" in the kitchen! Now where am I going to put my canned goods?

She loves to help Mom write blogs and work on the computer.

Getting in the toy box is just as fun as climbing on it!

Grandma's (temporary) walker is a fun toy/jungle gym!

 Her hair is finally long enough for Mommy to play with! Mommy is excited about that!

She fills our home with so much joy--I just had to share some with you!

What Do You Do When . . .

. . .God shows up in your life, in the middle of your mess, and proves Himself Faithful and True? When He does more than You could ask or think? When He proves that He really does know that you need food and clothes and provides delicious healthy food and truly does dress your family as beautiful as the lilies of the field? When He shows you that delighting in Him will not only bring you the "big" desires of your heart but the "little" and "unnecessary" ones to?

Well, I don't know about you, but I cry. I have shed so many tears lately. Today's tears were happy. We are in a tough season. But you know what? God is good--all the time. He hasn't fixed all my problems but He is HERE, right now with me. He has given me reason to cry tears of joy in my pain and confusion. He has made me, like the psalmist, cry out to Him and yet still my heart praises Him. And wouldn't you know in the midst of this provision, down to some of the secret longings of my heart, He shows up during the time I set apart to meet with Him to remind "I AM?" I serve a big God Who is delighting in showing me how big He really is right now and that the "Bigness" notices my "smallness." Praise the LORD, o my soul, praise the LORD.

Fun New Recipes

I have had a renewed focus on making affordable homemade meals. I am trying to use what I have on my shelves and not run to the store to pick up more ingredients every time I turn around. I am finding I have a lot of fun ingredients on my shelves that I have used once or twice and not touched again. Two recent winners are:

• Simple Lentil Chili: Ralph took one bite and said "This is AWESOME!" Love that! I used fresh carrots instead of frozen; homemade turkey stock for the beef broth; and I cut back on the onions (personal preference). I just happened to have some red lentils on my shelf that were begging to be used for quite some time.
• Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Brownies: These were super nummy! Amanda doesn't like coffee and didn't think these were too coffee-ish for her. I just happened to have Almond Toffee Bits in my cupboard I had bought in error some time back that also wanted to be used! The only down side to this recipe is some crazy person thinks one 9" pan of these will serve 20! That was NOT the case here! Hee, hee!
• Lemon Souffle Pancakes: Made these for breakfast on Sunday morning. This recipe made a ton! We cut it in half and still ended up with 20 pancakes. They were very good. I ended up with plenty to freeze for future breakfasts (even after I ate 5! third trimester has arrived).
  

Any fun new recipes making it to your keeper list?

Time

The Lord has been teaching me some interesting things about time in the last week or so. He's also been teaching me about trust, patience, humility and a litany of things along those lines but we'll save those for another day.

During a particularly anxious day, the Lord brought these verses to mind.

• Proverbs 16:9-"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."
• Proverbs 19:21-"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."
• James 4:13-16-"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

I was feeling trapped, like I couldn't plan or function beyond a few minutes or hours. God used these verses to remind me, even when I feel like I can plan it is His plans that prevail not mine. I am planning with an open hand these days. I am learning His plans will prevail no matter what I plan and that is good. It can be a hard lesson to learn but definitely a good one.

Crafting

I'm not sure why I wait until things are financially tight to start crafting! I love to create things but often just don't take the time. This Christmas I made the time due to tightened purse strings. I was enormously pleased with my efforts.

I made this scarf for Amanda. I neglected to take pics prior to giving it to her so you'll have to forgive me. I was very pleased with the results. I had learned to crochet many years ago from my grandmother, picked it up in college and not touched it again until now. The benefit is, I'm a pack rat and saved all my yarn and crochet hooks from the time I picked it up in college. It was all waiting for me in the attic when I got the bug again. (It's times like these that prevent me from ever purging as I did in fact need and use it far in the future from when I originally purchased it!)

Then I used this pattern to make a ball for Nugget's Christmas stocking. It went very fast and was fun to make. It didn't turn out perfect but not bad for a first attempt at crocheting a toy!



I think I have the crafting bug now. I have several projects I'm giving myself a year to work on--Christmas presents for the kids for next year. I also want to make some sort of rag doll for Arwen before Bonzo comes. A dear friend of the family made me a Raggedy Ann that I still have to this day when my sister was born. The Raggedy Ann was my baby like she was Mom's. I need to go through all of my random things I've been saving for a rainy day and see what I can come up with!

How about you? What kind of "bug" has caught you lately? Been crafting? Cooking? Baking? Reading? I'd love to hear what you've been up to!

My 31st Birthday

My birthday feast! It was so yummy!

Tiffany decorating the cake.


The boys "helping" Tiffany decorate the cake

My yummy red velvet cake (with non-dairy icing). :D

Bobby insisted I needed 31 actual candles not just the 3 and 1 candles.

Have I mentioned I'm rather pregnant and have a decreased lung capacity right now? :-p

I think Nugget had more fun with Mommy's cake than she did with hers!

In addition to this lovely feast and cake, Mom and Tiffany took me out to my favorite restaurant in Bemidji: The Wild Hare Bistro and Coffehouse. The boys (Dad, Bobby and Ralph) watched the kids so we could have our girl's lunch out. It was a very yummy lunch. We then went window shopping at Bemidji's finest thrift and antique stores. Hee, hee. Mom did have a GREAT find--replacement votives for her candelabra--they were only a $1.50 each and she had enough for a spare one!
After all that excitement, this old pregnant lady decided she was too old to go out for New Year's. We heard my cousin Jake put on a great show that night but he is significantly younger than us so he can stay out late like that still! Hee, hee. We stayed in and watched a movie.
It's always a blessing that I'm able to spend my birthday at home. Thanks for making my day so special all who were there!

I've been playing on this site after reading this blog from The Nester. I would probably use her real name if we got this. It was pretty fun to create.

New Year's Ponderings

I absolutely love road tripping with my husband. There is only one other person in my life who has been as much fun for me to road trip with. I am truly blessed to have these two in my life.

Ralph and I took the opportunity on the LONG drive home to ponder some things together. We used some resources to guide our pondering along the way. Two of my favorite blogs are Simple Marriage and Simple Mom. Both of these blogs had some great articles to reflect on the past year. Check out some of these articles to help in some of your own reflections:

• 10 Questions to Encourage Engaged Parenting in 2010
• Ring in 2010 with Tangible, Reachable, Optimistic Goals
• 20 Questions for a New Year's Eve Reflection
• A Holistic Approach to Setting Meaningful New Year's Goals
• A Simple Marriage in 2010
• Goal-setting Questions for 2010

It was so refreshing for us to go over these things together. We did a similar exercise last year. It really helped us get our year off to a great start. We decided this year we need to go back and review these again throughout the year--to keep us on track. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to set goals for our marriage, family, parenting and then not re-evaluate them and us. I hope you are taking some time this winter to ponder your year, marriage, family, parenting, etc. I would love to know how that is going for you.

What 3 words describe your 2009? Mine are eventful, stretching and surprising.

Surpring Minnesota Fun

You'll have to forgive all the picture posts lately. There was so much to catch up on I've run out of words! {Shocking I know!} This is from when we were still in MN. We popped down to visit my sister and brother-in-law while they were visiting his family and play in the pool with them. Not a typical MN snowy afternoon but fun was had by all!

Minnesota Beauty

Christmas Mayhem

What do you get when you add 10 adults+13 kids+1 small dog+1 cat+1 house? Then add extended family (roughly 8 more kids+8 more adults) and one more house. Mayhem--joyful mayhem, but mayhem! We sure did have fun but whew did it wear us all out! :) Hope your Christmas was as joyful and full of fun as ours was!

Nugget's MN Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating Nugget's birthday again! She had an adorable cake decorated with a "forest" and "sledders"--just perfect for a MN December birthday. It was so fun to be able to celebrate with her cousins who were more excited than she was as they KNOW what birthday's are all about. ;-p

Nugget's First Snow

All dressed up and ready to go!

She fell down first thing and wasn't so sure what to think!

Much better with one mitten on!

Grandpa is there for moral support! :)

Just not sure what to do!

Our First Meeting with Santa

So I'm thinking maybe she doesn't buy into the whole Santa thing? Hee, hee!