You are cherished and loved.. you may know it or not.. your creator is thrilled with you and loves you more than you can now imagine. One day you will fully know and your joy will be hard to contain.. as is your creator's at the sight of you.
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There can be surprises with organics, I just never expected them to survive and thrive in the fridge! I was studying the lettuce carefully because it was riddled with strange marks and suddenly I looked back up on the counter and the culprit was staring right at me. Of course I resettled my stomach and found a great little home jar for our friend, used the opportunity to share a science lesson then we all trekked out to the river and released our friend back to the wild. This took place in July so I think he faired well and pray it didn't adversely affect the ecosystem if our guest came from the country side. Our tot was thrilled and it was a nice family outing. Campfire Coffee Cake (Rich Coffee Flavoured, decorated with melted hard candy, Roulades, toasted marshmallows, chocolate fudge and crispy wafer layers.Fruit flan with berries and kiwi, light white sponge cake, home-made custard and a jam glaze.Thomas The Train fondant cakeSmores topped birthday cake for a campfire Smores fanMostly Blueberries BreadHealthiest and tastiest carrot cakeWestern Theme three tier birthday cake with chocolate fondantSo far, six cakes (including a decoy for a surprise party)..one more to go.
Fun with fondant.. waiting for some final photos of the campfire cake with the candy flames, and look forward to sharing the scrumptious recipes and experiments...but I have been such a Martha and not reading the word enough to keep up with times. A mom shared a few verses from Ephesians from a buisy mom's scripture & verse book and it restored in me an appetite for the Word (especially Ephesians 5). Thank you! Recipes will be gladly shared for Campfire Coffee Cake (candy flames and toasted marshmallow added on site), Smores Piled High cake, Fruit Flan (the decoy until the birthday surpise with Western Cake), Ruffle Gem Cake (a bit of a floppy ruffle cake but fun gem theme for all), Low sugar full flavour carrot cake, Western three tier cake for the big surprise party, Blueberry cake for fun, & of course, Tomas the train cake..(the squeal I heard tonight upon someone taking a sneak preview made it so worth closing the cake making season with this one last one!) Now I am on birthday cake burnout and its time for a workout! As this extended leave slips by all too quickly, I ask myself too often what will be next?
Will my workplace invite me back with open arms, will I find a similar position? (in project management or similar?) Will I have drifted into one of these wonderful pursuits such as cake and meringue baking and recipes (the best use of my passion for chemistry), music lessons, crafts, or children's or mommy's ministry? songwriting/children's songs? politics? Non profit ministry? or homeschooling as long as I have something to teach?... Then I remember to look up and try to focus on God. I felt absolutely certain of this call to full time mommyhood and thought nothing of turning aside from my career at this point. That certainty will be there at the next stage too. Just now the call continues and mommyhood is the passion of my heart, the creativity of my skills and it isn't really time to question tomorrow.. except will I find a way to be a great mommy and raise and love a great Christian family and fulfill my purpose in Christ. Somehow it is all falling together now, with a lot of help and guidance, and tomorrow will find its own cares, there are enough today. Thank you God for protecting and guiding our family and bless the reader too. We found a plastic container, cut some stained glass shapes out of tissue paper and used a glue stick to decorate a new little pot. I didn't leave it as a lamp shade for longer than the photo, as those bulbs are not LED and get pretty hot! We use this pot still to store the smaller toys.
This great gratitude pie was so easy I never knew!
Cut a little pumpkin pie in two! Roast it till it steams, poke it right through, add a little sugar while you bake your pumpkin stew. The recipe will follow soon... for easy pie crust and easy pumpkin pie.. but I hate to admit it takes condensed milk which I am not sure should be legal to sell ;) You've loaded up on cookie cutters but try to keep the cookies to a minimum? They are not just for desert anymore!
My fussy tot was pleased to eat the cheese and red peppers again on a picky day when the lunch came out with stars, especially since we had been singing twinkle little star for a few days. Cookie cutters can also spruce up a egg and toast when you cut out a favourite shape in the toast and fry the egg right in the toast. Butter the toast and pan first. Cut out the shape of a heart for your spouse for valentine's day's breakfast too. Use the larger shapes like gingerbread man cookie cutters for even more variety. I picked this up from a tv cook... an economical alternative to chicken pieces is to buy a whole chicken and ask them to cut it in half at the butcher's counter.
(Not all of the folks at that counter are pleased to accommodate if they are in the middle of cutting non poultry and have to clean the counter and machine, but most are pleased to accommodate, so I ask my husband to ask for me;).) The cost of buying a whole chicken is much less than even thighs. Then, split the chicken in two and roast with a coating of olive oil, seasonings and even lemon juice. Add some potatoes onto the pan and bake at 350 for about an hour while you tend to more important things and dinner is done! This is great for those busier days when you don't have an hour to spend prepping dinner! Leading into Christmas we had trouble finding foods our toddler would accept. These are the days when it seems like air is enough to survive on some days, and other days, the plate filled as full as ours is devoured fully. Well on the pickiest days I got creative... and helping mommy with baking is a great way to inspire a hungry appetite. Who wouldn't love to eat the creation they helped make? A meat pie becomes healthy when you make the crust at home and use a beef bourgignon type recipe for the stuffing. Beef and carrots (or your tots favourite veggy meddly) were never so tasty! Layer leftover potatoes with mushrooms and you have an even tastier treat the toddler can't turn down. To be truthful you just won't mind if they do because there's more for you!
There was once a man who would join our gatherings who I was honestly afraid of. He would be drunk, swear, and sometimes penitent. I would sneak in if he was present and he would spot me and say something about it at times. I asked how he could see me and he said he was only partially blind and could see a blur and my light hair gave it away. This I asked after the change. This is what happened. One day I prayed, God please let me see Bob as you see him. The most amazing thing happened. I was filled with overbrimming love for Bob. One day he showed up drunk and dressed in a silver miniskirt and heals and with bright red lipstick somewhere around his mouth. As we left the gathering he asked for help walking. Here was I, walking back towards my workplace, with this elderly white haired man with a white cane for sight and who was quite a sight, his arm in mine, trying to walk straight in his pumps, heels and parka, but feet twisting over the heels. Then my somewhat new manager sees me helping him across the street in front of our building. He gasped. He never asked me a thing about it but he did transfer out of our group soon after. I occasionally would see blind Bob around for a while after. He had lost his guitar and sight dog. He was sober a while also.
So its not just moms that find it hard to find time to read the bible. Even after I was in the deep regular habit of seeking God's Word for most circumstances, I slacked a bit when I became a mom.. until I was drawn out of exasperating all other useless sources of advice and picked up the Proverbs, New Testament, and other books within the Bible. So many are missing out on hearing from God! I realized today that really what is important is connecting with like minded parents, caregivers and children. A playgroup with others who share similar Christian faith and beliefs, activities, outings, picnics,.. these are all just as valuable as an actual bible study together.
It is also wonderful to meet with people of other faiths and beliefs.. simply because we all have varying beliefs of God from one day to the next, we are never really firmly fixed in faith or atheism, I believe. There are days or moments where I am living a bit more in doubt than in faith. There are moments I live more firmly in my faith and recall what brought me to trust, believe and live in relationship.. the presence, the healings, the peace. I am surprised to look back to my teens and twenties and see that I wrote songs that mentioned God. I remember that back then, I had been telling people the bible was made up by 12 men. That led me to pick up the book so I wouldn't speak in ignorance when I said that. I didn't expect to find truth. I found truth that time, unlike the other times I took a peek. By then I also had started the search to something more than what I believed in childhood only to realize what I had going in my childhood! Then I prayed without results, as I saw it. Then someone pointed out that I hadn't been praying in Jesus' name. I was so busy reading the bible and looking for God at that point that I was afraid to turn to any other, I, a wandering Christian, was afraid to pray to Jesus.. I read John 16:24 for myself.. something supernatural happened and we both looked at each other and asked.. did you feel that? And I prayed.. and I was humbled when I saw that the Heavenly Father Creator God was .. listening. First I feared any spirit, things seemed to move and I was afraid to believe
in God or the Devil till I finally knew God was bigger and stronger. I envied, told a lie, learned to drink, smoke, do it my way and die slowly and ignored my conscience. Until someone I loved, who shared God all his life, needed God and I reached into my heart and found him. Then I saw that I was healed years before, and I began to heal. Then I was wounded and doubted again. Then I was told to fear the sun, so I stayed in the shade. Then I was told the animals were in the woods, to I stayed away from the whispering winds where I met God. I retreated to an inner room then my skin was attacked and I wondered why I wasn't being protected. A bug that terrified me scurried in the early morningand broke the peace.. The medical staff said something about my skin that made me realize I really could only turn to God for the answer and the cure.. And the preacher, and the bible, and the ones I love most reminded me to have faith in all that God promised, all that Jesus did and does and will do. Parenting a young child makes it seem difficult to keep up our time with God.. Joyce offers some suggestions on how to find some time, even 5 minutes to start the day, but bring him the first and he will bless the rest!
http://www.godpreach.com/joyce-meyer-spending-time-with-god/?fb_action_ids=10203775583966312&fb_action_types=og.comments&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582 We made Italian Almond Meringue cookies today... "Would you like lunch?" "Cookies" "Can't have cookies for lunch, how about some peas, some pasta.." "Cookies"
OK so I temporarily created a cookie monster but I am so grateful it wore off in time for dinner and Boo wasn't full of sugar by the time of our school tour. It is a long way off, but my heart is so heavy. I showed him where a teacher will stand, asked him which desk he liked, took down a chair and invited him to sit down. I remember vividly an image of me before grade 1, sitting in an empty classroom, at one desk amidst an ocean of desks, not knowing what to expect. I explained that he will learn many wonderful things, he will be sitting among wonderful people that he will meet, and so on. He was smiling confidently. He approached the teachers so sweetly. He handed out stickers that had been given to him, one to each of us standing there at the end. I was the last to receive one and was about to suggest he hand out more when I saw that he had thought of everyone. He said after, that the people were very nice to him. He even said they were incredible to him. Where he picked up that turn of phrase I do not know.. And all behind this thin veil of making the way before him is a frail piece of me within that maybe wants the job.. maybe they are allies, maybe competition. Will they be enough and more? I just love who he is so much and I am so grateful to God for the inspiration and guidance in raising the most important person in the world to me. I heard the following message from Hilary Price today and was refreshed with the reason I wanted to start B+B. Hilary is wife to preacher Charles Price.
The first part of the message I found interesting because of some friends who are doctors from India, one whom was trained in a Christian hospital. At halfway, Hilary begins her message regarding Jesus and children. Her message reflects the passages I have been focused on for this cause. http://www.livingtruthmedia.com/onDemand.php?ID=CDN I loved this movie! I saw it with my mom the night before mother's day. I kept asking my hubby if he was ok.. it was such a buisy day. He said they were fine... ... excuse me.. gotto go help with .. I'll let the movie trailer describe the daily.. lol A wonderfully inspiring mother and grandmother advised me to read Proverbs to my child. I loved this advice and I loved the first time I heard him speaking of the truth while quoting a few words from what he heard that day. Proverbs seem like a natural place to start sharing scripture with the next generation. Thank you for filling my sails on a few occasions!
It took two years to find a home for B+B. People loved the sound of it. But now my toddler is two, not a baby and with the program running for a few months, the parents joining in sparingly.
I was just watching Joyce Meyer speak of when she asked God why her tomato garden didn't work... God answered her that he didn't tell her to grow tomatoes. So I have to ask myself again, did He direct my path in this? It just drives me daily, I am starving to meet with other parents/caregivers and to teach my child to know and love God. What is flourishing most are my ideas. The Verse booklet I assembled on colourful foam is a complete hit with kids! One five year old girl excitedly asked her mom to read the scripture book, twice and my child always loves to play with the book and browse the colourful pages. The train-up-a-child posters are attractive to my child and get wonderful feedback, btw my child chose the train design. The latest idea is to use the building blocks as a scripture puzzle. I printed two scriptures on the bottom two lines so far, and am working on more for the higher rows that make up the house that the blocks would build. The scriptures are: Luke 14: 28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? Matt 7:25 .. "the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. So I am beginning to wonder.. although in my career and at lunch time prayer meetings I was a facilitator and organizer, maybe now I am to focus on these fun toys that help our children grow as believers and encourage us to chat with them about God and scripture. |
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