Boooooo!

And the title does not mean a fun Halloween "boo!". It means, I am not liking the things that have happened in just the past 30 minutes. 

I finally decided to shower and get the girls dressed. I noticed Addy felt a little warm, so I took her temperature....100.9. Ugh! We have the Halloween birthday party at 3 today! I was excited to go and see friends we don't see very often throughout the year. I am hoping the fever is just from her two shots she got yesterday - flu and DTaP, but I don't remember either of those giving her a fever in the past. 

And now that I'm thinking about it, she did wake up twice in the middle of the night tossing and turning and crying. Maybe that was the fever starting and I just now noticed it. :( Poor kid. Gave her a little Tylenol (even though I know it's not that high, thought we'd nip it now, if possible). 

And I don't want to miss church tomorrow - I like our 5th Sunday Fellowships. Plus, I'm doing the announcements in the service tomorrow, have to drop off a few things to people at church, and overall just really enjoy church. 

Maybe I'm a bit worked up about a semi-low-grade fever, but I really hope it goes away....for her comfort's sake and our fun weekend's sake. :)

Slothfulness of Saturday

It's almost 8 AM and I'm still in my pajamas. Wow! It's been a long time since that happened. Feels good. :) It seems like we always have something to do on Saturday mornings (and every other day of the week, for that matter), so I am loving that we don't have anything to do until this afternoon and can just lounge around.

Last weekend's pumpkin carving was so fun! There were 6 adults carving, and Iris and Lily "helping". Iris loved taking out the pumpkin guts, but Lily touched one seed and didn't want to have anything to do with it! It took forever, but they all turned out great. I'll post the pictures of them soon.

This week, we've been working on Operation: Christmas Child. An organization called Samaritan's Purse does this thing every year where they fill shoeboxes with toiletries and toys for kids in countries that never receive gifts. This year, our church is joining in. We're hoping for 75 filled boxes from our church, so please pray that people will get involved. It's not really an expensive charity. You get the box for free and you can fill it with dollar items. We went to  Target and found crayons, activity and coloring books, letter/number/color books, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, and combs all for under $1.00 each. Our family's goal is 15 boxes. We figured we are so willing to spend a ton on each other and our families for Christmas, why not be willing to spend more than just one box worth on kids that really need simple hygiene items? I plan to go out again today and grab a few more things (probably toys, since we've got most of the hygiene products covered) to top off the boxes. I think it's an awesome project for families to do together, and I'm so thankful for the folks at our church that found it and suggested it. I know we're all capable of way more than 75 boxes, but I know how hard it is sometimes to get motivated to give to someone you don't know. But what an exciting ministry! 

Our church is also working on Family Friday Movie Nights. Starting next Friday, November 5, our church is hosting FREE movie nights for anyone interested. They'll be showing Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks movies, so they're all family-friendly. We really don't know the folks in our immediate community, so I think this is a great way to get to know more people and find out how they think we can help out in the community and just provide some free entertainment for families....especially since going to the movies costs a bundle these days!

Another awesome venture our church is looking into is a food pantry/soup kitchen. I guess they're working with the town on that one, but I'm hoping it works out because that would be such a great opportunity to really show God's love to those who are needing the most. Arthur and I definitely want to be involved in that ministry, whenever it's ready. 

The girls' pumpkin party at preschool was fun.  They had a lot of fun playing the games and getting to wear their Halloween costumes. Today, they get to wear them again for a birthday party and then again tomorrow for Trick or Treating. I really feel like we got our money's worth with them this year. :)


Tomorrow is our church's 5th Sunday Fellowship (happens in every month where there's a 5th Sunday; we meet for breakfast and fellowship instead of breaking up for Sunday School classes). I am making a new recipe for a Breakfast Pudding Cake. It sounds really good, based on the ingredients, so I'm hoping it turns out really great tasting, too! Here's the recipe:

Breakfast Pudding Coffee Cake

1 (18½-ounce) Box Duncan Hines Butter Golden Cake Mix

1 (3½-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding (can use instant regular vanilla)

4 eggs

1/2 C. oil

1/2 C. water

2 t. vanilla

1/2 C. white sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar

2 T. cinnamon

1/2 C. chopped pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8- or 9-inch square cake pans with nonstick spray, or grease them with butter. (You can use disposable foil pans if desired.)

Mix the cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, water and vanilla until smooth. In a small zipper-top bag, combine the sugars, cinnamon and nuts.

Sprinkle the bottoms of pans with about half of the sugar mix. Add the batter, then add the rest of the sugar mix to the batter and swirl it through the batter with a knife. Bake for 22 minutes.

Enjoy your weekend and have a safe and happy Halloween!

 

Mama's Chili, sort of

I LOVE anything my mom cooks...and bakes. Seriously. BEST COOK/BAKER EVER!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm making chili for our pumpkin carving day. I called her today to get her chili recipe because only she makes it the best! Of course, she told me it's not her recipe but that of another mom at my old school. Oh well. I pretend it's hers. :) Thought I'd share it on here. Nothing fancy, nothing different. Just a simple meat and beans chili. My favorite. I don't like change when it comes to chili. I'm a beef and beans chili kind of girl, no weird flavors or spices or ingredients. 

So, here it is!

1 lb ground beef
2-3 tsp chili powder (more or less depending on your taste)
1 tsp sugar
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup green pepper, minced
15 oz can of tomato sauce with tomato bits in it (OR plain tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes!)
1/2 cup water
1 clove garlic, crushed
Pinch of cumin (again, more or less to your preference)
1 can any red beans (I use kidney)

1. Brown meat and drain.
2. Add chili powder, sugar, onion, and green pepper to meat and simmer til veggies are soft.
3. Add everything else except the beans and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Add the beans and simmer for at least 30 more minutes.

Serve with cheese. YUM! Or try serving with a scoop of sour cream and then the cheese on top. Oo-la-la! Oh, and of course, have lots of oyster crackers on hand! Enjoy!

If I ruled the world...

I would set up policemen in subdivisions to just ticket everyone that doesn't slow down to the posted speed limit. It is extremely annoying that no one seems to drive the 15 mph posted speed limit in our subdivision. I know 15 mph is very slow, BUT we have no sidewalks and a lot of kids on the block, so it's only right that the speed limit be lower than the regular 25 in a subdivision. Plus, we have a lot of curves and the road is a dead end. I don't understand why people go so fast! I pull into the subdivision going 15 mph and the person behind is always on my butt! I want to stop the car and go back and explain to them why I'm going slow. AND, there is a speed bump on the first curve, the second curve, and towards the end of the block! I would hate to go over those too fast!

Maybe some of the fast drivers don't have children, so kids running around isn't their first thought when pulling onto our block. I know for a FACT, though, that some of the fast drivers have kids....sometimes in the car with them! I just don't get it, and there are never any policemen on our block that would see how bad the speeding is. Just frustrating, and I wanted to vent.

Tomorrow is pumpkin carving for us! Yippee!! My brother and new sister-in-law are coming up to join in! I am making chili, the PERFECT fall dinner...in my opinion. Today, I need to go buy the pumpkins, since we didn't get any when we went to the pumpkin farm earlier this month. And I need to buy the girls more undershirts. They are so active, their tummies hang out often....need to get those covered up so they don't get too cold!

And, lastly, my first week as an NCP scanner went well. I actually remembered to scan all my purchases, and my husband has been extremely helpful by texting me his gas purchases. :) Hopefully I'll rack up some points quickly and get some cool rewards!

The Pain of Pride

The message on Sunday was about pride, and I expected to know everything that Pastor was going to say, as I've heard a number of messages about pride before. I usually go into the service ready to learn something, ready for God to show me something to work on. I figured that this Sunday I wouldn't learn much because I knew everything there was to know about pride already. Ha! There was my pride, having me think I knew it all. And boy was I wrong!

Pastor spoke about the characteristics of pride and one of the points was that pride is appearance-driven. I associated "appearance-driven" with those people that have that look of being better than everyone. I hadn't considered other "looks". One of my biggest faults is that I always try to maintain a certain appearance. No, I am not talking about a fashionable appearance or any physical appearance. My appearance that I desperately try to maintain is Super Mom. I have absolutely no idea if I've mastered the look or not, but for some reason I strive very hard to appear to have it all together - to the point of insanity some days.

I'm sure I've said this in a past post or two, but my mother is an amazing woman. No, really. She is the BEST mother ever. As a child, there was never a day where she did not fix us dinner on a weekday or not have all our clothes laundered and put away every week. She constantly baked homemade snacks and cakes and made applesauce and froze fresh veggies and kept a clean house and took care of the pool and drove us everywhere we needed to go - there were 8 of us, remember. So, you get the point. AMAZING! She never took a day off, unless she was having a baby; as soon as she came home, though, she was back at it. Even when she was sick, I can remember she'd throw up then get her purse and get us in the car to go to school. It was almost robotic how well she kept her home.

I have attempted to mimic my mom. I have no clue how she did it and stayed sane with 8 children. My subconscious (until recently) goal was to do exactly what she did. Other women were in awe of my mom. I would get compliments from my friends' moms about her baked goods or the time she donated to everything at school. I wanted what she had - everyone's respect.

I was a nerd in high school. A popular nerd, that is. I was in volleyball, a cheerleader, a class officer, Valedictorian, and pretty well-liked by most of the kids. Once I was out of high school, I was kind of bottom rung. I hated it. I wanted that spotlight again, when everyone wanted my help with their homework or wanted me to be involved in their project or just looked up to me. Not so. I had a brief moment of popularity in Mortuary School, mostly because I was smart and was dating the most popular guy (yes, my now husband). We were a pretty odd couple, but everyone loved him and I took really good notes, so I got a decent amount of attention.

Then, I got married and started having kids. No one really wanted to know about me or cared that I was Valedictorian 10 years ago. They want to see my children and tell me how cute they are. I loved hearing that I have beautiful girls (of course I am in agreement with that!). I just wanted someone to ask me how I was or what I was up to or ask me for help with something. I started reading about cooking and baking and home organization and other nerdy mom topics. :) I learned a lot and quickly applied them all at once. I have a super clean home, a well-organized closet and garage, a marker board schedule for each day of the week, synchronized calendars, foods frozen for every meal of the day, and a grocery shopping plan to die for! But, no one really cares. And why should they? They have their own lives and their own schedules.

So, I'm sitting in the service Sunday morning and I start thinking about how I always want to appear to be some great Mom. How I want people to remark about how organized and clean my house is or how well I've mastered grocery shopping and saving money. It's dumb. Do those things matter for eternity? No. Why am I so obsessed with my appearance? Pride. I am proud that I have done something for me and that I have something great to show off, rather than remember that GOD gave me these abilities and that HE has helped me find a rhythm that works for our family to be efficient.

It might not seem like any great breakthrough to others, but for me this was huge! I couldn't believe how selfish I'd been, totally ignoring how God had provided and worked in me. How nothing is possible without Him. I really broke down. And then I confessed it to my husband later. He had no idea I felt that way, and he still doesn't see me as prideful but I know I was/am. God revealed a lot to me about myself, and I'm so thankful. I feel so much better in just 2 days, not worrying about how I appear to people. I am working on my obsessions as far as how my house looks :), but I'll get there. I know God gave me these skills and abilities for a reason, and it's not just to have a clean house and organized garage. I am still trying to figure out what I can do with them, maybe help other moms? I don't know. I am not sure how I'd do that, but I really like helping other people, so hopefully God shows me soon what I can do with my talents. Are they talents? Cleaning and organizing = talents? I don't know. I just know that I am sorry I ever let pride in my way and allowed it to keep me from growing. It didn't help my relationship with God, my husband or my children. And I'm so glad God has shown me how to spot pride, so I can get rid of it quicker next time. :)

It's so strange that other moms out there are worried about their children overcoming illnesses or worry about providing food or being safe. And I worry about whether or not people think my house is clean or think I am great at saving money on groceries. So silly and trivial.

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18

NCP, btw. lol.

I am on the waiting list, no more! You are reading the blog of an official National Consumer Panelist. Yes, I AM that dorky. :) I heard a while back that they were taking applications, so I signed up and registered and whatnot, thinking I'd never get it. But, yesterday I received my official purchases scanner and handbook. Whoo-hoo! I've never felt this important.

So, basically, what I do is scan all my purchases' barcodes each week and then their scanner transmits (through our internet) all that info and they just keep track. Kind of like an ongoing survey of different American homes and what they buy. It kind of seems like it will get time-consuming and possibly old after a while, but if I am consistent there are reward points I earn each week and can trade in for prizes. Since it's still new and I haven't actually scanned anything yet, I am super excited!

Yesterday, my husband was off so we took the girls for a walk at the forest preserve. The trees are really starting to change color, so it was very pretty to walk through. Iris didn't feel like running for very long ("i have no energy"), but Lily was like a marathoner. She kept running and running and running....almost a whole mile of running for her! That's pretty good for a 3 year old! Addy just rode in the stroller and loved every minute of it. I really like being able to do things outdoors when it's not too hot and the girls get all sweaty and tired real quick and when it's not too cold ("mom, my hands are freezing off!"). Fall is such a great time to do this! Then, we came back and had Chicken Lemon Rice soup for dinner with my in-laws and some homemade applesauce. Oh yeah, applesauce...

Thursday, we did apple picking with the girls' preschool class. Brought home 3 plastic shopping bags full of apples! Needless to say, it was applesauce making time! This was my first attempt to make it myself, so I called an expert - my mother. :) Mine turned out really tasty. I was impressed. I still have about 15 apples left, that I'll make 2 apple pies with.....just not today. I'm tired from the apple peeling and cutting, the nature walk, and the soup making. Lots of time on my feet the past few days.

Today is low-key, except for a fun Halloween portrait party put on by my good friend Erika of Just Peachy Photography. The girls are excited they get to wear their Halloween costumes before Halloween, and I'm excited to hopefully get some of their energy out. Should be a fun time!

All in all, it was a super great week. I am excited to see the pictures Iris and Lily took this past week at school. I dolled them up big time in pretty dresses and hairbows, so I have some high expectations for how they turned out. They're both pretty photogenic, so it should be really cute!

Tomorrow is church and, hopefully, a really long nap for everyone before we start the weekly routine again. Next weekend is pumpkin carving, the weekend after that is birthday party and Halloween. The fun never stops around here! :)

Book Review: Good Morning, Lord by Sheila Walsh

I received a copy of this book to review by BookSneeze. I enjoy the other books of Sheila Walsh, but I was slightly disappointed with this devotional. While the content of the book was excellent and really refreshing, I was hoping for slightly longer devotionals for each day.
Each day is given a verse, a paragraph or so to read, and then questions to answer personally. This is the style I prefer, but I was hoping for just a bit more to think about or a few more questions to answer.
This is an excellent book for women looking to have a brief devotional, maybe amidst a busy schedule. But, if you are looking for more in-depth and perhaps longer reading each day, I would say this is not quite the book for you.
Again, Sheila Walsh is a great writer, and I enjoy her style of writing. The content of the book was great, and she really shows a great way to grow spiritually and things to consider in a new light.