Glimpses of joy!

Safe to say - our little ones had a great time last week! Here are a few glimpses from the week ~

His beautiful creation!

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of His hands."
Psalm 19:1

God's Abundant Provision!

Picking up where I left off yesterday, I had run in CVS to get a few things and felt my phone vibrate. David had called and left a message saying he had arranged for us to switch rooms and we needed to pack up our room asap and get it moved!

We quickly packed it up and headed back to our room where David had done most of the packing up! We weren't sure where we were moving, but he had been told they would make sure it had two beds so that our girls would have a place to sleep.

So, we got out of our room as quickly as we could and headed back to the front desk to swap keys and get switched. We were down the road (this was a BIG resort!) a ways and began following our map to our new room.

We pulled up outside a building that looked like an apartment building - beautiful! I didn't want to get my hopes up based on the outside - but it looked to be very promising!

We traipsed everyone upstairs to check it out before bringing our things in and ... WOW! It was a two bedroom, two bathroom condo with a full kitchen, living room, washer and dryer, screened in porch, etc... There was even a crib so we didn't need to bring ours in!

The walk in closet was huge and that became Samuel's room! The second bedroom had two twin beds - perfect for our little ladies! And, off the screened patio was a beautiful pond with waterfall and we even saw some ducks swim through!

The first thing we did was grab hands and say a prayer of thanks to God for His generous blessing to us! We could have stayed in the other room and we would've made the best of it - but God chose to bless us abundantly!

He could have allowed us to purchase an upgrade in advance, but instead He gave us this upgrade at no extra cost!

He could have allowed us to receive a regular room in the first place, but instead He gave us a place that was like a home for the week! It was a perfect fit for our family and I had two Scriptures come to mind that day ...

The first one was regarding the parable of the talents, when the servant was faithful to manage what he had - he was given more, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things." ~ Matthew 25:21

The second was, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and even! Amen." ~ Ephesians 3:20-21

What a blessing God poured out on us to allow us free use of this wonderful place for a week! Thank You, Lord, for your abundant blessings in our lives! What abundant provision are you praising God for this week?

Mouth of the Righteous

Reading Proverbs 10 this morning, I am struck by all the things mentioned about the mouth of the righteous:

~ it is a fountain of life (vs. 11)
~ wisdom is found there (vs. 13)
~ it holds its tongue (vs. 19)
~ is as choice silver (vs. 20)
~ bring nourishment to many (vs. 21)
~ brings forth wisdom (vs. 31)
~ knows what is fitting (vs. 32)

Lord, please grant my mouth to be as a righteous one before You bearing these qualities! In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Our Mission: Improvise!

We're back after our week away and it was a great time! Here begins the recap:

After driving to David's conference - we arrived to our hotel in a beach and resort town only to find out that we received a room with one King size bed only for all five of us!

We'd done this trip before and had two queen beds, a fridge, microwave, balcony, etc... and we knew that this year was at a new place - but we were still hoping for similar accommodations. We'd even tried to upgrade to a suite before we got here for only a few dollars a night - which would have a full kitchen, bedroom and living room - but they were all gone.

Our hotel room was smaller than our bedroom at home and was now needing to sleep and hold five people including three littles who wanted to run around and play for a WEEK! He had already checked and there was nothing else available for us to switch to - so we had to make the best of it!

We had no fridge, no microwave and no balcony. Ok, I think you have the picture!

Nearly immediately, God gave me the attitude and excitement that this would be an adventure and I could help set the tone to make it a success and a fun week!

I realized that one key to our success was getting as much of our stuff out of the way as possible since there was so little walking space already. I utilized as much existing storage space as possible!

Moving an end table into the bathroom became our little "kitchen" and the cooler became our fridge. Fortunately, we were very handy to an ice machine! I had brought our picnic basket/dishes and some dish soap and I am so thankful we did!

The girls pallet would only fit in front of the door and David had the foresight to bring a sleeping bag remembering that the last time we came they wanted to sleep on the floor for fun! I stuck a quilt in thinking it would be for picnics - which became their covers! If you look in the picture of Rachel you can see the front door right beside her! And, Emily was at the foot of our bed, so there was just enough room between the door and the bed for two little girls to make their bed!

The armoire holding the TV, became the dresser for all of us and held the diapers and wipes for Samuel.

I designated my nightstand as the toy cabinet - and when not in use, toys and books were to be put away in there.

The first night, we were wakened at 4:05 a.m. because Rachel had an accident in her bed. Uh-oh. Now, their only bed was partially wet. We just allowed her to come into our bed for the rest of the night and first up on our agenda the next morning was to find a laundromat.

After getting breakfast for all (homemade banana bread and milk from the cooler) and bathing all the littles, I called the front desk to find out where the nearest laundry facility was. After obtaining that info - we were on our way!

We found the laundromat and got our wash started. I realized it was not in our best interests of time to leave and come back - so we decided to hang out there and wait for our laundry. We had fun watching the other clothes going around in the washer and dryer and pushing the laundry carts around.

When the girls got a bit restless, I asked them if they wanted to hear a story from when I was a little girl! They did and I shared with them about how my Mom would take us to the laundromat and Carrie and I would pretend that inside the dryers were different flavors of ice cream - we played Ice Cream Shoppe!

So, then the girls and I played this for a while! It was fun to remember and I ordered lots of different flavors of ice cream from my little ladies! I wish I had brought my camera!!

After successfully getting our laundry finished - we headed to CVS for a couple of free items and a few necessities. Next up, was waiting for Daddy to get out of his meeting and start fixing sandwiches for lunch!

I had my heart all set on making this an adventure and while David was very disappointed in the room - I was willing to do what it took to make it fun and enjoyable! I took a few pictures because I thought you'd enjoy seeing part of our adventure!

Part Two - coming tomorrow!

Out of town

We're at the beach this week - while David attends a work conference! Will be back next week!

Have a great week, everyone!

Family Night: Team!

One of my goals over this summer was to put together and implement some kind of chore system around here! I've spent a lot of time thinking and praying through this and my Mom suggested presenting it as a family night, this is what we did!

First, I set up the table - I'll share what I did to set up as we go, I think it will make more sense!

Then, I rang the dinner bell indicating dinner was ready and it was time to come to the table. However, when everyone got to the table, they found that dinner was unusual! I planned to make pizza - but put one ingredient at each plate. Daddy got the dough for the crust, I had the sauce, etc...

This was a perfect opportunity to begin our evening by explaining that we each had part of what we needed for dinner - but we needed to work together to make it happen and each use our ingredient!

While we made the pizza together, we talked about what team is. I simplified it very much by just saying it is a group of people who work together on something. Our family is a team. We talked about other kinds of teams - baseball, Emily's ballet class, etc...

Next, we popped the pizza in the oven and proceeded while it was baking. I said something like this, "There is a Bible story about working together - do you want to hear it?"

There was a man named Nehemiah. He had heard that the walls of Jerusalem were all broken down. See? Just like this city on our table.

Walls were very important around a city in those days because they helped keep the people who lived there safe.

Nehemiah asked the king if he could go to Jerusalem and help fix the walls and the king said yes.

It was very hard work, because some people didn't want them to fix the wall. But, they asked God for help and they worked together.

And, do you know what? They finished fixing the wall - because they asked God for help and then worked together as a team!

Let's rebuild this wall right here! Daddy reminded us that each person repaired the part right in front of them, so that is what we did.

Next, we rebuilt the "walls" of our city! And, then put some puzzles together. I passed out a few pieces to each person and said again that each of us does not have all the pieces, we have to work together to complete it.

We worked puzzles until our food was ready. If you have older children - you could do a three-legged race, obstacle course or other kind of game to demonstrate working together.

Next, I introduced our new chore charts. I had seen this idea in an organizing magazine at my Mom's house and I liked how child-friendly it was in terms of using it for non-readers.

So, I made charts for each girl (Samuel's will come later!) and mounted them on the wall in the kitchen. I made a set of photos of the chores and glued them to popsicle sticks. They were so excited, they wanted me to assign chores that night! So, we did and got a lot done!

Each day when they are finished with their chores, they get a happy face in their chart and this has been motivational to them to achieve the happy face on their chart.

I'll post next week about how to make the charts and what chores I included.

Of course, the first team we want to be on is God's - and after that family is our next team! How do you work together as a family?

Peach Butter

As I mentioned yesterday, we were given some wonderful peaches! I froze about half and decided to try peach butter with the other half. I used my apple butter recipe with a couple of modifications - yum!

Peel, remove pits and dice about 8-10 lbs. peaches (about 8 cups). Place the diced peaches in a bowl of water (maybe 3 or 4 cups).

Remove water and bring to a boil in a dutch oven.

Add peaches and simmer/boil for 40 minutes. Peaches will cook down and get juicier.

Remove 2 c. liquid from pot - I did this because the peaches seemed like there was way too much juice in them. It proved to be a very good choice to remove all this extra liquid. But, don't throw it out!

Puree remaining peaches/juice until smooth. I used a food processor.

Return to pan and add 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cloves, 1 c. white sugar and 1 c. brown sugar.

Let the peaches simmer a bit on a low temp - use the plate test to determine if it has cooked long enough. The plate test is where you take a cold or room temp plate. Spoon out a small amount of hot peach butter onto the middle of the plate. Hold plate at an angle and if you can see juice separate as shown here - you need to cook it longer. When it is ready - the juice will not separate.
Spoon into canning jars and process in a water bath canner for ten minutes. Mine made six half-pint jars of peach butter and I also canned the juice I'd removed earlier which made two half-pint jars. I'll use this in a future recipe!

So far, I've enjoyed this on biscuits and spread on my waffles with some toasted walnuts! Yummy!

Peach Milkshakes!

We were given half of a bushel of yummy peaches recently and I decided to make milkshakes one night. David said this reminded him of a famous peach shake he used to get in college, except this one was better! (how sweet)

Here's what I did:

In blender - scoop about 2 cups of vanilla ice cream. Pour in 1/3-1/2 c. milk. Add one peach: peeled, pit removed and diced. Next add about 3 Tbsp. sugar. Blend until smooth!

Yummy!

Make your own paper food trays!

As promised, here are the directions for the paper food trays I made for Rachel's Ellie party. What started this is I wanted to serve dinner in these to make it seem more carnival-like and I found that I only had two.

So, I took one apart and used it as a template to make more. Now, you can too!

Cut a rectangle that measures 6" x 8" from scrapbook paper.

Cut the corners at an angle. Your cut should measure 1 1/2 inches.

Now, make slits at the corners, these cuts should be 1 3/4 inches long.
Cut on the short edge as shown.

Crease the sides to create a "boat" effect - as shown.

Fold at each slit you made to create a flap - as shown.

Flatten creases and lay your paper flat again.

Cut a piece of contact paper to fit over both sides of your paper and peel off paper backing.

Press one side of your paper smoothly onto contact paper. Fold over and repeat for the other side, now both sides are "laminated."

Trim edges of contact paper to match the scrapbook cut out. Cut slits through contact paper in the same places you originally cut them.

Re-fold on all creased lines.

Seal flaps with a dab of hot glue. Use a clothespin to hold in place until cool if necessary.

Enjoy!