Some thoughts...
1. There is no greater creation than dressing, turkey, gravy and cranberries, at the same time. Trust me on this.
2. To the lady who took the seats from my children in church: I kinda think you may have missed the point of being there. The perfect center seat isn't it...glad my newly-turned-5 year old gets it.
3. Some lessons have to be learned by experience, no matter your age. For me, recently, this was the need for exercise and a good diet. Two weeks off and my body started shutting down. One day back and, amazingly, things have completely turned around. No more skipping morning runs for this lady. I've heard it all my life but to see it played out so clearly was perspective-changing.
4. Pre-teen sass may be my kryptonite. I've had more in the last month than I care to stomach. And goodness, we're just beginning. Right now I'm trying to understand how I became the bad guy when I'm not the one dealt the punishment for disobedience. Somehow...always my fault. Luke says we need to get the devil out of her...I'm thinking of dosing her food with midol. (Not really on both accounts).
5. Making things like turkey soup from a leftover bird makes me feel ever so pioneer-like. Ma Ingalls and I might as well be enjoying a rare chat and a cup of coffee.
That's it. Maybe I'll get something a bit more lofty, or at the very least organized into complete thoughts, later.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Eating a new way and Oatmeal Flax Muffins
Pushing through the habit of not-blogging...we'll take whatever we can get these days...
In my never-ending quest to be healthier, I've started changing the way my kids eat. I'm hoping that while I'm working on my own diet and exercise habits, I can teach them to make good choices, teach them to crave the good simply because it's good, teach them that food is fuel not happiness, and ultimately break some generational sin before it starts. After searching and researching, Luke and I are working on feeding our kids whole-foods, cutting out processed and artificial junk. He and are eating similarly but with a few more restrictions to aide in fat-reduction. Fortunately, none of our kids have allergies so this particular way of eating is easy for us to implement. There is no one right way. We picked a way of eating that was sustainable for our lifestyle, was easy to teach our kids and would be easy for them to sustain for the duration (hoping they choose to!).
This has NOT been an easy transition in many ways. Whole foods mean more fruits and veggies, which for kids who think the only fruit is a banana and that veggies are sent from God as punishment has been torturous at times. Every now and then, like this morning, I get glimmers of hope as I see them devouring good like it's a treat; chinks in their crappy food armor!
This morning we had Oatmeal and Flax seed muffins. I found the recipe here.
(not my muffins...picture from the recipe site.)
I made a few changes from the original recipe. One, I didn't have buttermilk so I made my own (real milk and a little lemon juice). Two, I was completely out of berries (and pretty much everything else perishable since I haven't been to the grocery store since Noah was a boy)...hence the need to make muffins...so I subbed chocolate chips (just a few...call it bait for the kids if you will). Three, I subbed maple syrup for brown sugar. We are really trying to get our kids used to alternative sweeteners, ones that are more natural like local honey and maple syrup (less processed than sugar). I know that sugar is sugar, regardless the source, and our bodies process it all the same; but we are trying to reduce the amount of processing our foods get. Maple syrup and local honey get messed with less from source to table (or muffins in this case).
This recipe was a HUGE success. My kids devoured them and no one said anything about the sprinkled ground flax seed on top, the oatmeal within or the lack of "real" sugar. It helps that these were in muffin form...I'm beginning to think I could feed them anything in muffin form!
One step closer...that's my every day outlook for this change. Every day is one step closer that turns this into a lifestyle for all of us.
And I promise I won't turn this into a cooking blog with recipes all the time...just when I'm in a blogging rut!
In my never-ending quest to be healthier, I've started changing the way my kids eat. I'm hoping that while I'm working on my own diet and exercise habits, I can teach them to make good choices, teach them to crave the good simply because it's good, teach them that food is fuel not happiness, and ultimately break some generational sin before it starts. After searching and researching, Luke and I are working on feeding our kids whole-foods, cutting out processed and artificial junk. He and are eating similarly but with a few more restrictions to aide in fat-reduction. Fortunately, none of our kids have allergies so this particular way of eating is easy for us to implement. There is no one right way. We picked a way of eating that was sustainable for our lifestyle, was easy to teach our kids and would be easy for them to sustain for the duration (hoping they choose to!).
This has NOT been an easy transition in many ways. Whole foods mean more fruits and veggies, which for kids who think the only fruit is a banana and that veggies are sent from God as punishment has been torturous at times. Every now and then, like this morning, I get glimmers of hope as I see them devouring good like it's a treat; chinks in their crappy food armor!
This morning we had Oatmeal and Flax seed muffins. I found the recipe here.
(not my muffins...picture from the recipe site.)
I made a few changes from the original recipe. One, I didn't have buttermilk so I made my own (real milk and a little lemon juice). Two, I was completely out of berries (and pretty much everything else perishable since I haven't been to the grocery store since Noah was a boy)...hence the need to make muffins...so I subbed chocolate chips (just a few...call it bait for the kids if you will). Three, I subbed maple syrup for brown sugar. We are really trying to get our kids used to alternative sweeteners, ones that are more natural like local honey and maple syrup (less processed than sugar). I know that sugar is sugar, regardless the source, and our bodies process it all the same; but we are trying to reduce the amount of processing our foods get. Maple syrup and local honey get messed with less from source to table (or muffins in this case).
This recipe was a HUGE success. My kids devoured them and no one said anything about the sprinkled ground flax seed on top, the oatmeal within or the lack of "real" sugar. It helps that these were in muffin form...I'm beginning to think I could feed them anything in muffin form!
One step closer...that's my every day outlook for this change. Every day is one step closer that turns this into a lifestyle for all of us.
And I promise I won't turn this into a cooking blog with recipes all the time...just when I'm in a blogging rut!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
My perspective on His glory
Told ya I was trying to get into a rhythm...
We sang it in church Sunday. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. I've probably said those words hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times over the years. Take my life and let it be yours. On a practical level, it's the declaration we make when we surrender to the lordship of Christ. But there's a chasm of difference between saying it and understanding it...at least for me. I expected hardships, tough times. I expected to weather storms and that those storms would be for His glory. But what about when the storms cease? What about when the waves are calm but the trajectory of your journey isn't what you'd choose? Then it isn't so easy to proclaim loudly that your life is all for the glory of someone else.
There are so many positive connotations with the word glory that it's difficult to imagine that the unpleasant would actually, could actually, bring glory to God. And yet, somehow, it does. Not the unpleasant that is the wretched and awful...that's not what I mean. The unpleasant that is just not what we wanted, not what we chose. The thing I've come to realize over the past 2 years is that the point of everything, all of it, is for His glory. The day-in-day-out occurrences that seem to me to carry so much weight are really nothing but ways to bring God glory.
Why did we adopt? To bring God glory. Why aren't we moving? To bring God glory. Why do we make lunches for kids in another school? To bring God glory. Why don't we participate in our homeschool coop? To bring God glory. Why did my daughter pitch a royal fit in the store? To bring God glory. Why did I wake up this morning? To bring God glory. The end of all of it is simply yet profoundly to bring God glory. Simple. Huge.
I'm sure this is an easy topic for most, but for me, I've found myself telling God "no this isn't bad, I just don't want it to be this way." And that's when the weight of what I say hits hard and heavy. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. And yet it's so freeing...I don't have to worry about getting everything right. I just have one goal, to bring him glory.
Glory to God forever...
We sang it in church Sunday. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. I've probably said those words hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times over the years. Take my life and let it be yours. On a practical level, it's the declaration we make when we surrender to the lordship of Christ. But there's a chasm of difference between saying it and understanding it...at least for me. I expected hardships, tough times. I expected to weather storms and that those storms would be for His glory. But what about when the storms cease? What about when the waves are calm but the trajectory of your journey isn't what you'd choose? Then it isn't so easy to proclaim loudly that your life is all for the glory of someone else.
There are so many positive connotations with the word glory that it's difficult to imagine that the unpleasant would actually, could actually, bring glory to God. And yet, somehow, it does. Not the unpleasant that is the wretched and awful...that's not what I mean. The unpleasant that is just not what we wanted, not what we chose. The thing I've come to realize over the past 2 years is that the point of everything, all of it, is for His glory. The day-in-day-out occurrences that seem to me to carry so much weight are really nothing but ways to bring God glory.
Why did we adopt? To bring God glory. Why aren't we moving? To bring God glory. Why do we make lunches for kids in another school? To bring God glory. Why don't we participate in our homeschool coop? To bring God glory. Why did my daughter pitch a royal fit in the store? To bring God glory. Why did I wake up this morning? To bring God glory. The end of all of it is simply yet profoundly to bring God glory. Simple. Huge.
I'm sure this is an easy topic for most, but for me, I've found myself telling God "no this isn't bad, I just don't want it to be this way." And that's when the weight of what I say hits hard and heavy. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. And yet it's so freeing...I don't have to worry about getting everything right. I just have one goal, to bring him glory.
Glory to God forever...
Monday, November 5, 2012
A different route...for blogging
I sat down to write expecting to find my last post dated sometime in May. I was pleasantly surprised to see I actually blogged once in August. So much has happened that went unblogged...Jack turned 7, I started teaching and then resigned, we joined a homeschool coop and then quit, Grace turned 3, Sam will be 5 in about 15 days, I'm planning my first pre-teen sleepover...talk about writer's block.
And hanging over all this is ADOPTION. It consumes my thoughts almost constantly. And yet I don't think this particular venue is the best place to air anything. Here's my reasoning. Most teenage girls (and even some adult girls-turned-women) struggle with their mother-daughter relationship. My daughters will probably not be an exception to this; I see it as their way of becoming independent women. My girls, however, will also struggle with the knowledge that I'm not the original mom. They will struggle with feelings of inadequacy and not-belonging; it is a chink in their emotional armor so to speak. When life comes at them hard and heavy, and it will, those doubts and fears will speak loud. I don't want anything I say here to add volume to things untrue. I want them to know they are loved, wanted, belong; I certainly don't want them to have to deal with the lasting effects of their mother's selfishness or various neuroses (more than they will from just living with me...). So I haven't really blogged. Haven't really put fingers to keyboard, out of fear of saying the wrong thing.
I'm going to try to get over it...going to try to work it out.
Let's start with moving...
Wow 3 bedrooms and 2 baths become very small when you cram 7 people in them. We did what we thought was logical and put our house on the market. After a very long 18 months with only one insultingly low offer, we took the hint that moving was off the table. Truthfully, I've felt very unnerved by the entire situation. Houses around us were and are selling very quickly. I struggled with frustration at God, not understanding why he wouldn't let us move. And then he called me to read the Old Testament. Actually he told me to read the entire Bible, cover to cover, like the novels I love to teach -- called me to enjoy the story of Him. And it was there, as I began trudging through Leviticus and Numbers, that I realized the why. When God led the Israelites into the desert, he taught them important things like don't eat contaminated meat, take care of your body this way, take care of your dead this way, etc -- all things they would need to know to do themselves, outside the control of the Egyptians they had lived with for 400 years. In essence, He was teaching them to be a people group, a self-sustaining people group not guided by the traditions and know-how of another culture. There was purpose in the desert time. Now I'm not saying we are in a desert time...not saying we aren't either. I'm only realizing that perhaps our time here on Crossfield Drive has purpose, beyond just idle waiting.
All this realization didn't answer the question of how we'd know when we were supposed to move, if ever. And of course, the answer was in His story. God moved the Israelites by moving himself. He descended on the Tent of Meeting, his presence visible in the cloud he used to protect the people from his holiness. When it was time to move, He moved the cloud, setting it down in a new location where the people would then set up the Tent of Meeting. The point of this is they moved when He moved and they moved where He moved. Yeah...that right there...that's what I needed to see. It's INSANE to tell people that you and your five children are perfectly happy in a house that feels way too small...or at least they think you are insane, look at you like you are insane, wonder if you are actually insane. But I don't feel quite so crazy anymore, knowing that the presence of God has settled over us here on Crossfield Drive. That to be here is to be where God is, where he needs us to be, for his purpose not ours -- and that perhaps that purpose is to teach us to be our own people group, our own culture, this new family knit together because of adoption.
And hanging over all this is ADOPTION. It consumes my thoughts almost constantly. And yet I don't think this particular venue is the best place to air anything. Here's my reasoning. Most teenage girls (and even some adult girls-turned-women) struggle with their mother-daughter relationship. My daughters will probably not be an exception to this; I see it as their way of becoming independent women. My girls, however, will also struggle with the knowledge that I'm not the original mom. They will struggle with feelings of inadequacy and not-belonging; it is a chink in their emotional armor so to speak. When life comes at them hard and heavy, and it will, those doubts and fears will speak loud. I don't want anything I say here to add volume to things untrue. I want them to know they are loved, wanted, belong; I certainly don't want them to have to deal with the lasting effects of their mother's selfishness or various neuroses (more than they will from just living with me...). So I haven't really blogged. Haven't really put fingers to keyboard, out of fear of saying the wrong thing.
I'm going to try to get over it...going to try to work it out.
Let's start with moving...
Wow 3 bedrooms and 2 baths become very small when you cram 7 people in them. We did what we thought was logical and put our house on the market. After a very long 18 months with only one insultingly low offer, we took the hint that moving was off the table. Truthfully, I've felt very unnerved by the entire situation. Houses around us were and are selling very quickly. I struggled with frustration at God, not understanding why he wouldn't let us move. And then he called me to read the Old Testament. Actually he told me to read the entire Bible, cover to cover, like the novels I love to teach -- called me to enjoy the story of Him. And it was there, as I began trudging through Leviticus and Numbers, that I realized the why. When God led the Israelites into the desert, he taught them important things like don't eat contaminated meat, take care of your body this way, take care of your dead this way, etc -- all things they would need to know to do themselves, outside the control of the Egyptians they had lived with for 400 years. In essence, He was teaching them to be a people group, a self-sustaining people group not guided by the traditions and know-how of another culture. There was purpose in the desert time. Now I'm not saying we are in a desert time...not saying we aren't either. I'm only realizing that perhaps our time here on Crossfield Drive has purpose, beyond just idle waiting.
All this realization didn't answer the question of how we'd know when we were supposed to move, if ever. And of course, the answer was in His story. God moved the Israelites by moving himself. He descended on the Tent of Meeting, his presence visible in the cloud he used to protect the people from his holiness. When it was time to move, He moved the cloud, setting it down in a new location where the people would then set up the Tent of Meeting. The point of this is they moved when He moved and they moved where He moved. Yeah...that right there...that's what I needed to see. It's INSANE to tell people that you and your five children are perfectly happy in a house that feels way too small...or at least they think you are insane, look at you like you are insane, wonder if you are actually insane. But I don't feel quite so crazy anymore, knowing that the presence of God has settled over us here on Crossfield Drive. That to be here is to be where God is, where he needs us to be, for his purpose not ours -- and that perhaps that purpose is to teach us to be our own people group, our own culture, this new family knit together because of adoption.
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