GrEightful....

Oh this week has been a long one. It is crunch time now for John and he has had papers and assignments galore. Not to mention FINALS are coming up here soon. So the kids and I have had to have a few suppers by ourselves, but soon we will have more time with Dad!

This week I am grateful for:

1.) My husband who is studying and working so hard and has such a huge desire to do well and succeed! I LOVE HIM so much!! :o)

2.) My beautiful little boy who has such a great personality, infectious laugh and adorable imagination. Did you know that I (yes I his mother) am his Princess....oh and he is my cowboy (sometimes my Larry cowboy--depending on his mood). So we walk around all day calling eachother by our new names. It is so funny to hear him call me Princess! :o) Man he cracks me up!

3.) Our little Ms. Smiley! She just melts everyone's hearts with her adorable, infectious smiles. She is such a happy baby!

4.) Great friends and the chance to have supper and spend time with them. They are also very willing to try our international cooking attempts. We had an Asian meal and tried making Bulgolgi (Korean BBQ) for them. It was a huge success!

5.) A super flexible and understanding Bible Study Group!

6.) The Bible and Salvation.

7.) The free "Holidays In Hand" course at Jessica Sprague's website. I am super excited to start some of our own Christmas Traditions and to really try and focus on what the Christmas season means for us and our family. I think this course will really help me focus on what values and beliefs are so extremely important to us. I

8.) Great books that are really speaking to us and helping us to be better parents, better partners and better servants and that are God centered!

One Word

Our church just wrapped up this awesome series called "One Word". Unfortunately we missed a lot of the series, but we were able to catch the last two sermons. Last week the sermon was just amazing! One of those sermons that just spoke to us and that really confirmed a lot of things that we have been praying about and have had to deal with.

You can view the sermon here if you so desire. However I will tell you a bit about the message because I am feeling bold and have this huge desire to share (doesn't happen too often--being bold that is)! :o)

The question the pastor asked was: What is your view of Scripture?

Think about that for a moment.....how do you view scripture. Do you believe in it? Do you think it is just a bunch of stories that have zero relevance for today's times? Is it a piece of history and that is it? Is it God breathed or a bunch of guys who decided to sit around and put together a book? Do you have a high opinion or a low opinion of the Bible? Do you read it, study it, revere it?

I have to be completely honest here, up until I met my wonderful husband and became a Christian, I didn't have a very high opinion of the Bible. It was just a book that made zero sense and that was so hard to read most times and it wasn't relevant, that is what I thought. When I became a Christian, I knew that I needed to start reading it and try and understand it.
My husband (boyfriend at the time I became a Christian) really stressed the importance of reading the Bible and really challenged me. He also really helped me to understand a lot of it and still does. I value his knowledge and I really value the times we have discussing scripture and of course trying to encourage and build one another up so that we can live by the Word (but we are not perfect and we do stumble and trip and fall a lot).

Anyways, the sermon spoke about how your view of Scripture will determine what you do with Scripture; study it, read it, revere it, obey it, spread it. The Bible College instructors that our pastor had, placed such a huge emphasis on the students' view of Scripture (this is not the case in MANY Christian Universities today unfortunately). The instructors taught that the quality of your personal walk with the Lord and the effectiveness of your ministry will be determined by your view of Scripture. WOW!!!

My husband has always quoted this Scripture and it was also a key verse for this series.

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Word is our Sword and our defense. Jesus quoted Scripture over and over again and even used it as his 'sword' when he was tempted by the devil. It was just really cool to see how important the WORD is at our church and how devoted as a church they are in seeing that everyone gets into the Word. The sermon today was amazing too and they taught us a method on how to read and reflect on the Word that I am soooo excited about and have never heard before.

YUMMY...

So last night we had these for supper..........

and they were so delicious!! They are Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos.

My friend Heather had them posted on her blog and I was trying to get together a weekly menu plan (a few days late) and thought that they sounded easy and yummy! We were not disappointed!!

I told John about them and of course the first thing he asked is if they had meat, but they didn't. So naturally I was a little worried as to weather or not he would like them. But he did and he took leftovers for lunch!!

Zech was a different story. He is in this phase where if it doesn't look like something he knows, he won't try it. So it took a bit of pleading and some threatening, as he stated numerous times that he didn't like it but he had not even tried it yet! Erghh. I must say that the book Green Eggs and Ham, has been a life saver. We read it quite a bit and we talk about how he was convinced he didn't like the green eggs and ham, but then he tried it and was pleasantly surprised. I use this lots and it works with Zech!! So once we had a discussion about him either eating his supper or he could go to bed, and then we talked about green eggs and ham, he ate it all up!! Oh the things you go through to get your child to eat healthy! :o)

Just another note. The recipe makes more than enough for a small army. Heather had said that she halfed the recipe and I meant to, but didn't. So I have leftovers. I didn't make enough sweet potatoes, so I put the bean mixture in a tupperware and froze it. We will have it another day when I am in a pinch. Also I had another container of the sweet potato and bean mixture leftover, so i froze lunches for John and we have leftovers. Last, I didn't have kidney beans so I used black beans and it still tasted great.

Hope you get a chance to try these----they really are yummy (and I am not even a big sweet potato fan).

GrEightful

It's been a while since I did one of these lists, so I figured I should do one.

So this week I am grateful for:

1. Nice weather!! Today was 12 degrees and yesterday was 14! For the middle of November I figure that is pretty darn good! (I am so dreading the snow.....)

2. A visit from my Mom! I didn't take a single picture---I can't believe that!!!:o( Mom you will just have to come again so that I can take loads of pictures to make up! :o)

3. A night out with my hubby. We did take GG with us, but we had too as she has been so fussy and unpredictable lately with her teeth. Thanks to Mom and Bill for watching Zech! It was nice to have some 'quieter' time! ;o)

4. Two beautiful kids who I love and cherish more than I can ever put into words!

5. The Bible!

6. A great Bible Study group! We all have kids and we all understand what it is like so this group is laid back, flexible and committed to the Lord!

7. Packages from good friends (thanks to the Vianello's--they are waaayyyy too good to us)! We are so blessed!

8. A great friend who takes awesome pictures! Thanks so much Heather! We are so happy with the pictures you took! She got some awesome ones of the kids that I can't wait to blow up and frame! Check out the sneak peak on her blog.

Genesis at 5 months

Five months already, I know I say this every month, but it really is going by way TOOOO fast!

Genesis at 5 Months:

- weighs 18 lbs. 3 oz.

- is 27 inches long

- wears size 4 disposable diapers (they are a little too big, but no more leaks!)

- is wearing 6-12 month clothing, and some 9 month clothing and some 12 month clothing (no more 6 month clothing)

- has two teeth and is working on some more (she is not a good teether)!

- is sleeping worse than ever. This past month has been horrible!! She is up every two hours!

- started solids and loves her cereal, hates fruit and loves her veggies. She was so ready, but unfortunately it is not helping with the sleeping!!

- Is trying to crawl! She rolls all over the place and she is now going up on her knees. She also does the worm quite well and pulls herself forward (too fast---ahhhhh I am not ready for this!).

- Is still our little smiley monkey. She is such a happy baby!

- Loves her bathtime still.

- Is finally on some sort of a schedule during the day. Naps in the morning around 10 and then in the afternoon around 2:00. (our afternoon naps are still all over the place as that is generally when we go out and have play dates or shopping, errands, etc.)

- Loves her big brother and he adores her. They are so stinkin cute together!

- Doesn't want to be in her exersaucer anymore. :o(

- Likes stories and loves when we sing songs.

- Loves our prayer time---she just smiles and giggles the whole time when her brother says his prayers.

- Is very vocal lately.

- Adores her daddy and gets so excited when he comes home.

- LOVES her Jolly Jumper and could spend all day in it. She is crazy and she gets air in the thing!

- Is starting to get massive amounts of hair. Ok, she has always had hair, but it has really started to come in now and fill in those bald spots! :o)

- Is starting to get angry when we take a toy away or when she can't have something that she thinks she should have.

- We have had to let her cry it out a couple of times now as she is a little spoiled and the minute we walk out the door she loses it. You step back in and she is fine--silly monkey!

- Had a playdate with her friend Hannah and her brother Michael. Hannah and Genesis hung out in the exersauces together. It was cute and we both forgot our cameras! :o(

ICED PUMPKIN COOKIES

So we had these a few weeks ago at our small groups hosts place and they were DELICIOUS. Then my friend posted this recipe on facebook and was raving at how great they were. So now Zechy and I are going to make them (minus the icing as I don't have the ingredients on hand and everybody said they were just as good without it) and I thought I would share this yummy recipe with all of you! Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Happy be-lated Halloween...

Ok, so I am not a huge fan of Halloween. It isn't a true holiday and through commercialism it has grown so much over the past few years. I mean just take a look at all of the decorations available now. I am shocked at how some houses go all out for Halloween, some more-so for Halloween than for Christmas for example.

Last year was the first year we took Zech out and he enjoyed it, the candy presented a bit of a problem. I eventually just threw it out. It's a drug! I can't believe how much his behaviour is affected by it--even moreso now that he knows what it is! This year we were planning on going to a mall--or a local church here in town that was holding a carnival, but we didn't due to being extremely exhausted and run down and with all the H1N1 hoopla, we stayed in, safe and sound. We had a family night, with nachos and wings, a few treats and VEGGIE TALES!! Zech LOVES the Veggie Tale movies and they are not too scary! :o)

I did however, have costumes for the kids. Genesis was Marie the cat (thanks to the Vianello family) and Zech was a viking (total last minute costume).

We went to the Urban Treehouse here with a friend and it was awesome! The kids had a blast. They had a little theater area with dress-up clothes and Zech put the Knight costume on and wouldn't take it off. It was hilarious. So the next day while we were shopping for our Christmas boxes, Zech found the viking hat and a sword and there was his costume. I had some old material from a bellydancing costume kicking around so I pulled out my trusty sewing machine and made a vest for him. He thought it was the greatest thing. John had to buy a sword for himself so they could joust! However, the sword always seems to be drawn towards beating on his sister (thank goodness it is foam), so we have had to lay some rules and even take the sword away.

Hope that everyone had a safe night and now we can move on to the real holidays! ;o)