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Flowers Make Me Happy

I love how flowers always bring a smile to my face.  Whether they are given to me by my sweet husband, picked for me by my darling little girls or cut for me by yours truely.  They always make me feel happy.  The other day I really wanted to bring some beautiful blooms into our house and I cut a bunch of what ever these are.  I rarely know the names of the flower I grow, but I don't really care about that.  I just like the color.  As I was looking for vases, I found this one (on the right) that my dad had given to me.  

We always had a tire swing in the front yard when I was growing up.   I spent hours and hours swinging on it and pushing all the kids from the neighborhood on it.  Every year my dad would try to make it better and safer for us.  They were all awesome.  A few years ago at a craft show with my mom, my dad found this vase.  It was beautifully hand crafted with a tire swing on the front.  My parents loved it but didn't want to buy it.  Later my dad went back and bought it and gave it to me.  Everytime I see it, I think of the fun times on our tire swing.

Lilacs (I actually do know the name of these) are my favorite flower.  We had a huge lilac tree next to our house growing up.  In the sping when they were blooming, the house would smell heavenly with their scent.  I have since bought two lilac bushes and I wait all year long for the scent of them in the spring.  They too bring back sweet memories.  I want to bottle up their scent and make my whole house smell like it.

Oh the joy that God must feel as we love and appreciate the things that He makes for us!

What to do. . . What to do

 So it has been a long time since I have posted.   My life gets busy and unfortunately this is one of the things that I want to do but just can't fit in very well.

Lately I have been thinking about my priorities in life.  What I want to make time for and what I need to let go.  I keep dwelling on what things are important to me.  There are so many things in life that I want to do.  I know I can't do everything and I don't really want to.  I just feel pulled in so many directions right now and don't want to just give a little bit to everything and do nothing well.  I have work life, church life, family life and friendships to balance.

For quite awhile I feel as though I am not really doing any of them well.  Where ever I am I want to give 100%.  When I can't do that, it makes me feel like I am floundering.  I am trying to back up and reevaluate my life through God's eyes.  His are the only ones that matter.  I don't want to get to the end of my life and have Him say, "You tried really hard to do a lot of things, but none of it matters.  You didn't serve me."  I want to serve Him here and now.  If I don't make time to do that, if I don't prioritize my time to do what honors Him, I won't ever accomplish what God wants me to do.

So, what are my priorities in life?  What things do I really want to do?  I want to try to find the things that I need to cut back on, things that aren't that important in the long run.  These things weigh me down.  Then I need to decide what is really important and make it the main focus of my life.

I am a child of God.  He has saved me and rescued me from a life of meaninglessness.  I know that I am placed here to serve Him, to praise and worship Him, and to share His love with others.  I want to make an impact for Christ here and now.
I want to:
*Make time every day to be in the Word of God
*Spend time teaching my girls the truths of God and reading the Bible to them
*Collect cereal boxes for those in Haiti
*Supporting missions and missionaries
*Praying for those in need
*Building relationships with those around me
*Manna house: Do more photo shoots, pamper parties, raise money to provide things that will bless these dear ladies.

I am a wife and a mommy.  My inmost circle is my husband and my two daughters.  God has given them to me and I absolutely love them.  I need to make sure that I am building relationships with them and growing closer each day to them.
I want to:
*Go on date nights with my sweet husband
*Read to my children every day
*Take time to play with my kids-go to the park, the library and on walks with them
*Make delicious and healthy food for them
*Keep a clean and organized home where they can feel safe and welcome
*Go camping
*Tell them every day how much I love them and show them in little ways all throughout the day

I want to build my relationships with my friends and family.  I feel that this area suffers the most.  Life gets too busy and all of a sudden I realize that I haven't really spent time with the people that are the closest to me.  I don't want to be too busy to fellowship with those I love.
I want to:
*Have a game night once a month with my side of the family and one with Chris' side of the family.
*Plan fun outings where a bunch of our friends can get together and do life.
    - Bubble party at the park: Bring picnic lunches and all our bubble stuff and just have fun
    - Go to the beach with friends or family.
    -Build picnic tables with any that want to.
    - Have more bonfires in our backyard.  Hang out and roast smore's.
    -Have more BBQ's with friends.

I am also a nurse.  I am currently a Staff Nurse III.  This brings more responsibility and more of a time commitment to my job.   I have an extra meeting once a month to attend and I can rarely do anything extra that they ask.  I just don't have time to do it.  I am supposed to be heading up a mock code team.  This has fallen apart simply because I don't have the time to commit to it.  Plus meeting are always on a day that I am sleeping because I have worked the night before.  I am on our partnership council.  I love it, but meeting are on days where I work.  I get less sleep and it is conflicting with Chris' radio station.  I have to ask someone to babysit or take my children to the meeting.  I love my work and totally enjoy it. I don't love feeling that I want or should be doing more and just don't have the time to do it.  I am seriously considering stepping down from being a Staff Nurse III.  I will still work extremely hard to excell as a nurse whether it is taking care of my dear little treasures or being charge nurse and running to deliveries.  I will still be a transport nurse and learn how to take care of babies that need body cooling to save their precious brains.  I am just really considering not taking so much time out of my life to focus on extra things at work.  No decisions have been made, but I am praying about what I need to do.

I love figuring out stuff as I am writing.  Journaling always does that.  Now, on to focus on all that is truely important and let go of all the other stuff.

Birch Tree's for My Little Girls Room

Hannah's room got a makeover.  We started with vinyl stickers for her room.

We painted the walls and started with a fresh canvas.

Chris and I worked for around 3 hours to put up the vinyl trees.  We peeled off the paper and rubbed the stickers off the contact paper and onto the wall.

Each leaf and bird is a separate sticker.  It is kind of cool since you can put them where ever you want.

We split up the three trees onto two walls.  Love how it turned out.

The squirrels and birds make these trees so darling.

Here is the link to the darling decals.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79727093/baby-nursery-wall-decals-nursery-baby?ref=v1_other_1

Little Girls Funny Sayings

Bekah likes red apples. The green ones are dumb unless they have peanut butter on them, then they are not dumb. I asked her if she meant sour instead of dumb. She did! Love it!

We are watching Lightning the Queen according to Bekah, or Lightning the Cream per Hannah. They can never get his name right. 

Mary, a wiseman, a sheep, a donkey and a camel have been missing from the kids nativity set since before Christmas. I went through every logical place they might be. Finally gave up and hoped they weren't buried in the back yard or eaten by the dog. Just found them all today. Bekah hid them all in daddy's computer bag. I figured one of the kids hid them some where-just couldn't figure out where.

Hannah saw me with a towel on my head after my shower this morning. She said with all the seriousness and honesty of a three year old, "Mommy, you look kind of wicked with that thing on your head."

I found Hannah standing over the toilet, toothpaste and tooth brush in hand. She decided to get up extra early and "clean" the toilet with Dora bubble gum toothpaste. Nice! At least our bathroom smells extra yummy and it got a good cleaning.

On our walk, Bekah ran up to me and said, "Max and I am getting married!" I responded, "Oh, did he just ask you to marry him?" Bekah said, "Yes! We are getting married when we grow up." I said, "Wow, can you at least wait until you are done with college?" She laughed and road off on her scooter.

Bekah and Hannah were trying to wash their dresses in the bathroom sink. When I went to check on them, water was pouring out from under the bathroom door. The girls were standing at the sink naked and giggling while they splashed in the water. There was water EVERYWHERE! Oh the joys of being a mommy.

Quotes from January 2012: Life is never dull at our house. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Water Balloon Bath Tub Fun

I saw a post on Play at Home Mom that I loved.  Play at Home Mom: Water Balloon Bath   The momma gave her kids water balloons to play with in the bathtub.  At first I thought it was kind of a weird thing to do.   Who would ever do that?  Then I decided to try it with my kids and they loved it.

I tried actual water balloons and they were really, really hard to fill up with my faucet.  (they were the very tiny ones)  Then I found regular balloons and bigger water balloons.  In each balloon I put different colors of food coloring.  The girls had fun guessing what colors where in each balloon.  They had fun using scissors to cut a hole in each one and watching the colors spray all over.

This time I changed it up and gave each little girl one balloon filled with hot water and one with cold.

They had fun playing with them and feeling the different temperatures on their cheeks.  It is a great tactile activity for kids.

"The blue is so cold, mommy.  The red one is really warm."

Concentrating on using the scissors.  This is a great hands on activity that has instant feed back.  The moment a hole is cut, water squirts out and surprises them.

This is such a simple, inexpensive thing to do with kids in the bath tub.  They both ask every bath time if they can play with the water balloons in the bath tub.  The girls play catch with them and invent all kinds of games to play.  Try it once and bathtime will never be the same!!!!

Garbage Collecting on Our Walk

The girls love nothing more than to go on a walk by the creek.  As we walk, the girls always notice the trash.  After being bothered by it, I finally decided to just go pick it up and do so with my girls.  They absolutely loved picking up trash.  It is like a treasure hunt for them.

Each of the girls got a bag and ran around finding trash to fill up.

They are so sad to see that people actually litter on the ground.  

Of course we have to stop and see the sheep on our walk.

It was a good thing I brought the wagon.  We found a ton of trash and card board.  The girls balanced the card board and worked together to get the trash home.

Here is all the trash from just one little walk.  I love the happy and proud looks on their faces.  I love walking on a clean path too.

Just think how much good we can do if everyone does their part?  Kids can make a difference if you let them.

Prayer Bulletin Board

Last year after a Missions Sunday at our church, I was trying to figure out a way to help our family pray more consistantly for our missionaries.  I remembered that my mom had set up a world map with missionaries pictures around it in our dinning room. We would pray for a missionary every dinner.  We were able to see their families and look on the map to see where they served the Lord.

I decided to try that with my family.  I went to the local teachers store and bought a small bulletin board, a world map and some pins.  The whole thing cost about $20 dollars.  We cut the world out and pinned it up.  That Sunday I got a few prayer cards from the missionaries that had spoken.  So we put them up and talked with our little girls about who they were and how they served the Lord in the country they live in.  Then we put up the pictures those we support.  This has been a great way for the girls to remember to pray for those we support.

We love getting new pictures of our missionaries.  We pray for the Writebol's as they work on the air planes in Africa.  We pray for Jeanne as she works with the children in South East Asia.

We pray for Rommel, our child from Compassion International.  We just started supporting the Child Survival Program in Uganda, Africa.

Mission India is awesome and the girls love seeing the passport to India on their website.  It is important to help the kids learn about who we are praying for and how they serve the Lord.

How does your family remember to pray for missionaries or others that need your prayers?

Energy Bites

I am constantly looking for healthy gluten free food to make for my family and me.  As I was purusing through pinterest, where else would I be?, I came upon something called Energy Bites.  I had never heard of these before but they looked interesting.  I could easily make them gluten free and super healthy too.  So I pulled up the recipe and made a batch.  As I was putting it in the fridge, I stole a taste.  It was so good and delicious that I immediately made another double batch.  Since then I make a triple batch each time I make them and always have some on hand in the freezer.  They are a quick, healthy and fillilng treat for the girls.  I actually take 3 or 4 as part of my lunch at work.  These are amazing and fun to make.  The girls love to help me make them.  We work on clean technique ( such as not licking the spoon and putting it back in the bowl), measuring ingredients, counting, stirring, sweeping (if they have helped stir), and working as a team. The girls call them injury bites since they keep forgetting how to say energy.   Silly girls!!    Here is the link to make these for your family.
http://fooddoodles.com/2011/06/28/one-bowl-all-natural-no-bake-energy-bites/
Bekah measures the oats and spreads them on a sheet to toast.

Here are most of the ingredients we used in this batch.

Hannah works on adding the honey to the bowl.

This is a great hands on activity to build motor skills.  Bekah works very hard on getting out the peanut butter to fill up the measuring cup.

Hannah loves getting the honey off her hands.

Team work is great thing.

Bekah had to sweep the floor since stirring is very hard work and easy to get the ingredients flying across the room.  Hannah helped with the dust pan and then danced in joy when it was done.

After chilling the dough, it is easiest to use a cookie scoop with a soft back to press the dough into it.

Once they are popped out of the cookie scoop, you can freeze or refrigerate them like this or roll them in a ball. 

This is how much my triple batch made.  Yummy!  I freeze them like this and then put them into a ziplock baggy and store them in the freezer.

For the nut butter, I was just using peanut butter.  Recently I discovered coconut butter and use half of that and half of peanut butter.  It is really good.  I use gluten free Oats so that this is gluten free.  I always add in crasions and/or raisons.  This time I used pistachio nuts as well.  I love adding sesame seeds, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds.  Any thing little and healthy is fun to add in.  Each time I make it, it tastes slightly different.