Grilled Brie and Apple Sandwiches: An Easy Dinner Idea

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I just majorly botched a batch of humus I was working on- So bad that it is going straight into the trash.  SO, to make myself feel better I thought I would do a quick post on last nights dinner, because unlike my humus, it was a SUCCESS!

This was easy, so so yummy, and a good balanced meal for everyone.

I used whole wheat organic bread (Rudi’s Bakery brand-it is my FAVORITE!), a mix of thinly sliced gala and granny smith apples, and 1 oz of brie on each sandwich enough to taste but not too much for fat and calories).  I sprayed each one with some cooking spray and grilled it up.  The cheese got all gooey and melty and the apples stayed nice and crisp. So good.

I served it with roasted asparagus and tomatoes.  We just sprayed them with a little olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven on 400 for about 10 min or so.

Everyone loved it, except my Joshy who ate what he eats for EVERY MEAL, he even asks for it for breakfast(although I don’t comply)- Mac and Cheese!  I tell you what, nothing we try works with this one.  Oh well, baby steps, right?

Happy Monday everyone!

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My Weekend Project and A New Section on the Blog

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We are getting healthy over here!

My life the past 2 weeks has been learning this new language of REAL FOOD.  And I am going to be honest and tell you that IT IS NOT EASY!  I teared up in the grocery store last night because I was JUST OVERWHELMED.  Like anything new, this new language can seem, well, totally foreign.  I find myself reading labels, looking at prices, and doubting. Feeling like I can’t do this, but isn’t that just where He wants me?

This new food thing- nutrition stewardship it’s with Him, and for Him, and by Him really…

It has been about 2 years since I began to think about what we were REALLY eating (not just the fat and calories) but the actual food of it (or lack there of).  And in those days it seemed crazy, these health nuts spending all this time and money on health food.  It almost seemed like an elitist society that I was NOT a part of.

But then the Lord began showing me truth.  That when he created us, he had a way of living in these bodies, of nourishing them and enjoying them.  He has had a plan all along.  It’s just that we are so FAR, I mean really far from that first day when he breathed life into Adam and pulled Eve from his rib that it can seem foolishness to us…

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…

ooo, yeah, that got me too, I have never looked at it like that.

Like PART OF HIS PLAN, like it mattered to Him what I put in my mouth or my kids mouths, but then aren’t we his temples?  And aren’t these earth suits the vehicle for HIS WORK and for HIS GLORY to shine forth?

SO THEN HIM NOT CARING WOULD BE FOOLISH.  THIS IS HIS HOUSE AFTER ALL.

So, to us it may seem foolish, but it’s not, just like the gospel – it can bring life to this body that He made.  It isn’t intended to be a legalistic burden but a way to walk in- a way that brings LIFE, better life, fuller life- the way He intended.

SO, here is where I am… baby steps.

I mean little tiny baby steps, trying to walk this road and put my feet in the prints that He is laying ahead of me. Working toward being a better steward of our bodies: mine, my husbands, and my kids.

Just like home education or finances this is another area we are asking that He lead us and direct our path.

So, you wanna come along?  OF COURSE YOU DO!  Ha, well you may, or you may not, but starting today I am going to be adding this journey to my blog posts.  You will find all these posts in a new section called Nutrition Stewardship right there next to the Homeschooling link in the top menu bar.

Now, let me just clarify by saying I AM NO EXPERT, I think we have covered that. I have fed my kids every kind of processed food out there and I have a definite soft spot for Cool Ranch Doritos!  But I do think there is power in the journey and discovery of truth and so that is what I am going to be sharing.  Little tips, recipes that I find and try, and ways I am using this new language to help disciple my children in the ways of the Lord.

Ok. So, with that said let me share our step one: the clean out:

We spent the weekend cleaning out our pantry, fridge, and freezer with the goal of eliminating everything that contained: partially hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, and any colored dyes like red#40.  Now we did keep a couple of things like the Gatorade for when kids are sick.  But for the most part we did it.

We also re-did our snack bin.  I have a bin that the kids can choose from for an “on their own snack” when I don’t have time to put something together in the kitchen.

So we are made over!  Our house is cleaner and our pantry is MUCH MUCH LIGHTER! I am excited as we work on adding in the things that need replacing and get some new things as we work on eating simple, more whole food.

And here is where the overwhelm comes…

I am trying to do this whole eating thing along with weight watchers for both hubby and me.  So my goal is meals that everyone will eat, that will be packed with healthy whole food, but that will still be low enough in points for us to keep losing the extra pounds.

This is the second phase of our little plan we have concocted.  I switched from Jenny Craig about 3 weeks ago when I couldn’t eat that processed lab created food anymore.  It was a HUGE blessing to help me get off my first 20lbs.  But now we are moving in a different direction.  I am down another 6 since switching so 26 in total and hubby is down 25.  He is leaving his nutri-system food to join me on this path of whole food eating too.

So there you have it, here we are, and here we go!  I hope you will come along with us and that our journey can serve as a blessing to you along yours!

 

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K is for Kangaroo: No Sew Pouches with Little Joeys

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This was such a fun project!  What I liked most about it is how it correlated to our words to remember in My Fathers World K unit: “I am safe in God”  We talked about how joeys like to stay safe in the pouch of their mothers.  And how we can do the same thing with God.  Through obedience and living out His words from the bible, we too can stay under the protection of the Lord.  We talked about how life is still hard and hard things will come our way, but that when we remain in Him He will equip us to handle those things.

It was just a great hands on visual lesson in “remaining in Him”

The kids loved wearing their pouches around and I think ALL their legs got a good workout because they were hopping around like crazy people all day!

Here is your how to:

What you need:

  • Left over fabric (or buy the little quilting squares from Joanna’s for $1)
  • Pillow stuffing or cotton balls
  • Ribbon
  • Hot glue gun with glue sticks
  • Fabric markers or sharpies

Making Joeys:

1. Print out the kangaroo template at the bottom of this post and cut it out.

2. Trace around it about 1/4 inch outside of the actual template onto your fabric-that way when you glue it, it still keeps it shape.  Fold the fabric so you get 2 sides of your kangaroo when you cut it out.

3. Then hot glue the edges together (i put my glue gun on low setting so i didn’t roast my fingers when I pressed it together) leaving a small opening to stuff it.  Stuff it with your filling and seal it up with hot glue.

4. Decorate the joey with markers

Making Pouches:

1. Using pinking sheers cut out a “u” shape pouch again using 2 sides of your fabric.

2. Glue the pouch together leaving the top open

3. Cut a ribbon the size you need to wrap around and tie at the waist.  Glue the back top of the pouch to the ribbon.  Use extra ribbon to decorate the top if you want, I made little loops using the hot glue every inch or so.

4. Then just tie it on, put in the joey, and away they hop!

I love how they got little frayed edges from all the love they received, it makes them look almost vintage.

You can download the joey pattern here.

Happy Crafting!

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Field Day at Co-Op

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We had a fun morning having a field day at our homeschool Co-op.  So thankful for sweet friends and good fellowship.  Mama might need it more than anyone!  Here is some of our fun…

Sweaty sack races

Beautiful bouncing curls

He wanted to do this so badly. He is meaning serious business right about now…

Go Joshy Go!

Mi Mi maken it happen 

Oh Mrs. Melanie, what a blessing you are, I LOVE this picture!

A good old fashion game of tug o war 

May Grey and Dot Dot, the names say it all!

Too cute! 

Thankful for new friends 

Playing with the egg from the egg and spoon game. 

He was in his element

A good day, now onto dinner!  Blessings all…

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Lost in TranSLAYtion: The Sin of Ingratitude

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We all do it, starting with Eve on down the line to us, we have all chosen ingratitude.  Some of us choose it daily, some muck around in it for years building our lives on it, like a shaky corner-stone crumbling beneath our own weight.  No matter where you are on that spectrum – we are all INGRATES.  We come by it honestly.  Since the fall of man it has been part of our DNA - what is passed down in us, through us.  That thing, that chasm wide and deep, separating us from HIM.   It can look like a lot of other things, it can masquerade as discontent, selfishness, depression, the advancement of self, protection from fear, but in the end IT IS ALL INGRATITUDE.

I am just getting this – waking to it for the first time, like the mud and HIS spit have just this moment fallen away and my eyes, for the first time, CAN REALLY SEE.  It feels slippery – like I can’t quite hold it yet.  Ingratitude is SIN, raw ugly bitter sin.  It was the original sin that sent Adam and Eve running in shame from the Garden, slumped, defeated, and alone.  The decision that what God had provided wasn’t enough.  That they just needed more…

Sound familiar?  I know it rings in my ears, my daily struggle to say yes to what His hand holds for me.  To open my hand to it and not plan and ponder for more or other.  Not looking to the right or left.  I hear Him daily say, like he did to Peter, “what is that to you? You follow me!”

We want equality, justice, our own ideas of how things should work out, I CLING TO THESE THINGS.  I pray my ideas are His, but sometimes, a lot of times, they aren’t.

The thing is, that ingratitude doesn’t just exist, it has to be birthed, born, brought to life.  And it’s life is given in our listening to and believing the wrong tranSLAYtion of the truth.  Like Eve our ears are ever attentive to the serpent: the master TranSLAYtor of them all.  Taking the truth and twisting it just that 20% or so.  Not enough to be blatant and in your face, just enough to sound really good but be TOTALLY WRONG. Did He really say, “you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

Do you hear it?

The seemingly small 20% degree slant that changed EVERYTHING?  ”you must not eat of any trees?”  That subtle tranSLAYtion of God’s truth plants the seed of ingratitude.  It pits us against Him- Eve against her maker, provider and lover.  Makes Him look like the withholder, not the giver that He really is.

Satan “the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made” is a master tranSLAYtor.  His words breathed out of hot hatred and fire are meant to SLAY you.  Meant to take the life-giving truth he knows will bring us life and turn it on its head and use those same words to level us without our even knowing it.

So when I think, “uhhh it’s raining again, and the kids are restless, and I am tired and want to see the sun, and I don’t like this day.” I have listened to the wrong script.  I have birthed the lie and taken what was given for watering life, and rest for slowing my frantic pace and I have stomped on it, and thrown it away and labeled it NOT GOOD ENOUGH.  I have believed the lie and then birthed it through my own thoughts, words, and deeds.  I have sinned in my ingratitude and pitted myself against my loving Father who ultimately just wants to give me good things.

There is only 1 truth to live by and one tranSLAYtion that lies to us all.  There isn’t middle ground here, it is either from God and therefore good or it isn’t.

Which one are you building your life on?  The ingratitude that seems to form the very culture all around us?  Those who place brick after brick trying to seek out their own way and plan and plot to make sure they get what they want – what they think they deserve?  Believing the lie that the One who made us is withholding from us and can’t really be trusted?  That traSLAYtion is easy to hear because it screams from tv’s, and newspapers, and friends, and family, and from our own rotten flesh.

The only hope we have of not believing the wrong translation, of not birthing the lie, is to live Thankful and to practice purposeful gratitude.

Not the gratitude that overflows out of emotion because you are so happy over this or that. But the kind that flips the script and throws it in the face of the lying tranSLAYtor.  By opening your hand and saying thank you to the author of the Truth.  Thank you for everything.  For the coffee by my side, and the music playing in my ears.  For the long days, and sick kids, and trials that drag on for years, and for the pain of this life that KEEPS ME COMING BACK TO YOU.

The only way to live in truth is to also live in gratitude.

It helps us hear the subtle twist that is aimed at annihilating us.  It helps us see the deceiver for what he is and to TAKE OUR FATHER at HIS WORD, and build on HIS TRUTH, not some version of it, but the real thing-solid and unchanging.

Gratitude is our way back to the garden.  It is choosing to see His love letter written to us daily in each moment in all the little things.  It is ultimately our redemption.

But before we are redeemed, transformed – from ingrates to worshipers with open hands- we have to see it.  To open our blinded crusty human eyes to the great separation that ingratitude really brings.  And instead choose to see it all as GIFT and GRACE coming from the hand of our Father.  We have to hear it, live in it, SPEAK IT, write it.

Embrace the TRUTH of gratitude.

That all things are from Him and that He is loving us in all these moments in all these ways day after day.  In the small and big and painful and hard and wonderful, IN IT ALL, no matter how it feels.

Ahhh that one hurts… no matter how it feels HE is loving us Home.  Calling us unto Him.

And so we choose GRATITUDE and THANKFULNESS as our posture, as our angle, as our TRANSLATION.  And we build our lives on it, one love letter at a time, counting each day all the ways that He loves us – giving thanks for each one.





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Joshua 1:7 Police Birthday Party With Free Printables

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It has been almost a month since we celebrated our first-born turning 6, but I haven’t had the time to get this post together until now. We usually do smaller family parties, but this year we decided to bless Caleb with a full-blown shin-dig with a bounce house, friends, family, and party favors. He is a very social little guy and is also my big helper around here and so we felt like this would be a great opportunity to show him how much we appreciate him and how proud we are of the godly man he is growing up to be.

He chose the Police theme and I chose to add in the verse from Joshua to make it more than just fun.  This is my first time adding in a verse for a theme party, but I LOVE THIS IDEA and am planning on doing it from now on. It is a great way to shine the light of Christ to those who come to the party and to also give the one you’re celebrating something to learn and grow in, what a great gift!

So without further ado here are some highlights from our police party.  As always this was all done on a small budget and most of it homemade.

At the end of the post I am including some of the files I used for the party for you: a blank invite and envelope, the Joshua 1:7 badge (for magnets or labels), and also our thank you labels. My prayer is that these would be a blessing to you and help you throw a meaningful and fun party for someone you love.

I made a badge for the door out of silver foam core and some scrapbook stickers.  Then just printed out our theme verse and added it to the door.

I used a police scrapbook sticker kit to make a little Officer Caleb by just attaching a picture for his head and hung him from our chandelier.

I used these little wooden cars from Hobby Lobby to decorate the tree on my island where I served the food

 

 

 

A homemade police belt for the birthday boy. This whole set up was around $40 at the party store, so I made my own. All you need is a black belt, a police kit from the dollar store, and book rings from an office supply store. Just hole punch your belt with as many spaces you need to hang things from and then attach the items using the book rings. If you already have a belt than it would only cost a few dollars for the police stuff and rings!

Pre-decorated cake. I just made a 2 layer sheet cake and carved it to resemble the shape of a car

To decorate I bought the Wilton spray color in the can for the blue and silver and then just used the colored writing tubes for everything else.

I didn’t want to waste the cake I had to carve away so I used my extra carved out cake to make these handcuffs.

We made Police Punch by freezing some well cleaned plastic police gear in the ice ring. You can find these items at the dollar store. Just wash, and then freeze them into the ice ring!

We made this target from an old piece of dry erase board we had in the garage to use with a Nerf gun. I just used large sharpies to color it in and the suction cup darts stuck perfectly!

Our Thank you’s for our guests included: Cop Corn, Donuts for the road, A Joshua 1:7 badge magnet, and a pair of handcuffs. I made the labels for both treats. I put the donuts in a snack size ziplock and then just folded the label over the top and stapled. I made the magnet by printing it on cardstock from the file at the end of this post and then ran it through my laminator with magnetic backing laminate.

Our finished thank you bags.  I used white lunch bags and our printed labels that you can download at the end of this post.  All together each bag only cost about $1.50!

Lots of fun had by all!  And thank you to Matt Russel for helping to take some awesome pictures for us!

You can download the police party files I made here, ENJOY!

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Instead of Baskets

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Ok, I have to confess, I AM STILL AT THE EMPTY TOMB OVER HERE.  I can’t get over it.  His love is just so great for us.  I keep telling myself it’s time to move onto the next thing, but I think I am camping out here for a while.

Just. breathing. it. in… letting it live through me.

A little after easter truth?

This was the first year I didn’t do easter baskets. Me, the crafty- holiday lovin mama that I am, with no baskets for my kids.  In the past I have gone all out.  Filled them to the brim with cute stuff I hunt for, for weeks.  And then this year came and I just felt tired and over it and sick off all the money we waste on junk.

SO, i sat them down and had a talk.  We talked about how we have so much and excess and excess and more excess.  And how most everyone has NOTHING, literally NOTHING.

We decided as a family do something different.

We gave each child 10 dollars, money that I would have used to go toward a basket, and then they took turns putting it in this envelope.

The kids decorated it and we talked about how they could use their little lives to invest in another life.  To bring someone home who didn’t have one.  To be part of God’s work in the loving of His children.

They were excited about it, and I cried.  The power of little lives turned with hearts toward heaven’s work is always humbling and moving and overwhelming.

Who knows for who and when this money will be used, right now we are just living today, loving our crew and trusting that God will let us know when and how we can invest in His kingdom’s work of adoption.

Our hope is that this will be an ongoing practice.  To add to this envelope over the months to come.  To give instead of get.  I am praying for their hearts, that He would place this desire in them as only HE can.  That they would begin NOW to live lives that give away…

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Baking Rolls and Lighting Candles: Reflections on His Resurrection the Night Before Easter

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This day will begin with it and end with it in our house.  In the midst of baking cheesecake and marinating chicken my mind keeps going there…

To the empty tomb.

To the burial cloth lying there – lifeless and in a heap.  The face cloth neatly folded and off to the side because in His raising He cared about the mundane details, EVEN THEN?  In the midst of the GLORY OF GOD RAISING HIM TO LIFE he took the time to set aside the cloth that had covered his bruised and broken face- That just gets me and holds me hostage. Jesus the risen Son of God setting aside the face cloth, it is just so human and motherly and real.  All day it has had me wondering…

Did His body surge to life all at once, pulsing blood shooting through his veins?  Or was it a gradual steady pace through the dark of night, in the dark of the tomb.  Did the skin begin healing and then the heart beating and then the limbs moving?  Were the angels there with Him to give Him light- did He even need light- HE IS THE LIGHT…

We Christians love the cross, we wear around our neck and put it on our cars and it is the right reminder of the price paid.  But without the empty tomb the cross means nothing.  Thousands have suffered and died on a cross- yet there is only one through out all history who conquered death and was raised to life after three days.  It is really the tomb that defines us and makes us free.  IT IS IN THE CONQUERING OF DEATH THAT WE NOW LIVE.  The empty tomb is our beauty and our grace.

I just keep going back there today- it makes me want to forget the rest.  Leave the oven and the eggs and just huddle up there next to the tomb and cry and worship and let it define me.  Let the emptiness and the cavern space of that hollow rock-ROCK ME.

So this morning we began with it- We made rolls and read the story of the Our Savior surging to life:

We talked of His perfect sinless life beaming white with mercy and grace willingly walking to the cross…

Taking on the sin on the world. It utterly covering him, separating him from his beloved Father. The piercing of the side and the giving up of His Life, FOR US…

And then the women who loved him wrapping him. That body beaten and bruised beyond recognition gently and lovingly wrapping-loving-caring for Him. Even in his death they would worship with their hands as they wrapped…

And then the hard heat of hell. The oven that bakes and molds and makes what is raw and unfinished beautiful and sweet. The conquering that had to be done so we would NEVER have to set foot in that place because HE DID and HE WON…

And then the most miraculous site that eyes have ever seen-The empty Tomb! With white garments laying off to the side and the stone rolled away. The only empty that will ever really fill.

And then we ate and savored the sweetness of His love for us.  What a beautiful picture of His LOVE and His RISEN POWER at work IN US- THROUGH US.

…………

Tonight after dinner is had and kids are bathed we will light the candle in the empty tomb inside our Resurrection Garden.  And we will quietly thank Him of His love for us and His sacrifice and THE EMPTY TOMB THAT FILLS US UP ETERNALLY.

Since we planted our resurrection garden just a few days ago my kids have wanted to light the candle in the tomb each day.  They just keep asking to do it.  I have to admit that it is a BEAUTIFUL SIGHT.  To see the light cascading out of our little home-made tomb, winding its way onto the rocky path, as if it is lighting the way Home-the way out of darkness.

This would be so easy for you to do.  To just grab a jar or bowl or something you can turn on its side and light a candle in.  Put it in a bowl or pan filled with dirt from the yard and add a little path of rocks if you have them.  And then light it at the end of the day today.

There is the night before Christmas, why not the night before Easter?

Why not before the hustle and bustle of church and family and activity and bunnies and sugar…

Why not light up that empty tomb and set all our eyes in the direction of Him?  Of His RISEN and COMPLETE love.  As a family to sit together and behold the light dancing out of that empty space and to celebrate the miracle of it all!  The light of the world lit up in your home and your heart tonight.

What a glorious start to Easter to the celebration of HIS RESURRECTION for you and for me.





 

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Planting a Resurrection Garden: Our Story Told in it’s Roots

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I never thought of it until today.  Our story of redemption, the perfect begining, the hard fall, the surrender unto death and sweating of blood, the raising and the telling of the good news to Mary…

All of it was unearthed in the garden.

Our life, our story is clothed in dirt.  Our very creation was from the dust of this life giving soil.  I wonder if His hands were black with muddied dirt as he formed Adam?  Did it smell of peat and loam and clay as he breathed life into the masterpeice of man?  What was it about the GARDEN that He chose to make it the stage onto which humanity would unfold?

Is it the cycle: seed, to root, to life, to death, and then to life again?  Does it’s deep earthen soil have the room to possibly hold the weight of the fall and surrender of the God Man?   Or is it in the beauty that He reveals that death has lost and LOVE has won, and we are finally free because HE IS RISEN?

Whatever the reason, God chose the garden for His story to be written in.

And so, as Good Friday approaches and we we wait for what they couldn’t see until the third day, we get our hands working, planting, growing life in the garden.  Reminding ourseelves how small and of the earth we really are- just dirt.  And we create and plant as He once did.  We remember His quiet retreat to Gesemeny and the painful burden he willingly bore for us.  We remember Mary only able to see a gardener instead of the Christ until He had mercy and opened her eyes to the risen truth.  We remember Him in the begining.  Walking with the two he loved in the cool of the day in the Garden. And we long for the day that we will walk with Him with dirt stained feet, a perfect new earth squeezing up between our toes.  For He Has Risen and so one day, will we.

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A Song and Link for Holy Week

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Did you know passover just passed?  It was Monday.  The jews (born jews and grafted in one- that’s me!) celebrated our exodus from slavery.  And the passing over blood cover doors and the sparing of first-born children…

Can you imagine those mammas that night?  Holding their child to their breast, snuggling them close, trying to choke out the heavy fear, watching the rise and fall of their chest as they slept – praying – begging that it wouldn’t be their last breath, trying desperately to put on a brave face and REALLY TRUST HIM for the one in her arms.

Praying to God, silently pleading through the dark hours, that the death angel would really pass.  I. can’t. begin. to. fathom…  Those moments, that night, the wailing outside their walls, the relief when the SON began to shine!!

FREEDOM!    LIFE!    HE IS FAITHFUL, for he passed over!

This song has been my constant soundtrack during the last few weeks.  I wasn’t even making the connection between it and the upcoming celebrations.  But it is my song for this week.  If you can, take a minute of quiet, alone with Him, turn the lights off, or close your eyes and just let it wash over you… you will be blessed. (this is u-tube so there is an ad first, who knows what it will be on your screen, just sayin…)

And for those of you interested in incorporating some of the celebrations of biblical passover in your own easter/resurrection celebrations there is a great download here on Ann Voskamp’s blog that will help you do it.

Have a blessed Holy Week my friends.  What a blessing it is to remember His faithfulness with you.

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