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I apologize for not posting very much regularly, my life seems to be rather busy lately.  Not just busy with regular household work and schooling but busy on a personal level.

After moving to our new home, I wanted to make some changes in my life. The Lord has given me a quiet time in my life.  Moving here, we don’t have any new friends so it allows us a time of quiet.  Times of quiet are good, they help us refocus and recenter around the things the Lord would want for our lives.  I know I have been busy with just the mundane tasks of life.  It has been a good refresher in my life to start focusing more on the Lord and less on things that are unimportant.

I enjoy going to church each week as all my little ones are finally grown and  can sit through an entire service without too much trouble.  For years, it seems I really wasn’t able to focus on the message because I was so busy trying to keep little ones quiet.  It has been great having them all sit and be good so that I can get some teaching from our pastor.  I have enjoyed growing by taking what we have been taught and then going home and studying more on it to take it with me throughout the week.  I look forward to going to church each Sunday just for that reason—to get to know God more. (*revelation lol)) I haven’t even thought about the socialization part of the church yet, God is centering me more on His word.  Which is neat, because I was thinking I would have to find a place that was more like me instead of where does God want me?  In time, I know God will give us the friends we need and the people He wants us to be around but for now He is capturing our attention through the ministry.

I have been a night owl for many years.  I like to stay up late and do my blogging into all hours of the night.  It worked best for me because I had many little ones that woke up during the night and if I was there to snuggle with them they would stay sleeping.  But I knew that they would usually stay sleeping till about midnight so I was good to get much of my work done.  My husband also stayed up late so this worked well for us.

Now that we have moved, his job requires him to get up early so he no longer stays up late.  I was starting to feel badly that he would get up and be off to work by himself.  I would hear the coffee pot going and thinking that it was time for me to switch my schedule and start waking up with him as I did years before.  For years I wouldn’t get much sleep because I would wake up with a nursing baby, a toddler, and the occasional preschooler, but for the most part those years are done.  Yes the occasional child will wake up during the night, but I am pretty regular about getting 7-8 hours sleep.  A new phase in my life. I remember going for months getting only 4-6 hours and still functioning.  God gives us what we need.

Okay back to my story……I wanted to switch my schedule to be up in the morning to see my husband off to work.  I like getting up.  I set my alarm and the Lord usually has me wake up around 5-5:30.  I would have NEVER dreamed I could do this and not be exhausted or cranky by mid afternoon but I am doing it.  I get my shower, get a cup of coffee going for my husband and myself and then he is out the door.

Then I get my bible and have devotions.  Devotions are something I have not done regularly over the years.  I know we are supposed to take the time for them each day, but just as you can lead a horse to water but you can not make him drink from it that was me.  Not that I am against them by any means, I just didn’t put them as my priority.  I would have bible time with the children, pray an awful lot during the day, and we have praise music on constantly in the home.  But now I am getting filled with God’s word more than I have ever done before.  It has been a spiritual awakening for me.  Before we moved I had a bible that a pastor from the Mennonite church that we attended had given to me.  I used that bible for many years, 12 to be exact.  Lots of writing and underlining went into it.  Before we moved, we had gotten rid of most of our things, and the bible was one of them.   The binding had come apart and some pages were torn from toddlers so I figured it was time to part with it.   I have my bible app that I had read from but nothing tangible in my hands.  While we were doing some shopping for Christmas I felt the Lord say to me, “You need to buy a bible.”  I thought well I have a bible app, but I knew that wasn’t what He wanted me to use.  So I went to Amazon and found a bible–a nice one for $7 –the price of 2 Starbucks coffees.

I am thankful for my new bible.  I have been diligently underlining and studying different parts of scripture and I am excited for it.  I look forward everyday to getting up and having my time with the Lord.

I have also been working on getting my home economics curriculum in book form, (*yeah)!!!  I am currently getting it proof read and hope to have it ready soon.  This book is over 170 pages and focuses on kitchen skills.  It includes over 130 recipes that we enjoying making in our family.  I am excited to be able to offer this to you and will have more books to cover various topics in the upcoming months.

I have also started with some  weight loss.  It has been years that I had lost 80 lbs and I have kept it off.  But now I am looking to lose those last 10 pounds.  When we moved I was able to lose some–due to the busyness and no time to think much about food–but since the holidays it has returned.  I have started to take the children out walking every day.  They are now at an age where we say goodbye to the stroller.  Everyone can either walk fast or ride a bike.  That is HUGE!!!  We have a nice bike path that goes down a “mini mountain” so the children are getting lessons in how to navigate down the decline without crashing.  We have only had 1 fall and it was on the grass. (*sigh)  I am excited for this.  I have a friend whom I am accountable to and that helps.

So this has been my life.  I hope that after the new year to get back on a regular blogging schedule but for now this is where I am at.  I pray you have a blessed New Years and you will see me soon.

 

This past month we have had 2 birthday celebrations that I just never got to document yet. Brooklyn turned 8 and Jentzen turned 5 within two weeks of each other.   We usually let the children decide whether they want to go do something for their birthday or have presents.

We normally didn’t have many activities available for our large family to do that wasn’t overpriced when it was cold. But as a treat our winter birthdays in North Carolina got to experience thing a little differently this year.

For Brooklyn’s birthday our town had a parade that we attended.

It was rainy for the beginning part of our day, but it was more of a mist and the children didn’t mind.  By the time lunch came, it turned into a gorgeous 70 degree day!!!  We went to a local hardware store that was offering ornament decorating and cookies and hot cocoa.  It was fun, little busy, but fun.

We let each child choose their favorite foods for the meals for the day.  Since we were out for the parade, we packed sandwiches to eat and for dinner Brooklyn wanted the favorite of most of our children, hotdogs and macaroni and cheese.

We take a package of hotdogs and cut them up into slices.

We then make up a big batch of homemade macaroni and cheese.

We then mix it all together with some peas and carrots and put it in the oven on low.  When we arrived home from being out, we were able to enjoy a warm, hearty meal.

Brooklyn said she wasn’t too fond of cakes so she wanted to make ice cream sandwich dessert.  This is a fun creation that they enjoy customizing to their likeness.

She chose vanilla and chocolate mix ice cream sandwiches.  We layered one box on the bottom of a large baking pan.

We then topped it with a container of ice cream.  She chose chocolate.  The good thing about this is that you “jazz” up your ice cream so you can choose the cheapest kind of ice cream otherwise this dessert will be costly. 

Then top it with chocolate and caramel sauce. 

Choose your favorite candies for toppings.  She chose 3Musketeers candy bar.  We bought a small bag of unwrapped candies and then chopped them up small.

Spread cool whip on top of the candies and syrup and then repeat the layers again.

This is fun for the birthday girl to make herself.  Plus she gets to eat any remainder ice cream sandwiches that would not fit.

Brooklyn has a good heart and usually shares with her younger siblings.  I told her she could have it all herself, but she broke up pieces of it and shared.  She even let the little ones lick the spoon in between layers.

After you create it, cover it and put it in the freezer and freeze until firm.  

This is very yummy to eat.  I even thought about using graham crackers layered between ice cream to make it less expensive.  Another birthday we will experiment.There wasn’t much left after we all had our portion.  It was a good fun time for her birthday.

Then a few weeks later we had Jentzen’s birthday.

He chose to make dirt cups for his dessert.  He just didn’t want the worms inside of his pudding.  He also wanted banana pudding.  These were nice choices as we have had many cakes and cookies lately.  Here he was helping Daddy, with his new tool bench.  He really enjoys working out in the garage with him and now he can play inside with some tools.

For his birthday we went and picked out  our Christmas tree. It was a nice warm day out.  He enjoyed being able to choose which one we got.  Then we came home, decorated the tree and rode bikes outside.  Later that evening we went to a really cool Christmas lights display show at the Ag Center in WNC.  That was a really fun time.

He wanted macaroni and cheese pizza so we decided to make a pizza buffet for dinner.

Two simple easy birthdays that didn’t cost much but we enjoyed being together outside doing things.