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Kids in the Kitchen, Pt. 12: Baking Day

March 28, 2008 by Laura 4 Comments

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Tomorrow, Justus and Asa are performing in a musical…more on that later!!

Each family involved with the musical is supposed to take refreshments…so of course, I put my boys on the job!

I wrote down a chocolate chip cookie recipe for them…handed it over, and asked them to double it.

I stood in the kitchen with them, listening to Asa teach Elias about doubling fractions, “If you have a half cup plus a half cup…what do you have?” And Elias says, “Two – half cups.” (well, true…)

I left the kitchen (to go sit out in my hammock and sleep, of course)…and they made the cookies all by themselves!

I got out of my hammock only to snap a couple of pictures…

Oh – and to show the kids where the sugar was. How great it THAT? They are so used to using the good stuff…they didn’t even know where the sugar was!!

Okay now…what is UP with Justus?! He seems to have this THING about standing on the countertops!! That kid cracks me up! (And wears me out!) Oh, and check out Elias…he’s giving the vanilla a big sniff! And Asa, the ever-so-practical oldest child was saying to him, “Yeah, it smells good…but be sure not to taste it plain…it doesn’t taste as good as it smells…”

Ah, at last, at picture of Justus cooking at ground level.

So, right now my house smells like cookies baking…

I’ll be calling them in soon to start lunch…

(You know don’t you, that I don’t really have a hammock?!)

[tags]kids in the kitchen[/tags]

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To Give…or to Give More…

March 27, 2008 by Laura 7 Comments

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Many of us are careful with our money…

Here’s what I want to know.

I want to know what it means to give.

I mean really give.

My husband and I have been reading a book called Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne.

This author is completely challenging the way I think…

About my life and my priorities.

About what I have and what I do with what I have.

About who Christians are and what it really means to be the church.

So many thoughts are really swirling around in my head (I know, scary…).

But I’m really questioning…

What does it look like to truly give of yourself? To be Christlike in a world that is full of materialism and greed?

What kind of world might we live in if we all start looking outward more? If we rely on God for our basic needs, and let Him use us to meet the needs of those around us?

I think that many (most) people already think that they are doing enough. And some people are really just doing nothing.

But really…REALLY…what might happen in this world if we all just let go of all of our stuff and just became givers?

I would love to hear your ideas on this topic.

Please walk this journey with me and let’s examine this together. I highly encourage you to read this book.

I want to be a part of this irresistible revolution…in which we begin to understand what it is to give like Christ gave of himself.

As I continue to read this book, I’ll be posting more of my thoughts, questions and suggestions…

But I would really love it if you have read this book or are interested in reading it…for you to join in the search to help “figure it all out”.

God is calling us to something more…what is it?

[tags]giving, being Christlike, encouragement[/tags]

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Prayers Please…

March 27, 2008 by Laura 12 Comments

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If you know my family, you know that our littlest guy, Malachi has struggled with severe eczema since he was about 2 months old. He is now 3 years old.

We’ve tried…well…everything to make him better.

But, we really, really do not want to resort to drugs…as they might help the eczema…but they would just cause other – worse – problems later (or now).

We’ve worked very hard to find a natural remedy for Malachi. (That’s one of the main reasons we’ve switched to more a more healthy eating style.)

And, we’ve taken some heat from some folks who just don’t understand why we wouldn’t simply give him the drugs. If it would make the eczema go away…

Well, yes….but eczema is not the real issue here… Malachi’s problems are just manifesting themselves through the skin. We want to get to the real issue.

We were encouraged almost a year ago when our family chiropractor called an offered us something new to try. Black Current Seed Oil. And it did help quite a bit.

But winter has been hard on him…and he’s slowly getting worse again.

And now…well, he’s getting these horrible, puffy, pussy, red with infection sores all over his feet and legs.

They look SO ouchy.

I am discouraged. And I am weary. I want my baby to be better. I don’t want him to wimper with pain…nor do I want his sleep to be disturbed anymore because he’s so itchy.

I so want to get to the root of the problem.

Please pray for Malachi. He’s such a tough kid.

I’m taking him to our chiropractor this afternoon again…who is such a good doctor.

He’s more than just a “back adjustor”… He works to help heal the whole body…

He will be testing Malachi again for allergies (we tested him when he was little…but nothing showed up at that time. He was too little and not really eating on his own yet…)

I appreciate this doctor so much, because he truly cares about Malachi and has worked so hard with us to try to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks for letting me share this with you…and I appreciate your prayers so much for Malachi. (And maybe one or two for his parents too.)

I’ll give you an update after our appointment.

You are all a blessing to me. :)

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Road Trip

March 26, 2008 by Laura 15 Comments

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Last weekend, we hopped in our van and headed to Kansas City for LTC (Leadership Training for Christ), which is a great big event for kids in third grade on up. Asa, our oldest, participated in several events…and did great!!!

Then, we stayed the remaining Easter weekend with some friends there close to KC. SO fun!

Here are some highlights of our trip:

1. I got to have a few conversations with Matt while we were on the road and all the kids were busy with other things…or asleep…at the same time. Now that’s something that doesn’t happen all the time…

2. I was reminded again that I’m not a fan of big cities…and I was REALLY glad that Matt was driving us around in downtown KC…with all the unfamiliar one way streets and construction. (And I was also amazed that at one point…he was using his electric razor to shave before we got there…and looking at the map at the same time. Now, here is a guy who will never have an ulcer.) (I’m not saying he was being unsafe…he just wasn’t frazzled, that’s all.)

3. While watching the skits and puppet shows at LTC, I was surprised by the creativity and talent of young people. And I also got a really big kick out of watching lots of puppets with their mouths hanging open for long periods of time. (Hey, when you’re eight years old, you can only hold that puppet mouth closed for so long.)

4. Asa participated in the Bible Bowl while at LTC. He studied A LOT…and out of 70 questions…he only missed eight. (I’m not trying to brag or anything…) (Okay, yes, actually, yes I am.)

5. The LTC convention was held at this HUGE hotel…in which there were many, many escalators that you must take in order to get to where you need to be. For some reason, I always get all freaked out getting onto them, and kept checking the little guy’s shoe laces (which are actually velcro…duh). As we were constantly herding our kids on and off the silly things, I was reminded of how much I am not a fan of escalators. (And I also don’t like them very much.)

6. The friends who housed us for the weekend had Captain Crunch cereal. Partaking in this was one of the boy’s greatest joys of the entire trip. ;)

7. There were two dogs in the house where we were staying. (My kids have now decided that they like dogs.)

8. I let the boys pack their clothes on their own. When we were getting out our church clothes for Sunday, we realized that Justus had forgotten to pack his church pants. So, he had the choice between sweat pants…or sweat pants. He chose the sweat pants. ( Now that’s an Easter picture to remember.)

9. While on our way home, we found gas for $2.99 a gallon and were talking about how great it was to find it so “cheap”. And then we realized what we were saying. I guess it’s all relative.

10. The boys pretty much ate the entire way there…and the entire way home. And the entire time we were there. (Oh wait, that’s not unique to this trip…)

11. We have two Game Boys and three boys who know how to play them….and the batteries died in one of them (Uh, one of the Game Boys that is.). You do the math. Thankfully they sort of figured out a system of taking turns…sort of.

12. I realized how much I don’t like the hand held game of 20 Questions. While it’s impressive in that it does usually get the answers right…it often asks difficult questions that the boys can’t answer without help. Such as, “Does it bring joy to people?” or “Can you give this object as a gift?” I suppose you could give just about anything as a gift and it could bring joy to someone…but not everyone likes artichokes or telephone poles as much as the next guy… We finally had to tell the boys to just make a good guess and to stop hollering out the questions to us. (Wonder if the batteries in that game will ever die?)

13. When we pulled back into the driveway of our home…one of the boys started crying (and wouldn’t stop), one of them started asking about a dog…one of them asked if we could have Captain Crunch for breakfast…and one of them asked if we could go back to our friends’ house.

Welcome home… :)

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Kids in the Kitchen, pt. 11: What Mama is Learning…

March 26, 2008 by Laura 4 Comments

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If you’ve been tracking this series…you know that I’ve been working to get my kids into the kitchen more…

And that this week they are in charge of cooking or helping to cook every meal.

They’ve been doing GREAT!!

But, I’m learning a few things that I need to do to make it work better.

So…let me tell you about our morning… [She says…with her eyes bugging out…]

Just as all of my boys were waking up today, the little guy I babysit for had a blow-out BIGGER than any I’ve ever dealt with…

(That’s saying A LOT…because I have four boys and 10 years worth of blow outs to brag about.)

So, while I’m going through many baby wipes…stripping down the babe…changing out of my clothes……starting a load of laundry…giving the baby a much needed bath….spot scrubbing the floor…and scrounging around for another outfit for the baby to wear…and whatever else needed to be done after the unbelievable you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it-but-aren’t-you-glad-you-weren’t-here-to-see-it eruption…

I hurriedly write the breakfast muffin recipe down on a piece of paper for the big boys so that they can get started making a double batch of Honey Wheat Muffins…

All by themselves…because I’m up to my elbows in….um…well…bath water. :)

And I’m thinking, “I wonder how they’ll do without my help?!” Because I’m usually in there walking them through everything and helping everyone share jobs so that the stirring and the pouring is all fair and stuff.

Well, they did have a lot of questions…and it did take longer than forever for them to get the silly things into the oven…

But they did a pretty good job!

I wish this picture wasn’t so dark…but this is what I walked into when I came into the kitchen after the baby’s bath… Don’t ask me what Justus was doing getting ready to launch himself from the countertop.

Anyway…what I learned this morning is that I’m guilty of telling them what to do while they’re helping me, instead of letting them read the recipe and figure it out for themselves.

So I need to turn them loose a little more. Like I did this morning.

Also, I learned that my baking stuff needs to have labels on them. I buy it all in bulk and then put it into jars.

But when they needed baking powder…they opened the cabinet to this:

“What’s this one?”…”Minced onion.”…”How ’bout this?”…”nutmeg.”…

So, I hopped on the computer later and made labels so that the boys would never put garlic powder in my cookies…

And so…it seems that I’m learning things right along with my boys in the kitchen.

I also learned that my boys like to talk a lot…and TOTALLY don’t get it that you need to efficiently get your food into the oven to start baking if you EVER want to start eating it.

I kid you not…it was 11:15 when they finally had made their muffins, eaten them, and cleaned up after themselves.

Just in time for them to go back in and fix lunch… ;)

Come by tomorrow…the boys are making Breakfast Pizzas! Maybe I’d better get them started on it right now…

More WFMW!

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S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G F-U-N

March 26, 2008 by Laura 7 Comments

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Today, I wanted to share a little tip that has been such a sweet thing that works for our family. And I can take NONE of the credit for it!

About two years ago, when my husband would go in to kiss the boys goodnight, he began giving our oldest son three words to spell…just as a fun thing to do as he spent special time with each boy.

Of course, the littler ones began asking Daddy for “three words too” and so, he adapted his lesson for them.

Even our three year old thinks he needs “fwee words” now!

So, each night as Daddy makes his rounds, he gives each boy three words to spell, according to their spelling level.

The really fun part is: The three words he comes up with are all related in some way. So after the boys spell the words, they have to figure out what the common theme is.

For instance, if he gives the words: thunder, tornado and sunshine…they have to come up with the common theme of : weather.

He usually comes up with some super fun, and usually quite challenging words and themes.

(And by the way…when Daddy’s not home and Mama gives the three words…they usually let me know that it just isn’t quite the same. I give words like kiss, hug and love…. They kind of raise their eye brows at me, sigh and spell the words like they are the most boring words ever. I guess Daddy gives better words like ammunition, weapon and artillery…you know, “fun” words like that.) :)

It has been a wonderful, great, favorite bedtime treat. It is a special sweet time that is treasured for Daddy and boys.

I doubt the boys will let this tradition stop any time soon.

(I wonder if their future wives will mind the nightly phone call of three spelling words before bed…)

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Learning About Laura…One Story at a Time: Why I Will Never Eat at Fuddruckers

March 25, 2008 by Laura 15 Comments

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Alright…you talked me into it. I’ll tell you about what I did on the York College choir tour bus…but only because I can hide behind my computer.

(You should all know that my heart is beating rapidly right now as if I’m having a panic attack. I HOPE you enjoy this and appreciate the courage it is taking to tell this story…)

Okay…so it’s my sophmore year in college, and we are on our Christmas break choir tour, in which we travelled for about ten days on an old (and loud) bus…stopping every night to sing for different churches around the country.

There are around 50 to 60 college kids on the bus…and I’m sitting with my friend Mary pretty close to the middle of the bus. We are just sitting there yacking and playing cards and doing whatever to pass the time.

(Did I mention that the bus was loud? It was loud…I mean the bus itself…plus all the 50-60 voices on the bus…)

About six rows behind me sits this really ornery guy named Donny. And instead of playing cards to pass his time, Donny decides to be the funny guy…

So Donny calls out to no one in particular… “Hey, what’s the name of that one restaraunt? The one with the great burgers? Rudd…what?”

(Notice that he switched the letters around in the word…just setting someone up…)

(Because if you don’t say it right…Fuddruckers…it comes out Rudd—–)

(See why it was so hard for me to tell you this?!?)

Okay, so I heard him asking…and SO didn’t get that he was joking. I was just trying to be nice and help out the poor guy who was simply trying to think of the name of a burger joint.

So, I stand up at my seat, turn around and holler, “F—–s!!”

Now, keep in mind too…no one else really heard Donny ask the question in the first place. All they knew was that seemingly out of NOWHERE…sweet little Laura stands up on the bus and drops the F bomb. Out of nowhere.

Right as it’s coming out of my mouth…of course I realize what I’m doing!!! But it was too late to do anything about it then, wasn’t it?

And so I flop back down in my seat and put my head down in my lap…trying to decide whether to laugh…cry…or throw up…

The whole bus…of course…is getting over their shock…and dying with laughter…for like the next 50 miles of road time…

And I’m sitting there trying to remember how to breathe correctly (kinda like I’m doing now).

And Donny (bless his stinkin’ little heart) appologizes to me a hundred times…cause he was just being silly…and didn’t think ANYONE would fall for it…

I’ve never lived it down…and probably never will…

And now you know too.

Okay, I’m going to go do some breathing exercises in an attempt to calm myself down after just sharing with you the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me.

You go ahead and laugh…

(Shucks…I’ll admit…it IS really funny.)

I’m not sure my burning down the barn story or my shoplifting story will top this one…but I do hope that after learning this dark secret you’ll still come back for more…

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Kids in the Kitchen, pt. 10: Tuesday

March 25, 2008 by Laura 2 Comments

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Here are a few highlights of the kids in the kitchen on Tuesday!

Elias and Justus made scrambled eggs completely by themselves. They made a great team!

You should have heard Justus (the professional egg scrambler) explaining to Elias the way to scramble eggs… It was SO cute!

For lunch, the boys made Shepherd’s Pie. Justus and Asa peeled the potatoes…

And Justus started browning the meat.

Elias and Malachi helped mix the soup and veggies into the pot of meat.

And Elias whipped the potatoes.

Then, each boy made a “personal” Shepherd’s Pie. (Sorry for the smudge on the bottom left of the picture…I SO needed to wipe off my lense! Also, can you tell that I had different aged guys putting on their potatoes? Who do you think did the one on the top right?!)

For dinner, the boys helped me make Chicken Tortilla Soup. Justus used the food processor to chop up the tomatoes and chili peppers.

Asa poured in the chicken broth.

Malachi added the chicken and the corn.

Everyone got to help tear up tortillas…

And, YUM…you have to try this soup that they made!!!! It is so good!!

Allright…the dishes are done and the boys are off duty for the night! See ya tomorrow!

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Gratituesday: My Family

March 25, 2008 by Laura 7 Comments

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Last week for Gratituesday, I featured my in-laws…

This week, I thought I’d talk a bit about what’s going on with my side of the family…as they also deserve to be appreciated!

In 2004, I lost my mom to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Such a painful loss…but God is good. Some day I’ll write more about that time in my life.

Today though, I want to tell you about how things are going with my family currently.

Last winter, my dad announced to us (all nervous and giddy-like) that he was going on a date…his first one since Mom died.

Well, talk about mixed emotions for me… Happy for him…wanting him to have someone in his life…not sure what to think about it…feeling freaked out that my Dad was going on a date…knowing this was normal and good…

Several months later, I was standing up with him at his wedding. (Another day of mixed emotions!)

So, let me tell you about my dad’s wife, Tacy.

What a wonderful lady.

Tacy lost her husband to cancer just about a year before my mom died. She and my dad share the understanding of what it’s like to lose a spouse.

She has two adult children…who are also wonderful. Really wonderful.

Tacy loves the Lord, loves my dad, loves my children, loves me.

I’ve heard of some crazy situations when a parent gets re-married. You know, the stories of how, “Dad’s new wife spends all his money…never lets him come see his kids and grandkids…tears the family apart…”

I am so thankful that Tacy is just Tacy. She’s sweet and giving. She treats my boys like her very own grandkids. She’s happy to hear my voice and see me when we visit. She encourages my dad to be the great man that he is. Tacy is an answer to prayer.

I’ll always miss my mom. We all will. But God gave us a blessing when he put Tacy and her family into our lives.

And for that, I am grateful.

Please join me this Gratituesday and share with all of us what you are grateful for! Leave a comment here…or grab the Gratituesday graphic and share today on your blog. Be sure to leave a comment here with your blog address so that we know to come read about what you’re thankful for at your site!

Give thanks to the Lord…for He is good! His love endures forever! Psalm 136:1

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Kids in the Kitchen, pt. 9…Monday

March 25, 2008 by Laura 6 Comments

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This week…my kids are going to be doing most of the work in the kitchen (while I lie out back in a hammock sipping lemonade…).

(Oh, that is so funny…)

They are so excited to be put in charge this week! And they are learning so much! Each day this week I’ll be sharing the things I’m teaching them… It is SO important to start ’em young!!

Here’s a look at what my kids did in the kitchen on Monday!

Elias was the first one awake…so he got to mix up the pancakes…he loves getting egg slime all over his hands… ;)

Asa did great cooking his pancakes…he added blueberries just before turning them over…YUM!

Justus got a little frustrated that his pancakes didn’t turn out pretty…but I assured him that they would taste great on his plate as a Great Pancake Pile Plop… He agreed.

After breakfast while the big boys were upstairs working on their journals, Malachi helped me make Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Brownies. (Because I knew I would need some chocolate after lunch…)

He did great counting the cups of rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar juice) and flour. (I’m not sure why I gave him a spoon that is as tall as he is…)

Ah, the best part of helping Mommy…

Lunch wasn’t too difficult, as we had burritos that I had made and frozen a week or so ago. Justus just put them in the oven to warm up…and then got to go work on math while they heated.