Thankful Thursday

Father,

Thank you SO much for today. Thank you for the refreshing rain pooling outside my window. Thank you for the nourishment it provides the earth. Thank you for the gorgeous flowers and plants that will grow because of it. Thank you for your promise to Noah that this will not last forever. Your rainbow is evidence of that.

Today, Lord, I want to thank you so very much for my family. I cannot thank you enough for them. I am amazed at how you created us all so differently, but so in-tune with one another. During times of frustration and concern, YOU draw us back together. I'm thankful that we can vent to, cry, scream, laugh, tease, challenge, hug, share, and love one another. I'm thankful that you put them in my life to help carry my burdens, and dance in my joy. I'm so thankful that our family will be whole again (SOON!) and that we will continue to grow in You. I'm thankful for marriages, births, adoptions, friendships and other avenues that help us add to our family. We are by no means perfect, but oh, perfectly meshed.

I'm looking forward to see where You will lead us, as a family, in the upcoming days, months, and years. I pray that we will enjoy life as a family here, and then be reunited in Heaven. Thank you for that opportunity.

I'm so blessed to call my family, mine.

Thank you, Jesus.

Amen

P.S. To my bloggy friends...I'm thankful for Linny who started these posts! I just had my sister email me her Thankful Thursday list!!! It's catching on and helps us with our focus!!

PREACH IT, SISTER!

Let's face it. If every preacher looked like me...more people would be paying attention!

Preach it, sister!

I just needed a smile tonight. I dug through some pictures of our latest trip to the children's museum, and found these two pictures. They were taken in a mini-chapel in one of the many rooms of the museum. I just love them.

The girls love church. If you ask them where they want to go (like on a free Saturday, etc) they'll almost 100% of the time say, "Church!" They love it. We love that they love it! We pray they grow up to be strong women of God. I guess this is a good place to start!

Let's Storm Heaven

You, my friends and family, have been so faithful. When we have needed prayer, you have stepped up to the plate. When we have needed encouragement, you rallied for us. When we have needed a place to vent, you listened.

Well, today I am asking that you kneel before God and pray wholeheartedly for someone you don't even know. We have become friends with an amazing couple named Linny and Dw. Our friendship started out in Blogland. Then we traversed into Emailopolis. From there, we ventured to Phoneland and Textville. And this fall, God willing, we will actually meet right here!

These two have a heart for the Fatherless like no one I know! They also have a heart for spreading God's love both here and to the far stretches of this world. I am blessed to call them friends.

I know I have mentioned them before, because their story is amazing. However, during the past few months, Satan has been doing a number on them. He has attacked by way of fire (burning their log cabin down), sickness (each one in the family--even appendicitis!), death of a beloved pet, and various other ways. Did they ever lose faith? NO WAY! Did they continue to praise God? YES!!! They know the victory is His!!!! That being said, their latest attack is just heart wrenching. Click over HERE and read what they're dealing with now.

I'm going to wrap this up with a serious request. Please pray for them. They need our prayers now more than ever. I KNOW you all pray for them. Do it on bended knee, or just whisper a little cry out to God. Thank you, my friends.

Matthew 18:20
"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

Some Pictures...

Hello all. It's been a busy weekend. Cannot believe it is 9:12 PM Sunday evening already. Well, I was looking at some pictures we downloaded recently and decided to share a few. Each photo could (and may) have a post of its own. Enjoy. We'll (probably Rett) post later this week with some other fun stuff. Have a good week!
The girl's recent artwork proudly displayed in the living room.

(We swiped this idea from Jon and Kate Plus 8)

Maiden voyage on their new bikes-thanks Aunt Robin and Uncle Duane!

Abby polishing up her Jeep after bringing it out of hibernation.

Thankful Thursday

Oh....I am SO thankful for conversations with three-year olds!

Driving home from the sitter's house yesterday, the girls and I were chatting. Here's how the conversation went.

Laney: I don't like bugs.

Me: Why?

Laney: Because they scary me (they both say scary for scared)

Me: But, bugs are little. You are a BIG girl. Nothing to be afraid of!

Abby: Bugs don't scary me. They tickle me. They tickle my hands.

Me: Yes they do tickle sometimes, with their tiny legs! Laney, did you know God made bugs?

Laney: Yes.

Me: So see, bugs are special. God made them, just like He made you, and me, and our family!

Laney: And Abby! God made Abby too!

Me: Yes! God DID make Abby too! God made lots of special things. He made them for us to enjoy! It's ok to be afraid, but most bugs don't hurt you. Do you understand?

Laney: Yep. Bugs are scary.


WOW...that went nowhere fast! However, last night during prayers Laney did say..."And thank you God for making bugs." Yeesh.



Abby's conversations are comical too. A recent one went like this:

"Hmmm, dogs, cats, horses. What are all of those, Abby?"

Abby: Animals.

"Good!!! Ok, hamburgers, cake, ice cream. What about those?"

Abby: TASTY!



I love, love, love my funny girls! THANK YOU JESUS!

The EGGsperiment

OK, so here are the steps I took to try and boil some EGGcellent eggs.

1. Place the eggs in the pot GENTLY (ahem, no Abby...GENTLY!)

2. Fill the pot with cold water, just until the eggs are covered.

3. Place the pot on the stove and turn it to medium-high.

4. As soon as I had a rolling boil going, I turned the stove off and removed the pot from the burner. I covered the pot with a lid.

5. I set the timer for EGGactly 15 minutes (sorry to the poster who said 11--I had three other people say 15, so I went with the majority) and after that time, poured the water off and rinsed with cold water.

6. After rinsing the eggs, I put them in the fridge to chill.

7. Following some time in the fridge, I did a test peel. An, EGGsample, if you will. Um, it didn't bode well.

8. I then enjoyed dying the eggs with the girls and Tony a day later. They did a great job and only cracked two!

9. We hid PLASTIC eggs for our hunt, so I could have the real eggs to eat! I started deshelling (um, is that a word?) the colored eggs.

I must say...after an EGGstrodinarily large amount of opinions, I was a bit nervous on how these would turn out. However, my fears were unfounded! Out of about 20 eggs, all but three ended up naked with minor scarring. I was way impressed. Even Tony thought that was amazing. The girls, however, didn't care. They just wanted their hands on those eggs. They devoured them! Now I just EGGpect some stinky girls over the next few days!! :)

Here is a naked egg with minimal scarring!

Thank you to EVERYONE who gave their input. You are a bunch of smart cookies! EGGsperts, even! I'll be turning to you again soon, with my next cooking delimma!

Have an EGGciting week! (I know, enough of the egg talk)

HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

Thankful Thursday

Want to know what I'm thankful for? Well, I just want to thank the good Lord above for friends and family that are supporting us in "Operation: Boil the Egg". I will be testing out ONE of your recipes TONIGHT and will report the results soon!

If they turn out well, I will blame YOU! If they turn out poorly, I will blame YOU!

:) Heheh, you get the credit either way.

Thank you, seriously, for supporting us in both big and small ways. Although this mission is severely less important than some of our others, you still stepped in to help! You guys ROCK!

OK, I'll report my findings SOON!

P.S. For those who didn't see Tony's comment on the last post, he said he'd be happy to test out sample meatloafs from anyone who wanted to drop one by!

While I'm in the Middle of All These Deep Thoughts...

Ok, so another deep thought/post coming your way....

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to cook. Seriously. I go through phases where I want to cook up a storm and try new things. Usually, this happens in the summer when I have more time. Seriously, though, I make a mean Thai peanut chicken. And my biscuits and gravy aren't too bad, usually. My mom is a crazy good cook. The kind that says, "Oh, just throw a handful in." A handful? WHOSE handful? Mine? Or Abby's? But her cooking is so good, she puts Paula Deen to shame! :) Sorry, Paula!

But there are two things that I cannot, will not, am not able to make. Ever. Period.

1. Meatloaf

2. Hard boiled eggs

Done laughing? Well, I'll give you a second. Ok, done yet? Why does this even matter? I'll tell you.

1. Meatloaf--Tony LOVES meatloaf. It is his favorite, all-time meal. He would choose meatloaf over a big slice of chocolate, gooey cake. But my meatloaf, well, it's one big surprise from one meal to the next. I follow the SAME recipe every time, but sometimes it's too moist. Sometimes it's too dry and it falls apart. Sometimes it is just YUCK! No, most of the time it's just YUCK! Truth be told, I have my dad make the meatloaf if we're going to have it. His meatloaf ROCKS!

1. Eggs. My enemy. No matter how I cook them...salt the water, drain and run cool water over them, blah blah blah...I cannot get the shells to come off! I cannot get them out of the shell as a whole egg. When I am intending to make deviled eggs, I usually make egg salad because they're all broken up! Now, I'm being vulnerable here. Be kind!


With Easter being this weekend, you can see my stress. My dilemma. Can you help? PLEASE? How do YOU hard boil your eggs? Leave your tips and tricks for me! I'm COUNTING ON YOU!

Anyone?

OK, I'm going to be transparent here...this is about my deepest post to-date. Grab a box of tissues. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Back yet? Good...ok...here goes.

Does anyone, other than us, hide from the Schw*n man? You know, the guy who drives around in the big yellow truck and delivers yummy, but 0h-so-expensive food? heheeh. Yeah, on off-pay weeks, we might just be found at home, with the lights off, in stealth mode.

This week, however, we hit a new low. After taking a great walk around the 'hood with a friend of ours, we spotted the infamous yellow truck. We quickly assessed the situation (NO CASH) and put our plan into action. Amazingly enough it was pretty easy to bring Beth (the aforementioned friend) to the dark side. She walked to the corner to figure out his location. Upon realizing the seriousness of the situation (NO CASH) and the fact that we didn't know this particular salesman, we put our plan into action! We crept in the front door, and kept all of the lights off. We continued to hold Beth hostage until we got the all clear. This would involve Tony dropping flat on the floor and doing an army crawl under our picture window! Yes, you read that right. TONY did a duck and cover!

After we picked Beth up off the floor from laughing so hard, we continued to wait him out. Doorbell rang. Knocking ensued. But the VICTORY was ours! The only evidence of his visit was the little yellow paper stuck to the front door to remind us when he would be back!

Yes, our girls are in on it the whole time. They know the drill!

Later we were joking that God trusts us to parent. Tony works as a key decision-maker for the city, and I teach. Yet, we cannot muster the courage to turn the Schw*n man away, so instead we hide. How pathetic are we?

So the need for tissues earlier was really to help you wipe up the tears from laughter after you visualized our family in our bunker in suburbia. HOWEVER, I KNOW that some of you do the SAME thing! So don't judge us! :) It's time that we hiders, unite! Leave us a comment and let us know if you have ever hidden from a delivery guy/gal, a salesman, or your relative! HA!