friday fun

My daughter and son were both home on this Good Friday. We had options of what we were going to do, but since both of my kiddos were recovering from nasty coughs, we decided to take it easy at home. Typically, after about 2 hours, we all get on each other's nerves because I've got a long to-do list and the kids get bored.

Today's gift of survival: a bunch of ideas fostered by Pinterest. I went onto Pinterest to search for ideas to do to keep busy and it was a success! For them. For me, not so much. I was hoping to get a bunch of stuff done, but was busy looking up ideas, cleaning pans from projects, helping create, and cleaning up the rooms after the projects. So I did get a lot done... just not what I was planning on getting done.

While researching some ideas, the kids got a kick out of these,
because we are severely lacking in the balloon supply in our house.

We moved on to making play-doh,

because all our other play doh is grey.

Lunch came and since the kitchen table was covered in play doh paraphernalia
the kids had a muffin tin picnic on a blanket in the family room.

I, however, had cold Pizza Plus pizza out of the box and enjoyed it very much!

I got some cups out of the pantry and they got their creativity on.
Pretty soon my daughter was selling ice cream, for free.
(We need to work on the entrepreneurial part of her.)

Making helicopters, or whirlygigs was my favorite!

Watching from upstairs is really cool!
Taking a picture truly does not capture it.

Then we built bridges with boards and furniture and rolled our numerous
little cars down and across the bridges.

We created a resurrection garden.
See the tomb?

We played with baking soda and vinegar and food coloring...

and watched the color fizz!
(This was my kids' favorite activity.)

And I... cleaned the litter box and washed some dishes.
Oh! I did get one more thing done: I have a solid black coffee table that had been picked at by my children, making it a bit unsightly. I decided to sand it down a bit so that I could repaint it. But as I started working on it, I realized that I loved the way it looked after I had distressed it with the sander.
And here's where God revealed to me the purpose of today's blog: We can plan the way we want our lives to go. I have. I know what I want to have happen in the next 10 years of my life. (I don't really want to think much past that yet). However, things usually don't go as WE plan. They go as God has planned for them to go. As irritating as that is (not that God is irritating, but things not going according to how I plan them is irritating), I know that His reason for the direction of our day, our week, our lives is so much bigger than what we've got planned. And the crazy thing is, we might not ever understand why things happen in our life. But God does and I trust Him. And chances are pretty good that if we let him take our plans and turn them into His, things are going to look a lot more beautiful than what we could accomplish on our own; like a day full of fun memories created with my children, or a scratched up coffee table, originally destined to be red but instead, becoming an awesomely distressed black table after all.

KC

singing your heart out

For those of you who know me, you know the value of music in my life. This value was something my parents instilled in me, as well as my brothers from an early age. They cultivated our musical talents the best they could and as much as they could afford. Now the four of us are doing the same with our own kids. It is amazing to see the musical talent in my nieces and nephews (and my kids, too, of course!)

This morning, my daughter had a program at her school for all the grandparents. It was full of music! It was obvious that it brought joy to the whole event. I am so grateful for the music education for my child.

Today's gift of survival: the joy that music brings to life. I could go into all the reasons why music is so important (because there are LOTS), but I'll just stick with the most important one: music is an incredible and emotional way to worship God.

Some may say that they don't have any musical talent, or they can't sing on key. That's okay. Worship is not about talent or even staying on key. It is about our heart.

There is a man at our church who we sit in front of sometimes and this man sings with all his heart. Now our worship leaders play quite loud (perhaps so we are not self-conscious when we sing out) but this man sings louder! And he doesn't always stay in tune. And he sometimes adds parts that don't really fit or tries to harmonize. I know this is irritating to some (sometimes I choose not to sit in front of him, because I know I won't be able to concentrate because some mornings when I haven't had enough coffee I am easily distracted and some mornings when I have had too much coffee I am easily distracted...) but who am I to tell this man to tone down his worship of the Lord? It's between him and God, not him and me. He truly is singing with all his heart and that's what worship is all about!

Listening to the little ones sing this morning was not about hearing how talented they are (however, I tend to be biased and think our school's music program is phenomenal). It was about the joy pouring out of these kids as they sang their hearts out! And I, for one, loved it.

KC

grabbing 10

Yesterday was busy. After getting my oldest off to school, my youngest and I ran some errands. I also had a dentist appointment around noon which lasted 3 hours! (okay, it was closer to 1.5 hours, but it felt like 3). I taught piano lessons in the afternoon and after a quick dinner, got my already-exhausted oldest child ready for her Open House and music program at school (which was so delightful, by the way).

So amidst the busy-ness of my Tuesday, I still manages to get a small variety of chores done around the house using a technique that I call "Grabbing 10". I'm pretty sure that I read about this concept on a blog somewhere once upon a time, but I've tweaked it to make it mine.

Today's gift of survival: The day is full of bits of time that you can make work for you. If I've got a spare 10 minutes before my dentist appointment, I'm going to do something with it. Yesterday I grabbed those minutes throughout the day and accomplished the following (each is about 5-15 minutes, so I average it out to 10):
-Swept and mopped the entryway
-Put away clean dishes from the dishwasher and drying rack
-Straightened up the playroom
-Straightened up the pantry
-Scaled down on my daughter's kept schoolwork (I keep it all when it comes home from school and then go through it regularly to keep just a few precious and memorable items in her "keep" box)
-Did a quick vacuum of the downstairs
-Ran through of downstairs picking up odds and ends and deposited them in appropriate rooms
-Raked the leaves that had been bugging me out of one of our planters

So I only got a picture of one of the accomplished chores. I was busy doing all the others!

And when we got home from the program that evening and my children instantly fell asleep, I felt like I could actually sit and relax in the quietness. But I didn't. I stressed out about the fact that my face was still numb! (I was fine by morning. Phew!)

The most important 10 that I grabbed yesterday was the time I spent in devotions. (I'm using "10" figuratively here. The amount of devotional time varies for each person and varies for me each morning!) It doesn't matter what else I get done in the day, if I don't grab my time with God, I feel like I'm doing everything by myself. (Not that He won't hang out with me if I don't do devotions, it's just that I feel like something's missing). So even if it is just 10 minutes that I can grab over a cup of coffee and toast, I take it, because it's the most important time in my day.

What can you accomplish in 10 minutes?

dentistry and distraction

I have always liked my dentists, even my endodontist is great! (For those of you who have never had the pleasure, an endodontist is the special guy/gal who gets to perform root canals). Each one has been friendly, feeling more like a friend than an acquaintance. But I certainly do not like their job. I know it is an important job, an extremely valuable job, but I do not like it. If you've ever seen the inside of my mouth, you'd understand.

(I know, not the most attractive picture,
but these are the teeth I was blessed with - no braces.)

You know how Paul had a thorn in his flesh? My teeth are my thorn.

I can even remember as a 2nd grader losing a partial filling on a baby tooth because I had gnawed off the head of one of those sticky red cinnamon bears. It was replaced with a silver cap. (Imagine the tooth fairy's surprise when it fell out!) I remember another time when I was approximately middle school aged, coming out of the dentist with the news of needing 9 fillings. WHAT?! Are you KIDDING me?! (How come no one told me that cavities could form in between the teeth? I might have taken flossing a bit more seriously!) Then when it was time to pull my wisdom teeth, my amazing dentist did the work for me. Now, mind you, he did this as a huge favor to save my parents some money because we did not have dental insurance. And I have never held it against anyone because I knew it was necessary, BUT the only anesthesia that I was given for the pulling of four wisdom teeth was local. That's right, lots of needles, but awake the entire crunching time. (I take a little pride in surviving that one.) I have had 3 root canals with crowns. Those are my best looking teeth, especially the gold one (gave myself a little bling, I did!)

I had a dentist appointment today. To repair a cracked filling that had a cavity forming beneath it. Why, oh why can these fillings not last until I die? Somedays I think I would just like all my teeth pulled so that I can wear dentures the rest of my life and not have to worry about fillings, root canals, crowns, and all that stuff. My dentist just shakes her head at me and says, "No, you wouldn't want that!" I'm not sure why I wouldn't. They would be nice and straight and white and I could take them out and scare little kids - that'd be fun, right?! Anyway, the numbing alone took an hour. My stinkin' mouth does not cooperate with the whole numbing process.

Today's gift of survival: I have found a number of ways to make this whole dentistry process work a little better for me. First of all, my current dentist is about 4 minutes away from my house. This means that I don't have the anxiety of a 30 minute drive, waiting in the waiting room, and then waiting in the chair. That used to kill me!

I bring mindless stuff to do - crossword puzzles, magazines that have good pictures, nothing too in-depth to read, and my do-almost-everything phone has made that even better! Pretty much, I like having something mindless to do that keeps my mind off of what I am waiting to have done.

I like to have the dentist or endodontist explain what they are doing. It keeps my mind busy and distracted from feeling the things in my mouth. Plus, I find it kind of interesting. I often keep something in my hands to fiddle with too. The pianist in me taps out rhythm to whatever music is playing on the sound system. Anything to keep my focus away from my fears.

I have found in the worst of all my dentistry struggles, I pray. Simple as that. I pray for myself, because I need the prayer (I am in the dentist chair, after all). I pray for my husband and kiddos. I pray for anyone and anything I can think of to pray for. Sometimes I get distracted from my praying because something falls back into my throat (I HATE that!) or my dentist asks me a question or whatever I'm praying about leads me on some thought tangent that is really more thinking to myself than praying (I know you've done that; don't deny it). But when I am praying, I am focusing on something more important that the mess that is in my mouth. When my mouth is good to go again, I have accomplished much more than surviving another trip to the dentist.

Today, I survived the dentist. Oh the relief when the paper bib comes off and I am done! When I leave the office, I always thank the ladies and tell them I hope to not see them again for quite some time, no matter how nice they are.

simple dinners

Figuring out dinner has always been a pain for me, so I have a few go-to recipes that I use pretty regularly that I wanted to share. Only problem is that once I've made a recipe a bunch of times, I tend to just dump the ingredients in. So if you find that you need exact measurements...um... I apologize and use pinches and dashes of stuff! Oh, and no pictures yet, but maybe next time I'll have a few taken!

Chicken Noodle Soup
(either simmer on stove or in crock pot)
ingredients:
1-2 cans of chicken (or leftover chicken cut into bite sized pieces
1 can chicken broth
3 cups water
chicken flavored Ramen (2-3 packages) or egg noodles (approximately half of an 8 oz. package)
seasonings (to taste)
dried onions
garlic
salt and pepper
parsley
chives
celery seed/salt


Put all the ingredients (seasonings to taste) on stove (in a pot, of course) to simmer for about 45 minutes. If in crock pot (for the afternoon on low), add the noodles during the last hour of cooking or they will get mushy. I always add carrots and celery, keeping in mind that on the stove they take longer to cook through. In the crock pot, they will cook fine. Other things that you can add in: potato chunks or rice.

I serve this with French bread (because we like to sop up the broth) and saltine crackers. Actually, the saltines get crunched up and put right in the soup as we are serving it because we like it that way!

French Dip Sandwiches
When we first were married, my hubby and I got suckered into paying monthly for a bunch of recipe cards to show up in the mail (Easy Everyday Cooking). After about 6 months or so, we started adding up the total of what we had spent on the cards and realized that we probably could have bought 6 cookbooks with the same amount of money so we cancelled the subscription. This recipe (a little bit tweaked by me) was one from that set of cards. (I will admit that we have found many yummy recipes in this set!)
ingredients:
roast beef (we buy sliced roast beef from the deli, about 1 lb)
french rolls
2 beef bouillon cubes
1.5 C water
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp dried thyme
1 small bay leaf

And here's how I do it: I put the bouillon cubes in the water (in a large pot and I also don't measure out the water, I just make sure it's enough to cover the roast beef slices) and bring to a boil to melt the bouillon. Then I add the onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, and bay leaf to the mix. At this point, it's hot enough to put the slices of roast beef in (I do it one slice at a time so none are stuck together in the pot) and let them heat through.

Then we pull the beef out, put them on the rolls, put the juice in little bowls and pray for dinner! We sop up (hmm, guess our family is the sopping-type) the au jus with the rolls and yummy! I love the salty flavors all mixed together and that it is a simple meal to make and the fact that my whole family likes it!

Crock pot Roast Beef or Stew
This recipe is a quicky so that's why I'm sharing it. Quick is good.
ingredients:
2-3 lb roast or stew meat
jar of beef gravy
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
carrots
potatoes

Put roast/stew meat in crock pot in the morning. Cut potatoes into chunks (if I do red potatoes, I don't peel them. If I do baking potatoes, I peel and then chunk). Toss potatoes and a bunch of baby carrots (I do not buy the long ones to peel and cut; I cheat: I buy a bag of baby carrots) into the crock pot. Cover with gravy and the envelope of soup mix. Cover with water and cook on low all day, tempting your neighbors with the smell of delicious roast! I use a slotted spoon to leave the juices behind when I am plating this meal. We don't sop this one... well, I think maybe my husband does when I serve with rolls!


Manicotti with Three Cheeses
Another meal from the over expensive cards - this one is easy to assemble beforehand and cook later in the day (I've even frozen it; just double the cooking time if you are cooking it from frozen and keep an eye on it near the end).

ingredients:
12 manicotti shells
4 C shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (3 C and 1 C)
8 oz of soft cream cheese with onions and chives (or mix dried onions and chives into regular cream cheese, to taste, of course!)
3 C marinara sauce
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the manicotti according to the instructions on the box. Drain, rinse, drain again. I place them on paper towels and cut them open for easy "filling."
Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Mix the 3 C of mozzarella with the soft cream cheese. Stuff (my version of "stuff": spoon the cheese mixture into the opened manicotti and then fold over to enclose the filling; put the cut sides down in the pan). Spoon marinara sauce over the manicotti. Sprinkle the 1 C of mozzarella over the manicotti. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle on the Parmesan and bake for 10 minutes longer.


These four meals are meals that my kids will eat but that are also enjoyable for me and my husband to eat. (I'll admit, I still like macaroni and cheese from a box, but I just no longer feel as though that qualifies as a complete meal. I am out of college now.) I'll post more meals again, hopefully with a few pictures. If you have any questions, just ask! I have reread this about 3 times, but there is always the chance that I have made a mistake. A slim chance...

KC

(I have found that when I type my posts, then preview my posts, then actually publish my posts, each version looks different than the others! Please bear with me if my font sizes are weird or if my pictures are not where they should be. I'll keep working to figure it out!)

stuff and contentment

A few years ago we has custom organizers put into every closet in our house. There was a place for everything and everything had a place. The kids clothing was hung at the perfect length for them, there were plenty of shelves to keep toys out of sight, I even had a closet for my business items and they all fit. It was wonderful! I say "was" because we have since moved. Which is also a wonderful thing! But once you've been spoiled with custom organizers, it is certainly hard to start over again with a single shelf sitting on top of one long clothing rod. Unfortunately, putting in custom organizers is not at the top (or even near the top) of our "to do" list here yet. So I've had to get creative.

Today's gift of Survival: Creativity. That's what I do. I make things work somehow, someway, creatively. Pretty much I make do with what I've got and it tends to work out decently (usually). I have to try things about 6 different ways first to make sure I like it so it takes a while to make creative work around here. I make my baskets, suitcases, crates, and trunks do the work for me while still making these functional things look like home decor. Storing Christmas decor, toys, scrapbooking supplies, and recycling. This makes them mostly out of sight and easy to clean up!

In here you will find a bunch of Christmas decorations.

Much miscellaneous that disappears when I close the suitcase
and stack the others on top.

paper recycleables

Toys, usually this basket is
not so full but a number of our toys from upstairs
have found their way downstairs
and not back up again! Imagine that.

Ribbon and such
...and the laundry baskets.
Someday maybe these kids will have real laundry baskets,
but to be quite honest, these have held up better
than some of the plastic ones we have been through!

A few years back, my hubby and I put ourselves on a budget (eliminating numerous arguments and allowing us to do, financially, things we never thought possible - more on that later, I'm sure). That budget gave me guidelines - no expensive shopping trips unless I had saved up the money for it. It gave me a "make do" attitude. I look around my house and I have so much stuff! I can most definitely "make do" with what I've got and I usually do.

This past January, my husband went on a mission trip to Cambodia (he felt the nudge that he couldn't ignore and ended up 15 hours away for 2 weeks!) When he came back, he showed us pictures of the way the people there were living. Even the really nice homes he showed had so little, but just enough. Enough to make the people happy and content. When I look around my house and see how much stuff I have...

I know that God has blessed me with a lot of stuff, but should that really be my focus? He has blessed me with SO much more:
A husband who works hard on so many levels for our family,
Healthy and happy children,
A supportive family,
Wonderfully encouraging friends,
His word for guidance,
His peace when I can't find my own,
Comfort amidst great sadness,
The amazing gift of his son dying on the cross for all my sins,
Smiles from strangers,
Laughter,
Joy that bubbles up and runs over,
His amazing creation - spring is fantastic!
Grace,
Wisdom,
Hugs,
and, and, and...
I could go on and on with the list of blessings that have nothing to do with the "stuff" sitting in my baskets, trunks, suitcases, and such. Sometimes it takes stepping back to see the blessings that are right in front of us.

KC

on a serious note

I watched an episode of House last night. It was quite intense. One of the main characters took his own life. By the end of the episode I was in tears (I'm sure that's what the writers intended to have me do). But the tears were not from being emotionally attached to the character (I rarely watch TV these days) but because of personal experiences and losses.

It was just a few years back that I attended a memorial service for a young man who took his life (actually, it's been closer to 7 years, but when someone dies it never seems that they have been gone as long as they really have). At this extremely moving and God glorifying service, I took home some life lessons that I immediately put into practice.

A young man spoke at this service - it was his cousin who had passed. With intensity he spoke about the casualness with which we greet people. "How you doin'?" or "Hey there, how's it going?" and how often we dismiss their responses or fail to read the deeper meaning that this person is trying to express: "I'm all right...*sigh*" or "I'm hangin' in there." We've turned that question into a greeting where we don't really care what the person's response is or what the feelings behind the response are. We just expect them to say, "fine." I know I've been guilty of this. Sure, it takes time to listen to someone who is having a tough day or has some major trial in their life, but wouldn't you rather know you did your best to give a caring shoulder than to ignore the struggles of our friends and even acquaintances? You never know where you might make a difference if you allow God to use you in that way. (And when I say "you" I mean "me" because I've got a lot of lessons to learn myself!)

When this young man's mother spoke, I was hit with a message that I am now constantly putting into practice: the expression of love to my children. Not that I forget to tell them "I love you," but there are many situations that we overlook the importance of those words. Since that day I have told my daughter numerous times, "It doesn't matter how much you mess up, how angry you make me; there is nothing you can do that will ever make me stop loving you." And I remind her of this often. My boy doesn't quite understand the implications of this yet, but my daughter certainly does! (She's a bit strong-willed which lends to learning things the hard way).

And the wonderful thing about this situation is that it leads into being able to explain to her the unconditional love that God has for her. In my imperfections, she might find reason to doubt my love, but in God's perfect love she is in a constant state of being loved. The security of that love is priceless.

KC

For I am persuaded,
that neither death,
nor life,
nor angels,
nor principalities,
nor powers,
nor things present,
nor things to come,
nor height,
nor depth,
nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us
from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39