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Friday, March 25, 2011

I'm Watching You

Don't worry.
You are not the one being watched.
I am.
And Craig is too.
By a 4 year old boy.
And a 1 year old girl.
I am not a night person. 
With that being said, while I was pregnant with Abigail, I told Craig in advance that  he would be doing the bedtime routine for our children.
Little did he know (insert Stranger Than Fiction movie here) that when Abigail was just 7 months old a sweet little just-turned-4-years-old boy would be coming to live with us for a while.
They got in the routine of reading a book, likely to be a Dr. Suess, and a story from Nathan's Children's Bible, then praying together. They each pray. Out loud. So precious!

Pause right here.
Can we talk about this Bible? It was a gift to Nathan from our friends the Dahlfred's and we are kind of in love with it. So much so that we bought a bunch as a gift to a church to be given to kids who don't have a Bible at home.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this Children's Bible
Uncle Rob came all the way from Zimbabwe to spend Christmas 2010 with us.

So I often find Nathan on the couch or floor flipping through his Bible. He is "spending time with Jesus." I will hear his sweet four year old voice "reading" His Bible.

"God is unchanging... His forever, never ending love... He rescues us..."
These are the most precious visions of Christ sweetly instilled in this boys heart.
He gets it. 
He hears the Word. Stores it up in his sweet little heart. Spills it out of his own mouth. 
And I pray that as he grows into the man God has created him to be, that he will continue to store up the Truths of the Gospel in his heart. 
So that he might one day believe them. 
And share it with others.

Craig and I are on a mission. 
In our hearts first, then our home. To know and believe the Gospel. To live it out in our home. To raise our dearly loved children to know the Gospel. To share it with the rest of the world.

Would you pray for us? 
Pray that God will grow our hearts more like His. Pray for the 2 little children growing in our care. Pray for our future children, who have yet to be born and those who are already out there around the world.

Grace and Peace to you.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Money Saving Monday- yogurt

   I have missed blogging. The lack of sleep from a sick baby last week and today feeling not so great is making me feeling a little loopy. With that being said, let's stick to something more bullet-point, yet something I am very passionate about and have been eager to write more about. 

Remember my post about that sweet Proverbs 31 lady

I am so excited to share some money saving/ healthy idea tips with you! Here is one for the day-


YOGURRRT!
    Perhaps you know that I spent a few years working at the fastest growing and most popular Organic Yogurt Company in the US. Based right out of my hometown Londonderry, NH! With that being said, I love me some yo-git. I also like not paying $3 something for it... So I have recently started making it myself. 
   I know, I know. Wow, that is amazing! I work so hard. I am like super-mom.
Actually NO!
(Psss... it so so insanely super easy
you might actually feel silly for 
not making it yourself before now.
I did...err... I do. )
   So now that we got the ego part out of the way... Please, consider doing it yourself and have FULL CONFIDENCE knowing that it is just plain silly how easy it is and I wish I took up my friends advise last summer and started doing it back then.

Alright already- this is my latest success recipe I tried. I'll share my fun adventure of what my first batch turned into... still usable, but uh, let's follow the directions hey and make actual yogurt and not a form of ricotta cheese?
Crock pot!
1/2 gallon of milk
Spending time together on low for about 2 1/2 hours
Unplug it and let is chillax with the cover on for 3 hours
Whisk a half cup of yogurt (home made or store bought) for starter cultures
Snuggle the whole thang up with a blanket and let it sit out for 8-12 hours
Scoop it out into storage containers and refrid it up for about 8 hours

Eat it up with fresh fruit, jams, etc. YUMMM

WOW that was easy. And CHEAP!

So what do I do with my plain yogurt??
- Add it to my daily oatmeal breaky with some homemade jam/ fresh fruit. 
- Sub it for butter/ milk with boxed mac & cheese. It gives it a great creamy texture and is now little Nathan's fav way to eat boxed mac.
- Eat it straight up with jam. This is little Abi's fav snack.

Go ahead. Try it!
PS
I may have gotten this recipe from right here

PPS
If you combine the yogurt with the cold milk right away by accident... you may come out with something different. And then decide to use your oh-so-not-so-fancy yogurt maker thingy (ah-hem, cheese cloth) and get a bunch of whey from it that you then use as a liquid sub for baking and use the hefty yogurty thickness as ricotta cheese. Because it is freakishly similar. You may also want to repeat this mistake in the future because it was rather fun and actually tastefully useful.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Church. Really- it's about leaving a church.

You may have read this blog title knowing that my husband and I recently left the church we had been involved with for the past 3 years. Maybe you want all the juicy details. The gossip. The drama. I pray your sweet spirit is not looking for that. You will not find it here. I have seen too many families leave churches on a bad note. Hurting their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as they shoot a quick e-mail letting the staff know that that they will not be serving at church the next day. I have been that person to help clean up the mess they have left behind, to feel hurt, degected and awkward when I run into them, wondering if they hate me too because of the way they left. 

This is not about why we left our church. It is about how. 

First off, leaving a church is not easy. Especially when you aren't leaving for a "reason". You don't like the preaching style. You are angry about the way the church spends money. You have a funny feeling. They talk about Jesus too much. Their coffee is gross. 
Hey, I get you. I have been to churchs that have gross coffee. Or no childcare. Or use flashy lights that make me dizzy.

However, these are not reasons to leave a church. 

My husband and I started praying about church, our family and ministry. We were simply praying to have more sensitive ears to hear God and a sensitive heart to feel His direction. We were not praying about or planning on leaving our church. That is the beauty of it. We could truly see the evidence of God transforming our hearts and redirecting our ministry focus. 

Our "plan" was to finish our last week of serving in Sunday School by the end of December 2010. We gave the Kids Ministry Director a month notice to let her know where our family was heading and to help her look for replacements. Shortly after that, my husband met with the pastor to let him know what God had put on our hearts. 

Having gone through the pain of experiencing people, and not just anyone- fellow leaders and sojourners in planting this church, leave on a bad note, only causing division and hardship for their brothers and sisters in Christ, we made every effort to leave on a "good note". We bought children's Bibles for the Kids Ministry to be given to children who did not have a Bible at home. We thought of it as a parting gift. It was a need that our church had and it was one way that we could show our love and support for the church and staff as our family moved on.

Not everyone takes a family leaving a church well. We left knowing that not everyone understood our heart and reasons for leaving. Even now, 3 months later, when people learn that we are no longer attending that church, they gasp and ask why. As if they are anticipating a horror story. Waiting to hear the drama. Why can't leaving a church be seen as a move of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? God does not always call us to one place for our whole life, we often experience things during seasons in our life. My husband and I were single when we started going to the church and left married with children. Our life had changed drastically. And our hearts did too. Our relationship with the LORD had only grown deeper and been strengthened during the trials we faced in 2010 and during that time we set aside to stop serving for a season and seek the LORD's direction for our family.

So why did we leave our church? Are you ready for this? Go ahead and gasp! Let that anticipation fill, but don't let your sin-natured mind wander too far. We left because we felt called to. God has been moving in our hearts and lives for the past 7 months or so since we first felt His calling to start CWTrials- an extreme biking ministry dedicated to sharing the Gospel. That's it. No "big deal". But really, it was. Our leaving the church was an act of obedience to the LORD. It wasn't because what they were doing was bad, I often think of obedience as turning from something that was bad. This was not the case. Our obedience was listening to God and in Faith, turning our focus and attention onto what He laid before us. Can I tell you something- God has richly blessed us because of our obedience. Not solely based on us leaving the church, but creating a habit of obedience in our everyday lives.

Where God brought us is a perfect fit for our family, our ministry, our marriage, our gifts and talents. That is another story. THIS story was about obedience. And how to leave a church on a "good note", out of obedience unto the LORD, showing love to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

REDEMPTION soap

Some of you may have been hearing bits about REDEMPTION soap. Some of you may have not. 
Some of you may have been hearing/ reading about a "project" I am working on. Or perhaps a business endeavor. A mission perhaps. 
Some of you have NO IDEA WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. 
That's ok.
I'm not going to tell you. Just yet anyway. 
APRIL FIRST TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN.
Mark it.
Check back.
Read up. 
Set a lil cash aside if you might want to participate.
Read about it here on www.justwrighthere.blogspot.com April 1, 2011
I would love your prayers during this time leading up.
This is less about soap. More about redemption.