Menu Planning Again

Well, August is upon us, and July is over. After a long month and going way over the budget, my parents were here for a week and we went on vacation, I have seriously decided that I WILL, NO MATTER WHAT STICK TO THE BUDGET THIS MONTH. I don't know why I have such a hard time, maybe my planning is not good or I just get in a rut for meals and don't want to cook what I have planned for that day. So after much deliberation, I plan on doing this for the month, making each day a certain type of food, except for next week, because we will be at soccer camp from 5:30-8:00pm everyday. The kids will have to eat before we go, and I will have to have something. I will also need some snacks for when they get home. Anyone have any suggestions? I can always use the help.



Here is my strategy this month:

Monday: Italian

Tuesday: Mexican

Wednesday: crock pot

Thursday: grill

Friday: pizza/new recipe

Saturday: leftovers/grill

Sunday: leftovers/ out to eat

We shall see if this helps. This week we are having a soccer camp, so the menu will be out of commission, but I will start hard next week. I stocked up on fruit and veggies for snacks and dinner. I am planning on making a few big lunches this week in place of a big dinner since we will have to be at camp by 5:30 every night. I have also planned a budget for my grocery budget. I am going to try and spend only $150 every two weeks. This gives me a little extra at the end of the month and for months that are longer than four weeks. Hopefully this will help. It is the 3rd and I have already spent $130 on groceries, however, I did get all of my meat and most everything else, besides milk and fresh fruit and veggies for next week. I have $20 left to spend next week.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday, off to laundry.

Beach Vacation 2009

We went on our family vacation to the beach on Sunday after church. Our time together was wonderful and we spent a lot of time just enjoying each other's company and having Justin with us for three full days, uninterrputed.

Sunday after we arrived, we walked on the beach after dinner. The kids couldn't resist getting wet! Monday, after sleeping in and eating breakfast, we headed out to the beach, loaded with all our beach gear, only to enjoy the cloudy sky and cold water for about 3o minutes until the rain came. We decided to sit on the covered porch, watching the rain, while the kids had a snack of fruit snacks and a capri sun. After playing, lunch, and a nap (which only Noah and I took), we took our chance again and headed out to the cloudy beach, again only for about half an hour.

Tuesday it was for casted to rain all day, but we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. The high was only 85 degrees. Again, we headed out to the beach with all our gear ready to spend the whole day there, which we did except for a brief lunch back at the house, a good five hours enjoying God's creation, building sand castles, playing in the waves, reading (me mostly), and just being together. After a good nap and dinner, we went to feed the ducks. Noah has his first encounter with a very hungry goose, and he got bit on the finger. Poor thing, he wouldn't let me put him down after that. We saw a lot of deer on our golf cart ride that evening, and then we were off to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream!

Wednesday I spent cleaning up while Justin took the kids riding on the golf cart. Justin said Noah was silent the whole ride until he saw the geese and he said, "bite." Children have such good memories.

Here are some pictures of our trip, along with some music, hope you all enjoy!

Necklaces for All!

I don't know what to say about my lack of blogging, except that I have been in a slump. Nothing seemed worthy of blogging, and I just haven't been that crazy about my computer lately. We are having a great summer, lots of swimming at the YMCA pool, playing, grilling, and just recently a wonderful visit from my parents, (more to come on that later).
One morning before we went to the Y, Karis decided to make everyone, including Calvin, a necklace. She and Noah sported theirs to the Y, and Calvin wore his all day long!

Strawberry Picking, Sort of

About a month ago, we took the kids to Dean's farm, a local farm in Wilson, that has all kinds of produce. They have a huge strawberry patch, so we decided to let the kids pick some strawberries. We didn't get to pick for more than 15 minutes because it started to rain on us, but we enjoyed our small bucket of strawberries, and the kids had fun.

Mommy showing Karis which ones to pick.

Noah jogging down the aisle, not sure what is going on.

Karis did a great job picking big juicy strawberries.

Noah reaching for a green one...

and eating it!

The Many Faces of Noah

Posing for his picture with his "ruck" on. He now likes to only wear shirts with "rucks, dars, or rains," on them, that would be trucks, cars, or trains.

Noah smirk, wrinkling up his nose.

Being silly at the table after all the guacamole is eaten, of course he is wearing most of it.

Hope everyone had a great week, and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Early Mornings and Rain

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain, which usually causes me to turn over and go back to sleep. Rain has this effect on my body that makes me want to sleep no matter what. However, with God's help, I threw off the covers and rolled out of bed. What a sweet time and fellowship I had with my Savior, reading the Word, confessing sin and praying for others. God reminded me of His presence in the early mornings, and how I should long for it and desire it. Rising early is so vital for my days to go well, for me to have confessed sin, prayed for strength, patience, and thankfulness no matter what the day holds. Rising early allows me time to be with the only One who can give me peace throughout the day.
Rain, what a blessing from God. He takes care of His creation by providing rain to do so many things. Just when I am tempted to worry or fret about something, God sends rain to remind me that no matter what He is in control of all things. I am thankful that God has opened my eyes to see my need for this Savior, the One who holds all things in His hands.

Texas Spring Trip 2009 Part II

We had a wonderful time with my family for the next week that we were in Texas. We took the kids to the Houston Zoo, celebrated my dad's 64 birthday, had a Rehms' family reunion, played some slow pitch softball, and just hung out. I always enjoy my time with my family and it always seems to go by way too fast. Here are some pictures of the petting zoo, Houston zoo, and all the cousins. I am glad that Karis gets to play with her cousins, if only for a short time.





More pictures and posts to come of our fun summer activities. I also got to go see my dear friend, Mandy's new baby boy, and he was a cutie! I am glad we got to visit Mandy if only for a little while.

Texas Spring Trip 2009 Part I

So this post is a little late in coming, but better late than never. The kids and I went to Texas at the end of April for ten days to visit our families. We spent the first few days with Justin's family in Orange. The kids had a lot of fun with Aunt Courtney and hanging out with Pop Pop and Grammy (I am not sure why I never seem to get any pictures of Grammy in here, sorry Grammy, I will try harder next time).

Noah eating his first ice cream by himself, thanks to Aunt Courtney. Let me just say, AHHHHHH! It was a BIG mess, but he had fun and enjoyed himself.

Me, Noah, Karis (making her famous monkey face), and Mamou

Aunt Courtney letting Noah and Karis look out the window in Papou's room at the hospital. I am very thankful that we got to see him before he passed away.

Courtney decided to take us to a petting zoo in Beaumont. The kids had a lot of fun.

Karis petting a rabbit.

Noah pointing to the kangaroo.

I have more pictures to come of the petting zoo and the time we spent with my family. Stay tuned.

Respectable Sins

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges was both convicting and encouraging. It was convicting because it opened my eyes to many sins in my own life, and it was encouraging because it reminded me over and over that Christ, my Savior, died for these sins and will and has forgiven me.

Bridges gives us five helpful directions for dealing with sin:
1. We must address our sin in the context of the gospel
2. We must learn to rely on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
3. While depending on the Holy Spirit, we must at the same time recognize our responsibility to diligently pursue all practical steps for dealing with our sins.
4. We must identify specific areas of acceptable sins.
5. We should bring to bear specific applicable Scriptures to each of our subtle sins.

After Bridges gives us these practical steps of dealing with our sins, he writes a chapter about each one of these acceptable sins: ungodliness, anxiety and frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, anger, judgemental ism, envy, jealousy, sins of the tongue, and worldliness. Wow, this is a long list, and to be quite honest, I found in my own heart that I had to deal with almost all of them. God was gracious to continue to remind me that my sanctification is a process and it takes time. God is slowly and graciously helping me put to death these respectable sins in my life, it is a life long process, and I am grateful for this book. It opened my eyes to sins that I didn't even realize I was committing.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It woke me up in many areas of sin in my life and reminded me again of "my need for the gospel everyday of my life." I am thankful that my Savior is not through with me yet and that my sins yesterday, today and tomorrow are already forgiven. Why wouldn't I desire to please and honor Him by doing everything possible to not sin against my Precious, Loving Savior?

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Thanks to a recipe blog that I visit often, my family and I enjoyed these muffins for breakfast.

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

4 Tablespoons softened butter
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup plain low-fat vanilla yogurt
2/3 cup sugar
heaping 1/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup coarse sugar
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
(I left both of these off the recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place butter, eggs, bananas, yogurt, sugar, and peanut butter into a large mixing bowl. Mix to combine. Place all dry ingredients into a separate large bowl and stir to combine. Slowly add wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until combined.
2. Scoop into muffin tins lined with paper cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and shredded coconut. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 12 servings.

These were very tasty and filling. I would defiantly recommend to anyone who likes muffins, it is going to be a stable in our house from now on!

Noah and Noah

Karis' doll house figures that she got for her birthday really do look like the family, especially Noah's except for the red hair.

Here is Noah the doll, with his bottle and pajamas on.

Here is Noah, holding Noah, with his "bottle" and blue pajamas on. See the resemblance.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday, God is good today. I am thankful for His saving grace that saved me from my sins.

We love you Papou!

Justin's Papou, JC Childers, passed away this morning. Please lift up his family in prayer. Justin will be flying to Texas in the morning, and I am sorry to say that the kids and I will not be able to go with him. Our hearts are with you Justin, Mamou, Dad, Susan, Courtney, Canda, and Mike. Wish we were there too!

Papou was a delight to my children, he always offered a smile and hug. Karis said she like playing "ducks with him and watching Meerkats." I am sorry that Noah will not know his Papou better, but I am thankful for the time we have had with him. May God comfort you guys in this time. We love you Papou!

To My Dear Mother on Mother's Day!

Mom-

Thank you for

being patient with me and nursing me back to health as a baby,
teaching and modeling modesty to me,
encouraging and supporting me in sports and school,
being my biggest cheerleader on the sidelines,
grounding me in Christ,
teaching me how to love the home and do all the daily chores with a happy heart,
offering forgiveness after I failed,
teaching me that sometimes being the best means being last,
knowing that only chicken and dumplings can heal my sick body,
spurring me on as I love, train, and discipline my own children,
simply being the best woman I know, my best friend and my mom.

I love you Mom, miss you already!

Texas, We are here!

Just wanted to let all of you know that the kids and I are in Texas right now. We arrived yesterday with a pretty easy flight, and will be spending the next few days with Justin's family. We will then head to Magnolia to be with my family and have the yearly Rehms' family reunion. I will post pictures as soon as I can, as long as I remember to take some! Hope everyone is doing well.

New Bathroom, we did it!

I am very excited to say that the kids bathroom turned out good. I really like it. It is defiantly not professional, but for my first time of painting cabinets, I was very pleased. It was hard work, but the kids like it! Here are a few pictures:

Before:

This is the only before picture I could find, we forgot to take pictures before we started. As you can see, the cabinets were white with blue doors. There is another cabinet above the toilet, also with blue doors. The mirror above the sink was blue with white splatter painted on top. The walls were just white. (Please excuse my naked boy, but at least his bum is cute!)

Angle from the door when you walk in.

The mirror and light fixture covers are now white. Justin also installed a new faucet in both bathrooms, good job babe. There is also a new light fixture above the mirror that Justin installed.

White cabinets much better.

The green on the walls is a little brighter than I intended, but hey, anything is better than white. There are two different shades of green in the shower curtain, and the color I picked for the walls is supposed to be in between the two. Picking out colors is not easy.

For our first major home project, I am delighted on how it turned out. I am sure we will do things differently next time, but we shall see how well the paint holds up.

Painting, Painting, and a Dirty House!

I am still around, very much around. I am in the home stretch of painting the kids bathroom and bathroom cabinets. I only have a few touch ups left, the walls are green from white, and the cabinets are white, which there are a million colors of white the actual color is called betsey's linen, they were white with blue doors. After two coats of primer and two coats of paint, they look much better, we shall see later today after everything dries.
My house is a mess and it is driving me crazy. Oh, how my friend Lori lived like this for a while while she painted her kitchen cabinets, kudos to her. Tomorrow everything will be finished and the day will be spent cleaning the house. What a wonderful fun activity to do on Saturday!! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Just a thought to make you laugh, yesterday while painting, Noah ate a mud pie, literally, he also climbed up the ladder to slide down the slide, that is way too big for him. I think he isn't going to be scared of anything! Here we go, eyes in the back of my head!

A review on some of the acceptable sins I have been reading in my book coming soon!

Bowling Anyone?

After getting the Wii, Karis, Justin, and I have been talking about going bowling for real. I am the current high bowler on the Wii, so Justin wanted to make sure he was still the supreme "real" bowler, which he most definitely is!! Karis was so very excited that she talked about it all day. Nancy was so sweet to come and watch Noah for us, so Karis thought it was even more exciting to go somewhere with both of us by herself. Here is a rundown of our fun time in pictures. Hope you enjoy, we did!

Karis and my feet with our bowling shoes on. I was surprised that they had some small enough for her, she was excited!

Karis is picking up her ball to go bowl, she picked it up two times for two games. She wouldn't let us help her at all.

Carrying her ball to the lane, what big muscles she has!

Stopping and looking down the lane like mommy and daddy do before she rolls the ball. We had gutter rails up so that all her balls would not be gutter balls, it also helped me get a few spares!

Bending down to roll the ball down the lane.

Eagerly watching the ball roll SLOWLY down the lane.

Karis watching Daddy's great form, he had five strikes the first game!

Justin admiring his first strike.

My form isn't too bad, and I did bowl one strike.

And the winner is, JUSTIN, who bowled a 160. I bowled a 123, and Karis bowled a 73 for her first time ever.

What a fun time. We realized how much we missed bowling, but I have to say that I prefer the Wii bowling, since I am the champion at that! Of course, it isn't the real thing, but oh well!

True Adoration!

True adoration: Noah looking at Karis so sweetly and listening as she reads him Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Yes, Karis' hair is wet. Hope you're having a great Tuesday!

The Peacemaker

Justin asked me to read five books this year. I just finished the first one, it took me longer than I had anticipated, but I will still have plenty of time to read the next four. The book I just finished is called The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. I thought I would give a few things that I learned from it and maybe the book would be of interest to you.

Here are my thoughts:

1. The principles behind being a peacemaker are much the same as being a parent. We desire to live at peace with our children, but we have to teach them about sin and forgiveness, which is what a peacemaker does.

2. Conflict "encourages us to look at conflict as an opportunity to glorify God, serve others, and grow to be like Christ." (p. 31).

3. "If at all possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:18). There are three types of peace: peace with God, (which can only be attained through the cross, by our acknowledging our sin and our need for a Savior and peace being restored between us and God through Christ's blood), peace with others, and peace with yourself.

4. In order to reconcile conflict with someone, I must search my own heart and "get the log out of my own eye." This is so true when I see my own sin in my children, and God uses them to convict me and cause me to repent of that sin.

5. The practical aspects of how to deal with conflict and what to say are very helpful and have helped me dealing with conflict in my own home.

I would defiently recommend this book to everyone. It is a great resource for anyone who desires to do what God has said, live at peace with all, as much as possible. It also brought me to consider my own heart and how I deal with conflict in my home and with others. I know it will be even more invaluable when my children are older and more conflicts arise between them.

On to book number two: Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.

A Lesson in Integrity

Today I went to Target to get a few things. Karis, Noah and I were all ready to leave, they were strapped in and the car was in reverse, when I realized that my bill seemed a lot cheaper than it should have been. I put the car back in park, got out the receipt and noticed that the cashier forgot to charge me for an item. With a small sign, I turned off the car, turned and explained to Karis that we had to go back in the store. This was how the conversation went:

Karis: Mommy, what are you doing, I am ready to go home.
Me: Karis, we have to go back into Target because the I didn't pay for my shirt.
Karis: But Mommy, I am ready to go.
Me: I know, sweet girl, but we have to be honest and if I leave without paying for this shirt, it is like I am stealing it.
Karis: Okay Mommy, but next time just make sure the lady lets you pay for everything.

So, maybe Karis didn't understand what really happened, but at least she got to see what it means to be honest. I didn't feel very excited about having to unload the kids again to go back in, but I knew that I needed to. I am thankful that by God's grace I was able to teach Karis a very small lesson in integrity today. Noah didn't have a clue, all he knew was that he was getting out of his car seat yet again!