I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 

  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 

  your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

-Psalm 139:13-16

I’m praising God today for the gift of life He has given me.

He loves each one of us the exact same and took the same care and detail to make us each different yet still His. He gave us each our own unique set of looks, personalities, and talents. 

Today I’m going to accept them all as His birthday gift to me.

And I think His gift will probably top them all !!! 

-Erin

Other than your life – What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given?

 How about a list? 

 1. I just had some sweet sixteen powdered donuts and some cherry coke zero for my night-time snack.

 2. I told Phil 2 days ago that I was going to start exercising now that it’s not 30 below outside, which will be of great help – especially when I decide to have sweet sixteen donuts and coke zero for my night-time snack … just sayin’.

 3. I don’t think I’ve ever actually said out loud the phrase, “just sayin’” – but I like typing it. {It’s sort of addictive}

 4. My 10 year H.S. reunion is rounding the corner, which has me feeling quite nostalgic and reflective. I decided to skim thru my yearbooks and read some of the notes that my “friends” wrote to me all those years ago.

There were a few themes running thru most of the notes – lots of “stay sweet” and “stay cool” demands …  quite a few of “You’re funny” … I even got lots of digits (a.k.a. phone numbers) from guys telling me to call them and we could hang out during the summer {uh, sorry dudes…I never called}. And a lot of references to me being spiritual, moral, and a “good person”.  

Most interestingly, I came across a note written in red marker in the middle of my 1999 yearbook  by a girl that I didn’t even know knew me.  

Here is what she wrote:

“…You are my Bright, funny, modest friend. Your laugh makes me smile. You tell it how it is & you don’t need acceptance from N/E one to feel whole! You are one of a kind & you will never be N/Ewhere lonely.”{ N/E  =’s   any}

This made me cry. Little did she know that I felt the exact opposite of this when I was sitting there in class waiting for her to sign my yearbook. She was popular and pretty so I was probably in shock that she agreed to sign my page.

I’m sure that most H.S. girls feel insecure and feel a need to find someone to make them whole. I think I did live feeling that way most of the time when I was in 11th grade…. but I didn’t dwell on it or go to an extreme. I owe it to my parents for keeping me involved in Church. Even though I struggled everyday with insecurity, I knew in my heart that God was the only One who could make me whole. She was so right to say that I didn’t need ”N/E one” … I was already accepted by The One.  Amen! Just sayin’ 

 5. I turn 28 in 9 days – just sayin’.  I can’t lie- I am very excited and thrilled to still have 2 more years of being a 20-something. I love surprising people when they ask how old I am. Most people assume that I’m older because I’ve had a quadrillion kids in the past 5 1/2 years. haha..just 3 – but still. 

 6. Since my friend Kylee went to be with the Lord , I’ve been pretty sad yet also pretty pumped about – Heaven, the Bible, & rethinking how I spend my time. Life can be over in an instant —- yet we all walk around acting like we’ve got all the time in world to – watch redonkulous amounts of T.V., buy a bunch of stuff , and get caught up in a bunch of drama. As the great country singer Tim McGraw would say, it’s time to  ”live like you were dying.”

 7. I’m so in love with my husband it’s not even funny. JUST SAYIN’ 

 8.  I’m also so in love with my 3 blonde haired blue/green/hazel eyed girls it’s not funny, either. Although – I don’t feel as though I’ve shown them enough how much I love them recently. I need to be better at that tomorrow.

 9. I think I’ll make this a 10 point list.

 10.  I hope this post makes my Mom happy b/c she kept bugging me to write one.

I love you all… Stay Sweet and Cool,k?  Just Sayin’

I like the convenience of pre-packaged snacks, and will buy them if there is a sale or I have a coupon (or both if I’m lucky). I also try to package my own snacks, especially when I have little bits of various snacks left over.

Jazz up baggies w/ stickers!

Just this morning, I was cleaning out the pantry and came across some left over snacks. I found an almost empty bag of pretzel sticks, more than half empty jar of peanuts, and about 3/4 of a cup of mini chocolate chips. (They were crying out to be together!)

I came up with “Sticks and Stones” (a.k.a. pretzels & peanuts)”. The chocolate could be also be known as mud …. Fun!!!!

My ingredients: Pretzel sticks, peanuts, mini chocolate chips, wax paper. (I sifted the excess salt w/ a strainer)

Melt chocolate chips & stir in w/ pretzels & nuts.

Spread mixture out on wax paper & let it harden.

Break it up & serve or package it for later.

  Works for me!! What’s your favorite snack?

-Erin

 I can see that “dramatic flair” in my kids now. They’re  young, so  it’s just something we’re constantly working on. I ask them to complete a task and half the time what I hear back is complaining. (Little do they know, “Life’s Tough!”). I look at their simple task of picking up shoes or putting away toys and think that it’s nothing compared to managing an entire household.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been in a battle with them to keep their room tidy. I’ve said all the right things, “After you get one thing out, please put it away before moving on to the next thing” and “We need to take care of our things because it’s a privilege to have them”. I’ve made threats and I’ve bagged up their toys. 

After weeks of working on this, nothing seemed to change. I felt defeated, discouraged, and depressed. Then, I realized there was something I wasn’t doing to help me in my tidy room battle.

I was not seeking the Lord for wisdom. I considered the issue of keeping toys put away so simple that I thought I could fix the problem with out His help or that I would be “bothering” Him with my little problem.

The cool thing is, God doesn’t put our problems on levels. He’s a great listener and has perfect advice to give, no matter how small our request.

When life gets tough, are first reactions might be to complain, freak out, or give up. 

Instead of doing all that, we can go to the Bible because ….

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

{Hopefully there will be a part 2 to this post, where I share about our victory in the tidy room battle}

So, do you have some little battles not being won and will you go to God today and ask Him to help you?

How do you teach your kids to keep their toys picked up?

When the going gets tough, the tough should get going to God for help.

-Erin

In the above picture you see my cutie sporting her little purple backpack. Love that kid!

Here you see my little sweet pea grabbing on to my pajama pants. She’s actually wanting me to hand her my camera. Yeah, not gonna happen.

Okay, now she’s MAD. She’s pulling the string out of my pants!  I actually thought to myself, “this could totally be a blog post!”.

This is the classic tantrum position. Her feet are kicking, she’s squirming around, and yelling ” maaaaammmmmmaaaaaaa!!!!!” I’m still taking pictures at this point because I’ve been thru these tantrums enough to know that it’s almost over. I say to her, ” Come to Mommy, baby.” I pat-pat-pat  gently on her back and redirect her to the purple backpack she threw off (that happened so fast I couldn’t get a picture).

She concedes, puts the bag back on, and starts to smile. ( win-win situation )

With my 2 yr. old, I am usually able to redirect her and stop the tantrum. I’m not giving in to what she wants and  my blood pressure isn’t rising. 

Hebrews 12:11 says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

How do you handle tantrums? 

It’s been a lot of trial and error. In fact, I  couldn’t even bake a potato the whole first year of marriage! Times sure have changed and I’m happy to announce I can bake both white and sweet potatoes.  

I’ve also learned that one of the best ways to save money on groceries is to plan your meals and try to use some of your food items for more than one meal. For example,I can use one bag of frozen chicken breasts to make 2-3 meals for our family of 5.  I will grill 2 chkn.breasts for barbeque chicken pizza, Pound out 2 chkn. breasts to be breaded..and pan fried to eat w/ pasta, chop & saute 2 chkn. breasts for tacos. (My children are still small, so they don’t eat as much…or at all!)

I want to share a recipe  that I recently tried. (It is Husband approved). I actually came up with this on my own. My two main ingredients that I was stretching were corn tortillas and chicken. I bought a pack of small corn tortillas to make fish & chicken tacos. They were very tasty  and I had more than half a bag of tortillas left over. When I have leftovers, I always try to think of a way to jazz it up the second time around. (I had to train myself to eat leftovers).

This is what I came up with:

You’ll need this -

1 Package corn tortillas, Vegetable oil,1 can enchilada sauce, shredded cheese,shredded lettuce,chopped cooked chicken,sour cream,& diced tomatoes.

Put about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a pot. Put the heat on med./high until it bubbles when you splash a TINY bit of water into it. (not very technical..sorry) The tortilla will start to bubble up, I usually pop the the little bubbles w/ my tongs and just keep flipping it over until it’s crispy. Remove the tortilla and let them rest on a plate covered w/ paper towel.

After your tortillas are done cooking, you can start assembling.

Start layering -

Enchilada sauce,cheese,chicken

Microwave for about 45 seconds or place 6 on a cookie sheet in a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes.

Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, & a dollop of sour cream. 

Done.

(for a shortcut on the chkn., I used Tyson’s Fajita chicken breast strips,cut into chunks)

Hungry yet?

Here we go!:

People are serious when it comes to their favorite candy.

In fact I  have a very sweet friend (you know who you are!) that is serious about – Starburst candy.

I must agree that Starburst is a radical candy. They’re bite size, colorful, and refreshingly fruity! Wtih that being said, I have to admit that I strongly dislike the yellow (a.k.a. lemon) ones. I get disappointed when I reach my hand into a bag of Starburst or open that foil wrapper only to find more yellow than any of the other colors.

After hearing my dilemma, my Starburst -loving friend shared a little technique to help me overcome my dislike of the yellow. She’s so nice!

So here is how to actually enjoy eating a yellow starburst:

1. Take a yellow and an orange and place behind knee and bend. Wait about 5 minutes until the candies are softened from the warmth.

2. Unwrap your candies and smoosh together.

3. Chew it.

4.That crazy yellow has turned into something yummy.

It is my hope that if you too dislike the yellow starburst, you’ll put this technique into practice and  start to enjoy them.

I’m so curious to know if there are other candy secrets out there.

Do you have one?

 Nothing particularly special was leading up to that moment. It wasn’t an anticipated special event like a wedding, birth, or graduation. It was just an ordinary day. I was moving from room to room picking up, organizing, and wiping the counter for what felt like the 6th time since 7am.  

 I took a deep breath and opened the dishwasher door, pulled the bottom drawer out and started to complete one of my most mundane chores of the day. With thoughts swirling, I remembered there were clothes that needed to be switched into the dryer. I was happy to have this thought, because it would give me a reason to stop unloading. (I did say it was my most mundane chore of the day.)

 As I leisurely made my way to the dryer, my 5 year old walked by as if she needed something to do. I asked her to start unloading the non breakables onto the counter until I returned. Her eyes lit up and she asked for a towel to dry the damp dishes.

 And that’s when I grabbed my camera because time was standing still. “When did she get so big?!”, I thought.  Here was my big baby completing one of MY chores. On one hand I was thrilled to realize she was big enough to help me and on the other hand I was in awe of how fast time has flown by. Wasn’t it just yesterday I was trying to unload the dishwasher with her resting on my hip? 

My mundane chore turned into a time standing still memory. It makes me believe that all of these mundane chores are actually sacred. And if that is true, I have a challenge to live like every detail of my day is being woven into something bigger. The details aren’t something to overlook. They’re special and purposeful.

 If you’re a Mom, then think of all those chores you do like changing diapers, nursing, making bottles, picking up toys, folding clothes, filling sippy cups, changing sheets, being tired, and making meals as all part of the plan our God has for you. Instead of dreading them, enjoy them, and be thankful for them. 

 I love The Message translation of Colossians 3:17, it says, 

“Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”

I thought I should combine the two into a great big post of LOVE:

-I love Jesus. And He loves Me. 

-I love Phil. July 20,2002 I made a covenant to love him forever.

-I love my Girls. 2004, 2006, & 2007 were amazing years for me. 

-I love my parents AND my In-laws.

-I love my Extended Family. Grandparents,Aunts,Uncles,nieces,nephews,cousins…lots to love.

-I love my Church! 

-I love my friends. They’re the “icing on the cake”.

-I love the Bible, Coffee, Dr.Pepper Icee’s, Outback Steakhouse,The Office, Dark chocolate,all kinds of music, reading blogs, Pajamas, & Target.

-I love a lot of people and a lot of things. I don’t love them all equally, obviously,but that is my list and now I’ve finished my very first blog post!!!!! 

                So Who or What do you love? I’d -LOVE- to hear from you.