Keepsake Pillows

Not a day goes by that I don't think about and miss this man! A few days after dad passed away mom and I was in his closet and I had the idea of turning his shirts into pillows. I ended up with enough pillows for each of the children, myself, mom, and Bryan. I also made a few for other family members. 

Here is dad in one of his shirts and then the picture below is the pillow I made out of that shirt. 

At first this was a hard project and I would have to stop and put it to the side for a few days...I got pretty emotional a couple of times. I am so thankful to have this keepsake.

Most of the shirts that I turned into pillows I had a picture of him in that shirt to go with the pillow. 

I enjoyed making these and glad we have them. Mom plans on taking the scraps from the shirts and making a blanket. Just wish I could have one more hug from my dad... He had the best hugs!!

Saved By Grace

As I was writing the date in my prayer journal this morning I realized that it was 24 years ago today that God did a miracle in my life. I was spiritually dead and He brought life to me. God revealed my sin and called me to Him. That was the best thing that ever happened to me! You can read about my testimony here.

What is your testimony? When and How did God change your heart? I would love to hear from you! 

The song All I Have Is Christ sums it up best…

VERSE 1

I once was lost in darkest night

Yet thought I knew the way

The sin that promised joy and life

Had led me to the grave

I had no hope that You would own

A rebel to Your will

And if You had not loved me first

I would refuse You still

 

VERSE 2

But as I ran my hell-bound race

Indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless state

And led me to the cross

And I beheld God’s love displayed

You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath reserved for me

Now all I know is grace

 

CHORUS

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ

Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

 

VERSE 3

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone

And live so all might see

The strength to follow Your commands

Could never come from me

Oh Father, use my ransomed life

In any way You choose

And let my song forever be

My only boast is You

Double Digits

 Timothy turned 10 this year! He is officially in the double digits! He always enjoys having a birthday! He is such a sweet and loving young man. All of his siblings are crazy about him and they like to spoil him.

 Grandparents came up and helped us celebrate! We always have the best time when grandparents are here!

 Our family gave him "art" supplies. He loves to draw and is really good at it.

 When your sister likes to bake you can have your own personal cake for your birthday! SPOILED!

Sarah made him a soccer cake for everyone to eat and enjoy. She enjoys making everyones birthday cakes. Timothy told her he wanted cool ship on his cake so she made him his own personal cake with cool whip on top.

Timothy loves playing soccer and basketball. If he ever has a free moment we can hear him out on the driveway shooting basketball. He is very special and we are all very thankful that God gave us Timothy. Praying for the great things God has planned for him!

Love My Family

Yes, it has been SIX months since I posted! I guess this is the place where I post an apology about it being so long since I posted... which is what I normally do when its been so long since the last post. BUT I am not going to apologize this time. 😎 Being a wife 💏and mother👸 are by far my most important priorities and one day when my children look back at my blog and see that there was a gap in post I pray they will know that I was spending time with them. I will eventually get the things posted that need to be. The children really do grow up too fast and if I am worried about keeping up my blog I will miss the most important things in life... my family! I am not going to make any promises that I will post more often in the next couple of days, weeks, or months (I did update a few pictures on here)... but I plan on making an effort to get some things posted. ALL this to say... I LOVE my family and God has given me a great calling as wife and mother to this crazy bunch! 💗

Tasty Tuesday

Wanted to share our Spinach Frittata recipe. The children and I entered a few pies in a Pie Day contest and the Frittata won 1st place in its category. :) Hope you enjoy!

Spinach Frittata

8 eggs

¾ cup of milk

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

¼ cup diced onion

½ cup cooked and crumbled sausage

1/4 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

½ cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” pie dish. In a bowl combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and whisk together. In the pie dish evenly spread onions, spinach, and sausage. Carefully pour egg mixture over meat and vegetables. Sprinkle with cheese.

It's Great To Be 8!

This girl is growing up WAY too fast! I never thought she would turn 8 so soon! We love this girl! She is such a joy and blessing to our family and to all who meet her. Joanna is a friendly little girl and quick to make a friend. Her heart is so sweet and she loves reading her Bible. She always has a question or two during our family worship at night about the passage of scripture we are reading through. I am sure she could teach a Sunday School class. :) 

 She chose to eat at Mexican for her birthday. We took her out to eat and she loved every minute of it!

 Joanna is definitely a mommy's girl! Hard to believe she is my baby girl!

 Here she is after they sang Happy Birthday to her. (See the photo bomber?)

 Bryan's parents got her some clothes for her birthday and she loves wearing what they gave her.

 My mother and Bryan's parents came up and helped us celebrate Joanna turning 8 AND watching an indoor soccer tournament. My mother gave her a tool bag with tools, which is what she asked for.

 Here is Bryan's parents with one of our soccer players.

Bryan and I take a picture with one of our other soccer players. Sarah was there but she was helping with the score board. Isaac was also playing in the tournament, but I didn't get a picture of him. :(

We had so much fun celebrating Joanna's birthday! Joanna is a very special young lady and I know that God has great plans for her. I pray that she will always know God's love for her and our love for her. God is good and we pray that Joanna will serve Him all the days of her life. It was sad that my dad wasn't here to help celebrate, it just won't be the same when we are together and he isn't with us.

My Dad

I have another post titled "My Dad" and you can read it here. Please go and read that post because it really says all I need to say in this one. The only difference is my dad is no longer with us. The Lord took him home on December 15, 2018. God was good in so many ways and I am very thankful for His blessings.

Our family went to visit my parents on December 13 and spend a couple of nights with them because we were having our Christmas with Bryan's family on the night of December 15th. Dad had not had a good week and when we arrived we could tell he didn't feel well but the next day (December 14) he actually had a real good day. We really had a great time with him and enjoyed every moment of it. We went to bed and like every time we are there to visit I went in and told him good night and that I loved him. Dad and mom had plans the next day with the senior adults at their church so he was looking forward to that. Early the next morning mom came in and woke Bryan and I up and said she couldn't get dad awake... of coarse I just thought maybe he was sleeping really hard. We tried everything and then we knew he was gone. Tears flow as I type this because I miss him so much!

I am so thankful we were there and that he didn't suffer. Thankful for all the memories I have of dad and the memories my children have of him. It still doesn't seem real. I love that man and miss him every day!

A Great Chili Recipe

 I really enjoy using the crock pot! To make it easier to clean I use slow cooker liners! Do you use them? If not, you need to try them! In one of my boxes of liners there was a few recipes, one of those recipes was "Game Day Chili". My crew and I could eat soup atleast once a week... so I thought I would give this recipe a try.

 I am so glad I did... but now we have it a lot! It is very simple and delicious! I wanted to share because now that the weather is getting cooler you may want to try this recipe. The weather don't have to be cooler for me because I could eat this any time of the year! LOL!!

"Game Day Chili"
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 TBSP of chili powder (or more if you like)
2 cans of light red kidney beans (undrained)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 small onion chopped
1 medium bell pepper finely chopped
cheese and sour cream
1 slow cooker liner

Place liner in slow cooker. Brown beef, onion, and bell pepper in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until beef is no longer pink. Drain well and add chili powder, mix well. Place the beef mixture in lined slow cooker. Add beans, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes and chiles in the slow cooker. Stir gently with wooden spoon to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3- 3 1/2 hours until heated through. Serve and top with sour cream and/or cheese. We like to add crackers to our chili. Yummy! Enjoy!

Future Baker

We all know that one day Sarah will own her own bakery! Until then she is getting some practice in. We will be attending a church block party tomorrow and Sarah made these yummy cupcakes to take.

 These are dark chocolate salted caramel cupcakes! She has made these before and they were delicious! She will add a pretzel on top before we leave. If you add the pretzel too soon the pretzel will be soggy.

These are funfetti cupcakes! Haven't tried these yet but I am sure they are yummy! She enjoys baking and trying new recipes. It's fall now and I am sure she will try something with some "fall" flavor soon.

Fall Soccer Season

This weekend we finished up our fall soccer season with games on Saturday. Grandparents were able to come up and spend some time with us.

 My parents came up on Wednesday evening and were able to be here for soccer games on Thursday night. Elijah, Timothy, and Joanna had games on Thursday night while Isaac and Sarah refereed a game.

 Bryan's parents arrived on Friday afternoon and Gigi (Bryan's mother) brought supper for all of us. She is an amazing cook. She made chicken and dumplings and red beans and rice. Elijah, Timothy, and Joanna helped make the banana pudding, and they enjoyed licking the spoons and bowls.

 Soccer games started early on Saturday. Isaac and Sarah had the first game at 9 and then the other children played games after that with the last game at 1:30. It was a hot and exhausting day. Sarah and Isaac had two games and in between their two games they refereed three games (they were busy and tired).

 Do you recognize these two soccer players? This was one of our first soccer seasons when they were younger... much younger. They began playing Upward soccer when they were 5 and 7 years old.

Here they are all grown up! (Makes my heart melt!) In the fall of 2014 they began playing soccer at the local recreational league. It was a whole different game than Upwards. We had to get use to the rules and plays of soccer at this level. They have had some great times playing soccer. Our family is very blessed to have the physical ability to play a sport and we often remind the children that we never should take that for granted. Thank you Lord!!

Creation Museum and The Ark

We were blessed to be able to travel up and see the Creation Museum and The Ark. Back in January we made the trip and had a great time! Bryan's parents had went last fall and talked about how great it was and they thought we would really enjoy it too. Usually when we go somewhere as a family we have to have two hotel rooms and that can get very expensive, this time we rented a house in Petersburg, KY. We have never rented a house before but we all agree that we enjoyed it and would do it again! 

Here we are walking up to the Ark. It was very cold that day but once we got inside it was nice and warm.

Here is the crew all bundled up as we entered the Ark. We all enjoy going on adventures together!

Bryan and I stop for a picture together. Love this man! Joanna, Bryan, and I have birthdays in the same week and this trip was around our birthdays.

Here is little brother standing tall!

Middle Brother makes a funny face!

Little sister is one crazy girl!

Big sister smiles for the camera while little sister is the photo bomber. LOL!

All the brothers lend a hand in holding up the Ark. LOL!

Here we are just coming out of the Ark. It was great! When reading through Genesis now it puts a whole new perspective on it.

Waiting for the bus to pick us up and take us back to our vehicles. Did I mention that it was cold???

We are outside the creation museum. Lots to see and do in there!

YES... it was cold!! 5 degrees!! We decided to spend one day at the Perfect North in Indiana, right across the river from where we were staying.

Because they weren't busy they let our passes be good for all day! We got there that morning and did a few laps on the tubes then for lunch we rode back to our rental house and had taco soup (put it on in the crock pot before we left). After lunch and warming up we headed back to snow tubing.

Riding back up to the top to snow tube again! As fast as we could get back up the hill we could go again! It was lots of fun and very thankful that God provided this opportunity for our family.

Cooking With...

Because of rain here our soccer games got canceled today. It has been a great day to get a few things done and spend some time together. I decided to recruit this young man to help with supper. He is great at making some meals and one of his favorite meals is Sloppy Joes. 

 Cooking with Isaac is always fun! He likes to add a "secret ingredient". This time he added spicy ranch dressing which is his favorite salad dressing.

While he was preparing the sloppy joes and getting some tater tots ready to go in the oven I was chopping vegetables to roast in the oven. There is something about cooking together that makes life sweet! I enjoy cooking for my family but when I include the children in helping me it is lots of fun! I know when the day comes for Isaac to leave our nest he won't go hungry. LOL!

Last night the younger three children helped me prepare something for breakfast. We put it all together then set the delay start on the oven, when we got up breakfast was ready! I will be sure and have the camera ready next time another child is helping so I can share. Loving my life as mommy and wife!!

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers

One of Sarah's involvements this summer was a play. The local community theatre put on the play Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and Sarah was so excited to audition for a part. She was one of the town girls! 

Here she is during one of her scenes. Sarah really enjoys theatre and had lots of fun being a part of this play.

Here is Sarah again during another one of her parts. She did a great job! She has been involved in several other plays at the theatre but she said she thinks this play was her favorite!

Here are the six town girls. This play really was a great performance. All the young men and ladies did a great job and were a very talented cast!

We are blessed with a talented young lady as a daughter! Sarah is always ready for an adventure! The last performance for this play was on her 15th birthday and she left the next day headed to 4-H Round Up (post about that coming). Love this girl very much!

Don't Blink... They Grow Up Way Too Fast!

The child that first made me a mommy is now 17! He has turned into a young man and his time in our home is getting shorter. One day it will be time to launch him into the world and out of our nest. I thought I would include some pictures and I wanted to start with an older picture. I am not sure how old he is in this picture, I am guessing 9 or 10. This picture is very special but this young man is even more special. 

Below are two recent pictures. We celebrated his 17th birthday with grandparents in AL and these are a couple of pictures from that night.

He is a young man that knows what he wants (actually needs). He asked for some new shorts and a top from my parents and he asked Bryan's parents for a nice button up shirt to wear to church. They were great about getting him those things and actually Bryan's parents got him 4 nice shirts. He was very blessed!

Isaac has started his Junior year of High School! He is enrolled in two dual enrollment classes at the local community college. He is on the high school soccer team and playing recreational soccer right now. Isaac is a very talented young man, he is learning the guitar and can play the piano! God has a special plan for him and we are praying that God would go before Isaac preparing the way! We love him more than he will ever know!