Family Christmas 2014 Photos Sneak Peek

While the stores seems to get a jump start on all things Christmas earlier and earlier each year, we decided to follow suit with early planning. We rounded the family up for some family pictures for our Christmas Card.

Here's a little sneak peek!

 

 

God's Riches At Christ Expense

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Over the past six weeks or so I’ve been studying about God’s grace in the study, “Lord, I Need Your Grace to Make it Today” by Kay Arthur. Up until taking this study I understood God’s grace to be, unmerited favor. Something I did not deserve. I considered this favor to show up as “the good things” in life that I experience from one day to the next. While this is true, as I’ve dug a little deeper I’m learning that grace is more complex than “good things happening”. It’s wider, deeper, and much more multifaceted than I could have ever imagined.

It’s God’s grace that sustains me every second, minute, and hour of the day. His grace shows up in my salvation in the forgiveness of sins when I didn't deserve it, sanctification as He changes me from one degree of grace to another, and preservation as He keeps me in a state of grace as His child. Grace is a powerful gift in that it enables us to withstand life's difficulties as God makes Himself known in us and through us. God's grace has covered a myriad of sins in my past and its depths cover every sin I will ever commit until I go home to be with the Lord in Heaven. Every day that I wake up and feel an ounce of hopelessness about my inabilities to do what is required of me as a wife and mother, I can count on God’s grace being sufficient. It will enable me to “survive” the day and then there will be more grace for the next day’s journey. Life and its struggles can be intimidating, but God’s grace is abundant, it’s enough, and its abounding for those that love and serve the Lord.

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According to Plan - House Day

It has been an adventurous couple of days with the house arriving yesterday afternoon and being set  today. The kids and I actually caught up with the house and the house escort as they travelled down the highway towards the house yesterday afternoon. We were speechless and filled with glee as the house came into view, on wheels. There were blinking lights and flags to escort the house, so it was not hard to miss it coming down the highway. As we followed the house towards our property, our excitement grew to finally see the house with our own eyes.

House Chasing

The workers got started when the sun came up, getting the crane in place and hooking the house up to be hoisted up and set on the basement.

Rear of the house being set on foundation

Front of house being set with dormers awaiting their turn

Roof being put into place

House all closed in, Shingles being applied

The process for our second home differs from our first house in that we're using a Builder to coordinate the majority of the house construction process. With our first home, we served as the sole Builder and had to schedule, coordinate, and sometimes even fill in for varying aspects of the process when necessary. While serving a your own "owner-builder" can save the homeowner a tremendous amount of money by cutting out the "middle man", the homeowner gets the headache that comes with the job of being overseer and project lead. There are no words to describe how grateful I am to have a Builder this time around as an overseer and coordinator. We are still responsible for portions of the overall process, but nothing nearly as large as the projects we had to fulfill in our first home. With a Builder that works on site to oversee the construction and the Master Builder guiding, leading, and providing for our needs, we are in Good Hands.

Acoording to Plan - House Arrival

We are praising the Lord for His provision and grace.

The house arrived safely after traveling over 300+ miles yesterday. 

I will be back to share pictures.

 

Recipes for Your Next Potluck

I don't want to mislead my readers into thinking that I've been keeping my regular list of recipes in rotation over and over again without adding any new ones. So, here are a few more recipes for those that don't find cooking up dinner to be a natural instinct! These recipes are simple to make, yet very tasty and especially fantastic for pot luck dinners.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This recipe is from the infamous Ree Drummond (a.k.a., The Pioneer Woman). I can always count on her recipes to be wonderful and tasty. I love Panera Bread's Broccoli and Cheddar Soup and have been wanting to make it on my own. With the help of the Pioneer Woman, I was successful in whipping up a crock pot of soup that was delish!

Ingredients:

4 heads broccoli, cut into 1-inch florets

Olive oil, for drizzling

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1 whole onion, diced

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups whole milk

2 cups half-and-half

Pinch nutmeg

3 cups grated cheese (mild Cheddar, sharp Cheddar, Jack, etc.), plus more for garnish, optional

1 cup chicken broth, optional

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove 2 cups of the broccoli florets, cut in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet cut-side down and bake until the florets begin to crisp and turn slightly brown, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on top. Stir to combine and cook until the flour is absorbed and smells lightly toasted, 1 minute or so. Add the milk and half-and half. Add the nutmeg, then the broccoli, a small dash of salt and plenty of black pepper. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the broccoli is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the cheese and allow to melt.
Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve the soup as is, mash with a potato masher to break up the broccoli a bit, or transfer to a blender in two batches and puree completely. (If you puree in a blender, return the soup to the heat to heat back up. Splash in some chicken broth if needed for thinning.) Garnish with the toasted broccoli or grated cheese and serve.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=broccoli+cheddar+soup+recipe+and+pioneer+woman

Ramen Noodle Slaw

I received this recipe from a good friend that would always make it for gatherings. When I first saw it, I asked, "What is in this salad?" It looked familiar, but I just couldn't put my taste buds on exactly I was crunching on because its an odd ingredient. Ramen Noodles in a salad? Yeah, it sounds weird, but let me tell its yummy!

Ingredients:
2 (3 ounce) packages beef-flavor ramen noodles 
2 (8 1/2 ounce) packages broccoli coleslaw mix
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 bunch green onion, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup white vinegar

Directions:                                                                                                                                                                                             

Before opening noodles, crush into 1 inch pieces. Open packages and set aside flavor packets.

Place noodles in bottom of large serving bowl. Top noodles with broccoli slaw, then sprinkle with almonds and sunflower kernels, and green onions.

In a separate bowl combine sugar, oil, vinegar, and flavor packets from noodles. Pour over slaw, cover and chill up to 24 hours.

Toss before serving.

http://www.food.com/recipe/oriental-ramen-broccoli-coleslaw-281644

Cream Cheese Sausage Dip

This dip can look a little nasty when you make it, but it was REALLY good! It will not let you down. Grab some tortilla chips and go to work on this dip.

Ingredients:
4 (8 ounce) packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese

2 (16 ounce) packages jimmy dean original breakfast sausage

2 (10 ounce) can original Rotel tomatoes & chilies (use a can of hot rotel if you want it to be spicy)                                                                                                                                                                         

tortilla chips

 

Directions:

Brown both packages of sausage in a skillet over medium heat. Drain the sausage in a colander. Cube the cream cheese into a crock pot. Add the sausage to the cream cheese in the crock pot. Add both cans of rotel (with the juice) to the crock pot. Heat the mixture in the crock pot on high heat for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the dip is well mixed. Reduce heat to warm/low and serve with torilla chips.

 

bon appetit!

Turning One Page after Another

I'm over the moon excited about the girl's school year thus far and their learning experiences through books. Its amazing the places that you can go in a book. In regards to homeschooling and teaching history, what's just as neat about journeying through a book is when its based on true, historical events and you're able to grasp what it might have been like for people in history to experience life as it was in varying times throughout history. The sights, the music, the government, and the culture, all from a different time period that we can never experience for our self. When you read about history in a textbook and are made to memorize and then regurgitate dates and facts, you lose the enjoyment of what history is all about. History isn't just facts and dates, the events of history help explain the "why's" surrounding the people and cultures of today. The saying, "You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been" might be said too much and very cliche, but the saying is true.

As the kids read books about early American History and we discuss them and they write their thoughts about life in the past, it puts the world around them into a perspective that a date alone isn't able to do. In the books that they're reading they have been exposed to journeys from the past. They've chartered along with characters across the Atlantic to the New World as they read the journals of seafaring men and they get a chance to be a juror in a witch trial during the time of the Puritans. These experiences along with so many others are difficult to grasp solely reading through a textbook. I can relate because after having the textbook education as a child, to now participate in my kid's education through the reading and discussion of books, I'm seeing what a difference this style of learning can make.

While the girls have enjoyed individually reading their own assigned "readers", collectively we use the technique of "reading aloud" for the more challenging, historical books. The Read Aloud books that the girls are to listen to as I read them aloud have a more challenging vocabulary and so they are challenged to understand the stories in context as they listen and form in their minds a visualization of what is actually happening in the book. As they listen, they are transported back into time. It's a gift to be able to learn in this way. From an educational perspective to enhance, promote, and encourage children to read one author put it this way,
 

"Reading aloud is a commercial for reading. ...Think of it this way: McDonald's doesn't stop advertising just because the vast majority of Americans know about its restaurants. Each year it spends more money on ads to remind people how good its products taste. Don't cut your reading advertising budget as children grow older." 

-- Jim Trelease in his book The Read Aloud Handbook

(See more here)

I can't help but get excited about many of the books that we've read so far into the school year, so in many ways Mommy's excitement about reading becomes contagious. I find myself tearing up as we turn the corner and head into the final chapters of books. I've said it many times before as I've journaled about our homeschooling experiences that being a homeschooling parent opens up the door of learning again in ways that I didn't experience as a child. There is a freedom that the homeschooling community has access to as they teach their children. There is the option of teaching in a similar fashion with textbooks and multiple choice tests to assess how well a child has learned, but there is also the opportunity to challenge the status quo of educational techniques by allowing children to simply learn and their comprehension be assessed through conversation and written expression or creative writing. There's something unique about being able to "experience" history through the journeys and life experiences of characters that come to life in an era far ago.

For this little guy, we'll simply start with ABCs

Oh, the places we will go...

 

In a Book!