Yummy Fall Treat

One of my favorite authors is Sally Clarkson. She writes books of encouragement for mothers, my favorite being "Mission Motherhood." She posted a recipe on her blog that I tried and thought I should pass on. It was yummy! If pumpkin apple struessal muffins wet yout appetite click here http://wholeheart.typepad.com/itakejoy/2010/09/autumn-feasting.html

We had fun making these muffins in a heart shaped muffin tin. My kids always think muffins are better if they come in fun shapes. :)

Are We Reaching the Heart?

Matt and I have been slowly reading through the book "Shepherding Your Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It is a classic book on child rearing from a christian perspective. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard Tedd and Margie Tripp interviewed on fltoday.org this week. Here are some of the points they went through on the broadcast. I would say there is some real food for thought here.

Ten Truths for Parents to Impress on Their Children

Editor’s Note: On the September 29, 2010, FamilyLife Today broadcast, “Addressing the Heart,” host Dennis Rainey promises the following list of truths and description of the heart from Tedd and Margy Tripp’s book Instructing a Child’s Heart.

• Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. It is not found in new jeans, a new iPod, a car, one’s abilities, or exciting, heart-pounding experiences.
• We need to walk in wisdom, submit to the goodness of God’s way, and turn away from our own agendas.
• A life of prayer and godly counsel is our desire.
• Choices that are principled rather than popular, foregoing immediate gratification for the sake of eternal reward, are the goal.
• God’s authority structures are a blessing. For an eight-year-old this means I can trust Mom’s decision that I need an eight o’clock bedtime. Demanding my own way when I still need parental guidance short-circuits God’s training process.
• Loving parents are a blessing from God. Loyalty to parental instruction is an expression of gratitude to God. The majority culture offers a fraudulent counterfeit by encouraging young people to be loyal to their peers rather than their parents.
• The heart is the wellspring of life. The things children give their hearts to the hopes, ambitions, desires, dreams, joys, and concerns will set the course of life.
• Our hearts cannot be trusted (Jer. 17:9). Our hearts will lie to us. Children (and their parents) are easily entrapped and need to be accessible to others for counsel, instruction, and nurture.
• Friendships are for the purpose of glorifying God, encouraging others, showing love and compassion, and gaining encouragement to do what is right.
• There is a sowing and reaping principle in the Bible and we need to develop a harvest mentality. Children who trust and obey God find their heads crowned with wonderful blessings. Of course, this truth cuts both ways. The ten-year-old boy who is laze about his chores will reap what he is sowing because God will not be mocked.

Adjectives That Describe the Heart

The adjectives used in the Bible to describe the heart are an eye-opener. The heart is variously described as adulterous, anguished, arrogant, astray, bitter, blameless, blighted, broken, calloused, circumcised, contrite, crushed, darkened, deadened, deceitful, deluded, devoted, disloyal, envious, evil, faint, faithful, far off, fearful, foolish, grateful, happy, hard, haughty, humble, mad, malicious, obstinate, perverse, proud, pure, rebellious, rejoicing, responsive, righteous, sick, sincere, sinful, steadfast, troubled, unfeeling, uncircumcised, upright, unsearchable, weary, wicked, wise, and wounded.

Excerpted from pages 41-42 and page 53 of Instructing a Child’s Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp. Published by Shepherd Press. © 2008 by Tedd Tripp and Margy Tripp.

Large Family Humor

I copied this list from proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/

I can sure relate to the part about a large family providing many opportunities for building patience. So true!!!

Large Families..

-Accept donations of restaurant-size cookware!!!

-are CHAOTIC and NOISY and FUN

-have no matching socks...but 58 white non- mates

-always have someone to play with... never bored or lonely

-lots of babysitters, readers, and rockers

-never have a dull meal

-are never picky eaters! there's someone to eat it!!!

-have an ever ready sports team

-never have moldy leftovers (ha!)

-and yes the parents DO know what causes them...

-and no, moms are not supermoms or super organized

-do not have overabundance of patience, just lots of opportunities to cultivate patience!


(Source-A Christian Home)

Large families are a blessing in so many ways and children are a joy to raise. Money might be tighter but the riches of having a large family are priceless!

Lies

I have an excellent book on my shelf titled "Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free." It is written by one of my favorite Bible teachers Nancy Leigh DeMoss. The book basically puts out a lot of lies we women are prone to believe and contrasts them with the truths in God's Word. I thought it might be fun to go through the book and post some of the lies vs. truths on my blog to share with my readers. Hopefully it will be mutually edifying. :) I might end up making it a series as there is no way I could get it all in one post. Please be sure and share if something speaks to you. :)

Lie: God Is Not Really Good

The Truth:

• God Is Good , And Everything He Does Is Good

"Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! - Ps 31:19

• God Never Makes Mistakes

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His pupose." -Romans 8:28

Lie: God Doesn't Love Me

Truth:

• God's love for me is infinite and unconditional.

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." - Eph. 3:14-19

• I don't have to perform to earn God's love or favor

• God always has my best interests at heart - Ps 21

This last one is a good reminder to me. I know God loves me, but I find myself feeling less loved when I'm not meeting up to my expectations of myself. It is comforting to know that my Savior LOVES me for me in my ups and downs and struggles and all. I don't love my children any less when they disappoint me. I just want to help them to do better. How comforting to remember that the Lord loves me no less when I mess things up. He just wants to help me to keep being conformed to His image becoming more and more like Him day by day.

Lilly Faith 2 Months

Here I go with more catch up blogging. Our sweet Lilly Faith turned 2 months on September the eighth. Time seems to fly faster with every baby. We are so incredibly blessed to have this little bundle of sweetness in our family. She is smiling a lot and sometimes starts cooing and babbling at us.

She is on average having her last feeding around nine and then not feeding again until between five and seven the next morning. That is fabulous! She does not always go straight through the night. Some nights she does wake up once, but overall she is sleeping really well at night. We attribute her doing so well to the flexible scheduling we've had her on since day one. Basically we have taken a lot of ideas from the book "Babywise" about how to put a baby on a routine of eat, play and sleep. This enables their bodies to get the calories they need in the day, to have enough wake time during the day, and to also get the naps they need. Every baby is different, but this routine has worked beautifully for Lilly Faith. We have tried it to some degree with all of our babies, but we have had better success with the last two. I think that is because they have been easy babies and we have had a lot better parental insight as to what it really is they are needing when they cry. I think with Lauren, our first baby, we thought she needed to eat every time she cried. That was a big mistake as it turned into demand feeding with her. Everytime she was unsettled she would want to nurse. She wouldn't take full feedings just "snacks" and then I would end up being on demand all the time. Through the years Matt and I have become much more at ease with parenting newborns. Now we can better distinguish the difference between the "I'm hungry cry" and the "I'm tired cry." Anyway, between Lilly Faith being an easy baby and us being more seasoned parents I'm happy to report that things are going very well with her. She is the easy part of our job. The schooling and discipling, training, etc. of the older children is what is challenging at this point. I know the Lord has much growth for us in those areas as well. I'm constantly asking Him to guide us and help us in this parenting journey. It seems there is always something new and challenging. I have to say that having the sweetness of a little baby in the house brings joy and laughter that is healthy for all ages.

Toes, Tea and Movie Part 3

After the pedicures and Sweet Pea Beauty we had fun setting the table with china and having some tea. Lauren taught us that if we do not want anymore tea we should turn our cup upside down and set it on the saucer. Apparently she learned that from one of her American Girl stories. Maybe that is something I should have known, but since I have not attended too many teas this was new information to me.

Toes, Tea and Movie Part 2

I'm catching up on posts here. While the girls were being pampered with pedicures we watched the new Veggie Tales movie Sweet Pea Beauty. It was really cute and had a good message. I'm not always a huge fan of Veggie Tales, but this one I really liked. I recommend it for any little princesses who may live in your house. :)

Pedicures, Tea and Movie Part 1

Last week I had a special day with Lauren, Annagrace and Lilly Faith. I gave them pedicures to begin with.

It was fun treating my little girls so special.

Lauren's pretty toes.

I know she is young, but I couldn't leave her out hee hee.

Learning About Cells

This year we are studying the Human Body and began by learning about cells. Today we had fun making a model of a cell. We put lemon jello into a zip loc bag and pushed a grape down into the jello.

The bag represented the cell membrane which protects our cells. The jello represented the cytoplasm, a jelly like substance, and the grape represented the nucleus or control center for the cell. The cell changed shape as we pushed around on the bag. Doing experiments is not my strong point, but I hope to do more in the days ahead. The kids really enjoyed it and I did too!

First Days of School

Better late than never; the Adams clan has finally returned to school. Some of our topics of study this year are Rome to the Reformation, The Human Body, and Astronomy. Of course we have the three R's to learn as well. :) We are really enjoying our new school room. It is nice and roomy. We still have work to do on it, but it is shaping up nicely. We are so thankful to have a room that fits us comfortably and holds all of our school stuff. Notice our youngest student in the picture below. She alternates back and forth between her bouncy chair and play mat on the floor.

Our little people are very busy working puzzles, peg boards, counting bears.......... Annagrace is very excited to be back to school and has been thanking me for school. She loves to check her workboxes and see what she gets to do each day. I hope that positive attitude sticks. Abbie Joy is shall we say VERY BUSY. She is working on learning to sit in a play pen for awhile and play with alternating toys. :)

Annagrace cannot read, but she enjoys doing her pictures studies.

We have the BEST principal in the world. His name is Daddy. He left us a note of encouragement on our first day of school. We found it on the kitchen table when we came down for breakfast. How very blessed we are.

That Nose!

I tell you this boy really makes me laugh. So funny and cute all in one precious boy!

Are You in the Right Ministry?

I really appreciated this post from Kelly at Generation Cedar.

Are You in the Right Ministry?

Sugar Creek Gang

My kiddos love to hear the kid's programs that come on our christian radio station every afternoon at 4:00. Some of their favorites are the Sugar Creek Gang and Jonathon Parks. In the picture you can see that they have made their own Sugar Creek Gang characters out of perler beads. I am proud of their creativity and hard work.