Thankful

So there's a craze on Facebook right now {30 Days of Thanksgiving}I started doing it and have failed horribly! I forget to post about half of the time.

I really try to be thankful every day about something!

I have learned that the best way to begin a prayer is by telling God what you are thankful for. I'm teaching my kids this same thing. When we can put aside what we worry about, and what we "need", for a few seconds to remember what we are grateful for; our lives can be transformed!

God is so good! He is in control over my life. And I am so thankful for moments like these:

Thankful I caught this moment on camera. I see a senior graduation picture in his future!

He's even rocking the white man's overbite!

Seeing my kids be proud of something they are creating

Dressing Ella Up

Having Grandparents who adore my kids and want to spend time with them

When I can get my kids personalities captured on film...Oh Micah you're such a sweetheart

Josiah laughing

Silly moments with the boys

Thankful that I finally have a hobby!

Days when my 4 year old decides to take a nap with his siblings

Beautiful Naked Babies

I am so thankful for each moment I get with my kids. Even the crazy, noisy, messy, tearful, and stressful times. I know I'll blink, and then I'll be dropping them off at college.

So thanks be to God for this time in my life!

Linking Up With Emily For Embrace The Camera

And Thankful Thursday

Balance

I've been crazy busy.

It's all my fault. I'm killing myself to get some clips done, and trying to keep up my creativity. It's fun to be so creative.

But I'm finding it hard to balance my time well. I want to be able to be the Mom that my kids deserve and the wife that my husband needs me to be. It's a battle that I feel like I'm losing. My house is a wreck, and my craft table...don't even get me started.

I need to figure this out...and quickly before we all get burried in the mess!

But here's a few pics of what I've been working on

(note these are not pictures of the mess that I have not working on)...

What I Love About....Lasagna {with recipe}

Weird title I know.

But it's Monday again and it's time for what I love about...

And today I love my lasagna.

Not just my lasagna...but the people who eat it.

The kids saying a prayer before we eat.

"God our Father. God our Father. We thank You. We thank You. For our many Blessings. For our many Blessings. Amen. Amen."

See...it is a good lasagna.

Everybody loves Ella

Mushy Snuggles

You know you have a messy child when he is dirtier than a 15 month old. I love Micah : )

I am SO blessed to be in an amazing Bible Study. It was such a "God Thing". James and I were just not connecting with our Church and felt God calling us to leave and join a church closer to our home. The first Sunday we attended we met the Wurth's. I bonded instantly with Lori, and joined their small group. In the three years that we have been a group people have come and gone, but we have stayed as a team.

They have all encouraged my walk with Christ and we have all bonded through various challenges and difficulties.

What makes our group fun is that we are all in the same "stage of life". There are 5 couples in the group with 14 kids. This is a pic of 11 of the 14 kids eating dinner at my house on Sunday night. It was SO loud, but I love the fellowship!

This is a rare moment of calm...yes it was before a giant storm of noise!

Ella really wanted to take a bit of the lasagna. She is her Mommy's daughter

Our current group is SO strong. We have a core of strong believers who are hungry to learn about the Lord. I am so blessed by them. Right now 3 of the couples are on a volleyball team (we suck...it's true). But the "team dinners" before the games sure are fun.

Enter...Lasagna.

THE. BEST. LASAGNA. EVER.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 pound bulk pork sausage
• 3 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
• 2 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 3 cups (24 ounces) 4% small-curd cottage cheese
• 1 carton (8 ounces) ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
• 6 slices provolone cheese
• 3 cups (12 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions

• In a large skillet, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, sugar, seasoning, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
• In a large bowl, combine eggs and parsley. Stir in the cottage cheese, ricotta and Parmesan cheese.
• Spread 1 cup of meat sauce in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Layer with three noodles, provolone cheese, 2 cups cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup mozzarella, three noodles, 2 cups meat sauce, remaining cottage cheese mixture and 1 cup mozzarella. Top with the remaining noodles, meat sauce and mozzarella (dish will be full).
• Cover and bake at 375° for 50 minutes. Uncover; bake 20 minutes longer or until heated through. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting. Yield: 12 really hungry adults servings.

Taste of Home

I hope that our group will stay strong and that our friendships will last a lifetime. God has been so good to us! It is my strong belief that all Christian couples should join together and form friendships and "do life" with each other! I hope you have found strong friends you can rely on as well!

School Blues

{Linking up with Emily for Embrace the Camera. At least Ella and Jo are looking fab...right?}

It has been a rough week for Josiah. On Monday he told his preschool teacher that she needed to call me because he was sick.

He was not sick.

Tuesday he cried when I dropped him off.

Wednesday he started to cry again at drop off and refused to let go of my leg.

This is not my Josiah. He is social, loves learning, and loves his school.

So I asked his teacher if he was doing ok in the classroom and she told me that he's been reserved and distant. The kids are having a hard time understanding him, and because of that he is beginning to distance himself from them.

I literally had to hold back the tears when she told me this.

Josiah is extremely sensitive, but he has never been shy or distant with other kids. We knew that his speech delay might cause some problems as he entered Elementary School, but to find out that it's changing his outgoing personality already is devastating to me.

He is still too young to really know what's wrong or that he even has a problem with his "words"; but I know. I know that friends will come and go in his life. And I know that his feelings will be hurt, and kids might even make fun of him for it. But I'm his Mom, and I want to shield him from anything that will bring him pain.

He will be fine. I guess it's just me that's going to have to "be tough". I can't cry every time a teacher tells me he's struggling with something. I'll look like a nut job! And one of my biggest worries is looking like a fool to my kid's teachers. But I can pretty much guarantee that's going to happen!

I know that prayer works. I will keep praying that Jo's speech with continue to improve and that it will not make him feel sad, or different. We are so blessed by how perfect our children are. I know it could be SO much worse. God is good, and all things are under His control!

But "oh my", I have never felt that kind of pain before. Feeling sorrow for you kids is awful. Especially when there is not much you can do to help it! Thank God for ice cream, helps all sort of problems!

What I Love About Ella

Here's to what I love about...

Baby Ella

11 days

1. Her super chubby cheeks (it's the only chub on her entire body)

5 months

2. Her wiggle abilities (out of every pair of jammies we own)

3. How she loves to be startled (BOO!)

4. That she has her Daddy's smile

5. She has her Mommy's eyes

5 months

6. She gets bored if she's not around her big brothers

7. That she LOVES to eat (we're currently loving bananas and oatmeal)

3 months

8. That when she gets a cold she loses her voice and it gets a little raspy (seriously adorable)

9. She is super attached to Mommy and Daddy at the moment (and I love it!)

10. She can almost sit up all by herself

11. That she sucks her thumb (even though it's very naughty)

3 months

12. She will roll to wherever she wants (it's quite impressive)

13. That she is so tiny (she will feel like a baby for longer)

14. That she is (and will always be) our little angel

13 days

15. That she looks amazing in everything girly (purple is definitely her color)

But the thing I love the most about Ella is...

Her easy going personality and her love for her family.

She's still so young (5 months), but we can tell she's fun loving, easy going, and thinks her brothers (especially Josiah) are so funny!

5 months

I can't wait to watch her grow up....well I guess she can take her time with that one.

I'm also linking up with Miss Mommy for Tuesday Ten (plus a little extra for my baby girl). I guess it's more like Tuesday 15 : )

Doubt

I do it all the time.

I doubt.

I am known to my husband, my family, and my friends as a woman of faith.

I never doubt God's Word. If it is written in the Bible. I believe it.

God said he parted the Red Sea? I do not doubt that for one second.

He created everything in 7 days just by speaking? No doubt here.

He flooded the entire Earth? Yes!

Will God provide for my family? Of course! I don't doubt that.

And I don't doubt His goodness, grace, and mercy.

So then why am I filled with such doubt in myself?

If God is indwelling in me, why do I doubt who I am?

I doubt my abilities as a mother, a wife, and a woman.

I am constantly worried that I am not "up to par".

I am so fearful that other people will not like me. That they will find me annoying, or "ditzy", or half-hearted.

I have always been a doubter of my beauty. I KNOW that I am beautifully and wonderfully made. But I doubt it constantly.

But lately I've been feeling the most doubt about my little Etsy Shop. I feel like I will put effort into something, and fail. I want to be an example to my children. I want to teach them that you can never succeed if you never try. But I am finding it to be a hard lesson myself. My husband has always said this to the boys when they get hurt, or can't do something the first try...

"Why do we fall? To get back up again."

And isn't that the truth. God has given us opportunities so that we can learn from them. It is up to me to use the gifts He has given me, or to listen to the voice of doubt.

"Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done." Matthew 21:21

Today I'm joining Miss Mommy for Tag Along Thursday!

The Great Debate: Christianity and Halloween

It's such a huge topic of debate to Christians.

{Do you celebrate Halloween as a Christian?}

I understand both sides of the argument.

I grew up in a home that chose not to celebrate it. As a child, I didn't know the difference and I never felt as though I was missing out on anything. My mom and dad were wonderful, and gave us movie and treat night at home. It was fun for us. They felt as Christian parents it was not the right thing to be exposing their children to, or celebrating.

The roots of Halloween or "Hollows Eve" are not "creepy". It was began as an act to wish the souls of the departed a chance to get into Heaven. Through the years it has become a goulish holiday and quite scary.

Trick or treating even began in the Medieval days when the poor would go door to door asking for food.

Today, trick or treating and celebrating Halloween has become a huge affair. My husband and I, being fully devoted to the Lord, have thought it to be ok to have our kids dress up and go trick or treating. I will not allow my kids to dress in devilish costumes or really scary costumes. That is a personal choice we have made. We think that keeping it about candy and costumes is great.

I will even admit that it has quickly become one of my favorite days of the year. I LOVE seeing all the cute kids dressed up in the fairy, princess, football, and firefighter costumes. I love watching the kids eat candy, and hearing my boys say "trick or treat". It's adorable!

It's sad to me that there is so much debate and hostility. The church should be unified. This is not to say that each Christian should agree on everything. But we should never choose to tear each other down for one's belief on a "non salvation" issue.

This is our choice as Christian parents. I know you may or may not agree with my stance. But I do know this....you'll agree that my kids are cute in their costumes!!

My lost boys.

My "best costume" award winner. Tinkerbell.

{I forgot her glitter shirt in this pic. Super cute naked Tink}

Linking up with Soleil Selene for Grow Your Blog