Happy Birthday my dear Judah!
Your big day has arrived and I am delighted to be able to spend the day celebrating YOU and the masterful Creator who put you together. The last few weeks have been such fun as you have highly anticipated and skillfully counted down the days til this one – the day you turn 5.
This past year with you has been incredible; you have owned our family traditions, you eagerly anticipate milestones and enthusiastically encourage us to celebrate midst the mundane rituals of daily life.
You thoroughly enjoy life and want those around you to enjoy it too.
I have watched you mature this year in a way that is so precious and so convicting to my heart … the most recent example of this maturity was the other night when Wesley’s bed had broken and he had to have his mattress moved to the floor. You asked if your mattress could also go on the floor. Without giving it much thought I said no and while your eyes flooded with tears you sweetly said, “Ok mommy.”
That touched my heart so deeply – you graciously and obediently accepted a ‘no’ answer despite the fact that it very obviously hurt your heart.
I sent you off to get your pajamas from my room and set about working in your bedroom making room for your mattress to fit on the floor too. When you came back expecting to sleep in your bed you were overjoyed to find your mattress on the floor and tightly hugged me.
Sweet boy, I make mistakes as a mom. I speak too harshly, too quickly, too much and sometimes too little. I haven’t, nor shall I ever, master the balance of doing it all well. But regardless of where I do things right or where I fall completely short – the Lord is working in your heart and in your life and it is exciting to witness.
That night as we said our bedtime prayers you prayed and thanked God that your mattress was moved to the floor. After you finished praying you whispered to me; “Mommy, I know you are the one who let me sleep on the floor, but I thought it should be God that I said thank you to. It says in that song ‘In everything give thanks to God’ so that’s why I thought I should thank Him for this. Is that ok?”
I hope you never lose those simple yet profound truths; that every good and perfect gift is from above and in everything give thanks to God.
I love you to the park, to Myrtle Beach, to Chicago, to Canada, to Nigeria, to the moon, to the sun and back my precious newly turned 5 year old. I am so excited to get to know you.
xoxo
Mommy
{The after is still a work in progress!}
We have a rather large bonus room in our house that has doubled as my office/craft space and the guest room and off of that room is a cozy walk in closet with floor to ceiling shelves along one wall.
I wanted to share my closet before and after pictures and while the above before is a bit exaggerated, it is fair to say that the closet has always held my crafting, decorating, writing and gift wrapping supplies in a rather inefficient manner. And the that huge, large room that was once my office/craft space was just SO big that it was never efficiently used.
So one day last week I had the idea of converting the closet into my own office/craft space – thank you pinterest! I love it and have found that I work so much better in tiny little nooks! All of my favorite tools are right within arms reach – Bible study materials, collection of favorite pens, stickers, double sided tape, paints and paint brushes, paper punches, favorite cookbooks – it’s amazing! It’s all right beside a work surface and all neatly tucked behind closet doors.
Eventually I will paint the closet, maybe get a little rug inside it and perhaps a few other minor changes but for now I am very happy with the change!
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant was on sale last week so I picked up a large one to create one of our favorite dishes – Eggplant Parmesan. This is my favorite way to eat eggplant {not that I have a world of experience with the gorgeous skinned veggie…} But this dish is superb – eggplant in a sea of cheese?! Yes please! The kiddos loved it too, and the s.l.o.w. eating 3 year old was one of the first one finished! This made enough for our family of 4 to have for dinner and lunch leftovers the next day.
- 1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced
- 2 eggs, beaten*
- 2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs*
- 2 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
- 1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
* I needed extra for coating and breading the sliced eggplant, but it will depend entirely upon the size of your eggplant, so you may not need extra.
** We don’t like sauce and I probably did a little less than 2 cups. Adjust to your family preferences.
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Dip sliced eggplant in egg, then in bread crumbs and lay on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake 5 minutes, flip and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
- Spread spaghetti sauce across the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Lay eggplant slices in the sauce and top with the two types of cheese. Add more sauce on top of the cheese layer and continue layering ingredients, ending with cheese.
- Bake at 350F for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Sharing;
I have been encouraged with our focus on developing the habit of thankfulness through this month. There is much joy in the home when there is thankfulness in the hearts and spending focused time and prayer cultivating thankfulness has impressed upon me the importance – the need – for parents and children to be thankful.
We had a rough week this past week; several major things broke down and will require costly repairs, three trays of cookies intended for our neighbors burned {ironically, to say “thanks for being our neighbor”}, we were sick and several other little things happened – all which served to remind me how desperately we need to cultivate thankfulness.
It is easy to be thankful when someone hands you a beautiful package full of delightful gifts, or when all the traffic lights are green when you’re running late or when your husband makes you the perfect cup of coffee; complete with cinnamon and frothy milk.
But when situations become hard, when the tasks become mundane, when things break down are we then still thankful?
Those challenging times do not immediately inspire feelings of thanks – in fact in my own life I am more prone to blame, get upset or complain in the face of a challenge than I am to stop and give thanks.
But if giving thanks or having an attitude of thankfulness was my response rather than complaining there would be such peacefulness in my life and home and my children would have a much easier time being thankful in all things.
I am thankful that I saw this modeled well in my mother. She had polio as a child and through my early teens suffered several different broken bones as a result of falling. It wasn’t that she was thankful for falling or thankful for another trip to the hospital or another round of physio therapy. But through out her life she had cultivated an attitude of thankfulness that when met with those trials she accepted them with grace and without bitterness or complaint.
It has been an encouragement to me over the years to have had that example and convicting to me as what ideas I will leave my own children with when they think of being thankful.
I want them to see that being a thankful person isn’t something that changes with circumstances. It is a matter of choosing “to give thanks in all things” {1 Thess 5:18}.
As we go forward this week, whether or not you are following along with the monthly habits, I would encourage you to reflect on examples in your life that have exemplified thankfulness and if you cannot think of an example consider becoming that person so that others may look at you and be encouraged.
Sharing on;
Making Your Home Sing
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers
Above Rubies
“Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “you owe me.”
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky.”
Quote by: Hafiz
Over the past several months I have been thinking about the words in Deuteronomy 6;
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
{from Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NIV}
It is a serious charge to parents, both encouraging and deeply convicting as to how we ought to be prioritizing our own lives in order to impress God’s commands on our own children.
And then this week I was reading through Hebrews and I got to chapter 8 I stopped and mulled over what I read for ages. Here’s what stood out to me;
“I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
{last half of Hebrews 8:10 NIV}
I can’t even fully explain how beautifully those two completely different pieces of scripture morphed together in my mind to complement each other and encourage me.
I know the verse in Hebrews is not speaking to parents, in fact it was being spoken of the Israelite people, but it was, to me, such a beautiful and clear picture that while yes we are to be diligent and impress them upon our children it is He that will do the work in them.
It’s not about me. It’s about Him.
And me living like I believe that.
Because me living is me impressing.
But He will do the writing – and the work – on their hearts.
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
{ our current memory work, found in Colossians 3:12-17 NIV}
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I love watching this incredible love relationship between father and sons. They find great delight in pulling pranks and tricks on each other and both boys thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to ring the doorbell and run and hide while Paul pretends to be cranky at “ridiculous neighbor kids.”
I happened to be out with the boys with my camera and upon our return the boys started to pull this prank on Paul. I sat in the middle of our yard and photographed this precious childhood moment.
I only wish the pictures could have also captured the pile of giggles that came from this side of the bushes!
Homemade Mod Podge
Homemade Mod Podge is easy and cheap to make – but before I share how to do that I need to quickly point out that you might not want to make it yourself. If you are making projects that you want to last a long time or are using special papers in your project do not use homemade mod podge. The quality simply is not the same and from my expert research {thank-you Google!} yellowing, fading and disintegrating can, and likely will, occur within a few years.
However. If you are the type of person who switches out home decor as quickly as you are inspired by new ideas then this is the perfect solution! Homemade Mod Podge is affordable and from my personal experience of using it for the past 4 months I haven’t noticed any difference between it and normal Mod Podge.
It is so easy to make!
To Make Homemade Mod Podge You Need:
-white craft glue {I used Elmer’s}
- water
Mix equal parts in a large jar {I reused my old Mod Podge container} and shake well. Apply as you would apply brand name Mod Podge.
I have used the Homemade Mod Podge for many projects over the last few months with the greatest of success and all for pennies. Quite literally. Back to School sales usually put the Elmer’s glue on sale for .10 – .25 cents per bottle making Homemade Mod Podge super affordable!
“Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.”
-Ecclesiastes 5:7
As I have shared in the past one of the habits we hope the boys make a life long habit is expressing gratitude to people. Birthdays and Christmas have proven to be excellent opportunities to teach the boys the importance of writing thank you cards as they have physical items they are able to express thanks for.
The struggle, however, comes in making it an enjoyable activity for them. At some point in their life whether they like it or not they’ll have to suck it up and write thank you cards simply because it is the proper thing to do but for now I am working hard to make writing thank you cards an attractive, meaningful and even fun activity.
Last year I shared the thank you cards we sent out after his birthday – taking 8 days to do 12 thank you cards. It worked very well and we did something similar for Wesley’s birthday.
We haven’t completed all of our Christmas thank you cards yet for this year, but we did manage to finish all our thank you cards for our local friends! We took the marshmallow friends and the boys picked out a few to go to each family they were writing thank you cards to. Then I wrote “You are so sweet” across the top on card stock and on the back side I wrote out the thank you the boys dictated to me.
It was WAY more fun than simply writing it out on a card and certainly captures their imagination and makes the process much more enjoyable for them.
It is my hope that this grows into a natural habit for them – that through disciplining themselves and taking joy and ownership in their childish expressions of thankfulness they will simply grow into the habit of writing thank you cards. Because really, I hope when they are 25 year old men they aren’t sending out bags of marshmallows with creepy faces on them!
