1. Bubble baths:
2. Googly Eyes in unexpected places
3. Colorful Floats
4. Pallet Bed -
Click image for directions. I am so doing this – maybe in our guest room.
5. How to use a Food Dehydrator
Click image for link.
6. Marble Painting
Click image for directions. I am going to create these with the boys soon – such a fun art project!
A few months ago I shared about making time for quiet time with the Lord. While I think it is the single most important part of my day, I still struggle with making the time to do this. I am so thankful that God loves me and is faithful and continually draws my heart to Him.
In May when I attended the Women of Joy conference in Charleston one of the speakers was Becki Tirabassi. I so enjoyed her practical, down to earth message and her emphasis on how as Christian women we should be spending time in prayer.
She has published her own Change Your Life Daily Bible and Daily Journal – both available on her website.
I purchased both and have been using them ever since and I love both of these items so much!
Becki has no idea who I am and I am not receiving any compensation for writing about these books. They have become invaluable tools in my daily quiet time and I want to share these with you.
The Daily journal has 4 categories for you to write in each day – Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Mental.
Do you know how much more one can accomplish when defining your goals?
And how challenging it is to define your goals on a daily basis?
And how convicting it is to work on planning out your day at the same time as spending time reading God’s word and praying?
And how exciting it is to look back on past prayers written and see them answered?
I think the journal is genius. And yet so practical and down to earth.
Each day you journal:
-Your eating plan
-Your workout plan
-Any obstacle you foresee keeping you from those goals
-Anyone you need to forgive
-Anyone you need to ask forgiveness from
-Your plan of action to mend the broken relationships
-A way that you can give of yourself to someone
-Your prayer to God
-A verse that stood out to you from your Bible reading
-Your appointments for the day
-Your to-do list
-Define your dreams
Paul can pretty much nail the days I don’t spend the time journaling these things. I am much more focused and get so much more done when I have intentionally purposed what it is I want to do each day.
While I love this journal it is a tad bit pricey at $12 for 3 months, so when I finish this one I will be making my own. I would highly recommend the price of this journal to get you in the habit of journaling these things daily and then making your own once you have acquired the habit.
The Change Your Life Daily Bible has an Old Testament, New Testament, Psalm and Proverb passage to be read each day, organized all together by date. By the end of the year you will have read through the entire Bible. I love that all I need to do is turn to the days date and read – no looking up many different passages, referring to a chart or remembering what verse I last ended on. This Bible is the New Living Translation which, to be perfectly honest, makes some of the lengthier Old Testament passages more exciting and interesting to read. It is a fascinating translation and I am enjoying using it for my challenge to read through the Bible in a year.
I know there are quite a few Daily Bibles available, but has anyone ever heard of a journal like this one? I have looked and can’t find one. Let me know if you know of one!
How to Make Yogurt
Making homemade yogurt is really a very simple process- not only that but it tastes delicious and is significantly cheaper than buying yogurt at the store. And it contains no extra sugar or preservatives.
You need only two ingredients:
-1/2 gallon of milk
-1/2 cup live/active plain yogurt
And two ‘tools’:
-a crockpot
-a towel
It doesn’t take a lot of hands on time at all, however you need to plan on being home for several hours as there are a few steps to the recipe.
Directions:
In a 4 quart crock pot pour in 1/2 gallon of milk, put on lid and set to low. Set timer for 2.5 hours.
After the 2.5 hours have elapsed unplug crock pot and let sit, covered, for 3 more hours.
3 hours later whisk in the 1/2 cup yogurt starter. Put lid back on and wrap the towel around the crock pot and leave on the counter for 8 hours.
Then your yogurt is done!
So the hands on work is pouring the milk, whisking the yogurt and putting a towel around the crock pot. Easy, easy!
Make sure to reserve 1/2 cup for your next batch.
This gives a beautifully creamy, plain yogurt.
We like adding fresh fruit to our yogurt.
And a little bit of honey or maple syrup.
And mix it all up. Yum!
I keep the extra yogurt stored in the fridge in extra Mason jars.
I promise this homemade yogurt is so very easy to make and well worth the effort required!
Enjoy!
It was about 10 am on what had been an uneventful Thursday morning.
My phone rang and Paul was on the other end.
“Hey babe, I should be getting off soon and then I have the next two days off. Why don’t you pack the bags and look up a hotel online and we’ll head out to the beach when I get home?”
He knows me. Well.
After a bit of research and texting back and forth we decided that we would head out early Friday morning instead and just spend one night near the beach. It would save some money and sanity.
We packed the car the night before and were up and out of the house as early as you can be with two little boys.
Three hours later we were there.
I love the path to the beach. You can smell the ocean. Hear the ocean. Even feel the ocean. But you can’t quite see it.
We spent two beautiful days in the Charleston area.
We have a favorite spot on Isle of Palms beach where we relaxed on day one, but day two we decided to do a bit of exploring.
We decided to go to Folly Beach to check out the lighthouse. The light house was built in 1876 and was once a part of the Island. It is now surrounded by water.
Since swimming is not allowed in this area the beach was rather empty.
I do believe it is the most beautiful beach we have been to yet!
They ran. And ran. And ran.
And ‘skateboarded’.
And talked about the pirates that they were convinced lived on the lighthouse.
And proved they are their daddy’s boys.
They indulged my desire for pictures with them.
And I decided to keep the ones the imperfect ones. Because they all ended up being technically imperfect. That is what happens with a tripod and remote and no one actually looking to make sure all the faces are going to be in the picture.
But I love how they turned out with all the imperfections.
I had an introduction to what my future might hold.
Have you ever seen Kite Boarding? It is incredible to watch and we saw dozens of them. I told my guys we’d all do it when the littles are older. And I mean it. I would love to do this one day. This man has been Kite Boarding for 10 years and was kind enough to answer all our questions.
And, finally, the evidence of my boys love for me. They brought me every special treasure they found on the beach and stuffed my pockets full.
I am so happy for that phone call that mundane Thursday morning – it turned out to be such a beautiful two days away.
My computer broke a few weeks ago and after a few attempts at blogging with Paul’s computer I decided to just take a break from blogging all together.
I missed it, but the break was good. It’s amazing the amount of stuff you can accomplish when you aren’t on a computer and how relaxing it is.
Now I have literally over 1,000 images to sort through from the past few weeks.
And a ton of posts just waiting to be written.
Thanks for being patient and sticking around!
The above image is one of my favorite projects the boys and I tackled over the past few weeks.
A good friend gave us some gourds and I let the boys loose with the paint. They came up with the idea of using their toy cars and motorcycle as a means of getting the paint on the gourds and I rather like how they turned out.
It was a messy project, but the boys had so much fun and I loved seeing their creativity shine!
Sharing on Tuesdays Unwrapped
It’s been a long break from the smoothie posts and I apologize for that!
Jumping right back in I will continue in the series I started on what we put in our smoothies.
You’ll remember I wrote about the greens that we use as well as the liquids.
While you wouldn’t have a green smoothie without the greens fats are perhaps the most important element of a green smoothie.
Fats are necessary to aid in the digestion of your food. You do not want to leave this out of your smoothie. I asked my MIL to explain this and here’s what she said;
Fat helps the body to absorb minerals and of course we cannot absorb the “fat soluble” vitamins, A, E, D, and K without some fat in our diets. Dark leafy greens are a source of vitamin K and some beta carotene for which we also need fat to convert to vitamin A! Coconut oil is one of the better oils to use in a shake because of the taste as well as it’s extremely healthy range of healing fatty acids. Coconut milk is easier to use and still has a lot of the oil in it. Egg yolk will supply some healthy fat as well as protein, folic acid and A (and D, if they are pastured eggs) as well as other nutrients.
Some of the sources of fats that we use include;
- coconut oil
- coconut milk
-raw egg yolk
-avocados
-cod liver oil
-flax seed
For the past three months we have primarily used coconut oil as a source of fat for our smoothies, adding a few tablespoons to each smoothie. We originally purchased a 1 gallon tub from Mountain Rose Herb and have since purchased a 5 gallon tub as it works out to be a bit cheaper. This is the cheapest source of virgin cold pressed coconut oil that we have been able to find, but it is still quite pricey and the shipping is steep! But we have decided it is a worthwhile investment of our money and it’s been worked into the grocery budget. You can purchase coconut oil in smaller quantities from a variety of online sources if you want to try it out for your family but don’t wish to commit to the price of a gallon tub. I haven’t priced it at our local health food store, but it may be worth while to purchase from the local store and save on shipping.
Have 10 minutes to read a worthwhile, tasteful and humerus story about my husband Paul’s experience in Korea and aloe vera juice?
But before indulging in this rather personal story of Paul’s life, you must get the full effect – here is what he looked like at this time in his life:
By Paul Morris – guest blogger
originally shared in 2007
Late June 2003 I was in Korea visiting my sister Becky. Becky was an ESL Teacher at an after-school language institute for kids. While she was teaching during the day I would tour the city of Seoul.
Becky introduced me to a drink made from Aloe Vera pulp. It has an amazing flavor and is simply irresistible. What my sister sadly failed to tell me was that the aloe juice was a digestive aid usually consumed after a large feast and only in small quantities…
One day I went and bought a liter of it. The Aloe juice is such a mild digestive aid that even after sipping it for a whole afternoon it didn’t bother me. In fact, it didn’t bother me until the next morning.
I woke up early that morning because I planned a trip into the DMZ, that’s the Demilitarized Zone in Korea. A line between North and South Korea, it’ not even a line so much as a valley. The tour takes you to several historical points along the line as well as the main overlook into the valley. Anyhow, I woke up early that morning because I had to take the subway into the main city Seoul. The train left very early, about 0600, and I woke up late. I quickly threw my clothing on; it was formal clothing with the exception of my sneakers because the tour had a dress code. I took off running to the station to catch my train and only just caught it.
As I rode into Seoul I began to feel unusually gassy but didn’t really think a second time about. There was no time to think about such things when the DMZ was waiting for me. As I left the train in Seoul I re-realized that I didn’t speak Korean. After only 45 minutes or so I found the bus station. Looking at the time however, I realized that I had about 5 minutes to check in and get on the bus… This is where my stomach is starting to really ache… but I don’t have any time for fantasy aches and pains.
I signed in and jumped on the bus looking forward to a fascinating look at Korean politics and history. It’s about an hour and a half from Seoul to the Korean Military base that we were going to. Half-way there I’m wondering if all Korean buses lack bathrooms or just the one that I’m on. I’ve considered and dismissed half a dozen plots to make the bus driver pull over, but I’m not sure if maybe I’ll step on an ancient land mine if I walk off into any of the openness around this road. Besides, there are two other buses on the tour and there really is nowhere but open space here… not the kind of place I want to drop my trousers in…
20 minutes later I think I might die; this isn’t the way I imagined I’d go, but I’m sure that people have died worse deaths before… 5 minutes later I’ve decided that I don’t want to die like this. there is no pride in dying of anal retentiveness, and if there is no pride to be retained by my agonizing death… well I’d rather be stripped of my pride and alive than stripped of my pride and dead because I’m not able to let go and live a little… so I swallow the last dregs of juice from the night before along with my pride, and I let go… don’t get me wrong… I rationalized everything in my head… after all I’m thousands of miles away from home, no one here knows me, and if I ever had to publicly soil myself… this is the place to do it.
I used the side lean and tilt method to “let off a little pressure” but there is no such thing as “a little pressure.” I suddenly found myself permanently in the lean and tilt position for purposes of self preservation, and prevention of further “squishage”. Hey! I’m no expert in scatological matters… How was I to know you can’t “let off pressure?” Anyhow, as I realized that we still had a few minutes to drive, I knew I had to pass off the horrible smell on anyone else besides me. I tilted my head towards the ceiling and with a very obvious look of disgust sniffed a few times and glanced accusingly at the people in the seats adjacent to me. It seemed to be an effective ploy because I didn’t get any dirty looks in return.
Within ten minutes we arrived at the Korean military base. There are check points at the entrance of all military bases that I’ve been to, and this one was no exception. I waddled to the front trying not to look too duck-like. I show the guard my passport and ask the tour guide with a lot of hand motioning where the next pit stop will be. He tells me in very broken English that it will be in another 5 minutes. 10 minutes later I’m the first one off the bus.
Never has a duck waddled as fast as I did to that bathroom. A 5 minute pit stop has turned into a 10 minute stop. One stall has clogged and I’ve moved to the second. I used to wonder how people soiled the stall walls in public bathrooms… I hope no one else ever has to find this one out personally. The bus driver comes in and tells me in his broken English that we have to go. I try sign language under the stall but finally just tell him “no, I have a stomach problem.” He understands and tells me they will return for another pit stop in one hour.
I’m relieved in more than one way.
But finally after several fake outs, my bowels are truly empty. I’ve never seen such a mess. My clothes are literally ruined, and stuff has fallen from them to the floor to the walls… At this point I smile, because I’ve reached a point where life can’t get worse. And so, simply put, the rest of the day is bound to be great. I strip naked and begin cleaning the stalls, I am not so heartless as to leave this for a janitor.
I then embark in a sink shower using my socks as washcloths… I need you to picture this… So here I am, this six foot four inch white dude with an eight inch afro (this was pre-military of course.) standing butt naked in a bathroom on a Korean Military Base. People occasionally walk in and I decide that if I act like this is normal, they’ll just think that all Americans takes sink showers. So I smile and wave, and everyone smiles and waves back at me.
Korea is such a friendly place.
Anyhow, I cleaned up and washed my pants in the sink. I threw away my under drawers and socks. The only clean clothing is my shirts… I refuse to put my pants back on and consider throwing them away too. I figure that maybe I can tie my button up shirt around my waste and wear my t-shirt on top. After looking in the mirror I’m nervous about that option. But I don’t really see any other way.
Word must have reached the owner of the tour shop next door. He comes over and gives me some stomach pills and a pair of slacks that he’d had sitting in the back of his shop. I popped the pills and tried on the pants, but wait, these are Korean sized pants! Of course, that means that my 36×36 frame is now fitting into a size 28×28 pair of slacks. Thank goodness for stretchy materials! I pull a little harder to squeeze as much of me as I can into the slacks. I can’t button them because they’re too small by several inches, and I have no underwear on so there is a conspicuous v-swatch, but I easily cover all with my handy button up shirt tied around my waste. I much prefer this to being naked under my button-up.
The tour bus finally comes around to pick me up. I think that no one knows what happened because they are all so friendly to me. That could be because of an attitude change on my part. I am probably the happiest guy they have seen in a long time. After all, I figure I handled the worst that can happen, I’ve got life in the palm of my hand now. After making many friends on the bus we stop at our next stop, the overlook into the DMZ.
I still have the stench of foulness in my nostrils. So when 3 buses full of Korean school girls pulls up, my first inclination is to walk the other way. Something must have stood out to them about me however because I was not allowed to walk away. The Korean culture like many other cultures does not understand personal space and so I find myself in the middle of many schoolgirls. They are hanging off my arms and taking pictures and trying out their English on me. Frankly I can’t understand a thing they try to say. My nostrils still burn, but I buck up and try posing for a few shots…
30 years from now some Korean grandmother showing her grandchildren pictures will tell them, “This is the crazy American that smelled like an outhouse.”
Honestly, I will remember this the rest of my life… I had a great time in Korea, and I now have an even greater story to tell which you have just read… As I headed home on the train that night; I stoically ignored the stares at my high-water, skin tight, black slacks with tennis shoes, no socks, and a button up shirt around my waist. I had to stop by my sister’s school to pick up the keys to her apartment… I’ll always remember her expression as she did a huge double take on me. “Did you wear those clothes when you left this morning?” she asked. “Yes” I replied with a straight face…
Sharing at Chatting at the Sky because some things are too funny to not share.
Roasted grape & mascarpone bruschetta
Sweet, roasted fruit and creamy mascarpone make this a simple yet sophisticated bruschetta.
Recipe as taken from Ladies Love to Dish – I adapted to serve 2.
16 baguette slices
1 large garlic clove, halved
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature (pricey, but so worth it!)
2 TBSP chopped, toasted walnuts
48 seedless grapes, halved
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1-2 TBSP honey
Toast bread slices, lightly rub top of each slice with garlic halves. Spread each piece of bread with 1 TBSP mascarpone cheese; sprinkle with walnuts and top each with 6 grape halves. Sprinkle with ground pepper and drizzle with honey.
Broil, 4 inches from heat source, until warm, 1 to 2 minutes. Makes 8 servings.
Sharing on Tasty Tuesday
Dear Wesley -
You are now two and rather than marvel at how quickly the days have flown by I am instead choosing to marvel at the person you are and the beautiful gift God has given us.
You are an incredible delight and I am so proud you are my son.
Over this past year I have often commented that you are one of the funniest people that I know – and it is true. You are a true performer and it seems your greatest joy is getting reactions out of people – and most specifically me. At least a dozen times a day you beckon me with “Look mommy, look!” I never know what to expect when you call me and -secretly- I very much enjoy your imagination and unconventional ways.
Sometimes what you want to show me is simply a stack of items you have neatly placed on top of each other. Other times it is a collection of books where you have found the same animal in each of the books. And then other times it is you sitting in daddy’s empty laptop sleeve waiting patiently at the top of the stairs for me to come and watch you ride down to the bottom of the stairs. Or it is you hanging on with all your might to something sturdy while you attempt to do a pull up. Those other times happen frequently and those other times are when it is undeniable that you are your fathers son.Which is a good thing, as I happen to be madly in love with your father.
You have a way with words that makes me laugh more often than not. You insist – sometimes to the point of tears – that your name is Judah. When you are hungry or thirsty you will say “Hungry a lot mommy” or “Thirsty a lot mommy.” You randomly break out singing ,and generally it is your own version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Happy Birthday” to no one in particular.
You adore your brother and while you want to be doing the things he is doing you want to be doing them in a completely different way. I love your strong sense of individualism.
You define almost everything and everyone in terms of “good guy” or “bad guy.” I haven’t figured out what it means to you, but it is rather humorous and I look forward to finding out each day if your t-shirt is a good guy shirt or a bad guy shirt and if your banana is a good guy or a bad guy.
In the last couple of months you have really stepped up and become a helper – if there is laundry to be carried upstairs you are the one to jump in and help carry the load upstairs. If I am cooking in the kitchen you and Judah are both in there, apron clad, waiting for a chance to try out each ingredient and help mix everything.
I really enjoy your fun nature, your easy laugh and your desire to help. I don’t just love you Wezzy, I really, really like you. A lot.
Love,
Mommy
