Kids Say the Darndest Things

Zech has been a man of few words so far in life, so my stories are not very often about him. At the beginning of the month, Titus' car died, and I have become the official family taxi driver.

Last week we were arriving back at home, and Zech got really excited saying, "Daddy's car!" To him that meant that Titus was home from work. If the car is there, his dad is not far from it.

I explained to Zech, that no, Daddy is not home from work, his car is broken.

Zech is still at the age where everything he responds to is done in the form of a question, so he says, "Daddy's car broken?" I told him "yeah, unfortunately it is. Remember, we drove daddy to work."

A little bit later Zech and I went somewhere and as we were coming home again he asked, "Daddy's car broken?" I agreed with him, "yeah, it's still broke."

And with a big smile he matter of factly says, "Daddy fix it." I love to see my husband through the eyes of his children. Daddy is their hero, and Daddy can do anything!

Chili Verde

It's been awhile since I shared a recipe, so I thought it was time for a family favorite of ours. We've been eating this for years, in fact it was a recipe of my mom's from when I was growing up. I believe it came from a period of time that my mom was into once a month cooking. You would spend one day making several recipes and then freeze them for a later date.

My kids love this, and specially request it on occasion. It's a kind of spicy burrito made with chicken. Beware when you make it, your house will be filled with the smell of spices and it holds particularly well to your clothes.

Chili Verde

3 chicken breasts
2 15oz. cans pinto beans

4oz. can chopped green chilies
1 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. oregano
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. red cayenne pepper
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
3 chicken bullion cubes
3 cups water

1/3 cup finely chopped onion
Monterey Jack cheese
Tortilla shells

Cut chicken in cubes and fry. Add beans, chilies, water & seasonings. I usually simmer this for about 1 hour, until all the water is cooked off. Serve hot on tortillas, top with Monterey Jack cheese.

It's very easy to make, and tastes wonderful!

Personal Declarations

We had a very God inspired message from our pastor last night. He started off the message by telling us he has heard so many "You ought to" sermons, but just a few "How to" sermons. This was a night for a very practical "how to" sermon, that we could all apply to our lives.

So often we do negative self talk from our mouths and in our minds that regularly commits suicide in our lives.

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."Proverbs 18:21 (NIV)
"Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose." Proverbs 18:21 (The Message)

We focus so much on eliminating the negative thoughts in our lives, we often forget to emphasize positive thoughts to ourselves.

We need to learn to make personal declarations in our lives.

We must focus on God's promises and start verbalizing them.

Use "I Declare" Statements:"I declare when I feel afraid, I will trust in Him."
"I declare I will walk by faith, not by sight."
"By faith, I declare God's promises are bigger than my circumstances."
"I declare God will be with me."
"I declare I will open up before God, I will keep nothing back, and He will do what needs to be done."
"I declare there is no fear in love, perfect loves drives out fear."
"I declare God will provide a way out for me."
"I declare I will bind myself with the peace God has given me."

So all this is good to hear, but it means nothing unless you apply it to your life. Our pastor handed each of us an index card. On one side of the card we were supposed to write down what our biggest struggle is right now. And then on the opposite side, we needed to find a declaration to say. Something that is a promise from God.

Right now my biggest personal struggle is STRESS. Even just hearing the word causes me to feel anxious. I have so much stuff going on this month; I've been spending way too much time worrying about how I'm going to get it all done. I have a few big projects that I'm working on. Our church is going to be sponsoring "Rev Up Your Engines" in a few weeks, and I'm in charge of getting 500 copies of the coloring book printed, bound, and stuffed into some goody-bags. The printing itself takes me days to do. I have a few other ministry things I've agreed to do this month for church, and on top of that it's my son's 3rd birthday. That means a party! I never do things small, no matter how good my intentions are, the parties turn into big gigantic loads of work. There are costumes, invitations, food, party games, etc. that all need to get planned. It's a lot of work, but for the most part I really enjoy doing it for my children. It's a gift of my love to them.

I think the biggest stressor right now in my life, I've turned into the official family taxi driver. For two weeks now, my husband's car has been dead. It's not just a short term dead; I think the car has finally lived out its life in our family. It's celebrating its 20th year, and I don't think its usefulness can last much longer than that. So being taxi driver means, I have an hour of driving to do each morning, just dropping the kids off at school, then Titus off at his work. I walk with my mom for an hour, then Zech and I have a few hours together before nap time. I wake him up, where we drive to the school and wait for about 30 minutes for the kids to get out of school. You might think I could go closer to the time, but that would actually mean Zech and I would have to park a block away from the school, and walk. So Zech and I wait. After the kids get out, we head home to work on homework, and I have a chance to start dinner. Then we all load back up into the car, and drive out to Forbes Field where Titus works. That's about 40 minutes of driving and waiting. We finally get home for the night and I'm able to finish cooking dinner. We eat, I try to clean up a little and then go on to whatever activity is planned for the evening. Almost every night there's something that we've committed to do. The only hope I have to look forward to is 6 months from now we will have enough money to purchase another car. I have survived for two weeks on this schedule. Surely I can do another 5 1/2 months, right?

My personal declaration is :
I declare I will take things one step at a time, one day at a time, because God has not given me more than I can handle!

Things to Do When You're Bored

I recently heard the phrase, "Mom, I have nothing to do. I'm so bored!" It's probably one of my least favorite complaints. Every day the kids come home from school and try to race each other to play on the computer first. We allow our kids to have 30 minutes of computer time, and occasionally after dinner they are allowed a movie. This leaves a lot of extra time in the day for our kids to need some activities to do. Last week I just got tired of those words, and decided it was time to do something about it. I told Gabe I wanted him to come up with a big long list of all the things we like to do here at our house. After he came up with his list, I sat down and helped him add a few more ideas to it. Since we've had the list, I have not heard those dreaded words come out of either of my children. I think it's a great idea for the kids to try to come up with the list themselves. You can always help them out when they're done. If you have small children, you might just need to make a list of things for you to do with them. We have already been adding and changing things on our list. So far this has turned out to be a real life saver!

Here's the list Gabe and I came up with. Maybe you can steal a few of our ideas to add to your own fun!

1) Computer
2) Movie
3) Read a book
4) Work on treasure map book
5) Build with Lincoln Logs
6) Do a puzzle together
7) Play board games
8) Play outside
9) Play in the downstairs playroom
10) Play with play dough or make your own play dough
11) Play with the bedroom toys
12) Sidewalk chalk
13) Lite Brite
14) Write in Journal. Keep a record of what we do each day and illustrate it.
15) Make a tent with chairs and sheets
16) Practice making sentences
17) Play tag outside
18) Hide N’ Seek
19) Play with Valentine our bird
20) Dance to a CD
21) Dance Praise Pad
22) Perler bead crafts
23) Paint a picture
24) Play with Legos
25) Tea Party
26) Make a feeling bag
27) Flashlight tag
28) Charades
29) Coloring book
30) Paper airplane contest
31) “Snowball” Sock Fight
32) See what shapes you can see in the clouds

I'm sure we'll be adding to our list as the days go on!

Nobody likes to be bored and feel like they have nothing to do!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

As we were sitting in the car yesterday finishing up our slushes Gabe asked me this very serious question, “If someone was trying to kill me, would you call the police?”

I told him, “of course, and probably I would try to kill the person myself if they were really trying to kill you.”

So he replies, “You know who could save me? Your father could.”

I laughed a little at that idea, “oh yeah?”

He very seriously says, “I’m not talking about your Father Papa, I’m talking about your Father God.”

I just love my son's faith in God! Yes, God can always save us no matter what the problem is!