Gingerbread Men Cupcakes

We had company over so I thought the boys would enjoy making their snack today. The boys friend celebrates his 10th birthday today but unfortunately since his family is in the midst of packing and moving they couldn't have his annual Birthday Party with friends. So I thought we would have him over for some guy time and make a special treat in his honor.

The cupcakes themselves are simple and great to make. Head over to Hello Cupcake for more amazingly fun ideas!! We ended up not using 7 individual cupcakes like the original recipe called for but had 6 each. I didn't realize we did not have enough for everyone to make one if they used 7 per Gingerbread Man. It worked out all the same.

Where I am Right Now

I can see myself in this song on soooo many levels. I am at a crossroads in my life knowing that God is All Powerful but man has his own will. I want the Body of Christ to walk in the Fulness God intended but right now my Hope is all I have. With Faith the size of a mustard seed I will cling to the promise that one day The Bride of Christ will be all she needs to be.

Right now I am just crying out to the Lord asking what will be our ending? How will we come through? The little boy in this video speaks so loudly to a situation I am standing for.

My favorite group again singing a very appropriate song for me. I hope you enjoy!
Barlow Girl Beautiful Ending

Life After Sledding

We had some tired boys and we still have one sore mama. My arms don't want to work right now. I tired putting on my shirt this morning and could barely lift them up over my head. Why do we have to get older???

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

I love snow and I am so excited we have some for Christmas!!! I hope it snows more and more and more this year. I am one of those moms that jumps in her snow gear and runs out with the boys. Forget baking and cleaning and relaxing in the warm house while the kiddos frolic in the snow...I am usually challenging them to a sled race.

This was a great weekend. We even got to go sledding with our friends the Geraty's. If your in our area and you need some crazy family to go sledding with just give me a holler. I drop everything and bundle the boys up just to fling myself down those beautiful white hills. :-)

Christmas Chaos!!

Next time I am in a staff meeting and they ask for volunteers maybe I should take note that there is a good reason everyone is silent. Last staff meeting the Directors asked for someone to over see the Board Members& Staff Christmas Celebration. Of course it's only me and the Administer besides the two directors that comprise the staff team. As everyone sat quiet and still I slowly raised my hand in intern-obedience.

Now I know why my dear friend Pat kept silent and glanced heavily at the floor. I spent this week buying food and decorating the Retreat Center and basically spending my entire week in Lancaster trying to put this together. Today is my first day home in the morning all week and still I have to pick up the boys at 1pm and travel back down. I don't mind and really do love this ministry a lot, it's just my Knight was gone last week and this past weekend he threw his back out. A lot of responsibility regarding home issues were tossed on my plate on top of this party endeavor not leaving me with much prep time. So needless to say when I got to the breakfast table after writing notes to teachers and looking for missing school t-shirt for a field trip I saw my home-made pumpkin bread being eaten. What's wrong with that? Well, that was going to be a gift for my directors. I made three loaves; one for us and two for the directors and their families. We ate our loaf already.

Unfortunately that put Drama Mama over the edge and tears began to fall. Nothing like dropping guilt unto your children and husband as they are munching on your bread. At one point a saw each of the boys stop chewing and look as though they were thinking about spitting it out. Like that would help!

Forgiveness was handed out this morning...to me not to the kids because they honestly didn't know. I told my Knight the other evening about the bread being gifts but apparently a bad back effects the mind especially the memory.

At this point right now I want to get through this day and on to the weekend. I did come up with a last minute food gift for everyone. It just has been a loooooooong week and a loooooong December. I am ready for a New Year!!!!

I'm Bursting At The Seams!!!

My Knight is winging his way home today from Arizona!! I keep looking at the time thinking "Dang it! I could have sworn it was an hour since I checked last not 5 minutes ago. Time is slowly moving along here."

I have missed him and so have the boys. You just know it's a peice of you missing when family is not near. But soon he'll be home. I kind of feel bad for him. After a long week of business meetings and people he will probably just want some down time and when he steps his first foot in the door he will be overtaken by a family mob!! We'll just tackle him to the floor in love!

Yay! Can't wait until 5pm tonight, my love is coming home! I also don't have to sleep with DK's feet in my face one more night. That kid can't sleep still, he's like a perpetual Merry'Go'Round at night stealing all the covers. Yes when my Knight is gone DK gets really sad and thinks he needs to protect me by sleeping near me. So this time we had a big sleepover/camp out in the boys room. Not a good idea. Note to self "Not ever again!!!"

Think of Me

I am holding down the fort right now while my Knight is away again. I woke him up this morning with a wake up call my time 8am his time 5am. In great Drama Mama style I sang him my favorite Phantom of the Opera song Think of Me. All I could hear was my husband trying to cut in with "Honey it's 5am here...honey...laughter...ha..ha..please stop...I'm up OK!" You must realize I don't have an ounce of tone or melody in my voice at all. I just pretend to be an opera singer and belt it out with great flare.

Any way, he had a good laugh and he still loves me! Enjoy the song. This lady can really sing. I love this musical!! Leave me a comment if you have a good song I could wake my Knight up tomorrow morning with! :-) Hey don't feel bad for him...I have the three kids and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He on the other hand has himself and fine dinning for the next few days. I don't know but I think there should be some kind of "Mom" conference or training I could go to where they (someone other then myself would pay for it) would fly me some where warm, feed me good food and leave the kids behind. I would be ready to sit and listen to any old boring meeting:-)

My Christmas Pickle - A Story of the Fathers Love

This may sound like a silly title for a story about my heavenly Father's love but it isn't. See it all started 5 years ago. We had just moved into our current home. We were previously livingly in a 2 bedroom town home with all three boys. Life was cramped. We had lived there for our first 7 years of marriage.

After praying for sometime about finding another home we could afford and would be large enough for us we came across this home. It was originally out of our price range and the owners only wanted a family with one child. Well, with three boys we didn't fit that criteria. Friends of our encouraged us to investigate anyway. Low and behold the owners lowered the price drastically and OK'd our entire family. With that we moved in Sept.

Because of the move and not having a lot of money we knew Christmas was going to be tight. We saved up some money for the boys but knew we could not spend anything on Scott or I. It didn't bother me too much. I didn't mind because I love giving more than getting. But one thing I did miss though was going to get a new ornament that year for our tree. I love getting ornaments that represent special moments in our lives. They become wonderful testimonies of events in our lives that help our family to reflect about God's goodness right before the New Year.

With our current financial situation I knew we wouldn't be able to buy anything. One ornament I really wanted was a Glass Pickle. It's a german tradition and it held a happy memory from my past as a child. I thought that would make a great ornament to represent the blessing the Lord gave us through this house. I never told anyone about it, I just tucked it in my heart quietly away.

A few days before Christmas break from school I walked with the boys to the bus stop just like we do every other day of school. Nothing special. The boys hopped on the bus that morning and I turned to leave after waving and blowing kisses to everyone. When I turned there was one of the other mom's standing in front of me with a Christmas bag. I didn't know her very well, in actuality I didn't even know her name. I saw here there every morning and afternoon picking up her son but we were never cordially introduced to one another. We smiled and nodded every morning to one another but that's about it.

This time she said her name was Anne and she knew we were new to the neighborhood so she got me a Christmas gift. She said it was for the family. I took the bag, smiled and probably had a very shocked look on my face. It just blew me away that someone would give a total stranger a gift at Christmas.

I quickly went home ready to put the gift under the tree but the Lord stirred in my heart to open it up. Now I know you are all thinking it wasn't the Lord, "Livin stop spiritualizing your own curiosity and greed here." :-) But really it was the Lord. I opened it up and out came a Glass Pickle Ornament. I was blown away. I heard the Lord very clearly say "Merry Christmas, this is My gift to you."

He knew.

He heard.

He read my heart.

The Father so loved me that He even had a total stranger deliver a gift to me. It might seem silly or insignificant to others but to me that Glass Pickle represents the Fathers amazing Love. Every year now we get out the tree we remind the kids of the story of our pickle. We tell them that God does really hear you even when you tuck away your thoughts and desires and dreams deep in your heart where no one else has heard them before. There aren't days that go by that I don't think about my pickle. You know the Lady Anne, well she moved out of town right after that. I never received another gift from her again. I did thank her the next week for the gift. All she said was "I was shopping and thought I should pick something up for your family for Christmas. I read the story about the Glass Pickle and felt like it might be something your family would enjoy doing every year."

Wow, she had no idea about my past memories as a child and having the pickle ornament and she had no clue that I really wanted one but could not afford it that Christmas.

So what is tucked away in your heart that you have never shared with anyone? You may feel the desire, thought or dream will never come to pass because it is hidden inside of you but just wait and see. The Lord loves to listen to us even when we don't audibly speak. He loves to listen to our hearts and give us our desires.