COUSINS!

One thing I make sure I NEVER take for granted is the gift of cousins!  My kids are so blessed to have six cousins in our family, all at the same ages and stages.  They have such a blast together, spending so many hours and making so many memories together.  Here are some pictures from the last week of some cousin fun!  Thankful!

Digging in the dirt (which made a big hole in our backyard!!!!  oh well...)

Mario shirts from Papa!

Best Buds

Pinstripes bowling with cousins, Chuck and Nolan, and almost-cousins, Maddy and Meredith 

Bocce Ball

Matching Girlies!!

The girls gotta stick together!

Ella and Connor

Fun cousin chaos!

We are thankful for cousins!!!!

Hunger in America

Hunger is an issue that has pulled at my heartstrings since I was a girl.

In my naive worldview as a child, I had the hardest time understanding why so many people were homeless and hungry.  I remember telling my parents that if every household put an extra blanket and an extra bag of groceries on their doorsteps, it would make a huge difference to the people who didn't have enough.  In my mind, this was a simple solution.

As an adult, I now know that these issues of poverty, hunger, and food insecurity are deep and complicated. But I still have the audacity to believe that we can do something about it.

My husband, Zach, works for Bread for the World, a non-profit organization that works on hunger issues both nationally and abroad.  A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of attending a work event with him, a pre-screening of the documentary on hunger, A Place at the Table.  This movie was both straightforward and powerful about the massive problem of food insecurity in our country.  I left with a full mind and a heavy heart, anxious to do something about this problem.  Tears came to my eyes as I realized that I have never had to put my children to bed hungry, and there are countless moms, living right in our midst, who do.

What would you do if you were hungry?  I urge you to consider this question.  Children that are hungry are not able to concentrate in school.  People who are hungry are getting sick and are becoming overweight because of the reality that cheap, processed food costs less and has more calories that can fill up their bellies.  Many people do not even have access to a full grocery store.  To try to bring this reality to a deeper understanding for us and our children, we took a challenge to go to the store and shop with $4 (the average amount per person that millions of Americans that participate in the nation's food stamp program have per day).  We explained to the children what we were doing, and we went to Aldi to buy our dinner.  Now, thankfully, we have an Aldi grocery store in our area, where we can buy food that is quite inexpensive.  With our four dollars, we bought a box of whole grain spaghetti ($0.99), a jar of pasta sauce ($1.19), a bag of frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots ($1.09), and a bunch of bananas ($.58).  We came home, fixed our meal, and ate every bite.  We were still able to buy vegetables and fruit, but we were limited, with our set budget, in what we could buy.  Many times when our family has spaghetti, we make homemade sauce, sometimes with meat, and we always have the option to put fresh vegetables into our sauce or a salad.  We also usually make garlic bread with our spaghetti meal.  So even though it was still a fine meal, it wasn't the usual made-from-scratch-with-lots-of-vegetables meal that we are accustomed to having the privilege of cooking and eating.  And most people who are food insecure would not even have such a nice meal.

In honor of Food Bloggers Against Hunger day, I would like to share with you a few of my favorite, inexpensive recipes for you and your family to try.  (In the two recipes including chicken, please note that less chicken and more beans could be used to make it even more cost-effective.)

Blackened Chicken and Beans Skillet (click here)

Chunky Marinara Sauce to serve with pasta (click here)

Chicken Tortilla Soup  (for full post on this recipe, look here.)
In a crockpot, combine the following ingredients...
4 chicken breast halves (they can even be frozen)1 can stewed tomatoes1 can (14 oz.) black beans (drained and rinsed)1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce1 can corn (drained and rinsed)1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies1 cup salsaCrushed red pepper
Stir up ingredients and cook 8 hours on low (or 4 hours on high).Before serving, take out the chicken breasts, cut or shred, and put back in the soup.Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and corn chips (or tortilla chips)!
So...you may be asking, "What can I DO?"

First of all, please, please, please watch A Place at the Table.  To watch the trailer, click here.  I believe it is imperative for all of us to understand the magnitude of this problem in our very own country.  To see this movie, check to see if it is playing in your city, or watch in on demand through iTunes or Amazon.

Second of all, click on this link to take just 30 seconds to send a letter to congress asking them to support anti-hunger legislation.  For just a small click and less than a minute of your time, you can make a difference to help stop this problem in our country!

In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat.  What matters is that way too many people are hungry in the United States, and we have a responsibility to do something about it.  In our current standing, the only way for hunger to be eliminated is for policies to change.  We must make our voices heard.

Please help.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

Thankful Thursday

It is 11:57, and my daughters will be up in 5 - 6 hours.  I have a full day of plans tomorrow, too, so this is Thankful Thursday in fast motion.

There is much to be thankful for this week.  Such a full social life.  Friends and family have filled my days, and I am so blessed.  My best friend from Michigan is here with my nephews, and I loooved spending the day together, walking to the park, salads for lunch, warm cookies out of the oven, sitting in the sun in the afternoon, and watching the boys dig in the dirt (which left a giant hole in our grass, by the way...).  The weather was exquisite.  Tonight was Girls Night Out with my besties, and it is always a blast sharing chips and salsa and margaritas together.  We can talk for hours like nobody's business.  We swap recipes, talk about silly things, talk about big things, and talk about our roles as mothers and wives and homemakers and friends.  For ALL of these things, I am thankful.

What are you thankful for today?

In other news, I came across this amazing website this week, The Orange Rhino Challenge.  She writes about her process of stopping yelling at her kids.  I am inspired.  I am joining this challenge of no yelling.  Day One??  Success!!  Care to join me on this journey?  I'd love it!  Let me know so we can encourage one another!

Guest Post on Homeschooling

One of my dearest friends from Minnesota has been doing an education series on her blog.  I was so honored when she asked me to do a guest post on homeschooling, but I was so very nervous to write this post, too!  First of all, this is a topic that can often be controversial, and secondly, I had never written something for such a large audience.  But as I mulled it over and sat down to write, the words flowed.  Of course it would be a joy to write about something so near and dear to my heart!  Homeschooling has been an incredible journey for me so far, and I am thrilled that we chose to keep our children at home with us for now.  You can click below to see information about the series!  And you can read my post here.  Blessings!

Humble Confidence

Micah's good bud from Minnesota recently sent him a Lego Ninjago book in the mail with a cute note.

I decided Micah should write him a thank you, and I figured it would be a perfect time to do a letter-writing review.  Little did I know that this would turn into a three day, hours long, four-draft process.  Oh, but it did.

The first attempt was a handful of words.  I suggested he add some more.

The second attempt went like this...
Dear H,
Thank you for the book.
I like it.
I am doing second grade math and read at third to fourth grade reading level.
From,
Micah

Soooo...I had a small discussion with Micah about the fact that although I know (and truly believe) that he has no intention of bragging (about his academic standings), it could be perceived as bragging.  And I decided that this would be a good moment to teach my son about how to be a good friend and not brag to our friends and that they could feel badly, etc.  So I suggested that we start over.  "Think of it as good letter writing practice," I attempted.  Not so effective.  My six-year old was M.A.D.  He threw the note in the garbage and had some snarky remarks for me in his frustration.  He was quite distracted for awhile with the next attempt, and when I finally saw him immersed in his writing, I was thrilled!

And then he brought me this...

 

Completely speechless, I found an excuse for him to go in the other room for a minute so I could quickly dial my husband and say, "What do I DO?  This has already taken so much time??  Do we just send it?  Do I push the issue more??"  My wise hubby said to just leave it be, as long as Micah was sure that's what he wanted to say to his buddy.

Well, what do you know??  A few hours later at bedtime, after the negative emotions had been replaced with a fun dinner together, some snuggling and book reading, and a more calm spirit, Micah said to me, "Could I write a new letter to H tomorrow?  That one is kinda weird..."  I laughed and agreed with him and inwardly celebrated this little victory of him coming to his own conclusion without my prompting.  And the final letter was written with a good attitude today...

As minor of a situation as this may seem, it was a big deal to me.  It raised the question I have frequently asked myself, how do I teach my son to be confident, yet humble, at the same time?

I have thought about this many times before.  I want my children to think they are the best thing since sliced bread.  I want them to know how incredibly gifted and talented and brilliant they each are.  I want them to know that I am their biggest fan.  And I want them to have a healthy, strong sense of identity and self worth in Christ.  So how do I both build them up and affirm all of their brilliance and giftings without them becoming arrogant?

Is it just in the modeling?  Do we keep guiding them along verbally?  Only through prayer?
This is the question I have yet to answer.

As in most things, I turn to prayer.  I have prayed over my son at night countless nights, "Lord, help Micah to be confident in who he is, but humble, too."  And maybe this is sufficient.  Maybe God's grace will cover this request of mine and maybe discernment will come in the moment on how to train and teach and guide.  But what if there's something more?

What do you think?
Have you figured out how to teach your children a humble confidence?
Do share!

Easter Honesty

In an effort to maintain honesty (see No More Perfect Moms), I would like to share that it was an imperfect Easter.  Lovely, but imperfect.  The night before, I was in the kitchen longer than I expected, and my hubby was trying hard to keep things running with the kiddos.  We started to dye eggs while I was making dinner, and the kids asked after two eggs if they could be done...(What??  Who doesn't love to dye Easter eggs?)  Our baby was feverish and sick, the kids were overtired, and there was a tornado that blew through our kitchen as I made things for Easter and also tried to mash cauliflower in an attempt to have a new, healthy side for dinner.  Weeeellll, thankfully, the kids got a second wind with the Easter eggs, although  many eggs ended up cracked and many fingers ended up stained.  They didn't like the cauliflower (but Zach and I did!) and they were all a mess by bedtime.  Zach fell asleep early, exhausted from the day, and I was left to fill and hide baskets myself.

Sunday morning came, and I was thinking that surely, the morning would be perfect.  It was Resurrection Sunday, for goodness sake!  But Sophia continued to be sick and needed someone to hold her the whole morning, Zach and I were arguing...(I know, silly, silly).  And Ella didn't want to wear her Easter dress.  We left the messy house in a hurry and in crabby moods, but thankfully, Zach and I apologized and connected on our way into church and during the service.  Phew.

My heart was burdened for a friend who was struggling, there were points in the day when I didn't think I could stay awake, and we had to put Sophia in a tepid bath following Easter dinner (when her fever reached 104.6!) and put a call into the pediatrician.  But you know what??  On the way home, I told Zach, it was a nice day.  The children had a blast at Nana and Papa's, we got to go outside for the Easter egg hunt, and I loved spending time with my parents and my sister and her family.  Micah and Sammy initiated "The Question Game" during dinner, having everyone come up with a question (i.e., "What's your favorite dessert?" and going around the table answering.  Precious how they facilitated the discussion.  And Ella insisted on only having purple and pink eggs in her basket.  During the Easter egg hunt, she would notice an orange egg and walk right on by.  Or, she would pick up an egg, look at it and realize it was green, and put it into her cousin's basket instead.  We laughed so hard as we finally realized why she was giving her eggs away.  So cute.  So girly.

The day was messy at points, but it was lovely.  We had celebratory worship at church, sweet time with family, delicious food, and [mostly] happy kids.  But, most importantly, we knew that we were celebrating the freedom and joy of the truth that Jesus is ALIVE!  And that carried us through our day with peace.

Death, where is your sting?  

Grave, where is your victory?  

He's ALIVE!  He's ALIVE!  

He is RISEN!

(a song we sang on Sunday)

Happy Easter!

SPRING!

In my books, today goes down as the first day of spring.

It was a blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk, jump rope, take-a-walk kinda day.

And it was lovely.

Sammy's chalk drawing of the stable with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.  Then on the sides are angels and a wise man.   Love.

Micah's first time jump roping!  He loved it!

I don't know that I have jump roped for over 15 years, but it was so fun today!  I even jumped in with my hubby and we had the two-jumping-in-one-rope thing going on.  Laughter is so good. 

My beautiful sis-in-law, whom Ella adores.

Today was a reminder that sunshine and beautiful weather really are good for the soul.  So refreshing.  Soaked up the day with family and loved it all!  So happy it is SPRING!