The Mothership

I am so blessed to be walking alongside so many Christian friends for so long and have grown close to even more.  I was blessed to have a great high school youth group.  Not only did I see these friends on Sundays, but we did life together and these were my friends I chose to see in my free time.  We went on mission trips together, did many outreaches, and we did the messy high school friendship stuff...and you know what?  Amazingly...we are still close, years and years later.  Our youth group laid a foundation for us. Life happens and we don't see each other as much as we'd like.  But we try to make it a priority.  And even though we may not all attend the same church, we connect.  We text -thank GOD for texting - from time to time, somehow picking up the conversation in the same place we did a month ago...with quick updates.  Speed texting has become a sport.  KEEP UP!  One of the key things we keep up on is our spirituality...

So, moms...I have such a deep appreciation for moms now.  If I had only realized how much of Jesus my mother tried to instill in me at the time, maybe I would have been more appreciative in my younger years.  A friend of mine leads a women's prayer group once a month.  It has provided me with a chance to meet Jesus in a quiet intimate time, in the middle of the day, with minimal distractions - which for a lot of moms can be hard.  This week we were reading over the verse, John 20:19-23. 1 9  That Sunday evening [ a ] the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20  As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21  Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receiv...

Friends are so important to me.  They provide me with the ability to see things clearly.  They love and support me, yada, yada, yada.  I could continue but I think everyone, in a different season of their life, has different aspects that are important to them in a friendship. I know the characteristics I valued as a teenager are most definitely NOT the same as they are now.  I have learned through a lot of friendships, or what I thought were friendships, hard truths of what I value in a friend.  But isn't that one of the points of high school...learning who you are and what you value?  I feel like I've only REALLY been able to reflect on this recently.  I wish I could go back in time and save myself a lot of emotional torment and grief.  However, I think all the emotional hurt was vital to my growth and understanding what I wanted in a friend. In this season of my life, I just don't have a lot of time.  My time is separated and do...

I still have a lot to learn about love.  I've put in a lot of years with the same man - 19 to be exact - and yet, we still learn new things everyday.  We are not the same couple from high school ( definitely not in appearance ) nor the same from the first year of our marriage.  Some things haven't changed: we still have loads of fun, we still bicker, we are still each others best friends, we are both pursuing the Lord, he is still faster than me ( some things you just learn to embrace ).  But other things are different: we communicate better, we build each other up, we drop the small things, we prioritize for each other, we are better lovers, we have better boundaries to keep our relationship a top priority, we are teammates, and the BEST one is we are better at respecting each other.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times we have thrown each other under the bus.  There are times when we are arguing in front of others and neither one of us is bei...

What person, in their right mind would buy a child, under the age of 6 SILLY PUTTY?!!?!?! My mother, that's who...oh wait she's a grandma, and does just about anything for me and my kids, so I guess she gets a pass (I really do love you mom).  BUT, if you are a mother of young ones..proceed with caution! If you have the time to sit and supervise the playing with silly putty, then by all means, buy it.  But, if you expect them to be able to keep track of it...nuh-uh...just don't. People...I lost all sense of being a human being the other day over silly putty...I went from nice, friendly Mommy: to crazy person that may or may not be an alien: You know why? Because, the havoc it ensues upon my house, I have endured before.  I remember...not fondly...trying everything to get silly putty out of the shorts pocket that my child "saved" it in....which somehow cannot be removed by any means possible BUT I assure you, can metastasize to any other piece of c...

I am not a food guru and certainly don't know EVERYTHING about nutrition with kids.  My kids have good days and bad days...just like me.  But my kids are pretty good at eating a variety of foods and trying new things.   Since I wrote about MY clean eating, I thought I would mention our method for our children. Tim and I are not picky eaters and try most things, aside from small aversions.  From what I have heard, we were not super picky when we were little.  I think some people are more sensitive to certain foods and it's important to listen to that.  If something doesn't sound good, don't eat it.  There are PLENTY of other clean foods to eat.  I think that is important for kids too; to know you respect their food aversions can go a long way when they are trying new foods, otherwise you can bet they are never going to try ANYTHING new.  Plus, my tastes have changed from when I was a child... except for the taste of wet bread or li...

My kids eat chicken most of the time.  This dish is made probably twice a month. It's super easy and takes about 30 minutes from getting the pans out to plate. The veggies listed below are what I had in the fridge that day, but I put more or different things in. Other good veggies are: kale, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, brussel sprouts, onion, the list could go on. Just pick a few you like and it'll be great. The same goes with the potatoes. We eat potatoes very infrequently, but they beef up the veggies a little bit and give it a nice texture. When I put the veggies and potatoes into the skillet, I just keep chopping and adding until I think I have enough for however many people are here. That's why there aren't exact measurements. The chicken I usually buy is chicken thighs because the kids seem to enjoy it better, but sometimes we do a pack of breasts and a pack of thighs.  If you get the combo of thighs and breasts, make sure you cut the breast pieces in half so...