Anything is Worth Having is Usually Hard

Somewhere along the way my kids got the idea that things are supposed to be easy.   I think I also harbor that idea somewhere in my psyche as well.  I have decided in my short life that life can be hard, but God is good.   He is ever faithful and ever present.

I praise the Lord we have come out of one of those harder seasons of life.   The life we lived last five years I would call hard.   We faced moving cross country twice, raising two toddlers, earning one MBA, completing one CFA designation and having a huge question mark regarding Jason's job for the last two years.   Those were the biggies.   There were countless little things along the way as well.   An example being my son's first broken arm.   That night was REALLY hard.   I wrote his "first" because I expect there to be more.   I just asked the pirate, otherwise known as my son, to climb down off the back of the couch.

 Today, the hard things we face include practicing violin, cleaning bedrooms, and fighting Houston traffic.   One thing I continually tell  my kids is that anything worth having is usually going to involve a lot of hard work. The Bible actually speaks to times in our lives that are hard.   It is found in the first chapter of James.  James writes in James 1:2-4.

   Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.


I don't come close to facing the persecution the first century church endured.   My biggies are inconvenient and disruptive of my comfort.   They do not threaten my life.  Though my inconvenient circumstances, I have seen my faith mature through trials.  I have learned countless lessons and grown more aware of God's faithfulness and patience.  I still have a long way to go.  God is good.   We cannot expect a completely fulfilled life this side of heaven.

I look at this season of my life and I'm thankful for where I've been and I'm looking ahead to the future.

Taking a Breath

Last week was a busy week!  My daughter was out of school last Monday for the holiday.  I kept her home on Tuesday because I was trying to get her over a cold.  I also attended the first Beth Moore Bible study of the semester Tuesday night.  Wednesday brought a MOPS regular meeting and a leadership meeting.  Thursday, I took a deep breath, cleaned my house, and regrouped.  I spent Friday setting up and playing with my new phone.  I also had kids choir, gymnastics, working out, and violin lessons thrown in there during the week. 

Getting a new phone was a highlight of my week.  My old phone was not too pretty.  I dropped my old phone 4 months after getting it and cracked the screen.  It still worked, so I couldn't see replacing it.  My new phone is a fun new toy.

I spent all of Saturday at a Suzuki violin workshop.  This was the 3rd workshop my daughter and I have attended together.  Workshop days are busy days, but so beneficial.  Our day included a master class.  A master class is essentially a 15 minute private class with a master teacher.  We had two group classes for working on technique and repertoire.   We finished the workshop with a music and movement class called Dalcroze Eurhythmics.   My daughter loved all the movement after working so hard all day long.  There is always a concert at the end of the day which is really beautiful.  Suzuki kids learn the same pieces in the same order.  The kids can come together and play a concert because they all know the same pieces.  The concert starts with the most advanced pieces and plays down to the most basic.  

Sunday was a fun day at church.   First, I didn't have to serve anywhere.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to serve my church, but after a couple of weeks of spending a lot of time with the 12 and under set, I got to attend both Sunday school and church.   Talking with adults is refreshing!  We also retired our capital campaign.   Our church has received more than the pledged amount and the church is currently debt free.  I am a Dave Ramsey fan, so I like my church being debt free.  Our church service was quite celebratory.  

Today, I took both the kids to the doctor.   My daughter was diagnosed with an sinus infection after fighting a cold virus for 10 days.   My son has an almost ear infection and enlarged tonsils.   I also had to take our Suburban back to the shop.  They can't seem to fix a leaking seal after rebuilding the transmission three months ago.   This is the 4th trip back to the shop and I'm not loving it.   It is under warranty, so I keep showing up until they get it right.   I didn't get the truck back today.  As a result, the kids and I have to get my husband to the bus station by 6:15 in the morning.   I will have his car tomorrow.   I wonder sometimes how we lived as a one car family, by choice, for two years after moving back to Texas.   We are spoiled to having two cars again.    

I'm fairly certain I hear the dishes and laundry calling my name.  I'm off to tackle some chores before heading to bed tonight.

Baked Spaghetti Success

Most of the stuff I cook, my kids complain about.   I'm not a bad cook.   I'm no foodie either.   They complain because the food is something other than a chicken nugget.  I made baked spaghetti on Thursday for last night's dinner.   They ate it without complaint.   Of course it probably helped that they were starving.   We had violin lessons last night until 5:00.   We then dropped by the gym on the way home so I could get in my 2nd weight lifting workout of the week done.  As a result, we were eating at 6:30 instead of 5:30.   I guess I'm adding another meal to my repertoire.   What is nice is that I can make the meal ahead and just heat it up for dinner.   Jason had a breakfast meeting with my men's ministry leaders at church.   I decided I would make a hot breakfast for the kids and I this morning.  My daughter slept until 9:30, so haven't made breakfast yet this morning.   Her late nights of reading during the week catch up with her on the weekend.  I'm off to a late breakfast with the kids.

Apostles's Creed

As a new believer in Christ 16 years ago, I discovered the Apostle's Creed.   It is believed it was written as early as the 2nd century and as late as the 5th century.  It was through a song by Rich Mullins called Creed that I first heard the Apostle's Creed.   Recently the Apostle's Creed has been released as a song by Third Day.   I heard it yesterday which is why this is on my mind this morning.  I like to meditate on the words of the Apostle's Creed.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth. 

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Did you make it to the end and wonder about the use of the words "catholic church" by a protestant believer?  You will notice it is little c catholic.  It refers to the universal church of believers.   I stand in wonder at God's love for us.

A Morning Well Spent

I spent the morning in the kitchen.   I planned to make some freezer meals yesterday and realized I didn't have all the ingredients I needed.  I did make sausage balls.   Here is the before cooking picture.

My family likes to eat these for breakfast.  I am not a morning person.  If I don't have something frozen that can be heated for breakfast, breakfast is cold cereal and milk.   Correction, I will make oatmeal in the microwave.   That is all you are getting out of me in the morning.

I went to the grocery store this morning after dropping my daughter off from school.   It was quiet and empty!   Apparently, it was too cold for the "little old lady" crowd I normally see there.   I get it.  I'll be a little old lady one day and I probably won't venture out unless the temperature rises somewhere above 50 degrees. I made it through the grocery store in record time and came home to start cooking.  
I wanted something tasty to sip while I was working.   Brayden and I had some Hibiscus tea.

First, I made tonight's dinner.   Think tacos gone greek.   I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning, good stuff!

Super easy and done in about 20 minutes.   Next I started on pancakes.

I then flash froze them so I could bag them.  I had a helper for a while.  

While the pancakes were going, I made my spaghetti sauce.   After the sauce was done, I made baked spaghetti.  I used the recipe from here.  My husband made spaghetti earlier in the week and cooked 3 times as much spaghetti noodles as we needed.   We've already have spaghetti with chicken, spaghetti with ground beef.   I used the final amount for baked spaghetti.   I'm done with spaghetti for a least a month after tomorrow's dinner.  On the upside, I had enough sauce left over to use for homemade pizzas this weekend.

After I finished the baked spaghetti and pancakes, I made burritos.   I used the recipe I found here.  I like making these because I get 16.  I individually freeze and use them as needed.   These are great for the nights we are running out the door for kids choir.   Although, my kids would love it if they ate chicken nuggets all day, every day.   My husband will also take the burritos for his lunch at work in lieu of a sandwich.

After all the kitchen clean up was done, I tackled taking down the Christmas tree and putting it in its box.   I took off the ornaments, garland, and lights and stored them in the attic yesterday.   The Christmas tree box will have to wait for Jason.   It lives on a high shelf in the garage.   While I have been working out, I'm not Superwoman.

My house is officially de-Christmased...it only took me to the middle of January.

My Work is Cut Out for Me

I am sitting here listening to my the CD from my church's Christmas program.   I know it is January, Christmas is over.  Time for some honesty, my Christmas tree still stands proudly in my living room.

I took this picture about five minutes ago.  I have many reasons for not taking my tree down yet.   First, I wanted to enjoy it a little while longer.   I spent about 50 hours this Christmas season either rehearsing for or performing in the Christmas program at my church.   As a result, I was not home many evenings to curl up on the couch and just enjoy the twinkling lights.

Second, my son decided we needed an angel on top of the tree.   When we put the tree up this year, I put on the bows I made for the tree the first year Jason and I were married.

He looked at the bows with disappointment and said, "Why don't we have an angel?"

In his mind, ALL Christmas trees should have an angel.  I replied to him, "Mama and Daddy didn't have a lot of extra money when we first got married, bows were cheaper than an angel."

In other words, we were fresh out of college, had recently bought a house and our big purchase for Christmas that year was the Christmas tree and lights.

He looked at my incredulously with wide eyes and said, "We need an angel."  

I planned to look during Christmas for an angel.   After the program, I got sick, sick, sick.   My daughter shared the cold she caught during the program.  A week after Christmas was over, I finally felt back to normal.   I knew my chances of finding an angel a week after the post Christmas clearance were slim.  We were in Hobby Lobby, so I took a stroll down the Christmas clearance aisle just to see if there were any angel tree toppers left.   Low and behold there was only one.   It was pretty much what I envisioned in my mind.   I asked my son if she fit the bill and he was thrilled.   He begged me to leave the tree up a little while longer with the angel on it.  So, instead of taking it down New Year's Day, I left it up.

Thirdly, I started looking at all the ornaments on my tree and started dreading wrapping them up, putting them in their individual boxes and then fitting the boxes into another box like a jigsaw puzzle.   My family knows that I put gold and white ornaments on my tree.   In the last 11 years my collection has grown through gifts from various people.   I have a lot of ornaments now.   I was playing the idea of getting an ornament box to store them in.  My Mom found two ornament boxes yesterday, on clearance!   They are sitting next to the tree now calling to me.

Lastly, I still have presents under it.   We are doing Christmas later in the month with our Alabama family.   If I take it down, I just have to stack the presents in the corner.  But, I'm out of excuses, I must take the tree down today.

I love December because I get tons of cards from people I know and love.   I didn't do a card or letter this year, sorry y'all.  I love everyone else's and enjoy looking at them over and over.  I attach them all to a string I wind around my stairs.  I haven't been ready to take that down either.

I mentioned last week that my husband was working to install lifts for our bikes in the garage, here it is!   He finished it the night I blogged about it.  Good man, he is a very good man.

 I love it.  I used it last week for the first time when the kids and I rode our bikes to the park for a play date with half my daughter's school.

Finally, I just have to post these pictures that are too cute for words.   We have a play castle in our backyard that was our first home improvement project.   My friend Sarah calls it the Tower of Nerddom.  It is a two story, octagonal castle.   My father-in-law, the carpenter, my mother-in-law, the geometry teacher and my husband, the engineer turned finance guy, built to collaboratively.   They were working out complex math problems to figure angles and such.   I sat on the porch and stayed out of the fray while they worked.   I can make it look cute, but I have no interest in trigonometry.  Thus, the name, Tower of Nerddom.   It pays to be nerdy!  My kids love it.   My husband and daughter played Uno out there the other day.

Another fun picture is of my son and his Legos.  He loves his Legos.   He is making Lego creations right now.   These are from Monday.

When I started blogging today, he was working with his K'nex until he saw the Lego pictures I was uploading.

Finally, who can resist this picture?  I think he was pretending to be a bear police officer.   I'm so glad we are not starting him to school in the Fall.   I am not ready to give up this cuteness quite yet.

Pink Kayak

My pastor was doing a sermon on Jesus walking on the water yesterday.   It was not the sermon of when Peter attempted to walk on the water, but instead when Christ walked to the disciples in the boat after they had been rowing through the storm from John 6.  For an illustration, our pastor asked some of the church staff to borrow a boat for him to use as an illustration.   The boat they borrowed was a shiny new pink kayak.   It made for a funny illustration.  My pastor used the illustration to ask the question (paraphrase by me),  "What are we rowing so hard at in life in a pink Barbie kayak?"  

I am pondering this week, "What I am rowing hard at instead of giving it to Jesus."

Two Quick and Easy Dinners

There are some days that I am gone from the time I leave to take my daughter to school until dinner time.   Ahem, errand and violin days are the typical culprits.  On those days, I like to pull out my trusty crock pot.   My favorite recipe to make is so easy it takes me 3 minutes to prep.   I put in a pound of defrosted boneless, skinless chicken breasts and a can of tomatoes with green chiles.   I set the crock pot to low and let it go all day.   When the chicken is done in the afternoon, it shreds wonderfully.   I then use it to make chicken tacos, chicken taco salad, chicken tostadas, or I throw it in a soup.
My other favorite crock pot dish takes about 12 hours.   You have to get up early to get 12 hours in before dinnertime.   I have also started it before bedtime and let it go through the night.  One nice thing is that it makes at least two meals for my family of four.   I buy a roast from the grocery store.   I take a 2 or 3 lb. roast and put it in the crock pot with one jar of BBQ sauce.   I set to cook on low all day.   At the end of the day, I drain the fat, shred the meat, add half a bottle of BBQ sauce let it cook on high for about 30 minutes.  After it is finished, I have BBQ beef.   I will then eat it as part of the meal with veggie sides or stuff it into a baked potato.   Typically, I divide the meat in half.   I will freeze half the BBQ in a ziplock bag.   If I need a quick meat for dinner, I defrost the frozen BBQ and we are well on our way to a meal.

If you are short on cooking time give one of these recipes a whirl.   They are super easy and crowd favorites.

What Do You Stand in Wonder Of?

I named my blog Wide Eyed Wonder because I stand in wonder of many things in creation.   I stand in wonder of The Creator.   Some days I feel so privileged to see a beautiful sunset or hear a funny expression out of the mouth of one of my children.   In our crazy busy society we are so rushed.  We forget to stand in wonder.   One thing my daughter loves to do when we walk to school is to stop and smell the roses on a rose bush.   I love it.   Stopping to smell the roses is probably the most carefree thing she'll do until she gets home from school.

Today, I was noticing the wispy clouds again the beautiful blue Texas sky.  An artist could not paint a more delicate scene.   I found myself laughing at my son catching ants in a bug house the kids got for Christmas.   He just caught some.    I have to go and watch some ants.

What do you stand in wonder of?

What is MOPS?

I talk about MOPS a lot.   As a result, I get a lot of confused looks.   MOPS, what is that, a cleaning club?   Ha, I guess that would describe one facet of what we do.  As a mother of a preschooler and grader schooler, I do clean a lot.  MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers.  I joined my first MOPS group in Orlando when my daughter was a little more than a year old.   Since my family had recently moved to Orlando, it gave me an outlet and a chance to meet Moms.  I had not joined a mothering group since having my daughter, because I was still working full time.   I liked that MOPS was Christ centered, but not a Bible study.   I was coming out of a survival mode period of my life and had put intense Bible study on the shelf for a while.   At MOPS, we met twice a month for encouragement, fellowship,  and crafts.   Once a month, we had a play date at a local park.   My MOPS days were like a breath of fresh air.  

Today, I am on the leadership team of the MOPS group at my local church.   As soon as I moved back to Houston, I was ready to find a MOPS group.   I met some wonderful ladies who I am privileged to call my friends.   Many of these ladies do ministry with me as we minister to a wonderful group of ladies in MOPS.   Today was our first meeting of the semester.  Instead of our typical eat, speaker, craft format we changed it up.   We rotated tables and chatted.   The name (I love this, but it was not my idea) chat-a-latte.   Cute huh?  Since I am in leadership, I stayed at one table and facilitated discussion questions.   I got to talk to some ladies that I had only spoken with in passing.  I also got to chat with old friends and meet new people.   I left the meeting with a smile on my face having enjoyed the company of so many sweet ladies.

Whatever stage of life you are in I think it is important to have some type of outlet where you gather with like minded people.   It is encouragement and fellowship.   If you are a Mom of a preschooler, find a local MOPS group.   Every group has a different flavor and does things slightly differently.   If you try one and don't like it, try another.   You can go to MOPS Group Finder to find a group near you.

Another Tooth Bites the Dust

My daughter lost her first tooth back in November.  The one next to it was S-L-I-G-H-T-L-Y wiggly.   She has left it alone for the most part.  Two nights ago she complained that her tooth hurt.   I looked behind her loose tooth to see a little spot of white.  Yesterday morning she was complaining again.   When I checked her mouth, I now saw two spots of white.   Last night, when Daddy got home he helped her fit a piece of dental floss around the loose tooth.   She tried pulling on it but was afraid to put too much heft into it.  She asked me for help.    I gave one good pull straight up and her wiggly tooth popped out.   She was very excited.
We don't do Santa and the Tooth Fairy as pretend people at our house.   Our kids know that those are made up people.   The kids do like to pretend they exist even if they are not "real."   My daughter expected the Tooth Fairy to come last night.   She was mostly looking for some $$!   My husband and I were exhausted.  We were almost asleep before she was able to fall asleep.  She found us in bed and was very upset the Tooth Fairy might miss her.   My husband gets up at 5:00 for work.   His plan was to make a visit in the morning.  He got her settled down after much reasoning.   She went to sleep and he made his visit.  She'll be excited this the morning to collect her $.  I'm sure she is dreaming up her next purchase.

Projects Completed!

Back in June I listed a bunch of projects that I wanted to complete.

The dress started out looking that this.   It looks like something my Grandmother would wear, wait, that is where I got it.

When I finished it looked like this:

The quilt on the list was for my college roomie's 3rd baby. Which I didn't take a picture of it.   Meg, send me a picture!   I really wanted to mail to it her and skipped the picture
.
I also made a quilt for my  sister-in-law's best friend Jen.    She wanted me to use fabric from her bassinet when she was a little girl.   The red check is her bassinet fabric.   The other fabrics came from Hobby Lobby.  I made two identical quilts for her.  Jen gave one to her sister for Christmas.   Here it is:

Custom pillowcases.

A local crafting store sponsored a monthly crafty contest.   I made this hairband with a handmade flower.   While I didn't win for the month, my daughter loves it and wears it all the time.   She tells me she gets a lot of compliments on it.

Halloween costumes.   We were characters from Peter Pan.  Here are the kids costumes.

Peter Pan

Wendy

A tote bag for my daughter's teacher.    We gave it to her for Christmas with a book inside.

During the week between Christmas and the New Year I made a purse.   It was not the purse on my original list.   I'm experimenting with different designs and styles before I make that one.  I found this fabric on the remanant rack at JoAnns.   I got it for $3.50.   I used leftover interfacing and lining fabric from the teacher's tote.   I had the perfect button in my button stash.   I downloaded the pattern for free from Homespun-Threads.  This is the Josie bag which I took to church yesterday. It is smaller than I normally carry, as a result it was full with my Bible, wallet, keys and sunglasses.    

The Non Sewing
I did several non sewing projects such has helping my husband rebuilt our boat's outdrive

Success!   I got to drive the boat!

I have wanted to see Wicked since I lived in Chicago.   It came to Houston and I was so excited!  It was as good as I hoped!

I danced with a flash mob at our NBA team's home opener.   Our video of this came out terrible.  Here is a picture before it started.

A link to someone else's video on Youtube.

Lastly, I was a part of our church's Christmas production.   No, I was not a flying angel.   That is everyone's next question.   Our church had angels that dropped down from the ceiling during the final scene, quite spectacular.   We also had an elephant walk through the sanctuary.   I wasn't the elephant either.   

In November, my husband took a job with a different company.   He loves it.   Most importantly, we will not have to move to NYC anytime in the near future.   It looks as if he wanted to keep his old job we were going to have to make that move in the next two years.   Praise God for a new job and no more cross country moves in the near future.    While I am the expert at moving cross country; I will not need that knowledge for now.  Insert happy dance!

Now that I have caught up on the last six months I can go forward chronicling God's work in our lives.

Been A While

The craziness of the Fall left me neglecting my blog.  I endeavor to do more blogging in the coming year.    In fact, I have pictures to upload of my purse project I completed during Christmas break.   It is cute!
Get ready for more ramblings on everything from sewing to kids.   I hope to just kind of do life and make blogging my journal of sorts.

I am currently training for a 5K.   I ran one last year that benefited people in the Southern Sudan.   It is called the Aid Sudan 5K.  I have it on my list this year as well as one benefiting a local animal shelter.   My husband has started to run with me.   He is funny because he wants to talk to me while I huff and puff.   I take it in stride (bad pun I know.)  I'm thankful he sees it as an opportunity to spend time with me.  My daughter rides her bike the for our 3 mile run.   My son rides in the jog stroller because I don't think he could make riding that far.

My sweet husband is waiting for me to finish so we can take a run on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.   Would you like to know what is he is doing while he waits?  He is installing bike lifts in our garage for our bikes.   Our Christmas presents to each other this year were bikes.   The kids had bikes and that left us, really me, running along side them.  Now we can ride bikes as a family.   Of course, my four year old scares me to death because he is all over the place.   He rides without training wheels which allows him to make sudden turns and stops.   We give him a wide berth.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.   May you experience the world in wide eyed wonder of God's creation.