Made Me Glad!

The first time I hear "Made Me Glad" was about 4 months after Darrell died.  Once we got to the first chorus I spent the rest on the song weeping.  That was my heart's cry at the time.  I had spent so much time praying those words.  I was so overwhelmed to hear them in such a beautiful song. "You are my shield, my strength, my portion, deliverer, my shelter, strong tower, my very present help in time of need." I kinda felt sorry for the worship pastor, because he saw me crying so hard and thought it was too much for me, so he ended the song earlier than he had planned.  :-)

Several months later, right before Stephen and I married, and before I moved from Oklahoma to Texas, I was at what was to become my new church home visiting and we sang that song.  I had come so far in my healing and grieving that it became a beautiful praise song and again I wept.  But this time for JOY!!  God had answered my prayers.  He had been all of those things and more to me and my kids.

So every time I sing that song I am reminded of God's faithfulness to His children and how He continues to be my shield and strength, my portion and deliverer, my shelter, strong tower and my very present help!

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for never changing.  Thank you that we can look back at the good times and the bad times and know that you saw us through them.  And thank you that we can use that to look at the present and the future to know that you will always be with us!

He has made me Glad!

Psalm 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but you? 
               And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 
                       ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, 
               but God is the strength of my heart 
               and my portion forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ytE8um04l24

Happy Mother's Day

According to Matthew, it's not just Mother's Day.  It's Happy Mother 's Day!!  And he'll get on to you if you don't say it the right way!

We have had a wonderful day.  The kids didn't like my idea for lunch (Leftovers.  I wasn't going to cook!) So they planned a wonderful picnic and Stephen took them shopping last night for all the picnic supplies we didn't have on hand.  We let the kids play at the park for a while and decided that this is something we should do more often on Sundays.  It was SO relaxing!!

I'm so grateful for All of my moms!  God has blessed me with wonderful examples!  Peggy (Stephen's mom) is such a calm, steady, easy-going person.  Edeana (Darrell's mom) has shown such perseverance through many trials.  Charlene (my step-mom) is so wonderful to take such great care of Dad and to love all of us kids as her own.  Betty (Mom).  She had all of those qualities.  I would definitely say she was a Proverbs 31 woman.

(There's supposed to be a lovely picture of me and my mom inserted here, but my computer is not cooperating!  Check facebook for the pic!)

I will never forget my first Mother's Day without her.  I was 21.  She died on April 21st, so Mother's Day came pretty fast.  We had just left our church in San Diego so that Darrell could continue his education at Criswell in Dallas.  We hadn't moved yet and were without a church home.  We went to Shadow Mountain Community Church with Darrell's parents in El Cajon, CA for Mother's Day.  I remember getting a pretty book about mothers.  And I remember it was a Mother's Day message.  But the thing I remember most is that I quietly cried the entire service.  From the moment I sat down till the moment we left.  I didn't sob or bawl.  I just had tears constantly streaming down my face.  (Kinda like now.....)

I remember having a couple of really wonderful friends who helped me a lot during that time (and after Darrell died, too).  Jenny.  MY Jenny.  (Not Me!!  My friend!)  She exhibited such kindness and strength that I could depend on.  Those are traits that she's passing on to her precious children.  Juanita.  She was already a mother when Mom died and seemed to know that sometimes, you just need someone to be there.  You don't need them to say anything.  Just being with you is enough.  She's got a couple of boys that are in high school now and appear to be loving and caring young men and an enthusiastic young lady.  Well grounded in their faith.

So.  All of that to say....Happy Mother's Day.  To ALL of my Moms and to my friends who are moms and raising their children according to God's word.  You are an encouragement to me and I love you all!!!

Taco Corn Fritters

Yummy!!  These were so easy to make and since I doubled the recipe we have plenty in the freezer for another lunch and probably a few to snack on.  Some of us ate them with a little salsa and some had them plain.  I served fruit with them and it was a very filling lunch.  We'll definitely make these again!  I got the   recipe from Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers.  I love her site!

And tonight was Family Game Night.  We played Disney's Scene It.  (I won!  Yea!!)  And I fixed a "snack-y" kind of dinner.  Finger foods.  We had French Bread pizza, homemade tortilla chips with salsa and brownie bites.  I had planned a couple of other things, but ran out of time and really...we didn't need anything else.   Check out our brownie bites.  They were easy, fun and the kids enjoyed them!

Mmmmm!!!  You know the best thing about  brownie bites??  Every single one is like a corner piece!

Planning, Planning and Schedules

Ah!!  It's so nice to be pain free!  Well, at least back to my usual.  :-)  My arm is SO much better!  It still feels kinda funny every once in a while, but it never really hurts anymore.  I don't know how much I'll be posting now that I'm back at the computer more, but I'll try to be at least regular and frequent with my posts.

My planning for Easter was not the best.  Of course the kids don't have to have new clothes, but there sure are a lot of good sales around Easter!   However, I should have made those purchases sometime other than the Friday and Saturday before Easter.

So with that fresh on my brain, I was thinking through what's on the calendar for the next few months and realized that I need to start planning now what my family will eat while Katie and I are gone with Voice Of Praise this summer.  Saturday to Saturday!!  That's a lot of meals to have ready ahead of time!  I need to have snacks ready, too.  So, I made myself a note to start planning those meals and I can start cooking some of those things and putting them in my freezer.

And I am so ready to start thinking about next school year's schedule!  We'll be starting in July this year, so I'll be doing a lot of prep in June.  We've stuck with the same basic schedule for about 6 years now and it's definitely time for a change.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

Life is so much easier when I plan and schedule.  One of the biggest pluses of planning and scheduling???  I can stay caught up on laundry!!

Snack Rut

We are in a snack rut!!  The kids like toast with peanut butter, graham crackers, Annie's cheddar bunnies,  pretzels, hummus and crackers.  But I just feel like it's not really doing it job of getting them from lunch to dinner.  We have lunch at noon and often dinner isn't until 6:30.  That's  a long time for ME to go, let alone growing/active kids!  I've been trying to have more fruit around and that's been helpful.  But I'd still like some other ideas.

So.  What's your favorite, go-to, fill 'em-up snack??

Salsa Chicken

With my arm needing lots of rest right now, dinners have been a little different.  We've eat out a couple of times (one time was date night, so the kids fixed mini pizzas) and last night was a very simple salad.  Well, tonight I needed to fix something other than what was on the menu.  So we had Salsa Chicken!  And it was  a hit!

I knew I had some chicken in the fridge that needed to be used and I knew there were some black beans that were meant for Monday's dinner, but didn't get used since went we out.  So I quickly looked at what all I had on hand.

I simply put a little salsa and cheese on top of the chicken and baked it.  While that was baking I fixed some black beans and corn.  I wanted it to have a little more flavor so I diced up half of red bell pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic.  I would definitely use the whole pepper next time and a ton more garlic.  We love garlic!  A little salt and pepper to taste.  Stephen thought it was especially nice on top of the salad.  The salad was left over from last night.

Super simple dinner.  Easy on my arm, especially with a couple of helpers!

My Mom

It was such a little thing.  I meant to take a picture, but forgot.  Back many years ago, Mary Kay sold a line of nail color and other manicure items.  My mom had a little pink nail brush.  Being the only girl, after she died, I got all of those things.  Well, that little brush broke this past week.  Made me kinda sad.  No tears, just "Oh!  That was Mom's."  


Later in the day, Katie was talking to Sarabeth and, for just a moment, I heard my mom's voice.  It was really amazing how in that one brief moment she sounded like Mom.  

I thank God for all of the wonderful memories I have of Mom.  She was wonderful