Verse of the Week

This is a pretty well known verse, but a good one that should be written on our hearts. Money is a big thing we worry about, but what about all the little ones that consume us. I am a planner and so when I see my calendar full of things coming up and food I need to make, presents that need to be bought, I get a little big anxious about it all. Sometimes we forget that our worry is sin. If you have a problem with worrying I suggest to you that you might want to memorize this verse.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34

Attention All Christmas Shoppers

Just wanted to share with everyone still looking for that unique gift or maybe you would like some new Christmas decorations. My aunt started her own blog showcasing all her very unique creations.

She takes old wool sweaters and recycles them into stockings, ornaments, pins, sweaters, wreaths, mittens, and scarves. I'm sure I've forgotten something! There will never be two alike of what she makes. Everything is so cute too. There are a few people on my Christmas list getting some of her items. This picture is actually stockings that she has attached pins too. Aren't they cute?

So check out her blog at woolrevival.blogspot.com. If you live far away, I'm sure she would be willing to ship it to you.

Thanksgiving Turkeys and Pumpkin Cake

This week for Preschool the kids made this Turkey craft. I had the fun job of cutting everything out the night before but the kids did all the glueing. We then wrote down on the feathers what they were thankful for. They were thankful for God, Jesus, Mom and Dad, Grandpas and Grandma, clothes, food, the earth, eyes to see, and trees.

One of my favorite things to eat on Thanksgiving or in the fall in general is pumpkin desserts. Any kind really- pies, cakes, rolls, breads. If it's got pumpkin in it, I will eat it. If it is topped with Cool Whip that is even better. I thought I would share one of my favorite pumpkin recipes. It's a pumpkin cake topped with cream cheese frosting. I love it because it makes a 9x13 and an 8x8. Which means I can usually make it to bring somewhere and have some leftover for us. It's also easy to freeze and I love to make it into cupcakes too. I actually made it Saturday when we were having guests over. I made the 8x8 for the guests and made 24 cupcakes, froze them, and hauled them out to take to a family gathering today. They were gone quickly! Kids and adults love them!

Here's the recipe:

4 eggs

2 c. sugar

1 c. vegetable oil

1 (15oz) can pumpkin

Mix the above ingredients and sift in the following:

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

Place in greased 9x13 and a greased 8x8 pan. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 25 minutes. (If you make cupcakes bake for less time. I think mine took about 15 min.)

Cream Cheese Frosting: (I suggest making a double batch)

1- 3oz. pkg cream cheese

3 T. Butter

Beat until smooth and then add 2 c. powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.

Eat and enjoy!

Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Tears and Tacos

This little girl does not like tacos or rice. I told her she did not have to eat them but then she wasn't getting a cookie for a snack. It took her about an hour and twenty minutes and some tears were shed (not sure if you can see the big tear rolling down her cheek) but she finished her food. I'm sure her oreo cookie tasted especially good that night.

Thankfulness

In this week of Thanksgiving, it's easy to be thankful for the good things God gives us. The sunshine, the warm weather, my children when they are good, food, clothes. What about the things that we grumble and complain about. I Thessalonians 5:18 says "in everything give thanks" and Ephesians 5:20 says "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father". For everything and always! Wow, that's a lot. So when I grumble and complain I am telling God I'm not thankful for these things.

This week I am trying to be thankful for the good and the not so good. Which is not always so easy.

233~ cluttered kitchen counters

234~ toys all over the floor

235~ a dirty stove

236~ stains on my carpet

237~ a table covered with crumbs that everytime I clean it just seems to get covered with crumbs again

238~ dishes to wash

239~ bills to pay

240~ beds to make

241~ piles of dirty laundry and piles of clean laundry to fold

242~ fingerprints on the windows

243~ an unclean heart in need of a washing by my Savior

and some of the good:

244~ little artists

245~ tire swings

246~ beautiful fall days

247~ geese flying high in the sky

248~ crescent rolls wrapped around lil hot dogs

249~ nerf footballs

250~ work for my husband

251~ a healthy new nephew

May you all enjoy a blessed week of Thanksgiving for the good and the not so good!

Verse of the Week

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. As Christians we should be thankful every day of the year, but this week we will take a day to spend with family, eat food and take some special time to be thankful to our God.

That is why I thought it would be fitting to memorize a verse that speaks about being thankful. There are so many great verses about being thankful but I have chosen the following verse.

"Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever!" Psalm 106:1

I've Changed

If you are really excited about this post when you saw the title, I'm sorry to disappoint. It's really not a big deal. In the past people have commented to me that they've had a hard time commenting on some of my posts. Since I love comments I've decided to make it easy for everyone by allowing anonymous comments. This means that you don't have to be signed in to leave a comment anymore.

All I ask is that if you are leaving an anonymous comment, please sign your name at the bottom so that it is no longer anonymous and I know who you are. Since I am doing it this way, I will be moderating the comments before they get posted onto the blog.

Thanks to all of those who have been commenting, I love reading them all and hope this new system works out better and that it will encourage more comments.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

My MOPS is collecting boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I decided that I was going to take the girls one night to pick out items for a girl box and the boys another night to fill up a boy box.

Last Friday night I took the girls for our little night out of shopping and then to McDonalds for some ice cream sundaes. The girls were so cute. They had on their matching coats and walked through the store holding the little basket together and putting their items in it. I would kind of guide them through the store and tell them what we should get but then let them pick out the specific item. For instance, toothbrushes, a doll, coloring book, etc. Sometimes they would disagree which one but would eventually decide together on one item. They were very excited to find things for this little girl that they do not know.

We then went to McDonalds and sat in a booth together while Amanda and I ate sundaes and Alex wanted Chocolate chip cookies. The girls slowly ate their food and talked about things they like and they giggled. It was a very fun night with my little ladies.

Then on Tuesday it was the boys turn. My sister had her baby on Monday, so her son was over. Which means I took 3 boys shopping, not just 2. We started down the isles and of course it was all about what toys they wanted. The swords, the shields, the helmets. They were trying it all on. Whenever we would put one item in the basket they all thought that was someone elses toy and now they needed to pick one out too. No one wanted to hold the basket, so I did. Isaac did want to hold the wrapping paper roll at first so he could swing it around like a sword. Finally after explaining a million times that we were not there to pick out a toy for them but for another little boy that lived far away and this was probably going to be his only present and after answering a million times, no you may not get that! We finally headed to the register to pay.

Then the debate in going to McDonalds was that no one wanted ice cream, they all wanted chocolate chip cookies. I had a hard time going to McDonalds to buy cookies when I just made some the day before but realizing that it was about spending time with them and not the cookies, we went to McDonalds anyway. I got the hot fudge sundae to balance the calories I had burned off earlier by working out. The boys could not sit still, they didn't want to talk to me and the most intelligent thing said was, "Mom, I have to toot."

I think you get my point. Girls and boys, completely different!

The kids also all decorated Christmas cards for the children they are sending their boxes too.

Also, on a different note, when I took the boys shopping the lady standing behind me in line asked me if all 3 boys were mine. I actually got to answer no, in a tone like "that would be nuts to have 3 kids that close in age that were all mine!" Little did she know!

I'm Exercising Again

For you older readers (not old as in age, old as in have been reading my blog since the beginning) you may remember my post way back in May about how I had started doing the 30 Day Shred. And at the end of that post I told you would update you on how it was going. Now it is November and I never updated you. (Not that anyone noticed)

That is because it didn't last very long. I was doing good for about 3 weeks and then................I fell off the bandwagon. I was faithfully getting up early every morning and exercising in the basement. Then one night we had a storm and our sump pump went out and we had 2 inches of water on the ground. I was not up for laying in that water to do my crunches.

I also had a garage sale that week, making for a busy week. After the water I decided that I was pitching all the furniture and carpet in the basement. Our DVD player in the living room was not hooked up right to the TV so there was no sound. So, you see my dilemma. I had no way of exercising. I was forced to stop!

About a month later my brother-in-law who knows all about electronics stopped over. I put him to work right away because I couldn't wait to start Shredding again! He fixed it and I was out of excuses.

Then four months later I decided I better get going on that exercising thing again. After all, it's fall. That means I start cooking which makes me start eating more. The holidays are coming. These are all reasons to work off a few calories so that I can eat some extra calories and not have to buy all new clothes. Not that I don't want new clothes, I just don't want new clothes in a bigger size.

So, the point to my story is that I have started doing the 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels again. I've been going strong for 3 weeks now (remember last time it ended after 3 weeks, not this time).

Here's hoping the living the room floods.

Just kidding.

My kids love to join me watch me. You'll usually find them lined up on the couch. Isaac will often ask me to move so he can see. Ummm, Isaac, that's not really the point.

I must say, if you are like me and you absolutely hate to exercise, this might actually be the video for you. I don't find any of the exercises to difficult. You get cardio, strength and abs. It's a great workout for the whole body. Although I know that my abs will never look like Jillian Michael's abs, I like to pretend that if I do enough crunches they might. A girl can dream, right? After all, I don't think Jillian ever gave birth to triplets.

And if you are looking for pictures of me exercising. You won't find them here. This is a pictureless post!

UPDATE: After I wrote this I decided to try Level 2. This is not fun or easy. I wanted to die and had a hard time lifting my arms after I was done with this workout. I think I got more cardio in this workout than I did when I ran a 5k. I also got on the scale and I think I have actually gained weight. Not really the motivation I was looking for.

Gratitude

217~ watching Alex pitch a baseball to Joshua

218~ watching all the kids join in a game of baseball together

219~ technology which allows me to be a SAHM and a WAHM

220~ $3 car wash and free vacuuming. cheap and much easier than doing it myself.

221~ a beautiful day working in the yard

222~ toys organized

223~ pictures colored

224~ a hardworking husband

225~ a night of shopping with my girls and enjoying some ice cream

226~ Reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to my girls and their desire for me to keep reading them more.

227~ the sun

228~ cake with chocolate frosting

229~ green grass littered with fallen leaves

230~ dollar menus

231~ a constant pile of shoes by the back door

232~ that on Sunday morning my family can walk into church together, not all Christians have the freedom do to this and I'm thankful that we can

These are the things I am thankful for this past week. Hope you will take some time today to be thankful too for the things that our heavenly Father surrounds you with.

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord"

Psalm 92:1

Verse of the Week

This is now my 5th week of scripture memorization. If you're new here, this is my first post about scripture memorization, why I want to memorize scripture. Ann from A Holy Experience also had a great post this week about memorizing scripture.

If you have been memorizing with me or would like to join me, I'd love to know that you are doing this with. You can either comment on this post or send me an email at mjvis@att.net. If you are not joining me, I encourage you all to be doing some form of memorizing scripture. It will change your life. One way I already see a change is in my prayer life.

I would also love to hear your tips on how you memorize scripture. I write my verse out on an index card and just leave it on my kitchen island all week long. Since I am in and out of my kitchen all day long, every time I come into my kitchen I see it. I read over it and at least once a day I stop and spend a little more time memorizing it. By the end of the week I usually try to say it from heart a couple times each day.

This week I would like to add a new verse but I am also going to be reviewing the verses from the last 4 weeks. The verse I am adding this week is a verse that I actually memorized with my children last spring. It's a great verse because it applies to so much of our life. Our speech. I've found this so helpful in dealing with issues with my children but have found it even more helpful in my own life. I find myself thinking of this verse before I say things. Although I am far from perfect, I know that this verse has kept me from a lot of backbiting and gossiping. I hope it also helps you in thinking about what you say.

Let no corrupt word proceed from your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29


And the review verses from the last 4 weeks are:

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created. Revelations 4:11


To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O My God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me. Psalm 25:1,2


Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. An everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. I Corinthians 9:24-26


Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:11


I hope that you are all blessed by these verses this week and that you will have God's word hidden in your heart.

Making Lists and Checking Things Off

I haven't been posting much and I wish I could say it's because we are doing exciting things over here.

We're not.

The weather has been nice so the kids have been spending a lot of time playing outside. This is when I am thankful for having triplets + 1 close in age. They just run around keeping each other occupied.

What have I been up to? Besides my usual things I have been busy making lists. I am a habitual list maker. If it doesn't get on a list, it doesn't get done. I have a list for everything. I have a list on the fridge of things to do. I have a planner that I sometimes put lists on specific days of things I need to get accomplished that day. I have grocery lists, a list for shopping tomorrow, Christmas lists, a wish list of things we want/need around the house, lists of things I need to pick out for projects, my gratitude list. Sometimes my lists include making lists. The lists are endless!

Sorry, Beth for making fun of you for making lists when we were younger.

So, that is what I have been doing. Making lists and trying to get all the things on my list accomplished. I've organized toys, organized the storage room, baked, cleaned, cut down plants in the yard, mowed the lawn, taken kids to the library, grocery shopping, etc. Now thanks to this post I have a list of things accomplished!

I have a few more big things to accomplish and then you might just get something interesting to read. (Wait, have you ever gotten anything interesting to read from me?) My biggest thing is to order pictures. Haven't ordered any snapshots in over a year and I also have to order the pictures I took of the kids at the park. I've been putting these off for a while!

Verse of the Week

Join me this week in memorizing a verse from God's word.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

Psalm 119:11

My Attempt at the Rainbow Cake

If you read MckMama's blog (and who doesn't) then chances are you have probably seen the Rainbow Cake made by her bloggy friend Amanda. It's beautiful, isn't it? I decided that I was going to try to make it but I put my own little spin on it to make it a little easier.

I'm guessing when she made it she put it in smaller round pans. I decided to use my 10 inch round pan and I only divided each cake mix in half. Which then gave me 4 layers instead of 6. My plan was to make it a fall cake and use colors that leaves are. I was going to end up with gold, brown, orange and red. Well, that's not exactly what happened.

As I mixed colors they were not ending up the way I wanted. Gold was easy because I had gold food coloring. I then got orange pretty easily but wanted it to be more of a burnt orange so I tried to put a little black in it and ended up messing it all up. My orange ended up being more of a really yucky dark green. My red was not getting as red as I wanted and then I ran out of red food coloring. I added yellow and tried to turn that orange. My last layer I figured I would then do yellow, but it was so bright that I started adding other colors and it ended up being a bright green.

My point to all that is, if you want to make this cake-----do not plan on mixing colors! Just buy the right color of food coloring to begin with! The plus side to this all is that the cream cheese icing is so out of this world delicious that it does not matter what your cake looks like, the icing will win everyone over!

Here is my finished product:

I also made a coffee cake for my family and thought I would be all fancy and bake it in a bundt pan instead of a 9x13. Bad idea! It didn't want to come out. Thankfully my family didn't make fun of me or say anything when this was served to them Sunday morning.

Of course, when I was in the other room I did overhear Brad ask one of the kids if they dropped it on the floor.

Also, if you do not follow MckMama's blog, you might want to check it out and keep her, her family and especially her son in your prayers. Her 1 yr. old son will be having heart surgery in Boston next week.

It's The Little Things in Life

Mondays seem to be such a busy day for me. My list after the weekend is a mile long and it's my one day to really get moving on it. That is why last week, even though I had my list all ready, it just never got typed into the computer. So the following list is from the last two weeks.

When I sit down at the end of the week and think about the things I'm thankful for it's a lot of times the big things that stand out. Although I'm thankful for all those big things, the little things in life are the best!

Here is 198 thru 216

apples to make applesauce, apple bread and apple pie filling to freeze

a night running around like a kid with my kids and them wanting to join them on every slide

a beautiful tree outside my window

watching the leaves on that tree fall to the earth

sunshine - rays of golden light that we haven't been seeing to much of lately

a new coffee pot

snuggling in bed with big warm covers

a week that wasn't too busy

braids

jumphouses and jumping in it with my daughter

lots of rain and no water in the basement

a haircut

cheerleaders as I exercise

laughing at the kids as they imitate my exercises

aching muscles

caramel bars

warm apple crisp with ice cream

BBQ pork sandwiches
(now you know why I was exercising)

Legos and watching the kids get creative with them

Verse of the Week

On Saturday I start thinking about what verse we should memorize for the next week. Although I have a list of verses I have jotted down over the last few months that I would like to memorize, I really want to choose a verse that I feel is the "right" verse for that week. I don't want to just randomly pick a verse. It seems that God has really just shown me each Sunday which verse to choose.

This morning in church there was a verse that was read that at first I thought was the verse I was going to pick for the week. But then when Pastor Steve preached on I Corinthians 9:24-27 about running the race to obtain the "imperishable crown" and even encouraged us to start running by memorizing the first 3 verses, I knew that these were the verses I needed to memorize this week. I really like to stick with 1 or 2 verses, because as I've told you before, I am just not very good at memorizing. So this is going to be a challenge for me this week and I hope you are up to joining me in this challenge. They are not too long, so I think we should all have no problem doing this!

"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air." I Corinthians 9:24-26 NKJV