Some photo updates

These are the photos for our Christmas card this year.  One year in on December 23rd and we are all finally feeling like a true family.  Having a ton of fun.

 

Climbing on Daddy's 'new' old tractor ...

 



The lovely ladies .....

The Christmas card pick.  Stair steps are starting to stagger as the boys hit their growth spurts. 

 

Blessing to everyone.  Mama is back in her stride and hoping to write at least weekly starting .... NOW!

Love ...

Big sister love ....

Little sister love ....



Baby love ...

Mom's day off .... LOVE!!!

Brother love?

Challenge

Having a week (or so ... !) of being challenged by my own stinking attitude when it comes to kids and being overwhelmed by attachment issues, complaining, lack of gratitude, you name it.  It has been long enough, I think, that these behaviors should be starting to subside a little.  My "look-the-other-way, cut-you-a-LOT-of-slack, make-excuses-for-you" mode has, well, ended.  Almost one year has passed and what I realize about me is that I am patient, but not really extra-patient.  I'm done.  Over it.  Ready for everyone (everyone!) to pull up the boot straps and fall in line.  Done with the lazy approach to learning, done with acting as though you're on a long vacation and it's the job of some in this family to serve your every whim and complaint.  Done, done, done.  I know you can do better than that.  I expect you to do better than that.  You owe it to your birth mom to do better than that.

 

Which lead me to feeling utterly justified in catering to my flesh and my desire to unload "with both barrels" (as my mom used to say).  Not a good place from which to start - tired, irritated, filled with some not-so-nice thoughts as to your behavior and just what I'd like to do if I hear it one more time.  Nope.

 

And then, when I was knee-deep in my feeling justified and forming the words for the very next opportunity that arose, I came across this ...

 

 

Took the wind right out from under my attitude.  Ugh.  Slowed down my beating drum of anger and 'doneness' and made me think.  I really, really felt justified in my sin abounding.  Wanted to not only live in it, but get right down and wallow in it.  And, to be honest, there have been days when I did just that.  It felt pretty good for a minute or three.  And then, it didn't.  It felt a lot like NOT walking in newness of life.  It felt a lot like death.  Death of relationship, death of a happy home, death of safety to speak up, death of my heart when I see the look of pain that comes from me acting on the conversation in my mind, and death of a child's heart and trust when a not-so-happy-mama unloads "with both barrels".

Sometimes God uses a seven-year-old little boy to do his bidding.  So thankful He does.

If My People Will Humble Themselves

President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation: A Day Of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer in the The United States Of America on April 30, 1863

WHEREAS, the senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and Just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution, required the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation:   And whereas, it is the duty of nations as as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: And, in so much as we know that, by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request , and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.   All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.   In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.   Done at the city of Washington this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventy.   By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN William H. Seward, Secretary of State

Cornbread Muffin Goodness

With autumn making her appearance here in the Midwest (love the cooler mornings and looking forward to sweatshirt weather!) I'm sharing one of our favorites.  Serve these with a big bowl of chili or bean soup and enjoy.  These also make a great after school snack.

 

 

Corn Bread Muffins (with some 'extra' yumminess mixed in):

 

Corn Bread "Base"

 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup corn meal

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (optional)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease (or use cooking spray) muffin or mini-muffin pan. Combine dry ingredients.  Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. 

 

Here's where we ramp it up ....

 

Get 1/2 lb. to 1 lb. of bacon.  This is your call.  How much do you love bacon?  Do I really need to ask that?! I fry bacon in the oven - MUCH less mess and faster - but you can also do this in a skillet if you prefer. 

 

Line a cookie sheet with foil (make sure the cookie sheet has sides!) and lay bacon slices on it side by side.  Place in 400 degree oven and cook for about 20 minutes.  Check after the first ten minutes.  There is no need to turn the bacon but  I usually rotate the pan at least once.   Easy!

 

While the bacon cooks, grab a large onion and dice it up.  Heat a skillet on  medium high with a small amount of oil (about a tablespoon or so) and add onions.  Throw in a pinch of salt, pepper and a little bigger pinch of sugar.  Stir and allow the onions to caramelize.   This will take about 5 minutes.

 

When the bacon is cooked, take it out of the pan and blot it on paper towels to get rid of excess grease.  Then, crumble it up ...

 

 

 Grab those onions ....

 

... and stir both into your batter.  To make these EVEN better, at this point you can also throw in about a cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  I didn't do it this time, but trust me, you should definitely try it.  Diced jalapenos or a little crushed red pepper could also be added now for some 'heat'.

 

Spoon batter into muffin tins.  I almost always use the mini-muffin pans and fill them to the top.  This pan holds 24 minis ...

 

Bake muffins for about 12 minutes then check.  If you use the mini pan, 12 - 14 minutes should be good.  Larger muffins will obviously take a little longer (probably about 20 minutes).  Just keep an eye on them and when they spring back from a finger poke and the edges are a little golden, you're good to go.

 

 

Do I even need to tell you what comes next?  Eat them warm with butter.  Butter is necessary, required, a must.

 

Enjoy!



Thirteen

I have been so negligent with the blog these past few weeks!  So much has happened - birthdays (5 of them!), swimming for the first time (an experience none of us will forget!), the first summer at the lake for all 13 of us, lots and lots of cooking, gardening and canning, and visits with friends new and old.

 

It's late and this mama is headed to bed, but I wanted to post SOMETHING to get me back in the swing of blogging.

Here are a few photos of Jesse on his 13th birthday.  The boy loves his bicycle.  He's growing up and growing into such a neat young man.  He started basketball conditioning with Isaac this summer preparing for the long season coming up in October.  He's been taking guitar lessons . . . more on that later . . . and really loves church.  We were talking about tithing tonight and he said, "Mom!  EVERY Sunday I want to take dollar to church.  When I get there, I forget and then I almost cry."  Sweet, sweet boy. 

I have so many posts and photos to share.  Some fun, some funny, some serious, some informative and hopefully helpful to someone.  If there's anything you'd like to ask or know about large family life, homeschooling, and/or adoption of many and older children, please feel free to ask.  I could use a few good prompts to get me writing again!

I'm knee deep in planning for the upcoming year with ELEVEN students!  Feeling pretty good about what's to come and praying for a good year.

Adoption is beautiful, but also stretching in ways we could have never imagined.  Just when we feel like we've figured something out, a new issue arises.  No sleeping on the job around here!

Hope you're all surviving the heat!

Timeless lessons?