Abundantly Blessed

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body;

and be thankful."

Colossians 3:15

God blesses us over, and over, and over again. It is impossible to tell Him thank you enough but I must say thanks anyway!

Thank you God for........

53. Adventures! (so much fun exploring field and woods with family and friends. I'll share more on Wednesday)

54. My music loving brother and the silly little songs he sings about Megan.

55.Card making....

56. ...with friends.

57. Wildlife to be seen here and there and everywhere. (We saw 7 deer - the whole family(s) in the church building yard.)

58. A husband who enjoys playing games with his family.

59. Getting to spend extra time with Ken this week as he has been home sick some. I am sorry he is sick but thankful for the extra time.

60. Hugs. Even when they are tight squeezes around the neck that nearly choke me! :-)

61. Fresh fruit. Oh we have been enjoying the pears and apples lately!
62. Completed baskets!
63. Relaxing and fun times with the kids.

64. A nice library.
65. Knowing how to read.
66. Books
67. Eyes that work well!
68. God's word.
69. Bible Baseball and fun times with that.
70. Hand me down clothes from my little sister.
71. Fun plans for the week ahead.
72. Jesus being willing to take my sins and nailing them to the cross.

What are you thankful for?

Speaks-to-me-Sunday

"For thus says the high and exalted One

Who lives forever,

whose name is Holy.

I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit

In order to revive the spirit of the lowly

And to revive the heart of the contrite."

Isaiah 57:15

We read that verse in class on Wednesday night and I just loved it. We have a God that is high and exalted, He lives forever. He is completely Holy, in fact His name is Holy. He dwells on a high and holy place but yet.....

He sees us, lowly as we may be, when we are contrite (showing sincere remorse- Websters) He also dwells with us!

Why??? Why would he chose to be with us, to love us and care for us?

He wants to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite. He wants to see us succeed~ to be all that we can be ~ FOR HIS GLORY!

Oh I want to! How about you?

Some music I enjoy

This isn't something I often do but I thought it would be fun to share some You tube songs that I have enjoyed.

This first one was one a piano student of mine had learned by ear (which is pretty amazing to me!), he wanted me to learn it so he could hear me play it. I play by ear at times but I don't think I will manage this one.

This Love Story meets Viva La Vida was introduced to me by my sister Keren. I just love this music and love watching the guys play it. Very inspiring to me as I enjoy playing the piano and alos have a Cello that I would love to play well!

This one was introduced to us by my Brother-in-law Travis. I hope you enjoy!

Homemade hot fudge sauce for ice cream

The other day I made hot chocolate sauce for ice cream and thought... I need to share this on Frugal Friday.

It tastes so good and it is much cheaper than buying any chocolate sauce from the store. (Even the cheap chocolate sauces and this tastes way better!) I won't claim that it is good for you, IT ISN'T! but it probably is healthier than the store bought stuff as well.

Here is the recipe:
~3/4 cup sugar
~4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
~1/2 cup butter
~ 1/2 cup milk
put above ingredients into a pan and cook over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes while stirring.
Then add: ~3/4 cup peanut butter
Stir it in and then your sauce is ready to use! Store leftover sauce in the fridge.

Oh that is making me a little hungry for something sweet..... :-)

A quick little trip

This past weekend we took a very quick trip down to the Twin Cities so that Ken could attend a Twin's game and the rest of us tagged along to do some visiting. We went down on Sunday right after morning church and as it ended up we left for home again on Monday morning. If the Twin's would have won on Sunday evening then Ken had tickets for Monday's game too so we would have stayed until Tuesday.

We went and stayed with my sister Anna and family. It is such a huge blessing that they live near enough that we can see them often (they come up, we go down, we see them at church events...). Anna and I have always been great friends, I was born just one year and 7 months after her and though she was definitely the older sister (our personality's are quite different), people often (still do!) thought we were twins and we have enjoyed that sort of closeness too. When she first got married they headed off to live in Indiana and then we lived in Iowa and Kansas so I figured we would have the letter writing, phone calling and seeing each other about once a year sort of relationship. God worked things out so we both headed back to MN in 2001 and I am very grateful for that!
We each have 4 kids (who are mostly in stair step fashion, starting with her almost 11 yr old, except for two of ours who both turn 6 this month.) The kids love to get together and I love to watch them get to play.
We ended up being down their on Beatrice's 6th birthday. It was an unusual birthday for her as it was very snowy out! Even though we live in MN, snow of that nature in October is not very normal. (Maybe it's global warming....)
The kids had fun playing in it anyway. They got in a little time outside before breakfast as we got on the road home shortly afterwards. Harrison and Jonathan each made a huge snowball which they then raced down the hill. (Which you can see in the video clip below.)

Their next door neighbors had also had a little fun with the snow. I thought their tiny snowman on the porch rail was cute so I snapped a picture.

While we were there on Sunday evening, Anna invited over the Davidson's who are good friends of ours (and Christy is also Ken's cousin). We enjoyed the fellowship time with them! Even with such a short trip we ended up being able to get quite a lot of visiting done. Ken also went to the Twin's game with another friend, Patrick Doherty so we got to see him as well.

With the 8-9 hours on the road (counting both ways) I was able to get quite a bit of reading in. I had fun reading in "John Adams" by David McCullough. I am finally about to the end of this very in depth historical 700 page book. It is very interesting but not exactly easy reading. I also had fun more thoroughly reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. I did some work at making a new menu where I will do more soaking of grains as well. I had won the book quite a while back from Knocked up Naturally and am happy to finally be putting it to some use.

That was our hectic weekend (It was hectic because first I had planned to go and then the kids were sick so I decided we would stay home, then Ken left later than planned and they seemed pretty much well by then so 45 minutes before church time I decided that yes the younger kids and I would go with Ken and the older ones after all. -It is fun to be spontaneous every so often! )

What is going on in your life? Did many of the rest of you get snow as well? We actually didn't get that heavy snowfall that they got on the cities on Monday but today it is snowing again here.

Dr. MOM

When our family gets sick we prefer not to go to the Doctor unless absolutely necessary. So in our house I get to be Doctor and Nurse rolled into one. Sometimes, I admit, my care consists mostly of "ignore it and hope it will go away soon!" but other times when it seems like more is needed it we try a variety of remedies.

This past week I had a couple of sick kids (the younger 2) and they really got hit with the bug. They ran fevers, were achy, had runny noses, didn't want to eat, were really tired and then it went in their chest and they started coughing and had sore throats. It was pretty much everything but vomit and diarrhea (and I am always very happy when that doesn't bother to come to our house!!!).

So I started thinking of what we should do to try to help them get better, I read out of books, and sought advice. Here is how the patients got treated:

• Lots of rest. Bodies need rest to heal. Nap times were enforced and they slept! We also tried to make them comfortable on the couch when they wanted to be around people and often the would drift off to sleep there.
• Lots of clear liquids. We didn't want any dehydration and we also wanted to keep there insides cleaned out so they drank lots of water, some juice, tea and hot honey lemonade.
• Pray! This is most important and helpful. It works!
• Massages. Massage not only makes the patient feel better but can also aid in healing. I rubbed them down with baby oil and R.C. essential oil. (It contains Myrtle, Eucalyptus, globulus, E. australiana, E. radiata, Marjoram, Pine, Cypress, Lavender, Spruce, Peppermint and E. citriodora) The essential oil is supposed to help relieve congestion.
• Steamy baths. This helps to to loosen up the gunk in their chests. (Now that sounds like a Dr. talking doesn't it!!) I also put a few drops of R.C. oil in the bathwater.
• Zinc and vitamin C.
• Chicken Soup. Chicken soup is proved to be helpful in healing so I pulled out some of the chicken broth (with some meat) that I had made from natural chickens and frozen and made some soup. In the soup I also put other healthy ingredients to help with the healing. Such as:
• Garlic. This helps strengthen our immune system. Not only did we have it in our soup but I made garlic bread to go with it. I am quite sure our breath didn't smell to go that night! Thankfully we were sticking around home.
• Thyme. I seasoned our soup with it as it is supposed to help get rid of congestion too.
• Onions. You can read about the health value here.
  

Thanks be to God that the children are feeling much better now (just a little cough now and then and Aaron's nose is still pretty raw!). Using natural remedies instead of going to the Dr. or using over the counter remedies certainly Works for me! I would love to hear what you find essential as natural remedies!

Disclaimer~ I am not a Dr. and do not claim to have any authority in the health care field. The things mentioned above worked well for us but I take no responsibility for the health of your family if you choose to try them.