Friday, October 28, 2011

Get Dirty

Sometimes it’s messy to pursue what you love! 

You can’t stand back and be passive, hoping that everything will fall into place. 


You’ve got to get in there and go for it! 


As I mentioned here, God has been pushing me out of my comfort zone to use my gifts. 
I’ve been hesitant to dig in and get my hands dirty to do the groundwork. 


But now that I’m covered, I’m excited and ready to see what God has in mind. 
Stay tuned…     

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Embrace The Vicious Dog!

As I've been talking about all week - my good friend Becky swung into town for about 36 hours and we packed it in!  No great visit would be complete without some great hot dogs.
We tried a new place in North Hollywood called Vicious Hot Dogs
 The Slaw Dog
 Carne Asada Dog
Some magical kielbasa that my husband got!
It was SOOOOOOO good!  We'll be back!


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Accurate View

A dear friend of mine came for a quick visit from Seattle a few days ago. She is one of my most favorite people in the world and someone that I feel like I can be 100% myself with. That’s why I knew she was the perfect person to ask to help me. I’ve needed to do something that I’ve been dreading. I’ve known for some time that God has put a strong calling on my life regarding one of my gifts, but I’ve been paralyzed with – how? When? Where? Who? The answers have been clear, but I don’t like the answers! So I’ve been stagnant, avoiding, and busy with other things. Until now. (much more to come on this)  I can’t be disobedient any longer and that’s why I needed Becky to help me. I’ve been asked to speak to a group of moms and they’ve asked for a bio and photo of me – AHHHH my worst nightmare! I need someone to take photos of me!
I'm so scared of this photo shoot...
and wild animals that might attack me
Can I say how painfully awkward this was? Thank God for Becky and her casual nature that didn’t make fun of my awkwardness (at least not that much!).

Becky said a jumping picture is all the rage right now
really?
I disagree
And one thing I’ve learned through this little photo shoot experience – I’d much rather be up in front of thousands of people, telling them about the love of Jesus, than be the subject of a photo shoot!

you're laughing at me
aren't you?
it's ok, me too
In my mind I look a lot differently that I really do! I don’t picture myself with freckles! And if you’ve seen me, you know that I’m COVERED with freckles! But not in my mind’s eye. I don’t really have an accurate view of myself physically. It’s not until I see photos of me that I think, “Oh, that’s what I look like? Really?” The same goes for our heart. If we don’t take the time to really take an honest look at our heart, we might have a completely inaccurate view of who we are. There might be sin that we justify or explain away or deny. There might be hidden longings that we’ve suppressed. There might be gifts that have been lying dormant. Maybe it’s time we take an honest photo of our hearts and look carefully at it. Through seeing the truth of who we really are, we might be greatly surprised! Some of our self images are horrible and God is whispering, ‘You are fearfully and wonderfully made. My workmanship. My masterpiece.”
there's no turning back now
it's time to be obedient
Stay tuned, more of this journey is yet to come.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Halloween Movie Night

My littles LOVE to watch movies and almost every Friday night we have movie night, invite some of the neighbors over and make pizza.  In lieu of our traditional kiddo Halloween party this year, we did a toned down version and made Friday night a Halloween movie night!  No costumes, just black and orange.  No crazy food prepared (as I'm in the custom of doing!), just simple pizza and "mummy dogs" and lots of fun!
 Getting ready for our little friends to come!  I found this super yummy free Halloween font!
 Daddy got the chalk board ready
And no party would be complete without the flags!
We set up a little serve yourself snack bar - orange of course!  (carrots, orange bell pepper and dip were also present, but not pictured!)

 I got crafty (now that we don't cable!) and made the girls headbands!
Our kiddo craft was little jack-o-lantern lights
 The most favorite activity is trick-or-treating through the house!
Here are the buckets of loot!
 The Momas had vegetable monster soup
 Yummy movie snacks
and the highlight - the movie!  Micky Mouse's Halloween
But here was my highlight!  My girlfriend made these rice krispy treats and I'll never be the same again!!  They have butterscotch and milk chocolate chips in them!  Crazy good - change your life good!
Happy Halloween!
Photobucket

Friday, October 21, 2011

And the Winner Is........

The lucky winner of my little Halloween flag give away (thanks to Random.org) is
The Biggs Family
E-mail me your address and I'll get them in the mail ASAP
so hopefully you can hang them up before the 31st!
raeannenewquist(at)yahoo(dot)com
*thanks to everyone who entered, if I had the time, I'd make you each a set!
I have to say, this was a lot of fun for me and it forced me to get out my sewing machine - So... there just might be another little give away around Christmas time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I'm prepping for a Halloween Party for the neighborhood children tonight. 
Get ready for some photos next week!
Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Embrace The Farm

I took the little dude on a date yesterday to the farm. 
He is madly in love with tractors, so he was in hog heaven!

 This kid is one of the jolliest kids I know.  He smiles all the time!  But not when he's driving tractors - he was very serious.
 Here is kind of a smile, but he would not look at me to save his life.
 Gazing out over his fields
 Testing the crop
 Oh, he looked at me! 

 Slight smirk because I promised him a candy corn if he took a photo with me!
 Checking on the chickens
Old crusty farmer growling at Moma!
We actually had a wonderful time - eventhough he didn't let on for the photos!




*Today is the last day to enter my little Halloween flag give away!  Head over to the bottom of
THIS POST to enter!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Bread of Life

"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'" John 6:35
Last week in Bible school my two year old son made a little paper basket.  They've been studying Moses and last week they read Exodus 16 where God provides manna (or hanna as my son called it!) for the Israelites.   The teachers scattered zip-lock bags of Saltine crackers all over the floor and the children had to gather up the "hanna" and put it in their baskets.  The lesson was that God provides for our needs.  When the Israelites first saw the white flakes scattered on the ground, they did not know what it was.  But Moses instructed them that this was a provision from God and there were specific instructions of how much they each could gather and how none of it could be kept overnight - they had to gather new manna every morning.
I'm sure some mothers worried that in the morning there would not be enough for her children, "I'll just keep some extra so that my babies don't starve tomorrow."  But in the morning the stored manna would be rotten.  God was teaching them to trust him to provide for all of their needs, every day, moment by moment.
"Give us today our daily bread." Matthew 6:11
Are you trusting God to provide for all of your needs today?  This moment?  Are you trusting that he will provide tomorrow?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aunt Helen's Bread Sticks
1 stick of butter
2 1/2 c. flour
1 T sugar
3 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Place a cookie sheet with one stick of butter in the oven.  While the butter melts, combine the other ingredients in a bowl and turn out on a floured surface and kneed 10 times.  Roll out the dough 1/2" thick and cut into 1" strips.  Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and coat the bread sticks in the melted butter on both sides and place on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown on the bottom.  I'll bet you can't eat just one!!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A Little Give Away

Yea, so I thought I'd give it a try!  In case you missed yesterday's post, I'm trying my hand at a little down home give away on my little blog this week! 
Some fun little Halloween flag to hang in your entry way, over your kitchen sink window, or perhaps in a guest room!
if you want to enter to win, head over to yesterday's post and scroll to the bottom to enter!
We'll randomly pick the winner on Friday.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Intentional Family - Freely Give (& a little give away)

The motto of the college I attended was, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8 I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and asking myself if I freely share the gospel with others. Then I specifically thought about my children – have I intentionally talked to them about the gospel?
     As I was doing my daughter’s hair this morning for church she asked me, “What does enthroned mean Mommy?” I explained to her that a throne is like a chair that a king sits on. She said, “Oh, so Jesus sits on a throne in heaven?” “Well, Not really,” I said. “I don’t think he’s up in heaven sitting on a big chair. Or maybe he is (I’m a verbal processor!). But I know he sits on the throne of our life, in our heart.” As I continued I seemed to be getting more and more confusing! And so I asked, “Have you prayed and asked Jesus into your heart?” The look on her face expressed surprise, fear and confusion! I told her that this week we’ll go on a date and talk about it.
     I’ve been thinking about this for several months now – time to get away with my girls, one on one, and explain to them the gospel of Jesus and explain to them how they can become Christians. I became a Christian when I was 5 years old in Sunday School and I’ll never forget it. As my daughters turned 5, I knew they were at a place where they could understand. But here we are, 6 months later, and I haven’t gotten alone with them.
     In Sunday School my daughters are learning so much about Jesus. In AWANA they are learning even more! And from hearing them pray at night I swear these little ladies are Jesus lovers! But I hadn’t intentionally asked them if they’ve invited Jesus into their lives. It’s not enough to take our family to church. It’s not enough to put them in evangelical programs. We must be intentionally praying and intentionally talking with our family about Jesus. Our children’s spiritual development cannot rest on the shoulders of a church or Christian programs. As parents, we are responsible for freely sharing what we were freely given. We must be intentional with the spiritual development of our family.
     I’ve been convicted and this week I’m getting alone with my daughters for a little intentional Jesus talk! And if you haven’t, I hope you’ll do the same.

Here are some other ideas on being intentional with the spiritual development of your family:
1. Morning Devotions
I’ve had several children’s devotionals and every time I sit down to read one to my 5 year olds, they make no sense. I’ve been so frustrated that I thought about writing my own! But then I found this one:
Veggie Tales 365 Day Starter Devos For Girls (or boys, or everyone!)It is perfect! The language is simple, but biblical. It is short enough to read each morning while they are eating breakfast and it gives a perfect topic that they can apply at school each day. I LOVE it! And I must say, the simplicity is profound and I find myself being blessed daily by it as well. It’s one simple way that I can be intentional with pointing my children towards Jesus every day.

2. Teaching them to pray
Our children almost always pray over our meals, but at bedtime, my husband and I pray over them. We’ve recently started all praying before bed. The girls each pray and then either my husband or I close the prayer time. Praying before meals is great, but it mostly consists of “thank you for the food, amen.” But bedtime prayers incorporate thanksgiving for the events of the day, requests for loved ones who need help, wishes, dreams, confessions… it’s amazing to hear them pour out their little hearts (and sometimes quite comical!). It sounds pretty simple and perhaps obvious, but rather than always being the one to close the day in prayer, allow your littles to pray as well and learn that they can talk to God about anything, not just food. One of my pastors once said, “Prayer is an amateur sport.” Meaning that you don’t have to be some professional theologian – it’s just simple conversation.

3. Scripture Memory
We had a blast this summer memorizing scripture this summer. Check out this post that tells all about it. We’ve used scripture in our discipline of our children and it’s amazing how powerful the Word of God is in changing hearts and thus the behavior of children! They learn verses at church, but having family memory verses is awesome and it bonds us as a family as we hide God’s Word in our hearts together.

CHALLENGE: Pray about how you can be more intentional with the spiritual development of your family. Take some time one on one with your children to check in on their spiritual journey and if they don’t know Jesus yet, perhaps it’s time that you freely share him with them.

FLASHBACK QUESTION: Are you digging ditches?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FREELY GIVE:
In the spirit of giving, I’m doing my first give away! I’ve made these adorable Halloween flags and I want to give you one to hang in your home for some Fall flare! It’s really easy to enter to win:

1. become a follower of this blog if you are not
2. leave a comment in this post saying that you did so!
3. already a follower? Leave a comment on this post
4. you can enter as many times as you’d like

Yea! I’m excited to share these precious flags with a lucky winner!!!
The winner will be announced on Friday, October 21st.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Just A Friday

I went to bed last night at 8pm!  I was exhausted and have had some rough weeks of being woken up in the middle of the night.  I expected it to be glorious!  But no, it was horrible.  The neighbors dog wouldn't stop barking so I moved to the guest room.  And it was down hill from there.  So, a simple post from this sleepy mommy today!  Some shots of our Halloween decor - more to come - and wait for a fun Halloween party!  
 Mr. Pumpkin, who helps the children eat their dinner!  (more to come on that one!)
 Wendy, my favorite trick-or-treater
 Candy Corn Garland - I'm obsessed with candy corn!
 Yummy vintagey Halloween blocks that sit on my mantle
 The garland that stays up through Thanksgiving
 My favorite Halloween frame - I told you I love candy corn!
 The candy corn tree that sits on the witch's boot cake stand
A little bowl I painted, waiting to be filled with treats!
*see you Monday for another Intentional Family post!
Have a great weekend

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