Who am I?

“Satan accuses Christians day and night. It is not just that he will work on our conscience to make us feel as dirty, guilty, defeated, destroyed, weak, and ugly as he possibly can; it is something worse: his entire play in the past is to accuse us before God day and night, bringing charges against us that we know we can never answer before the majesty of God’s holiness.  What can we say in response? Will our defense be, ‘Oh, I’m not that bad?’ You will never beat Satan that way. Never. What you must say is, ‘Satan, I’m even worse than you think, but God loves me anyway. He has accepted me because of the blood of the Lamb.”  —D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

How quickly I can go down this road, buckle under Satan's accusations.  When I read this it makes me burst out in a grin because I just visualize Satan's face after the last line!  Sucker!!!

Who Do I Serve?

Sunday, our pastor started our worship time with this video.  So easily we forget who He is....who He has been throughout the generations.  He is the great I AM.

Multitude Mondays

984. encouragement on Sunday that God is using this weak, sometimes ridiculously transparent child of God to lead others in heartfelt worship
985.  time on phone encouraging my sis and hearing her heart for the church
986.  my kids who laugh at my goofiness and even expect it, how they know when I come up to hug them I'll have to throw in a few pinches and "touky touky" phrase
987.  Wiiiiiiiiiiiii and more importantly the time spent playing it as a family - laughing
988.  another Christmas with my family - seeing how they treasure our relationships more than gifts
989.  Jake's effort in gifting Ted and I for Christmas with letters from family, friends, church members telling us how we're appreciated and loved
990.  our baby niece, Addison, and how sweet she is and watching all my children love her in caring for her - even the boys....they will make great fathers!

991.  the Grices coming to church each week with Allie now....totally makes my heart overflowing with joy and praying that God will continue to draw them to Himself and that we may be a part of it
992.  Allie's hugs and kisses every Sunday
993.  a friend who forgives me even after I neglect my duties in caring for her sweet one after school one day - sooooo thankful that God cared for her when I forgot to pick her up from the bus stop and that He didn't let my lack of brains destroy a beautiful friendship
994.  homeschooling....what can I say....it is one of the most beautiful gifts God has given me...knitting our family together through bad and good days
995.  being able to guide the Youth Worship Team at our church, loving each teenager and for God letting me challenge them to love Him with everything they have

996.  Mr. S from church...and how God has blossomed a friendship there
997.  Deezer and how she makes me laugh....time spent visiting with their family one Sunday after church....I cherish their friendship because there is no need for walls or guards
998.  another TEC opportunity for Jake....for God to grow him in his prayer life and to show him his comfort is not found behind a guitar, but in Christ alone!
999.  hanging out with Amy H. as the kids played...being able to catch up and stay connected
1000.  this gratitude list....Ann VosKamp and her challenge to all to count your blessings that God has given you....it has changed my life - my attitude - my hope.  Today marks the 1000 mark!!!

1001. traditions...where would we be without them....New Year's Eve with Baker family, New Year's Day with Townsends - passing the rubber chicken along and playing games together - laughing and marking another year of memories
1002.  God, my sustainer

Multitude Mondays

963. first snowfall

964. mad digging to find mittens, boots, snowpants that fit
965. Christmas music
966. playing guitar
967. making Jake laugh in the car
968.  Grandma Sinnaeve's tradition to take each child out for their birthday, spending time with them one on one
969.  playing Turkey dice game @ the Sinnaeves

970.  watching Landon & Chaney in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - love it!!

971. siblings helping one another get BSF done and helping Mom by doing it

972.  playing Up & Down the River @ the Oesterles', laughter, teasing, fun, singing tunes from Joseph & Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Cheryl

973.  Risk take-over in our home....almost every day, sometimes many times a day, the game will be spread out and kids will be taking one another on... Nate has become a real threat in this game and he and Isaiah are often battling it out for who is the winner  (check out Nate's face....he loves it when he's winning, he hates it when he's loosing)

974.  If it's not Risk these days, it's some other board game, like Monopoly

975.  celebrating Isaiah's 13th birthday with awesome, close friends!!  Goofing around, playing Capture the Football forever, teasing the dogs...

976.  boys growing up....friends that have grown up with them

977.  Making birthday calazones and slush with no birthday cake b/c we all knew we'd be filled to the max on 'zones and slush!

978.  Neighbor boys who come over any time of the day to play more Capture the Football

979.  more Risk!

980.  making gifts....knitting potholders to felt up and give away, baking Snowflake bread for neighbor

981.  eldest offering to make cookies
982.  eldest growing in serving others and doing another's chores for him
983.  beautiful REAL wreath from our friends in the woods

Making Laundry Soap

Recently, during a visit to watch a lady from our church make homemade bar soap, she shared a money-saving tip with me for making your own laundry detergent.  According to her calculations, it ends up costing about $2.00 per 5 gallon bucket.  For our family, that will be a huge savings.  It wasn't hard to make either.  Here is the recipe:

4 cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha bar soap (in soap isle at Meijer)
1 c Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (in laundry isle at Meijer)
1/2 c Borax (in laundry isle at Meijer)

1.  Grate bar of soap and add to a saucepan with hot water.  Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. 

2.  Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.  Add melted soap, washing soda, and borax.  Stir well until all powder is dissolved.  Fill bucket to top with more hot water.  Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

3.  Next morning, stir up with your hands (will feel like jello) and then fill a used, clean laundry soap dispenser.  Shake before each use (will gel).
4.  To use for top loading washing machine:  3/8 c in each load.

Christmas Cookie Maddness

This year, I decided to make 3 different recipes of Christmas cutout cookies, so our family could decide which one they liked the best.  In the running was my Grandma Monroe's recipe, my neighbor- Amy Grice's recipe and Better Home & Garden's recipe that Ted has said he always liked.

So in the course of two days, we made about a bizzillion cookies and the kids were on frosting burnout.  We watched Elf and Voyage of the Dawn Treader while we frosted. Ben was the first to fall out and stop decorating.  He laid curled up on the floor with Maggie.  Madeline and Nate were close second, still sitting in their chairs, but unmoving with a dazed expression in their eyes, and holding their sticky fingers up as an offering to God.  Jake was the trooper, decorating until we had one cookie left and no more frosting!

 After the last cookie was frosted, I instructed the kids to choose a cookie from each batch and conduct a taste test.  If you can imagine, after stealing cookies and licks of frosting throughout hours of making them, my kids weren't that hungry to do a taste test.  But the results eventually came in:
1st place:  Amy Grice's recipe (Isaiah, Madeline, Nate, Charli & Ted)
2nd place:  Grandma Monroe's recipe (Jake, Ben)
last place:  Better Homes & Gardens recipe

I could kick myself because I didn't take any pictures of all the cookies we made or any pictures of the kids eating them in the next few days.  The sad part is that I don't think they even lasted a week!  The kids ate them all the time!

Here is the top two recipes:

Amy Grice Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar

1 c shortening

3 eggs

3/4 c sourmilk/buttermilk

1 t soda

3 t baking powder

1 t salt

4 c flour

Chill dough 4 hours or overnight.  

Roll out and bake @ 350 for 10-15 min.  

Iced with powdered sugar icing w/ hint of almond flavoring.

Grandma Nettie Monroe's Christmas Cookies

Mix - 3 eggs, 2 c sugar, 2/3 c milk, 2/3 c shortening

Combine dry ingredients and then mix with wet mixture - 1 t baking soda, 1 t nutmeg, 6 c flour.  

Roll out to 1/4" thickness and cut.  

Bake @ 350 for 6-8 min.  

Decorated with powdered sugar icing.

This Little Light of Mine

I've fallen in love with this song by Addison Road.

 

This Little Light Of Mine

There’s a little flame inside us all

Some shine bright, some shine small
The rains will come and the waters rise
But don’t you ever lose your light
In this life you will know
Love and pain, joy and sorrow
So when it hurts, when times get hard
Don’t forget whose child you are
Chorus
This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine, gonna let it shine

May you live each day with no regret

Make the most of every chance you get
Let your eyes get wide when you look at the stars
With the same sense of wonder as a child’s heart
With the ones you love treasure the time
And for those who are gone keep their memories alive
Hold on to your dreams don’t ever let go
There’s a fire inside you burning with hope

Repeat Chorus

One day there will be no more pain
And we will finally see Jesus’ face
So until then I’m gonna to try
To brave the dark and let my little light shine
Repeat Chorus