Saturday, September 29, 2012

Hmm Applesauce

I love me some good homemade applesauce. And it's such a fall-ish thing to make so I grabbed the apples in my fridge (which were still good produce wise but they were pansy apples and bruised everywhere) and turned those suckers into some delicious applesauce! And I got my little man to help me out :o).










add water to just about cover apple slices

add cinnamon and sugar (sorry I do it by taste so I don't have amounts)

stir it up

cover and cook on low until apples are smushable. 









hmm hot applesauce. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Toddler Time

***Technically this could also be titled "Titus Time" but I want to be able to include Rya when she gets older. Although, we've talked about it and she's NEVER growing up! :o)***

This Thursday I am taking Titus to our first week (of five) of story hour at our local library. I'm really excited for this set aside time with Titus that will be just be the two of us. Plus getting him into the library will be awesome because he loves to read and learn and I want to encourage that. Getting excited about this chunk of time every week reminded me that technically I can have this time with Titus every single day, or at least most days, while Rya takes her morning nap.

I've worked on compiling a list of activities that we could do during said time. I want the activities to be something he's interested in, that are fun, and if he learns something while we play and hang out then so be it! He's a kid and kids learn through play and experience more than anything else. I definitely don't want to make him sit and do book work, although some days he might think that was fun. 

One of the activities I am going to try is baking/cooking with me. I think it would be awesome to have a day every week where we cook or bake something together. The lazy, selfish side of me does NOT want to do that AT ALL because of the guaranteed mess that will be my kitchen. But as a wise friend reminded me, that's another chance for Titus to learn life skills and help Mommy clean up! :o) I don't know what day of the week it will be yet but I'm pretty sure the first yummy treat will be chocolate chip muffins. My plan is to pre-measure everything and let him dump things in the bowl as needed. As he grows I will do less measuring. He loves to sit on the counter while I cook so I know being able to help will make his day. 

Other activities I've looked into doing with him are sensory things like cloud dough or play dough, or even board games. Uno was a favorite game of mine when I was his age so I think it would be cool if he also enjoyed the game. 

Hopefully these ideas actually will become action and I stick to them! My kid deserves to have a fun time learning and hanging out with his Mommy so I need to kick my lazy, selfish self to the curb and get moving!

**side note: for almost the entire post, Titus has been sitting behind me playing with my hair and hugging me. He's such an awesome kid!**

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Flashlight

As a camper at Camp Cherith of Western New York I heard a lot of messages and devotions on God's Word. The topics varied throughout the years but one common topic was trust. This topic always struck a cord with me. I have trust issues. I've been burned by people and therefore feel the need to protect myself and therefore I don't trust people easily. 

Another big thing at camp was object lessons to really drive the point of the devotion or message home. The most popular object lesson I remember that applied to trust involved a flashlight. Usually messages were given at a campfire in the middle of the woods either after dark or close to it. The speaker would turn on the flashlight and talk about how with a flashlight we can only see so far in the dark. A flashlight only lights up a certain amount of space. We can only see a little bit at a time. Then the speaker would talk about how that is also true in life. Where we are in life we can only see so far into the future. We can't see everything that will happen to us.  However, God can see it all. He sees the whole picture. He shows us little pieces at a time.  We have to trust God and trust that He knows what is ahead for us. We have to trust He knows what's best for us. 

This object lesson has been so fresh in my memory lately. We are in a season of trusting God like never before. He knows exactly what we need. We think we know what we need but we have to trust that He has it under control and knows what is best for us and our family.  Trusting is hard. It's hard to give up control when you don't know what's going to happen. But my God has an amazing track record. He has never let us down. He always provides exactly what we need. He wants to bless us with good things. 

So, for now we are trusting in our God. He's got all of this covered. He knows what we need better than we do. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

Taking Pictures

I love taking pictures. I love being able to look through pictures and remember. I've decided that taking pictures of people is all well and good. It's fun, but my kids do not stop moving. And they seem to move faster as soon as the see a camera. Very rarely can I get a good one of those two!

So I've decided I love taking pictures of stuff. Flowers and other plant life are actually my favorite subjects to photograph. Sadly, flower season is pretty much over but here are some of my favorites from this weekend.








Friday, August 10, 2012

Favorite Blogs

I love reading blogs. It's probably an obsession. I probably shouldn't read as many as I do as often as I do. However, I learn some pretty fantastic stuff from these things. I thought I'd share SOME of my favorites. This list definitely is NOT the end all be all of my blog subscriptions. :o)


Intentional By Grace

Cheap Love

One Flesh Marriage

Homemakers Challenge

Enjoy checking them out!

Psalm 118:24

Psalm 118:24
"This is the day the Lord has made; and I will rejoice and be glad in it."





This is such a simple verse. A simple concept, really. However, I don't do this! As sad as it is, I rarely acknowledge that God made my day. Heck, sometimes I don't acknowledge He has anything to do with my day. But God, in His gracious mercy, is convicting me and challenging me in this area.

I am participating in a Scripture memory challenge with Intentional by Grace. It has been AMAZING!! Psalm 118:24 is the fifth verse we are memorizing. I definitely did better the first two weeks (one verse a week), but I'm getting my mo-jo back. I NEED to memorize Scripture if I'm going to make it through my day. If I'm going to rejoice and be glad in each and every day, then I need to have Scripture rolling through my mind all. day. long.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Picture Project

I figured this would be a fun way to watch the kids grow up.