Birds

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Recently, we have had male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at our feeders. They seem to like my homemade "suet" which isn't really suet just crunchy peanut butter and sunflower seeds mixed together and put in a suet holders. I always see them right around 6:30 pm, probably because I am cleaning up from dinner about that time. The female has been coming to eat first and then the male makes his appearance. I just wanted to share them with you. These are not pictures that I took. I got them here: All about Birds

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Fire

I got to have a fire today. It was not planned. I decided about 3pm that we all needed to go outside and I did not feel like just sitting around watching the kids, so I started a fire in the fire ring to clean up all of the branches and brush that was laying around the yard. The kids were great. Dinner was in the oven and was quick and then it was back outside. I added a few logs to the fire and we played and relaxed until the kids were begging to go to bed.
Abbiegail hatched a plan that we have to have S'mores tomorrow, so we might be doing it again tomorrow.
Goodnight.

Awesome Apple Muffins

I have made two batches of these muffins in the past week and they are really good. I would post a picture but by the time I think of it they are gone. I thought I would share the recipe because they are so easy. I have been using Granny Smith apples because they were what was on sale at the store. My kids can't get enough of them. 

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 25 Minutes 

Servings: 12

INGREDIENTS:

Batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 apples - peeled, cored and chopped (other half to be eaten by the kiddos helping)

Topping:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cold  butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. Stir together 1 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, baking powder and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in oil, egg and milk. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling no more than 2/3 of the cup.

3. In a small bowl, mash together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, butter and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon with a fork and sprinkle over unbaked muffins.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Snow - The Crap Edition

So my first indication was when Chad told me not to look outside this morning. I though "Oh, it's just a dusting. It will go away quick when it gets warmer today."
My kids screaming "SNOW!" at the top of their lungs when they got up was the second indication. I though "Hmm, it should have stopped by now."
Third indication:

And it is still snowing, at least here. When I looked at the weather, it showed that as I head toward town, if that's what I decide to do, then I will encounter first ice and then rain. In other words, Crap. The trees in my yard did not need this. They all look so sad with their limbs almost bent to the ground. The baby leaves are acting as wet snow collectors and increasing the load on the branches.

So we will wait a bit and then I think we will go play at McD's or BK in the play place. Then we have to go to Wal*mart and see if we can find a replacement for the dolly bottle I threw out because it was broken (why did they make it in two pieces anyway, don't they know that little brothers will pull it apart in a heartbeat), and now it is just the end of the world because in the words of my daughter "baby's hungry and you threw her bottle out and she is going to starve" with as much dramatic emphasis as you can manage.

On a more positive note, I meet one of my neighbors last night and that interaction went well. He isn't worried at all that the tree on our property line will fall on his house and doesn't think we need to do anything with it right now. Also, I had a chance to talk to him a little bit about some things going on in his life (totally his prompting, not mine) and he may be bringing his children to church on Sunday.

Oh and now three pics of the munchkins (and yes the hat and sunglasses are totally to small for them):

Well, that's all for now.

Lost "Little" Things

So I am going to join Pour Your Heart Out today over at things I can't say.

First of all, a picture.

 

Our new toy organizer.

While my parents where here, we did a lot of things. One of them was buying, putting together, and organizing the kids toys into this new shelving unit. You see the toy box we had was a jumbled mess and I couldn't find anything in it let alone the kids finding something to play with. All of the small pieces floated to the bottom and most of the small pieces are what made the bigger toys work. With this new shelf and the smaller toy drawers the kids and I are much happier, we can find things and the small pieces don't get lost. 

It got me thinking about my life recently. I have been in crisis mode for a while now. Not because there is any one thing in particular wrong but there has been a lot of little things in my life that have needed my attention. I won't go into great detail but it seem as if as soon as one thing gets fixed another thing breaks, and all of them cost money to fix. I am starting to realize that while I have the big picture of how our finances are I can't seem to find the smaller pieces. I am realizing that this needs to change just like we changed the way the kids toys were organized. I think Chad and I would be much happier if we could instead of just having the big picture also have the organization to see the smaller parts.

There is another part of my life that I have to start looking at also. I have been working recently on not just asking God to help me with the crisis' in my life but also being deliberate about thanking Him for the day to day small stuff. You see there are about a million small prayers I send up daily asking for the mundane things of life. Lost cows and lovies, bumps and bruises that sound for all the world like someone is murdering my child before I can get to the room to see whats wrong, safety and peace for loved ones, etc. I am realizing that while I ask all day long for things, I am forgetting to thank for the blessings I do have. Healthy children, my husband's ability to provide for our family, the little things that I ask for and He provides daily, etc. So while I continue to pray for things I am also going to try to pray just as much to thank God for the answers He provides everyday even when I may think those answers aren't what I was hoping for. It is not a small thing to thank God for the things although we sometimes take it for granted.

Well that is all I have for today.

I love Sundays

Yesterday was a great day. Chad was home from his trip. We got the kids ready for church and left the house with plenty of time to spare before service started. Pastor's sermon was exactly what I needed to hear. He talked about John 11. How after great highs like Easter Sunday there is often a time of depression, but those of us walking the "Resurrected Life" with Jesus are called to not be normal. So while it is okay to feel some depression/sadness sometimes, we need to work through it and keep telling people about Jesus and being their "Jesus example." He used John 11 as an example of a time when Jesus' actions were totally opposite of what a "normal" person would do.
Abbiegail made a new friend in Rainbows. According to her teacher they are a perfect match. I am not sure if I am going to spell her name right but it is Jadyn I think. They did their projects together and held hands during the bible story and played together.
Isaac and Elizabeth did really well in their class as well and their teacher was impressed that they helped clean up when asked, which is a change from having to be asked by mom when she got there to help clean up.
We came home and I made cheeseburgers for Chad and the rest of the family on his new grill. I got everything cleaned up and the grill covered just in time for it to start pouring rain. Then the entire family had naps. It was still raining when we got up and so we played inside and then had a quick dinner of appetizers and left overs. Then we went to Home Depot and Meijer to walk/run the kids around before bedtime.
As today is looking like it is going to be a beautiful day, I am off to get us ready to do some stuff outside.

The Elmos

So what was going through my children's heads when they posed the two Elmos like this?
Leave a comment please to let me know.