Compassion

I had a really great day with my girls yesterday...we played with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, did the Cha Cha Slide in the front yard, and just generally had fun. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and the kids got out of school early, so I was able to spend more time with them than usual-my favorite kind of day. For dinner, we had a freshly made chef salad piled high with tons of veggies, diced ham, sliced hard boiled egg, cheese and dressing and we all sat at my grandmother's very old dining table laughing and joking together as we ate. It was great!

Unfortunately, as evening came on I developed a terrible headache. By 7, I had the littles all sprawled around the living room watching Anne of Green Gables on PBS as I rested on the couch. As soon as it was 8 o'clock, I told the girls it was time for them to go to bed-and I wearily plodded upstairs to my own bed. My head was hurting so badly. I walked into my hot, dark room, plopped down on my bed, and lay there hoping my headache would subside.

All of a sudden the silence was broken. "Echoooooooooooooooooooooo! I'm a BEAST!" My 15 year old son, Christian, was home from visiting with his girlfriend. (He knows how to make a grand entrance.) I could hear him and Echo talking downstairs-Christian noticed that I wasn't downstairs, and it was fairly early in the evening-this is unusual for me.
Christian: Where's mom?
Echo: She's upstairs in bed.
Christian: She is?? Is she ok?
Echo: She has a headache.

I hear someone walking upstairs. My son cracks my bedroom door open.
Christian: Mom? Are you ok?
Me: I just have a bad migraine, son.
Christian: Man, mom, it's hot in here! Let me open your bedroom window. Here, i'll put the fan on for you. Do you need anything else? I'll shut the door so the hallway light doesn't bother your eyes. I hope you feel better! I love you, mom.
(Opens window, fussily points the fan in my direction to cool me off, closes door and leaves me to be miserable lol)

A few minutes later, the door cracks open just slightly, and I hear a tiny, squeaky voice talking to me...
Autumn (age 6): I laid out my clothes for tomorrow, mommy.
Me: You did? (Surprised, because usually she likes me to pick out her outfit for her.)
Autumn: Yeah. I heard you had a headache, and I didn't want to disturb you.
(When did she learn the word disturb? She said it so adorably...distowb. She still has trouble with her r's.)
Me: Well, thank you so much! I'm very proud of you for being kind and considerate. Come give mommy a kiss.
Autumn: Are you still gonna tuck us in??
Me: Of course, i'll be in in a few minutes.
(Autumn hugs and kisses me to pieces, shuts my bedroom door behind her, and goes to bed with her sissies.)

As I lay there in the dark, I felt so overwhelmed with emotion that my children would be so sweet and compassionate, so tender. They are so good to me. I mean, we do have our moments of chaos and misbehavior, but my children really treat me well. They make me feel so special. I find little notes and drawings all over the house from the littles ("I love mom", "mom, come to my party" "picture of me and mom playing", etc.) They bring me little trinkets like flowers and pretty rocks as tokens of their affection. Even my older two tell me they love me often, encourage me when I take on something new, and sometimes even leave little love notes for me on the computer. They hug and kiss me all the time, even my adolescent son! It makes me so happy that my kids embrace me and don't push me away. (For the most part they don't push me away-the teens do have their moments haha.)

My children are not just good to me, though. They are kind and caring to others. It really affects them to see another person having a hard time or suffering. This is one thing I truly love about my kids. In this day and age, so many children are becoming desensitized to the needs and feelings of others, and I think it is important to try to teach them the Fruits of the Spirit.

Colossians 3:12 says:
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

I think this is probably a verse we all could benefit from learning.

Picture Time!

A pic of me with my oldest daughter, Echo Jade.

Communion

The worship band sings "Oh Glorious Day" up on stage. It's one of my favorite songs. My husband sits next to me. He takes his huge, strong arm and puts it around my shoulder, pulls me close to him. I rest my head against his chest...and he starts to pray. "Dear Lord, we thank you for all these blessings You have put upon our lives, Father. We ask that you would watch over the children, Lord...help us to teach them to do Your will. We thank you for all things, Father..." My eyes well up with tears as I listen to him quietly speaking the prayers of his heart.


Every week we take communion at church, and every single week, my precious husband thanks the Lord for his "beautiful/precious/loving wife"-the words that describe me change from week to week, but he always gives thanks for me very early on in his weekly communion prayer. It makes me feel so grateful to have a wonderful, loving husband. Taking communion with William is such a privilege. It refreshes our hearts for the week to come, unites us in worship, strengthens our marital bond, and helps us to set a good example of a God-centered marriage for the children. The first thing we did after taking our wedding vows was to take our first communion together-before anything else, even before our first kiss. We wanted to make our covenant with the Lord above all else, followed by our vows to each other. How fitting that we get to take communion at church together on a weekly basis, to keep fresh in our minds and hearts the promises we have made.

Thank you, Father, for sending a strong, God-fearing head of household for our family. I'm so glad I don't have to do it alone anymore.

Spring Break Fun!

We were supposed to spend a day picnicking at San Antonio Falls near Baldy summit during spring break, but it rained just about the whole week. The one day it didn't rain it wasn't warm enough to take the girls up there.

A cold day demands hot chocolate! We decided to have a "tea" (hot chocolate) party. The girls and I made homemade biscuits to go with our hot chocolate. Gwennie had hot herbal tea. The girls did a lovely job setting the table with all kinds of mismatched dishes and teacups, and some cute, cheery placemats with a cherry motif. All stuffed animals residing in the household were invited to partake of our festivities.

The bottom plate of biscuits were large and round. The top rack of biscuits were little heart shaped biscuits. They were super cute! The recipe we used had half white flour and half whole wheat. The biscuits rose beautifully, and they came out absolutely delicious!

Hubby bought me a variety pack of Knott's Berry Farm jams on our trip there last month, so I kept them in my bedroom until I could make homemade biscuits for the whole family. (When you have teenagers, if you open up all that jam it is gone very quickly! I wanted to make sure everyone in the family got to have some.) The jams were so yummy! We had strawberry, grape, apricot/pineapple, blackberry, and apple cinnamon to choose from. My favorite was the apple cinnamon, followed by the sweet, dark blackberry. All of the different flavors were really great! Jenna decided the gold bow from the wrapper would look nice around our jam display... :0)

We had a lot of fun on spring break, but I think my two favorite things out of the whole week were our tea party, and when we all went to see "Mars Needs Moms" in 3d. It was an excellent movie with a great family theme! It's too bad spring break couldn't last longer...

Of BBQ sauce and other things...

Yesterday, while my husband slaved away at work, I was at home excitedly making one of his favorite things: BBQ sauce. I don't usually eat BBQ sauce, but he loves it, so I thought i'd try my hand at making it homemade. I had an awesome dinner in mind for us: bbq chicken, beef spareribs in tangy sauce (recipe to come) that had been baked for 4 hours on low and then grilled for a bit afterwards, southern style beans and rice, corn on the cob, and french bread with butter. I know my honey likes slightly spicy BBQ sauce so I found a recipe that had a good kick to it. It called for 4 tablespoons of cayenne pepper, among other things...

Unfortunately, as I was measuring the cayenne, it didn't want to come out of the bottle. It just sat there, stubbornly sticking to the top and sides instead of falling into the measuring spoon as I wanted it to. I gave the bottle a couple of hearty shakes, and it finally decided to leave its safe haven-most of the bottle spilled into my BBQ sauce mixture. WOW! I like hot but this was ridiculous.

Hubs came home and I sadly told him about killing the sauce. He tasted it and started seriously cracking up and asked me to use considerably less cayenne next time. I playfully told him that he hurt my feelings making fun of my sauce and that he WOULD be eating it on his chicken at dinnertime or I would beat him in his giant head. (Hey, what can I say, this submission thing comes slowly, eh?)

**BTW, guess who had BBQ sauce on their chicken at dinnertime? Pretty much everyone except the littles. It wasn't so bad when lightly smeared on the chicken and grilled. Haha-oh, and dinner came out awesome! We ate like kings! :-)

On May 30th 2010

I officially became Mrs. William Figueroa. I thank God for sending such a wonderful man into my life. I'm so excited for the future, with my husband and our beautiful family!

**Above image courtesy Braelyn Rae Photography.





Yeah, I dunno why Christian's head is cut off in this pic. LOL

More pics to come!!

Biggest Loser

About 4 weeks ago, I joined a Biggest Loser contest with a bunch of other HK ladies. It has been so much fun! I haven't lost a whole lot of weight-actually, less than 10 pounds-but I have started exercising consistently, eating much better than I was, and getting to bed at a decent hour each night.

I have noticed some awesome changes in my body from the exercise, and my energy levels have been so much higher. I had some health problems over the fall and ended up gaining about 20 pounds over fall and winter. My goal is to lose about 18 more pounds. The pic above was taken by my son before I started the competition. maybe i'll take some sort of "after" pic or something once I get to my goal weight.

I don't know if she even knows I have a blog, LOL, but I want to thank Tawna for putting on the contest. She is doing it all by herself and it must be such a big job! She has worked really hard to make sure everything is done fairly and she has put so much time and effort into it. I also want to say to my fellow contestants, GO BIG LOSERS GO!!!

Princess Gwennie

Pics taken December 23rd, 2009

(Haha, I put the wrong date at first and my friend emailed me and asked me how I could take a pic of the future.) Thank you, Leigh! LOL!

Happy Mother's Day!

I spent a good portion of the day scrapbooking with my kids. It was a lot of fun!

This is only the second time I have scrapbooked but I hope to do it more often. (Those of you who are pros, please forgive my novice scrapping, haha.) What a lovely way to relax and record memories with my children.

* An added bonus: Most of my scrapbooking supplies were bought at the 99 cent store. Frugal AND fun!

Sissies...

Echo and Autumn, my oldest and youngest.