My Wedding Anniversary

is in exactly 30 days! I want to be healthy and slender for my husband. My anniversary present to myself (and him) is that I am trying to lose as much weight as healthfully possible before our big day! So far i've lost 13.8 pounds-10 of them in the last 6 weeks, when I really started getting serious about this. The super fun thing is, hubs has jumped on the health bandwagon, too! He bought us a gym membership and we have been going and working out together several times per week. I love working out with him, and he has said that it makes him feel closer to me, doing this together.

It feels so good to bless my body! I have so much more energy already. My clothing fits better, and I just feel healthier all around. I know that there are people out there who have health problems and such that prevent them from being able to do anything about their weight, and this makes me truly grateful that I can-and it also reminds me to keep my friends and loved ones in prayer who don't have the opportunities I have in this area.

I have chronic bronchial asthma, and a heart murmur, and my health problems get considerably easier to handle when I am in good shape and at a certain weight. I have already noticed a big difference in my energy levels and just in the way I feel-the exercise has really helped me work off some stress and I feel refreshed when I get done with a workout. I don't feel so bloated and sluggish and tired since i've lost a few pounds and started eating more healthfully. I've also gone out and bought a couple of cute dresses that I totally wouldn't have been able to carry off when I was heavier...i'm enjoying the excuse to buy some new, more feminine clothing-as my old clothing grows too large for me (and yay to fitting back into my size 8 jeans!)

I'm really hoping to bless my family and my husband by blessing my own body. I really feel that it helps me to serve my family more joyfully and efficiently when I am healthy. (Oh, and summer is coming! I am looking forward to having the energy to go hiking and to the beach, playing in the surf and sand without getting fatigued! I love spending time with my family outdoors!)

The struggle with weight is not new to me. I hit my highest weight at the age of 27, after giving birth to my 5th child. (I had the youngest 3 in less 3 years-2 13 months apart, and then littlest 22 months later. Hard on the body! Total, 5 kids in 10 years.) After my littlest was born,I weighed in at 190 pounds at a height of about 5 foot 6. This tipped me just over the line of being obese on the BMI scales. It took me about two years to lose almost 50 pounds and get down to around 140 pounds-it was hard, but I persevered and did it. I, personally, feel most comfortable between 140 and 145 pounds-I have tons of energy, and just feel great at that weight. Unfortunately, a miscarriage about a year and a half ago left me with some excess weight once again. It took me a while, but I really knew I needed to do something about the excess weight-so here I am. After giving birth to 5 children, losing 3 pregnancies, and now, nearing my mid-30s, it is not as easy to lose the weight as it used to be. One big problem I have is that I get to my goal weight, and then something happens (in all of the previous cases, pregnancy & delivery, and/or miscarriage) and I gain weight again and take too long to get it back off. Instead of making my goal just to lose the weight this time, my goal is to keep it off long term. (Well, I may put on some, temporarily, if I get pregnant, but hopefully I will take it back off a bit faster this time afterwards.) :0)

So, I guess i'll see how much more I can accomplish with my health in the next 30 days...this is exciting! Here are a few verses to help motivate you if you are trying to get healthier:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? ... So use every part of your body to give glory back to God..." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:20

(And, my personal favorite to repeat to myself during a really hard workout:)

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

13.8 pounds down, 10 to 15 more to go! I guess i'll try to update at the end of May and see if I make my goal. If I do, i'm buying a special "outfit" (wink wink) to wear just for my guy for our anniversary! (hubba hubba) If i'm really brave, perhaps i'll post before and after pictures...

Picture Time!

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

Today Only-Free copy of 31 Days to Clean!

Sarah Mae, over at Like A Warm Cup of Coffee, is giving away free copies of her book, 31 Days to Clean- Having a Martha House the Mary Way. Click here for details! This sounds like a wonderful book to inspire me to do some spring cleaning around here! I can't wait to get my copy. Thanks, Sarah Mae!

Monday Means...

Preparing for the week ahead by making breads, tortillas, and granola bars for my family.

On this most recent Monday, (last Monday) it meant making 38 flour tortillas, 18 sandwich rolls, 16 almond dark chocolate chunk granola bars, and 1 loaf of whole wheat flax seed bread.

I feel so grateful when I look in my fridge and pantry and see freshly made tortillas and breads that will last my family a good portion of the week. The granola bars, well, they are usually gone the same day. :0)

Foodiacs King Arthur Prize Package

Foodiacs' Spring Fling Giveaway is offering a King Arthur prize package which includes a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and a year's supply of King Arthur flour! Click on this link to enter.

Our Family Portrait by Mahan Media!

They are making a new church directory at Valley, and we were told that we should bring the family and have our picture taken for it. When we got there, I was surprised to find our worship leader, Jessica Mahan, behind the camera lens. This woman is talented! She not only beautifully leads worship at our church, and gives voice and piano lessons, but also, apparently, takes stunning, professional portraits as well! This is our family portrait for the church directory. It's the first picture we have had taken all together since the wedding and I just love how it came out!

For more examples of Jess's handiwork, you can visit her website here.

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.

My sister Lena

and her family are in the process of adopting a beautiful, precious little bundle of joy named Anna Faith.

She has started a blog to chronicle her family's adoption journey-and boy, is it a beautiful one! Would you mind clicking on over to my sister's blog and checking it out and praying for my beautiful niece and her family?

My son...

Christian, now has his own music page on facebook...

Click here to check it out and like it!

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...

Highlights of the Week

Jenna does her daily read-aloud in the kitchen. Every evening she reads to me while I cook dinner.

Autumn in her "cardboard box Jeep" for 1st grade safari day. The first graders got to "safari" all around the school and show off their Jeeps. Autumn's had real working taillights. :0)



Gwennie got the citizen of the month award at school! Great job, Gwennie!

Perfect Peace

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You. ~Isaiah 26:3

Unequally Yoked

I'm grateful to be married to a fellow believer, but I know there are so many Christians out there who are not. This is the best article I have ever read on being unequally yoked. Absolutely beautiful, well written and encouraging-in fact, I love Courtney's whole blog altogether!

Thriving In A Spiritually Mismatched Marriage

The ending is spectacular, and I think there are several principles we can use in marriage even if our husband is saved.

Disneyland!

All aboard the Disneyland Railroad...



At the end of the day we went on the Astro Blasters....



We were having so much fun we didn't even take very many pictures! I'm so happy that I got to spend a day with my family at Disneyland. My littles had never gone before, it was an awesome experience.

Valentine's Present

For Valentine's Day, my hubby bought me new kitchen appliances. A fridge, and a new electric stove. I'm so grateful, because our last 2 stoves were awful-the first one kept making these big popping noises and then going out on us. The second one had one large burner that kept going out as well, and a very small oven with only one rack. It also burned almost everything. Even when I turned it down to low it kept our food happily boiling (burning). It was very frustrating. This...is my new stove. It's a Frigidaire Gallery series freestanding electric range with ceramic cooktop.



Please excuse the blurry pics, there was not much room in my kitchen to take a pic of the front of the stove. My kitchen is pretty small.





Our fridge has been making these terrible groaning noises, mostly at night. It sounds like it is dying a long, slow death. It also freezes just about everything in the fridge compartment. Making salad out of frozen veggies is pretty yucky. They thaw and get all wilted. Ack. William and I were seriously afraid the fridge would go out before we had the money to buy a new one. Thankfully, it didn't. Our new fridge is a Frigidaire, is black and has the same texture as the sides of the stove. They match! Of course, the way the stove is shoved into it's alcove, you can't really tell, but, I think it's kind of fun to have matching appliances. I didn't do it on purpose, they were both on sale, and happened to be going for a really good price.



Autumn wanted to be a in the picture. :0) It has water and ice features too! Yay! I waited so long for a fridge like this!



I think i'm going to have to repaint my kitchen. That yellow is seriously loud against the black appliances. I'm so happy to have a working fridge and a stove that makes cooking enjoyable again! 3 cheers to the best hubby in the world!

At the end of the day

I need to be loyal to my Lord...my God. I need to be true to Him. I need to fully submit to only One...nobody on this Earth matters as much as Him. I don't live for man's approval, I live for the Love of Adonai. El Shaddai. The only One in my life capable of raining his Agape love down on me. The only One who has mercifully forgiven me of every dirty sin I have ever committed. At the end of the day, I can sleep peacefully...only if I know I have a heart that is truly submitted to Him.

Today, join me, ask yourself...are you living for the approval of man, or the Lord Most High?

Praise...

Lord, thank You so much for the awesome message I received at church this morning and the cleansing time I got to spend with You in communion. Thank You, also, for making me feel refreshed as a mother and wife this weekend. Please help me to do my job with a joyful heart, and know that I am beyond blessed with the wonderful husband and precious children You sent here for me to love and nurture. In Jesus' name, Amen

I was feeling so tired and discouraged, and He picked me up, and made me feel so refreshed and grateful.

Psalm 62:6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

This was cross-posted from my Facebook.

Romans 12:8

Romans 12:18 (New International Version)

¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Quadruple Layer Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe

Quadruple Layer Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe

2 c. pumpkin (see below)
2 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. vegetable oil
1. tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Pumpkin pie spice: (see below)
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. ginger
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cloves

walnuts (for garnish)

Pumpkin: You will need one small pie pumpkin. Cut a round hole in top, scoop out seeds. Cut pumpkin in half and place cut sides down on greased baking sheet. Bake @ 350 degrees for an hour and a half. Take out of oven, let cool, scoop pumpkin out of shell and mash. Measure out 2 cups for recipe. This may be done well ahead of time and placed in fridge until needed.

Pumpkin Pie Spice: Mix together pumpkin pie spice ingredients in a small container. Reserve 2 tsp. for cake recipe. Remaining spice can be stored in cabinet for several weeks.

To Make the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan(s).

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.

In another bowl, combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. (I Beat everything by hand with a wire whisk and my cake came out great.) Spread into pans.

Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Test with toothpick in center of cake to see if it is done. If toothpick comes out clean, cake is done.

You may bake this in 2 layers, and cut each layer lengthwise. I baked 4 little layers and just checked them and took them out a bit earlier. I was afraid of the crumbs getting into my icing if I sliced the layers in half...

Ice the top of each individual layer with your favorite icing or ganache. (I wasn't happy with the icing I used on this cake and will change it next time I make it.) When you place the top layer on, ice the top and then garnish with a crusting of walnuts.

Quadruple Layer Pumpkin Spice Cake

I made this last night to go with dinner. If I have time today I will try to post the recipe. It was yummers! I think i'll use a different frosting next time though.