Raspberry Parfait

We tried this one for breakfast last week, and Loved it! I honestly didn't think that I would, but it was really good. It was a little tart, so if you try it, you might want to use sugared strawberries, and raisins, or something less sour than plain raspberries, and Craisins. You might also want to cut this recipe in half, unless you want extra.

Serves 8

Ingredients:
*1 cup of Crasins
*3 tsp. finely shredded orange peel (set aside)
*6 Tbsp. orange juice
*2 tsp. vanilla
*2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
*3 Tbsp. raw cane sugar
*2 cups frozen raspberries (fresh when in season)
*2 cups homemade granola (I used the recipe from "Fix, Freeze, Feast" book)
*Honey
*Shredded orange peel (optional)

1. In a small bowl combine Craisins and orange juice. Cover and microwave for 45 seconds; let stand 1 minute to plump Craisins. Stir in vanilla; set aside.
2. In a mixer combine cream cheese and sugar; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in Craisin mixture and the 3 tsp. of orange peel.
3. In 6 tall glasses layer cream cheese mixture, granola, raspberries, and repeat layers. Drizzle with honey and top with additional orange peel.

*I made this big of a recipe so that I could have leftovers. Just put your cream cheese mixture into a sealed container and store in the fridge. It's quick and easy to put together in the morning. We used wine glasses for fun...it looked really pretty, and the kids thought it was a great treat!

Loving Daughters

The Bible tells us this about daughters in Psalm 144:12-13,
“That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: that our garners may be full.”

As corner-stones, polished after the similitude of palace, God desires that our daughters grow up to become strong and beautiful ~ and adorned with all the ornaments belonging to their sex. What are the “ornaments” that the Bible teaches belong to the female sex? Titus 2:4-5 describes them as: soberness, love for family, discretion, purity, excellent housekeeping, goodness, and submission to authority.

That’s a tall order, isn’t it? And the reason that it is so important that our daughters be taught and trained in these areas is because (as the Treasury of David so wisely puts it), “Daughters unite families as corner stones join walls together, and at the same time, they adorn them as polished stones garnishing the structure into which they are builded.”

Daughters are an important part of every family, and it is our duty to teach them how to be a blessing to our families now so that they will understand how to be a blessing to the family they will marry into later on.

Matthew Henry writes, “That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace or temple. By daughters families are united and connected to their mutual strength, as the parts of a building are by the cornerstones; and when they are graceful and beautiful both in body and mind, they are then polished after the similitude of a nice and curious structure. When we see our daughters well established, and stayed with wisdom and discretion, as cornerstones are fastened in the building; when we see them by faith united to Christ, as the chief cornerstone, adorned with the graces of God's Spirit, which are the polishing of that which is naturally rough, and "become women professing godliness"; when we see them purified and consecrated to God as living temples, we think ourselves happy in them.”

So, how are we to go about accomplishing so great a task?

First of all, we must remember that daughters have a great need for love and security.

1. Daughters need to be treated with kindness.

2. Daughters feel loved when we are patient with them.

3. A critical spirit is a destructive thing to a daughter’s spirit ~ it causes her to feel insecure about who she is and what she is able to do.

4. Comparison also causes daughters to feel insecure about themselves. Daughters are in desperate need of acceptance in order to become the polished corner stone of the family that God desires them to be.

5. It’s a mothers job to identify the special needs that her daughter has and help her to overcome or practically accommodate them.

6. Mothers must be careful not attribute motives, nor take offense, lose patience, or take the ridiculous things that daughters do too personally.

7. Mothers must remember that daughters need to be raised in a happy, loving home in order to feel totally secure. No amount of love, compliments or kindness will make up for the fear that is brought into a daughter’s heart by marital strife or divorce.

Secondly, daughters need to be taught to control their emotions.

1. Whining, gossiping and complaining should not be tolerated. Make every effort to train your daughter to be sensible by teaching her how to be thankful, patient and kind as she deals with her every day issues of life.

2. Emotions must be taught to follow and not allowed to lead. The best teacher is example. Make it your goal to be a good example of this so that your daughter can “see” how this is done.

3. Daughters must be taught that they may not use their “hormones” as an excuse for sin!

4. Teach your daughter how to manage her tears. There is a time for tears ~ when they are hurt, when someone they know or see is seriously injured or dies. But crying is not something that should continue on and on ~ they should be short and brief. Even in the case of death of a loved one: there is a time to cry, and there is a time to cease from crying.

5. The same goes for silliness. Giggling and acting giddy is fine at times, but too much of it makes a girl ridiculous.

Thirdly, daughters must be raised to embrace their femininity.

1. Daughters should be taught to be home-centered. They should be encouraged to love working with their hands ~ both in housework and handiwork.

2. Daughters should be encouraged to wear dresses, fix their hair and want to look pretty.

a. However, we must be diligent to encourage them to be MODEST and pretty. The female body is a beautiful creation of God and modesty teaches them that it is a precious thing that must be saved for their future husband (and not the whole world) to enjoy.

b. We also must be careful not to raise our daughters to be too prissy or “primadonas” who only a mother and father is able to tolerate and love :).

3. Daughters must be encouraged to play with toys that will encourage her to home-centered and not bedroom-centered.

4. Daughters must be taught and trained how to respond to the men around them.

a. Daughters have a God given need for male attention. Teach them when they are little how to love and serve Dad, so that Dad will enjoy being around them.

b. Teach your daughter how to respect her Dad and brothers. This is will prepare her to enjoy good success when she is married to her own man later on.

Mothers are the role models for their daughters, and it is important that we realize that we are teaching our daughters every day by the way we live. As Christian mothers, it is vital that we commit ourselves to living as the godly women that we would want our daughters to grow up to become. This is a tall order, but one which is certainly possible as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our loving God.



What a job us mothers have! Wow, I need a lot of strengthening in some areas, and find that there are others that I have done well. I encourage all of you to find the areas that you need to strengthen, and do it! If you are a friend, aunt, uncle, grandma, or grandpa, I encourage you to work in these areas with the little ladies of your life. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and what a blessing it would be for you to share your strengths with that little girl! As mothers we try our best through prayer and practice, but how wonderful it would be to have a little extra help.... :)

Another great article by Mrs. Julie Fink @ Lessons for Ladies

Visit her blog and be blessed by her Bible Studies!

Eggs...Eggs...and more Eggs!

Well our 9 month journey with chickens has finally paid off! Only 2 out of our 13 hens were laying one egg each for the end of the summer, and having none laying any for the last 2 months, we were about to make them into dinner. They have redeemed themselves by giving us 10 eggs yesterday, and 1 blue~green egg this morning. Our dry streak has now been broken! I can't wait to look this afternoon to see if we find more. :)

I know it's silly to get sooo excited over eggs, but we are an impatient family (unfortunately). We made sure we picked out the breeds that lay early, and are daily layers, and all the other credentials of a "good layer." (We have been taught through this that we need to wait on the good things in life. Just because everything is how it's supposed to be, doesn't mean that it will just happen. We have to do our best, and then we need to wait on the Lord. It's His timing not our own.)

We have now figured out that a lot of this is the care of the animals. I'm thinking that we should have been more diligent in our feeding and watering of these little birds...and not allowing the children to be the sole caretakers of them. They see a little water, and a little food, and think that they don't need anymore than they have. This for Ty has been an eye opener in the fruits of your labor lesson. When he wasn't caring for them as he should, he didn't reap the benefits of eggs, but now that he has stuck to feeding and watering them properly, he is now seeing these benefits. He was also shown how by his slacking, others were hurt from it. He will be the head of his household one day, and if he isn't doing his very best to take care of them then they will too be hurt by his laziness. As we were finding these 10 eggs yesterday afternoon, he kept saying "oh my, here's another," and "look there, another," and "Mom this is a miracle," and "I can't believe how many eggs there are!"

Lessons learned for the little ones are summed up in this poem that is now posted in the kitchen for all to see:

Work While You Work
M.A. Stodart

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
One thing each time,
That is the way.
All that you do,
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are not done right.

Respecting Sons

As we begin this lesson we are reminded that the whole goal of child training is to bring up our children to maturity. It should be our desire to see them reach their full potential physically, spiritually and socially. The only way we will be able to achieve this is to depend upon God to strengthen us and enable us with the wisdom, endurance and love that we will need for this whole children rearing process.

Psalm 144:12, “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth.”

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Sons are different than daughters. God has created our sons to grow up and become leaders and providers. Because of this, it is very important that we treat them in a way that is respectful so that he will have the confidence that he needs to do the many courageous things that God will call him to do.

Respecting Sons
1. Make it a priority to show respect to your husband first.
A. Understand that your son will respect you in direct proportion to your respect for his dad.
B. Mothers must teach their daughters to respect their brothers.

2. Verbalize your respect through praise of his achievements.
A. Admire him for his accomplishments.
B. Respect is connected to real achievements.

3. Give him responsibilities and expect him to fulfill his obligations.
A. Mothers should have high standards for their sons.

4. Common courtesy is a central aspect of respect.
A. Resist the temptation to make fun of your son in public.
B. Don’t share his weaknesses or failures with others.
C. Embarrassing your son in public is always disrespectful.
D. Make every effort to correct your son in private.

Remember this: boys who are braggarts or spend a lot of time showing off in front of others are usually lacking in respect. A boy who is respected will usually have more confidence and be more prone to good behavior.

Responsible Sons
1. We must prepare our sons to go out into the world, face obstacles, work hard, and provide for a household with integrity.
A. Mothers can unwittingly undermine this preparation by mollycoddling, pampering or overprotecting) their sons.
B. Mothers should avoid fighting their son’s battles and sheltering them from the consequences of their actions.
C. Mother should not rush to her son’s defense ~ sons who grow up looking to Mom to fix everything will look for the same thing in a wife :).

2. Sons must learn to take responsibility.
A. Sons must not be allowed to make excuses for their mistakes.
B. Mothers must resist the temptation to “feel sorry” for their sons when they fail.

3. Mothers should avoid being drawn into an adversarial relationship with her son.
A. Mothers must remember that they are in authority over the son until he is grown and should not argue with him as if he were an adult.
B. Mothers should strive to be good listeners and allow Dad to handle the big problems.
C. Mothers must give commands and then expect those commands to be followed without back talk.

4. Sons must not be trained to be home-centered.
A. Mothers must make it their goal to teach their sons that the pattern of homemaking is not the pattern of their future life.
B. Sons are to be raised and trained to leave the home and go out into the world and conquer it!
C. Mothers must remember that they are not the role model for their sons ~ he must be taught to love, admire and appreciate his mother, and learn very early on to follow in the footsteps of his father.

5. Sons must be taught to be self-controlled.
A. Indulging a son will lead him to live an undisciplined life.
B. You want your son to be self-governed, so that when he is older, he will not have to be governed by someone else.
C. Training your son to be self-controlled must begin when he is just a wee little boy (under the age of two years old).


Religious Sons
1. Sons demonstrate their faith differently than daughters do.
2. Look for ways that he is demonstrating his faith in his every day life and activities.
3. Don’t discourage your son for being vocal about his beliefs.

If God has given you the opportunity to mother a son, consider yourself blessed. The little boy in your home now will soon grow up to be a grown man in our society later. Ask God to help you to respect him and raise him in a way that he will grow up to be a responsible man who is able to work hard and lead well. May God bless you and encourage you as you do.

*I found this article on a blog, and felt that this would be a good thing for all of us moms who have little boys to read. I know there are a few areas I found that need to be worked on from both Bob and myself. I hope you can find an area that you strive in and also some to work in! :)

-This article is from Mrs. Julie Fink @ Lessons for Ladies

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Menu

This weeks menu so good that I had to post about it!

Monday-Chipotle Honey Tangerine Glazed Chicken
Tuesday- Ate out
Wednesday-Nacho Ordinary Taco Salad with Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing
Thursday-Garlic, Lemon, and Herb Rubbed Chicken, with Grilled Flat Bread
Friday-Grilled Apple Brined Pork Chops, with Onion Straws, & Sweetie Pies
Saturday-Fried Chicken Rollups, with Guacamole

Seriously good food! If you want the recipes, comment and I'll email whichever one you want. I know they sound like a lot of work, but as long as you have an orange squeezer, it takes hardly any time for these meals. Chop and throw in baggies. I've been preparing them right after breakfast every morning so that all I have to do is pull them out of the fridge, and grill or fry. Truthfully the kids did most of the prep work! Alexis squeezed tangerines, Ty chopped all the herbs with my Pampered Chef chopper, Gabriel stirred everything and held the bags open for the food to be put in. Addie threw all our garbage away for us. It's been fun letting them do so much. So, I'm not lying about how easy these are! As long as you have a kid that can read, they can make at least 3 of these meals...with supervision of course. :) Plus they feel great for being allowed to do such "grown up" things! It's been a great week....

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yes, 10 years today Bob and I got hitched! I came up with a little jingle/song to go along with the 12 days of Christmas, that pretty much sums up the last 10 years together (so think that tune!)

*10 yrs of Marriage
*9 yrs of Diapers
*8 Vacations
*7 Seat filled Suburban
*6 Pregnancies
*5 Precious Children
*4 Soccer injuries
*3 different Houses
*2 Wedding Rings
.....all from one Wedding Day!

I know, I know, lay off the Christmas music. I couldn't sleep last night, all because I was excited about the possibility that we were going to the Skamania Lodge for dinner, and to stay the night. My mind is dangerous at that time of night! Little things excite me I know, but hey how often do we get to get out alone(well partially alone, Miss Shelby gets to go along for the ride)?

The Lord has continually blessed our lives, marriage, and children. We aren't deserving of any of it, and yet, He still gives. What a lesson we can all learn from how God treats us! I'm thankful for all our trials, they have shaped us into the people we are today, still broken, but not as much as before. I'm thankful for all the blessings, they have allowed us to see how truly forgiving God is. Christ has been the center of our marriage, and that is what allows us to grow closer, fonder, and more loving with each other year after year. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of times that our sinful selves rear their ugly heads, but thankfully we forgive, and grow from that experience.

The key for us is to always remember our relationship is more important than anyone else, after Christ. Yes, that includes our children, parents, and friends. If we become separated from the "one" that we are, than everyone in our lives suffers. Your children will see how a marriage should work, that your house is a happy home full of love for each other, that then pours out onto them. Remember to take time daily, or as often as you can, to be together alone. Have the kids read a book, or play outside, so you can stay connected to your husband. It gives you time to talk about your day, future ideas, or just to catch up if you've been busy.

I pray that you all will enjoy a marriage as ours has been for us. I know it will be different than ours, but enjoy it just the same!