Scripture
Psalm 30
Verse 11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
Observation
We are all faced with trials, some difficult and some rather insignificant. But they are still trials we must endure. In verse 5b "Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning." tells us that at the end of our trial is joy. And verse 11 puts it into perspective. God allows suffering but He also takes it away replacing it with joy.
Application
During times of suffering it can be difficult to sing praises and be thankful to God. But this is what we should be doing. We learn from our trials and grow stronger by enduring them. Praise God in all things and you will be rewarded with a joyful heart.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for bringing me to this place today. I have been praying for strength and patience, but what I need to be doing is praising you. Praising you for your wonderous creation and your glorious Word, and thanking you for the wonderful husband and precious children you have given me.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Need to fix the links
When I changed the name of my blog I did not think about all the links I would also have to change. I realized this when I posted the Menu Plan for today. All my links to my recipes need to be updated. This will take a little while, I seem to be otherwise preoccupied with potty training!!
The recipes are still within my blog you will just have to search for them under the meal plan category. I will update the links soon.
The recipes are still within my blog you will just have to search for them under the meal plan category. I will update the links soon.
Menu Plan Monday
I have been planning my menus for awhile, but I found a great website orgjunkie.com. Every monday more than 200 people post links to their sites with their weekly menu plans. So if I am ever stuck for ideas here is an endless source of plans and recipes. Too Cool!!!
My menus must be quick and easy and I have found that I use my crockpot at least twice a week! Here is my menu plan for this week.
Breakfasts are Cereal, Whole Wheat Waffles , Oatmeal, or Homemade Bread with PB&J
Lunches are usually Leftovers
Suppers this week are:
Monday Pasta & Veggies and a slice of fresh bread
Tuesday Crockpot Stew and a slice of fresh bread
Wednesday Juicy Meatloaf and Peas
Thursday Salmon Sandwiches with Pickles and Raw veggies with Veggie Dip
(simply canned salmon mixed with some Mayo and Salt & Pepper - very easy and the kids love it!)
Friday Pizza Night
Saturday Chicken (have not decided on a recipe yet)
Sunday Southwestern Pot Roast
and a slice of fresh bread
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Potty Training Update
I would say that Sam is officially potty trained! HOORRAY!!!! Today he had no accidents, had dry Pull-ups in the morning and after rest time, and discovered how to do the pee-pee dance. I am thrilled and he is too. The look of excitement on his face when he is on the potty doing his business is priceless.
Ben & Carlee have had some success but are not completely trained. Both have used the potty but both have had accidents as well. I think that they have simply not put it all the pieced together yet.
Tomorrow Daddy gets to "escape" to work and I am on my own during the day. We decided that rather than pushing Ben & Carlee to be in underwear I would casually try to keep them in Pullups. I will still work on getting them to use the potty, but the pullups will hopefully save some floor cleanups. Well, that is if I can get Ben to keep his clothes on. He is the child that prefers to be naked!
In our opinion the Potty Party was not 100% successful, but in the end still a big success. First Sam is potty trained. Second, we are through with diapers. Although some habits are hard to break. After a bath I always put down a change pad on the floor so they can comfortably lay down to get a diaper on. Tonight I put the pad down and burst out laughing when I realized I no longer needed to that! They can now stand up to get pullups & jammies on. This sounds like such a small thing, but when you are dressing three kids that is alot of ups and downs that we don't have to do anymore!
It really is amazing how far we have come and how quickly things change. As soon as I have ever figured out a routine that works they always change something and I have to start all over! The screen saver on our computer is set to be a slide show of our photos and puts them up randomly. This was one of the photos that I saw today. It shows one of my tricks for survival when Ben & Carlee were just over 3 months old and I was on my own with them during the day.
I have not yet figured out a trick to surviving potty training 3 at a time - but I will!
Psalm 29
Scripture
Psalm 29
Verse 11 The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.
Observation
In this Psalm we see some of the ways God speaks to us. The words used to describe His voice include thunders, powerful, splits, shatters, strikes, quake. Certainly not a description of peace.
Yet in the final verse that is what we are blessed with. Our strength and peace come from the powerful nature of God.
Application
We can all rely on God's power for our strength. The level of strength each of us needs is different. Whatever needs we have we can pray for strength, and we will receive peace if we are willing to hear God's voice telling us how to tap into that strength.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your voice and for speaking to me. I know that you are speaking to me in many ways every day. I pray that able to hear you and respond in the ways that are pleasing to you. Give me the strength I need and thank you for the blessing of peace.
Psalm 29
Verse 11 The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.
Observation
In this Psalm we see some of the ways God speaks to us. The words used to describe His voice include thunders, powerful, splits, shatters, strikes, quake. Certainly not a description of peace.
Yet in the final verse that is what we are blessed with. Our strength and peace come from the powerful nature of God.
Application
We can all rely on God's power for our strength. The level of strength each of us needs is different. Whatever needs we have we can pray for strength, and we will receive peace if we are willing to hear God's voice telling us how to tap into that strength.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your voice and for speaking to me. I know that you are speaking to me in many ways every day. I pray that able to hear you and respond in the ways that are pleasing to you. Give me the strength I need and thank you for the blessing of peace.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Psalm 28
Scripture
Psalm 28
Today I want to focus on verse 3 "Don't drag me away with the wicked- with those who do evil- those who speak friendly words to their neighbors while planning evil in their hearts."
Observation
"Those who speak friendly...while planning evil" At first when I read this I thought it was talking about people or friends who are of the back-stabbing type. But as I thought more about this I realized this could be true, however I think it is more than that.
The KJV reads "Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief [is] in their hearts." When I read this translation I had what I call an AH-HA moment.
Speaking nicely or friendly and then having "mischief in your heart" is a sin. This is a difficult thing for us to see if others are doing it, because we will generally only hear the nice things they are saying.
Application
It is important to watch for this in others, but I think it is more important to not do this ourselves. I remember the first time I heard the term WYSIWYG (prounounced wissy-wig)and thought it was a clever acronym for What You See Is What You Get. Although it is generally a computer term I think it could apply to our lives.
As we speak our kind words we should also have kind thoughts and motives. The more kindness we have in our hearts and minds the less room there is for "mischief"
Prayer
Lord thank you for reminding me to be in prayer whenever my mind wanders. Please help me to keep those ideas of "mischief" or the "planning evil" from my heart. I pray that anyone who is speaking kindly but is not reflecting this in their own hearts will realize it and be able to make this change in their lives. This Psalm has a beautiful verse to pray through praise, verse 7 "The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trust in him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving."
Psalm 28
Today I want to focus on verse 3 "Don't drag me away with the wicked- with those who do evil- those who speak friendly words to their neighbors while planning evil in their hearts."
Observation
"Those who speak friendly...while planning evil" At first when I read this I thought it was talking about people or friends who are of the back-stabbing type. But as I thought more about this I realized this could be true, however I think it is more than that.
The KJV reads "Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief [is] in their hearts." When I read this translation I had what I call an AH-HA moment.
Speaking nicely or friendly and then having "mischief in your heart" is a sin. This is a difficult thing for us to see if others are doing it, because we will generally only hear the nice things they are saying.
Application
It is important to watch for this in others, but I think it is more important to not do this ourselves. I remember the first time I heard the term WYSIWYG (prounounced wissy-wig)and thought it was a clever acronym for What You See Is What You Get. Although it is generally a computer term I think it could apply to our lives.
As we speak our kind words we should also have kind thoughts and motives. The more kindness we have in our hearts and minds the less room there is for "mischief"
Prayer
Lord thank you for reminding me to be in prayer whenever my mind wanders. Please help me to keep those ideas of "mischief" or the "planning evil" from my heart. I pray that anyone who is speaking kindly but is not reflecting this in their own hearts will realize it and be able to make this change in their lives. This Psalm has a beautiful verse to pray through praise, verse 7 "The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trust in him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving."
Potty Training three at a time
Although all three kids have been using the potty it has not been consistently and I had not been pushing the issue. I decided it was time to take drastic measures. I am seriously tired of changing about 15-20 diapers a day, not to mention the cost of it! Remember that I am accountant - I had to figure it out!! I assumed an average of 18 diapers a day (that is only 6 changes per child, fairly accurate) and an average of .15 cents per diaper (probably a bit low). Here are the results...
We have changed just over 16,000 diapers and spent nearly $2,500 on diapers alone. I don't even want to think about how many wipes I have used, and still will use!!! I will always wonder how mothers managed before wipes and disposable diapers.
Well, today was the day! We planned a Potty Party and started the day with dolls that wet. The concept is to have your child train the doll how to use the potty. Their dolls used the potty and they were excited that they were going on the potty. But then the dolls had accidents (on purpose, I had to be sneaky about it!) The looks on their faces were priceless when they felt the dolls had wet underwear.
This novelty of the dolls wore off very quickly and they started to want to use the potty themselves. So we officially threw away all the diapers and brought out the big kid underwear. With the help of the DVD "Potty Power" (which I highly recommend) this was all extremely exciting and soon they had all successfully used the potty.
Early on in the day they all had an accident. Sam did not have any more accidents today and I saw him go to the potty without being reminded several times. HOORAY!!! I am hopeful that Sam is finally trained.
Ben & Carlee are still figuring it out and have had a couple accidents. The biggest issue is trying to convince them to actually sit on the potty! This is especially difficult when they are tired. I also had trouble convincing Carlee to put on a pull-up for bedtime. Once she got underwear on she was not about to give them up!
Having three kids learn how to use the potty at the same time is extremely time consuming! We turned the heat up in the house just so we di not have to worry about any clothes other than underwear. I am so grateful for Daddy being home today!! Well that was until he saw me taking a picture and decided to put underwear on his head. Of coarse they all wanted to do it too. Sam said it was his astronaut helmet! At least there was some humor to the day!!!
I saw a cute quote that I related to...
In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul.
Lisa T. Shepherd
Only by the grace of God shall I survive potty training!! Please keep us in your prayers!
We have changed just over 16,000 diapers and spent nearly $2,500 on diapers alone. I don't even want to think about how many wipes I have used, and still will use!!! I will always wonder how mothers managed before wipes and disposable diapers.
Well, today was the day! We planned a Potty Party and started the day with dolls that wet. The concept is to have your child train the doll how to use the potty. Their dolls used the potty and they were excited that they were going on the potty. But then the dolls had accidents (on purpose, I had to be sneaky about it!) The looks on their faces were priceless when they felt the dolls had wet underwear.
This novelty of the dolls wore off very quickly and they started to want to use the potty themselves. So we officially threw away all the diapers and brought out the big kid underwear. With the help of the DVD "Potty Power" (which I highly recommend) this was all extremely exciting and soon they had all successfully used the potty.
Early on in the day they all had an accident. Sam did not have any more accidents today and I saw him go to the potty without being reminded several times. HOORAY!!! I am hopeful that Sam is finally trained.
Ben & Carlee are still figuring it out and have had a couple accidents. The biggest issue is trying to convince them to actually sit on the potty! This is especially difficult when they are tired. I also had trouble convincing Carlee to put on a pull-up for bedtime. Once she got underwear on she was not about to give them up!
Having three kids learn how to use the potty at the same time is extremely time consuming! We turned the heat up in the house just so we di not have to worry about any clothes other than underwear. I am so grateful for Daddy being home today!! Well that was until he saw me taking a picture and decided to put underwear on his head. Of coarse they all wanted to do it too. Sam said it was his astronaut helmet! At least there was some humor to the day!!!
I saw a cute quote that I related to...
In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul.
Lisa T. Shepherd
Only by the grace of God shall I survive potty training!! Please keep us in your prayers!
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