Friday, September 2, 2011

Little tid bits of random thoughts

Last night while straightening up the house (around 10:00pm) I was thinking of previous blogs I had read. I was weighing what they do to what we do, what I WANT to do, etc. and the Lord showed me an area of my heart that needed adjusting. So many times people will say "You're such a good mom! What a great job you're doing" or something similar (not trying to gloat, just show an area of my heart) and I'll say thank you, but my heart is thinking "but I have SUCH a long way to go! I want to be like...**insert susie homemaker-perfect mom/never looses temper/clean house/organic healthy meals cooked each day for all 3 meals, no laundry piles**"
The Lord showed me that the attitude behind that isn't glorifying to Him, or healthy for me. He created me as Heather, not as Susie. I'm trying to fit into this specific mold that wasn't made or designed for me. Don't get me wrong- all of those things up above are good to have, but I wasn't allowing myself the grace to have a messy house without guilt so I could spend time with the kids. I was feeling down on myself for all the imperfections I thought I saw in myself. 
The Lord has a mold for me and my family and slowly He is revealing it to me. A lot of times though, I think we learn just by living. How else am I going to learn how to homeschool my children, have a clean house, meals prepared, laundry not in huge mountains? It's not by reading a blog. I won't find an answer there (although it's always nice to see others ideas). There's no step-by-step tutorial how to raise your children, keep a clean house, etc. These are things that you have to learn by experience, by the grace of God.
Ok, so I rambled a bit, forgive me. I guess long story short- I'm learning that I need to live more in the Grace of God and cut myself some slack for not living up to what *I* think I should be, but seek God's heart for who HE wants me to be. Maybe He doesn't expect my house to be perfect. There's grace for that, and I want to learn to rest more in that grace.



Onto a lighter topic :) While I was cleaning up from breakfast this morning, the kids were working hard on something in my sons room. After I was finished with the dishes I went in with the baby to see what they were doing and here's what I saw:

The Rainforest Cafe- in lego blocks! ;)


I just love how creative they are!!


As I was cleaning up the house last night, I stumbled upon this and had to laugh at how much my oldest daughter is like me (enjoys things being organized):






Recently while searching homeschooling sites, I found one that allowed us to print off customized Bingo cards. i figured this would be a GREAT way to help the kids with their numbers and it really is! They were having problems remembering the 20-30 numbers and they're catching on much quicker now! I printed them out and laminated them to have them last a bit longer!



Oh! Since I'm on such a great roll of being random today, I have one more thing to share with you!!
I made homemade butter today!!!!! It's SO easy and the first time I've ever made it! I saw on a blog where you can stick creamer in a plastic container and lid and shake it up for 20 minutes and it would form into butter. Well, I thought the kids would have a blast with it, but each child only lasted about 30 seconds- no lie lol. So I ended up finishing it myself. I didn't find the container shaking to work too well. The creamer definitely got thicker, but not butter like. I ended up putting it in the kitchen-aid mixer for less than 5 minutes and we got butter!! It's so yummy too!


Welp, that's all for today! I better go do something productive! Thanks for reading!

Friday, August 19, 2011

In my kitchen :)

I really need to start pulling out my camera more instead of using my cell phone, but hopefully you get the idea!

We had some company coming over tonight so I made some homemade cinnamon rolls. They were DELICIOUS! YUM!

This was after the first yeast rising, added the butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and rolled up and cut.

About to go in for the "second" yeast rising. Notice the spaces on the pan in between the rolls.


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I love how yeast works!! It's so awesome! This is after the rolls rose for about an hour:


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and here they are in their glory after they baked for 10 minutes and have icing on them


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A little off topic, but this was last nights dinner: Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!)


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Cinnamon Roll recipe


Creamy Chicken Enchiladas recipe