"Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise." ~Andy Stanley

May 27, 2009

For peanut butter and jelly lovers

The classic sandwich at our house is a fried peanut butter and jelly!
Just assemble and then cook like you do a grill cheese sandwich. (with butter) Yum!
My mom-in-law turned us on to those when the kids were really little and we've been making them ever since.

A new fun favorite that we tried the other day is a peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich! .
Spread one piece of bread with peanut butter, add thinly sliced bananas and sprinkle with cinnamon. Then add a drizzle of honey and top with bacon. (I used turkey bacon)
and add a top slice of bread. A big hit and a stick to your ribs sandwich!

The other new fun favorite is a peanut butter sandwich with mashed bananas and sprinkled with chocolate chips inside. : )

So, have a happy PB & J day! Or a PBB &B or a PBB&CC... lol
~Becky

May 26, 2009

How to get a knitter's attention:



It works! Trust me! ; )

~Becky

May 20, 2009

Excited about science

Our youngest son hasn't been excited about science since we studied electricity a few months ago. He loved that and he did all the experiments ahead of time.

Lately, our curriculum has had us doing a life science unit on mammals and it seems to be lasting next to forever... Poor guy. The other day he told me that he just "might die" if he has to study "another animal."

Just as I was wondering what we should use for science next, a really great opportunity came along! I was asked to do a product review for All Children's Furniture and post it on the blog. Let's just start by saying they have WAY more than kids furniture. : )

As much as I wanted to get my guitar crazy guy this rug:

I chose to do a review on a Thames and Kosmos science kit! Whoo-hoo! Besides, when you think about it, how interesting could a review on a rug really be?! -"It looks great." Or "We walked on it all day and it didn't give us a bit of trouble." : )

I had a hard time deciding on which one to try though... All Children's actually has more of a selection of these kits than my favorite homeschooling company offers. (look under 'Arts and Crafts' on their site)
I ended up choosing the Elements of Science one because it delves into several different areas of science. So, look for that review here in the days ahead...

I think he'll love all of these experiments!
And I certainly don't want him to be stuck with mammals any longer and possibly "die." It wouldn't really seem like life science if he "died," now would it? ; )

~Becky

The Rescuers

Today I headed off to the company's office to rescue my hubby.
He doesn't have power locks on his truck and he accidentally locked himself out...and left his spare key at home.... no fun!
After visiting a couple minutes, I headed back towards home. A few stop lights later, I noticed that he had pulled up behind me on his way to his job sight when....
I also NOTICED
that
I
had
a
FLAT
TIRE!
He watched it happen, literally...

And the rescuee became the rescuer. -Thirty seconds after I pulled over, there was my Knight in Shining Armor. (or Knight in cargo shorts) There to save my day! What timing! Isn't God SO good to me?!

~Becky

May 18, 2009

We're back!

Well, I'm excited to say that Nathan's Teen Bible Quiz team came in 3rd place this weekend and
our church's other team came in 2nd place. Whoo-hoo! So, both teams are headed to Nationals in MO in July and everyone is really excited.

As we were about to get on the interstate for our long trip to GA, a cute somebody of mine realized he left his dress clothes for the match behind. Ahhh! -Both of the coaches and the boys had all planned to wear black shirts, black pants with matching PINK ties. So, that 'somebody' got teased a good bit and I had to head to the Wal*art once we arrived. But it all worked out and I think they were the cutest quizzers there. : )

It was a LONG drive and we were packed like sardines but it was fun and the kids studied the book of Mark on the way and fooled around. We have some amazing Bible quizzers among our group who know the book of Mark so well, they can quote the whole book in less than an hour with less than 7 mistakes. How many of us can READ it in that time? Some of them like to quote chapters backwards!
-I mean, from the last verse in a chapter and working their way back to the first verse. Its all pretty amazing!!!

When we arrived at the hotel, we let them all go swimming to work off some of their energy after that long road trip. I enjoyed using the hotel's exercise bike and rode four miles hoping that would make up for all the Twizzlers I ate in the car. : )
After that came dinner, a practice session and bed.

The next day started early and ended late with lots of fun in between!
The kids quizzed eleven rounds! That's enough to fry your brain -just watching.
After the ceremony and helping to put the classrooms of the church back together, the coach had a surprise for our kids.
A limo pulled up at the church and took them all to the mall for dinner and a sacvenger hunt, then putt-putt golf, laser tag and an hour of arcade games. What an amazing and generous surprise! He's sweet like that!
Everyone had a blast! It was a really fun night and I don't know when I've been SO tired because he had all of us parents playing everything right along with them! : )

The next day we headed home...
Happy and tired.
It will be a summer full of the book of Mark!
~Becky

May 13, 2009

The big TBQ weekend

Nathan and I are headed to Georgia for the Regional TBQ match this weekend!


The top teams will receive invitations to Nationals in MO this summer.

So, we'll see what happens....

I'm just thankful that we are all healthy for this trip! -Oh my goodness! That last tournament in GA was rough. Nathan got so sick.


The poor guy had such a high fever.



I was completely amazed when he received this.

Here is his team between matches. -A really healthy looking bunch, huh? Everyone was fighting a flu bug. Bless their hearts.


So, here's to some fun, healthy Bible quizzing this weekend!!!!!! Whoo-hoo! : )



~Becky

May 12, 2009

A thumbs up dinner

Not all of my meals are a big hit around here...
Take tonight's for example:
Just about all the kiddos have let me know they don't care for the ten bean soup I'm making and are hoping I'm going to offer what we call around here: 'the peanut butter and jelly option.' lol

But last night was another story all together!
I tried something I saw in a magazine and it was so good.
I didn't actually buy the magazine so I don't have the official recipe but here is my version of it:

Greek Quesidillas (oh, how I love quesidillas even if I can't spell them) ; )

I grilled some chicken breasts. (anytime I grill meat, my teen boys are so very happy!)
Then I cut up tomatoes, cucumbers (in small pieces) and purple onions. (I grilled the onions too)
Then I assembled them on tortillas with FETA (YUM!!!!) cheese and cooked them.
Before I put the top tortilla on, I added a teaspoon or so of greek salad dressing.

I wasn't sure how well these would go over, and then I heard those words a mom loves to hear: "Mom, those were so good, I could eat 8 more!" ; )

~I also heard the older guys trying to talk my picky eater into going with the 'peanut butter and jelly option..." Hmmm, I wonder why?
Next time I'll be sure to have two containers of feta cheese on hand because these were a big hit.
And I'll try to bask in that memory as I serve my soup tonight. lol

~Becky

May 4, 2009

Dessert fun!

Yesterday we had the last meeting of our Hats of Hope small group!
When I think back to how it started...I'm still in awe of all the amazing things the Lord did to put our group together. It was awesome. See here and here.
We were able to bless over 80 people in need who live in South Dakota, Uganda, Namibia, and Zambia with sweater hats! Whoo-hoo!
I think Joy and I received the greatest blessing though. We had a wonderful time with the ladies and the girls. We got a big kick out of baking the goodies and she enjoyed praying with the girls...

Soon after we started the group, I found this recipe and thought "These are too cute!" So, Joy and I planned to make them for our very last get together and we could not wait.
My hubby even said they would be the "cutest dessert in the world." - And he doesn't use the word cute 50+ times a day like I do. ; )
First we bought lots of flower pots at Wal*art and washed and dried them.
Then we decided to turn them into little 'thank you' gifts and we wrote on them:
And we added a scripture to the rim:
Prov. 28:27 "He who gives to the poor will lack nothing." Amen! I think that is an awesome verse!





Have I mentioned that Joy and I were totally excited about this ALL week. (we're weird like that) lol
When Sunday finally came, we cut two pound cakes in half length-wise in the middle and used a cookie cuter to cut 18 circles and then poked a straw into each one.









Then Joy filled them with cookies and cream ice-cream...








and I added lots of crushed Ore*os on top (for soil) and put fresh flowers into the straws.
Here they are:
I'm really glad that I missed getting a picture of them when we actually served them because....
they just may have been "cutest dessert in the world" to start with...
But they weren't after I left them in the freezer too long (flowers and all)
Because they wilted...
Oh well!
We had tons of FUN and they were yummy!
~Becky

When math got cute...

"Mom, that isn't a right angle.
It's a left angle."

: )

~Becky