Praying friends

Years ago, I read a series of books called the Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson. And I loved them!  They were about this group of women of different ages and ethnicities who had a prayer group. And I remember wishing way back then that I had a group of ladies to pray with regularly.

And now I do.
It has been great fun hang out with these sweet ladies and
 do life
 pray
 laugh
 eat
 and watch Judah Smith videos!
 (and wonder why he always wears holey jeans)  ; )

We refer to each other as our "tribe."
Some of us are young adults and some of us have young adults!
I'm so glad that God put us together for this season.

~

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Warning! This isn't a serious Bible study today. 

Just something I got a kick out of IN the Bible.

When my sister and I were growing up we always split fried eggs. 

Weird, I know. But I would only eat the yolks and she would only eat the whites! -Hey, at least nothing was wasted! 

So, when I found this verse in Job yesterday, I had to laugh!

Who knew the Bible has something to say about egg whites?! 

"Or is there taste in the white of an egg? My soul refuses to touch them. They are loathsome food to me." -Job 6:6 

I agree! 

Preach it, Job!  ; )

~Becky

Heigh Ho, heigh ho ...

I have a temporary full-time job for the next four weeks!
It is my first one ever and I'm enjoying it! But man, am I tired!
How do you working mommas do it all!? My hat is off to you!

The very first day of work, my kids had the house clean and dinner made when I got home. How sweet are they?!
Tonight they grocery shopped for me and made me dinner.
 -A fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich! LOL (a crazy family favorite)
They are too cute!

And because this sweet son lives close to my job he came by to spend my lunch break with me the other day! So fun!

Feeling blessed to have these kiddos cheering me on!

~Becky

Wednesday in the Word

This quote!!!!!

"I have learned to kiss 
the wave 
that slams me against 
the Rock of Ages." ~Charles Spurgeon

A tale of two families

Chances are I've told this story here before, because I love it! But here it goes:

Delma and Miriam went to church together and became best friends.
And their teenage sons, Tom and Don became best friends and still go to church together.

Then they grew up and each of them got married and had children of their own.
(Aaron and I)
 Aaron is 2 days older than I am and so I've known him since birth. We grew up going to church together.

His oldest sister and I were best friends and our younger sisters were best friends. -And I may or may not have had a crush on him in the 7th grade. LOL

Then we grew up and I introduced him to one of my best friends from college and they married each other!
Eight months after their wedding, Hubby and I got married.
(we were all in each other's weddings wearing big puffed sleeves and even bigger hair!)

We had four kids and they had two kids.

And now our kids are best friends!

What a blessing it is to watch this generation grow up loving each other and having the best times together!

Their son just spent part of the summer with us and we are all going to miss him!!!

#whenyourfriendsarelikefamily
~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Just these!!!

"Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust;
Cause me to know that way in which I should walk." 
Ps. 143:8

"My eyes are ever toward the Lord." 
Ps. 25:15  

"Though and army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war rise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavillion...He shall set me high upon a rock." 
Ps. 27

"Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." 
Is.43:18 

"The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices." 
Ps. 28:7

"Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul."
Ps.66:16 

~Becky

Last week's fun

Zac and Tiffany hosted a party here on the fourth of July.

Which means the food was awesome, the decorations were adorable and there were some crazy, fun games played. 

And our house was full of people we love!

Joy's face when she finds out that she has to eat a
sardine during Fear Pong

 Then we viewed fireworks displays from all directions on top of the airport parking garage.

I got to represent one of my favorite  curriculums at a two-day homeschool conference this week.

Every year there are always some sweet moms who come to the booth who want to express their gratitude to the company for how much Teaching Textbooks helped their child. ~And I rejoice right along with them because it was a God-send to my gang as well! 

On Saturday, Andrew and his friend decided to take part in an open mic night at a coffee shop near our church. How awesome are they?!

It was a great experience and they did an awesome job. Such a fun atmosphere! 

I decided not to be THAT mom who got right up in the front and filmed,

so my videos have the background noise of people chatting and playing games at nearby tables. 

But I think I will be THAT mom next time! ; ) 

So proud of them!

~Becky

 

Fun finds

My kids have been telling me that I need to clean out the files on my computer and today I did a little bit of that but it will take a sweet forever. There were all the things I knew I would find, like lots of schoolwork, some proposals Hubby did for work, and lots of Bible studies he wrote for his Sunday school class.

And there were some really sweet things his.

~There was the very detailed plan he made of how our kids would lead our family devotions so that one day they could "lead Bible studies for their future families." Sometimes a plan and reality are twi  different things. His plan had meant for them to put some preparation and study and into their talks, which I'm pretty sure never actually happened. They ended up choosing their verse or doctrinal topic from the list and ran with it on the fly. LOL But I think they all have good impromptu speaking skills now. ; )

I found a journal that he kept for a very short time in 2010.
It contained things like how glad he was that Zac didn't give him any trouble during family band practice that week LOL
and how proud he was of Andrew's guitar playing!
He said he was proud of Nathan's willingness to film a funeral and for his thoughts on how it should be done.
My favorite: He said one of the greatest things was how much he and his sons laughed when they hung out together. (so sweet)

I found the list of accountability questions he kept with him and had his accountability partner ask him once a week. He was always such a man of integrity.

There was a sweet letter he wrote to Joy, which she plans to frame. In one part he said "I hope this letter finds you basking in the love of the Lord. He is completely trustworthy and faithful. I pray daily for him to show you His faithfulness. He has and He will." (so beautiful!)

And there was a rather lengthy list of punishments he typed up for a-certain-somebody, who will remain nameless, that got a big kick out of this find.

So, I'm thankful for those files, for the life I had with that amazing guy and the great dad he was!

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

One of the verses I pray for my kids is Isaiah 30:21.

 "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying 'This is the way, walk in it,' Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left." 
Amen! I believe He will meet them in the moments they need His direction most and show them which path is His.

This verse reminded me that it could be my voice they 'hear' in their moment of need:

"Take seriously what your parents teach you. My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake the law of your mother." "When you roam, they will keep you. And when you awake, they will speak with you." Prov. 6:20, 22
And here's a plug for making sure the words they remember us saying were words of life and encouragement and not the opposite. Amen? You don't have to look hard to find adults who still struggle to get over the things their parents said to them unfortunately.

"For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life."
(yes, amen!)
I like how the Living Bible puts it.
"For (parent's) advice is a beam of light directed into the dark corners of your mind to warn you of danger and give you a good life." 
-They may not want to always receive our awesome beam of light ; )
 but let's pray they do when they really need it.

Because if you read further, all this advice of ours is to keep them from immorality! From having their lives "reduced to a crust of bread." v. 25
Because they can't "take fire to their chest and their clothes not be burned" or "walk on hot coals and not have their feet seared." v. 27 And they may not realize it can "destroy their own soul." v. 32

May God give our kids the hearts to always "Hear instruction and be wise." 
Prov. 8:33

"For wisdom is better than rubies and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her." Prov. 8:11    "Whoever finds me (wisdom) finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord." v.35

What could be better than God's favor?

~Becky

Waffles and what?

So, I kept hearing about chicken and waffles and I tried them a couple months ago at a place that has the word 'waffle' in their name and I was very unimpressed.
But over the weekend, I was hanging out home alone with the Gilmore Girls ; )
(because my weekends are that exciting) and I decided to try making them myself.

I always buy breaded frozen chicken from Trader Joe's that my kids can make into sandwiches in a hurry and instead of baking some of the those, I fried a couple. (bad, I know!)
Then I used a mix to make waffles in my waffle maker and finally, I made a sauce that I found online which I spread on top of the it all!
It was pretty much Comfort Food Heaven, Y'All, which was totally the plan!  

Here is the sauce, which doesn't sound good but totally is!
 (this will feed way more than one person)

1 1/2 cups of mayo
1/3 cup maple syrup (the real stuff!)
3 T. Dijon mustard  (I had to substitute with spicy brown)

I wanted to be all food-bloggerish and post a picture but they just didn't look as good as they tasted.


~Becky

Holidays

My Hubby was passionate about looking for someone who needed a place to spend a holiday and inviting them over. He was always on the look out and he would ask our kids to be too. He didn't often find people but it sure wasn't because he didn't try.

All that to say, I keep thinking that he would LOVE how we are spending this holiday and WHO we are spending it with. 

We didn't really look for people, they just came to us! I love that! What a sweet blessing!
 He would be thrilled!

Happy Fourth, Friends! 

~Becky

Some summer fun

Fun with my BFF until she had to fly home

This was one of Hubby's favorite verses and was a part of many family devos.
 Andrew had to own it.
(insert heart emjoi here)

mini-donut works of art

They are so small that you are sure you need to eat three! 

Bree pushed her bowl around the kitchen to let everyone know it was empty 

These boys begged for a trip here and we had a crazy fun time. I'm going there hungry next time!

 ~Becky