School and a holiday

Loving our new school year, but really looking forward to the holiday! Hooray!
Every year before school starts, I look for new recipes for breakfast. (eventually that all wears off and they get instant oatmeal -lol)
Here is the breakfast they liked best so far:
Cooked sausage links, rolled inside of croissant roll dough with cheese and then baked.
Speaking of food -Honey roasted sunflower seeds, where have you been all my life?! They are amazing!

Both of our kids are enjoying running on the treadmill for PE. One has a crazy new app that motivates them with a story that has zombies chasing them while they run. The more/faster they run the better and the more of the story they get to hear. Too funny! -I'm opting to work out minus the zombies, thanks!

Last week, my daughter and I had the chance to represent our favorite curriculum at another convention.(Yay!) Having a homeschooling convention after all the public, private and homeschoolers have already started school, may not have been the best idea. It was held at a nice hotel on the beach, and I'm pretty sure if it was still summer, lots of HS moms would have said to their husbands, "Honey, I really need to go to this conference and get psyched for the new school year" because what mom would not enjoy a weekend at the beach with her other homeschooling girlfriends? Awesome!
All that to say, it was a LONG day that we spent wishing we had more people to talk to.
When it ended, we loaded up the van and then headed to our favorite beach, which happened to be just down the street. Because you can't drive that far and be down the street from your favorite beach, especially after this day, and not go!  (because that was quite a day!)
The water was a glorious sea green and warm and we swam and enjoyed ourselves for a solid 30 minutes until the black clouds of summer rolled in and rained on our dinner picnic. Oh well.
Since then, the beach has been calling my name and I plan on answering this weekend at the soonest possible moment. : )

We also plan to break out the deep fryer that one of our boys bought us for Christmas a couple of years ago. After the first try, we realized that we needed to buy a GALLON of oil to pull off frying anything and well, you feel a little weird buying a whole gallon of oil and knowing that you are going to soak your food in it. ; ) But we plan to get over that and give it another go. We are going to try wings this time. (which are not my thing, because why go to that much work for so little meat? -but the males in the house don't share my viewpoint) It should be an artery-clogging good time! Hope yours is too! ; ) (good time, that is)

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

"Something always happens when simple faith meets God." 

"Prayer knocks at the door of grace while faith opens it. Prayer contacts God, while faith obtains an audience. Prayer makes a petition, while faith presses through the multitudes to touch the hem of His garment, and receives from His giving hand. Prayer quotes the promise, while faith boldly proclaims the fulfillment of that promise." 

"At the heart of your faith is a person, the person of Jesus Christ, the very Son of the living God...the only limit to His power lies within you as an individual. His is all power and His shall be all glory."

From Kathryn Kuhlman's book: I Believe in Miracles
It details how God's miraculous power moved in the lives of desperate people to save, deliver and heal them! It gave my faith a big shot in the arm. : )

~Becky

Bonding in the back of a bus

Here is where I chronicle the "worst Family Day" ever, which took place before Nathan moved.
 (you know it was bad when it takes a whole month to mention it) ; )

After a nice picnic

and some family photos

I thought it would be fun to take a trolley ride down the coast and end up at our favorite beach. Oh, but I thought wrong!
It turned out that the trolley didn't go as far as our favorite beach, which then required an extremely long ride on a city bus and then the city bus dropped us off in a sketchy part of town where we needed to hop on another trolley to FINALLY reach the favorite beach,
which we all voted unanimously NOT to take. Ever.
Because, oh the agony.

Here's what I learned that day:

-Public transportation isn't fun
-Trolleys don't take debit cards
-Trolleys are miserably hot in July
-Buses have cold A/C
-Trolleys and buses don't seem to keep to their schedules
-What it feels like when a bus driver almost misses his turn while going 50 mph and the wheels start skidding and all the tires squeal
-That buying ice cream in a rough part of town means your bank statement will say that you spend $15 at PJ's Oyster Bar and totally confuse you

We love you, Nate! We'll have a much better Family Day planned when you come home for Christmas! 

But I'm pretty sure someone else should plan it because in recent stats, I'm 0 for 3! ; )

~Becky

When one flies the coop

I'm really thankful for the sweet friends who've messaged me this week and let me know that they were praying for me as I experience my first child "flying the coop." What a blessing those prayers have been. These dear ladies have been through this already and have been so sweet. -I got a kick out of the one who offered to get together to cry with me! (how sweet is that!?) They shared a lot of wisdom about what this process of letting go is like and how we really wouldn't change a thing about what our kids are doing, we are just mourning the end of the season of motherhood we are in...

This has made me really thankful for technology and all the ways we have to stay in contact that I didn't have when I went away to school!
 -The only phones available to us, were the 2 payphones that 50+ girls on our dorm room floor had to share!!! We were all homesick and the lines to use those phones sometimes extended down the hallway. I wanted to be in those lines, but studying in the hallway didn't work for me, so I didn't call home nearly as often as I wanted to.
And speaking of technology, I'm happy to say I have a bit of it now.
-A tablet to Skype the one who flew the coop (hooray!) and to read eBooks while I wait for kiddos at their various practices. (good riddance to my book-light from the dollar store!) ; )

Since there's been so much talk of "coops" lately, that I thought I'd share a few:

 Apparently there are some seriously blessed chickens in the world.

LOL!

 ~Becky

The midwives

My hubby enjoyed watching Downton Abbey just as much as I did, which was so much fun!
But if I ever wanted to watch Call the Midwife, then, of course, I was all on my own. ; ) In fact, it was a real room clearer. LOL 
Three of our four babies were born at home, speaking of which, how cute is this onesie?!

LOL!

For any of you other fans, here are a couple of quotes from one of Jennifer Worth's books that will probably not be depicted on the show, but I'm glad they took place in real life!

Sister Monica Joan to Jenny: "Questions, questions -you wear me out with your questions, Child. Find out for yourself. We all have to in the end. No one can give you faith. It is a gift from God alone. Seek and ye shall find. Read the Gospels. There is no other way. Do not pester me with your everlasting questions. Go with God, Child; just go with God."

(Jenny) "I had been groping for years to understand or at least to come to terms with the meaning of life. These three small words, "Go with God," were for me the beginning of faith. That evening, I started to read the Gospels."  : )

And here's another:

Jenny: "What had impelled Sister Monica Joan to abandon a privileged life for one of hardship, working in the slums of London's Docklands? Was it love of people? I asked her."

"Of course not," she replied sharply. "How can you love ignorant, brutish people whom you don't even know? Can anyone love filth an squalor or lice and rats? Who can love aching weariness, and carry on working in spite of it? One cannot love these things. One can only love God, and through His grace come to love His people." ~Sister Monica Joan
Amen!

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Considering some 'let us' verses today!  ; )

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our                                                    faith..." Heb. 12:2

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Heb. 10:24

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal.6:9

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," Heb. 12:1

 Have a blessed day!

~Becky 

All the "lasts" of last week

It was our last week of summer
 AND...
-our last week with Nate before he moved
-our last week with our best friends before they moved too
-the boys' last Wednesday night playing together in the youth worship band
-our last 'family night'
-we had 'last sleepovers' and then there was a 'very last sleepover.' ; )

There were lots of 'lasts' and also lots of food and fun.
I tried making the 'Better than Brad Pitt Cake' (lol) and it did not disappoint.
Another night, the kids cored apples and put cinnamon and sugar in the middle then wrapped them in pie dough and cooked them! They were like having your own apple pie, with ice-cream of course.

For one of the sleepovers, the kids tried making this "Chocolate Suicide"

which had cookie dough on the bottom, Oreos, then brownie batter baked on top. Oh my! (the Brad Pitt cake was better)

There was lots of praying, lots packing and driving, driving, driving....
Finally, there were lots and lots of tears! : (

But it is a new day, so on to some firsts...
Like, Andrew's first day of high school! whoo-hoo! And my first day with only two students left in our home-school! (whose got it easy this year? This girl!)
and on to all the other things that God has in store for us in this new season of our lives! : )

~Becky