Happy 5th Birthday-Joshua

Happy birthday to my hyper-active, bouncy, teasing, mischevious, sparkling eyes, ornery, but very very loving 5 yr. old. It is so hard to believe that 5yrs ago today, I was laying in a hospital bed in full active labor. He came 4weeks early. He weighed 5lbs. 14oz. 19in. long. Joshua had a few struggles at first, but he pulled through it and has been a very strong boy since then. Even though he's all the things that I said a few sentences before, he also has a very sweet and tender side too. I love you very very much Joshua Aiden!

LOVE-What does it mean?

The next "holiday" is Valentine's Day. Now I know that day is normally considered a "romantic" day, but I was thinking about it in a different way for my sunday school kids. The whole thing wrapped around Valentine's Day is LOVE. So I decided that for the next five sundays we would discuss LOVE in the way that God sees it. I told the story of the prodigal son. As I was preparing for the lesson, I got to thinking about how the father welcomed and rejoiced over his lost son who had returned home. The prodigal son left home with all his belonging, his father's money and headed to what he thought was a better life.  Which in a way, he had a good "new" life for awhile. He didn't have to work, no schedule to keep, and he didn't have to listen to his father, but the moment came that his life came to a screeching halt and he realized that he had sinned against his father and against God. When the prodigal son came home, it did not matter to the father of what his son did, the only thing that did matter is his son came back home. The oldest brother was upset with the celebration- he had stayed at home, helped his father, never wasted his father's money and never got a celebration. The father explained that everything that he had belonged to his oldest son, but the youngest son left home and now has returned.
We, as people, tend to get frustrated and upset with others because of stuff that they do or things that they don't do that maybe they should be doing. Jesus always accepts people back no matter what we have done or how far we have gone. Jesus always throws a celebration and welcomes us back, just like the father of the prodigal son did. That is LOVE. God loves us no matter how many times we fall, slap him in the face or never listen to Him. He will always welcome us into His arms and say welcome back. We need to show that same LOVE to others that we share our life with. I want to focus on the word LOVE over the next month and remind myself that word is the key to life. Isn't that the key? God LOVES us no matter what, let's show that same LOVE to those around us.

Pantry/Freezer Challenge

So I decided to try something new this month and that is a Pantry/Freezer Challenge. You always have stuff just lingering in your pantry and or freezer. So I took a sheet of paper and went through my freezer and my pantry and wrote down everything I had and how many of each item. Then I went through and made out a meal menu for the rest of the month of January. Here is my list of foods we are going to have. Now, I like to do sandwiches on a sunday because I'm so exhausted on sundays from getting everyone ready, teaching sunday school, and ministering in worship services that all I want to do is relax on sunday afternoon and not do dishes and clean up from a big meal. :-) My family also likes leftovers, so I tend to have a few "leftover" days throughout the month.

My Meal Menu:

• salmon cakes, spinach, corn muffins
• friday night pizza, garlic bread (we are having this on two friday nights)
• tacos
• sandwiches(we are having this twice)
• beans, cornbread
• pancakes, sausage links
• chili, cornbread
• deer roast, mashed potatoes, steamed mixed vegetables
• chicken pot pie, salad
• roast, potatoes, carrots, corn muffins
• hot dogs and fruit salad
• chicken supreme, salad
• out to eat :-)
• tuna casserole, steamed mixed vegetables
• and of course a couple days of leftovers

I challenge you to do a Pantry/Freezer Challenge. Then post your menu and give the rest of us some ideas. I love to print a free printable calander from the internet and write down my supper for each day so all I have to do is look at the day and it tells me what I need to prepare for supper. Now the nice thing about it is you can always switch around if your not in the mood to have what's posted for that specific day. :-)  Good luck to all and hopefully we will have quite a few meals to look at later.

~Constance

Joel-3 weeks old

Life has been very crazy here lately. We left for Arizona on the day after Christmas, so we could see Chris' family. We drove out there since Joel could not fly yet. All three kids did very well for being in the vehicle for a total of 5 days. We had a great visit with everyone and they loved Joel. Now we are just trying to get ourselves back on a schedule.

Joel is now 3 weeks old and that is so hard to believe. He's growing by leaps and bounds. It's exciting but sad all at the same time.