Thoughts from My Heart

As I listen to my children play today I know they don't have any idea the things that are so heavy on my heart as I sit here writing.  I have done a lot of thinking this week and I feel the need to share.

Monday as I was driving home I saw a car that was driving in the opposite direction as myself.  The car went flying though the air, landed and rolled several times before coming to rest in the median of the interstate.  I could see at least 3 other cars stop and people jumping from their cars to check on the victims of the accident.  As far as I can tell everyone was okay.

Tuesday on John's way to work he witnessed a horrible motorcycle accident.  The 33 year old man lost control of his motorcycle while driving down the interstate.  The body of the man came to rest in the road next to John.  John jumped out of the car, called 911 and he along with several other people did all they could for the man as they waited for paramedics to arrive.  The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Wednesday morning the 19 year old brother of one of our friends was knocked down by a wave as he was swiming in the ocean.  He never came to the surface.  His body was not found till late in the afternoon Thursday.

Here we are, Thursday, I have a lot to think about.  We do not know what each day will bring.  We do not know what the next moment may bring.  We need to be ready to die.  Is that blunt?  Well, there was not much time for two of these people to think about whether or not they were ready to die.  They did not have the time to stop and "get right with God".  Now is the time to think about it.

My heart aches for the family of the man that died in the motorcycle accident and for the family of the young man who drowned.  At the same time though I see the strength of the family of the young man who drowned.  This family has a very close personal walk with God.  They know that this young man also had a personal relationship with God.  They are very shocked and saddened right now, but they also have joy in the knowledge that they will be reunited with him one day in Heaven. 

I ask you today, if something were to happen to you today, would your family and friends #1 know that you were in heaven and #2 know that they would join you one day?  I know that I will be in Heaven one day.  I have admited that I can not save myself.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the the one and only way to heaven and that when he died on the cross he took the punishment for my sins.  I have confessed to God that I know I am a sinner in need of a Savior, and I have given up trying to do it on my own.  I accept Jesus' payment for my sin knowing full well that nothing I could ever do to earn salvation would be good enough.  The price for my sin has already been paid in full. I will live my life for Christ every day and will joyfully be with Him in heaven when the time comes.  I know that I will be in Heaven one day.  I want to know that you will be there with me.

Please take a moment to think about this.  A very heavy post I know, but one that God has laid on my heart. 

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life."
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 10:9 "That if you confess with your mouth,"Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:13 "For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.""

Nauticus

Summer is winding down.  We won't be making quite as many weekday field trips out soon, but this week I decided to take the kids to Nauticus in Norfolk, VA.  I had only been there once before myself and it was when John and I were dating.  My kids love museums though so off we went!

The first exhibit was a model of ships bridge.  The kids loved messing with all the stuff on the bridge.  Here is Elizabeth driving the ship. 

This looks like some sort of navigational tool to me, Nathan loved it.

There were several areas where you could dress up in naval attire.  The clothes were of course rather big so we pretty much just played with the hats.

There were models of real ships everywhere.  I would say that this was Nathan's favorite part of the museum.  He loved looking at each and every one of them.  He asked tons of questions.  I think that either John or Pops should go with him next time... I didn't have many answers to his questions.

Next to the museum is the Battleship Wisconsin.  This is what I thought would be the highlight of the entire trip.  I was very much looking forward to touring the battleship and thought that especially Nathan would love getting to go on the big ship.  Well, as we were getting ready to get on the ship Nathan went into meltdown mode.  There were many tears.  All I could get out of him was that it was too hot outside an that's why he did not want to go on the ship.  I don't know if it was a bit overwhelming or what.  It was very hot and humid outside, but that does not usually stop my kids.  Oh well, we will tour the ship another day.

 

As we were leaving the museum there were very large koi and a vending machine with food for the fish.  Yes, I do think that this was the best part of the trip for the kids.  At least we left on a good note!

Pancake Syrup

3My family goes through a lot of pancake syrup - especially in the winter!  Buying syrup at the store adds up, so when I ran across this recipe for pancake syrup I thought that I would give it a try.  We love it!  I can't tell the difference between my homemade syrup and the store bought stuff.  It's so simple, give it a try and I think you will be hooked!

Pancake Syrup

2 c sugar

1 c water

1 tsp maple extract

Bring water and sugar to to slow boil over low heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat before it come to a rolling boil (to keep crystals from forming).  Add flavoring as it is cooling.  Store in the refrigerator.  Makes about 24 oz.

I keep my syrup in a syrup container that I had from when I was still buying it from the store.  I think I am going to watch for the kind that has the short microwavable bottle to go on sale because I like to warm up my syrup, but this works for now. 

Shark!

We love the water.  I grew up in Indiana, you don't really think about a lot of water there, but when I was young I we lived on the Wabash River.  We had a motor boat and I have such fond memories of swiming in the river, fishing, boating, attempting to water ski... Well, here we are, very far away from Indiana, but very close to the ocean.  I love it! 

This past weekend Pops (John's dad) took us out on the boat.  The kids love the boat which makes me very happy.  Here are Pops, John, Nathan and Elizabeth as we venture out into the Chesapeake Bay.

A shot of Elizabeth and me once we found a good fishing spot.

We caught sight of a large school of dolphins.  There were so many of them, but it's kind of hard to catch a picture of the dolphins.  Here you can see one of the fins of one of the dolphins.  There is something so exciting about seeing dolphins!

Once we started fishing we caught several blue crabs right away.  John gave Nathan a lesson on how to tell if it is a boy crab ( a 'T' on the bottom of the crab) or a girl crab (a diamond on the bottom of the crab).  This one is a boy crab.  

 

Then the big excitement!  John caught a shark!  It was about a 2 1/2 foot Sand Shark.  Pretty cool.  We let him have the hook...

After fishing for awhile (didn't catch anything else) we motored over to a cove and John and Pops took the kids for a swim! 

A New Adventure - Canning

Okay, so I keep coming up with great new ideas - ideas that really are not all that "new" at all, but rather "old" ideas I guess.  Here is my new adventure.  I decided since I had all these fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers from my garden that I wanted to try my hand at canning.  I remember my mom canning, but mom canning when I was little, and me doing it by myself are two totally different things!

Here are the tomatoes that I started with for my first try...

 

Next I borrowed a pressure cooker from my brother-in-law, Jeremy (thanks Jeremy!)

Next I looked up online how to do this.  Here is the link that I used for the most part:  http://www.pickyourown.org/  A very helpful site for a first timer! 

Well, here are my first two jars.  The one with all the tomatoes on top turned out right, the one with all the space on the top did not turn out.  I did everything the same, they were even done in the same pot at the same time, I have no idea why one turned out and the other one did not, but oh well... at least one turned out from my first batch!

Next I decided to try a "water bath" method of canning.  In all honesty the pressure cooker had my nerves all out of wack.  Any of you that use a pressure cooker probably know what I mean.  It just stressed me out too much since I was inexperienced and knew that "if not done properly, bodily injury may occur.  Keep all children and pets at a safe distance."  Maybe if I have someone who knows what they are doing I will give it a try again.  Anyway, I did not have a stock pot large enough and all the canning sets that I could find in the stores had pots with bottoms that were not flat.  Since I have a glass top cooktop all of my pots have to have flat bottoms or they will not heat properly.  So, off the the store I go - and I was so excited to buy this beautiful red stock pot!  I love it!

Now I have 4 pint sized jars of spagetti sauce.  Hope we like them!

So, all in all, I had fun canning (at least so far) and with the exception of having to buy a new stock pot and lids for the jars it hasn't cost hardly anything.  We will see how much more I get to can this season and hopefully I will get to can again next season as well!

High Seas Expedition

Vacation Bible School at our church - Northside Christian Chruch - is a BIG deal.  This is something that we look forward to every year.  The kids have fun, John and I have fun, and it is so awesome to see what God is doing every year during VBS. 

The theme this year was High Seas Expedition.  Like always there was a great set and great music!

This year was especially exciting as this was the first year that Nathan was old enough to actually be a part of VBS rather than being in the nursery or toddler room.  Here is Nathan with his group the "Pelicans".

This year John took a break from doing games and was a crew leader.  This meant that he got to go around from place to place with the same group of kids all week (Bible story, Craft, Snacks, Games).  The age group that he worked with was Pre-school.  What a fun age group.  He really had a good time bonding with these little people.

For the second year in a row I did Bible Story.  Here I am with the rest of my team. Bible story is so much fun, but even better than having fun is that you are presenting the gospel to the children.  I got to dress up as

different Bible characters and act out the stories.  The kids love Bible Story time!

 

Elizabeth was in the toddler room this year.  The toddler room is basically nursery, but the kids do get to go to the closing every night so they get to see the closing skit each night and get to learn all the fun VBS songs.  Here is a picture of Elizabeth with one of her leaders - Ms. Stacie.  It was very fun to hear even Lizzy singing the VBS songs at home.

The mission project for this year was through an organization called "Remember the Children" which works with children in orphanages in Romania.

During craft time every kid at VBS packed a box of goodies for a child in Romania.  What an awesome thing to have the children getting involved in the mission.  This was such a bessing. Here are some of the boxes that the kids decorated, they would be filled by the kids the next night.  1000 boxes were packed this week. 

I just have to share how much of an impact this missions project had here at our home.  The day after Nathan packed the boxes he was sitting at the table coloring his VBS page that he had brought home.  He told me all about packing the boxes and the kinds of things that he put into the boxes.  Then he asked me "Mommy, can we move to Romania?" I asked him why he wanted to move to Romania and he told me "Mommy, there are lots of kids over there that don't know about Jesus and they need our help"  this still brings tears to my eyes just thinking about how much my child got this mission project.  If a 3 year old gets it, I am sure that many other children were also impacted by this mission project.  Who knows what is in the future for this little boy!

Granola Bars

My kid's favorite Granola Bars:

4 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 c minature semisweet chocolate chips (or any other yummy treats you want to put in)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease 9" x 13" pan.
• In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter, honey and brown sugar (a pastry blender works very well for this).  
•  Stir in the 2 cups assorted chips, raisin, nuts, etc. 
•  Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes then cut into bars.  Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.