Humbled

Yesterday evening, I apologized to Kiera for getting angry with her and totally overreacting.  She said she forgave me and then she asked, “You’re not going to get really mad at me anymore?”  I told her that I’m going to ask Jesus to help me with that.  She ran to the other part of the basement and came back pretending that Jesus was in her hands.  She said, “Here you go!  Here’s Jesus.  He’ll help you and give you happy lessons!”  That totally hit me and I said to her, “That’s right.  I need happy lessons from Jesus.”  It blows me away how God can speak to me so simply and powerfully through my 3-year-old!  Out of the mouths of babes…

Cazuela Mexicana

I got this recipe from Jared’s aunt when we got married.  It’s another one that my whole family likes, but I can’t eat it because of the canned soups.  It’s also a great meal to make if you need to bring someone a meal.  It’s filling and tasty!

Mexican Casserole (that’s the English translation of the Spanish blog post title)

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1 medium onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups cooked rice

10 oz. jar hot or mild sauce (I don’t add this because of my kids)

1 large bag taco chips

Shredded cheddar cheese

 

Brown beef.  Add onion.  Cook until onion is transparent.  Add soups, rice, and hot sauce.  Mixture will be very moist.  Layer in casserole or baking dish in following order: meat, taco chips and cheese; repeat.  Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.

Optional: Serve with sour cream.

Another option:  Substitute diced turkey or chicken for beef.

I have also made it with chicken which is just as good.  I don’t have a picture, so you’ll have to use your imagination or try it out!

3 Answers + a Need Met

On Sunday night, Jared + I prayed before bed as usual and there have been a few things that I've been praying about.
1. In Jared's dept. they hired 2 new people, so I actually prayed that Jared wouldn't find them attractive!
2. That the postal strike would end soon
3. At Jared's work, they've been having a technical problem, so I prayed that God would give the right people wisdom and that it would be fixed soon

On Monday, Jared came home from lunch and told me that the postal strike was over! Then, he laughed and said he met the new people at work (one he already met on Friday) and told me that one is a middle-aged Filipino man and the new person who started yesterday is a very overweight middle-aged woman. He said that after he met her, he almost started laughing because he thought about what I had prayed! He's definitely not attracted to either of them. He also told me that the work problem got partially fixed, so I'm praying that it will be totally fixed soon! Praise God! I was so blown away by how quickly God answered a number of my prayers!

There was something I was thinking about but I hadn't prayed about it, and God met my need anyway. Blake doesn't have any swimming trunks and we're going to a friend's house and they might play in the kiddie pool. I called a friend to see if she had some 18-24 months sized trunks that I could borrow, but I couldn't get a hold of her. A few hours later, my Mom called and said she was at a store nearby and asked if Blake has trunks. I said, "No, I was just trying to find some." She said, "They're on clearance here at the store, so I'll buy a pair and bring them over." Again, I was totally blessed and they're super cute, too! It just really builds up my faith and encourages me to keep praying and asking God for big things, small things, and everything in between. "Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Ephesians 3:20

It Is Finished

What a whirlwind of activity the last 6 days have been! I have cherished the time spent together with my extended family, but I'm so tired, so I'm glad it's all over. We've had meals together with family members almost every day from Friday - Wednesday. The only day we didn't was Saturday.

The most emotional part of the whole thing for me was the viewing on Tuesday evening. I had never been to one before. I didn't say good-bye to my Grandma in the hospital, so I did that evening. It was good for me to have closure, even though I knew my Grandma wasn't actually "there." My cousin made a really nice slideshow that they had looping for the first half hour or so and one of the songs in there was "Come to Jesus" by Christ Rice. I can't hear that song without crying, so I was kind of glad when they stopped playing the slideshow! It's this beautiful song:

The lyrics that hit me were:
"With your final heartbeat kiss the world goodbye,
Go in peace and laugh on Glory's side
And fly to Jesus, fly to Jesus,
Fly to Jesus and live"

That's exactly what my Grandma has done. I said in the hospital, "She's actually more alive than we are right now because she's in heaven." At the viewing and the funeral, my cousins + I did the music. I played piano, one cousin played acoustic guitar, one cousin played electric guitar, and my cousin-in-law played the cello. At the viewing, all the cousins sang, but at the funeral, only 3 of them sang. We did "It Is Well With My Soul," "In Christ Alone," "How Great Thou Art," and at the viewing we also did, "My God Is So Big." At the viewing, there were tears and laughter throughout the evening. It's sad to say good-bye, but we also had so much peace knowing where she is.

The burial was yesterday morning and we had prayed that the rain would stop. It did stop raining right before the burial and then started again right after it was done! Thank you, Lord! We had our kids there for that part (it was a closed casket), so Kiera just stood there quietly holding my cousin's hand while someone gave a short message about the glory my Grandma is experiencing and about the hope we have and all we have to look forward to. Blake found a dirt pile to play in during that time. He is such a boy! After that, some ladies from the church my Grandma went to and some of my family goes to served us lunch and it was SO good! They had fruit platters with fruit dip, buns, cheese curds, vegetable soup with beef in it, and rice krispy squares for dessert. I filled up mostly on fruit. Jared brought the kids home after that (my friend came over with her 2 kids to baby-sit while Blake napped) and then the funeral was in the afternoon. It was mentioned many times how my Grandma was a prayer warrior and how her prayers have affected our family, as well as many other people. What a legacy she has passed on to us!

After the funeral, we went home for a couple of hours and then Jared went out to a friend's house while I took the kids to the place my Grandma used to live where the family was dividing up her things. On the way there, the conversation went like this:
Kiera - "Are we going to great Grandma's"
Me - "Yep."
Kiera - "Is she going to be there?"
Me - "No, remember I told you she went to heaven?"
Kiera - (paused to think about that) "And now she's REALLY happy?"
Me - (trying not to cry) "Yes, she is!"
Kiera - "Can I go see her?
Me - "Someday you can, but not today."

Wow! Kiera may not understand what happened, but she seems to "get" the part about heaven being a wonderful place. It was really weird going through my Grandma's stuff and taking whatever we wanted. It felt sort of like a mass burglary, except you don't usually rob a person's house in broad daylight with a group of 16 people! I can be very practical at times, so I took a bunch of toilet paper (we were on our last roll at home), fabric softener, a pot, unopened packages of napkins, styrofoam + plastic cups, paper towel rolls, scotch tape, sticky tack, and cloth covered hangers. I also took 3 games (Pick up Sticks, Racko, and Sorry), 2 china teacups with matching little plates (she had a lot of that stuff), a container of spelt flour and a container of buckwheat flour (JACKPOT!), some frozen vegetables, and a frozen pizza. There were no arguments about who wanted what, so it was a fairly easy process! I collapsed into bed exhausted last night and I'm glad that life is moving on now. It sort of felt like everything was on pause while we were going through this. I am actually slightly jealous of my Grandma getting to be in heaven with Jesus, but I don't want to join her yet! I'm sad, but so happy for her at the same time! For her, it is finished! As the verse on the front of her eulogy says, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day." 2 Timothy 4:7 + 8

From Death to Everlasting Life

On Friday morning, while my Mom was reading her Bible, she got a call that my Grandma was going downhill fast, so her and the rest of her siblings headed for the hospital. While I was reading my Bible, she called me and shared the news. My Mom-in-law was going to come over and watch the kids during my doctor’s appt., so I called her while she was reading her Bible and she came earlier so that I could go to the hospital. Lots of morning Bible readers! Before I got there, my Mom called and said, “Ok, she’s in heaven now.” I still went and joined the rest of my family. I have never seen anyone dead before (I’ve never been to a viewing) and it wasn’t very nice. She had her eyes closed, her mouth wide open, and she looked like plastic. The only time I cried that day was a little bit after the first phone call, saying she was going downhill. There was SO much peace in the hospital room and just a closeness among the family members. One of the first things I said was, “I’m actually excited for Grandma because now she’s in heaven with Jesus.” Just the night before, I prayed that God would end her suffering either way, by healing or calling her home, and just as I was praying that, her kidneys were starting to shut down, so I had a very quick answer to my prayer. My Grandpa died 25 years ago, so they have finally been reunited! It’s a loss for us, but we have SOOO much hope because she’s in heaven where it is a million trillion zillion times better. I took the kids to the park later that morning for a picnic with friends and on my way there, I heard “I Can Only Imagine” playing in someone’s vehicle, which was very appropriate.

”Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine…”

The night after she died, God gave my Dad an incredible dream. In it, my Grandma was in heaven and her 6 kids were sitting in front of her. She was talking to them and FULL of energy. My Dad couldn’t see her face, but knew she wasn’t wearing glasses and had no hearing problems. She was telling her kids how on earth, she hadn’t lived to her full potential, but she had no regrets. She just didn’t see and know the things she does now. She was encouraging them that whatever they could see, imagine, think or dream, could be theirs and to not limit themselves! Her voice was shrieking with joy so much that her face was almost glowing and she spoke with passion (totally opposite of the shy, timid nature she had)! On earth, she was scared of water, and my Dad said that she was swimming in heaven and that she stood on one shore, looked at the other shore, and then she was instantly on the opposite side. She was reunited with her family (she has 11 siblings, 1 of which is still alive here) and friends and they were all laughing together. She said she was having such a wonderful time and learning so much! My Dad said you could never talk her into coming back to earth. The dream was SO vivid to him, it was just amazing! My Mom told me on the phone and after we hung up, I just cried. I was SO encouraged and comforted by that! That was such a gift from God!

This morning, we went to church and I thought, “What a great worship service this is!” Everything was sounding good and I was just totally enjoying praising the Lord. Then I thought, “I wonder what my Grandma must be experiencing, hearing choirs of angels and everyone in heaven worshipping the Lord?” What I’m hearing PALES in comparison to that. I think I would just feel like bursting if I heard that! My emotions have been all over the place and I’ve had a lot to think about and process over the last couple of days. God has been SO faithful to our family as we've been going through this. My Grandma ran a good race and now she is done. We have an everlasting hope and a perfect eternity to look forward to!!

Chocolate, A Girl's Best Friend (or at least one of them)

I came across this recipe when searching for a new muffin recipe and I must say these are my new favorite muffins! I am definitely a fan! I just have to say how much I love spelt flour, too. It rises like regular flour and doesn't taste "healthy" like whole wheat flour does, but it doesn't bother the digestive system, either, which is perfect for me! I even used spelt flour in a chocolate chip cookie recipe recently and served them to guests and nobody could tell! JACKPOT (as my brother-in-law, Art, would say)! Here's the muffin recipe:

Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 tbsp. white sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar

1. Heat oven to 400F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. In a small bowl, combine next 3 ingredients. Mix altogether.
3. Fill muffin cups + sprinkle each muffin with a combination of the 2 tbsp. white sugar and 2 tbsp. brown sugar.
4. Bake 20 min.

They are pretty sweet, so if you want them less sweet, then just don't sprinkle them with sugar. I LOVE sugar, so I use a combination of organic cane sugar which is a bit healthier and white sugar. Sugar + chocolate = wonderfulness!

Fun Stuff

We had another busy and wonderful week-end!  On Friday, the kids + I met a bunch of friends + their kids at a park for a picnic lunch.  It was warm, sunny, and although we were kind of busy with the kids, we did get some visiting in! 

Then, we went home so Blake could have a nap.  After he woke up + Jared got home from work, we got ready and went to a fair.  My Mom spent most of the evening with Kiera at an area where they had big bouncy castles + slides, so we just had Blake to look after.  He was happy in his stroller almost the WHOLE evening, which I thought was a miracle!  I guess there was enough to see that he wasn't bored.

We had SO much food and it was fantastic!  Chicken wings, pork on a bun, farmer sausage burgers, ice cream, glazed donuts, popcorn (Jared + Blake had some but I didn't), mini donuts, jumbo freezies, fries, watermelon, and probably more food that I'm not thinking of!  We spent the evening with various friends who we ran into there and just totally enjoyed every part of the evening.  We saw this show which was really cool:

Jared went on a couple of rides with some friends and if I wasn’t pregnant, I probably would have gone on this one with him:

Here’s Blake groovin’ to the music

 

We stayed for the fireworks, which I LOVED and the kids really enjoyed them, too. I was very impressed! Just when I thought they were ending, they kept going and going!  

 

Kiera stayed at my parents’ house for night and she saw the parade the next day and got to go on rides!  I had a practice in the afternoon for a voice recital I was playing piano at the next day.  After that, my Mom brought Kiera back, I quickly bathed the kids, and then Jared + I went to a young adult’s bbq (a group of us from church) while my Mom babysat our kids.  After the bbq (which consisted of amazing hamburgers, steaks, salads, and watermelon), we had a few friends over and played games ‘til after midnight.

The next morning, I had to be at church for 8:00 a.m. for worship practice.  After church, we relaxed at home and then I went and played at the voice recital.  It went well and I got paid pretty good money to play piano, so that was a blessing!  I was completely exhausted by the end of the week-end, but it was worth it!