_______A lot to be Thankful for

We spent the day after Thanksgiving with family.  First, we went on a walk around the lake in Mimi and Boppa's neighborhood.  We all wore red to take a family picture for Mimi and Boppa's Christmas letter so we took the opportunity to take more pictures of the kids (of course!).

Whose idea was this?  At least Amelia is finally smiling!

Family looking like normal people (if it is normal for 11 individuals to show up wearing matching clothes).

Family looking like ridiculous holiday lawn ornaments.  I'm the third reindeer on the right.

That evening the rest of my mom's family who live in Texas came, more than doubling the number of children (from 5 to 11).  We spent the remaining daylight watching the kids play in the street.  After dinner, we put on a movie for them.  Here's 9 of the 11.  2 were already in bed.  Abby's on the floor in purple jammies and Isaac is barely visible between her and cousin Luke in blue.

While the kids watched the movie and went begrudgingly to bed, the grownups played games downstairs (our favorite kid-free pastime).

We are thankful for our time with family and thankful that our family has so much fun together.  What a blessing!

_______Happy Thanksgiving

A blessed day of giving thanks to the One who is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine"!  (Ephesians 3:20)

Isaac helping to prep the pomegranate

The Sharps

The Lagoys

Play time

Making the leaf place mats

Aubrey with her leaves

Lily with her leaves

More play

Two dancing cuties (Aubrey is doing a jig and Abby is being a princess)

Feast is ready.  This family sure can cook (minus me but I'm working on it!)

My cranberry dish (yes, I picked the easiest thing to bring, but doesn't it look pretty?)

Adel's jicama and pomegranate salad

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving Family Ideas

Saying Thanks to God through Actions:
Tonight our family night (see right margin) lined up really well with Thanksgiving.  We took the kids to El Jardin beach near our house and had them help pick up trash.  (We used plastic bags over their hands to keep them from having to touch the trash with their bare hands.) We talked about how we were showing God we were thankful for what He has made for us.  Isaac really enjoyed it.  Abby mostly picked up dirt and shells. I would like to do something similar next year as it was a very simple way to thank God.

Thanksgiving Craft:
Last year my friend Celeste found a craft that we did with our kids and then I modified it for my family's Thanksgiving day festivities.  Essentially, it involves the kids collecting autumn leaves and arranging them between two pieces of wax paper.  I helped the kids iron together the wax paper so that it seals around the leaves.  Then they glued strips of construction paper around the edges to create a Thanksgiving place mat.  The kids enjoyed it and we plan to do it again this week.

Here's a description of how to do it that I found on a website called suite101:

How to Preserve Pressed Leaves with Wax Paper (or Contact Paper)

Arrange pressed leaves between the shiny sides of two sheets of wax paper. Place a brown paper bag underneath to protect your ironing board. An adult should then press the top sheet of wax paper gently with a warm iron for about ten seconds to melt the wax. Let the paper cool thoroughly.

Alternatively, help your children arrange their pressed leaves between two sheets of clear contact paper. Smooth air bubbles away with a spoon.

New Recipe #1: Broccoli and Cheese Frittata

For my first attempt at a new recipe, I went for a breakfasty theme.  I based my cooking on All You magazine's recipe for Broccoli and Feta Frittata:

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups chopped broccoli florets
salt and pepper
7 large eggs
3 oz. feta, crumbled

1. In an 8-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet or well-seasoned cast-iron pan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 4 minutes.  Add broccoli, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 6 minutes longer.

2.  Preheat broiler to high and set oven rack 4 inches from heat source.  In a medium bowl whisk together eggs; season with additional salt and pepper.  Pour eggs over onion-broccoli mixture, stir to combine, then dot surface with feta.  Cook, without stirring, until eggs are set on bottom and beginning to set on top, about 5 minutes.  Transfer pan to oven and broil until eggs are set and beginning to brown, 2-3 minutes.  Cut into wedges and serve hot or at room tempurature.

My changes:
I left out the onion because none of us likes onion.  I also swapped the feta for half goat cheese, half colby jack.  I also added halved grape tomatoes on top just before putting it in the oven. (The goat cheese and the grape tomatoes were suggested by a similar recipe from Diane Rossen Worthington's cookbook Seriously Simple).  I used frozen broccoli and it worked great.  I also added an egg because 7 eggs seemed like a weird number!

How the kids helped:
I sliced about a 1/2 inch off our large block of colby jack for each child and let them use plastic picnic knives to chop it into "cubes."  Isaac also used his plastic knife to cut our grape tomatoes in "half." ("Cubes" and "half" are in quotations because, with kids, nothing is ever exact).  They both helped scramble the eggs before we added them to the hot pot and Isaac helped place the tomatoes decoratively on top.  (Abby spent the rest of her time pretending to paint her toenails as seen below:)

Our scores:
Megan: 7/10
Adel: 5/10, pretty neutral
Isaac: 0/10, wouldn't even lick it even though he likes all 4 ingredients (egg, cheese, tomatoes, and broccoli)
Abby: 5/10

My review:
I would, and will, make this dish again.  It was fast and easy and Isaac is just going to have to learn to try new dishes.  After trying both the colby jack side and the goat cheese side, Adel and I both agreed that cj or cheddar is the way to go.  Forget the fancy cheese.  Adel made awesome potato/yam pancakes to go with it (also from Seriously Simple but the recipe is too long to include here).  You can email me if you want to try it.

_______Doh! There goes the Dough.

Don't you just love wasting money?  Yeah, me neither.  Yet it seems to be the theme of my month.

At the beginning of the month, just after Halloween in fact, I made an impulse purchase of one princess dress for Abby (Belle) that was 50% off in the Halloween aisle. The unfortunate thing was that the princess dress was apparently designed to unravel upon the wearer's first sneeze.  So, after Abby's first time wearing it, we now have a $15 pile of string.  Okay, I exaggerate.  It still resembles a dress, but it is quickly on its way to becoming a pile of string.

I tried to take it back but since I didn't have the receipt or the tags, we're stuck with it.  Abby and I went to the library after that for some good, free story time.  We had a great time with my friend Celine and her daughter Madelyn (Abby's best friend...you should see them fight!).  Then we went to check out our books.  Now those of you who know me well, know that moderation is not my strong suit.  I tend to overdo pretty much everything. So, our normal pile of books to check out looks like this on a weekly basis:

Unfortunately, I have been known to be late with the book pile once in a while, sometimes quite a bit late.  At fifteen books a week, I knew I was racking up some charges (perhaps $5 or $10?) and that at some point I would be blocked from checking out books until I paid the fine.  Well, that day happened to fall on the same day that I failed in getting a refund on the unraveling princess dress. In actuality, my fine was $27.60.  I only had $26 in cash but they let me check out our latest pile anyway, and by golly I did. I then vowed to get my money's worth out of that latest pile of free books. We read those books with a relish not before lavished upon library literature.

Then, just today, I got a little note from Isaac's preschool.  Apparently I missed paying his tuition at the beginning of the month.  Another $20 fine. Yikes!  Where has my brain gone off to this month?  And, more importantly, do I have to tell Adel?

Let me do the math: $15 for a shredded dress, $26 for my library negligence, and $20 late fee for preschool tuition.  That's a "stupidity fine" of $61!  I know it's not that much in the big picture, but oh, what I could do with $61!

Funny enough, in my small group today, we were just talking about behavioral patterns where you let yourself down over and over again and it ends up causing a feeling of shame or hopelessness that you'll never be able to change.  Naturally, I just happened to mention one of my behavioral patterns is carelessness (like the time I dropped an unmarked envelope containing $300 cash...don't ask, but we found it again!) (or the time I missed my flight from Hong Kong to my parent's house in Indonesia and would have had to spend 24 hours in the airport with no money...because I already spent it all and forgot a credit card...if I hadn't bumped into a friend of mine who had an uncle that lived there and could take me in) (or the equally vexing time...was it on the same trip?...that I thought my flight home from Indonesia was on a Friday afternoon, only to discover, that afternoon, that it had actually left without me on Thursday morning).

Yes, friends, I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  Those incidents happened back in my immature college days.  I was a Christ-follower then, but a rather dim-witted one at times!  One would assume that I have matured a good deal since then.  And I have, for the most part.  So why am I now finding myself wasting $61 dollars (oh, what I could do with $61!) on totally avoidable circumstances?  And, more importantly, will I ever really change?  Here's the good news I read in our small group book this week (I doubt the timing of all this was a coincidence!):

"'That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.' (Eph. 4:22-24).

"We are to put on, or envelope ourselves in, this new self that progressively expresses Christian character in our attitudes and behavior...The truth of regeneration can dispel the specter of the past.  Our sins have been forgiven, and we now have tremendous capabilities for growth and change because we are new people with the Spirit of God living in us. Yes, when we sin we will experience its destructive effects and the Father's discipline, but our sin will never change the truth of who we are in Christ" (The Search for Significance).

Anyone who knew me then and still knows me now has been witness to the wonderful change in me as I journey with Christ.  I have come so far from the days when I deliberately chose to ignore God in my life.  This month I have been reminded (once again, and through more alarming ways than simply wasting money!) that I still have much room to grow as I continually put on my "new self."  I have also been graciously reminded that my shortcomings, small and great, will never change who I am in Christ.  Good news indeed!

_______Lake LBJ

We just arrived home from spending a lovely weekend at Lake LBJ with family.  My grandparents were there along with my parents and my sister and her husband and three girls.  Mom and Dad rented a lake house in Log Country Cove, a pretty wilderness area with hiking trails, boating activities, creeks for the kids to play in, and very nicely supplied and decorated log cabins.

Our cabin was named Creekside, and even after exploring the grounds, we feel that we made the best selection from among the cabins.  It was a great size for the 8 adults and 5 kids in our group and located far enough from the road and the other cabins to feel secluded.  It was also close enough to the trails to allow for impromtu adventures.

The cousins on the cabin steps.

The first day there, all 13 of us went on a hike.

DD and her 3 oldest great-granddaughters.

Aunt Lindsay swinging with the kids.

Abby pouting because she was "so tired" (at the beginning of the hike).

Checking out the creek.

The whole crew.

After the hike (and a nap) the grandparents stayed home with baby Amelia while us parents took the 4 older kids to Longhorn Caverns.  The kids were supposed to be acting scared here, but mostly they look like they're eating crackers, which is exactly what they were doing.

Performing (ABC's) on the old speakeasy stage in the caverns.

The next day we took a boat ride around Lake Buchanan.  Because the waters have receded so much, we were able to walk on an island that is normally 8 feet under water.

The kids collected gobs of shells and rocks.

We accomplished my favorite activity on our last full day there: playing in the creek!

Lindsay and I taught the kids how to build a dam.  So much fun!

By the end of the weekend, kids (and grown-ups) were pretty worn out with fun.

Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to a great weekend!

_______Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day was yesterday and I am so thankful for our soldiers, who sacrifice their comfort, their safety, and sometimes their lives for the freedoms I am blessed to enjoy (freedom of religion and freedom of speech being at the top of my list: I can believe in Jesus Christ and am free to talk about it without being punished).  There are so many great movies that give accurate (sometimes necessarily brutally accurate) depictions of the courage and sacrifices of our troops.  Even if we have no close military ties, most of us are familiar with the tales of tragedy, valor, violence, heroism, ferocity, and sacrifice that accompany war.  And those of us blessed to be spared from experiencing these things ourselves are forever thankful to the men and women who live and die through them on our behalf.

Without diminishing my gratitude for our troops, I am also reminded of a book that I think tells a side of the story that we don't hear of enough.  A Year of Absence by Jessica Redmond tells the true stories of six military wives and the unique struggles each one of them faces as their husbands deploy, return home later than expected, and in some cases, don't return at all.  If you have never witnessed first-hand the courage and sacrifice of our military spouses (and also their children), please read this book.  After reading it, I will never again be able to hear a soldier's story without thinking of the family behind him or her who is also giving everything to serve their country.

I'm sending out a special prayer of thanks today for Marisa, Mac, Susanna, Lynea, and Heather, my friends who each have their own stories to tell as military wives.  I'm also thinking of my Nana who lost her husband to war as she cared for her two young children.  Thank you, ladies, for your sacrifice.

_______Discipline out of Love

With my mommy small group, I'm currently reading   The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee.  It's an awesome book, but I'm not finished yet and not ready to write a complete book review.  The section we read this week was too awesome not to write about though.  Below is a quote from the section we discussed today called "The Blame Game," which talks about the false belief we can buy into that those who fail are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.  In this particular quote, McGee points out how our buying into this belief can have negative affects on our children and what we can do to overcome it.  (The bold emphasis is mine, although I nearly emphasized the entire quote because it is so powerful!)

"Our worth is totally secure in Christ, so our children’s success or failure doesn’t have to affect our value to the least.  We need to see our children the way our heavenly Father sees us: deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, and totally accepted.  Then, when they disobey, our discipline will be like the Father’s discipline of us: in love, not anger.  If we approach our children with an attitude of grief rather than anger when they disobey, it will make a tremendous difference!  What a difference it will make if we go to our children with the attitude and words 'It’s sad that you disobeyed.  It was harmful to you, and I love you so much that I don’t want you to harm yourself.  I need to discipline you to help you remember not to do it again.  Remember, the reason I am disciplining you is that I love you so much!' instead of 'You’ve done it again, and I’ll make sure you regret it!  I wonder if you’ll ever amount to anything!'

"Responding to our children in grief instead of anger will have monumental implications on both them and us.  Our children won’t be afraid of us, our relationship with them won’t be marred by anger, and they will be more likely to view God as a loving Father rather than a tyrant.  As parents, we will have a more accurate perception of God’s love and gracious discipline, and we will be more in control of our emotions.  We won’t try to deny that we are getting angry at our children’s misbehavior, letting our anger build and build until we explode.  Instead, we will be able to express our displeasure more quickly and acceptably because it will be wholesome grief instead of unholy anger.  These are powerful and welcome implications, indeed!”

To summarize what my actions as a parent need to be:

·        Don’t ignore the behavior just because you’re busy.

·        Deal with it before it gets to the exploding point.

·        Discipline out of love and not anger.

Too often, I find myself involved in a task and not willing to address the misbehavior of my children until I'm already at the exploding point.  This quote is such a good reminder of how important the task of parenting is and how it needs to be my first priority.  It is more important that whatever project I'm working on at the moment (even, gasp, my blog!).  If I can keep that in mind, I will be more likely to correct my children's behavior before it gets out of control and my emotions go out of control with it.  I so desperately want my children to grow up to know the loving and gracious God that I know and I believe that the relationship of the parent to the child is the best place to teach that kind of grace and love.  I'm going to print out this quote and put it up where I can be reminded every time I need to correct my children.

_______Dirty Little Secret

Okay, so I couldn't be completely honest about how I keep my house clean if I didn't also divulge this dirty little secret.  You know how most families have a junk drawer?  The kind of drawer where they stash all the random items that don't have a permanent home?  Items like magnets, mini-screwdrivers, millions of little pieces of paper with once-pertinent information, and roughly 300 non-working ink pens?

Well, we too used to have a junk drawer when we lived in our California condo.  Tsk, tsk you might say.  How very unorganized of you, Megan.  Well, truth be told, we no longer have a junk drawer.  In our new, spacious home, we now have the luxury of having a junk room.  Our office, secured from our children and young visitors with this handy device...

...is where we stash any items that could potentially clutter the counter tops.  Adel keeps his desk pretty neat, except for the mound of papers on the floor waiting for the shredder.  My desk is usually cluttered with preschool notes, calendars, birthday party invitations, and pages I've torn out of magazines for one reason or another.  But the state of the floor is entirely the kids' doing.  This room also serves as their craft room.  For some reason, they usually feel the need to pull out pretty much everything at once.

I have done my best to organize this junk room / office.  Inspired by my friend Jen who went on an organization spree and labeled all her toy cubbies, I also created a label system for helping the kids put away their craft supplies.

So when I actually enforce the system (rather than ignoring the mess-making in an effort to get something accomplished) the room has the potential to look like this:

Oh how that sight makes my type-A alter-ego smile.  Although I try to be sneaky throughout the day when I want to hop on the computer with a writing idea or to check my email, my children have amazingly accurate sensors for when the office door is ajar and there is no keeping them out when I'm in.  And when we're in here together, I can honestly say I do my best do ignore their activities/mess so that I can concentrate. Consequently, the room almost always looks like this:

Actually, it usually looks even messier than that, with half the boxes and their entire contents on the floor.  It's not the worst thing in the world, but since that's the general state of our office, you can understand why I keep the door closed when you stop by!  Oh how I love having a room to stash the mess and clutter.  After the door closes, I forget the mess exists.  Sure beats cleaning. (And yes, Isaac is not wearing pants.  This is also the general state of our lives!)