I love chicken. I am good at cooking it in Mexican dishes and casseroles. I am horrible at preparing tender, juicy chicken breasts, however.
I am desperate.
After years of presenting my family with dry, bland chicken breasts, I need your help!
Please send me your best recipes for chicken breasts!!! I need them!!!
P.S. I am always open to new casserole and Mexican dishes as well=)
A few minutes ago, after their “rest”:
Noah: Mommy, when will you turn 21?
Me: Mommy has already been 21. I was 21 when I married your Daddy.
Noah (eyes lighting up): Oh!
Sammy: Mommy… I am 25.
Mommy: Actually, Sammy, you’re 3.
Sammy: Atchally (he completely butchered the word actually)…I’m 5-20.
Mommy: What?
Noah laughs.
Another story:
Noah witnessed his 5th or so baptism today. We also took the Lord’s Supper. This was his first time watching others take the Lord’s Supper. In the past, it has always bothered him to not be able to be baptized. Add the Lord’s supper to the mix (I mean, who doesn’t want grape juice?) and we had quite the situation on our hands.
During the baptism:
Noah: Mommy, when can I be baptized?
Mommy: When you give your heart to Jesus. (I am in no way prepared to even try to explain effectual calling to my son, so “giving his heart to Jesus” seemed to work just fine for now.
Noah: I will give my heart to Jesus! I want to give my heart to Jesus!
Oh boy. I don’t remember how I managed to divert disaster but I somehow did.
During the Lord’s Supper (the second he noticed food was involved):
Noah: Mommy! What’s that?
Mommy: It’s bread. It’s something Christians do to remember Jesus dying on the cross for them. It’s very important and we have to be quiet.
Noah: Oh. That’s not bread.
Mommy: It’s a cracker, but it’s made of bread.
Noah: Can I have one?
Mommy: No. It’s just for those who love Jesus (WHY did I say that to a 4 year old?!)
Noah: I love Jesus!!! I do!
Mommy: It’s not something you can do until you fully understand what Jesus did on the cross for you.
Noah: Ok.
Again, disaster somehow diverted.
A few moments later…
Noah: What’s that?!
Mommy: It’s Jesus’ blood. (What?!? Why did I say that? I don’t believe in transubstantiation. I’m not a Roman Catholic. I love grape juice! Why in the world did I say blood?!)
Noah (looking frightened): What?!
Mommy: I mean, it’s grape juice, but it reminds us of Jesus dying on the cross and the blood that was spilled for us.
Noah: But now His blood is in Him again and He is alive?
Mommy: Yes.
A few moments pass and the Pastor says “Do this in remembrance of me.” I did and Noah flipped!
Noah (to the whole church): Don’t drink His blood!!!
Oh boy is right.
Mommy: Shhhh! It’s not his blood. It’s grape juice, remember?
Noah: Oh yeah. (laughs) When can I get baptized?
Here we go again. Thankfully, the service ended.
Another Noah story regarding crucifixion:
After my Sunday school class ended, I went to the preschool room to pick up Noah to head to worship. Much to my surprise (although knowing Noah I should not have been surprised) I found Noah in the center of the room with all the other kids surrounding him and saw about 20 crosses made out of wooden blocks in a line across the room. It was like the Great Wall of Crosses! I looked at Myra (his teacher), already knowing the answer, and said “this was Noah’s idea, wasn’t it?” She nodded.
It was kinda spooky. Almost like a vigil. All they needed were candles. As soon as I picked up Noah to head out, two other boys ran up and kicked over all the crosses. Sinners.
In Simon news:
He has two new words:
Hot.
Cheese.
You wonder why these two words?
He always tries to touch his bath water before I have the temperature under control. I am always quick to say “HOT!” He figured it out. It’s all he says now.
And obviously I take a lot of pictures. I held the camera up one day to him and since then he has been saying “CHEESE!” It sounds like sssshhhheeeessss. Close enough.
So now we have:
Mama
Dada
Hot
Cheese
Ball (on occasion)
Bye (on occasion)
Dog (on rare occasion)
Play (it’s coming along…right now it sounds like puh or pay…I know what he means!)
That’s all for now=) The stories never seem to end!
N: Mommy, where will Simon sleep in heaven?
M: I don’t know if he’ll sleep or not. We’ll probably just sing to Jesus and love Him all the time.
N: I bet Jesus will carry his crib up to heaven. He’s a strong man. He can do it.
M: Noah, you have no idea…
He then proceed to try to dress up like Jesus and die for our sins. He dies for our sins on a regular basis. He rather obsessed with death right now as last week was Easter. I just got a whole story on Judas and his betrayal. I’ve got a thinker, that’s for sure!
Do you think he’s too young for a talk on the atonement? It kinda worries me that he thinks he can die for each of our sins too=)
Noah watched A Baby Story with me today. He was enthralled! He was sad for the laboring woman because she was “hurting so bad,” according to him.
When the baby was delivered, he was ever-so-relieved. He said “Mommy, the lady isn’t hurting anymore. Aww! Look at that baby! He’s so sweet!”
David would NOT be impressed, but perhaps I have a future doctor on my hands LOL.
To celebrate, a few photos:
since I don’t have anything overly important on my mind:
anxiety, that is.
My dear friend, Kacie, had a wonderful post on anxiety yesterday. You can read it here.
Anyone who knows me knows that my biggest sin struggle is definitely anxiety. The word alone evokes feelings of disgust and dread from within me. Lately, I had begin to think that anxiety was becoming less and less of a struggle for me. Perhaps, as sanctification so does, I was slowly pulling away from the world and slowly becoming more like my Savior? Be that as it may, anxiety is something we are never completely free from until this life is over, I am sure of it! The Spirit made that ever-so-clear to me yesterday as I read Kacie’s post on the subject.
David and I are facing many tough decisions in our lives right now that would naturally make one anxious. And I realized- I’ve been giving in to it! Instead of turning my worry into prayer, I’ve been endlessly fretting and taking the burden upon myself, all the while completely overlooking that the burden is one that Jesus would gladly bear for me, and He could actually do something about…unlike myself.
Then this morning I found another excellent writing from Desiring God on this same topic. It is long, but worth the read. Click here to read it!
An excerpt (based on Matthew 6:24-34):
Everybody can see plainly that the main point of this text is that disciples of Jesus should not be anxious. Verse 25: “Do not be anxious about your life.” Verse 31: “Do not be anxious, saying , ‘What shall we eat?’” Verse 34: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” So one thing should ring in your ears when you leave this morning, namely, “Jesus does not want me to be anxious.”
But that is just the negative way of stating the main point of this passage. There is a positive way found in verse 33; namely, instead of being anxious, “Seek first God’s kingdom.” In other words when you think about your life or your food or your clothes or your spouse or your job or your mission, don’t fret about them. Instead make God the king in that affair and in that moment, and hand over the situation to his kingly power and do his righteous will with the confidence that he will work for you and meet all your needs. To seek the kingship of God first in every affair and every moment of life is a thrilling way to live. It’s full of freedom and peace and joy and adventure—and hardship; and it’s worth it all. If you believe in the kingship of your heavenly Father, you do not need to be anxious about anything.
The boys and I were watching Dave and the Giant Pickle today. I have officially found my favorite VeggieTales line ever. It takes place when Jesse sends Dave (David) to check in on his brothers. He tells him to take them lunch. When Dave arrives, all his brothers are fearful of the pickle (Goliath) and they are all trembling. Dave says that he will fight Goliath because none of the Israelites trust God to defeat the giant. The conversation ensues:
Brother: “Are you kidding? He’ll have you for lunch!”
Another brother: “Speaking of lunch, what did you bring?”
They open a big cardboard box.
Yet another brother: “Umm…PIZZA!!! With cheese in the crust. That’s tremendous!”
Ok I know it’s probably only funny to me. Maybe you would laugh if you saw it. That is what I love about VeggieTales, though. I think only adults get their humor because I honestly believe that my boys think that the Israelites actually had pizza. It’s so hilarious!
Another great sermon from Voddie Baucham on Biblical Headship. From his website:
“Biblical Headship is a hot-button issue in both the culture and the church. What is a man’s role in marriage? What is a woman’s role in the church. What exactly is “headship” anyway? These questions and more are addressed in this message. Buckle up your seatbelt.”
Check it out here.
This is good stuff. And even better because it’s what I studied in my quiet time yesterday=) Enjoy!
Has anyone checked out TLC’s new TV show The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom?
I have. And it made me…sad. It didn’t surprise me- nothing does anymore.
At first, I thought it might be a neat show. I mean, as women we have interests outside of our home. Provided that we don’t make anything more important than our highest calling, I see no sin in that. I was excited for these women who were going to be given a few days to- basically- have a little fun.
I have to admit- I wasn’t crazy about the wives lying to their husbands about where they were but, after the first day on the “job”, they told them. Not okay- but it didn’t make me turn the TV off.
What infuriated me was the latter part of the program. After having their fun and seeing what their lives would have been like had they chosen to have a career and not stay at home with their children, the woman is almost always offered a job in that position. This leads to a grueling, heart-wrenching decision between husband and wife. This week’s show found hubby and wife in this conversation:
Him: “So what do you think?”
Her: “It’s such a great opportunity! It’s what I’ve always wanted.”
Him: “I know it is.”
Her: “Do you think you could stay home with the kids?”
Him: “Of course.”
Her: “Do you think we can afford it?”
Him: “No.”
So time passed and she had to make her decision. Ultimately, she decided to stay home with her kids. I was so proud of her I wanted to leap to the ceiling. She said:
“They’re (her sons) still clay. I’m still molding them. They’re too young for me to be away from them every day.”
In the end, however, my primary frustration was with TLC. I wouldn’t call it an outright agenda, and perhaps they see nothing wrong with what they are doing, but in one of its mildest forms, this is another attack on the family and God’s design for the home. It’s sad what the world continues to become and I just continue to pray for God to have mercy on us.
