A brief pause.

I'm really excited about the conference coming up. It's going to be a great weekend! Today I get 7 hours of prep time!! So thankful to Nana's and Grandpa's that randomly call asking to play with the boys.

When we moved and life was busy I forgot to sit and savor the wisdom of the Bible. But for now I have learned that the busier I am the more I need to sit in quiet with God and His Word. So here's just a bit of what I'm reading these days:

O LORD, how many are Your works! 

In wisdom You have made them all;

The earth is full of Your creatures...

...They all wait for You

To give them their food in due season.

You give to them, they gather it up;

You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good.

You hide Your face, the are dismayed...

Let the glory of the LORD endure forever;

Let the LORD be glad in His works...

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;

As for me, I shall be glad in the LORD.

~ Snippets of Psalm 104

2004.  A reliable God.
2017.  Man dates leaving me home to quietness.
2018.  Unexpected requests for the boys allowing me extra time to prepare for the up coming conference.
2019.  The Psalms

Telephone

Remember the game we played as children where one person would start by whispering something like I'm wearing a red shirt today.  The message would get passed down the line and it would end like this, I have a monkey wearing mittens today.  As fun as that was that is not what I want to play here on my blog.

Some have said that it is sad my church has made me take down my blog.  I just want to be clear that my church did NOT make me take down my blog from the website.  In fact I have been encouraged by them.  This whole situation took place outside my church body.

Moving on...

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and turmoil with it.

~ Proverbs 15:16

1995. Choices, the gift of choosing our own path.
1996. The journey of this last year.
1997. Coming to understand the freedom a relationship with God brings.
1998. Writing, a creative outlet, given by my Maker.

A foggy lens

For almost two weeks my camera has been hidden away.  Today at the request of Man of the woods I brought it back out.  I remembered why I use it so often, it captures the joy my eyes so often miss.

He who gives attention to the word will find good, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

~ Proverbs 16:20

1985.  Man of the woods wanting to capture the joy.
1986.  The familiar feel of the lens.
1987.  A friend that supports my ministry to the ladies playing with the boys for a few hours.
1988.  Boys who wait giddy at the door for her to arrive with hugs and "I love you's"
1989.  To meet with my partner in the conference.
1990.  The bed situation working out perfectly.
1991.  The overwhelming and unexpected investment the church is putting into the conference.
1992.  Small man hugs at there request.
1993.  A husband willing to walk.
1994.  Dandelion yellow highlighting the joy in my Bible.

Easter traditions.

When we married we knew Easter with an Easter bunny most likely wasn't going to happen in our house.  It was confirmed when Man of the woods was asked at the age of two if he was going to get a basket from the Easter Bunny?  Having never talked with him about the Easter Bunny I silently waited for his response, "The Easter Bunny is just a game, he's not real."  Well that settled it if he at the age of two instinctively knew there was no such thing as the Easter Bunny then we weren't going to have one. 

The only problem with this is that I love Easter and it has become our family's private holiday.  We share Thanksgiving with my parents and Christmas with his parents, but Easter is all ours.  So what should we do to celebrate?  the other thing I madly passionate about is making Easter as big a deal as Christmas since they go hand in hand.  What good is the birth of the Christ child if we don't celebrate the resurrection as well?

So each year we make it our own a bit more, by starting our own traditions.  Last year we started two.  1.  We added the Easter egg hunt in, by using the resurrection eggs.  These eggs don't hold candy they hold a little bit of the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.  When the game of finding is over the story begins and last year was repeated at least three times in a row.  The second tradition we began last year was that we spent in in a hotel.  As I said before this holiday is ours and ours alone so we hit the road found a great hotel and spent the weekend swimming, cuddling, and just being us without the daily routine.  It was good. (Although this year April is a busy month with us spend a little over a week apart so we're saving the hotel experience for the day we're reunited.)

It's been fun watching the holiday become our own.  Looking forward to this year and teaching the boys about the One who loves them most.

End of the week.

I've been kind of quiet this week. Laying low and hanging with the hoolies while the snow has silently been falling, but there are some highlights.

Last weekend I went to wonderful Bar Harbor for the weekend. Every year I pack up all my scrapping supplies, and print hundreds of photos (around 750 this year) to spend the weekend on the water front scrapping with about 100 other ladies. This year my core group of 4 ladies and I plus our newest addition all roomed together. We got hardly any sleep ate Chinese food, talked like school girls late into the night and spent time telling each other about our beautiful babies as we scrapped. It only happens once a year and it is always good.

The boys they played hard with Daddy, doing man things such as this:

On Wednesday it began to snow. Hard to believe that just a week ago we were dipping out toes into the Atlantic on and 84 degree day. But even though the skies were gray our world was full of anticipation and excitement as our dear friends welcomed there son into the world. I even had the privilege to hold him just hours old. Let me tell you perfection! He is the most perfect baby I have seen in at least two years! =)

To end the week Strong man and I sent the kidlets to Nana's and we went on a date.  We both ate like birds all day so that we could splurge on dinner.  To follow it up we went on our once a year movie date thanks to a saved Christmas gift...A good week, with a good ending.

1937.  A weekend away with the ladies.
1938.  Once the lights are turned out talking late into the night just like school girls.
1939.  Chinese, movies, and scrapping in our room.
1940.  A cozy room all snug with five ladies that sometimes only cross paths this one time a year.
1941.  Memories through pictures.
1942.  Getting to know each other through pictures.
1943.  Fruit, granola and yogurt a simply wonderful breakfast.
1944.  Uninterrupted meals.
1945.  Living for a weekend on my time not a child's time frame.
1946.  Reuniting with the hoolies.  Lots of cuddles and much love.
1947.  Naps with the boys.
1948.  A friend giving me time to work on the conference without the boys.
1949.  Butterscotch brownies.
1950.  A comical day of mis-haps-That last roll of tp being completely soaked, being peed on, and such things like that
1951.  The stress of needing more beds.
1952.  Sisters to barrow clothes from.
1953.  Nana and Grandpa to love on the boys while we date.
1954.  A good date with the hubster.
1955.  Spring snow.
1956.  Watching friends fall in love with there perfect baby boy.
1957.  New life.
1958.  Holding Mr. Perfection just hours old, my heart is still melting.
1959.  Wondering at God's divine creation.
1960.  Spending hours in a book store kidless.
1961.  My jeweler lending me a tool because we have a good relationship with each other.
1962.  Consequences bring us closer to grace.

Purity Retreat Promo: "God's Grace"

What a wonderful problem we have!!  There's a good chance we won't have enough beds!!  We're doing a bit of scrambling with the conference only a month away, but we're working on making more space.  It's going to be good.  Thanks for all the prayers and support as we make this happen!

As requested...Whoopie pies

I actually made two different kinds of whoopie pies over the St. Patty's weekend.  One in Green velvet with the normal filling and the other the normal chocolate cakes with peanut butter filling.  they both were very good, with there own problems.

Green velvet whoopie pie recipe:
2 cup flour
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2Tbs green coloring
This recipe said it made 42 halves but I only got 20 halves.

Filling:
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups confectioners sugar
7 1/2 oz. marshmallow fluff
2 tsp. vanilla

Chocolate whoopie pies with peanut butter filling (sorry no pictures of these):
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 Tbs baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups water
2 tsp vanilla
Set the oven at 400 and bake for 12 minutes.  Should make 48 halves or 24 whoopie pies.
This came out tasting perfect, but stuck to each other causing them to break apart as one would take it off the tray to eat. I think I should have baked them for a minute or two longer.

Use the above filling recipe only substitute the peanut butter in the place of the shortening.