Family Devotions

Brandon has been teaching a new class at church. It is called "Parenting on Purpose", and we have been so blessed to get to know the families that are participating. Each week, we talk about raising our children for the Lord. There is some great conversation and lots of laughs! Brandon and I have mentioned that we have a family devotional, and in full disclosure, I thought I'd let everyone have a glimpse of our precious, serious, serene, calm, highly spiritual time of reading God's Word and memorizing scripture together...

We try to have our family devo during the end of our breakfast time. Breakfast is a time that we are usually all together each day, and it makes for the easiest time to grab a Bible and chat for a bit. Here's how this morning went: As Brandon leads us in our Scripture for the week, it reminds me of a song. I sing. Libby smiles and heads to her craft table which is covered with her's and Clara's various projects. Clara follows her whining, "I want to do MY stickers!!! Where are my stickers?!?" Brandon calmly tells them to get back in their seats. I finish singing. They are searching for stickers. Brandon tells them again to get back to the table. I tell Libby that she had better get that table cleaned up right after breakfast, and Clara is still whining about her stickers. Somewhere during all of this, we are still trying to recite our scripture for the day. I think we are all glad that it has something to do with gold and honey because we can relate to this much better than statutes and precepts. Our patience has thinned, and we are now commanding the girls to get back to their chairs. Clara is crying because she is sure her stickers have been thrown away. At last, we have said the scripture, and life can move on.

I told Brandon that we should really let people know that this is how our devos go sometimes...to which he responds, "Sometimes?" We all had a good laugh thinking about that one. Yes, it's true, there is sometimes more chaos than calmness during our family devo time. However, we are trying and are learning how to do this. It is precious, and God will use His word in all of us!

Hello, Blog... I've missed you!

So, it has been AWHILE... but, who's counting. Today, I am saying no to excuse # 4,893,540,384, and I am updating my blog! I can hear the excitement. :-)

We've been busy like any other family, and I'm not going to bore you with many details. You can rest assured our girls have grown a ton, and we're all doing well. We are truly blessed.

In my attempt to keep this blog updated, I am telling myself that this is just for fun... I am not going to compare this blog to others...just say no to blog envy! Also, I am going to make time to write and not just read. Yes, I've been reading blogs and doing very little...well, okay, NO writing.

So, here's to more blogging from our home to yours!

Weekend Fun!

We took the girls to and Indian museum and an old school house museum yesterday. We all had a really great time...and learned a few things, too! Today, we went and picked blackberries and blueberries. YUM! (Yes, the blackberry cobbler is in the oven even as my fingers type.) And, aren't you so blessed to see a picture of it, too?! Wish you were all here to enjoy it with us!

Daddy/Daughter Day

Ok, this is my first attempt at blogging so bear with me.

Today Kristen is attending the Extraordinary Women's conference to become even more perfect. That means that the girls and I have the day together, so here is what we did today:

After the usual wake-up/good morning snuggles, they decided that they wanted chocolate cake for breakfast. Since we did not have any cake, it meant we got to make one. Now we had some success at Christmas making a cake, but today we did not have any sucanat, so the whole thing would have to be made with either honey or Agave Nectar, or both. We opted to go with one round and one square layer in order to make a heart shape. They then begged for icing, which I made with the little bit of powdered sugar we had. It was not near enough sugar, so I tried a trick I saw on Food Network. You put regular sugar in the food processor and in a minute you have powdered sugar. Sounds easy, but the small black N decker model obviously does not have the power to do this as we had "crunchy" icing as Libby called it. Then they wanted sprinkles, when I said "no" Libby said, "but it is what I have always longed for," and how to say no to that? After we were done "decorating" the cake, the girls decided to save it to surprise Mommy when she got home.

So we had eggs for breakfast. Here is the cake:

Next we played for a bit and then headed out to "town." We stopped by the Fort Walton Beach Free Zoo (aka Petland) and played with a Daschund puppy that retailed for like $1200, so I made sure Clara did not break it.

Libby is not in the pictures bacasue she stood on the bench the whole time convinced this viscious beast would bite her.

Then we read books in Books-A-Million and then headed to TGIFridays for lunch. We had a coupon for $8 off our meal, so guess what our bill was? $7.99..oh yeah...beat the system. I just opted not to eat until I got home, but the girls enjoyed their lunch.

Libby enjoyed so much that she ate the eniter bowl of pasta, a cup of Chocolate Milk, Mandarin Oranges, adn the patty of Clara's Hamburger. She is laying on the floor with a Tummy Ache (oops).

Now we are home again, awaiting Kristen's return so we can try this cake. I think I'll let them have the first bite. It's been a great day.

Brandon