NKOTB

In the 60's it was the Monkees, in the 70's it was the Jackson 5, the 80's (early 90's) it was the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!! And yes...I was a fan! I had their posters up on my wall, wrote "I love Jordan Knight" everywhere, wore their t-shirts, went to a concert, knew all the words to all their songs and even memorized the choreography. Today, my dear husband reminded me of how much of a teeny-bopper I was and sent me these videos. Fan or not, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of watching these:


STEP BY STEP

YOU GOT IT (THE RIGHT STUFF)

PLEASE DON'T GO GIRL

I'LL BE LOVING YOU (FOREVER)

and let's not forget

HANGIN' TOUGH

New Kids on the Block Forever!!!!!!!

Enjoying the Beauty of Spring

I found these amazing shots while searching for pictures of flowers. Aren't they beautiful?

photos courtesy of mypupk

The Suffering Servant

"He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth."

Isaiah 53:3-5 (NASB)

Remembering the sufferings of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to save a wreched sinner like me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ATE!

Happy Birthday to my big sister, Te! Or as most of you call her, Chanette. Growing up my sister and I weren't really "friends". We loved each other as sisters would, but we didn't have that friendship sisters might have, being so close together in age. Until the Lord saved us. Now my sister is one of my closest friends. We can hang out and talk about non-sense things or sit down and share about what the Lord has been doing in our lives. I've seen my sister grow in so many ways. She's an encouragement not just to me and my family but so many families around the world. Love you, Te!

The First Dance

This is such as cute video, I was crying when I watched this because it was just sooooooo sweet. I'm a dork, I know.

The Flu Bug

Earlier this week my throat was starting to feel really itchy. I just figured allergy season is approaching. So I took some allergy meds but the itchiness wouldn't go away.

I woke up Wednesday morning with my throat sore and burning, feeling chills and sweating like a bulldog. What happened? How could I possibly have gotten sick? My immediate prayer was for God to protect my family from catching the flu bug. We all know how tough it is when the whole family gets sick.

So Wednesday, I pretty much stayed in bed. Everytime I tried to get up I'd get so dizzy. The children kept asking me what was wrong and why I'm sick. They quickly offered to help out... how sweet! "Can I make you breakfast, mom?" Even though it was the afternoon, I said, "yes". After about 30 min or so, Alrick and Chloe came upstairs and surprised me with a special breakfast, a bowl of cereal and popcorn. Even though my head was pounding I got up and shared that special breakfast with them.

We've been teaching Alrick different ways how he can help around the house. One of the ways is showing him how to make food for his sisters. Wednesday was a wonderful day to observe the fruits of our labor. He gave them milk and cereal for breakfast (even gave Mara Jaden milk in her sippy cup), PB&Js for lunch & popcorn for snack. I was in and out the whole day but when I was awake, I kept telling Alrick how thankful I was for him. How God is pleased when we help one another. He gently replied, "I know Mom, I love you."

Thursday and Friday morning I was still having dizzy spells and migraines so Al decided to stay home from work. I'm so thankful for him. We all know the amount of work it takes to keep a house running. Al took care of it all so graciously and without complaint. He continually wanted me to just lay down and rest. Thank you, Love, for taking on all the tasks for the past few days, I love you!

Conquering Mt. Laundry

As I prepare for tomorrow, I look over to the hallway and there it is...AGAIN...MT. LAUNDRY! I'm pretty much doing laundry everyday. With all the clothes changes the kids make and the bed sheets that need to be washed I'm always wondering, "Will it ever end?" NO.

Laundry is one of those chores that seems to never get checked off my list. Then I think about how fortunate I am to have a washer and dryer. I can't even imagine having to wash all these clothes & sheets BY HAND! I commend the men and women of the past and present who continue to launder this way.

"Do everything without complaining or arguing," - Philippians 2:14

Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was asked by a few friends to post this delicious cookie recipe from allrecipes.com. It's so yummy and makes a lot of dough. So you can make a few dozen now, refrigerate the rest, then bake more later. One of the things I've also done is put the dough in a Ziploc bag (the one with zipper closure) when I want to store it. Then when I'm ready to make more all I have to do is snip the bottom and squeeze the dough out (you might want to let the dough sit for a bit once out of the fridge so you can squeeze it). This is lots of fun to do with the kiddies.

INGREDIENTS

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

PREP TIME - 15 Min

COOK TIME - 12 Min
READY IN - 1 Hr 40 Min
YIELDS - 6 dozen

Happy Baking!

By Any Other Name

Of all the beautiful flowers that God has created, my favorite are roses. Any rose, I love them all! Al would sometimes buy some "just cuz'" roses, just because. These are the most recent ones. Only God can make something this beautiful!


Now, I'm no photographer but I did try my hand at taking some artsy shots. Myra, what do you think? The pan-out inspiration was from you.

Home Management Tip #1

Throughout the web you'll find so many helpful (and not so helpful) tricks and tips from other people. I enjoy researching different ways to help me be more efficient in managing my home. One thing I really love is finding ways to stay organized. Probably one of the best ways to be and stay organized is having labels. You don't have to go and purchase a label maker right away. When the label maker I had stopped working a couple of years ago, I would use various things to make my labels. I used address labels or I just printed them using MS Word then taped them where they needed to be. Recently, Wal-mart had a sale on label makers and since the one I had wasn't working anymore I thought this would be the time to invest in a new one. I got the Personal Label Maker LetraTag Plus LT-100T for $19. "WHAT A DEAL"! This label maker just puts a smile on my face because I know that it'll help me to keep things in order. Here's a picture of my most recent label victim.






I put this clear bin with some frequently used meds over my range hood in the kitchen. Now when someone needs a pain reliever or some lactaid (ahem..me) they know where to get it. Even Al! Love that label maker!


Home Management Tip #1 - LABELS.


BTW, Ruby over at Ruby Edits has some cool tips for editing your home, Sharon at The Good Woman has great Healthy Home Hygiene information and Haar over at Haarism will be putting up some tips also, you might want to check them out.


Take care and Happy Home Managing!

Where did I go?

If you tried clicking on my blog but you couldn't because you "weren't invited", it's not because I don't like you anymore, it's because I was trying to update my blog template and sort of messed it up...oopps. Thankfully I downloaded it before I lost everything. Well, it took some time but I think I've gotten it to where I can allow viewers in again. Sorry about that.