This is Who I Am

I've been thinking a lot lately about who I am.  I don't want to get all philosophical, but just want to think about the kind of person I am.  You see, I'm an oddly sort.  Here are some things that a lot of people don't know about me....

I'm a dork... I love Star Wars and Star Trek, and I'm not ashamed... I love them to the "I-have-a-Jedi-costume" extreme... I wanted to make a Klingon costume but never got around to it...

I love video games... they are fun and suck up way too much of my time...

I'm a 30-something year old wife and mother of 4...

I don't have a precise theology nailed down... I believe the Bible... I believe that Jesus and God are the same... I believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way, Truth and Life... I believe that there is only 1 God (the God of the Holy Bible) and only 1 way to get to Him... through Jesus.... I don't believe it is logical for people to believe that the gods of all different religions are the same god... they can't all be right...

I've wanted to move to Africa and live in a mud house for about 10 years now... I'm getting ready to move to Honduras and live in an adobe house... this is good enough for me... I've never heard anyone say they dreamed of living in mud house before...

I wanted to have 8-12 children, but my body couldn't handle it... this still makes me sad... I hope to one day adopt at least that many... I'm excited to be another foster mother to the 23 girls at Project Talitha Cumi in El Obispo, Honduras... I don't speak nearly enough Spanish to live in a Spanish-speaking country...

I believe that evolution is a religion... it takes just as much faith to believe it as it does to believe the Creation account of the Bible... I believe that God literally created the world by the sound of His voice in 6 literal days...

I believe that all people are created with a need and desire for God... but most people don't recognize this for what it is and try to fill their lives with stuff, sex, drugs, money, food... I believe that this breaks God's heart...

I believe that bad things happen because of Satan... good men die... children get cancer... people go hungry... I believe that this also breaks God's heart and He wants the hurt, lonely, sick, poor and hungry to come to Him so that He can love and comfort them... I believe it breaks His heart even more when His creation chooses to blame Him for the bad things rather than cling to Him...

I believe that peanut butter is one of the most wonderful foods on the planet... combined with bananas, I believe it may be the perfect food...

I want to lay my life down for Jesus... I want to give up all hold or control of my life to Him... I want Him to lead and guide me every step of my life... This scares me... a lot...

Sometimes I don't have the faith of a mustard seed...

I am not a great, faithful person... I simply want to be obedient... I believe Jesus when He said, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." John 3:36

I don't mind washing dishes, but I don't like putting them away... I hate washing silverware...

I wish I could adopt every orphan in the world...

I think my children are cool people... I like to hang out with them... but they also drive me crazy a lot of the time...

I think my husband is nearly perfect... although I don't really want him to know I think this...

I wish I wasn't scared to talk to people I don't know... I want the Holy Spirit to fill me with love and boldness and power so that I can minister to hurt and dying people without being nervous....

I believe that the greatest thing in the world is LOVE... God wants us to love each other... I think that people who claim to be Christians and bomb abortion clinics or beat gay men to death are lying... they are not really Christians... I believe that God can heal the world through our love... Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself... if we would truly love our neighbor as we love ourselves there would be a lot less pain and heartache in the world...

I am naive and gullible... I want to believe that people are good (even though the Bible says that no one is good)... I can also be a little ditzy and airheaded... I wish I could fix that, but I can't...

I'm a wife, mother, teacher, friend, sister, daugher, Jesus-seeker, dork, dreamer...

This is who I am...

~Linda

Life Goes On

Well, I haven't had time to post blogs since we left for Honduras.  Our stay there was wonderful.  Many of you know by now that we are planning to move to Honduras full time to work with Such is the Kingdom Ministries.  Read more about us on our family blog.

We've been home for a month now, and life is anything but "normal" (not that our lives were ever very normal).  Football season is in full swing and the team is doing well.  Evan is playing, Elizabeth is cheering.  Nathan will begin flag football this weekend.

I've had a hard time getting into the swing of school and cooking meals/caring for a household since we came back.  I cooked supper yesterday AND today, which seems to be a real feat.  I haven't done that since we came back.  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.  My healthy eating has taken a nose-dive since we just haven't had access to things like whole-wheat flour and coconut oil while in Honduras.  And as I've said, I haven't done much cooking since we got back.

Anyway, here is a menu plan for the rest of this week.  Hopefully this will kick start me back into my routines. I'm starting simple...

Tuesday:
Chili and cornbread (just wanted to through this in to show that I really DID cook!)

Wednesday:
cereal (blah)
chili nachos or chili dogs
Crock Pot Lasagna, biscuits, gelato (15th wedding anniversary dinner)

Thursday:
Baked oatmeal with raisins and bananas
hamburgers
burritos

Friday:
Banana muffins, scrambled eggs
mac & cheese
Dirty Rice

Saturday:
Blueberry pancakes
sandwiches (on the road to the football game)
?? - dinner out as we'll be in Atlanta for a football game

Sunday:
muffins at church


Well, that's as far as I've gotten.  I'll probably need to go shopping again Saturday morning so that we'll have something for Sunday.  Oh the joys of settling back into life!

~ Linda

Honduras - Day 1

The long awaited day has finally arrived.  We made it to Honduras in the middle of the night.  We were very nervous as we came through customs as we did not know what to expect.  We had hoped that the hotel would send a shuttle for us, but they did not.  Thankfully there were plenty of taxi drivers waiting at the airport.  We were able to catch a cab.  I had to use some of my very poor Spanish skills to get the taxi.  I'm pretty sure they charged us an exorbitant amount, but when you hot and exhausted in a foreign country in the middle of the night, you just want to get somewhere and lay down. 

So all of us plus the taxi driver and our tons of luggage stuffed ourselves into a station wagon and headed to the hotel.  We checked in and settled down at about 2:00 AM. We only have a small window unit air conditioner in our apartment, so I slept in the living room with that. 

We had a great breakfast provided by the hotel.  I had eggs, toast and fried plantains... Jer and the kids had pancakes.  I'm hoping that they'll branch out while we're here. 

After breakfast, we spent a couple of hours at the pool and decided to take a taxi into town to have lunch.  San Pedro Sula is one of the biggest cities in the country, and still there are people living in what we would say is squalor.  The main streets through town are pavement, but most side streets and any residential areas are dirt roads.  So we're driving through this area that is all run down and dirty and then suddenly we're on a street that looks more like downtown Atlanta or something.  Tall buildings, a mall, the Hilton...  By the time we made it to town and looked around the mall a little we were so tired and hungry that we just ended up eating at Applebee's... Maybe next time we will try something more authentic, but for today it was nice to have something familiar.

I have already developed a new appreciation for non-English speaking people in America.  It's really hard and frustrating for everyone when you can't communicate properly.  I'm trying.  Jer knows zero Spanish, and I know very little.  We're managing though.  I'm hoping that we'll both speak it much better by the time we leave. 

The chairman of the board of directors for Such Is the Kingdom Ministries (http://www.sikm.org/) has been coming here multiple times a year for 10 years though and still can't speak Spanish!  Oh well, he gets by.  He even traded some pigs for a generator once!

We will be leaving San Pedro Sula and headed for the farm and Project Talitha Cumi where the girls live on Saturday.  Jer's parents are bringing a team to meet us and we'll be taking the 4 hour bus ride up the mountain on Saturday morning.  Jer will be driving a bus load of supplies.  Pray for him.  He's never done anything like that before and the Hondurans drive like maniacs.  They take traffic rules as more of a suggestion than an actual mandate!  They will pass anywhere they think they can squeeze their car through and honk if you are in their way.  There's a lot of honking going on!

After we head up to the farm, we will not have constant internet access, so I will try to update everyone at least weekly!

Thanks for your love and prayers... keep sending them our way! We could still use some financial donations to make sure we have enough to get back home... haha!  If you're interested in contributing, contact me and let me know!

~Linda

Homemade Cheese Sticks

I already shared a recipe for this in my Super Bowl Menu post, but I wanted to revise it a little and show a pic.  These are really good!

1 - 8 oz. block of mozarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups of flour
4 cups bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying
Marinara sauce (optional)

Combine bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Set up a dipping station with a bowl of eggs, your bread crumbs and a bowl of flour.  Dip the cheese sticks in the flour, then in egg, then flour again, egg again and finally bread crumbs.  Place on a tray.  Once you have dipped all the cheese sticks in this manner, freeze for at least two hours.  If you want to make a large batch ahead of time, then after two hours, remove cheese sticks from tray and place in a freezer bag.  Store in freezer.

When ready to prepare, heat oil in a pot or deep fryer.  Carefully add cheese sticks, and fry until golden  brown and cheese is melty, about 3-4 minutes.  Serve with marinara for dipping.  These turned out great, and so much cheaper than what you buy already frozen.

~Linda

Homemade Hamburger Buns

A while back I tried my hand at making homemade whole-wheat hamburger buns.  They were pretty good, more like rolls than hamburger buns.  But they were certainly edible.  The best part however was that we made doughnuts out of the scraps.  Thought I'd share a couple of pics. 

We fried them up and dusted them liberally with powdered sugar.  Certain little fingers couldn't even wait for me to get the picture taken before reaching for one! 

Everybody loves a good doughnut! 

Final analysis?  The buns were good, but the doughnuts were better!! Give 'em a try and see what you think!

~ Linda

Any-Kind-Of Muffins

We love muffins in this house.  I make them all the time.  We love them with cheese and fruit as an easy breakfast.  We love them by themselves as a snack.  I have a great, simple and delicious muffin recipe that I thought I'd share with you.  You can change it up anyway you want.  Unlike some of the recipes that I share here, this one is completely my own concoction!

For the writing of the recipe, I'll make the Apple Cinnamon muffins, but you can use whatever flavorings you like.

2 c. plain flour (you could use white, wheat, buckwheat, rye, cornmeal, whatever, or a combination)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tb Baking Powder
1/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz yogurt (this can be plain, vanilla or whatever flavor would compliment your muffins)
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 c. sugar (or honey, sucanat, rapadura, maple syrup, or whatever - I'd like to figure out if stevia might work)
1/2 c. milk
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix flour with salt and baking powder.  Add remaining ingredients and mix just until combined (if you stir it too much, they'll be tough, especially if you're using whole wheat flour.)  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 15-18 minutes.

You can double or triple the recipe and freeze them for later use.  They make great snacks.  One thing I'm trying to get in the habit of doing is preparing as much as I can today for tomorrow's use.  So if we're having muffins tomorrow, I'll try to make them tonight so that all I have to do is heat them up.

Now for the variations, you could add: bananas, berries, mango, pineapple, ham, sausage, or bacon & cheese, garlic and cheese (these would be good with a pasta dish), ham & pineapple for a Hawaiian  muffin, cinnamon raisin, orange cranberry, sweet potato, pumpkin or any combination.  One day I had some leftover mango, pineapple, and blueberries.  I threw them in the food processor with a banana.  They made the BEST muffins.  NOTE: Remember to adjust your flavorings accordingly.  You wouldn't want to use sugar, vanilla yogurt and cinnamon in a garlic and cheese muffin!  If you're making a savory muffin, plain yogurt would be fine, but you could use sour cream instead if you're concerned.  The yogurt or sour cream makes the muffins soooo moist!

This morning I used this recipe to make Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping.

What yummy combinations can you think of?

~Linda

A Day in Our Lives

A few weeks ago when I posted about our choice of homeschool curriculum, I promised a post about what our school day looks like.  I've always been laid back when it comes to school.  A year or two ago, I started to panic when I realized that high school loomed large, but I feel that I've gotten my emotions back in check and we are on a good course.  So, our days are again laid back and as easy going as I can make them.  That does not mean that they are without academic rigor.  I expect much from my children. I personally believe that the public school system dumbs down their curriculum (here's another link regarding this subject).  But perhaps we will save that debate for another day. 

On to our typical school day.  I have to note that there is little that is typical about my family.  With 4 birth children and 1 foster child, days are always a little hectic.  Also we are a very busy family with plenty of outside activities to keep us hopping.  But here is what we strive for every day.  If we hit this mark 3-4 days a week, I'm happy! 

Evan (8th grade) usually wakes around 7:00 (which was long before the rest of us before Baby B came!) and gets started on his school work.  He is required to do the following things each day: 

Bible - 30 minutes (he is allowed to choose whatever portion of Scripture he would like.)

Math - 1 lesson each day - he is currently using Saxon Algebra 1

Reading - 1 1/2 hours each day - he is reading through the book list that I created - He is currently reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

History/Science - 30 minutes each day - alternating between the two daily - Currently he is reading Beacon Lights of History Vol. 1 and The Sciences by Eward Holden.

Writing - 1 hour or 1 page each day - usually he is composing an essay either based on his current reading or based on a topic that I have assigned - Currently he is working on a research project about Honduras.

Poetry/Current Events - 10 minutes each day - alternating - For poetry we use the suggestions at  Ambleside Online.  For current events we use magazines from God's World News.

Nathan (3rd grade) is required to do the following:

Bible - approximately 15 minutes per day - He is using the Keys for Kids devotional books

Reading - 30 minutes each day - He is also reading through the book list and is reading The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess

Math - 1 lesson per day from Saxon 3

Spelling - 15 minutes per day - Spell to Write and Read

Poetry/Current Events - 10 minutes per day alternating between the two daily

McGuffey First Reader - 10 minutes 2x per week - Nathan is required to read this aloud to me so that I can make sure he is pronouncing the words correctly and understanding  the use of punctuation. 

Occasionally he is required to write an original composition and we work on grammar, punctuation and spelling based on the mistakes he's made in his writing.  He is also required to narrate to me so that I'm sure he's comprehending what he's reading (Evan is required to do this as well.) These are both very Charlotte Mason ideas. 

I am currently working with Elizabeth on phonics and basic math concepts.  She is using Spell to Write and Read.  She uses Math-U-See Primer for math.  

Ben and Baby B are just tagging along for the ride.  They are wonderful children, but not always the most helpful when it comes to getting school work done.  *wink*

Friday's are supposed to be our Friday Fun Day.  It is a shorter school day.  The kids are still required to do math, but less reading.  Evan alternates each Friday reading either How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler or Community Civics and Rural Life  and discussing it with me.  We also do once-a-week unit studies on Friday.  We are currently doing a study of the Life of Jesus.  

Believe it or not, we are usually done with school by lunch or 1:00.  This is great for me as the kids can have some free time and I (hopefully) have a few minutes to relax or get some work done (usually the latter).  

What's your typical school day like?  What would you change about it?

~Linda