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Our Menu for this week…

I’m sharing our menu for this week. I recently revised (and am still working on) our family menu and shopping list. We’re getting ready to leave back to visit family on Friday so it’s a little lighter toward the end of the week.

Monday: BBQ Meatloaf — it’s a great twist on the “stand by” our kids love it and it’s easy enough that my husband can make it if I’m not going to be home. You can see the recipe here. I change mine a bit and use regular mustard and instead of bread crumbs I use oatmeal.
Tuesday : Broccoli and cheese soup and Semmel. Here’s the recipe I’m using for my soup…I’m still trying to find the perfect one. I plan on sauteing some chicken to add to it for a little protein. Semmel is a German hardroll that is fairly easy to make and really yummy to eat. I’ll add the recipe at the bottom of this post.
Wednesday: We have AWANA and 2 young ladies from our church have offered to help make dinner for our family each week. We have to be there from 5 – 8:30pm. It is such a blessing to have them willing to do this for our family, and takes a lot of stress off because I usually work on Wednesdays.
Thursday: Breakfast pizza (it’s actually called heart attack breakfast pizza). I got the recipe from a new cookbook, so I don’t have a link yet, but will include it in the future. This is the first time I’ve made it so we’ll see how it turns out but it sounds really yummy!
Friday: Leftovers. We’ll probably eat leftovers during the week for lunch too. But I’m guessing we won’t have as many as I hope. We’ll use this night to clean out the fridge before we leave on Saturday morning.
Here’s my recipe for Semmel:
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 package dry yeast
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup milk
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Mix warm water, sugar, milk and dry yeast and let rise for 10 minutes.

Heat 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup milk in a saucepan until warm.

Sift flour and salt onto pastry board. Make a groove in the flour and mix in yeast mixture and then warmed milk and water. Knead or beat with wooden spoon vigorously for approximately 10 minutes until dough makes air bubbles and is soft and smooth. Let rise for approximately 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Shape into round rolls and let rise again for 10 minutes.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Brush with water for crispness. (I don’t do this)

April Showers bring May….

Babies!! At least in our family this year. (Kerry said technically it’s not April showers, but I thought it made a cute rhyme). We are expecting baby #5 at our house around mid-May. We are thrilled!!

For those who are wondering…
Yes. We’re planning a home birth again. Our last one was so awesome why not?
No we weren’t “trying” for a girl…we’d be delighted with another son (our 5th) or a daughter. We can’t put an order in anyway so we’ll take what we’re blessed with. One that note though…Otto and Zeke were praying for a sister. We’ll see.
One of the next questions (or comments) that comes up…at least this week is “are you competing with that lady (Mrs. Duggar) who is going to have 20 kids”. No. Having babies is not a competition…BUT we, like the Duggar family, leave our family size up to God. We believe that children truly are a blessing and that if we desire God’s blessing, that we should allow Him to decide what He sees fit for our family. We realize it’s not a conviction everyone has, but it’s one that we have. We believe that “He who gives mouths…will give meat to feed them”. We trust God for His blessings and His provision.
We know that having a larger than normal family is unusual, but we’re okay with being “weird”. 🙂 In addition to trusting God for blessings we also trust His timing. The space between Z and T is 21 months, the space between T and this baby will be 21 months.
So that’s the big news at our house. We’re all pretty excited. One of the neat things about our large family is that the big siblings don’t dread having another baby…they look forward to it with anticipation. The think about what this baby is going to look like and who gets to hold the baby first. They’re excited to be big brothers again and we’re excited to welcome another child to our family.

Just one more bite

So it’s that time of year again when I’m going through our menu list and taking out stuff we don’t like anymore, are tired of, or that we just didn’t eat and I’m replace them with new meals for our meal rotation. I plan our meals on a 2 week rotation and *try* to buy groceries once every two weeks. There is still the occasional trip to the store to stock up on milk, bread or pick up sale items.

I have to say I’m kind of excited. I really like to read cookbooks. I like to scour them for recipes that I think my family would enjoy, I like to see what other people cook. Sometimes I read the recipes and I think there is no way anyone has ever made this. And if they did…they had way too much time on their hands.
One of my favorite things to do is to look at cookbooks from various parts of the US and see how the “tastes” change. For example, I have a cookbook from the “United Methodist Ladies in South Texas”. It seems like every other recipe calls for green chilies or corn bread. The one I have from Pennsylvania doesn’t have a single mention of green chilies OR corn bread. I have a new Pueblo West Women’s League cookbook that I’m really liking. Again…green chilies, but we have lots of Italian folks around here so there are some pretty great pasta recipes too. The funny thing about this cookbook is that there are a lot of recipes for alcoholic beverages. Something you’d never find in my Mennonite cookbooks from Kansas. But you’d never find a recipe called “head cheese” in the PWWL cookbook either. 😉
One of my favorite cookbooks is the one my grandma gave me when I was 9. It’s one that is blank. She started it with the recipes we cooked that summer…butterscotch pie, cream puffs and coffee cake. I filled in other family favorites and as I got older added some of our family favorites. I can flip through it and remember where I was when those recipes were introduced to our family. I have peanut butter popcorn from when I lived in Manhattan with my future sister in law and we read a recipe calling for 8 cups popcorn as 8 cups UNPOPPED popcorn. We had to do something with it. I have a recipe for chocolate covered bonbons that I got when I was in highschool and made treats for the football team on Fridays. I have a recipe for “The Swap Bark” that I made when we first started homeschooling. We also have a recipe for “Due date soup” that Kerry and I made up when I was very pregnant with Zeke.
So the menu revision isn’t just about coming up with something new for our family, but also about remembering where we’ve been.

I got nothing

I don’t know if it’s because I have a cold (the one everyone else in my family is getting over and the one that I’m just getting) or if it’s because I have so many thoughts bouncing around in my head, but I got nothing.

I have been trying to write a blog post for 2 days. I know that I have a couple more posts in my “Leave and Cleave” series, but I can’t make sense for anything. I have things in my brain that are begging to be written, but when I start they hide in the deep dark corners and don’t come back until 3am. I really should have a little notebook to write down my thoughts at that time of the night, but to be honest the thought of actually sitting up in my freezing cold bedroom, using my cell phone for a light so I can see to write and then trying to fall back asleep, just doesn’t appeal to me. I’m pretty sure that if I tried it, I would be awake for hours thinking of all the stuff I need to get done the next day.
I want to write about my family and the things we’re learning together. I want to write something profound and thought provoking. I want to write something that will inspire. But, for now, I got nothing.

Feel the vibe

I’m going to post something intensely personal and open myself up wide to critique and injury. But it’s been rattling around in my brain today and I just gotta put it out there.

I grew up fearing failure. So much hinged on being able to perform well and please those around me. There were times that I felt my very acceptance into humanity depending on if I could act right, say the right things and “fit in”. I spent hours in grade school learning and mimicking the behaviors of those around me. I would study the girls around me in line waiting to go to lunch. I’d watch how they stood, how they talked and how they held their hands when they spoke. I desperately wanted to be a part and not be the “outsider”. I went to school in a very small community and “belonging” was very important. If you didn’t belong…it followed you forever. I never felt like I belonged there and still don’t. But I’ve learned that’s okay.
At home I mastered the art of doing what I was told and trying to limit the “waves” that rocked the boat. I should clarify that my parents weren’t horrible monsters, but they set the bar high and I felt the need to hit the mark. Hitting that mark often determined if I was allowed the privilege to attend a ball game or go on a date.
When I married my husband I had become a really good rule follower and really good “people pleaser”. Tell me what to do, tell me what you expected of me and I would follow your instructions to a T. In fact, I think that my ability to fit in to most situations is because of my ability to “read” people and mimic what I see and hear. I have learned to “fit in” so that I don’t look out of place or like a failure. Growing up I felt that my acceptance, love and inclusion was very conditional and based on my “performance”.
have spent a good portion of our marriage learning to be comfortable in my skin and learning what it’s like to be unconditionally loved. It was and is a difficult concept for me to understand sometimes. I still have trouble grasping how someone can genuinely still like me when I mess up or say something ridiculous. I mean, I know that I unconditionally love and care for those around me, but I have a hard time feeling that in return.
I think that my difficulty in understanding unconditional love stunted my growth in God and has stunted many relationships. It took me a while to trust Kerry to know that he would really love me if I messed up. It has taken me even longer to believe that I have friends who will still like me if I am less than perfect. I stress when I’m put in a position where I feel less than adequate, because of my huge fear of failure and judgement.
My fear has been magnified lately, mostly to myself, in church. I have been playing drums each week for our worship team. I played drums in high school and was comfortable with that. It’s a lot easier to play drums when you have a huge pep band behind you. But when you’re playing in a smaller group, in church, in front of people you know…it’s a whole different ball game. But here’s the thing…I’m surrounded by people who genuinely care for me. They don’t judge me based on my drumming, but I’m still fearful. I have been concentrating so much each week on keeping a steady beat (because I don’t want to be responsible for throwing the song off and “ruining” the moment for someone) that I have forgotten to let the Spirit lead me. I have forgotten that this is WORSHIP. It’s not a “don’t look stupid”, but it’s a GLORIFY GOD time.
Today our worship leader (who happens to be about 5 years younger than I), told me to “feel the vibe” to just work from the “spirit of things and worry about mechanics later”. He said “I don’t care if you mess up…” Whoa! You don’t know how freeing that was for me to hear. I didn’t rock it out during the worship set, but knowing that I was free to make a mistake without feeling like there was a penalty was fantastic. I mean seriously…that little bit of permission felt like it broke a dam. And I have to tell you…it’s not like our worship leader it this big music dictator. But I have been so paralyzed by fear of a mistake and failure that it has prevented me from being able to worship, or even enjoy playing.
I am so thankful that God can use me in my weakness. I am so thankful that he loves me even though I’m imperfect and that I don’t have to do anything to “earn” his forgiveness. I feel very blessed to have a husband to loves me regardless of my imperfections. And I’m learning that I have friends who really do accept me and aren’t going to put me in friend “time out” if I screw up the beat in worship on Sunday morning.
It’s a hard lesson to learn and it’s hard to trust. But lately I’ve been reminding myself that God’s power is perfected in weakness. That is so reassuring! So I encourage you to “feel the vibe” and embrace all you are in Christ. Be thankful that God will use your weakness to show His power.

2 Corinthians 12:9

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast [a]about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Life with boys

Life with boys…It’s an adventure. This past week especially. Here are some things I’ve learned about being the only girl in a house full of boys.

1. Teach them to clean bathrooms early. Once they start potty training, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you will need to clean the bathroom on a fairly frequent basis. At the very least the toilet will need a good wipe down and most likely the floor around it too. So…since I don’t use the facilities standing up I’ve taught the boys how to clean the bathroom. I haven’t cleaned a toilet for almost a year. In fact, as part of our life skills day today Gabe cleaned all 3 bathrooms by himself and he did a stand up job. (Hehehe). Oh yeah…don’t put the good bathroom rugs in the boys bathroom either.
2. Get used to body humor. I don’t think it really matters how much you try to avoid this, but at some point with boys farts, burps and arm toots become really funny. I would, however, recommend limiting it to places other than the dinner table, public gatherings and church.
3. Save money for co-pays. We have learned to just budget for a co-pay each month. With 4 boys, we’ve spent our share of time in urgent care, the orthopedic office and the pediatricians office. By the way…did you know that they don’t put casts on in the peds office any more? They send you to the ortho office…it’s all just a scam if you ask me, but I can’t do anything about it. In the 8 (almost 9 years) we’ve had our boys…we’ve had 3 broken arms and a broken nose. I’m pretty sure that the count will only go up from there.
4. It pays to have some dermabond (think super glue for skin) around. If we ran to Urgent care for every thing that needed to be pulled together we’d be very poor. Otto seems to be our “laceration/open wound” kid. We have had to take him for staples a time or two, but for most things the dermabond works just fine.
5. I might also suggest being a nurse. Again…cost savings here is totally worth it. Parenting in general isn’t for sissies and parenting boys makes it doubly true. Being a nurse helps me decide if it’s really something that needs to be seen or just a “rub dirt in it and walk it off” kind of thing.
6. Buy livestock. Seriously. We have purchased a whole cow the last 2 years in a row. We have had just a little left at the end of each year. I can’t imagine what it will be like when these guys get to be teenagers. We already have 2 deep freezers and keep them fairly full. I’m thinking that a future in cattle farming may not be a bad investment…except we’d eat all the profits. Oh yeah…consider purchasing chickens (we go through 5 dozen eggs a month easily), goats (for milk…I hear they’re much easier to milk) and possibly 10 acres for a garden.
7. Don’t buy expensive jeans or shoes. They wear them out so fast that it doesn’t matter if you spend $50 or $10 on jeans. Crawling around on hands and knees causes the same wear and tear. I promise.
8. There will be some brawls. Boys are physical. They play and fight and work physically. Everything they do is physical. The throw punches at the same time they’re hugging each other. They jump while they’re counting, folding laundry or eating dinner.
9. They are loving and tender-hearted. Our boys care about each other and other people. They write each other notes, make gifts and generally watch out for one another. Even though they’re busy…they need hugs and kisses regularly.
10. You will do lot of laundry. I mean lots. It will be muddy, dusty and sometimes slimy. I would suggest making sure you check pockets before you put them in the washer, otherwise you’ll end up with a basin full of rocks, sticks, coins and possibly a small creature that didn’t survive the spin cycle.
11. I wouldn’t trade having boys for anything. We get a lot of comments about having all boys and people are always so astounded when I tell them I would take 10 more even if they’re all boys. I delight in our boys. I delight in their activity, in their energy and in their “boyness”. My boys bring me so much joy. They may be busy and active, but they don’t have me running crazy and they’re not a “disaster” or “trouble” like so many fear. My boys rock.
If I’m ever blessed with a girl…I’d delight in her as well, but it’s not like I’m disappointed that I don’t have a girl yet. If God gives me boys for the rest of my life…I’d be thrilled. I figure if I have all boys that I will get my “daughters” when they get married.
Every child is a gift from God, boy or girl. They each have their own unique personality and I really believe that it’s all in your perspective.

Garden of the Gods trip

We took our first trip to Garden of the Gods this last week as a family.

Mom and her boys. 🙂 The boys were most anxious to be able to climb the rocks.

Pretty view.

Gabe and Otto exploring one of the small spaces only they could fit in.

Titus spent the trip on my back in the wrap so most of the pictures of the boys are of the 3 big boys.

This was their favorite part. We could have spent all day here just letting them climb.

There he is!

Zeke was holding on to the tree root to keep from sliding down the hill.

The views were great!

We went for a picnic at a park close by. While we were sitting there eating, we saw this herd of deer move through just like it were an everyday thing. It was pretty cool.
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