2011 Project 365: Week 17

Day 113: (both shots taken with my 85mm and an extension tube)

Day 114:

Day 115:

Day 116:

Day 117:

Day 118:

Day 119:

Sin is Sad

Ella’s favorite Bible story right now is the story of Noah and the great flood. She loves to talk about the story every night before she goes to bed as she usually requests: “Talk about Noah!” When we discuss the reason that God brought the flood to the earth, sin (Genesis 6:5-7), Ella promptly responds: “Sin is sad.”

Sin truly is sad. It can be easy to forget the true grief that sin can and does bring into our lives. I think the devil wants us to forget that sin is sad. He wants us to think about the passing pleasure that we might have in sin or even rationalize that sin just isn’t really that bad. But it is.

Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). This has been apparent since the beginning  when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command (Genesis 3). Sin has consequences: most definitely eternal and often even within our physical lives here on earth.

I hope that as a parent I properly convey and teach the seriousness of sin to my children. I do not want to do a disservice to my children by rationalizing sin away, or deemphasizing the importance of obeying God.

Isaiah 59:1-2

“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save, Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”

Wordless Wednesday: Clouds

Happy 7 Months Troy!

Seven months old! It is crazy to think you are already seven months old. When I rock you to sleep I’m reminded of when you were younger, but when you are awake, you remind of how much you really have grown!

You enjoy being outside (just like your sister!). You hung out in a “real” swing for the first time this month. I think you liked it, but you were pretty tired when we were at the park.  Speaking of tired, when you are tired, you like to be in your bed asleep or in my arms asleep (unlike Ella who just seems to get more and more energy as she gets tired – she never did like to sleep in my arms). You’ve started sleeping better at night – you generally only wake up once, but you still have some nights where you wake up several times.

You started being capable of holding your own bottle at the end of last month, but recently you’ve gone from holding it with your arm (like in the photo below) to really holding it with two hands. You can also put it in your mouth and take it out of your mouth. You are sitting up better and better everyday, but you still don’t sit on your own yet. You’ve started eating solids a little bit more, and you tried puffs this month. You are your mama’s boy when it comes to bananas – you really, really didn’t like the banana puffs! I wish I would have captured the face you made when your dad gave you the banana puffs – it was priceless! Ella happily ate them up though, ha! You don’t like to sit straight or lay straight. You prefer to sit cock-eyed in your bumbo. This might be your mama coming out in you too. :) You’ve also figured out how to bend yourself out of the bumbo – we have to keep a close eye on you now! This month you figured out how to find your pacifier in your crib and put it in your mouth if you want to use it, but lately you seem to prefer to suck on your thumb. I find your thumb-sucking funny because you barely liked it when you were younger, but just recently you’ve really started sucking your thumb.  Sometimes when I check on you in the middle of the night you are sucking your thumb. You also enjoy playing and chewing on your toes.

You really love familiar things. You love my voice, and you also love your sister’s singing. She enjoys comforting you when you are sad by singing your favorite song “Jesus Loves Me.” I find it completely precious that the lullaby of choice in our home is “Jesus Loves Me”  - by your choice! Other songs just don’t comfort you the way that one does!

Photo Challenges

With a sick household last week, I missed linking up to my regular photo challenges. Glad to be back this week!

Multicolored @ The Paper Mama:

Easter @ The Trendy Treehouse:

Pets @ Simplicity:

This is an older photo (I've shared it before), but I think it is too funny. :)

Sweet Shot Tuesday @ My 3 Boybarians:

I Heart Faces: Pets

Wordless Wednesday: Fun with Monkey

I would love some inspiration from YOU

I recently came across a lovely idea on Pinterest (if you don’t know what it is I like to think of it as virtual bulletin boards where you can “pin” ideas from the web and share your pins with others – I’ve already found some great ideas through it!). The project is a “Family Rules” canvas from this blog.  (I’m not sure if it originated there or not, but that’s where I first saw the idea.)

Basically, it is a canvas of your personal family rules with things like “Always keep your promise,” “Encourage your siblings . . . share in their joy,” “Husband – Hug your wife daily & Wife- Always be on his side,” “Always tell the truth,” “Too much TV is bad….too much reading is good,” “Always say your prayers…thank God for this family,” etc. I really want to make one for my family, but I don’t want to just go with the ideas on the one shown on the blog – I want to make the rules personal and important to our home. So, here’s where I’d love some inspiration from you. If you had one of these in your home, what rules would you include? Once I finally get around to making one (I’m really going to take some time to think about what I want to include, so it might be a while), I’ll be sure to share it here!

A Few Small Thoughts About My Blogging (more to come . . .)

When I entered the blogging world as a real, dedicated blogger (and not simply just a reader or as a hit or miss blogger), I really wasn’t sure where I would go with blogging. I had an idea, but I’d had ideas before (in fact, I think I’d started something like four other blogs before settling with this one). I didn’t know if anyone would read my blog, but I wanted to blog anyway. (By the way, I am really thankful for my readers. I’ve made some good blogging friends, and it really amazes me everyday the wealth of information that the blogging world has brought to my fingertips.)

Over the next month, or maybe even two, I’ll be writing some posts about the reasons that I blog – some are more serious than others, but I want to share them. And, some of them have developed along the way – I didn’t start out blogging for all the reasons that I blog now. These things have been on my mind because I want to produce a blog with quality content whether that content is a beautiful or goofy photo, memories of my children, dealing with the joys and struggles of raising children and being a wife, a spiritual thought, or even something else. I think writing down the purpose to my blogging will help me to produce more quality conduct.

I could write more, but I am feeling myself fade a bit. Ella has been sick (although she is definitely on the mend), Troy is now sick, and I’m on the verge of being sick as well.  On that note, it is hard to keep up with who’s medicine is due at what time when there are three sick folks in the house. I really ought to write down the last time every one got their medicine! :)

Menu Planning Monday

You might have noticed that I didn’t post a menu last week. My husband was giving me a hard time because the way things have fallen over the past few weeks, we haven’t been eating at home as much, so even though I had been planning menus, we hadn’t been eating many of them (so last week we still had food for meals I had already planned). Hopefully we’ll be back on track to eating at home this week!

• Biscuits, gravy, and sausage.
• French fried onion baked chicken with a green veggie and baked bread.
• Grilled chicken and sausage with corn bread and leftover pinto beans.
• Tacos with guacamole.
• Pasta with a meat sauce (either with ground beef or ground turkey).

I Heart Faces: Wind

Homemade Baby Food: Applesauce

(To read my introduction to homemade baby food, click here. To read Wholesome Baby Food’s information on applesauce, click here.)

Start by peeling the apples. I chose to use 5 apples, but you might use more or less depending on the size of the variety of apples and how much applesauce you want to make.

One you have peeled the apples, core them and slice them. I like to use my handy apple corer, but it isn’t necessary. Keep in mind, though, that you want the slices of the apple to be approximately the same size so that they take about the same amount of time to cook.

There are a couple of different recommended ways to cook the apples: baking and boiling/steaming. I chose to steam my apples. Cover the apples with water, and boil them until they are very soft (a fork should easily break them apart when they are soft enough). I add a tiny bit of lemon juice to help prevent the apples from browning too much.

Place the cooked apple slices into a food processor or blender, and blend until you like the consistency (generally thinner for younger babies and thicker for older babies). You can add the cooking water (or breastmilk or formula) to thin out the applesauce. You can also add cereal to thicken the applesauce.

Distribute the applesauce into the ice cube trays, cover, and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, remove from the ice cube trays and store them in the freezer.

By the way, another benefit to making homemade baby food . . . it smells really great! I loved the sweet scent of the apples cooking.

2011 Project 365: Week 15

I’ve been very lax about getting my project 365 photos posted. Hopefully I’ll have some time to go back and post the past couple of weeks, but for now, here is this week’s photos!

Day 99:

Day 100:

Day 101:

Day 102:

Day 103:

Day 104:

Day 105:

 

What’s in my camera bag?