Our Five Senses ~ Sound

Cacophony: a harsh discordant mixture of sounds

synonyms ~ din, racket, noise, uproar

In my house it sounds like Sam’s guffaw mingling with the giggles of the girls as they all crowd around Sarah’s

computer to watch their favorite clips from Mr. Bean.

It’s the sound of the metronome’s tic toc keeping time to Emily’s piano playing.

It’s the clang of plates and silverware as the table is being set and the oven timer goes off.

Its the low rumble of a kitten’s purr as they settle in our laps for an evening snooze.

The sound of his voice telling me he loves me as he kisses me goodnight.

The rustle of the bed covers and the familiar sounds of the house settling down for the night.

It’s the sounds of grace and blessing…sweet reminders that I live a life of abundance…evidence of His provision.

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Strength To Comprehend

Every now and then we are given the privilege of walking along someone as they travel a difficult road.

We weep with them as they grieve with hope and we dance beside them when God turns their mourning into joy.

And then we join their chorus of praise as God blesses them abundantly more than they could have asked for.

Maybe that’s why looking at these pictures makes me teary eyed. I watched these sweet friends suffer with grace during seasons of loss and wait with hope for a baby to love. I witnessed their indescribable joy taking their son home and I’ve been humbled hearing them pray for his birth mother.

And then, in His generosity God has given them another son due in a few months.

How amazing is that?

It’s also this little fella’s cheeks…or maybe those big brown eyes…that get me when I look at him.

 I know he gives a lot of joy to his Mama and Daddy!

Such a precious family!

And it doesn’t hurt that I took my most absolute favorite tummy picture of all time with them, either 🙂

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,  from whom every family  in heaven and on earth is named,  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-20

Broken But Rejoicing

Sunday Stillness      Scripture and a Snapshot 

Not Going To Waste It

The weather this week has been so wonderful! My windows have been open and I have found myself finding reason to be outside frequently.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been to the beach or near the beach for a variety of reasons like photo shoots or dinner to celebrate buying our home.

But I haven’t been able to stop long enough during those times to enjoy my happy place.

So today one of my best girlfriends will drop her son off at school while I drop mine off at the school and we will head to the beach. With packed lunches and cameras in hand we’re going to wander the fort, feel the breeze blowing, lift our faces to the sun, and put our toes in the sand.

I realize this glorious autumn weather we’re having probably won’t last…we live in Florida after all.

But for this day I am going to savor it…rejoice in it…and not waste a single ray of that autumn sunshine.

Making Memories

It’s been said that a happy family is but an earlier heaven. It’s a beautiful idea that I caught a glimpse of over the weekend photographing this sweet family.

It was the first time I’d met Mark but I knew Amy when she used to teach K4 at Trinitas. It is always such a pleasure when I get asked to photograph the same people more than once and having done Mr G’s first birthday pictures I knew I was going to enjoy seeing those bright blue eyes and quick smile again. He’s pretty much always been a handsome fella, hasn’t he?

We had decided to do the pictures at Ft. Pickens and we had a good laugh at how almost creepy the fort seemed when we first arrived…we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

How precious is Mr G picking and giving flowers to his Mom?

It didn’t take long to see how much this family loves each other…truly a bit of heaven here on earth.

Thanks for spending the afternoon with me you guys!

Pinterest Test Kitchen # 70 ~ Baked Chicken Spaghetti

I cannot remember the last time I was so excited about a recipe! For some reason this pin for a baked spaghetti casserole caught my attention and I couldn’t wait to make it. I actually made it two days in a row…once with a penne pasta for our weekly church potluck (I was also missing mushrooms and forgot the Tabasco sauce) and then for dinner Monday night using spaghetti noodles and adding in the mushrooms and hot sauce.

For the record while I am normally a penne over spaghetti noodle kind of gal  this recipe is definitely better with angel hair. And the hot sauce is a definite must have ingredient although you could leave it out. There is just such a small amount though that I really encourage you to use it and keep it handy in case you want to add extra. I also added extra veggies because lately I really just like them.

It has all kinds of flavor and a creamy cheese sauce that mixes well with those vegetables. Another bonus is that it all comes together in one big skillet so clean up is relatively easy too.

What you’ll need:

2 cups cooked and chopped chicken

1 package angel hair (or spaghetti noodle of your choice) cooked according to directions 

2 cups sliced mushrooms

3/4 cup celery, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 medium to large bell peppers, 1 each yellow, red, and orange, chopped

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of milk

8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

4 oz colby jack cheese

1 tsp hot sauce of choice (I added 1 1/2 tsp and we still added a dash more when we made our plates.)

What you’ll do:

Saute your veggies in 1 TBS of butter for about 4 minutes.

While they cook mix together the soup and milk and whisk until smooth.

Pour soup mixture into the vegetables.

Add chicken.

Stir in the cheddar cheese until melted.

Season with hot sauce (also salt and pepper to taste)

Add in the pasta and mix well.

Pour into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly and a lovely golden brown.

Such a delicious meal that will feed quite a crowd making it perfect for large families or potluck gatherings.

Titus 2 Tuesday   Tuesday’s Table

Play Is Work ~ Another Simple Toddler Activity

Although I didn’t get a lot of comments on the blog post itself, the activity I shared here a few weeks back generated a lot of interest on facebook and pinterest. Easy busy work with a purpose for little people is apparently something people are curious about I guess.

Remember my friend Gabriel that I mentioned? He needed something to do that offered a bit more of a challenge. More than likely you probably already have everything on hand that you need for this activity ~ you simply need a plastic bowl and some clothes pins. But there are other ways to make this appealing to children and now that school supplies are on sale it’s a good time to stock up on various types of clips. You can also use squares made from either cardboard or heavy card stock instead of a bowl for your child to clip the pins to.
I like the bowl since it doubles as a holder.

Again, this is a simple activity that will help develop small muscle control and that all important pincer grasp. The regular clothes pins were easy for Gabriel but the metal clips presented more of a challenge since they were harder to squeeze open. A variety of clips in different styles, colors and sizes will keep the activity fun.

Remember that clipping the clips to something is only half of the task…taking them off and cleaning up is part of the process.

You can also easily turn this into a math activity by writing numbers on index cards and having the child clip that number of pins to each card. Or instead of numbers make it a color matching game by matching your clips to colored squares.

A Dozen Years of Sweetness

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was posting birthday pictures of Abby but somehow it’s time to do them again.

She’s an even dozen this year!

Such a splash of joy in our life!

She has started piano lessons.

She’s quick to hear correction and has the most tender of hearts.

She has the soul of a nurturer and seeks to make people comfortable. She is loving the babies at church and is showing herself to be quite helpful.

She is working really hard on crocheting and doing so very well. Especially considering that she is kind of winging it because I certainly can’t help her.

I hate the term “tween” but that is truly where she is…that strange land between childhood and young womanhood. So much of who she will be is still not clearly seen…hidden away in the mind of God as she continues to emerge from the world of babydolls and pretend.

 She has been such a delight and we look forward with great anticipation to all He has in store for her and the woman He is fashioning her into.

Happy birthday sweet Abby Dabby Doodle Bug! We love you!

In Which I Try Really Hard Not To Become One of Those Crazy Cat People

I had to fight it when I first got the iPhone5s. I refused to be one of those people that snapped a quick shot of their food every time I sat down to a meal. The temptation was strong. I love food photography and the struggle was real, y’all.

But nothing like the battle I am facing these days.

In case you haven’t heard the news, not only did we buy a house last week, but we actually became pet owners.

That’s right. We got not one, but two cats. And oh my goodness they are the most precious balls of fur!

Having always been renters we’ve never had pets, much to the sadness of our children and despite their repeated pleading. 

But a friend sent a text with pictures of a neighbor’s kittens and the rest is history. Originally we were only going to get one but after watching them playing I just couldn’t stand the thought of taking just one. I knew the kids would love a cat but they’re in school most of the day and I didn’t want him to get lonely.

I wasn’t sure I could convince my beloved, and to toot my own horn, I only asked once even though he originally said no to my request. The next thing I knew though, he was telling the lady which two we wanted. 

And this is where the battle comes in. They are just so stinking adorable that I am constantly reaching for my camera. Or my phone, which does video and they are just so cute when they’re wrestling with each other but I am trying so hard not to be one of those crazy cat people that is forever sharing and posting and carrying on and flooding facebook with a gajillion pictures. But.it.is.so.hard.

So I am going to just dump them here in a blog post and hope you don’t get a cavity from all the sweetness.

Meet Tom.

And his brother, Milo.

Aren’t they just the cutest? I am surprised at how much fun it is to just watch their antics. The funny thing is since they are still such babies, only five weeks old, they sleep a lot. And when they’ve been playing and get tired they sort of nod off and fall over. 

See why I needed a whole blog post instead of facebook? 

Test Kitchen # 69 ~ Pumpkin Bars

It’s almost here. The first official day of Autumn is this month and even though I live in Florida and I know it won’t actually feel like fall for several more weeks I cannot help but be excited about it. I’ll hang the fall wreath my friend made me on the front door and pull out other autumnal decorations and at least pretend that it’s cooler outside.

A friend recently shared a Taste of Home recipe for pumpkin bars on facebook and since I am smack in the midst of an I-wish-it-was-Autumn moment I knew I had no choice but to make them. I used a smaller pan (9×13 instead of a 10×15) so mine came out more cake like than bar like. But oh, man were they good! They were even better after being refrigerated over night and that is saying something because they were pretty darn fabulous the first go round.

What you’ll need:

4 eggs 

1 2/3 sugar

1 cup oil

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp salt

What you’ll do:

Mix together the first four ingredients until well blended.

Stir together the final five ingredients and then slowly stir them into the pumpkin mixture.

Pour into an un-greased pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the frosting:

Mix together 6 oz of softened cream cheese, 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar, and 1/4 cup softened butter. Add milk in small amounts until you get a good spreading consistency. Slather that goodness all over the top of the pumpkin deliciousness and enjoy!

Creative Mondays   Tuesday’s Table   Homemaking Wednesdays