Think

“ . . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Philippians 4:8

~ posted by Betsy

Ritz Pizza Bites

~ posted by Josiah

Recently I tried a new thing. I decided to try and make Ritz Pizza Bites as an experiment.

The ingredients are to serve 4.

Ritz Pizza Bites

4 Ritz crackers

5 Tablespoons of cheese (works best with parmesan)

4 pepperoni’s

Put crackers on a small plate.

Then get the cheese and sprinkle it on the crackers.

Then get the pepperoni’s and put one on each cracker.

You will need to microwave it for 10 seconds, but I always do 5 seconds then 5 more, because if you do it 10 without a break it will fizz. I hope you like them. I can’t wait to do another post soon!

Look on the Bright Side

The oil rigging across the street from our house.

Sometimes in life, difficult situations come up. We encounter a problem with another person. We get stuck in a hard circumstance. There are two choices: be negative, or be positive. There is no situation, person, or circumstance completely devoid of something positive. We just have to look for it!

Changes

Dear blog readers…the past few months have shown me that some changes need to be made here on our blog in order to bring balance to my life. Between juggling college, working part-time, and helping at home, writing blog posts every day has become too much. So we have decided to start blogging here three times a week instead of every day. It will help all of us to spend more time on other areas of our lives, while still keeping our faithful readers up-to-date on the goings-on in our family. We hope you understand! And we look forward to still interacting with all of you through your comments. Thanks so much!

Live

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

 

Ezekiel 37:3

 

~ posted by Betsy

Recipe--Mockamoli

One of our favorite green foods is this Mockamoli! While it doesn’t taste like traditional guacamole, it is very good and has a sweet and tangy taste to it. Give it a try!

                          

Mockamoli

1 cup frozen green peas, thawed and drained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 Tablespoons chopped onion

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Combine the peas, cumin, onion, and garlic in the container of a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Add lemon juice and olive oil, and process just to blend. Taste and season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Blend for just a few more seconds, and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with chips, crackers, or fresh veggies.

W.I.T.

~Posted by Roma

Back in February, close to Valentine’s Day, we did a blogpost about a Girls Night held at our friend Miss C’s house, where we enjoyed a baking and movie night! Well, we all decided to have this girls night once a month and call our group: W.I.T.—Wives In Training! I loved it. We got together again this past Sunday in March, and instead of a movie night and pizza, we prepared dinner ourselves and did a craft. We all wore green for St. Patrick’s Day, and made a huge beautiful green salad with tons of beautiful toppings, and chocolate chip cookies that had green mint chips in them. They melted in your mouth when eaten fresh out of the oven!!!

We enjoyed working for our food. J

The salad we all put together.

Making bookmarks.

Our craft was bookmarks! We had the cutest ribbon, paper, stickers, buttons, and hole punches to accomplish this. J I loved watching all the girls make unique ones. We were bubbly and chattery that night, asking each other lots of questions—questions from what is your biggest pet peeve, to do you read your Bible every day, to what do you want to do with your life when you grow up? We listened to great music and Miss C and A loved dancing. The rest of us girls loved watching. J

We have so many ideas as to what our Wives-In-Training Girls Group could do every month. We may be too busy to get together in April, but will try to in May. We’re thinking next time we’ll put on huge hats and dresses with flowers and pearls and then . . . go to Taco Bell. J Until then, W.I.T. will see you later! J

Stunning Sunset

Earlier this week we had an absolutely stunning sunset. Now we have nice sunsets in Texas quite often . . . but some still stand out above the others.

This shot was taken looking at our front yard (east.) Yes, we have quite the mess across the street. :-P They are drilling an oil well over there.

This is the view from our back porch (west.) Incredible!

The colors just continued to get more vibrant. Wow! God’s creation is absolutely amazing!

St. Patrick's Day

On St. Patrick’s Day, our family got to host Life Group at our house! We normally don’t do much to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but since we were having guests, Mom made a special menu plan for dinner.

Everything was green! From our clothes, to the decorations, to the food!

We had green punch, pistachio salad, salad with Green Goddess dressing, tortellini with basil pesto, kiwi, and crackers with mockamoli. For dessert, we had delicious mint brownies (not pictured.)

It was a fun way to celebrate! We also encourage you to look up the story of St. Patrick if you haven’t. What an incredible man of God!

Movie Night

Last Friday we had our monthly movie night with friends. It’s a little funny; our “movie” night ends up being one third movie and two thirds something else! J

This time we watched “Johnny English: Reborn” with our pizza. Afterwards, since the weather was good, we had a bonfire complete with marshmallows and guitars.

Enjoying the fire.

Our little movie group. J

We had lots of fun playing the guitar, talking, and playing games in the dark. It was a pretty late night (as usual ;-)) but so much fun. We love having our friends over!

Chicks and Ducklings

Last week we had the opportunity to go to a friend’s house and see their new baby chicks and ducklings! One day we would like to raise our own, and this was the first time our friends had done it too. We wanted to learn from them!

We loved holding the chicks!

Rubia holding a duckling and Roma with a chick.

I LOVE ducks and really want to have some one day.

Their temporary setup with the heat lamp and feeders.

We were so grateful to our friends for showing us their baby animals! Now we’re at home plotting our own chicken coop . . . J

Remain

“The sky could fall

The ground could shake

The stars burn out

And seasons change

The time will pass

And beauty fade

But all My love will remain

All My love will remain”

--“Remain” by Royal Tailor

Recipe--Mint Brownies

With St. Patrick’s Day being celebrated this month, we’ve been making and eating some green foods! These brownies are the bomb . . . almost literally! These are for a very special occasion; super rich and chocolatey! There’s almost no way you can’t enjoy these if you like chocolate and mint!

Mint Brownies

Brownies:

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup unsalted butter

4 large eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour

Filling:

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

4 Tablespoons green crème de menthe (or use green food coloring plus a dash of peppermint extract)

Icing

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mist 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. Prepare brownies: In double boiler (or microwave), melt baking chocolate and 1 cup butter over simmering water; cool slightly. In medium mixing bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until blended, then add the 2 cups granulated sugar and continue whisking until mixture is light and fluffy. Add cooled chocolate mixture, salt, vanilla and flour. Keep whisking until thoroughly blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven and leave brownies to cool in pan.

Make filling: Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the ½ cup butter and confectioners’ sugar together until well blended. Stir in the crème de menthe and blend well (if you’re not using crème de menthe, add 1-2 Tablespoons of milk with the peppermint extract and food coloring.) Spread over cooled brownies. Refrigerate in original baking pan until filling is firm.

For the icing, melt the chocolate chips and 6 Tablespoons butter in the top of a double boiler, stirring until smooth. (You can do this in the microwave, just monitor closely and stir a few times.) Pour the warm glaze over the filling and tilt pan to distribute the icing evenly. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens.

To cut, allow brownies to come to room temperature in the pan so chocolate doesn’t crack. Makes 24 brownies.

In the Light

~Posted by Rubia

“Never doubt in the darkness what you have believed in the Light.” ~ Unknown

“Hear my voice when I call, LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, LORD I will seek . . . Teach me your way, LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors . . . I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:7-8, 11, 13-14

“I have not known what anxiety is since the Lord taught me that the work is His. My great business in life is to please God. Walking with Him in the light, I never feel a burden.” ~ Hudson Taylor

These quotes and verses have been so applicable in my life. This same man (Taylor) also once said, “You do not need a great faith, but faith in a great God.” Today, I would encourage you to have this kind of faith!

Spontaneous Evening Photo Shoot

The weather was exceptionally good here in Texas on Monday and Tuesday. We had something going on Monday night, but I couldn’t resist the good weather on Tuesday. I wanted to do some night photography since the temperatures were warmer!

A couple of friends of ours don’t live far away, and one of them just got started in photography in December. Since they were on Spring Break, I texted them early that morning to see if they wanted to come over and shoot that evening. They said yes!

After dinner, the boys arrived. It wasn’t dark out yet, so we took some sunset shots.

The sky was really orange! This picture hasn’t been edited, but it does exaggerate the colors a bit.

Waiting for dark to fall is more fun with friends. J

As soon as the sun went down, the temperatures dropped and the wind kicked up. Unfortunately it was a little dangerous for steel wool because of all the wind. That’s why Ben is spinning in the above picture; to try to escape the sparks!

Me, spinning the steel wool with the wind on my back.

We switched over to light painting for awhile since that was safer. J

After about an hour, we couldn’t take the cold anymore. We called it a night and went inside to play cards for awhile. It was a fun way to spend an evening!

Trip to San Antonio, Part 3

Sunday morning we had to get up a little earlier. We packed up our things, had breakfast, and pulled away from our hotel. We were headed downtown to have an “Instameet.” Through Instagram, we got to know a photographer down in San Antonio. We had arranged to meet him and his girlfriend downtown to shoot some photos together.

We met B and A and headed for the Riverwalk.

We were in the King William Historic District. It was beautiful!

I love ducks! We saw plenty of them.

We walked all the way down to a dam. The weather was chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining.

Next we walked to the San Fernando cathedral and poked our heads in during mass.

Then we started the trek back. Along the way, we took some family pictures and updated photos for our blog (post coming soon!) We were so thankful for B and A and the hospitality they extended to us!

We all enjoyed a delicious lunch at a Tex-Mex place B recommended called “Rosario’s.” The food was delicious!

After our lunch, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back home. It took us a long time to get back! But we had such a great time down there. We look forward to returning again soon!

Trip to San Antonio, Part 2

Saturday morning we all enjoyed sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Then we packed up all our things to check out.

We headed over to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Despite the drizzling rain and cold, we decided to brave the outdoors.

We started off at Mission San Jose, and decided to go on the Ranger tour. He did a really good job, and we learned a lot!

The beautiful cathedral at the mission.

There are actually 5 missions, but after spending a couple of hours at the first one, we knew we couldn’t see them all in one day. We were also really hungry because it was just about lunch time! Thankfully, there was a Pizza Hut right across the street. J

The second mission we went to was Mission Concepcion. It was much smaller than Mission San Jose, but the cathedral was really beautiful!

Then we piled into the car and drove downtown to our next hotel. We unloaded our things and started walking downtown to continue our sightseeing.

We stopped at a mall on the Riverwalk to get drinks at Starbucks.

Then it was on to the Alamo! We had been warned that it was smaller than you’d expect. What we didn’t expect was the long lines to get in! We were a little bummed that we couldn’t take any pictures inside. L But it was still neat to see such a famed historical site!

We continued walking over to Hemisfair Park. The historical houses were beautiful!

Then we went over to the Tower of the Americas!

We rode the elevator up to the top observation deck! The view was pretty incredible. We also saw a 4D movie there about the state of Texas.

We were pretty well starved at that point, and getting weary of walking. The temperature continued to drop and the rain poured harder. We walked along the Riverwalk looking for a good restaurant. We ended up at a nice Italian place. I had chicken with lemon butter sauce, steamed vegetables, and a house potato. It was *so* delicious, especially considering how hungry I was. J

For dessert I enjoyed Crème Brulee. It was divine!

Then we started walking back to the hotel. That was an adventure! Walking several city blocks in a thunderstorm isn’t our favorite thing to do. We were so grateful to be back in our warm hotel rooms and to enjoy hot showers! Then it was straight to bed for us because of the time change.

To be continued . . .

Trip to San Antonio, Part 1

Last weekend, our family had the opportunity to go to San Antonio! My Dad had a business meeting down there Friday night. He thought it would be fun if we all went with him and spent Saturday and Sunday seeing some of the sights!

We left our house Friday morning and started driving. The trip took a lot longer than we expected because of construction and traffic. L Thankfully, Dad made it just in time for his meeting.

Driving through Austin. We had never been through most of the towns we drove through, so it was fun to see some new places!

We arrived safely at our hotel and unloaded our things. Daddy quickly dressed and left for his business dinner. The rest of us got settled in.

Everyone was quite excited about the Toblerone given to us by the front desk. J

The only restaurant within walking distance (because Dad took the car) was a little German place next door.

We had something interesting called “German Nachos.” It was sausage and cheese over chips It was different but good!

The food was pretty good! I had a potato pancake with applesauce and green beans.

Then we went back to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. When Dad got back, we prayed and went to bed. We had lots of fun plans for the next day!

The view from our hotel room.

To be continued . . .