No Greater Joy

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

(3 John 1:4)

~ posted by Betsy ~

Recipe--Blueberry Buckle

Our family has had a long-standing tradition of baking muffins for breakfast on Saturday mornings. But we have to confess . . . we’ve been deviating a bit lately. J We’ve been in the mood to try some coffee cakes and other pastries for a change. We pulled this recipe out of our archives and gave it a try (it had been years since Mom had made it.) The rest of us *loved* it, and I have a feeling we may have a new favorite. With blueberry season upon us, now would be a great time to try it!

Blueberry Buckle

¼ cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 ½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping:

¼ cup all purpose flour

¼ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup cold butter

Optional glaze:

¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 to 2 teaspoons milk

½ tsp. vanilla

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well. Fold berries into batter. Spread batter in a greased 9 inch square baking pan.

For topping, combine flour, sugars and cinnamon; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over batter. Bake 375° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

For glaze, combine ingredients; drizzle over warm buckle. Serves 9.

Note: Our family multiplied this recipe by 1 ½ and baked it in a 9x13 inch pan.

Life Group at Our House

This past week our family hosted the Life Group at our house! While the group is not meeting regularly over the summer, they are trying to get together a couple of times.

We had a LOT of people come! Total, we had close to 35 people. We enjoyed a delicious spread of Hawaiian Sweet Roll Sammies, grapes, cantaloupe, carrots with Ranch dressing, popcorn, gluten-free pretzels, herbed chicken (for a few Paleo people in our group), sauerkraut, frosted brownies, and peanut butter cookies.

While the adults had their study, we took the 15+ kids outside to play. It was an “all- hands-on-deck” situation for us babysitters, and we were grateful for Ben and Josiah’s help in entertaining the little ones.

The kids had lots of fun playing volleyball, riding in the wagon, and playing with scooters and skateboards on the new barn floor.

After the study finished, almost everyone stayed another hour just talking and letting the kids run off steam outside. We were so grateful for the opportunity to have people over and fellowship together!

Around the Yard

As the weather has continued to warm up, lots of projects have been done outside. I posted awhile back about our barn, but it wasn’t quite finished. The original concrete company came back to pour a driveway extension so we could park cars in there more easily. They also poured some ramps by the side doors so we can drive the tractor up and down.

On one of the ramps, we wanted to put our handprints on the cement.

At first, we thought it wasn’t working very well. It seemed to be hardening just in the time it took for all of us to put our prints and initials in. The last few were extremely hard to see.

Our prints just after we finished them.

Surprisingly, the last ones we did (mine and Rubia’s) turned out the most visible! 

Here’s what the barn looks like now.

This past weekend, Rubia and Roma both learned how to use our hand mower! We think it’s very important for girls to learn some of the “guy” chores and the guys to learn some of the “girl” chores, so that we’re all better prepared for life. The twins did great! With 5 acres of property, I have a feeling their help will be enlisted more often to help with the mowing. J

*What are some of your summer projects? Please share in the comments; we’d love to be inspired! J*

Family Picnic at the Pool

To culminate our week of Sports Camp at church, we had a big family picnic at a local splash park! Our family had never been there before, but it’s pretty much THE place to be in the summer here. J

Waiting in line for the park to open. Our church had rented out the park all to ourselves, which was good because we had a few hundred people come!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

To these thick-blooded northerners, the pool felt like bathwater, especially in light of the fact that the temps were in the 90’s.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

The pool had a ½ meter diving board, a short water slide in the deep end, two larger waterslides on the shallower side (one covered and one open), a lazy river (we called it the “crazy river” because there were so many kids in it!), basketball hoops, and a special area with all kinds of fountains and fun things for little ones.

A view of the shallower side with the lazy river.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

After several hours of swimming, it was time to call it a night. But we decided to go out for some ice cream and snacks at Braum’s! We had never eaten there before, but it was on our “Summer Fun List.” The ice cream and fries were really good!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

We had a great time ending Sports Camp and starting our summer!

Sports Camp

This past week, our church had its annual Sports Camp! Instead of a typical VBS, our church does a sports camp and focuses a lot on outreach. Being the “newbies” at church, we didn’t quite know what to expect, but we had such a great week! The theme for the week was “Whatever” with our theme verse being 1 Corinthians 10:31 (“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”) We did four sports over the week: basketball, soccer, baseball, and cheer. Total, we had about 170 kids attend each night. Only about a third of those came from our church. A lot of the kids were bused in from a housing project in a different part of town. 

Those kids arrived quite early, and would get a little too rowdy. We tried to organize them into some games to pass the time until it was time to start.

Photo Credit: Roma.

The night always started off with an opening rally. Each group sat according to their sport. They got to watch a picture slideshow from the day before, until the emcees came up and opened the evening.

They would usually have some kind of game to get the kids up on their feet and get some energy out. J

They also did some hilarious skits which all involved audience participation.

After that, they would have one of the leaders speak about the theme for the night. Our four themes were: Respect, Integrity, Hard Work, and Team Work. After the short lesson, the kids would break up and go to their respective areas to work on their sport of choice. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of all the sports because I was only helping in one and couldn’t just walk around and take pictures at my pleasure. J But Ben helped out with the basketball, Rubia helped with the mini-camp for the worker’s preschoolers, Mom helped out with concessions, and Roma and I helped with baseball while Josiah participated.
 

Each night was broken down into four 20-minute sessions. Two of those sessions were spent working on the sports drills, one of them was spent in “huddle groups” (a time to further discuss the day’s theme), and one was spent eating snack and drinking lots of water (the temps were over 90 every night.)

We had about 40 kids doing baseball each night. About 15 of them were kindergarteners. J Working with them required an extra measure of patience because all they want to do is swing the bat!

Each night ended with a closing rally indoors, which was much shorter than the opening. We did this Monday through Thursday. Friday ended with a celebration at the local splash park (more on that tomorrow!)

Blogger Challenge Day 23: Favorite Vacation

Honestly, my favorite vacation is usually the one we just took! J We actually did a post as a family about our favorite vacations, so I will just link back to that rather than type it out again:

Favorite Vacations

Right now, my favorite vacation is our Caribbean cruise. But we have some pretty great trips planned for later this year, so that might change! J But here are some links to those posts as well:

Vacation Day 1: Traveling to Florida

Vacation Day 2: Boarding the Ship

Vacation Day 3: The Bahamas

Vacation Day 4: Cruising

Vacation Day 5: St. Thomas

Vacation Day 6: St. Maarten

Vacation Day 7: “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo”

Vacation Day 8: Last Day of Cruising

Vacation Day 9: A Day in Florida

Vacation Day 10: Traveling Home

As the Rose

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

(Isaiah 35:1)

~ posted by Betsy ~

Recipe--Cookie Pizza Cake

Most everyone in our family is convinced that the chocolate and peanut butter combination was made in heaven. This cookie pizza cake marries the best of so many wonderful things in the world: cake, cookies, chocolate, peanut butter, and pizza! Ben picked this for his birthday cake, and it was a definite hit!

Cookie Pizza Cake

1 large package (32 ounces) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

1 package (18 ¼ ounces) chocolate cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix

1 cup prepared vanilla frosting

½ cup peanut butter

1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1 container (16 ounces) chocolate frosting

Chocolate peanut butter cups, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat two 12 x 1-inch round pizza pans with nonstick cooking spray. Press cookie dough evenly into one pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 20 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack (we could not remove cookie without breaking it, so we just left it in the pan.)

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Fill second pan ¼ to ½ full with batter. (Reserve remaining cake batter for another use, such as cupcakes.) Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Gently remove cake from pan; cool completely.

Combine vanilla frosting and peanut butter in small bowl. Gradually stir in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it’s a spreadable consistency.

Place cookie on serving plate (or leave it in baking pan, as we did) Spread peanut butter frosting over cookie. Place cake on top of cookie, trimming cookie to match size of cake, if necessary. Frost top and side of cake with chocolate frosting. Garnish with peanut butter cups, if desired. Makes 12 to 14 servings.

Blogger Challenge Day 22: Favorite City

I am actually not much of a city girl. Every time our family ventures into Dallas, Fort Worth, or Houston, TX, I am reminded of that fact. J The whole time we are fighting traffic, I can’t stop saying “I could NEVER deal with this every day. I love our tiny town of 3,800 people. I HATE traffic!”

But if I had to pick a favorite, despite the fact that I was neither born nor technically “raised” there, I would have to say Midland, Michigan. It’s actually the largest town I’ve ever lived in, but it retained a small town feel. Having moved around a fair amount during my childhood, I “picked” Midland as my “hometown.” So far, our time in Midland holds the record for how long we’ve lived in one place (7 years.) I think it feels most like home because I spent some of my most formative years living there (ages 3 ½ to almost 11.)

When I look at who I am today—what I’m passionate about, involved in, who my closest friends are, etc.—most all of them began in Midland. Even though we haven’t lived in Midland for 7 years now, there are still things about it that I miss. I often think about the tridge, the awesome farmer’s market, the downtown area, our church, the homeschool group and friends, park days, our little house in the woods, eating McDonalds while watching the planes take off at the little airport, and more. Midland will always hold a special place in my heart!

Blogger Challenge Day 21: Picture of Yourself

One of my many graduation pictures!

Photo Credit: www.jessicagarzaphotography.squarespace.com 

Worship Team Dinner

Last weekend, our family had the opportunity to attend a dinner for the worship team from our church! One of the members of our team decided to host an evening at their house so that everyone could get to know each other a little bit better. Normally we only see each other on Sunday mornings when we’re busy working on the task at hand (leading worship.)

About 75% of the team was able to make it. The weather was excellent for sitting out on the patio and visiting.

Dinner was fabulous! We had fajitas with chips and salsa, veggies with dip, fruit salad, and brownies and cookies for dessert.

Our family especially enjoyed the evening, as we still feel like the “newbies” at church trying to put names and faces together. J We are blessed with such an encouraging and loving church family!

Babysitting and Ben's Birthday

Ben’s actual birthday included some more celebration, even though we had done his birthday trip a few days before.

For breakfast, we celebrated by having Puffy Pancakes, a definite favorite around here!

During the morning/early afternoon, we actually babysat some kids from church. They had fun playing, going on a short walk (it was SUPER hot that day), eating lunch, and baking healthy peanut butter cookies with me.

For dinner that evening, we had the American Special: burgers hot off the grill, cool watermelon slices, potato chips, potato salad, and lemonade!

For his birthday “cake,” Ben chose a form of dessert pizza. It had a chocolate chip cookie base, a peanut butter filling, a chocolate cake on top, all smothered in chocolate frosting, and garnished with Reese’s candy chunks. It was definitely good (recipe coming soon!)

Then he opened up his gifts. He got a few movies, a speaker for his Mp3 player, some new clothes, and new basketball gear.

We are so grateful for Ben and all the wonderful years we’ve had with him! He is quickly turning into a young man, and we look forward to what the next year of his life will bring! 

Ben's Birthday Trip

Earlier this month, we celebrated Ben’s birthday! In keeping with tradition, we went on a surprise birthday trip. In keeping with our newer tradition, we took it on a Saturday a few days before his birthday so that Daddy could be with us.

We found ourselves at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza! This museum was created in the same building—on the same floor—where Lee Harvey Oswald shot at and assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Ben has always had a love for history, and went through a long phase where he was borderline obsessed with American Presidents. He was particularly interested in the Kennedy assassination after we saw the car he was riding in at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. Needless to say, this birthday trip was right up his alley! J

Photo Credit: Betsy.

Unfortunately no photos were allowed in the museum. But it actually helped me concentrate more on learning! They give you a small handheld audio device that basically gives you a tour through the museum. There are some signs, but the audio tells a lot more. It was the first time our family had done an audio tour, but we really enjoyed it!

The museum seemed small in size, but it actually took us a couple of solid hours to get all the way through it. We learned about every aspect of the Kennedy assassination, and also a lot about his presidency.

When we were through inside, we walked outside to the grassy knoll around the corner, which overlooked the route Kennedy was driving on at the time of his assassination.

The two spots where the shots hit are marked with an X. It was kind of strange being so close to such a significant piece of American history!

On the grassy knoll. Imagine how scary it would have been to have been standing here 50 years ago when the shots rang out, and the President of the United States of American slumped over in his vehicle.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

After that, we went out to dinner at Buca di Beppos! We came here for the first time to celebrate the twins birthday. It’s actually kind of funny that we ate here. The first time we came, Ben was very confused by the family-style meals and was rather frustrated. After all, when you’re a teenage boy, making sure you have enough food to eat is a big deal. J But once he figured it out, he *loved* it and had hardly stopped talking about it. He was quite excited to return!

What really surprised us was when Dad told the hostess that there would be 8 of us. It didn’t take Ben and me long to figure out who was coming. One of our best friends from Michigan is a pilot based out of Dallas. We’ve talked many times about getting together during one of his layovers, but nothing had worked out yet. This friend “just so happened” to call Dad earlier in the day, so we were rather suspicious. J Sure enough, he arrived to eat dinner with us! It was *so good* to see a face from Michigan (he’s the first one to come visit us so far!)

We had a delicious appetizer of fried cheese and salad. For our main entrée, we ate prosciutto stuffed chicken and penne pasta with sundried tomatoes, artichokes, peas, and white sauce. It was so delicious!

Dessert was crazy! This Italian crème cake is on a full size dinner plate! It’s a good thing we were sharing. J

The waiters and waitresses came out to sing the Birthday song to Ben. J

After dinner with Mr. M. It was so good to see him!

We made our way home after a long, but very fun-filled day. I’m so grateful for the many years we’ve been blessed by Ben, and the opportunity we had to celebrate this milestone with him!

Father's Day

In honor of all the fathers who have blessed our lives—some who are with us today, and others whom we look forward to seeing in heaven—we want to repost this article written by Stephen Kendrick, and posted by Doug Phillips. Happy Father’s Day!

 

The Secret Habit of Great Dads

 

A Special Father’s Day Charge from Stephen Kendrick

by Stephen Kendrick, June 12, 2013

 

As young boys, my brothers and I would head out the front door of our home in Smyrna, Georgia to eagerly explore the woods across the street with our neighborhood friends.

 

Swinging on vines. Killing snakes. Shooting fireworks at one another. As I look back at the dangers we dove into, I can see that God was constantly sparing us of many more emergency room visits than we deserved.

 

As the youngest son, my personal explorations also took me deep into the uncharted territories of our suburban home. Crawling under beds and hiding in closets, I became very familiar with almost every inch of our house.

 

But there were a few times in my adventures when I’d wander in on my dad unexpectedly. I never found him looking at inappropriate magazines or using drugs. But multiple times, I caught him in his room or in his closet on his knees . . . praying for us and our family.

 

You can tell a lot about a man’s character by what you stumble upon him doing when he’s alone. And in my home, I was impacted deeply by how I saw my father willingly bowing before God.

 

Over the years, I remembered seeing our family’s needs being miraculously met when the exact amount of money dad was praying for would show up out of the blue. I saw how God carried us during hard times, clearly guided major decisions, and strategically provided key people and resources to help my father start a Christian ministry in the late 1980s.

 

Dad prayed and God worked. It was undeniable.

 

There was clearly a powerful and loving God whose ears were attentive to our gray-headed father’s desperate pleas. And my brothers and I had a front row seat to this reality.

 

Now with four children of my own, I can honestly say that my dad’s example and the Word of God have taught me that prayer is one of the most important responsibilities I have as a father.

 

As men who will one day give an account to God for how we have led our families (Hebrews 13:17), all fathers have been given the ultimate responsibility as the heads of their homes for the physical and spiritual welfare of their children (1 Timothy 3:4, Proverbs 17:6).

 

But God knows that we are sorely inadequate on our own and that we will not be successful or found faithful without His ever-present help. We must learn to constantly rely on Him in prayer.

 

No matter how smart or sufficient you may think you are, your children will always be subject to circumstances beyond your reach. You cannot always protect them, provide for their every need, or control the constant influences around their lives. You won’t always know their hearts, and you definitely don’t know their future.

 

But we can all rest in the fact that there is a loving God Who understands and loves our children more than we do. He can go with them and guide them when we can’t. He can protect them and influence them in every situation. And He invites us to place each of them and our every concern into His loving arms.

 

Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11). This is an invitation to prayer.

 

Imagine it. The Sovereign God of the universe has chosen to allow you to know Him, talk to Him, and make requests of Him like a beloved son may ask and receive things from his compassionate father. Prayer is a daily opportunity for us to talk to God about every facet and detail of our children’s lives.

 

You can bank on it that the devil has already been trying to discourage and distract you from praying for your children by telling you that you are too busy to pray or that your prayers are ineffective. But Jesus has promised us: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

 

Now granted, the Bible makes it clear that there are keys to praying effectively. For our prayers to be unhindered, the Scriptures say that we must know God (John 14:6), be right with Him (Psalm 66:18), be right with others (Mark 11:22-26; 1 Peter 3:7), and also have our hearts right (James 1:5-8; 4:6). And anytime this is true in your life, then you can get busy praying knowing that “the effective prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).

 

We are all unqualified on our own. But through the mercy and access to God that Jesus attained for us through His death on the cross, we can “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

 

It is by uniting our hearts with Christ and keeping aligned with His will that we place ourselves in a position to prayerfully bring about more good for our children than almost anything else we could do on earth (John 15:7).

 

So, on this Father’s Day weekend, I would like to exhort all dads to take a step of courageous faith into the practice of praying four different types of prayers for your children.

 

PRAYERS OF DEDICATION (1 Samuel 1:11, Proverbs 16:3): Even as Joseph and Mary dedicated Jesus as a newborn in the temple, we too should willingly commit all of our children’s lives to the glory of God. Our Lord has faithfully demonstrated that He blesses and takes good care of that which has been entrusted to Him.

 

Anytime you as a father start something new, your fatherly prayers of dedication should follow. New children, new jobs, new houses, new years, and new days are all new opportunities to stop and thank God for His goodness and re-purpose the new beginning for His glory and place it under His watchful care.

 

PRAYERS OF ASSOCIATION (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18): It is the will of God for fathers to pray for, with, and around their children. Regular prayer in our homes can draw our kids closer to God while redirecting their attention away from their daily problems and onto the One who holds every solution. If a father is unwilling to trust God with his temporary needs, why should he expect his children to want to trust God with their eternal souls?

 

If you don’t know what to pray about, then consider what you are currently worried about. Your worries are merely burdens you are currently carrying in your own strength that you haven’t yet cast fully upon the Lord’s strength (Philippians 4:6-7). “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

 

PRAYERS OF BLESSING (Ephesians 1:3, Luke 3:22): Thirdly, fathers should learn to pray prayers of blessing over their families. You can do this by speaking encouraging and loving words over their lives while asking God to bring about their maximum physical and spiritual success (Psalm 20). So pray often for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done in their blooming lives.

 

In my family growing up, my parents would let Scripture teach them how to pray for us. They often prayed Isaiah 54:13-17 and Psalm 91 over us in the car as we drove down the road.

 

When your children overhear you thanking God for them, and telling God how much you love them and want His very best for them, it can change them forever.

 

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION (Exodus 17:12): Lastly, fathers must learn to confront evil, problems, and any crisis in their families with the weapon of prayer.

 

Ephesians 6 tells us that we are to put on our spiritual armor and get busy praying so that we will be ready to stand firm in the day of evil. In prayer, we wage war (Ephesians 6:10-19) against the spiritual forces that want “to steal and to kill and to destroy” our children’s purity and faith (John 10:10). If you fight your family’s battles in prayer first, you will see much more fruitfulness and effectiveness in resolving problems when you get up off your knees.

 

In conclusion, if a man desires great things for his children, then he should request great things from God. But do not let things lack and fail simply because you lacked to pray and failed to ask (James 4:2). As the Lord responds to your requests in His perfect timing, your children will get to see His power and handiwork firsthand.

 

Then one day they can share with their own children about the way they were forever changed by seeing their earthly father prayerfully introduce them to the powerful and loving care of their Heavenly Father.