Recipe Wednesday - Sweet and Sour Chicken Sandwiches

This sandwich recipe was so good and made juicy sandwiches.  It would be a perfect game day lunch food or a dinner.  I saw this on a pin from Pinterest and the recipe is from Baked Bree.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Sandwiches


1 lb (approx) Chicken
2 T Olilve Oil
1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 14 oz Can Petit Diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tablesoon Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon Pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper


1. Preheat a large skilled over M/H heat, add olive oil.  Season chicken with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.  Add to the skillet and brown the chicken on both sides for two minutes.
2. Add the browned chicken into the slow cooker.
3. Whisk together apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, and Dijon mustard.  Season with 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper.
4. Pour sauce over chicken.
5. Cover and cook on Low for 6 hours.
6. Shred chicken with fork and serve.

Christmas Craft - Handprint Christmas Trees

Here's another cute Christmas craft for you to do!

Handprint Christmas Trees

Supplies:

Paint in green, brown, and yellow plus any colors that you want to make ornaments with

Foam brush

Disposable plates/bowls

Canvases

If you're a perfectionist like me you'll always want a ruler and masking tape

Step 1. (Optional) Measure a small distance up from the bottom of your canvas and tape a piece of tape horizontally.  This will be the bottom line of your tree so that it's roughly straight.

Step 2. Paint your child's (or children's) hands and place them on the canvas in a shape of a Christmas tree.  If you have multiple kids with different sized hands use the larger hand on the bottom levels and smaller hands on the top.

Step 3. Freehand (or use a sponge) to put a star on the top of the tree.  Freehand a trunk for your tree.

Step 4. Have your kids dip their fingers (or toes if you have a tiny infant like James!) in different colors and randomly put them on the tree for ornaments.  

In the end you have a finished keepsake!  Make sure to write your kids names and year on the back.  In our situation everything was Charlotte's except for the red ornaments which were made with one of James' big toes.

I found this on Ucreate with Kids via Pinterest

Christmas Craft - Snowmen Ornaments

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, I'm a tad bit obsessed with Pinterest.  One of the neatest things that I've found (in addition to the recipes) is all of the craft ideas that you can do with your kids.  I love doing things like this but I need pictures and instructions and a place to keep all of the ideas other than a drawer or folder full of pages torn out of a magazine.  Pinterest lets me keep things organized as closely grouped as I want and so I've actually succeeded in making a good number of crafts.

I found a number of Christmas crafts and have started making them with Charlotte.  In case you're looking for something fun to celebrate the season this is is a fun craft that turns out really cute with not a lot of effort.  It can get messy so be prepared but the results are adorable!

Snowmen Ornaments

Supplies:

Frosted ornaments of any color of your choosing

White Paint

Black and Orange Sharpie's

Foam paintbrush

Disposable plate or bowl

Step 1. After getting all your supplies ready and an ornament handy, cover your child's hand with paint

Watch your child get a kick out of her hand being messy.

FYI, I had one of her Daddy's shirts for her to wear to paint in but she refused to put it on and wanted to be a "necked noo-noo" instead.  So I just went with it.

Step 2. Have your child hold their hand out flat with their palm up.  Place the ornament in their hand and have them curl their fingers up around the ornament and then let go and pull their hand away.

It helped me to have Charlotte practice doing this a few times without paint in her hand so she knew what I needed her to do when her hand was covered.

Step 3. Leave the ornaments to dry.  I used hole-y trivets for this but egg cartons or anything else where you can set the ornaments without the paint touching would work fine.

Since I used acrylic paint I let them dry overnight because the areas with thick paint took a while to dry.

Step 4. Use the sharpie's to draw buttons, eyes, a nose, and a hat on your snowmen.  However you do it they end up looking cute so don't stress!

Step 5. Make sure you put your child's initials and year on the ornaments so that in twenty years you remember who made it when!

*I got this from Little Bit Funky via Pinterest

Thankful

As I reflect back on this year it's been a tough one for me.  There have been high high's (finding out we were pregnant, James' birth, Charlotte's verbal development and voluntary "I love you's") and also so low low's.  But through it all I know that I've walked this year with my Lord and with my family and I am so grateful for that.

Today I want to sit back and recount one thing that I'm thankful for for every year of my life.

"Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." - Hebrews 12:28

1. I'm thankful for my family.  Jason, Charlotte, and James are more than I could ever have hoped for!
2. I'm thankful for a easy birth with James and no complications with my c-section.
3. I'm thankful for a little boy who is sleeping through the night most nights now and letting his parents rest.
4. I'm thankful for friends who text and call and email to check up on me when I need support, encouragement, or someone to celebrate with.
5. I'm thankful for this year's Siesta Scripture Memory Team which helped me delve deeper into The Word this year.
6. I'm thankful for God for working through the SSMT for leading me to chose scripture to memorize months before I would need it.
7. I'm thankful for my parents and Jason's parents and how much they do for us.
8. I'm thankful that Charlotte loves school so much and the break that it affords me during the week.
9. I'm thankful that I've got to watch Charlotte try new things this year like gymnastics by herself and excel while taking a risk.
10. I'm thankful for living near family so that I can be there in times of turmoil.
11. I'm thankful that I got to introduce Papa to his great-grandson.
12. I'm thankful for my iPhone that makes waiting in doctor's offices pass by quicker which is important when pregnant and going to the doctor all of the time.
13. I'm thankful for physical therapy and the relief that it brought to my back and the suggestion of an exercise bike that is helping my back.
14. I'm thankful that my best friend got to move closer to her family and that it's stretching me to get out of my comfort zone.
15. I'm thankful for how easy it is to stay in touch across 5 minute distances and 5 hour distances.
16. I'm thankful for a husband who works so hard to give me everything I could ever desire and more and who puts up with so much and still loves me anyway.
17. I'm thankful for sweet moments like first smiles that you forget how wonderful they are.
18. I'm thankful for big girl moments like asking to "walk with me" holding my hand and coming up to tell me out of the blue, "You are so pretty" or "I love you so much".
19. I'm thankful for grandparents who set the gold standard for marriage and who teach me so much with their lives.
20. I'm thankful for the outlet that blogging provides me the community that helps me stay connected even when I'm nursing in the middle of the night.
21. I'm thankful for the blessing of getting to stay home with my kids.
22. I'm thankful for having all that I could ever possibly need and a good bit of anything I could want.
23. I'm thankful for letters from third world countries written by children who depend on us and love us.
24. I'm thankful for friends and family who pray for me when I ask them to.
25. I'm thankful for the privilege to pray for friends and family.
26. I'm thankful for such a close relationship with my Mom and her help, love, support, advice, and encouragement.
27. I'm thankful for my Lord and Savior for living for me and dying for me and for loving me day after day.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Recipe Wednesday - Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

I recently had some cookies with craisins in them and thought they were fantastic.  So when I saw this recipe that was a mix of chocolate, oats, peanut butter, and craisins I was ecstatic about making it.  I made these for out Bible Study group and I really enjoyed them.  They're not the perfect food for a gathering like that because they're better served right out of the fridge.  The longer they sit out the more they melt as soon as you put them in your fingers.  But if you're just looking for a sweet snack it's nice that you eat them right out of the fridge.

These bars are almost fudge like but the craisins give them a really sweet taste and the oats give them texture.  I'm not normally a texture person in my cookies, etc (I really dislike nuts in my desserts) but I really enjoyed these.  Plus they're no-bake so they were quick to mix together and pour in a pan.  You do need to let them sit in the fridge before serving but an hour will get them perfectly hard.  

If you're looking for a new recipe for Christmas or the holiday's this is a good one to consider.  I found the recipe via Pinterest and the recipe was from the blog, New Nostalgia.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
Makes a 9x13 pan of bars

1 cup Peanut Butter
2/3 cup Honey
1/2 cup Coconut Oil (no substitutes!)
2 cups Oats
1 1/4 cups Mini Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup Dried Cranberries

1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil.
2. Remove from heat and add oats, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries.
3. Stir until combined and chocolate chips are melted.
4. Spread into a 9x13 pan.  Refrigerate until hardened (about an hour).
5. Store in the refrigerator.

Two and a Half

Charlotte Lee,

I find it so hard to believe that you're two and a half.  In some ways I can't believe how quickly the time has flown because weren't you just my little infant?  In other ways you seem so big and grown up now that it surprises me that you're not older!  You have grown so much, especially in these last two months after your brother's arrival that sometimes it's hard to remember the young toddler that you used to be compared to the grown up toddler you are now.

So to chronicle you at 2 and a half, my little girl, let's start with the stats.  We weighed you last week and you weighed 29.2 lbs.  We measured you and you were 35.5 inches tall.  (Just for comparison at her 2 year appointment she weighed 25.3 lbs and was 34.5 inches tall.)  You must have hit another growth spurt and now look so tall compared to lots of other kids your age!  You are wearing mostly 2/2T outfits but are wearing some 3/3T outfits.  You are in a shoe size 8 but I bet that moves up to a 9 pretty soon.

You are quite the little helper.  Some of the things that you like to help me with are putting away the plastic plates from the dishwasher.  Getting out a diaper for James and handing it to me or putting it on the changing table.  Picking out an outfit for James to wear.  Putting your clothes in the dirty clothes hamper.  Putting your toys away at the end of the night (not sure you like doing this but you're good at it!).  And checking on James if I am not within a few feet of him.

Speaking of James, let's address the change in your little life.  You have handled the adjustment to a family of four beautifully.  I honestly was most worried about you at bedtime because I have been the last one to be with you in our bedtime routine since you were born.  But after maybe three nights of a small amount of tears you adjusted to Daddy finishing the routine with you and now we're at a point where I don't think you would like it if I tried to take back that spot.  Thankfully you go with the flow and let me handle everything during the day and Daddy handle it at night which works out perfectly.

The "taking turns" of Mommy and Daddy has been a little bit of an issue.  If Daddy's home for a long period of time (long weekend, etc) by the end of the time you only want Daddy to help you.  But during a normal work week you get upset the first few times you need something after Daddy gets home and he comes to help you.  But that's not to say that you haven't become a huge Daddy's girl during this time.  You always loved your Daddy but you now love, love, love to play with him and read with him and pretty much do anything with him and I know that he loves that too.

Part of you becoming so incredibly vocal is that you are expressing yourself so much.  A common phrase for you is to come up to me out of the blue and hug me and say, "I love you sooo much!"  The other night we read your Snuggle Puppy book and when you were putting it down you said, "That made me happy." Your vocal skills are exceptional and we are constantly amazed by the things we say.  One of the problems with your vocal skills and your memory is that it's hard to get away with something.  For instance, one day when Papa picked you up from school he pinched your leg in your car seat.  I'm not sure there's been a time since when Papa's put you in your carseat that you've either asked, "You're not going to pinch my leg are you?" or told him after he's finished, "You didn't pinch my leg like last time!"

It is really helpful that you are very expressive about how you're feeling.  We are definitely dealing with the two's and the fact that sometimes you get upset and won't vocalize your feelings but a lot of the time you will tell us what's the matter and/or what we can do to help.  Right along with that though are a lot of instances when you tell us "I'm so upset about Sandy (her stuffed animal)" or "I'm sad about Minnie."  When we ask you why you're sad about them almost 100% of the time you'll say, "She bumped her back."

As evidence by that story, your imagination has taken off.  You will sit and play with your nativity or your cookies for a while and just talk to them and make up stories about them or pretend that you're cooking.  You often tell us that you're going to Memma's or to the Rosa Bowl or somewhere else and say "Bye!" and go get in your Cozy Coupe and ride off somewhere.  It is fun to see you advance in this area and become a little girl.

Another area of independence is school.  Back in the spring we went through another phase when you would get upset when I dropped you off at school.  I was afraid that we might get back in to that at the beginning of this year but all year you've been happy as a clam to go to school and be left.  You are also able to tell me what you did at school each day and get so excited to show me your "craft" that you made that day.

You love being like Mommy or Daddy or whoever and one of your favorite games is "I got your spot!" where you run and leap into the person's seat when they get up.  You won't let me cook while you're awake without bringing your stool over to let you "help" and you always require your own spatula to cook with.  You love it when we both wear our "cowboy boots" and you love wearing jewelry like Mommy.

Speaking of jewelry, you have quite an opinion on what you're going to wear.  Sometimes I can get away with telling you what you're going to wear but most times you want to pick it out.  I've decided that since we're fighting some other obedience problems (obeying the first time asked, etc) that this isn't a battle that I want to fight so I pretty much let you have your free reign.  While sometimes that ends up with something that doesn't match -- I think once you had on a pink shirt and black and blue striped leggings -- sometimes you end up with adorable outfits that I probably wouldn't have thought to put together.  You love your monkey bar buddies and wish you could wear those every day.  And all pants are considered "yeggin's" (leggings) by you and you get annoyed when anyone calls them pants.  EXCEPT pj pants which you and Daddy have a running joke about that Daddy calls them "paaaa-nts" (no way really to spell it the way he says it) and you tell him, "Not paaa-nts! Pants!"

We ditched your diapers in July and never really looked back.  You're still in a pull-up during nap time and bedtime but I don't really mind that.  You have regressed a little in it when we're at home since James was born.  I'm not sure if it's for the attention or you just know that there's more clothes here or what but you have some accidents (never on the floor, just enough to get your clothes a tad damp) here but I can only remember once that you have ever had an accident outside of the house and that was at school and, honestly, wasn't entirely your fault.  We are so proud of you that you just went with the flow and did it and while it was daunting at the time looking back you did it so quickly!

And as far as your eating habits go you've evened out.  You still won't really touch a vegetable with a ten foot pole but these days you'll eat, or at least try, most anything else.  You eat all kinds of meats and will eat any fruit.  You love snacks -- specifically yogurt raisins, chex mix, pretzel goldfish, and fruit snacks -- but will eat pretty much anything for a snack if your favorites aren't available.  You love juice but we rarely let you have it because you tend to have a lot more accidents when you've had it.  And when you do get juice it is still diluted at least 50% with water.  Your favorite breakfast foods are cheese grits, cinnamon raisin toast, and monkey muffins, but you also eat oatmeals, pancakes, and cereal bars on a regular basis.

Charlotte, you are definitely your own little person and we are loving watching you grown and develop such a wonderful personality.  While we are struggling some in figuring out how to best teach you to be a respectful, caring little girl, we love you to pieces and wouldn't trade any of those struggles for anything because it means that we get you.  You are so sweet and kind and polite and imaginative and funny and crazy and smart and beautiful and wonderful and we love you with all of our hearts.  Just like I told you today, you are my favoritist little girl in the whole wide world and I am so incredibly blessed and humbled that I get to be your Mommy.

I will tell you now that I'm going to mess up in this parenting job just like you're going to make mistakes but I want you to know that every single thing that I do, I do with your best interests in heart.  You can be anything little girl and I want you to grow and learn and explore and find exactly what your calling in life is and then live it to your fullest potential.  You are extraordinary and your talents and blessings will take you so far in life if you let them.  But if you chose, like I did, to be a stay at home Mommy and not make your place in this big world but just to make your place in your home we will still be just as proud of you. Nothing that you can do can make us love you any more than we already do.

And when you do mess up your Daddy and I will be here to help you pick up the pieces.  We might be disappointed for a time but we will never, ever love you any less.

And even more than us, God loves you exponentially and He will always be there for you.  We are praying for you daily that you will come to a lasting relationship with Jesus Christ and we hope that we can help lead you to Him.  We will let you down at times, but Jesus never will.  We love hearing you recite your Bible verses from school or singing "Jesus loves me" or playing with your nativity and we hope that we are helping you plant seeds that will later grow to help you yearn for a relationship with Christ.

You are our precious baby girl.  Our firstborn.  And you are amazingly special to us.  You are your own person and the absolute best Charlotte there ever could be.  We love you with our whole hearts and would do anything for you.  We are so glad that we get to be your parents and we can't wait to watch in amazement as you grow into the lovely girl that you will be.

I love you,
Mommy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year we couldn't wait to get started with Christmas decorating! Since Charlotte's been talking about Santa since, oh, June, we figured that this was going to be the first year where she actually understood what was going on and got excited about it so we figured, why not start the celebration early!

The first thing that we did was to pull out the tree for Charlotte's room.

Charlotte loved hanging the "orn-ments" on her tree!  She got so excited when we pulled it out.  Her phrase during decorating has been, "Ahhhh! I've never seen this before!"

Showing Daddy her orn-ment

We had to disperse a little so that one branch didn't have all the ornaments but other than that she did it all by herself!

The finished product

Since then we've started pulling out decorations downstairs and Charlotte has been just as excited.  We can't wait to put our big tree up!  I can't wait to see the reactions that gets!

My Papa

I've been working on this post for a while and I'm still almost at a loss of what to say.  It's hard to imagine going into the holiday's without Papa at our gathering's.  Even though he's been battling non-smokers lung cancer for the past four years he hasn't missed a family gathering and his presence will be acutely missed.  But since today is Papa's 77th birthday I thought it would be a fitting day to find words to express my admiration of my Papa today.

Papa passed away on October 27th.  Over the past few months he had been loosing energy and steam in fighting his cancer and after a few weeks of radiation treatment he was exhausted.  However, it was still fairly sudden when he went to the hospital for a supposed kidney stone the Friday before he passed only to be moved into ICU the beginning of the next week.  I'm sure the passing of anyone is difficult but I definitely wasn't ready for this.

One thing I'm thankful for is that I got to introduce Papa to James.  Gramme had just gotten out of the hospital when James was born so they weren't able to be at the hospital when James was born, but when he was a few weeks old I took him and Charlotte over to see Gramme and Papa.  I will always regret not getting a picture of James and Papa that day but I'm so glad that they got to meet.  And I'm very thankful that I got to spend that time with him before he got really sick.  I'm pretty sure we just talked about football and how Charlotte was doing with James but to be able to see him still looking pretty good and able to get up and get around is something I will always cherish.

Papa's funeral was the Sunday after he died.  It was a very nice service and we were so blessed to have a chapel full of family and friends come to celebrate Papa's life.  Charlie and Mary spoke and they reminded me of some things that were so special about Papa.  I can't imagine how hard it was to get up there and speak, I definitely wasn't strong enough to volunteer, but they both did a fantastic job and let everyone there a little more into our family and know about the special person that my Papa was.

Papa was born on November 20, 1934 in Jackson, Tennessee.  His parents, Granny and Gramps to me and my cousins, lived in Jackson long after Papa moved to Huntsville.  

This is Papa and his brother, Jim, when Papa was around 2 and a half.

Papa and Jim on a traveling Pony when Papa was around 3 and a half.  Apparently men used to travel with a pony going to neighborhoods selling pictures on the pony for ten cents.  I'm pretty sure Charlotte would love it if this happened now!

Papa went to Tennessee and never stopped loving his school even though three of his daughters, two sons-in-law, and so far four grandchildren attended Alabama.  When we were getting pictures together for a slideshow we found a picture of Papa in a BAMA sweatshirt from when I was little but everyone in the family was pretty shocked to see that so it was a very rare occurrence!  Papa loved Tennessee, so much so that when he prepared his obituary he made sure and included that he was a 'die hard' Tennessee fan.  

I remember in high school when Daniel Moore came out with a Tennessee print and everyone went in on it to get it for Papa for Christmas.  The only saving grace for all of us Bama fans was to wrap it in red paper with white ribbon.  But to the end his blood ran orange and white.

Papa had gone into the hospital the day before the Alabama vs Tennessee game.  Once we found out that it wasn't a kidney stone giving him so much pain I realized that the end was probably pretty near.  So all day on Friday I prayed that God would let Tennessee play good so that Papa could take his mind off of the pain while he enjoyed the game.  I, of course, wanted us to win but I didn't want it to be a blowout.  Around the start of the second quarter of the game I was continually shooting up prayers like, "God, I didn't mean I wanted us to lose for Papa! I just wanted him to enjoy it!"

As a good Alabama fan I don't own one piece of orange clothing.  But when Papa died I knew that I wanted to wear something orange to the funeral.  So we went out to the mall on Friday night to search for something and I ended up with an orange top to wear under a coat and Jason bought an orange tie.  When we arrived at the church we found that a lot of the family had on at least a small flash of orange in Papa's honor.  And Papa's flowers were almost all shades of orange due to the time of year which only made them more fitting for Papa.

Gramme and Papa got married on July 28, 1956.  They were high school sweethearts and had such a strong marriage.  As they grew older they even consolidated to one car and only had one cell phone because it was a very, very rare time when they were ever apart.  When Jason and I got engaged we were looking at late summer dates for our wedding and we decided to get married on July 29th to pay tribute to Gramme and Papa.  They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary the day before we got married.

Papa loved animals.  This is Papa, me, and Gramme with their dog Casey.  I so very vividly remember Casey and how much Papa doted on him.  After Casey died they didn't get another dog for years and years but eventually they adopted Scout.  Papa loved Scout and to the end he was asking about him and making sure someone was walking him and feeding him.

Cathy, Granny, Papa, Gramme, Gramps, and me

Papa was a great runner.  I think after he died I heard that he ran seven marathons.  I don't know that he ran them after I was born but even after he stopped running such long distances he still ran often.

Since we didn't grow up in the same town as Gramme and Papa we didn't get to see them all the time, but they always made the trip over for big events like my graduation which you see above.  Papa loved his grandchildren even though he didn't know what to do with my brother Charlie at first.  One of Papa's big phrases that he used often was "Get Easy!"  He apparently would yell that at Mom and her sisters when they were growing up whenever they got too loud.  After four daughters and two granddaughters, Charlie, as his first grandson was somewhat of an unknown quantity.  

I've heard the story multiple times that when Charlie got into toddler stage and was running around the house at family gatherings, yelling I'm sure, that Papa would loudly say "Get Easy!" at Charlie and didn't understand at first why he couldn't sit and play like the girls.  Papa soon learned to adapt and loved coming to watch Charlie play baseball.  He also kept the scorebook for my cousin Sam's baseball games and would come to as many as he could.

Gramme and Papa at their 50th Anniversary party

Papa was a quiet man and wasn't very outspoken.  I guess with four daughters he learned to keep quiet since he couldn't get a word in edgewise.  Despite that Papa would often send Bible verse and quotes to me and my cousins when they would send a card or a letter.  When Papa was about to go into surgery for the first time after the cancer diagnosis, Mom gave him a Bible verse that she thought would encourage him.  On his way into surgery he gave Mom this verse and said that he thought it was a better one than the one that she gave him!  Even though I haven't been able to find what translation this comes from, it must be from one of the five extremely old Bible's on his bookshelf, it is an amazing translation and I love this verse so much.  We used it on the program at his funeral and it was so fitting.

Papa holding Charlotte the day after she was born

At Charlotte's Dedication luncheon

Christmas 2009

Easter 2009

My Papa was a great man.  He loved the Lord.  He loved his family.  He worked hard and after he retired he continued to work hard volunteering for activities he enjoyed and organization's that he believed in.  While he wasn't the most vocal man I always knew that Papa loved me so much.  At the end of any letter or card that he sent me he signed them "Love You Every Day."

I love you every day Papa and I miss you very much.  Thank you for setting such a wonderful example for me and my children.  We know that you are healthy and having the time of your life in Heaven right now but we will always miss you.

Love you every day,
Jenn

A dollar a day

As most of you probably know I have a heart for the work that Compassion International does.  They match children in poverty with sponsors around the world and for $38 a month, the sponsor provides a way out of poverty for their child.  The child has access to the gospel, education, food if needed, medical care and training, and love and guidance.  Compassion's thinking is that changing a child and giving them a chance will change the community.

I signed up to be a Compassion Blogger a while ago but recently someone new took over this program, Brianne, and we've already received a blogging assignment.  So you will hopefully be hearing about Compassion more frequently now.  While Compassion is providing me and other bloggers topics to blog about, please know that I only blog about it because I truly believe that this is a great way to be involved and live out the Great Commission.  And for every topic that I blog about, I do my own research about the topic to form my own opinions.

Brianne sent us an email yesterday about Missions in Action.  They are an organization that is traveling the world to highlight problems and how people can help solve the problem.  They will be producing webisodes about these situations to help spread the word.  Their first episode is from the Philippines.  In the video below they ride through the flooded slums in the outskirts of Manila and visit a Compassion center and homes of Compassion children and children waiting on a sponsor.  Please watch, you'll learn a lot about Compassion.



There were a lot of things that touched me in the video.
The little girl waiting on a sponsor.
The older sister who gets to go to school because her younger sister is sponsored and so her Mom can spend her money on her.
The little boy swimming in the polluted waters because he didn't have anywhere else to play.
And the fact that one of the only two jobs available to these adults is that of a bike rider ferrying people around and that they do that job for one dollar a day.

Did you hear that? One dollar a day. 

It made me think about all the little things that I spend my money on that cost more than one dollar a day.  To be honest, I just ran some errands and picked up a hamburger while I was out that cost four times what one person with two children makes in a day.

And while $38 a month seems like a large amount on the onset.  Especially for those just starting out or in college.  That's only 9 hamburgers like the one I just ate.  That I bought without even thinking about because I knew I had a couple dollars in the bottom of my purse and change to cover it.

I'm pretty sure that I am going to start looking at a single dollar and what it can buy a lot differently.  Compared with the reality that it is someone's daily wage, my hamburger doesn't sound so tempting.  And the Sonic drink that I pick up on the way to pick Charlotte up from school almost sounds bad.  There's no way to get those dollars to that particular woman but I can save those dollars instead of spending them and donate them in many ways to Compassion.  I could sponsor a child.  Or donate to the Unsposored child fund so that little girl can continue to receive help while she waits on a sponsor.  Or buy a chicken or a cow.  Or so many other ways that I could give in a one time way.

If you want to know more about my experience with Compassion just send me an email (talesofapeanut at gmail dot com).  I'd love to talk with you about it.  And if you can't donate or get involved, please pray.  These children need encouragement and love so much and your prayers will never return void.

A Day in Our Life via Instagram

I was reading through one of my old blog books recently and saw where I did a "Day in Our Life" post and I love re-reading what we were doing at that time.  So I thought I'd do another one.  This is from Monday, November 14th.  It's a regular Monday with nothing officially scheduled.

6:01 AM - James starts whimpering for the third time and this time decides he wants to get up and doesn't want to go back to sleep.  I get up and feed him and forgot to take a picture, oops!  Even though James wanted to eat he promptly fell asleep before he was finished so we put him straight back to bed.  We're hoping to work to a 7 am wake up time....

6:45 AM - After we got James back down I headed out to ride our new exercise bike.  Don't be impressed, it was just put together yesterday so this is only my second time riding it.  While I have big goals about riding it consistently we'll see how that pans out.  I love our new bike because it has movable arms too so it works out my back which helps with my scoliosis.  After the bike ride I take a shower and get ready for our day.

8:00 AM - Charlotte's up!  She wasn't much for taking pictures for me this morning but I got what I could.

8:15 AM - Breakfast Time for Charlotte

9:00 AM - Wake up and feed James/Charlotte's Play Time

Charlotte loves picking out James an outfit to wear! If she had her way he'd wear a new one each time we went up to feed him!

9:30 AM - Errands

10:00 AM - James' Nap Time/Charlotte's Play Time

11:15 AM - Lunch time!

12:00 PM - Charlotte's Nap Time

12:15 PM - James' Lunch Time

12:45 PM - James' Play time

James was really focused on how in the world he could get the monkey on his bouncer.  He kept trying to reach for it but his arm just couldn't reach it!

1:15 PM - James' Nap Time

1:20 PM - Mommy's Work Time

Today I designed our Christmas cards and worked on this!

3:00 PM - Charlotte's up!

3:15 PM - James' Snack Time/Charlotte's Snack and Play Time

3:45 PM - James' Play Time

4:15 PM - James' Nap Time/Charlotte's Play Time

Showing me her favorite wise man.  Of course, it's the one in purple!

Today Charlotte helped me draw names for our Christmas exchange with Memma's family!

5:15 PM - Daddy's Home...and with a surprise!

5:30 PM - Dinner Time

6:00 PM - James' Dinner Time/Charlotte's Bath Time

Charlotte was so excited to take her bath she walked in to the kitchen where we were doing the dishes without her clothes on! She said she had taken them off because she was ready to take a bath!

6:30 PM - James' Play Time

7:00 PM - James' Nap Time/Charlotte's Play Time

7:30 PM - Charlotte's Bed Time

8:45 PM - James' Snack and Bed Time

Whew! I'm tired just typing all of this out again!