Enjoy The Fruits Of You Labor!

Lately I keep having this reoccurring thought, "Why don't people do what they love and are passionate about doing?"

Maybe it's an easy question for me to ask because I'm a stay at home mom and I don't technically have a "job". I don't wake up every morning spend an hour and half getting ready to drop the kids off at daycare, hop on a bus and enjoy the 20 minute ride downtown, walk the 3 or 4 blocks to an office building, sit at my cubical, drink coffee with my co-workers and make "water cooler conversations" and of course working............. anymore.

While I was working in cooperate America I took a class about career moves. I found out I wasn't doing anything that I wanted to do. I wanted to be in ministry, working with children, living overseas!! The idea of spending 10+ hours away from my family everyday to sit in a dark room and file or stare at a computer for hours on end wasn't what I wanted be doing. I remember in that class one of my co-worker friends looked at my cards (that show you the things you're good at and interested in) and she said, "You should just quit and go work in an orphanage." to which I replied, "I would love that!"

Today during my quiet time with Jesus I was reading Ecclesiates 3, 4 & 5. I found some interesting scriptures, take a look:

3:9-13

^"9 What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God."

5:18-20

"¹⁸ Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. ¹⁹ And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. ²⁰ People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy."

It is a gift from God to truly enjoy your work! Some days I myself have a hard time enjoying my "work". I would rather go sit in a quiet cubical and file a million papers than listen to whiny children who don't want to use a fork to eat their food and would rather just drink milk for lunch. But those days are nothing compared to the ones where I spend hours playing with my children, reading them books, teaching them songs, taking them to the library and doing projects.

I am blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and I don't always appreciate that blessing. Staying home is a sacrifice. It's not always easy. I would love to work and have enough money to not live paycheck to paycheck and to go shopping and buy things I want! But I remember that the things they learn in the first five years will shape who they become as adults. So while my job might seem "small" in the day to day, it will greatly impact their future.

I want to remember to truly ENJOY the cards that I have been dealt!

Parental Judgement

I know everyone is guilty of being in a store/an airplane/a bus/a park and you see a child throwing a fit, being obnoxious, being disobedient and you think (or say out loud..) "My child will NEVER behave like that......."

I am guilty of this on more than one occasion. I have thought it and said it countless times. I don't know what it is that makes me think that I can do a better job at parenting these children, than their own parents. It's terrible, really. I can remember walking around Target with Jayden when he was a newborn and I heard another child crying and I whispered to Jayden, "You'll never be a naughty boy like that, will you!" hahahah if I only knew! :)

The older my children (and I) get the more I realize I don't know everything there is about raising a child. Most of the time as soon as I think I've figured it out my children prove me wrong!

Let's just be honest, when my children are being disobedient or throwing fits or just running around screaming/laughing, it's a little embarrassing. Why? Because of my pride, fear of people... or because it's completely unacceptable?? I don't know, but is embarrassing.

I want my children to always listen and be obedient the second I tell them to do something. I want them to be a robot.. but they're not. They are a small person in the human race and they are made exactly like me, with a free will. It was a disturbing moment when I realize this. Free will shouldn't be an option until they're at least 18.. I mean really. Ha!

So where is my compassion, where is my love for my kind?? These mothers who are having "one of those moments" and desperately wish that their children would behave themselves. It is one of my goals to just smile and nod with a "I completely understand how you feel right now" look on my face.

Nap Time Battles

Jayden has always been my good sleeper. He started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old!! He never threw a fit when it was time for his nap, he always laid down and went right to sleep.... until he was about 14 months old.

He learned that he could protest his naps and not have to sleep... (unfortunately there is no way to FORCE your child to sleep).. At this point in time Jayden wasn't able to climb out of his crib and I was very thankful for that. However, he would still jump around and not sleep. Most days he would eventually give in and go to sleep.

A few months ago Jayden discovered he could climb out of his crib. I was in the shower one Sunday morning and Jordan was still in bed (trying to get 5 more minutes of sleep), when I heard fast, little footsteps quickly approaching the bathroom door. The next thing I heard was the bathroom door open and "BOO!" I wrapped my towel around me and walked out of the bathroom and saw Jordan still sound asleep in our bed. After asking his several times if he was the one who got Jayden out of bed and Jordan saying, "no." I couldn't believe it! Our son could now escape his cage, uh I mean crib! :)

He didn't show off his new trick everyday.. in fact it wasn't very often he used it to his advantage... but when he realized it was a great way to avoid taking a nap, I started losing my mind!

I have found him squirting lotion all over his body, floor, blankets... I've found him pulling his baby wipes out one by one making huge piles all over his room... I once found him in our bedroom pulling all the nozzles off my perfume bottles!

And then the most recent finding- he learned to climb up onto his changing table and get the baby powder. Jayden LOVES baby powder, every time he gets his diaper changed he requests baby powder on his hiney. On this particular day I had forgotten to take the baby powder, lotion and wipes out of his room because I needed to make a very important phone call. While I was on the phone I noticed Jayden was being VERY quiet and I remembered I had left the wipes in his room. As soon as my 15 minute phone call was over I ran upstairs and all I could smell was baby powder!!!! I flung open Jayden's door to find a fog of powder... after the fog cleared I could see the all the damage he had done in those 15 minutes. Everything in his room was dusted with baby powder. It was almost impossible to breathe! I knew I would one day appreciate this memory in photo form so I ran down stairs, grabbed the camera and the phone and called Jordan. While I was on the phone with him I was snapping pictures of our son covered from head to toe in baby powder.

It took forever to clean up this mess. I used the shop vac so I wouldn't ruin our house vacuum and the stupid thing kept shocking me because of all the powder and static in his changing pad cover. It took like 7 hours to air out his room so you could actually breathe and of course I threw everything in the wash because there was no other way to get it clean.

Instead of nap time we have "quiet time". Jayden is allowed to play with a quiet toy (magna doodle drawing thing) and read books or look at a picture book my mom made for him. Since implementing quiet time I've found Jayden sleeping 3 or 4 times!

It's a rough transition for all of us right now because Jayden gets really grouchy the closer bed time gets, but I'm still happy with having an hour of alone time to get my stuff done!

Gabriella's 1st Birthday

That's right! My daughter is officially a 1 year old!

Gabri is such a quiet laid back little girl. She's content just being held and carried around. She also enjoys trying to keep up with her busy brother.

I found out I was pregnant with Gabriella when Jayden was 5 months old. My pregnancy with her was so easy. I had morning sickness for about 2 weeks, which was nothing compared to the 2 long months when I was pregnant with Jayden. I craved fruit with Gabriella and only gained 30 pounds, compared to the 50 pounds I gained with Jayden. My pregnancy went by so fast with Gabriella, I remember at the end of it I told Jordan, if something happened and I wasn't able to get pregnant again, I would be so sad because I didn't take the chance to completely enjoy being pregnant with Gabri. In fact, I forgot I was pregnant on multiple occasions. I think chasing around a little toddler all day long had a lot to do with that.

Even my labor and delivery with Gabri was super easy. I was induced 1 week before my due date to prevent having a large baby (Jayden was 9lbs 8oz). We went in to the hospital at 8am and they started pitocin, at 11:45 I got an epidural (I wasn't in pain, but they were about to break my water and I didn't really care to experience hard contractions so I got the epidural early) at noon they broke my water, by 4pm I was fully dilated and I started pushing around 5:10 and she was born at 5:28pm. Gabriella Jael weighed 8lbs 7oz.... Gabri was still considered a large baby because she was born 1 week early.

While I was pregnant with Gabri I felt like she would grow up to be a preacher of the Gospel. It was the same feeling I got when I was pregnant with Jayden that he would be a worship leader. Gabriella means, "The Lord's messenger" and I think she will grow into the meaning of her name beautifully.

The week before she was born I was sitting in our living room playing with Jayden when I started to cry as I realized I would bring another child into this world and honestly, I didn't know if I would be able to truly love her like I love Jayden. There is such a special bond between a mother and her first born. The miracle of being a mother is that God expands our heart and we possess a deep love for our children.. no matter how many we have, 2 or 19. :)

24 hours after Gabri was born the nurse noticed a redness around her umbilical cord. The doctor was notified and before I knew it I had 2 NICU nurses sitting in my hospital room telling me that Gabriella would have to stay in the NICU on antibiotics for 72 hours to keep the infection from spreading into her blood system. I cried as I sat in the rocking chair holding her because I was so confused... I had already been discharged because I was anxious to get home to Jayden who I hadn't seen in over 36 hours, they offered to let me stay in my hospital room but Gabriella would have to stay in the NICU. I could only have 4 visitors, excluding Jordan. I wouldn't be able to see Jayden for another 3 days...

I left the hospital that night without my newborn in my arms. I cried uncontrollably all the way home. All I could think about was how I was failing at least one of my children. Gabri was only 24 hours old and I was already leaving her alone in a hospital over 20 miles from our house. Jayden was super sick with a sinus infection and he was getting his molars. Both my babies needed me but I couldn't be in 2 places at once.

Thankfully, the infection didn't spread to her blood stream and we were able to bring her home Monday morning. (She was born Thursday evening). Of course, I cried uncontrollably the first day she was home. Every time I saw both of my children together my heart would just overflow and I would cry... haha!!

One year later we celebrated this beautiful little girl. We had our families over for presents, chili and cake! My dad's birthday is 3 days after Gabri's so we celebrated his 57th birthday as well! It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being able to spend this special day with the ones we love. I baked strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting (recipe by Sprinkles) for Gabriella and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my dad. I also made orange muffins and vegetarian chili. It was all very delicious!

Dad, Gabri and Mom :)

My handsome dad

I made Gabriella's tutu for her birthday

She got 7 baby dolls and LOTS of cute outfits!

New Year's Resolution... update

At the beginning of 2010 I made a couple resolutions...

1.) Not get pregnant
2.) Learn to cook

Those are the two that I actually remember. These were the 2 that I really took to heart and have tried to keep.

You might think the first one is kind of silly... or even a joke.. but it's not! It's a very serious thing! :) I realized the other day that this is the longest I have ever gone not pregnant since Jordan and I got married!!! I'm not gonna lie- I'm very happy that it's been almost a full year of having my body at a normal size! Now as soon as Gabriella is done nursing I will be completely free!!!

Now the second thing is also very serious! I've always wanted to be a good cook. My biggest challenge is being willing to try new things. I hate when you want to try a meal and you go out and buy all the food for it and it doesn't turn out right... or maybe you burn it and end up throwing it away. It's never a good feeling when you fail at something. Luckily for me, I was blessed with a husband (and kids) who don't mind eating food that is less than desirable.

My first few times ever cooking chicken I made Jordan completely sick!!! I made chicken enchiladas and didn't realize that you're supposed to COOK the chicken before you roll it up in the tortilla and put it in the oven.... yeah, not good! The next time I cooked it on a skillet and I'm pretty sure I didn't cook it very long because I thought it would finish cooking in the oven. By the third time Jordan asked me not to make him chicken enchiladas anymore. While we were in Guatemala I learned that browning beef is very easy and I am capable of doing it. I also learned boiling chicken is pretty easy as well!!! So if there is one thing I should probably work on, it's cooking meat.

I have a terrible habit of getting into a rut of always making the same thing, week after week after week. I have a hard time being creative and breaking out of the "norm". We eat a lot of pasta.. spaghetti, alfredo, and vodka sauce. Other stuff we eat/ate a lot is lasagna and shepherd's pie. Yep... pretty boring.

So this year, I broke out of that rut. Some of things I made were; taco soup, actual tacos, hamburgers, manicotti, chile rellenos, rice and peas, Mexican chicken casserole, cornbread corn casserole, chicken and rice casserole, homemade mac and cheese, stir fry, black bean soup, vegetarian chili and pot roast! Some of these turned out better than others and some I've only made once or twice. I'm pretty proud of myself for trying new things and experimenting and learning.

One website that I used A LOT is allrecipes.com

I've found that I really enjoy baking. Cookies are probably my favorite, as well as Jayden's! I've been a vegetarian for 12 years and there's one thing that has been consistent my whole life.. I love sweets!!! We eat dessert probably 6 out 7 times a week. Since I don't want to sit around and become a cow, I pass my "goodies" on to my great neighbors.

So what are some of your favorite recipes?? Please, pass them along!!!! The year is NOT over yet and I since the holidays are coming up I'm going to need some delicious dishes to share with family and friends!

Black Bean Soup

I've been wanting to use a bag of dry black beans that have been sitting in my pantry for a couple weeks and thought black bean soup would be a perfect solution with the cool fall weather we've been having. So I wanted to share the recipe with all of you! This was my first time make black bean soup and it turned out really well. Great flavor!

1 pound dried black beans
6 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 cup each chopped green, sweet red and yellow peppers (I didn't have peppers so I left them out of my soup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon peper
3/4 teaspoon salt, optional
chopped tomato, optional

1) Place beans in a Dutch over or soup kettle; add water to cover by 2 in. Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 1-4 hours or until beans are softened. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.
2) Return beans to pan; add broth and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour or until beans are almost tender.
3 Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the onions, celery, carrot, peppers and garlic in oil until tender. Add the tomato paste, herbs and seasonings to the bean mixture. Add the sauteed vegetables; bring to a boil.
4) Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour or until beans are tender. Discard bay leaves. Garnish with chopped tomato if desired.

Yield: 12 servings (3 quarts)
Nutrition Facts: 1 cup equals 191 calories, 4 g fat (1 g saturated fat) 0 colestrol, 484 mg sodium 30 g carbohydrate, 7 g fiber, 10 g protein.

Lacrae

Jordan found this rapper awhile ago named Lacrae. The first time we ever listened to his CD we were both sitting in the car almost in tears at the lyrics to his songs. I should first tell you all, I am not a huge rap fan... but this guy has an incredible story and powerful lyrics!

Jord recently downloaded Lacrae's newest CD "Rehab". It is loaded with great music, I highly recommend it! My favorite song is #12 God is Enough.

Just in case you're wondering where this guy came from, here is his story:

This post might seem kind of funny coming from a white girl from the suburbs, but after doing ministry with Metro Ministries in the inner-city of Dallas I really got a heart for kids growing up in the projects. Lacrae not only gave his life to the Lord, but is truly making a difference with his music.