A Mother's Prayer

This was a sliver of my day yesterday. It was beautiful. Walking in the sand, the kids trying to catch fish, playing with the sand, watching minnows, and picking flowers. But as a mother (and a woman), its not hard to imagine how things can all change so quickly in one day. And so I wrote out my feelings in a prayer...

O-Sometimes it's all so overwhelming with all there is to do and then all the things I want to do. Never enough time, Hard to find enough patience. Tough to find the resources. And when you need the help or participants, they are often hard to come by.

It's all...what? About balance?

O-Lord help me to be humble, to turn to you first for the guidance, to balance, by prioritizing all the things I need to do, then what is important enough, of the things I want to do.

O-I want freedom sometimes. I need peace, but Lord I know that true freedom and peace only come from You. Also I know from past experience that I will gain that from You when I start my day out with You-First.

Yes-First to praise, first to thank. First to ask, first to request. First to vent to, First to lement. First to allow into my heart and be honest with, so I can recieve guidance towards a balanced life. 

Amen

A Sweet Experience, with the Tweeting Kind.

 Here is a little bird ( I believe a starling ) my children found outside the house, fallen from its nest that it built in our roof ( ugh! )

 Here is our littlest one gazing upon him. Poor little birdie. We couldn't just leave him, we knew for sure that our cats would get a hold of him in no time and well...you know. The nest was way too high to place him back in, so I used trusty old google to figure out how to care for him. Apparently water-logged cat food was the food of choice fed by tweezers. Soft bedding and kept safe and dark in a box. Then the next day the kids find two more. Oh my goodness, its getting kinda noisy in my house. Then half a day later the kids find another two. At this point I am really wondering what is up with this mother bird and her nest making abilities! So at this point I am mother bird of 5. And life is feeling a little too hectic. I needed to find another solution. I searched more on google and came across a wiki how website. This gave me the answer I was really thankful for. Simulate a new nest in a basket and hang it near the nest away from predators (my evil yet lovely kitty cats). To be honest I was a little nervous about the whole idea. Would the mother find them right away? Would my make shift basket nest work out? Would the cats still get at them? Would the basket fall down? But I did it and nearly a week later we checked on them and I am happy to report they are alive and we have witnessed the mother bird bringing her babies food. And also, they don't look disgusting anymore. They are looking quite cute and feathery.

I must say it was a great experience to witness so closely a -mysterious to us- creature the Lord so awesomely created. It was so cool how their mouths were able to open up like a book to be able to easily catch any morsel of food. And the mother bird, such a small and seemingly insignificant creature at times, has such a big job. I praise the Lord for this closer glimpse into His creation!

Salvage-Style Project Almost Drives Woman to Insanity

 I was looking through a book I recently picked up at the Library called Salvage-Style Projects, and was inspired by a project and kinda put my own spin on it to accommodate what I have been wanting. Which is something to put the kids art work in, to display a few pieces at once, but not have the commitment to permanently stay in a frame. And that it could be swapped out in exchange for a fresh piece of work. I went along with the idea of salvaging an old window. Which in this old house, I found 3. Lots of old things in this nearly 200 year old house! I had a little extra work though because every window had 2 panes, but each had one broken pane of glass and one not (all where the same size window, whew). So I went to work, picked my favorite window frame, and worked at taking all the caulking out of the broken pane and cleaned it up good for a good pane of glass to fit in. So I worked at removing a good pane of glass from an other window next. It was taking me a while, got about 3/4 ways done of removing the old caulking when, I broke the glass! UGH! Ok no worries I have another glass window pane I can remove from the third window...another good 30 or more minutes later, I do it again. Thats it, my project is ruined. So I go moping to my husband. Well I guess I can have a real old look and use the broken glass :( He asks me, did I look in his workshop for more windows? I answered, kinda. Well he takes another look for me and finds another window. Yay......but I just know I'll repeat what I did before. So he takes a little more time (from re-shingling our shed) to quickly pull the window apart and in no time he has a beautiful - whole piece of glass out and ready to be installed in my frame. He even adhered it in place. :) Thank you Honey. From saving me from insanity.
  Well the rest of the project is not as exciting. Caulking, windexing, and wiping down. My original plan for mounting it on the wall was to use big screw hooks to put in the window top and screws measured the same distance on the wall, attached by a bit of chain for each side. But the hooks were not in supply in the workshop. So I used what I had: two big eye hooks and sturdy copper wire. Guess who hung this big window? Well I know I could have but why not save time and lots of frustration. Ya, it was honey. Thanks honey for always helping me with MY projects. This DIY project sorta turned into a YDIH (You Do It Honey) Project. he he
I figured the best way to attach the art to the inside of the glass was a little clear double sided tape. 
I love it!

 You are probably thinking I grabbed that long piece and started smashing glass, don't you?

The window is old, but someone not too long ago did put some fresh paint on it, so I evened out the oldness of it by scraping some paint off with a flat screw driver, and I did a little sanding here and there.

Gevulde Pannekoek

 

A truly easy but scrumptious dutch meal. What to make for dinner when you don't have much in the fridge/cupboards and much time...or just wanna try something different and delicious, make Gevulde Pannekoek, translation: Meat-Filled Pancake.

For the pancakes: 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 eggs, salt, butter or margarine for baking.

For the filling: 4 tbsp. butter or margarine, 1/3 cup flour, 2 cups stock or bouillon, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice to taste, 2 cups of cooked meat or minced ( I used ground pork), 1/2 cup canned mushrooms  (I used 2 sliced onions instead)

Make a thick brown sauce of butter, flour, and stock: add seasoning, keep stirring and mix with meat and mushrooms. Keep hot but take care that it does not boil, or meat will get tough.  Filling can be made in advance. Make smooth batter of the pancake ingredients. Heat butter in a 10 inch skillet. Use half of the batter; brown pancake slowly on one side until done. Slide onto platter and keep hot. Make second pancake in same way. Spread meat mixture on light side of first pancake and turn second pancake, brown side up, on top of first. Cut into wedges and serve at once with a green salad. Serve as dinner entree of for lunch.

Honestly at first when I saw this recipe in a little book called The Netherlands Cookbook I was thinking yuck, but for some reason I was intrigued and gave it a shot. Apparently the Dutch love'em some pancakes.

Seeing Green . . . Seeing God

A recent walk in the nearby forest makes me aware of the feeling of being alone but at the same time amazingly not alone at all. There is so much life I can’t see, going on as I stroll down the quiet path.

I feel almost overwhelmed as I take in all the beauty around. Moss is covering so many of the surfaces. All the plants grow wildly everywhere, with the exception of the well worn path. I can hear so many different species of birds, I can smell flowers.  I hear greenery rustling, not knowing what may be just a few feet away.

Maybe this sounds lame but I find it enchanting, truly stunning. This is where I feel God revealing Himself in a big way…