Works for me Wednesday...Rhubarb Crisp!

Do you ever just sit around wondering...what should I do with all of this extra rhubarb?

I know I do!

I've got the recipe for you!! Everyone loves apple crisp, right? Well, what about rhubarb crisp? If you add just the right amount of topping, it cooks into the rhubarb and sweetens it up...and you are left with just the perfect amount of tartness!

Here's what you do....

Wash the rhubarb and get rid of the leaves (that is, if you hand picked it!)

Get out your cutting board and start slicing that baby up! If you have a giant stalk, you might want to cut it down the middle before you slice it. It kind of cuts like celery.

I figure about 6-9 stalks of rhubarb to fill up an 8x11 dish. Take your sliced pieces and place in the dish. Add about 1/2 a cup of water.

Then put it aside.

For the topping, mix up:
1-1/2 cups of sugar
1-1/2 cups of brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
9 Tablespoons of flour
2-1/4 cups oatmeal
1-1/2 cups butter (I use soft margarine)

Mix this together and put on top of the rhubarb. Just spoon it over...it doesn't have to be completely smooth.

Put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. You'll know it's done when it is a bit crispy on top and very bubbly.

ENJOY!!

I just made this a couple days ago...I should have taken a picture, but it disappeared too quickly!

My boys...

Jamison, Haddon, Gideon, and Nolan!

My surprise Baby Shower

On Saturday, I went to what I thought was a family picnic/birthday party for my nephew. What I didn't know was that it was also a baby shower for me too! No one gave any hints, and I really had no idea...though when you live out of town...any gathering that includes your entire family...you've gotta be wondering, ya know?

My sister made the most beautiful cake:


And she made the most adorable 'Lady Bug' themed diaper cake! (She should start a business!)




My mom crocheted pink baby booties that have magnets on one side to hang on your fridge! Payson gets a little pink set to wear!


It was a really great day. Payson received some new outfits, a blanket crocheted special for her by her Great-Meme, a couple blankets, some extra cash so mommy can go out shopping, and a bunch of other pink stuff!

And just so ya know...I am NOT taking apart my diaper cake!! We will pack around....okay, John....PLEASE?!?!?

The temptation of Rhubarb

My sister has rhubarb plants alongside their shed. It is about that time of year, when the rhubarb is perfect for the pickin'.

On Saturday, amidst a large family picnic at her house....this is what happened:

My Meme walked into the kitchen where my sister and I were talking.

"Erin," Mem said to her, "I apologize. I did something bad." Her head laid low.

"What Mem?" Erin asked.

"See, I saw your rhubarb. It is perfectly ripe, and I couldn't help myself....so, I picked it....and I know how much you've been looking forward to picking it..."

"Oh, don't worry about it...did you leave me any to pick for myself?" she asked.

"Maybe about three."

"That's okay."

But for some reason, Meme's head remained lowered.

"Meme, what's the matter?" Erin asked.

"I knew I shouldn't pick it...but since I couldn't help myself, I asked Auntie Mary to stand in front of the rhubarb plants, so you wouldn't know I picked them." Meme answered.

"Meme, it's okay (laughing)...it's really not a big deal."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Then, Meme walked over to the screened door and screamed outside to my aunt Mary who was standing by the shed...

"It's okay Mary....you can move now...I told her what I did!"

Oh my goodness....we were laughing so hard, lol.

Bill Cosby: Natural Child Birth

Part One:


Part Two:

Oreo Cookie/Nutter Butter Truffles

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients
1 full package of Oreo cookies
1 80z package of softened cream cheese
12oz dipping chocolate
(I use Chocolate Bark thinned with 1/2 tsp Crisco)

Directions
Crush up the cookies using a food processor. Combine with the cream cheese and make sure it's mixed really well. Using your hands, roll into approx 36 1" balls. Melt the chocolate and roll each ball in the melted chocolate until fully coated. Place each coated ball on waxed paper until fully set.

For Nutter Butter Truffles...substitute Nutter Butter for the Oreos and follow the recipe!

The amazing energy of a six year old

Yesterday, we traveled 1,000 miles...starting in northeast Tennessee, ending in southern Maine.

Out of the six of us...Nolan was the only one who never napped. Gideon came in a close second and napped for maybe 15 minutes...more of a power doze. Haddon and Jamison tied with maybe 30 minutes total...up until we got stuck in traffic.

Even mommy and daddy were able to sneak a nap or two in.

Nolan definitely has more stamina than I do!

Some odds and ends

*I've been suffering from seasonal allergies for the past 6+ weeks. It must be pregnancy related since I have never had them before. They've gotten worse over the past few days...itchy sinuses, itchy throat, itchy and puffy eyes, sneezing more, etc. Ugh.

*I'm packing up my family to go on vacation in Maine. We leave at 4am. Think of me...we're driving straight through! Pray for a safe trip :)

*I have painted Payson's room. Well, most of it. I need to finish up the trim and then figure out what color to paint the accent wall. Her bedding is shabby chic...ideas would be most appreciated.

Get ready for your heart to melt...

Introducing, my boys....singing their favorite hymns!

You see, last week, I heard Nolan singing in his bed...and I snuck up on him with my camera.

This is the result:


Then Gideon wanted in on the action...



Nolan wasn't quite done yet...


And then they both wanted to sing together...unfortunately, the battery on my camera died...


When Haddon heard what had taken place the night before, he tried his hand at it too...


How can your heart not completely melt when you hear this?

A baby shower

I'm really grateful for the friends I have who decided to throw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun!

We played a couple of games, talked about our kids, and opened some gifts.

And if you ask my boys what was best of all about my shower...even though they weren't there....it was that I brought home a balloon for each of them...plus some Hotwheels stickers from Miss Tami!

Even Nolan sees it...

(It reads...Marriage to a Difficult man)

Well, it is a book I'm reading, but still!

"Mommy we still gotta do devotions!"

said my Nolan before bed.

He had just brushed his teeth and saw that it was close to bedtime.

I told him that I hadn't forgotten and thanked him for remembering!

Since John is at church, I sat down with my four little men on the couch, clutching our old hymnal.

"Okay, what should we sing first?"

Three resounding 'Holy Holy Holy!!'

So we began....Holy, Holy, Holy...Lord God Almighty...

It was the first time that ALL three of them joined in together.

There is nothing that warms a mommy's heart more, than hearing her little ones sing praise to God.

We then read our daily devotion "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy". Nolan volunteered to read the whole thing. He is a very good leader when daddy is not here.

We prayed...and Nolan said to me..."Mommy, I like to pray and sing now."

We sang "Jesus Loves Me", but it was decided that we had to sing one more since that song was just too short.

We ended with "Amazing Grace"...again listening to my little boys singing to their Father.

Something that made me laugh

This post dedicated to Cousin Leeber

A few months ago, dh and I were laying in bed before falling asleep just chatting. It turned fairly silly, and he started singing "I have decided"...yes folks, it got that silly.

He started singing the first verse, and I chimed in...

I have decided, I'm gonna live like Cousin Leeber...

We both started cracking up. You see, when I was a young child and first heard this song, I had no idea what the words were. I figured they said Cousin Leeber. I always thought that Cousin Leeber must be pretty holy if we're singing about living like him.

What's funny is that John thought the same thing growing up!

This is just another reason why we truly were meant for each other!

Ruby Toots

I personally own two slings...and have used them off and on. There are times that they come in very handy, and some other times, I feel like it is more of a hassle.

I recently found Ruby Toots. They sell slings that are much less expensive than the other ones out there. I have heard raving reviews about them, so it might be worth a shot!

You can get the clearanced slings for less than $20 a piece...and even at full price, it's less than other leading slings.

I may just have to get one...



Aren't they cute?

I am a mom to a first grader

Nolan finished up his first year of school this week. He is officially a first grader!

It was my first year homeschooling and it went really well. There is always room for improvement, but now I know how to make things work a little better. In September, I'll begin with both Nolan and Gideon, and I have a feeling that I will have to make myself that much more organized.

The main thing that I have learned this year is how selfish I can be. It is my innate selfishness that has prevented me from having school on certain days. I either just didn't feel like it, or there was something else that I would have rather been doing instead.

I don't think that I quite understood how much work goes into teaching your child. It would be so much easier to just drop my child off at a school and give the responsibility of teaching and raising him to a complete stranger. Thankfully, we made the decision long ago that we just couldn't do that.

We were convicted several years ago that it is part of parenting to homeschool our children. I would side with those that say it is a Biblical mandate that we teach our children. How can I throw my five year old to the wolves? As I see him play with his brothers, I see how naive and immature he is in his knowledge of God. If he is in school 8 hours a day, how can I compete with that? How can I prevent the world from having more influence on him than me?

The way I can do that is through him attending school within our home. I have full control on what he learns, who he spends his days with and how to discipline him when he needs to be set on the right path.

As a young mom, it is a huge decision to be made for your family. I really recommend listening to Voddie Baucham and his sermons on his book, Family Driven Faith. Most of all, read how God commands us to raise our families. Homeschooling is not easy by any means. When you have more than one child, it is even more trying...but it can be done. I urge you to really think and pray before you enroll your child into the public school system.

Belly Mapping

This is a neat website that allows the expectant mom to figure out just what position her baby is in!

Spinning Babies

I'll have to try this later when things are quieter!

Let me know if you try it!

Say what???

From the great Oprah...

Think of the experience as an ice cube, Dr. Weiss says. Ice cubes are solid until they're melted by heat energy. They become water, but if you add more heat energy, that water will turn into steam. The same molecule—H2O—is still there, just in a different form.

Dr. Weiss says people are like ice cubes. "We're the solid part, the condensed part. We think we're separate from everybody else. We're not. If you heat us with love energy—not heat energy but love energy—we melt into a spiritual sea," he says. "And if you keep heating with love, you find God. God is the steam. God is beyond the steam—the organizing wisdom that's in every atom of our being."

In the end, we're not so separate, Dr. Weiss says. "We're not different from each other," he says. "We're all souls, and souls are all connected."

Happy Mommy's Day

My day started out as I laid in bed hearing the sounds of the pitter patter of my little boy's feet as they scurried around and got themselves dressed.

It wasn't long before I heard the knock on my door...

"Happy Mother's Day Mommy!!"

Nolan was quick to give me a card, and Gideon gave me a present. It was a dust buster...something that I've recently asked for. I figured I needed something a bit practical. A dust buster does a kind of pampering in its own special way.

A card from John soon followed...that had been slipped under the door. A very sweet card...

I will end my day with some Carrabas and maybe a movie.

All in all...a good day :)

Once upon a time...

there was a Lightening McQueen and an airplane. Lightening McQueen was driving to the airplane.

The airplane went up, up, and away!

And...then crashed down onto Lightening McQueen.

They both crashed and broke.

THE END

By Nolan

I've been tagged!

By Angela!

*What I was doing 10 years ago: I was working 3 jobs, about 60 hours a week...

*5 things on my list to do today:

1. Laundry (when isn't that on my list?)
2. Sweep floors
3. Finish up the book I'm currently reading: Elizabeth Prentiss: More Love to Thee
4. Relax
5. Take a nap

*Things I would do if I were a billionaire-

1. Donate a huge amount of it to missions.
2. Put aside a college fund for each of my kids.
3. Pay off the house and van and any debt we might have.
4. Get a summer house in Maine.
5. Do some fix-up work around the house that John and I have talked about doing in the future.


*3 of my bad habits

1. Sarcasm
2. Self-righteousness
3. Pride


*5 Places I’ve lived

1. Central Falls, RI
2. Topsham, ME
3. Farmington, ME
4. Brunswick, ME
5. Johnson City, TN



*5 jobs I’ve had

1. Pampered Chef rep
2. I worked in sales at a Direct Marketing company
3. Preschool teacher
4. Customer Service rep for Verizon's phone service
5. Mommy


*5 People I want to know more about, that means you’re tagged!

I would tag people, but they ignore me, lol.

McCain announces running mate...

Click here for the article and video clip...

Her pillow came!

I won a gift certificate from Bella Marie Designs. I've been excited to see the pillow that she would create for my Payson...and it arrived today!



Isn't that adorable? I can't wait to put it in her room...it'll be a couple more months!

In case you can't find the words...

Free YoMommy Yogurt

Click here and fill out the form. The coupon will be sent to you in the mail!

Did you know that my mom is Little Debbie?

When my parents were here visiting, my dad got my boys believing that the above picture is a picture of Gramma when she was little (her name is Debbie).

Every time we enter the store and the kids see this picture, they get very excited that get to see Gramma again.

Yes, it's true...my boys are living a lie.

Barack Obama: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

by Voddie Baucham

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever to run for President. He could not even bring himself to vote for the Born Alive Infant Protection Act which would have protected children born in the process of an abortion. That’s right, Mr. Obama cannot even bring himself to support a plan that simply says to doctors, “If they slip past while you are trying to kill them, you have to let ‘em live.” With this vote, Obama was more pro-abortion than the radical abortion group NARAL.

I am absolutely amazed that at a time when Margaret Sanger’s Darwinian, Eugenics inspired dream of eliminating the poor, the lame, and the inferior races through targeted abortion is being propagated at record rates, black people still support the man who epitomizes her murderous philosophy. Black and hispanic women make up less than 13% of the population, but account for nearly half of all abortions. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills are located in minority neighborhoods. Abortion is absolutely racist. Yet most blacks have no problem supporting people like Mr. Obama who want to make sure that the killing doesn’t stop.

In his article, “Shepherds Leading the Sheep to Slaughter,” Rev. Clenard Childress notes:

“Here are the birth statistics for African-American babies in the City of Philadelphia just a couple a years ago: 10,880 born, 9,259 aborted. Nearly half or 46% of all babies in the City of Brotherly love were dismembered and brutally killed by means of abortion. Moreover, there are twenty-five other major urban cities in America that report having a higher abortion rate than live birth rate.”

This is absolutely astonishing! The only thing more astonishing is the fact that black clergymen in Philadelphia are supporting Mr. Obama. Then there is the consistent mantra from black supporters of America’s first bi-racial candidate... “I’m just happy to see a black man in this position.” Amazing! That’s like Hitler hiring a Jewish doctor (on his father’s side) to run the human experiments at Dachau and hearing the Jewish prisoners hail the fact that ‘one of their own’ has ascended to such great heights in the Nazi regime.

I recommend reading the rest here: Barack Obama: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Unable to go to church...again...a tmi post

Last Sunday morning, brought with it a fever that attacked two of my children. I stayed home with Gideon and Haddon while they napped on and off...and then woke up Monday morning completely 'normal'.

Last night, I was visiting my friend, Melanie, and while I was leaving, she said "See you in the morning, unless one of our kids gets hit with some unknown illness."

It hit at 2:32am.

Gideon was sitting in his bed crying. I went in to see what the problem was. He had thrown up all over himself, his sheets, and his blankets.

Yuck.

I proceeded to carry him to the bathroom, where he continued vomitting into the toilet.

Thankfully, he didn't eat too much for dinner and most of what he was ridding himself of, was clear and fairly odorless.

And what was his reaction after this ordeal, you might ask??

"Mommy, I need to go tell Nolan that I throwed up." The kid has priorities! (I did have him wait until morning)

I got him cleaned up, with new pajamas, and we settled in together on the couch...with a bowl close to his mouth in case he felt the need to purge.

He ended up kicking me off of the big couch...what can I say, the kid can sprawl out...and I didn't want to wake him. I spent the night all crunched up on the loveseat.

The boy is hungry now. He's eaten some toast and juice and seems to be in good spirits.

On the other hand, mommy needs a nap, in a real bed.

As we forgive those...

Could you forgive a person who murdered your family? This is the question faced by the subjects of As We Forgive, a documentary about Rosaria and Chantal–two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994genocide. The subjects of As We Forgive speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans in 1994. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government has returned over 50,000 thousand genocide perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy. Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution: Reconciliation.

But can it be done? Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today? In As We Forgive, director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness.

Out and about

This morning, we stopped at a store that Nolan didn't want to go in. He said it was "boring".

I told him he had no choice but to come in with me and his brothers.

He then proceeded to say that I was such a "kill-joy".

I couldn't help but crack up laughing...which he didn't find very amusing, lol.

This was after we spent an hour and a half at the dentist. The kids were taken in one by one...and we are cavity-free! Yay!