Satan is a Liar!

-By Jamie

I am so tired of Satan's lies, aren't you? I especially hate it when I realize I've been buying into his lies for quite some time. On the other hand, I am extremely thankful when God reveals the truth to me! It is so freeing!

I am currently working on losing some weight, but when am I not? Oh, that's right, during the holidays when I'm working on five-thousand other things and not caring about my health as much because I want to have fun and eat all the goodies! But that's a whole other blog! Anyway, it's January so I am working hard to reach my fitness goals which means I am consistently making "better choices" as my doctor put it. I've been doing this for quite some time, off and on. My current short-term goal is to lose 10 pounds which is not easy for me. I'm eating better and exercising as much as I can fit in to my schedule. I weigh myself weekly and record my number. I'm doing great for the most part, but it doesn't always show up on the scale or in the way my clothes fit. So I keep pressing on, most of the time, or probably all of the time, feeling discontent with myself because I haven't reached my goal yet, or am not progressing as quickly as I want to. I keep thinking, "I have to do this so I can get healthy", or "I can't eat that because I haven't reached my goal yet." Sometimes I wonder if it's all really worth it or if I'll ever reach my goals. The constant struggle, physically and mentally, can be exhausting and discouraging.

The Lies: "This is really hard and I don't want to do it. What if I never reach my goals? Someday I will live a healthy lifestyle. If I do reach my goals, this should get easier. Until then, I will have to suffer through this."

Am I the only one with these thoughts? The constant recordings in my brain?

The Truth: Every time I make a healthy choice, I am ALREADY living a healthy lifestyle. What others or myself may see on the outside, does not reflect the changes I have made on the inside. This is hard, but it is worth it, and I'm going to enjoy it! Even if I never make it to my goal weight, I will rejoice in my decisions today.

Do you hear the difference? Satan loves to keep us unsatisfied. No matter what I did, I hadn't done enough and I was having my mental tantrums. My goals were always just out of reach. I was discontent and frustrated that I was working hard and not seeing enough results; never quite getting there. These lies can show up in all areas of our lives. "I'll never get everything done; I'll never own that bigger house, better car, or make enough money; maybe next week, month or year." We are constantly after something and never quite content...or is it just me? I hope not!

Then God opened my eyes to the fact that I had been wasting my days with thoughts of discontent. I was not enjoying the moment or rejoicing in the day God granted me. I realized that what I have already been doing is LIVING the life that I thought I was REACHING for! He made me aware that I have reached my healthy lifestyle goal and I should be enjoying the exercise and the healthy food choices. He showed me that even WHEN I reach my final fitness goals, I must continue to exercise and eat healthy, so I may as well enjoy it now! If I am not blessed with tomorrow, I don't want to waste today. These truths have helped me to have a better attitude about my lifestyle changes. I want to rejoice in the body God gave me and take care of it they way He intended, every day.

I still have my struggles, and don't always enjoy making the right choice, but God isn't finished with me yet!

FauxPasta Fo Mama!

by Jenny

Close your eyes and imagine the smell of some delicious Italian pasta swimming in a divinely rich sauce...now, imagine adding up those calories. Wah, wah, wah. I wanted the taste of pasta without all the carbs and I do love me some spaghetti squash but I wanted something new, a different texture. So the experiment begins. And I'm going to, of course, share with you, why? Because it came out fantastic! And if there's any pasta lovers out there that want to give it a try, here ya go! I thought even if I replace one pasta dish a week (we usually eat pasta twice a week) that would help decrease my carb intake. Trying to make healthier choices ya know....

FauxPasta with Kielbasa & Mushrooms
(feeds 4)
2-3 zucchini
1 container of mushrooms
1 turkey kielbasa cubed
Olive oil
Fresh basil
Garlic salt & pepper

First, I used a julienne tool I have to slice up the zucchini in small strips. Then brown kielbasa in skillet with small amount of olive oil. Next add fresh basil & mushrooms- I put the lid on at this point to cook down and soften the mushrooms. Then add the zucchini strips and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir and cook for a few minutes til it reaches the point you can't resist wanting to eat it. I added a small sprinkle of parmesan to finish it off. Super easy, super quick. Gluten free & low carb, what's not to love!

(We did cook some whole wheat pasta for the kids to have and topped their pasta with this veggie sausage mixture. They loved it!)

Stained Glass Art with Kids

by Jenny

~LOVE Through Art~

Window Cling Stained Glass Art

 

 

 

We started a Fruit of the Spirit~A Homeschool Study and we spent quite a bit of time on LOVE. Because we knew we needed it. And because Jesus did.

 

'Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."'

 

If you are following our study so far, here's my original post Fruit of the Spirit~A Homeschool Study, then We Made a Giant Tree to display all of our fruit verses. We started with LOVE ( All Ya Need is Love... ) and our art for this 'fruit' was Window Clings from stained glass paint.

 

These window clings are super easy to make. All you need are colors of your choice of stain glass paint, liquid leading and page protectors. The stain glass materials should all be located together in a craft store. This stuff looks a lot like puff paint. You'll want to start with the liquid leading and trace the shape you want right onto the page protector. Then let it dry completely. We let ours dry overnight.

After they're dry, fill in with the paint colors making sure to cover the entire surface and use the tip to pop any air bubbles. Again, you'll want to let these dry completely. At this point we peeled them off the page protectors and slapped 'em right on the window. Buuut...if you want to move yours around you may want to cut the page protector around your shape and use tape to secure it to the window. They're not super moveable- they might be if they are super thick but the thinner they are the easier they rip. That's it. Super simple. Have fun making tons of decorations! You could make some for each holiday, for school, or just for fun!

My Retreat With God...at the KOA

by Jenny

I realized after a particularly stressful day of homeschooling, mothering yada yada…that I have never spent time alone for very long. 
I've been married over 16 years, have four kids, and have never spent the night by myself. I have been away from the kids and from Gregg for women's retreats or on short trips but even then I was sharing a room with other women. I have never spent the night all by myself in silence- not since I've been married. 
Well, after this particularly stressful day I decided I needed to have some silence, some quiet. The thought had entered my head on and off for the past three months that it might be nice to spend the night in a hotel room or something. But it felt selfish to me. I almost reached a breaking point Wednesday and I realized that this time of quiet needed to happen. It must happen. It was a necessity. I decided that with some recent money I had made from selling jewelry that it wouldn't cost from our family budget so there was no guilt (not that this guilt came from anybody but me- in fact, when I approached the option months ago, hubby was ready to book me a hotel room).
I decided I wanted a cabin versus a hotel room because I didn't really want people on either side of me. I have a tendency to need to talk out loud, especially when I'm praying. And I didn't want to be hindered by others around me. Plus I seem to really feel close to God in nature so I called the KOA that's just five minutes from the house and reserved a cabin, the smallest cabin they have, for the next day.  She must've heard the desperation in my voice because she quickly offered 25% off and then early check in and a late check out the following day. I began to make a list of what I wanted to get out of this quiet time and what I should bring – my Bible, journal, book to read.... I knew that God wanted me to work through something big. I knew I needed physical rest, spiritual rest, and emotional rest. I would also need to bring my own sheets, pillow, blankets and anything else I might need because this was a bare-bones cabin. No bathroom, no kitchen. 
The next morning I knew that this was still something I needed to do because of my impatient attitude and anger that I had all morning with the kids. I was packed and ready to go pretty early but I needed to wait until I put the baby down for her nap in order to really feel like it was okay to leave the kids until Gregg got home from work. I decided to keep a journal of my time there...

2:15pm: I arrived. Well, I knew the cabin would be small, but when I arrived and spotted the little beauty I realized it was even smaller than I thought. But that was okay I didn't need much room. I also thought I might be surrounded a little bit more with nature versus campsites and RVs. But when you need to get away with God and you've already made the reservation you can't be picky. The first thing I did when I walked in was take a picture, after that I decided to set up my new little home for the next 24 hours. I made my bed, I put my food in the mini fridge and I proceeded to pray throughout the cabin (I took two steps forward) that God would be with me for the next 24 hours. That I would dedicate those hours to him to focus on him, to grow in him. 

9:15pm: Well it's been about 7 hours now as I type this and I find that the quiet can be a little hard. I find myself definitely talking out loud, I also worshiped earlier and I am very thankful no one was around to hear that. But I had an awesome time with the Lord in worship. I prayed, cried, sang, read the Word outloud, prayed some more.
I have found the time on my hands a little daunting. I realized that I straightened my mug, napkin & spoon, and pile of books a couple of times already (I'm gonna make a great OCD old person in a home...). I also found myself looking at my clock several times at first and wondering what the kids were doing at that moment while they were all at home.
I would pray, then listen, get distracted, try to listen some more, pray....waiting to hear from God is difficult. I feel like I have ADHD when I try to listen for something from the Holy Spirit...
There was a tv in the cabin and I brought my computer to work on blog posts in case God worked out everything in me real quick and I was bored. 
No chance of that. 
It's also about 35° right now and I have one little space heater in the room. It's supposed to get down to 20° and feel like 9°. I hope this little space heater has enough to last me through the night and the morning....


10:30pm: I caved and texted Gregg and he brought me a space heater and down comforter from home. I thought about saying, "I've had a great time so far- let's go home" but I didn't. I wanted to spend the night by myself- and God.


12:07am: I woke up with my heart racing. I decided to read and pray some more. As I was praying and reading earlier, I had a picture in my mind and it didn't make any sense. I asked God to fill me in why I kept getting the same vision....no answer. Now to get back to sleep.


6:05am: Woke up to some freaky crinkly sound by the wall in the package of water bottles I brought. The sound was getting louder! I thought for sure it was a mouse. Heart racing, I turned on the flashlight app and slipped on my shoes, I flicked the light on real quick! Nothing.... I think it was the water was so cold it was affecting the plastic. Since I was wide awake I decided to walk to the bathroom. Did I mention yet that I had to walk to the bathroom...when I first got there I decided to walk the circle of the park every time I went to the bathroom to get fresh air and exercise more. This time I did not walk. I ran back to get under the covers. Maybe I should have got the hotel room...and a spa treatment. Why did I want a cabin?!


9:30am: Got the most sleep since the little bathroom run at 6. Tossed and turned all night. It was hard to sleep with out Gregg next to me. Now for some more quiet time...


12:30pm: I had a great last couple hours reading and praying. The first verse I read this morning was the literal word of the vision I kept having. God's so cool like that. It took a while for me to get an answer but he came through. I was confused and had just decided to write it down and wait on God. He always comes through. Not in the time we may want but his timing. I'm cold, tired, and feel drained- I think I'll head home early.


Now that I'm home I want to reflect... I am thankful for a husband that did not hesitate to support me spending time alone. I am glad that I took this time- I realized that as a stay at home homeschooling mother, I rarely have time to myself. I think that I get wrapped up in serving my kids, training them, ministry, household tasks, etc that I often forget to get alone with God. When I do take time to 'check out' I spend that time on my phone, watching tv, or reading, but rarely with God. I think I re-learned how important and vital to my relationship with Him to 'check out' with Him. "To block out all noise and stress and zone out" would be my description of 'checking out' and to do all those things while praying and meditating on his Word, is what I was able to do during this retreat. 
During this time I was not only able to reflect, refresh, realize, but make goals for myself and our family. I'm amazed and thankful for all that I learned. 
I really think I need to make time like this on a regular basis, maybe yearly. But maybe next time will be at a spa.

All Ya Need is Love....

by Jenny

 

We've started our Fruit of the Spirit~A Homeschool Study and We Made a Giant Tree for our fruit. Now it's time to get down to business and talk LOVE. I knew I wanted us to spend a lot of time on LOVE. Because I knew God has spent a lot of time on love. It's SO foundational and mentioned so many times in scripture that I think God really wants to make sure we get it. Our focus verse that we are saying daily is...

 

 

 Our first day we all spent time in God's Word finding verses on love. We each picked at least one verse then on the second day we copied them on our construction paper apple. We settled on these verses to hang on our tree:

Matt. 5:44

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Rom. 12:9

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

I Cor. 13:1

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

I Cor. 13:4-8a

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I Cor. 16:14

Do everything in love.

Prov. 3:3

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.

 

 

3rd day: studying LOVE we began art projects. We made stained glass window clings (post to follow).

4th day: We created a second art project- Using chalk pastels we created art that we thought represented "love"...I loved seeing how each of them saw love. One saw love coming from a seed and it grows out from the center, another saw love as something planted and growing and each of the seeds were love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Then the other one saw love as a giant fruit and the wind was pushing all the other 'stuff' around but love was solid.

5th day: We read and discussed people from the bible that we thought exhibited love. We chose Joseph for his love of family and enemies- Gen 45:1-15. We chose Ruth for her love and loyalty to her mother-in-law- Ruth 1:16-18. We also chose Jonathan for his brotherly, loyal, and sacrificial love for David- I Sam 18:1-4, 19:1-4.

6th day: Using index cards, each one of us wrote down things that we could do to practically show love. One of them wrote, "do not fight" another wrote "I will love my siblings. I will love my enemies. I will not fight. I will choose love first."

 

Look forward to our Stained Glass art post coming soon!!!

 

 

 (side note: when researching studies for Fruit of the Spirit, I read numerous posts/studies that said how "important" it was that all the fruit be the same because the fruit of the Spirit is the same, it's all one fruit. And to make sure they say fruit instead of fruits of the Spirit. On our first day of starting this study, all the kids went into their rooms for journaling time and came out with pictures that they got during their time. They each had drawn a tree with different fruit representing each fruit of the Spirit and a lot of them were identical 'fruit' for the fruit. They were SO excited that the Holy Spirit had given them similar pictures that I didn't want to squelch that with any theology on "fruit"....so there you go. I'm not contradicting the message the Holy Spirit gave to them.)`

It's Time to Say Goodbye...

by Jenny

It's Time to Say Goodbye...well, at least, see ya later to Foodie Fridays for the Relafords. We have hit a one year mark of Foodie Fridays, with over 30 different countries, Foodie Friday All Stars, Foodie Friday restaurant tours, and specials for birthdays & anniversaries. We decided to take a break for a while because the last few it seemed the like the kids were tired of cooking and helping. And maybe doing all those dishes! And frankly, hubby and I were too. We decided to make it to the one year mark and then in the new year think of something new and exciting to do for our family day on Fridays. So for our last Foodie Friday Gregg ended on America!

Foodie Friday~America

Gregg tried to select dishes from different regions, some we've never made our selves.

~Menu~

Maryland Crab Cakes

Texas Pressure Cooker Chili

Green Bean Casserole

Homemade Apple Pie

 

Everything was suburb! The chili had so much heat to it that the girls weren't too fond of it. It's a recipe from Food Network's Alton Brown- it'll bring tears to your eyes! We've never made crab cakes at home before and they were delish! Ahh, green bean casserole is my favorite holiday side dish so it's pretty common around here and Juliet ate it up by the handfuls! We all made the apple pie together and it was way easier than I thought it would be! Awe...so yummy! Really, nothing better than homemade apple pie!

 



 

As we end and I think about all we've done together, I decided to put together all the pictures of each Foodie Friday. Ahhh wow.... to think where we started and all the countries we experienced, the wonderful memories we made, the experiences we got to count as "school"- It's crazy to see how much the baby has grown and changed even! This experience was much more than just cooking together- what it did for our family was priceless. We put that day aside for our family and made it sacred and precious. Even when we traveled, we tried to experience 'Foodie Fridays' in other cities- one of the coolest was being at Epcot on a Foodie Friday!

I think I'm going to have to have these made into posters for our kitchen! Loved all these moments!

 

 

 

Feeling Nostalgic for Grandma's Pfeffernusse...

by Jenny

The kids and I were feeling nostalgic for Grandma's Pfeffernusse this holiday season. Even through our overly busy schedule, we took time to walk down memory lane. Well, at least I did, and then I made them listen to all my stories.
I rediscovered this sweet, peppery little addictive treat when we did Germany for one of our first Foodie Fridays. I remember going to my Grandma's house near the holidays and she'd pull out a metal tin with assorted cookies and Pfeffernusse snacks. I remember enjoying all of her hard work preparing all these goodies but not really knowing how much work went into everything she made. She'd have orange cookies, sugar cookies, thumb print cookies...and while we were all together they would make taffy with the family taffy hook. I'd watch them string and stretch the hot taffy over and over the hook and then when it was just right they'd string it out and cut it into small pieces. I loved
watching them make taffy. I wish I would've seen my grandma make Pfeffernusse. That's the hard part about getting older, looking back at your family wishing you would've learned more from them before they passed away. Anyway, I'm excited to bring this recipe into my children's holiday tradition and it's joyful for me! These little treats, Pfeffernusse which translates to pepper nuts, are sweet and peppery at the same time! My kids think they taste like gingerbread and the anise reminds me of black licorice. You definitely cannot just stop at a few! I hope you enjoy them as much as our family!

Pfeffernusse
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white corn syrup
1/2 cup milk (may need more)
2 teaspoons anise extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
7 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar. Then beat in corn syrup, milk, and anise, vanilla, and almond extracts.
In a separate bowl, combine flour and the remaining dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture, and mix until thoroughly combined. It can be hard to mix and if it's too stiff, I usually add a splash of milk until the dough incorporates together. Place dough in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.
Heat oven to 375. Roll portions of dough into pencil-like logs with the diameter of a nickel. Cut into 1/3 inch slices (I create several logs and place them next to each other and use a pizza cutter to cut all at once) and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Let cool thoroughly, and store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Do you have any recipes you've revived with your kids from your childhood?