Cheesecake

Sorry I have been Mia! This past weekend we spent in Yakima with some really good friends, we got to relax, drink some wine,make some new friends and catch up with old friends, and we even managed to get a date night in with Ben and Natalie, who's friends watched our kids along with their own! We saw Safe House which was really good!

Natalie also shared this delicious recipe with me that is super easy to make and oh so yummy!

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

I iPad is being lame and I can't upload the link, so google it and the first recipe from allrecipes.com is it.

I dare you to try it and not eat the whole thing at once. Very good after its been in fridge too!

Food Allergies:(

So we found out at G's one year checkup that she has food allergies to eggs and peanuts and also cats and dogs. The egg and peanut ones can be serious allergies, but we are hoping she outgrows her, which a lot of kids do. It's a little scary because we have to keep an Epipen around at all times now, incase she does eat something she is not supposed to and has a really bad reaction. I am thankful that she doesnt have wheat or dairy allergies, at least the peanut and eggs are a bit easier to control....except have you ever noticed how many things have eggs in them? a lot! So now I am reading the ingredients on everything I buy....which is a good habit to get into anyways I guess. We also just bought an air purifier, hoping that will decrease the amount of cat and dog dander in the house.

I tried my first egg free recipe this morning and it is very yummy! G loves it too, so that is a double bonus.....I'll post it on here later. They are egg and dairy free blueberry and banana muffins.

You are my sunshine

Hello, yes I know I am adorable:)

Febuary Budget Challenge

We are going to start having a "budget challenge" each month. This month it is to make our own lattes every morning instead of buying any. My hubby gets free drinks when he works, but I usually buy a coffee on the days that I work and we usually get coffee on our days off. We have an espresso machine, so let's save some money! Coffee adds up quick, especially when you get coffee at Starbucks...aka Five Bucks!

Here's to home brewed coffee for a month...hopefully we will just get into the habit of it and it will stick.

Silence

Doesn't this picture just make you want to take a step back and reflect on God's glory in creation? This has been circulating around on facebook and looking at it, this very tiny, piece of the world that we live in puts into perspective how small we are compared to that. Even though you wouldn't be able to see yourself in this picture or the thousands of other people in it, God sees all of us.

As G sleeps right now, I am getting a little bit of my own silence to help me reflect on my relationship with God. I find that the more time I spend in His Word and praying, the better my thoughts and actions. If you are reading this, I'm sure you are thinking "duh", but it isn't always that easy.....it is so easy to get caught up in my own little world of self pity sometimes, that I lose focus of what is really important. I lose sight of the MUCH bigger picture and focus on petty little things, that stir up jealousy and envy in my heart. It causes me to want what I don't have, instead of learning to be content and living under our means, instead of beyond them. I need to spend more time in God's presence to learn how I can impact others, not just myself.......

I've been reading Glimpses of Grace by Madeleine L. Engle, which are daily thoughts and reflections throughout the year. I love this excerpt from Jan 28th....

Caring, One Person At A Time

     We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other rather than uniting us. When I am bombarded on the evening news with earthquake,flood,fire,it is too much for me. There is a mechanism, a safety valve, which cuts off our response to overexposure to suffering.
     But when a high-school student comes to me and cries because the two- and three-year-olds on her block are becoming addicted to hard drugs;when the gentle man who cleans the building in which the Cathedral library is located talks to me about his family in Guatamala, rejoicing because they are alive although their house has been destroyed by earthquake; when a goddaughter of mine in Luxembourg write me about the hungry children of the immigrant Portuguese family with whome she is living,then in this particularity my heart burns within me, and I am more able to learn what it is that I can and ought to do, even if this seems, and is, inadequate.
     But neither was Jesus adequate to the situation. He did not feed all the poor, only a few. He did not heal all the lepers, o r give sight to all the blind, or drive out all the unclean spirits. Satan wanted him to do all this, but he didn't.
     That helps me. If I felt that I had to conquer all of the ills of the world I'd likely sit back and do nothing at all. But if my job is to feed one stranger, then the money I give to the world relief will be dug down deeper from my pocket than it would if I felt I had to succeed in feeding the entire world. 




I find that I can relate to what she says there a lot. Sometimes I feel like this world is beyond my repair and what can I do? Is there anything to be done?  First we must get beyond thinking of our own selfishness and sit in silence and be open to what God has in store for us.