December 29, 2009

Christmas 2009

Well we had a wonderful Christmas this year.  3, no 4 of them to be exact!  One at my mom’s, one at our house, and one down in Houston with Jared’s family.  We also had one extra one stuck in there the day after Christmas in Houston.

While down in Houston for Christmas, we missed our very first white Christmas back home! :(   But as I am typing this, it is snowing again, and sticking!  Yay!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas’!

December 18, 2009

Thinking About Christmas

I know my blog posts have been so sparse in 2009.  I think that needs to be one of my 2010 goals…to post more regularly.

I have read some wonderful blog posts lately about celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas – specifically concerning what to do about Santa!  I decided I would go ahead and collect them all here for you to click over to if you so desire.

I wrote a post a few years ago about what our Chrismas traditions look like.  We added a couple more things this year, but over all they have remained the same.  We have added a Jesse Tree this year.  A Jesse Tree is basically a way of celebrating Advent, by reading from the Bible each day, starting with the beginning, and working its way all the way up to Jesus’ birth.  We have a small tree for our Jesse Tree, and each day we hang a new small ornament on the tree, that symbolizes what was just read for the day.  The kids have really enjoyed adding this  new tradition.

Here are the links to some wonderful articles I have read lately on having a Christ-centered Chrstmas….enjoy!

You’d Better Watch Out, You’d Better Not Cry - By Amber, A Classic Housewife Blog

Celebrate Santa? – Carolyn Mahaney, Girl Talk Blog

Thinking About Santa -  By Noel Piper, Desiring God Blog

If Not Santa, What? – by Noel Piper, Desiring God Blog

And, a few pictures of the kids decorating the tree this year.  It is so much fun watching them, and so neat that they can basically decorate it themselves now!! :)

December 8, 2009

Tumors, Emergency Surgery, and Bedrest…OH MY!

It has now been 2 1/2 weeks, since I went to the ER and ended up in emergency surgery, and I guess I am just now feeling coherant enough to write about it!!

I believe I mentioned this past spring/summer, while being shuffled from doctor to doctor, that we found I had 2 tumors…one on each ovary.  After several doctors (obgyns,  an oncologist, & a high risk obgyn) it was concluded that most likely my tumors were benign.  They believed performing surgery to remove the tumors would be very risky and there was a high probability that I would loose my ovaries.  They thought my best chance at having another baby would be to leave the tumors there for now.  However, the risk of leaving them there was that they could continue to grow, and eventually begin to twist my ovary causing extreeme pain, and needing emergency surgery.

Well, can you guess where this story is going?  The Saturday before Thanksgiving I began having extreme pain in my lower left abdomen.  As the pain continued to escalate, I had a pretty good idea it was probably my tumor twisting.  So, off we went to the ER!  The pain would come and go at first, but while having the ultrasound performed to find out if it was in fact twisting, the pain escalated to the worst pain I have ever experienced in my entire life!!  10 times worse than childbirth!  Seriously.  Probably because the pain was relentless, and kept getting worse, not better.  In childbirth you at least have a break between contractions.  Not so with this.  The pain was so intense I began to black out while the lady was doing the sono, and then I threw up all over her floor!  And I do not throw up easily.  I seriously thought I was going to die!

Finally after a long, horrendous ultrasound, she took me back to the ER room, and they gave me some meds for the pain, and I was so much better, for an hour at least!  An on-call obgyn came in and let me know that the sono showed there was no blood flow to my left ovary, confirming that it was in fact twisting.

Thankfully the Lord was so gracious to give me an awesome on-call obgyn that night!!  I was going to be taken back for emergency surgery.  He talked with me, and knowing I desired to have more children,  promised to do everything he could to save my ovaries in the surgery.  I was in so much pain it was hard for me to care much about anything other than getting those things out of my body ASAP!  But now that it is all over, I am so thankful to God for all that He did for me!  The dr was able to remove both tumors completely, and was able to preserve most of both ovaries, so that I should be able to have children again.  I am just so thankful!

My tumors were sent off to pathology, and I should find out tomorrow the results from that.  I am not too worried though, because I think they would have called me by now if they had found anything.  But still, I will be glad to hear him tell me for sure that they are benign.

And there you have it!  My totally crazy tumor story!  One of my good friends pointed out to me, that if the Lord does give us another child, what a story he/she will have.  After this long grievous journey we have been on…to have another child would truly be a miracle!  She is so right!

I was released from the hospital 2 weeks ago today.  I have been on bedrest for the past 2 weeks, and finally drove today for the first time.  My recovery was so slow and painful…something I totally didn’t expect.  But I am feeling much better now, and so thankful I can get out and about again.  I had such a hard time after Thanksgiving when it was time to decorate for Christmas, and I had to sit on the sidelines, not able to help out much.  But I am able to do so much more now.  And I have really enjoyed sitting and reading Christmas books to the kids, and reading from “Jotham’s Journey” to them for Advent, and adding to our Jesse Tree.  It still has been a great Advent season, even through my bedrest.  Now I just have to get to work, finishing up Christmas shopping and wrapping presents!

December 7, 2009

Christmas Sale

I just marked down all Christmas items in my etsy store – Zoes Couture Boutique to 20% off!!  Go check it out!

November 2, 2009

Menu Plan Monday ~ Nov. 2, 2009

menubutton

Ok, so my menu last week, with recipes taken from my new Clean Eating cookbooks, didn’t really happen!!  I didn’t make it to Whole Foos for my shopping until Saturday.  So here is my menu for this week, whick looks pretty similar to last weeks!  I am so excited to try these new recipes! 

 

MONDAY

Chicken Tacos on whole grain tortillas, black beans

 

TUESDAY

 Linguine w/ shrimp and spinach, garden salad

 

 

WEDNESDAY

 (Trevor’s Birthday Dinner Request)
Lasagna (made with ground turkey), salad, and italian bread

 

 

THURSDAY

 Leftovers

 

 

FRIDAY

 Stuffed bell peppers, homemade whole grain dinner rolls, salad

 

SATURDAY

Chinese Chicken & Rice (w/broccoli, carrots, & mushrooms)

 

SUNDAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maui Black Bean Soup, garden salad, fresh guacamole & Blue corn chips

October 30, 2009

It’s That Time of Year Again

Every year I make up my mind (sometime during the month of October) that I am NOT going to write about Halloween again this year!  I am done, I have already written about it, I am tired of talking about it, I am going to leave it alone!
And every year, as the 31st draws closer, I feel the Lord tugging and my heart, harder and harder and harder…”post the article.”  Until finally, I can’t resist any longer, and by His Spirit, give into His leading!

I am a very non-confrontational person ,and this article is very confrontational and pulls me way out of my shell!  But, that is just one more reason I know that it is totally the Lord’s will and leading for me to write this and post it year after year.

So, here it is…my Halloween article from last year, and the previous years:

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***Disclaimer:  These are my personal, very strong convictions about Halloween.  I understand that this is a VERY controversial topic!  If you are proned to be easily offended, you might not want to read any further!  :)

trick-or-treat-01

My first year of blogging, back in 2006,  I wrote an article called “Halloween – Should Christians Participate?”  Each year, I re-link to this article.  My desire has been to educate other Christians on the origins and also the reality of the occultic activity that still occurs on this day each year.  You can read that article here:

Halloween: Should Christians Participate?

The conviction my husband and I have is that, we, as Believers, should not be participating in trick or treating, Haunted Houses, Fall Festivals, dressing up, or any of the normal activities on the day of Halloween.  Instead we desire to make much of Christ on this holiday that is intended for darkness and evil.  We believe that EVEN Halloween is “the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!”  We do this first by praying together as a family.   We pray that the Lord would prevail over darkness.  We pray that the Lord would protect those who are going to be harmed on this night in occultic rituals (see my original article for more info on this).  We pray for a variety of issues surrounding this celebration.  We teach our kids about the truth of this holiday and its origins and true meanings, and the reason we do not take part in any of the traditions that go along with it.  We focus on Reformation day instead, and on those whom have desired to make much of Christ on this day, rather than go along for the cultural ride!  We then go out and do something as a family!  We go out to eat, or go see a movie, or hang out with friends!  To those around us (when we go out on Halloween night) it might seem strange that we are not dressed up, and taking our kids trick-or-treating.  This leads to opportunities to have conversations about Christ with people in our community!

Each year I have done more and more research on this topic.  It baffles me the ways may well-intentioned Christians attempt to brush aside the reality of this holiday (when they already understand the truth of it).
One argument that I have often come across is that we need to mesh with our culture, and be able to relate to them, and therefore we should participate in trick or treating, dressing up, etc…  Excuse my boldness, but since when did following Christ become a popularity contest?  I do not remember Jesus attemping to please everyone, and fit in with the culture.  He was hated and rejected by men, and his teaching and ways were not at all popular!  We are called to be in and not of the world.  We can be in our culture, and relate to them, and share Christ with them without participating in an evil celebration (that is masked by ‘fun’).
A little while back my husband was invited by a co-worker to go to a strip club.  Obviously my husband didn’t go, and was able to have a great conversation with this co-worker about his reasons why he wouldn’t go.  Applying this same idea, that we need to ”relate” to our culture, and need to go along with their ”traditions” no matter if they are pleasing to God or not,  would they also say my husband should have gone along to the strip club, so he could “relate” to this co-worker, and be a light in the darkness?  Do you see how ridiculous that reasoning is?  Instead, my husband was a light by NOT going along with what an unbeliever was doing as a ”normal guy thing.”  I believe that rather than trying to identify with and ‘fit in’ to todays culture, and ignoring the Bible as the ultimate source of truth and guidance for living out the life of a Believer,  we should go to the Word, and to God in prayer, and truly seek God’s direction in this area of celebrating Halloween!

My original article from 2006

CBN insightful article on what to do with Halloween

Article – Should Christians Participate in Halloween and ‘Harvest Parties’?

October 25, 2009

Menu Plan Monday ~ October 26, 2009

menubutton

Trying some of the recipes from my new Clean Eating cookbooks!

MONDAY

Chicken Tacos on whole grain tortillas, black beans

TUESDAY

Linguine w/ shrimp and spinach, garden salad

WEDNESDAY

Chinese Chicken & Rice (w/broccoli, carrots, & mushrooms)

THURSDAY

Maui Black Bean Soup, garden salad, fresh guacamole & Blue corn chips

FRIDAY

Stuffed Pumpkins, homemade whole grain dinner rolls, salad