Awesome video

Go to Rene's blog and check out the amazing video he made of India. Thank you Rene for reminding me of the awesome adventure God took us on!

www.livingthegodlife.blogspot.com

Crock Pot Chili

I posted on Facebook that we were enjoying some homemade chili and I've had three requests for the recipe.....so here you go! I hope you enjoy it!

1 pound ground beef
1 (16 oz) can kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
* I also added a dash of cumin*

In a skillet, cook beef until no longer pink, drain. Add to crock pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4 hours.

Serves: 4-6

Praying for your enemy

Rene and I started a new Life Group last week. Christopher and Leanne are our leaders. Last week we talked about being "safe" and this week we talked about being dangerous. Our homework, or challenge, for the week is to pray for our enemy.

Huh? How do you pray for your enemy? Or, for me, someone I don't like. Can I do that?

I started last night. At first it was hard because I just wanted to pray for this person to go away. But is that what God wants? No. So I paused and first prayed for my heart. And than I prayed for this person. An amazing thing happened, I stopped being angry at this person.

You have to admit, it's kind of hard to be angry at someone when you are praying for them. I remember before we got married we had to go to a marriage seminar. They had four couples up on a stage telling us about how to make our marriage work. I only remember one thing from that day and it came from one of the leaders. She was an older lady and she said something that I will never forget:

"When you start to fight with your husband, get naked. It's hard to be angry at your husband when they are naked". And it's true!

It's kind of the same thing (just don't imagine the person naked please). When you are praying for someone you don't like, in a way that God wants you to pray for them, they seem more vulnerable, they are being exposed. You get to look at them in a different way, maybe the way God wants you to look at them.

Spiders, spiders everywhere!

Two weeks ago I took the boys to the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum. It was kind of creepy at first, walking into a large "tent" knowing there were spiders everywhere. At times I would forget where I was while looking down at a spider, and than than I would turn around and come face to face with an eight legged creature!

The boys loved it....of course.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: none of the spiders in the tent were poisonous. Thank you Ann for the pictures!

Building R2D2

Thanks to a hot tip from Garhett and Jenny, I took the boys over to the Lego Store in Downtown Disney to help build a life size model of R2D2. First they received instrustions on how to build a brick.


Our finished product.


Next we showed our creation to a brick master who OK'd what we built.

Matthew and Justin took the bricks into the store and over to where the brick masters were builing the model. We got to watch them place the bricks they made onto the model. After they were placed on the model the boys received posters and certificates of completion.

We can't wait to go back and see what the finished R2D2 looks like.

We walked down to Disneyland and California Adventure to take a sneak peek at the Halloween decorations (our passes don't allow us to go in on Saturdays). I think I am just as excited as the boys are to go this week.



Justin wanted to eat the candy corn!

As we were walking out we were stopped by some cast members and were given the "Year of a Million Dreams" Mouse Ears. Yeah!!

L.A. County Fair

Rene took Thursday off (I think the hottest day of the week) and we went to the fair. Our friend Ann registered as a homeschool group and received free passes (including parking). Thank you Ann!

We had a blast! It's been a long time since we've been there. We checked out the Early California Heritage Exhibit where the boys got to mill corn, check out the schoolhouse (which has given me the inspiration to read Little House in the Big Woods to the boys), see how they panned for gold, and made horseshoes.

Next we went to the Kid's Zone. This building was neat! They had a room where you could build stuff with Legos, Lincoln Logs, blocks, and other fun objects. The fire safety room was cool. Firefighters were on hand to explain fire safety and to show us how to crawl on the floor if we see smoke. They were able to walk through a small room filled with smoke to practice. There was an art and bug exhibit too.




It was a hot day and to our delight we found out they had a winter wonderland building. Wow! The boys got to go sledding, have a snow fight, and visit Santa. At different times it would even "snow".




At the fair they had a program called "Read to Ride". Kids in grade school could do book reports and earn free rides at the fair. Matthew and Justin each turned in six book reports and earned nine rides each.


Once it cooled down we headed over to the barn to check out the animals. We watched the pig races and Matthew was picked to be the chearleader for the orange team. Matthew and Justin also got to try out their lasso skills. Matthew got the "calf" on his first try. Let's just say that Justin needs a lot more practice.




It was a great day and I am very thankful that we were able to spend the day together as a family.

Girl's Night In

Last Thursday I had the honor of hosting a Girl's Night In with some wonderful ladies. We got to watch a sneak peek at Lipstick Jungle, taste some yummy new flavors of Orville Redenbacher popcorn,enjoy a relaxing foot soak thanks to Selina and her wonderful Sensaria products, and treated with gifts from Maybelline Cosmetics. Here are a few pictures from our night: