My favorite things about today

I am sitting here in a quiet house - a very rare thing for me! The kids are at church with Nini and Papa and Mike's at a meeting. I have about 40 things to do around the house but I wanted to put down a few of my favorite things about today:

* waking up and snuggling up to the most wonderful man in the world - it was cold this morning (see below)

* heat - our gas ran out late last night (we have new gas water heaters and the company had underestimated how much we would use) so we were cold until about lunch time - heat is a good thing in January

* reading Emma's research paper about Hermit Crabs - it is soo cute - she is a great little writer

* watching Drew eat ice cream - nothing is cuter than a 3 year old with ice cream all over his mouth

* watching Luke be a man - after Drew knocked down his train track - Luke said "that's no way to respect a man" he is the funniest kid - I have no idea where he came up with that

* going to Cones and Coffee with my kids - it's the closest thing to Starbucks we have here - good latte and great kids

* a long chat on the phone with one of my favorite people in the world - Stephanie

* a few minutes alone in the car - sometimes that is where I do my best connecting with God

Need a new car

Here is Parents magazine pick for cars for families -didn't see the Honda mini-van on there but I still love mine -even if it is a mini-van! Gotta admit the turn around seats in the Chrysler are pretty cool but it looks like throw up just waiting to happen with my car sick little one!

Cookin'

Last night Drew helped me cook while Mike took Emma and Luke to bball practice. Took a little extra time (ok alot of extra time) and a bigger mess to clean but it was worth it. He loves to help in the kitchen. We made fish tacos. My friend Sonda used to live in California and these are big out there. This summer she told me how to make them. If you've never tried them - you are missing out. Here is how I do it (Sonda hope I don't mess this up)

I used talapia

Cut the fish into bite sized chunks
- last night I fried them with a beer batter mix
- or you can grill or pan fry in a little olive oil season with a little salt and lime juice

Make the sauce (this is what makes them sooooo good)
- mix together some mayo, sour cream, lots of chopped cilantro, tabasco to taste and a little lime juice and enough water to make it slighty runny (I like it a little runnier than salad dressing)I think Sonda didn't make it with sour cream but I use reduced fat sour cream so I don't feel like I am using so much mayo I don't know how much of everything to tell you because I just make it in a cereal bowl and that's about how much we need

To make the tacos
- warm tortillas (I use flour but you could do corn) put the fish on top with shredded cabbage ( use the preshredded cole slaw kind to cut down on prep time - I actually used broccoli slaw last night - it's healthier than just cabbage)top with the sauce (don't be stingy - this mixes with the cabbage and makes kind of a slaw)
fold it up and enjoy!) You can also top it with salsa and guacamole

Have fun - it brings a little summer on a cold day!

Just be the Mommy!

I have had this on my fridge for several years now. I cut it out of a Focus on Your Child magazine and I wish I had read it at about 9am this morning instead of now before going to bed - there's always tomorrow. It has been one of those days! If you've had one too - read this. This is a scan of the one on my fridge - I was too lazy to type it. Just click on it and it will be large enought to read. Better yet print it out and stick it on your fridge.

Oh, Deer!

Here is a crazy story. We used to eat dinner at TJ's almost every Sunday night when we lived in Winston - there was one across the street from our church. I thought we had deer problems at our house.

Funny video

I ran across this video and got a good laugh. It is a "infomercial" type skit from 1948 from Simplicity Sewing Patterns. So girls do you have "the know-how" look. It's a long video just watch the first couple of minutes.

Some links

Where we buy our fair trade coffee for Cornerstone

Where to get other coffee stuff (cups, sleeves, etc) for chuch

Where to get everything printed - cheap

Great children's ministry stuff - all their documents and great ideas

Great church in Charleston SC - lots of ideas and free documents

Free documents from this AWESOME church

Where I just ordered my new side table from - finally that void beside my couch is filled

Just found this awesome kids furniture site

Youth stuff and movie reviews

Most of my homeschool curriculum

A great blog with awesome recipes

If you homeschool and haven't heard of this for every book imaginable you must live under a rock

Just a few - I'll put up more later - I am too frustrated with internet shopping (for clothes) to post any of those sites - more about that later

Organized with less stuff

A few days ago Mike was putting in an order to Booksamillion and he needed a few more dollars for free shipping so I had him order a book I had seen here. It's by Peter Walsh from TLC's show Clean Sweep. It's the show that makes pack rats cringe. I am not at all a pack rat - I love to get rid of stuff. I do not function well in clutter besides I'm not taking it with me! So I am anxious to read the book and get started! I could probably organize all my stuff in the time it will take to read the book but maybe I'll get some inspiration and new ideas.

Think Spring

On this cold January day I thought it would be good to think forward to spring . . .
Some things I am looking forward to....

• Winterjam with our teens (ok it has winter in the name but it'll still be fun) it's such a low stress trip because you go in and everyone throws their $10 in the bucket and finds a seat no tickets or paying ahead of time. You just have to get there early to get a good seat.


• Unleash Mike and I went to this conference last year and it was AWESOME!!! Newspring church really has something special that God is blessing and it was great to get some insight into how they do things. Everyone serving in your church would benefit from this conference. I fell in love with Anderson, SC while we were there - great place. So it's 31/2 hours south and it has SPRING in the title - Yeah!


• White Board Sessions another conference that we are planning to attend. I really enjoy traveling with Mike and learning EVERYTHING I can about church planting and reaching people for Jesus. This looks like a great place to do that. AND Mike is keeping up with the details of the conference and said to me today "Hey Jenni, free Starbucks coffe at the White Board Conference" - I'm there.


• OK this is a little leak of information to see if any of you teenagers read my blog - you'll be glad you did so you can comment and tell me what you think about a CRAZY AWESOME summer camp for the summer - I'm not making any promises yet. Did I mention it involved the beach. Just an idea - anyone interested?

Date night

Mike and I had a date yesterday!  We went to Winston and did a little shopping and then went our to dinner at Village Tavern (one of our favorite restaurants).  We also went to the mall and I got my Starbucks fix (grande nonfat carmel macchiato).  The kids stayed with Papa and Nini and ended up spending the night there because we were later than expected getting home because of an accident.  So - it's off to pick up the little guys and get some school work started.

Who turned out the lights

7:30am - I had just started my Kitchenaid to mix up some poppy seed muffins when everything went dark and quiet. The power went out with that sound that means it's going to be out for a while. I had 3 ladies coming over for a meeting about our children's ministry and now there would be no poppy seed muffins and no coffee - tragedy! It so amazing how much we take for granted electricity - even the garage door didn't work! Mike had to unhook it to get out of the garage. He was also in the shower when the power went out and learned that our new gas water heaters do not keep working when the power is out. All morning the kids kept flipping light switches and Drew was totally confused - he kept wanting to know who turned the lights out in his room. The power come back on at about 9am just before my company arrived so I finished my muffins and we had coffee!!!! You gotta have coffee when it's 5 degrees outside.

A question for your church

I just read a statement on Tony Morgan's blog that I think really hits the nail on the head.  He was talking about being the church.  He asked the question, "If your church closed it's doors tomorrow, would your community even notice?"  Wow, now that is a question for every church out there.  It's also a question for ourselves.  I just read the first chapter in Craig Groechel's book Chazown yesterday and it starts at the end - the end of life.  When you look back on your life were you intentional.  Are you intentional in what you do or are you  keeping it on cruise and trying to just make it through another day.  I think Jesus was intentional about every relationship he had and we should strive to be too.  I am so excited about the door God is opening up for Cornerstone - let's be intentional about everything we do with the sole purpose of leading people to Jesus.  In a few months I hope Galax can say that there would be a big void in the community without Cornerstone.  Check out Tony's blog - he says it way better that I can.

Misleading Pizza?

Since I spent  most of the day cleaning and organizing the play/school room yesterday (in between warming up snowy kids) we decided to order pizza for dinner.  Pizza Hut is my favorite pizza so I called them and they told me about their 3 medium pizzas for $5 each so that is what I ordered - cheese for the boys, pepperoni for Emma and mushroom for Mike and me.  The pizza that we got is not 'normal" pizza hut pizza.  We decided it's frozen pizza that has had topping thrown on it and baked at Pizza Hut.  It wasn't bad just not what I expected.  On the box it was called Pizza Mia and said "more taste less money".  I guess it's discount pizza... 

SNOW

We had out first snow of the year. About 3 inches fell overnight so the kids got up to a white world this morning. Of course, after what seemed like hours of rounding up gloves, bibs and boots we headed out side for some winter fun. The kids had a blast (Mike included) building a HUGE snowman and throwing snowballs. Luke's snow tube was a fast ride down the hill. We have a great place to sleigh ride. The kids are big enough now to make it down the big hill, sail through the flat part of the yard and then whiz down to the bottom of the next hill. Here are some pictures. In case you can't see the details of the snow sculpted masterpiece he has strawberry eyes, a baby carrot nose, coffee bean mouth and of course a VT hat. There is also a picture of the pile of wet snowy clothes that they shed before hot chocolate and Mike and Drew's cute red noses.

Milk and bread

I have to admit I went to the store and bought milk and bread.  I am forever laughing about everyone rushing to the store as soon as we get a forecast for snow or ice.  It's like you will not make it through being snowed in if you don't have milk and bread.  I actually bought the last loaf of bread on the shelf - only hamburger buns and sub rolls left.  I have been sarcastically saying all afternoon "Guess I better go to the store and get some milk and bread"  so when we walked into the store Drew saw a display of little sugary drinks that caught his eye and he said "tan we buy dis" but before I could say no he said "oh, yeah we buying milk and bread"  He did talk me into a box of poptarts - can't resist those big brown eyes.  So we have milk and bread - but I did forget to get toilet paper:)  

Converstions with a 3 year old

I had just gotten Drew out of the bath tub this evening and he was bundled up in a towel with a big blanket on him warming up while I was doing some ironing (which if you know me is a VERY rare occasion). I was listening to Mike's sermon from Sunday because I wasn't in the service on Sunday and I had paused it while I was getting Drew dried off. Here is the conversation

Me - "I'm going to turn the CD on and listen to Daddy preach while you warm up"

Drew - "Daddy is still a preacher - yes or no? (this is Drew's funny way of asking a question)

Me - "Yes, Daddy is still a preacher"

Drew - "Oh, me thought him not a preacher"

Me - "He is not an engineer anymore - but he is still a preacher"

Drew - "But preachers hate Guitar Hero. Daddy plays Guitar Hero"

I have no idea where he came up with this one but it gave me a laugh while I was ironing.
I think that maybe I shouldn't be a preacher wife because I hate ironing and preachers wives have to iron alot!

Get organized

Always with the new year I think  -"It's time to get organized".  We are 15 days into 08 and I still haven't gotten organized but here is a cool website to get me started.  Check it out for all kinds of storage and organizing products.

Road Rage

I had something crazy happen on the way home from church today.  I came up on a truck going REALLY slow and I changed lanes into the fast lane to go around him - at about the same time he decided to switch lanes and came over to my side and almost hit me!  I didn't beep or make any obscene gestures just went about my business - he on the other hand must not have liked the idea of me passing him so he almost came out of his seat shaking his fist at me and showing me his middle finger.  I ignored him until I noticed he was getting really close to my rear bumper and I could see from my rear view mirror that his face was glowing red.  He stayed right behind me and made every turn that I did.  I began thinking -"is he following me".  As I got closer to my neighborhood I realized he was following me.  We were having a lunch meeting with a few people at our house and I noticed that Shane was behind the man who was following me and on his way to our house so I picked up my phone and started to call Shane and tell him what was going on.  I don't know if the guy saw me on my phone and was afraid I was calling the cops or if he chickened out but anyway he stopped and turned around.  It's sad that something so silly can cause someone to get so out of sorts.  

The best of both worlds?

Since we have a nine year old girl in the house - Hannah Montana is a household name. I find it crazy the big deal the media is making about the body double thing. If you haven't heard Hannah got "caught" using a body double for about 30 seconds of her show so that she could change clothes. One report even called it a "scandal". Sweet niblets it's show business! Give the girl a break.

A few fun pictures

Just now getting around to getting Christmas pics off my camera. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Christmas again

My little sis and her family are here for a visit and it has been like Christmas again. Tonight my nephew Todd is sleeping over and all the kids are sleeping in Luke's room and as we turned off the lights and I told them to get ready for bed Drew said "Tomorrow when we wake up - it's Christmas!" So just having his cousins around is like Christmas. Here is a picture of them all jumping on Nini's bed.

Home Alone

Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that you just kept thinking about it.  Last night I dreamed not about oatmeal chocolate cookies (see my post below) but about leaving my boys at home alone!  In the dream I left to go somewhere with Emma and then Mike left Luke and Drew at home alone thinking I was home.  Once I realized what had happened I spent the rest of the night trying to get home to them.  Must have been the salsa from Tlaquepaque.

recipe

This looks like a really good recipe I am planning on trying. Maybe it's just late and I'm hungry. Off to bed to dream of chocolate and oatmeal :)

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened, divided
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
3 cups quick-cooking oats
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
RECIPE METHOD
In a mixing bowl, cream 1 cup butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Combine the oats, flour, 1 teaspoon salt and baking soda; stir into creamed mixture.
Press two-thirds of oat mixture into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan.
In a saucepan, combine milk, chocolate chips and remaining butter and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat; stir in walnuts and remaining vanilla.
Spread over crust. Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Cut into squares.

Perspective - a visible scene, esp. one extending to a distance; vista

It has been a while since I posted.  It's been a little busy around the Morris house the past couple of weeks but we are getting back on track.  

As I was cooking and cleaning and wrapping presents on Christmas Eve morning I was frustrated with the fact that I had 

1 -waited until the last minute to finish everything up

 2- been so busy that Christmas had gotten here so quickly and I hadn't done everything Martha Stewart would have 

3- I was frustrated that I was frustrated.  

I "knew" that Christmas wasn't about having a house that Pottery Barn would photo, or a meal that would make Rachael Ray proud or presents wrapped with perfect bows, but that was my focus that morning.  I finally stopped be snippy, took a deep breath decided I was going to ENJOY being busy.  God brought to my mind all the people who would love to have a house to clean, food to prepare, and presents to wrap.  I thought of  exhausted, worried parents sitting by a child's bed in a hospital and hearing my little angels fight didn't seem so frustrating.  I thought of elderly people sitting by the window in the nursing home waiting for someone to come by and decided a houseful of family sounded nice.  I thought of the couples broken by divorce and I cherished my husband a little more.  I wish I could say I stopped all the craziness completely and got my focus intently on Jesus but I did gain a new perspective.  I did continue to clean and cook and wrap but I did it with a joy that I had lost a few hours before.  The house wasn't spotless and most of the presents didn't have bows but Mama was happy and you know what happens when Mama ain't happy . . .

Hope everyone else had a great Christmas and enjoyed the season of life God has blessed you with no matter how crazy it seems at the time.  Sometimes you just have to breath and let God give you a new perspective.