I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strenthens Me

Right now Philippians 4:13 is kinda my mantra. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Zarik and I agree that right now we are in a season of our lives where God is calling us into action. For me in particular, God really spoke of me creating a ministry with my life of being able to help women to turn ashes into beauty in their lives (see this song by Crystal Lewis) There are three big things that God has specifically called me into right now that deal with this. When each of these were presented to me, Zarik and I prayed over them and agreed they were a part of this call to action.

Church Nursery
We've been going to New Covenant Christian Fellowship for about 3 years now. There have been a lot of changes within our fellowship lately, and one of those was the nursery coordinator stepping down. I found out threw roundabout means and prayed about taking it over. God said yes, so now I am in charge of coordinating the volunteers for our nursery. I really see this as a way of blessing the parents, mothers in particular, in our fellowship so that they can have five bloody minutes time to focus fully on worshiping our Lord and thinking on Him.

Pampered Chef
I LOVE The Pampered Chef. Almost my entire kitchen is Pampered Chef products. I have actually attempted to sell Pampered Chef before. However, this time the Lord's had is really in it. I'm still not entirely sure how this is going to unfold in what the Lord has given me to do, but I know that it is a way for me to be in contact with a lot of women.

MOPS
I have mentioned MOPS before. It stands for Mothers Of PreSchoolers. It is an awesome mom's group where you can go two times a month, eat, fellowship, learn something, and have a little time away from the kids and with other adult women. I have been a part of one of my local groups since Mika was about 5 months old. As this last semester (we go off the school year calendar) was winding down and the steering team was looking at what positions were going to need to be filled for the 2009/2010 year, I was approached about taking a position. Zarik and I spent a weekend talking and praying about it and decided this, too was in God's plan for us right now. This one will take a lot of commitment on both my and Zarik's part as there are going to be a lot more times I'm going to need him to watch the kids, or times I'm going to be saying "sorry honey, you're on your own for dinner". My position will be Hospitality, which means I need to get to the church early on our meeting day to make sure everything is set up, coffee made, food set out, and the tables have everything they need on them. I will also be welcoming new moms and babies, giving out birthday gifts, and doing our on-time drawing, which means I need to look out for cute, cheap, gift ideas (got any for me??;-D). The Munchkin Market that I mentioned helping out with last week is the largest kids stuff yard-sale-like sale in our county, and a few counties near us, twice a year. We have about 80 or so people who sell their unused kid stuff and we make thousands of dollars! It is crazy and awesome! But it also requires a TON of work. For the one in the fall, I've already decided I'm flying my mom out. (Got that Mom?)

I am really excited about everything God is doing at this time in my life, but I also covet your prayer. If you know me, you know that I like need a lot of sleep and when I get stressed it brings me back to when I struggled with depression. These are two things are are almost a certainty in this coming season, aside from God's provision and help. In the same chapter of Philippians, verse 6 it says "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;". So that is what I am doing now, knowing that HE is the one who is bringing us into this time of action and that HE is the one who will bring me though it.

Professional Pictures

While my Mom was here she offered to have some professional pictures done of the kids. Despite Mika having a mini-meltdown, we did get some cute shots. Enjoy!

Princesses

I decided long ago that my kids would not be into Dora. She totally annoys me. I know it can be a good thing to teach your kids another language at a young age, but she just seriously bugs me. My friends tell me I'm crazy and that Mika will probably get into her around age three or so. Well, I have a plan of attack - I will get Mika into Disney Princesses! While we were recently in MN visiting friends, we went to the Mall of America and got Mika her first barbie-ish Ariel Doll.

I've already decided for her second birthday I'm going to make her a princess cake. I decided this after I made two mini-princess dolls for the joint 1 year/3 year birthdays of some friend's daughters. They were SO much fun to make!!



Obviously I still need to work on my icing/decorating skills, but it'll be fun!

I'm trying, I really am!

Well, this post was SUPPOSED to be typed out and posted on May 4th! And here it is May 21st, and this and other posts I've had in mind got totally forgotten about fell by the wayside of during a trip to Minnesota (Hi Nikole, Riley, Evelyn and Ireland!) and our MOPS Munchkin Market sale (more on this in a later post), amidst everyday life with 2 under 2.


Now for the REAL subject of this post.

As anyone who has eaten with me knows, Dr. Atkins and I would never get along. My favorite foods are (in no particular order) pasta, garlic bread, sourdough bread and potatoes. For example, at the start of each of my pregnancies, the only things I could keep down were sourdough bread, saltines, and a tiny bit of mild cheddar. Then I would graduate to plain pasta with cheese. Then, after I started having serious contractions a week 4 days before Urijah was born, all I wanted to eat was baked potatoes with all the trimmin's.

Unfortunately, that doesn't really make for the healthiest of diets, or the healthiest of me. Fortunately, I have a husband who is very in tune with how what he puts into his body makes him feel. Because of this, he eats very healthy. He eats lots of lean protein, a balanced amount of carbs, and lots of veggies. Since having Mika, I have been trying to get more on track with Zarik's eating habits (obviously I was sidetracked throughout Urijah's pregnancy - especially since had a hard time keeping food in my body until I was about 16-18 weeks pregnant).

We usually go to Costco once a month and stock up on big things. The last couple of trips I've been getting more veggies that I can slice up and eat. I also made a hummus-like dip to go with them (note - I really have never liked hummus, but I think the large amount of garlic in this dip makes up for it, so this recipe I like!).

Greek Dip

1 cup each canned chickpeas and chopped artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise (I used Fat-free Miracle Whip for extra flavor)

2 tbsp grated Parmesan (I LOVE fresh grated parm. I buy in bulk and grate my own with my Pampered Chef Micro-grater)

1 clove garlic, crushed (ok, ok, I used a VERY large clove - equivalent to 2 cloves)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp chili powder, or to taste (I used a pinch of Cayenne pepper 'cause that's what I had on hand)

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp onion powder

In a food processor, process the chickpeas until chopped. Add everything else and blend until pureed. Enjoy!!!

And it looks something like this:



I also got a bunch of veggies and cut them up in sticks so I could just grab some dip and veggie sticks and munch!



The best thing about all this was that night for dinner all I had to do was chop some of the veggies I'd already prepped, add some chicken I cooked and chopped, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a crust of Bisquick and voila, I had a potpie!!



SO yummy, filling, and we all loved it. Mission Accomplished!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



This is where I am taking the liberty to NOT admit to all of my shortcomings to things that go on around here.

I am NOT the only one in my house right now who is not sick.

I did NOT finally take Urijah to the Pediatrician on Friday, after he started coughing really bad on Monday, fully expecting to be told that it was just a virus and we'd just have to wait it out only to find out that he has Bronchiolitis and an ear infection.

Zarik has NOT taken hits off of the nebulizer we were sent home with for Urijah and he definitely has NOT wished he'd had one before this for himself.

I most certainly did NOT tell Zarik I had to go to church today since I was in the nursery and then scrub myself in a really hot shower to kill all the germs while praying I didn't bring any of said germs with me that could jump off onto any babies, just so I could get away from all the germs.

I was NOT so depressed and grumpy because even though Urijah is looking better he is sounding worse and I am worried about him, that my dear, sweet husband sent me to Starbucks to be by myself, chill, and read for an hour while he (though himself sick) took care of the kids by himself for the second time today.

And I most certainly did NOT actually go to Starbucks by myself, chill, and read.

And to redeem myself a little, even though I am depressed and grumpy because I am worried about my boy, I did NOT praise God that Urijah only has a Bronchiolitis (and maybe mild RSV) and a mild ear infection and spend time praying for MckMama's Stellan and his chronic heart condition.

And that dear friends, is about all I am willing to NOT admit to today. Tune in next week to find out what what else I did not do.

He Takes After His Daddy

Urijah has been coughing since Monday. It started just as a mild chest cold with a small temperature (never above 101.3). But as the week wore on, no matter what we did, his cough kept getting worse. Even though his temperature was gone by Wednesday night, by Thursday night he was having a tough time breathing and everything was making him cough. Thankfully he slept OK at night (I would get up once or twice and give him a dropper of water when he would cough really bad). By Thursday afternoon even Zarik was saying we should take him into the Dr. So today (Friday) we did.

Turns out our poor baby has Bronchiolitis and an Ear Infection. I was actually kind of surprised.

You see, with Mika it seemed like every time she got kinda bad we'd take her in and be told "It's just a virus. She'll be over it soon." We did get close to taking her to the hospital for an illness once but she that was a flu-like virus. She has never had an Ear Infection or actually needed an inhaler/nebulizer. (She was given an inhaler once, but it turned out to be the wrong treatment for what was going on).

All that to say, I was kinda surprised that Urijah actually had something more than "just a virus" and needs actual treatment for it. Since the Ear Infection isn't really that bad, we aren't doing antibiotics yet, but have a script for them if it comes to that. We did get ear drops to help with the pain, though. And for the bronchiolitis, we were given a nebulizer.

As for the title of my post: Zarik is thrilled about the nebulizer because now he can use it when he gets sick! You see, whenever Zarik gets sick, it goes straight to his lungs and he ends up coughing for like 3 weeks. So it seems that Urijah takes after his dad.