Hospitality

The past few days I have had several things rattling around in my mind that I wanted to post and never could quite decide which one to do, so I am going to combine a couple of topics....hang with me!!

First, for anyone that attends RE and heard John's sermon on Sunday, we should all shout a collective AMEN!!! How awesome was Sunday. I felt at times like he was talking directly to me. Have you ever sat through a sermon and listened intently, but quickly on you felt it was directed at you? Then as the sermon progresses, you are still listening but when you leave you really can't tell anyone what was said, but only how it spoke to you. For me that was Sunday. I was talking to a friend that was out on Sunday telling her how great the sermon was and when she asked what it was about, I really could not nail it down except to tell her what I took away from it. I have really been struggling lately with my heartitude (another post!!) and Sunday was awesome for me!

Okay, now on to topic two!! There is an outstanding lady at my church. She is one of the people that I would choose, if I could, to just sit down and listen to her talk. She has more kiddos than me!!! Hers are all boys and one beautiful daughter. She seems so soft spoken, I would love to hear how she raised her children and ran her household. She is homeschooling as well! Her husband and she are such Godly, kind people. Anyway, what I am wanting to share is that she has been on my heart lately to pray for her. Have you ever had God lay someone on your heart like that? I mostly am praying thanks for her and the example that she is to me. Who do you look to for an example?

Topic two leads to topic three.....This fabulous lady, same one from topic two, gave me a book to read on Sunday call Open Heart, Open Home by Karen Mains. It is about practicing Godly hospitality and how God uses us to make others feel welcome and wanted. One thing that has really stuck out to me is the author talking about us using our humaness and weaknesses to get out of being hospitable. I am really guilty of this. I have been known to not answer the door if my house is not clean enough for company. She talks about how hospitality has nothing to do with impressing people, but it is about making them feel welcomed and loved. She says "True hospitality comes before pride." When I want everything to be perfect before someone comes over, this has nothing to do with the person being welcomed in my home, it has everything to do with me! That is not hospitality! I have trouble getting myself to have people over if I do not have enough matching dishes for us all. This is not about sharing God's love and blessings with others, again, this is about me and how I want to look.

What are your views on hospitality?

Blood Work!!

Okay, we are heading out this morning to have Kalli's rbc levels rechecked. Everyone pray for high numbers!!!! I will let you know what happens. How could you not pray for this adorable face!!

Wednesday's In The Park

Last night our church had the most fantastical service....in the park!! It was so much fun. There were tons of games for the kids, dinner for everyone, fellowship and just an all around great time. What an awesome ministry! There were so many visitors and they were having a great time. I was able to help with the toddler play station and I had so much fun playing the sticks! I love rhythm sticks and I found a couple of kiddos (Ava and Sarah) who I think enjoyed playing them almost as much as I did!!

Our preacher told the story about Jesus telling Peter to drop his net on the other side of the boat. He told the story in 1st person and was dressed in Bible attire! Afterwards, Emaleigh (5) came and asked William if Jesus was really in that boat yesterday! It was pretty funny!

Doll on Table

I walked in yesterday to check on Kalli, we had put a Curious George movie on for her and this is what I found......

All Better!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Kalli's eye is all better. As the swelling went down, you could really see the bite under her eye. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!!

What is it Worth????

What are these things worth....
A sack of flour...


$1.50

An icecream cone...



$.75

Tickets to Wicked...



$70

An antique sewing maching...



$300

A yummy fishstick...



$3.75

A trucker trying to get an 18 wheeler down a little residential alley....

Priceless!!

Eye...Round 2

We are trying to decide whether or not we need to take her to the doctor so we wanted to compare photos. Any opinions?? I am thinking it looks a bit better today.

Child For Sale!!!!

Naw, just kidding, but she is giving me fits!! Kalli has another skin infection or something. She woke up with a slightly swollen eyelid this morning. I think I saw two bumps, one on her lid and one below. No big deal, we have dealt with insect bites and swollen eyes before. I gave her Benedryl and on we went. By lunch it was pretty red and a bit more swollen. Now it looks like this......







The redness has spread and it is really swollen. We have done three rounds of Benedryl and it does not seem to help much, except maybe with itching. Any ideas out there??!! I guess if it is still swollen tomorrow I will take her to see her doctor. I really hate taking the girls to the doctor because doctor's offices are full of germs and sickness (of course!!). Anyway, pray it will go down and I can spend my day cleaning instead of sitting at the doctor's office!!

Just a note to say that though I don't like doctor's offices, I LOVE my girls doctor. She is outstanding! When Brianna was in the hospital with meningitis, she came up several times a day to see her, even her off day. One day she was on her way to a family gathering and still took time to stop by. She even had to bring her own daughter in with her. She dealt with my hysterics during this time and not once made me feel like she was put out. She rocks so if anyone needs a great peds doctor, let me know!!

Friends!

This has been a week of friends for me! One of my best friends that lives about an hour away came and spent the week with us. She has three daughters and all the girls have such a great time together. Terri and I also have a great time. We stay up late (or at least late for me) talking and she always somehow gets me to do things that I need to do. That is the mark of a true friend!!

I have also gotten back in contact this week with a great friend of mine from when William was stationed in North Dakota. I have really enjoyed being able to email back and forth with her and start getting caught up with one anothers lives.

I have written many times about how I pray for Emaleigh a good friend from church. This week I was able to see her interact and really enjoy the company of a little girl from church! Tori has a friend that is spending the night tonight and they are going to see the new Nancy Drew movie at midnight and Brianna leaves in the morning so spend a couple of days with one of her good friends! I love friends!

Oops!

I meant to put this at the end of the previous post so now it is out of order. I guess you will just have to read an earlier post to see if this is a recommendation for the recipe or a warning!!!!!!!!

Oven Fried Chicken

1 pound chicken breasts
1/3 cup Lite Italian Dressing
1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs
2-3 Tbsp. Tabasco Chipotle Sauce

Combine dressing and Tabasco Chipotle Sauce in a medium mixing bowl. Dip chicken into dressing mixture; coat in bread crumbs. Spray vegetable cooking spray on a baking sheet. Place chicken on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or in a skillet for 10-15 minutes. Yield 4 servings

Lazy Day!

What a lazy day today! I got up at 5:30 and got ready to go do my grocery shopping. I saw Stormy there so that was fun! After I got the groceries unloaded, we just hung out for the rest of the morning. William, Kalli and I ran to Kroger to get some hotdog buns that I forgot and they had samples of this baked chicken, it was soooo good. I scrapped our dinner plan for tonight and got the stuff to make the new recipe. I will put the recipe at the end of the post, sooooo good! Then I laid down and slept for over 2 hours!!! Boy did that feel nice. It is taking a bit to wake up though!

Friday we had a great day. The girls and I met Stormy and 3 of her kiddos at a park in Plano that we had never been to. It was great! The weather was so nice and cool, a cool front had just come through. We had a picnic and then headed to the Cockroach Hall of Fame!! I have a theme planned for each day of the week during the summer and Friday's are our library/free field trip day. I read about this museum on guidelive.com so we went to check it out. The kids loved it. They even got to pet the large hissing cockroaches!

I guess I am going to continue trying to wake up and actually get some things done!! Have a great weekend :)

Ramblings in a Quiet House!!!

Hooray...I have joined the land of the upright again today!! I am feeling much better. Of course it was just in time because now Kalli is sick. During our trip last week, Emi and Brianna each came down with some type of virus or something that gave them a headache and fever. It lasted for a day each and as long as the fever stayed down, they were pretty good to go. The fever really did not even get that high, about 102ish. Anyway, Kalli started running fever last night, but it was higher and did not come down much with medicine. I figured it was the same thing, just reacting differently. Then about lunch I noticed that she kept messing with her right leg. So....I pulled up her pant leg and she has a bite or scrape or something that has gotten infected. The area to the outside of her knee is really red and hot to the touch. I drew a ring around it with a pen and it has one little spot that has spread, but it is more or less staying the same size. I am hoping that I am not wrong about her fever being from the virus her sisters had! I don't think so though. So, I am watching it and lucky her gets to sleep in our room tonight!! So of course Emaleigh comes in and says her throat hurts!! For some reason these silly kids like to sleep in our room. She is now on the floor covered up with a towel and Kalli is sound asleep in my bed.

William has gone to pick up Brianna who is at a swimming get together with kids from church. So I am here in a quiet house, oh yes, Tori is asleep too! So I thought I would show you guys some pictures from our trip.





These two pictures are the view from the porch swing on the porch of our cabin.



This one is a picture of our cabin.



Here we have Bri and Tori after a hike to Bear Cave.




We all hiked the 2 mile trail down to the falls area. Kalli walked some of the way, but got too tired so she fell asleep in the pack.



This one is the view of the waterfall in the bottom of the canyon. It really was a beautiful sight and so worth the hike.



Could not resist the cute turtle!



This one has all of the girls along with William and I and my dad.

Okay, the hike down was great, so pretty! Oh lordy, I thought I would die hiking back up. One tends to forget when heading out on a hike downhill that what goes down usually comes back up!!!

I highly recommend Arkansas State Parks. They have what I think is the best state park system in the tristate area. Northern Arkansas is just beautiful!!!

Okay, everyone have a great night!! No sickies tomorrow!!!

Bored!

Wow, I never thought that I would say the B word, but I am bored!! We arrived back from our trip yesterday evening. I was sick the whole time, but we still all managed to have a great time. I will post more about it and some pictures later. Anyway, today I am so dizzy that I can't really get out of bed. When I lay still, I feel fine, but as soon as I move I get a horrible headache and feel like I am going to be sick. So, I am going a little crazy laying still and in bed all day. William brought home his laptop so that has given me a little to do, but I can't really stay on long because I start getting dizzy.

I have many wonderful and exciting things to post once I feel better so stay tuned!!! (Well, I don't know if they are wonderful and exciting, but I will post them and I know you don't want to miss it!!)

I never thought I would lay in bed and want to get up and clean house!! Now you konw that I am really sick!!