Twenty-six!

Happy 26 weeks today! I'm thisclose to being in my third trimester. Most say it starts between week 27-28. I have people constantly ask me how I'm feeling so I thought I'd tell you! I feel great! Honest! I have been blessed beyond measure with great pregnancies in the past and so far this one has been the same! Other than some hip pain during sleep and a little sciatic nerve pain late in the evening (which I just take as my body saying "sit down"), I feel wonderful!! I'm so thankful! 

Jude is growing! I can tell because I am growing! This past week is the first week I've felt literal growing pains. I can feel my tummy stretching and have had some round ligament pain. Again, nothing big, but I can feel it! He's very active late at night and early morning. That should be fun come February! I'm still going no refined sugar (3 weeks tomorrow!). Although, I have had small amounts in cereal. I do sometimes crave a bowl of cereal! It's Kashi Island Vanilla (so good!), which is organic sugar and much lower than most other brands but it's still more refined than I'd like. So, I'm not really counting those 3 or 4 bowls I've had as a snack! It would be different if I were eating Lucky Charms or something. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving because I am having dessert!

I have finally picked out a nursery theme. I'm excited about it and hopefully we can start working on everything soon! Since we moved two and a half months ago, that room has become the storage room and so we're slowly going through it all! We've got a baby coming in 3 months, so we've got to get it ready! Although, it's a little silly as all my babies stay in my room until they are several months old. I like to have my babies close and well, they like it too! We're using white, crimson and gray for his room. When we get it finished I'll share pictures!

Speaking of the house, we're still working on getting every done! My mom has been helping with the trim work and it's getting close to being finished. The Hubs and my father in law moved the TV again and we rearranged the living room. It looks much better but now there is more painting to be done from where the TV was moved! The next projects (I hope) are to sand and stain the table and cabinet for the den. This is where I will store much of my homeschool stuff. I'm praying for a nice day to get that done outside! My job has been sorting through things. I've been working on it in small amounts, going through stuff and getting rid of what we don't need! I've also been doing some organizing and today I'm heading to the Dollar Tree to see if I can find some plastic baskets to help organize the bathroom drawers and cabinets. Growing a baby, teaching a 1st grader, feeding and cleaning for a family doesn't leave much time for anything else! But I love it!

Some things you can pray with me about concerning the pregnancy: a doula. Goodness, they are expensive. My Dr wants me to have one for labor and I'd like to have one. But the money is the problem. So, I may be doing this labor on my own and that will be okay. My prayer is that God will provide if it's something I should have. I'm trusting that if it's not, He will see me through! Secondly, continue to pray that this labor will happen naturally and the VBA2C will be successful!

 

 "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19



 

Battling the List

We are reading through the book of Romans in our Thursday night Bible study at church. I am enjoying it so much. The Word truly is bread and I am filled when I leave on Thursday nights. I think book studies are great, in fact we just started Lord, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur with our ladies. But I don't think there is enough deep, genuine study of God's Word alone. God's Word alone is sufficient. So, we're taking a portion of scripture, observing it, getting correct interpretation (There is only one interpretation and that is the correct one!), and then applying application.

Two weeks ago, we went through Romans 7:1-6. The verses are speaking about being bound to sin and the law and then being bound to Christ, which brought up a great discussion about legalism. Legalism. Such an ugly word. What is legalism? My favorite definition from those that I've read is this one: "the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws." So, how did this apply to me? I have personally struggled with legalism and admittedly, still do on occasion. In my past, in churches I have been to, it seemed that there were certain sins spoken of often in sermons or in teaching. It seemed that those sins were 'worse' than others. Some of them were what you would expect but some were not. Some weren't even really sins but more of opinions about what was right or wrong without biblical backing, which is scary, dangerous stuff. This lead to thoughts that if I was doing these things, God was not pleased with me. If I didn't do these things, God was pleased me. It also lead to thoughts of "if I do this, God is not happy with me, so He will punish me." What terrible, wrong thoughts about God! And it still plagues me to this day. I'll explain later more of how I fight those thoughts.

At the same time, there were also things that were spoken of often about what I should be doing. I needed to be at this, this and this. I also needed to be doing this and that at home. Oh and I needed to make sure I was doing this too. And if I wasn't, God was not pleased. If I was, God was happy with me. So mentally, in my mind, I had a check list. If I did all of these things, I was a good Christian. If I didn't do them, I was backsliding or a 'carnal Christian' (which is not even a true term).  So, my check list of what to do and what not to do decided whether or not God was happy with me. Essentially it decided whether or not God loved me. My list became my idol and my relationship with God was pretty much non-existent. My outward walk became more important than my heart for God, my worship of God, and my relationship with God. It took me a while to even realize what was going on! It was such a part of my life. I was living for others. Unfortunately, this can also cause us to become very judgemental of others and even begin to think highly of ourselves when we are doing more or seemingly doing better than someone else, on that 'list'. Oh, isn't it so horrible? It sounds a lot like the Pharisee in Luke 18!

Let us remember this, "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, the Lord looks on the heart.”

So, how do we stop this? For one, it's very dangerous to speak against specific sins from the pulpit. When preaching a text, of course, preach the text. But to pick and choose specific sins to harp on is just dangerous. Also making laws about what you should be participating in and such is the same. Personally though (since I'm doubting many pastors are reading my blog! Ha!), what can we do? My answer: Preach the gospel to ourselves. Remind ourselves of grace.

Grace. Christ came to cover our sins. Because of my trust in Christ's sacrifice for my sins, God sees me as His. He loves me because of the blood of Christ. It's His righteousness, not mine! Because I am in Christ, I am reconciled with God. My standing with God does not change! Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No condemnation! What a glorious thing! So, I remind myself of grace. I remind myself of His love. I remind myself of what He did for me.

So now, let's ask the same question as Paul did...  "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1) and then his answer.. " By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (verse 2). What a great question! Do we keep sinning because of grace? Of course not! We can never justify our sin because of grace! We have died to sin and come alive in Christ! Will we sin? Of course, we will battle our flesh until we are out of this earthly body! But grace, the gospel, compels us to love Him. J.C Ryle writes, "If we love a person, we like to please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice and do the things which he approves... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!" When we dig deep and know grace, our heart is overflowing with love and gratitude. And when we love Christ deep, the only way to love him, we desire to obey Him!

So, my friends, let go of those chains of legalism and live your life in the grace you're already covered in! Erase that mental check list and just spend time with your Father. Ask Him to help you break down those walls. It is still a fight for me. He is always faithful to remind me of His grace and I know He will do the same for you! He loves you abundantly!

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Beef Tips and Gravy Over Rice

 

I try to always plan my menu's but on tight budget weeks sometimes it's just whatever I can come up with! This past week was one of those! I had some chopped stew meat in my freezer. Typically I make beef stew with this but I didn't have any potatoes. A quick search on the internet landed me at a crock pot beef tip recipe. Well, I didn't have time to use my crock pot at this point and was missing some ingredients but it gave me enough motivation to come up with something! The recipe turned out so good! Eli cleaned his plate and that rarely happens! It's easy and very frugal since stew meat is one of the cheapest meats you can buy!

Beef Tips and Gravy Over Rice, Serves 4

1-1.5 lb stew meat
1 onion, sliced thin
3-4 TBS soy sauce*
3-4 cups of water*
1/3 cup flour, plus 3/4 cup water
1 tsp parsley flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Oil for cooking (I used refined coconut oil)
Salt and pepper
Cooked Rice (I used brown)

Heat oil in stock pot. Add beef stew meat with the sliced onions and brown (I peppered them lightly, be careful with the salt though, especially if you are using beef broth or full sodium soy sauce. I didn't salt mine at all until the end!). Once the tips are browned add 3 cups of water, plus 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, scraping any bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook on low for 1.5-2 hours or until tender. I added one more cup of water with soy sauce at about the 1.5 hour mark, so just watch your liquid. It wasn't absolutely necessary but it made more gravy, which we like! :) Mine took right around 2 hours. Once the beef tips are tender, add in your parsley and garlic powder and turn the heat up to a low boil. Make a slurry with the 1/3 cup of flour, plus 3/4 cup of water. What this means is to mix your flour and water together with a fork until the flour is incorporated. Once your beef mixture is at a low boil, add in your slurry stirring constantly. Continue stirring until you get the thickness you desire and to cook out the flour taste (about 5 minutes). You may have to add more slurry if you want a thicker gravy. Taste to season, add salt and pepper as needed. Serve over cooked rice.

The Hubs doesn't like rice so I made these whole wheat drop biscuits for him to have with his! They were really yummy, too! I'm sure the first part of this recipe could be made in the crock pot and then thickened right before dinner. I haven't tried it yet but will soon!

*Soy sauce sounds weird but I read a tip somewhere that if you don't have beef broth (and I rarely do!) you can use 1 cup of water and 1 TBS of soy sauce. It doesn't taste like soy sauce, but gives it that deep flavor. You can certainly use beef broth if you'd like. I use MSG free, low sodium soy sauce!

Let me know if you try it!

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So, do you celebrate Halloween?

It's fall! And I love it! I think I've mentioned it before but I really do love fall! I especially love October! October is my birthday month and the month the Hubs and I got married. I love the weather, football, food... all of it!

 

So, what about Halloween? Well, I've read a few articles online about it from various perspectives, did my research (you know I like to research!) and had many conversations with the Hubs about it. And yes, I've prayed about it! There is a lot of confusion on how Halloween and it's origin truly started. It has roots in paganism, yet it also seems the church (as it's known for doing) attempted to counter it with it's own holiday (All Saint's Day). In the past those days were separated (one on October 31, one on November 1 or 2). Anyway, you can do your own research! It really is a bit fuzzy (or at least that's how I felt after reading about the history). My thoughts are that it's kind of mashed up into this American holiday. I know there are many out there who choose not to celebrate it at all, like they don't even mention it and pretend it doesn't exist. Then there are those who do celebrate it in some forms, as in allowing their children to dress up and go to a fall festival or two. (If you allow your children to participate in the traditions -dressing up, getting treats, even if they are from a church- whether they are on October 31 or not, you're still somewhat participating in the holiday.) Then there are those who allow their kids to dress up and actually go trick-or-treating on Halloween Day. So, what category do we fall in?

We fall in the third. And before I go any further, I fully respect the choices of other families. These types of things fall in the "liberty" areas. I appreciate their viewpoint and hope to receive the same from them. I'm just sharing our decision. So, yes, my children dress up and they go trick-or-treating. I'm not a fan of skeletons, ghosts, and the other more gory aspects. We avoid those aisles at the store and we avoid those types of houses as well! So here is how our night looks:

The boys dress up (Star Wars is the pick this year!) early in the evening. By 5pm we're ready to leave the house. We make three or four stops visiting the Hub's family first and then we head to my mom's. My mom's neighborhood is a very busy trick or treating neighborhood. Most years they get close to 200 trick or treators! My mom always makes a big pot of chili along with hot dogs. Once we get to her house, about 6pm, we let the boys take a trip down the street to a few houses that we are familiar with. Several of their church members live in their neighborhood and we usually stop by those houses and then head back. We eat dinner and the boys enjoy giving away candy to other kids who come to their door (we always hand out million dollar bills too). Some friends of ours always stop by with their boys and they get to play for a bit and we always get their picture together. Around 8:30 pm we head back to the house and that's it!  Luke was curious why some people don't celebrate Halloween and I just told them it was a personal choice. We do take the time to talk about the evil aspects in basic terms that he can understand. That's unfortunately something we have to deal with every single day of our lives. Evil is everywhere and every day. But we also don't focus too much on that at this point and at his age. I told him that if anyone asked him if we celebrate Halloween to answer, "We dress up to have fun and spend time with friends and family!" And that's the truth! And I believe we do it in such a way that glorifies God!

My only issue with Halloween actually is the candy! We try to limit candy in our home as much as possible, although it's nearly impossible! So, we keep it as treats only. On Halloween night my kids get a few pieces and maybe the next few days they get a piece or two, then it magically disappears. We don't go to many houses, so we don't have a lot anyway.

One thing to mention and for us as believers to remember, is that no matter what you do and what your convictions are harping on or having a pious attitude on 'liberty' areas of scripture do nothing to soften the hearts of unbelievers and it also doesn't create unity within the body of Christ. So we must be careful in how we present our convictions and where our heart is on the matter!

*Just a side note. We do talk about Reformation Day during school and as a family. Some may be wondering whether or not we incorporate that and of course we do. Reformation Day is our history. Halloween is just like a fun little party we have. They don't even compare!

Have a safe and fun Halloween or day! ;)