Rainy Sunday

Rainy Sunday!
Hearing good news from Ukraine. 
http://www.kspr.com/news/nationworld/URGENT-Ukraine-Kramatorsk-Cleared-Separatists/21051646_26809838

Please keep praying for the people of Ukraine!


Yesterday Steve and I both worked at Habitat for Humanity's Restore (thrift store)   Steve has done about 50 hours there & really enjoys working with the folks.  I had a great time too, really got some good laughs in.  Also got 10 books for Selah's hospital stay, including a very scary Stephen King book.  I've already started reading it but I know I won't be able to read it at night!  LOL    During hospital stays it is a blessing to be able to read.  One thing that was so weird, after Selah's accident, I could not focus enough to read for months.  Just so you know, I'm one of those book devourers... But during the first couple of months, I couldn't' read anything.  After a while I could read books that were very light.  It was such an odd reaction to the whole experience.   Well I've bought 10 books for her stay so I should have plenty to read!

Today Steve is out kayaking with some friends.  To be honest, I am nervous!  No adults are going with them and it is a long river.  For some reason, no one wanted the grownups to go LOL!  I'll be glad for him to get home safely.  Makes me long for the play dates of long ago at Chuck E Cheese or the playground!   My friend and I kid around that we'd like to keep our kids in an underground bunker and bubble wrap them if they step foot out the door!  Unfortunately it just doesn't work like that! 

Jon will have Monday off since his regular days off are Friday and Saturday and Friday was a holiday....YEAH!   We will be able to relax some!  Having Monday off is a good way to start a week

Hope you have a good week- please pray for Selah as she has surgery on Tuesday.

Helping Believers in Ukraine!!!!!

Our dear friends,  the pastor and staff of the Pentecostal church in the town we adopted our girls are refugees right now.  A few weeks ago, gunman came to the church told them to leave or they would be killed on the spot.  They left knowing that the CHURCH is so much more than a building.  Then things became so hostile they had to quickly leave their homes with just a few things with them and travel to the Western side of Ukraine for their families' safety.  Our church has been praying for them and we were able to help them some.  There are at least 8 adults and 4 or 5 children.  These are people who have faithfully served God in a society that did not quite understand them. 

Ukraine has a national church the Russian Orthodox church.  Being apart of it is approved of by society.  It is interwoven in the fabric of the country. 

Being a part of the Protestant movement is not as accepted. 

We'd been afraid that our friends might become targets in this war torn country.

These folks were doing outreaches through their church to the community in the months and weeks leading up to this.  Just a few weeks before they had gone into the Women's Prison and did a service in which many woman came to Jesus.  They were doing street evangelism.

I have our friends' permission to share, but I'm afraid for them.  I've got some wonderful pictures that they've posted in the last few months.  But I'm too afraid to post them. 

I'm sharing this to let you know you can help them.  They've never asked for anything from us.  They showed us such love while we were in Ukraine, feeding us after every church service, going to buy special chips just so Sam would be happy.  They were so kind to us, embracing us as part of the body of Christ. 

I asked them if our church could help and we took up an offering on Sunday and sent it to them.  But then I also asked if it was safe for me to share about them on here.  I was given permission as they feel safe now. 

If you would like to help them at this time, please send a check to
 Grace Church
7060 Berry Road
Zephyrhills Fl 33540
mark it UKRAINE

Can you please pray for them?  Can you imagine having to flee your home, your state and be homeless because of your belief in God and the freedom of religion?   Most of the staff are old enough to remember the Communist days, they want freedom not just for the sake of freedom but so that they can share the gospel freely.

Please pray for the Christians in Ukraine, many have been beaten, tortured and killed.   Pray for the orphans, we've heard of orphanages being targeted. 

Also please pray that God will protect the church and their homes.  Their church was a very nice building for that area, very functional and modern.  The members had worked together to pay for and to work on it.  They were understandably proud of what God had done for them through providing such a nice building that they used to reach the souls of their city.  After going through a building project here, I can understand how we would feel if we were in their shoes.  Yes a church is "just a building" but it is a building set apart for God's use.  And if you've gone through a building project, you have some "blood, sweat and tears" invested in that building!!!! 

And pray that God will supernaturally protect their homes.  We've had the experience of having to evacuate a few times because a hurricane was coming.  Once I remember being the last one our of the house, closing the door and wondering if we'd ever see our home again.  I'm sure they had the same feeling as they were leaving. 

My husband and I have such a love and connection to these folks.  We may never see them again this side of heaven but we believe God brought us together with them for a reason.  Maybe this is the reason, so we can help them in this time of great need. 

Please consider donating to help them as they are away from their homes and jobs.  (Most of them were bi-vocational)  They are in a country torn apart by war.  Let me tell you there is so much more going on that what you see in the news.  I follow some Ukraine sites, as well as hear first and second hand reporting of what is going on and it is bad. 

Please pray and help your fellow believers!!!!



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Today we were able to go and visit Jon's dad who is now in a rehab.  he is beginning to be able to walk again.  This last sickness was hard on him but he is working hard at regaining ground.  He is a fighter!  Thanks for your prayers for him.  He is loved!

 

As you can see Sam is happy that Pa Pa is better!

 

 

the kids being so good.....

 

 

this picture is from early this morning.  House sitting is such hard work LOL

Steve came home and curled up with Sam and they both went to sleep!

 

 

Selah's nurse had her in her 4th of July outfit.  A tshirt given to her by my roomie on our way home from Ukraine ( we met in the airport in DC)  and a cute jean skirt that is 2nd hand but adorable!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selah always pays attention to daddy.  She will ignore me and then respond to him.  It's so cute.  She always loved him and it still shows. 

 

She was looking the other way and as soon as he said her name, she turned to him & looked straight at him.  she hadn't seen him since the day before yesterday as she was asleep when he got home last night.  So it was clear she was glad to see him. 

Please pray for her, surgery on her hip is Tuesday.  I am absolutely dreading it for her.  She HATES to be in the hospital and truly understands she is not at home.  Please pray for peace and manageable pain after the surgery. 

 

Am I a Foodie?

Yesterday's post was a deep thoughtful post.  This post  might seem silly in comparison but there are a lot of thoughts going through my head right now.  I will be sharing tomorrow some of our friends' story who are refuges in Ukraine and how you can help them.  There is so much going on in this world right now, that everything seems light and frivolous  in comparison. 

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So here is the picture from last night's supper to prove I cooked....  Meatloaf, corn on the cob, baked beans and mac & cheese!

 

Then I also made lasagna roll ups with left over noodles from the night before. 

Just lay the noodle out,

put sauce and cheese on it and whatever stuffing

roll it secure it with a toothpick

bake 350

YUM!

 

 

This morning I decided to boil peanuts.  It takes about 8 hours of boiling so you have to know you are going to be home all day!

YUM!

 

If you don't live in the south, you probably don't eat boiled peanuts but they are so good!

Just buy some raw peanuts

put them in a big pot with lots of water and salt

boil for 8 hours

keep adding water and salt

They are so good! 

 

 

 

 

Oatmeal cookies too

 

this is what 8 quarts of boiled peanuts look like.

 

 

 

 

then supper tonight

yellow rice and Mexican lasagna

Mexican lasagna is so easy

just brown your meat   (I used a mix of ground chicken and beef)

add taco seasoning

put a layer of tortilla down

layer the meat and Mexican cheese on the tortillas

I did three layers

 

You can add beans or tomatoes, corn in the Mexican lasagna but Mr Picky (Steve) was home for supper so I just did the meat and cheese. 

 

 

So I'm seriously thinking about writing a Cook Book

one that is EASY and good food.

I hate cook books that have 50 steps to do something and ingredients you've never heard of before

And I also hate the easy ones that are so unhealthy

I want to write one that is cooking from scratch or close to scratch.  I do use canned veggies like baked beans but nothing that is processed.   Anyhow I am serious about writing a cook book that moms can actually use!

 

I came across this article today......

 

http://www.charismamag.com/life/health/20723-could-inflammation-be-slowly-killing-you

Please read this. This is the new lifestyle we've tried our best to adopt in the last few years. Much less processed foods, REAL butter- meat that is organic, grass fed beef, free range chickens & eggs. We still eat lower fat because of J...on's family heart history choosing chicken over beef. At home we are pretty strict about this, but we do eat out. But we rarely eat fast food when we do eat out.

The BIG thing is we stay away from Vegetable oils Look in the ingredients of what you buy, almost everything has Palm. Soybean, corn. safflower, etc.....we only buy things that use Expeller pressed oils which are thought to be much better. However I try to stay away from them also.

Basically I don't buy anything that has ingredients that I can't pronounce/never heard of or if something has 20 ingredients....we are not perfect. I still use sugar I do try and buy things that have less sugar and that don't have high fructose syrup. High Fructose syrup is in a lot of things also! HOWEVER be careful when you go for lower sugar- Splenda (sucralose) can be in lower sugar things. It's been linked to leukemia in kids so my doctor told me (we used to give the kids Roaring Waters by Caprisun to drink)

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Please keep praying for Ukraine- so much is going on there.  Our friends have given me permission to share their story and I will tomorrow and share how you can help them out. 

Selah's surgery is set for Tuesday.  I dread it, hate for her to be in a hospital with nurses who don't "know" her and the worry of her getting sick in there.  Plus I hate to think of her being in any pain.  The doctor said the pain should be minimal but isn't that what they always say?   Please keep Selah in your prayers!

"Why Didn't I do more for Jesus?"

This is an early post, trying to get it done while Sam's teacher is here otherwise I have to wait till late tonight and I just have a feeling that won't work for me!

So since it is early, I don't have a picture of supper BUT it will be meatloaf, corn on the cob, mac& cheese, green beans and baked beans.  I have everything ready to go:)  I'll put the photo up tomorrow.

So Sarah's bottom is looking better with the new expensive med but I'm not sure it is going to be the 100% answer.  I'm going to call Dermatology again today about this.  Thanks for all the advice, I'm checking out everything that I've not used.  Thankfully it really doesn't seem to bother her, it's just pimples and doesn't seem raw or painful to her.  It bothers ME!  None of the boys ever even had a rash except for Sam while he was in the NICU.  It's a new thing for me to deal with. 


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Yesterday I watched a short clip of a lady's testimony about dying and going to heaven.  I'm always fascinated by stories like that although I think some of them are actually lies from the devil to deceive.   The account I've read that comes closest to the bible is the book "90 minutes in Heaven"   I'd encourage you to read it.


http://www.charismamag.com/life/women/20724-watch-nine-minutes-in-heaven
However this video was interesting.....


The ONE thing that really really struck me hard is when she said she was going to ask God why all kinds of terrible things happened to her but all she could ask is "Why didn't I do more for you Jesus?"


You know I have questions, that remain in my heart regarding several things.  Of course the accident is the absolute hardest thing for me to wrap my mind around.  I ponder different things, different scenarios, it never goes away.  Last night for some reason I couldn't sleep good.  Our dog kept barking, Steve was with his friend house sitting, Jon was snoring......  so my mind pondered and went through Selah's whole story, of how she came to us.....and then the accident......   Sometimes I can not even take a deep breath for the sadness of it all. 

Last night I pleaded again for God to heal her, to deliver her from this coma/ brain damage, to bring her back to us.  My heart will always cry out for that for Selah.

But yet I trust God......

Then I started thinking of what the lady said in the above clip, how all her questions changed to "why didn't I do more for you (Jesus)?"  

I've lived 48 almost 49 years.  All of those years in a Christian environment, and most of them as a professing Christian.   If I stood before God today, I know my question would be "why didn't I do more for you Jesus?"   I don't do enough...  I'm not saying this in some legalistic mindset that I HAVE to do all kinds of steps to win God's love.  I do not believe that at all.  But I think of the years and times wasted in foolishness, in sin. in laziness, so much more I could have done for the kingdom.

My circumstances are different than many people's but that does not change my responsibilities, nor do your circumstances change your responsibilities.      If we are professing Christians, we are not just along for the ride.....we need to be about our Father's business.  We get ONE go around on this earth and we are not promised tomorrow.  This became really clear to me last night.  

We can have crappy lives, we can have tragedies  happen, life is uncertain and hard times come BUT if we really believe the Bible, these hardships are fleeting in the light of eternity.

In my circumstances, I try and keep my eyes focused on eternity.  It gives me perceptive and keeps me straight.  What I mean by that is, when I'm looking at circumstances in the light of eternity, I realize no matter how hard things are, this present life is very short, just a moment in time.  Eternity is forever.....

So for me, the drudgery of every day life, dealing with insurance, doctors, therapists, nurses, schedules, school placements, teachers....those things are so annoying.  Then you add the other mundane things of life like DIAPERS...thank God I didn't change but one or two diapers before I had my first child as I have changed thousands since!   These things are just short lived, and being faithful to do them, as unto the Lord,  keeps my heart focused on the eternal things. 

There is a song we sing sometimes
"Faithfulness Faithfulness is what I long for,
Faithfulness is what I need
Faithfulness is what You want from me......."
Honestly I DESPISE that song.  Sorry if you like it.....but it is such a weak willed sounding chorus.   Faithfulness is something we have to cultivate in our lives.  Life & circumstances will give you times when you have to make the decision to be faithful to God, faithful to your family, faithful to church.... 

There have been times I've not been faithful in many areas, but singing a silly song about needing faithfulness doesn't do much for me.  Realizing I will stand before God one day makes me want to be faithful! 

So I'm not sure how it will play out but I know I do not do enough for God in my life even now.  I've been encouraged to step out more.

One thing I will ask you all to do is to continue to pray for Selah.  Thank you so much!

Tasty Tuesday

We've got our first tropical storm off the east coast of Florida.  I'm hoping for some good cooling rains as it is really hot for this time of year. 

My son is "helping" a friend housesit.  As you can imagine, all the bad 80's movies from the horror to the silly have gone through my mind.  Last night they had quite the experience while shopping at the Dollar Store for candy to take to the movie.  They got into a conversation with a couple of guys who asked them is they smoked.  My son stated that he and his buddy's voices both went an octave higher as they answered "Cigarettes?"   The guys were like "No man...weed"    They politely declined the offer....and we are still laughing about it!   Later the cops followed them back to the subdivision .....  they were leaving in separate cars and Steve's friend flashed his lights at him.  So Steve flicked his a couple of times (we have a bulb out)  Evidently the cop thought they were person's of interest.  However since Steve was driving my van with all the stick figures on it, the cop quit following them.  Good Times:)  He can't look too suspicious with a "mommy van"  and five kid figures on it!

Yes I'd like to go back to my teenaged years at times:)  Their adventures bring back memories LOL

Today I got my "time out" with my Tuesday friend (who happens to be the mom of the above young man)  We had some good laughs but were thankful that our kids know how to deal with things like what happened to them.  It got us talking about how it takes consistency when you are training your children. 

Jon & I are real with our kids.  We are not fake folks, and we are not perfect.  But we have strived to point them to what the bible teaches even if we don't always live up to that perfect standard.   We hope & pray we've given them a foundation to cling to as they grow up. 


After we ate today, we went to the health food store and I bought "ear candles" for Jon.  The first time my friend told me about the ear candles, I truly thought she was messing with me.  They are long, (about a foot) candles that you lite on one end and put the tiny end in your ear.  I kid you not! So since Jon has not been able to hear for days and was slow at going to the doctor I bought them.  However he decided to go to the doctor and get his ears cleaned professionally.  He called me and was not yelling anymore.  The ear wax/river/spring water had been so bad, when the doctor cleaned his ears, it made Jon nauseated (probably the doctor too)   He had to come home for a while and be still but he recovered, ate some leftovers and went back to work.  All I know is someone in the Clanton household is going to use an ear candle tonight, I want to try them out LOL!!! 

I also bought Sarah some cream for the rash.  I've tried everything that was suggested and then some and nothing has cured it. (thanks for the suggestions!)   The nurses' cream has helped it not get worse but it is no better.  I have a call into dermatology but still waiting on that.  She doesn't seem bothered by it thankfully.  So the cream I bought today was expensive, I'm sure it will work and I'll be stuck buying that from now on. 

Selah is not in the fish oil study anymore so she has not been receiving the oil.  So I went and bought some at the health food store.  I'm interested to see if there will be any changes in her with the oil since she has been off it for about 2 months.  We did a lot of changes in the past couple of months and she has not been as stable with her heart rate as she was before.  She has times when her heart rate shots up.  Her doctor "tweeked" the medicine before we left on vacation and it's been better but now we'll see if fish oil is what has been missing. 

I'm continuing on my quest to cook supper EVERY night this week.

 

Tonight was my standard beef stew.  I know it is too hot in Florida on July 1st to make beef stew but Sarah loves it so much.  I bought some small glass containers to freeze portions in for her to have instead of canned soups when I cook things she can't/doesn't like to eat.  

Beef stew is so good and it is easy to make, 20 minutes of work and you are done. 

So I figure if I post the suppers every night, I'll be accountable to cook:) 

Crock pot cooking is so easy - to make a beef stew....

carrots
potatoes
celery
onions
green peas ( I don't like but the kids do LOL)

a package of beef cut up for stew

a package of Slow Roast seasoning

a carton of beef stock

About 2 cups of water to mix the seasoning in and to cover the food

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Add as much of the vegetables as you need, for us, I used a whole 3lb bag of potatoes and a bag of carrots, 3 celery stacks and a half of an onion. 


cook on high for 6 hours, then low for 2 hours....

Eat and enjoy:)

A Great Monday!

Today started off with a meeting at Habitat for Humanity to go over our house plans for the final time before the builders meet with the architect.  We are so pleased with the floor plans.  We had hoped to be able to keep the big old detached garage but it has too many problems.  BUT the NEW plan calls for a carport off the right side of our house connecting the house with a large storage room.  Selah's room will have a door to the carport so we don't have to worry about taking her out in the rain!  YEAH!  The rest of the house/shed will be taken off the property this week and in just 90 days, construction begins!!!  WOOHOOO!!!!!  We feel so very blessed!

Then I went grocery shopping BY MYSELF!  All moms understand that that is like going to the spa:)  I made up the meals for the next 2 weeks and was able to shop without forgetting anything:)

Got home unloaded the groceries and then cooked up all the meat.  In the past, I used to do that so that the meat was ready to be quickly defrosted and added to whatever was cooking for supper.  We really ate pretty bad the last few weeks and have eaten out so much this month.  The ONLY way for me not to get overwhelmed and order out is to have it ready to cook quickly.   So now I have 4 containers of ground chicken and 1 of ground beef, cooked and ready to go!  This is really helpful to have the meat done, it cuts down on time!

 

 

 

Then we all went and took Steve to get registered for college.  After many conversations, he has decided to go to our local community college in the fall.  He can't even apply to be an officer until he turns 19 years old so he might as well take at least one semester of college before then.  Maybe he will want to continue in college, or maybe he'll apply to be an officer.....or maybe he'll want to go to our alma mater Southeastern.....what ever he choses is fine, this is a good first step.  

 

 

Then we got back home and I cooked supper:)  Salad, garlic bread and a ground chicken/spinach whole wheat lasagna.  It was soooo good and felt healthy.

 

We generally eat ground chicken more than ground beef.  I buy the Perdue brand that is cage free, no antibodics....We don't really care for ground turkey and the chicken is lower fat.  I did have one package of frozen organic beef that I cooked up today.  It is tastier but lots more saturated fat!  

 

Someone recently asked me WHY do we watch our diets so closely?  Well.....we are not that careful when we go out to eat (which is another reason NOT to eat out much!!) 

But when we are home, I feel like if we eat healthy, it balances out the unhealthy times!   So we don't buy anything with vegetable oils that are NOT  expeller pressed.  We use whole wheat pastas, we use olive oil and add flax seeds to many dishes.  I try not to buy anything with more than 5 ingredients, when you start seeing 20 ingredients & you can not pronounce any of them....it's not good to eat!  I use real butter NO margarine in this house!  I buy mostly organic vegetables, milk, butter, oils ....anything that I can or I grow it myself.   NO nitrides in any food, I get bacon, lunch meat and hotdogs without it and not too often.

We do usually order pizza once a week and get some soft drinks with it.  But I'm really working on keeping soft drinks out of the house.

If you know me, you know I had a 6 pack a day PEPSI habit for years!  Oh my.....I would literally CRAVE the pop of a top of a pepsi can.  BUT I have broken that addiction!  And that is quite the miracle!  For the past couple of years, I'd been weaning myself.  Now I drink tea, sweet tea, but at least the TEA part is good for me LOL!   My family drank sweet tea every meal...for years and most of them lived to be in their late 80's and beyond:)  They also ate organic without the organic label.  They ate their meat, butchered on the family farm, used real butter....  And they were pretty healthy folks.  Growing up, I ate healthy REAL food but from college on till a few years ago, I didn't eat very healthy.  Now Jon and I had always eaten low fat, but the stuff we used was filled with all kinds of additives.    I'm hoping that our change in diet, will help us and help our kids to stay healthy.

I've got a notebook and I'm rewriting all my recipes so I don't have them on slips of paper that I have to fumble around to find.   My goal is to not eat out again (except for my regular Tuesday lunch) till next Sunday:)  If I cook good suppers and have great left overs, the kids will be happy too!   My kids are all about eating!!! 

Hope you are having a great start to the week.

PLEASE continue to pray for our friends and the orphans of the Ukraine!

Back from Vacation!

We officially got home yesterday, still doing laundry and all the settling in that has to be done.  Sam always takes every single toy out of the toy boxes and checks them out.  It is hysterical!  We say he wants to make sure none got stolen while we were gone.  Sarah is thrilled to be back home on carpet she does not like wood floors at all!  Our new house will have wood floors throughout but area rugs for her sake.  She likes to be on the floor but likes her rugs:)  She is also happy to be back in her big blue chair. 

Poor Sarah has a diaper rash that I can not get rid of, tried everything on the market, had some cream made up for her by our nurse's recipe.....  She has used the same kind of diaper for over a year and I'm afraid they've changed and she is allergic  to the new ingredients  or something.   It doesn't bother her too much but it bothers me!  If she is not better, I'll take her to the dermatologist on Monday. 

There are about a hundred blogs running around in my head but the thing on my heart right now is Ukraine.  I'm hearing so many first and second hand reports and it is all so bad.  I don't want to endanger any of our friends there so I'm not sure what I can share right now.....but it is sooooo bad.  The news makes it sound as if things are quieter, things are NOT quieter....there are executions going on, people being tortured,  people having to flee to western Ukraine....  Most everyone I know in Ukraine is going through terrible things right now.  Please pray for our friends, for the orphans, for the Christians.....so much heartache!