Unplug Challenge

“Abracadabra! Make mom’s iPad disappear!”

That’s what William said last week. Sad isn’t it? It’s not even that I am using it all day long, but I use it often enough that he feels the need to try to make it disappear. He sees it takes my attention away from him. It shouldn’t be like that.

So, I decided why not unplug for a week. Give my kids, husband, and home my undivided attention.

I found an accountability partner (my husband). I told him what I plan on doing. I thought about asking him to hide my iPad but I thought surely I can practice enough self control to just not touch it for a week.

So, here’s the challenge:

1. Choose a day to begin. I am beginning Sunday, May 24.

2.Find an accountability partner. Like I said, I asked Shane to be that for me.

3. Turn off your devices and leave them alone for a week.

I hope you choose to do this challenge with me! If you do, please comment below with the date you plan to start and who you chose as your accountability partner.

My Ultimate Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn

  

I will start by saying I did not actually use peanut butter. Because of Shane and the kids’ serious allergy to nuts we use soy butter. But, Ultimate Chocolate and Soy Butter Popcorn doesn’t sound quite as appetizing.

Ok, so the recipe for this seriously delicious popcorn:

3/4 cup unpopped popcorn

2 TBSP oil

I use a popcorn popper. I put the popcorn and oil in there and let it work. You could also do it over the stove by putting it in a pot with a lid and shaking it over the burner until it’s all popped. Spread on tin foil or parchment paper.

1/2 cup soy butter (add more or less if you’d like)

1 TBSP butter or margarine

a pinch or two of salt

Melt that in the microwave then drizzle it over the popcorn.

This may be a good time to lick the whisk.

Now melt 1 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave. Again, add more or less to taste.

Now drizzle that over the popcorn for the most beautiful looking thing you’ve ever seen.

My future food blogger 🙂

I let that set for a while, although the kids snacked on that until they were all popcorn’d out. Then I put it in a big bowl and gave it a stir. It no longer looked pretty but tasted just as amazing.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it and share some of your favorite popcorn recipes with me!

Like It? Spread it!

Days like today I am thankful the Lord puts a song like “I’ll Never Forsake You” in my mind.

Verse 1:
O soul, are you weary from wave upon wave
Of grief and affliction whom no man can save?
Has sickness surrounded, or unending night?
Uncertainty stolen your joy and your might?

Verse 2:
O doubting, o fearful– remember His care,
The helpless and hopeless need never despair
For from your afflictions His glory shall spring–
The deeper your sorrow, the louder you’ll sing!
Remember Your father– His promise, His love:

Chorus:
“I’ll never forsake you, this pain will not break you,
For I will remake you for unending joy;
My promise is faithful though now it is painful;
No power can trample my covenant love.”

Verse 3:
Remember your Savior– His grief and His pain,
The lonely affliction, unmerited shame.
Though you had betrayed Him, He died in your place;
The joy set before Him He offers by grace.
Remember Your father– His promise, His love:

You can listen to it here.

It’s good to remember that whatever the Lord allows in our paths it is meant to draw us closer to Him.

Dear Sunday School Teacher…

I have been going through the books of the New Testament with my Sunday School class. We have been doing a book a week for quite some time now. Each week we talk about the author, recipient, theme, key verse, and purpose of the book. Tomorrow morning we will be in Philemon. I have been excited about preparing this lesson for a while because of how it can so easily open the door to talk about salvation. Anyway, as I was googling and reading I came across a website that I use as a reference quite often. It is called ministry-to-children.com. I don’t agree with everyone on that site but it can be a great help to get me started in preparing my lessons. As I came across their lesson on Philemon I saw the author’s note. It was this:

Due to ministry changes at my church and lack of teachers I have a combined class of newly promoted 4^th & 5^th graders.  The curriculum I have been given for my class is geared for older children (Level 6 Discipleland).  This is how I adapted the lesson for my students.  I do not have an assistant so each week can feel like a success and some weeks it feels like I spent the majority of the time dealing with disciplinary issues.  This ministry is not mine it is the Lord’s.  Each week I pray for Him to equip me and enable me to teach the lesson to minister to the needs of the students He is going to bring.  He is faithful to answer prayer and even if I feel like nothing went according to what I planned in advance I rest in God’s provision and equipping power to bring forth fruit in the lives of these students. May this give you comfort and encouragement as you prepare each week not sure if you are making a difference in the lives of your students.

I love this! It so perfectly sums up how I feel about my class sometimes! Even down to ministry changes and lack of workers. We need to remember that the ministries the Lord has put us in our not ours, but His. He chose us to fulfill them to His honor and glory. We need to remember that we do it for the Lord. Don’t get discouraged by a bad day. You never know how it affected your students!

When you’re so tired it’s funny

A couple months ago we had our missions conference here. I was busy all week preparing meals for the missionaries during the day and being at services each evening. By the weekend I got a pretty bad cold. I was so out of it from being so tired and that awful cold on top of that. One morning I was getting Jenn her breakfast. I poured her a bowl of rice krispies and as I poured her sugar on top she gave me the weirdest look and asked what I was doing. I thought for a second and realized I was pouring salt on her rice krispies. Poor kid. I told her it’d be fine and to eat it anyway haha. Then later that afternoon Shane found our blender in the refrigerator. Which was awesome because I had been looking for it all day.

Looking back, these stories still make me laugh. I am sure there are a lot more overtired moments from other woman. So I went to the September 2014 Birth Club on Babycenter.com to ask moms to share their overtired moments with me. I realize moms aren’t the only ones who get overtired but I figured going to a board of woman who have babies Pepper’s age would have plenty of laughs for me. And they did! I got so many awesome responses. So many, that I had to weed through them twice until I had a list the size I wanted. So, here are their funny overtired stories! Share yours with me, too! I love a good laugh 🙂

• Mommyandthree15: I put my son’s shorts on backwards and didn’t realize it until almost the end of the day.
• MommyLangley: I woke up with my husband asking me what I needed as I was patting his arm in the middle of the night. I was like, “what are you talking about?” I could have sworn I was patting my baby’s bottom, but she sleeps in the next room and wasn’t even crying…
• Heath15: In the past 24 hours I have gotten my heel stuck in a heating grate which took two people to get it out and poured my coffee on my pancakes and bacon instead of syrup. Also, last week my husband changed our daughter’s diaper in the middle of the night.  She woke up screaming an hour later.  He was so tired he forgot to put a new diaper on her.  She was covered in pee at 3am.
• xoMrsHouston: I was changing my baby’s diaper in the middle of the night in my bed and I was so tired that I fell asleep sitting up with his diaper open and woke up to him peeing on my face! I need some sleep.
• MommaMac914: One early morning I made coffee for myself and my husband. We premix baby’s formula in a pitcher and leave it in fridge. Instead of using creamer I used the formula in our coffee because I was so used to grabbing the pitcher. He kept saying that the coffee tasted weird and couldn’t figure out why until he looked in the fridge and the creamer was still sealed. Oops… I was too tired to care.
• Snowflakes9: I put my slippers on instead of my sneakers and baby and I headed out the door to go to work. Once we got in the car I realized I was wearing slippers and back into the house we went.
• BigTootersMomma: I put liquid soap on my toothbrush, lucky I didn’t put it in my mouth.
• Elishasrq: I was so proud of myself that I got dressed and to the appointment on time with a  2 year old and 2 week old. Then as I’m sitting in the waiting room I realized I was wearing my slippers. Nice!
• Littlelovebugonboard: There was the time I cut up a pineapple. I went looking in the fridge to eat some and couldn’t find it anywhere. I thought I was going crazy. Later that night I found it in the Pyrex container in the cupboard where I kept all my pyrex dishes. Oh, and the other night, in the middle of the night, I spent far longer than I’d like to admit trying to shove baby’s binky into his ear thinking it was his mouth…
• Marx0038: I got in my car and went to buckle my seat belt.  I tried for at least an entire minute to get my belt into the buckle and I had no idea what was making it so hard.  I look down and realize that I’m trying to buckle my keys….
• Steppingonlegos: I made some instant Mac n cheese (don’t judge me) and meant to get some milk to add to it to make it creamier. I started eating it and thought it tasted really weird but couldn’t put my finger on what I was tasting….turns out I had used thin mint flavored coffee creamer….that was a strange combo. I still finished it though because fat.Also I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started the keurig without putting a cup under it.
• JordynArabellasMommy: Deoderant on my toothbrush. Trying to get ready super-fast while overly sleep derived. Fail.
• Ennie2010: Baby was sitting in his highchair waiting for his teething biscuit and the dog was sitting underneath.  I accidently tossed the teething biscuit to the dog and popped a Snausage into baby’s mouth.
• MomRn4: When I get really tired or stressed, I sleep walk. About a week or 2 ago I woke up and found my pillow in the car seat.Partially funny, partially scary.
• Unicorn36: When I was in high school I actually left the house without shoes on and boarded the bus as well. When I got to school I was just in socks.
• LaurenCarey: In the very early weeks, when I still kept a log of the time my daughter nursed, for how long and from what side, I was barely sleeping, like all new moms. I was so out of it one night that I thought I was nursing my daughter. I wasn’t. I was cradling a pillow to my chest. I really thought it was my baby. The worst part was that I wrote down the time and length of the ‘nursing session’.
• Tiffycarter1984: I picked up my baby’s binkie to wash it off, walked over to put it in my baby’s mouth and realized it was my 10 year old son who was sitting at the dinner table (baby was in high chair). He gave me the weirdest look and pulled away. What are you doing mom!? Hahaha!
• Sfildes85: I couldn’t find my phone anywhere and hubby and I tore the house apart looking for it. We kept calling it and followed the sound right to the pop tart box. Apparently, when I got a pop tart to take to work with me I put my phone in the pop tart box.
• ReneeAnnK: last week it was my partner’s turn to wake up with the baby. I woke up to him sitting in the bed. I was like babe what are you doing? He said sorry, Can I put the baby back to bed yet? He had already fed, changed and put baby back to bed about ten minutes before. Poor guy.
• Gisellemomsep: I was doing baby’s 7 month pics & wrote her name on a chalkboard for the pics. I spelled her name wrong
• Ncmommaof2: I got really sick when little one was a couple months old and we had to supplement a couple nights. One night, I woke my husband to get me a bottle not once but twice. Never got that bottle. But this is what I found the next morning:
•