Thanksgiving 2010

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.
Psalm 136:1

There is so much to be thankful for.
This year.
Every year.
I have compiled a collage of one picture from January to November of 2010.

So many things have happened this year.
Good things.
Bad things.
Scary things.
Thrilling things.
And God has been faithful through it all.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.
Psalm 136:1

Ideas Needed

We have been sending out a Christmas card with

our family picture on it for several years now.

It was recently brought to my attention that

we were eligible for 50 FREE (did you read that part?)

Christmas cards from Shutterfly.

And, since I use Shutterfly anyway, I decided

to take advantage of this deal!

(http://bit.ly/sfly2010)

Shutterfly has so many options.

I personally only look at the cards that say:

Merry Christmas.

I think that it is important in everything we do to remember

why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Jesus was born.

He was born to die.

For me.

For you.

For the world.

Christmas is about Him.

PERIOD.

There are some great cards here:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

I really like cards with various slots for pictures.

With our kids being the ages they are (or maybe just being kids in general)

it is hard to find a picture where all four of us are looking,

smiling, behaving, etc.

So, when there are various slots for pictures on the card, I can pick and choose and

if I cannot find ONE perfect one, I have more options!

I think my favorite is this one:

Or maybe this one:

Or maybe this one:

But they have 803 options so I am not sure I will choose any of these three!

Shutterfly also has other gift ideas.

I have made desk calendars as gifts in the past.

Last year I made one for Pancho for his work desk.

I also made one for my mom for her work desk.

Take a look here if you are interested in a desk calendar:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

At this point I am not in the market for any other type of card that Shutterfly offers.

Yet, I have used their birth announcements in the past.

They have some wonderful choices here:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

Tomorrow our photographer and friend

(he is our friend first and has since become our preferred photographer)

is coming for a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal of

pabellon (shredded beef, black beans, fried plantains and rice)

and he is going to be taking our family photo for our annual Christmas card.

I have been racking my brain for cool ideas for this year's card.

To no avail.

I have some ideas but I do not think that they are cool.

If you have any ideas, could you please comment?

I am looking for ideas for our attire and for poses.

Any other thoughts are welcome as well.

Thank you, in advance, Sarah and Elizabeth, my two followers

who always have great ideas!

Why?

Why do I blog?
I blog as a journal.
I blog for our family near and far to see and be a part of our everyday lives.
I blog when something happens that I want to remember.

That I want to remember.
The main reason I blog is for me.
Sounds selfish, but God has used this blog for His glory and my good
and as I have read over the posts from time to time I have been
reminded of His faithfulness to us.
And frankly, I need a reminder of this more often than not!

Rhema

This fall I participated in a women's Bible study in our church.
One of the speakers on the DVD series was Priscilla Shirer.
During one of the lessons she mentioned the word rhema.
She went on to explain that a rhema word is a direct word from the Lord to us individually.
...it may be in the form of a flash of insight...

A few days back I opened our microwave and a flash of insight hit me right in the face.

As is clear, on the outside our microwave looks great.
No streaks.
No oil splotches splashed up from the stove.
And as it is opened, it also looks quite good.
Of course the splash-guard is ever-present and always utilized.
Look how sparkling clean it is.

So, back to the flash of insight.
I reached inside to put down a plate of something I wanted to reheat
and was appalled to notice that my spotless microwave was not spotless at all.
As I peered inside, it was apparent that there were traces of foods I had
thawed and reheated over the past two weeks or so.
There was butter residue.
There were a few tiny crunchy strands of spaghetti noodles.

How did this happen?
I ALWAYS use the splash-guard.
I ALWAYS clean up any spills or messes immediately upon finding them.
How did this happen?

And that is when the flash of insight hit me so hard I nearly fell over.

Kristina, as I look into your heart this is what I have found too.
On the outside you look great.
No streaks.
No oil splotches splashed up from your other activities.
And the splash-guard is even there on the inside.
Yet, there is sin residue as I peer inside.
There are traces of sin that have been left behind.
They have gone unnoticed.
By you.
But not by Me.

It was quite strange.
I mean, the Lord is going to choose to speak to me through our microwave?
But, I heard His message L-O-U-D A-N-D C-L-E-A-R.

I am doing a study right now called Fingerprints of God.
In this study I have discovered through the Bible that God speaks to us in our everyday life.
He spoke to Moses through a burning bush in a field where he was already tending sheep.
Balaam was spoken to by a donkey as he was already riding with the leaders of Moab.
Is it really that strange that a microwave could teach me something?
Especially since it is a pretty big part of my ordinary life?

So, I have taken this rhema word and I have begun to scour "the microwave" of my life.
I have been absolutely goose-bumped (yes, I am using that as a verb)
as I look at how God orchestrates things in our lives at the perfect time.
At this very time that I am learning about scrouring my life for residual sin and traces of sin
we are studying the 10 Commandments on Sunday mornings at church.
The 10 Commandments were given to us as a way to show us the sin in our lives.
Just like the microwave showed me earlier this week.
As we see the residue, even though it may not be evident without some necessary peering,
we see how badly we fall short and it should send us to our knees.
Asking for forgiveness and turning in repentance.

Thank You, Jesus, for giving me yet another rhema word.
Thank You for using things in my everyday life to show me my need for You.
It is my heart's desire to please and glorify You
and now whenever I open the microwave I am reminded
to peer into my heart and to scour it from the residue that sin leaves behind.
I love You.

A BLAST-O from the PAST-O

In some ways it seems like just yesterday these were our most recent memories.
In other ways, these memories seem so distant.

As of today, Pancho has been given a clean bill of health.
Praise the Lord with us.

Nine short/long months ago Pancho was diagnosed with blastomycosis.
We did not even know what blasto was.
Now we know more than we care to!

God has been faithful, once again, to bring us through another difficult time.
He has felt healthy for a long time now.
But, he has had to continue to medicine for this entire time
in order to prevent a relapse.
Now the chance of relapse is a lot less.

We all (yes, all four of us) went to the appointment.
We chatted with the doctor, looked at the x-ray they took today
and said one final good-bye to the doctor.
Then we made our way to the Bread Basket to enjoy a
celebration lunch of grilled cheese and french fries.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your hand upon our lives.
Thank You for seeing fit to bless Pancho with health after his bout with blasto.
Thank You for walking with us through this time.
Thank You for all of those You placed in our path during that
difficult time to encourage and uplift us.

Normal

"Mama, I just want to be normal."

Those are the words I heard from this little darling early this morning.
You see, she has been dealing with belly issues her entire life.
And she had been unable to go to the bathroom for several days.

She takes a medicine that helps her but it was not working.
The longer she goes without going, the more worked up she gets, which does not help.
She gets worked up because she is concerned that she will need to
have an enema administered and she does not care for that, to say the least.

So, yesterday after several attempts she went to bed without being able to go.
She begged us to give her more time and told us she would go "tomorrow."
We were fine giving her more time and prayed that "tomorrow" she would be able to go.

This morning she came down for breakfast and soon was experiencing
severe belly cramps.
She laid down on the sofa and I went to her to rub her back.
She began to cry and then sob and then she said,
"Mama, I just want to be normal."

Isn't that our cry, so often?

My heart broke a little and then my mind scrambled,
trying to think of what I could share with her that
would be of some encouragement.
"Katrina, I know this is not something you chose for yourself.
It is not something Papa and I chose for you either.
But, we do know this: God is allowing it, and
therefore we KNOW that it will be for your good.
He will use this to teach you something that you could not have learned otherwise."

I realize this is a very abstract concept for her to grasp and yet
we believe in sowing into our children seeds of truth that will take root
even at their young ages and harvest a spirit and
attitude of uprightness and thanksgiving.
Besides, I was not only saying it to her.
I was saying it to myself.
I need to hear those words too.
"This is for your good, Kristina.
Remember, your good and My glory are connected."

Shortly after sharing this teachable moment,
Katrina needed to use the bathroom.
As I followed her I heard her whisper to her Lord,
"God, PLEASE, PLEASE let me go."
Again, my heart broke a little and I echoed her prayer.

Praise be to God that she was able to go.
She cried and cried.
Tears of pain and tears of joy.
We returned to the sofa and as I again stroked her back we prayed
a prayer of thanksgiving together.
Lord, help us to remember that every.single.thing. we experience
must pass through Your hand first.
Help us to trust You completely, even in the "dailies."
Help Pancho and I to continue to sow seeds of righteousness into
Katrina and Samuel.

Bit the Bullet

After nearly every meal our dining room table looks like this.

I finally bit the bullet last week and bought a piece of
thin plastic to cover the tablecloth.
I use a tablecoth on our table because the table I have is very delicate
and up to this point it is in great condition.

NEVER would I have said I would have a piece of plastic on the table.
Yet, I have realized that it is absolutely ridiculous to keep washing
tablecloths bascially every single day.

Some may mock me.
Others may scoff.
But I will no longer have panic attacks
during meal time.
I think my pride and $9.27 is worth it.

DHOW

This weekend our family tried DHOW for the first time.
It is a really neat place.
Good food.
Great atmosphere.
Excellent service.
I really cannot say enough about the service.
You should try it sometime.

DHOW
Duran House of Waffles

Have you ever been to IHOP?
DHOW is our family version.

I have been on a quest to find recipes for some of our
family's favorite restaurant foods.
We enjoy Noodles and Co. and I have successfully replicated,
thanks to some copycat recipes I have found,
our two favorite dishes from there.
(indonesian peanut saute and bangkok curry, if you must know)
It saves so much money and it is really fun to play restaurant at home,
especially with our kids being the ages they are.
A few weeks back I also successfully made our own
shoestring onions to top the BBQ bacon sliders we were trying out.

So, Saturday is our day to have a big breakfast and this week I decided to make
waffles with our new waffle-maker (thanks Mom) and crispy hashbrowns (from scratch) and bacon.
Samuel is allergic to eggs which makes eating out for breakfast nearly impossible
so we have not been to IHOP, Katrina's favorite breakfast place in quite some time.

Enter: DHOW.
It was super fun to play restaurant and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the breakfast.
(even Pancho, whose picture does not look like he is very happy)
I even ate and I rarely eat breakfast.

So, if you are looking for a nice, down-home place for breakfast some Saturday,
try out DHOW.
Reservations are required.

1, 2, 3 Strikes... Not quite

Any guesses as to what Katrina and I did last week?

She really wanted to keep the shoes,
which surprised me because she is quite the fasionista...
Then again, I remember a time when I was in high school
when it was cool to steal bowling shoes.
So, WAHE (the homescool group we belong to) had their first bowling outing
last week and Katrina and I attended.

Boy, bowling sure has changed since I was a kid.
No paper scoring.
Bumpers available per individual bowler on the same lane.
They come up when it is your turn.
On their own.
When I was a kid the first time I saw bumper bowling they had
a long balloon-like thing in the gutter that they had to blow up!
Bumper bowling has come a LONG way.

Katrina had a wonderful time.
She did quite well for her first time.

She even got a strike!

No, she was not bowling against Christ.
I am sure He is a much better bowler than what is depicted in this picture.
The guy behind the desk filled out the names and when I told him my name was Kristina
he typed Christina and then Christ showed up on the screen.
Humorous, right?

We had a great time together.
We bowled four games and Katrina won the last game.
No, I did not let her win.
In my defense, my arm was killing me after regular bowling (vs. bumper bowling)
four games in a row after not having bowled since WAY before Samuel was born.

Te amo, Trini-do!

Photo Op

Samuel has been so into reading books lately.
He especially enjoys being read to, but since that is not always an option,
he has learned how to "read" to himself.
Whenever Nana comes to visit the first place Samuel heads after
giving her a hug is the bookshelf.
He grabs a few favorite books and finds her lap.
He even enjoys sitting on Katrina's lap, much to her delight,
for some stories.

Katrina has an incredible memory and an even more incredible imagination
so she can basically "read" him any book he chooses.
A few mornings back I found them on the landing,
reading books so nicely together.
It was simply too good of a photo op to pass up.
Especially since they were in their matching pajamas!

Are you smarter than a 7th grader?

I am out translating a statewide test and I am not sure I am smarter than a 7th grader when it comes to math. Some of these problems are tricky! Praise God Pancho is so gifted in the math and science areas. 

Sent from my Palm Pixi on the Now Network from Sprint

Friend sticking closer than a brother

Last night my parents gave Katrina and Samuel matching pajamas.
You would have thought they gave them matching sports cars.
Katrina is overjoyed and said a million times,
"Mom, can you believe we are matching?"
This morning after baths she begged me to please not put the "matching pjs" in the dirty clothes,
but to rather set them aside for tonight's bed-time.
I obliged, being the gracious mom that I am.

This afternoon, after I laid Samuel down for a nap, I came across this in Katrina's room, on her bed.


Isn't this just a beautiful picture of a friend sticking closer than a brother?

Dear Lord,
Please continue to foster a love between Katrina and Samuel that only You can develop.
Thank You for the love that is already evident between them.
And thank You for matching pajamas that seem so innocent and
yet help to establish that love that you desire within our family.

A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart

Thanksgiving is upon us.
I love Thanksgiving.
It is my favorite time of year.
I always ask my family if I can host our extended family Thanksgiving meal
because I simply love "having" Thanksgiving in our home.

When I went to Venezuela for the first time, my host dad (now my other dad)
led a small group in their home each Saturday.
Every week the small group met each person attending, new, old, Spanish-speaking or not,
was asked to give thanks for something that had transpired during the week.
There were no "passes."
You had to give thanks.
Even with my very-limited vocabulary, he urged and
encouraged me to give thanks for something.

This tradition struck a chord within me.
Over time it made me ever-mindful of all that we have to be thankful for.

Years later when Pancho and I had a small group in our home,
we began with the same tradition.

Katrina has a Veggie Tales CD that sings a song.
A thankful heart is a happy heart.
I'm glad for what I have,
That's an easy way to start.
Many times when she asks for something in a store and I say no,
I remind and encourage her to have a thankful heart because it is true:
a thankful heart is a happy heart.
It has been a good character-building game we have played
from the time she was just a little over one year old.

So, now, as Thanksgiving, the time of year when everyone is thinking about thankfulness,
or at least they should be, our family has another tradition.

The Thankfulness Turkey

Each day during the month of November, at dinner time,
we pick a feather and write down one thing,
either collectively or individually, that we are thankful for and stick it in the turkey.
At the end of the month our turkey has all sorts of thankfulness feathers.

I am very excited for dinner tonight.
We are going to put our first thankfulness feather into our turkey!

No greater joy

3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Today I was changing the laundry around as Katrina was watching Sesame Street.
Elmo's World was on and he was on a trip with a dinosaur.
Pretty soon I heard,
"150 million years ago blah, blah, blah."
I was very disheartened to hear the dinosaur telling Elmo
that the dinosaurs lived on the earth that many years ago.
I began to consider if and what I would say to Katrina in regards to this information.
Sesame Street ended and I was out in the "TV area" with her, folding clothes.

I said, "Trinie, did you hear what the dinosaur said to Elmo about how long ago dinosaurs lived on the earth?
Well, that is a lie.
The Bible teaches us that God made the dinosaurs and we know from the Bible that the earth is not that old, ok?"
She accepted it and then said,
"Well, Mom, why did the dinosaur tell that to Elmo, then?"
I explained to her that it is a lie that people believe and it is like when the serpent lied to Eve in the garden
(a story she has heard time and time again, especially recently at Cubbies).

Now this is where the story gets good, so stay tuned...

Katrina said,
"Oh, I know a story about that. It is about a man named Joe. Joe had a lot of sheep and cows and
goats and one day Satan asked God if he could hurt Joe."
When she had told me the name of the man in her story, at first, I thought it was a story she had made up.
I soon realized she was telling me the story of JOB, not Joe, from the Bible.
She went on to tell me in impressive detail the story of Job and how his servants kept
coming to him and reporting such devastating news about his livestock and houses and even his children.
She is a great story-teller, including lots of emotion and detail.

My eyes filled with tears.
Tear of joy.
I have no greater JOY than to hear my children walk in truth.
3 John 1:4

I asked Katrina where she had heard that story.
A few years ago already Uncle Shawn and Aunt Leanne gave Katrina a Bible story CD packet.
It has 8 CDs of Bible stories and one CD of Bible songs.
When Katrina goes to sleep every night she enjoys listening to a CD.
Many times she chooses to listen to one of the Bible story CDs.
She told me she heard that story on her CD last night.

This opened up a fairly long discussion of what happened to Job and how he, by God's grace,
blessed the Lord through it all.
I told her what Job said,
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away,
blessed be the name of the Lord."
(Job 1:21)
I told her that is where the song we like to sing comes from and we sang it for several minutes.

Lord Jesus, thank You so very much for this beautiful moment with Katrina this morning.
Your Word is absolutely true.
Nothing has brought me more joy than these types of interactions with her.
Our prayer for both Katrina and Samuel is that they treasure Your Word in their hearts
so they do not sin against You. (Psalm 119:11)
Please continue to use every means possible to do that.

Story time

Katrina has requested story time for quite a while.
Samuel has just started to love reading books.
Saturday night, after cleaning up after some dinner guests,
I found this beautiful sight on our living room sofa.