What Are You Reading?

I love to read!  But it's hard to make time to do it as often as I'd like.  I recently decided that since I love it so much, I am going to make it a priority.  I figure one book a month is doable.  If I read one chapter a day that should be sufficient.  I recently read two really awesome books.

The first was Red Hot Monogamy by Bill and Pam Farrell.  I highly recommend this book for all married couples.  It talks about how important sex is to your marriage.  A no-brainer, right?  I think so, but it is a subject that it not often talked about.  We are made to feel like sex is a dirty thing.  But it's not.  It was created for us (married people).  Read it- your husband will thank you.  Buy it for your wife- she will thank you.

I just finished The Four Blood Moons by John Hagee.  This book was recommended by one of our pastors, as he was teaching on the biblical meaning of this book.  It talks a lot about Biblical prophesies regarding the heavens (stars, moon, sun).  It was a great read.  It talks alot about things that have happened in the past and things to come.  If you like prophetic books, you'll love this one.  If you are curious of things to come, you should definitely read this.

Next on my list is The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn.  I borrowed this one from my mom.  It talks a lot about for the September 11th attacks were prophesied in the Bible.  I have been wanting to read this one for awhile so I can't wait to see how it is.

So what's on your list?  Or what would you like to be on your list?

Random Lessons

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to the annual Hearts At Home conference in Normal, Illinois with five fabulous ladies.  I learned so much, but more on the conference highlights in another post.  This post is about random lessons I learned this weekend.

First, I learned that I do not love the snow as much as I thought I did.  Mainly because it involves cold temperaatures.  I think I have become accustomed to the warm temperatures down here a lot more quickly than I thought I would.  It was nice to see the snow, but once I had to walk in it and feel the cold wind, I was over it pretty quickly.  Plus we already have trees in full bloom down here and they are nowhere near close to that in Ohio.

Another thing I learned is that gas is more expensive back in Ohio...by like 50-60 cents.  Plus it doesn't fluctuate as often here as it does there.  Good for the budget.

I learned that I actually like can tolerate coffee.  (Can you believe that Mom & Dad?  Maybe I did inherit some of those coffee drinking genes from you after all.)  I learned this lesson on accident.  I ordered a white chocolate hot cocoa at McDonald's and they gave me a white chocolate mocha instead.  So I tried it and I didn't even gag or spit it out.  I won't say I loved it, that would be a stretch.  But it wasn't horrible.  This excited me because there are days when I NEED caffeine.  I was so exhausted on our way back home so I thought I'd try a mocha again to stay awake and keep Matt company on the long drive.  I chugged the darn thing hoping that would make the caffeine take effect more quickly, but NO, I fell asleep.  So even though I can tolerate coffee, it doesn't work in me the way it does in others, so I think I'll stick with my sweet teas.

Have you ever eaten at a restaurant where they have those really cool pop machines?  You know, the ones with the touch screens that have almost any pop you can think of in almost any flavor you can think of.  The possibilities are endless.  Just thought I'd throw that in this post.  They're pretty cool.

Apparently I'm not so great of a driver.  The first three times (well, the only times) I've ever driven down here by myself Claire has puked at some point.  The last time we didn't even make it out of Ohio before she puked in the van.  Yep, that's gross.  But she doesn't puke when Matt drives, so that leads me to believe my driving is not too great.  Oops.  Sorry, Claire!  Something to work on, right?

Going up Jellico Mountain in Tennessee in extremely dense fog is SCARY!  Especially when people feel they don't need to turn their headlights on.  It was so creepy to watch the cars in front of us disappear right before our eyes.  Thankful for God's protection on that mountain.  Please remember to turn your lights on in the fog.

Last thing.  Did you know they make blue limos?  Neither did I until we saw TWO of them on our way back home.  Crazy, I know.  But I thought that might interest you.

And there you have it, the random lessons I learned this weekend.  :)

God's Delays Can Be His Way of Protecting Us

    Yesterday evening Matt told me he'd be home late from work...again.  He's been carpooling with a friend and his friend is the one that has to stay late to finish things up.  Sure, it's a bit of an inconvenience at times, but it saves gas and they have someone to talk to on the drive so it really doesn't bother me when he's late...except on Wednesdays.  On Wednesday evenings we have church.  Well, last night Matt was an hour late getting home.  I knew it wasn't his fault, or really his friend's either.  So we waited while he hurriedly got ready and set off on our way to church.  We're not even a couple minutes down the road and I see flashing lights ahead...and life flight landing near the intersection ahead.  We had to take a detour that took us a little out of our way.  Then I got to thinking...if we had left at the time we normally do, that could have been us in that horrible accident.  I believe the delay at Matt's work was God's hand of protection over Matt and his friend because I had specifically prayed that morning that God would keep them safe on their way to and from work.  Delays are not always a bad thing, they can be God's protection from something far worse.  I do pray that whoever was involved in that accident will make a full recovery.

Pizza Party- and More

     It's been a bit of a crazy week, weather wise.  Last week we had snow/ ice.  This week we were in the 70's and the kids were wearing shorts.  And last night we had tornado watches and ended up with three of four kids on the floor of our room because they were scared of the storm.  Here are a few pics:

     This week in school we studied pizza!  That was fun for the kids.  We learned all about the history of pizza, how cheese is made, famous Italian places, listened to Italian music, learned all sorts of pizza facts, and ended the week with a pizza party!  Here's a few pics from today.

Toppings (the carrots were for a snack for the kids to munch on while waiting for the pizzas to cook)

\

My helper

Notice our little pizza decorations in the background

We made fresh squeezed lemonade to go with the pizza.  It was SO good!

What a great way to end the week!

     The kids have been adjusting well down here.  Jacob was all excited tonight because he now has 30 Twitter followers.  Evelyn has been busy creating things with her new birthday presents.  Aiden's bump on his back has come back and is bigger.  I was praying over him tonight and told him Jesus is healing it. He said, "He's coming down from the sky now to fix it?  Maybe he can take it away and fill in the hole where it was."  I love the innocence they have and love hearing how they perceive things like that.  Claire has really been enjoying playing outside, and when she can't be outside she loves watching Flushed Away.

Evelyn Turns Eight

     On Saturday, Evelyn turned 8!!!!  How crazy is that?!?!

This was the breakfast she requested...strawberry stuffed crepes.

She made her own decorations

Present time!!

Gifts from her siblings- one of her faves was CHOCOLATE!

From Aunt Christina and Cerianna

She specifically asked for kiwi!!

Big gift from Mommy & Daddy

A couple of the presents from Grandma and Poppo

Birthday Girl with all her presents

A yummy salad at Papa's Pizza

Her bday cake- chocolate, of course

And she has already built her Lego Friends cruise ship!!

     What a fun day it was celebrating with her!  She chose to go shopping at the outlet mall and spent some of her money on a giant stuffed panda.  Today we stopped at Target after church and she bought another Lego Friends set and an Easy Bake Oven mix.  I would say she had a great day!!

A Celebration of Love

     We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day today.  

I made the kids spinach and cheese frittatas for breakfast.

When they were done with breakfast, they got to open their gifts from us.

At lunchtime they got to open cards that came in the mail from Grammy & Poppy.  After lunch, we went to the Mount Berry Square Mall in Rome.  We had a great time shopping, playing, and then ate dinner in the food court.  Matt got a huge tool set at Sears on sale!!  He's excited about that.  On the drive home, we drove by the mountains.  I still have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.  I absolutely love living down here.  It is beautiful! 

When we got home, we got out the surprises Grandma & Poppo sent.

We ended the night by playing several games of Valentine's bingo.  Everyone won several games, except me.  Yep, I won ZERO games.  Oh well.  

And here's a picture of me with my Valentine!!  I love him!!!