A Life of Thanksgiving!!!

We were very happy to celebrate Grandma's birthday this year on Thanksgiving!  She has been a wonderful influence on me and a blessing to everyone she meets.  I have always said that if I could be half the woman she is I would be complete!  She is not as strong as she once was and needs a lot more help getting around these days but she still lights up a room and we love her and cherish every moment we get with her.  Grandma has always been the center of our whole family, She is a Godly woman and lives out his love daily.   She has always set a wonderful example of what A life of Thanksgiving looked like.  She has never forgotten to be thankful for anything and is quick to remind you that in all things and situations God has control and that we should be thankful.  She will tell you how much she misses Grandpa, she will see him again in Heaven when the good Lord calls her home but she will also tell you that she is thankful for what time on earth she had with him.  She has never said she got cheated when he left her early, even if we all feel that way for her.  She will tell you that taking care of ailing parents was not easy at times but she will never tell you she would have changed it because she knows that too was a blessing and something to be thankful for, because of the wonderful friends she made in the process.  She would never tell you that one of those friends life was made better because she had my grandma.  No my grandma never takes glory she only tells you how thankful she is for every challenge, obstacle and blessing in her life, and how blessed she is to have all of us, 4 wonderful Daughters, 2 son in laws, 1 Foster son,  13 Grand Children 11 grandchildren in laws, 31 great grand children, and 1 Great Great grand son!  That my friends is a lot to be thankful for!  I will never be able to repay her for all that she has done for me because she has no idea the influence she has had on me as a woman, wife, or mother.  I don't know how many more years we will have with her But one thing I do know is how very thankful God chose her to be my grandma, and how precious every moment I spend with her is to me!!!  

FL Cristen, Shania, Me, Taylor BL My mom and Grandma!  I have lots more pics but today this is the only one I could get to load.  

Tired!

So last night I had the hubs make me a cappochino way to late in the evening and ultimately did not sleep well.  Why do I do that to myself?  I LOVE LOVE coffee and really drink way more of it than I should.... Going on the list of behaviors I want to change.  when I am tired and worn out I often think of

Isaiah 40:31 

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD 
   will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; 
   they will run and not grow weary, 
   they will walk and not be faint.

I find great comfort in knowing that no matter what my savior will get me through!  

So I have been thinking a lot about gluttony with the holidays upon us and really feel like this year we are scaling back.  We say that every year and never do.  I Love CHRISTmas and so does every other member of our family.  We do not over do birthdays...we can stick to our budget on Birthdays but for whatever reason we can not stick to it at CHRISTmas. However we always pay in cash!!! We have never used a credit card for CHRISTmas.  We don't use credit cards period!!!  but this year we even bought and gave 2 of the kids an expensive early gift.  We generally do not buy random gifts for the kids they have what they need and do not feel the need to shower them with gifts.  We shower them with Love, family time, hugs, kisses, warm food, roof over their heads and all the things they need.  In general my family has a heart for giving more so than receiving.  We celebrate the real reason for the season....God sending his Son to live and die for our sins, the birth of our Savior.   So why is it at CHRISTmas we over do it?  Is it a form of gluttony?  I mean really do we need all this stuff?  It is just stuff right?  Are we as a family sugar coating the real reason for the season? are we doing enough?  Could we do more?  Give more?  Has the Holiday become routine?  I think this year we will find some new traditions that will allow us to give more, God has blessed us and I want to be a blessing to others, an example of Gods love.  I think I will make a list of what we do, and see if I can find some new things we can do!  Some new meaningful traditions.    I hope you do as well!  

yummy!

The homemade summer sausage I made on Saturday turned out amazing!!!  especially for having never tried anything like that before!  by no means was it perfect but with deer season being upon us I decided that we needed to empty our fridge of some deer meat and this was quick and easy to do.  I can't follow a recipe unless it is in a cookbook...if I look it up on the internet I tend to combine....as I did with this and here is what I came up with!

Summer sausage

2lbs ground deer burger

2 pounds ground deer sausage (breakfast sausage)

1 pound of thick cut platter bacon

Morton tender salt as per the directions on the bag.  

2tsp of mustard powder

2tsp of meat tenderizer(I don't think this is necessary)

2tsp cayenne pepper

2tsp of garlic powder (next time we will use 2tsp of chopped garlic)

2tsp of onion powder (next time I will double the mustard powder and omit this)

2tsp of liquid smoke (I could have used more but was a bit scared to over power)

4TBSP of steak seasoning 

chop up the bacon into small pieces and combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Use your hands and get it mixed real well.  Then run it through a meat grinder.  (we have the old crank type but this tasted so good we bought the attachment for my kitchen aid mixer it will be in on Friday)  after grinding it all up together roll it into log shapes put it on a shallow cookie sheet, and bake in oven at 175 degrees for 6 hours or until the internal temp reaches 160 degrees.  We rolled ours over several times during the process.  allow to cool and then place in zip-loc and store in the fridge.  

So I have been on a cooking spree the last few days.  I also cooked up some homemade Veggie soup (with venison tenderloin) I ended up with way more meat than we needed for our soup and I used the leftover to make up a homemade pot pie.  Apples were on sale at the grocery store for 38cents a pound so I bought 2 dollars worth and made apple pie and apple bread...yummy!!!  I know it was good cause hubby came by the house this morning with one of the guys from work and got apple bread to share!  

well I have orders to get out and if you haven't already you should totally check out   

Cristel Dezynz on facebook!!! 

Worship!!

Today started off just like any other Sunday.....We got up got ready for church, ran out the door hurried, went to church, taught Sunday School which by the way is a blessing!!  We(hubby and I)  had no Idea when we accepted the position of teaching the Junior High class that we would be blessed, and transformed in the way that we have which makes it a blessing to teach these kids.  Today we had 2 visitors....and the only bad thing about visitors in a junior high class is how hard it is to get quality time with a visitor when you have 15 "regular kids" in there all in a hurry to tell you about their week.  I really feel like we fail in this department miserably!!!  I always feel like we could do better with visitors.  Did we make them feel welcomed and included?  did we give them the idea that we are fun but yet serious?  Did they feel comfortable?  Were we polite?  (we as in the whole class, cause with 7th and 8th graders this can be a real issue)  I know we can do better and need to come up with a plan of action for when we have visitors.  If you have suggestions or know something that has worked for you I would love to hear about it!!

We also spent some quality time with a young man from our Youth Group today.  He started coming to our church for all the wrong reasons but has come to know the Lord and really started building a relationship with God for all the right reasons.    His life is being transformed and we are happy to be a positive influence for him as well as a safe place to fall when he needs it.  He is being a good influence on his younger siblings who have both accepted Christ and have been baptized as well.  Not because anyone is telling them to but because each of them have felt the need to and are doing this all on their own accord.

Today while spending time with him we had a great discussion on how he could better be a witness to his family.  (He brought it up, not us)  This young man doesn't have a good influence at home, and doesn't have a good home life.  I was very proud of him today for his yearning to be a witness to the adult members of his family and I am going to be in prayer about this and how God wants to use me in this situation.

I will leave you today with this scripture:  119th Psalm 9-16

 ⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure? 
   By living according to your word. 
¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart; 
   do not let me stray from your commands. 
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart 
   that I might not sin against you. 
¹² Praise be to you, O LORD; 
   teach me your decrees. 
¹³ With my lips I recount 
   all the laws that come from your mouth. 
¹⁴ I rejoice in following your statutes 
   as one rejoices in great riches. 
¹⁵ I meditate on your precepts 
   and consider your ways. 
¹⁶ I delight in your decrees; 
   I will not neglect your word.

Quality time

The sweetie in my last post is doing much better, we hope to have her home and out of the hospital soon!  Praise God!  Today I am thankful for a God loving family that truly enjoys each others company, and that little sweetie is finally turning the corner and feeling better, awesome answer to prayer!! 

Hubby has been working 6-7 days a week 10-12 hour shifts since April so we were really glad to have him home at a normal time this week and we didn't know how to act with him home on a Saturday so we Cleaned, and are trying to make summer sausage out of some deer burger and deer sausage.  I will let you know how it turns out later.  We scrubbed the kitchen and cooked supper and well we just enjoyed each others company all day!!!   Oh how I have missed that, I know the kids have too.  We are thankful for hubby's job, and the way that it provides for our family, but we are also thankful to have him home to spend quality time with us.  

The kids went to a joint birthday party for two really sweet girls from church, I whipped up some really cute headbands with flowers on them for both young ladies.  T and S were like "awesome mom.....we didn't spend a thing on these gifts and well like they are amazing!"  oh Teenagers and the word "like" it cracks me up. 

 I did find some time to make up some puppy bows today as well, I was asked by the local Humane Society to donate something for their silent auction and I decided that I would include some of my people stuff but I was gonna make it fun and put some boutique style bows for dogs in there as well.   (I had fun making them)  We all love our four legged friends mines a Black Lab named "Ya Ya" Yadier Molina Wesley.  She has no Idea that she was named after a guy, who just happens to be my favorite Baseball player, who happens to play on my favorite baseball team and is best friends with my second favorite player......anyway here is a pic of Molina and Pujols together, the two of them giving God the Glory!  

See why I love these 2 guys?  yeah they are both pretty amazing!! How much greater would the game be if there were more guys like this in it?  If the money and the fame went away today these guys are gonna be ok because they have God!  

Kevin and Shania are off taking a driving lesson....hard to believe my baby girl has her permit already.  I hope you all enjoy some quality family time and enjoy one another for you never know what tomorrow will bring!  

Thankful for more than I deserve

Today as I was going through my day, running errands, taking pics for my etsy, and facebook, more errands, groceries, etc. I got a phone call from my Best Friend telling me they were sending her youngest
by ambulance to the childrens hospital.  Right in the middle of the day her precious healthy, honery, beautiful little girl was sick.  I took some time and prayed for safe travel, the guidance of the doctors, pain, fear, and nerves of all.  As of right now we know she is in good hands and that her and her family need prayers.....because as parents we know the hardest thing is not knowing and not being able to make the pain go away.

Then I started to try and go back to my day....but was left feeling very very overwhelmed with how blessed I truly am.  Really blessed beyond measure, it is pretty amazing.  I am thankful for an amazing husband who works hard, and provides so much for us, 3 beautiful healthy kids, lots of family and some of the best girlfriends one could ever ask for. A roof over my head, 4 vehicles, a wonderful church family and last but not least a heavenly Father who is was and always will be able to forgive me when I don't think I can forgive myself.  Right in the middle of ordinary life he sent me this amazing fall day, and a reminder of how truly blessed I am to live in a country that allows me to Pray whenever, wherever I choose, and so many veterans who have fought to keep that simple freedom.  Thanks to all of you!    

Ok well now that I got that off my chest I will let you know what else I was up to today.....I was cranking out some scarves, and photos of scarves!  Who doesn't love a scarf?  really I would totally wear one every day!   To your left is a Oodle Doodle Noodle scarf made by me and Shania that's her in the pics.  The one on the right is a drizzle scarf I made

 another pic of the Oodle Doodle Noodle Scarf

the rest are pics of the Infinity Scarf all are available for purchase  on my etsy!   The Infinity is amazingly versatile you can wear it so many different ways we ran out of time today to even photograph all the different ways it could be worn.  These can all be made in different colors.  

CRAFT SHOW!!!!!

Working on statement rings for next weeks craft show at the robinson comunity center

Miracle Birthday!!!

Today our baby girl turned 15!  wow!  I can't believe it either.  She was the baby that the Doc said I couldn't conceive, but I did.  The baby that beat all the odds against her, the baby that made me fight the fight of my life.  She was born on July 28th , a baby born 12 weeks early to a mommy fighting Cervical cancer and stage 4 endometriosis.  During delivery I passed out when I saw her heart rate drop, and the look on the nurses face.  When I finally came to about 40 hours after her delivery (I had been whisked away to surgery, blood transfusion, a tubal litigation, biopsy, 17 cysts removed, multiple other tests and procedures done in a heroic effort to save my life.)  I looked at Kev and he says, "you did good, she is beautiful!  She is really healthy, the baby doc says we have one tough little girl, just like her mommy."  I asked what did you name her?  (we never picked out a name, I wanted him to name her, I didn't know if I would be around.)  He says "Shania" I thought I would lose my mind are you kidding me?  what was he thinking?  Our kids have names w/ meaning, w/ a story.  knowing me and what was racing through my mind before I could say what I was thinking he says "Shania in indian means I am on my way."  I gave her the middle names of Jo after you and Lynn after your baby sister"  (baby sister helped take care of me and the older 2 kids during the pregnancy so Kevin could work and provide for us)  I just cried!  He really had thought it out, her name had meaning, it had a story, but best of all it had a happy story.  The doc got all of the cancer, I was gonna be fine!  Praise God for the miracle of life, for the miracle of a micro premie that fought the odds and won, and continues to amaze us daily.  To look at her now you would never know the fight she fought, or how for 7 months we fought it together.  If ever you question there is a God, or if He is still in the Miracle business let me assure you he is just look at this Miracle, the answer to many prayers.  





ok so she is way more precious these days when she is sleeping.....lol She is my angel baby!   My sunshine on a cloudy day!  Our Rainbow bright, and her daddy's girl!   


Here is a pic of her at dinner after 8th grade graduation back in May.  I have Birthday pics to post but will do that tomorrow!!





Thank you Jesus for answering all of my prayers for her, even when I didn't deserve your attention.  Thank you for blessed assurance that you were always with me in those dark days carrying both of us  in your loving arms.  Thank you for entrusting me to care for her, love her and teach her about you Lord.  Thank you for making her in your image!  and May she always know how amazing we think she is and that our love for her is with out end just as your love for us is.  Amen  


Have a great day!!!  

Summer busy = Good busy

I have been really busy.  Just the way a summer should be I think.  So let me recap for you the last couple weeks.

T was asked by our youth pastor several months ago to go and participate in a leadership camp called Super Summer.  We talked about it and since T thinks that maybe someday he wants to be a Youth Minister and the camp was being held at a Baptist College we thought that T would benefit.  So off to camp for 5 days he went and learned a lot and he is still interested in Youth Ministry.  T left on a Tuesday Morning and S was leaving on Thursday morning for Colorado w/ her BFF Erika and Erika’s Dad for a family reunion vacation in Colorado.  She went to Denver and Estes Park and lots of other places.  She was able to do some white water rafting, serious hiking(5 hour trips), went to the Wizard of Oz Museum in Kansas and since she just got home last night I am sure we will hear more about all that she got to do.  We are forever thankful to Ron and Erika for taking her along for a trip of a lifetime.  She called to check in when she first got into the “mountains” I asked her if they were pretty?  And she replied “Pretty doesn’t even begin, God out did himself on this painting!  You should see how many pictures I have taken”    I would totally insert Pic here but she lost her camera.  Hopefully it is in “family’s car” and will be mailed back to us soon!  T came home from Super Summer very pumped up and excited about all he had learned.  He was really excited when his Grandpa Mike asked him to help roof his house.  (I am so proud of him for the giving and loving heart he has.)  Not many 16 yr olds would want to go and help let alone do it alone in the heat but he did and he is really proud of the work they were able to get done.  Unfortunately GM got sick on Saturday and went down w/ a double inner ear infection.  Roofing has stopped for the time being.  T came home from GM’s and said his ear hurt too.  (I am thinking yeah right, GM has an ear infection and you want an excuse to not clean your room)  Then I look and the boy has crap oooooooozing out of his ear, GASP!!!   I know I know what a terrible parent I am but really the boy looked fine other than the grossness coming out of the ear.  So off to the ER we went.  So embarrassing to go to the ER on a Saturday w/ a 16 yr old for an EAR INFECTION I mean really what kind of mom doesn’t notice this stuff?   But nobody laughed and he not only had inner ear but outer and ruptured eardrum.  Now I get WORST PARENT of the year award.  Prayers for both are appreciated, and a little something for the guilt gut that I now have would be great! 

T and S are both leaving on Monday morning to go on a youth mission trip to the Baptist Children’s Home here in Illinois.  So there is much packing and preparation going on for that.  We may or may not let Taylor go depending on how well he does today w/ the ear infection. 

Since S was out of town, would be home for a couple of days and then off again I decided that it would be a good time to redo her room.  Well Since I don’t go upstairs often (teenagers live up there and it always causes a month long cleansing to get over my trips upstairs)  Her room was a mess!  So we got it all cleaned up and picked some paint (pale Sunshine which is according to everyone but me is just white paint).  Her room is in the upstairs, has these really cool angled walls and ceiling that are a real pain to paint and would cost a fortune to have dry walled so we decided that painting the ugly mismatched paneled walls would be much much easier and a lot cheaper.   YES YOU CAN PAINT THAT AWFUL STUFF and make it look AHHHmazing!!!!  I had done it before several times and have learned in my many adventures some tricks to make it a bit easier.  I will share those tips w/ all in another post/tutorial.  We had been thinking about doing her room for sometime so we had been buying, gathering, and searching for stuff for a while.  Her favorite color is yellow somewhere in the canary to neon range, and that was not going on the walls.  So we compromised and are painting her furniture Thai Silk which is that color between canary and neon we think.  I hope to finish it entirely this week while she is gone and will post pics then.   I hope that all is well w/ you all and you are working on your happy place!  Have a good day for this is the day the Lord has made!   

Kitchen frustration

So the kitchen is not finished but ....
I do have a new Great nephew!!!  at 8:16pm yesterday Jaeden Lee was born!  and weighed 5 lbs 11 oz -- 19 inches long He and his mommy are both doing wonderful!  Praise God!!!  
Considering he was a month early we are all very thankful that our heavenly Father was in control!  This has been really really hard on me, watching my beautiful sweet super intelligent niece go through all of this.  I love her like she is my own cause you see I helped raise her for many years.  When she lived with us we treated her just like we did our kids and although it was hard really hard at times to have the extra kids here to feed and care for we wouldn't change one second of the time we spent with them!  We won't get to see this beautiful baby or his mommy till August  :( But I know we will spoil them both when we do.  
now this whole kitchen nightmare has to get finished off today!  I need to get it done and go look at a washer and dryer....used cause Dave Ramsey says I need to be frugal and I normally am but man it is hard when these new washers and dryers do sooooo much more than the old ones did, or will do when I buy used.  Ok back to the kitchen! yeehaw! 

Day 3 of the Kitchen nightmare

I will upload pics eventually.....today the kids think they should sleep all day and I am really not in the mood to fight with them.  I did however make it to Wal-mart last night (my least favorite place)  I got some cabinet organizer thingy's and new rubbermaid to hopefully make the reorganization of my kitchen a bit easier.  I decided that I would get rid of a set of dishes and the slotted plates.  Ok for those of you that know me and how I don't like my food to touch..this is a big deal!!!!  C will fight me on the slotted plates, but my theory is we manage everywhere else to not use a slotted plate we can manage at home.  Besides C is only home at best 4 months out of the year, and then she only eats a couple meals a week at home with us.  getting rid of the other set of dishes freed up an entire cabinet and if you have been in my teeny tiny kitchen you know that is a HUGE deal!  so I am a bit excited and feel the cleansing power of purging my kitchen will make me feel better about losing the bakers rack.  The kitchen is really dirty....well not dirty just white so everything shows up which really really annoys me.  I am seeing every single greasy fingerprint as I go, and now I am thinking paint....hmmm  it sounds exciting until I actually start.  I know I can't do it right now but possibly in a couple weeks gotta finish these other projects first.  Church this evening, and then I have a bunch of sewing to do, and I need to get busy on that washer and dryer hunt!  I will run out of clean clothes soon!

Update on my niece she is still in labor.....over 24 hours now thank God she isn't in a lot of pain.  I am secretly praying that her labor stops.  She is only 15 and her actual due date is one month from today.....Prayers for her and her baby are greatly appreciated.  God is in control and has a plan I just wish my  sister would keep her mouth shut and let the doctors do their job.  Sorry ya'll I disabled the comments cause these are my opinions, my relationship with my sister has always been tough and I always bite my tongue when it comes to her.  But with my nieces and nephews whom I spent the better part of 10 years raising I want what is best for them and I assure you this is not what is best, nor is it what the good Lord wants for them either!  

work in progress and a bit of chaos

So I have been a huge huge fan of some dear friends blogs for months, so today I decided that the time was right for me to start my own.  It is a work in progress and it will be for a while.....the perfectionist in me says it will never be as good as I want it to be.  Today is a busy day, my niece is in Labor I fully expect to be a great aunt by the end of the day.  My other boys are here hanging out.  I replaced the old fridge, w/ a new bigger fridge and I love it except for the fact that my kitchen is tiny and now I have a ton of stuff that has no home in my kitchen because the bakers rack that used to fit perfectly next to the fridge will no longer fit.  I have way to many things going on and need to finish several projects.  I have a goldfish pond in the back that I recently moved, and seriously need to finish the landscaping around it and fix the waterfall, filter and pump stuff. It also needs a guard put on it so the little neighbor guy doesn't sneak over to look at the fishy and accidentally get hurt.  I need to finish stripping and redoing the buffet I bought 2 years ago....it will be a TV stand with an electric sun heater fireplace when we finish it.    Then there is a kitchen that seriously needs my attention.  Did I mention the appliances at our house held a meeting and decided to all go to the graveyard together, so I need to look for a new washer and dryer too.  New Hebron Christian school has their fundraiser auction this friday and I serously need to get my items for that ready!  (I really think I may have adult ADD, with a tad bit of OCD, but you will learn all about that as this blog grows.  As life would have it I am now feeling a bit overwhelmed at all I need to be doing so here I go to get it done.