All Things Crepe-y!

I don't know what it is about these little packages of love and fruity goodness, but I know that I must cook them and then...eat them.

I'm really trying to eat a low carb and calorie diet right now, but it has brought out some pregnant-like cravings that I just can't stand.

Crepes and Blintzes are all I want.

I want them with sour cream at noon.

I want to eat them on the moon.

I want their

yummy, fruity glaze.

I want them on all even days.

It tortures me! I need to be done with this low carb diet.

Or, I need to just make a whole big bunch and take them to someone else's house and watch them eat them. No, I don't think I could resist.

What tortures you with cravings?

Gifts of a Child's World

I diligently write out a list of gifts each day to give gratitude toward my God. This brings me joy.

My children need joy. If I do the math correctly, and they are expressing their gratefulness as well, doesn't it seem wise to assume they will have joy as well?

I always assume that they are care-free and happy.
But, in reality, with my 2 oldest, going to public school everyday has brought a shadow over them at times. It's the shadow of what the non-Christian world experiences everyday: divorce, pain, feelings of inferiority, heartbreak, selfishness. The list could go on. They feel it's weight as well as the weight of expectations, disappointment, and frustrations.

So, today is their first step into the water. The water of the rushing river and torrent of time that can bring us down. Now, they have trudged here before. But today is their first day to make a list of gratitude. I want their river to slow with the weight of their acknowledgement, their appreciation.

Garrett started the morning reading my list, seeing the things I have noticed, loved and given gratitude for over the last weeks. With a new, purple composition book in hand, he started with 4 items this morning and the first was just talking about gratitude with me. What joy! He sees the purpose and hopes for joy!
The others, my two oldest and husband, will be later today. Thanks to Ann Voskamp for the 7 Things template on her website to get them started.



My gifts so far today:
...young boy finding happy moments in a journal
...small eggs from our chickens
...hearing her hum the tunes of the musical we saw yesterday
...new tomato plant ready to grow

Oh how it shines

Ever been so proud that it just shines?
My son made me feel that way today.
It may seem simple to you, but it was one of those check-off-the-list moments today.
He drove to Fresno (30min.) and then to Madera(another 20 min.) and then home (another 25 min.).
Altogether, a few hours of driving and some shopping with my eldest teenage son, was bliss.

It seem that having happy moments where all are having a good time with mom are fleeting these days whether because of time, or stress of school work or just teen-grump syndrome. We laughed. We talked. We shopped. We had lunch together.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh how I wish I could hold these moments forever, never letting go. It really was just yesterday that he was cooing and we were leaning over the bed giggling in delight over his cute movements and dirty diapers. Oh where has that gone.
16 1/2 years forward. Now we are just Mom and Dad.

Can I love him more? I don't know.
How much more does my Savior love him. It makes me cry to think someone could ever love him more, but I know that Jesus does and always will.
Thank you Jesus for that. Because I can let him down and I can fall short, but you will ALWAYS be the never-ending love that carries him.

DON'T MISS THIS GIVEAWAY

I have been blogging about a wonderful book, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. Well go here
and get it free!!!! Plus a cute notebook to go with it. Thanks Denise.

When you try to slow...

the world, life as a rushing river, takes you canoe and dumps you into a cold water.
As I try to slow the rushing river of time yesterday, the torrent carried me off with it.

I made an errand run into the city to get some much needed groceries and supplies, while my Young-at-Heart son stayed behind with bronchitis. I made my trip swift from place to place so I could return home to teach a small troupe of 4-Her's how to make bread in the afternoon. Just as we were mixing ingredients, a call breaks the merry atmosphere. My daughter, 1/2 years into high school, cries in pain. Her ankle. She thinks it broken.
Again I find myself flinging past another moment to admire, off to rush to another I want to forget.

Where to find blessings and gifts? I don't have time....

But as it turns out, today shows yesterday's blessing. Though swollen and tender and not holding her weight, it is not a broken ankle. We were spared hours of waiting in room with the sick and injured. I tenderly ice massaged her ankle and with the morning, came a relief in some pain.

Though yesterday I was not able to wade in the torrential river of time to slow it, today I am.
I sit with my legs under me on a long couch, dog snoring under my feet.
Today, I wade in the water and slow it current, to use the weight of each significant blessing to stop time.
...Bird choruses
...sunshine warming my back in morning drench
...quiet ticking of clock
...clickity-clack of the keyboard of Young-at-Heart hard at math

I breathe deep. Holding on to these moments and knowing that the restoration of soul is taking place after such upheaval from the day prior.

1000 gifts...or so I hope

Ok, I'm reading it...again.
Yes, I read it.
Yes, If you read it, it will make you want to re-read it.
No, you won't be able to stop yourself from voicing your gratitude. Not to me. To God.
Isn't that what this life is about? What it should be about?

We can't truly know salvation, or at least know it's fullness in this life, unless we express our gratitude and recognize the gifts God has bestowed on us. Life change comes when we receive life with thanks and ask for nothing to change...I wish I had said that, but that was Ann Voskamp's words, the author.
Like Ann, I crave more time to manage just the life I already have. To savor the joy that comes from slowing the world to pick out the greatest to the tiniest gifts, now, here.

But aren't we flowing at a neck-breaking, heart-breaking speed? I am. I never see the blessings I have and because of it, I complain, and complain and complain.

I have started a list of my 1000 gifts. I started writing down those things that stop my motion and call out in their small voice to be noticed. I hope to bring so of those to light here. To capture them in sight and written prose so that on the days when I am caught up in the river of rush, that I can look at them, refresh the love for the savior and the saved, and bring the joy back.