Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3

Thing 1

I crocheted a cover for my new study Bible. Be jealous, very jealous. Ok, ok, I’ll admit it; J has one too and I wanted to be just like her.

It has a snazzy pen slot. Not a snazzy pen though. :(

(sorry, I couldn't help it, he loooves having his picture taken)

Thing 2

Recipe of the week: Chard and Cilantro Soup with Noodle Nests

Gluten free adjustments:

• The Noodle Nests: 3 ounces, (1 3/4 cups) fine egg noodles such as fideos or capellini, uncooked (I used Chinese bean thread noodles to make it gluten free, and pre-cooked them)
• The Soup: 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock, or water (I used the MSG free chicken stock by Swansons to keep it gluten free, water would have worked too, but stock gives it that little extra flavor)
• Also, the type of chard I used was swiss chard

Let me know if you try this, you will not regret it! Accompanied well by tuna melts, hehe.

Thing 3

This verse stuck out to me this week; the Bible is by far the greatest poetry book of all time.

Hebrews 11:3 - Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Also, if you ever wondered what the Seven Sisters do when they get together…. You just read it! Craft, eat, Bible study!

i absolutely ♥ paper dolls....

ok...here's the thing...i'm really obsessed with things of the paper nature...i'm always saving various paper items for different things...recipes, envelopes, scraps of different wrapping papers...especially magazines...i love, love, love magazines and books...with pretty pictures and instructions and lots of good craft/baking/decorating ideas...sometimes i think i'm more fascinated with the acquiring of the papers & books than i am of the actual sitting down and doing of what the paper & books tell me to do...remember mom? when you would give me the good housekeeping magazine when you were done reading it? and i would cut out everything i liked...pictures mostly...and glue them all on a sheet of construction paper...and voila...i had an instant handmade, one-of-a-kind collage...i especially loved the holiday issues when Joan Walsh Anglund would have a page just for little girls with hand drawn paper dolls you could cut out and play with...i used to tear out the whole page and glue it on construction paper before cutting them out (since i figured they would be more sturdy that way) then i would label & sort them in envelopes decorated with stickers (my other favorite thing to do when i was a kid...sticker books! glitter, puffy, scratch n'sniff...) (oh those were the days)...so i found some of them when i was first married buried in some of my craft stuff and i took them out of their envelopes and noticed they were perfectly in tact...i dont think i really ever played with them...it was the gluing, cutting, sorting & labeling that i fancied...hence maybe? my love of "scrapbooking stuff" and my over-analytical obsession with organizing, labeling, and sorting my "scrapbooking stuff" (can i get an amen Nel?)(we were cut from the same cookie cutter)



...soooo anyways....i stumbled upon this super-duper-amazingly-cool website that lets you download and print as many paper dolls as you want and for free! (skies opening up with a hallelujah chorus in background) and the lady who runs the site has alot of the old school paper dolls, you know, the good stuff, from when we were kids and the even better stuff from when out folks were kids...she does recommend you print your dolls on heavy card stock for "durability"...heeelllooo...where was she 25 years ago when i was clipping & organizing my good housekeeping treasures...i could have patented the idea :)...side tracked...anyways girls, I hope you enjoy the website and if you don't and think i'm completely insane...then just post me a comment telling me i'm completely insane...(but i think that's why you guys like me)....


http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/dolls/pd_scans/index.html



girls i do have to tell you... you all have put gladness in my ♥...Psalm 4.7

Everyone Needs a Handyman

Last Christmas my husband and I were looking at getting a kitchen playset for our daughter. We really did not want to get one of those plastic centers that you see at all the toy stores, we wanted something she could grow up with, love, and pass onto another generation. However, after looking up the cost of a kitchen set like that we knew there was NO WAY! This is where the handyman comes in. I believe my sisters would agree that our Dad is an awesome handyman! He can do/fix literally anything! Between the three of us we keep him very busy. So my dad and I came up with a plan and decided to build the kitchen set ourselves. For the money we could have spent on one of those plastic sets we bought our own wood and paint and made it ourselves.

The finished product (we were hiding it in the basement so please don't judge! :)

The finished stove

The finished fridge

Crocheted pie and tart set

Crocheted berries for the tart

Crocheted cookies and cupcakes

It ended up being a project for the whole family but at a fraction of the cost! My dad built it, 'S' made the curtain and I painted it and crocheted all the play food.


On Christmas morning, my daughter was speechless. It was totally worth every drop of sweat poured into it. Plus it is something we can pass onto the next generation! And so much cuter that anything we could have bought.


This got me thinking about another Handyman in my life. The ultimate Handyman, the Lord. There is no job to big, expensive or difficult that he can not fix or mend. If we pray and trust in him nothing is impossible. I have to remind my self every day to allow him to teach, mold and build a life in me and my children that is pleasing and uplifting for Him.


My verse for the week!

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10

My daughters hilarious statement of the week!

"Mom.. did you know...my bottom follows me wherever I go!"

Isaiah 41:10

Yummy Yummy Zucchini

I was at the farmers market last Saturday and picked up a lot of fruits and vegetables. We had a lot of zucchini (sorry Mar, they weren't from your garden, however I wouldn't say no if you offered me some). My husband and I devised a plan to try different zucchini recipes out that we found online. We tried out 2 this week and they were both delicious.

The first one is called Olive-Cheese Zucchini Boats

The second recipe we tried was called Zucchini in Sour Cream Sauce


They were both delicious and so easy to make! (If we had to pick a favorite, it is definitely the zucchini in the sour cream sauce). Can't wait to try out some zucchini bread!

May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers

Last week I found myself wandering the aisles of a local garden center. There were lots of plaques with funny/cute sayings like "garden of weedin'" and "friends and flowers make life a garden."

There was one sign that stuck out to me though, and it said, "may all your weeds be wildflowers." It stopped me and I read it again. It's so easy to look at our lives in terms of weeds or wildflowers, and speaking for myself, the past few months did have the potential to be viewed as pretty weedy. Yet, I'm not even through the thick of these "weeds," and I know that all I see are fields of wildflowers.

And why? This is why:
I came across this rock the very next day I had come across the wildflower sign.

The way I see it, there are NO WEEDS. Only perceived weeds. When we as Christians face tough times, we face every one of them with Christ in front of us, next to us, and behind us. It's our human nature that sees those weeds, because we limit ourselves to seeing them as weeds and not wildflowers.
The true definition of a weed is "any undesirable plant" AKA... a weed is what we make it. Philippians 1:9 says, "And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." I know for sure that when Jesus is my first love, every weed is a wildflower, because when you look at this world through eyes of love, everything is beautiful, we are so so lucky, so blessed to even be able to breathe this air, to marvel at a weed, or a rose, to be thought so highly of by God to have these earthly experiences as well as the free gift of a heavenly one. The more we know about Him, the more we can't help but love Him, and the more we learn to notice the weeds as wildflowers.

How can I be in want of anything?

If you're like me, you've caught yourself more than once standing in between the cactus and the crocus aisle unsure of which you want to lean towards. When you do, remember Him. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13). Let Him take over, and you'll be headed straight for the crocus'.


AKA the free spirit :)

We ♥ the Beach too...

...let's see...sand in everything, giant attacker bumblebees, boogie boardin', sharks (no really, sharks...), ummmm....little crabs that pop up on the fly, sticky sticky sunscreen (it was close to 100 everyday in NC) and memories...lots & lots of memories, make for one great summer vacation...(chick-fil-A certainly helped too)...we were digging and scooping sand at the shoreline (while waiting for the sharks to go away) when i pointed out to the girls that God knows the very number of sand specks on the whole beach, "can you believe that?!?!"...and on every other beach in the world...wow...my 7 yr old thought that was "un-understandable" and my 4 yr old just said "sissy...it's cause He's God"....yeah...'cause He's God...just plain and simple...child-like faith is all it takes to know & love our Savior...why do we make it so complicated?...and it's in those quick everyday moments we can share our Jesus with our kids, our family or whoever comes along...it's just that simple...and what's amazing to me is that if He cares about the sand!?!...then thinkin' about how much more He cares for us!?!...♥ Psalm 139 v.17&18 says..."how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!...if i should count them, they are more in number than the sand...."....wow crazy stuff...needless to say the ocean was testament once again of His beautiful creation and how it beckons us to draw closer to Him...as for the sandy/crunchy bologna & cheese sandwiches...well those were just testament to the beach and how really true it is that sand was in every little thing...and there was nothing we could do about it....it was just that simple....

love ya'll! (everyone is a Paula Dean down south :)

Healthy Eating Just for Kids

Whenever dinner time rolls around do you ever wonder what to serve the kids? I know I do. I grimace at the thought of settling for processed and frozen food. Who says a child can't fall in love with healthy food? I have found as long as I keep it fun and interesting my little girl loves it. She especially enjoys making the dinner with me. She will pull out all the ingredients, do all the pouring and mixing, and in the end she always tries whatever SHE makes. On that note, I love finding creative ways to get my little girl to enjoy eating healthy. Whether it is the secret zucchini in the bread and pasta sauce or onions and parsley in the meatloaf. Every parent knows it is an almost impossible ordeal as soon as the kids reach the dinner table. The whining and crying is almost too much to bare. Well at my house its either eat what's in front of you or go hungry, so there has been a fair share of tears at my house, so I am always finding ways to make meals that are both healthy and appealing to a 3 and a half year old. Just a few days ago I tried out a new recipe. This is always an adventure because I don't know if my little girl will actually eat it or not. So with everything new I always have her at least try it and take a "no thank you bite". So with Giada as my sidekick, I whipped up some Parmesan fish sticks made from wild Alaskan salmon, (we always choose wild rather than farm raised when it comes to fish). Not to mention these were worlds better than any frozen fish stick! And so fast and easy to prepare. The recipe is from Giada's book entitled "Giada's Kitchen".

At first my daughter was a little apprehensive, but after the first bite she said "mom, these are delicious". She finished off her plate and even had a second helping.

(Note: My little girl loves so many of Giada's recipes and I can honestly say that I have never made a recipe of hers that I did not fall in love with)

And so to all the parents out there if you have any suggestions for new recipes that kids love, please share!