Lemon Sponge Cake

We've been doing the GAPS intro diet for just over two weeks, but of course, we've cheated a little... already dipping into a few regular GAPS foods (honey is the cheat on this one).  This is one of our staples.  Don't let the cake name fool you!  It's a healthy treat for your kids.

And so easy!

Cook 3 cups organic baby carrots until soft.  I measured, but baby carrots are kind of bulky and a little odd to measure, so I counted them too... 36 baby carrots.  This can also be made with cooked summer squash or butternut squash instead of carrots, but carrots are easiest and cheapest.  It takes about 45 minutes to get them soft, so do this step ahead, and double it.  You'll want to make it again tomorrow!

Add the cooked carrots to your blender.

Then add:

1 cup of almond flour or meal (almond meal is cheapest at Trader Joes. You can also use ground walnuts.)

10 eggs (preferably from pastured, happy chickens, with golden yolks)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

5 packets True Lemon or Lime (or the zest of a lemon, especially if want to avoid the teeny tiny bit of soy in the True Lemon)

1/2 cup honey

Liquify for about 20 seconds, then pour into a buttered 12 X 8 casserole.  Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes.

Undeserved Lavish Love

The other day I heard about a dad who has never told his children that he loves them.  It broke my heart.

This seems so wrong to me.  I tried to look at it objectively.  I know that not every family is going to be like mine.

I grew up in a family that was generous with verbal praise.  We tell each other we love each other a lot.  A LOT.  Like pretty much every time we see each other or talk on the phone, to this day.  And my husband and I have continued this pattern with each other, and our children.

I know that not every family is cut from the same cloth.  Everyone has their own style.  But I got to thinking, if we are going to pattern our families after anything, it needs to be God's family.

And you know what I find in the Bible?  Lavish love.  Undeserved lavish love.  Told to us in a thousand different ways.  God's love for us, despite our sin, and poured out for us in Jesus.  Which is, of course, the most important part of love.  Let us not love in word or tongue but with actions and in truth.  I John 3:18   So showing love is obviously important.  BUT God sure does a lot of telling about His love as well.  He goes way, way out of His way to tell us how much He loves us.  Just because He loves us.

The main text for our recent women's retreat was Ephesians 3:18-19, where Paul exhorts us to join other Christians in knowing "what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge."

Literally, that we can understand a love that cannot be known.  It's an over-the-top kind of love, that can only be understood by the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Beth Moore used Psalm 103 to expand on the measurement terms.

How wide is His love?  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

How long is His love?  From everlasting to everlasting.

How high is His love?  As far as the heavens are high above the earth, how great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.

We left the retreat amazed at his lavishness.

I've loved Psalm 40:5.  "And Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order;  If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

His thoughts toward me are too high too count?  That's A LOT of love.

I have games I play with my younger children.  I heard this idea once, and it's a winner.  You tell, for example, your 6-year old son:  "You know, if they took all the six-year-old boys in the whole world, and fit them into a football stadium, and told me I could pick any of them I wanted for my six-year-old boy, I would walk around and meet them all.  There would be boys with black hair and brown hair and red hair and blond hair, tall boys and short boys, silly boys and serious boys, boys who like baseball and boys who like football, but when I met you I would say, 'Here he is!  This is the one I want.  I don't need to look anymore.  I've found him. I want to take this one home!"  They. Love. It.  It might seem a little silly, but trust me on this one.

Until our kids get older, the only way they are going to understand God's magnificent love for them, is through our love.  Parents need to point the way to God for sure, but they are wired to trust us and need our love, and gradually they will, prayerfully, come to a close relationship with God.   But we are their first picture of what love is supposed to be. And they need to know they are loved... not because of their performance, but just because they ARE.

As for the dad who's never said "I love you," to his kids, I don't even know him, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't lavished with love as a kid.  But God is our Father, so let's be like Him.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called the children of God!  For that is what we are!  

I John 3:1 NIV

Hang in there, Mommy!

It’s summertime!  The transition feels different this year.  Going from homeschooling everyone to summer break isn’t such a big deal.  But going from having two kids in school, to having everyone home, is really sweet.

Seven kids, ages four to seventeen, all home, for the most part of our summer days.  And it’s wonderful.  It brings tears to my eyes, thinking about how thankful I am that the atmosphere in our home is what it is.  That my children are who they are, by the grace of God.

I was prompted to write, as I thought about the fact that I am reaping the benefits of much labor, both my own and that of others.  I want to encourage those who are still in the trenches of raising small children to keep up the good work!  It will be worth it.

Let me state the obvious:  We are not a perfect family.  I had a dear friend describe another family to me by saying, “They are like your family.  Everyone thinks they’re perfect.  Until they get to know them.” 

So true.  But imperfect as we are, we do enjoy our kids, and other people seem to like them too.  And while sanctification is an ongoing journey,  “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  (3 John 1:4)

I love where I’m at in this parenting journey.  It’s not as much work now, and there is much enjoyment!  I just want to remind you, yes you, the one with piles of laundry and dishes and diapers, that it’s worth it!

When you are interrupted from making dinner (for the third time), and patiently give kisses and band-aids, you are loving your children and showing them Jesus.

When you have to stop story time with your two-year-old, to lovingly give needed discipline to your four-year-old, you are teaching them to fear the Lord, which will bring them joy all the days of their lives.

When it takes you three times as long to unload the dishwasher because of your “help,” you are paving the way for the day when they can do this chore independently.  You won’t be the only one doing dishes and laundry and cooking forever!

When it seems difficult to get everyone to settle down for devotional in the morning, you are teaching them to persevere and prioritize what is most important in life.

When you hold them to the standards of the Word (Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32) and not the world, their sibling relationships will flourish.

When you say no, even to good things, if life is too busy, they will know how much you value time as a family.

When you share with joy what God has been teaching you, they will see it’s a relationship, not a religion.

When you step away from your computer, and play baseball in the backyard, you are showing them how important they are to you.

When you take them on “special dates,” you are giving them time to ask questions alone, share their hearts, and just feel loved.

When they see you have your quiet time in the morning (or see your open Bible and empty coffee mug on the table) you are modeling dependence on the living God.

Though you might groan inwardly when the early morning quiet is broken, your cheerful “Good Morning,” smile, kiss and hug is teaching them how to greet each day and those around them.

Are you noticing a trend here?  God’s Word is invaluable.

I’m deeply grateful for instruction I have received, starting with having had great parents myself. I’ve also learned so much through parenting classes and sermons, godly women and great books.  But all of these things are based on one book – the Bible – which in and of itself has taught me the most.

Because I have also received some bad parenting advice.  From Christian people and Christian churches and Christian books.  And I wouldn’t have known it was bad advice if I didn’t have God’s Word to compare it to.

So if you are a mommy of young children, I want to encourage you, most of all, to be in the Word!  Get up earlier than your kids if you can.  Or let your kids watch a video.  You only need fifteen minutes.

Just fifteen minutes. 

More is nice.  But don’t beat yourself up if you can’t.  Here’s a great way to get started.

Love those babies.  They grow up so fast.  All the old ladies will tell you that (especially when you’re about to tear your hair out, and it doesn’t seem fast at all).  But I heard a great quote that made sense of it. 

“The years are fast, but the days are slow.”

I know it's not easy.  You have the most important job in the world.  But if you belong to Him, you have the God who created everything available to you 24/7.  That’s not a bad deal.  I hope you will take advantage of it!

Can't Stop Laughing and Other Thankful Thoughts

If anyone is new to this blog, this thankful list begins here, and is a result of reading One Thousand Gifts (A Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are) by Ann Voskamp.  A highly recommended read!

#0165-0188

• Cade’s sweet compassion for his younger brother
• Tender words
• Bode finally realizing that it’s not that bad to wash his hair, and announcing that he’s going to do it every day
• Boys in baseball uniforms
• Kind words from friends
• Learning to crave vegetables
• First really warm days of spring
• Fresh produce on an old-fashioned china platter
• Double peony-tulips
• Silly texts with a girlfriend
• Projects coming together
• Bone-tired accomplishment (yard work!)
• Texting with son out-of-town, who tells me he loves me
• Late afternoon clean-up frenzies for a beautiful, tidy house to start the weekend
• Watermelon slices
• Coffee and Bible and Prayer on a quiet Saturday morning (with my newly put together quiet time basket with containers for prayer, verse and blank note cards to use with my beautiful stickers!)
• Baseball-playing boys knowing exactly where their uniforms are before the game (i.e. not having to run around madly looking for a jersey)
• Laughing so hard with Dan that I cried.  Can’t stop.  Laughing.  Crying.*
• Godly, loving women who want to bless their friend.  Throwing a baby shower with the sweetest of people for a mutual friend, who is so dear and such a wonderful mother... celebrating her fourth baby.
• Roasted beets with goat cheese
• Sun-kissed cheeks
• Popsicles on a sunny afternoon
• Long walks and talks with friends
• Teaching Sunday School.  Such joy in sharing the greatest gift of all.  I love teaching God’s Word.

*I don’t know if this explanation will be funny to any of you, but I’ll tell you why we were laughing.  We have had a LOT of water issues lately.  Hot water issues, water pressure issues, water pump issues, and irrigation issues.  I have had several mornings with no water = backed up dishes and laundry.  We’ve had a new hot water tank and new pressure pump installed.  Then Thursday morning the water pressure completely went out during Courtney’s shower.  Followed by a fountain of water shooting from the ground.  I called Dan on his way to work to tell him, and based on the fact that we’d had pressure issues with the shower, and that I told him I was looking out the bedroom window, he thought I was talking about the overflow valve, which would have to do with the pressure pump that had just been installed on Monday.  But I was looking out the other bedroom window.

So he called the pump and well specialists.  When the guy cam over to fix it, he kept giving me strange looks and told me several times that he doesn’t normally fix this kind of problem, but that he would.  I’m thinking, as I run around crazy with voice teacher here, my dad arriving, and running out the door, “okay, as long as it gets fixed so I can have water again.”  So late that night, all is fixed and Dan and I are getting ready for bed, and he asks me again where the water was shooting out from this morning.  When I tell him, he cracks up.  And we realize we called the pump and well specialists to fix a broken part on our sprinkler system. Which they kindly did.  

Great Report from Japan

From missionaries in Japan, who were there before the earthquake...

So happy to see that Samaritan's Purse is helping with relief and helping the local economy!

MONDAY, APRIL 04, 2011

In praise of relief agencies...

I spent some time talking with an Asian Access missionary who has been in Sendai for the past two weeks. In his role he interfaced withSamaritan's Purse and Food for the Hungry staff and assisted in distribution of their supplies. Their experience with disaster relief has been invaluable, and their goods have been wisely chosen.

In the past two weeks since the first load from Samaritan's Purse arrived in Sendai, they have gone out of their way to obtain other things that become apparent as needs. They purchased large amounts of some goods from Costco here in Japan--is that why I can't find what I'm looking for? ;-) I'll gladly give those things up if they are being used for the relief effort in Tohoku!

Currently they recognize that people need transportation. So rather than bringing in bicycles from outside the country, they are going to the local bike shops to purchase the bikes. In doing this, they encourage the local economy and provide a basic need for people.

As my friend, Peter said:

Learned so much over the past two weeks. I love what is starting to happen. Samaritan's Purse is contracting with local businesses to supply goods that SP will give away. Instead of bringing in everything from far away, they will support local business in a time of great need. The businesses sell to SP and SP gives it to people who lost everything. Double win. Beautiful. So amazing. Needs change daily, one day they are ordering tens of thousands of pairs of underwear, the next they are buying bikes. All going free to people in great need. But the combo of buying local when possible and giving local is great to see, especially in expensive Japan.

I know that many times people want to do something tangible to help, and I am guilty of thinking that giving to a major relief agency is not that helpful. But I want to say that these agencies are doing a great job, and the financial donations people give are making a strategic difference in the lives of people.

On My Way to 1000!

#0141-0164

• Such a busy and full life, kind-of a little crazy sometimes, but thankful for quiet times in the morning that make all the difference in my day, and for One Thousand Gifts for helping slow down, be thankful, and appreciate each moment
• Red patchwork quilts
• Fresh, warm, floral smell of the greenhouse
• Hot bath, book and bed
• Laughing with my ladies at Bible study
• Finding the right motivation for my kids
• Seeing their “aha” moments
• A perfectly caught pop-fly
• The privilege of taking care of my sweet kiddos when they are sick.  Having medicine, tea, and all I need to care for them.  It makes my heart break for mommas with sick babies who have no resources to care for them.  Such a good reminder to live simply, to give more to those in need.
• Grant’s Ant Traps (Does anyone else get inundated with ants every spring?)
• Money to buy groceries. I never want to take this for granted.  I am so thankful to be able to buy good food for our family.
• Knowing that my favorite pajamas will be clean for bed tonight
• Tyler Candles, “French Market” scent
• Dinner in the crockpot
• Kat texting me about prom plans and bringing friends over after the big event
• Still feeling a little needed and wanted for advice and ideas in her life
• Courtney’s delight in her new phone, and in her friend "finally" getting a phone
• Giggles 
• Dan’s team winning their first game of the season
• Courtney’s music compositions.  She mailed a copy to my grandpa, a musician and former music teacher.  He played it on the piano in his retirement home and wrote her a letter, commenting on it.   “Not only do you have some very interesting melodies, but your chord progressions are excellent.  The modulations to different keys were well done.  And I was thrilled to hear some diminished chords throughout the composition.  Keep up the good work!”

• The bright mind and good health of my 95-year-old grandfather!
• The sheer delight of my littlest boys when I tell them we are going to drive-through at McDonalds to get ice cream cones and super-hero toys. (I think this was the first time I had ever taken them to McDonalds.)
• Tuck-in cuddles, back scratches and head-rubs with Abby.  It’s not a real tuck-in for her unless I get under the covers, and preferably fall asleep with her as well.
• Bode's giggles (I wish I could count how many times a day he giggles or laughs hysterically)

Home Sweet Home

Always so good to be home!

Though for the first time in many years, I could have stayed on vacation longer.  With no babies in the house, it's a lot easier to travel, and I wasn't dying to get back to my normal routine.  It made me a little sad to leave beautiful, warm Maui.

It was a huge blessing to wake up Sunday morning and go to church and hear a great sermon on contentment from Philippians 4.  It was also much needed ammunition devotional material for my youngest kids today as they had the "I've had too much vacation" attitude.  God's Word is amazing!  Our morning had a complete turn-around after we read about Paul's contentment in any circumstance and the only true satisfaction (Jesus!) that doesn't leave us longing for more (John 4).

 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:12-13


And the thankful list continues... a few with photos...

124.     Bantam rooster in the morning

125.     Daffodils, anemones, hyacinths and camellias blooming (and bouquets of them in the house, made by my sweet mother)

126.     Not having to think about where the light switches are

127.     Jack, willing to wake up before 5 a.m. Hawaii time our first morning back, because he’s so excited to play some basketball

128.     Worship, great sermon, and sweet friends at church

129.     Lots of sun breaks

130.     Birdsong in the morning and frogs at night

131.     Everything familiar, especially my bed

132.     Cooking (I love the combination of making recipes that call for lots of vegetables and making chicken stock - adding the unusable or less desirable parts to simmer with a chicken carcass. Beautiful color!)

133.  Buds about to burst open on the magnolia tree outside my bedroom window (I think of this tree as the “Hope of Spring” as I see it’s big, fuzzy buds all winter long)

134.  Clean laundry

135.  Teaching Sunday School with Dan

136.  Sweet hugs from kids we teach

137.  Early work-out with my best friend, laughing, catching up – always a great start to my week

138.  Brother buddies

139.  Homeschooling moments

140.  Logistics working out for tonight’s two baseball practices, one parent meeting, one basketball practice, one gymnastics lesson, one piano lesson and one play rehearsal.  Everyone is able to get where they need to go thanks to a third driver in the family and a little help from our friends!