Loft Bed & Shelves

Steve & Elizabeth started a new project last week.  I admit it is one that I encouraged them to do.  I have a girl who is a book lover.  It is challenging to keep them organize & neat.  She is also in 9th grade this year.

 

 

That means more school books & notebooks than ever.  However, she has a small desk & it usually looks like a tornado hit it.  She’s okay with the mess but she admits that she “spills” over on to the floor around her desk a lot.

The plan is to build a loft bed for Elizabeth that will allow her to have more bookshelf space & move her desk under her bed.

She is terribly excited and enjoyed getting to help her Dad build the first part of the bed.  

 

I love it when a need can be satisfied by Dad & the kids working together.  They did a great job with a little help from Joshua. 

We got our plans & this photo from Anna White’s site.  Elizabeth’s bed will have the big shelves on both ends(more space!)

 

If you’ve never  been there you out to check it out.  I have a wish list a mile long.  Hopefully soon there will be pictures of the bed part.  Big decision right now is do we paint or stain the wood? 

What would you do?

Can’t sit still!

What do you do with a boy who can’t sit still to to his school?

Let him lay on the table. 

Makes total sense to me!

 

10 Reasons Bible Quizzing is worth it

This is the busiest time of the year for our family. We participate in Bible quizzing each month and the end of the season in in April when the National Tournament occurs. There are two members of my family that are SUPER excited, nervous, dreading, ready to leave.

The rest of us are surviving. It is HARD work getting read for this event. It is HARD work keeping kids motivated to study. It is HARD work . . . . but it is worth it. There are eternal purposes in some very HARD things

1. Sowing seeds—I know that my children would not memorize God’s word like they do if we weren’t Quizzing. There is a motivating factor in getting to answer questions & quoting. It is addicting to plant verses in their minds(& they keep doing it even after quizzing is done).

2. Life lessons—I have had more conversations about the application of scripture to THEIR lives & MINE in relation to Quizzing than I have at any other time.

3. Conviction—There is nothing that convinces my children to choose the right path more than having read & studied what God says about lying, cheating, adultery, working hard, storing up treasure in heaven, taming the tongue, etc.

4. Godly mentors—The people who are part of Bible Quizzing, at least part of the group we are in, are unpaid volunteers & they do it to see kids grow in character & wisdom. They love God, share Jesus with others, pray continually. That is who I want my kids to have an opportunity to observe & imitate.

5. Teamwork—At age 11, the kids join a team and start working together to cover all their material each month. They want to do well & for the most part work hard in their spare time to do the work in anticipation of contributing to the team.

6. Encouragement—One thing that brings tears to my eyes is when a little 11 year old boy(who is shaking in his boots) gets up to answer a question and is cheered on by the rest the quizzers from ALL the teams. These kids truly love each other with Christ’s love and it shows.

7. Rolling with the punches—Nothing ever goes as planned. Have you noticed this? Babies are born, people have cancer, tires go flat, grandparents die, appendixes burst. God gives us opportunities each day to quit things that are important. But by His grace, we don’t because He gives us the strength to carry on.

8. Friendships—Some of my kid’s best friends are Quizzers. Some of my best friends are people I have had the opportunity to meet through Quizzing. I always tell people that there are no better people in the world. 45 teams of 7 together for 4 days. No discipline problems, crazy fun, praise & worship. It forges friendships that will last a lifetime.

 

9. FUN!!!—It is high stress trying to win anything. When that is set aside though these kids love to have fun. There are a lot of fun stories I could tell but I will let the pictures tell the story.

10. Eternal purpose—I like to think that all the hours I listen to God’s word being spoken by my children is a treasure that is being accumulated for me(&them) in heaven. We take nothing with us when we die but God’s word never changes. So the more I get to study, listen & plant it in my heart I know I benefit. Nothing that we do means more than this and I am so thankful we have the freedom & opportunity to be a part of Bible Quizzing.

Ruined Meals aka Perfect Pot of Rice

There have been many here in the past 20 years of marriage.  I still manage every once in a while to burn something. 

One of the things I would do regularly in the early days of our marriage is burn rice.  Steve LOVES rice.  I don’t think I can relay how much he loves it.  Seriously if I was out of everything in the house he would be satisfied if I would cook a big pot of rice & put it on the table. The kids have taken after him in this—well all except one(that’s my boy!)  Oh and it doesn’t matter if it is white or brown rice.  They are both accepted here!  I push the brown but occasionally we have the white for a treat.

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My parents hardly EVER ate rice and if we did it was minute rice.  I tried that ONCE with Steve & he just looked at me like “What is this?”  The only “real” rice in his book is the kind that you boil for 20-30 minutes.

Now one big thing in in this equation is that when we were first married, we had glass cookware.  I am not sure anyone can keep from burning rice in glass cookware.  It heats up faster than metal therefore the rice touching the glass would cook WAY faster than the rest of it & would burn every single time.  I also probably turned the burner up too high—hurrying it because I was used to minute rice that was done . . . well . . . in a minute.

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Perfect rice isn’t a hard recipe-in fact my 8 year old can cook it.  But you have to know how to make it. 

It takes 2 ingredients—rice & water. 

The ration is 1:2.  So if you want to cook 2 cups of rice you use 4 cups of water.  That is the amount I regularly cook for my family of 6 when we have it as a side dish. 

I use Pampered Chef cookware right now—I was a consultant for quite a few years.  It is nonstick & easy to use.  The right tools make all the difference.  Remember that rice gets bigger as it cooks so don’t choose a pan that is just big enough to hold your water because soon the rice will overflow the pan.

Step 1:  Put your water & rice in your pan and bring it to a boil.  Now you can keep it at that temperature but you may have it over flow the pot as it boils & then it will be a big mess.  Then you will need to know how to clean your stove top.  I do this regularly so don’t feel bad. 

Step 2:  A better way is to turn down the heat & let it simmer.  As the rice gets close to done you will notice there isn’t as much water in the pot. 

Step 3:  When you can no longer “see” the water under the rice it is a good time to turn the heat all the way down to the lowest setting.  Let it cook just a few more minutes & then turn it off.  Don’t remove the lid!  The rice will continue to cook a bit if you keep the heat in.

Notice I didn’t put any time amounts on this.  Rice takes about 20-30 minutes but it depends on how hot your burner is and the kind of pot you are using.  So play with it & see how it works for you.

By the way rice is VERY inexpensive so if you have a crew to fee & they like rice it is a money saving meal!   If you love Mexican check out the recipe below

Mexican Rice

2 cups brown rice

2 T olive oil

1 (6 oz) can tomato sauce

4 cups water

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 crushed garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

Heat oil in pot & add brown rice.  Stir over high heat until it turns opaque and white.  Keep stirring until it turns golden brown.  Mix tomato sauce, water, oinion, garlic & salt.  Cover and turn to a very low heat.  Let cook for 1 hour.  Don’t lift the pot lid or stir it.  I promise if you leave it be then you will have perfect Mexican rice!

 

A Slice of Life #1