26 Days of Thanks (7-8)

Last week held some very rough days. So rough that once I almost emailed LT and told him I was ready to ditch this Army thing and go back to being a teacher's wife and work full time myself if I needed to. Inevitably this won't be the only time we face a deployment and though the kids will be older and circumstances probably different, it will still be a deployment - a year of separation.

Here are my things I'm thankful for this week and explanations to follow:

7) The Lord is Faithful. He never lets go. He never gives up. He knows our needs and meets them according to His perfect will.

8) The Lord has called us to this life. When my thoughts of ditch this Army thing (my thoughts weren't that nice, I must confess) came to my mind, I knew in my heart that if we really did ditch the Army, we would be missing out on the blessings and the purpose to which we were called. Though this career isn't the easy road, it's the best road and that's what matters. We're reading through a book called "In A Pit With A Lion on a Snowy Day" By Mark Batterson (great read so far) and he brings out the fact that we always want the Lord to change our circumstances, to lighten our load, but that's not always what brings Him the most glory. Sometimes the most glory is given to God when we're in the pit, when we're fighting for our lives in the world's eyes! For me, it's when things are absolutely chaotic and orderless!

I was giving the boys a bath last night and was looking for the sails to a boat Bailey wanted to play with. As I was looking, God brought to mind an old Steven Curtis Chapman song - Burn the Ships. How like God to remind us at bathtime what He's called us to! The lyrics are below. The gist is that we've gotta let go of the things that seem much easier and pleasant and face what's ahead of us while fully relying on the power of the Risen Christ to get us through each day. He never promised they'd be easy days, but He has promised that He's always with us and gives us all sufficient grace to face whatever is thrown in our paths.

++++++++++++++
Burn the Ships

In the spring of 1519 a Spanish fleet set sail

Cortez told his sailors this mission must not fail

On the eastern shore of Mexico they landed with great dreams

But the hardships of the new world make them restless and weak

Quietly they whispered, "Let's sail back to the life we knew"

But the one who led them there was saying

(Chorus)

Burn the ships, we're here to stay

There's no way we could go back

Now that we've come this far by faith

Burn the ships, we've passed the point of no return

Our life is here So let the ships burn

In the spring of new beginnings a searching heart set sail

Looking for a new life and a love that would not fail

On the shores of grace and mercy we landed with great joy

But an enemy was waiting to steal, kill, and destroy

Quietly he whispers, "Go back to the life you know"

But the one who led us here is saying

(Chorus)

BRIDGE

Nobody said it would be easy

But the one who brought us here

Is never gonna leave us alone

++++++++++++++++

My ships are burned!

26 Days of Thanks (4-6)

The past couple of days have been quite tough here. So being thankful has been a little bit difficult, but there's always something to be thankful for, right?

4) I'm thankful for play dates with friends.

5) I'm thankful for happy hour at Sonic.

6) I'm thankful that God has provided a way for me to have help cleaning the house every now and then. A clean house does my heart good!

26 Days of Thanks

I wish I had thought of this at the beginning of the month, but I'll just play catch up and will probably play catch up all month with this.

One year in November, I posted a piece of paper on a kitchen cabinet for us to write down things that we were thankful for as Thanksgiving got nearer. This year, since I've neglected my blog so much lately, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write some things I'm thankful for and might motivate me to write more frequently.

To catch up and get started, I'll do 1 - 3 today!

1) I'm thankful that we only have about 100 days before LT (will be CPT by then) will be home!

2) I'm thankful that my children are full of energy and today have been bottomless pits!

3) I'm thankful that Fall Festival is over and now I can concentrate on the things I would like to get done in these final days before LT gets home from the Middle East.

What do you have to be thankful for this month?

Check back for more things that I'm thankful for!

Two New Recipes

Today was a MOPS day and one thing that I love about MOPS days is that I almost always try out a new recipe. That way if I don't like whatever it is that much or it's very fattening and I don't want it sitting around the house, I can always pass it off to my guinea pig friends. Today I hit 2 home runs. One is a good Weight Watcher Recipe; The other not so much!

Grits Casserole

1 Cup Grits
1/2lb grated cheese
1 small can green chilis
2 Eggs
Salt, Pepper, Garlic to taste

Prepare grits according to box directions

Combine all ingredients with Grits. Place mixture in greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350 until 'firm.'


Weight Watchers Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

*The original recipe calls for making your own Graham Cracker Crust, but I used a store bought Graham Cracker Crust and it worked just fine!

2 Egg Whites
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 Tsp Table Salt
2 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin
1/2 Cup Fat Free Evaporated Milk
4 Tbsp Whipped Topping

Using an electric mixer, whip egg whites until they're frothy. Fold in remaining ingredients and then beat until smooth. Pour mixture in Graham Cracker Crust. Bake at 350 for 45 - 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Top each serving with whipped topping.

Makes 8 3point Servings.

Hope you enjoy these!

The Wade Family Vacation - #3

We've been stung...We've been historic...Now it's time for FUN, at least for the 4 and under crowd!

Day 3 of our vacay found us Sea World Bound!

We arrived shortly after the gates opened - - cashed in our voucher for our free tickets and headed to bag inspection. Bailey thought he needed to take everything out of his backpack piece by piece to show the inspector. I made the mistake of putting my stuff in his bag, too, so I had to intervene quickly before my spare 'drawls' ended up out in the open for everyone to see! Bailey was very proud of his soccer ball underwear. Thankfully the bag checker just smiled.

We made our first bathroom trip, attempted to get acquainted with the map and headed off to see Shamu! The boys enjoyed the show and just sat wide eyed throughout the whole thing.

This is Jenna Beth saying "I want to see Shamu!"

Their favorite part of the day had to be the Shamu Express Rollercoaster! That's all they talked about after they rode it. It's just a little rollercoaster for little kids and Maverick was actually a couple of inches too short, but the nice worker let him ride any way. The park wasn't very crowded so they rode over and over and over! We even had to hit it one last time before we headed to shut the water park down. That's them in the 3rd car from the back in their red shirts. I'm sure they're grinning ear to ear!

We knew we had to end the day with the water park because if we started there, we never would've seen or done anything else! We began at a small splash park and after a little while decided to go check on other things that the boys could do. There was a decent sized slide that Bailey was tall enough to do. As soon as he had his life vest on, he was off - all by himself - to get in line. I think he cut the first time, but daddy intervened to make sure he waited his turn. He rode it over and over and over again!

LT attempted to take Maverick down it and it ended in a catastrophe! Maverick knocked LT's glasses off his face as they landed in the water at the end. I could see it coming a mile away! The glasses were gone for a while and were eventually found - mangled and with a lens missing. This wouldn't be such a big deal, but LT can't see much without them. I'm glad this was the end of the day because I'm not sure I would've wanted to be seen with him wearing his mangled, one lens glasses for the rest of the day!

We started packing it up about the time the water park was closing for the year. Bailey was not happy about that and proceeded let us know his true feelings in quite the undignified way! After clothes were changed, we began our trek back to the car. The children were quite worn out by this point in the day and everyone wanted to be carried. I tried to help the situation by letting Maverick sit on the handles of the stroller, but he's apparently too heavy for this sort of thing and we turned the stroller over with Jenna Beth strapped in it! Thankfully, she unphased by that whole ordeal.

Sea World is so different than when I went there as a middle school or high school kid and thought it was BORING! I don't think the park had been open very long when we went so that might explain some of it.