Who's Your Daddy

This is an amazing poem by Priscilla Shirer. Some girls from my Sunday School class and I are going to a Tuesday morning Bible study, and this poem was recited by its author on the dvd series that we are using. It sent chills up my spine. Absolutely amazing. I hope you get as much out of it as we did. Thank you Tori for forwarding this on.

Who is your Daddy?

He is the First the Last, the Beginning and the End.

He’s the Keeper of creation and the Creator of all.

He is the Architect of the universe and the Manager of all time.

He always was, always is, always will be. . . unmoved, unchanged, undefeated and never undone.

He was bruised, but brought healing;

He was pierced, but eased pain;

He was persecuted, but brought freedom;

He was dead, and brings life. He is risen to bring power and He reigns to bring peace.

The world can’t understand Him, armies can’t defeat Him, schools can’t explain Him and

leaders- they can’t ignore Him.

Herod couldn't kill Him; Nero couldn't crush Him.

The New Age cannot replace Him and Oprah cannot explain Him away.

You can remind yourself that: He is life, He is love, He is longevity, and He is the Lord.He is

goodness and kindness and faithfulness and He is God.

He is holy and righteous and powerful and pure.

His ways are right, His Word eternal, His will unchanging and His mind is on us.

He’s our Saviour, our Guide, our Peace, our Joy, our Comfort, our Lord, and He rules our lives.

I serve Him because: His bond is love, His yoke is easy

His burden is light, and His goal for us is abundant life.

I follow Him because:

He’s the wisdom of the wise

the power of the powerful

the Ancient of Days; the Ruler of rulers

the Leader of all leaders.

His goal is a relationship with me.

He’ll never leave you, never forsake you, never mislead you, never forget you, never overlook

you, and never cancel you appointment in His appointment book. . . .never.

When you fall, He’ll lift you up.When you fail, He’ll forgive you.

When you’re weak, He’s strong.

When you’re lost, He is your Way

When you’re afraid, He’s your courage.

When you stumble, He will steady you.

When you’re afraid, He’s your courage.

When you stumble, He will mend you.

When you’re hurt, He’s going to heal you.

When you’re broken, He will feed you.

When you face trials, He is with you.

He’s everything for everyone, everywhere, every time and in every way.

He is your God and THAT, dear friend, is Who you belong to.

by: Priscilla Shirer

Sun Up

If you have never gotten up before the sun, you should. I got up this morning for my run, and enjoyed some time with God as well. It is amazing the things you see when no one else is around. There is a little family of rabbits that live in the woods behind a house near my neighborhood. They are out first thing in the morning. Birds are everywhere calling to each other. Leaves crunch in the woods from unseen animals. God's glory is waking up and I got to be a part of it.
If you have never gotten up before the sun, you should. I am not saying that you need to go exercise. I am saying simply, throw on a pair of tennis shoes, grab a hat, and set out on your sidewalk, road, whatever. Enjoy God's creation...and don't forget your trail mix.

I Am A Restaurant

Does anyone else feel this way? I just finished planning my menu for the week and making my grocery list. Does anyone else do this? I find that it saves me a ton of money because I simply don't buy things I don't need. I make a daily menu including Grayson's food and snacks for me, then I write out my grocery list accordingly. The problem comes in when I ask my dear sweet husband what he would like me to include in the menu for the week. "I like whatever you fix" is his normal reply. It also happens to be an outright LIE. He really should ask forgiveness and work on this. Of course he doesn't like everything I fix. I tend to eat pretty healthy and he wants meat and potatoes...and potato salad...and potato chips...so no, he does not like it all. However, I say ok, and I go on to make my menu. The evenings roll around, Grayson goes to bed, and we sit down to dinner. He takes a bite, I wait anxiously...no response. "What do you think, honey?" pause "Um, it's, uh, good." Yeah right, he really likes it...I'm sure.

On this journey we call being a wife, don't forget your trail mix.

Mommy Books

I read some amazing books while I was pregnant. I skipped What to Expect When You're Expecting. I know this is the most commonly read, but I received several books as gifts and just never felt like I needed it. My mom bought me my first pregnancy book. I was so excited! It is called The Miraculous World of Your Unborn Baby, by Nikki Bradford. This book has it all. It includes some of the "what to expect" kind of things, but it also has AMAZING photos; photos of baby inside you and what he/she looks like, week by week development, and other such things. This was the best book to read while pregnant. I had to force myself to not read ahead.

My other favorite book is by Gary Ezzo and Dr. Robert Bucknam. On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep. This book is my hero. Grayson came about 7 weeks early, so we weren't sure what to expect. Ezzo and Bucknam cover all scenarious in this book. Each section has something about preemies and what to do. The book lives up to its name. We followed their advice to the best of our abilities, and even as a preemie, Grayson was sleeping 6 hours at a time by 6 weeks old, and between 3 and 4 months, he started sleeping 12 hours! This book gives you such a wonderful, easy to follow program, and it really goes in depth to show you how and why you need to do each of these things. I have read many times that an infant does most of his/her growing (including their brain development) while they are sleeping. Teaching your child to sleep is so important. We have friends that are still getting up with their 3 year olds. We put Grayson to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 every night and he gets up around 7:30 every morning. I highly recommend this book.

I am very interested to see if you have any books you would recommend. Let me know. I would love to share your titles and opinions.

Bakery Smells

I am getting fat just breathing. My house smells like sour dough and cinnamon sugar. Amazing! If you have ever wondered how to make "starter" for sour dough bread, here is the recipe. I am also including the actual bread recipe.

Day One:


1 cup warm water
3 tbsp potato flakes (these are simply instant potatoes, and yes generic brands are fine)
1/2 c sugar
1 tbsp yeast

Mix all of this together in some sort of Tupperware type container, cover with foil, and set in your refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Between day 3 and day 5, in the morning, you need to "feed" your starter once. In a separate container, mix together:

1 cup warm water
3 tbsp potato flakes
1/2 c sugar

Mix together, and add to starter. Cover loosely with a towel and set aside all day. That evening, make a stiff batter using:

1 c starter
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
6-6 1/2 c all purpose flour (you don't want your dough to be sticky)

Mix all of this together and put it in a well oiled bowl. Let rise over night.

The next morning: Punch down dough 3-4 times and separate in to 3 even sized balls. Put each of these in a loaf pan and let rise 4-5 hours. It will double in size.
Bake in the oven at 350 until golden brown. I am thinking around 20 minutes, but oven heats vary, so keep your eyes on it. When the loaf is done, it will sound hollow if you tap it.

There are several other things you can do. I use my dough to make cinnamon rolls. You can also use a biscuit cutter and cut little circles, lay them in an oiled cupcake tin, and make dinner rolls. These can be frozen and defrosted. When you want to reheat them, put them back in the tin, warm them in the oven, and then roll a little butter on top...Yummy!

If you don't feel like make bread between day 3 and 5, simply feed your starter again, and put it back in the fridge for another 3-5 days. You have to feed it though in order to keep it going.

I hope some of you will try it out. Feel free to ask me questions, and let me know if you make it.

Trail Mix

Hello all of you moms out there. I have decided to start this blog as a venue for support, advice, conversations, ideas, recipes, and whatever else we designate as part of being a mom. My name is Erin. I am first an foremost a christian. Along with that I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a counselor, you name it. I am married to a wonderful man, and his name is Benji. You will probably hear (read) his name many times. We have a little boy named Grayson, and he is 9 months old. We also have a great big huge dog named Chief. I guess we are living the picket fence life, if that is still applicable today. I stay home and raise our son, cook, clean, keep Benji organized -he is a fireman with a landscaping business that he does on his days off. I handle the financial/billing/customer service side of that from home.
The decision for me to stay home was not an easy one. We prayed and prayed about it. We had really been feeling led to go this route, but there is always the human side that says "How in the world will we be able to go from two incomes to one?" I was a teacher, and that definitely helped our income level. We finally decided that if God was leading us to do this, then He would provide, and let me tell you ladies, God is so good. I have never been happier in my life. We make a lot of sacrifices to be able to do this, but it is oh so worth it. We have so many people say, "I wish I could stay home." Seriously...anyone can do it. It is all about he sacrifice. We have made a lot of those. One thing we do not sacrifice is our once a month date night - NO MATTER WHAT. We feel like this is super important for us to keep the spark in our marriage. We love being parents, but we don't want to forget that we are also husband and wife...if you know what I mean (wink, wink).
I do a lot of things differently. Staying home, I made the decision to cut costs wherever possible. We use cloth diapers, I make Grayson's baby food. The thing is, I have come to LOVE doing these things. I want to know about anyone else that is doing any of this or other things to help out. I would love to hear ideas, opinions, advice.
We are also using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover to try and get rid of our debt, so that we are able to save more, give more, and lose some of the financial stress. God has been so good and has provided the money to live every month, but we don't want to just live. We want to give more to our church, we want to save for Grayson and future children's college. We do not want to always be paycheck to paycheck. If you have never heard of Dave Ramsey, you need to check out his website. So far we have paid off 2 of items, and we are on the road to "recovery" with the third.
I absolutely love my life. God has blessed me and my family to the highest degree. I cannot wait to share with you all of these blessings, as well as ideas, stories, funnies, advice, and of course...recipes. Please feel free to leave me comments and opinions, and ask me questions. I cannot wait to share this journey with you as we go down the trail of motherhood. Don't forget the trail mix.