The prespective of a 4 year old!

Chloe & I ventured to the library for the first time today.  Not sure why I've waited so long to do it, but we clearly enjoyed ourselves and have already planned on adding it to our weekly routine.  So, on the way there we were driving on a 4 lane "farm to market" road.  Yes, if you've forgotten we live out in the COUNTRY!   Anyway, we were beside another SUV and before I knew it the woman driving the other car (who was on her cell phone) had drifted completely into my lane.  Frantically I searched for the horn and stepped on the brakes.  She just nearly missed us.  I was panicking...not so much for my own safety, but Chloe's car seat is directly behind mine and she was in harms way as well.  My protective "mother bear" guard was up.  Lost in the moment I couldn't quite make out what Chloe was chattering in the background at first.  So I said, "What was that Chloe?" and she replied, "What are you communicating Momma?" "HUH?!?"  was my first and only response.  She then went on to tell me that, "In preschool I learned that people use the horns on their cars to communicate.  What were you telling that other car Momma?"  (As she said this I happened to pass the other driver who showed me a not-so-nice hand gesture.  Keep in mind people SHE came into MY lane.)  I was in shock and remember complaining does no good...(see previous post!)...so I just said, "I was just telling her to watch out."  Little does my sweet baby know people also use their hands to "communicate" too. Ha!  As fate (rather God) would have it, both the other lady and I ended up at the library for storytime.  I refrained from making the evil-eye contact with her, not something I would have guaranteed I could/would have done prior to my fast, and managed a polite smile.  So thankful I handled that situation with a better attitude and didn't regress to vindicate myself to the other mother.  But mostly I'm thankful for the prespective of my precious 4 year old who made me laugh when I could have screamed!  Thank you Jesus for giving us grace & laughter when you know we'll need it!

"Fast" Forward!

Goodness no, I'm not referring to speeding up life in any form or fashion.  Honestly, it feels like every day goes faster than the day before as it is.  One day I'm zombie walking in the wee hours of the morning tending to a newborn and WHAM!  The next thing I know I've been married almost 12 years, I have 3 kids, moved 7 times and I'm registering my baby for pre-kindergarten, talking to my older daughter about why you shouldn't "chase boys" at recess, and buying deodorant for my pre-teen son!  Where has time gone??? 

No, what I was referring to was a spiritual fast I recently finished and how it's pushed me forward in my faith and my pursuit to be a better person and follower of Christ.  I have fasted from things before, but I have never fully embraced the purpose as I did this last time.  Our church was very liberal (not a phrase you hear to often here in the "Bible belt" LOL!) in how it encouraged people to participate.

Here is a link to the sermon from the Sunday the challenge was issued.

http://www.beltway.org/player/032011

"The "acceptable fast" is discussed in the biblical Book of Isaiah, chapter 58:3-7. In essence, it means afflict the soul through abstaining from fulfilling the needs or wants of the flesh.

‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.

‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,

and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.

“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.

Even while you fast,

you keep oppressing your workers.

4 What good is fasting

when you keep on fighting and quarreling?

This kind of fasting

will never get you anywhere with me.

5 You humble yourselves

by going through the motions of penance,

bowing your heads

like reeds bending in the wind.

You dress in burlap

and cover yourselves with ashes.

Is this what you call fasting?

Do you really think this will please the Lord?

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;

lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free,

and remove the chains that bind people.

7 Share your food with the hungry,

and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them,

and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

New Living Translation



Basically there is complete freedom in what you fast from as long as when you abstain from it you do it solemnly and replace your desire for that earthly need for a greater desire for Him.  David does a MUCH better way of impressing this in his sermon (he truly is gifted), but for a "cliff notes" version, that's pretty much the gist of it.  After a lot of praying and seeking, I felt led to fast complaining.  Yes, I know it sounds so minimal.  But in my life lately I've become very free with issuing my "opinion" on everything wether it's asked for or not, and especially when it's not good.  I'm usually a fairly positive person, but in the past few months I've been attacked in several ways that have caused me to have a very negative & insecure outlook on a lot of things.  Not exactly who I want to be.  I knew God would show me plenty durning this 21 day period and I was more than willing to learn.  And furthermore, it clearly states in the Bible that complaining is something we should NOT do. Do everything without complaining and arguing.  Philippians 2:14

Almost immediately I was tested.  And I confess the first few days I was tempted to find ways around it by "informing" Jarred, my mom or kids about something that had happened that I didn't like or was upset about.  I was convicted of this, asked for forgiveness and continued to seek Him.  I was brought up in the lutheran ELCA denomination and there is a song that we would sing every Sunday based on Psalm 51.  God placed this song on my heart during this time and it was my heart's cry when I would find myself tempted.

"Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your free Spirit."

 

Not ironically it was the basis for the first devotion during the 21 day fast that the church had provided.  Again, I LOVE how God works.  Always having the perfect puzzle piece to fill us and meet us where we need Him. 

 

So, "fast forward" (I'm so witty I know! LOL!) to Easter Sunday.  The completion of the 21 days.  I had survived after being tested daily, hourly, and sometimes relentlessly; and honestly I felt renewed, restored, and refocused.  What a blessing!  Thank you Jesus!  But the enemy was NOT going to give up.  Our Easter Sunday was plagued with the dreaded stomach virus, tornados, and record braking baseball-sized hail.  However, it was also full of quiet, uninterruped quality family time that I'll always treasure and some much needed rain.  We found other ways to worship Him in our home by making resurrection rolls for breakfast and doing the resurrection eggs with the kiddos.  We made the most of it and I managed to keep my chin up and my mouth shut. 

 

Excited about seeking more of Him and "fast" forwarding my life in new ways very soon!

 

Blessings!

April Fools "Surprise": Take 2

So last year I had the brainstorm idea to surprise my family with a fun April Fools Meal.  I'm going to TRY to post a link if you want to check out last year, but I am offerring NO guarantees that it will work! LOL!

http://karneifamily.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-fools-food-fun.html

I mistakenly set the proverbial bar too high for my first year of doing such a prank.  The kids literally started talking about "How Mommy was going to trick them..." MONTHS in advance.  They even talked about it at school to their teachers & friends!  I racked my brain for weeks!  To make it even more complicated we were hosting company that evening so I couldn't go too CrAzy!  I had a super ephiphany moment while frantically roaming the aisles of Wal-Mart literally that afternoon!  I was going to make a dessert pizza!  But not just any dessert pizza.  I wanted it to look like an ooey-gooey, fresh from the oven pizza!  My plan was to serve them a normal dinner (with the exception of the jell-o juice...it was such a hit last year!) and then swoop in with, "Who saved room for pizza???"  LOL!  I even went as far as to roast garlic (I made risotto with it) so the house would smell italian!  I'm such a trickster I know!  Ha! 

It went over fabulous!!!  I was even pretty impressed with myself!  I just threw this together so I'm going to do my best to try and come up with a recipe.

Ingredients:

1 roll sugar cookie dough
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1-2 Tablespoons sugar
squeeze of lemon
red food coloring
cornstarch
mini marshmellows
white chocolate shavings
red fruit roll-up

Directions:

Take the sugar cookie dough "log" and pat it out into a circle on a foil covered pizza pan.  Bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

While that is cooking, place the strawberries and about 1/4 cup water in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Stir in sugar & a squeeze (1/2 tsp) of lemon juice.  In a small bowl take 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon (depending on desired thickness and amount of strawberries) of cornstarch and deslove into equal amount of water until completly dissolved.  It will look like white water.  Add to strawberry mixture.  Stir constantly, sauce will thicken very quickly once it starts to boil.  If you don't stir it constantly it will get lumpy and well, that's not good.  Remove from heat and stir in red food coloring.  Set aside.



 

By now your cookie crust should look like this...

Let it cool for about 5 minutes (or longer if you have time...I was a little rushed since this was a last-minute idea.)  And then spoon your sauce over your crust to look like this.  Sorry for the blurriness...again I was scrambling here.

I really wanted to add fresh mint to my sauce to make it look more authentic, but if my kids even smell herbs they turn up their noses and say it smells "herb-y".  Clearly they did not inherit my food obesessions.

Now comes the fun part!!!

Take mini-marshmellows and smash them between your fingers to help them spread out.  You don't have to pulverize them, but just give them a little smoosh.  It helps encourage them to spread out and not up!  I guess even food doesn't like to look wider.  LOL!  Just kidding!

Place back in the oven for 3-5 minutes until the marshmellows start to get all gooey & puffy.  Then crank up the heat on the oven to broil and let them get toasty brown.  This was my favorite part!  But caution...DO NOT take your eyes off it!  It will change from toasty to nasty in seconds!  Sugar does that!  I was determined to make it look AND feel like pizza!  I had to get the gooey factor in!

SUCCESS!!!

But you could still see too much sauce & seperation of the marshmellows, so I "bound" it together by shaving white chocolate over the top.  The shreds that didn't melt kind of looked like shredded parmesean, yet another added cool factor.

For even more fun I cut circles of red fruit roll-up for "pepperoni".  I would have added other toppings, but my kids would have definitely known something was up if REAL veggies or heaven forbid something scary like a mushroom was on it! LOL!

Adult tested & kid approved!  Even our company liked it!  It is a definite keeper!

I'm already playing with ideas for next year.  I don't want to bank my future successes on having an annual ephiphany in WalMart! LOL!

Garden Secret Revealed: Organic Fertilizer!

Planting corn wearing my favorite gardening shirt!



I have to confess I haven't really jumped on the "organic/ all-natural" bandwagon, but in an effort to be more "green" we've been trying to do our part.  My husband got this great "recipe" for fertilizer during a casual conversation with his uncle (I think, but I know it was definitely someone from his side of the family! LOL!).  I certainly hope it's not one of those Bush's baked beans/take to the grave "family secrets", because I'm about to share it with you.  And if it is, I hope they remember that my son is the only namesake heir for their family!  LOL!  We tested it last year and it worked so we are going full-steam with it this year.  We put it on EVERYTHING!!!  The yard, the flowerbeds, the garden, the trees, anything we wanted to grow healthier, greener & stronger it was ON!  And thankfully it's fairly inexpensive (about $40-50 for 150 pounds) because with the kids helping us "dispense" it, let's just say everything got a very liberal coating! LOL!!!

I think I'm gonna need a drumroll here.....

a little louder please....

Ok, are you ready????  Here is the recipe for...

 Kickin' Karnei Fertilizer!

(yeah, I'm giving us credit for this one until I figure out who/where it came from. LOL!)

Ingredients:

1 50lb bag Dried Molasses

1 50lb bag Cotton Seed hulls

1 50lb bag Dried Alfalfa

A strong back

Wheelbarrow

Combine first three ingredients in a large bin or wheelbarrow using your mega muscles and strong back!  Use liberally when planting or as a topical fertilizer.  Enjoy greener, healthier, plants with higher yields!

Example of fertilizer in trench prior to planting seedlings.  It was about 1/2 inch thick!

***Side note:  I have since been informed that this recipe came from Jarred's cousin's mother-in-law (you can see where one might get confused. LOL!).  I will take it as an enourmous compliment that his family takes the time to read my blog and stand very thankfully corrected.  Thank you Mrs. Christensen for sharing your recipe for an awesome organic fertilizer!  You rock! 



Growing, growing, growing....



We planted our garden(s)  mid-March.  (has it been that long since I last posted???)  Anyway, we've not really had "ideal" growing conditions, but with a LOT of TLC our garden is chugging away.  We expanded this year and actually doubled the garden to 16 feet by 32 feet!  That makes for a LOT of weed-pulling people!!!  We are currently growing:  onions, green onions, sweet peas, green beans, zucchini, white squash, yellow squash, cucumbers, sweet corn, 5 or 6 different kinds of tomatoes, okra, lots of different peppers, jalepenos, pumpkins, mini pumpkins & gourds, yellow watermelon, red watermelon and canteloupe.  Whew!!!  I imagine I'll have to set up a farmer's market in my front yard with ALL that!  LOL!!!  Rest assured if you live in the area I'll sharing the love! 



I should also mention that I have a seperate herb/berry garden.  My Granny is my gardening inspiration and I still vividly remember spending the summers with her picking strawberries to make jelly with.  I've ALWAYS wanted a strawberry patch of my own and I finally have one!!!  On any given day I can pick 12-15 strawberries and nothing tastes better!  I hope to some day try my hand at jelly-making, but for now they are a delicious snack!  I also have 7 blueberry shrubs that will be fruiting in the next few weeks.  The extreme heat (triple digits in APRIL is not "normal" for this part of Texas) we've had this past month hasn't helped, but we'll have enough for at least one batch of muffins I'm sure!  YUM!!! 



Another change this year was that the kids all wanted their own gardens to tend to.  We happily obliged.  One of Colby's cub scout achievements was to build something, so with the help of Dad, they created frames for all the kid's gardens.  I then let them "personalize/decorate" them and it was back to the store to find plants to fill them.  I'm telling you...we are all set for a bountiful harvest.  LOL!

Our little farmers hard at work! 

As you can see we still have plenty of dirt to expand more, I guess we'll have to wait and see...