Clean your Microwave and your Kitchen Drain in about Five Minutes!

This is by far the easiest way you will ever clean your microwave and kitchen sink drain. It will take you right around 5 minutes!

Start with a microwave-safe container of water, about 4 cups or so.

Grab some limes (or lemons). If you use these little cooking limes, you´ll use about 1 per cup of water.

Cut the limes in half.

 Juice the limes. I use a lime juicer, but you can use your hands. It doesn´t matter if the seeds fall in the water.

Put the bowl in the microwave, uncovered, for 3 minutes. While it´s in there, wipe down the outside of your microwave. If it takes you longer than three minutes, you´re not doing this often enough!!

Once the microwave beeps, set your timer for 2 minutes. Don´t open your microwave yet. While you´re waiting for the timer to go off, wash your cutting board, knife and juicer.

Once the two minutes is up, wipe down the inside of your microwave. The grime should slide right off. If it´s super dirty, you might need to dip your rag in the lime water and then wipe down. Microwave done.

Now get out your baking soda.

Grab that bowl of lime water and dumb some baking soda in there, maybe about 1/4 to 1/2 cup or so. It will fizz. Now dump the mixture down your kitchen drain. Flush with hot water. Done.

Easy, right? What will you do with all the time I just saved you, not to mention the lack of toxic fumes??

Things you Forget to Remember

I stole the title of this post from my friend Tiffany´s blog. She is an amazing mom, and will inspire you, so check it out!

Anyway, there are so many things that our kids do that are hilarious, adorable, infuriating, etc. but we start to forget them as time goes on. I was thinking today about the things B does, or did, that I don´t want to forget. As I think of them, I will blog them. Hopefully soon I can get started journaling to B, too, so she will have a record of how obsessed I am with her once she hits adolescence and starts thinking I´m out to get her!

Here goes:

Baby snores (louder than you might expect if you haven´t had a baby)

B´s little boogie dance she used to do when she was maybe 6 or 7 months old

The way she has learned that she can get herself out of trouble pretty quickly by giving mommy a big, sloppy kiss

¨Ah buh boo¨ (I love you), and the first time she said it all on her own, instead of just responding to me

B waking up in the middle of the night, shooting me a huge grin, and falling back asleep

Talking in her sleep, with mostly made up words...ADORABLE.

Asking me to put clips in her hair so she can go flirt with herself in the mirror for 10 minutes straight

¨Cah-Cown¨ (popcorn) B´s favorite food of all time (for now!)

Coming up to me randomly and asking to ¨Bay¨ (pray), which goes something like this:

¨Ka (God), Tah-tyoo (thank you), Ah buh boo (I love you), Men (Amen).¨

The way she can have just woken up from a nap two seconds ago, but if you say ¨vamos¨ (let´s go in Spanish), she´ll wake right up and say ¨VAMOOOOOO¨

Her obession with shoes. I spend all day taking off one pair of shoes and putting on another. And another.

The way she has always followed her own pace, ever since she was in the womb. If you just wait, she´ll tell you when she´s ready for the next big step.

B trying to feed a stray dog her lunch today at an outdoor restaurant. Too cute.

Her adoration of all animals, but especially ¨doks¨ (dogs), ¨mau¨ (cats), ¨sh¨ (fish) and ¨BEE!!¨ (birds)

The way she lovingly mothers her baby dolls. That makes me feel like I´m doing something right!

The face she makes when you ask her to show off, and you can tell she wants to, but she´s feeling shy/embarassed

The smile she has when she gets her way (or just thinks she does, like when we gave her a glass of juice and she seemed to think she somehow conned her way into some kind of glorious treat)

The way it feels to snuggle with her every naptime and bed time, and to feel like I wish I didn´t have anything else in the world to do but stay there and hold her (and sometimes, I just ignore everything else I have to do and hold her anyway!)

The way she always wakes up right when I´m in the middle of something, like right now!! Goodnight!

Easy (and healthy!) Toddler Ice Cream

Ok, I was trying to come up with a way to make smoothies for my toddler the other day while working around her food allergies. You can find the recipe for the smoothies I usually make at home right here.

B is allergic to bananas and she is lactose intolerant (hopefully just for now!). So that rules out the bananas and yogurt that I use for the smoothies, and there is no lactose-free yogurt in Ecuador. There is, however, lactose-free milk. So that got my wheels turning.

(On a side-note, this is SO easy, you could adjust it for your own toddler allergies, like using soy, almond or coconut milk, or just use regular milk for a toddler with no milk allergy. You can use different fruits and juices, too. I´d love to hear what you come up with!)

So here´s what you need:

 Frozen lactose-free milk (or whatever milk you want to use), frozen in an ice tray

 Frozen Strawberries (or any other frozen fruit you choose)

A very small amount of fruit juice (I used apricot nectar, you can use anything you like)

 Put your ingredients together in a blender or food processor. For my almost two-year-old, I used 3 cubes of milk, about 5 or 6 strawberry slices, and a tiny amount of juice (maybe a teaspoon?)

That´s it! Spoon into a bowl a serve immediately!

I told you it was easy! One tip: it melts fairly quickly, and then will be more of a smoothie consistency. (If you have an independent kiddo that insists on feeding herself, it will melt. B doesn´t seem to mind, though!)

I call this toddler ice cream, but I´m thinking of making a bunch for me! It´s so good you´ll want to just stick your face in it!

Super Easy and Yummy Smoothies

Every Friday, my husband fasts and does not join us for breakfast, so it´s my easy day. For B I make easy peasy toddler ice cream, and for myself I make a smoothie. This particular recipe is oh so easy, quick and yummy!

Here´s what you need (for one adult):

1 Banana (frozen if you like your smoothies thick)
About a cup of frozen strawberries
About 1/2 cup of yogurt (natural or flavored, you decide)
About 1/2 cup of milk

Put the dry ingredients in the blender: (Mine is dirty because I made B´s ice cream first)

Add yogurt. (Yogurt in Ecuador is all drinkable yogurt. Mine is apricot. Very tangy!)

Add milk.

Blend.

Drink.

Easy!!

Oatmeal Creme Pies

While my niece is staying here for a week or so, and she was begging me to teach her to make cookies. (Baking is not a very common skill here in Ecuador.) I had been wanting to try to make homemade oatmeal cream pies, because they don´t have them here and I was craving them, so I decided we´d make those together as her first cookie experience. It was fun! My mother-in-law even joined in!

 I looked up the recipe, but I used this recipe for the marshmallow fluff. It came out a little more runny that the store-bought kind, but it tasted the same. And we dyed the marshmallow fluff green.

The only change we made was that we made homemade corn syrup. My niece had never used food coloring before! (I know, what do these children DO all day?!? Ha.)

They were a big hit with everyone. Even Jairo. And that´s saying something, because he´s generally a party-pooper when it comes to sweets. They weren´t really too much like the store-bought kind, but they were good!

It was fun to spend some ¨girl time¨, and even more fun because I was the only one who had really ever baked before, so it was funny to watch them learn and try things. It made me wish Bella were a little older so we could do those things together, but that time will come!

I´m baaaack!

Did you miss me? I just want to issue an official apology for not blogging lately. It´s partly because there are so many things I want to post, and I am redoing the blog, and I feel like I can´t publish it all until it´s perfect! And it´s partly because there are so many things going on in our life right now that it´s hard to know where to start. And also, I´m a little bit lazy. I already do SO MUCH work on the computer for the ministry, that I´m tired of looking at it!

However, dear readers, I have not forgotten you! I wanted to take a break from talking about me, me, me and just share a little bit of what I have been reading in God´s Word. I really will update you all on us, just not today! I hope you don´t mind!!

Ok, so a good friend of mine recommended to me that I read Psalm 5. I wanted to really dig deep into the Psalm and get everything I could out of it, so I used an online commentary that was AWESOME. You should check it out.

I have like 10 pages in my journal just on this Psalm. And it made me want to just start in Genesis and do a verse-by-verse study of the whole Bible.Who knows, maybe I will!

First of all, this Psalm really encouraged me to get up early to spend time in prayer, before anyone else is up. I think there are a couple of good reasons to do it. First of all, it´s a smack in the face to the flesh part of us. And any time you can smack the flesh in the face, it´s a good idea to do it! Because the flesh in a loser. Also, it is probably the only truly uninterrupted time you´ll have all day. No one is going to call you. No one is going to show up at your door. No one is going to ask you to do anything, because everyone else is still snoring! And last, but not least, it´s the best start to your day you could ask for. It helps your spirit wake up along with your body, and it puts God in first place. If you start your day like that, you´re more likely to finish it like that.

So, check out this quote from the commentary:

When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave to do the like; our bodies but forerun the spirit's duty: true hearts spread and heave unto their God, as flowers do to the sun. Give him thy first thoughts, then, so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and in him sleep. Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should Dawn with the day. There are set awful hours twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good after sun rising, for day sullies flowers. Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut, and heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut...Go this way, and thou art sure to prosper all the day. Henry Vaughn, 1621-1695

Man, I wish I lived in the 1600´s so I could talk like that. Sigh.

Ok, my other favorite thing about this Psalm is that apparently in the Hebrew, David basically says he will arrange his prayers before God like a priest arranges the sacrifice upon the altar. He will make his best effort to present his prayers before God in such a way that they will be pleasing to Him. I wonder how often we do that? I think most of the time we just let the words flow out without foresight or consideration, as if we were talking to any old person and not to the King of the universe. It really challenged me to sit down and journal my prayer requests and thoughts before prayer, and then consider more carefully the way I was addressing God. Sure, we can come to the throne room in confidence, but not in disrespect!

So, I will leave you with two awesome quotes:

For want of looking up many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise ... Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king's gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto. Do thou likewise. William Gurnall.

He is either a fool or a madman, he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and prays but never looks after his prayers; that shoots many an arrow toward heaven, but never minds where his arrows alight. Thomas Brooks.

So, the question after reading that is, do we believe? Do we expect? Are we fools, or madmen? Are we weak, or wicked? Ok, that´s four questions. Whatever. Just think about it!

So much has happened..

So much has happened that I don´t even know how to write this post. God is taking us through a desert, through the fire, up the mountain and through the valley. My heart is breaking in places I didn´t know it had, and I can´t sleep.

I´m listening to the sweet voice of one of my dearest friends, thanks to the wonders of the internet. I´m in Ecuador, he and his sweet family are in Illinois, and I am listening to the way he praises God through the pain he is feeling that I cannot begin to imagine.

I will write about some of the trials we have been facing lately in other posts, but it all pales in comparison to the story I am going to share with you right now. If you want to know what faith is, if you want to know what it means to cling to Christ, if you want to know how to be strong in the midst of the storm and seek solice in the Holy Spirit, please don´t look to me. Look at my beautiful friends, and learn from them like I am learning from them.

If in the years I have been writing this blog I have gained any followers or any amount of influence, I hope that it all has been to direct you all to this family and the ways you can help them, and they ways they can help you.

Jeff and Tiffany, whom I have known since I was little, are a family who have known loss as a way of life, and yet there is nothing they have denied their Savior that He has asked of them. Their beautiful son, Thao, 5, went home to be with Jesus a few days ago, and even now I am listening to the praises they offer to Him, the One who asked everything of them.

I know God doesn´t have favorites, but I can´t imagine any children of His that could be more beloved than these dear friends of mine. Please take some time to read about them, to pray for them, and to donate to the fund established in their honor. Even if all you can spare is $5, please accept my most fervent and honest testimony that there is no family more worthy of your investment, and I´m certain that the heavenly dividends will be endless.

You can read about what happened, on facebook, here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=579475491#!/groups/241400089259888/

You can read about Thao here:

http://commercial-news.com/obituaries/x1929698755/Jeffery-Thao-Nardoni

You can read mom Tiffany´s blog here:

http://tiffany-adventuresofastayathomemom.blogspot.com/

You can listen to the church service days after Thao went to be with Jesus here:

http://www.danvilleconnexion.com/sermons

Click on ¨Praising God after Thao´s Passing¨ At the end (around 40 minutes and following) you can hear what I am listening to right now, dad Jeff´s worship set, featuring some of Thao´s favorite songs.

You can donate to this wonderful family here:

http://fundly.com/thethaonardonifund

Every little bit helps.

You can pray for this family now, and whenever you remember them. They didn´t withhold even their precious son from God, let´s not withhold our prayers and support from them. Thank you.

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, it wasn´t a big deal, but there was an earthquake outside of Quito this morning. It lasted about 5 seconds according to news reports. It was a 4.0 on the Richter scale. If you read Spanish, you can read about it here.

It was my first earthquake! Not necessarily on my list of things to do before I die, but it was interesting. We were close enough to feel pretty significant trembling but not close enough for things to fall off the walls. I think had that happened I would have been a lot more freaked out!

Anyway, just thought I would share! :)

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 30

Day 30: Be the Person you Want your Kids to Become

Can you believe this is the end of our series? I hope it has been an encouragement to you! As I re-read these posts I am inspired to improve in many areas, because these little lessons are ones I think I will never stop perfecting.

We have come full circle, and in some ways are back where we started, hopefully a little wiser and more inspired and purposeful than we were 30 posts ago.

I know as mothers we have big dreams for our little ones, however ¨little¨ they may be. I am a big believer that we cannot expect others to do what we are not willing or able to do, no matter how good our intentions may be. So today´s advice is simple, yet hard to do.

Every day, take a look at what you are thinking, saying and doing. Are these things you would be proud to see or hear your child repeating, or would you be embarassed or dissappointed? Don´t buy into the ¨do as I say and not as I do¨ nonsense. Go for the ¨monkey see, monkey do¨ philosophy, and be the best person you can be, for their sakes and your own. And as you realize each day in what areas you have failed, realize as well that if you cannot be perfect, neither can your children.

Decide what things matter most to you, and act them out in your daily life. The truth is that a purposeful mommy is first and foremost a purposeful person. When you live your life with purpose, conviction and high expectations, every other role you play will follow suit. If you are a person of integrity and character, your children will be as much influenced by your example as by your words and discipline to them.

Thank you for joining me on this path to purposeful motherhood! It has been a challege to write for you, but I hope it was worth it. Let me know what you thought of our first series!

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 29

Day 29: Remember Why you Do what you Do!

The root of being a purposeful mommy is remembering our motivation. If our motivation is just getting through the day (trust me, we have all been there!), then being purposeful in our parenting is nearly impossible. We need a much bigger reason to help us through those moments when naptime seems way too far away.

Whether you planned to have your children or you were just blessed with having them unplanned, I know that once you held them in your arms you realized that there was a part of you that you never knew was empty, and now it is full. Being a mother gives us an eternal purpose and calling, and allows us to love more deeply and selflessly than we ever knew possible.

Even so, there are many challenging moments where you might be tempted to wonder if it was all worth it. Tomorrow, when your children are angels again, or at least human, you will come to your senses and all will be well. But today maybe you have trouble getting perspective.

Remember that when no other motivation seems to get you through the day, there is one all-important reason to keep doing what you´re doing instead of shipping them off to boarding school. The Bible tells us that children are entrusted to us by God, like a loan, and He expects to reap dividends on His investment. He tailor made our children for our families, with the perfect mix of what will help us grow as people and what will be the best environment for our children, should we realize our potential to train them up in the way they should go. Being a mother is a difficult job, but it is eternally important, because we will answer to God for every moment with our precious little bundles of joy. When we understand the eternal significance of today, we will take great care that our thoughts, words and actions are those which are pleasing to God and that is the definition of purposeful parenting.

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 28

Day 28: Teach your Kids the Value of Hard Work

From the time they are little, kids should have appropriate chores around the house, with whatever kind of compensation seems good to you. (Incidently, a small allowance can teach great lessons about money management and savings.) This kind of work is rewarding in and of itself, as we learn to value the satisfaction of a job well done and a clean, neat house. This of course means we ought to value hard work ourselves!

On a spiritual level, learning to value wholesome work is very important. The Bible warns many times in Proverbs about the dangers of laziness, and as they say, idle hands are the devil´s workshop. A person who is lazy in life will most likely be lazy in spiritual disciplines as well, and that is extremely damaging to a person. Take it from someone who has had to overcome these bad habits of laziness herself! Shocking, I know!

I read in a great book what one mom did in regards to encouraging good work habits and I loved it. TV is probably one of the biggest time-stealers and promoters of laziness that we all have in our homes. Instead of limiting TV time and using it as a reward (reinforcing the idea that TV is great while work is no fun), this author only let her daughters watch TV while they were doing something else. For example, they could sit down to knit or fold laundry, and then when their hands found nothing left to do, the TV went off and they had to go find a new activity. The result, she says, is that her children now value the TV very little, and would much rather be productive. Work is more rewarding than a day spent watching TV.

Think about your child´s average day. Is there a lot of dead time in front of the TV or video games? Is there a lot of sleeping in? Maybe it´s time to make some changes and promote wholesome work at home, to help our children grow and become prepared for the life they will have when they set off to be adults!

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 27

Day 27: Model Communication

Depending on your own upbringing, modeling good communication in your family might be a challenge. However, it´s better that you teach your children to communicate even if it´s hard for you, because as adults you don´t want it to be hard for them.

I have seen examples of good communication and poor communication in many people. One person I know will almost never apologize, or even acknowledge a disagreement as having taken place. Moments after an argument, this person will simply act like nothing ever happened. Sweeping things under the rug will not help anything! It only teaches us to bottle up our feelings and we all know what will happen eventually--BOOM!

Another person I know will just become passive agressive at every turn when she is upset. This behavior will continue until she gets over it, and you will never know what you did to upset her!

Most of these kinds of disfunctions come from our own upbringing, which is all the more reason to learn to be communicators ourselves and not perpetuate the cycle in our children. Here are some basic starting points:

- Apologize to your kids when you´re in the wrong, and teach them to apologize as well.

- Teach them to communicate feelings (When you do this, I feel......)

- Teach them to talk about everything, whether it be the events of the day or a book they´re reading. Good communication in one area will encourage good communication in others.

- Encourage more than one-word answers.

- Explain your feelings to your children. (where appropriate)

- Teach your children to name their feelings. (Are you sad right now? Are you frustrated? Etc.)

And these are just tips. You can expand on them as you go. The important thing is to communicate! So grab a kid and get chatting!

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 26

Day 26: Form Family Traditions

Most of us probably remember certain family traditions that we enjoyed with our families growing up. In my husband´s case, he remembers that certain days of the week they got to eat special foods, and when his dad travelled out of town he always brought them special snacks. In my case, my favorite family traditions were our Christmastime traditions, like making Christmas cookies and decorating them, making a special Christmas ornament or reading the Christmas story from Luke before we opened presents.

Some traditions from your childhood you may want to carry over, and others you might want to invent. It doesn´t matter if it´s as simple as chocolate chip cookies on Friday night or as complicated as a yearly trip to the same place. Traditions are part of what makes childhood so fun, because children anticipate fun things for a long time leading up to the moment. And when we are older, traditions give us a sense of nostalgia and happiness in our memories, even if other parts of our lives were chaotic.

As the mommy, the job of making family traditions will almost always fall to you. Embrace it and have some fun! Be creative, taking into account your family´s unique style and personality. Your kids will look back on those traditions and smile, and the shared memories will only enhance the bonds of family in your home.

30 Days to Being a Purposeful Mommy, Day 25

Day 25: Smile!

You know, turn that frown upside-down!

Ok, sorry for that. But this really is my advice for today. Kids are excellent little psychologists, and instanly know when something is wrong in your world. They are also wonderfully spongelike, and will soak up that bad mood in an instant, perpetuating the cycle of a bad day. So what to do?

Just smile! Look at your kids, think about how much you love them, and whip out a smile. Or a funny dance. Or a silly face. Turn that bad day upside-down. You´ll be glad you did. And when all else fails, sit in a big mixing bowl. It sure cracks Bella up.