Erin Ramsey

 For you created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 

  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 

  your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

-Psalm 139:13-16

I’m praising God today for the gift of life He has given me.

He loves each one of us the exact same and took the same care and detail to make us each different yet still His. He gave us each our own unique set of looks, personalities, and talents. 

Today I’m going to accept them all as His birthday gift to me.

And I think His gift will probably top them all !!! 

-Erin

Other than your life – What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given?

I can recall several times during my childhood when my Dad would tell me, ”Life’s Tough.” I’m sure I was always complaining about something when he’d tell me that. Let’s just say I had a “flair for the dramatic”. 

 I can see that “dramatic flair” in my kids now. They’re  young, so  it’s just something we’re constantly working on. I ask them to complete a task and half the time what I hear back is complaining. (Little do they know, “Life’s Tough!”). I look at their simple task of picking up shoes or putting away toys and think that it’s nothing compared to managing an entire household.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been in a battle with them to keep their room tidy. I’ve said all the right things, “After you get one thing out, please put it away before moving on to the next thing” and “We need to take care of our things because it’s a privilege to have them”. I’ve made threats and I’ve bagged up their toys. 

After weeks of working on this, nothing seemed to change. I felt defeated, discouraged, and depressed. Then, I realized there was something I wasn’t doing to help me in my tidy room battle.

I was not seeking the Lord for wisdom. I considered the issue of keeping toys put away so simple that I thought I could fix the problem with out His help or that I would be “bothering” Him with my little problem.

The cool thing is, God doesn’t put our problems on levels. He’s a great listener and has perfect advice to give, no matter how small our request.

When life gets tough, are first reactions might be to complain, freak out, or give up. 

Instead of doing all that, we can go to the Bible because ….

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

{Hopefully there will be a part 2 to this post, where I share about our victory in the tidy room battle}

So, do you have some little battles not being won and will you go to God today and ask Him to help you?

How do you teach your kids to keep their toys picked up?

When the going gets tough, the tough should get going to God for help.

-Erin

I do not consider myself a great cook. But I do consider myself a great-er cook than I was about 8 years ago.  With the help of church cookbooks, the internet, and friends I’ve been able to fake my way into cooking a decent meal.  I’ve also called my Grandma several times for help. (By the way, her food always tastes better when she makes it)

It’s been a lot of trial and error. In fact, I  couldn’t even bake a potato the whole first year of marriage! Times sure have changed and I’m happy to announce I can bake both white and sweet potatoes.  

I’ve also learned that one of the best ways to save money on groceries is to plan your meals and try to use some of your food items for more than one meal. For example,I can use one bag of frozen chicken breasts to make 2-3 meals for our family of 5.  I will grill 2 chkn.breasts for barbeque chicken pizza, Pound out 2 chkn. breasts to be breaded..and pan fried to eat w/ pasta, chop & saute 2 chkn. breasts for tacos. (My children are still small, so they don’t eat as much…or at all!)

I want to share a recipe  that I recently tried. (It is Husband approved). I actually came up with this on my own. My two main ingredients that I was stretching were corn tortillas and chicken. I bought a pack of small corn tortillas to make fish & chicken tacos. They were very tasty  and I had more than half a bag of tortillas left over. When I have leftovers, I always try to think of a way to jazz it up the second time around. (I had to train myself to eat leftovers).

This is what I came up with:

You’ll need this -

1 Package corn tortillas, Vegetable oil,1 can enchilada sauce, shredded cheese,shredded lettuce,chopped cooked chicken,sour cream,& diced tomatoes.

Put about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a pot. Put the heat on med./high until it bubbles when you splash a TINY bit of water into it. (not very technical..sorry) The tortilla will start to bubble up, I usually pop the the little bubbles w/ my tongs and just keep flipping it over until it’s crispy. Remove the tortilla and let them rest on a plate covered w/ paper towel.

After your tortillas are done cooking, you can start assembling.

Start layering -

Enchilada sauce,cheese,chicken

Microwave for about 45 seconds or place 6 on a cookie sheet in a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes.

Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, & a dollop of sour cream. 

Done.

(for a shortcut on the chkn., I used Tyson’s Fajita chicken breast strips,cut into chunks)

Hungry yet?

My husband always knows when it’s Friday  because of my change in behavior. I tend to get a little silly. There’s just something about Friday that makes me want to dance around and laugh a lot. So, I think a fun blog post would be appropriate on Fridays.

Here we go!:

People are serious when it comes to their favorite candy.

In fact I  have a very sweet friend (you know who you are!) that is serious about – Starburst candy.

I must agree that Starburst is a radical candy. They’re bite size, colorful, and refreshingly fruity! Wtih that being said, I have to admit that I strongly dislike the yellow (a.k.a. lemon) ones. I get disappointed when I reach my hand into a bag of Starburst or open that foil wrapper only to find more yellow than any of the other colors.

After hearing my dilemma, my Starburst -loving friend shared a little technique to help me overcome my dislike of the yellow. She’s so nice!

So here is how to actually enjoy eating a yellow starburst:

1. Take a yellow and an orange and place behind knee and bend. Wait about 5 minutes until the candies are softened from the warmth.

2. Unwrap your candies and smoosh together.

3. Chew it.

4.That crazy yellow has turned into something yummy.

It is my hope that if you too dislike the yellow starburst, you’ll put this technique into practice and  start to enjoy them.

I’m so curious to know if there are other candy secrets out there.

Do you have one?