My Children...

This past week, I have been thinking about how so much of what is really important can't be bought!

One of the verses that had been on my heart was 3 John 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

How true that is.  Here is scrapbook layout I made based on that verse...

I am so thankful for the blessing of family and that by the grace of God our children are walking in the truth!

(This layout was done using The Best Things page kit by designer Carole Harden.  You can find it here: The Digital Scrapbook Place  )

Wow am I behind?!?!

Here we are nearing the end of February and I haven't posted anything for this new year!  Guess that means life has been busy around our house! :)

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas vacation.  It was nice to have the kids off of school and to enjoy the holidays.  We enjoyed hosting a couple parties at our house.  One for the deacons and their wives and a dinner for our 3 church staff and their families.  Christmas eve was our families "Birthday Party for Jesus", and the kids had a wonderful time.

For our "Old Man" for New Year's eve this year, the kids each made a replica of themselves.  Everyone enjoyed playing games and watching movies, etc. to stay up and wait until mid-night to burn them and make lost of noise to say "good-bye" to 2012 and "welcome" to 2013!

The week of 2013, was spent getting the Christmas stuff all packed away and the house put back together.  Then the kids and I were back at school.

We finished up our 3rd term on February 8th!  That was a big deal, as that means we are 1/2 way through our school year!!

Another big event that happened in January, was that we were able to start the process of requesting visas to  travel to the US for Carla and Matthew.  That is now in process, and we covet your prayers that this process would go smoothly and quickly.  We are hoping to have the visas by June, but earlier would be ok! :)  We are thankful that even though there are many "unknowns" for us on this road that God is not taken by surprise by any of it and that He is in control!

The church celebrated it's 8th anniversary on February 3!  It seems impossible that it has already been 8 years!!  We had a great attendance of just over 200.  We are so thankful the many blessings that God has bestowed upon this ministry!

For the anniversary I made a cake to share with the church.  It was quite an adventure.  It was made up of 12, 9x13 cakes.   Here's a layout of the "Cake Adventure". ;)

It is amazing what God is doing here.  The Ladies Sunday school class continues to grow.  We are presently doing a study based on Beth Moore's book, Praying God's Word.  It has been a huge blessing to me personally and it has also been a blessing to hear the testimonies each week of how the Ladies are growing and how God is working in their hearts and lives.

Schools are out in Manabi at this time for their, "summer vacation"... this year they are taking off until May, so during the next 2 months, we will be having our annual VBS and our Teen Retreat.  In March, our Bible Institute will be starting back up.  They are going to spend the first month, teaching, Evagelism and Discipleship.  Please be in prayer that many will be burdened to get involved and will make the extra effort necessary to participate in these Thursday evening classes.

This year at our church the "theme" or emphasis is on Gratitude.  So with that in mind, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the part you have played in our lives and ministry over the last 22 years.   I know that the only reason we are here ministering is because there are people back home, "holding the ropes".  People praying for us on a daily basis and many people sacrificing to give their Missions Offering each week.  We don't take those things lightly.   Each victory here, each soul saved and each life changed is all because of the part you have played.

So Thank you!! I pray that God will bless each of you above and beyond anything you could ever imagine.

Blessings,
Joy

(these layouts were done using page kits from the  Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc. )

Christmas Baking

Traditionally we enjoy baking lots of goodies around this time of year.  My Mom has shared that my Grandma Wille, my Dad's Mom, always made lots of cookies and candy, and it is something that she started doing when she married my Dad.  Growing up, I remember having a huge variety of cookies and goodies around the house.

This year one of my daughters emailed me asking about a couple recipes she was looking for.  I decided the easiest way to get them to her would be to post them on my blog.  That way you get to enjoy them too! ;-) I do not have the original source for either of these recipes.  One was passed to my by a friend, but I believe it came from the Taste of Home magazine, and the other I cut out of a magazine but have no idea which one.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Triangles

1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks) softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cinnamon red hots, (crushed)

1. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy and smooth, (2 min.).  Beat in egg and salt.  On low speed gradually beat in flour until well blended.  Stir in crushed red-hot candies.  Divide dough into 4 equal disks.  Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheet with non-stick foil or regular foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

3. Place 1 disk of chilled dough on lightly-floured surface; place a piece of waxed paper on top. Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut into about 22 cookies, (triangle shaped, about 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 by 2).  Place on baking sheets.  Re-roll; cut out scraps.  Repeat with remaining dough.

4.  Bake in 375 F oven for 6 minutes, or until edges are golden.  Let stand on sheets 2 minutes.  Transfer to rack; let cool complete, then store in an air tight container.

Makes about 7 dozen.

Mocha Bars

2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup of cold coffee, (the stronger the better ;)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips (mini ones work great, but regular ones are fine, too.)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Beat eggs, oil, coffee, and vanilla.  Combine flour, brown sugar, salt and baking soda, then add to coffee mixture.  Beat until smooth.  Pour into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan.  Bake at 375 F. for 30 to 35 minutes.  When you take them out, sprinkle with chips and nuts.  Let cool and cut into bars.  The texture of this is very "cakey", but very good!  I have sometimes just served it like a sheet cake instead of cutting into bars.

*note, I started sprinkling the nuts and chocolate chips on before baking.  That way you don't have so many "rolling off" your bars when you try to eat them! ;)

My Planner...

For the last several years, I have been taking other plan books and "planner pages" and tweaking them to try and find something that would work for us, with our home schooling.  I have used "plan books" I purchased at "Teacher Stores", in the US.  I have tried on-line planners and grade books.  And while they all had their positive points, none of them were exactly what I was needing, nor were they always inexpensive.

This year, I decided to try my hand at my own.  So I learned to work with Excel, and actually made a spreadsheet planner that fits our needs.  Now I'm a "pencil and paper" girl, so I just make the sheets and then print them out, for 1 term at a time. (We have broken our school year into 6, 7 week terms this year.  We only school 4 days a week, most weeks, so that is why we have added the 7th week. :-)  Here is a link to a pdf of my weekly plan book sheets, plan book page 1, plan book, page 2 .

I also have struggled with keeping some kind of "grade record".  We have tried as I mentioned above various different things, but this year, I also made "grade sheets for each child, and add grades daily to my "grade book".  Here is a link to a pdf of my grade book sheets, grade book sheet 1, grade book sheet 2, grade book, sheet 3 .

Since we do a form of "work boxes", (I call it our "work folders"), I have taken a free PDF download from the official Work Box site, and I tweaked it...color coding it for each child, and then typing in
the things that stay the same each week.  This has saved me tons of time. ;-)  The Work Folders hold anything that they can do independently.  They work through them during the day.  When I am ready to work with one or 2 of them, I just call them out to our table, and we work together, then when they return to their desk, they can pick up with their folders.   Here is a link to a pdf of my log sheet for our work folders, log sheet 1, log sheet 2 .

Hope you enjoyed the "peak" at my "plan book".    I am thinking of adding a couple pages to it  from a friend.  One that focuses on  my personal Bible study and prayer requests for the week.  I also think it would be good to add a monthly calendar for an over-view of what's going on in our lives.  I do have a "year at a glace" type of calendar at the front of my binder, but it would be nice to have something that I could actually make notes on, too.