Without the Rain

Without the Rain

Can you just imagine
Life without the rain
Not having the beautiful scent to indulge in
A world without roses or the sugar cane
The lightning and the thunder showing the mightiness of God, so great
The wind blowing through your hair
The sweetness of a child, upon hearing the thunder, running to your bed so late
The way it makes the trees sound
Dancing in it as a child
The way it sounds through the window as the drops hit the ground
At times intense, others mild
Some say they don't like the rain
Blind to the beauty of a thunderstorm
But what if they knew it may be their last rain...
The last they ever felt a drop on their skin, so warm...
Ever heard...
Ever that they'd see?
What if they got the word
That they'd shortly step into eternity?
There are storms of a different kind, the storms of life
We don't like to welcome the pain...
The strife
He, the Almighty, brings us the rain
And sometimes it is the only way we gain
For without the rain, nothing will grow
Without the rain, there will be no rainbow
For the earth it is the grass, the flowers, the trees...
A storm raging in our hearts brings us to our knees
It is on our knees that we learn we are not our own
We are His
Nothing matters more than this
Without our rain, our pain
We would surely remain
In our sin...
Lost within
But now, because of the rain, broken... undone
With a new heart, a new life just begun
The rain clears
A soul stills
Life, a precious gem
Now poured out for Him...
For Him

For my father-in-law, with love, who is cherishing every thunderstorm

tulsaevangelism.blogspot.com

Derrick, my brother, Ryan, and some of their friends have a blog called tulsaevangelism.blogspot.com. I also put a link to it on here if you scroll down to the right. It is a great sight and I admire how their hearts overflow and pour into reaching the lost.

Banana Brownies

Pardon the random blogs I put on here. Sometimes I send stuff to my blog that I don't want to forget about or that I want to show someone else. I'm sure it's simple but I have not been able to send myself e-mails. I think I know how but for some reason my computer won't do it anyway. I must be missing something. So, I just send things to the blog because I know how to do that. The one I sent below is pretty good though if you want to check it out. I am fascinated with the Duggar family!

I made some really good brownies today! I got the recipe from a lady at church. If you lick the pot with the chocolate and coconut oil alone (which the kids and I did, it is very tasty. I'm actually going to experiment and see if I can make a healthier version of Buckeyes with it. My friend, Kelly (Teach and Tickle), submitted a recipe for those in our church cookbook and, let me tell you, we love those! They just happen to have a bunch of powdered sugar and butter in them and are good for special occasions but I made them twice in one week the other week! I'll let you know if they turn out or taste very good! ;)

Banana Brownies

2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup of wheat flour for one of those cups.)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I used the Special Dark dark chocolate.)
1 cup butter, divided (I used 1/2 cup of Virgin Coconut Oil to melt the chocolate with instead.)
1 cup sugar (I used brown.)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 cups pureed very ripe bananas ( My bananas weren't overripe but they blended into a good puree.)

Mix well flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Place chocolate chips and 1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil) in pot over low heat, continually stirring until smooth.

In medium bowl cream remaining 1/2 cup butter and the sugar until light; beat in eggs, milk, and bananas. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate, leaving mixture slightly marbelized. Turn into greased 13X9-inch baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until sides just begin to pull away from pan. Cool in pan on rack. Cut into bars.

The Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Family | Character Qualities

The Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Family | Character Qualities

Shopping for "Daddy's Day"

Monday we had a fun day shopping for what Bailey says is "Daddy's Day". He said he doesn't like to say Father's Day so he wants to call it Daddy's Day. Okay, that's fine. ;) First we took Derrick his lunch that he forgot to take up to his work. That's always fun to go up to the base and see him and the planes. We had Molly (our Rat Terrier) with us and took her to Petsmart, which is really fun too. My brother, Ryan, says it's the "Poor man's zoo". ;) We got Mol a new collar and name tag and, of course, checked out rats, mice, hamsters, birds, fish, frogs, crabs...Then we went to LaFortune and had a picnic of sandwiches with Goober grape jelly (They always ask for it at the store and I finally bought them some and they love it! I did too when I was little but I never could figure out why I thought it tasted so much better than a regular p.b. & j sandwich)) and fed the ducks. Two of the ducks had little babies. So cute! We ran into a couple of friends of mine that I used to work with (One was Tara, Dana!) Actually, we didn't really "run" into them! Molly sort of politely? "jumped" at one of their kids. I turned to tell the strangers I was sorry that my dog was trying to attack their little 3-year old girl. I said, "Sorry!" and then I said, "Heyyyy!" Then we went and dropped Mol off at my mom's so we could go shopping for Daddy's Day at (Are you kidding me? Derrick reads this and he's already trying to tell me he knows what it is which, by the way, he doesn't...I hope. And the kids can't keep the gifts a surprise! Such as, when we got him a nice pair of sunglasses that we thought would be helpful for him since he's flying a lot and getting his pilot's license. Okay, so Bailey didn't tell him exactly what they were. He just gave him a hint and said something like, "They go on your eyes." So, as I said, we are skipping that part. Then we went by Sam's and had samples while we shopped and that's always fun too. It was a fun and productive day but I was tired. Derrick had to get some flying hours in that night so after dinner just the kids, Molly, and I went for a walk and then came home and gave Molly a bath.

More cousin withdrawals

My mom took this picture of them with their faces painted (aside from Alyssa) when she was with them in Chicago. Actually, it may have been in Minnesota but I am sure it will all be covered on Dana's blog. Mom brought us all shirts back that say, "Wheaton College" on them. We have been wearing them together. So cute! Wish I could show you a picture but my camera is being sent back for repair again!

This morning I overheard Bailey in the kitchen saying, "I'm walking to Chicago." Then I heard lots of patters of feet. Then I heard him say, "Hi, Alyssa!" Then Samantha chimed in, "Hi, Alyssa!" I have an imaginary Alyssa in my kitchen! I'm sure imaginary Caden and imaginary Mia will be here soon...

Why Can't Oklahoma be France?

My brother, sister-in-law and the cousins (Mia, Caden, and Alyssa) are raising support to go and be missionaries and be involved in Church Planting in France. We always talk about how much we are going to miss them and we talk about their old house and their new house and if their cats are going too...The kids and I were reading and out of nowhere Bailey said in a troubled voice with squinted eyes, "I wish the cousins could be here...(then he interrupted himself) I wish this was France." It was so cute and no one would know how exactly cute it was except for the one who heard the original comment. So sweet. Oh, how we will miss them. They are gone for 6 weeks right now doing some training which is probably why it is so on Bailey's mind right now.

If only...Oklahoma were France...

Little Bella and her 5 day hospital stay

\ (Bella when she was a newborn)

We went for a weight check at the doctor for Isabella (which we do often. I was very shocked at the appointment to be sent to the hospital! Isabella was hospitalized because she had lost weight the last two times we went to the doctor. She is 19 months (on the 10th) and went from 20 pounds to 19.6 and then down to 19.4. We have not been concerned about her and could go on and on with stories of small people in the family. They took lots of blood from her (that was very sad :( ) I had to help hold her down and she kept crying, "Mama! Mama! Mama!" When she realized I wasn't "helping" her she began crying, "Dada! Dada! Dada!" And then, finally, "Papa! Papa! Papa!" They stuck her in 3 different places before they got it. She lost a pound while she was in the hospital and we were trying so hard to get her to eat and gain that she would just see me bringing food to her and shake her head no. The doctors wanted to put a feeding tube down her nose and into her belly and even send her home on it for awhile. We were not very comfortable with that (especially when all her tests that they've been running on her have been coming back fine and we think she's just little). After praying, consulting with others, and getting a second opinion from another doctor, we had the order canceled. We heard it would have been very traumatizing for her and she could have pulled it out and bled. My mom, being a nurse, has seen these first-hand. They also wanted to try giving her an antihistamine that had a drug in it that would stimulate her appetite. We didn't want to do that either. We basically just tried to feed her anything we could get her to eat at the hospital (Derrick did great bringing her food such as fried mozzarella sticks and a shake) and she was weighed every morning and waited on test results to come back (still pending on some). We are continuing to work on this at home and charting everything she eats for her follow-up appointment. Derrick, the kids, and I all stayed the night every night up at the hospital and, thankfully, they got to hang out with some of the grandparents and have some fun. The great thing about being up there was all the people that came to visit and show their love even though we had a healthy baby in the crib! We had some sweet time with many family members and some friends! We had a lot of people coming in our room such as a dietician, a social worker, a speech therapist (to see if she had any diversions to texture or anything), nurses... Many commented that she did not look like a regular "failure to thrive" child (that is her diagnosis). They watched her run around the room and some said, "She probably burns it off!" We were actually on the oncology floor and saw some, such as a baby that had cancer, being pulled around in a wagon. My heart broke for those parents and I felt so bad for worrying about something so minor as Isabella's situation.

I just realized the last post was about a trip to the emergency room! Are you beginning to think that all we do is spend time at the hospital? ;)