Bay's newest aspiring profession

Here he is dabbling into photography but the other day at church he was sitting with Derrick and me listening to our youth pastor when he said, "Mom, when I get bigger, I want to speak up there. I will be serious then." This picture of Samantha is her attempt at taking a picture of US (Bay & me)! It was pretty funny! She had the camera turned around toward herself!

Healthier brownies

These are actually pretty good, especially for not having any sugar! I did have to cook them for longer than what was called for though.

1/2 cup butter ( I used Smart Balance stick butter)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup oil (olive oil)
1 cup honey
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pecans
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
One night I added a banana and that was good!

Melt butter; add cocoa and oil. Remove from heat and add honey. Stir. Cool. Beat egg & vanilla; add to butter mixture. Add soda, baking powder, and nuts. Stir in flour and spread mixture in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20 min. Cut in bars while warm.

Fruit salad

1 mango-chopped into cubes
1/2 pineapple- chopped into cubes
2 oranges-filleted (reserve juice)
1 grapefruit- filleted (reserve juice)
some watermelon- chopped
1 or 2 peaches- chopped
1 TBS honey
a few mint leaves (or more)- chopped
pistachios (or pecans)- chopped

Mix all together with juice reserved from oranges and grapefruit.

Amber's nuggets

Recently I was inspired by one of John Piper's blogs about blogging. He said it was good to capture those "nuggets of truth" you catch in your day. I would like to "spice it up" a little and add little nuggets of truth that I am learning. Not that I am a scholar or anything!!! I do want to make this blog into a book for the kids to keep and I think it would be neat for them to read what I have learned along the way. If you want to know more about the book, I think the website is blurb.com. Plus, I think it would keep me more accountable with what I am learning from the Word and I love to write! So, here is one of my recent "nuggets" :

I was listening to a sermon by Pastor John Barnett (he was our pastor, whom we adore, and has gone :( to pastor a very blessed church in Michigan). He said, "But God is faithful...who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but will with the temptation at the same instant also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it...God is there all the time...He is never closer than when we are tempted. God is faithful. He doesn't remove all temptations from us. He stands right next to us to glorify Him. We need to saturate ourselves with the word, abhor consistently evil, & then look for God. At the instant of your next temptation, thank God that He is going to be so close to you right then. Why don't you tell him the next time you're tempted that you're going to whisper in your heart that you're lookin' for Him."

I did whisper that when I had my next temptation but I did not want to follow through and DO what I knew was right! This, I need to work on!

Saturate- saturate ourselves in the word- this is what I desire! To saturate myself. Too often I am caught up in the busyness of life! I know that our family is our ministry and I love to serve them but I would like to use my time wisely and not just read my Bible and check it off of my "to-do" list but to really meditate on the word, obey it, and for my heart to be filled with God's love. Then it would just pour out into my family. As I have said before, it is pointless to teach my kids to be something that I am not.

Lil' Bel

Lil' she is! The doctor is a little concerned about her weight so we are really trying to help her gain. We will go back for a weight check in a little over a week. You would not believe how much this baby eats! I taught her how to sign that she wants more and she signs away! Only it was supposed to keep her from squealing when she wants more food but she just does it simultaneously! ;) Isabella LOVES Job (our cat) and Molly (our puppy). Here she is squealing at Job on the other side of the door!

Our little monkeys

These little monkeys were fun to watch! They so reminded me of Bailey and Samantha! They had SO much energy! They wrestled, chased each other, hurt each other, climbed, leaped, fell down, upset their parents...The parents layed around while they ran circles around them. At one point I saw one of the parents reach down and grab one of their ears! ;) Check out Bailey and Samantha imitating them!

Salsa

This salsa is really good! This night Derrick grilled burgers & corn & we put the salsa on the burgers and tortilla chips. I have a recipe for salsa that I have been wanting to make from G-ma Sue but things disappear from my recipe drawer only when I'm looking for them! I did end up finding the recipe for the Bell peppers, G-ma Sue! ;) My Omie (g-ma) gave me a church cookbook of hers and it had this recipe:

North Carolina Style Salsa

3 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup sliced green onions (I used sweet onions)

2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro ( I used much

more because I love cilantro!)

2 TBS finely chopped jalapeno chilies (I used

much less!)

4 TBS lime juice (I used more)

1/4 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in glass or plastic bowl.

Cover and refrigerate until serving.