It's been awhile!

Sorry, I know it has been like a month since I last wrote anything! For that I apologize, but let me explain myself. It is kinda like I fell off the face of the earth, or at least just one side of it. Over the past month my family and I have sold all we had and moved back across the ocean to America. Our time in Asia has come to an end and the Father has brought us back to the US for a new chapter in our lives!
Throughout this process of moving home, my heart has been full of such contrasting emotions, but that is for another day! A day when I can just have a few minutes to really sit down and process what has happened to us all. Hopefully that will come soon!
In the past two weeks we have said goodbye to our to our new old friends and met back up with our old new friends. I have gained a sister-in-law, a new niece, reacquainted ourselves with the West, become homeless, driven more than I care to remember, had to rely on God more than ever and really enjoyed constantly seeing Him provide. I am truthfully excited about the new chapter in our lives. It is a new adventure and new call upon us, and I feel we are up for the challenge. Although, it is not completely clear as to what it is yet.
All of this to say, I am excited to be back in America, I am ready to get back to sharing my heart and what the Father is doing and I hope to be more regular in doing so here!

a challenge!

I am not a big fan of goals for myself.  I think it is mainly because I hate pressure and hate to fail.I know they are good and needed, but sometimes they make me crazy. Maybe I am just lazy? I don't want to be lazy! I want to have the discipline to do this. I lack discipline in so many areas!  I make goals and forget them. I make goals and don't like them. But this is gonna be different!
Something I want to instill in my boys is a since of Spiritual discipline. Memorizing scripture, reading the Word daily and praying are some of the most foundational disciplines that I believe even at 3 and 4 they can begin to make a habit out of! 
This year I am setting one important goal. I heard about this cool challenge for memorizing Colossians in a year at Ann Voskamp's blog. So me and my hubby are taking the challenge and gonna memorize it (but we are doing the ESV )!!! It is only 2 verses a week with some built in review weeks. What an important practice I need to get back into! I am excited about it and hope other people will join us and so many other believers around who will be hiding God's work in our hearts!!!!!!!

One word.

Happy New Years.  As, the old year passes and a new one arrives I am filled with gratitude and love for a Father who has blessed me so much! I am reminded that His mercies are new every morning. This has been an amazing year and it seems to have gone by so quickly. I reflect over the past year and try to remember some of the great moments and I love to see how the Father's hands were moving through out our lives.
I wanted to try and think of a goal or maybe a theme for this upcoming year. I have seen a few places where people are trying to think of just one word. I thought to myself that it would be a good idea to try. So the past few days I have been trying to pray and think about what one word that could sum up what my desire is for the upcoming year!
I must say that it has been a real challenge to sum up what I feel God has for me in the upcoming year, so I have decided that I can have a few different words to describe what I feel God has for me to be and do over the next year. I think I have narrowed it down to 3 main words.

Pray.

Family.

Gospel.

Why these three words?

Pray. Because I want this word to reflect and permeate my life.  I know that the more I spend time with the Father in prayer, the more I grow towards Him. The more I am at His feet, the longer I want to be there. The more I listen to His voice, the better I can hear Him! And the closer I walk with Him, the better I will be at living the life He has called me to be. A mom. A wife. A discipler of my boys and other sisters in Christ.

Family. Because I believe that this is my ministry and what God has called me to do. I believe that being a mom and a wife are such important roles. I count it a privilege to be both. These are high callings from the Father and I feel like so many woman today do not take it seriously or understand the importance of these roles. My desire is that this year I would be able to model and exemplify what the Bible says is a godly mother and wife is to look like so I can be a blessing to my family.

Gospel.  Because I believe it is so important for both the believer and the non-believer.  My husband and I have lived overseas for about 3 years working with believers and non-believers in Asia. We have really come to the realization that we all need the Gospel. We all need to live in the light of the Grace of Jesus Christ. That with out it, people are lost and dying and going to Hell. An eternity with out Jesus. An eternity of torment. With His Grace, we need to continue to everyday be grateful and understand the Power that comes through a life with Christ. He desires us to live in Him, walk with Him and live for Him. He wants our lives to reflect Him. He wants the truth to be apart of us and not just a Sunday thing! I pray that this year my life would reflect the Grace of Jesus and that others would not only see Him in me, but hear the Truth from me!

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 

What are your thoughts for the new year?

May the Father's glory be made greater this year by my life!

The reason for Christmas

I love the Christmas season! I love decorating and baking and making crafts with the boys. I love everything about it! (except maybe that it is cold...because I am a wimp when it comes to the cold, except if it snows...then it is ok, but just for a day maybe!)

We had a little bit of snow the other day and this was a mini snow kiah we made!

I also love how easy it is to share the TRUE meaning of Christmas during this time. I love being able to tell people the Truth about Jesus and WHY He was born...TO DIE for US!  Last night we had a party with some friends. We wanted to share an "American Christmas" with them and help them see a little more about our culture.  We decorated cookies and they ate chocolate chip cookies. We played games and laughed and sang songs. But the best part was telling them the story of Baby Jesus.  My boys wanted to help, Josiah wanted to be the Angel (of course he did, b/c that is the part that everyone looks at and gets all the attention, right!?) and Asah wanted to be the sheep (fits his personality perfect)! I love the fact that my 4 year old can finish the sentences of what the Angels told Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds. I love that he knows that Jesus was not just born as a baby, but our need for Jesus started a long long time ago with Adam and Eve. I love that he knows that the story doesn't stop on Christmas day with a little baby! I love that he knows that Jesus was born to die! To SAVE US from our sin!

Our friends at the Christmas party. One child is asleep and the other did not care to be in the picture. So we only have one child at this time!

I pray we don't ever get so caught up in the buying of presents and the getting of things that we forget that God gave us the most perfect, precious gift of all. The gift that every man and woman needs!

Jesus. 
Salvation. 
A chance to have a right relationship with Him!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6,7)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas worshiping our Lord Jesus!

In His Grace,

Patience

NOODLE MAN!

Just plain fun! That is what I want to say about today! I had so much fun learning how to make Chinese Pulled Noodles!!!
Our family loves Lamian, or Chinese Pulled noodles. We have a little Muslim noodle place just down the road and we eat there maybe once a week. But since we are getting ready to head back to the US, I wanted to learn how to make them myself so we can still eat them every once in a while! Every time we go there, the boys get their bowls of noodles and pretend to be the NOODLE MAN! He is the one who stretches the noodles out really long and swings them around and around! It just looks like so much fun! I have always wanted to learn. So today we did! I just wanted to share some of the pics to show what a great time we had with some dear friends!!!

Me and my friends spinning and throwing the noodles around! Looks like fun right??!!

I am no where near the Noodle man's length! Maybe one day!

Hubbs even got in on the action!

The Junior noodle man!

The other Junior noodle man!

My dear friend Ma. Pry for her. That the Father would continue to use her to spread His truth!

Pure yumminess!

So around my house, there is a coveted breakfast...the kind that makes every person in my house happy.

Cinnamon rolls!

When Jonathan and I were dating, I ventured to make them from scratch (first time making anything from scratch!) and from that point on, I have been "forced" to make them ever since. My wonderful hubby told me that those cinnamon rolls were really what won him over! He knew that if I could make them, then he could marry me!!!

Before I moved to Asia, they were maybe a once a year ordeal...or twice. I felt like it took so much time and effort to make them. I mean all the waiting for the bread to rise and the mess. It was a huge undertaking for me at the time.  I was thinking about this the other day, and how now it is nothing more than making a normal meal for me! I must say, I really like it though. I like that it has become easy and second nature to make things from scratch! Some times I feel that our society has lost that art and are so used to popping things into the oven. I love that too, and I miss it, but man do I love having something cooking in my oven and making my house smell good!
I also love the way it makes my husband and children feel so special, feel loved and taken care of.  I think this is my job! To love and take care of my boys. I also know how special it makes others feel to make them home made bread or cookies!
I think that everyone can do it! I  think that everyone can make someone feel special by something home made!

Before I knew it today at breakfast, I looked down and all my boy's breakfasts had disappeared in 2 min!!!! So here is my recipe and if your family (or friends) is anything like mine they will be gone before you know it!

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:

• 1 pack active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 2/3 cups high gluten flour
• 1/3 stick of butter (softened)
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 +1/8 cup (just a little more than 2/3 cup works) skim milk (warmed)

Filling:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 T cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter
• (or enough just to cover the whole thing! I usually don't measure this!)

Icing:

• 8 T butter
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Alright, ready for goodness? First, put the yeast into the warm milk with a little sugar. Wait about 5 min until it is bubbly and growing! While you wait, add all the dry ingredients in a bowl. When your yeast is nice and bubbly pour it in and add the eggs and butter. Mix it up real good and form a ball. I usually use my hands to make sure the butter is good and mixed in. Knead for a few min and then leave for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
When it has been an hour, put your ball on a floured surface and roll out.

While you are waiting on your dough to rise you can mix the cinnamon and sugar or you can wait and just do it right before.
Roll the dough out till it is about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick. Then spread the softened butter all over it. Next is the cinnamon and sugar! The best part! Make sure it is covered all over so every roll has the yumminess!

Then choose one of the sides to start rolling up. It all depends on how thick you want them to be. I usually choose the long side and make them a little smaller b/c I have 4 boys to share them all with so the more the better! After it is all rolled up, cut them into about 12 pieces. You can use a serrated knife or I like the thread method.

Take a piece of thread or dental floss and make a loop under the log. Cross the pieces and cut the rolls. This way keeps the rolls from getting squished!

Place the rolls into a buttered 9x13 pan and let rise about another hour until doubled in size. Then cook in a preheated 350F oven for about 10-12 min. 
Then pour on the icing and enjoy!!!

Happy baking!

I need Him.

There are just some days you feel overwhelmed and do not know what to do...I am so glad there is a God out there who is bigger than I am and knows what I should do!
Seek Him. 
Obey Him. 
Listen to Him. 
And Rest in Him. 
That is what I want to do today! I am so glad that He is so Great! I am glad that I can trust Him just like a little child does. Knowing that they will be taken care of. I know that the Father will take care of me!

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Matthew 28:11