Finding Joy...In the Simple Things

I have been home all day again with a sick little one. Derek woke up with a very high fever this morning. To be honest, when I woke up this morning, before anyone else was awake, I thought, "It sure would be nice if someone were too sick to go to church this morning so that I could stay home." It's not that I don't love to go to church; I just have not been home at all this week. Even yesterday, we went out to eat with two of the teachers from the school, so it was still busy.

After getting both boys down for an early nap, I played around with our Wii (my parents bought us one for Christmas, and we are really enjoying it!). I really got quite a workout playing around with that. Then everyone came home from church, and we played together for a little while, and then I made dinner, and what a delicious dinner it was! Simple and delicious. Just my style.

Potatoes boiling for two-cheese mashed potatoes. I added some parmesan cheese and some cream cheese, along with the standard butter and milk. My goodness, they were good. Thick and creamy. Yum!


Of course, we had to have some greens! Meagan and Lauren have recently decided that they only like the bottoms of the broccoli -- the stems -- the part that the rest of the family really can't stand! ;) So, Lauren and I have a little arrangement where she eats the stem and puts the "tree" on my plate for me to eat! Works for me! ;0)


The best part of the meal was barbecue pork tenderloin. This is soooo easy if you can find pork tenderloin - not loin - on sale. Trim the white off the pork. Place on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Rub (I really like to cake it on!) with McCormick Barbecue spices. Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads between 150 and 160 degrees. So yummy!

Last night, I did a little experimenting with Lauren's hair. I divided her hair into little sections, twisted the hair around my finger loosely, and secured against her head with two bobby pins per section, crossing the bobby pins so they would stay in place.

Here is a close-up of what each section looked like.

I wasn't sure what to expect this morning when I took out the bobby pins, but this is how it looked after separating the curls a bit! Lauren wasn't sure she liked it, but the rest of us thought she looked just like Shirley Temple did when she was small. After Lauren went to church and heard from "outsiders" that she looked adorable, she decided she would let me do it again sometime.

Life is so busy for us that it's nice to just be able to take a step back and enjoy life. Elisabeth and Lauren built this "park" Friday afternoon. Aren't they so creative?!

A couple of weeks ago in my Bible reading, I came across a little phrase that I haven't been able to get out of my head: "Thou God seest me." I love all the implications of that little phrase. No matter where I am in my life, God sees me. When I do wrong, yes, He sees me. But He also sees me when I'm doing right. And He's encouraging me to do it again. Just like I do for my own children. What comfort in those four little words: Thou God seest me.