A Time to Freeze

It's time to freeze some meals! A new baby, no matter how seasoned you are in welcoming them into your home, adds it's own busy-ness to life and there's always an adjustment period. This is when I appreciate having some meals frozen in my freezer, on those days that seem insanely hectic  or I'm just too exhausted to cook. I will say that our friends and church family are amazing at providing us meals when we have a baby. They are so generous and a real blessing to us. But once the meals stop coming and real life sets in, I am always thankful that I took the time to be prepared. 

I just tried a new recipe from a recipe book I didn't have during other pregnancies. It's called Fix, Freeze, Take & Bake and it has so many really great recipes, perfect for making ahead and freezing. One that I just tried, and what we are having for supper tonight is so incredibly good that I had to share. No fancy pictures, or step by step instructions. Just a really great recipe. Don't forget to double it so you can get dinner and a meal to freeze! Actually if you are a small family you can easily get dinner and a meal to freeze with one recipe. 

Chicken Tortellini Casserole
2 1/2 C. small frozen cheese tortellini pasta
1 1/2 C. frozen broccoli
2 C. cooked, diced chicken, fresh or canned (I used fresh)
1/2 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 C. white sauce (see recipe below)
2-2 T. butter, melted
2/3 C. bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

In a medium pot, cook tortellini according to package directions. Add broccoli for final mine of cooking time to allow it to thaw and warm. Drain and rinse in cold water. In a medium bowl, toss together tortellini, broccoli, cooked chicken, Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Transfer to a greased 2-qt casserole dish (I used a disposable aluminum pan for freezing). Pour white sauce over all and stir to combine. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, bread crumbs, basil, parsley and oregano. Sprinkle mixture over top of casserole. Cover and freeze.

To Prepare: Preheat oven to 375. Lightly cover and bake frozen casserole for 30 mins. Remove cover and bake an additional 20-25 minutes. 

White Sauce
2 T. cornstarch
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 C. milk
2 T. butter or margarine
** I added granulated garlic**

A Time for School

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose

under heaven. ~Ecc. 3:1

If you spend any amount of time with me then you have heard me refer to, "this season of life" several times. When I am overwhelmed is especially when I try to remember that most things are only for a season. That was one of the main reasons I titled the blog the way I did. The other reason is because these particular passages of scripture are my husband's favorite. 

This year we had three of our kids start school on the first day. We now have one in 3rd grade, one in 2nd grade and one in Kindergarten. This seems so crazy to me because I really feel like we just started having kids. How can we possibly have 3 already in school. But that is how fast time goes. The past couple of weeks I have been thinking a lot about when I had all my little ones at home and no one was in school. At the time that I had Will Noah was not yet 5 so I had all 4 boys at home. Will came unexpectedly and very quickly following Gabe's birth. It was a really overwhelming time for me. I didn't leave the house often, only when I absolutely had to...for the first few months anyway. I remember at the time thinking that things will be a lot easier once Noah starts school and I "only" have 3 during the day. Then Noah started school and I was so surprised how that didn't seem to lighten my load any, it actually made our lives so much busier. And that has been the case following all the other's starting school. Now looking back I have the perspective and wisdom to know that I shouldn't be wishing away the time I have with my kids or hoping they would grow up quicker. Because it doesn't get easier just because they get older. Of course, the day I am all done with night feedings, diaper changes and potty training I'm sure I'll be thrilled but in my experience...those are the easier days! And you never would have caught me saying that 3 years ago. 

Life before early mornings of getting kids ready for school, laundry HAVING to be caught up because your kids are in public EVERY DAY (haha!), making lunches, helping with homework, extra activities like soccer and Good News Club, school fundraisers, field trips, etc. And if you are in my same season of life you are doing all of that on top of raising some toddlers at home.  And those are just the activities of life. I haven't even touched on the character building that comes with age. I am just so thankful God gives wisdom liberally to those who ask!

Why have I been thinking about this so much lately? Because I'm about to have a baby and this is the first baby I will deliver right in the middle of a school year. Jena has been my only baby born when I had one in school and at that time Noah was in Kindergarten and it was right at the end of the school year. Most of the extra activities were done, homework wasn't coming home as often and we had the whole routine down pat. This time around, school is just starting which means our load is heavy. The 3 boys are in soccer, we start Good News Club, it's our busy time at church with different ministries starting up, there will still be lunches to make and homework to help with (x3) no matter how tired we are. And no matter how little sleep I will have gotten the night before I will still have to be up at 5:30 to get everyone ready for school. No matter how fussy the kids were, there are still things that will HAVE to get done, like laundry and grocery shopping. Life cannot be put on hold for a "season" like we have relied on in the past. That overwhelms me a bit but I know that with God's help we will be able to do it. And I also know that once we are doing it, though it might be hard, we'll be pleasantly surprised that it's really not as bad as we thought it was going to be. This is a new "season in life" for me and I'm excited to meet our new little girl and see what God teaches me through it. For now I am unapologetically enjoying my last month with just two little ones at home and trying to spend as much time with them doing things that were harder to do with 5 home before the baby comes. It's a sweet gift I have and I intend to appreciate it to it's fullest!

A Time for Camp Good News

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ~Deut. 6:7

If you are not familiar with Camp Good News click on the link and see what it's about. Ben grew up going to Camp Good News (a CEF ministry) as a kid and then when he was a teenager attended CYIA (Christian Youth In Action). This year was the first year that we had a child old enough to be a camper, which starts at age 8. Because Ben was a counselor in the cabin and Owen had an older sibling in the cabin, they let him be an overnight camper too. They all had such a great time. Ben really loved being a counselor and Noah and Owen had a great time...although the very busy schedule was a lot for them to get used to at first. Each camper gets to choose a "skill activity" they want to participate in for the week. Each day they have 1hr learning that skill with an instructor. Owen got Rifelry with Ben, he was the instructor for that skill. Noah chose archery. They were both really happy with what they chose and had a blast. 

Each week camp has a camp pastor who does all the chapels. The kids attend a chapel service each evening after dinner. In the mornings after breakfast they attend song time, then afterwards they go to their cabins to clean up and do their "extra duty" for that day, which is different each day from cleaning the bathrooms to sweeping the chapel. Then their day starts with the skill activity, cabin time, swimming, etc. Each day everyone gets 1hr of rest time in their cabins after lunch and I'm pretty sure ALL the counselors look forward to this!  The kids are kept very busy but they have a lot of fun too all while learning God's word and spending time with other kids their age. Ben had the opportunity to lead two of the boys in his cabin to the Lord while one boy dedicated his life after chapel one evening. 

My responsibility at Camp was to be one of the Kickapoo counselors. The Kickapoo cabin is made up of all the staff kids who are not old enough to be campers. While their parents are serving, we are watching them. This year there were 9 and 6 of them were either my own children or my cousin's kids. It was fun this year because I had a lot of family there the same week. My aunt and 3 of my cousins and their families were there. In total there were 11 cousins as campers there this week! While Ben slept in the cabin he was the counselor for, I slept in the Kickapoo trailer with the 3 younger kids. We shared the trailer with another family &  the wife was the other Kickapoo counselor for the week along with the help of 2 Junior counselors. I don't have a picture of the Kickapoo's because I was being careful to not take pictures of other people's kids but trust me when I say, we stayed very busy!! 

Along with having family at camp we were also joined by a few others from our church who attended and from all reports they had a great time too. 

One thing that is great about Camp Good News is how affordable it is. But they also have a policy that they will not refuse any child who wants to attend even if the parents cannot afford to pay the fee. God has always blessed and provided for these campers through generous donors who sponsor campers each year. Also, if as a parent you serve in some capacity at camp the week your child is there, one child per parent serving goes to camp for free. The other thing that I think is so cool is that each camper has someone who commits to praying for them. At the end of the week the camper has an opportunity to write to that person and thank them for praying for their week at camp. 

Gabe and is cousin, Seth

So for our family camp was a really fun and great experience. I'm not saying we did not come home tired, we did, but we're looking forward to serving again next year and Gabe is VERY excited he'll be old enough to be a day camper! 

A Time to Answer Question 3: Do you believe in...

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

 ~Psalm 127:3

I have held off writing this post because I really didn't want to offend anyone if this topic is uncomfortable for them. But over the past few months I feel I've had to answer this question for a lot of people and am at the point where I would like to set the record straight so that people stop thinking we've got goals of becoming the next "Duggar Family". YES, we believe in birth control. I know, you wouldn't think so many would ask me this but I have to answer that question A LOT. I don't mind when it's family & friends, it doesn't offend me and I'm not so private that I feel uncomfortable answering it...especially if our experience can help another couple. But when strangers in the grocery store are asking, that's a little frightening. And trust me, they do! When I was pregnant for my 4th I was in Rite Aid and I had the 3 kids with me and an older gentlemen with his wife stopped me and asked, "you know they sell stuff to prevent that don't you?" and pointed to my very pregnant belly. I was so annoyed that I said, "Really? I had no idea, where can I find that stuff?" Then I walked away. It wasn't the most gracious response and to this day Ben and I have yet to come up with a clever way to answer strangers when they do this to us.

But when it comes down to the question, "Do you believe in birth control?" or "Does your religion believe in birth control?" then I am always happy to put the mystery to rest. First of all my "religion" is the word of God, the Bible. Period. In our years of prayer on this matter and a willingness to do whatever God asks, Ben and I have not been persuaded that it's a sin to use birth control. The Bible is not clear on the subject. And there are many people that I respect and look up to that are on both sides of the issue and I do not think one is right or wrong, we are just persuaded differently. Ben and I believe this is a decision that each individual couple must come to together after meditating on God's word and prayer. No church or Pastor should be making that decision for people. That's just my opinion. 

We always have to chuckle when someone just assumes that because we have 5 kids then we must not believe in birth control because who in their right minds would WANT 5 kids. Haha. I won't lie, we have had 3 "surprises"  and when I say that I mean they were surprises to us but definitely not to God.  He will have His way regardless of our efforts but I do believe there is wisdom in a little bit of planning. Our decision to use birth control the times that we did were not without prayer on the matter. When you have 5 babies in 6 years, that's overwhelming. It's mentally and physically challenging and especially when you live far away from family and don't really have a lot of help. After Jena was born we were so thrilled with our family but at the same time felt that we had a lot on our plates and the wisest thing for us to do was to take steps to prevent another pregnancy. I don't want to take any credit or glory away from God. He is faithful to give us what we need each day and we are so reliant on Him to help us raise this family, but that does not mean it's wrong of us to want a break from having babies. Our hearts have always been willing to raise another baby if that is what God wanted from us. I don't necessarily think the issue is whether or not couples use birth control but rather where their hearts are at in regard to what God will ask of them. 

So there you have it...the mystery is solved. And to answer the question that almost always immediately follows the birth control question...."will you guys have anymore?" our answer is, "only time will tell". Because in our efforts to "plan" our family God has done better so at this point we will continue to make decisions as wisely as we can with God's will in the forefront and a heart ready for Him to change our plans if that is what He chooses.

A Time for Our Story

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Cor. 13:4-7


Thirteen years ago today, Ben and I started dating! It sounds like a long time yet feels like it was just yesterday. Since this marks a special moment in our lives I thought I'd share our story...and even if no one else is interested, at least our kids will enjoy this someday! We always joke that anytime anything significant is going on in our lives we have extreme weather and it's kinda been true. Ben and I had been friends for a couple years before we started dating. His best friend, is my cousin, and that is how we met. The day I knew he was the man I was going to marry was when at a get together at a friends house he saw I was sitting on the floor and he offered me his comfortable chair...he didn't have to do that since tons of other people were sitting on the floor but that gesture showed me what a gentlemen he was and how different from the rest he was. I was smitten! About a year after that happened he showed up at my apt. after work one summer day. I was sleeping but he told my roommate to wake me up. He told me he wanted to show me something and could we go for a ride. It was pouring rain outside. He drives to a park and stops the car and tells me there is something in the trunk he wants to show me. (the fact that I actually got out shows how much I trusted him...because lets face it....that sounds a little creepy, haha) He opens the trunk and in it is a single rose. Then the rest is history. Most of our dating relationship was long distance as he was in school in Texas and I was in Maine. So we had lots of time to talk on the phone and write letters and emails. We each have a binder full of the letters we wrote each other during those 2 years. Three years after we started dating, we got married. In January. On the worst snow storm of the year. We were supposed to have 150 guests but because the storm was so big and was all over the state of Maine through to MA only about 50 were able to come. You would think this would have bothered me but really it didn't. The only thing I cared about that day was marrying Ben and I did! I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have been the one God choose for him. We've had an awesome 13 years with lots of blessings. 

A Time for Summer:Camping, New Additions and a Pig Roast!!

Summer here in Maine (this part anyway) has been beautiful. We've had such great weather so far. My only complaint is how fast it is going...why is it summer is always the fastest and winter seems to take forever? We just don't have time to fit in everything we want to do. We did take 4 days to go camping with friends up at Glen Ellis Campground and had such a great time. It was a really nice campground, so nice in fact that Ben and I joked about how living where we do is more wilderness than that campground was! But there was a lot for the kids to do and it was right on the river which was great to swim in and very cold. Perfect for a pregnant lady dying in the 90+ degree weather we had while we were there. 
Pretty much our whole summer has been consumed with finishing our addition. Not that we haven't done plenty of entertaining and spending time with our friends but we made a point this winter to set aside as many weekends as possible to be home working. I look at the finished work and am every day amazed. You know how sometimes you do something and you have to sit back and wonder, "how did that even happen?" or "where did the money come from to do it?". I've had a lot of those moments regarding this project. It was really important to us that we not go into debt for this so really our thought was we'll do what we can, little by little, and patiently wait till it's complete. I honestly thought it would be 10 years before we were able to have our new bedroom! God has been so good, and I am so thankful. I'm thankful for God's provision to keep us out of debt, I'm thankful for the helpers Ben had because he never could have done it in this little time without help, and I'm thankful for a wise husband who made very good decisions along the way and worked so hard. He puts in long days as it is, and just our home with 5 kids is a lot, then to work till 10/11 at night on the addition when he is up at 4:30 every day was amazing to me. But we now have a new living room...something we never really had because the space we had was a dining/sitting area and it wasn't very big. This new room is perfect for all the entertaining we do and the kids love it too. And a new bedroom, which we didn't know we would need so badly....but God knew! Now the girls will have a room big enough for them to grow into and I'm really excited to start painting and setting it all up. The only thing left to do is get some closet organizing done, which will be makeshift for now and we'll complete it the way we want it at a later time. Then the bathroom. The plumbing is all there we just need to buy a pump (or something, haha) and a shower but that project will wait  for a later time too. Then this winter Ben can putter around with trimming up the doors and windows. Have I mentioned how thankful I am??? 
So with so much work to do inside our outside has suffered. I
love working in my gardens and being outside but this summer has been different in that I haven't had a lot of time or strength to do it. It's been a harder pregnancy than I usually have so that has been hard to get used to. But like I keep saying, you can't do it all when you are raising a family and this summer the yard is one of those things that I've had to say, "I can't do it this year". 
Next on our agenda is serving a week at Camp Good News. The kids are really excited about it. Ben will be a counselor in the cabin with the older two boys and I am going to be the "Kickapoo" counselor with the younger 3 and any other staff kids that are there that week. We know it will be a hard week but also a blessing. We're thankful for the opportunity to serve in this way and look forward to our first year serving this way as the first of many years to come. We are also excited that others from our church are going this year too! Then when we return we have our 1st Annual Pig Roast on Pork St. to get ready for. It may sound strange but I am SO excited! I've been asking Ben if we can do this for years now and he finally said yes! I grew up having a pig roast at my grandparents camp every summer around the 4th and it was my favorite thing all summer. While my dad was here last month we went and ordered our pig and he'll be ready for us labor day weekend. My dad is bringing down the pig roaster and will cook it up for us. I can't wait!

Then before we know it, the kids are in school again. Gabe just turned 5 last week so he's going to be going off with Noah and Owen this year. We don't know who his teacher is going to be yet but we're really hoping he has the same one Noah and Owen had because she's just fantastic! Then soccer for the 3 older boys and the baby arrives!!! Crazy that Tess' arrival is only 3 months away...

A Time to Suffer?

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 

~II Timothy 3:12

The verse above has been a very one sobering one to me the past couple of days. Sunday we had one of the missionary families our church supports present their ministry in Papua New Guinea. During the challenge the husband made a comment in reference to this verse that if you are in the Lord's will it is normal to face suffering and persecution. He was speaking from his own experience with suffering, which they have handled so gracefully. That statement never left my mind and when we got home I asked Ben what he thought about that in reference to our own lives. I was in a place where I didn't really know what to think because I was familiar with this verse and believe it to be true and I also feel that as a family, Ben and I are in the Lord's will and have heart's that are ready to be used at any moment for anything He asks of us yet I don't feel I have had any suffering or persecution. I mean yes, when I made the choice to become a Christian I did lose some friends. But to consider that persecution...no! Have we faced some difficult moments in our lives, yes, but to consider that real suffering like some face...no! Ben shared a different opinion. While he agreed that yes, we are in the Lord's will and "living godly in Christ Jesus" he disagreed that we have not had suffering or persecution. It strikes me as funny that two people who are living the same marriage and raising the same family, living the same life have such opposite perspectives. Maybe it all comes down to ones own assessment of what suffering and persecution actually is...so then you really would have differing perspectives?
 Late last evening I was reading an email update on a man who I've never met but his grandfather was a member of our church who passed away a few years ago. This man has been battling cancer for 16 years and he and his wife just celebrated 16 years of marriage. Did the same thing strike you as it did me when you read that. For their entire marriage this woman's husband has been sick and battling cancer. For their daughter's entire life she has known her dad to be sick. Do I suffer? NO!! It's when I read stories like this that I ask God, "why have you allowed us to have such an easy life, when we are so undeserving?" I am not begging God to suffer but it does make me stop and be incredibly thankful for the life He has allowed us to have. And what is even more incredible is to read these stories and see the joy of the Lord these individuals have through their suffering. They are not bitter toward God but rather praising Him! It is such a blessing to see and an encouragement that IF God chooses to send us down some of those difficult paths, HE WILL provide us with the grace to get through it. The saying, "The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you." is so true and evident in the lives of some, including the missionary family we had on Sunday.
So this week I am so incredibly thankful for the life and family God has given us and the blessings that have come with it and I have been challenged to live a life that is even more "Godly in Christ Jesus" because even if we are in the will of God there is always more we can be doing for Him. Take the time to read the stories of the families I put links to. I guarantee you it will bless your heart and cause you be thankful.