Monthly Archives: April 2007

Marinade
2 cups water
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
1 tablespoon ground chipotle pepper (or 1 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper)
2 teaspoons hickory smoke flavoring
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 chicken breast fillets

Other Ingredients Needed
4 large flour tortillas
1 cup fancy shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup fancy shredded monterey jack cheese
4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce

1. The chicken needs to marinate for 2 hours, so make the marinade first by combining the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir well until the sugar has dissolved. Add four chicken breasts to the marinade, cover and chill for 2 hours. Don’t let the chicken marinate for much more than that or it could get tough.

2. When you’re ready to make your roll-ups, preheat your grill to medium/high heat. Grill the chicken breast for 4 to 7 minutes per side or until done.

3. Build each roll-up by first laying a large flour tortilla in a large skillet over low-heat. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the combined cheeses over the surface of the tortilla while it heats up in the pan. When the cheese begins to melt, remove the tortilla from the pan. Sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded lettuce in a strip across the center of the tortilla, followed by about 3 tablespoons of Salsa. Slice one grilled chicken breast into bite-size chunks and arrange the chicken on the lettuce. Fold the ends of the tortilla over the filling, then roll the tortilla from the bottom. Make a diagonal cut across the center of the roll-up

If you like dipping sauce or homemade pico de gallo you can find the complete recipe here.

Candy got her son back! What a blessing to be able to share in her miracle! There will be some serious thanksgiving going up tonight! Thank you for joining in prayers for this family.

Candy has posted an update to the situation. It is still not good and the little guy is making it worse. Please continue to pray for the situation. As a mother, my heart goes out to her. Thank you for praying.

Yikes! I woke up at 4am with the sudden realization that I have dentist appointments for all 3 kids EARLY this morning. Plus it takes about 45 minutes to get there. WHAT WAS I THINKING! Apparently it seemed like a good idea, six months ago (probably to get our appointments out of the way before school), but I totally forgot until this am. I’ve got 2 fed, one showered, another in the shower (we played outside yesterday), one that refuses to eat because she’s still sleepy but at least she showered yesterday, her hair is combed and up, and teeth are being brushed. I had this on my calendar, but I totally got side tracked yesterday because Hubby had things going on. Sigh. Have a peaceful morning y’all!

Please uphold Candy and her family in prayer. God knows the details. Please pray for the parents and especially their son.

We had a hot topic come up in church the other day. The discussion centered around how parents do devotions with their children and prayer. Many parents commented that they read Scripture and prayed daily with their children as part of school or as part of tucking them in at night. I know I do both, plus we try to incorporate God into every area that we cover too.

One of the older ladies commented that we were actually doing some harm by reading to them and praying with them. Her thinking was that yes, we should do these things with a small child, but once the ability to read was achieved, the child should be introduced and held accountable for reading the Bible for himself. The thinking was that the child exchanges a personal walk with God by riding on the spiritual coat tails of the parents. The growth is not so much growth, but conditioned responses.

I have struggled in this area before. I love to study Scripture with my children. I have learned so much more by having to teach and explain it to them. They have taught me things because they view the Bible so purely and without all the commentaries and study books to cloud their perceptions. On the other hand I want them to develop a personal sense of God too. I used to have the children read the Bible independently as part of their school. We found it became more of a task to complete x amount of chapters, and not at all the habit we were going for. The younger ones were getting confused and becoming frustrated because they weren’t entirely sure why the passages were important. It was time to rethink our approach.

Frustrated, I prayed about it and we decided to start reading the Bible cover to cover like a book, but together so we could explain things for the little ones and share insights. This has opened up Scriptures in a way I didn’t expect for them. They are seeing connections and patterns. They can predict how God will respond to specific sin. They are seeing the good with the ugly side of human nature and how God is patient and loving before He gives us over to the sin that we are chasing. We pray together often at meals and bedtimes. But I do have concerns that we are not creating an individual habit of studying God’s word. I prayed about it some more. I keep coming back to the same thought though, it is our job to teach and to train, but only God can touch their hearts to create a hunger and longing for more time and closeness with Himself. I continue to pray for the children (and their future mates), that both will be drawn up alongside God and have an unshakable faith and desire for intimacy with their Lord. I also ask for wisdom in leading these precious gifts that He has blessed us with.

Two things that have seemed to help the children personalize their walk were not even planned. The first was that whenever something happens, prayer is usually our first response. The children have observed this and now they are starting to encourage each other to pray first. The second thing was to teach the older two about a concordance. They like to flip through them and then go on “treasure hunts” on any topics that catch their interest. They get very excited about their hunts and like to share and discuss what they have found. It is no longer a “required amount of pages” to complete the school day. They look forward to our family readings now.

My question is this: What works for your family? Have you found ways to encourage independent study without turning it into drudgery?

Fridays are our fun days. The children LOVE showing their siblings what they’ve been working on for their oral reports. (We make it a big secret all week, and make a HUGE deal over it on Friday.) My boys used to balk at writing, but turning the process into an oral presentation has really changed that. The Sarge has been writting 2-3 articles each day. Yes, that is 2 more than were assigned! The Gremlin drafted the Imp to help with his comercial. They are acting it out together, complete with props and theme music from the keyboard.

Individual School
Sarge
History - Wright Brothers, finish book
Math – Primary Math 5 textbook, 3 pages
Language - God’s Gift of Language B, 1 page
Writing - finish editing and draw pictures, Oral presentation of “Our Family Newspaper”
Foreign Language – German complete a lesson

Gremlin
Reading – reading for fun, he worked ahead
Math – worked on math cd rom with sister, he worked ahead
Language – worked ahead and completed week
Writing – present comercial with sister for Oral Report
Foreign Language – German, complete a lesson

Imp
Reading – Owl at Home, 1 chapter
Language – Language 1, 1 page
Foreign Language – German complete a lesson
Computer Time – Rainbow Rock, games on division (math cd-rom)

We usually do Science on Friday or Thursday (once a week). During the summer months we do 3-4 Science labs per week along with a lighter schedule. Today we had dentist appointments, so we didn’t get to our labs this week.
***home from dentist ********

Long School (all children together)
History/Character – 2 chapters in Little Britches
History – 3 chapters in World War I

We are looking forward to daddy being off ALL weekend, after a long 2 weeks of overtime, YAY! Have a great weekend, and thanks to all who shared a peek into their home school days. I love gathering information and ideas from other moms! Off to make popcorn for a movie night!