God is good, even when you're in pain

So after posting yesterday afternoon.  I went and called Jeff, why did I do it after posting, because I knew if I called him right away all he would have heard was sobs, and that would just have totally freaked him out.  So that would be not good.

I talked to him for a while and got calmed down a little.  Then I called my Mom, and she helped even more.  See, the bad news they got is their KOBRA insurance ends at the end of the month (I didn't want to share yesterday so she would have already had a chance to talk).  One of my Mom's duties at her job is the HR stuff, and so she had several suggestions of things they could do, and then she found a website of a group that is designed to help people in exactly their situation.  So, I started to see that there is still hope, and this is how God works things out.

Now, comes that part that truly had my heart singing in the midst of pain.  We went to small group, and my friends are part of our small group at church.  They came to join us for our Christmas party.



I'm guessing most of you have gone to a White Elephant party, but the general premise is everyone brings a present and you take turns opening presents.  When it's your turn you can either open a new present or steal someone else's.



It was just  a fun night of fellowship and laughter.  And so many of us needed it that night.



The highlight of the night came when Tara's prize present a heated coffee mug was stolen, and Sam pointed out to her that she could steal his present and then he could steal back her coffee mug.  She was ecstatic at this possibility, and he very carefully got up and started to head off, and then he made us all think he was going to steal another present.  Tara's look of outrage was priceless!



The second highlight of the night was the whole kid's gift exchange.  We set a dollar limit and all of the kids went out and picked presents.......  We didn't do the whole stealing thing with the little guys, because nobody wanted crying 4 year olds.  Instead they got to choose, but they weren't supposed to look in the bags or boxes beforehand......  That didn't always work out so well.



Superman was thrilled to get a model airplane kit with stickers and paint.  This morning he's already put together a couple of them and dropped them off the balcony upstairs.  Batman wasn't super thrilled at first with his jump rope (he cried), but once he figured out he could use it like a leash on his brother he liked it much better.

And here's the rest of the night from the viewpoint of Princess and Superman (I left out about half of their pictures, seriously how many pictures can one kid take?).







One of their best friends come to check out their loot and show off his.










He quite happily got an air horn, his parents weren't so happy about this.  In case you're wondering even Dollar Store air horns are VERY LOUD!











I think I have future photographers on my hands.  Seriously they love to take pictures.

















See his Mom cautioning him about using it.  His parents are worried he's going to wake up at 5:00 on Christmas morning and wake all of them up.





I think I might of taken this one.  But, it's still cute.

And then afterwards we got home and I discovered why my kids were "playing so quietly....."







In case you can't tell that's the entire floor of my sewing/school room COVERED in rice!  Needless to say all the crafts and the trip to the library puppet show have been canceled so they can spend the day cleaning.

I could really use prayers right now

I've shared this with a few of you, but most of you don't know that one of my best friends has cancer.  He's been there for me through so many things, and he married my best friend, and I love him so much.

I am so scared right now.  He is at Stage 4 of the cancer, and is currently taking the last viable treatment for his form of cancer.  I know this is all in God's will, and that He is ultimately in control, but they just got some bad news today, and she's trying to figure out how to share it with him with all of the pain medication he's on right now.

I don't know how to talk about this with my kids.  How do I share what's going on with them?  I can't stop crying, and Batman keeps asking about what happens when people die and I don't what to do.

So, what I'm saying is I could really use your prayers right now for wisdom, for strength, and for how best to help my friends.  I just don't know what to do.

Ellie Krieger: Chicken Teriyaki

I haven't joined up for a while because life has been crazy, I've cooked the food, but haven't written the posts......... But, I'm taking a few minutes to make sure I get this down:

Ingredients
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, crushed with a garlic press or minced
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 pounds skinless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)
2 teaspoons sesame seeds


Directions
Combine the soy sauce, sugar, sherry, vinegar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes in a plastic bag and shake like crazy to mix it up. Now add the chicken.  Then notice that you're supposed to let it marinate for 4 hours and mumble to yourself and move the planned meal to the next day

Put broiler on high, and put chicken on broiler pan, or if you're me don't be able to find your broiler pan and use a stoneware cookie sheet.  Cook 8 minutes then flip and cook for 8 more minutes.  Don't forget to sprinkle with sesame seeds.

RESULTS:  Everyone liked it!  That's a major achievement, Jeff is not usually a teriyaki fan, while I love teriyaki.  So, I was thrilled that it was a recipe he likes.  So, this gets added into my rotation of recipes, just like the Hearty Chicken stew from a few weeks ago that I never posted about (that one was so popular I ran out of food!)

The video I tried to put on my book post

Natalie quite nicely pointed out to me that I can upload a video on Photobucket...... Sometimes I think my brain doesn't work at all.

This just cracks me up, it really does. I love how the boys were working together and had a plan for this story.

And here's part two:

Postcard Pay It Forward

My kids were happy as clams to get their postcards from over at Children Grow, Children Explore. And since they were so excited about it, and I've been meaning to "pay it forward," here's my turn.

Seriously, they were really super excited. They spent the rest of that night running around yelling "I got a card from 'Lena, I got a card from 'Lena!" That's the first thing they told their Dad about when he walked in the door. Which was really confusing to him because he had no idea what they were talking about.

After Christmas I'm going to have them look at our United States map and find where all the postcards they got came from. Realistically, I'm probably going to do it as we get them. My kids love postcards. This makes for a great geography lesson.

I really loved the cards we got from Selena because she gave us a few facts about each of the cards. One was a picture of the Pacific Ocean, and we learned the Pacific Ocean is cold. Superman was fascinated by the people walking on there, and was trying to figure out what they were doing.

Now, here's your chance to join in.

How it works: You put a comment here letting me know you want a postcard from my kids, and I'm going to send you one from each of my kids. In return you send each of my kids a postcard. If I can't email you from your comment please make sure to include your email address so I can email you to get addresses. I am not going to be posting names of any kids whose names are not usually posted, and will hopefully be posting about the state as I get the cards (no guarantees on that last one, but I'm going to try my best).