You know what sounds good..?

So lately Alejo's been hearing a lot of: "Hey, you know what sounds good?" Immediately followed by what I am craving at the moment.  Most days he just smiles and doesn't say anything, hoping I'll forget about it, but on rare occasions he'll say, "That sounds good!" and we'll go pick it up (In 'N Out).  But so far, this pregnancy (oh yeah! To the blogging world: we're pregnant! Again!) I've actually been pretty good about making what it is I'm craving in an effort to save money.  

The other night I made some spicy California hand rolls because I wanted sushi but can't have it unless it's baked or made from shrimp.  I found a few recipes and kind of put something together so today I had a few extra things to use for lunch.  Didn't want to make the hand rolls because they take quite a bit of time and then for some reason I started craving spam musubi. I started thinking, "That's a lot of work too," until I decided to just throw everything together and call it a bowl.  I tend to do this when I want the flavored of certain foods without having to do all the work (ex. our salmon Philadelphia bowls).  I asked Alejo if this was just laziness but he said that it tastes the same and saves time (so.. no? haha), then he told me to blog about it. 

So now here I am blogging the recipe to help out other moms who also want to cook certain things but don't always have the time to prep or put together the food (by the way, kids take up a lot of your time, if you didn't know!)

Spam musubi bowls

• spam

• soy sauce

• sugar

• nori seaweed wrap

• rice

Directions:

Slice your spam and cook until slightly browned on both sides.

Mix together soy sauce and sugar (to your liking depending on how sweet you want it) and use a spoon to pour over cooking spam. Cook until caramelized on both sides. 

Cut nori into desired size (or just by the individual serving size) and serve with spam over a bowl of rice. 

Enjoy! 

That was pretty easy, yes? 

Expect more posts like these.. Hopefully some of you moms can also benefit from this!

Shepherding A Child's Heart...

"What your children need is spiritual nurture.  They need to be taught the ways of God.  They need to be instructed in the character of God so that they can learn a proper fear of God.  They need to understand that all of life rushes toward the day when we shall stand before God and give account.  They need to learn about the pervasive effects of the fall on the human condition.  They need to understand subtleties of the malignancy of their own hearts.  They need to know the dangers of trusting in themselves.  They need answers to the great problems of life.  They need to understand the difference between presuppositional thinking and empiricism.  In short, they need nurturing instruction."


Well said, Tedd Tripp.  We are responsible for so much as parents...

Four Months of Levi

Last Friday marked Levi's fourth month of life.  Time seems to be flying by so fast.  It seems like not too long ago we were bringing him home from the and now here we are...Levi is rolling around on the floor, able to hold his head up well - I am awaiting the day when I can hold him with one arm and do things with the other!  He's a wonderful baby with a great laugh and personality...Alejo and I are blessed to be able to call him ours.

But parenting is not all rainbows and roses.  The first night we brought him home he cried all night.  Levi still wakes up every three hours to this day which makes waking up in the mornings slightly difficult for Mommy.  We've had spit up everywhere and many outfit changes for baby, Mommy, and Daddy...and we haven't even mentioned the fountains of pee and poop explosions.  Right now Levi is going through a phase where he just wants to be held which makes it tough to do just about anything else in the house.

One of the things that I've been learning about recently is how to work on being patient - which is the work of the Spirit in my life and definitely not something I can do on my own (Galatians 5:22-23).  With the lack of sleep, the house being a mess, and just in my own sinfulness I seemed to be very irritable, and my speech was not always God glorifying.  Praise God for His grace and for revealing to me my sin and other areas in my life that need lots of work -- again nothing that I can do by myself!  

Life is different after you have a baby...marriage is different once you have a baby...but we are definitely excited to experience all the things the Lord is going to teach us as we raise this child.

We love you Levi!

Where did the time go?

Now that we've settled into a more structured routine, I figured I'd try writing in this thing again.  Let's see if I can try and keep it up.

Happy New Year everyone! Belated Merry Christmas, and a laaaaate Happy Birthday to Levi.  I guess the last post was pre-Levi and since then we've given birth to our wonderful baby boy.  

More posts to come as we seem to have settled into a more regular schedule (and since our baby can now sleep on his own without the bouncing from Daddy or Mommy...praise the Lord!)

My Adventures as a Stay-At-Home Mom

Looks exciting doesn't it?

That's just the start of my day.

I've learned from one of my best friends, Stace, that it's good to set a schedule - especially when you have so much free time on your hands - so that you're not just wasting the day away...and that can be SO EASILY done since I've stopped working. 

So everything in my day is planned out...from what time I get up, to certain chores, computer time, even my meals and snacks.  The past couple of weeks have been difficult to have a consistent, set schedule because of the baby shower and putting together Levi's room (which is now finally walkable!), but praise the Lord, things are really starting to come together in our home and things are starting to look less chaotic and more organized.

 One of the things I've really enjoyed is being able to start my day in the Word and not feel rushed to hurry-up-and-finish-reading-so-can-get-out-the-door-and-be-somewhere.  It's also a joy to serve my husband in a way where I can take care of the house and have things ready for him by the time he gets home so he can rest after a long day of work and have enough time for homework.  

I'm hoping that I can keep up this schedule, but I know that once we have Levi, things will change.  We'll see what the Lord has in store for us...these are exciting times!  

Countdown: 2 weeks and 5 days left!

Biblical Support for the Practices of a Leader

Currently, I am enrolled in a class on Leadership Principles and Strategic Management. For some of my future posts, I will be putting up a series on leadership from my written assignments. I will be quoting mainly from three sources:

1. The Bible (NASB version)
2. Business Leadership (Edited by Joan V. Gallos, published by Jossey-Boss)
3. Spiritual Leadership (By Henry and Richard Blackaby)

I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I have enjoyed studying them.

Leadership, according to Kouzes and Posner, is “not about personality; it’s about practice” (Business Leadership, 26). They argue further that a great leader does not rest entirely upon titles and positions. However, those titles shouldn’t be undermined, because there are great leaders who hold high positions. But the main point being stressed is that great leaders are marked by their conduct. Kouzes and Posner identify five practices of exemplary leadership, which include modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. The purpose of this short essay is to show that the practices of leadership listed here are consistent with the teachings of the Bible. I will focus on only one practice of leadership: Modeling the way.

To model the way is to lead by example. It’s matching beliefs with actions. The leader is to behave in a way that agrees with the set of standards that they teach. The old saying goes, “do what I say, and not what I do.” But that opposes the idea that leaders are to model the way. The Bible mandates that Christians be examples to others. In order to be an example, we must have a set of practices to follow. James says “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). Our claims to Christianity should be backed up by proof. Our life, which is on display for all to see, will either prove our obedience to God’s word, or negate our Christian claims. Paul encourages Timothy that “in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:12). By way of example, we are to show others what we in turn expect out of them. Through discipleship, Christians encourage one another to strive for righteousness by confronting sin, and helping each other glorify God through their lives. Yet we cannot expect others to behave in a way that we ourselves don’t follow. Paul encourages us to “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). His example was Christ, and in turn, his life was an example to all of us who read his epistles. We are to look at the example that Jesus left for us, and imitate His life, so that we too may be an example to others. Jesus is the standard that we measure our life up against, to see if we are consistent with His word or not. His entire life is an example that we should follow. Jesus modeled the way.

Before we knew it was Levi

This video pretty much sums up the first 18 weeks of the pregnancy. We initially did not want to know the sex of the baby, because we wanted to be surprised along with our family. We love the reaction of our family when we reveal to them that we're having a boy! These are just small clips of some very special moments for me and Bethany. We hope you enjoy-