Eating Habits

Has the economy changed your eating habits?

It has ours. Not drastically by any means, but we have been more “money conscious” when making the weekly menu and buying our groceries. Every week we make a menu of dinners before shopping. Lately, those our dinners reflect how much money we have to spend at the store.

We’ve become more thrifty in what we make, and with what we buy to make our dinners. If we can go for the cheaper brands, yes, we’ll do it. Of course, there are some things are worth the sacrifice of a few pennies for better taste!

I definitely can’t knock Pinterest... it has been helpful on finding ideas for cheaper meals. Plus, great ideas for new ones as well.

Bologna and tuna sandwiches have made a resurgence on our dinner menu, along with ramen noodles (although not Lydia’s favorite)! That’s fine with me... they taste pretty good.

~Matt

My "Daily Picture Challenge"

I like taking pictures. I like a challenge.

I’m also an owner of an iPhone, so pictures are constantly been taken. I average over500 pictures a month. Most are of my kids, of course!

At one time, I had discovered an app that would give a daily challenge in taking a photo. Many of the users would try to be creative when taking the picture of the day. However, the developer of the app gave up, stopped the updates, and the app is no longer available.

Not wanting to give up, I decided to do a search. Surely there was a place online that would do the same thing. But no. Sadly, I didn’t find anything I liked. I had noticed that some sites had lists, so I made my own. I then started assigning them with a day, and then made my won chart for each month. It makes it simple, yet still a challenge.

So far, I’m enjoying it! I haven’t missed a day since starting a few months ago, and I hope I keep going. I've even had help from my kids. In fact, Malachi helped me with the one for this post... we used Christmas ornaments, crayons and paper, plus ice from our freezer! As you might guess, it was fun!

My “Daily Picture Challenge” albums for each month are on my facebook page. Check them out!

~Matt

Malachi’s Salvation

What a special Christmas surprise we had on Sunday, December 23rd. Malachi accepted Christ as his Savior during the evening services at Hillside!

For months and weeks, Malachi has been asking us questions on salvation. They were more confirmation questions. He already knew, but he wanted to make sure. We weren’t going to push anything though. Since he is five, we were afraid of him making a ‘false profession’. Not really meaning it, etc.

However, it is something we’ve been praying about. It’s actually been a heavy burden for Mysia. She believed that he was old enough to understand, and couldn’t grasp that he wasn’t ready. She had asked, and asked him about salvation, running him through everything. She’s been a great encouragement, but was very concerned. She often shared that she was afraid something would happen, and “what if he’s at that age where it’s too late?” We’d then have to assure her (and ourselves) that it was all in God’s time and we can pray and wait.

Mysia sure did her part! Malachi was on her “prayer list”, along with several of her friends from school. Lydia and I also discussed his occurring questioning of salvation. We had often asked him if he wanted to pray for forgiveness and ask Jesus into his life. He would pause with thought, and reply with “not yet”.

Since it’s Christmas-time, there is a lot of talk about Jesus’ birth. We made it a point to explain that the ‘birth’ was only the first part of the story, and the reason for His coming was become the ultimate ‘sacrifice’ for us because of our sin. It would lead to great conversations with both Mysia and Malachi. Especially the thought that Jesus’ life was His gift to us.

Well, on Sunday morning, Lydia and I found out one of Malachi’s friends from church (his age) had gotten saved over the past week. What a blessing, and our Sunday School class rejoiced with the news. It also encouraged us to pray for those, like Malachi, who have shown interest, but haven’t made that move just yet. We talked about the subject matter, and prayed.

We didn’t mention anything to Malachi that afternoon. Of course, we spent a time of Christmas celebration with Lydia’s family. Talk about Christmas always centers around Christ.

Soon, we were back at church for evening services. We sat as a family in the pew, listening to Pastor’s sermon. Malachi was being pretty well-behaved. After the sermon, during the invitation, he grabbed my hand a pulled. I bent down, and he asked to go forward and pray by including, “I want to get saved...”

I then lead him to the the front, we knelt down at the altar, and I ran through salvation with him several times. He prayed, with full knowledge of what he was saying, and I then asked him a few more times what had just happened and what he had just done. You see, I wanted to be sure that he just didn’t go forward without meaning it. He was positive, and toward the end of my questioning, a little annoyed that I’d was going over it again and again. “Yes, dad... I know...”

As you might guess, there was a lot of jubilation over the news, and we are very happy. We tried to call and text every family member. If you hadn’t heard until this post, I’m sorry, but now you know!

As for Mysia, I asked her how excited she must be, her prayer for Malachi finally answered. She looked back to me, with a concerned voice... “that’s just one, I still have several friends!” What a daughter!

~Matt

Happy New Year 2013

Yup, it is here! 2013!

I'm once again amazed how fast this last year has flown by. So much happened this past year, it was amazing! I'm anxious to see what this new year holds and what might happen. There is so much to look forward to. 

I've glanced back at my past posts and since most are about what we've done each week, it anxious to see what the future weeks of this year have in store. Of course, I don't put my hopes in what tomorrow may hold. I've got to live each day with the expectation that it could be my last. And I'm ready!

I hope all who reads my blog had a great year, and if you still plan to follow what I post, I promise that it will be worth it. Like always, I have plans and perhaps we'll see what the future may hold!

No matter what, I can promise that it'll be interesting!

~Matt

Week Rundown! (12/23/12 - 12/29/12)

This was Christmas week... all planned out to spend with family. We thought we had things scheduled and nothing could go wrong, but we were incorrect. Thankfully it turned out fine. Since so much happened, I'm sure I'll leave something out!

Sunday afternoon we visited with Lydia's family at her mom's house. We exchanged some gifts and got to visit around the dinner table. The kids played some games, and they even got a bit of a nap before church services that evening. After church, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life".

We decided to wake up and have our 'family' Christmas on Monday. Mysia and Malachi didn't mind at all! They both got quite a bit of gifts. Mysia's favorite was a diary, and Malachi's was his Lego blocks! We spent most of the day letting the kids enjoy their gifts and watching some Christmas videos. We attended the Candlelight Service at our church. Mysia and Malachi were excited that they got to hold a candle. Malachi kept trying to see how hot it was by waving his hand over the top! Oh boy...!

Christmas day was fun! We headed over to my parents' house to hang out with my family. We opened gifts, ate dinner, and played games. The cousins had a blast playing and watching videos.

On Wednesday, Lydia went into work for a full day and I dropped the kids off with my folks before heading into my work for a few hours. After lunch, the kids and I headed home for naps and supper before we all went back to my folks' to once again hang out. Things were going good until Malachi started complaining about a tummy ache. We left for home, and Lydia was smart enough to ask to borrow the 'puke bucket' just in case. Sure enough, half-way home, Malachi used the bucket. This led to an interesting night for both him and I. We both camped out on the bottom bunk of his bunk-bed with the "puke bucket' nearby. He was able to rest, as I tried to find a comfortable position to sleep. By early morning, I got a report from my sister via text that the 'bug' had hit their house. Uh oh!

Thursday morning came, and I was pooped. I hadn't slept comfortably... however, Malachi was up and at it. It was like he hadn't been sick at all! He was asking for breakfast with no hint of complaining. We decided to stay home for the day to make  sure that we were all okay. Over at my parents' house, several were recovering from their sickness. We did go over and hang out later that evening.

Friday was fun as well. In the morning Lydia took a tax test (since she's an accountant) and I went into work for a few hours. We then headed back over to my parents' house for lunch. We visited for a few hours then headed back to the house. Sam and Abigail agreed to babysit the cousins while Lydia and I took BJ and Ana to Branson for a double-date. We had a great time. The kids were asleep when we returned.

Our nephew Elijah had spent the night with Malachi, and both boys were up playing on Saturday morning. Mysia was trying to make sure they kept out of trouble (a great big sister, of course). We let them watch some cartoons and have breakfast before we headed back over to my parents' house that afternoon. That evening, we went to Incredible Pizza for supper. After eating the buffet and chasing the kids around the arcade, we headed home for showers and bed before Church in the morning.

What a week!


~Matt