Thank You for the Cross, Lord

Easter Blessings from our home to yours!

Read

Worthy Is The Lamb Lyrics

here.

I love Easter! There are hardly words to describe the immense awe, wonder, gratitude, love, relief, joy I feel when I think of the amazing gift Jesus gave us by dying on the cross for our sins. 

 A gift even more precious than these 5 blessings & their amazing papa. Crazy hard to imagine, but true!

 Even so, I don't know why, but I have been a grouch the past few days. My patience has been low & I have snapped at the kids all too quickly & way too often. 

 It seems Satan has been working overtime because at every turn, something falls & breaks, someone makes a mess, kids are bickering or irritating one another, someone is having a fit or stomping their foot over something that isn't fair or someone not getting what they wanted. 

 The whining bothers me all the more because we have SO much to be thankful for...ingratitude  & the "I wants" just push my buttons. 

 Truth be told, I have not felt very "Eastery." 

 But as I was seeking the Lord yesterday, confessing my impatience, my own selfish & unloving attitude, I was reminded that THIS is why He came! 

 Jesus died on the cross, "bearing all MY sin & shame!"

  He died that I might have forgiveness, new life, a fresh start, a loving heart. 

 So, I thank you for the cross, Lord! 

 I thank you for what it means in my life, that whether or not the sun is shining outside, I can always have the Son shining inside of me! 

 I have received grace & forgiveness...and so I will choose to freely extend grace & forgiveness. 

 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 

 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person

—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, 

Christ died for us. 

 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood,

much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 

 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, 

much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 

 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:6-11  

 And sometimes I will forget, I will yell & I will stomp my own feet because I want my way! 

 Because just like it takes a lot of tries to get a good photo of the kids, 

it takes a lot of tries in life to live like Jesus wants me to. 

 To live & breathe & walk & love in His power and not my own. 

 To die to myself & live for Christ. 

 And I will be ever grateful that Jesus died, that he arose, and that I have new life in Him! 

(Worthy is the Lamb by Hillsong United) 

Thank you for the cross Lord 

Thank you for the price You paid 

Bearing all my sin and shame 

In love You came 

And gave amazing grace 

 Thank you for this love Lord 

Thank you for the nail pierced hands 

Washed me in Your cleansing flow 

Now all I know 

Your forgiveness and embrace 

 Worthy is the Lamb 

Seated on the throne 

Crown You now with many crowns 

You reign victorious 

 High and lifted up 

Jesus Son of God 

The Darling of Heaven crucified 

 Worthy is the Lamb

 Worthy is the Lamb 

 WORTHY IS THE LAMB

 (Alive Forever Amen by Travis Cottrell)

He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb.
He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!
Alive forever. Amen

 I'm alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!

Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb.

He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!

Alive forever. Amen

Let my heart sing out, for Christ, the One and only

So powerful and holy rescued me

Death won't hurt me now because He has redeemed me

No grave will ever keep me from my King

I'm alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!

Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb.

He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!

Alive forever. Amen

Worthy is the Lamb, worthy of our praise

Worthy is the One who has overcome the grave

Let the people dance, let the people sing

Worthy is the mighty King.

 (Alive, Alive Forevermore--Artist Unknown)

 Alive alive alive forevermore

My Jesus is alive

Alive forevermore

Alive alive alive forevermore

My Jesus is alive

Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah

My Jesus is alive forevermore

Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah 

My Jesus is alive!!

(If you're still with me, thanks for reading along!) 

I love this sweet picture of Lucy so excited to jump into her Daddy's arms! What a precious picture of the way that God loves us & He wants us to come to Him in the same way!

He holds us lovingly.  His love for us is tender, complete & perfect. 

As much as I know that Jeff loves our children, it is amazing to realize our Heavenly Father loves us infinitely more!!! 

 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 

1 John 3:11 

  By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, 

and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 

1 John 3:16

  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 

1 John 3:18

 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 1 John 3:23

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:24

Finally, the picture session was over!! 

 Everyone was happy to bounce a bit on the trampoline!

 We actually had put Lucy on the trampoline to keep her contained while Jack & Sophie snapped a few shots of Jeff & I!

 What a crazy, cute, wild bunch of kids, but I love 'em & wouldn't trade them for anything! 

 Smushed faces!

  

Brotherly & sisterly love! 

Love the snot right out of you! 

HA! 

 Sweet, sweet baby, loved from her button nose...

...right down to the tips of her delicious toes! 

What a delightful Easter Sunday we had! After attending an awesome worship service at church, we came home & took pictures & then had cereal or toaster waffles for lunch! Not fancy, but it sure made for an easy low-key afternoon. A true day of rest! Then we enjoyed a quick dinner out & a sweet frozen treat from TCBY for dessert. A little reward for such sweet & (somewhat) cooperative picture-takers! Then, we came home & got the little ones to bed & let the older 3 stay up for a bit to play Headbandz. A silly, giggly fun ending to a sweet day! Thank you, Jesus, for your love that teaches us how to love! 

What's for Dinner?

It's a question that I ask myself every day...What's for dinner?? I wish I was one of those super-duper meal planners who could churn out our menu several weeks in advance, but I'm a little more spontaneous when it comes to dinner. Truth be told, I'm often driven by my moods, taste buds or what I've seen most recently on Pinterest! This year though, I have tried to plan at least a day or two in advance (baby steps!) & keep a mental inventory of what we have on hand that needs to be used up. I recently purchased some lean ground beef at a good price because I thought we were out. I cooked it up one night when I was cooking something else for dinner & packaged it in 1 pound bags. When I went to put it in the freezer, turns out that I already had 3 one-pound bags of cooked ground beef waiting to be used. (So much for that mental inventory!) So, I moved dishes with ground beef to the head of my mental menu list!
I was putting something away this morning in the cabinet where I keep my crock pot & it occurred to me that I should dust that puppy off & use it for dinner tonight. The temps are already in the 80s here, so it is nice to keep the oven off if possible. (I'm thinking now that this post should be subtitled: A study into the way Melanie's brain works!)
A couple of hours later, I got around to searching "ground beef crock pot" on Pinterest. It yielded this yummy looking Crock Pot Enchiladas recipe. I had most of the ingredients on hand, except for the Ranch Style Beans. A quick Internet search provided the info that Ranch Style Beans are pinto beans with extra seasonings. I had pintos on hand & decided I could wing the seasonings.
A huge plus, this crock pot recipe cooks in 2 to 2 1/2 hours on LOW! So it's essentially a quick cooking slow-cooker recipe. This is absolutely perfect for me since, despite my best efforts, there are still many days when I'm first asking myself the What's for Dinner? question mid-to-late afternoon...long past the slow-cooker time frame window. As it was, the recipe was perfect for today...the kids played outside all afternoon & I was in & out...In folding laundry & Out settling disputes or In picking up toys & Out sweeping out the garage...so even with a plan in mind, I didn't end up starting on our dinner until almost 5:00pm! Ordinarily, that would be waaaay too late for a crock pot dinner, but this one worked perfectly!

I guess you were wondering if I would ever get to it. So without further ado, here is my adaptation of the Crock Pot Enchiladas recipe...it is really a lot like a Mexican lasagna.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef, browned & drained
1 can diced tomatoes (I used the ones seasoned with garlic & oregano, but the chili seasoned would be good, too.)
1 can pinto beans, drained & rinsed
1 package (approx 8 oz.) Madras Lentils (I buy these at Costco & use them for everything from chili to tacos)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
Cumin
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Chili powder
2 cups (8 oz) colby jack and/or cheddar cheese, shredded
5 large (burrito grande) flour tortillas
1 can (15 oz) red enchilada sauce

**If you are cooking your ground beef, you can add in diced onions or green pepper if you like. Since I needed to use up some frozen ground beef, I just thawed it in the microwave for 30 or so seconds.

Mix together the ground beef, diced tomatoes, pinto beans, minced garlic & Madras lentils. (I actually had made a package of the lentils a couple of nights ago to use as chili on hot dogs. I was the only one to use it, so I had almost a whole package left over. When I was getting something out of the fridge, I noticed the container & it was the perfect addition to the recipe!)

Stir in seasonings (cumin, onion powder, garlic powder & chili powder) to taste...I probably added about 1 tsp of each (probably a little less chili powder because my family isn't big on spicy dishes.)

Line bottom of crock pot with one large flour tortilla (The large burrito grande size fit my round crockpot perfectly, but you could easily use two smaller ones, overlapping.)

Spoon 1/4 of meat mixture on top of tortilla. Top with 1/4 shredded cheese.

Repeat layers 3 more times, ending with the ground beef mixture sprinkled with cheese on top.

Pour can of enchilada sauce over the top. (I also sprinkled a little more shredded cheese on top.)

Cook on low for 2-2.5 hours. (Since I started so late, I cooked it on high for about an hour & then switched to low...it worked out well because my husband came home over an hour later than normal, so it was fine to keep warm on low.)

We served it over jasmine rice, with a side of corn & it was a delicious meal! Finished it off with yogurt & fruit parfaits, sprinkled with granola.

Here is where I would show you a picture of the finished product...but this was also where life intervened...As I mentioned, Jeff was really late getting home this evening...and the kids played outside all afternoon, which is a great thing, until it is time to stop playing & clean-up & come inside for dinner...Usually Jeff helps get everyone inside & cleaned up for dinner, but I was trying to do that & finish up the side dishes. (Another reason I was thankful to have a crockpot dinner tonight, no worries that it would burn!) I finally got everyone inside & was over-seeing a couple of the kids setting the table. Drew kept pulling out toys & making messes & screaming when one of the bigger kids would try to clean them up (at my direction.) Lucy was in her high chair waiting for some dinner, but beginning to get impatient. Chaos was the word of the moment. I had taken the lid off of the crock pot to let the dish cool a bit. The kids were needing the next things for setting the table so I reached up to get some glasses down...someone was fussing & I turned to say something to one of the kids & another glass fell off of the shelf, hit my Kitchenaid stand mixer, exploded into a million-bazillion little pieces (I love IKEA, but their glasses are made of thin, cheap glass that splinters like the dickens!) A huge chunk of glass landed right smack in the middle of the crock pot! Arrrggggh! 

I was cleaning broken glass off of the counter when Jeff got home. Of course the first words out of the kids' mouths' were, "Mommy broke a glass & it landed in our dinner!!!" Everyone wanted to see, everyone wanted to ask questions. After a few tense moments, we decided the top layer of the food could be removed & the rest eaten. There was no way to tell if there might be tiny specks of glass in the top layer, but everything below was fine. So we scooped off all of the enchilada sauce, and all that meat & cheesy goodness on the top! Oh, I hate to waste food, but there was just no reason to risk ingesting glass. Regardless, the dish was still quite delicious & enjoyed by kids & parents, alike. It will go on my short list to make again sometime soon, only next time we hope to enjoy the top layer along with the rest of it!