Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Healing Jesus

I went for an EEG today and suffered a seizure during the strobe light test. The past couple of weeks have been so hard for me. I have had zero strength. I feel like I am trying to paddle upstream in a hurricane. I feel so out of control. My body is suffering from these uncontrolable seizures and there is nothing I can do to stop them. I want so bad to have my life back. Please pray that Jesus will heal me completely.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Recipe -- Baked Beans

I love baked beans....love them! Here is my recipe....enjoy

2 cans (large) of Bush's baked beans
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 roll of sausage, browned and drained
1/2 large green pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 slices of uncooked bacon
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the above ingredients in a casserole dish and lay two slices of uncooked bacon on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven until bubbly and hot. Yum Yum

Update and prayer request


Hello! Well I must update you on the goings on of the Mattingly household. First of all I have been very sick. I have been in and out of the doctor's and even and ambulance ride to the ER. The neurologist finally determined that A. I am having seizures or B. I am suffering from severe migraines. Either way they are treated with the same medication. So now I am taking seizure meds each day along with headache meds. I start each of these today. Pray there are no side effects.
I want to give God the glory in this. It was not a stroke and it was not a brain tumor. God is good! I am thankful for this healing in my life. Also I am certain He is using this to reach my husband further for Christ. I believe that through this he will develop a stronger relationship with Him. To God be the glory great things he has done!
The family will be heading on a birthday camping/ amusement park trip this weekend as we celebrate oldest daughter's 10th birthday (oh my ten years old! time does fly!). We are looking forward to the time together.
The girls will be starting school this upcoming week. Many of my faithful blog readers already know that I work outside of the home so my children go to a church which offers on site homeschool curriculum through the ACE program. It is a Christian school and we are so thankful that the Lord has given us this school. Oldest will be starting Monday and youngest will start on Tuesday. I was blessed to find uniform skirts this year through children's wear outlet. I got their skirts for $7 each! Wow! And they seem to be good quality as well! We have already gotten all of their school supplies so we are ready for the big day!
Hubby is off again this week, lack of work. He and my sister's husband are working on finishing the rec room downstairs. They are painting and putting down a floor. Sister and I are opening our own photography studio! Sister 2 Sister Photography! How exciting ! I can't wait for our first photo shoot. We went and got all of our necessary equipment this past Saturday. I pray that God will bless our business and that we will prosper and He will show us favor in all that we do.
I will be heading back to work tomorrow (I tried to work yesterday but suffered another "episode" and had to be taken via ambulance to the hospital). As long as I don't have a severe headache when I awake my plan is to work as long as I can tomorrow, hopefully a full day. We cannot afford a short paycheck especially with the doctor bills that will now soon be rolling in....ughhh. But God is faithful and He will provide.
I have known many who have suffered from eplipsy so it doesn't scare me (my daughter had seizures). The doctor told me to let everyone around me know not to freak out and call and ambulance or rush me to the hospital when I have another "episode" but to just make me comfortable and allow me to deal with it. (Unless it lasts longer than usual and then of course medical attention should be sought)
I am just thankful to God that Iam here at home and able to take care of my children, my home and my husband. I pray for the strength to get beyond this and the weakness that has followed.
Oh and the pix for this blog...well it reminds me of my girls. The oldest is my Victoria who now lives in heaven with Jesus and the middle child is now my oldest daughter who is the dark haired child of the family and the youngest is my little blonde. Yep this picture reminds me of my baby girls....all three of them!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Summertime

In looking over some of my favorite blogs I am glad I am not alone in the fact that it seems to be difficult this month to keep up the blog. I guess it is the business of summer. I find that I have so little time for anything else this time of year.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Here in KY we are experiencing a drought and cooler than normal temps. (Although we enjoyed a small shower earlier)
The girls will be heading back to school soon. I am so excited for them. We have all of our supplies and our uniforms ready.
I will be going to clean the school tomorrow. I need to get it ready for the kids to come back.
Well gotta go for now!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Silly is fun!

Tonight the girls and I went to Kroger to pick up a few sale items and to get rock bottom priced kids fair tickets (yep our state fair is coming to town!). The oldest has been fascinated with London the past few days since she just recently got notice that she has been invited to study there next summer. Well we were being silly on the way to the store about how she wanted to be from England. So I started talking like an English lady. The kids loved it. So I continued it into the store and the oldest dared me to continue it as I talked to the service lady about our tickets. Well you can't be dared by a ten year old and not take it! Especially if it is your ten year old. So of course the English accent was on. It was so funny! And I didn't stop there I talked with the girls that way all the way through the store. People were turning and smiling as they were gazing upon this person who must be visiting from England! :-) Have a little fun with your kids today....and just be silly with them....they will love it.

Letting God

I used to lead a lot of adult Bible studies and women's retreats but in the past couple of years it has been so busy with the children and hubby that I only seem to have the time for teaching my Sunday School class. I thought that I would begin to do some women's studies here on my blog and hope that it will touch some hearts.
This study is titled Letting God.

Sometimes things happen in our life that seem beyond our capabilities to handle. Many people say God promises not to put too much on you that you cannot handle. Well I have a different view of that. I have had many trials in my life. As a young child I lived with a person who was not very kind to me in his words. I was told things that a child shouldn't be told. As I got older I made choices that caused much pain in my life. Even after I married my darling husband the pain didn't stop, we lost our beautiful baby girl to a brain tumor at age five. Shortly thereafter he lost his mother and grandmother. I have seen businesses that I have put all of my strength into fail. I have been at rock bottom many, many times.

Of course I must say that of all of my trials the hardest and most heart breaking was the loss of my daughter, Victoria. She was so much of my life. When she left it was like a part of me died too and I was a walking zombie. I wasn't living anymore,I was going through the motions. There was one night when I just couldn't take it anymore. I knew that anything was better than this empty feeling that I had in my body. I took pills, and more pills and more pills. With every hand of pills I would pray for God to take me. I knew that I was disobeying Him. I knew that I was taking into my own hands what was not mine to take. I also knew it was a sin.

There are times in our lives when we cannot see over the obstacle. There are obstacles that seem too big to go over, around, or even under to get to the other side. There are times when it seems there is no way out. We try so very hard to make it through. We do everything in our power to fix our situation. We look all around us and search for tiny openings that we can crawl through. Many times in the process we just make other obstacles along the way. We make things worse. Or maybe we do get over the obstacle but find that we went the wrong way and now we are on a road that doesn't lead home. You know what I am talking about and I know you have been there before and may be there now.

In Genesis we find Hagar, I always feel sorry for Hagar. Sarah told Abraham to throw Hagar out and her son too because she didn't want her son to be an heir with Ishmael, Hagar and Abraham's son.

Gen 21:10 - 21 READ THIS in your Bible

Notice that Abraham grieved over having to toss Ishmael out....after all he is his son. But God told Abraham to listen to Sarah but to also know that God had a plan for Ishmael, but it will be through Isaac that His seed would come.
But still poor Hagar. Abraham rose up early in the morning and took some bread and a bottole of water and gave it to her and sent her and Ishmael the child away (he had just been weaned). Hagar wandered in the wildnerness. The water was soon gone and the baby was crying...he was hungry of course. She had nothing to give him and she herself had nothing either. It doesn't say how long she wandered in the wilderness, I can only imagine.
So poor Hagar takes her baby and lays him under a shrub. Then she goes a little distance away where she can still hear him. She doesn't want to have to see her son die. At this point she lifted up her voice finally and wept and cried out.
And God heard the voice of the child (notice He heard the voice of the child....oh my heart breaks at that. I can only imagine the terrible cries of the child). Then the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and tells her that God has heard the cries of Ishmael where he is laying and told her to go and pick up her son.
Then comes the part of this that I want you to pay close attention. And God OPENED her eyes and she saw a well of water and she filled the bottle and gave her son drink.

Now when Hagar was looking at her circumstances she was feeling pretty sorry for herself. I can't say as I really blame her. But anyway all she could see what she was in the wilderness, no husband, no food, no water to drink and a little baby boy. He was Abraham's son and was cast out with nothing. She was walking in the wilderness for quite sometime and she could find nothing. She was starving, her baby was starving and most of all they thirst. They had no water to drink. Abraham had only given her one bottle of water and a little bread.

Finally she throws up her hands and shouts that she just can't go on. She sees nothing. No way out. All she can see is the obstacle and no way around it. I have been there, have you? Rock bottom...nothing.

But then God opens her eyes and there is a well. Now you know as well as I do that she didn't just overlook the well before. She couldn't see it. Ah did you catch that....she couldn't see it. On her own there was no way out. She was trying so hard to find a way but there was nothing. She was looking in every direction for a way out of the situation she and her baby boy were in and there was nothing. It was only at the point that she finally closed her eyes, closed her eyes. Didn't look for herself anylonger for a way out. Instead she just closed her eyes and trusted God. At that point God opened her eyes and she saw what He had prepared for them to sustain them and get them through. The well. It wasn't there before.....it only came when she closed her eyes and allowed God to show her what He had planned.

Dear ladies we try so hard to fix the problems in our lives, in our home, for our children. We simply cannot do it. And sometimes when we try we just make even bigger problems then we had before. It is only when we close our eyes and don't look at what our flesh says can fix the problem but just close our eyes and trust God. Allow him to lead us look not for ourselves but allow God to show us. He will deliver....He will show the way....we just need to follow Him and allow Him to lead us in the direction and path that is best in our lives.

God bless.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Garlic Chicken Breast

Oil
6 or more cloves of garlic, minced
1T brown sugar
3 boneless chicken breasts

Preheat the oven to 500. Heat the oil over medium heat (just a T or so), add the miced garlic and cook slowly, stirring constantly, until softened. Make sure the oil is not too hot because you don't want to brown the garlic and that can happen very fast if you are not careful! Take it off the heat and add the brown sugar and stir it in. Line a shallow roasting pan with foil and spread oil across the foil. Lay your chicken acros sit and spread the garlic mixture across the chicken and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until chicken is done.

Mommy Handbook vol#3 Discipline

I know I hat that word too, Discipline. It sounds so mean doesn't it? But it is a necessary part of being a good mother. If you truly love your children you will not deny them a disciplined life.
Now I will be the first to tell you that I am not a spanking mom. Now that doesn't mean that I never have but I can tell you that the spankings from mom in the house have been very few and far between.

It is not that I believe it is wrong, on the contrary. I believe that spankings on the bottom, and I stress on the bottom, are perfectly fine and I believe that God intended corporal punishment to be used to guide children. HOWEVER I have seen far too many times when parents, even "good" christian parents, have taken this way too far.

I have a heart for children. If I hear a child cry, I cry. It doesn't matter if it is my own or some stranger's child at wal-mart....if they are crying, truly crying (not the temper tantrum I want that cry), the you will look at me and see tears well up in these green eyes of mine. I can't stand to see a child hurting. So you can only imagine what happens when I do have to spank my children....it is just one big snot fest!

Okay back to the original post at hand...discipline. There are some things that I believe are not to be tolerated by children and I have listed them below.

1. Disrespective of adults and siblings. I will not allow my child to disrespect me or another adult. I also will not allow them to disrespect one of my children. I explain to the youngest when she hits the oldest that I do not allow anyone to hit one of my children and she is no exception. My oldest girl has a bit of a mouth on her and she is not afraid to use it. We have more discipline conversations over backtalking than anything else. More than once she has had a tiny bit of dishwashing liquid put on the tip of her tongue. She is turning ten in just a few days so I find it very disrespectful to her to spank however if things get out of hand and nothing else works then yes....I do spank (but not very hard :-) )

2. Disrespectful of God's house. I will not tolerate one of my children to be up and running around church. I see that so many times when a child will go to the bathroom twenty times just during song service. My children will sit on the pew and if the pastor is speaking they better be listening. I teach children's church so my children only sit in service on Sundays for about twenty minutes. During that time they need to be seated and listening or on their knees praying or standing and singing. On Wednesday nights they have to sit in big people church for the whole service and that can get interesting but even when it is an hour and a half service they are required to be respectful.

3. Disrespectful of our home. I will not tolerate jumping on couches, running in the house, tearing up furniture, etc. Their father and I work too hard for everything that we have for them to be disrespectful and to tear it up. They are to respect also what is not theirs. I have not been one that ever put my "pretties" (not that I have many) away because there are children in the house. They were taught from the beginning that there are some things that they are not allowed to touch.

4. Not listening. This is my big thing. When I am speaking you better be listening.I am not one that will run off at the mouth so if I have words coming out my children better be looking at me and listening. This will get them in trouble faster than anything.

So how do I discipline. Well I give a warning. I make sure my child is looking directly at me. I say something like "You know we do not allow jumping on the couch. I want you to stop right now." If they do not then I will count. If I get to three (which rarely happens) they are sent to time out. I usually base time out one minute for every year of their age. When they come out of time out I ask them why they were there and make sure they understand. Usually I never have to go beyond this. However there are some instances where I have used corporal punishment and when Ido I first talk to the child and make sure that they understand what is going on. I tell them that I am going to have to spank them and I tell them how many they are going to get. When I finish the spanking I love on them, a lot.

It is very important to make sure that your child knows why they are being punished and it is most important that you love on them afterwards.

It is good to post rules in your home so they know what is expected of them. You can even post what will happen if they break certain rules. If you are a spanker then you could post how many spanks go with each punishment. Just remember never spank when you are angry, always spank on the bottom...nowhere else, and always follow up with lots and lots of love!

Just as important as discipline is rewards are also as important. When your child is doing well make sure you give him lots of praise and reward him for a job well done. Just like we don't just want to know when we do something wrong....neither do our children.

A tired mommy

Oh my goodness. I cannot put into words how utterly tired I am. It seems that it has taken all of my energy to get through this week. I ask for your prayers to give me strength. Sometimes when things are going really good the devil tries to mess it up. I blame him for the way I am feeling and I am claiming authority over this in the name of Jesus! I claim healing and strength in Jesus name and I know that He will provide and my cup will be overflowing.
I am very glad it is Friday and I have the weekend to spend with my family. I have been working hard this week at my job and have had to work over many nights this week. It has been just crazy at work.
I didn't get home until almost 7:30 last night from work and as soon as I walked in the door my oldest asked me to play a game. So her dad and I sat down with her and played cards. We didn't get finished with our game until 8:30 and I went straight to bed! The girls and I piled up in my bed and they watched Hannah M. while I finished reading my overdue library book :-).
I didn't post our meal this week because hubby and I have started a weight loss challenge at work. And since I have been so busy this week I have not been able to adhere to our scheduled meals.
Tomorrow my plan is to make several loafs of bread and some rolls, etc to get caught up on my baking. I find that baking sooths me and helps to clear my mind. There is nothing a good stiff dough and rolling pin can't fix! :-)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Wedensday Words

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. Hubby and I went away for a wonderful weekend of camping alone together. We had a nice time but missed the children so!
I will try to catch you guys up this evening and do some additions to the Mommy Handbook and one last post on Christmas. Until then I am off to work!