Then I forgot about them. Actually I think I did post a couple of X but after I did that, I promptly forgot about them.

But it works out because they are perfect pictures to showcase while I pour out some random thoughts…..

Ready? Here we go:

I thought of these pictures today when I went to show one of my customers a picture of my kids on my phone. The problem was that the “home page” picture on my iPhone is the picture from the kids at the bluebonnets 2 years ago! I was embarrassed that as a photographer, I didn’t have a more updated picture of my kids to show!

Well, as it turns out, I’m forcing this customer to be my friend.

No, really! I pulled her aside after ringing up her prescription and told her that I thought we were destined to be friends. Well, in so many words I said that.

Awkward, right?

But I feel like I have a track record that allows me to say that to someone. At several of the Walgreens I’ve been at in my years with the company, I have become close friends with a couple customers.

Case in point: Angela.

Angela was my pharmacy customer first, then she took a scrapbook class I taught, and before you know it – my BFF.

This new friend and I have several things in common, the least of all: infertility.

So, you may remember me mentioning that everyone around me is pregnant. I’m totally cool with everyone having babies. But after a girls night out to see “What to expect when you are expecting” I must admit that I went home with feelings and thoughts that I was less than thrilled to have.

Because while I am completely surrendered to the Lord’s will for my life in that area, I do not want to go “there”.  I guess what I mean is this: if I was to get pregnant I know it would be all God’s doing and I would be cool with His plans. What I don’t want is to “desire” pregnancy again.

Being in that place makes me sick thinking about it. Because I know unmet desires (especially that one) can kill my joy.

When Ryan and I decided to pursue Foster/Adoption we had gotten to the point where we could admit: It’s not pregnancy we want – it’s children. I loved that realization. It was so simple yet it sustained me all of these years.

Hence my confusion with my misplaced feelings and thoughts after that movie.

The following morning, as I woke the kids and helped them get ready,  I paused and just soaked in their presence.

Instantly, my heart was reminded that these 2 kids are more than enough – more than I deserve and more than I could have dreamed God would give me.

I am no less of a Mother because I didn’t “carry” these children. You’d be surprised how Satan loves to work that one on me in moments of self-loathing.

These 2 fill every empty space in my heart and expand it further than I ever knew it could go.

But again, Satan likes to mess with me in this area and try to convince me otherwise.

But that’s where Jesus comes in. His timing is perfect. Since that movie, I’ve had the opportunity to tell about my kids adoption twice.

Once to my new friend/customer at Walgreens who was picking up infertility medication.

Each time I tell the story, I reminded anew the miracle of it all.

That, as we quickly approach our 5 year anniversary (holy cow!), we are truly living out our happily ever after as a family.

I am in a good place right now with it all.

There is JOY in surrender.

JOY in only desiring God’s plans – not any I can make on my own.

He’s a much better author anyway……I couldn’t have wrote our story thus far any better if I tried.

I’m looking forward to spending time with my new friend.

In texting back and forth tonight I’ve learned she is a Christ follower and coffee lover (do I need much more) who’s husband is a firefighter (ironic).  Oh yeah, and she almost went to pharmacy school and worked at Walgreens as a tech during college.

I’m thankful God uses the littlest things (like meeting someone with infertility) to remind us how far we’ve come and to return the Glory to him.

I just can’t look at these two beauties and not see God’s favor pouring down on them. They are amazing.

I can’t imagine desiring more.

Last night at my JAMES Bible study I was pie-charting how I spend my time on a weekly basis and I realized that planning meals, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards takes up a pretty decent chunk of my time. I didn’t calculate the hours spent on it but I did assign it an equal portion of pie as spending time with family.

Since there really isn’t a whole lot I can change about this fact, I settled into a thankfulness that cooking has come to be such a joyful thing for me.

I’ve been making some new recipes from Pioneer Woman’s cookbook – working to make them Gluten & Soy Free. So far I have been quite successful.

Summer Stir-Fry was probably the family favorite so far.

I modified mine by adding squash and chopping up my vegetables into small cubes. I only do that for E’s sake. He really does like zucchini and squash but when he sees them sliced they look too much like a scary vegetable.

I also used smaller, pre-cooked shrimp with the tails cut off to make it easier on my kids to eat.

What I loved most about this recipe – besides the fact that is was soooooo yummy – is that if I omit the shrimp the recipe will be perfect for the Daniel Fast.

I served the stir fry on top of brown rice which made it more filling.

It made tons. Everyone went back for more. None was left over. Amen for healthy new recipe.

Her Breakfast Burritos have also become quite a favorite around here.

Although, I feel I must call them tacos instead of burritos. To me, a burrito is made with a bigger tortilla. And really, I should know. I worked at Taco Bell for several years. That (and the fact that I live in San Antonio where white folk are the minority and breakfast tacos are the majority) pretty much makes me an expert.

My husband (who’s head is growing out of my arm in this picture) loves these. I made 12 for him with corn tortillas this time and 24 flour as I was feeding our Life Group with these.

I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to drive around where new homes are being built I could sell these babies out of a truck and make good money. They are that tasty.

If you don’t get that joke, you don’t live in south Texas where taco trucks are as prevalent as hot summer days.

Meatballs

For many years of Ryan’s Gluten-freeness I was spoiled with my Mother-in-law’s meatballs. She’d make up several batches when she was at our house then we’d freeze them and pull them out as we desired.  For some reason I thought that making those were over my head, so I never tried.

Last week, I not only tried – I succeeded. I guess that means I’m maturing as a cook.

For my meatballs, I used 6 slices of Udi’s Gluten free White bread to make it Gluten Free.

I made half my meatballs for dinner that night and froze the other half so Ryan can make meatball sandwiches for an evening that I have to work and am not here to cook.

I got a lot of rave reviews from my critics with this meal.

It helped that X & Kyla increased our ambiance by designing our table setting for the evening:

X was super embarrassed that she spelled “dinner” wrong a half dozen times. It was the thought that counted….

By the way, I just got these heavy plastic plates at Target for $2 for a pack of 4. I absolutely LOVE them. You can throw them (literally if you like) in and out of the dishwasher without care. I have aqua, red, orange, and green but as you can tell we usually use the aqua plates because that’s X’s favorite color and she’s a trooper about setting the table for me.

The same day I made meatballs I also made a double batch of Sour Cream Noodle bake for the freezer.

I was on a cooking roll and had all the ingredients on hand (rare) so I just kept on cooking (and dirtying dishes).

These are super yummy and (sigh…) will be great to pull from the freezer on a Tuesday or Thursday evening when I have to work during dinner.

One thing that X & Kyla have make before is these Buckeyes. I invited them into the kitchen that same day as the meatballs and noodle bake (as if I didn’t have enough things going on and getting dirty) to make some more.

I found the easiest recipe I could on Tasty Kitchen – using Skippy Natural peanut butter to make it Gluten Free, handed them the ingredients and let ‘em roll.

The girls did a great job – and even cleaned up their own mess and some of mine when they were done. They turned out super tasty.

I had a few too many. Ryan had a few too many more.

After all that glorious Gluten Free cooking I decided I just absolutely had to make something non Gluten-free – with the hopes that making it once traditionally would help me be able to convert the recipe to be Gluten free the next time I made it:

Blackberry Cobbler

We loooove blackberries in this house. Once I saw PW make this on her Food Network show I could not stop thinking about it. The recipe is so easy that – I didn’t even make it – X did!

I don’t have any after pictures because I served it at our Life Group Friday night and was too caught up in the excitement of friends and dessert to remember to take pictures.

Take my word on it – it looked and tasted amazing.

I have another batch of blackberries in the fridge that I think I’ll bake up tomorrow on my day off and give away to someone (because I certainly don’t need to eat anymore!)

Finally, I must introduce the newest member of our kitchen appliances:

She was $23 at Costco and with a hot summer coming I could not resist. With all my rationalizations in place I picked it up off the shelf and put it in my cart which received as “YES!” from E who was watching my internal debate from the seat of the cart.  When I brought it home I began by apologizing to Ryan for buying something that we don’t “need” and quickly stated that I would return it if he wanted me too.

As you can see, I’m in a state of “healthy fear” of spending money – I don’t enjoy being here but I need to stay here for a while. I dislike debt more than I like stuff. End of story.

Well, he was ecstatic, loving the idea of making our own desserts (gluten free of course)!

He was so excited about this that he was actually the first to make something: Strawberry sorbet

Again, no pictures of the sorbet itself because we served it during Life Group.

Which brings me to a humbling realization: For a moment I was frustrated with myself that I hadn’t taken any pictures. Then I realized that people – my Life Group friends, the people I do life with, my “family” – are way more important than pictures. I’m actually glad that I didn’t remember to take pictures now – I feel like my priorities are in the right place.

People over pictures.

And ultimately that means, Relationships over Blog posts.

I’m feeling convicted that I cannot take time away from the important relationships in my life to blog. My husband, my kids, my closest friends, and most importantly – my Savior will take priority.

Sleep still takes third so to anyone out there who actually finds enjoyment in our everyday life – don’t worry I’ll keep my posts coming late at night and early in the mornings.

I mentioned before that I’m memorizing the book of James in the Bible. It’s nothing too crazy – only 5 chapters. In most Bibles it’s only a front and back of 1 page.

I guess that probably still sounds crazy to most people. I’m a good memorizer though – that’s all Pharmacy School was for me, memorizing drugs and how they work. And from the first moment I heard the challenge posed by Beth Moore in her Bible Study on James, I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be to have an entire book memorized.

When I first starting the memorizing process, I was fixing X’s hair. She interrupted my quiet time with her request to have her hair fixed so I decided to involve her in my quiet time by having her help me start memorizing.

She’d read me a few lines and I’d repeat them back to her several times, listening to her corrections each time I misspoke. By the time I had her hair done I was able to recite the first 8 verses.

That was 4 weeks ago. In the time since I have committed the first 2 chapters to memory and am currently working on Chapter 3.

I have found that I absolutely love this. I love the book of James, even though it’s completely all up in my business. I love the memorizing part and I especially love the recitation part.

I began reciting what I knew thus far to the kids before they went to bed. Part of me just needed warm bodies to speak it to and the other part of me liked the idea that they would be hearing the word of God out of their Mama’s mouth. By the end of the first week of doing this, X herself, could recite the first 8 verses on her own. Ironic that it was the same verses I memorized while fixing her hair??? I think not.

At some point one night, after reciting the first chapter of James, I used E’s “Teddy” to make up a story that would reinforce the concepts I had just spoken of (quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry). I must have told this particular bedtime story lesson amazingly funny because now, every night, there are 2 things I get asked for:

1. James
2. Teddy Story

This is Teddy, who E got the day he was adopted (enjoy that trip down memory lane here).

So night by night, I’m challenged not only to recite James to my children but to come up with a new and exciting Teddy story.

The great part is that the kids have begun to ask for “fill in the blanks” when I recite James. And then they fight over who filled in the blank first…..because everything leads to fight these days.

So I’ll say, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says! Anyone who…..” and they’ll quickly say, “who doesn’t do what  it says is like a man who looks in the mirror but goes away forget what he looks like!”

E’s favorite part to say is the last verse of Chapter of 1. He’s anxious to say it as soon as he knows I’m getting close. I’ll say, “Religion that God considers pure and faultless is this:” and he’ll say “take care of orphans and weirdos in their distress.”  I corrected him on the “weirdos” versus “widows” part but he thinks it’s too funny to stop.

The Teddy stories are definitely the highlight of the bedtime routine for them but I’m filled with joy beyond expectation with how much they are learning of James.

On this particular night when my camera found it’s way into the room, we were thick into Harry Potter as we watched X getting close to the movie break in her book.

Inspired by E playing with the Rhino and Teddy as I recited James I decided to tell a story about “Teddy Potter” and “Lord Rhinomort”.

I know, I know I’m a total dork. BTW, that’s Teddy Potter’s owl, “Curlywig” (ignore the fact that he looks like a monkey).

Luckily Teddy has an invisibility cloak so he could hide from Lord Rhinomort.

This particular night I believe was a cliffhanger. Leaving the kids on the edge of their seat wondering whether or not Teddy Potter would escape from Lord Rhinomort. Our stories vary night by night. We’ve done Teddy as a cheerleader, a girl with a swimsuit ready to go swimming, a ninja, as a boy on the potty who needs to learn to wipe his own butt, a combat fighter, – YOU NAME IT!

But every night they ask for James and every night they want a Teddy story afterwards.

And every night I practice what I’ve memorized, they hear God’s word, and we laugh and be silly together.

This is a good routine. This little bit of my day is bringing so much JOY to me right now.

2012:

2008:

Geez. Was looking through my pictures from the weekend and just couldn’t believe how old the kids are looking. And me. I know I see them everyday but – Wow! – when you see it in a picture its totally different.

Let me preface this story by two facts: 1. I’ve been just itching to see X really “get into” a book (Harry Potter) where she is reading it instead of, well, doing nothing.  2. X wants to be just like me and do everything I do. And since coffee sort of defines a bit of who I am, she is always asking if she can have some.

Okay, so Friday afternoon I see X reading Deathly Hallows and encourage her to keep reading so that we can watch Part 1 of the movies on Mother’s Day. Later on that evening, an idea strikes me and before I can stop the words they are out of mouth and dangling before her eyes. I said, “I’ll let you drink a cup of coffee tonight if you stay up and read Deathly Hallows.”

She was on that deal without thinking twice.

She poured her own cup, added Fat Free French Vanilla creamer, then proceeded to tell me she was going to drink it just like me.

I wasn’t really sure how I drink the coffee in a way that she could mimic, but alas, if anyone would catch it – it would be her.

Can I just tell you that she drained this cup. Not a drop left.

And then she read….and read, till it was almost midnight!

Now the funny part of the story is that at 7am she came into my room, holding her stomach, and said, “Mom – my stomach hurts really bad and I can’t stop going #2″

Ry and I looked at one another and laughed, then explained that it was probably the caffeine.  She took a Tums and went back to bed and felt fine when she got up around 9am.

After Team Newcom (the 4 of us) all worked together (as a team) to clean the house she went back to reading.

She’d stop me and say, “Ahhh – Ron left them!” or “The sword of Griffendor just appeared!” as she read and got excited as the plot thickened.

When the neighbors came over to see if she wanted to play she said no, that she was reading.

Seriously.

What joy it was to see her sit and read all morning.

She didn’t stop until 1pm when she absolutely had to get  a shower so we could go to a Birthday party at 2pm.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, she was up and showered before I even got out of bed and she read up until we had to go to church. And she brought her book with her to church.

And then she read it at Fralo’s while we waited on our pizza.

And then for 2.5 more hours when we got home from lunch, again turning away her friends who wanted to play.

Until finally, at 5:20pm she finished Chapter 23, the chapter that ends the first movie. We made popcorn and got comfy for the next 2.5 hours, watching Deathly Hallows Part I. She absolutely loved the movie and now cannot wait to watch Part II…..which ultimately means more reading!

I’m so very proud that she’s reading (and understanding) this book all on her own. I’d often wondered if the day would ever come.

But, Oh, what a weekend. Drinking coffee and reading Harry Potter incessantly…..it’s a little mini-me. My cup runeth over.