All because of a white plastic bag!

Yesterday morning turned out to be very unusual morning at our house! Jacob had to leave about 7am to go teach. When he went out to his car to get his coffee mug, he noticed a plastic walmart bag with "trash" in it sitting at the end of our driveway. Normally he would have picked it up and thrown it in the garbage can. Thankfully though, we had gotten some emails awhile back about homemade bombs being made and left at the end of people's driveways around our city. So, just to be safe, Jacob called the police dept on his way to work.

About 30 minutes later I had 2 policemen (and an onlooker) in front of 

my house

Then came firetruck #1

And policeman #3 (a 4th one came too, but I forgot to get a picture of him)

Here is "the bag" (circled below)

Deliberating how to get rid of said bag

2 heroic firemen donned to their oxygen masks going through the contents 

of the bag

Then firetruck #2 and the bomb disposal truck arrive to do-away 

with the bag

So it turns out that there were broken open lithium batteries (which are highly toxic) inside the bag. The police suspect that someone who was making methylene bombs drained the acid out out of the batteries then put them in a bag and for some unknown reason this person put the bag at the end of our driveway. We are so thankful that the Lord protected us and kept us from touching the bag (and inhaling or touching the toxins). 

Note: all the pictures were taken from inside...that's why they aren't that great. It was pretty chilly outside and one of the policemen told me to go back inside.

Philippians 3:14 Friday - 5/15/2009

This has actually been a much better week for me! I'm so thankful that the morning (all day) sickness hasn't been as bad this week. I was able to eat much healthier than last week.

Ok, so here's my update

• Bible reading everyday
• As I mentioned, I ate pretty healthy all week. I did break down on my "no sweets" challenge and made Flourless Chocolate Brownies last night. They turned out really good! I'm going to freeze some of them so I have them on hand when my next chocolate craving strikes!
• I drank 10-12 glasses of water each day and didn't have any coffee all week
• Took my prenatal vitamin and supplements everyday
• Exercised 4 times (not as much as I'd like, but better than nothing)
• Read a little each day in various pregnancy books
• I rested/napped everyday this week! I think that's one reason why I'm feeling better. Two different mornings Jacob went to work about 7am and I lay back down to just sleep for 30 minutes...well, both times, I woke up 2 hours later!

I'm very happy with how I've done this week. It's definitely been nice to have more energy this week!

Check out Which Proverbs 14:1 Woman? to see more goals & updates.

Chocolate Fix

Today I have been craving something chocolate...like cookies or brownies. A piece of dark chocolate just would not do! Since I have food allergies and I have to use a special kind of flour (expensive flour I might add), I was hoping to make something that didn't use flour. So I googled "flourless brownies" and I found this recipe. I tweaked it a little to suit my taste and this is what I came up with to satisfy my chocolate craving!

Flourless Chocolate Brownies

• 8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 cup butter
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups ground almonds (I used a mixture of almonds, pecans and walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Over low heat in a heavy saucepan melt butter and chocolate together. Take the pan off heat and add the sugar and vanilla. Let the mixture cool a little.

Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture, then add the ground almonds (I ground up the nuts in my food processor. They were still a little mealy, but you don't want to grind them too much and make butter!)

Turn batter into a greased 9-inch square baking pan and bake 25-30 minutes (I baked mine for 30). The edges and most of the top will have set but it will still be a bit wiggly in the middle when shook. Allow to cool and then cut into 16 pieces and serve. Brownies will be fudgy and gooey.

Super yummy!!

As you can tell, I had a itty bitty taste. I'm waiting til Jacob gets home to have a big one! But I had to try them while they were still warm!

Cleaning mood!

Today I've been in a major cleaning mood! My energy ran out so I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted, but I got my "pantry" cabinet cleaned and organized as well as the "snack" cabinet and I swept the kitchen floor (which was a big job because I forget to do it regularly). I took before and after pictures of the cabinets to show my progress.

Pantry cabinet before

After, much much better!

Snack cabinet before

After

I'm happy with all I got accomplished today. It's really not that much, but it sure helped me feel better about my home! Hopefully little by little I can get my house cleaned and organized before this little one arrives in December. Yes, I know it sounds like a long time away, but I have ALOT of work to do before then!

School is almost out!

My hubby is a violin teacher and I'm getting so excited about school being out for the summer! It'll be so nice for Jacob (and me) to have a little break. Of course he will still be teaching private students out of our home and he'll have a 6 week summer program that he's teaching in the schools as well as many weddings on the weekends. But I'm definitely looking forward to having him at home more...and hopefully we'll get some projects done around the house and get to spend time with friends (which we've not had time for the last few months).

This past weekend the 3 youth orchestras that he conducts had their final concerts of the year. Here are a couple of pictures from the one orchestra that preformed on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately my pregnant brain kicked in last night and I forgot to take pictures of the other two orchestras. Oh well.

Huntsville Philharmonia Orchestra

This isn't a great picture, but it gives you an idea

Check out more Gratituesday posts here.

Philippians 3:14 Friday - 5/8/2009

May goal update

• I read my Bible and had my prayer time everyday
• I'm having trouble with the eating healthy foods...I've been so sick the last 3 days
• I drank about 10-12 glasses of water everyday and only had 1/2 a cup of coffee on 2 days
• Remembered to take my prenatal vitamin and supplements everyday
• Exercised 5 times this week
• Read a little each day in The Natural Pregnancy Book
• Rested only 2 days. I've got to work on that because I'm soo exhausted all the time!

This has been a pretty good week considering that I've been so sick and tired the last few days.

Go here to see more goal update posts.

Thankful Thursday

With Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, I thought it would be very appropriate to do my Thankful Thursday post about my Mom. 

My Mom is an incredible person. There are many reasons that I am thankful for her, but here are just a few. 

I am thankful for my Mom because:

• she is a huge encourager
• she and my dad have prayed for me everyday of my life
• she taught me to clean, cook, sew, fold laundry
• she homeschooled me all the way from preschool to 12th grade
• she spent countless hours counting for me as I learned to play the piano
• she always points me to the Lord when I'm struggling or need encouragement
• she stayed at home to train us and teach us instead of working outside the home
• she never gave up on me...even when I didn't understand math or biology!
• she is patient, kind and loving
• she is a Proverbs 31 woman
• she loves and prays for my husband
• she supports us
• she is one of my best friends!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you and I thank the Lord everyday that you are my Mom! 

Go here for more Thankful Thursday posts!

Pictures of God's Creation

I love taking pictures of flowers, trees, birds, grass...anything really that shows God's beautiful creation. I visited my 94 year-old Memaw yesterday and took these pictures while I was there. It had been raining for several days, so the roses were drooping, but I think they are still beautiful.

As I was driving home in more rain and storms, I saw this and believe me, it pretty much scared me to death!!

I see God's hand in all of these pictures. From the formation of the petals on the flowers, to the raindrops, and even in the dark storm clouds and tornados.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1

Philippians 3:14 Friday - 5/1/2009

If you read my post yesterday, you can understand why I haven't been accomplishing my goals very well the last few weeks. It's good to know why I'm so incredibly tired in the middle of the day and why my body is crashing at 8pm each night!

Anyway, so here is my goal checkup for the month of April:

Daily goals

• Spent time with God and in prayer almost everyday. Finished Galatians & Ephesians and I'm part-way through Philippians.
• Continued prayer journal, and still loving it!
• Took vitamins everyday
• Exercised 4-5 times/week
• Did not do very well with my reading goal of 15minutes/day. Did it about 8-10 days this month.

Reading

• Finished Feminine Appeal, but didn't finish the other 2 books on my list

Projects

• We got our square foot garden planted today!!

• I got my spare rooms somewhat cleaned up, but not enough to post pictures of! 

Homemaking

• Cleaned up the kitchen most nights this month. On the nights that I was too tired, I washed the dishes first thing the next morning.
• Grocery shopping and menu planning went well overall this month
• I worked close to 20 hours each week...give or take a few hours.

I haven't really had a chance to sit down and think about goals for May, but I know they will include:

• Eating nourshing foods for me and the baby
• Staying away from sweets. This is very hard for me, but I haven't had any sweets in over a week and a half!
• Drink plenty of water and limit coffee to 1-2 times/week
• Take prenatal vitamins and other supplements
• Continue exercising
• Read The Natural Pregnancy Book and other pregnancy books
• Rest for 20 minutes everyday

I know I'll think of more, but that's a start.

Be sure to check out more Philippians 3:14 Friday goal update posts!