Happy 6th Birthday, Abbi :)!!!!

 

 

Abbi... bouncing, thoughtful, yet scatterbrained, talkative, extroverted, frog loving Abbi... heehee :). She is such a joy! She is a very people-person, and she quickly wins the heart of just about every one that meets her :). 

 

I was able to teach her to chain stitch crochet a couple of weeks ago, and she has amazingly neat stitches and a good focus when she's doing it, which is so funny since she normally can't sit still. Hopefully soon, I'll get to teach her single stitch, because she wants to make up a scarf to send in to Knit Together in Love's ministry when I send mine in this year :). She has such a sweet heart for giving to others... and also loves to receive from others ;). She's also going to go out with Daddy today to look for her own aquarium frog :). Hopefully they are able to find one, because she has been looking forward to this outing for a while!

Happy birthday, Abbi-girl :)! I love you!!!!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!!!

 Happy birthday to our wonderful Daddy...

and our wonderful Mommy :)!!! 

I am so thankful for both of you :). In all the ways that you train us, lead us, and love us, you let God be your guide. You are both open to the word of God, always carefully learning and then laying out your reasoning for all the decisions that you make for our family, and are always supportive of those things that we children undertake to learn or accomplish :).

Mommy works so hard to make our home a place of refuge and learning, and, though it is hard, she does an wonderful job at it! Daddy faithfully provides all that our family needs, and after he has been working all day spends time interacting with us and helping us where needed. They both take time to make life special, and we are all so thankful for them :).

I love you, Daddy and Mommy!

Happy Birthday, Daddy and Mommy!!!

Overnight Oatmeal

This breakfast is both yummy and easy! You can make it up the night before, and then just grab a bowl out of the fridge the next morning. It's even good cold :)! I found a recipe and tweaked it slightly, so here's what I've been doing. The only problem with it is that the liquid drains off the oats easily. There isn't too much liquid, it just isn't thick enough and needs frequent stirring while you're eating it, though it's yummy :). I'm trying to work on that, and will update if I figure it out. If you have an idea, let me know, too :)!

Update: Mommy suggested trying glucomannan as a thickener, and it worked :)! It helps the liquid "stick" to the oats! Recipes have been updated, as well :). 

Overnight Oatmeal
This basic oatmeal can be dressed up anyway you like... I love to do berries when we have them :)! The little ones prefer raisins.

Two cups oats 
1/2 t. glucomannan
One and a half cups milk
Two T. brown sugar or maple syrup
2 T. flaxseed
Desired toppings

Mix oats and glucomanna. Mix rest of the ingredients with the oat mixture and let sit in the fridge during the night. Before serving, heat if desired.

Basic Overnight Oatmeal

Fall Time Overnight Oatmeal 
Craisins are really yummy in this :)! It makes a really good fall-"tasting" breakfast with a cup of coffee :)!

Two cups oats 
 1/2 t. glucomannan
One and a half cups milk
Two T. brown sugar or maple syrup
2 T. Flax seed
Two tps. Cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
Tsp. vanilla 

Mix oats and glucomanna. Mix rest of the ingredients with the oat mixture and let sit in the fridge during the night. Before serving, heat if desired.

Fall Time Overnight Oatmeal

Cinnamon Almond Overnight Oatmeal
I just recently started adding nuts to our oatmeal. Almonds are an easy one to crack, so those are what we use, haha :). This one is the one I tried first, and I love the crunch the almonds add!

Two cups oats 
 1/2 t. glucomannan
One and a half cups liquid
Two T. brown sugar or maple syrup
2 T. Flax seed
Tsp. Cinnamon
Tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup almonds, crushed slightly

Mix oats and glucomanna. Mix rest of the ingredients with the oat mixture and let sit in the fridge during the night. Before serving, heat if desired.

Cinnamon Almond Overnight Oatmeal

Chocolate Cookie Overnight Oatmeal
This tastes *just* like a no-bake cookie. Well, before they dry. But they don't seem to dry well when I use fresh-ground oats, anyway, so it tastes just like *my* no-bake cookies. Heehee :). Peter and Abbi especially love this one!

Two cups oats 
1/2 t. glucomannan
One and a half cups milk
Two T. brown sugar or maple syrup
2 T. Flax seed

T. Peanut Butter
2 T. cocoa powder 

Mix oats and glucomanna. Mix rest of the ingredients with the oat mixture and let sit in the fridge during the night. Before serving, heat if desired.

Chocolate Cookie Overnight Oatmeal

A Praise and a Pic :)

Miriam Ibrahim and her family have made it to the United States! Praise the Lord for his grace and mercy :)!!!

And my sweet breakfast prep helper :). 

She was so excited that the jelly she was spreading on her piece of bread was shaped like a crab, heehee :).

Though Words Fail to Express

Many times you have heard me talk about the Mussers, the blog "The Blessing of Verity", and especially Tommy.

Tommy, the little one who's family officially announced that they were coming for him on Abbi's fourth birthday a couple years ago. The little guy who was always smiling, despite all the wrong that had been dealt him. The little one who had NOTHING the matter with him except low muscle tone when he entered the Pleven orphanage, but due to the treatment of the former director, was even worse off, for the long term, than his adopted sister Katie had been when she came home in such a sad condition that soon had hundreds of people fighting for these little ones.

His family knew that because of all that had been done to him before the Lord opened the door for them to bring him home, he would never be fully healed on this earth. Tommy is fully healed now, walking the streets of heaven. He left this world for his forever home with the Lord in a tragic accident on July 31st.

This family needs so much prayer right now. They have worked so tirelessly for these little ones, and their love for Tommy just oozed out of everything they ever shared. I can't even begin to imagine what they are feeling right now. Our feeble words, minds, and sights fail to express or even imagine what this means to their family. But God knows all things, and is there for the brokenhearted. Please lift them up in prayer, that God would comfort them through this time. You can find a couple details here, along with a donation page for the funeral costs, which will be used frugally and then the rest donated to the orphanage Tommy came from, but please, lift this family up to the Lord as they go through this trial.