Trixie

The Quick Back Ground Story

Two months back we had to put our last dog Chelsea down. It was a very hard day for our us since two months before that we had to put down Cody. So in four months we lost both of our dogs. It was alot harder than I thought it was going to be for me. I was the one at the vet's holding both of them when it happened.

We knew we didn't want to be a dog less family for to long so we started our screach for our new puppy. It only took two weeks to find and go meet / pick up Trixie. She is a pure Black Lab! She has the most energy for a puppy I have ever seen.

Now To This Past Weekend

Saturday morning I was getting ready to go out and do some errands but before I left I wanted to be nice to Justin so I went to take Trixie outside. We were outside for about one minute when she got under my foot and tripped me. I fell on her and broke her front left leg in three different spots. As soon as I got off her I knew that we were in trouble. I ran back up stairs to get Justin. We were off the vet's in no time flat. When we got there they took x-rays and that is when we found out about the three breaks. I lost it and just started crying. All I saw was alot of money sings. We can afford this I said to myself.

The vet came into talk to us and told us we had two options. We could do surgery that would cost around two to four thousand dollars or we could cast the leg for three hundred and ten dollars, but wait. With the casting you have to change the cast every two weeks. So it could be only three casts or as many as six castes. That would add up to almost two thousand dollars.

I didn't know what to think I didn't know what we were going to do. I didn''t want to put Trixie down and loss another dog but I didn't see any other option. We decided to leave at the vet tell Monday so we could think about what we were going to do.

When I got home I called my good friend who knows alot about dogs and alot of vets. She emailed her vet and got an email back right away. Her vet was only going to charge five hundred dollars for the surgery. Praise God!!!! We can afford to save Trixie now!!! On Monday I called her vet and told them all that had happened and asked if they could do the surgery today, they said yes. Once I got both Kenzie and Brandon on the bus I drove to my vet to get Trixie then drove an hour to get to the new vets office. Once I got there they took me and Trixie back looked her over and said come back in an hour and a half and the surgery will be all done. I could not believe just how well the morning was going and the best part had not even come yet. When I went to pay they said $205.25 please. I was caught of guard by that amount I said them to say it again. And again she said $205.25. The Lord just blessed us even more. So this whole broken leg of Trixie's only cast us $485.25 PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

I am Back

It has been a very long time since I last blogged anything why, well life mostly. I have done alot of reading, asking questions and soul searching. I want to live my life for christ, I want to be the godly wife and mother that God has called me to be. In alot of my readings I read that the mothers would keep a journal of all the things that the Lord was doing in her family lives. I loved that idea!!! I want to be able to go back and tell Mackenzie and Brandon all the things that the Lord did to proved, bless, and caring us threw the bad times.

So with that being said I am truning this blog into my familys online journal of how God works in our everyday life at the Rumphol house.

Jesus In Every Book Of The Bible

What is our goal as a godly Mommy? Mine is to teach Christ to my kids. I want them to grow up with a life that is sold out for Christ.I want them to follow Christ no matter the cost even if the cost might be death. How do we as godly mothers get our children to that point? We teach them daily, minute by minute, we read the Bible to them, we live our life as a living testimony.

I want to give a big shout out to this boy's parents for doing just that. This is truly amazing, what a great strong foundation.

Getting My Baby Fix

Today started my first day of getting the pleasure of watching Micah and his two sister while Mommy went back to work. Have I ever told you guys that I just love babies!!!! I would have another ten kids if I could just get Justin to say YES. Micah and his two big sisters are family friends so this set up is a win win for all involved. I am sure that there will be more pictures to come of Micah and the girls as they spend more time with Aunt Kristen.

Update

Well this week has not gone liked I had planed. I could tell that Brandon was not feeling well on Tuesday his nose was running out of control and he was not smiling. When the smiles go away you know something is wrong. By Wednesday we were on our way to the doctor. Poor Brandon had an ear infection and strep throat! So needless to say my week has been full of taking care of Brandon.

Tonight I finally got a chance to make the pop-tarts and they are not what I was hoping for. I used whole wheat flour and I think that was just to much. When I was rolling out the dough it would not stay together and sticking on the rolling pin no matter how much flour I was using. They look awful and taste ok. Next time I make them I am going to try a different flour and hope that's help.

I am hoping that some time soon I will post the pictures and the recipe for the pop-tarts.

Girls Gone Wise In A World Gone Wild

This is a must read for every christian woman!!!! This is a message that needs to be talked about at every level. I wish that we would hear more messages at church about this message. It not easy to talk about, beacuse it goes against flow of the world.

Family Life Today this week has had Mary A. Kassian on there program talking about her book Girls Gone Wise In A World Gone Wild. I hope that you will take the time to listen all the days.
The dates to listen to are Feburary 21-24.

Listen here

If I Were President

Mackenzie today brought home a book that she made called "If I Were President"

It is to cute not to share with you. Each page starts out, If I Were President....



If I were President, the first thing I would do is go get a pet puppy.

If I were President, I would eat peperone pizza.

If I were President, I would travel to Missouri to see my Nana and Grandad.

If I were President, I would have a pet puppy named Estelle.

If I were President, I would pass a law that everyone would be nice.

If I were President, I would help kids listen better.

One Thousand Gifts Part Two

I have never read a book anything like this. It will change your life in a way that you never thought possible. It is a must read for men and women alike, it will show you how it see God's gifts everywhere even in tragedy.

In part one I started sharing my list of gifts and I will be sharing some more.



22. Rain watering the earth.
23. Water puddles to jump and play in.
24. The promise of spring to come.
25. My new purse.
26. Girls night out!!!
27. Starbucks coffee with my best friend.
28. Coconut oil
29. Our two dogs that protect our family.
30. Pretty high heels to get dressed up in.
31. Anything Thomas the Train!!!
32. Poopy underwear ( because that means I have wonderful children to be mommy too)
33. Pretty finger nails.


Have you started you list of 1,000 gifts the Lord has given to you?

Menu Plan For THe Week

Sunday, February 20-
chocolate banana smoothie
Friends took the kids so Justin and I went out!

Monday, February 21-
oatmeal pancakes
homemade chicken nuggets, potato wedges

Tuesday, February 22-
steal cut oats with fruit
quesiadellas, fresh fruit and veggies

Wednesday, February 23-
homemade pop tarts
whole roasted chicken, roasted veggies

Thursday, February 24-
eggs and toast with oranges
black bean soup

Friday, February 25-
apple bread
pizza night

Saturday, February 26-
Dunkin donuts
supper at Grandma and Papa's

This week I am excited to make the homemade pop tarts. Before we started eating very healthy I always had pop tarts in the house. I use to think that they made a fast breakfast or a great snack for me. No More!!!! I found a recipe that looks good and I am going to try it. I will do a post later this week showing me making them and I will share the recipe with you all.

I pray that all of you will have a great week, and walk closely with the Lord.

Krispy Kreme, Yummy or Yuck?

Okay I will admit that I use to love Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. They just melt in your mouth and taste so yummy. I knew full well that all the sugar and white flour was bad for me but it was just a treat so I was okay with. Since I have become a health nut and a real food only person I have learned so much it just makes my head spin!!! I use to think that it was okay to eat a Krispy Kreme for a treat was okay because it was one or two and I didn't have them all the time. But once I came across the list of over fifty ingredients in a Krisy Kreme I don't think I will be able to ever EAT one again. Go here to read the full article.

Jamie Oliver

I wanted to post this video of Jamie Oliver talking about food in the public school system. I can contest that the breakfast and lunch menus at Mackenzie's school is nothing but processed, sugar and general junk food they feed our kids everyday. I send Mackenzie with a homemade lunch every day that has real whole foods for her to eat and enjoy.

If you were ever wondering why America has the highest rate of over weight kids watch this video and you will find your answer.

Dieting

I am very excited to have my very first guess writer on The Best Life Lived. Cassandra is a great women of faith, a wife and a mother of two. We used to go to the same church while her family lived in the Chicago area. Cassandra has been my mentor in REAL FOOD eating and I have learned so much from her. I truly come away blessed every time I read one of her emails to me.

This post is something that I truly believe all christian women need to hear and take to heart.


The issue of dieting is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while and I’ve decided to share a few of those thoughts here.

The following sentiments are heard often, even from church women, and even (until recently) from my own mouth:

“You’re so good for ordering salad!”

“I’m so bad for bringing this chocolate.”

“That dessert is sinfully delicious.”

“I’ll be good and eat something less fattening.”

There is a general consensus that our goodness or badness is closely connected to calories consumed and dress size. (Yes, of course the Bible speaks against gluttony, but that is not what I’m thinking of here. When we congratulate a girl for eating salad we are usually not thinking about her fighting the sin of gluttony.)

This kind of thinking has two main problems:

1. For one thing, it is not even true that eating fat will make us fat. These are lies created by an industry that wants to sell us more refined foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, diet pills, and ab-crunching machines.

For example, I used to think that skim milk was healthy (equating health with no fat of course). However I have since learned that farmers actually feed pigs skim milk or whey in order to fatten them up, not cream! The dairy industry wants us to drink skim milk because we will pay money for a waste product and then we will pay even more money for the ice-cream that is made from the fat of the milk. The greater tragedy is the new trend to feed our babies and young children skim or 1% milk in a misguided attempt to protect them from obesity when they need the fat and cholesterol to grow their brains.

We are a nation known for it’s love/hate relationship with food and I can’t help but wonder if this hasn’t been intentionally created by advertisers. The more dissatisfied we are with ourselves the more we are susceptible to running toward false saviors (products on a shelf or diet programs) to rescue us.

Another quick point about calorie restriction: Weight Watchers, and probably any other health article you might come across, routinely recommend eating less than 2,000 calories. I was surprised to learn that the prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp were given that much for their rations.

I could probably go on ten other rabbit trails here, but I want to keep this short and remind us all that our great grandmothers ate bacon and cream and butter and lard and they were healthier for it and probably happier.

2. My second problem with this line of thinking has to do with the gospel. Is this at all right thinking for Christians? What does it say to an unbeliever who hears us define our goodness by the fact that we brought salad to the church potluck? Or for us to always be fussing about our weight as if that defines our value? Our value is found is Christ alone. He died a brutal death for us while we were yet sinners because we are so loved. How crazy for us to be distracted by numbers on a scale to determine our worth.

This kind of thinking also destroys our ability to be truly thankful for the food He has created and provided for us. What did Abraham serve his heavenly visitors in Genesis 18? Alfafa sprouts and Slimfast? No, he served them bread, butter, milk, and meat. Many women today would sit in front of a meal like that and feel guilty instead of thankful and nourished.

By worrying about calories and buns-of-steel we may actually be in danger of worshiping a false god that can never deliver. In fact, sacrificing to the god of skinnyness will only further rob us of our health as extreme dieting will further destroy our metabolism and deplete our bodies of nutrients. And this false god, who demands this kind of devotion will not give us what we truly crave– recognition of our beauty and value—because in the end it is only Christ that can give us that.

Banana's We Need To Be More Like Them?

I can't remember when I first heard this, but yesterday I came across it again and wanted to share it with my readers. And I was planning on talking about banana's in my next post so the timing is just perfect.

As women we need to be more like banana's, you say what! Let me tell you why.

They start out green and not very good.

They turn a bright yellow and are so yummy to eat.

Then they start to go brown, mussy and things go south on them

But the banana has become sweeter and we can more things with it now.

We can make banana bread. banana cake, banana pancakes........

Banana's just get better with time.

It is so true in a woman's life also. We start out green not know much and having to mature and learn how to do things. Then we learn and we think we are doing great in life, but it is not till we are old with brown spots and things have gone south on us that we have learn how to be true blessing to others. I pray that we learn how to give at the Yellow stage of the banana and not wait till we are brown.

The Titus 2 woman is the sweet, giving, compassionate, loving, teaching, and always ready to help.

Titus 2:4-5 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.




I want to share a neat treat with you that I have learned to do with my bananas when they go brown. I use to just throw them into the freezer peel and all. then when I wanted to make something I would have to pull them out and let them thaw and then have the yucky job of peeling them. Very cold hands!!!

Now I peel them before I freeze them. I place them on a plate and put them into the freezer and let them freeze overnight. In the morning I place them in a Ziploc bag to keep in the freezer. Some much easier then the old way.

Blizzard Of 2011

The view from my kithen door
Our parking lot

Look at the one car almost cover by the snow

The view from our back door. That is our grill!

Once you open the back door and looked to the left this was the view.

Our car that is behind a wall of snow.

A car that got stuck right before you get to our parking lot.

Our dogs Chelsea and Cody.

The wall of snow because the car got stuck and the plows could not get threw.

Snow drift between cars.

Our building

Yummy, Yummy Goodness

I have decided that my adventure in cooking, baking, and eating real foods that are wholesome and good for you is bread making. To be very honest I am scared to making bread. I can't tell you why because I don't even know but I am. I grew up watching my mom make bread all the time, so I should have no fear of baking bread, right? Well, today, I faced my fear head-on and I made Honey Whole Wheat Bread!!! I am still a little confused because the recipe said to add 3 more cups of four at the end and well I add two and that was enough. The bread tasted amazing says my to kids and myself so I will be happy with that. I made to double batch of the Honey Whole Wheat recipe because I also wanted to make a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread. This is Mackenzie's favorite bread. She would always be asking me to buy her bag at the store but I just didn't feel okay with buying it and knowing all the bad stuff that was in it. When I went to read the list of ingredients I could not read half of them. So that is why I started to make my own. I do believe that this just may become a weekly habit at the Rumphol house. We could not wait to for it to even cool, we had to try it right out to the oven, yummy!!

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

6 cups whole wheat flour, divided

1 3/4 cups warm water, divided

1/3 cup honey

1 pkg. yeast

3 Tsp melted butter

1. Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 1/2 cups of warm water in a large glass bowl. Allow this to sit for about 30 minutes.

2. In a small bowl mix together 1/4 cup warm water, yeast and honey. Allow this to sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast is activated and becomes bubbly.

3. Add salt, butter and yeast mixture to the flour and water mixture. Gradually add the remaining 3 cups of flour stir well.

4. As the dough becomes harder to stir, pour out onto a clean counter and begin to knead the dough. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

5. Place the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover with a cloth. Let dough rise for one hour, or until it has double in size.

6. Pull dough out of bowl and knead for another 2 minutes until the air bubbles are gone.

7. Cut dough in half.

8. Place dough in butter pan and let rise for another 45 minutes.

9. Bake at 350 degree in the oven for 50 minutes.

I got this recipe over at Heavenly Homemakers be sure to go there and see what other great recipes the blog has.

My Little Man

Last night, I put the Mackenzie and Brandon to sleep like normal. We got in our pj's, read a story out of the Jesus Storybook Bible (I highly recommend), and then had prayer time. I gave out kisses and said goodnight. Not even five minutes later, Brandon was out of bed. This is not out of the norm, usually I give him another round of kisses and put in back in bed. But, last night was a little different, Brandon walked out and I asked him what he needed? He said nothing, but ran into Justin's and my bedroom climbed into bed. I asked him why he wanted to sleep with mommy, his response to me was bye,bye. So, I guess, he just wanted to sleep with mommy; which was fine me. He fell asleep in five minutes and was a very good bed partner the rest of the night.

Dancing in the Minefields

I love this song because it is real life. Maybe, because Justin and I were married very young that we have been able to "dance in the minefields" of our own life. The best part was we did it together hand-in-hand. Enjoy

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Today is my parents' 36th wedding anniversary!!! Congratulations!!! Thank you for always being there for us. Thank you for always taking us to church, even when we didn't want to go. Thank you for homeschooling us when it was not the cool thing to do. Thank you, Dad, for always providing for our family and making it where mom could stay at home. Thank you, Mom, for always caring about whatever it was that we brought to you, no matter how big or small it was.

Thank you the most for telling us about God and how much He love us. Now that I am a parent, I am understanding that it was not always the easiest job. As I was growing up, you made it seem like it just came naturally. Thank you for leaving me a Godly heritage.

Verse's For The Week to Meditate On

Do you have verses that you choose at the first of the week to meditate on for the rest of the week? This is something that is new for me, but I am very excited to start. I heard this idea from a wonderful Titus 2 woman at my church.

When I picked the verses for this week, I had in mind ones that would help me as a mommy and wife, but most of all one's that I would be able to teach to my two kids. Yes, every verse in the Bible you can and should teach to your children, but the one's I picked are on their level and easy for them to learn and act out in their every day lives.

I have a very strong conviction that as a Christian Mommy I am commanded to teach my two children the truth of the Bible.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 " These commandments that I give you today are to be upon you hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you are walking along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates."

This is one tool that I believe all Christian mommies can use.

Proverbs 15:1

" A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Ephesians 4:32

" Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Matthew 7:12

"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets"

Sweet Potato & Apple Casserole

This recipe has become a favorite at our house. This is so easy to make a so healthy for you. If you have kids and want to get more fruits and veggies in them this is one way to do it.

• 4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 3 apples, peeled cored and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup sucant/rapadura
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil (I like to use coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Peel and cube sweet potatoes and apples.
2. Melt the coconut oil (butter) and sucant, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Place the cubes of sweet potatoes and apples in a 13X9 inch casserole dish. Drizzle the coconut oil with spices over the dish.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until lightly browned and soft.