Reading

Hi Friends!

I have a website to tell you all about - those of you who are mom's (or dad's) that are teaching your kids to read or have a struggling reader - THIS is for you.

We went through this program when Drew was in kindergarden and he went from not reading at all to a fourth grade reading level (by first grade). His first grade teacher couldn't believe that he was reading so well. This gave him such a great start in school. School becomes so much easier for kids when they can read well. All subjects of school depend on the way kids can read and Drew was able to excel in school due to his high reading level. Kids love what they can do well, the best gift you can give to your kids - teach them to read well.

The most exciting part of this is that the founders of this program have now put this online and you can print off the games and watch the instructions. This is not a computer program - you print off the games and watch the instructions and daily work with the kids. It is lots of fun to do with your kids and they kids like to play the game.

I can't tell you how highly I would recommend this program. I am about to start it with Jackson who is going into kindergarden. You will thank me one day for sending you to this website! So, go and check out the link today! Sign up and let me know how it is going!

Click HERE to give your child the reading future they deserve.

Neighbors!

I am so sorry it has been so long. We just sold our house and living out of suitcases right now. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We aren't settled in our new place yet so we are living with our neighbors for the moment.

We are having a blast. It is so fun to hang out and have someone around all the time to talk with or just sit on the couch and do nothing together. We are so blessed to have friends that will let us invade their house for the week.

While going through my bible reading, I am always reading through the book of Acts and learning how the body of Christ functions. I am getting a glimpse of it now while we are living with our neighbors. It is great to be able to help each other out when needed. We are sharing everything, taking turns with the kids, and enjoying lots of fellowship! It is so fun! God is showing me daily how blessed we are to have friends that would open up their home to us. That is true friendship, a real neighbor (this friend is the one I wrote the neighbor post about, click to here to read).

Find some friends that you can truly do life with. Invite them over, play games, cook dinner together and share your lives with each other. We are called to fellowship with one another and I know that God will bless those friendships! If you don't have anyone out there to "do life with" go out and find someone. Go to church and meet people, get on your knees and ask God to bring those friends into your life.

Once you meet someone, invite them over for dessert and play some games. Games are a great way to get to know people. Mad Gab, Apples to Apples (I like jr. the best), or Phase 10 are some great recommendations. An easy dessert that everyone loves and is very inexpensive to make is called Sopapilla Cheesecake.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

These sweeties puff like sopapillas and are great for breakfast or as a change from coffeecake! Cinnamon sugar can be made by combining 1 cup sugar to 2 TBS cinnamon.

by Peace

1 hour | 30 min prep

SERVES 12 -20

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond extract
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted
• 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

1. Using a 9 x 13 baking pan, unroll one package of refrigerated crescent rolls and line the bottom of the pan.
2. Flatten.
3. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and extract.
4. Spread over the crescent rolls.
5. Unroll the other can of crescent rolls and place on top of cream cheese mixture.
6. Pour one stick of melted butter or margarine over the top and sprinkle with about 1/2 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Need to Watch!

http://viewers.316networks.com/viewer/viewerframes_parent.asp?b=&p=&networkID=3002236&WMP=1&WMPv=7&RPIE=1&RPNAV=0

Please take time to watch David Platt and Francis Chan. You will thank me!

We Are Home!

Hey Friends! How are you?? I am busy, busy! Brad and I took a wonderful vacation with some of our best friends to Arizona and we didn't want to leave. We sat by the pool and ate so much! We tried every restaurant we could! It was the best trip. We keep calling each other wishing we could go back. We were truly blessed to have some time away to hang out and laugh. Boy, did we laugh. They always say that laughter is the best medicine. It sure does a heart good. We laughed till we cried often. Then we sat by the pool with Courtney's Ipod and blared our country music for all the world to hear. It was so fun! 

Now we are back home and since our house has sold (praise the Lord!) we are packing it up! I am learning that a house is just a house. Once I start taking down my pictures and all my stuff that makes my house feel like "The Ewing's" it just looks like a plain house! I love my house but it doesn't really feel like my house anymore. Any house will do for me - it is who is in it and all my "house stuff" that makes it home. 

Ever think you need the next big house (or fill in the blank)? The things of this world will do nothing for us. I will admit there will be some temporary enjoyment but it won't last. The church that Brad and I were at last weekend has a motto that is "Faith, Family, and Friends."(www.firstbossier.com) The older and hopefully, wiser I get. I am learning that their motto is truly what matters.  Our vacation would not have been the same without our friends, my house is not my house without the family and things our family fills it up with. Most importantly, our lives would not be what they are without our faith. I lived many years of my life with a pretend faith. Now that I have the real thing, I won't go back. He is the real thing and in the end - the only thing that will truly satisfy you!  

Psalm 90:14 "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."

Brad and I had a busy but great weekend. We were invited to give our testimonies at a one of our favorite churches! Click here to listen!