Our crazy girl

Selah Grace loves spinach, collard greens, kale, etc. but refuses to eat bananas and sweet potatoes. Crazy indeed!

Anyway, I recently found and tried a recipe for collard greens that even my, "give me the steak and hold the veggies" husband loved. Selah can't get enough of it. In fact, collard greens have become a new favorite for Dave.

Collard Greens

2 lbs collard greens, tough stems discarded, leaves chopped
2 Tbsp medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons bacon fat
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp dark sesame oil
Chili pepper flakes, a pinch
Salt, a couple pinches
Sugar, a couple pinches

1 Use a large skillet with a tight fitting cover. Melt bacon fat and heat olive oil on medium heat. Sauté onion until transparent, a couple of mintues. Add garlic and and sauté until fragrant, about 20 seconds.

2 Mix in the greens, sesame oil, chili pepper flakes, salt, and sugar. Cover and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes.

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Rest for my anxious heart

Anxiety is something I battle on a regular basis. I am reading through a book that has been helpful to my soul. I read something from Spurgeon recently that so helped me. It has continued to feed my soul with truth...truth that has provided much rest.

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.” Psalm 91:5

What is this terror? It may be the cry of fire, or the noise of thieves, or fancied appearances, or the shriek of sudden sickness or death. We live in the world of death and sorrow, we may therefore look for ills as well in the night-watches as beneath the glare of the broiling sun. Nor should this alarm us, for be the terror what it may, the promise is that the believer shall not be afraid. Why should he? Let us put it more closely, why should we? God our Father is here, and will be here all through the lonely hours; he is an almighty Watcher, a sleepless Guardian, a faithful Friend. Nothing can happen without his direction, for even hell itself is under his control. Darkness is not dark to him. He has promised to be a wall of fire around his people—and who can break through such a barrier? Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy. If we give way to foolish fear we shall dishonour our profession, and lead others to doubt the reality of godliness. We ought to be afraid of being afraid, lest we should vex the Holy Spirit by foolish distrust. Down, then, ye dismal forebodings and groundless apprehensions, God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor shut up his tender mercies; it may be night in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love changes not. Children of light may walk in darkness, but they are not therefore cast away, nay, they are now enabled to prove their adoption by trusting in their heavenly Father as hypocrites cannot do.

“Though the night be dark and dreary, Darkness cannot hide from thee; Thou art he, who, never weary, Watchest where thy people be.”

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We have not disappeared

Life has just been a little full lately. As soon as we returned from the bahamas, we launched into a full week of moving prep...for my sister that is. On and off this week, I have had either all 3 or just a few of her boys and my dad has been up to help as well. As soon as the kids have gone to bed each night, it was time to clean up dishes and get the house back into some kind of order for the next day. Then I would crash! Today is the actual moving day and I got a spare moment to just post an update.

I have not had a chance to post any pics from our trip...in fact, I have not even looked at them yet, but hope to do so soon.

And how 'bout this weather?!! It's such a gorgeous day...enjoy!

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Off to the Bahamas

Dave and I are leaving early tomorrow morning (like 3:30AM) for our trip to the Bahamas. We'll be back on Sunday. Dave did great last year and made his quota at work, so we get to go on this great company trip, fully paid. Here's where we're staying as well as the picture below.

Thanks Mom, Derrick and Angela Pau for caring for our girlies while we are gone. We are so grateful.

I'll be sure to post some pictures when we return.

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Our Easter

We had a wonderful Easter! On Saturday we went to Nani's (my mom) house and celebrated with my family. She did an Easter egg hunt for them. Every egg had yogurt covered raisens in it. Yum!







Our dear friends, the Coopers (who we went to see in TN), were up in the area and came over for brunch after church. Earlier in the week, Mckenna and I made up Easter baskets to give Karis and Joshua. We had lots of fun doing it! A few times over the past weeks, I tried to explain to Mckenna what Easter was all about and how Jesus died for our sins and then rose again. But after doing the baskets for her little friends and seeing ALL that candy that was all her mind was on! I would ask her what Easter was and she would, in her little high pitched voice, say, "Easter baskets for Karis and Joshua!"

It was quite the mess with all that grass, but the girls loved it!

Clammy feet and Easter grass don't go so well together.

Here are some pictures of the Coopers when they were over. We had a great time together. As usual, it was never long enough.

Mckenna and Karis

Craig and Laura

Little Joshua

Then yesterday evening we spend time with Dave's family. It was a packed weekend. Here are some final pictures of our time with the Castro side.

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The good 'ole days...

of warm weather have past...and in it's place we had some flurries today. Crazy! Yep, the cold air is back. But here are some pictures I took from our time outside this week.

What Ty looks like with a lollypop

John Stockton...ah, I think that's John ;o)
He's an identical twin!

Little Ollie Lowe trying to feed Selah a baby bottle.
And little Lauren on the side with her baby.

All the boys playing hard.

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A beautiful day

Today was about as beautiful as it gets. The temps were upper 70's and maybe even reached 80. We played outside for about an hour before lunch. Then it was so nice, the Stocktons, Lees, Lowes and Ploons (all our friends who live in our little neighborhood) and we decided to have an outside pizza party...with all our 17 kids! Yep, it was crazy, but so much fun! The ladies actually got to chat for about 10 minutes on the Stocktons deck while the guys played with the kids. What a fun memory! I wish I would have had my camera.

And, as the weather has been around here (crazy), it will be back down to the 40's at the end of the week, with possible flurries!

Have a wonderful week!

Oh, one last thing...a dear friend of mine, Nicole Whitacre, will be induced tomorrow to have little girl. Her last labor and delivery was very difficult and led to other serious complications. So, if you think of her, please pray that all will go well and that she will be able to deliver safely and naturally. Praying for you, Colie!

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