Our New Little Girl

 This is a picture of Ana Ruth, our new little girl that we are sponsoring through a program from Final Frontiers called Touch a Life.  She lives in Honduras in a town whose name means "singing frogs."

Ana Ruth is five years (will be six in December) and is destitute.  She has an older sister, Cesia (who is not yet sponsored by anyone), and an older brother Humberto (who is sponsored).  They are pictured below.  The picture of Humberto (which was taken some five or six years ago) also shows their grandfather.  Their parents left some time ago, and they live with their grandparents.

Sponsoring Ana Ruth will help provide food and clothing for her and, hopefully, the opportunity to get some schooling.  When she goes for her daily meal, she learns Bible stories and songs.  She has already trusted Jesus as her Saviour!  That is a big blessing!

I have a large printout of this picture and have put it in a frame.  Robert has hung it on our living room wall with our other family pictures.

We will be able to receive letters from Ana Ruth on a regular basis, as well as pictures.  I am excited about cultivating a relationship with her as we write back and forth.  Please pray along with me that God will bless her and use her for His Glory as she grows up.

UPDATE: Robert decided that we will sponsor BOTH Ana Ruth and Cesia!  I bought a matching photo frame which is waiting for a picture of Cesia and to be hung by Ana Ruth's picture.

Blogger Tip: Who Pinned You on Pinterest?

I read a great tip the other day about how to find out if anybody has pinned any of your posts on Pinterest.

Here is a generic link:
http://pinterest.com/source/yourblogURL/

Replace "yourblogURL" with your blog's URL (or web address, in case you don't know what URL is).

For example, for my blog, here is the link:

http://pinterest.com/source/21stcenturykeeperathome.blogspot.com/

That's it!  You can bookmark the link, and check it from time to time.

Book Review: Hermie: A Common Caterpillar

Even though it's been over a week since I read this book, I've been kind of procrastinating writing a review.  I enjoy writing positive reviews for books, and don't mind writing negative reviews (when there's a good reason for the negative review).  However, I just can't get excited about this book.  Granted, it is cute; the illustrations are nice.  The story is ok, but it simply did not "Wow" me.  My little daughter Gracie was not impressed, either.  I knew she wouldn't be able to sit for the story, even if I edited it to fit her level, but I hoped she would at least be interested in the illustrations, but she totally didn't care.  Maybe when she is older, she will enjoy it more (but that doesn't help this review!).

Hermie: A Common Caterpillar is about a little green caterpillar who thinks he is quite ordinary with nothing special about him.  He sees other beautiful creatures and wishes he could fly like them or have beautiful markings like them.  The book says that one special thing about Hermie is that he talks to God and that God talks to him in his heart.  He shared his feelings about being "common" to God and to his friend Wormie, another common caterpillar.  God will tell them, "Don't worry, I'm not finished with you yet."  In the story, Hermie and Wormy meet several other creatures who have admirable characteristics:  a snail who carries his home with him everywhere, an ant with great strength, and a ladybug with beautiful black spots.  Both the ant and the ladybug reminded the two friends that God had made them that way.

One night, Hermie felt especially dreary and weary.  His friend Wormie helped him find a leaf to lay on and he settled down for a long nap.  While sleeping, he dreamed that he was something special -- "He had strength like the ant.  He had a house like the snail. He had spots like the ladybug."  He woke up, surprised to be in the dark.  He wiggled to get out, and to his even greater surprise, found that he had wings!  Not just any kind of wings, but beautiful, colorful wings with beautiful spots.  He was thrilled that he could fly!  Then he realized what God had done:  God had made him special, both inside and out.  Hermie was able to give encouragement to his friend Wormie before he settled in for a nice, long nap, too.

I think the book has a good moral to it, but I think that a few Bible verses added to it would've made it even better.  For example, "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time." (Ecc. 3:11) would've been a good one to use.

All in all, not a bad book, but, in my opinion (and I know I'm in the minority), it could've been better.

Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Repost: Sweet and Sour Chicken

 I got this recipe from one of Robert Grandmother's cookbooks called Wok Cook Book. This is, by far, the best recipe in the whole book.










Sweet and Sour Chicken

Serving Size: 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Main Ingredient: Chicken
Categories: Stir Fry, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
3 cups Pineapple ; chunks (One large can will do great.)



~~ -- SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE -- ~~
1 1/3 tablespoons Cornstarch
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar (optional, substitute white vinegar)
2 tablespoons Coriander sprigs ; minced
1 1/2 teaspoons Dried cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons Ketchup
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Red pepper ; crushed
1/4 cup Chicken broth (I used chicken stock since I already had an open container. I don't know if it makes a difference or not.)
~~ -- MAIN DISH -- ~~
1/5 cup Salad oil (I used wok oil since I have not been able to find salad oil at all.)
1 3/4 lbs Chicken breast ; cut into strips (I cut up three boneless skinless breasts which was plenty.)
1 clove Garlic ; minced or pressed
1 medium Onion ; thinly sliced
1 medium Green pepper ; cut in strips (Next time, I will add a red bell pepper for color.)
4 cups Rice ; cooke
Cilantro ; optional

-= Instructions =-
1. Drain pineapple chunks; reserve juice for another use. (I used the juice to marinate the chicken.)
2. Prepare sweet and sour sauce (stir everything together) and set aside.
3. Place wok over high heat. When wok is hot, add 2 T of the oil. When oil is hot, add chicken and garlic. Stir-fry until chicken is opaque (about 4 minutes); remove from wok and set aside. (I cooked the chicken in two batches, and I added more garlic to the second batch. Also, just to make SURE that the chicken was cooked all the way through, I put it in the microwave for 2 minutes while I was doing the veggies in the next step.)
4. Add remaining 1 T of oil to wok. When oil is hot, add onion and green pepper. Stir-fry for about 1 minute, or until tender-crisp. Return chicken to wok. Add sweet and sour sauce and pineapple. Stir until liquid boils and thickens (about 1 minute).
5. Serve with rice. Garnish with cilantro.

I forgot to garnish with cilantro, but it still turned out fabulous! Robert loved it with the rice (I don't eat rice that much). We will definitely have this meal on a semi-regular basis.


Repost from my personal blog, Kinsey Family Blog.

Toddler Routine Cards

One of my goals is to get Gracie into a routine of doing necessary things and for me to not to forget to do anything important!  I made up some Routine Cards for Gracie.

Morning Routine Cards

Bedtime Routine Cards

The cards were pretty easy to make up using Pages (MS Word would work great, too.).  I printed them, cut them out, had them laminated, punched holes in the corners, and slipped them onto a Book D-Ring (found at Walmart, pack of 8 for around $2).

This will be easy to add to if I think of other things that Gracie and I need to do.  I'm also going to add an appropriate first page to each.  I keep them hanging on the door handles of the hot water heater/ac closet which is right outside Gracie's room.

So far, she hasn't shown any interest in these cards whatsoever, but I think, in time, she will understand what they're for.

Updated 1/22/2014:  The PDF files for these cards (and other things I've created) can be found in my DropBox Folder.

Blog Post Roundup (9/24/11)

Where is God on Your Schedule? -- Very convicting and needful

Handy Tool:  Save Things to Read Later -- for users of Google Chrome

I got mail--the real kind -- Link for Very Jane which is like Groupon for Etsy products

Homemade Oxiclean Recipe

Praying For Our Children

How Do You Deal with Challenging Behavior? (an Attitude Check for Moms)

Flinging Judgements

For Photographers and Food Lovers Alike -- Y'all need to see this.  Pay special attention to "Salmon Sea"


Simple Ways to Reach the Hearts of Our Children

Free Cookbook with 26 Kid-Friendly Recipes

A Humurous (Yet Oh, So True) Look at an Hour in a Mom's Day

My King James Bible

Toddler Shopping List

I thought it would be fun to give Gracie her own little "shopping list" of things to look for while we shop.

This was very easy to make using Pages (and would be easy in MS Word as well).  I printed them, cut them out, had them laminated, and put them on a Book D-Ring.

Sometimes Gracie is interested in looking at her little shopping list, and sometimes NOT.  You know how fickle Toddlers can be!