When our older son was born, he was rushed to the NICU at our hospital then eventually transferred to Duke NICU. I was in a lot of pain from a hard delivery, but my husband knew enough to be really concerned. For some unknown reason, our son was born without enough platelets in his body.
So that meant if he ever got cut or started bleeding he wouldn’t be able to stop. Duke NICU doctors were puzzled and didn’t know the cause of this. He was in NICU for 4 days before we could bring him home. When you leave the hospital after delivering a baby and you don’t have your baby, there is a sense of loneliness in that moment.
We prayed for days and every time we went to the hospital we were grateful for the doctors and most importantly grateful for our God who heals. After many blood transfusions, our son was on his way home in our car. And at his next check up (1 week, he was seemingly perfect in the platelet count area). We are thankful.
But, even after that scare when he was born, we aren’t out of the woods when it comes to more scrapes and bruises. Even yesterday I was paged at the gym to go check him out after he had hit his head on the wall. Nice bruise and tears and a mommy hug later – he was running around the gym like nothing had happened.
This new book about Boo Boos and our children teaches them many things about God’s character – that they need to know all the time, but especially when they are in pain and need a bandaid or a trip to the hospital.
1. It teaches them the nearness of God throughout all of life – even when life hurts.
2. It teaches them that God hears their prayers. God is always listening – even when we fall down and hurt.
3. It teaches them that God will indeed help them to persevere in the pain.
What is your biggest fear with your children? Or share a story about when they got hurt and how you handled it.
Thanks to Tommy Nelson Mommies for this book and for a book to giveaway. All opinions are my own.
I always feel better when I eat low-carb, but it is such a difficult lifestyle to maintain. When I eat too many carbs I always feel bloated and gain weight (mainly because I eat too much of the yummy bread of baked cheesy noodles – or cookies, cakes, brownies, etc).
These low-carb quiche are perfect for this lifestyle, but also are really quick to cook up one day and have for the rest of the week. My kids were downing the ham as I was assembling them so they would most likely be kid friendly too. And you can just pop them in the microwave as you head to school, work, or to the gym.
Low Carb Ham and Cheese Quiche
Recipe Type: Brunch
Cuisine: Eggs
Author: kd316
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 11 Quiches
Ham is your quiche crust and a veggie filled scrambled egg center. These are low carb and very tasty.
Ingredients
22 thin style deli ham (get a saltier ham, not a sweeter ham)
5 eggs
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar (jack cheese would be good too)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup finely diced veggies (I used carrots and orange bell pepper)
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray muffin pans (I made 11 muffins)
Lay out your ham slices as a “cupcake liner” in your muffin tins. I put two per tin.
Mix up your egg filling mixture.
Pour in each muffin tin about 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until egg mixture is set.
I really love books about ministry and sports – two great loves of mine. So, when Scott Douglas, or should I say Dr. Douglas, a friend of mine from my days in Kentucky, delivered his book – I knew it would be a winner.
Sports analogies, for most guys especially, is an effective way to teach them about most things. So, Scott starts and continues his sports analogy well, but not overwhelming where those who are not sports fanatics will still enjoy and learn from the book. It is just a good theme for the book and the title makes sense.
And sports that have teams involved is a good analogy for ministry teams. Whether you serve in children’s ministry, youth ministry, family ministry, on a pastoral team, music ministry, VBS ministry – you understand, or hopefully should, your team is your most vital tool in succeeding in ministry. Douglas realizes this throughout his years of ministry experience: “The journey of developing ministry teams that function effectively is driven by a single idea: ministry teams are made of people who have been called by God, have high character, have great skill, and have chemistry with the rest of the team.” This is a really good summation of what Douglas hopes, and achieves, to cover in this book.
I have been on a ministry team, whether paid staff or volunteer for almost 20 years. Some experiences were not as good as others, but I could pull from those experiences and compartmentalize the points in this book in how to respond and handle team ministry in the future.
One lesson I learned early on is communication is key with your “lead pastor”. That was a hard lesson I learned early on in ministry. That chemistry has to be there with the right team members, but you will have conflict that arises and you need to be humble and willing to deal with that conflict biblically.
Another lesson I have learned in ministry is that chemistry is vital. Most recently I was part of a family ministry team that excelled in this. It wasn’t always so and the elders had to deal with that wisely, but the men and women I served with…I also were friends with and still am even though I’m no longer in that city or church. Each ministry team doesn’t need to be best friends, but if you can go on road trips together or fishing with some of them – you know its a keeper.
Douglas in his books doesn’t bore you with too many statistics like some ministry books do. He is very practical with his words and you can tell they come from years of both church ministry and seminary education. He is humble to admit his failings, and shares his triumphs in ministry as well. I found this book very relatable. Maybe this would be a good summer read for your ministry staff.
It is so neat to see what the Lord calls your friends to do. Currently, I have friends telling people about Jesus all over the world, including Nepal where the earthquake just happened, in Baltimore, where the riots are happening, and I have a sweet friend who is about to head to South Africa to love on babies who have no parents.
My friend Sarah, from Little Rock, tells a bit of her story:
“I am thrilled to be headed towards South Africa to serve the Lord with 1Hope Ministries International. After spending almost 10 years as a pediatric nurse in Arkansas, I’m excited for this new challenge of spending my days discipling young women to know and love Jesus Christ. I’ll primarily be working with interns in their late teens/early 20s who come from all over the world to volunteer at the Muphamuzi Baby Home, a home for abandoned babies awaiting “forever families.” I’m currently about $20,000 away from my fundraising goal and working to get my house on the market. As soon as funds are raised and my house it sold, it’s off to Africa for me! Can’t wait!
You can purchase a heart.hope.justice print (justice for loving and taking care of orphans) and with each print sold, Sarah gets 10$ toward her remaining funds left to raise. I’m not going to South Africa anytime soon, but want to help support those who are going.
I love each night when it comes to bedtime and I get to read to my boys. Ever since I had children I dreamed of reading to them – and one day hearing them read. It is a snuggly time (and a wiggle time some nights). I also love to see them flip pages in a board book – on trips, in their beds, or in the big comfy sofa chair we have in our living room. It is a sweet time.
Tommy Nelson just put out a book called Mommy Loves You So Much (don’t worry, Dads – your book is coming soon). It is a sweet and endearing board book full of animal mommies and their babies. Jo Parry did a great job illustrating the book. You can read through the book and use it as a tool to learn life basics, fruit of the Spirit, animal sounds, nature, etc.
This would be a perfect book for a friend who is about to become a Mommy (Mother’s Day, hint hint).
I really loved the book the first time I read it – my boys were looking on – until I got to the last page.
“How much does Mommy love you?
More than you can measure!
My heart grows bigger every day –
You’re my greatest treasure!”
That last line. So, I don’t want to chunk the whole book – so here are two ways I can handle that line (since I don’t agree with it)
1. If I am reading it to them I can change the line. My boys can’t read yet so they don’t know if I do change it.
2. If your children can read, you can help them understand why that line isn’t true.
Some reasons that last line bothers me:
1. The Gospel is our greatest treasure – JESUS.
2. If I have more than one child – do I only have one treasure – which one do I choose/
How do you interact with books for children that might not be exactly what you would say? How do you teach your children through the books you read?
One way to enter in for this book from Tommy Nelson is to answer the question what zoo animals do your children like best? This book has so many animals in it!
I will choose winner on Wednesday, 22nd.
Tommy Nelson provided this book to me as part of Tommy Nelson Mommies. All opinions are my own.
