Brothers Back in the Day

{Another post with pics from back in 2007….back before I had a blog!}

I’ve just had too much fun looking back at all this old fun stuff!

These 2 little boys have always fought. Since the day we brought Rhett home from the hospital, 2 1/2 year old Braden made sure we knew he didn’t appreciate having any of the attention taken away from him. He used to throw cars/action figures/hard toys into Rhett’s bassinet when he was sleeping and all sorts of other shenanigans. He was the type of child that you couldn’t leave in the room alone with the baby for very long.

But, as much as they’ve always been competitive and bickered and fought with each other, they’ve also loved each other. They’ve always shared a room (until about 10 days ago) and often even a bed. When one is gone, the other one misses him. I know that they’ll always love each other no matter what. Having never had a sibling of the same gender, I can’t understand that bond that they have… I can’t wait to see what their relationship is like as they get older.

 

Now that they’re a little older… I have a new punishment for their fighting and bickering.

I got this one from Kurt and Brenda Warner’s book.

When they are fighting and not getting along, I make them touch.

It starts with holding hands for a specified period of time. If that doesn’t work, it goes to cheek to cheek, then nose to nose. If that doesn’t work, it goes lip to lip.

We rarely have to move on to #4. In fact, it’s only been once and they laughed so hard, they couldn’t do it!

After the “punishment” has done the trick and they are laughing instead of fighting, they have to hug and kiss each other. They seem to both love it and hate it at the same time!

It’s funny to hear myself saying, “Do I need to put the two of you together?!” instead of, “Do I need to separate the two of you?!” Except for those times when they are having a WWE Smackdown (or whatever those things are called) in the floor and it goes way too far. Then I’m calling for separation before they break something—or each other!

Parenthood is full of trial and error and finding out what works, right? Well, this is working for us at the moment. The fighting has gotten much less since I implemented these ideas.

Since we’ve moved them to their own rooms, they have been getting along better than they ever had. Maybe they just needed a little separation for a change.

On Saturday night, Rhett offered to help Braden make his bed (his sheets had been washed that day) and then for his “reward” Braden let Rhett sleep with him.

They fell asleep snuggling with each other and slept all night. Then when they woke up, they invited Gracie upstairs and all 3 of them laid in the bed and watched cartoons so I could stay in bed for a while longer.

Let me tell ya, that’s music to the ears of a Mom who’s cried
many-a-tear over bickering brothers!

The End of the Fast

Well, day 21 of my 21 day fast is coming to a close. It was my first time to fast, and I can say that I will definitely do it again. I didn’t think I would be able to do it, as I have a history of wacky blood sugar (used to have to chew on those glucose tablets to keep my blood sugar up when I was an athlete in jr high and high school). But, I felt like the Lord was calling me to fast for quite a while, so I (finally) gave in and said, “Yes, Lord.”

I have to say that what I’ve always heard is true. The Lord sustained me. It wasn’t easy all the time, but sometimes it was.

I’ve spent more time in a state of hunger than I think I ever have in my life. In fact, as I write this at 11pm, my stomach is trying to eat itself. I hope the growling doesn’t wake up the children!

When I wake up in the morning, I’m going to have some of this:

And there is likely going to be some of this before sun sets tomorrow:

Oh, how I have missed my weekly (and sometimes bi-weekly) Christian Chicken fix.

I’m also looking forward to enjoying my favorite tv channel once more.

I found that when you are in an almost constant state of hunger, watching the food network obsessively isn’t a good idea. I figured that out about 10 minutes into the fast 21 days ago.

In all seriousness, I spent extra time in prayer and reading my bible during the last 21 days. I’ve felt the Lord with me and have enjoyed the fellowship with Him.

I’m so thankful that I did it.

Messing with my blog

I'm messing with the design of my blog today, so please excuse the mess! Hopefully I'll make up my mind and have it all done by tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Krazy Kids

This was snapped with my phone one day last summer.

I keep telling you they’re krazy!

My kids are always up to something!

My life sure isn’t boring! And I’m usually laughing :)

And I love it!

How do I do it all?

I get this question a lot. My usual answer might be something like, “I just do the best I can” and may or may not include something along the lines of, “Praise the Lord, He gives me the strength to get through it.”  On certain days, when I could care less about appearances because I’m just too darn exhausted, my response might be, “Are you kidding me? I have no idea. I’m just barely making it through the day.”

Today, my friends, is one of those days!

We’ve been rearranging furniture in the entire house (post to follow at some point…) to prepare for baby. It has been almost as labor intensive as moving. We moved/rearranged 5 entire rooms in our house. Whew!

My office was out of commission for about 4 days, so when I woke up on this Monday morning, I had to get busy trying to play catch up on the stuff that was late and/or most important.

At the end of the day, I would say I fared pretty well. I got about 9 solid hours of office work done, did 2 hours of school/game playing with Gracie, went through the boys’ Monday folders after school (looked over papers, signed permission slips, etc.), did some homework with them, entertained them (broke up a few fights) cooked and fed them dinner, got them all tucked in bed one by one with talking and stories and prayers and even enjoyed a long, hot bath while reading my bible.

However, this is what my laundry and dishes situation looks like at this very moment.

Just for the fun of it, I snapped some pictures before I got in bed tonight with my laptop to unwind a bit.

This is in the floor of my bedroom. This pile of clean but unfolded clothes is as tall as Gracie and is as long as Braden is tall. It is also about 3 ft wide. What you can’t see is the overflowing basket behind this pile. All the rest of that junk is stuff that still hasn’t found a home in all the rearranging.

And here’s the other side of my room. More clean clothes. And more junk that needs a home.

There’s 3 more laundry hampers full of dirty clothes as well as a load in the dryer at this moment. There’s also a few loads of dirty blankets that I had to stack on a table in the garage because I just have nowhere else to put them.

Oh, and here’s my kitchen. I did 2 loads of dishes on Sunday, but you’d never know it.

And this kitchen counter has been completely cleaned off and bleached 3 times since Sunday morning. You’d never know it by the way it looks now.

Sigh.

No matter what I do, something is always behind. It’s either the office work or the house work. There aren’t enough hours in the day or enough energy in my body to keep up with all of it simultaneously.

I will say, however, that the rest of my house is in decent condition. For once. Well, as long as you don’t go in the bathrooms anyway. They’re all horrendous.

So, there you have it. That’s my confession on “how I do it all”.

I guess the honest and correct answer is, I don’t.

Epiphany

Today, January 19, 2011 is Timket (Epiphany) in Ethiopia and it is one of the greatest festivals in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church calendar. It commemorates Christ's Baptism by St. John in the Jordan River. Timket is celebrated in Ethiopia two weeks after Genna (Ethiopian Christmas), beginning on the Eve of Timket with colorful processions and ceremonies ending on the 12th January (20th January Gregorian calendar).

In Timket, Tella and Tej are brewed, special bread is baked called "Himbash" (in Tigrigna) "Ambasha" (in Amharic), and sheep are slaughtered to mark the three-day festival. Timket is a great time of celebration throughout Ethiopia!

Gracie’s first braid

I’m not sure why, but I’ve never braided Gracie’s hair before. Although her hair has gotten really long, I’ve just never thought about it.

The other night, we were sitting in my bed hanging out and I just did it. I was so excited, I thought it was so cute!

She loved it. As a matter of fact, the next day, she asked me if I’d do that “twisty, tangly thing with her hair again” :)

I’ve never french braided hair before, but I’m going to practice it. I think it would be so nice for dance, to get it nice and tight and out of her face.

(btw, those little stickers on my wall are a gift from Rhett. They are NFL helmets and one of them is the Vikings, of course. He picked the spot where they should hang, and who am I to say No to that??)

"I have a dream"

In honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. please watch this video of his famous "I have a dream" speech.



As I watched, I was moved to tears.

I was also moved to tears when I read this blog post by Josh Bottomly.

One of my favorite lines in his post was this:

"I also thought about how far we have come, from an age of colonialism, where Africans were our slaves, to this new post colonial age, where Africans are now our sons."

We were all created equal by our God. He doesn't make mistakes.

If you have questions on this issue, I highly recommend reading this book:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm thankful to live in a time and a place that my own family can be multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. I'm not naiive enough to think that racism is completely a thing of the past. I know it continues today. But I will not sit back and point fingers at those from the past or pretend like it didn't happen or isn't happening. I will teach my children about the past and inspire them to look forward to a brighter future. I will teach them to love all of God's children, regardless of their skin color or their circumstances and I will do my best to be an advocate for what is right and be an example for all I come in contact with.

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." Martin Luther King, Jr.


"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. " Martin Luther King, Jr.


I pray that my own 4th child, my daughter, a daughter of Africa with a different shade of skin than my own, will live out her days being judged by the content of her character and not the color of her skin. Not only in America as a whole, but in our own community and our own family.

Thank you Dr. King for your heart and your vision of the way things should and could be, and for the sacrifice that you made fighting for it.

"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." Martin Luther King, Jr.

May we all be inspired to fight, in the Mighty name of Jesus,
for the injustice that still continues in this world.

Daniel Fast Week 1

I started the Daniel Fast last Monday morning. This is the first time I’ve ever done a fast of any kind, although I’ve been feeling like I needed to for quite some time now.

I chose Monday to start because it’s a 21 day fast and I will break the fast on the first day of the new month. I like numbers and dates, so that seemed to make good sense to me.

I didn’t do much research. On Sunday morning, I decided I’d start the next day. I looked up 1 website and got the info on what I was supposed to eat and not eat. This website said, “Fruits, Veggies, Fruit Juice and Water.”

I spent the first 2 days absolutely miserable with a horrible headache from caffeine withdrawal and probably a drop in my blood sugar as well. I had gotten off of my healthy eating in the past couple months and I was eating way too much sugar, snacks, etc. For those first 2 days I felt like I ate constantly, but was starving 24/7. I woke up both nights several times with a rumbling stomach and was hungrier than I can remember being in a long time. I was still suffering from the awful headache and I prayed alot. I had no idea how I was going to make it through 28 more days like this.

I woke up Wednesday morning, had a banana and did a little research online. I looked at a couple more online resources and found that the first bit of information that I had was incomplete because, in actuality, on the Daniel Fast you are allowed to eat nuts and whole grains as well. Yay!

I promptly grabbed a handful of nuts and devoured them. I felt “full” for the first time in 48 hours!

In hindsight, I think it was a good thing. Eating only the veggies and fruits for the first 2 days was a good “detox” and really helped me to appreciate the items that I was going to get to add in.

I went to the health food store later that afternoon and purchased a few items. Some brown rice rice cakes, all natural peanut butter (only ingredient is peanuts!) and some whole wheat/whole grain crackers that are ingredient friendly for the fast. (They taste like cardboard! But, I’m going to try them with some of the pb on them this week for a snack.)

I’ve been doing pretty well since then. On the afternoon of the 3rd day, my headache went away and I’ve been headache free until Sunday afternoon. But, I think it was a sinus headache and not related to my fast.

I’ve found some good recipes that I can’t wait to try out for week 2, which begins tomorrow.

I’ve read almost a month’s worth of my daily bible readings and have devoted much more quiet time for prayer and reflection as well, which has been very nice. Far too often, I consider myself “too busy” to set aside more time to spend alone with the Lord, but I’m purposely making it a priority during this time of fasting and it’s been wonderful. I want to continue to spend more time in bible study and prayer than “my usual” after the fast.

The week seemed to be filled with trial after trial- I’ve concluded that Satan isn’t a fan of my fasting for the Lord!

But I’m excited and hopeful to see what God is going to do in the next 2 weeks. I’m hopeful and expectant that I will see earnest prayers answered.

I just want to honor Him in all I do.

I pray that each of you has a wonderful week!

Get your Mardi Gras King Cake!

You may or may not know this, but I’m a native Cajun. My parents (and many generations before them) were born and raised in South Louisiana. I was born there and lived there until the age of 5, when we moved to Northwest Arkansas.

My entire family still lives there except for my parents and brother and his family.

One of the traditions that I loved best as a child was Mardi Gras. My room was decorated with a Mardi Gras theme for years. I would always hope to get to go down for a visit for Mardi Gras for 3 reasons.

1. It was crawfish season!

2. Mardi Gras Parades

3. King Cakes

This year, I’ve decided to bring King Cakes to Northwest Arkansas! We are using this as a fundraiser for our adoption and all proceeds will go to our adoption fund. (Go here for a little bit of history about the King Cake. You can also search the net for the long version of the story if you’d like!)

We are accepting orders for King Cakes now!

Cakes will be available for pick-up or delivery on Friday, March 4th. That way you can enjoy them over the weekend and up until Fat Tuesday!

Cakes are $20 each.
Each one is made from scratch, by hand, with quality ingredients by yours truly and my Cajun Mamma :)

Here’s a picture of a King Cake that I made recently.
(I went a little crazy with the icing on this one!)

2 choices

Traditional sugar and cinnamon

or Cream Cheese

Place your order by:

Commenting on this blog post

OR Shoot me an email at jekennett at cox dot net

OR Leave a message at 479-365-2033

Thank you so much for your support!! I look forward to making this fun, yummy treat for you and yours!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Buy a chance—Support our adoption!

I’ve told you before that I have the best and most talented friends.

And I’ve told you before how blessed we are.

And I’m here to tell you those 2 things AGAIN!!

Our talented friend Sheri made and donated this beautiful quilt wall hanging for us to “raffle” off with all proceeds to benefit our adoption fund.

To enter, simply click our Paypal donate button (located on the top right, under the Ethiopia flag) and donate!

Tickets $1 each!

You will get a chance in the drawing for every dollar you donate between January 9th and February 9th.

We will randomly draw for the winner on February 9th, contact the winner and will mail the wall hanging to the winner.

Why the 9th?

Because, today, January 9th, marks 5 months on the official waiting list for our baby girl! And the drawing will be held on February 9th, which will mark 6 months on the waiting list!!

Thank you all for your prayers and support along this journey!

Pray for Sudan

My heart has been heavy for Sudan for the past week or so.

I decided to link up to this post by Amanda Jones, as she did a great job giving all the links/details that I wanted to give.

I love the song. I was recently introduced to the artist Lecrae and our family loves his music.

As you read the story, just close your eyes and imagine what life might be like there. Too many innocent lives have already been lost… If this election does in fact reignite the decades old civil war…it just breaks my heart to think about it.

We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Sudan.

Melkam Gena

Merry Christmas! Today it’s Christmas in Ethiopia! If you’d like to read about it, go here.

In honor of the special day, we wanted to enjoy some traditional Ethiopian food. There isn’t an Ethiopian restaurant close, so I knew I’d have to do it myself.

I searched the internet for recipes for Doro Wat and Injera, went to the store to purchase the supplies I didn’t already have (my hubby got home early, so I even got to go shopping by myself! Score!), and came home and got to work.

I took lots of pics to share!

Lots of spices!

I omitted the cardamom (because it was expensive and I didn’t think I’d use it very often…) and the fenugreek (because Walmart didn’t have it). I used the ground version of each one (because I don’t have a spice grinder).

This pic is before i added the paprika and cayenne.

All of the spices mixed together. This is my version of the berbere.

Lots of garlic

And 3 lbs of onions!

Caution! Dicing up this many yellow onions could cause bodily harm. ie: burning your retinas!

Seriously…I cook a lot and I’ve never had my eyeballs burn so badly! You may not be able to see it, but I had tears pouring out of both eyes and down my face. And the flash on the camera was awful! I couldn’t hold my eyes open because the bright light hurt so bad! 

Lots of butter! I think Paula Deen would approve!

Onions and garlic cooking in the melted butter

Ready for the next step!

Add the berbere

After the tomato puree and chicken was added down into the liquid

Injera- dry ingredients

After water was added

After it sat for an hour

After the “dough” was blended with water- ready to make the Injera. It was very thin/ “watery”.

In the pan

1 down!

I put each one into a covered casserole dish to keep them warm and moist while I cooked the others.

Finished Doro Wat

My husband is a picky eater… he was a little nervous…

He walked in and did this- being silly to make me laugh- and I made him do it again to get his picture!

This was the 2nd taste. Thumbs up! He was pleasantly surprised!

So was Braden!

“Hey! This isn’t so bad!”

“Mmmm! Wow! This is GOOD! Yummy!”

Gracie ate a TON of the injera. She LOVED it!

Braden even asked for more of the chicken!

Yummy! Totally worth the 5 hrs in the kitchen!

I did have a backup plan…Raman noodles :)after 5 hrs in the kitchen, I had to make the kids something FAST and EASY that they love. They did end up eating it because although they liked the doro wat ok, it was a little too spicy for them to eat enough of it to fill up their bellies.

There are no pictures of Rhett-man because he is spending the night at his MeMe and PaPa’s house tonight. I do think he would’ve liked it though!

It was really fun to try Ethiopian food for the first time. I really enjoyed my time in the kitchen.  As I cooked, I thought about one day cooking this meal for my little Ethiopian princess!