Sugar Free Braided Apple Pie

I got this off of All Recipes. Instead of sugar I used Splenda. 

Ingredients 

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 pinch salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) package double crust ready-to-use pie crust (such as Pillsbury®)
• 4 large red apples, cored and thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in white sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and water. Bring the syrup to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat.
3. Unroll pie crusts, press one into a 9-inch pie dish, and place the apples into the crust. Unroll the second crust on a work surface, and cut into about 8 1-inch wide strips. Criss-cross the strips over the apples, or weave into a lattice crust. Crimp the bottom crust over the lattice strips with your fingers. Spoon caramel sauce over pie, covering lattice portion of top crust; let remaining sauce drizzle through the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake until the crust is golden brown, the caramel on the top crust is set, and the apple filling is bubbling, 35 to 40 more minutes. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Once you have all your braid ends tucked in just flip the bottom crust up and over a squish down. 

VIDEO STUDY

Col. 1:1-23

11-8-12

EACH ONE

10-20-12

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with GRACE, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Col. 4:5-6

     Wow! This about did me in this morning. I was working on pinpointing idols in my heart. (Idol: A person or thing that captures my heart, mind and affections more that God) 

     CONTROL! That was the topic with Jesus and I this morning. God often uses my 3 to frustrate this idol worship in my life. In general i want things to go my way all the time. I manage naturally. As a stay at home Mom this is often a large part of the job if you are to do it with intention. 

     Instead of freaking out when my kids are making it hard for me to get what I want done, I plan to Breath Deep, Say Jesus You manage my day and then speak to, not at my kids. This is my plan of action to replace the sinful behavior with one that would be a blessing to my God and family. 

     I then was looking up scripture about speech and came to this every so familiar passage in Colossians. What was mind blowing is my kids are THOSE OUTSIDE and EACH ONE! Until these precious babies of mine are sealed with God's spirit I am day in and day out speaking to the unsaved! I know that is so basic but very helpful to have at the for font of my thinking. This scripture also calls us to be intentional. Words like : Toward, redeeming the time and answer!

Everything taste better with salt!!! Pour on the GRACE!!!

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BEING HOME

 10-26-12

     Stand fast therefore in the liberty (freedom) by which Christ has made us free, do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

Gal. 5:1 

       We read on in Galatians to find 2 lists. One list giving us a clear picture of what not to do. A list of the FLESH. The next list would be want we should do a list of the fruit of the SPIRIT. In my natural tendency I would think, "sweet I will do the Spirit and not the flesh." The problem with that thinking is that it is a formula. The problem with formulas is they are an insult to our Lord. The thinking behind a formula is: If i do AB&C i will get a specific out come. If God allowed that to work we would never glorify Him and He is totally worth glorifying. 

Formula = trying to control God. 

     If Galatians 5 is not giving us a check off list for behavior what in the world is the purpose of the 2 lists?

Being Home. 

     Stick with me.

If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Gal. 5:25

     If walking in the Spirit (a life with, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all over it!) was automatic then God would not have had Paul tell us to do it. 

• If you live in the Spirit....If you have been saved by God's grace
• Then walk in the Spirit....freedom from the hold of your fleshly desires and passions and live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all over your life! 

Ok that sounds great but how!!! 

Are we going to unpack or not?

     Its like moving. God moves you from one house to the another (salvation) but if you never unpack, your new house will be amazing but never feel like home. There is nothing more wonderful than feeling at home in your relationship with God! The move is living in the Spirit the unpacking is walking in the Spirit. 

      I have moved many times as a child and as a married woman! IT IS WORK! Unpacking in your new spiritual home is work as well. But maybe not the work we think. Is it taking the 2 lists in Galatians 5 and doing one and not the other? NO! You will burn out. A state of being spiritually that I have experienced much! The work is SURRENDER! Yep! 

     The lists are simply there to compare your heart to. Notice I said heart not behavior. We can do one thing and be thinking another for a limited time so we want to check our hearts (thinking)  up against the lists of the flesh and Spirit. We can then evaluate our living. Are we living for  Christ surrendered in a specific area or living for ourselves (flesh) in that area. 

     The list are not for behavior modification but surrender modification. This is an issue of relationship. Relationship with Jesus Himself require way more vulnerability than relationship with a list of do's and don'ts. 

     Surrender will produce the fruit of the Spirit with surprising ease. Relationship with the lists will leave you exhausted and thinking you are better than everyone else. I know from experience. Surrender is so much more fun!

      

List of the Flesh: 

•  adultery
• fornication
• uncleanness 
• lewdness
• idolatry
• sorcery
• hatred
• contentions
• jealousies
• outbursts of wrath
• selfish ambitions
• dissensions
• heresies
• envy
• murders
• drunkenness
• revelries
• and the like. 

 Ps. Remember Jesus said if you lust after another, you have committed adultery....so the thought makes you guilty of the act.

List of the Spirit:

• love
• joy
• peace
• patience
• kindness
• goodness
• faithfulness
• gentleness
• self-control 

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SAY IT.

Unless the LORD had been my help, 

My soul would soon have settled in silence. 

If I say, "My foot slips,"

Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. 

In the multitude of my anxieties within me, 

Your comfort delights my soul. 

Psalm 94:17-19

     This scripture shows us the tenderness and love God has for us.  Maybe you have experienced a time in your life when the only thing that brought comfort was the LORD Himself, no thing and no one else.  Not a bad place to be, but often the road to getting there is paved trials that strip us of our comforts.

    We sometimes are willing to “settle in silence . . . to just completely give up !!!  To lodge, abide and stay in death!”  Circumstances of this life can invite us to this place in our thinking.  I would dare say, it is the natural place to go when something devastating and unexplainable has taken place, whether it is gradual or sudden. When tragedy befalls us we have a choice to make.  How are we going to handle it?  Are we going to “Settle in Silence” or say, “My foot slips,” and invite the "Mercy" of the Lord to hold us up.

    I love how the Psalm says, "If I say, ‘My foot slips.’"  We can be aware that we are on the edge of “settling in silence” but how long does it take us to say it to the LORD in our quiet secret place.  It’s easy to verbally speak of our struggles to a friend or close family member who will verbally respond. There are appropriate times for good fellowship and encouragement but not if it replaces going to our Lord and telling Him, "My foot slips.  I'm weighed down by the cares of this life.  I'm anxious.  I'm falling here!  I know I need to trust You but my foot just slips and I am struggling!"  God is so familiar with the frailness of our human existence. He came and lived it, minus the sin. (Heb. 4:15)  We can get encouragement and prayer from friends and family when we share a struggle but nothing holds a torch to MERCY! We come to Jesus and He is waiting for us with kindness, beauty and favor to help in our time of need! To hold us up. 

            Even in the midst of devastating times there is delight (play) to be had, pleasure in the comfort and compassion of our Lord.  It goes against all reason that you could be on the edge of being homeless, violated physically, or have just lost someone dear to you, yet still be able to play and experience pleasure as you turn to the One who has the solace you need. God is waiting for us to say,

"My foot slips."  He is right there to hold us up with His Mercy. It is His mercy that keeps us from completely loosing heart. (2 Cor. 4:1b)

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

Settled:  lodge;  to reside or permanently stay,  abide,  continue,  have habitation,  inhabit,  lay place,  remain,  rest,  set

Silence :  root meaning -  to be dumb figuratively death

Slip:   waver by implication to slip, shake , fall -be scared, cast be out of course, be fallen in decay, be moved, be ready shake, slide slip

Mercy:   kindness, beauty, favor

Comforts:  compassion , solace consolation

Delight:  please, amuse, play

Hebrews 4:15-16

For we do not have a High Priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,  that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

REHEARSE

   Psalm 92:1-2

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, 

and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; 

to declare Your loving kindness in the morning,

and Your Faithfulness every night.”

Aladdin

     I was home-schooled growing up so my parents were great about making sure we had extra curricular activities to do.  I tried sports and just didn't love it.  At the age of 10, I went to Orange County to stay with my Auntie and auditioned for a traveling Children's Theater Show - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  I fell in love.  I was hooked. My Mom was introduced to a local (San Diego) Children's Theater Company (the coordinator just happened to be another home-school mom we spent time with every month at park day.)  Christian Youth Theater (CYT), was where we landed.  I was in love with theater but by no means a natural. I struggled to sing on key and due to several processing challenges that I deal with to this day, dancing was my greatest challenge.  It is so interesting that it was also my favorite aspect of theater.  When we would rehearse,  I would learn my choreography, write it all down and go home and practice for at least an hour a day.  I couldn't believe that some kids would not practice a minute at home and still know the moves the next week.  Each show, there was always a break-through point for me.  I would rehearse over and over and over and then at some point it would click.  My muscles and brain would get it and I would experience a freedom and joy in dancing that was quite unexplainable.  It was that freedom and joy that made me go back and do over 30 shows in my little theater career from age 10 -18. 

Little Mermaid 

    I share all this to lay a platform for this concept of rehearsal – a very dear concept to me.  In Psalm 92:1-2, God is telling us what is good!  Whenever God is telling us what is good, we want to turn our hearts toward what He’s saying - to perk up and listen.  It is good to “sing praises - to declare His loving kindness and faithfulness - morning and night.”  I don't know about you, but when I am struggling through a hardship or trial of any depth, praise and worship don't come naturally to me.  We have other scriptures commanding us to “do everything without grumbling or complaining” because THAT is the human tendency.  We grumble and complain instead of worshipping our God.  To worship in the original language means “to declare or show forth.”  I was blown away!  It means ”to stand boldly out - opposite!”   What!?  This life will always have various trials.   I love the word - boldly. It is a word of power and action.  By God's Spirit, we can stand boldly in worship because we know the truth and bottom line of every unpleasant situation.  The bottom line is we are GREATLY LOVED - the fiery trials are but for a moment and never without purpose for our good and God's glory.  

      Maybe that bottom-line truth doesn't get you excited.  It doesn't always get me excited either. There’s a thought that creeps in my head,  "that's nice, but I'm suffering now."  This is where REHEARSAL comes in. The truth is unchanging, but what does change is the affect we allow it to have on us. Rehearsal of the truth will click and produce a freedom and joy to dance in the midst of our trial.  To KNOW the steps of truth and break forth, to declare with our lives that God is love and He is faithful.  As we do this, the world and other believers will see the way we live as a beautifully choreographed life that shows forth His love and faithfulness. 

Ways to Rehearse God's Truth in Your Own Life

•               Read your Bible every day.  Start small -10 minutes. 

•               Put verses on 3x5 cards - truths you know you should believe in, but you just don't yet. 

•               Put verses on your mirror with a wipe off pen.

•               Put a blank piece of paper in a picture frame and write on

         the glass with a wipe off pen.

•               Get the children's CD's called Sprouts. Scriptures sung to music, whether you have kids or not. 

•               Set a daily recurring alarm on your cell phone with a simple

         truth in the subject line. 

There are many other ways to rehearse the truth into your heart - these are just some that I do. 

Declare:  

H5046

נגד

nâgad

naw-gad'

A primitive root; properly to front, that is, stand boldly out opposite; by implication (causatively), 

to manifest; figuratively to announce (always by word of mouth to one present); specifically to expose, 

predict, explain, praise:—bewray, (?) X certainly, certify, declare (-ing), denounce, expound, X fully, messenger, plainly, profess, rehearse,. report, shew (forth), speak, X surely, tell, utter

Little Mermaid with my youngest brother

Aladdin with Jen and Peter

Wa Wa Advent Day 7

Wa Wa and Velcro are making snow flakes! 

Potty Training

Potty Training! Who loves this part of the job? NOBODY!

This was our Diego Adventure Trail! To the fare Left you can

see Diego is taped to a clothes pin. Every succesful potty

Diego moved forward. I tried not giving candy till he got to

each pack but there wasn't enough gratification in that for

our Bear. So we gave one M&M for each try. Some don't give

candy at all. I used to think that was super important to me and

now with 3 kids I don't care. Its 2 weeks of to much sugar and

we are back to healthy eating and no diapers! 

Tried to make it fun this time around. 

Every time Bear got to the end of the ribbon he got one

pair of new undies.

We have used the Fisher Price Froggy Potty chair and love it.

Especially with boys you want to get a seat with a high front

design and I prefer one that doesn't have a lot of small places

 for pee to get into. Potty Training is nasty enough with out

having a frustrating potty chair. This is a link for the chair

we use from Target.

 http://www.target.com/p/fisher-price-froggy-potty/-/A-13764601#prodSlot=medium_1_10&term=potty

Playing Store

STORE

So this one is not a spiritual lesson but I found this old school register that I played with when i was a child. I paid $1 for it. The gal at the flee market couldn't have know it was worth so much more! The original money wasn't included so I used some disc that my Mom gave us from their sign shop and super glued money to it so we could play store and continue learning the basics of the worth of coins. We use the paper with money taped to it for price tags. We use any old toys around the house. Last time we did this we bought and sold Mr. Potato Head pieces. Once you build your potato head we switched cashiers. 

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What is a Fool?

     Our Big Brown Puppy gave us something great to talk about this morning! VOMIT!

#1: Mom! Duke barfed!

       Duke had just eaten breakfast so he was in his kennel and the mess was just wet dog food.

Me: Boys watch what Duke does with his vomit.

       Duke of course eat it.

Boy: YUCK! Gross!

Me: Yep, isn't that disgusting! Guess what the Bible talks about dog's vomiting!

       Got their attention with that one! I got out my bible and read. (Trying to get the bible out more so they see for themselves that it really is in there)

Me: Proverbs 26:11 

As a dog returns to its vomit so a fool returns to his folly. 

So guys, what is a fool?

Boy: don't know

Me: Is someone who keeps going back and doing something wrong over and over again and he doesn't want Jesus to help him stop. 

#1: So he is a bad guy!

Me: Yes bad guys are foolish but we can do things like a fool too. Do you think a fool is a wise man or unwise

Boy: unwise

Me: do you think a fool is teachable, he likes to learn to do the right thing or unteachable, doesn't listen when someone is teaching him?

Boys: teachable.

Me: So a fool is a person that does something wrong and just like Duke went back and eat his nasty vomit a fool returns to his folly. 

Troy: what is a folly mom

Me: great question, a folly is like what I did this morning. I got frustrated with while you were not reading the way I have taught you. I was wrong. A folly is doing something you know is wrong. 

#1: like if I lie?

Me: yup, Bear can you think of something you do that is a folly? LONG PAUSE Like maybe hitting?

#2: Oh yeah that is bad. 

Me: So a folly is doing that sinful thing over and over and not wanting to change it.