Making Sunday Restful & Cheese-less Pizza

Sunday is the day to rest and enjoy our families after we have set aside time to be with our church family.

I'll be honest ...

over here Sundays are just as hard or harder than our every day!

I mean I still have 6 mouths to feed, 4 bodies to dress and to look clean, and be out the door around 10am:) Then we get home with 4 (or 5, or 6) starving people and this Momma has to get a meal on the table, again!

After a month or two of some not.at.all restful Sundays we have begun to make some changes! And thankfully this week we had about as restful as a Sunday that we've had in a long while! It was delightful;)

Here is what we have done:

1. Laying clothing out the night before! We've done this for awhile now and know that when we move and no longer live next to our church, we'll have to start ironing the night before. And packing Nate's church bag, too:)

2. It seems like the last few Sundays we have started a little food routine for Sundays that makes it pretty fun, something to look forward to and RESTful for Momma;)

First we start Saturday night by trying to have a big meal that always produces leftovers;)

And then after the kiddos are tucked in for the night, I bake Banana Bread.

So breakfast Sunday morning is OJ or soymilk, fruit and Banana Bread:) And it's a treat that we really look forward to, especially the kids who hear me in the kitchen or begin to smell the bread in the oven as they fall asleep! I slice it up in the morning and the kids help themselves. The recipe makes two 8 inch loaves and we have yet to eat both with the kids having as much as they want:)

When we return home from church, we enjoy leftovers... sometimes from Saturday night or Friday:) Leftovers on Sunday afternoon means that Momma doesn't have as much kitchen duty! And fits perfectly into our "cleaning out the fridge" before trash day, if we have anything that has been lurking too long in the fridge (trying not to have wasted food!!).

After almost 6 months of not having pizza because we can't find dairy-free cheese locally, we have gone cheeseless with our homemade pizzas:) We think it's delicious.

 It's really cheap without the expensive vegan cheeses. Since we no longer have church on Sunday nights, it's been fun to make our pizzas together... I make the dough and the kids make their own with adding the amounts of pizza and toppings they like.

Pizza Dough Recipe
(adapted from here but we love the recipe from Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book)

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 T. sugar
2 T. olive oil
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 t. salt
2 tsp of Italian seasoning (I add this!!)

Preparation:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and warm water, mixing  until combined. Allow the mixture to rest for about 5 minutes, or until bubbly.

2. Add the sugar, olive oil, flour, and salt, adding more flour as necessary until forming a soft dough. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and should feel just a little sticky. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 5 to 7 minutes, or until elastic.

According to Food Allergy Mama, the dough doesn't have to rise for an hour!! So we don't wait around, we make our dough and get to work putting on the toppings;)

Adding a quick salad or some fruit and we have a fun meal together.

We've been enjoying this food routine on Sundays.... I'm sure we'll tire of pizza after a while and go back to making breakfast or something else easy that we can make together;)

3. One of the reasons our Sundays looked soo much like every other day was that there was no time to rest (at least for the parents). With our older three children (7,6,5 yrs old) no longer napping, we'd go from the kitchen to playing outside or refereeing inside play. So from 2 - 8pm it was the same old, same old.... "play nice", "no, please don't do that", "wear your helmet", "yes, I'll get that".... serving the kids. I think it's needed as a parent... but there needs to be a time to rest as well.

So we re- instituted naps on Sunday ! Everyone! Everyone lays in their beds and quietly rests, reads, colors, writes for enough time that Mom and Dad get rest! It is amazing what an hour (or two) nap does for this Momma;)

4. Time for each other!! While we've been teaching this semester (both Brian and I teaching two classes) a lot of our weekend has included working to "prepare for the next week"! On Sunday afternoons though, it's nice to take a break from "work" and take some time to play with the kids.... truly refreshing for our relationships with each other. And this just takes discipline on our parts to complete the work before Sunday or do it after the kids head to bed:)

Last Sunday we did all of these things....

Sunday was truly relaxing and refreshing!! Feeding our hearts at church, our bellies with simple meals and our relationships with time together!! The Lord knew families needed a day set aside to worship and spend time with one another:)

Linking up to...
Tuesdays at the Table @ All the Small Stuff
Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Blessed with Grace
Tasty Tuesday @ 33 Shades of Green 
Allergy Free Wednesday
Works For Me Wednesday

A Perspective Changes Everything

I love when inspirational/teaching books begin to inspire and challenge my actions and thoughts.

I've been reading more of One Thousand Gifts and was just thinking through the "empty to fill" chapter. In one section Ann talks about having a perspective of scrubbing pots and pans or doing laundry as means of serving God. Not trying to please or manipulate others, looking for anything in return... but a simple means of "dedicating the work as thanks to Him" (pg 194). Whoa!

Then preparing for Bible study I read a chapter about priorities and having the right things as priorities during our days that seem to fly by. Two quotes from Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss grabbed my attention the most:

"This is not to suggest that it is necessarily wrong for a wife and mother to have a job outside her home - unless that job in anyway competes with or diminishes her effectiveness in fulfilling her primary calling at home." (pg 127)

I am thankful that right now I am able to stay at home with my children. But to be VERY honest, there are "jobs/tasks/hobbies" that I've been apart of that DO compete with my "home" and definitely effect my effectiveness... especially when I stay up too late.... and the pancake crew is up bright and early waiting on me !

So even though I am a "stay at home" mom sometimes my brain isn't always focused on the home. And I'm working on having more balance... of having some "creative mommy time" while still having the correct focus!

And this quote from Lies Women Believe is from Dorothy Patterson. It continues to run through my head over and over:)

It is true that many "perfect jobs" may come and go during the childrearing years, but only one will absolutely never come along again--the job of rearing your own children and allowing them the increasingly rare opportunity to grow up at home.

This quote grabbed me because of the idea that these years with my kids at this age will NEVER come again. As much as I want to accomplish each day... cleaning the house, blogging some pictures, doing some schoolwork... I need to keep in mind that these years are precious and fleeting and can never come again!

Just ONE way this has applied to me already.

Sundays during church I have been trying to keep the kids in worship so they are trained to sit, so I can hear the sermon too and so we're together in worship.... but really, with Nate soo little and wiggly and Chris and Lydia(when she sits with me) still needing corrections... it's exhausting! I might get bits and pieces of the sermon at best and disrupt the rest of the congregation with Nate's protests at worst.

So I just "let it go". I will one day get to listen to a whole sermon without interruptions:) One day:) But right now I could spend 30 minutes (just during the sermon) with the kids in the nursery teaching them about God on their level, practicing the ways to worship in "big church" and yes, playing with them.

What a difference!! Not feeling exhausted after wrestling a toddler during church (lol!) or feeling defeated that I HAD to bring some rascally kids up to nursery... again!



221. momosa blossoms

222. sounds of hummingbirds playing (or fighting)
223. not so baby, yet still adorable chubby cheeks

224. cute dimples
225. humidity curls

226. little boy games
227. funny "bad guy" faces

228. children recounting Bible stories
229. a comforting hand

230. full nights of sleep
231. families expecting new babies
232. renewed priorities

Enjoying the Moments

After church this afternoon while we were getting lunch ready we let the kids play outside. First I was out snapping pictures and then Brian came out and rode them around while I finished the lunch preparations:)




















What a difference our "pre-lunch" time was today.... usually on Sunday afternoons the kids are fussy....they fuss with us, with each other, with their toys. We actually video taped it one time because it was sooo crazy (thank goodness they're getting older so it's getting a little better).
Finally, we eat and put them to bed!!!



But today we got to enjoy them....play with them, laugh, let them run off any extra energy and I got to finish preparations in peace watching them have fun in the yard. Even lunch went a little smoother, with Anna actually trying(and enjoying) mashed potatoes!!!

As you can see everyone is well.... I'm still mentally giving the "virus" a few days before I'm going to consider us "virus free". But for now the vomit bucket is in the closet:) Yay!!

A Lord's Day Visitor

Here is the "Serious crew" all cleaned up, dressed up and ready for church:) (They're watching cars passing by.)


This is our little friend. We've been watching the robin's nest from afar and noticed yesterday that the babies were much bigger than we thought. Today must have been their flying lesson day:)

















The little birdie reunited with his parent!!!