refined faith

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Laura — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:43:04 +0000

I just happened to see this oh-so delicious treat on Pinterest today when I was looking up a different recipe. We ended up having a restful family day (thank you bad weather!) and I had plenty of time to whip these up before dinner. My family thanked me greatly and so will yours!

Photo Credit

Hop on over here to see the complete recipe and pictures!

Our Latest Adventure

Laura — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:01:43 +0000

Last Wednesday marked two weeks since we moved to Georgia and I guess the Lord thought that was plenty of time to get adjusted before the trials stared rolling in again. On Thursday, Madden fell down the basement stairs and after two trips to the immediate care center down the road and a long afternoon of crying, we finally found out he had fractured his wrist and it would need to be cast. So, Friday morning we loaded up the family and headed into Atlanta to an orthopaedic surgeon to get his sweet little cast. For the most part he’s handled it well, but unfortunately its the arm with the thumb that he sucks to soothe himself to sleep, so nights and naps are not so fun with the cast. Thankfully, its only 2 and 1/2 more weeks!

So I found myself over the weekend thinking about trials and how God keeps me dependent on Him. From the day we moved in until this past week, it was almost as if God had lifted His hand for a short while and gave me a slight break in order to do the work of getting us moved and settled. And oh how I was thankful to not be dealing with the mountain of tiny trials that we normally face! But one by one, they have slowly started to trickle in again and oddly, I am not shaken or surprised. Why? Because I agree with Peter that it is all joy when trials mount up on every side…for these very trials are what draw me nearer to the Lord and keep me ever dependent on Him. How do I face each day after being up during the night with a sad Madden, knowing full well that he will be irritable most of the day and I still have to push forward with school, church and daily life? By God’s grace, trusting that He will supply my every need and that His power is made perfect in weakness. Amen? Amen!

The Best for Last

Laura — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:11:07 +0000

So I thought my favorite room in the house was the kitchen, then I thought it was my master bath…but this week I discovered the best part ever…our school room. It was the one thing I had truly hoped God might bless us with and this week, I’ve been able to witness and experience so many great blessings in this one room. Its the room set aside for learning…its the room set aside for growing…its the room set aside for experiencing new things…together…as a family….and I love it. And what I realized is that kids can do school anywhere…really, they can! But this mommy, with her multi-task, task-oriented brain has a very hard time focusing solely on school when I’m in the middle of my kitchen. Instead, I try to teach, clean, do laundry, etc. and my kids don’t get the full attention they deserve. My all-knowing God knew this and knew this was how He made me and knowing my desire to teach my children in the home, He’s taken all those components and provided us a beautiful, peaceful, light-filled room in which to learn. Thank you Father…this room is more than I hoped for and I pray all of our learning will ultimately result in my four little people knowing and loving Jesus with all of their hearts.

Our school room! The only major purchase was the Ikea bookcase pictured...such a great solution for all the books, papers, puzzles, markers, etc. that we've accumulated along the way!

The couches where we learn to read! And where the littlest ones curl up while waiting for Mikias to finish!

One more view...the Pier 1 Entertainment center that we've owned since we got married and ran out of room for has now reappeared and makes a great piece for hold all of our board games! This room has become a great room for family games after dinner...one more reason to love it!

Mikias re-creating the Trojan horse and the burning of the city of Troy...this was hilarious! Bullseye was the largest horse we could find

Molly Kate working on math while Mikias sets up the battle!

Madden just being cute Madden!

Miles is the true engineer in our family...he was quietly designing something amazing in the corner!

My favorite part of the day...Mikias wanted to show King Menelaus getting Helen back and the only woman we could find downstairs was Jesse from Toy Story...this is the result

This picture is for all my Louisville friends...please come see us and stay in this beautiful room! You'll enjoy a nice private patio, full bath and kitchen and of course, large media room! Seriously...we want you to come see us and the kids miss you, so plan a vacation to Atlanta and just let us know when you'll be here!!

Kitchen and Great Room (and it is really great!)

Laura — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:56:12 +0000

Here’s more pics, as promised! My mom, the clever and talented decorator that she is had to add a few more touches before she let me post any pictures! These were taken at night, so they don’t display the gorgeous sun rays that hit these back windows all day long (water to my soul!), but for my friends who have been patiently waiting for pics, here they are!

Eating area in the kitchen...I love how charming this turned out! The table is my parents' old trestle table that we painted a funky brown and the kitchen chairs are very, very old mis-matched chairs that we picked up at a salvage store. My mom, dad and I had quite an experience bringing them back to life and painting them while I stayed with them, but the result was worth the work!

Looking into the kitchen from the great room! I can't believe God blessed me with double ovens and a gas range...for a woman who loves to cook, this kitchen is just too much fun!

Looking at the kitchen from the eating area...I also love how much counter space this kitchen provides!

The great room or what I like to think of as our "Relax and Unwind" room. My hope is that many bible studies will take place in this room as we open our home to our church family and those in our community.

Looking into the great room from the stairs....love the vaulted ceiling in this room and how it opens up the room.

Looking into the great room from the entry way...this is the only room that we purchased new furniture for and it turned out even better than I had planned. I'm so thankful for my mom and her expertise...she really helped all the visions in my mind come to life!

In the Land of the Living

Laura — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:58:35 +0000

I’m not sure how to start writing about the goodness of God that I’ve seen in the last week. When the Lord began the process of bringing us to PMBC in Douglasville, Georgia, I really had no idea how much blessing the Lord had in store for us. And its a very strange thing to receive so much blessing after suffering through so much hardship and loss these last three years. I am continually humbled and continually thanking my God for His abundant kindness. And I’m reminded of this verse that one of our former church members (a.k.a. Josh Dove) shared one time and I’ve never forgotten it…

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13.

Kevin and I had to make many a trip to Georgia these last few months searching for a home for our family. I didn’t have huge expectations but my one request was that God would allow Mikias and Molly Kate to have their own rooms and that we would have a room specifically designated for school. We were honestly growing pretty discouraged for a while…most of the homes here are foreclosures and most are in rough shape…too rough for a family ready to dive into ministry and not home repair! Then, one evening, my dad called to tell me to jump online and check out a house he found. Our wonderful realtor ran by the house and said that it was definitely worth a rush trip to Georgia. So, I loaded up the kids, drove down by myself and by the end of the weekend, we had made an offer (without Kevin ever seeing it!). I’m so thankful that my dad (an incredibly wise business man) encouraged us to always buy and never rent, even during the lean seminary years. For that reason, we now have great credit scores and easily qualified for this home (which was an honest steal because of the current market).

Now, two months later, we have officially moved in and I am in utter awe of the beauty of this home. There are amazing windows throughout the home (complete with plantation shutters for those of you who love interior design!). My seasonal depression will be no more with all the light that floods our rooms! We have an amazing basement, with a full kitchen, guest bed and bath, school room and media room (my husband’s favorite part…the previous owners left a projector and a massive screen so we have a very cool room in which to watch movies, sports, and television…I envision some fun double date nights with couples from our church!). And we have three rooms for our kiddos on the upper floor by themselves…plenty of space to spread out and grow, yet close enough to still find a sibling play-mate!

My dad, mom, Kevin and I arrived last Wednesday to begin our move-in. My sweet mother-in-law agreed to keep the kids while the movers came and gave us time to set the kids’ rooms up before they ever arrived. Oh what fun it was to get their rooms completely ready and surprise them with their new home on Saturday! We felt like Extreme Home Makeover as we went room to room opening the doors to their new rooms! And, given that we had packed up most of their toys ten months ago, they were delighted to just be able to play again…completely unrestricted play!!

So…here’s the start of lots of photos…I’ll post the rest tomorrow (and I can’t wait so show you my kitchen…its a true dream!)! Thank you for rejoicing with us…I know so many of you have been so genuinely happy for our family to receive this incredible blessing and I am so thankful for you words of encouragement! May God be greatly glorified as we use this home to further His name!

Let the unloading begin!

My job for moving day...checking off every box and piece of furniture as they called out numbers. This actually proved to be pretty stressful for my tired brain and it was freezing!

Molly Kate's very princess, very pink room! Kevin and my dad painted the room, Kevin hung the chandelier and my dad painted Molly Kate's furniture a great shade of green and purple. If you know my dad, its quite grand that I've turned him into a furniture painter over the last six weeks!

Another shot of MK's room!

I love how cute the chest of drawers turned out in green...oh, how I love painted furniture!!

The kids' bathroom...all four share a pretty large bath on the upper level where their bedrooms are located.

Miles' and Madden's room...their room is just awesome! The have a long bonus room over the garage that is perfect for two little boys. We even had space to set up Madden's new ride-on Thomas toy. This pic doesn't show the brown chairs that my dad painted for the white table and the brown bedside table that matches their blue chest of drawers. This room is probably the most fun to hang out in with all the kids!

A different shot of the boys' room...across from the map sits our large Thomas the Train!

Mikias' room...very sports oriented and complete with a desk for building legos. He was so excited to finally have a room of his own!

Another shot of Mikias' room...these bookshelves give him the space he very much wanted to display his legos once they were built! He loves not having to stick them back in a box!

Because we don't really believe in gradual transition (ha, ha!) we decided to just go ahead and move Madden to a big boy's bed and not mess with setting the crib up. Here he is taking his first nap in his new bed...he was so proud to climb up in it by himself and he's done so well. I can't believe my baby isn't a baby anymore!

Merry Christmas to All!

Laura — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:26:01 +0000

What joy to begin celebrating the birth of our Savior this morning in corporate worship (after our annual breakfast birthday cake to Jesus, of course!)! It was a sweet sound to this mama’s ears to hear my children loudly singing the Christmas hymns with such excitement this morning! I also got a nice surprise late last night…I thought Kevin wouldn’t be here at my parents’ until this afternoon after leading music at our new church in Douglasville. But, in great kindness, our pastor told Kevin he could head on out last night and my sweet hubby decided to surprise me with his presence! Having prepared myself to spend half of Christmas day without him, you can imagine how happy I was to have my man by my side!

I hope and pray each of you were able to celebrate in great joy and thankfulness today, that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords came down to us in infant form that He might save us from the wrath of God by submitting to death on a cross. Oh, what depths of Love…oh, what mighty grace and mercy!

Blowing out the candles for Jesus!

Merry Christmas from the Cuthbertsons!

Mikias with his new Lego!

Molly Kate with her new double stroller...quite the little mommy!!

Miles with his new "big boy" bike!! Our little man was so proud today!

Madden riding his new Thomas train! This toy was given to us a few years back so we only spent $30 for a new battery and wow!

"And to all a good night!"

Caught Red-Handed

Laura — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:05:26 +0000

A good friend whom I’ve known for since I was in high school stopped by my parents’ today for a visit. While we were sitting in the kitchen visiting, I assumed Madden was with my mom. My mom entered the kitchen and I asked “Where’s Madden?” She replied “I thought he was with you!” Um…uh-oh! Mom started calling for him, I’m silently panicking and then I hear my mom in a laughing voice…”I’ve found him!!” Oh yes…she found him…sitting in my room with all of my lipsticks pulled out, red lipstick smeared across his mouth and an assortment of colors on the chair, the rug, the desk…you get the picture! I’ve never had something like this happen with one of my kids before…but I couldn’t help but laugh! Later, I went on and on about how this is “No-No” and kept pointing to my lipstick case saying “no-no”, but oh what a priceless moment! So glad my friend Rick captured the memory!

Peach Pancakes

Laura — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:07:07 +0000

Photo Credit

Per my dad’s request, we had peach pancakes for breakfast this morning! Can I just say… yum?!?!! I found this recipe and only made one change…canned peaches for fresh given the time of year. We topped them with more peaches, maple syrup and some whipped cream. My kiddos were super-pleased with breakfast today

Ingredients:

2 eggs, at room temperature
2 ½ cups buttermilk, at room temperature
4 tablespoons oil
2 ½ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
2 cups ripe, peeled, diced peaches

Directions:

Blend egg, milk and oil. In a separate bowl blend dry ingredients together.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Gently fold in peaches. Let sit 5 minutes. Batter will be lumpy.

Heat griddle until drops of water sizzle. Grease lightly if needed.

Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto hot grill and smooth out slightly. Flip pancakes once pancakes puff and bubbles have formed, but before bubbles break.

Turn and brown on the other side, pressing down gently to make sure batter cooks evenly around the fruit.

A Child’s Ten Commandments

Laura — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:24:13 +0000

I read this tonight on Pinterest (my new obsession!) and was deeply encouraged…I tend to be one of those mamas with super-high expectations and regularly need to be reminded that my children are in fact just that…children!! Please Lord, grant me grace to be more patient, to appreciate and treasure each one of the little lives you have so beautifully placed in my hands and to provide a home that gives them the balance of freedom and boundaries they need to grow in the knowledge of You.

A Child’s Ten Commandments to Parents – Dr. Kevin Leman

1. My hands are small; please don’t expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so that I can keep up with you.

2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; please let me explore safely: don’t restrict me unnecessarily.

3. Housework will always be there. I’m only little such a short time—please take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.

4. My feelings are tender; please be sensitive to my needs; don’t nag me all day long. (You wouldn’t want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness.) Treat me as you would like to be treated.

5. I am a special gift from God; please treasure me as God intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6. I need your encouragement, but not your praise, to grow. Please go easy on the criticism; remember you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail, so that I can learn from my mistakes. Then someday I’ll be prepared to make the kind of decisions life requires of me.

8. Please don’t do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn’t quite measure up to your expectations. I know it’s hard, but please don’t try to compare me with my brother or my sister.

9. Please don’t be afraid to leave for a weekend together. Kids need vacations from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides, it’s a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.

10. Please take me to Sunday school and church regularly, setting a good example for me to follow. I enjoy learning more about God.

Still Here and Kicking!

Laura — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:37:23 +0000

I’m so sorry for the lack of posts…my life is nothing short of crazy! We moved in with my parents the week before Thanksgiving and will hopefully close on our house in Georgia at the end of next week. We’ve had a great time with Nana and Poppa (though we all miss Daddy very much!) and yet as all you mamas can understand, we are ready to be back in our own space, with all of our belongings, toys, bedrooms, etc. Schooling has been probably the most inconsistent part of our life, but I finally just realized I needed to give us all some grace and we’ll make sure to catch up once January arrives!

One fun note…we all LOVE being back in the South for winter. On Sunday we were in shorts and t-shirts and played outside all day! I don’t remember the last December where we spent this much time outside…it is glorious and makes for some very happy kiddos!

Thanksgiving 2011