There is so much I want to blog about, but I thought I should start with this.  I’ve been MIA recently because my father had a stroke.  He had an inoperable intracerebral hemorrhage deep in his basal ganglia. It was touch and go there for a while, and scared the bejesus out of my sister and myself.  However, he is doing much better now.  He is actually moving from the hospital to a rehab center possibly today or tomorrow.

He’s got a long road to recovery, but he’s in good spirits.  This type of stroke doesn’t kill brain cells, it merely suppresses them from the pressure of the bleed.  But once the blood in his brain is reabsorbed by his body, those cells can regain their function.  He currently has a very weak right arm and the right side of his face doesn’t work very well.  It’s hard for him to talk, so not only does he have physical therapists, he has a speech therapist and occupational therapist as well.  Whew!

I just visited him yesterday, and he was doing much better from when I saw him last on the 1st.  It will take time and he’ll never be back to 100%, but he’ll get some range of motion back.

As you can imagine, I’ve been frantically dealing with everything, from taking care of my dad to juggling the kids and my own family life with DH.  I came home early last week thinking he was on the mend only to turn around two hours later on the same day and race back down to Salem (an hour drive) because he’d taken a turn for the worse.  But thankfully, they were able to stabilize him and he’s much better now.  They are still very aggressive about keeping his blood pressure down as well as his blood sugar.  It’s been quite the roller-coaster.

But I’m very hopeful now, as he’s going into rehab.  He’s no longer at risk for a second stroke, he just needs some therapy to bounce back.

Aside from all that hoopla, I got my second edits for THE FALL OF JERICHO and it’s release date: July 23rd.  Woohoo!  Only thing I don’t have yet is the cover.

However, I DO have the cover for BLACK ANGEL, but I’ll post that in a new post.  It’s glorious!

I’m also about 80 pages away from finishing THE FALCON PRINCE!  I’m so excited.  The Falcon was the one prince I didn’t have a solid plot for, but he’s given me a great story to work with and a way to set up the Spider Prince’s book, which I’m also very anxious to write.  But I was the same way with the Scarab Prince.  Speaking of, I haven’t heard word about my submission on TSP, but my publisher is very busy herself with Canada Day and Independence Day and new releases and just one thing after another.  Patience is a virtue!  But it’s sure not fun!! 

Anyway, that’s my latest.  I’ll post my new cover.  But I wanted to keep everyone up to speed.  I’m back home now, finally, and through the craziness surrounding my dad, DH and I are in the middle of a remodel of our home theater, not to mention DH’s best friend and his son are coming to stay with us tomorrow to attend the wedding of another friend this Saturday.

GACK!  It’s batshit insane these days!  LOL

~~Becka

So this past week, my hubby had a pot-luck at his work.  He had the awesome idea of bringing chicken enchiladas.  But he didn’t want to bring them cold and not warm, nor did he want to make them early in the morning and bring them to work hot as they would still be cold by lunch time.  So he needed a way to keep them warm and/or warm them up.

His brilliant idea was an electric skillet.

But the one we had was old and sad.  It was this little 12″x 12″ deal, that looks like it has seen it’s fair share of world wars.  Most of the “non-stick” coating is scratched off, not to mention it just wasn’t big enough for the shindig at DH’s office.  This thing is literally a dinosaur; a gift from DH’s grandparents on the occasion of our wedding nigh 15 years ago.  It was well used, but now, we needed an upgrade.

I got out of the habit of using an electric skillet because my family is so huge and I didn’t have a big one.  My pans were good enough, as I have a jumbo iron skillet I use all the time.  But, we needed the skillet to do the enchiladas, so off to Target I go.

I found a couple in their selection of bigger skillets, one a $30, the other $60.  Seems a no brainer, right?  Quick giant skillet for a one-time pot-luck, right?  Well, I stood there and weighed my options.  The $30 was indeed the size I needed, but there was some assembly required.  The $60 one was already ready already.  It had rubber feet so it wouldn’t slide on the counter.  And it had a lid that is held down with buckles.  AND a pour spout on one of the corners.

Okay, sold!  Here it was, already nearing 8pm, and we still needed to make the enchiladas!  I don’t want to put together the fricken’ skillet with a screwdriver while browning the chicken.  But it was indeed the pour spout that ultimately sold me.  Browning beef?  No prob, merely lock the lid down and drain.  Awesome Sauce.

So I brought it home, we made the enchiladas, put them in the fridge overnight, DH took the entire skillet to work the next day, plugged it in on 300 degrees an hour before the pot-luck and voila! Perfect hot, melty enchiladas.

That night, it was so easy to clean, just wipe out with a sponge, the non-stick coating is so super-sweet.

So last night, I decided to make frozen burgers for the family.  The thing held 6 big ol’ patties from Costco with no problem, enough to feed everyone without having to do a second batch!

I’m thinking I’m in love with this thing.  It’s definitely the best $60 I’ve spent recently, and I cannot stress how happy I am I didn’t get the less expensive skillet.  With the lovely coating, the lid, the spout and the sheer size of it, this bad boy is now going to be a staple of my kitchen for many years to come.

I love it when you buy something you thought you didn’t really need and it turns into something you can no longer live without. 

Five stars from Becka, for the $60 (Okay, $59.99) 16″ electric skillet by Hamilton Beach.  Well done, guys!

http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/skillets-premiere-cookware-electric-skillet.html

~~Becka

Hey everyone.  If you follow me on Twitter or my fan page on FaceBook, you’ll know I recently had a “four day” weekend (not counting Labor Day) for writing.  DH went to Seattle recently for the PAX convention while I stayed behind with the kidlets and had myself a fun writing weekend.

What am I writing?  RENEGADE!!  This book is filled with so MUCH, that I honestly think it’s the best book I’ve written.  I’ve learned so much over the years with regards to prose, voice, POV, emotion, and showing vs telling that I’m sooo hoping it’s come across in this manuscript.

I stayed up late a couple of times, burning the midnight oil with a pot o’ coffee.  I tried hard to get 100 pages written over my four day weekend, but alas, my final page count was 89 pages and 16,000 words.  I would have loved 100 pages and 20K, but I’ll take what I can get.

Of course, you have to realize, at any given time, I had eight children, and at times, ten children in my house, including two infants.

You see, the “price” for being left behind for the PAX con, is that I was designated baby-sitter.  Not so hard, as I have a few older children who can help me with the youngers.  Throw in there the neighbor kids (who are thankfully very well behaved!) and you’ve got a daycare chock full of DRAMA!

Needless to say, the lion’s share of my writing came after bedtime, which is why I burned the midnight oil until 3am a coupla times.

However, I didn’t have three of the children (including one of the infants) for the entire weekend, only Thursday morning through Friday night.  Then they were passed on to their grandma, who took over for Sat/Sun duties.  However, the drama continued, due to the dire straights of the neighbor kids.

They’re a Mexican family, and in their father’s hometown of Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-haka), each citizen must serve a year of community service.  He did six months of that year awhile ago, and came back to the states for a time.  He has since left to serve the other six months, so they don’t have their father around.  Couple this with their mother traveling to Mexico to be by her dying grandmother’s bedside, you have a bunch of older teens watching younger kids and trying to make a little $$ to get by.  (older teens meaning adults at 17/18 years of age)

They had to work really early in the morning down in McMinville, which is about 50 minutes away from where I live, and is actually where the Spruce Goose is hangared (is that a word?) in the Space and Aviation museum.  Anyway.  They couldn’t take the two younger kids with them, and in their desperation, they asked me to watch them for an evening because they couldn’t be left alone.

These folks make AWESOME Mexican food, so keep in mind, saying yes is somewhat selfishly motivated. LOL

Anyhow, even though the kids I’d been watching for our friends had left, I was still watching the neighbor kids.  It was a rough weekend, not just because I had kids in the house, but because I just wanted to WRITE and at times could not.

DH has said many times he will make it up to me.  I’d just love some kind of vacation FROM the family.  lol  I homeschool my kids and stay home all day.  There’s never really a time I get away, unless it’s for a random movie in the afternoon with girlfriends.  Needless to say, I was indeed a tad jealous of my hubby’s kid-free weekend.

And also because he met all sorts of super-cool celebs in geeky circles.

Anyhow, I did get a good chunk of my book done, and have at least one more love scene and some wrap up to do before I can call it finished.

Anyone keeping score?  How many stories is that now?  Lessee…  It started with BLACK ANGEL.  That flowed into THE FALL OF JERICHO.  Then I finished KINDRED.  Then I wrote HEAVEN SENT.  Now, I’m almost done with RENEGADE.  Five stories in 11 weeks?  That’s a pretty good track record, even if only one of them is a full novel. 

I should be writing the blurb to RENEGADE soon.  I’ll pass it on once I do.

~~Becka

As you may or may not know, if you follow me on Twitter (and why wouldn’t you, may I ask?? http://www.twitter.com/rebeccagoings), I’ve started making homemade baby food for my baby daughter Sophie.

It’s kind of weird I never thought to do this with any of my other five kids.  Perhaps being “older” I now have the perspective of being “wiser” as well, who knows.  In those early days, I longed for ease, and the easy thing was to go grab a jar off the shelf and dig in.  Who wants to be slaving away in the kitchen making baby food all day long?

But as I got older, I’d tried my hand at making jams and canning, which turned out to be quite fun.  After I had Sophie, I wondered if making baby food could be as fun.  So I began to look into it.  Seriously, people, it’s NOT hard, not at all, nor is it really “time consuming.”

In fact, (if you followed me on Twitter you’d know) I’ve started a You Tube vlog, and two of my videos are about how to make baby food.  (Vlog addy: http://www.youtube.com/user/beckabecks – check back, as I’m hoping to get some more vids posted soon.)

Basically, if you have a blender or a food processor and know how to bake potatoes or steam veggies, you can make your own baby food.  It’s so easy because young babies don’t get spices until they’re between 8-10 months old anyhow.  You’re simply cooking the fruit/veggies and pureeing them, then freezing them for later.

Bananas and avocados don’t need any cooking, as they’re soft enough as it is (I know! You can give your kid an avocado. Who knew?? I sure didn’t before I started this endeavor).  If you are leery about cooking veggies, start with these two.  Throw them into your food processor and whirl away.  Now, you do want to puree them for a few minutes to make sure you get all the chunks, as a first foods eater can’t have chunks.  If your baby is older, you don’t have to worry about the chunks so much.

Don’t worry about the avocados and their penchant to turn brown.  They won’t lose their flavor.  If it grosses you out, put only a miniscule amount of lemon or lime juice in it.  Citrus doesn’t agree with baby until they’re older.  A little spritz of the juice won’t hurt, but never feed an infant straight orange or citrus juice without first asking your doctor.  Recommended age for that is around one year old due to the acidity.

Once you’re done with the puree, spoon the mixture into ice cube trays, cover, and freeze for about 24 hours.  If you want to feed the baby immediately, you can refrigerate a portion.  The ice cube trays are genius, because each cup is about an ounce of baby food.  So one or two cubes and you know how much your baby is eating.

The beauty of bananas and avocado is they don’t need any water to puree them, either.

Some other veggies, however, need some water to get that baby food consistency.  Sweet potatoes is one.  Prick ‘em with a fork, cover them in foil, and throw them in the oven for an hour like you would baked potatoes.  When they’re nice and soft, cut them open and spoon out the “meat”, don’t use the skin.  Puree with a little bit of water for about 3 to 5 minutes to get rid of chunks, and repeat with the ice cube trick.  Once they’re frozen, just pop them out of the trays and put them in Ziploc baggies.  Be sure to label what it is and the date, because some foods can look the same as others in your freezer.  You might want to run some hot water over the bottom of the trays and use a spoon to pop out the food.  They’re not as dense as water ice and won’t crack out of the tray easily.

You don’t want to water-bath can or pressure can your baby food, because young infants are more prone to botulism, I’ve learned.  Their guts aren’t developed enough yet to fight off any bad bacterium that may or may not infect your food.  Freezing, therefore, is the best option.

Making the green beans was fun, as I had a bag of frozen beans that could be steamed all at once in the microwave (it was a special steaming bag.)  So, I pulled it from the freezer, threw it in the microwave, cooked it in the bag, then poured the contents into my food processor with a little water and pureed for a few minutes.  Easy peasy.  The beans, however, won’t get to be a fine puree like storebought beans, because Gerber has more of a straining system than we at home have.  So green beans should probably be given to a baby whose used to eating little lumpies.

Pears are easy.  Peal them like potatoes, cut them into chunks and steam on the stove for about five minutes.  Puree & freeze.

Apples, do the same, however, you’ll probably have to steam them for a little longer as they’re not as soft as pears.  You can also bake apples in a dish with some water in it, then puree with some of the reserved baking water.

Making baby food is great in more ways than one.  First of all, you know exactly what you’re giving your baby.  JUST sweet potatoes.  JUST pears.  No preservatives or added flavoring.  Second, it’s cheaper.  Gerber charges between $.50 to $.65 cents for a two ounce jar.  Compare that to my $.06 an ounce for bananas ($.12 for two ounces).  $.11 an ounce for green beans ($.22 for two ounces).  Over time, that adds up.  And two large sweet potatoes makes 30 ounces of food!  Not to mention the fact you’re not making any more trash than you need to.  Sure, you can recycle plastic or glass baby food jars, but it’s less work for all of us if you make your own baby food.  And, your pantry space doesn’t need to be taken over by jars and jars of food–a big issue for me since I’m already hurting for shelf space after a grocery run due to my ginormous family.

All in all, this was the route I decided to go.  Sure, I’m a stay-at-home mom with some “time” on my hands, but anyone can make baby food, even if you take time out of a Sat. or Sun. or even while you’re making dinner for the rest of your family during the week.  A little effort goes a long way.  With minimal effort, my freezer is now full of bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocados, acorn squash and applesauce.  And the cool thing is, if I want to mix and match flavors, the sky’s the limit, really.  Just defrost some different flavors together and mix ‘em up.  Your baby will LOVE it, if my baby is any example.  And the wonderful aromas in your kitchen will only reinforce what a great idea it is to make your own baby food at home.

It’s just gotta taste 1,000,000 times better than that processed store-bought baby food!

~~Becka

(who confesses to having 4 jars of store-bought baby food on the shelf only for when we go out and about and I don’t want to worry about defrosting ice-cube foods in public… )

This past week has been a beautiful week here in Oregon with temperatures in the high 70’s and bright, clear skies.  It’s about this time when we let our cats out, as they’ve had cabin fever all winter and spring.  Our cats usually don’t wander too far from home.  In fact, of our three cats, we only have one who has wanderlust.  Amazingly, though, he hasn’t wandered too far away since the one time he ended up in another neighborhood and some Good Samaritans called us to come get him.  Heh.

Well, the cat still hasn’t wandered far, however, he did happen upon a nest of scrub jays.  I don’t know where it was, although our neighbors say it was in their tree.  But I never saw the nest.  What did happen was a little traumatic, though.  My kitty grabbed one of the baby scrub jays and brought it back into the house.  Alive.

My kids were yelling for me because they heard some screaming chirps and didn’t know what was going on.  I went downstairs only to find the cat toying with a baby bird that didn’t know how to unfurl its own wings yet.  It still had it’s grey feathers, but was just beginning to grow it’s blue ones.

After chasing the cat through the house (because he’d grabbed it again and took off), I picked it up and examined it for wounds.  It wasn’t bleeding, and didn’t cry out when I moved it’s wings or legs, but finding it’s nest and putting it back was pretty much impossible at that point.  I had no idea where it was, and even so, my cat now knew the location.

And to make matters worse, when I went outside to look for the nest, my damn cat scooted by me despite my kicking to keep him in the house.  I suppose juggling an injured bird and the back door is a situation a determined cat can take advantage of.  After searching for the cat and the nest to no avail, he came back a few minutes later – with another baby bird in his mouth, the bastard!

The second little bird was dead, the poor thing. 

After yelling at and smacking my cat, I kept thinking to myself, what am I going to do now with the poor little bird I was holding?  I mean, the thing was pathetic, opening it’s little beak as if I were it’s Mama giving it food.  I scoured the back and front yards for a place to put it where it wouldn’t get found by my dog or cats, but that “place” was not to be found.  I laid it in a crook in a tree just on the other side of our backyard fence, but I still didn’t feel good about it.

Going back inside, I felt more and more guilty just leaving it out there.  Despite it’s injuries, it was going to die anyway, whether by getting found by an animal, or just starving without it’s mother.  As I was doing dishes, that little voice in my head kept on nagging… “Just call the vet! What could it hurt? See what they say.”

FINE!  If it will let me feel better, I’ll call the danged vet.  They suggested I call the Audubon Society, as they don’t take random birds.  I look it up online and give them a call.  Sure, they’ll take the bird!  And I don’t even have to pay a fee or anything – they just ask for donations.

Unfortunately, they’re 15 miles away, and it’s already 3:45pm, people are getting ready to come home from work and I know by the time I get home I’ll have to hurry up and make dinner.  Well, I’ve already wasted most of the afternoon looking for the nest, and I figure I’ve come this far with the little thing, I should get it the help it needs.  And despite the pain in the butt, it’s a good lesson for the kids to learn.

You see, in my mind, I can’t profess to live what I believe if I don’t help out the baby bird.  Sure, some could argue to let nature take its course, but all I could think about was my Bible verses…  “His eye is on the sparrow” and whatnot, meaning, God watches over every creature of His creation and they all are important to Him.  Who am I to decide if that bird should die in my backyard?

So, I pack up all the kids and take a drive to the Wildlife Care Center with the birdy all snug in some crocheted dishtowels.  Once we get there, they take my info and take the bird, dishtowels and all, giving me a number just in case I wanted to check on the little guy later on.

I decided to call them today to see how he was doing.  He survived the weekend, but unfortunately, he died early this morning.    You might think all I did for the little bird was in vain, but I don’t believe that.  I made the decision to help the little guy, and the people at the Audubon Society were more than happy to help him out as well.  But his injuries were too extensive in the long run, and ultimately, it was the Good Lord who decided to take him, not my lack of intervention.

Sure, maybe I did “waste my time” in trying to save a little bird who would have died anyway.  But I taught my kids a valuable lesson; that we should take care of God’s creation, no matter how insignificant (a common scrub jay) they may be.  A life is a life and it’s our responsibility to help out if we can.  Hopefully, they’ll take from this experience to be kind to animals and be good stewards of nature.

Godspeed, little Jay.  May you be flying the skies of Glory!

~~Becka

Wildlife Care Center

503-292-0304

www.audubonportland.org

urbanwildlife@audubonportland.org

I want to blog but have nothing of interest to say.  Therefore, you might be in for a post of random ramblings.

This past weekend, DH and I and a couple of friends painted our house from a hideous green to a more friendly “sandstone” color with bright white trim.  You can see the before/after pics on my hubby’s blog at www.jimgoings.com.  It’s really a dramatic difference and we’ve even been complimented by a few of our neighbors.  It just blended in too well with the two giant trees in our front yard and our house didn’t stand out at all.  Now, it’s more cheerful and cleaner-looking.

After that, since the days have been beautiful here, we decided to take the kids to the beach for a fun day because DH took some days off of work.  We pack up, all excited to go, get there and realize it’s pretty chilly.  Well, it’s still morning, so it will probably heat up in the afternoon.  We get an early lunch and head on down to the beach.  Right as we get on the sand, a fog rolls in, reminiscent of the movie “The Mist” – great flick, btw, watch it in B&W.  Anyhow, we’re literally sitting on the sand and cannot see the buildings behind us, nor can we see the surf in front of us.  It’s like we’re lost in some kind of limbo reality.  We’d see other beach-goers walk off into the mist and we’d chuckle because it was JUST LIKE the movie.  LOL  Every now and again it would clear and you could vaguely make out the waves, but then it would roll in again.

Baby was cranky and cold and the kids made the best of it with their buckets, but they were disappointed at the lack of sunshine.  We packed it in early and left, disappointed that less than a mile or two from the beach the fog lifted and it was a beautiful blue sky.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter’s 10th birthday.  We took her out to dinner and her daddy took her on a shopping spree at Target.  She got some new clothes and two new books to read.  She was very excited.  We’re having a party for her on Sunday.  She’s hoping her best friend will return from Mexico in time to come over, but DH and I are sceptical.  It’s so cute, though, that my daughter’s best friend’s sisters want to hang out with our kids.  They are teenagers, from 15-17, yet they love hanging out with 10, 8, 7, & 6 year olds and frequently take them to the park.  So that’s very sweet of them.

I’ve gained a few pounds.  Boo hiss, I know.  About six pounds.  Yikes!  I really need to get my exercise on.  I took the kids on a walk yesterday to Payless Shoes because Miriam needed new ones and it’s close enough so we walked.  Since the weather has been beautimous lately, I think I’ll be spending more time outdoors.  We shall see if my plans come to fruition.  I’ve been enjoying the fact I no longer have to keep my blood sugar in check with medications.  I want to keep it that way.

Anyways…  That’s all for now!

~~Becka

So yesterday was shopping day.  I packed up all the kids and trekked out to the local Winco.  Normally, this store is packed, but if you go in the middle of the day on a weekday, you’ll encounter minimal crowds.  Anyhow, I’m pushing the cart, and my kids are trailing along behind me, one of them pushing Sophie’s carseat/stroller.  As you can imagine, one mommy + shopping cart + four kids + baby stroller = quite the parade.

In the cereal aisle, my kids reveal they have to go to the bathroom, so three of them go while one stays behind to push the stroller.  When the three come back, the other one leaves to go to the bathroom herself.  While she’s gone, we’re perusing the meat aisle when a woman approaches me.

“Are these all your kids?” she asks (a question I frequently get – I seriously doubt I’d take day care kids out with me shopping, but oh well.  )

“Yes,” I say.

“They’re very well behaved.  I want to congratulate you on that.”

“Thank you,” I say (a compliment DH and I frequently get since we don’t let our kids run amok yelling & screaming.)

She goes on to say, “You’ve really restored my faith in today’s family.”

“Wow,” I say, a little flustered.  “Thank you, they’re good kids.”

“Is today a day off of school or something like that?” she asks.

“Oh no, I homeschool them.”

The lady puts her hand on her chest and swoons (I kid you not lol) and says, “Thank you for that! How wonderful.”

I almost said, “You’re welcome,” but I thought it would be weird to accept thanks for schooling my own children.  Heh.  Therefore, I said, “Well, it was a decision their father and I made before we even had any kids.”

She moved like she wanted to hug me, but held herself back because I’m a total stranger to her.  At this point, my oldest daughter comes back from the bathroom and the lady’s eyes widen.  She says, “You have this one TOO?!?”

“Yup,” I say, “I have five kids!”

“You should be so proud.”

“Oh, I am,” I reply with a giant grin.

“Beautiful family.”

“Thank you so much!”

I’m telling you, folks, it doesn’t take a lot to have good kids these days.  We’ve all seen families in public who have visible problems with keeping their children in line or under control.  It seems this has become the rule rather than the exception.  And how sad is that?  My hubby and I have seriously thought about writing a book on parenting.  Our own skills come from a few sources, so I’m not sure how “fresh” our ideas would be, as we’ve employed others’ ideas.

Most of our knowledge in childrearing comes from two books called “Baby Wise” and “Child Wise”.  If you’re tearing your hair out with regards to your children, you might want to pick those up and give them a read.

Seriously, though, all of our friends are more than happy to babysit our kids if the need arises because they’re such a joy to watch.  Whenever we go into a restaurant, the patrons LITERALLY roll their eyes or sigh and look away because of the sheer numbers of kids tagging along behind us.  When these same people are ready to leave, more often than not they approach our table and comment on how well-behaved our children are.  For us, it’s a normal thing.  We go in, we sit down, we eat.  What’s so hard about that?  Apparently, today’s parents struggle with this.

No, DH and I are not “lucky” five times over.  We hear this so often, it actually makes us kind of angry at times.  It’s not luck, folks.  Anyone’s kids can be good kids.  It just takes commitment on behalf of the parent.  We are NOT lucky.  We’ve worked hard to have good kids.  And it shows.

People look at me and think I’m crazy for wanting to stay home and school my kids all day every day.  Well, when your child isn’t a little hellion, they’re an actual joy to be around!  Sure, we have our share of drama.  They’re still “kids” after all.  Hopefully, we’re teaching them the proper way to deal with these dramas rather than throwing themselves upon the floor of the local Safeway thrashing about like a fish out of water.  LOL

Simone, Levi, Hannah, Miriam

I love my kids.  And the best thing about all this?  My baby Sophie is an ANGEL.  No unnecessary squawking, sleeping through the night, and 1000 watt smiles.  It would seem she’s on the fast track to being another “luck of the draw”. 

Sophie

~~Becka

Recently, my eldest daughter Hannah asked me what my favorite thing was that God has made.  I thought about it for a moment, thinking of mountains, golden sunsets, a starry night sky…  But my final answer was more sentimental.

My family, I answered.

My life has changed drastically from what it was 20 years ago.  Of course, anyone could probably say that, since 20 years is a long time.  True, I was just a kid 20 years ago, but it doesn’t make me any less thankful for the things I have today.  Sitting alone in my room, I would often dream of having a big, happy family.  Despite my teenage angst and depression and doubt it would ever truly happen (as I was one of those girls who never had a boyfriend in school – odd, I know because I’m such a looker *lol*), here I am two decades later with a loving husband, five beautiful children, a large house, two cars that are paid for, and my health, even though I still have to check my blood sugars.

The other day, I thought to myself – when the heck did I grow up?!  I’m an adult – when did that happen?  Even though I’m in my mid-thirties, I often still feel like a kid.  DH and I just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  Seems like just yesterday we got married!  Time flies, I suppose.

But yes, my family is my favorite thing God has made.  He’s given me everything I asked Him for as a little girl – a man who adores me, many children to fill my heart, my dream of being a published author, my own house and cars, not to mention many material things that make life easier (or more fun!).

I don’t view God as some Cosmic Santa Claus, but He’s never ceased taking care of me or my family.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

So yes, more than sunsets, more than rainbows, more than mountains, clouds, or the smell of fresh coffee (lol), my favorite thing God has made is my family. 

~~Becka

As you may or may not know, the familia and I went to go see my favorite Christian singer last night, Chris Tomlin.  (No, we didn’t take the baby, we got a sitter, but we did take the other four children.)

I bought the tickets the moment I got the pre-sale email back in December, so we were able to get really good seats.  In fact, they were better than I thought they’d be.  We were in the sixth row back, however technically, we were in the second row, because the first four rows were folding chairs (they created more seating next to the stage .

The concert was held at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, OR.  It’s a pretty big church.  If the Christian singers don’t go to the Rose Garden Arena, they pretty much go to Rolling Hills around here.

Israel Houghton and New Breed opened for Chris.  You might think, que?  Who’s that?  But Israel has written lots of songs we all sing in church every week – Here I Am to Worship, Lord You are Good, Friend of God…  He was really good, sang some songs off his new album which is released on March 24th.

After a brief intermission, Chris Tomlin took the stage and I was able to snap a few pics from my iPhone.  Of course, my iPhone doesn’t take the best pics in the world, but take my word for it – that’s Chris up there.  LOL  Here’s a pic I took of one of the giant monitor screens.  It’s sad that I was just a few rows away but the best pics of him were from the monitor.    If you’re a Chris Tomlin afficionado, you should be able to tell by the lyrics what song we were singing.

Here’s a pic of him on stage:

He was singing his big hit How Great is Our God here, same song as the other pic, but he went to the piano and sang it for us in Spanish and Russian while giving us stories about how the different countries worshipped.  In Brazil, they were dancing in the aisles a la The Blues Brothers.  LOL  In Russia, they were pretty stoic.    It was a funny story.  Guess you had to be there.

I was so jealous of the guy two rows in front of us, because he was able to get a full body shot of Chris.    I was tempted to hand him my phone.  LOL  Take pictures for me!  Hahah

This is the best I could get – but at least you can tell how close we were in this one.

Chris sang most of his songs from his new album, Hello Love, but he did a few favorites.  Everyone wanted him to sing Indescribable, and I think he was planning on doing that one for the encore.  BUT, he didn’t do an encore.  **sniffle**

I know, people.  I KNOW.  No encore?  That’s like…  not leaving a tip for your server.  The crowd was into it.  The crowd wanted it.  Chris left stage and the lights stayed dim for about a minute before the house lights came on.  You could hear the crowd give a collective, “Oh!” in a bummer way.  It was weird.  DH noticed it was straight-up 10pm when they turned the lights on.  They’d made mention of Day Light Savings and how a lot of the people in the audience had to go to church the next morning, so maybe that had something to do with not having the concert continue.  Or maybe they were just tired.

But that was very disappointing. 

I’ve only been to one other concert where they didn’t do an encore, and that was Blink 182, and that was only because they gave a temper tantrum because the crowd wasn’t singing their songs.  LOL  They left the stage with some profanities.  Great way to lose some fans, there.  While Chris didn’t leave the stage cursing the crowd, it still stung a bit.

WE ALL WANTED TO HEAR INDESCRIBABLE!!!  Darn it, Chris, if I ever meet you, I’m gonna hug you – then smack you.  LOL

The kids had a great time, however, even though they got a bit bored towards the end.  They couldn’t see over the crowd well, so they were stuck watching the monitors.  I had a great time as well and I think I made eye contact!  Woohoo!  Heheh

Anyhow, just wanted to share my experiences.  If you go to Chris Tomlin on this tour, be sure to shout out not to jip you on the encore. 

~~Becka

DH and I just recently got portraits taken of us and our family.  After skimming the other pictures of me on his Flickr account, I’ve finally realized how much weight I’ve lost, not only on the scale, but visually as well.  Sure, you see the numbers and get excited, but actually seeing the results is the payoff for me.  I seriously need to get back into my exercise routine.  I’m terrified of ever getting that heavy again!

Here are before and after pics so you can see what I’m talking about:

This is me and my daughter Simone summer of 2007 when we went on a hike around Lost Lake near the foot of Mt. Hood:

Becka with Simone at Heaviest Weight

This is me after losing almost 70 pounds, taken on February 28th, 2009:

Becka & Jim after weight loss

You get the added bonus of seeing my handsome hubby!    I’m hoping to have more pictures this year that will make the above portrait seem fat as well.    If I can lose another 65-70 pounds this year, I’ll almost be to my goal weight!  Exciting!  Half-way there.  Woohoo!

~~Becka