Play Dough Recipe.... Cherish the tidbits!

There's only so many things that compare to the awesomeness of rolling over on a cold winters morning, grabbing your cell phone to shut off the alarm and seeing ''School is CANCELLED". Suddenly that warm cozy bed gets even cozier. Instead of running through the house like a wild woman waking children, packing lunches, grabbing mitts, gloves, hats and bags is a memory of days gone by....today new dreams are about to be birthed! Could I really lay in this cozy bed for 10, 20 maybe even 60 more minutes? No rushing and no where to be...I laid still. Do I dare to even open my eyes? Laying in fear that the littles may actually hear and wake to the sound of my eyelids separating! One by one over the next hour the three littles came in for a morning cuddle. I was so thankful for a slow, relaxing morning after a late night.

(Last night our oldest son had three friends stay the night. Who agrees to a school night sleepover?? This gal! He asked me in a moment of weakness...you know the ones where you aren't 100% in the conversation! Well... as it turns out it was a great night! What a great group of guys!! We were all sitting around the island around midnight when they realized it was most likely going to be a snow day, high fives went around the island and I sat there thinking....just my luck they probably knew this all along!! haha.. But honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better group of young men! I may have to do another trip to the grocery store and have the cat and the hat come clean the basement upon their departure but other than that and the strong smell of AXE things at the Paton residence are good!)

We woke up, threw the kettle on, lit up the frying pan and had a full on french toast feast! Then the boys retreated to the basement and our littlest looked me in the eyes and said "What can we do today M?'. (She calls me 'M'.... I LOVE IT!!!)

In the making..

I thought back to what my mom would have done....
So we made Play Dough.....

-PLAY DOUGH RECIPE -

Mix in a medium pot on stove top 

1 Cup of white flour

1/2 cup of salt

2 Tbsp. Cream of Tartar

Add : 

1 Cup of water

1 tsp food colouring (Joie chose purple today)

1 Kool-aid package (this is only to add scent and taste, so not necessary)

1 Tbsp oil

Cook over medium heat, stirring for 3-5 minutes. YOu'll notice the mixture will start to form into a ball in the middle as it heats. Turn out onto counter and knead on a lightly flavoured surface. If it's to soft add small amounts of flour until just right! VOILA!! 

Mission Accomplished

For those who may think this was the perfect morning here's a glimpse at the bigger picture. My husband is ministering in Florida, our oldest took ill about 4am and the dog...oh the beloved dog is oozing with excitement at having a household of visitors..only this dog is a dane, so as his excitement elevates he rearranges our furniture....if you know what I mean.  We may not always have the perfect day, but there will always be perfect moments in everyday! Cherish the tidbits...

Those who honour me....

There's been quite the buzz in our house for the last month! It's HOCKEY season and for the first time in 7 years Hunter has the opportunity to play in an organized league!

As a young boy Hunter was always found in his boxers, with his hockey helmet on and his stick in his hand. He lived and breathed it.  His dream, like many canadian boys was to play in big leagues when he was older.

Hunter first started playing in a league when he was four. When he was just 5 or 6 he was already super fast and super dirty....as competitive parents we would laugh when he would take players out. His coaches noticed and mentioned early on that this boy had potential.

The next year when Hunter was seven we could no longer avoid it. If he wanted to play hockey, he needed to play Sundays which meant major conflicts with church. As ones who served in the church and with Jamie being a competitive hockey player we knew this was one of the many difficult choices we would need to make as parents. Our desire as parents is to put Christ first in every area of our lives, and to teach our children to the do the same. What? That meant telling our all canadian boy he couldn't play hockey? Yes, that's exactly what that meant. This was not only heart breaking for us, but especially for him. Year after year at registration time he would ask if he could play, and year after year we were faced with the same news, game days in our zone were on Sundays.

5 years later a young Pastor must have been carrying the same burden. So he started a Saturday morning league so his boys, along with many others would still have the opportunity to play. As with any new vision, it takes time to get things rolling which meant there were only enough players to run one ice time. This meant there were players ages 6-13 on the ice at the same time. Hunter was 12, so was much bigger than most of the other players. He found this frustrating at times, but knew this league was at the grassroots and was his only opportunity to play...so he continued to play for the year.

Finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for came. After seven years we got a lead on a league that didn't require his age group to play on Sundays. HALLELUJAH!  Hunter was pumped! After a month of evaluations, practices and exhibition games the season began. Hunter was placed on a team not knowing anyone, but he didn't seem to care because was finally playing hockey! After the first game his team and coaches gathered and had a meeting, voting in the team captain.....the captain would be announced before they hit the ice at the next game.

I wasn't able to attend the game last night, but all of a sudden my phone lit up and this is what I saw.

Hunter walked out of the dressing room with a "C" on his jersey, he was chosen by his teammates and coaches to be the team Captain. I jumped up off my chair and couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I saw the text. My boy was Captain. He may not be playing in the best league, on the best team or even be the best player in town, but regardless I knew The Lord was showing us something. As I sat down to get in the Word, I was still staring at the picture Jamie had sent,  I felt The Lord say, "Those who honour me, I will honour.' Wow. He was showing His faithfulness once again.

This was a major decision we had to make with our son.  The Lord had given Him to us, and we had vowed to give him back to the Lord. Hunter never kicked and screamed when we asked him to lay hockey down, he was disappointed and yet when we shared our hearts on why, he chose to be understanding. Parents I want to encourage you, when we lay something down we don't know how long we'll have to lay it down for, but we have to trust him. I never really thought much about it over the seven years, but we knew that missing church for hockey wasn't an option. There's many things The Lord will ask us to lay down along the way and some things will definitely be harder than others. My number one responsibility as a mom isn't to raise a hockey player, but to raise a son that will put God first in all he does.

Last night when he walked in the door after the game it was as if all the years of laying it down didn't matter, because The Lord made it clear we as a family had made the right decision in honouring Him first.
H




(A huge thank-you to Kevin Furtney for starting up the Armour Hockey League, which allows so many young players to play on Saturdays instead of Sundays. We are thankful that each year this league has grown and this year our littles have the opportunity to play! Don't despise small beginnings, many families, churches and players are blessed by this league.)

Kale Chip Recipe

Kale Chip Recipe

Oh man, who would have thought green leaves would have been so addictive!

One head of Kale makes roughly 4- 9x13 pans of chips. This sounds like a lot, but in our house when they come out of the oven, the gloves come off and we are shoving one another out of the way to get to these!! (We are still working on preferring one another!)



Recipe 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Kale (Wash and pat leaves dry. Pick the kale off the main stem into pieces)
Use a large ziplock bag. Throw the kale in the bag with 4 tbsp vegetable oil, or olive oil.
Shake the bag until all the leaves are lightly covered.
Spread the leaves out onto baking sheets or into 9x13 dishes.... honestly whatever works to spread them out evenly, so they aren't overlapping.

Sprinkle with Epicure's Sea Salt Shaker, Or Christin's Sea Salt. Christin's Sea Salt can only be found in Thorndale just off the trail. Cook them at 300 for roughly 40 min, the key to cooking them is on a lower temperature for longer. (Don't crank the oven and try to have them done in 20.)

Voila... These dark almost rotten looking pieces of Kale, are to die for!! 

He'll give seed to the sower....

This is going to be a short, sweet blog! God is good and never ceases to amaze me.

Over the years The Lord has brought so many great people into our lives. Jonny & Bryar Strutt are a couple of them. They have such sweet and gentle spirits and are passionate about seeing the things of God unfold and fulfilled in their lives, and in the lives of those around them.
The Strutt's are on an incredible journey and are releasing something in the natural that's going to unleash things in the spiritual! When they shared the vision of what they're doing, my spirit leapt.  Jamie and talked and I told him what I felt to sow into their project, he was in agreement. My initial instinct was to jump online and pledge our support right away, but I decided to wait until 'payday' to make sure what we charged, we could pay off right away. Well payday is Thursday (three days away) and I decided I'd just go ahead and support today. When I was online my credit card wouldn't register. (I only have one card with a minimal amount on it, so I knew there was lots of room on it).  I couldn't figure out why, I kept reentering our info and it wouldn't move to the next step. To save the confusion I messaged Bryar to see if I could e-transfer instead. When I logged into our online account I saw that there had been an unexpected deposit put in our account earlier this morning....WHAT??!! And you got it...it was for the EXACT amount we felt to give!! Amen! Praise The LORD!

The last few months the Lord has been showing us a few really specific things about our future and what it will require...leaps of faith.  He's impressed on my heart over and over, 'What you make happen for others, I will make happen for you.'' I'm so thankful for believers with vision. I'm thankful that there's an opportunity to partner with others and to be apart of what God is doing in and through them! I'm so thankful for those who chase after and contend for all the Lord's laid out for them. For those who hear His voice above all other voices and RUN towards Him! For those who follow His leading, even when there's what seems to be mountains ahead of them!

And tonight I'm thankful that His supply is unending. That He continues to give seed to the sower!

I'd encourage you to click the link and hear the hearts of  Jonny & Bryar.
This will produce FRUIT THAT REMAINS!

http://www.rockethub.com/48971

~H

Never Lose Hope....

I've loved having my children home for the summer break. I've loved throwing the schedule out the window and  getting up and going whenever and to wherever our little hearts have desired to go. I've been trying to get this post out for almost a week, written and rewritten it, but with many interruptions this will have to suffice..... 

My traveling companion!

Last weekend I had the privilege of ministering at the 'Christian Revival Conference', in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was accompanied by one of my favourite traveling companions, my sister in law. She's traveled the world with us and I never grow tired of her. Her sweet gentle spirit is always so refreshing. I also had a new found friend come along, Deborah. Some of you know for years I've prayed to meet a local Rwandan, someone who could teach me the language. My desire is to one day preach in the native language of the country I've grown to love. After 3 years of desiring this...I found a Rwandan lady, who lives right behind our church! She's also a believer. She was thrilled to accompany us on the journey! 


At the conference there was an older couple I couldn't help but watch all weekend. I was drawn to the older man, my heart melted every time I saw him.  It's not very often when we minister in Rwanda that we see older people. Most were killed during the genocide, so meeting a gentleman in his 76th year was an honour. I was able to communicate with him with the assistance of a translator. He had shared with us how he just moved to the US this past February. He was laughing about his journey here.  He said it was far colder here than he ever dreamed possible. Imagine being 76 years old and living in the hot African sun your whole life, now picture  moving and traveling alone to the US in the coldest month of the year.  He didn't know the culture, the language or even have an understanding of what Michigan winter weather was like. This precious gentleman missed his connecting flights en route from Africa to the US. He had no way of communicating to anyone at the airport because he didn't speak English. What a terrifying experience. He was laughing as he recounted his journey here.  

Later on at the conference his wife got up to testify. This precious couple had been married for 25 years when the genocide took place. They, along with their 12 children had to flee the country. Along the hard journey, seven of their children died and her and her husband got separated from one another. For quite some time they had searched for one another, but had been told by many that the other had died. For years and years there was no reason to assume otherwise. Over time believing her husband was dead, the wife ended up moving with some of her now adult children to the United States. After 20 years of them each believing the other was dead they were contacted by the UN and informed that the other was still alive. With much doubt that this could actually be true, they tried to connect. The husband was in complete disbelief that his family could possibly be alive, yet alone now living in America. After many months of talking and trying to confirm that this was in fact was true, they made arrangements and he flew alone to be reunited with his family. 

Unbelievable! After the loss of 7 children, and thinking each other was dead for over 20 years they were reunited! 

All things are possible....

Pastor Alphonse, his beautiful wife and his precious parents! Amen! Reunited!

I was utterly amazed when we heard the story. 

I love to preach and teach the Word of God...but honestly,
moments where I can to sit and laugh with people are my favourite!

What can we learn from their incredible journey? What can we learn from their endurance and Faith? So much! The weekend was so fun, funny, tiring, powerful and stretching. There were and continue to be times I feel inadequate to do what He's called me to do. It seems in this day and age there are so many wrestling for the spotlight and recognition. To me, these are true champions of faith. They kept their eyes on the author and finisher of their faith. They've endured darker days than I can even imagine or comprehend, and still stand and declare how Great our God is! 
What a humbling weekend in so many ways.... I'm so thankful the Lord continues to lead me and guide me. I'm so thankful for these two precious treasures and the testimony that they brought! 
God IS faithful. 
His ways are above our ways, 
His thoughts are above our thoughts! 

Never lose hope,

My awesome interpreter! Such a hard job!

Heather 

Memory Lane

I was driving to a destination today and on my way I knew I needed to take a detour. As I was driving tears were flowing and my mind was flooded with memories.This was the first place The Lord called Jamie and I to that required us to take a major leap of faith. I remember the night The Lord confirmed it in me. I had gone to my grandmothers and she had prayed with me for The Lord's clear direction. Hours later as I was out seeking direction, I received it. I laid in the fetal position on our living room floor weeping and wailing as I realized I would be leaving all we knew behind. Our family, our friends, my great paying job, and one of the hardest, our growing youth ministry. Although in the natural this seemed so ridiculous, He gave me an incredible peace that surpassed all understanding.
The years we spent serving in this house were filled with faith, miracles, growth, extreme highs, lows, laughs, tears and friendships I'm forever grateful for. So thankful for His continual leading in our lives, and for his incredible peace that's so needed in times where our faith is being stretched far beyond what we could ever handle on our own. #midland #neverthesame#faithwalk #12yearsago

WELL DONE! #spartan

For those of you who know me, you know that I have a competitive edge and love a good challenge. Well today I put my body to the ultimate test! I participated in the 'Spartan Race', with my husband and friends.

This year without notice, Spartan changed locations. Last year this race included a lot of running and obstacles. This year was different, the race was held on massive ski slopes. The race consisted of us doing an obstacle,  climbing a massive ski hill, (and I mean MASSIVE ski hill), catching our breath, allowing our bodies to adapt to the elevation level, running back down the steep hill, doing an intense obstacle, than repeating this over, and over, and over again. #BRUTAL

Although the obstacles were difficult, believe it or not they were not the hardest part. Going up the massively long, steep hills were. I have NEVER in all my athletics experienced something so tough. My muscles were aching from these hills. Many who have done the Tough Mudder, (another obstacle race) said the Spartan course this year, although shorter was way more intense because of the ski hills.

There were a few times on these ridiculous hills that a couple of us were lagging a few steps behind. So those on our team who were a little more fit, turned around grabbed our hands and pulled and helped us up.  They didn't yell, run past, or mock us. They ensured we did this together. Our team was at all different levels and one specifically had way more training than the rest of us. That didn't matter to him, he was an incredible encourager. He could have blown right by the rest of us, but he didn't. What mattered to him was that no one was left behind. That we did this together, as a team.  Those who were stronger lifted, pushed, encouraged, pulled and cheered our team on....even when there seemed to be little to cheer for. Whether it was pulling up hills, propping over walls, holding muddy nets, we were in this together!

I was thinking on the scripture in Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 "For two are better than one because they have good return for their labour, if either of them falls down the other one can help them up. But pity a man who falls and has no one to help him up."

There were many we passed on the hills that had no one to help them, no one to encourage them. Some of them sat off on the side of the hills looking utterly defeated. The way down was to steep and dangerous for them to exit, and the way up looked impossible. They needed a friend, an encourager, a helper....yet there was no one around.

I'm so proud of our team. Not because we were first, but because we finished, together. There were some obstacles the guys conquered and I did not, there was one I conquered and not all the men did! I celebrated my success while cheering on my teammates for their amazing efforts, and for the next challenge the encouragement was returned!

This reminds me of our walk with Christ.

When we start on our journey with Christ, we think it's going to be easy. That, yeah sure they'll be bumps in the road, but overall it will be a walk in the park. He didn't promise our road would be easy, He promised He'd never leave us! This race didn't look like what I signed up for. Believe me, had I known what was ahead of me, I wouldn't have signed up.  I never would have participated because the road ahead would have been more than I thought I could have handled. But I'm so thankful I didn't have to do it alone. I'm also thankful I didn't fully know what I was getting into. If I had, I never would have started, finished, or received my medal.

This race wasn't about who came first, it was about finishing. Our faith walk isn't a competition with our brothers and sisters. It's about working with our brothers and sisters and finishing what He's called us to do. My success isn't your failure, just as your success isn't mine. We celebrate and mourn with those around us. This race wasn't about how fit we looked on the outside, but the stamina and endurance we had on the  inside. This race wasn't about pushing past people to finish. It was about working together to make sure everyone finished, no one is left behind. 

This isn't about us, about our ministry, about our fame....this is about our Saviour!  When one is struggling, we, as the body of Christ, rally around them, encourage them, and help them make it to the next lag in their journey. When one is doing amazing in their walk, that we would celebrate with them.

Yes, in our walk there will be bruises, bumps, hurts, and abandonments, but don't grow weary in well doing! Finish the race. Finish the race the Lord has laid before you. There will be times in your life you'll be there to extend a hand. Your hands are needed to help cheer, pull, climb and push others. You'll never know what one pull, or one word of encouragement may do for a brother or sister. With a hand extended or one small word of encouragement you may help a brother or sister on the sideline, not knowing they are ready to give up. And when you're that one on the sideline about to give up, don't embarrassed!  When you need help or encouragement cry out, "this is TOUGH! I need a hand!" Don't try to do it alone, if you do eventually you'll find yourself alone, in despair sitting on the sidelines.... without anyone to encourage or help you.

I can't express to you the joy I felt as I ran over the last obstacle. As I saw the fire
pit and was ready to leap over it, there was such a rush!  As my eyes fixed on the finish line, and I finally saw the faces at the end cheering us on, I was pumped! I saw them standing there with MY medal, with OUR medals in hand! We did it, together!!  My smile went from ear to ear knowing the pain, the suffering and the overbearing obstacles were done! We finished and conquered that which was laid before us! WOW! What a rush!!
This is only a glimpse of our faith walk. All the trails, tests, victories and disappointments will be minimal when we hear those words from our loving Saviour, We'll done thy good and faithful servant." Every bit of it will be worth it! Don't give up! Keep fighting the good fight of faith!

You're not in this alone, we are in this together! We are here to fight, to conquer, to help, to push and to champion one another to be all the Lord has called us to be! To help one another finish the tasks that He's laid out for us. Be that voice of encouragement, extend that arm!!

The feeling of doing it together, is so much greater than the feeling of doing it alone!
Thanks to my awesome teammates, I literally couldn't have done it with out you! xo