Thanks to Miss I we had a loooooooooong night, so this is my attempt at trying to wake up.

If you still have small children at home, I definitely recommend reading this.

I really want to try making this dessert.  Looks beautiful, and supposedly guilt-free!

This article about one of our greatest ministry opportunities is awesome.

There seemed to be a theme of inspiring little boy posts this week.  This one is just so sweet and shows how God uses the unexpected to bless us.

This one is an awesome summary of a story a lot of us have come to know well.

And this one pretty much sums up my feelings lately.

Here’s one more, to give you a little laugh before you go on your way….:)

Do you remember our little show and tell group we started last summer?

Well, it’s grown a bit.

I have a feeling we’ve grown a little large for anyone’s living room.  Hopefully we can just continue to have amazing weather on the last Friday of each month.

We’re also starting to see some pretty impressive things at show and tell.

Miss A would’ve loved to bring this one home.

And of course, Miss E is thrilled with her growing audience.

I’m not sure if devoting a “thankful” post to an object is a bit irreverant, but I’m gonna do it anyway.

This may sound totally dumb, but I am SO thankful for my crockpot.

My love for the crockpot began a couple years ago when I finally purchased one with the removeable inside…before that I despised using a crockpot because washing it was such a nightmare.

Then a few months ago I discovered this awesome recipe for homemade yogurt in the crockpot that is SO easy, and that totally got me hooked.

And lately, I just have not been in a dinner making kind of mood.  The last thing I want to do is start a bunch of cooking at the end of the day.  But with my handy-dandy crockpot, I can make my dinner first thing in the morning!   (are you having visions of an infomercial yet?)

I own a couple of cookbooks that contain only crockpot recipes, but after awhile those have become a little boring.

Then I discovered A Year of Crockpotting.  It’s a very exciting blog where a crockpot recipe was posted for every day of 2008.  So obviously there is a lot to choose from.   I made the Shepherd’s Pie recipe the other night and it turned out great.  The thing I love about this blog is the recipes are not all things you would typically think of making in the crockpot (seriously, who needs twenty-five variations on chilli?).  I’m really looking forward to trying out the Super Easy Fajitas and the Fried Chicken.  I’ll let you know how they work out!

So, anyway, I know this is really silly, but I really am extremely thankful for my crockpot because it has made my life so much easier!

Don’t ever assume that it’s safe to hand your toddler a tube of mascara to carry around because she’ll have NO idea how to open it…