3/15/2023

Ok. So these cookies (as you can see at the end of the video) got really messed up! I went cheap and had planned to use the green part of our leftover red & green Christmas Sprinkles. Obviously the separation in the container did not work & allowed red sprinkles to mix with the green:( Anyway, they turned out looking  like Christmas Cookie Shamrock Cutouts instead of St. Paddy’s Lucky Cookies:( However, Sarah and I decided to use the video regardless because it is a long 3-step process that includes 1) Making the dough & refrigerating it, 2) Baking the cookies & 3) Frosting & decorating the cookies.

Truth be told although these are the most delicious frosted cookies (the recipe uses both lemon & vanilla extract) Ive ever had they are not my husband or I’d favorite cookies. The reason I have made a point to make them with our four children through the years is because kids absolutely love making & decorating cookie cutouts! As a Social Pathologist when I was working with preschoolers we use to make them because it was so highly motivating to  gets kids socializing and creating. I spent tons of time shopping for ingredients, letting our kids create, make messes and cleaning up our kitchen. The reward is that now-years later- two of our children now actually make us homemade pies:) These cookies are a great start for getting kids to have fun, socialize, make memories  and learn basic kitchen skills:) Our recipe is included at the end of Sarah’s YouTube Video:)

11/20/2022

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 With Thanksgiving coming up I am so thankful for my husband coaching our kids teams including flag football, baseball & soccer since 2007. It is the end of an era:( A couple of weeks ago was his last time coaching & it was also Mikey’s last flag football game:( Kids really do grow up so fast! Also, we were blessed with a family road trip pulling our new surf boat to Branson, Missouri for Mikey’s travel baseball tournament.  A few weeks ago we went to the UCLA vs UCI baseball game@ UCLA & took a walking tour of the campus.  

Most importantly, this year, I am most thankful for our family Bible study! This has been my very favorite way to “go to church.”  We were able to read Mathew, Mark, Luke, John & Acts while Emily was still living at home.  We just finished Romans Chapter 8 which I think is probably the most important chapter of the Bible. I was so bummed that Emily wasn’t there to hear & participate in our discussion:(

Back tracking a bit, about a week after we dropped Emily off to college she texted Mike (her dad & my husband) that she didn’t want to be involved in our family Bible study anymore:(. She said she wanted to focus on prayer. My heart broke a little with the thought that it was going to be the 5 of us now instead of 6 and our church was starting to lose it’s congregation:( I absolutely loved listening to her well-articulated answers when she put the time into the reading and questions.  Then I kinda got ticked off & insulted & thought I am going to FORCE HER to join us via FaceTime. I justified forcing her since we are paying for her college tuition including room & board & it isn’t cheap.  She should be obligated to us to participate I thought.   However, after a little time went by, I decided to just pray for her instead. My prayer is that she comes around to living with the Holy Spirit inside her, ON HER OWN! I can encourage her by making suggestions. This blog. Cough, Cough, Emily! But in the end, I want her making a free will choice to follow the Bible/God/Jesus/Holy Spirit & not through me or her dad or anyone else forcing her! 

As I thought about it, I became thrilled with the thought that she said she wanted to “focus on prayer!”  Afterall, with all my years of Bible reading, study & meditation I think the main action Jesus is trying to elicit through the bible is prayer. So in this week’s blog, I decided to define prayer, especially for Emily, as I understand it from my own education & past experiences.

To me, prayer is 3 things including 1) Praise to God, 2) Asking God & simultaneously believing God has answered our request, & 3) Conversation with God.

First, prayer is thankfulness to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit for all we have been given physically, spiritually & social-emotionally. Oprah has said that prayer could be as simple as thank you & that would be enough & I agree:) As many families do, in the past during Thanksgiving time, I have had our kids go around and say what they are thankful for.  As a parent, I love this more than Christmas!  Hearing all the things they are thankful for instead of what they want when they honestly don’t need much is music to my ears. We have even challenged our kids to write out 100 things they are thankful for and it is always fun to read them aloud and save them over the years. 

Second, prayer is asking for things we need/want physically, spiritually & social-emotionally, all while simultaneously believing Jesus is or has already taken care of these things.  This is still a great mystery/gift of the Holy Spirit to me.  I can tell you honestly though that I only began to understand when I started asking & believing he will provide because he almost always provides more than I can imagine and then I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness and it starts over:)

Lastly, prayer is a conversation with Jesus. I love Joyce Meyer’s book Starting/Ending Your Day Right, which I bought & gave to both Emily and Julia. Meyer talks about how, as she has grown in the spirit, prayer to Jesus has become an on-going conversation in her life. This is my goal and I have achieved it at times but not continuously in the everyday. So, recently, I have been trying to take the thoughts in my head and instead of thinking I am on my own I direct them to conversation to Jesus.  I often times  get sidetracked and thrown back into the world but I have found the more I practice this exercise the happier I am and the more peaceful life becomes.

Anyway Emily, our Thanksgiving baby, thankfulness to God is a great way to start “focusing on prayer.” Maybe write out 100 new things you’re thankful for this year & post them on your wall next to your dorm room bed.  This way you can easily pray when you go to bed or when you’re waking up slowly on the weekends.  We absolutely LOVE having you home for the Holidays- Thanksgiving, Christmas & The New Year!  We love you Emily:)

11/4/2022

We had a super FUN week with a Halloween Party, 1st Cotillion of the year, a small family Grateful Day of the Dead Party, & an Elevation Worship Concert:)

I was so happy to have Emily join us via FaceTime for our annual Grateful Day of the Dead Celebration:) I focused on talking about memories of our Nana Rachel this year since she just passed to heaven this past February 2022. Of course I welcomed all of the kids & Mike to talk about anyone on our ofrenda (or not displayed) who had passed away but our kids who are teenagers (1 preteen) pretty much just listened with a few amusing/sarcastic comments:) 

As soon as we got on FaceTime Emily said, “This is really sad.” I agreed! It is really sad. Right before I called her I almost didn’t want to go along with this tradition that we started in 2016. But then I thought I don’t want to be like typical “white culture” and not discuss our loved ones in public after the funeral. Julia said, “But you are white. I mean you are a cracker. Well you’re a spicy cracker!” And we all laughed 😂

So although I thought about not following through with the celebration, if my desire was for our kids to remember Nana Rachel (the way Mike and I remember her), I had to follow through with talking about her, cause I really have no other scheduled time that seems appropriate. In addition, Paul in his letter to the Colossians 3:2 says to set your mind on things above, not earthly things and since she is in heaven she is part of heavenly things. Anne Frank also said, “People who have a Religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.”

OK there are many stories and things to remember about Nana Rachel. First off I didn’t meet her until I was 25, the year after Mike and I were married. Our relationship was not a typical grand daughter-grand mother relationship. I have had that with my real adoptive grand-parents so I know the difference of a physical relationship.

“Rach” as I like to call her was more of a very close friend & Titus mother- who happened to be blood related to me. She had 4 daughters and a son and we have 3 daughters and a son so we had a lot in common in the wife-mothering department. I happen to be blessed with the timing to meet her just before we started our own family. She had all kinds of marriage & family stories as well as wise advice that I loved to talk to her about at family parties, Santa brunches at The Huntington Club formerly Seacliff, on the phone or when I would visit her at her house or in the hospital. It was a real life Tuesday’s With Morrie only we were having a female-wife- mother-bonding experience. I told our kids we even talked about her & my biological grandfather’s sex life and they all laughed and had some funny comments that I can’t relay correctly through a blog;)

The most important part of my relationship with Rach began before I met her and has a lot to do with this blog. As I said, I am adopted and never met my biological mother’s family until I was 25. Just before my 25th bday I told Mike I wanted us to search for them and hopefully find them for my bday in mid February. For some reason Bdays were always special to me, more than just my family and friends getting together or saying Happy Birthday. I just felt really special, happy and content on my birthday and loved celebrating them.

Well, we didn’t find her for my 25th bday but the Holy Spirit brought the Clow’s into our life a little less than a month later in March 2002. The thing I found out that is most important and most related to the Bible was that Rachel (every year on my bday) would call Lori (my birth mother) and all her sisters and have everyone pray for me. All those happy, special and contented feelings I was feeling were the group prayer she was organizing & following through with.  I have had a wonderful life, of course nothing is perfect, but our whole family including Mike and our kids have been very blessed by her prayers.  We went to the #ElevationWorship Concert last night and one of my favorite songs was “The Blessing” and the song chants, “May His favor be upon you. And a thousand generations. And your family and your our children and their children and their children.”  These biblical words have been so true for me/us!   Not only that but Jesus gave me almost 20 years to have a physical relationship (in addition to our spiritual relationship) with her which was something I didn’t expect but a gift that I am eternally grateful for:)  

10/29/2022

Had a great time visiting Emily @CalPolySLO family weekend last weekend:) She is doing fantastic adjusting to college life and has 2 FUN roommates that were an answer to our prayers:) She also joined a thrifting club & a weight lifting club & is looking hot 🔥 I love you & miss you Em but so happy you are having fun & you got a job😘

On the other hand, I gotta say it was kinda scary picking her up & dropping her off at her dorm with the Paul Flores guilty verdict coming in just a few days before we arrived. He was found guilty for murdering Kristen Smart 26 years ago at a dorm room near Emily’s. My fear was heightened with the Halloween fog in the air & Emily living in the dorm where Kristen was living the time of the murder:( When we were driving home I had to fight my fears with prayer for protection over her. It brought me back to my prayers 5½ weeks prior at around 4 am September 15th which was the day after we first dropped her off at Cal Poly.

You see my husband and I did a one day turn around trip on September 14th to drive her up, move her stuff in, say our goodbyes and drive home to get back to our other kids & obligations.  

The next morning I woke up around 4am graugy & out of it from a long day before & looked at the red alarm light to see if Emily had turned the alarm on the night before when she got home from work. I looked and realized the alarm was on but that she was moved out & wasn’t gonna be coming home from work anymore. I didn’t have to check on her anymore? Gulp. My human-mother-mind just went to panic thinking…..who is gonna be watching after her and keeping her safe now? 

But then I had the most humbling, peaceful and grateful thought. Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was the one who had been protecting her the last 19 years, not me.  Psalm 36:7-8  It wasn’t me checking Find My iPhone when she began driving that was keeping her safe or texting her to see where she was. I mean, I’ve read this in the Bible and I believed it but I was obviously struggling to really let Jesus take the wheel. It wasn’t my job to check all the time. In fact, looking back, checking was probably setting my mind on the wrong things and then taking away from my relationship with Jesus, Emily & everyone else. It was my job to love, discipline & educate her. It wasn’t my job to try and control her safety. Jesus had her the whole time and still has her! As a mom of 4 it is hard to tell sometimes when my kids need protection since the kids are constantly developing, growing & changing. But, at this point in Emily’s young adulthood, I just need to sit back and enjoy watching her grow into an incredible young lady! My heart is full❤️ Thank you Jesus for helping protect Emily even when I did not realize it. Please continue to bless her to do your will.

10/18/2022

We did our last date from the 8 Great Dates for Moms & Daughters this past weekend:) It was a date with dad & Sarah said this one was her favorite:) The book provided questions that we photocopied & asked during our date @ The Ranch. One of the questions was if Sarah felt more loved with compliments or hugs from her dad. She said hugs so the 1st pic is of Mike hugging her🥰. 

Sarah was so blessed (this past summer & early fall) to go on all kinds of fun dates with me such as a tea party, facial, shopping, hair blow outs, ect. After each of the dates the two of us also got the added blessing of getting together with other Christian moms and daughters to discuss our dates & encourage the tweens in faith as it relates to fashion, true beauty & have fun🤩 Our leader was amazing & also organized other extra special things we got to do as a group like meet up at a vintage clothing store & go on a #TrueGirlEvent put on by the author & hosted @ Calvary Church in Oceanside:)

I highly recommend this book to moms with tween girls because of the way it uses scripture for each of the dates! I actually went on almost all of these dates with our older two girls (now ages 18 & 16) but never tied them to scripture because the Holy Spirit hadn’t let me know about this book yet. Our older girls have done really well with faith but I have found that any time I have connected parenting with scripture the Holy Spirit always brings back blessings within each of our 4 kids:)