Thanksgiving Menu

So this is the first Thanksgiving I've ever cooked by myself. Let's be real. It's basically one of the first Thanksgivings where I've done more than like a pie :-) I'm notorious for doing whatever I can to get out of cooking and cleaning during the Holidays. It was true last year, and it's true every other year.

Except this one.

This one I am doing it all myself. Right down to the apple pie and the turkey (tho the turkey was purchased by my MIL).

So I've been doing some research and decided on a yummy Thanksgiving meal that will definitely remind me of home.

Because PW is one of my faves, of course I took a hint from her and basically all my recipes come per her recommendations!

Roasted Turkey with homemade brine
Cornbread dressing (a la Stoffers that I brought from the States)
Homemade cranberry sauce
Turkey Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Green beans
Dinner Rolls
Apple Pie
Chocolate Pie
Pumpkin Bread (Court's recipe)

I'm brining the turkey now, made the cranberry sauce, just pulled the apple pie out of the oven and am about to start on the dinner rolls.

The rest I will make tomorrow since I miscalculated my eggs and the stores are closed.

Feeling a little down in the dumps today. Knowing that I will be missing out on all our Thanksgiving family traditions tomorrow. I know it's time to start our own, but it's still hard. Especially the fact that there isn't even a good movie here to go see tomorrow night! I know, sounds silly, but it's all about the little things to me.

I'll let you know how everything turned out and also post pictures tomorrow!

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.

Love, Momma Belgexan

Thanksgiving in Brussels

Well I did it! I cooked my very first Thanksgiving meal and it just so happened to be in Brussels, where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving :-)

I think it turned out very well and I am proud of myself for not only cooking it, but also figuring out all the ingredient substitutions. I now am better prepared for years to come!

It's definitely different. I'm used to family Thanksgivings where everyone is talking, laughing, loud, excited and you literally have to yell to be heard across the table. Where Preston and Austin have some sort of joke they keep repeating over and over again, Landon and dad are mimicking people and Courtney, mom and I are laughing so hard at something or someone that we can't breathe. The kind of laughing where mom and Courtney are crying and shoulder shaking and my laugh gets really high pitched and my nose starts to vibrate :-)
It definitely wasn't like that last night (although Jon did play a prank on his mom which was funny I'm told, but I was in the other room). I know this has mostly to do with everyone being tired. Obviously it's not a holiday here so everyone came straight from work, and those in school had homework to do and it was more of an inconvenience than a holiday meal. But I'm really grateful that everyone put in the effort to make me feel at home. David and Miriam even cooked some veggies after working all day, plus they had clean up duty since it was at their house. Everyone made an effort and for that I'm very thankful.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

My homemade brine sauce I put the turkey in over night:
Cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries


apple pie before:


Apple pie after:


oops! ran out of eggs, Jon going to get me more:


mmm roasted turkey:


praying for the delicious meal:


Lyric wasted no time getting down to business:


bon appetite!


chocolate pie:


and cousins:


So much to be thankful for this year that I couldn't even begin to start listing it all.
But mostly for an incredible husband who loves me and is always truly open to learn (a really rare trait). A husband who is obedient to the voice of the Lord and loves his family so much that his head might explode.
For Lyric who has gotten me through some of the worst days in the last few years with her smile, her wit, her laugh and her hugs. I am so proud of that little girl.
To my son who brings me such peace. He is such a lovable little boy and I couldn't imagine life without him. He makes this family a family.
My sister, my brothers, my parents, the Shulls, the Freds, the Bakers, the Kirkwoods, the Smiths, the Burgetts, the Lowries, the Kuseks, Al, Jenae and so many other of my amazing friends. I'm sure I'm forgetting people, so sorry about that. This is why I didn't want to list, yet I did :-)

So Happy Thanksgiving!!! From the Belgexans

Thanksgiving Menu

So this is the first Thanksgiving I've ever cooked by myself. Let's be real. It's basically one of the first Thanksgivings where I've done more than like a pie :-) I'm notorious for doing whatever I can to get out of cooking and cleaning during the Holidays. It was true last year, and it's true every other year.

Except this one.

This one I am doing it all myself. Right down to the apple pie and the turkey (tho the turkey was purchased by my MIL).

So I've been doing some research and decided on a yummy Thanksgiving meal that will definitely remind me of home.

Because PW is one of my faves, of course I took a hint from her and basically all my recipes come per her recommendations!

Roasted Turkey with homemade brine
Cornbread dressing (a la Stoffers that I brought from the States)
Homemade cranberry sauce
Turkey Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Green beans
Dinner Rolls
Apple Pie
Chocolate Pie
Pumpkin Bread (Court's recipe)

I'm brining the turkey now, made the cranberry sauce, just pulled the apple pie out of the oven and am about to start on the dinner rolls.

The rest I will make tomorrow since I miscalculated my eggs and the stores are closed.

Feeling a little down in the dumps today. Knowing that I will be missing out on all our Thanksgiving family traditions tomorrow. I know it's time to start our own, but it's still hard. Especially the fact that there isn't even a good movie here to go see tomorrow night! I know, sounds silly, but it's all about the little things to me.

I'll let you know how everything turned out and also post pictures tomorrow!

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.

Love, Momma Belgexan

Almost That Time!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

and of course you need to see us do an elf hiphop dance!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

When Lyric watched this she kept saying, "How did Shiloh learn to walk?" Like seeing us dance around as elves was normal, but Shi walking was the strange thing :-)

Excited about the holidays!!

Dallas Cowboys in Belgium

People who know my family know that Football rules the television in the Fall. Not being a big American football fan myself, I don't really look forward to the games. Now the atmosphere is fun. The friends and family all gathering around and screaming at the television. That's fun. But without all of that, football is quite a waste of a Sunday afternoon in my opinion.

SO, moving to Belgium I figured I was getting away from crazy football afternoons. But oh no. Jonathan has cards up his sleeve to guarantee that he gets to watch the game.
He even has a few different options if one of the options isn't streaming well. And since we have the cords to show the computer on our flatscreen, it almost feels like home...
EXCEPT we aren't at home and there aren't 20 guys screaming at the TV in our living room.
Today wasn't as bad since Courtney is still here and Christophe came over and so that's 3 people yelling at the TV. But future Cowboy games might be more sad than exciting.

On another note, Courtney and I finished unpacking all the suitcases I brought over. All 8 of them and all the carry ons. We organized Lyric's room which is also the play room with everyone's toys and clothes. The only thing in Shiloh's room are his PJ's. His room is already a small room, but then we left up the queen size bed in there since my parent's will be here soon, so there wasn't any room to put dressers or toys or really anything besides his crib and changing table. But PJ's are a must in his room due to his tendency to pee out of his diaper in the middle of the night.

The next big thing I want to tackle is trying to organize the kitchen a little better. We also have a to do list a mile long of little things that both Jon and I need to do.

So Courtney leaves tomorrow morning bright and early. She has to be at the airport by 5:30am and since I'm not familiar with this place nor do I know how to drive a stick shift (not for lack of teaching by Abby) Jon will be taking her in the morning. At least we don't have to have a tearful goodbye at the airport. I'll wake up with her tomorrow morning, but I'm hoping the morning tiredness will keep us both from crying. She started to cry tonight while we were eating dinner, but I made her stop :-) It's seemed to natural to be here, but I know most of that has to do with the fact that my sister and closest friend is here. I don't like to think of the hole that is going to be in my life without her constant presence.
BUT thanks to Skype, Twitter and Facebook it will ALMOST feel like we are together. And Twitter DM has replaced my text messaging with my friends since most of my friend's phones are set up that if I DM them they get it as a text message and when my phone here is set up (sometime this week), it will be the same way for me. Got to love how technology makes the world smaller!

Who am I kidding. This is going to suck.

Taking a Minute

Well we here we are in Belgium!

I know what you're thinking, you've been in Belgium for 4 days and you haven't written one stinking blog!

You're right. BUT in my defense.... I'M TIRED! :-)

The kids did great on the plane. Not a whole lot of sleeping happened, but neither did crying or pacing up aisles or anything like that. As a whole they were very content, but just didn't want to sleep. I mean, they probably slept about 2 out of the 8 hour flight to London. So by the time we got to Brussels the kids had only slept a little over 2 hours out of the last 24 hours! We all went to bed pretty early that night. Jon took the night shift and let me sleep which was a good thing because the kids started waking up around 3am.
The next day Courtney and I did NOTHING. Like seriously. We couldn't move we were so tired.
The day after we started unpacking. We literally went through everyone of these boxes:

We pulled out the things I would need now and then left the rest as I am not going to officially unpack until we rent a house. Which of course we can't do until Jon secures some kind of income. By the way, you all need to pray for us about that. We moved over here believing God would open up some doors where Jon could still be full time in the ministry (instead of getting a job now and waiting till the team gets here to go full time). We have some possibilities but nothing concrete and of course our bank account shrinks by the day. We are believing for provision and open doors so say a little prayer for us. I mean God called us here at this time, so He'll make a way.)

We actually toured a house today in Waterloo (which is my preferred city) that we REALLY want to rent! It's AMAZING and would be the PERFECT community base. It would be a place that both us and the Watkins could live and is in a great neighborhood where we can easily rent another house to house the rest of the team. But this would be the house we could base everything out of. Dinners, small events, prayer meetings, house church, prayer room, shabbats, etc. This house is a hostesses dream! It is 8 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3 stories. It has a great kitchen (w/2 fridges), an incredible backyard, a huge living and dining room, plus another separate living room. I love this house! Once the team gets here, we can easily afford the rent, but there is no way that we can afford the rent while we wait for the rest of the team to get here in Spring/Summer 2010. We need some major direction from the Lord on this. So everyone PRAY! These are such crucial decisions (where to set up shop) and we need the perfect house in the perfect location. Click HERE to see pictures of the house (pics of the house start on page 3)
Here is Shiloh and I in the sun room:


So now to today, the kids are finally getting in the swing of a routine and besides a 7am freak out by Shiloh this morning where he seriously lost his mind for about 10 minutes (but then went back to sleep), the kids are pretty much on schedule.

Now Courtney and I? That's a little bit of a different story, just because we naturally are night owls and well with Jet Lag and coffee/tea it's quite the stay up late combination.

Today we went to a Christmas craft fair/flea market where we had a lovely time and I TOTALLY got into the Holiday Spirit!! I can't wait now to cook a Thanksgiving meal and then decorate for Christmas. It's going to be so much fun! However, I did pay 4 euros (about $6.50) for ONE can of pumpkin. Ya. I can get it for less than $1 at home, but I paid $6.50 for it here. My parents get here at the beginning of December so I am going to get them to pack a few cans so i can keep plenty of Pumpkin Bread on hand throughout the Christmas season :-)
Here is a picture of Lyric at the craft fair and the ornament she made:


I am having so much fun with my sister here. I'm not even allowing myself to think about the fact that tomorrow is her last full day. It's gone by so quickly that I get really overwhelmed with the thought of her not being here. But then I just keep reminding myself that this is not permanent. This is just something that will be for a few months and then we will both be in this TOGETHER!

Okay- enough of that train of thought.

Here are a few pics of the downstairs of our house. When we finish unpacking and organizing upstairs I'll take pics of our bedrooms.
We are staying in Christophe (Jon's brother)'s home that is currently only occupied by Tim (Jon's brother). So since this is a large 5 bedroom home, that gives us plenty of room to live while we wait for things to line up to rent our own home.
Here are a few pics for inquiring minds:
The Dining Room

The Living Room

The kitchen (small- but definitely does the trick)


The first floor has the living room, dining room, kitchen, half bath and a 2nd living room (which is where all our boxes are).
The 2nd Floor is a full bathroom and 3 bedrooms (where Jon/me and each kid have a room)
The 3rd Floor is 2 bedrooms (where Tim lives and a guest bedroom)

And here is a video of Lyric and the stairs. The stairs in this house are ridiculous and SO steep!


So that's all I got tonight. Jon is bugging me to sign off because we are going to dinner at my BIL David's house to eat my FAVORITE European meal Raclette! Yum!
Till next time (which I promise won't be too long).

Momma Belgexan

This is It

I guess this is it.
My room is a disaster. Suitcases everywhere, 70% of which are fully packed. I gave up packing around midnight and decided to go watch Dexter with Ryan. I'll finish up tomorrow where I can actually move things around without fear of waking up the kids.
Lyric and Shiloh's bags are all packed. All my clothes and shoes are packed. I just now need to try and figure out where I am going to put the many blankets and random things I need to take with me. I need to make one last trip to my home away from home (Target) and then need to sort out our carry-on luggage situation... okay you're right. I still have a lot to do. But not tonight.

It seems surreal. It still hasn't fully set in. I'm moving. Tomorrow.

When am I going to realize that I'm leaving?

Two days:

My schedule before leaving has greatly reduced, which means, I'm leaving soon!

Spending time with friends, parties, my last Shabbat, my going away party, Walk-to-Adopt... it's all meaning that life as I know it now is ending.

What do I have left?
1. Last Sunday at Church
2. Tiffani's baby shower

That's it! My list of events that was a mile long for the last few months has now shrunk to just 2 things.

It definitely hasn't sunk in. It hasn't hit me. I am not in the frame of mind that in less than 48 hours I will be leaving Texas and starting an entirely new life full of a lot of promise and uncertainity. I'm so grateful that my sister will be coming with me (thanks mainly to my mom and my gma for basically buying her ticket). She'll make my transition easier, for sure.

On an entirely unrelated note, Shiloh is teething and has the WORST diarrea because of it. Like he poops out of his clothes at least once a day. Today he did so right as the Walk was beginning and then again at Cracker Barrel. Pooped all over the highchair and himself, which of course got poop all over me as I cleaned him up. Have I mentioned yet how I can't WAIT to co-parent again! :-)

Anyways, I still have a lot to do. Errands to run and laundry to fold and then pack in a suitcase. Lots of drawers to go through and well... I'm moving... in less than 48 hours.

AHHH!!!

Awesome Testimony!

Hey guys, I just got this report from Jonathan and wanted to share:

Is there such a thing as a divine appointment?

Today my dad and I went to meet the head of the Jewish Radio Station at the request of the Israeli Embassy. They wanted us to discover and discuss how we can help the degrading relationships between our governments through the means of interviews on their station. Why they are turning to the Evangelical Christian is in itself encouraging and scary at the same time (sign of the end times?)
The meeting started very formal and quickly evolved into an honest debate. It wasn’t too long that the original purpose of the meeting was forgotten. Together, we realized that both the Christian and Jewish communities are now “Remnants” in a land that has been flooded by Islam. As we were talking she announced calmly that we were having this meeting too late. Just a few weeks earlier, an agreement had been reached to start broadcasting the muslim call to prayer from minarets in one of the towns here in Brussels. When I heard that, a boldness got into me and despite the dark picture and hopelessness of the situation I started telling her that something needed to be done, that we needed to fight. Once again, she clearly stated that nothing could be done. I continued to ask where were the people that still cared? Where were the political figures, the influencers, the business people, just give me one! I told her that we needed to get those people together to counter the islamization of Europe. She first told me that no one could get anyone together. Most of the political figures are now Muslim in Brussels. Most people are scared, and the politicians know that the Muslim community holds the votes and/or their jobs. My dad, like me, continued to plead that we needed to do something because like one of the auditors clearly put: “We, the Belgians, don’t have another land (Israel) to go back to”. Suddenly I saw a change in the way she carried herself, she looked at me and said: “After all, our national saying is that ‘In unity is the strength’”.
She looked at me and got her phone and said that I needed to talk to Mr. C (who is a well known political figure who has held prominent roles over the years). She then gave me his cell phone number. She also told us that we were getting on the air next wednesday. I don’t think we will go on the air next wednesday because it’s so fast and we need to prepare but I was filled with faith, passion for the Great God that I serve.
We live in a new era. A Day and age where Jews and Christians will work together and one day embrace the same Messiah.

In two weeks, I will attend another meeting this time with European Political figures along with the Royal Family. My heart burns for a revival to hit Europe. A change MUST be brought to Europe. Please stand in prayer for many more of those meetings we can express ourselves with the boldness of The Lion.

Reality

I spent yesterday like how I spend so many of my days. With the most amazing and best friends a girl could ever ask for.
I woke up and met one of my best friends Abby at a play house with our combined 4 kids. We sat around and talked and laughed while our kids played the morning away. Then we went and ate lunch together and of course got strange looks as we have no problem with going places and being out numbered by our kids. I went home and put the kids down for a nap and then after went to the store to get stuff for dinner so that we could have a dinner party. I then spent the rest of the evening with great friends Ryan, Tiffani, Joy and Peter as we laughed till we cried, ate great food, drank good wine and enjoyed each other's company.

That's my reality. That's the reality that I've always lived in. Best friends. Laughter. People who know you so well that you don't even have to explain yourself. Feeling loved and accepted. Always having someone to turn to or lean on.

I got really sad yesterday. Sad because of the people I'm leaving behind. Sad that I won't immediately have that level of comfort with people over there. Sad that the days of not really having to work on your friendships because they are already so solid is long gone.
Sad that I don't know of anyone with kids Lyric's age for her to play with. Sad for myself that I will miss out on that young mom camaraderie. Yes I will have my sister in 6 months, but I have such precious, amazing friendships that my heart breaks to move away from.

I'm also stressed about our financial situation over there. Stressed about Jonathan finding a job till the rest of the team gets there. Then stressed about how we will make the transition into full time ministry (though I'm not so much worried about that right now as we have 6 months to figure that one out). Stressed about how we will initially buy our basic needs if Jonathan doesn't get a job soon. Stressed.

But then a great friend who also recently moved to Europe (Germany) to work with an awesome ministry over there gave me this verse: Matt 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother, or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

I trust in the God who has never once let me down. I trust in the God that holds me and my family in the palm of His hand.
I am trusting him to provide an income for Jonathan for the next 6 months and then after that an income for him to be able to work full time for the ministry.
I trust him to provide for my family's every need. I know that even the most basic needs (groceries, diapers, formula, baby food, clothing) will be taken care of.
I trust him to provide for not only my physical well being, but also emotionally. I know that he will bring friends into my life that will fill the void of leaving my best friends in Texas.

I need to just let go and stop trying to control everything and allow God to do what He does best.

One Week

It's so strange to think I just have a week left.

Although to be honest, my heart is already there. I honestly wish I was leaving tomorrow instead of a week from tomorrow, but I have a million things to do, people to spend time with and necks to hug, so I'm REALLY glad for the last week.

I literally have stuff planned every day for the next week. A lot of them are really big things that I've been working on for months like Walk-To-Adopt and Tiffani's baby shower. Other things are dinners and lunches with friends whom I won't be seeing for months.

In the midst of all of these things I must still figure out a way to do laundry and pack. I wanted to do a "cold packing run" to make sure that I can get everything in the bags. I may do that tomorrow since I for the first time in 10 days am NOT going to Grand Prairie. I've been basically living at my sister's house, but we have some friends coming to dinner tomorrow night in Dallas and I have stuff to do, so I'm going to stay in Dallas city limits all day. It's a bit of a miracle. :-)

It's been a little sad around here with Jonathan gone. I've been missing him so much and I am ready to have our little family together again.
I'm a little anxious about all the things that have to come together when we get there, specifically on the financial side, but I trust God and I trust my husband. They'll both come through with each others help :-)

Well here's to my last week in Texas!