I’ve always wanted to give God a gift…

…He’s given me so many. So many, I’m trying to count 1,000 of them just in this year.

How can I give Him something?

Sunday morning, I was holding a gift. A precious growing gift, deep inside of me.

A treasure in my earthen vessel.

A baby in our family is deeply loved, a treasure. Even when we haven’t seen him yet.

But some complications came about over the weekend.

“Sanctity of life” has a new meaning for us.

I was afflicted. Emotionally, spiritually.

Physically, knowing every pain of each contraction brought me closer to my baby…who I had been so excited to see, but desperately did not want to see yet. I clung to every hope that something I could do would stop what was happening. And I clung to every hope that something I had done was not the cause of what was happening.

But my God loves me immensely. And He loves our baby. He calmed my Spirit with Job’s words.

“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

So I was not crushed. But I am devastated.

It’s amazing how your heart grows with love as a baby does in the womb. Doubling, tripling by the hour.

I waited through the long rainy days, and the dark quiet nights. Wondering why God would want this treasure now. Why He would take it. I was carrying, in my body, the most final of all. I was carrying death. How is that a treasure? Who would want that.

“…always carrying in your body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

Wait.

Death?

The death of Jesus saves me from eternal death. That death put my baby in a sweet, perfect place – a place I suddenly have an insatiable desire to learn more about.

“For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

This is the essence of the greatest Gift. The gift of the Gospel.

Life.

Because of Jesus’ death, I am alive. My baby is alive. And the life of Jesus can be manifested in me. ME.

That is my treasure. A gift from God so wonderful I can’t even imagine it at times. He lost his child. I lost mine.

I would have never chosen to lose mine. For anyone. He gave His. Willingly. For everyone.

The treasure I have, the death of God’s child for me, is a gift from God to me.

And through this light momentary affliction, my God is preparing for me something so wonderful in eternity, nothing can be compared to it.

Why do I share this? This such painful, private trial. Why wouldn’t I? I surely talk about my other 2 little ones.

And because I’ve always wanted to give God a gift.

“so that as this grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

My dear tiny one,

You were formed from love. You were so desperately wanted by the few who knew of your sweet existence. And so many won’t even know of you until now, but their love for you will be genuine. We did everything we could to keep you here, because we believe. We believe that life begins at Week 1, Day 1, Minute 1. You were already a part of our family. We had almost 2 months to think of you, pray for you, and nurture you. I wouldn’t trade those wonderful, precious few days for anything.

You came into the world, in a clean, peaceful world full of candlelight and beautiful notes of music. Notes of hope that our God is indeed in control. Words of thanksgiving for what that God has given us. We really do have 10,000 reasons to bless the Lord. You are yet another one to add to our list.

And you’re the first one from our family to be able to tell our God thank you. In person.

And you gave me a gift. You grew my heart even bigger. I can love more now because of you.

And one day, soon, he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

That’s my gift for today. That today, just maybe, as this story of God’s gentle grace and love to me extends to more and more people, someone will be able to see the Gospel. The gift of Christ. So that they may give thanks and glory to my God.

That’s my gift for God, from God.

II Corinthians 4

Just a few photos for a friend…

So, this is totally why I haven’t been in my kitchen much this week…my friend up the road had a sweet little baby.

So, actually I was in my kitchen much. Just cooking for her.

Jealous?

Have a baby, I’ll probably cook for you, too.

(Hey, ask my girls – I will make a party out of anything!)

So I got a little carried away with this 50 year old fabric of my grandmother’s…

I just love watching a Mother with a newborn. The love is so real…even though she’s only known her face for mere days.

Mama havin’ a talk with daddy…baby’s happy knowing the ones who love her most are so close.

What do you get when you send Charlie Brown to Mexico?

You get a no-bake Pina Colada Cheesecake in December.

Duh.

We had some good friends over the week after Christmas, and decided to pull off a Mexican night…with our Christmas decorations. It worked. I think.

This was such an easy recipe – no bake cheesecake also means – no crack cheesecake. Thanks to my Pampered Chef recipe files, this recipe graced our holiday table – maybe it can make an appearance on yours too! (Although – if you wait until the 5th of May, I wouldn’t be offended.)

For the crust, you’ll need:

1 cup loosely packed sweetened flaked coconut

10 creme-filled vanilla sandwich cookies

2 tbsp butter, melted

Crush up those cookies and mix them with the melted butter and coconut.

Press them into the springform pan, then stick it in the fridge while you work on the filling.
(I used a torte pan, but I think a springform one would work much better.)

Then for the filling, you’ll want to combine a 1/4 cup of sugar with 2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese. You can use your hand mixer…or come over and borrow my new KitchenAid.

Cream those two ingredients together until they’re nice and smooth.

Meanwhile, zest a couple of limes, until you get a Tbsp of zest.

Add to it a quarter cup of lime juice (I juiced the fresh limes I had just zested.), and 1 tsp of unflavored gelatin. Let them sit for about 3 minutes, then microwave it on high for 20-30 seconds – just until the gelatin is dissolved.

Put a 1/2 cup of thawed frozen pina colada drink mix into your bowl.

Add an 8 oz container of pina colada yogurt. (If you can’t find that flavor, coconut or lime would work.)

Add in your gelatin mixture, and you’ll notice your cheesecake filling getting thicker pretty quickly.

So go ahead and pour that filling over your crust. (Pull that crust out of the fridge first…it might be awkward if you don’t.)

Refrigerate your cheesecake for 2 hours or overnight. This is a great time to get your table ready.

I sliced up some kiwis and strawberries, and whipped up some heavy cream. Any fruits you really like would work, though – Mangoes might be especially yummy!

Layer your fruits on the top of your cheesecake, and that’s it – you’re all done!

New Year’s Resolution #1 – Utilize my Freezer More

Happy 2012 everyone!

I had a great year blogging (well, really it was a great 2 months of blogging – at the end of the year.) – so I’m excited to share the following results with you!

Because of your support, comments, and pageviews, this is what WordPress.com had to say about KimzKitchen:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 84,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

Thanks for making me so successful!  (And hopefully, this blog will get even better!) I have a lot of exciting things coming up this year – but I’ll spend more time on that later.  For now though, I thought I’d share a book review I just did for one of my new favorite sites – Goodreads.com.

Happy cooking – and Happy New Year!

Dont Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead by Susie Martinez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With a lot of things coming up this year, I’m hoping to take advantage of my freezer. One book that’s been a great help to me is “Don’t Panic! Dinner’s in the Freezer!” I have a feeling that the price of the book is going to easily earn itself back with the fact that dinner will only be minutes away – hopefully we won’t make as many stops to Chik Fil A this way during the week. (Jamie Oliver will be happy with that, right?)

This is a fantastic collection of recipes that are ideal for cooking in bulk and freezing. Instructions include not only recipes such as Kansas City Hot Wings, Classic Crumb Cake, Spinach Lasagna, Chile con Carne, and Creamy Lemon Cheesecake; but the recipes are already set up to include the amount of ingredients for the recipe x2, x4, x6, etc. No more calculators (or mind bending processes) required!

I really like the opening chapter with the several methods of packaging and freezing the goods, Cooking day suggestions (like how to keep baked goods moist even after freezing), and shopping suggestions, including what things to buy at the Big Warehouse stores and what things not to buy there.

This could really be a great textbook for freezer cooking – the recipes are simple, and delicious, and designed for the freezer.

Highly recommended if this is something you want to invest time into!

View all my reviews

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a Christmas Tree….

…or if you do.

It doesn’t matter what you don’t have under it,

or what you do.

It doesn’t matter where you don’t go tomorrow,

or where you do.

Just remember Whose birthday it is.

Merry Christmas, From the Rackley Clan!

The Lord has really blessed us with a great year of learning – primarily about His gracious gift of peace.

We started the year with Chris’ last semester of grad school – he took on 12 grad credits, along with his regular 50 hours a week job at the Worthwhile Company, with the hopes of graduating in May. Thanks to some gallbladder issues, an emergency surgery, and a 5 day hospital stay, that graduation date got pushed back a tad. (Talk about needing peace!!) But we were all happy to celebrate in August when that diploma finally arrived!  Having him “back” and his not having to rush off to do homework or study every night has been such a blessing – almost like he’s on vacation all the time!  He’s still enjoying his job as an Information Architect (basically, designing the blueprint of clients’ websites).

Kami turned 2 in March. She’s just as much of a girly-girl as her older sister. She loves to wear a donut pillow around her waist (her tutu!) and play ballerina. She’s also quite good with our iPhones and iPad (“Daddy’s big phone”) – over 80% of the apps on our apple devices are for the girls! She is very very curious. And, naturally, thinks Curious George is the best monkey ever!

She loves to cook with me in the kitchen and eat. Everything. She’s only an inch shorter than Chloe (who is over twice her age), so she can do pretty much anything her big sis can do.

Kami’s favorite things to do are play with her dollhouse, go swimming, and eat snacks. Her favorite restaurant is Chik-fil-A and her favorite place is the park.

Chloe is our new 5 year old as of the end of October. She started K-4 this year right in our extra bedroom, “the school room”, and is loving it! She’s learned how to read some small short vowel words and thinks she’s pretty smart. She thinks so much differently than other kids her age – and she shares everything she is thinking with all of us.  This makes her such a joy to have around.

She’s learning so much about God’s grace, in her own way, she is such a rebuke to me. She has a tender heart for the needs of others – she’s always trying to take food to our neighbors “because they might be hungry, mommy!” – and she is always seeking to make others happy. It’s easy for her to get animated about things that go wrong, or against her plan, though, so learning about peace has been a big theme for us around our house.

Chloe’s just finished her first year of violin lessons and has had 4 recitals already! She loves playing – and even practicing – most of the time – for which I’m really thankful.

Her favorite things to do are play Sesame Street games on my computer, play dress-up and pretend, and color pictures for her friends. Her favorite restaurant is Chik-fil-A. Her favorite place is “Tennessee – because that’s where Dollywood lives.”

Chris and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this August. We’ve learned so much about each other – and I love that guy so much more than I ever have.

I’ve kept busy with cooking, cleaning, picking up toys…you know the usual mommy stuff. I’ve had a few catering opportunities that have come up throughout the year that I’ve really enjoyed.  (There’s nothing like getting paid to cook!)

God has really taught me about what His peace is – especially through the loss of my dear sweet Grandma. She taught me so much about hospitality, sewing, loving my husband, and just enjoying my girls. Not having her around to send a Christmas card too, or to call and say hey, has been really tough for me this year. But again, God’s peace has been persistent in my heart.

I also got to run my first half marathon this year! Boy was that a challenge – but a blast. I loved having my family all around me cheering me on!

This Christmas we have the opportunity to cook for a Christmas Dinner at our church in West Virginia. We are so excited to be used in this way! It’s been our dream to take our family on a ‘real’ ministry-focused trip, and although it will be short, we are thrilled to see it finally happen! Chloe’s all ready to set tables and Kami….well….she’ll be a great taste-tester.

To all of you, so many of you have been such a blessing to us this year at church, online, or just through your smiles and comments.  God has blessed our family in so many ways – we’re just thrilled to be able to put a smile on some of your faces throughout the year.

As a thank you to you for your encouragement to us – and a reminder of what God has given us – here’s a little song Chloe prepared for you all this year. Merry Christmas everyone, and may God bless you and your families in a very special way this Christmas!

Merry Christmas, from the Rackley clan!

Oh do we have something special for you!

You’ll be able to view our special “live” Christmas greeting right here on Thursday, December 22nd at 9 PM.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and an especially Happy New Year!

Love to all of you, because of our Savior’s unconditional love for us,

Chris, Kim, Chloe, and Kamryn Rackley

Things you hear when you’re directing a (large) wedding…

…it was my first wedding as an ‘official’ wedding director for my church. I’ve catered a wedding for 300; I’ve played the piano for quite a few others; but I’ve only directed a couple in the past – and none in the last 6 years or so. 

“I have 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen, a 10 person orchestra, a 12 person choir, 3 flower girls, 2 ringbearers, and 2 preachers.” Said the bride.

Hmmm…that’s 51 people on the stage at one time. Well, why not jump in with both feet, then, right?

“My maid of honor had her mom call to say she isn’t coming.” Said the bride.

“Can you tell me where I’m staying this weekend? I’d like to contact the family and let them know when I’ll be coming in.” Said one of the college-student groomsmen.

“Do you know where my dad went?” Said the bride. An hour before the ceremony begins.

As it turns out…noone knew where he went.

“Umm…can you come see this? One of the girls has been here for 30 minutes trying to get into her dress.” Said the pianist noticing that bridesmaids haven’t left for photos yet.

“Hey! I’m so glad to see you! I think my zipper is broken.” Said the bridesmaid. As four other bridesmaids were trying to fix it – and not getting their photos taken either. I dug out my box of safety pins and double sided tape.

“So, when I get home, my mom has to CUT me out of my dress?” Said the bridesmaid (see above) after I had sewn her into her dress.

“Where IS (that vocalist)! I need her NOW!” Said the father of the bride.

Hmmm…she was told to be ready at 6:00. It’s 5:55. She’s putting on her shoes now. She’ll be out soon.

“Six O’Clock? Who tells them these times?”

Hmmm…I did, sir. Remember, that’s why you’re paying me.

“Oh yeah. Sorry.”

“I totally forgot to pass out these thank you cards. Would you mind doing it for me?” Said the sweet mother of the bride, with a bag full of 60 cards – you know for people I’ve never met.

“I got a call from Chris, you know, the other usher. He can’t make it.” Said one of my awesome ushers when the prelude began.

“Is there NO way I can hear any of this awesome music my dad put together for the prelude?” Said the bride, and I had to tell her no.

“Do you know where I parked my car?”

“I have to walk out there all by myself?”

“You can go with me, right?” Said a random guest who (apparently) needed an escort outside.

“Wait. Can you help me find my car?” Said the same random guest 7 minutes later, who is walking around in the parking lot hitting the unlock button on her car key’s remote.

“And the horse-drawn carriage should be arriving……now.” Said me, as I snapped my fingers in the air like Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. And just then it arrived.

Hmmmm….(I looked at my fingers)….I wonder if that works on cleaning my girls’ rooms.

“I set my purse down and now i can’t find it. It’s a super tiny black one. The bride said you were the one to ask.” Said another random guest.

“Do you know where the car keys are?” Asked the sweet bridesmaid who was packing up the carriage for the bride and groom.

“Wasn’t there a marriage license or something I should have signed?” Said the preacher.

“Will you ever do another one?” A friend said on facebook later that night. Much later. When I got home.

 

Definitely I will. That was a blast.

Cute Christmas Gift for the Grandma you know….no peeking, Granny or Nana!

I saw this adorable little door mat over at one of my new bloggers posts from last Christmas and had to copy! She’s so full of great frugal crafty ideas – a lot of them under $1.00! If you want some more detailed instructions, see her great post here.

Here’s our adventure with this one. Enjoy the pictures!

First – gather your supplies – outdoor paint (Hobby Lobby, $1.20 a bottle); a door mat  (Wal-Mart, $6.97); some newspaper ($1/week); and some feet (umm…the cost of these feet is too astronomical to list here.  If you don’t have any kids, just take a wild guess, then add a few zeros.)  Other helpful things are tape to mark off the outside edge, and a stencil.

White paint on feet + feet on mat = cute little snowman bodies.

Now for the Christmas Trees – green paint is nice for this one.

Hands seem to be nice to have around, too.

Put down those painted hands twice and you’ll get a Christmas Tree!

Add a 2 year old to the mix…and things really get fun.

Here’s where the stencil came in handy.

Then I added a few embellishments to the snowmen bodies – a scarf, a little hat, some buttons, and a few red ornaments and a star to the Christmas Trees.

And so there you have it. We made two of them for the two grandmas in our life. We should have done 3. I really want one.

Planning our live Christmas Card…

It’s become a new little tradition for our friends and family…through all our travels and odd medical “emergencies” – we have so many friends and family all over the country, and world really, that have upheld our little family in prayer over the past several years. As a way of saying thanks, we try to put together something special for them every Christmas.

While working on this year’s Live Christmas Card…I had to take a look back at last year’s…

And thought some of you (umm….Granny and Nana) might enjoy doing the same.

Stay tuned – 2011′s Christmas Card is coming very soon.