Posts by Kerry Weisser
DIY Rice Filled Hot/Cold Pack
I am sure most of you have had the experience of feeling stiff and sore at the end of a long day, or after a hard workout. Your neck is holding the stress of the day and your shoulders just need a good massage….but you don’t have the time to stop for a massage…this is when it is wonderful to have a handy Rice Filled Hot/Cold Pack. There were many DIY hot/cold pack ideas on the web and this one was easy to customize. In under an hour and for less than $5 you can have a solution to your aching neck and shoulders.
Here’s what you need:
¼ yard of soft Cotton Fabric
Matching thread
Sewing machine
Scissors
Funnel
Uncooked rice (I used 2 ½ -3 cups)
Essential Oil (I used an essential oil called Balance that is a combination of spruce, rosewood, frankincense and blue tansy)
Here are the easy steps to make your DIY Rice Filled Heat Pack:
1. Cut your fabric into two strips about 16″ x 8″. Place fabric right sides together, pin and sew ⅝ seam around 3 edges, leaving one long edge not sewn. On the one long edge that has not been sewn, mark off 2 inch segments with a pin every 2 inches. Sew on this 4th side between every other pinned off section. Your result will be a fourth side that has 2 inch gaps that will be used to fill the four sections of your heating pack.
2. Trim corners, turn your bag right-side out and use a pencil or chop stick to push out the corners from the inside. Iron.
3. Measure and mark your bag into 4 equal sections at the edge of each of the gaps. Start sewing these dividing lines from the top of the …
Read MoreSummertime Scheduling for Success
When my girls were growing up, I was one of those moms that was completely excited for SUMMER VACATION!!!! I cherished all the time we would have together during the summer. Although our girls were very involved in community sports and church activities during the summer, we loved the more relaxed schedule. We filled our days with a balanced combination of creative projects like learning new skills like cooking, sewing, crafting, gardening and unstructured outdoor fun with friends swimming and having barbecues and sleepovers. Summer was a time to use the local resources for educational opportunities. We joined the summer reading programs, and looked for art, music and dance classes available in our community. The opportunities are endless but it does take some planning. The other day I heard a wonderful program on the local Christian radio station that was giving tips for summertime survival, so I thought I would summarize a few of the points.
Some great encouragement for all of us as we begin to plan for a successful summer:
DAILY PAUSE-Take time each day to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Spend some time listening to the birds, looking at the clouds, smelling the flowers that are blooming. You can easily do this in your own back yard or at the park or just schedule in a regular time to go on a walk each day and practice using your 5 senses to discover the world around you. A daily pause can also be practiced in the form of an informal check-in with each one of your children. Around the breakfast table as you go over your schedule for the day you can make sure to connect with each child. A daily pause might work better for your family in the evening around the dinner table …
Read MorePassion Perspective Interview — Jana McAdams
Jana has a deep abiding faith in Jesus Christ. Her faith permeates every aspect of her life. For her Passion Perspective Interview we asked her how her faith has played a part of the journey of developing her Wormy business?
“In the summer of 2011, I was going to Egypt and Israel for Sports Ministry through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), running sports camps for youth, majority of who were Muslim. Our job was to provide coaching and encouragement to these youth, sharing Christ’s love without being able to mention Christ at all. As I was planning, I tried to think of more creative ways to generate financial support. After some thinking and bouncing ideas off of a few good friends, I decided to jump in head first and begin selling Wormies. I had been thinking about how much that I loved to make Wormies, but honestly really nervous about trying to sell them. I was ultimately scared of people’s responses and thought that I might actually fail. The funny thing is that the exact opposite happened, I suddenly had way more orders than I ever would have imagined, and I was making Wormies like crazy that summer before I left. Because I got such a great response, I decided to continue selling Wormies even after I got back, and have been going ever since.”
Jana at FCA Camp at UCLA as a Huddle Leader
We asked what challenges, expected and unexpected, she faced while developing her business. Jana has been extremely busy with school and coaching over the past few years, so she replied, “I knew at one point that I would have too many orders or too much to do than I had time for at one point. I did not expect that I would be taking …
Read MoreJana’s Journey of her Wormy Business
A favorite part of our Passion Perspective week is to find out how our guest turned a dream into a reality by taking something she loved and turning it into a business. Before we begin Jana’s story, you must see one of her Wormies so you will understand how easy it would be for children of ALL ages to fall in love with these adorable toys.
We asked Jana about her original passion and how and when this passion began.
Jana shared with us how she originally began sewing after her mom taught her when she was in elementary school and she remembers her mom telling her of the Wormies that she made for all of her friends who were having babies. Jana said, “When I was in college, I asked my mom if we could make Wormies for a cousin of ours who was having twins, and it was then that she fully taught me how to make Wormies so I could start making them without her help. After more people around me began having babies and I received such praise for the Wormies that I was gifting, I went out on a whim and decided to first start selling them to raise money for a mission trip that I was going on. When I received such favorable support and encouragement for Wormy orders, I decided to continue to sell them and absolutely loved finding the perfect patterns and colors to match each order and bring excitement and enjoyment to those receiving the Wormies.” Jana officially started her Wormy business in april 2011.
We asked Jana what steps she had to take to make her dream a reality and she said,
“When I first had the idea, I bounced it off of a few people to see whether or …
Getting to know Jana and her Wormies
This week Growing Weisser has the awesome privilege of introducing you, our followers, to the extremely talented Jana McAdams.
BETHANY WRITES…..”Jana has been a blessing in mine and my family’s lives ever since meeting her in 2009. I was on staff with Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. Every summer FCA does a big Sports Camp where hundreds of high school athletes come have an amazing experience of sports and Jesus. It was my first year on staff, and I was excited, but also a little nervous for my first camp experience. Big camp, new people, UCLA campus (big deal) and anticipation of pouring in to my group of college athletes (I was their counselor/mentor to be there for them as they lead their group of kids through the camp). Little did I know I was about to meet some of my life long friends at this camp. Jana was one of my huddle leaders as we called them (college-aged leaders for the kids). We instantly clicked, but as I got to know her I saw such an amazing woman of God, a sincere heart, and a genuine desire to serve the Lord. A lot of college aged guys or gals are just living it up in their own world and their own experience. But Jana was already on the path to grow deep and closer with the Lord. That’s the way Jana is, she knows who she is, who the Lord created her to be, and she is able to be right where the Lord has her. I had an amazing time getting to know her that week, but it has been cool to see the Lord continue to show up in and through our lives and our friendship. I continued to spend …
Read MoreSpring Survival-Long Days as a Mom
Before I became a mom, I had a very romantic view of parenthood. I imagined my husband and I having so much fun as a family, going on lots of outings, and just feeling happy all the time. This is definitely a part of parenthood, but so are long days, hard work, and loneliness. Being a mom can be very isolating. However, the more moms I talk to, the more I realize we are all in this together!
Many of my friends have husbands who commute and work long hours or are in the military. Regardless of your situation, there are going to be long days when you need some ideas in your pocket to make it to bedtime.
I asked some friends to share their favorite ways to survive long days.
Here is a list of our tips and suggestions:
– Easy Dinner – make sandwiches or pancakes.
– Utilize free events and story times at your local library. I used to do this all the time with Ellie.
– Host a play date. Then you can still have company without leaving your house!
– Join a Mommy Group. This is definitely what saves me most days. You can join shared interest groups, find groups on Facebook or Meetup, or a become a part of a church group like MOPS. I have many virtual friends that support me through our talks and sharing on Facebook.
– Utilize technology: text, FaceTime, Skype. Kids love to see family. Ellie and Hanna love to FaceTime with their Aunts and Uncles.
– Do a house project to pass the time and stay focused on a task.
– Plan something for yourself at the end of a long day: a Mom’s Night, wine and a good book, a prerecorded favorite show, or a nice …
Read MoreSpeaking Encouragement-Be Balcony People
Bethany and I had the awesome opportunity to speak to a group of young moms yesterday at a group called Mother’s Together. There were so many things we wanted to share with the gals to encourage them in their marriages, their parenting, their friendships. We will write more about the event in the weeks to come, but we thought it would be advantageous to repost a piece I wrote on being Balcony People. I trust this will challenge you and bring you hope in all your relationships.
It may be just a WORD spoken to you or an hour of TIME that a friend or family member gives to you, but both are forms of ENCOURAGEMENT, a much needed gift; to give and to receive. Encouragement does not always come from the person we need it to come from or at the exact time we need it or in the form we expect, but it will come. I am a natural encourager. I love to look for the “good” in people, finding ways to build them up and help them see their potential. I love to come along side young people who are dreaming of their future and discovering their passions. 
Being an encourager involves developing a relationship of trust. Even if you do not have a temperament that naturally encourages people, you can learn to support and inspire others. You have to take the time to really get to know the person you want to encourage. Be an active listener. Learn what they like, what drives them, their goals and their dreams. Find ways to instill hope and boost confidence. When you have earned the right to speak life and encouragement into another person, you have joined their team and become someone who cheers in their balcony.
It is …
Read MoreSpring Cleaning-revisiting a New Year’s Post
It is now SPRING 2014-most of us have had aspirations (New Year’s resolutions) we have been hoping to accomplish since January. We may even have goals written down, but we just have not been able to find the time to make the changes. Who’s got time? It seems we are always looking for more time. If we just had one more hour, one free morning, or one less obligation… Usually all it takes is being a little more productive with the time we do have. Change your perspective. Have a plan. And go for it. This spring is a good time to reevaluate, start small. Make little goals that you can actually accomplish. Do one at a time. Check them off your list. Start in one room of your house, one corner of your mind, one day on your busy schedule, and get organized.
In January I wrote down twelve ideas for the New Year to help get you organized. But now it is almost May and you might still feel overwhelmed? Not sure where to start? Pick one area per month. Then by next year you will have 6 or 7 areas of your life more in check and a little more organized. But have a plan of action. Map out your weeks or months so you can tackle one thing at a time.
1. Schedule: Keep a planner/calendar. You can use a written hard copy calendar or your computer or phone. Write down important dates, things you want to accomplish, and items on your agenda. If needed, set reminders on your phone. It is a great way to keep things organized. We all have a lot going on, and some of us need that friendly buzz to help us remember.
2. Digital Clean up: Clean up your computer, …
Read MoreJesus is my Everything
When I was growing up, Easter season began with a Passover Seder meal at my grandparents home where we retold the Exodus story and said beautiful Hebrew prayers. This tradition became more meaningful to me as I learned that Christ became the Passover Lamb and He was the perfect sacrifice for all men for all time. He was nailed to the cross on that Friday (what we call “good Friday”) and was raised from the dead on what we call Easter-Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection Sunday, Good Friday and Passover celebrations are a time to reflect on all that Christ has done for me.
As we raised our family, we incorporated the celebration of Passover with our Easter festivities for a rich tradition of Old and New Testament blending to tell the entire story of God reaching out to man to initiate and open the door for an intimate relationship with His children.
This year I had the awesome privilege of attending a Good Friday worship night with Bekah and Ashkon at their Christian Student Association at SGU in Grenada. It was a multicultural event including liturgical dance and worship for all with the worship team including special presentations from three groups of students singing in their native tongues-Indian, African and Spanish and two Asian students who shared a piano and violin worship song on prayer. The most moving part of the evening for me was the dramatic presentation of a skit done to a beautiful song called Everything-you can look it up on Youtube. If you have never seen this skit before, one version can be found here: Lifehouse’s Everything Skit Or you can watch the beautiful rendition we saw at the SGU worship service on Friday night..
After the skit the leader of the worship night spoke a bit about …
Read MoreHomemade LARABAR
Our family absolutely loves Larabars and we eat them all the time. I found a few different recipes on Pinterest to get some ideas about how to make them myself and after a few experiments, I made four different flavors-all extremely delicious. I tried to keep an accurate account of the price of the ingredients I used for each batch and it worked out to be about 25-40 cents a bar. That is an incredible savings since Larabars are usually about $1 a piece. So if you love healthy snacks and you have a bit if time to experiment with delicious healthy ingredients, you will have fun creating your own flavors of Lara Bars. Here is the basic recipe I created…….
INGREDIENTS
½ cups pitted dates
½ cups dried fruit (figs, apricots)
⅔ cups almonds
1 tsp cinnamon (with fig)
1 small piece of fresh ginger (with apricot)
In Cuisinart, blend dates and dried fruit of your choice. When a ball forms stop the cuisinart and remove chopped dried fruit ball to a medium bowl. Add almonds to cuisinart and chop until coarse ( few small pieces of almonds remaining in the nut mixture works fine). Knead nuts and dried fruit together and form into bars or balls. Refrigerate for 20 minutes and eat or wrap in saran to enjoy later. Homemade Larabars can be frozen. Each batch makes 6-8 bars or 20-25 balls.
Here are a few of the variations on the original recipe above that we tried. These were delicious…
Peanut Butter and Jelly
1 cup peanuts
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dates
3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
Follow direction above for chopping dates and cranberries in Cuisinart. Remove to a bowl. Chop peanuts. Add to date mixture along with peanut butter. Mix …