The Almaguer Six

May 13, 2012
by Kelli
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For You, Mom!

Today, like every day, I not only feel very blessed to be celebrating the fact that God chose to bless me with the role of “mom” to my four little gifts…..

But I’m also feeling very thankful for the woman that God chose to be *my* mother. And yes, I DO share her with my brother and sister from time-to-time! For more than 30 years (I’m not saying how *many* more) she has continued to love, nurture, guide and provide for me even though we have lived apart for many of them now. God never makes mistakes and I’m so glad that He orchestrated our mother-daughter relationship before time even began!

So mom, THANK YOU for always:

-loving unconditionally
-praying faithfully
-teaching diligently
-giving selflessly &
-encouraging constantly!

You are loved! Happy Mother’s Day!

May 9, 2012
by Kelli
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A 7 year old!

Last week, we celebrated our eldest wee person turning 7! Our beautiful first-born, Kinley Joy celebrated her 7th birthday last Friday, which is a fact that totally amazes me. How in the world do we have a 7 YEAR OLD?? We are so grateful that the Lord chose to bless us with her. We’re so proud of the girl she is… smart, capable, beautiful, strong-willed, opinionated, sweet & loving with a little sassy-ness on the side. Our little first-grader is really starting to love to read and write, but frowns upon doing her subtraction. She loves her ballet class and of course playing at the park as often as possible! She views every trip out of the house as an adventure, so even going to the grocery store is an anticipated activity. As the first-born, she also takes it upon herself often to keep her brothers and sisters in line! She loves to help with her siblings, but sometimes forgets that she is not their mom..ha! She is mom’s right-hand girl!

We love you sweet girl! Can’t wait to see all that God has for you as you grow!

We started off her special day the way we have started doing all birthdays around here. We started a tradition almost by accident, but the kids love it. Birthdays kind of resemble Christmas morning! The night before, we decorated the school/play room and set out her presents. We also covered her bedroom door in balloons and streamers so she could wake up and immediately be reminded about how special and loved she is! She immediately opened her presents (at 6 a.m.) and discovered she got her heart’s-desire of this year: a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean set (including mermaid figurines-most important part). Then we ate and got ready we we could drive up to the Discovery Place Kids (about an hour north of here)…. We spent a couple of hours there while the kids discovered *everything*. They love that place! She also got to pick our lunch location, so of course we had to go to Chick-Fil-A! Kinley told us she had SO much fun. We didn’t bring our *real* camera, so instead I flooded my Instagram feed with lots of fun pics from our trip. Here’s the digital Instagram low-down in case you missed it the first time around!

April 25, 2012
by Kelli
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Soaked Cinnamon Oatmeal [printable recipe]

Here I am again with another breakfast recipe! It’s such an important meal, especially around here, since it sets the tone for the day. Our cereal “habit” is a thing of the past and instead of being a main-stay in our morning routine, it has become a special treat. Even then we still stick to healthier, low-sugar, whole grain varieties.

We have been consuming a decent amount of soaked oatmeal over the last several months (at least twice a week) and I have continued to add to/change/tweak my “formula” until I think I have something we all like (well, all except Myleigh…not sure what’s up with her!). Oatmeal is actually pretty basic and is so much healthier than “cold” cereals! Soaking makes this breakfast exponentially more nutritious (and good for your teeth!). If you are new to soaking, click HERE to get started. In a nutshell, allowing the oats to soak in an acid medium like yogurt for up to 24 hours allows your body to truly absorb all the nutrients in the grains instead of giving them *up* to digest it! Losing essential vitamins and nutrients in the process of digesting grains can contribute to tooth decay and leaves your body deficient instead of recharged. We definitely notice a difference in how our digestive system feels after eating soaked v. non-soaked grains.

The soaking process definitely gives the oatmeal a mild, pleasant tart taste, and the more we eat it, the more we like it! Even Billy has started enjoying it… and oatmeal certainly hasn’t always been his “thing”. I use buckwheat flour for the soak because it adds great flavor, significantly reduces the “gummy-ness” factor and keeps breakfast gluten-free, while still helping the oats to break-down the phytic acid! Add-ins like flaxmeal, finely shredded coconut and coconut milk pump up the health benefits even more! Mixed with a little vanilla, cinnamon, butter, honey and maple syrup, it starts to taste a little like a cinnamon roll. I’ve even thrown a little cocoa powder in from time to time too, upon a child’s request! Very tasty topped with sliced fruit too!

I have started looking forward to oatmeal mornings, especially knowing how good this is for our family! Below you’ll find the “recipe” that I’ve been using on a regular basis. Download and print the recipe card on some cardstock (make sure to print at 24% if you want it *exactly* 3×5 recipe card size!), trim and add to your collection~! P.S. This recipe makes enough oatmeal for each of us to have one normal-sized bowl.

[Click on the image to open full-size... great for accessing on the iPad too!]

April 9, 2012
by Kelli
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Easter

We hope you had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating the resurrection and LIFE of our Savior Jesus Christ. We are so thankful for the gift of His life… given up as a sacrifice for us, so that we can know eternity in His presence. God used the prayers, hard work, and love of our staff and volunteers at Southbrook to reach a harvest of 150 people…beautiful lives that will now join us in the Kingdom of Heaven! We’re so excited for these changed lives.

After morning services (and an Easter egg hunt that followed – with a hot air balloon poised in the sky!) we spent the afternoon with some great friends, eating great food (grilled lamb w/ yogurt sauce, quinoa&brown rice, roasted rosemary potatoes, salad & homemade dressing.. and of course some brownies [gluten-free!]). Yum! We even had a mini-egg hunt for the wee’s and set up the bounce house for extra fun. Thankfully, the wee people cooperated and let me grab a couple of pics of them right after church. The older three helped convince captain crazy to get in the pic too.

We are so blessed with not only wonderful family and friends but with the never-giving up, never-stopping, always-and-forever kind of love of our Savior. Much love –

April 6, 2012
by Kelli
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Effective Ministry

“Your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.”

I saw this quote on Pinterest the other day and it totally grabbed my attention. We recently had our Spring Women’s Event (on March 30th) and had a powerful time of *real* ministry as women opened up and shared how their past hurts, mistakes and choices have come full circle and brought them now to a place of complete healing in Christ. Many tears were shed… some in the pain of remembering, but MANY in the joy of knowing that we are a new creation… LOVED and now living with purpose! The verse we focused on was 2 Corinthians 1:3-5:

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

When we are able to be raw, transparent and honest about what we have endured, we can much more effectively touch people in their greatest need. We have all failed. We all have a story of hurt, pain, resentment, anger, distrust and some have even endured abuse. No one wants to go through those things. Pain is hard. People fail us. But the beautiful ending is that no matter what we have done… no matter what has been done *to* us, God is still GOOD, God *never* fails, He is still on the throne and He wants to use those experiences to make us more effective ministers. I love that. Nothing that I have gone through has to be wasted. Nothing that you have gone through has to be wasted. Even pain has a purpose. God can use us to minister to others in a powerful way because we have first allowed HIM to heal us, to make us whole and then move forward with one goal: making a Godly mark on those we come in contact with.

The Sunday following the women’s event, Billy experienced something similar in the student ministry as the high schoolers opened up about their pain and struggles and then nailed those things to a cross. God is moving!

I’m blessed to be a part of church that wants desperately to strip the masks away, to make things raw and real so that we can lift each other up. As Pastor Rob has reminded us many times, “God isn’t after our behavior, He is after our hearts.” When we drop the “act”, we can help each other, comfort each other, because God has first comforted us through all our various trials.

p.s. I didn’t really like the ‘word art’ that went with the quote that I found, so I made my own as a reminder. Click on the pic above if you want to download and print it as well.