Time For A Change

This is not a blog post I had planned to write, I still owe you 3 that I've pulled from my camera in the last couple of days, but today as I was driving I decided it was time for a change.  After running around all day running errands, which in Honduras ALWAYS takes all day, no matter how difficult it should be, we ran through McDonalds on the way home.  And as I was driving towards my home, where there was healthy food waiting if I was patient enough to get here, I looked in the back seat and saw my precious girl loving her chicken nuggets and sprite.  I am most definitely not opposed to the occasional trip to the fast food joint, but I do not want my child, or myself for that matter to be a fast food junkie. 
And that's where we are folks, at this stage Rosie and I have become fast food junkies and it's time to put a stop to it.  I don't want my child, who is already predisposed genetically to being larger, to struggle her whole life with weight loss.  Been there, done that, still working out the kinks in my own body image. 
So...why am I rambling on about this to all of you?  Because I want your ideas.  Meal times are work times for me usually which lends itself to fast food.  I want to start making meals ahead of time that I can freeze and pull out when I'm in a hurry.  I don't want to depend on processed food "Yuck".  But I also don't want to freeze out all the nutrients in good food.  I LOVE to cook, and I enjoy healthy food I just need to make it a priority in my life. 
So what works for you?
I know you are busy, how do you incorporate healthy meals into quick time frames, without cooking all day or using a bunch of processed meals?
I would also love some juice/drink ideas for Rosie and myself to get us both away from soda. I drink a lot more than Rosie does, but the packaged juice boxes I give her aren't much better. 
We've started exercising a lot more, which is great, but if we don't change what we're putting in our bodies than health is not going to follow. 
I love to hear from you and I need your help.
So let me know what you think!
Love you guys!

A Few Pictures From A Day Spent At Breaking Chains

Jonathan, our little plumber.

David was fixing a busted pipe and Jonathan was eager to be his assistant.

Oh my are these two a mess together. 

But Rosie loves her sister more than anything else in the world.

Making lunch over the fire.

This fascinates me.

Baby Ashley gets more beautiful every day.

Have I mentioned I love this child.

Mario moved in and out in the matter of 24 hours. 

I'm not sure if we will seee him again but I am thankful for a few moments to try to touch his hurting heart.

Jose de la Cruz and Yovany are easy favorites at the building.

They are always quick with a hug and eager to help out with any project we put before them.

8 yr old Kimberly and 12 yr old Pamela helping "moler" or make tortillas for the homeless dinner tonight.

Escarleth just being beautiful next to the fire.

I am overwhelmed by the fact that God allows me to work with these wonderful, beautiful people.

Duckweed!!

For two weeks now we've been searching high and low for two things:

Fish, which is a hunt with many leads but few successes so far.

and Duckweed.  Evidently Duckweed is a rapidly reproducing magic plant that will provide all the food we need for the fish.

This tiny plant has been alluding us until just a few days ago when we were following a lead on some fish.  We were down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere when all of the sudden Nathan called out, DUCKWEED!!! and jumped out of the car to collect it.

The tiny green things floating in the water were the treasure we had been hunting.

And Nathan climbed through swamp land and over a fence to reach his prize.

Now it is safely back in one of our aquaponics beds and hopefully happily on it's way to reproducing.

Joel is so excited about our farming project he came home the other day with plants for us to plant.

He chose eucalyptus and a shade tree to bring from his grandma's garden to bless our little plot.

These things will probably have to be transplanted at some point but I am so pleased to see them eager to join in this project.

God is already touching hearts and opening up new avenues in the lives of these teens through the garden project.  I can't wait to see what happens as we begin to see vegetables growing in our beds.

Shine Culture Day

Last week the nation celebrated their culture and the Shine! kids celebrated with a day of food and games at school.

Darwin attended with them and took pictures.  Let's just say he's probably never going to be hired as a photographer.

But these two are pretty cute.

Our Beautiful Girls

Jose's costume was a little less creative

This kid cracks me up!

We're in book report season again so I"m spending lots of time with the kiddos and remembering how much I love their crazy antics.

Jennifer Lilianna

I couldn't pass up an opportunity to post baby pictures!

I have always thought Jennifer was beautiful and watching her slip into addiction and pain has been one of the harder things I've had to witness.

For many of our young girls having a baby is an opportunity to turn their lives around.

Jennifer is fighting hard and I pray that she is successful.

Furious but still adorable.

I LOVE baby feet!!

I held this precious baby for hours this day. 

I think her mama is a little overwhelmed but she is doing her best.

I pray that God bless this precious angel's life with safety and dependence upon Him.

MORE New Faces

Jennifer finally had her baby. 

Jennifer is 17 years old and a serious glue addict. 

I have no idea what is going to happen with this precious baby but by God's hand only she was born a very healthy baby girl.

Meet 18 day old Jennifer Lilianna.

Rosie's mom is going to help Jennifer (the mom) take care of the baby as much as she can.

I'm hoping that we can all be a strong presence in this baby's life.

Here is baby Jennifer sporting one of the precious little hats donated to us this summer.

Please pray for this precious life and perilous road that lays before her. 

Pray that we can be God's hand on her life and on the life of her mother.

This is Ivis (18), Cristian (17), and Carina (15)

They moved in a couple of days ago.

I don't know much of their stories but they are sweet kids eager to fit in and hopefully make a change in their lives.

I look forward to getting to know each of these precious souls and seeing where God leads us in their lives. 

We never know when someone comes to the building how long they will stay, but our prayer is that whatever the amount of time is, we are able to make God more visible to each person before they go on their way.

Down On The Farm (or urban Tegucigalpa)

Today we decided to let the chickens and rabbit out of their little pen and into the yard. 

We weren't sure how the dogs would take this but it went well.

So now we've got our own little petting zoo in the yard....

Yippee...

:)

The cute baby chicks turned into "interesting" looking adolescent chicken pretty quickly.

Darwin has named them Nacho and Chacho.

My little garden setup outside.

I spent a couple of hours outside today planting all the little seeds for our aquaponics garden and setting up this little garden space. 

I feel very "green" today.

Hopefully soon all these planted baby seeds will grow into beautiful healthy plants for our garden.

This part of God's creation absolutely blows my mind.

I am so glad the God of these wonders chooses to be a part of our lives.

We Have Plants!!

Put a few plants in the aquaponics beds today!

Everyone is SOOO excited to see what comes out of our garden.

We still have a long way to go but here are our first plants. 

The rest will be started from seeds in cups and should be planted in the next week or so.

Basil

 Strawberries

Worm casting "tea bag"

This will give nutrients to the plants and also eventually to the fish.

Moringa

This is an Indian plant packed with nutrients that we will feed the fish and also dry to put in the food we hand out.

Tomatoes!

This may be what I'm most excited about. 

You can't beat a fresh tomato.

I can't wait to do some harvesting!

Sunday Morning Fun

Sunday mornings are family time at our house since we attend church in the afternoon. 

This morning Rosie and I had lots of fun

I love this little nut.



The Farm is Ready!

The aquaponics farm is ready to go at Breaking Chains. 

This weeks project is preparing seeds and finding fish to fill our tanks

Nathan working on the Youtube video

The best picture I could get of the whole setup

The auto syphen

Running water!!!

We're all very excited to see where this project takes us and also to see how easy it would be to implement it in other places.

The Babies Are Getting Big

Back by popular demand...

Baby Pictures!

Baby Ashley is 3 months old

Baby Amber is almost 5 months old!

We don't get to see her much, but when we do it is such a blessing.

Her uncle is raising her in a town about an hour away

Baby Allison is just over 1 month. 

There are so many precious babies associated with our ministry and it's a blessing to be a part of their growing up. 

A Garden For Breaking Chains

Since we opened the doors of the Breaking Chains ministry building I've been looking for a way to introduce a manageable garden to our members.  

Several different ideas and plans were tossed around but nothing ever came to pass.  

Until now...

Now we are working with Nathan Hale to produce a small aquaponics farm on the open balcony of our building.

This little farm will produce hundreds of pounds of vegetables and at least 100 fish per year.  

We've spent the last two days working hard on the tanks and supplies for this operation and today we are installing it in our building.  

 Transporting 3 of the 6 tanks we needed.

 David cut all the filter covers

And Kristen drilled the filter holes.

 I was responsible for gluing everything together.

 We had to cut the tanks in two for the plant beds

Nate cut the cages

And I cut the tanks

 Even Rosie wanted in on the fun

This is a "mock-up" of what it will look like on the balcony so we can figure out the plumbing connections.  

It doesn't look like much now but I will post pictures soon of the final product and veggies within the month!

For more information on Nathan Hale, his farm project, or Aquaponics farming go to this website:

http://hondofarm.com