Tomorrow Glenn has an exam to complete the 6th unit of of MSII. After that he has a week off for spring break. We had made plans to go and visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew during Spring Break because they moved to South Carolina this past summer. They built a house and just moved into it recently. We really want to go and see them and their new house...
BUT..... we only have one car. It is nice to only have one car most of the time. We don't use it much and that way we only have to pay insurance on one vehicle, only have to maintain and put gas in one vehicle, etc. The problem is our 2002 Ford Windstar is giving us all kinds of problems. The check engine light is on, it shakes and rattles all the time, the light sockets keep blowing, it doesn't like hills or bumps, there is a recall on it that can't be checked on until the first week of April, we still haven't been able to get a new tire rim since leaving our mark on I-80 so we have no spare, inspection is up at the end of the month and I am afraid of how much it is going to cost to get it to pass, etc. (OK, stop hyperventilating!) I would love to take our car to the shop but they won't let me bring our school stuff and sit in the waiting room while they work on it which means we have to leave it there and figure out how to get home and get back there to pick it up. One of the difficulties of having only one car is that it is impossible to take your car to the shop without inconveniencing someone besides yourself. If you know me you know that I would bend over backwards for someone else but I really don't want anyone else to help me because I don't want to inconvenience them. I don't even want to inconvenience Glenn for him to take the van in. It is a big pride (SIN) issue that I don't want to let go of.
So.... our van is unfixed and not trustworthy to take us the 900 miles to Charleston. I really don't want it to break down on the interstate in the middle of the night on a Friday night. :(
We looked into plane tickets, train tickets, rental cars... all are more than we have budgeted for this trip (actually we hadn't budgeted for the gas for this trip either but we do have a little extra to cover that). Sadness. Glenn offered to have us rent a car and have just the 5 of us go and leave him home but the reason we were going this week was for extra time with him as well. I talked to my brother this afternoon and for right now we are not going to go see them this week. Is my pride the reason that my kids cried this afternoon? Or my fear of the unknown? Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Help me not to fear and help me to ask for help. I am sure that there are people who would run me from and to the car service place if I would only ask.
{sigh} I guess it is not really all a money thing. Glenn is really stressing about how much studying he needs to get done over break and we are behind in our homeschooling so I guess it may be for the best that we not go. We'll be able to do some things around the house that really need done and hopefully get our car fixed without having to worry about Glenn being at school at a certain time. Lord, may we glorify You this break whatever we do. Thanks for some extra time together as a family.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Lent
Growing up the only thing I knew of Lent was that all my Catholic friends gave up things for Lent. Chocolate, Ice cream, potato chips, sweets. Also, of course, they had to have the plain pizza at school because they couldn't have pepperoni (which they claim is a meat) on Fridays. People would often come up to me and ask me what I was giving up for Lent because they knew that I was "religious" and I would tell them that I am not Catholic.
The first time I ever did anything for Lent was when we were in Houghton. A friend who grew up not far from me and who had similar experiences growing up decided to give it a try to help prepare her heart for Easter. I guess that I never really thought about the reason why people gave stuff up and preparing my heart for that celebration seemed like a good motivation. I know that I had friends who would kind of use it as a weight loss plan (one friend was excited about the 5 pounds she lost as a result of giving up sweets for Lent) and I knew I couldn't really give up sweets because I knew that I would be doing it probably with wrong motivation. I don't remember what I gave up that year but there have been a couple of years that I have given up coffee. That has been a challenge each time that I have done it because I love coffee and boy those head aches the first few days are horrible (even if I remembered to try to ween myself off of it coming up to Ash Wednesday). It was great because as I brewed and smelled the coffee I made for Glenn and longed for coffee at various times throughout the day I had opportunities to stop and thank God for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me.
Some years I have done something some years I haven't. Some years I have been more successful at keeping my Lenten promises, some years I haven't. I was really encouraged as I read Ann's blog today that when I fail in keeping my promises it is just a reminder to me of how thankful I am for God's grace:
The first time I ever did anything for Lent was when we were in Houghton. A friend who grew up not far from me and who had similar experiences growing up decided to give it a try to help prepare her heart for Easter. I guess that I never really thought about the reason why people gave stuff up and preparing my heart for that celebration seemed like a good motivation. I know that I had friends who would kind of use it as a weight loss plan (one friend was excited about the 5 pounds she lost as a result of giving up sweets for Lent) and I knew I couldn't really give up sweets because I knew that I would be doing it probably with wrong motivation. I don't remember what I gave up that year but there have been a couple of years that I have given up coffee. That has been a challenge each time that I have done it because I love coffee and boy those head aches the first few days are horrible (even if I remembered to try to ween myself off of it coming up to Ash Wednesday). It was great because as I brewed and smelled the coffee I made for Glenn and longed for coffee at various times throughout the day I had opportunities to stop and thank God for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me.
Some years I have done something some years I haven't. Some years I have been more successful at keeping my Lenten promises, some years I haven't. I was really encouraged as I read Ann's blog today that when I fail in keeping my promises it is just a reminder to me of how thankful I am for God's grace:
I have been thinking for a while about what to do for Lent this year and I long to use these 40 days to prepare both my heart and my family for the celebration of Resurrection Sunday. I put out a plea on Facebook for someone to refer me to a family devotional, preferably downloadable, to use as a family. A couple were recommended that I would like to check out (and Ann has some on her blog linked above as well.) As I was thinking and praying about it I really wanted something that would bring us through the full story of the Bible pointing to Christ and I remembered The Story of Hope from Good Soil that we had picked up at ABWE when we were down there for the Medical Missions Interface last summer. It has 40 stories from the Bible focusing on God's redemptive plan. We are excited to go through it as a family over these 40 days.
Now, for me. What am I, personally, going to do for Lent? I have been thinking about it for some time. I read a few blogs today on Lent – Ann's blog, Brad's blog on giving up sin for Lent and a blog by Jason Gray that Brad linked to. They all got me thinking more. Then I was challenged by a girl from church on The City (which is kind of a church version of Facebook, I think, that Missio Church is using) to add 15 minutes of extra focused prayer time every day. Today also I got an email from my Grandma telling me that she had just spent the last hour reading my blog and what a blessing it was to her. God has been prodding me to blog more so I guess that her email was an added push. Today also I chatted with a friend on the phone and it was good to catch up with her and find out how she is doing, which is something that I rarely do but should do more often.
So, what I am doing for Lent? I feel that God wants me to do 3 things daily:
1. Spend an extra 15 minutes of focused time in prayer.
2. Write something for my blog.
3. Connect with a friend, preferably via phone.
None of these are easy things for me but I am excited about what God is going to teach me as I am obedient to Him over these next 40 days.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
I Can't Do It
I am so thankful I went to church today. I guess that I say that most Sundays but today it is because the service really tied up some things for me that I have been struggling (and opened a bunch of more questions and things I need to search scripture about).
We're in a series on an overview of the Bible at church that started in August and will end maybe this summer, I am not sure. Today we got to the story of "the feeding of the 5000" from Mark's gospel, chapter 6. It is a familiar Sunday School story that I have heard all my life but I was really confronted with some things that I need to meditate on and change my mind about and it basically comes down to the fact that God is asking us to do something that we can not do but He will do it.
Jesus and the disciples got in a boat to go and have a refreshing time by themselves across the water but the people saw where they were going and ran around to the other side and beat them there (how they beat them I really don't know, I figure that it is probably faster to go by boat across than by foot around the sea of Galilee but I have never tried). Jesus saw them, had compassion on them, and taught them. The disciples urged Him to send the people away to get food but Jesus told them, "You give them something to eat!" and they basically responded, "I can't do that." I think that is where Jesus wanted them. He is going to do something through them now, physically, feed a bunch of people but He is preparing to do something through them later (of much more significance than feeding hungry bellies) that they can not do on their own. The disciples went with what Jesus had given them to meet the people's needs.
We were given a list of 4 things that we need to realize:
1. What I must do.
2. Why I can't do it.
3. How He did it.
4. How, through Jesus, I can do it.
There are a lot of things that I feel are impossible in my life right now: being a God honoring wife, being a God honoring mom, teaching my kids, reaching out to those around me who need Christ, loving others, forgiving others, keeping my house clean, keeping my family fed, practicing hospitality, moving... the list goes on. God has called me to do these things. In my own power I can not do them. Christ has done them. It is only through Him that I can do them.
I need to spend some time searching the Bible and seeing how Christ did those things that He has called me to do and not rely on myself to do them but allow Him to do the impossible through me.
The last note I wrote during church today was this: "Live as sent people, represent Him to those around you. God views the people on Allen St as sheep without a shepherd and tells me - 'You give them something to eat.'"
The world needs Jesus. It is only through Him that we can reach the world which is our primary calling above all else.
We're in a series on an overview of the Bible at church that started in August and will end maybe this summer, I am not sure. Today we got to the story of "the feeding of the 5000" from Mark's gospel, chapter 6. It is a familiar Sunday School story that I have heard all my life but I was really confronted with some things that I need to meditate on and change my mind about and it basically comes down to the fact that God is asking us to do something that we can not do but He will do it.
Jesus and the disciples got in a boat to go and have a refreshing time by themselves across the water but the people saw where they were going and ran around to the other side and beat them there (how they beat them I really don't know, I figure that it is probably faster to go by boat across than by foot around the sea of Galilee but I have never tried). Jesus saw them, had compassion on them, and taught them. The disciples urged Him to send the people away to get food but Jesus told them, "You give them something to eat!" and they basically responded, "I can't do that." I think that is where Jesus wanted them. He is going to do something through them now, physically, feed a bunch of people but He is preparing to do something through them later (of much more significance than feeding hungry bellies) that they can not do on their own. The disciples went with what Jesus had given them to meet the people's needs.
We were given a list of 4 things that we need to realize:
1. What I must do.
2. Why I can't do it.
3. How He did it.
4. How, through Jesus, I can do it.
There are a lot of things that I feel are impossible in my life right now: being a God honoring wife, being a God honoring mom, teaching my kids, reaching out to those around me who need Christ, loving others, forgiving others, keeping my house clean, keeping my family fed, practicing hospitality, moving... the list goes on. God has called me to do these things. In my own power I can not do them. Christ has done them. It is only through Him that I can do them.
I need to spend some time searching the Bible and seeing how Christ did those things that He has called me to do and not rely on myself to do them but allow Him to do the impossible through me.
The last note I wrote during church today was this: "Live as sent people, represent Him to those around you. God views the people on Allen St as sheep without a shepherd and tells me - 'You give them something to eat.'"
The world needs Jesus. It is only through Him that we can reach the world which is our primary calling above all else.
ABCs of our Christmas Wyoming Trip
This is long over due. We came up with this list on our way home from Wyoming 12/29-12/31/10. I am finally getting around to posting it.
Wyoming trip ABCs
A- Aunts, Animal Game, apples, Amy (she's real), Albin Baptist Church
B- Brody, Bernie, Billie, buffalo, boots (painted ones around Cheyenne), Botanical Gardens, Bonnie, Bethany, Bible
C- celebrating Christmas in Cheyenne, cowboys, cowboy boots (Sonja's), the Capital, Culvers, camo pillow, canasta, cucumber sandwiches, Chex mix, candy, Children's Garden, cousins, Chinese food, Cabela's, clear roads for most of the trip out, Cheeky Monkey Dipping Sauce, cinnamon rolls
D- Doug, Doyle, Danny, Darwin, Debbie, dots from uncle Darwin, Despicable Me, dominoes, donuts, dressing up for the Christmas Eve service, dates - G&S went out shopping kid-less a couple of times
E- eating- we did a lot of that!, Ella, ear muffs, email
F- family, fun, food, the farm (drove out there), fish egg salad
G- grandparents- Maas, Reynolds, & Nicodemus, gloves, Gabby, golf (on the computer), grandma and grandpa dates, Guadelahara
H- great aunt Helen, How to Train Your Dragon, hats from Aunt Susie, Hillsdale, Hawaiian Haystacks
I- ice cream
J- Jack, Jason, Jon, Jesus' birthday
K- Kendra, kitchen fun
L- Lander, Liverpool Rummy, Legos
M- Maases and Mitchells, monkey, museums- Messenger Museum (with guided tour by Grandpa Nic and his friend) and Wyoming State Museum, making memories, Miranda, moving cheese
N- navity set, Nicodemuses, (early) New Years party, nuts- almonds, pecans & walnuts, Natrona Ave
O- open house at Aunt Helen's, organ music
P- Powell, pressure cooker that was Glenn's great great grandma Powell's was given to us, picnic night, pictures
Q- quick trip (only 26.5 hours out!), quality time in the car
R- rest, road trip, Reynolds
S- Stephanie, Steve, surprise party for Gma and Gpa Maas's 35th anniversary, sleepover, soup night, swimming at the community pool, shrimp, Sebastian, Sue, spit up :), Sierra Trading Post, surplus store, Scotty's,
T- taking over the mall food court for taco Tuesday @ Taco Johns, Time Out Arcade, tickle spiders, Toy Story 3, tumbleweeds
U- uncles, Uncle Darwin's birthday party,
V- vacation from school and snow
W- Wyoming!, Wyoming Cowboys sweatshirts, White Fang, waterslide @ community pool
X- xtra time together, xtra hugs and kisses and cuddles
Y- yummy yams,
Z- zero sickness (for us Maases at least)
Wyoming trip ABCs
A- Aunts, Animal Game, apples, Amy (she's real), Albin Baptist Church
B- Brody, Bernie, Billie, buffalo, boots (painted ones around Cheyenne), Botanical Gardens, Bonnie, Bethany, Bible
C- celebrating Christmas in Cheyenne, cowboys, cowboy boots (Sonja's), the Capital, Culvers, camo pillow, canasta, cucumber sandwiches, Chex mix, candy, Children's Garden, cousins, Chinese food, Cabela's, clear roads for most of the trip out, Cheeky Monkey Dipping Sauce, cinnamon rolls
D- Doug, Doyle, Danny, Darwin, Debbie, dots from uncle Darwin, Despicable Me, dominoes, donuts, dressing up for the Christmas Eve service, dates - G&S went out shopping kid-less a couple of times
E- eating- we did a lot of that!, Ella, ear muffs, email
F- family, fun, food, the farm (drove out there), fish egg salad
G- grandparents- Maas, Reynolds, & Nicodemus, gloves, Gabby, golf (on the computer), grandma and grandpa dates, Guadelahara
H- great aunt Helen, How to Train Your Dragon, hats from Aunt Susie, Hillsdale, Hawaiian Haystacks
I- ice cream
J- Jack, Jason, Jon, Jesus' birthday
K- Kendra, kitchen fun
L- Lander, Liverpool Rummy, Legos
M- Maases and Mitchells, monkey, museums- Messenger Museum (with guided tour by Grandpa Nic and his friend) and Wyoming State Museum, making memories, Miranda, moving cheese
N- navity set, Nicodemuses, (early) New Years party, nuts- almonds, pecans & walnuts, Natrona Ave
O- open house at Aunt Helen's, organ music
P- Powell, pressure cooker that was Glenn's great great grandma Powell's was given to us, picnic night, pictures
Q- quick trip (only 26.5 hours out!), quality time in the car
R- rest, road trip, Reynolds
S- Stephanie, Steve, surprise party for Gma and Gpa Maas's 35th anniversary, sleepover, soup night, swimming at the community pool, shrimp, Sebastian, Sue, spit up :), Sierra Trading Post, surplus store, Scotty's,
T- taking over the mall food court for taco Tuesday @ Taco Johns, Time Out Arcade, tickle spiders, Toy Story 3, tumbleweeds
U- uncles, Uncle Darwin's birthday party,
V- vacation from school and snow
W- Wyoming!, Wyoming Cowboys sweatshirts, White Fang, waterslide @ community pool
X- xtra time together, xtra hugs and kisses and cuddles
Y- yummy yams,
Z- zero sickness (for us Maases at least)
Friday, February 11, 2011
Moving Beyond Survival
We are working on our 9th month in this apartment and I have been feeling the "it's time to move again itch" (since 8 months is our average stay anywhere) - but we don't have to right now. At this point our plan is to stay here, in this apartment, until RMED starts which is about April of 2012. That would mean 22 months in this apartment. That is really close to a record for us.
Moving every 8 months has caused me to live in survival mode most of the time. I spend 2 months thinking about packing, then 2 months trying to get settled, then 4 months living in a mostly unpacked state then start the cycle again. I would love to perfect the system so that it would only take about a week at either end and a whole lot more "real living" where ever we temporarily land. I have spent several years of the last 11.5 years of my life packing or unpacking and it is amazing how much stuff we still have! I have a friend who has moved every 6 months of the last couple of years because of her husband's job. She seems better at it than me but I think that she really did a pare down this time when she moved across the country because she unloaded a lot of stuff that she can't believe that she has held onto so long.
Anyway, since we aren't moving right now I decided that we should try to make this apartment someplace that we want to live. Really live. Not just survive until we move to the next place. We have had a few trials since moving here, mostly of the bug variety - bed and moths - but we have conquered both. We have figured out what to do with much of our stuff. There is a lot of storage in this apartment (probably too much!) and most everything has a home now. This last weekend we had our Coffee-Mate party and it was an opportunity to re-arrange our home and get it a little closer to how we want it to be (more clutter-free). I finally feel like our apartment is more like a home than a trash heap and it feels nice.
There has been a hunger in me for a long time to have that "life more abundant" that Christ talks about in John 10. I feel like I have wasted my life for the last several years running around trying to put out forest fires with a squirt gun. It is exhausting work and I often feel defeated and like I am suffocating. God has brought a few resources into my life that have been very helpful but there are some steps that I have to take. There is a quote that I loved from one of the books I am currently reading (One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp) that struck me this week. Ann quoted Jean Pierre de Caussade: "When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking, not by reading books which treat this condition." I have done a lot of reading and the reading has helped give me ideas and change my mind and I am starting to take action.
There have been two blogs that I have been reading pretty faithfully lately that I feel God is using to help me get to the place where I can live that abundant life. One is unclutterer.com. It is a great blog that has been helpful in trying to rout out my hording tendencies. I long to have a simpler life and know that clutter has often suffocated me and caused me not to want to get together with others because my home is full of it and hindered my relationship with my kids because I can't do stuff with them because I am always dealing with our stuff. I have put many of her suggestions into action. I have borrowed her book Unclutter Your Life in One Week from the library a couple of times but I haven't taken the time to actually do what she recommends. I am on the waiting list for it again and I hope to be at a place where I can actually "drink" while "reading about drinking" the next time I get it.
The other blog that has been impacting me is A Holy Experience. I subscribed to Ann's blog at the end of November because I was looking for a Jesse Tree devotional to do as a family during Advent and I had to subscribe to her blog to get the link to her free ebook. I figured I could unsubscribe later but after checking out a couple of her posts I was hooked. She has amazing photographs (I think that is what first drew me in) and she struggles with a lot of stuff that I struggle with as a follower of Christ, a wife and a mom (she also homeschools her 6 kids). It is nice to know that I am not alone in these struggles and in almost every post I am challenged in some aspect of my life. She has labeled this year "year of here." Around New Years K-love was challenging listeners to pick one word for the year and the Lord impressed on me the word present. I long to be actively present with my family in particular but also with others around me and I was struck with how much her year of here aligned with what I wanted for myself this year. I am also reading her book along with the Bloom book club and it has really challenged me to be thankful and look for things to be thankful for. She had been challenged by a friend to come up with 1000 things to be thankful for and it made a tremendous impact on her life and her list continues. So far I'm at 26 but I am noticing a difference already. She says: "This pen: this is nothing less than the driving of nails. Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habits of eucharisteo [thanksgiving]. I'm hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart. It starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it's been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent. Because that habit of discontent can only be driven out my hammering in one iron sharper." I am so thankful that God has brought this blog and this book into my life for such a time as this. God is conforming me, transforming me. It isn't comfortable and I am far from arriving but I am starting to move, not to a different location this time but away from merely surviving to a more God honoring, fulfilling life.
OK, I don't know if any of this blog has made any sense and it is incredibly long (that's what I get for not blogging for so long). I have many more things to say. I have a list of many more things I would like to blog about but it is late so I am going to go to bed. I'll close with lyrics of a favorite song that I can still hear my mom singing with her guitar:
He's still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
'Cause He's still workin' on me
There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part
But I'll be better just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands
In the mirror of His word
Reflections that I see
Makes me wonder why He never gave up on me
But He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the potter; I'm the clay
And I am so glad He is still working on me!!
Moving every 8 months has caused me to live in survival mode most of the time. I spend 2 months thinking about packing, then 2 months trying to get settled, then 4 months living in a mostly unpacked state then start the cycle again. I would love to perfect the system so that it would only take about a week at either end and a whole lot more "real living" where ever we temporarily land. I have spent several years of the last 11.5 years of my life packing or unpacking and it is amazing how much stuff we still have! I have a friend who has moved every 6 months of the last couple of years because of her husband's job. She seems better at it than me but I think that she really did a pare down this time when she moved across the country because she unloaded a lot of stuff that she can't believe that she has held onto so long.
Anyway, since we aren't moving right now I decided that we should try to make this apartment someplace that we want to live. Really live. Not just survive until we move to the next place. We have had a few trials since moving here, mostly of the bug variety - bed and moths - but we have conquered both. We have figured out what to do with much of our stuff. There is a lot of storage in this apartment (probably too much!) and most everything has a home now. This last weekend we had our Coffee-Mate party and it was an opportunity to re-arrange our home and get it a little closer to how we want it to be (more clutter-free). I finally feel like our apartment is more like a home than a trash heap and it feels nice.
There has been a hunger in me for a long time to have that "life more abundant" that Christ talks about in John 10. I feel like I have wasted my life for the last several years running around trying to put out forest fires with a squirt gun. It is exhausting work and I often feel defeated and like I am suffocating. God has brought a few resources into my life that have been very helpful but there are some steps that I have to take. There is a quote that I loved from one of the books I am currently reading (One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp) that struck me this week. Ann quoted Jean Pierre de Caussade: "When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking, not by reading books which treat this condition." I have done a lot of reading and the reading has helped give me ideas and change my mind and I am starting to take action.
There have been two blogs that I have been reading pretty faithfully lately that I feel God is using to help me get to the place where I can live that abundant life. One is unclutterer.com. It is a great blog that has been helpful in trying to rout out my hording tendencies. I long to have a simpler life and know that clutter has often suffocated me and caused me not to want to get together with others because my home is full of it and hindered my relationship with my kids because I can't do stuff with them because I am always dealing with our stuff. I have put many of her suggestions into action. I have borrowed her book Unclutter Your Life in One Week from the library a couple of times but I haven't taken the time to actually do what she recommends. I am on the waiting list for it again and I hope to be at a place where I can actually "drink" while "reading about drinking" the next time I get it.
The other blog that has been impacting me is A Holy Experience. I subscribed to Ann's blog at the end of November because I was looking for a Jesse Tree devotional to do as a family during Advent and I had to subscribe to her blog to get the link to her free ebook. I figured I could unsubscribe later but after checking out a couple of her posts I was hooked. She has amazing photographs (I think that is what first drew me in) and she struggles with a lot of stuff that I struggle with as a follower of Christ, a wife and a mom (she also homeschools her 6 kids). It is nice to know that I am not alone in these struggles and in almost every post I am challenged in some aspect of my life. She has labeled this year "year of here." Around New Years K-love was challenging listeners to pick one word for the year and the Lord impressed on me the word present. I long to be actively present with my family in particular but also with others around me and I was struck with how much her year of here aligned with what I wanted for myself this year. I am also reading her book along with the Bloom book club and it has really challenged me to be thankful and look for things to be thankful for. She had been challenged by a friend to come up with 1000 things to be thankful for and it made a tremendous impact on her life and her list continues. So far I'm at 26 but I am noticing a difference already. She says: "This pen: this is nothing less than the driving of nails. Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habits of eucharisteo [thanksgiving]. I'm hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart. It starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it's been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent. Because that habit of discontent can only be driven out my hammering in one iron sharper." I am so thankful that God has brought this blog and this book into my life for such a time as this. God is conforming me, transforming me. It isn't comfortable and I am far from arriving but I am starting to move, not to a different location this time but away from merely surviving to a more God honoring, fulfilling life.
OK, I don't know if any of this blog has made any sense and it is incredibly long (that's what I get for not blogging for so long). I have many more things to say. I have a list of many more things I would like to blog about but it is late so I am going to go to bed. I'll close with lyrics of a favorite song that I can still hear my mom singing with her guitar:
He's still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
'Cause He's still workin' on me
There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part
But I'll be better just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands
In the mirror of His word
Reflections that I see
Makes me wonder why He never gave up on me
But He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the potter; I'm the clay
And I am so glad He is still working on me!!
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Coffee Mate Party
Note: the pictures aren't the greatest because the camera was on the wrong setting :(
Sunday, January 16, 2011
French Bread
I made this bread over Christmas for a soup night at Glenn's grandparents' house and it was pretty popular. It is my favorite bread recipe to give people who have never made bread before because it is so easy and yummy. I got the recipe from Glenn's mom so I call it Mom's French Bread.
Mom's French Bread
Combine:
2 1/2 C boiling (or very hot) water
1/4C sugar
2t salt
2T margarine, shortening, etc
Let stand to lukewarm then add:
2T yeast
5-7 C flour (I've used up to 1/2 whole wheat flour. You can throw other fun flours in as well for part of it)
Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth (5-10 minutes). Place in a greased bowl and turn once and cover. Punch it every 10 minutes 2-5 times. Roll out into a rectangle and then roll it up. Cut slits along the top then cover and let it rise for another 30-45 minutes. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes and enjoy!
Below is a picture of a loaf I made for a party at our house yesterday.
At the party in Wyoming we enjoyed it with Cheeky Monkey Tomato Garlic Dipping Oil. Which is a super yummy Syracuse delicacy but it is just as good with any oil or butter or plain :)
Mom's French Bread
Combine:
2 1/2 C boiling (or very hot) water
1/4C sugar
2t salt
2T margarine, shortening, etc
Let stand to lukewarm then add:
2T yeast
5-7 C flour (I've used up to 1/2 whole wheat flour. You can throw other fun flours in as well for part of it)
Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth (5-10 minutes). Place in a greased bowl and turn once and cover. Punch it every 10 minutes 2-5 times. Roll out into a rectangle and then roll it up. Cut slits along the top then cover and let it rise for another 30-45 minutes. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes and enjoy!
Below is a picture of a loaf I made for a party at our house yesterday.
At the party in Wyoming we enjoyed it with Cheeky Monkey Tomato Garlic Dipping Oil. Which is a super yummy Syracuse delicacy but it is just as good with any oil or butter or plain :)
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