Ben and I have been up to all sorts of things since my last post!
Mainly, I've been working. This past week I babysat one of my families of three kids Monday through Thursday and then Saturday also.
The day would start around 7:30 and end around 5:15, and then I would go home, snuggle with my husband and crash around 9:30. During the day with the kids, I made them toast, I made them cereal, I made them PB & J (they really test my culinary skills) and try to figure out ways to turn the TV off (NO MORE DISNEY Channel! EVER!) and to get them to not fight (and maybe put some clothes on.)
The middle child decided that he wanted to be in charge of walking the dogs in for the summer, and he is supposed to do that before noon. Thus, my job is to walk one of the dogs with him, and we walk around the block (a little bit more than half a mile, I'd say). So I can usually get him dressed. The youngest, on the other hand will run around in his underwear and will only get dressed if he has to, and that usually doesn't happen, unless we go to the park. We did this on Friday (which was a nice break for me).
I've been reading books while I'm at their house and they are watching TV and require little attention (unless I hear screaming of crying). I've read through all the books that the mom owns by Dean Karnezes, an ultra marathon runner. I got back into Experiencing God, and also have continued my Bible reading, finishing Amos, Obadiah, and Galatians.
On Friday, I had off, so I made bierrocks, (and also bread) something Ben hadn't had before. He liked them, which was good because I figured we could have them the next day as part of our meal plan with the kids (who, again, requested PB & J).
We drove out to Canaan Valley Resort, where the mom and boyfriend were going to be running a 40 mile trail race the next day. ON the way, I was feeling pretty carsick, and Ben happened to scent the car with a fart, and I dry heaved a bit from the smell (this of course, made him lose it. He thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.) We got in, got acquainted with the area, and then were too tired to do anything but sleep. We were in a room that was connected to the room the kids were in, we got to hang out with one more kid that day, whose dad was also doing the run.
Once they were all awake, I gave them breakfast (notice I did not say "made". it was bagels), and saved Danny, the extra child, from eating chocolate cake for breakfast (it was the only food that was available to him. Oh dear). Then I convinced them that we were going to go swimming in the morning and in the afternoon. But they had to digest breakfast, so they played with water guns (and I convinced them to change into their swimwear.). Once all the boys were soaked to the skin, we decided to go to the pool. Gigi brough her sketchbook to the pool but then decided that she would swim with Rowie, who was the youngest and wasn't going to be able to swim in the deep end.
They brought the water guns to the pool. Enough said. I got bored and Ben and I needed to check out of the room we were in by noon, so I made them all get out and move out of the two attaching rooms by noon. Then I made them lunch (PB & J, anyone?) and they decided to play a version of the Hunger games with water guns. and guns guns guns! I got so sick of those freaking guns. After the second round of the Hunger Games, we went back to the pool and they swam while I watched to see when the parents would come through the finish line (which was by the pool.We waited, and waited, and 4 pm came and went, and then it was 5 and the dad of the extra child I had came through the finish line, and then the mom's boyfriend came through. I went to talk to him, even though he'd just finished the race and was clearly exhausted, and told him I was leaving, gave him all the keys that I had and told him where the kids were.
Then I walked back to the room, and removed my sunburnt, sick-of-bierrocks, chair-ridden husband from the porch, and we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant down the road from the resort we were in. And drove home. On the way home, we were joking about being pulled over for passing on a road with double yellow lines.
Ben's best one-liner: "I like to pass in those lanes because I like the challenge."
Mine: "The two double lines in the middle of the road represent the two lanes in the road, and they both go the same way, representin' how we're supposed to be drivin'. Side by side. I was trying to drive next to you, officer, and instead you pulled me over."
Yep. It was a long Saturday.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Tasty Scripture
This is often what happens in the morning: I read some wonderful passages in the Bible, and i can't put it down. Then all the goodness that I keep reading gets sloughed off because I have other things to do. But when I meditate on it, by writing about it, either in my journal or elsewhere, I come to great conclusions, get super excited about the things that God says through the Bible, and live life fully.
The past few weeks I've been enlightened with an overall theme of a righteous leader: how to be one, how to live like God wants us too, and how to serve others as leaders. This post is not about that, because I feel there is much more scripture that I haven't come across yet that I deeply desire to, that will continue building my thoughts and post (or sermon/book).
This is about 2 Corinthians, which is a quite delicious serving of Scripture. :)
We'll start at chapter four verse seven, although I could start at chapter one verse one and never finish this post before church. This is the passage that talks about Jars of Clay. Not the band. But the band's inspiration. Now I hadn't figured out what Paul meant when he wrote
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay yo show this all-surpassing power is from God and not us."
Now I have a new Bible since the last time I really thought about that, and there's a commentary. When I read what it said about jars of clay it totally clicked! Humans are made from clay, we are these jars of clay! But it's important to note that instead of gold, silver, cedar, topaz, or bronze, we are clay. This means that we break, we are fallible, as the commentary states.
We carry the treasure of God within us, but it's full proof it's God working through us at any time because we are wimpy jars of clay. We have no capability to be kind to others in the face of persecution, to bless our enemies when they hurl insults at us, or to endure harsh trials. Paul says it so well in the next verse (v8).
"We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
This is because we have Christ within us! We can persevere through any hard time because we have Christ within us! :)
This next verse I'll be talking about (v13) is great.
"It is written, 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.'"
Now I'm going to start there: we have this faith in Christ, and so we need to speak about it. It's not just something that we can believe with our whole hearts and not say a word about when we are surrounded by people that are going to "hard-press us from every side." Doesn't God want us to "consider it pure joy when we face hardships of any kind"?
"With the same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence." (13-14)
Faith means speaking. So if you don't speak, do you not have faith? Do you know why we are speaking? Because at our deaths we are going before God in judgement for the things that we did for the Kingdom. What will you be able to say? Did you speak?
"Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly,we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,but what is unseen is eternal." (v. 16-18)
Does what we look like, what this world looks like, what our homes, our careers, or how our facebooks look like matter? What really matters is our hearts. Where are we in our hearts? Are we pursuing Christ 100% all the time? Then is doesn't matter that your hair line is receding or you can't get rid of that last ten pounds. It doesn't matter that your lawn isn't perfect or you aren't popular enough. It doesn't matter if the audience you reach with your music is small (quality over quantity!). As long as you fix your eyes upon Christ, all that is supposed to happen in due time will happen. In due time. :) But nothing more.
Are you okay with nothing more? Are your wants overcoming letting Christ reign in all of your life?
I'm going to stop there, even though I read two more chapters after that that are chock full of spiritually whole grain goodies!
The past few weeks I've been enlightened with an overall theme of a righteous leader: how to be one, how to live like God wants us too, and how to serve others as leaders. This post is not about that, because I feel there is much more scripture that I haven't come across yet that I deeply desire to, that will continue building my thoughts and post (or sermon/book).
This is about 2 Corinthians, which is a quite delicious serving of Scripture. :)
We'll start at chapter four verse seven, although I could start at chapter one verse one and never finish this post before church. This is the passage that talks about Jars of Clay. Not the band. But the band's inspiration. Now I hadn't figured out what Paul meant when he wrote
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay yo show this all-surpassing power is from God and not us."
Now I have a new Bible since the last time I really thought about that, and there's a commentary. When I read what it said about jars of clay it totally clicked! Humans are made from clay, we are these jars of clay! But it's important to note that instead of gold, silver, cedar, topaz, or bronze, we are clay. This means that we break, we are fallible, as the commentary states.
We carry the treasure of God within us, but it's full proof it's God working through us at any time because we are wimpy jars of clay. We have no capability to be kind to others in the face of persecution, to bless our enemies when they hurl insults at us, or to endure harsh trials. Paul says it so well in the next verse (v8).
"We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
This is because we have Christ within us! We can persevere through any hard time because we have Christ within us! :)
This next verse I'll be talking about (v13) is great.
"It is written, 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.'"
Now I'm going to start there: we have this faith in Christ, and so we need to speak about it. It's not just something that we can believe with our whole hearts and not say a word about when we are surrounded by people that are going to "hard-press us from every side." Doesn't God want us to "consider it pure joy when we face hardships of any kind"?
"With the same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence." (13-14)
Faith means speaking. So if you don't speak, do you not have faith? Do you know why we are speaking? Because at our deaths we are going before God in judgement for the things that we did for the Kingdom. What will you be able to say? Did you speak?
"Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly,we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,but what is unseen is eternal." (v. 16-18)
Does what we look like, what this world looks like, what our homes, our careers, or how our facebooks look like matter? What really matters is our hearts. Where are we in our hearts? Are we pursuing Christ 100% all the time? Then is doesn't matter that your hair line is receding or you can't get rid of that last ten pounds. It doesn't matter that your lawn isn't perfect or you aren't popular enough. It doesn't matter if the audience you reach with your music is small (quality over quantity!). As long as you fix your eyes upon Christ, all that is supposed to happen in due time will happen. In due time. :) But nothing more.
Are you okay with nothing more? Are your wants overcoming letting Christ reign in all of your life?
I'm going to stop there, even though I read two more chapters after that that are chock full of spiritually whole grain goodies!
Monday, June 04, 2012
Cravings, Company, Avocados, Babysitting, and Bread-eating
So the past few days have been rather busy. We've had several people over to our apartment, have fed them and enjoyed their company! We had my grandparents over for chili on Saturday and then our good friends Daniel and Meg over for taco salad on Sunday for dinner. We had a great time, playing Uno and Rook, talking, and giggling. We ended with a prayer for our transitions and for a job for Ben.
I haven't been craving much of anything really, although earlier I had an inclining to cottage cheese and chocolate. But yesterday and the day before, I was craving oven fries. The day before, I decided it would take too long and settled for eating other things. . . several other things. So I decided yesterday that it wouldn't be too much of an issue to make the oven fries. So I sliced up a potato, coated a pan with olive oil, placed the slices on the pan with sea salt and black pepper, stuck it in our tiny toaster oven, set it to 400 degrees and 30 minutes and waited.
They came out nice and toasted, (I flipped once during the cooking time) and I enjoyed them with ketchup. Mmmmm! Totally worth it.
Ben and I have been enjoying a few avocados lately, and last night had guacamole with our taco salad. I decided to keep the pit and see if I could get it to take root and start growing, just for kicks, so I did that today. If you look at it, you will see I did not have any toothpicks on hand, so used paper clips and our (empty :( ) honey jar.
Today I started my second babysitting job. I'm working with two different families this summer, one on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the other on Tuesday and Thursday. I had a great time today! The kids built a hiding place with stuff animals, pillows, and blankets in the bottom bunk of a bed. We went to the library and signed them up for the Summer reading program, and got some books (and I got a library card!) I helped the oldest boy make a puppet out of an old washcloth (and retaught him to sew). I made them lunch (mac n cheese and fresh peas!). I played two square with the girl (for a little while, and then played two square with the younger boy. And soccer, and ultimate frisbee. And I taught him how to play Rummy. It was an eventful six hours.
I made bread yesterday (two loaves), and as it is, there is only one left. There are a couple reasons for this. Reason #1: Ben sliced inch thick slices for Daniel and Meg (and me and himself) last night for after our meal. Reason #2: Ben really likes the bread. Reason #3: I like the bread too, but take smaller slices. Reason #4: Ben thinks the bread is cake.
I haven't been craving much of anything really, although earlier I had an inclining to cottage cheese and chocolate. But yesterday and the day before, I was craving oven fries. The day before, I decided it would take too long and settled for eating other things. . . several other things. So I decided yesterday that it wouldn't be too much of an issue to make the oven fries. So I sliced up a potato, coated a pan with olive oil, placed the slices on the pan with sea salt and black pepper, stuck it in our tiny toaster oven, set it to 400 degrees and 30 minutes and waited.
 |
| In our beautiful bowl from Mexico. :) |
They came out nice and toasted, (I flipped once during the cooking time) and I enjoyed them with ketchup. Mmmmm! Totally worth it.
Ben and I have been enjoying a few avocados lately, and last night had guacamole with our taco salad. I decided to keep the pit and see if I could get it to take root and start growing, just for kicks, so I did that today. If you look at it, you will see I did not have any toothpicks on hand, so used paper clips and our (empty :( ) honey jar.
Today I started my second babysitting job. I'm working with two different families this summer, one on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the other on Tuesday and Thursday. I had a great time today! The kids built a hiding place with stuff animals, pillows, and blankets in the bottom bunk of a bed. We went to the library and signed them up for the Summer reading program, and got some books (and I got a library card!) I helped the oldest boy make a puppet out of an old washcloth (and retaught him to sew). I made them lunch (mac n cheese and fresh peas!). I played two square with the girl (for a little while, and then played two square with the younger boy. And soccer, and ultimate frisbee. And I taught him how to play Rummy. It was an eventful six hours.
 |
| Prior to rising in the pans, the beautiful bread. |
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Chili (modified recipe)
Something I'm good at is improvising. This happens often with recipes because the only grade I receive on them is flavor, and it might as well be the best flavor ever, so I change things to suite the recipe, plus my, and my husband's taste.
In this case, I was using the recipe my mom always made when I grew up for Chili.
I've always loved thicker chili, so I used less water, added more chili, and changed a couple other ingredients. Sorry there aren't any pictures. I was multitasking while making this chili, including having a friend over, breaking and cleaning up a glass jar, band-aiding a cut from the broken glass, and trying not to forget any ingredients.
Grace's Modified Chili
First, I sauteed, in olive oil, the following veggies until they were softened a bit. Didn't want any crunchy celery disrupting the digestion of this chili!
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (i'll do more next time, probably 2 or 3) (minced)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 stalk celery (chopped finely)
Then I added:
More than a pound of chicken (we roasted it on Sunday, and it was a chunker of a bird. We hadn't finished it yet and so we put it in the soup.)
Then I poured in
prepared black beans (these were made in the crock pot, about 2 cups)
1 can pork n beans
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes
From there, I added
2 Tblsp chili powder
Salt and pepper
And then I let it simmer for an hour, let the flavors blend (not on heat) for an hour, and then served the chili to my grandparents who were coming for dinner. :) It was delicious. We ate it with Greek yogurt and sharp cheddar cheese as toppings.
Yum. Yum. Yum. There were barely any leftovers.
In this case, I was using the recipe my mom always made when I grew up for Chili.
I've always loved thicker chili, so I used less water, added more chili, and changed a couple other ingredients. Sorry there aren't any pictures. I was multitasking while making this chili, including having a friend over, breaking and cleaning up a glass jar, band-aiding a cut from the broken glass, and trying not to forget any ingredients.
Grace's Modified Chili
First, I sauteed, in olive oil, the following veggies until they were softened a bit. Didn't want any crunchy celery disrupting the digestion of this chili!
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (i'll do more next time, probably 2 or 3) (minced)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 stalk celery (chopped finely)
Then I added:
More than a pound of chicken (we roasted it on Sunday, and it was a chunker of a bird. We hadn't finished it yet and so we put it in the soup.)
Then I poured in
prepared black beans (these were made in the crock pot, about 2 cups)
1 can pork n beans
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes
From there, I added
2 Tblsp chili powder
Salt and pepper
And then I let it simmer for an hour, let the flavors blend (not on heat) for an hour, and then served the chili to my grandparents who were coming for dinner. :) It was delicious. We ate it with Greek yogurt and sharp cheddar cheese as toppings.
Yum. Yum. Yum. There were barely any leftovers.
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