Kentucky or Bust!

In less than 48 hours, I will be on a church van with a bunch of wild Jr Highers and having a blast I’m sure! After a 5 year hiatus, I am returning to Kentucky for the annual Jr High mission trip. This is a great trip. I love to work with our students and help them prepare. My favorite part is working with the students who volunteer to teach the main lesson each day. These students do a great job being creative and bringing passion to their lesson. During the trip, I am always amazed at how our students step up and become leaders. They love on the children who attend the VBS and do a great job sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our theme this year is “John 3:16.” Each day focuses on part of this verse. We are going to have a lot of fun learning about a God who loves us and His son who sacrificed so much for us. If you think of it, say a little prayer for me. The hills and hollers don’t do much for my motion sickness and I will be missing my boys something fierce! More when I get back!

Feast

Just wanted to share about the new study my BSB (Bible Study Buddies) group is doing this summer . . .





Feast
This study is written by Kevin Leman and published by Lifeway. Feast is a 6 week study on several of the feasts mentioned in the Bible. There are 6 of us doing the study and we are each assigned a feast. On our week, we will be able to recreate certain elements of the feast. My feast is the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. I've studied ahead and here are a few of the things I have planned . . .

-I will ask each girl to either wear new clothes or wear a feshly laundered outfit to go along with the freshness associated with this feast.
-Each girl will be asked to select a Scripture verse or passage that has been meaningful in their life and share it with the group. It is believed that the 10 Commandments were also given to Moses during this time, so Scripture is studied all night long on Pentecost to remember the giving of the Law.
-The book of Ruth will also be incorporated into the feast. Ruth is associated with the Feast of Weeks because both take place during the wheat harvest.
-Decorations will include greenery and fresh cut flowers, candles and white table linens again reminding us of the harvest time.
-Fresh bread will be baked. The Jews were given specific instructions to offer two loaves of bread as a first-fruits offering to God.
-Dairy products such as cheesecake or cheese blintzes will be served to signify the spiritual milk of God's word and Israel's title of the land of milk and honey.

Our study begins this week with Passover. I bought some Jerusalem-baked matza bread for the big day. My friend Beth is hosting, but I was so excited to find the matza bread that I told her I would bring it for our meal. Shortly after I bought it, I sent her a text saying "Gatza the Matza!" My nerdiness shines again!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Grammy: Owen, today you are 4 1/2! It is your half birthday!

Owen: I just want to be 4.

Menu for the Week Update

Well, I made it through the week . . . kind of! I made 4 of the 5 meals this week. I was all set to make the final recipe when I realized I had thawed pork instead of chicken. Oops! We'll try it again another day. The recipes included:

Chicken Pesto Pasta-This was awesome! I substituted sun-dried tomato pesto for basil pesto and it turned out great! My mom and I ate some leftovers the next day. She thought it was excellent. Later in the week, a friend of mine stopped by for lunch. I offered her the end of the leftover pasta. Her comment, "I feel like I should pay you for eating this!" Score! I will definitely make this again! The real kicker . . . it was sooooo easy!

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin-This was yummy! Owen helped me get everything into the crock pot during Miles' morning nap. He even turned the crock pot on for me. Yep, that simple :-) About 30 minutes before dinner, I made some mashed potatoes and green beans. The pork was very well seasoned and tender. Miles kept saying, "More ticken pease." I didn't correct him, it was too cute!

Updside Down Pizza-Another winner! My mom and dad watch the boys while Brandon and I are at church on Wednesday nights. We have gotten into the routine of having dinner together. Typically, it is frozen pizza. This was a huge improvement! My favorite part is the crescent roll crust on top. Everyone enjoyed this recipe and I'm sure we'll make this again soon!

Tostados-Oh, you mean a Mexican pizza! I have eaten Mexican pizzas at Taco Bell for years. I had no idea those were tostados. I need to get out more! Anyway, Miles was the only one who wasn't a big fan. He did like the "big chip" and cheese. This was a nice simple meal. A nice alternative to tacos.

I had leftovers for lunch every day this week! As I said, I even feed leftovers to my guests. It was great! I also noticed that I didn't waste as much food. I only bought what I needed for the recipes and then I used it all. The most thrilling thing is that we ate at home every night this week. Wait, maybe even more thrilling than that is the recipes were so easy that Owen was able to help me each night :-)

After talking it over with Brandon, we decided to take the plunge. Every Friday I will receive a new menu and grocery list. In addition to this, I will have access to all the past menus. If you want to see the full recipes for any of the above dinners, check out menufortheweek.com and click on free week. If you want to try the entire week, the grocery list is provided as well! And if you're in the neighborhood, stop by, leftovers are in the fridge!

Menu for the Week

As much as I love to plan and organize, these skills have yet to carry over in my home! Lately, I have been making more of an effort to plan our meals for the week. Last night as I was trying to figure out what we would eat this week and what I would need at the grocery store, I had an idea. Maybe someone has already done the work for me. I turned to my old friend Google and she did not disappoint! (I'm guessing Google is of the female persuasion because like any true female she has a lot of words!) Anyway, I think I may have stumbled upon something wonderful!

The website is www.menufortheweek.com. This is not a free service, but the site does offer a free sample week. I've decided to give it a try. I just hit print and out popped 5 dinner recipes, 1 dessert recipe, 1 breakfast recipe and the real kicker . . . a complete shopping list for the week! The recipes are designed to be kid friendly and each week offers 2 chicken recipes, 2 beef recipes, and one pork or meatless recipe. In addition, there is typically one crock-pot recipe offered each week. If the week goes well, the cost is $25 for six months of weekly menus and shopping lists. I believe the sight said this also includes access to all their recipes. For me, this would be absolutely worth it! The biggest savings would come from us eating at home during the week instead of going out.

So far, the shopping went great this morning. The only thing I had trouble finding was sesame seeds and prepared basil pesto. With a little help, I was able to find everything on the list and was pleasantly surprised that my total bill was comparible to any other week. The recipes look yummy and easy!!! I am only planning to make the five dinners. The shopping lists for the dessert and breakfast were separate, so it was easy to shop for just the dinners. We will see. I'll try and report back at the end of the week.

Shoe Box Memories

When you fall in love, or even just in like, something happens. You become very aware of the other person's presence. A wave or smile becomes the highlight of your day. A note or gift turns into a treasured possession. When I was dating Brandon, I had a shoe box to collect all the odds and ends that reminded me of the words and moments that we shared. An uninformed party might mistake this collection for meaningless, valueless rubbish. To me, this box represents a vibrant, growing relationship that I want to remember from the very start.

I think I need to start another shoe box. As I grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ, I am finding His words and the moments we spend together to be more and more precious. Although many of the moments we share are intangible, He loves to throw in some tangible reminders of our relationship from time to time.



Tonight, I was sifting through a large dish of change to reward Owen for doing his chores. I pulled out a coin that was unique. I noticed Hebrew writing and the word Israel on the coin! Woo Hoo! Israel! That's where "my guy" is from! I was so excited! I ran to tell Brandon. Turns out the coin was his. He had found it while working the dime pitch game at Cedar Point many years ago. He noticed it was not a dime and had kept it all these years. It had somehow gotten mixed into the change dish for me to find. I love it! That coin would have meant very little to me even a few years ago. Today, it was a highlight! Thanks God for loving me. I will treasure this reminder of your love!

Miles' New Joke

Miles is already catching on that our family places a high value on humor. Both boys enjoy making us laugh. Here is Miles' new joke:

Miles: Knock, Knock

Me: Who's there?

Miles: Dog, ha ha ha

Yep, that's it! Makes me laugh everytime :-)