Thaw

It's All How You Look at It

I want to thank all of you who have encouraged me this week. I am feeling much better now, maybe venting is good.



Things that don't usually bug me have been bugging me and things that normally bug me have not been bugging me and it occurred to me that nothing has changed.

Glass half empty/glass half full... It's the same glass the same level, but how I see it on any given day can change so drastically it is wild sometimes.



The Apostle Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to think upon the good things and to fix our eyes on Jesus. When I'm doing this, things all fit together, hope abounds, I am grateful.  But then I get lazy or distracted or grumbley or bored and the devil takes over.



This life of faith is wonderful at times but very very very hard. I am in Christ, but it is up to me to remain (and I don't mean in an I can be unsaved way, but in a focus way) in Him. I am becoming increasingly aware that I really don't know what that means, but it is real for sure. I find that the hardest part of it all is inside my head.



I don't need things to change, I need my mind to change. I need to change my mind. Turning to Him in prayer and deciding that without Him I can do nothing (again, not sure what it all means, but I know).



My perception of His being far off, abandon-y, unloving and unfair lately is all in my head. I'm not sure how that happens, it is all how I look at it I guess. I need to remember this since I'm sure the battle will continue at some point. But for now, I'll take the small victory.

Happy Colors

Flat

The Books of Joshua and Jasher

I'm reading through the Bible right now about a chapter a day and came across this today:

^12-13 The day God gave the Amorites up to Israel, Joshua spoke to God, with all Israel listening:

“Stop, Sun, over Gibeon;
Halt, Moon, over Aijalon Valley.”
And Sun stopped,
Moon stood stock still
Until he defeated his enemies.

^13-14 (You can find this written in the Book of Jashar.) The sun stopped in its tracks in mid sky; just sat there all day. There’s never been a day like that before or since—God took orders from a human voice! Truly, God fought for Israel. (from Joshua 10)

This kind of thing used to alarm me with great alarm as it would add concern to the closed canon-ness of things. It is like Jude referring to the Book of Enoch. Why isn't the book of Jasher in the canon? Are we supposed to go read it? Is is one of those useful but not inspired books like the Apocrypha? Anyone read it?

Almost Spring

Falling Away

Not Today Mr. Devil

Doubt and fear, fear and doubt.




I felt myself spiraling into what can only be considered a mild to moderate deep dark depression lately. Maybe it's just woman-y things or the winter that won't end over here.

I found myself praying for help- really praying for the first time in a while. You see, I've bit a bit irritated with God lately, for reasons I won't get into now, but He still is good.




It lifted and I felt His warmness again.





A friend of mine said once that instead of shutting the enemy out at first sight I am sitting down and having tea with him, discussing at great length all the accusations he has to tell the Father about me. She's right.




I'm forgetting to think upon the lovely things. The things that are good and lovely and wonderful.  Shine light in the darkness and it flees. The darkness cannot completely snuff out the light, but light chases the darkness away immediately.  I'm  forgetting being too lazy to pray, to remember His goodness to me, His promises. I've been jaded and surly and downright pouty about a lot of things.


It snuck up and I didn't even realize it.


FAITH! I had it, have it, will have it. Despair and hopelessness cannot take it away permanently. It may seem far off, but the Spirit never is, it's just what we are giving our attention to.




So here's to giving our attention to things that deserve it.


Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Waiting for Leaves

A Touch of Grey

Once a Week Beans 4

This week I pulled out the leftover baked beans from the freezer in hopes to spice them up to use in taco salad.

I put some of my secret chili ingredient in the beans.

The baked beans were defrosted, heated and SPICY.  But we (meaning the Mr. and I) like them that way. Most of the kids are still "ewwwwww beans".





The problem is they still tasted like baked beans to me (bleck): very spicy baked beans, but very sweet and baked beany nonetheless. The Mr. liked them on his salad but I think they ruined mine.




I still managed to eat it somehow ;) but it tasted like candied taco salad.



Bizarre.




I still have a little bit of them left in the freezer, so before I go cookin' up new ones, I will have to use those. Maybe a side for hubby on a leftovers night. Yes, I think so.

Buttons

Brown and Gray

Pirate Hats aren't Supposed to Look Ridiculous

"Captain Jack Sparrow doesn't have a pillow on his head, or a plastic sword or a dinosaur on his shirt!" exclaimed my seven year old to my five year old.






My younger was playing Pirates and was telling everyone over and over again that he was Captain Jack Sparrow you see and the older was getting weary of it.





By now I was looking up from my teaching a thirteen year old who is just certain that she won't ever need algebra in her life. The commotion got us both looking over at the happenings.




I see Mr. Cutie with the pillow on his head and it just cracked us up.




When I asked him what was with the pillow, he told us it was his pirate hat to which his older brother quipped:

"Pirate hats aren't supposed to look ridiculous."

I needed a good laugh!

Garbage

While I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking about what Paul said when he was talking about considering all things as garbage, rubbish, dung, compared to knowing Christ.


In context, what he meant was all his religion, scripture learning, and zeal for his brand of spirituality. And yes, much of his was God given commandments but they were now passing away.




Read Philippians chapter 3 for the whole story.






That's where I've been. It seems that the harder I tried to learn, the harder I became. No matter what brand of Christendom it is, religion is religion. It was love and the supremacy of knowing Him, even without learning all the details that has turned my heart around.






And I find that loving, really loving in the midst of life: the good, the bad, the trying, the wonderful, the depressing, the boring, the hopeless, the hopeful, the fearful, the doubt, the certainty....


Is much more challenging than religion. Religion I can do, easily.




This is the real deal. But I cannot fail. He has promised otherwise.

Blue and Green Light

Once A Week Beans 3

This week, I did baked beans. I took 8 "servings" of pintos and soaked them overnight.

I've only made baked beans from scratch once before and they weren't great then. This time I threw the beans after being soaked and rinsed and precooked for about an hour into the crock pot with:


Some catsup
BBQ sauce
Brown sugar
Yellow Mustard - just a little
A wee bit of leftover pancake syrup
Pepper
About a half of an onion finely chopped
A little water

All amounts are to "looks right" standards


I set the crock on low and it cooked for about 8 hours all told. I did need to add more water at times. They were cooked, tender, and tasted like baked beans. I don't really like baked beans so they were okay to me. The Mr. said they were good, but needed more juice, goo, whatever. I should have added water one more time. I personally could have done without the onion and I LOVE onions, but it just didn't do it for me in the beans.

The kids weren't really on board, though, so my eight servings were barely dented into. My wonderful hubby will help us finish them off in the next couple of days. If not, I'll freeze them and put them in the next batch of chili.





Today's photo

Hey Bulldog

My oldest son figured out the intro yesterday and was teaching his brother.

Picks

Linking up with Creative Challenge: Instrument

Hope

Castle Town

 



I was out with one of my sons on Saturday and when we drove past this church he said, "Look Mom, a castle!"



I said that it was a church building to which he replied that it was a castle church.



I found that he noticed so many more things that he doesn't usually. It was just him and me and he was able to sit in the front seat, which is usually reserved for the big kids. It was a very nice time.


I remember this church from my childhood as well. Once we stopped and ate a a Dairy Queen that used to be across the street. It was during a trip to the "big city".  Now I live just a few minutes from this site and drive by it all the time. It's weird how this big building made such an impression on me all those years ago and now is part of my regular scenery.


The nice old Dairy Queen building is gone. They tore it down and moved it a few feet south so that a big ol' Walgreen's could be right on the corner.


What are your favorite scenes from your corner of the world?

It's All Right

What is Grace?

I like the way it is said here.



What she says reminds me of a similar moment I had recently in which I understood the very same thing.



There is no condemnation for those of us who are IN Him. He loves us. If we can really get that, I think we could really start living.



In my experience, the fear of punishment, while an initial starting point to my walk, cannot hold up. It was a realization of  God's love that has changed me.


 How would your life change if you thought that no matter what you did or didn't do, God would not cast you out? What if we lived that way? Would we run out and sin like crazy? OR would this grace give us the freedom to love all the more? 

Fels Naptha, Ivory, and other Homemade Detergent Things

I found it interesting that one of my most trafficked posts is this one in which I discuss my concern at finding out that Ivory soap flakes may not be too good for a septic system.




I did the homemade laundry soap thing for a while and discussed it here  then how I quit here. 




I was trying my best to buy earth friendly, hippie stuff but let's face it: life is expensive. Out of a tight budget one weekend I went with this:

Cheap- cha-ching!

It is better than homemade or hippie stuff? No. It is worse? No. Can I tell the difference? No.

Is it cheaper? It is most certainly cheaper than Seventh Generation or my ultimate favorite Meyer's Clean Day. Can I make homemade cheaper? I don't really think so, but I haven't crunched the numbers in a long time.



So for what it's worth, I find that my experiment with non consumerism as far as the laundry goes (and I was using non consumerism in a very non literal way I suppose since I had to BUY all the ingredients for the homemade stuff) is over.



Happy Laundering:)!

Playing with the Zoom

A Pie with Real Food in It

In an attempt to be a little frugal-er, the Mr. has agreed to eat more chicken when it is on sale. He's really more of a beef guy, but he said to make it so.


SO


I am trying to do things with chicken that I know he will like. I made my first pot pie ever this week and I think it turned out pretty well. I used a pie crust recipe I found online using coconut oil, which is not exactly frugal, but I had it on hand. I filled it with chicken, potatoes, peas (yuk) and "goo" as the Mr. calls it, thickened chicken stock.

It was actually good. The crust was awesome and the fillings were tasty. Hubby requested more "goo"next time as it was a bit dry. The next night for the leftovers I made some extra chicken gravy and that made it better for him.


My son said it was like a pie with real food in it.  I like that.

March

To Everything There is a Season

Warm

Once a Week Beans 2

Homemade tortillas...totally worth it.

I hesitate to post each week on this. I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seat wondering what I did with my beans, but for accountability (to myself) reasons, I'll jot a quick note about it regularly.


At Susan's suggestion, we did have burritos this weekend, yum! I cooked up 1/2 pound of small red beans and we used them on Saturday for chef salads and on Sunday for burritos. There are still a few left and I will try to lunch them early this week or freeze them and save for the next batch of chili.




Start count:
15 and 3/4 pounds of beans
Used after 2 weeks: 1 pound

Only 14 3/4 pounds to go.

Break on Through

A major room overhaul in progress. Opening up a door that had been walled over. Ah the light!

Glow