Wecipe Wednesday

This weeks recipe isn't so much a recipe as an idea. It began with some recent bloodwork that indicated that while my overall cholesterol level is good, my LDL or bad cholesterol level is slightly above ideal. As a result I have been trying to incorporate more foods that combat and lower this level into my diet. This includes increasing my mono and polyunsaturated fats, fiber, and niacin intake. That endeavor led to the discovery of this little snack I am going to share with you.

Celery is a great source of niacin, and low in calories to boot, but not very flavorful. I found I could only eat so many stalks of peanut butter (high in mono fats) slathered celery. In an effort to change things up I mixed about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter with 2 tablespoons of Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla yogurt to use as a dip for the celery. It turned out great! It has a bit of zing to it, enabled me to eat more celery with less peanut butter (decreasing the calorie count) and yet still get the benefits of the mono fat. If you have every had a Pampered Chef taffy apple pizza, this tastes similiar to the peanut butter sauce. Anyway, this dip also tastes great with apples. Haven't tried it with anything else at this time so if you give this a try with something other than celery or apples please let me know how it turned out!

Love,

Ami mini Pumpkin

Have I mentioned that I love Fall? Here at home the temperature is finally dropping, and looking out my front window at the ridge that runs across the street I can see the leaves starting to turn. Autumn and Halloween decorations are making an appearance in the yards of my neighborhood. The children are having to pull out their jackets and hoodies, and I am at peace.

I finally sat down and was inspired to design a new project. I went back and forth on what to do with this one as I am especially pleased with the way it turned out. The directions were tested by some wonderful women at http://www.crochetville.org/ and received their seal of approval. I had planned to offer it as my first "for sale" pattern on Etsy. Then I wanted to offer it for free. I also wanted to submit it for publication consideration. After a lot of thought I submitted it for publication with a company that allows me to retain the right to do as I wish with it if it is accepted. At this time I am waiting for approval. It was accepted for publication!  If you are interested it will be featured in the 2011 Crochet Pattern a Day calendar on Sept. 14!

Unfortunately, 2011 is the last year they will publish the Crochet Pattern a Day calendar.  If you don't want to buy this awesome calendar full of some really great patterns just to get this pattern, you can buy this pattern using the link on my sidebar through Paypal and get the PDF instantly.

Love,

Five Freebies Friday

Where has this past week gone?!? It feels like Tuesday but the calendar reads Friday. Not a lot got accomplished this week. I wrote up a new pattern. It is currently being tested. I think I am going to submit this one to the Crochet Pattern a Day Calendar. Here is a sneak peak of the finished product-

I modeled it after some fabric pumpkins that I had made last year from fabric. Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE Fall?

Baby A had two more molars pop through this week. Poor girl always seems to teeth two at a time. She did pretty well with it this time. Although she is going through the homemade teething biscuits a lot faster now that she has more teeth and has learned to really bite them! Fortunately they are not nearly as messy as the store bought biscuits were. My father-in-law is still trying to talk me into letting her teeth on chicken bones...ewww!

Made my first ever batch of jelly. It is called Appalachian Jelly and it actually set! Was going to make a batch of kiwi jelly when a friend gave me a bunch of kiwi. Didn't realize I would need 4 1/2 cups of mashed kiwi to make it though. Oh well, H will be taking kiwi for snack and baby A and I like it also.

J is running for student council at school. I am really proud of him for that because just a few years ago he never would have thought about participating in something like that. He has really come a long way and is starting to grow up on me.

K has a new old boyfriend. They started dating recently, but they had dated last year also. Sometimes I am glad they aren't really serious relationships, and others I pray that she finds the man that God has set aside for her. I am just not really ready for my babies to grow up yet!

So that is the update, and here are this weeks freebies. They are kind of a mishmash of items with no real theme to it this week. Hope you find one you can use!

DentaBurst disposable one time use toothbrush - traveling? Leave the good toothbrush at home!

Not up for brushing? How about some free Flix? Use these to pick those annoying bits of leftovers from your teeth.

Burt's Bees natural acne treatment. I love their chapsticks, hopefully this will be great also!

Bandages from Nexcare you get two that say "give" which is supposed to encourage others to give blood. Go figure!

Neru Patch is supposed to provide comfort for foot and leg pain. It is one of those put it on your foot at night and it will draw out toxins type of things. I am to cheap to pay for one, but free I will try!

Love,

Place of Shelter

"I said, 'Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest-

I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;
Selah

I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.'"

Psalm 55:6-8

I always find it interesting that people who lived hundreds of years ago have the same problems that I do. For some reason I tend to think that life for them must have been somehow easier since they didn't have carpool duty, or a ton of extra curricular activities to shuffle kids to, or a telemarketer calling while the baby is screaming and dinner is burning on the stove. Here, however, we see the author (David?) lamenting that he wants an escape from life too. He seems to be looking around himself and seeing people staring at him (v3), friends turning on friends (v20), malice and abuse (v10) and so much more that hurts his heart. Not so different from the world today.

It is a comfort to me to know that even people who did great things for God felt overwhelmed, a need to hide. It makes me feel more secure in my own feelings. The lesson to be learned though is that although the desire to escape from it all was there, the author "call(s) to God, and the Lord saves (him)" (v16) and he puts his trust in God.(v23) Times do get hard, days do get stressful and may feel unmanageable. Tell God, trust that God has an ultimate plan and wants you to succeed in what you are doing for Him. It is okay to ask for peace, respite, shelter, just trust that God will give you what you truly need. Sometimes that means dealing with the unmanageable things.

Love,

Monday Musings

I was reading a devotional on Friday and while the devotional didn't really strike me, the verse did. I chose it for this weeks scripture card.

You see, sometimes we forget that every day is a choice between following God and turning away towards Satan. There is no in between. Now I am not a black and white person. My husband is and this is an easy concept for him. I on the other hand tend to see everything as shades of gray. Very rarely do I see life as absolutes. And that is where I falter.

I have begun to slack off in my relationship with God. My personal Bible study time keeps getting shifted farther and farther down my priority list. After all, I tell myself, God knows how busy my life is. He understands and know that I love Him. This is true. He does know how busy my life is, he does understand, and he does know that I love Him. So I slipped into the gray area and began to fall away from God. What happens if we move away from God? We move closer to that lion that is waiting to devour us. We can not grow spiritually without making God a priority.

We have to be alert to the excuses that we make in our lives that we use to justify not putting God first. It is a relationship. Let's be honest, how long would our marriages last if we woke up in the morning, glanced at our husband as we prepare breakfast for our children but don't take time to tell him good morning. Thought about our husband and we drop the children off and then head to work or to the gym or grocery shopping but don't take a moment to call or text him and let him know we love him. Then we see him come home from work and don't ask how his day was or tell him about ours because we are to busy helping with our children's homework and cooking dinner. When we finally tuck the kids in at night and all is quiet we turn on the television and sit beside our husband, but still don't talk to him. Then off to bed without so much as a good night kiss. We would be in couples counseling or divorce court if this continued for to long. If this were reversed and your husband was treating you this way, would you feel loved? appreciated? valued? important to him? I wouldn't. And yet this is often how we treat God, who provides everything and from whom love originated.

All Satan has to do is look for those of us who lack self-control, who let life get in the way of our most important relationship. So how about you? Are you being alert to what is causing you to let God slip down your priority list? Or are you being self-controlled and keeping that relationship where it should be? I am making the effort to see this as a black and white issue and be self-controled and alert so that I don't get devoured!

As always you can click this week's scripture card to download a better resolution image suitable for printing.

P.S. I also wanted to share an online Bible study with you that I will be participating in. It is a study of 1,2, and 3 John. If you sign up, you get an email every week with the portion to be read, and questions to ask yourself each day of the week concerning the selection. Often background information is included. I have done a few of these studies in the past and learned a lot from them. If you are interested you can visit Discipleship Lessons from John's Letters to sign up.

Love,

Five Freebies Friday

Well, as much as I love Fall (and I truly, truly do!) it also means allergy season, and mine have kicked in something awful! The stuffy and runny nose at the same time, sinus pressure, watery eyes, all of it. Allergies are a relatively new thing for me as I didn't have them when I was younger. Must be one of those things that come with age. This is one that I would be happy to do without. However, in the big scheme of things it could be MUCH worse I am sure.

So, this is going to be a sort post. I have to go hunt down some tissues and try to catch my nose as it is trying to run away from me but it is to stopped up to breath well so I am sure it won't get to far while I list this weeks 5 freebies!

I love cereal, and this week you get two free samples. The first is Honey Nut Cheerios and it comes with a $1 coupon as well! The second is Total Blueberry Pomegranate. This one is on it's way to me, but if you get it first, let me know what I am in for.

Okay so what do you do while eating two bowls of cereal in the morning after you get the kids off to school? How about sitting down with a free book by L. Ron Hubbard? This site is offering Ride 'em Cowboy for free to US residents and it is a hard copy too!

Or do you still have a little one at home and are praying for him or her to start to use the big girl/boy potty? If so, you can order this Huggies Potty Tips Potty Training Kit. Boy do I look forward to those days!

Finally, we all need our energy, and often don't eat right in order to stay energized. Emergen-C is offering a fizzy vitamin C drink for free, or you can visit Walmart's site and get an Emergen-C multi-vitamin fizzy drink. Who needs to eat right when you can just drink right!?

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Wecipe Wednesday -baked potato soup

I love Fall! The colors are vibrant and beautiful and the temperature is comfortable. It is almost like God paints the world in brilliant oil paints and then invites us out to see the masterpiece He has created. Ecclesiastes 3:11 begins "He has made everything beautiful in it's time." How true! and the changing of the season to Fall is definately my version of beautiful.

Fall also brings to mind the smell of soups and stews simmering on the stove. One of our favorite soups is one that I first tasted years ago in a restaurant and fell in love with. I searched for quite awhile to find a copy cat recipe that I could tweak. So, for this weeks recipe I offer up - Baked Potato Soup. This is NOT a diet friendly recipe, however we all need to splurge on occassion.

Baked Potato Soup
2/3 cup margarine
2/3 cup flour
7 cups milk
8 medium potatoes -baked, cooled, peeled, and cubed
4 chopped green onions
12 slices bacon cooked very crispy and then crumbled or 1 jar precooked 100% bacon bits
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot melt the butter. Stir in flour and heat and stir until smooth and bubbly. Gradually pour in milk while whisking to prevent lumps. Stir constantly until thickened. Add potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Stir until cheese is melted and serve.

We like to eat this with fresh, warm croissants. This makes approximately 8 servings.


Love,

Freebie Friday

Just wanted to share a few freebies with you. Baby A is being really grumbly today as two of her back teeth are coming in. In addition we are trying to break her of her Nuk (pacifier) which means no nuk unless she is in bed going night-night. Boy is this going to be a fun day. On the bright side though I am going to a women's conference this evening. It is called Fresh Grounded Faith and the speaker is Jennifer Rothschild. I don't know much about her other than she was blinded at a young age and has used her experience to testify as to God's power in our lives. I look forward to going!

On a different note, a good friend of mine and her family really need your prayers. Her father-in-law is currently in the hospital due to having several heart attacks. He was in cardiac shock and is currently hooked up to life support. In addition he has contracted an infection while in the hospital that is attacking his organs. Please pray for the family and for healing, or a peaceful passing if that is God's will.

Now on to this weeks five freebies

Free sample of Curel Itch Defence, and who wont need this with the dry skin of winter coming on!

Free Chocolate coupon! These go fast, go to the site and enter your info for a coupon by mail giving you a free candy bar. You can get one every Friday up to four times. This is the last one for me, will have to start having them sent to my sister or something.

This Wednesday, September 16th, Arby's restaurants are offering a free sidekicker with any sandwich purchase. They have been offering a free item every Wednesday all summer long and have extended it through September. Be sure to ask at the restaurant though, because some may not be participating.

Do your kids like to color, or like trains? You can get a free Toby the Train coloring book from Norfolk Southern Corporation mailed to you.

And the last freebie today is... a Slim Fast 100 calorie snack bar! They only offer the peanut butter crunch flavor so if you can't do nuts, this one is NOT for you.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and enjoys one or two of the freebies I posted. I am going to try to put baby A down for a nap and get some cleaning done!
Love,

I'm back!!

Just wanted to let those of you still hanging on that I received my laptop in the mail today! It is such an answered prayer. It has more memory than my old one did, is more compact, and is faster. I can't wait to start putting it to use. I should be up and blogging again sometime next week. I plan to gradually phase in the former weekly posts. It may take awhile for things to get back to what was normal or for me to find the new normal now that baby A is running around the house. She gets lonely with her siblings away at school now and knows I am a sucker for any excuse to get down and play with her!

So, thanks for hanging in there, and I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Love,

Will be back soon!

I know that it has been over a month since I have posted anything, and I apologize. I still don't have a replacement laptop and I spend the time while baby A is sleeping on the desktop editing the church website and such. I haven't really had anytime to work on any projects, including putting together the pattern for the baby halter top that I designed. Hopefully with 3 of the kids in school again I can start working on some creative outlets again.

The good news is that a new/used laptop is in the mail and on its way to me today! When it arrives I will have to spend some time removing old programs and installing new ones, but this means that I can once again work online in an area of the house that is baby friendly. Translation, I can be online a little more often and will hopefully be able to work on the blog again! So, if you are still around, keep hanging on and I will be back soon!

Love,