1st & 15th Scripture Memory

Deuteronomy 32:4 (NIV)

"He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."


You can find out more about the 1st and 15th Scripture Memory Team here.
You can see the rest of the scriptures I’m memorizing this year here.

Foodie Friday - The Apprentice

So do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted a kitchen wish list of sorts? Click here to see it.

On that list I included several books because I can get a little geeky when it comes to food. I research, seek different opinions, try different recipes and techniques. I'm always tweaking my recipes and changing things just a little here and there until it's just right.

The truth is that I also kind of set my mind to something and I want to know how to be the best I can be at doing it. That's how it's been in my quest to bake bread. And while I'm "getting there," I haven't yet "arrived."

So one of the books I included on my list was The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. It was suggested to me by Brian Geiger (aka @thefoodgeek) when I began to ask questions on Twitter about baking sourdough bread a couple of months ago.

(He even answered me in one of his columns. Click here to see Brian's post about my sourdough woes. It includes a video of Peter Reinhart that is very good and worth the time.)

So then last week I began to hear on Twitter about a group of people that were getting together and accepting a challenge to bake all the breads in this book. Naturally, I dropped an oh-so-unsubtle hint to my man that I would really LOVE to be be able to participate in this challenge, but that I would need said book to be able to do it, so if he and the kids were going to get me a present for Mother's Day, it might be a good idea.

He listened.

Did you get that?

He L-I-S-T-E-N-E-D!



So I am here to tell you that I am a Bread Baker's Apprentice. And over the course of what might turn out to be a year or so, I will be baking my way through this book with a group of bakers that was started by Nicole at Pinch My Salt. You can read about how the challenge began by clicking here. And I'll be posting my progress here on the blog every once in a while complete with pictures and frustrations I'm sure.

Why on earth am I doing this, you ask?

To give me a discipline. To make me practice and become better. To allow myself the platform to try new and different things. To practice, practice, practice.

Because that's what an apprentice does.

I'm here...

Hi there.

This has been a bit of an odd week with a headache that started Tuesday evening in the middle of exercise class and has continued on through most of the week.

I hope to be able to sit down with my computer long enough to get a Foodie Friday post done later today because I've got some exciting food news to share with you.

Until then...

A little about me... apparently...

I mentioned yesterday that my little man's teacher did a "Let Me Tell You About My Mommy...." page with him for Mother's Day this year. Well, by some strange aligning of the stars, or luck, or by the grace of Almighty God (and some great planning and storage on my part), I found a similar sheet that my princess did with her teachers at the same age.

So, without further ado... here's some insight into me through the eyes of two very different three year olds.


My favorite thing to do with my Mommy is...

Princess: ... eat.
Little Man: ... go to dinner.

(hmmm... I'm noticing a theme here...)


I love my Mommy's...

Princess: ... kisses.
Little Man: ... smile.


My Mommy makes the best...

Princess: ... cookies.
Little Man: ... bread.

(This question was not on his sheet, but I just asked him and that's what he said, "bread.")


The next two questions were not on Sarah's sheet and it doesn't make much sense to ask her now... because it wouldn't be nearly as funny.


The thing that makes my Mommy very happy is...

Little Man: ... when I smile.

(I heard that one of the kids in the class completed this sentence with "wine.")


My Mommy's favorite food is...

Little Man: ... macaroni and cheese mixed up with hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches.

(Hmmm... methinks he is projecting some of his preferences on me. However, I did tweet this a while back with the caption, "My kids think I'm a culinary genius"...)


My Mommy always says...

Princess: ... I love you.
Little Man: ... always go potty.

(*giggle*... yeah, I guess I do say that a lot.)


I love my Mommy because...

Princess: ... she gives me cookies.
Little Man: ... I love her heart.

Mama Braggin' Monday - The Mother's Day Edition

Mondays are the day of the week that I shamelessly brag on my kids here on the blog. So, join me if you like. I'd love to see what awesome things your kids are up to.

To see my original post about Mama Braggin' Monday, go here

~~~

My kids are about the sweetest things in the world. Really. I know I'm biased, but here's the evidence:

Last Tuesday, as Mike was leaving to take the princess to school I was waving good-bye from the front porch. As they were driving away, she yelled out her window, "Mom, you look beautiful."

*Awww!*

Then, that evening as I was tucking my little man in to bed and singing him a song (or 5) he touched my hair and said, "Mom, I really like you. I like your hair. And I like your eyes. And I love your smile."

*Gush!*

And then, on the "Let Me Tell You About My Mommy" sheet that my little man's teacher did with him for Mother's Day, the last sentence he had to complete was "I love my Mommy because..." His answer was, "I love her heart."

*Snif, snif.*

(As a note of clarification, most of the other answers were pretty hilarious and will be shared probably tomorrow.)

I would have sworn that my man had paid them off to butter me up for Mother's Day. He, however, swears that he did not.

Which I now believe, because this morning (I'm writing this on Sunday night) they were still very sweet. They brought me breakfast in bed and Nathan was carrying a gift bag and said, "MOM! We have a present for you!" as he proceeded to set it down and pull out all the tissue paper.

They also made me a card. Sarah wrote it and it said, "Dear Mom, You are the best mom. I like your kisses and hugs. xoxo. I love you Mommy. Do I get a kiss? I'll give you a kiss. Love, Sarah."

*Melt!*

So, my kids are sweet. It's a fact.

I hope your Mother's Day was as good as mine was.

~~~

So here's your chance. Brag away, friends. Our kids need to be bragged on every once in a while. Try to mention Mama Braggin' Mondays on your blog if you get a chance to spread the word.

If you need help in what to do with this Mr. Linky thing, then please click here.

Foodie Friday - It's Pizza Friday (Lamb Pita Pizza)

I shared with you on Wednesday that we have instituted some designated meal nights around our house to try to help us to not eat out as much. One of those nights is now Pizza Friday.

There are so many things you can do with pizza. And using small crusts, it's like eating at a restaurant because everyone can make their own and choose exactly what they want on their pizza. It's a great way to get the kids involved in the kitchen as well.

My most recent fun pizza creation was a Lamb Pita Pizza. We always have lamb left over from our Roast Leg of Lamb at Easter and we usually try to have pitas after the fact. We had done that already and still had more lamb leftover. So, I decided to recreate my lamb pitas in the form of a pizza and it was incredible.

I've done a couple of different variations on this depending on what I have available in the house, so I'll give you a list of all the ingredients that I have use at one time or another (not necessarily all at once).

Sourdough Pizza Crust
Roast leg of lamb (sliced very thin)
Roasted red pepper sauce (left over from making this; used instead of a tomato sauce)
Tomatoes (either canned chunks drained well or sliced fresh)
Red onion (sliced very thin)
Chopped bell pepper
Fresh Oregano (sliced)
Fresh Basil (sliced)
Feta cheese (crumbled on top)


Before baking:

After baking:




You'll notice that the Feta cheese does not melt and become smooth the way a mozarella does.

This is a really good alternative to the regular sausage and pepperoni pizza and a great way to use up leftover lamb.

What is your favorite pizza? Will you try a pizza night soon? I challenge you to look and see what you've got in your fridge. Is there something you can use to create something different than what you normally eat?

WFMW: The Frugal Tip Edition - Meal Planning/Designated Nights

During these, let's call them "interesting," economic times, many of us are finding it necessary to become a little more frugal in our living. In other words... where did all the money go?

Our family is feeling this pinch in a very real way right now, so believe me, I've been looking for ways to cut our budget drastically. One place I knew I needed to cut and be more careful was in our grocery budget. Another was our eating out habit.

I'll be honest. There are a lot of busy evenings that between working all day and with regular evening activities we don't have a lot of time at home for dinner. Most nights like this, we'd grab something out.

NO MORE! the budget says.

I have begun to take a cue from many of my frugal online friends and somewhat plan out meals for the week. But there were still those annoying nights when I don't get home until 5:30 and nights that we have just become accustomed to eating out.

Then a couple of weeks ago we instituted some weekly meals that we don't have to really think about. We designated certain meals to the same nights every week. They're fun and easy for nights that we really don't want to think or cook a whole lot.

So, any time you come by our house on a Tuesday evening, we'll be having Taco Tuesday.... and on any given Friday evening, it's Pizza Friday.

(The great thing about Pizza Friday is that I am using my sourdough starter to make the crusts ahead of time, freezing them, and we can pull out a few at a time... SUPER FRUGAL!)

It has really worked well for us the last few weeks. In fact, I noticed on Sunday that we had not eaten out all week long. That is a MAJOR step for us.

What frugal tips can you share with me?

Visit Kristen at We are THAT family for more frugal tips on this Works for me Wednesday. You might even want to share your own.

The Perils of a Safe Nesting Place

I shared with you about a month ago that we had some birds who had built their nest in our garage. Click here to see that post.

Two weeks ago on Sunday, Mike noticed that there were, in fact, 2 baby birds in the nest. We are not sure when they hatched and, in fact, we were a little surprised because we hadn’t heard any of the noises we would have expected from baby birds. They were surprisingly quiet.

Being the curious sort that we are, we continued to check on them periodically over the next couple of days and got concerned when it didn’t seem that they were moving and we hadn’t seen either parent in a while. We were afraid that they hadn’t made it and / or that the parents had abandoned the nest.

Then, after a day or so, Mike told me that they had moved since the last time he had checked. And then we did begin noticing parent birds around and about. We began to have hope for them again.

Then he heard the sweetest thing. Mama or Daddy bird came in with an insect to feed them. Once they were at the nest and the babies were aware that there was food to be had, Mike said that he heard the faintest little peeping coming from the nest. Not long after that, I took this picture with my phone.



My research told me that they were Carolina Wrens (research being a loose term for my father-in-law). Once I figured out what kind of birds they were, I began doing some real internet style research on the chicks and knew that they would fledge from the nest at about 12 – 14 days old.

But, we did not know when they had hatched, so we had no idea when they would be ready to leave the nest. So we were surprised to come home from a day trip on the following Saturday evening to two baby birds out of the nest. The problem was that one had fallen into the feed tube of our chipper/shredder (that little small tube towards the bottom there).



We’re such softies that we couldn’t possibly leave him there. So, we set about formulating a plan for his safe release and eventually came to the conclusion that the chipper would have to come apart.

And Chip (as we eventually named him) was freed.

Until the next day when we found him stuck in the recycling bin.



Obviously Chip was having a bit of difficulty getting going with the whole flying thing.

The other one, which we named Carolina, was actually flying quite well and was not getting stuck anywhere. But poor Chip. He just wasn’t ready yet.

I thought about how I had praised these bird parents on their selection of nesting places. How it was so nice and out of the elements. Warm at night. In the shade and not too hot during the day. Out of the wind and rain of the spring thunder bumpers that come through.

Who would have thought of how dangerous a garage could be for young birds trying to learn how to fly.

Then I thought of how our lives are just like this. We look for that safe place. It’s comfortable and stable. Not too much wind and safe from the storms.

Then, for what ever reason, you are out of the nest. And that safe place becomes very perilous with obstacles to overcome that you never would have foreseen. Some of them could be even quite dangerous.

I have personally felt like this recently. We had a safe place. A job with a steady income. It wasn’t ideal, but it was safe. However, we are now out of the nest and navigating a whole new world of obstacles and challenges that we never had imagined. And sometimes, I feel like poor little Chip, unable to fly very well and getting stuck at every turn.

The great part of this story is that we witnessed over the next day or so as the parent birds encouraged poor little Chip and continued to bring him food to allow him develop his flying abilities. And then, I so fortunate to have opened the door to the garage and the most opportune moment and watched as this little chick hopped to the opening of the garage with one of his parents outside calling to him and urging him on. Then, all of the sudden, that little bird took flight and left the nesting place of our garage.

We haven’t seen him since.



As I think of those little birds and them being out in the big world with dangers that I can't even imagine, I realize that even with the perils of the garage, it was in fact a safe place despite the dangers and obstacles that I perceived because it was where their parents wanted them.

Just like those birds, I believe we are in a safe place also as long as we are where our Heavenly Father wants us. And even if we can't fly very well, He'll keep encouraging us and feeding us until we get our wings. There will be obstacles and challenges, but He has us in the palm of His hand. And it doesn’t get any safer than that.

*5/10/09 Edited to add:
I have included this post on the Real Life Blog's carnival "Your Life, Your Blog." Come and join and share your life at Real Life.

Mama Braggin Monday - Of Pigs and Mud

Mondays are the day of the week that I shamelessly brag on my kids here on the blog. So, join me if you like. I'd love to see what awesome things your kids are up to. To see my original post about Mama Braggin' Monday, go here.


The last couple of weeks I have been bragging on my daughter. Today is about my little man.

During Spring Break, we took one day and went to our local potter shop and I let the kids each pick out a piece of pottery to paint. This is one of Sarah's favorite things to do and up until now Nathan hadn't really been old enough for me to feel comfortable with his ability to do such a thing. But Sarah was dying to take him and show him what it was all about.

So we loaded up the car and went.

I have to admit that I was very impressed with my boy and how well he was doing. He has some excellent fine motor skills for a 3 year old I think. Just take a look at my little lefty painting the pig he picked out...

But it wasn't too long before the 3-est part of him set in and the pig was losing his attention. There were way to many cars and Legos over in the corner of the shop for poor little Wilbur to have a chance.

So, I helped him by putting another coat or two of pink on the pig. Then I went and picked out a nice dark brown so that I could color in some eyes, nostrils and details; having decided against black so that there wouldn't be as much of a stark contrast with the light pink.

Yeah, I think way too deeply about the color contrast of a pig figurine that my son is painting. I know. It's a sickness.

However, Nathan came back over to the table at one point and noticed a new color and had a new-found interest in his masterpiece. I conceeded that he could paint with the brown and suggested that he paint the hooves or maybe a little spot of brown on the pig's back or something.

The next thing I know, I look over and my heart nearly stopped.





Oh NO! I thought. How will I EVER fix THAT?

Then we decided that his Wilbur pig had just been for a roll in the mud. Nathan seemed perfectly content with that and fully embraced it. Eventually, my perfectionist control freak side did also.

And I tell ya. That pig turned out SO much cuter than anything I would have ever done.





Let go, Mom. And let the kid just do what he does best.

Let him be 3 and let him be a kid.

~~~

So here's your chance. Brag away, friends. Our kids need to be bragged on every once in a while. Try to mention Mama Braggin' Mondays on your blog if you get a chance to spread the word.

If you need help in what to do with this Mr. Linky thing, then please click here.

Where I am (Part 3) - Provision

I was supposed to finish telling y’all about our situation last week. But I was in a bit of a bloggy funk or something. I was falling asleep early at night and not motivated to write much of anything. I had begun this post a couple of times and in a couple of different ways, but it just wasn’t coming together for me.

So here I am; it’s Saturday morning, Mike and Sarah have gone rock climbing, Nathan is still in bed, and I’m alone with my computer. Now all I need is a cup of coffee… hang on a second.

{Walking to coffee pot… coming back with a warm cup… ahhhh}

If you need to be reminded, or maybe you just don’t know what’s been going on for us over the last month, you may want to go back and read this and this.

Now… moving on.

To make what could potentially be a long (and very boring) story short, I will summarize by saying that Mike basically had a job possibility in the works before he ever had his last day at his old job. We weren’t absolutely sure at the time that it was what we were going to do, but we knew it was there and we were leaning in that direction.

But even taking on this opportunity has been a step of faith for us. It required some focused time of seeking and discerning God’s will and direction. And after doing that, Mike felt like God was saying, “Get to work.”

So, here’s the deal. He will be working on a contract basis from home for a small company that is in another city a few hours away. The challenge we will face with this job is very simply from the aspect of our cash flow. It will be an unsteady pay check with no set amount. We will get paid a percentage of fees when the client pays the fee.

The interesting thing is that this is exactly what we have been wanting and dreaming for Mike over the last year or so. A job where he could work from home would afford him flexibility to devote extra time to family and some other interests he would like to pursue as well. We felt strongly enough about this that when we had a planning time in January, we looked very closely at our finances and set out a tentative 5 year plan to put us in position for this exact type of change to happen.

Hey GOD! You’re 5 years EARLY on this one!

No. In His infinite wisdom and sovereignty, we do recognize that He is right on time, even though we might not understand His timing.

God is good! And His provision is perfect.

But, what it boils down to is that we will have to completely change the way we approach our finances. We will have to be more disciplined. We will have to set a budget and actually stick to it. I will have to actually watch what I spend at the grocery store. We will have to eat out less.

So that’s where we are. He has a “job” that he has kind of “started.” It’s just hard to fully recognize that when he’s not getting up and going to an office. And there are still so many details to be ironed out between him and this company as far as his contract goes. And we have no idea when we will get a pay check. And I am having to share a computer with him which is about to drive me insane.

But I cannot deny that the Lord is SO graciously and abundantly providing for us that it just about makes me speechless.

Just about.