The ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are at it again with a giveaway for a The Rocketfish Wireless Multimedia Bluetooth Keyboard and Laser Mouse. All you have to do is comment there and link back to a post about the contest on your site to enter. Go here to read all about it.
Recipe Round-Up: Soups and Stews
I just saw a post for a Recipe Round-Up at new-to-me Lux Venit via Everyday Mommy and decided to repost this recipe.
I love potato soups, and some day I am going to make a completely-from-scratch one. But in the meantime this quicker version does nicely. I found it in a Quick Cooking magazine (now called Simple and Delicious) (one of Taste of Home’s spinoffs). It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s good.
Corny Potato Chowder
4 bacon strips, diced
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 can (15 oz.) whole potatoes, drained and diced
2 cups milk
1 can (14 – 3/4 oz.) cream-style corn
1/2 tsp. garlic
1/8 tsp. pepperIn a large saucepan, cook the bacon and onion until bacon is almost crisp; drain. Add potatoes; saute for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the milk, corn, garlic salt, and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, until heated through. Yield: 4-6 servings.
I use the already-cooked-just-microwave bacon (we don’t use bacon very often, so that works well for us), then just mix all the other ingredients together and heat through. I don’t use that much onion either — more like a tablespoon of minced onion. And I use garlic powder rather than garlic salt and just add a few sprinkles of salt. I also buy the already diced canned potatoes. And I just use 1 cup milk.
Dental woes
I have to see the dentist in the morning. 😦 I have a filling that has been chipping out bit by bit. I saw the dentist last week and he said he didn’t think there was enough of the tooth left to do a root canal and crown, plus the x-ray showed what appeared to be a crack between the tooth and root. So he recommended extracting it and getting fitted for a bridge. That’s tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. I’d appreciate your prayers that it all goes well but especially that I won’t be anxious, because that then leads to other problems that cause more anxiety.
Update to add: I survived. 🙂 It’s not something I’d want to do often…or ever again…but the Lord greatly helped. Thinking through hymns like “Day By Day” and “I Could Not Do Without Thee” (there was one other one — may have been “All Your Anxieties” — but I couldn’t remember all the words at the time) helped during all the drilling. The anxiety wasn’t completely absent, but it was much less than it has been for more minor procedures. I’d been listening to parts of Jim Berg’s Quieting A Noisy Soul the last couple of mornings, one and a half of the three sessions dealing with anxiety. I was reminded that thoughts contribute to emotions, so I tried, by God’s grace, to nip the “What ifs” in the bud by reminding myself that God was in control.
I hope this doesn’t sound silly to apply all these spiritual lessons to a dental procedure. It’s hard to know how much to share and yet be discreet, but I know it helps me when people share struggles they have that I also experience, so let’s just say, to put it delicately, that for some reason over the last several years when I get nervous or anxious, my insides liquefy and I have a hard time getting out of the bathroom (this makes traveling a nightmare). Plus for this procedure I was supposed to take antibiotics which can intensify that kind of problem. Plus I have a heart rhythm problem called supraventricular tachycardia which usually requires a trip to the ER and an iv dose of adenosine (nasty stuff — fast-acting, but make you feel like you’ve been kicked in the chest) to resolve. It doesn’t happen often — less than once a year — but I’d really like to avoid it, and I never know what will set it off. Plus there are all the usual dental fears — what if the numbing medication doesn’t work when they get in there, etc. So — I had a lot of what ifs to quiet. But God did give grace.
I’m still pretty numbed up (which is kind of nice, actually. This thing has been very uncomfortable. That’s one thought that kept me going, that after today I’d never have any more trouble with that tooth!) I imagine it will hurt some after the numbness wears off.
I have a temporary bridge. They make a cap for the teeth on either side of the removed one and a “filler tooth” in the middle, so the bridge fits over the missing space plus the other two teeth. They took impressions and will have the finished one ready in a couple of weeks, after this heals.
Thanks to those who prayed! I really appreciate it!!
I remember
(Originally posted 9/11/06)
I used to volunteer at my sons’ school every Tuesday. On that particular Tuesday morning in September, a little after 9 a.m., I turned on the car radio to catch a bit of news on my way to the school. I was confused at first — I could tell something serious had happened, but couldn’t make out what. Finally the newscaster explained that an airplane had hit the World Trade Tower. I was stunned. Continue reading
Salvage
Thanks so much for your condolences (and snickers! 🙂 ) and helpful ideas for my cake failure yesterday. I’ll have to keep those in mind for the next time — though I think I should probably swear off making cakes since they are not my best thing. Continue reading
This is how my day has been going…..
Psalm Sunday: Psalm 44
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.
In the first section, verses 1-3, the Psalmist thinks back about God’s past deliverances of Israel and acknowledges that those deliverances were indeed of God and not through their own strength. In the second section, verses 4-8, he acknowledges that he is even now trusting in God for deliverance, not in his own weapons or prowess. But in verses 9-16 he confesses that not only are they not experiencing deliverance, they are scorned and held in derision. He confesses his confusion and shame. Whatever true cause of this break, in verses 17-22 the psalmist feels it is not because of sin on their part; they have maintained their faith in God and not turned aside. And in the concluding verses he cries out in anguish to God for help.
What I love about this Psalm is that probably every Christian has felt this way at some point in time — forsaken, forgotten by God. We know from other Scripture that God will not forsake us, and does not sleep, but it can sure feel that way when we are faced with the mystery of unanswered prayer.
Mary and Martha waited for several days for Christ to come and help Lazarus when he was sick, yet Jesus did not come until after Lazarus was dead and had been buried for days. The Israelites cried out to God for 400 years before He sent Moses to deliver them. Job was in anguish many days before God ministered to him and restored him. Sometimes God delays answering because of the exercise of faith that is needed. Sometimes, as in Mary and Martha’s case, He delays because there is a greater need and purpose involved than the one aspect they are concerned for. They wanted their brother restored to health: God wanted people to see His glory and see and trust in His power. Sometimes sin is the reason for unanswered prayer.
Whatever the reasons though, God wants us to grow in our faith and dependence on Him. We can encourage ourselves in His Word, in past history of His dealings in the lives of people in the Bible, in lives of people we know, and in our own lives. We acknowledge that we need His strength and deliverance, that our own can’t save us. We examine ourselves to make sure sin isn’t blocking God’s blessings. We cry out to Him in faith. And we wait for His perfect timing.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:25-26
To read more thoughts on this Psalm or share your own, please visit Erica our hostess for Psalms Sundays, at Butterfly Kisses.
Deep Joy
From the September 8 reading of Joy and Peace compiled by Mary Wilder Tileston:
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
–PSALMS 30:4
GLAD with Thy light, and glowing with Thy love,
So let me ever speak and think and move
As fits a soul new-touched with life from heaven;
That seeks but so to order all her course
As most to show the glory of that Source
By whom alone her strength, her life are given.
–C. J. P. SPITTA
OUR Christianity is apt to be of a very “dutiful” kind. We mean to do our duty, we attend church and go to our communions. But our hearts are full of the difficulties, the hardships, the obstacles which the situation presents, and we go on our way sadly, downhearted and despondent. We need to learn that true Christianity is inseparable from deep joy; and the secret of that joy lies in a continual looking away from all else–away from sin and its ways, and from the manifold hindrances to the good we would do–up to God, His love, His purpose, His will. In proportion as we do look up to Him we shall rejoice, and in proportion as we rejoice in the Lord will our religion have tone and power and attractiveness.
–CHARLES GORE
Book Review: Summer by Karen Kingsbury
Summer, by Karen Kingsbury, continues the story of the Baxter family begun something like ten books ago in the Redemption series (with Gary Smalley), continued through the Firstborn series, ending now with the Sunrise series. I believe there are two more books coming to finish out the Baxter saga.
Even with all of the past history, though, I think you could read any of the books or series and get much from them without having to start at the beginning. I think you’d get a lot more out of it by reading from the beginning, but you can get the gist of the pertinent background in each book enough to know what’s going on.
In this book, the storylines set up in the last book continue. Dayne, the A-list Hollywood actor, the oldest Baxter son who was just recently reunited with his birth family, married small town girl Katy Hart at the end of the last book. They are starring in a film together, but find it is not as idyllic as they thought it would be. Plus they agreed to let a reality show follow them around, thinking it would satisfy the public and keep the paparazzi at bay, but since these shows thrive on conflict, much is made of little incidents and innuendos are conjured up. So with all the other newlywed adjustments, Dayne and Katy have multiple other tensions to deal with.
Kari and Ashley are sisters who find out they are adding to their families at the same time, and to top it off, they are both expecting girls, and they dream of tea parties, first days of school, etc. But an ultrasound reveals a problem with one baby, resulting in stress and tension not only for both mothers, but for the whole Baxter family.
The Flannigan family has been intertwined with the Baxters in various ways, and daughter Bailey struggles with growing feelings for Cody, a troubled teen her parents took in to try to help who is now turning his life around, yet faces the tension of wondering how he feels, knowing she’s too young and her parents want them to just be friends, wondering if he is stable, knowing he is planning to go into the military, and probably Iraq, in a few short months.
Then there is tension brewing with the future of the Christian Kids Theater and patriarch John Baxter’s growing feelings for Elaine and his concerns about how his family might deal with his relationship.
Did you notice I used tension in every paragraph? This is probably one of the most tense novels I have read in a long time, but I believe it is one of Karen Kingsbury’s best. There are lighter moments throughout, of course. All of the storylines and characters and situations and struggles are very real and easily related to: even though most of us don’t know a Hollywood actor, we can empathize with the strain on Dayne’s marriage.
Though I don’t want to give away the outcome of any of it and spoil the story for those who haven’t read it, I have to say I really appreciated the way the pregnancy problems were handled, balancing praying and hoping for a miracle with preparing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for the worst.
Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Music
(Show and Tell folks, that post is below this one)
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We have photos of the boys at the piano for their recitals going back fifteen years to when Jeremy started when he was in third grade. Though it might be interesting to post a picture of each of them when they started and then at their senior recitals (for the older two) and last year for Jesse — it would probably look a little redundant and not be of interest to anyone but me. So I decided to use a different pictures. Jason, my middle son, is the only one who was interested in other musical instruments. He taught himself to play the penny whistle and ocarina and a little of the guitar. I do have a picture of him playing the ocarina, but it just looks like he has his mouth on a rock, so I won’t use that one. 🙂
This is a picture of only one of two times he payed the penny whistle in public.
The penny whistle is used in a lot of Irish music, which we love, and they are playing an Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision. The other couple was at our church for a missions conference and are now missionaries in Ireland. We knew the family of the young man when he was a little boy and we all went to the same church in another town, so that was a neat experience all the way around.
He also played at a senior concert, but that’s it. I had hoped he would go on and use these talents for the Lord, and he may yet some day. But for now he doesn’t like to “perform” in front of people. He just enjoys playing at home in his room, and we enjoy the sounds filtering through the walls. 🙂
Stray Thoughts 