Our home

So the most exciting thing in our lives this summer was most definitely purchasing our first home!  Here is is:

Now with a house comes a relatively long to do list.  Here are just a few things on the list:

• A new deck (the current one is warped beyond belief)
• Paint the living room, hallway and dining room
• Paint the master bedroom
• Paint the kitchen
• Weed the garden
• Remove the ugly bushes we don't like
• Furnish the house and more specifically
• a living room chair
• master bedroom suite
• bedroom furniture for the 3rd bedroom

So we have a lot to do (and some of it has already been done, I'll post pictures as I have them).

Happy homemaking to us :)

The Prayer that Never Fails

Grandma Marnie and Me Last July :)

I never really thought that I would love the books my Grandma reads.  Not that she has bad taste, I just didn't think certain books would span the generational gap.  I was wrong.

A few weeks ago, not knowing what else to take from the church library, I started Jan Karon's "At Home in Mitford" series.  I'm five books in and loving it.  Thank you, Grandma, for making them familiar!

One of the things I love about Christian fiction is the way the characters can so encourage me in my walk.  The main character of the Mitford series often talks about "the prayer that never fails".  I may read a bit too quickly to pick up details, because it took me a good while to realize the prayer he refers to is "Thy will be done."

Wow!  I needed to hear that!  I have been praying for some really hard situations and my do-it-myself and let's-find-a-solution brain keeps trying to find the good in the situation.  My plans and intentions are nothing compared to what God can come up with- and he uses things for our good (good meaning to conform to Christ, see Romans 8:29).  I can see Mom and Mel laughing we me, as we over and over again say "or maybe...".  I need to hand all my maybe's over to God and simply trust and pray that HIS will would be done.

Who would've thought all that realization could come from fiction:)

Meal Plan for the Week

Joel grilling kabobs and trying to avoid the Camera :)

I've gotten into quite the routine on Sundays.  Church, home to meal plan and then hit the grocery store.  Here's what's in store for this week:

Monday:  Church Small Group, Kimberly is bringing dinner
Tuesday: Burgers on the grill and stovetop mac and cheese
Wednesday:  Youth Group at Church, we'll eat there
Thursday:  Lasagna Casserole and garlic bread
Friday:  Chicken Spaghetti (Mom and Melissa in town)
Saturday:  Graduation Party for Lexi!

Homemade Wheat Thins

Joel loves to have Wheat Thins with his lunches.  When they aren't on sale they are at least $3/box at our Kroger.  I can't handle that.  A few months ago I saw this recipe for homemade wheat thins and today I decided to try it out!  I've snacked on a few and think they're great.  Joel is out playing basketball with the boys so I'll have to patiently wait for his opinion.

WOL at Work

This past week I needed volunteers to help with a task at work- packing backpacks for our weekend snack program.  Look at this great group of volunteers I found!

Meal Plan

This week is already flying by, but here's what we have eaten/will eat:

Sunday:  Plan was for White Chicken Chili, went out to dinner instead
Monday:  White Chicken Chili for lunch, Spiced Pork with Rice for dinner
Tuesday:  Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Wednesday:  Taco night at church
Thursday: Chicken Fried Rice
Friday:  Lasagna
Saturday:  Chicken Parm.

Faith

This morning I had small group with Mel where we talked about having God's peace and filling up with him before interacting with others.  We're going through Beth Moore's Living Free and it is so good!

My devotional this morning was about active and passive faith- and having confidence that when we ask God hears and it is as good as done.  I'm not sure my faith is there yet, but I want it to be.  It's especially exciting to be learning so much about relying entirely on God as we are moving forward with exciting prospects.  Our showing from last Friday got rescheduled to sometime this week- not entirely sure yet when that will be but as I wait on the realtor I want to wait on the Lord's timing and grow!

An Exciting Time of Life

So this week has been absolutely wonderful so far.  On Monday Joel was off (he works Saturday) and I worked a half day (I had to work Sunday afternoon) so we were able to spend the afternoon relaxing together before going up to Staunton for dinner.

Our most exciting news is.... we're starting to look at houses.  I have been looking at houses online for as long as we've been married, but this exciting news means we've contacted a realtor and have talked to my employer about a loan.  REAL STEPS FORWARD.  It's still a bit intimidating to think this could happen for us, for real, in the near future but it's EXCITING too!  Please be praying that we'll be wise in this time of big decisions to make!!!

Valentine's Week Menu

Join the conversation about what's for dinner at orgjunkie.com

Joel and I haven't been out to eat since the day after the Youth Rally when I was scared that my fatigue combined with a knife would yield very bad results.  We're excited to go to Mill Street Grill in Staunton tonight and use our gift certificate to help cover our Valentine's night out.  Here's the menu for the rest of the week:

Monday:  Valentine's Day Out
Tuesday:  Italian sausage, marinara and bowtie pasta
Wednesday:  Dinner at church for WOL
Thursday:  Tilapia, Egg Noodles and Broccoli with cheese sauce
Friday:  White Chicken Chili in the crock pot
Saturday: Chicken Fried Rice
Sunday:  Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup for lunch, Taco Salad for dinner

Such a good saturday

Saturday was a wonderful day!  Joel woke up early and went to the laundromat, but woke me up in the process so I decided to start reading The Hunger Games.  I was quickly hooked!  I read until Joel got home and while he made the most delicious french toast.

I'm normally not a french toast fan but this was so good because there was a brown sugar and cinnamon sauce on top!

At noon I headed over to church to set up for a bridal shower.  Marlene, one of the WOL leaders, is brilliant and found this cute idea for cupcakes.   It was so much fun putting it all together!

The rest of the day was spent finishing The Hunger Games (there's a second book but I'm scared to get it from the library until I have lots of time to read in one sitting) and spending time with Joel.  Good day!

Crazy Kitty

This is how I'm met every time I come home from work:

You would think from the way that she whines and cries that she hasn't been fed for days, but then when  I try to pour food in her bowl she gets in the way.  Silly cat!

Sharing the CVS Love

Last night I went all the way to Mel's apartment (I just love having her as a next door neighbor now) and we discussed the joys of CVS.  I explained to her how I scan the weekly circulars for extra bucks deals and combine them with coupons to make good deals really great!  This week I saw quite a bit of payoff.  On Monday I bought a Physician's Formula under eye cover-up stick, two off brand nail polishes and a pack of gum for $.42 out of pocket (I used a $3 off Physician's Formula and a $3 off a $10 cosmetic purchase coupon, plus $5 in extra bucks).  The gum was one of this week's freebies so I received $.99 back in extra bucks, along with $1 extra buck for my 4th visit with my reusable bag tag.

Yesterday I went to CVS again and came away with 2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, 1 box of Rice Chex, and $4 extra care bucks back for only $.25 out of pocket.

Needless to say, Mel and I will be hitting the store up together in the future!!!

Potato Salad and... scones?

This morning I was boiling potatoes and eggs before work so that our BBQ Chicken for dinner tonight will be accompanied by cold potato salad.  Since I got myself in the mood to cook so early in the day, I decided to go all out.  I have a recipe that I've used before from Brown Eyed Baker for dark chocolate scones.  I didn't have dark chocolate chips, and I didn't really want to make 24 servings and use up all my heavy cream (I need that extra cup for the tortellini I'll be making later this week), so I halved the recipe and just used the chocolate chips I had in the cupboard.

A little brown on the bottom (what else could I expect from my oven?!) but still delicious, such a great start to the morning!

WOL Love

Last night we had Word of Life and the crowd of newbie leaders was in charge of the different activities.  Katie had the ice breaker and shocked some of the leaders by including 2 live mice in the activity.  The looks on the faces of our students, and the one loud scream, as they closed their eyes and guessed what was in the bag were priceless!

I was responsible for the announcements.  We had pretty much the same things going on as we have previously so I decided to mix things us with a game of jeopardy (Joel claims credit for the initial idea, but I put together each of the pieces).  We highlighted Teens Involved, our Rodeo Devo Challenge (any student who does their quite times consistently for 10 weeks straight gets a free trip to the local water park), and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting at the high school.

I added one additional category, our church trivia.  Items included our praise pastor's new wife's name and our pastor's daughter.  I think that a good time was had by all and I am blessed to be a part of this ministry!