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Monday, April 30, 2012

Sunday Morning Pancake - Pannekoeken

Take a guess what I'm making with the following:
4 T. butter
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Sprinkle of nutmeg
Cast iron pan
I have to admit, the combination of ingredients
don't look like much.  But these simple
staples make a baked pancake, like
a Pannekoeken.

Put the 4 T. butter in the cast iron pan.
Place the pan in the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees.
You want the butter to melt but not turn brown so
keep on eye on it.
 Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk just slightly.
 Add 1/2 cup milk to the eggs.
 Sprinkle nutmeg over the liquid mixture.
 Pour the liquid mixture over the flour
and whisk together.  There may be
lumps but that is okay. 
Remove the hot pan (and melted butter) from the oven.

 Pour mixture into the pan. 
Paula Dean would love all that butter!
 Bake for 15 minutes.
We enjoy ours with maple syrup.
Kidlet Two made this in the restaurant the other day
and sliced apples on the top.
Enjoy this amazingly simple dish!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Do you know him?

I'm just back from a women's conference, Devoted Hearts, in My City.  It was one of those conferences you leave feeling like you've had a big glass of refreshing, cold water.   My soul was filled and encouraged and I loved worshiping with a thousand women.

Plus, I got to attend with two special women.  They happen to be sisters and since I don't have a sister, they agreed to adopt me!!!

One of the speakers we heard started most of her sessions with a video.  This video was played last night and I felt like leaping from my chair and screaming at the top of my lungs as it played.  I felt like a crazed fan at an exciting sports event but the excitement in this video was over the Truth of My Lord!

Enjoy this amazing video.  Let me know if you screamed in excitement as you watched!


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Granola

My laptop died!  Seriously died.  It has taken us a couple of days to re-install the operating system and all the applications.  Thankfully it is now up and running and I can post again!

During my non-computer time, I did some cooking.  I was hungry for granola to stir into my yogurt.  Somewhere along the way I'd picked up a new recipe to try. This recipe is not too sweet.  The next time I make it I will definitely add a little bit of cinnamon.
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup slivered almonds (I'm still learning how to zoom in on my new camera)
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup flax seed (I bought the already ground flax seed)
2 T. brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce.   That is half of this container.  I ate the other half!
2 T. maple syrup
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl/
Stir until everything is combined.
Spread evenly over a cookie sheet.
Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally.
This is an amazing granola over low-fat vanilla yogurt.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Be Used

Normally I wouldn't share two devotional posts in a row.  But this morning as I flipped my daily calendar to the April 13 date and read Max Lucado's update for today, I changed my philosophy.  This is an excerpt from his book, Come Thirsty.

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"I do not live anymore--it is Christ who lives in me."  Galatians 2:20

You have leaves to rake.  A steering wheel to grip.  A neighbor's hand to shake.  Simply put, you have things to do.

So does God.  Babies need hugs.  Children need good-night tucks.  AIDS orphans need homes.  Stressed-out executives need hope.  God has work to do.  And he uses our hands to do it.  What the hand is to the glove, the Spirit is to the Christian.... 

God gets into us.  At times, imperceptibility.  Other times, disruptively.  God gets his fingers into our lives, inch by inch, reclaiming the territory that is rightfully his.  Your tongue...your feet...your mind...your eyes, face, and hands.  Through them he will weep, smile, and touch.
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How about you? 

Have you allowed yourself to be Be Used today?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

He is Personal

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Hebrews 4:15:  Our high priest is able to understand our weaknesses.

When God chose to reveal Himself, he did so (surprise of surprises) through a human body.  The tongue that called forth the dead was a human one.  The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails.  The feet upon which the woman wept were calloused and dusty.  And his tears--oh, don't miss the tears--they came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been...

So, people came to him.  My, how they came to him!...Why?  Because he refused to be a statue in a cathedral or a priest in an elevated pulpit.  He chose instead to be Jesus.

From Max Lucado's book God Came Near

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Jesus chose to be personal. 

He is personal.

Deciding to die for a group of people that don't deserve it is personal.

The group of people he died for is all of mankind.

You.

Me.

He is so interested in you.

And in me.

Just as we have an inner need for human relationships.

I believe we have an inner need for Jesus.

Whether we'll admit it or not.

He looks forward to having a relationship with each of us.

He is personal.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Feeding Alligators and Mini Golf

Smuggler's Cove in Sarasota, Florida is a miniature golf facility with live alligators, pirate ships, waterfalls and what looks like mountains.  

At the start of the course, you are given the option of purchasing alligator food. A marble-sized piece of meat is clipped onto the end of a fishing pole and you lower the pole into the alligator-filled pool.  Each of The Kidlets went "fishing".






 And then we started golfing.
We golfed around water and into caves.


Kidlet Two and I both got a hole in one on the same hole.  Would you believe that was the 'secret hole' for this course!  We both ended up winning a free game of miniature golf because of this phenomenon!





It was a fun evening and we enjoyed each other's company.  Kidlet Three ended up beating us all!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Good Friday 31 Years Ago

The Husband was not raised in a family that went to church together.  His mother was Catholic and faithfully attended mass but it was in Latin and not inviting to a young boy.  His dad was a member in the Lutheran church but The Husband did not attend church with him.

There was a large family Bible on display in their home and from a young age, The Husband remembers wanting to read that Bible.  The Bible was written in King James and hard to understand so this desire to understand the Bible didn't get met.  The hunger to know about God is a strong memory from his childhood.

As a funeral director, The Husband attended many funerals in different churches.  Pastors and priests rode in the car with him as they drove to cemeteries.  This was often the time the clergy would share their faith with The Husband.  The gospel of Jesus laying down His life for the freedom of our sins was explained to The Husband for the first time in a funeral car.  But it didn't make sense at the time.

Thirty-one years ago on Good Friday The Husband had a surgery that would change his life.  Prior to the surgery, a central line IV line was placed in his chest for the multiple bags of IV fluids that would be needed pre- and post-surgery.  The surgery went fine.  The Friday after Easter, The Husband started coughing and was having trouble breathing.  He rapidly went downhill and a code 45 was called with someone bagging him for air into his lungs.  Quickly he was brought into ICU and placed on a ventilator.  That was Friday.

Tests were run to determine what was going on in The Husband's body with nothing conclusive showing up.  By Sunday morning The Husband was in kidney failure.  X-rays of his chest showed his right lung to be the size of a thumb tip. His body was shutting down.  He was alert but unable to communicate.  He heard the doctors tell his parents that he was probably going to die and they should call in a priest.

Bargaining with God is not uncommon in the face of death.  And that is what The Husband did.  Lying in ICU knowing his body was dying he asked God to rescue him and in return, he would give his life back to God and live for Him the rest of his life.

Within minutes of that plea, a doctor came into the ICU and literally jammed a chest tube in between The Husband's ribs (without any anesthesia).  Liters and liters of fluid started spraying from the hole in his side. Once all that fluid was emptied from his chest, his lung filled up and he was able to breath on his own.  It turns out that the IV line poked through the wall of vein and every bag of IV fluid hung was drowning The Husband.  He completely recovered from this near death experience.

Friday started his death watch.  Sunday was his resurrection.  God rescued him and The Husband kept his word also...he has turned his life over to God for thirty-one years.

And do you realize that God offers the same thing for you?  His Son, Jesus, offered up Himself out of love on Good Friday.  Not just for a death watch but for death and being sent to hell.  Hell is eternal separation from God.  On Sunday, three days after death, Jesus conquered Satan and ascended out of hell into heaven.     He paid the price that each and every one of us should be paying.  He bought a Salvation Ticket for each person.

Once The Husband accepted the free gift of salvation, that hunger for God he'd had as a young boy was filled.  And as he reads his Bible now, he understands it.

The Husband had his Good Friday experience the week after the traditional one.  I would like ask you on this Good Friday, to consider taking the rescue, the Salvation Ticket that God has to offer you.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Stalking the Minnesota Twins

I have a new camera with a very powerful, built-in zoom.  This camera has the ability to zoom into the dugout of the Minnesota Twins (over by third base) when we are seated by first base.  Or even to zoom onto Denard Span's face out in center field or Danny Valencia wherever he is on the field.

Yesterday on vacation we attended a Minnesota Twins baseball game in Port Charlotte, Florida.  They were playing the Tampa Bay Rays in a pre-season game.  I brought my camera along to really see how close I could zoom in.

This camera rocks!  Even the people sitting behind me could see how closely I could zoom in on a player's face.  I could even zoom into the bullpen way out beyond right field.

After the game as my Kidlets were reviewing the pictures, they determined I am a stalker.  I guess they felt it was pretty creepy that I would even want to zoom in so closely on the face of  a Minnesota Twin.  I called it "practice".  Most of the pictures I had to delete right away because as I clicked to snap the picture I would shake and most of my stalker-type pictures were blurry.  There is a real science to zooming, holding the hand steady and clicking the photo, at least that is what I told them.

Here are a few close-up photos of the Minnesota Twins who ended the game in a tie yesterday.  You can decide if you feel this was stalking...












We had am amazing afternoon at the game.  And I think my camera takes amazing pictures!