FMF - Wait

This post is part of Five Minute Friday.  Come see what it's all about over at Kate's place.

Waiting.  It seems like I've done a lot of waiting.

"God, I want another child."  "Wait."
"Lord, I need to move to Nashville." "Wait."
"Why can't you heal my mom?" "Wait."
"Jesus, please fix my marriage, and fix it now."  "Wait."

Waiting on Him, on God's promises, can be so very hard.

But waiting helps us to rest, to renew.  Waiting helps us learn to focus on Him.  Waiting helps us to lean on God, to trust Him and trust that He knows what's best.  Waiting helps us to soar!

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (KJV) 

Hugs,
Melinda

Oreo Lasagna

This is for my bikeschool and fmfparty friends on Twitter.  I must be crazy, but I try to participate in two different Twitter parties every Thursday night that of course, meet at the same time.  Chocolate was involved in both discussions tonight.  I mentioned that this recipe came across my Facebook feed tonight.  Only problem is that there was no link to the original poster.  My friend Bing helped me locate it.  I present to you:  Oreo Lasagna via The Halfbaked Life.  Please pay her a visit, drop in, and tell her how wonderful her dessert looks.  

Lasagna for dessert...ABSOLUTELY!! This Oreo Lasagna is perfect for a pot luck dinner, family dinner or end of summer party!!

heart emoticon OREO LASAGNA heart emoticon

Serves 16
Prep Time - 10 min
Total Time - 4 hr

Ingredients
1 package oreo cookies
4 tbsp. butter, melted
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. skim milk
12 oz fat free cool whip
6 Snack Pack Fat Free Chocolate Pudding cups (or make 1 package of chocolate pudding)

Instructions
1.Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with nonstick spray
2.In a food processor, or in a zip closed bag, crush the Oreo Cookies (I used the bag version and it was super easy without all the clean up of the food processor)
3.Set aside 1 cup of crushed Oreos for topping
4.Combine remaining crushed Oreo's with melted butter
5.Press buttered Oreo's into the bottom of the prepared dish
6.In a small bowl whip the softened cream cheese using a handheld mixer until light and fluffy
7.Mix in sugar, milk and 1 1/4 cups of cool whip until well combined
8.Spread cream cheese layer over the Oreo crust until smooth and even
9.Layer chocolate pudding in an even layer over the cream cheese
10.Spoon remaining cool whip over pudding and gently smooth
11.Sprinkle on mini chocolate chips
12.Place in refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours but overnight is best
13.Serve & ENJOY!!

Notes
Each serving is 8 WW+ points
Nutritional Info
Calories 309 Calories from Fat 127 Total Fat 14.1g Saturated Fat 7.0g Cholesterol 20mg Sodium 265mg Potassium 46mg Carbohydrates 42.9g Dietary Fiber 1.0g Sugars 28.4g Protein 3.5g
Vitamin A 6% - Vitamin C 0% - Calcium 7% - Iron 6%
Nutrition Grade - D
By MJ

Communion Bread

The church I attend has communion or The Lord's Supper every Sunday.  One of the older ladies of the congregation taught me how to make the unleavened bread, and I would like to share the recipe with you. 

Communion Bread

• 3 c flour
• 1/2 c Crisco or margarine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Mix with fork (or blender) until crumbly.  Now, her directions say to use 1 T water for each 1/3 c of mix.  Personally, I divide the mix into half, because it stores pretty easy.  I'll add about a cup of water to the half I'm making, until it clings together. 

Then roll out the dough to 1/8" thick on a well greased cookie sheet.

Here's the interesting part.  Take a plastic ruler and score the dough into 1/4-1/2" squares.  Yes, a plastic ruler.  I actually have two.  I have a full 12 inch ruler and one that's about 6" long.  The short one makes it easier to go across the pan the short way.

Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, until it is more than light golden brown and doughy, and less than dark golden brown and crunchy.  After it's through baking, use a pizza cutter to fully cut the squares apart. 

Again, my friend's directions say to serve 100 people it takes 1 1/3 c of mix and 4 T water.  I use about 1/2 the mix and 1 c of water. 

It is such an interesting way to serve the Lord and His church.  I have prayed many times for the people while making this.  I really enjoy serving God in this way.  I hope this tutorial helps you to serve Him as well.

Hugs,
Melinda

Menu Planning

I've talked to a lot of people recently about menu planning.  "Do you do it?  How do you do it?  I can't do that because it's so complicated."  It's taken me a while to get my habit down, but once I did, I learned that 1) It's really not complicated, and 2) It saves me a lot of money.

So, the first thing you need to do is ask yourself a very simple question:  What do you and your family like to eat?  Our family is pretty simple.  We like things like Jambalaya, Gumbo, Spaghetti, Cheesy Chicken, and White Enchiladas.  Things like pork ribs, and burgers.  Chicken.  We eat a LOT of chicken.

I can't really remember the process that we worked through to get to this point, but here's what we do now.  On Saturdays (normally), we sit down and say, okay, what practices do we have, what meetings, what do we have to do in the evenings?  Then I say, "Okay, everyone.  I need a crockpot meal, and a casserole, and then we have 5 other meals.  What do you want to eat for supper?"

That's the kicker.  I make sure and involve EVERYONE in the meal planning.  That way, the picky eater gets something she likes, the have to have meat at every meal hubby gets something he likes, the growing like a weed teenager gets something she likes, and I can throw in my favorites every once in a while.

So the other part of our planning is knowing what type of meals we need when.  As an example, this next week, track practice starts on Tuesday, and we have church Wednesday night.  So I know that I need a meal in the crockpot Tuesday night, and that I'm not cooking Wednesday.  That means I need to have around 4 stove top meals and 1 crockpot meal on my list.

And that's it.  I'll make a list of everyone's requests for the week, and I put them on the whiteboard, and then I know what I'm cooking for the week. 

This is the whiteboard I mentioned.  I put my list of menus for the week on the small one and erase them as I cook them.  You can see that I have 4 more dinners planned for the rest of the week.  The larger one underneath is where I write my grocery list as I run out of things.  (I try to use fresh onions, but I'm out of the dried ones that I keep on hand.)

The other thing that seems pretty self explanatory (but probably isn't) is that after we decide what we want to eat that week, I take the recipes and go through my pantry and fridge to see what I already have. Then I add what I don't have to my grocery shopping list. 

About breakfasts and lunches:  I take the easy route.  95% of the time, we eat cereal for breakfast.  And lunches, well, Dale takes leftovers, Boo likes to eat canned soup, and Little Bit likes to eat macaroni and cheese.  I eat leftovers or hot pockets.  Oh well.  To each his own!

But that's it.  That's how I do our menu planning and our grocery list.  It's really not that hard.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Hugs,
Melinda

Great Actors

Dale and I always like to talk about what being a "great" actor means.  We both think that it means that you aren't even aware that the actor was in the movie or show until you see the credits.  They can change their voice, their appearance, so that they disappear into the story they are telling.

There are some actors that are "good" but you know they are there, like Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman. 

People like Gary Oldman, who was Dracula, and Beethoven, and a wizard, those are "great" actors.
(Johnny Depp could be considered "great," but he very rarely has a great movie anymore.  They tend to be campy and too similar to each other.  Transcendence might be the one that isn't the same as the others.)

I would like to suggest that Christopher Heyerdahl could be considered a "great" actor. 

He has been in a lot of shows that we watch, and we don't even realize it at first.  (Gotham, Sanctuary, Stargate Atlantis, Twilight to name a few.)  I really enjoy watching him work.  If you haven't seen him yet, take a moment and look up his work.  Enjoy!

Hugs,
Melinda

FMF - Share

This post is a part of the wonderful fun of Five Minute Fridays.  Enjoy!

Sharing.

I never know how much to share here, even though it's my own blog.  I never know how much is too much.  This part was too much to share, so yes, I did edit it out.  Do I tell you that in serving my dad in November that I got to share way too much of the ups and downs of his life right now?  Do I share how scared I am?

Oh yes, I am scared.  Terrified, really.  When we lose him, and it is "when" not "if," I will be an orphan.  I will be "the head of our household" (even though we are all in different households).

I'm scared of homeschooling my children, even though I also know it is the right thing to do.  I'm worried that Boo isn't as advanced as she's supposed to be and will graduate "late."  I'm scared that Little Bit will never learn her times tables.  I'm scared that one day CPS will come and take them for no good reason other than I homeschool.

Do I share with you how scared I get when they get sick?  Especially right now.  Even though Dale is employed, and even though we are "technically covered" by insurance, I worry that there is no overlap, and that we'll be stuck with an astronomical medical bill? 

How do you share your hopes and your dreams and your fears and your concerns and not seem like you are going insane? 

Simply this. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6)

There is a music group from where I grew up that used to sing Proverbs 3:5-6.  If I can't find a recording of it online somewhere, I'll try to come up with my own.  But seeing how this is supposed to be a 5 minute prompt, and it's taken me an hour and a half to chase this rabbit trail, I think I'll wait until tomorrow.  :)

And another rabbit trail.  Apparently, I don't use the words God, Jesus, or Lord enough on this blog.  Maybe I am too scared to do so, but I'm going to try to change that from here on out.  I need to share about my faith more often.  Okay, done with rabbit trails.  Good night.  :D

Hugs,
Melinda

FMF - Send

Here am I Lord, Send me. 

Isaiah spoke those words without even knowing where God wanted to send him to.  Wow.  I would love to have that faith.  We send our missionaries, we send mail and email, we send written checks.  But how much faith does it take to say, "Lord, send me.  Let me be your hands and feet.  Use me."

There's a song on the radio right now.  The artist is singing about how he hates the poverty he sees, and all the injustice, and asks God, "Why?  Why don't you do something?  Where are you?"  And God says, "I created you."

Lord, please use me.  I am a mom, and a wife, but I am your servant first and foremost.  Please let me be totally and fully yours.  May your words flow from my mouth.  May my hands find your work to do.  May my heart be a reflection of your heart.  May I see people through your eyes and see them the way you see them.

Here I am Lord.  Send me.  Send me wherever you need me to go.  Even if that means staying right here.

Stop

Five Minute Friday is a weekly linkup of writers who get together and write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes.  No editing.  Then you go linkup your post here, and comment on the person in front of you.  That's it.  It keeps stretching me and growing me as a writer.  I really enjoy it.  You should try it sometime.

Hugs,
Melinda

Isaiah 6:8 (NIV) Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Photography Challenge: Self Portrait

Today, I managed to accomplish the one thing that has eluded me for ... well, forever.  The challenge part of this photography challenge.  Today, I managed to take a very nice self portrait.

Hugs,
Melinda

Photography Challenge - Day 12

So here's day 12 - give or take.  Sunset.

The sunset tonight had purple in it.  I thought it would have pink like normal, but no.  It had purple.  I had to stop and take a picture.

Before Filter

 After Instagram Filter

 

Hugs,

Melinda

Photography Challenge Catch Up

So, I'm taking time to catch up on my photography challenge today.  I found the challenge on Pinterest, but I can't seem to find the original.  If anyone knows where it's located, please let me know, so that I can give credit where it is due.

The last picture I did was on Day 8 - Routine.  I'm going to have a whole bunch at one time, so this will be a picture heavy post, but I hope you enjoy it.

Day 9: Someone you love.  Obviously, I love both my girls, but Boo was available to take a picture of.  Dale would have been first, but he's at work.

Day 10: Childhood memory.  This clock was my mother's.  I love winding it up and listening to it.  Unfortunately, I'm the only one.

Day 11:  Something Blue.  Blue is my favorite color.  This is one of my favorite jackets.

Day 12 is a sunset.  I have sunset pictures, but I would like to attempt a fresh one for this project.
Day 13: Cannot Live Without.  I went to bed late last night.  Really late.  I had my coffee pot brewing this morning when Dale called me and said, "I forgot my work ID.  Can you bring it to me?"  Next best thing to a fresh pot of coffee is a cappuccino from Quick Trip.  Do you have a QT near you? 

Day 14: Eyes.  I take a lot of pictures of Boo.  I wanted to take a picture of Little Bit.  She was reading a book, and the picture was too much fun to resist.

Day 15: Silhouette.  Not one of my best.  One day, I'll learn how to get one of those nice crisp black and white silhouette photos.  Today, I present Boo, doing school work.

Day 16: A Good Habit.  Really?  Okay.  How about toothbrushes?

Day 17: Technology.  Oh my ever living word.  Have you ever tried being married to an IT professional?  I have "technology" running out of my ears!  This picture is the mess that belongs to our current TV/Sound System/Cable box/Wireless/Modem/Wii game system setup.  It perfectly describes how I feel about "technology."

 Day 18: Your Shoes.  Simple enough.  Blue again.  Favorite color. 

 Day 19:  Something you want.  Boo said, "A French press?"  I thought, "nope."  This.  A good night's sleep.

 Day 20: In my bag.  My first thought was "Which bag?"  Here's my collection of "bags."  Library bag, purse, backpack.

 Upon thinking about it, a close up of the library bag will probably work better.

Day 21:  Faceless Self Portrait
Day 22:  Inspirational
Day 23:  Patterns.  I like this quilt.  The pattern is an offset log cabin block.  I like seeing all the different fabrics.

Day 24: Animal.  I have to put my puppy here.  I think she's beautiful. 

Day 25:  Strangers.  I'm not sure I'm going to do this one.  What do I do?  Walk up to someone I don't know and say, "Excuse me, may I take your picture for a challenge I'm working on?  Today's theme is 'Strangers.' "
Day 26:  Close up.  Like I said earlier, I had to leave the house before I had coffee OR breakfast.  I guess it was a good thing I didn't pour milk.  But this works for a close up, right?

That's all I have for now.  I have 8 more "days" to try to capture, but I have to get back to the business of trying to teach school now.  Have a good day.

Hugs,
Melinda

FMF - Welcome

Five Minute Fridays.  They have been a part of my blog for a little bit now.  Not a regular part, although I would like to try to change that in 2015.  You go to Kate's blog or the Facebook page on Friday to get a prompt, and then you write.  For five minutes.  No editing.  Just free writing.  Then you go back to the blog and you link up.  The only rule is that you have to read the person ahead of you and leave a nice comment about their writing. 

So today's prompt is Welcome.  Ready?

GO:

I have no idea what to write about.  Welcome brings up a picture of a happy couple standing in the doorway saying "Welcome. Come in."  And maybe because I've been watching too many horror shows, I can't help but wonder about the reason they want me to come in.

But that's not the normal way of life.  When people invite you in, there's a reason, a joy, a hope.  When Jesus invites us in, it's to provide us with rest. 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

Come.  Well come.  Welcome.  Jesus, I want to come and I want to rest in you.  Jesus gives us rest and a home and a place to belong. A place to call home.  He loves us and he invites us in for no other reason than we are children of God.

Much more inviting when you don't have to worry about "why."  Find your Welcome in Jesus, my friend.  Welcome home.

Hugs,
Melinda

STOP

 

 

Catching up with the Elves

So... we had a lot of life happen in December.  I'm going to use this post to try to catch up on our Elf on the Shelf and the Kindness Elves.  Please understand that I did do something every day, but I didn't always get a picture.  Let's see what fantastical things we got up to this year.  :D


Like I had said earlier, I did in fact plan everything out this year, which really helped with those 10:30 pm-Oh-I-Forgot-to-move-the-elves moments.  I've made the picture larger so you can see some of the things we included.  I found the calendar here.  Thank you so much!

 My oldest daughter, Boo helped me plan everything and helped me do "elfish" type things throughout the month.  I think that was part of why I enjoyed it so much. 

 

In this set of pictures, the Kindness Elves asked Little Bit and Boo to make Christmas cards.  They didn't get around to it, but it was still cute to see them all set up.

 Crystal even got in on the act.  She sat on the piano perfecting the Christmas tree on her card.  She did pretty good for an elf!

 This is the day we made Christmas cookies.  Hope and Joy sat out the ingredients for us ahead of time.  Because you know butter has to be softened in order to make the perfect cookies.  ;)

 Crystals was safely out of the way, but waiting to stir in the chocolate chips.

 On this day, Little Bit was SO worried, because she couldn't find the elves anywhere.  She looked in her room and the kitchen.  It wasn't until I reminded her that we have a basement and an upstairs that she found them.  They wanted to paint pictures, and sat out the supplies for us.

 

 I will admit that this project got put off for several days.  We made gingerbread play dough for Little Bit and her friends.  It was fairly easy.  There's a ton of homemade play dough recipes out there, so it's not too hard to find one that will work for you. 

 (I'm practicing my close up and portrait skills.  I always forget that I can get closer to my subjects.  Elves are good for practicing.)  ;)

 Then there was the epic chess match, also known as the day Boo and I were too tired to do what was on our schedule.

  And then they got ahold of our phones.  (Not really, but it was fun to try to see everything from an elfish perspective.)  First, is it just me, or does my cat look spooked?

 

 Bubble lights in the tree.  Very pretty.

 A selfie with the present that Santa just dropped off.

 And one final goodbye picture.  Of course, she made this one the picture on the lock screen of my phone.  ;)

I love Christmas.  I love the traditions and I love the giving.  I have had more fun with this silly Elf on a Shelf tradition than I ever thought. And the Kindness Elves are just adding to the fun. 

What fun traditions does your family have?  Do you have an elf or two?  Let me know how you get into the Christmas spirit in the comments. 

Hugs,
Melinda