Monthly Archives: February 2012

worship wednesday: deer paths

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

Have you read the current popular book series, The Hunger Games? My lover and I read them last fall. They’re so good.  Really, they’re a book series about surviving against all odds, when everything seems against you. Katniss Everdeen is the heroine on the series, with survival instincts that would make Bear Grylls look like a pansy. Facing a situation where survival depends on water, Katniss looks for a source of the life-giving liquid immediately. One way to find water is to find a deer trail and follow it to the source. Because deer will follow a trail back and forth repeatedly once they know where the source of water is.

With this in mind, look back at what the psalmist says in Psalm 42:1, “as the deer pants for the water brooks.” If a deer gets cut off from its water supply for some reason, it will begin to look for a new source. The longer it goes without water, the more it craves. We as Christians should experience the same longing, the same life-or-death drive for the Lord as the deer has for water. After some time without being in the Lord’s presence, we should be driven to seek after Him again. The analogy here is so perfect! I can see this even in my own life. Every morning when I get to work the first thing I do is read several chapters in the Bible (I’m on a Bible-in-a-year plan) and on Monday I forgot. I could totally tell. It just ruins my day.

The psalmist continues on to say, “my soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” We want deer trails here people not rabbit trails. So often we desire after the selfish human things our own hearts deceive us with. Things that we may think satisfy. But the only place where we can find life is in the living God. No where else can our thirsty soul be satisfied.

Jesus himself said in John chapter 4 to the woman at the well,

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

See there at the end of the verses? Everlasting life. And where does this water come from? From Jesus. He is able to quench our desperately thirsty soul.

ain’t no party like an office party

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

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So I signed up for February’s birthday bash at my office. Not signed up to have my birthday then. Because as far as I know, you don’t really have much control over that. Well I guess your parents sort of do, but once you’re born that’s it. You’re stuck born in the most fabulous month of July. People even shoot off fireworks for your birthday.

Wait that’s just me? I’m the only one with July 6th for a birthday? Well ain’t that interestin’.

This has nothing to do with anything. I probably should erase this whole post and start again. Too lazy. Will press on.

So I signed up to decorate and feed the masses provide birthday snacks for a little February birthday celebration. Now, let me tell you, I cannot leave well enough alone. So cupcakes and chex-mix weren’t going to cut it. You dig? not. good. enough.

That being said, here’s what I did:

AND on a budget too! Who’s your dadddddy???

Would you like details? Yes?

These will now be a staple any time I have to bring a snack anywhere. Because a)they are easy as all get out to make and b) they are delish. Just the right amount of freshness (from the grapes) with a hint of white chocolate and a salty balance from the chopped peanuts. For these all you do is chop peanuts, melt white chocolate chips, skewer grapes with toothpick and dip in first chocolate then nuts. Voila!

Who doesn’t love popcorn?

Well actually I’m sure somebody out there doesn’t but who could resist how sophisticated this popcorn looks on (gasp!) dollar tree “silver platters.” Fo’ rizzle people. The dollar tree. You can find the recipe for the flavored popcorn here and the other one is just plain butter & salt.

Speaking of dollar tree, they helped a sista’ out with this stand:

Two plates + martini glass = cupcake stand. I’ll have a tutorial for you later this week. For now let me chitty-chat about those cupcakes. Lemon. Filled with raspberry. Topped with buttercream. I think they may actually chitty-chat for themselves. Recipe for the cupcakes can be found here via pinterest. I used raspberry jam to fill them, and it’s just a traditional buttercream on top. And you must excuse how terrible the frosting looks. I did it at 7:00 a.m. Not really the most productive part of my day.

See those pretzels up there? You are going to want to pay close attention now. Because you are going to want to make these. Right before you eat them all. Buy a bag of pretzels (the square kind seem to work best) buy a bag of Hershey’s “hugs” go home and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Now, line your baking sheet with parchment, lay out as many pretzels as you have candy flat on your sheet, and set one candy on each pretzel. Now, put sheet in oven for LITERALLY 3 minutes. Maybe less. All you want to do is soften the candy. Now take the sheet out of the oven and immediately smash a pretzel down on top. Allow all to cool, and try not to eat more than a dozen in one sitting. :)

Let’s talk punch shall we?

Helllloooooooo delicious! You’re looking absolutely edible today. I started with this basic punch recipe, with a few modifications of my own. I halved the recipe to start, and used pineapple juice instead of coconut, didn’t add stevia (what the crap is that anyway??) and used ginger ale instead of club soda. So I guess I really didn’t follow that recipe. Except for the fruit.

Now, let’s switch gears from food to decor. Although it hurts my heart a little bit not to be talking about food…

I did almost nothing for decorations, except buy balloons and use paper doilies (dollar tree, holla!)

The doilies hanging in front are just cut in half and taped to the front of the counter. Then the balloons are attached to the back of the counter like so:

And so the front looked like this:

A backdrop really helps a dessert table pop (I think) and creates a nice blank slate for your party. Fill your table with goodies, and get your party on!

Oh and here’s an awkward photo of me in front on my creation. Looking like a little crazy, a la Vanna White:

friendship friday: making a house a home

24 Friday Feb 2012

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Y’all know how I lament my sweet dear friend being so far away. So I’ll try not to go on and on about it this time. Just know that she’s wonderful and today you’re going to get to see why. I asked Brooke over at charged to love to be the first guest post in what will hopefully be a new guest post every Friday. So without further ado…

Well, hello there!  Today I am hijacking E’s blog (do not worry…she asked me to).  If you are wondering how I know E, lets just say it involved sopapillas, hot glue and DSW.  That is probably our friendship in a teeny-tiny nutshell! 

I wanted to chit-chat a little bit about what makes a house a home.  I have been longing to paint a wall or renovate a house of my own, but the Lord has yet to open that door for us.  So, what do you do with a place that is not yours?  You paint and re-do all the stuff that is!  This is my secret: take something old, outdated or handed down and make it into a masterpiece!  Such as: recovering pillows, painting or re-staining…anything, adding new knobs or painting the old ones, hanging a wreath over a cabinet door…the possibilities are endless.  All in all, take what the Lord has blessed you with, repurpose it and move it around.  This brings to my mind the way God sees us:

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature ; the old things passed away ; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NAS 

Is that not amazing?!  God takes our terrible old selves and makes us new in Him.  Surely, we can do it with useless old stuff!

 I must point out a major issue: it is not the stuff that truly makes a house a home.  Yes, decorating is fun and is appealing to the eye, but  if that is where it ends…you have missed it all.  Christ must be the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11).  Everything must be built upon that alone.  The bible has a lot of references to the word “house.”  Here is one verse I really like a lot and tends to be displayed near the door of many people’s homes:

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living ; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  Joshua 24:15 NAS

One of the many definitions for house in this verse refers to a place of dwelling (a.k.a. a place where you put yourself and your stuff).  This gets me to thinking, how can I and my stuff serve God?  For starters, get on your knees on the floor He has provided and pray earnestly.  Use the comfy oversized chair and blanket to curl up in and study His Word.  Set the table with the dishes and silverware He’s blessed you with to invite someone new or in need over for dinner.  Snuggle up with your children in their beds to read the Bible and pray with them.  The list is endless.  We must remember:

“For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48b NKJV

 I love decorating, cooking and playing games in my house, but what makes it a home is Jesus.  I pray that He continually shines through my attitude, service, creativeness, hospitality, and every single thing I do. 

It was nice chatting!  

“That in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11b

Don’t you just lover her?? What a wonderful way to jumpstart friendship fridays! And don’t forget to check Brooke out over at charged to love.

this one time, in shreveport

23 Thursday Feb 2012

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I ran off a couple of weekends ago. Just to see this awesome possum:

Ignore my crazy face. And my gimpy-looking arm. And whatever weirdness is going on with my hair. We’re here to talk about my darling friend.

I could gush for a really long time about how much I love this girl. For a really long time. However since you have a life I’ll try to keep it short. But it’s gonna be hard…

Jess is absolutely one of the most overwhelmingly fun people I have ever met. Seriously. Just her presence is fun. And she laughs like she’s about to split a rib about everything. (we’re going to act like “split a rib” is an actual saying, mmmkay?) Jess is super fabulous, and her house smells SO good. As in, makes me want to eat the walls good. She’s a natural caregiver, always has been. Even in high school she was always the one who had Tylenol and band-aids. I think that’s why she went into nursing. It just fit. Anyway, if you ever get the chance to spend some time with her, DO IT. Oh, and her name is actually Jessica. But I can’t remember the last time I called her that.

I drove in on Friday night that weekend. Got there a lot later than I expected. Which is terrible for us because we be like ole’ ladies going to bed at 9:00 and stuff. Also me + driving + nighttime = super worried husband. He called while I was on the phone trying to get directions to her house. Like 5 times. Now let me ask you a question. Which is more important: getting directions so I can actually arrive safely to my destination or answering my husband’s phone calling assuring him that in the future I would make it to my destination? I think the directions. Who’s with me?

So pretty much we went to bed that night. In her house that smelled delish.

And the next morning we went to Kroger. Like old ladies. We needed milk, OKAY? We watched a grocery cart on a war path (hit at least two cars) and I’m pretty sure the employees were shocked to see Jess in shorts and flip-flops. She’s an AZ girl too. We just can’t help it.

Now I have to confess that I did something stupid. I knew we were getting pedicures. KNEW it. Yet I wore closed toes shoes. Boots to be exact. Idiot self. So after enjoying heaven in a chair, I had a problem. The cute little asian lady looked very disappointed in me. And quite firmly told me there would no boot-wearing with my pretty new toes (hot pink!) So I did it. And no one noticed me until I was halfway through Target. I wore those foam flip-flops they give you at the salon. IN PUBLIC! dun dun DUNNNN!!!

Seriously though, I almost made it the whole way through. Until this five-year old boy spotted my feet. And then went into shock. His eyes got as big as saucers and his mouth fell open. Did you notice my new fashion statements were bright yellow?

Legitimate flip-flops and a couple of boxes of sneak into the movies candy later, we made it out of Target. But not before we got blocked in by the buggy guy. I thought Jess was going to jump outta that car and drop-kick the guy into next week. Now let’s take a poll. How many of you, have EVER been blocked in by the buggy guy? Is this a normal occurrence? I’ve never had it happen. Until now.

We had soup, salad, bread sticks and shrimp at the olive garden. Then we snuggled into the nearest movie theater for a late afternoon showing of The Vow. I only cried a smidge. :) Quick dash into Bath & Body Works, and we were home. Where I took a nap while Jess cooked. Ugh, did I mention I’m an old lady??? I had a hard day. This was my version of parytin’ like a rockstar. And rockstars need sleep too.

Miss Sharon if you’re reading this, you’ve taught your daughter well. Mexicans can’t make better tacos. They were fabulous. And healthy, with spinach instead of lettuce. OH! Did I mention homemade salsa? Let me do so now: home.made. salsa. Get it?

I headed home the next day, but not without a little reading material:

It’s super hard to read and drive at the same time.

I kid! I kid! But ever since I got home I haven’t been able to put it down. Darcy, Elizabeth, Pemberley! As a matter of fact, go buy this book right now. Go!