You know I’m always open for suggestions for our travel on Tuesdays… well, this week Barbara H. suggested we go back to our first cooking experience. Good idea Barbara H.!

So, how about it… do you remember your first cooking experience, or if not, do you have a memorable cooking experience… how about the first time you cooked for your hubbie?

I have two memories that come to mind for this topic… they both involve Matt!

Once when we were dating, I must have been maybe 17, mom and dad had left earlier in the morning and he came over so I decided to make him a proper breakfast like mama makes. This of course would have to include gravy. Well, I thought I was doing it just right until I went to pour it into a pretty dish for serving (I was so trying to impress him)… It came out of that pan like a jello mold. Matt walked up behind me to witness this mess. I then tried to pour it down the drain to erase my mistake and it clogged the drain. What a mess. I now make the best gravy around fyi )…

Another memory is when Matt always bragged about his grandmother’s cream cheese brownies. I thought, that’s simple enough … I’ll make them. So I made brownies and added some cream cheese to the mixture and voila, light brown cream cheese brownies. I was so proud. Until he looked at them and said, “these aren’t what Jackie makes.” Well, he never told me that the cream cheese was marbled in the brownies – HELLO. So, I called her the next day and got the official directions. I was from then on the cream cheese brownie queen.

I’m sure I’ve goofed up so many more times than this, but these two memories are the first to come to my mind. I can’t wait to hear about all your fun cooking firsts, I’m sure they are a ‘hoot.’

Amanda called again last night. She is still having so much fun. They were shopping in Old Montreal when I spoke with her. The new “people mover” type bus that our church just purchased has apparently broken this week. I think they think it is the transmission, but they are now taking the subway around town and will be taking the bus in to the shop today. Hopefully this won’t delay their homecoming next weekend, because I miss her! Anyway, please continue to pray for her safety. I am so glad she is having such a great experience. My campers are still pooped out. Emelia said it was the best week of her life. She is 9 years old and didn’t get homesick one minute… Bailey had a good time too, but was glad to be home.

I’m getting ready to get ready to take Izzy to Bear in an hour or so… I just wanted to get this devo posted for those of you reading them. I am going to stop off at the Christian bookstore to see if they have more copies.

Day nine~

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” I Timothy 4:8

There is an old adage that says, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” Many people try to lose weight without a specific goal in mind. Often people set a goal that is unrealistic. In our attempts to become more Christian, we grow a little at a time. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect right away. He knows that our growth takes time. The same is true of our attempts to lose weight. We need to take it a little at a time. Crash diets and heavy exercise programs are not the way to go. Our Christian growth should provide us with an example. Let us approach our diets with patience and take it a small step at a time.

Todays thought: Dieting is easier if we try to lose weight little by little.

Well, Matt & I finally made it out to celebrate our 18th anniversary. We went to Steak & Ale… I had the chicken gratella. Here’s what it looked like…

It was pretty good, but I brought 3/4 of it home. Since I have been doing the diet devotionals I have really had such a knowledge of when I am full. I just stopped and pushed my plate away. Matt offered to polish it off for me (after his 12 oz steak ) but I thought it would be good to have it for dinner. It was mashed potatoes, grilled chicken with artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and blue cheese, all drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Sounds odd, but it was pretty tasty. I raked most of the blue cheese away. Too much flavor. We had a nice meal together and then did some shopping… we got a new weed eater & saw Izzy’s ST at lowes.

After Izzy’s blog redo I was inspired to rework my friend Julie’s blog… so I made her a new header and changed her background. click here to view it.

Here’s day eight…

“This is the bread which came down from heaven–not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:58

Face it: Dieting wouldn’t be so hard if food didn’t taste so good! Like anything good, we want to get as much of it as we can. It’s easy to place a high value on the food we eat. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. God has given us many freedoms, but one we should not abuse is the freedom to consume as much food as we want. No one can limit what we eat except ourselves. We need to realize that our daily bread supplies what we need, not what we want. Excessive eating is selfishness, and selfishness is sin. When we feel the urge to overeat, let us turn to God and nourish ourselves on the true bread that comes from Him – His word.

Today’s thought: God’s bread of life is nonfattening!

Family~

• Amanda is in Canada! She has been calling & texting daily to tell me of her adventures. She has been shopping, rode a subway, had dinner at interesting places, and is sleeping in a college dorm room on the eighth floor! She is having a good time. She said it is odd to be in a place where everyone speaks french. She cannot read the street signs, etc. The group she is with learned songs in french for church on Sunday. She says they sound good. They have been working on the songs, memorizing the french verses for months.
• Bailey & Emelia are home! It was funny, before they came home I had folded the last load of laundry, cleaned up the breakfast dishes, made my bed… everything was so nice and tidy. That lasted about five minutes after they came home… but it is okay. We all took Izzy out for a celebratory swim.
• Tomorrow (Sunday) is our 18th anniversary. I think we may go out sometime tomorrow. We thought about going out last night, but were too sleepy… and tonight we talked about it again and I ended up making tacos so we didn’t. We’re so exciting, huh?
• Tomorrow is also father’s day! I love my daddy!

kitchen~

• This was a boring food week, I made gyros Monday night because Amanda really likes them and was leaving right after dinner…
• I cooked Tuesday and Thursday and matt and I ate leftovers. Nothing exciting to report on that ).
• I am still really enjoying that freezer! I would recommend this little size to anyone looking at them because it is perfect.

blogville~

• My SIL, Ann, saw that I was thinking of a redo on Izzy’s blog and she offered her assistance. It looks so cute. I had played around with a header and she added to that and did a background too. You should pop over and check it out. THANKS Ann!!!
• Is it just me or does it seem a little quiet in blogville this week?
• I’m still posting the daily diet devos. I hope I’m not the only one really being blessed by them. I am going to continue posting them until it seems that no one is reading them.
• Looks like sweet Carrie is going to pop anyday! We’re all officially on baby watch ).
• This Tuesday for TTT it was suggested we travel back to a memorable or first cooking experience, don’t forget to come back for that.

blessings~

• rain, and lots of it! God is watering my flowers wonderfully!
• church camp!
• homecomings
• fathers
• 18 years of marriage
• 100 calorie packs of snacks… like grasshopper cookies, reese’s snacksters, & sunchips!
• words of faith!
• encouraging comments from bloggy friends
• YOU!

Thanks Judi for hosting weekend reflections!

“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13

A friend of mine who was dangerously overweight lamented to me once that she was “so fat that God wouldn’t even recognize me as the person He created.” She felt that her weight problems had driven a wedge between her and God. How sad. Nothing that we do ever really separates us from God, but when we feel badly about ourselves, we feel we are unloveable, even by God. It is important that we see ourselves as good people. God loves us no matter how we look, but He is delighted with us when we take pride in who He created us to be. God will bless our efforts, so we need draw as close to Him as possible as we attempt to diet.

Today’s Thought: God loves us just as we are.

These devos are starting to really take seed inside me. I am excited for the first time in a long time about what the future holds regarding dieting rather than dreading dieting. Thank you God!

It’s Friday! I am having trouble waking up today. Matt got called out late again last night, so not much sleeping. Our anniversary (18th) is this weekend and we had planned to go out tonight, but I’m not sure it would be much fun if we are falling asleep while trying to eat dinner… we’ll see. Bailey and Emelia come home tomorrow afternoon so things will definitely liven up around here. I have a ton of things on my to do list for today. Mostly involve cleaning… It is raining buckets here. Seriously, it’s like flooding everywhere. Amanda called last night again (from Canada). I really do enjoy her calls and want to hear about the day she had but sheesh, it is 79 cents per minute international roaming and .50 per text. She sent about 13 messages to me yesterday and the day before and talked about 12 minutes. I am thinking two weeks of this could end up with a huge cell phone bill! She shopped yesterday, I asked her what she bought and she bought t-shirts for all her siblings, isn’t that sweet? I thought so. I am so glad she is having such a good time and fun experience seeing new things.
We listened to a really good teaching last night about being joyful. There are so many scriptures talking about being joyful and yet it seems many ‘Christians’ are just not so much. Not a criticism, I realize life can throw some curves… but this speaker talked about the fact that by being joyful you have won. Satan is trying to get to you and if he can’t steal your joy he has failed.
Okay, here is day six in the diet devo…

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22

If we learn anything at all from being a Christian, we learn that good things do not come without a sacrifice. Jesus had to give everything. He had to in order to reunite us with God. If we decide to be the best we can be, then we need to accept the fact that there is some sacrifice required. When we learn to sacrifice, we learn what it means to be Christian. Sacrifice is a good discipline. Sacrifice teaches us what is really important, and it helps us be thankful for what we have. When we stop to think of how great Christ’s sacrifice for us was, it inspires us in our diets to become better people; people worth dying for!

Todays thought: Dieting can draw me closer to being a disciple!

If you are a coke drinker (like me () you should pop over to Michael’s blog and read the article about soda. It wasn’t a fun read, don’t let me fool you… but, it did make me think and I need to work to eliminate my best friend coke from my diet… I’ll be praying about this.

I highlighted my brother’s daughter’s (two of them) hair yesterday. They looked pretty good.
I even took back that immersion blender, fortunately I had kept the box and receipt. I just exchanged it and you know what happened the first time I used the new one? It got caught on a vitamin again. Never happened before yesterday and then twice in one day! It didn’t kill it this time so we’re all good. I did have a nice little walk through target.

What are you glad about today? I’m glad it’s Friday, I’m glad I get to see the kids tomorrow. I’m glad God is watering my flowers for me.

Appetizer
Fill in the blank: The best thing about where I live is seeing my daddy walking up the road to visit the kiddos, or like tonight seeing him coming with a bucket full of fresh potatoes he just dug up for me, or watching him walk to meet Emelia half way so she can play with him…

Soup
Create a new name for a deodorant (like “Flower Fresh” or “Shower Scent”).

okay, weird one…. um… “sweet sweat?”

Salad
What was the last piece of software you installed onto your computer?

gimp…

Main Course
If you were to receive a superlative award today beginning with the words ”Most likely to…”, what would the rest of the phrase say?

“Most likely to break immersion blenders” or “Most likely to believe God!”

Dessert
What two colors do you like to wear together?

I like to wear a white t-shirt with almost everything and under most things… I have a bunch of them and love them, but probably lime green with black or pink & black… Maybe anything with black.

I got some pictures from Amanda last night that she emailed from her phone. She texted me that they confiscated her pepper spray at the border and I thought she was joking, but she took a picture of the confiscation form that she had to sign. I don’t know if she even remembered the pepper spray was in her purse, it’s a key chain. With all the bad things going on in the world, you just have to take measures for safety. She is such a beautiful young girl. She called from her room late last night and said she loved it in Montreal, that it was very European there. She said there was graffiti on a lot of things and predicted the new people mover they rode out on would be decorated by graffiti before they come home. I hope not. It was good to hear her voice and weird that she is so far away from me. I haven’t heard from my little campers. They must be having a good time.

It’s day five in the diet devo book…

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Once we decide for ourselves that being overweight is wrong, then it is vital that we put ourselves in God’s hands. Though being overweight is not a sin, few people would say it is good. We should avoid everything that is not good. God will help us whenever we turn from things that are bad. Prayer is an important part of our attempts to lose weight. We can trust God to bless all our efforts to do what we feel is right. There is no reason to feel guilty for being overweight, for God forgives us our weakness and offers His own strength as our own. We can start our diets with a clear conscience and an assurance that God is with us every step of the way.

Today’s thought:
We have nothing to feel guilty about.

I finally posted a little update on Izzy’s blog. I get griped at for spending a lot of time on my blog while neglecting Izzy’s blog which was the start of blogging… I just have more to say than Izzy ) and when there is something to report, believe me… I will write it everywhere. But, I know people read it who are family and friends and they are looking for some information there. I will try to do better… I have asked a few people about re-doing her blog. I haven’t really gotten replies and Susie is too busy. I just put that template on there, but would like something more “izzy.”

Another quiet day for me & Iz. I’m going to throw dinner in the crock pot and do some housework and yard work, get her in the stander a few times, try to do some therapy with her, I was going to wash and vacuum my car but it is pouring outside so that will wait. I just saw on the news that there is flooding in western oklahoma.

I heard a speaker last night say that an intercessor is simply the one declaring a winner. That was really interesting to me, you always hear about intercessory prayer. The speaker went on to say I declare victory over you and the devil is defeated. I hope to study this a little more this afternoon.

*this just in*… you know my wonderful red kitchen aid immersion blender I have raved about that I use for Izzy’s food? It just died. It got jammed on one of her juice plus vitamins and now it won’t work. I am trying with all my might to play the glad game about this… I guess I’m glad that I get an excuse to go to Target today?…

2 lbs Italian link sausage, browned1 jar of spaghetti sauce1 large green bell pepper, sliced into thick strips1 medium onion, sliced1 tsp garlic powder1 tsp dried basil1 tsp dried oregano

Put all ingredients in slow cooker.

Cook on low for 4 hours.

Serve on hard rolls or hoagie rolls. 

Visit Sandra for more slow cooker recipes!