to the goodness of God

All praise to our Father, who forgives instantly and waits for us to accept love and move forward.

Sometimes I spend days wallowing, WALLOWING, after I've sinned. And I blame it on God, the big tyrant in the sky keeping me stuck, asking me to atone, withholding grace until I've fulfilled my quota for misery. And suddenly I discover that he's been waiting for me on the back porch, checking his watch and tapping his feet as he hears me inside moping and pouting about, waiting, WAITING, for me to finally come outside and play.

I could have been playing!

In marriage Charlie and I get to teach each other more about the loving heart of God. In moments when Charlie is truly repentant but won't move forward into joy I understand how God must feel when I do exactly the same thing..."It's okay, I promise! You are forgiven. Come back to me! I want to enjoy this beautiful fall afternoon and some (Bailey's) hot cocoa with you!"

I am grateful for each of these moments when I finally accept grace. After so much unnecessary struggle I am freed from myself, reminded that I don't have to atone, and shown that I'm fully clean.

I feel light-hearted as I meditate on this but am also struck by the serious responsibility we have to not nullify the value of Jesus' sacrifice for our sins by spending time trying to atone for them ourselves. What an incredible, joyful obligation we are under to accept God's love!

It's time to go outside :)

Sleep!

I have been reminded once again this week how important it is for me to get sleep - not only for my sanity but for Charlie's as well.

It started on Monday night when we decided to stay longer than normal at community group. I love those people and had some great conversations. But a few early mornings and mini-meltdowns later I am faced with the fact that I need to value sleep as an act of love for my family. I know there will always be extenuating circumstances, but as a general rule I need to rest!

I think this will help me be more consistent in my love for Charlie. This week I pushed myself so hard and began viewing every hour as potentially productive until I reached a point of burnout last night and was a crying, miserable mess in bed when he got home. Welcome home, honey! There's beer in the fridge...you will need it!

There is unexpected grace in this whole situation, however. Last night I had imagined today, my day off, as a day in which I would love nothing more than to pass time in a vegetative coma in front of our computer screen. However, the Holy Spirit is at work and though I did sleep in and have indeed spent most of the morning in bed, my mind and heart are refreshed. I drank some coffee and spent time with God, and read a Passionate Homemaking blog post and FlyLady emails that have inspired me to get out of bed with a smile on my face and finish up some chores around here not because I feel obligated as a wife and martyr but because I love my husband and want to bless him. I praise God for redeeming my burnout and having the final say in this difficult week :)

Happy Autumn!

I have been collecting fun fall activities and ways to celebrate the new season instead of mourning the sun that is oh so quickly fading away. Here's what I've collected and brainstormed so far. I'd love to hear more ideas!

walk through Discovery Park
use mulling spices
make baked apples
go out for coffee dates
eat soups and potatoes
make hot cocoa mix
eat oatmeal
shop for scarves
eat stew
rotate summer clothes to the back of the closet
winterize the apartment (the only thing this involved for us was dumping our dead plants out of the pots, but okay)
eat stew
pretend it's Christmas for an evening (don't judge me!)
make cider
find a recipe to make chai tea from scratch
decorate with leaves :)
make Molly's pumpkin cream cheese roll cake
buy ridiculous rainboots
pull out the blankets and throws
keep windows shiny to let lots of light in!
get library movies to snuggle up to on dark nights (can you tell we're on a budget?)
take long late-afternoon walks and intentionally walk through crispy leaves

Happy Fall, ladies! :)

A harvest-worthy meal

Don't you just love the days when all the new recipes you make turn out wonderfully and all the food just tastes soooo good?!? Tonight's dinner kind of came together last minute. One of our family friends that lives down in Longview has a farm and they sent home some yummy produce for us with my mother. I received beautiful cucumbers, the most yummy tomatoes, a squash, some cute green peppers, and some fresh ears of corn. Wanting to make sure none of it went to waste, I put together dinner around some if it. We had corn on the cob, a delicious shrimp pasta salad, and creamy cucumbers. Oh creamy cucumbers. This is a true North Dakota recipe, passed down from my mom. It is comfort food for me. The whole meal all put together reminded me of a harvest meal.

When I was young girl and we still lived in ND, I can remember my mother, grandma and aunt taking lunch and dinner out to the men in the fields. You had a CB in your kitchen to talk to you husband out in the truck or on the combine :) Yummy meals, that were filling and of course easier to transport!

In case you want to try it, here is the very simple creamy cucumber recipe:
In a medium bowl, mix 1/2 C mayo 3 T milk 2t white vinegar 2 t sugar and pepper to taste. Peel and slice about 3 cucumbers and add to mix, tossing to coat. That's it, yummy!

Now, if I had a jello salad of some kind, I would have had an authentic harvest meal!

Let's all go picking....

On Wednesday, my mom, the kids and I went blueberry picking at Mountain View Blueberry farm. I love this farm, this is our second year going. For us, it is close, only 15 minutes away, and I can't see the sense of driving an hour to pick fruit....that is no savings! Actually, we figured out that the frozen blueberries at Costco are cheaper per pound than the u-pick, but then you don't get all the lovely fresh ones :) So far we have had big bowls of plain blueberries, blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins are on the baking plan for today! Blueberries are one of my favorite fruits and they are always too pricey for me in the store. I plan on going again next week to replenish my stash of fresh. We picked 11 pounds and I put one gallon-size bag in the freezer so far.

I really like taking the kids to see where food comes from...ok so everyone says this now, but it is important. Really, even when we have driven an hour out to a farm, it has been worth it. Last year when we went out to a pumpkin patch, they had a mini petting zoo and a hay bale maze/playground in a barn that the kids loved. Here is a link to WA state pick your own farms : http://www.pickyourown.org/WA.htm. I had no idea there were blueberry farms in Bellevue! And of course, supporting our local food producers is very important too.

So, if you are looking for a great activity, maybe pack a picnic lunch and head out to a farm to for some u-pick artichokes :)

Meal Planning

I was wondering what you all did for meal planning. Any methods, hints, or creative ideas?

I've tried various plans in the past months, some of which have worked better than others. This month I decided to do something new. As the start of our new pay period approached (we each get paid about every two weeks) I searched cookbooks and scoured the web for recipes that looked completely delicious, totally awesome, and made my husband excited too. I chose about ten main recipes, made an ingredients list from them, and added a few easy ones in as well (i.e. Trader Joe's Orange Chicken, frozen enchiladas and taquitos, and organic mac and cheese) for lunches or days when I didn't have time (or motivation) to cook. I wrote the final list of about 20 meals (including the easy ones) on a piece of computer paper and posted it on our fridge.

This method has done two things for us. One, the anticipation of awesome food made the slightly crappier meals at the end of the pay period easier to handle. Two, it has made cooking and eating a more collaborative experience for us. We like looking at the sheet together and deciding what to eat each night. Okay, I might enjoy this activity slightly more than Charlie, but he's a good sport about it.

Anyway, I'd be really interested to know what has worked for you!

Means of Grace

Thanks to the Flylady, my kitchen sink has been shiny and beautiful for a week so far, I've stayed on top of the dishes (an absolute friggin' miracle), I've been cooking more, 86'ed lots of mismatched tupperware, and even cleaned under the sink. Gross. But I feel so awesome!

I was skeptical last week but at this point am quite convinced that the Flylady is a means of grace. For real.

Per Lacey's request....oh flylady :)

Many, many years ago I was told about www.flylady.net at MOPS. I did very few chores growing up and the result was once I had my own household, I had no idea how to take care of it! On top of that, I am easily distracted and tend to turn a small project into a complete overhaul...this drawer is messy, why not pull out every drawer and organize the WHOLE kitchen...6 hours later!!! Flylady is all about teaching people who aren't "born organized", as they call it, daily habits that will keep your house clean all the time.

Yes, Lacey, it is both ridiculous and inspiring :) I will say when I stick with the flylady program, my house is at its best. Then I start bucking the structure and end up in my disorganized "habits" again. I really don't like structure...which isn't healthy or fair to the rest of my family.

I have noticed as my kids are getting older, that I am passing my ways onto my kids though...not good. So, we are trying to stick with it and my kids now have their own kids' control journals (this is all on the website). This is a new experiment, so we will see how it goes.

If you naturally stay on top of your housework, don't ever feel overwhelmed, don't have clutter piles here and there, and don't panic and go on a cleaning streak when people are coming over, you probably don't need to check it out :) But I have found it to be useful in my life. They teach you how to cut things down into small steps, keep on top or your steps and get your house into a more peaceful place.

The next thing I would like to make a daily habit is what flylady calls "swish and swipe," which is basically quickly cleaning your sink, mirror, and toilet each day before leaving the bathroom. This way your bathroom always looks good. Those Norwex cloths would be good for this! I am going to try out using regular microfiber cloths and some vinegar/water spray.

It is not for everyone, but for a certain type of person it is very helpful. They send out daily email reminders, each week is a new cleaning zone to concentrate on and they send out daily missions in the zone. For example, this week is the kitchen and here is today's mission is to scrub the counter tops.

It is all free, I am guessing they must make money off the products they sell. I have ordered one dusting product and it was really good quality. I am very tempted to order their toilet brush, it looks intense! So....that is my take on flylady :)

Housekeeping: Fly Lady

Carla, maybe you can post more extensively about this website... I have found it to be both ridiculous and inspiring :)

FlyLady

Deals: Urban Spoils

Mars Hill people might already know about this site, but I wanted to mention it today anyway. Urban Spoils displays groupon, livingsocial, and at least 5 other Seattle-area deals on one awesome website. I have signed up for their daily emails and unsubscribed from the others in order to get less clutter in my inbox. Tons of great date night ideas... today there is are offers for wine-tasting in Edmonds and discounts for Pizza Hut (for that extra-fancy date night you've been longing for) and other stuff that is a bit less interesting to me (20 units of Botox? I need it!) ... anyway, I think it's definitely worth your time to check out the site once in awhile.

As an aside, it appears that google/blogspot is having chronic problems with peoples' comments not showing up. It seems that they're working around the clock to fix it. Sounds very boring for them. But until they do, I remain disappointed that the blog can't be as interactive as I would like, but maybe we can respond to other peoples' posts by creating new ones each time? Lame.

Oil Cleansing Method-cheap and good face wash

As a few people know, I am a bit of a hippy in that I like to use things that are all natural. This all came out of research I did after my husband had cancer, not from living in a commune :) Going to a natural foods store or a supplement store to buy all natural products can be pricey though, so I make a lot of my own. This year my skin has gotten super sensitive and I started getting a lot of irritation on my face. Even my all natural cleaner was bothering my skin. So, I researched and researched. Plain yogurt works well, but you have to grab it from the fridge before heading to the shower and half the time I forgot. Other options were a bit messy...
Well, 2 months ago I found this page : http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/ and I have had great success with it. I keep a small bottle in the shower, it travels well, removes even waterproof mascara, doesn't strip my skin, has given my skin a nice glow, and it is cheap!!!! From reading it can work well for all skin types, oily to dry. So, I am sold :)

My method is to massage it in for a minute at the beginning of the shower, let it sit on skin for the whole shower and then use a washcloth to remove at the end. I usually don't wash my face at night because I don't wear face makeup...and I'm lazy! But if I wore eye makeup I will massage it on at night and then just remove with a washcloth. I use extra virgin olive oil and castor oil right now, but recently bought sunflower seed oil and will try that next go around.
Currently I follow this with a spritz of rosewater and then a burts bees face lotion I really like. I have yet to find a good recipe to make a face lotion myself, they all end up too greasy.

Hope you are all enjoying the nice weather!

Food: Bread Pudding

Bread pudding with caramelized orange sauce was the chosen resurrection recipe for our stale bread. Kind of labor intensive, but Charlie helped me and it was definitely worth the time spent. Below is a link to the recipe. I would recommend trying it when you have a day off and feel like spending some happy housewife time in the kitchen. (Note: it needs to be started the night before.)

Bread Pudding with Orange Caramel Sauce

As an aside, don't be frightened by the picture on the website. It makes the pudding look like a bleeding corndog. Mine did not turn out like that.

Getting Creative

For a good challenge, I'm trying to refrain from spend any more money on groceries until our next pay period begins on the fifth. The FIFTH, ladies! Five more days and though the pantry is quite full the pickings seem slim. Why is that? Oh, I know... it's because we eat all of our favorite food right away, which means any leftover food is left over for a reason. Quinoa, anyone? Cabbage? Let the fun begin!

I took an inventory of the usable ingredients in our kitchen and have begun searching for creative ways to use these random items. I turn to trusty old google and ask...

"things to do with stale bread"
"meals that hide the taste of black beans"
"is there another use for canned tuna besides casserole?"
"i love top ramen but am shamed by my friends for its msg content. what do i do?"

Chow.com had a great answer to the first question in its list of 10 uses for stale bread. My favorite is, not surprisingly, number 6: Bread and Chocolate... "A great snack or an informal dessert that is especially good when made with a baguette. Top the bread with a piece of bittersweet chocolate, and toast it until it the bread is golden brown and the chocolate starts to melt. Drizzle with good extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt, and serve."

I put off the other questions for now because today, happily, was my day to make blueberry scones (see earlier post). Full Circle Farms blessed us with blueberries on last Thursday and I've been excited to make them ever since. Breakfast tomorrow is going to be absolutely decadent!

Not exactly homemade but...

We are leaving for camping tomorrow, so I have been stocking up for the trip this week. I am thrilled to have found Vitamin Water Zero! I cannot in good conscience let my children drink gatorade, but inevitably we run into this issue when we are vacationing with other families, they pull out gatorade and my kids want some! So, I was super excited to find vitamin water zero. It is sweetened with stevia, so when I am abstaining from sugar I can even have it! All the good stuff about gatorade, none of the bad! I am enjoying a squeezed lemonade flavor tonight and it is yummy! This will be my one to grab for trips, hoping to find it at Costco soon.

On a homemade note, I have really been into making my own lemonade and limeade this summer and sweetening it with stevia of course. Here is a recipe that I really like:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/best-lemonade.html
I even made some up at youth camp last week, delicious and good for you!
Have a good weekend everyone.

Food: Chicken Tetrazzini

Hello all!

I'm Sharla. 21 years old, married to my highschool sweetheart, and obsessed with homemaking and cooking. I've learned a lot in the past year that I've been married (our anniversary is on August 9th WAHOO!) and Lacey asked me to contribute to this blog. so here I am, contributing I'm excited to help other wives like myself, and also be helped by all of you!! I've decided to post a recipe that my mom always made when we didnt have a ton of money, or she needed some leftovers for the next day because of busy lives, etc. It freezes awesome, is great when you're making a meal for someone, It's my ultimate comfort food. You know that thing you ask for when you go to visit your parents house?.... this is mine! It's basically fool proof as long as you can cube chicken and chop an onion :-)

Chicken Tetrazzini:

Ingredients:

1 lb of spaghetti

3 chicken breasts, cubed

1/4 stick of butter , or equivalent amount of olive oil

1 onion diced

1 mini jar of pimentos ( find by the olives at the store)

3 cans of evaporated milk

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

salt and pepper to taste

parmesan cheese to top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cook spaghetti until "Al Dente" and place in 9X13 dish

Sautee onion in butter or olive oil in large pot on medium heat until tender

Add cubed chicken and cook until done (sorry i forgot to take a picture of this part)

Add evaporated milk, cream of chicken soup and cream of mushroom soup to pot, stir until mixed well

Add pimentos and Salt and Pepper to taste ( if you use organic soups, you'll probably need to add a little more salt, but if you use the canned Campbells soups, you wont need to add much at all)


Cook 15 minutes stirring occasionally on medium heat or until it starts to thicken and get "bubbly and yummy" (as my mom says)



Poor or Ladle thickened mixture over spaghetti in 9X13 dish

I also use the ladle or a fork to move the noodles around so the sauce can make its way through to the bottom

Here is what it should look like before topping with parmesan cheese:

Cover with parmesan cheese

Place in heated oven for 30-45 minutes or until just starts to brown on top

Serve with sourdough bread and salad! Enjoy!

P.S. It's even better the next day for leftovers!

You can also double the recipe and make enough for 2 casseroles and put one in the freezer for a night that you don't want to cook. I do this a lot!

Cheers!

Sharla

"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fattened ox and hatred with it. " (Proverbs 15:17)

Food: Barefoot Contessa

I've been pretty much obsessed with Ina Garten cooking since Stacy T. loaned me "Barefoot Contessa at Home" this weekend. I actually walked in the house and got happier just because I saw the book sitting in our living room. So great.

This is her website, which not only has recipes but full menu ideas for special occasions (like an Anniversary Breakfast). It's borderline gourmet, perfect for where I'm at in my chef-life right now.

Read the following quote for some homemaking encouragement. It inspired me to leave a lamp on and some jazzy a.m. radio station playing for Charlie when he got home late last night. He was happy and surprised!

"I didn't always know how to make a home. It took time and lots of experimentation. Over the thirty-eight years we've been married, I've tried everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I've evolved a style that seems to work for me: big sofas for a nap on Sunday afternoon; comfy reading chairs with good light and a view out the window for daydreaming; great CDs piled up by the stereo; and my favorite old videos next to the television. I like knowing that there are twenty new magazines on the coffee table, delicious French teas in the pantry, and expensive bath bubbles next to the tub.

A good home should gather you up in its arms like a warm cashmere blanket, soothe your hurt feelings, and prepare you to go back out into that big bad world tomorrow all ready to fight the dragons."

Here you go Lace

So I really have nothing helpful to say, but Lacey wants me to blog so here I go- I'm blogging. :) I do have a question for the Momma's out there (apparently just Carla, at this point). We pray with Bekah every night before bed and lately she's been saying she doesn't want to pray. Have you dealt with that with your kids? If so, what did you say? We are struggling with telling her that she has to pray because we want her to want to do it and not do it out of obligation. So any wisdom that anyone has on that would be lovely!

I am also excited to see how this blog develops and I hope we're all able to help each other serve our husbands and families through this. Thank you dear Lacey, for starting this fun adventure!

Free Redbox Movies

Two Redbox promo codes that have worked well for us:

DVDONME (seems to work once per credit/debit card)

BREAKROOM (don't know how reliable it is but I think it worked for us last time)

Yay for free entertainment! Charlie and I have spent far too much money lately so we're tightening our belts and searching for free dates the rest of the month. We're so excited ;)

Three Cheers for Lacey!

This is a really fun idea Lacey, bravo :) To jump right in I thought I would share another fun website : http://www.savvyhousekeeping.com/
And then one of the first sites I found, the one that gave me the laundry soap recipe :) http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/index.html
I have made a lot of her food recipes and she has some really great ideas for saving money.
I am really looking forward to watching this blog develop!

Food: City Fruit Tree Map

Charlie showed me this awesome map that tells you where all of the fruit trees are in the greater Seattle area.

Technically you're supposed to ask the owner before harvesting any fruit, but who am I to hinder your fun? Just the messenger.

Fruit Tree Map

While we're on the subject of fruit, I have been craving lemon blueberry scones recently. They sound perfectly delicious for some of the beautiful summer mornings we've been having. Here's a recipe that sounds great:

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

Any thoughts on where to get inexpensive blueberries? I was at QFC and sadly left empty-handed because of how much they cost. Input appreciated.

--Lacey

Nutrition Myths Debunked

I found the following article in an attempt to determine whether brown sugar is better for us than white sugar. Turns out it's not. At least according to this article. Has anyone heard something different?

Other interesting myths busted: apparently brown eggs don't differ in either taste nor nutritional value. I think that will save me some money next time. But the brown eggs do make me feel so farm-y.

Top 10 Diet and Nutrition Myths Debunked

Food: Tortilla Chips!

Alright, domesticity is achieved step by step, and I am here to tell you about one of my victorious first achievements in things homemade... delicious tortilla chips. It's quite easy and I think doing it this way might be cheaper than buying the real thing. And less salty too, if you choose. Fabulous.

I got this mini-recipe from AllRecipes.com, a site I highly recommend. They offer so many (sometimes too many?) reviews and revisions. For example, 83,000 people reviewed this particular recipe. Really? 83,000? It's extreme. Anyway, here you go!

1. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
2. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes.
   

So simple.

--Lacey

Awesome Blog

I just thought I'd share this article from one of my favorite blogs. I hope you all enjoy it and find it as convicting as I did. :) www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/04/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-home.html

Date: Canoes at UW Arboretum

Charlie and I rented a canoe at the Waterfront Activities Center (next to Husky Stadium) after dinner last week. You can canoe underneath the 520 bridge, through lily pads and into lagoons and jungles. It was adventurous and super fun! We only had an hour to canoe because the rental office closes at 8:30 p.m. (not 9 p.m. like it says on the website), but it was enough time - we had a lot of fun and didn't feel too rushed. Plus, being on the lake with the sun going down was completely gorgeous.

Parking: there's construction in front of the Waterfront Activities Center building but you can turn off Montlake just south of the stadium and follow the make-shift road to the parking lot. Costs about $5.00 an hour to park, but there are side streets on the southeast side of Montlake Bridge where I think you could find parking for free and just walk over to the bridge to the building. Follow signs to the canoe rental window and you should be good to go!

COST:
Canoe rental for one hour: $5 with UW student discount, $8 without
Parking for one hour: $5 to park in front of the building

--Lacey

this blog is for you, lady!

My hope for this site is that it will inspire and aid us in this incredible and daunting task of taming our hearts and ordering our homes so that we might know and share Jesus more in our families and in all of our daily tasks.

Please feel free to post anything you stumble across that might help bring joy, fun, and much-needed wisdom into the lives of other young wives and mothers. Share date ideas, recipes, verses, homemaking tips, and any other gosh-darned thing that might help us help our husbands, our marriages, our (future) children, and improve everyone's overall sanity and well-being. All to the glory of God!

With love,
Lacey