In The Refiner's Fire

 I have to say that Holy Week - Palm Sunday to Easter with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday is one of my favorite times of the year.   I spent part of the week with my parents, giving my Mom a break from chemo care and loving on my Dad.  I loved it!   A few years ago they took a trip to the Holy Land and my Dad had put together a photo slide show of  Holy Week with actual pictures of the locations of the events that happened.  We spent Palm Sunday looking at that slide show and reading scripture together since his white count was too low to attend worship (Mom went by herself that day).  I loved that time spent with my Dad.   He is actually doing very well, though tired and weak.  I loved that too. Wednesday we had a Seder Meal as part of the learning before First Communion.   The children were very attentive and Missy, being the youngest one there, even had a reading part!  We decided to make that par...

...continued from Good Friday.... Where you there when God raised him from the tomb? Where you there when God raised him from the tomb? Oh,, Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Where you there when God raised him from the tomb? Christ is Risen! He has Risen Indeed! Hallelujah! Thine is the Glory! By Edmond Budry, translated by R. Birch Hyle Tune: George F. Handel, Adapted Thine is the glory Risen, conqu'ring Son; Endless of the vict'ry Thou o'er death has won! Angels in bright raiment Rolled the stone away Kept the folded grave clothes  Where thy body lay. Thine in the glory, Risen, conqu'ring Son; Endless is the vict'ry Thou o'er death hast won! Lo, Jesus meets thee Risen from the tomb! Lovingly he greets thee,  Scatters fear and gloom; Let his church with gladness Hymns of triumph sing, For the Lord now liveth; Death hath lost its sting! Thine is the glory, Risen, conqu'ring ...

Where You There? Negro Spiritual Where you there when they crucified my Lord?   Where you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Where you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Where you there when they nailed him to the tree? Oh, Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Where you there when they nailed him to the tree? Where you there when they pierced him in the side? Where you there when they pierced him in the side? Oh, Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they pierced him in the side? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Where you there when they laid him in the tomb? Oh, Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Where you there when they laid him in the tomb? ... to be continued on Sunday morning....

Love Consecrates the Humblest Act by Silas B. McManus  Tune attributed to Lucius Chapin Love consecrates the humblest act And haloes mercy's deeds; It sheds a benediction sweet And hallows human needs. When in the shadow of the cross Christ knelt and washed the feet Of his disciples he gave us A sign of love complete. Love serves and willing stoops to serve; What Christ in love so true Has freely done for one and all, Let us now freely do.

Irish Oatmeal with Maple Cream and my cup of coffee!  Super Yummy! We've gotten in a routine with our meals lately and I was hoping to break out a bit this week.  Not so much!  We're still eating super simple since our schedule is still pretty crazy right now (especially with Easter right around the corner!).  I did make homemade Energy Bites this week (a recipe I hadn't tried before) and they turned out good so we'll have those in the menu this week!  I'll probably take some in my lunch whenever we're listed as having leftovers since they're easy and quick to eat. A co-worker of mine has been treating us with really snazzy baked goods lately and when I asked for a recipe for some absolutely delicious cookies she recommended a check out a certain cookbook instead. So I checked it out from the library this week. And I've been drooling. So glad that John just smiles indulgently and lets my imagination run! We're trying the Maple Cornbread...

Irish oatmeal with maple cream!  Super Yummy! New recipes to try. Plenty of food to eat and try new recipes with. A public library to frequent. A whole day at home with out anywhere to run to. A nice long nap. Spring break for the children this past week and their excitement about heading back to school Monday. How well my children are reading... ...and playing the piano... ....and writing. A castle, complete with moat and alligator  and alligator eggs, made with homemade play dough.  Playing games with my children. Looking out the window and seeing a snow fort in the backyard. That the ice is finally melting around here! That the sun has been shining lately. My time that I spend with my wonderful husband..  Weekly date nights. Daily time to reconnect. Hugs and kisses. Morning coffee. Morning quiet time to read my Bible and pray. Those first snuggles from my munchkins each morning. ...

Again, I don't have a photo this week - I had put all the groceries away and was putting the bags back into the cupboard and I realized I hadn't taken a photo!  Ugh.  Oh, well, we did go shopping anyway.... We actually didn't have to be anywhere today except for John who had his normal Saturday morning Bible study breakfast this morning, so he did the shopping today.  LOVE that man!  I'm enjoying a day where I don't have to run anywhere and some grocery deals too. Here's what he got: Store #1: Old Orchard Apple Juice 64oz 1 @ $1.99 with store coupon Store brand canned chili beans 1 @ $0.89 3lb Chub of 93% lean Ground Beef 1 @ $8.97 "Fresh" Whole White Mushrooms 1lb 1 @ $0.98 with store coupon (they're not canned in any case!) Blackberries 6oz 2 @ 2/$5 Store #1 Total: $17.83 Store #2: Store Brand Baking Powder 72oz 1 @ 1.99 Gold Medal All Purpose Flour 5lb 1 @ $1.98 with store coupon 16oz Gillette Men's Body Wash 3 @ $3 - $1 -$1...

Well, this week started off on a not so good foot.  I was woken up this morning by Buddy standing 3 inches in front of my face and shouting "MOM! It's raining in the basement! Come QUICK!"    Darn it - he was right.  It was raining in the basement.  Courtesy of a shower curtain that hadn't been  put all the way into the shower and water that rain into the hallway and then down through the floor.   That was followed by forgetting my aerobic shoes and my microphone at home without time to get them before my Jazzercise class today - fortunately I was able to borrow a pair of shoes and there was another microphone I could use, though it wasn't the best quality.   On the up side, I had shoes to work out in, my science class went swimmingly well and  my co-worker brought in the most delicious chocolate cupcakes and shared - so I had a really yummy desert after my class today.  John made our yummy salmon dinner and now ...

Cranberry Cookie Bars - these were SOOOO Yummy! I seem to be continually dropping the ball with posting about our shopping trips. I promise I will get back to that!  In the meantime, rest assured, we are eating very well. The Cranberry Cookie Bars pictured I made back in December or early January (I can't remember which now) and I've been eyeing the rest of the whole frozen cranberries I have, thinking I should make more. Maybe this week - we'll see! We had a lot more frozen soup and stew in the freezers that I had thought, so we've been using those for easy and quick meals.  It's nice to have the space in our freezer and I'm hoping to go back to having the upstairs freezer (the one above the fridge) for things we're currently using or trying to use up rather than for longer term storage, like the small chest freezer we have downstairs.  We're getting there! Here's what we're eating this week: Sunday, March 10:    Breakfast: Cereal...

I had a bit of a revelation as I battled pneumonia over Christmas this year. We went into Christmas with my Dad being diagnosed with colon cancer a week and a half before Christmas and having surgery exactly one week before.   We had all just had the flu at our house - in fact, I had a fever of 104F the day my mom called to tell me the diagnosis for my Dad.  I had just barely managed to drive my also ill son and myself home from school too - John literally caught me as I fell through the front door. That was Friday afternoon - my mom called Friday night. Sunday morning I woke up without a fever and my husband was just getting one.  The children were all better by that time (of course) and were enjoying endless junk food and videos while Mom and Dad were too ill to care what they did or ate.  I remember pounding the pillow with all my meager strength and shouting at John "You can NOT get sick! You can NOT get sick!"  Because, of course, that works. :) Two...

Being a mom is hard.   I don't care if you are a full time wife and mommy, a work from home mommy, a going to school mommy or some type of working outside the home mommy - part time or full time or somewhere in between. Or some combination of the above. Caring for, raising and nurturing the next generation is a full time job. Never mind taking care of a home, finding time for friends and extended family and loving on your spouse. I've never been one to believe or been limited by others expectations about what I should or could or would do with my time, space, family and energy.   I work outside of my home by choice and I go to school to obtain a PhD by choice .  Not because I "have to."  There's no "have to" about it - it's all about choice. This is not just my choice, but a choice made with my husband and for our family. We have always truly believed that this is the best choice for our family and that this is truly what God wants me...

I'm quite pleased that I've gotten quite a bit done the last few week.  And yet, somehow, I still seem to be behind where I want to be.  How on earth does that happen?   I think I have a time warp that follows me around and steals my time when I'm not looking. We also made the decision for me to go and visit my parents for a few days in a few weeks and relieve my Mom from some of the chemo care that she is doing for my Dad.  John kindly rearranged his work schedule to handle the children's schedule for 3 work days by himself - I'm so grateful for a husband who is willing to make those kind of sacrifices!  Since that decision was made, I'm sleeping better but I've been so very weary that I've been needing to get more sleep. After about a week of that, I'm just now starting to come out of that so I'm guessing I was more worried about my Dad and when I was going to get down to see both of them than I thought.  Looking forward to that trip and hopi...

Butternut Squash Soup, French Bread, and Grapefruit Good heavens - I think time just got away from me.  I certainly didn't mean to take over a week - and almost two! - off from posting.  Thanks for sticking with me here! Grocery budget has been good and today John and the kiddos went to Sam's while I taught Jazzercise. They are in the same area and it was a great way to combine trips. We had a snow day here in the Twin Cities - at least some of us did - and the kids were excited to get out of house for a while.  We had left the snow pants and boots at school yesterday so they couldn't play outside today. We bought fish and TP with the money we had saved up from previous shopping trips (including the past 2 weeks) and spent part of our grocery budget for this week as well on a case of mandarin oranges and some pretzels for the children to take as a snack to school. Good all the way around! So here's out menu for this week: Sunday, March 3:    Breakfast:...