Our words to our children

The focus this week was on how a woman's words can affect her children. It was very encouraging. I wanted to share just a couple quotes from this chapter that really touched me.

"It is an awesome responsibility, this job called motherhood.
We have the privilege of shaping and molding an eternal soul for a very short,
very fleeting moment of time. And one of the primary ways
we accomplish this feat is with the words we speak."

"The most important traits we praise are those that exhibit
godly character....If even a sprout of these fruits peeks
through the soil, a wise mother will fertilize the
sprout with positive words in hopes of a bountiful harvest."

Mrs. Jaynes also encourages us as mothers (and really any woman who has contact with children) to pray scripture for our children. Also, to make sure and let our children know we are praying for them. One of the Scriptures she suggests is Psalm 97:10 "Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." I wanted to share an example of turning a verse into a prayer for our children. Below is this verse turned into my prayer for my children.

I pray that my children will love you Lord and hate evil. That
You would preserve their souls; and that you Lord would
deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

Casserole Cozy: My experiment :)

Several months ago I began looking for a casserole cozy crochet pattern. I really wanted something that would fit my 9X13 pans to make it easier to transport them to church dinners and other potlucks. I found nothing. I did find several sewn cozies but I really wanted a crocheted one for two reasons: 1) I'm much more comfortable with my crocheting than with my sewing and 2) I have several random skeins of yarn that I am trying to find smaller projects to use them up.

When I didn't find a pattern I decided to try my hand at making up my own pattern. This pattern should work up fairly quickly but because it was trial and error it took me a few weeks (and a few sanity breaks) to finish.

I'll post the instructions but please understand: 1) This is my first time attempting to do a crochet pattern 2) I haven't tested this pattern. I did double check all the stitch counts but I can't guarantee that I didn't make a few mistakes. If you use this and find any mistakes please let me know. Enjoy :)

Crocheted Casserole Cozy
(fits 9X13 pan)

Materials needed:
Size F hook (3.75mm)
8oz medium worsted weight yarn
2 18 inch zippers
1/8 yd of duck cloth
Sewing machine and pins

Stitches & abbreviations:
CH - chain
SC - single crochet
SL ST - slip stitch
DECSC - decrease single crochet
INCSC - increase single crochet

Chain 41
Row 1: SC in second chain from hook. SC in each stitch across (40 SC)
Row 2: CH 1 turn SC in each stitch across (40 SC)
Row 3-27: Repeat row 2
Begin working in the round. CH 1 (this counts as 1st SC) SC down side of 27 rows just completed place 3 SC in corner and work around the rest of the piece placing 3 SC in each corner. SL ST to first SC, do not turn!
CH 1, 1 SC in each stitch around for 4 rounds.
In fifth round you will again increase. CH 1 SC in each stitch placing 3 SC in each corner stitch. SL ST to first SC.
CH 1, 1 SC in each stitch around until you reach the top of your dish (for me this a total of 15 rounds from start of rounds to top of dish)
Beginning of cover:
CH 1, turn. SC across 45 stitches.
(CH 1 turn. INCSC in first SC, SC in each stitch across INCSC in last stitch.)
Continue ( ) for 6 more rows (59 stitches in last increase row)
(CH 1 turn, SC across each stitch (59 stitches))
Continue ( )until a total of 22 rows has been completed (this row count includes your starting and increasing rows)
(CH 1 turn, DECSC in first stitch. SC in each stitch across DECSC over last stitch)
Continue ( ) for 6 more rows (45 stitches in last decrease row)
Fasten off and weave in ends.
Turn cozy inside-out. Attach zippers with pins, making sure they meet up in the front center. Sew to cover and body.
To make the handles I used a 2 1/4 inch by 33 inch strip of duck cloth for each handle. I simply folded the edges into the center (along the long edge) and stitched each side down. I then pinned them to the bottom (over lapping until I had the right amount of handle on top) of the cozy and stitched thru all layers of cloth and yarn.
* I placed each handle 8 stitches in from the side edge of my SC rows on bottom. I also stitched them in a rectangle across the width of the duck cloth handle and down about 6 inches when I attached the handles so they would be well attached and sturdy.
** One thing I made sure of when placing the handles is that I had enough handle to fold over the edge and out of the way when I unzipped the cozy.

You could always skip the zippers and just make a button loop when you did your last DECSC row and attach a button to the front of the cozy body. And of course you can use whatever method you like for making handles..this is just what I came up with.

Two "original" recipes

I know there are many variations to these but this is what I came up with and both recipes were a hit here so I thought I'd share.

Baked Southwest Eggrolls
1 lb ground turkey or chicken
1 green pepper diced small
1 onion diced small
3TB olive oil, divided use
1 envelope fajita seasoning mix
2 TB water
1 can whole kernel corn, drained well
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained well
8oz Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos
33 egg roll wrappers (you'll need 2 pkgs of wrappers)
Salsa
Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1 TB oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meat. Add onion and pepper and cook for a few minutes (just until onion starts to soften). Add seasoning mix, water, corn and beans; stir together to coat and let cook. Shred cheese. Turn off heat and allow filling to cool for 15-20 minutes. Working with one egg roll wrapper at a time (keep the other wrappers covered with a damp paper towel) place 2-3 TB filling towards one point, top with about 2 tsp cheese. Wet edges of wrapper and fold up "egg roll" style. Place on greased baking sheet. Continue until all filling is used. Lightly brush rolls with olive oil. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden and crispy. Serve with salsa and sour cream for dipping.


Homemade Fish Sticks
2lbs frozen mild fish (I used flounder)
1 cup flour
Salt
Pepper
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups coarse corn meal
Garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In pie plate mix flour, salt & pepper. In another pie plate place egg whites. In third pie plate mix bread crumbs, corn meal and garlic powder. Cut fish into "stick size" (the flounder fillets I got were small so simply cutting them lengthwise worked great). Pat dry. Dredge each fish piece in flour, then egg white, then bread crumb mixture. Place on lightly greased baking sheet (I used a baking stone which worked great without any oil). Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to try making "dessert" egg rolls with bananas and chocolate chips. I found several recipes online but they all say to fry the egg rolls. We're going to try this baking method. I'll let you know how it works out.

Some Sunday Scriptures :)

Catchy title, huh? :)

This weeks chapter in "The Power of a Woman's Words" focused a lot on encouraging vs. discouraging and how our reactions to situations can profoundly affect those around us. At the end of the chapter she talks about how God encourages us thru His Word. I thought I would share some Scriptures that have been encouraging to me thru many phases of my life:

Joshua 1:9 - "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest"

2 Corinthians 12:9 - "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness"

Isaiah 41:13 - "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee"

Psalm 62:7-8 - "In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us."

John 14:18 - "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"

These are just a few. How about you? What are some the verses you turn to for encouragement?

DC Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from our DC trip:

In front of the Washington Monument

The White House

The Museum of Natural History

The Capital Building

The Air and Space Museum

The Lincoln Memorial

Looking down the mall from the Lincoln Memorial

The Korean War Memorial

The Vietnam War Memorial

The WWII Memorial (the entire center is a fountain
but of course it was not turned on this time of year)

DC Hits & Misses

This past weekend my husband and I went away for a couple of nights. We had been wanting to get away for some kid-free time before baby #4 arrives and, thanks to some credit card miles, were able to do so with free airfare.

Washington D.C. in January might sound like a strange place to pick but we chose this for a few reasons. 1) I had never been before and he had not been since high school 2) Most of the sights & museums are free 3) I had no interest in going someplace warm where I might have to get into a bathing suit at 6 months pregnant ;)

We arrived in D.C. on Friday night and took a taxi to the hotel. This I'll count as a miss because I should have done more research on the Metro stops and rather than spending almost $17 to go about 4 miles we would have only had to spend about $1.65 since there is a Metro stop at the airport with a direct line to the block where our hotel was.

As for the hotel, this was definitely a hit. We stayed at The Sofitel Lafayette Square. The staff was very friendly, concierge was helpful and the room was great. It wasn't overly fancy but nice. The biggest "point-getter" for the hotel is definitely it's location. We were one block from the White House and about 3 blocks from the National Mall plus within walking distance to many restaurants and most of the museums.

After checking into the hotel we walked to a nearby restaurant called "Mezza Luna". It was more of a tapas bar, which was great because neither of us were very hungry.

Saturday we spent the day walking...pretty much everywhere. We started with seeing the White House (we did not take a tour inside), then went to the National Aquarium. The Aquarium would be another miss. It is not free ($9/pp for ages 12 and up) and is very small. We spent about 1/2 hour there, did not rush and still saw everything. It is literally a room in the basement of the Dept. of Commerce where they have tanks around the edges and a few tanks around a central block. It was very disappointing for the money we spent.

Our next stop on Saturday was the Museum of Natural History. This was free and was very interesting...and huge. We spent 3 hours here and more browsed than really looked at everything. We did see the "highlights" such as the hope diamond and the dinosaur fossils. My favorite room was probably the mineral room. It's fascinating to see how each one naturally forms so different. Some form in cube shapes, others in "V" shapes and others form small "hairs" on them. The minerals were beautiful and yet another example of God's creativity.

After the Natural History Museum we walked a block or so to the National Archives. This was another of my favorite stops. It was amazing to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and other historical documents. When looking at these it is easy to see the care and time that went into drafting these documents and why they are still so important today.

I'll pause here to say that one of the advantages of going to DC in the winter is that the crowds are much smaller. We waited about 1/2 hour in line to see the documents at the Archives and, while still very busy, the museums were not over crowded and it was easy to see everything we wanted to see.

After the Archives we walked across the street to one of the National Art Galleries. Since most of the museums close around 5PM we didn't have much time here but still enjoyed looking at the paintings and sculptures. Another interesting display they had here was the original scale model cast of the Lincoln Memorial. It was interesting to read the thought process and planning that went into making this monument. After the museum closed we walked the rest of the distance to the Capital building and were able to get some nice outside shots before heading back to the hotel.

Our last stop Saturday night was Levante's for dinner. This Mediterranean restaurant was nice, the service was pleasant and the portions were huge. We could have easily fed both of us with one dinner, needless to say neither of us finished our dinner but it was good.

Sunday was another day of walking. It was drizzling when we headed out so we decided to take advantage of the Metro. The DC Metro is a hit/miss. The pricing is crazy and while you can get an all day pass it's confusing that they don't have set rates. Each stop is a different rate so you have to sort of plan out your stops to figure out how much you need to put on a fare card. Once this is done; however, it's very easy to use and find your way around town. As a side note, my husband enjoyed the fact that the game "Fallout" got the graphics for the DC Metro correct :)

We started out on Sunday taking the Metro to the Air and Space Museum. We were here for about 4 hours and didn't go to any of the shows or see some of the exhibits. It's just that big, you could easily spend a full day at each of the National Museums. Again, this was free admission and would be a great place to take kids as there are several interactive displays.

After the museum we took the Metro to a stop closer to the other end of the National Mall so that we could see the monuments. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and this was by far my favorite. Not only is it beautifully constructed but the quotes on the walls are inspiring and the view down the mall is stunning. The other monuments we walked to were the Korean War Memorial, The Vietnam War Memorial and the WWII Memorial. All of these were very touching and it was humbling to really get a sense of the sacrifice that our Veterans have made over the years. We ended with the Washington Monument, which is just big!

For our last dinner in DC we went to Georgia Brown's Restaurant. This was a favorite for both of us. The atmosphere was great; it was relaxed, yet elegant, not pretentious at all. As my husband put it: "they're not trying to be more than they are". The staff was extremely friendly without being fake and the food was delicious.

Monday morning we did take the Metro to the airport, which was very easy and much less expensive than a taxi ride.

I know this post is long and if you've read this far I hope you have enjoyed it. I wanted to write this all down while it is fresh in my memory to look back on in the future and see what we did and didn't like. I'll be doing another picture post of some of the sights we saw.

"The Power of a Woman's Words"

I had mentioned last week that I was waiting to receive a few books I had ordered. One of those books was titled "The Power of a Woman's Words" by Sharon Jaynes. I have to admit that I hesitated in ordering this book because some of the Amazon reviews stated that there wasn't a lot of God's Word in the book. The impression these reviewers gave was that this was more of a self-help rather than how God can help us to grow in this area.

Despite my hesitations (and because of several other reviews that highly praised this book) I decided to order both the book and study guide. I'm happy to say that I'm very thankful that I did! While I do agree that the actual book has less Scripture than other books I've read the study guide more than makes up for this. While I have only gotten to the second chapter (each study guide chapter is long, and meant to be studied over a week) I have already been both blessed and convicted by the things Mrs. Jaynes shares.

One particularly convicting passage that she references is Matthew 12:36-37:

"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. For
by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned."

I also want to share a couple quotes from the book that really spoke to me:

"We would never carelessly fling a lit match out of a car window while
passing a national forest, and yet many times we carelessly toss fiery
words about as we pass through life" (discussing James 3:3-6)

"How long will our words echo in the hearts and minds of our children,
our husbands, our friends, our fellow believers, and the world? For
all eternity, my friends. To the end of the age"

A very crafty week

Most weeks will not be this "crafty" but this was a bit of a different week. Tomorrow is a joint birthday party for one of our nieces and nephews. After just going thru all the Christmas shopping (and making a goal to make more gifts) I decided to make the birthday gifts. All of the patterns for these projects can be found at this site

Purse for my niece (the flower is from another project so it is not the one
in the pattern)

Crocheted cars (this was my first attempt at toys and while they came
out "okay" I can definitely see much room for improvement)

I also finished this sweater for our new little guy on the way and sewed the fleece hooded scarf for Hailey (although I forgot to take a picture)

Lessons from Peter's failure.

This week I am "between" Bible studies (I'm waiting for two new books to arrive in the mail). So I decided to look thru some "random" books on our bookshelves. Of course, nothing is random and God know just when we need to read or hear something.

I picked up the book "Out of the Saltshaker & Into the world" by Rebecca Pippert (a book on evangelism). In the very last chapter of the book Mrs. Pippert discusses Peter and how to our human eyes he looks nothing like the "rock" that Jesus describes him as. He faltered, he failed. Although Peter greatly loved Christ he made many mistakes. In the end Peter denies Jesus, not once but three times. When Peter realizes what he has done he is distraught:

"The last contact Peter had with Jesus was the scene of his own betrayal...
A few days later Peter was told that the Lord has risen... How did Peter feel now?....
On one level he would be ecstatic, but on another afraid and ashamed.
Maybe the Lord had given up on him...But God knew how Peter felt."

In Mark 16:7 the angel specifically tells the women to "go tell his disciples, and Peter". Jesus knew how Peter felt and wanted him to know that he was forgiven. Later Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him. Peter answers "Lord you know everything, you know that I love you"

"Peter realized that Jesus knew who he was, his fallibility, his limits, his warts.
And yet Peter loved Jesus. Jesus knew that too. He had known Peter's faults
long before they ever dawned on Peter."

Jesus knows all of our failures and weaknesses yet He has entrusted us with being his ambassadors. He knows we will make mistakes and fail. He only asks that we will serve, in love for Him, using whatever talents or gifts he has given us. He is our strength and guide, our help we need only be a willing vessel.

New Year and some New Goals

Wow, it's hard to believe that 2009 is over already. The past year went by so fast! Looking back it is nice to see how God has worked in my life and my family's lives. I'm very thankful for all that He has blessed us with and all that He has taught me.

I'm not usually one to set New Year Resolutions/Goals because honestly I don't ever think I'll keep them so I figure why bother setting them. However, this year is different. There are two things that I really have as goals for this year.

1) To be more consistent in my Bible Study/Quiet Time. As part of this I am planning to post here once a week to share something that God has shown me during the week. If you notice that I haven't posted PLEASE say something. I could really use the accountability.

2) To complete 1-2 (depending on size of project) craft projects per month. This is so that I can get some Christmas gifts made. I always seem to think of making gifts when it gets to be around October; by then I don't have the time to complete them so I end up just buying gifts. With 14 (16 by this Christmas) nieces and nephews to buy for that can get quite expensive, plus I really want to be able to personalize the gifts we give. I am planning to post at the end of each month what projects I have completed and the ideas for the next month.

This month my crafting goal is to finish the sweater I'm crocheting for our new baby boy and to make the hooded scarf that Hailey asked me to make (I made one for her cousin for Christmas and now she really wants one too! ).

I know that two goals isn't much but I really want to be able to focus on these for this year. Feel free to post your goals/resolutions.