Kellie

Here's a zinger for ya!

The other night after Daddy got home from work, we were all sitting out on the couch. Our Kellie loves to touch us, and this night, she was feeling particularly touchy-feelie! She was snuggled up next to Daddy, her arm around his neck, her head on his shoulder....

He was still in his Post Office duds, which, in the summer consists of polyester shorts and blue regulation shirt. So, his legs were hanging out......

As Kellie stroked his furry legs, she exclaimed incredulously......

"Daddy! You need to shave your legs! They're too furry!"

*Sniff Sniff!*

*Sniff Sniff*

You gals have done it again!!

You all have touched my heart deeply with your encouraging and super supportive comments on my "Hard Post".

I really debated for days whether or not to post about that episode.

Well, I am intensely glad I did.

I want you gals to know and understand that I am FAR from perfect. I've lost a lot of friends due to the fact that some people (well, lots of people, actually) think that I am perfect, just because I choose to follow a Proverbs 31 approach to my life, my parenting, and my marriage.

I'm something of an anomaly in my church, believe it or not. I'm the odd man out, but that's okay with me. I just live my life according to what God has laid out for me in the Holy Bible......and the rest is not my affair.

I tell you, I had tears in my eyes as I read each one of your comments.

I trust and know that you all are just like me, imperfect and becoming.

I am so glad I started blogging! You all have been better friends to me than most of my real life friends!

I hesitated to let my husband read the post, because I didn't ask him before I posted about that very sensitive episode. After all, I didn't want to embarrass or dishonor him...

But last night I did let him read it, and he actually said it was a really good post.

I'm so glad I did post it!

I'm no longer angry and festering anymore. The realizations that the Lord has brought to me in the past few days have healed and taken away a lot of what was stewing and brewing and corroding.

Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with me in this walk of faith. I value each one of you!!

As I close this post, I leave you with a few words from one of my favorite songs. It's called "Settle on My Soul" by the Martins, which happens to be one of my all time favorite groups, and I'm sad that they aren't together anymore......

I have fasted, I have prayed,
I've walked a straight line
and I have strayed.
Climbed a mountain
beat my chest
on my knees I have confessed.
Strip this pride, search me, Lord.
Open Heaven, show me more...
Settle on my soul, sweet Jesus,
settle down on me.
Let the veil fall from my face.
Reveal Your mystery.
Let me feel Your embrace
warm my unbelief.
Settle on my soul, sweet Jesus,
settle down on me.

Excerpted from the Glorify, Edify, Testify album by the Martins

A Hard Post

I've started reading a new book.

Marsha sent it to me. Marsha is the best kind of friend, because she is funny, witty, and sweet, but most of all, because she cares about my soul. She spurs me on!

So, I started reading Beautiful In God's Eyes by Elizabeth George. It is an in depth study of the Proverbs 31 woman.

I just started it this morning, and already I'm convicted. I'm challenged. My thoughts are provoked.

Before I started reading it, I did just what Mrs. George suggested the reader do: I prayed that God would open my eyes to the truths in the book that I needed to see. I prayed that He would soften my heart. I prayed that He would forgive me for being hard and stubborn and lax.

Allow me to digress.....

My attitude and lack of vigilance had gotten so bad that it culminated in a huge fight with my husband the other night, in which I threw my cell phone across the room, cussed at my husband, and though he stood in front of the door and forbade me to leave, I did anyway......

I tore down everything that God had done in my heart in the past three years in one fell swoop. I dishonored my husband, deeply hurt him, and shamed myself in the process. I became as rottenness to his bones.......In that one short moment, I became contention. My heart was full of rage, selfishness, and wrath, and it all came spewing out, all over my gentle and unsuspecting husband.

My heart still hurts just thinking about it!

I had allowed myself to get indolent and insouciant.

And when I stormed out of the house, God did not allow me to go alone. Nope. He went with me. Our God is like that. There is no place on earth that I can go to get away from His love. Not up to the farthest reaches of the heavens. Not even to the darkest depths of the sea.

As I pulled into Janie's Place, I got out of the car and crumpled on the grass, close to her. It's peaceful and beautiful there and the Lord has met me there so many times.

I didn't cry. My heart was too dry and shriveled for that. But I did pray. I asked God to please forgive me and to take me out of the dry, barren place I was in.

I didn't want to come home. I felt that I had destroyed the peace of our home. I felt I had soiled the holiness that dwells here and didn't deserve to enter into my husband's home.

I did come home, but I sat out in the van. I was so ashamed and embarrassed and the knowing that I had made my husband ashamed was nearly my undoing.

I got out of the van and sat on one of the chairs on our front porch. I was just to scared and too abashed to go in.

After a while my husband came out and I couldn't even look at him.

In the end, everything was put to rights. My husband forgave me and when I told him I was not good enough to share his bed and that I would sleep on the couch, he wouldn't hear of it.

He invited me back in. He gathered me up and in that moment, he put my heart back together.

Doesn't that sound just like our God??

It took me about two days to get over what I had done.

Since then, I realized all of my anger had nothing to do with my husband. I realized the reasons why I was upset and hurt, and yes, even so mad at God.

Through the preaching of S.M Davis, I had a revelation. I saw that I didn't understand why God had done the things that He has done to me. I wasn't okay with the fact that He can because He is sovereign.

That was a major a-ha! moment for me.

So, this book has come to me at just the right time. The Lord has once again tenderized my heart and is bringing me out of this hard and parched place that was of my own making.

Would you yourself be brave enough to get the book and allow God to shake up your heart again?

One Word Meme

Okay, here's yet another meme from me. I got this one from Gayle over at thewetstiecrew.

It's a one word meme. One word?? Yep, one word answers. I know. One word answers from me, the Queen of Words?

I thought I would try it.

Here goes.

1. Cell phone? purse
2. Significant other? husband
3. Hair? dark
4. Mother? exhausting
5. Father? unknown
6. Favorite thing? family
7. Dream last night? forgotten
8. Favorite drink? Izze
9. Dream/goal? becoming
10. Room I'm in? mismatched
11. Church? small
12. Fear? fat
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? country
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What I'm not? finished
16. Muffins? yuck
17. Wish list item? babies
18. Where did you grow up? CA
19. Last thing I did? direct
20. What are you wearing? skirt
21. TV? off
22. Pets? protective
23. Computer? lap
24. Life? full
25. Mood? varying
26. Missing someone? angels
27. Car? van
28. Not wearing? socks
29. Favorite store? scrapbook
30. Summer? endless
31. Love someone? passionately
32. Favorite color? brown
33. Last time you laughed? earlier
34. Last time you cried? previously
35. Who will repost? nobody

Consider yourself tagged!

A Postscript

A little postscript to my last post! Angel asked me if I used organic soup in my sauce. Angel, I do use organic soups in my sauces. I also use organic broth, organic noodles, and organic produce. I switched to organic soups for my sauces many years ago. I realized that one of the most unhealthy things we were eating was Campbell's cream soups. They are loaded with MSG, preservatives, and everything artificial. For those who are curious, just read the labels. The brand of organic soups and broths I use contain absolutely nothing artificial, no food colorings, no preservatives, no artificial thickeners, and most importantly, low sodium and NO MSG.

I will say, Angel, that I always find my soups and broths on sale at my grocery store. The Health Valley soups are a bit more watery than Campbell's, but that never has affected my recipes or the taste. I like Health Valley because they taste good, and also because I know we can eat them and still be healthy!

I know that's a long answer, but there it is, and thanks for asking, Angel.

Of course, you can make my recipes with whatever you choose to use. Campbell's, store brand, whatever.

If you gals do make my recipes for your families, let me know how you liked them!

A Recipe Post!

I decided to do a weekly recipe post.

If you gals want me to do this, just let me know in your comments.....

Cause I've got TONS of recipes! A few are from cookbooks, but most of them are original. Before you get all impressed and thinkin' I'm a chef, let me tell you WHY I have so many original recipes:

Because I am challenged to understand recipes from a cookbook!

Honestly. I can read the recipe 5 times and still go "Huh?" (Incidentally, I do this with manuals and instructions too. I am not remotely like Angel, who loves manuals!!!! LOL!)

As I read a recipe, I catch myself going, hmmm, that doesn't sound like it would taste good with that, why don't we try this instead? Or how about adding this and that to this to get this?? Or, I just get an idea of what would taste even better and start all over from scratch!

I'm weird! I get ideas whenever I read recipes......and then I try the ideas.....

Most of my recipes do not have meausurements. For my recipe posts, I have tried to be as accurate as possible. And I will admit, for all of you to see, that trying to get a recipe from me is like trying to find the lost city of Atlantis. I'm pretty secretive with my recipes, for a couple of reasons. One, I love to bless my friends and family with something that is my own, cooked from scratch, and to see their faces and hear their joy when they eat it! And two, most of the time I have no idea of the measurements of ingredients that go into my recipes!

I used to have a cooking business, in which I had a list of dishes that the client would choose from. I'd give the client a shopping list and they'd go to the grocery store, get everything on the list, and bring it to my house. Then, I'd cook the dishes and freeze them, and they'd pick them up. I used all of my own recipes. I'm not doing that now, due to being busy with my family, but I still have it on the back burner for a future time. My sister in law is a self professed terrible cook, and she and her boyfriend eat out constantly, and I have offered to come into her home and put some dishes in the freezer for them, but alas, they haven't taken me up on the offer!

I do own cookbooks, but I read them for fun and inspiration, not to learn a new thing.

I told you I was weird, Marsha!!!

So, without further shilly shallying, here's my first recipe!

Creamy Chicken Divine:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 TBSP yellow mustard
3 TBSP teriyaki sauce
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 C shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a greased baking dish (you know the size). Combine next 6 ingredients in large bowl. Pour over chicken. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear when pricked with fork. Makes 6 servings. Sauce is GREAT over mashed potatoes!

This recipe is original and copyrighted under Digby's Delectables 2000

My Birthday

I had a fabulous birthday this year!!

Yes, yours truly had another birthday in a long line of birthdays.

I'm not as young as I used to be! (Waaah!)

My dad tells me I'm not a spring chicken anymore! In fact, he keeps saying "I can't believe your thirty-something!"

Thanks, Dad!

This year, since this birthday was a bit of a milestone, I wanted to really party!

Actually, with my husband burning the candle at both ends for the past few months, and not being able to even eat dinner with him, he decided to take some time off, since he finished both of the huge projects he was working on.

So, since his long weekend (he gets Friday and Saturday off every 6 weeks) conveniently fell on my birthday, he decided to make it really special for me.

Friday we went to Ecola State Park and Indian Beach. We played (or rather, the kids played) on the beach alllll day! It was really Sofia's first time at the beach, and I was concerned that she would be scared of the huge water and the waves. I needn't have feared! She took to the water like, well, the proverbial duck!

After we got done at Indian Beach, it was time to head home. My husband stopped at Dooger's for me to get a little dinner to go. I got a shrimp louie salad and a cup of clam chowder. Yumm-o! For those of you who are not from around here, Dooger's is a local joint specializing in seafood. There are a few at the coast.

Back on the road, it was a very quiet ride home, as it was pretty late. The kids really wanted to go to Izzy's back at home, so we headed there.....at 9:30 at night! They closed at 10! Again, Izzy's is a local pizza/salad buffet restaurant.

We got home at 10 or so, and some of the kids took a shower to wash the gobs of sand off their bodies that anyone who ever goes to the beach manages to accumulate in every crevice.

We finally went to bed at about 11.

The next day I spent with my mom, up north, going to Costco. She took me out to lunch (Mexican, my favorite!) and gave me $50 to spend on myself!!! While I was up north, Dave decided to take the kids to the river, since it was only about 96 degrees that day....

Sunday we went to church and after church we had to take Dave's iMac down south to the Apple store. We brought all the kids with us and made a day of it. The kids ate pizza, we ate mediocre Chinese food. I did have a strawberry and banana kabob drizzled with dark chocolate. AND hubby bought me some scrumptious perfume that I had been dreaming about from L'Occitane. It's Lemon and smells sooooooo fresh and citrusy, my favorite.

I almost forgot to tell you what my husband got me for my birthday!! He presented me with a handmade tiny gift box, tied up with a beautiful, fancy ribbon. In it was a $150 gift certificate to my favorite scrapbooking store AND a gift card to one of my favorite coffee places! I felt spoiled! I felt so loved!

All in all, it was one of the two best birthdays of my life.

My family is amazing. My husband is so fantastic.

I feel blessed tonight.