Sabbatical Fun!

July 9, 2021July 7, 2021 RefreshHer2 Comments

Busy lives don’t lend themselves for time to pursue hobbies. However, our recent sabbatical offered the time to refresh a favorite pasttime.

When I was in high school I took two years of art – not because I was gifted – but because I wanted to learn how to paint. It has been years since I’ve painted anything, but recently I had an itch to try my hand at watercolors. I’ve had so much fun! Here’s my first painting using the cheap watercolors I had on hand from Target! I did purchase watercolor paper so I could blend the colors.

We have so many beautiful barns around us. I decided to snap photos and paint some of them. Here’s the barn that is on my daily walk…

Wow, time painting has been such a blessing. I have a weekly plan to work on my watercolor techniques. I’ve found some great tutorials online that I’m planning on watching. I’m trying to remember that we can each create sabbatical moments! What hobby to do you love that you haven’t taken time for?

We also had the fun of time with my family. We hired a photographer to come and take pictures at my parent’s home. We had never had professional photos taken together. It was a fun and very special evening! I especially love the picture of the back of my parents. Isn’t that sweet?! My mom made the quilt that is in the background (it’s one of MANY she’s made!). Which photo is your favorite?

When we left Kentucky and headed home to Tennessee, we decided to stop for the night in Berea and enjoy the Boone Tavern. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is a super-special place. It is very southern, very elegant, and very restful! Also, their dining room serves amazing meals. If you ever visit, be sure to try their Kentucky Hot Brown! We always leave refreshed and wanting to return! Do you have a special hotel you return to over and over again?

We love sitting outside in the front porch rocking chairs or on the side yard in the shaded garden area. We enjoyed having our morning Quiet Time out there the day we left.

It seems we are always looking for the outdoor spots wherever we are. We love the sunshine and the fresh air!

That’s a wrap for the second week of sabbatical. I hope you’re getting the idea of our time away. Restful, fun, refreshing, and restorative! How we needed it and how thankful we are for that time!

Again, let me remind you that though you many never have a 30-Day sabbatical, we each need to create sabbatical moments. Our minds, hearts and bodies need it so we can press on and serve with strength, energy and a full heart of love for God!

I’d love to hear your answers to the questions I posed in the post!

Refresh your own heart with some fun!

Donuts Even On a Diet!

July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 RefreshHer2 Comments

There’s nothing worse than having a craving for something sweet when you’re wanting to watch your sugar intake or lose a couple of pounds! Am I right? However, I love finding recipes that fit into my WW way of life that allow me the pleasure of something sweet without killing the whole day’s points on one treat!

I recently found these Double Choclate Banana donuts on Drizzlemeskinny.com while scouring Pinterest for a baked version of this sweet treat. The addition of the banana gives enough sweetness that they don’t need much sugar. We loved this recipe and found them to be the perfect dessert, or even an addition to breakfast! These aren’t Dunkin Donuts variety, mind you, but they will certainly do just fine when you want to be a little better at watching your calorie intake!

Double Chocolate Banana Donuts

1 egg
1 Tbl sugar
1 medium mashed banana
1/4 cup milk – I used 2%
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 Tbl. dark chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 6 hole donut pan with some cooking spray.
In a bowl whisk the egg and stir in the sugar, mashed banana, milk and vanilla.
Stir in flour, baking powder and cocoa powder then fold in chocolate chips.
Divide batter into the donut pan; they should be filled to the top.
Bake for 16-18 minutes or until baked through, let cool then gently remove from donut pan.
Store in sealed container, best in the fridge after a day and the donuts will freeze well.

Her website says these are 2 SP for the blue plan and 3 SP for the green plan. Not bad, huh?!!

These made for a delicious addition to our anniversary breakfast a couple weeks ago!

I hope you’re hungry for donuts now and will give this easy recipe a try! What do you get hungry for when you’re trying to watch your calories?

Refreshment · Sabbatical

Our Sabbatical Weeks and How You can Create a Period of Rest for Yourself

July 2, 2021July 2, 2021 RefreshHer6 Comments

My sweet husband made this breakfast feast for me on the first day of our sabbatical!

You may never have a sabbatical, but at the end of this post I’m going to share how you can create your own times of rest on a weekly basis, so keep reading!

As of yesterday, July 1, my husband and I completed our month-long Sabbatical. Wow. Our hearts are so full of all the things the Lord has done during those precious 30 days! You can be sure that I kept a journal each day to recount what was happening, what we were doing, and how the Lord was speaking to my heart.

I thought perhaps you would be interested to see how we spent some of our days. I mean, what do you do with 30 days of no ministry when it normally fills every day of the year?

We got outside. We got to choose the month for our sabbatical, and we chose June for a couple of reasons – one being that we love summertime and being outdoors. We took opportunities for drives to beautiful spots where we saw the hand of God. Here it is beautifully displayed in this double rainbow at Watauga Lake!

We enjoyed celebrations. The first day of June was Tennessee’s birthday. Jonesborough is the oldest city in the state, so the governor here came to speak briefly to the large crowd that gathered. The Oak Ridge Boys were there to sing the anthem and a couple of their oldies. It was the perfect beginning event! They were really popular in 1981, the year we were married, so their songs were pretty nostalgic. Anyone remember Elvira?!

So patriotic and fun to enjoy Tennessee’s birthday at an outdoor event!

We rested and read. We spent about five wonderful and quiet days at a lake cottage friends of ours graciously loaned to us. There’s no Internet; that in itself makes it a vacation! The beauty surrounding the cottage is always breathtaking and so relaxing!

One thing I prayed about were the books I should read. The Lord clearly led me to each one – even the fictional book about a pastor who takes an interim pastorate at an island church. There were so many parallels in our lives. But just having time to read was so wonderful!

We invested in our marriage. My husband chose a month-long devotional for couples that he found on-line and we read it together each day. It was on the love languages. You would think that at 40 years, we would each know the other’s love language, but this was a real learning time for both of us! Just having time to talk as a couple with no distractions, to read this devotional and pray together was another huge blessing.

We visited churches. Each Sunday we visited a new church in the area where we were. That was a blessing and also a time of learning. When you’re always in your own church, you don’t see your blind spots. As we visited other churches, it made us aware of things that might need change or adjusting in our own church. The preaching and worship (in most cases) were a true joy.

Now, how can YOU create your own regular period of rest in order to refresh yourself and be ready for the work ahead? Remember that we rest so we can work. It’s easy to think “I’ve worked hard; I deserve a rest!” But God’s directives to His people were that they would rest on the Sabbath so they could work the rest of the week. I began taking a “Sabbath rest” early last spring. Here’s my formula for refreshing myself each week:

Choose one day a week for your Sabbath. For ministry families, Sunday is generally the busiest day of the week, so my day is Friday. It doesn’t have to be Sunday. Choose the day when you can really rest.
Determine to spend quality time in God’s Word and prayer.
Keep your busyness and chatter to a minimum.
Decide what kind of things will fill your time. This doesn’t mean filling your day with busy things, but if you normally are doing work with your hands, then choose things that would work you mind. Read, work a puzzle, memorize a passage of Scripture. If you are normally working with your mind, do work with your hands. Work in the yard, organize or clean, work on a project.
Rest. Allow yourself time to sleep in and/or take a nap.
Get outside. Take a walk, ride bikes, go swimming. Sit outside and read.
Spend time with those that will aid your rest.This isn’t the day for planning events or giving counsel. Spend time with others who will refresh you and you them.
Plan ahead so your meals will be “easy” meals. Either prep a meal ahead and have it ready for the oven, or go out or pick up carry-out.

Does this Sabbath rest appeal to you? Does it seem do-able? I’d encourage you to pray about it and ask the Lord to help you come up with the best plan for you and then implement it as soon as possible!

Refresh yourself with a Sabbath rest!

discipline · Discipline · Godly Character Traits · Refreshment

It’s the Little Things That Help

June 30, 2021June 27, 2021 RefreshHer8 Comments

Ever heard that it’s the little things that count? It’s so true!

I look at people who spend an hour or more working out at the gym and I groan. That’s just not my style of working out. Instead, I choose to walk the country roads of my neighborhood. I also do a 15 minute calisthenics routine in attempt to tone my muscles. While I might not be making the fast strides that those folks at the gym are making, those little times of working out do help.

I don’t spring clean my house each week, but every day I do something. I may dust or mop the floors, clean the windows or scour the kitchen sink. Also each night before I go to bed, I make sure that things are tidy and put away. I might not clean everything all at once, but those little jobs keep my house in order every day.

Each morning for years I have read the Proverb for the day (there are 31 chapters, one that can be read each day of the month). It doesn’t take long, but since I’ve made this a habit for so long, I can finish many verses before reading it. Those little times of pouring God’s Word into my heart haven ingrained those practical truths into my heart.

Memorizing Scripture passages takes time and I can only memorize one verse at a time. I might only get one or two verses a week in my memory, but eventually I get the whole passage memorized by doing little bits, one verse at a time.

I attend women’s conferences twice a year and they are a blessing, but in order to help my spiritual growth, I create my own little daily “conference” by listening to Revive Our Hearts and Love Worth Finding. That little time of hearing God’s Word while I get ready in the morning has probably done even more for me than conferences!

It really is all the little things that make my life richer – especially in spiritual matters. It’s a reminder to me that I have no excuses for not doing what is right! It doesn’t require BIG amounts of time (though when I can take more time, I want to take advantage of that!). It really only requires making habits of doing little things consistently to have a life that is fulfilling and fruitful.

When I look and see a tiny little bit more of a toned arm or a clean kitchen, I see how rewarding those little things were. But even more rewarding are the little things that push me towards being like Christ. They all matter. They all make a difference!

Are you taking time to do the little things? If you’re not in the habit, pick one and watch the difference it makes in your life!

dessert · Pie

Hand-Held Fried Apple Pies

June 28, 2021June 27, 2021 RefreshHer11 Comments

When I was growing up, summer picnics almost always included a special dessert made by my mom – Fried pies. She usually made Peach Pies, but another flavor we all loved were the Apple variety. They are made with dried fruit that has been cooked and sweetened. The dried fruit keeps the filling from being too runny and seeping out. The pies are fried in butter just until they’re browned nicely on all sides. They’re not especially pretty, but man oh man, are they good!

If you’re having a picnic for July 4th, maybe you could start the Fried Pie Tradition for your family!

Here’s how they’re made –

Buy one bag of dried fruit -peaches or apples. (One bag makes A LOT of pies! You’ll usually find these where the raisins are in the grocery store. Place the fruit in a medium-sized pan and add water and cook over low heat until the fruit plumps up. Add sugar to sweeten to your liking. Cook until fruit is soft. This takes a while. Cook them slowly. Set aside.

Either make your own pie dough, or you can use store-bought. Roll dough out and cut out circles, about 4 inches in diameter. Place about 2 tablespoons (no more) on half of the circle. Fold dough over.

Crimp edges with a fork.

Melt half of a stick of butter in a skillet and melt over medium low heat. Add pies and cook in batches,turning to brown all sides.

Place on a paper towel-lined baking sheet to absorb extra butter.

These are super good warm, but they’re also delicious at room temperature!

Note: You may need to add butter as they are frying. In between batches, I wipe the pan out with a paper towel so the butter doesn’t turn too dark and color the pies before they start to cook.

These are so great for picnics because all you need is a napkin. It’s a hand-held pie; perfect for on the go!

Wouldn’t this make a great addition to your Fourth of July picnic?!

From my country kitchen,