My Daily Kitchen Cleaning Routine

November 16, 2017November 15, 2017 RefreshHerLeave a comment

Not many care to have to scrub and scour by the hour! The remedy to that is to keep on top of chores so it doesn’t take long. If you let the counters in the kitchen pile high before you get to un-cluttering for Thanksgiving, you’re going to be working much longer than if you clear it off at the end of each day.

Here are a few tasks that I do every day after I finish cooking:

Wipe down all the counters with warm, soapy water
Wipe out the microwave
Use window cleaner on the microwave, stove top, oven door, refrigerator, trash can and dishwasher
Wipe out the sinks
Empty the dishwasher and dish drainer
Sweep the rugs

These tasks are complete in about 15 minutes, and the kitchen is clean when we get up in the morning and start the process of cooking and cleaning all over again!

What about your kitchen is most bothersome and hard to keep clean?

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Pinterest Party Success!

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017 RefreshHer3 Comments

Last Friday I mentioned that our church was hosting our 7th Pinterest party on Saturday. We had over 70 women, with more than half of them being visitors! It was so much fun! It was filled with new friends, great food found on Pinterest, fellowship, and a challenge from God’s Word. Where would you find Pinterest in the Bible?! Our speaker showed us! =) It was in all the words like, Search, Save, Follow, etc. So good!

Then of course there was tons of great crafting! I made only one complete craft, due to helping others with theirs, but that’s okay! I made many new friends and had a great time!! I thought I’d share with you some of the crafts that were available for us to make. You could make them ALL for $10!

Wood ornaments

Pumpkin Garland

Salt Scrub

Grapevine wreath with felt flowers

Cinnamon Ornaments

Paper journals

Painted Pine Cones

Most of the crafts were super easy to put together. I think most everyone went home with a bag full of completed projects! This has become a favorite event of our ladies each year. It’s so well executed and is a great tool to reach out to unchurched ladies! I’ve blogged about it here and you can see how Christina pulls it all together.

If you’re interested in the “how-to” of any of the above crafts, you can find them on this page on Pinterest. They’re all such cute ideas!

Pinterest is my favorite place to browse for ideas! I’ve “pinned” LOTS of them with everything from recipes to sewing patterns, and I’ve tried many, many of them. It’s just a great tool that saves leg work and the accumulation of books. Anyone else love it like I do?

Prayer · worry

Take It To the Throne

November 14, 2017November 14, 2017 RefreshHer2 Comments

phone notification Recently I got a text message about a difficult issue concerning someone close to me. Their situation was critical, and there was nothing any person could do to fix it. I found myself so anxious and uptight. In tears, I expressed my concerns to my husband. Right then he took me by the hands and stopped to pray.

Immediately, I felt the Lord’s peace come over my heart.

Gone were the anxious thoughts,

the worry

and the twisting of stomach and emotions.

With shame I asked the Lord to forgive me for not stopping myself from worrying and taking time to pray.

Why is it easier for us to go on with our fretting, rather than running to God’s Throne to find mercy and grace to help in our time of need? Hebrews 4:16 I knew I was helpless to change the situation, yet I went about my tasks with my furrowed brow and fearful thoughts.

Even though the situation we prayed about wasn’t helped immediately, I was! God’s peace flooded my heart as my husband took us to the Only place where help could be found!

I also knew I needed to help the sender of the text. I called and said,

“I need to help you by taking your hand, too, and going to God’s Throne right now. Can we pray together?”

If you’re anxious about ANYTHING today, can I remind you of what you probably already know? You need to stop letting it weigh you down and simply go to God’s Throne in prayer and leave that burden with Him. And if you know someone who is worried, or in a difficulty or a hopeless situation (your spouse, a friend, a child), do what my husband did for me and grab their hand and take them with you to the Throne of God. What peace you will both find there!

Is there a burden you need to stop and pray about? Is there someone who needs you to stop and pray with them?

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entertaining · snack

Sweet & Salty Treat

November 13, 2017November 13, 2017 RefreshHer2 Comments

pretzels a

With the holidays around the corner, you will probably need a little treat. If you want to make something that’s super fast and super delicious, I have the perfect suggestion. I’m not sure you could even call this a “recipe” because it requires no baking or even baking skills! Melt some chocolate, caramel and pour over pretzels. That’s pretty much what you do! Here are the ingredients and the instructions:

Ingredients

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a chocolate bar I had on hand)
8 ounces mini pretzel twists , half of a regular 16-ounce bag
11 ounce bag Kraft Caramel Bits
Sea salt for sprinkling

pretzels

Instructions

Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Melt 8 ounces of the chocolate chips gently in the microwave (on low heat, stirring every 15 seconds) until smooth.
Spread the chocolate evenly over the parchment. Immediately add the pretzel twists over the top (it’s fine if they overlap!) and gently press them into the chocolate.
Add caramel bits to a microwave safe bowl with 2 tablespoons water and melt according to package instructions (on high for 2 minutes). Stir well and drizzle the melted caramel over the top of all of the pretzels.
Melt remaining 4 ounces of chocolate and drizzle over the caramel. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Refrigerate until hardened.
Cut into pieces, I found it best to serve them in cupcake liners for individual servings. It looks better than a pile would!

pretzels 2a

These are delicious and so easy. What event is coming up that you could take these to?! I took them to the Pinterest Party at our church this past weekend and came home with empty platters!

With love from my country kitchen,

Uncategorized

Friday Favorites

November 10, 2017November 10, 2017 RefreshHer1 Comment

Well, let’s have a drum-roll, because today’s the day to announce the winner of The Extraordinary Book give-away!

Extraordinary Woman

Thanks to all who entered and who shared the book on Facebook! With no further remarks, let me say that The name was randomly drawn and

The winner is:

Michelle Beal!

If you could please email me at my contact email and share your mailing address, Michelle, I’ll get your book in the mail. Congratulations!

I hope the rest of you who are interested in the book will either order a copy for yourself and a friend, or let people know you’d like a copy for Christmas! There’s a discounted price of $6.99 on it right now, , so you can snag a deal if you act quickly. I had several people tell me they’re ordering multiple copies to give as Christmas gifts. What a great idea! I love giving a book like this that will encourage and help the recipient!

My next favorite thing this week involves another kind of giving. This weekend we will be sending off our Operation Christmas Child box. I chose to shop for a girl, age 6-8. I spent a total of $21 on the gifts and had so much fun doing it. Here are some photos of what I found. Several items were found on clearance like the dress and the Melissa & Doug stamp set. Most of the other items were found at The Dollar Tree. The little cozy slippers are so soft – I cannot believe they were only $1! I’m praying for the little girl who will receive our box to know that not only does someone in the USA care for her, but that Jesus loves her and wants to be her Savior! Who else is packing a box?

lumberjack cupcakes

Last weekend was the first birthday party for the sweet little guys our daughter and son-in-law are fostering. The birthday theme was Lumberjack and it was the cutest ever! Here was the cupcake cake I made to help celebrate our little guys. I used the chocolate cake recipe I shared recently for the cake part and made buttercream icing. What a special time rejoicing in the year God has given these babies. What miracles they are after being born at 24 weeks. They’ve made such great strides and we love them to pieces!

I had the blessing of hosting dinner for two of our missionary families who came to be in our services last Sunday. Before the weekend ever started, the table was set,

the Butternut Squash Soup was made, a new pumpkin dessert was prepared, French bread baked and all of that was put into the freezer. It made making Sunday dinner so much easier because on Friday afternoon we headed to The Wilds Christian Camp in Brevard, NC where we saw this beautiful scene:

This weekend our church is hosting a Pinterest party! The gal at church who organizes it does a FANTASTIC job. I can’t wait to see what she’s lined up for us to make this year. It will be a day full of fun crafting, fellowship, new friends and some good food! I hope you have fun plans for this weekend, too!

Refresh yourself by spending extra time in God’s Word!

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