Gaping necklines or tank top straps can be made secure with just a couple inches of tape tucked under your clothing.  The tape is double-sided, so after pulling off the amount you need, place the sticky side on your skin under the garment, then pull off the white layer revealing the other sticky side of the tape.  Press the clothing onto the tape and voila’! 

Because my top had narrow sleeves, I added a piece of tape just below each shoulder.  It held it in place beautifully.  Summer outfits need this product!

This stuff is great and makes an outfit modest without having to constantly be fooling with it to keep it where it ought to be.  I found it on Amazon for $6.  Freshen up your wardrobe (and your modesty) and invest in a roll.  It will make a believer out of you!

Be refreshed,

I’m not sure if there’s a smell so grand as garlic baking on bread sticks!  Does that bring Olive Garden to mind?  What a delight to smell that basket of garlic making its way to your table! 

Do you know there is a smell God loves?  I read  this in my Bible reading this weekend – Genesis 8:20, 21 – And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. The Lord loves the smell of our love for Him that is seen in our obedience!  Is He smelling that sweet savor in your life today?

 
I was so happy to find a recipe that mimics the taste of Olive Garden’s bread sticks.  They are a yeast bread that only has to rise once, so they are done in a relatively short amount of time. 

My menu yesterday was:

Place in roasting pan.  Arrange onion and pepper slices on top of roast, then pour tomatoes over top.  cover and bake at 250 degrees for at least 4 hours, more if you have time.  check occasionally to see if it needs water. d(Okay, you cant’ do this if you’re at church, but I just make sure it has plenty before I leave.) Makes its own gravy.

I did my mashed potatoes in the crock pot – like I’ve mentioned before.  Just peel and cut them up, cover with water in your crock pot and turn to high.  When you get home they will be ready to mash!

For Southern Style Green Beans in a can, pour the beans – liquid and all in a skillet.  For 2 cans of greens beans add about 2 Tbl of butter and cook over low heat until all the liquid is evaporated.  They taste like they’ve cooked all day long!

Garlic Bread sticks as seen on Chef in Training.

1 1/2 cups warm water (between 110 – 120 degrees F)

1 package active dry yeast

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.In separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined.

Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not over knead!

1 stick unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup margarine)

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoons salt

After bread sticks have cooked for 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture.

Then continue to bake. Bake for 5-8 more minutes.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.  (Sure.  Just try!)

Strawberry Whipping Cream

Whip up heavy whipping cream with about 1/3 Cup powdered sugar.  Whip until soft peaks form.  Mash up strawberries or raspberries, add to whipped cream. 

What was cooking in your kitchen this weekend?

From my parsonage kitchen,

This week is Bible Conference at Bob Jones University, and I’m excited that we got to go spend yesterday there.  This school is not perfect, of course, but it has been greatly used to prepare young people to serve God in whatever capacity He has for them.

When I was in high school, I had the privilege of visiting BJU for their Thanksgiving festivities.  What I saw and heard in the classrooms, the chapel, and from the students, truly impacted my heart.  I loved it.  However, I had my own plans – I was going to a “Christian” nursing school near home.  I’d had that all in place for years!  It was a great plan, too, or so I thought!

After visiting BJU, I came home and made my official first visit to the nursing school where I’d hoped to attend.  I stayed on campus for a weekend and was aghast at what I experienced.  Showing me the Prayer room at the end of the dormitory hall, my roommates assured me that, “No one ever uses this room!”  While I was listening to a professor give a lecture, my ears stung as he punctuated his sentences with profanity.  I’ll never forget getting into my car and crying all the way home.  If there was ever a “shut door” this was certainly one!  There was no doubt in my heart that this was not the school the Lord wanted me to attend.  Visiting this place after going to BJU, I had something to compare it to, and this was surely lacking!

I won’t go into the details, but the Lord did open up the door for me to go to Bob Jones University in His perfect timing.  It was a blessing, beyond my understanding to sit under the instruction of truly godly men and women.  It was there that the Lord continued to open my heart to all that He had for me in the future.  “In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct your steps.” Proverbs 3:6

I see now how important it was to visit the school I was hoping to attend.  If you have a young person preparing for college, take them and let them stay on campus to get a taste of what it would be like to be a student.  Pray for the Lord to direct them and open their eyes to His will.  It’s a first important step in launching out on their own. 

With love,

What’s going on in the parsonage?  Well, I have a new hobby that could take over my life!  It’s Pinterest!  Wow!  What great ideas are on there!  I really do have to discipline myself only get on there at the end of the day after all the important stuff is done, because there are just so many great ideas to look at! 

I especially love the crafty things.  The idea of taking a something simple and turning it into something spectacular is invigorating to me!  Last year I found this post on How Does She and was inspired to redesign simple t-shirts into a ruffled top.  Here was a $2 plain V-necked top from Target that I changed in a matter of about an hour (maybe a little less!)  If you love the ruffled look you see everywhere, you need to make one of these! 

I’m just getting into creating my boards on Pinterest, but if you’re on there you can check out the fun things I’ve found. Are you on Pinterest?  What’s your best advice you could give someone like me who is just beginning?  What is your favorite kind of boards to pin to? Baking?  Decorating?  Clever sayings?  Tell me!  I’m pinterested! =)

From my parsonage windows,

“Eat the rainbow!”  That was the advice from the dietitian at our ladies’ fellowship in February.  When you look down at your plate, it should be very colorful.  Those colors tell you you’re eating nutritious foods.  Green broccoli, yellow corn, red tomatoes, orange peppers, purple cabbage – each colorful food adds some other good thing into your diet!  If you look down and see white chicken, white potatoes and rice, the very lack of pigment will tell you need to add some other foods to your meal!

That simple piece of advice has helped me even with breakfast.  Don’t just eat one fruit – eat a yogurt and add strawberries and blueberries in it.  Drink a glass of orange juice.  For lunch, add a tomato, lettuce and avocado to your tortilla wrap.  Throw in a handful of grapes for dessert and look at the rainbow you’ve created!

So, freshen up your plate by making it as colorful as the rainbow!

Hope you’ll be in church Sunday!  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.  Hebrews 10:25

Be refreshed,