A Peek Into My Life This Week

Once or twice a year our church ladies are blessed to take part in a Pinterest party held in our church gymnasium. It’s headed up completely by one ambitious, generous, creative and godly woman, Christina.  She gets it all organized and all we have to do is come!  (No, you can’t have her! She’s ours!  All ours!)  This is a ministry she loves to do.  She has a heart to bring women together for a time of crafting, fellowship and time in God’s Word. You do not have to be on Pinterest, or even understand it to be a part of this fun day!  It’s just the place where she found all the ideas we work on during our time together.  I’ve shared about our previous parties and you can go here to learn all the details about hosting a Pinterest party of your own!

Let me give you a peek into our recent time together…

Picture descriptions will follow, going left to right.

1. We always start with lunch.  Everyone brings a recipe that they found on Pinterest!
2. Christina’s husband cut these pieces of wood and she crafted them for centerpieces for the tables!  How adorable is that?
3. One of the ladies brought this cute cheese and fruit tray!
4. Everyone really gets into their crafting!  See the intensity going on here?
5. This is Christina – the organizer of our fun day!  She let me give a challenge after lunch, then she had a few door prizes and instructions before we headed down to start crafting.
6. There were so many different stations set up to work on different crafts!  This one was a canvas in which you could do a myriad of things to create artwork.
7. Another crafting station. Not sure
8. Some of the ladies…hoping their name will be called for a door prize!
9. She had a Pinterest photo booth set up; so fun!

Here was the recipe I brought to the party.  I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything…

You can’t go wrong with bread, cheese, butter and garlic!

Bloomin’ Onion Bread

Ingredients

1 unsliced loaf sourdough bread – I used French bread loaf

12-16 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup finely diced green onion

I added about a 1/2 – 1 tsp garlic powder

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bread lengthwise and widthwise without cutting through the bottom crust. This can be a little tricky going the second way but the bread is very forgiving.

Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Insert cheese slices between cuts. Combine butter, onion, and poppy seeds and garlic powder. Drizzle over bread. Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Unwrap the bread and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Christina always challenges our ladies to host a Pinterest party in their home – on a smaller scale, of course.  How about inviting over a few friends and working on a Christmas project?  This was one of the things I did. Easy peasy!

I’m thinking about adding little hats for them, then they’ll be all set!

So why not try this at your house?  Maybe this is one way you could show hospitality to a new friend!  Get together and craft, share some coffee and cookies and build a relationship!

With love from my country porch,

Open the New Testament and read about Jesus and you will find that He spent His days (after prayer with His Father) with people.  He was always with someone.  I can’t think of a time (again, except for His times of prayer and temptation in the wilderness) that He was doing something alone.  He invited others to join Him.  He invited Himself to people’s homes and lives!  How else could He share the Gospel with them if He didn’t spend time with them?

How will you and I be able to share the Gospel and Christ’s love unless we, too, are hospitable?  Oh we love entertainment, but hospitality?  That’s much harder.  Entertainment is about things.  Hospitality is about the heart.  Our heart must be open, which then opens our front door.

Hospitality is seldom convenient!  It is usually always an interruption.

There are ways that we can be prepared for interrupted hospitality. Consider:

1. Stock up your freezer:
Cookies, cakes, icings, pie crusts, waffles, pancakes, breads, soups, stock, Puff Pastry, ice cream

2. Stock your pantry:
Pasta, pasta sauce, crackers, pretzels, brownie mix, (You can make your own, too), canned pie fillings, caramel or chocolate sauce, coffee, tea
Replace items after using them!
You don’t have to have all these things – choose several components to have on hand.

3. Remember hospitality is to bless, not impress!  
Put your guests at ease by:
a. letting them help.
b. Make it buffet so they serve themselves
c. Think more about them than yourself or your home. Don’t apologize for the dust bunnies!

4. Maintain your home each day so it’s presentable – not perfect.  None of your guests live in perfect homes either!  Make it a habit to keep the living room and guest bath clean.

5. Be spontaneous.  If the Lord puts someone on your heart, invite them home – or go to their house with a pot of coffee and pan of brownies.
When?
a. After church Sunday night soup and sandwiches, or cheese dip and tortilla chips
b. Roast marshmallows on the fire pit or grill
c. Movie (or game) and popcorn night – Watch Fireproof or Courageous
d. Decorate Christmas cookies – or do Cookie exchange
e. Dessert and coffee

Will you be ready for hospitality that interrupts your messy little life?  Open your heart and let others in so you might share the Gospel.  It’s an interruption that will bless you and those you welcome in!

What is the one thing you would keep on hand so you can entertain easier?

With love,

Someone told my  husband recently that the read my blog, but they still aren’t convinced the cooking is fun!  That made me smile, because, I enjoy it so much.  I hope that comes through in my posts here, but mostly, I hope those that eat my meals know how much enjoyment I get in preparing that food!  It’s a creative outlet, really.  I enjoy making new recipes, then presenting them in an appealing fashion.  

Some foods are just pretty on their own.  Take today’s chicken recipe – Co-Jack Chicken.  It’s pretty on the outside and on the inside!

Co-Jack Chicken

The chicken breast has salsa and  Monterrey Jack Cheese stuffed inside.  Then it’s rolled in seasoned crackers and baked until golden.  This keeps the white meat so moist and full of flavor!

Here’s the scoop:

2# Chicken breasts, pounded thinly
4 oz. Co-Jack Cheese – Cut in pieces enough for chicken breasts and shredded for serving
Mexican salsa
2 cups crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)
1 pkg. Taco seasoning mix

Place chicken breasts between 2 sheets of waxed paper, pouond with meat mallet or rolling pin to flatten.  Place 1 slice of Co-Jack Cheese and 1 tbl salsa on each breast, wrap breasts around filling and secure with wooden toothpicks.
In shallow dish, combine crackers and 1 pkg. taco seasoning, blend well.  Add chicken bundles, press crumbs into chicken to coat.  Place bundles in greased 9x9x2″ baking dish.  Bake in 350 oven 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Top with shredded cheese to serve, if desired.

You can serve this is Spanish Rice, instead of potatoes to carry out the Mexican theme.  Whatever you add to it will only be a lovely addition.  This chicken dish is company-worthy and delicious!

So tell me, do YOU enjoy cooking?

With love from my country kitchen,

Wouldn’t it be nice to have personal stylist come in and choose your outfits for you?  Well, maybe you do have a stylist at your fingertips!  Enter Pinterest!

Often when I’m getting dressed, I’ll have a basic idea of what I want to wear, but can’t decide how to wear it, or what to wear with it.  Yesterday I wanted to wear my black pants.  Hmmm, what will I wear with them?  I went on Pinterest and searched “Black pants Outfit.”  I came up with many choices, then I found this one…  Bingo!

Black pants, chambray blouse under tan/brownish sweater, leopard flats, sparkly necklace

I liked it, AND I had similar components in my closet!  I wore it like this…

click on picture to see details of outfit

Though it wasn’t exactly like the Pinterest picture, it gave me enough inspiration to come up with something close, and something I hadn’t put together before.

Using Pinterest to help in planning outfits is a great way to refresh your wardrobe!  I also snap a picture and save it, so if I’m in a rush, I can find something I’ve worn and liked, and just grab all the elements and dress in a hurry.  Thanks, personal stylist Pinterest!

Speaking of Pinterest, Boones Creek is hosting another Pinterest Party tomorrow at our church starting at 10 a.m.!  The cost is $10 for a day full of fun.  We’ll have lunch, have a short devotional and craft the day away!  Come and bring a friend!

Oh, and if you can’t find anything to wear, don’t forget to refresh your wardrobe ideas using PINTEREST!

Stay refreshed,

During the first year of living in our new home, we were to take note of any fixes the contractors needed to take care of.  After several months, we noticed a loose piece of wood floor in the kitchen. Then upstairs in the main bathroom,  something caused a fine line crack to appear.  Perhaps a settling of the house?  At any rate, both needs were duly reported.  Yesterday was the day for the repairs.

Drilling, grinding, dust particles flying.  Loose Wood flooring lifted out. A new piece of wood flooring is set in place.  Then pounding, sanding, hammering upstairs making it sound like  they’re tearing the ceiling off, not just replacing a cracked tile in the bathroom floor.  Are they planning to bring in their lame friend through the roof, like the four men who brought their friend to Jesus for healing?! One of the men, on his way up the stairs, said, “It’s going to sound like we’re tearing your house apart, but it’ll be okay!”  I smiled, grateful for the assurance!

Can’t these repairs be done another way? I can hear the ceramic tile being smashed into little pieces, like peanut brittle on the candy makers table.   But, no, glue sticks and scotch tape might be gentler, but they won’t fix the repairs that are needed for a long-term hold.  The dust will soon settle, the new floor will be solid and secure, and I’ll be thankful for the horrific tearing apart so that the fix will be lasting.

For ten weeks many ladies in my church have been looking and searching at their own lives.  We have seen some loose floor boards, some serious cracks, if you will.  Perhaps you, too, have been studying and desiring to grow.  To be made aware of our needs is not repair.  How will the  improvements happen?

It happens now – in the daily applying the truths that we have learned.  We lean in each day into God’s Word and allow Him to chisel and change, to hammer and help.  It’s painful, but it’s necessary.  The “now’s” turn into a year, then into ten years.  We’ll see that the improvements and changes are good, and that the painful processes were necessary.

All the lessons about loving our husband and our children, making a Christ-like atmosphere in our homes, studying and preparing for a ministry –  it’s all hammered out in the hard trials.  Be ready for it.  Don’t be surprised by it.  Even greater than the kind men who have been in my home, Christ is there all along, whispering assurances to us.

“It will be worth it.  I have a plan.  I know the finished product.  It’s going to be completed.  It’s going to be beautiful.  It’s going to be eternal.”

One day we can be presented before the Lord ~ “Here she is ~ a Woman After God’s Own Heart!”

Stay faithful.  It will be worth it all!

With love,