Refreshment · refreshment at home

Maybe It’s Time for Change

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living room 1b

If you’re a regular reader of Refreshher, you’re noticing a big change in the way my blog looks today!  I felt it was looking tired and needed to be refreshed.  So, with a bit of a nervous stomach (would I lose everything on my blog?!), I set out to change its appearance.  I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and I finally took the plunge.

I have to admit that I had help! Whitney, my daughter from Come Home for Comfort was here visiting and helped walk me through the process.  She made it much easier to click the tabs that would bring about the change!

This blog is committed to helping others refresh their hearts, homes and lives..  With a brand new year before us, maybe it’s time to stop and look carefully around you and see what needs to be refreshed in your life. I’m not just talking about updating a blog’s appearance, but at the things that are at the very core of your life – your surroundings, your routines, the presentation of your home, for starters.

I remember that even the simple task of reorganizing tools in a drawer in my kitchen last year made baking so much easier! Sometimes just a small change can turn even the most simple things into pleasures! How could change in these three areas specifically help you in this new year?

  • Heart – Was last year as spiritually deep as you wanted it to be?  Did you find yourself more spiritually mature because of the steps you took to walk closely to God?  Or does your heart need to be more engaged with the things of God’s Word, prayer and spiritual growth?  If so, I encourage you to find a “Whitney” to help you.  Get a godly friend/leader at church/mentor to be your accountability partner to gently and lovingly prod you to move forward and to help you make the changes you need to make to allow this year to be spiritually fruitful.
  • Home – Is there an area in your house that you don’t love?  Is there a space that isn’t being used adequately?  A mess that needs attention?  Ask a decorating savvy friend to come over and give a hand in rearranging the furniture, organizing a messy closet or redecorating a space that’s drab!  Not only will they give you some inspiration, you’ll also have fun doing it with a friend!
  • Life – Are there relationships that need work?  Is your schedule so busy that you’re missing out on the simple joys God gives every day like cooking a meal for your family, enjoying a quiet evening at home, or reading a book just for the pleasure of reading?  Do you have goals that you can’t seem to reach?  Talk to a friend that manages their time well.  See if they can help you get some balance in your world.I remember last year talking to two people about desiring to carve out time to write.  I talked to both my husband and a close friend.  They both gave some great input.  I put their counsel into practice, and was able to accomplish so much!

Ask the Lord to bring godly, wise people into your path, and then glean from their wisdom so you can bring the changes that are necessary in 2018!

I get excited now when I open up my blog home page and see the new, fresh look!  What changes are you ready to make?

Denise Signature 150 px

P.S. Thanks for your help Whitney!!  You always inspire me!

Kid Friendly/Adult loved French Toast Sticks
breakfast · Main entree

Kid Friendly/Adult loved French Toast Sticks

RefreshHer6 Comments

Happy New Year Friends!  I missed posting and interacting with you last week, but it was nice to have a little vacation with my family over the holidays!  I hope your Christmas and New Year were memorable and special! More about that later this week, but let’s get on with a new recipe, shall we?

One favorite theme at the holidays is the food, right?  Maybe you’re limiting yourself from certain food groups now that the celebrations are over, but if you have children in your life, I have to share a new French Toast Stick recipe that I made for my grandsons and we ALL loved!

French Toast sticks that you buy frozen are usually tough, but these are soft and easy for little ones to hold and chew.  Take a look!

French Toast sticks

This came from another Gooseberry Cookbook, which are some of my favorites!

French Toast Sticks

4-5 Slices bread
3 C Rice crispy cereal, crushed
1 T Sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 C Milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 C butter, Melted

Cut each slice of bread into 4 strips.  Combine crushed cereal, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside.

Mix together eggs, milk, vanilla and salt in another bowl.  Dip each bread stick into egg mixture and then (quickly) remove and dip into sugar coating.  Place sticks on an ungreased 13 x 9 baking pan, pour melted butter over top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden.  Makes 16 – 20 sticks.

French toast sticks 2

I served these with warm syrup.  Yum!  They were scrumptious!

Prep the ingredients the night before for a quick breakfast in the morning.  Then when you’re ready to bake, do the dipping into the egg and cereal mixtures and place in the oven.

Now, don’t you wish it was time for breakfast???!!!!

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Christmas

Christmas Wishes

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Our family had so much fun the day before Thanksgiving having family photos made in the field behind our country house.  The farmer hadn’t cut his hay yet, making it the perfect backdrop.  I wish I could show you all of them, but for sake of our little guys in foster/adoption process, I can’t show you their faces, so you’ll have to settle with just my photo with my husband, Dale!

DSC_0054.jpg

This is our 36th Christmas as a married couple.  You know what we say to each other?

I like you.

And

We like us.

I really do like him.

A lot!

Of course I also love him, but liking someone means you

accept them for just who they are,

look more at their good qualities than their faults,

smile when you know the punchline of the joke they’re telling (again),

serve them when you’re tired,

listen when they talk,

smile when you catch them looking your way,

and stay together for as many Christmases the Lord gives you together because you never know which one will be the last.

Yeah, we like us.  And we look forward to spending time together this Christmas.  Our girls are spending the holiday with their in-laws and because we really do like “us” we will have a great time together!  We won’t be sad, because we’re back to where we started all those 36 years ago, and WE LIKE IT!

Merry Christmas to each of you!  Rejoice in Christ and let all the things troubling you fade into the background as you keep your eyes on Him!  I’ll see you after the holidays are over!!

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Christmas

Three Ways to Make This the Best Christmas

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I guess we could count these days as “Crunch Time” in regards to prepping for Christmas!  How are things going on your end?  Are your plans coming together?  Are the purchases all made, the cookies all baked and the gifts wrapped?  Maybe you simplified this year, so the answer is “Yes!”  Or you might be in the panic mode because you’re feeling the pressure of Christmas pressing in on you.

There are many things that make Christmas a time for upset stomachs and I don’t just mean the viruses going around!  I’m talking about the pressures and demands we put on ourselves and others and the relational tensions.  I thought about these scenarios and realized that there are three simple ways to reduce these hardships right now and turn this Christmas into one that will be remembered as the best yet!

Watch the video below for those three simple suggestions.

Which of these three do you need to work on most?

 

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Christmas · Life

Without Christ in Christmas

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Image result for chocolate chip cookies without chips

A heavy tray is extended towards you full of fluffy, golden brown cookies.

“Take one, please!”  your host offers.  “They’re Chocolate Chip Cookies, except they have no chocolate chips.  We just don’t do those.”

Odd.

The outside of the bookstore is inviting and charming.  Signs in the windows boast of new titles and the arrival of authors who will be in house soon.  A lover of good books, you step inside, anticipating lingering over the newly bound pages and reading in a comfy chair.  But your head jerks back and forth across the shelves that are…empty.
“You have no books?” you ask the clerk at the cash register.
“Oh, no.  We just like having a store.  We don’t do books.”

Image result for empty shelves at bookstore

Bizarre.

A jolly clerk at the retail store had to wait to finish ringing up my purchase, because a price check was needed.  The awkward wait was broken when he asked,
“Where will you spend Christmas this year?”
“Lexington, KY!  How about you? came my response.
“Oh, I’ll stay right here.”
I continued the dialogue,  “And how do you celebrate Christmas?”
“How? Oh, just with giving gifts – that’s all.”
My husband chimed into the conversation by asking, “Do you know the Christ of Christmas?”
“Oh, we usually don’t do the religious thing at Christmas” was his answer.

Don’t do the religious thing?  

Me either.  Rather, we Do Jesus.  He is the reason we have Christmas!  Without celebrating His coming to earth to die for my sins, there would be no Christmas, and certainly nothing to celebrate!

My first two scenarios in this post were totally fictional, but I use them to make a point. If you’re celebrating Christmas and leaving the worship of Christ out of your celebration, you have a far greater crisis than a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips or a bookstore without books!  You have life without meaning.  When the tinsel has lost its glow, the wrapping paper is stuffed into the trash can, the last cookie is eaten, and the final gift unwrapped, you are still left with that empty hole in your heart.  The void in your life will still be unfulfilled on December 26th, because without Christ in Christmas you…

  • have no meaning all the other 364 days of the year.
  • don’t understand the sacrifice Jesus made to come to earth for you.
  • have no hope for eternal life with God.
  • have no peace in your heart.
  • don’t understand true satisfaction and contentment.
  • have just another party.

But if you will receive the greatest gift – the gift of eternal life THROUGH Jesus Christ, you can celebrate the joy of Christmas every day of the year.

If Christ is your Savior, I challenge you to make Him the center and focus of your celebrations this year.  Without Him you’ll have just a plain ol’ holiday, but when you center everything around Him, you’ll have CHRISTmas!

Lovingly,

Denise Signature 150 px