PRAYER:
~MckMama's baby, Stellan, is in the hospital in critical condition. His heart rate is extremely high (SVT--what he almost died of before he was born) and the things they have tried to get his heart to convert have not been effective so far. Please pray for baby Stellan, the family and the doctors who are caring for him.
~Several families have been hit with this chest congestion/cold/bronchitis junk and are having a hard time getting over it. Please pray for healing and strength.
~For strength and perserverance as we 'kick this debt'!
~For families who've lost loved ones recently and others who are approaching the one year anniversary of losing someone....
PRAISE:
~Abby is going home from the hospital!!!! She has made it through an incredibly dangerous/scary time this past week and I am just praising God that she is doing well and going home after 3 weeks and 2 days in the hospital!
~The boys and I are on the mend after a bummer of a week being sick. We still have a 'tag-a-long cough', but other than that are feeling SO much better. Eric and G. did not get it and we're praying they don't!
~I am so thankful that this school year is wrapping up and almost done! And I'm loving this weather God has sent our way!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
I'm done...
...done with debt
...done with denial
...done with credit cards
...done with living frivolously
...done keeping up with the Joneses--they're broke anyway!
...done with denial
...done with credit cards
...done with living frivolously
...done keeping up with the Joneses--they're broke anyway!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
REVIVE
We're home sick today.....wasn't able to go to church. So rather than have a pity party, I decided to take this time to go over our awesome weekend at REVIVE, last weekend.
REVIVE is a 24 hour intense retreat that Eric and I were both blessed to be able to attend. It was free of charge (a huge plus for us right now!) and an awesome chance to connect to other believers in our church family on a deeper level.
My parents kept the kiddos for us and we headed over to the SEND house in Columbus on Friday eve. The three story house was perfectly suited for our purpose there. The main level was kitchen, dining area and lounge areas. Second level was rooms/bathroom for women and third level was for the men. There is a carriage house out back that had an upstairs meeting room where all the teachings took place. The staff at the SEND house did a wonderful job taking care of us and we really appreciated and enjoyed our time there. The only problem was that it went too fast!
Friday eve at 7:00 was our first session. We started with worship and prayer then had about an hour teaching on "Personal Sin and Confession". We were then broken into groups of two (women together and men together) to pray through and confess areas of sin in our lives. James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another , that you may be healed."
After our time together, we had 'free time' on the main level. Everyone had brought snacks/games and we just had a grand time together laughing and talking. Needless to say, we stayed up WAY too late!
Breakfast Saturday morning was at 7:15 with the first teaching session at 8:00. "Walking in a Life of Forgiveness" was a powerful message of personal testimony and encouragement to live the life of Forgiveness. We have no power in and of ourselves to forgive. Yet we have been given the tremendous gift of forgiveness and we need to pass it on. We then broke into our groups of two again to discuss/share areas that we have accepted forgiveness and where we need to give it.
There was a short break after that and before our next teaching session on Christ's love to us as a Bridegroom for His Bride--"Receiving the Love of Jesus". A lot of time was spent in Song of Solomon. A powerful look at just how He sees us! It is so hard to comprehend that I am a 'delight' to Him! But how I want to learn and live it more! We then had about an hour+ until lunch for personal, one-on-One time with God. It was so refreshing! The weather outside was beautiful and we were scattered all over the porches, hammocks, benches as well as inside.
After lunch break was a session titled "Closing Demonic Doors". It was on the reality of the demonic realm, how demons gain footholds, and getting freedom from demonic strongholds in our lives. Deliverance principles that should be applied to our everyday lives.
Without a break we rolled right into "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit" (which has been an ongoing topic in the sermons at church--awesome topic!). Then we broke into a women group and a men group to pray together. This was a powerful time of ministry and so beautiful to experience. A 'hot seat' was placed in the middle and each was given the chance to be in it and prayed for. (although we women unfortunately had to cut the last few short due to time :0( ) There were laying on of hands, prayers for healing, for deliverance, for guidance and direction, prayers of thanksgiving, as well as rebuking of spirits of fear, apathy, anxiety. Oh, and lots and lots of tears! (as one of the other women said when we first gathered, 'where's the kleenex, it's about to get messy!') IT WAS POWERFUL!!! And such a tremendous blessing!
After the time of prayer ministry, we met back up in the meeting room for a final time of worship and communion together. Such a powerful weekend, such a blessed time together. (There were 21 of us) Lots of laughter, tears and wonderful memories. Such an opportunity to grow in the Lord and grow together--a small part of the Bride of Christ.
I am so blessed by our church family!
Praying you are blessed as well!
REVIVE is a 24 hour intense retreat that Eric and I were both blessed to be able to attend. It was free of charge (a huge plus for us right now!) and an awesome chance to connect to other believers in our church family on a deeper level.
My parents kept the kiddos for us and we headed over to the SEND house in Columbus on Friday eve. The three story house was perfectly suited for our purpose there. The main level was kitchen, dining area and lounge areas. Second level was rooms/bathroom for women and third level was for the men. There is a carriage house out back that had an upstairs meeting room where all the teachings took place. The staff at the SEND house did a wonderful job taking care of us and we really appreciated and enjoyed our time there. The only problem was that it went too fast!
Friday eve at 7:00 was our first session. We started with worship and prayer then had about an hour teaching on "Personal Sin and Confession". We were then broken into groups of two (women together and men together) to pray through and confess areas of sin in our lives. James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another , that you may be healed."
After our time together, we had 'free time' on the main level. Everyone had brought snacks/games and we just had a grand time together laughing and talking. Needless to say, we stayed up WAY too late!
Breakfast Saturday morning was at 7:15 with the first teaching session at 8:00. "Walking in a Life of Forgiveness" was a powerful message of personal testimony and encouragement to live the life of Forgiveness. We have no power in and of ourselves to forgive. Yet we have been given the tremendous gift of forgiveness and we need to pass it on. We then broke into our groups of two again to discuss/share areas that we have accepted forgiveness and where we need to give it.
There was a short break after that and before our next teaching session on Christ's love to us as a Bridegroom for His Bride--"Receiving the Love of Jesus". A lot of time was spent in Song of Solomon. A powerful look at just how He sees us! It is so hard to comprehend that I am a 'delight' to Him! But how I want to learn and live it more! We then had about an hour+ until lunch for personal, one-on-One time with God. It was so refreshing! The weather outside was beautiful and we were scattered all over the porches, hammocks, benches as well as inside.
After lunch break was a session titled "Closing Demonic Doors". It was on the reality of the demonic realm, how demons gain footholds, and getting freedom from demonic strongholds in our lives. Deliverance principles that should be applied to our everyday lives.
Without a break we rolled right into "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit" (which has been an ongoing topic in the sermons at church--awesome topic!). Then we broke into a women group and a men group to pray together. This was a powerful time of ministry and so beautiful to experience. A 'hot seat' was placed in the middle and each was given the chance to be in it and prayed for. (although we women unfortunately had to cut the last few short due to time :0( ) There were laying on of hands, prayers for healing, for deliverance, for guidance and direction, prayers of thanksgiving, as well as rebuking of spirits of fear, apathy, anxiety. Oh, and lots and lots of tears! (as one of the other women said when we first gathered, 'where's the kleenex, it's about to get messy!') IT WAS POWERFUL!!! And such a tremendous blessing!
After the time of prayer ministry, we met back up in the meeting room for a final time of worship and communion together. Such a powerful weekend, such a blessed time together. (There were 21 of us) Lots of laughter, tears and wonderful memories. Such an opportunity to grow in the Lord and grow together--a small part of the Bride of Christ.
I am so blessed by our church family!
Praying you are blessed as well!
Monday, March 9, 2009
green smoothie #2
Here's my second adventure in the green smoothie world! Looks=much better; taste=needs improvement!
I used 5 kale leaves (no stems), 1 mango, 1 banana. I'm LOVIN' me the color, but the taste.....well.....it's perfectly fine if you're just chugging away at it; tastes slightly sweet. But the aftertaste leaves you feeling rather, um, bovine?!
I do think with the rest of my kale I will try one of the more salty/spicy recipes rather than trying for the sweet/fruity, due to the sharp taste of the kale. Most recipes including kale (in my one green smoothie book) included things like avocado, garlic, jalapeno, etc.
I'm not gonna call this one a TOTAL loss, cause I love the color! Especially with my counter tops!!!! Just needs some improvement in the flavor department, but I don't think I did half bad!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
2 yummy, raw (or mostly raw) dishes
So here are two of our favorite raw dishes....I blogged about them yesterday, but now I've got some pics!
First salad....beet greens, spinach, apple, pine nuts, raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Very simple, very yummy, lite and very satisfying!
Second salad....1 stalk celery, 1 banana, 5-6 dates. Toss with fresh squeezed OJ and maybe even some raw almonds! (I didn't take the time to toss this one with the OJ as I was in a hurry to eat and leave!) This one is an excellent breakfast. I love the crunchy/chewy/soft and sweet/tart/slightly bitter and salty combination that this gives. It's like an explosion in the mouth!
I'm dying to get a dehydrator.....an Excalibur dehydrator to be exact! There is a whole 'nother world to explore there! All manner of dried fruits (think trail mix), veggies (think chips), flax crackers (yum to go w/ hummus), breads (yes, they're flat but still work as normal breads), fruit leathers.....the list could go on an on!
Feeling pretty good so far, but we're only a couple days into the month... Not that we will TOTALLY eliminate anything cooked from our food intake...like I said, we're striving for somewhere in the 80-100% range. So far, so good....just as long as we can keep it not boring!
I've gotta make more hummus tomorrow....it won't be 100% raw as I am using up some cans of chickpeas/garbanzos I already had. Everything else will be raw though. I think I'll do the 'sun-dried tomato' version like I just made the other day (but is now all gone!)--it was a hit!
Not sure what else we'll have tomorrow....guess we'll have to wait and see! I just may venture into the green smoothie world again! YIKES!
Oh, and I just know you're absolutely DIGGIN' my retro, orange kitchen countertops!
First salad....beet greens, spinach, apple, pine nuts, raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Very simple, very yummy, lite and very satisfying!
Second salad....1 stalk celery, 1 banana, 5-6 dates. Toss with fresh squeezed OJ and maybe even some raw almonds! (I didn't take the time to toss this one with the OJ as I was in a hurry to eat and leave!) This one is an excellent breakfast. I love the crunchy/chewy/soft and sweet/tart/slightly bitter and salty combination that this gives. It's like an explosion in the mouth!
I'm dying to get a dehydrator.....an Excalibur dehydrator to be exact! There is a whole 'nother world to explore there! All manner of dried fruits (think trail mix), veggies (think chips), flax crackers (yum to go w/ hummus), breads (yes, they're flat but still work as normal breads), fruit leathers.....the list could go on an on!
Feeling pretty good so far, but we're only a couple days into the month... Not that we will TOTALLY eliminate anything cooked from our food intake...like I said, we're striving for somewhere in the 80-100% range. So far, so good....just as long as we can keep it not boring!
I've gotta make more hummus tomorrow....it won't be 100% raw as I am using up some cans of chickpeas/garbanzos I already had. Everything else will be raw though. I think I'll do the 'sun-dried tomato' version like I just made the other day (but is now all gone!)--it was a hit!
Not sure what else we'll have tomorrow....guess we'll have to wait and see! I just may venture into the green smoothie world again! YIKES!
Oh, and I just know you're absolutely DIGGIN' my retro, orange kitchen countertops!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
our raw food adventure....
so I haven't posted for awhile.....got addicted to Facebook.....
But wanted to share about our March adventure! We are 'going raw'--in other words, eating all raw, uncooked foods! This consists of every kind of fruit, vegetable and greens as well as raw nuts and seeds. There is an endless world to explore and I am SO PUMPED about it!
Yesterday was our first 'real' day on raw, since we just came off the Master Cleanse on Saturday. Our breakfast was fresh squeezed OJ, fruits for lunch then a yummy salad for dinner. The salad was a simple one and SO GOOD: spinach and beet greens, apple, pine nuts and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Now obviously the dressing was not 'raw' but we are striving for 90-100% raw, so give me a break :0)
This morning I had one of my fav's for breakfast: 1 stalk celery, chopped; 1 banana, sliced; 5-6 dried dates, chopped; toss with a little fresh squeezed OJ and you're set! You can even top with some raw almonds! VERY good, VERY healthy and sticks with you a long time!
For lunch today I ventured into uncharted waters.....green smoothies! Or in my case, a 'brown' smoothie! It consisted of beet greens, 1 mango, 5 strawberries and about a cup of water. Looks like....well, I'll let you decide what it looks like....
.....but it tasted FABULOUS! The kids even loved it! Just caught Little Miss G. in the refrigerator, sneaking another sip of it!
I thought I would puke just from looking at it! But I told myself that I liked every ingredient in there, so why should it not taste good! All in all, a good first experience with green smoothies!
Tonight for dinner, I'm not sure what I'll have....maybe what I sent with Eric for lunch: spinach leaves with tomato and avocado to put on top, tossed with olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice and sea salt. Or, we may have 'wraps'....some hummus, avocado, tomato, etc on a romaine leaf and rolled up.... We'll see!
That's all for now, I'll keep ya posted with plenty of pics and of course rant about how great I'm feeling and how much weight is melting off :0)...or not....
But wanted to share about our March adventure! We are 'going raw'--in other words, eating all raw, uncooked foods! This consists of every kind of fruit, vegetable and greens as well as raw nuts and seeds. There is an endless world to explore and I am SO PUMPED about it!
Yesterday was our first 'real' day on raw, since we just came off the Master Cleanse on Saturday. Our breakfast was fresh squeezed OJ, fruits for lunch then a yummy salad for dinner. The salad was a simple one and SO GOOD: spinach and beet greens, apple, pine nuts and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Now obviously the dressing was not 'raw' but we are striving for 90-100% raw, so give me a break :0)
This morning I had one of my fav's for breakfast: 1 stalk celery, chopped; 1 banana, sliced; 5-6 dried dates, chopped; toss with a little fresh squeezed OJ and you're set! You can even top with some raw almonds! VERY good, VERY healthy and sticks with you a long time!
For lunch today I ventured into uncharted waters.....green smoothies! Or in my case, a 'brown' smoothie! It consisted of beet greens, 1 mango, 5 strawberries and about a cup of water. Looks like....well, I'll let you decide what it looks like....
.....but it tasted FABULOUS! The kids even loved it! Just caught Little Miss G. in the refrigerator, sneaking another sip of it!
I thought I would puke just from looking at it! But I told myself that I liked every ingredient in there, so why should it not taste good! All in all, a good first experience with green smoothies!
Tonight for dinner, I'm not sure what I'll have....maybe what I sent with Eric for lunch: spinach leaves with tomato and avocado to put on top, tossed with olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice and sea salt. Or, we may have 'wraps'....some hummus, avocado, tomato, etc on a romaine leaf and rolled up.... We'll see!
That's all for now, I'll keep ya posted with plenty of pics and of course rant about how great I'm feeling and how much weight is melting off :0)...or not....
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