broken

We live in a broken world, and sometimes feel hopeless. I find a lot of meaning and comfort in music. Take a listen to this song a friend shared with me...

From Eva's Kitchen 2

Last night, Tyler (my hubby) left on a little training trip to Lincoln for a few days. Since it was just the kids and I, we did some fun stuff. One of which was making play dough. This is an easy recipe and smells so good because of the kool-aid! My kids love it. Isaac is playing with grape play dough as I write this. Enjoy & happy playing! Don't forget to sit down with the kids...you'll enjoy it too!

Home Made Play dough

2 cups flour
2 TBS salt
2 TBS alum
1 pkg Kool-aid (any flavor)
1 cup boiling water
2 TBS vegetable oil

mix dry ingredients in bowl. Microwave water until boiling & add oil. Stir water/oil mixture into dry ingredients. Mix. Dump onto hard surface and kneed until firm.

(one tip is to choose good Alum-like the McCormick brand..for some reason the cheaper brands can make the play dough really sticky)


For those of you who are wondering what else we did for fun...we made strawberry milkshakes, watched an hour long Elmo movie together and then had a "slumber party" on the living room floor with sleeping bags. Tyler looked at me a little funny when I told him Isaac was having a "slumber party". That's what happens when you have to stay home with the girls!

True Spirituality

I like to read. I'm often reading more than one book at a time. Right now, I'm making my way through True Spirituality by Francis A. Schaeffer. I'm only on the third chapter, but so far it has proven to be very thought-provoking. At this point, he is discussing the ressurected Christ. A quote ,"It was the same body, raised, and glorified; not in some far off place, but there, in space, time, and history." He is speaking of when Jesus appeared with the disciples after his ressurection. It just becomes more real to me when I sit and think about the fact that Jesus had his same body, just glorified, that he is one day going to return and I along with every man, am going to "see him" in this world with my own eyes. I long for the day...I hope you do too.

From Eva's Kitchen I

Just for fun, I thought I'd start sharing a recipe a week for those of you who like to make yummy food in your kitchens. I enjoy cooking, though sometimes it can be challenging with a three year old and a one year old! I'll make sure to include the reference if I know where it came from.

One of my favorite fall and winter dishes is soup. Nothing beats hot soup and warm bread when the temperature is freezing!


Auntie M's White Chili (Lincoln Berean Cookbook 2004)
1 T. butter or oil
2 small onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (4 oz) can green chilies
2-4 tsp. ground cumin
4 c. chicken broth
4 c. cooked chicken, diced or shredded
3-4 cans white beans (any combo of great northern, navy, garbanzo, & butter beans)
2 c. Monterey Jack cheese
sour cream
chopped jalapenos

Sauté onion in butter. Add garlic, chilies and cumin. In soup pot, combine broth, chicken, beans, and sautéed vegetables. Heat to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15-30 minutes. Add cheese. Do NOT BOIL. Just before serving, garnish with sour cream and jalapeños.

Cowboy Bread (my mother's recipe)
1 pkg yeast
3 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup luke warm water
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup scalded milk, slightly cooled

Dissolve yeast in water. Cream together butter, sugars, eggs, and salt. Add milk and yeast mixture. Stir in flour by hand (do not knead). Cover and let rest in warm place for 15 minutes. Put into an 8" cast iron skillet. Pat smooth. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Happy Cookin'.

A New Year, Another Chance

Since I'm am a dreamer, I always look forward to the start of a new year. There is so much opportunity that a new year holds. I like to dream about what could be. However, many times when I come to the end of that "New Year", I'm disappointed that those dreams never became reality. A person can dream and dream and dream but nothing will happen if nothing is done. For a dream to come true, you have to have an end goal with actual defined steps to achieving that goal. What is it going to take for that conception in your mind to turn into reality? The difficulty for me comes into play here. I don't like the daily grind. I love to envision the goal but really struggle with staying the course. It takes discipline. It takes accountability. Most of all though, you have to really want whatever the end result is, and you always have to be willing to sacrifice to get there.

Well, it's a new year again. Since I'm turning 30 this week and living my life with vision this year...I wanted my first blog of 2008 to set the stage for what my family is focusing on this year. As I stated in an earlier post, we are on the road to becoming debt-free. Since college, I've learned a lot of hard lessons and one is that I really do not like being a slave to the lender! It really holds you back from being free to serve God however he leads. Having the resources he has provided tied up in credit cards or student loans or cars or even mortgages keeps us committed to something and tied down. It has taken me learning this over and over again to get to the point where I really want the end goal. I really want to be debt-free.

We already have steps to get to the end goal. Actually, we've been on a budget for 6 years. We took a Crown Financial Ministries course during our engagement and have lived with a budget since then. What we haven't done is sacrificed very much to reach our end goal. So this year is all about sacrifice. It is about saying no to things we don't need, places we'd like to go, restaurants we'd love to visit, in general...sacrificing whatever goes beyond a necessity to a want. Believe me, just saying this makes me cringe inside and want to start making my list of exceptions. But, no, I really want this and I have to continually remind myself that I want to be debt-free way more than I want that non-fat white chocolate mocha from Starbucks! However, gift cards for birthdays and holidays are always appreciated!

I will be posting our progresses, failures, and victories for you during the year. I'm a pretty open book and I share things with the purpose of encouraging you or challenging you to grow. I think it is a lot easier to gain wisdom from listening and sharing with others than it is from making mistakes and having to live with the consequences. With that said, if anyone has any really great ideas for cutting costs, saving money, or free forms of entertainment, I'm all ears. I love to research other blogs for ideas so I will share the really good ones that I come across. One great financial resource is Dave Ramsey. He shoots it to you straight. I like to listen to his radio program and hear stories of other people who are sacrificing to become debt-free.

Happy New Year. I hope you reach your goals.