Amusement from Mistakes (my mistakes)

Okay, today I was a little stressed. It wasn't because I had to stay late at work, nor was it because of the extensive report that had my mind in overdrive for over 2 hours. For some reason I wasn't stressed because I had to go to a baby shower even though I haven't been home very much lately, and I wasn't stressing out over not eating supper with my family. . . something I hate to miss. I was fine with all those things.

I just wasn't lining up.

Lining up with what? With others standard of a good person? With my mom's standard of a good young lady? With my own standard of a good Christian? I think it was a combination of all three! ☺ (Not that my mom puts me under pressure, but you know how it is. Everyone wants to be like their mom!)

So as I frantically looked through my nightstand for my daily Bible reading record (you know, the whole guilt thing making me think I wasn't reading enough) I stumbled across a sheet of paper with some words jotted down. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to write down some of the mistakes I made when I was giving piano lessons. That is, when I was giving piano lessons at age 15 to four children, two of which were very energetic. Boy did I think I knew it all! Now I don't think I would be so brave to tackle such an undertaking! But back to the notes. I wrote down some of the things I told my students. Things like, "Play your thumb with your 1st finger." Hugh? I told one student to "count to 4" not just one time, but four times in a row! Lastly, I (the teacher) counted to 4 when I was only suppose to count to 2. My, my. What a good teacher I was!

Now I don't feel quite so bad. I found some mistakes that I can laugh about, because everyone makes mistakes!

We Three

I love spending time with my sisters! I don't always spend as much time with them as I should, but I always have fun when I do.

We sing together . . . (espcially in the car!)

We shop together . . .

We play games with each other . . .

and of course, take pictures together! Oh, and did I mention we like to match?

To see more photos visit Bethany's blog.

A New Recipe

Saturday I cooked a new meal for the family. I found the recipe in the Taste of Home magazine about a month ago but I just now got around to cooking it. The picture is what caught my attention, not the actual ingredients. The whole time I was in the kitchen I was so afraid we wouldn't like it because the ingredients aren't ones we generally use, but we all enjoyed it. It was a very pleasant surpise. I did make a few alterations which I'll type in green.

Black Bean Pork Burritos

3/4 cup thawed limeade concentrate 1/2 cup if you don't want a strong lime flavor
1 tablespoon salt, divided
1- 1/2 teaspoons pepper, divided
1 pound boneless pork loin cut into thin strips
2 cups chopped seeded plum tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro, divided
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded nd chopped
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
2 cups 8 ouces shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
6 flour tortillas (10 inches), warmed
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinced and drained

1. In a large resealable plastick bag, combine the limeade concentrate, oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; add pork. Seal the bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. (I only let it marinade for 10-15 minutes.)

2. For salsa, in a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, green pepper, onion, 1/4 cup cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, garlic powder and remaining salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. Meanwhile, cook rice according to the package directions. Stir in the remaining cilantro; keep warm. Drain and discard marinade. In a large nonstick skillet saute pork for 5-6 minutes or until no longer pink; drain.

4. Sprinkle 1/3 cup cheese off-centered on each tortilla. Layer each with about 1/2 cup rice mixture and 1/4 cup black beans. Fold sides and ends over filling. Serve with remaining salsa.

Yeild: 6 SERVINGS

The directions didn't say to cook the black beans but I did anyways because I can't imagine eating hard beans! I made my mama's home made tortillas like always. We also ate ours with tacco sause and hot sause. I love meals like this, the kind of meal that you can make your own. It would be so easy to change the meat, exchange the black beans for re-fried beans, or eat it without the rice.

As we say at our house . . . this recipe is a keeper!

Pictures Galore!

Over the past few weeks I've been steadily woring on a project for a lady who is retiring next week. That something is a scrapbook. I've never made one before, but I've got a lot of help so I think it will turn out great. At times it has been a little stressfull since I have to have it done by a certain date, but tonight I'm feeling good because I can finally see it coming together.

It makes me feel good to do something like this for someone else especially when I know she will really appreciate it. It not only keeps my hands busy and  pushes me learn something new, but also makes me think of others. All of these things makes the single years a little easier and more enjoyable. It's things like these that I want to take advantage of while I have the time.

Your Habits Say More Then You Think

Over the past few days I've started to realize that the way people act every day doing the mundain things of life, also reflects how they act in their spiritual life. Just like those who procrastinate when completing a project for work they also procrastinate in areas like repenting or giving up a bad and sinful habit. If a person tends to hit the snooze button too many times trying to get a few more minutes of much enjoyed sleep, they most likely hit the snooze button when it comes to speaking up for Christ.

In contrast, those who rise early everymorning eager to get everything done on their "to do" list, also makes it a priority to seek Him early as the Bible commands (Pro. 8:17). People like my mother who deny themselves of things they enjoy because they know it is good for them, also deny themselves of the pleasure of giving into the flesh.

For a long time now I've known that I need to drink more water. It's not that I don't like water, but that I'm just not thirsty. From the time I was a little girl I've never taken in much liquid. I just couldn't make myself see the purpose of drinking if I wasn't thirsty  . . .  unless, of course, there was Kool-Aid in the refrigerator. But this week I finally decided that I was going to start drinking a healthy amount of water. There are so many bennefits that comes with it like, sinus relief, energy boost, detoxination, and I've read it even lessens muscle cramps and sprains. So I've started out by drinking at least 64 ounces a day. It may not be as much as I need, but it is way more then I use to drink! Now I am drinking water from the time I get up in the morning till about two hours before I go to bed. At first it comes as a habit, but after a while I began to crave the water.

But wait, did you think I was changing the subject? Let's look at how we can compare this to our spiritual life. I'm drinking water because I know it will improve my health. I know that if I spend more time with God my spiritual life will be healthier, but do I do it? Saddly, not like I should. Just like I've been drinking water by the hour, I should be seeking God by the hour. A chapter of the Bible here, a verse to think about there, a prayer to God in the morning, a meditation on his goodness in the after noon . . . and before I know it I will be thirsty for more of God. Just like my body will become healthier, so will my spiritual life.

I believe my health is worth the effort I'm putting into it, but isn't my walk with God even more important? Most definately!

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:

for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6

What to do When You Don't Know What to Say

Have you ever had a friend or family member go through a hard time in life? I mean, something life changing. I've often found mysef in this sittuation. In times like these it's hard to know what to say. I so baddly want to encourage them and help uplift their spirit, but what do I say? I don't know the pain they're going through and I don't know how this is going to effecting their life forever. How can I really offer encouragement in such a circumstance?

So I went to the book of Job. Everyone knows that Job went through more and lost more then we could ever imagine. But God turned my attention to his friends istead of the one who was suffering. Now truly, his friends were great indeed just for the fact that they sat and mouned with him for seven days. How many of us would do that for our friends? I believe that Job's friends really wanted to help him. They were probably very close to him and hated to see their friend so discouraged and depressed. But their encouragement and advise was full of falsehood. Even Job's counsel was wrong because God said to Job, "Whis is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"

Now we all know that each sittuation of suffering is different, but we can all learn something from this story. What I learned was that sometimes it is better to say nothing than to speak void words. I don't want to be like Job's friends and cause them more pain by my untimely words. If God wants us to say something He will give us the words to say and make them very clear. But there are times when the best thing we can do is just love our friends and family and let them know we are there for them.

"Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few." Ecclesiastes 5:2

Lessons From Ecclesiastes

Lately as I've been walking through life I've felt like there is so much I'm trying to figure out. There are a lot of things about the work field, politics, current events, and life in general that I want to know about. I guess I can accredit that to my young age and youthful curiosity.

However, I'm constantly being reminded to "love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul." So I thought thes would be a great time to read Ecclesiastes, the book full of reasonings about life. What better time then this to learn how to balance my life so that it is pleasing to God? (Pro. 11.1)

When I read Ec 1.18 I was very puzzled. "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knwledge increaseth sorrow." What?! Doesn't the Bible tell us to seek after wisdom as choice silver and to get knowledge  so that we will have understandin? Tese verses seemed to contradict each other, something I know the Bible is not capable of doing.

After I recived no answer I forgot about the verse and went on wit hmy life. On the way to work I listened to the radio, eager to learn more about this new health bill, but I also heard about abortion rights and a man facing murder charges. At work the topic of the week ahs been nothing other than the infamous health bill. Later on in my day I was informed more deeply about electronic medical records. Over and over I saw how communication between co-workers, doctor to doctor, and even patient to doctor is slipping away. Basically, what you can't do for yourself, the computer will do for you. No direct human contact needed, in some cases.

By this point I'm starting to feel a little down. But I still tuned in to the local radio station only to hear about trouble in the schools and a down sliding economy. When I got home I realized that too much news is really bad for me. All of a sudden I couldn't stand the sound of the world news playing in the next room. All negative, no possative. Every minute of it was a reminder of how quickly our nation is deteriating into a weak group of people void of the fear of God.

It was then that God gently brought my mind back to that verse. "For in much wisdom is much greif: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." Could it be that Solomon was writing about worldly wisdom and worldly knowledge?

When we become "world smart" and aware of what is going on in this wicked world, it can cause greif and sorrow. If we put too much emphasis on learning more about this world (even though it may seem inocent) our vision is turned from God to something corruptable. I can see why Paul tells us to think on good things. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8

I've decided that I'm not going to stay up to date on the news, I'm not going to stress over the health care indistry, and I'm not going to frett over being unknowledgeable about a lot of things. It's not worth it. Those things are going to vanish. I'm going to set my mind on things eternal, things that really matter. I'm going to set my mind on God!