Meanderings

I have to say that this has been the longest "feeling" winter I have ever experienced.  I'm not sure why, but I'm not liking it at all!  Some of it is that I don't have access to a car during the day, plus given our financial situation there is nothing I could do anyway. :-)

Here are some meanderings...

First of all, when did my daughter get so grown-up looking?  Amazing!  She'll be 14 in May so I guess it was bound to happen. :-)



I'm still watching birds.  They never cease to provide entertainment.


I organized a Chilefest at our church to raise money for a mission's trip to La Pintara, Chile.  We always have a few people from our church go each year to continue work on a girl's orphanage there.

  

Made granola, using the following recipe.



5 cups, rolled oats
pinch of salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sweetener - honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup seeds or nuts or both
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)

Combine and spread in a large baking pan.  Cook at 300 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.  Remove and add dried fruit.

Delicious!

I've actually started the process of putting together the book I've been working on for publishing.  Scary & exciting!  It is a book of daily devotionals.  I keep going back and forth from saying, "This is great!"  "I can do this!"  to "What in the world makes me think I can do this?"  lol

Dan & I have been praying and trying to figure out a way to relieve some of our financial stress.  It's hard to know what to do, but the reality is that our stress level keeps increasing.  His pay through his full-time job keeps decreasing because of the cost of health benefits which never cover all our bills anyway and the cost of living and our expenses keep increasing. 

The other issue is that the things our denomination puts in place to provide refreshment and renewal for pastors, he cannot participate in.   He can't go to our yearly district conference because he loses his pay.  He can't participate in the monthly meetings with other area pastors because they meet when he works.  He rarely gets a day off.  We haven't had a vacation in over 3 years.  So it's a struggle much of the time.

We keep taking it to the Lord and trying to figure out what He wants us to do.  It would be so much easier if He would drop a note from the sky, wouldn't it?  LOL!!!!In the meantime, we keep plugging away and trusting Him and praying.

And God is good.  Just about the time we are ready to despair, He provides.  Someone dropped off two large bags of clothes for Emily the other night.  We received an unexpected check in the mail the other day which will help with a few, also unexpected bills.

Anyway, more information than you ever wanted but those are some meanderings today, as well as prayer needs!  Would you please lift us up in prayer as we figure all this out?  Thank you, friends!