Encouraging Deep Roots

We love pizza and have it here on a fairly regular basis.  One of the things I love about homemade pizza is the ability to take just a few ingredients and come up with a different creation each time.  It seems like no two pizza pies are ever the same. With the holidays and different events we've had, I haven't actually made pizza in a few weeks.  So, I was thinking that it was about time but then I realized I was missing some key ingredients.  I had no mozzarella cheese nor any tomato sauce or jarred sauce.  That caused me to pause for a bit, but then I realized I had other things I could use. Last night we ended up with two very different kinds of pizza but both were delicious. One pie had ricotta cheese, roasted garlic, mushrooms and broccoli. The other was a Mexican style pizza with salsa as the base, cheddar cheese, peppers, black olives and summer sausage. Not bad for having none of the normal ingredients.  The best thing about pizza night ...

I Thessalonians 5:18 ~ Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do. Giving thanks, no matter the circumstances. I have found in my experience that the Lord allows me to have plenty of practice when I pray for something.  But this is my prayer.  Prayer that in 2013, I can thank God in all circumstances.   Thank Him for the good. Thank Him for the bad. Thank Him for the easy. Thank Him for the hard. Why should I do this?  Because of His love.  The love He showed by sending His son.  Because He requires this.  Because in thanksgiving my life will be full.  Because ultimately, Jesus is my example. He gave thanks for the good. He gave thanks for the bad. He gave thanks for the easy. He gave thanks for the hard. Thankfulness.  Gratitude.  An open hand, accepting God's blessings, but then giving Him back the gift of praise and thanksgiving for t...

Today was one of those days that I love and wish would happen more often!  I felt pretty industrious today and got a lot accomplished, despite the fact that I woke up with a massive headache and felt like I'd been run over by a truck!   I love being able to work around my house and make it feel like home and one thing that helps me get more done is staying off the silly computer, namely Facebook!  I love being able to keep in touch with my family and far away friends that way, but if I'm not careful I can waste so much time on there.  So I've been trying to give myself a limit on how much time I'll spend there and mostly keep it to the evening. Today I did the following: ► Made Dan's lunch ► Cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast. ► I vacuumed my entire house both upstairs and downstairs. ► 2 loads of laundry. ► Dusted the living room and dining room. ► Did a full morning of school with Emily. ► Drove Emily to art class at my friend's house and ...

  I've had such a wonderful week so far and I've really tried to put the brakes on my hectic life.  I have such a difficult time slowing down and enjoying the moment.  As soon as one thing is over, I'm on to planning the next.  I caught myself doing that on Tuesday, the day after our party which left me really tired.  I told Dan that it's so hard to not constantly be planning ahead. Two things that I want to focus on in 2013 are getting myself in shape physically, as well as just slowing down and hearing from God.  I'm asking myself questions such as... ► What does He want me to do? ► How can I help others use their gifts more (instead of doing it all myself)?  ► What are my motives in doing an activity?  Am I honoring God and pointing people to Him or am I the center of focus? ► Is the activity beneficial? Necessary?   I've been able to focus on my house and my family this week.  They seem to always take a back seat an...

  This year was our 6th year hosting a New Year's Eve open house.  Technically, this year we had moved it to Saturday, but we ended up postponing because of snow so we ended up back on December 31st. We had 35 people here, tons of food and lots of laughter.  It was a wonderful afternoon and evening.  Unfortunately, some people were not able to make it because of the switch in dates and they were missed. Here are some pictures of the night. I went way overboard on the food!  People brought things to share so we had more than we needed.  One thing I will change next year is to have snack foods that I can make ahead of time.  I spent the majority of time running back and forth baking appetizers that had to be hot.  Keepers: Bruschetta with capers & black olives, garlic & cream crostini, ziti, chili, meatballs, cheese & crackers, veggie platter & dip. Lose: Appetizers such as mushroom puffs, spinach balls, ch...

I hope you had a wonderful night ringing out the old.  Now it's in with the new. Every year, I have a list of goals I want to accomplish in the new year and almost every year 90% of them never happen.  I have good intentions but life gets in the way and old patterns are hard to break.  This year I decided not to make any goals without really praying and seeing what it is God wants me to do. Dan preached on goal setting this past Sunday and one of the things he talked about is the faulty thinking that many Christians have in trying to group your life into categories.  So when we set goals or resolutions, we'll say these are my financial goals, health goals, personal goals, family goals, spiritual goals. Do you see the problem here?  When we do it this way, we put God in His own separate category and He tends to get left out of every aspect of our lives.  We lump him into a spiritual goal of perhaps having personal devotions for 20 minutes every day and then ...

We had planned our annual holiday open house for month and Saturday, the day we scheduled it for looked clear and nice.  Then a few days ago, they changed the forecast. We ended up with this... Since the majority of our guests were coming over a mountain and the snowplows tend to take their own sweet time, we ended up postponing the party until today. I was disappointed because a number of people were no longer going to be able to come, but I ended up spending a nice relaxing afternoon drinking tea and watching birds out my window. It also gave me a couple of extra days to prepare.  So this afternoon we will have Take #2 of our holiday open house.  I've been busy baking and cooking to get ready. I plan on putting things out at different times since the open house is from 1-9 p.m., with people stopping by at different times.  We're having the following dishes/appetizers: Veggie platter with spinach dip Crackers/bread & cheese Garlic cream cro...