Our grandbaby!

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Skywatch Friday

Mallory Square, Key West, Florida

See other Skywatch participants here.

CFBA Featured Book

The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Elisha's Bones by Don Hoesel.


If you would like to read the first chapter go here.

FRO--Always the Eccentric

The purpose of Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You (every Thursday) is to link up a post about something from your past. You can reach back all the way to your childhood and bravely post pictures of your ‘fro (don’t act like you didn’t have a bad hair style. I know you did) or post something from last year and tell us about it.

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As Marcy says: "Public humiliation is the new extreme sport!"




Goodness. I don't want to know how many people were trying to stifle their chuckles this day.

I obviously didn't get enough use out of my First Holy Communion dress considering I thought it a brilliant idea to wear it to school. Probably for awards day.

I must point out the casual dress of the other students in line with me. T-shirts and jeans.




Yes. That's me. Always the eccentric.

Wordless Wednesday

Painting Revelation

Painting Revelation by Debby Topliff

When asked to review this DVD, I jumped on it. I mean, with my focus on Visual Prayers and my Art Scripture Journal how could I resist taking the time to study another artist's work?

And wow. I liked this.

Debby Topliff was intimidated by the book of Revelation and issued herself a challenge--to study it. She came away with notes and drawings--and put paint to canvas. A 5-foot by 7-foot canvas to be exact. (OH what fun that would be!!)


Her DVD, Painting Revelation is broken into easy to watch sections that can be done as weekly studies or watched all at once (as Zane and I did.) Debby narrates the DVD and starts in her woodsy yard talking about what the Bible says and then moves to zooming in on the portion of her painting while she explains her interpretation.

This is such an incredible experience.

As I've been doing my Scripture Journal and Visual Prayers, I've been basically doodling, drawing or painting or whatever I feel led to do. I haven't ever set out to do something, interpret something. So this process was very interesting to me.

In addition to what I've already talked about, there is bonus material...


Resources included:

• Study: Download the 6-week study guide with worksheets, charts, visual key, Scripture references, and easy-to-use leader’s guide — for personal or group use.

• Fellowship: Watch the DVD with your small group, youth group, or retreat and choose from the discussion questions to explore topics you’re interested in.

• Teaching: Show the DVD in segments to present an overview and set the context for preaching and teaching on Revelation.

• Worship: Project images from the DVD to enhance singing and praise.

• Family: Share the DVD with your children to introduce them to the book of Revelation.

You can preview the DVD here. You should. It's beautiful! (and it's only 3 minutes!)


I'm so glad I had the opportunity to review this.

Tackle It Tuesday--more remodeling

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You can see all of my Tackles here.

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Are you sick of the construction photos yet? You should be. I am.

I'm trying to be happy about all this change, but it's tiring and I'm so done with the packing thing. Then there's the banging upstairs and the cold and the dirt. Plus, I can't go braless when people are here. That's probably why I'm cranky.

So we're at the point where it really doesn't look like much has happened. But it has. There's shingles on the outside. There's a window in place. The wiring's done. The yucky red carpet is gone. That's the upstairs.

The bathroom downstairs is gutted and rewired and framed up and ready for the old tub and sink to be yanked out. We have to get the new shower, sink, and toilet upstairs working before we can do that though.

Hole in the roof.

Framed up

Yeah! A window!

View from new bathroom window
Boarded up and no more carpet!
Phil ran all the electricity!

So close yet so far from finished

And...the downstairs bathroom.
Trashed.

Of course, none of that is my work. I've been stuck in packing hell.

Menu Plan Monday--April 20

Starting March 2nd, We're going to give this a shot. I used to be so good at planning meals and something happened--and then I found out by way of a food journal, my system doesn't tolerate MSG--so I'm making thing from scratch to avoid the nasty stuff!

And since we're moving soon, I also would like to need to empty out the abundance from my freezer and pantry. I'm going to try to GOING to spend less than $15 a week for my grocery budget in April and probably the first two weeks of May. WISH ME LUCK! LOL

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Not so good this week. Spent double the budget. Sure, that's only $30 instead of $15 but it was well worth it to get some fresh fruits and veggies and the makings for potato salad and carrot raisin salad. Recipes below! My friend, Toni, made the carrot raisin salad for lunch one Creative Day and I've been craving it--so I found a recipe and tweaked it.

Our grandbaby might be coming Wednesday. Jess has an ultrasound and the doctor will decide if she want to induce on Wednesday or the following Monday. I'm going to plan the week just in case.

We rented a condo with a full kitchen down by Jess so I'll need to make a plan for the week we're with her. My parents stay here to watch the dogs so I'll need to pull some food from the deep freeze to the kitchen freezer for them.

I can't believe this is all happening so soon!!

Monday--ham and beans from the freezer, fresh cornbread

Tuesday--Haluski (Polish comfort food--noodles and cabbage with butter!)

Wednesday--Beef stir fry (with leftover steak from last week)

Thursday--Leftovers

Friday--Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, potato salad, carrot raisin salad

Saturday--Grilled pork chops

Sunday--If the baby's not induced Wednesday, we'll be leaving early in the morning today!



Michelle's Potato Salad

• About 10-13 medium russet potatoes, skins on, diced small
  
• 5 hard-boiled eggs, diced really tiny
  
• 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise (real Mayo!! Not Miracle Whip)
  
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
  
• 1 large chopped sweet onion
• 3 large celery ribs
• 1 large chopped dill pickle
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
  
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (optional)

1. Wash and chop potatoes, boil until tender (but not falling apart!) then rinse in cold water for about 5 minutes. Shake excess water away and dump back in pot.



2. While the potatoes are boiling, you can boil your eggs. Unless you thought ahead and boiled them previously. Or have leftover Easter eggs. Of course, if you're reading this and it is July--please don't use your leftover Easter eggs.

I use my handy-dandy Pampered Chef egg slicer. I put it in. Slice. Take it out and turn it. Slice. Then one more time I turn it and slice again. It makes a mess, but it's way less messier than chopping them on a cutting board.

3. Chop everything else (or use your food processor. I don't like to dirty a ton of dishes, so the potatoes and everything else go back into the pot and I mix it in there. Then I move it to a storage bowl with a lid and stick it in the fridge.

Voila! You have MSG and preservative free Potato Salad! It tastes better after it sits in the fridge for a few hours!

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Carrot Raisin Salad

• 4 cups shredded carrots
• 2 diced celery ribs
  
• 1 cup raisins (I like the Golden ones!)
  
• 2/3 cup mayonnaise (Real Mayo--not Miracle Whip)
  
• 2 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

This is pretty straight forward. Shred your carrots and celery, add everything...



And mix. You're done! It tastes better after it sits in the fridge for a few hours!

Skywatch Friday

Mallory Square, Key West, Florida

CFBA Featured Book

The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker.


If you would like to read the first chapter go here.

2009 Scripture Art Number 8

Beth Moore posted on her blog asking if anyone wanted to join

her in memorizing Scripture, two a month, in 2009.

You can see all of my posts here.

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Here's the final version of Scripture Art Number 7.
Jeremiah 29:11

The next Scripture I'm working on is Jeremiah 29:12

You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.