Constant Prayer, Day 8 Topic: Prayer Today in the prayer guide for the 10 Days of Constant Prayer before Pentecost Sunday, we are encouraged to pray for the glory of Jesus.
For Christ's glory to be revealed in the courage of His people.
For His Church: *For those who come up against oppostion because of the name of Jesus....that they would display the gentle, bold character of Jesus. (Acts 4:13) *For Christians who suffer for Christ's name to be strong in joy and faith. *That God will be glorified by His great deeds in those places where He has been opposed. (Acts 4:21)
For Our World: *For our leaders and governments to be blessed. *That some government leaders who are opposing Christ would be blessed with wisdom and be found "not fighting against God." (Acts 5:39)
Stow it Topic: People/Family stories I am so unorganized, and such a procrastinator, it is really a problem for me. When I can't get motivated to get something done, but it is important enough for me to keep, I stow it.
I started stowing my childrens' keepsakes long ago, when my oldest (who is 18) was in kindergarten. She brought home the cutest, dearest things.....handprints, essays with pictures, polaroid photos on special days, awards, and crafts. My refrigerator door was overloaded with cute stuff. I had a pile of things on my dresser that stayed there for a year or more, not knowing what to do with it. One day, I decided I would just take a paper grocery sack and load all of the cute stuff I couldn't throw away into it and keep it on my closet shelf. Then each time she or one of the other girls (who eventually had their own sacks) would bring home something dear or cute or historical in some way to their small lives, I would slip it into the sack. These sacks are folded, as to not take up so much space. Keeping them folded also protects these cute artifacts from dust...mostly. So at the end of my closet shelf, through 2 moves so far, there sits the sacks.
We take them down once in a while to wander through them. I did this the other day. I actually found the sacks in a box that had not yet been unpacked from our recent move and I took them to my closet. But before I put them up there, I had to go through them. I actually was just going to go through Emma's sack, because I have LOST her immunization records and she needs them to go to high school this Fall. (I did not find them and I am hoping this will not be too much of a problem....????) So I went through Emma's sack. Her little blankie (the 'gee gee') was in there and she saw it and carried it around the rest of the day. I found it once again back in the sack at the end of the day....she said it didn't smell the same anymore. lol
I don't know what I will do with the sacks once they are grown and I don't have cute things to put in there anymore. I have never done anything with these things....no scrapbook, no pretty box or preservation of any kind. But the sacks have become a sort of artifact in themselves and we like them now just the way they are.....brittle as they may be.
I do a similar thing with recipes that I collect from magazines and friends. I have an accordian file folder that I neatly labeled one day....one amazingly organizational day....but I don't always have time to file the recipes. So I slip the recipes that are new into a pocket in the back of the accordian file and keep them there, waiting to be filed...which I do about once a year.
Both of these stow away ideas keep me from having piles of things everywhere. And I know right where to find all the recipes I've cut out over the year, instead of losing them.
Constant Prayer, Day 7 Topic: Prayer Today is day seven of the 10 Days of Constant Prayer for our communities. Today the emphasis is praying for the nations to hear the voice of God.
This includes: *The gospel preached in every language. *The Bible translated into more languages. Currently there are 3,000 known people groups without Scripture in their own language. *Churches to be planted around the world, in every culture/language group. *That many (Acts 2:39) would call on the name of the Lord and be saved. (Acts 2:21)
I forgot to copy down yesterday's prayer emphasis, but you can still pray for this very important one:
Day 6 The Coming Generation:
*For marriages and homes to be strengthened in Christ. *For children and youth to become devoted to following Christ early in life and to serve Him with extreme devotion! *That young leaders will be recognized and released to lead the church to grow in multiplying ways. (Acts 6:3-7)
Global prayer Topic: Prayer
I meant to write about this over a week ago. But my mind went into neutral with the busyness that surrounded my week last week and the thought that my dad would be placed in a nursing care facility, I thought by today. As of this morning, that is not a possibility...problems with the insurance approval and beds available. I have to snap out of this fog, I've decided. So I 'm just going to start putting some things out on here that I've been pushing aside, as to not to have to think.
We are in the middle of the 10 days of constant prayer. Read about it to find out more. Very simply, this is patterned after what happened at that first Christian Pentecost in the book of Acts. Jesus ascended into Heaven, leaving them with a promise of the Holy Spirit. For 10 days they were together, praying continually, until the day of Pentecost when they received the Holy Spirit. Then for 90 days they reached out to their community and thousands understood their message, were saved and the church grew and spread. So for 10 days, currently we are on day 6, we are encouraged to pray in groups, alone, fast and they have a prayer guide on their sight to guide you. Then this Sunday is the Global DAY of prayer, all believers who are participating, praying in one accord for God to work in their communities. Then for 90 days, churches are to reach out to the community, to be a blessing to them and watch God work.
I think it is a wonderfully organized effort. I have not heard much of it except through our church. I hope they continue to grow and do this each year so that more churches can participate and a more concerted effort will be in place. I can't wait to see what God will do through these that are praying. I have slacked this week through my own numbness due to my little life struggles. But I am committing right now to start in....day 6 though it may be....and join the effort. I will hopefully be able to post some more resources for this prayer effort later today. Right now I am being urgently summoned to get my 16 year old daughter to work!
Day by Day Topic: God things Day by Day Words: Kar-o-lina W. San-dell-Berg, 1865 trans-lat-ed from Swed-ish to Eng-lish by An-drew L. Skoog (1856-1934). Music: “Blott en Dag,” Os-kar Ahn-felt, 1872 Listen here
Day by day, and with each passing moment, Strength I find, to meet my trials here; Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure Gives unto each day what He deems best— Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Every day, the Lord Himself is near me With a special mercy for each hour; All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me, He Whose Name is Counselor and Power; The protection of His child and treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid; “As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,” This the pledge to me He made.
Help me then in every tribulation So to trust Thy promises, O Lord, That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation Offered me within Thy holy Word. Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, Ever to take, as from a father’s hand, One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, Till I reach the promised land.
Cook/freeze once, then stir in all month INTRO: OK, I'm giving in and joining the Works for me Wednesday craze over at Rocks in My Dryer. At first, I wasn't sure I could offer a helpful hint EVERY week because I don't think I am all that inspiring around the house. However, my first tip will be to make a list on your Stickie Notes with all the hints you can think of, one to be used each week. Now I have a list of a dozen or so ideas to work with each Wednesday.
REAL POST: I love to shop at warehouse stores. I have a Sam's Club card and just this past week, my mom registered us for a Costco card as well! Choices, choices..... And I love to have a well-stocked freezer and pantry. In years past, I would bring home a bulk purchase of ground beef and divide it up, wrap it in foil and label it GB. But for the past few years, I've been doing something ingenious, which I cannot take the credit for. I wish I could remember where I read it, but it's so simple and a real time saver.
When I get my beef home, I usually set aside 2 pounds for a meatloaf, which gets assembled quickly and put into the freezer all ready to pop in the oven. Then I use a huge skillet and cook the rest of the beef (usually 4-6 pounds left after making a meatloaf). I cook it well, then drain off the grease. THEN, to make it even more degreased, rinse the cooked beef in a colander under hot water to remove even more fat. Cool your meat and slip it into large ziplok bags. Lay the bags as flat as you can in the freezer so the meat is in as thin a layer as possible, not in a big lump. Now you can break off as much meat as you need all month to make short work of preparing taco meat, chili, spaghetti sauce, soup or stuffed peppers.
Saves work in the kitchen on days when you don't have a lot of time to spend cooking....and that's often around here!
PS: Here is a bonus picture I found while searching for a graphic for this post. I would make the smashed taters into sheep though and not ghosts. Although they are hilarious! It is too cute not to share!
Italian Meat Pie Topic: Crickl's Recipes The Old Fashioned Pie Auction was a success today. People in the church made pies to auction off to rasie funds for our youth mission trip this summer. They had around 70 pies and made about $5700!! Awesome, huh? A group of our high school youth will be going to Gulf Port, Mississippi to help repair rooves on houses damaged by hurricane Katrina.
I made a really cool Italian Meat Pie I found on allrecipes.com. Here is their recipe. I did not use all the different kinds of meats, but only used Italian sausage. This is a really good recipe and it was pretty easy. I made it in a 10 inch spring form pan. Don't worry if a little egg mixture leaks out while putting the top crust on. It all cooks and looks great too.
The texture and taste are kind of like a quiche with a top crust. Very savory and yummy!
This Is My Father's World Topic: God things
We sang this in church today. It is one of my favorite hymns. I just love nature and being outside. It always draws me to thoughts of God. Psalm 19 talks about this too.....
This Is My Father's World Text: Maltbie D. Babcock Music: Trad. English melody; adapt. by Franklin L. Sheppard
This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lily white, declare their maker's praise. This is my Father's world: he shines in all that's fair; in the rustling grass I hear him pass; he speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father's world. O let me ne'er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world: why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! God reigns; let the earth be glad!
I'm cookin' Topic: Crickl's Recipes I was really in the mood to cook today. It helps get me in the mood when I know company is coming to dinner, and we had some friends from Williams coming.
I put some country beef ribs in the crockpot all day (which is too long because they fell completely apart!), Charles cooked chicken on the grill, I doctored up some canned baked beans, green beans, baked mac and cheese, and buttermilk cornbread.
Tomorrow I have to bake 2 pies for a pie auction fund raiser for youth camp. I'll let you know how that goes.
1 1/2 cups cornmeal 1 cup dry biscuit mix (I never have this around, but just a cup of flour works) 1/3 cup sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 cup buttermilk 2 eggs
Heat oven to 425. Grease a cast iron skillet (or 9 inch round or square pan). If using skillet, heat this in the oven after greasing for 5 minutes before adding batter.
Stir all ingredients until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake skillet 15-18 minutes, other pans bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with honey-butter mixture or jam.
Best Homemade Brownies Topic: Crickl's Recipes I had a nice relaxing day today. We are finishing up the few subjects of school that are left at the end of a homeschool year. We spent a couple of hours of this 105 degree day in the pool....niiiiiiiice.
I also watched cooking shows while browsing blogs on the internet, particularly this one called Two Many Cooks. It has lots of down home type recipes, so I copied down a lot of them to Stickie Notes. Then I realized I hadn't posted a recipe in a loooooooong time.
So this is your lucky day! Here is a recipe for thick, chewy, chunky brownies....from my sister Julie. I like this recipe because even if you don't have baking chocolate around, you can whip up some excellent brownies with chocolate chips...don't you always have a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard? =) I buy the huge bags of semi-sweet chips from Sam's Club.
Double Fudge Brownies
In a pan, melt together: One stick of butter 1 cup chocolate chips
Add to pan: 1 1/2 cup sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla
Mix together, then add to pan: 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt
Stir in: 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup nuts (optional....opt out, I say)
Bake at 350?. 45 minutes for thick brownies in a 9x9 inch pan. or 30 minutes for thin brownies in a 13x9 inch pan.
What I do is use 1 1/2 a recipe and have semi thick brownies in a 13x9 inch pan......=) Here are the measurements if you need LOTS of semi thick brownies.
Double Fudge Brownies (1 1/2 batch)
In a pan, melt together: 3/4 cup butter 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Add to pan: 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix together, then add to pan: 1 3/4 cup flour 3/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt
Stir in: 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1 1/2 cup nuts (again, optional...but don't)
Asking for help...we can't always do it all.... Topic: People/Family stories Well yesterday was a hard day. I arrived at my parents' house at 10:30 and had planned to leave right away and get to looking at our list of nursing homes. (this is our second trip to check them out) My dad was in a bad way though, so we stayed for a while. He kept talking about an 8 story building on a certain street that had the top of it torn off. People with dementia often begin an obsession about something and cannot stop until they are totally distracted by sleep or change in environment or something happens, like mealtime. He insisted that we take him to this building, but we couldn't....it didn't exist. He got billigerent and angry, cried because we wouldn't believe him and told us he knew our tricks in keeping him there and they wouldn't work. Besides having the dibilitating dementia, he also has physical needs that my mom cannot fully meet, as she has her own problems physically.
It's extremely taxing mentally and in every other way to have to deal with this constant talking, quesitons, and demands. But yesterday it was even worse because he was actually strong enough to get up from his chair by himself and walk around the house, following us and demanding we take him to this building. He is usually too weak to get himself out of a chair and sleeps a good part of the day, but he is on some medication and iron pills that are helping him to be stronger. We want him to feel good, but it happens to make him much more difficult to handle. I fixed lunch and he seemed to calm down, so my sister and I left to look at one or two places while we had time.
One of the nursing homes is run by the demonination we've grown up in and everyone who works there is a Christian and is trained to be loving, affectionate, and affirming to the residents there. They have pleasant rooms, it smelled good in there, the staff was friendly and they talked to the patients as they passed by, touching them on the shoulder or giving them a little squeeze. The residents were free to do as they wished during the day, but activities were also encouraged. They were working on an art project while we were there, gluing fun foam shapes to thick paper. My dad would love to have some sort of activity like that each day. They also offer strength training physical therapy and exercise in an exercise room atmosphere. They also have a full time chaplain...a pastor really. He holds weekly Bible study, a mid week service, and on Sunday they have Sunday School class and a worship service....all done by the same pastor. I found out later that he also tries his best to be there, by a resident's bedside as they pass from this world to Heaven. The woman who told me this said it is a very peaceful, wonderful thing. I hope when it is my time, that I can pass like that....
A doctor comes twice a week to do check ups and offer services to the people. There is always a trained nurse on each hall (there are 4 halls) and at night they check on each resident every hour. They had nice outdoor areas for the residents to enjoy, as well as a dog and a cat who live there and are shared by the residents. And there will be a bed opening up shortly. (Which means that one of the residents is ready to pass on, but after I heard what happens there at that time, I don't think that is a sad thing!)
While we were out investigating, my mom received the call from the insurance agency, that my dad has been aproved for the insurance help from our state, so his needs and living arrangements will be fully covered. We are so happy that God provided for him. He really needs full time care and so much more help than my family can give. My mom is so relieved. It is hard on her especially...but for all of us to have to come to this point in life, making permanent care decisions for our dad. But now he will get the care he's needed and once he is settled in, he will be happier I think.
In his lucid times....and he does have those in the mornings usually...he knows we are looking for a place for him and he understands. He knows how hard it has been on my mom, whose recovery from hip replacement almost a year ago has been slow due to constant pulling and lifting my dad. He is sad to be moving, but at the same time, he is expectant of the activities and new things to do and of being able to make friends again, not be locked into a small house with nothing to do, day after day.
When we got back yesterday afternoon, my dad was obsessing about a new thing, he had forgotten all about the 8 story building and kept trying to talk us into letting him go for a walk. The temperature was over 100 and he gets easily fixated and delusional when you let him do something out of his routine. So we kept having to tell him no. I told him I would walk with him through the house, but he could not go outside.
So he would walk and see the front door, and he would make a beeline to the door and say, "Now if you'll just stand here and watch me, I'll just walk to the edge of the yard and come back."
"Dad, you promised me that you would not ask me to let you go outside. Your mind is not well and it's dangerous for you." Which brought him back to accusing us of tricking him, making him think he could go outside, then at the last minute telling him no. He would cry...sob...telling us we were breaking our promise. He told my mom, "You promised me we wouldn't do this to each other. You PROMISED I could go for a walk. You swore on the peanut."
The peanut? Oh my....don't feel badly if you're laughing. We have to laugh too, (although not in front of him of course) to get through this, to relieve the extreme stress and tension of these times.
I had to stay until it was almost time for my sister to get there, so that he wouldn't keep trying to get out of the house. Eventually there was a break in the conversation (arguement) and we distracted him, talking about me moving to Phoenix and what each of my children were doing now.
As the blog I mentioned yesterday talks about, no one is really an expert. We can't do it all, we can only fake it for a while. Then we fall apart and have to ask for help.
The ex-expert Topic: Other
I'm off to look at nursing homes for my dear father today, but I wanted to share with you Carol's post for today over at She Lives, because She's An Expert.
Just go...it's a very profitable read!
And I would appreciate prayer today as we look for a loving place for my dad to live, as he needs so much more physical care than my mom or family can provide.
Today in the prayer guide for the 10 Days of Constant Prayer before Pentecost Sunday, we are encouraged to pray for the glory of Jesus.
Today is day seven of the 
INTRO: OK, I'm giving in and joining the 
PS: Here is a bonus picture I found while searching for a graphic for this post. I would make the smashed taters into sheep though and not ghosts. Although they are hilarious! It is too cute not to share!
The Old Fashioned Pie Auction was a success today. People in the church made pies to auction off to rasie funds for our youth mission trip this summer. They had around 70 pies and made about $5700!! Awesome, huh? A group of our high school youth will be going to Gulf Port, Mississippi to help repair rooves on houses damaged by hurricane Katrina. 
I was really in the mood to cook today. It helps get me in the mood when I know company is coming to dinner, and we had some friends from Williams coming. 
I had a nice relaxing day today. We are finishing up the few subjects of school that are left at the end of a homeschool year. We spent a couple of hours of this 105 degree day in the pool....niiiiiiiice. 
Well yesterday was a hard day. I arrived at my parents' house at 10:30 and had planned to leave right away and get to looking at our list of nursing homes. (this is our second trip to check them out) My dad was in a bad way though, so we stayed for a while. He kept talking about an 8 story building on a certain street that had the top of it torn off. People with dementia often begin an obsession about something and cannot stop until they are totally distracted by sleep or change in environment or something happens, like mealtime. He insisted that we take him to this building, but we couldn't....it didn't exist. He got billigerent and angry, cried because we wouldn't believe him and told us he knew our tricks in keeping him there and they wouldn't work. Besides having the dibilitating dementia, he also has physical needs that my mom cannot fully meet, as she has her own problems physically.
