happily random

Tools of the Trade

I like to keep homemade desserts around the house. Not good for the diet, but I'll sacrifice for the good of the family. There is just something about the aroma of fresh baked cookies that says "HOME." I hope that someday when my kids leave our home & have homes of their own that the smells of baking will remind them of the times we had together as a family.

As you can see, we made chocolate chip cookies today. While not the most creative or experimental, they are a family favorite. It's something that I have made from scratch so many times that I can make it without a recipe.

I don't think it's possible to bake anything without the help of my kids. The second I start, each of them push up chairs from the dining table to the counter so they can be a part. So each child (today just Samantha & Tyler as the older two were still at school) took a turn dumping in an ingredient as I measured it out. Of course their favorite part of the whole thing is getting to lick the spatula or mixing spoon afterward.

I have come to discover that along with the joy of sharing the baking with my children, there is a definite enjoyment in having the right tools in the kitchen. One of those is my KitchenAid mixer. This was a gift from a friend early in my marriage & I have put it to good use. While it's very heavy & a pain to get out of the cabinet due to its weight, I makes baking a delight. I just have the classic model, but it does what it does very well. I would love to purchase some of the attachments for it, like a bigger bowl or a splatter guard (flour gets everywhere if you have the speed up to high when you add it to your mix!), but I'm pretty content with what I have at this point. Tyler is licking the mixing paddle there on the right.

Another of my favorite baking tools is my Pampered Chef Mix 'n Scraper. The one Samantha is nibbling on I have had for 4 years now & it looks nearly brand new, even after all the nibbling. This spoon scrapes every last bit out of a bowl while baking & even has a bit of a bowl to it so you can use it like a large spoon as well. It goes in the dishwasher & is virtually indestructible. Pampered Chef carried a couple sizes of this; I have both of them.

No, I do not sell Pampered Chef, although I probably should. I own I large portion of their tools & cookware. There products are very high quality, easy to use & durable. There are very few of their products that I have used and don't like.

Lastly, for baking cookies, I love the Pampered Chef Mediums Scoop. No, this is not an ice cream scooper. I have it from a good source that attempting to scoop ice cream with it will break it (no, it wasn't me!). Basically it you scoop up just the right amount of cookie dough with it & using the squeeze handle dish it on the baking sheet. No messy fingers & all your cookies are just the right size.

Having the right tools for any job just makes the job more fun!

Frugal Reader

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read. I always I have a book going. I am also a fast reader. We're not even through the first month of the year & I have finished 10 novels, so you could see how that could be an expensive habit if I bought every single book I read. I used to. When evaluating ways to cut costs this past summer, this was one area where I was able to make an impact.

Coeur d'Alene was blessed with a new library a little over a year ago. With that came a library network. I'm sure that most larger towns have something like it that you too can take advantage of. My problem with the library in the past was that I could never find what I wanted to read when I went in. Either what I wanted to read was already checked out or I didn't have the freedom to peruse the library for a book because I had 4 children tagging along with me. With our library network I can reserve a book from the comfort of my home computer & the library emails me when it's in. Then I just have to walk in, get it off the reserve shelf & check it out which takes all of 2 minutes. And I am not limited to books that the Coeur d'Alene Library has on its shelves, but can reserve from any library in the network and have it sent to my local library for pick up. Fabulous!

Other ways to get cheap books are used bookstores. They carry used books for a fraction of the cover price. My mother-in-law does this quite frequently (I know because she lends me her favorites). Most of these types of stores offer you a store credit of some kind when you bring books back.

I just recently discovered a company online that works similar to Netflix, but for paperback books instead. It's called BooksFree.com & basically for $9.99 a month they send you 2 books to read. When you finish one, you mail it back in & they mail you another. An interesting concept.

In these difficult financial times, I can imagine that libraries & businesses of this type get busier. It's just hard for me to pay $20 for a book that I will read in 2 days that I can get for free from the public library.

The best laid plans...

Quite the week for our household. As I mentioned yesterday, we have been battling the stomach flu. Samantha started out with it over a week ago, then the boys got it, then I got it, then Tyler got it again & then I got it again. Talk about the virus that wouldn’t leave! Rebekah & Joel so far have been spared & with a lot of heavy disinfecting, I’m hoping to keep it that way.

 

So how am I doing on the goals I’ve set for myself? Terrible! But I have a really good excuse in the illness mentioned above. I hope to be able make an attack on those goals in the coming days now that I seem to be well. *keeping fingers crossed*

 

Honestly, I don’t know where the week has gone. I have spent so much time spewing bodily fluids or cleaning them up that the week passed in a blur with not much to show for it but 30 boxes of Quaker Chewy Granola bars that I purchased from the Albertson’s sale for a whopping $1.42 on Friday. How? Coupons, coupons & more coupons.

 

Speaking of coupons, under the inspiration from my husband I may be starting a couponing website that will basically cover deals to be found the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area. It will be along the lines of the Grocery Game, but more specific to my local area & covering our local stores. I’m still feeling that out, so I will post more if that ever comes to fruition.

Happy birthday Lucas!

My son Lucas has been in our lives 7 years now. It's beginning to be cliche for me to say this, but how can he be that old?

Doesn't he look cool in his Hanna Andersson sweater? He would call it a 'Jedi shirt.' That's what shirts with hoods are called around my house. Hoods are not just a decorative item on the boys' shirts; they always have to be worn up to show that they are Jedis. I look like I'm raising a couple gang bangers.

In our family, we always celebrate a birthday with the family on the actual birthday, regardless of what day it falls on. I bake a cake in the flavor of their choice & we have a small party. Then on a later date we have a party with the kids' friends with some sort of activity. I like to have home parties, but this time of year it's nearly impossible to make it up my road to my house unless you have a 4x4, so we have them in town somewhere. I try to keep it small as I think birthday parties nowadays have gotten a bit out of hand.

Seven-year-old Lucas loves Star Wars, as you probably have figured out by now, which is why he was so thrilled with his gift from Joel & me: a color-change lightsaber. He & Ty were dueling with their lightsabers (Ty got one for his last birthday) in a matter of minutes in a fierce battle for good & evil. That look made it all worth it.

 

Happy birthday, son! I love you!

Illness in the form of the stomach flu has struck our household, evident by my disappearance from the blogging world. I think we might finally be through to the the side, so I should be able to get back on schedule.

Like-minded

I have to say that I am so blessed to have a husband who is a man after God's own heart. It makes me so happy every morning when he gets up to do his Bible study & prayer time, to see him sitting at the kitchen table communing with God. This morning he sent me this email (I don't get up nearly as early as he does!) of the things he has been learning from God's Word. Now mind you, he has yet to read my blog entry from yesterday, but yet somehow we are on the same page as far as God's plan for our life.

This is Joel's email to me today:

Hey – My bible study this morning was Haggai, chapter 1. It would appear that God made sure the bible was not put together in chronological order so that this book would be timed for our circumstances right now J. This is the text of the first chapter (from the Blue Letter Bible) as well as Chuck Smith’s commentary on it. Please read it all the way through. It’s unbelievably timely and I think God couldn’t be telling us any clearer what He wants from us. - Joel

So in the second year of Darius [520 B.C.], in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, [the second year of the reign of Darius the king,] there came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel [who was one of the leaders in this movement of rebuilding] the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house shall be built (Hag 1:1-2).

"This isn't the time to do it." There was a procrastination on the part of the people.

Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

They were saying, "The time isn't come," and he said,

Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD; Consider your ways (Hag 1:3-5).

Now it is interesting how that Haggai, or the Lord through Haggai is constantly calling the people to consider. You know, there are a lot of things that happen around us and we never take it into consideration. It seems that we've become very shallow people. Through our television news and through our news magazines and through all of the media that we have today, we've become extremely broad people. We know a little bit about everything because of all of the glorious media that we now have, able to condense things down and give us a little synopsis of this, and a little synopsis of that. So we've become extremely broad. We know a little bit about everything. But we don't know much about anything. We're very shallow. We don't really stop to consider a lot of times things that are happening around us. The Lord is saying, "Hey, look. Take a look at this. Consider this now. Consider this now." So Haggai is calling the people to consider their ways. For he said,

[Look,] you have sown a lot of seed, but you've harvested very little; you don't have enough; you drink, but you're not filled; you are busy making your clothes, but you are not warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes (Hag 1:6).

Very descriptive, isn't it? Remind you of anything you've experienced? You put your wages in a purse that has holes. Where does the money go?

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways (Hag 1:7).

The second challenge to consider, "Consider this, times are bad, your crops are failing, you don't have enough, there's not enough to go around." Now he said,

Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. For you looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that is waste, and ye have run every man to his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon the labor of their hands (Hag 1:8-11).

The Lord said, "I've brought the drought because you have forsaken My house; you've allowed my house to lie waste because you are putting yourselves first."

Now Jesus said that the heathen world, the Gentile world is seeking after what it's gonna eat, what it's gonna drink, and what it's gonna wear. These are basically the things that the Lord is talking to these people about. So many people today are working double jobs. They're both, husbands and wives working because they're so concerned with what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna drink, and what they're gonna wear. Times are tough. There's not enough money to go around. There seems to be a drought. But the Lord said, "The reason why is because you have forsaken My house. You've allowed it to be desolate." So the Lord, he said, called for the drought.

Now in the New Testament where Jesus said, "These things do the Gentiles seek," He said, "but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be taken care of" (Matthew 6:33). You see, the people had messed up their priorities. They were seeking themselves first. They were seeking their own luxuries first, and as a result, they didn't have enough. They were seeking to provide for their physical needs: their clothing, their food, their drink, and they never had enough. They never had enough. The Lord said, "Look, you seek first My kingdom and My righteousness, and all these other things will be added." Get your priorities straight. Put the Lord first in your life. Seek the Lord first in your life, and God will take care of your needs.

Now our sinful hearts of unbelief said, "But I don't know how He can do it." But it isn't yours to know how; it's only yours to obey in faith. If you obey in faith and put God first and seek God first, you can be sure that His Word is true, and all these other things will be added to you. God will take care of you. God will provide for you if you put Him first. But you know one of the first things to get whacked out of a budget is the Lord's place. One of the first things to go. "Oh, I've got to work on Sunday, gonna miss church, but I'll listen. I'll get the tapes, and I'll catch up on the Sunday lesson." We're putting our own needs above the things of God. God is getting short-changed. But hey, that's a one-way street. The more I short-change God, the shorter my change becomes. God said, "Look, I've called for the drought."

New Year's Goals

I know I have said in the past, I don't make New Year's Resolutions. But with the New Year always comes a mental reset as it were with the flipping of the calendar page. We get a chance to look at the past year to see what we accomplished (or didn't) & alter our life path to the direction we would like it to go (or not).

2008 was a challenging year for our family. We have certainly been on 'survival mode.' Financially we have kept our head above water, but just barely. God has been faithful to supply all of our needs but I feel like I'm missing out on the rest of that verse: according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:14). I feel like this year, 2009, God is calling us (Joel & I) to do more than just merely survive; he is calling us to thrive. And I just don't mean financially. I know that God will provide all of our needs; he has promised that in his Word & God can't lie. We can bank on that promise. But I feel like I have been limiting God by expecting so little from him, just expecting him to meet our basic needs & nothing more. "Thank you for the gruel, God"... no I don't think so.

Now I don't mean that I should be sitting on my tushie expecting God 'the all-powerful genie' to grant me my every whim. Not so. But I have decided that my goals for this New Year & for my life should meet God's abilities to do the amazing. Not to let life just pass day by day, week by week, month by month, year after year, doing the same old same old and just expecting mediocrity. What a sad, pathetic existence. I think God created each and every one of us for more. I think he created me for more. I think God created each of us to be amazing through him.

So what does all this rambling mean? Usually I don't share my goals with general public a.k.a. readers of my blog, but I will now. A little accountability is a good thing and maybe getting it out there will help me to keep shooting for those goals. There are some things that have been nagging at me to do and I have been working on them a bit here & there. But I feel if I put them in writing & set smaller goals to achieve these loftier amazing ones will help me on the road to accomplishing them.

1. Draw closer to God. I feel like I've been skimming the surface with God too much lately. I want to be a woman after God's own heart. The first thing I will do there is to get back into his Word every morning. I have been doing it here & there, but it's too easy to skip days, which turn into weeks. I want to miss God when I don't meet with him. Secondly, I'm going to start attending a Bible workshop at my church, giving me a little accountability there.

2. Write a book.I know what you're thinking: "Really? Sounds cliche." I know it does. But I have been feeling this itch to write for too long now & I think it's time to commit to doing something about it. I waste too many hours doing things like watching TV & goofing off online; it's time to translate that to something more productive. So I will be writing every day. Whether it's 10 minutes or 2 hours, I will write something. I love to write and once I start, it's hard to get me to stop. So I will write. Which includes input into this blog.

3. Learn to really use my camera.I love to take pictures, and I take pretty good ones if I do say so myself. But I would love to get past the basic & intermediate settings of my awesome Canon EOS 20D & maybe turn my love of photography into something more. But first, I want to learn my camera, starting off by reading the manual & figuring out what all the buttons do! From there I would like to take a course to better focus (har-har) my skills.

4. Get in shape.Losing weight is part of that, but more than anything I would like to be in better shape. Being in better shape means more energy & stamina which translates into getting more done. How will I do this? By getting off my tushie & onto the treadmill that is taking up space in my bedroom at least 3 days a week: Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Well, those are them. Just four, simple goals. Ha! I want to start living my life instead of just letting it pass me by. I will leave you with the words to this song by Sara Groves (I love Sara!).

Spending my time sleep walking
Moving my mouth but not saying a thing
Hoping the changes would take by working their way from the outside in
I was in love with an idea
Preoccupied with how a life should appear
Spending my time at the surface repairing the holes in the shiny veneer

There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real

And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright

I'm going to live my life inspired
Look for the holy in the common place
Open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed
I'm going to feel all my emotions
I'm going to look you in the eyes
I'm going to listen and hear until it's finally clear and it changes our lives

There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real

And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright

Snow, snow & more snow.

As I write this we are once again being blasted by Jack Frost with another round of snow. Was there ever a day where the sun was shining, the grass was green & I could walk around barefooted without my feet turning into ice blocks? I feel like I've walked through the wardrobe into Narnia where the White Witch rules. We've had snow falling nearly every day since mid-December. Did I say I liked snow? Let me edit: I like to watch snow falling. I like looking out the window at the beautiful, snow-covered landscape. I even like snow-related activities like skiing & sledding. But I am sick of dealing with snow.

Every day there is more plowing, shoveling & moving snow. Joel has been on the roof twice now to shovel snow off of it so our roof doesn't collapse. He has plowed every day for the last 3 weeks. I have shoveled off our deck & walk too many times to count. My yard is at least waist-deep in snow. It's so deep I dare not let the children play outside alone for fear of losing one of them in a snow drift.... literally. It's not the snow I mind so much. It's the moving snow that's the pain.

Snow is heavy. Snow is cold. And it just keeps coming! So if you wonder why I haven't blogged in weeks, this is why: I am outside shoveling.