Don't Forget!

Hey, just a "Hello" to everyone stopping over from Lysa's! Thanks for visiting. My recipes are one blog down.

But while I have your attention --Please enter the hope contest while you are here. Click the candle at the right and it will take you to that post. All you have to do is leave a quote or scripture or a thought about hope. You'll win a book about hope. I've narrowed it down to two, but I'm still deciding which to send.

I hope you'll come back tonight or tomorrow for some of my Hope Chronicle posts. I meant to get one up this morning, but I've been called into work from 10-6! Yes, this a good thing since it will help me pay for the flight to She Speaks. If you don't know what that is let me tell you that you need to go! It is awesome.

More later!

Something Yummy and Healthy and Something Just Plain Yummy

Hello to all who have linked over from Lysa's Thanks for visiting. I can't wait to visit your sites and see your recipes. First, let me tell you that both of these recipes get A+ in great taste and A+ in simple which is a necessity since I'm relatively new to the whole cooking thing.

In January I decided I needed to work on saving money and losing some weight. To do this, I've been cooking and have cut out eating out by about 85%. I've lost 16lbs! The first recipe is a healthy soup that you can make in a slow cooker. The second is a recipe I found on line at Hershey's and made and gave away. (Definitely not diet friendly but apparently extremely tasteful. I believe I had the person I made if for say it was "sinfully good.")


OH, yeah, and I'm hosting a contest this weekend. Click here or the candle picture at the right to go to the contest. I'm focusing on hope this year and have been writing posts I call "Hope Chronicles." The contest involves leaving your favorite quote about hope. You'll win a book about -- hope!

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Chorizo Soup (I got this off the Weight Watcher's site and have tweaked it a bit. It's called black bean soup there but that doesn't seem like the main thing in it to me or anyone else I've fed it to, so I'm calling it Chorizo Soup. Chorizo is a Mexican sausage. A serving of soup is about 3 points if you are into Weight Watchers.)

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp ground cumin


• 1/4 tsp black pepper


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1lb chorizo (Check the meat section. I had to ask because I had no idea what it was! I can get it without the skin otherwise you'll discard that.)


• 2 medium garlic clove


• 2 small onion


• 2 small sweet red peppers


• 2 small green peppers


• 30 oz canned black beans


• 30 oz fat free chicken broth


• 15 oz canned corn

Chop up peppers and onion and mince garlic.

Discard chorizo skin and brown in a nonstick skillet. Add onion, garlic, and peppers and saute over medium heat 5 minutes.

Add to slow cooker along with beans, broth, corn, and spices. Cover and cook on low heat 4-5 hours.

I've really enjoyed taking this for lunch along with an apple. It is slightly spicy but even my friends who don't like spicy stuff have really enjoyed it.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie -- adapted from the Hershey's site

Ingredients

• 1 cup Peanut Butter


• 8oz package cream cheese


• 1/2 tsp vanilla


• 1 cup powdered sugar


• 1/2 cup milk


• 1 8oz tub frozen, non-dairy whipped topping, thawed


• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


• 2 chocolate graham cracker crusts, pre-made or 1 9oz graham cracker crust

Soften the cream cheese. (Hershey's says to beat it until fluffy, but I've never had luck with that -- but knock yourself out. It just gets stuck in the blender for me!) Beat with peanut butter, milk, and vanilla on medium speed.

Stir in powdered sugar.

Mix in the whipped topping.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave and mix into the other mixture. Spread into the two pie crusts, cover and refrigerate 3-4 hours.

Enjoy!

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope to get to know you.

You Just Gotta Know The Language

I have vertical blinds over the windows. Unfortunately, when the blinds are down, Katy (one of my cats) likes to pry her body through the blinds so she can see out the window. I try to leave them up during the day, but at night I like them down so people can't see in! Katy was just pawing at the blinds and starting to wiggle her way between them. (She has broken a couple of them doing this and I don't have the finances for new ones at this time.) I yelled and was ignored. I then tried calling to her and patting the bed to get her to come over. No luck. I dug in my purse for scratch paper and threw a wad of paper -- anything but get up.

I don't know what possessed me. I had enough (but still not enough to want to get up), so I whole heatedly HISSED in my best imitation of an angry cat. I've never tried that before, but it definitely got her attention. I don't know what I said in "cat," but Katy scampered under the dresser! I guess you just gotta know the language -- even if it is "cat."

It's been a day. That is, honestly, all I can say for it. It's been a day.

I haven't slept well since Saturday. Amy on no sleep is no good! I'm not totally sure what that is about but, I've averaged 3-4 hours a night. That is not enough to function on coherently. I drag myself through the day but at night my eyes pop open.

At the moment is 6:30PM. I'm exhausted and would like to go to sleep right now. But research would say that wouldn't be wise. So, I'm sharing my tiredness with all of you!

But hopefully tonight I will sleep and tomorrow we'll have more happy, hope-ish, type thoughts!

Don't forget to enter the "Hope Quote Contest." Click on the candle picture at the right to read about it and leave a quote as a chance to enter the contest.

Ifspeak

One of my favorite books is called My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Actually, I like many of the books that she writes. But the last one, 19 Seconds, was disturbing. It was about a fictionalized school shooting. The week after I read it the Virginia Tech shootings happened. I like her writing because of her ability to put me inside a character's head and heart.

My Sister's Keeper is about a 13-year-old girl, Anna, who sues her parents for the rights to her own body. She wants medical emancipation and to be the person who decides if she will donate a kidney to her dying sister, Kate. Anna was conceived specifically to be a matched donor for her sister. Her entire life has been lived in the shadow of her sister's illness. In the book you hear from Anna, her parents, the lawyers, and her brother.

I wanted to share an excerpt from Anna (p.299).

When you are a kid you have your own language, and unlike French or Spanish or whatever you start learning in the fourth grade, this one you're born with , and eventually lose. Everyone under the age of seven is fluent in Ifspeak; go hang around with someone under three feet tall and you'll see. What if a giant funnelweb spider crawled out of that hole over your head and bit you on the neck? What if the only antidote for venom was locked up in a vault on the top of a mountain? What if you lived through the bite, but could only move you eyelids and blink out an alphabet? It doesn't really matter how far you go; the point is that it's a world of possibility. Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.

I think she is right. On one hand, outgrowing Ifspeak is functional. If your ifspeak is only related to negative things, then it could cause a great deal of anxiety. On the other hand, out growing ifspeak limits us.

For kids, anything is a possibility. They dream BIG. When I was a kid I was going to be a dolphinologist (not that there is such a thing), keep the dolphins in a pool outback, have six kids, and the kids would daily help with the dolphins. By studying the interaction of my kids and the dolphins, I would break the barrier to intelligently communicating with these remarkable animals and win lots of awards. That was my primary dream. I also considered becoming the first female president.

As we grow up, reality slowly sets in. They just don't let people keep dolphins in a pool outback. We find we are limited by our rules and regulations, finances, intellect, abilities or lack of abilities, circumstances, . . . .

As I was thinking about this quote, I wondered if we are also often limited by our faith. Yes, you read that right. Sometimes we are limited by the things we put our faith in -- other people, our abilities, whatever. Where we need to put our faith is in God. With God all things are possible. There are no limits. The one who created the universe can overcome every obstacle. But sometimes we don't let Him. Sometimes we don't even ask or if we do ask it is halfheartedly, not really believing . . . . That's not to say that God always says, "Yes." But I do think we put limits on God.

Sometimes when I pray, I pray very specifically. If God doesn't answer directly with my proposal, I think He hasn't answered. Maybe He has but the answer is packaged differently than I anticipated.

Ifspeak. I think it is about faith. What if I truly believed in every fiber of my being that God loved me? What if I could truly lay all my burdens at His feet? What if I trusted Him with all of who I am? What if I responded to those "flashes" of ideas? How would it change my live and the lives of those around me?

Ifspeak. I wonder if it is a language I can relearn . . . .

Hope CONTEST

It's March 4th and it snowed in Central Illinois. It's March. Doesn't that mean spring?


I suppose, technically, spring doesn't officially start until the middle of March. But, I am so looking forward to it.


To usher spring in, I've decided host a contest. (I've never done a contest before.) But I want the contest to reflect this hope journey that I'm on. So, here is how you enter. Leave a comment with your favorite quote or verse having to do with hope on it. Though it isn't required, you may also tell me why it is your favorite! (And tell me where it comes from -- passage, book, speaker.)

This will help me out as I continue to think about hope and help me as I put together the Hope Chronicles.


I will put all the names in a hat and pull a name on Tuesday, March 11th to select the winner. The prize will be a book on hope! (I'm still working out which book on hope it will be.)


I hope you enter!

If you'ld like to hear from me regularly by email, put your email in the email subscribe box to the right. It digests daily and send you an email when I've updated.

I'd love it if you would help me promote this contest. Just link the candle photo to this post.

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For those who are new to blogging, to leave a comment, click the link below that says "Your Thoughts" and a box pops up. You will leave your comment in the box and you need to select an id. It can be anonymous but it might be hard for me to let you know if you win, so if you go anonymous, check back next week to see if you won!

The Picture -- Hope Chronicles 22

I don't know how long it had hung there. But it was there during my student days with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and then my 11 year tenure on staff. My guess is, though I haven't been back in years to check, is that it still rests on the wall in the stairwell at InterVarsity's Cedar Campus. Even though it was a simple charcoal sketch, it never failed to catch my eye and my heart.

It was sketched in black on white paper -- a picture of the sea. You could see above the water and below the water. The artist had drawn the bottom of the sea littered with an inner tube and bit of trash and debris. But the heart clincher for me was a simple sign, slightly askew, in the bottom right hand corner. It simply read, "No Fishing."

In that simple picture, the artist caught the condition of the human soul in two ways. First, he noted that our sins have been cast into the sea. Micah 7:19 says, "He will again have compassion on us. And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all ours sins into the depths of the seas." Notice that God doesn't say that he hurls them into a shallow creek. He casts them into the deepest seas. If we are in Christ, our sins are no more. They have been hurled away by God and buried in the depths.

Secondly, the sign points to our second propensity. Sometimes, we cannot leave well enough alone. Instead, we dig out the fishing gear and sling our poles over our shoulders and head out to the open water. Once there, we fish and fish and fish until we catch something on our hooks. With all the persistence of a seasoned fisherman, we refuse go home empty handed.

Why do we do that? It's not like we really want the rubbish off the bottom of the sea. If anything, it is a burden -- once discarded -- that we pick up again. God cast it there with good reason. He knows that we have been redeemed, that we aren't who we once were. But we go fishing because at some level we doubt that fact. We fear that the sin we confessed isn't really wiped away. We fail to trust the one who freed us from that sin. In doing so, we stifle hope.

I'm not saying that we should never look at our past. Our past informs our present. However, if I just looked at my past with human eyes, my heart would be so heavy I would never manage to struggle out of bed. The sins, the abuse, the pride, . . . would weigh me down so I couldn't move.

Rather, when we look at the past, we need to play close attention to the camera angle. Is it focused on us and our sin or is it focused on the God who redeemed us? Some of the pieces may sound similar in each story, but in reality they are vastly different. One is a picture of despair. The other is a picture of hope.

If you feel the need to look at the past, check the camera angle closely and always let God take center stage. That is where we will find hope in the past, present, and future.

When you find yourself wanting to go fishing, heed this simple sign. It will make all the difference in the world.

Running Circles -- Hope Chronicles 21

It was one of those gorgeous warm spring days. I was thrilled that it was warm enough and light enough in the evening that I could take my riding lesson on Eddie in the outdoor arena. As I brushed him and tacked him up, I noticed that he seemed spunkier than he had in awhile. He was an old horse, and the cold slowed him down.



We were having a great lesson. Eddie moved easily and was responsive to my commands. It seemed to me that we cantered effortlessly. There was no balking at jumps. Eddie seemed to be enjoying the ride as much as I was.

We were only using the outside edge of the arena. Several jumps were clustered at one end waiting to be moved into place for an upcoming show. We took our jump and turned to the left and Eddie inexplicably picked up speed. I tightened and loosened my grip on the reigns several times in a command to slow. He ignored me. In fact, he picked up speed!

Kristi was yelling for me to slow him. I was yelling back that I was trying! Squeeze, release. Squeeze release. But Eddie broke into a gallop. (Please note that while I had been taking lessons for awhile, I had never galloped! Canter was fast enough for me.) It was hard to hear Kristi over the bounding of his hooves and the even louder bounding of my heart.

I desperately tried to remember every instruction I had ever been given. Stay loose -- if you tighten your legs (an instinctual response on a runaway horse) you are actually giving the cue to go faster. Trembling, I managed to pull my leg away from his body. Pull back -- I tried to get his attention with several sharp tugs to the reigns. Circle and make the circles smaller and smaller -- it's harder to go fast when running in small circles.

So, we circled -- my legs swinging as much as I dared and me jerking on the reigns. But we were at the far end of the arena with all the jumps. I didn't dare head to the open area at the other end of the arena. It might give him the idea we were "heading home" -- an idea that made him pick up his step even on the coldest of days.

And we circled and circled, but I couldn't figure out how to make the circles smaller without having to go over a jump. I loved cantering the jumps, but I didn't think I could manage to gallop over one! Kristi continued to shout instructions and twice tried to jump out in front of him to get him to slow. But not knowing what she was doing, I veered away -- afraid that he would trample her.

Ten minutes later he finally began to slow. When he slowed enough, Kristi grabbed the reigns and I slid -- legs trembling -- to the ground. But I was also laughing and proud of myself. I exclaimed, "I've never galloped before! That was exciting! I can't believe I managed to stay on!" With Eddie firmly under her control, Kristi managed to laugh too. One of my difficulites in riding was learning the balance aspect and the fact that I sometimes gave up and let myself fall when I thought it was inevitable. (My first few falls were really minor and didn't hurt much, so I learned the wrong lesson with them!) Kristi remarked that I seemed to have finally gotten the whole balance thing down as well as the staying on at all costs.

I've been thinking a lot about that the last few days. I know I've been oddly silent in my posts. (Heavens, my last post was Tuesday!) But my emotions have been galloping about and it has been all I can do to gather my thoughts. Life is like that evening ride sometimes. We can't slow down emotionally or physically or spiritually. We just keep hurtling on at a neck breaking speed.

But there are some life lessons from that night as well:

• Stay loose. Just like when I was on Eddie, this is easier said than done. I know that when my mind, my anxiety, my fear starts galloping off it's hard to slow it. Paul gives us excellent advice in Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." (NIV) One thing that I have done in the past is make a "Happy Thoughts Journal". God reminded me of it this week and I dug it out. It is a notebook where I only write positive, motivational quotes. But I've also put pictures in there and copies of encouraging emails from friends.


• Pull back. If life has just gone crazy, it's okay to pull back for a bit. As the psalmist says, God leads us beside still waters. Jesus knows what it is like to be overwhelmed. He made it a regular practice to get up early and spend time with God in prayer. Obviously, we can't just abandon every responsibility, but if we get creative we may find ways to have the calming and restoring moments we need with God.


• Circle in smaller and smaller circles. I get overwhelmed and I start looking at everything and I get more and more overwhelmed. Too often we try to manage life by stuffing our mouths and swallowing life in gulps. Break down the things that need to be done into bite size pieces. Early last summer I was in the throes of depression and totally overwhelmed. A friend told me what she tells her children when they are faced with a room that is cluttered with every toy they own. "Start with one toy and go from there."


• Listen to those around you. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done if Eddie had pulled this escapade when Kristi wasn't around. I couldn't catch everything she said, but it was enough to know she was shouting encouragement. Seek out encouragement from those around you. If you're like me, sometimes this is when you are tempted to skip church or whatever else. Don't. This is when you need it all the most.

Here's to a weekend to relax and gather my thoughts and prayers and leaving the old week behind and starting anew.