I can be poo

At my church, there is a weekly bible study held every week on Friday. Yes, I am a regular attendee. I've only missed one or two times due to illness. (I'm not patting myself on the back, just giving background.) There are two verses that the attendees are expected to memorize. Then we take turns reciting them and everyone can give their opinion as to what they think they mean. The person who says the verse gets to pick the next week's verse to memorize. Last week I was the one to recite the verse so I got to pick one of this weeks verses for everyone to memorize.

I like to hear what everyone has to say about the Proverbs because we all come from such different walks of life. Application of verses can run the gammon. I picked:

Proverbs 14:4

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean,
But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.

Craig said I can't share what I thought at church so you'all are blessed with my thoughts. haha!

I think of the oxen owners as the leaders, the pastors, those who are disciplining. If their are no oxen or disciples, there is no poo and the manager is clean. If a Pastor or any Christian really chooses not to disciple and share the faith and interact within the body, they don't have any poo to deal with either. Some examples of what I mean might be that when you take someone under your wing, you may get a phone call at midnight with your sister in Christ crying about her unbelieving husband and wanting to know how to deal with it. Small poo, small shovel. Maybe some one you led to the Lord is thinking they are of no use to God and is contemplating taking their own life. Big pile of poo-You might need help with this shovel. Maybe I myself am a big ox with a pile of poo when I call the pastor whining about my kids or my unsaved family or whatever. I can be poo, too...

It's easy to keep our own mangers clean, but it's not so easy to help other people clean up the messes in their life. I could hide out in my house, reading my Bible and being faithful to God on my own, but like James says, "Faith without works is useless, being by itself." What good is my faith if I just clean up myself; I need to clean up after others, so to speak.

The second half of the verse to me just shows how if we do put ourselves out there, God will give us reward for our work. I liken the revenue to the rewards in heaven for being faithful and the strength of the ox to the gumption it takes for us to go out and do something. And if you think about it, if you as an oxen owner choose to have a lot of oxen, think of how much work can be accomplished by having those oxen and all the revenue that could be passed on to you by their faithful work in following after their owner.

I don't know if I have communicated what I wanted to, but I hope I did. Please leave your thoughts as to what I said and also your application of the verse. :)

Homemade spaghetti

Last week I made homemade pizza from scratch. Really.

I used to say as long as I had to cook it it was "homemade" hence the need to mention it was "from scratch"!

So this week I took a stab at spaghetti--including the noodles! It was delicious!

First I had to cut the ends off the tomatoes (a ton of them--from my garden) and place them in a large pot. I put about a half inch of water in the bottom of the pan so I wouldn't burn them.

It took about 30 minutes to cook them. Then I let them cool. I took most of the skins off. Then I used my handy dandy hand blender ($2 at the thrift store--LOVE this thing!) and buzzed away. I poured it into a mesh colander, kind of mushing the sludge through it. This left the seeds and tiny pieces of skin. (Make sure to clean the colander immediately or you will never get it clean! --TRUST ME!)

Chop some onion, garlic, and saute in the big pot. I did the hamburger and mushrooms too right away (against the recipe's suggestion). Add some basil and oregano and simmer for what seems like an eternity until the pureed tomatoes condense to a sauce. Oh! I forgot! There was a tbsp. of Worcheshire sauce and a heavy tsp. of beef base or bullion that gave it a nice rich color (and flavor)

I had to move the sauce out of the pan and into this gorgeous serving dish so I could cook the pasta. I made the pasta with my Presto Machine ($6 at the thrift store) using semolina flour, eggs, and a titch of oil. Yes, I did actually serve the sauce out of this bowl. If my hubby would've been home for dinner, I would've made it a bit prettier.

I had leftover hamburger buns so i took some chopped garlic and mixed it with some butter to make garlic bread. I was pretty proud of myself with the garlic bread because I have a poor tendency to waste things like leftover hamburger or hotdog buns.

Countertop Clutter Conquered!

After spending all the time in fixing up my kitchen, I like to keep it clean. Unfortunately, I am not the most organized person in the world. (We're working on it, though!) I tend to have a lot of clutter on my countertops. The way I decided to remedy this is by taking a serving tray and using it as the designated dumping grounds. Nothing is allowed on the counters except appliances (coffee pot, and espresso machine). Anything small must go on the tray. I have small jars to keep itty bitty items and a cup to hold pens. I also keep a small paper pad to jot down my grocery list. Besides keeping my counters clean, I don't spend nearly as much time searching for a pen, paper, or the fingernail clippers!



You could get one at most anywhere. I've seen them at Target, Pier One, Pottery Barn and many other places. I picked up mine from my basement! My sister in law gave it to me and I never really used it. It always seemed too big for anything useful. Seemed like more clutter to me, more junk. Exactly what I'm trying to get rid of!



My tray is a dark brown with a leather look to it. I could see a shiny brass one in a Victorian kitchen and a rustic wood one in a country style kitchen. Maybe a stainless steel one in a modern styled kitchen. Anyway, with this being the only place any items are allowed to be, my counters stay pretty neat. Well, except for the stray library book...(which belongs in the large basket in the living room...)

Containers

Open your drawer. yes, the one right next to you. Do you find it a cluttered mess? Pens, pencils, tape, package of portable tissue...That's ok. I understand. I have lots of messes too. I try to deal with them one at a time. That's really the only way to do it.

I have found that one of my favorite things to help organize is baskets. Any shape would do, but the best are rectangular or square. Any size would do. A person can always set a smaller one inside a larger one.

Silverware containers do alright as well to separate the chaos--that is what it is--chaos. Ok, you can take a deep breath and just admit it. My drawer is chaotic. I need to fix it. I can and I will.

Sometimes there are adorable containers at the thrift store or maybe even an antique shop if you're into that sort of thing. I personally prefer cheap. Maybe inexpensive is a better choice of word. Sounds better, doesn't it? Inexpensive.

I re-use boxes, too. I took a dryer sheet box and set my extra bars of soap in it. It was better than having them scattered on the shelf in my laundry room.

I have a three teired hanging basket hanging from the ceiling of my basement next to my elliptical machine to hold a towel, my bottled water, MP3 player and the remote to the VCR.

I use little plastic baskets from the dollar store to hold my mix packages in the kitchen. Oh, and the metal cans that held my espresso pods now hold the kids' Koolaid packages.

Summer slideshow

Surgery...again...

>

Ok, I know I've been kind of MIA. I am going to struggle through this post and then I will have to go back to lurking for a while. I think I told everyone about the ice smashing I did and how it messed up my hand back in December. Well, I was still experiencing pain and went to the doc. He sent me to a hand specialist who had an MRI taken. They found a 9mm cyst somewhere in my wrist that is causing my grief. I can't see it, but it's in there somewhere... My hand isn't swollen nearly as much as it had been, but it is quite irritating. Oh, so they are removing it, sometime in the next couple weeks. I sy surgery again" because I've already had a cyst removed from where my middle finger meets my palm about a year ago. maybe it was two years ago. I don't exactly remember. Regardless, it's hard to deal with because it is my dominant hand.

Here are some cute pictures of the family over the summer. I doubt I will be in any of them as I am the one always taking the pictures! Actually, I'm going to make a slideshow instead...