Birthday Fun and Sick not-so-fun

Wow, I’m a quarter of a century old! To celebrate, on Sunday, Daniel took me to a beautiful restaurant in the mountains. Another couple joined us. The scenery was beautiful. We saw multiple people parachuting off a nearby mountain (that is a popular tourist thing here). Today, Monday (March 31) , Daniel prepared me a wonderful breakfast of French toast with strawberries. Jeremiah made me a onesie that says, “Happy Birthday Mommy.” Who else could have made it; he’s the only one that can call me mommy! ;)

Restaurant

View from the Restaurant

Cute Baby!

Birthday cake butt

I spent my day by exercising with Jeremiah, tutoring, napping, and tutoring some more. I ended the day watching home videos of Daniel as a little boy (my request) and going to bed sick. As my sickness progressed, so did the rain. It seemed to rain constantly from Tuesday to Thursday. My fever spiked Tuesday night at 104.4. We figured it was probably a flu virus, but because we didn’t want to take any chances (in case it was the rat disease or something else) I started on antibiotics (the one that’s not harmful while nursing). I praise God that now, on Thursday (April 3), I’m feeling so much better. I am also thankful to Daniel who took such good care of me and for Leah who came over on Tuesday to help take care of Jeremiah and did some dishes while I rested!

Update to Sick not-so-fun:

On Friday I awoke with a fever again and my body ached. And I had a rash. Leah came over again and helped out. I rested Saturday and Sunday, and finally on Monday was feeling more like myself! Our pastor and his wife stopped by on Sunday with a meal for us, and his wife took me in Monday (April 7) morning for a blood test, just to make sure everything was okay. I’m so thankful to all who helped us during this time, and am so glad that I have energy back!

And we're back!

Praise the Lord; we finally have Internet! I will now be able to post the entries I’ve been working on. Please remember that they were written over the past few weeks, so may not make much chronological sense. Most of them have accompanying pictures, so I will be posting them when I can pester my husband about finding the cord for the camera. ;)

3 weeks and still counting (no internet yet)…

In case some of you were wondering, no I have not falling off the face of the earth (though it feels like it sometimes). Daniel went down the mountain to La Vega three weeks ago Friday to request the change for our telephone contract from the old house to the new house. They said it would be ready that Sat. or Monday. Two weeks (and lots of costly phone calls on the cell phone) later we finally had the telephone hooked up. But when we went to hook up our internet box !Surprise! no internet. So we called again. “It should be ready by Monday.” And Daniel has called every day this week. It’s still supposed to have happened Monday. Though I doubt they’ll come up from La Vega any time soon with all the rain we’ve been having. So, all this to say- please don’t give up on us or this blog! I’ve been writing blog entries into word documents so I can post them when we are finally connected (I’m currently writing into a document and then will have Daniel take it to school and post it from there). So, be prepared for more cute pics of Jeremiah whenever our internet is back!

Moving Day!

Tomorrow we move. We've already done a little painting. The house colors tropical green and orange. We left the green, and painted the orange a navy blue. The blue actually looks really good with the green. And, it matches our tapestries perfectly. We still have to change the outside of the house eventually (again- turning the orange into blue).
Our phone and internet service will be cut off on this end tonight. It should be reconnected at our new house Saturday or Monday. And then we will be leaving Tuesday morning for a 4 day trip. So, I probably won't be blogging much in the next week. But afterwards I'll have lots to blog about!

Comida Dominicana

As far as cheap foods go, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do..."

Ok, so I'm not in Rome, but since I live in the Dominican Republic, the cheap food tends to be rice and beans (as in most parts of the world). I know that doesn't excite some people, but here, rice and beans are good. The first few years of living here, I have only succeeded at one Dominican dish- pastalon (casserole). My favorite pastalon is pastalon de platanos (Sweet plantains, ground beef- optional, and cheese). Lately, however, I have been more bold. Last week I made the typical rice with Dominican red beans. It actual tasted good- and Dominican. The secret? cilantro and tomato paste. Last night, I tried moro de guandules (rice cooked with pigeon peas). I asked one of the ladies who often cleans my house how to make it. I made it, and Daniel declared it a success! So, I thought I would share the recipe, as it is very cheap here:

Disclamer: I have absolutuley no idea of the amounts I put in, but I'll do my best:


Ingredients:

-2-3 Cups pre-soaked guandules (they're somewhere between peas and beans)
-ajo (garlic- I used 2)
-cebolla (onion -I used 1/2)
-ajies verde (green banana peppers-I didn't have these at the time, so I left them out)
-cilantro (I used a handful of the tops of stems with the leaves attached)
-chicken cubes (I used two large cubes)
-salsa de tomate (tomato sauce- I used oh, a large spoonful, maybe)
-water (I think I used on the high end of 4 cups)
-arros (rice-I have no idea- do the spoon test: see below)

Put a little oil in a good size metal pot. Sautee the garlic, onion, pepper, and cilantro with some salt and pepper. (I don't know if this is exactly how Dominicans do it, but it seemed good to me). After a few minutes, add the chicken cubes and tomato sauce. Pour in the water and guandules. Bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the rice. Spoon test: add enough rice so that your spoon can stand up without falling over).

Boil for a little while. Then, when almost all the water is gone, put the lid on and leave it for about 20 minutes. (My metal put is handmade so the lid doesn't seal properly; therefore, I leave it on when I boil off the water, and put saran wrap underneath while it steams the rice for 20 min). After 20 minutes, it should be done!

I served this with pastalon (mashed sweet plantains, shredded cheese, another layer of plantain, and another layer of cheese; bake until cheese is golden) and Dominican salad (shredded cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, and tomato with a vinaigrette -super salty- dressing).

Salto Jimenoa

Meet:

The husband/carrier-of-baby-while-hiking

The waterfall
I think he's trying to figure out how to climb it
climbing a smaller rock

He's trying to figure out how many gallons of water per second are coming over the falls (he's just like his daddy)
The fam
The cool shades
The fam again
The whole outfit
Hmmm...not so happy anymore
The end.

For more pics, check out Meet-and-Greet Monday at Beth's site.

Passionate Part II:

This post continues my reflections from the women's retreat. For Passionate Part I, go here.

The topic of Saturday morning was "Valuing God Above All Things" What does this mean? It means to delight in God, to long for Him. To do this, we need to realize our own brokenness. The greater an understanding we have of our sin, the greater an understanding we have of God's grace, and the more we delight in it. The more desire we have for God, the more glory we are able to give to Him, and the more we are able to experience His glory!
However, we often fall short. In fact, all of us fall short.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -Romans 3:23
Unfortunately, we are much too easily satisfied. We find delight in other things- many of which are not bad, and are even good- but these will not fill us. Hobbies, food, work, relationships, nature- these are necessary things, but they alone cannot bring us ultimate joy. They can only point the way, as they often do.
During the reflection time, we focused on Romans 1:20-2:1; thinking about the personal things that keep us from experiencing God's glory. The list in verses 29-31 is humbling.
"Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful."
It's easy to look at this and think, I'm really not that bad. After all, I'm not wicked, am I? I don't murder, I don't hate God, etc...
However, it's necessary to take a closer look into my own heart and thoughts. How often do I think of myself before others? How often do I react out of anger when someone does something that hurts me? How often am I arrogant in my thoughts? If we take an honest look at ourselves, we won't like what we see! It's so much easier to think about what other's do, and compare ourselves to them.

I spent the rest of the time reflecting on God's glory and enjoying being in His creation. I looked at the tall pine trees, pointing towards heaven; at the beautiful endless blue sky. I thought about those trees. I want to be like them- pointing straight towards God, instead of being so focused on myself. Afterall, this is my calling. I love being a wife and mother, but I am so much more than that. First and foremost, I am a daughter of God. He does not look at me and see "a housewife." He looks at me and sees his child. And when I think of that I am filled with joy and a longing to point towards Him!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Rod!

Today is my dad's birthday. If you can't what this is, it is a sign that says, "Happy Birthday, Grandpa Rod!" with a tracing of Jeremiah's hand on the top right corner (that was pretty hard to do). Oh yeah, and you can tell Jeremiah tried to eat it. :)

Unjust Accusations

Daniel and I, as well as other teacher as JCS, are struggling right now. Many hurtful accusations have been made towards the teachers and administration regarding how they discipline the students. For example, Daniel was told, in front of the students, that he was treating them like animals for having the line up and walk in a straight line to go to class, and do practicing it until they do it correctly. I am not going to give specifics, because my intent is not to complain or to gossip. It is to

1) Ask for your prayers for us and all of JCS

and

2) give me an opportunity to muse on how we should respond.

Ironically enough (although God usually works this way) our passage for Bible Study this week is 1 Peter 2: 13-25. (The accusations started Thursday, we've been going through 1 Peter for a month)

Verses 20-25 talk about suffering unjustly.

Vs. 23 says, "When they hurled their insults at him (Christ), he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."



How glad I am that we have a God who defends and cares for us. Our reaction should not be one of revenge or bitterness. Instead, we just follow Christ's example, and love those who wrongfully accuse us. Of course, that's much easier said than done, especially when my husband's been hurt. However, we need to have Christ as our reason for staying. He is the only one who will never let us down!

Thoughts for the Day

"Offer sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord." Psalm 4:5

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." Psalm 118:8

"When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can {mere} man do to me?" -Psalm 56:3-4

"My soul {waits} in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken." -Psalm 62:1-2

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit." -Jeremiah 17:7-8

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Words: John H. Sam­mis, 1887. Music: Dan­iel B. Town­er

Moving!

Well, it looks like we're doing it. We found a house we like, and God has already provided us with some of the support we need, so we're trusting in Him and grabbing the house while we can. Obviously, nothing is certain until we sign the contract and move in, but we've told the landlord we want to rent it and that we plan on moving in over Semana Santa (Holy week- the week before Easter; also spring break for the entire country). We're very excited about this house. It's cleaner, quieter, and has a yard. I won't go into too much detail, because I want to wait until we move in and take pictures. Oh, it also has an extra room, so now we have a guest room if anyone wants to visit! :)

Cubs and More

For all the Cubs fans!

Happy Boy!

Can you tell he just woke up?

He likes the saucer!

Fireworks!

We've had a nice little display of fireworks here on two occasions: Wednesday night for Independence Day, and tonight for the end of Carnival. When we heard the first "BOOM" on Wed. night, we ignored it, since we're so used to lots of random noise. But then I decided to go out on our porch to check if there was anything to see. I was impressed to see real fireworks. These weren't the firecrackers they sell here at Christmas time. These were like U.S. independence day fireworks. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but was very pretty to watch. Then tonight they set off more fireworks. We went out right away (after jumping from the initial boom which set off all the car alarms around us). Once again, there was a beautiful 5 minute display of fireworks, including the loud "BOOM" ones that only make a small spark, and even my favorite "chandelier" fireworks which fill up the sky! The most amazing part- Jeremiah slept through it both nights (even though I had just put him down and closed the door before they started tonight, and they were set off only a few blocks away-safety guidelines, what are they?)!

Hillbilly Housewives

I don't have much today for Frugal Friday except to share my favorite frugal website: Hillbilly Housewives.
It has lots recipes (like recipes for making your own "convenient foods" and lots of things to do with dried milk), tips on menu planning, grocery lists, homeschooling curriculum, etc. If you go to their website, I suggest checking out "Recipes," "Other Goodies," and "Healthy HBHW."

Newsletter

We just emailed out our recent newsletter. If you would like to receive it, but did not, Please let me know!

Hummus

Beth at The Natural Mommy is hosting a healthy snack recipe exchange today. I decided to submit my favorite recipe for hummus. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe, and I think that the chipotle chilies and cilantro really make this recipe.

2- 15 oz cans garbonzo beans (chickpeas) drained. I use dried, pre-soaked chick peas and fill my mini food processor almost to the top.
1/2 Cup water
1/4 C + 2 T tahini (I do not have this, so I leave it out)
2 T olive oil
2 1/2 t minced canned chipotle chilies (I do this to taste)
1 Large garlic clove
1 1/2 t ground cumin (or to taste)
1- 4oz jar slice pimentos
Blend these ingredients in the food processor. Add more oil or water if needed.
Add:
1/3 C chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Blend a little more.

Great with crackers (esp. whole wheat) or veggies!

Feliz "Dia De La Independencia!"

Crochet for Pots and Pans

I really like my metal pots.
When we moved here, we decided to buy some of the Dominican metal pots. However, the factory made ones were way more than we wanted to spend. So, we found some handmade ones that did not have plastic handles. They're wonderful. But, it can get annoying having to hunt down a hot pad whenever we want to lift the lid or move the pot. After a few burned hands, we got used to it. It wasn't a big deal. But then a friend mentioned something about how nice it would have been if they at least came wrapped in cloth. "Ah ha!" I thought. I was looking for a useful crochet project. So, I started crocheting. This is what I came up with. It works wonderfully and it's so nice not having to grab the hot pad. I have one more set to make. I just wish I'd done this earlier!
For more helpful tips, go to Rocks in My Dryer.

The baseball fan

Here are some pictures of the little cutie. :) Doesn't he make a great baseball fan?
This is especially for the grandmas (White Sox outfit from Nonna Gerig, measuring spoons from Grandma Dee)

Here's a video of Jeremiah ?dancing? We're not quite sure what he's doing. Sometimes he also does this in his swing. It might be because he's trying to swing himself.

Menu Plan for the Week

So, here's how we did this week:
It was a $60 week. $25 of that was towards a liter of olive oil and enough milk powder to make 4 gallons. We probably won't even use much of that this week, so if you negate that, it was a $35 week. Not bad.
Saturday: Roast chicken and Veggie Rice (Save chicken and stock for later use).

Sunday: Chicken stir fry- Lots of veggies and some of the leftover chicken served over stir-fried pasta. Spices include onion, garlic, hot pepper, ginger, sesame and oyster sauce. It was yummy!
Evening meal- Mashed Potato and gravy sandwiches with a little leftover chicken.

Monday- Date night. Broccoli and Italian Sausage (sausage homemade and given to us by a couple here) Risotto, salad

Tuesday- Dinner Party

Wednesday- Homemade pasta sauce from the freezer, pasta, salad, bread

Thursday- Vietnamese Chicken soup and Vietnamese Salad using leftover chicken and broth.

Friday- Leftovers/Throw together

Lunch Ideas; Tuna, Veggies and Hummus, Yogurt (when I make it), Fruit, Leftover pasta salad with leftover chicken and leftover homemade BBQ sauce.

I'm going to try to make a least one bean meal a week to substitute for meat (some meals we have no protein substitute for meat, but I don't want to do that often). Speaking of which, what are other inexpensive substitutes for meat?

Grocery Shopping Adventure

Grocery shopping here is usually an adventure. Daniel used to be the shopper (back when we had the motorcycle), but it always took up a good chunk of his Saturdays. Why? Because we have to make 4 stops- the supermarket (actually, 2 different ones) for the packaged goods (flour, rice, pasta, etc); fruit market for the fruit; vegetable market for the veggies; and meat market for the meat. After the motorcycle was stolen, the amount of time it took Daniel to shop grew. Now that I have more time (not teaching Pre-K), I want to help out with the shopping. If we have a long list, I try to get a ride with someone. Otherwise, I walk. This week's list was shorter, so I thought I'd walk.
Brief interlude
When I make my list, I split the food items into 4 categories:
-Meat
-Veggies
-Fruit
-Supermarket items
These coordinate with the 4 different places.
The longer the produce lists are, and the sorter the other lists are, the happier the budget will be. I really enjoy living in a place where fresh produce is so inexpensive. However, packaged items are much more expensive, and meat is somewhat comparable.
Expensive items here are: oil, milk ($4+ per gallon if you buy skim), milk products, convenience foods, salsa, etc. When I realize that food is comparable, but average income is over 5X less here, it makes me realize why I feel like we spend so much on food. Relatively speaking, it's about 5x more. Which makes me understand why those in poverty here have such a hard time feeding their families (many, who have jobs, have to work more than 1, even if they don't live in poverty). I feel like we do a good job when we spend $40 per week (usually ends up being $150-$200/month) , but when I think about our monthly income being $800 (well, technically this is our budget, we're still raising support to reach it), it doesn't seem quite as good. Ah well, the important thing is that God is providing, and we're eating yummy produce.
end "brief" interlude
So, back to me walking. I strapped Jeremiah into the carrier on my front; took an almost empty diaper back-pack, and walked down the hill to the grocery store (5 min walk) after stopping in at the wood stain store to say hi to a friend. First, I bought some groceries at the first supermarket (I only made it to one in this trip), and filled my diaper back-pack with the items. Then, I walked to the market to buy veggies. I bought a huge bag full of vegetables (which were put all in one bag) and somehow made it back up the hill to my house. Daniel estimated that the bag of groceries weighed at least 20 pounds (he thought closer to 25). Wow, I'm not sure I'm going to want to do that very often. That was my workout for the day. And we still had the meat market, other grocery store, and fruit market to go to. Luckily, I just found out that the meat market delivers for free, so that should help in the future.

Anyway, once we buy all our groceries I'll blog my menu plan and how we did (though I already know we went over our budget- arg!)

Bag of Veggies

Yummy Produce!

Frugal Dairy

Dairy is expensive here. Sour cream is almost non-existent (it's imported from the States). When they do have sour cream, it's not affordable ($4-$5 for the standard size). Cream cheese can also get pricey. As a result, we substitute a lot. When we can find yogurt that is non-flavored and non-sugared, we buy it and make yogurt cheese. To do this, I take my strainer, line it with a coffee filter, and pour in the yogurt. It takes all of 30 seconds. Then I stick it on top of a sauce pan and put it in the fridge. I leave it overnight or for the day. When it's the consistency I like, I pull it out (the yogurt here is drinkable, so it probably takes longer than in the States). For a cream cheese substitute, I make it a little thicker than for sour cream. Unfortunately, I sometimes cannot find yogurt that does not have sugar or vanilla. I used to make my own yogurt, but I'm not sure if it's worth the time for what money it saves- powdered milk is expensive here too, especially skim milk (here most powdered milk is full cream, they only recently started selling skim in our town). If anyone has tips on how to make yogurt quickly, I would love to hear it!
Find more frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood.

Keeping the Romance Alive

Today for Works for me Wednesday I want to share something Daniel and I do to remind each other how much we care about each other. Back when we were still dating, we decided to celebrate our month-aversary. We didn't do very good about this then, but it's something we try to stay faithful to now. We don't do anything fancy- a card, a note, a poem, a song, a dance, a food treat, etc. The idea is to do something little to say, "I love you." It's a great way to keep the romance in our marriage. This doesn't take the place of doing random things, but it's a way to remind us to think of something special for each other. One time in college I made a power point for him. It's fun to get creative! Our dating anniversary was the 29th (july), as is our marriage (january). We fondly call it "SUD" (Special Us Day). (Sappy, I know).
What are some ways you keep the romance alive in your marriage?

For more Works for me Wednesday, see Rocks in My Dryer.

Link Meme

Here's a way to discover new blogs and share yours as well.
I've been tagged for a link meme:

*Start Copying Here*

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)

It’s real easy!

Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially!

The benefits of Viral Linking:
- One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!
- Increase your Google PageRank fast
- Attract large volume of new traffic to your site
- Build your community
- Make new friends!

The Strategist Notebook ~ Link Addiction ~ Ardour of the Heart ~ When Life Becomes a Book ~ The Malaysian Life ~ Yogatta.com ~ What goes under the sun ~ Roshidan’s Cyber Station ~ Sasha says ~ Arts of Physics ~ And the legend lives ~ My View, My Life ~ A Simple Life ~ Juliana RW ~ Mom Knows Everything ~ Beth & Cory's Mom ~ A Mind Forever Voyaging~ enjoying the ride ~ Jennifer's thoughts ~ Mom of 3 Girls ~ Amanda ~ Don't Make Me Get The Flying Monkeys ~ ExPat Mom ~ Just Jessie ~ Wilson Six ~Krisitn ~ Nuttier Than You ~ Shonnte ~ Summer's Nook ~ Laura Williams Musings ~ Melissa's Idea Garden ~~ Eve at Confessions of an Everyday Housewife ~~ Blah Blah Blog ~~ Stop the Ride! ~~ Soap, Blings & Girly Things It's All for the Best ~ Keeping Feet ~ Junky Love in Freehand ~ Getting Out of Debt ~ Free From Broke Knits and Knots ~ Two Kitties and a Puppy ~ Wissman.org ~ Retro Brett ~ Changing Seasons

Regan's Weblog ~ Beauty from Chaos ~ The Natural Mommy ~ Charlie is Here ~ twentysixcats
*Stop Copying*

If your blog is one of the last five, I've tagged you. :)
Have fun exploring blogs!

Happy Valentines!

So I'm a little late, but I don't do much posting over the weekend. On Thursday Jeremiah and I went to school to visit Daniel for lunch. That night we had a babysitter and went to one of the churches here for a couples dinner. It was nice. :) On Saturday we had our yearly tradition. My family had the tradition of eating fondue on Valentine's day (I think it started when I was in junior high). Since we have been married we have continued that tradition. This year, we discussed how we want Valentines to be a family holiday. So we exchanged cards and gifts on Saturday and made sure to have Jeremiah at the table with us.
A little about the meal:
Usually we have cheese fondue with bread, followed by meat and veggies in oil, and finish with fruit in caramel sauce. This year, however, we had to make a slight alteration. Since I'm avoiding milk and want to slowly start dairy again, we had tomato sauce with homemade garlic bread to dip as the appetizer. We also decided to go a little healthier and do a Chinese chicken broth with chicken, zucchini, cabbage, and other veggies to cook in it. We ended with homemade caramel sauce using soy milk and yummy fruit. It was a delicious, fun meal!

Bath time!

Jeremiah loves bath time. He also enjoys playing with his squeaky boat and duck. However, he often tries to eat the boat, and we prevent him, because the boat sucks up water, and the water here is not clean (not to mention the fact that he often pees in his bath!)

Having fun!

Look at that chub!

All clean!

In order to stay "modest" tried to have a conveniently located washcloth. However, Jeremiah kept trying to eat the washcloth, so we didn't get much useable footage. This video is ok though. :)

For more meet-and-greet, see Beth's page.

Frugal Beans

For Frugal Friday, my tip is on cheap beans. Obviously, the the cheapest way to buy beans is buying them dry. But who wants to take the time to soak and cook the beans for hours? And what about the times when you don't remember you need the beans until it's too late? Daniel and I have struggled with dry beans while we've lived here. They seemed to take forever. We'd boil them, soak them overnight, boil again, and they still wouldn't be soft!
Last Christmas I bought Daniel a rice maker (a fairly inexpensive soft one). Besides making rice, we've discovered that it works really well for soaking beans. We can put in the beans and water, heat them up on high, and turn them to low during overnight. Since then, dry beans have not been as intimidating to me. Then one day we decided to make extra beans, since we were going to the hassle of soaking them anyway, and we froze a few jars in the freezer. When I pulled out the jars recently to use them for "refried" beans, they were nice and soft and worked wonderfully! So, now if I ever soak the beans, I make extra and freeze them to have beans on hand the next time.
And just recently we found another use for our rice cooker- steaming carrots for hours so they're nice and soft for a tiny toothless mouth!

I thought I would include an easy and good bean dip recipe I got from my mother-in-law. Serve with crackers or veggies as a healthy snack.
Blend the following ingredients (we use a mini-food processor):
1 can navy beans (or a few cups dried and soaked)
olive oil
garlic
lemon juice

Passionate Part I: Acknowledging His Glory

This is my first posting on my thoughts from the woman's retreat (read my previous post).
After the teaching session on Friday night, we had about 40 minutes for guided individual time. The retreat is located at a beautiful retreat center in Jarabacoa, so I found a place outside, in the dark, to sit, took out my flashlight, held Jeremiah, and started reading. Jeremiah was asleep, so I had about 20 minutes of very peaceful time looking at Psalm 29 (before it started raining and I had to go inside and change Jeremiah's diaper). Our directions were to read over it noting the human actions and God's actions, thinking about what it says about God, and then thinking about how we might react.

This beautiful psalm describes the awesome power and majesty of God.
"The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord thunders over the mighty waters." (vs. 3)

It also tells us our proper response,
"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness" (vs. 2)

As I was reading, verse 9 jumped out at me:
"The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, "Glory."

After reading vs. 9, I had a mental image of an uncountable group of people bowing before God's throne, hearts filled with awe and wonder, unable to say anything but "glory!" What a beautiful picture! I long for such passion; to see the awesome holiness of God as it really is. I've had fleeting glimpses of it- especially through His creation. But I long for the day when I will finally see God's glory unveiled!
The last verse says,
"The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace."
After such a powerful psalm of God's power, I love how it ends with peace. In spite all of that terrifying wonderful power, God is our peace. Or maybe because of that power. After all, doesn't it bring peace to know that the same powerful God who's voice breaks the cedars longs for intimacy with us, in spite of our brokenness?

How to Survive Cold Midwest Winter Days/Nights

Actually, I've never really been good at surviving these. That's why I moved to the D.R. (that's not really the reason, but it's a plus!) Anyway, I thought in light of the bad weather in the Midwest (and other places around the U.S), I would share my best idea on how to survive it:

Come visit us!!! Anyone?! (Please?)Well, I thought it was worth a try; if this doesn't work, I don't think anything will...

Kitchen Utensils- Getting Creative

Today for Works-for-me-Wednesday, I decided to post on some non-conventional kitchen utensils that work for me.

My Pastry blender
(and sometimes a whisk when the real one is dirty)

My Rolling pin
(it used to be a nalgene, but my husband had it at work with him the day I needed it and this worked just as well; I do have a rolling pin, I just don't like it)

My Toaster

My "Microwave"

My flour sifter

My oven light and temp gauge

My kitchen timer
(just kidding! I use an actual kitchen timer, or sometimes my watch)

Anyone else have any creative kitchen utensils I can add to my list?