Earlier this week, while talking to some of the girls in the mom's group on the phone, we discussed the study book we were doing and some feelings about it. After those phone calls I was feeling led to suggest changing our study book for the time being. I had decided last week that I would do the Love Dare book myself and Kathy was going to do it with me, but after praying about it for a couple days I felt a great peace about suggesting it as a replacement study book. Fast-forward to today in our Mom's Group Bible Study we decided to switch gears and do the Love Dare book instead.
I’m determined to get through the entire book, be completely transparent with myself, and to make an improvement in myself and in our marriage. Please pray for me, and the other mom's that are taking on this dare, and look for my Day 1 post tomorrow!
By the way, Fireproof came out on DVD a few months ago. Check it out with your spouse and take on the Love Dare yourself. I’d love to hear about your journey.
22 oz fresh lemon juice (about 7 large lemons)
| 1. | Preheat grill for high heat. |
| 2. | Place potatoes in a large saucepan with enough lightly salted water to cover. Bring to a boil. Cook 15 minutes, or until tender but firm. |
| 3. | Drain potatoes, and pat dry. Coat thoroughly with vegetable oil and seasoned salt. |
| 4. | Place potatoes on the preheated grill. Cook approximately 20 minutes, turning periodically. |
While the potatoes are cooking, make the filling: Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the meat and brown it well, about 5 minutes. Add the vegetables to meat, season with salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables are softened, 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour around the pan, stir and cook for about 1 minute. Add the stock and bring up to a simmer to thicken the gravy, 3-4 minutes. Season the gravy with Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
Turn broiler on and place rack in the middle of the oven.
Transfer the filling to a medium-size casserole or baking dish and top it with heaping spoonfuls of the horseradish mashed potatoes so they completely cover it. Brown the potatoes under the broiler, about 2 minutes, garnish with chives and serve.
This coming weekend is the Hearts at Home National Conference in Bloomington. I'm very excited about going this year and know that it will be a very informative, refreshing weekend. To gear up for the weekend, I’d like to welcome author and speaker, Jill Savage. Jill’s recent book Real Moms…Real Jesus, just released, and I wanted to ask her about her real mom moments..
A closer look at the "cracked glass" detail...
A closer look at the "faux metal" technique...
At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt (Kirk Cameron) lives by the old firefighter’s adage: Never leave your partner behind. In the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules. Growing up, Catherine Holt (Erin Bethea) always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave firefighter … just like her daddy. Now, after seven years of marriage, Catherine wonders when she stopped being “good enough” for her husband.I'm only a little ways into it the book, but it unfortunately follows in Wicked's footsteps with not being easy to read. I'm not sure what it is about Maguire and the way he writes his books, but none of them are written in the same way and this "Oz" series just doesn't read well for me. Other than that, it seems to be an okay book, nothing spectacular as of yet.
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Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I'm only a few chapters into it thus far, but enjoying it much more than I was Son of a Witch------------------------------------------------
Guess it's back to reading Son of a Witch now. Is the reading club over yet? I don't even know....does anyone know?
The book starts out with a widow, Margarethe, and her two daughters, Ruth ~ a large, simple-minded girl, and Iris ~ a smart girl with plain looks, who are fleeing from their English country village after her husband's violent murder. They return to the town that Margarethe grew up in only to find that they have no relatives or home left there. In search of a place to stay, they find shelter in the home of a painter, Master Schoonmaker. The mother takes a job in his household doing chores and mixing paints, Ruth is asked to pick wild flowers for the him to paint and Iris is only to pose for him to paint in his paintings. After several months of living and working in the Master's home, Margarethe is offered a job in the home of a very wealthy man. Master doesn't want her to go and proposes to her, but she won't marry him because he is too poor and can offer nothing to her and her daughters (a glimpse into her scheming ways).
This new house is that of a prosperous merchant, Van den Meer, his wife, Henrika, and beautiful daughter, Clara, who is not allowed to leave the house for reasons we will only know at the end of the book. The Master is asked to paint a portrait of Clara with tulips, a beautiful flower with a beautiful red color that the father is trying to import, and he creates a masterpiece that he is afraid won't be able to repeat. The mother, pregnant, dies before giving birth (the reason for this will also be revealed later), and Margarethe soon manages to convince Van den Meer that the town will start talking if they don't get married, so they do. Clara is not happy about this situation at all. Margarethe does not wish to replace her mother, but does want the respect that goes along with being the wife and running the household. Clara, not being used to having to do anything and used to having everything given to her, refuses and thus Margarethe starts behaving with Clara as the stepmother we have grown to know and love in the fairytale, commanding Clara to clean and do other household chores. Clara has never had to do any of this and Iris takes pity on her, helps her, and teaches her how to do things. For her, Clara is now her sister and she finds her duty to take care of her as she takes care of Ruth.
Van den Meer is gone from the house often, either due to business or due to the fact that he doesn't want to be around Margarethe. Clara, upset by her mother's death and her father's outings, refuses leave the kitchen. She says she finds the silence and the work comforting, and she will soon ask people to call her Cinderella, or Cinder girl. Try as she might, Iris can't make her leave the house and behave like a normal child. (Thus making it just as much her fault for her "maid" situation, not completely the wicked step-mother's fault in the way we think it is.)
Van den Meer makes a huge business mistake and his work fails miserably and he falls into a depression so deep that he is not able to get out of bed. The family has basically lost everything and Margarethe is left to try to straighten out the situation. So Margarethe, who has become more cunning and more wicked than before, decides that she wants Clara to get married to a disgusting, but wealthy, merchant and will try to get Iris married to a prince who travels the country with his Aunt, the Queen, in search of a wife. Clara is forbidden by Margarethe to go to the ball, which is fine with her because she doesn't want to be seen out of the house. Iris does not give up though and finally convinces her that she should go. Clara agrees as long as she can keep her face covered with a veil.
The prince, upon meeting Iris, finds her enchanting and gives her his whole attention...until Clara arrives. As we all know, he falls immediately in love with Clara, but it is not the clock striking twelve that makes her leave as much as a fire that destroys the beautiful painting of her with the tulips the Master had borrowed to show the Queen. The shoe the prince brings to the house the following day is only an excuse to find the culprit of the fire, and that he does; he also discovers Clara. They finally get married and Clara is careful to send money and help for Iris and Ruth, her beloved sisters, who love her as much as she loves them. As for Margarethe, she is another story, but she's done enough damage not to deserve much respect. Clara has left it to Iris and Ruth to decide how to care for their mother.
Don't skip the prologue and the epilogue...many things are brought to light. Between Wicked and this book, Maguire has definitely been able to capture the "gray" areas of otherwise black and white children's stories.
Sunday, July 13th - Eeek! I'm so excited! I just pre-ordered Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer while we were at Borders...you better believe I'll be there on August 1st at midnight to pick it up...I'll probably start reading it too! I'm so excited I could just pee!...okay, maybe not quite that excited, but quite happy. ;0p
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#9 Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney: This is one of my favorite kids books (I won't be sharing too many of these since I'd have about 20 a day to write, but we just read this one again and I wanted to share). I bought this book after having our first daughter and we read it almost every night to her at bedtime. Although she's getting a bit too old to enjoy it like she used to, she still picks it out for her bedtime book now and then. Little Nutbrown Hare is telling his father, Big Nutbrown Hare, how much he loves him in a form of comparing it to the measure of actual things. Of course, being a typical male, daddy has to one-up his son and go one measure up from anything that Little Nutbrown Hare says. (LOL...just kidding about the typical male jab). Just before falling asleep, Little Nutbrown Hare amazes his Dad with the statement "I love you right up to the moon." Of course, Dad does one-up this too, but only after his son is sound asleep. Anita Jeram's illustrations for this book are beautiful and the colors are perfect for capturing the sleepy-time feel of this bedtime book. I give this book as a baby gift quite often and I highly recommend it to any parent.
