Food Budget & Ministries

This last weekends grocery shopping trip proved to be a little upsetting. It was slightly higher than I was expecting and was getting tired at how often our food budget is higher than we projected. Couponing seems to be the latest rage and while I get decent savings many of the foods that we buy for our weekly menu’s there are quite a few that coupons just don’t seem to cover and I don’t like feeling guilty for for not coming out of the store spending 10.00 for 200.00 or whatever worth of groceries. I want to save money, but I see the deals that people get and I wonder if it can even come close for the way our household cooks and the products we chose??

With that being said I know that part of the reason our overages are happening is because we have been starting to have more guests for dinner. More people = more food. I had a wonderful revelation though this past weekend while sitting on our back deck watching the puppies play in the backyard. I realized that for this time in our lives that is a ministry. To back it up a little, I had also been worried that since joining our church home I hadn’t gotten involved in ministry. It was difficult as this was something I grew up doing and always seemed to be involved every way you looked. Now it is a go to church on Sunday’s and a Bible study during the week that is about it.

It is always great to have friends that you can break bread with and enjoy the company!!!

Opening up our home, getting to know people, establishing relationships, inviting those who may not make the first move towards friendship…those things are also ministry. (I forgot that those things count too!) Sometimes when you ask yourself why I don’t have more people to hang out with…the easiest thing to do is invite someone you think might be interesting out to coffee or over for dinner. It is amazing how quickly you can make friends, if you are willing to make the first move. Now instead of wondering who we can hang out, the problem is overbooking a weekend because there is a long list of people we want to get to spend time with. However, I think that is a good problem.

We as Christians are the church body. We should work together, support each other, be there for each other. Yet it makes it a little easier when you actually know someone outside the smiles and four walls of a church building. Investing in people is always worth the time and I will stop questioning whether or not I’m ministering and just try and do what God has in our lives right now!

The Skin Map

This was my second e-book from booksneeze provided as a complimentary copy to review. I excitedly started the book ready to follow the adventures of Kit Livingston as he discovers a world of ley lines and essentially time travel.

It starts off in current day London where Kit meets up with his long-lost great-grandfather, who somehow managed not to age. His great-grandfather introduces him to a whole new world and tells him about the keys to traveling into parallel universes. The first “page” of the book immediately drew you into a different time just due to the older English and then the sheer descriptions of any given situation. I’m an avid reader and yet there were many times that I would have to re-read the sentence just to get the full context of a word.

I enjoyed the older English of the book and the general premise, but the book seemed to drag. I kept waiting for something to happen, but between following the multiple characters the book introduces and the lengthy descriptions of any given scene it took a long time to see what was going to happen next.

From my understanding this is the first part of the series, but I don’t think I would grab the next installment to see what happens. 😦

Excitement!

Memorial day weekend has been a whirl of activities and hanging out with friends. I was telling the Hubs yesterday that I can’t remember a month lately in which we had so many great memory making weekends all in the same month. It as been quite the adventure.

Each night of this three-day weekend I had managed to book with hanging out with friends. While busy it has been awesome. In the mornings Hubby and I have been able to get some stuff done around the house and even went on a bike ride together.

Sometimes I think as adults we forget how to be kids and just be plain old excited about the simple and small things. I already tend to get super excited about the small stuff, but yesterday had a couple of great reminders of what it is like to be a little kid.

Example 1…As I’ve been talking about in my Fitness Friday’s, I am relatively new to bike riding and lack what many kids pick as basic skills. This Sunday when Hubby took me out he helped me practice getting started after stopping at an intersection. (This in our past rides had usually left me quite wobbly!) And I even was able to push myself back in the seat without having to stop on the bike and at the end even stand up and coast a little bit. As I was carefully balancing trying to stand up for the first time I was reminded of the simple joy of learning something new, of being excited with where you are in life at that exact moment.

 
photo © 2006 Salvadonica Borgo del Chianti | more info (via: Wylio)

Example 2….Occassionally I will get a Bee in my bonnet and want to do something RIGHT NOW. It can’t wait and someway somehow it is going to happen. Yesterday I had that feeling about wanting to spray paint some tins I bought at a garage sale on Saturday. Only problem was that we didn’t have any spray paint, AND our weekly budget was done and over with no money left for spray paint. 😦 So like any little kid who wants to go get an ice cream cone RIGHT NOW….I climbed on our bed and cracked open our change jar. I carefully started counting out my change, starting to roll it up. In the process my faithful doggy Levi came and curled up right next to me. I think he was helping me find all the quarters. I just remember all the cute pictures of old movies with a kid and their dog sitting on porch steps sharing an ice cream cone. He was chilling on the bed all snuggled up to help me count quarters to go get my adult version of an ice cream cone (the thing I really wanted at the time!)

Sometimes it is good to remember the simple joy from being happy about the place we are in. Jesus says to come to Him like children, to be joyful. This last weekend was an incredible reminder about being content and joyful in the small things today and the childlike faith that Christ wants us to come to Him with.

Hope you have had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend!!!!!

Tough Questions

Today I finished a book that challenged me. I was unsure what to expect when I ordered my complimentary copy from Waterbrook press to review, but was pleasantly surprised. It is called The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. At first I was concerned that it would be similar to the rave that went through for a while about the prayer of Jabez and praying to get more from God. Yet that wasn’t even close to what I found. This book was to unlock the secrets of joyful giving.

It covered 6 quick keys or Treasure Principles as he called them.

• God owns everything. I’m his money manager.
• My heart always goes where I put God’s money.
• Heaven, not earth, is my home.
• I should live not for the dot but for the line (focus on eternity not earth).
• Giving is the only antidote to materialism.
• God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

It took a challenging look at the worlds and Christians perspective of money. Sadly it seems that they are generally the same. One of the primary focuses on the book was tithing and then evening giving after the tithe or giving until it stretches you. That is something I’ve heard before, but you don’t hear it preached on often.

I wanted to share one of the challenging passages with you from the book…”It is increasingly common for Christians to ask one another the tough questions: How is your marriage? Have you been spending time in the Word? How are you doing in terms of sexual purity? Have you been sharing your faith? But how often do we ask, “How much are you giving to the Lord?” or “Have you been robbing God?” or “Are you winning the battle against materialism?””

It made me a think about our checkbook, our priorities. Asking are they where they need to be, in reflection I think that some of them are going to be needing to make a quick change. Hubby has already agreed to read this book and I pray that this message is something taken to heart and lived throughout the rest of our lives.

In the end of the book it includes 31 questions just to help people think through the process of giving and then as an “answer” it includes a scripture and more you can go read through if you have the time. Incredible short 120 page book and I would recommend it to a new or old believer in the faith!

Please stop by and rank my review…you can go do that here…
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/8943

Working on my fitness!

Small improvements. While not wave your pom poms worthy it was still nice to be a little more active.

This past Sunday I did the week 2 of the running program. I went a little different route, but it still only ended up being 1.54 miles :(.

Monday I got up and did a different yoga video that puts the focus on abs and back. It was only 1/2 an hour but it felt wonderful when I was done. Thankfully this one I can actually do the whole video. YAY me!

I planned to run on Wednesday but I’m not yet so diehard that I go running in the pouring rain….so I stayed inside.

Thursday feeling that I had to do at least something else went for another run. Also doing week 2 I went for the same route as on Sunday. I hope to go again on Saturday and then next week bump it up to week 3 and start lengthening the running sections a little of the C25K (Couch to 5 k podcast).

Menu  was a definite improvement from last week and all meals were homemade which usually helps!

• Monday – Taco Salad (I don’t eat dressing–think its gross!)
• Tuesday – Baked Chicken with brown rice and steamed green beans
• Wednesday – Stir fry chicken, broccoli, mushrooms with brown rice
• Thursday – Leftovers…making sure the fridge is cleaned out this week
• Friday – Bake a chicken served with roasted potato wedges and steamed baby carrots (Looking forward to potato wedge recipe!)

photo © 2009 Corey Harmon | more info (via: Wylio)
I know that this week still had some desserts in the house with the cupcakes I couldn’t resist making…Now this weekend I plan on baking cookies and delivery with a note to the neighbors who stopped our escaping puppies. I need to make sure that most of those get and stay out of our kitchen though! I’m thinking chocolate oatmeal sound good…See I get distracted as soon as I think about baking. Oh well. It is a process!

How did your week go? Do you have any exciting plans for Memorial day? I’d love to hear about them!

A Couple in Prayer…

Following friends blogs can always be fun. The list in my google reader sometimes seems to grow by the day. A couple of months ago I won this book called Couples Who Pray by Squire Rushnell & Louise DuArt off my friends blog. The request was that once I was done reading it, I would sign the book and give it away to a fellow blog reader and then let it keep being passed on to inspire couples. I would have posted sooner, but three other people, one of which was my hubby, had to get through the book and that added quite a bit of time.

When I started reading this book I finished it within 24 hours, I couldn’t put it down. The chapters were insightful as they were comical. It included true stories of over 20 couples that have experienced the life changing result of becoming a couple that prays together. Celebrities such as Pauletta and Denzel Washington, Kathie Lee & Frank Gifford and Scott & Tracie Hamilton were included and their stories were powerful reminders of the power of prayer.

The chapters include…

1. Naked Truth: Marriage’s Most Intimate Act
2. Prayer and Communication
3. The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
4. How Do You Do It?
5. The Remarkable Power of Prayer
6. The Devil Is a Real Enemy of Your Marriage
7. Forgiveness Power
8. Prayer & Money
9. Six Steps to a Happy Marriage
10. Outcomes

As chapter 3 suggests the book asks people to respond by starting a 40 day challenge to pray together for 5 minute a day. While Hubby and I both liked the idea it took a while to warm up to it as we both are quiet prayers type people. We just started this last week and so far it has been amazing.

While at this point in our life there isn’t a crisis going on there are still concerns and everyday life that keeps our heads spinning. The chapters reveal story after story of marriages in trouble, trying situations and how through the strength of coming together as a couple in prayer helped get them through that period of their life.

One of the things that caught me off guard was the statistics in the first chapter. It was comparisons on different aspects of the quality of marriage based on couples who pray a little or pray together a lot. The swing between the 2 was between 15 to 30 percent in favor of the couples who pray together on a regular basis.

If you are interested in getting this copy of the book to read and then keep the tradition of passing it on. Please comment on the blog! I will announce winner next Tuesday 5/31/2011.

Truly Fabulous and 50’s

When we bought our 1949 house we always wanted to keep as true to style as possible in re-decorating our house. We didn’t want anything to modern installed. Loving our old-fashioned Timberline fireplace insert and all the built-ins…we wanted to stay true to our house.

Sometimes as a younger couple it is a take what you can get and sometimes just what you can afford type of situation. We were moving out of a smaller apartment and didn’t own a dining room table. We found a cheap Craigslist table for 60.00 that could seat 6 comfortable and 6 mismatched chairs. While not super comfortable, it was highly functionable and exciting to just have a dining room set.

This last weekend we got a phone call from one of our friends that were re-doing their dining room and wanted to know if we’d be interested in their table. I was very interested for what in my opinion was a more “grown-up” looking dining room table. While I had gone out for my movie on Sunday our friends delivered our new table and matching chairs.

Hubby's Chair

It has six chairs but three leaves that can make the table 102 inches and seat quite a few more. I can’t wait to host big dinner parties with it.

Our New Grown Up Table from the 50's

The even more exciting part is that it needs to be re-finished. Dark cherry wood has gotten worn with time and it needs a little TLC to bring back its former glory. One thing the previous owner informed me of is that this table was built in February of 1951. I couldn’t be more excited to have a dining table built in the 1950’s. If you’ve been around a while you know that I tend to try when I get extra happy. This was one of those times. So it might be a while before you see updated pictures the set as it is number 101 on our project to-do list, but this table is amazing and worth the wait of getting to re-finish.

To All Friends who DIY...any suggestions on the spindle?

In case you were wondering project # 1 is re-doing a section of our old worn fence where puppies 1 & 2 decided to try to escape last night. Oiy…the fun.

What is your latest DIY project that you have going on?

Brewery’s & Cupcakes

Highlights of Tacoma…

This past weekend we were blessed to be able to go and have some time with Hubby’s Dad. We don’t get to see him so often as he is usually a 6 hour plane ride away. So we hopped in the car as soon as we got the text message that he was going to be off for the rest of the afternoon.

Hubby is on curb...His Dad isn't that short 🙂

I was pretty proud of myself as this weekend I actually stayed awake the entire trip down there. We picked Dad up and then headed into the heart of Tacoma. Again I had been having fun researching an interesting place to eat. This time I discovered a place called Harmon’s Brewery.

They had pastas, burgers, sandwiches, pizzas, and it was one of those places where it was truly difficult to decide as you wanted to order half the menu if you’ve never been there before. We finally settled on some mozzarella sticks, individual pizzas and then the monster cake. Ok it really didn’t look anything like a monster but it was a 22oz slice off of their 10lb cake served with ice cream and their warm fudgy sauce. 3 spoons and….WOW! AMAZING! INCREDIBLE!

Everything that came to the table was delicious. The guys tried some of their local beers (it was a brewery after all…) I went with my favorite strawberry lemonade. It was the best I’d ever had. They used this strawberry puree instead of strawberry chunks or syrup so you could actually drink and enjoy the whole thing. WOW..Needless to say if you are ever in Tacoma…there is something there that everyone in the family would enjoy!

The waitress was really nice and took the picture for us!

Now to back it up just a little bit…as we were following the GPS to locate the Brewery we were watching all the storefronts. Hubby thought something happened when I squealed with delight as I noticed a cupcake shop!! Being from a smaller town where there might be a doughnut shop or the back of the local grocer bakeries just isn’t the same thing. This was a cute little shop dedicated to cupcakes. I told Eric we had to go see it when we were finished eating.

My First Cupcake Shop!

The shop was called Hello, Cupcake. It was just a precious shop with a great display of cupcakes. It took me a little while to decide on one to take home as I was too excited just looking at their selection and just how sweet their little shop was! We finally decided on a red velvet for me and a coconut cupcake for Hubbs, they were so cute with the perfectly mounded frosting! We ate them the next day after lunch and WOW they tasted as great as they looked.

Hubby with our little order of cupcakes!

It was a great day getting to hang out with Hubby’s Dad. I had warned him in the beginning I was going to take a lot of pictures. And I’m pretty sure he was rather amused at my level of excitement over a little cupcake shop. Either way we had a lot of fun and the only bummer of the day was thinking how long it will be before we get to see him again. 😦

And just one more tidbit before I let you go today…You ever turn around and wonder what happened? I went into the kitchen to grab something that morning and turned around and Hubby had decided to put away his sweatshirt on MY DOG!

He looks like gangster puppy...

 

Poor little Levi…had a big sweat shirt put on him, even his little paws were through the sleeves.

Silly Hubby…and even though I have a thing against putting dogs in clothes, I couldn’t help but laugh seeing Levi look all gangster with a big hood over his face. 🙂

Have a Fabulous Day!

Celebrating Victoria Day

Even though I live stateside, the dept I work in celebrates Victoria. This last weekend was my three-day weekend. It was so jammed packed I’m still trying to process everything.

A quick re-cap and pictures and more stories to follow this week 🙂

Friday Night

Took my mom out for dinner and a movie. We had wanted to see the newer chickflick but our theater had already stopped that film, so we ended up seeing Thor. It was definitely a fun, fast paced movie.

Saturday

We took another trip down south towards Tacoma. This time we were blessed to get to meet up with Hubby’s Dad. We don’t get to see him to much as he is over in Aloha land, although it makes a great spot for a vacation! Anyways, I found another local place to eat and an amazing little speciality shop that you will have to come back tomorrow to hear more about!

Sunday

Got a jump-start on my morning with doing week 2 of the C25K. Then  morning took off with a rocking sermon from our favorite pastor A. Then for what feels like the first time in a long time I went to a movie with a girlfriend. Went to go see Bridesmaids. It was pretty funny, but all in all I was just excited to have a friend to go see movies with!

Monday – Victoria Day

Got up early did some Abs/Back Yoga which felt amazing. Then went grocery shopping and tried out a different store in town. I was a little skeptical to try out a new store. I felt like I was cheating on my old store, until I realized how much I saved at new store without really trying. I was EXCITED!!! Then I spent the afternoon making the coconut cupcakes from last weeks blog. Um YUMMY! I took them to Bible study and one of the ladies was so cute she said that they were so delicious that I should go on cupcakes wars on TV. 🙂 The compliment made the day!

So check back tomorrow for a delicious dive in Tacoma and a specialty store you don’t want to miss! And if you feel like dropping a comment let me know how your weekend went too!

Fitness Friday

This week might be epic level of FAIL. It is Thursday night and I don’t think I have worked out once this week. I guess it wasn’t a complete fail as I haven’t been eating seconds this week. That is a great start. Now to just continue.

On a positive note I was quite proud that on my last grocery shopping trip I didn’t buy any junk food or sweets. Usually something finds its way into the basket. Ok. I take it back, I bought one bag of chips, but those are to go in hubby’s lunch he takes to work.

photo © 2010 Niez Aini Latif | more info (via: Wylio)

This last week’s menu has included

• Monday Night – Tacos
• Tuesday Night – Spaghetti
• Wednesday Night – Hobo Chicken (Click to see the recipe, I think we will tweak a little to make it more our own next time, but this is quick simple and will make the rotation.
• Thursday Night – I’m making salad with chopped chicken marinated in the Hawaiian Luau McCormicks marinade. Bummer is I haven’t found that one in a while and it is our last one..sniff sniff…
• Friday Night – Going to eat Chinese food w/ Mom since she stayed at house to watch puppies for Olympia trip.

Conclusion 4 out of 5 meals are pretty healthy, I’m not even going to try and pass off Chinese food as healthy. Goal for next week, I’m going to try and get 5 out of 5 healthier meals.

Only downside is I intend to make the cupcakes from guest blogger this weekend. BUT I’m going to take them with me to small group on Monday and make everyone share the wealth 🙂 Therefor I won’t eat as many..smart plan right?

Second goal for next week is to try and go running in the morning before work. I get home and the last thing I want to do is change clothes and go running. I would rather put on pajamas watch Law & Order on netflix and curl up with the dogs, that or do projects or read my book BUT ANYTHING BUT RUN!

photo © 2008 varun suresh | more info (via: Wylio)

So how was your week of fitness? Do you find it easier to exercise in the morning or in the evening?