My dear departing oven

So my oven is dying.  Poor thing.  It's in it's death throws but I won't let it go just yet since I don't have enough money for its replacement.  So instead, I'll coddle it along.  It's reading the temperature all wrong and will tell me the oven is too hot and will lock the door - when it's at 200 degrees.  Here's an example from tonight.

5:35 - start oven at 325 degrees on convection
5:36 - "at" temperature (forget the oven thermometer inside reads just 125 degrees)
5:40 - put meatloaf in oven
We get a good long stretch in here - enough that I ask my daughter if the oven is still even running
5:54 - oven "codes".  It's saying that the temperature is too high
5:55 - oven door locks
5:55:30 - oven door unlocks
5:57 - restart the oven to 325 degrees on convection
5:58 - reaches temperature
6:03 - door locks
6:03:05 - door unlocks
6:04 - door locks
6:04:03 - oven stops running then starts again
6:04:25 - oven door unlocks
6:12 - oven "codes" again - temp too high
6:14 - restart oven
6:26 - still running well!  Hmmmm
6:55 - a very yummy meatloaf is ready to eat.  It's weird that it gives me a lot of time an hour into it.

(oops - posted too soon - will update when meatloaf is done or it goes crazy again)

Good read on another blog - Proselytism and an argument from the world

One of the books I posted on yesterday was Holy Subversion by Trevin Wax and I'm really looking forward to reading it.  Today on Trevin's blog, he has a response to a person who left a comment on a blog post discussing proselytism.  It's a very good read for us because we can see a well thought out argument against the idea that Christians shouldn't try to "force" other people to believe and we should allow all beliefs to exist because all beliefs are equal.  I recently got into a discussion about this with someone and I found it wonderful to read how another believer addresses the issue.  So read it today when you get a chance.  It will only take a few moments but look at it as a teaching time.  I learned a lot and I hope you will too.

Woo-hoo! Books!!

I love getting new books and I just ordered 4 that I'm excited to get and to start reading.  They are:

Gospel-Powered Parenting:  How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting by William P. Farley

From Amazon:  Bill Farley's new book on parenting is rock solid. It is so because it is so profoundly grounded upon the all-sufficiency of the Word of God and the Gospel of grace. When it comes to parenting, Farley is no neophyte; he has been in the trenches raising sinful kids by the grace of God and for the glory of God for two decades. Nor is he going to give you theoretical platitudes; he is honest about his own deficiencies and his great need of Gospel wisdom in parenting. Here is Jonathan Edward s theology made accessible to depraved parents raising depraved kids in a depraved world. This is, ultimately, a parenting book full of hope, hope grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. --- Douglas Bond, author of Fathers & Sons: Stand Fast in the Way of Truth, and Hold Fast in a Broken World.


Tim Challies, a blogger I highly respect recommended it highly.




Holy Subversion:  Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals by Trevin Wax


From Amazon:  Christians are too often guilty of pledging their allegiance to the influential principalities and powers of this age rather than to Christ alone. In Holy Subversion, Trevin Wax challenges such behavior by urging a return to the subversive lifestyle of the earliest Christians. Their proclamation and demonstration that "Jesus is Lord" directly opposed the Caesar worship of their day.

Today, Christians in the West must choose between Jesus and our "Caesars": self, success, money, leisure, sex, power. What would it look like, asks Wax, if today's church reclaimed the communal, subversive nature of the gospel, intentionally undermining all contenders for our devotion? How would the message that "Jesus is Lord" change our thinking about our jobs, our families, and our church participation? Here this gifted pastor-theologian offers help in taking our faith public, dethroning modern-day Caesars, honoring the Lordship of Christ, and understanding the church as the ultimate counterculture-an embodiment of Christ's supremacy over all.

Dug Down Deep:  Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters by Josh Harris

From Amazon:  "When the apostle Peter says, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxiety on Him," he implies that humble people are fearless. They have the courage to stand up for truth humbly. I love the term "humble orthodoxy." And I love Josh Harris. When they come together (Josh and humble orthodoxy), as they do in this book, you get a humble, helpful, courageous testimony to biblical truth. Thank you, Josh, for following through so well on the conversation in Al Mohler's study."
—John Piper, author of Desiring God; Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis


Crosstalk:  Where Life and Scripture Meet by Michael R. Emlet

From Amazon:  Your friend just left his wife. You catch your child posting something inappropriate on the Internet. Someone in your small group is depressed. A relative was just diagnosed with an incurable disease. When those you know and love experience trouble, you don't want to hand out pat answers or religious platitudes. Instead, you want to offer real hope and help from God's Word. You know it s true, but how does an ancient book, written thousands of years ago, connect with our twenty-first century problems? In CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet, Michael R. Emlet gives you the tools to connect the Bible to your life and to the lives of your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. You will learn to understand people and God s Word in ways that promote gospel-centered, rich conversations that help you and those you know grow in love for God and others. This book will make the whole Bible come alive to you. Instead of platitudes, you can offer a cup of living water to those who are struggling in this broken world.




Should make for some good winter reading!  Oh - if you're interested in following blogs, you can see on my blog roll both Trevin Wax (Kingdom People) and Josh Harris.  

Menu Plan Monday....errr, Tuesday

Yeah, I'm behind on this once again but I promise this post will be worth it.  :)  My plan for this week is:

Monday - Chicken enchiladas, salad

Tuesday - Wine-braised Italian sausages, salad

Wednesday - Chicken sandwiches, pasta salad, cut up veggies

Thursday - Cranberry pork roast, rice, broccoli

Friday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas

Saturday - Ham, scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots

Sunday - leftovers or a $20 family meal at a local take-out place


But what's so worth it about this post?  The chicken enchilada recipe.  Honestly, this ROCKED our dinner last night and I just finished it today for lunch.  My whole family rated this a 10+ which is pretty rare for everyone to think something was that good.  I got the recipe off of All Recipes and only did two things differently than the original recipe:  1)  I used a small chicken that I had used to make chicken stock for soup for a very ill friend of mine.  2)  I used a large can (28 oz) of enchilada sauce since we like things on the saucy side.  Hubby actually said this was better than the awesome Mexican restaurant that we love to go to on special occasions!!  Wowza!  THAT is good!  So here's the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Angelas-Awesome-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx#

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into chunks 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup 1 1/4 cups sour cream 1/4 teaspoon chili powder 1 tablespoon butter 1 small onion, chopped 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained 1 (1.25 ounce) package mild taco seasoning

mix 1 bunch green onions, chopped, divided 1 cup water 1 teaspoon lime juice 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 5 (12 inch) flour tortillas 3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded, divided 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce 1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place the chicken in a large pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the chicken pieces are no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Shred chicken by placing two forks back to back and pulling meat apart. Set the shredded chicken aside. Meanwhile, combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and chili powder in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.
2.	Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, chopped green chilies, taco seasoning, half of the bunch of chopped green onion, and water. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, onion powder, and garlic powder; simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
3.	Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir 1 cup of the soup mixture into the skillet with the chicken mixture. Spread the remaining soup mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
4.	Fill each tortilla with chicken mixture. Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over the chicken filling before folding the tortillas, reserving half of the shredded cheese for topping the enchiladas. Fold tortillas over the filling and place seam-side down in the prepared pan.
5.	Pour enchilada sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Cover with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the reserved chopped green onions and the sliced olives on top of the cheese. Bake in the preheated oven until filling is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

Life on high speed

MAN, it's been over 10 days since I last posted!  Life is crazy busy - but then again, it always is!

A week ago, we had Anne Graham Lotz at our church to speak in the morning service and then in the evening service she showed us her method of Bible study.  It was a wonderful weekend and Anne is not only beautiful and the spitting image of both her parents, she was also extremely gracious and lovely to work with.  Her husband actually grew up in our village, played basketball for our high school and his father was one of our church's early pastors!  He was so blessed to see where our church has come since way back in the 50s.  It was fun for him to go downtown and see the stores that are still here and to see what has changed.

Sunday morning, as I was still just waking up, I got a call from our senior associate pastor's wife who had planned the whole thing with Anne coming.  It seems Mary was ill - very ill - and was heading to the hospital.  Could I take over for her for the day?  Certainly - but that meant I was basically on the go from that second until I fell into bed at 10 that night.  But all went quite smoothly and it was a very blessed evening for all ..... but Mary.  Unfortunately she ended up in a very busy ER in a hospital with no spare beds so she spent 2 days in the hall of the ER before she finally got a room.  She was diagnosed with colitis although they're not quite sure what caused it.  Fortunately it wasn't the dinner she had the night before because Anne had the same dinner as did our senior pastor!  Yikes!  Can you imagine food poisoning in all of them??  GULP!!!

Of course since the week heading into Anne being here was busy, I got a little behind in our homeschooling so this week was spent getting caught up on that.  I played Mary the rest of the week since she's our "worship coordinator" who figures out who's doing what and also puts together the announcements and such.  Friday was a full day at church doing my own work and hers but we had a good day and headed home around 5pm.  There was a message on the answering machine from a young lady asking us to call her and it was about her dad (who was sick with cancer) and we called but there was no answer.  DH and I decided to run out for dinner.  When we got home, we heard back from Vivi and her father was given hours/days to live!!!  She said he went downhill so fast and he was asking for my husband so we rushed over there.  We spent all of last night there as he went in and out of consciousness.   He's doing slightly better today (he ate some cereal when last night he couldn't swallow even an Ensure), but that doesn't mean he's getting better.  We're on constant readiness to get ready to go if we get a call.  We'll head over tomorrow again after church since he was asleep tonight.  DH performed his wedding just 2 years ago (he and his wife were formerly divorced - he many years before he was saved and she by abandonment) and it was his first wedding officiation as a pastor. Now he'll be doing his first funeral sometime this week, most likely.  :(

Of course in all of this, I'm still cleaning, still home schooling, still taking hubby's church plant class at church and such.  I gotta say - God gives grace where it's needed because I'm still not feeling "overwhelmed".  It's definitely only by Him because normally?  I'd be freaking!  :)

Menu Plan Sunday :)

Yeah, I'm planned so I might as well post it!  LOL  I'm going to order the groceries today and have them delivered on Tuesday.  I have NO desire to go food shopping right now so I'm going to pay someone $11 to bring me my groceries (and I'm sure I'll save that much just by not doing any "whim" purchases.

Monday:  BBQ Country Style Ribs in the crockpot, potato salad, salad
Tuesday:  Sauerbraten, red cabbage, mashed potatoes, peas
Wednesday:  Shrimp Scampi, salad
Thursday:  Taco Soup
Friday:  Chicken Pot Pie, Salad
Saturday:  Chicken Fried Rice
Sunday:  eat at church

Desperate Housewife: Freedom in Captivity

OK - there has always been the discussion about just what a woman is to do in a marriage when she's a believer and her husband either isn't or isn't living like he is.  Here's a site with a very well thought out counseling response to this.  I'm definitely going to do some more looking at this.


Desperate Housewife: Freedom in Captivity