The Accidental Pastor's Wife

I'm cheap, well, not trashy, but cheap like frugal so I've always made most of my own baby food. It's easy! And it only takes an afternoon every once in a while to make a whole bunch. Today I did green beans, peaches, watermelon, and zucchini. I've already done peas and carrots. There are lots of recipes online about it, but I'll share my favorite because I think it's useful and unique. It's stewed prunes. I've had constipated babies once they start on table food and stewed prunes with oatmeal or rice cereal really does the trick! And did I mention it's cheap?

Julie's Stewed Prunes for Baby's Tummy Troubles

1 carton pitted prunes
1 saucepan
water
food processor or blender
ice cube trays or cookie sheet with rim

Put prunes in saucepan and cover with water. Let set all day covered (or overnight). Then bring the prunes to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes over medium heat. Strain out prunes into the food processor, adding some cooking liquid as needed to make it mushy. Freeze in ice cube trays or in blobs on a cookie sheet, then pop them out or scrap them off into labeled ziplock bags. Ta-da!

Now watch out on the changing table, ladies. :)

You're getting three posts today since my family is down watching a movie, sweet baby girl is hanging out in dad's lap, and I have the MacBook (a.k.a. "my precious"). I really should be going to get ice cube trays to freeze all the baby food I made today, hmmm...maybe I'll do a 4th post on that. Anyway-

I was so excited to be running for the first time in my life when after Tuesday's workout my right knee started to ache and it was difficult going down stairs (a bad thing in a tri-level house!). I got on runnersworld.com and discovered I probably have runner's knee, a problem more common in women but common nonetheless. It said I needed to strengthen my quads and hamstrings and possibly wear a knee band when I work out. I gave it until today when I tried running again and my knee just wouldn't take it. I ran for maybe 3 minutes, then switched to the elliptical trainer, which felt fine. I took some advil this morning and it's been feeling better. I still lifted weights, but oh, I want to run like the wind and I can't!

Any of you out there have this happen?

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

I have a mad love affair with Europe. I've been to France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. The history, the cobblestone streets, centuries-old buildings, gardens, trees, FOOD, and don't get me started on the castles and churches.

When my kids are grown up, my hubby and I are going to backpack through Europe, hiking, biking, eating.

I went to France in high school I would just have bread and cafe au lait for breakfast and eat at the bakery for lunch (in other words, I'd have crossiants, chocolate elairs, etc. Hey, I could get away with it then!).

When I saw this quiz over at I Was Just Thinking (who I've recently added to my blogroll because I like her stuff so much), I had to take it. One of my dreams is to travel to Britain and Ireland. Although I'm afraid once I got there, I wouldn't be able to return...

You overhear them say, "And now for our Feature Presentation."

Hiya girls. We start our new study of this next week. I'm pretty far ahead so I know what we're doing, but I've also ordered the DVD of Nancy Leigh DeMoss teaching. She is my FAVORITE Bible teacher (move over, Beth Moore) :).

I'm in the chapter now about grace. Check out this snippet from day 2:

"By His grace God did for us what we could not do for ourselves: He gave us life for death and pardon for condemnation. At the cross, God satisfied His own vengeance, met His own demands of justice, extended mercy, and then added the surprise of His grace. Having punished sin, God forgave sinners; then He went on to adopt all who would believe, making them fellow heirs with His only Son. Such is the extravagant love and grace of God." p. 87 Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom

THIS IS THE GOSPEL. This is much more than "asking Jesus into your heart." Think about this!

Here's our scripture memory verse (let's see if I can remember it without looking!)

Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

(I got most of it, but switched a few words around. Better keep practicing!)

Great, great stuff here!

This movie was wonderful, but the soundtrack is just the best. It's been playing a lot around here lately!

I did 16 minutes of running today and 14 of walking uphill on the treadmill. I also lifted weights. 38 pounds to go!!

I love getting to dialogue with the cults. As I've mentioned, they seem to find me. Well, I was at the park today talking to an acquaintance of mine. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: So was that your mother-in-law [a devout Jehovah's Witness] I saw with you earlier?

Her: Yes.

Me: I think she's come to my door before to talk to me about stuff.

Her: Really? She'll actually talk to you?

Me: Yeah. She was very, very nice. I kinda like when they come to the door. I dated a JW in high school and he tried to convert me.

Her: Yes. She talks about it to me every chance she gets. I'll say something about some conflict I'm having and she'll pipe up and comment on how that was in the latest issue of the JW magazine. They have all this stuff they have to do. They get little rewards for completing so many door knocking presentations and stuff.

Me: You know, that's the difference between the cults like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism. Those religions are about what you do, but Christianity is about what Jesus has done, saving us by grace alone. And we're not weird if someone leaves our church. We've had a few people leave for various reasons, mostly because they didn't agree with some teachings, but I don't act weird with them. I'm still nice, our kids still play.

Her: But doesn't that offend you, when they leave?

Me: No. I mean, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.I can't force someone to see things my way.

It's true. If someone has not come to know Christ as Lord, to see him as beautiful and precious, I won't help them along in their journey of faith with my own witness if I'm a jerk to them if they disagree with me. I can speak the truth in love, that Jesus is our only hope for salvation by grace through faith so no one can boast. And then I can pray that the Holy Spirit will lift the veil from their eyes. That's it.

So this gal was brought up in church, but doesn't go anymore. She married a JW who isn't very active in the JW congregation. So I invited her to our Seeking Him study. It appears that it will coincide with her schedule, so I pray that she'll come.

Once the conversation moves toward religious things, it's easy for me to chat. It's getting it there that's hard.