Taking a Blogging Break

I think I will be taking a bit of a blogging break. Part of it is I am busy and part of it is I just don't feel like blogging right now. I have some ideas of what I want to blog about but haven't had the time to sit down and blog. So during the next few days to a week I will see if I have time to blog - if so I will try to get some things written up and begin blogging. I hope you all are doing well. See you soon. :O)

It was a great Thanksgiving and more

I hope you have all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Mine was really pretty nice. We had two thanksgiving dinners to go to. It was great to see so much of our family on one day. Sadly my husband was up at 1:10am on Thanksgiving throwing up and so he did not go to either meal. He has a Dr appointment set up for next Monday. We are hoping that some tests can be run and that they can figure out what is going on with him.

My birthday was on Sabbath and the weather was beautiful! My best friend meant me at my favorite park to walk and we walked 5 3/4 miles! We had a great visit! I also got to see a guy that I hadn't seen since 2nd grade. He was in the area visiting his sister.

At Sabbath School we talked a little about Inspiration and what all it takes to be inspired and I look forward to sharing some of the ideas with you. It was really enlightening!

I can't wait to get a chance to be able to sit down and get some blog posts written up. See ya soon :O)

Some Help Along the Way series...Olive Spread

Olive Spread 

1 1/2 c. walnuts, raw

1 c. sunflower seeds raw

1- 6 ounce can of black olives

1 stalk of celery, diced 

1 small onion, chopped 

1 - 1 1/2 cup of Cucumber Dressing or Dee's Cashew Sunflower Mayo (probably could use the other mayo as well..) Or regular mayo if need be. 

Grind up walnuts and sunflower seeds separetly in a food processor until very fine. Put into a mixing bowl and add chopped olives, celery, and onions. Stir together well and then add Dressing or mayo. Refrigerate. 

~Real Food Recipes by Jurea L. Dawson

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a little note to say Happy Thanksgiving! 

“Thanksgiving isn’t a day, it’s a lifestyle”

I have a few extra things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day. Yesterday I found out that I have insurance again. And I was able to get a call into my oncologist - I didn't get a call back till after 6pm but I do have an appointment with my oncologist in December! I had really thought I would have to wait until Monday to hear back from them, but thankfully I got the call and have that on the schedule. Praise the Lord for working that out! :o) 

The First, Second, and Third Works of The Holy Spriti

Today I wanted to share a great quote with you from the book I am reading currently. It is a quote talking about the work of the Holy Spirit. This author just has a wonderful way of explaining things that makes it so much easier to understand. I hope you are blessed by it as I was!

"The first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin (see John 16), and the second work of the Holy Spirit is conversion (see John 3). No on can even see the kingdom of God, unless he is born again.
The third work of the Holy Spirit is cleansing the Christian's life (see Romans 8). Unfortunately, while many Christians have responded to the first and second works(conviction and conversion), few allow the Spirit to complete His third work of cleansing their lives. Only when we see the importance of an ongoing, daily relationship with Christ can the Spirit change us into His image. And, it's under this third work of the Holy Spirit that the often-quoted "fruits of the Spirit" are developed: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. (see Galatians 5:22,23). Included in this work is the "filling of the Spirit." It's a gradual process, such as filling up a cup or a vessel. It doesn't happen instantly. It's a growth process that takes place over time."

~Morris Venden in his book "The Last Trolley Out" pg. 109-110

The First of Many Food Pantry Days

As promised - a post to tell you about how our Food Pantry went.
I was pleasantly surprised that about 75 volunteers showed up to help!

Even for our meeting that we had several day ahead of time that a representative from the Food bank had been amazed at how many people showed up just to learn about what to expect. I don't think he had ever seen that big of a crowd of people show up for the pre-meeting. 

Anyway on to Sabbath afternoon. At 12:45 is when we were to meet at the parking lot. Not in photo - to the right there is another section of parking - so we have plenty of parking for our guests. 

Down the middle were pallets of all sorts of food. Here is a list of food that we had - I may not have a complete list - I am going by what I remember: 

milk

chicken

potatoes

broccoli 

carrots 

cucumbers

honey dew

oranges 

grapefruit

grapes

limes

We were told the number of items per bag- so we began bagging up the produce - so as an example of what we did - we bagged up 4 large crowns of broccoli. It would depend of how large the family was as to if they got one or two bags. 

I was very happy to see that they had been able to get some donated grocery baskets- so that the families going through the line could put their stuff into the basket and then the items could easily be taken to their vehicles. 

I heard through the grapevine that about 200 people were feed by our food pantry. When you fill out paper work - you tell how many people are in your family and so I am thinking they were going by the total amount of people when figuring the number. 

It went surprisingly smooth. 

The Pastor in charge of this event had done his homework for sure. He had visited several other food pantries in the area to learn the best ways to do things. And it showed by how smoothly things went.

Oh and I got a tee shirt- I was so surprised!!  

Here is a view from above of our food pantry. 

We were blessed with fabulous weather on Sabbath. Thankfully the COLD weather didn't show up till Sunday. And as I was out running errands on Sunday - I was so very thankful for the temperatures that were in the upper 60's and lower 70's. It made for a very pleasant day! I pray that December's Food Pantry day will be a pleasant day as well for both the volunteers and our guests! :O) 

Ways to Save...Phone Calls are Beneficial even to the bottom line

Today I wanted to share something that happened today actually. It was that time again to order checks. On my checks - when I get to the last book of checks there is a form that directs me to where to order my checks. When I went to that site - it directed me to like a page that I wasn't familiar with. And it was having me type in more information than usual. I also noticed that the price of the checks was quite a bit more than I had paid last time I had ordered checks. So many things were different. I totally backed out and tried it again - thinking maybe I had done something wrong. At the very end they were going to charge almost double from the amount as last time I ordered. And that didn't seem right.

I decided that I needed to call the phone number on the reorder form and see what I could find out. When the lady finished giving her little speech and asked for my name- I said well I have some questions first. I proceeded to ask her why the pricing had almost doubled from last time and why was I having to give some much information than what I had previously had to give them. She told me that my bank had had a contract with that company but no longer did. By having the contract the pricing of the checks is much cheaper for the customers. I told her that I would need to look around because I was not planning to pay that much for my checks.

I then decided that I needed to call my bank and ask them about it and check and see if maybe they had a contract with a new company and maybe I could get a much better deal than what the other company charged. Come to find out they did have a new company and she would take care of ordering my first set of check - which by the way were free! And if I understood her correctly - 2 sets of checks per year would be free!! So instead of paying the $35.00 - I will get my checks for free.

It is important to make a few phone calls sometimes. It just might save us some money!! I am praising God for giving me the insight to make the phone calls and not just move forward with ordering the checks. It saved me money!!!

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Come back tomorrow where I will share a little about the first Food Panty event for our small town! :O)

Sabbath Praise

I know we all have struggles in our lives, but remember~ it's only the world we are living in!

Hands and Feet of Jesus

I am in the process of transferring my church membership. But that doesn't mean I can get involved with ministries at the new church. It's pretty exciting this coming Sabbath our church will have its first food pantry for our community! Last night was a training meeting.

There are a couple of ways to get the food from the food bank. If the amount of families is - I think less than a hundred then you order food and you are responsible to go pick the food up. However, if you are serving more than 100 families the food bank has trucks that deviled the food on pallets. And Sabbath at about noon area a truck will come out to our church and drop off pallets of food!

The pastor who is in charge of this food pantry has went to several other food pantries in the area to see how they set up the food pantry and all. So first I need to describe the area we will have the food bank. We have a parking lot that has 3 sections. The truck will drop the pallets off to one of the sections of the parking lot in a row. On either side of these pallets will be tables. And the food will be put on the tables for those coming to get food. So we will have 2 lines going at one time.

The person that came out for the food bank to do the training was surprised at the number of people who came out for the meeting last night. It was freezing cold and I know I wanted to stay home but I'm so glad I went. I was blessed by attending this meeting. I learned a lot. And I look forward to what all the Lord has in store for this ministry. There are a lot of people in our community who need assistance and I'm so thankful that our church is stepping up to serve the community. It's just one of the ways that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus! Don't underestimate what He can do when we follow His example!!

I will try to post something either Sabbath evening or on Sunday of how the day went. Please be praying for this event. It's the very first time for us to do this and we have a lot of food coming. Pray that things go smoothly and that many families will be blessed!

Some Help Along the Way...series

Cucumber Dressing 

1 c. sunflower seeds or raw cashews

1 large cucumber, peeled

2 lemons squeezed or 1/2 c. lemon juice 

1/4 c. honey 

1 tsp. salt 

1 tsp. onion powder

1 c. water 

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate to chill. 

Note: Cucumber dressing will last about a week in the refrigerator; it can also be frozen. 

Use only raw sunflower seed. Cucumber dressing comes out creamer in the Vita-mix blender. 

~Real Food Recipes by Jurea L. Dawson

More Prayers Appriecated

Just wanted to check in and ask for continued prayers about my insurance situation. Four and a half years ago when I found out that I would be having to see my oncologist ever 3 months for the first 3 years and then every 6 months for the next 2 years- would I have ever guessed that I would be sad when I had to call and cancel an appointment. At that time I would have thought it awesome to be able to cancel the appointment. But today I had to call and see about rescheduling the appointment and I felt sad. I have had a sadness about it off and on for the past week or so -ever since I figured out I did not have insurance. Part of it, I think, is the fact that I feel like I am trying to get sick. Headache and just not feeling that good. I am doing all I can to keep from getting sick thought.

My husband called the insurance again and he is suppose to fax in some paperwork and then we are hoping that they will reinstate my insurance. But it is a wait and see process. I am hoping to be able to post pone my oncology appointment - hoping to set it for December since we have some deductibles met for this year and it will be much cheaper on us if I can get in before the end of the year. So please pray that I can get that worked out. And also that I will not get sick. I have an appointment to take my MIL to this week. I also have a Training meeting for our group at the church that will be starting a Food Pantry - meeting is Tuesday night. And then our first time to hand out food will be Sabbath November 17th. And I want to be well and be able to help out. I sure appreciate the prayers.

My Best Deal

Sunday morning I went to one of my favorite little thrift stores. I noticed a large mailing envelope - like what you could mail out a think book in- cut in half with a lot of different fabric in it. I didn't pull everything out but the few fabrics that I felt  - felt like they were of good quilting quality. 

When I found out that the price for the fabric was only $2.00 - I was thrilled. What a great deal!! 

When I got home and started going through the fabrics - I found out that included in the envelope were 8 fat quarters that all went together!!! 

Before my quilt shop closed down - I believe the fat quarters were running about 3.00 for a fat quarter! In the first photo - there are different sized pieces - like 1/4th - 3/4 yard pieces. There were a few strips of fabric that run about 6 inches wide. Lots of great fabric! What a great way to add to my fabric stash. Plus one day I can make a quilt for a little boy with these fabulous car fat quarters!!!

All for only $2.00 ~ What a deal!!!! :O)

Some Help Along the Way series...Mayo

When trying to get away from using dairy -finding a substitute for Mayo is important. Here are a few recipes found in this cookbook for Mayo. I have not made mayo yet - because the need has not come up. I usually make deviled eggs for our family holidays - I need to make up some mayo test it out to see if one of these recipes would work well in my deviled eggs. It would be awesome if I could use one of these recipes and they end up tasting close to how they taste with Mayo- I don't want to disappoint any of my family members. I will probably test this out before Thanksgiving to see what I need to plan for. I will let you know what I end up doing. 



Dee's Cashew Sunflower Mayo 

2 c. cashews

1/2 c. sunflower seeds

1 c. lemon juice 

1 c. honey 

1 med onion, peeled

1 T. salt 

1 c. water

Put all ingredients into a blender, blend for 8-10 minutes or until smooth. (A Vita-Mix blender works best for this recipe) Refrigerate to set. The mayo can also be frozen. 

Here is another recipe for mayo from same cookbook. 

Tofu Mayo 

1 lb. extra firm tofu 

1/4 c. lemon juice

3 T. honey 

1 tsp. onion powder 

1 tsp. salt 

Mash tofu and put into the blender; add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Refrigerate. 

One more I want to share because it looks so yummy. 

~Real Food Recipes by Jurea L. Dawson