Showers of Blessings always seem to bring on the Storms!

Have you ever noticed how when there are blessings pouring down there are always storm clouds brewing? It seems to me that Satan is always ready to try and steal away our joy.

We had a fantastic day, today!  157 in church!  That is one of the best attendances we have had, and it wasn't a "special" day!  No meals served, no holiday, nothing!  Then after church we had our first Baptism Service using our baptistery, (unfinished though it may be! :-)  17 people were baptized this morning!!!  What an incredible blessing.  Right before the baptism, we had a couple stop us and tell us they had been working to get everything straighten out so they could get married and they were getting married this Friday!  They asked if Tony and I would come to the court house to be their witnesses.  In this culture we have so many people living in what they refer to as "Free Union", that it is a huge victory when they make the decision to get married. Right after church another couple told Tony that they were getting prepared and they wanted to be baptized the next time, we have a baptismal service!!

Yesterday, we had 30 ladies show up for our ladies meeting and 1 lady accepted Christ as her Savior after the meeting!  

So you say, WOW!!! what could possibly go wrong after 2 days full of blessings?!?!?!

This evening we went back to church for an organizational meeting for our VBS.   When everyone broke up into their small groups to go over some things, I went down stairs to check on the kids.  One of our sweet ladies was down there, and she wanted to talk to me.  Then she started crying...Well, you don't need to know all the details of our conversation, but it boils down to another lady in the church, allowing herself to be Satan's instrument to tear down and try to hurt another.   After we got home, I sent the kids upstairs to play so Tony and I could talk.  First thing Tony said, was, well, we've had a great day, so Satan is trying to steal our joy!

Well, it's not going to happen!   Yes, we will have to deal with the situation, but this has been an incredible day of victory and blessing, and I am going to bask in it just a little bit more! :-)

So I invite you to bask in it with me!  Praise the Lord with us for all of these blessings.  Pray with us for wisdom to gently guide and council those the Lord places in our care.  Pray for a great VBS this week, too!  It will be Wednesday-Sunday.

Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Joy

 Here's a picture of the 17 people that were baptized this morning with Tony.

Valentine's Dinner Menu

I did a fancy 4 course dinner...It was a lot of fun! 

Course #1- simple green salad served with Italian Herb bread

Course #2- Strawberry gelatin fruit cup

Course #3- Chicken Alfredo

Recipe adapted from Todd Wilbur's book, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. 

1/2 cup butter/margarine
2 cups of evaporated milk
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 12 oz package of fettuccine pasta
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 a chicken breast, cooked and shredded
4 slices of bacon chopped

Put water on to boil for Pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the evaporated milk, garlic powder, and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.  While sauce is simmering, cook the chopped bacon.  When bacon is cooked add shredded chicken breast and saute until chicken is heated through.   Add chicken and bacon to sauce, along with Parmesan cheese.  When ready to serve pour sauce over cooked pasta.  Garnish with a little more Parmesan cheese.  

Course #4- Strawberry Cordial Pie


This recipe comes from the website of a local Knoxville, Tennessee television station.  www.wbir.com

Crust-
1/2 cup margarine-softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix will, and press into a 9 inch pie plate.  Bake 10 to 15 minutes at 400F.  Cool.
(Special note:  Next time I will cut the amount down, as I personally thought the crust was a little bit too thick.)

Filling: 
1 package of Chocolate Chips, (I used 2 cups).
1/2 Cup of milk

Place in a microwave safe mixing bowl, and melt, stirring every minute or so, until smooth.   Pour into crust.  Chill 1 hour or more.  

Top with Sliced strawberries

(Tony was wondering where I put his fork! LOL!!)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

We are on "School Break" this week.  We finished up our first semester last week!  I can't tell you what a great feeling that was!   Everyone was more than ready for a break, too, so this all worked out great! :-)

Our first day off, has been pretty laid back.  I have been working on getting things ready for a special Valentine's dinner tonight.  Actually it was going to be a special lunch, but I got a little behind, and Teddy has tennis class from 3 to 4, so we just decided it would work out better to make it a dinner.

We are having Chicken Alfredo with salad, homemade Italian Herb bread, strawberry jello salad, and "Strawberry Cordial Pie".  (recipes will follow in another post, for those of you interested. :-)

On Saturday, the kids made valentines for each other and for Tony and I.   They also decorated lunch bags, for "mail boxes".  I also found a lot of ideas for valentines on FamilyFun.com, and I made several different things to stick in their bags.  One of the neat things I found, was "coupons and checks", which I printed out and put together in a little book for each of them.   I never went quite this far when Mandie, Ashley and Lexi were little.  We would usually have a special dinner or breakfast, and cards and a little gift for each other.   They always had a Valentine's Party at school, so there really wasn't any reason to do all of that at home.  This year, I decided, since Teddy, Carla and Matthew, have never had a Valentine's Party at school, we would try to do something kind of like that at home, along with our special dinner.   Thus, the "mail boxes" and the little "valentines" for everyone.

Well, it's time to go finish up dinner and get things moving.  I hope each of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

God Bless!
Joy 

What's cooking around here?

We usually always make cookies around the holidays. In recent years I have been just making cut-out sugar cookies, that Teddy enjoyed decorating. This year, with homeschooling 3 kids and just trying to keep us all on track, I haven't really had time for much baking or much of anything "extra".

The other day, when I was cleaning out some stuff, I came across my cookie press. I haven't used it in a long time. I was talking to my Mom, who mentioned using her cookie press and how much easier it was, so I thought I would give it a try. I also remembered that years ago, my Mom used to make "jello cookies" with her cookie press. So I got on-line and I found this recipe at the Kraft website, yesterday.

This afternoon, while the kids were in the pool, I went in the kitchen and baked some cookies. They came out so good and were really pretty easy. I think I will definitely be using my cookie press more often! :-)

"Jello" cookies

31/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 1/2 Cups butter or margarine
1 Cup of sugar
2 3oz. packages of jello, (same flavor)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat until creamy, the butter, sugar and egg. Add 1 package of jello and vanilla and beat well. Slowly add the flour and beat until well mixed. (Can mix by hand. I have a Kitchen Aid and use it for everything! ;-)

Fill your cookie press and press out whatever design you want on to greased cookie sheets. They don't spread very much, so you can place them pretty close together. Sprinkle with the other box of dry "jello". Bake in a hot oven, 400F, for 5 to 6 minutes. Check, you might need to bake them a minute or 2 more, but watch them close because they can burn fast. I lost 1 1/2 pans today.

Special note: Instead of using a 2nd box of gelatin, I sprinkled my cookies with pink sugar. ;-) Also today, for our heart shaped cookies, I used Cherry gelatin. If you don't have a cookie press, you can let the cookie dough chill a little bit, and then form into balls and press with a fork, (like for peanut butter cookies) or with a glass. The recipe on the Kraft website said to bake them 6 to 8 minutes, but the one pan I left in there 8 minutes is the one I burned.