Monday, August 30, 2010

Listen to your Heart?

Pop stars sing it. Oprah preaches it. T-shirts tout it.

"Listen Your Heart"

Not only do I see it all around me, I used to believe it.

There is a pervasive thought in the Christian community that the heart is the bearer of truth. Where the heart and God's Word diverge, the heart has the final say. Scripture points us to a very different view of things, however.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." ~Proverbs 4:23

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need guarding?

"Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path." ~Proverbs 23:19

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need guiding?

"O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?" ~Jeremiah 4: 14

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need saving?

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" ~Jeremiah 17:9

If the heart is sovereign, why does it deceive us?

"The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." ~Acts 16:14

If the heart is sovereign, why must the Lord open it?

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." ~Ezekiel 36:26-27

If the heart is sovereign, why must the Lord transform it?

Perhaps the root of my confusion and that off many other well-meaning Christians is the nature of the Holy Spirit. Are the Holy Spirit and the heart one in the same? The world would say yes, but Scripture says no. In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of God's anointing power. "He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (v. 22). The language demonstrates that while the Holy Spirit may come to rest in the heart, it is not equal to the heart.

If the Holy Spirit is not the heart, what is it? We know that Jesus himself promised it to those who love him. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16). This oft-quoted verse has a qualification, however. Jesus first states, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (v. 15). When we obey the commands of the Lord Jesus as they are given to us in scripture, his Holy Spirit will transform our minds and HEARTS into his likeness.

Here is what I picture in my mind as I describe the Holy Spirit. When we obey God, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, but when we willfully disobey the commands of our Lord, there is no room for the Spirit to live there. The noise of sin crowds it out until we can no longer distinguish between the voice of our frail human heart and the voice of God's own Spirit. Eventually, we cannot hear God's voice at all.

My heart breaks for those who believe their own heart can save them, and it breaks because I know that pain. There was a point in my life when I was in the midst of an intense spiritual battle. The world told me to let my heart be my guide, that if it feels right, it must be! But what I felt was sinful, plain and simple. I cannot thank God enough for delivering me from my own heart. He mended it and sealed it with his Holy Spirit, and I have never been the same.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

How I make my shopping list

Each Sunday afternoon, I sit down with the newspaper, scissors, a calculator, my price book, and the computer. I clip coupons and sort them into my coupon file box. Then I visit http://hip2save.com/. I simply copy and paste the deals that apply to me into a Word document. I used to just list the item I wanted to buy, but this can get confusing when multiple coupons/rebates are employed. For items I regularly buy without coupons, I just list the product. I will fore go trips to some stores this week. Other stores do not release their ad until tomorrow, so I will pick those ads up at school tomorrow in the paper that is delivered to the teacher's lounge. The question of when to actually go shopping is a tricky one. Last week I went after school on Monday, but that means not getting home until late (in my neck of the woods you have to drive to get anywhere!!!). Sometimes I go on Wednesdays after church, but church ends at 7 and some of the stores close at 8, which doesn't leave me much time. When I go on Saturdays, the stores are often out of the products I want. Still, I can get rainchecks and buy the missing products the next time I visit the store.

Here is my shopping list for this week (so far). I am excited to get lots of free items at Walgreen's.



Saturday, August 28, 2010

Date Night!

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Seth and I enjoyed a fun date night after school yesterday. It was a much-needed time to talk, flirt, and laugh together. First, we went to My Jalapeno, a Mexican restaurant nearby. We had only been there once before and were very impressed. My favorite Mexican food is the chimichanga, so I thought I would try it there. I was not disappointed! Our next stop was Dairy Queen where I tried the mocha chip Blizzard. Oh my goodness, I found my new favorite Blizzard flavor! It was truly amazing! After going home to change clothes, we went out to the park, took silly photos, and walked the trails. As we walked, Seth, who is a former boy scout, began to name the various trees and tell me all about their identifying characteristics. Each time he mentioned a tree's name, I would start singing a folk song containing the name of that tree.

Oh sister Phoebe how merry we were, the night we sat under the Juniper Tree...

I see the moon, the moon sees me, down through the leaves of the old Oak Tree...

See the little Birch in the meadow...

Let us chase the squirrel, up the hickory down the hickory...

Apple tree, apple tree, will your apples fall on me...

I could go on and on. As an elementary music teacher who is the daughter of a music teacher, I am a human jukebox. What can I say? Being hyped up on caffeine, I thought this was HILARIOUS!

Finally, I fell asleep on the couch 10 minutes into Sherlock Holmes. We will try to watch this again tonight...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

August Grocery Challenge Results

It has been exactly four weeks today since I started my August Grocery Challenge, and I am excited to share the results with you this evening. My goal was to spend no more than $100.00 for groceries. Drum roll please.............

WE DID IT!!!!!

We spent a total of $96.99 and came out with $3.01 left!

You can check out the post detailing all of my expenditures here. The only things I had to put back on the shelf as a result of my experiment were frozen dinners, soda, and coffee creamer. These things are certainly not necessities and don't provide real nutritional value; therefore, we were not deprived. Still, I will probably purchase those things this weekend. My husband has suggested that we just give up soda altogether, but I don't know that I'm ready to take that step. I grew up in a pop-addicted household and have never been able to kick the habit.

Not only did we not deprive ourselves, I would say that we ate very well. You can see some of the meals we enjoyed here and here.

It is a comfort to me to know that WE CAN DO THIS when we really put our minds to it. Next month's challenge...$50.00...JUST KIDDING!!!!! I think that averaging $125 will work well for us in future months, as I want to be flexible enough to take advantage of great deals when they come along.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Granola

I very rarely buy cold breakfast cereal for two reasons. 1) You guessed it, it's just too darn expensive per ounce; 2) It doesn't fill me up, leaving me starving a half hour after eating it. As a result, I have come up with some breakfast alternatives that I consider superior in cost and quality.

One of those alternatives is granola. In this post I would like to share my recipe, which I collected from the book Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy. I usually make a double batch and it lasts a long time.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. concentrated apple juice from frozen concentrate (I just use apple sauce, which is a more versatile ingredient, and it tastes fine).
1/2 c. nonfat dry milk
1/3 c. honey
5 c. quick-cooking oats (the regular kind work fine, too)
2 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. dried fruit (I have tried raisins and cranberries)
1/2 c. nuts (I have tried peanuts, pecans, and almonds)

*The last 2 ingredients definitely up the price of this cereal. I find peanuts and raisins to be the most affordable, but sometimes I leave the fruit and nuts out altogether if I don't have any on hand. It still tastes good without, especially over yogurt.

Process:


"Mix sugar, juice, dry milk, and honey in saucepan and heat over medium heat only until sugar dissolves. Combine dry ingredients and fruit in mixing bowl. Pour sugar mixture slowly over dry mixture and blend well. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes." (My oven runs hot, so I turn the oven down a little and stir every 5-7 minutes.)

"Options: Be creative by adding peanuts, sunflower seeds, coconut, sesame seeds, peanut butter, or whatever else your family enjoys."

"Cost analysis (1 pound):
Homemade = $1.50
Store-bought = $3.29"

Here it is fresh out of the oven. Yum!!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

What's Most Important

As a new school year looms on the horizon, I am striving to keep my life in perspective. Being a young wife with no children, I have naturally let teaching consume me these past few years. Some would say that is a good thing, to give your life for the worthy pursuit of education, but as I sense myself growing from young adulthood into true womanhood, I disagree. This summer, my mind and my heart have been consumed with making a home, and I have felt such peace.

This year I long to keep my profession in its proper place. A friend once said to me, "Teaching is your identity!" I thought long and hard about that, and it brought me to my knees. "God, forgive me!" I cried. I want my identity to be found in Christ. I am a child of the King FIRST, then a wife, THEN a teacher. It is a part, not the whole! I will work hard to teach and reach my students, don't get me wrong. Yet I purpose this school year to put my husband and my home first. Life begins and ends with family!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Squeezing some fun from the last days of summer

This has really been a difficult summer. Between grieving my grandmother's death, taking a taxing (but wonderful) course at IU, and working a job at the local amusement park, I have truly been in a fog for the past couple of months. Now that it's August and almost time to go back to school, I feel like I am emerging from my stupor, only to ask myself, "What happened to summer???"

Yesterday afternoon was my last day of work at Holiday World. Since I got off at 2:00, I decided that Seth and I would have time to take advantage of the LAST DAY of my employee pass. I get
in free, and Seth was able to use one of my comp. tickets earned by working each week. We
started out in the water park, which was great fun! In addition to enjoying a few familiar slides from a trip two years ago, we got to try one new (to us) slide. It was a nice long slide, dark the whole way, with lots of twists and turns.

After leaving the water park, we had a wonderful pizza dinner (40% off with my ID), and then we tackled the roller coasters. First was the Voyage! Now I have worked in the Voyage Gift Shop all summer, but I haven't ridden the ride in two years. When guests have asked me what it's like, I have had to answer in generalities because I didn't remember. Wow, it was rough! That first drop with exhilarating, but the rest of the ride was pretty painful. My favorite of the three coasters was actually the Raven. Even though it was short, it was smooth and absolutely
delightful! At one point, the track swerves and it looks like the car is headed right into the lake!
Before we left, we had some yummy ice cream. It was a great date!

Today was another awesome summer day because Linda came to visit! She was my cooperating teacher for my student teaching experience and remains my mentor and my dear friend. The picture below is from those 3 + years ago during student teaching. I cannot seem to find a more recent picture!

Let me tell you about our day. First, we visited while I fixed lunch. On the menu was grilled chicken salad with pasta salad on the side. I used food I already had in the refrigerator and freezer, and it turned out to be light and tasty. Next, we "took the town." Our first stop was to my eye doctor to pick up my new glasses! I like them a lot, and they have the advantage of being lighter weight than my older
ones.

The next stop was to the Scrapbooking store. Linda is very involved with scrapbooking and always enjoys hitting the stores whenever she travels. I used to be quite involved with it as well but haven't created much for a couple of years. Still, I found some fun papers and die-cuts to use for framing or card making! I even found a cute owl die cut!


Next, we enjoyed waffle bowl sundaes at Dairy Queen, which just about put us both in a chocolate coma! Because we had decided to see a movie and still had some time before the show, we took a short walk along the river near the new mill/visitor's center. It was such a lovely afternoon--not too hot with a nice breeze.

A few minutes later we were at the movie theater to see Beezus and Ramona! Both of us had wanted to see that movie but didn't know who we would take with us (not a "must-see" for either of our husbands). What a perfect activity for our ladies' day! Although I had to go and remind the movie-theater people that they needed to start the show (how pitiful is that?!), the movie was absolutely charming and refreshing. The "film" Ramona was exactly as I would have pictured her to be from reading the books as a little girl. The writers did a fabulous job of capturing the imagination of such a creative little girl. At one point, when Ramona "runs away," she is pictured walking down the sidewalk away from her house. Gradually cartoonish scenes from all over the United States appear in the background--the Statue of Liberty, etc. Even though Ramona has only made it one block, she might as well be a world away. I would highly recommend this movie to those with children or to anyone who is a kid at heart looking for wholesome entertainment.

Our last stop was a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite locally-owned restaurants. Even though Linda and I weren't very hungry, we enjoyed a couple of appetizers and had a lovely visit. We covered a lot of ground in our conversations; we cried together and laughed together! What a fabulous end to a difficult summer. Thank God for good friends!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

August Grocery Challenge

After bragging to several people over the summer about our grocery budget, I got a healthy dose of humility when I added up my grocery receipts for July. Instead of being disciplined and recording my expenditures every week, I assumed I was doing fine and just recorded at the end. Instead of spending $150, we spent $234.38! This month, I am determined to stay at (or under - ha) $100. I believe it will help to hold myself accountable here. Now, I realize that spending money on food is FINE, and we are way under what we could be spending. Nevertheless, I want to know how little we can really spend on food and still eat a tasty, well-balanced diet.
Here is what I have spent so far:

July 31 - IGA
  • 2 loaves sandwich bread - $1.98
August 2 - Walmart
  • Block of cheese, 2.77 lb. of nectarines, 1 lb. dried northern beans, light sour cream - $8.31
August 2 - Save a Lot
  • Unsalted butter, 34.5 oz. coffee, 2 8-oz blocks cream cheese (Seth wants a cheesecake), bag of flour, 1.36 lb. fresh tomatoes, 24 oz. bottle of ketchup, 1 lb. bag lentils, head of lettuce, package of bologna, 2 12-oz bags shredded cheese, 3 lb. yellow onions, 2 gallons orange juice, 1 canister quick oats, 1 package turkey franks - $30.97
August 3 - IGA (New ad + I was already right next door at my eye appointment)
  • 2 half-gallons milk, 1 dozen large eggs, 1 canister of Parmesan cheese, 4 packages of hot dog buns (I freeze these, and when we have pasta dishes I split them spread them with garlic butter and bake them--great bread sticks!!!), 7 lb. whole Boston Pork Butt, 8 1/2 lb. chicken legs and thighs (Pilgrim's Pride...no hormones or antibiotics), 1 package bologna (for freezer...it was only 37 cents after coupon)- $22.10
August 3 - Mor For Less
  • 3 lb. ground beef - $4.40

My total so far is $67.76, so I have $32.24 to spend. I know it's early in the month, but if you could see my freezer(s) and pantry, you would surmise that pretty much all I will have to buy for the rest of the month is bread, milk, orange juice, yogurt, cheese and some fresh fruit. We have fresh veggies from the garden, so no need to buy those! And we could make the bread-YUM!

Update:

August 8 - Mor For Less
  • 2 loaves bread - $2.18
August 9 - Walmart
  • 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 2 cans tomato paste, huge canister of peanuts, applesauce - $8.10
August 9 - Save a Lot
  • bananas, graham crackers, 1 gallon orange juice, 48 oz. tub margarine - $8.08
New Total: $86.12
Left to Spend: $13.88

Update:

August 12 - Wesselman's
  • 2 dozen medium eggs - $1.18
August 18 - Mor 4 Less
  • 2 loaves bread - $2.18
New Total: $89.48
Left to Spend: $10.52

Update:

August 23 - Walgreen's
  • Smucker's Strawberry Jam 32 oz, 2 boxes Frosted Mini Wheats, $1.19 (I had $6 in register rewards and several coupons)
August 23 - Walmart
  • 16 oz. frozen peas, 16 oz. frozen green beans (garden has not been doing well), 32 oz. yogurt, 2 lb. fresh plums - $5.94
August 23 - CVS
  • 1 box Wheat Thins, 2 gallons milk - $.38 (I had $4 ECB and coupons)
New Total:$96.99
Left to Spend: $3.01

All that is left to buy before the end of the month is probably 1 loaf of bread. Yahooooooo!


Monday, August 2, 2010

Meal Plan Monday

Two weeks have passed way too fast, and I now I find myself writing my next two-week meal plan. My last plan was a success, although I found that we ended up having so many leftovers that we didn't even get around to making all the meals. I probably planned too much again, but I don't want to run out of ideas. Here are our meals for the next two weeks:

Breakfast:
  • Boiled eggs and toast
  • Hot cereal
  • Oatmeal pancakes and yogurt
  • Homemade granola
  • Blueberry muffins
  • Biscuits and Gravy
*I almost bought some Cheerios today while shopping and ended up putting them back. Cold cereal is such a rip off and it lasts me all of 30 minutes before I'm hungry again!

Lunch:
  • Tuna salad sandwiches
  • PBJ sandwiches
  • Tomato sandwiches
  • Grilled cheese and tomato soup
  • Egg salad sandwiches
  • Lunch meat sandwiches
  • Supper leftovers
*Sandwiches served with chips/popcorn and fruit and sometimes a carrot.

Supper:
  • Chicken fajita quesadillas
  • Crockpot goulash
  • Baked potato bar
  • Low fat hot dogs, mac 'n' cheese, and veggies
  • BBQ pork ribs, grilled squash, corn on the cob
  • Spaghetti
  • Peanut chicken
  • Veggie/rice stir fry
  • Leftover nights

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

~John 1:14