Filed under: Cooking, Friends, FUN!, Hospitality, recipes, These are a few of my favorite things...
It’s been nice to be cooking again. I haven’t been gourmet; the meals have been simple. Instead of practicing entertaining, I’ve been practicing hospitality and you know what I don’t think anyone has noticed. It could, however, be a phenomenon of being around people who regularly eat caf food and think that anything homemade is spectacular or magical. Tonight, this is what was on the menu. I am going to use this again in the future. Simple but delicious.
Chipotle’s Basmati Rice Recipe
Here’s the recipe with some changes I made:
1 teaspoon butter 2 Tbs. fresh cilantro 1 cup white basmati rice 1 1/3 cup water 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 Lime
In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, heat butter over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Add rice and lime juice, stir for 1 minute. Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil. At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.
Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken
- 2 chicken breast frozen
- 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
- 15 oz can black beans
- 8 oz frozen corn
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste). I had to use 1/2 tsp of chili powder because I didn’t have cayenne on hand and because I didn’t know how my guests liked spice.
- salt to taste
.Filed under: Christian Living, Community, Cool Finds, Friends, FUN!, geography / travel, Home, Hospitality, role models, These are a few of my favorite things..., Travel
Okay, so I’m not staying at a Bed and Breakfast this week, but I am staying at a friend’s home at Mount Hermon. They are gone, but I am here. The hikes, the sleep, the quiet, the reading, the pinning, the video-watching, the outdoors, the indoors, and opportunities to hear myself think have been lovely. I haven’t slept as well since I don’t know when but definitely not since moving into the dorm. On campus there is continual life and noise. Even with the students gone there are fire alarms, car alarms, tennis players, knocks on the door, grounds crew people outside making noise, a crow flying into my window over and over in the morning to wake me up… I’m so thankful for the couple who see what God has given them as an opportunity to serve others and minister through hospitality. It makes me dream of someday being able to do the same. A retreat house up here would be nice because it’s only an hour away from the fam and because I am more of a mountain girl than a beach girl, but here they have the best of both worlds since the beach is only 30 minutes away :).
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- Love, love, love.
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- Wherever I live, I’d love to have a guest tree house like this :).
Filed under: Cool Finds, Friends, FUN!, Girly-Girl, Hospitality, My life, recipes, These are a few of my favorite things...
Missy’s Marinated Tomatoes - Delish and Not Too Shabby as Far as Nutrients vs. Junk
Chocolate and Raspberries – Love this combo. Don’t know if this counts as a recipe, but my girls ate these up. Making them again soon.
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls - I don’t make the frosting. I make my own cream cheese frosting (1 stick cream cheese, part of a stick of butter, and powdered sugar to taste). This last time I also spread some pumpkin on the dough with the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Pecan, Caramel, Pretzel Bites – Just got a request for this recipe. Once again, don’t know if this counts for a recipe, but they are a great trick to have up your sleeve and they are a great gluten-free snack or dessert if you buy gluten-free pretzels.
For a party tonight, I took the ingredients of my fridge, freezer, and pantry and made an apple crumble to go over ice cream. I didn’t taste it but someone called me a P.31 Woman. I think that means it was good, but it’s hard to tell with college students. They will eat just about anything. I mixed together four bags of cut up apples, 1/2 cup pumpkin, juice from one orange, sugar, and cinnamon. I placed that in a baking dish, poured one white dry cake mix over it, drizzled it with 1/2 cup melted butter, and baked until apples were cooked and topping was a toasty brown. Anything is better a-la-mode :).
Filed under: Christian Living, Discipleship, Hospitality, Lessons Learned, My life, work
I started this post on July 14th when I was thinking through RDing. Now I’m in the midst of it, but it is still true and I need the reminder. I don’t need to be a larger than life version of me and have it all together or be super animated or dynamic. I just need to be a Spirit-filled me. It’s not my wisdom or my might necessary to do this job. That would never be enough. I need the power that raised Christ from the dead that is at work in me. I just want to display what’s in this jar of clay, so that they can see the glory of Christ and worship Him. My strengths, sins, and quirks are different than other people’s who have been in this job, which means that being a Spirit-filled, faithful RD will look somewhat different for me than it did for those who came before or even from my coworkers in other dorms. It may look different today than it does tomorrow. I don’t have to have every girl over for dinner this semester, plan the greatest event known to mankind, or disciple every girl in my dorm. I need to be faithful with the opportunities and gifting the Lord has given me. That’s going to mean a lot of baking, a lot of ordinary moments with girls in my apartment, and a lot of living life before people. Here we go!
Filed under: Community, Cool Finds, Friends, FUN!, Hospitality, school days, These are a few of my favorite things..., tmc, work
Yesterday was WOW Saturday! So thankful for all the newbies that arrived yesterday and all the returners that will be coming.
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Filed under: Community, Cool Finds, Girly-Girl, Hospitality, role models, These are a few of my favorite things..., tmc
… to see all my RAs hard at work together preparing the dorm for the other student’s arrival. Wing decorations make such a difference. It turns barren hallways into lively homes. I’m so thankful for these girls’ creativity and service.
Filed under: Christian Living, Community, Cool Finds, Discipleship, Family, Friends, Good Advice, Gospel, Hospitality, Life, role models, These are a few of my favorite things...
God is faithful! That’s the message I came away with after spending an hour or two with my grandmother’s friends, Joan and Ted. That is the summary of their life stories.
How did they meet? God worked it out. Ted had wanted to be married for a long time. He would pray for a wife but he didn’t really have a social group with women in it. He cared for his mother until she died and worked at the post office. He met Joan by going on a few dates with her sister :). He got along with her sister, but they didn’t fit. Then he met Joan! He was 54 when they married and she was in her 40s. That was 32 years ago. Neither had been married before. “We’ve made up for it since,” he told me.
How did Ted end up working at the post office? He would have been happy doing anything. His father didn’t like working in a factory, but Ted wouldn’t have minded, but His cousin heard of a job opening at the post office. Two weeks later he was working there in a job he loved. He continued to work in the same place until he retired. They’ve now been retired for around 25 years. They said they have been enjoying life ever since. I tried to correct them and say “But you’ve spent your retirement serving too.” They corrected me by saying, “That’s a large part of enjoying retirement!”
They also talked about how they ended up getting into my grandmother’s retirement home. They never could have imagined being able to afford living there, but a realtor put the idea into their heads as they sold one house and bought another. They got on a wait list as they fixed up their house. When the retirement home called them one August saying they had an apartment available, they declined it. The home called again on Labor Day and Ted said yes. Their house went on the market September 11, 2001. Joan asked Ted, “Do you still think this is a good idea?” He said yes. Their house sold in 2 days to a descendant of the man who built the house. It sold for more than they asked and was paid for in cash. They doubled their money and moved into the village before the housing market crashed.
Joan and Ted spoke on how they couldn’t have imagined or planned a better fit than what God had in store at the retirement home. It combines their “love for old people, music, and service.” Joan is a part of the choral group there and she plays the piano for several chapel services. Ted is the resident helper/fix-it man. They take people to appointments and to the grocery store. My grandma even has them book her doctors appointments to make sure they are free. If the doctor calls her about an appointment, she has them call Joan. They help the different chaplains, including my grandfather, and the different residents over the years.
They talked about my grandma as a favorite of theirs. They told me that different residents respond differently to pain and old age. Many are crotchety, but it doesn’t matter how much pain my grandmother is in she doesn’t respond grumpily. They said that they will be in the E.R with her because she is doing poorly and even then they can laugh together at something that happens. What a sign of the Spirit at work! They talked bout what a joy it is to serve here. They aren’t just serving her though, they are serving all of us who love my grandmother and can’t be there. It’s nice to know someone is watching out for her and is available if she needs. We’ve adopted them. They are such an example of a life of service lived for God. They may not have children, but their lives as a faithful man and a faithful woman have led to many spiritual children. May I live a life worthy of the call of my Savior as they have.
Filed under: Community, Cool Finds, Girly-Girl, Good Advice, Hospitality, Lessons Learned, My life, tmc, work
My job entails some event planning. I’ve grown in it and I love it more now than I did in the beginning. Here are some things I’ve picked up over the last three school years.
- Bring a change of clothes with you.
- Think in terms of the 5 senses.
- Visualize the whole event from the viewpoint of the party goer. What they see when they enter, how they move around the room, progression of events, etc.
- Bring help. Ask for help.
- Use other people’s strengths.
- Soda ratio: 2/5 coke, 2/5 diet coke, 1/5 sprite, gingerale, or cactus cooler.
- Never buy fat-free half-and-half.
- Buy smaller cups for hot drinks. People fill the cup regardless of the size. The drinks go faster with the larger cups, but then inevitably an inch of liquid is left in the bottoms of the cups and the cups are left around the room.
- When you forget something, don’t panic; improvise. Whatever your solution is, it will make your event more personal and unique rather than cliché.
- Always bring the following: garbage bags, sharpies, paper, plastic baggies of all sizes, saran wrap, foil, duct tape, hospitality and service.
- Have a sense of humor and laugh at your mistakes. Look at them as an opportunity to receive grace from others.
- Don’t forget to enjoy/participate in the conversation and party.
Filed under: Community, Cool Finds, Discipline, Friends, FUN!, Gospel, Hospitality, My life, role models, These are a few of my favorite things..., tmc, work
So, so thankful for opportunities this week:
Monday: Time spent with coworkers who all happen to be dear, close friends (Who gets to say that?)
Tuesday Morning: Redemptive conversation with my boss (Who has a boss who knows them, knows their sin, loves them anyway, is willing to help them, and who cares about their faith, their walk, and their future?)
Tuesday Lunch: Keller Family lunch (Waiting to hear two little boys tap on the front office door is always the highlight of my Tuesday.)
Tuesday Afternoon: Hosted different people in the office. I really like this part of my job.
Tuesday Evening: Hanging with Esther. We had dinner in the caf with a student from her dorm and then ran errands together (Costco, Marshalls, TJMax). Once again, time filled with redemptive conversation and I also bought a beautiful purse. When you can do both of those things together it’s extra bonus points :).
Wednesday Afternoon: SLS Class on what it looks like to speak the truth in Love. (Once again who gets to do this as part of their job and who gets to work alongside coworkers and students who are passionate about this because they love Jesus? Who gets to be excited at an opportunity to hear their boss speak because what he says is true and helpful and because you’ve seen his life match what he is saying?)
Wednesday Evening: Women to Women was a joy. We had such neat girls. We had fun, lively, humorous, encouraging and redeeming conversations. It was so good to hear what Heidi, Kim, and Kaylin had to say. Heidi hung out after the girls left and I enjoyed chatting so much that now she’s gone, it’s late, and I’m typing this post :).
And there is more to look forward to:
Thursday lunch: with Betty Price
Friday lunch: with Jess Stucky
Friday night: Piano Extravaganza on campus starring one of my wonderful interns (Well starring might be a stretch, but she is the reason I am going).
Sunday: Potluck and a walk around the lake with friends.
Love it! Thanks, Lord, for delighting to give us good things and for orchestrating redeeming moments, conversations, and friendships. Thanks for being faithful even when we are faithless. Thanks for your sovereignty and that you work to change our hearts. Thanks for placing us exactly where we need to be when we need to be there and for preparing us beforehand for what you have in store.
Filed under: Community, Friends, FUN!, Girly-Girl, Hospitality, Student Comments, These are a few of my favorite things..., tmc, work
One of my dear, sweet RAs got engaged last weekend. I’ve known JP longer, because he was a summer intern in our office two years ago, but Noelle has become very dear to me this year. I’m rejoicing at this awesome pair becoming a permanent pair. They both love the Lord and want to please Him and I have no doubt that they will be able to do that together. At our leadership meeting this week in the dorm, we celebrated JP’s popping the question with pop, popcorn, popsicles, and pop’ems.