Lost in translation

Hubs pointed out to his mom that she had spent a very significant amount of money in only a week's time.

She said "oh, I'll cut way back now".

So she just stopped spending out of that account and started spending out of her other account.

Huh???

No rhyme or reason to this now, I think...

The part I hate is how she spent so much money on stuff she couldn't even use and didn't even need, and couldn't even send hubs a card for his birthday. Trying to be understanding and knowing that she isn't well upstairs...but it still stings. Oh well, distance does help...and I will keep praying for her in spite of all the madness...

Bumper Stickers

Often I think about what I would like for a bumper sticker on my car. Then again, having a bumper sticker would mean that I would have to present myself as actually believing what is on the sticker. ;-) This gives me pause, thinking about whether I'm being a good example to the world about who I am and what I believe and live for. I saw one I liked today...

"Lord, show me the way."

I'm gonna post more things I wouldn't mind having for a bumper sticker as I think of them.

Even more apronage

...and apronage STILL isn't a word.

This one is presently winging its way to my swap sistah. ;-)

Tonight's Pot Luck Food...

The "Not-sagna" from Rachael Ray's Express Lane Cookbook. Can't really even stand to watch 30 Minute Meals but the Express Lane Cookbook is pretty decent.

Some lovely italian foccacia from the market, with halved little red and yellow tomatoes baked into it. Looks fab.

Chile Relleno Casserole : Not exactly health food, but people like it. I usually use cut up poblano peppers from the market, or you can use the green chiles in the can (they aren't hot, and usually anyone will eat it without complaint)--

INGREDIENTS
1 pound lean ground beef (I like 93/7 that I get on sale, and sometimes mix it with those soy crumbles, shh, don't tell anyone.
1 onion, chopped
2 (4 ounce) cans whole green chile peppers, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided (I use that 2% cheese)
4 eggs (usually use 1 egg and six whites to cut down on fat/cholesterol)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, combine the ground beef and onions and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, or until browned; drain excess fat.
Arrange 1 can of the chile peppers on the bottom of a 7x11 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese and top with the meat mixture. Sprinkle the meat mixture with the remaining cheese, followed by the next can of chile peppers.
In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, flour and milk, whisking until smooth. Pour this into the baking dish over the chile peppers. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool for about 5 minutes before cutting

Some veggies...

Searchin' for protein...

I've been looking for high protein breakfast bar recipes that don't stink. If I find any I like I will post them. The Kashi go lean bars are good but if I can make some too that would be a nice variety. Don't really want to pay $1.50 to $2 for those weird individually packaged things that largely taste like you're eating fiberboard with sticky strange chocolate on top.

I bought a box of the powder packets of Special K Protein Water to try. I couldn't see buying one bottle of the already-hydrated Protein Water for $1.50 but the same price for seven packets I could add to water seemed okay. I was concerned because the product name is gross (although it is a "duck", walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, so call it a duck" so far as clear communication) and they go to great lengths to shrinkwrap the whole bottle (what's in there? does it look really gross so you feel you need to hide it? What???). However, I bought the pink lemonade kind and it was just fine. 30 cals and 5 grams of protein is a pretty good deal. I think I'll add it to some iced tea.

This is not photoshopped

Always liked this one. Saw it a few years ago when I tagged along with hubs on a business trip to Miami.

Opinionated musician

Yep, I was a musician. In Nashvegas, I can't say I AM a musician, because great musicians are all around us here. If you live here long enough you will run into more than a few famous people in this town, and what I love about this town is that people leave 'em alone. Hey, this is their home, let 'em live their life, is our way of viewing things.

Yep, I played professionally and also had a fairly highfalutin' title in the music biz as a managerial type. So I am very opinionated musically. My mom always nagged me about being so critical (I would say "picky") about music. Funny thing was, later on in my life, I used that ability to analyze and make value judgements about music in my professional life. As kiddo would say, "so, HA!!!!" Often, however, it has made me jaded to the process and highly particular perhaps in a less than good way.

All that having been said, there are a few worship leaders that stand out from the crowd for me.

'Had the opportunity to hear Matt Redman a few years ago at a private dress rehearsal for some big gig they were cooking up. The cool thing was that I didn't think "wow, Matt is great" afterwards. I thought "wow, God is a lot more, and deeper, and more satisfying than I have realized in a long while". Matt is a first class songwriter and usually works with some interesting producers. Yeah, he has some "chestnuts" that are WAY oversung now in the local church, but that's what happens to the "warhorses" and that is by no means his fault.

Tommy Walker is a guy that I wish got more exposure than he does...I know his songwriting is strong and well recognized but his records have been cool too. The C.A. stuff is quite good and has a stellar lineup with folks like Alex Acuna. Surfing over to his website http://www.tommywalker.net/ lets me know that I'm sadly behind on collecting his discography and hopefully I can remedy that.

I think Rita Springer is an unbelievable worshiper--she doesn't have a range to speak of vocally, but it is all out there, rough hewn, so believable. Once you hear her sing "I Can Only Imagine," you will probably never want to hear the poseurs sing the original...mercy me, I don't care if it went platinum. ;-) And ya gotta love a single white chick who adopted a little african american kid and named him Justice.

And there's plenty o' worshippin' to be done with Bruce Cockburn, Switchfoot, or dare I say U2? There, I said it.

Okay, I'll get off the music rant because it isn't really what this blog is about, but it's a friendly nod to my past. Got me an office, gold records on the wall, well, not anymore really. ;-)

More Apronage (not that that is a word)... *L*

Back to market

It was nice to be back at market. Very few people there and not very many vendors relatively speaking. The drought has really messed up farmers' crops so some regulars weren't there.

Surprisingly I had a decent day. Crawled along at a snails pace and then had a lot of sales in the last half of the day. I'm grateful. Wish I would have sold some aprons today, but had a lot more lookers than usual so I'm getting somewhere. There is such a thing as critical mass. If I can get four to six more done, more people will look at the lot of them. That is the pain in the tookus about retail, you have to make sure the space looks pleasingly full. But hey, that's how it is.

Chewing on this...

Heard a couple things today of note...regarding hard times.

*We all want the diploma, but we don't want to have to take the tests.

*Bad stuff isn't necessarily a punishment at all, could rather be a training ground. (I have seen this happen some for me, even though a lot of this crap is still just unknown as far as a reason goes, some of it HAS become more clear and has actually been useful in my life--as much as I hate to admit it! :-) )

*With God, even when it seems like nothing is happening, something IS happening.

I am grateful for the good things that have happened for us recently. Still praying, crying, in pain about other huge seemingly impassable stuff, but not giving up hope. Hope springs eternal. I still believe, dang it! It's a pain in the butt, and way more than that but somehow God keeps the wheels turning...when by all accounts they should have just fallen off the bus long ago.

Mostly I'm glad for how the positive things have helped hubs...the best dude in the world, I figure...not that I'm biased or anything.

Apron du jour

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