"Daddy, I can't sleep."
"Why not?"
"I'm just so scared."
What are you scared of?"
"I'm scared I'll do something bad, and then Jesus won't let me go to heaven."
This is how the conversation started. And the little girl's Daddy told her about Grace, about how Jesus knows if we truly want to serve Him in our heart, and about how much Jesus loves us. He told her how much Jesus loves scared little girls. Her Daddy talked about fear. He told her the story of Elijah, hiding after the prophets of Baal had all been killed, hiding because he was afraid. Her Daddy told her that when we are afraid, it's really hard for Jesus to use us. Her Daddy held her in his arms. She felt safe, secure, loved, and best of all- her questions were answered.
The next morning this little girl came bouncing into the kitchen for breakfast. Her eyes were shining as she told me about her long talk with her Daddy the night before. She told me how she doesn't have to be afraid anymore.
Now she spends afternoons writing out favorite Scriptures and giving her Daddy and I our own personal handwritten copy of our favorite verses.
She's free to love, free to live.
I can't help but remember. Remember the many, many nights I lay awake begging God to forgive my sins. I would name every sin I could remember committing, since the last time I had asked for forgiveness. Finally, in desperation, I would plead, "God, forgive all the sins I committed, even the ones I can't remember." Then I would finally fall asleep, only to repeat this pattern many more times.
The burden of my sins, of my mistakes, the guilt, the shame- I carried it for years.
But then I turned to my heavenly Daddy, and He held me, and told me how much He loves me. He told me that He paid the price, once and for all. He told me about His unconditional love. He showed me His scars- the physical reminder of the sacrifice He made.
And I slept in His arms that night.
Morning came..... my heart was full of joy. Not because the days spread before me were easy, or because I had suddenly achieved perfection. No, I was full of JOY because now I was free. Free to live, to love, to be the person Jesus created me to be. Free to live without condemnation for my past.
Perfect love casts out fear.
Thank you, Jesus!
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Monday, January 12, 2015
Would the {Real] Pumpkin Please Stand Up?
Oh there you are, I see you now- butternut squash. Call me crazy, call me whatever you want, but honestly, my entire life I thought you were the real pumpkin. Then I tasted real pumpkin and decided that nope, butternut squash beats pumpkin all to pieces.
I know it's January and we should be eating soup, especially since it's been 'so bloody cold' (said with your best British accent) around here.......or then we should at least be eating fat-free or low carb or something along the line of January diets. But I finally dug my butternut squash out of my basement, and proceeded to 'work them up' (which has to be the worst Dutchy phrase ever!) last week.
Unlike The Pioneer Woman, I do not have step-by-step beautifully photographed instructions and cute little puns. I did have a messy kitchen, and I did process 20 pints of that beautiful orange stuff.
Friday morning, while my children were attempting to get their tousled heads out of bed, I was washing and scrubbing squash. I cut them in half, dug the seeds out with my fingers, after discovering that goes better than a silly spoon. Then I placed them cut side down on my trusty cookie sheets, poured a cup of water on the pan, covered them with foil, and baked them several hours, until my fork could easily poke them. While they baked, we ate breakfast, did school, started laundry, settled fights, and sighed deeply because it was Friday.
After they were soft, I dumped them in a large bowl to cool, and repeated the process.I even have a picture to prove this.
As they cooled, I scooped the pulp out of the shell. I took my stick blender and blended the whole mess together, to make sure there weren't any chunks. Then I put the squash into pint jars.
I filled my pressure cooker (Christmas present, Thanks, Mom!) and started processing the squash. Then I took all those seeds I'd been saving, which was about 4 cups, and tried something new. I washed them, and tried to get all the orange pulp-y stuff off of the seeds. I tossed them with 6 T. melted butter, 2 tsp. seasoning salt, 4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 tsp. garlic salt. I spread them on 2 cookie sheets and baked them for one hour at 300 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. After the third time stirring, I was really expecting a total flop. They still weren't crunchy and badly needed salt. I shook a lot more salt on them and popped them back in the oven. 15 minutes later, oh my! Crunchy delicious squash seeds came out of my oven!
Today it was time to try to copycat Panera Bread's Autumn Squash Soup. I found a recipe on Pinterest, but who wants to follow a recipe? So I tweaked it and halved it and came up with this. My own delicious version! I made my children and dear husband taste the soup and they ALL, I repeat, ALL wrinkled their noses, which is why I halved the recipe in the first place. I expected as much. But don't go with their opinion, they aren't the adventurous sort.
Saute onion in olive oil, stir in 1 cup chicken broth, 2 cupspumpkin squash, 3/4 cup apple cider, 3/4 cup cream, 1 T. honey, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Before the mixture was hot, I put it all in my blender. then back in the kettle until it was bubbling. And I enjoyed my soup while my family ate leftover pizza. My soup recipe made about 4 small servings.
And since we're talking aboutpumpkin squash anyway, here are two more of my favorite recipes.
Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate
5 cups whole milk
1 cup white chocolate chips
4 tsp. cocoa powder
1 T. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cuppumpkin squash puree
1 tsp. cinnamon
Put everything together in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into kettle and heat over low heat, stirring often.
Pumpkin Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 T. brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. melted butter
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. squash puree
Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Beat eggs until fluffly, add the rest of ingredients just until smooth. Grease griddle with butter, fry pancakes until done, serve with real maple syrup.
On another note, we survived the holidays, and had a real mix of work and play, family time, sleeping in, and getting ready for our chickens. On January 5, we officially became chicken farmers. It's been an adventure so far, to say the least.
We're back into a school routine, the farmer husband is at home full-time now, the honey-do list is as long as his arm, we're all healthy, some parts of life really stink, but we're all still learning about Grace, and our Father's heart toward us. And we have nothing to complain about; only an abundance of blessings to count.
And now, to all, a good day!
I know it's January and we should be eating soup, especially since it's been 'so bloody cold' (said with your best British accent) around here.......or then we should at least be eating fat-free or low carb or something along the line of January diets. But I finally dug my butternut squash out of my basement, and proceeded to 'work them up' (which has to be the worst Dutchy phrase ever!) last week.
Unlike The Pioneer Woman, I do not have step-by-step beautifully photographed instructions and cute little puns. I did have a messy kitchen, and I did process 20 pints of that beautiful orange stuff.
Friday morning, while my children were attempting to get their tousled heads out of bed, I was washing and scrubbing squash. I cut them in half, dug the seeds out with my fingers, after discovering that goes better than a silly spoon. Then I placed them cut side down on my trusty cookie sheets, poured a cup of water on the pan, covered them with foil, and baked them several hours, until my fork could easily poke them. While they baked, we ate breakfast, did school, started laundry, settled fights, and sighed deeply because it was Friday.
After they were soft, I dumped them in a large bowl to cool, and repeated the process.I even have a picture to prove this.
As they cooled, I scooped the pulp out of the shell. I took my stick blender and blended the whole mess together, to make sure there weren't any chunks. Then I put the squash into pint jars.
I filled my pressure cooker (Christmas present, Thanks, Mom!) and started processing the squash. Then I took all those seeds I'd been saving, which was about 4 cups, and tried something new. I washed them, and tried to get all the orange pulp-y stuff off of the seeds. I tossed them with 6 T. melted butter, 2 tsp. seasoning salt, 4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 tsp. garlic salt. I spread them on 2 cookie sheets and baked them for one hour at 300 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. After the third time stirring, I was really expecting a total flop. They still weren't crunchy and badly needed salt. I shook a lot more salt on them and popped them back in the oven. 15 minutes later, oh my! Crunchy delicious squash seeds came out of my oven!
Today it was time to try to copycat Panera Bread's Autumn Squash Soup. I found a recipe on Pinterest, but who wants to follow a recipe? So I tweaked it and halved it and came up with this. My own delicious version! I made my children and dear husband taste the soup and they ALL, I repeat, ALL wrinkled their noses, which is why I halved the recipe in the first place. I expected as much. But don't go with their opinion, they aren't the adventurous sort.
Saute onion in olive oil, stir in 1 cup chicken broth, 2 cups
And since we're talking about
Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate
5 cups whole milk
1 cup white chocolate chips
4 tsp. cocoa powder
1 T. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup
1 tsp. cinnamon
Put everything together in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into kettle and heat over low heat, stirring often.
Pumpkin Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 T. brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. melted butter
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. squash puree
Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Beat eggs until fluffly, add the rest of ingredients just until smooth. Grease griddle with butter, fry pancakes until done, serve with real maple syrup.
On another note, we survived the holidays, and had a real mix of work and play, family time, sleeping in, and getting ready for our chickens. On January 5, we officially became chicken farmers. It's been an adventure so far, to say the least.
We're back into a school routine, the farmer husband is at home full-time now, the honey-do list is as long as his arm, we're all healthy, some parts of life really stink, but we're all still learning about Grace, and our Father's heart toward us. And we have nothing to complain about; only an abundance of blessings to count.
And now, to all, a good day!
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