WFMW – No-Lump Gravy
UPDATED: My MIL called and I actually was doing it wrong (but it still worked for me). I fixed it below.
My mother-in-law taught me this trick to making gravy without the lumps. Save a jar from pickles or spaghetti or something. Put 1/2 c or so of cold water in the jar. Add about 1/4 c. flour, put the lid on tight and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! Then pour that into the pan w/ the broth and whisk it up. No lumps. If you need more flour to thicken more just repeat.
UPDATED to add: DON’T use a plastic container – it will explode when you open it up.
Back to Shannon’s for more WFMW ideas.
Musical Meme
Had so much fun reading Shannon’s Musical Meme and I am currently uninspired so here it is…
Favorite Song From Childhood: I loved Elvis and all the oldies. Probably "It’s My Party" by Leslie Gore.
Favorite High School Dance Song: Um, I went to a Christian school so we didn’t have dances – we had "banquets". So this is a hard one. Sorry.
Senior Class Song: I’m not sure we had a song. And my yearbooks are in the attic and I’m so NOT digging through all that stuff.
Song That Makes You Think of College: "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane. It was during one of many 17-hour drives from college in Arkansas back home to Phx. It was hubby, his 2 cousins, me and his Aunt in a big ‘ol Suburban around 2 a.m. w/ this song blaring and us all singing along.
Favorite Rock & Roll Song: “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night” by KISS
Favorite Disco Song: Disco? What’s that? 
Favorite Country Western Song: I haven’t listened to country music in a really long time. Maybe "She’s In Love W/ the Boy" by Trisha Yearwood
Favorite Pop Song: Like current pop? Hard to pick a favorite. I like "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback…some Ashlee Simpson stuff too.
Favorite All Time Love Song: "When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss
Favorite Break Up Song: Gee, I only every broke up with one guy (married #2). Hm…stuck.
Favorite Slow Dance Song: see above re:dancing – still don’t do it
Song That Always Makes You Cry: "Held" by Natalie Grant
Songs About Your Kid/s: Mark’s the one that makes up songs for the kids at bedtime.
Song That Reminds You Of Your Husband: Hm, this one’s tough. We don’t have the same taste in music really. Anything by the Outfield, Journey, Tom Petty would remind me of him as those are his classics.
Favorite Christmas Song: “Angels We Have Heard on High”
Favorite Gospel/Praise Song: “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin
Favorite Ringtone on Cellphone: “Brown-Eyed Girl"
Mani/Pedi
If you haven’t seen this stand up routine re: the nail salon you HAVE to watch it. HILARIOUS!
Surviving My McFast
Someone please tell me what I was thinking when I decided to fast from Grey’s Anatomy during SWEEPS! Me the television queen, did not, for one second, think that the writers of GA would dare to kill off dark and twisty Meredith. How do I know all this is going on? I said I wouldn’t watch – I didn’t say I wouldn’t read about it people. Really, you can’t help it. It’s all over the place. Is she really dead? I dared to say last week that they would NEVER kill off Meredith. Well after much reading, I am not so sure. Sources in the know claim "someone died last week, someone will die this week…one of those will stick" and it’s someone "you’d never think they’d kill." Tonight’s episode is titled "Some Kind of Miracle"…dare we hold out hope?
It’s torture I tell you! (Are you seeing why I thought maybe my attachment was a little too strong?) Stacey has dubbed it my "McFast" – rather catchy I think. So tonight, between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m. when the children are fast asleep and hubby is not home I will be locked in a closet somewhere, twitching and praying not to break my resolve. Because, really that’s what it’s about. I made a promise to God and this has been an incredible lesson in self-discipline, something which I normally sorely lack.
UPDATED: Thank goodness for friends on the East Coast. Meredith lives! Someone else died but I won’t tell who in case you haven’t watched yet.
Current Prayer Needs
The blogging world is a small one sometimes – especially when it comes to prayer. Here are 3 right now that have moved me to tears and are getting my daily prayers:
Josh Gass - This is a young boy in our church who is in an experimental study for B-precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He has been in the hospital since January 10th with a very serious COCCI infection. He is making great progress and continually amazes the doctors but still needs prayers. View updates here.
Amy Wilhoite – I learned of Amy’s battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia via someone else’s blog and have been following her story since last summer. She had a bone marrow transplant several months ago. Today they learned that the cancer has returned and her prognosis is not good. Through it all she has been an amazing testimony to the Savior. Her latest post says, "My part in all of this is rather easy. I get to die and be with my
Savior in glory. I get to miss out on all the suffering this world
holds. It is my family who bear the grief and the pain day in and day
out. It is for them that my heart breaks." Please keep her and her family (including a very young son) in your prayers.
Ethan Powell is a 10 week old little boy diagnosed with Leukemia on Feb. 6th. When he was admitted his white blood cell count was approx 1.5 million when it should be in the low one thousands. It has come down at an amazing speed – a testimony to the power of prayer – and they are now looking for a bone marrow donor. Again, another family that is an amazing testimony of faith under fire.
Thrift Store Alert
I am a bargain shopper. Always have been. Probably mostly because I grew up having to pay for the things I wanted. I learned at an early age how to make money (odd jobs around the house until I was old enough to work) and since my mom shopped sales, that’s how I learned. And I’m not talking about the $100 purse that’s on sale for $75. I’m talking the $100 purse that’s on sale for $12.50 (theoretically – I’ve never found that deal).
When it comes to my kids I shop mainly at resale shops and thrift stores. I’m sure many of you shop resale shops, most people aren’t hard to convince on that one. But there is a whole ‘nother level of thriftiness required to shop the real thrift stores – Goodwill, Salvation Army, and – our favorite – Savers.
It really started with my husband. He LOVES to go thrifting. In fact, you’ll laugh, but we often do it on date night, even on vacation. He has the uncanny ability to sniff out the thrift stores no matter what town we are in. Every trip to San Diego requires much shopping. At first I whined about how there was never as many "fashionable" clothes for women as there were for men, and I didn’t want to sort through all the racks, blah, blah, blah. A few good fines and I was quickly over that. Remind me sometime and I’ll post a picture of the stunning Ann Taylor sun dress I got for $8.95.
I’ve learned in the last year or two that there is a very interesting trend between these 2 types of stores. Resale shops are obviously particular about what clothes they will choose to sell (for which I’m glad). However, this seems to make it very difficult to find boys clothes once you reach about the 3T, 4T size. They say it’s because boys are harder on their clothes and they don’t look at nice. (Completely valid statement.) So I found lots of very cute clothes for my 4 year old girl at the resale shops.
But the thrift stores are a virtual carnival of boys clothing. Yes, there’s plenty of faded and piling clothes but I find almost all my sons jeans and shorts at thrift stores and quite a few shirts. I always get his winter jackets here as well. Interestingly, there is never quite as many nice girl things – or maybe they just get snapped up really quick.
For example last night I purchased:
4 dresses – including one linen, one corduroy and one that reminded me of a Hanna Andersen
2 shirts
5 pairs of shorts for son – including Bugle Boy and Levi brand…almost all with the coveted adjustable waist
2 pairs of pants – one for each kid
ALL FOR $35…that’s about $2.69 for each item. How can you beat that! So next time you need to get some new clothes for your kids, find your closest thrift store. If you’re very brave, find out when they’re 50% off day is. Most of them will have one Saturday a month where EVERYTHING is 50% off.
FREEEEEEEDOM!
Beginning tomorrow morning I will be a little more foot loose and fancy free. Why, you ask? Because my youngest will be winging her way to Arkansas with her MeeMaw (grandma) and great-grandma to visit her 5 wonderful cousins (Uncle Matt & Aunt Hollie too). She is "SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited" and has been unbelievably well behaved with the "is today my trip?" questions for the last few days.
So I’ll be putting Katherine’s "Minus-One Theory" to the test. Not that I haven’t tested it before. But I get to again. I do love the minus-one theory!
The oldest is in school during the day so that gives me 4 whole days w/ no kids at home. What to do, what to do? I could catch up on some projects – stain the gates, put up Natty’s chair rail molding, organize my recipes. Or I could just scrapbook! I’ll do my best to keep up with the cooking and the cleaning though.
Photo Hunt – Red
|
|
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Join the blogroll. Visit participants. |
UPDATED: Well apparently I have the wrong theme – it must have changed since I copied the list to my computer at the beginning of the year. The theme is broken..and well that’s my brain right now. So if I get a chance I’ll repost. Otherwise just enjoy!
This Week’s Theme: Red
My sister-in-law Suzanne actually took this picture in San Diego – maybe at the zoo? But I thought it was really beautiful.
My Daniel Fast
Two weeks ago I began to lead Beth Moore’s Daniel Bible Study for a small group of women in our church.
participants to join with her in some sort of “Daniel Fast”. Just as Daniel and
his friends gave up the King’s rich food, Beth decided that for the first six
weeks of the study (where we are studying integrity) she was going to forgo
rich meats.
It didn’t take too long for me to realize what it was I
should give up – TV. It’s perhaps my biggest vice. It probably has to do with
my deprivation growing up in a house where we could only watch an hour of TV a
day. Can you imagine the horrors?
drama here, a crime show there, a decorating show, morning talk-shows…you know,
a little of everything. For awhile I was saved by the fact that I was too
forgetful to take out the Wiggles videotape and put in a blank VHS. Then we got
a DVR (like TiVo). And I was sunk.
kids were in bed, and I’d caught up on a little computer work, I would sit down
and enjoy an hour or two of my favorite programs (or 3 or 4). It was my way of
unwinding, not thinking, and not having to do ANYTHING!
television. The Bible does tells us that we need to be careful about what we
put into our minds but television is not evil in itself.
But I had placed the television above Christ as a way to calm my weary soul at
the end of a hard day. I was turning off
my mind, instead of engaging it in a conversation with the true source of my
rest.
those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they
will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
my television fast. A couple of months ago I made a halfway attempt when I deleted
DVR timers for most of my shows. With less recorded I definitely have spent
less time watching. I’ve prayed about it for a week and asked God to real show
me what I needed to do.
Daniel study:
show that my husband actually enjoys watching with me and is a fun thing we do
each week. BUT I won’t watch it unless I have already had my quiet time for
that day.
in a “look forward to it all week, can’t wait til it’s on, don’t call me
between 9-10 p.m.” kind of a show. And that’s soooo NOT healthy. So I’m going to go without it. Completely! I
may have to lock myself in a closet and get down on my knees for 60 minutes
every Thursday night, but I’m going to do it! I suspect that at the end of 6
weeks I will be a LOT less attached to it and hopefully a WHOLE lot more attached
to my Savior.
LOT
“Without resolve, we will loose our identity and our integrity.” I’m going to
be practicing my resolve a
several weeks.
WFMW – Sweet Love Edition
Well it’s the Sweet Love Edition of WFMW and Shannon has asked for our best relationship advice or V-Day ideas. Here’s one that’s worth its weight in chocolate.
Go buy a book called "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. You see there are basically 5 languages with which us humans speak our love:
- acts of service
- words of affirmation
- gifts
- quality time
- physical touch (and NO this isn’t the love language of every guy
The trick is finding out what love language your spouse speaks and which one you speak. We have a natural tendency to love other people in the love language that best speaks to ourselves, but usually that isn’t our spouses language.
For example, my love language is "acts of service". Nothing says "I love you" like my hubby doing the dishes, or throwing in a load of laundry, or vacuuming…and if it’s without me asking??? well watch out! So naturally I like to do things for people as a way of showing I love them – bake them meals, watch their kids, take them treats, etc.
But that doesn’t do squat for hubby. Sure it’s nice, but it doesn’t make him feel loved. His love language is physical touch. So I have to remember that when he passes me in the kitchen and wants a hug that I should put down the wet sponge I was using and take a few minutes to just hug and cuddle with him.
And naturally the more love you are shown (in the correct language) the more you will show your spouse (in the correct language).
Gary has also written love language books for children and teens so you might want to pick those up too.
