Food, Faith & (in)Fertility....and Friday!!!

{food}

This week I made a ginormous pot of soup with an extremely large zucchini that a co-worker gave me (using a lot more than the recipe calls for). And I made 4 loaves of zucchini bread (again using more than called for)...and still have a huge chunk of zucchini left over!!

Here is the soup recipe. I am not sure what cookbook my MIL got it out of. I tweak it to my own liking a little (ex: I didn't have enough beef broth on hand, so I added water instead - lots of it due to adding extra veggies; I also used refrigerated tortellini so I don't simmer nearly as long; 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes instead of cut up tomatoes and tomato paste.)

{faith}

Love this article by Deidra at Jumping Tandem :   Rebranded

{(in)Fertility}

The past couple weeks there have been a barrage of pregnancy announcements. In the moments of questioning yet again, "Why can't we have just one?" "Why does it have to be this way?" "Why does everything have to be so difficult?", I received this devotion from Joni Eareckson Tada:

Living Under the Curse

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 It is true that disease flows from the curse God pronounced on us after Adam's rebellion. It is also true that Jesus came to reverse this curse. But does this mean Christians shouldn't have to put up with cancer, Down syndrome, Lyme disease or Alzheimer's? We'd like to think that since Jesus came to take up our diseases, there should be healing for everything from migraines to menopausal sweats. But that's akin to saying: "There's an oak in every acorn - so take this acorn and start sawing planks for picnic tables." Or it's like saying, "Congress just passed a Clean Water Act, so tomorrow morning Manhattan residents can start drinking from the East River." Forty years will pass before that oak is ready for lumbering. Purging industrial ooze out of a river will take decades. And so it is with Jesus' reversal of sin's curse (and the suffering that goes with it). What Jesus began doing to sin and its results won't be complete until the Second Coming. The purchase of salvation was complete and the outcome was settled with certainty. But the application of salvation to God's people was anything but finished. God "has saved" us, yet we are still "being saved" (I Corinthians 1:18). We are still on earth... this means we're still going to feel the influence of that old curse. At least until heaven! First Corinthians 15:45 calls Jesus "the last Adam" who came to undo the curse triggered in the Garden of Eden - but this summer you'll still be wrestling with weeds in your backyard, as well as a backache from all that hoeing. Only in Paradise will it be said, "No longer will there be any curse." (Revelation 22:3). Jesus, thank you that you saved me... and that I am still being saved. I look to that day in heaven when there will be no more sorrow, sickness, disease or death!   Taken from Pearls of Great Price. Copyright © 2006 by Joni Eareckson Tada. Used by permission. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530        I hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy Friday!!

Politics and the Childless Woman

 

I know who I'm voting for and nothing said by the man's wife last night will change my mind, but it just goes to show how uneducated people still are about childless/child-free women and it's upsetting to me. The idea that if a woman is not a mom she is second rate. She doesn't love as "deeply", or struggle with things in life. Somehow life is easier because she doesn't have kids! I couldn't even finish watching and had to leave the room. So I was happy this morning when I had an email with a blog post update that spelled out exactly how I felt (so I didn't have to) while watching what I did of the speech.

Link --->  Enough With the Mom Pandering...

Sunday Scripture {never wasted...}

 

*So embarrassed by my misspelling on the link up! If you are visiting from there, thank you for checking into what a "waster" is, lol!

 

 

 

(on the shore of Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior)

 

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Linking up with Diedra's Sunday Community today:

Changes

My living room is beginning to fill up with boxes, representative of the "what ifs" finding their way into my mind. In just a couple weeks we are leaving our home of the past almost 8 years. Not because we sold it and have to move. Not because we are being forced out or can't afford it. No, we don't fit the norm in this area either. We are leaving with an unpaid mortgage. And we hate that. We have struggled with it, and talked to many "advisers", but we both feel in our hearts that it is time to surrender, and move on. To step out in faith and take the next step.

It is our first home. I am definitely fine with moving out of our neighborhood, which is why we are leaving. It has become more and more unsafe over the years, to the point that dh doesn't even walk the dog anymore. We are prisoners in our own home.

This house, this city, our "imprisonment" (due to such an upside down mortgage) have been very big tools that God has used in my life (and dh's) to teach so many lessons, which make for future blog posts. And for that I am so thankful. But it's also the home that we now know, for certain, we will never have little feet walking around in. It was not meant to happen here. Something we didn't know 8 years ago when we moved in. So with moving, there are some twinges of sadness that accompany it.

We have seen the comfort of God's hand in this new chapter as it begins unfolding. From a "random" phone call dh received one morning from someone we go to church with wondering if we, out of all people, wanted to rent his family's house because he thought we rented ours (which dh originally turned down even investigating the offer due to the fact that we own ours), to the timing of this possibility even coming about (a home invasion had just happened on our block where the homeowner was robbed and seriously injured - just one of the regular occurrences of crime around here anymore). I had just prayed that morning that God would provide an opportunity for us to be able to move.

So, are we excited? Yes. Nervous? Yes. Wanting to get the paperwork and legal "stuff" out of the way super fast? Most definitely! So please pray for us if you think of it. This "move" doesn't end when the last box is unloaded. It will likely be months, but we are praying that it's not and that this process is over quickly.

(A double rainbow over our house this Spring.)

Sunday Scripture {but if not...}

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Linking up with Diedra's Sunday Community today:

Flashback 10 years!

I woke up yesterday and looked at my phone realizing that it was one of dh's good friend's 10 year wedding anniversary. My first thought was, "Has 10 years really gone by since they got married?!" It always gets me thinking about their wedding as dh and I were still dating (2 months away from our engagement date!), and I got to wear my favorite ever formal dress :) He was the best man and I remember just being so proud to be his girlfriend (which seems weird to write "girlfriend") and what fun we had. We got to ride in the limo back to our friend's house where we were dropped off and then they grabbed their bags and off they went on their honeymoon. I also remember being so excited and hopeful that we would be doing the same in the future (sooner I hoped rather than later!).

It just gets me thinking about our dating days and what brought us together and how we are the same people today, just changed people. But we have changed together and grown together. Anyways, I will save more for an anniversary post next month :)

Ice cream

Kind of a random post, but I am an ice cream fanatic and love trying new flavors :) This summer there have been so many new ones to try! Below are my 2 favorite new ones as of now (which also happen to be very close to a couple of DQ Blizzards I love, but at a much lower cost considering you get more than one sitting out of a carton). And although it would be nice, I am not receiving an advertising fee for this post. These are just some simple joys I have found this season:

source
(Bryer's Cookies & Cream Mint)


source

(Stroh's Blueberry Cream Pie)

It's Been a Month....

...since I posted last. Crazy. This summer has been flying by! So I decided to do a list of the highlights:

1. The garden: What a crazy weather summer we've been having here. We go from drought-like conditions with scorching heat, setting records, to torrential downpours the end of this previous week. So, that added to my dig a hole, put the plant in, water, approach to gardening again this year (I occasionally have used some organic methods of pest control)....my zucchinis have yet to produce anything besides beautiful, gigantic flowers. The leaves are not much bigger than when I planted them. I have never seen a zucchini plant do that! Weird. As for the pickling cukes, I bought a different brand this year and they are producing but the 4 plants are not producing as many as my 1 plant did last year! And they got pelted with the rain are are looking very sad right now. This brings me to my cherry tomatoes which are doing great! I had such good luck last year with them I wanted to try again. At least that makes me happy :) The plants are gigantic and the majority of tomatoes are golf ball size!

The garden about a month ago.



2.  The vacation: It was awesome! We went camping in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan). We went with my parents and stayed right on the Tahquamenon River. We did a lot of sightseeing and a bit of kayaking as we all have kayaks. Here are a few pictures:

Heading to the U.P. via the Mackinaw Bridge, looking at Mackinaw Island.

(The big white blob is the famous Grand Hotel.)

 The Mighty Mac

 The view out our back window!

 Sunset over the river, at our campsite.

On the shore of Whitefish Point. 17 miles from where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975.

(That is Canada off in the distance.) 

 Behind our campsite.

 The Lower Tahquamenon Falls

 The Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Me and my best friend ;-)

 At the black bear farm we visited.

 Adorable cub. 7 months old.

 Me and dh taking a break from kayaking out into Whitefish Bay.

 I love history. And I love the story behind this area. Literally it has become "beauty from ashes" (you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read what I mean).

 Me and my mom on our "Tour of Paradise". We did our own sightseeing one afternoon. Fun times :-)

 One of our favorite camp dinners. Hamburger/Veggies/Montreal Steak Seasoning in a foil packet, cooked over the fire.

The sun setting on the last night there.

3. The changes: There are some big changes happening right now (not children related) that are stretching us. Bittersweet changes I will share more about in the coming days. I often find myself asking why can't things JUST "just happen" for us, just once! Why can't we just be "normal"? To which dh will remind me by asking, "What's normal?". Good question!

But as we forge ahead, I am so thankful for such a great vacation behind us, and I am trying ever so hard to remind myself that God has an infinite storehouse to supply all our needs in the days to come, even when we aren't sure how it is going to happen sometimes. Just seeing the waterfalls up close on our vacation and feeling the power of them, and basking in the beauty of God's creation, it reminds me that we serve a very mighty God. He is powerful. And we have Him on our side as we face the many challenges in the coming days and months ahead.  “Some people think that going through the losses or crises of life are the exceptional times,” says Dr. H. Norman Wright.  “I see it differently. I see the times of calm as the exceptions.  Life is really going through one loss after another, one crisis after another.” And that is something I am beginning to think might not be so far off from the truth!

(A sign of Fall that we saw on our vacation! Our favorite season!)







Sunday Scripture {be still}

Whitefish Bay-Lake Superior

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Linking up with Diedra's Sunday Community today: