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

{food}

I haven't made any new recipes this week, but when I was looking through some pictures this evening, I remembered that I forgot to post about the Girl's Lunch I recently was a part of :) Grandma treated us to lunch a few Saturday's back, at an Italian restaurant she loves and we had a great time laughing and eating good food:

Mom and Me

 Grandma and My Sister

 My awesome Chicken Penne Gorgonzola Pasta and Smoked Turkey & Bacon Panini (turkey, applewood smoked bacon, gorgonzola, mozzarella and roma tomatoes)!

Baked Potato Soup

Hungary anyone??? :-)-

{faith}

An awesome article I read this week about the "caves" of our lives and how they prepare us to fulfill God's purposes for our lives....click to read "Caves".

{(in)Fertility}

I am very excited to read this book this summer. I will post a review of it when I finish the current book that I am reading for a book review program I'm in. This book is motivation for finishing my current one.

But in just skimming through this book, I am very much looking forward to it.

"Falling for Eli: How I Lost Heart, Then Gained Hope Through the Love of a Singular Horse"

A true story (categorized as "memoir/pets") written by Nancy Shulins about her healing journey that began with a special horse named Eli.

 

Happy Friday!!! Have a blessed weekend!

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

Soooo happy it's Friday! And in just a few short hours I get to see a special young girl I haven't seen in 5 years. My niece who is 11 and lives out of state is here visiting for a couple weeks :) So I have my bag packed with board games that have been sitting on the shelf not getting played because dh and I haven't gotten our "Who's Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" (Jeff Foxworthy) on in a while ;-)


{food}

 photo from kraftfoods.com

Anyways, for food, that's going to be easy since I just got done making it (yes, I'm going out on a limb with chosing it, but you can't go wrong with Strawberrys incorporated onto a moist white cake with a litely sweet frosting!):    Strawberry Yogurt Cake




{faith}

I sat through a sermon last Sunday that really blessed me. It was based on 1 Kings 17:4-9. It was a good reminder that just because things look impossible to us, God is the God of impossible! On the IF front, not that I think God is going to bless us with a child, in our hearts we just don't feel that it is going to happen, but He could. Just because A+B doesn't = C in our book with anything in life, it doesn't mean God can't make it happen! His resources are UNLIMITED!

Even if things get hard, doesn't mean we misheard God. It means we probably heard Him just fine and He wants us to lean on Him to supply all our needs (Philippians 4:19).



{(in)Fertility}

For those of us who struggle with not having received "the reward":

for when a negative pregnancy test feels like a negative God’s favor test

(I just want to throw in as a reminder for those going through IF-or not going through it but still reading this blog- that the blog author is an individual who is dealing with this journey in her own way. Although we all may have many similarities on this road, again we are individuals and may not embrace the same things or embrace them in the same ways as others all the time. Neither is bad. Just different. And that's ok.)     




Happy Friday!!!!!

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

It's been a busy week with lots going on, but I did come across some things for this weeks installment ;-)

{food}


 photo from kraftfoods.com

I have been making this pie for a long time now and took it to our family BBQ at my parent's house Sunday:

Key Lime Margarita Pie (for the crust....up the pretzels to 1 3/4 cup, only add 1T of sugar, up butter/marg. to 8T). You will want to cut small slices of both this and also the following pie.

And....


I also made this recipe into a "Peanut Butter Cup Pie" by just tweaking it slightly:

Ingredients:
(2) 3.4 oz. packages of Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling Mix
2 1/2 C Milk (I used 2%)
1/2 C Lite Whipped Topping
~1 C Natural Peanut Butter- Smooth (Natural is also better for this because it isn't very sweet.)
1 Pre-made Chocolate Cookie (or Graham) Crust
12 mini-Reece's Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:
1. Mix together both boxes of Vanilla Pudding Mix and Milk with an electric mixer on low, then med. speed. It will turn pretty thick. At this point you can stop mixing.
2. Add Peanut Butter and mix until smooth.
3. Add Whipped Topping and mix for approximately 1-2 minutes.
4. Gently stir in 9 of the PB cups (after you cut them in 4).
5. Pour filling into the crust.
6. Cover with lid and place pie in the freezer for a few hours. (It probably wouldn't even need to be in there an hour.) You could also set it the fridge if you didn't want it to be as hard. When it is time to serve, let it sit out for 10 minutes before cutting.



{faith}

I am so thankful for this verse this week:

"Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again.

Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light."

Micah 7:8

{(in)fertility}

This is a short and sweet post, from a great blog. A list of things that we need from others, as well as need to be for others, during the tough times of life:

What We Need to Help Us Through Trials (click on title for article)


Happy Friday!

Good Article from an Adoptive IF Mom

This week an article was brought to my attention that resonated with me:

http://www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com/blogs/post/infertility-feelings-after-adoption/

We obviously are not on the "other side" yet (if that is the Lord's will for our family), but it was nice to hear the thoughts that this IF mother shared on her adoption experience. The fact that we don't have to "get over it" in order to move closer in that direction, was both encouraging and affirming.

Sometimes it's easy to feel like others are viewing us under a microscope and think we should be "over it" in order to pursue adoption or we would just be using adoption as a band aid for our IF. This is so far from the truth! So I was very happy to read this article. It took some of the pressure off myself to feel that I had to be attending baby showers and holding everyone's newborn in order to pass the "pre-adoption test".

Very good read, worth the time.

When you know a Childless/Childfree Couple...

flickr

Here is an article I read within the past couple weeks that I'm just getting around to posting. But it is so spot-on I just have to share.

And the comments on articles like this never cease to amaze me. "I don't know anyone who would make these comments...." Insert :rolleyes: