Thankful

You may know that my pastor/husband is the shepherd for two churches. The churches are 30 miles apart.

It snows EVERYDAY in the U.P. of Michigan.

He didn't make it to the second church service this morning.

An Elder went to pick him up and bring him back, and another Elder preached his sermon. Thank goodness he left it in the pulpit.

He is fine.

There were 3 cars, a logging truck, 2 snowmobile trailers, and a tow truck involved in this accident.

Yup, seven vehicles.

And another landed in the ditch after he left.

Thank the Lord!

Youth Group Bowling...and a Lutheran Fact...

This bowling ball had a bit of a soda accident... and the wholes were filled with soda... oops! Thank Goodness it was diet!

Did you know that Martin Luther also sort of "invented" the game of

BOWLING?!

That's right!

Martin Luther was an avid bowler who had his own bowling lane. Many bowling historians credit him with standardizing the rules of bowling and fixing the number of pins at nine. Bowling became an important part of German culture, and children were often taught that thunderstorms were due to St. Peter and the angels bowling.

(from usefultrivia.com)

Survived!

Menu Plan Monday...

A popular blogging group... so here goes our menu plan:

Monday: Home made Cheese Ravioli and Fresh Crusty Bread with Ceasar Salad

Pasta Dough is easy as posted here... We also enjoyed a Spinach Pasta , just by adding 1/3 cup of canned or frozen spinach to the dough instead of the water.

For the Cheese Filling:

1 1/2 Cup Ricotta or drained Cottage Cheese

1/2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 egg

1/2 tsp each basil, garlic, and onion

Tuesday: Grilled Beer Bratwursts with Fried Potato Coins and Scalloped Corn

Wednesday: Individual Cheeseburger Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Buttery Biscuits

Thursday: Lemon Pepper Chicken and Seasoned Rice with Brown Sugar Carrots

Friday: Barbeque Chicken Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza and Soda

Saturday: Stromboli and Salad

Nothing like being loved...

Changes... Patience

I am trying to be patient and stress-free during some changes in our family. I am not usually a stress-filled wife, mommy, person... but this time of my life is full of change. All of the change is totally and completely out of my control (which I am also not usually concerned about) and I am getting stuck in the ho-hum attitude. So I am going to our comforting, caring, constant Father and am happy to begin this new Psalm study with a group of ladies... Changes will be announced as they come to fruition, meanwhile may HE calm my heart and home.

Caring for one another...

Our Church is having a fundraiser this weekend. Pray for this young family as their daddy is living with untreatable pancreatic cancer.

Super Bowl Buffet

This superbowl was spent at our house with great friends. We had some wonderful laughs, a little shouting at the television, some prayerful moments of fellowship, and of course, good food! Thanks be to God!

I used my salvaged-from-the-side-of-the-road oldtimey washing machine as our beverage cooler, with the opened lid as a tea service. Fun. It was easy to drain out the water the next morning... I did place a large trash bag to keep most of the ice in, but wouldn't use that step next time.

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Peppers stuffed with cream cheese... oh my!

Happy Birthday Katharina von Bora

The Chocolate Cake is out of the oven and frosted, we will celebrate Martin Luther's wife's birthday... I know what it is like to be married to the ministry... but gosh to be in her shoes, you go girl! My life is easy! LOL Really, this is just a reason to eat home made cake! teeheehee

My 100th Post!!! And wonderful News...

Okay, so some of you may wonder where Danielle went... playing her sweet violin. I promised her I wouldn't leave her face on my blog for long... so thank you Amy for critiquing her so quickly, I will look forward to your email.

Danielle has been accepted to

Concordia University Chicago

and

Concordia University Wisconsin

YIPPPEE!

Notice to all homeschooling families,

YOU CAN DO IT!

I am very proud of her hard work and am blessed that she is prayerfully considering her options for the 2009 year. I would love another year of her being at home with us, but am so totally excited for her opportunity to live in a city, be part of a community of Lutheran College Kids and grow as a beautiful young lady. Love you Girl!

Steak Fries... on the Cheap

I brainstormed an idea, and came up with this fun way to make steak fries.  Growing up I loved Shake-n-Bake.  I am waaayy to cheap to buy this product so I went here (you can see my laptop next to my mixture with recipe site) and made a homemade mix.)

  I cut up 2# of potatoes and placed into the bag. (When I make this the next time I will add more oil to enable it to "stick" better to the potatoes.)

  Shake shake shake. -n- Bake bake bake

Easy peasy.  Served up with gourmet burgers with jalapenos and Amish butter cheese.  Oh, and frosted brownies.  

We are stuffed.

Set off the smoke alarm at the hotel...

Grilled Chicken, N'uf said!