Just Because

Time for some Friday favs. . .

1. Anticipating sweater weather this weekend!

2. . . . but I won’t be wearing one at the football game because it’s away—and Big Red does those by himself! 

3. Quilts, books, coffee, these

4. A compliment that motivated me to do my pilates workout today.

5. . . .which I’m going to need since I couldn’t  didn’t pass up a sweet potato fried pie from the apple house this afternoon.

6. Preparing to speak at Ladies’ Weekend, something that truly makes my heart sing, even though it’s hard

7. Listening to my girls laugh together.

Happy Friday!

Ginger

Linking to Tidy Mom

Confirmation

Prologue to a post: I love it when God plants a thought in my head and then confirms it in my heart.   This post was in my head yesterday, and a trip to Elizabeth’s blog tonight confirmed it.  Obviously, it is for one of you.

This summer, we studied Jesus the One and Only.  I love this study; it’s always been one of my favorite Beth Moore studies since I first did it years ago.

My favorite lesson is in Luke 7:11-17, when Jesus raises the widow’s son from the dead.  I love it because, as we learned in the study, Jesus raised the boy because He could, not because the woman asked.  He just wanted to.

He could fix it, so He did.

I never knew why God pierced my heart with that story back then. 

Now I do.

I love it that my Savior’s heart is to fix it, whatever it is.  I love that, because I know He would remove the pain if there were no kingdom purpose for it.

Somehow there is greater glory for Him—and greater good for me or those I love-- on the other side of the trial.

I KNOW that, because I KNOW His heart is to FIX it. 

“When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her, and He said, ‘Don’t cry.’”

Right now, I have a few things that I wish would just go away, that I wish were fixed. 

I am weary of tears.

I am weary of asking God just to fix the problem.

He isn’t, and I already know why. 

Pain teaches.

Some lessons require field trips.

Yet, His heart is going out to me, to those I love.

Maybe one day, He’ll explain it.  Maybe one day, it will all be clear. 

Today, I trust my Savior’s heart.

Be blessed,

Ginger

Scripture and a Snapshot

Be blessed,

Ginger

Linking up at

Scripture and a Snapshot

Dining In

It’s Friday—which for years has meant Pizza Night at our house.  Since we now have a band member at our house, Friday night now means concession stand food.

Yick.

We have two more games, and then Pizza Night can return to its rightful place.  DD#1 has earned the title of World’s Best Pizza Dough Creator.  It’s her official Friday afternoon job.

With the perfect balance of crispiness and chewiness, this crust turns ordinary mozzarella  into artesian  gourmet yumminess.    Really.

(Doesn’t that look fabulous?)

At any rate, it will render frozen pizza obsolete at your house.

Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 pkg. yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

1 T. olive oil

cornmeal

Mix a pinch of sugar into warm water.  Sprinkle yeast on top and wait 10 minutes unto yeast is foamy.   Pour into a large bowl and add flour, salt, and oil.  Combine.  Knead 6-8 minutes.  cover and let rise 20-30 minutes. 

Lightly grease 2  pizza pans and sprinkle with cornmeal.  Divide dough in half; place on pan and roll out.  (Dough should be really thin.  If you are a thick crust lover, use only one pizza pan.)

Prebake crusts at 425* for 10 minutes. 

Here’s one of my favorite topping combinations:

Brush prebaked crust with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano, basil, and garlic.  Top with baby spinach, sliced tomatoes, feta cheese, and mozzarella cheese,  Bake at 400* until hot and bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Enjoy this weekend with your family!

Ginger

 

From File 13: Discarded Blog Posts

With my severe case of blogger’s block, I’ve had some difficulty deciding what to write.  A few ideas just haven’t come to fruition. . . .

1. Standardized Testing: the Surefire Way to Hold Students Accountable

2. Amazing No-Calorie Chocolate Desserts!

3. Teaching Your 7th Grader to  LOVE Editing and Punctuation

4. Family, Home, Career:  You CAN Have It All

5. Making Your Teenager into a Morning Person

6.  Managing Your Hormones the Middle School Way

Posts I’m Still Considering:

1.  Convincing Your Husband You’ve Cooked in 3 Easy Steps

2. Clean Clothes are So Yesterday

3. Trends in Home Decor: Grimy Floors

4. Fourteen Ways to Make Your 14 Year-old Miserable

5. Blessed by Blogging Buddies

Wait! I really could write that last one! ;-0

Be Blessed,

Ginger 

 

 

The Post that Wasn’t

This is a post that has swirled in my head for many weeks. 

It gathers like vapor into a fragile cloud; then time and dirty laundry and supper come and blow it away, and my brain goes blank again.

Sometimes life gets complicated--blessing and sorrow side by side in an uneasy truce; blessing and sorrow intermingled; blessing  and sorrow growing from the same branch.  Suddenly Charles Dickens’s endless “ best of times, worst of times” sentence begins to echo my own experience.

This school year we are living in best and worst of times.  The blessings are the challenges; the challenges the blessings.  Even as I know that I know that I know God appointed us for this time, I grieve pain I see in one I love.

I want to fix it. 

I can’t.

I want to rush the Holy Spirit, hurry Him along, step in and take His place.

When my friend wraps me in hugs and says, “Today, it is okay.  It will NOT just be okay one day; it really is okay today,” I hear the gentle whisper of my patient Lord.

I camp out in Hebrews 2:11.

^“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”

I cannot answer every question perfectly, sooth every hurt, make the hard stuff go away.  Yet, in my weakness, He will not leave me—or those I love. 

Christ is not ashamed to call us His sisters.

Be Blessed today,

Ginger

$8 and a Little Inspiration

A little money and a little time. . .

some miniature gourds. . .some favorite books

some candles and some dried pod-thingies. . .

and my mantel is ready for autumn.

Happy Fall, Y’all!

Ginger