The absence...

I am sorry for the absence here. We recently moved and with getting all settled into a new community, plus helping with food for volunteers that are currently helping in our community, writing has gotten pushed to the back burner. I do hope to get started again and be back to regular posting.

Psalm 139:7-12

In thinking about absence, I am so glad that we serve a God that is never absent from anywhere on this earth! He is always with each one of us, caring, loving and waiting for us to reach out to Him in faith!

Reach out to the ever present "King of Kings" today and worship Him!

Pumpkin Pie Squares from Home Joys

One of my fellow bloggers that I highly recommend is Home Joys. She posts amazing recipes and does a LOT of gardening! She recently posted the following recipe and I Can't wait to make it!

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Crust: 
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

Combine ingredients. I use a food processor to make it extra quick to cut in the butter. Press into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.

Filling:
6 eggs 
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
2 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger 
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
4 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups scalded milk (heated to hot but not boiling)

Mix all ingredients together and pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream.

Blessings!

Messes and Me

Psalms 51:1-10 HCSB

Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love; according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against You — You alone — I have sinned and done this evil in Your sight. So You are right when You pass sentence; You are blameless when You judge. Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. Turn Your face away  from my sins and blot out all my guilt. God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast  spirit within me.

Today was one of those days......when I put the children down for their afternoon naps, the house looked like a tornado had hit and all that was left in its path was toys and crumbs and shreds of paper. I told Carsten "You boys made a big mess! ... That makes mommy sad!" He replied, "It doesn't make me sad!"... "I just don't want to clean it up." I had to laugh a little then. And it made me think.

About messes....

How often does God look at my life and say "You made a big mess!"? What is my attitude when He reveals something that needs to change in my life? Am I sad about my messes? Am I willing to go through the hard work of cleaning up?

Later at the dinner table, we were taking about who cleans up the mess and Carsten says "Mommy had to clean it up all by herself." (I did because the boys had gone down for naps) This makes me think about how this is similar to how God deals with us.  He is willing to take our mess and clean it up ... one little piece at a time. He never gives up and is insistent on total purity.

Prayer for today:
LORD, thank you for having an interest in the messes in my life. I give you my heart and ask you to clean it up and remove all the messes I have made. Forgive my wretched sins and make me clean and new so that I can serve you in your kingdom! In and through Jesus name,  Amen

Healthy No Bake Granola Bars

Healthy No Bake Granola Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 1/4 cup oatmeal
1 cup combination of any of the following
      ( Raisins, coconut, chocolate or peanut butter chips, nuts, etc.)

Mix wet ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat just until well blended. Remove from heat and mix in remaining ingredients. Note: if you want your chocolate chips to be whole and not melted, wait to add them until the mixture has cooled. Press into pan and refrigerate. Store in the refrigerator.

Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken and Garden Vege's

Yay for fresh vegetables from the garden! Here is what I did with some of them:

I made this recipe for supper this week and my husband really liked it. I used this recipe and tweaked it a little bit. I take the freedom to change most recipes that I make. :-) Here is the recipe with the changes I made...

Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken and Garden Vege's

1.5 lb of chicken breast diced into 3/4" pieces

2 cups carrots

2 cups zucchini

2 cups peppers

2 cups broccoli/cauliflower

1 can of pineapple

1 small can mushrooms, drained

Sauce:

Juice from Pineapple

3/4 cup Sucanat

1/2 cup Honey

1/2 cup Ketchup

1 cup Vinegar

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

1 tsp Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Ginger

1 tsp Garlic Powder/or 1 Clove Fresh Garlic minced

3-4 Tsp of Cornstarch

Cut up all of your veggies and chicken. Fry chicken in a little bit of oil. Add the carrots and fry until starting to get tender. Then add the rest of the veggies and stir fry until soft. Add the pineapple and mushrooms and heat through. Pour the sauce over the veggies and chicken. Serve over the rice of your choice. I use brown rice.

Sauce:

Mix everything except for the cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil. Put the cornstarch in a small bowl and add enough water to make it a pour-able consistency. Add to boiling mixture and stir until thickened. 

I hope you enjoy it! 

Free Kindergarten Printable Letters to Color

Here is a link to free Kindergarten printable letters to color. I think my boys would love this! They are both just loving to work on their preschool books! It is fun to see their worlds start to expand!

Yummy Peach Delight! Yay for Peach Season!

It is peach season here is central PA and we love it! One of the recipes that we enjoy is this amazing peach delight from my Mom. This recipe should be kept a secret, it's so yummy! :-). But then again everyone should have a chance to devour at least one serving of this delight a year! So here is the recipe for you.

Peach Delight

Crust
1 1/4 cup of flour
1/3 cup of brown sugar (I use sucanat)
1/2 cup of pecans finely chopped or ground
1/2 cup butter

White layer
1 package of cream cheese
1 1/2 cups of whipped topping
1 heaping cup of powdered sugar

Peaches diced

Gelatin layer
2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar(I use raw cane sugar)
3 Tblsp of peach jello
Pinch of salt
3 Tblsp of cornstarch or clear jell

Mix together crust ingredients and press into an 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 min. Cool

Mix together white layer ingredients and spread on cooled crust

Bring water, sugar, salt, and jello to a boil. Then mix clear jell with a little bit of water in a cup. Pour into boiling jello. You may have to adjust the amount of clear jell a little. You want a gel consistency. Cool.

Slice or dice peaches and put on top of white layer. Cover with chilled gelatin. 

Chill dessert for 2 hours or more before serving. 

Slice and enjoy! Savor the Flavor of Summer! 

Here is a link to a topic that I was blessed with this weekend. Christine gave this same topic at Kingdom Fellowship Weekend in Roxbury on Saturday.

I was inspired and also convicted of areas that I need to change in how I show respect or disrespect to my husband. It is very easy for me to make suggestions of a way that I think is better than his way. I was convicted of this and want to do better at allowing him to lead and showing honor to him by following willingly.

Listen to this topic and allow God to speak to you about how you relate to your husband or whatever authority God had placed over you.

Canning Salsa

My sister and I canned 2 batches of salsa today with the tomatoes and peppers from our garden. God blessed us with an abundant yield this year. It made a total of 40 pints.

Here is the recipe that we used. I got it from....."guess"....... yup, my mom!

Mom's salsa

14 lbs tomatoes
2.5 lbs onions
10 green peppers
6 hot peppers to taste
3 whole cloves pushed into an onion skin so that you can fish it out later. :-)
3 Tblsp chili powder
2 tsp oregano
1.5 tsp cumin
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
6 garlic cloves minced
2 18 oz cans of tomato paste

Peel tomatoes and chop. Run the other veges through a food processor or chop fine. Put everything in a large stock pot and bring to a boil and simmer for 10 min. Put into jars and water bath for 20 min.

Just thought you might like to see a picture of my stained recipe! :-) well used I guess! 

Have a great day! And don't forget to thank God for His blessings to you today! 

Canning Peaches

Here is a picture of some of our hard work from yesterday. We processed 2.5 bushels of peaches! They are so yummy! The boys couldn't stop eating them! We canned 27 qts of peaches and made 5 batches of fruit slush for the freezer. This is the recipe that I used for canning my peaches.

Peaches to can

This first part is optional. :-) I do it because it makes it go faster!

Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Put whole peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds or so (until you can slide the skin with your hands). Remove immediately and put into cold water to cool.

Peel peaches and slice, dice, or cut in halves and fill jars. Sprinkle a little bit of Fruit Fresh (ascorbic acid) on top and add 1 heaping tablespoon of Raw Cane Sugar. Fill jars with water. Process in a water bath for 1 minute. (That means put the jars in water up to their necks and bring to a rolling boil. Time for 1 minute. :-) )

How do you can your peaches?

Have a blessed day!

Doing Green Beans

One of the signs of summer--green beans! Our garden is just a small city garden, but it can produce green beans! We usually get 60-70 quarts of beans off of it in one season.

Here is the recipe for canning that I use.

Green beans to can

Fill quart jars with beans and add 1/2 tsp of salt. Fill jars with water and pressure can at 10 lbs of pressure for 25 minutes.

This is an excellent way to preserve beans for use all year long!

Thank you God, for providing for our needs in so many ways!