Recipe Box Swap - Giant Ginger Cookies April 30, 2008

I made this post back when these cookies were in season, but…my mom also used to make similar cookies for boat trips in the summer. And oh. so. delicious. This recipe (linked here) is a step up or two from hers (no offense mom). They’re chewy and gingery-molassesy and just…well, just bake them!

And be sure to check out the rest of the yummy bar and cookie recipes at Randi’s Recipe Box Swap!

April Fools gone Awry April 1, 2008

Every year I try to pull off a really good April fool on someone.  This year it was the work folks.  See, I get into work a couple hours before everyone else, so I had some time.

Fool #1: Unplug the receiver from everyone’s phone

Fool #2: Rename a folder on a computer drive (one everyone uses on a daily basis) so that no one can find it

All was going well until a co-worker came and exploded at us (me and two other women who perform the same duties) because one of us (me) “corrupted all the files.”

Me: “I did it.  April fool’s!  Can’t I just change the name back and they’ll be fine?”

Co-worker: “No.  Nothing will link right and R’s having to fix it.”

Me: “I’m sorry.  Very sorry.  I’m going to go call her and apologize.”

She was snotty on the phone, too.  “I hope everyone’s estimates will work.”

I apologized again and again, hung up, and proceeded to get emotional.  After about 45 minutes of tearing up, fighting it off, and tearing up again, I’d had it.

I was down using the personal room (nursing moms who work can pump in there) and called my husband.  “They completely overreacted,” he said.  “All you could have done by renaming a file is screw up the mapping, which takes like 1 minute to fix.  Tell them they’re d-bags.”

While I didn’t do that, I felt a little better.  And I got reassuring emails from a couple of nice co-workers (including the one who blew up–he apologized) telling me that they thought I played good jokes.

Nevertheless, I think I’ll stick to fooling Husband next year.

The God of Peace Brought from the Dead the Good Shepherd March 23, 2008

This morning Pastor Piper’s sermon title was “The God of Peace Brought from the Dead the Good Shepherd.”  His sermons have been pretty outstanding the past few months, as he’s focused on the new birth and what it looks like.  Here are some notes from today’s (text: Hebrews 13:20-21):

 

Humans were designed to be sheep.  We are to be shepherded.  Who is our shepherd?  Rev. 7 says “the Lamb slain in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd.”  Note that our Shepherd is also a Lamb.

 

Being an exegete, Pastor Piper asks questions of the texts he reads and seeks to point us back to scripture in exploring them.  Today he asked four questions:

 

1. Who is it that is my Great Shepherd?

• Per verse 20, our Lord Jesus
• Many people consider their pastor their shepherd and become disillusioned with the church as a result.  Pastor John said that we have ONE shepherd, and he is not him—it is Christ alone.  For those pastors who cause their flock to become disillusioned, God has these words, found in Jeremiah 23 and Ez. 34:

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture…I will attend to you for your evil deeds” and

“The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.  So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.”

• Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”  Christ as shepherd never abuses or manipulates his flock the way worldly leaders sometimes do.

 

2. How can it be that Christ is our Shepherd today?

• Two obstacles prevent us from believing it is possible:
  • He died!
  • I don’t deserve Him!
• Per verse 20, he was brought from the dead by God “by the blood of the eternal covenant.”  In the NIV and NASB, this phrase is rightly placed before “brought Jesus from the dead.”
• The “eternal covenant” references the new covenant.  By the purchase of his sheep by his own blood, Christ satisfied the wrath of God.  Because it was the perfect sacrifice, it achieved God’s acceptance and He raised both Christ and us, His bride.

 

3. What does it mean for me today to be shepherded by a great Shepherd?

• Per v.21, by this blood he will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”
• This doesn’t mean He will equip you to be rich, be healthy and be successful in business, but to DO HIS WILL.
• He did not buy a one-time prayer from me that will save me even though I’ve lived a filthy life without a second thought about Him after that prayer.  He bought my perseverance.  Jer. 32:40 says, “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.  And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”
• He never asks you to do anything He doesn’t provide for.  He’s going to work in us, as the text says, to keep us.

 

4. Why did God set it up this way?

• We don’t want to be like sheep.  We want to be like God ourselves, having control and glory and the world revolving around us.
• But according to the text, God set it up this way so that HE would get the glory.  Verse 21: “through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.”
• When we start getting haughty and thinking this should be the other way around, that by our serving Christ somehow we deserve glory, we need to remember that if we’re really His sheep, we’re happy being His sheep. We get the care, the protection, the provision, the joy of being loved in such a way, and God gets the glory for doing all of that for us.  There’s no way that we could do that job.  As Pastor John put it, “Here, please provide for the Creator of the Universe’s needs.  Would you provide Him some love?  Would you care for Him?  Would you protect Him?  It doesn’t work that way. You don’t want that job.  You want to be the sheep.”

Good Friday, Indeed March 21, 2008

A Very Springy Idea March 20, 2008

For a long time (before having kids) I postulated and theorized about how I would keep the spirit of the Christian holidays we celebrate at the forefront of our minds while living in the midst of the secular world.  Recently, and I apologize because I can’t remember where, I read a fantastic idea for Easter, and we’re putting it into practice starting this year.

Since the commercialization starts so early (like the day after Valentine’s Day), why not celebrate the first day of Spring (which happens to be today) with all the candies, egg hunts, bunnies and chicks?  That way, when Easter rolls around (and they are incredibly close together this year, which isn’t usually the case), our family will have all that “stuff” behind us and Christ’s death and resurrection before us.  And we can focus on what is important.

In practice, this will morph as the children (Lord-willing we’ll have more!) get older.  This year, I made some fun cookies for friends and family and have a couple little stuffed toys for Anja that we’ll put in a basket.  We can decorate eggs and have chocolate and what have you as she gets older.  And for Easter we can attend the Maundy Thursday and Easter church services, read about Passion Week in the Bible and act out scenes, and a kazillion other good ideas to help us understand the truth of Christ’s blood shed for our sins.

Speaking of which…I’d love to hear about Easter traditions your families have so I can have some cool ideas for both of these holidays!

You say it’s my January 17, 2008

Birfday! Yesterday, actually. Some of you have emailed/commented and asked what we did.

We celebrated like nobody’s business. Actually, celebration started on New Year’s Day, because that’s when Husband gave me my gift. So here’s Anja and myself…and after I opened it (a new CD player, since the last one I bought was in 1994) Anja played in the box. It’s great. In fact, we’re listening to Christmas music (I know, I know…but I’m one of those people that listens whenever I feel like it) on it right now.

Yesterday I got emails and phone calls from loved ones—that always puts me a celebratory mood. I didn’t even fall into the “woe is me—I’m a year older and what have I accomplished” funk that I usually end up in by day’s end. Yay!

Husband arrived home with a bouquet of flowers, which, upon taking out of its wrap, wasn’t as glorious as he had hoped. I loved them anyway. He’s so sweet. We picked up some food using a free birthday coupon from Noodles & Co. (Japanese Pan—yay!). He made me a cake FROM SCRATCH. PW’s best chocolate sheet cake ever, to be specific. He only asked me about 43 questions instead of his usual 143, so I think her step-by-step pictures must have helped. But he kept running back and forth, back and forth from the kitchen to his computer room—it was pretty funny.

Then he and Anja sang to me (the delightfulness!), and between the two of us, we devoured about one fourth of the cake. And…(some of Husband’s friends might read this, so I don’t want to say anything too incriminating)…he watched a show with me. One he would never normally watch. Heh heh. What a guy! I told him I would do my best to have 96% of the cake devoured by the time he gets home today.

Seagreen Spare Change January 8, 2008

I have some random photos to post today…just a collage of items from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Here are a few that illustrate what happens when Husband is left at home with our daughter. One night I came home from work to find this poor little fellow:

And Anja didn’t get to use her bouncy seat one day because Bigtoes took it over:

And apparently this Wise Man decided to hoard his gift rather than give it to Baby Jesus:

And he likes to have fun with the baby, too. Here she is, having tummy time while happily wrapped in an afghan:

Moving on…here’s one from the Nutcracker display at Macy’s:

And an ice blob that appears to have been thrown from our neighbor’s deck and froze upon impact (sorry for the quality of the shot–taken through a screened window):

I spent New Year’s day with a new gift from my husband (a CD player, since I was still on my first one that I bought in 1994), a new CD from mom (Tony Bennett–yay! The first CD I ever bought was one of his…”Steppin’ Out”), and some sparkling Swedish beverage.

I went shopping this weekend and hit a green theme at Urban Outfitters (a pillow, curtains and a hat):

And the light was just right for a good point-and-shoot photo (still haven’t messed with the big camera) of my darling:

To Grandmother’s house we go January 5, 2008

*music sounds* “The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh”…oh, wait. Husband’s allergic.

So on to the second leg of our trip. We drove way up nort’ to where the wind gets a 300-mile running start (across North Dakota) before it blasts through the Red River Valley. Seriously, it’s like living on top of a mountain but without the view. Blech.

We celebrated on Sunday with my immediate family. I was surprised that, at just shy of 4 mos. old, Anja was interested in ripping the paper off her gifts. She couldn’t care less about seeing what was inside, of course, just liked ripping paper.

To further make a point about how “Christmas throws up all over my mom’s house,” I snapped a few more photos.

I especially love these little treats behind the toilet. Watch out or those reindeer will fly right up your you-know-what!

Christmas Day was spent with my dad’s side of the family. There’s a lot of people around, and it’s always a fun day. We play games (namely Taboo), eat lots of food, go caroling (much to the neighbors’ dismay delight)…Apparently caroling is a lost art, because people often don’t know how to react to carolers anymore. Where one houseful came and listened appreciatively at their door, then gave us treats and told us to come back next year, another guy opened his front door, walked away, and never came back. We finished the song, puzzled, and my cousin closed the guy’s front door himself before we left. Bizarre. Anyway, Anja got all foufed up in her girlie Christmas dress. Fun. Before I was a tomboy I had lots of girlie dresses, too.

That night was Anja’s last in her bassinet (what a big girl!), as we left it with Grandma to store for the next baby in the family. Sigh…I think it was almost as hard for me as for her!

She looks a little wistful, doesn’t she?

Over the River and Through the Woods… January 3, 2008

So I know it’s a little late for this, but I wanted to post a review of our Christmas trip. Every year so far we’ve celebrated with both our families. It’s a lot of driving (especially with a new baby!), but we really love our families and want to be with them during the holidays.

We started off with a trip to Husband’s family’s home. They are great fun. Here’s their traditional Christmas dessert: rice pudding!

 

The next morning, we woke up to THIS! Lovely, but not that fun to drive in.

 

Anyway, Anja got rocked in this special cradle before we left. Why’s it special? Husband’s grandma, father, uncle, aunt, himself, his sister and his brother were all rocked in it as infants, and it’s over 100 years old. Pretty cool, eh?

 

Good thing father-in-law chained that bucket to a tree—someone might wander off with it, you know?

 

Swerved around this ol’ log in the road. Heavy snow will do that.

 

Driving on…Horse stores (you can tell how many I’ve ridden by the fact that I have no idea what they’re called) are pretty fancy around here, as you can tell.

 

Doesn’t this “Inn” just make you want to drive a little faster as you go by? Nothin’ says good marketing like liquor and pizza and lots of junk in your yard.

 

Next stop…MY HOUSE (where I grew up, that is)!

Last Post of 2007…actually posted in 2008 January 1, 2008

Didn’t. Get. The. Time.

Oh, the pressure. I feel the need to post something extremely wonderful to close out the year. I didn’t feel this sort of pressure at other holidays. What gives?

Some sort of reflection seems in order…Hmm…I don’t make resolutions, or I could post about that. I don’t have any hilarious pets, or that would make good fodder. I have hopes and dreams, but that seems awfully personal. This is SO HARD!

Okay, I’m going to steal an idea from Antique Mommy here, and go with “Best of 2007” comments from my (yes, all 5 of you!) readers. Since I didn’t start blogging until November, the pickins’ are a little slim, but I’m going to give it a go. So…here they are, in no particular order:

Best Comments of 2007

“So what did you take and what was the result?” - Paula

“You know what isn’t a last minute gift?… A fart! (no matter what my husband says)” – Scarlett

“Do they really only put your husband’s brother out on Christmas?” – Charlie

“We went and I told my husband I wanted our server boy to quit his job and be my pool boy. We don’t have a pool! heehee.” – Lisa

Thanks, friends! And here’s to a lot more fun blogging in 2008!