Month: March 2012

Friday Fun

Friday Craft: Hot Cocoa … Candle?

Karen

Hot Cocoa Candle

Get a jump on April Fool’s with this yummy (looking) treat. A simple technique creates the whipped cream; brown dye gives the cocoa its luscious color.

Dude, remember, never leave candles burning unattended or near unsupervised children. And wet your match down before throwing it in the trash. A friend of mine didn’t do that and nearly burned her bathroom down.

Materials

2 3/4 cups soy wax flakes
pouring container or heatproof measuring cup with spout
one third of a 3/4-ounce cube of brown wax dye
6-ounce glass mug made for hot beverages
9-inch-tall prewaxed wire wick with clip

Instructions

To make the cocoa:
Melt 1 3/4 cups of the soy wax flakes in a pouring container following these directions or in a heatproof measuring cup in the microwave according to the package directions. While the wax is melting, chop the dye into small pieces, then stir it into the wax.
Pour the wax into the mug and insert the wick. (If the wick tips, put a pencil across the top of the mug and lean the wick against it.) Let the candle cool, about 1 hour. The dye will lighten as the wax cools.

To make the whipped cream:
Melt the remaining wax and let it cool until it’s opaque, about 5 minutes.
Whip the wax with a fork until it begins to form frothy peaks. If the wax is too thin, wait a few minutes and try again. If it thickens too quickly, remelt it.

Scoop the whipped wax onto the cocoa as shown. Let it cool, then trim the wick so that it extends 1/4 inch.

Abundant Life

Audio Teaching: Let’s Get Together!

Karen

by Dan Gallagher
God tells us in the book of Hebrews that we should “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24). Then in the immediate context He adds in verse 25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.…” We believe you will be inspired by this teaching as Dan Gallagher spurs us to consider three fundamental aspects of why we should meet: to reach the lost of the world for Christ, to raise up to maturity those who come to him, and to develop greater relationships and connections with others in the Body of Christ.
Dan also discusses various meeting models (the small home church setting and the larger congregational meetings), as well as provides insight into how to reach others through your various spheres of influence. This teaching is a great encouragement to get connected to others in the Body of Christ.

Click the arrow to listen.

Related Topic

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Politics

The Vote Pump

Karen

Did you get all of that? Did it make your head spin?

It should. IT’S OUT OF CONTROL.

Watch it again, pause it, absorb where those numbers are coming from and then try and convince me that we should continue to spend like we have been.

WAKE UP AMERICA. We can NOT sustain this level of insanity much longer.

Which would you prefer: painful cutbacks and responsible programs or nothing at all?

Because just like Mr. Whittle says in this video – if we continue to do nothing, we will have nothing.

I did not post this to scare you, I posted this because it’s time to take our head out of our asses and fix this mess.

And it all begins with taking the checkbook away from our president.

Vote this clueless, money hungry, power grabbing man out of office NOW.

Saturday Stuff

Stop! I Changed My Mind!

Karen

Saying goodbye was harder than she thought…

“I feel sick,” Bonnie closed her eyes and focused on steadying her stomach. Now was not the time to projectile vomit all over the woman across from her.

“You’ll be fine, just breathe.”

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at the woman. “Really. I’ll be fine?” Her voice raised several octaves; she tried to clamp down on her rising hysteria. She shook her head back and forth; her damp, greasy hair slapped her cold cheeks with each movement. “I can’t do this … I want my baby … don’t take my baby …!!

She vomited all over the woman in the suit.

.

.

.

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Write up to 100 words …

This is a themed writing meme hosted by Jenny Matlock. The goal is to write something that does not exceed 100 words (not including said prompt). The prompt is in italics.

Chicago

Chicago Plans

Karen

I’ve spent most of my Sunday fighting yawns, drinking coffee and researching our Chicago trip …

… that’s coming up in about three weeks.

Whoa.

We’re driving to St. Louis, are staying at our favorite Drury Inn (seriously ya’ll, the “complementary” breakfast is pretty darn awesome. Course, it’s not totally complementary, it’s included in the price of the room, BUT STILL! It beats going out the next morning and looking for some place to eat), then boarding the Amtrak train the next morning to Chicago!

ALL ABOARD FOR SOME FUN!

(Yeah. That was pretty corny).

Kevin found a hotel. He’s pretty awesome when it comes to researching hotels in new places. (Fine. He’s awesome pretty much all of the time). It’s called Chicago’s River Hotel and it’s a two-room suite with a Queen-sized bed and a sofa bed for the boys. It also includes a kitchenette which will hopefully save us money on food. (At the very least, we can eat breakfast and keep some snack foods on hand).

Here’s a picture of our room:

I’m a little worried the sofa bed will be too small for two tall young men, but we’ll likely take the cushions off the sofa/chair and make a bed on the floor for one of the them so they won’t be in each other’s faces all night long.

The hotel is right across the street from the Chicago river and in an area close to pretty much everything. I think we’re going to try and NOT rent a car and use the public transit systems instead. I’ve been looking into Shedd’s Aquarium and the Museum of Science & Industry and we’ll likely spend most of our time at these places. We would also like to go to Navy Pier and Magnificent Mile. We’re only going to be there for three days (2 1/2 when you take into consideration that the train doesn’t actually reach Chicago until about 2ish), and that should be enough time for us to see some fun stuff before boarding the train back to St. Louis.

We’ll be traveling back home on Jazz’s birthday, so we’ll likely treat him to some place nice for dinner that evening.

I’m really looking forward to this trip. It’s going to be a lot different than anything else we’ve ever done and the boys act like they’re really looking forward to riding the train up there and back, too. I think Dude is more relieved than anything else – no flying.

I asked off for some time in June. I’d like to take a long weekend with Kevin someplace. We haven’t really figured out where we want to go yet, but we have A TON of frequent flyer miles burning a hole in our online account. 🙂

New Bathrooms

Too Much Lady Stuff

Karen

Know what’s funny?

Kevin and I have been married almost 22 years (actually, that’s not funny, that’s UNUSUAL), and we’ve never shared a bathroom.

I know, right??

I mean, we shared a bathroom when we lived in our apartment (this was before we were married *GASP*), and then we moved into a rental house six months after Dude was born. The rental house had two bathrooms – he used one and I used one.

Then we moved into this house, which has two bathrooms; he used one and I used one.

Now that our bathrooms have been remodeled/reconfigured, we both use the master bath and the boys use the guest bathroom. (This is indeed a Freudian message to the boys – you are merely GUESTS in our home. We love you and want you to stay as long as you need to in order to save for your future, but you WILL move out one day, like it or not).

Kevin is having a hard time putting up with my “lady stuff,” mainly because he’s never had to share my lady space before now.

I freely admit, I have a lot of lady stuff, but come on ladies, it takes a small truck load of stuff to make ourselves beautiful/presentable every day, am I right?

Okay fine. It takes ME a small truck load of stuff to make myself beautiful/presentable. Ha!

We’re DONE with the bathroom remodel – sort of. There are still a few tweaks “we” have to work on. For example, there is a spot on the ceiling in the front bathroom that needs touching up. Kevin had to install a door on the back bathroom, (it had one of those accordion-style doors before, which, by the way, we’ve put out by our garage, along with Dude’s old (i.e. childish) head board with big huge FREE signs attached. I wonder if anyone took it yet?) The door is installed, but Kevin needs to finish the trim. After that, I will paint the door. And “we” still need to paint our old bathroom cabinet and put it back into our bathroom (which is a short-term solution until we can find a better-quality cabinet that won’t cost an arm and a leg. Seriously. Have you priced cabinets lately? Holy cow …)

BUT, for the most part, they’re done.

And I will kill my husband if he talks me into any more “big” projects in the next ten years.

Here is a before shot of our front bathroom:

Bathroom - Before

And a before shot of our back bathroom:

Back Bathroom - Before

We basically flipped the configuration around installing a shower stall in the front bathroom and knocking/building a wall so that the bathtub is now in the back bathroom. My very clever husband planned it out on one of those handy-dandy architecture software programs; our bathroom contractor was very impressed with his plans. (Or so he said, anyway).

I had a BLAST putting the bathrooms back together again. These mosiac globes in the front bathroom are one of my favorite things we added …

Mosaic Globes

And Kevin found this cool medicine cabinet that we hung over the toilet in the front bathroom …

Over Toilet Cabinet

These used to be in our front bathroom, now they’re in the back bathroom …

Bathroom Wall Decor

(Note what the pictures say – we both FIRMLY believe in these sayings).

And now, nearly six weeks later, I present our (almost)finished bathrooms:

The front bathroom …

Bathroom 3-4-12

(I had to have that shower curtain hemmed – it was about seven inches too long. In fact, the seamstress said that a lot of people have actually brought in shower curtains to hem).

The back bathroom …

Bathroom - 3-4-12

I pretty much love them now. Why the people who built this house didn’t think to configure the bathrooms like this to begin with is beyond us, but whatever, they’re pretty awesome now. They were expensive, and though Kevin and I argue this point, I think we might have overpaid for what we got, but still, I don’t regret it one minute.

We have done so much to this house … it’s ALMOST where it want it to be.

And that’s a good thing since we plan on living here the rest of our lives.

(PS. I just went outside to see if the headboard and the door were still there – they are. Come on people, FREE STUFF!)

Abundant Life

Teaching: Salvation is Permanent for Christians in this Administration of God’s Grace (Eph. 3:2 & 9) – Part Three

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Thanks for watching.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).

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