The wordless book

My mother-n-law Fran told me a neat story about her childhood the other night. She said that when she was young and one of many children in a single mom's household that a woman from the "Good News" club came to her neighborhood to teach her about Jesus. In addition, she gave her a book called the "Wordless Book". It's pages were blank but each page had a different background color. There was black for sin, red for Jesus' blood, white for forgiveness, and green for growing in faith. She memorized verses to go with each page and still has the book. 

Several things struck me about her story. 

1) How important it is to minister to children in big and small ways because those seeds will last a lifetime

2) That we have to believe God has a plan and that we do good for Him, even if we don't understand it and we never see the fruits of our labor

3) Even though our faith does grow our whole life, it really is simple and childlike, and we should try to keep it that way even when life throws us many obstacles

Thanks for the story Fran! I love you! Just like Mrs. Hunt from the Good News club planted seeds in you, you have planted seeds in us that will last a lifetime!

You know your day is really not that bad when.....

You hear your sister has broken her ankle in two places after slipping on the ice Wed night. During surgery today they put in a plate and 11 screws! Yikes! 

Please say a prayer for her if you are reading this, her name is Amanda.

The Duggar Family

I am reading the new Duggar family book and it's really making me like them even more! They are a neat family and I love all the tidbits and recipes in the book. Even though some think they are nutty, I think they get more things right than most people (no I am not going to have a lot of kids). My favorite thing about them is how loving and friendly they are to everyone. They are a true example of returning love to hatred or negativity. The oldest just got married, now I wonder if he is going to share his parents philosophy on having as many kids as the Lord will give them??

http://www.duggarfamily.com/index.html

Snow Fun

They both like sledding and throwing snow. Later we will try a snow man!

Donut Tradition

We rarely have donuts in our house but the tradition is if you are "stay at home" sick you can have donuts. Our poor Papa has been sick and requested the traditional "rat-turd" donuts (pardon the expression). These are the Entemann's chocolate glazed with little chocolate glazed droppings on top. I went to Dierberg's, Schnucks, and Walgreens yesterday and couldn't find them. I did get him some Entemann's Pop'ems but if anyone spies the "rat-turds" for sale, please let me know!

Good Winter Recipe

Stuffed Pepper Soup

2 lbs ground beef

1 lg onion chopped

5 green peppers chopped

Brown the above ingredients and drain well. Then add:

6 cans tomato soup and 5 cans soup water

1 can beef broth and 1 can broth water

2 tsp brown sugar

2 small cans tomato sauce

3/4 to 1 cup uncooked white rice 

Simmer on low until the rice is cooked. It thickens the longer it cooks, you can add more water if you prefer. 

Word to the wise, this literally feeds an army. You will have enough to give some away, for leftovers, and for the freezer so you may consider halving it if you don't want that much. It's really good with some shredded cheese on top. 

The Cosby Show

We love to watch shows on DVD. My favorite is The Office but we have others that we enjoy very much. The latest one is the first season of the Cosby show and we have let the kids watch this one with us before bed. They seem to like it and it is a good clean family show. I think it is funnier now watching it as a parent then it was when I was a kid.