We've tried to get food out of our garden for years.
For years we have failed and thought over and over that if our life depended on our garden, the Hendricks would have died a long time ago.
The other night we ate a salad and everything (except the tomatoes) came from our backyard.
How exciting!
This salad contained lettuce, spinach, green onions, carrots, and broccoli.
We were in awe.
I added tomatoes that Jessie and I bought on our hippy trip to the local farmer's market.
Fun times.
I'm amazed at how plants like spinach, lettuce, broccoli and carrots can keep on thriving after several "freezes." They look so frail, and yet they are incredibly hardy.
I can't wait for our Spring garden.
If you are wanting to try your hand at a garden, right now is the time when you buy potatoes. From what I've heard potatoes are super easy to grow. You have to buy them now, and plant them in the ground Valentine's Day weekend.
Gardening has been great for my soul. I think there is something so good about digging in the earth and watching the natural cycles of life right in your own backyard. I think in our culture it's easy to live far from the earth, unattached to the life it brings and the lessons God teaches through His creation.
I know it sounds weird to say that growing a garden has been a very spiritual thing for me...but the truth is...it has.
Eating our first "this grew in our backyard" salad was more fulfilling and rewarding than I think any of us were expecting.
Anyone planting a garden this Spring?
I'm so ready for this winter to be over. I want to feel the sun on my skin and the earth in my hands.
Last summer a college guy walked into our home. Small groups had started up at the church we attend. A new group of people were coming through our front door.
One of the girls sitting across the room from me caught my eye, looked over at this new guy and mouthed the words "He was in a movie."
I mouthed back..."A movie?"
she nodded her head.
"A real movie?"
she nodded her head again. Then she moved closer and said, "Like he makes real-life movies that are in the movie theater...and he's in them."
Monkey!
Try as I may to not really care about those kinds of things, the truth is, I do. I thought it was super cool that a movie guy had decided to join our church and become a part of our family's life. Judge me. Whatever.
Now the movie coolness has worn off. This guy is no longer "the guy who makes movies" to us. He's Michael Allen. Not Michael. Michael Allen. Because some people are "both names" kind of people. Michael Allen is one of those people. It feels good and right to say both names, so we do.
We love Michael Allen. We love his heart. We love his honesty. We love the 5 million questions (per week) he's asking about living a life that honors God. We love seeing him work this junk out with "fear and trembling." It's always refreshing to see anyone looking deep into scripture on a hunt for Jesus and the Way, desiring to live for the Kingdom...you know...the real Kingdom, not this earthly one.
There are times we think Michael Allen might be crazy. There are times we are sure of it. Every time we are around him we are thankful that we get a front row to hear his heart, and his convictions. We love listening as he hashes out hard topics with the Lord and God's people.
Long story short, Michael and his friends have made another movie.
I'll be honest (I hope you don't expect anything less).
My first reaction to four college guys trying to figure out life and tell the rest of the world how to live it was an eye roll.
Seriously?
It can almost seem comical.
How can four college guys, unfamiliar with the real world, providing for themselves or others, going to discover anything monumental about living for God by traveling around Europe for a summer (how did they pay for this)? Seems like idealism on steroids. That sounds kind of mean, and my many assumptions may be way off, but I said I was going to be honest...I have my own questions.
One of the questions I've been asking is...when did I get so old that these guys seem so young? If I start using the phrase, "whipper snapper" please...someone...for the love...put me "down" or something.
Aaron and I watched their first documentary, "In God We Trust." We went into it with the same sort of critical eye, yet hopefully willing to learn. We may not have walked away with all the messages that we were intended to walk away with, but we did leave that film with a lot of treasure. It was refreshing to see a group of believers asking real questions, trying to live out the beauty of scripture.
We're excited to watch Beware of Christians.
The trailer makes it sound like this is a group of four renegades who want to chunk out all the things their parents and the church have taught them about following Jesus and find their own way. If we didn't know Michael we would walk into this film very skeptical because of some things they say in the trailer. We are probably pretty skeptical of anyone (or four someones) claiming to have discovered anything worthwhile without the influence of older, godly people and apart from the church that Jesus loves so much He gave His life up for it. We have our own questions that hopefully the film will answer. We're all for challenging tradition, and really rethinking the reasons why we do what we do (or don't do what we should do) but we also love community and the body of Christ. I hope all those elements come out in the film.
Because we know Michael we will watch this movie ready to listen...to hear...to understand where these guys are coming from and find out how we can walk this road with them as one body. Michael loves Jesus. He loves the gospel. He's not afraid to let Jesus totally jack his life up as he learns to follow Him.
I think these guys will ask some hard questions. I hope they do.
Questions can sometimes be threatening, but I try to remember that the Bible is a huge story, and it is filled with people asking questions...asking God questions...asking Jesus questions...and so I want to be more comfortable being questioned and asking them myself. For the Bible to be a big book of people asking hard questions, sometimes the church is one of the hardest places to ask them.
I think everyone who loves the church should watch this movie, if not to ask the same questions, then to know what questions parts of our body are asking. Maybe after we watch this movie, we'll see some areas where these young men need more wisdom or their perspective challenged and broadened. Maybe we'll see where we need more wisdom, more honesty, and need our perspective to be challenged and broadened.
For sure I think we can rejoice as believers that God has redeemed, in small part, the movie making industry with films like this. I'm praying the gospel is shared, that Jesus is seen, that "religion" like that of the Pharisees is mocked and confronted the same way Jesus mocked and confronted white washed walls whose hearts are filthy and far from Him.
Bottom line...
I love questions, and although I'm not expecting these young men to ask all the right ones or come to all the right conclusions, it does get me excited any time people look around this world, see how hypocritical we all can be, ask questions, look to Jesus for answers and begin to live out their convictions and CHANGE.
Questions
Looking to the cross for answers
Change
All good things
Doesn't the last line in the trailer make your stomach hurt a little? or a lot?
Will you help spread the word about this movie?
Do you want me to get you Michael Allen's autograph? If he writes his name on his cup at our house this week, I'll save it for you. I already told him I'm saving all "Michael Allen" paraphernalia so I can sell it on ebay one day when he's big and famous.
The pancake recipe I'm about to give you puts these pancakes to shame.
As most of you know, I've been on a journey to get rid of "all things weird and processed" from my family's diets.
This means learning to make more foods from scratch (which by the way, always taste better I'm finding).
I have always been a Bisquick girl.
I use Bisquick to make chicken n' dumplings (one of my family's favorite meal), waffles and pancakes.
Well, I decided a few months ago that I wasn't using Bisquick anymore. Yep. I'm kickin' it to the Bisquick man.
One of the great things about learning to cook from scratch is that you realize how much more money it costs to buy processed foods. Bisquick is expensive. I realized I was paying a company to mix my flour and baking powder (and other chemicals) for me. No thank you company. I'll mix my flour and baking powder myself and leave out the cancer.
No joke. I always thought eating healthier was more expensive.
I'm finding that it isn't.
As a matter of fact, we eat really well around here and I've been able to cut my grocery store budget to around $100 a week for our family and that includes diapers, toilet paper and other household and toiletry items.
Pretty awesome, no?
I'm slowly learning that it doesn't cost as much to have a pantry filled with whole ingredients. I'm also learning that I like the foods better that we're eating, and once you get into the "flow" of eating differently it really doesn't take more time or money. I was really skeptical about this, but I've been relieved lately to see eating healthier wasn't as awful as I thought it was going to be for our family.
I recently found THE BEST...and I mean THE BEST pancake recipe.
Seriously...these pancakes make the Bisquick pancakes seem extraordinarily sad.
Thought I would share these pancakes today in case you want to make them for your family (or roommates) in the morning. Much love and raving will be the result.
For regular pancakes...
1 1/2 cup flour (I used white, but next time I'm using wheat) 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 T sugar 1 1/4 c. milk 1 egg 3 T melted butter
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Then mix the two together.
For our favorite kind...banana/cinnamon pancakes...
1 1/2 cup flour (I used white, but next time I'm using wheat) 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 T Sugar 1 T Cinnamon 1 tsp. vanilla 1 1/4 c. milk 1 banana, mashed 3 T melted butter
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Then mix the two together.
I times this recipe by four. That way we have a bunch to eat for dinner (or breakfast), plus a few mornings worth of pancakes with the leftovers.
These are the fattest, fluffiest, most divine pancakes you'll ever make. Promise.
You can buy maple syrup for a great price at Sams. There was also a fantastic deal on maple syrup through Amazon, but I can't find the details now. Anyone remember seeing that on Mommy Snacks or Money Saving Mom recently?
Now I just have to figure out how to make Chicken n' dumplings without Bisquick...always learning something new around here.
With a treasure map and four boys in this house you might thing this post is going to be about pirates. Normally you'd be dead on accurate. Not today though. Today I'm thinking about God's Word.
This week in Her Hands we are learning about the value of scripture.
Proverbs 2:1-6 (Amplified Version) MY SON, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you, Making your ear attentive to skillful and godly Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it]; Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures, Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient] God. For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Quest
Treasure
Those are words God uses to describe the wisdom found in His Word.
All of us involved in the study this semester are asking ourselves a hard question this week...
"What am I pursuing in life? What am I on a quest for?"
God desires for us to pursue wisdom. In other verses God says that growing in wisdom should be seen as a principal goal in our lives.
God also is clear...we can't grow in wisdom apart from loving, cherishing and treasuring His Word.
I'm so proud of many of the college women in our class and in our church. They have signed up for the 5 a.m. club on the Girl Talk Blog. These girls are committing to get up bright and early to spend time with the Lord praying and studying His Word.
Only good can come of growing in this discipline for these precious college women!
The Lord has blessed me with the discipline to get up every morning and read His Word. Believe me, this is not a me thing. I love sleep, and God had a lot of work to do in my soul about giving it up to meet with Him. However, I confessed to Cameron yesterday (a girl in my life group that I have the pleasure of getting to know better and better) that I totally stink it up in the area of scripture memorization.
My kids know way more scripture than I do.
While getting ready for class this week I found some great articles from John Piper about the value and importance of scripture memorization. Here are my favorite parts:
Scripture Memorization Gives us Daily Triumph Over Sin
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. . . . I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9, 11). Paul said that we must “by the Spirit . . . put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the “sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers. "
Another great nugget about scripture memorization...Piper asks this question:
"If I offered you $1,000 for every verse you memorized in the next week, how many do you think you could memorize? Yet God says of his word in Psalm 19:10-11, "They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Thy servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward." The real value of the word is far greater than $1,000 a verse. The question is, Do you believe this? Believing this will be the crucial motivation you need."
Hot dang John Piper. That's some good stuff. (No one tell John Piper I said, "Hot Dang.")
You better believe I would be a memorizing fool if someone offered me $1000 for every verse I memorized. Shoot...I'd be a memorizing fool if I only got paid $50 a verse. If money was involved at all suddenly I would not be able to come up with any excuses for not hiding God's Word in my heart. And yet...God's Word is way more valuable than money.
I firmly believe that our lack of scripture memorization and our lack of discipline in reading the Bible always comes back to a faith issue. We don't need guilt. We don't need condemnation. We need our faith to be grown. Good thing we can ask God to increase our faith (Luke 17:5).
Do we believe that God's Word is the only hope for wisdom?
Do we believe that God's Word is where we encounter our Savior, and learn who God is and how He thinks?
Do we believe that God's Word is useful for teaching us and training us, equipping us for every good work?
Do we believe that there is power in the the written Word of God (Hebrews 4:12)?
Do we believe that it is by wisdom a house is built (Proverbs 24:3) and that foolish women destroy their homes with their own hands (Proverbs 14:1)?
Do we desire to be women who speaks with wisdom, who have faithful instruction on our tongues (Proverbs 31:26)?
Do we believe that God's Word is a gift to us so that all of God's best can be brought about in our lives?
Do we believe that becoming like Jesus is only possible as we behold Him, set our eyes on Him and grow in our understanding of who He is?
If we don't believe those things and desire them, then we won't read the Bible, and we won't hide God's Word in our heart.
Piper mentioned in one of his articles that their church participated in a challenge where they memorized 52 verses (one per week for the year).
They call them "fighter verses." I think they just mean these are great ones to memorize and meditate upon throughout our day....good for fighting sin and reminding us of truths found in scripture.
Last night Cameron found the verses Piper's church used in their year long quest for scripture memorization. Here's a link to the verses if God is tugging at your soul to hide more of His Word in your heart. Fighter Verses
I want to be on a quest for God-inspired wisdom and knowledge, pursuing it as the principal thing in my life. I also want God to give me a hunger to hide his Word in my heart and mind.
I also want to be found faithfully encouraging and spurring on the women around me to do the same.
Consider yourself encouraged and spurred on today!
I've been tired for months now. Like "I have a newborn tired" or "I'm pregnant tired."
The problem is, I don't have a newborn, and I'm not pregnant.
No matter what I do, no matter how much rest I get, I'm still tired.
Exercise makes me feel worse. Usually exercise makes me feel great (well, not in the moment, but later I feel terrific). I've still be doing The Shred, because I'm really seeing results, but after I'm done I have seriously found myself, several times, wondering why humans don't get to hibernate. Bottom line, exercising makes me jealous of bears.
I've had no energy.
I kept blaming these symptoms on some hard things going on with homeschooling, relationships...you all know...things have been pretty "off" in lots of areas in my life lately.
I also quit drinking caffeine. I was highly addicted. So I kept thinking that maybe I was tired all the time because I was still in withdrawals from the lack of coffee. Then it dawned on me that I quit caffeine back in August. Surely no one on earth is that addicted to caffeine that they can't function for six months after they quit the stuff. (I still drink decaf, have no fear.)
I finally decided to go to the doctor. I mean seriously, when you want to climb into your baby's bed with him for his morning nap, there's probably something wrong with you.
Especially if you are getting plenty of rest, eating pretty healthy (minus the blue bell ice cream) and exercising several times a week (because of all that blue bell). No joke...I was doing all that healthy stuff, not because I'm Mrs. perfect, but because I felt awful and knew those things were supposed to make me feel better.
At the doctor's office they handed me the "what's up with you paper." I wrote, "I'm here because I probably have cancer."
I mean really, what else could it be? What else could anything be if you're me?
The peeps at Abundant Life Family Practice are used to my fear of cancer.
When I saw Dr. Bacak I told him I didn't really know what all my symptoms were, but I'm just tired of feeling like crap.
He said I could either be anemic, have chronic mono, or have a thyroid issue...or none of those things.
No one in my family has a thyroid issue (that I know of) but I think the desire for a thyroid issue is pretty universal.
Who doesn't want to eat Cheetos all day, take a pill and be skinny?
I had my fingers crossed, "Thyroid..thyroid...please let it be the thyroid."
I was imagining all the chocolate I was going to eat while wearing tiny jeans.
I don't have a thyroid issue though. I'm never that lucky...what was I thinking?
I am anemic and I DO have mono. Like the real mono, not the chronic kind. I have the mono that girls who need more adult supervision in high school get. Awesome.
I always wanted mono in high school. Then I could stay home from school and sleep for a month and people would think I had a boyfriend. As a mother of four kids, mono is not nearly as cool.
This whole time I thought I was tired because I have four crazy kids and a very full life.
I guess the kind of tired where your eyes start burning at 10 a.m. is probably a little over the top though.
I've felt like a big baby lately. All I want to do is sit on the couch. That's so not like me. Naturally, I'm more like a squirrel...or a bouncy ball. I have whatever sin issue is the antonym for laziness. But I've been so tired lately that I've even flaked out in my thoughts, not just in my actions. I'm too tired to even think about all the things I'm not going to end up doing. Now that's tired.
Today I start taking iron and naps.
This might be the second best thing to a thyroid issue.
I am getting me a t-shirt made that says, "I'm not a baby. I have mono."
Although having real live stuff wrong with me kind of stinks, it's also great to know I wasn't losing what's left of my mind. It's good to know that no matter how hard I tried, there was a reason things were not getting better. Praise God for pills and prescribed napping. Even better...praise God my worth is wrapped up in Christ, not in a clean house or all the other 900 things I enjoy doing that have been left undone lately. That's humbling, but oh so good for me.
Right when we walked in, I asked Aaron if we could move there.
Wouldn't that be fun?
They cook all your food for you.
Sign me up.
The movie room was incredible.
The perfect place to watch a great movie with a bunch of great friends.
I'll have to break up my thoughts about this movie into several posts.
WAY too much to process at one time.
I'll work my way through my thoughts from littlest to biggest.
Here's where I'll start...
This family set out to make no impact on the earth for one full year.
This meant drastic changes.
I mean drastic...no tv, no buying anything new for a year (or really even used), no trash making, no meat, no vehicles, no eating out, no electricity...eating only local, seasonal foods, see...I told you...drastic.
They live in New York City.
Everything about the way they lived had to change for this project. Completely change.
There's this scene where the family is together, outside at a fountain in the middle of the city.
The wife, Michelle is talking about how their electricity is off. Everything that kept them inside has been stripped away from them, so they are outside more.
They want to be outdoors in the sunlight, with people and with each other.
At this point Michelle said something I hope I never forget...
"The days seem to last forever."
How many times do I hear myself say, "Time is going by too quickly. My kids are growing up too fast. The last three years feel like a blur to me."
I say those things a lot.
Something must be very different about my life when compared to Michelle's. Her days seem to go on forever. She feels like she has so much time...the days drag on.
I've not had a dragging day since elementary school.
Michelle's statement has me thinking...deeply thinking...
What is eating up my time and my life? What is making my days fly by so fast I swear I feel like I'm running after them, hard as I can, and yet I feel like I can never catch up.
We're told all these modern day conveniences are here to make our life easier...and better.
I don't think after living one full year in absolute simplicity that this couple in this movie would agree.
With no electricity, no cars, no tv, no internet, no shopping, not much crap to take care of, this mother said...
"The days go on forever."
She didn't mean that in a negative way. She meant she had been given the gift of time, of feeling like there were more than enough hours in her day to do what was important.
I can't say the same for my life.
And so here I am today asking the Lord to give me fresh eyes...
How is the enemy stealing my days? How is he robbing me of moments with my children, of time with people?
How is my lack of time and my excess of "stuff" linked together?
Living simply, Michelle said her days seem to go on forever.
Incredible. I'm going to think on that for awhile.
And then, because these people have inspired me, I hope I don't stop with thinking. Thinking is great but sometimes thinking is too safe. This world is already bubbling over, like peroxide on a wound, with people who "think" things, but don't live out their own thoughts and convictions. This couple in "No Impact Man" have taught me that thinking isn't enough. If I think something, why not move from thought to action?
I'm praying I have the guts to get rid of things in my life that are robbing me of time. Maybe God has given me all the time I need...I've just filled up my life and my days with a bunch of junk that shouldn't be there.
Pretty stinkin' well, if I do say so myself.
