New Year's Eve

I know I'm about an hour and 34 minutes late for an actual New Years Eve post... I mean, the clocks already struck 12, its already 2013, and Mark and I just got home from spending the evening at my parents with  my family to ring in the New Year.

But before I write a New Year 2013 post and start making my resolutions and goals for this year I just want to premise it with this prayer. This worship song that we sang in church this past Sunday... I've sung it many times, it's not a new song. But as I sang it yesterday (or technically two yesterdays ago...) I felt moved to claim this as my prayer for this year. To lay this as my foundation for whatever hopes and dreams and goals I want to accomplish in 2013...

That no matter what takes place, I will bless HIS name.

Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's 'all as it should be'

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be Your name

Sunday

Just wanted to share the text we will be going over this morning in church...

"Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."
I Peter 2:11-12

Looking forward to being in the house of The Lord this morning as we begin to look ahead to the new year.

Christmas Memories

The Christmas season is winding down.

Today we will take down all of our Christmas decorations... put away our first tree with the "Our First Christmas"and "New Home" ornaments, take down our outside lights, and pack up our first stockings and hand me down nativity sets. All of these things and more are reminders of our first Christmas together as a married couple. These are the days you hold dear to your heart and share with your kids in a decade or so... you know those stories your parents told you? Something that always starts like "When your dad and I were first married..." Or "The first Christmas breakfast your mom made me..." Have you heard those stories? Well I love the thought that we're living those moments that will become fun stories to tell our kids in the future.

They might go something like this...

"Your dad and I bought each other a puppy for our first Christmas." hopefully Piper will still be with us and we can point to her and rave about what a good dog she is but we'll probably tell them that "...she loved to pull off all the ornaments on our Christmas tree and chew on the fuzz of the tree skirt, but she was the hit of the party when we took her over to your grandparents houses." I'll probably laugh as I remember how rambunctious my parents and my sisters new dogs were when they were together but how sweet they were when they played with the new puppy... and how cute they were in the scarfs that Aunt Erin made for them!

 I might include.."it was hard for me at first when I thought about your aunts and uncles at home, with their matching Christmas PJ's, lining up in the hallway to go see their stockings and knowing I wasn't going to be a part of that any more... but your dad made it easier for me by being excited to wear the Christmas PJ's that I had gotten him to match mine." I'll tell them how traditions got started... "I was a little sad that I couldn't go with Grandma and Grandpa Kessler to the Christmas Eve service since Grandma and Grandpa Poindexter open up presents on Christmas Eve, but thats how we started the Christmas Eve brunch with the Kessler family! So I could still see my mom and dad on Christmas Eve." 

They might be bored and think to themselves that they've heard these same stories a thousand times but you can bet I'll be telling them with a smile and a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart because I couldn't have enjoyed my first Christmas with my husband any more than I did.

Maybe next year we'll have a two legged little one to ooh and ahh over instead of the cute little 4 legged creature in those pictures! Wouldn't that be fun???

Amish Friendship Bread

One of Mark's favorite things I would make for him before we got married was Amish Friendship Bread. I haven't made it in over a year though because having to deal with the starters that you're supposed to give out to people can be a little daunting, not to mention a good way to get people annoyed at you.

I mean, I've always loved receiving the starters from people, but it does tend to get a little much after a while. Lately every time I would mention making Amish bread to someone they would make a joke about not wanting a starter when it came time to make the bread. Since hubby was really craving the bread (and I like to satisfy my man's cravings ; )....) I decided to do some research to see if there was a way to make it without having to take out the 4 cups to make the starters...

Here's what I came up with:

First I had to make the starter:
Ingredients:
1 package of dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 c. warm milk

Soften the dry yeast with the warm water for about 10 minutes. In a non-metal bowl with a wooden spoon combine the sugar and flour. Slowly stir in the milk and dissolved yeast. Cover loosely and let stand. The mixture should become bubbly. This is considered day 1. On day 2 pour into a gallon ziploc bag and "mush" the bag.

Day 3: Mush the bag
Day 4: Mush the bag
Day 5: Mush the bag
Day 6: Add 1c. flour, 1 c. milk, 1 c. sugar to mixture and mush the bag
Day 7: Mush the bag
Day 8: Mush the bag
Day 9: Mush the bag
Day 10: Baking Day

BAKING DAY

Pour the mixture into a non-metal bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Add 1 1/2 c. flour, 1 1/2 c. sugar and 1 1/2 c. milk into the bowl and mix.

At this point you have to decide if you want to take out the the starters to give to people or if you want to double the recipe so that you only have one starter for yourself.

If you want to hand out starters then measure out 4 cups of the mixture and pour 1 cup into 4 different ziploc bags. Those are the starters. Traditionally you would keep 1 for yourself and hand the remaining 3 out to your friends along with the recipe.

If you don't want to do that then all you need to do is scoop out one cup of the mixture and put it into a ziploc bag to keep one starter for yourself. Then split the remaining mixture into 2 batches. All the research I did said you should have about 3 cups in each mixture at this point... I had a little bit more than that but I still used the recipe and it turned out great.

Now that you have your two batches just add the following ingredients to each bowl:

3 eggs
1/2 c. of milk
1 c. oil
1 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding mix

(If you had taken out the traditional 4 cups then you would use the same ingredients above for just the one batch.)

My baking mess... Sugar and Flour always seems to explode on me when I bake...

Once you've mixed all the ingredients together grease your loaf pans. (I was able to fill 6 small loaf pans and 1 medium loaf pan from my two batches.) After you grease your pans take a sugar/cinnamon mixture (about 1/2 c. sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon) and dust the bottom of the pans. Pour the batter evenly in to your pans and then sprinkle the tops with the cinnamon/sugar.

Bake the loafs for about 1 hour at 325 degrees. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before popping it out onto a plate.

I used some of my bread to hand out to our neighbors for Christmas gifts. Unfortunately I also experienced my first "First Married Couple" fail... my neighbors wouldn't answer their doors!

..I'm pretty sure they were home too. Hmm.... I thought I was on friendly terms with all of my new neighbors??? 

Maybe I'll try to re-deliver them today!

Piper

I am so excited to introduce you to the first addition to the Poindexter family!

Our Christmas puppy,

 little miss.... Piper!

...I am In Love...

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String...

Per usual I had the afternoon off today, but Erin and I decided to get some last minute Christmas projects done instead of doing our normal "Well Balanced Wednesdays"... We probably won't get a chance to resume those until after the New Year.

On my Christmas list today? Wrap the presents. Choice of wrapping paper? Brown Kraft paper. Bought for $1 at the Dollar Store... Holla! (Holla??? I don't know where that came from...)

Anyhow.... I'm in love with wrapping presents with brown paper. Its affordable. It can be used for any occasion with the right ribbon added. And it is really just so beautiful in that simple, old fashion kind of beautiful. 

All it takes is adding a small embellishment and it is good to go! I did see some adorable add ons on pinterest including doilies, embossing, adding ornaments etc. but that defeated my cost efficient plan for this Christmas, so I just used ribbon. Maybe next Christmas I can spruce them up a little bit more. 

Mark and I didn't get each other much in the way of presents that can be wrapped, instead we decided to go in together to buy each other our puppy! 

Most of the ones pictured above are for other family members that we'll pack up and take to the different houses on Christmas day... but I am happy to have them here and wrapped for now because they are keeping our tree company until Christmas. :)

Stockings!

I finally finished my Home made stockings! It only took me 2 weeks thanks to my superb ability to procrastinate... But I like the way they turned out and Mark loved them! The little one in the middle is for our sweet puppy that we get to bring home later this week! I can't wait to introduce her.

I'm loving every aspect of making our first Christmas really ours.

Mid Twenties

I turned 24 yesterday...

I don't know about you, but that number is starting to sound pretty old to me. I'm no longer in my early twenties... I've crossed the bridge into mid twenties! One year away from a quarter of a century!! *Insert mild freak out now*

Kidding.

I'm okay with mid twenties. Mid twenties means a whole new chapter of my life for me. The focus of my early twenties included graduating from college, getting a good job, getting married and saving money to afford grown up things like a car and a house. All of those things, I'm grateful to say, have been accomplished. And since they have been, its time to look forward to the next phase. I know it sounds a little like I'm living my life by a checklist... I promise I'm not! Its just I felt those things were important to build a foundation for the rest of my life. Now that the foundations been made (and I would be remiss if I didn't give most of the foundation laying credit to my husband) life can continue moving forward.

Whats next?

BABIES!

Hopefully. : ) I'll keep you posted.

But for now, here's my beautiful, thoughtful, sweet birthday gift from my husband. Our wedding picture of our first dance with the lyrics of the song we danced to. (He designed it himself!)

Christmas Firsts

Mark and I put up our Christmas tree and lights a little bit ago I just keep forgetting to post pictures! 

We took a special trip to garden ridge to buy some Christmas cheer for our house including the cute snowman tree skirt that you can see in the picture. I'm a huge fan of snowmen...especially when it comes to decorating for Christmas. I have snowmen on my doormat, my indoor rug, tree skirt, and stocking hangers. They might even make an appearance on my stockings..maybe too much???

As Mark and I decorated our tree I tried to take little snap shots in my mind, savoring each sweet moment with my husband. These are the days that will turn into memories that turn into precious stories that will be told to our children when we recount our early days of marriage.

I am excited to make Christmas traditions with the husband of my youth. And I am taking every opportunity to make happy memories of our first Christmas and holiday season as husband and wife. 

After all... you only get one first Christmas together. : )

Well Balanced Wednesday

Had a very productive Well-balanced Wednesday today!

I ran 3 miles in under 26 minutes! Averaging 8'45" a mile - woop woop! Now that my marathon is over I'm loving these short runs.

Afterwards I headed over to Erin's where we did a 20 minute legs workout (yay me, doubling up on my physical activity today!) We did our bible study and then started a Christmas craft that I'm really excited about!


Our bible study today was on Rahab. What a powerful message she gives. Growing up I always knew her as the prostitute that hid the Isrealite spies at Jericho (not that I knew what a prostitute was growing up) and because of her good deed she saved herself and her family. But theres so much more to her and her story. I delved more into her life a few years ago when I read a book by Francine Rivers (see below) but as always, I gained new insight re-reading the scriptures involving Rahab's life this past week. Really, Rahab is trophy of grace that wasn't yet in the fold of Isreal, but she heard about the God of Isreal and all of the great things He had been doing and chose to believe. She had never seen or heard of the gods of her pagan culture doing anything, but she also had no knowledge of the Law like the Isrealites had for the One true God. But because she believed in God, before really "meeting" Him, she already cast her lot with His people. She discovered that just like He had protected Isreal, He would protect her as well. An interesting thought that this study pointed out, was how she responded to the spies initially. If you can just imagine these two spies sent to scope out the land, finding themselves in a home of a Harlot... a profession they clearly understood was wrong. Can you picture how nervous they might be? In a strange land, enemies surrounding, wondering if they could indeed conquer this walled city, and getting lodging from a woman whose morals are questionable... But she is so confident that the Lord has already given Jericho into their hands and has no hesitation in telling this to them. The spies then go back and tell Joshua. Think of the impact Rahab's faith had on these men and then on their leader! God used her faith to encourage Isreal to attack the city. The faith of a prostitute. God can always use our faith in someone else's life when we trust Him. Rahab also acted on her faith and when the spies told her to put the scarlet cord in the window in order to be saved, she did so immediately. As soon as they left. I think about all of the times I've been told to do something and how often I've waited until the last possible second to complete the task. What would have happened if Rahab had waited? Would she have gotten that scarlet cord out in time? She wasn't willing to take that chance and because she obeyed immediately she was saved and she also saved her family. She was eventually adopted into God's people where she "lived in the midst" and tradition holds that the man she married, Salmon, was actually one of the 2 spies who lodged with her. Salmon was a prince of the house of Judah, so not only did Rahab become a part of God's people but the pagan harlot married into one of the most prominent families in Isreal. ON TOP OF THAT, she is mentioned in Hebrews 11, the faith "hall of fame". AND ON TOP OF THAT, she is ancestor to Jesus Christ. One of Christ's great great great great (you get the picture) grandmothers was a prostitute. The way God takes a persons past, when that individual is open to receiving His grace, and uses it in amazing ways for His glory is, well not surprising, but definitely inspiring and humbling.

This is the book by Francine Rivers that I mentioned. It is part of her lineage of grace series that tells the story of the 5 women mentioned in Jesus lineage. It is fictional but based on history and truths from the bible. I'd highly recommend reading all of the books in this series. 

After our bible study we started making some Christmas stockings!

It was taking us longer then expected so we didn't finish today but I'll post the finished product soon! And don't worry...

The little stocking is for a 4 legged creature I might be getting for Christmas! (more on that later)

BUT I did have a brief thought that if I ever found out I was pregnant near Christmas, hanging a little stocking full of baby items would be a great way to announce a new little one don't you think?!