Chopped!

One night I had some friends over to do a fun cooking activity. It compares to Chopped the TV show. If you haven't seen it this is how it goes.

For us we didn't have a big time limit thing, but we were judged with best taste, best presentation, and most creative use of ingredients. It turned out each group (we did it in groups of two) got best in one category. For our ingredients basket we each had to use one meat, at least one starch, and at least one vegetable. Other than that we could use basically what we wanted from the fridge and pantry. The catch was that you had to make something you've never made before. Okay, so onto the foods....

 

Group 1~

cooked potato wedges, cooked ground beef to put on top, made a cheese sauce for on top of that, and finished it off with lots of herbs and spices, also with some tomato.

 

Group 2~

cut bacon in little pieces and cooked them, added in some orange pepper and onions. Then took that stuff out of the pan while the put some potatoes in. Afterwards those things were put in a tortilla with mayonnaise, black olives, grated cheese, and a little bit of lettuce. Quite good, actually!

 

Group 3~

  cooked noodles, cooked chicken and tomatoes and put them on top of the noodles, with grated cheese.

 All were delicious!!! But after a little chit chat, the moms decided the following (While we were in the kitchen cleaning up the big mess☺):

Group 1~Most delicious
Group 2~Most creative use of ingredients
Group 3~Best presentation

It was so much fun, thank you to other friends who first gave me the idea! I definitely would do it again!

What's happenin' around here: Flowers, Butterflies, chalk, projects, art, photography

Budding....

 to

 .....blooming! Purple cone flowers. Don't ask me why they're called purple☺

 

 

And Butterflies on our butterfly bush~

 

Chalk art~

 

and other art~

I copied this from the eye my counselor at camp drew. I'm pretty happy with the result☺.

Seth and Dad making a corn hole board. It's a really fun game to find out how to play click here.

 

 

 

 And more flowers!~

 

Star gazer lilies...these are so gorgeous in real life but sorry this picture isn't a good representation of them :(. 

 I LOVE this picture!!!!!!!! Meet the lilies (of what kind??)~



Hiking and Swimming!

Here are two pictures that I thought were so awesome! I am standing in a stream, casting a shadow, with the trees above me reflecting into my shadow! (how's that for complex☺)

 

 

We are thoroughly enjoying our pool this summer....now that the rain isn't so often (well, not as often as before☺).

 

Lined up with house church friends jumping in the pool!

 



 This is a friend and me diving....

 and again....☺ ready, set, dive....swoosh, the water comes up to our faces, our bodies, our feet, and boy, does it refresh us.

 

Thanks to the moms for taking these awesome jumping and diving pictures!!!!!!

Psalm 92:2

The original flower! no editing. I love it's detail.

 

One thing we were talking about recently is the verse Psalm 92:2.

 

 

 

 

We need to remember to proclaim God's love in the morning and his faithfulness at night. Because we can be forgetful, we need to remind ourselves.

 

And this is an amazing flower......aren't you so glad God made beautiful things for us to enjoy in nature? I know for sure....I am.

 

 

Yipee!

 

Thanks everyone for reading my blog, I hope you are enjoying it!

Some things we talked about this morning with housechurch in a nutshell~

Here are some things to think about.... Please bear with me, this post is long!

Mark 6:2-6 (NIV)

A Prophet Without Honor

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. ² When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? ³ Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,^[a] Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” ⁵ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.* ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith.**


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**He, as in, the Son of God, was amazed! It seems interesting that their lack of faith was so great that Jesus was amazed at it.
 
* How come Jesus couldn't do miracles there? Isn't God powerful enough to do miracles when he wants? Well, God gives us freedom of choice, so he doesn't FORCE on us miracles. He gives them to us when we have FAITH. What would you say the definition of faith is? I like the definition my dad used: Faith is my receptivity to God's activity.  Sounds simple when you say it like that, doesn't it?

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Mark 6:38-52 (NIV)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Jesus Walks on the Water

⁴⁵ Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

⁴⁷ Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵² for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.***

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***They were there, they walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus. They saw tons and tons of miracles done But their hearts were hardened, they did not realize how truly amazing the miracle of the loaves was. Apparently they had seen so many, it was 'all in a day's work' for them, and they didn't realize how truly amazing it was. Maybe, do you think our hearts could harden, also? Do we realize and thank God for all the little and big gifts and miracles he gives us? Or are our hearts starting to harden? Oooff.... that made me wonder. Oh God, help me to thank you for the everyday things you do in my life, no matter how small. And remember the gifts you give me, to help me along in my faith.

 

relatively random, funney:) and funnkie:) post!

 Hi guys, So...as the title suggests this is a  funny and funky post, with relatively random things that I've done in the past couple of weeks.

This stuff mostly explains itself, but still.... 

First row (left to right): croquet mallets and balls, my brother playing croquet, badminton (yes, I took the picture AND was holding the raquet...not an easy thing to do.....), badminton. We did a lot of croquet and badminton in between swimming, so we could get ourselves warm again.

Second row: while weeding I came across a holly tree trying to grow in our flower bed, fun and funky picture of me with my hat and a friend's glasses, newly budded pine cone, tiger lily, another fun and funky picture of me, blueberries! and more blueberries! we sorted through several boxes...and ate a few :).

Third row: gorgeous calla lily, purple cone flower, shasta daisy, hydrangeas of magnificent colors.