More Than You'll Ever Know!

Have you ever heard a song over and over again, but never paid attention to the words? I REdiscovered a song today and it made me think of my Bible study sisters! It's by Watermark and it's called "More Than You'll Ever Know:"

Something brought you to my mind today

I thought about the funny ways you make me laugh

And yet I feel like it's okay to cry with you

Something about just being with you

When I leave I feel like I've been near God

And that's the way it ought to be...

CHORUS:

'Cause you've been more than a friend to me

You fight off my enemies

'Cause you've spoken the Truth over my life

And you'll never know what it means to me

Just to know you've been on your knees for me

Oh, you have blessed my life

More than you'll ever know, yeah, yeah, yeah

More than you'll ever know, yeah, yeah, yeah

You had faith, when I had none

You prayed God would bring me a brand new song

When I didn't think I could find the strength to sing

And all the while I'm hoping that I'll

Do the kind of praying for you that you've done for me

And that's the way it ought to be...

You have carried me

You have taken upon a bruden that wasn't your own

And may the blessing return to you

A hundredfold, oh yeah...

A hundredfold, oh yeah...

Now go search for it on youtube so you can REhear it!

Happy Thanksgiving Girls!

Remind Us O Lord - Have Mercy

I was listening to this song on the way home last night and it really spoke to me. Even though things are going so well for us with our adoption and Lyndal's job is great I have still been in a bit of a valley like some of my sisters. The words in this song remind me that my valleys or transgressions help me love Him again . . .

YO YO YO TIME TO EAT YA'LL!

Hello girlies!!  Here is the dinner sign-ups for the next two weeks!!  I'm already hungry to . . . . spend time with you guys AND time with the Lord.  Hope you guys are doing good and having a blessed week - no piggies visiting anyone!!!

Trena, we can't wait to hear about your trip?  Did Montezuma's Revenge get you, too?  Hope not!!

Oct. 20th

Main

Michelle

Amy R

 

Salad/Veg

trena

Susan

 

Dessert

Janet c

 

Oct. 27th

Main

Lori 

Melissa

 

Salad/Veg

Michelle

Deanna

 

Dessert

Jessica

Nov. 3rd

Main

1.

2.

Salad/Veg.

1.

2.

Dessert

1.

2. ?

SWAK!!

This lovely photo is to let you know we are having a . . . . DRUMROLL PLEASE . . . duh duh DUH!!!  A LIPSTICK EXCHANGE!!!!  Our fearless, mouthy leader decided that SHE needed to work on what comes out of her mouth and that if SHE needed to then maybe the rest of us do too - whatever!  Bible study is going to be a whole lot less fun with all of us watching every word that comes out of our mouths, ugh.  Why don't we all just stay at home?  I mean COME ON!!!  Just kidding.  I know I could definitely use some help in this area, kind of using the whole Thumper theory, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."  So, anyway, NEXT Tuesday, Sept. 22 we will be having a LIPSTICK EXCHANGE.  Here's what you do:

BRING:  Your Favorite INEXPENSIVE tube of lipstick or gloss ($5 or less)

HOW:  We Will Play Like Dirty Santa - So Wrap Your Special Gift With No Name On It.  We'll draw numbers and then go at it like a rat on a cheetoh.

OH!  And one more thing (totally unrelated to our lipstick goodness)!  We need to VOTE on how we want to do dinners on Tuesdays.  It's really important, so don't forget!

God Sees EVERYTHING

Not to scare anyone, but you can't hide your sin from God.  Just not sure if we all knew that.  I'm not sure David realized it or just thought that since he was special he wouldn't be punished very harshly (he was, four times over including the death of a child because of his sin).  The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  The good thing . . . no, GREAT thing  . . . is that we can ask for forgiveness and we are forgiven by His grace, by His love, and mercy.  We can lay it at the cross and it will be as far away as the East is from the West, and He will trade our ashes in for beauty using it for HIS glory.  God is so good.

So, tonight we were talking about how God sees EVERYTHING.  And Trena kept saying that "He sees EVERYTHING!"  And the way she was saying it reminded a few of us of the scene in Toy Story where Woody and the toys that Sid had mutilated were getting revenge on him.  Here is the clip:

Dinner List

Here is dinner for NEXT Tuesday.  We could use one more main dish . . . 

Aug. 18th Session 6

Main

1. Amy R.

2.  Brenda

3.  Peggy 

Salad/Veg.

1. Lora

2.  Janet C.

3.  Deanna 

Dessert

1. Paula

2. Lori

3. Mary

As Our Children Start School . . .

Trena loaned me a book the other night at the meeting at her house called The Family Blessing by Rolf Garborg.  It's just a short little book on blessing your children and family and offers a few examples.  I've really enjoyed it and am trying to be diligent at blessing my kids before they go to bed.  I found one that I really like from this book that pretty much covers all bases and I thought I would share it with you to say over your children as they start school . . . 

God bless you with grace and peace,

power and protection,

health and healing,

holiness and godliness,

abundance and prosperity, 

and all the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit,

in Jesus’ name.  AMEN!

Hope all your kids, young and old, have a great year at school.

Books some of us have read that we REALLY like

Book List – From some of the Tuesday night Bible Study Ladies

REG (Christian Themed)

The Hole in the Gospel – Richard Sterns

The Lost Secret of the New Covenant – Malcolm Smith

Mere Christianity – CS Lewis

Parenting with Love and Logic – Jim Fay/Foster Cline

Passion with Purity – Elizabeth Elliott

The Shack – William Peterson

The Blessing – Gary Smalley

Praying the Scriptures for your Children and Teenagers

Rees Howells – Intercessor – Norman Grubb

Medford Series

The True Vine – Andrew Murray

Praying Like Jesus – James Mulholland

God Mean It for Good – A Fresh Look at the Life of Joseph – RT Kendall

Desire: The Journey we Must Take to Find the Life God Offers – John Eldredge

The Dynamic Duo: The Holy Spirit and You – Rick Renner

The Heavenly Man - Brother Yun

 

Non – REG (Secular)

Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson

Janet Evanovich Novels (all of them)

Fern Michaels Series

Miss Juilia Series

Secret Life of Bees

The Help – Kathryn Stockard

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Wednesday Sisters

The Lord's Prayer

This is absolutely precious!  Just had to share with you guys.  Thanks Paula!

Indescribable

Some of us watched this about a year ago at Janet's.  And what we are studying this week reminded me of it again.  Who am I that HE would know MY name?  The creator of ALL knows who I am?  Look how far I have come!

Who Am I?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake - YUM!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

1 cup quick oatmeal

1 3/4 cup boiling water

1 stick butter or marg

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 12 oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

chopped walnuts (optional, but highly recommended!)

Preheat oven to 350

Use greased and floured 9 x 13 pan (glass works better)

In large bowl, pour boiling water over oatmeal; let stand 5-10 minutes

Add butter, brown sugar and sugar to oatmeal; stir until melted

Beat eggs and add to mixture–don’t mix too much

Sift flour, salt, soda, and cocoa together into mixture; blend until mixed, but do not overmix.

Add ½ package chocolate chips; stir gently. If mixture is too warm, let cool so that chocolate chips will not melt or sink to bottom

Pour into pan

Evenly sprinkle chopped nuts and remaining chips on top

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes

BBQ Recipe

Here is the recipe from Lisa's BBQ we had the other night.  YUM!

Chuck Roast BBQ

 

3 lb chuck roast

1 med onion, chopped

1/2 cup celery, diced

2 TBSP oil

2 TBSP vinegar

2 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP Worchestershire sauce

2 TBSP brown sugar (I used 4)

1 Cup ketchup

1 TBSP mustard 

1/2 cup water

dash pepper

1 tsp salt (I used seasoned salt)

 

Place meat in baking dish.  Mix other ingredients together and pour over meat.  Cover tightly with foil.  Bake at 350 for 4 hours, or when meat is tender.  When finished, remove meat from pan.  Pull apart meat with fork and remove all visible fat.  Skim fat off of liquid.  Return meat to liquid and mix well.  If doubling recipe, use less water. 

Well . . .

I'm sitting here typing this, listening to my pug snore. She's so cute! We have a couple of things we need to take care of . . . :)

We are running out or barely having enough food to feed everyone. So, we are going to have three people sign up to bring each thing. Here's the list the way we have it right now:

Aug. 4 Session 4

Main

1. Ashlea

2. Jessica B. (raisin bran crunch is what she says she's bringing)

3. Lori

Salad/Veg.

1. Jen

2. Nikki

3. Trena

Dessert

1.Melissa B.

2. Melissa R.

3. Mary

Aug. 11th Session 5

Main

1. Lori M.

2. Deanna

3. Paula

Salad/Veg.

1. Trena

2. Lora

3.

Dessert

1. Ann

2.

3.

Aug. 18th Session 6

Main

1. Amy R.

2.  Brenda

3.

Salad/Veg.

1. Lora

2.  Janet C.

3.  Deanna 

Dessert

1. Paula

2. Lori

3. Mary

Please email me and let me know what date and which category you can bring food to and I will update it as we go along.

AND, just a reminder, we DO NOT have study NEXT Tuesday July 28.

I love ya'll - be transformed!

Lori

Paula's Chicken Veggie Casserole Recipe

Did any of you have any of this on Tuesday?  It was so very good and I'm not a big vegetable eater, but this was D-licious!

HEARTY TEX-MEX SQUASH-CHICKEN CASSEROLE

 

 

1 10-oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed

 

3 medium-sized yellow squash, thinly sliced

1 large red bell pepper, cut into ½” pieces

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

 

3 cups shredded cooked chicken (2 12.5 oz cans)

12 6” corn tortillas, cut into 1” pieces

1 10-3/4 oz can cream of celery soup, undiluted

1 8-oz container sour cream

1 8-oz jar picante sauce

1 4.5-oz can chopped green chilies, undrained

1 1.4-oz envelope fajita seasoning

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

 

Drain the chopped spinach well, pressing between paper towels to remove excess moisture.

 

Saute squash, bell pepper and onion in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 6 minutes or until tender.  Remove from heat. 

 

Mix spinach, chicken, tortillas, soup, sour cream, picante sauce, chilies, fajita seasoning and 1-1/2 cups of the cheese in a very large mixing bowl.  Mix in the squash mixture.  Spoon into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish.

 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle evenly with remaining ½ cup cheese and bake 5 more minutes.

 

Paula Reno

July 2009

Let's Get Stuffed!

Here is the dinner list.  If something comes up and you can't make it, just email me (Lori) and let me know.  I will put out a plea for someone to take your place and it will get taken care of!  Simple and no stress!

Please keep in mind that our host family has NUT allergies!

July 14th Session 2

Main Dish

1.  Paula

2.  Melissa

Salad/Vegetable

1.  Brenda

2.  Deanna

Dessert

1.  Janet C.

2.  Michelle 

July 21st Session 3

Main Dish

1.  Lisa

2.  Lora

Salad/Vegetable

1.   Ann

2.  Amy R.

Dessert

1.  Sarah D.

2.  Debbie B.

Aug. 4 Session 4

Main

1.  Ashlea

2.  Deanna

Salad/Veg.

1.  Jen

2.  Nikki 

Dessert

1.Melissa B.

2.  Melissa R.

Aug. 11th Session 5

Main

1.  Lori M.

2.  

Salad/Veg.

1.

2.

Dessert

1.  Ann

2. 

Aug. 18th Session 6

Main

1.  Amy R.

2.  

Salad/Veg.

1.

2.

Dessert

1.  Paula

2.  Lori

LET'S GET BLOWN AWAY

Our next study starts NEXT TUESDAY, July 7 at 6:30pm. Please let Janet P. or I know that you want to participate so we can make sure we have enough books. This study is 6 weeks long, perfect to finish the summer with.

FOOD for SWEET NEW BABY!

Ya'll want to take bets on what it is? Make it interesting? Come on! Who's in?

Here are the details on the dynamics of the Kosanke family . . . .

1. There are SIX people in the Kosanke family (not counting that new baby girl): Dad, Mom, 13 year old boy (prolly eats a LOT), 5 year old Nathan, 4 year old Jordan (I think he's 4), and that SBG Sophie who is about 3 (or is she 2?).

2. No food allergies!!!

These are the folks who have signed up for dinner for them:

1. Melissa

2. Jen

3. Deanna

4. Lori

5. Trena

6.

7.

The NEW and IMPROVED Dinner List

June 30

Main

1.  Mary

2.  Deanna

Salad/Veg.

1.  Melissa

2.  Jen

Dessert

1.  Amy M.

2.  Susan S.

July 7 

NEW STUDY STARTS

Our fearless host is providing the food

July 14

Main

1.  Melissa

2.  Trena

Salad/Veg.

1. Lori

2.

Dessert

BIRTHDAY CAKE!