Church Staff Pictures

Last night Shane and I headed into downtown Frankfort with my camera and met up with several of our church leaders and did some new staff photos for our church website. We had alot of fun, didn't take too long, and got some great pictures! I've got to finish a few this weekend with a couple folks who couldn't make it out last night, but I'm so happy with what we've got so far. Check them out here, at our church's website. If you live in or near Frankfort, Kentucky, come check us out at The Point Community Church. We love our church and are so blessed to be a part of what God is doing there! (Rick-our lead pastor's picture above)

Phillips family

I had the joy and privilege of doing family photos for Frank and Vivian Phillips this past week. Frank is one of our elders at church, and he and Vivian are just dear, precious friends. We call him our "elder" elder! :) On Monday, they called and said one of their sons and his lovely wife and their grandbaby were in town, and so we ended up doing some pictures that very night. We had a good time and got some great photos. As you can tell, they are very proud of their grandson, Abraham! I will be posting more soon on my photo blog.

The fragrance that God loves to smell

"I had a tiny box, a precious box
of human love-my spikenard of great price;
I kept it close within my heart of hearts.
And scarce would lift the lid lest it should waste
Its perfume on the air. One day a strange
Deep sorrow came with crushing weight, and fell
And broke the box to atoms. All my heart
Rose in dismay ans sorrow at this waste,
But as I mourned, behold a miracle
Of grace Divine. My human love was changed
To heaven's own, and poured in healing streams
On other broken hearts, while soft and clear
A voice above me whispered, "Child of mine,
With comfort wherewith thou art comforted,
From this time forth, go comfort others,
And thou shalt know blest fellowship with Me,
Whose broken heart of love hath healed the world."

-taken from Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

What To Do With All That Zucchini???

If you're like me, you're a bit overrun with zucchini this time of the year. We don't have it in our own personal garden, but we have gotten alot from our cropshare, and I keep having people "offer" some of their zucchini to me. I'm not a big zucchini lover...unless it's loaded with sugar, as in zucchini bread or zucchini chocolate cake! So, I went on the hunt last week for zucchini recipes, found this one on Allrecipes.com and had to share! It was SO yummy! We had steak with it (which I got with a price match at Wal-Mart! It was chuck eye steak, that was normally $4.89/lb and I got for $1.99/lb because Pic-Pac had it on sale! Just a sidenote...we don't often have steak!), and although the steak was good, I just wanted more zucchini pie! I would love to do this with all my zucchini every week, if it weren't for the caloric content...because you can't eat just one small piece. So, even if you are fickle with zucchini, as I am, give this one a try..and let me know how you like it! :) (sorry I dont' have a photo of it!)

Mom's Zucchini Pie

1 (8oz.) pkg refrigerated crescent rolls (I used the reduced fat one)
1/4 cup margarine
4 cups sliced zucchini
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups shredded mozzarella (I used a mozzarella/provolone mixture that was fabulous, but you can use any reduced fat cheese here as a substitute..I wouldn't use fat free, though. It never bakes well)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll crescent rolls, and press into a 9 inch pie pan, covering sides and bottom.
2. Melt margarine in a skillet over medium heat, and cook til the zucchini and onion are tender. Season with parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper. Remove skillet from heat, and mix in the eggs and cheese.
3. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until set. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

How Do You Rate As A 1930s Houswife?

Okay, I found this test from a link on another blog and I had to take it for fun! :) Well, at least in the 1930s I would have been a very superior housewife. A day late and a dollar short is always the case, huh? :)

85 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Fun at Megan's shower

On Saturday, I got to go to a personal shower for my dear friend, Megan. I met Megan three summers ago at Crossings at Cedarmore camp, where Shane was the associate director. That summer she met Tim, another staff member, and they are getting married in August. Shane is officiating the wedding-his first! I am doing the photography, and my girls are the flower girls. It's going to be so much fun to do this as a family!

We got to go suit shopping for Shane on Saturday, since he does not own a suit! We found a really nice one, and I think I could get used to seeing him wear it quite often, but he thinks they are of the devil! :)

Anyhow, here are a few pictures from the shower! :) As you can see, all the other girls were in their early 20s. I was the "matriarch." I said, "wow, you all look so young in this picture," to which they replied, "well, you have so much wisdom." We all know what that means! :) But, it was so much fun. Laura, from church, was there-and she is just so sweet. And, Megan's sister Rachel is a hoot, and I could just keep her. And, Megan's friend, Jamie, who hosted the shower was also just sweet as can be. They were gracious to welcome me into their circle of youth! :) ha!

We are so happy for Tim and Megan and are so looking forward to seeing what God has for this young couple who seek Him with their whole hearts. Tim just graduated from Southern Seminary in May, and desires to be a pastor one day. He is currently interning at our church. We really love the two of them so much, and are so blessed to be a part of their lives.

My Beauty

"His blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress."

Something Beautiful

This is MY song lately. You know, that one song that you hear and it makes you weep every time. This is it for me these days.

Me and the Kids

My sweet, old neighbor, Jim, took this picture of the kids and I last Sunday. He gave us a copy, and I thought it was a sweet picture. He's always asking me for photography advice-as he loves to take pictures, and I enjoy talking to him! He's also an artist and gave us one of his paintings after Shane helped him with his yard one day. It's a painting of some churches, and he gave it to us since we were, quote "church people!" :)

Do I Have To Be the Best?

Link to original article here (I thought this was very encouraging)

By Carolyn Mahaney

Not Her Best

"As homemakers, we can be keenly, and somewhat painfully aware of our lack of specialized skill. Many of us trained for a specific field of work only to leave it behind to come home with our baby; and then the field left us behind as we raised our children. We may see our husband excelling at his career, and observe other women who seem to be “the best” at something, and because we haven’t distinguished ourselves in some way (we’ve been too busy cleaning toilets, running errands, reading children's books and pouring bowls of cereal), we wonder if we are really good at anything.

Twentieth century British author G.K. Chesterton has liberating insight for all homemakers who feel pressure to excel in something besides homemaking. In an essay entitled “The Emancipation of Domesticity” he observed that woman is a “general overseer” in the home, and as such, she must be able to do many things well—she shouldn't have to worry about being "the best" at something.

“In other words, there must be in every center of humanity one human being upon a larger plan; one who does not "give her best," but gives her all…..
The woman is expected to cook: not to excel in cooking, but to cook; to cook better than her husband who is earning [a living] by lecturing on botany or breaking stones….the woman is expected to tell tales to the children, not original and artistic tales, but tales--better tales than would probably be told by a first-class cook.

But she cannot be expected to endure anything like this universal duty if she is also to endure the direct cruelty of competitive or bureaucratic toil. Woman must be a cook, but not a competitive cook; a school mistress, but not a competitive schoolmistress; a house-decorator but not a competitive house-decorator; a dressmaker, but not a competitive dressmaker. She should have not one trade but twenty hobbies; she, unlike the man, may develop all her second bests.
This is what has been really aimed at from the first in what is called the seclusion, or even the oppression, of women. Women were not kept at home in order to keep them narrow; on the contrary, they were kept at home in order to keep them broad” (emphasis mine).

My fellow homemakers, let’s embrace the “larger plan” ordained by our Creator. Let’s not worry about being the best, but eagerly give our all to the broad calling of serving in the home."

Think About It

This video is so funny! I don't advocate all their songs, but this one just made Shane and I crack up! :)

Bad Dog!

Okay, after writing that nice post on our dog, Belle, yesterday, I have an update. She is NOT a good dog! :) We were gone for five hours yesterday-we've been gone that amount many times. During our brief outing, she managed to knock down the two gates we had up to keep her in, and chew up our mini blinds in our front window! Shane was not so happy with her. He said she gets one more chance! :) Guess it's time to start putting her in the crate when we leave. In the meantime, Shane's headed to Lowe's to pick up new blinds!

Oh, speaking of which...all our blinds on our front window are labeled "Jencraft." The only thing I can find online for Jencraft is a lawsuit back in 1996, because their un-glossy mini-blinds contained lead as a binder. I guess the light deteriorated the blinds, and when you dusted them, the dust got into the air and was hazardous to kids. Any updates on this that anyone knows? I have NO idea how old these blinds are-they are in great condition. I don't know if the company is no longer around, or if they upgraded their products. I'm worried, because of the kids..and because my dog chewed them up! Anyone know anything about this?

Flowers for mama

The other day, Shane took the kids and the dog for a walk in the woods. That gave me a chance to go to my friend, Greta's, house and take her some of our garden lettuce and chat for awhile. When I came home, these wonderful flowers were in vases on my table and on top of our antique hutch. Shane and the kids had picked these for me on their walk. I was so surprised and thrilled. Besides hydrangeas, wildflowers are my favorite. Aren't they lovely? I have a great family.

Our new dog, Belle

We had told the girls, when we moved to our new home, that we would get them a dog. Shane said they could get a puppy, I prayed against it. Guess who's prayers were heard? MINE! :) ha, ha!

My friend from church, Janine, emailed me one day with a picture of Belle and the email asking for someone to please find a home for her. She had a good home, but the mother of the house just had her third child, and couldn't do it all anymore. So, we emailed the family, and went the next week to pick her up.

She's been a great dog. She's completely house-trained, and she's not overly active. She IS a dog, and sometimes does dumb dog stuff, but I guess we have to expect that! We love Belle, and are glad she's in our home. And, yes, she DOES look like Benji! :)

My Pretty Girls 7-07-08

Baby Boy

I know he's mine and all....but isn't he beautiful? :)

New Blog Look....Same wonderful blog!

Okay, so what do you think of the new template? Do you like it? I thought I'd try something different! Let me know what you think! Kari

Got My Finger Stuck

Okay, so...Lizzie is my child who is always into something...always getting dirty, always getting into mischief. She's not bad, just curious. Always exploring, always climbing trees and picking up bugs. She was also the child that drew on the walls, "painted" on herself with yogurt, used Desitin as lotion, drew on her arms with a sharpie marker...the one who always keeps me on my toes!

So, yesterday we were in the girls' room, cleaning and reorganizing when she said, "mom, my finger is stuck." I look down and this (refer to picture) is what I see. (Now, I didn't realize until after I took this picture that it was THE finger...so this picture has no "nasty" sub-meanings, it's just a picture of another of her "mishaps!") It's the bottom half of an old recorder. Now, why she was not cleaning, and what possibly possessed her to put her finger into the recorder in the first place I will never know. And, so she got "the lecture"...but then I had to take a picture! :) hee, hee... I have to remember all these things she's done! We DID get it unstuck, but it took pouring water and soap down into the tube! She is just a nut...and I wouldn't have her any other way! :)

Shawn and Tiffany's engagement pictures

A sneak peek of Tiffany and Shawn's engagement pictures is now posted on my photo blog!
click here

Any moms feeling weak and tired?

"When you are weak, let out a whoop, because whatever you are able to do comes through the grace of God. When you are nothing, shout 'halleluja!' because Jesus is getting all the glory and honor for what you accomplish. God loves his weak, imperfect, needy people. He didn't choose us because we won some international awards for strength, beauty, or intelligence. He has made us for Himself, and He is going to provide us with everything we need to serve Him and love others through our imperfect homes and families. What a joy to serve our perfect Creator, Who made us in His image and is transforming us (slowly, but surely) into the image of His perfect Son."

-Jennie Chancey, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, a book I HIGHLY recommend