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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Jogging Attempts?

A week ago, I said I would blog something about my jogging progress. I'm here to report ...that it didn't happen this week. Booo, Leona. I know. But, I do have a reason. I've been sick all week. Quite hilarious and ironic just to look back to WHEN I got sick.

On Monday, I went to see my doctor for a Physical. Labs were drawn and all, and I received an "A-OK" stamp of approval. The next day I started feeling either a cold or Cedar Fever coming. By Friday, I went back to my Dr, and he thought it amusing that he saw me on Monday, HEALTHY. He said it's Viral, and I need to let it run it's course. Well, I think it's crossed the finishline, and should leave me now, and take my coughing and stuffy nose with it!

Hopefully, I'll be back on the trail again, or treadmill since it's warmer in the gym than outside right now. ;)


Leona

His Grace is undeserved, but greatly received.


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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Appeasing a 12 year old food critic.

You may think this is not blog worthy, but Hey! It's my blog.

If you have the pickiest person eating 4 helpings of the meal, you know you did a good job! For all you Foodies out there, you know what I'm talking about. There's always one person at your table that's hard to please, whatever you make. Tuesday night I made "African Peanut Butter Stew" for my Small Group (bible study group). I have quite a challenge in making a dish everyone would eat. Some have lactose issues, others with Gluten issues, and someone that just doesn't like much that it would probably take her mom to force feed her to eat anything! (I got permission from her mom to write it, not force feed). Looking at the ingredients, I asked my group last week if they'd try it if I made it. I got some yes's and maybes, so I decided to try it.

It was GOOOD. Made some changes so everyone could eat it, and got pretty good reviews from them. Even I went back for seconds! My finicky eater took a small helping at first, but then went back for a bigger helping, and then another! Marion and I were pretty wide-eyed, while she was eating her fourth helping.

The recipe makes for 2 servings, and you have to double or triple the ingredients to fit the size of pot you use. I have a 6 quart Dutch Oven, so it's to make 6 servings in that size pot. I have 11 ladies in my group, and the "6 servings" fed all of them, and for extra helpings. It's like a bottomless pot. It was finally empty when everyone was full! If you ever buy this cookbook, remember they're BIG servings.

Nobody tasted the peanut butter or coconut milk (my change in the recipe). Or even the Shallots (for the onion hater)! :). There was also Cayenne pepper in it, and gave it enough kick. I definitely need to make this one again.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My Dutch Oven Adventures

This might sound like a Spin-off from Julie & Julia, but it isn't. Honest.

I bought a Dutch Oven last year, hoping to make some kind of meals in it. I had it in my head that I could use it for "all-in-one" pot/pan. fry in it, bake in it, cook in it, etc. I didn't know what I really bought. It looked easy to use when I saw Alton Brown using his.(Silly me) Instead, it only collected dust on the stove (our cabinets were to small to store it). I'm still determined to use it somehow. When I come home from work I REALLY don't have the motivation to cook any dinner either. I would just look at my kitchen, and then go back out for fast food instead. My waistline has been seeing the results of that.

Well, recently I moved into a new apartment, with plans for my Small Group to meet here as well. That gave me an idea to finally use my Dutch Oven WEEKLY. I went to the bookstore and found a cookbook specifically made for Dutch Oven cooking (and it's not a campers cookbook). Once a week, I can make one of these One-Pot meal sensations, and serve it to my group. Pretty good idea, if I say so myself. Also, I could actually make one of these meals on my day off, divide them into portions, and have it last me a week so all I have to do is microwave one of the containers once I get home from work. I think I'm on a roll, but let's see if I can actually pull this off.

1st Dish: Bahama Chicken

Each dish has your meat, veggies, and some kind of starch for a balanced meal so you don't have to make any additional mess, just one pot. However, she neglected to mention the mess you'll make just preparing the ingredients. So far, I made 2 dishes for the group, and they were both a hit. One is Bahamian Chicken, but I call it just Bahama Chicken. When I looked at the liquid on the directions, I was kind of..skeptical of how it would taste, and if maybe I should call my girls to bring their dinner in case this became a flop. In the end, everyone liked it. I had only enough left to take w/ me to work the next day. So far so good.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Amos' Story Music Video

There's a couple at our church that adopted a boy from Haiti over 2 years ago, but were not able to bring him home to Texas because of Red Tape in Haiti. Aaron and Jaime can explain it a whole lot better than I can. Aaron wrote this song, Amos' Story, before the earthquake. Watch it and enjoy. I suggest a box of tissue next to you if you have tendencies of crying.

Thank you, Jesus, for Happy Beginnings.


Determined to Blog More

I've had this blog for 4 years now (wow). At first, I used it for journaling my Travel Nursing journeys, but after stopping in Austin, I've been trying to figure out what to write about. I've been writing less and less that it's been almost a year before I started up again in December. I need to do SOMETHING!

I'm not as lively and creative as my friends Emily and Jen are when it comes to finding things to blog about, but I do have some loves and challenges I can share, such as, cooking, travelling, life lessons, mountain biking (trying to get back on the trails) and jogging (that the challenging part), If I keep track of my jogging progress on my blog, I can use you for accountability. Just a thought. Of course, no jogging blog might mean I haven't done much jogging or much blogging. You might have to ask.

Let's see what happens this year!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

A Port-A-Potty Life?

Did that get your attention? ;)

It definitely did for me. Last week, I was looking through my journal, and completed some thoughts I started in it. In one of my journal entries I came across a verse I wrote next to it to "definitely to need to REAP further". I dugged deeper into it, and found a "jewel" of a lesson out of it. When I later went to church, Pastor Matt pretty much taught the same lesson in a different way (Jan 17), more ELOQUENT way than I did, but I like my way of looking at it still. Wanna know what that was?

Monday, January 11, 2010

Digging the Word, and IN the Word

I remember when I started my nursing career, I thought all those initals after a nurse's name was too much, such as, SoandSo Burns, RN, MSN, RRT, ACNP, CCRN, FAAN, FCCM, FAANP. For real! Really! Those are actually someone's professional suffixes! All those abbreviations are certifications that someone studied and took an exam for--EACH. As a new nurse, I said I'd be happy with just RN, BSN after mine. I don't want to do anymore studying. I'm all studied out. ..Yeah..., didn't stay that way. I was writing an email today, and then I noticed the alphabet soup after my name as well. Did I take that many tests for those letters?! Worse yet, I'm studying for another one! On the positive side of it all, it's nice to know that you have nurses with all those letters backing up their name, because you know they worked hard, and know a lot about their specialty. So, onward to my next certification, so I can say I conquered my fear of Neuro patients, and I'll be certified to say "I know what I'm doing."

If only we would be willing to study and learn the Word like that. Not to put initials by our names, but to have the Word of God in our hearts. That's more lasting than any external reward. Can we say that we read and dig into the word daily in our busy lives? I can't. Every day, I wanted to open my bible, but had another reason to set it aside to catch up with other things in my life, and then I've set it aside almost altogether. I couldn't remember the passages and God's promises that refreshed and redirected me many times before, when I needed them the most. It was like a vague memory. That jolted me awake on how much I set aside my bible for my distractions. We need to sink our spiritual teeth into the word like its fresh bread daily, and savor it. If we set it aside, the passages we remembered will be a stale as week old bread, and hard to remember the verses that once encouraged, taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16) Jesus even said:


"It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Matt 4:4 (Deut 8:3)

For the past 2 Sundays, the pastors at my church preached about studying the Word, and it's ignited a desire in each of us to grab our Bibles and dig into the Word. There's so much treasure to be found in the Word if you are ready and willing to dig for it. "They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;" (psalm 19:10) Let's get digging, and see what treasures the Lord has waiting for us.

I may not receive initials after my name for reading God's Word, but I know what's engraved in my heart, like certifications of His Promise to me. We don't need to pass a test to receive His Promise. We're already certified by His Word and covered by His Grace.


Leona Baxter, DOK, COG, HSIHP, LWAEL


DOK: Daughter of the King (Ex. 6:7, Pslam 10:16, Psalm 103:19, Eph 1:5, heb 12:5-9)

COG: Child of God (John 1:12-13)

HSIHP: His Sheep of His Pasture (John 10:2-11,14-16)
LWAEL: Loved with An Everlasting Love (Jer 31:3-4, Psalm 103:17-18, Eph 2:4,)