(thinly sliced granny smith apple)
(two pieces of crispy bacon)
(a slice or two of sharp cheddar cheese)
Place ingredients between two pieces of bread, grill, and enjoy.
The apple bacon cheddar…best sandwich ever.
I wrote about visiting The Pioneer Woman last month and mentioned that our gift to her was a t-shirt from Young Moms.
Here’s where I go into a little more detail about that program.
Michelle started to see a growing need in our area for teen moms. They are everywhere and most of them have very little help. She had an idea…
That was 3 years ago and her idea has grown, changed, and developed since then, but the desire to meet the needs of teen moms in our little area has not.
We chat with them, feed them, offer them baby products, and bring in ‘experts’ to teach them more about their role as a mom.
I am not a mom (unless you count the coop as my child), so clearly I don’t have much to offer these girls as far as mothering goes.
So, it’s true that I may not be able to give them advice about baby food, the best diapers, or discipline techniques – but every other Monday I can offer them a meal, a friendly conversation, and hopefully a relationship that will teach them about their Creator.
These girls are on a bumpy road and they are the first to tell you it’s hard, but it’s never boring. Some of them impress me with their natural mothering ability and work ethic, while other depress me…
It’s a roller coaster with these Young Moms, but I’m thankful to be a part.
“The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. It just consists in the substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner; Christ being treated as if he were the sinner and then the transgressor being treated as if he were the righteous one. It is a change of persons; Christ becomes the sinner; He stands in the sinner’s place…the sinner becomes righteous; he stands in Christ’s place…and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of His own, but he takes human guilt and is punished for human folly. We have no righteousness of our own, but we take the Divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been worked out by ourselves.”
Charles Spurgeon, The King’s Highway
History has been captivating my attention lately.
I was flipping channels last month and the documentary title ‘Stock Market Crash of 1929′ made me stop for a minute.
After 30 seconds, I was hooked. I couldn’t look away for entire hour – and that was tough because there were no commercials since it was on GPB.
It’s no secret that I love talking about money and news, so I guess it’s not really surprising that I spent an hour of my down time learning about the stock market. (If none of these things interests you, now is a good time to hit the little ‘x’ in the corner.)
Here is what I learned:
- The time leading up to the crash of ‘29 was a time of excess and wealth. Hmm…
- The stock market was run by a small handful of extremely wealthy men that could control the entire market by pooling their money together. (although that didn’t work when everyone else started to lose confidence)
- People borrowed [lots of] money from banks and other lenders so that they could buy stock and gain wealth. Wow – not scared.
Because of this one day in history, there is an entire generation of people that had to grow up living a thrifty lifestyle. What’s amazing is that they still continue that lifestyle even now. Saving everything, making from scratch, reusing, and stretching every dollar. A lesson that my generation could clearly learn from.
Here’s to saving, stretching, and living life with a little more thrift!
Last night was ‘Tacky Christmas 2009′ at Alison and Amado’s house.
Here’s a little sneak peek at our get-up before the par-tay:
I’m extremely fashion forward with my poinsettia flower turtleneck. But the main event for my outfit was of course the XXL sweater vest, complete with beautiful Christmas ornaments embellished with a gold accent. The other side of the vest is covered with an eye-catching Christmas tree with plenty of gift to go ’round.
Michael sported a fleece-like sweater ensemble with a Christmas cat popping out of a red and green gift…man, what a sweet Christmas present that is! The finishing touch on his Christmas outfit was green mock-turtleneck covered in tiny snowmen. I think what really pulled this outfit together was the fancy side-part created by handfuls of gooey hair gel.
What a festive night! Merry Christmas!
Picture this:
It’s Monday. It’s raining. It’s cold.
These factors combined made for the perfect day to skip work and drive to the big city.
I should mention that this Monday was no ordinary Monday – it was the Monday that THE PIONEER WOMAN was in Atlanta.
If you don’t know who THE PIONEER WOMAN is and you are wondering why I took off work to drive to Atlanta to see her, I’ll share a link with you that will lead you to her blog. Warning: this link will change your life. www.thepioneerwoman.com
She blogs about life on her ranch, homeschooling her 4 kids, cooking, and picture taking. She’s hilarious and she just wrote a cookbook. It’s super cool with amazing, southern-ish, made from scratch, delicious recipes.
So, Michelle, Jordan, and I got our wristbands early to be sure we would get a good spot in the long line.
Since we didn’t have to stand around and wait for wristbands, we shopped to pass the time until P-Dub was ready to hang out with us…er…sign our cookbooks.
Here we are waiting patiently:
This is when I told Michelle to try and look happy – I think she did a pretty good job.
So, here’s how it went down:
She stepped up to the mic and said hello.
Then we stood in line.
Then we met her.
She was really nice.
We brought P-Dub a t-shirt from Young Moms. We saw on her blog that lots of people were bringing her fun little crafty things that they make or cupcakes that they are famous for. We don’t make crafty things or bake things that we are famous for. So, we decided the really fun (free) t-shirts from our Young Moms group would be perfect.
Then PW gave us t-shirts. We felt special.
She gave them to everyone though…
This is us chatting with her. Wait, if we are all in this picture – who took it?
Oh wait, I know. BAKERELLA!!
That’s right, a really famous blogger and dessert maker took a picture of us and used it on her REALLY POPULAR blog!
So, while we were chatting with P-Dub I told her that Jordie was preggo and needs a name for her baby boy. Pioneer Woman was all ‘you won’t like it’ and we were all ‘tell us anyway’. And she finally did.
Mckenna.
Cute girl name, but I think Jordan and Brack are going to keep looking for their BOY name…
What a fun day! Really loved meeting P-Dub and hanging out with some of my favorite friends.
For the record, the cookbook is great. So far, our favorite recipes are the mashed potatoes and meatballs. Yumm!
When I want to know what time it is, I look at my watch.
Then, sometimes I’ll ask myself ‘will I need a jacket when I go outside?’ My instinct at that moment is to check my watch again.
The temperature outside is never on my watch.
Why do I do that?
They actually make watches for people like me – people who check their watches for the temperature. The problem is that these watches provide the temperature in the location that you are standing (I would assume…). Usually I don’t care about the temperature in the place I am standing – I need the temperature for the next place I am going.
I need to break this habit.
I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks. I could give you a million reasons for that, but then where would we be? Nowhere.
And I don’t have anything too impressive to share even after a month long hiatus – just some random updates.
Okay maybe a little impressive …we went on a cruise! John and Amanda joined us on the ‘fun ship’ to the Bahamas last month!
We loved it! Amazing food, fun water slides, putt-putt golf on the ship, and a really fun day in the Bahamas.
And then there was this guy – plenty of interesting things to see in the Bahamas.
October 5 was Michael’s 5-year Berry reunion. So to celebrate, he invited Tim and Jon to play at a local coffee shop. Russ and Josh added their musical talent to the mix as well.
Great music, fun people, and I got to hold this new kid on the block a lot.
After the reunion we hit up Marthapalooza!! Free food and pictures of yourself on the moon – YES PLEASE! Sorry for the blurry picture, but I HAD to share.
After all that fun – we went to Nashville!
Just for fun. With some great friends – the Hankins!
Here is what we saw:
The Opryland Hotel
The Jack Daniel’s Distillery
The Parthenon replica – did you know this was in Nashville? Me either.
Robert’s – famous for amazing music – it delivered.
So, all that to say, sorry for the hiatus. I’m not making excuses, but we have been a little busy…
2008 was a terrible year for a lot of things, but not for buying houses! Last year on September 22, Michael and I bought our first house.
We looked for 8 months or so and found a great deal on an amazing house built in 1910, which happens to be located in the oldest neighborhood in Rome,GA.
And yes, your math is correct – our house will be 100 years old next year! And we are planning to celebrate all year long!! Happy 100 years, house!
After living here for one whole year, here is what I love:
The back porch. We have loved coming home for lunch to enjoy the fresh air. We also used the back porch a lot this summer – perfect for watching fireflies after dinner.
The apple tree. We don’t actually eat the apples – I just like that we get to watch the apples grow in the spring.
The front door. I mean…come on, that is a cool front door.
I also really like that we are so close to town. We can walk to lots of places, which is fun.
So, we’ve had a great first year in our first house and we are getting excited to celebrate 100 years!!
