Making Your Home an Oasis
3 years ago
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Smashing and Dashing
...when your head grows to fit your driving cap, and all the ladies think you are simply smashing, and the gentlemen think you are dashing.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts
I'm a fried doughnut gal, myself. My Mountain Man would regularly drive me an hour away to the Krispy Kreme when they first opened here. But who can resist the speed and minimal mess of baked doughnuts?
So, I finally caved in and bought some doughnut pans that were on clearance at Target. I know. Doughnut pans rank up there with bread machines, as far as the"experts" are concerned. In other words, they're thought to be a waste of time and kitchen space. However, in our home, the bread machine makes a lot of dough, and these doughnut pans will get a lot of use.
I tried them out for the first time this morning when I made these pumpkin cake doughnuts. The recipe is supposed to yield only 12 doughnuts, but I baked 30 from it, and these aren't minis, so who knows what I did wrong. The most time consuming part of doughnut-making is filling the tins and spreading out the mix.
These turned out great and would make a great addition to your tea time. :)
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts
adapted from King Arthur's recipe
1/2 c. canola oil
3 large eggs
1-1/2 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 3/4 tsp. cinnamon plus heaping 1/4 tsp. each of ground nutmeg and ground ginger)
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-3/4 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans. (You can also use a standard muffin pan and make muffins.)
Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.
Add flour, stirring just until smooth.
Fill the well of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full. Bake doughnuts for 15-18 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. (Muffins will take about 23-25 minutes.)
Remove donuts from oven, and let cool for about 5 minutes. Remove from pans, and sprinkle both sides with cinnamon sugar. (KA suggests shaking the doughnuts in a bag of cinnamon sugar, but I just couldn't risk having them break into pieces!)
They can be stored at room temperature for several days.
With love,
Trisha
So, I finally caved in and bought some doughnut pans that were on clearance at Target. I know. Doughnut pans rank up there with bread machines, as far as the"experts" are concerned. In other words, they're thought to be a waste of time and kitchen space. However, in our home, the bread machine makes a lot of dough, and these doughnut pans will get a lot of use.
I tried them out for the first time this morning when I made these pumpkin cake doughnuts. The recipe is supposed to yield only 12 doughnuts, but I baked 30 from it, and these aren't minis, so who knows what I did wrong. The most time consuming part of doughnut-making is filling the tins and spreading out the mix.
These turned out great and would make a great addition to your tea time. :)
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts
adapted from King Arthur's recipe
1/2 c. canola oil
3 large eggs
1-1/2 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 3/4 tsp. cinnamon plus heaping 1/4 tsp. each of ground nutmeg and ground ginger)
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-3/4 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans. (You can also use a standard muffin pan and make muffins.)
Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.
Add flour, stirring just until smooth.
Fill the well of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full. Bake doughnuts for 15-18 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. (Muffins will take about 23-25 minutes.)
Remove donuts from oven, and let cool for about 5 minutes. Remove from pans, and sprinkle both sides with cinnamon sugar. (KA suggests shaking the doughnuts in a bag of cinnamon sugar, but I just couldn't risk having them break into pieces!)
They can be stored at room temperature for several days.
With love,
Trisha
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Thankful Thursday~Choice Favours
"Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of His goodness and of His truth, as much a proof of His faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before?"
You'll find noted in my Bible those passages that declare how His people "forgot" and then "sinned." How important it is to remember His mercies, to "weave His mercies into a song," as Spurgeon says. Spurgeon calls God's benefits, "deliverances" and "manifestations" and "choice favours". Yes, all of our lives are full of such fatness.
Here's a sampling of the "fatness" in my life this past week:
~Burning instead of cutting...a visit to the dermatologist for my regular skin cancer screening resulted in having some pre-cancerous places on my nose treated with liquid nitrogen. I'm so thankful for being spared the knife.
~Clairesy, 3, announcing that "It's no fun when Mommy isn't here," after finding out I had doctor's appointments in town. It's wonderful to have children who miss me when I'm not here!
~Emma was sick Sunday night, and although she was better by Monday mid-day, I wouldn't let her hold Elijah until Tuesday. You would have thought it was the grandest of gifts...she was simply beaming when she got a hold of her baby brother.
~Luke served Emma in the sweetest way on Monday morning. He read the day's Bible passage, made her hot tea, and put a washcloth on her forehead. He topped it all off with playing the soundtrack to the movie Emma for her.
~Having a 10 year old son who loves to make pancakes for us.
~The joy and privilege of gathering with sisters in Christ from our church for prayer and fellowship.
~God's melting those fear-filled frozen places in my heart, pushing me to step out and trust Him and love others better.
~The books of Ezra and Nehemiah. How richly I've been blessed by both of these this month.
~Moments like THIS.
AND...drum roll...
~God's mercy in allowing my Mom to come out here in April to see Elijah for the first time! Woohoo!! We just can't wait, and we appreciate your prayers for good health for her and no need for oxygen while at this high elevation.
With love,
Trisha
~C. H. Spurgeon
You'll find noted in my Bible those passages that declare how His people "forgot" and then "sinned." How important it is to remember His mercies, to "weave His mercies into a song," as Spurgeon says. Spurgeon calls God's benefits, "deliverances" and "manifestations" and "choice favours". Yes, all of our lives are full of such fatness.
Here's a sampling of the "fatness" in my life this past week:
~Burning instead of cutting...a visit to the dermatologist for my regular skin cancer screening resulted in having some pre-cancerous places on my nose treated with liquid nitrogen. I'm so thankful for being spared the knife.
~Clairesy, 3, announcing that "It's no fun when Mommy isn't here," after finding out I had doctor's appointments in town. It's wonderful to have children who miss me when I'm not here!
~Emma was sick Sunday night, and although she was better by Monday mid-day, I wouldn't let her hold Elijah until Tuesday. You would have thought it was the grandest of gifts...she was simply beaming when she got a hold of her baby brother.
~Luke served Emma in the sweetest way on Monday morning. He read the day's Bible passage, made her hot tea, and put a washcloth on her forehead. He topped it all off with playing the soundtrack to the movie Emma for her.
~Having a 10 year old son who loves to make pancakes for us.
~The joy and privilege of gathering with sisters in Christ from our church for prayer and fellowship.
~God's melting those fear-filled frozen places in my heart, pushing me to step out and trust Him and love others better.
~Ink's knack for getting great pictures of Sarge
~The books of Ezra and Nehemiah. How richly I've been blessed by both of these this month.
~Moments like THIS.
AND...drum roll...
~God's mercy in allowing my Mom to come out here in April to see Elijah for the first time! Woohoo!! We just can't wait, and we appreciate your prayers for good health for her and no need for oxygen while at this high elevation.
With love,
Trisha
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
13 Ways to Undermine Your Pastor
Our little church was without a pastor for several years. Because many, perhaps most, of us had not spent much time under a shepherd who knew our names or personally cared for us, I don't think we truly understood what we were missing.
We are a society that rejects authority as we embrace our individuality. We don't view our pastors as shepherds who are leading us and teaching us, and we don't fully embrace the truth that our brothers and sisters in Christ are family. In fact, many Christians today don't think they need either a pastor or a church family. And I'm amazed at how much I've been affected by these errors, and how I'm having to purge them from my mind and my behavior.
D.A. Carson shares that though Paul suffered much at the hands of unbelievers and endured much simply as a church planter, there is no doubt "his most anguished moments come to him from closer to home--from Christians behaving in sub-Christian ways, from false brothers and false apostles undermining his work with innuendo and half-truths."
This made me consider the many ways as believers, knowingly and unknowingly, we undermine our very own pastors.
1) We suspect the worst of them and take everything personally. Perhaps it's something he said, or didn't say, or did, or didn't do. Maybe it's something he changed or didn't change. Assume the best and remember love covers a multitude of sins. Our pastors are sinners who need Jesus just as much as we do. Will we hold them to a standard of perfection?
2) We are ungrateful. Every time I serve our children a meal, it never fails that one of them says, "Thank you, Mommy, for this food. It's very good." Every week, our pastors are feeding us from the Word of God. Shall we not say thank you? Let your pastor know how much you appreciate his dedication to the LORD, to His Word, and His people.
3) We forget or refuse to pray for them. Do we think our pastors don't have feet of clay? That they aren't subject to discouragement and temptation? Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give those who shepherd us is the gift of prayer, fervent, consistent, prayer.
4) We're inattentive and unteachable. Are we diligently listening to the sermon each week, taking notes, if possible, asking questions, too? Do we bristle when the pastor says something we disagree with, and instead of discussing it with him, just dismiss him as not knowing anything? Is all of our blog-surfing and book reading leaving us puffed up and in want of humility?
5) We give more value to the teaching and sermons of "famous" or "well-known" pastors. We need to guard against actively or passively belittling our pastors by comparing them to other pastors. God didn't give you Piper or Carson or DeYoung as your pastor. They don't even know who you are, and they surely don't know your specific needs. Imagine your frustration as a parent if every time you corrected or taught your child, he said, "But Janie's parents said..."
6) We keep them busy with tasks that deprive them of time to focus on pastoral duties: I think this is more common in smaller churches. Our own pastor does so many things outside of traditional pastoral responsibilities, and he does every one of them with such a servant's heart. Perhaps the best way to know if your pastor feels like he's serving tables (Acts 6:2) to the neglect of the Word is to ask him.
7) We gossip about him. Enough said.
8) We consume his time with controversies. This requires discernment. Just this week, our pastor was explaining the Two Kingdoms controversy to us, and he's given me counsel before about certain matters. Most pastors want us to ask questions, but our pastors aren't the internet police. They're our shepherds, and we don't want to be guilty of keeping them from teaching us the Word by asking them to give their opinion on every new "issue" that pops up in cyberspace each week.
9) We ask for counsel and then ignore it.
10) We forget he has a family. Are we actively loving them, praying for them, encouraging them? Do we thank them for the ways they serve and love the body of Christ, for the time they give up with their husband/father so we know the blessing of godly leadership?
11) We refuse to get along with other members. I will tell you that one of my biggest heartaches as a parent is dealing with the conflicts between my children. It grieves me to the core when they don't get along. God has used this to sharpen my perspective of what a pastor must feel when his flock is fighting and to convict me of those times when I've been stubborn and disagreeable. As far as is possible, we must be at peace with one another. We must actively love one another.
12) We're half-heartedly committed to the body. Our attendance is sketchy. It doesn't take much to keep us from going to church. We dismiss church membership as unimportant. We refuse to serve.
13) We're leeches. This is a bit of a summary of many of the above. We suck the life out of our pastors with our demands, our expectations, our ingratitude, our wants and needs. We use him for what we can get out of him, expecting him to give, while having no intention of giving in return...by committing to the body, by being teachable, by praying for him, by loving one another. He is a means to an end.
It is a great privilege to have shepherds who teach us the Word, counsel us in His truths, pray for us, correct us, encourage us. May we give them cause for much joy in this calling, that they count it a delight and not only a sacrifice, that they would say, "I get to, " instead of, "I have to..."
With love,
Trisha
We are a society that rejects authority as we embrace our individuality. We don't view our pastors as shepherds who are leading us and teaching us, and we don't fully embrace the truth that our brothers and sisters in Christ are family. In fact, many Christians today don't think they need either a pastor or a church family. And I'm amazed at how much I've been affected by these errors, and how I'm having to purge them from my mind and my behavior.
D.A. Carson shares that though Paul suffered much at the hands of unbelievers and endured much simply as a church planter, there is no doubt "his most anguished moments come to him from closer to home--from Christians behaving in sub-Christian ways, from false brothers and false apostles undermining his work with innuendo and half-truths."
This made me consider the many ways as believers, knowingly and unknowingly, we undermine our very own pastors.
1) We suspect the worst of them and take everything personally. Perhaps it's something he said, or didn't say, or did, or didn't do. Maybe it's something he changed or didn't change. Assume the best and remember love covers a multitude of sins. Our pastors are sinners who need Jesus just as much as we do. Will we hold them to a standard of perfection?
2) We are ungrateful. Every time I serve our children a meal, it never fails that one of them says, "Thank you, Mommy, for this food. It's very good." Every week, our pastors are feeding us from the Word of God. Shall we not say thank you? Let your pastor know how much you appreciate his dedication to the LORD, to His Word, and His people.
3) We forget or refuse to pray for them. Do we think our pastors don't have feet of clay? That they aren't subject to discouragement and temptation? Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give those who shepherd us is the gift of prayer, fervent, consistent, prayer.
4) We're inattentive and unteachable. Are we diligently listening to the sermon each week, taking notes, if possible, asking questions, too? Do we bristle when the pastor says something we disagree with, and instead of discussing it with him, just dismiss him as not knowing anything? Is all of our blog-surfing and book reading leaving us puffed up and in want of humility?
5) We give more value to the teaching and sermons of "famous" or "well-known" pastors. We need to guard against actively or passively belittling our pastors by comparing them to other pastors. God didn't give you Piper or Carson or DeYoung as your pastor. They don't even know who you are, and they surely don't know your specific needs. Imagine your frustration as a parent if every time you corrected or taught your child, he said, "But Janie's parents said..."
6) We keep them busy with tasks that deprive them of time to focus on pastoral duties: I think this is more common in smaller churches. Our own pastor does so many things outside of traditional pastoral responsibilities, and he does every one of them with such a servant's heart. Perhaps the best way to know if your pastor feels like he's serving tables (Acts 6:2) to the neglect of the Word is to ask him.
7) We gossip about him. Enough said.
8) We consume his time with controversies. This requires discernment. Just this week, our pastor was explaining the Two Kingdoms controversy to us, and he's given me counsel before about certain matters. Most pastors want us to ask questions, but our pastors aren't the internet police. They're our shepherds, and we don't want to be guilty of keeping them from teaching us the Word by asking them to give their opinion on every new "issue" that pops up in cyberspace each week.
9) We ask for counsel and then ignore it.
10) We forget he has a family. Are we actively loving them, praying for them, encouraging them? Do we thank them for the ways they serve and love the body of Christ, for the time they give up with their husband/father so we know the blessing of godly leadership?
11) We refuse to get along with other members. I will tell you that one of my biggest heartaches as a parent is dealing with the conflicts between my children. It grieves me to the core when they don't get along. God has used this to sharpen my perspective of what a pastor must feel when his flock is fighting and to convict me of those times when I've been stubborn and disagreeable. As far as is possible, we must be at peace with one another. We must actively love one another.
12) We're half-heartedly committed to the body. Our attendance is sketchy. It doesn't take much to keep us from going to church. We dismiss church membership as unimportant. We refuse to serve.
13) We're leeches. This is a bit of a summary of many of the above. We suck the life out of our pastors with our demands, our expectations, our ingratitude, our wants and needs. We use him for what we can get out of him, expecting him to give, while having no intention of giving in return...by committing to the body, by being teachable, by praying for him, by loving one another. He is a means to an end.
It is a great privilege to have shepherds who teach us the Word, counsel us in His truths, pray for us, correct us, encourage us. May we give them cause for much joy in this calling, that they count it a delight and not only a sacrifice, that they would say, "I get to, " instead of, "I have to..."
With love,
Trisha
Sunday, January 20, 2013
It's the Wiser One Who Drops His Coat and Runs
"He left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out."—Genesis 39:12.
In contending with certain sins there remains no mode of victory but by flight. The ancient naturalists wrote much of basilisks, whose eyes fascinated their victims and rendered them easy victims; so the mere gaze of wickedness puts us in solemn danger. He who would be safe from acts of evil must haste away from occasions of it.
A covenant must be made with our eyes not even to look upon the cause of temptation, for such sins only need a spark to begin with and a blaze follows in an instant. Who would wantonly enter the leper's prison and sleep amid its horrible corruption? He only who desires to be leprous himself would thus court contagion. If the mariner knew how to avoid a storm, he would do anything rather than run the risk of weathering it. Cautious pilots have no desire to try how near the quicksand they can sail, or how often they may touch a rock without springing a leak; their aim is to keep as nearly as possible in the midst of a safe channel.
This day I may be exposed to great peril, let me have the serpent's wisdom to keep out of it and avoid it. The wings of a dove may be of more use to me to-day than the jaws of a lion. It is true I may be an apparent loser by declining evil company, but I had better leave my cloak than lose my character; it is not needful that I should be rich, but it is imperative upon me to be pure. No ties of friendship, no chains of beauty, no flashings of talent, no shafts of ridicule must turn me from the wise resolve to flee from sin. The devil I am to resist and he will flee from me, but the lusts of the flesh, I must flee, or they will surely overcome me.
O God of holiness preserve thy Josephs, that Madam Bubble bewitch them not with her vile suggestions. May the horrible trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil, never overcome us!
~C. H. Spurgeon
**Madam Bubble is a tempter from Pilgrim's Progress, Part 2
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Thankful Thursday~Connections
I wish my Dad were here to see these wonderful moments. (Actually, it would be the biggest of blessings if my Mom could just make it here to see Elijah for the first time!) It's amazing to me to think of the things he couldn't imagine while he was here...that one day those ties he bought to wear to church would be worn by his grandsons. That little Elijah would favor him so much.
Every day there are moments that connect us to the past and hint at the future, that remind us of loved ones here and loved ones gone. They're all treasures, and I'm thankful to be able to capture them and record them and share them.
I'm thankful for Sarge's amazing impression of Winnie the Pooh!
I'm thankful that Jedediah has now joined us at the "big" table, and we officially have no more room. :) Yes, a wall must be knocked out and a new table built within the next two years. 
I'm thankful for sweet Jill and the hard work and time and love she put into these burp cloths for Sarge. Aren't they amazing?
I'm thankful to know that every good thing comes from His mighty hand and that He fills my cup to overflowing, over and over and over.
With love,
Trisha
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Desperate Woman and Daily Manna
I can't remember the last time one of our Pastor's sermons didn't bring tears. I'm usually tucked away in a room nursing Elijah, and I don't always hear every word preached, but God is faithful and kind to give me nourishing manna, sometimes in the form of just one sentence, and when that manna comes, the tears come, too.
You see, I go to church every week a desperate woman. Desperate to be fed with the truth of His Word, to be encouraged by the fellowship of the saints, to feast at His table. I often walk through our church doors with a heart battered and bruised from daily battles with self, and a spirit that is heavy and discouraged because there is such a dim reflection of Jesus in me. O wretched woman that I am!
Sanctification is a painful process, and it's easy in the moment---those moments when selfishness and strife taint our conversations, when we're so busy jockeying to please ourselves for a moment of quiet or the taste of the last cookie, when we've failed to correct or discipline with love and patience and grace, when trials wear us thin--- to forget that He is faithful to give us our daily bread. His provision keeps coming down, as my Pastor so beautifully reminds us with these words:
"One of the ways Jesus referred to Himself is by saying “I am the bread that is coming down from heaven.” It is interesting. You won’t find it in the Scriptures that way. It says “I am the bread that came down from Heaven….which came down from heaven.” But the Greek says “I am the bread that is coming down from heaven.”
Day by day, Jesus provides for you. Day by day your sins are covered. Day by day..."
His provision is limitless! It is sufficient! It doesn't expire, weaken over time, rot, or run out! My Savior never hears my begging only to respond with, "You've exceeded your daily limit," or "I just gave you plenty of grace, and then you turned around and did THAT. Sorry. No more for you." Oh for grace to remember this blessed truth when sin and self and Satan seem to reign!
"Give us this day our daily bread..." Yes! Yes! Yes!
With love,
Trisha
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Good News vs. Nice News
It
is a terrible indictment that the civil message of pluralism sounds
to us “more loving and Christlike” than the once common warnings
of perdition, judgment, and divine justice. It is a frightful thing
that we are more at home with the pleasant, non-confrontational,
least common denominator messages and methodologies of our culture
than we are with the holy alarms of Scripture. It is a senseless
tragedy that we have carelessly foisted the fierce injustice of our
own recalcitrance upon a hellbound world.
~George
Grant, The Micah Mandate, from his chapter, Good News vs. Nice News
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