Don't forget--I've MOVED!!!

This is just a reminder that A Pair of Bartletts has moved over to TypePad! Please make sure and update your feedlists and blog lists and whatever lists that you need to update. I will leave this blog up so that the directions will point those visiting to the new site. If you were following this blog--THANK YOU! I appreciate your support! Please come over to TypePad and do the same....I would love to have you there!

With any move, there is unpacking to do. So, please be patient with the appearance of the new site. I'm still trying to place things where they need to go and trying to get all of my customizations just the way that I want them. I can't wait to see you there!!!

My blog is moving to a new home!

Dear Family, Friends....EVERYONE!! My blog address has been changed to http://pairofbartletts.typepad.com Please hang tight the next few days as I get my pictures and links and all of the other goodies reinstalled on the new site. It will look different right now, but the posts are still there. I hope to have everything totally made over by the weekend. Stay tuned for the new look!!! If you have any questions, please leave me a comment. See you over at TypePad!!!!!!!!!!!

Memory Monday (Galatians 5:1)

My goodness....I have been out of Memory Monday for way too long! I don't like the idea that I have been so busy with work that I have failed to devote the time that I would like to devote to scripture memorization. At any rate, I'm back to Memory Monday and excited to get back in the swing of things! This week I will be memorizing from Galatians. 

Happy memorizing!!

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."  Galatians 5:1

Closed for Worship

Have a wonderful and worshipful Sabbath.............

Cafe Chat--Feeling His Fingerprints

I am so thankful for the challenging questions that Kim at To Know Him gives to us from week to week.  I regret that I've been out of the loop the last few weeks but am quite happyt o be back.  And what a great question today!  She asks us:

Is there a deep hurt in your life/heart that you have not let God heal yet? If yes, are you ready to let God begin the work of healing your heart? (Feel free to post the specifics if you would like, and remember you can always post anonymously)

For those of you that answered no to the question above, has there been a hurt from your past that God has healed? If so, was the healing instant or a process? (Again, please give specifics if you feel so led, and again you can post anonymously)

I can't even begin to think of where to start.  I could write for hours on this topic!  I posted this picture of the Potter's work because to me, it correlates so well with this question.  I am the pot and He is the potter.  And my pot has been cracked so many times that there are too many to count.  But He, in His infinite wisdom, has always put me back on His wheel, moistens the wound and begins to rework me into the vision that He has for me.  The cracks are always my fault.  But He is the Potter.  He continues to mold me and shape me according to His will.  The molding and shaping usually doesn't feel so great, but I know that without a doubt, the finished product will be beautiful in His sight.  I thank God for the "cracks" that I have experienced along the way.  Without the Potter and without the cracks, I would still just be a solid lump of clay.  And like the picture illustrates....I'm full of His fingerprints.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum Summertime!

Okay....this is where I am NOT. But, this is where I  would LOVE to be right now!!  A girl can dream can't she?

Well, I know that it has been pretty quiet around here lately, but I have every intention of getting cranked back up on blogging here in the next few days.  I have be SUPER busy at work in the last couple of months....so much so that by the time that I get home, my brain is FRIED beyond belief--too fried to even bring myself to sit down to the computer!    But, in the midst of all of this, I have tried to stay up on all of my favorite blogs when I have had the time.  I have really missed the interaction with so many of the precious sisters in Christ that I have had the great opportunity of meeting in the "blogosphere".  But...no worries!  I have had some thoughts spinning lately that I need to write about.  Actually, they're so backlogged that I've got to finish sorting them out so that I will know what to write first!  

I hope that this post finds everyone doing very well and having a great summer.  Stay tuned....I definitely have more to come! 

Tea with the Father, and some very special ladies--AN UPDATE

First, I would like to thank EVERYONE who was so faithful to pray for our special tea party this past Thursday.  Monica....thank you for putting out the word on The Homespun Heart.  Another huge thanks to Alicia Williamson Garcia for ministering to us through music but also through delivering that very timely word from the Lord.  You challenged not only our very special guests, but me as well--I'm sure that the other hostesses would agree.  WOW--where do I start?  I guess I'll start with the actual tea itself.  Here is a picture of my table after being decorated and then with the "tea goodies" decorating the table. 

This is the table that I hostessed, right before I filled the serving plates with the "dainties" for our tea. 

 

Here you can see the delicious cranberry scones to the right, with the sweets in the backgroud.  Our sweets tray contained beautiful little lemon squares, homemade creamy fudge, Danish wedding cookies and big, read and juicy strawberries.  Along with the hot black tea that was served, we also offered an iced strawberri kiwi tea that was SO delicious and refreshing, because down here in the deep south, it gets    "WA-WUM", as any good southern belle would say (that's "warm" for all of the  Naw-thuhn-uhs reading this post).





And what proper tea is complete without finger sandwiches?  Of course there were cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad and some yummy little open faced homemade pimiento sandwiches. 

God was there with us on Thursday.  He was glorified in every word and every action that took place.  The women at my table were precious, to say the very least.  I will treasure the handwritten prayer requests that they gave to me at the tea.  I had the very high privilege of praying individually with each one over each of these humble requests.  These women may be in some extremely dire circumstances as of late, including drug addiction, alcoholism, abuses of every sort and other issues to many to name.  But on Thursday, they dined with us.  They were ladies with us.  They sipped hot tea, enjoyed scones with lemon curd, double Devonshire clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam.  Some took their tea with cream and sugar, and some took their tea without.  They laughed, they smiled, they heard a wonderful word from the Lord, and just for a minute, they were able to go to another place in time.  It was a safe place, without ridicule and without judgement.  It was a place that they were allowed to be the true ladies that they are, underneath what seems to others to be "tough exteriors".  They wore the best clothes that they had...and they were our HIGHLY HONORED GUESTS for the afternoon.  I can think of no place that I would have rather been at two o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday.  Thank you again for your prayers.  The Lord heard them, each one.  And glory be to the Lord, at the close of Thursday, there were three more added to the Lamb's book of life (as reported to me from the sweet, precious owner of the facility). 

A Very Special Tea With Very Special Ladies

This is a very humbling post to write. I would like to open this post by giving you the words from Romans 3:23-24, which state, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus".

I have been sitting here on the bed reading the word and praying that God would prepare my heart for what will hopefully and prayerfully be a very special day tomorrow. You see, tomorrow, I have been given the most humbling opportunity of serving a real English style, highly lady-like tea to a VERY special group of unlikely tea party attendants. I do not use the words "highly unlikely" as a derogatory statement about these very special women. In fact, I use it quite positively. I will be joining a group of other women tomorrow at 2:00 in the afternoon to hostess a group of about 60+ ladies at a local residential treatment program. By "treatment program", I mean exactly that. These ladies are being treated for drug abuse and alcohol abuse and are residents at a local facility especially for women (I am withholding the name of the facility in order to protect their privacy and anonymity) The ladies ministry at my church is heavily involved with ministering to these very special ladies. So, tomorrow, we will be serving them. As I said before, they are probably ladies who may not necessaily have ever attended a real tea party or even entertained the idea of attending such. But tomorrow, they are the highly honored guests-God's highly honored guests. These are ladies who may not have ever considered themselves "highly honored" by anyone. But the Lord sees them as highly honored and He has called us to treat them as he would treat them--as the royal guests of HIS table. Tomorrow, as we set the tables with our fine china and linens, clotted cream, lemon curd and all of the dainties that you would expect at a proper tea, please remember these EXTREMELY special ladies in your hearts and your prayers. Please pray that they will be sensitive and receptive to the word of God and that they will be receptive to those of us who are serving them. We are not going to this tea for ourselves, but for them. We are there to love on them and show them that they are just as equally deserving of being treated like a true lady, just as any of us are. We are there to show them God's perfect love. I'm sure that many of these women have experienced many rock bottom times in their lives, maybe even as recent as the last few weeks. They are not necessarily from any really different places from which some of us came.  God still shows grace and mercy and He still meets people where they are.  I pray that they will be overwhelmed tomorrow, not with those of us who serve but that they will be overwhelmed with the love of God. I thank you in advance for your prayers for them. I know that you may not know their names, but I assure you, God knows them one by one.

I will leave you with this parable from Luke 7:

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.
41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver[i] to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”
“That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.
47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Moxie, On Cooking

Recently I brought home a new cookbook that I have been wanting. It's a fabulous collection of a book that literally tells yo uhow to cook everythin, such as it's title suggests. Check out this great book by Mark Bittman....let me know how you like it! The hummus recipe alone makes the book worth while! As you can see from the film below....I barely got it out of the bag before Moxie decided it was time to wallow all over this fabulous new find. Now it has his official stamp of approval!!!!!!!!! Let me know what you think of the book--i fully believe that it is an "end-all, be-all" type book with it's encyclopedia-ish style of writing. I'll look forward to hearing from all of you in blog-land!

Finally, the Update from Ladies Night Out!

Well, slowly but surely, I'm getting caught back up on my blogging. Recently, I posted about Ladies Night Out at my church, where I hostessed a table of eight ladies. WOW, what a night! We had the greatest time of worship, fellowship and sharing a meal together while getting to meet a precious sister in the Lord, Kasey Lowery Ewing. If you would like to see more of Kasey's incredible journey, you can visit her blog, High Heels in High Places. I would tell you her incredible story, but she tells it much better than I ever could. Kasey and her sweet husband (who was a former intern at our church) had the most horrendous experience of losing a child in a very tragic way. But, God, in His infinite wisdom, has used their story to touch the lives of many. If you have a minute, visit Kasey's blog. I can promise that you will be blessed.

In the meantime, here are a couple of snapshots of the set and of my table. I LOVED our set! How girlie is that I ask you? It was a beautiful spring back drop for a very "springy" event! My Mom is in the picture below on the left and her neighbor and our friend, Robin, is on the right. Even though they attend different churches, they have become "regulars" at our Ladies Night Out functions. Our church is so very blessed to have such an incredible ladies ministry. I sincerely hope that others reading this post will either begin participating in your church's women's ministry or that you will help begin one if there is not already one in existence. Ours is such phenomenal. I think that for a long time I took it for granted, until I began to actively participating in the hostessing end of the ministry. I hope that you will get involved...if you do, please let me know your experiences. I would love to hear of other activities in other churches! Keep me posted!

Wonky Blog!

For whatever reason, by blog seems to be having some technical difficulties. I'm not sure what they are or to what extent, but hopefully I will have this resolved by tomorrow....please stay tuned!!!

Fort Morgan Trifle

I love to come up with creative ways to make things around the kitchen stretch...kind of like the "Semi-homemade" style. I don't go this route for everything, since I do love to make things totally from scratch. But, when we're at the beach, I like to try and do some new things that use up the items we have bought, so that we don't have to bring home too much. So, out of this came "Fort Morgan Trifle".

We always stop at Burris Farm Market on the way to the beach to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies to take with us. One of my purchases happened to be some BIG, BEAUTIFUL, RUBY RED Baldwin County strawberries. I also picked up some things at Sam's Wholesale before we left town. One of my purchases there was a really good looking lemon bundt cake.....it was SO yummy and moist. After having a friend of ours over to the condo, along with some of our family that came for the day on Saturday, there was a chunk of the cake left. When I was making a list to get a couple of things at the grocery store on Sunday evening, Rob specifically asked for some vanilla pudding for after Sunday night supper. Well, since I love to cook, it's really hard for me to make "just pudding". So, while on the way to the store, my mind started spinning on what I could do with vanilla pudding that would give it a little more zip. There you have it folks.....Fort Morgan Trifle. Since I knew that there wasn't a trifle bowl at the condo, I had to come up with something that would be pretty and that would hold these thick ingredients. Here are the ingredients that I used, but I didn't really include measurements, since it would depend on how many that you need to make. They were really easy and you could come up with any variations that would make it your own. I happen to love the flavor combination of the lemon, vanilla and the strawberry. I hope that you will try these out! If you do, send me a picture of yours so that I can see your unique variations!

FORT MORGAN TRIFLE
Lemon poundcake or bundt cake, cut in 1" cubes
Vanilla pudding, prepared by directions for thick, pie style filling
fresh strawberries, sliced (or your own seasonal favorite fruit
Cool Whip topping, or fresh whipped cream

Cut cake into 1" cubes. Make layers beginning with cake on the bottom, pudding next, slid sliced fruit around sides of the glass, follow with whipped topping. Repeat for another layer and end with whipped topping. Add a pretty berry slice to the top for a garnish. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving to allow everything to "get married" and soak together. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that it's been quite around here lately. I have been super swamped at work the last few weeks, but will be catching up on the blog over the next few days, so STAY TUNED!!! In the meantime, here are a few vacation photos for your viewing pleasure. Rob and I just went down to a condo at Fort Morgan for a few days and got back today (bummer!). At any rate...I'm back, refreshed, and ready to get caught up on some blogging! See you very soon!