Is Church Shopping a Sin?

I need to preference this by telling you that I have been struggling with the topic of this post for many months. My husband is a restaurant manager and works most Sundays. Whether it's my place or not, I feel a great responsibility for the spiritual direction of this family.
Over the past five years we have moved to three different states. There are many factors to take in consideration when moving. Wanting to find a nice safe home in a good school district is usually on the top of the list for many. Fortunately, being homeschoolers, we haven't had to worry too much with location.
With our first move to Orange Park, Florida we didn't have a problem with what now plagues us. We found a wonderful church home. The Sunday school class we ended up in was young, energetic, and very welcoming. After being members of what I considered to be the ideal church in Hattiesburg we felt very comfortable in this church family.
Less that two years later, my husband's job transferred him. We ended up in what I fondly refer to as the armpit of the south; Monroe, Louisiana. We look for a new church home and settled on a church that had a rotational Sunday school class program much like the one we were involved in, in Hattiesburg. The adult programs were lacking, to say the least. I attempted to start an outreach program for single parents and was told by the other members that they simply didn't have time to do out-reach, but they'd be glad to write me a check.
Fortunately my husband took another job and we relocated to the Natural State. At first we drove 45 to a wonderful church in the Pulaski Heights District of Little Rock. The drive really started to be too much so we started look for a church closer to home. The church we first attended was supposed to have a rotational children's program, but apparently it fell apart during our transition. The minister who had been at that church for 16 years was moving and the members of that church were struggling. I threw myself in to volunteering. I worked in the after school program, taught kids Sunday school, and volunteered at VBS.
Skip ahead two years, there were only two children's Sundays school classes. Attendance was down and budgets weren't getting met. I did anything I could, but I started to feel drained. I wasn't getting refilled.
Through much though, prayer and discussion, we decide to visit some other churches. I actually waited until the pastor left (he resigned his position) because I didn't want to feel like I had jumped ship, given up, like it appeared everyone else had.
Since the Nazarene Church and the Methodist church are very similar in their teachings we visited a Nazarene Church that one of my homeschool friends attended. I loved the people of the Church, but I felt the Nazarene beliefs were a bit to evangelical for my taste.
Last last week we visited another Methodist church. If I could go on a " feeling" I would have joined after that first sermon. As it turns out, in talking to the pastor, his family, and several other members in that Church homeschool too. We plan to return this Sunday, but I think we may have finally found a church home.

Green Bag satisfaction

The broccoli in the green bag looks fresher than the shriveled up broccoli that was not in the the bag. I going to have to give DEBBIE MEYER™ Green Bags®

two thumbs up.

Being Green

There was a time that the three R's were readin', riting' and rithmatic, but those time have long since past. Do you know what the three R's are now? Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. We are told to Reduce the amount and toxicity of trash we discard, reuse containers and products; repair what is broken or give it to someone who can repair it, and to recycle as much as possible, which includes buying products with recycled content. Being green is big business. Not that I'm complaining, I think we need to be more aware of the way we treat mother earth. I just hate that it cost us to be earth conscious. We have moved around over the past several years and I can tell you some states/communities are much more conscious (or should I say they are more green) than other places.




One thing that's really easy is to use cloth bags instead of plastic or even paper when you go to the store. I workied at a home decor store and was sickened at the amount of packaging required to ship merchandise. Trust me when I tell you that that company did not recycle. Each week they received 300 + boxes of merchandise wrapped in plastic and styrofoam.

I think composting is another way to to decrease the amount of garbage and it helps out your backyard garden too. My parents gave me this counter top compost keeper that has a filter in the top that keeps the stench out.

Does you community have curbside routing?

Go check out the World Environmental Organization here to learn how you can reuse different household items.

What are you doing to help out the environment?

Please Buy Local

If your not up for the 100 foot diet challenge

Stop by your local farmer's market

Or the stand on the side of the road

But, make sure you ask them where they are getting their produce.

Some vendors get their food from whole sellers, which mean you have no idea where that produce is coming from.

Genetically Modified/Engineered Foods

Are you aware that many of the foods you buy every week have been genetically modified?

Do you even know what that means?

Plants have been genetically modified in the laboratory to enhance the desired traits. This was traditionally done through breeding, but conventional plant breeding methods can be very time consuming and are often not very accurate. Whereas genetic engineering can create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy. Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used.

Now having drought resistant, herbicide tolerance, and pest resistant crop does have it's advantages. But I think it's important to look at some of the disadvantages too. I am mainly concerned about the human aspect. One big concern is the unexpected allergic reactions that can occur especially in children. There really aren't many studies but there are several papers that tell about the monarch butterfly and the rats eating GM potatoes that I encourage you to read. If you are still not concerned about the risk go here.

I have a few updates on what's going on with your food from some fellow blogger that you might find interesting.

Anne over at Twice Bloomed Wisteria talked about her bees and GM corn, you might want to stop by and see what she has to say.

Also, Tocco from Coffee, Coffee, Coffee just posted about how "leading U.S. sugar providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets" If you stop by to see Tocco she has also provided a link to sign a letter if you don't want genetically modified sugar.


I recently read that the Arkansas rice farmers have filed a law suit against Riceland. The lawsuit claims Riceland knowingly withheld information from Arkansas rice farmers that one of the company's genetically modified strains had mixed with their crop in 2006. The mixture led to major international rice customers rejecting the crop because of strict policies against such foods.

On a happier note, at Life in the Lost World Jayedee informed us all that the Clabbergirl family of products have come out and clearly stated that they will put no genetically modified corn in their product. Clearly our voices can be heard.

The Best Garlic Bread You'll ever Eat

Now doesn't this look simple?

I bet your saying to yourself, "Why do I need a recipe to make garlic bread?" Well, the answer is simple, this is the best garlic bread your ever going to eat and your not gonna want to forget it! Now, let move on.

Take a stick of room temperature butter and a cup of Parmesan cheese, mix well.

Then add a little (or a lot) of garlic, your preference.

If you really want to jazz it up mix in a bit of dried parsley flakes.

Next slice your bread (I use different breads; sour dough, french baguette, just use whatever you like) and spread a generous helping of the butter mixture all over your bread.

I like to sprinkle it with paprika.

Then, just pop it into a 375 degree oven until toasty brown and there you have it, the best garlic you'll ever eat.

Southern Fried Okra

My husband will tell you he never knew how truly good fried okra tasted until he had it in the South. You may have tasted that breaded fried okra out of a freezer bag or in one of those big ole buffets, but until you fix it (the right way) at home you can't say you've eat fried okra.

There's a long list of ingredients so get out a pen a paper, this is gonna take a while.

1) fresh okra

2) white corn meal

3) salt

4) cooking oil

Okay, y'all, now,here's what you have to do.

Slice up your okra into about 1/4 inch thick pieces, discarding the stem.

Place it in a colander and rinse with water.

Salt first then pour your cornmeal over the okra.

(I just toss it around in the colander over the sink until it's lightly dusted)

Place one layer in a skillet with about an inch and a half or two inches of hot oil.

DO NOT stir it.

As it begins to brown, just turn it over and let it brown on the other side.

When you take it up, drain any excess oil. You may want to salt again.

Now start eating!

THE SWAN CITY

I've always know Hattiesburg as The Hub City with it's central location to Mobile, The Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Jackson, and Meridian. But about a year and a half ago Hattiesburg, MS became know as The Swan City when the Area Development Partnership decide to unveil the Festival of Swans. The ADP selected the swan because of its elegance and beauty. We're talking about a small college town in South Mississippi, I don't know what they were thinking. In my opinion, I think they should have hung a bunch of hub caps up in the pine trees and kept the whole Hub City theme alive. Anyway, the swans are really beautiful, (blah blah blah) so I spent part two days running around town with friends snapping shots of some of the swans. I believe we got a total of 25 out of the possible 48 swans.

There is also a book titled The Festival of Swans. Click here if you'd like to see more on the swans.

Made in the U.S.A.

I want you to go around your house and look at the tags on your furniture, home decor, children's toys and clothes. Where are they made? I took a trip around my house after reading this article. I found that the majority of things in our house come from China. It made me want to cry.

I used to work at a home decor store. As I unpacked boxes, I found two very disheartening things in common:

1)everything was made poorly and

2)everything was made in another country. Of course 95% was made in China. Remember them? I also found that the amount of packaging with Styrofoam and plastic is in an abundance. I won't go into the fact that I saw WALL-E yesterday and I believe we are going to bury ourselves in packaging. I'll save that for another post.

Back to China, they poisoned our small children with their poor craftsmanship of toys. Surely you haven't forgotten the recalls, but the good ole USA companies are still outsourcing. Not only to China, but to India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam to name a few. And it's worst than that, watch this YouTube clip.

If you're not upset by the state of our economy and watching friends and family members get laid off doesn't bother you, then you might want to look at what your putting into you very own body. I realize you have seen the benefits of genetically engineered foods, but that's not the whole story. Anne over at Twice Bloomed Wisteria has told us all about how the genetically modified corn effects the bees and your honey. You might want to read this article and decide if you want to eat the food others are growing. Also, there's a book that discusses the way we eat called Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer, Jim Mason.

Jayedee over at Life in the Lost World turned me onto the 100 Foot Diet Challenge. It is really very interesting. It doesn't take that much room to grow a few veggies and fruits for your family, Hell, I'm doing it and I haven't got a clue, but you've seen how much were getting from an 8 by 30 foot piece of land. This is only our second year to have a garden and we're feeding more than our family with what we're growing. This year my goal is to learn to can!

I know that this is pretty scary stuff, but I don't think I can sit back and ignore what's going on around me. If the outsourcing of jobs does effect you and if our food is being shipped in, out of season, from half way around the world doesn't bother you and if we buy it with out asking questions we are contributing to the problem.

If you can't grow anything please buy local and try to buy made in the U.S.A. Also, you should check out this Wall Street Journal article on 50 Things being Blamed on Rising Oil Prices.

Valley of Fire

We took a day to drive just northeast of Vegas to Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park. It is located in the Mojave Desert. The rocks appear to be on fire.

This is Arch Rock. Here is where a native American Fugitive, Mouse, hid away in the 1890's. Mouse's Tank is a natural basin in the rock where water collects after rainfalls, sometimes remaining for months.

While walking we passed a number of prehistoric Indian petroglyphs.

The 1966 movie The Professionals was filmed here at the White Domes.

Truly an amazing place.

Red Rock Canyon

One of the nicest places we went we was a short 13 mile loop just west Vegas.

Called Red Rock Canyon .

The area showcases a set of large red sandstone peaks and walls called the Keystone Thrust.

There are several side roads and parking areas allow access to many of the trails located in the canyon.

I highly recommend going if your ever in Vegas.

Melts in Your Mouth Not in Your Hands

On the Fabulous Vegas strip is the bestest place in the world!

The M&M store.

The kids found the Kyle's car to be very sweet.

Four floors of M&M's and M&M merchandise. I think I died and went to heaven.

We walked out with a nice dent in our pocketbook.

But, don't ask me for any M&M's I'm fresh out.

The Fabulous Vegas Strip

When we landed in Vegas we did the very touristy drive down the strip.

Here we are outside of the New York hotel.

This is the Excalibur.

Of course you wouldn't want to miss the fountain show at the Bellagio.

This inside the Bellagio.

Cool bike, I think this was inside the Treasure Island Hotel.

where we saw Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere.

This is at the Monti Crisco.

And finally, we stayed at The Paris.

Adventures to come....

the vampire in me

I have to admit that I find what I'm about to say to be a bit embarrassing. Apparently, I don't mind tell you about my embarrassing obsessions, but I do want to preference this by telling you another story that may explain the reason for my current obsession.
You see, a number of years ago a friend of mine told me about this vampire movie. Honestly, I wasn't much of a vampire person, but I was a very big Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise fan (at the time) so I became mildly interested in what she was telling me. When I found out that the author, Anne Rice, was from just down the road in little ole NOLA I became more interested and decided to read the book, Interview with a Vampire before going to the movie.
I fell in live with the vampire Lestat and Anne Rice's style of writing. The movie, I did not like. I started reading all of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles after that. The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damn, Tale of the Body Thief, The Mummy (a personal favorite) The Vampire Armand, but by the time I got into Blood and Gold I had quite my job as a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor for dually diagnosed patients at a local psychiatric hospital in lue of staying at home with my two precious children. Needless to say, I started reading Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. That doesn't count the numerous self help books I've read through. I did eventually graduate up to Little House on the Prairie and Hank the Cowdog, but otherwise I haven't read much in the way of adult literature.
That brings us to my embarrassing current obsession. I'd like to shift the blame to my history of only reading children's literature or maybe even to Ann over at Sharp Spiels who first suggested that this series was a good read, but I'm afraid I may have to accept all the responsibility for my lack of quality adult literature. Okay, so here goes, I like Stephenie Meyer's vampire books. There, I said it, I'm not sure if I'm relieved or embarrassed. You see, what happened was that I decided, before we left for Vegas, to get something to read for entertainment instead of all those children's behavioral books. The only book that I could think of when we were at the library was the one Ann had mentioned in her blog so I decide to check out Twilight. I finished it and decide to get New Moon and Eclipse while we were still on vacation. Of course these book are intended for younger audience, but yes, I defiantly enjoyed them. I have since discovered that I'm not the only old woman who likes them. There is actually a site for Twilight Moms. If you're human (or not) and 13 years old (or older) I recommend reading the Twilight series. Book four, Breaking Dawn will be out August 2 and Twilight the movie is due out on December12.




Go here to see the first official trailer.

Oh Dam

We just spent the last seven days in Las Vegas which would lead one to believe that I have a lot of things to blog about except that as you know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Just kidding...

I do have a lot to say, I also have a ton of pictures to sort through and share so I will spread this out over several post so that I have time to get other things done, like laundry...

We went to the Hoover Dam one day.

As you may, or may not know, a by-pass is being built to "decrease the potential for accidents, and to decrease the bottleneck to the interstate." As we approached the dam, I got a view of this little 234 million dollar construction project. I can safely say that I will never, and I mean never use the by-pass no matter how "safe" it's supposed to be.

Do you know how high that is? When finished, the 1,905-foot span bridge will be 890 feet over the river!
Go here to see a picture of what it's going to look like when it's completed.

Here is a statue of a high-scalers who's job was to climb down canyon walls on ropes and remove loose and weakened rocks along the canyon walls where the dam walls would join together.

There are two liberty statues that have developed a green patina. The toes, however, are very shiny and looking new. We were told that the toes are polished as a result of people rubbing the them for good luck and good fortune.

Here are a couple of pictures on the Lake Mead side of the dam. Notice the white line on the lower part of the rocks, that is the water mark, a sign of the water level changes in the reservoir, which is due to the drought.

I took this picture over the edge of the dam. I couldn't actually look at it because I was getting dizzy so I just pointed and shot.

Here is the Arizona Nevada state line. I'm sure I've stood in two states at once but this just seemed much cooler than that.

I will try and sort through more pictures soon. Look forward to seeing Red Rock Canyon and The Valley of Fire very soon.