Pass the Blog

Here are some things I read this week that I think are worth passing on:

My friend Lisa wrote a little blog about her bra. I  know some of you participated in the breast cancer awareness effort by posting the color of your underwear on facebook and I know others of you were completely outraged by the awareness effort. I'm not including Lisa's take on it to shame or validate anyone, so hear me on that. I think she makes some good points and she blogs so infrequently that I want to reward her when she does in hopes she'll blog more. Hear that Lis?

Tim Challies is one of my go-to daily blogs. From time to time he writes little e-books. And this one for men is particularly fabulous. This e-book Sexual Detox has two versions, one for married men and one for single men. It's probably the best resource for men about purity that I have ever read and I worked for a singles online magazine, so I've read plenty. But I'm also a woman, so what do I know?

Not only am I entertained by this lady, I'm also challenged by her love for Christ and her commitment to her family. Put her blog on your feed and you'll be the wiser for it.

This is for my writer friends and English geeks. You know who you are.

Read Proverbs

Brian loves Proverbs. Some stints of time he will read the "Proverb of the day" (there are 31 Proverbs, so you read the Proverb that goes with that day's date) and when he is feeling at a loss that's where he goes.

We met with our pastor a while back to see if he had any wisdom to offer us about the job search and planning our future. He told us to read Proverbs every day, and to trust God and a lot of other stuff that's not relevant to my post. So this year we committed to read Proverbs every day. 

We are a whopping 12 days into the New Year and I can already feel this book changing me. Isn't that how the Scriptures are supposed to affect us? Glory! I was walking around the city talking with a friend of mine this morning and the words coming out of my mouth sounded a lot like the words I have been reading in Proverbs. I haven't been memorizing them, just stopping from time to time to think about what I'm reading and Brian and I talk about them as well.  

If you haven't already committed to a Bible reading plan for the year, I would urge you to read the Proverb everyday. Read it, think about it, and apply it.

The Purge

So far so good on the Gluten free deal. I can't believe I'm actually doing it. Especially since we just gave up sweets until January 30. We both agreed we'd had too much  sugar over the holidays.

While Brian was the instigator of and willing participant in giving up sweets (to the exclusion of Ovaltine and honey) he is not joining me on my gluten free venture. I'm sure he would, but we have too many gluten-laden products that I would hate to go to waste.

And even though my stomach is doing better, I might have to give up my food projects for a GREATER project. Project Purge. 

Brian and I are moving at the end of the month. We don't know where yet. The details are contingent on the job search. And one thing I want to do as we prepare to transition is to purge our pantry. I'm taking inventory of all our existing grocery items and planning our remaining meals here according to what I already have.  I'll still be buying groceries but I would love to use as many on hand ingredients in each meal as I can. 

I'm beginning the fun challenge today by making spinach chicken tortellini for our friends who are coming to dinner. 

I already had all the ingredients for the entree (Cheese tortellini, fresh spinach, chicken breast, sun-dried tomatoes, milk/half and half, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic and onion) and the salad, so all I bought was the bread (for the guests and Brian of course). 

Tomorrow I'm making IGE's Santa Fe Chicken. I have both dried and canned black beans, so this recipe is going to help me use those up. 

Emily posted a perfect recipe for my purge today. Even if you're not purging, it's still a great quick-fix recipe, so pay her a visit and check it out. 

Before moving day, I'll post a picture of our cabinets so you can see how well the purge went.