Hot Spinach and Artichoke dip

1 cup thawed, chopped frozen spinach
1-1/2 cups thawed, chopped frozen artichoke hearts (I couldn't find frozen, so I just use artichokes from the can, drained)
6 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Boil spinach and artichokes in 1 cup of water until tender and drain. Discard liquid. Heat cream cheese in microwave for 1 minute or until hot and soft. Stir in rest of ingredients and serve hot.

I always add more Parmesan cheese than is called for....and I add it to the top to make a nice crunchy layer!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness by Thom­as O. Chis­holm

George Beverly Shea says that this hymn was first introduced in Great Britain in 1954 during the Billy Graham Crusades.

William Runyan whore wrote the tune for the hymn writes this:

This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered prayer. It was written in Baldwin, Kansas in 1923 and was first published in my private song pamphlets.

It is the un­of­fi­cial “school hymn” of Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Chi­ca­go, with which Run­yan was as­so­ci­at­ed for a num­ber of years.

The author Thomas Obadiah Chisholm had a poor start in life. Born in 1866 in a log cabin in Kentucky on July 29th. He went to the local country schoolhouse and there he stayed for many years, becoming at the age of sixteen a teacher in the same school without ever having left it. In 1887 he became editor of the local paper. And six years later at the age of 28 he became a Christian. Poor health dogged him all his days, he spent only a brief period as a Methodist Minister before having to give up, and he spent the remainder of his working life as a Life insurance agent in New Jersey. He retired in 1953 and lived until his death in 1960 in the Methodist Home for the Aged, Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

In a letter dated 1941 he writes:

"My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness."

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Refrain

Great is Thy faithfulness!Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Refrain

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Refrain

Update

It's late Saturday night...the conference is almost over, which is sad...but we get to see Piper preach in the morning!

I've got pictures with Piper, Justin Taylor, and Helen Rosevere. I stood right next to Noel Piper, but didn't know what to say to her. Am I supposed to say: "Hey, my kids really like the Advent calendar you designed" lol.

I met Purgatorio...who doesn't blog much anymore, yet I still check back to see if he has.

I met Phil Johnson from the Pyromaniac blog.

We've gotten lots of books. We've gone to the Mall of America. We got lost in the Minneapolis skyway. Jamison is doing well.....though tired since his sleep schedule is kinda messed up.

I think we are all planning on going to the Melting Pot tomorrow night. YUM!

I'll be sure to share my pictures once we are back in Maine. It has been such a great trip!

I've been negligent

Not really my fault, but I know I haven't blogged since Tuesday :)

Let's see...what has happened since then, you might ask? On Monday and Tuesday, I was in a van driving up to Maine. On Wednesday, I went grocery shopping and got the kids ready to stay with my sister for 5 days, while John, Jamison, and I go to Minneapolis. This morning, our flight left at 8:10, and we arrived in MN. We then drove to Rochester to have dinner with John's grandfather who is 90 today. And now, I sit here able to say something.

But find that I have nothing to say.

Jamison did great on the plane. He just laid there on my chest and made not a sound....for the exception of when he bumped his head, at that point, there were two whines. I can handle two whines on a 3-1/2 hour plane ride!

He is running a slight fever and slept a lot today. He is in good spirits, but is just fighting something off. Please keep him in your prayers. Although him not feeling really well gives me a time to love the cuddling...

I miss my boys back in Maine...but I know they are having fun with my sister :)

Tomorrow the conference starts....so I can't make any promises when I'll be back...but I'll be taking lots of pictures!

Freebies! (a day early)

Fisher Price Planet Heroes DVD (just add to cart...you will have to check out with a grand total of $0.00)

Samuel Adams "All About Beer Magazine" Free Trial Issue

Free National Guard T-Shirt

Free DVD: The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (use discretion....might end up being a favorite and a classic) <---said in complete sarcasm, lol

French Toast Casserole

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I skip this)
Dash salt Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

This recipe is incredibly good!

The power of the sign

Nolan believes in the power of the sign.

On his magnadoodle, he wrote the word ignoring with a line through it. He thinks that this should be enough to prevent Gideon from ignoring him.

Obviously Gideon hasn't gotten the memo.

In Christ Alone

Blessed Assurance by Fanny Crosby

Born: March 24, 1820, Put­nam Coun­ty, New York.

Died: Feb­ru­a­ry 12, 1915, Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Buried: Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Fanny Crosby was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns.

About her blind­ness, she said:

It seemed intend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.

In her life­time, Fan­ny Cros­by was one of the best known wo­men in the Unit­ed States. To this day, the vast ma­jor­i­ty of Amer­i­can hymn­als con­tain her work.

When Fanny died, her tomb­stone car­ried the words, “Aunt Fan­ny” and “Bless­ed as­sur­ance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a fore­taste of glo­ry di­vine.”

Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Refrain

Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blest,

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Refrain

Random posting

*I am blogging while traveling. I am cool again.

*I went to KFC a month ago and was disappointed that the honey mustard sauce changed. Is this a permanent thing? I doubt I will ever eat there again if it is, which is probably a good thing.

*I will be in Maine for the next few weeks. This means that by the time I get back to northeast Tennessee, Sonic's peach smoothies will be a thing of the past :(

*Today is Monday and that means that in just 3 days I will be in Minnesota celebrating John's grandfather's 90th birthday with him.

*It was silly of me to go to bed around 11pm last night. Jamison woke up at midnight screaming (not sure why) and he was up until 2:15am. This never happens! It make my 4:30am wake up time come that much quicker.

*I have a plan to catch our mouse that is planning on taking over my house again while we are gone. I don't know what is worse....the thought of entering a house that smells like decomposing mouse or a house that has mouse droppings in every corner of every room.

How's that for random?

Weep with those who weep

Felicity Margaret Piper

Holy Discontentment

By Jeffrey Ream

Recently I have become discontent. Discontent with many things. Discontent with the impact I am making on the kingdom of God. Discontent with my relationship with God. Discontent with my own mediocrity I guess.


I can remember being just a kid growing up in Iowa wanting to change the world, not by any other means but for the Lord. That desire has always been in my heart. I guess most of us want to change the world, but very few ever do.


So what is it that seperates those who don't change the world from those who do? Is it circumstance? Is it luck? Is it desire? No! I believe that the greatest hindrance of Christians changing the world is contentment. We become content with where we are at. Churches fail to reach the world and become content to only take care of their own when there is a world out there dying and going to hell. That isn't being judgemental...that is being honest. We must be honest about the situation of the world if we are going to be compelled to dare to reach them. What are they being saved from? Why do they need Christ? Why are they going to want what we have if we are not different?


Holy discontentment. I think it is essential for a passionate Christ follower to have. It is not a negative thing, it is a positive which will help to fuel our aggressive approach to reaching souls for Christ. It should be our prayer that we never grow complacent and content with our call to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

From Worship Blog

Give the gift of land!

Now you can make God's gift to us your gift to someone you love.

Imagine the joy and pride it will bring you to legally own a piece of Israel or to give it as a gift to your children or grandchildren or to commemorate a wedding, anniversary, birthday, a special religious event, or any other important occasion. Owning a piece of the Holy Land will be cherished forever by you or your loved ones or friends. A gift that never stops giving.

Um, are they really talking about land here?

Buy your land here.

I want a pet hippo

Do you?

It has come to my attention....

that ever since I posted the recipe for Monkey Bread a couple weeks ago...that it has become an obsession with a certain family.

Might I recommend this to you.

Happy Eaters!

I'm guessing this was sent to me, so I could blog it, lol

Here ya go Reggie...



A seagull in Scotland has developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop.

The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn't looking (so a camera was installed), and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos.

Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and becomes a feast, for other birds!


The seagull’s shoplifting started early this month, when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen, Scotland, and helped himself to a bag of chips.

Since then, he’s become a "regular". He always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull’s stolen bags of chips,... because they think it’s so funny!

What are you drinking?

I don't know about you...but I would rather drink something that is "fused with fruit of the spirit".....how about you?

1 in 3 Trinity Drink

A Diaper Bag

It's big, it's soft, and I love it!

It took me awhile to make, but it was well worth my time! I added a cell phone pocket and there is a double pocket inside.

I'm almost afraid to use it!

Church sign

A couple things I found funny