On Cleaning Up Messes

Fall must be my favorite time of year to clean. Between the crisp cool(er) air blowing in windows (causing curtains to dust for me), the crunch of leaves on the ground (reminding me of the distinctive "crunch" of my kitchen floor), the smell of fireplaces and wood stoves starting up again... if I ever really "get" the cleaning bug, it's in the fall. But sometimes (like today), I stop and sit and read other's thoughts and find an uncanny resemblance to my own thoughts mirrored by almost all of my favorite writers. So here are a few links on "cleaning" of various types for your consideration and meditation.

Molly's: Pacify Me: Dealing with Big Emotions Vs. Stuffing/Burying/Masking

Amy's: Having it All Together

and Lisa's: Not Exactly Home and Gardens

All well worth the down-time from fall cleaning to read. Enjoy!!

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E

Wow. The kids' Sunday School song... "Obedience." I've heard my Reformed-leaning friends rail against the song before, but this comment from StuffFundiesLike just sums the argument so well. Basically, we're teaching our kids works-based sanctification. "Do this and this and this and *then* God will be happy with you." What bondage!!

Unfortunately, when a seven year old sings this song, he or she gets the impression that obedience is the best way to show that you believe. Thousands of Muslims show obedience and do not believe at all, because they are under the law. Most unsaved children interpret Sunday School lessons and songs as rules to keep. This has no saving effect whatsoever. Whoever is under the law and is obedient to law is cursed, because the scriptures say, Cursed is every one who continues not to do every thing written in the law. For the unsaved seven year old, obedience does not show that he believes. It only shows that something motivates him to obey, whether it be the Holy Spirit or the law of Moses. When a child gets stars for attending Sunday School every week, the impression that God is pleased with performance based Christianity begins to enter into every concept the child has about God. This is essentially keeping the law. The child is then being groomed to believe that carrying a Bible to church, wearing a suit, and perfect church attendance equals God's satisfaction. Scary! There is nothing saving about keeping manmade expectations of showing obedience. So the best way to show that you believe is just simply believe God and believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him! (Alan's comment on SFL's post on O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E).

ETA: And when I say bondage, I do mean bondage. Think about the words of the song.

Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe,
Doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it happily,
Action is the key, do it immediately, joy you will receive,
Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe

We want to live pure, we want to live clean. We want to do our best.
Sweetly submitting to authority. Leaving to God the rest.
Walking in the Light, keeping our attitude right, on the narrow way...

eh, I forget the rest and probably didn't get that last line right either. But do you see it? Can you see what's lacking? It's all about doing... ME doing something. It's not about Him at all. I've nothing against kids doing the things sung about here, but why are they doing them?? Why do we as believers do what we do?? What's our motivation?? God doesn't need me to *do* for Him, or for Him to be happy with me. I am accepted in the Beloved. Period.

There's more that should be said here, but I'm searching for gracious words, LOL.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Nothing says Happy Birthday like getting to make your own birthday cake. Seriously--it's been tradition in our house since I was a little girl that I got to make my own birthday cake (or at least decorate it). I used to pick those gaudy hard sugar decorations in a pack that you had to soak off the paper... then mom let me make my own cakes. Now I get to do the whole shebang from start to finish. This year?? Cheesecake!! Yum!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Crust:
22 chocolate creme filled cookies, crushed
8 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup peanuts, chopped fine

Mix together cookie crumbs and nuts, toss with melted butter. Lightly press into bottom of spring-form pan. Refrigerate until time to bake.

Filling:
24 oz. cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup sour cream
5 eggs
2 tsp Godiva chocolate liquor (or vanilla ;) )
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup peanuts, finely chopped

Directions:
Cream together cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, and corn starch until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in flavoring and whipping cream. Divide batter into two bowls. Melt chocolate chips and stir into one half, set aside. Stir peanut butter and chopped peanuts into remaining cream cheese batter.

Spread half of the peanut butter mixture over the crust. Pour half of chocolate mixture over peanut butter mix. Spoon in remaining peanut butter batter and top with last of chocolate mixture. Swirl with a knife blade to marble, being careful not to disturb the crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 215 degrees and bake for an additional 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until center of cheesecake no longer looks wet (not necessarily until firm though). Turn off oven and remove cheesecake, run knife around inside of pan, return cheesecake to oven for 30 minutes. Chill, uncovered, overnight.


Adapted from Cheesecake Extraordinaire's Chocolate Peanut Butter cheesecake (pg. 42), and Peanut Butter Chocolate cheesecake (pg. 87).

Happy little dragons

Yep, she likes him! Want proof?? Incredibly enough, this picture wasn't posed.

BD#2 had been snuggled in the recliner with the baby and I (since I had the audacity to refuse to give her the "big rocking chair" all to herself, LOL). I had to vacate the room for a second, so I asked BD#2 if I could leave BD#3 beside her "just for a minute." When I came back, this is what I found. :-)




Awwww...

Happy Father's Day!

Slugs, slugs, and more slugs

It started with one slug being held captive til the kids got to see a house-less snail. Then there were two slugs. Then there were six. By the time I finished collecting slugs (all out of our kitchen mind you), I had developed a regular slug condo--two tenants per unit. I should go into real estate, ROFL. *not*




Today (finally, it's Friday!) we decided to practice our catch and release skills. One last look at those slug "housing units" before the older kids helped evict the slugs.




Free at last, free at last. Here are two of our (former) tenants.



(And yes, we *did* wash our hands when we got back inside, thankyouverymuch!)

Thus ends our week-in-review.