Praying Out of Time

I read a quote recently in which the writer reflected that she wished she could pray about a situation, but “it was too late”. Here is something to consider:

God is not within the time line, but with out. Time is His Own creation. He is able to manipulate it to move a shadow backwards 10 steps (2 King 20:9), to stop the sun in its tracks while a battle is being fought (Joshua 10:13). He knows and has told us in His Word the events of what we consider to be the future for even several thousand years, has done so repeatedly since His Word and His prophets were first given to us, and been proven True time and time again. Time constrains the Lord from acting no more than taking fleshly form constrained Him to the grave.

Prayer is not about changing God’s mind, but about changing ourselves. Prayer helps us to seek His will for our lives; it puts us in communication with Him… especially so, if we will be quiet from our requests long enough to listen to His answers. Therefore, if the purpose of prayer is to grow our relationship with Him, and if He is Infinitely God, then the effect of our prayer is no more limited to today and tomorrow than HE is limited to today and tomorrow. He can fix yesterday.

His Word promises that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [His] purpose.” (Romans 8:28) This means that the God who is not constrained by space or time is also not restrained by our failures and mistakes. He knew us in our mother’s womb before we ever drew breath (Psalm 139:13)… knew the mistakes we would make, knew the grief He would suffer with us over our choices, knew the pain we would bring on ourselves. He made us, remember? We did not make ourselves. But He still made us just that particular way, knowing exactly what would happen in our lives. More importantly, He was with us then and He is with us now, and He still loves us. He can take our past and turn it into something beautiful for Him. It might not be something we understand, a piece that makes sense to us right now… because that time that He created is something that does delineate our own thinking and understanding. We don’t need to understand it; we only need to know Him.

I love the perspective that it gives us to realize that God is not within our time limits. The perspective to… pray for your spouse for the years before you knew them… pray for the spouses of your children when they grow up, or for your grandchildren before they are even born. Pray for your parents when they were young and struggling or your mother as she was giving birth to you. Pray for your grandparents as children going through the Great Depression. Pray for the victims of the terrorist attacks during 9/11. Pray for our current and past presidents, for Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr! Pray for the unnamed soldiers lying in shallow graves all over the world. Pray for your children’s Kindergarten classes, for their teachers and administrators and the choices they will all someday make. Pray for Mary and the disciples when Jesus was being crucified… pray for Jesus. No prayer is wasted or without purpose. It brings us closer to His perspective, doesn’t it? It is of value.

WE are of value to Him, and our efforts to approach Him bring joy to His heart. He rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). Nothing we can do or have done can prevent Him from being able to wash us clean. It is a lie and a grievous error to assume otherwise. The Lord God of the Universe gave Himself for us, for me, for you… because His death was the only thing that could clean us up and let Him approach. He loved you too much to live without you; in the most powerful, healthy, Godly way it is possible to mean that.

In her Mitford series books, author Jan Karon mentions “the prayer that never fails”… and explains this to mean, simply and magnificently, prayer for God’s will to be done. If we understand that God’s will is to work things out for the best possible purposes (Romans 8:28), that He is with us always even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20), and that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), then we should therefore be able to trust Him with our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows. Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:26 assures us that “With God, all things are possible.”

Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And in Ephesians 6, we are reminded that our battle is not of this world, but of powers and spiritual forces.

Philippians 1:9 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

Pray out of time. Pray to have His heart and to be brought closer to Him. Be a participant in this world He has created. We will live forever… shouldn’t we Pray Like It?!

Billings’ Own… “Super Chicken”????

Billings' Own… "Super Chicken"????.

Eggnog for Breakfast??

2 eggs (backyard eggs are best!)
3-4 tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (plus more for serving)
1/4 tsp rum extract
2 cups milk (or silk, or other milk substitute)

Whisk eggs and sugar until sugar dissolves, then add remainder of ingredients. Chill, if you can wait that long, or just pour into chilled cup! Sprinkle with additional nutmeg if desired.

You can also add some pumpkin puree to taste, but if so you might want to do this in a blender rather than whisking, just to get it really smooth. This is a delicious way to get your morning protein (although what appears to be rum breath might get you into trouble with the boss). If your “boss” is wee, he or she might love this for breakfast too!

Re: eggs. Yes, these are raw eggs. If this is a concern to you, make sure your eggs are fresh (place them in a bowl of room temp water – if they lay flat down, they’re fresh. As they age they begin to tip up and will eventually float after about 30 days – the USDA lets producers sell them up to about 45 days after being laid. Eww. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.). You can also take your nice fresh egg and quickly wash it off in tepid/room temp water before breaking them open. Salmonella risk is very low from the INSIDE of the egg, but washing-before-use will help decrease the risk from the OUTSIDE of the egg no matter where you get your eggs from. (“>

Harvest Tine (sic)

One of the biggest problems with harvesting potatoes is with the subsequent tine-pokes or shovel-slices. No matter how careful we try to be, it seems like about 10% of our potatoes end up dinged. When, like this year, you plant an awful lot of potatoes to begin with, that 10% adds up very quickly! So what to do with the damaged spuds that must be cooked right away?

Enter “Potato Bark”. I was looking for some tips on dehydrating, and stumbled onto www.BackpackingChef.com. This guy is awesome! It kills two birds with one stone, as my husband recently asked me to look into dehydrating some meals for his He-Man Backpacking Trips. (He doesn’t call them that, I do. They involve several days of backpacking over Montana mountain peaks. I stand in awe.) Backpacking Chef has lots of recipes for backpacking meals – dehydrated etc.

Potato Bark involves taking your potatoes (in our case, scrubbed and sliced up with the damaged parts removed) and boiling them until cooked. Since the crockpot takes this ridiculously low amount of energy ($$), I tossed my tater slices into my big crock and added lightly salted water. Then, mash your cooked potatoes with an appropriate amount, depending on your volume of potatoes, of fat-free vegetable, beef, or chicken broth (and homemade broth is another post). Add salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste and as desired. Beat the lumps out: by hand, by blender, by mixer, by food processor, whatever. Now you have nice, smooth, fairly thin mashed potatoes. Not too runny, ok?

Spread this tasty mixture out onto your dehydrator “fruit leather” sheets, or on top of parchment paper cut to fit your dehydrator, whatever you have. Backpacking Chef says you can do this in the oven too, but I’m doing it in the dehydrator. Lots less energy! ($$)

Spread thinly, about 1/8″ thick. Then dehydrate it until it’s, well, dry. Dehydrators vary. You want it into a brittle sheet that will break up into small, convenient pieces when done.

Still with me? Here’s the beauty of this stuff. You don’t have to take it on He-Man Backpacking Trips! You can keep it in a Ziploc or a glass jar for practically EVER, and when you want a nice thickener for your soups, stews, etc? Toss a handful in! This is alot better option than cornstarch as a thickener, as you’re getting some nice health benefits from your good potatoes.

And of course you don’t HAVE to use your own organically grown potatoes that got stuck by the potato fork tine or the shovel. You COULD just make it with whatever potatoes strike your fancy. That’s the beauty of it!

I just love how things all tie in so nicely sometimes. Need to use up potatoes? Need to come up with some backpacking/camping/hiking meals? Need to just have some great, nutritious thickener on hand for your upcoming Autumn and Winter stews and soups? Well here ya go. Thank the Backpacking Chef!

Favorite Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 TBS (yep, Tablespoons!) vanilla
1/3 cup butter (real stuff)
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups grated zucchini (leave the skin on)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 cup minced nuts (optional) – we like walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients in one huge bowl, mix well.
3. Pour into two greased (or Pam-ed) loaf pans, or 1 bundt cake pan.
4. Bake for one hour. Here at 3500 feet, we bake for 1:10 or so – use the toothpick inserted in the center to come out clean test.

I double this recipe and make one bundt cake and 2 loaves, trying to stick at least one loaf in the freezer before my ravenous hordes get to it. It’s low fat (comparatively), loaded with good stuff, and makes a pretty decent breakfast-in-a-hurry! Or a snack… or dessert…

Addressing Some Concerns… (via Get Your Hen On, Billings!)

Worried about backyard hens? Have questions?

Following are some concerns we have heard expressed about the concept of urban chickens, in any town. Q – Chickens and chicken feed attract mice, which could lead to health problems such as Hanta Virus, right? A – We recommend chicken feed being kept in hanging feeders in the pen, and in rodent-proof containers before being given to the chickens. The exact same care that should be given to dog and cat food as well as wild bird seed. If the handfu … Read More

via Get Your Hen On, Billings!

Springtime in the Rockies…

I love flowers. Love. Them. I love lilacs especially, the smell is wild, crazy, gorgeous! These early flowers – crabapple, tulips, miniature grape hyacinths, lilacs… they’re all a hug after a long, hard winter. Thanks God – I love You, too!!

God gives the best to those who wait on Him

I’ve heard people say so many times, “Oh if only I’d waited on the Lord. What would my life have been like if I’d waited to receive what HE had to give me, rather than taking for myself what I wanted?” I wonder what it is they… okay, we… think that the Lord would have given us? The presidency of a company? Wealth and fame? A husband with the soul and wisdom of King Solomon and the looks of a movie star, completely devoted to us and ignoring all our own faults? Perfect children who never give us a minute’s worry?

I wonder why we think that.

Jesus painted quite a different picture about the Christian life. It wasn’t all waving palm trees and “Hosanna!” was it? More like a lot of very hard work.

“The Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”… not a mansion or even a mini-manse.

Jesus walked, and walked, and walked… when He finally caught a ride, it was on an unbroken donkey colt… not in a leather-interior, ultimate-sound system Yukon, Hummer, or Mercedes.

Jesus shared a little boy’s lunch… with over 5,000 people. Loaves and fishes that had been sitting around in some little boy’s lunch box in the hot Mediterranean sun all day… not exactly the finest epicurean delights.

He washed His disciples’ dirty feet. He preached an unwelcome message to the powers that existed in their time. He had to elude capture until it was His time. He was never able to marry or have children, although by His choice we are His chosen children… not exactly perfect kids who never give him a minute’s worry, are we? He had to escape His friends for precious few moments to have time to pray to His Father.

And then for all of that… He was beaten, mocked, spit upon, forced to carry the cross He would be nailed to, and ultimately crucified.

And yet, we wonder… what would God have given me, if I had only waited on Him?

Now I’m not saying that God doesn’t give His best to those who wait on Him… I’m just pondering the difference between what we imagine His best to be, and what He knows it to be. Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve… isn’t that to be true of us, as well? Why do we think we are outside of God’s will for us, if we love Him and obey Him right now… because things aren’t easy? Are they meant to be?

I truly believe that God isn’t nearly as concerned about our specific situation as He is about the specific state of our hearts. What job we take, where we live, which house we buy, which spouse we marry, the choices we make with our days and nights… those are all important in their own respects. God knows about every sparrow, and clothes every flower. He certainly cares about every detail of our lives, and wants us to discuss it with Him. But don’t you see, it’s the discussion with Him that’s the important part? The relationship with Him that means we have enough trust and faith in Him to ask His opinion, to ask Him to choose for us. He wants us walking close to Him, He tells us in His Word to pray about everything.

I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but a case for a generality certainly exists that most people tend to take off and not look back when they feel that their lives are under control, that things are going well, that they are blessed and special. Something in us feels that we are certainly due that, for whatever reason. We quickly become complacent and relaxed in our good ‘fortune’. We put God in the back seat, if He makes it into our vehicle at all.

However, when things aren’t going so well, when the stress levels are hovering in the red zone and problems abound, we are more prone to approach Him. We seek Him out; we go to the Source of power, don’t we? And we should! He created the universe and everything and everyone in it, He is aware of everything at all times, He wants us to come to Him, and it makes absolute sense that we do so. But if your son or daughter only came to you when they needed money, time, or other resources, would you feel that you had a good relationship? Would you feel loved? God wants our love. He created us for our love. He wants it enough to die for it.

Our reward in heaven is based on our actions, thoughts, intentions and relationships on this earth. Consider this… when you are blessed with all that the world says are the best things, fame and fortune, beauty and security, are you more likely to dig in and become a true disciple, someone who KNOWS what they believe, and LIVES what they believe, no matter what storms rage in their lives… or are you more likely to coast?

So the next time you are wondering what God might have given you if you had only waited on Him, look around your life. What is God doing with what you have now, and do you really think that you yourself provided all of that? God does want us to live our lives, and not live them in the past, or dreaming of an alternative life that could have, should have, would have happened if only. He wants to show us how He can, how He is working in our lives, jobs, homes, finances, and relationships this very minute. This is it. It’s one time around. Are you getting closer to Him?

Great Garden Quotes…

… for your Garden Journal or stationery… for garden signs… for sharing!

• Gardens are a form of autobiography. ~Sydney Eddison, Horticulture magazine, August/September 1993
• Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ~Lindley Karstens, noproblemgarden.com
• You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.
• Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination. ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897
• No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden. ~Hugh Johnson
• I think that if ever a mortal heard the voice of God it would be in a garden at the cool of the day. ~F. Frankfort Moore, A Garden of Peace
• In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it. ~Frank McKinney Hubbard
• One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show
• I have never had so many good ideas day after day as when I worked in the garden. ~John Erskine
• Green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart. ~Russell Page
• It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening. You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not. ~W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish, 1936
• The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~Dorothy Frances Gurney, “Garden Thoughts”
• Gardens are not made by sitting on the shade
. . . Rudyard Kipling
• Weeds for sale – pick your own
• As is the gardener, so is the garden
• I meant to do my work today,
but a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
and a butterfly flitted across the field,
and all the leaves were calling me.
• Kind hearts are the garden,
kind thoughts are the root,
kind words are the blossoms,
kind deeds are the fruit.
• You have to eat a lot of parsley to be an old sage
• FUNGUS AMUNGUS
• PLANTUS UNKNOWNUS
• WEEDIS VICTORIUS
• PEAKUS LASTWEEKUS
• TWIGGA MORTIS
• GARDENITIS UNCONTROLLUS
• Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.
• Bless my bloomers!
• Bring on the sunshine!
• Have patience… nothing grows quickly except weeds!
• Herbs add spice to your life.
• I plant the seed, you make it grow.
You send the rain, I work the hoe.
• “Weed it and Reap “
• “Grow where you’re planted”
• “God blesses the hands that work in a garden.”
• “Don’t grumble that roses have thorns …be thankful that thorns have roses!”
• Life is a garden – Dig In!!
• I’ve been wanting to make a sign to hang my garden tools on and it will say “Carpe Ritula” which means “Seize the spade”.
• “Weeds? What Weeds?”

Easter Cupcakes

Even the word… cupcakes… a term of endearment… a wee bit of confectionary delight. Did you know that the term “cupcake” was first used in a cookbook published in 1796, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons? How neat is it to bake something that millions of cooks have been making for family, friends, church socials, fund raisers, birthday parties, kindergarten classes, and their own personal, possibly secret thrill, for hundreds of years? That’ll put the Retro in the Retro Mom…

I’ll be honest, I haven’t always been a cupcake baker. I like bundt cakes alot too. So tidy, with an inherent dignity. Frosted or sprinkled with powdered sugar, some of them stand quite alone just fine. Good Southern cooks always have a bit of bundt pound cake tucked away somewhere. (I’m not saying I am one, just that it’s a good habit) But cupcakes? A placed-in-hand bit of light fluffy cake topped with… whatever! While I’m pretty much against most convenience foods due to chemicals etc, I have to say that the squirt frostings (cream cheese, anyone?!) are desperately convenient and incredibly easy to use… with no MESS! As a mom of two exceedingly mess-prone children, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that simple fact.

And of course… sprinkles!!! Oh I love me some sprinkles, especially Easter colors. It’s the only time of year I really love pastels. We’re big fans of sprinkles in this household… did you know that children burned out on the idea of another peanut butter sandwich will beam with joy when you sprinkle non-pareils or sanding sugar on top of the PB? At least my little tooters do. They’re also great on Cream of Wheat, oatmeal, bananas… sprinkles rule.

Despite what this sounds like, my household is actually quite limited on sugar intake. I don’t bake very often anymore – dumb old metabolism anyway – and baked goods and candies are treats rather than snacks. In other words, pretty rare. But you can’t be a Sugar Nazi ALL the time…

From my house to yours…
Happy Easter to my Christian friends…
Happy Passover to my Jewish friends…
Good Luck to the rest of you.

And to everyone – have a cupcake!!