Serving Others

Jesus' call for us to serve others has been all over me lately-- in my bible study, in sermons on Sunday, at a Priscilla Shirer event, on K-LOVE. I get the hint God-- I need to get over myself and start thinking about others. :) I've been thinking about this for a while and felt like I needed to know what my spiritual gift is, or know what "mission field" God is calling me, or find a "place" to volunteer before I could serve. But after Priscilla Shirer's message last Saturday night, I realized that I need to start serving in the circumstances I'm in now, as unglamorous as they might be.

I found this Web site with some ideas on ways to serve others that started to jog my brain. My goal is to start tomorrow doing 1 thing each day to serve someone else. Big or small, I should be able to find something to do for someone if I can manage to escape from my own bubble. :)

If you have any ideas for more servant opportunities, please let me know. I'm game, even if it's a small thing.

I Should Have Been Irish

I think I remember hearing that my mom's side of the family is English, but I must have some Irish roots somewhere. I always have way too much fun on St. Patty's Day.

Listening to K-LOVE on the way to work yesterday got me in the St. Patty's Day mood. Eric and people calling in would give Lisa a topic and she would make up Irish songs that rhymed. I tried my hand at this when I went to pick up Justin after work. My song went something like this:

Li-dee, li-dee, li-dee, li-dee, li-dee, li-die, li

The day is finally over

I'm coming to get you now.

We need to go to the grocery

I'm hungry as a cow.

I thought it was brilliant. Justin just shook his head at me-- typical response to my craziness.

At work, it was a sea of green. It amazes me that so many adults put on green without being reminded or prompted. During the day, I listened to Irish music on Pandora and watched an online clip of Riverdance on the TODAY Show. This led to me doing my own Riverdance for a couple of my co-workers. Priceless.

Then Justin and I went home last night and had our version of Irish fare-- fish and chips. We topped it all off with Biggest Loser. (BL isn't Irish at all, but I love that show, so who cares.) Happy St. Patty's Day to all. Can't wait til next year. My personal trainer promises to do a Riverdance number in our Zumba class. I would be all over that.

Interesting Life Coaching Exercise

I recently started working with a life coach, due to my dissatisfaction with my career and general cluelessness about what my purpose in life is. My life coach and I talk via phone every 1-2 weeks and in between those calls, I have assignments.

One of this week's assignments was to imagine the people in your life (family, close friends, etc.) giving you one gift. I had to list what gift each person would give me and what it would represent. I thought it was an odd exercise, but I actually ended up enjoying it greatly. It really made me think about a gift that would sum up each special person in my life. For example, I said my dad would give me a shovel, because he values hard work. He is the hardest working person I know. My mom would give me a cookbook, because she loves cooking, but mainly because taking care of family is so important to her.

As the list went on and on, I began thinking about what my gift to others would be. How would other people sum me up into one gift? What would I want that gift to be? For Christians, no matter what the gift is, it should be wrapped in a "Jesus" bow, because we're supposed to share Him with everything we do. But what would my actual gift be? Hopefully when I figure out my mission as a result of this coaching process, my gift will become clearer.

New Laughing Cow Cheese Varieties

I just heard the good news. One of my favorite foods, Laughing Cow Cheese, is adding 3 new varieties. The new flavors are Blue Cheese, Queso Fresco & Chipotle, and Mozzarella, Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil. Expect to see them in the grocery in June.

Gotta love it. I whip up some great breakfast many mornings by mixing this cheese and egg whites or Egg Beaters. Good stuff and low calorie.

The Office- Jim & Pam's Baby

Last night's episode of The Office was great. It was finally time for Jim and Pam to have their baby. My favorite parts were Dwight deciding he needed a baby to help his sales, and the best by far, Jim telling Pam she needed to push the milk out for the baby. So funny-- I almost died laughing.

Apparently the whole baby thing must have been on my mind because I had dreams all night about babies. Michael Scott was even in one and he was hitting on women at a parenting class. Sounds like another episode. This Jim and Pam storyline is great-- first the wedding and now the baby. I love it. I can't wait to see their reaction when they go home and see that Dwight has ripped out their moldy kitchen cabinets.

Cook 1 Day, Eat for Weeks, Tip 1

I went to a continuing education class last week called "Cook 1 Day, Eat for Weeks" and picked up several good tips for spending less time cooking. By the time I get in each day, either I need a snack or dinner needs to be ready quickly, because I am famished. Must be all the hard work I do. haha. Anyway, I thought I would share some of the tips I learned at the class.

One of the tips for small families is to double or triple recipes you're already making and freeze them. So Monday I made a Greek dish called moussaka and doubled the recipe. The recipe was from Rachael Ray. I make 2 batches in 8x8 dishes. One dish was for eating this week, the other I lined with aluminum foil first and then added the ingredients. I put the aluminum foil dish in the freezer until the moussaka hardened and then I wrapped it up in aluminum foil and plastic wrap, then put it in a freezer bag. (Apparently, freezer burn happens when you don't wrap your food well enough, and I don't want that to happen.)

Planning on using the same technique this weekend. It's potluck breakfast at Sunday School, so I'm going to make a couple banana bread loafs and freeze them for future breakfasts. If I keep this up, I'll have to go buy that chest freezer I've had my eye on.