Lovely Lazy Saturday

We've had a lovely relaxing day -  several are hacking and sick enough that I won't let them go anywhere. LOL

We started the morning with a pancake breakfast and some more snuggles and playing with Clara and Elise. Alas, their family showed up for them around 1100.

We had some lunch. Michael did more sermon prep. We played games, worked on puzzles, read, watched a move, paid bills, printed labels, and I played with green beans.

Our latest update on our great nephew, Dom, is that the CT scan showed no additional swelling, he has a strong grip and the doctor is optimistic. Please continue to pray for Dom. We'd love to see him come back from this with no lasting ill-effects.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Baked Green Bean "Fries" - Vegan/Fat Free/Cholesterol Free

I bought a pound of green beans at the Farmer's Market.  I discovered most my family is bean-o-phobic....and I didn't want to eat a whole pound by myself....but I DO love the green bean fries at Applebess and PF Changs. I played around today. I liked these well enough to eat a pound by myself - but Michael helped me out. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of green beans (washed, ends snapped, DRIED)

1/2 C Panko Bread Crumbs

1/3 C Nutritional Yeast (or Cashew Cheese or Parmesan Cheese)

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 Flax Eggs (1 T ground flax seed/2 T water per egg)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425*

 

Wash and prepare beans - dry

 

Mix dry ingredients and put in a plastic bag (or however you want to coat them)

 

Mix up flax egg

 

Dredge beans in flax egg and then shake in the bag of spices. 

 

Put the beans in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and sprayed.

 

Bake 10-15 minutes until golden. Broil the last couple of minutes if they aren't crisp.

 

NOTES:

 

I tried to spray with oil and shake....



 

But the coating didn't really stick as thick as I wanted to - so I tried the flax egg

 

Much happier - though Michael mentioned the coating DID fall off while you were eating...maybe a bit of flour after the flax egg before the spices????? What do you think?

You CAN use any bread crumbs, eggs and cheese - if you aren't a vegan - but why would you want too? The Nutritional yeast is SO yummy in this. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Please Pray for Our Great Nephew

Here's a prayer request we shared on Facebook.

"Our family needs prayers. This season has been difficult for Gherkin men. Most urgently - early this a.m. our 18 yo great nephew was celebrating the end of mid-terms with friends. He fell off a balcony and landed 2 stories down on concrete. He is currently in ICU and we're praying for a miracle. Earlier in the past month or two his grandfather - Michael's brother Earl - began battling Stage 3 colon cancer. A few weeks ago Michael's eldest brother - Mike - was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Michael (you know - my Mike) sees the surgeon on Tuesday. Please pray for Dominic, Earl, Michael and Mike....and if you are a Gherkin male - be careful. I bought these guys a couple of weeks ago - you know - weebles wobble but they don't fall down."

As I sit here hours later - babies in bed, dog in kennel, doorbell silent - I'm sad. Just sad...and weary....and reaching for what I know to be true. God doesn't waste a minute of suffering...God has a plan....He does. God is good.  But I'm human. I'm still sad. It feels surreal that Dom could be in the ICU....so we pray. We ask God for a miracle and we believe His will will be done...in all these situations and the other situations we all face.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Double Snuggles and Laughs

We've been waiting for Friday. The day dawned cloudy and rainy. Arielle is exhausted because Stacia coughed all night....but we got up, got school done and waited.......what could this mean?

 

Elise and Clara are here!!! These little ones are a blast and we get them all day and overnight. Brenner, Stephanie and Cole are off on an over-night birthday trip for Cole (4).  Brenner is one of our Protestant chaplains and Stephanie is our PWOC Spiritual Life Ministry Team Leader.

Elise, Me and Clara Beth

There's Clara's face!

We began with snuggles.....moved on to playing

 

LUNCH TIME....Yuuki is sure if she stays between the girls she'll get treats.

 

Next on the agenda was nap time. The girls went right down. We left Arielle to secure the house and ran to buy MILK (a terrible thing to run out of - especially with young kids in the house) and a few groceries.

 

The afternoon was spent with more play time....

 



I found it fun to watch the girls play with  play dough....the difference in their personalities was fascinating. Elise made round little balls, all the colors separate.....

Clara had a lovely mash of variegated colors....she looks sad here as she's just noted all of Elise's lovely balls and she' trying to figure out how to make hers similar. 

After dinner Stacia asked Michael to play the piano so the kids could dance. Zander opted to help me with clean up. LOL

 

We planned to settle down and watch a bit of Mickey before bed...but oy vey - the Elsa's and Olafs at our door!  We DID watch some Mickey in between racing our howling Beagle to the door. It was great fun to hear all the comments as we passed out candy. My favorite was, "Oh, Daddy look, they dressed up as twins!" ::snort::

 

Arielle read stories to the girls and they went right down at bedtime.  I've given Stacia cough syrup and she may sleep down stairs to help the girls sleep a bit better in their room.  She's a bit sad about it - we don't do sleep overs so she's been looking forward to having the girls over....

 

It's been a fun day with the little gals in our home.  I can't help thinking  if I'd carried the twins to term we'd have 7 year old twins in the house.  It's been a fun day.

 



Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Laundry Day

There you have it! The wind at Beale CAN get strong enough to knock over my clothesline. I thought I left this problem behind in Misawa. LOL

We were able to rescue the sheets with a quick trip through the dryer but the clothes needed to be rewashed. 

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Clergy Appreciation

This month has been the BEST month I have ever seen in Clergy Appreciation since joining the Air Force. I'm so proud of our gals.  PWOC decided to motivate our parish and told Chaplains wives we weren't to play a part. They joined with CWOC and WOW....we had notes this month, cards for the chaplains, doughnuts, homemade soap, homemade bread, Kids Flight homeschoolers made cookies, RE classes made thank you cards...and yesterday the CWOC and PWOC  provided lunch for the staff and families.  It was well worth the early school hours to attend. LOL  Thanks to all who took part in making this such a fun appreciation month!

 

Back at home we harvested another Zuchinni

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Monday

Not one photo taken - but a very productive day.

Monday's are always very busy school days. Stacia finished an Explode the Code book, Alex began a new Wordly Wise book, we all read and read about Simon Bolivar and comrades.

Arielle and Nolan had Japanese lessons. I love to listen to the Japanese flying back and forth. The other day Arielle had a conversation with Nikki in Japanese....not just the "Good morning. How are you? I'm fine," conversation *I* have with her each week. LOL 

I spent much time in the afternoon on the computer....working on Philippians homework, announcement slide show, answering emails, touching base with volunteers and lining up activities for December and January.

Arielle completed her driving instruction - six hours behind the wheel with a certified instructor.  She would have made 82 on the driving test and would have passed. We aren't sure 82 is a score we're comfortable with - but I can't wait for her to have her license. Much of the problem came from driving the school's small car vs a 15 pass van. We're trying to figure out what to do about that. Test in the school's car, test in the van - Arielle suggests we buy a new little, sporty automatic car. ::snort::

Michael spent more time with his favorite doctor. Nothing new or exciting to share. LOL

All in all - it was a full day.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...