Brunch

I love brunch, and I love the ladies in my care group from church.

I invited them all to my house this past Saturday for a time of fellowship. The simple joy of sitting undisturbed around a table, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, sharing our hearts and news of our families...it was nourishment for the body and soul.

I kept thinking, I must remember to take some pictures! Guess what? I forgot to take some pictures. Here are a few of the table at least. Simple, natural elements of autumn. My favorite type of decoration.

When it comes to hosting I know you're never supposed to try out a new recipe, but I kind of did anyway. I combined two of my trusty recipes into one, and added 2 ingredients to another, so it wasn't too risky.

Here are the recipes if you're interested.

Potato, Spinach & Sausage Breakfast Casserole

INGREDIENTS:

8 frozen hash brown patties

1/2 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. butter

1/2 c. shredded Mont. Jack, or white cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

a dash of basil, parsley & dill

4 frozen sausage links, chopped

1 dozen eggs

1 cup whole milk (or half-n-half)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grease a 9x13, create a single layer of hashbrowns in the bottom, and preheat the oven to 350.

2. Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat and saute onions and garlic for 4 minutes. Mix with cream cheese and spinach in a small bowl, then spread evenly over hashbrowns.

3. Layer shredded cheese, chopped sausage and seasonings next, then whisk together eggs and milk and pour over top.

4. Bake for 50-60 minutes till set, and let stand at least 5 minutes before serving. Makes 12 generous servings.

Baked Apple & Raisin French Toast with Praline Topping

INGREDIENTS:

1 loaf French bread (sliced 3/4" thick)

8 eggs

1 c. milk

1 c. half-n-half

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded

1/2 c. golden raisins

3/4 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/3 c. chopped pecans

3 Tbsp. honey or molasses

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk together eggs, milk, half-n-half, and vanilla, then set aside.

2. Grease a 9x13 and put a single layer of bread in the bottom. Combine apple, raisins, nutmeg and cinnamon and then spread over bread. Finish with another layer of bread.

3. Pour egg mixture evenly over top, cover dish and refrigerate overnight.

4. Combine butter, sugar, pecans and honey (or molasses) and spread over top just before baking in a preheated 350 oven for 50-60 minutes.

Photo Shoot---Part 1

Last week the ladies in my Care Group met at Conestoga House & Gardens for the evening. It's become a tradition to enjoy this local gem together once a year.

Located right along Marietta Avenue and just west of downtown Lancaster, Conestoga House is the former estate of the Steinman family. It is only open to the public June 15 to September 28 on Wednesdays, from 1pm-8pm, but it's free. There is an outside area with a few tables and chairs, so we take in tea, fruit and scones with lemon curd. (They have a take in--carry out policy.) And while there, enjoy the beautiful flowers and ideas they generate.

This year I happened to be filing mental notes for this photo shoot more than for my flowerbeds. I try to take some candid shots of the kids at least once a summer since I don't take them for studio pictures. And in the midst of such beautiful scenery, positioning is the least of my concerns. Every background is fantastic.

The kids did pretty well. I was determined not to fuss at them. That never works. I asked my mom to join us, mainly to keep an eye hand on Adam so we wouldn't have to fish him out of the fountains and koi pond.

Both children didn't stay still for more than a few seconds (if that), so I just kept snapping frames. I'm happy with the few "good" shots I did get, AND I ran into an old high school friend too!

Now, which ones do I choose to frame? Help me out here...

(Outtakes will be posted tomorrow.)

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This Cracked Me Up!

If you need a good guffaw, snort, or tickle to your funny bone, head on over to this post.

You gotta' read it simply to understand the title! :oP

Update

Well, it's taken awhile, but finally it seems we are getting to know and see familiar faces within our new church family. Crossway Church of Lancaster is a body of about 400 (about what we were used to in MD), that meets in a high school auditorium in the Millersville area. It's about a 25 minute drive for us. Not bad.

We didn't visit any other churches after our move because we knew that our last "Sovereign Grace" church's doctrine and practices were such a good fit. With emphases on teaching the Word and being rooted in sound doctrine, passionate worship, and gospel-centered EVERYTHING...we have found this sister church to be what we hoped it would be. A local body, like the one we left behind, that desires to live life together, sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron, and make much of Christ--and little of ourselves. We are confident that this is the place where God will most certainly grow us.

We've already completed the 10 wk. membership class, and though we had taken one similar when joining the church in MD in 2001, God brought much refreshment to us through it. (Now some of you may be thinking, 10 weeks!!! But we so appreciate the serious approach these leaders take towards membership. They want there to be no surprises years later when a person discovers, "You belief this about __________." They take seriously the fact that they will give an account to God one day as to how they cared for those under their authority. So, though it is a time-consuming process, we agree that it is a wise one.

About a month ago we were invited to start attending a care group that meets less than 10 minutes away. The groups are made up of members only and are regionally organized. We are excited to be developing new relationships. We love the small group dynamic, and have found it to be a means of God's grace in growing us over the last few years. How powerful it can be to belong to a group that is devoted to practicing true biblical fellowship--not getting together to merely socialize, but to freely confess our sin, hold one another accountable, to ask the hard questions, to point us back to the cross...

And then, at the beginning of April, we started another required class, devoted to what it means to be a part of a Care Group. (Because we had been members at a sister church previously, they made an exception that we didn't have to wait to go to Care Group until after completing it--which we were so thankful for.) The meal we share together, the teaching, the "practicing" each Tuesday night--all have been such a blessing.

Here are a few of my notes from last week's topic--SOUND DOCTRINE FUELS BIBLICAL FELLOWSHIP:

"Doctrine" and "theology" can be terms people tend to avoid because they find them intimidating, they are sometimes associated with condescending people, or they are thought to be the subject of irrelevant documents. However, in reality, we are all theologians. We all have a body of beliefs we hold to be true, a set of rules and principles. The important thing is that we have clarity as to what we believe and why.

Why does doctrine matter? We all are giving worship to something or someone at all times. Sound doctrine keeps us safe from the falsehoods that constantly surround us. The knowledge and adherance or the ignorance of sound doctrine has an enormous effect on us and is directly proportionate to our lives.

A robust doctrine of grace means that confession of sin is no big deal, because God has already given the harshest critique of me--"I am a sinner, that apart from grace, deserves hell!"

Two key doctrines that underpin biblical fellowship are justification and sanctification. Justification means: an instantaneous, legal, act of God, that forgives our sin, credits us with Christ's righteousness, and declares us as such! (We will never be more justified than we are right now!) Sanctification is a progressive work of God AND man, that makes us more and more like Christ, and more and more free from sin. This process will only be complete when we are glorified with Christ in heaven.

"The only thing we ever contributed to our justification was our sin!" ~C. J. Mahaney

Progressive sanctification is the fruit that gives evidence of our justification, not the means of it. AND, without a proper definition of justification, we can easily fall into thinking of our santification in self-righteous terms.