September 4, 2008 - Freezing My Easter Eggs

All my hens are laying now.  I just love all the different colors I get each day.  I knew I'd be getting pastel blue, green and pink, and of course brown and white, but I'm loving the deep olive green eggs.  Those were a surprise to me.  Look at that tiny brown egg in the basket!  I put it in the pot when I was boiling eggs for potato salad and egg salad today and snapped a picture of it in a teaspoon right before it got salted and peppered and popped in my mouth!  Mmmm-good!

I was beginning to get quite a number of eggs in the refrigerator so I knew it was time to freeze some.  Recently I have cracked bunches of eggs into a big bowl and scrambled them, added a little salt and poured them into a freezer bag to keep until I needed them for a scrambled egg breakfast. (or supper!) 

Today I wanted to freeze them individually to use in recipes like cakes, cookies, pies, so I emptied out my ice trays and cracked an egg into each section and this time added a pinch of sugar and broke the yolk of each egg.  {Always remember to add a bit of salt or sugar before freezing.} Once they're good and frozen solid I'll just pop them out and put them into a freezer bag.  This will keep me in good supply of farm fresh eggs even if my hens stop laying for a time.         Just eggcellant!

September 4, 2008 - Gustav Update Day 4

The sun has come out today and it's pretty hot.  We're still without electricity.  I hear there are places here and there getting power back on.  Walmart had power yesterday but someone told me there was no fresh produce or frozen or refrigerated food or bread, etc.  I got out and picked up a few limbs in the front and some around the chicken coops today.  It will take a lot more work plus a power saw  to get all that mess cleaned up.  This sunshine will dry things up I hope.  Thank you for your prayers and kind words and thoughts everyone.  It does cheer me up.  And it was great hearing Kitty was alive and well and she asked that I let everyone know here at HSB and asked for continued prayers during her very trying circumstances.  My daughter was able to be admitted into a  hospital ast night thankfully and her doctor has started another IVP and has called in a Urologist.  Please keep her in your prayers.

September 4, 2008 - Update from Kitty

I was able to talk to Kitty today.  She and her family are doing okay.  Her house withstood the storm and I think they lost a shed and maybe some things outside.  She is fortunate to have a generator but they are only running it a little while at night.  As we are finding out too, the gas to keep one of these things running is very expensive.  She said where she lives took a direct hit from the hurricane and they are without power and may be without for 6 weeks.  I sure hope that's not the case!! 

Her mother is in need of prayer.  She is not doing well at all.  She is considering calling an ambulance today.   It's very hot  in her house, yet she's cooking a lot of food, rather than it going to waste.  I think others in the area are coming over and eating at their house. 

Let's all continue to keep Kitty and her family, her mother especially, in our prayers.  They are going through such a terrible time.

September 3, 2008 - Gustav upadate Day 3

*PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF PAGE:

Still no electricity.  My neighbor said the newspaper said it may be 4 more days or more.  The generator hasn't  failed us yet.  As long as we can get gasoline we'll keep it going.   So far we're able to run the freezer, frig, tv, a couple of lights, computer, and the small window unit a/c at night, though not all at the same time.  I am so thankful for that.  It's such a helpless feeling watching all your food thaw out and spoil as has happened before with Katrina.  I feel bad for those who don't have a generator. 

 I'm hearing that a few spots here and there have gotten power but for the most part we're still without.   My hubby is really having to work extra hard.  Then there are so many that can't work at all until power is restored.  We've got hotels filled to capacity with evacuees.  I wonder what they are doing with no electricity. 

Thankfully, it's still rainy and windy so the temperatures are bearable.  I'm able to "live" throughout the house.  If the sun ever decides to come out then the temps will rise to the 90's and it will be like an oven in here so I'll have to stay in the bedroom and turn on the window unit for the most part.   

The weather channel shows there may be another storm that might head to the Gulf.  I'm not going to think about that one just yet. 

   Today is our 26th Wedding Anniversary! 

After typing all this my daughter called and is sick and needs to go to the ER.  She can't reach her doctor, the nearest hospital is not taking patients, and the next closest is overflowing and running on gereator power and can't even be reached by phone due to phone lines not working.  Please pray for Summer.

The sun just came out....

September 2, 2008 - Gustav update for SW Mississippi

A couple of images from my back door after Gustav paid a visit.  The pictures really don't do justice to the sight of the mess that we see. 

It's still raining but the strong winds have died down.  I just got phone service back on so I was able to get on the computer.  I also called Kitty in S. Louisiana but didn't reach her.   I did get her answering machine and left a message.  (I found it reassuring that her machine was working.)   As for us, for the first time that I know of our entire city and county are without power.  You can't even buy gasoline.   My husband talked to someone with the power company that said this storm hit us harder than Katrina. We were without power for about a week then so I'm wondering how long this time.   Our weather radio is going off every time I turn around warning of tornados.  But we are safe and all our children are safe and we have had no damage to our house and we are thankful to God for that. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for us.  God heard and answered.  

Monday, September 1, 2008 - caramel brownies

We went to my mom's house today for a small family get-together and my aunt Cindy brought these.  I'm glad she brought the recipe to share, because they were out of this world!  They are very rich, so you don't need much, but they are excellent!

Caramel Brownies

1 box German chocolate cake mix

3/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup evaporated milk

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 bag caramels

1/3 cup evaporated milk

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

     Mix cake mix, butter, and 1/3 cup evaporated milk with a fork.  Press half of the batter into the bottom of a greased 13x9 cake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

     Microwave caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk until melted.  Stir vigorously to combine.

     Remove pan from oven and cool for 2 minutes.  Pour caramels over cake, sprinkle with chocolate chips.

     Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over all.  Bake at 350 degrees for another 18 minutes.

     Cool and cut into bars.

September 1, 2008 - Angels watching over us

We are experiencing the calm before the storm here.  So far it's just drizzeling rain and a little windy.  We are expecting it to be bad between 5 and 7 pm.    I didn't think I'd have time to post today but I'm glad I do.  Several family members have phoned to check on us this morning and I called my daughter to check on them.  As of now at 10:38 am we are just watching and waiting.  I do wonder about Kitty and have been praying for her. 

Thank you all so much for your kind words and thoughts and prayers.   I'm over my pity party about feeling that I wasn't missed while I was away.  I would delete the post altogether if it weren't for the nice things you had to say. Thank you all for putting up with me.  How special YOU are!

I have this thing that I do...I feel I have the need to get things neat and spic and span before we go out of town on a trip.  And I've found the same rule applies to hurricanes!  It would probably be called a nervous habit!  My hubby seems to be the same way.  I think I started out that way first maybe and gradually after almost 26 years of marriage we have grown into in some ways the same person!  LOL  So he's been working hard around the place outside and I've been working inside.  I just finished up the last thing that was in the laundry hamper and all is put away.

  I notice I'm running that central air conditioner pretty steady today, remembering what it was like after Katrina without it for over a week in scorching heat!  ugh... :  [  Would you believe after  being so proud we had gotten a generator since Katrina that when we tested it this morning it didn't work??  It has worked fine until this morning!!  So my hubby had to go and get another one (sob, whimper) and we are fortunate that there were any in stock at all.  So that shows  the stores are more prepared this go 'round thankfully.  So that's 1000 bucks we'll have to work towards paying off after JUST getting our credit card paid off for the first time in years.  (wah-ha-haaaaa-haa-haaa!)

Well, with all the trees out here where we live the power will likely be going off soon so I better say goodbye and watch the weather channel while I can.

ta-ta for now~

August 31, 2008 - Fellow Believers, please pray. The hurricane is coming

Please pray for those of us who are bracing ourselves for the hurricane.  I don't know who all here at HSB that includes but I do know our friend,Kitty is in dire straights living only 50 miles inland in Louisiana.  They have no where to go and she has a very sick mother in her home that has been having hospice come in and care for a little each week.  She can't put her in a nursing home or hospital - they have all been evacuated.  Not to mention she has her children and everything she owns.  When I spoke to her she said she believed in the power of prayer and is pleading for us to intervene on their behalf.  I'm in SW Mississippi and for the first time in my life our area has a mandatory evacuation of those living in mobile homes. 

Thank you, and I will report as soon as I can. 

2008-Aug-31 - Leanne’s Mission Trip, Part Four

Leanne and her team members spent some time (while not doing concrete work ~smile~) with the children of the orphanage.  Here are a few pictures…

They made a trip into the town of Assuit, where the orphanage is located, and it was quite an experience.  They had to have "tourist police" escort them.  Here are some pictures of the town.  The water you is the Nile River.

Transportation varied quite a bit!  In the pictures below you can see a cart being pulled by a donkey and cars driving along side!

Assuit is an agricultural area and there was lots of green fields Leanne said it was obvious to see where the farm land ended.. everything beyond was brown.

I have more pictures to share from the orphange, other sites they saw in Assuit as well as the pyrimids and Cairo.  I hope to be able to get those in the next "mission trip" blog posting.. 

Leanne has a bit more to share with you about her time at the orphanage … 

Egypt
Leanne Miller 

     Once again we were up at five thirty every morning in Egypt. We had ten minutes to get ready and be outside, where we then waited for the boys (they slept on the other side in the boys’ dorms), who were always late. We worked until eight and then stopped for breakfast. It was a nice break with our thirty minutes of quiet Bible reading time included. Then it was back out to work. We worked for about four hours until lunch break came around. The last part of our workday was never steady in how many more hours we were going to work because you can’t leave an almost finished slab of concrete to dry. That is why sometimes we worked nine hour days. We had another Bible study when we were done working, then bath and laundry time, and sometimes we had another Bible study, though this one the boys and girls separated. Dinner followed shortly, we had a little bit of free time, and then one of the team members, whoever had kitchen duty that day, would lead another Bible study at night. We had library reading time after that and then it was off to bed.

   The Orphanage hired a man to do the finishing touches, like smoothing out the top so when it dries it is nice and smooth. His name was Niem. He believed there was a God but that was the extent of his faith. He had a bad opinion of Americans because he’d worked in a lot of touristy places where he’d met a lot of Americans, who didn’t talk, act or dress in any way that would give him any other kind of opinion. The way we dressed (as do most Christian organizations we had a dress code we followed) especially caught his attention, and when he asked one of our Egyptian leaders, who oversaw our work, why we dress like we do he was able to say we dress modestly because of our God. Anyway, his opinion of Americans was completely changed and it was an opportunity for someone to share Christianity with him. It was really neat.

   As well as working we also put together presentations for the children.  On Sundays we had two presentations we did. One in the morning and one in the evening, and we also had one on Wednesday’s in the evening. A presentation consisted of around eight songs (we even learned how to sing a song in Arabic!), a puppet show, and two testimonies. Once in a while we would even do a skit. One of our leaders would then give a massage. Everything, except the songs we sang, was done through a translator. It only got complicated when our translator (we had more then one) didn’t know what a word meant and then one of our leaders or team members would have to find a way to describe the word. I never spoke through a translator, but I have played games where you have to describe a word and it isn’t always easy to do.

More to come…  

Saturday, August 30, 2008 - jury duty scam