The 30 Day Blog Challenge ~ Your Invitation

My online BFF Jamee at A New Kind of Normal and I are hosting the 30 Day Blog Challenge for the month of January. Jamee ran across this challenge on Pinterest and I thought it looked like fun, so we're both jumping in with both feet.

This is your invitation to join us!!!!! It's not difficult. We'll be starting on Sunday, January 1st. There's a simple assignment each day (see the graphic below to read each day's assignment).


For each blog post, you'll post The 30 Day Blog Challenge banner (it's below plus we'll also post it in each day's posting where we'll remind you of the assignment for the day) and then whatever your response is for the assignment. After you post your blog post for the day, come to either Jamee's blog or my blog and add your post's link to the linky. That way we can each see what we've posted for the day.

Grab the 30 Day Blog Challenge button!


<center> <a href="http://javapurl.blogspot.com/2011/12/the-30-day-blog-challenge-your.html"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6600865717_48f9030233_m.jpg" width="200" height="176" alt="The30DayBlogChallenge"></a></center>

If you have any questions or if you just want to tell us how excited you are to be participating, feel free to comment below.

***Edited to Add***
I'll be posting a link each day to the blog post with the linky for that day. That way if you join us late in the game, you'll be able to find where we're at. :)
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30

2012 ~ My One Word

Every month, I get an email from Compassion Bloggers with a suggestion about what to blog about to draw attention to the needs of those ministered to through Compassion International. When I received this month's email, the assignment was a little bit different. Brianne shared about her former boss Chris, Compassion's blog and social media manager, and the new approach to resolutions that he taught her. Chris shares in his blog posts over the last 4 years about asking God to guide him to one word to be his theme for the next year. Chris learned this concept from what Dan Britton, senior vice president of ministry advancement with Fellowship of Christian Athletes wrote about his own one word experiences.

So I decided to take the challenge of choosing one word for 2012. About a year ago, I began reading Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts. I made it about 3/4 of the way through and then work at the hospital and issues with my health became so overwhelming that I sat it aside and didn't finish it. I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and have been reading it again, this time slower and with more purpose, watching the videos from (in)courage about it and journaling about each chapter in addition to keeping my gratitude list.

I've long been a reader of Ann's blog but it wasn't until this rereading that I truly understood what the word eucharisteo means. For those who haven't read the book and/or without a Greek background, the meaning is thanksgiving. However, it also has the word charis in it which means grace. And the derivative of that is chara which means joy.

The word picture that Ann gives on page 33 of her book is what really drove things home for me though.

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning--now; wherever, meaning--here. The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be--unbelievably--possible! The only place we need see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now.

I whisper it out loud, let the tongue feel these sounds, the ear hear their truth.

Charis. Grace.
Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving.
Chara. Joy.

A triplet of stars, a constellation in the black.

A threefold cord that might hold a life? Offer a way up into the fullest life?

Grace, thanksgiving, joy. Eucharisteo.

God has already been speaking to me mightily as I seek to make eucharisteo a part of my day to day life. And I definitely feel God's leading to continue in this.

So, my one word for 2012 will be eucharisteo. I am looking forward to 2012 and grace, thanksgiving, and joy!



What's your one word for 2012? I look forward to journeying with you in the days, weeks, and months ahead!

Cooking With C.C. ~ Gluten Free Southern Soda Bread

It's time for the 10th installment of Cooking with C.C. This is a recipe we made back in November. I was looking for a bread that could be used for communion at church. The recipe is actually one that I converted from non-GF to gluten free. Let's get baking.


Your bakers for today's recipe are C.C.


and Damaris


with special guest consultant Momma (aka Beckey aka B-Ma).


First, gather all your ingredients.


Next, we didn't have buttermilk on hand so we made our own by combining 3 cups of milk


with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.


Mix well and then let it sit for 5 minutes and you're ready to go.


In a large bowl, add 4 1/2 cups of gluten free all purpose flour,


3 3/8 teaspoons of xanthan gum,


2/3 cup of sugar,


4 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder,


1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda,


and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.


Mix together. Make a well in the center of the mixture.


Into the well, pour the buttermilk we made earlier,


4 1/2 tablespoons melted butter,


and 3 lightly beaten eggs.


Mix until just blended. The batter will be almost smooth.


Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray.


Pour the batter into the pans, half in one and half in the other.


Preheat oven to 350*. Bake bread for 45 minutes.


Rotate the pans and cover loosely with foil. Bake for 30-35 more minutes until toothpick stuck in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.


Cool bread in pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.


Run knife around edge of pans to loosen bread. Remove bread from pans and cool on wire rack until completely cool, about an hour.


Slice bread and enjoy!

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I've made it a couple more times since I originally made the recipe. It's great as toast or sandwich bread or just alone. It tended to crumble a bit when used for communion, but I think this would happen with almost any gluten free bread.

This recipe came from My Recipes. As I said above, I converted the original recipe from a non gluten free to a gluten free recipe.

Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Cooking with C.C. I'll be back soon with another recipe. Let me know if you try this recipe. Can't wait to hear what you think. Enjoy!

Christmas in New Mexico

We got snow for Christmas and I mean A LOT OF SNOW!!!!! Well, for us anyway. I think it ended up being somewhere around a foot of snow. Thankfully, the family was all in town already before the snow started so we ended up just hunkering down and spending the 2 days together.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the 2 days (and then if you go to the bottom of this post, there are two slideshows of pics - one from Christmas Eve and one from Christmas Day):

Damaris making a snow angel


Lola, J.R., Damaris, & Bob the Snowman Golfer


Holding baby Wyatt was a consistent activity


Russ got his Siberian Husky puppy :)


Lola spent alot of the 2 days running around. Many of the pics I took of her ended up like this: THE BLUR!


The 4 Cousins - Wyatt, James, Damaris, & Lola

Christmas Eve Pics:


Christmas Day Pics:

From Us to Yall...

Making Knitting Easier

While I have nowhere near the size knitting stash that some of my knitting friends do, mine was getting out of control, not necessarily because of the size, but because of the tangled yarn!


I decided that things had to get organized especially since Damaris is knitting more now and digs through my stash. So, I bought a couple boxes of Ziploc bags and started rolling the yarn into balls. Most of the yarn I still had the labels for, but some of them I sadly did not.


Once that was done, I organized everything inside a large Rubbermaid tub (needles and other knitting doo-dads are in the other bags).


Now I feel like I can actually find yarn when I need it and know at a glance if I have the color/type of yarn I need for a certain project.


Now, what about this beauty? Definitely a bracelet that C.C. would wear!


But it's not just a bracelet. Let me lay it out to see if you an guess what it is.


Did you guess??????? It's a knitting row counter. Look closer:

The large pink beads on the left are for every 10 rows and the smaller clear beads on the right are for every single row. As you finish knitting a row, you push a small bead through the marker (the round group of 4 beads). You continue this way until you get to row 10 when you push all the small beads back through the marker and push 1 large bead through the marker. So if you look at the bracelet right now, it shows I have completed 20 rows. So you can wear your knitting counter! How cool is that!!!!! You can't see it in the pictures, but there is also a hook on the bracelet to hold your stitch markers.

So, this is how I'm making my knitting easier. Any other suggestions I should take under advisement? I'm always open to new ideas. :)


Messy yarn picture from Hooked On Needles