A Wonderful, Easy, Cheap Dinner

I've never been much for Chinese food, but my husband LOVES the stuff. Usually I just make him go and eat it with his mom, but over the years I acquired a taste for some of it, and I've even learned to cook a few dishes myself.

Here's a quick and easy stir-fry that Jason and I love, love, love. The secret is the peanut butter. You have to put in the peanut butter or else it is just plain ordinary.

Ingredients:
Bell peppers - sliced (any color will do; I've used them all)
Soy Sauce
Teriyake Sauce
Chicken or Beef
Peanut Butter

I marinate my chicken or beef in a combination of the soy sauce and the teriyake sauce. Use enough of the sauces to cover the meat and let it sit for a few hours.

Put the meat and the sauce into a wok and cook until cooked through
Add peppers and a heaping spoonful of peanut butter

After all of that has come together, add in (I use 2 cups) some cooked rice

Mix it all together and VIOLA!

It is fantastic. Let me know what you think.

Grace Grace

Since I've become a teacher, I've learned a lot about grace. It's sort of like my previous post about Jesus Saves.; I knew about the concept of grace, but I'm not sure I ever knew what it really looked like.

I know that I'm saved by grace and that grace is amazing. I've sung the song, "O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be", but I'm not sure that I ever knew exactly what grace was.

Students and children have a way of making abstract concepts concrete. I have a student who pushes my buttons at every turn. He asks questions constantly and he pushes boundaries. I'm sure that it is just how he's wired, but it is very trying at times.

He didn't bring his paper to class one day, and I had made it abundantly clear that students without their papers would be asked to leave class and they would take an absence. This student can't afford anymore absences because he would fail if he missed anymore. I extended grace. Pure, unadulterated grace. I could have failed him; it was totally within my rights. I could have held him to the letter of the law, but I didn't. He didn't deserve it. Grace.

I have another student who needs to graduate. Life is really, really tough for her right now. She's got a lot going on. Her paper was due, and she didn't turn it in. I extended her deadline. Grace.

I like to appear tough. I like to have my students think and know that what I say I mean, but there is always room for grace, undeserved favor.

It's the students who push me the most who I find it hardest and most rewarding to extend grace to. I sometimes get angry because they then don't handle the grace the right way, but how many times have I abused God's grace, yet he still extends it over and over again.

Where would we be without grace. Where would life have taken us if God hadn't handed down our sentence...free because Christ paid the penalty, and I choose to release you. GRACE.

May your day be filled with GRACE and you know the power of it.

Waiting

Abby and I have an afternoon ritual. It goes something like this:

2:00 Abby goes down for a nap. I may or may not nap with her. It depends on the day. When I'm feeling really motivated, I exercise and/or fold clothes. I know, life's a thrill right.

4:00-4:30 Abby gets up from her nap. On really good days, she sleeps longer, but usually 2 hours is about all I can get from her. I call the two hours she naps my sanity time.

4:30-5:00 We chill out, watch some Judge Judy, play, whatever gets us through.

5:00 I start cooking dinner and we begin the countdown for Daddy to come home.

6:00 We listen for the car or truck to pull into the driveway, run for the door and watch for Daddy to come down the sidewalk.

The other day, it was somewhere around 4:30 and Abby saw the door. She ran to it and said to me, "Daddy's coming!" She insisted that I open the front door so she could wait for Daddy to come home. She said, "Sit down" meaning I was to sit in the floor and watch with her.

I wonder if we wait with this kind of anticipation for the return of our Father? It didn't matter what I said to Abby, she knew her daddy was coming and she was going to wait for him to get there.

I pray for that kind of excitement and anticipation. I hope that you do as well.

My Body is Rebelling!

Whatever do you mean, Alicia? You have a wonderfully fantastic body that anyone would kill for.

Stop laughing. I'm serious. I had to imagine for just a moment that I was in another world where everything was perfect.

Seriously though, I decided several weeks ago that I had had it. By it I mean I was done with still carrying baby weight from 2 years ago and that I needed a body overhaul.

When I was in college Weight Watchers worked miracles for me. I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 40lbs and looked really, really thin. I managed not to gain too much weight until my sweet little angel came along and there went the 40lbs. I thought breastfeeding would take it off, but apparently even though Abby eats everything in sight, she couldn't eat the extra pounds off my hips and butt.

Back to where I started, I jumped back on the wagon, even exercising regularly. I've been doing about 30 minutes a night and my legs are KILLING ME!

Unfortunately, my body hasn't gotten the memo yet. I'm wondering if my cells think that I'm starving them so they're hanging onto every morsel I give them. If you know me well, you know that I'm definitely NOT starving myself, so please refrain from posting comments saying things like, "Really, Alicia, you can eat too little and make your body retain weight." Trust me when I say, "I'M EATING ENOUGH!"

This morning I got on the scale and was up a pound and a half. It..is..so..frustrating! Anyway, if you've got any tips (other than telling me to eat more), I'll be happy to listen.

PS - totally unrelated - if you have any tips on how to get rid of sugar ants, I'm all ears. We're up to our eyeballs in them. It's that time of year, I suppose!

Happy Easter

They showed this at church last night for Good Friday.

May you realize the depth of God's love for you this Easter!



Hallelujah!

An Opportunity

Tuesday night I went to a dinner for the graduating English majors. There were several at the party who had already graduated and just came back for the lasagna and fellowship. While we were sitting around the table someone mentioned Converse College. Now, I'm familiar with Converse. It was one of the schools that folks recommended to me when I graduated because it has an MAT program in English. I didn't pursue that route because I didn't want to teach in the public school system. I wanted to teach in higher education.

Well, unbeknown to me, Converse now offers an MFA (low-residency) in creative writing. Oh...my...gosh! I was lookinat MFA programs when I graduated. As a matter of fact, I applied to one in Maine, but circumstances didn't allow me to go. I ended up at Clemson, a fact that I'm sure was providential.

Here's the thing. An MFA is a terminal degree, much like a PhD. If I had my MFA, I could apply for promotion at NGU, and my job would be much more secure. I could also teach upper level writing classes (how much fun does that sound like!). My job would be more secure because I would have a terminal degree.

Here are the perks. It's low-residency. That means I'd only have to be on campus for 9 days, twice a semester. The rest of my study would be done with a mentor via phone, email, internet, etc. Low-residency MFAs are the norm, so it wouldn't be like I was getting an internet degree.

The downside is the price. It's a two-year degree, costing $10,000.00 a year. I don't know what kind of grants or financial aid I could get. But it's only 2 years.

I'm torn. Jason really wants his bachelors, but it wouldn't change his job situation at all. He could go after I finish. Who knows.

What do you think?

Jesus Saves

All my life I've stood in church and sung the hymn "Jesus Saves". We would belt out stanzas and chorus: "We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves." I never thought too much about it. When you grow up Southern Baptist, you take a lot of the Christian lingo and hymns for granted.

We've recently had some pretty intense attacks in our congregation; people are hurting and at moments, Satan seems to be winning. As I sat in service yesterday, I listened to the praise band sing a new rendition of the old hymn, and it occurred to me. Jesus saves EVERYTHING. He saves souls, of course. But, he also saves families and marriages and teenagers from bad decisions. He saves children from injury and sons and daughters from disease.

Our God does more than simply save our eternities, he saves our todays. I don't know that I've ever realized that before. I've often thought of him as fire insurance.

As I walk through this holy week, I hope that I realize just how much God has truly done. Heaven is an amazing, indescribable reward, but having a savior who wants to walk with me and bless me and show his incredible love to me today is beyond words.

I hope and pray that you too know him, that you are awed by his great sacrifice and love for you.

$46.80

That's how much I spent on these groceries yesterday at Publix. ** There was a pack of chicken tenderloins that didn't make it into the picture that were purchased as well.** My mom called me on Thursday and told me about all the great deals at Publix this week. Being the coupon-crazed shopper that I am, I was certain that I had some coupons to pair with these incredible deals. Sure enough, I went through the sale paper, dug through my coupons and tada I saved a grand total of $48.45. Notice that is more than I spent! Woo hoo!

Here are some of the better deals I garnered on my trip:

1. Lipton Iced Tea Bags - on sale for $1.07 each (BOGO). I had a $1.00 off of two, so they were roughly $.56 each.

2. Chex Mix was $1.23 each (another BOGO). I had $1.00 off for a grand total of $.23.

3. Duncan Hines cake mix was $.83. I had $.70 off. So it was $.13.

I know folks who think I'm crazy, but it is an absolute rush for me! I hope you find the joy too! Welcome to the world of savings.

Train Up A Child

Today was a typical Thursday. I got out of class at 12, drove to my mom's, ate lunch and brought Abby home for her nap. She hasn't been feeling well; she's got a really nasty cough that won't seem to go away, which makes naptime and bedtime especially interesting.

Abby knows the drill. She knows that when we get home, it's naptime, and today was no different. I changed her diaper and picked her up. As I was getting ready to lay her down, she looked at me with those big blue eyes, hands folded, and said, "Pray, Mommy." Now, we usually pray with her at bedtime, but we haven't prayed with her at naptime. I know she's only 21 months old, and I know that she doesn't have a relationship with Christ at this young age, but I'm convinced that she knew what she was saying, so I said a quick prayer with her and laid her down.

All of that to say, our children are following in our footsteps, like the picture below, they're going to walk in our shoes. What kind of legacy am I leaving. It's a huge responsibility, but one that pays great dividends in the future.

I can't believe I'm caught up

I don't think I've ever had a semester where I was completely caught up with nothing to file, nothing to grade and nothing to prep. Today is my day!

Here I am, sitting in my office completely caught up.

I'm not naive enough to think that this will last long. I know that after tomorrow I'll have 40 tests to grade.

But for today, I'll bask in my accomplishment.