Food and Drink – Page 3 – Obtaining Mercy

A Profitable Week

June 14, 2013June 23, 2015 by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Food and Drink, Household, Obtaining Mercy Croft, What's Happening

Wednesday night, I came home from church, and my hubby had these yummy roasted potatoes ready.

They were so delicious! There was, however, just one catch: he included crushed red pepper flakes in his seasonings. They were so hot I could barely eat them!!!

So, we are planning to do them again, minus the atomic seasonings.

We picked our first cucumbers today! So exciting!

The long one is a Straight Eight and the short one is a pickling cucumber. We also picked our first jalapeno pepper this week, and used it to make some delicious Mexican rice and refried beans. Oh so yummy!!!

My gardenia is out-doing herself this year.

This is her 5th blossom, I think, and she has 2 others as well. She has never bloomed very much, so I am enjoying these gorgeous blooms so much.

Our tax return was finally approved and deposited. It only took over 60 days! Three times as long as they say it will take. I'm thinking it was some glitch in the e-filing; but at least it was corrected eventually.

My sweet mother-in-law sent me a box of books this week.

Does she know my language of love, or what?! The exciting thing is that I can share them with my friends, too. So fun.

Our church is doing something special for Father's Day this year. They put up several bulletin boards in the back of the church, and everybody is bringing in pictures of their dads to put up. It's been so fun to see the really old pictures of our church members, and the way they resemble their dads (or not!).

So, of course, we had to get a picture of Isaac's Daddy for the display. We shot this on Wednesday afternoon, and were able to get it printed off and posted in the auditorium. I really love it!

Well, it's been a good week. I was able to order some supplements I needed today, thanks to that tax return. I will also be able to buy some new bedsheets, which we are in desperate need of. I'll let you know what kind of deal I find on those!

Praying you have a profitable weekend (by spending time in the Lord's House!),

Alesha

Give to Get

June 7, 2013 by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Food and Drink, Hallelujah Diet, How Great is Our God, What's Happening

So…somebody dropped off a box of food at our house.

I know! We were surprised, humbled and grateful.

It had 18 different things in it – from frozen chicken breasts to blueberry muffin mix.

Our God is just amazing, isn't He?!!

Then, we were faced with a quandry. We are committed to sticking to our new diet plan this summer. Several things in the box were things that are not on our list of things we can eat. Should we eat them anyway? After all, the Lord pretty much did the grocery shopping for us on this one!

We thought for just a bit, pulled out the things we could eat (several packages of frozen veggies!), and then sent the rest of the box on to someone else who needed it.

So we were blessed. And then we got to bless someone else!!!

It is hard to beat the feelings of gratitude that well up in our hearts at times like this.

Interestingly enough, I had planned to blog about giving today. You see, one of the ways that we are saving and stretching our money is to give some of it away. I know it sounds crazy, but it is an amazing principle that works on so many levels.

Even the world is learning how this Scriptural principle works. The wealthiest people in our country are often spotlighted for their charitable giving. They have stumbled onto the truth that when we give, we are blessed.

So each week that Doug works, we will be giving a portion of our income to the charity of our choice, our local church. We will also be giving a small weekly gift to the missions project in our church. Then monthly, we give a very small gift to support our favorite Christian radio station, Gospel 90.3, which is also a ministry of our church.

And…just in case you are wondering, we do not give to our church because our pastors harp about needing money week after week. They don't. We give to our local church for two reasons:

We know how our money is being used because we are right here. We see the ministry.
We are practicing a Biblical principle that will bless our home and family far beyond the dollars that leave our bank account.

"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together,
and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same
measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." ~Luke 6:38

Giving some of the blessings away,

Alesha

Tea Perfection

January 16, 2013June 23, 2015 by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Florida Weather, Food and Drink

Doug and I have been really enjoying drinking hot tea this winter.

(Not that it feels like winter all the time here – it's in the 80*s today – but we're drinking the tea hot, nevertheless!)

So, I wanted to show you this most excellent Christmas gift I received from Isaac's caregiver.

Here are the reasons that it is my favorite mug ever:

1. No pretty flowers. No sentimental words. Just shiny black with a normal-hand-sized handle.

2. It's one bit a decor – this fancy little swirl on top of the awesome LID!

3. The lid flips over to become a saucer…

4. To hold the perfectly-matching basket when it's removed from the mug!

5. No messy tea bag or leaves dripping, no cold tea after the steeping is done.

Perfect tea every time in my perfect tea mug!

You know…maybe I should order a spare…yeah…I'm gonna look into that right away! Just in case…

And, who knows, Doug might like having a "perfect" mug, too!

;o)

Alesha

Lessons from the Storm

June 28, 2012June 23, 2015 by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, Florida Weather, Food and Drink, Obtaining Mercy Croft

(Here in Florida we are enjoying the absence of Tropical Storm Debby today. She dumped massive amounts of rain on us, and sent through some big, gusty winds for several days. I wondered how our little garden would survive. You can see my last update here. After inspecting my plants today, I have come to three conclusions that are quite powerful, I think.)

1.) The storm can destroy you.

(Our lovely cucumber that had been producing so well, stripped and broken by the high winds.)

2.) The storm can cause you to grow.

(Our yellow pear tomato had dropped all of its tiny green tomatoes just before the storm came. We just knew it was completely dead, and we had no idea what had killed it. It is now literally drooping with the weight of dozens of new tomatoes that appeared during the storm.)

3.) Even if you've never produced anything, the storm can teach you to try something new.

(Our yellow heirloom tomato plant had experienced wonderful growth and dozens of blossoms, but had never produced one fruit. Here, the day after the storm was over, is our first tomato, growing beautifully, all by itself.)

Are you in a storm?

Do you feel your storm is destroying you?

I ecourage you to wrap your drooping tendrils more tightly around the strong Support that is anchored in the Word. Drink in the waters of sorrow and allow them to feed and nourish your soul. Brace your branches in the Lord as the winds of turmoil bend you almost to breaking, and allow God's storm to sink your roots even deeper into Him.

Then watch in amazement as HE produces fruit from the very life that you thought must certainly be dead.

There are so many lessons we can learn from God's nature.

Let's be encouraged by the miracles that we see there…knowing that the very same God can work those miracles in our lives too!

A Garden Photo Update

June 2, 2012June 23, 2015 by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Florida Weather, Food and Drink, Hallelujah Diet, How Great is Our God, Obtaining Mercy Croft, What's Happening

I've been listening to an audio version of The Secret Garden; and every time I go outside to check on my plants, I hear the following refrain (by the mean children who teased little Mary):

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And marigolds all in a row"

I love the way good literature seeps into your psyche, and colors your thoughts with lovely rhymes and prose and wonderful little quotes to fit some of life's more interesting moments!

So, in case you've been wondering how my garden is growning, I thought I'd let you see!!!

We moved all the plants out of doors, and that is working really well for us. Doug was so innovative to find another "trellis" for the cucumbers when they grew taller than the one we had provided for them.

He sunk a discarded chain link gate into the ground near the house and the cucumbers had twined around by the next morning!

It was pouring when I took this picture, so sorry for the "fuzziness".

And here's how every little thing is growing:

Tiny, tiny baby yellow heirloom tomato plant

So big now, and still growing…new blossoms every day, but no tomato yet.

Yellow Pear Tomato

Pretty little tomatoes, growing nicely!

Pickling Cucumber

This will be cucumber #3 for this plant, and it has many more growing.

Here's the first one we picked. It was delicious!

Crazy 8 Cucumber (because the cukes are supposed to reach 8 inches long.)

This guy is about 6.5 inches. It is killing us to leave him out there!

As you can see, everything is growing very well; and we are so thankful for that!

Other than our garden, we are all doing well. Doug and Isaac have been to therapy twice in the new vehicle and we are so thankful for it. Every time we drive it, we find something new to love!

On Friday, I went for my first solo drive. It was so easy, all the buttons, knobs and gizmos are in convenient places. I usually hate to drive in the rain, but Tranny even made that a fun adventure. 🙂

Praying you all have a blessed weekend,

HopeFULLy,

Alesha

What a Lovely Day!

March 20, 2012June 23, 2015 by ObtainingMercy, posted in Florida Weather, Food and Drink, Foto Friday, What's Happening

Doug and I had such a nice day together on Friday.

It was one of those days when not one thing went according to plan! It was, however, a day full of fun surprises:

avoiding the traffic jam on I-4 by doing a u-turn on the ramp, driving through the median and hopping a curb to get back on the road.
wandering around Kissimmee looking for a place to eat, but finding all the nice restaurants closed.
seeing a road that Doug recognized, taking it and ending up on the road on which we meant to end our day.
eating Turkish cuisine for the first time.
looking for a used bookstore, with written directions from a barista, and never finding the store.
deciding to not return the way we came, and looking for a bead store.
finding the mall that the bead store was supposed to be in, and learning that the entire mall was empty except for a few store on the end near Outdoor World.
walking through Bass Pro Shop (now, I can say that I've been…nothing spectacular, in my opinion)
finding a new way to get to the road we were on before, so that we could go to Whole Foods before we headed home.
going home with freshly ground cashew butter (yum!)

Now a few pictures from our lovely lunch. (I do apologize for the poor quality – my cell phone is notoriously difficult to hold still while pressing the shutter button.)

Hot Lemon Green Tea

Fabulous Turkish Bread. We were amazed and asked for instructions!

"Just use your knife and poke it!" Steam billowed out as it collapsed.

It was served with amazing authentic hummus (very similar to mine, I am proud to say), pickled cabbage and Kalamata olives. The taste combinations were extraordinarily delicious!

Soup of the Day – Lentil, with a squeeze of lemon on top