Mud Pies and My Obsession with Them

I am obsessed lately with mud pies. I feel like Bubba on Forest Gump talking about shrimp, but for me it is mud pies. This theme of mud pies keeps popping up in my mind. I loved making mud pies when I was little. I could not wait to go dig in the dirt and get my tiny pans out and put mud in them and wait until the afternoon or next day, depending on the weather for them to cook in the sun and dry. There are so many things that God has been teaching me but for some reason I just cannot get mud pies out of my head. They relate to my life in so many ways.

The first thought about mud pies: Mud pies can symbolize our creativity and the blessing of fun on earth that God gives us. It is simply fun to get dirty-well for some of us. It is beneficial to let go and create, mold and make. It is fun to put everything else aside and work on a mud pie or as adults we would call it a project.

The second thing:
Life is like making mud pies because we were not ready for the real thing: it is a time in our lives for God’s preparation of us. (did that make sense-well read on, maybe I can explain myself). When I was little I made mud pies because I was not allowed to make real pies by myself. I was too little to use the oven, and although I knew what basic ingredients went into making a pie or cake, I did not know yet what order to put the ingredients in or how much of each ingredient to use. There was wisdom in my mom not letting me make a pie by myself at that stage of life-I would have burnt the house down. There are times in our lives that we have to sit and grow and learn a bit before we can be allowed to “play with the real stuff”-do what we feel God has placed on our hearts to do. We may be at a stage where it is time to grow so that we can be equipped to “make the real thing” when God calls us to do it.

Another analogy would be a ship sitting in the harbor. You would not think of boarding a ship that is not sea worthy or stocked for a long journey. When you are ready for your journey, you will be thankful for the preparations that were made for the journey. The journey would not be successful without them.

I see things that God has used years before we this point in my life as a preparation for what I would need on this journey. If God had not brought me through certain trials, or fed me in certain areas, or shown me my sin in areas of my life, then I would have packed up and gone home long ago. I also would not have been able to speak into other’s lives in the certain situations, had it not been for God’s preparation. (And those certain people wouldn’t have listened to me either) Life is real and life is hard, ….and life can be full of blessings. We need to take advantage of the opportunities He provides for us to prepare us.
Philippians 1:6 “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

To find out how mud pies relates to inadequacy, log on tomorrow.

The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker

Well I don't have a picture for this post. Sorry.

There are things that I just love about living in Ireland and one of them is the fresh local produce and ...the butchers. When we came here when Ruthie was 3 months old to visit where we would be living, we stopped at a local butchers to ask for directions. He stopped and talked with us about the area, what things there were to do here with the kids, etc. His name was Tom and we have never forgotten him. Well, for our anniversary we decided to have a nice dinner in. Ruthie is now 2 1/2. That tells you how much of an impact that one conversation had.

Anyway, Ludie went to see Tom and buy some steaks. They were wonderful. Definitely fresh! You could tell this by the taste. Then we hosted the Immersion Team Farewell Party and went to see Tom again and just got prices and quality you could not match in a store. So now, we get all our meat through Tom at Madden Meats (just in case you are in Roscommon and reading this, you will know where to go).

Today we (the kids and I) prepared for our first visit to the butcher! Even Ruthie was excited to take a nap because she knew that when she woke up, we were going to see Tom the butcher. (She has no idea who he is or what a butcher is but it is exciting none the less). And so, today, for the very first time in my life I bought meat at the butcher's.

I made cajun hamburgers for supper (and might I say they were "lovely"). :)

The thing I am most excited about is that I found a mock recipe for Jimmie Dean sausage. I MISS patty sausage and cannot wait to eat it-if the recipe works out. Now I love many things about Ireland but I have to say the sausage here is, well, not good. It is linked sausage with no herbs or flavorings that I can tell. You know what is so cool, is that Tom said that when I get the recipe the way I want it, to give it to him and he will prepare it for me. Oh, how exciting. I know...I am just too excited about this but I just think it is the little things in life that make life fun. So today, I am excited about the ability to continue my love affair with pork.

To just give you an idea of how much I love patty sausage I spent an hour trying to read and find a loop hole in getting sausage sent over from the US, and even emailing Bass Farm to see if they could ship sausage over (it cannot be imported here from the US), so if we can't get it.....we will make it. (I hope it works).

Picture update

Well a lot has gone on the past two weeks. Impact Ireland finished today! People from all over the world came to Ireland for OM Ireland's biggest annual outreach. (you will see a picture of Whitney with the boxes of tracts that went out all over Ireland!), We celebrated the 4th of July with a people from all over the world (here you see Colm from Ireland and Ernie from S. Africa). We are still amazed by the sun not setting until after 10pm (when this picture was taken). My sister and her family came to visit (we took a Viking boat tour on the Shannon River).

Picture update

Well a lot has gone on the past two weeks. Impact Ireland finished today! People from all over the world came to Ireland for OM Ireland's biggest annual outreach. (you will see a picture of Whitney with the boxes of tracts that went out all over Ireland!), We celebrated the 4th of July with a people from all over the world (here you see Colm from Ireland and Ernie from S. Africa). We are still amazed by the sun not setting until after 10pm (when this picture was taken). My sister and her family came to visit (we took a Viking boat tour on the Shannon River).

Automated On-line Giving

Hey ya'll! Lots of people have asked me if they can get a reminder for their monthly support of the work in Ireland in supporting us through Operation Mobilization. Well now things just got easy. You can click on the online giving link on the right and have automated monthly giving if you so chose. Thank you for all your prayers and support helping us be obedient to God's call on our lives. (This picture is the First OM Ireland Immersion Team doing what they do best (eating....rrrr...I mean fellowship). :)

30 things you may not know about me

I read another blog that had a list like this and got to thinking do I have 30 things? hmmmm....

1. I click when I sleep (my husband says it sounds like a ping pong match)
2. I love animals but hate that they shed
3. I love candlelight. I love to get up early in the morning and do my devotions iwth a cup of coffee or tea and candlelight.
4. I like who I am when no one is around. I don't like myself when others are around-brings out my impatience and lack of self control.
5. At 11 pm something comes over me and I have no control over the amount of chocolate I eat.
6. I love the sound of water (rain, streams, bathtub).
7. I love to read cookbooks
8. I usually have 5 books I am reading at a time-slowly.
9. I love fiction books but think they are a waste of time considering our limited time on earth so I read the Bible or other Christian/Bible based books.
10. With the above statement about a waste of time....I am addicted to reading blogs. Well, not addicted but enjoy reading them (about once a month, it fuels my creativity).
11. My favorite blogs are Jenny Hodges, Mary Koester and Rebekah Gregg.
12. I love quick result craft projects.
13. I love paper: stationary, colored paper, etc.
14. My favorite website is Family Fun
15. Wish I were less uptight
16. Wish I could let the house get messy
17. I love going on walks
18. I love picking fruit and vegetables and cooking with them
19. I'd love to own an RV
20. I would love to just get into a fight someday to see what I was really made of (I'm sure I'd walk away crying after the first punch-I can dish it but can't take it)
21. I start day dreaming if you talk for more than 2 minutes.
22. I hate to talk on the phone, unless your name is Jenny Bagby
23. I cannot end a sentence. "...soooooo........"
24. I don't like being the new person
25. I play the piano but would love to play the drums
26. I have a 2nd soprano voice but can only sing melody so I screech at most songs.
27. I love hip hop old school "It takes two to make a thing go right..."
28. I love beach music and love to dance (NC term "shag" not European term in this sense). I also love Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr., Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw.
29. I love to swim but don't do it much because I hate to fix my hair and also I hate how cold I get when I get out of the pool
30. I love to explore new places I've never been

I don't have my contacts in so I will spell check later.

Glory!

Can I just say OH MY GOODNESS! It has been 4 months since I posted! Well my goal is once a week. There is so much. Highlights:

February-moved into a new house

March-Back to USA for 2 weeks! How great! and FCA golf camp

April-Immersion Team Spring Break-Immersion parents visit, host them and take them around.Griffin starts swim lessons and tin whistle lessons. Enjoying Scouts. Some trouble with kids with Griffin. Sweet Sarah hosts a birthday party for me (with brownies-mmmm).

May-Creech Sr's arrive. First trip out of the US!!!! Come with friends of theirs (and now ours) Pam and Jerry. 2 teams in. Ludie traveling over Ireland teaching Way of the Master Evangelism. Immersion Team comes off field and back to Lacken House (OM Ireland headquarters) where they will stay and work through July.

June-finishing up school for the summer. Went with Griffin to see matinee The Secret Garden play. Immersion team (9 people) are staying in our house for 3 days while the construction crew has come here to finish out the kitchen, meeting room and dormitory rooms of the stable block at Lacken House (utterly AMAZING!). Coming up this month: Speaking at our Ladies group at church on the 8th (oh my-need your prayers), Emily has hip dysplasia check with pediatrician on the 14, Car inspection on the 18th, Anniversary on the 21st (13 years), and Impact Ireland June 29th-July 13.

My SISTER and her family come week of July 4th !!!!!!!