Preparation day

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Today has truly felt like Preparation day. I baked two loaves of bread (one for us and one for lunch at the pastor’s house tomorrow). Then I made two jars of homemade spaghetti sauce, also for tomorrow. I wasn’t too impressed with the sauce, but I’ll reserve judgment until I eat in on spaghetti noodles. It just didn’t have that much flavor, even though I spiced it and let it simmer for 3 hours.

Our church clothes are pressed and hanging in the bedroom. We have clean sheets and clean towels. The entire apartment has been vacuumed and the kitchen is spotless! My hubby was incredibly nice today and washed, dried, and put away all the dishes while I completed other housework. I love my hubby!

In the middle of all that, I completed a rush assignment for my contract job. Whew!

Happy Sabbath, all! I hope your day of rest and time spent with the Lord goes well.

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13, NLT).

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Brief update

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Early next week, my mom, my niece, and I are headed down to southern Arizona to meet my brother. He’s on his way home from Iraq! We’ll be staying in his new apartment for 11 days until his leave starts. Then, my dad and brother will be staying at my house for two weeks or so.

I am so overwhelmed with preparations! I was just given another work assignment, though it will only take a couple hours to complete. I also have to pack for the trip. I have to pack my brother’s stuff, as he left all of his civilian clothes and personal belongings at my house. Plus, hubby and I are attending evangelistic meetings Thursday night, Friday night, and all day Sabbath. I have to go shopping and cook for the meal on Sabbath afternoon. And I have to clean out the spare bedroom so that my brother and dad will have a place to stay when they come back to Phoenix for Josh’s leave. I thought I would have more time to clean the spare bedroom, but we didn’t originally plan on staying with him for 11 days first!

On top of all that, I still have to help hubby with his job searching. My work and hubby’s job searching are more important than anything else on my to do list, but I’m going to try to fit everything in. I am going to be very happy when Sabbath arrives.

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Free Quiznos sub

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I wasn’t sure if I was going to post today, but when I found this offer, I had to share.

Visit this Quizno’s site and register for their email list to receive a free small sub. The first million people will receive a printable coupon which can be redeemed at their stores. Hubby and I each signed up so we’re getting a free lunch tomorrow!

Thanks to SwagGrabber for posting about this deal.

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Praise report

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Praise the Lord! I just received an email from Half.com to let me know that $150.13 will soon be deposited in our checking account. It’s not easy selling off your belongings, but the sacrifice is worth it. Less to clean and more money available to pay bills.

I know we will survive this period in our lives. It’s a great learning experience to watch the Lord work in your life. He is definitely working in ours.

“But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill” (Psalms 3:3-4).

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Books, books, and more books

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I love to read. I’m addicted to books. If we could afford it, I’d get a job at Barnes and Noble just so I could reinvest in their store by cashing my paycheck and then shopping for books. 😉 That’s how much I love to read.

Unfortunately, my budget does not support my book habit. I love libraries, but the two nearest us have a very minimal selection. They don’t carry 95% of the books that I’ve looked for. Earlier this week, hubby and I decided to visit the public library in the next town over. We signed up for library cards and came home with a huge stack of books.

I have developed a system to organize my future reading lists. Whenever I read a book recommendation on a blog, I visit Amazon’s website or the author’s website. If the book looks like one I will enjoy, I add it to my Amazon wish list. On Monday, I printed off my wish list and then searched the library’s website to find the call letters for each book. When we visited the library, I just had to go through the rows and pick up each book. Simple!

I’ve thought about requesting the library to pull the books for me, but I enjoy browsing. That way, I can pull any additional books that look promising. This last trip, I only allowed myself a couple extra books, as my reading list was already quite long. As I continue reading blogs and receiving recommendations, I’ll add titles to my library wish list on Amazon. This way I’ll always have a list of highly recommended books to read!

This is the stack of books we brought home this week. The pile on the left is mine and the right stack is hubby’s. The book standing upright is the one I’m currently reading. Have I mentioned that I love books?

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Baking day

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Today was all about baking. Well, mostly. I baked two loaves of Amish White Bread and one loaf of banana bread. I was going to make two loaves of banana bread, but then I realized that the recipe called for three bananas per loaf instead of two and I only had four total.

I really like my banana bread recipe. It’s very simple and pretty healthy in that it’s dairy free and low fat.

3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Mix bananas and applesauce together. Fold in dry ingredients. Add walnuts and coconut. Bake in greased pan for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

The only disappointment today was that I realized two of my bread pans are rusted. I had to throw them out. I’m not sure how safe rust is, but I really didn’t feel like eating it. During the week, I usually hand wash all of my dishes. But over the weekend, I let dirty dishes pile up and then ran the dishwasher. Now my bread pans are ruined.

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Sick, but happy

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I woke up sick this morning. All of my plans were discarded as I’ve spent most of the day resting and reading. We had big plans of going to the post office and the library, but didn’t realize until late last night that today is a federal holiday! Happy Presidents Day!

Hubby has been very attentive today. I’m glad he’s home with me when I am sick. Actually, I’ve been very thankful that we’ve had all of this time together over the past two months, but I seem to appreciate his presence even more when I’m not feeling well. He even ran over to the store this morning to purchase some comfort foods for our lunch. I am very blessed that the Lord saw best to match the two of us for life.

In other news, I am absolutely thrilled that I now have a registered domain name. Thanks to SwagGrabber’s blog, I found out that GoDaddy is selling domain names for 99 cents! With tax, it comes out to $1.19 for a one year domain registration. If you’re interested in building a website, I strongly suggest that you take advantage of this deal. Jeff has never seen domain registration so cheaply priced. The sale code is LOVE99.

This means that my website address is now http://www.adventisthomemaker.com. Hubby changed some settings on Blogger so that my blogger address redirects to my website. Someday I will purchase hosting and set up a full website, but for now, it just includes my blog. Even though my brain is fuzzy today, I can’t help but start brainstorming ways I will utilize my own website. Recipes? A photography gallery? Bible studies? There are lots of options!

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Pizza!

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I finally combined a great vegan pizza crust and sauce. I found a great pizza sauce recipe several months ago, but didn’t like any of the crust recipes I tried. Everything turned out flat, flat, flat. I wanted a thick crust.

This Thick Sicilian Crust Pizza Dough was perfect! It tastes good, rises great, and makes a big pizza. I could only eat two slices.

Combine that crust with the perfect sauce and we have a new favorite meal! The sauce is great because all the veggies are diced, sauteed, and then added into the tomato sauce. For some reason, I actually like this method better than creating a regular tomato sauce and adding sliced veggies as toppings.

Next, I’m going to test a few whole wheat pizza crust recipes and see if we can find something a bit healthier. I’m also looking for a vegan variation of this Spinach Pizza Crust.

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A great organizing resource!

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I had great plans of writing a long post (with pictures!) about my cats-who-won’t-let-me-sleep-at-night, but I’m behind on my housework. We have an evangelistic meeting tonight, so we leave the house at 5:45. The kitchen is clean, but I have vacuuming, a load of laundry to put away, and I need to find my filing labels. I know there are a couple of other things I want to do this afternoon, but I can’t remember what they are…

So instead, I leave you with The Lazy Organizer’s blog. I have been reading through her archives and she has some of the greatest tips! One of my favorites is The Organized Bed. Now why did I never think of that?

Enjoy!

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