Spring Is Here

Spring in Kentucky is the most beautiful of all springs I have ever seen. I was sitting outside the other day and reading Psalm 104, which is one of my absolute favorite Psalms. Right as I was reading verse 12 a bunch of birds started singing! This verse says, "Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; They lift up their voices among the branches." I am amazed at all the things God has made! The beauty of the earth speaks so much of His creativity and His kindness. Here are some of the beautiful things that God has seen fit to surround us with.







Joshua and I were notcing how green everything seems here. Compared to Oklahoma, the grass seems like a thick bed of lushness! And I don't think I have seen so many different dogwood trees before. And then there are the trees that have tiny purple flowers on them...I don't know what they are but they are vibrant! Not only are the colors of spring fantastic, the smells are amazing! Joshua makes fun of me for saying something smells pretty. But it's so true! The grass and the flowers smell so pretty. And all of this is so astonishing to me becuase it's amazing that God would allow us to enjoy so many good things!

How We've Been

All is well here. I started back to work a couple of weeks ago and that has gone well. I'd say that my foot is about 98% back to normal. I am going to have a nursing student work with me for about the next month! I will teach her all my wisdom and knowledge about nursing!

Joshua has done well on his midterms and he only has one more paper left to write this semester. He is enjoying being challenged by Hebrew poetry(he's taking a class on Proverbs).

I am figuring out how to use coupons to get more bang for our buck. A lady a church shared with whoever was interested, about how she uses coupons to save mucho buckos. I haven't quite figured it out yet. But hopefully I will soon, because Joshua is eating a lot more because he is training for the marathon. I am excited to save the mucho buckos but I think it's going to take a bit of work to figure out how to not waste time and money!

I am super excited about this coming Tuesday...Micheal Card is going to be speaking in chapel and he is going to be speaking at two other lectures during the afternoon. He is going to talk about using the lament passages in the Bible as a way to worship God and he is also going to talk about worshiping the God who takes everything away. I'm super excited to hear what he has to say.

I think that's about it for now. I'll take an update picture of my foot sometime soon!

Snow! and A Wedding

We got lots of fun snow this past Friday. Saturday we dug ourselves out and went to a wedding in Indianapolis. We saw Joshua's old house and the site where their church was. It was a fun roadtrip in the snow and I'm so glad we got to see Joshua's family(minus Jonathan :-( ). Enjoy the snowy pictures!

Spiffy Granola

I am a big fan of granola. In fact my all time fav granola is Strawberries'n'Cream. But it is super expensive and a treat if I get to eat it! So I decided to try my hand at making granola(because you get more bang for your buck). I found a recipe on AllRecipes but I changed it around a little bit and here's the mucho good homemade granola.

Ingredients:
6 Cups whole, rolled oats
1 cup chopped alomnds(or nut you prefer)
1 cup chopped dried cherries(or fruit you prefer)
1 cup unpacked brown sugar
2-3 TBSP honey
3 TBSP butter
Dash of cinnamon(optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On the stovetop, melt the butter in a pan large enough to hold all of the oats. Add the sugar and honey once the butter is melted. Cook, stirring until the mixture is bubbly. Add all of the oats and stir until all coated. Spread the oats on a cookie sheet(might take two cookie sheets). Sprinkle cinnamon on oats. Turn off the oven and put the cookie sheets on oven racks. Close oven door. Check on mixture about 30 minutes later and turn if needed to get the granola all crunchy. Once oven has completely cooled pour oats, nuts, and dried fruit into a large ziplock bag. Shake it up to mix all the contents. Eat and enjoy!

Interview with Gretchen Wright

Go here to read an interview I got to do with Gretchen Wright. She's married to one of the facutly here at Southern and she goes to our church! I had a wonderful time doing this interview for the Pendergraph Women's Ministry here on campus!

Come Run a Marathon with Me

My adventurous husband is going to run a marathon! The Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon in on April 26th. That's 56 days from now! He's been training for a while now but isn't ready yet to run all that long way! As I have just had foot surgery I will not be running with him but I will be there to cheer him on! I'm going to find some friends who will not be running and hang out with them for the 6 hours that it might take Joshua to run...That'd be kind of interesting to do a photo montage of all the things that you can do while your husband is running a marathon!

John Angell James and Betty Freidan

This quote is from the book Female Piety by John Angell James. It is an excellent collection of his sermons that preached for the edification of all in his congregation, but most specifically women!

"It is not to the honor of religion nor to the credit of a wife and mother for a husband to come home at the dinner hour, expecting to see everything ready and in order, and to find all in confusion, nothing properly arranged, and have his time wasted by waiting for his wife, who has not finished her benevolent rambles or her morning's attendance at some females' meeting. Nor is it much for his happiness on coming home in the evening, suffering from the fatigue and vexation of the world's rough business, and when wanting the soothing influence of a wife's sweet voice, to have to sit hours in solitude and sadness becasue she is away at some public service. This is not the way to promote connubial felicity, or to interest his mind on behalf of the objects of his wife's zeal. It will never do to serve the Lord with time taken from domestic order, comfort, and family duty. A neglected husband and family are a sad comment upon some women's religious activity; and it is a comment not infrequently expressed by those who see it in the appearance of the children and the house."

And now comes the outcry from every feminist in the land saying that the qoute just promotes every kind of evil they have fought against. "The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. IT was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Eash suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husbnad at night--she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question--"Is this all?"(The Feminie Mystique, Chapter 1)

Betty Freidan rocked the United States with her book. After reading the almost 400 pages to find out what this "Feminie Mystique" is you learn that the Feminie Mystique is the bane of all American women's existance and that it comes from being locked in your home taking care of a husband, children, home. At almost the end of the book she gives you the key to spring from the proverbial trap you have been living in as a woman. "The key to the trap is, of course, education. The feminie mystique has made higher education for women seem suspect, unnecessary and even dangerous. But I think that education, and only education, has saved, and can continue to save, American women from the greater dangers of the feminie mystique."(The Feminine Mystique, Chapter 14)

I could go on. But I think I'll stop for now and just give a few comments.

Betty Friedan makes a good point. If all women are living for is matching the slip covers and taking their children to Cub Scouts, that is a pretty depressing and hopeless existance. But so is living for education and being part of mainstream society. What makes life worth living?

Life is worth living because God created it. Being in Christ is what makes life worth living. Is being a stay at home mom glamerous? No, probably not all the time. Is being a corporate executive glamerous? No, probably not all the time. But finding your satisfaction in either of those things, apart from Christ, is not good. Being a Christian means your life is not your own anymore, whether you are married, have no kids or tons of kids, or single. Living in such a way to show the gospel through what you do(whether it is as a housewife or a corporate executive) is what matters. If you are a housewife, be a housewife for the glory of God. If you are a corporate executive, be a corporate executive for the glory of God.

It is of no credit for a woman to worhip the god of domesticity. It is also of no credit for a woman to worship the god of education or society. It's sin.

Worship the One true God and do what you do for the glory of God and do it according to his plan.

My Foot and Taxes

My foot and taxes have absolutely nothing to do with each other except for the fact that I was going to post some pictures of what we looked like when we just finished working on taxes for about the past 4 hours and I saw that I had taken some more pictures of my foot and so I decided to put them on too!


So this is what it looks like to have just spent about 4 hours doing taxes. Joshua could not stop laughing though because he was in a giddy, silly mood!

And so here are some pics of my foot. I have this snazzy platform boot thingy that I have to wear whenever I walk on my foot. And then the other one is what it looks like with the new, modified bandgage the Doc put on on Monday.

Surgery

*WARNING-If you don't like feet...you might want to skip this post!

It's almost been a week since I had foot surgery. I went to the Doc yesterday to get my bandage taken off and get a different very stylish shoe to be able to walk around in--without crutches! I haven't taken pictures of that yet...to come later!

So my very wonderful mom came to help out!! This picture was taken the day before surgery. She was such a wonderful blessing to us! She cooked up a storm too so we would have food tucked away in the freezer after she left.


Here's a picture we took the night before surgery of my feet. I had surgery only on the right foot because it was the worst and it was the one that hurt me the most. Lord willing I will not have to have surgery on the other foot.

On Wed. morning we got to the hospital despite all the the snow and freezing rain we had been getting here! I got all changed into the ever fashionable hospital gown, put on my little hospital socks and donned my amazing surgical hair cover! The nurses were all very kind.

It didn't hurt too much to get the IV started and they only asked me about 10 times for my health history! I met the resident that was going to be assisting with the surgery. His name was Paul...that's about all I know about him! It's kind of strange to me how trusting we are students! Dr. Ford was my surgeon and he wisked in for a few minutes. My mom and Joshua got to come into the pre surgery area and we snapped some photos. The nurse then said she was going to give me some medicine that would make me fell drunk. I don't know what it's like to be drunk, but if it is ANYTHING like what those drugs make you feel like you can rest assured that you will never see me drunk. After surgery that was one of the first thoughts that I had...not a good feeling! After they gave me the medicine they wheeled me out of the pre surgery area and the last thing I remember is moving over onto the OR table.

The next thing I remember is being very groggy and someone asking me if I wanted crackers and sprite. "No I would like Coke if you have it". Then in a very hazy sort of blackness I remember eating those crackers and drinking my Coke!

After waiting a bit more the nurse took out my IV, which had started to burn anyway.
I got dressed and got in the wheelchair and Joshua went to get the car. As my mom and I were waiting I got a little sick to my stomach so they told me to take off my coat. That helped. The nurse came up to me and asked me if I knew what her name was. I told her it was Aggie. She said yup, and asked me if I remembered asking her 4 times what her name was! I remember asking once! She said that the first time I asked I had said "oh I'll remember that, it's just like Texas(I guess I was thinking of Texas A&M!)

The rest of the day was pretty good. Dr. Ford had given me some extra numbing so I didn't start to feel my poor foot until about 7pm. David and Susanna from church were so kind and brought us a meal of yummy chili, corn bread and cookies. That was the last meal that I truly enjoyed for a day because I started taking Percocet that night and all the next day it made me sick to my stomach. I think I threw up 3 times(that is why there are NO pictures from Thrusday!) Joshua was in class almost all day so I am really really thankful that my mom was here to take care of me! Thursday night my mom and I decide that Percocet was not worth it anymore so I started taking Ibuprofen. Much , much better! On Friday night we went to the Valentine's Extravaganza at church had had a blast. Saturday not much went on. Sunday I went to the church service and to small group that night. And yesterday I went to the Doc like I had said eariler. We were going to go to a concert at our church but as we were driving away Joshua decided that he had better not go cause he was not feeling very well. He got the flu and spent a very yucky night last night with the effects of it. He's sleeping now and hopefully will be able to start drinking a little bit soon. During my recouperating I will be reading alot and probably watching some TV, writing, keeping up with e-mails and blogs and I don't know what else. I still have to keep ice on my foot pretty often so there's not a whole lot of walking around for me yet. Here are some pictures that we took yesterday before we took my mom to the airport.

Peace in the Storm

Last Tuesday night we were in the midst of a storm. Part of the weather system that wrecked so much havoc with the tornados, came through Louisville. I had gone to bed about an hour and a half before the tornado sirens went off. I had to get up on Wed. morning to go to work and my sleep was very precious to me at that point. When the sirens started their scream I nudged Joshua and woke him up. He turned over and we were going to go back to bed, thinking, it's Louisville, they overreact. We've lived in Oklahoma... Nothing happened to us, but after the fact, we thought about how we were being very self-confident and we should have gone downstairs to some of our neighbors to spend the night. But anyway....Joshua checked the weather and said he would stay up for a while and told me to go back to bed, since I had to work in the morning.


I tried and tried to sleep but I just kept thinking. I started thinking about how the sirens that were screeching were probably something like the sirens that went off during WWII when there were bomb raids. I thought how terrifying that must have been. And then I got to thinking about how scary the weather really can be. There is SO much power in storms. We have all seen pictures showing the damage caused by it. So I then started thinking about how powerful God is. He is the one that controls every storm and Jesus Christ calmed the storm with WORDS!!!! Mark 4:35-41 relates this story to us. The disciples ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" How many of us take the time to learn these lessons that God is teaching us in a storm? How amazing it would be to be able to teach your children to fear the Lord and trust in Him while you are huddled in a closet or in the bathroom under a mattress! It was so wonderful to think about the bigness of God in the midst of the storm last week. Humans can predict the weather, but what human can CONTROL the weather!? Can you worship God in the midst of a storm? Yes! Worship Him for his majesty. Worship Him for being such a huge God and thank Him for showing you how small you are. Worship Him for His providential use of His creation. For those who lose family and friends in such storms, worship Him for his kindness in not destroying all of humankind. Worship Him for keeping His word to never do anything like the Flood again. Worship Him for His mercy in keeping you alive and giving you more time to turn to Him.

How often do we say that we trust God when we are in the middle of a literal storm like that of last week? It seems natural in the initial moments of the siren warning us that a storm is approaching to seek safety. But is my trust and hope placed more in the buildings and structures that man has made? How often can we say that we trust that God will providentially preserve our life or he will providentially call His child home? He is good in keeping me safe in a storm like that of last week and He is good if He had chosen to end my life here on earth. When we trust in God's goodness and providence we can say that we have NO FEAR!! That is joy!






All the pictures are from Yahoo! pictures

Yummy Chicken Pot Pie

Mmmm. The other day I tried out a recipe that I got from my friend Jessica. This recipe can be made with chicken or turkey and it's splendid both ways. At the end of the recipe I'll put some comments about some changes that I made to it (I hardly ever make a recipe just the way it says to!)

Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breast (enough for 4-6 cups cooked, cubed)
5 cups chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 yellow onions, chopped
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
1 (10 oz.) package frozen peas
Bisquick Mix (use recipe on back of box for pastry top-must have milk and eggs)

Directions:
Either cook chicken on baking sheet or in a skillet on stove. Use olive oil, salt and pepper to season. Set aside until cool enough to handle, and then cut chicken into large dice. You will have 4-6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pan, melt butter and sauté the onions over med-low heat for 10-15 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock. Simmer on low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoons pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, and peas. Mix well.

Follow the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box to make the pastry top. Pour the filling for the pot pie into individual oven-safe bowls, or into one large oven safe dish. Then pour Bisquick mixture over the tops until filling is covered. Bake at 400 degrees until tops are golden brown.

Eat it and enjoy!!!

Now for my recommendations:
Because boneless chicken is more expensive, we always buy bone-in chicken. If you don't mind a tad more work...Instead of baking the chicken, I boiled it in water, then let it cool, and it practically falls off the bone and then I just cut it up into small pieces. What I wish I would have thought of before I bought chicken stock was that if you boil the chicken in about 6 cups of water, you will be basically making your own chicken stock and that way you don't have to buy chicken stock!

Instead of using butter I used margarine, and it works fine. You could do either. When I added the flour, it got thick really fast, so I didn't cook it for the full 2 minutes before adding the hot chicken stock. And when I added the chicken stock, it was pretty lumpy at first. But just be persistent in stirring and the lumps will go away. I did have to "mush" the lumps up against the side of the pan and that got rid of them more quickly as I was stirring.

My last issue was when I was looking for the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box...I had looked on the back of the box at the store and didn't see a recipe for pastry topping. And to save money I bought the store brand...so with a quick call to Jessica I got the recipe. She recommended tripling this recipe for the topping:

1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Well I got a little carried away and multiplied it by 5!!! What I didn't realize about Bisquick was that it puffs up ALOT! So if you make this just stick with tripling or maybe quadrupling it! Anyway it takes about 30 minutes for it to bake....that's in a large baking dish...I don't have any personal size baking dishes. It makes a ton so invite some people over and enjoy the best chicken pot pie that you have ever tasted and be proud that you made it! (If you have ever had any of those 50 cent chicken pot pies, your mouth will thank you for making this pot pie! Although Joshua would say there is nothing wrong with those frozen pot pies, but his taste buds are not very discriminating!)

The Real Deal

Joshua and I had to laugh the other when we saw these two vehicles parked close to each other. One is a wannabe truck and the other the hoss daddy of trucks!

Keep Louisville Weird

So there is this mantra to "Keep Louisville Weird". OK. As I was driving yesterday I was confronted once more with something that keeps Louisville weird. Why? I kept asking myself. Why do they do this? Driving on a four lane road in Louisville is sometimes quite startling, because as you are listening to your tunes, minding your own business, driving in the right hand lane, you slow down cause there is some person in front of you stopped. You come to a stop behind this car...sit there...and then suddenly realize that there is nobody in the car! It's just a random car parked in the right hand lane that you are driving in. Why do they do this? It makes sense that they do this on some roads...because there are clearly marked areas for cars to park...and it's not a 4 lane road. I am ok with that. But why do they park in the right hand lane? Keep it weird Louisville, keep it weird.

The State of the Greevers Address

Today marked the beginning of Joshua's 4th semester as a seminary student. He said the first day of classes are not the best because the time is taken up mostly with talking about the syllabus, the papers that will be due, the reading that will have to be done, etc. So we have decided that the 2nd day of each of the classes must be the best day of the beginning of the new year. He is currently in his favorite place...the library....doing his favorite thing....reading!

Since I don't want to be left out of all the fun of reading for classes. I have decided that I need to have a little home study refresher on pharmacology. This should be interesting since I think it will make a TON more sense since I have worked as a nurse for a year and a half.

The Women's Ministry on campus is having an event tomorrow night where we will learn about how to save/budget money. We will also showcase home businesses that the women have...I'll be sure to scope out any unique ones and post any good ideas here. With being in seminary and many on the women having young families, it's such a needed topic to learn about. I know the challenges of figuring out a budget and sticking to it! It's a fun challenge though...it makes you think about what you really need and what are the things that you can just live without, or wait to buy.

Well I'd leave you with a great picture if I had one...maybe next time!

Car Talk and Saturdays

Car Talk on NPR is quite the informative and funny
radio show. Who would know that Joshu and I would
have so many memories assocaited with the program!

Every time I listen to Car Talk there are some fond
memories that pop up in my mind. It was fun to talk
about the memories that we have that are realted to
car talk! I have fond memories of going with my dad
on Saturday mornings to Home Depot or just other
places running errands and while we were out we would
listen to Car Talk! My brother would sometimes be
along and we would make a quick stop at the Hostess
store(which was a treat!) and get day old pastries!
Listening to Car Talk also brings memories of when my
brother and I had a paper route, and on Saturdays the
papers were about twice as heavy, so my dad would
drive us in our van to deliver the papers. We would
try to deliver the papers quickly and get back to the
car in time to hear the puzzler!

I shared these memories with Joshua and asked if he
had any memories that come up with listening to Car
Talk! He said that he did! He always thinks of how
he would listen to it with his dad when they were on
thier way to basketball games on saturdays while
Joshua was in highschool.

It makes me laugh that a radio show like Car Talk
would have fond memories connected with it, but I
think that I will always look back on the time that I
got to spend with my dad and brother as very special.
Car Talk will remind me of those times!

Cinnamon Rolls

I was making bread today and it made me think of the last time I used my bread machine. For Christmas we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I used a recipe that my friend Jenna gave me. It is so yummy and if you like making cinnamon rolls or want to give it a shot, these are great. They are the Clone of a Cinnabon and they are some of the best cinnaomn rolls I've made in a long time! And they are much cheaper than buying the real thing!

New Year

Well obviously this part of the Greever clan is not
all that great in blogging, but we will try to update
here more often. The Christmas season was full of
blessing of seeing both sides of the family! We are
thankful for the time we get to spend with our family.


Joshua is preparing for another semester of study and
he is looking forward to it! I have noticed recently
that all Joshua seems to be doing is reading! I was
teasing him about how at any point during the day I
could ask what he is doing and he would be reading! I
am thankful though that he is enoying his reading for
school and learning more about the Lord.

I am persevering in working as a nurse on the oncolgy
floor and I'm preparing to have surgery on my foot
this coming Feb. I am looking forward to my mom
coming to help out while I get back on my feet!

We enjoyed the beauty of some snow fall this morning.
It stopped before it amounted to anything, but it was
pretty to watch the flakes swirl to the ground! It
was a fun day to curl up with a good book too!
(Although all Joshua is getting to read is for school!
I get to pick fun books to read now that I am not in
school!) I just finished reading two books by Thomas
Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far from the
Madding Crowd. Both tragic but beautiful. I enjoyed
them. I think I will take a break from fiction though
and pick something more serious, I haven't quite
decided yet.

One of our neighbors is pregnant with twins! and I
have been talking resently with her about cloth
diapering. It seems that there are quite a few
seminary folks who have decided to use cloth
diapering. It makes sense beause it saves so much
money and does not lead to even more waste in
landfills! I have been investigating on how difficult
it would be to make some cloth diapers...There is a
group of ladies that meet on Monday night to sew so I
think I'll aks some of them if they have any
experience in this area. I went to this group last
week to get some help fixing a dress that I had made
and we got to talking about quilts. I have about 3
quilt tops that my Grandma, who passed away before I
was born, had made. My grandparents just gave them to
me this year and I had not really thought about them
until I mentioned it to the ladies at the sewing
group. They said they would love to help me finsh
them. So now all I have to do is save some money and
go pick out cloth for the bottom part of the quilts!

Well until next time!

We shall see if this works and lasts!