150 Days of Psalms: Psalm 2

You can read Psalm 2 here.

Oh there those people go again.  They're being all selfish and stuff.  They just don't want to listen to God and know that he is God.  Nope, they want nothing to do with him.

But God just laughs because he knows who his king of the earth is.  His Son is the king and he's coming.  We need to be smart and take refuge in Jesus.

That I guess is my basic synopsis.  This Psalm is talking about the coming of the Messiah.  The nations want nothing to do with him.  It's sad how we are as people.  We seem to not see what's good for us; even when it's staring us straight in the face.

Freezer Burritos

I love burritos.  No one in my family loves burritos as much as I do.  So I almost never make them for dinner.  But there is a way for me to be able to dine on burrito awesomeness homemade freezer burritos.  

I just grabbed some ingredients that I had on hand:

1 lb ground beef

1 onion chopped

1 burrito seasoning packet

1 can re fried beans

1 can of corn drained

shredded cheese

tortillas

Brown the meat

Oops, I almost forgot about my onion!  I usually add it at the same time as the meat.

drain meat and add corn and refried beans and seasoning packet with water.

Mix it all together and let simmer

Put it on to tortillas, add cheese and fold it up

It's Yummy!

Wrap each burrito in plastic wrap and put in a bag with the date marked.  Put in freezer when cool.

Now I ended up making 8 huge burritos.  You can make smaller ones.  You can add or omit ingredients as desired.  You can store in the freezer for up to 6 months.  I actually made these about a month ago.  I had one for lunch today and it reminded me to write it up!  I microwave mine for abput 3 minutes.  It makes sure that it is heated all the way through which could probably be done at 2 minutes but I love my food HOT.  My husband says that I like it to be on fire.  I just like my hots hot and my colds cold.  Not so much for the in the middle.

150 Days of Psalms: Psalm 1

I haven't written anything Bible related in well over a year.  I was reading through the Bible from Genesis on, trying to write my thoughts as finished each book.  But after I got through Song of Songs I kind of just stopped.

It's not that I stopped reading my Bible.  I read it every single day.  I just stopped going through the books as they are placed in the Bible.  I also only read a chapter a day (unless I'm studying something specific).  I have accountability in my reading daily with Michael.  He reads the same chapter each day on his own.  We take notes on what we read and talk about it later.  We typically discuss it before we go to bed each night but occasionally do it earlier in the day.

We started this on January 1, 2012 and have continued daily.  We read through the NT one chapter at a time.  It took around 9 months to do so.  We hopped from book to book mixing things up to try to keep it interesting.  It helped a lot because I have many time read through the Gospels one after another by separating therm out I didn't get burned out so quickly.

We have since moved to the OT.  And today we are starting Psalms.  At a chapter a day you're talking five months of Psalm reading.  Maybe you would be ok with this.  Maybe daily Psalm reading makes you all giddy inside.  Well, pin a rose on your nose, because this is not the case with me.  Psalms is my least favorite book in the entire Bible.  I don't get them.  They go right over my head.  When I read them last I tried to attack the book and just get through it.  It was not fun or enjoyable.

My goal this time around is to enjoy reading it.  To reset my current opinion and not dread when it's time to read a Psalm.  So my plan is to do my daily reading and post about it.  Hence, 150 Days of Psalms.

So, here we go.... Day 1-Psalm 1. (you can read the Psalm by clicking on the link)

Ok, let's jump right in.  We are blessed if we do not walk in wickedness.  Why wouldn't you want to be blessed?  Well, in order to not walk in wickedness we need to delight in the laws of God.  Seems simple enough, right?  Wrong.  I like to be in control.  Laws are rules, rules take the control away from me.  But I want to be blessed!  Oh the conflict!

I'm getting better at the control thing, though.  I find that not following the rules leads to lots of drama.  I detest drama... so not worth the trouble.  I'd rather follow God, love Jesus, follow his simple command of "Love God and Love others" and be blessed.  When you're wicked things are much more complicated.  Drama comes and makes you crazy!  So let's be blessed!

Book Review: Wedding Night

Sophie Kinsella's new book Wedding Night is fabulous!  I read it while nursing Anya so I was able to get through it fairly quickly.  It has all the wit and humor that you've come to expect from Kinsella.  I don't think it was as great of a story as Twenties Girl which was my absolute favorite by her but it was much better than Remember Me.

Wedding Night is about sisters Lottie and Fliss.  Lottie has broken up with her long term boyfriend because after 3 years he doesn't want to get married.  Soon after the break up she runs into an old flame from when she was 18 years old.  They decide to get married on a whim and honeymoon in Ikonos where they first met.

Fliss on the other hand is in the middle of a bitter divorce.  She doesn't want Lottie to go through the same heartache that she has so she will stop at nothing to keep them from consummating their marriage so that they can have an annulment once Lottie comes to her senses.  Fliss enlists help from hotel staff to get in the way of leaving the couple alone.

This book was entertaining and kept me smiling and giggling the whole way through.  I can't wait for what Kinsella brings us next!

Book Review: The Mark of Athena

I actually finished reading The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan back in January.  I've just been so busy preparing for the baby that I just never sat down and wrote my review of it.

Can I tell you that I absolutely loved it!?  I get a huge kick out of this series that Riordan has put together.  I started reading the Percy Jackson series years ago and have followed it along ever since.

The Mark of Athena is his best work yet.  The 7 of the prophecy have finally all joined forces in an attempt to save the world.  There was so much more than the past books had to offer.  There is a lot of wit and humor and action that I have come to expect, but this book was just more.  I think what helped seal a lot of it for me was getting to be in on Annabeth's point of view.  This is an angle we've never gotten to see before, since Percy Jackson and the Olympians was all from Percy's first person perspective and in The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune Annabeth was hardly present in.

Annabeth is the daughter of Athena. She is smart and logical and really thinks things out.  She is crazy about Percy, her boyfriend, who she has just been reunited with.  But the trouble is that even though she finally has what she has been looking for for month, Percy, she now has a new task that has been given to her by Athena.  She can't tell anyone about it.  It can cause a lot of problems what she has to do and she is scared of losing what she just got back.  We get to see a lot of how Annabeth thinks and the fears she faces.

The other highlight for me was Leo.  I think out of everyone Leo is my favorite.  The son of Hephaestus he is creative and useful.  He is also just down right funny.  Leo keeps the story rolling with his one liners and comments.  But he is also just and awesome character.

One of the best thing about this series is how much my kids love it.  After I finish reading the book I get the audio version and we all listen to it together as a family.  Sidda and MJ and even Michael really enjoy hearing the story.  And I'm sure as soon as Anya is big enough she will enjoy this family time that we have together as well.

I can't wait to see what happens in The House of Hades.

Book Review: Where We Belong

I actually finished reading Where We Belong by Emily Giffin about 3 weeks ago.  I've really just been too lazy to write my review.

I honestly can't remember a ton about the book at this point.  It is not one of my favorites.  It may be that I felt no connection to her characters.  As I read through it seemed that she never went too deep, yes we learned their secrets, but the secrets were lacking.  The people were lacking.  It makes me so sad to say it, because this is the first Emily Giffin book that I just didn't enjoy.

Now that I've talked so badly about it I guess I should give a run down.  Marian is a hot shot TV producer.  Her life is going right, awesome job, awesome boyfriend, lots of money.  But Marian has a secret.  When she was 18 she got pregnant and gave up the baby for adoption.  This story is about how the baby, Kirby, when she turns 18, finds Marian and the develop a relationship and the difficulties that come with finding out where you come from.

I guess I couldn't connect because I could never give up my children.  And being pregnant right now probably didn't help my opinion at all.  I found Marian to be selfish and weak and I felt that Kirby was lacking too.  I just can't find the words because I was so disappointed.  I really wanted to like it, I really did. I tried so hard to but I just couldn't.

I am looking forward to Emily Giffin's next book, because I really think she is a wonderful story teller.  And I hope to have nothing but good thoughts about that one.

Movie Review: Here Comes the Boom

 Oh, wow.  We went to the movies last night.  We took the kids to the drive-in to see Hotel Transylvania and the following movie was Here Comes the Boom.  I don't know what it is about him, but Kevin James is hilarious!  I love his movies.  I honestly can't think of one that I didn't like.  I even loved Paul Blart Mall Cop.  I know it's crazy.

But back to Here Comes the Boom.  Kevin James plays Scott who is a high school biology teacher who has given up.  He feels like he is handcuffed by the school system and no longer makes an effort for the school or the kids.  He just really doesn't care.  Until the school is ready to shut down the music department. He wants to help his fellow teacher keep his job, but has to raise $48,000 to do so.  So he starts taking side jobs and working at night.  Making a little here and a little there.  Then he hears that UFC pays the $10,000 to the losing fighter.  So he starts training in MMA.  I mean who wouldn't lose a fight for ten grand?

I recommend it.  Both Sidda and MJ fell asleep and missed the movie, but I would've been perfectly ok with them seeing it.  It has a good story and a lot of laughs.  The language is mild and even the fighting isn't graphic.  I was happy that we stayed to watch it.