Home Sweet Home

David and I just returned from Kimberly & David's wedding in AL.  It was a beautiful, fun day! Kimberly was one of the most beautiful, happy brides I have ever seen!  I'm so happy for them. Please keep the newly married couple in your prayers as they begin their new lives together!

On another note, I only have three days left with my kiddos!  I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye on Friday.  I'm going to miss each and every one of them!

Blueberry Bran Muffins

These just came out of the oven, and they really are FANTASTIC! Not to mention, they aren’t bad for you, either! They came off the side of the Publix Bran Flakes box.

Ingredients

Topping:

3/4 c. Bran Flakes

1 T. butter, melted

3 T. brown sugar

Muffins:

1 egg

1 3/4 c. Bran Flakes

1 c. lowfat buttermilk (I used nonfat milk with 1 T. vinegar)

3 T. vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

1 c. all purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)

1/3 c. packed brown sugar (I used less than 1/4 cup)

1 T. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. blueberries (I only had frozen on hand)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Spray or line 12 muffin cups.

To prepare topping, crush cereal and mix with butter and brown sugar.

To prepare muffins, lightly beat egg. Stir in cereal, buttermilk, and oil. Let stand 5 minutes; stir to break up cereal.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add cereal mixture all at once to flour mixture, stirring just until combined (batter will be thick). Fold blueberries gently into flour mixture.

Divide evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle with topping. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Nutritional info. Per muffin:

152 calories, 24.5 g carbs, 3g protein, 5 g fat, 18 mg. cholesterol, 172 mg sodium, and 2 g dietary fiber.

French Toast Casserole Recipe

Here is the often-asked for French Toast Casserole Recipe.  The original recipe called for sugar and a sauce, but after trying it both ways, I like to make it without the sugar and just put maple syrup on top!  

Let me know how you like it if you try it!

INGREDIENTS

5 cups bread cubes
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon margarine, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.
Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, salt and vanilla. pour egg mixture over bread. Dot with margarine; let stand for 10 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until top is golden.

NOTE: We had company a couple weekends ago; I mixed it up the night before and popped it in the oven the next morning. It was great!

Crock Pot Recipe Search

Okay, girls (and guys, if it applies), I'm in search of some tried and true crock pot recipes. On Monday, I threw some boneless, country-style ribs in the crock pot with barbeque sauce, a little bit of mustard, and worcestershire sauce. After they were tender, I shredded the meat and served it on homemade yeast rolls. We also had sweet potatoes and green beans (with diced ham, onion, and garlic). It was a delicious, unbelievably easy meal. Here's where you come in: What's your favorite crock pot meal and what sides do you serve with it? Looking forward to hearing (and trying) your suggestions!

Photo Ramblings: Family, Spring 2009

My grandparents and their three daughters

my grandparents and 8 of their 9 grandkids

All except Clayton with Jamie

Katherine with Emma & Morgan

Easter weekend, my aunt and cousins from Charleston came to visit.  My mom gave me a CD with a bunch of pictures today, and I thought they were great!  It was great to see our out-of-town family.  My grandfather really enjoyed having his whole (minus Clayton) family together. I heard him say once that none of us would have been there had it not been for him :).  

Please pray for my grandfather.  He's very sick with congestive heart failure.  It's very sad to see him unable to walk and breathe easily.  I know that he's saved and on his way to heaven, but I would sure love for him to be around for many years to come!  

Photo Ramblings: the Brown Family Photo Shoot

Our good friend Chloe (Chloe Bloom Photography) took our pictures.  These are just a few of them.  We really couldn't be any more pleased with these!  

Confused

On my way to work each morning, I listen to the news on the radio (87.7 - CBS Early Show).  I usually get to catch the weather and health watch as I'm driving to work.  Until today, when I leave work, it's usually the news.  With the new schedule, I got in my car to Dr. Phil this afternoon.  I usually wouldn't have kept it on, but something I heard piqued my interest.  

The show was, from what I could gather just hearing a portion of it, about the recession's effects in Detroit.  People were apparently coming on the show discussing how it is tearing their family apart, etc., etc.  Well, Dr. Phil was calling people losers and telling them that they needed to put their families first, get to work, etc.  It's not a time to be picky about the job you "really want," etc.  At one point in the few minutes I was listening, Dr. Phil was pretty much yelling at the audience.  Guess what!  The audience was cheering.  They are interested and care about what he thinks. 

I definitely don't think you should set an alarm for 5 o'clock each afternoon and sit down for coffee with Dr. Phil, but I would love you to take a minute to think about this:  At church, so-called Christians get offended when preachers expose sin; they get upset when a man who has studied the Bible presents God's opinions about false religion and incorrect doctrine. They're more worried about not offending people than they are the truth.  Are we really going to let the world listen to their "preacher" talk about the world's problem and not listen to our preachers who are giving us the truth?  If we are, our nation has much bigger problems than the "failing economy."  

Fixed Reference

If you have spent any time at all attempting to give the gospel to a lost and dying world, you've undoubtedly heard people say, "I'm going to heaven.  I'm a good person."  When you ask them why, they let you know (often arrogantly) that they've never killed anybody, they don't steal, and they help people in need.  After the common response, we often ask people "You say you're good? Compared to what standard?"  In other words, how does someone come up with what they consider to be "good." When you ask that, you get that "you're kidding, right?" look. Nope. We're not.  

A year or so ago, some friends and I were at the beach celebrating another friend's birthday.  It was a bunch of girls having a good time.  We were boogie boarding, swimming in the ocean. Just plain enjoying ourselves.  Well, when we went swimming in the ocean, we got too far out because of the current.  All of us were frightened, worried that we were going to drown before we could reach the shore.  Well, one of us would find a place where we could stand, and everyone would head for that location.  Once again, due to the current, we would reach the girl who was standing and she would have drifted to another deep spot.  We could not find the shallow place because our point of reference kept moving.  If we'd had some buoy anchored in the shallow water, we would have had no problems.  We could swim to the buoy and know that's right where we needed to stand.  But, because our reference was moving, we couldn't find it.  

The Bible is like the anchored buoy.  It gives us definite standard of goodness.  You do this, you don't do that.  Let's make sure we're using the reference that we have in our lives.  Is what you're doing aligned with the Bible?  Are you living up to its standards?  We're all going to fall short, but we need to be giving it our best shot!  On the streets, use the Bible to show people the standard needed for heaven: perfection.  Then show them how Jesus came so that we might have righteousness through him!  

Bro. James gave this same illustration this morning with his own story (about trying to catch a shark :).  I can't claim to have come up with this on my own.  I simply happened to have a story that went along with it.  

photo from www.freefoto.com

The World

Don't listen to it!

Good Deals

David and I hit the mall and outlets yesterday and found some great deals!  If your husbands or sons need dress shirts, they're buy one get one free at Belk.  Can't go wrong with that.  

You teach Where?

When people ask me, "At what school do you teach?" (though they usually don't use the correct grammar), I always cringe on the inside.  Sometimes, people automatically assume things... for instance, if you teach at an "episcopalian" school, you must have to teach their doctrine.  Well, I'm very happy to say that isn't the case at all!  Just last week, one little girl came up and asked, "Mrs. Brown, how does someone become a disciple of Jesus?"  Of course, I didn't tell her, "Well, if you just get baptized and take communion here every Sunday, you'll be okay."  I asked her if she knew what sin was.  When she said she did, I was able to tell her what Jesus Christ has done to take away all of her sins!  I then explained how she could make that personal.  Then I said that after she had made that decision, if she wanted to follow Jesus, that's discipleship. She wasn't ready to make a decision at that moment, but a seed was planted! Please pray that during the next few weeks I'll be able to talk to her more.  

Now, as for people assuming that I'm teaching false doctrine based on my association with school, I hope they don't think when they see me in Walmart that I'm buying alcohol (they do sell it there, you know!).  It made me really sad to realize some people feel that I would actually teach a child the wrong way to heaven, and I just wanted to clear it up once and for all!  

This conversation with my student made me start thinking about the word "disciple."  I just looked it up, and the definition is "someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another."  Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?  Are you actively spreading the good news of Jesus Christ?  When Bro. Ray was here to preach the youth rally at BBC, David and I were impressed by his boldness.  David and I are going shopping today... I'm going to see if I can get out 15 tracts.  

photo from www.freefoto.com

Goin' to the Chapel...

David performed his first wedding ceremony today...  after the ceremony, David came up, hugged me, and whispered that he wished we could go back and go through our wedding again because it was such a wonderful day!  I thought that was so sweet!