Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!


"Now let the heavens be joyful,
Let earth her song begin:
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Invisible and visible,
Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen
Our joy that hath no end."
-- John of Damascus

I hope that everyone enjoyed a beautiful Easter. The weather was absolutely gorgeous here, which makes celebrating the day even more joyful. Mr. P and I attended a sunrise service with his parents, then headed to Nashville to meet my family for Easter Brunch. We really enjoyed the time with our families, and we are now home watching the end of the Masters and preparing for the week ahead. My lovely spring break has come to an end, so now I am back to planning my outfits and meals for the week, and looking over my schedule for the week ahead.  

We are going on our first camping trip of the year next weekend, so I'll be busy in the evenings packing and getting everything ready to leave on Friday afternoon. Camping trips during the school year stress me out a little, but Mr. P is great about stepping up and taking care of some things that I usually do. It's going to be a busy week, so I'll be ready for some rest and relaxation next weekend! 

In the spirit of my old Sunday Suppers series, here's a report back on the three recipes that I tried out yesterday for small group. 
  • The Ultimate Brownies were very rich but delicious- a little gooey in the middle...okay a lot gooey in the middle. You almost had to eat the middle part with a spoon, but everybody loved them. I didn't have hot fudge sauce so I had used chocolate sauce instead and I think that's why they were so gooey. I'll either make sure to use hot fudge sauce or cut down a little on the chocolate sauce next time. Either way, they were a hit with everyone.
  • The  Party Hot Ham Sandwiches were also very good. I had made a similar version several years ago, but these were much better. They are definitely going into my file for great party/tailgating/appetizer recipes.
  • The Rotel Cups were good also. A little on the spicy side, but very good nonetheless.
Well that's all the news to report from the Putter household. Enjoy the rest of your Easter and have a great week!



 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Spring Break to End a Blogging Break

ETA: Hallelujah! I've been fighting Blogger all day to get this post up! First it would only publish half the post, so I put it in two different posts. Then only the first post would show up on the first page of my blog. I finally figured out my problem (Trying to shortcut when adding photos-I won't be doing that again!) and all is right in my world again.My apologies if you attempted to read my half-post earlier today.

Well, hello! It has been 3 months since I blogged-far, far too long to go without a post. Life just got really crazy there for a while-nothing bad, just lots of time consuming stuff. Lots of things have been happening, so I’ll just jump right into a recap of my life in 2012 so far this year. Excuse the long post to follow…

Daddy

Daddy has been doing well since the heart scare in January but we have a good news/bad news situation. Bad news-further testing showed that he contracted a virus sometime last year that has permanently damaged his heart and his heart was only operating at 25%. The doctors put him on a strict low sodium diet and medication for 3 months to see if this will help his heart function better. Mama has done an awesome job of researching low fat/low sodium versions of his favorite dishes, and they have both had a great attitude about the whole situation. Unfortunately, tests last week showed that his heart is still functioning at only 25%. I had a feeling that the test was going to show this because despite his lifestyle change and weight loss, Daddy still gets very tired very easily. Good news-he will get a pacemaker/defibrillator in the next couple of weeks. He has had a few friends tell him that this will make such a difference in his energy and how he feels, so we are hoping that this is going to help him.

School

School is school…crazy-busy but rewarding at the same time. This has to be the most stressful year for school people-new standards, new test, and all sorts of other new stuff coming down from the state. It can get absolutely overwhelming at times, but we are just doing the best we can and trying not to get too stressed out about everything. On a brighter note, when we get back to school on Monday, there will be 5 weeks of school left…yes, 5 weeks.  Since we’ve had 10-15 snow days a year lately, the calendar was set this year to allow for plenty of make up days at the end…and we only ended up with one snow day this year. Murphy’s law, I guess. But that means that we will be out of school on May 11th-woo hoo!



Spiritual Life

I just attended the Women of Joy conference last weekend. It was a great weekend of prayer and worship with a great group of women. I’ll have to do a whole post on the weekend, but let me just say that if you have an opportunity to attend WOJ, you must absolutely go! 

We are also continuing with our weekend small group bible study. This is such a great group of couples, and I am humbled to be a part of it. I have learned so much in the two years that we have been in the group. Right now, we are studying Revelations with a new, young pastor as our leader. I’ve always avoided Revelations (too depressing and scary!) but this study is absolutely fascinating. Brother C brings in the ties to the Old Testament, the Greek translations, and the Jewish culture to help us understand it. It has totally changed my understanding of Revelations.

We also eat really well on bible study nights too! : ) We always have a theme-Italian, Mexican, breakfast, country/Southern, etc.  Tonight it’s appetizers and I am trying out some recipes I found on Pinterest:



Spring Break Activities

For my SB week, I’ve kept myself quite busy. On Monday, I ventured to Nashville with a friend. I had a hair appointment with my awesome Stacey to get a cut and color that afternoon. We had to run an errand downtown, then we headed to the newly opened Opry Mills! I’m so excited that “my mall” is back from the terrible flood of 2010. I’ll have to give Opry Mills its own post sometime soon because there’s too much to talk about in one paragraph!  After our shopping trip to OM, we met up with my mom and SIL at the hair salon. Oh my, it was like an episode of Steel Magnolias while we were all getting our hair done! Girl talk, a little gossip and lots of laughter-such a good time!

Worked for a little while on Tuesday, then on Wednesday Mr. P and I took off for an overnight stay. We ended up here

Kentucky Lake

Our goal was to not get on any interstates on our trip. We just love driving country roads and going through the small towns and communities. We would have made it except that we forgot about the bridge over Kentucky Lake. A couple of months ago, a barge hit the bridge and it has been closed for repairs ever since. After we got to the non-functioning bridge, we consulted the map and had a choice between a 2 hour detour on country roads, or a 30-45 minute detour on I-24. Since it was late afternoon, we decided to get on the interstate. We took a different route through Tennessee on our way home so we didn't have to get back on an interstate.

In addition to trying to avoid interstates, we also wanted to avoid chain restaurants for our meals. We hit a few fast food restaurants to take a restroom break and get a drink, but our meals were all at small, family owned restaurants. As a result, we had some wonderful meals!

Shopping Find

I’ve done a little bit of shopping this spring, just needed to update a few items in the old wardrobe. One of my favorite purchases has been this:


White Denim Jacket from Old Navy
I have a blue denim jacket that I wear quite a bit in fall/spring, but I’ve never had a white one. This cutie caught my eye when I was shopping with the girls on our WOJ weekend. How have I gone this long without it? It looks great with everything-jeans, khakis, dresses, etc. Just last night, I did a late run to the store to avoid the crowds today. It was a little cool out, so I grabbed the white jean jacket and paired it with a cute scarf. It gave such a boost to the jeans/tee shirt combo that I was wearing.

One More Thing…

Now this is where I will get a little vague and I apologize in advance for this. There are some possible big changes coming to the Putter household and we have been very busy this spring with it. I wish I could say more about this and hopefully I will be able to tell you soon, but for now if you could keep us in your prayers I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for sticking with me through this long, long post. I have truly missed the blogging world. I had been behind on both reading and posting, and I have enjoyed catching up on both this week. As I read your blogs, it keeps me more in check and inspires me to keep pushing along with everything that life throws at me. So I am pledging to be better about taking some time for myself to read and post in this wonderful blogging world.

Wishing everyone a beautiful and blessed Easter weekend!

TPP