A Treasure and a Recipe!

This weekend, I found Chareen who hosts a Tuesday's Treasures linkup at her blog Every Bed of Roses.  I thought I would join her this week in sharing a great book that our family has found at the library!  I am looking forward to reading all the Treasures that different people have found.  There really is no better investment for a home with children than excellent living books!  My find is well-known as a movie, but as my daughter and I read the book, we realized it was quite different from the movie version, and we both decided we enjoyed the book version far better than the movie's!  If you are interested in finding out more about Pollyanna, I found this neat website!

                  

Author(s)	Eleanor H. Porter
Publisher	L.C. Page
Publication date	1913
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	310 pp
ISBN	1-55748-660-3
OCLC Number	33897078
Followed by	Pollyanna Grows Up

I also have my meatball recipe to share with you for our Tummy Tempting Tuesday.  These are delicious, and the molasses and brown sugar add just the right touch of sweetness!  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Meatballs:

3 pounds hamburger meat                                                     1/2 cup onion
1 1/2 cups milk                                                                       1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup rolled oats                                                                     2 tsp. salt
1 cup cracker crumbs                                                             1/2 tsp. pepper
(about 18 saltine crackers)                                                     2 tsp. chili powder

Sauce:
1 cup ketchup                                                                          1 cup BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup molasses                                                                     1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs.  Mix well and form into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Place on a greased baking pan (with edges so the grease from the meat will not drip into your oven).
 
Combine all sauce ingredients and spread generously over meatballs.  Cook uncovered on 350* for about 1 hour. 
Makes approximately 50 meatballs.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Tuesday!

Wishing you a day full of blessings, Christy

A Book You Need to Read

I am excited about this post!!!  Don't you love it when you know you need to improve something, but you're not sure where to even start, and then BAM! something that you never knew about pops into your life.  I like to call it a "God-thing!"   Well, I had a wonderful God-thing happen a couple of weeks ago.  In my earlier post "My Word for 2013,"  I mentioned how I wanted to make my relationship with God more purposeful through prayer.  The best word I could use to describe my prayer life was purposeless!   At least, that's how I felt about it.  I was trying, but for me, it just wasn't happening, and I needed that to change.

One night, I began searching christianbook.com (a website you should all have bookmarked!) for a book on prayer.  I came across a book entitled The Hour That Changes the World by Dick Eastman.  I had never heard of this book or this author, but as I read the chapter titles, I knew I had to read this book.  Can I say I have been challenged in a way like never before, and this book has given much purpose to my prayer!   God knew exactly what I needed, and He used this book to show me.

Let me begin by saying that Mr. Eastman mentions several times that this book was written to offer a guideline for purposeful praying and to supply a Biblical foundation for prayer. It is not meant to be a do or die formula!  The book gives a 12-step prayer plan - breaking an hour of prayer up into 12 different parts (or if an hour is too daunting to begin with, he suggests spending 2-3 minutes on each step).  I do not want to give the entire book away, but a few of the steps are praise, intercession, waiting, thanksgiving and listening. Each chapter takes one of those steps and expounds upon it using Scripture as well as many quotes from amazing prayer warriors in our Christian history.  I found myself underlining - A LOT!  

I have begun using this 12 step plan each morning for my quiet time, and I have been in awe of the many ways God has already worked in my heart and mind.  It has given me such a sense of purpose as I pray!  Again, I want to emphasize that this is not meant to be used as a magic formula or as a regimental duty.  I have spent more time on some of the steps and have not done others.  It is different each day, but it does provide direction and focus.  If you are wanting to see your prayer life grow, I would encourage you to read this book and apply it!  I believe that this has been one of those life-changing reads for me!  Prayer itself is life changing and something that lacks greatly in our Christian circles today.  I believe with all my heart that there are many things God longs to do for us, but we never ask, and so we miss out.  As Mr. Eastman says, "Where there is an absence of prayer there will be an absence of power.  Where there is a frequency of prayer there will be a continuing display of God's power."

Wishing you a day full of blessings,

Christy

Counting God's Little Blessings - 3 Every Day:

Thursday
10.  The safety of family during a tornado
11.  My little man is smiling again!
12.  New babies - they're popping out everywhere around here! :)

Beginning a "Book List"

I am a list person. I love making lists. My mister (aka - husband) always teases me that if I spent as much time doing the things on my list as I did making the list, I would get lots more accomplished! That may be true, but I always feel so much better once everything is written down, and I can check things off as I work. The list I am working on this week is of all the books I would like to read this year. I have this terrible habit of beginning really good Bible study books, but then I find another one that I think would be more helpful to me, and I start it before finishing the first, and then I find another and start it before finishing the second, and the vicious cycle continues. So, I am trying to find all the books I have started and never finished and read them again from beginning to the VERY END! Something else I am trying to do is copy important quotations from the books into a journal. I find that if I write something down, I remember it more easily, and I also think on it more often. I am going to try to post my list some time this week, and then as I read each book, I'll try to let you know what I thought about each one. I'd love to hear of books you might be reading, too. It doesn't need to be a Bible study book. I love reading classics and historical Christian fiction (as shameful as it is to confess - I always finish those)! So, if you have any suggestions, let me know! I hope you all have a great Monday and a wonderful week! I am much more motivated this week and am very thankful for that "little blessing" today! :)