An Everyday Kind of Girl...

God loves to take the very unqualified and raise them up.  God delights in it.  He delights in taking the most unlikely kind of people and doing the most unlikely kind of things...just because they say "yes" to Jesus. 

When I think about this, I always think about "unqualified" women in the Bible like Esther and Ruth and how God took the most everyday kind of woman and did the most extraordinary things.  My prayer this week is that I would daily say "yes" to Jesus so He can can take an everyday kind of girl that often feels "unqualified" and raise me up to who He wants me to be.  Enjoy my portion this week.

Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Birthday X 2, Father's Day, Anniversary

June is a busy month for the Porters! This past week we celebrated Brad's 29th birthday, Nancy's birthday, Father's Day, as well as our 3 year anniversary! Check out some of the cool pics...

Nancy and her new casserole dish!

Jeff is set to play golf Steelers style!

Brad is ready to start his marathon training now that he has his new Garmin Forerunner!

Beatles RockBand

Brad's Favorite German Chocolate Cake from Publix

That's too much excitement in one day for our little girl!

Dinner for two at Carolina's.  Happy 3 year anniversary!

Yeah!  This one's for me!

And They Loved Happily Ever After...

One mortgage, a dog, and three years later, we're still happily ever after!  Check out some of the things that have happened during our three wonderful years of marriage.

June 16, 2007

The Happy Couple

406 Nelliefield Trail

Bailey's First Bath

Our sweet niece, Mia, lookin' all cute!

Uncle Brad and sweet baby Grayson!

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

In my attempt to keep busy this summer, a few of my girlfriends and I decided to join a Wednesday morning Bible study that is being offered at our church.  We're studying Beth Moore's Here and Now, There and Then, which is a lecture series on the book of Revelation.  Revelation is a very intimidating book of the Bible and can at times read more like a fantasy novel than anything else.  I have to constantly remind myself that this is God's Word and it is very real.  Let me share with you how this book of the Bible that seems so very foreign became very personal to me this week.

In chapter two of Revelation, the Apostle John is reading a prophetic letter from Jesus to the church in Ephesus.  Not really remembering much about the church of Ephesus, I looked it up and found out that it was one of the most prominent churches in the Roman province of Asia around 95 AD.  In this letter, Jesus commends the Ephesians for their good deeds, their hard word, their perseverance, as well as their recognition and intolerance for falseness.  The Ephesians endured many hardships, yet they did not grow weary.  Just after Jesus commends the Ephesians for their good works, He goes on to explain one thing that He has against them..."You have forsaken your first love."  Beth Moore commented that the Ephesians hated what Christ hated, but they didn't love what Christ loved.  The Ephesians got so good at policing that they lost their passion for Jesus. 

Ouch...when I heard this I thought, ughh...this is me.  How many times have I put Jesus on the back burner?  How many times have I detested what I see in the world around me, yet I don't recognize my own sin?  Have I lost my first love too?  A sweet lady that was part of our discussion group said that when you lose your first love, you can tell because you always resort back to loving what you do best more than you love Jesus.  For Peter, it might have been fishing.  For me, it's probably shopping and decorating...or even eating sweets.  I've found this year to be very challenging for me spiritually.  I've let many distractions keep me from focusing my life, my marriage, my relationships, and my work on Jesus.  Adam and Eve took their focus off of God in the garden, and confess, I've done it too.  God would not settle for 2nd place in their lives and He will not settle for 2nd place in mine.  What is so encouraging about being a Christian is that even when you take your focus away from Jesus, He still stands planted at the cross.  His love for you remains unmoved and unchanged.  My memory verse for the week is from Ephesians 3:17-19.  It shows how great our Father is and His wonderful love for His children.

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge---that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

The Ephesians needed a reminder to refocus on Jesus, and I needed a reminder too.  Thanks for reading today.  I'm leaving you with the words from one of my favorite old hymns.  I'll be humming it in my head this week and remembering Jesus as my first love.

Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word,
I ever with thee and thou with me Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
Thou mine inheritance now and always;
Thou and thou only first in my heart;
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O Bright Heaven's sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

A Little Plastic Surgery at Minimal Cost

Last year was the first year that I really started getting into gardening.  My mother is a wonderful gardener and her mother was a wonderful gardener.  So naturally I should be a wonderful gardener too, right?  No quite.  I'm attempting to be a wonderful gardener...but I've had many trials and tribulations along the way.  I've forgotten to water, watered too much, and killed plants with Miracle Grow and Clorox...yes...Clorox.  (The great Clorox incident of 2008 is another story I will share with you at a later date.)  We've also battled deer, aphids, fungi, mole crickets, slugs, grub worms, and spring tails, not to mention the unseasonable cold and wet winter that just about did us and our plants in.  (I was wishing I lived in Florida every time the temperature dipped below 30 degrees.) 

Lee Anne in mother's vegetable garden (age 4)

Despite all of my failed attempts at keeping our yard as beautiful as my mother's, I still try...sometimes with success and sometimes with failure.  Let me share one of my success stories with you.  Read on and learn how a little plastic surgery to your garden can go a long way at minimal cost.

My mother has the most peaceful porch you've ever seen.  Her porch was actually featured in Better Homes and Gardens in 2000 for being so cozy and inviting.  One thing that makes her porch so peaceful are all of her plants and hanging baskets. 

Mom's Front Porch

Mom's Back Porch

Don't you just want to curl up, listen to some James Taylor, and sip some sweet tea?  I love that her porches make you feel that way. 

Last year I was trying to spruce up my front porch and thought that maybe I could try and be like my mother and add a few touches of potted plants and hanging baskets.  My mom was actually visiting me in Charleston and we went to Lowe's together and bought two hanging baskets filled with beautiful purple verbena.  I made Brad shimmy up on that porch and attach two hooks to hang the plants from.  I promised Brad that I would care for those verbena...we were not going to waste our money yet again on plants.  I was serious this time.  Well, I did keep my promise...for about one month.  Little did I realize that caring for a hanging basket is hard work!  I'm barely 5'3" and I had to stand on my tippy toes, balancing on top of a chair, just to get those suckers down to water them.  Since they were in direct sunlight, I had to water every day!  I was pretty good for a few days, but soon my everyday watering became every other day, and then every few days...and you can probably see where this is all going.  Yes, they died.  I let them die.  Another 40 bucks down the drain.

As spring came around this year I saw all of my neighbors putting out their hanging baskets.  Some neighbors were hanging beautiful ferns, others were hanging petunias, and some were hanging purple verbena...that darn purple verbena was the bane of my existence.  Every time I looked at their hanging baskets I sighed.  I wanted to put my hanging baskets back out too...but did I really want to waste another 40 dollars for (realistically) 1 month of beauty?  Did I really want to stand on my tippy toes and nearly break my back watering them again?  After going back and forth in my head several times about what to do, I came up with the perfect plan.  A plan that would save me from having to stand on my tippy toes and would save us money in the long run.  I performed a little plastic surgery. 

I went to Michael's when all their greens were 50 percent off.  I bought 8 plastic fern stems.  Originally $6.00 each...I got them for $3.00.  Total spent $24.00 plus tax.  When I got home I dusted off my old hanging baskets that were crammed in the corner of my garage, waiting to be thrown away because surely they would not be used ever again.  In each hanging basket, I stuck four fern stems in the left over dirt from last year's neglected verbena.  I walked out to my front porch, stood on my tippy toes for the final time...and presto!  I had hanging baskets...that didn't look fake and were just as beautiful as my mother's.  If you've ever neglected your hanging baskets and you want something quick, easy, and cheap, you should perform a little plastic surgery too!  Here's the play by play if you're curious as to how my plastic ferns turned out...

If the sun starts to fade the color of the ferns, all I'm going to do is pull the stems out, spray them with "Moss Green" spray paint and they'll be new all over again.  My mother does this with her silk wreaths and it works great.  You can buy this spray paint at Michael's or Hobby Lobby (don't forget your coupon)!

Take Them A Meal

My friend Kara just recently had a baby boy.  Several of her close girlfriends wanted to organize meals to be brought over to her house to free her from the burden of having to cook while caring for her sweet little baby.  There's always so much confusion when planning something like this because you want to know what everyone else is making because you don't want to bring them something to eat if they just had the same meal two nights ago.  Plus, you have to do all this communicating via email, sometimes with with people that are outside of your circle of friends.  Well some genius out there came up with a website that does all this planning for you and it's absolutely free!  You can schedule your meal online, view other people's meals, as well as get the information about what time is best for you to drop your meal off at their house.  How convenient!  If you are about to plan something like this too, you must go to takethemameal.com.  It is so easy and saves you so much time.  I'm taking my meal over to Kara's house tonight.  It's my absolutely favorite casserole and I always request that my mother-in-law, Nancy, makes it for me on special occasions.  If you've never had No Peek Chicken, put it on your meal plan next week...you'll love it and it's super easy!

Nancy's No Peek Chicken:

Ingredients:
1 box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice (with herbs)
1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 Can of Cold Water
1 t. of parsley flakes
A dash of curry powder
1 package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
4-8 boneless chicken breasts

Directions:
Grease 9 x 13 inch pan.  Mix first 6 ingredients together and pour into the pan.  Place chicken on top.  Sprinkle a package of Lipton Onion Soup mix over the top.  Seal with foil and bake for 2 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.  Don't Peek!

Portion for the Week...

I'm involved in a community group with some wonderful girls.  We've decided this summer to invest some of our time and memorize scripture.  We're going to commit to learning one new verse a week.  On the right hand side of my blog, you'll notice there's a heading titled "My Weekly Portion."  This is the verse we're going to commit to memory.  Every Monday I'll be posting a new verse.  Please join us if you want to!  I'm not wonderful with scripture memory, so this is a big challenge for me too.  However, I have come up with a list that might help us on our journey:

1.  Break the verse down into sections and commit yourself to memorizing a new section every day
2.  Write the verse down on an index card and put it somewhere you'll see all the time (this past week I wrote the verse down on two index cards and also had it on my Blackberry...I used all three throughout the week)
3.  Discipline yourself to reading the verse several times a day.  Make it a part of your routine.
4.  Pray through the verse.  Use it every day in your time with the Lord. 
5.  Make the verse personal to you.  How does this verse relate to your day?  Your week?  How is the Lord speaking to you through this verse?

This past week "My Weekly Portion" was from Lamentations 3:22-24

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul,
Therefore I will hope in him.

When I look at this verse I see four main themes that are personal to me: 
1.  The Lord has love for me
2.  He is merciful to me
3.  He is faithful to me
4.  He is my portion.  He can fill my needs and I will hope in Him. 

Throughout the week, I can keep these themes of love, mercy, faith, and hope in my head and pray through them.  My prayer doesn't have to be fancy.  I keep it simple and make it personal.

My prayer might look like this:

Dear Jesus, thank you for your love.  Thank you that you love me so much and have mercy on me.  You have always been faithful and I know that you will never leave me.  As I make my way through this week, I pray that you would be my portion.  That you would fill my every need.  Thank you, Jesus, that I can hope in you alone.  Amen. 

Good luck to anyone that is going to memorize with us!  I've already posted the new "My Weekly Portion" on the right hand side of my blog.  May it bless you this week.

Watch Out Michelangelo...You're Not the Only One Who Can Sculpt!

Every year Isle of Palms hosts a sand sculpting contest as part of Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto festival. The Porters are very competitive...so this contest was right up our alley! We teamed up with our good friends, Chris and Laura McDougald (who are just as competitive as we are), and schemed up a good plan...check out our hard work!

After all is said and done...we DID manage to have lots of fun. Not wanting to wait around for the awards ceremony, we quickly packed up our shovels, threw away our "special effect," hung our heads down low, and walked away in defeat...discussing what we could have done to avoid the catastrophe and what we will do better next year. After we arrived home, we get a surprising phone call from a friend who was also participating in the contest and did stick around for the awards ceremony. We soon found out that WE WON! We didn't win the grand prize...but we did come in 3rd place for Best Sand Sculpting Idea! We will be picking up our trophy next week and will proudly put it on display right next to our gingerbread house trophy. Watch out Michelangelo, you're not the only one who can sculpt!

My Grandmother Can Do Anything...

My Grandmama is 79 years old and she is the youngest 79 year old woman that I've ever met. She can do just about anything. She lives in a split-level house and has been tending her huge lawn (with hills) all by herself for over 20 years. This past year her push mower broke and she did what I always do when something breaks...call my Daddy. Come to find out, Daddy was traveling and wouldn't be able to get to her house for another two weeks. So, she said to herself in her best southern accent, "I'm not waitin' for him to come, I'm gonna to tackle this thing myself!" So she got out the owner's manual and fixed that ol' push mower up! What 79 year old woman do you know that can fix her own push mower? (Pictured below: Grandmama and Grandpa Ted, big brother Blair, and me!)

Well that brings me to today. I've gone for my morning jog (well it was more of a jog/walk) out on Sullivan's Island with my good friend Laura, went to Publix to buy a Diet Coke, and stopped by Tuesday Morning to buy a tassel (more blogging on tassels later...boys, I know you can't wait!). I get home and realize I have several more hours before my hubby gets off work. The laundry's already folded and put away, the kitchen's clean, the floors are swept. What it the world can I do now? And then I think of my Grandmama...and her push mower...and her huge yard with a hill...and then I think of my ever so tiny yard with no hills. Maybe, just maybe, I can tackle my yard just like my Grandmama. I go over to my neighbor's house (the one that speaks English), and get a 2 minute tutorial on how to cut the grass. 1. Check oil. 2. Put gas in tank 3. Press the red squishy button 4. Hold the little red lever bar down 5. Pull the line and crank that bad baby up! I finished the yard in 20 minutes! I was sweatin' and out of breath by the time I was done...but...I tackled it! Grandmama would be proud! Lessons learned: pick up all doggie poops before you begin. I'll tackle edging next week...

Black Bean Burgers, Coming Right Up!

This might look like a lot of ingredients, but most of this stuff you probably already have in your pantry. You can always leave something out if you don't have it (except the black beans, of course!) This is a great, healthy summer meal...enjoy!


Ingredients:
2 15 oz. cans of black beans (well drained)
2 egg whites
2 t. minced onions
2 t. dried Italian seasoning
1 t. salt
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. black pepper
1 t. dried roasted red pepper
1 t. baking powder
2 slices of bread
1/4 cup of corn (optional)


Directions:
Blend one can of black beans and the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender. Add last can of black beans. Blend just a little. Form 6 patties. Spray patties with oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes on each side, spraying each side with oil before you flip. You can cook these patties the same way in a frying pan. If you have left over patties, you can freeze them and bake/fry later. Brad and I love to top our burgers with a fried egg, avocado, and cheddar cheese. Yum!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

So, we've finally become friends with our neighbors! Getting to know them has been difficult because they don't speak any English, but we've watched them a lot because they are always outside working in their most spectacular garden! They frequently switch out their crops and I'm convinced that they've never actually bought their own produce at the grocery store. They grow all kinds of things...chili peppers, lettuce, cabbage...you name it and I bet they've grown it! We've always been waving kind of neighbors...but nothing more than that. Lately we've both been having LOTS of problems with deer eating just about everything in our yards. So, being the neighborly neighbor that I am, I decided I'd help them try and salvage their crops by giving them our screen door that wasn't being used.

This past week, they returned the favor by bringing me a whole basket filled with cucumbers! Check them bad babies out! I ate one whole this morning as if I was eating a banana. It was delicious.

So, I'm off to the store to buy the ingredients to make cucumber salsa. Watch out Brad...you're not the only cook in the family!

My List

So, I'm a librarian and I LOVE to make lists and organize things...anything. A few months back, I made stickers to put on the tops of all of my spices so I could easily read them as soon as I open the pantry door. It's helped save at least 1 minute of time hunting and pecking every time I go searching for a spice (or when Brad goes searching for a spice...he does most of our cooking!). You can do this project yourself in less than 10 minutes if you want to save yourself 1 minute a day too!

So, yes...I love to organize. School's officially out and today's my first day of summer vacation! I have the whole summer to organize and make lists. I can't wait! Today I'm going to share my first list...my list of summer rules. I need these rules so I don't become a bump on a log and veg out in front of the TV all day. These rules will help keep my summer productive and purposeful...here goes nothing!

LA's List of Summer Rules:

1. No TV until after 8:00 pm (minus morning and evening news...Regis and Kelly and Talk Soup do not count as news)
2. Always be reading a book
3. Get to know my neighbors
4. Work out 4 times a week
5. Memorize scripture (new verse once a week)
6. Call my Grandmother every week
7. Keep my fingernails painted at all times to keep from biting them! I stopped biting them in November and have had my first relapse this past month!)
8. Start a blog [check]