The Weaver

My life is but a weaving
between the Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow
and I in foolish pride forget He sees
the upper and I, the underside.
Not til the loom is silent and
the shuttles cease to fly shall
God unroll the canvas and explain
the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
in the Weaver's skillful hand as
the threads of gold and silver in the
pattern He has planned.

This poem is on a wall hanging in our bedroom and it's one of my favorites. I was reminded of it yesterday when I watched the following video about who God is and how He doesn't need our acceptance.

Reading the poem and listening to the video is very humbling for me. There are things that I don't understand, but it's not my place to understand them. God is in complete control and I have to choose if I will trust Him to "work all things together for good."

Amazing Salmon!

Justin and I got a Sam's card about a year ago and have been picking up a few things there ever since. Each time we go we walk by the meat department to "just look". We really enjoy salmon and have been buying the frozen stuff from Aldi or Walmart. At Sam's they have giant slabs of fresh salmon. They are rather pricey so we always say, "maybe next time." Well, "next time" came this past Monday. We had fish on our menu for the next two weeks, but nothing looked very good at the other two stores. We got to Sam's and decided we would try it.

Here is half of the slab. and this is the other half.
Justin found a recipe online so we gave it a try.
It had honey mustard, brown sugar, and salt and pepper.
Ready to head inside.
YUM!
This salmon was amazing! I doubt that we will buy the frozen stuff ever again. It was so moist and flaky it just melted in my mouth!

Taste of Home Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

TOPPING:
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, optional
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in yogurt and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
Combine the topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack. Serve warm. Yield: 1 dozen.

These muffins are very good! I think the yogurt plays a big part in keeping them moist. I did not have any plain yogurt on hand, so I substituted vanilla yogurt instead.

Emma

This afternoon I heard our back door open and then Justin was calling my name. I hurried over to find him holding our little Emma dog with a paper towel on her back foot. She had cut the pad of her foot on something and was bleeding all over the place. We put some peroxide on the cut and then bandaged her up. We decided we should put something over the bandage so she didn't try to mess with the bandage. She is walking around with a sock on her back leg.:)

Taste of Home Tuesday:Cajun Shrimp Skewers

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound uncooked jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 medium lemon, cut into wedges

Directions
In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the first nine ingredients. Add the shrimp; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
On eight metal or soaked wooden appetizer skewers, thread shrimp and lemon wedges. Grill, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 5-8 minutes or until shrimp turn pink, turning once. Yield: 8 skewers.

We added a little salt and soy sauce. The shrimp were okay. Justin thought they were a little heavy on the chili powder flavor. If we make this recipe again we will probably make a few changes.

Gatling Gun

This past weekend Hodgdon Powder sent Justin to Lenexa, KS for the KSRA Annual Meeting and Shoot, and I got to tag along. We took JB Hodgdon's gatling gun up to the meeting where it was on display and then shot. I had never seen a gatling gun before and was amazed at how big it was and how much fun it was to shoot!

They loaded up the bullets and started cranking the handle the bullets and casings started flying

For a chance to shoot the gun people donated a dollar a round. Hodgdon divided the proceeds between the KSRA and the tornado victims in Reading, KS

Camping Anyone?

Justin and I celebrated our 6th anniversary the end of May. We decided it would be fun to go camping so we packed up and off we went. I had made a menu and we had decided that we would have biscuits and gravy one morning for breakfast. Instead of trying to get the biscuits just right over the fire I cheated and baked them in my oven at home ahead of time. We got to our campsite and got settled. The next morning we worked hard on the gravy and were nearly ready to eat when we decided to heat the biscuits up over the fire. After a complete search of the campsite the biscuits were no where to be found!! Thankfully Josh and Allison had brought a couple of loaves of bread for sandwiches so we toasted them instead.

After we got home I searched everywhere for the biscuits I had forgot to pack. After I couldn't find them anywhere I decided to look in the garage. Sure enough, our cat had stolen the biscuits out of the back of the jeep while Justin and I were loading things. He ate all 18 biscuits!

After breakfast we headed out to fish.
Josh and Allison trying to catch the "big one"!
Emma was loving the water even though it was chilly.
Justin had pretty good luck and caught several fish.

It wasn't to big, but at least he caught something!

Emma wanted in on the action.

Jordyn's big catch of the day!

The snake that was watching us fish.
The sun finally came out in the evening.
The Alexander family went for a little walk.

Yummy supper of pork loin and potatoes!

Atalie preferred dirt instead

This scary BIG guy was in our tent!! I found it after I had packed up all the bedding and am choosing to believe that it crawled in while we were packing things up outside the tent and I DID NOT sleep with it!!
We had a fun weekend that was nice, cool and relaxing!