Living In Grace

Change.

Change sucks.

There. I've said it.

For years, I've spent my life preaching CHANGE IS GOOD! to my employees. totally bought it ot hte fact that change brings growth and  new opportunities. Embrace it! Love It!

Well now.

I'm tired of change.

I want things to stay predictable, steady and on course, I want to look at tomorrow, and not wonder what I'll have to rearrange. For the first time in my life, I just want to be complacent.

Sad. But true.

And because that just can't happen, change has again arrived at Cases do Living in Grace.

Changes that affect us in so many ways.

And so, besides trying to get everyone through the last 9 days of school, finals, summer plans, driving lessons, et al ... I've spent the last couple of days reworking sbudget, bills and plans for the future including evaluations at various clinics for transplant.

Realistically, Denver is out.  Mayo should be in by July. Phone calls are being made, plans changed.

I'm holding frustration at bay, barely, but my finger is in the dike.

More than ever, we are living in grace around here. Forcing oouselves to leave the details to God. Letting  let go of our plans,  and  trusting that His plans will work out.

It's a tough place to be. But, we are there and we will walk through. Crawl if we have to.

Reminding ourselves each step of the way that He is Jehovah Jirah - His Grace Is Sufficient For Me.

Don't forget ...

... to stop by here!

More Summer Goodness in a Bowl

TO ENTER THE GREAT MOVIE GIVEAWAY ... JUST SCROLL DOWN WHEN YOU'RE DONE!

You've come to expect easy, cheap and yummy from me .... and I appreciate it. Of course, growing up I would be appalled if I was known for being easy and cheap, but ...

Anyway.

Today, I bring you another wonderful hand-me-down recipe from Aunt Sandy. Anyone here notice a trend?
She taught me this recipe when I was about 15, and then passed the torch to Kati this past October when she was 14.

Ah, the legacy we leave for our children.

So, gather up the supplies and prepared to fall in love with ..

(drum roll please, and abit of trumpetal fanfare  wouldn't hurt either)

Aunt Sandy's Pink Lady Salad

1 lrg Cool Whip, softened abit (We love it with Extra Creamy, but Low Fat if awesome as well)
1 lrg and 1 small Cottage Cheese (your choosing)
1 large or 2 small Peach Jello (really any fruit flavor will do)
1 can Sliced Peaches, drained oh so well and cut up (If you use strawberry jello- tr strawberries or bananas)

Grab a bowl, and add the Cool Whip and whip it a bit with a fork to smooth the consistency.

Add the Jello powder right out of the packet(s) and give it a good stir to mix it up.

Add the cottage cheese, again giving a good stir to mix.

Finally fold in the fruit of your choosing. Always drain, drain, drain any canned fruit so it doesn't get all soupy.

I've added chopped nuts, but they tend to get soft and mushy. YOu can serve them on the side and add at the time of serving.

Chill for an hour or so to set up and Voila!

Another easy summer salad.

For more amazing recipes, visit Saturday Stirrings over a Fiddledeedee's place ...

Free Movies! In Contest Form! With Treats!

We lead a busy life around here. The kids homeschool 5-6 hours a day, the hubby goes to work FT 4 days a week and then comes home to work another 30-40 hours at his "work from home office" job.  With summer upon us, we now have one child old enough to get a job (Lord help me, I'm not old enough to have a child old enough for a job) and due to get her learner's permit in 52 days (No, seriously, no one in this house is counting the day. Really). There is volunteer work, church and a myriad of other things that I'm sure everyone reading this is totally familiar with.

Singing to the choir, I am.

Even though we are home together most of the time, family time though critical, is hard to come by.

To that end, we established two rituals:

Game Night and Family Move Nights.

Game Night is usually just the kids and I, becasue of John's schedule. we drag out old favorites like Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. Last year we discovered a new game called Dread Pirate, and love it!
We play card games, and are currently looking for a Jenga game.

Family Movie Night falls twice a week, late, after John has finished working. The kids drag their stuff into our room, and we have a sleepover. It's great fun!

Living where we do, we only had one movie rental place.  Unfortunately,  one day it was just closed up and gone. I later heard they went bankrupt.

Fortunately, though, I had just won free membership to Netflix through a giveaway at Owlhaven! Waht a blessing it has become!

It's pretty simple. I went in and perused the listings of movies they offer (over 100,000 titles), added them to my "queue" with one click of the mouse and Voila! Movies were in my mailbox within  two day. There are no time limits, no late fees, and after we've watched them, they just go back in the prepaid envelope.

Once they get the movies back (normally the day after I mail them off), the next movies in our queue are pulled and shipped. We have not waited more than a couple of days for the next movies to arrive.

The best part is there ARE! NO! LATE! FEES!

Frankly, I don't see how the other movie rental place went bankrupt with the amount of late fees I paid to them.

So, now for the fun part.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To help you get a taste of the joy that Netflix brings, I giving away FOUR! FREE!  starter memberships to Netflix. You will get a one month subscription to Netflix, and can rent up to three movies at any time. So, if you play your cards right, you could watch between TWELVE! and SIXTEEN! movies FREE! at home.
Without loading up the kids, driving, or paying a dime!

But wait! there's more!

Netflix also lets you watch movies on your computer! Instantly!

But wait! There's even MORE!

The winners will recieve a  Movie Goodies Box from me, full of  yummy treats to indulge in while watching their movies! (To win, you will need to be willing to trust me with your physical address).

Here's how it works.

There are four ways to enter. (HT to BloggedIn for the inspiration)

1) Each comment left will earn 1 entry.

2) Subscribe to Living in Grace through your feed reader (Click Here) and earn 5 entries. (Please let me know in comments which feed reader you subscriber with).

3) Write a post, linking directly back here and earn yest another 10 entries!

4) If you don't have a blog, simply leave a comment telling me the names of the first 3 movies you will rent, and why. You'll get 5 more entries, and I'll get some new movies to add to my queue :) Win! WIN!!!

So, who wants some theatrical goodness?!

(Due to NetFlix restrictions, you must be a US resident to enter. I'll leave comments open until 8pm PT, Wednesday, May 14th and announce the winner on Saturday, May 17th. I'm thinking I'll need that long to calculate entries and all... sigh).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED! GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! CHECK BACK SATURDAY FOR THE WINNER!!

I need a vacation. Who's got a room.

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted too much around here lately with the exception of a couple of recipes and things ... sigh.

It's been a long couple of weeks.

We are in the final countdown to the end of school (HURRAY! HURRAY! HURRAY! for about 2 weeks, you know, before the "I'm bored-s" set in) and it's been a walk in the park like pulling teeth oh heck let's be honest, it's been murder around here. Just keepin' it real.

I've got one childwhoshallremainnameless that's so far ahead in their year end work, they could wrap it all up tomorrow.

Then there's the childwhoshallremainnameless who fights and pushes back on sitting down to get it done, starting to get it done, getting it done, asking for help to get it done, blah blah blah on time.

And I'm at my wit's end.

Or as I used to say when they were young, "I have one nerve left, and YOU are stomping on it".

So, my days have been filled with, stress. Negotiating. Cajoling. Asserting authority. Screaming and gnashing of teeth. Crying.

And the child hasn't been too thrilled with the process either.

On another note, we are CONFIRMED! IN WRITING! with DIRECTIONS! and a MAP! for my transplant eval at Mayo.  Were were talking the 2nd of June, and I was waiting for a call back. When we didn't hear, I called and found out they were waiting for me to call back (huh?) so the date filled up. We bumped it out a week and it's official. It seems like forever (well, it's been since February) since we started trying to get this scheduled. So HURRAY!!!! We're looking forward to a few days away as we will be down there for a couple days to go through the motions.

Once we are seen, then the process should move quickly to list, I think. I'm waiting for a call back (it seems to be the story of my life) for more details. I'm kindof in the dark as to how Mayo works on this.

At the same time, I'm still trying to arrange transportation to Denver and housing to stay for my annual evaluation to stay on their list. I've found out my frequent flier miles won't help since the airline doesn't fly from here to there, but there are various organizations that work with transplant patients on this, but again- waiting for return phone calls. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh-itty ugh. I'm hoping to secure a good rate for someplace to stay in Denver, since medical housing (like Ronald McDonald House) units are plentiful there, but won't confirm availability until you walk in the door that day. I am abit nervous about getting there, cab fare to trundle around Denver to find an open bed and still end up at a full price hotel since I won't be able to look for better rates now.

Oh the joys of the transplant process!

But, in the end, it will all be worth every bit. I'm confident of that.

SO, if I'm not around as much through the end of the month, you will know why.

Or, should you get a knock on your door from some haggard looking woman- just smile, and toss her a blanket and pillow.

I'm sure she'll appreciate it.