Grasping

I went to Tesco today to buy groceries and a few items that we've been needing for the house. It turned out to be one of those BIG shopping trips with a few "more than normal" expenses. While waiting in line to check out, I noticed a group of ladies in line behind me. They were looking at and discussing my shopping selections. This used to happen all the time when I lived in a city with few foreigners, but now I live in a big city and it doesn't happen often. This not happening often is good, as far as I'm concerned, because I really don't like other people to look at all the stuff in my basket, talking to each other about how MUCH that foreigner is buying.

I smiled nicely at them as I unloaded all the items onto the conveyor belt thingy. The ladies smiled at me and whispered to each other. Then one of the ladies scootched over right next to me and spoke to the cashier. Continuing to scan my stuff, the cashier asked if I had a Tesco card. Why yes I do. How nice of those ladies to remind the cashier to ask me for my card. I stopped unloading my cart and reached in my purse for my card to give to her so she could scan it.

As I returned the card to my pocketbook and continued unloading, I realized what was going on. Those ladies weren't reminding the cashier to scan my card. They were asking if she would scan their card so they could get my points!

I looked back at them. They were still gawking at my stuff. When I had bagged all the groceries and was ready to pay, one of the ladies positioned herself right beside me so she could see the amount that popped up on the cash register.

I wanted to say, "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

Why does this bother me so much? True, it's none of their business, but why do I fight so much to keep my supposed "right-to-privacy"? Am I willing to forego that "right" in order to live among a people who live life so much more in community than I am comfortable with? Obviously I am willing because...well...here I am. But am I willing to forego that "right" with the attitude of Christ who "being in very nature God did not consider (even) equality with God something to be grasped"?

The Lord has been bringing up that passage to me lately (Philippians 2:4-11) in relation to things I am tempted to grasp. Jesus was in very nature God, but He did not grasp it. He was willing to make Himself nothing for our sake.

I am blessed with so much. Do I grasp those blessings or am I willing to hold them with open hands so that I can give them up if the Lord asks me to?

What are you tempted to grasp?

My Favorite Adventure

I've been away for a week. Traveling is fun and the conference I went to was very good. But it's very nice to be home. It's very nice to have the kids back and to hear all about their adventures. In just a few days Kris will be back and we'll have all five of us under one roof again. We each have enjoyed our separate activities. Maybe it's the mom in me. Maybe the others would have taken another week of it. I don't know. But I know that, no matter what traveling adventures I get to have, my favorite one is being with my family.

Novel Book Cover Survey

Can you help me choose a cover for the upcoming novel? The publisher is doing a market research survey to help them design a great cover. You can help by taking just 2 or 3 minutes to look at their sample covers. It would help me out a lot!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y8VBVS7

Just go to the link above and say what you think!

Novel Title Survey

So did you know I wrote a novel? Yeah, I did. Crazy. But what is crazier than that is that I am now on this twisty-curvy roller coaster ride of publishing. The Lord totally knew this was coming, but I have been blind-sided by it... if you can call it that, because it's in a good way.

So I'm on a steep learning curve. And I am enjoying the journey.

At this part of the journey we are in the titling phase. The publisher would like to take a survey to see what YOU think of the title ideas.

Can you take this survey and tell them what you think? It is just 2 questions.
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VGDTVYZ

Survey is closed now...thanks to all who participated.

End of the School Year

How lucky I am to have something

that makes saying goodbye so hard. 

-A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

It's the end of the school year. Just like every school, some students are leaving, moving away, and some are staying. But I think that international schools are pretty unique in that there are SO many who leave, both teachers and students. It is an emotional time for almost everyone, even if they don't show their emotions. Not only is the entire Senior Class graduating and spreading out all over the world, many of the faculty, staff, and other students are moving far away as well. 

Next year will be different. We all disperse for the summer. Many of us will return, but it won't be the same. New people will be here. A new year means more than just new books, new paint, new schedule. New for international schools means new teachers, new staff, new students...all who will be going through culture shock. New is good. But new is also different.

How blessed our family is to have made some good friendships. That's what makes saying goodbye so hard. But it's worth it, and we look forward to the new and the good that God has for us next year. 

If you are saying farewell, be thankful to have had the special friendships that makes saying goodbye so hard.

Puzzling Pictures: Barbecue Pit or a Tub bath?

Creativity. This is how we roll in Malaysia!

Shout Out to Fractions!

Lessons learned today:

1. Never let your brain go on cruise-control even when using a tried-and-true recipe
2. Common sense and little red flags that go up in your brain are gifts from heaven. Pay attention to them.
3. Well, I think that's pretty much it.

Today I cooked for two different sets of folks. Why not double the recipe and just use half for one set and half for the other. Why that is an excellent idea, I think I'll do that. 

And why not use a well-liked recipe so that I know it will be a guaranteed good meal for all involved in eating it. Why that is another excellent idea. Let's do it!

So I begin preparing oven fajitas, a recipe I found on Pinterest. So far everyone has loved it. Awesome. Here I go. I start mixing up the spices that will be used to marinate the chicken. As I begin measuring out the various spices I say to myself,

"Hmmm, that seems like a lot of spices. I don't remember that...well, it must be because I have doubled the recipe. Yes, that's it."

A few spices later...

"Wow, that really seems like a lot. Well, I think I have more spices in the cabinet this time than I did last time. I must have skipped some of the ingredients last time. OK, I'll just keep on, I mean, I've made this many times and I know it's good."

I finally get to "Cayenne Pepper" which is one of the spices I did not have before. My brain is thinking about switching to cruise-control. My eyes register "8 tsp". Wow, that is a lot. I start measuring it out. Doubling the recipe, of course, will mean 16 tsp. Really? Wow. By tsp number 4 I think,

"Hmmm, that really is a lot." 

I dip my finger into the cayenne pepper and taste it, yep, it's pretty spicy. I think I'll stick with 3 tsp. I try to dig out what I can from the pile of spices I've dumped into the bowl to get the cayenne pepper down to a lesser amount.

Ok, marinate chicken. It's all in the pan and ready to bake. I double check the recipe for the amount of time to bake. That's strange. It's not on the recipe. I look it up on the internet site. That's when I notice the spice amounts are different on the internet recipe. When I go back to check the recipe I am using on Pinterest, I see that the TOP number of the FRACTION is way off in the left-hand margin, nowhere near the recipe itself. That leaves the bottom number over by the recipe. So instead of 1/2 Tablespoon of chili powder, for example, I read "2 Tablespoons". But I am doubling the recipe, so I dump in 4 Tablespoons. You can see then, that when I got down to the Cayenne Pepper (after dumping about half my spice cabinet into the bowl) I read 8 teaspoons instead of 1/8 teaspoon. That's a big difference Yo!

I look at the chicken. It is literally already baking under the heat of the cayenne attack. I think I hear it sizzling right there on the cabinet. My face burns. My hands burn. I glance at the guests in the living room. I think about the others who are innocently waiting for me to bring them a home cooked meal. This stuff is fire and I am pretty sure it's more spice than chicken at this point.

Hmmmm...

I rinse the chicken. I dump it all into a mixing bowl and rinse it. No joke it takes about 5 cycles before the water is no longer orangey-red and the spices are mostly gone.

Start over. Wow, it sure does look more reasonable now. 

1/2 teaspoon salt instead of 2 teaspoons (doubled to 4)

1/4 teaspoon onion powder instead of 4 teaspoons (doubled to 8)

You get the idea. Whew, I baked it and it turned out just fine.

Disaster averted.

Fractions are important y'all. Numerators are vital. You can't just use the denominator.

Lesson learned.