Nov. 10, 2009 - Take a Moment
I'm terrible sorry that we haven't been posting in a couple of week.
It’s November and everybody is busy. Powerline Productions is no exception. The test kitchens are going full tilt and the employees are running around nonstop. Meredith is gearing up for a talk at a local homeschool support group and I am preparing for a family trip to Virginia. Our college students are finishing up classes with big projects and starting to prepare for finals and our homeschool students are straining to get their work done among the distractions. This morning has been beautiful. I was able to swim a mile, enjoying the sunshine all the while. I’ve enjoyed a delicious lunch of steam asparagus and leftover baked ham roll-ups. (If you’re interested in trying them, the recipe is at the end of this blog.)
In between making a batch of chocolate turtles and a batch of truffles I had a moment to look out the window at Big Daddy, our 300 year live old oak tree and his leaves were still. I was enthralled. I couldn’t take my eyes off those beautiful green, still leaves. (Yes, I realize that an oak tree with green leaves in November might be shocking to some of you. I don’t know if it’s because we’re in Florida or because he’s a Live Oak Tree, but Big Daddy doesn’t shed his leaves until March when the new ones force the old ones out.) We are experiencing a great deal of wind in Florida today as Tropical storm/depression/whatever-their-calling-it-now Ida is wreaking havoc on the gulf. They haven’t been strong winds, just constant. I don’t think there has been a moment in days that Big Daddy has been still. The air has been some-what like my life, busy. Big Daddy and his still leaves reminded me to take a moment.
We take time to homeschool our kids and that’s good. We take time to feed our families and if you have teenage boys like me that’s very good. We take time to study The Word or Praise the Lord and that’s extremely good. How much time do we take to just be with Him? How much time do we take to consciously appreciate the gifts He has given us? It’s time to prepare a Thanksgiving feast. Then it will be time to buy gifts for everybody to show how thankful we are for the gift of God’s son. Don’t be stressed by it. Take the time you need to really be thankful, even while you’re making the preparations. Enjoy the smells of the food while it’s still cooking. Enjoy the bright colors, lights, and music of the holiday season. Keep your eyes open to see and appreciate when the wind stops blowing.
Baked Ham Roll-Ups
Ingredients
- 2 (10oz.) pkg. chopped spinach
- 2 cups corn bread stuffing mix
- 2 cups sour cream
- 24 slice ham lunchmeat
- 4 cups milk
- 4 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 4 Tbsp. butter
- 2 cups sharp grated cheese
- pepper, to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cook frozen spinach as directed on package and drain. Combine with stuffing mix and sour cream; mix well. Spread each ham slice with about ½ cup spinach mixture. Roll and place seam side down in 9x13 inch Pyrex dish. Dissolve cornstarch and milk well in saucepan and heat. Add butter, cheese, and pepper; cook till thickened. Pour over ham rolls. Bake, covered, 15 minutes, uncovered, 15 minutes.
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Oct. 20, 2009 - Traditions
Good afternoon my lovely homeschoolers!!
It is officially Autumn. Not because it is after September 21st. Not because the weather has been horrible chilled lately, but because I have made my pumpkin custard. It's true. It's not autumn in the Nolette household until Mom makes the pumpkin custard. Most of my family LOVES it. Thanks to a special request from my wonderful friend Susha I'm making my second batch in less than one week. It's like fluffy a pumpkin pie with out the crust. Try it yourself...
Pumpkin Custard
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
- 3 Tbsp. Flour
- 3 Tbsp. Butter
- ¾ Cup Milk
- 1 (28 Oz.) Can Pumpkin
- Cool Whip
INSTRUCTIONS:
- 1. Mix all ingredients.
- 2. Pour into casserole dish.
- 3. Bake 50 minutes.
- 4. Serve warm or cool, with Cool Whip on top.
We talk often about traditions at Powerline Productions. We love them. Our families have Heroes for Jesus Parties on October 31st (the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Whittenburg Door). We serve Thanksgiving Feast at the end of November which always begin with a time to contemplate the gifts the Lord has given us and thanking Him for His kindness. We bake cookies together and make ornaments each December. On Christmas Eve we travel to eat a picnic dinner, similar to what Mary and Joseph were doing the evening before our Lord and Savior was born. We sing carols glorifying God and His precious Son. We exchange gifts in rememberance of what He did for us.
We are introducing a new line of books this year to help you all build your own Christ centered traditions. Check out our first offering in the Celebrate! series: Celebrate Our Chrstian Heroes (Instead of Halloween) by Meredith Curtis. The e-book can be purchased at Currclick.com the book is filled with great ideas for having your own Heroes for Jesus celebration. You'll find game ideas with all the templates, reproducable pictures, and instructions you'll need to assemble these great games. Everybody will have a blast and not even realize that they are learning church history!! Meredith has even included some of our best tried and true Autumn recipes for you to try!
Now is the time to really start thinking about those family traditions you repeat every Christmas. Are you teaching your family the true meaning of Christmas? Are you honoring the Lord whose birth we are celebrating with all He deserves? Let's all pray and work with our families to be shining lights this Christmas. Let's see if we can make the Word of God in our lives shine brighter than the twinkle lights on our houses! For some of us that will take alot more shining than others, but let's have fun doing it anyway!!
Keep your eyes open for more Celebrate! books from Powerline Productions!!
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Apr. 7, 2009 - Celebrating Easter with Feasting and Fun!
Hi Joyful and Successful Homeschoolers!
Two days ago, we celebrating Palm Sunday where Jesus was honoring and praised by the people of Jerusalem. Three days from now, we celebrate Good Friday, where Jesus gave His life so we could live. Do you have plans for celebrating Easter? Let me pass on a few of our family's traditions!
First, we start with the belief that Easter if our most important Christian holiday, because without the resurrection, there would be no Christianity at all. On Good Friday, Jesus paid our penalty of sin, on Easter, Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death and defeating sin! We are now gloriously free!
We use this week to celebrate God's goodness, pass on values, and teach our children about the Lord and His goodness. Our Easter family traditions create a sense of identity and security for our children. Most of all, we have fun and rejoice! What a glorious day Easter is!
We celebrate God's Resurrection and Eternal Life! We pass on the values of Easter to our children: newness, renewing, rebirth, hope of Heaven, chance to make a brand new start, invitiation from Jesus to the lost world!
Here are some of our family traditions: attend church together in new or matching outfits (the brand enw thing again!), acting out the entire Holy Week/Easter story or reading it aloud together, and decorating with spring colors like mint green, yellow, pink, and lavender. We hide plastic eggs filled with candy, let children find the eggs and empty candy; then they put resurreciton symbols inside and hide them for the adults. We invite unbelievers to church and share the Gospel with unsaved family members and friends. Sometimes we celebrate Passover...a Christian Seder, explaining the symbols of Jesus in the Passover meal. Remember Jesus was celebrating Passover, when He instituted the Last Supper/Communion!
Menus:
Good Friday: Leg of Lamb with mint jelly; Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus, Fancy Green Beans, Hot Cross Buns, Pina Gel Salad, & Traditional Baked Cheesecake.
Easter Sunday: Ham or Roast, Minted Peas & Carrots, Angel Eggs, Coconut Bread, Biscuits, Ambrosia, & Carrot Cake.
See some of the recipes below! For more recipes, see our website's recipe page: http://joyfulandsuccessfulhomeschooling.com/recipes.aspx
Piña Gel SaladMerey’s Ambrosia3 Bananas, sliced
1 large Cream Cheese, softened
1 regular crushed Piña (Pineapple)
2 small Lime Jello
3 Cups Water
2 envelopes Dream Whip
Mix soft cream cheese with Piña. Place in refrigerator. Prepare Jello. Let Jello set 1 hour. Prepare Dream Whip. Fold everything together. Put in mold and refrigerate.
3 Oranges, peeled & cubed
2 Cups seedless grapes
1 Cup miniature marshmallows
1 Cup coconut
1 Cup sour cream
2 T sugar
1 T cinnamon
Mix fruit, marshmallows, and coconut. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir into fruit mixture. Chill.
Traditional Baked Cheesecake
2 Tbsp sugar 1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, melted 2 eggs
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 can cherry or blueberry pie filling 1 cup dairy sour cream
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-in. spring form pan. In a small bowl combine cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter. Press crumbs onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 min. Remove Cool on wire rack. Increase oven to 400°F. In large bowl beat cream cheese & sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, flour & lemon peel until blended. Stir in sour cream. Pour cheese mixture over bottom crust. Smooth top. Bake 45-50 minutes or until center is set. Turn oven off; leave cheesecake in cooling oven with door slightly ajar, 3 hours. Remove from oven. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Refrigerate until served. To serve, run tip of knife around inside edge of pan. Release and remove pan side. Place cheesecake on a serving plate. Pour pie filling over top of cake, spreading to cover the whole top.
Check out Meredith's Article on Take Root and Write: http://www.takerootandwrite.com/2009/04/celebrating-christs-resurrection.html#more
Virginia Knowles has some great Easter lesson plans: http://providencehomeschool.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
Annie's Holiday Pages are wonderful too: http://www.annieshomepage.com/easter.html
Have a blessed Easter!
With Love,
Meredith & Laura
Crust: Cheese mixture:1 ¼ cup graham-cracker crumbs 4 (8-oz.) pkgs. cream cheeseTopping: 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
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Dec. 31, 2008 - Celebrate the New Year with the Lord!
The following article first appeared on Take Root and Write http://www.takerootandwrite.com/ You can read more articles on holidays here: http://www.takerootandwrite.com/holidays/index.html
It is time to celebrate! We celebrate because we are loved! We celebrate because God is good! We celebrate because we are safe in His love! Let's celebrate with the Lord and HIs Word so that we can bring in the New Year with style!
Another year is over and a new one is about to begin. The world has its way of celebrating this transition, but God has a better way! No matter what has happened this past year, God has been faithful to you! Even if you don't believe that right now....it's true!
If only we could see with spirit eyes the battle all around us. Angels at war protecting our health, lives, loved ones, possessions, and honor. We can only see what God allows to make us stronger in Him, not all that He keeps the enemy from inflicting. I encourage you to enter 2009 with worship, prayer, and God's Word. Why not gather together on New Year's Eve with other believers who are serious about the things of God. Seek His face together as the New Year starts. Forget the ball dropping in Times Square! How about worship instead!
Jesus is our Promise Keeper! He has protected you this past year from untold tragedy, misfortune, and peril. We look at all that has happened, but so often we don't think about what might have happened. Maybe you lost your house this past year, a terrible thing, but you still have your family. Maybe you lost a loved one this year, but you are not here in this world alone. Imagine the destruction that could have come your way that the Lord prevented.
We will spend our evening with dear friends who love Jesus too! Early in the evening we will play games, laugh, and tell jokes! Of course, there will be delicious food like bean dip, cheese balls, and haystacks. As midnight gets closer, we will shift gears and bring out our Bibles. We will take time to thank God for all He's done for us (even what we have not seen!) in the past year and share a Scripture that is meaningful. Then someone will get out a guitar and we will worship until it's almost midnight. 2009 will arrive while we are taking communion with one another--it's our tradition. We treasure this time each year as a way of looking back with thankfulness and looking forward with hope.
Beside my celebration with family and friends, I will have a personal celebration with the Lord. I will look back and evaluate the past year in terms of my obedience to Him. You see, I don't evaluate the Lord, I evaluate myself. Am I living for Him in a way that is honorable and upright? Is my heart pure? I will pull out my goals from last year and see which have been met and which are still in process. Each year that same goal to lose ten pounds hits the list, but others are different. They are related to my walk with the Lord, my relationship with my husband and children, mentoring ladies, friends, extended family, leading worship, homeschooling, writing, health,finances, and even my dreams. These goals are just between the Lord and me, but they matter to both of us. I really try to hear from the Lord as I make out my goals for the next year. Our God is good! We don't always understand His ways in our life.
"When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. `Get up,' he said, `take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: `Out of Egypt I called my son.' When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: `A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.' " --Matthew 2:13-18
Mary and Joseph had just experienced one miracle and prophetic word after another and, then, God speaks. He tells them to flee for their lives! What? The Messiah has to be protected? Isn't He God? By obeying the Lord, Jesus' life is spared, but many lives are taken. When destruction is raging, it is so important to incline your ear to hear from God. He will give you a path, but you must set time aside to listen for His voice.
When we hear the voice of the Lord and follow Him, we stay in His protection. Each stage of life has a season. It is important to stay in God's will at all times, in every season. Don't not be afraid! After a season, God again spoke to Joseph in a dream and told him that he could bring Mary and Jesus back to Israel. They settled in Nazareth and enjoyed the favor and blessing of the Lord. Be filled with faith as you welcome 2009! Remember the promise in Jeremiah 29:11--God has plans to proper and not to harm us; plans to give us a hope and a future! We have every reason to celebrate! So, let's celebrate the New Year with Him and the ones we love!
Here are some easy recipes to try!
EZ Bean Dip
3 Cans (28 oz.) Refried Beans 5 lb. brick Velveeta Cheese
1 Jar (28 oz.) Salsa Tortilla chips
In a large crock pot, combine beans, cheese, and salsa. Set to high and let cook until cheese is melted, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to "keep warm." Serve with tortilla chips
EZ Cheese Ball
8 oz. soft cream cheese 1 envelope onion soup mix
2 Cups Sharp shredded cheddar cheese
Mix ingredients together. Roll into a ball. Chill. Serve with crackers.
EZ Haystacks
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 12 oz peanuts
2 cups butterscotch chips 20-25 oz. chow mein noodles
Melt the chips in a saucepan on low heat. Stir in the nuts and the noodles. Drop by teaspoonfuls on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Cool. Store covered in refrigerator.
May God bless and prosper you in 2009! May all your goals and dreams come to pass in His perfect plan and timing!
Meredith
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Dec. 12, 2008 - Merry Christmas to all our Dear Friends!
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Dec. 10, 2008 - Our new family Christmas photo!
Here is this year's Christmas photo! Laura will post hers later this month! Christmas Blessings!
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Dec. 5, 2008 - Homeschooling in December!
Hi Joyful and Successful Homeschoolers!
School can take a twist in December with Christmas unit studies and field trips! To read more about this, see my columns over at Take Root and Write: http://www.takerootandwrite.com/columns_joyful_and_successful_homeschooling/index.html
The challenge for us in our December homeschooling to keep the focus on Christ. Each of us have creative ideas to share with one another. In our home, we have Christmas devotions that we do each year. They are very simple: read a Scripture, discuss some questions, and sing some Christmas carols. You are welcome to use them. Scroll down to Christmas--look for "Christmas Devotions" button! http://www.joyfulandsuccessfulhomeschooling.com/traditions.aspx
We also buy gifts for baby Jesus and donate them to a Crisis Pregnancy Center. 
On Christmas Eve, we enjoy a Traveling Dinner on Christmas Eve to remind us of the trip Mary & Joseph took. See my article on Take Root and Write: "Christmas Traditions: The Traveling Dinner." http://www.takerootandwrite.com/holidays/index.html
This article is about our first Traveling Dinner! Look for other articles here on Christmas traditions!
Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas morning after devotions and before opening presents reminds us that Christmas is about Jesus!
As we enjoy the hustle and bustle of the season, take time to relax, enjoy our children, and enjoy our dear Lord Jesus who laid aside His GLORY to become a tiny baby sleeping ont he hay!
Blessings and hugs to each one of you!
Meredith
