Friday Favorites {9.8.17}

1. Harvey Relief!

My Texas necklace from Jenn's shop:

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2. Date Night thanks to:

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Last night we were invited to a dinner hosted by Pastorserve.  Upon hearing of the chaos that Harvey wreaked on Houston, Pastorserve immediately mobilized their team from all over the US to be here for the Houston pastors.  We didn't really have any idea what it was about except that they wanted to come in as a support to the pastors in the city many of which have been on the front lines caring for people who have lost everything and in many cases having been personally affected by the flood themselves.  It was heartbreaking to see the exhaustion on each pastor's face as many were low on sleep due to shot nerves, physical labor, emotional heaviness for their congregations, and personal concern as many churches buildings are in need of repair and don't have the finances to continue to miss meeting on Sundays.  The joy and hope during our worship time brought me to tears as did the spiritual and physical care of the Pastorserve team as they encouraged us with the Word, provided us with a delicious meal, prayed for us, and even met some specific financial needs.

In situations like this, pastors are often the first to offer help and the last to accept it, and in the marathon that is Harvey recovery, we need our leaders to stay healthy and encouraged.  Pastorserve is an organization that comes alongside of pastors to do just this.  If you are looking for a ministry to give to for Harvey relief, this is a great option.

We forgot to take a picture at the Pastorserve dinner so here we are after we got back!  Love this guy!!!

3. Little People Shenanigans

"Mom!  We made an immunity idol!"
#survivorfansinthemaking #ionlyletthemwatchthechallenges

Meanwhile, Susu was making her own fun.
She has an obsession with soap...could be worse, right?

Not even sure what is happening here

4.  The many articles written about and for Houston:

Beth Moore's beautiful portrait of Houston

Joshua Roger's Op Ed titled "What Did Jesus Say About Natural Disasters"

5. This.

Happy Friday to you!

Friday Favorites {8.25.17}: Hurricane Edition

I'm going to nonchalantly come back here and pretend that it hasn't been 18 months since I've blogged...

This post is brought to you compliments of Hurricane Harvey and "Frozen"

Friday Favorites

#1 My bestie who has a generator built into her house

 #hurricaneharvey #potentialfamilysleepover #acisessentialinaugust

I'll let you know if we go swimming...

#2 Daddy making breakfast

Yesterday I asked Taylor to head to the grocery store on his way home from work to grab us bread before the impending storm.  There was no bread left in the store, so he got these cinnamon rolls instead...we'll just go with that being close to what I asked him to get.  Some little people in our house were really happy about them this morning though!  #thehurricanemademedoit

#3 Blue corn chips from Trader Joe's

I won't pretend to be the healthiest eater (give me all the carbs), so usually I think blue corn chips taste like cardboard, but after having some with the best hummus ever the other day at my friend's house, I decided to give these a try and I am glad I did!  #hurricanefood 

Next I went to HEB to get the hummus, but there was a LINE to get inside, so we decided hummus wasn't an essential during the storm.  #priorities

#4 Self-taught gainer!

Seth was like, "Hey mom! Is this a back flip?!"  I couldn't believe it. #hegetsthisfrommysideofthefamily

#5 Second Annual Cousin Camp!

#6 Family Discipleship

I found them like this this morning - he was reading to her from this children's Bible and she was asking questions.  Melt my heart!  #familydiscipleship

Friday Favorites

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for Friday favorites

#1 My BFF

First off, it's my best friend's birthday today - she is definitely one of my favorites!  
Happy Birthday, Erin!

We have no recent photos together - boo!  Here is one from freshman year of college (taken 16 years ago!) - Erin is top row, maroon shirt! 

And here's one from my wedding where she was my matron of honor (this one is only 9 years old ;))

#2 Flowers

I love have fresh flowers around the house.  In Edinburgh, fresh flowers seemed to be so inexpensive (probably because of the conversion rate and my stellar math skills).  I especially loved when the daffodils were in bloom and, I could walk to Tesco and buy a bunch for a mere 1 GBP.

My dad works for a wholesale floral company, so we're never lacking flowers. I love flowers as long as they aren't high maintenance (read: I will enjoy them until they die, but I will not tend to them so that they last longer - it kills the enjoyment of them because that is work).

#3 My Slow Cooker

Since we moved from Edinburgh in 2014, I've been out of a cooking rhythm and my slow cooker has been majorly underused. The last two weeks I've made:

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

What you'll need:

red wine to taste (maybe a 1/2 cup)

1 can beef broth

1 can of smooth cranberry sauce

onion soup mix

Pot Roast meat

3 potatoes diced (I used Idaho because that's what I had)

1 medium yellow onion

small bag of baby carrots

Method:

1. Pour broth, cranberry sauce, and wine into slow cooker and which till fairly combined  

2. Add 1/3 of the onion to broth

3. Put in roast and sprinkle soup mix over it

4. Add the rest of the vegetables

5. Add more liquid (water, broth, wine etc) if it looks like it needs it

6. Cook on high for 4 -6 hours or low for 8-10 hours

Delicious one dish meal!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

adapted from October Morning Blog

What you'll need:

4 chicken breasts

4 limes

a bunch of cilantro, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 small bag of frozen corn

1/2 red onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves minced

2 tsp cumin

garlic salt

Method:

1. Place chicken in slow cooker and sprinkle a little garlic salt and cumin.  

2. Squeeze two limes over chicken

3. Add minced garlic, beans, cilantro, corn, onion. 

4. Stir slightly without disturbing the chicken and squeeze third lime over the mixture

5. I added water so that it was covering the bottom of my slow cooker

6. Cook on high for 4 -6 hours or low for 8-10 hours

After it was done cooking, I shredded the chicken inside the slow cooker and served it in a tortilla with an extra lime on the side.  Taylor added hot sauce to his and my salsa would also go well on it.  You could also serve it over rice.

Now that Taylor is teaching a class once a week during dinnertime, I will definitely be using my slow cooker more often!  Which leads to my next favorite...

#4 My favorite professor

So proud of this guy - his students are going to love him!

#5 My little ballerina

All this little girl wanted for Christmas was ballet clothes!  She started her very first ballet class this semester, and she is loving it.  How cute is she?!  Love this sweet girl!

#6 My Kindle Paperwhite

I had a Kindle Fire that died recently and got a Paperwhite for my birthday last month and I LOVE it.  I used my Fire some, but I'm using my Paperwhite all of the time.  I'm not sure if it's the size or the fact that I don't feel like I'm looking at a screen, but did I mention I love it?  I've always been a book girl - definitely prefer to hold a book in my hand and be able to flip back and forth easily, but my Kindle is so convenient.  The Amazon monthly book deals are fun too though the last book I got through this was a FLOP.  I'll review it for my February Goals post at the beginning of next month.

#7 Lush "Perfect Roll Tab Sleeve Tunic

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Sheaffer got me onto this shirt a month ago when she named it a must have, and I love it.  I'm always looking for long tunic shirts to wear with jeans or leggings and at this sale price, it was a no brainer.  I got it in tawny port and ivory - the ivory is pretty sheer but looks fine with a tank under it - not sure that I'm going to keep it though.  Nordstrom is so easy to shop online with their shipping and free returns!

#8 HCPN

Last but certainly not least is the Houston Church Planting Network.  This is a movement to unite churches to saturate the city, to collaborate with one another not compete for "our" turf, and to multiply so that there are Gospel centered churches in every community.  Houston is growing at an incredible rate and although we have a large number of healthy evangelical churches already present in the city, planting churches is necessary to keep up with our current population growth!  Pastor, Tim Keller, says this about church planting:

"The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for
1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal
and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else--not crusades, outreach programs,
para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church
renewal processes--will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This
is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even

controversial. "

We recently were invited to Neartown Church's vision and birthday dinner. Russell Cravens, Neartown's lead pastor invited us along with Roswell Smith, the pastor of The Church at UH, and Sergio Garcia from Kerusso Grace Church.  It has been such a blessing to make connections, share resources, and be a part of each other's ministries thanks in large part to HCPN.

Happy Friday!