Favorite places: Amos

Going to try a little series about my favorite places.  These posts will pop up every once in a while, i.e., they will not come one right after another.

First up: AMOS!  Amos is my absolute favorite place to be.  Please enjoy some pictures from "the early years."

I love him so much.

First few weeks of dating, 2008

Crazy spaghetti dinner party, with root beer floats and boyfriend head, 2008

At Hart Park, 2008

Santa Monica, 2008

GO Sunday recap

Thank you to those of you who prayed for me and for GO Sunday!  I think it was a really good event!  Now we just need to maintain the momentum we gained yesterday; we don't want missions to be pushed to the back of our church's mind.

It was a good Sunday!  It was a little stressful when one missionary family overslept their alarm and showed up late to set-up; when our pastor rushed by us saying "Compress! Compress!  Compress!" right before we were going to speak a second time; and when the congregation failed to understand Rachel when she said, "greet one another" (they sat and stared at us...awkward!).  Oh dear!  We'll just look back and laugh, I guess!

Some people signed up to pray for individual missionaries, and a few of the children's Sunday School classes were taken outside to learn about our missionaries.  One of the Sunday School teachers remarked that even she didn't know about all our missionaries.  Our newest elder, Nigel, bought Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot for his sixth grade daughter, a book that she asked for; that alone made my day!

Thank you for praying for the weather, too!  The wind only started up right before the end of the third service!  We are very thankful that God granted us favor with the weather. :)

Now it's Monday, and I'm taking the day off.  Time to drink chai, listen to The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, and later, return some library books and read Through Gates of Splendor myself.

Recipe: Ginger Chicken Rice Bowl

I made this on Tuesday and really liked it.  I initially made it with noodles, but I think it would have been better over rice.  This recipe includes the adjustments I did make (cabbage, orange juice, pepper flakes, etc.) and should have made (rice, cashews, etc.).  I hope you like it!

My Ginger Chicken Noodle Bowl dinner...pretty good...made it in 25 mintues!

Ginger Chicken Rice Bowl

General idea taken from Lovely Little Snippets
Serves two

Brown and white rice, cooked

Sauce *Disclaimer: These measurements are approximate*
1/4 cup Soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp sesame seed oil
2 pinches red pepper flakes
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup orange juice (NOT concentrate)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 chicken breast, chopped in bite-size pieces

1 tbsp corn starch
1-2 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp soy sauce

2 green onions, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped (any color; I used yellow)
3/4 cup cabbage, chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

Directions
Start the rice.
Mix the sauce ingredients in a skillet, heat to boiling.
Add the chicken, stir, reduce heat to medium, stir, cover.
Meanwhile, thoroughly mix the corn starch with the cold water and soy sauce.
When the chicken is cooked, stir in the corn starch mixture and cook sauce and chicken over low heat until thickened.
Add the vegetables.  Stir.  Replace the cover to steam the vegetables.  Stir, taste, adjust seasonings, and serve over brown and white rice.

More Variations
- Steam some fresh zucchini and serve on top of the chicken and noodles (don't stir the zucchini into the chicken or it will take on the flavor of the sauce and turn mushy).
- Stir some cashews  into the chicken mixture, right before serving.
- Serve with noodles instead.  Mix the noodles with a little Soyaki before topping with the chicken mixture.

GO Sunday

Most of you know that I'm a substitute teacher, but how many of you know or remember that I'm also the missions coordinator at my church?!  I started my job back in February, and it's been a little crazy so far.  This Sunday is our first annual Missions, or GO, Sunday.

Some of the things I've done so far...

-ordered balloons

-bought picture frames

-returned picture frames

-bought more picture frames

-bought picture frame stands

-bought bright cardstock

-ordered prayer cards

-ordered prayer cards

-ordered prayer cards

-ordered more prayer cards

-arranged meetings

-attended meetings

-e-mailed many, many, many people

-printed pictures for the frames

-designed maps for the frames

-ordered books

-ordered kids' books

-ordered a suggestion box

-ordered squishy world globe balls

-ordered bookmarks

-printed support sheets

-printed instructions

-printed diagrams

-typed up innumerable documents

-used highliters

-talked to lots of people

-given written directions

-given verbal explanations of the written directions

-designated tasks

-etc.

I still need to...

-print prayer brochures

-figure out how to keep the frames on the frame stands

-receive, review, and suggest edits to a missions video

-create slides for Sunday

-write scripts for those of us speaking in church

-attend a few more meetings

-talk to our church ministry assistant about logistics

-receive all the prayer cards!

-buy a few tablecloths

-clear up confusion about Sunday morning responsibilities

-label the rest of the books

-make sure that certain announcements are included in the slides and the bulletin

-etc.

We only have six days to go, and hopefully the rest of my to do list will be finished by then!  Please pray that our church will get involved in supporting our missionaries through prayer and communication, that it won't rain on Sunday, and that it won't be windy!

Thanks to Rachel for designing all of our media!

Nineteen and counting...

The other day I had eighteen nineteen (I missed one at first) books and audiobooks and one movie grouped around our coffee table.  The coffee table serves as the library book bookcase.

Books from four different library systems

Soon after I look this picture, I returned four books and picked up another three or four. :)

I found a jackpot at the library a few days ago!  I got ten books for $2.50!

American Girl books for $.25 each!

A few days before I found a Marguerite Henry book and a Virginia Lee Burton book, which prompted me to check out a few more Burton books (see above).  Each were $0.25, I think.

Brighty and Katy

And finally, a few weeks ago we found the following at Goodwill, for about $15.00.

Thrift store finds

Chester Cricket's New Home wasn't that great, but the rest are okay.

From these posts it probably seems like I spend all my time at the library or Goodwill...not quite, but close! ;)  Our friends Tim and Shaunna like to go thrift store shopping too, so we might go with them sometime; should be an adventure.

Articles and pictures

I read this article by Ann Voskamp and thought that you should, too:
After Steubenville: 25 Things Our Sons need to know about Manhood

On a different topic, this article by John Piper is good, too:

Seven Things to Pray for Your Children

Today is Palm Sunday!  Here are some pictures from Easter, seven years ago, in Jerusalem.  Click the pictures for a better view, especially the picture of the Greek Orthodox procession. :)

Awwwww, a young Jennica and a furry Amos
The Garden Tomb (not the actual place of Jesus' burial and resurrection)

Amos, Colin, and Nate; Brittany, Megan, Jennica, and Ryan
Outside the Garden Tomb

Even though it was Easter, to the Greek Orthodox it was Palm Sunday
Courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

It was also a Jewish day of blessing
The Western Wall Plaza

He Who Must Not Be Named

Our little, white Toyota died two weeks ago.  I dropped off Amos at work, took two right turns and a left, and heard a sickening, grinding crunch.  Our car was dead.  Goodbye, little transmission!
Our friend Megan immediately hopped in her car and took me to work, where I told my woes to my instructional assistant, Linda.  Linda gave me a ride down the hill and around the corner to Enterprise, where I rented a car for a really good price.  Later that day John and Cami lent us their Taurus, allowing us to return the rental car (good riddance; did not like that rental car).  Thus began the two-week trial of test driving cars, listening to salesmen's spiels, getting financing, and finding a car within our price range.  We finally found one at a little used car lot staffed by a very friendly and helpful manager, Brian.  Amos let me drive the new car home last night, which was great and really fun, in spite of a long, freeway detour on surface streets.  Even that wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't imbibed so much water, tea, and Gatorade yesterday, haha!
Now we have our little car, and here are some pictures!  The journey isn't over quite yet, though.  Amos just called to say that our loan didn't work out the way we expected, so we have to do more paperwork to correct that (it's okay, it will just take a little longer to get everything squared away; always read the fine print!).
A few of our friends have named their cars (weird).  Cami's Taurus is named Dory after the forgetful fish on "Finding Nemo."  Courtney named her hybrid Prius Priscilla.  Luke's green Honda is called Elliot after "Pete's Dragon," and Danielle's Corolla is named Ebenezer, because God worked in a miraculous way to provide that car at just the right time.  Mom is the only one in my family who ever called a car by a name and then only sporadically.  She would encourage one of our cars or vans to chug up hills by saying, "Come on, Bessie!!!"
Amos and I do not name our cars.  However, I told Amos that we should call our car He Who Must Not Be Named*, just to be funny and snarky.  Haha!  We'll see if it actually sticks.

Our little 2007 Hyundai Elantra, manual transmission, 82,000 miles: 

He Who Must Not Be Named

Just waiting on the "I kill my own SPIDERS" bumper sticker

Wow, it looks so nice!

*He Who Must Not Be Named is another title for Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter books

Thrift Store Finds: January 29-March 9th

Assistance League finds

The Assistance League Thrift store is right down the street from Amos and me.  I went there with only one dollar (on purpose), but had to come back home to get a few more!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling, with dust jacket
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling, with dust jacket
The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White, with dust jacket (I love this one!)
The Handmade Alphabet, Laura Rankin, with dust jacket (for my friend Becky, who is a sign language interpreter at the local junior college; she and her husband Mike have a little boy, so I figured they'd like this one)

Four books for $4.36!

Public library finds, right down the street

Berenstains' Baby Book, Stanley and Janice Berenstain

The Berenstains' B Book, Stanley and Janice Berenstain

Two books for $1.50!

Local church library find

Barrier Free Friendships: Bridging the Distance between You and Friends with Disabilities, Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Jensen

Free!

Canyon Country Goodwill finds

Adventures of Amelia Bedelia,  Peggy Parish (three stories in one)

The Big Honey Hunt, Stanley and Janice Berenstain

The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg

Three books for $5.00!

E.D.

E.D. stands for emotionally disturbed in the world of special education.  For the last four and the next eight days, this is my world.  I'm subbing at a small charter school which serves emotionally disturbed junior high and high schoolers.

When I worked at Summit View in 2011, the line was basically that every day could be different; you never knew who would comply, who would crack up, who would defy, who would break down.  This school is the same.  I never know who will show up for school, where they will be on campus, or if they will ever enter my room, even if their name is on my roll sheet.  Most of the kids are fine, but there are still some defiant, rude, foul-mouthed stinkers.  One student I could only recognize by two square inches of his lower face; he's afraid of germs right now, so he keeps his hood tightly cinched around his head (strangely, he still let me near him to ask about his work, even though I had a bad cold).  Another student got mad when I shushed him during class, and a third kid piped up during art and said that he wanted his teacher back, that he was tired of looking at me.  These are just a few of the stories I could tell; it's draining, to say the least.

I'm thankful for it, though.  The call for this long-term sub job came from God out of nowhere; He is caring for Amos and me.

If you think of me, please feel free to pray that I will be firm, wise, and kind with these broken, broken kids.

This Is Not My Hat

The main character

I've been reading Redeemed Reader, a website dedicated to reviewing children's books from a Christian perspective.  I found a review of the book This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen on the site about a month ago, so I automatically reserved it at my library.  It finally came, and I skimmed it right there in the library, before I even brought it home.

The informant

Over the three weeks that we had This Is Not My Hat, I read it to myself several times, I got Amos to read it to me at least twice, I read it to Amos once or twice, and even Danielle sat through a reading.  I love it. :)  It's a story about a little fish who steals a hat and might get away with it. ;)  I was thrilled when I found out that This Is Not My Hat won the 2013 Caldecott Medal, the most prestigious annual award for children's picture books.

When Valentine's came around, I decided to make Amos a little valentine based off of the book.  He really liked it.  You can click on the picture below to see it a little better.

This Is Not My Heart

God's Smuggler

I've been collecting missions and missionary book titles, and several people have mentioned God's Smuggler as a good one for my list.  God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew and John and Elizabeth Sherrill is a fairly popular book in the Christian world, but I'd never read it.  I figured I would get around to reading it eventually.  Then I saw that it's the free audiobook for February from christianaudio.com!  I've tried audiobooks before but wasn't completely sold on the idea (I like the act of actually reading, plus I can get distracted from the story if I try to do too many things at once).  However, when something free crosses my path, I at least slow down to check it out. ;)  I created an account on christianaudio, downloaded the book to my bright green iPod (a friend gave me one that she no longer uses!), and started listening to the story of a lost young Dutchman who found God and caught a vision of smuggling forbidden Bibles behind the Iron Curtain.  I've been listening to the book while I do the dishes or put things away or work on little projects that don't require much thought.  I'm now about twenty-five minutes from the end! :(  After this experience, I can't wait to see what March's free audiobook will be!

One of my favorite ideas from the book, repeated several times, goes something like this, an exchange between Brother Andrew and his wife Corrie:
Brother Andrew: We don't know where we're going...
Corrie: ...let's go there together.
It sounds like Amos and I! :)

Another idea went something like this:
Indifference to the church is more dangerous than persecution.

You only have sixteen more days to download this book!  When you download it, it is yours to keep; it doesn't expire.  I hope you like God's Smuggler as much as I do! :)  After you've listened to this book, consider reading Secret Believers and Light Force to find out about Brother Andrew's work in the Middle East.

Spring!

Spring is coming!  The daffodils right outside our front door are starting to bloom.

First daffodil, with more to come!

We also have a few happy patches of clover.  I hope our apartment manager leaves the little clumps there for a while!  Last year he dug them out just as they were getting big. :(

Happy clumps of freckled clover