The life of a wife,mother and Pastor's wife in the PC(USA) church.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Rummage Week

This is rummage week here at our church,I don't help much with the sale as I have two little ones but I do try to contribute quiet a bit to the bake sale portion. I really like to come up with things that are a little out of the norm but that can have a high price tag. Our Bake Sale earnings go to the Second Harvest Food Bank (our church runs a food bank also).
Last sale I made from scratch danish, they all sold however their shelf life is only a few days. Banana bread, cookies, brownies are things most other people seem to make. I make a very good homemade cream puff but their shelf life is even shorter and they really should be refrigerated....So I put my thinking cap on and I am making homemade pepperoni rolls which is your traditional yeast roll with sliced peperoni and cheese inside. I am packaging them in trays of 6. I though of making pies, but honestly I HATE making pie crust, well mostly I hate cleaning up my counter from making the crust. I thought of making some layer cakes but not sure how I'd package them??? So I am still trying to come up with another idea? Cinnamon rolls, more danish??? Any ideas ladies?

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Shell Removal or The "Shy" Pastor's Wife


First off I have to say that I am most definitely not shy, but in the past I have been. How does a shy ministers wife show her love and encouragement for her congregation? You have to think outside your shell, some shyness may stem from your personality some may be because of past hurts from other christian women,the last the Devil delights in , if he can keep you so scared of rejection or criticism that you never do anything for God his job is pretty much over. How do you overcome this? This is the advice I would give to such a minister's wife.

1. Pray ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and courage to do his work.

2. Go visit in a nursing home -assisted care, no one will be as happy to see you as these people, maybe some won't even remember the next day that you we're there but you will. It makes your members fell good and it makes you feel good.

3. Smile and have a happy countenance all the time, maybe your too frightened to say much but a great smile if the first step.

Write encouraging notes if you are too intimated to engage people in conversation.
Example:

Dear Mrs. Sosnso,

This morning I called out your name in prayer, I asked the Lord to bless you, Mr. Sonso and the little Sonsos. I prayed that no good thing be withheld from you as you are God's child and that the fullness of all his blessings be evident to you especially today.
I want to personally thank you for letting the RevDr and I be your family's ministers and that we consider it a privilege that of all the churches you could attend that you chose ours.

Sincerely,
Mrs.Rev.Dr. Prov. 31:30

That took all of 5 min. have a church directory handy and start with the A's, but here's the kicker, you have to MEAN it you have to actually call out your members name's in prayer!. And as always remember God knew everything about you when he decided to make you a minister's wife and with his help you can reach your full potential.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Week After

The week after Easter the RevDr. usually takes a week of his vacation, one thing I love about our denomination is that at this point he gets 4 weeks vacation and 2 weeks study leave. The years we have a baby he takes 2 weeks after it's born to stay home and help me, but with no baby this year we can do some projects around the house and some just fun local things. This week we took the Presbychildren to the Zoo and Children's Museum, of course the 3 year old Presbyboy cried when it was time to leave each one. The Presbygirl still contained at 9 months to her stroller didn't have much to say.

We also got our second car back this week from my friend's brother who fixed it, $650 in parts and he just charged us $125 for labor, what a blessing! We decided that 2 car payments didn't fit into our decisions of being debt free. I was getting used to being home a lot but it's sure nice to have my van back to go places I just "want" to go and not "need" to go.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A Season of TV Free




We did this last year and are planning on doing it again this year. We live in a very cold climate having snow on the ground 5+ months of the year, TV in the winter is a treat when you don't have it the rest of the year! During the spring-summer we only had the "life line" cable package which is an unadvertised package for around $12 a month we received the networks, PBS WGN and public access, without this we couldn't get anything, now with tv signals going digital I am curious to see what we could pick up with just a converter box and antenna, ANYWAY, by keeping this package we didn't have to pay for it to be re- installed in the fall we simply returned our cable boxes to the company.
Not having anything good to watch encourages us to be outside more and adjust our noise level in the home since the TV isn't blaring in the background. We do still rent movies from the library and REDBOX but not excessively. Not to mention we save money.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Yard Sale Season



Here in the frozen North Yard Sale season runs from May-September. What I love about yard sales is your never sure what you'll fine, yes, you do have to go through a lot of junk but that's part of the fun. I do the majority of my child shopping at them. I have found that the best sales are in the middle class areas, the upper class ones people don't bother or they mark things way to high and the lower class ares well, obviously they don't have quality stuff.

I also go with a list, yup a printed out list and a lot of dollar bills and quarters. I also bring a large reusable bag, I personally like block sales where you can walk from one sale to the next.I have been working on my list of items I am looking for, some I probably won't ever find at a sale but again , you just never know!

Cast iron griddle
Cast iron, 6 Q. dutch oven
Any Revere Wear in good shape w- matching lid
vintage aprons and cookbooks
crystal cake stands
Wooden bunk beds or day bed w/ trundle
Round dining room set that has a leaf with 6 chairs (preferable captain's chairs and Ethan Allen brand (I have been looking for this for a while) no more then $200
Wicker Porch set
5T boys coat with attached hood
4T+ Jeans that are brand name and in good condition
2T girl's winter clothing
Crib $20 (no, I'm not pregnant but we plan on having more and our crib won't last through another baby)
Electric Clothes Dryer (ours keeps dieing and being resurrected)
push lawnmower
clothes patterns and assorted notions.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Walgreens and Rite Aid Bargains 4-5-09


I really wanted to keep my bargain blog and my Pastor's wife blog separate, but for the sake of time I think I am just going to be posting on both subjects here. Being thrifty has absolutely nothing to do with how much money you have, if we were millionaires I'd still bargain hunt and follow a budget for food and toiletries, my in-laws that have 4 homes love thrift and salvage stores, it's so not about how much you have it's about how wisely you spend it. Anyway, to me its just fun to see how much I can get for so little. Here is what I got today at Walgreens and Rite Aid, Rite Aid had a lot of food marked down 75% its not normal I find such great bargains there. Walgreens was out of a lot of items so I got rain checks.

Walgreens
Oust spray 2.99- $1 rebate, $2 coupon=free
Colgate 2.99-2.99 register reward and 1.00 coupon free +$1 overage
6 Starkist Tuna Pouches 1.09/ 2 coupons for 1 free pouch if you buy two= 4.36
One-a-day Women's water pack 1.49, free after rebate
Store Brand pull-ups 4.50
7.86 paid with Gift Card from last months rebates


Rite Aid
2-.25 each Royal Pudding .50
3- Celestial Seasonings Tea .92 each -3/1.00 coupons (they gave me the whole $1 off amount made .24
2- Starkist Albacore Tuna .69, no coupon but a good deal for Albacore 1.38
Dried Apricots sale 1.12
2-Bounty sale for .99 each, 1.00 coupon .50 each or 2/$1
Juicy Fruit 1.12- free with coupon
3- Kellogg's Eggs Cereal discounted to 1.19, 1 $1 coupon and 1 $1 off/2 coupon 3/1.57
2-Post Honeycomb discounted to 1.24 2 /.55 off coupons 2/1.38

Total 6.71

Saturday, April 4, 2009

7 Random Things Meme




1. I attended two of the most conservative Christian colleges in America, Bob Jones University, and Hyles-Anderson College, neither are pleased I'm now a Presbyterian.

2. My counters could be a mess but I vacuum my floors everyday.

3. I can't stand wearing pajamas, have to sleep in nightgowns, all my college roomies thought this was strange but the RevDr doesn't seem to mind.

4. Never had a cavity till I was 28.

5. All of my babies have been way overdue.

6. I love cooking whether it's for myself or 100 people.

7.I have a bed habit of starting to wallpaper rooms then losing interest.