cold tangerines

My friend Shannon got me this book for Christmas. It's a easy and thoughtful read filled with stories and life lessons. I love it. I'm just a few chapters in and decided to save it for Mesa. It seems to be the perfect 'get away' read.

This link brings you to the book's website, where you can click on a link to read a quick chapter to get a feel for her style.

***edited: I wrote all of these posts on Tuesday night, but now it's Saturday morning and I have finished this book...read it on the airplane and devoured it. If you're looking for a good book, order this one and start passing it around your circle of friends.

six.

Six. That's the number of gallons of windshield wiper fluid I have gone through this winter. This might be because I am a little trigger happy, but it also might be because I drive a ford focus that doesn't defrost the windshield until the car is in motion. But the car can't be in motion until I can see out the windshield. It is a wicked little cycle. And since my car resides in a parking lot and each morning is covered in a coat of ice, I really do love of this sweet potion.

But a girl can only take so much winter. The week we came back from Christmas in Minnesota, we had another snowstorm. And I took matters into my own hands. I called my sister. I called my mom. And Annika and I made tickets to meet up in Mesa where my parents spend six weeks of their winter. So today, I am here. Paradise found.

at a student union near you

In the next month I will visit ten different colleges to recruit my camp staff. Tuesday was my first day, and it was successful by all measures. I have the contact info for some really great potential staff, and I am excited.

But I work for that contact info. You can basically picture me standing in front of this table, saying on repeat, "Have you ever thought about working at a summer camp?" "Would you like to work at Bible Camp?" "Do you have a job this summer?" "Are you looking for a great summer gig?"

I say one of these phrases to each and every person who passes. Many pretend I am invisible. Others pretend they need to check something on their phone. Some smile kindly and still don't answer back. A few say they've got a job for the summer, or need to take classes or have an internship. But then, once in a while, in a long, long while, someone stops. They look at the board. They look at me. And then they light up. "Yeah, I have thought about it before. Where is this camp?"

And then I begin phase two: my smooth pitch. I probably said it 20 times today. And I ended up with 12 names and emails and phone numbers. Next, I will email these 12 with personal follow ups. And after ten college student unions, I should have accumulated 120 names and emails in an effort to find the 40 Summer Staff I am still looking for (We already have 30!)

So look for me. I'm the lady being ignored all day at your local college. :)

Truth is, I love this part of my job. I love that I get to be a part of God's work, calling this staff together. I also love that my skinny jeans tucked into my boots were right in style with the female college clones who all dress alike. At least I know I'm keeping up with the times.

pink hearts

I am getting excited for February and thought I'd make us a door decoration.

I made this innocent little wreath while Rory and I watched No Country for Old Men. He convinced me that the acting, writing and cinematography was worth watching a psychopath blow up everything and everyone who gets in his way. The movie was interesting, (though not worth the utter violence) but just try to imagine the contrast of this horror movie to my sweet snipping of pretty ribbons. It just would have made more sense to have been watching the Love Boat or something...

***edited: Rory read this post and begged me to add a head shot of Javier Bardem. And since this post was about Valentine's and since marriage is all about give and take, I will humor him with a teeny-tiny picture of this freaky man.

add this one to your reader....

I recently entered a giveaway on a design blog. The question you had to answer under 'comments' was: Who is your fashion guru. Most people wrote fancy names of people who live in fancy places. I wrote down the fancy name, Kristin Jagodzinske who lives in the fancy land of Seattle.

Kristin is my cousin Daron's wife and I'm pretty sure I've referenced her blog here a couple times. She married into my extended family when I was an impressionable 6th grader and I've always thought she's wonderful. And she just announced big news. She is now a writer for HotMama, a boutique that sells fabulous clothes to fabulous mamas.

There are a few different Mamas who blog for this site, but Kristin just started her gig as ADOPTIONmama. She will be writing the details of adopting two siblings from Ghana, how the first year has gone, what the waiting period was like (they waited a long, long time...) and how she parents five kids between the ages of 4 and 10.

She's a fun writer to read, shares her life with honesty and I, for one, can't wait to hear more of the details of how she has processed the last two years. Be sure to keep tabs on her at ADOPTIONmama.

how you run a retreat...

Friday at 5:00 I got a text from my neighbor asking if I wanted to go with her on her church's women's retreat. I texted back for more details, and she said, leaving at 5:45, home tomorrow by 11 am.

I sat there, knowing I should go, but not feeling game for such a last minute social event with 30 women I've never met. I have to fire up for that sort of thing and being that it was the end of the week I was able to come up with every excuse in the world why I didn't need to go.

But I knew I should go. Rory and I have joined her small group, a blessing to us in every way as we are finding friendships in five other couples in Gretna our age. And a few of those girls would be there. So, I decided to go. I got home from work at 5:25, showered, packed and was in her car within 20 minutes.

I can't tell you how glad I am that I went. I laughed so hard. I ate so much. I felt connected, grateful and excited for the beginnings of some brand new friendships.

Here are a few key components that made this retreat such a success:

1. 6 pm to 10 am. This is how long the retreat lasted. Sixteen hours. Take note of this. If this had been any longer, I probably would have declined. But to be home before lunch on Saturday left me no excuse not to go. And this seemed true for most people there. They talked about how husband's were more game for taking the kids for that amount of time and everyone still felt like they had their weekend. Being that we stayed up until the wee, wee hours, by the time 10 am came, we were all feeling that sugar-overload-fatigue-I-need-a-nap-sicky-feeling so it was just time to go home anyway. Perfect timing.

2. Olive Garden Salad Dressing. We met at the church, drove to a camp 30 minutes away and when we walked in we were greeted with three homemade soups, good bread and a huge salad complete with olive garden salad dressing. The retreat planners had brought all of the food to save money and it was fabulous. I was so shocked not to be served spaghetti! Soup and Salad felt so type-casted and labeled...like they know my kind. My female kind. It was welcoming and I was grateful for a healthy meal complete with the best salad dressing in the world.

3. Games. We played games as a team of six, rotating around the room playing other groups of six for two hours. We played each game long enough (probably 30 minutes) so that we got to know the other team well. By the end of the two hours (taboo, family fued and guestures), I had met everyone. Genious. By nine o'clock I didn't feel like the new girl anymore. Plus, I found a new favorite game: The Game of Things. Kristin Jago, this game has your name written all over it.
We had 16-65 year olds there, a great devotional before we left, time for prayer, but mostly just time to play. And it felt so good.

beth moore

t minus 20 days until...

...THE 2010 OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONIES!!!

I love everything about the Olympics. When I was in first grade, the Winter Ceremonies were in Calgary. I remember my sweet teacher, Mrs. Eves, had a different art project every day of the two weeks for us to do...a paper torch, tissue paper olympic rings, ice skates with tinfoil blades, medals covered in glitter....oh, I loved Mrs. Eves!

And most recently, the 2008 Summer Olympics are filled with nothing but sweet memories. I was at Mount Carmel that summer and the last day of summer camp was the very day of Opening Ceremonies. It had been a big, social summer, and I was exhausted. Some great friends of ours welcomed Rory and I to use their cabin across the lake anytime we wanted. So almost every night of the Olympics, Rory and I would pack a bag of snack food, head to this lovely, private cabin and watch the entire evening lineup. It was like we compensated for the 10 weeks of solid people with two weeks of living like hermits.

So get ready people. We've got some good figure skating, bob sledding and ski jumping ahead of us!

gracious last words

I listened to the memorial service for Ben Larson online today. There were many stories told of a life lived fully and well. They said that when the building collapsed, Renee and Ben's cousin were on the other side of a theatre room from Ben on the forth floor. They were able to kick a wall out to escape, and then could hear Ben singing hymns for a while with his final words spoken, "God's peace to us, we pray."

I found an article that gives more details from his Uncle. It's just hard to comprehend. This one story has me so heartbroken, and unable to fathom that this is just one of over 100,000 stories of lives lost in that earthquake.

a bit of happy news from Haiti...

We have family friends who have been in the process of adopting two 1-year-olds from Haiti since September. They were not expecting to get their little ones for another year, maybe two. But because of the circumstances, the adoption process has been sped up.

My sister sent me to this news clip featuring Kristin and her husband, Mike, who have been told to pack their bags and be ready to meet up with their kiddos any day now.

Kristin is the reason I went to Gustavus College. Which cracks me up now...that I based my college decision so solely on this one person. But as you can see in this broadcast, she and her husband are pretty great people, opening their home to care for the orphan.

To watch this segment, click here.

recruiting for summer staff

I am out and about the next few weeks recruiting my camp counselors in student unions across Nebraska, looking for some faithful college students who love kids, love the Lord and love the outdoors. If you know anyone who would fit this role, send them my way. Carol Joy Holling is one exceptional camp and I have one sweet job, getting to guide 70 creative souls all summer long...

Also, if you know of any potential campers, we have camps for 1st-12th graders and family camps. All the info is up now at http://www.nlom.org/ And if you go to this site, you may just find a video of me in perfect Camp Skit form. All I can say is that it was fun to make, and seemed funny at the time...

And here's a link to the video of our summer staff from 2009. It's nine minutes, and I think it gets the most fun toward minute three, so let it buffer and fly to minute three for the music video part. I hadn't seen this video since the last day of camp, and it was SO GREAT to watch it today, remembering the incredible work we do during the summer at Carol Joy Holling and getting fired up for another summer ahead. I'm so excited to see who God will call to serve on our 2010 Summer Staff and the lives that are transformed because that's just what God does at camp.

ode to pioneer woman

Last week our lunchroom conversation was over how we learned how to bake and cook. I told a story about how at some point in middle school I tried making cookies from The Immanuel Lutheran Church cookbook. This cookbook is comprised of classic recipes gathered from the female icons in my grandma's home town. I followed the recipe word for word and cried when the cookie dough turned into a rock. My mom said, "did you cream the sugar and butter?" I replied,"what do you mean cream the sugar and butter?" "Well, did you beat the butter, add the sugar and then the eggs one at a time?" "No! I did what the recipe said! I just put all the ingredients in the mixer together!"

My mom laughed and I was mad, "Why don't they write step-by-step instructions! How are you supposed to know to cream the sugar and butter?! Why didn't Hazel Linder write out how to make her cookies?!" And then we had a calm conversation about how this is how everyone learns how to bake...

There were other stories shared and then I brought up the brand new Pioneer Woman Cookbook my sister got me for Christmas (pure joy when I unwrapped this unexpected gift.) On every page of this cookbook, Ree (Pioneer Woman), shows in photographs every step of every recipe. Some pages have 12-20 pictures. And I adore it. Because I am a visual learner. Pioneer Woman Cookbook is quite the opposite from the ladies of Immanuel Lutheran who assume everyone knows what temperature bread bakes at. Though I must say the ladies of Immanuel are the actual, true Pioneer Women in the world, baking their bread, cookies and swedish tea rings each day because it wasn't an option to buy these things.

My friend Deb (regarding the Pioneer step-by-step cookbook) said, "that's what we need for that cheeseburger soup recipe!"

Hold the phone. Did you just say cheeseburger soup? Because this is my favorite soup of all time. Made by our wonderful friend Julie, Rory and I salivate frequently as we talk about this delicious cheesy soup. I have always wanted the recipe and never remember to get it from Julie. It's from Taste of Home, a personal favorite anyway, but in my mind, it's from Julie. I was overjoyed when Deb told me she had the recipe and would bring it for me.

And then she threw out the challenge. "Becca! You should document your cheeseburger soup making like Pioneer Woman! Just break it down and show pictures on your blog, step by step."

The recipe appeared on my desk on Monday. I went to the grocery store immediately after work and kept my camera handy.

So here it is: The recipe, and then the pictures. Long live Pioneer Woman.

Cheeseburger Soup
1 lb ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup diced celery
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
8 ounces process American cheese cubed (I think regular cheddar would be better)
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

In a 3 quart saucepan, brown beef; drain and set aside.

In the same saucepan, saute onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Add broth, potatoes and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce head to low.

Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from the heat; blend in sour cream. Yield 8 servings (2 1/4 quarts)

Clearly it's not the healthiest of all soups...but it is worth every single calorie. Enjoy!

margaret harrington

My mom wrote a comforting email to me yesterday and she signed it with these beautiful words. I actually could take a deeper breath after reading this line. And I spent some time thinking through the beautiful, undeserved reality of eternal life.

I still can't imagine what Renee is going through. But I do know that she and Ben serve a loving God who has promised eternal life for all who believe in Christ Jesus. And in Him alone is peace that passes all understanding.

heavy heart

I have been reading articles all day long about Benjamin Larson. Ben was a seminarian at Wartburg seminary, finishing up his senior year. He and his wife, Renee, were in Haiti for J-term as Renee gathered information for her thesis and Ben led workshops for lay leaders of a new church. Ben's cousin was also there, teaching the future leaders of this church.

When the earthquake hit, Ben's cousin and his wife Renee were able to get out of the building they were staying in. But Ben was on the third floor, the building collapsed and he hasn't been seen since the quake.

Renee and I worked at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp together and just this past year we reconnected when she and Ben were in Lincoln for their seminary internships. We were so excited when we bumped into each other because we were each the first person we "knew" in Nebraska. We commented on how odd it is to move somewhere so new and never bump into to anyone, because you don't know anyone to bump into.

Renee and Ben are salt of the earth people. Just as good as it gets. My heart is so sad for Renee. How on earth do you live through this horrific nightmare? How do you deal with the horrors you saw, terror you felt, unbearable sorrow you now live with? I have been watching footage of the earthquake all week, but hearing this news this morning pretty much knocked the wind out of me. A hundred thousand lives are a hundred thousand human souls, all loved and mourned by someone. It's just too much.

Please pray for comfort and love to surround Renee and all of Ben's family.

You can read more about Ben in the following article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/01/14/haiti.seminarian.killed/

This link is from the church Ben's mom is a pastor at: http://www.flcduluth.org/

Einstein

free fonts!

pray and give

I just read this and thought it was worth passing along. It is difficult to imagine what the people of Haiti must be living right now, when my life has gone uninterrupted.

prettymuch speechless

This was my drive to work Tuesday. Lucky me!

oh. come. now.

Behold, my own fruit leather. Blueberries, Raspberries and honey for sweetner. It was pure joy getting to use my dehydrator, lovely thing that it is. And the fruit leather would have been perfection. Except that when I took this final picture it was 11:30 pm, and if you look closely, the very middle of the fruit leather needed a bit longer in the dehydrator.

So I went to bed, thinking that if I wake up in the night, I'll just unplug it.

But I didn't wake up. Instead, I left my dear fruit leather to dry another 7 hours. And when I woke up, I had made something very brittle. Rory was very kind and tried it first. His words: "You know it's not that bad. Honestly, if it wasn't crunchy on this one side it would be amazing."

my word for the year

Ali Edwards is a digital scrapbook rockstar whose blog I have read for years now. Every January she picks a word that she uses to be her focus for the year...sort of a word to guide her priorities, choices and attention. Last year I tried this, but I chose four words, and honestly, that just isn't that effective. This year she wrote a beautiful post about the word she chose and why she chose it. And recently she posted a huge list of words to choose your own word from.

So I read through the list, and the first time through the list the words that stood out for me were: relax, calm, renew, and peace. But see, that's four words again. And honestly, not one of them really sums it up.

Yesterday in church we sang a song we have sang a lot lately. It's a slower song that sings the words of the 23rd psalm moving into a chorus that sings slowly, "And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone. Your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home."

And I found my word: trust.

The roots of this word are found in my relationship with Christ, and it brings peace to my heart, renewal, rest and causes me to breathe deeper and relax.

If you'd like to listen to a version of the song from church, click here.

snow drifts in nebraska

The thing we are still getting used to in Nebraksa is the wind. It is amazing. Even in the summer it is impressive how windy it can get with no buildings or hills or mountains to block it. This winter the wind has given us three blizzards.

Blizzards move the snow around so some areas are left without a whole lot of snow. But wherever the snow is collecting it can make some impressive drifts. We drove down this road today, a few blocks from our house, and had to get out to take some pictures. I'm only in there for perspective but based on the fact that I am 5' 10'', those are some large snow piles.

Believing God kick off day

Today is the day we begin Believing God! If you're interested in joining, please do. You can go to this site to register.

Today's task is simple: Just log into your account on this page, print the listening guide and watch the 60 minute video. When you click on "View Video," six segments will appear next to the icon, and you click on each segment one at a time. When I clicked on the first segment, I had a pop-up blocker. This is a yellow strip at the top of the screen...click on the yellow strip and scroll down to, "always allow pop-ups from this site." Hopefully that will do the trick. Then go back and click on first segment again and enjoy!

I have started a google group to organize all of our conversation. If you haven't been invited to join, and would like to be, email me at beccagroves (at) gmail.com and I'll add you to the list.

fun and games

template by the great Jessica Sprague and supplies from Crystal Wilkerson

A few Christmas' ago, Stumblebum was introduced to the Groves Family Christmas. Lisa brought it, and I remember the game made for the best pictures. We played again this year, and clearly the picture taking opportunities did not disappoint.

The game is easy. It is your basic game of charades, but before you act out your list of words, you roll two dice. On each die there are different things you have to do while acting out your card such as fingers crossed, hand over eyes, hand on head, eyes closed, hum a song, on one leg etc...

I recommend this game for families that need a full participation game for all ages.

***

I am trying to get my christmas pictures into digital layouts right away. Digital scrapbooking is so quick, and I am beginning to utilize ready-made templates. It means that the Stumblebum layout above took me about 15 minutes to put together...not bad for getting so many pictures showcased on one page.

The template I used is up at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ as a free download. Plus, Jessica has a video tutorial of how to use the template right on that main page (just scroll down). If you have Photoshop or if you have ever wanted to get a better idea of how digital scrapbooking works, I recommend you buzz over to Jessica's website to watch the tutorial. I think you'll be glad you did.

crushes and boyfriends

I recently had a conversation with a friend who I grew up with at church. She's in college and she's got a crush. She told me every detail of every encounter she has had with this boy. And as she talked I got so excited for her and my tummy started tying itself in knots. And I felt giddy and nervous and hopeful and so happy for her.

It made me think of how fun crushes are. Every single thing she told me brought me back to that place where I would look for any excuse to "need" to call Rory. Or how I would check my email every three minutes just to see if he had dropped me a line that day.

It's amazing how comfortable I am with him now...so much so that I forget to date him. When we were on our 6600 mile road trip a year ago, we downloaded a lot of Dr. Laura. This is a radio program where people call in with their marriage/parenting/relationship issues and Dr. Laura basically tells them the very blunt truth about how they are messing up their lives. We didn't agree with everything she said, but honestly, she's got some good and painful things to say to the world and it made for fabulous car entertainment and the best conversation starters you could ever hope for while driving across the country.

I mention Dr. Laura only to say that she makes a big deal to tell women they need to be their husband's girlfriend. Even while happily married, they need to do all the fun girly things they did to get their husband's attention while dating. (and she has advice for husband's too, but now I'm just talking about the wives...) I hung up the phone with this friend, so excited that she's smitten, and decided I am going to kick it up a notch. I'm going to be Rory's girlfriend again.

a good week in blogland...

I love reading blogs. And man, oh man, my favorite blogs have been thowing out some lovely ideas and thoughts to begin the new year. Take a minute and check these out:

my cousin Elsa's pictures and words (the picture above is hers...)

marta's sharing of this memory keeper

beth's post on a BHAG

ali's use of her square punch

donald miller's thoughts on life as story

lovely, lovely, lovely.

the favorite gift I got

When I was eight years old I was sure my life would be complete if only I had the Ronco Food Dehydrator. I watched the infomercial religiously. I had it memorized. I wished myself to be one of those two little girls pulled from the audience to test Mr. Popeil's fruit roll-ups. A Food Dehydrator was on my Birthday and Christmas list for years on end, but my mom kept commenting how much cupboard space it would take up and that we could revisit this topic one day when I had my own cupboards.

Well, I have my own cupboards now. And not only that, but I have a fabulous mother-in-law who reads my blog posts and figured it was time I start dehydrating. I unwrapped this gift and yelled, "TWENTY YEARS! Twenty years I have asked for this food dehydrator!" Marlene had done some research and read that Ron Popeil's dehydrator actually got poor performance reviews (the horror! you mean infomercials don't always sell top quality?!!) She said this Nesco came highly recommended. I called my mom later that evening to tell her the joyous news of the sweet reunion of me and my dehydrator and she just laughed and laughed, happy my dreams had been fulfilled.

Rory immediately took it to the kitchen and made banana chips. Currently I am looking up recipes for fruit roll ups. I'll keep you posted. We've got many good days ahead.

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credit due to: Template: Laurie Pecotte, Digi paper and elements: Crystal Wilkerson

the favorite gift I gave

digi paper and supplies from Crystal Wilkerson

For Christmas, my two-year-old niece asked for princess stuff. Now I know a tutu isn't really princess attire, but it is immediately what I thought of because princess' are pink and fluffy and so are tutu's. So I went online and found this no-sew tutorial. Super easy, and SUPER fun to make. I made Ruby's tutu and then another for my 1-year-old niece, Penny. And then I decided that since I had Sara's name for christmas, there might need to be matching mama-daughter tutu's this Christmas. When Ruby opened her gift she started yelling, "Cool Princess! Cool Princess!" Then she put her tutu on and continued, "I'm a cool princess! Look, I'm a cool princess!" She kept her tutu on for the next five hours. So did her good-sport mama. :)