Tongues of Fire and My Adventures With Mice

The verses below are quoted in the event anyone who reads this isn't familiar with the meaning, according to many Christians, of Pentecost. Trust me, I would never preach or try to win converts; at least not here. A funny story about the girls will follow.

Acts 2: 1/4 NIV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they (followers of Christ) were all together in one place.

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Yesterday, for many Christians, was Pentecost Sunday. Many believe it was the beginning of Christianity. The symbol of my denomination is the cross and the Pentecostal flame. Rebecca and Rochelle were treated to a dramatic explanation of the scripture above by the male half of our husband and wife pastoring team.

They were a little concerned about his description of the rushing wind, especially when he told them he was almost blown off a mountain in Colorado by gusts. However, when he described tongues of fire resting on each head in the congregation, I saw each of them look at the other all wide-eyed. I think they anticipated bursting into flames on the spot. Kids are extremely literal.

I'm glad he stopped there. I don't know what they would have made of speaking in tongues. It would be an unusual occurrence for my denomination although, knowing my church, we'd probably be fine with it.

They recovered in time to go running up to him after the service for hugs. He's a bear of a man and he picked one up under each arm with no effort at all. They were giggling and I was laughing.

Next week will be their last Sunday with us. I'll miss them both. It is possible to be Pentecostal in spirit and progressive in actions.

63 days and counting. To what? School of course. No, I didn't start the countdown, Rebecca did and I'll trust her math. Sounds about right to me.

So far so good except for minor spats, much running in and out, and a lot of noise. It's easier now that they're older and I can give them a little more freedom.

My computer blew up this afternoon. The cursor froze and no matter how many times I turned the computer off and back on, it remained frozen (and invisible).

I called Tim (who I had just picked up at work and taken home after a brief stop here). Did he think it was the mouse? No, he didn't. We tried to work on it over the phone and gave up. I decided to unplug the mouse and plug it back in, just to eliminate it as a suspect. No luck. After several minutes which seemed like forever crawling around trying to get the stupid thing to fit back in the slot I had just removed it from, I called him back. He still didn't think it was the mouse but said they had a spare. I picked him back up, he switched mice, problem solved. He then tried to fix mouse number one and bent the little prongs even more and snapped something plastic. Not his fault, it was a cheapie to begin with.

Of course I had totally forgotten about computer number two in Elcie's room with a perfectly good mouse connected to it. Sometimes I wonder about me.

I'd been having some weird problems from time to time but I think we may have solved them all at once. I was blaming everything (including some unknown virus or worm) except the mouse but once it stopped functioning completely, the mouse was the first thing I thought of.

That was my day in a nutshell, almost. Ray and I spent much of the afternoon cleaning and rearranging countertops in the kitchen. I cleaned the refrigerator tonight. It gets done once a week; not perfectly, but old food is removed and I take inventory of sorts and wipe down shelves.

I've warned all three girls tomorrow is clean out the dining room half of the living room day. Mostly books and papers but they're overwhelming. Books are everywhere. We need to do triage. We've been given so many I know they'll never read (neither would I). We can box them and send them to someone else (who may never read them either but who knows). I can't bring myself to throw a book away. Someone, somewhere, will enjoy it.

If I can just make room for all their books in a couple of bookcases, I'll be thrilled.

Two good recipes following this post for those who haven't seen them. One for chili verde; the other for raisin pie.

Thanks to all for the comments and hope you all had a good weekend.

Recipe Time Again

Welcome to our newest visitor Sue at Susie's Space. Not to be confused with Susie at My Gobhole.

Sue is from the San Francisco Bay area, has two grown kids, and four grandchildren. She's in the midst of kitchen remodeling and is on the lookout for simple recipes which can be doubled easily, prepared in appliances such as a crock pot, and frozen.

Here's her chicken chili verde. I have used lean pork as well. As she says, either one should work out beautifully.

Chili Verde
2½ cup salsa verde (I use Trader Joe’s brand, yummy)
1 4 oz can diced mild green chiles
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb boneless pork loin (both equally good)
14 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
14 oz can of white beans, drained and rinsed
Place 2 cups of the salsa verde in the Crock-pot. Stir in the chilies. Add meat. Cook on high for 4 hours. Take meat out and shred with two forks. Add back to crock-pot along with remaining ½ cup salsa*
and the 2 cans of beans. Stir and cook on high for 30 more minutes.
Serve as filling in tortillas or over rice.
*I usually add about ¼ cup water to salsa at this point.
My husband loves this and it freezes well. I also double my rice and freeze that in a Ziploc. It reheats in a snap!

Upon reading further I discovered this link to a blogger who calls herself "Overwhelmed". She's an adoptive mom who has launched a feature called "Five Ingredients Friday". The Chili Verde Recipe came from her. Check her out if you'd like to join in.

Here, from Pea is her gran's raisin pie recipe.

GRAN'S RAISIN PIE (Double crust - 45 minutes @ 375 ° F)

1 cup raisins
3 cups water
1 cup brown sugar

Put the above ingredients into a pot and bring to boil.

add 1/4 cup molasses and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Let boil for 20 minutes.

At the last minute, thicken with cornstarch that's been mixed with some water. (Note from Ann: Pea doesn't specify amount of cornstarch and I'm no help because I usually go by instinct. Most cornstarch boxes have the amount to thicken one cup of liquid for gravy and you could probably multiply by 3. Or perhaps Pea knows. I'll ask her. Meantime, better too little (in a small amount of cold water) than too much. You can always add; it's hard to take away.)

Note from Pea:I usually use 2 heaping tbsp of cornstarch and mix it with enough (cold) water to make it runny. Hope that helps! lol

Take off element (burner) and add 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbsp butter and pinch of salt.

Put in pie crust, cover with top crust and make slits for steam to escape. Bake at 375 F for about 45 minutes or until crust is browned. Let cool completely. We like it even better when it's been in the fridge and is completely cold. Enjoy!!

I'll probably be back later with the day's excitement.

Mollie - Giants 7, Mets 6. 12 innings.

Not Much of Anything

But first, welcome to wolfbaby who has been blogging for a couple of months now. She doesn't have a Profile up so I can't tell you too much about her except I know she's a mom and she has two blogs. Oh, and she thought the WD40 story was funny. That's good enough for me. Glad everyone else enjoyed it too.

The girls are back home. They'd wanted to spend a second night but changed their minds. I took them all to the $.99 store today to spend $2.00 each while I stocked up on things I can't find anywhere but there.

Let's see. Took Tim to work, picked up girls (without getting lost this time), went to store, and came home. My exciting life once again.

Ray had started chicken cooking while I was gone (involved one cookie sheet and one oven) and I finished up. First asparagus of the year (on sale - only way I will buy it). Rice, peas, and sliced avocado. Raspberry sherbet for dessert a little later.

It's only 10:00 but it seems like the end of a long day. Still hot here. Elcie's asleep, the other two are in the living room settling down for sleep. Tomorrow, I'll move them back to the bedroom. They do have beds, honest.

Not inspiring at all - really time for bed for me I think. Good night.