source: pete_pick

Joseph, eleventh of Jacob’s twelve sons, did not have an easy life.

You can read about it in the second half of Genesis, if you want. I’ve always found his story fascinating—OK, especially after seeing a high-school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when I was 14 … and most of the brothers were pretty hunky.

Joseph was hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, spent years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and lived in a country foreign to him for most of his life.

Despite all of this, Joseph came to glory and power: because of his God-given gift of interpreting dreams, Joseph saved Egypt from being destroyed through famine. And during this famine, he was able to wholeheartedly forgive his brothers for their part in his pain. 

I imagine the seven years of plenty in Egypt were pretty crazy for Joseph. Maybe some wondered if the famine would really come, as Joseph insisted on cramming the storehouses full of grain and goods. But he had Pharaoh’s backing … which in Egypt, meant he had it all. He married. And then he named his first son Manasseh.

Manasseh means “forgetting.” (It’s actually the same word used when Paul says “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead …” [Phil. 3:13].) In these years of plenty, of new marriage and Pharaoh’s adoration, Joseph was able to say he forgot his past. Not literally, of course, but after years of turmoil he could put it behind him and go on without resentment.

Joseph went on to have a second son, Ephraim. Ephraim’s name means “fruitful.” Born during the plenty years, Ephraim was certainly an appropriate designation for the boy.

Then came the years of famine.

Only because of Joseph’s God were the Egyptians spared from what might have been obliteration. Seven years is a long, LONG famine. Can you imagine? I am sure Joseph looked around at those people, many of whom he was likely friends with or related to, and sighed a giant sigh of relief. All those years of pain saved a nation.

The International Bible Lesson Commentary says, “He has seen the suffering that God has prevented through him, and he knows that this suffering that God has prevented through him far outweighs any suffering he has ever experienced.”

Even though Joseph claimed through his son’s name to have forgotten Israel, I think if his brothers had shown up during the years of plenty, Joseph might have thrown them out. He was too close to the pain. The brothers’ faces that laughed at him as they tossed him into a pit still taunted his dreams, maybe. Ironically, Manasseh is a Hebrew name, while Ephraim is a much more Egyptian moniker. In a way, he still held tightly to Canaan and his hurt while claiming to forget those years.

Through famine, Joseph truly knew God’s greatness and His plan for Joseph’s life.

How many of us can say the same? If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know we’ve had our own famine years recently, ending (sort of) with the foreclosure of our Nashville home. Nearly three years of pain regarding jobs, homes, and our finances. Begging God to let me understand why He wasn’t working.

Not working? Hardly.

I am who I am because of the famine years. I understand so much more what it means to rely on God and lean on His promises. We, like Paul, know how to live with little. I found that my biggest transformation was my disregard for our “stuff.” I could pick up and leave with just my husband and children and be content. I’d like to have our pictures, but there is no “stuff” I don’t think I could live without.

In no way do I feel healed yet from the pain of these years. But I think one day I’ll be able to thank God for them and mean it.

In Genesis 50, Jopeph’s brothers are still scared he might be resentful after their father has passed on. But Joseph tells them, “Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now” (v. 20, God’s Word Translation). Can I even hope that God might use me to keep someone alive, physically or spiritually, because of my struggle? What an honor that would be.

Have you had famine years in your life? What did you learn?

The portrait of stay-at-home-momhood has always been eating bon bons and watching soap operas.

I won’t say that my mother fit this to a T in the 80s and early 90s, but she did watch All My Children. She also kept the house clean, cooked, and played with me and my sister all the time. The more I reflect and the older I get, the more I realize that I had a rocking, blissful childhood.

But she did watch soap operas.

So did most women in that time, especially those who stayed at home. I think the women of my generation often find ourselves high and mighty, thinking we would never be enthralled with something as silly as a television show where one week can span years and characters come back from the dead more often than they marry, which is saying a lot.

But I think we’ve found our new soap operas in the Internet and blogging.

Oh, blogging. It can be its own soap opera, can’t it? Will you share your kids’ names? Will you link back? Are you a vegetarian, breastfeeding, cloth-diapering, non-vaccining mama … or THE DEVIL?? (I kid. I also vaccinate.)

Are you wrong to advertise? Wrong to not charge for giveaways? Wrong for posting pictures of yourself or your kids? Wrong for speaking about God? Wrong for using a pudding mix occasionally?

It seems like it’s another way to cause contention. It’s another obsession. Another thing you’re drawn to as soon as your kids are asleep in the bedroom, another reason to hold up your hand and say, “five more minutes,” another interruption to a healthy sleep schedule.

I feel we’ve moved from soap operas and bon bons to blogging and Pinterest-worthy cupcakes.

I’ve felt very unbalanced lately, to the point where it’s keeping me up at night. I know I want a quieter, less technology-laden life. I hate the Internet addiction; and yet, it’s part of our livelihood: I make money writing articles, blogging, and managing ParentLife Online.

It’s extremely difficult to separate work and enjoyment, however, when they all live inside the computer.

I’m reading Organized Simplicity on my Kindle, evaluating our “stuff,” and determining how I can fit work into blocks of time that don’t take attention away from my kids. I’m remembering the habits and joys that used to be a bigger part of my life: crochet, reading books.

Above all, I want to crave God, not blogs, or Twitter, or anything else.

Soap operas or blogging, addictions are not healthy. I want to enter my 30s seeking a healthier, holier life.

Join me for the ride, won’t you?

You know when all these menu plans are going to come in handy? In about three weeks, when I have to start cooking for myself again! Eeek! I’m not sure I even remember how to cook dinner every night.

Our dining hall is closed for the summer, so we’ll be right back on the bandwagon with all of you. I think you’ll be seeing a lot of three-meals-a-day, toddler-friendly menu plans here this summer.

But for now, here’s a simple dinner plan for this week’s inspiration.

Sunday: Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemony Potatoes and Green Beans, Strawberry Cake (this is what we are actually having for dinner! Happy Mother’s Day to me.)

Monday: Grandma Pizza, salad, fruit

Tuesday: Baked Sweet-and-Sour Chicken with Fried Rice (I’d cut back on the sugar, probably)

Wednesday: Salmon Burgers with Hoison Sauce, Garlic Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Leftovers Night

Friday: Breakfast for Dinner—Bacon Cheddar Scones, eggs to order

Saturday: Korean Beef, brown rice, broccoli

What’s on your plate this week?

{If you prefer, you can see this menu plan in visual form on Pinterest.}

It’s that time of the week again! It’s been kind of a wild week so most of my blog reading has been here and there, clicking on others’ links. I’ve been making a (small) effort to stay off the computer more, so I guess that is part of it, too.

So, anyway, here is what I DID come across this week that I thought you should read. Don’t forget to link up your own “linky love”-type posts at the bottom!

• If you missed it on Facebook or Twitter, I had a guest post yesterday at Stuff Parents Need on bringing meals to new moms.
• Two Days vs. Two Weeks at A Slob Comes Clean – I don’t think many people realize how hard it is to reform a slob-by-nature. I love Nony, and this inspired me to tackle one of our flat-surface-where-we-dump-everything-spaces this afternoon.
• Cocoon at MYLESTONES – Jo and I are/were in very similar displaced, bad housing situations and discovered one another. Every post she writes speaks to my heart.
• What’s Your Plan for Tomorrow? at Nesting Place – The Nester is in Tanzania with Compassion, and this post struck me as I thought about our Compassion child, Jerome. His name is on a folder in one of those offices. He’s being taught life skills that will change his family, his future, and his eternity! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
• YUM of the week: Lazy Sunday Casserole at Kayotic Kitchen. I NEED SOME.

So, what did you read that was great this week? Link up here. You can grab the code for the button in the sidebar, if you want. Please link back to Vanderbilt Wife and add the PERMALINK to your post, not your home page.

It seems that I’ve spent a lot of time lately typing words into this box and feeling like they’ve turned up nonsense.

More than ever in the past few months I’ve felt that I’ve labeled myself a writer. I have a fairly established freelance career, at least with my former employer. I write for magazines; I write here and on ParentLife; I’m pretty sure that makes me a writer. Not to mention, in my deepest core I know that writing is my passion that intersects with God’s work.

It’s my sacrifice of praise.

But lately, it’s all garbled. I’ve tried to write about blogging. I’ve tried to write about His Word. I’ve tried to write about my kids. And it all comes out confusing and confused.

I write so little that I don’t publish, you might be surprised to discover. I am not a write and edit for hours person. I write; I proofread; I publish. Generally this takes me an hour or so, maybe. Maybe 20 minutes.

Thus what you get here is my natural writing voice, not something carefully constructed with diction and proper punctuation. And when my voice fails to be clear?

I don’t know what to do. I feel a little lost. I will try and edit … but if it didn’t work the first time, it’s rare that I can form it into something that makes sense.

I, of course, have some deep concerns what this might be telling me. Ones I don’t really want to face.

_____________

Well. Always interesting to see what comes out in five minutes. I don’t think it’s a mistake that the song playing on my random Spotify “radio channel” right now is “Let Go” by Matt Hammitt (from an album I am obsessed with currently).

‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Life with a three-and-a-half-year-old is nothing if not completely unpredictable.

My friend Leslie told me recently that preschool girls have not developed whatever brain function tells them what is a big deal and what is not. Thus, everything is a TRAUMA OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. I don’t know if it’s technically true, but it sure seems that way, doesn’t it?

One minute, we’re having a meltdown about whether or not she can physically pick up six books and put them away. Five minutes later, she’s twirling in a princess outfit, sing-shouting, “See me dancing! Like a butterfly!”

I’m not sure exactly what I expected age 3 to be like, but here is what I didn’t expect: to hear “Mommy!” from the hallway yesterday while I was reading, just to look and see her naked except for socks, spreading her butt cheeks and asking me if her bottom was red.

Nope. Didn’t see that one coming.

Here is Libbie, at 3.5.

• She goes through a new obsession every few days. Two weeks ago, Aladdin was her favorite movie in the universe. Last week, The Little Mermaid. Two days ago, I brought out My Dream Bed by Lauren Child, thinking she was finally old enough to play with all the fun pop-ups and tabs and putting the girl on a ribbon into her different beds. She’s asked to read it approximately 3,659 times since then and played with it incessantly.
• Other favorite books: Yoko by Rosemary Wells, Princess Bedtime Stories, The Jesus Storybook Bible, anything involving Curious George, princesses, or Amelia Bedelia.
• She loves to dance and put on dance shows. Especially to Bob and Larry Sing the 80s. (How many times can a woman listen to “Gourds Just Want to Have Fun” without her head exploding?)
• She is going through a jealousy phase. Not just with David (although hello YES with him), but with anyone. If someone compliments her friend Amelia on her dress, Libbie will say, “Look at my shirt!” Anytime I ask David if he wants something, she loudly declares that she wants that exact same thing.
• I love how she makes up words – mostly turning words she knows into verbs. She says “doos” instead of “duhs” (does) … and I don’t want to correct her because it’s cute. Yesterday she said the firemen have a “stander” on their truck they use to get to animals in trees. She also still calls Belle “Jingle,” and when/if she stops that, I will cry.

She climbs all over us, tries to lift David by his neck, incessantly asks for snacks and juice, picks out outfits that horrify me a little, and drives me insane … but she cracks me up, hugs without abandon, loves everyone, and is turning into a great little person.

We love you, Libbie-Loo!

One kitchen tool I honestly never thought I needed was a food processor. I can do it by hand, I proudly proclaimed! I scoffed at the weaklings – you know, Food Network personalities – who felt the need to pull it out for everything. I have an immersion blender! I am good!

Well, then a friend who rarely cooks offered me her grandmother’s old Cuisinart food processor. For free. And I couldn’t resist seeing what all the hoopla was about. At the time, I didn’t even have a regular blender, so I thought it might come in handy.

I didn’t take me long to fall in love, especially when it comes to making pastry. I hate using a pastry cutter to try to mix butter into crusts and doughs. It’s hard, it gets stuck, and I never do it right.

I use my food processor at least twice a month. It’s perfect for making these scones.

My blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club was The Lean Green Bean. Lindsay is going to school to be a Registered Dietician and likes to “be outdoors and exercise.” So … you may think we don’t have a lot in common. OK, just kidding. Sort of.

I really did enjoy looking through Lindsay’s healthified recipes; she has the BEST recipe index I’ve ever seen. I’m definitely trying Puppy Chow Almonds. But the recipe I decided to run with was Healthy Blueberry Scones. (I also glimpsed her recipe for Orange Cranberry Chocolate Scones, an SRC day reveal, and took inspiration from there as well.)

These scones are lightly flavored with cranberry and the punch of a good chocolate chip (I like Ghiradelli). I have a small cranberry obsession (could you tell from my Pinterest board? Or was it the cranberry sauce, cranberry cookies, cranberry bread, and cranberry breakfast bread?). But you could use any berry, cherry, or fruit you have on hand. Dried cranberries would work great, too.

Cranberry and Chocolate Scones

inspiration: The Lean Green Bean

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. sugar
6 T cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup whole cranberries, chopped (I find the only way to do this is with a food chopper)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

Add flours, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar to a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Feed in cold butter through the tube and pulse 8-10 more times, until butter is worked throughout the dough. (You can of course do this with a spoon and a pastry cutter or two forks, if you wish.)

Pour into a mixing bowl; add chopped cranberries and chocolate chips and stir.

In a small bowl, stir egg, yogurt, and vanilla together. Pour into flour mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until it just comes together.

Move to a floured surface and press the dough out into a circle, about 1/2 an inch thick. Cut into 12 wedges. (This makes somewhat small scones – you can do 8 wedges if you want larger, bakery-style ones.)

Transfer wedges to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or greased well. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12-14 minutes, until tops are slightly browned and the scones are cooked through.

David says he approves of these. And, well, anything with chocolate in it.

I’m so excited for my first week of hosting Saturday Linky Love (formerly known as Saturday Stumbles). I so appreciate former hosts Mandi and Staci for starting this wonderful carnival.

Each week, I’ll share some of my favorite posts I ran across. I hope you’ll do the same on your own site and then share the link to that specific post here. (If you need help figuring out how to do a permalink to your post, not your main page, let me know in the comments.)

The linky will stay open all week so if you do your links post on another day, you can still add it. I’ll try to share your posts and some of the posts you loved on Twitter and Facebook during the week.

So, here are the posts that I loved this week.

• Not My Word of the Day at Tricia Lott Williford – This cracked me up. I am guessing that makes me a real geek. Fard. Ha.
• An Explanation for My Children at BehBehBlog – For mother bloggers who think about what their kids will think later …
• Let’s Play … Pirate! at Nurture Store – Cute ideas for playing pirates with your kids, including a few fun pirate books.
• YUM of the week: Chilaquiles at Food Pusher. I am DEFINITELY going to have to try to make these soon. Chilaquiles is my favorite Mexican dish and I haven’t had any in forever.

So, what did you read that was great this week? Link up here. You can grab the code for the button in the sidebar, if you want.

I’ve thought about turning 30 entirely too much. Enough that it’s become more of a milestone than it is. I have two children, a nearly 8-year-old marriage, a writing career. It makes sense that I would be well into adulthood.

But it still feels strange.

I feel a little worn. More and more OK with the fact that I’ll probably never wear a size 2 or even a size 8, maybe. OK with my frizzy hair and overgrown eyebrows and even OK with my crazy back and its healing process.

I am Beloved–by my sweetheart, by my kids, by my dear friends, by my mom and dad and sister and scores of relatives, and most of all, by my Maker.

At almost-30, I am finally getting the Whole of the Gospel, that it’s so little about me and so much about God and His love and His work. I am vapor. And that’s OK.

Rubbed a little raw inside. Belly stretched from two babies’ growth inside. Freckles. Gray hairs.

Maybe, like the Velveteen Rabbit, I am Real now.

_______________

Sometimes on Fridays I write along with others for just five minutes, letting all the words spill out and refusing to edit them. This week’s topic was “Real.”

A few years ago, my husband and I found a great deal on a wireless Brother printer/fax/scanner combo (similar to this one). We’ve been pretty happy with it. I love the wireless, although it occasionally has some connectivity issues, and it’s so nice to have my own scanner for old pictures and contracts.

But when it came time that the issued ink ran out and we needed to buy new … my heart sunk. I worked at the college bookstore for 4 years and I remembered the steep prices of those tiny boxes of ink that hung behind the counter.

The whole reason we had basically stopped using a printer for years was the high cost of ink cartridges.

Well, I decided I might as well see if the prices were any lower on Amazon. And was stopped in my tracks when I saw a pack of four cartridges—all three colors and a black—for about $4.

Was it too good to be true? Well, over the past three or four years, I’ve NEVER paid more than $6 for this 4-pack of cartridges and NEVER had any problem with the ones I’ve purchased. At $4, it was worth it to me to take the risk that they wouldn’t work at all. And I’ve not been disappointed.

Now, I don’t think I would go printing pictures with these refurbished pieces. But for printing your basic forms, coupons, contracts, and whatnots, it works just fine for me.

Let’s do some cost comparison, shall we?

• If I bought the four catridges for my printer [Brother MFC-490CW] at BestBuy.com, it would cost me $54.98. At the current Amazon prices, it would be $29.44. Or I could buy the compatible cartridges for $1.46 and $1.99 shipping for a grant total of $3.45. That’s a 94% savings off the Best Buy price!
• Now, not ALL printer ink is as cheap as mine. Let’s say I have an Epson Workforce 545. I could pay $66.48 from Epson.com for the three colors and black or slightly less from Amazon. Or we could get the compatible cartridges for $21.97, a 67% savings.

How do you find these little gems? Just do an Amazon search for your printer model and the term “non-OEM.” OEM means “original equipment manufacturer.” So you are telling Amazon you want ones that are compatible, not from the printer company. (If you are anti-Amazon, you can just do a Google search and see other online ink suppliers as well.)

So … that is my most sought-after secret. No one wants to know about my old boyfriends, if I partied like a wild child in college, or the time a really cute EMT hauled me out of the Y on a stretcher only half-dressed. They just want to know how on earth I get my printer ink so very cheap.

Do you have an amazing money-saving secret?

Added to Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family. 

Disclaimer: I am NOT promising that your non-OEM cartridges will work. Please don’t come after me if they don’t. But I am saying mine have always been fine.