Win a HP TouchSmart

MckMama is giving away a HP TouchSmart. I hope you win and if you do and want to thank me, I accept gift cards of any denomination to Panera, Hobby Lobby and Target. Oh, who am I kidding, I just accept gift cards. Go enter.

Wordless Wednesday

Muffin Tin MondayTuesday Wednesday

Where has this week gone? I can't believe it's Wednesday already! Monday found us out and about so we picked up lunch at the mall. As a result, we had Muffin Tin Monday on Tuesday. The theme was Christmas Morning breakfast. When I was growing up it was a tradition to have buttermilk waffles and "rolly" sausage. When I married and had children of my own I discovered what a time suck making waffles two at a time is and realized it was taking precious time away from my family on Christmas morning. So we started having waffles and rolly sausage for supper on Tree Trimming night. I also added fried apples to the menu. Mr. Steady and I both enjoy the syrup from the apples on top of the waffle - yum, yum.

Here is The Entertainers Christmas Morning Breakfast Lunch in a Muffin Tin. Or something. Clockwise from the top left are sprinkles for his apples, half a sausage burrito (the closest thing I had to rolly sausage), syrup, melted peanut butter (I saw this idea on someone else's MTM when it was an apple theme, so smart), waffle sticks, and apple slices. The idea was to dip the waffle or apple in the peanut butter then dip in the sprinkles but of course, The Entertainer prefers to eat his sprinkles by licking his finger and dipping in. He thinks sprinkles are a food group all to themselves.

Surprisingly, he only left one apple slice. It was a hit.

Please Touch Me

As I was putting our children's nativity sets up I was reminded of how the disciples tried to keep the children away from Jesus and he chastised them saying "Let the little children come to me".

And also how the woman was healed just by the hem of Jesus' garment sweeping over her hand. The boys are receiving a new nativity set in their advent pouches this year. I want them to be able to touch and play with the characters, to know them and to know their part in the Greatest Gift of all time. Never mind the fact that the set is rarely altogether in the same place at the same time. Around about the time we find the shepherd Mary has run off. Maybe they hired the same travel agent as last year. The shepherd keeps ending up in my bed for some reason. But that's okay, they are being played with and getting better acquainted.

Do you have a children's nativity set?

I Can't Even Think of a Witty Title

I feel a pull to simplify. I can't explain it much more than that.

What do you have that you can live without? What do you have that you can't?


Let's think about what we can't live without. Jesus, grace, water, air, food. Anything else? Nope.


What? There's lots of things I don't want to live without. My husband, my children, books, my matching $0.99 thrift store buffet lamps, chai tea lattes...


Do I love them and/or have a great infatuation with them? Yes. Can I live without them? I don't want to but yes, I could.


In Beth Moore's study of Esther she posed this question to us:

"If _____________, then _________________"



You fill in your own blanks. If (my husband died), then ____________. If (my children died), then ________________. If (my house caught fire), then ______________. If (I quit/lost my job), then_____________. Then what?



Then God.



That's it. That's the answer. The only answer. Then God.

Then God will still be on the throne and Jesus Christ will still be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.



What if we moved to a smaller house? What if we moved somewhere that wasn't a house at all? What if we were homeless?



I look around my house and I think "Do I need that?" Not "does that make my life significantly easier and more comfortable?" but "do I need that?" For most of it the answer is no. And it's getting kind of scary the things I'm willing to part with.



I feel like I'm turning into a real cynic. Are you getting sick of this yet? Is this blog becoming a drag to read? When you need a downer do you come to read up on Towngirl?



If so, then do NOT read Under the Overpass, The Hole in Our Gospel, or Same Kind of Different as Me. Especially not those. The Hole in Our Gospel is currently a $5 special at Family Christian bookstores. Buy one for every person you know.

Coming Clean

There is a trend among bloggers out there of airing your dirty laundry in an effort to help your fellow readers know that you are human and photoshop your pictures, crop out the junk, and only blog about things you want to talk about. So I thought I would jump on board and air my dirty laundry oven. I hadn't cleaned it since George W Bush was President. The first time. I jest but it was bad. Bad. I am the lazy cook who just sprinkles salt on the spills in the oven. And then leaves it. This was AFTER I had cleaned out all the big globs. And trust me, you have no idea how bad things look until you've taken a picture of it and put it on Photoshop. ANYWAYS, here is how to clean your oven without noxious fumes, high smelly temperatures, and very little elbow grease.

First sprinkle a generous layer of baking soda in the bottom of your oven. I started with 1 cup but before it was all said and done I used the whole box. But like I said, this was a nasty job. You probably only need 1 cup because you clean your oven often. After the soda is spread spritz it with water from a spray bottle. Then leave it for an hour or more. Every once in a while or whenever you remember, spray with water again. You want the soda moist but not wet. If it's wet, sprinkle more soda on. Keep spritzing with water for several hours (again, once an hour or two), you can even leave overnight like I did. You can even cook dinner with this mess in your oven like I did.

After about 8 hours or so, you can wipe the soda out. Now, I was going to be all technical and Google why this works so I could look smart. I did find something about the soda and carbon but the truth is. I don't care why it works. It's cheap, requires very little elbow grease and is easy. 'Nuff said? Good. Now do not go be all clever on me and try to scrub your oven clean after the first hour. It won't work. Ask me how I know. You have to let the soda do it's job.

Now here is what my oven looked like after I wiped all the soda out. Much better but I thought it could be even better. So I took my favorite tool in the world, my handy dandy Pampered Chef stone scraper thingy and applied the smallest amount of elbow grease to get the rest of the gunk out.

And ended up with this. Which I was pleased as punch with until I put my pictures on Photoshop and saw all the yellow gunk on the front walls. But hey, the cookies don't complain about dirty facilities and the nachos seemed satisfied with their accomodations as well so we'll call it a day.

There you go, fume free, cheap way to clean your oven.

Wordless Wednesday