GF Recipes and Writings

A Future Sad Parting

As many of you know, I was able to secure a job at my beloved homeless shelter through a state-funded program. I am loving it there. I organize, answer phones, organize, sort donations, organize, help people, organize, lighten the manager’s load, organize, etc.

I love being able to dig my heels in and help out. I’m especially good at organizing (as you may have guessed!!!) and wheeling my lovely label maker! (Ok. It belongs to the shelter, but I have logged some serious time on that puppy!) I have organized the entire back room (my “office!”) as well as the donations, books, and clothes. My latest project is the movies. We have many, many great (and not so great, but who am I to judge?!!!) movies that I am organizing into adult and children sections as well as culling out the duplicates, triplicates, or quadruplicates, etc.

It’s a big job, since there are so many movies, but I’m up for the challenge! I was just showing one of our bosses around today so she could see all the progress I have made in the past month. She was impressed.

Unfortunately, I learned today that no matter how much I do or how fantastic my work is, they still don’t have the money to pay me to work there, even part time! I asked who I would have to contact, but they weren’t even sure. It seems hopeless, but that’s where all of you come in!

I need your prayers, everyone! I love this shelter and the work I do there means something, not just to me, but the manager, case manager, and residents. Please pray for me! I would love to be able to keep this job, but if not, I’m willing to let God work that out. He, after all, knows the big plan.

I will be extremely sad to let this go, but God knows best. Time to let Him take the wheel and if it’s over at the end of April, then I will never forget it and will come to visit!

So, start your prayer engines and GO!!!

Urgent Prayer Request

I know, I have never posted twice in the same day, but this is really important! While my family and I were guests at the homeless shelter this past Summer, we met a gentleman we’ll call D.

While we were fortunate to find a place, D did not have the same experience. He traveled to Madison, where he has been staying at a shelter. We are still in contact, by text. Today he shared with me that he is suicidal. Apparently, he was in the psych ward and the doctors took him off all of his meds. He’s extremely depressed and suicidal now, but they expect him to wait two weeks to see his primary care doctor!

I’m so very frustrated and angry about the mental health system in the US, that I want to scream. If D takes his life, that system greatly failed. They don’t seem to care. What’s another homeless person losing his life? Well, it makes a difference to me! He’s my friend! You can’t just throw him away!

So, tonight, I am asking for your prayers. Please pray for D. He has lost all of his faith. He was crying so hard today and just can’t imagine going on. It breaks my heart to see this sensitive soul suffer so! I know God loves him and has a plan for him, if only D could see it. I think life may have knocked him down one too many times. He’s tired of getting back up, only to be knocked down again. Please pray for him! If we can storm Heaven with our prayers, it can only help.

Thank you.

I Just Lost My Mind…and Spring!

Ok, so it’s Friday. I know. I know. I can’t believe I forgot to post yesterday! Head thunk (or what they call these days face palm. I like head thunk better!) Sooooo…what do you want to talk about?

I, myself, have been struggling with a negative person in my life. He completely drains my energy (and good mood!) It’s sad and I’m praying for him. To be fair, he is in a good deal of pain. In fact, I wish he would visit the doctor, but honestly, it’s not really my business! He’s a grown-up and should do grown-up things. 😔.

On the up side, I am loving working at my beloved shelter!!! Yay! It’s awesome! Yesterday I did some office work and the organized all the diapers by size. It’s so nice and neat now. Since there was no more office work on which to catch up, I started weeding through and clearing out the bookshelves. I got two big boxes out to go away. We have lots of books from baby all the way up to adult. Some have been there for years and need to be culled occasionally.

So I culled. I still have about half of the bookshelves to go through, and then we’re expecting a book donation soon. Whew! Lots of work, but I love organizing and getting things nice for the residents. They’ve all been through rough times, and if I can find them a good book to escape their troubles for a while, then I have succeeded!

I love working with people at the shelter. The two people that are in charge are truly awesome individuals! They are both kind and smart, a rare combination these days! I love them both dearly! Great job, guys!

A Spring Note: I saw a few red-winged black birds yesterday and a few more today! Spring is definitely on its way!!!!

Six Word Story #31

Happy memories surfacing make me smile.

What Do We Eat for Lent?

As a Roman Catholic, we have a close relationship with Jesus through Lent. Our sacrifices help to bring us closer to Our Lord. So, what do we eat?

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, actually yesterday! So…lunch and dinner. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday we, after the age of 18, are supposed to fast. I, as a diabetic, am not supposed to, but I still try. Fasting includes two small meals and one larger one, not to equal the two smaller meals. In other words, the larger meal has to be bigger than the two smaller meals combined.

Also, for Lent, after the age of 14, we practice abstinence, or the absence of meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays during Lent. This explains the fish fries that take place all over the country on Fridays! Actually, before Vatican II, Roman Catholics weren’t allowed to eat meat on any Friday during the year. Some Roman Catholics still practice this, adding to it prayers for life or country, etc.

Breakfast is not usually a problem, as I don’t normally eat meat for that meal. Instead, I eat yogurt or a piece of fruit. For lunch, since everyone was home because of the ice storm we had, I made grilled cheese. Yum!

Dinner was my cheesey-veggie soup. I would love to link that in for you, but can’t figure out how! I used cauliflower as the vegetable, along with celery, onions, and carrots. It was delicious! I also had an alterior motive! Since we have leftovers, we can use it for my favorite tuna fish casserole. Yummy!!! That casserole is also in my recipes, but can’t link that either. I must get better at this!

Hope you enjoyed your Lenten lesson. Let us rend our hearts open for God to enter in and remake our souls! Happy Lent!

The Huntress

You watch me through my window

I am not aware

I think I am free, escaped

I am not

You are always watching

Waiting, you stare down at me

Biding your time

You have learned to be patient

And will pounce when I least expect

Mauling

Devouring

Consuming

Ah, but you do not know my secret

I have been hunted before

I have been huntress too

You think I don’t know your

Every move

One false one and it will look

Like an accident

Many have had them.

A Dream? A Vision?

How much our pope loves Our Lady!

How much Our Lady loves our pope!

A blinding flash of light!

Falling back

Sitting in a chair

Praying.

Alright, everyone! You know I rarely post on Sundays and certainly not at the crack of dawn, but I suddenly woke up (yet didn’t think I was actually asleep!) with this dream/vision and had to tell someone! I felt like it was the end of the world. It was so scary, and yet, with prayer, I was comforted. Strange, right? What are your thoughts?

Six Word Story #33

Snow swirled. Blood dripped. Life lost.

Valentine’s Day and My Absence

This time of year sort of depresses me. Usually it’s gloomy out, and the fact that my valentines are my kiddos only. 😔. I’ve been struggling lately with all of that. It’s not that I am not completely grateful for everything that I have and everyone that is in my life. It’s just hard knowing that there is so much living for you to do, and except for God, you’ll be doing it alone. Well, really, He is the only One who matters, but sometimes I long for someone to chat over the day’s events and snuggle with on the couch.

Ok, so enough of the pity party (and on to the pizza party!) Every year we make pizza for Valentine’s day. Since I cook on Tuesdays, Valentine’s day dinner fell to me this year. Fine. I’d pick up some pizza from our local take and bake and load it with a few extra toppings and we’d be all set. Right…just one thing…they weren’t open today! What??!!!

What now? Luckily I had been pondering pizza for a few weeks and thinking about a place I used to stop into before I knew I had celiac disease, called Sgt. Pepperoni’s. Oh such good pizza bread! So… pizza bread.

That got me thinking about garlic bread. Wouldn’t it be awesome to combine the two? Absolutely! It was heavenly! Just don’t do it if you’re single and dating, unless you both eat it! Otherwise, the garlic will kill you!

Disclaimer: Totally not our pizza bread, but it disappeared so fast, I didn’t get a picture!

I started with four packages of Schar Gluten free sandwich rolls, which I cut in half, though you could use a baguette, etc.

For the sandwich rolls I used the following to make the garlic bread:

1 1/2 sticks salted butter

3 Tbsp. minced garlic

On a large jellyroll pan, sprayed with your favorite gf nonstick cooking spray place your halved sandwich rolls (or baguette, etc.) Melt the butter in the microwave and then add the garlic. With a spoon drizzle/spread the garlic-butter mixture on the halved sandwich rolls. Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until toasty and lightly browned.

Top with your favorite pizza sauce (I used Classico Four Cheese – Yum!) Next add your toppings. For two of the kiddos, that means just pepperoni. For Child #4, it means scallions (green onions) and pepperoni. For me, drained tomatoes, green peppers, pepperoni, scallions, and black olives (which I left off this time, as I was exhausted and couldn’t see the point!)

Top with your favorite cheese (I prefer whole milk mozzarella!) and return to the oven for 20 – 25 minutes. Be careful, because it will be really nice and hot when it’s done!

Get ready to enjoy an awesome pizza bread supper!

Just a Note: This is super delicious, but does take a bit of time to prepare and bake. Make sure to leave about an hour and a half for prep and cook time. Of course, if you don’t want all the sliceable toppings, that will save a lot of time, but for me, a pizza isn’t really a pizza unless it has green peppers, tomatoes, pepperoni, and scallions! All told, it took about an hour and a half for our dinner, but so worth it!