It's in the peanut butter

I'm a snob, I admit it.

Over the last few months I have morphed into a food snob. I've exchanged all my regular flour for non-bleached, non-processed flour. I scrutinize the sugar, meat, eggs, and most importantly, peanut butter.

Last summer, I started thinking more about partially hydrogenated soybean oil. It turns up in everything. It's not the best thing we could be putting in our bodies, so I've started making the slow process of de-hydrogenating my foods. Peanut butter was the first to change.

I love peanut butter. I could seriously have it on anything (crackers, celery, chocolate, bread, apples, oranges, ice cream, chicken, etc), or just eat it by itself. So last year I bought my first jar of organic peanut butter (which is just peanuts and salt). Can I just tell you, I was in heaven. Sure, it's not quite as smooth as Jiffy, but man it is thick and good. It makes eating my pb&j sandwiches the highlight of my afternoon. The one teeny-tiny draw back is that it is so darn expensive.

Earlier this week, as I was making my sandwich for lunch, I thought "Oh, man, we're running low on peanut butter. I really wish it wasn't so expensive so I didn't feel guilty about buying it". *Note: Jonathan and I are taking a Dave Ramsey course at church, so my mind it on 'good deal' over load. $4 for peanut butter = not a good deal! So, as I'm laminating the idea of ever having to give up my beloved au'natural peanut butter, I said a prayer that went something like "God, You know I really like my peanut butter, lots. But it is so expensive! Lord, please provide me with the means to continue eating my peanut butter."

Last night my life group joined up with Amanda's to watch a movie. As we were all getting settled, Leah asked me to come into the the kitchen. When I got in there, she handed me my first birthday present of the year (I'm coming up on my golden birthday on the 25th, for those of you who might not know). I opened it up and lo and behold, it was organic peanut butter!!! Apparently, Leah had picked up the jar for me at Tate's some time back with the intent to give it to me for my birthday! How awesome is that??

So, there you have it, the Lord really does take notice of the little things in our lives. Even the peanut butter.

Baby NOT on board

I came across this book by Jennifer Shawne about a year ago. I flipped through it and it proved good for a few laughs. I think what I found most humorous was the "nicknames" she gives to children, such as yard ape and poop factory. While I do want to have children at some point in my life, I still thought it could be fun to list out some of the great reasons for still being child-free. (Disclaimer: For all you parents, this isn't meant to poke fun at you or your delightful children, just a reason to remind myself why it's pretty awesome to not have kids, just yet).

10. My car windows are sticker free.

9. My house stays clean. And if it doesn't, it's only my own fault.

8. It only takes me 15 seconds or less to get into my car.

7. I can sleep all night long.

6. When I'm around my friends, they ask about me.

5. If I bake a batch of cookies, I don't have to share them with anyone. :)

4. I can stay out super late and never worry about putting anyone, other than myself, to bed.

3. I can go on trips with my husband and not miss a soul.

2. I can safely go down my stairs.

1. I can honestly say I have never been thrown up on, burped on, pooped on, peed on, and for that reason, I generally smelly pretty good and my clothes stay cleaner.

Things that make you go "Huh?"

I've been listening to the radio (via the internet) at work for the past few weeks. I have tapped into a christian station located in Seattle, that plays a really good variety of songs. Anyways, the other day I heard an ad for match.com. I didn't think anything of it, at first. Then a few hours later there was another ad (I'm assuming from a local church in Seattle) saying how the world has really focused too much on casual dating and that sites such as match.com go against God's desire for His children to trust Him with their future mate. Huh? Didn't this station just play a match.com ad? And now you're telling people it's not good? I think what has me even more confused is that I continue to hear these same two ads day after day.

Is it just me, or is this sending a mixed message? You should trust God for these things, but if you really want to, you can go to this one site. You should trust God with your life, but if you're not going to, you should at least use this one product.

And something even more interesting: Match.com's theme is "It's okay to look". Is it now really? I'm pretty sure Jesus would disagree (Matthew 5:28).

They also have ads about credit cards, buying homes that are too expensive for little or no down or debt consolidation (everything anti-Dave Ramsey) followed by ads for handling your money properly and in a way to glorify God.

I'm just really disappointed by this station. It offers so many good things (songs, verses, testimonies, etc) but then it continually does these handful of ads. I'm sure it boils down money, but is it worth it? Is it worth contradicting what God says so that a radio station can reach more people? I don't really think so.

When in Liechtenstein

I read this really funny story on MSN today.

I can just picture what this might have looked like from the bystander's point of view: In walks a large group of soldiers, decked out in fatigues holding deadly weapons, into a country so small it doesn't have it's own army. Then as the soldiers look around they start wondering, why is everything here not in Swiss? Did you see a sign pointing us this way? Did we just invade another country? They shrug their shoulders and head back the way they came.

I tell ya, it's straight out of Monty Python.