Hope Continually -- Psalm 71:14

I love all things fall.  Not so much Halloween. I do love the story my mom shared with me this week.  Last Friday was their small town's trick or treat times.  (Here in Nevada - it is always October 31st no matter where you go.)  She said it was a beautiful evening.  My dad and her sat in the front of the house on their lawn chairs and passed out suckers for two hours to the kids that came by trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. You see, my parents pastor a church in that town.  They live in the parsonage adjacent to the church.  Mom said that there were many kids and teens that came by that had attended church before.  She said they were able to reconnect and catch up with many of them. I loved this.   Reach your Jerusalem.  Reach your neighborhood.   One sucker at a time.

Guest post:  Jenny Musser Today I'm going to share an amazing recipe for cranberry sauce for your Thanksgiving Dinner!  This recipe is so easy and you can make it the night before.  It's as easy as opening a can and slicing up that perfectly molded can shaped "cranberry sauce".  I found this recipe on the Taste of Home website @ Cranberry Sauce .    Ingredients: 1 cup cranberry-raspberry juice 1 cup of sugar 1 package (12 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed 1 tablespoon lemon juice Directions: In a large saucepan, bring juice and sugar to a boil. Add cranberries; return to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the berries pop, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat; stir in lemon juice. cool. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled.  Yield: 11 servings.

I first made this recipe that I found in one of my first cookbooks as a young married woman.  We were living in a one bedroom apartment on the third floor in a little town overlooking a lake.  My husband was in Bible college.  Good memories!  I made this and he really enjoyed it!  It is a fun presentation for a fall dinner. Savory Stuffed Pumpkin Ingredients: 1-1/2 pounds ground turkey or beef 1 medium onion, chopped 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms 3 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1-1/2 cups cooked rice 1 can (8 ounces) sliced water chestnuts, drained 1 large pumpkin (8 to 9 pounds) Canola oil Directions: In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat  is no longer pink; drain. Add the soup, mushrooms, soy sauce and  brown sugar. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring  occasionally. Stir in the rice and water ...

This morning, the temperature dropped to freezing outside - 28 degrees actually.  I went to turn on the furnace to take the chill off the house and there was no power to my thermostat.  Not having used my furnace since last spring/winter, I hadn't noticed that it needed a new battery.   Did you know that you can't get a fire in your furnace without that little thing called the thermostat?  You have to add power to the thermostat to get the fire to heat your entire house. So is the same for your life.   You need to add power to your soul before you will be able to live victoriously!   Stay consistent in your Bible reading.  Don't skip out on that church service.  Stay faithful to your Sunday School and Connection Class. Each time you miss a time to "power up", the weaker your spiritual battery becomes.   Eventually, you will be "dead".   "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;   ...

Fall is here and with the change of seasons come a change in wardrobe.  I came across this article and I wanted to share some of the photos and ideas with you.  Building a wardrobe, you will want to have certain items that you can interchange and use over without the same boring look.  One staple this fall/winter is a brown riding boot .  You can spend a good amount of money on boots - I bought mine on sale at Sears for $19.99.   Here are a few ideas to make some really cute fall outfits with those riding boots.   By the way, you can make or break a nice outfit by the shoes/boots that you wear with it.  Make your outfits pop with a classy shoe! *The following photos and tips are from  10 Ways to Wear Your Boots this Fall and 15 Tips to Keep Your Outfits Balanced .* Pencil skirts are a great combination with boots, but you have to be careful with the proportions.  Tip #7. Choose pencil skirts that hit at, or right...

This Saturday, we are having our fourth annual Harvest Party for Sierra View .  I thought I would share the details of this day.  Perhaps it will give you ideas and guidelines for your church fall events.  :) This link is the basic events and details of the day .  This is e-mailed and printed for our church family. Harvest Party Planner If you are the event coordinator for your church events, you probably will need to enlist help for larger events.  For those volunteering, it is helpful to give detailed instructions on their task for that day.  This link is the details involving tasks for the Harvest Party. Harvest Party Volunteers and Duties For our Harvest Party, we like to give goody bags to the children that attend of things other than candy.  Here is the sign up sheet for our Harvest Party Goody Bags. Harvest Party Donation Sheet Feel free to share any other ideas you may use at your church fall events!  Happy...

Thanksgiving is just a month away!  Here is a checklist from the Thrifty Couple that you may enjoy using for your holiday plans this year. Thanksgiving Checklist Want a salad recipe for your Thanksgiving meal?  Try a Seven Layer Salad this year... Seven Layer Salad Frozen peas - 1/2-3/4 cup each layer Shredded cheese - 8 oz. Chopped green onions - 1 bunch Chopped lettuce - 1 bag of romaine Bacon - 1 lb. fried and chopped Mayo - Add to lettuce (around a cup) Boiled eggs - 1 dozen - sliced Layer all above ingredients into two layers into a pretty glass dish.   Want simple Thanksgiving centerpieces or accents to your dinner?  Try candle holders filled with various autumn items... Corn Nuts Cranberries Different colored beans Mini pumpkins or gourds Or the tastiest...candy corn. :)

Stop it.  Just stop it. How do we feel that we are justified in our judgments of others, institutions or situations?  How is it OK to talk about another Christian who we have felt has judged us?  Are we not doing the same thing?  Judging them for judging us and then judging them for not being like us?  I'm pretty tired of Christians bashing other Christians. I don't care whether you share the truth or not.  The fact is when you share your judgment call on another person... you have now influenced another person or several people to share your same perception on that person or situation. Let me give you an example.  My husband was driving home one day on the freeway and witnessed a motorcycle driver speed through traffic and knock off the mirror of a vehicle he passed.  The motorcycle driver was driving recklessly and my husband was following him.  Closely.  Witnesses saw my husband following this driver closely and...

This may sound like a very odd recipe but I promise it is a keeper!  This recipe is from my friends, Megan and Lisa, and has become a mainstay at our church potlucks.  In fact, my 7 yr. old asked for this as her birthday dessert just yesterday.  Try it and you will love it! Avocado Pie 1 large avocado 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1/4 cup lime juice  1/4 cup lemon juice 2 egg yolks pinch of salt 1 tsp. vanilla graham cracker crust Mix ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cool. Once cool, add topping. 1 cup sour cream 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 cup sugar

The past week and half, I have been doing the 30 Day Praise Challenge as part of my devotion time. Each day, I read five Psalms and I choose a characteristic of God that I want to praise Him for that day. Just now, I was finishing up today's Psalms and I came upon this verse... "I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God." That was today's characteristic!  He is the health of my countenance.  I really loved this and Googled some more thoughts on it and up popped a  sermon from Spurgeon from March 25, 1875 . Wow.  I want to share some gems from this sermon regarding health of my countenance... God’s Countenance is our help, and He, Himself is the health of our countenance! It may not please God to lessen the burden, but it comes to the same thing if He strengthens the back. Give a man health in his countenance, and he laughs at that which would have crushed  him had he been in another mood!  ...

We have our very first Fall Revival beginning tomorrow at Sierra View!  My husband requested that we provide food for those who come.  Many folks will be coming from work and he wanted to provide a quick meal to enable more folks to come to the services. Perhaps this idea is one you can use for your church function. Our menu is as follows: Monday Lasagna Toss salad with Italian dressing and croutons French bread Cookies Drinks:  Ice water/tea/lemonade Tuesday Enchiladas Toss salad with ranch dressing and tortilla strips Tortilla chips and salsa Cookies The church will be providing the drinks, bread/chips and the cookies.  One lady will be making all the salad.  We signed up volunteers to bring the lasagna and enchilada dishes. The meal will be served from 5:45 - 6:15pm.  Services begin at 6:30pm.   We also have a schedule of set-up/clean-up for each day - Sunday - Tuesday. I hope this helps ...

*Guest Post:  Jenny Musser* My sister, Rachel, shared this tip with me a couple years ago and I thought I would share it with you.  This is a great money saving tip! I always like to keep lettuce around to make a salad for lunch or to put on a sandwich but it always seemed to go bad before I could eat it all. (I have heard that the metals in a knife blade will react with the lettuce and cause oxidation so tear your lettuce by hand.) Ok, all that for this simple tip!  Here it is.   Put a paper towel in with your lettuce. It will absorb all the moisture from the lettuce and keep it fresher longer!

I wanted to share the simple and perfect fall decor that Jenny did for our foyer.  :)  She always does a great job - I am so thankful to have her! This Sunday also began our last quarter of the year - ReThink Missions .   Church family, would you pray 15 minutes a day for our Fall Revival that begins Sunday?  I need revival.  Let's pray!

My dad wrote an article for the Christian Womanhood magazine.   The article is the story of his father's salvation.   Just a few days ago in our Awana club, I shared the testimonies of two of our young ladies in our group - Addie and Emma.  I asked the girls why it was important to share how you were saved with other people. Their response - so maybe they will be saved too!   Exactly!  Share your salvation story today.  You don't know the impact it may have on someone.   This story is about my Grandpa and Grandma Holt.  My legacy.  My heritage.  My favorite part of the story is when my grandpa bought a bus for the church.   What can you do today to impact lives for eternity?   Thank you to my dad for writing this.  Love you! By the way, you can subscribe to this magazine!  It is a wonderful Christian ladies magazine.  Do so today at the link below! Christian Womanhood M...

Friday, we took a last of the season trip to Virginia City.  They have been having Flashback Fridays - the first Friday of the month - which is free admission to nearly 20 of their museums/historical places.  This Friday was the last one and we went to finish up our tour. Jenny and Reagan went with us so it was definitely a girls day out with eight lovely ladies! One of our stops was the Silver Terrace Cemetery.  This photo was taken from the cemetery overlooking the small town of VC.  Just gorgeous! Reagan Musser and Autumn My girls are the four from the right.  Then Reagan Musser on the left.  And Reagan Allen in the stroller.  Taken at the St. Mary's Catholic Church. Also, another great photo of the Mackay Mansion overlooking part of VC and the mountain ranges in the distance. Taken at the cemetery....the best I could get. LOL! The sagebrush in bloom! The Gold Mill in VC. Our l...

We have a church van that the Lord blessed our ministry with back in March.  With the blessing comes a large responsibility.   Placing policies in place regarding a ministry vehicle is important.  When we were given the vehicle, we created the Van Reservation Form.   Why implement a form like this? 1.  The church office approved all use of the church vehicle. 2.  There would be no conflicts of use.   Below is our Church Van Reservation Form that you are welcome to download and adapt to your own use in your ministries. Church Vehicle Reservation Form

Guest Post:  By Jenny Musser I'm back from enjoying the last few lazy days of summer!  I try really hard every year to wait until October to put out my fall decorations.  I do not decorate as much as I use to...just my porch and a few pumpkins around the house.  For my front porch, I change out my wreath, pillows and add a few twig pumpkins.  I have had this fall wreath for a few years and it was just kinda plain and I wanted to add something to it this year.  Monograms and initials are so big right now...they put them on everything!  I found this cute polka dot M at Kirkland's this summer on a visit to California.  The pillows on the bench are the same blue ones I had on all summer long and I just bought some pillows covers to go over them.  Hobby Lobby has a great selection of pillow covers.  I have some all around my house.  I got these when they were half off, so both for $8 .   Here is a link to their web...

Fall has arrived...it is 39 degrees this morning...and soup sounds mighty good! :)  This is one of my favorite soups - perfect for the first day of October. Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup 1 lb. sausage 1 medium onion, chopped 6 garlic cloves, minced 2 cans chicken broth 1 3/4 cup water 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained 1 package cheese tortellini 1 package (6 oz.) fresh baby spinach fresh or dried basil black pepper and red pepper flakes Shredded Parmesan cheese Fry sausage and onion.  Add garlic.  Put in pot and add broth, water and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil. Add tortellini.  Boil for 7-9 minutes.  Reduce heat: Add spinach, basil, pepper and red pepper flakes. Heat through until the spinach is wilted. 6 servings Serve with garlic bread or  Bread Machine Dinner Rolls  and topped with shredded Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!