30 Days of Nothing- Day 4

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. Today is day four of our family's 30 Days of Nothing. Note the home-made jar for collecting money. The quarter on the bottom is from Kaitlyn. What a sweetie! I've been working diligently on this home-made injera thing for a while now. It involves adding more flour and teff to the injera each day, and throwing some of the batter away so that the injera doesn't overtake the kitchen and my life! Well, this morning I thought of what a waste it is to throw away the injera batter. So, I added a couple of eggs and a little bisquick and made pancakes with maple syrup for the kids. Now, I thought it tasted absolutely disgusting and opted for yogurt instead, as did Avery. But the kids loved every bite of it. So, I now have a bunch of sourdough teff pancakes in the freezer that I can pull out and toast each morning for the kids. I'm pretty proud of my non-wasting of injera batter.

Yesterday, our family went to a Bikers for Christ retreat that is held each fall. The founder of BFC Fred Z and his beautiful wife, Esther were there. I wish I could spend more time with these Californians. They are good friends to us. It was so nice to get to see them yesterday. Not to mention we saw people from Tennessee, South Carolina, Maryland, and North Carolina. We've missed some of these people for 2 years and it was such a gift from God to spend the day with them. The event was held at this beuatiful little retreat center, Stillwater Lodge right on a lake in rural North Carolina. I'm not kidding you- the moment you step foot on the grounds of this place, you can sense this amazing peacefulness. It's sureal. The owners, Jeff and Jan, are these awesome people who have seen their lives make a complete turnaround these past four years. Looking at them is looking at a miracle. Below is a picture of Avery and me with Fred (short little biker dude) with Esther (tall, prettiest 60 something woman I've ever seen!)



Lucas loves to sit with me on the "handkercheifs." This means hammock. We were snuggling together on a "handkerchief" under some tall, old pine trees just a few feet from the lily-pad covered edge of the lake. The only sounds are those that nature makes. Lucas looked up at me and said, "I just love it here where we can enjoy the sweet smell of frogs and fish, Mommy!"

We went swimming in 60 degree water! I'm amazed at how kids don't seem to mind freezing cold water! We went for a little canoe ride out on the lake. We got to catch up with old friends, met new friends, and kicked back in the beauty of nature.

Around suppertime, we thought we'd better get going so that we could get home before the kids got too hungry. Remember, it's 30 Days of Nothing, so that means no McDonalds drive-thru for us! There were leftover donughts, so we all had one so we wouldn't be too hungry before we got home. And wouldn't you know it, just when we were going to leave, Jan announced that there was leftover fried chicken in one of the lodges. God is so good and faithful even in the little things. Now, I know that many people might not see that as a gift from God, be we sure did. Not only did we get fed without having to break our 30 Days of Nothing fast from consumerism, but with our bellies full, we were able to stay for several more hours. 26 days to go. Check back later...