Blog Address Change

Hello friends, I appreciate any and all of you who have taken the time to read my blogs, though few and far between last year.  I would like to ask you to continue following me on my newly updated blog at

www.cookwipesweep.com

if you want to keep following along.  I appreciate your readership and support very much. Hopefully I can get this address forwarded soon =)

Peace be unto you,

Meghan Weyerbacher

The Fixin's

My new favorite thing to do when I have time to plop on the couch, which isn't often but I cherish what time I can get, is watch a show by Food Network called The Pioneer Woman. A pretty, red-headed rancher wife and mom cooks up the most appealing dishes and somehow makes it all look easy-peasy.  I have tried a few of her recipes before but this is my first documented one, big woop-tee-do I know. Why do I feel such happiness snapping photos of food? Is it the fact that the bright colors which pop so vividly are like artwork to the cook's soul? Or is it the fact that after I watch Ree Drummond effortlessly cook a cuisine while NOT worrying about the crumbs that just fell on the floor, I relish the idea of accomplishing just that. I want to make yummy things, and I want to not care so much about the mess. Granted she doesn't have any toddlers running around in the background and it looks like she has miles of counter top which is great for a person like me who gets overwhelmed if I do not have enough elbow room! 

Ree Drummond's Perfect Post Roast

~Click HERE to go straight to the source for all the details on this recipe~

Ingredients
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 3 to 5-pound chuck roast
2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil
2 whole onions, peeled and halved
6 to 8 whole carrots, unpeeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup red wine, optional
3 cups beef broth
2 or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme

You first start by adding 2 cups of beef broth to your crock pot. I added 3. I wanted more what can I say...   Her recipe calls for 2 onion cut into quarters but I decided to only use 1. My husband bought huge onions, I reminded him they were only for added flavor and that he didn't have to partake of the actual onion. Cut up fresh carrots as well and add the onions and carrots to a preheated skillet. Let them cook just enough to get them sort of glazed over and then throw them into the crock pot. This is when I threw in my herbs too.

I decided to add potatoes to our roast.  I just purchased some small golden skinned potatoes and tossed them in peel and all. 

Next step is to seer the roast meat.  You will just throw it onto the hot skillet and let it cook on each side for a few minutes.

Once most of the raw parts on the outside are cooked, add it to the crock pot with the rest of its new family.

And here is the finished masterpiece which we so gratefully made last for 2 dinners.

*note* I did not buy the biggest roast the store had because I wanted more room for lots of veggies.

I garnished the top with more fresh rosemary :)

Hope you try it and enjoy :)

Meghan

The Little Things

This of course is what I would live in if I had to choose an eternal outfit. Just add a pair of brown, rope sandals and a floppy hat. Okay, so I am talking like it is the middle of July when in reality it is the middle of December. So, wear some leggings and a cardigan like always when it's cold....

Not only did this classy, striped lovely find me for $2.00 at a thrift store, but God also placed a handful of other desired items that I truly had on my mental wish list right before me. I told the cashier, It was like God kept them there just for me! I even got an amen from her.

              Psalm 37:23

            New Living Translation (NLT)

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.

 He delights in every detail of their lives.

What Are YOU Going to Believe?

I'm excited about reading this book by Joyce Meyer. A couple years ago I had did The Battlefield of the Mind Study but it seems to be reaccuring fluke in myself that I have to continually practice the art of casting out thoughts that are not in line with God's Words. {Could you taste a hint of sarcasm there?}  I can look back and see where my life, outlook & all were far better when I got into the habit of immediately shutting down Satan by refusing to dwell on negative thoughts that came into my mind. I was much more joyful and peaceful when I would speak out loud that I would not give up because I was a child of the One True God and He would take care of me. There truly is power in your life when you choose to purposely exercise the divine authority we have over the enemy. So here I go, reading yet another book that will gently nudge me in the right direction. I can't get enough of this stuff. I think I should start a Christian Womens Book Club at this point, my collection is growing quite rapidly...

M. E. Weyerbacher

Parables, Planting, and Produce

Good midnight to you my lovely reader. I was about to call it a night when suddenly a snippet of God's Word snatched my attention away from ZzZzZ's.

I was thinking about the message Pastor gave Sunday. Part 1 on Parables (Mark 4 is where I am but it is also in Matthew 13).
If you pay close attention to Mark 4:11 Jesus says that us followers, believers, are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. But that He used parables for when he spoke to outsiders. I know this was to fulfill the Scriptures as He says. I find it interesting.  I will definitely be praying and studying up on this series. Feel free to comment with your take on this. And don't forget to read all of chapter 4 by the way!
-Meghan Weyerbacher

Sharing, Living & Loving Together

My mom used to talk about stewardship a lot. It was something that I agreed with in theory and knew was right, but never had the discipline to really do. This has all changed now that I am truly in love with Jesus. I feel born again all over again. It all started a couple years ago when a real revival broke out in church and I saw people crave real meaningful, Christ - centered relationships. It was during these 2 years of soul searching and turn around that I saw what my heart always believed to be true. That real love doesn't have to calculate to care. It just comes natural, like breathing. Love became an action to many. And so as I was reading the scriptures tonight, I had flashbacks of the beginnings of the new life we live. The one where dreams are bigger and go further than what color you paint your base boards, or how much the government is taking from your paycheck. The dream of wanting to look back on your life and know that you lived as many breaths as you could not trying to fulfill your own desires or every whim, but that you may have actually helped someone else live.

2 Corinthians 8:10-15
Living Bible (TLB)
10 "I want to suggest that you finish what you started to do a year ago, for you were not only the first to propose this idea, but the first to begin doing something about it. 11 Having started the ball rolling so enthusiastically, you should carry this project through to completion just as gladly, giving whatever you can out of whatever you have. Let your enthusiastic idea at the start be equalled by your realistic action now. 12 If you are really eager to give, then it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t. 13 Of course, I don’t mean that those who receive your gifts should have an easy time of it at your expense, 14 but you should divide with them. Right now you have plenty and can help them; then at some other time they can share with you when you need it. In this way, each will have as much as he needs. 15 Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? “He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had enough.” So you also should share with those in need."

As I came to these scriptures tonight I was reminded of how we are to follow Christ's pattern. I have been blessed with so many real down-to-earth friends and family who are followers of Christ and who truly emulate what the picture of a whole, loving family ( the Kingdom Family,  the Bride of Christ which is the Church ) looks like.

We have had folks give us cars, let us live in their house, feed us, fill up our tanks, give us their kids toys, pass on clothes, and more. I just wanted to take a moment to praise God for putting such folks in my life. I never deserved any of it but know it was God all along showing me He cares; using these people as a vessel and I pray they are blessed ten fold in return.  I pray if Matt and I get opportunities to bless that we will be obedient and generous as so many examples in my life have been.

Meghan W.

Give Him Your Day Before It Even Begins

The days that I tend to dread (the random, unforseen issues of life that sneak up and try to wrap their bones fingers around my throat kind of days)......can have 2 outcomes.

1. If I give in to the overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do and fuel the fire with words of doubt & worry: The outcome is nasty. It is life-draining. And it sucks the life out of those around me because misery loves company and it wants everyone else to worry with it.

2. If I take what I know to be true, AND in my acceptance of knowing there's only so much I can do, but that God is the Living River that never runs dry: The outcome is Hope. Thanksgiving. Dependence on Him. There has never been a time when I cried out to Jesus for help and He gave me a stone. Nope. He has always given me more than what I needed, quite frankly. Casting my cares upon Him really is the Truth of the matter.

He has shown me that life may not ever get easier, but that it is my learning to trust in Him that is what He wants.

I am His bride and He is my groom and after I said I Do, He has had to peel back layer upon layer of "issues" within me, so He can replace them with more of Him. How He loves me I won't understand fully until I see Him face to face. But this one thing I do know right now, when He said He wants to give us Life more abundantly....and on Earth as it is in Heaven.... (2 different scriptures),
I have found a hidden treasure in these messages: Life IS Him. He IS Life.

If two are madly in love...they are pursuing each other. They can't get enough of one another. This is an analogy of course because our relationship with the King is not that of a sensual romance novel.  The point is, when you seek Him in the day you will find Him. He was there waiting for you. When you go out at night and seek Him, you will find Him. He knew you were coming. When you want to start seeing Him in the lessor off folks, you will find Him. He'd always been there, waiting for you to respond. When you long to give and live every single breathing second to and for Him...you start seeing His omnipresence more and more. It is like a veil has been lifted and the scales on your eyes fall off one by one as you live and grow closer to Him each day. Oh how Glorious (not easy) it is when He answers the prayer of "Lord, let me see the world as you see it."

Meghan W.