Meal Plan Monday & Contest Winner

Hope you had a great weekend. I certainly did. My family and I attended “Thunder Over Louisville,” the opening festivities for the Kentucky Derby Festival. “Thunder” is an all-day event that includes a spectacular air show and the largest fireworks display in North America. We packed a cooler and a picnic basket and made a day of it. The Lord blessed us with perfect weather for the occasion – 75 degrees and sunny. It was a glorious day, and the air show and fireworks were worth the wait. I think it was best we have seen. If you ever get the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. There are crowds (700,000+ in attendance) and traffic, but if you go with the mindset that it’s only a once-a-year opportunity, then it all works out.

Contest
I posted a contest Friday to see if you could guess how many bags I had stored in the bottom of my kitchen pantry. My friend, Diane, had technical difficulties posting, so she e-mailed me her comment:

Whew girl! You have a pile there. Okay, my guess is 98. How do we use our bags? A uses them to do his pooper scooper job after our dog Sally, kids use them sometimes to carry their school lunch in when a container doesn't fit into a brown lunch sack, S uses them to put weeds in from the yard, keep one in the van for trash, use them to put the boys' muddy shoes/cleats in before they get in the car, ....that's all that comes to mind right now.

So, where are the bags going now???

There were actually 97 bags in that pile. So congratulations, Diane, you are the winner! Thanks for trying, Cindy! Come on, guys! Don’t be shy! I have changed my comment options so that anyone can comment without having to join anything, but all comments will be subject to moderation.

The prize? Diane wins two reusable grocery bags handmade by me.

They are patterned after a Target shopping bag using a tutorial I found here. This is an easy tutorial to follow.

The bags are made from 100% cotton which makes them washable and very durable. They hold several items without fear of breaking. I attached a piece of elastic so the bag can be attached to the bagholders at the store.

This picture below shows one of the bags with one gallon of milk, two 28-ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, a one-pound box of penne pasta and two cans of Pringles Big Stacks. There is plenty of room left for other items.


In answer to Diane’s question about the future of the bags – I intend to continue using them in the ways I described in Friday’s post. But I am going to make myself a supply of the reusable bags to keep in the car. That way I can be a better steward of God’s earth. Diane, I will contact you to make arrangements for delivery of the bags.

Meal Plan
Monday – Homemade pizza (since we went to “Thunder,” I still have supplies for this)

Tuesday – Chicken fried chicken (Steve Saw Paula Deen making chicken fried steak last week, and has been wanting such a meal since – it’s a way I can bless my hardworking man), milk gravy, biscuits, green beans, mashed potatoes

Wednesday – Chili

Thursday – Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, corn

Friday – out

Saturday – Steaks, baked potatoes, salad, bread

Sunday – Roast beef with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery, green beans (we ended up making grilled hamburgers Sunday instead of the roast beef meal)

I haven’t been to the grocery for three weeks, and I am not inspired to go this week. I may have to make a quick trip for a couple of small items like salad fixings, but I have everything else I need to prepare this week’s meals.

Daily Bible Reading Plan
Judges 9; Psalm 86; Mark 6:30-44; I Corinthians 11:1-16

Today’s reading in Mark prompted me to have an Aha! moment. This passage speaks of the feeding of the 5,000 (men, that is – the count didn’t include women and children). Jesus blessed five loaves of bread and two fish to feed the hungry multitude. After everyone was filled, the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers.

I happened to read the note in my NIV Study Bible regarding the twelve baskets of leftovers:

Bread was regarded by Jews as a gift of God, and it was required that scraps that fell on the ground during a meal be picked up. The fragments were collected in small wicker baskets that were carried as part of daily attire. Each of the disciples returned with his basket full (emphasis added).

Jesus always remembers the smallest details! He even made sure the disciples had provisions for a few days to come. I’ve never made the connection between the twelve baskets of leftovers and the twelve disciples. Have you? Isn’t He amazing?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Jenny