INTO THE PATIENT WAITING...

Take a look at the stove top in the Haugrud home....is there something wrong with this picture? ~ As I was concocting a soup, I couldn't find the black ladle to stir the soup. Mind you, I had placed it directly beside the pot and had not registered this in my mind. So - what else should I grab but a spatula? Here I am, stirring soup with a spatula. The timer goes off for the rolls in the oven so I quickly place the spatula down and look at the rolls. Tim comes home, too. Slightly distracted and in the mad rush to "stir the soup" one more time (why?), I couldn't find the spatula!! Instead of taking a breath to look for the spatula or even the black ladle again, I quickly grab the first thing I see! A whisk. The whisk is used to give it a stir. Voila! Soup is finished! At this point, I take a breath and notice a few things. The stove top. The black ladle. The spatula. The whisk. The opened spices. Cooking is quite the adventure :-)

This blog post has been written, deleted, re-written, and re-deleted. Third time's the charm, right? Just click on the link below and listen to this song by Lyndsay Taylor. If you're anything like me today, I needed a reminder of how much I need Jesus. My mind was racing on other "things" this morning - things that are earthly and materialistic. "Things" that look good in the sight of men (even in Christian circles) but are not honoring to the Lord because the motivation behind it was not in love. "Things" that can cause a heart to be proud rather than humble. As my thoughts were soaring, the Holy Spirit seemed to say, "Just stop what you're doing, Mel. Listen." As I stopped, a song came from the kitchen. I walked to the kitchen and noticed my pandora list was playing and I had forgotten about it. So - I stopped. And listened. The song was titled, "My Soul's Greatest Joy." The words started playing and I couldn't h...

Great is Thy faithfulness! Lamentations 3:23 The faithful fail from among the children of men. Psalm 12:1 These wonderful words that thrill our souls, and rightly we love to sing them! But what about our faithfulness to God? He desires and deserves it. Are we faithful in our love for Him or have we left our first love? Many now profess Christ but love the world. Are we faithful stewards, or stingy and selfish? Many love materialism and pleasure more than God. Are we faithful to the Word or contemporary so as to please others? Brethren, let us be faithful to God, whatever the cost! Thy way, not mine, O LORD, however dark may be! Lead me by Thine own hand of love, choose out the path for me. -Horatius Bonar The words by Horatius Bonar are put to music in this song. I couldn't help but just sing along with it this morning as I listened to it. Praying that we would serve Him joyfully and faithfully today!  

Tim and I are receiving some marriage counseling from our parents and a couple at his meeting in Fargo. It has been so good!!! We were given about 20 topics to study about, pray on, and find Scripture that points us to what the Bible teaches on those topics. Right now, I'm on Topic #2 .... 18 more to go!!! But...let me tell you about Topic #1. The first topic was Christ. So, even though I'm ONLY on Topic #2 ... a lot of that has to do with the fact that I didn't want to finish studying Topic #1! It just seemed as if I kept finding Scripture after Scripture that pointed me to Someone else - not me. This life, this upcoming marriage, this existence of mine is not about me ... it's about Him and ONLY Him. This is beautiful and encouraging... Christ is our PEACE - Ephesians 2:14-18, "for through Him we have access to the Father by the Spirit," ..."for He Himself is our PEACE." Christ is our CORNERSTONE - Ephesians 2:19-22, "having been built o...

Let me just begin by saying that this recipe made me speechless. The moist pumpkins, the brown sugar sweet sauce that is mixed into the flour, the delicious honey butter spread that goes inside the rolls, the yummy - you get the idea. These are insanely good and insanely easy rolls that A-N-Y-O-N-E can make. Start Cookin'! Ingredients:  6 c. flour, 1 c. wheat flour, 1 package of yeast, I c. of pumpkin puree, 3/4 c. water, 3/4 c. milk, 6 T. butter, 1/3 c. brown sugar (yum!), 2 T. honey, 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 2 eggs, and Honey Butter Spread (1/4 c. butter, 2 T honey = mixed). First: Put 2 c. of white flour and the yeast in a bowl. Mix. Set aside. Second: In a saucepan, mix pumpkin, water, milk, butter, brown sugar, honey, salt, and cinnamon. Cook on warm until butter is nice and melted. Make sure it's lukewarm - you don't want it too hot. Third: Put the pumpkin mixture AND the two eggs into the flour mixture. Mix. Remember: you don't want the pumpkin mix...

96 hours. That is how much time I spent in Bogota, Colombia. It was one of the sweetest trips I have ever been able to take because God's hand was so evidently shaping my friend's, Liz Paddock, life and He is teaching other Colombians to spread the word of GOD throughout the country. I saw so much need in that country, but I saw the body of Christ in Colombia seeing the need and asking God for help on how to meet the needs of the people. As I looked into the Bible this morning, my heart was "fearful" for the unexplained and the questions that sometimes swarm my mind concerning the future. But, as I prayed and read His Word, He showed me verses that took my eyes off of myself and pointed me to Him - the only One who can uphold! My mind then moved to Colombia. The work of making disciples in Colombia is fresh and new. At the same time, my friend recently got engaged to Mauricio - this is another fresh and new "thing" the LORD has placed on her path. We ...

You would think that I would have pictures uploaded/printed/framed from my trip to Europe with Kelly. Which was 6 months ago! Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures :-( BUT, I do have a few iphone pictures! Let me share them with you!! PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC A Ventriliquist!  Outside our overnight train in KRAKOV, POLAND ... a really nice man took this picture! The hotel we stayed at in BERLIN, GERMANY. Thanks Kelly for modeling in this picture! The scarf I bought during our last day of the trip. I saw it in PRAGUE on Day 2 of our trip and then hoped (and hoped!) it'd still be in the shop by Day 9 of our trip - it was!! Kelly and I in our lovey hotel room on DAY 9, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC Back in WICHITA, KANSAS. A little tired but so grateful for the shared traveling memories!!!