the reluctant pioneer

We're in the midst of packing and I'm newly pregnant. Two strikes against making any elaborate dinners this week. With the outside temperature below 20 when the sun's shining, I wanted a hot dinner to warm up my cold hubby after his looooong [5 minute] commute home. Hey, when your body's thermostat is still set for Fall temperatures, those 5 minutes in brutal cold feel a lot longer. Aldi to the rescue! This dish serves 2-4 depending on how hungry you are. 4 Hashbrown Patties 5 Original Breakfast Sausage Patties 2 scallions, chopped 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided 5 eggs Turn oven on to 425 and pop those patties (both kinds) on a cookie sheet and cook for a bit (8 min or so) while gathering the rest of the ingredients. No need to preheat the oven for this. Butter a medium casserole dish (I used the larger Corning Ware oval dish) Remove patties from oven and decrease temp to 350. Layer everything in the casserole dish as follows: Hashbrown patti

I come from privilege. I was born in a 1st world country, I'm in the ethnic majority, my parents are still happily married, both have university degrees and my university degree was entirely paid for [albeit not by my parents]. I'm sure if I looked, I could find what tiny percentage of the population this puts me in, but that's not really the point. The point is, while I have clearly lived life standing on the shoulders of giants, I'm wondering how to responsibly pass this on to my children. As Mark and I prepare to close on our forever home I'm particularly aware of, and utterly humbled by, the blessings we've been handed. In the past year, I've been struck anew by the burden of debt that envelopes the lives of many of our peers. These are married couples who both work and yet can't afford to purchase a home, or upgrade to a larger home, because their monthly college-loan payments are larger than our new mortgage payment will be. Sadly, I think

This is the follow-up post to Traveler's Grace . If you haven't read that yet, please start there. First I'd like to clarify that at the time of my previous post, while the purchase of our future home was clearly delayed, it was not in jeopardy and that helped a lot in keeping the panic at bay. Traveler's Grace, a.k.a. God's miraculous provision in unlikely circumstances, doesn't disappoint! Read on... When I left off with my last post it was Tuesday and our current house was officially back on the market, but looked like... well, it looked like we were planning to move in a week. That night I managed to deep-clean the bathroom and we re-staged the kiddos' room. The rest of the house was still a disaster. In the morning I got a call from a wonderful woman who heard John 13:7 for me during her prayer time. "You don't know what I'm doing but later you will understand." This was another confirmation not to worry. Then the phone rang, a