Bread without Yeast

I should be doing something else right now. But instead I'm looking up recipes to make bread without yeast.

Why?

I'm not sure.

At least the only reason I have is because it is a thought that I believe comes from God. It's come to me at least 4-6 times in the past month. What a weird thought..."hey - I should learn how to make bread. And I don't think it should have any yeast."

I know there's a lot of biblical stuff in yeast. Can't say I know too much about it all except that God generally thinks we should avoid it. And it typically represents bad stuff. (Is this right - any yeast bible experts out there?)

In any case - I think God wants to me have on hand the recipe (and maybe an attempt or 2 under my belt) and all the ingredients.

How long do things like cornmeal, shortening and flour last? A long time, right? It just hit me that this could be some sort of preparation... a suggestion by God to have this knowledge and this preparation on-hand. Similar to my garden-thing... well, I'll let you know how my first bread-attempt goes. Probably about as good as my garden is going (not good - look for an update on that soon).

I sure hope God works well with fumbling attempts to follow. That's all I've got.

The Last will be First

Lately Andrew is concerned about whether he gets to go first (mostly vs his brother!). "Mommy - can I have the first Capri-Sun? the first turn? the first cup of milk? is this the first bath?" And on and on.

A few days ago I began to tell him about what Jesus says...that if we are following Jesus then we need to know that He says the first will end up being last and the last will end up being first. I explained that could mean something as simple as giving Luke the first cinnamon roll instead of asking for it himself. At first he didn't like this. But today he began saying "mommy - luke can go first...I'll be last." I don't know if it'll stick but I told him that made mommy's heart happy!

I was putting pasta into bowls for dinner tonight and Andrew said "Mommy - can I have the pink bowl? Jesus doesn't say anything about bowls, does he?!"

We're having a baby!!!

Yep, that's right. The Pattersons are having number 3. Woo hoo. We've told many of our friends now and our family. So - why not post it on the blog, now right?!

This baby is because of the timing and plans of the Lord. No doubt.

I had been diagnosed with a condition in my past called "PCOS." Basically - good luck ovulating...maybe a few times a year at most. Our first son we had the help of fertility medication. Each time they'd say "sorry - you didn't ovulate." But eventually we ended up pregnant. Our second one, we took one pill; the doctor told us it didn't work. And then the next month we got pregnant. So we weren't quite sure what happened there. And this time: nada. Just us and God.

God began telling people (Bill, me and a few friends) that He had planned a third baby for us. I think it was almost a year ago now when we first heard that. He's been doing that to a lot of people lately. Check out this post on my friend's blog: http://www.stevemanuel.net/Steven_Manuel/Blog./Entries/2009/6/3_The_God_Who_Makes_Babies.html

When I went in for the "confirmation of pregnancy" visit, the doctor (not my normal doc) said to me "in my experience it is highly unusual for this condition to reverse itself. And what you're telling me about the regularity of your cycle leads me to believe that that is, in fact, what has happened."

I wanted to say "Yep. Do you know Jesus? Guess what? Turns out He still heals people."

Anyway - I'm almost 10 weeks. Due January 15. And yes: we'll find out what we're having. That'll be a post sometime in September!