We’re rained out of Pops in the Park tonight and bored so the girls and I did a little haul for you. I reference this post in the video. Lexi’s laughing and ooh-ing at the end is priceless.
Sunday Highlights: Outlaws: No Reason to Run
Today was an introductory sermon for a series on the Ten Commandments. He began by asking the question what is the purpose of the 10 commandments?
Some feel as if He’s setting us up for failure so why try?
Exodus 20:1-2 – God makes it clear that these commands are for His people NOT “I’m God and this is how I can be your God”. The 10 Commandments show us our sin. We can not ever meet these laws and it’s even worse when Jesus came along (i.e. murder is in your heart, not just an action). It can feel like a hopeless situation and there’s no point on trying. But..
There is no reason to run from God.
The purpose is to show people their sin and show how holy He is. Shows us that not only do we need a Deliverer but a Redeemer.
It’s not a condition but a confirmation! If you are His, this is how you will look NOT act like this so you will be His.
Purpose is not to run from Him but to Him. Laws are simply preparing us for our own exodus when we realize we need delivery from our own spiritual slavery.
I have to say this turned the law a bit on its head for me. It’s so easy to be legalistic but God shows us what holiness looks like simply to show us how much we need Him. He knows we can’t meet them and He’s not expecting us to be able to follow these rules but He does want to lay out what holiness is so we will see our need for Him. He wants us to follow Him not rules, however obedience in our thoughts and actions will follow.
Daughtry – Charlotte, NC
We went. We listened. We screamed. We sang. We danced. And then we wished he’d do it all again. But right after we took a nap.
More pictures here.
Wicked
Excuse me while I fangirl over Wicked. I know I’m not the first or the last but last night was my moment to figure out what all the hype was about and I must gush. Because it is very gushable.
Where to start? Oh my.
I suppose I should say explain that I knew nothing about this play. The only thing I knew is that it was about the witches of Wizard of Oz. And I had my doubts. Witches and spells and all that aren’t my thing. I don’t like to see it encouraged and glorified. I mean, the name of it is Wicked. Could I really like this? I know those of you that have seen it must be shaking your head. No! It’s not like that! And indeed, it’s not. In fact, it’s about a lot of other things that wickedness and witches.
It’s about beauty of character. Friendships. Love. Misconceptions. Judgments. Selfishness and selflessness. Being yourself. It truly was a beautiful story. Yes, there’s witches and spells but at the end of the day the point of it was becoming a better person. When you walk away from a musical and you want to be a better person, it is indeed a beautiful story.
I love what Scott said to the girls this morning when the girls talked about the eviilll green witch, “She just wanted her sister’s shoes backkk!!!” It’s just amazing how they pulled the Wizard of Oz into the story. I adored the line. “There’s no place like home”. And I loved how the Tin Man came about.
I loved the comedy. Elphaba’s parody of Glinda was hilarious. Glinda well, Glinda was just hilarious with all her kicking and what not.
I loved that they threw in a love triangle. I love that they went with the expected but unwanted pairing and that he gave it all up for Elphaba. I especially love that they got their happy ending.
I think most of all, I loved the character development in this story. Because it’s not your typical character development. Part of what’s so interesting is it’s almost working backwards. We knew how the story, and specifically, the characters ended. We knew who they were supposed to be. So the whole first act is almost an undoing of their characters. Who these people really were versus what we knew. But then the second act is understanding how they go from those characters to the ones we knew they were. And the whole time they’re really neither who we thought or who we were introduced to but a wonderful blend of the two.
The talent was out of this world. Their voices and music were perfection. At times, it filled the auditorium (and my heart) to the brim where I thought it might explode.
I can’t do a review and not talk about the set and even the logistics of the play. I loved the sets and how (seemingly) simple they transitioned from one to another. There was never an awkward pause or a mistake or a stagehand you had to block out in order to continue enjoying it. Even the mechanics of the show were outstanding.
And lastly, I have to confess that I had NO CLUE that the original Elphaba and Glinda were Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth who have guest starred on Glee. I have to admit that I did not appreciate their appearances nearly as much as I should have and I’m going to have to go back and rewatch their performances. I only wish I could have seen the original cast perform Wicked.
I’m sure I haven’t even begun to properly review Wicked but it’s a start. Bottom line is this is by far my favorite Broadway show and it’s a must see.
Cooking with The Pioneer Woman: Weekly Update
Katie’s Roasted Corn Salad
Y’all. I have to admit I had SERIOUS doubts about this corn salad. I even said right before serving, “I don’t know if anyone will like this, I just need to get it off my list.” Not that I didn’t think it was good if you liked that sort of thing. I’m not a huge fan of salads like this but WOW. This really surprised me. Somewhere, some way this salad was very sweet. Scott likes to say Emeril explains it best when he says everything was just getting happy together. Indeed. And it made me quite happy. I went back for 2nds and 3rds. We guessed that it might even better the second day like a lot of salads do but no, this was best as soon as it was made.
I don’t know why I waited so long to make this. I really don’t. Because this was some YUMMY chili. I used it to make nachos and seriously best nacho/taco/Mexican meat I’ve ever had. There’s no way I can go back to those seasoning packets. Then again, for the size bag of masa I bought just to make these, I’ll need to make it at least 407 more times.
I have to be in the mood for mozzarella sticks and the day PW posted the link to this recipe, I found myself in the mood. I made them less than 2 hours after she posted it. And yummo. These really came out to perfection.
I’m getting so close to the finish line here! I only have 2 more breakfast recipes to go!
How to Find Unplayed Music in iTunes
I’m in desperate need of disk space on my computer. Moving computers is such a pain and I’m trying to avoid it at all costs (literally). One thing on my list is to remove unnecessary music. But how do I find music I never listen to? Well. iTunes has made a way (where there was no way. sorry. sometimes it just comes out). I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this CamStudio software and I found it. I have the how-to in the video below.
If you can’t see the video, I’ll make it easy. Create a New Smart Playlist in iTunes and change the search criteria to PlayCount = 0. Tada!
Wedding Weekend
I’m not having a good day but this weekend there was a lot of happy. So I’ll just share that. Big congrats to my cousin Kristen and her new HUSBAND Stephen! And huge thank you to our hosts for having such awesome toys and sharing them well.
See the whole set here
Hitting the Fashion Wall
Isn’t that dress cute? Like so adorably cute? And wouldn’t you be so excited if you only paid $10 for it? Yeah, I was too.
But then I tried it on with a pair of black short and the proportions were all wrong and there was way too much cleavage.
So I took the shorts off and put a shirt under it but the dress was too short.
So I put some black tights on under it and it was so. cute.
If I were 15.
Can’t you just see it? A little white shirt under it and black tights? It sounds so cute. And it was SO comfy. I wanted to wear it so. bad. But I knew it looked ridiculous on my 32 year old self. But I figured my 5 and 7 girls who love fashion would be supportive even if I knew it wasn’t age appropriate. So I walked into the bathroom where the girls were bathing and said whaddya think?
Lexi: It looks babyish (says the baby!).
Emma: Awwkward.
*Sigh*
I’ve hit some kind of fashion wall. And it stinks.
But it’s SO cute!