June is a big month for our family. It is our anniversary month, my parents’ anniversary, my mother’s birthday, and father’s day.

In addition, we decided to go on a quick mission trip to Appalachia Kentucky. That is about 4 hours from here. We joined with a group of over 600 volunteers from about 10 different states in helping with a “Touched Twice” clinic. We were able to serve and meet and love (in the name of Jesus) about 700 families that came through the clinic.
http://www.homemaking911.com/2009/06/30/touched-twice-clinic-in-eastern-ky/

As soon as we arrived home, we had to turn around and prepare for the CHEK conference. I had developed two new talks for the conference: Teaching the Difficult Child and Marriage 911. Once I had the talks written, we had to get them recorded and burned onto CDs as well so that they would be available at the conference. We had the pleasure of hosting Marc Carrier and his assistant in our home for the conference, and by the next week had our living room carpeting torn up and replaced with hardwood flooring. (Whew!)

At the conference we ran into some friends who talked with us about the merit of selling used books through Amazon, and we decided to take the plunge and see how it went. We are only on about day 2 of selling, so we are still learning the ropes. The biggest problem I can foresee is not having enough books to sell. There are only so many hours in a day for me to shop around at goodwills and thrift stores for used books. Then, of course is the enormous learning curve with every new venture.

Right after the conference I ran a special sale to get rid of extra inventory I had purchased for the conference. Amazingly, orders poured in, and I am still scrambling to get them all filled. I have no shipping department, so every invoice, every package, every label, every piece of packing material, and every shipping label is done by little ol’ me. I was hardly prepared for the task. I thank you all for your patience. I hope to have all the remaining packages out the door by Friday.

Also in June was the “Very Veggie Video Class.” In the class we learned how to make some brand new meals with lots of extra veggies. One of my favorites was the vegetarian tacos. I had no idea how much I would like them.

Very Veggies Video Class

In many ways I am glad that June is behind us. For much of the month, Anne Mary has been continuing to get over Mono, and that has just zapped the energy from her. Usually she is full of energy and smiles, but the last two months have been hard on her.

On a good note, I have continued losing weight and as of last Friday, I have lost 29 pounds. Your continued prayers in this endeavor are appreciated.

Well, I need to move on from here and get working on my newsletter for July. Thank you dear friends for your encouragement and support.

We have done T2 Clinics in Louisville on several occasions.  Basically here is how a clinic goes:

A local church starts blanketing an area with flyers for the FREE Health clinic in the weeks leading up to the event.  Then, on the day of the clinic, doctors, nurses, eye doctors, dentists, hair dressers, photographers, and just regular folks like us show up to serve.

As the guests enter, they are paired with an "advocate."  The advocate sits with the client and helps them determine what services they would like to receive.  All services are completely free. 

As the client is taken from one area of the clinic  to another, the advocate looks for opportunities to share Christ with the client.  Also, every step along the way, the nurses, doctors, hairdressers, etc, all have impromptu opportunities to pray with the guest, to share their testimonies, and to love on the guest, all in the name of Christ. 

On the day of the clinic, the client may leave with their medications (no narcotics are kept on clinic site), family photos, a new haircut, dental work completed, new glasses, a belly full from a hot meal, sacks of groceries and toiletries, a physical, and counseling of various sorts.  They may also have a referral for a doc  for follow up treatment at no cost to them as well.  Each clinic is a little varied based on the community and the desires of the hosting church.

In Harlan, we had a full clinic.  Medical needs were met.  Eye glasses were ordered.  Mamograms, pap smears, toiletry bags, haircuts, family photos, a hot meal- all provided for these families living in poverty in an area so close to us.

As Duncan and I drove to the clinic, we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery on our way through the mountains.

From Touched Twice Clinis

When we arrived we had a huge surprise. We thought we were going to be staying in a tent, and on the way we received a call that the Cumberland Church of God was going to host us. Pastor Wilcox and his congregation greeted us joyfully and lead us to our accomadations. They were more than we felt we deserved. The room was beautiful, clean, and very welcoming. It had an adjoining bathroom with a shower, and they permitted us to use the fellowship hall kitchen, which was amazing. At that point, we nearly cried. Here we had come from Louisville to “rough it”and serve fora few days, and instead this community was embracing us and offering us much more than we ever imagined.
Duncan lounging in “our” room. Isn’t it lovely?

From Touched Twice Clinis

Here is the beautiful Kitchen on loan to us during our stay:

From Touched Twice Clinis

The next day we attended volunteer training

From Touched Twice Clinis

The Toiletry Bags collected by churches all over:

From Touched Twice Clinis

From Touched Twice Clinis

Anointing of the volunteers the night before the clinic, asking that they go forth and share the gospel. Yes, this room is FULL of volunteers who came to serve in the name of Jesus.

From Touched Twice Clinis

Volunteers:

States—————10

Zip Codes————189

Churches————-160

Denominations———–38

Total # Vol———–668

Clinic volunteers all gearing up for clients:

From Touched Twice Clinis

Each color shirt means something. They are used as a code for other workers to know who can help with different issues. That is Duncan in the Blue shirt. Handsome, isn’t he?

Volunteers sorting medications for the onsite pharmacy.

From Touched Twice Clinis

For a variety of reasons, I did not take lots of pics during the clinic. I wanted all the guests to feel completely comfortable and not worry that people were taking pictures of them. Also, for privacy reasons, it seems like taking pictures may violate their privacy, but there was one young man who I specifically asked if I could take his picture.

I do not know much about him, but he and Duncan had a good time talking. One evening, after the clinic we visited a ministry called Club 180 and Josh was there, so he and Duncan struck up some games of pool. I specifically asked him if I could have permission to take his picture and share it on my blog, and he said yes. I really wanted to take his picture because I wanted the children to get to see the really amazing looking guy with rainbow Mohawk hair and tattoos play pool with their straight laced daddy. Josh was a neat young man and we feel privileged to get to meet him. Duncan visited with him far more than I did.

From Touched Twice Clinis

From Touched Twice Clinis

From Touched Twice Clinis

That evening in Club 180 we also got to hear a couple of great worship bands.

Sound quality is terrible on this:

From Touched Twice Clinis

Again, bad sound quality:

From Touched Twice Clinis

Those of you who know us well realize this is not our usual style of worship, but these bands were reaching the youth of Harlan with the gospel message in their “own language.” The youth that come to Cafe 180 are discipled and loved by the workers there. Amazingly before we even went on this trip, Christina and Duncan were doing “Experiencing God” and on one of the weeks they interviewed a gentlemen working in Harlan with the youth and who runs Cafe 180. We got to meet him and serve alongside him at the clinic, and then felt very joyful in God giving us the opportunity to be there and see the Cafe first hand.

As for the clinic, there were 700 Guests served. 20 accepted Christ.

The final evening of the clinic we had the opportunity to sit down and talk to the pastor of the lovely congregation that hosted us. The Pastor and his wife seems very interested in talking with us, and the next day we stayed and attended church with their congregation. Duncan was given the opportunity to speak to the congregation and he shared with them our hope that the local community could put aside their denominational boundaries and just begin serving with all their hearts in Jesus’ name and to let the barrier walls between the churches come tumbling down.

Afterward, pastor, his wife and another wonderful couple invited us to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. It was YUMMY and the conversation was hilarious. Duncan and pastor went turn after turn sharing jokes that kept the rest of us in stitches for most of the meal.

When we left, we felt certain that the Lord was calling us to go back for a visit in the near future to serve in some small way, so who knows where that will lead.

To find out more about touched twice, visit their site:
www.touchedtwice.org

Happy Homemaking!
Malia Russell

Instead of having her friends over to shower her with gifts, Sarah asked that each girl bring toiletry items and bags to give as gifts to some of the teen girls who came through the clinic.

Additionally, we would be styling hair, putting on mail polish, etc for fun.  We also took before and after pics of each girl.  However, half the pictures were taken on my daughter’s professional camera and she has it at work with her, so I cannot access those pics.  But these should give you some ideas of how the party went.

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

One girl’s dad is a firefighter, so they arrived via Fire Truck. This caused much excitement.

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

The Birthday Girl’s "Before" picture

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

Anne Mary with two friends sitting on either side.

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

Filling the bags…

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

From Sarah’s Touched Twice Birthday Party

Now…..here is where our bags ended up….in a room with hundreds of other bags like them. Now, just waiting for clients.

From Touched Twice Clinis

Last year, you may recall that Anne Mary had an "Operation Christmas Child" Birthday party where we did a similar thing, but made shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child Instead. My girls love to have birthday parties (cake, balloons, presents, being the center of attention for a day)- who doesn’t? But our family certainly is not in need of anything compared to those we can serve. By asking for contributions to charity and building a birthday party around it, the girls get to have all the fun and none of the wastefulness. To find out more about "Touched Twice" you can see our future blogpost telling about the clinic and their website: http://www.touchedtwice.org/ Happy Homemaking! Malia Russell

Influencing Children’s Hearts
What I REALLY Wish I Knew When My Children Were Young — 4 CD set

Multitudes of homeschool parents around the country, including leaders, have graduated their first batch of kids, only to watch their graduates go wayward. Many were model homeschoolers while growing up, but sometime after their 18th birthday they began to reveal that they didn’t hold to their parents’ values. In this 4-session set Reb exposes blind spots in parenting which contribute to the breakdown of relationship between parents and children, and thereby increase prodigal tendencies. Every homeschooler and every family-minded parent needs to hear these messages.

Session titles include:

Solving the Crisis in Homeschooling
Winning Your Children’s Hearts: Influencing Through Relationship
Raising Children who Love God
The Power of a Strong Family

Audio CD set: $28 $21 + shipping

From Veggie Pizza

These are the veggies we started to cut for the pizza.

From Veggie Pizza

Prepping Veggies for roasting

From Veggie Pizza

The pizza fresh from the oven.

From Veggie Pizza

The proud Chefs! Sarah (11) and Anne Mary (8)

This quick 4 week class went far too fast! We really enjoyed it!

Want to learn about the Very Veggie Video class next time it is offered? Check it out here:
Very Veggie Videos

Happy Homemaking!

Malia Russell

I also perused their wide selection of ice cream cakes.  They have several that are in the $9.99 range.  I thought about the Fourth of July coming up-it is my future son-in-law’s birthday!   These would be a terrific choice.  They are nice looking, delicious, and affordable for our celebration.  Now I just have to decide if I should make it patriotic or like a traditional birthday cake.  Holiday birthdays are always so tricky!

If you are interested in seeing some of their desserts, you can go look right at home at:

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/

YIKES!  I just saw their Brownie a la Mode Dessert.  I may have to take the kids up and split one sometime soon.

Thurs 8am PST http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19736

The topic:   Share how your culture affects your communication!

Even if you cannot make it to the show live, you can always go there and listen to past broadcasts.  Her podcasts are FREE.  If you are homeschooling older students, you might let them listen along as part of their speech or communications credit!

Happy Homemaking!
Malia

This week I tried:

• Pecan Stuffed Chicken Breasts (p. 109)- Have not had this yet.
• Baked Blueberry French Toast (p. 204)- Very Yummy!  I did not serve it with syrup.  We thought it was sweet enough.
• French Onion Soup (p. 72)-Yummy, but it was time consuming.  And, it is not very filling.  For an appetizer for a special dinner, I would do this again, but not for a main course.  Slicing and cooking the onions was very time consuming.
• Cranberry Chicken (p.97)- Quick, easy, yummy.  I used Fat Free Catalina dressing and it turned out just fine.

Have you tried any new freezer recipes lately?

Just got this note from Jennie to offer this freebie to my readers.  It is a limited time offer, so if you want to try it, grab it today.  Here is her note:

“With Times Tales, learning the upper times tables is so easy even a kindergartener can learn them! Don’t believe it? Now you can see for yourself just how effective Times Tales is…and it won’t cost you a thing! For a limited time only, you can get a free trial download of Times Tales plus a free Memory Trigger Ebook, just for signing up for Trigger Memory System’s, Education Through Imagination newsletter.
To sign up and get your freebies visit: http://www.triggermemorysystem.com/TrialDownload.html<http://www.triggermemorysystem.com/TrialDownload.html>

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

Malia

I already know that one of our favorite recipes (Cheesy Chicken Bundles p.81) came from this book, but I wanted to try new things.

Here is what I tried and our comments:

Buttermilk Herb Chicken Breasts (p.80) We thought this was very yummy, but it did call for Buttermilk which I do not usually keep on hand.  Also, we have another chicken marinade which is delicious, and we decided  this was good for a little change, but we like our favorite one better.

Beef Chimichangas (p. 120) - OK, this was a winner.  We LOVE it.  I used whole wheat tortillas instead of flour and used the lower fat method the authors added as a note.   We will be making this one again!  Oh, and I used half ground venison and half ground beef to reduce the cost and fat.

Colorado White Chili (p.69)-Completely YUMMY.  Next time, I will double the beans.  Delicious!

Honey Pork Chops (p. 135) - This was very good.  Next time I will reduce the honey by half.  Everyone else thought it was perfect, but I thought it was too sweet.

Now, I want to try the Oriental Sesame Chicken Strips (p.108), but I cannot find the Good Seasons Oriental Sesame Dressing in my local stores, so I am checking to see if I can find something suitable for a substitute.

This week I am trying:

• Pecan Stuffed Chicken Breasts (p. 109)
• Baked Blueberry French Toast (p. 204)
• French Onion Soup (p. 72)
• Cranberry Chicken (p.97)

I may not actually eat all these this week.  Since they are freezer meals, I may just prep them and put them up for another time.

Have you made any really yummy freezer meals lately?