Whiter than snow

This week we had somewhere between 5 & 8 inches of snow. I think the official might have been 5 but we heard of others who had 8. What does our official weather guy say, Marc??

This morning in my devotions, I was reading from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 in The Message:

...One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins....

Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

It made me think of the verse from Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow". Wow! Amazing forgiveness!

Pantry

The kids have sometimes come across out-dated things in our pantry. Cereal or some snacks that just have been forgotten. Yesterday I had some time....

...so I decided to tackle the pantry.

This is my pantry.

It is a "secret" walk-in pantry.

Three shelves are non-food items; paper goods, baskets, dishes, and

several Country Woman magazines that are filled with wonderful recipes!

I went shelf by shelf.

Really, not too much was out-dated.

There was a can of coffee creamer that had got stuck clear in the back that was dated 2006. (Yes, I did throw it out!) The oldest out-dated item I found was this - alum. I think I purchased it years ago to make home-made playdough, but I am not sure. Do you think it would still work?

If an item isn't dated - does that mean it lasts indefinitely?

Like Liquid Smoke or garlic wine vinegar.

I wonder how old this is???!!!

Is it still ok to use in soups?! Ha!!

Here is my spice shelf.

Yes - I am one of THOSE people who alphabetizes her spices.

Hey, when you are looking for a spice, it comes right handy!

My cereal shelf... Japanese foods shelf....
and the grandchildren's favorite - the snack shelf!
I felt so accomplished when it was all done!

Now maybe I should tackle the refrigerator.

Creation

The girls came over today. They wanted a snack. First I gave them some apple juice. Hannah said "My favorite juice is apple-mango-silly chocolate milk-cool juice. It is very yummy and most delicious. It sort of tastes sour lemonish." Next, I got out some left over sugar cookies from Christmas and I let them each pick one to decorate. (I don't know why it came out sideways. I couldn't change it)

oops. Sophie got a little too much sprinkles!

I teach a story each week. Today the lesson was the story of creation.

When I finished, Hannah wanted a turn at being the teacher.

Hannah:

"'Let there be light' God said in a firm and loud voice."

"This land is kind of creepy so He made some more."

"He made some animals to be occupied."

"Some fish like to swim near the elephant."

"Let there be some more recreation!"

And that is just what Sophia decided to do.