Amy Scott's Thoughts

Sharing the thoughts that bounce around in my brain!

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner! November 19, 2011

Filed under: Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 8:00 am

I feel like I cheated a bit. On Thursday night my husband and I made a small feast and it was very much like that of Thanksgiving. Now it didn’t have all the trimmings, but it had all my favorites! Jeremy grew a ton of potatoes this summer in his garden. I asked him if he wanted to make anything in particular on Thursday night since we would both be home and he said something with potatoes. From there the inspiration of our meal unfolded. We could do mashed potatoes… we have a frozen turkey breast in the freezer… I could attempt to make dinner rolls for the first time… Jeremy would stop by the store and get cranberry jelly. There you have it – my Thanksgiving staples – turkey, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and cranberry jelly. Yum!!! In the original plan, Jeremy was going to make stuffing, but he was too hungry when he came home so the stuffing went by the wayside so we could eat faster. Sad for him, not so much for me. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never been a big fan of stuffing.

I was really nervous about making dinner rolls. I guess I’ve heard one too many stories about how someone’s rolls didn’t rise enough or the rolls turned into hard lumps or they were undercooked and doughy. In my mind, rolls have always been something that could go wrong in a number of ways. Normally I stick to buying already baked rolls or the frozen kind. However, in my quest for culinary greatness, I decided to try my hand at making dinner rolls. I found that I like making rolls more than I like making bread. The recipe I used was easier to work with and the flavor was better in my opinion. The only thing I struggled with is getting my dough to rise because my house tends to be on the colder side. However, it was worth the patience and the rolls were fabulous!

We enjoyed our meal a lot! A pre-taste of what is come in less than a week! It’s so hard to wait until Thanksgiving when there are so many good foods in the stores and commercials on television keep showing holiday meals. It was impossible to pass up the opportunity! After dinner, Jeremy talked me into playing Wii Party with him. He has been trying to get me to play for a while, so I caved. It was fun. I won one game and he won the other. Snowflakes fell for a bit so we sat with the curtains open so we could see them falling. After Wii Party, I made an apple crisp to end our feasting evening! I know we’ll have lots of pumpkin treats next week and I still had apples to use, so it seemed that apple was a better direction to go! Overall it was a very tasty and fun evening. It truly feels like the holiday season is here and I am loving it!

 

Treasured Possessions November 18, 2011

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf — Amy Scott @ 1:06 pm

Okay, I know the Bible says not to store up treasures here on earth… I totally get that… but being  human and all, I have some treasures and they live in my guest room on a bookshelf. I love my books! In fact, I dream of of having a wall of shelves completely filled with books. My next dream would be to have a library room with all the walls completely covered in books. Ah, dreams! Books have always been a big part of my life. In elementary school, I was addicted to reading the Sweet Valley Twins. In middle school and high school, I read everything by Robin Jones Gunn I could get may hands on. My favorite book series still to this day would be The Christy Miller Series and all the books about Christy’s friends.

I think the reason I like books so much is they become like friends to me. Many people have rolled their eyes when I’ve said that, but it’s true. I get attached to the characters and I love to revisit them. Now not all of my books are fiction. I have a great deal of books on leadership, spiritual growth, and Bible study. These are also very important to me because they have played a big part in shaping who I am today. All of my books have had influence in my life and I am grateful for the voices of others who have inspired me and challenged me.

Recently I have gone through what I call a “fluffy” reading phase. Fluffy is my term for fiction. It’s just for fun. I love the stories, I revisit the characters, but it’s not super deep stuff… During my fluffy phase, I have reread the Love Comes Softly series and the Glenbrooke Series. Both are two of my favorite series that I discovered as an adult. I started to read the Love Comes Softly books originally after watching the Hallmark movies. I am amazed how different they are and I find that I like the plot of the books a lot more. Both are good though, just extremely different. The Glenbrooke Series takes place in a fictional small town out of Portland, OR. This series is written by my favorite author, Robin Jones Gunn.  I like these books because they are written for a twenty-somethings audience with old, familiar characters weaved into the plot from her books about Christy. It’s like catching a glimpse of old friends!

The last book I finished was Rooms by James L. Rubart. I would say the style is supernatural suspense. I can’t remember the last time I read a novel written by a man. There were times when I literally laughed out loud because of the difference in writing styles. It’s not the usual romantic tales I’m used to, even though the book does have a love story. It’s an intriguing book about a man who inherits a house in Cannon Beach, OR and the house has many rooms that appear and are a reflection of his heart and his life. It was fun to read something out of my normal style. I also love the fact that it takes place in a local setting. I enjoy recognizing the landmarks in the book.

I’m now in the process of deciding what to read next. I’m out of “new” books, so I’m back to rereading from my own collection. I really don’t mind that because like I said they are my friends and enjoy revisiting them. I’m always keeping my eyes out for another good read! I love going back to my bookshelf and putting away my last book and grabbing another. In fact, I think I’ll take a walk down there right now!

 

Marshmallow Overload Part 2 November 16, 2011

Filed under: Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 10:52 am

In a previous blog, I explained that Jeremy and I have an abundance of marshmallows in our pantry. I created pumpkin spice marshmallow treats a few weeks ago using Cinnamon Burst Cheerios and Jet Puffed Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows. This creation tasted great, but I learned a few things from the experience. First – Cheerios are harder to cut than Rice Krispies. Second – Cheerios get a soggy texture after they are encased in marshmallow. They were great the first day, but they next day they no longer had the firm texture they once had (and that was while they were stored in an airtight container).

With these learning experiences in mind, I set out to make another marshmallow creation. This time I used Cocoa Krispies and Jet Puffed Chocolate Mint Marshmallows. To finish off the taste and presentation, I sprinkled Andes Mint baking chips on the top. In my opinion, the marshmallows don’t really taste all that chocolatey or minty. I melted them in them in the microwave and during the process the brown and green coloring blended to make a strange color. The Cocoa Krispies are very chocolatey and I think they are going to be the real flavor punch of the treat. Once the marshmallow was mixed with the cereal, the color didn’t seem as odd.  I figured since the marshmallows didn’t have a strong mint flavor, the mints on top would really complete the chocolate mint combination.

It’s been really fun coming up non-traditional recipes with marshmallows. So far all my creations have been in cereal treats, but I have another recipe up my sleeve for the holidays that involved dipping marshmallows in white chocolate. I am very excited!!! So this is not the last of the marshmallow blogs! More marshmallow fun is still to come!

 

A Crafty Afternoon November 14, 2011

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:27 pm

Saturday night my sister-in-law, Beckie, and I braved the wind and the wet for the Craft Warehouse Open House. This is a once a year holiday sale that fills the store with people. I have been twice and each time I have had to wait outside in a line before I can actually enter the store. The store is very kind and they hand out hot cider to the people waiting. This year I walked away with a tree shaped advent calendar. As you can tell, it was a blank canvas. I bought some paper and ribbon that I thought might help in my new project and called it a very successful open house.

This afternoon I let myself get lost in the craft project. I don’t often spend the whole afternoon crafting, but once I started, I couldn’t stop!!! I ended up using paper and ribbon that I’ve had in my stash for a while (not what I purchased in at Craft Warehouse). The majority of the time was spent cutting and gluing paper. I stamped the numbers and made them raised from the boxes. To finish things off and make the lines cleaner, I used a hot glue gun to put ribbon around the edges.

For a long time I’ve been looking for an advent calendar. I love counting down the days until Christmas and I’m really looking forward to using my crafty creation to do so. My plan is to put candy cane kisses into the little boxes each day as my special treat. I was just thinking I wanted to buy a bag of these holiday kisses, but I knew portion control would be challenging with an open bag. Now I’ll put just a couple of kisses in each day. I can enjoy a favorite Christmas treat while keeping myself in line! For me, this is a total win-win-win! I get a cute advent calendar, a holiday treat, and it’s guilt-free! All beautiful things in my book!

 

Failure happens… November 12, 2011

Filed under: Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 1:58 pm

There is nothing worse than starting a project with lots of hope and having it end in failure. Welcome to my morning!!! Last weekend while we were visiting family, Jeremy and I picked up a 10lbs. bag of Honey Crisp apples. I was brainstorming what I could do with them since we couldn’t eat them all before they went bad. I originally decided I would make an apple crisp tomorrow for our life group. However, I later decided that I want to try my hand at making a pie again. Since a pie needed more time, I set to work on it this morning.

This time I made my own crust because we were out of the mix we’d used in the past. I was okay with making my own crust because I really wanted to try it. It turns out making crust is a bit of a challenge. At least it was to me. I conquered the pie and added a lot more apples than the last pie I made. I thought I had learned from my past mistakes and this pie promised to be better than the last. I love sugary tops on pie so I decide to add that element to my crust. I followed the directions…

However, I was met with failure. The sugar on the top of the pie burnt and made my pie both look and smell unappealing. I was so discouraged because I had put over 2 hours of effort into that pie and I was planning on taking it to life group. That was no longer an option. I will not bring sub-standard goodies to my life group.

I knew I needed to make something else for life group, but I didn’t have the time to do something as complicated as a pie. I went into the pantry and pulled out my pumpkin spice bread mix from Costco. I had just used this mix last night for pumpkin spice waffles, so I knew this would be tasty and quick. The box had a cookie recipe on the back, so I went to work making pumpkin spice cookies. They turned out great and they helped with the semi-burnt smell in my house.

When trying to practice and develop skills, failure is going to happen. Something you did well last time might not turn out great the next time. I am still learning. The last apple pie I made didn’t have enough apples. This time great amount of apples, but burnt crust. I’m not sure what next time will hold, but I can assure you – there will be a next time. I’m not giving up. I may not ever be a pie master, but I will make a decent pie that I am pleased with. This is my goal. I believe it’s possible. If not – thank God for prepackaged mixes that make for quick snack substitutes!

 

Occupational Harzards Part 2 November 11, 2011

Filed under: Children's Ministry — Amy Scott @ 6:43 pm

As I mentioned in a previous blog, our session that we taught at the Fusion Children’s Leaders Conference is now on iTunes for free download. I listened to it today and I have to admit I’m please with how it turned out. I do say “um” one too many times, but overall I think Jeremy and I  presented our material well. You are more than welcome to have a listen for yourself! Below is the link, but you can also find it by searching under NWMN Children’s Ministries. This was a great first time speaking opportunity and I’m happy to share it with the blogging world!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fusion-2011-occupational-hazards/id268644283?i=105378257

 

Forever Friends!

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:23 pm

At Cheesecake Factory - November 2011

I’m not a big fan of the term “best friend” because it’s so limiting. I have a small group of people in my life would I consider my best friends, but I like the term forever friend more! The truth is these people will be in my life until I die or they die. I’m pretty wimpy, so chances are I’ll go first. These are the people I expect to be in contact with… well, forever. My forever friends mean the world to me and I will never let them get away.

Last night I had dinner in Seattle with one of my forever friends! Maggie and I have been friends since our junior year in high school. I remember going off to college and being told that your high school friends don’t stick around so just stop investing in them. I was really hurt by the person who said that because I didn’t want that to be true. With a lot of intentionally, on both our parts, Maggie and I are still really close friends to this day.

We’ve been on missions trips together, talked through what colleges to go to, talked a lot

High School Graduation - June 2004

about our crushes and then eventually about our future husbands! Maggie was actually the one that greatly encouraged me to date Jeremy. I vividly remember sitting in Starbucks telling her I was really worried about the whole dating situation. I didn’t want to have a list – more than one boyfriend. I only wanted one and I was nervous about making a commitment because what if it didn’t work out. Maggie encouraged meto take that step and get over my fears. Obviously things worked out pretty well for Jeremy and I.

There are lots of experiences we’ve shared together. Too many to list or count. She is a friend that I truly trust. I can be honest with her and I know I can expect honesty in return. The shared laughter and the shared tears over the years has proven that our friendship runs deep. Maggie is a forever friend that I plan on calling when I’m in the nursing home! She can’t shake me! We’ve made it this far and I look forward to all the joy that our friendship will bring in the coming the years!

I love you, Maggie! Thank you for the many awesome years of friendship! I still believe that many more amazing years are to come!

 

Give Thanks November 10, 2011

Filed under: Children's Ministry,One Thousand Gifts Challenge — Amy Scott @ 1:47 pm

There is a craft that I love to do every year around this time.  November is the perfect time to focus on thankfulness and I love crafts that really highlight being thankful. Oriental Trading offers a great craft called Tree of Thanks. I just call them Thankful Trees. The tree is easy to construct and then the leaves are attached with glue dots. The glue dots make the craft mess free and make sure that the leaves don’t fall off – which will happen with regular glue or glue sticks.

I encourage the girls to use all their leaves and write one item they are thankful for on each leaf. Some of them moan like this is an impossible task, but I think it’s good to push them to think hard about what they are thankful for. For me, I feel like I could have used double the leaves I was given. Obviously this foam tree can’t hold all that I am thankful for. The one thing that I learned from doing the One Thousand Gifts Challenge is that there are so many gifts in each day. Yes, there are things like my home, family, and friends that are constant things in my life, but each day the good gifts of the Lord abound. The things I wrote on my tree are some of my top blessings and some just random ones- like pajamas.  My heart always feels so light as write down each gift the Lord has given to me. I look forward to this craft night every year. It’s a great visual reminder of how blessed we are and it’s a call to thankfulness.

Last night overall was a great night! We started of with part two of our Whoonu tournament. It’s a game all about your favorite things and we are taking turns to make sure that everyone in class gets to pick her favorite things. This game is great for getting to know what the girls like and don’t like. Our lesson time focused on prayer and what it is. I want the girls to come away with the idea that prayer is talking to God just like they would talk to their friends. Nothing fancy, but simple, honest communication with God. We celebrated Audrey’s birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” and each blowing out a candle. They loved it just as much as I thought they would! We closed the night by working on our Thankful Trees. As I left the church last night, I could help but smile as I thought about how blessed I am by my class and by the youth helpers that share it with me.

 

Audrey’s Birthday November 9, 2011

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 2:31 pm

Let me tell you a funny story… At the beginning of the school year, my class helper, Aimee, made up Audrey. This imaginary student really took off with my class of girls and now we talk about Audrey every week. She is our class imaginary, special friend. The funny thing is I get confused from time to time and call her Aubrey… Good thing she’s not a real student or that would be bad news! It’s been a bonding experience to have Audrey be apart of a our class. The girls have really rallied around her and love to make up stories about what she likes and what she’s been up to. It’s quite hilarious! The class decided that today is Audrey’s birthday a couple of months ago. No surprise that is is on a Wednesday night so they can celebrate it.

I try to make something special for the class when I know there is going to be a birthday. Audrey’s birthday is no exception. Originally I planned on making yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was easy. However, my creative side just had to take over. I’ve got a couple cans of pumpkin in the pantry that I’ve been dying to play with. So of course, I looked up recipes on my handy Betty Crocker app and found one that sounded good. I turned plain yellow cake mix into Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spice Frosting.

I followed the cupcake recipe to the letter – except when it came to the pumpkin pie spice. I don’t own that spice, but I do own all the spice that make it, so I quickly threw together my own pumpkin pie spice. When it came time to think about frosting I was in a bit of a pickle. Most pumpkin recipes call for cream cheese frosting. I didn’t have any cream cheese frosting and I felt no need to run out and get some. Instead I used the basic vanilla butter-cream recipe and added pumpkin and spice! Thus creating Pumpkin Spice Frosting!

I tried to make the frosting really thick, but I found that when I started to pipe it onto the cupcakes it started to soften just a little too much. Instead of completely frosting the cupcakes I decided to go with a drizzle effect. The pumpkin on pumpkin flavoring is good, but I thought less is more in this situation. Once the cupcakes were frosted, I used holiday sprinkles to add the finishing touch.

Tonight I plan on bringing birthday candles and putting one in each on the cupcakes. I’ll let each girl blow out a candle in celebration of Audrey’s birthday. Since she is a special friend to the entire class, I figured that they all can take a unique part in celebrating her birthday.

 

Occupational Hazards November 7, 2011

Filed under: Children's Ministry — Amy Scott @ 7:30 pm

This was the title of the workshop Jeremy and I taught last Friday. As mentioned in my previous blog, I was pretty nervous about teaching a workshop at our network’s annual children’s leaders conference. For a long time Jeremy and I felt that we should teach a session and this year the opportunity presented itself. Jeremy was asked to speak and he quickly added me into the mix.

Now teaching adult is something I don’t do very often and co-teaching with my husband is something I don’t do very often. This combination had me on edge. It would have been easy to skip the experience and tell Jeremy to do it on his own. I’m very familiar with the role of being the cheerleader for my husband and staying behind the scenes. However, I knew that I will never grow beyond my current skills if I say no to new opportunities. One of the things I was told by a mentor was seize all opportunities – that meant beyond my writing ambitions and into the platform of speaking. I’m much more comfortable behind my keyboard, but I decided to step up to the challenge.

Before I tell you how the actual workshop went, let me give you some background. Jeremy and I offered four topics that we could speak on. The hardest one was chosen – working closely with your spouse. That is why we decided to call the workshop “Occupational Hazards”. We’ve learned a lot from working so closely together in ministry. Our workshop was set to highlight the good and the bad of partnering in ministry and how to set boundaries so that way your marriage stays top priority and thrives.

Jeremy and I had a lot of fun putting this class together. We laughed a lot! We’ve walked through the frustrations of shared space and spending a lot of time together – more than the average couple. We love being able to do ministry together, but we have learned from the ups and downs. Preparing this class alongside Jeremy was a great experience for me. Jeremy affirmed my call to ministry numerous times and really validated the role I play as his partner. Even if no one heard our class, just the experience was preparing it was a good one for me.

The day of the workshop, Jeremy and I slipped off campus from the conference and went to lunch. We went over our notes and made sure we knew who was speaking to what points. I went into the workshop session feeling fairly confident that we knew our stuff. I was right – we were totally prepared and I feel like we present our material the best that we could. The one downside was we presented to a group of six people. I was expecting at least thirty in my mind, so the reality of six was a little disheartening. However, we had a couple stay afterward to talk and ask us questions. I felt that even if we touched only six people, maybe those six really needed to hear what we had to say. Maybe only two did. I don’t know. All I know is that I did my best. I feel like Jeremy and I succeeded in our mission for the class. I’m not too concerned that we didn’t reach the multitudes… what we did was our best and that is enough for me!

Side note: The session will be podcasted on itunes. Once it is up and I have listened to it – I’ll post a link so you can hear it as well. Maybe the podcast will reach farther than the class itself. If not you can at least hear my first attempt at public speaking outside of Bethel Church.