pretty things on a cold day
found these pretty necklaces through a blog link to Lisa Leonard Designs….love these two in particular – simple, lightweight silver necklaces:
Bettin Girl Blog
exploring the sacred and the ordinary
Onion Tartletts
my friend Jenny made these in December and I have been meaning to try the recipe myself ever since…I ended up making them this past weekend and I think they went over well so here’s the recipe. If you were feeling extra adventurous you could add a little chopped bacon or serve them with a little balsamic + tomato chutney on top. Thanks Jenny for passing this along to me!
Onion Tartletts
Ingredients
1 to 2 large onions* (about 3 cups chopped)
1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons of canola oil
1/2 cup of water
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup of milk**
1 cup of shredded Swiss cheese (about 4-ounces)
1/4 teaspoon of salt (i used fresh ground sea salt)
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
1 package ready-to-use pie crust (2 crusts)
**for a richer flavor, substitute heavy whipping cream
Directions
*Preheat oven to 375
*In a large skillet or sauce pan, saute the chopped onion in the oil and brown sugar for about 3 minutes
*Add water + cook until the onions are tender and a golden brown. Allow onions to cool
*In separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, cheese, salt and pepper.
*Add onion mixture to the egg mixture and set aside.
*Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter (or large glass if you don’t have one), cut the pie crusts into rounds. Re-roll and cut additional pie crust scraps
*Place each of your rounds in greases regular-sized muffin cup pan (shape to fit the bottom/press about 1/2-inch up the side of each cup.
*Spoon about 2 tbsp of caramelized onion mixture into each pie crust cup.
*Bake for 20 minutes or until inserting a knife in the center of the tart comes out nice and clean. Cool the tarts in the muffin cups for 5 minutes, remove and serve right away or store them for a day before serving
Makes 30 tartletts
wishes wishes
if we lived anywhere near NYC, Josh and I would definitely be checking this out in March/April:
http://americanidiotonbroadway.com/media.php
Check out the 21 guns video on the site – Green Day + the cast of the show.
Green Day + Broadway = I’m hooked!
color ideas?
I am getting serious about getting a few things done around the house this year and i can’t put off painting our bathroom any longer. So, for my those of you who love paint colors I’m looking for some ideas, some inspiration on what to paint our bathroom. Here’s a picture below of what it looks like when we moved in -
you can’t see much of it, but the walls are a very pale green + the rest of the bathroom is white – white subway tile with a single black border in the shower. The entire shower area is tiled, so the paint color would only be on three walls. Any fabulous ideas from you paint swatch fanatics out there?
back to life, back to reality
i just spent 10 days out in Colorado taking my final two classes for Covenant Orientation (the program necessary for those of us who attended seminaries other than North Park and want to serve as ministers and missionaries through the Covenant Church). It took a couple of days getting used to the elevation change (the super dry air made me use up all my hand lotion + my hair was a static nightmare, i case you were wondering!), but for the most part it was a really great week and a half.
I spent time in the mountains at a retreat center for a class called vocational excellence (which was 4 days of learning how to preach well, teach well, care well, etc. not to mention intensive time learning about my personality type, strengths + weaknesses, spiritual direction, etc.). I got to know my fellow classmates better than any other CEOP class I’ve taken and felt like I was finally able to pause and listen to what God was saying to me. Granted, I felt like I was getting hit over the head with the theme of self care, which for me means that I need to 1. be less hard on myself; 2. take time to pause and breathe; 3. learn how to manage my stress; 4. figure out how to structure my life so I’m living more out of abundance and less out of exhaustion; 5. find more contentment in simply “being” as opposed to “doing”. I know these things, but I don’t know them in the sense that I have really taken seriously until now just how important it is to be giving and living and serving out of a healthy place as opposed to a frenetic and determined place. I am able to recognize those manic moments in others and have, as of late, been discouraged at that kind of pressure and pace from some that I encounter – but its been harder to name it for myself and realize that I don’t have to always be the do-er, the person that makes everything happen (to the detriment of my our sanity and spiritual life). Great lessons, now as I enter back into the real world its a challenge.
I feel like I no more stepped off the plane than I was hit with work challenges and volunteer requests. *sigh* I feel like I was hit with a truck the first couple of days this week – people’s disappointment because I can’t be in two places at once, an overwhelming sense that it is already February and I already feel behind in this new job.
So today as I worked from home, I decided to stop for a few minutes and take a deep breath. I started dinner for us in the crockpot, I leafed through a favorite house plan magazine, I gave Bex + Lucy big hugs/snuggle time and I prayed that God would help me find a stronger measure of peace in the midst of mounting pressures and expectation. And I was reminded again that I do have the ability to say “no” to things, that I need to protect my ability to have time with family and friends and that its okay to sit for 20 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon and be still.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but I’m hoping that at least for tonight I can laugh and give Josh a big hug and watch Lost and eat bbq chicken and relax.
moving forward
Seems I just keep crossing things off my list for 2010 (or I stacked the list with some things I knew I would accomplish!). I officially made my decision about jobs today. This week I’ve been fortunate enough to have two fabulous ministry jobs open up for me and it was hard to decide which path to take. Each role provided a venue for me to minister and use my gifts. Each has challenges and new adventures to be a part of. In the end Josh and I spent the past two days talking and praying about where we felt like our life was heading and which position felt like the best fit in conjunction with those dreams and goals.
So, I am officially taking a new job with the Camp Noah program at Lutheran Social Service of MN. If that sounds a little familiar, I have worked with them since 2006. I quit that particular job in 2008 and consulted for the program all last year. A number of changes have taken place there in the past few months and the opportunity has arisen for me to take on a new, full-time leadership position working with congregations. I’ll get to do more preaching+speaking, develop a new program for volunteers to serve children affected by disaster, and generally use my gifts+skills for this national ministry. I am looking forward to moving ahead, having this decision made and getting a fresh start (even if this is a place that I have a long history with). It really feels like a “new day” with my role there (and my ability to create more boundaries with the organization) and as risky as it is (the life of the non-profit program is always a little shaky, especially in these economic times) I’m ready to jump in and give the best effort I can.
Thanks to those of you who have listened at length over the past few weeks as I contemplated what would happen if I had to choose. As always, I have appreciated the counsel and the chance for me to talk through the decision, and talk and talk and talk through the decision. Time to get to work…
The “30″ for 2010
I love this time of year as there’s something about a new year that makes makes me ready for fresh starts + new adventures.
As I have in years past, I created my “30″ for 2010 – with the top 30 things that I wanted to attempt this year. As I ready through the list for 2009 I realized that once again I did NOT do most of the things on the list – and instead did a lot of other things: consulted for two organizations, was granted a minister’s license, celebrated two family weddings, helped Josh and my mom through two successful surgeries, spent lots of time with Bex + Lucy, found a successful christmas cookie recipe, read more books, took more pictures. I like the idea of having this little list of things I’d like to do for the coming year, knowing that much of it may shift depending on lots of circumstances and giving myself the grace to leave things undone. Here are the few things I “checked off” this list from 2009, and here’s a good chunk of the new list for 2010 (which inevitably includes some of the things I didn’t do last year and a few more realistic options for 2010):
The Year that Was (2009)
I started recycling boxboard (making Josh and the earth much happier)
I bought a gray sweater that I loved
Camped out 3 times
Helped Mom and Kevin move
Joined LinkedIn
Kept my SmugMug relatively up to date
The Year that Will Be (2010)
- Take 2 fabulous trips
- Start a new job
- Try 5 new restaurants
- Stress less – and figure out how to manage that stress a little better
- Finish my CEOP classes
- Revamp our address/contacts list
- Create a great salsa recipe
- Begin basement remodel (will it really happen this year?)
- Paint the bathroom + hallway
- Develop a good “from-scratch” Asian meal
- Make pickles and jam this fall
- Create a household recipe book
- Buy part of a cow from a sustainable farm
- Get a Minneapolis library card
- Host one family holiday
- Take classes at North Park Seminary to finish up ordination requirements
- Clean and organize guest room closet
- Print more pictures and update photos around the house
- Make it to the final playoffs in Fantasy Football
a year
2009 is coming to a close and its time for another update from our world. Some of these made it into the mail this year, but alas I didn’t get them mailed out to everyone I was hoping to. So, its posted here instead.
we rang in the new year in Chicago
celebrated birthdays and turned 32
watched bex & lucy run around in the backyard
fell in love with a little show called “Glee”
set off crazy fireworks on the 4th
and learned how to drive the boat
sang karaoke and danced like robots
traveled to Michigan, Chicago, Washington and all over Minnesota
hosted lots of house guests
josh broke his wrist playing soccer and recuperated from surgery
josh survived two layoffs
kara spent the year consulting for two organizations
tried new tasty foods at the state fair
celebrated our niece’s first birthday and baptism in Chicago
we took a train from mn to washington
and drove a caravan of family and puppies from washington to mn
celebrated a wedding as josh’s sister, alicia married dave
and another one as kara’s sister, alison married brian
celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary
planned a european cruise for next summer
kara received approval for her first minister’s license
successfully made Christmas cookies
and more batches of limoncello
we painted other people’s walls
daydreamed plans for remodeling our own
played more fantasy football
and board games
bought a fancy vacuum
and a few things we didn’t need
we worked hard
and volunteered a lot
made new friends
and spent lots of time with the old ones
started some new leadership roles at church
prepared ourselves for possible new-old jobs in January
camped in the woods a few times
and slept out for hockey tickets
we looked forward to seeing family and friends over the holidays
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Josh and Kara VerHage
christmas fun
we may have had a little unnecessary stress last week, but for the most part we had a good Christmas. crazy amounts of snow, the opheim family olympics, seeing most of our relatives on my side, and playing lots of Killer Bunnies – not to mention the opportunity to celebrate the birth of jesus…it was a packed few days. here are a few fun pictures (i just uploaded a bunch of pics to our smugmug site, so check it out when you get the chance).
Josh, Michael and Brian: painful posing
Brian and Alison: not married long and already starting to look like each other
Josh was like a little kid with almost 2 feet of fresh powder snowing us in at grandma’s
Mom sizing up her jenga tower
kevin, alison and michael: completing the pie eating portion of the Opheim family olympics
one of my favorite memories from this christmas: waking up from a nap and finding josh playing schmier with the Bettin men – even though my dad is missing from the table, its nice to know that josh is included in this post-meal family tradition.
its official…
i lost our fantasy football league this year. After a season of hanging on in the first, second or third slot, the post-season kicked my butt. A couple of heartbreaking losses (a girl can rely on her QB + Anquan Boldin to get 11 points combined, right?!) and somehow I ended up sixth in the final standings. SIXTH! OUT OF 12 TEAMS. boo for me. there’s always next season. I’m not even going to mention the other league – that less than stellar performance has already been forgotten. Now, do I keep Adrian Peterson in our new keeper league rules for next year?
its me…
conveyor-belt sushi restaurants.
ministry life and worship songs.
beautiful cake platters.
silly bex and lucy.
life as a 30-something married lady who loves to sing karaoke.
This week on the Bettin Girl Blog…
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