Star Studded Hake

I have no idea why it is called Star Studded Hake, but it is absolutely delicious.  I made it for supper last night (Mark was with me for supper) and he claims that it is the best he has ever tasted and the Number 1 meal I have made for him.  So here it is:



You need:

• Hake fillets (or other fish fillets common to your area)
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard (in a bottle - like you put on hot dogs)
• Salt and Pepper
• Grated Cheddar Cheese

The quantities vary upon how many people you are cooking for and the size of the hake fillets, so just read the method below to get an idea of the quantities you will need:

1) Grease a Baking tray and preheat the oven to 180ºC (360ºF)
2) Put Hake fillets on the baking tray

3) Sprinkle Hake fillets with salt and pepper (amounts at your preference)

4) Spread mayonnaise and mustard over the hake fillet (like you would make a peanut-butter sandwich)

5) Sprinkle grated cheese over hake

6) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes

I served this meal with steamed baby potatoes, carrots and peas.

The latest relationship news

Remeber I said that I couldn't say anything about some relationship developments previously? Well, now I can since it happened over a month ago.  Mark (the home church host) and I are courting/dating.  We are very serious about each other, but not in an ungodly way.

My heart was won by a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air.  Just like this one, but in green:

At 11:11:11pm on the 11/11/11 - Mark asked me if I would "be his girl".  I said yes I would.  After that he handed me a box, the size of a shoe box - all nicely wrapped in a plastic shopping bag.  Inside was a model 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

1957 Chevrolet's hold a special place in my heart.  One night while sitting out at a children's play park, eating ice-cream with Mark, we were talking about how cool it would be if there was still a drive-in movie theatre in our city, but he said "We would need a nice old car with a single seat right across the front for it to be worthwhile." I replied "Like a '57 Chevrolet?" He agreed 100%.  So a '57 Chevrolet became our car that night.

See? I told you I would give the whole story when I was able to.

Unfortunately there were some casualties in Mark and myself seeing each other.  2 people got badly hurt (emotionally) in the process, and it made the situation among our friends a little awkward, but the situation has begun to stabilize now (and hence the reason for my ability to post this now).

Some of the other information is a bit more private, and I cannot imagine the people involved would be willing to let me post it online.  What I can say is that I am a lot happier than I have been in many months.

Mark and I have known each other as friends since 2008 (always having a liking for each other), but neither of us were emotionally ready for a relationship in 2008.  And in 2009 when he left the city to pursue a dream in another city, we lost touch and I thought I would never see him again... God appeared to have other plans though.  He refined both of us into the people we are today, and in my humble opinion, the people we are today are best friends and more.

Been a while…

It has been quite some time since my last blog post.  Goes to show how life can get carried away with you.  So much has happened, so here is an update:

 

Work

My work is going amazingly well.  I still love my job and all it entails.  I am challenged every day.  Like always, it is top secret (considering I am in the Research and Development Department) so I cannot say much more than what I have just said, but I feel so blessed to be working amongst so many amazing Christian people.  I adore my job and will stick it out as long as God wants me to, and when he says it is time to move on I’ll do so gracefully.

 

Relationships

Big news here, and I am going to keep it simple since there are a lot of details that the parties involved wouldn’t want me to post online.  William and I have ended our engagement.  It was mostly my decision.  I feel as though we were not as compatible on a moral and spiritual level as I once thought we were.  It officially ended on the 28th of October 2011.

 

In the past week there have been some other developments on the relationship front which I am also not at liberty to discuss right now.  However, when / if the situation stabilizes and I receive permission from the involved parties, I’ll be sure to give the entire story…

 

Spiritual

God has been blessing my socks off.  I’m still going to the Home Cell group, some weeks our numbers are fewer than others, but it is such a blessing to be around like-minded Christians.  I have also started attending a church with our Home Cell host, Mark.  He’s a guitarist and worship leader for the church band at the Student Church on the university campus, so I have been joining him there on Sunday mornings.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the few services I have been to, and I even went to both the morning and the evening service this past Sunday.

 

I have been growing so much in God’s word and God has really been speaking to me in so many little ways.  I am so blessed and I am in such an amazing place right now I cannot imagine ever wanting to live my life otherwise.

 

What God has really been speaking to me about though, is to prepare myself to be the helpmeet of my future husband, whoever that may be.  I know that God has an absolutely amazing man planned for me, and God will write my perfect love story in his time, I just need to be patient and keep my life centred on God.  I know that my future husband and I will definitely have a relationship centred on God.

 

Building Sandcastles

A very good friend of mine gave me a perfect metaphor for describing the dreams and images we build in our minds, and that is to build sandcastles.  Sometimes we get a bully that breaks down our sandcastle, sometimes our sandcastle doesn’t turn out exactly like we planned, but sometimes, if it is in line with God’s dreams for our lives, the sandcastle turns out exactly like we planned it.

 

I know what dreams I have for my life.  I dream of a relationship with my husband where we go to church together on a Sunday.  A relationship where we start and end the day in prayer.  A relationship where I can support, challenge and encourage my husband on his walk with God.  A relationship where I can be a keeper of our home and create a refuge for my husband to come to after a long day.  A relationship where I can support my husband in building his sandcastles.  The only way I could do all these things though, is if God wishes me to do them.   With God’s help I can do this, but without God at the centre of all of it, I will stumble and fall.

 

In Closing:

Hopefully I’ll be able to spend more time online and really get back to blogging again, especially now that my body has got used to the stress of working an 8am to 5pm job.

Sunday News:

Work:

It’s been an interesting week with the new work.  I’ve been leaving my house at 7am and only arriving home at 5:30pm.  I absolutely love the work I’m doing.  Sometimes I am a little scared because they expect so much of me and I am not 100% convinced that it is within my abilities to do everything that is required of me, but I will give the work my very best.  I may not actually talk about my work, due to confidentiality agreements, but just know that I have learned so much in this short time, and I am going to continue learning more and more as time progresses.

Home:

I on Friday I officially had the laundry basket empty for the first time since I moved into this townhouse.  It isn’t empty anymore, but at least it was, so I know that I am succeeding with keeping the laundry under control.  Due to being out of the house from 7am until 5:30pm, there is only one way that I have been able to keep up with the housework and that is getting up at 5:30am and only going to bed at 10pm or later.  I fill the washing machine the night before so that in the morning I just need to turn it on as soon as I wake up.  I hang out the laundry before heading to work.  As soon as I get home in the evenings I change into sneakers and then bring the laundry in, I fold and put away immediately.  If anything needs to be ironed, then I do it the night before I plan to wear it.  This routine has allowed me to keep the laundry under control while working outside the home.

Home Church:

Our home church group has really grown.  We had 8 people there last Thursday, and 5 regular attendee’s were not there!  I have met a few new people and they are all wonderful.  This past week we discussed how the church has changed in the last 100 years (more or less) and that also moved onto how our actions are impacting the current teenagers and their belief.  A few of the changes we noticed included:

• Women covering their heads and men removing their caps/hats
• The way we dress for church (become more casual)
• The style of worship music being played
• How we pray and read God’s word at home – are we showing God the respect he deserves?
• Involvement in charity

Those are the main themes we covered during our Home Church.

Movies:

On Friday night I went to watch Cars 2 with William and 3 of our friends.  Needless to say, William did not enjoy it at all, he thought it was a horrible movie and was bored the whole way through.  On the other hand, 2 of our friends and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn’t the best movie we have ever watched, but it was great entertainment for an evening and there were so many subtle references to various makes of cars.  I enjoyed it enough to buy the DVD for my collection. The 3rd friend didn’t give a comment.  After the movie we went to a coffee shop for drinks. 

It was a moment of temptation for me since William ordered whisky and my female friend ordered a Cosmopolitan cocktail, but I stuck to my ground and ordered a hot drink that was a mixture of Hot chocolate and Espresso.  I was backed up by the host of our home church group since he ordered a Chocolate milkshake directly after I placed my order, so I wasn’t the only one not drinking.  The third friend just had a glass of water.

Braai:

Last night (Saturday) William and I had a Braai at my house.  My friend Theresa (female friend) joined us, and so did Mark (Home Church host), Hannes and Michelle.  Hannes introduced us to Michelle, since we haven’t met her before.  It was nice having her here.

William and Theresa were at the braai until the meat was ready.  Mark and I sat inside and played Band Hero on the Nintendo Wii – it was a bit too cold outside for us.  Hannes and Michelle joined us when they got here, although Hannes spent his time between the two groups.

We all had so much fun though.  After supper Mark and I continued playing Band Hero, Hannes and Michelle said goodbye and William and Theresa sat talking about the fish tanks.

I only got to bed after midnight, but spending time with friends like that is worth it.

The Sims 3 Ambitions: Large house fire walk-around

This is completely off topic for my regular blog, but it took me almost an hour to find any posts online that would help me overcome this bug and I feel like I should share the solution and post on how to walk around the problem.

 

Problem:

My fireman Sim is at the top of the fireman career path.  When he gets to a large house fire, he manages to put out all the fires on the windows and in the yard, but he is unable to enter the house to save the panicking sims.  All the walls of the house are raised and his only option when clicking on the front door (after breaking it down) is to visit the household.  The household won’t respond due to panicking because of the fire.  He cannot enter the house to save the sims.

 

Solution:

Make your fireman/woman leave the lot of the large house fire and go to the neighbours lot.  Then make your sim return to the lot containing the large house fire.  (S)he should now be able to break down the door and enter the house.

 

This worked for me.  I hope that it works for anyone reading this.

Home Church and Growth

A quick praise report, the host of the former home church I went to has moved back to town and he has started up the home church group again.  It was such a blessing being with all my old friends. 

 

I missed the first two meetings because I only found out about it last week.  When the host saw me he apologized and told me that he was telling people as he saw them and hadn’t seen any of the [insert name of bar here] crowd yet since he had not gone there in a long time.  I replied that he should worry because I hadn’t been to [insert name of bar here] in almost 2 years either.  He was rather surprised and asked what happened.  I told him that I outgrew it – which wasn’t the complete truth…

 

The complete truth is that since I started studying God’s word for myself, almost everyday, I didn’t feel right going to [insert name of bar here] anymore.  It started off that I would rather stay at home and have a beer or glass of wine while watching a movie.  Then I stopped drinking beer and it became a glass of wine with dinner.  Then it became a glass of port or sherry when I had guests over.  Now I only have half a glass of port or sherry occasionally when I have guests – and only if they are drinking already.  I few times I haven’t felt like any type of alcohol and have stuck to tea or soda.  Perhaps in a few more months I’ll be off completely.

 

Recently I committed to reading the Bible and/or praying for 1 hour a day, everyday.  I am amazed at how I have grown in only a month of this.

 

Even though I tend to talk big, I have always had difficulty keeping my focus on God throughout my daily life.  I so easily find myself getting carried away.  Just last week I noticed that I think of God much more often during the day.  In everything I do I have found myself asking if God would approve of it.

 

The other area where I noticed a change in the past month is during conversation and also in what I watch.  I had friends over the other night and the conversation moved towards age-restriction 16 topics.  It got to the point where I excused myself and went to wash the coffee mugs.  I was not enjoying it at all – 6 months ago it wouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did that night.  The same goes for movies and TV shows.  In fact, the closer I am getting to God, the less I have in common with my friends – even the Christian ones!

 

And this is why I was so thrilled to find out the home church group was starting again.  It brings me to a place where once a week I’ll be able to talk about God, and also all these experiences I am having during my growth.  It brings me to a place where I can watch the growth in others too.

 

God is definitely blessing my socks off!

God’s hand in everything

Remember that a while ago I told everyone I had a secret that I couldn’t share yet? I have got to the point where I can share the secret.  On Tuesday, I got a job as a Junior Programmer.  Looking back at the whole process I am amazed at how God seemed to move everything into place at the perfect time.

Firstly, I wasn't even looking for a new job, but out of the blue I got a phone call from a recruitment agency (I still have no idea how they got my number) to tell me about the job and ask if I would be interested in going for an interview.  I went with the thought in mind that God must be involved in this because I wasn't even looking for a job.

I was then called for a second and a third interview.  Next I was called to work for the company for 2 days as a trail period.  As of Tuesday I was offered the job.  I am utterly amazed. 

Not only this, but the timing is perfect too.  I recently moved into a larger home and while I didn't overspend and I could afford it, I knew it would be a little tighter on cash than previously.  I need to work because I am supporting myself (my father passed away last year).  My salary has effectively doubled with this new job, so I'll be earning more than enough to meet my needs - God provides!

The timing was perfect in another way, at my current job the easiest time of year to make a switch in career is June/July or December/January.  This is because the University holidays happen at this time of year so the campus is very quiet and my work is at it's end until the next semester starts.  My new work wants me to start on the 1st of July!  The timing was absolutely perfect!

One more thing happened that I saw God's hand in.  There is one student who is really struggling financially.  He is working every odd job that he can to get through university and guess what?  He is the most qualified person to take over my job from me!  He knows more about how I run the course than anybody else (excluding my boss).  It hasn't been confirmed that he will get my old job yet, but I know he needs it - so this is perfect for him too!

Even though I want to be a stay-at-home wife and mother someday, it cannot be denied that God's hand has been in this change of jobs for me.  It seems as though this is where he wants me to be for now because with every interview I prayed that he would stop the process if it wasn't his plan for me for the moment.

Praise be to God!