Sushi and Scripture

A few weeks ago when the pastor came over to meet with Matt and I before Gabe's baby dedication he was asking us a bunch of questions about our marriage, our childhoods and our faith. One of the questions he asked was "how can you see God's presence in your life?" I actually had an answer ready! It had occurred to me a while ago that the amount of time I spent reading my bible, praying and spending time with God was directly related to my levels of productivity and positive attitude. The more I read my bible, the more likely it was for me to have a clean house. And the more I prayed, the nicer I was to be around! Even in the past few days I've noticed this. On Sunday I a) went to church and b) spent alot of time studying my bible and reading Calvin's Institutes. Monday morning I felt great getting up at 7 a.m. and making breakfast for Matt before he had to go to work. Yesterday I skipped reading my bible and this morning I slept in, felt groggy all morning and feel disappointed in how much I have(n't) done today. When I immerse myself in scripture and when I feel close to God I can see the effects of it in every aspect of my life, from things as small as having breakfast in the morning to things as big as being a loving wife. Even my physical fitness is directly linked to my time spent in worship - when I worship in church I can't help but bounce on the balls of my feet. I noticed when I was a worship leader for a youth group that my calves were awesome! It may be a small thing but it's a something. God is an awesome God, through and through, and if you let Him, He'll make your life incredible.
For dinner tonight I was craving sushi but not the crappy supermarket stuff and I don't want to spend a tonne of money so I'm making it tonight. I've never made sushi just for the heck of it. We've always organized sushi parties when I've made it before. But I do have everything except the avodaco so it will be quick and cheap and easy to make. Plus fun :) And yummy!! I've got some crab meat in the freezer from last time so I pulled that out and if I have any leftovers then I'll make a crab cream cheese topping for steaks tomorrow. I also have some raw shrimp in the freezer. To make those sushi ready you have to defrost them in a bowl of warm water and peel them down to the tail. Then you have to butterfly them and remove the vein and run a skewer through the body to keep it from curling. Then you cook the shrimp in boiling water until they are good an pink! We'll be making actual sushi out of the shrimp - which means we aren't rolling it, we'll just be making a bed of rice and laying the shrimp on top. We may tie it with a line of nori but maybe not. The crab we'll make maki rolls out of. I may make up some panko breaded shrimp too... I have two bags of panko sitting in my cupboard and some plum sauce in the fridge that I have been wanting to use for the past few weeks. I may make them coconut shrimp though and fortunately I have pina colada mix in my fridge just in case! Oh, and I've already informed Matt that we will be eating dinner outside. It's so nice out and we could all use a bit more time outside.
Well, I'd better go get some lunch (4 hours late)

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)