All Things Can Work Together for Our Good

Sometimes things happen that are out of our control.  At times they do not seem fair or right.  But God knows us.  He knows what we go through.  And He can make all things work together for our good and our experience.  Depending on how we handle the challenges of life, I believe we can come to know God more closely as our Lord and Savior.  My greatest trials can become my greatest blessings.

Below is part of a story about some missionaries a long, long time ago that I love.  It talks a little about this.  Enjoy! (It was written a long time ago and translated from another language so the word phrasing may seem a little odd).

"And it came to pass that they did go forth, and began to preach the word of God unto the people, entering into their synagogues, and into their houses; yea, and even they did preach the word in their streets.And it came to pass that after much labor among them, they began to have success among the ^apoor class of people; for behold, they were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel—Therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues to worship God, being esteemed as filthiness; therefore they were poor; yea, they were esteemed by their brethren as ^adross; therefore they were ^bpoor as to things of the world; and also they were poor in heart.

 Now, as Alma was teaching and speaking unto the people upon the hill ^aOnidah, there came a great ^bmultitude unto him, who were those of whom we have been speaking, of whom were ^cpoor in heart, because of their poverty as to the things of the world.  And they came unto Alma; and the one who was the foremost among them said unto him: Behold, ^awhat shall these my brethren do, for they are ^bdespised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests; for they have ^ccast us out of our synagogues which we have labored abundantly to build with our own hands; and they have cast us out because of our exceeding poverty; and we have ^dno place to worship our God; and behold, ^ewhat shall we do?

And now when Alma heard this, he turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their ^aafflictions had truly ^bhumbled them, and that they were in a ^cpreparation to hear the word. Therefore he did say no more to the other multitude; but he stretched forth his hand, and cried unto those whom he beheld, who were truly penitent, and said unto them:

I behold that ye are ^alowly in heart; and if so, blessed are ye. Behold thy brother hath said, What shall we do?—for we are cast out of our synagogues, that we cannot worship our God. Behold I say unto you, do ye suppose that ye ^acannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only?  And moreover, I would ask, do ye suppose that ye must not worship God only ^aonce in a week?

I say unto you, it is well that ye are cast out of your synagogues, that ye may be humble, and that ye may learn ^awisdom; for it is necessary that ye should learn wisdom; for it is because that ye are cast out, that ye are despised of your brethren because of your exceeding ^bpoverty, that ye are brought to a lowliness of heart; for ye are necessarily brought to be humble. And now, because ye are compelled to be humble blessed are ye; for a man sometimes, if he is compelled to be humble, seeketh ^arepentance; and now surely, whosoever repenteth shall find mercy; and he that findeth mercy and ^bendureth to the end the same shall be saved.

House we had an offer accepted on!

Front

Backyard - a great size with a nice deck

Kitchen with no applicances

Other side of the kitchen - it is smaller

Living room - looks out at the mountains

master bedroom - all bed rooms are great sizes.

One of the bathrooms - in all there are 2.

Home buying update

So what happens when you have money to buy a house in a certain price bracket?  Someone else will have more money than you and buy the home you wanted to buy, in cash.

This happened to us this week.  A week ago, we put an offer on a short sale home that had two banks involved.  Within four days of submitting the offer, both banks had agreed and our offer was verbally accepted.  Hooray!!!  But hold you horses.  The title company was sending over the paper work but all the pages with signatures did not come through.  From the time of telling us that our offer was accepted to sending the paperwork again, another offer was submitted at a higher price and in cash. 

Their Realtor went to the banks and asked if they would go with the offer they had said yes to, or if they wanted the higher in cash offer.  The banks wanted the money (I don't blame them).  So after we had been told we had had an offer accepted, it was taken back.  We are saddened and frustrated by this development.  There is nothing we can do as there is a clause in the contracts that says something about a verbal acceptance of offer is not legally binding. 

So we continue the search.  Yesterday we saw some more homes.  It is discouraging to go through so many homes and feel we cannot really get much for our money.  Most of what we see is junky.  We are looking for the diamonds in the rough.

Here is another home we saw and are considering.

It has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, and 2,106 sq. feet. It is in Sandy.  Here is the video:

Inside of the house

Outside of the house

It Takes Faith to Raise a Family

As I watch the news, see the turmoil, the civil unrest.  Listen to personal stories of tragedy and grief, see the footage of the devastating earthquake and potential nuclear plant explosions in Japan, I am struck with fear for my yet children.  I am also struck with the thought that in a world such as this it takes faith to raise a family.  Faith in God.  Faith in His Eternal and Divine plan, and faith in the goodness of that lies still in people.

Cute Ties

A friend of mine told me of a company that does darling ties.  It's called myfavoritepal.com.  They are matching neckties for Daddy and sons, really it is darling ties for all sizes - baby to adults.  You can get free shipping with the promo code: Vorwaller.

Yesterday we saw 2 homes.  One we had previously seen and put offers in on that just reduced their price.  The other was one is around the corner for Joshua's work.

Here are the films for the one near Joshua's work:

Here are the ones again but more detailed of the one we previously had put a bid on:

Video of the inside more coming soon:

Another House

I feel like we have said this before but, here we go again.  This is another house we are looking at.

House Hunting Progress

Well, we have learned a lot along the way.  We have learned about loans, interest, different styles of houses, common problems for houses from different eras, and more.  We have seen  homes built by the pioneers and their children to homes built in 2010. 

During the last 2 months, we have submitted 3 offers.  Today we had an offer rejected, and also put in another offer.  We should hear back by tomorrow.  It's a HUD home that needs quite a bit of work.  One of the difficult parts about buying a HUD home is you submit you offer and they either tell you yes, or cancel your offer which means no.  There is no counter offer process, which is really unfortunate.  Right now, I feel like we are playing a guessing game. If this offer is not accepted, it is back to the drawing board for us. 

I know we will find somewhere to live.  And when it goes through, it will be the right place for us.

Paella Dinner

I saw on Good Morning America Wolfgang Puck talking about doing the food for the Oscars.  I LOVE chef's like Wolfgang.  One dish that he showed how to make is Paella.  On Good Morning America's website they have a recipe for Paella as well.  I took most of what I learned from Wolfgang, some from the recipe and added my own flare.  Mostly I used things that I had in my cupboard.  When I told Joshua I had put my own twist on Wolfgang recipe he exclaimed, "What!  Wolfgang Puck's recipe is not good enough for you?"  That would be me...doing my own thing.  Here is the recipe:

1 small onion - diced
3 pieces of garlic - diced
Oil
Chicken (I used a pre-marinated Santa Cruz style chicken - it was on sale) - cut in small chuncks

1 yellow bell pepper - diced
1 red bell pepper - diced
About 3/4 cup white wine (this adds acidity to the dish and the alcohol cooks out- a citrus can be used as a substitue) 1 - 14 oz can of RoTel tomatoes (I used the store brand version)
cayene pepper - to taste
paprika - to taste
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Pinch of Saffron or Safflower
1/2 cups Rice (I used basmati because it is what I had)
1 can of vegatable stock
1 1/2 cup water

Sautee onion and garlic in pan for 2 minutes in oil.  Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes.  Add yellow and red bell pepper. Stir in rice.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add all other ingredients, simmer for 5 minutes.  Put in oven preheated to 375 for  for about 30 minutes or until rice is done.

We loved this dish.  The dish had many layers of flavor.

I won!

I enjoy blogs and follow a variety of them.  Occasionally, these blogs have giveaways and I have won some of them over time.  On Saturday I won a $50 gift certificate to Plentiful Pantry. I am so excited to get to try some of their things.