A Weekend for the Ages

Last weekend the Theis family (a family in the People of Praise) took our kids from Friday through Sunday. (The Theises themselves have 4, including a toddler, so you can imagine the sacrificial blessing it was for them to do this for us.)

Jen and I were able to spend the whole weekend together.

Here's what we did:

Friday we went out to dinner at the Highland Grill. We share their Moroccan Lamb Stew and Balsamic Spinach Salad. Then we we hung out at Barnes and Noble and discovered the Holy Grail of cooking magazines, a publication out of Australia called Donna Hay. At first we were just going to copy a recipe out of it, but the magazine was so good we bought it. Even at the $9.95 cover price it was well worth it!

Saturday we went shopping, mostly for me, at Kohl's. It's been several years since I've replace my now well-worn wardrobe. I've gone a new direction ... darker shirts and different ties. We'll see.

Then we went shopping at the Mall of America for Dietrich's 10th birthday (coming up).

We got to see a military band there, too.

Afterwards we went to Rice Park to check out the ice scupltures for this year's St. Paul Winter Carnival.

To top off the evening we made a recipe together from Donna Hay. It was a light spinach salad with thinly sliced cucumbers, grape tomatoes, green onions and grilled parmesean chicken topped with a basil and lemon dressing. Wonderful!

Sunday we visited Messiah Episcopal Church in St. Paul and then hung out at White Rock Coffeeshop (owned by friends of ours and members of People of Praise).

Then at 12:30 we went to our area meeting (my first as a coordinator).

What a great life! What a great weekend! Praise God.