Making Roti

Feb 23, 2010 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money

When we arrived in the village at the beginning of the week, we forgot the box in the garage with: Read more »

Paella with family…Life is good

Apr 30, 2009 by pearsonsprogress    4 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll

John’s brother Joe and sister-in-law, Vanita came to visit us in Spain this past week. As I mentioned in our last prayer letter, this marks the 1st time EVER that one of John’s siblings has come to visit us while overseas (23 years!) What fun we had with them! Here we are in the village garage, making a paella. This one was called a paella mixta because it had both chicken & seafood. You can get a bigger view of the photos by running  your cursor over the photo and clicking. Paella is the #1 recipe I use for that wonderful herb: saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world. Needless to say, it is much cheaper to buy here in paellalandia. I have an entire recipe book for just paellas, and they are yummy!

Photos of our family

Mar 9, 2009 by pearsonsprogress    6 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, Family, Spain

Here are some more photos of the recent visit from Greg, Abigail and Preston. Jesseka and 2 year old William stayed home in Chicago. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

We are very thankful to the Lord for the blessings of family.

Week #7 of My Grocery Challenge

Jul 10, 2008 by pearsonsprogress    3 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge

Fun times! We are in the village working and hoping to get a lot of work done. I marketed for the summer before leaving Madrid at the cheapest store because the village stores are at least triple the price. Just can’t do that. I have stayed within my budget however. So… this week my 10 Euros went for:

.69-box of whole milk

.99- butter

.23-liter of soda

.90-2 kilos of baking flour

.86-one kilo of sugar

4.29-1 bag of frozen fish (merluza- forgot what that is in English)

.49-3 green peppers

.69- head of lettuce

.79- hamburger buns

—————–

+.07 left over!

+.03 from last week

—————-

+.10cents for next week!

My Menu:

Thursday July 10-chicken rice soup, tamales, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes

Friday July 11-lamb and barley soup, pastrami and swiss cheese sandwiches w/sprouts

Saturday July 12-chicken noodle soup, hot dogs with sauerkraut and swiss cheese on buns

Sunday July 13-cream of tomato soup, hamburgers w/ cheddar cheese on buns

Monday July 14- potato and cheese soup, bean and cheese burritos, salad

Tuesday July 15- hamburger and pasta soup, tortellini w/ cheese sauce, salad

Wednesday July 16-leftovers

This week, I decided to use a lot of the “bits and pieces” I have in the fridge and cupboards. The hot dogs come in big packages and so I plan of adding those once a week until they are gone. They are big FAT ones from Germany and pretty good, as hot dogs go. I made the tamales out of leftover chicken, the torellini is the last of the package I bought and the hamburger pasta soup, will be polishing off the last bit of the ground beef leftover from the hamburgers. I am also using the cheese I had in the freezer to make-up for the lesser amount of meat.

We’re now in the village and the freezer is small. I’m saving the fish for when Ana and Angel come to visit in August.

My Blessings this week:

* our neighbors (and guests for supper) brought us a bottle of wine (again, we will save this for guests)~ it’s the custom here in Spain to bring wine and we hear it is the same in France where are kids live.

* 1 lemon, ½ liter of tomato juice, ¼ of a can of grapefruit slices, 1 cup of orange juice, given to us by a neighbor leaving town.

What the Lord is teaching me:

Our pastor, Angel gave a good and encouraging message on Sunday, using in part, the text from Psalm 27:13-14. Let me quote it for you:

” I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Our pastor was speaking of the trials that we are all facing here in Spain with the hight cost of EVERYTHING and the mortgage crisis in Europe. Some in the church families are struggling more than others. Some of us add to these challenges, the terrible exchange rate, but his last words impacted us and ministered to us. He said,” Now this week, no matter what happens, look to the Lord and what He is teaching you.” Good words, a good reminder and encouragement to those of us who may grow weary in the struggle. So this week:

~I will be CONFIDENT of God’s provision for us.

~I WILL see the GOODNESS of the Lord.

~I will WAIT with anticipation to see Him work.

~I will be STRONG (He is my strength)

~I will TAKE HEART

~and… again (he says it twice) I will WAIT for the LORD.

Here are my tomato plants… they are growing and I should be getting those cherry tomatoes soon! I am also picking the small leaves off the chard for salad greens. I love growing my little pot garden. Please leave your comments and tell me how you are doing. Have a great money saving week!

We’re in the village

May 8, 2008 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Spain

This is where we are working in the village. Our house is in the background. Click on the photos to for larger views.

This is an example of the Nossa Fala New Testament we are working on.

John and our good friend John S. last September checking out some ruins in the Extremadura area.

The village is peaceful and it’s fun to watch the sheep graze.

Here is a processional that passed in front of our house.