the pioneer woman seals the deal

There are few recipes that appear on The Pioneer Woman's blog that I do not drool over a little and think of an excuse to make.

This pork sandwich with cilantro jalapeno slaw was no exception.  We ate it last night with our siblings, Amy, David and Pamela.  Yum!

It is spicy pork that is cooked in Dr. Pepper and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  My only recommendation would be to buy the precut slaw bag.  Cutting cabbage into thin slices might be impossible.

We spend a good part of our week one on one with students. Sharing about life. Praying. Soaking in God's words. And of course sipping coffee. This summer just means we get to do it overlooking lush green mountains.

Earlier this summer we invited all the women of the program to join us for some worship and karaoke. With a trip to the thrift store in between.
Here is one of my fav team looks: jean jumper homeschool moms. (self-titled)
So fun.

I still cannot believe this was the setting for bible study this week. Shade. Breeze. Trees. Iced Coffee. Cows. What else might we need? Amazing.

Today was the first day of work at Dollywood for most of the 150 students in our training program. Look at those dresses and smiling faces after long hours of work in the summer heat.

Enough said!

Shepherdess

This summer I have been given the gift of shepherding 17 women. They will have other older women pouring into them this summer, so they are not limited to me. But its my privilege to know them, serve them, and care for them this summer.
Each of these 17 women have teams of three to four younger college student women. They lead them for the next 8 weeks of the program. We are so thankful that older students are willing to serve he younger students. To thank them we gave them small gifts. Which meant I had an excuse to find 17 cuter than cute aprons to remind them to serve.

fireflies

God is so creative and loves beautiful things.  I was able to witness something I have never seen before a couple of days ago.  Apparently there is a specific type of firefly species that mates for two weeks in early summer.  What is special about this species is that part of the mating process is synchronizing themselves to light up all at once, then stop, then light up all at once again.  Its like natures christmas tree.  There are only two places where you can see this happen, about 30 minutes from where we are living this summer and somewhere in China!

So we took about 12 women to see it happen.  We drove into the Smoky Mountain National Park and started walking a trail as the last bits of light were fading. We could see a few fireflies light up.  But as we laid out our blankets and waited, slowly more and more started lighting up the forest.  It was so unreal, one of the girls said she felt like she was in an enchanted forest.  I was so excited that God had created such a treat!  We spent most of our evening singing praises to our Heavenly Father and thanking Him for it all.  A few other spectators even joined us in singing a few songs.  :)