I’ve read this chapter over and over again and I’m still processing so much of the information. I’ll write a little more on this post about this chapter. Let’s read Chapter 5 for next week.

I’d like to hear from you. What are some of your thoughts on Chapter 4?

So there’s this thing that some people choose to do called exercise (ĕk‘sər-sīz‘). I’m guessing that a lot of you reading this do it too. Some of you may even do it regularly…and by regularly, I mean more than once a year. (Twice a year counts, though. That’s practically a habit.)

With so many forms of exercise out there, I thought it would be interesting to see how the women of UPC work out. Do you…

A. run?

B. go to the gym?

C. chase small children around the house?

D. do absolutely nothing that might cause you to break a sweat and ruin your make-up?

E. do something else more interesting that you’d like to share with the class?

I remember in college (not too long ago) there were some really cool coffee shops. There was no Starbucks. There were only independent, quirky coffee shops for us to hang out, study, whatever. Then all of a sudden Starbucks took over the world! What’s going on here?

Starbucks is okay, but I prefer coffee shops with personality and of course, good coffee. If you’ve been to one Starbucks then you’ve been to them all.

So here’s THE BIG COFFEE question. What kind of coffee shop do you prefer…
a. Starbucks
b. Barnie’s
c. unique, independent shops (and if you know of any, then let us know of a fun place)?
d. none of the above…because you don’t drink coffee!

Cartoon from www.cartoonstock.com

I was looking at the categories of recipes over the last 6 months. I’ve posted 12 desserts and 9 main dishes and 3 appetizers. What type of recipes are your favorites: appetizers, main dishes, desserts, breakfast, something else? What would you like to see more (or less) of? Any other feedback/comments?

My awesome husband designed a new “Submit a recipe” button for us, so now it’s really easy to send recipes for me to post. Just click on the button, enter your recipe, and it’ll be sent to me.

And our recipe of the week is (drum roll please . . . ):

Dijon chicken: from Kimberly Massari
*place boneless/skinless chicken breasts in baking dish
*spread yellow dijon mustard over top all chicken
*pour 1/4 cup Teriyaki sauce over mustard
*crumble 1/4 cup PRE-COOKED bacon over chicken (I use Butterball Turkey bacon, cook in microwave on a paper plate, cover with papertowel appox 30 seconds per slice, for no messy clean-up)
*top chicken with 1/2 cup Itailian blend shredded cheese
*bake at 350 for approximately 40-45 minutes

Did you all notice there is a comment section for each post? Many of you have, but some of you might have questions about it. Read on and see how you can win a gift card…

Why is there a comment section?
To help facilitate conversation among all the readers. The purpose of our UPC women blog is for us, the women of UPC (and our visitors), to get to know each other better. We are all in different places and stages in our lives. And the few minutes we have in between services at church, just isn’t enough to connect and build community. So, that is why it is FUN and important to comment on what you read.

Picture it this way…
Your sitting with your friend at Panera bread, you tell her how your day was going, and she just stares back at you BLANKLY. No response.
Or you are in your small group Bible Study and you share something pretty real and deep from your heart, and again…No response.
And another example, you are with your friend and she introduces someone to you that you have never met before. You just stare at the person and walk away with no response or greeting.

NOW, those are all ridiculous examples, right? Of course you would never respond with No Response. I’m sure you have some sort of response…whether it’s “Thanks for sharing” or “I’m sorry you are having a hard time” or “Wow, that’s a great testimony of how God is working in your life.” “Thanks for the encouragement.” Or “Nice to meet you.” You may even share a similar story of what is going on in your life or a thought you have about the topic.

All these responses help to facilitate getting to know each other better.

You know, when I first heard about people blogging…I honestly thought it was a big waste of time. Then I began to read a few of my friend’s blogs and started realizing…”Wow. This is really helping me to get to know these girls better.” For one, I was able to keep up with what was even going on in their lives each day or week, the other thing is that you usually see a different part of a person’s character and heart through their writing (far better than some people are able to communicate in person at times). So, I decided to join in through comments and eventually my own blog.

So, I invite you to join in. Join in the Conversation here at Craving Grace. Hopefully we will see God use this venue to further facilitate conversation and community among us women at UPC!

To help get you used to commenting, we are going to have some simple commenting posts through out this week where you, the reader, can comment a simple choice or answer. And to the person with the most comments from now until next Tuesday, a $5 Panera gift card!

And to answer any other questions you have about the comments section…you do need to put your name and e-mail address. Don’t worry about spam or your e-mail being publicized…it is simply there for the administrators of the site (Patricia and Rinnie) and they will not give it out to anyone. We just need it to know you are legit and prevent any rude or inappropriate comments from someone. Also, you can check the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” at the very bottom and that will e-mail you the next comments so you can see the rest of the conversation without having to go back to the site again to check the comments. Another thing, you will see that it has a place for a website…this is NOT required at all. It is just an opportunity for you to put your website if you have one, so people can get to know you better by checking it out. So, don’t be intimidated if you don’t have a website…it is not required.

With all that said….let’s see how much conversation we can stimulate starting this week. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all better.