As a general rule, I like large surprises in the mailbox.

But this one was uncool.

Return to sender.

I love hot breakfasts – they make mornings much more appealing to me! If you have kids heading back to school this week or are simply looking for an easy and tasty weekday breakfast for your family, these are delicious!

Our friend Nick made a bacon and egg version of these for our ABF on Sunday. I asked him for the recipe and he told me, “First I added what looked like… enough eggs. Then I added what looked like… enough cheese.” A cook after my own heart.

I made some sausage biscuits this morning following his recipe carefully. :)

Make the drop biscuit recipe on your baking mix box. (Mine called for 2 1/4 cu baking mix and 2/3 cup milk)
Mix in three cooked scrambled eggs, approximately 1/2 cup browned bulk sausage, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheddar.
I added in a little more milk at this point because the mixture looked a bit dry.

Bake as the drop biscuit recipe instructs – mine was 450° for 10 minutes – I added a couple of minutes on until they looked appropriately browned.

We enjoyed our biscuits with some cut grapefruit. :)

As we conclude Genesis, let’s quickly remember God’s three promises to Abraham: Land, nation, and leader. Where do we stand with the three aspects of God’s promise?

Land: They’re in Egypt. Nice land, not theirs.
Nation: There are only 70 of them. Big family, but not a nation.
Leader: The last verse of Genesis sums this up well: So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. (50:26) So cheery. The point: our only “leader” is very dead – we’re still waiting for the Seed!

Now, as we start Exodus, there is a 400 year gap between the events at the end of Genesis and the events of Exodus. And all is not well in Egypt. A new pharaoh is in power who is unfamiliar with Joseph’s story. He looks around his land, sees this mighty group of foreign people who have remained separate unto themselves, and obviously comes to the conclusion that they are a great threat to national security. The answer? Enslave them. Oppress them. Kill their sons. The midwives didn’t cooperate with that, so then he ordered all the baby boys to be thrown into the Nile!

Now, if you were an Israelite living in the middle of these circumstances, what might you be thinking about God? [Remember, it has been 400 years since His last recorded interaction with His people. They're in slavery. Their children are being brutally murdered. Oh, and don't forget - they have no written Scriptures at this point - Moses was the one who penned Genesis!]  God must not know! Maybe He doesn’t care? Are the gods of Egypt too powerful for Him? Was He just a god of the past, living and active only for our fathers?

In the middle of this, one small boy, miraculously spared by his mother’s great faith and Pharaoh’s daughter’s compassion, grows up to be the man we know as Moses. Moses grows up, kills an Egyptian for mistreating one of the Hebrews, and flees to Midian. At this point, please throw out any mental images that are coming to mind from Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt. Overall, good movie. But, I don’t think it’s likely that Moses had no idea who he was.

And then, God shows up.
In a burning bush.
In the middle of nowhere.
To a runaway murderer (who stutters).

And this is awesome: as God explains to Moses what He will do, He directly answers the questions we mentioned above.

God must not know! I have surely seen the affliction of My people… for I am aware of their sufferings. (3:7)
Maybe He doesn’t care? …and have given heed to their cry (3:7) …I am indeed concerned… (3:16)
Are the gods of Egypt too powerful for Him? I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians… (3:8)
Was He just a god of the past, living and active only for our fathers? I AM… this is My memorial-name to all generations. (3:15)

God never forgot! He is the I AM – He never ceased to exist, nothing can spin out of His control. He is the self-existent, completely powerful, faithful promise-keeper.

Perhaps you, at times, have felt that God has forgotten you. Abandoned you. Has lost control.

Friend, He is the I AM.

His plans and timetable are often far different from our own. We never fully understand His ways and why certain things happen. But He is indeed concerned. Trust Him even when you don’t understand Him. Trust Him because you don’t understand Him – His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours. Hallelujah – I wouldn’t want me in control of the universe!

Psalm 103:1-7 (NLT)
I bless the holy name of God with all my heart.
Yes, I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins. He heals me. He ransoms me from hell.
He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
He gives justice to all who are treated unfairly.
He revealed his will and nature to Moses and the people of Israel.

I’ve been thinking this week about quirks that I love in my children. I readily admit that I was an odd child. I think I passed on a good dose of oddness to my offspring. [My husband claims that he was not odd. Hmmm.]

I didn’t think my ponderings were blog-worthy, but my bloggy friend Amber is restarting a “come shoot the breeze with me” feature, a delightfully open-ended invitation to ramble about whatever we want.

I do love to ramble. So I will share.

I love that when I open the front cover of one of the “my first little house books” (cute picture book children’s versions of the “little house on the prairie” series) that we got at the library, LB will come over and lay his head on it. Every time. The inside cover has a gingham print that apparently he finds restful. ;)

I love that AG has such a large menagerie of pretend animals and friends. Her pretend friends Annie (from Little Einsteins) and Dora (the explorer) recently welcomed a new friend into their company – she is the girl on the sheep farm documentary that my kids love. Oh, and whenever AG watches said documentary, she pretends that she is at a fair and walks around the circular floor plan of our downstairs walking her “sheep” – sometimes she pretends to walk our cat around the “cat fair,” and yesterday she took her stick-horse to a horse fair. [LB also loves the sheep farm documentary, and will frequently run to the TV saying, "maa! maa!" because he wants to watch it!!]

I love that LB, as crazy as he is, is an excellent snuggler. Whenever I rock him before his nap he snuggles down in my shoulder and babbles to himself – often as soon as I say, “night-night, buddy,” he’ll push back and clap his hands and say, “bye, bye!” Then he waits for me to lay his gorilla toy/blanket down on his bed, lays on his stomach and puts his face on it, and sticks his hands out to the side waiting for me to cover him up so he can grab the blanket and pull it tight around himself.

I love that AG will watch hours of PBS cooking shows with me on Saturday mornings. She sometimes likes to watch jewelry programs on QVC, and with every piece will ask, “is that good, Mom? Do you like that one?” She also is a fan of looking through Pottery Barn catalogues, and has very specific opinions about what she likes. She’ll ask you what you like, too, if you sit with her and look at it. She’s watching Simply Ming right now, learning about edemame. [woops - lost interest. She's taking Lightening the stick horse back to the horse fair.]

I love that LB has a current fascination with the alphabet. Every time he sees letters on my shirt, on the dishwasher panel, on the letter magnets on the fridge, he tries to sing the alphabet song. E is his favorite letter – he loves to yell, “E! E!” – he should be on Sesame Street when E is the letter of the day. He is very enthusiastic about E’s.

I love that when we put AG to bed and walk out her door, she will call out to us and sign “I Love You” when we turn around, and then say, “See you tomorrow!”

I could go on. But I’m sure that is already more rambling than necessary. For more ramblings or to link up a rambling blog post of your own, head over to Classic Housewife!