All posts by Teri Maxwell

Amazing Grace, William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

This was posted on August 15, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

After our exercise post, we’ve been asked for book recommendations. We hadn’t planned on a post about it, but since some asked, we felt others would be interested.

Steve and I just finished listening to an audible version of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas. We are amazed by his story of salvation, encouraged in our walk with the Lord by this godly man, and inspired by his tenacity to pursue the course the Lord set him on.

William Wilberforce was born in 1759 and died in 1833. He knew John Newton and John Wesley. Despite his family doing all they could to keep him from salvation as a teen, in his early 20’s, the Lord brought Wilberforce to Himself. He lived the rest of his life serving God with all his heart, energy, time, and finances. When Wilberforce felt he should leave politics after his salvation, John Newton encouraged Wilberforce that God had a purpose for him there and that he should remain. Thus he was the man to lead the charge to first abolish the slave trade in Britain and its colonies and then to emancipate slaves.

There were a few parts of the book that were graphic in the violence of the time. They are easy to skip over. We certainly wouldn’t recommend it for children to listen to.

The author, Eric Metaxas, is a brilliant writer with an artistic ability to “paint” with metaphors. We continually enjoyed his masterful employment of them. We felt his writing skills made the whole story come to life.

Ideally, reading it is best. If you are like Steve and me and want to maximize your time by “reading” when you can’t read, the audio version is great. It is available from Amazon’s Audible, or if you have access to your public library, Hoopla might be an option.

Good news: If you don’t have an Audible account, you can actually get the book for free by subscribing to a trial membership. Click on this link, and you’ll see the option to Try Audible for Free!

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri
PS – The Amazon’s links are Titus2’s Amazon affiliate link. See our Privacy Policy.

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life
dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy,
and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

Cherry Stoning

This was posted on July 6, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

One day early in June, we received a surprise package from Austria. Inside was a letter, a family photo, and a cherry stoner.

The letter was from a long-time blog reader. She shared how she found Titus2.com years ago, how our families differed and how they were the same, and how as a family practice physician she now passes on practical information to her patients that she learned from Titus2.

She said when she read our blog post last year about our cherry pitting, she wanted to get us a cherry stoner from Europe, and that’s exactly what she did! She also shared a family favorite cherry recipe that we want to try.

We weren’t given any cherries this year but we bought some from the store to try out our cherry stoner. Wow! What a great, easy way to pit cherries. Thank you, my friend, for your encouragement and for our cherry stoner!

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground,
and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.”
(Deuteronomy 28:4)

Memory Lane for Steve and Teri

This was posted on June 29, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

44 years ago, Steve and I were engaged in Rolla, Missouri, toward the end of our freshman year of college. We were then married that summer (at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, where my family lived) just before starting our sophomore year.

We had many special moments, firsts, and onlys in our lives in Rolla.

First four years of married life.
First two houses.
Salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
First baby born.
Steve’s first business.
Graduation from college for both of us.

Chemistry building where we first saw each other in chemistry class.

Steve and I had the opportunity to be in Rolla recently. We took a long walk, literally, down memory lane. We spent two hours walking along the route we used to walk or bike from our house to campus, between the two houses we lived in, through town, past the hospital where Nathan was born, and out toward the little airport and back.

We talked much about our lives and especially how amazing it is that God took two worldly, college students and brought them to salvation in the midst of a secular, college campus (we haven’t encouraged our children down that path!). He completely changed our hearts and our lives. He is so good and we have so much to thank Him for!

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

How We Flash Freeze Strawberries

This was posted on June 27, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

We regularly use frozen strawberries in smoothies and yogurt. When they are in season, we buy 10 to 12 pounds at a time, for a great price, to flash freeze. Our frozen strawberries are less expensive than the ones we buy at the store, taste better, and have a firmer consistency.

The whole process is very simple:

Wash and core strawberries.
Cut into pieces (halves or quarters depending on what size you’d like to achieve.).
Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet with sides. We line ours with a baking mat to help with removal of the strawberries after freezing.
Freeze until solid.
Remove from cookie sheets and place in zip loc bags.
Store in freezer until use.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself,
upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11)

Why We Like Shopping at Aldi

This was posted on June 20, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

Y’all! This shows grandmas in their 80’s can take good pictures. GiGi took this when she and Mom were out shopping.

Even though Leavenworth built a new Aldi store close to our Home Depot, it took a while for me to begin shopping there. Now it is almost a weekly stop along with our basic grocery store, Dillons, which is a Kroger store.

We have been impressed with the quality and prices of their produce so I check their sale flyer each week to plan what I will get from them. This spring when they had fresh strawberries for $1.19/lb, we bought 25 pounds to core and freeze for smoothies and to go in yogurt.

We make quite a bit of homemade granola that we put toasted rice cereal in along with rolled oats so we buy the cereal at Aldi’s. We also like their oyster crackers. We also get sour cream, orange juice, butter, and heavy whipping cream there.

After Joseph and Elissa’s baby was born, I did their grocery shopping, and Elissa also buys quite a bit of produce plus other things from Aldi’s like parmesan cheese, shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese, refried bean, tortillas, applesauce, and pasta.

Christopher and Anna Marie and John and Chelsy also like shopping at Aldi.

Be sure to have a quarter with you when you go because if you want a cart, you put a quarter into the cart rack to release your cart. Then when you put the cart back, your quarter is returned. There is another Aldi’s protocol I learned. If someone offers you their cart as you are headed for the cart rack, you offer them your quarter. Some take it; some don’t.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me,
bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1).

Kittens for Christina’s Birthday!

This was posted on June 15, 2018 by Teri Maxwell.

Is there anything sweeter than a little girl and a kitten?

Is there anything better than a-once-in-a life-time birthday present?

Is there anything more exciting than the-once-in-a life-time birthday present being a surprise?

It was all there double for Christina’s birthday!

A few days before I received this text from Nathan, he asked if he could use my cat carrier:

Are you going to be home today around one? If so, I would send Christina up to your front door to pick up the carrier, but she wouldn’t know she’s picking up the carrier just that she needs something for our birthday outing today, and you give it to her, and she comes back to the van.

That was the start to a day I don’t think Christina will ever forget. Four kittens came home in the van along with kitten supplies. One of their stops was Petsmart, where they loaded up with all kinds of supplies!

Two kittens were for Christina’s birthday, and two went out to Melanie’s parents’ farm. Nathan and Melanie have sought ways as city dwellers to help their children learn responsibility (chickens, kittens… 🙂 ).

Update: for those asking, the girls named them Tiger and Pickles. Pickles comes from a book I read to them called The Fire Cat (Titus2 Amazon affiliate link, see our Privacy Policy here.).

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri