New Blog Name~ Same Blog Taste...

Okay, so I had decided to give up my blog forever as the time has flown by this year, and I had no desire to try to come up with anything creative for it. My children, however, had different thoughts as they (especially Cari) kept asking when the next post would happen. I finally got to the point of realizing how much I enjoy doing this and how much I've actually missed it. So with all that, I've decided to take a bit of a turn for Mangia Mama, and will be adding some "Tiber Tales" to the foodie stuff I like to wax eloquently (or not so much~ I guess my readers can decide).

The tales will have to do with our family's journey to join the Catholic Church that we started officially this year~ Joshua was ahead of us all by a year or so, but we are now all on the same road towards becoming Catholic. It has been a really interesting- to say the least- travel for all of us. I have a Catholic background as I was raised in the Church and went through everything from baptism to confirmation. My family stopped going to church when I was a young teen. I searched for a church, attending everything from a Presbyterian to United Church of Christ to Dutch Reformed. I finally settled in at an American Baptist Church as a young college student~ which is where I met my future husband. Speaking of my husband- Brian was raised Baptist (mostly Southern), and we were married at Bellflower, CA First Baptist (the church where we met). After moving to Salem from Southern California, we started attending Kingwood Bible Church (Mennonite Brethren). When our oldest kids were toddlers we moved over to Salem Alliance (Christian and Missionary Alliance) where we had been actively involved for the past 17 years.

Needless to say, the decision to start on our Catholic journey was a bit of a challenge as we felt so attached to the people at Salem Alliance. As I read in David Currie's book, "Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic", I understood why he was able to say that he gave the church his family was involved with before becoming Catholic an A+ as we feel the same way about Salem Alliance. There were so many things we love about SAC~ the people, the music, the heart for the brokenhearted, etc., so it was not without much praying, reading and numerous hours of talking that we made our decision.

Many people have had questions about why the Catholic church which we have tried to answer. The best answer I have is that I feel as if I have always had a good walk with the Lord and now I have a great walk with Him. Joshua, our oldest son, has said the difference for him between attending an evangelical church and a Catholic church is the difference between having your thirst quenched with a wonderfully glass of water and diving in a pool that continuously refreshes and quenches as it covers you.

We are now attending St. Joseph's in downtown Salem, Oregon. We are enjoying going to Mass- often daily as well as on Sundays, getting involved in Bible studies, youth activities and taking classes on what the Catholic faith is all about. Our faith and love for God and His Word is going deeper and deeper as we continue on our journey!

You may wonder what food has to do with all this, but it is still a central part of joy in my life! As we have chosen not to eat meat on Fridays as a fast to remind us of Jesus' dying on the cross for us, I've had to learn to be very creative with our meals. The kids said they could only take so many weeks of macaroni and cheese. There are also feast days that we celebrate which are fun reasons to try new recipes. There is a great blog, Catholic Cuisine that has been helpful in finding new recipes from other homemakers for all kinds of celebrations!

I plan to post new recipes and bits and pieces of our journey as we continue growing in our Lord! May He bless you and guide you closer to Him in all you do!!