a wierd way to save the world

I learned some interesting things this past Sunday at church, a very neat look at religion versus following God. This is a quick overview but the full version in online at:  http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch - a weird way to save the world.

Religion is man’s normal attempt to read God. Isaiah 29:13 . The religious laws are there to prove that you aren’t good enough and are completely dependent on God’s gift to us, Christ.

Religion leads to either pride or despair. Pride when you think you have followed all the rules better than others and despair when you reach that feeling when you realize you can’t follow all the rules no matter how hard I try.

Christ is God’s weird way to reach man. Phil. 3:4-9. Honestly the whole story is kind of hard to believe, in this day and age, with all the science we have, but it is possible!

Meatball Miracle

Every time we plan to make meatballs for dinner I never have Italian bread crumbs!?!  Who keeps those on hand? In a moment of creativity I had a genius idea...….cheeze-its. Not only does it make it less healthy for you but it also is delicious! I just looked up a recipe online, allrecipes.com usually has good ones and replaced the bread crumbs with cheese-its. Then served it with some ravioli and garlic bread. We were stuffed!  

Donation Quilts

In an effort to cross more things off my list of unfinished projects, I started on my donation quilt. The guild I am in has a challenge this year to make patriotic quilts to donate to the local veteran’s home. I was so excited when my grandma passed me a box of fabric and that held so many red white and blue fabrics in it! I tried a pattern I had not yet attempted, the log cabin (free pattern). It was relatively easy but lots of short seams, ironing, and trimming. (one side on mine is way crooked!) It took me about 4 hours to assemble this quilt from precut 2 ½in strips. I would do this one again for a quick quilt! I only had to use the seam ripper twice :)

This one is an extra one I made to donate out of cheater fabric! It was even easier :)

Basil

I’m learning a few new things about my favorite herb, basil! It great to make pesto out of, put in pizza and spaghetti sauce or add some variety to a sandwich and salads.

I planted a lemon basil plant this past weekend, apparently a little early for my growing region.  When I checked on it yesterday it leaves were wilted. It now needs some TLC so I did a little research. Basil should be planted outdoors late spring or early summer, or started indoors 4 to 6 weeks earlier. It can also be an indoor plant if placed near enough sun light and is kept warm. When the plant begins to bloom, you can pinch off the branch tips, and flowers to encourage more growth. My garden manual, The Edible Garden, suggests basil lemonades that sounds great!(p.112)

In a 2 qt pitcher smash up 1/2c fresh basil and 3 tbsp of sugar

Add 4c of water and 1/2c fresh squeezed lemon juice and pour through a strainer

Chill and serve, stays good up to 1 day

Facing Dread

Let’s face it, we all must face things we absolutely dread. When need a quick pick me up (or you don’t want others to know how much you are dreading it) I found these two tip always helps to make me feel better and in control of my emotions.

Trick #1: Sing really loud in the car while you’re driving alone to an upbeat song. It’s hard to be in a bad mood after a quick jam session of your favorite songs. You’ll find some energy and feel refreshed to face the situation, when you feel like an untouchable rock star! I have a burned mixed CD I keep in the car for just these moments. My best friend in high school made and it is so scratched all of the songs skip, but I still feel better!

Trick #2: If you’re the more serious type, or the situation you’re facing is just more serious at the moment, there is relief in the car also. Take a quick drive and notice the things around you in nature (or in the city lights) that are representative of the way you want to feel. If the situation feels like it will never end, remember the sun sets and starts anew each day. If you feel stuck in a rut, each highway has many exits that lead to different roads, only you can choose to exit off the highway! Use your naturalistic intelligence. It is a useful tool to use also when you are actually in the situation you are dreading or having anxiety over. When you start to feel panic picture in your mind the things you saw that represent they way you want to feel. You will be surprised how the dread dissipates and you feel refocused!

Dearest Husband

Today I left for a free topic, just so that I would not have something scheduled. I am making a little chaos for myself, apparently I don’t have enough.

So after we stayed up to midnight to register for Dearest Husband’s online Spanish class, that he desperately needs, we find out that registration starts at 6am this mornings.  After dragging our buts to bed so late I hopped out of bed at 5:45 am this morning to go walking! I am so proud of myself for actually getting up that early, I am so much more proud of Dearest Husband though! Not only is he doing fantastic in school this semester at O State, he was the first one to register for this class with only 25 openings! I have really seen him grow to be a dedicated student, he has really changed gears and gone the extra mile in all his classes. He is so driven that he plans to take this Spanish class, and then knock out three or four more summer classes during 2^nd summer session. He’s as crazy as me!

Even better though . . . he has been going the extra mile at home too! After a short discussion on taking the extra step around the house Dearest Husband has been going the extra 2 miles! Folding laundry, vacuuming, dishes ( he always does the dishes anyway), making the bed, all sorts of crazy stuff! Dearest Husband has been so wonderful I even held my tongue when I noticed something that was not done right. That takes a lot of patience for me but it was worth it!  

sheet folding trick

Hate opening your linen drawer to find a mass of mixed up sheets that are completely unorganized? Here is a cheater trick to making it look well kept in a snap!

1.       Take the top sheet and fold in nicely, leaving the last fold open.

2.       Take the bottom sheet and WAD IT UP!! Doesn’t that feel good?!?

3.       Place the bottom sheet on top of the open top sheet and make the last fold over.

4.       Put the whole thing in your draw and smile at how great it looks in half the time J

Side note: who knows how to properly fold a bottom sheet anyway? They are so tricky and never match up!  

Spicy Roasted Eggplant and shrimp served over pasta with an alfredo sauce accent!

Inspired by some delicious spicy roasted eggplant salad bought for me by my grandparents (Thank you!), I made a dinner out of it.  Off the label I got the ingredients in order:

Eggplant, bell pepper, cilantro, sesame seed oil, olive oil, peanut butter, spicy mustard, rice vinegar, ginger, water, red chili pepper flakes, salt and black pepper. I also added in some detailed small shrimps and extra red chili pepper flakes!

I just eyeballed everything a little less than the item before it since the ingredients are listed in order of concentration. I also boiled some whole wheat noodles and warmed up a fourth cup of alfredo sauce to split between two people. The eggplant salad cooks for 25 minutes at 425 degrees (F)

I was really nice to sit down and enjoy this dinner with Dearest Husband! We had it with some french bread and olive oil and vinegar, and a big salad. The left over eggplant mix was great the next day with some pita chips as a healthy snack!

unfinished business

This is not a joke. It’s a long list of unfinished craft projects

List A: includes projects that I have actually started on

1.       Trevor’s t shirt quilt

2.       Ashley’s Baby quilt

3.       Brown and pink large quilt

4.       Boys tool box set: baby quilt and two wall hangings

5.       Special Olympics Donation quilt

6.       Purple knit sweater (I started this one over 4 years ago, it was originally going to be a blanket)

7.       Cars quilt for Liz

8.       Christmas table runners for gifts

9.       Dress for myself

10.   Pink and brown bandanna quilt

11.   Tie Die Quilt

12.   Transportation baby quilt

13.   Knitted gray scarf

List B: includes projects and I have bought things for, but have yet to start. I suppose if I have not started them than technically they can’t be unfinished because they have not yet begun. Regardless they are stuck in my mind and need to be finished!

1.       CVQG red white and blue challenge donation quilt

2.       Baby blanket for Trevor’s cousin’s new baby

3.       Amy Butler clutch

4.       Clothing repair:

a.       Turquoise top

b.       Neighbors pants hem

c.       Khaki pants hem

d.      Rip in my favorite pink pants

e.      Canada top redo

5.       Green and gold hand died fabric purse

6.       Recycle bin cover

7.        Men’s tie wallets

8.       Special Olympics Second Donation quilt, American choppers

 I wrote out this list on Sunday and hung on my wall. I knew in my head I had this many things going on but having them listed out made it much more manageable. I felt great about geting things done and crossing them off! 

Mini Individual Green House

Just to heighten your trust in my garden skills let me start off by informing you of a recent death of three baby squash plants, who were sadly put outside two days prematurely and suffered from some slight frost and high winds. I am not sure why they call this city Stillwater, the water is always choppy from the high winds.

                These little squash babies did not die in vain though, I found a fantastic way to keep all their friends safe from the same fate. I dug through the recycle bin and found some plastic water bottles, quart milk jugs, and other plastic bottles. I removed the lids, and cut off the bottoms with kitchen scissors. These recyclable materials are now mini individual green houses for young and quickly growing (yea!) squash and cucumber plants.

this week

I love, love, love to schedule things so here’s the lineup for this week’s blog:

Monday: earth friendly recycled good in the garden

Tuesday: The list of unfinished craft/sewing/art projects, its comical. . . . .

Wednesday: weigh in and new recipe: roasted eggplant, yummy!

Thursday: Hate folding sheets? Here’s an easy way to fold sheets so they look nice in the drawers

Friday: leaving this one unplanned just for practice at flying by the seat of my pants

Saturday: mental health, stepping out of my comfort zone

compost

In the excitement of our garden this year I have begun to move past some seasonal depression from the nasty, unbearable, miserably cold and uneventful months of winter. We moved our compost pile from its winter location, a hole in the ground, to the perfect spring/summer composting system! It has more air movement and a better mix of food and dried yard waste. On the side of the road were two beat up pallets, just what I was looking for and for free! So I went home and excitedly told Dearest Husband about my idea for the compost bin I (…he) was going to make. We jumped in the truck and returned to the treasure spot, got the goods, and returned home. Of course we immediately got started on this project, I was still on my spring high from reading “The Edible Garden” and planning and planting this week. Side note for later: I was on a spring high, Dearest Husband was not.

We set the two pallets corner to corner to make two sides of a triangle. We then used chicken wire to construct the third side so that it can be easily opened each week to turn the pile. I put down a layer of hay and manure and then added all of the old coffee grounds, egg shells, fruit and vegetable peels, and other food wastes. I then added a light layer of dried leaves. I read in my new book that the yard waste and food waste should be a 1 to 1 ratio. So that put us at 1 ft tall already, only 2 more feet to go! Compost piles should be 1 cubic yard, three feet wide and three feet tall. It takes 3 to 6 months to be composted if turned every few days. We should have some good mix by July for the second planting!

We built this compost on a minefield though. I was enthusiastic to be outside, spending quality time with Dearest Husband working on a project that would make our garden more efficient and productive. Dearest Husband, who had been at work for 8 hours, who hates the 80 degree sun shinny weather, who is sweating from the hard work, who is shoveling half rotted food scraps, was not as excited about the project as I would have liked him to be. We got in a little tiff about how to reinforce the pallets at the corner, we took some pictures, finished the project and came in the house. Upon seeing the photo of myself and not being pleased with it I had a breakdown, at Dearest Husband. I was infuriated that he had not checked the photo to make sure I looked good, and I had already changed into clean clothes and there was no way I was going back outside to take another one. In Texas tradition I continued to be stubborn and made this small problem a little larger than it really was. I also added in through burning tears that Dearest Husband never wants to do things outside with me, and always complains when I have a project to do, that he never thinks about what I want to do. All of which are false because it only happens sometimes.

After I cooled off and forced myself to give Dearest Husband a hug I came to a conclusion. There is a learning curve in any relationship, neither he nor I are going to be great at reading each other all the time after only a year of being married. It would help if I would have communicated “hey, I have this idea for a new composting system and I would love to spend time with you making it right now”. It would have also helped had he said “hey, I am already tired, have homework to do, and it is still hot outside. Can we plan to do some other time this week?” But we live on earth, not a perfect planet so we went “sailing in the storms” and made it to the other shore in the end.

My Inspiration:

I was inspired by this song to start this blog about being married and living life!

Andres Peterson's "Dancing in the Minefields"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gs3fg_WsEg)

Well I was 19 you were 21
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much to young
But we did it anyway
We got the rings for 40 each from a pawnshop down the road
We said our vows and took the leap now 15 years ago

Chorus:
We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storm
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for

Well I do' are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I've heard is a good place to begin
Cause the only way to find your life is to lay your own life down
And I believe it's an easy price for the life that we have found

Chorus:
And we're dancing in the minefields
We're sailing in the storm
This is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for
That's what the promise is for

Bridge:
So when I lose my way, find me
When I lose loves chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith
to the end of all my days
when I forget my name, remind me

Cause we bear the light of the son of man
So there's nothing left to fear
So I'll walk with you in the shadow lands
Till the shadows disappear
Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos baby
I can dance with you

Chorus:
So lets go dancing in the minefields
Lets go sailing in the storms
Oh lets go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh lets go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh this is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for
That's what the promise is for