So Far, So Good

Day 3 of my "Not Be A Crummy Housekeeper" plan and I have figured something out about myself--I work in crisis mode but not as much in calm mode.

Some of that is not surprising, I used to do emergency management stuff.  However, my house is clean, it only took me a few minutes this morning (because today's room was the living room and it was already tidy, just needed dusting).

Soooooo......now what do I do?

The thing is that I think I find things to do when I am under pressure to do something else.  Need to mop the floor?  Hey!  Let's write a book instead!  Clean laundry piled upon the couch?  Hey!  Let's play video games!  Kitchen in need of work?  Hey!  Let's cross stitch pretty hankies for everyone we know whilst we binge watch Pride and Prejudice!

Now that I am not trying to avoid anything, I have no idea what to do.  It is the classic "I only want it when I can't have it" nonsense that is the root and bane of human psychology.  I think the adrenaline plus dread of a chore hanging over our heads adds to the rush that distraction gives us.  Now I don't need to be distracted so there is no energy that I am diverting from a stressful task to pour into a fun one.

Gah.  Is this what organized feels like? ;) ;)

Today I tidied and swept, dusted the living room, wrote over 1900 words discussing the Syrian Refugee Situation, watered the plants, drove to Tennessee with TWS, came back and stopped at the feed and seed for scratch and flock raiser, drove to pick up a present, went to the pet store (they did not have the food we needed), drove to the vet to get the food and register MicroMew for his shot series, etc, went to the grocers to get our Thanksgiving meal supplies (OH!  and new cleaning supplies!....wait, did I just get excited over cleaning supplies?!?  Who am I and what have I done with me?), came home, put groceries away (including 4 tubs of ice cream, three boxes of ice cream bars, two boxes of chloraseptic, and one bottle of Robo--there is a cold in the house), then ate lunch.

I actually just volunteered to help The Boy clean his room.

Confessions of a Crummy Housewife

I am not a good housekeeper.  Let's just get that out into the open.  I am a ROTTEN housekeeper actually.  Oh there is not gross stuff, but there is not order or tidiness either.

Now, I am good at many things.  I can help you paint a house.  Help you write a book.  Can help diagnose your illness, help you train your kids and cats.  I can help you improve your relationship with your sweetie.

I can plant a garden.  Cook over a fire.  Help cure your panic attacks.  Discuss literature, the Lord, and theoretical physics.

I can bake bread.  Skin a moose.  Write a poem.  Deliver a baby.

I can even tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue.

But I have never kept a clean house for more than as long as it takes to have company come and go.  Actually there were two times I would clean:  if company was coming or if I was upset.  The kids could see if I was upset so in those "50 year flood" type of time when I cleaned the house spontaneously, they would ask "Who's coming over?".

There is just so many other things that seemed more important.  I spend my time in my head.  My environment just needed to be sterile, not tidy (you might could eat off the floor if you could find it).  I did not care where my shoes were (until I couldn't find them) or if my bed was made.  As long as nothing was on fire or a health hazard, I didn't need order.

I am a grown adult.  It is about time I learned how to keep a house.

I started small--making sure my bed was made every day.  I don't even remember why...one day I got tired of our room being messy and put away a ton of clothes, shut drawers, wiped surfaces.  Made. The. Bed.

And thus it began.....

And every day for the past month I have made my bed before leaving my room in the morning EXCEPT on laundry days when I was going to strip the sheets.  Then I made the bed when they were done.

TWS, with a gleam in his eye, asked if, perhaps, this would carry over into other rooms.  Oh that poor man.  That poor, type A, logistician-by-trade, completely organized man.  I imagine that it was hard to live with his own personal tornado, but he understood that it was not a deliberate thing.  For example, when I get out of the shower and start putting on clothing, my towel actually ceases to exist.  I do not see it.  I do not remember it.  I do not think about it.  It phases out of my existence until it is time for the next shower.  Not on purpose, it just happens.  So I have literally 3 seconds before dressing to remember to hang my towel.  It got to be a habit, so now I do it unconsciously.

WHICH leads me to both my new Word of the Year for 2016 and my game plan:  Diligence.

We, thankfully, just had wonderful company come by, which meant, of course, panic clean.  The rooms were straightened, the floors scrubbed, etc.

Now I just have to keep it that way....which is what I have said before for oh, about 30 years BUT now I have both guilt and a plan :D  TWS never complained about a messy house but he did, after 21 years of marriage, hint that it would be nice.  He is too fabulous for me to deny him, so wishing became guilt which became a desire for diligence for the gifts the Lord gave me which led to prayer which led to plan. (love how that works!)

Because everything is not exactly 100% organized when i am starting, I still have a little backlog to do.  But those will be done on the days of the plan.  I divided the house into specific chores and assigned them a day.  Now, I have done this before, but this time, a)I am starting out after a panic clean and b)I started getting practice by the daily bed making thing.  I have worked out a HABIT, which is what i was missing.  The "bed making" is the starting line for my cleaning for the day.  After that, since I am already "cleaning", it was no big thing to add another chore, for example, sweeping.

Today's chores were:  bathrooms, water plants, tidy, and sweep.  In the span of 2 1/2 hours, I have:  scrubbed both bathrooms (toilets, sinks, shower, walls, floor, counters), washed the dishes (dd's chore but she went to bed feeling poorly last night), baked brownies (for her finals week), swept the house, made the bed, did a light tidy through the house (instead of a deep clean which will happen on the assigned days, for example, today was the day for a deep clean of the bathrooms), took out some trash, read, posted on fb. 

Except for watering plants (which I have not done yet as I need to figure out when citrus need to be watered), I am done with my chores for the day.  I have even painted my nails!


My house is tidy enough for drop by company.  Maybe not "stay for a week company" but definitely drop by company, which frees me up to be hospitable.  Not only that, but the rest of my day is clear!!!  WOOHOOO!!!

I could work on the list for tomorrow, but I am choosing not to.  Today was good enough for today.  This needs to be a habit, which means I will need time for those days when I have appointments or tasks, so I need to get into the "little every day" not "binge clean" which is my usual :)


If anyone reads this and has a trouble area (cleaning, exercising, etc) let me know.  I could use an accountability buddy.  I really want this to be a "thing". :)



My little helper who actually is not as much of a help as he thinks he is ;)

Is Home Where We Take Our Stand?

Creating a home (house, garden, etc) as sanctuary for our husbands and children and friends and neighbors and strangers in a dark and jaded world.....

Do we value the task of creating a safe, warm place as much as we should?  I often don't.  It is hard to pulled both to the garden and to the front lines, especially in today's world.

Is that why we love Andy Griffith and Little House on the Prairie and watching Pride and Prejudice, because we instinctively are drawn to the idea of home?  Why we long to get away to beautiful places of good food and soft music and warm greetings?

This isn't about working or not working.  This is more about mindset, about how we spend our time, about getting in touch with a part of us that years of outside pressures might have made us forget that we have, and made us forget what an amazing work creating a safe, warm place really is.

Could it be that this is our stand?  That this is our fight against evil and darkness--to create literal islands of light and joy and peace in each city or country block, to be ambassadors of that light and love when we travel to school and store and doctor's office and restaurant?

Are we talking this duty seriously?  Do we understand the necessity of it?  Are we willing to provide this for others?

The world is corrupted with the spirits of evil and greed and selfishness.  Could it be that our homes are our fortress against such, that we must be diligent to keep the walls of it strong and the insides of it peaceful and light?

A Quiet Morning

Sitting with The Wonder Sweetie on the screened porch.  The smoke from his pipe sweetens the warm, sharper scent of wood burning somewhere nearby--a potpourri of masculinity and autumn and fire.  The grainlines of cracks and callouses in his rough, hardworking hands flow and blend into those in the bowl of his pipe and I am meszmerized by the dance of the mist and the blessing of marriage.

He reads a book on leather craft.  I am surrounded by papers of dreams and plans for this holiday season.  Determined to be a better mom, a better planner, so that my babies--now grown and tall--might have a whole season of twinkling, lighted excitement.

It is a splendid, blessed way to spend a free morning <3

A Morning Round My Table

I love to spend time in quiet contemplation early in the morning.  I find it incredibly settling and recharging at the same time.  My day works best when I make it wait for me and the Lord to finish our time.

I have redone the screen porch and, even if it is cold, I bring my breakfast, Bible, notebook, pen, ipad, kindle, coffee, and phone out.  I am not sure if I will still do this in the deep winter, but I hope so!  This is one of the most restful places in the whole house.

I pray.  I spend time talking with Jesus.  I read the saints and philosophers and modern Christian writers.  Breakfast with Augustine, coffee with Teresa of Avila.  Sometimes I read Jacobsen's "He Loves Me" when the enemy tries to make me feel unloved.  Sometimes I read Brother Lawrence when I need plain uplifting refocus on the Lord.  Jennie Allen (Restless) and Brant Hansen (Unoffendable) sit around my table along with Pascal (Pensees) and Kierkegaard (Sorrow Unto Death and Purity Of Heart).  They are easy guests:  they don't eat much but they have fabulous conversation.

Here are more of my guests.  They are engaging and well worth your time:

Bonnie Gray (Finding Spiritual Whitespace)
Carey Scott (Untangled)
St Augustine (Confessions)
St Ignatius (Autobiography of)
McDougall (Jesus Was An Airborne Ranger)

Don't be put off by the idea of reading the saints or philosophers.  For the most part they are VERY easy and quick to read (especially Kierkegaard.  I always pictured that he would be obtuse and murky, but he writes in a refreshingly simple, modern style).  Some translations are easier to read than others, so if you find one that seems ponderous and confusing, try another one.

Little Special Things

Good morning my sweet friend! 

What a glorious day it is today!  The sun is finally out!  It was only sunny 3 days out of the first 29 for the month of December here, and the bright sunshine is a welcome sight today.

Today I want to share with you a couple of our Little Special Things :).  Nearly every family, I would hope, has little things that sort of bind them.  I find more and more that these tiny little acts of kindness and love are like super glue--just a little dot of time but binds the family tightly together :)

I must confess:  I am not a perfect wife or mother :).  MANY is the morning that TWS needed a shirt or socks, and I prayed down the hallway to see if I, by chance, happened to wash some without realizing it (and thank the Lord, I always found some for him!).  The children have an absentminded professor for a mom so, while sometimes our days are awesome and filled with deep geeky/spiritual/etc thoughts and fun, sometimes I forget that it is youth group night or to put money under their pillow for teeth (nothing like having your 6 year old come in and say "Mom, you forgot the money under my pillow...again." Yikes!)

Of course these are things that I work on, but thank the Good Lord, He has provided ideas for "Little Special Things"--those little tiny habits and traditions that seem, on the surface, to be nothing much at all on my end, but carry a surprising amount of weight in the minds and hearts of my family.   

For example, I remember when I was young and would go to my grandmother's house.  She kept a spare freezer right inside from the carport.  In there went typical things like extra pecans and vegetables, but ALSO there was always chocolate of some sort.  Her freezer was always a place of hidden treasure and happiness.

So I decided that I, too, wanted to do that when we moved back down south (with a carport and a place to put a spare freezer inside the house!).  I buy packs of regular Hershey bars and tuck them into the door of the freezer.

You know what the BEST part of this is (besides 24-7 access to chocolate hee hee! )?  Precious has added to the "event" of getting chocolate from the freezer by breaking each bar into fourths and offering a piece to all of us.  I have gotten into the habit of that too, and find it is a sweet, kind, gentle way of bonding the family.  So a couple of times a week, generally at about 2 or 3 pm when we are all a little slumpy, one of us will go to the freezer, and pass out a little bit of candy to us all.

Another Little Special Thing is our Cake Plate Treats.  This actually stems from two things:  a)I have a glass covered cake plate with no extra storage in my kitchen in which to tuck it away and b)Empty cake plates sitting on the table look so .....sad.  Depressing.  Stingy, even.  I mean, you KNOW that at some point there was a cake or something in there.  And you know that, hopefully, sometime there will be a cake again, but at that moment you missed it and just look at a cold, empty piece of glass.

So I decided to start making sure there is something nice under that dome.  Sometimes it is blueberry muffins.  Sometimes a cake.  Sometimes I just whip up a bag mix of cookies.  Rarely is it anything too involved.  My only rule is that I do not make any more Cake Plate Treats until the cake plate is cleaned :)  Which brings me to the realization of how much and how quickly my family started seeing this as a "thing" for our family....one day The Wonder Sweetie made a big show of play-pouting and looking at the empty cake plate.  I reminded him that it needs to be washed first, so he started leaving notes for Precious to remember to clean the cake plate :)

What about you?  Are there any little special things that you do for your family or friends or even strangers?  Any bits of God-love that make their way into your habits and life?  I would love to hear about them!

Just dropping by for a chat....

Good morning my sweet friend!

It is a GORGEOUS morning here, weather wise.  We have been having the most unbelievably unseasonable weather of late!  Normally the highs for the south in August are in the 90's.  There have been some days where I do not think it got past 75! 

Ever since we moved here the weather has been odd.  I am not at all complaining about it though :).  While I do love heat and humidity, even when it is cool here, there is no chill in the air.  We have had plenty of rain (much more than normal--July was the third wettest on record!), many thunderstorms for me to enjoy, and everything is growing lushly.  The cool weather has been a blessing for TWS as he has been working outside in the garden.  It is much more comfortable, and safer, for him.

I am ready for some sunshine though :).

The poor babies have the bug I had last week.  Lots of sore throats and coughs and pitiful peaked faces.  I am thankful I got it first and am relatively over it enough that I can tend to them.  For us, we drink lots of cokes for the throat and tummy, watch movies, and generally take it super easy.  This is one of the blessings of homeschooling--the ability to take time off when it is necessary without worrying about being behind!

I hope you have a blessed day, my sweet friend!

A Busy Saturday!

Good Morning my dear friend!

 

I hope this Sunday is a blessed day of rest for you and that you will spend a little time just enjoying your Creator who loves you mightily (if you have any doubts or guilt or wondering, please feel free to contact me--I know ALLL of those feelings and can tell you that they are not for you :)  He wants you close to Him because He loves you and in Him there is no shame--no matter what you have done! :) ).

 

Rest.  What a beautiful word!  When I say "rest", I can sometimes feel a desperate exhaling deep in my spirit, a tender, almost crying feeling of gratitude. :)  Rest.  Peace.  Joy.  Such beautiful words!

 

But there is also such a wonderful feeling in the words "work", "industry", "providing from provision", "serving"!  While my spirit loves its downtime in rest, it also LOVES a purpose, a goal, a good thing done with the hands!!  Work is the sunshine while rest is the moonlight--both of them beautiful when balanced with the other :)

 

I cannot thank the Lord enough, dear friend, that He allowed us to move here.  My neighbors are some of the kindest, sweetest people.  Our next door neighbors keep bringing us provision from their massive (and slightly envy provoking ;) ) garden.  We had much that we had to put up, and I spent yesterday doing just that!  Let me walk you through my day....

 

Firstly, I have been longing for blueberry muffins like my mom used to make.  I actually have a nickname for the amount of blueberry muffins I could put away as a young child. :)  We have been blessed with an abundance of blueberries from our own bushes, so yesterday I set to work making blueberry muffins first thing.  Not only did I want them, but I thought the children would enjoy having them ready for breakfast when they awoke.

Because Precious has to eat gluten free, I made hers first.  I had bought a box of gluten free muffin mix--what a time saver!  I added the requisite butter and eggs, then also threw in a can of pumpkin.  Precious had been remarking about how dry some of the breads are...plus pumpkin is so good for you...that I thought it would help take her muffins to a higher level of moistness and nutrition.  Boy was I right!  Her muffins were SO moist from the plump fresh blueberries and the pumpkin that I thought she might not like them!  However, she informed me that "these muffins are going to be problematic" (meaning they were so good that she was having a hard time not eating them all :) ).

 

The can of pumpkin also greatly extended the batch.  It made the gluten free mix a little more cost effective (though I do need to make my own mix for her--another project for another day :) ).

 

Then I made our muffins.  I used my mom's recipe (though added a bit more sugar to balance out the pumpkin I added to ours as well). At the end of the cooking session, I had a couple dozen+ large muffins and many dozen mini muffins!

 

Then I went on to making pickles.  Our neighbors had graciously brought us some delicious cucumbers from their garden.  Truly they were different than store bought--made for pickling but tasted wonderful fresh.  I have not canned much, and never made pickles, so I opted for refrigerator pickles and used Ball's Bread and Butter spice mix.  TWS had asked for bread and butter instead of dill, and I did not mind either way.

 

Below are just some of the cucumbers.  I forgot to take a photo of all of them :).  I used my new mandolin to slice them.  TWS came in and was...curious about a)using a crinkle cut and b)the thickness of the slices (0.5 inches).  Now, at this point I was tempted to say "Y'know, I CAN actually do this without messing up..." lolol  However, I stopped and thought "He had mentioned his grandparents making them...perhaps that has something to do with it".  I explained my choice (I had always seen b and b pickles crinkle cut and that 0.5 inches is what the recipe said) then acknowledged his memories of his grandparents' pickles and asked if he would prefer me make them like his grandparents did, if his heart wanted what he remembered.  He stopped and thought a moment and then assured me that I should follow the recipe. 

I am thankful for that moment.  I usually get defensive (gah!) and sometimes react in a less than gracious way.  I am trying to stop that, though, because he a)did not mean any harm and b)he was touching a memory with his heart.  I am thankful that the Lord gave me the wisdom and ability (and that I USED it lolol) to see deeper and to ask. :)

 

 

 
The mandolin took a bit getting used to but eventually I ended up with this.  It was an incredibly easy process:  boil sugar, vinegar, and spice mix, pour over the slices, then let cool in the bowl.  Pack the jar with slices, put a rounded 1/8 tsp of the crisping granules (see below) then ladle the juice until the jar is full.  Put in fridge for up to 3 months, taste is best after developing for 3 weeks.  Easy!!

 

 

Then it was time for the tomatoes.  I diced them all up and bagged them except for this little beauty that I was going to use for BLT's for supper.

 
What a gorgeous bowl of tomato loveliness!!!

 
Bagged and marked because these look remarkably like the diced watermelon that I have in the freezer...what an unpleasant mix up that would be!  (That reminds me of the saying to tell between knowledge and wisdom :)  Knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit...Wisdom is knowing not to put it in the fruit salad :) )

 

 

Speaking of watermelon....I had bought one on sale.  For about $3 I ended up with a ton of fruit, smoothie base, and rind candy!  I will admit I was going to be lazy and just scoop out the wonderful middle fruit.  But then I saw all the left over rind and the light pink, not quite as sweet, part and just could not waste them.  It did not take long to scoop out the good stuff, slice off the light pink/white fruit, then separate the outside rind from the inside.  The light pink/white fruit makes a WONDERF base for smoothies!  It has very little flavor, but much more flavor and fiber and vitamins than using ice cubes!  Add some OJ or lemon juice or pineapple, and there is a hearty, but light, fiber packed smoothie with what would normally be thrown out.

 After cutting up the watermelon, it was time to snap some beans. Fresh green beans are my favorite food.  I used to eat them every day for lunch.  I bought these at a local farm.  They were a little tougher than I like, but still good, so I sat on the porch and snapped off the ends.  I was going to do this in the kitchen, but I wanted the charm of "sittin on the porch, snapping beans" :) 

 
All broken up and ready to be placed in the freezer for a pot of tex mex soup when the weather turns colder :)

 

 

Back to the watermelon rind.  The rest of the watermelon had been put in the freezer and fridge.  I poured off the juice and had a wonderful glass of watermelon juice to refresh me during my work.  Now I decided to try my hand at watermelon rind candy.  I keep my computer close in the kitchen--I am forever needing to google a recipe or something :). 

I found several recipes for watermelon rind candy, but many of them were "pickles"--kept in a jar in fluid.  I wanted dry candy.  I found one for a basil mint and many with anise.  Neither flavor was what I was looking for, so I made my own with key lime juice, powdered ginger, cumin, cayenne (just a dash!), and allspice.

 
Here are the strips I cut of the rind....

Here are the rind strips in water, sugar, salt, and the seasonings.  You boil them until the rinds are translucent.  This took forever!!! :)  I am sure I must have missed something, because eventually I got tired of waiting and just scooped them out onto a sugared tray to be put in the oven to dry and they became more translucent as they cooled.

My first (or maybe second?) oops!  I was going between recipes and missed the "put them on a SUGAR coated parchment".  I had no parchment, but I tumped these off onto another piece of foil that was sugared.

Much better :)

 
This....ah this....:)  This is the wonderful syrup that was left over after  boiling the rind.  It is incredible and will be wonderful over ice cream or as a flavoring or to use for basting pork.  I wish the light was better--it was such a lovely color.

You might ask how the rind candy came out....the flavor was incredible!  It had the tiniest bit of warmth and heat after you ate it, and the citrus was delicate and not overpowering.  It was delightful.  However, after trying to dry it for way too long in a 250 degree oven as a recipe said, it just became sticky, sticky goo--like raw caramel :)  Next time I will:  allow the fruit to macerate in the sugar that the syrup is eventually made of for several hours (as many of the recipes suggested!).  I will boil it for less, and make sure the syrup does not reduce too much--there is no way that I could see for the candy to dry when it was coated in a thick, thick glaze.  Also, I will turn the oven down to 170 (a much better drying temperature).  However, I will not change the flavorings at all--they were wonderful!

 

 

As I waited for the hours to pass for the candy, I googled how to fold paper boxes to deliver the muffins and blueberries in to my neighbors.  It took a few tries until I found directions that were easy to understand :).  I had purchased this pack of paper for $5 at Walmart.  It was an incredibly cute and inexpensive way to present little treats.



These are the finished boxes.  Once I got the hang of folding them, they were very easy and very quick.  I can see myself using this often in the future.  I tied ribbon around the sides to give them some stability and to doll them up a bit.

I had to figure out some dividers as my original idea of using cupcake cups was not working well.    Here they are, all filled :)  I placed these in an adorable "US Mail" basket that TWS had gotten me for my birthday this year, and placed fabric over them to keep the bugs out.  Then we got in the cart and (whilst hoping we had enough battery!) drove up and down the road delivering these to neighbors.  Two of our neighbors were not home, regrettably.

 

After we came home, I was exhausted!  It had been quite the day :).  I did not even get to the eggplant and the peaches that also need to be put up, but that was for another time.  About an hour after we came home, one of my neighbors brought over more cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, and such :)  I love living in the country!!!  I hope I can be a blessing to them like they are to us :)



Grocery Wednesday!

Sweet friend!  So glad you are here!

I am slowly getting into a routine to try to keep everything running smoothly here at Lemonrock Farm.  I truly was never that wonderful of a housekeeper.  However, I am determined to do much better at it, and a routine helps me immensely (when I remember to stick to it).

I am letting the Lord establish my routine for me.  Instead of declaring what day I will do what, He is gently guiding me in wisdom to what days are best for what major chores.  Additionally, I need to seek Him every day for the incidental tasks that need to be done. 

Today is Wednesday and we have established that that is a great time for me to do my coupons and flyers and grocery shopping.  I have read in some places that couponing takes a great deal of time.  Truthfully I do not find it time consuming.  I get a Sunday paper with coupons (and I clip the ones I need), then I go to my store's website.  They make it easy to print coupons, have digital coupons, and make a list all online.  Truly the time I spend making my list and clicking digital coupons is very small (compared, say, to the time I spend on facebook or pinterest ;) ), and therefore worth the effort.  I save my coupons from Sunday, my organizer, and a pair of scissors in a little reading basket in my sunroom and do all clipping and grocery related tasks on Wednesday.

That is my routine chore for Wednesday.  My incidental tasks that I would like to accomplish today is to make a few internet inquiries regarding selling some fiestaware, planting my seeds in my trays to eventually transfer to the Walking Garden, finish a painting I was working on, make sweet tea, and perhaps a few other items I have forgotten at the moment :).

What is your plan for today?  Do you stick to a routine and do you find it suits you?  Do you find it difficult to stick to a routine?  Do you have any tips for smoothing the housekeeping road?  I would love to hear from you!

Catch Up Day!

Good Morning sweet friend!

Goodness I am way behind!  Somehow my chores got less done than I like and now it is time to play catch up.  Though today is a day of scrubbing bathrooms and such, I decided that I still want to look and feel put together whilst I work:  cotton skirt, cotton blouse, satin brocade apron, hair neatly pulled back, and some make up on.  My family still has to see me, even as I clean, and I would like for them to see me at my best.  They deserve it :)

My thoughts are turning to sewing and I am eager to get caught up so I can unpack the sewing machine.  I also have painted a painting the past few days.  I am not at all an artist, BUT I enjoy painting so much!  It is good to do things that we enjoy without having the expectation or pressure of having to be "good enough" at it.

So today my plan is:

-tax teleconference for the farm
-dye Precious' hair
-cut up watermelon and honeydew
-make "man pleasin' chicken" for dinner
-do at least two loads of laundry
-clean all bathrooms
-clean my bedroom
-sweep and mop

Now, if I get those done, my next list is:
-go check the wild blackberries for ripeness
-contact a company to see if they are interested in buying some fiestaware that I do not want
-pack up everything non-essential that is on the dining table
-finish painting
-work on part of Walking Garden--establishing plots where I plan to plant seeds.

Whew!  I must get busy!  Let me know what wonderful things you have planned for today!

Hot Tempers and Hot Temperatures

Good morning dear friend!

It is a busy day for me here out in the greenhouse, but I wanted to check in with you and say hello :)

It is going to be a scorcher today with temperature indexes up to 107.  I hope the tomatoes are not suffering too much--we are cooling the greenhouse down as much as we can.  A few of our tomatoes are suffering greatly from the amount of rain we received the other day, and a few were underwater.  We had lowered the sides, but the land is uneven and a few tomatoes were in a catchment.  They are planted in the ground, under cover, so it would be very difficult to backfill.  We are going to dig a trench today and mound up around the tomatoes that are prone to flooding.  

I had planned to do this tomorrow, but there is severe weather coming through and any outdoor activities need to be done today.  We will be extremely diligent to keep cool, to stop often, and to hydrate much.

As for hot tempers... :)

This morning I got involved in a discussion online. I love a good, rational, calm, discussion.  I delight in playing with point of views and facts and studies, turning them over and around and looking at all sides.   I am a scientist at heart.  I like counter points, and welcome the testing of my fences in terms of what I think, because if my ideas cannot withstand scrutiny, then I need to rethink them.  

(I believe I got that from my sweet mother and her father.  Her father would present a subject for debate after supper.  Halfway through the discussion, he would say "switch" and she would have to debate the OPPOSITE side.   It was an excellent practice in knowing both sides, understanding both sides, then knowing what was right.  They were not only intellectually rigorous, but also spiritually so, and logic and spirituality, science and faith, imbued their minds and hearts and spirits.  I still struggle with pride and "rightness", however)

However,  we have to be careful to always conduct ourselves online as if we were in person.  There is a real live human with real live struggles on the other side.  If we would not say something to their face, then we should not say it on line.  We should always make sure that EVERY SINGLE WORD, spoken, typed, or thought is graceful and seasoned with salt.  It is inevitable that we will disagree, but we have to be careful to be thoughtful, even if we are just debating with someone online.

One thing that sorrowed me about this discussion is that it lost its rational edge.   When we stop answering someone's points of logic, and instead start criticising unrelated people, the conversation is lost.  In this case, it was a study presented by someone who might not be the best spokesman for the study.  The study was sound, but the presenter was someone that might be seen as divisive.  However, that person's personality does not change the results of the study, and the discussion was the study itself.

This happens when we feel defensive about something.  We lash out or start picking apart other people as persons instead of analyzing and debating data.  It is an emotional, not rational, reaction.  It is natural--no one likes to have "the other side" be right about anything!  We start attacking, all of us, when we feel we are being attacked.  However, what we FEEL and what is TRUE can be two different things.  We must be careful that, in any situation, we are gentle with the heart of the other person.  Mocking, snarking, name calling, all are signs of weakness.  It takes a LOT more strength to be calm and loving in the face of "attack" than to mock, be sarcastic, and troll.  Those things are easy.

In regards to intellectual rigor--the Lord gave us sound minds.  He gave us rational thought.  He gave us logic and order.  We should make sure that any thoughtful discussion we get into uses logic and reason, and that we do not let it dissolve into a snark fest.  When we see the other person getting upset, it is often good to withdraw, for at that point, even if we have the exact right answer, they are defensive and will not hear it.  It is a kindness to them, and to the point you are trying to make.  There is always time later to readdress, carefully and full of logic and grace, what points need to be made.

And when we find ourselves about ready to send a "zinger" (and trust me, we all have that desire!), then  we must stop.  Right there.  Our arguing at that point is filled with anger, not love.  Pride, not care.  In order not to bring dishonor to ourselves or the Lord, we must pause, stop, breathe, pray until our words again become sweet, fresh water that bubbles out, not salty bitter water that spews out.  It is hard.  I fail.  But this is a worthy goal to try to attain and the Lord will empower us to do it as long as we do not let our hot tempers get in the way :)

Thursday Cooks

Hello my sweet friend!

 

Just popping in for a moment during lunch.  As I mentioned earlier, I was in a bad mood and needed distraction.  Actually, I hope to make Thursday cooking a main part of my schedule.  I take the babies to youth group on Wednesday night, and run across the street to do my grocery shopping.  That way I can do my Thursday cooking with the freshest ingredients (and the freshest me, since I am a morning person).

 

We did not go to youth group last night (bad mom, I know!), but I had had enough stocked to be able to make almost whatever I chose.

 

So I decided to make enchiladas and burritos (both regular and gluten free) this morning.

 

I truly do not know why more people do not do this--it is so easy!  The enchiladas, specifically, come together so quickly and in a matter of minutes, you can have several meals of enchiladas made and in the freezer!  The burritos were even quicker.

 

Here are a few photos from this morning:

 

These are the ingredients for the enchiladas.  I used more cans of chicken and ended up adding even another brick of cream cheese and more chicken and chilies :).

 

Canned chicken and chilies.  I will add the cream cheese to this, but this shot was prettier :) 

 

 

For Precious, here are the gluten free tortillas that I used.  On the right you can see fully assembled enchiladas in aluminum tins and in quart baggies.  I mark hers with pink tape so we know which is hers and which isn't.

 

Here is a photo of the assembly line :)  Scoop the filling, roll the tortilla (not folding the ends, so that there is numminess all the way through without large folds of tortilla)....Two per mini loaf pan/

 

Using a ladle, I put a scoop of salsa verde over the top.  Then sprinkled with cheese.

 

 

Voila!  I made 6 sets each of burritos and enchiladas for Precious, and many more for TWS.  Not bad for an easy morning of scooping, laughing, taking photos, and texting :).

Talking About the Uniqueness of YOU

Good morning darling!

Goodness what sort of flow of thought and purpose is with us this morning, hmm!

I was going to talk about my greenhouse (yay!) but then that paled, PALED, I tell you, in the wonder of you, of God's creation in you.  I am.....awed.

I touched on something in the previous post regarding your uniqueness.  Your specialness.

Now wait, before you say "I am not special!" let me stop you, dear one :).  Yes.  You are.

On a human level, I have observed that we all, myself included, tend to measure ourselves against others.  Many of us see someone who is {prettier, smarter, more organized, richer, more popular, more talented, more, more more} than us and think "Well, that's it.  I am not as much as they are, so I am just sort of average, nothing special".

Do you think that way?  Do you sort of consider yourself just another drop of water in the sea of humanity?

Let me tell you to stop!  Right now!  And I will tell you why that is not true :)

Yes, there is always someone prettier, more talented in one thing or another, smarter, more capable, whatever. 

However...

That is the COMPLETELY wrong way to look at it.  That is the human way, the competitive way, the pitifully small way to see you.

Let's say that you are a piano composer. Is it wise to say "Well, I'm no Bach, so I am just nothing special"? NO! Only Bach was Bach.  The Piano Guys are not Bach, but Bach was not the Piano Guys.  Each have their own niche, their own purpose, their own time.  He makes EVERYTHING, even us :)  beautiful in its own time. :)

You see, everyone has a specific set of personality traits and talents and abilities.  Would you compare, say, a rainbow and a sunset and say "Well, the rainbow has more colors, so the sunset is just another common, unspecial thing...."  NO!  How many sunsets have you spent with a loved one in a perfect moment of quietness (or of fun and enjoyment!)?  Yes, the sunset has fewer colors, but a rainbow would not quite be the same way to close the day on the beach of a long awaited vacation, right?

But a sunset would not quite right for the Lord's promise to Noah, and for prisms, and to elicit the delighted squeals of children seeing their first rainbow, then their first DOUBLE rainbow!  Lisa Frank stickers would not look nearly as eye candy-y if they were only in shades of gold :)

It is not one trait that we must look at, but the fact that we are a wonderful, complex, diverse set of traits that were made ON PURPOSE by God for a REASON.  There is not one person who does not have a purpose that is unique and only for them.  Your purpose is unique to YOU.  I cannot fulfill your purpose.  Bach cannot fill YOUR purpose.  That gal in the apartment two floors up who always looks put together and throws the best parties cannot fulfill YOUR purpose.

Think about that.  Understand that the Lord has a path that is just for you.  He has specific jobs just for YOU to do and fill, and He made you, on purpose, to have just the right amount of this talent, a little less of that one, a little more of this other one so that you fit perfectly into the purpose and life He has for you.  He made you "to will and to do for His good pleasure".  He made YOU  to WANT to do His plan for you and to DO His plan for you.  He knit you, my friend, on purpose while your mom was still pregnant with you.  Perhaps in the first month He gave you a talent for, say, music--not "Next American Idol" talent, but a strong affinity for music.  Maybe in the second month He decided not to give you so much ability to spell.  Maybe in the third month He made you an introvert.  Maybe in the fourth month He gave you incredible manual dexterity.  Maybe in the fifth month He gave you kind of half of talent for math--you don't do math super well (especially that one trig class--ouch!) BUT you DO have an incredible ability to find patterns.  Maybe in the sixth month He gave you the ability to overcome your introvertedness when you teach.  Maybe in the seventh month He gave you a deep and abiding raw heart for the elderly.  Maybe in the eighth month He gave you the ability to not work from a recipe, but just cook from instinct.  Maybe in the ninth month He gave you a normal IQ.

See?  On and on, He did a little bit of this, a LOT of that, none of the other.

And what could you become with that brief list I just made?   Your ability to see patterns helps you break down music you hear and register it in your mind, subconsciously, so that you can make patterns when you write.  You do not spell well, but you do not need to--that is what spell check is for ;).  The Lord arranged, before you were born, that sometime you would meet up with someone who was starting a therapy program for stroke victims to help them regain motor skills by playing the piano, and He arranged for you to accidentally meet them in the veggie aisle of the grocery store.  You had been looking at jicama and wondering what the heck you do with it, but it looked entirely too good to pass up, so what the heck? You will figure it out what to do with it and you buy a couple.  The occupational therapist sees you buy the jicama and asks you what you are cooking with it.  You sort of chuckle in a way that is endearing and you say "I have no idea.  But it looks good", and the OT is charmed by your daring and is emboldened to talk to you more.  You do not know it, but three months from now, that OT will bring you on board to work with her, answering a prayer for a part time job in your home that uses what talents you have to help others.  Your introverted nature, plus your ability to see patterns AND your ability to improvise (which you developed while cooking stuff like jicama) makes you have great joy as you are an active participant in the healing of stroke victims--see, you have to pay attention to what struggles the stroke victims have, see the patterns, then compose small, progressively difficult, pieces of music for the patient to practice.  You dig into the challenge and are deliberate, thoughtful, and calming when working with them.

So...perhaps your time gets away from you.  Yeah, you will continue to struggle with that until the Lord comes, but your husband is a good man who gets a chuckle out of your "Chicken Breasts with Jicama-Lime Whip" that you thought might sound good.  It actually works out wonderfully (much better than the "Mango Tango Meatloaf" you tried the other day...but that was a rare stone in your usual basket of improvised culinary diamonds :) ).  Your husband is a good, hard working man.  Your IQ's are very similar, so you find that discussion comes easily and makes for a good marriage.

While your introverted nature sometimes makes you weary of too many people at a time, you see that He gives you some incredible ability to be able to play in an old folk's home.  You know that comes from Him because you would normally avoid crowds.  But one of your stroke patients has a wife who volunteers in the old folk's home and the person who was supposed to play for the Christmas celebration got the flu.  You do not REALLY want to go out in public and play, but the Lord moves your heart and, with a bit of a clenched jaw ;), you say yes.  You are astounded by how NOT awful it was to be with the forgotten, precious elderly, and you observe that your music made them tap their toes.  There was one gentleman there who, obviously very ill and seemingly not aware--alzheimers, perhaps?-- turned his head and lifted one finger slightly (God also gave you incredible skills of observation....let's say that happened in the 2nd month of your gestation :) ).  You come home and, full of heart and weary of body, you dissolve into tears and know that you will be playing there often.

Your compositions never become top 40 hits, though when you were younger, that was the dream you had for yourself.  You never move out of the town you were born in.  You sometimes wonder if you ever really DID anything.  But when you die and the Lord talks to you about your life, you realize that, in that sea of humanity, your drop of water was the exact right drop of water to quench the thirst of the mind, body, or spirit of the people the Lord brought into your sphere.  He arranged your life.  He gave you some talents and opportunities He wanted for you, and He WITHHELD the talents and opportunities that would have kept you from being where He wanted you.  You had asked Him to open and shut doors for you, and He did just that.  You walked in the path that He chose for you, and you did good, unsung, but VITAL work.  Your sphere of influence was not huge, but it was brilliant and and good.

"Well done, My good and faithful child!" You hear as He wipes your tears and hugs you.



Now, I did not go through EVERY possible talent and personality trait--that would take forever for me on the blog, but He does. He goes through EVERY possible EVERYthing and decides how much of each YOU got to be the perfect one to do the work that He gave you.  He knows everything, keeps track of everything, works everything out for your good if you love Him.  He has a purpose for you, and a reason you were not the beauty queen (or were!) and a reason you were not the smartest in your science class (or were!) and a reason you married an extrovert as an introvert (or vice versa...or both introverts, etc).

When we peel away comparisons to other people, and just do the work that He has placed in front of us, walking in His will and being diligent in His gifts and the way He made us, and are diligent not to eat the bread of idleness and deliberate to remove as much sin as we possibly can that might misdirect us away from His will, then we will not suffer from insecurity or feeling useless or one of a nameless crowd.  We will not need to overcompensate or be judgmental or gossip or feel jealous.  We will not suffer from pride or shame.  We will understand that our work, big or small, is HIS work in us and that we do not need to stress.

So ask the Lord to reveal what He made in you, what He put in you.  Be honest.  Understand, too, that He may choose to reveal talents later in your life (I did not know I had a talent in archery until my 30's).  Do not wait for your life to start, it has already started.  He has arranged you and your life, specifically, on purpose. 

Isn't that the most amazing thought?  You.  Specifically.  On purpose.

Amen!

 

Quite the To Do List!

Good Morning darling!!

I am wondering where to start on my to do list for the day!

I want to do some large scale cooking, replant hostas and some honeyberries and some seeds, have our big fish-out for the pond and put up some catfish, I need to do loads of laundry and change all the sheets, I need to weed the beds and get in the back and pull poison ivy.  I need to make a few notes and lists for TWS, sweep and mop the floors, and a few other things I know I am forgetting! 

I think a nice breakfast is in order!

:)

Vignettes

Good morning darling!

I love vignettes!  I love little scenes in houses and shops that tickle the imagination into thinking "Oooh!  I could be sitting right there!  I would be drinking jasmine tea from the tea cup with the rose on it.  I would be eating lemon cookies, and the temperature would be 78 degrees and it would be about 2:30 in the afternoon and...and...and....!".

I want to make my house have as much of that feel to it as possible.  I never have been that into decorating, so I am trying to catch up :). I hope to photograph my efforts and post them for ideas throughout the blog.

For example, here is one little vignette in my house, made with items that I have gathered/been given through the years: