God's Word for Today

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Project 365 ~ Week 4…yup only two day this week

It’s cold and very early and my family is all still snug in their beds! But I got up early to try to knock this post out before I wake the family and get myself off to church.

Truth: I enjoy the peace of my house in the wee hours while everyone is still asleep!

I knew it was going to be an off week but sadly I only got two days recorded this week.

But for all my lack of photographic evidence it was a relatively productive start to the week.

So here goes!

Monday, January 23

In last weeks post I shared with you about the impact that the show the Big Waste had on me. I am still pondering several aspects of exactly how much food we toss in the trash as a nation. One of the things that I started doing several months ago was a very simple one. If your a foodie and you love to cook then you will know that celery, onion, carrot and garlic are a very common staple item. I began to save up all the ends of all the veggies that I cut up in zip lock freezer bags. Plus every time I cut up a chicken instead of tossing the sections that normally end up in the trash I froze them in bags a swell. I kept them all in a small drawer at the bottom of my freezer. I was not sure how this was all going to tune out, having never done it before but I was very pleased with the result.

I made a huge batch of chicken stock with all my leftover veggies and chicken parts and it was awesome.

I tossed the frozen veggies and chicken parts in my big stock pot, tossed in a few bay leaves, a head of garlic (cut in half), a small handful of peppercorns and some kosher salt and let it simmer for a few hours and it was the beast pot of stock I have made in a long time….

I have three bags of stock in the freezer and I even took some and froze it off in some ice tray for those time when you just need a small amount. You can now call me thrifty……..Thank you I accept!

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Later I made Chicken and Dumplings and they were really good as well.

Here is a little before and after of how puffed up the dumplings get!

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Another finished prayer shawl.

I don’t know what it is about Sunday evenings but I finished this latest last night. I have learned that trying to get a good picture of a prayer shawl in the evening is just not a good idea. This one was a super quick project but it turned out well and again got snapped up as soon as I turned it in.

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Tuesday, January 24

Am I obsessed with flour?

I think maybe so when you factor in how many different kinds of flour I have in my pantry. I did a bit of re-arrange in the pantry to try and better accommodate my stash. I am hoping that this new arrangement may be the solution. From left to right I have first, the reserve bags pending, I always try to keep at least one bag of all purpose, one bag of bread flour (sometime two of the bread flour, if it is on sale) pending. Then my container of bread flour, whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, the small container on top of that is the cake flour, then there is my self rising flour.

Why so many? Well after more baking disasters than I care to admit to I have come to the understanding that it is just easier to make sure you follow the directions and use the exact ingredients. I know there are some out there that say that you can substitute self rising for all purpose, and yes I do do it from time to time. However I learned a very valuable lesson about baking disasters and I now make sure I use the called for flour and save myself the mess and toil of ruined results.

I cut the label off the front of the flour bag and tuck it down inside the container so I know what kind of flour is inside each container.

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Well that was my week such as it was.

Y’all head over to Sara’s and link up.

Blessings and I hope you did a better job of keeping up with you week than I did!

R

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Talmidim…Come and Follow Me!

I read an article the other day that reinforced something that I really already knew. However it is so typical of human nature that we simply don’t like to think about the areas of our lives that need improvement. Out of sigh out of mind, that is until reality bites back and you have a shovel full of nasty heaped up in your life. However it really does not have to be that extreme. I know I can avoid dealing with the huge obstacles in my life with the best of of them. But what about the smaller issues, the stubbornness of my willful behaviors that I just chalk up to old age or even the more unpleasant label of lazy!

I have to share with all y’all that for as much as I struggle with my aversion to all things historical I can feel God’s magnifying glass bringing certain things very clearly into focus for me.

When I have a full grasp of exactly what the original hearers would have understood Jesus' words to mean they really do take on a whole different perspective.

First some facts that you may or not be aware of.

I copied this directly for an article that I read in gathering information for my class on Wednesday.

Check this out:

“On the first day of class the rabbi would take honey and would cover your slate, your personal chalk board, where you would write. Honey was a sign of God’s favor. There was nothing finer, nothing sweeter, nothing more full of pleasure than honey. And he would rub honey all over your slate. And then he would say, “Now class, lick the honey off the slate and off your fingers.” And so now you also can lick the honey off your fingers. And as you did this the rabbi would say, “May the words of God be sweet to your taste, sweeter than honey to your mouth” (Psalm 119:103). May the words of God be the most pleasurable, the most enjoyable thing you could even comprehend.

And so as a child you were introduced to the Scriptures as there was nothing more enjoyable in the entire universe than tasting, receiving , accepting the words of God and making them a part of your life. This is how Jewish boys were introduced to the Scriptures. From ages 6-10 they would memorize Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. By age 10 they had memorized the entire Torah and completed Bet Sefer.”

Read that last line again. By the age of ten years old a child had memorized the entire Torah!

Y’all the mind boggles at this little tid-bit of information. Ten years old, the entire Torah! It certainly puts my stubborn unwillingness to memorize scripture in a very different arena, willful disobedient is a more accurate assessment of my behavior. Having that image of the sweetness of honey in relation to God’s words just blows me away. When I think about memorizing scripture, confession here, the images I come up with relate more towards banging my head again a brick wall rather than enjoying the sweet taste of honey! Frustration, laziness, bemoaning and just plain willful disobedience is more like it.

As a child I was not raised in the church so I had no real foundation for who God was, I had never read the bible until I was almost 30 years old. The idea of having the entire Old Testament memorized is overwhelming. I’m 52 now and I have to take things in more manageable chunks. I am trying to get better at scripture memorization, is there room for improvement? I am laughing at myself as I think about this. The mental stumbling block in my short term memory is as massive as Mount Everest but with God all things are possible.

So am I convicted by this, the answer would be YES!

Setting my willfulness aside for a minute I continue, after the age of ten the children would move on to what is referred to as Bet Talmud.

“Now the best of the best students would continue on. The next stage was probably called Bet Talmud. Bet Talmud meant house of learning. Roughly from ages 10-14 in Bet Talmud you would memorize the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures all the way to Malachi. OK? By 13, 14 years of age you had the entire Hebrew text memorized. Even today in Jewish seminaries they still do this.”

After this comes Bet Midrash

“Now, at the end of your study at Bet Talmud, when you were around 13-14 years old, if you are the best of the best, then you would go and present yourself to a well-known respected, powerful rabbi. And you would say, “Rabbi, I want to become your disciple, your talmudeen, your student. Please let me in your Bet Midrash, your house of study.” And so the rabbi would say, “OK.” And the rabbi would ask you lots of questions, to find out if you are the best of the best. Because each rabbi wanted to teach his thinking, his philosophy, his interpretation of Scripture. Do you know what this was called? It was called his yoke. This rabbi wants to know, when he is questioning this possible disciple, “Is this boy able to become a rabbi himself and to teach and spread my yoke?” So the rabbi would ask all kinds of questions.”

And if the rabbi believed that you were the best of the best, that you were able to become a rabbi, He would say, “Lech Acharai – Come, follow me.” And you would leave your family. You would leave your family compound. You would leave your village. You would leave the local synagogue where you had been studying. You would leave everything and you would follow that rabbi. You would become a talmudeen, a disciple, a student. You would give your life to being exactly like that rabbi. And you would follow him everywhere.”

But here is the interesting part. Not everyone was chosen.

“But for some Jewish boys when the rabbis quizzed them they did NOT say, “Lech Acharai – Come, follow me.” But instead they said “Ah, my son, you do know Torah. And you know Torah well. But you are not able to be my talmudeen, my disciple, my student.” So the rabbi would say, “Go, home to your village. Make babies. Pray that they become rabbis. Go home and learn the family business - fishing, farming, carpentry. Because you won’t be studying to be a rabbi.”

Who were called to be Jesus' Talmidim? Did he choose from the best of the best?

Jesus was calling those who had been sent home to learn the family business.

Matthew 4 tells us that Peter and Andrew were……fishing!  

MT 4:18 – 20

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

When I know the meaning behind the words they have a much greater impact on my life.

Jesus chose from those who had been rejected by the best of the best and look what happen to the world.

I don’t have to be the best of the best, I just have to keep trying. I still need to memorize scripture, but setting the goal of memorizing the whole bible before me is setting myself up for failure.

Jesus chose from those who had been sent home to learn the family business.

My choice to “Follow Him” is a decision to lead a life that is not of the world but I still have to live in the world. What better tool to have under my belt when facing the evil that the world throws at me than a ready supple of the truth of God’s word.

Y’all I know this already, I can hear it in my head…. “Bless her heart, she’s just as stupid as she can be……..”

Having been convicted afresh about my less than diligent practice of scripture memorization I recognize that I am a flawed and sinful old woman who has a deep desire to grow closer each and every day to Christ.

Today I am thankful for grace, forgiveness and for the new opportunity I have every day to enter into His presence.

Blessings

R

I love God’s Word y’all! I just doesn't get any better that that!

PS: I am not sure which is the correct spelling of Talmidim or Talmudeen, but however you spell it if you are a believer in Christ and you are following Jesus then you are Jesus’ Talmidim!

Monday, January 23, 2012

My House Is Quiet…

So here’s what happen yesterday……..

We have to take separate cars to church on Sunday due to the DD having choir practice right after church. I usually take my bible study and get a head start of my prepping for my Wednesday class. So I have set myself up with my laptop and various books at a table and I am getting down to work.

The hubs is in conversation with a friend and I see him across the family center. Love it when the men have the reputation of being bigger talkers than the women, but I digress. He concludes his conversation and comes into the cafe where I have set up shop,

“Is there anything I can do for you when I get home?” The Hubs asks as he gets ready to leave church to head home.

“Yes! Can you stop and pick up a gallon of milk on your way home?”

I pass off a $5.00 bill as the hubs is out of cash and off he goes on his way home.

So after nearly 30 years of marriage it still happens. My expectations and what really happens are two different things.

Later that afternoon I open the frig and notice that the hubs did in fact stop and get a gallon of milk, however what he did was stop at the drug store at the corner, which is on the way home, rather that actually driving maybe half a mile out of the way to the grocery story.

We now have a gallon of whole milk in the frig, which no one but him will drink, and with his cholesterol issues he should not be drinking, sitting in my frig!

Gotta love that masculine perspective.

He was tired, hungry, ready for that afternoon nap and this was easy and right on the way home…..

I love my husband BUT after almost thirty years of marriage I still can’t send him to the store for milk!

Blessings

R

PS: I did make a mug of Hot Chocolate with the full fat milk…..can you say good! Again FAT = FLAVOR!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Project 365 ~ Week 3: Teenage Girls Being Teenage Girls, More Cleaning and Apple Crumble

It was a normal week around here, no drama although the weather has been a bit dreary, cold and wet. Good days to be inside snuggles up with my Kindle in front of the fire.

So here is my week!

Sunday, January 15

Since it was a three day weekend the DD had a sleepover. Combine two best friends, a sever case of boredom, more make up than you can shake a stick at and what to you get….some very colorful moments.

The went Goth, they went Punk, they went…..well you name it they emerged from the bathroom sporting a multitude of new looks!

Thankfully it all got washed off and they were returned to their normal natural radiance by the end of the evening.

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No pictures on Monday, January 16

Tuesday, January 17

My crochet time has been greatly diminished. I think I started this project back in October. Under normal circumstance it does not take me four months to finish a project, however factor in the holidays, Christmas hat’s and scarves and other distractions I am just thankful to have this one finished. Now I have moved on to my next unfinished and more difficult knitting project that has been left unattended since before October. Hopefully now that life has returned to normal I can knock this one out soon.

I love the colors on this one. Note how wonderfully it goes with my living room furniture, and yes I did struggle to turn this one is as it did make a wonderful accent again my oversized chair.

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Wednesday, January 18

This is my view (if I am obedient to my exercises) every morning and every evening. So picture me laying on the floor in various positions all the while the dog (and husband and DD) watching me with a confused look upon his face.

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After I got up off the floor I set myself to the task of finishing what I started last week. The Tupperware cabinet and the kitchen gadget drawer. How may times have you filled up a plastic containers only to go in search of a lid only to realize that you do not have a lid to fit that particular container. One gets melted by the dishwasher or mysterious disappears and you find yourself with random containers with either no lid or lids galore with no matching container.

Well I pulled it all out and set to matching up the lids with the containers.

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I can state with complete certainty that as of this moment in time I have a lid for every plastic container within my kitchen….at least for now anyway. Getting to those long awaited tasks that I always put off feels really good.

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I also added to the yard sale pile. After cleaning out the gadget drawer I found several things that I did not even remember that I had. I figure if I did not even know that I had it and I had not used it in forever then I probably have no need for it any longer…..

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Thursday, January 19

I watched a show on the Food Network a few days ago. It really has left me with a huge burden, only I am not sure what to do about it. Did y’all see the show called “The Big Waste”? Well you can click here to read some of the responses to this show if you like. Basically the premise of the show was a challenge to Chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli to create a menu for a large group of food experts, the only catch was they had to use only the food they found that was being thrown away by the grocery store, produce, meat, bakery and other vendors.

I was shocked and astounded at the level of waste that was highlighted. Thousands of pounds of food not to mention how much money is lost because of waste. Most of it was due to legal issue of not begin able to sell something after an expiration date. However you and I both know that food that is one day past it’s expiration day is perfectly fine to be eaten. However because of government regulations it has to be tossed in the trash.

As consumers we have set a standard for what we think is acceptable. I know I have done it many of times. I will pass over an apple if it has a small blemish, or overlook produce it it does not look appealing. I can tell you I heard all the chefs confess that they would be seriously re-thinking there standards when they saw the level of waste they witnessed.

When I think of the millions of hungry people who have no food every day and then I think of all the food that get tossed in the dumpster it makes me crazy.

Well I say all this to share with you a small decision I made. The grocery store I shop at will from time to time mark down their produce. I picked up two bags of marked down apples. They had a few bruises on them but the majority of them were perfectly fine. After they had been peeled and sliced up they made a wonderful apple crumble.

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I am still thinking about all that horrible wasted food just getting tossed out every day and then I think about our local food co-op that struggles just to keep food on the shelves and I wonder if there is not some solution somewhere in the middle.

No pictures on Friday, January 20 or Saturday, January 21

We did watch a really cute move on Saturday night. Great family film but also very entertaining. Sweet, funny and based on a true story. If you get the chance to rent it I highly recommend it!

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It was so dreary and rainy on Friday and Saturday that I spent the majority of my time just hibernation. I balanced the check book, started a new prayer shawl and read but found no photo op’s that struck me a worthy….so……..that was my week!

For more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up!

Blessings

R

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Kindle Fire….It get’s and A in my book or maybe I should be politically correct and say E-Reader

If you are a regular here then you will remember several weeks ago I won the new Kindle Fire! So far I have thoroughly enjoyed it! I have discovered several websites that offer free books every day and my library is growing daily. I currently have about 50 books. I have read three and I am currently working my way through The Count of Monte Cristo.

Pixel of Ink is a great site, if you join their Facebook page you receive daily updates of all the free books they are offere for the day.

Another great site is Ereader News Today, they offer free books as well.

Inspired Reads is a great site for Christian book for free also!

So being link up through Facebook with all three sites give me a wealth of daily choices for tons of free books.

Amazon.com also has a lot of free downloads as well. Most of the free offerings are all books that are under the public domain such as most of the classics. So far I have read Frankenstein and I have lots of other classics that I have always wanted to read! Jane Ayre, Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Tale of Two Cities to name but a few.

The delivery time of these books is nearly instantaneous. I click on the deliver button and then within a minute or so I have the book delivered to my device. AWESOME. I have a friend who received a Kindle for Christmas and she is exploring getting books from the library. So far I have not availed myself of this. But the option is available if you want to borrow a book from the public library.

I give a thumbs up to the linked dictionary. I love begin able to get the definition of those words that you come upon and may not know the meaning of. However I have found that at times this function is a bit glitchy. It has moments when it does not work.

You can make notes and save pages with a book mark and highlight text.

The other functions of the Kindle Fire, well you can store pictures, watch movies, listen to music, check you email, play games and surf the web. I can check my facebook page visit all my favorite blogs and check the weather all without powering up my laptop.

There are also a ton of free apps available. Games, social networking apps, lifestyle apps, you name it they have an app for it. I love the You Version Bible App. t was free!!!! It gives you access to tons of different translation and daily reading plans……LOVE IT! The Amazon store offers a free app each day. The one tip I will giver you is that if you save the app instead of installing it, you will loose the option of getting it for free. Going back to it later it then reverts to the original price. So if you think you are at all interested in the app go ahead and download it.

I had a few saved and when I went to take a look at my saved list and the apps were no longer free. Live and learn.

I am still on the fence about whether or not I will avail myself of the Amazon Prime function. A years subscription is $79.00. They give you a free month of this service when you activate you Kindle. It allows you access to tons of free streaming movies and television shows (one of my weaknesses y’all) The also have what they call the Kindle Owners Lending Library, this allows you to borrow one free book a month. I read Water For Elephants for free and that was a $5.00ish download. Some downloads are in the $5.00 range but other more mainstream bestselling authors can be as expensive at $15.00. As well as all the free movies and books you also get free shipping for anything you may purchase from Amazon through out the year. I am not sure if $79.00 is worth 12 free books and free shipping for a year, but if you factor in 12 books at $12.00 an download then it would be well worth the price, not to mention the free shipping. I am still pondering this one. My 30 days is drawing to and end very soon.

The last few things are really a bit of a non issue but I will say that the Kindle is kinda heavy. If I have it in my purse I can really feel the difference. Plus at times there is a bit of a glare on the screen but that is only when you are watching a move and the picture is really dark.

The battery life is very good. On average I think I am charging every other day. However if I have used it consistently all day long then I will have to charge it at the end of the day.

So far I have downloaded one book for .99 cents and spent about $30.00 on a case to protect the screen. It is made out of glass and needs to be protected from scratches.

I have found it to be very user friendly and I have not had any instances where I had a technical issue!

So there is the long and short of it.

Blessings

R

If you have additional questions give me a shout out!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My House is Quiet….a new normal for one of my favorite people…..

The hubs is out of town, thankfully the DD went back to school this morning and the dog is curled up sleeping in the crook of the sofa. It is a bit windy, chilly, rainy and dreary outside. I am thankful for a hot shower I just had and a nice good cup of coffee.

I am almost finished with my bible study prep for tomorrow but needed to take a break as the word were beginning to blur together.

I was surfing around the internet this morning and came up on all the latest news about my beloved Paula who has recently been diagnosed with type II diabetes. My heart goes out to her. I know that with this will come a lot of ridicule and nay saying about her. I will say I am not surprised given her love of all things southern, butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, potatoes, sweet tea and the like.  It certainly will be interesting to see how they handle this from the perspective of her television show.

From my perspective I can only imagine the changes that are going on in her life. I do not have diabetes, however I have had a struggle with maintaining a healthy weight all my life. My weight verses my desire to enjoy a good meal. Try as I might the battle to come up with tasty alternatives to delicious dishes while cutting out the fat is very difficult. No matter what the diet experts say the fact remains fat equals flavor. You take out the fat and you take out the flavor. Granted there are some small changes that you can make however sometime there is just no substitute. You take the skin and the bone off the chicken breast and toss it on the grill and see what happens….y’all know what I’m talking about! D.R.Y. and Y.U.C.K!

Unfortunately I have yet to find a sugar substitute that did not leave behind a massive headache as an after affect as well as just tasting awful. Sometimes you really are better off getting the full fat version and just cutting down on the portion. When the fat is removed they have to pump up either the sugar or salt content to make it palatable. Check the carb content on any Fat Free whatever and see if it isn’t loaded down with carbs to compensate for the loss of fat! 

I have learned a few tricks.

First, you can almost always cut back on the oil required for a recipe, sometime by as much as half. The Focaccia bread I just made a few days ago called for a full cup of olive oil….no wonder it was delicious. I am sure it will be just as delicious with half that much oil.

Second, my afternoon latte’s actually work better made with skim milk. Skim milk or 1% milk makes for a much frothier foam than the fattier 2% or higher fat content. Go Figure…..it just works better!

Lastly, and I hate to even admit this. Y’all I think I may have the tiniest bladder know to man, but when I maintain my hydration, drinking lots of water, I am not near as hungry. One of the things I learned in First Place is that sometimes when you are feeling hungry, what is really happening is you body is sending you a signal that it is thirsty, Your body or growling tummy may tell you it’s hungry when in fact what you really need is a tall glass of water. I hate that but it really is true.

Why can’t they make Doritos flavored water, or Oreo flavored water.

Y’all I could whine about this all day.

There is no such thing as good fat free ice cream or fat free half and half, there just isn’t! I question exactly what they have to do to fat free half and half to make it fat free half and half. I mean really if I can’t pronounce it or I don;t know what it is then why do I want to be stirring it in my coffee…..

Here’s a thought…..just learn to like black coffee………I feel a shut up coming on!

I mean seriously folks, let’s get real here!

I’m feeling your pain Paula!

Good Luck as you move into a new normal.

Blessings

R

On a more positive note, I am starting to get some relief from the exercises the doctor gave me to do for my bum knee and Plantar Fasciitis. I hate it when doctors are right don’t y’all. Exercise really is the best thing for so many ailments…hate that reality too! Hopefully I will be back in the walking saddle very soon. Now if only I could convince my husband to join me…….

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Project 365 ~ Week 2: Focaccia, Junk Drawers, fine Print and a Shot in the Knee

Hey there y’all!

Some folks get a spurt of energy at the beginning of spring. Mine usually comes at the first of the year. That trend to make an assessment of the things that did not get done last year and the things that I want to get done this year. The things I have been putting off because I  just don’t want to do them. Well it was a week filled with some small projects, I tackled two of them and still have two pending.

Sunday, January 8

I am still loving my new Kindle. Each day they offer an app for free. Some days it is some silly game, mostly I just pass those over. I am not a huge game player. However this app was intriguing. It shows you the phases of the moon for your location. Kind of cool I thought! You can even take your finger and drag it across the moon on the screen and change the phases.

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Monday, January 9

The hubs is so sweet. This was under the Christmas tree this year! I have been wanting a second mixing bowl for my Kitchen-aid for a long time. I always regretted not getting the model with the handle. I LOVE IT! Not only do I love having a second bowl, now I can make two batches of bread without having to wash my mixing bowl, but I love the new bowl shield with the pour spout. No more flour getting tossed out all over the place. LOVE IT!

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Y’all can check out my post about my Focaccia Bread here! You can get the recipe here.

It was in a word AWESOME!

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It was the perfect accompaniment of the 15 bean soup we had for dinner!

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Tuesday, January 10

The other thing that happens at the new year is the inevitable decisions to try to do a better job of all sort of things. Skin care for example. I have never considered myself to be overly focused on my appearance. However, the battle against those lovely dark age spots that pop up REALLY get on my nerves. I have been trying out different products. Sadly I have found that my resolve usually falls off after a few weeks and almost all the packaging states that the product must be used for at least 8 weeks for good results.

BUT, that is not what these pictures are all about. Needless to say that since this product is for correcting AGE SPOTS it would stand to reason that most of the buyers would be of the more mature age range.

So there I am standing the the bathroom. Why isn’t this working?????? I can not get the cap to screw on nor can I get the cream to come out of the tube. What’s this I see a small gray smudge on the lid, why look closer it’s a sticker on the lid and there is a small ring about the size of a pea…on closer inspection it seems that you have to remove the ring then fully tighten down the cap which then punctures the tube enabling you to get the cream out of the tip of the tube.

Y’all see that small gray smudge and pea sized ring……..look closely!

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Can ya read it now??????????

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How bout now?

Age spot correction cream with instructions written in type so small that only an eagle could read it makes perfect sense to me…NOT!

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Does this happen to your drawers. From left to right we start with my kitchen gadget drawer, my Tupperware lid basket and our medicine chest.

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My goal is to get this all sorted out over the next few days and try to bring some order to the chaos. Yea sure it will eventually get all jumbled up again but at least for now my Band-Aids, Pepto-Bismol and cough syrup are all organized. Not to mention that you have to go through it all every now and again just to toss out that bottle of Nyquil in the back that expired in 2008…..there were a few of those lurking in the back.

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A favorite around our household, but I hardly ever make it. Shepherds Pie. It was good y’all! Comfort food for sure!

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No pictures on Wednesday, January 11

Thursday, January 12

I have been struggling for a while with some fairly difficult pain in my knee and foot. Getting older at times is not a fun thing!

I had a terrible issue with my knee while we were on vacation. The hubs was very patient with me but I felt bad because there were a few things that I wanted to do but my bum knee was a HUGE issue. Well after getting a few more pressing issues like mammograms, colonoscopies out of the way I promised to address the issue with my doctor. He referred me on the an orthopedist.

The diagnosis, the left foot is Plantar Fasciitis and the right knee has the beginnings of arthritis as well as some issues with a small bone spur. Well he shot up my knee with a nice dose of cortisone and handed me a packet of instruction for some exercises.

Yea for me!

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Y’all pray for me that I can remains diligent with my exercises. It has been a struggle for me to maintain any consistent form of exercise. However the Plantar Fasciitis is so very painful that I am really motivated to try to get it to a manageable state so I can at least make a run to the grocery store without having it bringing me to my knees when I get home.

Did I mention that getting older is no fun!

No pictures on Friday, January 13

Saturday, January 14

This is the drawer on my side of the bathroom. It is the depository of all things that I just don’t know what to do with. Since I was on a roll where my junk drawers were concerned I felt that it needed to transfer to the bathroom as well.

I have enough of these little bags of buttons left over…do people really ever use the extra buttons that come with blouses or sweaters. I think in all my days I have never used one…..but I keep them any way, what about y’all? Save em or toss em????

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Look at this pristine drawer!

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Well that’s it for my for week two!

For more P3645 y’all head over to Sara’s and link you!

Blessings

R

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

What were y’all doing at 6:20 this morning?

It was 6:20 A.M.

I am warm and snug in my bed and I feel a light touch on my shoulder.

“Mom, It really thundering a and lightening outside, Can you give me a ride to the bus stop?”

I stumble out of bed and get dresses. I am thankful for my coffee. We hop in the car a few minutes later. It was coming down really hard and there was some pretty nasty thunder and lightening lighting up the skies.

The bus rounds the corner and comes down the street. The DD hops out of the car and makes her way to the bus stop. I could have put the car in drive and made my way back home but I stayed for a few minutes and watched her standing there in the dark. The rain had lessened just a bit and there were two more teenagers approaching the bus stop.

I sat in my warm dry car sipping my coffee and I had one of those memory flashes.

How many times did I stand watch over the bus stop when my children were little. Sometimes chatting it up with the other mom's in the neighborhood. Other times just watching from my bedroom window or just sitting quietly on my front stoop.

I could have just dropped her off and driven back home but instead I decided to wait. I sat and watched my daughter standing at the corner. I observed that the other two teenagers who arrived were young girls. All three of them had gone to great length to protect their hair from the rain. Gotta love teenager girls….protect that hair!

I had so many images pass through my memory. All of them surrounding a curly headed little boy kicking the rocks in the dirt and then a few years later a little girl with pig tails and her book bag on her back bending over to pick a dandelion from the grass for the bus driver.

She got onto the bus and I drove back home.

It was a sweet memory.

Good Morning Y’all

Blessings

R

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Random Ramblings

Well I swept up the sugar that was all over my kitchen floor.

I was thankful that my water crisis was only a crisis in my over worked hormonal imagination.

I ended the day on an up note!

I saw Ann Burrell on Secrets of a Restaurant Chef the other day. She was making a pot of chicken noodle soup and she made a big pan of Focaccia Bread. For the spelling challenged which is me I have missed spelled focaccia almost ever time I type it out….

Y’all know me and bread. It looked simple enough and well the next thing you know I was asking my favorite question….

How Hard Could It Be?

Y’all check out the recipe here!

It was super easy and if I do say so myself it was awesome! Every time I try a new recipe I have learned to follow the recipe to the letter the first time and then once I have it figure out then I can begin any tweaking I might feel necessary

The bread was awesome……but I think any recipe that calls for one full cup of olive oil stands a really good chance of being really good. It did not disappoint. It was super yummy for sopping up  the 15 bean soup that I had made for supper!

However I really do feel that when I make this the next time I will cut back in the olive oil just a bit. I am all for a good dose of olive oil but I think maybe it could have been decreased by almost half and been just as good!

Blessings

R

Monday, January 9, 2012

Random Ramblings…a hormonal tale of woe

I pulled up in my drive way after a marathon grocery shopping excursion. I notice a county water truck across the street. I think to myself “Self have you paid the water bill this month?”

Given the less than reliable state of my memory during this time of my life it is entirely possible that I have forgotten an odd household utility bill. I have an irrational fear that due to my forgetfulness I will at any moment have all my household necessary function shut off. I have a basis for this fear due to the reality of having my gas cut off a few years ago simply because I forgot to pay the bill. I had the money to pay it, it just did not get done. Ever since that shameful occurrence I have had this lingering fear that I am forgetting some odd bill that has fallen down behind my computer desk. I saw the utility truck parked on my street and I immediately think…..”Did I pay the water bill????”

I hop out of the car and grab a few bags of groceries and head to the kitchen. I check the faucet…thank you Jesus the water is still running.

I have a small glimmer of a memory receiving an email from the county website saying that the online account I had set up is about to be deactivated due to inactivity. Hmmmm I sort thought the big pile of bills and find an old water bill. I log onto the account and make sure it does not go inactive. I also give my account a look-see and not only is my water bill current but there is .39 cent overage.

So I was freaking out that my water bill was past due when in fact I have overpaid by .39 cents!

.39 cents to the good!

I should be working on my bible study but as well as thinking I had forgotten to pay the water bill I am also working on a real good case of the C.B’s (Cranky B _ _ _ _) so I decided that after I got the groceries unloaded I would just sit for a bit and pout about what a bad mood I was in.

My new mattress, well let’s just say that no matter how long you send lounging around on a mattress in the store it simply is not a true test of how comfortable that mattress will be during a full nights sleep. The jury is still out on how long this mattress will remain in residence. That kind of bugs me too. I was so wanting something in my life to be simple.

Not to mention that I still need to find new phones. Data plans, how much data, keyboard, no key board, touch screen…YIKES!

Mattress shopping, phone shopping, y’all I HATE shopping!

I had a few other things I was prepared to rant about but they seem to left my brain!

At least I have running water and a full pantry!

R

 

Edit: Now I remember, the bag boy at the grocery store put a rip in my sugar bag and as I was unloading my groceries I got a wonderful layer of sugar all over my kitchen floor. 

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Project 365 ~ Week 1

Hey there y’all! It’s the first official week of the new year!

The fact that day one of the new year actually lands on a Sunday fulfills some need in me to keep things in order. Now if I could just expand that need for order to the rest of my life I’d have it made…sadly I still lack the gene that enables me to stack my post concentrically or attend to the mail in a timely fashion. Goals I am planning to work on the year……

Sunday, January 1

Every year the church placed poinsettias in the sanctuary. The congregation has the opportunity to purchase the poinsettia in either memory of in honor of some.This year one of the members of the bible study I facilitate purchased a poinsettia for me. She told me to make sure I took it home with me on Christmas eve….did I remember….that would be a big no!

I was fearful that by the time I did make it back over to the church it would have wilted or all the unclaimed Poinsettias would have been dispersed to the various hospital and nursing homes in the areas as the church sometimes does after Christmas.

Thankfully there was a large number that had been forgotten. We have such a wonderful maintenance staff and they even remembered to keep them watered. I brought home my beautiful poinsettia and it is sitting on my kitchen counter!

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Monday, January 2

I was doing a bit of catch up work on my bible study as we start back on Wednesday. One of Busters favorite things to do is to catch a nap in the warm sun. He has a spot outside that is up against the house and it gets wonderful sun. However it begin very cold today he opted for the indoor versions of his sunny spot. I love the way he situated himself directly within the path of the warmth….very smart I think!

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Tuesday, January 3

Ooooooopppppsss! My first omission for the year, but I am sure it will not be the last!

Wednesday, January 4

Well here is the photographic evidence of the hellish morning I had. You can click here to read a blow by blow account of our unpleasant adventures for the morning

Before

Muffinhead all snug in her car seat, bundled against the cold with her new scarf. Coat all buttoned up and ready to go to McDonalds' for the promised pancakes!!!!!

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During

Muffinhead enjoying the pancakes…..she ate about half of what is on her plate y’all. She is a pancake loving girl!

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After

This is the massive pile of baby wipes, tissues and the flannel pajamas that I snatched out of her book bag that I used to clean up the you know what that was all over her and all over her car seat!

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Later back at home all cleaned up and enjoying her paci and blanket resting watching sesame street! Thank you Jesus that I have several episodes saved on the DVR!

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I have a neat alarm clock on my bedside table. It’s an Atomic Projection Alarm Clock. It receives a signal that automatically updates the time. It also had an external sensor that receives a different signal that tells me what temperature it is. The time and temperature are then projected on the wall so when it’s dark outside in the morning I can just roll over and see projected on the wall what time it is and what the temp is out side. I have had it for a very long time. I posted about how great the clock was here if you want to go take a look at the clock. Well after many long years of service the outside sensor just gave up working. The hubs fiddled with if for a few day with no luck so we eventually determined that it had just stopped working. He got me a new one for Christmas but after having used it for a few day we determined that we really did not like it as well as the older one. I did a bit of internet surfing and found a newer model at Amazon.com and ordered it. It arrived today. I am so thankful that I have a new one. I had missed being able to see how cold it was outside before I stepped out of bed each morning. Silly I know but I think it helps in preparation as you ease out of bed and get ready for the day……

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Thursday, January 5

Why I sometimes HATE my kitchen counter!

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Why I LOVE my kitchen counter!

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Friday, January 6

Well it’s HERE! Our new bed!

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Along with the bed Sears was running a promotion that went along with the sale they were having. When you purchased one of the Sears brand mattresses you received a Free IPod Nano! Well I got all the paper work filled out and in the mail today. I await my new IPod, which should arrive in 8 or so weeks. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with is as I am not much of a music aficionado but…it was free! So why not!

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Saturday, January 7

When my son was a little boy we had the hardest time with him and his toys. If there were visible screws that he could see it tormented him! Once he could see the screws he knew that there was something behind that screw and he could not rest until he figured out some way to get to the internal working of what ever toy it was.

I walked into he kitchen and found this on the kitchen able. Hmmmmm like father like son! We were in hope that the new sensor for the new alarm clock would work with the older model. That would allow us to put the ole one in the DD rooms. However it seems that the frequency of the new model is not working with the older model. The hubs has pulled all his gadget out of his tool box and is determined to see if he can find a solution so that the older model well work with the new sensor…….

He never fails to amaze me in his fearlessness in taking anything apart to see if he can fix it! Like I said, like father like son!

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Do y’all have your new one yet. I stopped at the Office Depot and got my 2012 calendar for the refrigerator door. Now it’s official. 2012 can begin as I now have all the important dates marked on the new calendar and it is installed on the front of the refrigerator!

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Well that’s it for me and my week. For more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up!

If you have never participated in P365, well I highly recommend it. Not only is it a wonderful way to chronicle your life, it also connects you to so many other amazing people! It really is like sharing a cup of tea each week with close friends and catching up on the weeks events!

try it you won’t regret it!

Blessings

R

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