Sunday, August 16, 2020

{ Week in review }

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𝑨𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒚

Curt and I love taking walks around our property.  As you know we have 3 acres, and there is always grass to mow, trees to prune, property lines to clear and keep clean.  It is an ongoing job, it never ends but we love it so much and are eternally grateful to God for this blessing.

Last week we took a walk to check on some of the fences and I grabbed my camera, as we headed out the door.

I used to have my camera at my side, we were stuck at the hip so to say.  But that was back when I was daily blogging.  To tell you the truth, I miss that.  Everyone has their cellphones lately and just uses those to take photos, which is fine in a way, but I am old fashioned and there is nothing like holding a proper camera in your hand.

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Have you ever just stopped to look at nature?

I mean really stop and take time to look.  Every detail, every color, every texture, it's so incredible.

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We have a lot of deer walking through our property, and deer tracks are a constant around here.  They seem to enjoy walking right up against the house.

Funny story, when we first moved in, our kids were a little scared of the noises they were hearing outside their windows.  They would often say it sounded like someone walking around etc.  Curt and I always told them it was just nature, or the tree branches scratching the window, or the barn cats and so on.

Little did we know there were actual deer walking around.

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The plans we have for our house and our property, are many.  Plans for crops, for turning the field into rows of blackberries and raspberry bushes.

More fruit trees, a bigger vegetable garden, a greenhouse, a potting shed and all sorts of other things.

If we could just snap our fingers and see it all come to life, would be great, but things take time and dreams move slowly.  And they do so in order for us to appreciate them the more when they finally stand before our eyes.

So we will get there one day, one little dream at a time.


 𝓐𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓮

Sometimes we need to face certain situations, go through the desert and trials to go back to our roots.  I've often talked about feeling like I've changed, fallen off the wagon, not quite the same I used to be when it comes to homemaking or doing the things I love.

Take crochet for example, I stopped crocheting about a year and a half ago.  For not specific reason, other than getting caught up in other things going on in my life.  The past few weeks, I have taken up crochet again, in an effort to calm my soul, to help me not focus on what is happening around us.

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It is a way to relax and calm me, and I had missed the feel of they yarn, seeing the stitches and rows of crochet coming together to form a beautiful pattern.

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This is my newest blanket, with a completely new color combination.  I thought about just making something quicker and smaller, but I've always had a huge love for these intricate blankets, and with summer coming to an end, I start thinking about warm blankets and feeling the weight on my lap, of the crocheted work I'm busy working on.

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Being a homemaker is who I am.  I don't just do the chores I have around the house, because they need doing.  I do them with love and because they make me happy.

Much like crocheting or cooking or baking, homemaking keeps me grounded.

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This past week was a bit of a strange one, in the sense that I wasn't quite feeling well.  Blech, I didn't want to say that again, it's like every other day I mention I'm not feeling great, you must be sick of hearing about it.  Truth be told, I'm sick of saying it hahaha

But I think it's just something I have to deal with during this time of my life.

Thankfully by Friday I was starting to feel better and more like myself.  I spent more time in the kitchen, made another of my grandfather's vanilla cakes, baked some homemade hotdog buns for one dinner and still managed to put home cooked meals on the table.

My family appreciates it and I much prefer home cooked food too.  On days that I'm not feeling too good, things take longer to do, dinner is slower getting on the table, but that is perfectly ok.

Last week I also finished a book and started another.  Approved a whole bunch more for Fall and Winter Book Tours, and am now looking forward to more books filling my shelves.  Is there such a thing as too many books?


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Elliott is growing quickly.  He is such a joy in our lives and I will be the first to admit, that even though I didn't want to keep him in the beginning, and wanted to find him a different home, I am so glad that we couldn't find anyone to take him.  He has brought humor and laughter to our home during difficult times.

Who would have guessed that I would have ended up loving a cat and that he would love me back just as much?

But I do, and can't imagine him not being in our lives.

Well dear friends, I would love to pour another cup of coffee, sit and talk to you for a while longer, but I need to get ready to go and pick up Jasmine from work.

I hope you are all having a restful weekend.  I will see you all tomorrow morning for our Happy Homemaker Monday.





Wednesday, August 12, 2020

{ Loving well in a Broken World by Lauren Casper - TLC Book Tour }


Paperback: 240 Pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 18, 2020)

How can we love our neighbors amid so much division and hurt?

Loving your neighbor as yourself would be easy if your neighbors were all people you understood, people you agreed with, people like you. But what about playground bullies, colleagues, refugees, online adversaries? They’re all our neighbors, and Jesus said to love them. Every one. But how?
Lauren Casper believes the key is the lost art of empathy, stepping into other people’s shoes and asking what if?what if it were my child? What if it were me? Casper helps us discover how to
  • identify our blind spots and tune our hearts to the stories around us;
  • seek and extend forgiveness with grace and humility; and
  • engage in diverse and meaningful relationships.
Following these steps will enable us to connect in simple but life-altering ways, to respond to conflict with grace, bring about needed change, and shine God’s unconditional love into a dark world.


Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Thomas Nelson

About Lauren Casper



Lauren Casper, author of Loving Well in a Broken World, is a writer, speaker, and advocate. Lauren’s essays, known for their vulnerability and personal story-telling style, have appeared on The Huffington Post, the TODAY show, Yahoo! News, and several other publications. Lauren serves on the board of her local Community Anti-Racism Effort; a non-profit dedicated to working toward an inclusive and equitable community. She makes her home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, two children, and one fluffy dog.

Connect with Lauren

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


REVIEW:
If there is a book that needs to be read right now, today, while we are facing such craziness around us, it is this one. 

Loving well in a Broken World focuses on recognizing the need for empathy, something that seems to have completely disappeared from many hearts, around the world.

I have often said that the problems we are facing today are due to a lack of empathy, a problem with each individual, a spiritual problem rather than a race or cultural issue.

We have all read the Bible and one of the most well known commandments is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  As a Christian I know I need to do that, but I will be the first to admit that it is not as easy to follow through as you may think.

Lauren Casper brings these thoughts to light, and tries to teach us to have compassion, to have empathy, to not just look at the world around us and think that it is up to others to change it.  We have to look within ourselves and start by changing our own prejudices and generalizations. 

How many times have you turned on the news and thought "Where is the compassion and empathy for others?  Why doesn't anyone care about others anymore?" .

If each of us were to extend grace to the situations around us, we could begin to heal the world around us.

Casper encourages us to find our blind spots, to tune our hearts to the stories around us, to look at the internet with different eyes keeping in mind that although it is online, it is still real life, with real people behind the keyboard.

As Christians we are to be a light in this world, to offer compassion, to extend a helping hand  and to teach others how to be compassionate and loving.  If we flood more love and light into the world, we will soon remove the darkness that seems to have seeped into every corner.

Wonderful book.  I believe it should be on everyone's shelves this year.

Thank you to TLC Tours and the Thomas Nelson publishers,  for providing me with a review copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review.

Monday, August 10, 2020

{ And in the blink of an eye, I am 46 years old }


This was the first year that I feel like I blinked, and my birthday was upon me.

As I've gotten older, I haven't paid much attention to birthdays, they just don't seem to have the same expectations as they did when I was younger.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, I think we just change as we get older.

This year however, it feels like I celebrated Christmas, blinked and it was the 10th of August.

So here we are, 46.  Goodness!!!

What have I learned over the past year?

That I'm stronger than I thought I was.
That my faith was nowhere where it need to be, and the past few months have changed that. 
That I may not think or feel my age, but my body reminds me daily that I am no longer a 20 year old.
That jowls are to be embraced, whether we want to or not.
That I no longer enjoy a glass of wine as much as I used to.
That wearing shorts is not really for me anymore, I much prefer dresses and skirts.
That I am now the one squinting at the fine print, where it used to be my parents and as a child I would laugh thinking it was funny.


That God is, always has been and forever will be, the love of my life.
That now more than ever, joy and contentment is rooted deep within us and not in the outside world.
That I've always been a dog person, and still am, but God taught me that my heart has place for other animals too. 
That maybe I am a cat person without ever realizing it.
That life passes us quickly and we need to grab it tightly, enjoy every minute and not waste it on things that don't matter.


That every morning is a new beginning, and new mercy from God and a chance to start over.
That forgiveness is something we need to apply to others, but also to ourselves.
That nature is by far the biggest stress reliever and is free for all of us to tap into on a daily basis.
That family is everything.
That I have the choice to choose to be happy each day and to not let outside forces affect me.
That I have no control over unexpected events, but I DO have control over how I react to them.


That there is always a positive in each negative we face.
That my intuition is important, even if I think I have it wrong, it always ends up being exactly what I thought it would be to begin with.
That there is no perfect weight, embrace, accept your body as it is. 
That perimenopause will knock you around like you've never thought possible, but you can get through it.
That you shouldn't allow the enemy to steal your joy, don't give up doing what you love.

I know there are numerous other lessons I will continue to learn as I age and I can't wait to go through them, and learn them, no matter how difficult they may seem at the time.

Now let me show you what I got for my birthday.  With our current situation, I asked my husband not to buy me anything, but he was adamant that I needed something, so I compromised and told him to get me some yarn and some books.

For some it may seem trivial, not enough for a birthday or whatever.  But I have never been a girl that likes expensive things, expensive meals or outings.  I am perfectly happy just sleeping in on my birthday, being surrounded by my family and getting a few little goodies that I enjoy.

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You know how much I love my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, and have been collecting them for years.  At our local Christian book store, they were having a huge sale on some of their books.  The cookbooks were all 3 dollars, and I was going to grab just 2  but my wonderful husband just kept grabbing LOL

Here are the ones I got:
Gooseberry Patch Slow Cooker to the Rescue
From Grandma's Kitchen
America's Comfort Foods
Super fast slow cooking
Secrets from Grandma's kitchen
Mom's very best recipes
Hungry is a Mighty Fine Sauce

The only fiction book I grabbed was this one from Amy Clipston.  It was on sale for a dollar. 

A Seat by the Hearth by Amy Clipston

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From my sweet girl, I got a new set of Winter Pajamas from Cath Kidston.  How beautiful are they?  I can't wait to for the weather to cool down so I can wear them.

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She also knows I love stones, and got me these two stunning ones.  How neat that the one on the right looks like a heart.

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She also got me this gorgeous tote bag.  What can I say, I have a healthy obsession with Florals and especially when they look like Cath Kidston.

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I also got this beautiful Leo bracelet  and a stunning necklace, from my daughter as well.

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I am so blessed with the family I have.  My sweet girl is also taking us to dinner tonight, her treat, for my birthday. 

So another year in my pocket. 

Welcome 46, only God knows what is ahead for me, but whatever it is, I will face it head on, with the help of God and the faith of a warrior. 

{ Happy Homemaker Monday - 08/10/2020 }

Good morning dear friends, and a very happy Monday.  
I am waking up this morning, as a 46 year old.  I can't believe time has gone this fast, I feel like we were just celebrating Christmas and now here we are, my birthday.  So crazy!
I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was quiet but wonderful too, my husband took me to Hobby Lobby and our local Christian book store for some goodies for my birthday.  I will show you all that in a separate post, later this afternoon.
Anyway, let's get right on with our Happy Homemaker Monday.  Wishing you all a blessed week ahead!!! 

♥♥The Weather♥♥ 
Still hot, which is making me look forward to Fall and cooler temperatures.    

Monday - Sunny, 100
Tuesday - Mostly sunny,  99
Wednesday - Mostly sunny, 100
Thursday -  Sunny, 100
Friday - Sunny, 103
Saturday -  Partly cloudy,  99
Sunday - Partly cloudy,  98


♥♥How I am feeling this morning♥♥

 Well it's my birthday so I am feeling thankful and blessed to have reached 46 years of age.  The perimenopause symptoms are still hovering around but I am not allowing them to bother me today.


♥♥On my mind♥♥ 
New crochet projects.  By the way, I didn't forget about the crochet I wanted to sell, I have a few ready, just need to take photos and post them for you all here.


 ♥♥On the breakfast plate♥♥
 Just a cup of coffee with Funfetti Creamer, will probably have some toast later this morning.


♥♥On my reading pile♥♥ 
I am now in the book of Ezra in my Bible

These are still on my reading pile:

Loving Well in a Broken World

Also got a few cookbooks and a new Amy Clipston book this weekend, you will see those in the post this afternoon.



 ♥♥On my tv♥♥
 My Portuguese Soap Quer o Destino. 
Documentaries on Magellan TV, random videos on Youtube. 
 
♥♥On the menu this week♥♥ 

Last week's meals are posted on Youtube, you can see it below and if you enjoy it, please give me a like and subscribe. :) 
Our daughter Jasmine is taking us to dinner tonight for my birthday, she is such a sweet girl and has a heart of gold.  We are so blessed to have her. 

Monday - Out for dinner
Tuesday - Chicken Strogonoff, Rice, Beans
Wednesday - Jalapeno Cheddar Sausages, Homemade Hotdog Buns, Macaroni Salad
Thursday - Galinha na Frigideira (Portuguese Red Pepper Chicken), Fried Potatoes
Friday -  Hot wings
Saturday - Chicken Curry and Rice
Sunday - Ikea Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans





♥♥From the camera♥♥
 Loving my Blue Salvia.




♥♥Looking around the house♥♥ 
Kids are still asleep, hubby and I are the only ones up.  Looking through my bedroom window I can see the sun shining through the trees, bathing the backyard with yellow light.  I love early mornings.  


 ♥♥Chore I'm not looking forward to today, or this week♥♥ 
So, we just noticed yesterday that our kitchen floor seems to be wet, but it seems to be coming in from underneath.  We have to call a plumber today to come out and take a look.  I hope it isn't anything serious, we really can't afford a huge repair right now.  


 ♥♥To relax this week, I will♥♥ 
I have so many new books to read, and a lot of new yarn to start on new projects.  So excited to get that going.


  ♥♥Something I want to share♥♥  
I have so many of these saved to share.  Love watching them, especially lately, it makes me forget the current world situation and focus on simpler times.




♥♥On my prayer list♥♥
Our situation, hoping for a decision to be made.
Our country, the world, this whole covid situation.

Monday, August 03, 2020

{ Happy Homemaker Monday - 08/03/2020 }

Good morning sweet ladies, how was your weekend?

I had a pretty good one, well, nothing super exciting happening but I believe that in this season of my life, a quiet relaxing weekend, is more than I could hope for.

I apologize for not visiting your blogs last week, honestly did not have the time, and as you also know I haven't been feeling very well the past two or so weeks.  Thankfully seem to be getting over that hill.

Not much to update you all on, we are hopeful for a resolution to our situation this week, also I started my Youtube channel back up and have uploaded a grocery haul and a weekly meal video.  If it's something you enjoy watching or think you would enjoy, be sure to go on over and take a look.

Right, I am in a bit of a hurry this morning, I need to get my daughter to work in about an hour and still have to get this post up, make some breakfast and get dressed.  It's one of those busy mornings.

Hope you all have a blessed, wonderful week!!! 



♥♥The Weather♥♥

Cooled off a bit last week, and we even had some rain, a power outage and all that fun stuff.  However, even with a bit cooler weather in Texas, it still means humidity and clamminess, which is so yucky.   

Monday - Partly cloudy, 89
Tuesday - Partly cloudy, 90
Wednesday - Partly cloudy, 96
Thursday -  Partly cloudy, 99
Friday - Mostly sunny, 99
Saturday -  Mostly Sunny,  100
Sunday - Sunny, 100


♥♥How I am feeling this morning♥♥
Not too bad.  One of the symptoms that bug me the most is the irritability, to the point where I can irritate myself LOL  Usually when that dissipates, I know I'm back on track, thank God.                       


♥♥On my mind♥♥
Oh goodness, so much.  Projects I want to get done in the house, the job situation, our future, our country, school starting on the 17th, etc.                  


♥♥On the breakfast plate♥♥

Just had some coffee with Peppermint Mocha.  Will have some toast when I return from dropping Jasmine off.        


♥♥On my reading pile♥♥
I am now in the second book of Kings in my Bible

These are still on my reading pile:

The Doctor of Aleppo
Loving Well in a Broken World


♥♥On my tv♥♥
Started my Portuguese Soaps again after about a year of not watching any.  So glad I did though, I've missed hearing my language and feeling closer to my heritage. 

Also, been watching some wonderful documentaries on Magellan TV.


♥♥On the menu this week♥♥

You can see last week's meals on the youtube video.  This week I need to work on a new meal plan, I am actually thinking of doing just Portuguese meals the next two weeks. 

Monday - Copycat Wingers Sticky Fingers, Macaroni and Cheese
Tuesday - Deep Dish Sausage Pizza
Wednesday - Cheesy Tuna Pasta Bake, Salad
Thursday - Chicken Curry, Garlic Naan
Friday
Saturday -
Sunday -


♥♥From the camera♥♥

My girl and her kitty.  She loves this baby.        



♥♥Looking around the house♥♥

It is not as bright as it usually is in the mornings, but that is due to the cloudy skies.  I do see the big bright orange ball of the sun, peeking over the tree branches in my back yard.
I have some laundry baskets with clean, folded laundry just needing to be put away.  Also need to vacuum and dust today. 


♥♥Chore I'm not looking forward to today, or this week♥♥
Oh the dreaded bathroom cleaning.  Ugh, just not my favorite chore at all, but one that is very much needed to be done in a household, right?


♥♥To relax this week, I will♥♥
Reading, crocheting, watching my Portuguese Soaps. 


♥♥Something I want to share♥♥
I've been enjoying sharing these videos with you all, and I hope you're enjoying watching them too.  This new one is called The Irish Linen Industry - Growing Flax and Making Irish Linen.  Such a neat process to watch. 




♥♥On my prayer list♥♥

****  My husband's job situation.  I am praying for a breakthrough this week, that he either gets to keep the job he so loves, or that another job even better than this one, comes along. 
****  Our country.