Schnibbles # Six

Yikes, I almost forget all about blogging about the Schnibbles Quilt I just finished!

But here it is.... :)

This one was the easiest for me, so YaY!!!!.... maybe it was because I won all those perfectly ironed and cut Charm Squares (a package of 5 x 5 squares, all nice and coordinating) to use!!!

While I hand-stitched the binding, I curled up on the couch and watched the old movie You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

Such a nice, clean, very sweet movie!

What To Do With Yourself....

Last night I got an email that sent me over the top....and then... right down to the bottom! (This post should be in dark black, not pretty pink.... but I just couldn't do it)

Really, it did that to me.

I had to go into the bedroom (in the early evening, mind you), turn the electric blanket on high, pull back the covers, get into bed, pull the covers over my head, and pray!

While reading that one harmless email, so much dross (that yukky stuff at the bottom of our hearts) came shooting out of my heart, that it took me totally by surprise! 

I mean, hadn't I dealt with all those issues already (or at least stuffed them so far down that I would never see them again????).

Well, it's no strange thing that the Lord knew that email was on its way to me. He knows everything! 

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. ~ Hebrews 4:13

...for He knows the secrets of the heart.  ~ Psalm 44:21b

Including, how all that yukky dross lurking in the depth of my heart was making things in my heart quite murky, indeed...and has been slowly oozing its way out and having an effect on my life. (Though I wasn't paying much attention.)

It has my attention now!

Bitterness, hurt, anger.... OH MY!

So now.... rather than give you any of my murky wisdom (because I am still in the throngs of these crazy emotions), I am sending you to a soothing balm of help over at SugarPieFarmhouse. 

Her blog today (and you have to read down to about the middle) so sweetly covers what to do when this kind of rancidity hits us.... 

You will be sooo happy you hopped over there (especially if you have any of those dreg emotions going on right now in your own life)!

Carrots, Raisins, and Things....

Those muffins I made the other day were decent, but I'm still going to keep trying for that perfectly delish muffin. Or.... forget the diet and just go to Mimi's and have the REAL DEAL!

A woman's gotta do that, ya know, to stay happy.  :)

Anyhoo, if you make those muffins, do add more sugar or sweetener, and maybe add a bit more spices, like nutmeg or allspice or something.

I might even try pumpkin instead of applesauce... or, perhaps, pineapple and coconut stirred in... or cranberries instead of raisins...

The sky's the limit!!!  :)

Carrots, Raisins, Bran = Yummy!

I love Mimi's Restaurant's Carrot Raisin Muffins. Mostly because they are soooo moist. All that butter or oil, ya know....

But a gal can't eat them and keep her girlish figure (I wonder if you can if you lost your girlish figure years ago???)

So, I decided to try a low-fat recipe...

 

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Hop To IHop!

If a warm stack of pancakes laden with butter and syrup is your thing, then you might want to check out this deal from I-Hop!

All you have to do is show up tomorrow, February 23rd, between 7 a.m. - 11 a.m. for a three FREE pancakes. In return, they ask for any size donation to be given to Children's Miracle Network. 

Visit here and find out the sweet details!  :)

Love, Part Two....

 

Hello, and welcome to part two of sharing the love!! Just because the official day of Valentine's is over, it's no reason to stop the flow of lovin'... No sireeeeee.

My friend Emily surprised me with the above set of heart-shaped measuring tools. Aren't they the cutest things ever?!!! She told me she got them at Target for only $2.  See, spectacular gifts do not have to cost a fortune!!!

As a side note: after-holiday sales are a great time to 

purchase small items for future stocking stuffers!!!!

For my boys, this year, I cooked an old-fashioned pot of pinto beans,

mashed them in a skillet, smothered them with cheese, stirred, and then made their all-time favorite bean burritos. My oldest said, "Mom, that was the best Valentine's present ever!" 

His present to me....

Moral of that story? Spreading the love does not have to cost money! Delivering six cookies in a baggie with a bow is a delight to anyone's heart and tastebuds. Simple!


And since this is turning out to be a kitcheny kind of post, though I had not intended it as such, I am going to share my Spanish omelet recipe with you. It's Superman's fav!

The Sauce:

• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
• 1/3 cup salsa (saves you from having to cut up bell peppers and onions and such)
• 1 heaping tsp brown sugar
• sprinkles of oregano 

1. Pour all into a small saucepan.
2. Stir.
3. Bring to an almost boil.
4. Let simmer till thickened

 The Eggs.

• 6 eggs
• Lots of cheese, any variety or a mixture
• Any ingredients you desire... such as: mushrooms, green onions, crumbled bacon or sausage

1. Crack the eggs into the pan.
2. Add seasonings, to taste: salt, pepper, garlic powder
3. Stir, as you would scrambled eggs, till it's just barely getting done. You do not want them scrambled all the way, just a little. This ensures a fluffy omelet!
4. Smooth out still wet eggs.
5. Turn heat to low.
6. Cover, till eggs are not wet anymore.
7. Put cheese on half of omelet, then pull the other half of the omelet on top of that. 
   
   
8. Put more cheese on top. 

9. Cover, till cheese is melted.

10. Serve with love!

 

So, that's it!


Simple things can spell L-O-V-E to many. Keep the love going, month after month, day in, day out. 

Your heart (and others') will be full!

...and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds... 

Hebrews 10:24

 

Too Much LOVE???? NEVER ever EVER - EVeR! :)

Okay, maybe that's over the top. I suppose you would have TOO much love if someone was stalking you or literally had drool making a snail trail down his chin as he followed you around like a cape, or if he made comments on your blog that took 2 hours to read. Things like THAT. Maybe then that would be too much love. But apart from that, I am of the firm belief there can never be too much L-O-V-E - EVeR!

It's the oil that makes the world spin 'round, nice and smooth, like a well-greased bearing, don't ya know (yes! I speak Canadian... It's the Olympics!)!

So, it will come as no surprise to you that I am NOT finished talking about Valentine's Day things! 

Grab one of your 8 cups of water (per day, don't ya...well, you know), and just sit back and relax while I tell you all about my ideas to keep the love going, round and round, surrounding your own Super men, kids, friends, family, and those few lucky acquaintances....  :)

Let's begin....

Love from Superman! 

Yesterday, I told you that these favorites of mine were what I asked for from him for Valentine's. 

Sweetly, he got an old vase that used to be my mom's, filled it up with water, then Narcissus, 

and placed them on the table next to the couch, so I could see them, smell them, grab the 

love emanating from them, and sigh with contentment. 

(Yes, simple minds ARE so thankfully easy to please! 

Keeps one happiest, don't ya know!)

So... what is growing in YOUR yard (or a close neighbor, who loves you and lets you pick her stuff)???

You could sooooo easily think about one person, tromp outside with clippers, snip a bud or some beautiful greenery, tromp back into the house, grab a colorful ribbon, tie it around the stems,and

PRESENT SOME LOVE TO SOMEONE!!!

!!! iT wILL mAKE tHEIR dAY  !!!

...Next...

The mailman, that MOST IMPORTANT WORKER IN AMERICA, brought me all kinds of treats.

Two came yesterday!!! Valentine's Day Post (a day after Valentine's).

One had a candy and the other had .... drum roll... my fav.... a Starbuck's card!!!

I savored the candy; I sipped the Mocha; I felt as happy as Jack Horner!!!

Anyhoo, God gave us mouths and tongues and brains and hands and dictionaries and mommies and schools so that we could learn to speak and write and 

TELL OTHERS YUMMY THINGS!!!

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today...

 so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

Hebrews 3:13

(And do not tell me you are not a writer! Do you have a stamp? A piece of paper? A heart? Some nice thoughts about someone? Just jot it down, real simple-like, seal it up, put it in the mailbox.)

Go ahead - make someone's day! 

To be continued... (don't you hate that?)

Stay tuned tomorrow for PART TWO!!!

Before I get too involved in homemaking (whipping it into a welcoming haven, sewing, clipping coupons, singing praises...), did you have a HAPPY VALENTINE'S????

Or UNhappy?

One of my girlfriends and I used to laugh at our magnificent ability to stay the course with hope, right until the stroke of midnight on February 14th (envision a host of flying pink, red, white, dotted, and striped hearts, of all varieties and sizes, floating around that most beloved date), hoping against hope (something we learned from good ol' Father Abraham), that our Hubby Dearests would finally hand us the long-awaited, loving surprises our hearts had been longing for. (Superman has gotten a bit better since those days...)

At the stroke of midnight, one minute past, our hope would flounder, then by morning, revive itself into a newer, elongated hope = MAYBE NEXT YEAR!

God's wonderful Word informs us that hope deferred makes the heart sick; don't we know it!!!

BUT!!! A longing fulfilled is a tree of life!  (Proverbs 13:12.) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

And that's why we pick our deflated hope up and puff new faith into it, year after year, holiday after holiday, trial after trial, longing after longing.

Because....

You just never know when that big, fat, luscious, indescribably spectacular surprise is going to come and doctor-up that sick heart and make it a flourishing, fruitful, happy green tree with lots of pink blossoms (perhaps even some red-dotted ones)!

It can happen today! Tomorrow! In an instant!

Whatever it is you are longing for, persevere with gladness (as much as you can), and wait on God! He most assuredly will have many mini surprises for you along the waiting road... Like... grace, mercy, encouragements, or who knows what else!

Wait, I say, on the Lord!  :)

Mic 7:7 But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

P. S. ... Did you do something to make your husband happy on Valentine's? Or... is he still waiting?  :)

P. S. #2 ... The cupcakes I made above were so simple. You know, grab that box of cake mix you bought on sale for 79c and whip it up and bake it. Then, take that other box, the C & H (only kind I use) powdered sugar box, follow the ingredients on that for the frosting, add red food coloring, till it white frosting settles into the pink hue you love,  and voila!

I have parchment paper triangles I buy in Michael's' cake decorating section. Same with some fancy tips to go into them. But, you do not have to have either of those to decorate your cupcakes.

No, you don't. 

Take a piece of typing paper and cut it into a triangle. Here, I'm going to walk you step-by-step (I am coloring one side so that you can see more clearly what I am doing)...

1. Fold you piece of typing paper, like this...  

2. Open it up and cut on the crease. There's your triangle. 

3. Roll your the left edge of the triangle to come around and meet the right edge. 

4. Match the points together. There's no point in my picture, because I accidentally 

tore it. Oops! 

5. Bring the right triangle point up, circling around the top, and meeting the other two 

points. Secure it tightly with your fingers 

and thumb. Pull it snug so that there are

no gaps (photo shows the gaps.)

6. Slowly roll the three points toward the cone, making small creases as you go. This locks

the ends in place. 

7. Snip off end. Start with a small snip, because you can always cut more if you want a bigger opening. If you have a decorating tip, then of course, you want the hole big enough to let the top third of it slip through the opening. Without a tip, your frosting will not have swirls, like mine in the top picture of this post. However, you can still make swirly lines (think of Hostess cupcakes!!!) or write in cursive the word "LOVE" or a giant "X" and "O". The possibilities are endless!

8. Fill it up with your frosting, by using a butter knife. Then, roll the ends together tightly to seal the frosting in. (Typing paper makes a really small frosting bag, so maybe you'll need to trying taping a couple of them together.)

9. Gently squeeze the 'bag' as you write or make swirls across your lovely cupcakes!!!

10. ORRRRRR.... You can always just fill a thick ziplock bag, twist the top, cut the bottom point, and use that. Which is easy. I just thought you would want to know both ways!  :)  Have fun!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

It's here -- the LOVE day!!!  Are you feeling it?  Superman picked my favorite flowers - late-blooming Narcissus (the different varieties bloom from fall to spring - yum), put them in a vase, and presented them to me with a flourish. 

Now... If you think he was being cheap... nay. It's what I love and asked for.

Anyhoo, "the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (1 John 3:8). It was the blood of Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, that great Shepherd of the sheep, who came to earth, lived a perfect life, died a perfectly torturous death (taking all our sins on Himself AND the cruelty of the cross), and then victoriously rose again, giving us the perfect, complete, and only way to the Father and eternity forever and ever and ever. Amen.

That, my bloggerinas, is LOVE... AND IT'S NOT CHEAP - BUT COST JESUS EVERYTHIG  -- FOR YOU. FOR ME. FOR US. HOOOOOOORAY!  :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S - I HOPE JESUS WINS YOUR HEART TODAY!

Live With Enjoyment!

You know how I love to ride my bikes! This ONE  is sooooooooo much fun - and makes me skinny!!!!!  OK, it hasn't really made me skinny yet, but if I will ride with purpose each day, it will; I am sure of it!


First of all, the brakes are my thigh muscles. That's right. No squeezing of hand brakes, because this baby has the original bicycle brake systems -- LEGS and FEET and PURE MUSCLE (which means, if you have no leg muscles, 1. you are going to get them, and 2. you better have on thick tenny shoes)!!!


Secondly, though this beauty is a 3-speed, only one of them works, the hard one. Just how I like it!


Now, if I wanna go really fast and move along the road with traffic, that isn't the bike I want. For that, I use my other darling blue baby! It has a speedometer and thinner wheels and lots and lots of gears. Oh, yay!


Today, since  the weather is screaming with joy over itself and its almost 70-degree warmth, I am riding both. One for pure enjoyment (the 50s model) and the other for exercise (for this 50s model - moi)!


Superman is sweetly lubing their chains (better than pulling my chain!), plumping up the tires with fresh oxygen, and doing whatever else bike men do to their wives' two-wheeled chariots. I'm so glad he is so smart ----VERY HANDY IS HE!!!!


So, to the reason I wanted to post today. While out riding the older bike up and down and in and out of the neighboring streets, I thought how much i love to ride bikes. Then, I thought of when I ride it for exercise - enjoyable, I suppose, but not the simple, lovely, thankful stroll of pedaling slowly and noticing things.... like dogs chained up, poofy snowballs of spring blossoms on trees, blue shutters on white houses, etc. When I am riding for exercise, mostly it is something to be done and checked off my list. I want to ride fast so that it's over sooner. 


See the diff????


Anyhoo, we have so many things to check off our list today, and tomorrow, that why not purposefully give yourself a basketful of minutes that are to be spent purely enjoying something?


Live with enjoyment! you will feel better and happier!

Let's be rich in joy! 

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the Living God, Who gives us richly all things to enjoy," 1 Timothy 6:17

Pizza Addict, That's Me!

OK, here's my problem -- I LOVE PIZZA!!!

My pants do not! Those crazy zippers cause such a fuss when they have to exert lots of energy pushing their way up to close, simply because I've had one (or two or three) extra pieces of pizza! Harumph!!!

Pizza Hut's thin crust sausage, mushroom, and olive is my fav. I crave it all the time. 


But I can't eat it all the time, 'cuz you know why  -- I will look like a pizza, nice and round!


So... My newest alternative is this, pictured above (I will list the Weight Watcher's points values for those still keeping their New Years' resolution):

• One regular-sized Thomas Sahara Pita Pocket, 100% Whole Wheat (2 pts).  I put this in a hot skillet and toast one side, flip it, then while the other side is toasting add any number of ingredients. Since I walked 4 miles today with my friend Emily, up and down the bluffs, I was extra hungry. Well, that, and while I was getting gas I saw a picture of the store's advertised pizza, which got me thinking....  :) The great thing about these Thomas pitas is that they toast up in the skillet real nice and crispy, similar to the thin crust pizzas.
• Tomato paste, 1 Tbsp, smeared on (0 pts) and topped with garlic/pepper spices, oregano, and basil. Sometimes I will use BBQ sauce (1/4 cup = 1 pt), but that's only if I'm making a BBQ-chicken-and-fresh-rosemary pizza.
• Black olives, 6 of them, sliced and diced and tossed on top (1 pt).
• Sweet peppers and onions, thinly sliced and lightly grilled or sauteed or raw (0 pts).
• Cheeses, low fat, 2 Tbsp, sprinkled on top. Today I used yummy crumbled goat cheese (1 pt), but most of the time it's mozzarella).
• Turkey sausage link, 1/2, crumbled on top (1.5 pts). Normally, I do not add this, but I had some already cooked, annnnd since that picture got my mouth watering... I added it. Yum! 
• Fresh, green, delightful basil. I love basil, especially with goat cheese pizzas!
• Sky is the limit! If I have fresh mushrooms, they'll get sliced really thin and piled on, along with dried red peppers when I have them.

The above photo does not do my mini pizza justice, but believe me... it's delish!

Anyhoo, lunchtime is over -- time to go sew a receiving blanket!

What's your favorite pizza??? Do you have a homemade whole wheat pizza dough recipe you want to share with me????  :)


Where my feet were tromping today... 

 

For physical training is of some value,

but godliness has value for all things, 

holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:8

Hat, With No Cat!

This little hat, 

For a tiny girly head,

Is better than a cat, 

That, like mine, is dead. (Okay, sick rhyme, but I've been missing my gato, who drowned a year ago this month. I had her for nine years.... too bad she didn't have nine lines...darn it!!! And, I must say that Superman, who does not miss her {she followed me around, not him} is not crying at all...)

My best friend of 24 years (thank You, Lord!) has a daughter, 

Who is having twins, 

Which I am very excited about!

And I bought her ('bought her' is supposed to rhyme with 'daughter' {work with me now},

Nothing, 

but made Cecelia (Baby A, who has a hole in her heart and will have to have surgery soon after birth.. join me in praying for her, wanna {let me know}????), 

This head for her head, 

I'm glad Mighty God, 

Is ahead, 

Of her...

And knows the plans He has for her!!!!

So, Dr. Suess I am not, but the sweet shower was such fun...

And now my post is done.

P.S. Her mom, one of my BFFs (remember, I am totally blessed with two), made the other twin a coordinating hat (we took the class together).

The End.

Leave me a comment; they make me feel loved!!!  :)