Mr. Guest

Today, I dictated a poem by Edgar A. Guest to my daughter.  He is my favorite poet...I have lived so many of his words.   The poem we used today is entitled "Creation."  This stanza I love:

Man writes his loftiest thoughts in words,
  And builds with brick and stone.
But dreams of butterflies and birds
  Belong to God alone.

How magnificent is God for creating an Earth filled with beauty.  Who else could have thought to make a bird or a butterfly.  And not just one kind, but a myriad of species in a rainbow of colors.  If ever we doubt the mercy of God, we only need stop and notice the beauty He put in nature.  Thank you, Mr. Guest, for this well worded thought.

Blessed

Do you have two arms?  You are blessed.  A friend of mine lost one of his arms today.  Can you take care of your children?  You are blessed.  A friend of mine can't do that on her own right now.  Do you have a loving spouse?  You are blessed.  A friend of mine is alone tonight and every night.  Do you have children?  You are blessed.  A friend of mine has never and will never have that experience.  Do you have a sound mind?  You are blessed.  A friend of mine is loosing her's.

I read this question somewhere recently and it stopped me in my tracks.  What if tomorrow you awoke to find  ONLY the blessings you had thanked God for today?

WOW!!  What would you still have?  What would you have lost?

So often we are so wrapped up in our own petty troubles and stresses (usually self inflicted)  that we don't recognize how blessed we are. I want to take a step away from my self-absorbed existence and look....really LOOK...at my blessings.  And then I want to thank a wondrous God who would condescend to bless a person as dreadful as I am.  I AM WONDROUSLY, AMAZINGLY, BREATHTAKINGLY BLESSED BY MY LOVING, BEAUTIFUL, MERCIFUL GOD.

The Finish Line!!!!!

The last post of Pinterest week.....YEA!!!  I have had so much fun doing so many pins, but I will be glad to cross the finish line.  A more normal routine should return next week with the start of school, and I am ready for routine.  Remind me of this if I start whining about being in a rut.  Sometimes ruts are comfortable places to be.

The last pin I tried was super silky summer legs.  I gave this pin a test.  After shaving regularly, I put this concoction......................

......on my left leg and shaved again per the instructions.  Then I shaved my right leg normally.

O.K.  I don't usually write messages in the shaving cream, but it is my last pinterest post!!  Anyway, after I showered I tested my legs and the left was silkier than the right.  My mother, daughter, and two of her cousins could also feel the difference.  They might not of wanted too, but they did!  

I don't think I will do this every time I shave...the tub is left oily requiring scrubbing. : /  But for special occasions or a pampering session, it is worth the trouble.

I hope you have enjoyed Pinterest Week as much as I have.  We are heading out tomorrow to go to a church meeting and then school starts next week so it might be a while before I post again.  I hope you can take some time to appreciate the blessings we enjoy every day.  Laugh.  Pray.  Live.

God Bless.

More Pins

YUM!!  That is the word for homemade Samoas.  The pin I used to find the recipe has recipes for homemade versions of all the Girl Scout Cookies.  Samoas are my GS cookie of choice, so I made them for church this Sunday.  I made bar cookies instead of round cookies.  Two observations....they are NOT a cookie to make on Sunday morning, and they would be best with chocolate on the bottom.  These two statements are closely related.  I did not have enough time to wait for the cookies to cool enough to dip, so I just spread my chocolate on the top.  It was very good, but the bottom was a little dry.

Definitely worth cooking again!






Speaking of chocolate, my three year old sat in chocolate sauce at church a couple of weeks ago.  When I went to get his shorts to pretreat, they had disappeared.  I found them this week at the bottom of his toy box.  (why didn't I think to look there before?)  I used the "best stain treatment ever", at least that is what the pin said.  Here is the before picture.

Chocolate sauce sitting for two weeks on light colored shorts.  I was not hopeful.  The results.....

I was sooooo excited.  This is a keeper!  It makes me want to go stain something!!

One evening we tried our hands at shadow puppets.  Everyone got into the act and we had a BLAST!!  Giggles and hand contortions abounded!  Imaginations were sparked!  We were happy.

Dog

Dinosaur

Horse

I still can't make a bear, but I am going to try again soon.

I tried a vinegar foot soak for my tired feet.  It was nice.  I will probably do it again.  However, since there is vinegar and salt in this foot soak, I will wait for the scrape on my toe to heal first.  OUCH!!!  But the scrape did look much better this morning.  Still......OUCH!!!

We tried exploding ziploc bags with vinegar and baking soda.  It was underwhelming.  We much prefer volcanoes or baking soda/vinegar art.

Finally, today, my mother and I made some freezer meals.  We made my regular freezer meals...lasagna, enchiladas, and chicken pot pie.  But we also made some crockpot freezer meals.  Yes, the only thing better than assembling and throwing a meal into the crockpot in the morning is reaching into your freezer, pulling out a bag, and dumping the contents into the crockpot.  These meals were super fast to assemble (in freezer cooking time) and will be sooo handy.  I hope they will be as tasty as they are convenient!

Crock pot meals on top, others on the bottom.  11 meals.  11.  Insert audible sigh of relief here.

You can find all of these pins on my done board.  I have had fun this week, but I AM glad Pinterest week is almost over.  SO MUCH PRESSURE.  ;)  Keep smiling and God bless!!

Following Instructions

When I was in the third grade, Mrs. Golden, my teacher, handed out a worksheet that she had us place face down on our desk.  She then instructed us to read the worksheet from top to bottom and to follow the instructions carefully.  We were not to begin working until we had completely read the worksheet.  We had all day to complete this assignment.

When she allowed us to turn the worksheet over, my heart sank as I read what our tasks for the day included.  Write your spelling words ten times each. (that would have been 150 words)  Do pages 82-88 in your math book. Show your work.  (we were only on page 20)  List all of the states and their capitals. (Little Rock, AR...ummm)  HOW AM I EVER GOING TO GET THIS DONE!!!!

I kept reading, though I was tempted to begin working right away.  And finally, at the bottom of the page, was this last instruction.  Disregard all of the above.  Sign your name at the top of the page and turn in your worksheet.   WHEW!!

I was the only student in my class to read all the way through before starting to work.  While the rest of my class wrote spelling words, tried multiplying two digit numbers, and looked for the capital of Montana, I read my library book and ran errands for the teacher.  In third grade I knew how to follow instructions.

This ability of mine has declined greatly in the intervening years.  I give you Exhibit A.

This is a picture of some boiled eggs I made in order to test the pin "the perfect boiled egg."  This was not the expected result.

The words pinch and gently are important words.  I was to add a pinch of baking soda to the water. I added about 2 TBS.  I was to gently "bumper car" the eggs.  I shook them like a can of spray paint.  I didn't read the directions carefully, and I certainly did not follow them. And the resulting boiled egg soup was definitely not the next big thing!

I tried again, following the directions this time, and came out with better results.

This egg turned out quite well and was just like the pin said it would be.  It's companion was not as good, but still functional.  I think this would work best when doing several eggs at once instead of just one or two.  

I have more pins to share, but I'll wait until tomorrow.  For tonight, I just want to remember what Mrs. Golden tried to teach me so many years ago......following the directions makes life MUCH easier!!

Day Two and Three

Time for a pin update.  We have been super busy getting ready for my mother's arrival and my daughter's return.  They are here now, and Hannah LOVED her room.  Just wait until you see the piece of furniture we built and painted for her!!

First, a couple of pins without pictures.  (Sorry, sometimes life happens before you remember tot ake a picture.)  I made what was advertised as the best sweet tea ever with a special ingredient.  It was REALLY GOOD tea, and the secret ingredient was 1/4 tsp of baking soda.  Strange, I know, but what a difference!  I will never make tea any other way.  Thanks to Ceridwen for pinning the recipe first.  That's my favorite thing about Pinterest...finding a ton of great ideas and recipes in one place.

I also made some bacon/cheese potato rounds for some gentlemen to enjoy last night while their moms/wives were out on the town.  They were a big hit and super easy.  I am almost certain this recipe will appear at our church potluck in the near future.

Speaking of church, we have a lot of company throughout the year when church meetings are in the area.  My next pin will have my company's olfactory senses delighted.  It is a mixture of about 2c baking soda and a TBSP of fabric softer, sprinkled on a mattress, left to sit for an hour, and then vaccumed off.

It is the most blissful smell I have ever experienced when going to bed at night...even better than lined dried sheets!  It also gets rid of dust mites.  This will become a regular part of laundering my sheets every week.

I organized my batteries into a fishing lure/stuff organizer.  Originally, my batteries were lost in a junk drawer that would make anyone with OCD spontaneously combust.  About two months ago, my darling SIL organized that drawer using any box she could find.  My batteries ended up in a repurposed Captain Crunch box...a huge improvement.

But with the fishing box, I could organize them by size and snap the lid shut.

It is nice to be able to see at a glance what batteries we are low on...AA.

Finally, Hannah's bookshelf.  It has shelves on the front and the back and is mounted on a lazy susan.  I painted stripes on the sides so it matched her desk, and the insides of the shelves white for contrast.  The revolving bookcase I pinned is round, but we wanted flat sides so we could put a marker board an a bulletin board om one side and hooks on the other...eventually!

We have some touching up to do, but I am so pleased with how this turned out.  There is a lot of storage on this thing.  

All of these pins can be found on my "done" board on Pinterest.  God Bless!!

Due to Life.....

Day 2 and 3 of pinterest week will be published tomorrow evening.  Life was to busy today for a long post.  God Bless!!

GO!!!! Day 1 of Pinterest Week

WHAT A DAY!!!!  I am tired, but very excited to show you day 1's results.

We will start with the bad.  I had a paintbrush that was in pretty bad shape due to my forgetfulness.  I was distracted while cleaning up my last painting project and forgot to clean the brush.  But I found a pin that suggested soaking the brush in warm vinegar for 30 minutes and then washing it with warm soap and water. This accomplished nothing.  I was very disappointed.

                                       



The rest of my projects today went very well.  First, Daniel and I made shaving cream paints!

 We filled the cups of a muffin tin with shaving cream, and added food coloring.  We mixed colors and added different numbers of drops.  Then we stirred.  These were the results.

The young artist stayed busy until he ran out of paint.  He was quite pleased with his efforts.  Clean up was easier than expected and the bathtub (his canvas) is quite clean.



I also cleaned my washer today.  It was NASTY!!

I have wiped out the inside from time to time, but have never in my 15 years relationship with this appliance cleaned it like this.  Long story short, I used a bleach soak, a vinegar soak, and minimal elbow grease.  Look at these results!!

This next pin I did earlier in the week, when we were in Fort Smith.  Actually, my husband ran in and did it for me while I stayed in the car with the wiggly, destructive one.  He took a photo into Staples and asked then to make a 2x3 ft engineer print.  Elizabeth from Staples was extremely helpful and the print is wonderful!  And it cost $3.00.  HA!!  I put it in a poster frame, and it will hang in my daughter's newly decorated room.  She knows I am decorating, but doesn't know how.  I can't wait for her to see this!!  BTW, they only print in black and white.

Also for her room, I am painting her desk.  I was going to wait until it was completely finished to share it with you, but I am to excited about the how the top turned out.  First a before picture.

I removed the rest of the hardware and lightly sanded the whole thing with a hand sander. Then I painted the entire thing with flat black paint.  And then I added stripes to the top with the same color of paint in a semi-glss finish.  This is the result.

The pics don't really do it justice.  I can't wait to paint the hardware and put it all back together.

Finally, for super we had a taco bake.  Yummy, though not the most nutritious meal ever...LOTS of cheese.  But it was quick, and easy, and cheep.

So that is day 1 for me.  I am tired, and will soon be going to bed.  I have several things planned for the rest of the week, and I am excited about the prospect of sharing with you.  All of these pins can be found on my "done" board on pinterest.  I would love to hear from some of you this week.  God Bless!!

On Your Marks. Get Set.

I've made a list and have purchased supplies.  I am ready to start Pinterest Week!  How about you?