Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Cravings

I've been craving Korean food for over a week now. Last week when I planned the menu, I included 2 separate meals of Korean food, which means atleast 4 days of eating spicy deliciousness. Today, day 1, I have been so eagerly anticipating dinner that I started snacking on plain kimchee straight from the jar without even any rice around 10:30 am. And even though it is only 2 pm, I'm starting the side dishes for dinner now because I can't wait. I love that I can eat great food like this without being sick! What a blessing it is to be healthy!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Tree is up

Not the greatest photo, but Gwen is just too cute to not share:

Friday, December 3, 2010

Ugliest, but most forgiving project I've ever sewn...

I had a ton of fabric-- a lot of nice canvas-ey type material that I think is supposed to be for outdoor furniture and pieces of sturdy, but less than attractive material-- that I inherited from other gals. Now, I am a waste-not-want-not kind of gal and haven't been able to part with these 'priceless' fabrics, even though I really didn't have a project in mind or any good use for them. I was going to finally get rid of them... when I had an inspiration!

Reusable grocery bags!

Yes, they are ugly. Yes, they are far from perfect. No, they don't have fancy piping or any other accessories that will make them stand open on their own, fold up nicely, or even look cute. But you know what? All 6 large bags only took me less than 2 hours from start to finish, I didn't have to worry about perfect measuring, edges, pinning, corners, or hems. I just cut, serged, and then sewed straps on. Wuah-lah! Fabric put to good, practical use; cut down on clutter from plastic grocery bags; and even contribute a small part to reducing strain on the environment--

a FREE, fast, and FORGIVING way to spend Gwen's nap today!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Making Room for Christ

Gwen reminded me today:

MAKE room for Christ this Christmas.

I chose one 'sturdy' Nativity to put at Gwen's eye and hand level this Christmas so that she could really get into it. When I showed her all the people and animals, she was really excited. She unhesitatingly emptied her purse-- carrying all her favorite 'treasures' like her 2 turtles, ducky, monkeys, Minnie Mouse, and even Aurora-- so that she could fit all of the figurines from the Nativity in there. She was insistent upon carrying it around and taking Jesus with her into the car.
Then later while playing upstairs with her fairy treehouse-- her favorite new distraction and 'home' for all her lil critters-- she unhesitatingly replaced the fairy in the swing with a wise man, the fairy at the table with an angel, the fairy in the tree with 3 sheep, the ducky in the flower shower with a shepherd and cow, and the unicorn in the house with Mary, Joseph, a couple of wisemen, and the baby Jesus. And baby Jesus got to eat the apples.

Moral of the story: there are plenty of GOOD things to fill our lives with this Christmas season. Lots of things that are our favorites. But we have to MAKE room for the Savior, even if that means removing something that we really like. I hope there will be room in my inn, because I'll make it. Gwen's got the idea.