Being Present

WHAT IS THIS PRECIOUS LOVE AND LAUGHTER BUDDING IN OUR HEARTS?
IT IS THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF A SOUL WAKING UP.


The first time I heard the phrase "being in the moment" was probably 10 years ago and I was in a friend's place of business. She was relating a conversation to me that she had with her husband the night before and she was saying what a wonderful experience it was because they were both living in the moment. I asked her what she meant by living in the moment and she said, "being aware and conscious of that moment." I understood what she was saying but I realized at the time that I really wasn't conscious and living the moment that often.

The last several years, God has brought this across my path more and more (being conscious of my thoughts and actions). The majority of our lives are lived unconsciously. How many times did I used to eat and I wasn't even hungry and I didn't stop and ask myself are you hungry? Why are you eating? Now, I'm mindful when I eat. We live by rote and as we live our daily lives our subconscious mind is going one hundred miles an hour. We have at least 60,000 thoughts a day and 80% of them are negative. Being conscious is being aware of what you are thinking and doing. Like the Bible says, think about things that are good and pure and lovely, be alert and sober. Have our minds been trained to believe the best about a person when something about their character is in question. Do we choose to walk in love when we have been hurt or offended. We have patterns of thinking that when something happens in our life our minds just take off in a negative direction. I want to say I'm not there yet but I'm getting there. It is really a battle to stay conscious and live in the moment. You need to try it for a few minutes :). You noticed that I said a few minutes. We are so programed to just exist and let our negative emotions run our lives. The thoughts are constantly there to bring you down. You are not pretty, you are fat, you are not smart enough, you are not that creative, she does it better than you, they don't like me, my house is not nice enough and the list goes on and on.

The main thing that started my change was about five years ago and that was when I started loving and accepting myself. I finally accepted who I am and the way God made me. That is a whole other story I will have to tell you about some other time. It happened through a little stray dog that showed up at our house.

I wanted to tell you about something that I am excited about in my life and I hope it helps you in some way.
Have a wonderful day and be PRESENT!

Beautiful sunrise Sunday morning. (pictures)

Don't Forget to Pray for the Farmers

I was talking to our neighbor today who makes his living by farming. He was telling me if we have another year like this one he will have to find another profession. He said all farmers are really hurting. All their crops soybeans, corn, alfalfa, wheat has been given to the cows because of the draught. Farmers get loans for their crops and with a year like this the crops have not produced therefore they have made no money. They still have to make their loan payments. Plus, they are going out of state to get hay for their cattle. He told me, "if we go into the winter without rain it's going to be bad."

In my personal opinion, the government should be making special consideration of farmers. Not only are they trying to make a living but they are providing food for our nation. If anyone should get a break it should be the farmers.

That is my two cents for the day!

My Summer

The heat is unrelenting. Some of my plants are starting to get a little stressed. I haven't done much outside other than water. The ground is so hard that for now I have stopped putting in the brick border around my flower beds. The owner of Wilshire Garden Market was telling me yesterday that she has purchased several large umbrellas to shade some of her plants. I thought that was an excellent idea. For those plants that you don't want to loose that's a consideration.

I have made several skirts this summer and have been swimming at the college here in Chickasha pretty much every evening. I really love to swim and that takes the inches off of me faster than anything else. And at my age, I can do things in the water a lot easier than on land. I am determined to get off this last 30 pounds. That old fat has been in there a long time and doesn't want to come off but it's leaving! :) I'm also reading an interesting book by Rabbi Berg called Miracles, Mysteries and Prayer.

Pretty quite summer for me. I guess the most excitement we've had was our field catching on fire a couple of weeks ago while it was getting cut and baled. Everything turned out ok. Nothing was destroyed and no one was hurt. We are thankful.

I pulled up my tomato plants about 3 weeks ago. If it wasn't the heat it was the wind and they had it. Hardly any tomato production. I so look forward to tomatoes in the summer and this has been a big disappointment. No peaches from our trees and my favorite cantaloupe from a local farmer didn't make it either. Not a good summer! Well, the saying that there is always hope in a gardener's heart, so I am already looking forward to next summer. It's got to be better than this one.

Hope the remainder of your summer is restful and cool. I'll be looking forward to that first real cold front! :)

Baby Shower

I helped with a baby shower on Saturday. I was responsible for the food and my dear friend made the darling centerpiece for the occasion. It was fun. I haven't helped with a baby shower in a long time. So it was fun coming up with games and new ideas.

I wanted to share some of the ideas for the shower. My friend has a beautiful assortment of blue and white dishes as well as some lovely milk glass dishes. Since the baby is a boy we decided to use blue and white dishes and to use navy blue instead of the traditional baby blue. It really turned out beautiful. We had a shower with just desserts. Petit fours with a little blue booties on top, cut out iced sugar cookies with a baby theme, chocolate covered strawberries, strawberries with a fruit dip, chocolate bonbons, and watermelon and cantaloupe in a carved watermelon that looked like a stroller. I tried a new punch that I had seen in Southern Living which I really liked called Governor's Manson Summer Peach Tea Punch.

The two recipes I want to share with you are the punch and the chocolate bonbons.

3 family size tea bags
2 cups loosely packed fresh mint
1 33oz. bottle of peach nectar
1/2 (12 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup Simple Sugar Syrup
1 (1-liter) bottle ginger ale, chilled
1 (1-liter) bottle club soda, chilled
Garnish with fresh peaches

Bring 4 cups water to boil in medium sauce pan. Add tea bags and boil one minute. Turn off heat and add mint leaves. Cover and steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags and mint leaves. Pour into a one gallon container, add peach nectar, lemonade and Simple sugar syrup. Mix well, cover and chill 8 to 24 hours. Pour chilled tea mixture into punch bowl or pitcher. Stir in ginger ale and club soda just before serving. Garnish with peaches if desired.

Simple syrup - Bring 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Let boil for about 4 minutes stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Let cool before using.


Chocolate Bonbons - This is a recipe my daughter saw on Food Network and told me about. These are very rich.
For the shower I used 2 chewy brownie mixes. Cook according to package directions. Let cool.

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
1 (12 oz) package of Semi Sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons of coffee
In a double boiler add heavy cream, chocolate chips and coffee. Stir until chocolate chips are melted.

Toppings
1 small pkg. coconut
1 jar salted peanuts, chopped
1 pkg. mini chocolate chips
Get 3 dinner plates and put coconut in one, peanuts in one and mini chocolate chips in one.

After brownies have cooled take a teaspoon and run it across the top of the brownie to break it up. I would get enough brownie to make a round ball. They were bigger than a walnut but not as big as a golf ball. Make all the brownies into balls then dip them into the chocolate ganache and then dip them in either the coconut, peanuts or mini chocolate chips. You can stick Popsicle sticks into them but I found little signs that said baby boy and that's what I used. These would be cute for a kids party with a Popsicle stick in them.

Even in Drought and Scorching Heat

These little flowers have been growing in our yard for probably a week. Yesterday as I walked by them I really looked at them and thought how pretty they looked and immediately this thought popped into my mind. "Even in drought and scorching heat you can be fruitful."

I thought, Oh yes Lord I know I can but how often I want to pray to be delivered from the scorching heat instead of asking you to help me be all I can be in the midst of it.

Roasted Vegetables

Please excuse my bad pictures but they were taken after the fact. I fixed roasted veggies with our fish last night and I tried something different with the veggies and it was so good I went back to take a picture of what little was left. :)

I had some asparagus, red pepper, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and new potatoes. I washed the new potatoes cut them in half and boiled them in some water for about 8 minutes. I wanted them slightly tender. When they cooled I sliced them in half one more time. I then sliced all the veggies except the asparagus and put everything on a baking sheet and drizzled a little olive oil over it all and tossed it with my hands. Put it in the oven for about 25 minutes on 425 degrees. I tossed it once in the oven.

When I was working in my herb garden yesterday I had some dill I needed to use so I picked it. While I was preparing the veggies I thought the dill would taste really good on the veggies. So, while the veggies were cooking in a small bowl I chopped up about 1/4 cup of dill, 2 garlic cloves minced, juice from 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper to taste and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. When the vegetables were finished cooking I removed them from the oven and poured the dill mixture over the veggies and tossed them. We loved the flavor. I love garlic and dill so it was rummy! If your not much of a garlic person you may want to use just one garlic clove.

Just a little tid bit of info. On most days, I chop up one clove of garlic put it in a teaspoon, put it in my mouth and chase it with a glass of water. There are lots of health benefits to fresh garlic. I read a book about the Dulaney sisters years ago and they attributed there long life to a clove of fresh garlic everyday. :) So pop in your garlic and go kiss your husband. :)

After dinner last night, I was thinking that the dill sauce would really be good drizzled over some grilled fish.

I have found that you can eat very healthy by adding lots of flavors (using herbs) to your food that make it very satisfying.

If you don't have an herb garden you have to start one!

Container Pots and Plants

Like everyone else in Oklahoma I'm up at sunrise watering. This heat is pretty amazing. We have several potted plants that look pretty good and yellow crispy grass. We do not have a manicured lawn or a sprinkler system so my flowers do good to get watered. I have a couple of potted plants that are in different containers. I live in the country so I can get by with rustic containers. Anyway, wanted to share them with you. I also took some photos of my edging. The edging is tree limbs and at one time they really looked great. They have lasted almost 10 years and I have loved them. This is a different idea. I got it from a landscaping architect at the garden show years ago. I am slowly replacing my edging with red bricks.

Stay cool everyone!