Trust~Faith~Hope

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

on your own intelligence rely not;

In all your ways be mindful of him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

I am placing all my trust, faith, and hope for healing Michelle in God's hands.

Should I be indoors or outdoors? hmmm

I was really into decluttering and organizing closests and drawers, but I kept looking outside and I finally gave in to my urges to be out there instead of in here. First I just sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine. Then I started looking around at all the work needing to be done. Trimming, weeding, pruning, raking. I decided to take inventory of the damage just a few nights of freezing temps did.

so I made myself get up from here and get to work

even though we did this...

I still lost these tomato plants. and my basil. and one bell pepper plant.

my eggplants are looking pretty droopy

but my oranges made it!

as did my lemons, but that's cause they kept their socks on : )

luckily the bedding plants do well in cold weather.
my nasturtiums, pansies, petunias, snapdragons and sweet alysum were not affected.

and the hollyhocks are growing strong.

so are the geraniums

I didn't lose all my tomato plants

and this one that grew out of my oregano

is now looking like the jolly green giant!

so all in all I think my garden did pretty good. we still have the remainder of jan and feb with unpredictable weather, but for now I will enjoy today's 74 degree temperature!

and with the help of these pinwheels,

I will enjoy color in my garden!

A Prayer to Shape My Life

by Marsha Maurer

Keep snipping, God.

Prune my weedy excesses,

my struggling imperfections,

my lop-sided selfishness.

Remove any branches that impinge on others;

trim the disorder from my life.

Fashion me in the image of Your perfection.

Shape my life into a balanced, pleasing form.

Amen

Glendale Glitter and Glow

These cousins are soooo excited to hang out together!

Michelle and Megan

Elizabeth and Evan

Michelle and Nathan

Mikey and Evan

Elizabeth, Megan, Michelle, Nathan

When Life Gives you Lemons...Put a Sock on It!

We had a few nights of freezing temps and I did not want to lose these beautiful lemons.

Even though my lemon tree is still pretty small, it was too big to cover completely so I did the next best thing.

They each got their own warm sock to keep them from freezing!!

Soups On!

I have been inspired to warm up my home by Teresa at Meadowbrook Farm making her chicken noodle soup and Kerrie at the Sea Cottage baking her oatmeal cookies. Since I have all the ingredients on hand I will make my...

Shrimp and Corn Chowder

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup diced green pepper and red pepper

1 cup chopped celery

2 tbps olive oil

2 cups chicken stock (add 1/2 cup more later if the chowder is too thick)

1 1/2 - 2 cups half-and-half milk (small container)

3 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 can Campbell's Cream of Potato Soup

4 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed (shown with yellow corn, but white corn is even better)

4 tbsp Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

2 lb bag of Costco raw frozen shrimp, thawed and shelled (cut them in half so they are bite-size)

chopped cilantro

pepper

-In a medium stockpot, heat oil and saute onion, peppers and celery about 10 minutes, stirring.

-Add hot chicken stock, half and half milk, and potatoes. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook until potatoes are just tender, 15 minutes.

-Add can of cream of potato soup, corn, and sun-dried tomatoes. Bring back to a simmer about 10 minutes.

-Add shrimp and cilantro, simmer until shrimp is cooked. Season with pepper.

Enjoy with some warm crusty sourdough bread!




The chicken noodle soup recipe can be found at:
http://themeadowbrookblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/chicken-noodle-soup.html
and the oatmeal cookie recipe at:
http://seacottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/bakingwarming-home.html
I have yet to learn the "here" feature!

Goodbye 2010~Hello 2011

New Year's Eve

at Gil and Linda's again!

Made this yummy champagne punch recipe from Susan at "BetweenNapsOnThePorch.blogspot.com"

Gil playing Alex's guitar

Went next door to see the village
(more on that later)

David playing with Alex, or Alex playing with David!


Monique practicing to be a model!!

Playing the Wii!


Dancing to the "Talking Heads" video
(we do this every New Yr's Eve ; )

Some real dancing!


Linda and Cindy

Counting down with Chavela!

us

Cheers to the Old Year!

Cheers to the New Year!!
Wishing everyone a
Happy and Blessed New Year!!
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

What made it a Wonderful Christmas~

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that everyone who believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

~Being Together

~Sharing a Meal

~Dan's Margaritas

~Exchanging Gifts

~Santa finding Nathan and Megan at our house

~Unexpected gifts!

~more Christmas Eve

~Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

After a wonderful Christmas Eve at Gil and Linda's with the whole family (minus 3) and after Megan and Nathan were tucked into bed so that St Nick could find them here at nanie and tatie's house in Arizona, David fired up the grill for a midnight snack!

Michelle and I got our warm pj's and jackets on and sat outside under the heat lamp with Dan and David waiting for the yummy bacon-wrapped-stuffed jalapeno peppers. They were sooo tasty, well the first bite was and the second bite had a kick, but they were so good! After that we were on fire! Didn't need the heat lamp to keep us warm. We were laughing hysterically, Michelle wanted to stick her tongue in the cold pool water and jumping in the pool did cross my mind. It was quite a moment!

Cheers to good memories and jalapeno peppers!

~Christmas Eve With Family

~Finding a surprise at my front door : )

~Baking gingerbread cookies!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas

and a Blessed New Year!