Celebrating the Day!

I look on any month with 31 days as a month with a bonus.

I like to treat the 31st day of the month as a special gift from God and do something fun with it.

July is one of those months and today is the day!

I started the day out with thanks to God for such a wonderful month filled with fireworks, birthdays, reunions, homecomings, good health, and happiness.

Then I asked for God's blessings on our new month.

It's a bonus month too!

After church my family usually comes home for lunch, but we plan on

going out to eat for a special treat today.

Family and Fun!

What are you doing with your bonus day?



Happy Saturday!

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday and we're off to Georgia for a family reunion!

Hope you have a great weekend!

~ Sherry ~

I've Got a Hot Date!

It's in my kitchen with 60 pounds of tomatoes.

All red, ripe and waiting to be canned!

I miss my canning partner.

She could sure peel some tomatoes.

Heather 1995

My little girl and I spent many summers in the kitchen together peeling and canning tomatoes.

I miss her since she's grown up, married, and living too far away.

Love you, Heather!

A Change in Attitude

I awoke feeling as grey as the day looked outside my bedroom window this morning. I still had the sinus headache that's been weighing me down for the past few days. My sweet hubby's neck and arm are still hurting him even though he's been going to the chiropractor for the past three weeks.  And if hubby's not happy, I'm not happy.

I wanted to wallow in my "depths of despair," as Anne of Green Gables would put it.

Anne Shirley: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?

Marilla Cuthbert: No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God. 

 

Marilla had the real answer didn't she?

 

Looking for inspiration, I made myself a cup of herbal tea, and pulled out my Bible and it fell open to the same verses that gave me clear instructions just a month ago:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

                 Proverbs 3: 5-8

My spirit was already lifted just by reading these words and breathing a prayer for help with my mully grubs.

Making up my mind to change my attitude I decided to get outside for a walk.

I gave myself a BIG smile in the mirror as I walked by.

I went outside and gave my little dog a sweet pat on the head and she rewarded me with such affection.

I set off up the road on my walk and guess what? 

The sun came out!

Mr. Sun was quite the bright and happy companion and I was cheered up immensely.

After coming home, I gave little Maggie another pat on the head and came inside and fixed myself a cup of juicy, sweet strawberries and a glass of ice water.

This was just the prescription I needed for my day.

I now have a smile on my face and another one in my heart.

And something else,

my headache is gone!

I wish you a very happy weekend!

~ Sherry ~



Good Enough

I have such a struggle with the disease of

Perfectionism

Does that mean that everything I do is perfect?

On the contrary.

It means that a lot of things get left undone because I don't have the time or skills to do them perfectly.

Take my housework for example.  I used to put off a simple chore such as vacuuming until I had the time to pull out furniture and vacuum perfectly.

But thankfully I found Flyady and she gave me "permission" to vacuum just the middle of my floors.

I try to choose one room each week to detail-clean but all the other rooms get just a lick-and-a-promise.

And if I don't detail clean a room this week?

It will still be there next week.

Thank you Flylady!

But my perfectionism didn't stop with my house.  It spilled over into my health.  I posted lately about my struggle with the They Says. 
Then I found this eye-opening book:

Live a Little! Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health
by Susan M. Love, M.D. and Alice D. Domar, PH. D.

In this book, written by a surgeon and a psychologist, I found out that perfect health is a myth!
No one can follow ALL the "rules," and no one knows if these rules would keep us perfectly healthy anyway.
I learned that eight hours of sleep is not the perfect amount for everyone.  I probably won't die from sleep deprivation if I have a toss-and-turn night once in a while.
The "rules" on the issues of stress, health screenings, nutrition, and relationships are also looked at and brought down to more livable standards.
Oh, and the title of my favorite chapter?
It's Not Religion, It's Just Exercise

While taking this close-up look at my life, I'm amazed at the huge role that perfectionism plays in it. It touches almost everything I do: cooking, cleaning, art, piano, blogging, teaching, loving...In short; Living.

So instead of looking at myself critically through this magnifying glass today, I'm going to try to see my reflection through the eyes of Christ as He gazes on me. He knows I'm not perfect, but He loves me anyway.

Am I the only one that struggles with perfectionism?

I would love to hear how others deal with it.

Be brave! 

Leave a comment.

We can learn from each other.

You never know who you might help.

~ Sherry ~

Shorts Refashion

I didn't get all my To-Do's done over the last two weeks.  But I have really good excuses.

Really!

Here's the condensed version:

• AC went out
•  had close encounter (of the torturous kind) with jalapeno peppers (see story here)

•  had precious visiting family
•  and an 80th birthday party thrown in (my loving daddy's). 

So, I didn't get my jelly made.

 And I didn't get many Refashions completed, well only one actually, but here it is. 

My Shorts Refashion

Now don't laugh at my Before picture. 
I can't believe I'm actually posting this unflattering picture for everyone to see. There's a reason you don't see my face (it was verrrrrry early in the morning).  Oops, there I go with my excuses again. :)

I found this refashion quite a bit more challenging than I expected.

I bought the Express shorts at the thrift store for $3.49. They actually fit pretty well in the waist/hip area. I thought I could just trim those loose legs down by taking in the side seams.

But, after searching on the internet for directions, I found that I also needed to take in the inner leg area.

So, I tried the shorts on ~wrong side out~ and pinned them the way I wanted them to fit. I then took the shorts off and basted (long hand-sewn running stitches) where I had the pins.  I ended up taking them off and redoing this step several times before getting the fit right.

Then I serged them along the basting stitches.

Lastly, I tried them on again, pinning up the hem and hand-stitching it in place.

But I'm quite happy with the results. Actually, they're the best fitting pair of shorts I've had in a looooong time!



The post is a participant of:

Made by You Monday
Life Made Lovely
Metamorphosis Monday
Making the World Cuter Monday
Sew Cute Tuesday
Take-A-Look Tuesday
Wow Us Wednesday
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Whatever You Want Wednesday
Transformation Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Chocolate Waffles and a Book Review

This is what we had for Breakfast this morning:

Chocolate Waffles with a choice of maple syrup or strawberries and whipped cream.

(We all liked the strawberries and whipped cream best. :)

I got the recipe from my current read.





I've fallen in love with the Tales from Grace Chapel Inn series of books from GuidepostsBooks.

They remind me a lot of the Mitford book series by Jan Karon.

One difference with this series is that the books are not all written by the same author, but by several different authors. 

These stories are about three sisters ~ two in their 60's and the "baby" in her 50's ~ that have started life anew by opening up their childhood home as a bed and breakfast. 

Each sister is an artist in her own way; Louise, the eldest at 65,  is a classical pianist, Alice, age 62, is a caring/compassionate nurse, and Jane, the baby at 50, is a very well-trained chef.

Here is the blurb from the back cover of Recipes & Wooden Spoons :

While cleaning out the cluttered basement of Grace Chapel Inn, Jane Howard finds an old cookbook brimming with her mother's recipes and handwritten notes. Through these precious, fragile pages, Jane comes to discover the spirit of her mother, Madeleine, who died while giving birth to Jane.  But when the inn gets busy and money troubles threaten, Jane wonders if moving back to Acorn Hill was a big mistake.  Can her crisis of faith lead to a new solution for the inn ~ and for Jane herself?

This book includes wonderful descriptions of the dishes Jane prepares from Madeleine's cookbook, along with the recipes.

I look forward each night to opening my current book and falling asleep while reading about the fun but peaceful life in Acorn Hill.

And I especially look forward to our Book Mobile driving into my Pleasant Valley each month bringing me more Tales from Grace Chapel Inn.

Life is grand!

~ Sherry ~

P.S.  The waffles were WONDERFUL!

This post is linked to: Show and Tell Friday

Don't Try This at Home!

Please, come on up and join me on my front porch. 

I have a story to tell you. 

It's a story that taught me some lessons.

See this beautiful, innocent jalapeno pepper? 

 If you look closely you will see what looks like dew drops on it.  But really? They're tears.

The tears are for what its brothers and sisters did to poor me this week.  Being so proud of the bounty from my little square-foot-garden, I gathered up all the full-grown pepper pods from my two plants and carried them into my kitchen where  I washed them, cut them open, took out the seeds and membranes, then chopped them into tiny pieces for the freezer.

A little voice in the back of my head said, "Sherry, when you were a little girl, didn't your mother have a bad encounter with a sink full of peppers?"  Searching back through my memories, I remember coming into our house one summer day and finding Mama fanning her hands around and groaning because they were burning so bad after having them submerged in a sink full of peppers and water most of the morning.

"Oh yes," I said to the little voice, "but she had them in a sink full of water and mine aren't in water, and anyway it won't happen to me.  Besides, I cut them up all the time with almost no burning." 

And back to work I went. After chopping all the peppers up and putting them in a freezer bag, I washed my hands.   

That's when the trouble began!  Such intense burning!

I sluffed it off, put my bag of peppers in the freezer and fixed a sandwich for my lunch.  But wait!  Now my face is burning!  My lips are on fire and I haven't even touched them!  I did, however, touch the sandwich that touched my lips.

I'm thinking I may have a real problem now, so what do I do?  I Google it!  I found much advice, and was comforted (just a little) to know that I am one among many sillys that have cut up peppers without heeding the warning to WEAR GLOVES. 

I found one very entertaining blog post with almost 300 comments full of advice. I tried MANY of them: rinsed my hands in alcohol, rubbed them with a baking soda paste (this helped my burning lips but not my hands), slathered them with calamine lotion, washed them with very HOT water and dish soap (TORTURE!), rubbed them on stainless steel, rinsed them in lemon juice, soaked them in milk, rubbed them with aloe gel, and poured witch hazel over them (my own idea). I drew the line at peeing on them~yes, one of the commenters on the blog was adamant that it would help, but I never found out. 

Nothing I tried helped. Finally giving up on the treatments, I just laid my hands on an ice pack for rest of the day to wait it out.  In fact, I melted down several ice packs we had stashed in our freezer. 

Sweet hubby cooked supper for the family while I groaned. 

Oh, and did I mention, our air conditioner had quit and had been out for two days when this happened?  The Alabama heat and a sweltering house didn't help cool my hands any.

I was afraid that I would be up all night cradling my ice pack.  This burning lasted about twelve hours, then it slowly subsided. So sweet!  Finally, I was able to fall into a peaceful sleep, with an ice pack on my nightstand ~ just in case.

At least I learned some lessons from my pepper encounter:

• Listen to others' advice to wear gloves when chopping up even ONE hot pepper.
• Never think, "It won't happen to me."
• Listen to that little voice in the back of my mind.  God put it there for a reason. 
• Appreciate any day without pain!

Thank you for sticking with me through this story. 

Now, with a little help from my plants, I want to wish you all a very happy

Red, White, and

Blue Independence Day weekend,



our blueberry plants

with a big splash of Pink thrown in for my Pink Saturday friends!

Enjoy!

~Sherry~