Weekly Goals for 3/11/2012

(Photo from Free Photos Public Domain)

Yes, I am a few days late posting these.  But they haven't changed much, if at all, from last week's goals.  Here they are:
1.  Memorize Psalm 85:6-7.
2.  Read next chapter in Essential Virtues.
3.  Exercise 3 to 5 times.
4.  Plan and cook healthy meals.
5.  Do Kelly's Missions for each day -- this week it's bathrooms, zone 3.
6.  Keep up with crafting goals.
7.  Finish Sunday School lesson 7; work ahead on lesson 8.

As for last week's goals, I did okay, but there's always room for improvement.
1.  Scripture memory work; didn't get this done but did work on another verse instead.
2.  Did read a chapter in Essential Virtues, so DONE!
3.  Exercised 3 times, so DONE!
4.  Planned and prepared healthy meals, so DONE!
5.  Kept up with Kelly's Missions in the kitchen every day but one -- still need to clean cabinet fronts.
6.  Kept up with crafting goals, so DONE!
7.  Continued working on lesson 7, but did not complete it as I hoped to.

Four out of seven is not bad, but I would certainly like to make it seven out of seven this week!

A prayer for my grandchildren

Some years ago, I wrote a poem about a moment in which God impressed upon my heart a prayer for our grandchildren.  You can read the poem here:  A Birthday Moment.  (It had been a long time since I had read the poem, but I recently found it again "accidentally" while searching my blog for a poem by someone else.)  This poem of mine was written about the four of my grandchildren who were present at the time.  Now there are quite a  few more!

I pray for my grandchildren every day, but recently I've been teaching a ladies' Sunday School class using the Elizabeth George book Breaking the Worry Habit .. Forever.  In a recent lesson we covered the topic of worrying about our children and grandchildren.  At the end of that lesson we were reminded that there are physical and spiritual battles being waged around our children and grandchildren.  Then we were assigned to write out a statement of our resolve to pray for, protect, and guard our children and grandchildren.  I chose to write my statement of resolve in the form of a prayer.  Here is the prayer I wrote: 

"Lord,

"You know the concerns I have for each one of our precious grandchildren.  I recognize that they are in Your hands and that You have a purpose and a plan for each one of their lives. You are the One who will do the necessary work in their lives to accomplish Your purpose for each one.

"Yet there are things you would have me to do, as well.  Help me to pray for them faithfully, fervently, intelligently, and daily.  May I keep Your Word ever before them in every way possible.  Help me to know how best to instruct them, and give me the opportunities and the words to do so.  Help me and my husband to continue to maintain the standards in our home that will guard them from the world during any time they spend with us.

"I thank You for how You will work and for the wisdom and strength You will give for this task as I am faithful to look to You.

"In Jesus' name,
Amen."

I placed this prayer in the front of my prayer journal so I will pray it on a regular basis.  One morning as I was doing so, I thought back to the poem "A Birthday Moment" which, due to my poetry search, was now fresh in my mind again.  And do you know what wonderful thing God brought to my mind?  He  has answered that prayer that I prayed years ago in the light of the birthday candles.  Each one of those four children has now asked Jesus to be their personal Savior.  What an encouragement to this Grammy's heart to be reminded of that answered prayer!  And what an added incentive to keep on praying for our precious grandchildren.

A Saturday snowfall

Last evening Mr. T was taking another glance at the weather forecast in our daily paper [not always the most accurate forecast one could ask for] and noticed there was a chance of snow showers overnight.

I was awake around 1:30 a.m. and noticed that the balcony railing was lightly dusted with snow.  I concluded that the snow showers had come to pass, and went back to sleep.

They must have been quite the "snow showers"!  When we got up at five, we had about four inches of new snow, and the snow was still falling!  Now it's partly sunny and the snow is coming off the trees somewhat, but I snapped a few pictures [all from indoors] before it did.

The contrast of the snow-covered branches and the blue sky is so pretty!

The window in our balcony door; the horizontal lines are our clothesline.

Our back woods.

Love this snow-covered evergreen.

This little cluster of small snow-covered evergreens is so sweet.

Path out into our back woods.  This leads to our campfire pit.

Chickadee at the feeder.  You can just glimpse our neighbor's red barn through the trees.

Hope you enjoy the beauty produced by our "snow showers" this morning!

My creative friends

Every now and then I like to post some creativity from some of my friends.  We like to share little handmade gifts with one another -- sometimes for birthdays or other occasions, but sometimes for no reason at all.  I want to share today two newer items -- and an older one which looks new again.

My friend M. gave me two lovely handmade items for my birthday.  The first is this adorable holder for purse size tissues.  I love the black tea-themed print and the vintage button trim!

 It is constructed in a similar way to these criss-cross coasters shown below.  (Those were made by me.)  The pieces are folded diagonally, but the pinning/sewing/turning technique is the same.  If you have ever made this type of coaster, then you know how this tissue holder is put together.

M. also made this pretty necklace for me.

The dark beads look black in the photo, but are actually blue.

M's gifts were in this pretty bag -- which she did not make, but is still so pretty...

 The other item is a sweet pincushion made for me some time ago by my friend J. It has a little embroidered design on every side.

Friendship

Laughter

Love

Sewing

 I had noticed it was becoming dusty, so put it through the wash with a load of towels.  It came out just perfect and looking brand new again.

Are you as inspired as I am by the creativity of others?  Please share some of your thoughts -- and maybe some of your friends' creativity -- in the comments.  I would love to hear what you share!

Goals for the week of 3/4/2012

... just a bit late!  I was thinking about prefacing this post with a quote from Anne of Green Gables ... remember, the one where Anne says that tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet?  I thought I could consider the week ahead as a new week, with no mistakes in it yet (since I failed miserably at meeting last week's goals).  Too late!  I've already made plenty.  But I decided to go ahead and post goals for the week anyway, remembering the old adage that if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time.  So I'm aiming at something!  Goals for the week:

1.  Memorize Psalm 85:6-7.
2.  Read 1 chapter in Essential Virtues.
3.  Exercise 3 to 5 times.
4.  Plan and cook healthy meals.
5.  Do Kelly's Missions for each day.
6.  Keep up with crafting goals.
7.  Continue working ahead on Sunday School, lesson 7.

As to how I did with last week's goals, well, as noted above, not very well.  I managed three of them.  I planned and prepared healthy meals, kept up with my crafting goals pretty much, and finished Sunday School lesson 6.  Needless to say, I'm hoping for a better week this week!

The newest super hero cape!

Three more of my grandchildren requested super hero capes for their birthdays.  Here is the first one:

The cape is red with bursts of black stars all over it.  As before, I used this pattern:  Clever Little Cape  which I have enlarged considerably from the original pattern.

A closer look at the emblem.  Just a plain "S" for Sam, or for "Super [fill in the blank]".  The emblem is done in his favorite colors.

You can just see the edge of the lining as it's flipped up here.
 
 It's a black background with bright drips of paint in many colors.  I chose the same lining fabric for all three capes.  When I made the previous three capes, I didn't buy fabric -- just used what I had on hand and it was great.  But this time I didn't have much left for appropriate fabrics in the right amount of yardage.

The birthday boy with his mom adjusting the cape for a picture.
 
 In hindsight, I should have made this cape larger.  It fits him now, but for how long?  When he outgrows it, assuming he still wants a cape, I'll remove the emblem which is just hand-stitched on and sew it to a larger cape.

One cape down and two to go!

Nice pot roast recipe for the slow cooker!

(Photo by Taste of Home)

On Sunday, I made this recipe for the potluck lunch at church:  Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pot Roast.  I think I had tried this one time last year but had not posted about it.  I put more potatoes and carrots in than the recipe said, and I also put all of the ingredients in the slow cooker insert the night before and refrigerated it, so I cooked this at High for all but the last hour or two, when I turned it to Low.  (I thought I remembered that when I made this last year, the potatoes didn't get cooked.)  This time, everything turned out just right.  To serve this at church, I cut up the pot roast and put it in the center of a large platter (we have a number of these in the church kitchen).  Then I arranged the potatoes and the carrots (I just used regular carrots, cut in sticks, rather than baby carrots) around the meat and drizzled a few spoonfuls of the broth over everything.  I put the remaining broth in a pitcher to serve alongside.

People really enjoyed this pot roast, and I will not hesitate to make this recipe again the next time chuck roasts are on sale.  Definitely a "keeper" recipe!