Happy Dance

G'day mates! It is a gray and chilly morning in Oregon. I've spent the pre dawn hours trying to come up with a new banner for my soap shop and I've been frustrated with the results over and over again. boo. waah. So like any other red blooded American girl, my thoughts turn to... breakfast! check this,

Ingredients:
Eggs – 4 Large
Spinach – 1 cup packed, roughly chopped
Bell Pepper – 1/2 cup, diced
Mushrooms – 1 cup, sliced
Green Onions – 2 stalks, finely chopped
French Bread – cubed
Cheese – 1 1/2 cups, shredded
Salsa – 1 cup
Milk – 3/4 cup
Cilantro/Coriander – 5 sprigs, finely chopped
Salt/Pepper – to taste
Green Chilies – to taste
...(what's not to be amazingly yum with these ingredients!)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly coat a 2.75 – 3 quart baking dish with oil.
2. Layer Spinach, Mushrooms and Bell Pepper at the bottom of the baking dish.
3. Layer cubed French bread over the veggies.
4. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the bread and set aside.
5. In a bowl, add Eggs, Milk, Salt, Pepper and beat well.
6. Add to the egg mixture, Cilantro, Green Onions, Green Chilies and Salsa. Mix well.
7. Pour egg mixture evenly over the French bread.
8. Bake uncovered in the oven for 45 minutes.
9. Remove casserole and let it sit for 5 minutes before cutting.
10. Serve hot with additional salsa or pickled jalapenos.

Easy? I love easy. And the recipe comes with a video. I said easy.

found here, with links below that recipe to

Vegetarian Chili, A Super Bowl Delight
Mexican (Spanish) Rice
Tacos - Mexican Cuisine
Vegetable Manchurian, Indian-Chinese Cuisine
Garlic Asparagus, A Vegetarian Side
Szechuan Green Beans
Bean & Cheese Enchiladas
Refried Beans, Mexican Cuisine
Salsa, Mexican Vegetarian Dip
Penne Pasta, Italian Vegetarian Recipe

Come on! Do the happy dance with me!

Yes they call it comfort food, and I do get into trouble when I try to combat anxiety with food. Not to discount low morning blood sugar, and an inevitable coffee plummet, I found this awesome thought (here) and want to share.

"Jesus comes to his disciples to comfort them in their worst nightmare - a storm on the sea. He literally tells them, "I Am,do not be afraid." Two key things are here for us to notice. First,Jesus uses a name ("I Am") that identifies himself with God who delivered Moses and the Israelites from Egypt. Second, he uses a surprisingly frequent command found throughout the Bible: "Don't be afraid." When we are willing to invite Jesus into our lives during the middle of our storms and messes, he not only says, "I Am, don't be afraid!" but he also helps us find our way to our most important destination, ultimate deliverance."

[Jesus] said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid." Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.-- John 6:20-21

It is a fine line for me. I know God is in control of all things, I believe God can calm the seas, all seas, emotional, and Baltic. And I can admit I reach for the salted nuts and the pretzels in the middle of the sea of chaos, and the cake and the ice cream when I am feeling less than...up to it, able, desiring to do it... cast adrift on the sea of melancholy, so I do use food for comfort when I have the actual comforter nearby.

There is a word, gluttony, we don't really use it much in our culture. Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow in haste. ooops. Guilty.

Medieval church leaders made a list of six (!) ways to commit gluttony...

Praepropere - eating too soon.
Laute - eating too expensively.
Nimis - eating too much.
Ardenter - eating too eagerly (burningly).
Studiose - eating too daintily (keenly).
Forente - eating wildly (boringly).

Ha, guilty again. And of a few at the same time!

Well this has turned into quite a rabbit trail this morning, it's an interesting approach to my own personal epidemic of obesity...(wry grin). Body and Soul, I know mine are connected.

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Look!

This is a brilliant use of cafe curtain hooks. Cudos!: found here

Hey!!

I really hope I have your attention for a minute, and I hope you will read the little blurb below and click the link on over to the website to see if you might want to join in and support some stranger who is fighting for the cause of freedom. You don’t have to support the war. I am asking you to support the human being who is serving his country, who is following the orders of the Commander in Chief. I am asking you to make a blank card for a service man somewhere in active duty. It's painless!

I am not a card maker…it doesn’t come easy to me. My cards are very C grade, not an A by any means, but I try and try to come up with something cute, and I am learning more and more. And with every batch I send in I get a personal thank you from Sandy the fearless leader of operation write home in my email.

So here’s the latest in the newsletter,

“Card requests from heroes deployed in Afghanistan have increased significantly in the last month or two - it's easy to see our nation's military focus has changed. This is just one of many new requests:

"I had to travel to [a much larger base] a few weeks ago and my chaplain had several cards for me to take. If you could, we would love to receive some cards to send home. Our options for writing home right now include our printer paper, or emails. If not, we still appreciate ALL that you do for us and we appreciate your support!" -SPC A.B, Afghanistan

You've seen the news about the latest advances our heroes have been making in southern Afghanistan; know that your cards are making it to those in the thick of the fighting, and are much appreciated by them.”

That part about in the thick of the fighting really got to my heart.

Here’s the link to the newsletter , it's a goooood one with lots of links, and an awsome vid of the mail room at Sandys. clap clap clap...applause for Sandy, she's an amazing woman.

Here are your deadlines for the service men and women to get your cards,
St Patty's & Easter: passed
but still time for:
Mother's Day: April 1*
Father's Day: May 10
Graduation: May 19

Join in! Get to card craftin'!

And there is a really fun blog hop coming up. Open house, the tea will be on! People drop by and visit and leave nice comments. It's fun. And you can visit around too…and leave some joy! Lots of fun. Click the tulips up in the left hand corner for some more info.

Gracious gracias!

So what can you say about yourself, are you tenacious? Do you give up? I find that I am a mix of several shades of tenacious and 'give up'. I know I am stubborn, and competitive when it comes to some things, but not sports or games. Yawn, boring. But on some things...I just can't give in till I win. Guess I better pray about it huh. People who brag about their sales just make me mad. grr. Off to promote my biz a bit. lol.

Hey! (again with the hey?) Many blessings to you this evening.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

(Yup, guess I better pray about what is tenacious and what is competitive and be askin for a little help with the humility part. That's probably why it bugs me so much when people brag, I need some help with my humility)

Welcome Spring!

It is still chilly and frosty and windy here in Oregon on a beauty of a crisp pre-spring day, but when I step into my little cold frame it is warm and sunny. Such a nice reminder of when spring will finally show her frilly white petticoats and we all put our coats in storage.

I love my little cold frame green house; it was a gift from my husband. We had replaced our old aluminum windows in our 1970’s ranch style house with new breeze free insulated windows. Wow, what a difference and what a blessing. The old windows were chilly. But being packrats of the first degree, we kept the windows thinking ‘greenhouse’.

Well it is not a full blown greenhouse, but it was a weekend project and it is a very decent size, put on the side of my ‘crafty house’ it is made almost entirely out of the old windows. It is sunlight and shelter for a whole mess of little seedlings. I just love it.

Good ideas for when you get really dirty.....