happy home maker

it would seem a lot has happened since my last little entry.
God did a powerful thing in my heart to remind me of how gratitude can open up  the doors for all sorts of good.
in scripture we read that a grateful heart prepares the way for the Lord, and that when we make requests to God with gratitude He grants peace, it's how we are supposed to approach God, we are to be generous for the purpose of causing more thanksgiving to God, we're supposed have thanksgiving in the place of foolish talk and coarse joking, it is a vital part of worship, all things God created are good and not to be rejected but received with thanksgiving....

anyhoo.
instead of wondering and whining about not knowing how to do this life - i have had a perspective shift and realized that i am over-the-top blessed to be where i am and in the lifestyle that i have. i mean wholly crap, my husband slaves away so that i can be free to work or not work if i want. i have three dogs to care for and a big garden to tend to. i have lot of time to do anything. i can still be involved in friends lives through letters and sending photos and videos and emails and texts. i have lots of time to do artwork, sketch, paint, illustrate, sew. i have the ability to do lots of projects and enrich others' lives - especially my husbands. speaking of gratitude. i am so grateful to him for his hard work and sacrifice to give me this plush situation - and his generosity is indeed cause me to give thanks to God Almighty. He is the one who gives us all we have. He is the one who is authoring this story. Oh glory. I am so grateful, and i want nothing more than to live, to reside, in gratitude.

today i went to sams and now our refrigerator is glowing with bright fresh healthy food. (a lot of which has actually come from our garden).
yesterday i counted up the squash we have accumulated over the past couple days, 27. the only neighbors that we have arranged a squash delivery to are out of town for the week. soooo..... i got out husband's vacuum sealer and blanched 15 squash to freeze. we have a lot of frozen squash for the winter, and i am predicting that we'll have more coming.
i felt so pioneer womany freezing our own veggies for the winter. hah. yay!

at sams i got a bag o lemons and a bag o limes for super cheap. but they are more lemons and limes than we could possibly use before they go bad. so i squeezed out about six of each and made lemon and lime juice ice cubes! as i was doing it my head was swimming with all the possibilities.
you could throw some lime cubes in the blender with some mint and water and maybe a little sweetener and viola! refreshing blended "faux-jitos" as my mom's friend would say. or just lemon cubes and water and maybe some sweetener in the blender for a fair-quality lemon ice. or one cube of lime mixed with regular ice cubes in a diet dr pepper. or throw a cube in with your shrimp stir-fry for a little citrus zing. anyway, the juice cubes will last forever and you can just use them at will. hooray! money saving and creative possibilities!

the other home maker-y thing i've accomplished is new darkening curtains for our bed room. husband is on night shift for this past week and maybe the one to come. it keeps switching back and forth between days and nights so putting up foil in the windows is not exactly the route i want to take. i like having the sun come in the windows whenever possible. so, i replaced our burlap curtains that were mostly for looks with a little more effective light blocking number.
i got a red, a black and a white flat sheet from walmart for 4 bucks a pop. then i sewed them together at the tops. and that's all it took. white on the outside to reflect light. black in the middle to block it. and red on the inside for a splash of color in out room.

i have lots of photos and stories piling up in my brain - so i guess i better start bloggin more to get them all out.
so adieu for now!