~Fabulous Cake~

One of the things on my 101 List is to make three "fabulous" desserts. Now, fabulous can indicate many different things regarding desserts, but since my dessert expertise lies in chocolate chip cookies, I think anything I try out of the ordinary will probably be fabulous in my book!

As soon as I saw Michelle's Pecan-Cream Sponge Cake recipe, I knew it was one I wanted to try! And try it, I did:



And if I do say so myself, it turned out fabulous! In order to make this cake, I had to purchase three cake pans, which added significantly to the cost. The recipe calls for coconut extract and butter extract, which of course were not in my pantry. But it was worth it! This cake is scrumptious! I will be making this cake again!

~Mindless Eating~

As I read blogs, I come across books that sound interesting. If a book sounds like a good read, I put it on my hold list on my library card. Usually, by the time I check the book out, I’ve forgotten where I saw the book (and sometimes why I even wanted to read the book. LOL) Mindless Eating: Why we Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink is such a book. I have no idea who recommended this book, but I’m glad I put it on my hold list!


Mindless Eating was a very fascinating read. It is outside my usual realm of reading material (which incidentally means I can cross off another item of my 101 List!) It is not only fascinating, but often humorous, as the author shows eating patterns and behaviors of humans. It is worth the read, and I’m sure if you do read it, you’ll change a few of your own habits, as I have mine.

There is an article here which is a fun read, but if you have the time to read a whole book, I suggest the book! =)

Click image for information on book.

~Sugar, sugar, sugar~

I completed my challenge of no sugar for a month today! This was not so hard to accomplish!

I recently read that the average American consumes 23 teaspoons of sugar daily. That's a lot of sugar. I would say that my consumption was not even close to that amount.

I can't imagine eating that much in one day, let alone every day year in and year out! But if you think about it, sugar is in most every processed food. We are programmed to think that if something isn't sweet, it doesn't taste good.
Since I had already been trying to accomplish this goal, and since I had already cut out coffee (I don't like coffee without sugar!), I didn't have a hard time with this at all!

In fact, I'll continue along just fine without eating sugar. It isn't good for your body, you know! I did slip one time...we were at a bowling alley, and there were people all around us smoking. Smoke always makes me nauseated, so I got a Sprite to alleviate the nausea. That's the only soda I've had in over two months!

I did NOT replace sugar with sugar substitutes. I feel like there is enough evidence that those are just as bad or worse for you than sugar. Even animals know that sugar is better than sugar substitutes. ;-) On our honeymoon, we went to a restaurant that had tables outside, and birds kept swooping down and stealing sugar packets. The waitress told us that they only took the sugar - they left the Equal and Sweet 'n Low on the tables, only stealing them if they were the only thing left!

I did not try to cut out every single thing that has sugar in it either - like bread (regular bread), ketchup, salad dressings, etc. For cereal, I either ate a low or no sugar cereal (Cheerios or Grape Nuts). My brother gave me a bottle of maple syrup for Christmas, and I did sweeten a few things with that.

I wish I could say that I lost a whole bunch of weight...but I didn't! Hmmm. Well, anyhow, I feel healthier for this challenge, and that's what counts!

~Making my Bed~

I'm so excited! Today marks a three-month anniversary for me! I've been making my bed every morning for three whole months!

Now, maybe you already have the habit of making your bed every morning, but I had fallen out of the habit of making my bed. I listed this goal on my 101 List so that I could reestablish this habit.

Can I tell you, it's been so wonderful! I used to "make" the bed each night before getting in bed, and often had to "make" the bed over my husband who was already in bed. Kind of like the old adage, "You made your bed now lie in it". I know that's not what it means, but that's what I was doing!!

When I work on one thing at a time, I am prone to do better at it then if I try to improve my whole life! Plugging away at one thing at a time is so much easier on yourself!

Do you have a simple daily task that you put off too? Surely I’m not the only one out there! *Grin*

~Water and Herb Tea only Challenge~

Started: March 5
Goofed up: coffee on March 9
Reason for challenge: to stop drinking caffeinated and sugary beverages

My 101 Things challenge was to drink only water and tea for three weeks. I reached my three week goal, and have continued on (with the exception of a mocha at Starbucks last Saturday). I feel much better without caffeine in my system! I didn’t drink juice during this time, but I will probably drink juice from time to time now that the challenge is up.

So from my normal schedule of events, what did I miss out on?

***My Saturday Starbucks.

My routine had been to get a Starbucks coffee, and sit in the café and make out my shopping list. I like the routine aspect of it, so perhaps I'll make myself a big cup of tea and make my menu at home. It would certainly cost less!

***My workday morning coffee.

This one I really missed to start with, because I’ve developed a liking for the taste of coffee and my bedtime habits have dictated something to “wake” me up. But I’m fine without it now! Now to develop a better sleep pattern!

***The occasional soda at restaurants.

I do not buy soda unless we are having company, so it isn’t in the house to tempt me. We went out several times during my challenge, and I had water each time. It saves on the bill, anyhow!

I realize there are many viewpoints on caffeine, but all I can say is that for me, I know that I feel much better without it. Caffeine is, after all, addictive. I had a whopping headache the day after I started this challenge, so I know that I had been aversely affected by the caffeine.

~31. Try a new recipe each week for one month~

I accomplished another item on my 101 List! This one was way easier than I thought it would be, and actually helped me over a cooking slump that I had been in. I even threw in an extra week just for the fun of it!

Week 1: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#24 Salsa Stoup* and Double-Decker Quesadillas

Week 2: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#40 Mostly Green Curry Chicken over Coconut Jasmine Rice

Week 3: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#58 Chicken with Sweet Raisins and Apricots on Toasted Almond Couscous

Week 4: Betty Crocker
Spinach and Pine Nut Meatloaf

Week 5: Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats
#85 Ginger Vegetable Chicken Noodle Bowl
and: Fix it and Forget it
Sloppy Joes

I checked out Rachel Ray's cookbook from the library, and really enjoyed using this book. Her recipes are quick. They aren't the cheapest dinners I've ever put together, but each dinner was considerably cheaper than a dinner out! Each dinner was very tasty. I will probably use these recipes again. Rachel Ray uses different foods and flavors, so the dishes are unique.

If you would like to try the recipes out, I suggest that you check out the book from the library if they have it, or can order it. If I can find it used (perhaps e-bay or Amazon) I'm considering purchasing it, the recipes are that good!

*Stoup is what Rachel calls a thick soup...it's not soup, it's not stew. LOL

Image from Rachel Ray's website.

~Books on my shelf~

If you look at my 101 List number 73 says: "Read all the unread books on my bookshelf".

The other night I decided I should make a list so that I can track my progress. My so-called progress is half of *one* book. LOL

These are the books on my shelf that I have not read cover to cover. Some of them have been browsed through, others have had large sections read, but none of the following have been read cover to cover.

• Redbirds and Rubies and Rainbows - Marlene Evans
• The Total Money Makeover - Dave Ramsey
• With Love and a Pinch of Salt - Jesse Rice Sandberg
• Let Her Own Works Praise Her - Judi Vest
• Be My Guest - Vivian Anderson Hall
• Created to Be His Help Meet - Debi Pearl
• Heart of a Handmaiden - Cathy Corle
• Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman - Anne Ortland
• The Christian Woman's Place - Jane Schulz
• The Lady the Lord is Looking For - Cathy Corle
• You Can Have More Joy Through the Ups and Downs of Life - Jojo Moffitt
• With Heart and Hand - Beneth Jones and Bobbi Yearick
• Pattern for Living - Marlene Evans
• The Power of a Praying Wife - Stormie Omartian
• Me? Obey Him? - Elizabeth Rice Handford
• Have a Heavenly Marriage - David Sorenson
• Understanding Your Husband-Understanding Your Wife - Pete and Frieda Cowling
• The Ministry of Marriage - Jim Benney
• Do Right - Bob Jones Sr.
• Prayer Power - Andrew Murray
• The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer
• All of Grace - C.H. Spurgeon
• How to Experience Revival - Charles G. Finney
• The Necessity of Prayer - E.M. Bounds
• Power Through Prayer - E.M. Bounds
• Oswald Chambers, Abandoned to God - David McCasland
• Brother Sheffey, A Christian Who Knew the Power of Prayer - W.S. Berbery
• Love Stories of the Bible - Billy Sunday
• Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy - Barbara Johnson

I'll cross off the books as I read them, and link to it in my sidebar as well.

~Napkin Rings~

One of my recent library books had instructions to make beaded napkin rings. I've been wanting to try my hand at a beading project, and it looked like a good beginner project. Pictured are the first two I made.

I bought enough beads to make a set of four, and I'll have plenty of beads left over to make other projects with! I haven't made the other two yet.

I am pleased with how they turned out. I do need to get the wire ends turned a different way though, because they will snag the napkins otherwise.

I didn't buy any beading tools, and the only wire cutters I could find around our house were our needle-nose pliers that happen to have wire cutters in them.

~Anti-Procrastination Challenge--Monday~

Today I ironed my dust ruffle and got it on the bed! I'm very pleased with how it looks! Just think, I could have been enjoying this look for nearly three years! *Sigh*

Our room is small, so it's hard to get a picture of the whole bed, but here is what it looks like:


And something else to be excited about...I can cross this item off my 101 List!

~You can do it!~

Did you ever see the Geico commercial with Tony Little in it? “You can do it!” I laughed so hard every time I saw it on TV!

I never did write a post about New Year’s resolutions. It seemed that every blog I read did have a post regarding resolutions though—whether they were doing them or not, and what their goals were for this coming year.

The standard resolutions? Lose weight and stop smoking. They must be; otherwise, why would the advertisers be marketing items for those two things so heavily?

For myself, I didn’t make resolutions. I decided to continue working on my 101 List. That will definitely keep me busy!

This morning that silly commercial was going through my mind (why I know not, because I haven’t seen it recently!), and I thought, *I* cannot do “it” in my own power, but, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13)

Goals, dreams, aspirations, resolutions? just remember Philippians 4:13!

~Comments on 101 Things in 1001 Days~

While I was making my 101 Things list, I did a google search so I could read other people's lists to get ideas for my list. There are many, many 101 lists, and I only read a few of them. It tickled me though, how some of the things people put on their list were irrelevant to actually completing goals. For instance, a list of 30 things with "Finish making this list" at the top of a several month old list. Obviously, they hadn't yet. At the bottom of several lists: "Finish this list" and "Make another list to complete after this list". I found a high school girl's list with such high ambitions as "try some more drugs" and "do something illegal besides drugs". Interestingly enough, "finish high school" was on her list, but if she continues down the path of drugs and illegal behavior, she's going to have a hard time accomplishing that goal! Some of the 101 goals were impossible, including goals to do something once a day for the whole duration of the 1001 days.

I contemplated the fact that I had seen very few lists from Christians. I pondered about goals and making goals. I determined that as long as I had the right attitude ("Lord willing, and should the Lord tarry, these are things I want to accomplish"), it would be something very beneficial for me to endeavor. I usually write New Years resolutions, and I've heard several great sermons on making resolutions and goals. My objective is to use this list as a tool. Tools are always beneficial to the user, if used correctly, and that is what I desire of my list!

Lately, I've been able to cross off quite a few of my goals. It's exciting to cross something off that I've been needing or wanting to do! Some of the things I listed were things to purchase--big and little purchases. While purchasing something might not really be a "goal", the things I listed to purchase are things that I've been wanting to buy for quite a while. For some, I just need to save money for; others, I just need to spend the time looking for exactly what I want (and stop procrastinating!).

I'm looking forward to the New Year. I'm going to pick a few of my goals and really work hard on them. Some of them will take a while to accomplish.

This list is a great motivator to get things done!

~Indian Dinner~

When my sister Holly was visiting me, we prepared an authentic Asian Indian dinner. We had fun making it, and it was very good! Some of the dishes came out a little differently then we were expecting, but all was edible! LOL When Holly and I were teenagers, we had next door neighbors who had come from India. They would bring food over for us to sample, and once we were invited over for the teenage daughter’s birthday, and were served a complete meal.

We both cook the same: messy. So combine two messy cooks and the kitchen was a sight to behold after dinner!

I found my recipes online here. The spices were probably the most expensive part of the meal, because I had to buy almost every spice. However, I did it as inexpensively as possible, and most were right around a dollar per spice packet.

We started the meal with soup, called rasam. It calls for curry leaves, as did another of the recipes we made. If I were to make either recipe again, I would leave out the curry leaves. Not only did it necessitate a special trip to a store which sells Asian foods, I didn’t care for the flavor (especially the next day for leftovers).

The soup:


Then we had bhatura, a flat bread, and chana masala, a spicy sauce that had garbanzo beans in it. Very yummy, much like we remembered our next door neighbors making.

Chana Masala:


Then on to the main course: carrot rice and chicken do pyaza. The carrot rice was fantastic! I would make this again (leaving out the curry leaves). The chicken was good, not exactly what we were expecting, but still good.

Carrot Rice:


Chicken:


We were too full to eat dessert, rice pudding.

And we never made tea! That was the part I was looking forward to the most, but by the time we finished dinner, it was too late to start brewing black tea. This tea is just like our neighbors used to make! I made it a few weeks ago to test out the recipe. All it has in it is tea (black), sugar (the more the merrier! LOL), milk, and cardamom seeds (ground). Mmmm…mmmm!

We started cooking around 6 p.m., and didn’t serve dinner until 9:30! We laughingly said it was for sure an authentic Indian meal, because they always eat so late!

We had a great time together, and guess what? Another item off my 101 List! *Grin*

~A peek into my sewing room~

With part of my birthday money, I bought a print of my favorite painting. Can you guess what it might be?

Oh, just look around my blog a bit...

On Saturday I got it framed at Hobby Lobby. They are quite reasonable when it comes to their labor costs. I was very pleased. They initially framed it without doing anything to the print, because they thought the print was on heavy enough paper. However, it did buckle a little in the frame. So I had them dry mount it. I'm not sure excatly what is involved with dry mounting, but it bonds the entire print to a poster board, and it won't ripple under the frame. I highly recommend it if you're getting a nice print framed!

Now hanging in my sewing room, "A Special Moment" by Emile Munier:



Now it will be the first thing I see when I go in my sewing room. This print just makes me smile. I absolutely love it! (Maybe it will make ironing go by a little faster? Maybe it will help me keep my sewing room picked up? Hmmm...)

Oh, and another exciting thing about this print? I get to cross off yet another item from my 101 List! My list says "frame prints", but with the size of this one, I've determined one is enough for such a small room.

~Vitameatavegamin~

One of the things to accomplish on my 101 list was to take vitamins for one month. I have never faithfully taken vitamins, and I know that my health would benefit from regularly taking them!

In August or so, I bought vitamins. And they sat in my cupboard! Well, sometime last month, I decided that I was going to start taking them. It's been a month now, so I can cross it off my list. I do believe it's developed into a habit! I put them in the glass cupboard, and remember to take them sometime in the evening.

And no, they aren't intoxicating. ;-) They're just plain old vitamins!

Image source: Wikipedia

I did it again!

One of my things to accomplish on my 101 List is to read a book from start to finish without reading the end first.

Well, my current book won’t count. I’m reading a Grace Livingston Hill book, called White Orchids. It’s a typical GLH book—a rich young man attracted to a poor working girl, with a furious rich society girl looking on and trying to take the two from each other. There is something very compelling about GLH books even though a lot of them have similar plots.

Why doesn't White Orchids qualify for my list? You see, I’ve read it in my typical fashion, which is: read the first half of the book word for word, sentence by sentence. After finishing the first half, and noticing the late hour, but still needing to know what happens before I can go to bed, stick a bookmark in, skip through the last half and skim the chapters and read the interesting parts. Then, read the last few chapters word for word, sentence by sentence. There! I know what happened, and I can go to bed! The next day or so, I go back to the bookmarked spot and pick up where I left off reading word for word. But there is no pressure now—I can read a chapter here, a chapter there, and it really doesn’t bother me to put the book down. And I will finish reading the book! I always do!

Truly, that is the way I read most books. It drives Kevin crazy that I do that. LOL But me, I’m quite happy to read a book that way. So why did I put that goal on my list? Hmmm…good question!

Image from http://users.tellurian.com/bksleuth/GLHInfo.htm

My hummingbird feeder is up!

Well, I finally "tackled" #82 on my 101 List and put up my hummingbird feeder. Now to finish my mission, I need to keep it filled for the rest of the summer. I put this on my list for one reason--so I would do it! I bought a hummingbird feeder in May and it has been sitting on my bookshelf since then. Not a hard job, just something I've been procrastinating on!

I sure hope there are hummingbirds around!

Grapevine Wreath

Well, I can cross out #88 on my 101 list! I decorated my grapevine wreath tonight!

All the materials:


Finished:

I used floral wire to attach the roses, and it seemed to work very well. I added a some hot glue here and there, but not much!

This wreath is already hanging in my bedroom. When I went to Hobby Lobby last night, I looked through the flowers and tried to think of where I wanted this wreath to hang. I have a few empty spots in my bedroom, and my bedspread is a dark, hard-to-match red, with all my accents in cream. This wreath matches very well!