Livingroom Renovation

It is with some slight embarrassment that I write about our livingroom. We have not been good stewards of our stuff.

I'll start with the furniture.   The springs in the love seat have been poking butts for about a year.  The cushions on the sofa have become so flat you almost need a hoist to be lifted out.  The reclining chair is nice but we keep pushing it too close to the wall and it has dinged up the paint...badly. 

The walls aren't much better.  The last paint job wasn't the best so we've got paint showing through in spots.  Plus, The Husband started spackling and sanding several months ago.  I could be hearing things, but I think the walls have cried out for paint...

Our end tables and lamps are 27 years old.  We got them with our wedding money.

My decorations are dated.  Don't get me started on this topic...

Drum roll please! 

I actually got The Husband to go shopping with me recently and we purchased new furniture, end tables and lamps.  Today the sofa and love seat were delivered.  The chair, tables and lamps will be delivered in a week or two.

I am amazingly blessed.

This whole blog was typed while reclining in the love seat!  After all of the furniture is delivered then I'll decide on the wall colors.  And I've got great ideas for pictures.

An amazing livingroom renovation.

Raspberry Jam

Family and friends, you will get your raspberry jam if Santa thinks you've been good this year!!!  I started working on my Christmas list today by making raspberry jam.  It was my day off work and I accomplished a lot today, starting with the jam.

If you've never made jam, let me give you a quick lesson.

Get all equipment set out before cooking the raspberries.  This includes the jars.  I wash them in the dishwasher and set them on a towel in preparation of the hot jam.

Confirm you have lids and rings for each jar. 

The lids are to sit in a pan of hot water and drained just before placing on the jar.

This ring fits inside the jar to keep jars clean as

the hot jam is poured in.



This is an over-sized stock pot called a canner.

This should be filled with water and the

wire contraption that sits inside to hold the jars.

Get the water boiling as a first step. 

The recipe calls for 5 cups raspberries.

Over the summer I picked the berries, washed them

up and froze them for this jam-making day.

 

After taking the picture, I used a potato masher

to smoosh the berries.  Then I

measured the 5 cups and poured

the fruit into a stock pot.

 Carefully measure 7 cups sugar.

You read that correctly.

7 cups of sugar.

Set this aside.

 Add the pectin, Sure Jell, to the berries

and stir well.  Over high heat, stirring constantly,

bring the fruit to a rolling boil.

 Pour in all the sugar and stir well.

Continue stirring until a rolling boil occurs.

Boil, stirring constantly, for one minute.

Remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the hot jam into jars that have been

kept warm sitting in hot water.

 

Add a lid and ring to each jar.

Tighten the ring.

Place the jars in the canner with 1 to 2 inches

of water above the jars.

Cover and boil for 10 minutes.

 

 I let the jars sit for the day and will

store in a cool place until Christmas.

Oh I cannot wait for toast and raspberry jam!

Amazing!

New Knee Update 1

The appointment with the knee surgeon arrived in the mail this week.  This is in regard to my post All I Want For Christmas is a New Knee.  Not only did I get the appointment letter, but a brochure and a DVD.   I've never heard of receiving a DVD for a medical appointment.

So, with a bowl of popcorn I sat down to watch my own personal DVD. 

The message on the DVD and in the brochure are very clear:  there are decisions that need to be made and preparations to be done before going to the hospital for surgery.

After watching the DVD, I brought the list of preparations to The Husband.  As I read through the list, The Husband got a really strange look on his face.  When I got to the end of the list, he kind of gulped and said "is your mom coming to help"?   Which made me giggle.  I knew what was going through his mind....hockey. 

Kidlet Three is done with hockey tryouts and the season has started.  Practices are three and four times per week and games will be starting.  My surgery and rehab will be right smack in the middle of the hockey season.  

What I should have added to the end of the list of preparations was that my mom had already offered to come help out.  Once I mentioned that to The Husband, he literally sighed in relief. 

So I'm working through the prep list, which includes making an easy way to get in and out of bed.  I realized all of those magazines and books that I've stacked next to my bed to 'read some day' could be an obstacle. 

My appointment to see the surgeon is on November 1.  I'll give you an update after that appointment.

An amazing journey for this knee surgery!

Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg was the creator of complex contraptions that do really simple tasks.  That is your trivia for today.

For his 9th grade science class, Kidlet Three and his assigned classmates had to create a 12-step Rube Goldberg contraption that performed a task.  In our messy garage, after several hours of brainstorming and failed attempts, the car rolled down the track, knocked down the dominos, down the tube to put the golf ball into the cup that had a nail sticking through it to break the balloon. 

Whew...did you follow all that!

Here are some pictures of the building stages:

There were many re-iterations and many video attemps to capture the event. 

Here is "take one"...

 

 

Another attempt...

 

 The final creation before the kids actually set the car loose...

 

The not amazing thing about this project,

is that I accidentally deleted the video of the

project being completed.

Drats!

 

Anyway, we had fun, along with Luke's classmates

building a Rube Goldberg contraption!

 

Homecoming

Homecoming here in The Frozen Tundra is a big deal with a formal dance.  Kidlet Three and many of his hockey buddies decided to ask girls to the dance. 

These hockey players clean up nice!

 

Receive His Grace

For we are God's handiwork, recreated in Christ Jesus, that we may do those good works which God predestined for us, that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:10

The Bible doesn't say that you have to have self-control in order to go to heaven.  You are free to be out of control if you want to; it is entirely up to you.  The Word does say that you have to believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior (see Romans 10:9-10).

But if you want to live the good life that God has prearranged and laid out for you before the foundation of the world, you will need to discipline yourself to do whatever His Word says to do or whatever the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart to do.  God offers you the grace to live a holy life that will reap many blessings in the days to come.

**********
The above is from my Joyce Meyer daily devotional, Starting Your Day Right.

I love that our heavenly Papa, God, says we have choice in our lives.  The only thing He asks of us is to take the free gift of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  That last sentence stumped me for a few minutes because I wasn't sure what to type next.  Let me repeat that important sentence:

The only thing He asks of us is to take the free gift of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Yup, there is a whole lot in that sentence and I'm feeling The Nudge to dig into those words but not today.

Today is about choice.  He doesn't ask a whole lot of us.  But He gives us a whole lot of choices.  Some choices we make won't have any affect on our lives or on future generations.  That kind of choice would be like...should I have a vanilla or chocolate ice cream on my cone.

In the world today, many of our choices will have a lasting affect.  We may be affected by the choices and for sure our children and our children's children will be affected.  It is really important that we know and think about the choices we have in front of us (individually, as families and as a nation).

The last paragraph in the devotion has these words:  discipline yourself to do whatever His Word says to do or whatever the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart to do.

We have a great guidebook in The Bible.  I am guilty of not using it as I should.  I am going to make the choice to change that and begin reading His Word.  I need to know His Word.

There is grace for us in our self-control or lack of self control.  However, to be lazy or to be so full of pride as to think I don't need to know what is in God's Word, that is wrong.  That is a bad choice.

Would you consider making a good choice with me today?  Let's make the choice to read from God's Word and ask the Holy Spirit to make it something we desire to do every day.

That...would be a good decision!

You are amazing and I know that God is crazy about you!

A Great Book to Read

Are you looking for a good read?  Let me recommend Heidi's Hope by Stephen Goss.  I purchased a copy on Amazon.com - Heidís Hope

 

I am not a big reader.  Usually in a year I read a grant total of ...drum roll please...one or two books.   Heidi's Hope grabbed my attention because I know the author and the reviews on Amazon intrigued me. 

 

Let me tell you  that I couldn't put the book down once I started reading.  And I've gone back to re-read it because I couldn't get enough of a good thing. 

 

Heidi's Hope is a breath of fresh air.  The book revolves around a courtship, marriage, two children that are like salt and pepper, all in real-life circumstances with twists and turns. 

 

Personally, as I was reading, I found myself desiring to be like one of the characters in the book.  It has been a long time since I've read a book, other than the Bible, in which I was challenged, in a good way, to make changes in my life. 

 

Friends, can I gently encourage you to make a choice to read a good book?  There are a lot of books available to us that are dark, full of lust and not encouraging.  Heidi's Hope is the opposite of those books.  It is like a good meal that you really wish would never end!

 

My endorsement of the book is purely personal.  I get no kickbacks.  It is just an amazingly good book.  I have heard from a little bird, that this is book one in a triology and I cannot wait to read what comes next!

 

Thank you, Steve Goss, for using the talents that God gave you to write a book that would hook me!