Happy Halloween

Well, my daughter is looking forward to this evening. She will be going Trick or Treating. It’s the first time for her. She’s going with her best friend, O.

I’ll be tagging along. I still have to sew a Halloween bag to hold all the goodies that she receives, but that can be easily whipped up on one of my Brother sewing machines.

Halloween has an interesting history and has been around for hundreds of years. As a child, I remember doing a bit of research to see how Halloween originated.

Happy Halloween

During my research, I discovered it was a combination of more than the Samhain holiday. It received influence from Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Also bits of the  Roman festival of Feralia is sprinkled into our modern day Halloween.

This will be the first year that my daughter participates in Halloween. Some Christians, don’t celebrate this occasion, because of its “pagan roots.” Interestingly enough, some of the same people that feel this way, have no issues celebrating Christmas or having the “Wedding March,” played at their wedding. Yeah… those have “pagan roots” too.

 

Keeping it simple: Sauteed vegetables; Broccoli, cabbage, green beans, parsnips and mushrooms

Those that know me, or have seen my food posts, know that I make almost all my meals. I eat mainly whole foods and rarely used processed items to add to the meals I prepare.

Sauteed veggies.10.30.13_2
Sauteed vegetable

 

Yesterday morning, I prepared this meal.  It’s a simple sauteed dish to which I added a few herbs and spices that I’d ground in my mortar and pestle. I didn’t add too much, because I wanted the flavors of the vegetables used to shine, and they did. I sauteed the vegetables for about four minutes, which wasn’t long and left a lot of the crunch one receives from eating fresh vegetables.

All the vegetables, with the exception of the parsnips, are something we eat constantly.  Last week, I purchased parsnips at our local farm. The parsnips I recently purchased, have been mainly been using them them in my vegetable juices, but yesterday they played a starring role in this dish. I will most likely use them again this weekend, when I make a oven roasted root vegetable dish.

How do I find time to write almost daily? I schedule posts in advance…

Book plannerA few of my friends, that read my personal blog, ask me how I manage to stay on top of my posts. They know how active I am with my daughter, work, and the various Lutheran outreach ministries that I’m involved with and some used to wonder how found the time to write almost daily.

The answer is simple, I take advantage of scheduling my posts in advance. I love this, since it means that I’m not writing daily, even though it might appear that way.

In 2003, when I decided to have more than just websites (I started websites in 1997) and start actively blogging, this lovely feature wasn’t available. It didn’t take long for one of the creative folks, behind these amazing Word Press Plugins that many of us enjoy, would come up with an Advance Post Plug in.

Because of this plug in,  I can schedule my posts in advance. Some days I write a lot of articles.  When that happens, I don’t just toss them all up on the same day. If a person is as active as myself, they most likely would not have the time to read through all that anyway. Personally, I think it’s much better to space those posts over a period of several days.  In doing so, I still have something new appearing on my site even on the days when I don’t have time to write.

Currently I have a months worth of posts sitting in my Pending Queue.  There were times when I had over six months of scheduled posts. I’m slowly adding to my ‘Pending Post’ pile, so eventually I’ll have that amount of posts scheduled in advance.

 

 

Vegan (Eggless) Eggrolls and honey ginger sauce…

My daughter loves when I prepare eggrolls.

Now that I think about it, they really aren’t “eggrolls.” I make my own wrappers and don’t add eggs to them. So they’re “eggless eggrolls,” right?

Veggie Eggrolls.10.5.13_1

Regardless, these vegan eggless eggrolls turned out really well. Let’s see cabbage was in them, carrots, sprouts, beans and some other veggies.

My daughter was extra proud because she helped fill the wrappers with a variety of vegetables and once it was time to cook them, she took over.  I normally bake our eggless eggrolls but on this day they, she pan fried them in a skillet.

Veggie Eggrolls.10.5.13_2

After they were finished, she proudly arranged them in one of my glass pyrex storage dishes. She was a bit disappointed that some were “too brown,” but I assured her that they were fine.

I also showed her how to make a honey ginger sauce that could be used as a dipping sauce for the eggrolls. Chock full of vegetables and a few spices, these rolls are quite flavorful on their own, but she was determined to make a sauce with them.

This wasn’t a recent dish, these were made at the beginning of this month. They were made a few days after my birthday. Looking at the timestamp, on the picture, these were made on 10/5/13. I’m just getting around to posting them now. Yeah… this has been a busy month and the next few months will be even busier with everything that’s happening. However, I’m managing to find that balance.

Praying Mantis and honeybees…

A little over week ago, I saw this female praying mantis hiding amongst the daisies.

Praying Mantis_2.10.18.13
Praying Mantis on Daisy

I watched her for several minutes. Initially she appeared to be sleeping and then she awakened. She seemed intensely curious with all the activity that the daisies attracted. I guess she was looking for a feast.

Honeybee on Daisy.10.18.13

She moved to a position close to all the insects; Bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, and flies were in abundance gorging themselves on nectar. I watched as the honeybees buzzed away, legs heavily laden with pollen. I imagined some of them returning to their hive, crops full of nectar ready to dump their precious load in preparation for cooler months.I must say that I breathed a sigh of relief that the praying mantis did not pounce on them, at least the ones I saw.

Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

It’s been a busy few weeks and I’m drop dead exhausted, but… it’s much too early to sleep.

I just returned from my class and now it’s time to hang out with my daughter. I’m looking forward to doing a bit of sewing for her; Halloween costume and her Christmas outfit. 😉

You know… I hope she remembers this time, the sacrifices made and “pays it forward” in her own life as she gets older. Actually, I see bits of her doing that now, with the things she does, and it thrills my soul…

I really like this song, by Justin Timberlake. It’s been playing through my brain all day… Occasionally, I find mirror images of myself (in others) with the various traits I have. It’s always nice when the positive is reflected in other individuals that are similar to myself. The negatives? Well, that always makes me strive to make improvements.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about a acquaintance, that shares my passion for youth outreach ministries. I love children and over the years have done a lot with youth so it’s nice to connect with someone that gets that. In that aspect, they are my reflection. They totally get my passion, where some others (at times) don’t understand…

It’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me
I couldn’t get any bigger
With anyone else beside of me
And now it’s clear as this promise
That we’re making two reflections into one
‘Cause it’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me, staring back at me

In that part of our lives, volunteering, we’re mirror images of each other. Not so in other aspects, so no the full song does NOT apply… at least not with us! So my friends that know the both of us, don’t even go there! No romance here, access denied!

In other aspects of our lives, such as various religious beliefs, political views etc., we are miles apart… A pity, but it is what it is… But we can respect and collaborate on something that is a common interest… at risk youth. On other topics, we just agree to disagree without being insulting. It makes you wonder why others can’t be the same way, you know? The world would be a much more positive place, if it was that way.

 

Justin Timberlake: Mirrors

Aren’t you somethin’ to admire?
‘Cause your shine is somethin’ like a mirror
And I can’t help but notice
You reflect in this heart of mine
If you ever feel alone and
The glare makes me hard to find
Just know that I’m always
Parallel on the other side

‘Cause with your hand in my hand and a pocket full of soul
I can tell you there’s no place we couldn’t go
Just put your hand on the glass
I’ll be tryin’ to pull you through
You just gotta be strong

‘Cause I don’t wanna lose you now
I’m lookin’ right at the other half of me
The vacancy that sat in my heart
Is a space and now you’re home
Show me how to fight for now
And I’ll tell you, baby, it was easy
Comin’ back into you once I figured it out
You were right here all along

It’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me
I couldn’t get any bigger
With anyone else beside of me
And now it’s clear as this promise
That we’re making two reflections into one
‘Cause it’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me, staring back at me

Aren’t you somethin’, an original
‘Cause it doesn’t seem merely a sample
And I can’t help but stare, ’cause
I see truth somewhere in your eyes
I can’t ever change without you
You reflect me, I love that about you
And if I could, I would look at us all the time

‘Cause with your hand in my hand and a pocket full of soul
I can tell you there’s no place we couldn’t go
Just put your hand on the glass
I’ll be tryin’ to pull you through
You just gotta be strong

‘Cause I don’t wanna lose you now
I’m lookin’ right at the other half of me
The vacancy that sat in my heart
Is a space and now you’re home
show me how to fight for now
And I’ll tell you, baby, it was easy
Comin’ back into you once I figured it out
You were right here all along

It’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me
I couldn’t get any bigger
With anyone else beside of me
And now it’s clear as this promise
That we’re making two reflections into one
‘Cause it’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me, staring back at me

Yesterday is history
Tomorrow’s a mystery
I can see you lookin’ back at me
Keep your eyes on me
Baby, keep your eyes on me

‘Cause I don’t wanna lose you now
I’m lookin’ right at the other half of me
The vacancy that sat in my heart
Is a space and now you’re home
Show me how to fight for now (please show me, baby)
I’ll tell you, baby, it was easy
Comin’ back into you once I figured it out
You were right here all along

It’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me
I couldn’t get any bigger
With anyone else beside of me
And now it’s clear as this promise
That we’re making two reflections into one
‘Cause it’s like you’re my mirror
My mirror staring back at me, staring back at me

You are, you are the love of my life [x10]

Now you’re the inspiration for this precious song
And I just wanna see your face light up since you put me on
So now I say goodbye to the old me, it’s already gone
And I can’t wait wait wait wait wait to get you home
Just to let you know, you are

You are, you are the love of my life [x8]

Girl you’re my reflection, all I see is you
My reflection, in everything I do
You’re my reflection and all I see is you
My reflection, in everything I do

You are, you are the love of my life [x16]

Finding the balance

My goodness has it been a busy few weeks for myself, it has all passed by in a blur! I’m surprised that I have had time to post here on Celebrate Life.

To be honest, while posting, I’ve been multitasking so that’s the only reason there’s been activity on this site.

I can’t believe this coming week will be moving into November.  What happened to October? This weekend is busy, I’m currently helping my daughter with a big school project and later today we’ll be going on an insect hunt. Afterwards, we’re going to make some items with clay today. I’m hoping to squeeze in some sewing time. My daughter has a part in our Church’s Christmas program and so I’ve decided to design/sew her a special gown. It will take some time to complete, so I’m starting early.

While Sunday is considered a day of rest, in our household at least, it’ll be a busy day for myself. Tomorrow afternoon, I have a meeting for three hours. Oh… and Monday evening, I have a Board Meeting to attend.

Here’s hoping (and praying) things slow down soon. This coming weekend, we’ll be out of town.

Regardless of how busy I am, I still make time for my daughter.