Start With Praise...Book Review

I had the unique opportunity to preview the brand new book Start with Praise by Sally Burke and Cyndie Claypool De Neve.  What a joy it was to read Start With Praise.

However, you must know the book is not just about praise as I thought it was going to be! This book is about the four steps of prayer based on the Lord’s Prayer!

Throughout this book, Sally and Cyndie take you on a forty day journey of learning how to pray as Jesus prayed!  Start With Praiseis filled with stories and practical examples using these four steps.  

The first ten days focus on having a heart of praise when you pray. The next ten days are focused on confession and then a ten day focus of Thanksgiving. The book concludes with ten days concentrating on intercession. Often, when we pray, we tend to focus all our time on intercession! Using this book as a tool will help you develop your prayer life into a time of not just asking God for your needs but also praising who He is, confessing to Him and thanking Him.

Some may recognize Sally Burke from her role at Moms In Prayer International. Sally draws on her experience at Moms In Prayer to help readers understand and appreciate the power of prayer.

Start With Praiseis an excellent resource on prayer. I was given a free copy of Start With Praisefor my honest review, but would have purchased it anyway as it is an great book!

Summer Salsa

This is the BEST salsa ever! Thanks to my sister-in-law for the recipe! 

2 (15 oz.) cans black beans (rinsed and drained)

2-3 diced tomatoes

1 onion, diced

2 peppers, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 cups corn (using some that you froze off the cobb is best!)

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. or so cilantro

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Store in refrigerator. 

Note: Feel free to add more or less vegetables based on what you have! I usually do not follow the recipe for the veggies for this recipe! I do make this year round!

Funeral Lemonade

Funeral Lemonade

Well, this needs some explaining!

This lemonade is so good and has a ridiculous amount of sugar. That's probably why it's so good. But why is it called funeral lemonade? Because my church serves it at funerals!!!

The lady from church who gave me the recipe said to "just dump ingredients in".  I prefer to measure!

Mix to make one gallon  Country Time Lemonade 

1 cup sugar (more or less to taste, I stick with 1 cup. I know it’s a LOT!)

1 orange sliced

1/2 lemon sliced

Mix lemonade mix and sugar together in a gallon pitcher.  Add some water and stir. Add some more water (to make a gallon) and stir well.  Add in lemon slices and orange slices.

This lemonade is best if it sits for a little to blend flavors.

Variations:

Add more lemons or oranges.

Add orange juice instead of the oranges.

Serve in a pretty jar and you have some great lemonade!

I'll leave it up to you if you want to call it funeral lemonade!

7 Day Pickles!

This year, for the first time in a LONG time, I decided to make 7 day pickles.

For all your mommas out there, please know that for MANY years this just was not do-able! And quite frankly, after all the time and energy it really is cheaper to buy them in the store! BUT, my daughter loves growing pickles and I had this recipe from about 25 years ago, so I decided to make them!

I'm proud to say that canning methods came back to me after all those years! But, before I get too proud, please know that first batch I made of these should have been called 8-day pickles and the second batch should have been called 6-day pickles! (OPPS!)

7 lbs. pickles washed
8 cups sugar
4 cups cider vinegar
2 TBS pickling spice
2 tsp. salt (I don't usually add salt in any recipe)

Wash pickles. Put in a clean crock or bucket (something that can withstand boiling water). Boil water and pour over pickles. Do this on Day 1. Then empty water and boil new water for Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4. On Day 5 slice pickles. Make a syrup of 4 cups vinegar, 8 cups sugar, 2 TBS pickling spice, and 2 tsp. salt.  Bring to a boil. Pour over pickle slices. For Day 6 drain the sugar mixture and boil the sugar mixture. Pour over pickle slices.

Day 7: Boil entire contents - pickles and sugar mixture together.

In the meantime - make your mason jars hot. I put mine in a 300 degree (or 250 degree) oven.  Boil your lids (not rings) for your mason jars and put you canner filled with hot water on the stove (enough to cover the jars) to boil.

When everything is ready, take a hot jar, fill with pickles and syrup (check the rim of the jar first for cracks - run your finger over it. If it's smooth you are good to go.).  Take a spatula and put it down the side to get air bubbles out.  Wipe rim clean. Place a hot lid on the jar. Fill up 6 jars (that's how many you can probably put in your canner).

Put bands on the jars.  Process in boiling water in canner for 10 minutes. Once you take the jars out you may hear a popping noise. Make sure all lids stay down (If you push the middle they should not spring up).  Remove bands.  Store to enjoy another day!

Boiling syrup and cucumbers

Processing in the canner

Sealed and ready to enjoy later!

Norwex VS. Young Living

Ok, so this is a post I didn't think I'd write. But I just write them as they come.

Norwex vs. Young Living

First, I am a HUGE Norwex fan. Like really I love the stuff.  I use Young Living, but I have to admit it IS expensive. I know...you save on other stuff. Well, some days I'm not convinced.  

So I love to thrift shop and yard sale. I found this cooler for $5. I asked if they would take $3. They said yes. I was nearing the end of my yard sale time and seriously only had $2. They took it.  

I'm going to assume the cooler was used for marine purposes. If it was something else - no need to let me know. I'll just keep on assuming.

I brought it home, all excited to fix it up and had a use for it.  

First order of business was to order replacement latches. Thank you Amazon.  ✅

Next order of business was to clean the cooler.

Thank you new pressure washer.  ✅

Wait. ✅

The pressure washer didn't work. Seriously? So I thought, "Ok, I'll soak it in clorox". However my husband first suggested bathroom tile clearer. We did both. No such luck.

I just let it sit and then finally decided to tackle it. (Clorox and water in a cooler will apparently attract and kill flies. Who knew?) I planned on using my Norwex cleaning paste.  But, just for fun, I thought I'd mix up a recipe I had printed from Young Living.  I asked my daughter which she thought would do better. She (without hesitation) said Young Living. I however, knew the Norwex cleaning paste would win.

And so it began! Fortunately I remembered to take a before photo!!

Ready to start cleaning! This is a mess!

So I started with the Norwex! Which I knew would win.  

This is after using Norwex and a LOT of elbow grease. I decided it wasn't worth the elbow grease!

I then decided to mix up the Young Living past using these ingredients.

The showdown. (Photo compliments to my 9 year old. Can you tell?

This was the side I started with for the Young Living mix.

This is me. Adding elbow grease. Either way it took a LOT but the Young Living mix definitely took less.

Almost done. But still needed some more work.  The Young Living mixture was amazing!!!! Don't be fooled though it still took elbow grease. I did need to mix up another half batch and then another half batch. The second time I mixed the liquid ingredients first and then added the baking soda.  That made more of a paste. 

Almost done but I was determined to get the ring around the top where the lid rested clean. 

Finally done!  Was it worth it? The satisfaction of a job well done definitely was! Would it have been cheaper to purchase a new one? Hmmmmm....maybe.

The mix I used:

1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup Thieves household cleaner
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
10 drops lemon oil 

Combine in a glass bowl- texture will be like a paste. Store in an air right container and best if used within 3 months. Note: Mix liquid ingredients first then add baking soda!

Go here to start using Young Living and purchase the Thieves and Lemon Oil!

The Blessing of Blessing

 Many years ago I knew someone very well who worked for the township road crew. Through this experience I have learned the importance of blessing those who work on the road crew. Please note this applies to pretty much everyone we come in contact with!!!  However in order to keep it simple and real, this is one specific way to bless those who work for the road crew.

 To clarify I am talking about your local township (city, or boro) men and women who work on repairing the roads, plowing snow, cleaning out side gutters, painting lines, etc.

 This idea was further reinforced by Karen Ehman in her book Listen Love Repeat.

 When I see the road crew working nearby, I will either head to the grocery store quickly (if time allows) or try to plan ahead for the next day. I will stock up on drinks, cups (that I hopefully have on hand anyway) and possibly any other treats that I may want to give them.   Then I simply stop, and deliver them the cool refreshing drinks and treats. They especially appreciate this when they are working on a hot road, pouring blacktop on an extremely hot summer day!

 I just do this whenever time allows or God presents the opportunity.

 What I’m going to share next must be understood that it is definitely not my motive! This just happened as a byproduct of many times of stopping to deliver treats to the road crew.

 A few weeks ago our road bank needed mowed. I kept wanting to call the township and let them know that, when they had to chance it would be nice if they could mow it.  Sidenote: I completely understand they are busy and  I am the last person to ask for something, but this was a safety concern.

 I happened to be driving past the township maintenance building, and decided I would just stop in instead of calling to ask them to mow the road bank. So I stopped in and tried to find someone who was in charge. Before I knew it several of the guys are like,  “Aren’t you the lady on (such and such a) road? You bring the snacks!”  I said, “Absolutely! Let me know when you are coming again and I will make sure to have something for you” In fact one gentleman even remembered my first name. I was shocked!

 So, the next time you see the local township road crew think about considering getting them something small and just thanking them for their time and service! And don't hesitate to see who else you can share kindness with!

Cleaning tip

OK, so I HATE to clean. BUT, I've discovered this little tip. It's another crazy tip.  Remember these two products from a previous post?

Well, I have another use for them! Some time ago I discover that lemon oil was great at cleaning white boards.  So I've been using it since.

Welp, the other day I discovered that this is even better!

Yes, Clinique Take the Day Off Makeup Remover does a great job on cleaning white boards. Even the marks that lemon oil will not get off! Who knew? 

Confession: I keep them both in my cleaning basket!

Sticky Situations!

Mark this as one silly, crazy thing I have learned along the way....

How to remove something sticky. Like leftover glue from a sticker. Or any other type of adhesive.

I have no clue how I discovered this.  But for what it's worth....here you go.

If you have sticky residue left on something, or you need to saturate a sticker to get it off, use Clinique Take the Day Off Makeup Remover.

Don't ask me how or why but it works. Seriously.


For added clean up, use lemon oil.


Stay tuned for another post on one more use for these items...this one may be a little crazier!!!

Just Let Go! Book Review!

Quinn Collins ~ Fiesty, independent and a woman who knows what she wants. But does she? She's been hurt in the past. Will that affect her future and any potential relationships? She finally has her dream of owning her own flower shop ~ that of her mother's. But why did her mother leave so suddenly?  Why didn't her mother ever return? Then someone new comes to town.  And causes T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  Who is this Olympian Grady Benson and why do people stop and stare when he is around? Is his skiing career really over?  Why does he act like he does? Any hope for redemption in his life? 

Once you start reading Just Let Go you will not put it down! You will want to know what is really going on in Quinn's life and if there really is redemption for Grady.   I did enjoy Just Let Go.  I had never ready Courtney Walsh so I have not read any books in this series.  I loved the content and would recommend Just Let Go. However, I do have to say there was a time or two that I had to recheck what the author was stating as it was a little unclear. Ie. at first I thought a boy mentioned was a young child. I then went back to recheck after the author stated he was 15! This would be great beach reading and if you are a fast reader you could read it in a day or two! 

I was given a complimentary copy of Just Let Go by Tyndale House Publishers for an honest review. Which you can see, I have happily provided! 😀

Strawberry Pie!

It's strawberry season here. I made strawberry pie the other night and the kids asked for more. So I made three more last night! Children were claiming a pie or two for their own!

This recipe comes from the best kind of cook book! A church cook book! One that has all the pages splattered (or at least the pages with the good recipes!) and had to be rebound (big thanks to my cousin for helping with it!).

Here you go!

Strawberry Pie

1 (3 oz.) package strawberry Jell-o (about 2/3 cups)
1 cup water
2 TBS cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 pie crust, baked, or a graham cracker crust

Mix Jell-o, cornstarch and sugar in pan.  Stir in water. Place on stove and cook until thick and clear (may take more than ten minutes) stirring frequently.  Pour into baked pie shell or graham cracker shell.  Chill 2-3 hours. (Optional: can top with whipped cream when ready to serve)

Notes: If you use a graham cracker crust it will taste better, but the crust will get soggy quicker!

I almost didn't add this photo due the shadow ~ but decided to keep it real! 😉