Sick Break

I'm sorry for my absence over the past few days.  The dreaded bug finally hit me.  Thankfully it wasn't the flu.  I think I got a little bit of the stomach virus and a cold.  The cold has turned into some nasty sinus stuff though and that's what's kept me down the longest.  Yesterday was probably the worst day so far because my ears were throbbing most all day.

Praise God I'm feeling better today and He took away the ear ache.  Ugg, ear aches and tooth aches are some of the worst pain.  Please continue to pray that I'll be able to get rid of all the yucky mucus.  I'm doing my best to get it all out so that I don't have to go get antibiotics to clear up an infection.  I haven't been to the doctor for an illness all year and I can't tell you how happy that makes me.  This is the longest stretch of good health of my ENTIRE life !  To God be the glory !  And my thanks also to the natural health route I'm on. 

I have a busy weekend planned.  Today I'm cooking for our church's annual Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm taking (the very mountain traditional) chicken and dumplings, a sugar free banana bread and cornbread.  So far I've only gotten the chicken cooked, but it shouldn't take long to put the banana bread together.  Then I'll fix the cornbread last and if I don't have time to make it, then it won't be any major loss. 

After the dinner, RL, Lou and I will have some family time together.  We're going out to a late movie and maybe some dessert. LOL....today is not a healthy food day for me.  I'll try to pick out some good veggies at the dinner though.

Recycled Holiday Cards

Let's face it, as the holiday season approaches many of us will be faced with receiving a large amount of Christmas cards, most of which we'll look at once and put in a pile somewhere.  When someone writes a personal message to me, I'll keep the card of course, but what to do with all those random cards that you get from church and distant or unknown family members?

Here's a great craft tutorial that Vicky Howell posted.

There's many other options too.  You can make origami ornaments too. Here's a cute small star ornament template that you can download. I save a lot of the card fronts to recraft into new cards and scrapbook pages.  Reused card fronts also make excellent post cards.

Hope you'll join me in repurposing those unwanted cards.

~*Melody*~

Well.....

Well after two days with no blog posts...I'm discovering that I'm not doing so well at this daily blogging thing.  Oh well, I tried.  I'm thinking that November is probably not the smartest month of the year to try to do this blogging for the whole month thing.  Saturday I put off blogging till right before bed and my internet connection decided that it just wasn't going to connect to the server.  I thought I could make it up on Sunday, but I wasn't able to do that.  My best friend (from high school)'s dad passed away.  So I spent some time with her and her family Sunday and earlier today.

My brain has been in Thanksgiving planning mode for days.  I'm excited to get started cooking my giant bird.  LOL. Thinking about this years' bird makes me laugh so.  We actually had to take my freezer door apart to fit the bird in there.  Yes we literally got out the power screw driver and removed screws and such.  I still had to wedge the poor thing in there.  Oh I'd love to have a video of my husband and I squeezing that 24 lb. frozen bird into a tight little space.  RL and I laughed the entire time.  It was just great; definitely an experience I'll never forget.

I've also been planning on purchasing a new set of pots and pans.  I've had my old ones for several years.  They are mismatched and most are from a cheap set I purchased to "hold me over".  Slowly over time they've become unsafe for food, so I've now retired them to craft project use only.  I wish there were a way to recycle all but one or two of them.  Anyone have any ideas?  I plan to keep the next set for many years because I'm hoping to purchase the Faberware professional stainless steel series.

Alright enough with my ramblings.  I hope to get back to my green series soon.

~*Melody*~ 

Love Through Technology

This is posting a little late because my internet connection kept going in and out while I was trying to post last night. I am dating it for 11-13 though because it was suppose to post then.

A few nights ago, or rather should I say, a few early mornings ago, I received a text from a young college age guy from our church.  He was first asking for scripture for a particular topic, but it became apparent to me that he just needed someone to talk to.  We chatted back and forth in texts for close to an hour and a half.  For days I've been contemplating my next cell phone upgrade.  I'm an avid texter, but have been reconsidering the amount of my texting lately.  I even *shudder* had serious thoughts about what it would be without so much convenient texting.

After the texting with this individual, I realized what a great blessing we have with all this modern technology.  I mean how often are we able to travel to where the person is just to be there for them.  Modern technology has its inconveniences, like the annoying "ok" or the random "what's up?" texts.  But what if we looked at these attachments as opportunities for ministry?  What if we used our cell phones and smart phones for God's glory?  Not to mention what about our Twitter and Facebook accounts.  God has opened up the world to us and we should be using these things to reach others for Christ.

So I'm going to challenge you all.....This week make it a goal to use these devices to reach out to at least 1 person. Try to make a positive impact on that one person, whether it's just a random person in your contacts list or some needy person on your church's prayer list.  I'm going to be joining you in this challenge.

~*Melody*~

Reusing Common Kitchen Trash

Occasionally curiosity overtakes me and I go web searching for strange things like how to reuse my trash.  I found this particular use a month or so ago. 

How to Reuse a Banana Peel

So does anyone else have any creative ways to reuse common trash?

~*Melody*~

WiFi Problems and the Next Green Installment

So I'm sitting in a Wendy's restaurant at the moment.  I had hoped to directly blog this entry, but I'm writing it on a document file to save for later posting.  It really irks me that a restaurant advertises free WiFi but it doesn't work at all.  I'm techno-savvy so it's not merely an operator error.  I went to the front to complain about it and the lady looked at me like my hair was on fire.  She just laughed and then looked down at her register.  In hindsight, I'm almost certain she had no idea what WiFi is, but she should have asked someone else if she didn't know.  Oi !

Anywho, so that leaves me here a little preturbed.  At least there was a Frosty and some fries involved.  Everything is better when ice cream is involved.  (Although I'm well aware that Frosty's are far from being ice cream...but that's a different story for a different time.)

So to continue my green theme, I'd like to focus on paper and packaging waste for this entry.  Up until about 2 years ago, I was the world's worst to print out anything and everything.  I'd end up with enormous piles of paper on my paper tray and most of it would never even be looked at again.  I literally was putting all these print outs in boxes for "future filing".  Haha...I laugh at myself at the thought of that.  I clearly had a problem I was not willing to address.  I'm not sure what prompted me to change my ugly habits, but I'm so glad I did. 

I pay a lot of my bills online, but its a rare occasion that I print out those receipts now.  Instead I take a screen print of all the important info, like the confirmation number, date and such.   I periodically back up all these receipts to either jump drive or CD and file that away.  You can have the receipt emailed you as well.  I've cut my paper usage to nearly nothing.  In the past two years, I've bought one 500 sheet pack of paper and I have at least 75% of that left. If something is printed at my house, it must be extremely important and something that's going to be used immediately  (or business related). I also haven't bought any ink cartridges for my printer in that two year time span.  Saving money on ink cartridges is a great blessing, but it's also good for the Earth.  I plan to have my empty ones refilled in the future.

Now what about packing materials and tissue boxes?  Well I reuse most of those too.  Whenever I buy a box of tissues I make sure that I like design on the box because I cut them up to make cards and on scrapbook pages.  The cardboard can be reused to make things sturdier or to make the random pom pom or two.  I also reuse pretty packing materials on scrapbook pages or cards.  You have to be a little creative, but it can be done.  I like to see people's faces when they inquire where I got the materials for those cards.  Anytime you buy perfume or cologne there's usually some beautiful backing paper in the box.  It's one of my favorites to reuse.  And of course, all bubble wrap and packing peanuts get reused over and over again.  

So that's it for tonight's dose of green.  I must say I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping up with this daily blogging so far.  ;-)

~*Melody*~

Not So Inspired Tonight

I've been trying to get motivated to blog for a few hours now.  *sighs*  Alas there's just nothing inspiring me to write.  Ever have moments like that?  There's a ton of things on my mind that I could write about, but I just absolutely have no desire to pull them out tonight.

The rain has poured down here all day.  Today was the perfect day to lounge around with something warm in your hand.  I cuddled up on the couch tonight with some new wool and new knitting needles.  The knitting was pleasant and relaxing.  Sometimes you just have to relax a bit, no matter what's waiting on you to be finished.  There are times when one just simply craves the simple things in life.

*laughs* It's ironic that I just wrote that last statement, because earlier this evening I was looking at the new VW Droid phone.  It's anything but simple.  In fact, if I decide to get it I'll have virtually everything I could ever want or need technologically speaking at my fingertips at any moment.  The perks are definitely tempting.

Alright, I've done enough babbling.  It's time to call an end to this uninspired post.

~*Melody*~