I meant to write a long post today about purpose and direction and life, but time got away from me and I haven’t been able to put my thoughts into words. I’ll have to try again tomorrow. 🙂
What an extraordinary day!
Today has been a very unusual day.
First, I woke up at six on the dot. I rarely wake up that early and never exactly on the hour. Since I was awake so early, hubby and I walked over to Walmart.
Second, when we returned home, I completed most of my household chores and then made breakfast.
Third, the smoothie was an unusual combination (for me). Bananas, peaches, and strawberries blended together. Yum! I might have to do that more often.
Fourth, I had Bible study at the kitchen table. Normally I study on the couch.
Fifth, hubby and I went to the library during regular business hours. Usually we visit on weekends or in the evening.
Sixth, it rained but there were no rain clouds!
Seventh, our vacuum cleaner died. We have to go shopping on Sunday to replace it. Boo. Another unexpected expense this week.
All in all, it was a great day, but very unusual!
When I noticed it was raining, I stepped outside and took this picture. Does it look like it should have been raining?
Love Is a Flame – A Book Review
From the advertising blurb: If you want to improve or revive your marriage, you need more than just theories of marriage from experts. You need shared experiences, to hear other couples say I’ve been there and to see the unique, creative, and practical solutions they have found to restore the vibrancy of their marriages.
Love Is a Flame is full of short stories of couples who turned their marriages around with God’s help. Some of the stories made me laugh and others made me cry. It was a quick read, easy to cover just a couple of the short stories in one sitting. Each story included a one or two paragraph application by the compiler.
The downside of this book for me is that the stories are so short. I really felt that unless I only read one story and pondered on the application for awhile, I’m not going to get anything out of this book. It’s like reading the Chicken Soup books – heartwarming stories that are easily forgotten.
I wanted to like this book, but I felt it wasn’t something I’d ever come back to or even remember much of a month after finishing it.
Disclaimer – I did receive a copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.
Kitty update
It looks like Bruno has passed the critical point. This morning he got up and started following us around the house. For the past week, he has just stayed within the same couple of feet in the bedroom. This morning he started seriously purring when we pet him, ate a bit, and just looks way more perky.
I’m not sure if it was the antibiotics or the water they injected under his skin (that’s my guess) or finally getting him to eat yesterday but he’s showing signs of improvement. He wore himself out this morning trying to be active and has spent the last few hours sleeping on my desk.
I am SOOOOOOO relieved that he’s recovering. He still walks funny, but I think he’ll be ok. To anyone who prayed for him – thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
Sick kitty
My kitty is sick. We’re taking him to the vet in 45 minutes. I’m very distraught over the whole ordeal. If you read this, please pray. I need him.
Sabbath preparation
I am SO glad that tomorrow is Sabbath. We will not be attending church as my hubby isn’t feeling very good. But to have a day to stay home with no chores and all that time to study the Bible or read or sleep! It sounds lovely.
Today I cleaned the apartment quite a bit for the Sabbath. I like cleaning the bathroom on Sabbath because that somehow makes the whole apartment feel cleaner. I just have to put a plug in here for 7th Generation tub cleaner. That stuff is super cleaner! My tub just keeps getting cleaner and cleaner every week that I scrub it out. I also washed our sheets, vacuumed the floors, swept the kitchen, washed all the dishes, ironed our church clothes, and straightened up around the living room.
This morning I decided it was time to make beans. I have a recipe to make refried beans in the crock pot with no added fat, so they aren’t technically “refried.” They taste pretty good, though. The beans have to cook for six hours but don’t require an overnight soak. They were done at 4:30 this afternoon, so I mashed them up and stored them in the fridge.
The plan for dinner this evening was to have burritos with beans, rice, tomatoes, etc. We were out of fresh vegetables so we ran to the store after hubby was off work. On a whim, I checked the frozen section to see if Morningstar Farms is making vegan burger crumbles yet (nope, no luck). Instead, I noticed that Boca Burger now has a vegan burger crumble. Hurray! We bought a bag and quickly switched to soft shelled tacos. AFTER I made beans, of course. Oh well. They’ll be good for the weekend and early next week.
My kitty seems to be feeling a bit better today. He’s not as hot to the touch and he has a little bit more energy. He still spent most of the day sleeping on my pillow, but I think he’s on the mend.
Flexibility, cookies, and a sick kitty
I had grandiose plans for today. Haha. Best laid plans? There’s a text somewhere in the New Testament that talks about people making plans and how they should say “IF the Lord wills, we will do such and such.” That was basically my morning.
Hubby has been working late nights and I’ve been staying up to keep him company. I think last night we went to bed around 11. I woke up at 6 and stumbled out to the living room. After nearly falling asleep just sitting on the couch, I decided I needed to go back to bed. I promptly passed out for another two hours.
After getting up, hubby was immersed in phone calls with clients. During that time, I ensure that the clients can’t hear me in the background. That means I don’t have much I can do. I can either read or do something on the computer or… that’s about it.
Around 10:30, I finally got my chance to make cookies. Yay! The batter mixed up really well. It smelled great. It baked nicely. And… my peanut butter cookies didn’t taste like they contained peanut butter. They were pretty good, just not peanut butter cookies. Some of the reviews mentioned that, but other people said they tasted great. I will either have to continue looking for the perfect peanut butter cookie or tweak this one so it tastes like peanut butter.
I realized how poor some of the quality of our ingredients is. The cookies are supposed to be sugar free, other than what is in the tiny bit of maple syrup. My cookies were not sugar free. The maple syrup (fake, cheap stuff) contained high fructose corn syrup. The almond milk had added sugar (I didn’t know that!). And the peanut butter had added sugar! I thought I had bought a natural peanut butter without added sugar. I guess not… So much for sugar free cookies!
My kitty is sick, I think. He’s been hot to the touch since yesterday. He’s extremely clingy and really likes sleeping on my pillow when I’m in the bedroom. Poor baby. 🙁 He’s eating a bit less than normal, but still eating. I’m just going to watch him and see if he gets better on his own. I really don’t want to take him to the vet and get him shot up with medication. Hubby reassured me that we will spend money to take him to the vet if it comes to that. I just want him to feel better!
I hope this post doesn’t sound all doom and gloom, because I did have a good day. It just wasn’t what I expected!
Cookies!
I’m going to make peanut butter cookies for my hubby first thing tomorrow morning. Shhhhh… Hopefully he won’t find out until they’re coming out of the oven!
Today
Today’s been an interesting but fairly laid back day. I went to bed last night at 8:30 and woke up this morning at 7:30. For some reason, I’ve been needing a lot of sleep lately. Yesterday I woke up before 6 and had most of my housework done before 9! Today I was still eating breakfast at that time.
I had an awesome banana/strawberry/spinach smoothie for breakfast. Then I completed all of my housework. After that, I spent over an hour studying Japanese. Then I took a nap. haha. For some reason, despite my 11 hours of sleep last night, I needed an hour and a half long nap. Bummer. There went my afternoon!
Hubby is working tonight. He’s doing something server related for a company, which means he has to work during that company’s off hours. He’s scheduled to work from 10 to 6:30 tomorrow morning, but thankfully, he’s working from home. I thought about staying up all night to keep him company but hubby said he’d rather I got a good night of sleep tonight and was available and cheery for him tomorrow. I get a bit grumpy when I haven’t had enough sleep…
So that was my day. Productive in the morning and not so productive in the afternoon. I really wanted to quilt today but it just didn’t happen. I need to set aside some time for it like I do with my Bible study and my Japanese studies.
My Bible study still continues with the topic of death and what happens after death. I thought I was coming to the end of my texts, but one text today gave me six more to study! I just follow all the cross references and now I have pages of texts. I still have two pages of texts to look up but who knows how many more texts that will provide. I had no idea that the Bible said so much about death.
My Japanese studies are going really well also. I’m planning on taking the JLPT N5 this December, which is the easiest proficiency exam. Theoretically, I could push myself to take N4 but I’m not sure I’ll be ready. I want to pass so that I have motivation to study next year. For me, failing is unmotivational. I’ve learned a bunch of vocabulary plus the following sentence structures:
it is…
it was…
it is not…
it was not…
I am…
I still don’t feel like I could carry any sort of conversation in Japanese but I’m starting to understand sentence structure and some of the vocab in Japanese movies. Maybe next year I’ll be able to watch something without the subtitles!
Blog Award
Whew. I’ve been so busy trying to catch up on blog reading, studying, housework, and other things (including some goofing off with our new Wii) that I haven’t been posting. Oops. I really need to get back into that habit!
Missie, over at Fill My Thirst, was so kind to give me a blog award! I’m really honored and don’t feel I deserve it at all but I’m grateful.
So… I have to:
1. Thank and link back to the person that gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about your self.
3. Pass the award to 9 fellow bloggers that inspire you.
4. Let them know about the award. 🙂
7 things about myself
1. I have an awesome hubby. He loves me so much that he encourages me to follow my dream of being a homemaker, which allows me to be a better wife.
2. I’m a perfectionist but I struggle with being lazy. If I can’t do it perfect, I’d rather not do it at all. Bad habit!
3. I love spending time reading God’s word. I’m currently (still) doing a study on death. I try to study every single morning right after getting out of bed and currently have over 10 pages of notes on this topic! Death is mentioned a lot in the Bible…
4. I love to sing but I’m terrible at it. 🙂
5. I’m studying Japanese so that we can live in Japan for a few years.
6. I love my cat!
7. I’m learning to quilt, though I don’t spend much time on it. I have two quilts in progress and need to finish them up so I can start on another, this one for a baby. Because I’m going to be an aunty again!
9 bloggers who inspire me – Oh wow. I read a lot of blogs but how could I ever pick 9?
1. Carrie @ Reading to Know – She inspires me to read quality books and to really think about what I’m reading. Plus she writes awesome book reviews and keeps causing my to-read list to swell!
2. Susan @ FatFree Vegan Kitchen – Her recipes are amazing and every one I’ve tried has tasted really good! Plus, they’re healthy and the photographs are gorgeous. What else can you ask for?
3. Mrs. Smith – What a wonderful Christian lady. She’s the one who inspired me to really dig deep during my current Bible study.
4. Lara @ Lazy Organizer – She doesn’t really blog anymore, but her archives are a wealth of information. I read her blog posts weekly for two years until she stopped/slowed down blogging. She has just opened up a world of possibilities for my home, my family, and any (future) children. Very amazing lady.
5. Blessings of a Keeper at Home – An awesome Christian lady who lives out her beliefs.
6. Ann @ His Grace to Me – I get so excited when she posts because all her posts are so lovely.
7. Karen @ The Tale of Our Quest – Karen inspires me for the future. Her kids are amazing and I love Karen’s posts about childrearing and homeschooling. I just wish I could implement her ideas now!
8. Vegan Hope – This is a new-to-me blog but my mom and I have been reading through her archives and are inspired to eat and live healthier.
9. My hubby – Mind you, his blog doesn’t inspire me as it’s extremely technological and like reading a language I don’t understand. 😉 But he inspires me every day to become a better wife, a better person, and a better Christian. I couldn’t ask for a better husband!