Here and Now: October 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Peach Freezer Jam

My friends have a peach tree that was LOADED with peaches this year. I didn't have tons of time to can them, but I spent all afternoon Saturday freezing them and I made a couple batches of yummy freezer jam.

Fresh off the tree...

Blanching...

Ice cold water to remove the skins...

Sugar and pectin...

Jam!!! (Now I just need to make some bread...)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Room Mates

My friend, and Best Room Mate Ever, is getting married in less than two months. I am thrilled for her and her fiance. We have been here for almost two years. It has been a good season, but it is time for her to move on. She is hard to replace though. Finding a good room mate these days is kind of a challenge. I haven't really "advertised", but I have gotten the word out by word of mouth but the prospects haven't been to promising. I told my landlord too. She came over this morning and told me she "found a room mate for you, his name is so and so." I'm like, "who?". She said, "so and so". "Its a guy?" I asked. "Yeah, he is looking for a room mate cause his just moved out". I'm like, "I need a girl room mate." "O, but he is really nice." I'm like, "Uh, no thanks." I guess you have to be pretty specific with these things...

Key Verses of My Life

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

"...we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:9-14

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have abundance for every good deed." 2 Cor 9:8

"...that He would grant to you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with al the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God." Eph.3:16-19

"They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." Ps 34:5

"Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord." Luke 1:45

"The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy." Zephaniah 3:17

Favorite Quotes

"What God gives in answer to our prayers will always be the thing we most urgently need, and it will always be sufficient." - Elisabeth Elliot

"When your heart speaks, take good notes." - Judith Campbell

"Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change." - Mother Teresa

"An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing we choose." - CK CHESTERTON"

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

It’s easy to be brave from a safe distance. - Aesop

"There is acertain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that is a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place." - Washington Irving

"Strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God" - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t you’re right." - Mary Kay Ash

"If you like someone, you will give them your time and your money...but if you love someone, you will give them your friends."

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T.S. Elliot

"Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy, he who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.: Psalm 126:5-6

"Experience is what we get when we don’t get what we want." - Randy Pausch

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." - Paul Valey

"A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not, but a man of superior talent…will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

"Our happiest moments…seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else. "- Lawrence Block"

"Your life is an occasion - rise to it." - Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones." - Phillips Brooks

"If you haven't got all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want." - Unknown

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." - Booker T. Washington

"Live so that your friends can defend you but never have to." - Arnold H. Glasow

"I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within." - Lillian Smith

'Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful tha the risk it took to bloom." - Anais Nun

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." - Persian Proverb

"Not hammer strokes, but the dance of water, sings the pebbles into perfection." Rabindranth Tagone