Isn’t it choosing to do what’s right even when no one is looking?  *sigh*  Yes.  Even when no one is looking, no one to tell you how awesome you are for making the right choice, which does wonders for the pride and self-esteem, I’m sure.

The past several months I’ve been plagued with the thoughts of a good character and how to employ it or come by it.  It’s become quite evident that you can’t just “come by it”.  It happens over the course of years, over the course of different tests and situations.

You see, my character, as it were, is the manifestation of the fruits of the spirit inside me (Gal 5:22-23), which should not be confused with my personality.  My personality is the distinctiveness of traits or qualities specific to me.  (told you this has been on my mind for a while)  So, this means that if someone wrongs me, because that is usually when it’s the perfect time to test those fruits, I can not blame MY inability to handle said situation on my personality OR the other person.  You know…the blame game?
“Well, if YOU hadn’t done this I wouldn’t have done…blah,blah,blah [insert stupid, non-responsibility taking excuse here].”

*clears throat*  Now, if I’m barking up your tree, sit with me for a while, because I’m singing my own song — in public.
I have truly failed the character test at times.  Embarrassed to admit it, but it’s true.  I’ve broken down and exchanged imaginary words with said offender/s.  And even once or twice, I’ve actually spoken them to that person’s face.  In my opinion, they needed to hear what I thought of them.  Hahah.  Yeah, told you I was singing loud.and.clear.

But, whether or not I make a mistake, my character should be the one part of my being that holds me in place.  It’s my foundation.  It should be unshakable, firm, built to last and pull through any sort of trauma.  If it is all of those things, then I have a place to go back to for reference.  “Ok, self, this is NOT how you handle that, you need to practice a little more long-suffering.  Have some compassion, will ya?!”

So, back to the difficulty of maintaining a good character.  Sometimes you take low blows, other times, you take the high road, and while other times, the road to take isn’t clear, it’s muddled, and confusing.  I was in a situation early last year that pushed me to the brink.  I literally wanted to strangle my “situation”.  Literally.  I didn’t know what the right thing was to do.  Honestly!  It was SO difficult.  Then, I read the most amazing thing in 1 Samuel 24:12.

¹² Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you.

What a peace I received from this verse.  Total and complete peace.  Now, if ever this person tries to come up against me in that manner again I can answer with calm assurance that the Lord knows the right from the wrong and HE will judge. But as for me, I will mind my character.  Let God piece out the rest.

“Character is what you are. Reputation is what people think you are.”
― Henry H. Saunderson

Music is to the soul what words are to the mind.

Recently NPR posted an article on how classical music can be sexy and gave a list of cuddly classical pieces.  Funny.

I’ve never thought classical music to be sexy, myself, but emotionally evocative, absolutely.  Friday night D took our family to see the Philadelphia Virtuosi Orchestra perform.  Stunning.  As a young girl, my room was filled the sounds of Peter And The Wolf, The Nutcracker Suite and other amazing works because my dad was insistent that I be exposed to classical.  I’m hooked, attached, in love and so are our children.

Cy and Roma did so well.  The performance was two hours but it felt like half that.  Toward the end, we had to encourage them to keep their mouths shut and quit fidgeting but on the whole, they sat so quietly and listening in rapt attention.  In low whispers, Cy and I discussed the instruments being played.  He noted, “Mom, I didn’t know you could make music by moving your arms.  Making the music come out.”  This in reference to the conductor, to him, it seemed the conductor was pulling the music out of each instrument, making such wonderful sounds come together for us to enjoy.

Before I knew it, there were tears in my eyes from the beauty of it all.  My breath was caught…I’m telling you, I’m not a romanticist or anything, but music, really, really gets to me.  I told David that, “classical music isn’t something that makes your foot tap, it makes your soul move.”  And truly, truly that’s what happened on Friday evening.  Our souls were moved, in a lovely way.

I love exposing our children to the beauty of something that, at times, can’t not be properly expressed with words.

Roma's dazzling red shoes and Cy's neon laces. Cutest kids there

I think my favorite works were Overture to La Scala di Seta (The Silken Ladder, 1812) Gioacchino Rossini and the Pulcunella Suite for small orchestra composed by Igor Stravinsky.  Oh man, just amazing.  The conductor was lifting up on to his toes and pulling the music out and across the whole auditorium.
This will not be our last orchestra.  Thanks, papa for such a wonderful time!

“Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.”
― Alphonse de Lamartine

First, I took two pieces of construction paper and drew lines
(if you want to make this look a little more chic, use scrapbook paper.  I found a huge packet with wonderful colors for $5.  But, since I’m on a budget the $1.97 package was good enough for me.)

Then, I cut them again and again, until I had squares.

(He has 18 people in his class and I had more than enough paper with the two pieces to make all the words needed)

Then, I thought of words that would be easy enough for a kindergartener to spell out.
(I put a different word into each envelope)

I found some plain envelopes, spent $2 on those, and then used my toilet paper roll dipped in finger paint…
…To stamp them! 

Then, I baked up some snickerdoodles!  I wrapped the baggies around with some twine I picked up at a garage sale.

This whole project took me an hour (this is not including the time it took me to make the cookies).  Not too much, just right.  My kind of craft!

Kiss your doubts goodbye and walk through that door to your dreams

Kiss your family

Cy's self-portrait

Love and be loved.

Have a lovely weekend, all!

But, since I’m into saving money and being as creative as I can possibly be…making my own air freshener sounded fabulous.

Simple, simple, simple!  Literally took me 5 minutes to make this.
 Boil 1 cup of water pour in gelatine packets and 1 Tb salt.  Whisk until combined.

There are a few different scents, and if you’re familiar with mixing essential oils, I’m sure you could create your own.
Set aside and pour in 1 cup of cold water.  Put the essential oils and food color drops into the jars and immediately pour the gelatine over the top.  Mix with a chop stick.
You can pick and choose colors.  Unfortunately, I only have neon food coloring.  *cough*  Soooo, my smelly little fresheners look like bright green goo-gobs.
Set to cool on a heat safe surface.  Should take about 30-45 min.  Done!

I’m giving our house a new smell   I will be sure to hide these brilliantly colored fresheners strategically around the house so no one sees them.  Hah.  Wouldn’t these make fabulous gifts?

  (The sweet basil cost $11.79 and the lemon only $5.69 at the natural food store here.  I use my lemon oil ALL of the time for different recipes)

Essential Oil air Fresheners :: courtesy of Tasty Kitchen

• 1 ounce, weight Unsweetened, Unflavored Gelatin (equivalent To 4 Envelopes Of Knox Powdered Gelatin)
• 2 cups Cold Water, Divided
• 1 Tablespoon Salt (or A Splash Of Vodka- To Deter Mold Growth)
• 20 drops To 30 Drops Essential Oil
• ___
• OPTIONAL:
• Food Coloring To Tint The Air Fresheners
• ___
• ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:
• Disposable Chopsticks Or Skewers To Stir The Hot Gelatin Mixture In The Jars
• Decorative Heat-proof Jars To Hold The Gelatin Mixture
  Bring one cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the boiling water and whisk until smooth and all the gelatin is dissolved. Add the salt and the second cup of cold water and whisk. Set aside.

Add the desired amount of essential oil and food coloring, if using, to the jar(s). Quickly pour the hot liquid gelatin over the essential oil and food coloring. Stir until evenly colored.

Allow to cool, uncovered on a heat-proof surface. When it reaches room temperature, place wherever you want a lovely scent.

Sweet Basil and Lemon Air Freshener

* 20 drops Sweet Basil essential oil
* 8 drops Lemon essential oil

Rosemary Orange Air Freshener

* 25 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
* 5 drops Rosemary essential oil (the rosemary essential oil is mighty strong stuff—keep a light hand with this!)

Fresh Pine Scent Air Freshener

* 25 drops Fir Pine essential oil
* 3 drops Lemon essential oil
* 2 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
* 1 drop Bergamot essential oil

Pure Lavender Air Freshener

* 30 drops of Lavender essential oil

Essence of Provençe Air Freshener

* 20 drops Lavender essential oil
* 5 drops Thyme essential oil
* 2 drops Lemon essential oil

They are upcycled from old greeting cards.

There were tupperware full of straight pins, safety pins and buttons. And stacks of fabric covered greeting cards.

How inventive?  I thought it was a fabulous idea and my mind started working as to how I could do something like this for myself and pass it out to friends and family.
A little list to keep us on track…

The conversation was so enjoyable.  The ladies were eagerly asking about my life and our impending move to California.  I shared how Cylas was excited at first but then changed his mind when he discovered that there were more bad guys than in Pennsylvania.  One of the ladies whispered quietly, “So, there’s just more wickedness?”  I smiled inwardly.  Yes, more blatant wickedness.

A sweet lady named Brenda spoke to us for about 15 minutes on grief.  She recently lost her husband to cancer.  She had a soft voice, but it was steady and full of wisdom and passion.

It was a little after 12 when we lined up for the most scrumptious luncheon.  The ladies put on a fabulous meal.

homemade icecream and brownies

I’m so glad Twila reached out to me.  I had a great time.  Thank you, Twila!

Well, my kids aren’t in French, although I was just made aware there is a local group set up for children ages 3-6 to learn it if their parents have the extra $$, and I like poetry but not enough to make my kids memorize it and as much as I’d love for my children to have impeccable posture, walking around with books just isn’t going to happen.

So, enter, ballet.

Our answer to developing perfect posture.

They say it helps build self-confidence

Develop a connection with others (sounds so general, but evidently when working with other people who are performing the same actions as you are it triggers “mirror neurons” which helps us to understand the behaviors of others which in turn helps us to develop empathy.)

She really enjoyed it.  We were instructed to wait until the last 5 minutes of class before coming in.  Roma was jumping everywhere, pointing her little toes and, in general, just tossing about.  She learned to “kitty hop” and how to give a “ballerina goodbye”.   Her version of both was laughable.  I can’t wait until a few weeks from now, it will be a whole different story.

My sweet baby girl.  So eager to be a ballerina.  We’ve renamed her Romalina Ballerina.

A couple years ago I made a baked potato soup and brought it to a friend’s house.  It was horrible.  Really, it was.  Drat the person who posted it on whatever website, double drat me for being a sucker and making it.  The sour cream should have been my first clue that it wasn’t going to taste right.  Someone actually thought that pouring sour cream in like it was cream of mushroom or something was a good idea.  Well, it wasn’t.  So, for almost two years I x-ed that soup off my list, until recently.

Not pictured, but definitely super important is the ingredient that sets this soup apart.  Cream of Chicken!

Yeah, I’ve made it without the cream of chicken and it was delicious but not fantastic.  (that was simply because I forgot to put it in…erg.)
But after 8 hours in the crockpot, oh, did I mention this is a another fabulous crockpot recipe?  Eight hours makes almost anything taste divine.

You can omit the bacon, but we love it.  There is a little trick I use to create my bacon bits.  While my bacon is still mostly frozen I thinly slice it, put it in the pan and fry it.  No need to put in whole pieces of bacon and then crumble it…greasy mess, eliminated.

Baked Potato Soup :: recipe courtesy of Tasty Kitchen

• 8 cups Potatoes, Chunked
• 1 whole Small Onion, Diced
• 3 cans Chicken Stock (14-15 Ounce Size)
• 1 can Cream Of Chicken Soup (10 Ounce Can)
• 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Cubed
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• ½ pounds Bacon, cooked and crumbled
• Optional Garnishes: Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, Diced Chives

via Pinterest

Pick a new destination

via Pinterest

Be free and pick something new, who knows, it might give you the motivation you’ve been seeking.

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

I have a problem.  I love blogs, blogging, blogginess the whole thing.  And then I have my favorite bloggers who inspire me, somehow, and I keep tabs on them.  I recently found a pretty awesome blogger, I love the photos she posts, the quotes she finds and shares then she has this really cool feature where people will write her and she responds to their questions on her blog.

This morning, I was flipping through her blog, and noticed a particularly harsh criticism by a …well, I can’t say fan, but lurker, perhaps?  Someone who has read her blog long enough to know her style and then write about it only to say how much they hate it.  I was puzzled.  How rude.  This was my first thought.  How rude of them to criticize the way someone expresses their thoughts.  Uh, it’s THEIR thoughts.  It’s THEIR blog.  How ever irritating someone’s writing style may be, is it REALLY necessary to write them and puke up your thoughts about it?  Honestly.  Wouldn’t it have been better to just stay a lurker, and then *gasp* quit reading that blog?  So, I went over to that meany’s blog and checked her stuff out.  She has her own style!  Who would have guessed?  She has her preferred way of expressing herself.  Oh my.  Who am I to judge?  In my opinion, her writing style was nice!  But, I’m not fond of people who so rudely criticize something they have no claim to, so I won’t stick around…

It is true. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to this.  I have certain blogs that I no longer read because they were AWFUL (in my opinion), but I didn’t need to write and tell them that!  I just kept it to myself, and no, I will not reveal who I dislike.  I just stopped reading their blog and moved on.  How novel.

Oh, hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned   So, you blogger meany, are you going to come over to my blog and bully me around?  If you’re bored enough, you just might.

  Yeah, *sigh* like I said, I think I stuck my foot in it, because I went over to that meany’s blog and politely defended my *favorite blogger*.  I gently reminded the meany that we each have our own styles and our blogs are like diaries…just a little less private, but very much our own thoughts and opinions.

This one’s for you, Kat. I know you don’t know me, at all, but I love your stuff and appreciate your version of creativity.  Keep it up!  And to that meany, you’re pretty creative too, you just use it the wrong way sometimes . Why not find a way to creatively StoP reading Kat’s blog