15 Minute Friday

This past week as part of my SMART Habits Saturday I've been working on spending 15 minutes with God every day. That being said and by Jenny V's request I'm going to start 15 minute Fridays.

Every Friday I will post on my week's journey with God and faith. So a travellin I shall go.

For the last few weeks I've been studying the gospel of John. Now a little background on this gospel, it's different from the other 3 in that it's very much about who Jesus is, John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus as Messiah and Godly love and redemption. It's quite often given to people seeking more information about Jesus and Christianity. Now to be quite frank with you, had it been given to me, I might not be a Christian, because I just don't get it, I find it really frustrating so far. I have read this gospel all the way through for an overview, and I'm currently concentrating on Chapter 1. Here's an example of something that frustrates me. One of the questions in my study guide, What did eah of the first 5 disciples find out about Jesus and how did they find out. Now, let's take Philip, Jesus finds Philip in his [Philip's] home town and says to him "Follow me". [John 1:43]. Philip, presumably spends some time with Jesus, although the next couple versus explain where it happened, not what occurred to make Philip a believer and then has Philip running off to find Nathaniel to tell Nate that they have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote [John 1:45]. Nathaniel didn't believe a Messiah could come from Nazareth, but comes to meet Jesus anyway. Jesus says Nate is a true son of Israel and when Nate questions the comment, Jesus says he 'saw' Nate praying under a fig tree before Philip found him. To this Nate replies "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel [John 1: 46-49].

Now I try to put myself in their place. If someone asked me to follow them, I'm not sure I would without an explanation, or at least some knowledge gained from my own acquitances of who the person is. So let's say I followed, chances are I'm not going to running off to my friends to tell them the Messiah has been found. And if someone told me they had seen where I was and what I was doing before I came before them, Son of God is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind. I should likely have gotten along much better with the Pharisees.

Now seeing the experience of the first 5 disciples and how they came to believe in Jesus as Messiah, this gospel doesn't explain how seeds were planted or the thought processes of the disciples or what transpired in the intervening hours. I have to wonder, if I were to write out the beginning of my own story, what would it be, what made me cross that line from seeking to believing. If I told you my defining moment of belief, it would probably seem to you, like the first 5 disciples seems to me. So here it is:

Standing in my friend Jon's living room, he playing piano and a few of us singing a new worship song we had learned recently, Shi.ne Je.sus Shi.ne (by Graham Kendrik). Over the piano is a framed poem called Footprints. By the time I reached the end of the poem, I was well aware of how much God loved me and wanted me and that this is what I had spent all these years looking for. So what might have John written about my conversion? Jesus found Kim singing praises and said "Trust me" and is that really so different from the "follow me" that John overheard Jesus say to Philip?

Take the next 15 minutes and think about your experiences with a higher power, whatever form that may take. Although it's always a journey, is there a defining moment? Would you share?







Take what you like and leave the rest.
Kim

SMART Habits Saturday - week 2

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by Lara @ The Lazy Organizer.

This is my second week and I think I'd like to alternate habits I want to make versus ones I should make. So this week's habit will be to spend 15 minutes with God every morning.

Here's the list:

15 Minute Walkabout 2 days last week, not so good

SMART Habits Saturday - July 7

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by The Lazy Organizer being inspired by Lara's blog I've decided to participate this week in a smarter habit, but oh which one shall I do, I don't want to overdo things, just one habit a week is all I need as soon there will be lots and lots of good habits.

Cleaning: Do a walk-about every day. I can't find Laura's posts on walk-abouts although I know she's posted at least twice, plus her own daily 15 minute tidy up. Actually I guess I want to do a 15 minute tidy up, since I haven't taught the dog to put away his toys yet :)

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Tilapia Fish with ginger and green onions, brushed with soya sauce and sherry. Veggie black bean stir fry on the side

Tuesday: Vegetable Enchildas

Wednesday: Pork and green beans stir fried in Olive and garlic sauce, tomatoes and tofu in oyster sauce

Thursday: Lemon Chicken side unknown

Friday: Salmon marinated in lemonpeppercorn sauce, side unknown.

Vegetable Enchiladas

Nutritional Information (based on actual recipe, not the jambalaya leftovers):
Calories: 309
Protein: 12g
Carbohydrate: 23g
Sugars: 14g
Fat: 19g
Saturates: 8g

Ingredients:
I use leftovers from the Vegetable Jambalaya, but these are the actual ingredients.
4 large four tortillas (I used 9 small whole wheat tortillas)
3/4 cup grated hard cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar)

Filling:
2 1/4 oz spinach
2 tbsp olive oil
8 baby corn on the cobs, sliced
1 tbsp frozen peas, thawed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili, chopped
salt and pepper

Sauce: (I used the leftover canned chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, some vegetable stock and garlic salt for the sauce)
1 1/4 seived tomatoes
2 shallots, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp super fine sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. To make filling, blanche the spinach in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain well, pressing out as much excess moisture as possible and chop (oK, I use chopped frozen spinach and thaw it)
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the baby corn, peas, bell pepper, carrot, leek, garlic and chili, saute, stirring briskly, for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the spinach and season well with salt and pepper.
3. Put all the sauce ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 20 minutes until thickened and reduced by a third (I mixed my version in a bowl and stirred well, no cooking).
4. Spoon the filling into the tortillas, spinkle a little cheese inside, roll, place in baking dish.
5. Once all enchiladas are rolled, spoon sauce on top making sure to cover everything then sprinkle with cheese (I spinkled with cheese and more garlic salt).
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F.

Vegetable Jambalaya

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 181
Protein 6g
Carbohydrates: 25g
Sugars: 8g
Fat: 7g
Saturates: 1g

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red onion, cut into 8
1 eggplant, diced (I used 2 more bell peppers, zucchini is good too)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 3/4 oz baby corn on the cob, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup frozen peas
3 1/2 oz small broccoli florets
2/3 cup vegetable stock
8 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp creole seasoning
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the rice according to directions on bag/box
2. Heat oil in heavy bottom skillet and cook garlic and onion stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes
3. Add eggplant, bell pepper, corn, peas, and broccoli to the pan and cook, stirring occassionally for 2-3 minutes
4. Stir in the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes, tomato paste, creole seasoning and chili flakes
5. Season to taste, cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender
6. Stir in cooked rice, mixing well, for 3-4 minutes. Serve immediately.

If too spice add butter or cheese to the jambalaya. I use the leftovers for Vegetable Enchildas.

Menu Planning Monday

Here's my nutritional menu for the week, low cal and low fat. For more participants see Org Junkie's list.

Sunday: Vegetable Jambalaya

Monday: Vegetable Enchiladas (using leftovers from Sunday)

Tuesday: Late Father's Day dinner out

Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff (from Dr. B recipes)

Thursday: Lemon Chicken

Friday: Tilapia fish in black bean sauce

Saturday: Tofu and veggies, pork and green beans - chinese style

Sunday: Kraft Foods Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Recipes to follow, I forgot the cookbooks, where I have it available I'll include nutritional information

Happy Mother's Day

Today is mother's day, and I really owe my mom a lot. I realize as I grow older just how lucky I am, and I owe that to 2 main things. God's grace, and mom's teaching.

I'm happily married because I had a good mom who loved us, cherished us which taught us to love ourselves and cherish ourselves, so that we would be able to give the same of ourselves to others. She taught us compromise and sacrifice as marriage is about that too. I'm lucky that my husband was also raised by a mom who taught him these things and that God gave us these wonderful mom's and each other. She taught us to be individuals and self sufficient, so even unmarried we would be happy.

We're not struggling financially because my mom taught me always to do my very best, to educate myself to strive to do things that I thought I might not be capable of, not to settle for good enough, when I know I can do better, but to also have compassion for myself and to give myself a chance to learn new things, they don't have to be done perfectly right away. She taught me to get an education and finish that education and not waste my intelligence. Because of this, I'm gainfully employed, even if I work too hard and I'm hard on myself if I don't complete things to my satisfaction in the timeline I set myself, I do set my expectations of myself very high.

I'm healthy because my mom taught me the importance of regular medical checkups. I see my dentist and doctor regularly, I could eat better, but I could also be worse, at least I know when I'm not eating well.

When things feel bad I learned that the world would not stop moving right along, because honestly if it did whenever someone felt bad, the world wouldn't ever move. So I learned that this too shall pass, it applies to the good and the bad though :)

I learned a lot about life from my mother, and hopefully one day I'll realize all the important things she's taught me about motherhood and I'll be able to pass them on to children of my own.

Happy mother's day mom and to all the mommies out there, may you all realize the impacts you have in the lives of those around you.

7 random things (since I was tagged....)

by Jenn!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. When I interlace my fingers, my left thumb is on top, although I'm right handed.
2. For all of my adult career life I've always had to explain what I do (even though I've already had 2 careers). I enjoy explaining it more than doing it.
3. Used to run my hand along the wall when I walked down a hallway, I also sometimes try not to step on lines or cracks in the tiling.
4. When trying to figure something out I would have a conversation with myself, I can do this in my head now without moving my hands. I used to walk down hallways at university mouthing words and waving my hands.
5. I make funny little noises with notes sort of when I'm very happy. I discovered this when dating my husband. He smiles so widely that tears come and his jaw aches.
6. My brother does #5 too, but very loudly.
7. I notice little things about myself that remind me of my mother more and more. (Like this week I realized I don't like the windows down in the car anymore, I don't like the wind moving my hair around my scalp, my mom doesn't like it either).

Tagging: Chrissa, Hope, JennyV, Beck, Michelle (Scribbit), Antique Mommy, Laura (Org Junkie)

Wedding Day

Today is the day my little brother gets married. It's funny saying that... little brother... not getting married. I still think of him as about 15, probably because I don't feel very old myself (18-21 ish rather than the 34 that I am).

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day, a surprising 23 degrees Celsius, considering that on Monday it was about 5 degrees. I've been hoping for the last 2 weeks it would be warm and sunny for them, no flowers, but at least it will be warm taking pics down by the beach. Most of us are wearing suits, the Bride will probably be fine, we'll all be sweating.

I wrote my speech early this morning, I hope it's OK, I haven't practiced it a lot. Anyway, off to make myself pretty for the family photos.

Home coming

Thank you all for praying, Ron is coming home today. He's not healed yet, and still has 5 rounds of chemo, and still blind, but praise God he's able to come home, please keep praying.

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle?

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle? Or better yet participate in one? Over the last few months I've been praying along with many many others for Annie and Ron, you can read the details of their story here. Today though I feel compelled to invite as many people as I can to pray too, because the timeline of Ron's story matches that of a miraculous season in the Christian calendar.

Here is a synopsis of Ron's story:
Dec 22 2006: Diagnosed with a brain tumour
Dec 23 3006 moved 1300kms from home to get the care he needed
Dec 27 2006: Biopsied the tumour, its inoperable and malignant
Jan 10 2007: Arrive at the cancer centre for treat of a grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, treatment won't erradicate the tomour, only try to control it
Jan 23 2007: Radiation and chemotherapy treatment starts
Feb 21 2007: Ron has declined very rapidly and the doctors estimate he has 5 days left
March 6 2007: Ron is moved to a palliative care centre and his life expectancy is extended to 3 weeks.
March 21 2007: Ron continues to improve and is getting stronger each day although he is unable to see and begins the chemo portion of his treatments on the 26th.
March 26 2007: Ron begins chemotherapy

Those of us that have been praying for Ron already know God has done so much for him and his family and blessed those that have been praying for them. There is no denying the glorification of God when you participate in His miracles.

Today I have felt called to share Annie and Ron's story with more people, to encourage more people to pray during this week, especially this week, known as Holy Week to Christians.

So if you've been praying keep it up, if you haven't start, and if you wouldn't then I challenge you to challenge yourself, I dare you to move out of your comfort zone and see what we see, experience what we have experienced. God is moving very powerfully in this direction join the flow.

Change of Face

For a few years now I've been thinking of changing my handle. A handle for those of you that don't know is your online nick. So no more warpie (originally a derivative of mindwarp) now it's odat (or odat_kim), its the acronym of the new title for my main blog (One Day At a Time). It was between odat and C2C and serenity (C2C = courage to change). So anyway, odat it is for now, it may change again (although it may take 10 years like the last change). Anyway, new handle, new face, new perspective.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday, so in honour of the occassion, this post is dedicated to her.

Moms
Moms are incredible people, and my mom is no different than any other. It astounds me how moms can accomplish so many things, things that I bet none of them ever thought they could before that fist tiny helpless bundle arrived in their lives to change everything. I was that bundle for my mom. Moms sacrifice a lot for their families and from what I can see from my own mother, rather than bringing resentment it brought pleasure and I think that's one wonderful thing about my mom. I'm also astounded by all the things moms can accomplish in a 24 hour period or a 7 day week, or a 52 week year, bet you never did that pre-kids and you don't give yourselves credit for it now... give yourself a pat on the back for all those years of taking care of the family and managing all the to do lists, and still raising great, well adjusted, healthy kids, that's a major accomplishment!

My Mom

• My mom raised 2 kids, cared for a sister and husband.
• She single handedly took care of all the chores and day to day needs of so many of us, even when we could bloody well do it ourselves, and should have, lazy unappreciating buggers that we were. I dont ever remember my mom losing her temper or cool about it though. I appreciate it and recognize it now mom, I have no idea how you managed to do it all, and your deserve being recognized, however late, that it is appreciated, and your amazing.
• Mom taught us values in knowing what matters to ourselves and not being influenced by others to abandon our core beliefs
• Mom taught us honesty, she rarely got mad if we made a mistake, only if we hid it from her. Maliciousness of course was not tolerated.
• Mom taught us respect, for ourselves, for family, for others, for things. By teaching us this, we can take care of ourseves and don't fall into what the crowd might be doing, we acknowledge when we've done wrong and stick around to accept the punishment. We respect others and their things so that we get along with others, the world does not revolve around our needs, wants and desires and we take care of those without infringing on the right of another to meet their needs, wants and desires. We also know the value of a sincere apology.
• Mom taught us cooperation, because we can't do it all alone, and it lifts each of us up and builds relationship to cooperate, no man is an island.
• Mom taughts us independence, which came from respect and values, we don't ask for things we can do ourselves, it is not another's responsibility to meet our needs.

Go Green for March

In honour of Going Green for March I will endeavour to do the following:

1. Turn down the thermostat 1 degree (day) 2 degrees (night)
2. Replace as many lights as I can with high efficency bulbs, (save the still working floursecents for where I can't do replacements)
3. Buy more organic food
4. Buy food with less wrapping
5. Have a box in the upstairs washroom and basement for compostables
6. Unplug unused electronics
7. Buy a houseplant
8. Make the toilets into lower water use ones
9. Wash large pots and bowls by hand so I can fit more into the dishwasher
10. Use dishwasher and laundry/dryer in off peak hours
11. Weather strip the cold cellar door
12. Only boil as much water as I need for tea/coffee
13. Look into wrapping the water heater and checking the temp on it (can I turn it down a degree or two)
14. Walk more often (i.e. to the buss when I take it rather than getting a ride)
15. Evaluate my water and electricity usage for waste of resources
16. Eat more fruit and vegetables (less packaging)
17. Buy things in bulk (if there is less packaging)
18. Look for fewer disposable items that I use regularly
19. Look into reusable feminine products
20. Look for items I need in reusable/refillable containers
21. Look for biodegradable cleansers
22. Consider manual rather than electric replacements for items that might need replacing this year
23. Find local battery recycling (cell phones too if possible)
24. Freecycle
25. Buy items used or reconditioned
26. Rechargeable batteries for our devices
27. Borrow instead of buy low usage items (i.e. hedge trimmer)
28. Take more public transit
29. Make shopping lists and take them with me when I leave the house so I can just make one trip, or do it after work and then take the bus home
30. Re-learn riding a bike (yes you do have to relearn to balance well after 20 years! And it takes awhile because those seats are *not* comfortable)
31. Use a dust rag for dusting rather than paper towels

Lent

Ash Wednesday I believe is this week. I don't often observe lent, or at least not in any major way. However, letely I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with God and His Holiness (see my 15 minutes with G blog).

A number of years ago my pastor said that if we want to do something for Lent to examine our lives and see if there is anything that stands in our way of our relationship with God or spending time with him, then for Lent endeavour to remove (or insert) that objective.

This year, I'm going to leave my laptop at work, over the last 18 months that I've had a laptop I've spent fairly regular time on it at home, so I'm going to leave it at work so that I can put other relationships before work. I do have to make a few exceptions. Firstly for the next release, I'll probably have to bring my laptop home that weekend. I may also bring it home if a snowstorm is predicted so I can work from home the next day, lastly if I'm on call I need the computer. Other than that it stays at work, I'll even endeavour not to work late as whatever it is can wait for the next day.

Funny puppy

I think I have mentioned before that I think it's very funny how Drake sleeps on his back. Although he does it very often as soon as you bring out the camera to snap a photo he stretches and rolls over, losing the shot. Well we finally got 2 shots, yes he woke up and started stretching. As you can see sleeping against this particular wall in the basement is where we spends about half his sleep time, and he sleeps on his back with his paws on the wall as you can see from the chipped paint and scratch marks (I painted this wall in late September, and the marks have been there for awhile now, I wonder if the chipping was him eating it or not).

Anyway on to the pics.

Works For Me Wednesday

Well I was going to post this last week, but since that was a themed WFMW, I'll post it this week.

I redid my filing cabinet one night when I couldn't sleep because it was taking me too long to file.

First I put all the files I likely wouldn't need again at the back of the cabinet behind the divider (i.e. non current tax years, I have to keep them in case I'm audited).

Then in front of the tax year folders I put folders that I need rarely, like insurance (I only get one letter a year), car repair bills (4 times a year). Investment files from previous years etc.




In the front on the drawer I have the following 6 hanging files:
Household Bills (hanging file) with folders for: water, gas, telephone, electric, property tax (shred old bills)
Credit Card - Each card in it's own folder (shred old bills)
Banking - Each bank in it's own folder by year (i.e. CIBC - 2007 moves to the back of the cabinet at the end of the year)
Investments - each company with year in it's own folder i.e. "Fidelity - 2007" then that file moves into the Fidelity folder at the back at the end of the year
Pay Stubs - usually moves into the tax folder for the year
Taxes - 2007 - folders for me and hubby


This makes my filing easy for me, it took me about 2 hours to rearrange things and complete a few months of filing (not much, since it's bills and paystubs). Now it takes only 2 minutes to do a month of filing, whoppee!

For more Works For Me Wednesday solutions head on over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots, salad (OK so I mofied this by cooking on low for 8 hours and adding the cut up potatoes and baby carrots, peas too)

Tuesday: Steak Fajitas

Wednesday: Ground Beef Stew

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Dinner with the girls

Saturday: Chicken Cordon Bleu in slow cooker

Sunday: Irish Stew in slow cooker

Head over to Laura's blog to participate. By request I've added all the slow cooker recipes, which by the way I get from Sandra's blog on Thursdays, I also haven't tried any of these! :)

Green Earth

Reading over Chrissa's and Julie's posts, I too think I should do something for the environment on a regular basis, especially considering that's what my degree is in (Environmental Science and Biology). Actually I'd like to encourage everyone to do something for the environment in 2007. Here are some ideas:

1. Take public transit on a regular basis if you don't already (i.e. if you drive everyday, try once a month on the bus)
2. Walk to the store on a nice day, if you normally drive it
3. Eat fewer convenience foods, good for you, less processing and less waste
4. Volunteer on a rehabilitation project (like plantings in a marsh that's being rehabilitated)
5. Take a daily walk and pick up one piece of litter that you see on the ground, even better if you can recycle that litter.
6. Turn off/unplug appliances you don't need regularly (do you really need to see the time on your microwave if you're not using it several times a day? Stereo?)
7. Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth
8. If you have a large tank toilet put a full bottle of water on the side of the tank to help reduce the water consumption 500ml or 16oz bottle (provided this doesn't start to mean you have to flush twice).
9. Wash your pots in the sink rather than the dishwasher, means you can fit more in your dishwasher and you use less water and electricity
10. Let your dishwasher air dry rather than heat dry your dishes (if you can)
11. Choose an energy star appliance the next time you have to replace one.
12. If you have a radio alarm clock change to one you have to wind up
13. Get rechargeable batteries
14. Don't fall asleep in front on the TV with the lights on at night, go to bed
15. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (next time you change one and if they fit in your light fixture).
16. When doing the laundry hang hard to dry clothing for awhile so it doesn't take your dryer as long to dry them (i.e. towels, jeans). Choose a quicker cycle on the washer, you're clothes are likely not that dirty, if they are, pre-soak in a bucket of hot water, then wash. Also wash in cold water.
    
    If you have more ideas let me know!