Less Hustle More Coffee

So the chair corner is complete! The table is in, the pillow is in, the throw added, the lamp in place, the books in the holder, and a drink on top! George had to help with the table. I couldn’t get the first screw in as the grooves were not very good and bolt would not screw on it. George was able to force it and gave me tips on how to do these things, such as Lefty Loosy and Righty Tighty. LOL LOL

I debated back and forth about keeping the White Board on the wall but the look just defeated me. So it had to change! The White Board was moved.

The white board ended up in the corner there by the desk. It looks better there. I use it a lot to keep me focused on things that are not really on a to do list but I want to remember. So I’m taking these with my camera and I’m just not good at the indoor lighting yet. I probably needed a flash to tell you the truth. I haven’t taken many lessons yet. They were even hard to fix with lighting effects. But I’ll get there one day when I have time to resume the lessons.

I am happy with the office changes. I think it meets my purposes now much better. The chair was an excellent addition for meeting my needs. Its much more enticing to do a devo and prayer now than it is at the desk which pulls you into the computer instead of writing and studying.

As mentioned before, I still wanted that side table there for projects. I needed the horizontal surface! And of course you see that Roger is there. We were putting the table together and he fell asleep there. Yes he is wearing a diaper!

I pulled some little signs from my “beachy” spare bedroom and added the sign board over the chair.

And the Thankful pillow…..warms my heart and reminds me to be thankful for all of our blessings and I will see it every morning when I approach the chair. Thankfulness is a part of my written prayers to God in my Prayer journal.

Revelations, How the Earth Ends

I finished the book of Revelation this week. Wow! What an ending. If you want to see how it all ends, go check it out. It’s quite the show. It will top every block buster you have ever seen. I once thought it was hard to understand Revelations. I had always approached it with much trepidation. And in reading it I think it was not so much hard to understand as just hard to imagine. Most of us in our lives are just not used to seeing such graphic scenes. We are told in this book, that you are blessed if you read it. You know me, I’m always wondering how or why we are blessed for reading it. I can think of several reasons:

1. Gosh while all that was going on if you are present for it, at least you will know how it ends.
2. And you will know what is coming.
3. And you will know what things are represented and why – the 7 lampstands, for example, represent the 7 churches of Asia.
4. You see the reward in descriptive beautiful detail (of heaven, the New Jerusalem) and to hold on to your faith regardless.
5. You know not to accept “the mark of the beast” in which people accept it to worship the one who has 666 on his forehead.

I did a screenshot of this on the internet showing the jewels that are contained in heaven. Although two of these are different from what the Bible says (perhaps they have two names, but I’m not totally familiar with some of these gems).

However, for the most part we can expect these gems to be in heaven. I really had not “taken in” the description of heaven so much other than remembering that the streets were of gold, the gates were pearly, and there would be no night, no crying, no death, no pain. But I really “took in” the reading about heaven. If I understood correctly the actual gates are big huge pearls – not made of pearls but each gate made of one big pearl and have the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed. Wow. That’s big. There are twelve foundation stones in the wall surrounding heaven, representing the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

I did some research on how big heaven is based on the Biblical definitions of “stadia” and “cubits”, which you have no choice but to look up on the internet really and see how many feet are in them. And do the math. I had come up with at minimum 1379.54 miles and as big as 1431.81 miles. Somewhere I read on the internet where they calculated about 1500. I was not far off. My math is only as good as the definitions of stadia and cubits as found on the internet. I screenshot this giving us North Americans some perspective of the size of heaven. So approx 1500 in width, length, and height!

And this is what I wanted to do when I put this room together. A place to study, learn, grow, teach, share, be creative, and go from there. So I’ve put the new room to purpose!

Tagine Cooking

George cooked with the Tagine I bought him for Christmas. Tagines are a Moroccan style of cooking. You layer meats and veggies along with oils and herbs and spices. Part of it, is the steam that rises through it that helps it to cook. Our tagine is glazed which means that it doesn’t have to be seasoned before cooking.

You start with butter and then keep adding the ingredients. And BTW, I video’d this for a future YouTube Vlog so it’ll be there. Here were the ingredients he used. Candle not included, and neither is the dog food over in the corner, LOL.

Other than the chopping it didn’t seem to take too long to cook. About like anything else – 40 minutes or so. The sweet potatoes almost did not get done, but they were done just enough. He added frozen peas and also you cannot see that there is preserved lemon on the table as well as onion and garlic. He used the spice in the blue can which is Ras El Hanout a Moroccan Spice. Neither can you see the Yogurt and cilantro we added to each plate at the end. See final result down below and you can see it there.

To describe what Ras El Hanout is I’ve copied a blurb from Google.

“The mixture usually consists of over a dozen spices, in different proportions. Commonly used ingredients include cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, coriander seed, peppercorn, sweet and hot paprika, fenugreek, and dry turmeric.”

Since we plan to cook with this quite a bit (maybe some weight loss if didn’t add that french bread on the side which gathered the juices and was exquisite!) – anyway, since we plan to cook with this a bit, I decided it was a MUST for him to have this spice already blended as opposed to making our own.

What surprised me was:

1. How good the tomatoes were.
2. The preserved lemon added a lot of distinct flavor that did not taste like lemon juice.
3. How good that the yogurt was to spread around on top, that added a lot of flavor and reminded me of greek food and their yogurt cucumber dressing.
4. The couscous was really good underneath it all and
5. The french bread (baguette sliced) was sooooo good to soak up the juices. Normally I don’t like any bread soggy but this was perfection as you still had the crusty structure to the french baguette slice.

This was a basic beef recipe, which George wanted to start out with. Next he is going for lamb. But this recipe here is a keeper. I think I could eat out of the Tagine every night and be happy. I’m posting this pic below for a 2nd time so you can notice the diffuser here underneath the Tagine – that was recommended to keep the heat source from cracking the pot with changes in temps. While you can only see its handle, it is a metal plate of sorts that diffuses the heat gradually. The Tagine can also go into an oven as well and be transferred back and forth for certain dishes.

Enjoying the Weekend

Gosh we enjoyed our day yesterday, both getting to do things we love and enjoy as well as doing some work too. Got some laundry done and worked on the office as you saw. Studied and organized my world a bit. I videod a lot of things yesterday which took considerable time. I videod the office additions and George’s cooking and also him making our drinks. He made a Paloma for me which was recommended to go with the meal. He made a bloody mary for him.

I fixed a big bowl of popcorn and watched a YouTube show or two. And I got the back up drive and the external hard drive ordered! Yay! That means next weekend I can back up and download Big Sur as I’ve been talking about forever!

I opened up my Collagen Elixer and will start taking it today. I’ll let you know how it works. Here’s what is in it. I’m interested to see how it tastes. Hold on – I’m gonna go get it now while I’m doing this blog entry. LOL

Ok, surprisingly it tastes like COMMUNION at church. It’s like a grape drink. So it has a marine collagen blend, biotin, zinc, vitamin C and acerola berry extract among other things. Oh I love this taste. I may not be able to give this up. lol I also like the glass bottles. Although I’m not sure what you could do with them. I look forward to THAT everyday – Wow! I am taking a pic every day to see if I notice a difference.

A quick google of what studies say:

Some studies show that taking collagen supplements for several months can improve skin elasticity, (i.e., wrinkles and roughness) as well as signs of aging. Others have shown that consuming collagen can increase density in bones weakened with age and can improve joint, back and knee pain.

I also have figured out that Saturday is just a great filming day! I get up and after coffee and blog, go take a shower and fix myself up with hair and makeup! Then I can “vlog” til my hearts content, LOL. I did a few videos without a lot of make up and hair, and I was not happy with it!

I’ve also decided I’m enjoying the longer version of my hair and I probably need to keep doing it myself. It’s actually how I’ve wanted my hair all along – or close to it. I’m still learning how to style it while it’s longer. Like the bangs, mmmm I’m not sure about having them roll under so much, but I like the curls on the side coming into my face. I found a hairspray that holds pretty good w/o being sticky. Probably not to days end though. Here’s the back. I’m due for another trim though – just slightly – but this length is good. I always wanted my hair to do this, even back in highschool but I had to get a perm back then to do it. Now I just use my curling/blowdryer – it’s a blow dryer with brush attachments and works better than anything I’ve ever owned. And quickly too.

The Rest of the Weekend

Here’s George’s to do list pad on the Fridge! Seemed like a good place to insert that pic as I talk about my to do list today.

Things I have to do today:

• Put my Vitamins in the little daily holders, along with the BP Meds
• Finish laundry
• Iron
• Fix Beef Stew for tonight
• Check the Weather for this week
• Plan my outfits (it helps so much each morning to have this all mapped out already)
• Do my nails

Things I Really SHOULD do today:

• Clean house a bit more (vacuum/dust/pick up/put up)
• Put our normal nic nacs back out from where I took them up to put out Christmas
• Decide where we are going for Valentines Dinner in case we need reservations
• Set up my next autoshop on THAT SYSTEM I DO.
• Do the software update for my phone and Apple Watch.
• Continue to clear of emails
• Look up the next recipe (I’ve cooked twice this week, and want to continue to help out in the kitchen)
• Look into Elder Care/Senior Care (Basically how to care for aging parent period – I know NOTHING!)

Things I WANT TO DO today:

• Start a Spring Check List
• Do a camera lesson
• Watch YouTube Shows
• Read
• Work on a New Intro for the Videos
• Start working on getting the videos/photos I’ve taken into their respective “video files”
• Plan future videos, although they do a good job of just happening

So ok quite the blog entry today! I need to go DO SOMETHING, AnYtHinG from these lists! ha.