NEW LIFE

I have a Christmas Cactus on my desk and part of the miracle is that it still lives. I have never had a green thumb so therefore, all of my house plants never make it past the age of a few months. My good friend, Helen, gave me this about 2 years ago and it just keeps giving me the miracle of life.
It has survived falling on the floor, sitting on the window sill getting chewed by the cats, over watering, under watering. This Christmas Cactus is a true gift from God via Helen.
Just recently I noticed that another flower was budding so I decided to take pictures in its glorious stages. 
The praises can only go to One.


This original post was done in 2009.  
I am re-posting because this same Christmas cactus has 10 new flowers this month.  A miracle.

Please scroll down for the comments.♥

GETTING INSPIRED

I have been trying to feel inspired to write in my blog and it has been a couple of weeks now.

I have been trying to sell a custom designed card for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in order to raise some money for a Christian sister named Anastasia. Her mom has terminal cancer due to breast cancer and she is in hospice care.

Here is the link - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32770509

I realize the economy is really tough now and spending is difficult but I just keep hearing in my head, that the Lord gives back ten-fold.

I am a seller on Etsy.com and have had very little sales which is fine by me but when it has something to do with giving - I am there.

I belong to an online Christian Women's group on Etsy called Team Christian Artists and Crafters. What a wonderful group of women and if you need prayer - this is where you go.

You might already know that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 at the age of 50. Being new to all of that, I went along with a lumpectomy, chemo therapy and radiation. I was angry the entire time and it might have been my anger that pulled me through all of that. Three years later I was diagnosed once again and this time, knowing more, I opted for a bilateral mastectomy, after which the lab came back to tell me that there were no cancer cells in the breast tissue. My oncologist suggested a little chemo therapy, to which I replied "there is not such thing as a LITTLE." I put my faith in the Lord and the lab results and I am a breast cancer survivor now for 10 years.

Not everyone is as blessed as me and I believe that the Lord has plans for all of us.

SOPHIE'S CREAMED MUSHROOMS ON TOAST

Food and recipes have always been a crucial part of our family. Sophie was my great-grandmother, the person who I was named after. She had passed away before I was born. She came here to America from Lithuania with my great-grandfather Jacob, probably around the late 1880's. Along with her came these delicious recipes, one being creamed mushrooms on toast.

I follow this recipe exactly as written even if I think I could skip a step because I am afraid that it might not taste the same. One time my cousin tried to jazz it up with spices - WRONG! big mistake. These are the most scrumptious creamed mushrooms you will ever have.

5 lbs white button mushrooms

2-1/2 lbs eastern potatoes

1 whole onion left whole

1/2 lb(2 sticks) Breakstone sweet butter - NO SUBSTITITUTES

3 pints heavy cream or enough to cover mushrooms & potatoes in the pot

cut mushrooms into pieces about 1 inch sq. and clean with water put in pot-cover with water and bring to a boil - strain out water

put mushrooms back in pot with whole onion-cover with water-bring to a boil-strain water and take out onion. Add the potatoes

While the mushrooms are being boiled to oblivion and these are the steps that you THINK you can skip(but DON'T) peel and dice the potatoes raw.

So, in the pot you now have the mushrooms and the raw diced potatoes, add the heavy cream to cover them and put in the 2 sticks of butter.

I never said that this recipe was for the feint of heart or dietetic!

keep on a low light and allow to simmer. The butter will melt. You can add salt and pepper to taste. while this is simmering, gently squash SOME of the potatoes - up against the side of the pot to thicken the cream. We really can't say exactly how long this will take but I have been known to have this simmering on a low light for a few hours. STIR every so often because you don't want the bottom to burn! The following day you can add a little milk to loosen them up for re-warming, if you want to.

serve over toast. YUMMY!

This is a dish that we have always saved for special occasions but my family wishes we could have it a lot more often.

IMAGINATION IN THE 1950'S

Back then we did not have computers or video games. An interaction with the TV - if you had one - was sending away for a plastic sheet to put over the TV screen and a magic crayon. The show was WinkyDink and You. Singing along with the Merry Mailman, waiting in gleeful anticipation for Howdy Doody or drawing along with John Gnagy with charcoals that were also a mail purchase.

I love purchasing things that come in the mail even now, even for my grandsons because they wait with such excitment for the item to arrive.

On rainy days, I got to stay in the apartment with my mom and make yarn dolls. That was so much fun. My brother played with his boy toys such as his Davy Crocket everything collection. We even had leather jackets with fringes. Weren't we the envy of the neighborhood. Boys ran around with their coon skin hats and coon tails.

Roller skating meant putting them on your shoes with a skate key to tighten them. Then roller skating on the cement sidewalk. I can still feel the vibration. What fun!

But the best fun of all for me was when I got my Ginny Doll. Every week my mom took me to the "Hobby Store" which a toy store was called back then and bought me a new outfit for Ginny. She was the Barbie of the 50's and I loved to dress her up. Her clothes were so pretty. I still have her. She is cherished.

So today there are computers and video games for my grandsons and Noah has his portable Nintendo DS. I know that we have to be careful about what games to get for him, not too violent. Davy Crocket carried around a rifle but that was to kill a bear, not a person.

I love that Noah has his action figures to play with and uses his imagination. Back in the 50's we used a card table covered in a blanket to make a play house. I have made that suggestion to Noah and much to my excitment he loved the idea.

ANGELS AMONG US

Has a little voice in your head stopped you from being in harms way??

I have my angel encounters that I wish to share with everyone.

I am sure that there have been many but 3 stand out in my head.

I have to go back to 1969 when my sister-in-law Jean and I were driving on Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. She was 8 months pregnant and she was driving. At that time there were many traffic lights on this highway and the light changed just before we got there. She slammed on the brakes in order to stop. We heard screaching brakes behind us and when we looked - there was an 18 wheeler there with not even an inch to spare. He jumped out of the cab - with a wild look in his eyes. He said that "something" told him to put his brakes on because he was just cruising along. If he had not, his truck would have crushed us.

The next encounter was also vehicle related. I was driving on Route 80 and veered off to the right to go down the ramp to the exit for Route 17. There is no stop sign so you just merge. Coming down the ramp at a good clip, "something" told me to stop. Just at that moment a truck came flying by. If I had merged without stopping, I would have been hit.

In 1998, I had a bilateral mastectomy. Having had numerous surgeries before that, I have always been afraid of the anesthesia. When they wheeled me into the surgery room, I prayed to God that He would send His angels to be with me during the surgery. When I woke up in the recovery room, there was a fleeting moment that I felt that I was in the presence of angels. It was the most amazing and calming feeling. I even had a vision of what they looked like. You can believe this or not, but I found pictures of what they looked like to me. I am posting one here. I did ask the creator of this sculpture if this was intentional and she said that she had a vision of what angels looked like to her.

There are angels among us.

PRIORITIES

I believe that we all live with our priorities but have we ever really wondered if they are messed up?

I have not seen my mother for months now. She lives in a garden apartment which has 4 flights of stairs. Having degenerative arthritis I cannot climb those stairs.

She will not come to our home to visit because she does not approve of our way of keeping the house clean. It is a bit cluttered and she refuses to see past the clutter in order to come see me. The only way that I can see her is to meet at a restaurant somewhere but life is always getting in the way so we can never seem to agree on the day or time.

I can remember so many times when something interfered with getting my mother's full attention because other things were always taking priority. Yes, I know that this might sound a little self-centered on my part but I can't help but wonder if HER priorities are just a bit messed up.

I remember back when I was 35 and decided to get a teeny tiny tattoo on my wrist - it was about 1/2" round. The family went to my mom's for the Jewish Holiday meal that particular weekend and when she noticed it, she just closed down and everyone suffered because she could no longer function. I had to leave in order for her to serve the meal.

When my mom's best friend's husband passed away, we were all waiting for my mom to get there so they could continue on with the funeral. She had a little fender bender on the way, so when she did get there, she was taking all the attention because she had a dent in her car, never mind that Estelle, her friend for 50 years at that point, was burying her husband.

So, my mom is now 86, and not seeing her for 5 months is a long time.

Should clutter and a little dust keep you from your loved ones?

I am including some pictures that we took of the kitchen which is wide open to the living area. Comments are welcome.

My Burdens Are So Much Lighter

Romans 12:21 NIV
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

A friend of mine posted about this in her blog this morning and I was just thinking last night how much better I feel that I am not angry all the time. It used to be a way of life for me.

Angry at the man in the deli for not wearing gloves, angry at my kids for not picking up their rooms, angry at my husband for not meeting my expectations, angry at my now adult children for remembering what a crappy mother I was, when I thought I was a good mother, angry at my friend for flirting with my husband and luring him away, angry at my mother for not meeting my expectations.

That is a lot of anger and I am sure there is more to add if I think about it more BUT........

The Lord's words are in my mind and my heart now and the anger has turned to forgiveness and my load of burdens have lightened and it feels really good.

Someone said to me that just because you forgive, does not mean that you have to intelligently forget how you were hurt but when you forgive, it just becomes a faint memory stored back there in your brain.

Like my friend blogged, when someone hurts you, give them a kiss on the cheek and tell them you love them.