Racking My Brains - Please Help!

At some point in the last few months, I came across some really neat printables for an emergency binder. I remember that on one page, there was space for spare keys, insurance cards, and other nifty things. I cannot find it for the life of me. If that page belonged to someone who regularly reads, please let me know! I'm working on my emergency binders and I really want to use them! In the meantime, if I find it, I'll post about it.

Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure for today is the first day of summer vacation!

Today was my first day off. I treasured it, because it's one of the very few I have this year. If you were around last year, I had off all summer because I took three certification classes and spent nearly all my time working on getting us a house. This year, I don't have anymore certification classes, and I have a large expense looming at the end of the year. I have three jobs this summer - a one-week service trip, a morning camp working with arts and crafts, and an evening job teaching kids one-on-one. I will be one busy chiquita!

Today, I got to spend time with my best friend from Oklahoma, who is planning my bridal shower and bachelorette party for this fall. I'm so excited! We gushed about our respective wedding plans, took her 18 month old niece to lunch and Ikea. It was really great to see them. She's been on (roughly) the same cruise I'm going on, so she was able to give great insight.

What Do They All Have in Common?

What do all of these pictures have in common?

GoCentralAmerica

www.top-things-to-do.com

www.caribbeancruiselinedestinations.com

CaribbeanVacationGuide.com

They're pictures of where we'll be for our honeymoon in December!!! We had originally decided to go to New York City. We figured it's Christmas-y. Then, after careful consideration, we realized it will be packed, and that it'd be really nice to go somewhere warm. We just blipped into a travel agency "just to see" what they had to offer. Long story short, we're going on a 7 day cruise to the western Caribbean. We'll be going from Miami to Grand Cayman, to Isla Roatan, to Belize, to Cozumel, Mexico, back to Miami. I'm so excited!!!

The hard part will be paying for excursions. I didn't realize you had to pay for EVERYTHING (including beach access!) on the islands. Crazy, eh? I'll have three different jobs this summer, while getting paid from my school job, so I'm really hoping to be able to save up quite a bit.

Any tips, advice, etc on honeymooning in the Caribbean or cruises in general?

Gardens, Herbs, and Kitchen Tables

Today is a random collection of things that make me happy (and not-so-happy in the case of the last part).

I'm just so in love with how things have turned out, I had to put up another picture. The blue bowl on the ground is full of beer. We've had a slug problem, and they will be lured into the beer and drown.

Look at those gorgeous snap peas!

And a close up of the beauties...My peas will be harvested tonight for Sunday dinner!

My first ever tomato! (a roma paste tomato)

We realized that we don't really eat lettuce, so we ripped out all but four plants and put in extra squash instead. Why have it take up space when we don't want it?

My potential hibiscus are about to bloom. We'll soon find out if that is indeed what they are!

*B* made a gorgeous planter with a form of sedum (sedum hispanicum) we picked up at the local home and garden center.

I also tried my hand at freezing and drying herbs last night.

I picked some basil evenly from all plants.

I rolled one big leaf or two little leaves together from stem to tip.

I cut the basil rolls into strips (I believe it's called chiffonade).

I put the basil into ice cube trays, and filled them with water.

They freeze up quite nicely. When totally frozen, pop them out and put them into a labeled freezer bag. They're really good in drinks, or they can be defrosted for recipes.

I cut five sprigs of basil off of my plant and rinsed and spun them dry.

I put them on a paper towel to get rid of the rest of the water.

I pruned some leaves off the end (used later) and tied twine around the end. I found it best to make a slipknot, throw it over the sprigs, then tie multiple knots in it. I had more control over the stems that way.

Here are other herbs I harvested from bottom left, clockwise: parsley, cilantro flowers, mint, thyme, and the rest of the rosemary.

The thyme I froze flat and threw into a Ziploc. Each of the others went into their own cube, covered in water, and treated like the basil.

Yesterday, I also used my genius to re-purpose a too-small hamster wheel. Because we keep our hamsters in aquariums rather than steel sided cages, the water bottles are hard to accommodate. We bought a glass water bottle. I hooked the frame from our old wheel onto the top of the cage, and hung the water bottle from that.

Doesn't this look nifty??

My not-so-happy section: My grandmother bought us an oak kitchen table a few months ago. It is gorgeous. I've been trying to find a tablecloth for it, but have not yet had any luck. A couple of days ago, I noticed some water on it. I wiped it off and this happened:

Where I wiped took all the finish off. So here is my question for all of you knowledgeable people - how does one fix this problem and how can I care for the table in the future?

Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure is buying my wedding dress! A friend and I went to pick out her bridesmaid dress. I picked the bottom and she picked the top. While we were there, I noticed that they were having a sale on all of their dresses. I just HAD to get it then and not wait until August like my mom wanted. We'll be married in six months and two weeks, so it seemed like the right time. It was just perfect all the way around. I tried it on again to see how it'd fit. The dress is gorgeous. I'm still just a tad nervous because the dress I had on was blue and I'm getting red, but we held up a sash in front and it didn't look bad at all. While I was wearing it, my friend "proposed" that I should be her bridesmaid when she gets married next year :o) I'm so excited!

Tending a Different Garden

I've rewritten this post many times in many ways for the past few months, but I've never completed it. I am hopeful that tonight's the night.

Flickr Pic

The tenth commandment is "you shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s." (Exodus 20:17). When I think of coveting, I think of wanting something to the point of trying to take it. To covet, according to Mr. Webster, means "to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another." Really, coveting is the heart of American society. We've taken sin and turned it not just into a business, but a way of life. We even have an expression for it - "keeping up with the Joneses." It seems hard to get through the day without coveting something. We covet a pair of shoes we see on a website, a house for sale down the road, someone else's stationery at work, we even covet people's lives. How often have we said "I wish I were her?" What's wrong with saying "I'm glad I'm me?"

For most of my 24 years, I have let other people's perceptions run my life. I look to others to gauge my self worth and success in this world. I've let my parents tell me I'm too fat, and I learned to covet others' physiques. I've let others scare me into second guessing my decisions and opinions, and I learned to devalue myself. I've listened to others bash the lives of other people, and I've learned to be judgmental. I've listened to other people gush about possessions, and I've learned to covet.

All of these negative lessons have really put a strain on me. As cheesy as it sounds, they've hurt my heart - physically and emotionally. My anxiety symptoms are mostly physical, with palpitations being the scariest. But I get over my panic attacks. The emotional damage lasts far longer.

I read The Shack by William Paul Young this past summer. It really did touch me deeply. I now go back to a passage which was my favorite. The protagonist, Mac, lost a daughter tragically. His hatred, guilt, and grief was a heavy burden for him. With the help of the Holy Spirit, he tilled up thick, poisonous roots in order to make room for a garden. It became clear to him that in order for the beautiful things in life to flourish, we must flush out those things that hold us back and poison our hearts.

So what do all of these random paragraphs have to do with one another? I am cultivating a different garden than that usually featured in my posts. I am cultivating my inner garden. I am doing my best to flush out those things that cause me nothing but pain and grief in order to make room for joy, beauty, and contentment.

Because I love lists, here we go:
- I will deal with my issues in a healthy way
- I will accept my genetics as they are while focusing on health
- I will do my best to figure out who I am and what I want
- I will learn to not be so guarded with those around me
- I will learn to be "the friend a friend would like to have"
- I will find a church I like, no matter how embarrassed I get

Borrowed from Website

How do you tend your inner garden?

Oh So Excited!

I went out to the garden today and was so very excited about what I saw. We have sweet peas and snow peas! See??

Sweet peas (and my hand)

Snow peas (look hard, they're there in the middle)

I think, but I'm not sure, that my lettuce is bolting. That's okay. We planted all sorts of lettuce to get us to eat salad. We don't like salad. Next year (or maybe this year when I get tired of putting it off) I'm using that plot for more squash. As of right now, we've harvested strawberries, lettuce, and herbs. I'm hoping to add peas to that list very quickly.

*B*'s cactii, which have survived two moves, have new growth on it. We thought it was a goner for sure.

Our sunflower seeds for the birds had gotten wet and started to sprout. *B* threw it into the yard, and now we've got tons of sunflowers in the middle of our lawn!

This sunflower was purposeful. It's one of two that haven't been eaten, and both of them are OUTSIDE the fence!

The cilantro has flowered. I'm really excited to try herb flowers in recipes.

*B* and I took a nice walk to and from the library tonight. I don't know why we don't walk around town more often. I definitely think it's a matter of how we grew up. I am definitely looking forward to changing that norm. I've decided, starting today, to try to eat healthfully again. It was a little difficult, but I managed to eat well today AND burn almost 400 calories at the gym. Yay me!