Crazy Week, Crazy Pizza

This has just been a crazy week, filled with hospitals, Dr.s and everyday business. My Aunt had a trip to the E.R. and is doing just fine now, but a day was full of testing and waiting. My Mother, whom is leagally blind, doctors in another state and I am her only child here, so I am blessed to have the time with her while driving.

Of course, there is also the everyday business of life that fills our days and keeps me running at a faster pace than I am sometimes comfortable with.

However, I managed to slide in trying a new recipe. I spotted a carb free pizza crust recipe at a blog that I read on occasion called: "Healthy Indulgences". This little lady eats gluten and sugar free and makes some amazing desserts and a few other things. Totally cool!!!!!

I am always thinking of ways to feed my sweet husband that will keep him healthy and his levels within the normal area as far as his blood sugars go.

I tweeked, for my convenience, the recipe that was on her blog, and this is what I came up with!

8 oz of Mozzarella Cheese

2 Eggs

3 oz of Mild Cheddar Cheese

1 oz of fresh Parm. Cheese (not the stuff in the green jar!)

11/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 to 2 tsp of Italian Seasoning

This is how I made the crust: mix the 2 eggs, approx. 5 oz of the Mozz. cheese, 2 oz of cheddar & 1/2 of the parm, the garlic powder and italian seasoning. I spread this on a non-stick pizza pan and baked at 400* for about 15 minutes.

I removed the crust from the oven, put a cutting board over it and Flipped it over, than slid it back onto the baking sheet......I must admit, I wish that I would have wiped off the grease from the pan as I believe it would have firmed up the crust a bit more.

Next, I topped the pizza with a jarred sauce, pre-cooked sausage, pre-cooked roasted peppers, tomatoes and onions (both also pre-cooked)....this all my hubbies side.

MY side was topped with sauce, fresh basil leaves and more cheese.

The remaining cheese was put on top and the pan was put back under the BROILER for about 3 minutes.

Along with it I served a lovely romaine lettuce salad topped with Parmesan shavings.

This is what it looked like, and it tasted quite wonderful! After it cools a bit, slices can be picked up and eaten as a regular bread crust pizza would be!

And the best thing.....2 hours after eating, my hubby took a blood sugar reading, and guess what!!!! Very normal reading!!! Smack Dab in the middles of the normal range!!!

You may be un-impressed, but can I tell you, that when he eats pizza with a bread crust, his readings are usually 40 to 60 points above the normal range....which is not soooooooooooo bad, but since this process keeps him in place, it WILL be the pizza of choice for us from now on!!!

Have a superb Thursday everyone!!!

A Bit More "POP"!!

This is a portion of my living room, the south wall, which is flooded with light from the french doors, large double window and the view is of a flowing river that is our back yard.
Have I told you that we live on the river? Well, we do! And God's creation is AMAZING!!
It is not a clear water river, but it reflects the beauty of the blue sky and floods our home with the most amazing light!

This is the wall before I added a bit of color....now, we are putting in new flooring in the next few weeks, and that may mean new wall color. The flooring will be a dark walnut stained bamboo and I am fearful that it will mean we need to lighten up the walls, so you will notice a couple of paint samples awaiting approval by my husband and I....others have already voted, and it is now 2 to 1 on the paint color....more later.

A full view of the wall area, LOVE the chair!!!

View of the pictures, that will change in a blink of an eye!!!

Did you blink???? An antique frame picked up for $5 at an antique store....not in the best shape when I purchased it, but nothing a bit of paint cannot fix!!!

And here is the print that I made the other day with the sight that I linked here for you....our family in cool colors that reflect the colors in the chair and in the frame above. LOVE IT!!!

And as you can tell....one of my spring painting projects is the refinish the end tables that we have in our living room!

But you can see here....the finished product, a $5 fix for a very monochromatic look.....what will you punch up with color in your home????????

Painted Vases II

Ok, I did do the work to paint a couple of old vases that were collecting dust in my basement, as I did not want to experiment on something that I cherished and would be concerned over making it un-usable.

So, I decided to paint one in the blue I had lying around and another in a "metallic" silver, as I LOVE mercury glass and thought it to be worth trying.....failure for sure!

Now, the painting part was quite easy and does turn out a pretty, shiny container when using colors of paint.....metallics do not work in my opinion.

Here are the pictures of the process for me......I would suggest to you that clean, clean and clean again the container before painting, as any speck of anything still inside the glass will show.

The vases before......

Taped off........

Blue Vase....not bad!

"Silver" vase.....failure, oh well, it is nice to know that I can do bright things, fun things and will never worry about silver again (unless bought from Home Goods!!!)

The Coolest!!!!

How cool is this!!!! It is a site called "Wordle" and you can put anything you want in as far as script and it will create (with your choice of fonts, colors, etc.) the idea that you would like for a wall art etc.!!!!
You could put in names of the Lord....i.e. Savior, Redeemer, and so on and create a super cool framed gift for a wedding, a family name print as I have done here would be sooooooooo cool for Mother's Day, or an endless number of ideas that you come up with.
And the best thing is......it is free!

http://www.wordle.net/

Have fun playing with this, and I hope your Wednesday will be amazing!!!

Painted Vases

OK, for about a year now (I know....how long will she ponder before she does things? Depends!!) I have been contemplating the ability to paint the INSIDE of vases, jars, etc. to add color without investing any $ into my decor.





Well, I ran across this site and am sharing it with you!

http://madiganmade.blogspot.com/2011/02/diy-painted-milkglass-apothecary-jars.html

I will be the Guinea pig here and try this today when I get home from work, as it is going to get chilly again here, and I am NOT going to spray paint in the basement!





I will take before and after pictures for you and give you a full tutorial on the ease or hair pulling that I find this project to be!

I will be using the same blue paint that I used in a previous post when I updated the lantern....use what you already have I say!!!

Red Dot Day

The Billy Graham Family has asked for us as a community of the United States to put a red dot on our hands.....for the country of Japan.

This red dot is to be a reminder to pray for the people of Japan. Each time you look at your hand, see the red dot, send up a prayer for the people and also for those whom are heading there or are already there in the relief effort.








I personally took a permanent red marker to apply my dot, but how ever you are able to do it is fine.

Have a blessed Friday, and please pray for the people of Japan.

A "Brighter" Thursday!

So, as I said a few blog posts ago, I have lots of home projects to do....all really of my own doing, as other than a new floor, there is nothing that I intend to do that is really a "necessity" per Si, but I have all the materials needed already, so why can't a girl have a little fun!!! Right??? I guess that depends on your definition of "fun". I do have alot of fun taking something that is going to be discarded or just not attractive to me and giving it a new "life" shall we say.

So, here is the first of MANY to come projects that I will be sharing with you all!



This is the before of a little lantern that my mother had in her "give away" pile that she opted to get rid of since her living room was stripped of wall paper and painted a very lively green for a bold pop of color to usher in the spring season...and green is the color of love to my dear Mommy.

Nothing really wrong with this lantern, just sort of dark and dreary for me.



And here is the after! A bright, happy blue that will now "pop" in my living room!!
Amazing what a can of Krylon found in my basement will do to liven up something so simple!
So, get out those cans, find those hidden treasures and make something amazing!!!

Life Changes, Again, and again and again.........

Life..... crazy, contented, full, boring, joyful, sad, sigh filled, laughter filled, the list goes on and on.

New directions are taken, old ones held on too. We change, over and over again. As women it is even more frequent! I know that for me, life can change moment by moment and yet stay the same for long periods of time.

But, one thing in my life NEVER changes. God. I change....boy do I change! I try to be what God wants me to be all the time, failing miserably and having victories on a seemingly daily basis.

And then let's add in all the people and things that surround me that push me into changing even when I don't want to.....I don't believe we can wake and begin a day without pressure from some outside force wanting us to change. I mean, really, how many times can a company "re-make" a product!!! All new! Improved! All in an effort to get ME to change....purchase their product instead of the one that I currently use, ugh!

Environmental changes....it is spring here and green and other beautiful colors are popping out all over the place! OK, this is a change I LOVE!

Family, moving away. To a place I love, to a church I love, to friends I love. It IS a good thing, but again, it changes my life drastically!

Well, a song that speaks to me SOOOOOO LOUDLY is where I choose to Stand today. In the midst of change all over my life, I CHOOSE to STAND.

"I'll stand with arms high and heart wide open,
In awe of the ONE Who gave it all,
I'll stand, my soul, oh Lord, to You, surrendered
All I have is Yours,
All I have is Yours."

God is security, love and peace....even in a crazy, ever changing life....like mine.

SoOoOoOo MuCh To dO!!!!

How many of you have a Spring List of to do's??

I do!!!

I have several projects to get done....and it is not spring cleaning!!! Ewww!
OK, I will do that too. If I have too, and I have too!

I am making a mirror....yes, that is right. I will take pictures as the process goes on and post them here.

I am painting a bench,(which is smaller than this, but the color is marvelous and I am going to be a copy cat for sure!!)














picture frame, possibly the living room and many other things!
I will try to take a few "before" photos for you, as that will make a great accountability agenda for me.

With of all this amazing weather finally moving into our area, I am quite anxious to get things started!!

Let me know about all the cool things that you will be doing this spring!!

Understanding, or The Inability Too.

I know that I have posted "fluffy, feel good" things this past week or two, and it is a good thing to this. Make life joyful. Bring a smile. Love Life!
But in light of what has happened around the world today, I feel I would be off base a bit, if you will, by posting something light hearted today. (well, maybe it would be a welcomed moment of reprieve)

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9


I do not know why God has allowed this tragedy to happen to the people of Japan, and I will not pretend too. All I do know is, that He is greater than all this, and He WILL use it for HIS great glory and the good of men.
Now, that sounds rather odd, that it could in anyway be for the good of men, and my finite mind cannot see or think at this moment of a way that such a huge tragedy can be of any good at all. BUT, this one thing I do know....God loved, loves, always has loved all those who perished today. I do not believe God was trying to "rid the country of Japan of people" God so loves this world and all it's people so much that He gave His Son up to death on the cross that ALL would come to a salvation relationship with Him. He loves His people. period. Does He love all that I do and think? Nope. I sin. You sin. We all sin. God hates sin, but loves people.

Why does tragedy happen? I really don't have the definitive answer for that. I can speculate. Without tragedy, we would probably loose our compassion for others. Without tragedy, we would probably loose site of God. If all was a "walk in the park" all the time, we would rely more fully on ourselves and less on the God of all creation. And yet, I still reel at such extreme happenings as the events of today.

So, what can I do about this situation? I can write about it on my little blog. I can talk about it to my friends and colleagues.
But my best thought is, reach out to the hurting. Pray for them. Love. Pray.

Have a blessed day, and remember to pray for the now homeless, the now morning, the now hurt, the people that God loves so very much.

Sending A Smile

Doesn't this picture just make you smile!!!!









It surly makes me smile!
Have a wonderful Thursday!

Just A Reminder.....

This Saturday Night, March 13th we must set our clocks AHEAD 1 hour....loosing a precious hour of sleep, throwing off the sleeping habits of the 2 and 3 year old in our home, and making for a bit of a grumpy Sunday morning.

BUT, oh the joys of the darkness holding off for an hour more in the evenings!! Oh the joy of warmer days, trees budding, grass greening, flowers sprouting.....joy.



God's great creation springing back to life in this area. God is good, ALL the time.
Have a momentous Wednesday!

Noticing.....

The past few days, as I walk into our bedroom, I have been noticing that there is a great lack of color in there. Don't get me wrong, I am a blessed woman with a beautiful home and a loving family inhabiting it! Our bedroom is quite pretty, but I am noticing it to be a bit monochromatic these days.

Soooooooooooooo, I have decided to add a few "pops" of color. Have not decided on the color as of yet, maybe turquoise, maybe red, orange, purple.....who knows? All I know is that it will be done on the cheap, and with things that I have in home already (well, maybe a yard or two of new material to make some throw pillows)



This picture is an example of "pops" of color being used to uplift this very monochromatic room.
I will not be using a light shade of blue, as we have a bit much of that color already in our home...a lovely color it is, but not to be used in the bed room.

Have a most wonderful weekend, and stand fast for the Lord!

My Mind Is On The Garden

I look out my french doors each day and gaze at the back yard....free of snow and just crying out for some color....flowers, herbs, even a few weeds would be nice right about now! Soon....very soon.
I started my tomato and flower plants yesterday...they are really seeds in wet soil at this point, but in a few short days, I will have the beginnings of 5 different types of tomatoes, 3 types of flowers and 2 different herbs. (other herbs are started straight from the seeds to the outside soil)



I found this picture on a site from Tori James....lovely site it is! It reminded me of the many metal containers and buckets that I painted last year for things like growing herbs, using as napkin, plate, condiment, etc. containers during some of our MANY back yard parties. Mine are all painted in varying shades of blues, greens and creams, as we live on the water and it makes sense to me. Tori has done hers in pinks, but you get the idea of how you can take plain aluminum, tin or galvanized steel containers and turn them into something quite wonderful....and completely useful at the same time!

Have a wonderful time hunting (in the dark corners of your basement or in second hand shops) and painting long forgotten but now useful treasure!!!!