trying to do January's Dare starting today

I like this idea by Ann Voskamp who wrote, One Thousand Gifts. If you go to this link: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/01/the-1-habit-your-new-year-cant-do-without-giveaway/ She has a printout for the month of January to aid in giving thanks. If you give thanks for 3 things a day you will meet the goal of giving thanks for about 1,000 things for the year of 2012. This is a real help in developing joy!  Today is 1. giving thanks for something you are reading:

I am thankful for this book on the Church Fathers that I have started reading. It helps to see what the early Fathers believed and it is an aid and confirmation of my faith.

Secondly 2. something I am making--a cup of Tazo tea--it is strong and bold and hot and is helping my sore throat. Thirdly 3. Something I am seeing--and that is her blog :

I want to try to do the dare of counting 1,000 gifts in 2012: Discovering joy as stated here:http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/01/the-1-habit-your-new-year-cant-do-without-giveaway/
Join in as she has several give aways too to aid you!


I have to play catch up so for Jan 1 it was 3 things about yourself you are grateful for: I have basic health today, I have the ability to read, I am growing in my faith.
January 2: a gift outside--beautiful birds at my feeder
a gift inside--warm heat, a gift on a plate--gluten free bread
January 3 --3 lines you overheard that were graces--God's conversion of Paul, Peter's talk with Jesus after Peter had denied him, a person weeping and another giving comfort.
Jan4 --one gift old, new and blue--old--a lent book, new --a new book ;-), blue another new book (YEAH, I like books!)

A New Year and a wish

On Christmas Eve morning we took a walk on the beach---this is a great time of the year to take a walk---you have most of it to yourself!!  The Thing I desire most this year is peace of heart. As I thought about this today I happened across this prayer written by St. Bede (673-735)


God, the truest peace, we ask you
to keep our hearts and minds
 in calm and in peace,
for where there is peace
you also are present
and where you are, everything is yours.
Come, then, O Lord, and so possess us
that we may become a sanctuary
for your Holy Spirit.
Glory to you Father,
with your only begotten Son,
by whom you give life
with the Holy Spirit
forever. Amen


I need more conscious "walking in the Spirit"....listening to Him.....it is hard for me to do this since I am often full of talking to Him.  

rainy day reading

The other day was what Pooh calls a blustery day. It rained and the wind was A BLOWING!! Great day for reading in a cozy room. This is a room we enjoy reading in! I love my Kindle---and it is nice to be able to get 99 cent mysteries! --especially when you want some light reading! It has nice big views out of the window. There is a large fountain and when it is nice weather you can open the windows and listen. The picture above shows a picture that sits over my piano. I love it because we get egrets in our ponds here at the condo. So it was a relaxing day Minkey , my monkey had to join in of course!

Christmas Day (midnight on Christmas eve)

We had a wonderful Christmas time. The church pictured above is where we went to the Christmas eve service. This is in Charleston, SC. The music was ethereal at points. It was very uplifting when the entire church, organ, trumpets, and choir sung the old Christmas hymns that are so deep with meaning. After the hour of singing( including a 'song' that traced the gospel message through the Old Testament into the New Testament ) the midnight service began. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of Christmas morning. We went to bed around 2 am with our souls well content.

Otter fun today

These guys were so fast I had to take a few short videos of them!! They blessed our day with laughter! We had fun at Brookgreen gardens today watching the otters---both indoors and outdoors as you can see by these videos They were so fast it was difficult to get just plain old photos of them! These guys bring a smile to everyone's face! We had such a fun time watching them and had them to ourselves! I may link this to Out door wednesday which can usually be found here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/    http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ relaxing afterwards!

Fun veggie plates!

This is a fun veggie plate. You simply get a tree shaped plate. Line it with celery--add cauliflower and decorate with red pepper. You can set the tree on a large round plate and place carrots around the tree too. Below are more ideas-- another idea--this I found on line it it not my photo, but I did one like it for Thanksgiving. I posted this on my recipe blog, but thought I would spread the fun ideas here.



Found the ones below online




Note quite a veggie plate!

More on Christmas decor

I love this little bird--found him on Ebay. This is another little joy in my day.




Ok, the above didn't come out quite right because I was supposed to have smaller bulbs for the top so that it would be more in the shape of a tree! But I used what I had and it adds a bit of sparkly fun. I found this idea from someone's blog. You use a knitting needle and just put the flat head of the needle on the bottom and thread the bulbs onto it. For the top bulb you remove the little hanger thing and just slip it over. The bulbs enable the whole thing to stand on its own. Cool and only takes minutes!