I’m retired, so my days are not as demanding. Stress is a different story. To relax, I go to my office with no noise, social media, phone, and no dogs. I meditate for as long as I can, which clears my mind, and then I go downstairs to eat dinner.
Mellinda
Coffee
Melinda
I had a wave only relationship with the neighbors across the street, they he reminded me of my Gramps. The day his wife died I went across the street to see how I could help. He invited me in and we talked awhile and our friendship grew from there. We talked almost daily on topics across the board. He was a gentle man and I was so glad he was in my life. I often look at his old house and the memories flash right back. I miss Jim.
Melinda
Wow, what a legacy the Eagles have built. I saw them in 1978 on the Hotel California tour, and they have been a favorite band since.
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
I changed careers, and it was one of the best decisions. I spent 20 years being challenged, loved my job, and the paychecks were worth the hard work.
Melinda
I’m glad you joined me on Wordless Wednesday and I hope to see you soon.
Not one of my best photos but the message shines through. Taken in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Church of the Spilled Blood.
Melinda
From Makeup and Beauty
This DIY is easy and super quick to do. It can also be done in the comfort of your own kitchen platform to relieve your eyes of all the exhaustion and get rid of the dullness around the eyes.
Carrot (Known for its discoloration properties, carrot juice would help you get rid of the darkness and dullness around eyes)
Raw Milk (Known for its anti-tan properties, milk has always come handy in getting rid of dark circles around eyes)
Round Cotton Pads
Grater
Grate about a teaspoon full of carrot in a bowl
Now, add some grated cucumber to the carrot.
Add about a teaspoon of raw milk (unheated) to this mixture.
Now, add a teaspoon full of rose water to this.
Now let this mixture rest for about 20 minutes to let the carrot and cucumber soak properly in the milk and rose water mixture.
Now, squeeze out the carrot and cucumber pulp and put the juice in a separate bowl.
Now, take the cotton pads separate the two sheets of cotton, and spread a thin layer of the pulp onto one side of the cotton.
Now take about a teaspoon of the juice extract and spread it over the thin layer.
Make a sandwich by closing the thin layer sheet with its other cotton sheet.
I hope you enjoy this easy-to-make self-care treat and remember you are worth it! Self-care is mental health care.
Melinda
Do you give out candy on Halloween? What about decorating?
Melinda
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
Enjoy!
Melinda
I call this my Wild Wild West version. What do you think?
Melinda
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
From the book Gluten Freedom
By Shelly Gannan
We replace the flour in this recipe with Pamela’s gluten-free baking mix. Pamela’s baking mix includes xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. you have to add these ingredients if you are using plain gluten-free flour that does not already have them added.
Ingredients:
3 cups gluten-free flour*
2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups mashed bananas (3-4 very ripe bananas)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 bag of chocolate chips
*Or use Pamela’s baking mix and eliminate the next four ingredients.
Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease bottoms of two 9x5x3 loaf pans. If not using a premade baking mix, combine flour, xanthan gum, cider vinegar, baking soda, and salt in mixing bowl; blend well with an electric mixer on low speed. Beat bananas separately in a large mixing bowl, then add all the ingredients except chocolate chips to the bananas and beat on low speed for 1 minute.
Fold in chocolate chips and pour mixture evenly into pans. Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pans to cool completely. If you are making muffins, bake for 20 minutes, testing doneness with a toothpick.
Makes two loaves or 12 muffins.
Melinda
Repost
The recipe is from Kristin Cavallari’s cookbook True Comfort.
Turmeric is incredible for the immune system.
1 frozen banana
1/4 cup cauliflower florets
1 tsp. ground turmeric
Juice of 1 medium lemon
1 tsp. raw honey
1 cup almond milk or full-fat coconut milk
1/4 tsp. ground ginger, or 1 1/4 inch thick slice of fresh ginger peeled
Bee pollen, for serving
In a high-powered blender, combine the banana, cauliflower, turmeric, lemon juice, honey, almond milk, and ginger.
Blend on high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute
Pour the smoothie into a tall glass and sprinkle bee pollen over the top.
Serves 1
Enjoy.
Melinda
I’m glad you joined me on Wordless Wednesday, and I hope to see you soon.
My treasured Pink Lilly, I have a bed of them. They come back year after year.
Melinda
There are many mental health benefits to a backyard oasis for your family. And there are just as many luxurious ways to make your backyard somewhere you won’t want to leave.
A fantastic way to upcycle your old outdoor shed is to cut a hole on the side and place a surface on it. Then you can install an at-home beer pump for pulling the perfect pint in your own garden. This is a simple design, but one that works. But with some crafty DIY work and creativity, you can install a sound system, lighting, and even cooking facilities. Of course, no shed company wants you to butcher their creations, so reusing an old one is best. Just make sure you give it a thorough cleaning, inside and out, and make sure it’s safe for the purpose before you go sitting at it.
Nothing makes a good garden shine like the installation of high-quality decking. Wood and the backyard just go superb together, and you can make many great memories sitting among the scent of wood and flowers on long Summer nights. Additionally, a deck can add a lot of value to your home should you consider selling later on. First, however, make sure you use a reputable builder. Poor decking is dangerous. Splinters, loose boards, and even collapse are real possibilities. And a lousy installation isn’t likely to last long, either.
You can relax and have fun in a hot tub. So much fun, in fact, that since coming to market in the late 1950s in the USA, around 6 million have been sold all over the country. Hot tubs are excellent no matter your age. They can provide an intimate way of relaxing for couples and friends. And the kids love the bubbles. However, there are multiple health benefits as well. The heat helps soothe aching muscles, and bubbles help with tension. Some medical experts believe the effects of a hot tub to be somewhere around the same as a professional massage.
How fun is your very own outdoor cinema? Cozying up on a warm night under the stars with a movie and a drink with your partner is nothing short of amazing. And if you have kids, well, they will just go nuts for something like this. You can purchase an HD projector for very little these days, and some even work with your phone. And a screen isn’t required either. Just a sheet and something to hold it. But before going and doing this, make sure you are far enough from your neighbors, or the sounds of Bridget Jones doing Bridget Jones stuff might not end well.
Being outdoors evokes memories of nature and a primal sense of social atmosphere. One of the most primal elements is fire. Fire is dangerous, but it can be tamed when treated with respect and controlled. A fire pit makes an excellent centerpiece for your garden, and you can make one for very little money. You can buy premade pits with various designs. Or you could use an old washing machine drum, a barrel, or even a tire. Then, arrange your rattan or wicker furniture around the centerpiece for an intimate and sophisticated addition to your backyard tranquility.
Your backyard is an extension of your home and yourself. So, it would help if you spent time making it special. But, gardening aside, you can add luxuries such as a bar, hot tub, or even a cinema.
This is a collaborative post.
Melinda
Repost
The recipe is from Kristin Cavallari’s cookbook True Comfort
1 1/2 cups almond milk
2 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tb. raw cacao powder
1 1/2 tsp. raw honey
3 tsp. tahini
In a small saucepan, warm the almond milk over medium-high heat until it simmers, 5 minutes.
Pour the warm milk into a high-powered blender and add the vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa powder, honey, and tahini.
Blend on high speed until the cocoa is smooth and frothy, 1 minute.
Serves 1
Double the recipe to make two cups.
Enjoy.
Melinda
The family cookbook contains recipes my Granies & Gramps used often, and is the type of food I grew up on. Many with veggies and tomatoes from the garden. Good ole Southern food like my Gramps dumplings, to Grannies pecan pie.
This is from my husband’s Aunt Dorthy’s recipes, who writes BEST at the top of the card.
Recipe
1 package yeast in 1/4 cup warm water and 1 TSP sugar
Let stand for 5 minutes
Sift 4 cups flour, 4 TBS sugar, and 3/4 TSP salt
Melt 1/2 TBS of butter
Add in 1 cup of canned milk
4 egg yolks beaten
Pour over flour
Add yeast
Knead
Cover
Place in refrigerator overnight or for 5 hours
Divide into 4 sections on a lightly floured surface to approx 10″x13″
Size to fill
Roll up
Let rise
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
Filling
Beat 4 egg whites with 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 cup ground walnuts
Okay, from here, I guess you get an icing tube, add the filling insert into the roll, and squeeze until you see the filling has spread in the roll.
This sounds great because I like walnuts, which are so good for you. I’ll have to try this one.
If you make the recipe, please provide feedback on your thoughts or what the recipe brings to mind.
Melinda
Repost
How old were you when you learned to walk?
I learned at 10 months old and probably learned by chasing after our dog.
Melinda
845 Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving
A 5,000 strong fleet of Danish Vikings invaded Frankish lands in 845 and only retreated after besieging Paris and securing a ransom from the Frankish King Charles the Bald. They were part of a series of devastating raids begun by the Vikings from the 790s.
The Vikings were led by a man named “Reginherus” or Ragnar, sometimes linked to the legendary saga figure Ragnar Lodbrok. The Vikings easily overcame defences set in place by Charlemagne and are known to have attacked the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés just outside the city.
Although struck by an outbreak of plague the Vikings overcame this to return home with their ransom of 7,000 French livres of gold and silver.
1974 Chinese farmers discover the Terracotta Army near Xi’an, 8,000 clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang
In 1974 local farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian came across one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. The discovery of a clay warrior figure soon revealed many more by state archaeologists. In fact there may be 8,000 terracotta figures in total, each individually modelled and purposely arranged in three pits to guard the tomb of the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di (246-210 B.C.)
Contemporary court documents indicate the mausoleum was started soon after Emperor Qin took the throne in 246 B.C and continued until unrest in 209 B.C. Remote sensing and ground-penetrating radar has revealed the whole tomb complex to be almost 38 square miles (98 square kilometers) with the unexcavated Emperor’s tomb at the centre.
If you can see the Terracotta Army, go without hesitation; it’s mind-blowing.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, storm-bound in a tent near the South Pole, makes the last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”
History can be interesting.
Melinda
Reference:
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
People have been playing baseball since the mid 19th century. In the early games, umpires would officiate the games reclining in a rocking chair that was located 20 feet behind home plate. By 1878, the National League also declared that home teams must pay umpires $5 per game.
These fun facts really get you thinking about how far we’ve come. Taking a 23-minute flight might seem like a waste of money today, but in 1914 Abram Pheil paid $400, which would be $8,500 today, for a 23-minute long plane ride. He flew between St. Petersburg, Florida and Tampa, Florida, where only 21 miles of water separate the cities. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, and the pilot, Tony Jannus, were the only passengers. This momentous flight paved the way for air travel as we know it.
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is considered the world’s first novel. After reading 54 intricately crafted chapters, the reader is stopped abruptly mid-sentence. One translator believes the work is complete as is, but another says we’re missing a few more pages of the story.
New Zealand native Nigel Richards memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary, which has 386,000 words, in nine weeks to earn his title. He has also won the English world Scrabble Championship three times, the U.S. national championships five times, and the U.K. Open Scrabble tournament six times. This comes 20 years after first playing Scrabble when Richards was 28 years old.
The West Midlands police in England released a recording of a woman who called 999 (the U.K. version of 911) because there were “bits on one side and none on the other,” she says in the recording. She was even more upset when the ice cream truck man did not want to give her money back.
German chemist Erich Huzenlaub invented a process of parboiling rice to keep more nutrients in the rice and lessen the cooking time. The “Huzenlaub Process” had another unexpected benefit, too: It stopped bug infestations. The quick-cook, bug-free rice was a big advantage during World War II, and Converted rice (as it was then known) was airdropped to American and British troops. After the war, the company rebranded to Uncle Ben’s Original Converted Brand Rice, named after one of the company’s best rice suppliers, and the product hit the shelves in 1947.
According to the World Atlas, an empire “is a group of nations or people that are under the rule of a powerful government or an emperor of a territory usually larger than a kingdom.” The British Empire was most powerful in the 1920s when it ruled over 23 percent of the world’s population. That equates to about 13 million square miles.
Turtles don’t have vocal cords and their ears are internal, so scientists believed that turtles were deaf and didn’t communicate through sounds. However, research has found that turtles actually communicate at an extremely low frequency that sounds like “clicks, clucks, and hoots” that can only be heard through a hydrophone (a microphone used underwater). These sounds even come from the egg before the turtle hatches. Researchers hypothesize that this helps all the turtle siblings hatch at once.
Alexander Fleming was one of those quirky scientists who accidentally made a scientific breakthrough. In 1928, the bacteriologist left a petri dish in his lab while he was on vacation only to return and find that some liquid around the mold had killed the bacteria in the dish. This became the world’s first antibiotic. But before naming it penicillin, he called it “mold juice.”
This is one of the many interesting facts that had us scratching our head. Or a dog or a miniature horse, but not by parents. William Kent, a landscape architect, invented the first stroller for the third Duke of Devonshire in 1733. By the mid 18th century, strollers were still pretty unstable, but they had handles so parents, not animals, could pull the baby behind them.
So glad you are enjoying the post; I love hearing your hilarious comments.
Have a great weekend.
Melinda
Repost
I’m glad you joined me on Wordless Wednesday, and I hope to see you soon.
Melinda
Time has passed and the stories with my brother are becoming less and less, we aren’t children anymore, you can read about my antics instead.
My stepfather was Luthern and he demanded we go to Vacation Bible School. The only bible I owned was given to me by my mother when I was five years old. One at the end of class the teacher put a star in the back. I was so shocked, I don’t know what I did to deserve it but it felt so good the next day I drew my own start next to hers.
I was not musically inclined when it came to singing but I wanted to be in the Middle School plays so bad. The music teacher took pity on me and cast me among the three main dancers. The dress code was dainty white socks which my mother would not buy so I showed up in tube socks. She was kind and found a place in the back row so I could participate. I lost my desire after that.
In high school I carried my camera everywhere I went. One weekend the KKK was marching near we hung out. I went over and took a few photos. My friends were completely freaked out but I wasn’t their target.
Granny was such a rigid do-it-the-book type of personality. One day shortly after getting my license we went shopping and the parking to was very small. I am backing out a tap the car behind me, Granny was a cool cucumber. She said to get out and see if there’s any damage, if not get back in the car and drive home.
At the end of our block was a wooded area that had a creek. We would sneak down there and have the time of our lives. At the deeper end, the kids before us installed a thick rope so you could swing out to the deep end. One of the great features was that those before us carved out a slide out the side of the hill above the creek. It was dry and you had to learn when to lift your but because there was a tree stump.
I was not allowed to drive my car unless it was to school, work, or to take Granny shopping. My friend picked me up and had me drop her off at her boyfriend’s and she would get the car later. I was so nervous that Granny would wake up in the night and see her car which would put me in big trouble. Her car didn’t have power steering and it was a beast to drive.
The way that Rosanna and I became friends was because I was dating her ex-boyfriend. He made some comment trying to make me jealous and I took the bait. I stood outside her classroom and when she arrived I punched her in the eye knocking out her contact. She followed me after school to see if she could drive me home, sure, what discovered about my boyfriend was unbelievable. Needless to say, I broke up the same day.
I was married at 18 years old, and the wedding dress and the whole nine yards. It was August 1st in Texas which means it was sweltering hot. His father had given the Priest extra money to turn on the air conditioner earlier and take the temperature down. I guess that’s too much to ask in August, if you’re not a Catholic you may not appreciate that during the ceremony you spend a lot of time leaning in front of the altar and I still had my veil down. Suddenly I felt dizzy and thought I would fall over, sure enough, I was going down and my soon-to-be husband walked me over to the first row of seats. I was so dignified, I threw my veil away from my face and begged for water. The Priest comes over with a gold chalice full of water and I suddenly feel guilty, I thought only Prest and Pope could drink from them. We finished the ceremony and we had so many laughs after because the whole thing was recorded.
When I met my husband he had a 55-gallon saltwater fish tank. We eventually added some fish and I had my favorite fish, a Puffer Fish. One night I was messing around and decided to try to hand-feed Puffy, David kept saying don’t put your hand in the water or he will bite you. That’s exactly what happened, I freaked took my hand out of the tank, and threw him on the floor. By now he is distressed and puffed out to full potential. David got him in the net but he couldn’t come until have chilled, then he swam out. I didn’t try that one again.
Melinda
Melinda
This is such a fun video. I love Aerosmith and he is so talented. Let’s dance!
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
I’m glad you joined me on Wordless Wednesday and I hope to see you soon.
I have only heard of Thanksgiving and Christmas Catus but mine is starting to bud and have flowers in March. The flowers are beautiful but it’s so confusing why it’s blooming now.
Melinda
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
Thank you for joining me for Wordless Wednesday. I hope to see you soon.
It’s the weekend!!!!!!
I’m glad you joined me for another edition of Weekend Music Share this week.
Have a great weekend!
Melinda
Welcome back to Weekend Music Share, the place where everyone can share their favorite music.
Feel free to use the Weekend Music Share banner in your post, and use the hashtag #WeekendMusicShare on social media so other participants can find your post.
lookingforthelight.blog 