Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Summarizing Current Life Happenings

Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

 

I hope all of you are doing well. I've been seeing that many countries have experienced huge snowfalls over the past week. Where I live we were also expecting snow but it never arrived in my neighbourhood.

Sky this Week

The sky this week has been heavy with rain.  I was actually hoping for some snow for a change of pace but it looks like rain in the forecast for the next few days at least.

The sky on Tuesday, January 25, 2021

 
I got this little surprise on Monday, January 18, 2021. These pansy blooms popped up in a long neglected pot.

The sky on Monday, January 24, 2021

 Cooking

Cooking is a daily need for most of us. Here are a few of the things that have been on the menu this past week.

 

Cabbage and navy bean soup in tomato broth


Shrimp and vegetable stir fry over steamed rice

Spaghettini and Parmesan cheese with Kielbasa sausage and vegetables

Ham and pea soup with freshly baked bread rolls





I baked some bread and gave a loaf to my nephew.



Christmas Wrap Up
 
Mail has been slower than usual over the Christmas rush due to Covid protocols. But all mail did eventually arrive.
The winter Pea Coat I bought for my nephew arrived and he came to try it on. Thankfully it fit him perfectly and he liked it very much so I won't be needing to return it.
 
Two lovely little books arrived from my online friend in Folkestone, England. I enjoyed reading The Little Book of Mindfulness and the gratitude journal will be very useful. I'll start using it when I can get through my major project and a few other things so I can be more mindful when writing in it.This time of year is always super busy with the Annual General Meeting of the Strata (key things being annual budgets and inevitable strata fee increases), city property assessments, property taxes, property vacancy declarations and filing of federal and provincial taxes.




 

 Gifts from a friend, Joy in 
Nottingham, England

She always sends wonderful packages of interesting things.

 Reading

I haven't really gotten into reading yet. But these books are currently in my 'to read' pile.


Slowly making my way through this book.


I borrowed, The New Bohemians Handbook thinking I would get to see a lot of lovely decorating photos. I was disappointed that the photos are so small.

This is a newly borrowed book by Kristin Harmel. I read two of her books just before Christmas and enjoyed them so much so I'm looking forward to this one.
 

Home Improvements


Before Christmas I mentioned that I will be making a few home improvements mainly to help things function better for daily living and to assess what might be needed or detracted from my home as I continue with the decluttering.  Some of it is minor maintenance.  

The first improvement was painting one wall in the entry way and moving a small Asian chest/armoire from the living room to the freshly painted wall.  I also touched up the door to my bedroom and master bathroom (more to come in those areas later). The second improvement was to install a new range hood. I've gone without one for so long and I could not keep up to the accumulating grime on various surfaces. I was very happy when my brother bought me a new range hood and installed it for me as my Christmas gift. Before he did that I cleaned behind the kitchen stove and painted.  I laughed when I saw the upside down bow he placed on the range hood after installation. He wanted to make sure it looked like a Christmas present, lol.

 

The third item was to order some shelving for the kitchen to address the lack of a pantry. I have been wanting to order one of these shelving units for the longest time and have been checking them out both on line and in the retail outlets. I wanted a particular specs and I finally found one on Amazon which I ordered and received just after Christmas. I tried once shortly thereafter to set it up and it fell apart. I never tried again until last night and I'm pleased it went much more smoothly and seems sturdy.  I am very pleased with it and think I should have got one a lot sooner.

This is a work in progress. I am still rearranging and deciding what goes on these shelves.

But so far I'm loving it! It's a huge improvement ton having food on the floor and a small cart where everything was forever overflowing (as in the below photo).

 

Kenyan Missions

Over the past week we managed to get a new smart phone for Pastor Jonah. It will soon be time to send monthly medical, food, nutrition support and seeds and fertilizer to a few families. If you can help at all, please send your  donation via Pay Pal to kerichojoy[at]gmail]com (taking out square brackets). Otherwise we would appreciate if you could continue praying for the needs of the villagers. Thanks so much! 

Over the next while I'm continuing to work on my digital project. I don't expect to be back to regular blogging until it's finished but I pop in to read blogs here and there. I hope all of you continue to stay as safe as you can while we all await vaccinations. I don't expect to get mine until at least the middle of summer, possibly a bit later depending on how the roll out of vaccinations goes and whether our country gets the vaccinations that have been ordered for us.

Take care.

Note: I had trouble uploading tonight and the fonts kept going awry. I tried to fix it.

19 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello, Penny
Your views of the sky and church are pretty. The pansy blooms are a lovely sight. The meals and bread look delicious. I would love the shrimp stir fry. The book and journal sound helpful. The new range hood is a great gift and I like the new kitchen shelving. Take care, enjoy your day!

Penelope Notes said...

What a delight the pansies came out … and your food photos are as good as any I’ve seen professionally. Very tastefully done!

carol l mckenna said...

Lovely nature shots ~ delicious recipes and wonderful Xmas gifts ~ be cozy and warm ~

Moment by Moment,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Cloudia said...

How very lovely and interesting, my fellow blogger <3

Jeanie said...

You have been really busy! Well done on your organizing project and kitchen tasks. Your dinners look really delicious and the books fun and quite a range. I can't even imagine seeing a pansy outside these days!

Joanne Noragon said...

I remembered to get carrots this week, to round out my soup! You reminded me of dinner this week.

affectioknit said...

Hi Penny,
...your soups look so good and comforting...thanks for the reading recommendations...and your 'new' kitchen is awesome!
~Have a lovely day!

Rhodesia said...

Love that shot with the church spire behind the plants. So glad that the Pastor has a new phone, hopefully he will not be subject of theft again.

We have had no snow but it has been around. mainly we have had heavy frosts and oh, so much rain!!!

Keep safe, Diane

Joyful said...

Thank you Eileen for all your kind comments. Have a wonderful weekend.

Joyful said...

Yes, it was such a nice surprise. You are very kind regarding my food photos. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.

Joyful said...

Thank you Carol. Have a wonderful weekend.

Joyful said...

Thank you Cloudia. Lovely to see you.

Joyful said...

Yes, I have been alternately busy and too tired to do much. This is a bad time of year for me as I'm always fighting a cold from late nights and getting too chilled. The books are mainly interesting except for one which I'm plodding through. The pansy was a nice surprise for sure.

Joyful said...

I'm glad I could help you.

Joyful said...

Thank you Teresa. The soup was very nice, the new books are mostly very good and the new kitchen is very satisfying :-)

Joyful said...

Diane, thank you for your kind words. Sadly the thefts in Kenya are getting out of hand for many reasons. This happens in Nairobi and many of the larger towns. Phones are the big draw but in this case they stole Pastor's clothing and whatever documents were in his small bag. The police said these are gangs of youth who steal and discard all sim cards and so on and then go to sell the property.

Himawan Sant said...

A beautiful shot, even though it looks a little cloudy, doesn't spoil the beauty of the scenery. Happy home bebensh also read your book collection. I wish you a happy heart.

Greetings from Indonesia.

Joyful said...

Thank you very much for your lovely comment. I am blessed with the view which I get to see every day, rain or shine. Have a wonderful week. Greetings from Canada.

Lowcarb team member said...

So nice to see and read this post.
I think your meals look delicious and your bread amazing, I'm sure it tasted great.

All the best Jan

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