A Little Bit of Knitting and A Little Bit Italian Chicken

Well today (Wednesday) was a very busy day dashing to the medical laboratory for early morning tests, stopping at the post office, doing some thrifting, dropping in on my travel agent, stopping for a lunch of Thai food, stopping at the dollar store, then rushing home to do some laundry, boil some beans and put the dinner on.

At the thrift stores I bought a number of skeins of yarn and various sized needles. I only go for "newish" yarn and needles that are not bent and well worn. I am creating my stash for when I want to branch out with new projects. For now, I am focussing on improving my very newly learned knitting skills with a simple dishcloth pattern. So far I've made four. I finally felt like I could knit on the fourth one. I am on my way! Yeah!

Here are my four facecloths. I will probably give the green/blue ones to my mom and keep the other two for myself. A friend has already asked me to make several but I want to practice other things right now as well as get better at knitting before I try to knit for others.

Given the busyness of the day and the fact it started raining I felt like having something comforting. I don't know what to call this made up and simple recipe so am calling it A Little Bit Italian Chicken *smile.


Recipe:

- 4 medium to large chicken thighs with legs attached
- Italian seasoning
- 1 large can of diced tomatoes
- a handful of parsley.

I baked the chicken pieces with a sprinkling of Italian seasoning on top. The chicken was baked at about 350 Farenheit oven until crispy brown. Once it was browned, I drained out as much fat out of the pan as possible. I then added a large can of diced tomatoes to the chicken along with some chopped parsley and more Italian seasoning. Continue cooking at same temperature for another 20 minutes or so.

Side dishes

Brown Rice
Red Kidney Beans


I bought dried beans and soaked them overnight changing the water twice and rinsing them after the 2nd soak and just before boiling. After such a long soak it didn't take so long to cook them by bringing them to a gentle boil for about 45 minutes. Now if you decide to make your beans this way, you can cook them longer or shorter depending on how crunchy you like your beans.

I like bland foods more than some so if the rice and beans are too bland for your taste you can add other seasonings. Likewise with the chicken, if the tomatoes and Italian seasoning is too bland you can add something like crushed garlic to the "sauce" before baking.

To serve place one piece of chicken leg and thigh on plate alongside a few scoops of rice. Top the rice with your beans and the tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper as needed and a sprig of parsley to garnish.

Another Sunrise ~ My World Tuesday

All week I have had difficulties sleeping. I go to sleep but wake up all night long. I don't sleep well at the best of times but this week was the worst in awhile. I pulled an all nighter last night.  Since I was awake at sunrise I took some photos.

I never cease to be in awe of a beautiful sunrise or sunset.  I also love all of natural creation and any living or growing thing. I know that's a lot but I simply love God's creation.

Click here to share your world.  http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Big Blue Bowl of Congee

It has been awhile since I had Chinese rice congee in my big blue bowl. Rice congee is a type of rice porridge/soup eaten in many Asian countries.

In this instance, I had mixed meat congee with a sliced Chinese donut (not sweet) on top.  I had a side dish of noodles with veggies, seafood and chinese mushrooms. I got these dishes from the restaurant in my building on one recent, cold and rainy day.  The congee hit the spot and the blue bowl is always my favourite as it is just the perfect size to have a generous serving without things spilling over.

Thanks for joining me on Blue Monday. 

For more entries from around the globe, please click here.

Simple Joy Saturday

My Kenyan friend, Pastor Jonah's auntie is ill with a form of nose cancer and requires surgery. Since they are humble villagers the cost of the $900. Canadian/US required for the treatment is astronomical and beyond the means of individual villagers.  So they held a Harambee on Saturday (Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, eg. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili).

Here are photos of the Harambee.  You can see they went into the night with the fundraiser even though it was raining. These gentlemen are counting the funds.

Here is auntie addressing the participants.

I was pleased when I learned they raised $400. of the $900 fee required.  That is less than half of the total required but is a significant amount of money for those that only earn a few dollars a day.

Please pray that this family would be able to raise the rest soon to give this auntie the best chance at successful surgery. Thank you.

 Thank you to Jan of Australia for creating the Simple Joys meme.
Click here to participate.

Flight Paths: Skywatch Friday ~ May 14, 2010

The following photos of flight paths were taken at different times of the day. The first one was taken at around 3:00 in the afternoon. There was a buzz on the streets and lots of hustle and bustle. I paused to view the sky.

The second photo was taken around 6:00 in the morning. I so seldom get to see the sunrise so this was a real treat.

I love the stillness of mornings, don't you?

Click here fore more sky photos

Sunrise in Vancouver

A glorious day awaits. I hope yours is a great one!

I'm Learning to Knit

Today I woke up rather tired and with a lot to do. On days like today I really need a reason to get out!

Today was my knitting lesson. I had been so excited to take it but frankly I was feeling so lousy that I really didn't feel like going. I did not cancel however as I didn't want to wait until next week for something I've long looked forward to learning. *smile

I'm keeping my promise to post here about what I'm learning. I realize my first attempts won't be that exciting for you, lol, but for me they are. Here is my practice swatch. I guess it isn't too bad but isn't so great either. More practice will make it better of that I'm sure.

For now I was really concentrating on learning to cast on, practicing knitting and pearling, decreasing & increasing stitches and binding off. I was also very keen on learning to regulate my tension as I've always had a problem of the tension of yarn being too tight whenever I've tried to teach myself to knit. Having a teacher today was I think really helpful for the tension issue.

In my photo below you can clearly see that the beginning part of the swatch is narrower than the top. I didn't deliberately increase the swatch. I think I probably increased stitches accidentally and also as I practised I was making sure my yarn remained loose so as not to have the issue of my tension being too tight.
I also have a whole in the middle of the swatch. I don't know how it got that way, maybe it was a case of tension being way too loose.

Lessons learned today from my practice swatch:

- It is good to learn what to do with your fingers and thumbs and how to hold the yarn
- There are different methods to knitting. None of them are wrong and it is important to find what works for you. I hadn't really realized this before and having a teacher showed me that some approaches work better for me than others. I'm excited about that.
- I have a tendency to lose stitches and also to gain stitches. I will need to pay close attention as I embark on learning to knit.
- It is okay to pull the swatch to see the pattern of knitting and how the stitches "fit" together. As I develop an "eye" for what I'm doing,  I will be able to correct some of my knitting errors.

Well that is it for now. I hope to make a dish cloth soon out of the same yarn. Hopefully there won't be any big holes in the middle.

Blue Monday on May 10, 2010

It is going to rain again today, blah! It was supposed to be another one of our few sunny days, but now I have to wait for that until tomorrow. I found this picture taken on a beautiful, picture perfect summer day though though you perhaps can't tell because this side of the building is taken in the shade. I love this shade of blue.
Happy Monday!

Another Scenic Sunday

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

to all the mothers out there in the blogosphere.

May you have a wonderful day.

Click here for more scenes from around the world. 

Peek Out My Door

Click on the arrow to start the video.

I was trying to upload a second video blog but I don't seem to have enough room in Blogger for the upload.

Skywatch Friday ~ May 7, 2010

Delicate magnolia flowers withstand our cool spring. Most of these flowers have now gone.

Progress at Last on Goals for 2010

My decluttering project has been in the works now for a very long time. I have a lot of personal items and years of paperwork to sort through. It has been waiting for me to get at it since we moved back in after the fire in September 2009.  But I have so little time at home because I travel out of town every month to assist my ailing mother and I'm gone for a good two weeks each month.

For the first time in 16 months, I am home for the entire month. In the one week I've been alone, I'm making progress so I just have to journal about it here and have a marker of what has been accomplished on the road to where I'm headed. I've also been resting an awful lot.

What have I done this week?

Financial Goals

- Filed my taxes.
- Collected all bills and paid them.
- Added to my snowflake jar.
- Made some difficult financial decisions to live within means.

Health & Lifestyle

- Found a "home" for the exercise ball and weights in one corner of the living room.

- Lifted some weights to remind myself what it is like,lol. It has been so LONG since I've lifted a weight.

 - Bought a Pilates machine. It was just delivered last night. Now I need to figure out how to assemble it.  While it looks assembled I've learned there are many screws and pieces that need to be attached to this and that.

- Getting lots of rest. At the same time, I'm trying not to fritter away the time or work myself so hard that I detest the journey.  I've been setting my timer once in awhile when I really can't get motivated on the tasks at hand. It helps if you know you only have to work until the timer goes off.
- Eating more vegetables and started eating more fruits again. I even made a modest start on juicing.  Bought a good condition book on juicing. It only cost 25 cents.
- Made some bread and cooked all meals.
- Eating much lighter for dinner as my roomie is gone right now.
- Researched knitting classes and decided on private lessons. I start next week.
- Researched easy knitting patterns on line so I can make sure I have the right knitting needles and wool for the pattern. I've decided on a modest project of making a dishcloth as I really need to learn and practice the basics. I'm hoping I can use this new skill once learned for charitable projects and the odd personal project.

 Creating an Edible Garden

- Collected all the coffee grinds and fruit and vegetable scraps for the garden compost.
- Contacted a community garden and put my name on a waiting list for an allotment.
- Purchased some potting soil.
- Planted some kitchen herbs.

Decluttering & Organizing

- Located and untangled all my needed electronic plug items...and charged everything up.
- Investigated my web cam. It is no longer compatible with my software. Need a new one but this is not top priority.
- Machine shredded and hand shredded one box of confidential documents. This job has been staring at me everyday. I tried to pay my brother to shred all my documents but he hasn't gotten to it either so finally one box is gone. I still have two tubs and smaller bags to go as well as 4 drawers of my filing cabinet. Much of these materials isn't confidential but I will need to shred all the identifying information and personal numbers for banking, etc.
- Put up about 5 pictures on the walls, moved a lamp into my room and a small table into the corner of the living room.  My nephew gifted me with the picture below for Christmas. I had it in my bedroom but have moved it to the living room for now.
- Thoroughly cleaned the guest bathroom.
- Laundered the sofa and arm chair slip covers and removed the pills/nubby bits from the sofa fabric.
I now have to repair the sofa slip cover as it has ripped in the corner that is used most often.
- Cleared the dining room table (yet again). I use the dining room table to sort out the items which need paying and shredding or putting away. I need to clear it so I can repair the sofa slip cover.
- Cleared the top of my desk in the bedroom (again).
- Cleared the top of my dresser (again)
- Emptied my suitcase and put it away.
- Reorganized the clothing on my closet shelves and found a place for all the clothing, Identified a few items for giveaway and found a place to store the extra linen.
- I've done countless loads of laundry this week and am deciding whether to give away all my work out items that don't fit. I hesitate to do so because they are so costly if I need to buy a smaller size again soon. I know we're not supposed to keep things that are too small and for the most part, I don't. In this case, I might make an exception.
- Started one new fictional book and made small progress on another. The photo below is a cover shot of the new book.

- Re-organized a place in living room for my bible study area to make this a conducive study area for daily use.  I have a nice cosy chair next to the table and the window behind me will give good, natural lighting.

- Made mental notes of clothing and other items that need repair (e.g. reading lamp in bedroom).
- Cancelled mailing address and got a new one. Following up with all businesses for mail redirection instructions.

Family & Friends

- Mom was in hospital for a few days due to heart issues. I called her each day and prayed with her.
She is home now and I keep in touch and pray daily.
- I organized a surprise for my niece and she loved it.
- Reconnected with several friends. Had tea with one and made some plans with two others.
- Lost one friend in the Kenyan village due to sickness. Praying for her teenage daughters left behind with no adult to care for them. Would you join me in prayer for these dear girls?

Spiritual

I'm failing in this area. My time alone with God is hampered by my stress level right now. I know I can't use this as an excuse but God knows what I mean. I am seeking His rest and also the prayers of friends and loved ones. Thank God they hold me in prayer.

Therefore confess your sins 
to each other and pray for each other 
so that you may be healed. 

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5:16

The End of an Era, The Beginning of a New One

Tuesday, May 4th at approximately 11: a.m. the BC Place Stadium dome was purposely collapsed. Over the next 3 weeks it will be methodically removed from the roof top and sent to recycling.

Just over a week ago I showed you a photo of the dome on  my walk to Granville Island. (Click the underlined words if you want to read about the walk). Here it is again. It is the white roofed building nestled between the high rises.   BC Place recently had prominence as being the venue for the Winter Olympics 2010 Opening and Closing Ceremonies and over the years it has hosted many spectacular events in the City.

This is what the dome looked like after collapse.

Photo Credit: Nick Procaylo, PNG

I hadn't even realized that the roof was going down today. It was a bittersweet moment. The original dome was built in 1983 at a cost of $126 Million.

The dome will be replaced with an expensive retractable roof. While I am all in favour of making upgrades, it is a rather expensive proposition coming directly on the heels of huge expenditures for the Winter Olympics. The retractable roof alone is expected to cost in the neighbourhood of $475 Million, though I've also read estimates of $458 Million. The new retractable roof is expected to be the world's largest retractable roof for a domed stadium and it's anticipated completion is sometime next year.

After spending $5000. on my portion of my condominium building's roof replacement, I am not feeling up to spending my portion of $475 Million that will need to be paid from taxes.

Is there any large tax funded project where you live that you had to pay for whether you supported it or not?

My World Tuesday

This is my world this past week or so. I caught a photo of the sky when it wasn't raining. The rest of the week is supposed to be sunny. I'm hoping the forecast doesn't change.

 

http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Blue

It is amazing how many people I've found on the who love the colour blue. I happened across these people as I was browsing blogs not as a result of searching for them. It warms my heart because I too love blue and I love that I can look at what other people find in the colour blue.

This weekend was initially supposed to be a lovely, dry weekend, then Friday night I learned that it was expected to rain. It has been doing a lot of that this spring so I still don't have my garden in.  When I woke up this morning it was quite gray but progressively the sun came out and the sky turned blue and it became quite lovely.

My tentative plans to go to knitting class didn't pan out so instead I enjoyed the day lounging, grazing (eating food here and there rather than eating a meal), telephoning family and friends and answering telephone calls. Normally I do not enjoy talking on the phone. Long calls often interfere with plans to run errands or watch a favourite program. (I am a bit of a quiet freak though some of my friends likely won't believe it, lol). Don't you know it but phone calls always seem to be timed for the worst possible time when you're right in the middle of something. So thank goodness for the voice messaging service because I usually end up having to return phone calls.

Earlier in the week I had gone out to purchase potting soil for the 7 or so pots I have. This year I will plant some herbs in the containers. If I have containers left over I will plant some geraniums and pansies as well. I've always loved both types of flowers and these are usually what I plant in the containers.

I got a small start on the container gardening by putting new soil in the pots. I also potted one container of rosemary and one container of lemon balm. Here is my lemon balm in a blue ceramic pot.

I still  have much more to do in planting the containers and in putting in the garden. I hope to get a start this week if the weather will cooperate.

And guess what? Though I missed out on the knitting class, I have made arrangements for private lessons which is actually turning out to be better since it is on my own schedule, close by and also no more expensive. Even better I will have individualized attention. I learn best this way. I can't wait to get started!

To cap off my day, I'm having some wonderful Kenyan tea with fresh mint in a beautiful blue Chinese tea cup. Won't you join me in a cup?

And how did you spend your weekend?

(Click on the blue bird at the top of this entry to see other Blue Monday participants.)

Scenic Sunday - See You At the Fair

This is a scene taken at the annual Pacific National Exhibition which I take in with my friend each year. It is the one time she will commit to going somewhere with me, lol.  We like the vibrancy of the event with all the people, the rides, the food, the music. That sounds like a good recipe for a nice outing. Be well rested though as the fair doesn't end til 11 p.m. at night with fireworks. The next one will be in mid-August and runs for two weeks. Maybe we'll see you there! Don't forget to mark your calendar.

Click here to enjoy more scenic sunday posts from around the world.

Dreaming of Africa

These days I am dreaming of Africa. Kenya in particular. I want to visit and see my friends in the flesh instead of just emailing. I also want to make some progress on a small project with the village women in Kericho, Kenya.

I've long had a desire to help the orphan girls and women to somehow make their lives easier with things like jiko stoves and fireless cookers, as well as menstrual pads.

A jiko stove would help the women in so many ways but they are somewhat expensive especially for the villagers and a recent cheaper alternative came available but it is still too much for a villager. Jikos can save the women from back breaking and time consuming work of collecting firewood. Because there are so many people collecting twigs to start the fires for daily cooking, it is harder and harder to find it nearby. Women and children can spend hours a day locating the wood and carrying it home on their backs. It is hard work and also dangerous to go so far where you can be accosted. Once you get it home and start the fire for cooking the smoke that is generated is also a health hazard for the women and children who often suffer from eye problems.

Here is a photo of  a woman collecting firewood. I was trying to take her photo discreetly so it turned out blurry.

My hope is that I can provide each household in the village near Kericho with a jiko stove or a fireless cooker. So far I've managed to pay for 11 jiko stoves and there are another 28 women waiting for one. A jiko uses less wood and uses it more efficiently. Also you do not get all the smoke you do with the traditional three stone fire. You can read more about the jiko stove project here. You can also READ here about people I am helping in the village with the jikos.

Because of the cost and the time it is taking me to get enough jiko stoves, I've recently been considering  fireless cookers instead. They look like this in the photo below and are less expensive than a jiko stove. The drawback is that they are not as versatile. This is not my photo but I've misplaced the one I was sent. 

[Photo credit: Solar Cookers International]

If I am fortunate I may get to visit my friend, Loice and her husband, Pastor Japheth in Nakuru. Here is Loice looking with interest at her digital photo. I say if I am fortunate because I may be rather busy when I visit and so we shall see how things go.

I leave you with ac photo of the majestic lion in the national park in Nakuru. They roam the park and you must stay in the car. No walking around here where the lions roam though there is a picnic area where the baboons are.

I simply love the majestic lion. But I wouldn't want to pet one!

Mombasa Sunset

My hotel at Diana Beach in Mombasa. 

Click here for more beautiful Sky photos.