Resurrection Day

Today is the day celebrated throughout all eternity as the Resurrection Day!  I hope you are able to spend intentional time today remembering this day and what it means.  

My day was so relaxing.  I cannot imagine having a more relaxing day. First, I attended church and heard an old familiar hymn, Amazing Grace. I love the older hymns intermixed with the current songs.  The message was great, a message of hope and assurance.   After church I did not turn on the tv or my phone.  I just wanted it to be lowkey and quiet.  I spent the day outside, reading my book, making dinner and listening to some tunes by Fleetwood Mac, Doobie brothers and many other similar artists.   It was perfect and just what I needed.  

For dinner I decided to make Lasagna!  I want to share this recipe I found.  This year since I knew my son was going to be here with me, I decided to make Lasagna.  Normally I am a Stouffers frozen lasagna girl, if I eat Lasagna at all.  I don't typically eat Lasagna a lot or at all throughout the year but if I do it is frozen.  So, I pulled up this recipe from the internet.  It was titled the World's Best Lasagna.  I knew I had to try it.  If I am going to eat Lasagna, I want to make sure it tastes like the World's best lasagna.  

Here are the ingredients:

1 pound sweet Italian Sausage

3/4 lb ground beef

1/2 cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatos

2 (6.5 oz) cans canned tomato sauce 

2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons white sugar

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided

1 1/2 teaspons dried basil leaves 

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

12 lasagna noodles

16 oz ricotta cheese

1 egg

3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced (I used shredded)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

These pots and pans were my mothers, when she passed away, we inherited all of her dishes, and these are just two that she had. I felt a small piece of her with me today. Disregard the olive-green avocado stove.  ha!

To make:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Brown the ground beef, Italian sausage and minced onion with garlic cloves until completely browned. 

Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, water, 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, basil, salt, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, pepper.  

Let simmer for 1 hour.  Stirring occasionally.

After 1 hour, mix together the ricotta cheese, 1 egg and remaining parsley with pepper.  Leave in the bowl. 

Boil the 12 lasagna noodles in slightly salted water.

After oven is pre-heated, place 1 1/2 cup of meat sauce along the bottom of the 10X13 baking pan.  

2nd layer is to lay down 6 noodles lengthwise, slightly overlapping. 

Spoon on half of the ricotta cheese mixture. 

Sprinkle on half of the mozzarella cheese, Also sprinkle on parmesan cheese. 

Repeat for a second layer.  

Top with remaining meat sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes covered with foil, then another 25 min without foil. 

Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.  

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yummmm......The final product was Deelicious!  It was so yummy!     And this recipe I would give 5 stars.  I tasted all the flavors and savored every bite! A step above the Stouffers frozen Lasagna.

The sun is shining here in Florida, and I love it.  I hope you have a great week! 

Good Friday!

 This day only comes once a year and I wanted to make sure I took a minute to reflect on this day.  

What does this day mean to Christians?  Well, this was the day that Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem to his death.

He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:5

When you really stop and think about the enormity of what Christ did for us, it is amazing.  

After betrayal by Judas and unfair trial, Jesus was flogged and given a crown of thorns.  A company of soldiers put a purple robe on him to mock, spit upon and hit him repeatedly on the head with a staff.  They stripped him of the robe and put his clothes back on him, then led him to Golgotha (which means “place of the skull”) to crucify him.  John’s gospel said that Jesus carried his own cross.  Other gospels mention Simon of Cyrene carrying it for him.  He was followed by a large crowd, and many women wept for him.  Nails pierces his hands and feet.  Soldiers cast lots for his clothes. 

 

But he said…………….

 

“Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”.  Luke 23:34

And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloe, lea sabachtani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?).” Mark 15:34

 Jesus’ final words………….. ”Later, knowing that everything has now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty’.  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:28-30

Week recap

The last full week of March is upon us!  This week has been such a mix of hot and cold weather!  And today it was raining, cloudy and cold!  My son and I were both able to get out in the yard and rake and mow first thing this morning, so I was able to check that off of the to do list.  The sun is still trying to peek out even now, but I am inside to stay.  The wind is blowing, and it feels chilly to me.    

Either way, I can definitely tell Spring is here, and I am so excited!  

First, I want to tell you about this product called oxiclean, if you have not heard of it, I love it!  I love white rugs but as you know they can get dirty quick. I soak the rugs in the bathtub with oxiclean for several hours and hang dry and they are back to looking like brand new.  So, if you are looking for something that will not damage rugs and still have them looking brand new, this is a great product! 

This rug pad I got from Sam's for like $20.00.  It is extremely padded and makes standing for a few minutes doing my hair a little more enjoyable.

This is a turkish cotton rug I got from Kohls and love!  Like I said I like/love all things plush white. 

On another note.............................................

Here is an update to my seeds that I planted last week.  

These are the morning glories, 1 week in the ground. They start out as little butterfly shaped leaves.

And these are the dahlias, unfortunately all the leaves havn't made it down off the oak trees so there are still leaves everywhere!  But I can see the green coming through. 

And in hopes by the end of summer to have my rose garden in full swing, these are a few pics on the web that I found that are certainly goals!  

Roses love direct sunlight and you can sure see why in this pic! This is Barbra Streisands garden. 

I love this arbor look in Christie Brinkley's garden. 

And Joanna Gaines, is there anything that she cannot do?!  I love her assortment of flower gardens.  (I follow her on instagram too and love her pics)

Not only are Roses beautiful to look at, but they sure do smell good too!  

Well, that is all for this week.  I will leave you with this funny pic!  

Green Thumb is back!

 Now that the cold weather is finally taking a turn and temps have been up near the 80's, I am back out in the yard.  Winter sure did bring a lot of dead leaves.  But I have started the clean-up process, and I am projecting to have the yard back in shape by Spring, which is officially March 19th!  

Last week I raked several piles of leaves, I had about 12 bags of leaves and still have several more piles that I need to bag up and ship out to get this yard looking neat again.  

Yesterday I decided to buy some flower seed packets to plant around the backyard.  The packets are from Lowe's and were only about $2.20 per packet.

 

Someone on instagram had posted a picture of dahlias that she had planted along the side of her house and in the direct sunlight.  They were large (at least 1-2 ft) and looked beautiful, so I decided to buy some dahlias and plant those.  We shall see how they turn out.  Also, I bought morning glory packets, impatiens and snapdragon seeds.

Another yard goal!  Check out this hydrangea.  Beautiful!  It is referred to as an incrediball hydrangea, I cannot wait to plant this in the yard.  I have not bought it yet, but it is sure on my radar. The price is about $23.00/each, not too bad in my opinion.  

Here are also some yard goals, I saw this picture on pinterest and would love to recreate.  

How perfect would this spot be?  Like a hidden garden amongst evergreens. 

Another goal is to stencil my back yard patio and front covered sidewalk.  This would make such a world of difference! 

So many goals!  I am a person on a budget and everything takes time Lord have mercy!  

Anyhoo off to a great start!  

These are the pictures of my backyard (where the majority of my focus is) from last year.  The grass was so green and lush! 

This picture was the beginnings of my rose garden.  Also, before I added the arbor and pavers.  

This is my make believe she shed.  It only stores my mower and bike, but it keeps both dry!  Otherwise, it really should be torn down.  I am trying to fix it up in the meantime with flowers and such. 

Hoping to show pictures by the end of summer and see how nice the yard overall looks this year!  

I love the sunshine and being outside!  

That is all for now, have a great day and week!  

Time for the Beach!

 It is that time!  I love the beach, we had such a great time yesterday.  We only stayed for a few hours but we did do some walking on the beach and then downtown.  Our plan for next time is to rent a golfcart, eat at one of the restaurants and then maybe have some ice cream.  Just make a day of it! 

Look at the beautiful skies.   Although the water was frigid, there was plenty of people in the water.  

We ran into this chicken on the road, just walking along. 

And my son James.  It was so nice to spend a few hours with him on the beach.  

This last picture is of landscaping goals.  I love all the palms, there are majesty palms and bird of paradise.  This looks so tropical.  

And that's all, folks.  I am glad we only live less than an hour from the beach. My skin was glowing on the beach yesterday, extremely white.  I did use sunscreen but still managed to get a little burn.  Can't wait to see my skin brown up a bit.  

Have a great day and a great week!  

Walmart Finds

Today I made a Walmart trip, it was payday Friday and I needed some stuff.  I was on vacation this week but it was a staycation so I saved my dollars and stayed home and the biggest thing I did was rake the back yard. I have two rather large oak trees in the back so it was covered.  My back patio was horrible!  I kept putting it off and by this week I was ready to see the leaves go.  I mean it was rather boring but it needed to be done so bring on the rake and garbage bags. Back to the Walmart trip, I needed some grocery items, so I thought a trip to Walmart and splurging on a few items was totally ok.  

Here is what I picked up.  

I have been wanting to pick up a good book.  Danielle Steel is a great author.  I feel like I know what I am getting into with this author but I enjoy it.  It is usually a love story and sometimes a tragedy intermixed but it always ends on a good note.  This was a new release and definitely worth a read.  

Also, I am excited to add these plants to my rose garden.  They are mini rose shrubs and eager to see how they look when grown.  The price was fair at $4.97 per rose bush.  I bought pink and yellow and they can get up to 12" - 18".  I just planted them outside and as they get bigger I will take some pictures to see how beautiful they look. 

Also, I picked up some airwick fresheners.  The fragrance is honeysuckle and raspberry.  Oh my goodness, it smells like a dream inside the house!  I have my air on today since it did get around 80 degrees outside, so it just feels so cozy and smells great! You know when you get home from the beach and your skin is hot, you feel sandy and just want a shower.  After getting out of the shower after a day at the beach just feels magnificent when you have the air on and good smelling fresheners in.  That is what the scent reminds me of.  A nice light scent for the room! Would definitely recommend!  

I have my Easter decorations out.  Just a few on the table here.  I am ready for Easter!  

This is one of my fav Easter decorations.  I totally forgot I had bought this bunny with an umbrella from TJMaxx last year.  I always go after the season is over and look for great Clearance items.  I love when I open my bins for the upcoming year to see what I added from the year before.  This bunny is so cute!  

And my friends, that is all! 

Have a great weekend!  

Let's start again...

 If you stumbled on my blog, what is one thing I would want you to know about me.  

That I am a born-again Christian, no longer living as I did before but living a new life.  My background is in the church.  I have been attending church regularly since at least 5 years of age.  My precious mom who was a widow, introduced us to a church in Deland, Fl called Berea.  This is where my relationship with God began.  

We were in an active children's ministry where they would put on puppet shows, have nights where we would do fun things like eat spaghetti-o's and watch movies.  We would go to theme parks, we would put on christmas presentations and then we would each get a present afterwards, that was the real highlight!  This church ministry was amazing!  The youth pastors were Ruth and Jim Markham.  I remember them moving in next to us in a duplex.  And I thought Ruth was so pretty, she wore high heels had soft curls and was just the sweetest person always smiling.  This was my introduction to church.  Not everyone has the same story but I was lucky.  

Then youth came around, this is where you meet all the people from school and "have to go" since your parents make you.  But I can say that I enjoyed my youth group.  I was in to boys a lot so that was where a lot of my focus was Buuuttt all that to say, the word was being absorbed into my soul.  

My parents were routine church attenders so eveeerrrry Sunday morning, eveeerrrry Sunday night and eveeeerrry Wednesday night we would go to church. I am talking y'all we had to go, no options!  And we did not get sick a lot because we had praying parents so I knew where I was going to be without questions on a Sunday morning.  On the second pew sitting next to my momma in church.  (Except in the evenings where the balcony was the place of choice). 

As I grew older I did not attend church as much and even stopped going.  I married when I was 19 and he was not a church goer so I stopped going.  My faith was not really being watered at that time.  We would go occasionally but not routinely.  I would still say I was a Christian though.  And I would sometimes go back to the days of my youth and remember all that was poured into me. But I had freedom to choose when I would go.  

After about 20 years of marriage, we (my ex husband and I)  were going to church, tithing, participating in small groups but again it was the distraction of people that my focus was on.  So much so that I lost focus of my own life.  I started focusing on all the bad things in my life and did not water the good.  I was naive to what was happening.  

We divorced in 2015.  I was a woman who had made some choices and landed me right where I was, single!  

And here I am 8 years later, still single.  Yes, I have dated some since then.  Even had a fiancé but he wasn't who God chose for me although I loved him and thought he was hot!   But one thing I will tell you is that meeting him helped put me on the right track to finding God as number one in my life.  God can take anything and use it for good.  I realized that the real person I should be dating is God.   

And once I started diving into God's word, and who he says I am, there was no turning back. 

And here we are, 2024.   God is good, God is faithful!  He can fill every place of lack.  So I am placing my trust and faith in a God that never fails.  

 

This may have been a little deep based on other blogs I have read but it is the real me, the other stuff like fashion, makeup, is all just fun!  But what wakes me up on a daily basis?  Well, now you know!