Google’s headquarters in CA
Check out current natural light building structures.
I wanted to show you this link to Google’s headquarters’ photos. Maybe you are like me in respect to not leaving your small town much and want to see other sights. Here’s one- Google’s headquarters in Northern CA somewhere.
I like the Google headquarters
look at Google’s headquarters pic’s . Hope you didn’t miss that last sentence- that is where you click on to see the workplace photos. I like the swimming pool/ hot tub. What else I noticed was the gymnasium feel of the whole complex. I love to see what’s new in building designs. There is a lot of light in the floor with all the cubicles.
You might get some ideas for your home!
You might pick up an idea for a room in your home. Just wander through some of the other complexes. See what they all have in common? The open office environment with lots of natural light. When will they start making schools like this? I always hated the “no window” new schools that they were making in the late 70’s.
Check out the Microsoft headquarters in Bellevue/Redmond/Seattle
I want to go there for a day trip. When he writes on the walls with a red marker, what would you write? I’d draw a rooster.
Altaide office in Paris
They have class. No gymnasium feel to their offices, but their whole business doesn’t depend on the creativity as Google and face book does, yet they have a classy, modern office.
Sweden’s Google
I like their headquarters even more than California’s!! More wallpaper, murals, and in the cafe you can eat on the ping pong table.
Post panic office in Amsterdam
Just goes to show you what you can do with the lighting in any given room. I see so many ideas for the home in each working environment being featured…wow.
Do the Chicago Google video
This was my last visit on this work place page, although it doesn’t rate last. Click on to the Chicago Goggles headquarters especially to view their all free cafeteria (if you are employed there ) and you can see that the food tops any nice restaurant around. They know that meal time should be “lift your spirit” time. Another home idea! Hard to do at home when kids get older and everyone wants a sofa seat.
Reading Colossians
It’s a great book of the bible to read and it can be a week’s project since it only has 4 chapters. When you concentrate on just this book alone in any given week, you can get a lot out of it. After all these years, I hadn’t realized that every chapter of Colossians contains a verse on being thankful.
Colossians 1:12 Colossians 2:7 Colossians 3:15,17 Colossians 4:2
“Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:”
“Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
“…giving thanks to God and the Father by him”…“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
Our minds are really something in the way of processing all you see and do. Just sit and wait 20 minutes in your car for your pizza to be made like I did Friday night when my kids pooled their money together and sent me downtown to pick up their pizza. Almost 15 minutes was used up with meditating on my week in Colossians. I noticed out of Colossians the verses on thankfulness and I was also concentrating on the verses about Jesus Christ our wonderful Saviour as the head.
Those unsightly blinds
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These are the before and after photos of the window that needed help. I will never buy blinds again. Never. They just don’t last. I know I didn’t cut these sheets the right way, but it looks better than the broken blinds even if the top of the window isn’t covered. I’m wondering how do you get a 17 yr old son to make his bed ….
The curtains are made from the top sheet of the bed set. There it was on the top shelf of of his closet not being used which gave me the idea of using it for a curtain. Matching curtains and bedsheets look neat. Photo is a Close up of the bed sheet/curtain.
He doesn’t use the sham either that came in the “bed in a bag” at Walmart. Maybe I could use for a valance!
Lemon Meringue pie
Today I saw somebody’s grandma on U-tube making a lemon meringue pie. I’m going to make one just like hers! Here’s the link to Grandmom Price’s lemon meringue pie. I don’t know how she is, but I sure enjoyed watching her make this pie.
Notice her neat metal pie holder that sits on her stove top. It’s visible when she takes the pie out of the oven with the meringue on it. I’ve never seen a neat pie holder like that! It must be old.
Now Here’s my pie! 
I made a graham cracker crust instead of a regular pie crust. This is an inexpensive pie to make compared to some that cost more like pecan pie, chocolate ones… since those have more expensive ingredients than Lemon meringue pie.
Is it making sense yet to you?
Our murky understanding can be helped, murky thinking on the bible. Here’s a good sermon on video about understanding Pauls’s epistles. He makes these books of the bible clear, Pastor Paulson from Touchet WA. He makes sense and gave me a love for the Word of God that surpasses what I had before. Why do we struggle so? is the name of the sermon. Sunday Am 3/15/09 video it\’s on this page
Satan’s tactics are to substitute Paul’s teachings on the Risen Christ from the pulpit to other things that don’t matter. He’s successful at it and blinds many hearts and minds.
a few of my favorite things
Here are a few of my favorite things–
- Apples in a bowl on a cake stand on the buffet.
- Hand painted lamps from Japan. Have a set of two. One of the first things I bid on from E Bay 4 or 5 years ago and wouldn’t you know.. they came from Milwaukee WI .
- Here’s a set of 3 dollies that I hung up with a push pin and ribbon. They are on a foam board held together with laminate plastic. Other photo is a close up of one of the dollies.
- And there’s my 4th grade photo.
set of dollies
close up of one of the 3 dollies
Online charts, power points and tracts
http://www.touchet1611.org/Charts2009.html Here are some chart/tracts to study the bible with. Start with the first one and work down. Wow, these are informative. See what you think. Ever hear of Paul’s Greater Commission instead of the Great Commission? This is the first chart/tract out of 20 some that are online. Pastor Paulson typed all of these. They are easy to read and understand.
His January sermons have been real eye openers too. I used winter blues for the name of this category, but this has been far from a “blue winter” for me. The more understanding you get, the more joy you take in!
Noodle maker
I have a Marcato Atlas 150 from the thrift shop! I should have bought one years ago. When you have layer hens it just stands to reason that you should have a noodle maker too.
My 6 quart cast iron Dutch oven came in handy for hanging these noodles. Now I just have to work on making the noodles thinner. Nothing to plug in, just crank out the noodles. Thanks to U Tube you can watch someone use one of these. Next time I make noodles I’ll use the big tall stockpot to hang the noodles on, just didn’t think of it the first time.
Had a Tea today
I love these old Victorian photos, like this one- she’s having tea while balancing her hat on her head.
Took this photo as I was waiting for everyone to arrive. Some of these photos dont’ show up, but put the curser over the spot where the photo is, try that. It was a good afternoon. Sorry for all those who could not make it. Invited the ladies from church. It’s good for ladies to get together with no better occasion than the dead of winter!
In this 2nd photo is a Cosco pumpkin pie plastic container that I saved. I put 4 rows of 
different cookies in it. One of the things I made were these little “cherry cups” with 3 ounce Dixie cups consisting of: chocolate graham cracker/butter on the bottom, Wilderness brand cherry pie filling ( 3 cherries for each cup), next on top- heavy whip cream whipped with some sugar, and a little chocolate animal cookie on top. 
Thank you to a fine lady who gave me some beautiful tea cups. Thank you to a fine lady who washed up the tea cups afterwards, thank you to all the fine ladies who came. Thank you Emily for the 13 cents left by where you sat. Did you leave a tip? I’ll bring it to church for you in case you didn’t.
Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
These are the plastic ladybug molds I used (propped up by some red carnations). In the photo some of the molds have been filled, ready to be tapped out. I like Kona coffee beans because they are mild, not bitter ones. The right molds were hard to find. I didn’t want the individual hole to be too big or too small. This ladybug plastic sheet was $2.39. I got two of them. On one sheet they have 3 ladybug sizes. Only 2 worked- the 1 1/8 ladybug hole and the next size down ladybug- 3/4. The smallest hole was too small.
Here are my chocolate covered coffee beans that look like ladybugs! I tapped on the molds with a big spoon to get them out. I used Ghiradelli and other brands of chocolate. Mixing 2 different kinds works well. Water in a small pan, little steel mixing bowl on top of that to melt the chocolate.
Take it off the stove right after it’s melted (stir it as it is melting). Get it in a baggie, cut the tip bottom corner off, then blop a little in each ladybug mold. Quickly put the coffee bean in each ladybug, then more chocolate . Have to work fast so the chocolate doesn’t harden. Scrap excess chocolate off each ladybug so you get a flat bottom on each ladybug. I found my pastry thing to use instead of a baggie.
Close up of the chocolate covered coffee beans in a ladybug mold. This close up is of the biggest ladybug- 1 1/8 inch which is about the width of a nickel.
Cellophane bag of ladybug chocolate covered coffee beans to give away with label and ribbon. I hope my Mother likes them. 
These are great! Love having a few of these around for when I have a cup of coffee or tea!
homemade oat crackers
Made some more crackers. These are oat crackers but if you think it looks like Hard Tack, it probably does. I’ve read about Hard Tack, the cracker/biscuits that the civil war folks ate. The army’s Hard Tack was sometimes infested with bugs so it’d float in their coffee….something I read somewhere, mine doesn’t have bugs in it. I use half oat flour and half unbleached white flour. I’ll make the next batch thinner when I roll them out.
This one down below (on the blue) encased in a museum looks like a baby’s teething biscuit. The original recipe didn’t have any lard or oil in them from what I read (mine do). You can just imagine the jokes around our house about my oat crackers! He he he.
Here is the real Hard Tack:
photos from Wikipedia web site on Hardtack.
Thankful for my home thanksgiving 08
looks inviting!
I’m thankful for this home we have. It took a long time to get out of rentals in our married life so I’m very thankful for having a mortgage compared to a monthly rental fee. How does a man and wife get a home in their name without help from their parents? It’s not easy to get that down payment. A place to call your own and make improvements on can add some good memories to family life.
would you believe we lived in a rental this small- looked like this one too!
So much of where and when you buy is dependent on your husband. Sometimes it takes a long time for him to decide where he wants to settle and every couple’s situation is different and unique to them. It took my husband almost 17 years to finalize things and get a home. Jobs have to be considered as well. Employment comes and goes over the years.
If a husband knew how much their wife would love to be settled and start building equity and how it could add stability to their family, then I think the man of the family would be thinking about staying somewhere permanently. It also shows character when you can stay in one place and be known in the community for what you believe.
So many Christian couples I’ve known over this past 18 years (including my husband and I) were known to move and move so much that it was ridiculous. Ridiculous is the right word. All that moving goes against family life and then when the kids get to be 12 years old and older, then the sting of not belonging to a certain steady pattern in life catches up with you and kids know that all this moving isn’t good. A lot of moving goes against family life.
Wow.....
Men need other men to be friends with and settle down and raise their families but with high unemployment in areas of the country it is hard to stay employed. Churches are weak so couples move to find a different church group to be a part of.
Sometimes we’ve moved from an area because we knew that we could never afford a house there, so why not rent somewhere else where we could possibly buy? Every family eventually gets settled somewhere but a lot of good memories are lost when a family finally settles when the kids are older. I’m thankful for my husband getting this home we live in, for a home where I can raise layer hens and stay put and grow old in.
Looks like just the right place for my layer hens
My Rye Crackers
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/18671/rye-crackers.html I used this recipe, but instead of the whole wheat, I used white unbleached flour. I sprinkled kosher salt on top of each cracker before putting them in the oven.
These crackers go so well with Swiss cheese or cream cheese. I would have paid probably 3.50 or 4.00 for these in Safeway. The pampered chef cookie cutter I had came in handy for a nice uniform look. Who needs a sub sandwich when you’re out and about in town doing errands. Just pack these with some cheese and grab a coffee to go.
2 day later update: Made another batch, but this time I used lard, olive oil and butter – a third of each to make up 1/4 cup (that’s cutting the recipe in half) and I liked the way they turned out much better than just oil, or just lard. Try it!
Trains came by this evening
These are not the photos from today, some how the camera wouldn’t load them to the computer, but it’s still the train that comes by our place.
EID Islam postal stamp- no thanks
My husband and I got apples today at the edge of town since the granny smiths were in. We stopped by the post office for stamps on the way home. When my husband got back in the car with the stamps I mentioned to him that they were Muslim stamps. He surprised me by walking across the street to exchange them but the postal worker told him that the stamps were not Muslim, so out comes my husband with the same stamps. We got home and looked up the stamp online, and it was confirmed to us that the stamps were of Mulsim orgin. My husband went back downtown to the post office and was met by a different postal worker at the window who kindly exchanged them for those little purple heart stamps.
EID is the end of the Ramadan Islam season. From what I could find out, this stamp was issued 11 days before 9/11 and they are still promoting this stamp 7 years later.
NO thanks, I’ll take a different stamp. I think they had so many left over in this little post office that they had to get rid of them. How could the postal worker tell my husband they were not Muslim stamps when the Arabic writing is plain as can be right on the stamp? You just Google the EID stamp and you find out about it.
homemade toothpaste
There are recipes online for making your own tooth powder/toothpaste which led me to my own concoction. I just happened to have the essential oils since I have some for the salve I make. Only a few recipes had olive oil. I put olive oil in because it makes the baking soda have a nice consistency. Forget the salt, with baking soda in it, who needs the salt? It’s hard on your teeth from what I read.
I was reading about the evils of glycerine which is in the healthy toothpastes. I had a neat cobalt blue small jar from some ointment that was in a bath and body jar from a long time ago. Used that for the container. Here’s my concoction:
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baking soda (about 2 TBSP)
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extra virgin olive oil
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few drops of grapefruit essential oil
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few drops of myrrh essential oil
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few drops of clove essential oil
- few drops of peppermint essential oil
I like the grapefruit oil in it. Meant to put orange essential oil in it, so it was a mistake but the grapefruit is welcome taste. This stuff is real good and cheap if you have a few essential oils. I keep mine in the fridge in this hot weather.
update 9 days later: this stuff is great! I won’t go back to regular store toothpaste now that I can make this.
almost 3 yrs later- my toothpaste just got better.
It got better by using raw unrefined food grade coconut oil which calms the spices down and the baking soda. It protects the gums. I tried anise oil, more of the orange ones: tangerine, mandarin and sweet orange. Spearmint- that’s great in a toothpaste. Frankincense too. All therapeutic grade oils that you can put in toothpaste. Sea salt- not to much just a little.
Nothing compares with this toothpaste. Let your gums be the judge.
New Ironing Board Cover
Here it is all finished in the first photo. In the 2nd photo you can see some of my shoddy work. I left the old (blue) cover on and you see a little old foam sticking out, the drawstrings too. On top of that old blue cover is a year old one from Walmart and the reason why it doesn’t show is this: I cut out this pale aqua material and fitted it under the elastic edging of the old Walmart cover.
What lazy ole me has is a nice cotton iron board top that is tucked under the Wall-mart elastic trim iron board cover and that whole shebang is fitted around the old old blue iron board cover with drawstrings. I made more shortcuts than the lady I got the idea from who made her own tutorial on her blog tutorial for an iron cover. Lisa Lam is her name and U-handbag is the name of her blog. There are others out there too. I’ll need another tutorial when this new one wears out and I finally uncover the other 2 Iron board covers underneath .
And by the way, see the spray starch on the ironing table? If you iron your cotton slips with it, you’ll feel all the prettier.
Banana cookies
These turned out better than I expected! Too bad some people won’t eat anything that isn’t chocolate because you miss out on some good snacks and sweets if you limit yourself to just chocolate.
This recipe is on the Simply Recipes website- banana cookie recipe.
The teapot:
Isn’t it beautiful? Out of the blue my husband brings this home from a thrift store but it looks new and it came with a matching cup and saucer (to the left of the teapot, hidden a little).
The cookies:
I had some great walnuts to put in them too. I think the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg made them extra good. It called for mace or nutmeg but I’ve never had mace in the house. Have to get some and see what it taste like. I’ll put a little less flour in them next time instead of 2 cups. The ones in this photo have chocolate chips in em but I don’t usually put those in. I only put in a half of bag.
For Mothers Day:
Thank you mom–I want to thank you publicly for all the homemade cookies, pies and cakes you always made for all of us growing up. I only saw dirty windowsills at other peoples houses, never at home. You always kept the house so clean.
Cake time
Here’s a stack of Bakers unsweetened chocolate. Took this picture some time ago but today I made a chocolate cake off the Bakers web site and it called for 8 squares which is one whole box! Yes it’s true that cake mixes are a cheaper way to make a cake, but not always better, just more convenient . I like to use eggs from my hens, my homemade vanilla and Bakers chocolate. Some cake mixes have coconut oil in them which makes them wonderfully rich. Here’s the link to the recipe I used. Bakers 225 anniversary cake recipe This recipe had no baking powder in it, just baking soda. I thought all cakes had baking powder in em. Ok cake, but kind of dry compared to other recipes.
I made it into a rectangle Pyrex glass pan instead of a layer cake. I didn’t swirl all the melted bakers chocolate completely. At the last minute I thought I’d have a marble cake. Wrong- the bakers chocolate was too harsh all by itself. Usually in a marble cake you add a little of the batter to the melted chocolate, but it was still good, just darker chocolate tasting.
You wouldn’t believe how much the pint of Lucerne whip cream was at Safeway- $3.60 Can you believe it? Bought it for the frosting.
Whistling tea kettle
It was a gift from a friend and I want to tell you that whistling tea kettles are great! No more heating water for tea in a saucepan for me now that I have a tea kettle that whistles. Little things like that are so special.
How about this for tea time-Chinese Dragon Weil from Ancora coffee. The loose tea looks like nettle from a fir tree but they are dark brown instead of green. That is what I’m sipping on now.
How well do you know the ladies from church? It’s a sad fact but very true- often we’re closer to people in the work a day world than with other women from church. Who has time to get together for outings, picnics, and teas? The gas prices alone can keep everyone apart.
Finally found a good mop
http://www.starfibers.net/index.ph
It is a star fiber mop with a mop-pad that velcros easily to the bottom and I love it. I just hand wash the mop pad and ring it out. Finally I found a good mop! It’s so easy to use and I enjoy mopping with it. No streaks of water on the floor, no mess, but there is only one teeny thing that could work better– the long wand (or stem, whatever you call it) doesn’t stay tight. You have to twist it in often. That’s OK. I love this mop! Mine was used, but I’d still pay full price to have one .
Beauty pagent and thankfullness
http://www.miss-landmine.org/misslandmine_team.html
And you think you have it bad? Think again. If you click on the page about the ladies you see they all have children, only one leg, and no husband. I didn’t vote (where you could click for that) because I don’t know much about them. I’m glad someone donated the clothes and they get to keep them. They were payed 200.00 a day too; hope it went to them and their children. Pray for their children that they will be married and stay married in their future. I’m thankful I have a husband who works and keeps our family up and running.
Apricot Tea and an old photo
I have some tea from Madison WI from a place called Steep and Brew. It is fragrant and really refreshing made as ice tea. My sister sent it for someone’s birthday, so that’s what we’ve been having. It’s black tea with apricot flavor and apricot aroma. http://www.steepnbrew.com/index.lasso Here’s their website from Madison WI photo: Kid’s tea party
kids tea party
red carnations
pansey wreath 1995
