Closet Swap

Clothes, Clothes and more Clothes.  First, that item "shrinks" and we can't fit into it.  Then we lose weight and the other items are too big.  Sometimes, we just get bored, and want new. Well, before you have a garage sale, give your clothes away or donate them to a thrift store, try this...

CLOSET SWAP

Who's invited?

1. Option 1. All your friends of all sizes and age are invited to this event. This way it really mixes things up.
2. Option 2. Friends around your size and style

What do you serve?

1. Option 1. You can just have beverages
2. Option 2. You can serve coffee and dessert
3. Option 3. You can have a full-fledged dinner
4. Option 4. YOU CAN DO WHATEVER!

What do you do?

1. Option 1: Everyone lays out their clothes, jewelry, shoes, accessories, etc. in their area. Then you go around and choose different items that you want and swap
2. Option 2. You can also choose to give out so many tickets to each person (depending on how much they brought) and they use the tickets to "buy" other people's clothes

Do you have to only swap clothes?
No, you can also do other swaps...

1. Toys
2. Baby clothes
3. Canning equipment
4. Just accessories
5. Craft items
6. Service coupons (2 hour babysitting, lawn mowing, etc...)
7. Recipes or cookbooks

There are so many different ideas. 

Bugs at my BBQ

Have you ever enjoyed a delicious picnic and you were unhappily disturbed by some pesky bugs?  Especially during the summer, BBQs are popular family gatherings.  Unfortunately, so are bugs at your BBQ.  So here are few tricks that can help you enjoy your outdoor dinning, without getting eaten alive.

• Hang a Water - Penny bag: to get instructions go to instructables.com

• Put a place for food garbage on the other side of the deck. The flies swarm there and leave us alone-  D. Taggart-Carpenter (allyou)

• Citrus Candles -  Light and place them all over your patio. This will help cut back on the mosquitoes.

• Fresh basil:  Place plants in pots all over your patio. It's natural and won't hurt kids or pets. - K. Urias (allyou)

If you have any other ideas, please leave a comment below. - rejoicing in the present

Overnight Peaches and Cream French Toast

I saw this in All You Magazine. It looked so yummy, that I had to share. Leave a comment if you make it and tell us how it turned out. - Rejoicing in the Present

What you need...

• 1 8-oz. loaf French bread, sliced
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 15-oz. cans sliced peaches packed in juice, drained
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

What you do...

1. 1. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange bread in a tight, flat layer in dish.
2. 2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs with milk, sugar and vanilla until blended; pour over bread.
3. Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
5. 3. Remove baking dish from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
6. Preheat oven to 350°F.
7. Pour cream into a small pan; bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes.
8. Drizzle over peaches
9. ...and bake, uncovered, until casserole is lightly browned on top and just cooked through, 45 to 55 minutes.
10. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

You can find this recipe also online @ MyRecipes.com - Enjoy :-)

Her Moment in History

This was an interesting article that I had to share. It's from foreignpolicy.com.  I, too, do not know anything about this young lady, but I love that she used her moment in history to put the spotlight back on God. What about you? If you had the chance to speak in front of millions on people, what would you say? Read this story about Amanda Thatcher:

After being carried through the streets of London in a flag-draped coffin aboard a gun carriage, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest this morning in St. Paul's Cathedral. But the big story of the day wasn't Maggie. No, it was a 19-year-old Texan who stole the show from the deceased Iron Lady.

With a poise reminiscent of the elder Thatcher, Amanda Thatcher, Margaret's granddaughter, delivered a reading from Ephesians that has the British media agog. Amanda, who lives with her mother in Texas, chose a rather militant passage that calls on believers to "put on the whole armour of God." But the reading was a good one, delivered with remarkable grace by a young woman suddenly thrust into the international spotlight. In a tweet that nicely summarized the breathless British media reaction, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland couldn't help but speculate "whether somewhere a Texas Republican operative is watching Amanda Thatcher thinking 'Wonder if she has political ambitions...'"
Here's the clip:

So who is Amanda Thatcher, and how did Maggie Thatcher's granddaughter end up in Texas of all places? Amanda is the daughter of Mark Thatcher and the Texas heiress Diane Burgdorf, who underwent an ugly, highly public divorce from Mark (Diane went so far as to detail her ex-husband's history of infidelity in a broadside published in a British paper). When Amanda's father became embroiled in an acrimonious business dispute, Diane agreed to move her family to South Africa. But after Mark was arrested in 2004 over his alleged involvement in a coup in Equatorial Guinea, the marriage finally dissolved. Amanda now lives in Texas with her mother, stepfather, and brother Michael. She is reportedly deeply religious, has carried out missionary work in China, and attends the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Voted "most likely to change the world" by her high school classmates, Amanda was a favorite of the Iron Lady. The former British prime minister reportedly kept a portrait of her two grandchildren on a mantle alongside a picture of Sir Denis, her beloved late husband. Maggie, the daughter of a fervent lay Methodist preacher, approved of Amanda's turn toward evangelical Christianity, and she cherished her relationship with her granddaughter during her ailing later years. As the Guardian notes in its excellent profile of the young Thatchers, Amanda's religiosity lined up nicely with Maggie's hard-nosed political and social conservatism.

Poised, eloquent, the descendant of conservative royalty, evangelical Christian, and Texas-bred: It all seems to add up to a promising political future. She certainly hit it out of the park in her introduction to the world, and isn't it pretty easy to picture a clip of Amanda's speech at her grandmother's funeral playing a role in a future campaign commercial?
The Republican Party could certainly do worse.

...And, yes, more talk about politics BUT she didn't go there. She used her time to talk, to talk about God.  LOVE! - Rejoicing in the Present.

I just don't have the words....

Describe colors to a blind person, describe noises to a deaf man, describe the way you feel when your child gives you that beaming smile or describe how your heart feels when your husbands tells his friends how much he loves you. These are nearly impossible.

What is even more impossible is describing the love, admiration and respect I have toward my mom. She has the beautiful spirit one could ever have. She loves her children with all her being and would support them in any way to be successful especially in their spiritual walk.

My mother is not just my mom, she also was my teacher for 8 years, she was my nurse through 4 major back surgeries, she was my counselor and support through my "many issues" and is now my best friend. She also had to put up with a lot of trash from me during my teen years, but instead of just kicking me out the door and sending me off to a boarding school she, held on for the ride and loved me through it all.

To this day, I still call her almost every day. When I have issues, she listens and helps me through,  Many times, she makes me see the "other side." I have teased her before with "Can't you ever take my side and not the other person's" but in this, she is helping me! She is constantly supporting me and educating me. Many of the blog posts articles are ones that she has sent me to look at. She is a RUBY a perfect beautiful gem.

I owe my mom my life, spiritually, physically and emotionally. I can not do justice, to how much she means to me, but here is to trying. I love you MOM! I just wish I could tell you how much you mean to me.

LOVE,
Joy

Ps. I'm sorry about the grammar. My editor, is the one who this letter is to. :-)
Pss. Doesn't my mom and my sister look lovely. I snapped it one Christmas, This is a GREAT illustration of her love for her children

Grow your own Tree!

After eating avocados everyday for the last week, I started wondering about the seeds.  They are huge and I thought maybe I could plant one and get another avocado.  The truth is "Now, if you grow an avocado tree, it’s unlikely that it will ever bear fruit."  This information and the below blog is from thehungrymouse.com.  So stop by and check them out or read the below information from them. This is what thehungrymouse.com said...

Equipment List

1 avocado pit
4 toothpicks
1 small glass or ceramic dish, about the size of a custard cup
Yields: 1 avocado tree sapling, with patience and a little luck

When you root the pit, you want to do it pointy side up. The stem and leaves will sprout out the top. And the root will push its way out the bottom.

Stick toothpicks into your avocado pit

Grab your toothpicks.

Push one toothpick into the side of the avocado pit. You want to get it in far enough so that you can pick the pit up by the toothpick.

Do this with the other 3 toothpicks. You want them evenly spaced out, like this:

Keep the avocado pit well watered

Place the avocado pit over your dish, so the toothpicks are resting on the rim of the dish and the pit is suspended over the center.

If it’s not sitting well, wiggle your toothpicks around a little so they’re tilted up slightly, like this:

Fill the dish with water so that the avocado pit is about halfway submersed.


Change the water every day or two, so that the pit is constantly sitting in water.

Keep your avocado pit on a sunny windowsill

Set the dish on a sunny windowsill. Keep an eye on it, and replenish the water frequently.


Remember: Until you plant your avocado sapling in soil, you need to keeping the pit in water at all times. No water, no tree.

How long does it take for an avocado pit to root?

For the first few weeks, your pit won’t really do much. It will just sit there, looking very much the same as the day that you first propped it up. You may start to despair. After all, you’ve been changing the water for days, so, what gives?
Well, Nature, as they say, takes her sweet time.
Then, after about three weeks or so, the top of the pit should begin to split open. (Nature is also kind of imprecise…this can take up to six weeks to happen.)
Over the next few weeks, a stem will shoot up, the first leaves will begin to grow, and roots will begin to force their way out of the bottom. In a few more weeks, you should see more leaves.
The whole process will generally take about 3 months, give or take.

When to plant your avocado seedling

When your tree is maybe 7-8 inches tall, nip off the top few leaves. (That’s right…pinch them off. It will encourage growth and help the tree branch out.)
Grab a 10-inch pot with a saucer and at least one drainage hole in the bottom. Fill it about an inch from the top with potting soil.
Dig a shallow hole in the center of the soil (just deep enough so half the pit is covered). Nestle the bottom of your avocado sapling in it, root-side down.
Cover the pit halfway with soil, so half the pit is still exposed. Press down firmly on the soil to secure it. It should be standing up straight, at attention.
Pour a little water into the pot gently, because the soil hasn’t settled yet. And…you did it! Set your tree in a sunny window. Keep it watered, and watch it grow!

Tips for caring for your avocado tree

Where should I keep my avocado tree?Avocado trees like warm, sunny spots. If your tree doesn’t get enough light, it will get leggy (i.e. all stem, few leaves). Depending on where you live, you should be able to keep your tree outside in a sunny spot. If the temperature ever drops below about 45 degrees F, bring it back inside.
How often should I water my avocado tree?
Water it enough to keep the soil moist, but not muddy. You never want your tree sitting in a puddle of water once you’ve potted it.
If your leaves start to turn yellow, it’s a sure sign it’s getting too much water. If this happens, stop watering it for a few days until the soil dries out a little.
Should I ever pinch off any leaves?
Yes. When your tree is about 7-8 inches tall and ready for potting, pinch off the top few leaves. This will encourage your tree to branch out and be nice and bushy.
Will my avocado tree bear fruit?Now, if you grow an avocado tree, it’s unlikely that it will ever bear fruit.
From what I’ve gathered from my (admittedly uncomprehensive and unscientific) research, you need to graft a piece of a fruit-bearing tree on to your seedling. I’m an avid and enthusiastic kitchen gardener, but sadly my botanical knowledge ends there.

THANK YOU, thehungrymouse.com.! I am seriously going to plant me a seed! - Rejoicing in the Present

Teacher Appreciation Idea #5

Here is the last idea! I made it big enough so that you could read the little story. 
Let me explain what is going on, just in case your a little confused. The letter is full of candy-names and inside the basket are the actual candies. 
I have seen this used at baby showers or even bridal showers. I will have to show you one sometime. They are super cute. Don't forget about spoiling your Mommy on Sunday. We love our Mommies and our Teachers! - Rejoicing in the Present