Treats, Tortellini, and Chicken

This week, since the weather has started feeling more like fall here, I decided it was time to start working through my Recipes I would love to try board on Pinterest.

First up was Scarecrow Treats! Candy corns are one of my favorite fall treats, so combining them with some of these other yummy ingredients sounded like a hit to me. And it was! The original recipe calls for using a 15x10x1-inch jelly roll pan though. Guess I read over that part, because I made these in a 13×9-inch pan. This will work as long as you bake the cake part of the recipe just a little longer than the recipe calls for. Oh, and I did add just a few more candy corns than the recipe called for, just couldn’t resist…

Next, was Chili Tortellini! I just love making soups for dinner in the fall and winter. Soups always make the best leftovers for lunch the next day. This recipe came together so quickly and was so filling! I did change it up a bit. Since I wanted this to be more chili-like than soup-like, I did not add any chicken broth. Instead I added a can of water. Also, I used tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, as well as black beans and white beans. Since I doubled this recipe, I used pasta shells and cheese tortellini. My husband gave this recipe 5 stars!! It was that good!!

This last recipe took a little more effort than the other two combined (and used every counter available in my kitchen!)! One of the very first recipes I pinned on Pinterest (2 years ago!) was a recipe for Lemon Chicken. We all love the Orange Chicken at Panda Express, so I thought I would finally give this one a try. The flavors on this one were really good, but without help from my kids, there would have been no way I could have gotten this all together myself, unless I had eight arms. Oh well, at least I gave it a try, right?

Have you found any good Pinterest recipes lately?

Capture Your 365

I really meant to try to take more photos last week to match up with the daily Capture Your 365 prompts, but after taking over 200 pictures at our annual church beach trip, then working through all those photos in Lightroom, I didn’t get but a few photos for this week. Oh well, life moves on…

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec

So this first photo doesn’t really fit any of the photo prompts for last week, but I just had to share it! We were watching these dolphins all afternoon at the beach, and at first, I wasn’t sure if my 200mm lens would be able to capture these guys out in the ocean. It wasn’t until I loaded the photos into Lightroom that I saw this image. I was so excited to have captured this! I did have 8×10 prints made of this photo to send to our Compassion kids along with some dolphin facts and printables I found on Pinterest.

ISO 800, 82mm, f/4.2, 1/4 sec

Day 260 – On A Board: Yes, I know we are officially in autumn, but summer is my favorite season! The nights and mornings are cooler here, but we are still seeing 80 degree temperatures during the day. Just warm enough to sit outside in the afternoon with bare feet. I am soaking it in while it lasts.

ISO 800, 135mm, f/16, 1/4 sec

Day 261 – Sugar and Spice: I really should have done some baking on this day, but I didn’t. The moon was so incredibly full and bright on this night. I love to be reminded to take moments like this to just be still and be amazed by His creation.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/16, 0.6 sec

Day 262 – Morning Sun: Unless I get up really early, throw on some clothes, and drive down the road, there is no way I am going to photograph the morning sun. So I thought I would experiment with a little bit of sun flare on this one with a small aperture. Probably not one I will print and hang on my wall, but fun to play with.

Have you been working on the Capture Your 365 challenge?

Capture Your 365

Five for you this week!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/80 sec

Day 229 – Pink: Pink is not my color, blue is. My home is decorated with lots of blue and I have a lot of clothes that are blue. It is hard for me to find pink things around my home. It was getting to the end of day and I remembered that I still needed to capture a photo from my day. A cloud filled evening sky usually has some shades of pink, so I stepped outside and saw this lovely summer evening sky with just a few shades of pink. Perfect!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/50 sec

Day 230 – Measured: Pinterest is a wonderful way for me to store recipes that I want to try (I even have a whole board devoted to recipes I would love to try!) No more piles of clippings from magazines collecting dust in my home. But every now and then, there is a recipe I find that sits on my counter just begging me to give it a try. And since I had just about all of the ingredients at home on this summer day, I decided to make it!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/14, 1/80 sec

Day 233 – Spin: Kelsey and I were meeting a young mom from church at one of our local parks. Since I knew they had swings, I just had to bring my camera along! She wasn’t spinning too quickly, so I knew I didn’t need too fast of a shutter speed to freeze the motion. This was my favorite one out of the bunch. I love how her braid is ‘flying’ out away from her. And I love that my 13 year old daughter is not ‘too old’ to swing for me.

ISO 400, 50mm, f/16, 1/320 sec

Day 234 – Abundant: Kelsey and I were able to spend the whole day with friends up in the foothills today. My friend and I were able to talk all day long while the girls played, chatted, swam, and made fun videos. It was a wonderful day! On the way home, I knew I wanted to capture the sunset. We pulled over a couple of times to get just the right shot. I love the sun flares on this one.

ISO 200, 50mm, f/6.3, 1/80 sec

Day 235 – Local Landscape: As I have mentioned before, there are some days when we just stay home all day long. I could have driven around town to find something away from our home to photograph for this prompt, but why not take a picture of my own backyard since it is part of my local landscape and a place I enjoy spending time. Especially reading over in those red chairs with my iced coffee.

Have you started to Capture Your 365 yet?

A little Compassion organization

Last week while I was working on the Compassion Pinterest boards, I pinned an item I knew I wanted to try out! I found this pin on the Compassion Australia web site. Australia is one of twelve partner countries which has come alongside Compassion’s mission to help release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

On the Compassion Australia web site, there is a section dedicated to spreading the word, encouraging other sponsors to write to their sponsored child on a regular basis. As I was looking at some of the items they make available to their sponsors in Australia, I noticed that a few of the items are printables that any of us can take advantage of using. I just love the idea of the All About My Sponsored Child page. Many times when I am writing to our sponsored children, I will look back through their letters to remind myself of important facts. By having everything together on this one page sure can save me a little bit of time!

One other thing I hope to add to this page is a list of the Bible verses the children share with me in their letters. Every letter I receive from my sponsored children has at least one, if not two, Bible verses. Wouldn’t it be great to somehow put all of the verses together for your sponsored child once they have graduated?

Compassion Keep In Touch Box

Since our pastor has allowed us to keep a Compassion table in the lobby of our church, I have been wanting to put together a box of items for our many Compassion sponsors. As a Compassion Advocate, I want to do what I can to encourage sponsors to be writing to their kids on a regular basis. My prayer is that this box will make it easier for our sponsors to take the time to write to their sponsored kids.

Here is a list of items I have included in this box:

• Monthly Compassion prayer calendar
• Blank birthday cards
• Blank note cards
• Tips for mailing small gifts print out from the Compassion web site
• Copies of the California coloring page from the Crayola web site
• Pages from activity pages I have found at the Dollar Spot at Target
• Variety of stickers
• Copies of a Bible verse printable I found on Pinterest
• Copies of old Explorer magazines

The box was very well received this morning with many people finding new things to send to their kids. My goal is to update the box at least once a month with the new monthly Compassion prayer calendar and any new printables I find on Pinterest.

What do you do to encourage Compassion sponsors at your church?

Compassion Letter Writing Club on Pinterest

Have you seen the new Compassion Letter Writing Club board on Pinterest?

I was able to write a blog post for the Compassion blog to share about this new Pinterest board. That was pretty exciting for me since I have found a lot of creative paper project ideas to make for our Compassion kids on my own Compassion Pinterest board.

The focus for May on this new board is Mother’s Day, and some of the new contributors shared some great ideas with all of us.

Here is what I included in this latest mailing to my Compassion kids:

• two photographs from my latest day trip to Yosemite, one is of Yosemite Falls and the other is of dogwood blossoms
• paper dogwood blossoms 
• a printable of flowers for my kids to color and give to their mom
• a card similar to this one for the kids to give to their mom

I also included a short note to each of my kids, sharing with them Romans 15:13 –

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

I shared with them that I pray that each day for them is filled with joy when they remember how much God loves them.

Have you sent anything special to your Compassion kids lately?

Capture Your 365

Boy has it been a busy week around here, which didn’t leave a lot of time for me to focus on the photo prompts from the Capture Your 365 challenge. Only three photos from the prompts this week, but I do have one bonus photo to share.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/5.0, 1/640 sec

Day 117 – Fresh: Finally had some time to clean up my garden area and get some plants in the ground. Spent about three hours putting in 4 tomato plants, 20 basil starts, 2 zucchini, a whole bunch of marigolds and 3 new rose bushes. Instead of wire tomato cages, I am trying this new thing I found on Pinterest to help support the tomato plants. We will see how well it works.

ISO 100, 18mm, f/8.0, 1.6 sec

Day 118 – On The Floor: Just bought a new piece of furniture from IKEA, so time to rearrange things in the school/craft room…again. With Matthew out of school and Kelsey doing a lot of school work in her room, the school/craft room isn’t really being used as a school room anymore. So we cleared out 2 desks and I am currently on the lookout for a big craft table to use in this room. Meanwhile, there are many piles all over the place that need to find new homes.

ISO 100, 22mm, f/8.0, 1/200 sec

Day 119 – The Price: This is why you fill up your gas tank before you get into the mountains around here. This gas station is right outside of Yosemite National Park, which brings me to this bonus picture for you this week!

ISO 100, 18mm, f/8.0, 1/200 sec

Bonus photo: Last week, I was able to go to Yosemite with three of my friends. It was just what I needed, a little break to enjoy the beauty of this place that God created. The falls were amazingly full, it wasn’t too crowded, the weather was gorgeous…where do you go when you need a break?

Capture Your 365

I am on photo overload right now! So many photos to edit! But I did manage to complete four of the photo prompts for this last week.

ISO 100, 18mm, f/5.6, 1/4000 sec

Day 86 – Hunt: I just love clouds in a blue sky! Do you ever look for shapes in the clouds? When the sky is filled with clouds like these, I love to take a moment to ‘hunt’ for things in the clouds. Makes you wish for those days when you could lay out on a blanket in the afternoon and watch the clouds roll by.

ISO 800, 55mm, f/13, 0.6 sec

Day 87 – Flowing: Now why would I take a picture of my washing machine filling up? Because I was trying to get some blurred water shots. Also, since we have hard water where we live, I have found that cleaning my washing machine every few months helps it clean my clothes better. I know, boring picture, but it completely fit the photo prompt!

ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec

Day 88 – Minimal: Ahhh, bare feet! I just love when the weather starts to get warm enough here that I can walk around in bare feet and not have to put socks on!

ISO 100, 48mm, f/5.6, 1/10 sec

Day 89 – Dyed: plain, white, boring hard boiled eggs. That is what we had for Easter this year. My kids really didn’t want to dye eggs this year. But I still did a batch of hard boiled eggs because my husband loves them!

So that is my week of Capture Your 365. Did you take any fun pictures this past week?

Capture Your 365

This week I am making a dismal showing in the Capture Your 365 Challenge with only 3 photos. Not that I didn’t take a lot of pictures over the past week, just didn’t have a chance to really focus on the prompts for this week. So here goes:

 ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/160 sec

Day 79 – Plant Something: I love freesia! These bulbs have been coming up in my backyard for a couple of weeks now. They are so fragrant and colorful. The best part is planting them in the fall and waiting for them to come up in the spring. Such a treat!

ISO 800, 50mm, f/4.0, 1/13 sec

Day 80 – Hiding: Last year, I found this Mama & Me journal idea on Pinterest. Kelsey loves to write notes, so I thought this would be a fun way to keep in touch with each other. My husband and I went away for a couple of days and I found this when I got home. She left me the sweetest note! I just know this journal is going to be a treasure for both of us!

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec

Day 85 – Color: Now I know these freesia are white (and I had just taken another picture of my freesia a few days ago), but I had just watered my garden and couldn’t resist taking a picture with all the water droplets.

Are you following along with the Capture Your 365 challenge?

What did you photograph this past week?

Capture Your 365

Here are this past week’s photos on my Capture Your 365 adventure!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/60 sec

Day 58 – Essential Equipment: today I wanted to make some muffins, so I pulled out all the ingredients to make some pumpkin muffins. Yum!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2,8, 1/5 sec

Day 59 – Up Close and Personal: today’s prompt encouraged you to fill the frame. This little camera was the first camera I ever took pictures with a long time ago at outdoor ed. I found it at my parent’s house on a visit up there and brought it home. I like keeping it up on a shelf with some old books I have been collecting.

ISO 100, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/800 sec

Day 60 – Sweet Rest: in the busyness of this life, we tend to neglect taking time to just rest. Last week we were blessed with a beautiful afternoon, so Kelsey and I had iced coffees out in the backyard. It was a nice time to enjoy the warmth of the sun and some sweet time with my daughter.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec

Day 61 – Whimsical: last spring, Kelsey and I put these together from an idea I found on Pinterest. They are a great way to add some spring color to our home.

ISO 100, 32mm, f/25, 1/8 sec

Day 62 – Upside Down: Now I know this photo is not upside down. But what I loved was how filled the sky was with clouds. I was waiting for the sun to move past the clouds, but not quite behind the hills. Kevin and I were on our way home from a date afternoon and I had him stop quite a few times until I got the ‘perfect’ shot. It is all the interpretation of the prompt, right? (insert big smile here!)

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec

Day 63 – Two: So I have to admit, I actually took this photo on Day 62. Kevin and I went out on a date afternoon (which I will blog about soon), and we stopped for a treat. One Mocha Frappuccino and one Chai Tea Latte. Two Starbucks drink, but one fun afternoon!

Are you Capturing Your 365? Let me know if you are! I would love to see what you are capturing!