Book Review : Almost Amish (5 Things I Learn)

Hi All !
I hope you had a wonderful weekend !

We went to my brother and sister in law house and had a great time with them. My husband and I played Uno with our niece and that was great. We had dinner there and I brought chocolate cake peeps sun flower for dessert.

I found this book from library last week the title Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth. Out of curiosity I checked it out and read it. The book is very enjoyable, easy  and I do learn something out of it. The content of the book the author wrote is about the simple life that Amish people have.

Things that I love about this book is the author corporate it with the bible view of life. She and her family live the simple life that they adopt from Amish life style. They left the American dream life they have had once.

I have visited the Amish village several times in Lancaster, PA and drove around their neighborhood. I just love to see how simple is their life and very peaceful. Reading this book give me more insight to understand their life style.

Our life in today society is very demanding without we realized it. We try to impress people that we don't even know. And in order to fulfill that we often to have debt. We bombarded with all the busyness and hectic life that very demanding.

This book bring us back what is the important things in our life. The very simple life which surrounding by people we love and have quality time with them.

This book tells you the very basic view of our home, society, financial and faith also how we should live our life in this technology era without being a slave of it.

Home

When we first meet someone one of the common question we ask people is where do you live ? Something about where we live that tell people about our house and who do we live with. House is not always home but home is definitely a house. Home is where we share our very personal things and spend most of our life. According to this book Amish people spend most of their time at home or surrounding it. And don't get it wrong although they spend most their time around home they always busy doing stuff like gardening, quilting, cooking or other chores. And their house seems very clean from outside ( from what I saw ) and not clutter. So, they make their home the center of their life and very important to them. Without all the fancy and glittering things that sometime the world offer.

Faith

I cant imagine life without faith. Every person in this entire world I believe has some kind of believe in something. I personally, I believe in God through Jesus Christ who saved me by His amazing grace. This book tell us that Amish people have a very strong faith. And they practice it in their everyday life.

Financial

This topic is a very hot topic in now days economy. People try to save money here and there ( including myself ). We try to get better job and make more money to support our need or wants. This book tell us that they take the financial principle from the bible. I agree 100 % with that because bible teach us how to manage what God has entrusted us very clear.

Society

They help each other and very hospitable with one another. I need to do this more with people around me and more friendly.

Technology

From what I heard and read Amish doesn't use much technology or they almost don't use them. Sometimes in our own life we need this to get away from it and get recharged. I do feel guilty this myself.

Now is time for me to apply them into my everyday life :)

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Easter/Spring Entry Way

I took a little walk today and loved it so much. The weather getting beautiful each and everyday. I hope will stay that way. No more snow, please ! I see the flowers bud starting to show up and bring up beautiful color. The birds start to chirping in morning. I really enjoy it , the only complain I have is my allergy starting to bothering me too :)

 

Last year after Easter some of the store have a big sale. I bought a couple of stuff that I can use for Easter/Spring decoration this year.

Today I decorate my entry way. I have print this subway art at Walgreen for free. I found it and  download it from website. I also use the orchid that I pick from garbage can, literally ! I thought I will take a chance to grow it. And it is growing and showing the beautiful flower as well. The chick candles and small bowl I got it from Michael store last year.

 

I didn't do much on entry way. But I still can feel the Easter/Spring in my house.

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Cinnamon ( Coconut ) Bun Roll

Hi all !!
I hope you had a nice weekend !

We are officially a member of  a church that we have been visiting for the last 1 and 1/2 month. We are glad to be part of this church and starting serving the Lord through our local church. We are praying that we can be blessing to them as well. They have a couple retreat program in May and we are joining the retreat. These two things will make two list off from my 101 in 1001 program.

This Saturday I also made this Cinamon bun roll. I made the recipe out of this basic dinner roll dough that we love so much and cut it in half. Instead I used quick rising yeast and let it sit on the counter kitchen.

Yum...fresh from the oven :)

Before they go to oven

Ingredients

1 cup water ( 110 degrees F)

2 packages yeast ( Do not use the quick rising in this recipe)

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

4 1/4 cups flour 

Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1/4 c coconut ( optional )

1/2 stick butter

Mix all the topping except butter

Icing/glazed

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup powder sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 c milk.

Mix all the ingredient with mixer.

Directions

Combine water and yeast in  large bowl; let stand for 5 minutes.

With wooden spoon, stir in butter, sugar, eggs and salt.

Add flour, 1 cup at a time and beat in as much as you can.

(you will probably be able to use all the flour) Cover and let it sit on the counter for 2 hours. Grease the round pan 9". Roll the dough and apply half stick of butter followed by cinnamon sugar mix.

Folded and cut about 1/2 each.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour; until doubled.

Heat oven to 375*.

Bake until golden brown, about 17 minutes.

Served them with the icing  on top while it hot and you can always re-heat it for the next day. My cinnamon bun taste different than usual because of the coconut and we love it. Yummm !!

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Weekend Blessing !

1 Timothy 4:8

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

Repurpose " Trash " Around The House

I went to the library yesterday to return a couple of books that were already overdue ( I know... so much about saving money :). While I was there, I browsed the bookshelf and I saw a book about repurposing things that most of the time we just throw away. I didn't borrow the book but just flipped through it to see a couple of things that were very interesting to me.

When I got home, I searched the internet. Here are things we have all the time and don't even think what we can do with them. Thank God for the overdue books so I can find the books that inspired me to repurpose things.

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I'm thinking to make a little pot garden by my deck this Spring. This egg cartons should come in handy to plant the seed. There are many other things you can with egg cartons.

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We eat lots of spaghetti around here. That means we use lots of tomato sauce and most of the time I throw the sauce bottles away. These vases are such a great idea.

 

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This is very clever idea to reuse the toilet paper roll. This can be very handy if you want to put a gift card or something little inside. I think you can do it for any occasion just change the wrap and the label.

 

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Oh my...look at this paper towel tube jewelry holder. I could use this to organize my "junk" jewelry so I know how many of them that I have been collected over the years :) 

 

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If you happen to use a lot of olive oil you can use the bottle as a candle holder just like the picture above. Sometimes on special occasions we buy sparkling apple cider and the bottle looks very similar to this one. Next time I will keep the bottle and use this idea. Doesn't it look very elegant and beautiful.

 

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Our Nice And Busy Weekend ( Park, GW and Relaxing )

We had a busy and full Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day here in our area, we really enjoyed every minute of it before we went back to cold and snowy today. The weather is just like riding a roller coaster going up and down very quickly. I really cant wait until Spring is here.
I hope you had a wonderful one too !

In the morning, we went to explore this beautiful park in our state. We took a nice hike for about 3 miles and even brought our lunch to eat in the park. We spent the afternoon talking about my childhood and some other good memories to both of us. The park has a campground too that we might try sometime this year.

 

 

On the way home I saw a Goodwill store and told my husband to stop. My sweet husband jokes with me that I have a radar for every thrift store we past by :) I explored GW for about 1/2 hour and came out with some goodies. 4 bags for $15. What a steal !!

 

 Also I found this silver plate set for $85. I hope someone who have money or budget for silver plate set will buy them. For sure not me :)

I had a coupon from Kohl's for $5 off  $5 so we were stopped there and bought two beautiful kitchen towels for $3 after the coupon. And our mail box surprised me with this 2 FREE magazines.

We did our groceries shopping after that so back to reality. I experimented with a new chicken recipe. My husband loved it.

I saw this palm tree at Wal-Mart I think they beautiful to put in the back porch for this Summer. Sadly, I don't have a porch !

We watched this movie based on the true story called Captain Philips. Then ending our beautiful Saturday with Jell-O on top :)

I hope you have a blessed week !!

Weekend Blessing !

Orchid rescued from dumpster literally

 

Isaiah 40:29-31

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Bring Me Back The Memory

I love cooking show, basically anything about home maker. If only we have the cable I would be glued my eyes on food channel and HGTV. Thank God we don't have it although we have a couple of basic channel from the air :) So, I watched YouTube or swag buck to see those show.

This week I searched different kind of food from my back home. I feel want to make all those food that bring back memory from my childhood. Probably I would try to make the recipe one of these days. When we were live in Queens, NYC I can just buy some of them from the store ( lots of Asian store there )

This kue lupis was one of my favorite during the weekend. I love the textured of the sweet rice and you pour the palm sugar on top. Hmmm...the taste memory is still fresh in my mind. To my surprised food.com actually have the recipe. The different is only the shape they usually come in triangle shape like the picture below that I got from other site.



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Gethuk and gathot we were eat this as breakfast or dessert. The main ingredients is cassava. The process to make it kind of long and a little bit complicated. So, from what I heard this food already kind of rare you find in traditional market.



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Cenil usually you eat with lupis. They made it out of tapioca flour and put red or some other food coloring on it. After the cenil cook and ready to eat, they rolled it on grated coconut. And served with palm sugar syrup.

 

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My mom used to make this lappet often when we grew up and its known as our traditional dessert from Batak ethnic. It made out from rice flour, sugar, coconut and palm sugar. You steamed it inside the banana leaves. Usually you found this mostly in Batak gathering like wedding, baptism or some other social gathering or you can find it at traditional market as well. My husband love this as well !

 

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I still have lots of good food that I want to share but I don't want to bore you in this post. So far I only share dessert or something sweet. This last one is main dishes that I used to have often. My home town produce lots of sea food including this anchovies ( small fishes ). We fried it and put hot spicy tomato sauce combined it with fried peanut. We serve it with hot rice and some other dishes usually some kind vegies. Note : My husband doesn't like the idea of eating anchovy :)

 

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Hope you enjoy the culinary trip to my back home and memory that I have with these delicious food. Enjoy your weekend and be blessed !!

Weekend Blessing

Psalm 51:7

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

3 Ideas To Save Money In Your Household

My Stock Pile

I grew up in very frugal and working hard family. My mom cook everything from scratch and some stuff need to pick from our garden before we cook or eat. Living frugal is not a new thing in my vocabulary.

I love to save money as much as I can remember. Although, this idea kind of new to my husband. But he is such a great husband so he come along with this wonderful journey. I will make another post about why we do love to save money and what the benefit of it.

There is lots of things you can do to save some money in your household. As far as I know everybody love to save money. I want to share 3 ideas to save money around your house. I know there is tons of things you can beside this 3 ideas.

1. Hang Dry Your Laundry

I know not everyone will comfortable with this ( especially for those who have little children). We have been doing this for almost 2 years and doing fine with it. We hang our clothes in our extra bathroom. Not only you save money by doing this but also keep the clothes in a good shape in the long run. We use the extra bathroom to hang our clothes.

2. Hand Wash Your Dishes

I do this everyday and we cook a lots. We do save water and electricity by doing this. I guess I just get to use to wash dishes with hand. I have been doing this for my whole entire life. We do have dish washer and use it as a dryer rack :)  Although, I have to run it once in a month to keep the machine in a good shape.

3. Couponing

Laundry Detergent Stock

We save lots of money with couponing. I don't couponing for whatever on sale or free. I just do what we will use or need. Mostly personal stuff like shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, tooth paste , toilet paper.

Happy saving and great weekend  everyone !!

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If I Have The Money

Hi All !!

I browsed a couple of catalog the other day from Potter Barn, Ballard and Serena Lily. Those catalog look so beautiful and lots of stuff that want to buy. The only problem is I don't have budget for those beautiful thing.

Pottery Barn Rustic Mirror

PB Richard Taylor Scallop Shell Bowl

Instead, I can just enjoy them and have some idea from it. And one day I can find something similar from some other bargain store or even yard sale or flea market ( the season is almost here ). Here is of the stuff that I want to buy if I have the money or should I say budget :)

Ballard Orb Chandelier

Love this chandelier from Ballard. I wish I can make one like this or similar. This should be beautiful in dining room area.

 

We don't have headboard so this one should be nice to have or better yet to make one :)

Nantucket Bins – Natural (Set of 3) by S&L

Catalina Collection S&L

 

Happy browsing everyone !!!

My Reading Nook Under $10

Hi All !

I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was really laid back. We went to explore new farmers market in our area and we kind of love it. We bought this fresh nice salmon and they were so delicious. Also, we had a movie night that we got from red box on Saturday night.

We have a snow storm today in our area. So, I couldn't do much outside the house or drive around. I love to read or do things on my laptop from this lovely corner in my house. My reading nook that I want to share with you.

This reading corner doesn't cost me a lots of money only under $15. The chair is free given by one of my friend. The stool was $5 from flea market. The pillow was $9.99 from Target that I bought with gift card along with the deer  so they were FREE. My husband bought the orchid on valentines day. Basically, I only spent money on the stool the other stuff were gifts.

Meanwhile the weather looks like this outside my house after about 70 degrees yesterday. I cant wait until Spring is here. I hope you have a wonderful day and I will enjoy some of the reading :)

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Weekend Blessing !

Beautiful Mountain View in Virginia

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.