Thought for Today
“Today is a very special day. Today we open our hearts to love again so that we can tell each other ‘I love you,’ without any fear, and really mean it.” — Don Miguel Ruiz [Source: Don Miguel Ruiz’s Prayers for Freedom and Love ]
Let’s Have a Holiday Potluck!
Let’s have a holiday potluck. We can’t share actual food, but we can share recipes for our favorite healthier holiday side dishes and healthy holiday eating tips.
Please leave a comment to share a link to your favorite healthier holiday side dish. You may leave you healthy holiday eating tips in the comment section or as a link. This is one time I will allow links in comments. This can be your recipe or a link to a recipe you love on someone else’s site, but please specify which you are doing.
I’ll start. Since this is my blog I am posting my recipe here. Even though I’m mostly a “from scratch” kind of cook, nobody wants to be trapped in the kitchen at the holidays. That’s why I like this easy way to serve sweet potatoes. These are pretty much mashed sweet potatoes with a little zip and zing added. I like to serve these in my Gram’s casserole dish.
Orange Spice Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 orange
3 medium sweet potatoes
enough water to cover sweet potatoes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions:
Peel and chop sweet potatoes. Cover with water in saucepan. Cook over medium heat.
Zest the orange. Then cut the orange in half and juice it.
When sweet potatoes are soft mash with a potato masher or in a blender or food processor. Add orange juice as needed to reach a soft but not runny consistency.
Stir in spices and half of orange zest.
Garnish with remaining orange zest. Serve.
Now, what are you bringing to the holiday potluck?
Thought for Today
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.” —
John Wesley
[Source: Letters (1915), Rule of Conduct]
Thought for Today
“What are the key first steps to enter into Advent? We can all slow down. We can all breathe more deeply. We can all begin to trust that this will be a blessed time. Then, when we let ourselves be who we are, and hear the Scriptures, we can begin to quietly pray, ‘Come, Lord, Jesus.’” — [Source: What am I experiencing in my life, as Advent begins from Creighton Univ. online ministries. ]
In Memory of Nelson Mandela
“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.” ― Nelson Mandela [Source: Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela]
A Season of Angels
Photo Copyright 2012 by R.A. Robbins
Each year I celebrate A Season of Angels beginning at Thanksgiving and continuing through Christmas, making one angel craft project each day. I started doing this after a local tragedy during the holiday season several years ago but I still do this each year.
This is different than making crafts to sell or give as gifts. I do this as a form or meditation or prayer to help keep me focused on Spirit and the values that really matter.
This year I invite you to join me each day from now till Christmas. Slow down and take a little time each day to make (or at least work on) a small angel project each day while reflecting on Spirit and what this season truly means to you.
Need angel patterns? You will find a nice selection at the Web of Angels from Crafty College.
Thought for Today
“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” ~Charles Dickens
Follower of the Month: Sharon Pridmore
The December follower of the month is Sharon of Gentle Stitches. She is an enthusiastic follower of Espirational and I love her comments. I also enjoy checking out her new crochet work and I’m sure you will too.
Preparing for an Espirational Time
Around this time of year over 2000 years ago, the stage of life was getting set to welcome the birth of the most loved and talked about baby ever born. A tiny baby who grew up to give the world two things it needed very much. Love and hope. In the spirit of giving, I give you these two sweet donkeys. The pattern is available here, on my free pattern page and of course at my ravelry store.
Sharon blogs at Gentle Stitches.com. She is passionate about all things stitchy and environmentally sustaining. She loves to make, write about and teach, crochet, knitting and hand sewing.
Thought for Today
“While it’s true that challenges do make us grow, the angels also say that peace leads to bigger greater growth spurts.” — Doreen Virtue
espirational.com 