WIP Projects

Do you have any WIP projects around your home? What is a WIP project anyway? WIP stands for Works in Progress. I like this acronym better than UFO, better known as Unfinished Objects.

Just like I usually have bookmarks in multiple books at one time, I usually have a few projects started in varying states of almost completeness.

Here are three WIP projects I would like to finish in the next week:

1. Bind 2 quilts - a couple of my quilting friends and I started a monthly quilt group last year. Our first project was two quilts for Quilts of Valor. This was a group effort of building the blocks together, my friend did the quilting, and now my task is to bind them and have them ready to be delivered.

2. Finish off 3 knitted dish cloths - I just love having some of these ready and on hand for bridal showers, hostess gifts, and just because gifts. The threads just need to be woven in on these three, then they are ready for my gift box.

3. Finish Ava's scarf - this scarf is for one of the little girls at church. She told me that she likes purple, so I hope she likes this!

By posting my WIP projects on my blog, I am hoping this will be a way for me to track the progress of my WIP projects and be able to complete many of them this year.

Pasta Fagioli

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88904268@N00/386956914/

I just love a hot bowl of homemade soup in the winter time!

A while back, I had seen a recipe for Pasta Fagioli on this crockpot blog. Since I am not a big crockpot fan, I went on a search to try to adapt the recipe for the stove top. After making a couple of changes, I was able to come up with this recipe:

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound Italian sausage

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups beef broth

1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce

2 t oregano

1 T Tabasco sauce

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/2 cup pasta

Saute beef and Italian sausage until meat starts to brown. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, beef broth, oregano, salt, pepper, pasta, sauce, Tabasco, and pasta. Simmer until carrots and celery are tender, about 45 minutes.

This recipe is more than plenty for the four of us for dinner as well as one night of leftovers. When I feel really ambitious, I made a double batch and freeze 2 meals worth in freezer bags.

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Xiomara

Xiomara is the first child assigned to me as a correspondent sponsor back in September. She lives in Peru and our birthdays are 6 days apart. She is now 11 years old.

She lives with her parents and her sister. Her favorite color is light blue and she likes to cook, clean the house, and sing and dance. In her last letter, she was excited about Christmas coming because her mom would be preparing hot cocoa and fruit cake.

She asked for prayers for her mom that the Lord would continue to bless her. Xiomara always closes her letters with " a big hug and a kiss."

The Joy Dare #26-42

26. Sleepytime Vanilla hot tea
27. Gooseberry Patch Christmas Book 13
28. cozy home
29. special prayer request for a sweet friend
30. reading "58: Fast Living - How the Church Will End Extreme Poverty" by Scott C. Todd
31. wearing my old worn-out Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt
32. seeing the American flag waving in the breeze
33. turkey in the oven
34. Peppermint hot tea
35. toast with cinnamon and honey
36. cherry popsicles
37. good night's sleep
38. my first Compassion Sunday box arrived!
39. reading "Beacause He Loves Me' by Elyse Fitzpatrick
40. "our citizenship is in heaven" - Philippians 3:20
41. "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
42. "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you" - Deuteronomy 31:8


41.

Daily Prayers for our Compassion Kids

I just love the new child packets that come when you sponsor a child with Compassion!

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." - 1 John 5:14

On the back of the bookmark that you can tear out of the booklet is a suggestion of daily prayers for your sponsored child. I decided to use this list to make a prayer box to keep on our table so that we can pray for these things each morning before breakfast.

On a small card for each day, I wrote out the different prayer items.

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:22

I pray that each one of these children grow up to make a positive difference in their families and in their communities for Christ.

"One" winner!

I had fun reading everyone's goals they posted for the "One" giveaway!

The winner is............Hopeful Hez!

Be sure to e-mail (you can send it to kymk99 at yahoo dot com) your mailing address to me and I will get the book out to you this week! 

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Eduardo

His smile just melts my heart!

We started sponsoring Eduardo in December. Kelsey decided that we needed to sponsor a little boy and we wanted to sponsor a child in Mexico so that we might be able to visit this child some time in the future. After looking at pictures on the Compassion web site, Kelsey and I both felt that Eduardo was meant to be the little boy we were to sponsor.

Eduardo is 5 years old and will have a birthday in April. He lives with both his parents and his mom has hyperthyroidism. We have been praying for his family, and especially his mom, since we started sponsoring him.

We have already sent off a couple of letters to Eduardo and are patiently waiting for that first letter  from him. I will be sure to share more about Eduardo as we learn more about him.