On the Porch
Onisha Ellis
“Look for flowers of Joy growing in the rich soil of adversity.” Jesus Always by Sarah Young
Photo by Isaac Mehegan on Unsplash
Joy doesn’t have to be a big splashy bouquet. It’s ok to find it one tiny flower at a time.
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D.I.E.T
9 AugOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday. Usually we celebrate with an ice cream cake, banana splits or, if I near one, a cake from Publix grocery. They have the BEST cakes! This year, we are eating a low carbohydrate diet, so the birthday cake is a challenge. I have been watching videos on YouTube, Cooking Keto with Kristi and decided to try a chocolate bundt cake with peanut buttercream frosting. It’s now in the refrigerator and ready for tomorrow. The downside is that after tasting and licking the mixing bowl, beaters and spatulas, I am pretty sure I am way over my carb allotment for the day! The things we do for love!
Photo by Jamie Matociños on Unsplash
I’ll let you know how it turned out. I did discover that natural peanut butter, that in my pre-diet life, I thought was nasty is now delicious!
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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Trial to Triumph
7 AugOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
I enjoy the photography of Annie Spratt at Unsplash.com When I saw this photo, I knew I wanted to create something inspiring with it and Janet’s quote seems a perfect fit.
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The Drip
2 AugOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
My husband and I have been dieting for two months and the amount of food we consume at a meal has definitely decreased. As a consequence, I find I need to prepare half recipes. A few weeks ago, I make a whole recipe of meatloaf and put half of it, uncooked, in the freezer. It would come in handy one of my “I don’t know what to cook” days. I have a lot of them!
SIDE BAR: Tell me I am not the only one who has a love/hate relationship with cooking. Some days, I enjoy hours planning a meal, relishing the mingling of ingredients and flavors. Other times, I don’t want to have anything to do with a pot or mixing bowl.
I prepared the meatloaf for the freezer by lining my loaf pan with aluminum foil, then placed the meat in the foil wrapped pan shaping it to conform to the pan.
I can’t remember where or when I purchased the pan. It has a lot of scratches but I am pretty sure they are the result of the pan wars, you know when you are looking for a baking pan and have to shift the whole cabinet to find the one you want? Anyway, this pan was not used often. I tell you this because, this pan let me down, big time. So much for “made in Italy” equating with quality.
On one of my I hate the kitchen days, I pulled the meatloaf out of the freezer, thawed it a bit in the loaf pan then popped it into my newly cleaned oven. Instant supper! After about 20 minutes, I began to get a whiff of a burned smell. I peeked in the oven and everything looked fine. The smell grew stronger over the next 15 minutes so I checked the meatloaf again. The meatloaf looked fine but there was a blob of black on the floor of my nice, clean oven. I took the pan out and searched it for a leak but could not find anything dripping or that looked burned. So, I put the meatloaf back in the oven to finish cooking. When the meatloaf was done, I took it out of the oven and held it up, looking for a drip. Nothing there that would explain the big black blob. I did see one place that looked like a scratch/dent but no evidence of dripping.
My husband has breathing issues and smoke triggers coughing attacks so I opened windows and a door to try to clear out the smell before we sat down to eat. After supper, I put the loaf pan in the sink to wash and as I pushed it down into the water, two streams of water shot up. One in the bottom and one in the side. The hole looked exactly like the other blemishes.
Now I have a flower-pot made in Italy!
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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You Are Loved
31 JulOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Have a joyful Tuesday, my friends!
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix.
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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Today I Choose To Give Praise
27 JulOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Two weeks ago one of our friends took a terrible fall down a slope and hit his h head. Not a great thing for someone 70+ plus years. Along with their friends, my prayers were fervent for his recovery. He suffered severe damage to his neck and had been breathtakingly close to paralysis. In my prayers, I thanked God for His protection and healing of my friend, then my thoughts moved on.
In my morning quiet time I read Psalm 89:15. I decided that my praises to God need to be as fervent as my prayers of petition!
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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Yard Rambles
26 JulOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Monday and Tuesday were gorgeous her in the North Carolina mountains. The temperatures were mild and a soft breeze made it perfect for turning off the air conditioner and opening the windows. Tuesday afternoon I walked around the yard admiring the freshly mown grass. Our butterfly bush has been in a slump the past two summers due to a hash winter and this year it is back!
At the end of her last visit, our daughter left her camera with me. It takes amazing pictures and I couldn’t wait to snap some shots. I took some great ones and video of butterflies on the bush. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get them off of her camera! Back up plan, use my phone camera.
By the time I went back outside, it was late afternoon and most of the butterflies were gone. As I stood there, wondering if I should try to capture some butterflies shots, a hummingbird flew in and hovered over one of the purple blossoms. She was so cute! I didn’t have the phone ready to take the shot, so I can’t share a picture, but I was able to snap a few shots of the butterflies.
Our Rose of Sharon bush is doing better this year too and the butterflies have been enjoying its flowers too.
This summer I decided to splurge on a big basket of Coleus and I am enjoying them! I didn’t have much success with them in Florida, I think it was the heat, but they are thriving in the milder, mountain climate. If they survive the cooler temperatures of fall, we may take them to spend the winter with us in Florida. We have a flowering basket that has spent two winters there and returned to North Carolina in the spring so that we could enjoy the blooms all season.
I haven’t picked any hydrangea this summer. They are planted on a hill and my husband hasn’t been well enough to tackle weed eating the underbrush and I was afraid of snakes! Tuesday, hubby felt stronger and cleared out the underbrush and I am looking forward to having some fresh blooms in the house.
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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Be Happy Tuesday.
24 JulOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Before I retired, I wore black on Tuesdays. I joked that Monday’s were a day of optimism, by Tuesday I realized that my optimism was unfounded. In truth, it simply made my clothing choice on Tuesday’s simple. Wear black!
Sticky Notes Amy Voskamp
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Little Free Library
18 JulOn the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Our daughter, Rebekah, brought a book to read on the flight up from Florida and it was a page turner. Now as her visit was drawing to a close, she needed a fresh book for the long wait at the airport. Isn’t it crazy that the wait to get on the airplane is longer than the flight? I knew that our local Community Center had a Little Free Library, and suggested we look there for a book to read on the flight home.
The anticipation of not knowing what you will find, makes it a fun adventure. Will it be a classic or a thriller by a popular author? I would be tempted to choose a local cookbook if one were in the box. Of course, choosing a book or books to leave is fun too. Should one leave something funny, self-help or inspirational? I think leaving a book that I enjoyed would be fun.
Of course, if you are an Indie author, leaving one of your own books could be fun too!
What sort of book would you leave at a Little Free Library?
Speaking of authors and books, Rebekah is participating in the Grace Filled Summer Book Sweepstakes.
We are entering an exciting and happy time of year. Summer…a time for fun, relaxing, going barefoot, hanging out with family and friends around the grill. It’s the perfect time for the Grace Filled Summer Sweeps 2018. And summer reading has never been this much fun with eight stellar authors and their exciting and insightful books. This is a sweepstakes. So, each author will give away a copy of her book according to the most interesting, clever comment. In your comment, please let us know which book you’re dying to read, and also your second choice. This way we’ll be sure to give everyone a book that’s to their reading taste.
If you are interested in entering, head on over to the blog:
https://graceawardsdotorg.wordpress.com/2018/07/16/grace-filled-summer-book-sweeps-2018/
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.
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Old Things R New 