Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

Many of my regular readers know I Bible Journal and use to regularly post my Bible Journaling pages.  I had to stop Bible Journaling because it is very time consuming.  My garden just really ate up a lot of time in the growing season and during the winter I was recovering from hip surgery.  I did find another creative outlet to Bible Journaling that wasn't quite as complex and less time consuming, and that is a coloring book of Psalms.  Here I read a psalm, write some reflections about the psalm, and then color a page while I meditate on that psalm.  I purchased my book at a local Christian boutique, but you can also buy it on AMAZON.


The first pages of the book has a lovely floral design you can color or leave blank if you wish.  I chose to color mine.  On all the pages, my coloring medium of choice was colored pencils so they wouldn't bleed through to the other side.


There is a page where you can write in to whom you are gifting the book and leave a message.  I left mine blank since it was to myself.


The beginning pages of the book.


There is an "introduction" page where you can read how to get the most of your book.


Each page has a date, which I ignored, as I couldn't keep up with reading on those exact dates.  A verse is highlighted at the top, and then there is a psalm to read (or just a portion of a psalm) and a space to write some reflections about the psalm.  

You might be thinking, I couldn't possibly color an entire page a day.  You are correct.  Neither could I.  There are approximately five or six non-coloring pages in-between the coloring pages. I would usually read one page a day, then color for a short while.  By the time I was done reading five or six pages, I had the entire page colored.


I used a Bible Commentary to get ideas of what to write about in the reflections section.  I would read the psalm, then google the Enduring Word Bible Commentary to see what they had to say about the psalm.  I would write down the highlights of the commentary.  You can do whatever works for you.  You can just jot down your own personal reflections.  I did this to help me dig into God's Word more.


I know we shouldn't put God on the back burner, or neglect our daily devotions, but we do have seasons of life that are just crazier than others and this was a way to keep me in God's word in a more simple, less time consuming way.


I think this is also a great book for people that don't like to Bible Journal because it requires too much creativity.  Coloring is simple and relaxing, and everyone can enjoy it no matter their skill level. 


I love to color and I found coloring these pages, meditating on the verses as I colored so therapeutic.


Some pages are easier and more enjoyable to color than others.  I always love coloring pretty flowers like in the page above.  I dislike coloring busy pages like the one below, but I did it anyway, working a little bit on it everyday trying to memorize the scripture at the same time.


 I will be back next week with more pages from this book, plus I'll show you a new coloring devotional book I just got in the mail.  It is perfect for winter.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Sunday, October 27, 2024

2024 Vegetable Garden Highlights

I know it's a little late doing a vegetable gardening post now that the season is completely over, but I was so busy in my garden this year, I didn't have to time to blog about my garden. I truly don't know how other bloggers find the time to both garden and blog about their gardens.  So I am just going to share the highlights of this year's garden, all its hardships and successes.  If anything interests you, just pin this post for next year!  That is what I do;  most of my planning is in the winter months, looking at ideas I pinned.

I'm sure you heard from other gardeners that it was a difficult year for vegetable gardens.  We really struggled getting this garden going, but once it did, it did produce, but not like previous years.  We had SO MUCH RAIN!  It rained almost daily for close to three months, and not just a light rain, but torrential downpours.  The plants would not grow because their roots were constantly soaking in water.  I lost almost all my first plantings of tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli and I had to go out and buy more plants.  However, when I returned to the nursery to purchase more plants, most of them were sold out already because everyone else had the same problem.  So I ended up grabbing whatever I could and not my usual tried and true varieties.  I ended up with a lot of cherry tomatoes and just a couple of large tomato plants so I did very little canning of tomatoes this year.


Eventually the rain stopped after the 4th of July, and it did start to warm up a little, but it was almost too late.  Things didn't grow abundantly like they have in previous years.  The cauliflower and broccoli heads were much smaller, and potatoes didn't yield as much either.

I tried three or four times to germinate cucumber seeds in the ground, and they just wouldn't germinate, and if they did, they stopped growing shortly after germination.  I finally gave up and tried planting the seeds in potting soil, then they germinated and shot up well.  I planted them in the ground once they were a good size and they grew into luscious green vines and produced a lot.  But again, it was late in the year, so even though I got a good harvest from them, it wasn't as many as I would have liked because the garden season was almost over when they were just taking off.

Below is a photo of my cucumber vines.  I grew them up a stake, then I tied a string to the beams for them to latch on to.   Eventually they got so tall, they latched on to the roof of the house!


Here you can see the cucumber vines from inside the screened-in porch.


Here is a beautiful, little head of broccoli starting to grown.  I love all the dew drops left from the morning rain.


Although most vegetables hated the constant rain, some really thrived like bush beans and lettuce.  I never had a better crop of beans.  The leaves looked so healthy!  Usually my bean leaves turn yellow and nasty looking.  This year they stayed looking this way all summer long.  They produced so many beans! I actually grew tired of picking beans everyday.



I grew pole beans too, they grew up and over my nine foot fence! I had to use a ladder to get to the beans at the tippy top!


Usually when I plant lettuce in the spring, it only lasts about a month then it gets too hot and it bolts.  Not this year! Because of all the rain and cooler temperatures, I enjoyed fresh garden lettuce all summer long. I actually got sick of eating salad every single day.


Isn't this lettuce just beautiful?  As pretty as a flower!


And speaking of flowers, don't you just love Chive plants?  They are so pretty, especially when they bloom and insects and animals hate them so they leave them alone.  Every garden should have a chive plant.


I discovered I love beet juice and it is so good for you!  If you have high blood pressure, beet juice is excellent for reducing it.  I grew more beets than I did last year, and drank fresh beet juice all summer long.  



I purchased several new kitchen gadgets this year to make my harvesting easier.  And of course, after I purchased them I wondered why in the world I waited so long!  My favorite purchase was a dehydrator.  I had so many cherry tomatoes I didn't know what to do with them.  I found out you can dehydrate them, and oh my gosh, are they delicious dried!  I also dehydrated some cucumbers;  just sprinkle them with dill and salt and you have a healthy alternative to potato chips.  Right now as I write this post, I have Tabasco peppers drying in the dehydrator and I will make a chili powder out of them.  I purchased THIS DEHYDRATOR from Amazon.  It's been working very well.  Dehydrators can be pricey so it is an investment, however if your someone like me who has a ton of garden produce, they are so worth it!


Other purchases I made was this vacuum sealer.  Oh my gosh, again, why did I wait so long to get one of these?  They suck all the air out of the plastic bag so your food doesn't get filled with "snow" as I like to call it, and then it seals it too!  Also, the finished product uses less freezer space, so I have more room in the freezer.  I got this one called "Professional Series" FREE by using my Menards rebates.


Here are some peppers I cut, vacuum  sealed, and will freeze.


Another new kitchen gadget I picked up FREE with rebates from Menards was this Coffee Grinder/Spice Blender.  I grow a lot of herbs and dry them, and in the past I would just hand crunch them, but I could never get them into a nice powder like you would get if you bought spices at the store.  But now I can, because this appliance grinds all my herbs just perfectly!  The smaller grind of the herbs also take up a lot less space than the hand-crunching.


I tried growing a couple of new things this year, one was successful and one was not.  Because I generally follow a Mediterranean Diet, I have a lot of recipes that require eggplant.  It is so hard to find nice eggplants in Wisconsin grocery stores, so I decided to grow my own.  Oh my goodness!  These turned out amazing and I loved having fresh eggplant for all my Mediterranean dishes and also to freeze to use in the winter.


Sweet Potatoes are also a big part of the Mediterranean Diet so I tried those too.  This plant just doesn't work in Wisconsin because our growing season isn't long enough.  The vines take up SO MUCH SPACE and this was all one plant yielded.  And the worst part is you need heat and humidity to cure them or they won't turn sweet.  We do not have heat and humidity in Wisconsin in October so I'm afraid mine won't be sweet.  I've been curing them in a sunny window sill with a damp towel over them, but I fear it won't be enough.


The day before the first hard freeze I picked all the peppers.  I ended up with quite a nice yield even though many didn't have time to ripen or grow fully.  Pepper you can eat at any stage, so it doesn't really matter when you pick them.  I also had about three or four plants that didn't grow or produce anything at all.  That was weird, not hot enough I guess.


We planted three beds of potatoes.  One bed didn't grow well at all, and the other two were moderate.


I always love how pretty potato plants are, until they're not!  😀.  For those who may not know, after potato plants finish flowering, the leaves turn yellow and brown and they start to die back.


This is how many potatoes we got in one bed.  In total, I filled up four milk crates and one small bushel basket of potatoes by the end of the garden season.


I cure my potatoes in my craft room, since it's a dark, northeast corner of my basement.  It's an unsightly mess for a while.


Right before the first frost I cut all my basil and brought it inside to dry!  Oh how I love the smell of fresh basil!  The scent filled the house!


Here's a few photos of my daily harvests.  I usually posted what I harvested each day on Facebook.  I'm sure I annoyed my friends with my daily postings.  😁







I didn't have many green tomatoes this year since I mostly had cherry tomatoes, so I didn't make any green enchilada sauce.  But I did have a few fall off the branches and since I hate to see anything go to waste, I made Fried Green Tomatoes a few times.



I love having fresh tomatoes sunning in my kitchen window all summer.  I will miss seeing that this winter and the wonderful taste of a tomato picked fresh from my garden.



I hope you enjoyed my vegetable garden highlights.  I'm praying for better weather and growing conditions next year.  If I learned anything, it is to over-buy vegetable plants so if some die, I won't be out of luck.

So what about you?  How did your garden do this year?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!






 

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Bird Watching at the La Crosse Marsh


Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that I am a HUGE bird lover.  Because I live near the Mississippi River we attract so many water birds that most Americans would pay to see.  I frequently see Bald Eagles fly above my yard, or when I'm driving.  And less than three miles from my house I can see white tundra swans, cranes, ducks, geese, etc. all enjoying Tamarack Creek.  But what I really love are all the preservations I get to enjoy.  I've already blogged about the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, and today I'm going to share about the La Crosse Marsh.

Believe it or not, this bird paradise is located in downtown La Crosse Wisconsin.  I couldn't believe such an oasis could exist in a mid size city, but it does!  College students and residents love to enjoy this outdoor oasis.  The La Crosse Marsh is located at the confluence of the La Crosse and Mississippi Rivers.  It is thousand acres of wetlands located in the heart of the city.  It provides critical flood protection, clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreation!  The marsh has a great trail system for both hikers and bicyclists!

I wish we had the time to hike all the trails, because I'm sure we would have seen more varieties of birds, but it was a pit-stop on the way to Galena, Illinis so we could only hike a small portion of the trail.  

The coolest aspect of this marsh, is that the trails take you right on the water, so you get as close to wildlife as possible.  The photo below shows the start of one of the trails, and if you look at the map on the next picture, you will see all the trails on the water!


The marsh divides the city into two.  We started near the university area (marked UWL on the mark) at the "You are Here" point.  We took the "Cottonwood Trail" (highlighted in red) out till we reached the "Grand Crossing" (the black line down the center), and then returned back to the parking lot.  Oh, how I wish we had time to hike the whole system, but it quite large, so it might be something we have to bike ride.


Some of the trail is paved, and other parts are gravel. 


It didn't take long before I spotted my first wild fowl:  a pair of geese.  I love the view of the La Crosse bluffs which are part of the "Driftless Region" my neck of the woods is known for.


Sorry I don't have better photos.  I just used the camera on my IPhone.


There are railway tracks on the other side of the marsh.  It was fun to see a train go by while we there.


I found it interesting that anytime there was a piece of drift wood in the water, there were birds resting on it.


I spotted my first crane at the viewing deck. 

They have two viewing decks on the Cottonwood Trail to stop and enjoy the views.


There was a lot of floating green stuff in the water.  The administration of The Friends of the La Crosse Marsh says "it's mostly comprised of duckweeds, Lemna, and Spirodela....these floating plants are naturally found in wetlands.  However, excessive nutrients may stimulate their abundance."



I couldn't believe we even spotted a deer at the La Crosse Marsh!  We can't escape these guys anywhere in Wisconsin. 😀


It was a rare chilly October morning when we here so I wore my new Stitch Fix jeans, comfy booties, and a plaid shacket.  It was super windy that day so I couldn't wear a hat like I normally would have.  I had to wear a head band just to keep my hair out of eyes!


We couldn't believe the size of this tree at the marsh.  It must really like having its roots soaking in water!


If you like turtles, this is the place to be!  I never saw so many turtles in my life.  They were everywhere in this marsh.


Apparently this dead tree is the Bald Eagles favorite place to be.  So many people have photographed this bird and posted their pictures to the "Friends of the La Crosse Marsh" Facebook page, including me.  He just loves to sit in this spot!






I was excited to see another crane as we heading back on the "Grand Crossing" trail.



Back by the start of the trail is the Nature Center which always seems to be closed when we are there,  but they have a nice lookout point with free binoculars.  I enjoyed getting a close up view of the Bald Eagle through the binoculars.




And before I leave, I wanted to share a few older photos I've taken from the wetlands near my house.  Here is some of the backwaters of the Mississippi with wildflowers in the foreground.


And here are some tundra swans in the late fall last year.   They are so beautiful.  



This body of water is only three miles from my house. I use to walk down here everyday to see the waterfowl.  There's also beavers and other water-loving animals here.


I hope you enjoyed my fall visit to the La Crosse Marsh.  Next week we make a second trip back to Galena, Illinois!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!