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It's almost the end of January. And i'm ex haust ed. Someone i greatly respect said that it's good to evaluate your goals and revamp midstream.  O.k., that's not even close to a direct quote, but it's the basic idea, in my words, sort of. In any event. I am coming to face the fact that i have only a certain number of hours in the day.  More importantly, i have realized that the accomplishment of my goals are not accomplishing my goals. I want to be closer to Jesus, and i want to be a better person, a better servant, a better wife, a better.....whatever. But right now, i've been working so hard to accomplish my goals....that my house is a mess, and my normal organization is going just a little too far out the window.  I DO want to interrupt my normal routine, but not so much that i undo my previous improvements. SO i'm taking a step back and doing something that really hurts my feelings.  I'm going to back off of my New Years non-resolution...

The point of this challenge, you know, isn't just to have ideas to write about so that i blog more often -- although that's a perk.  The point is to interrupt my myself.  Interrupting the day-to-day grind seems to me more and more, to be essential. Obviously, my general quality of life and payment of bills is not affected adversely by the daily grind.  But it's the quality of LIFE that can be ground to death by the daily grind. I'm finding that this interruption is kind of stressful.  I like my routines and my schedules and my ... sleep. But the things that i want...to become more than i am - always - to keep becoming more like Jesus, more like the person and the vessel that God created me to be -- are not gained by the daily grind.  They are gained by stepping beyond normal.  Beyond just doing what i need to do to get the things that i think i need to live comfortably. This is kind of a pep talk for myself.  But also, i've been reading about ...

Did you know? That in South East Texas, the 'H' in the name of the city of Humble is silent? In every day speech, that local colloquialism often kind of bleeds over into other h-words, such as, well, the same word, humble, like humble ambitions. Herbs, in which the 'h' is supposed to be silent, is often pronounced like the short name for Herbert, which is sort of an opposite effect. Well, that might be about the extent of the 'h' effect. It's a fairly limited colloquialism.  But one i find very interesting. The reason i told you this cute tidbit of information is that i am finding myself influenced by the 'h' effect in an interesting way.  For a while now, whenever i say the name of this blog in my head, i have an 'h' switch.  I call it Umble Hambitions. Funny, huh? I've got more fascinating stories where that came from. Just you wait. Also, i've updated the Umble Hpictures page. Check it out!

This is the time of the week when i should be updating my success with new recipes, new pictures, new lots of stuff - that i totally don't have today.  Sometimes a week gets away from some of us.  But, i'm not going to give myself too much slack.  The penance is that in Week Four, i MUST deliver -- on a LOT of stuff. Here are the updates one what i DID accomplish.  I copied and pasted from last Tuesday, and then edited to update. Prepare for disappointment -- and also, inspiration.   You'll have to hold out for the end of the blog to read the best part. Thing One:  Learn I haven't learned anything about a hero yet, but i have two  one more weeks.  Any suggestions for whom to learn about? Thing Two:  Photograph Have you found my  Thing Two Blog ?  It's where i'm putting my photographs for photographic collection.  I think this  last week's is amazing! Thing Three:  Create I have two  one more we...

I have this cookie sheet. You know, i think they might officially be called jelly-roll pans, but here in the country (and almost everywhere), they're cookie sheets.  Sometimes, they're also drip pans for sugary things like fruit pies, which i have a hunch - and not an honest memory - is how this cookie sheet got this exemplary blemish of black, thoroughly baked-on, well, who knows what it is really, it's black stuff.  And it won't come off.  Not with soap, not with a spatula, not with a sharp knife, not with harsh scrubbing tools.  Nothing. So, when i saw this post on Pinterest, called New Hope for Old Cookie Sheets , and i read about the miracle cleaning combination of baking soda, peroxide, and time, i thought, "i have those!"  And i decided to give it a shot.  The blog i read demonstrated and instructed that the stained cookie sheet should be "sprinkled" with baking soda, then sprinkled with peroxide, then sprinkled with baking ...

I have read part of the account of man named Bob Jones, who reported that he had died, and he had gone to Heaven, and God had sent him back.  But while he was in Heaven, or i guess, on the path to be let in to Heaven, he reported that he saw Jesus ask each person one thing:   "Did you learn to love?" In the past couple of weeks, i have been noticing myself and how i find it difficult to love certain people.  I should rephrase.  I have been specifically NOT loving certain people.  It all came to a personal head for me, when i kind of let a customer  have it , when he started kind of yelling at me over the phone.  Now, i have a lot of excuses for that.  And none of my co-workers blamed me in the least.   Our office has bent over backwards to help this ungrateful so-n-so....he's so rude......i can't stand him......etc......etc......etc...... And yet my heart was pricked. Jesus specifically told us to love our enemies and to pray for ...

Thing One:  Learn I haven't learned anything about a hero yet, but i have two more weeks.  Any suggestions for who to learn about? Thing Two:  Photograph Have you found my Thing Two Blog ?  It's where i'm putting my photographs for photographic collection.  I think this week's is amazing! Thing Three:  Create I have two more weeks for this one too.  But i can tell you that it's going to be another baby present for my silil.  I'm thinking i will make a cocoon, but i still need to pick out the yarn. Thing Four:  Give Oh shoot.  I entirely forgot about this one. Thing Five:  Share Oh shoot, again. Thing Six:  Teach Two more weeks.  I really need to pay attention and get working on this stuff. Thing Seven:  Live Well, i mentioned my fulfillment of this one the other day.  I made my Thumbprint cookies again.  Repetition is boring, i know.  But i discovered that i won't make them wi...

Hi y'all! I've been up to a lot of things this week, but i don't have anything to show for it yet. On Thursday or Friday, must've been Friday, i was feeling o.k. with the image i saw in the mirror, and i got my camera clickin' super hero to snap some staged kitchen pics for my blog.  Some of them are pretty cute.  Others are...well, it's never good when my eyes droop in a picture, and they have a tendency to droop.  Don't know why. While we were working on our photo shoot, we were talking and thinking together (always dangerous), and we concocted a plan to put together a cooking video.  So, on Saturday morning, i got all dolled up, as my husband would say.  While i was running some errands and paying the mortgage (we have to keep our priorities straight), hubby made specific section of the kitchen camera worthy, and we spent a large chunk of the day making thumbprint cookies on camera.  We had some trouble with the editing part of this journey, and al...

Today, my Morfar (the guy on the left), turned 92. Ninety-two! This is one of my all time favorite people in the world.  I love him very much. This was the best picture i could find -- Swedes squinting into the New Mexico sun -- but i have another one in my head.  Let me describe it for you. My Morfar and i are only a little bit older than we are in this picture you see above.  Morfar and Mormor (that lovely lady on the right) are sitting in the back seat of the car, with me in the middle.  And i'm standing (these were the days when we didn't know about car seats) on my knees on the seat, fixing my Morfar's hair.    I don't know if it was this same time or not, but there's a picture somewhere -- or possibly just in my memory -- of me putting those pink sponge curlers in Morfar's flowy white old man hair... and he's just grinning, enjoying it all.  These are very fond memories for me. Morfar is the closest distributor of the quiet and though...

I'm a sucker for a beautiful sky, and this evening was pretty nice.  But i've done a lot of that lately, so i tried something else.  There's this farm/ranch type place that is the subject of my gawking many times throughout the year.  I was hoping that the cows were grazing picturesquely in the dead winter grass, but when i slowed down by my gawking place, i saw this fellow.  He was kind of spooked when i stopped my car, so my pictures are fuzzy and far away.  But the longer i stood and took pictures, the closer he wandered to me.  Like he was working up the courage to make a friend.  Most of the time, he just kept looking at me and then positioning himself closer. At this point, i got a little spooked myself, and i thanked Horsey for the pictures and got in my car.  :)

One of my favorite treats that my mother made while i was growing up is thumbprint cookies.  There are lots of over complicated recipes for this delightful item, and i was a little frustrated because the recipes i was finding seemed way more complicated than the simple yumminess my mom made when i was a kid.  And then it donned on me!  My search for " Swedish Thumbprint Cookies" delivered the desired simplicity.  I found my recipe here , on allrecipes.com, but it's so simple, you might not need to even write it down. Ingredients 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick) 1 cup, sifted, all purpose flour 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup any flavor jam or preserves yield:  3 dozen (mine made 16) Instructions (this part is copied ver batum from the allrecipes entry, with the exception of my comments in italics...and of course, the pictures.) 1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). 2.   Cream butter and sugar until light and f...

I found this wonderful post on Facebook - "42 life lessons," reportedly written by a 90 year old columnist, with a love for very bright colored clothing.  You may have seen it.  It's accompanied by this picture:   the fake Regina Brett Well, i was curious, so i googled her name and found out that the author, Regina Brett, really did write the column, but she's 50-something, and she has much subtler taste in clothing and colors.  Also, her column included 50 life lessons, instead of 42. I wanted to share it on facebook, because it's wonderful, but i couldn't figure out how to put her picture and her column and her website nicely in that little space you have for making posts in facebook, so i'm doing it here, and i will share on fb.   Anyway, here's the real lady.  the real Regina Brett Here's her website, which i encourage you to visit, because she says other cool things besides just this one column:   www.reginabrett.com . ...

Lately has been that time of year when it seems that everything i wear needs to be replaced.  My shoes are falling apart.  My socks are disappearing.  And i think i heard my pants start to split one time when i sat down yesterday. In conjunction, this also being the part of the year immediately following the part of the year when were are prone to spending enormous amounts of money, i wanted to try to refresh my disintegrating wardrobe as cheaply as possible. I set out to scour the contents of every resale shop i could find, for acceptable items at rock bottom prices.  I haven't been thrift store shopping for clothes in several years, but with greatly renewed optimism and hopes for my plan to save a  LOT of money, my mind was wide open.  It was open-minded Saturday. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, i went to church, planning to confirm with the pastor our previously discussed plans to start a class for newcomers, before acquiring the books to teach the...

This morning, on my way to work, i realized that this is the first week of 2013.  (I'm a little slow sometimes.) What i mean is that i remembered that i have made a semi-public commitment to doing certain things every week this year, and it's already Thursday, and i haven't fulfilled any of my weekly commitments yet. Conveniently, i next remembered that the first day of the new year was on Tuesday.   Excellent! Thus, my weekly challenge weeks shall be measured between Tuesdays.  52 of them. As far as i can tell, there are five of you who still regularly read my posts, my parents, my best friend, and two of my favorite internet blogging friends.  I hope i'm not boring y'all too badly.  I'm hoping that this new theme will help me to work my writing muscles that have gotten very lazy, and possibly make the reading some more fun. But if not, i think that this is something i have to do for me, for the uplifting and coming to life-ness of my own sel...