A Very Important Message from a Day-Old Child

My day-old child lay in my arms.
With my lips against her ear
I whispered strongly, "How I wish --
I wish that you could hear;

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say
(A tiny cough and a nod),
Hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."

My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled her ear.
But a kind of light passed through her eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:

"How I wish I had a voice and words;
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget I'd tell you of God --
I left Him yesterday."
                                         Carol Lynn Pearson

Quiet Book Page 7 . . .Noah and his Ark

Do you know the story of Noah in the Bible? He and his family were very good people, while the rest of the people in the world had become so wicked they could no longer live on the earth. The Lord commanded Noah to build a large boat which was called an ark.  

The skies were blue and cloudless, the sun was shining brightly, and they didn't live near a sea or lake, or even a river but Noah did what the Lord told him to do, even though he didn't understand the reason.  The wicked people laughed at him and mocked him.

When the ark was complete, and the sun was still shining brightly,  the Lord told Noah to fill the ark with his family and  two of every kind of animal.

Then the rains came and it rained until it flooded the entire earth.  Noah, his family and all the animals on the ark were the only ones to survive. 

When the rain finally stopped and the earth dried, Noah's family and the animals could live on the land again.

The Lord promised he would never flood the entire earth again. The beautiful rainbow we sometimes see in the sky following rain is His sign of that promise.

Building my ark

I included different times of the story on this page by using gray  felt for the background to show a rainy sky. The ark is floating on the water. I made the rainbow from a short piece of striped ribbon.  The "rest of the story" indicates that periodically Noah would release a dove and when, one day, the dove returned with a small piece of green in his beak, Noah knew the water was finally receding and they would soon be able to return to a dry and cleaned earth.

The lines on my ark are made with permanent marking pen. The middle line is also machine stitched across.

When you open the ark . . .

The animals will actually stand upright---I just couldn't scan it that way.

you see the animals lined up on the ramp, waiting to go on board. 

• I used  dark felt pieces to represent the inside of the ark. 
• I made the ramp from a double thickness of felt, drawing the lines and sewing them for stability. 
• The animals are beads which I threaded on elastic a little wider than the bead holes so when you move the animals they stay where you put them. They even stand up.
• The two brown strips of felt are there to try to hold the extra elastic in place. They don't do the job as well as I had hoped, so I am still trying to find a better way.

I drew Noah and his wife on heavy, stiff  Pellon using marking pens. I sewed each to another

piece of the Pellon to make them even sturdier.  They can be removed.The reason I machine-stitched the middle "board" in the ark is so they couldn't be pushed clear down to  the bottom of the boat. 

• The fish are plastic stick-ons.  Again, since I don't trust the sticky on them, I also sewed across their stripes. The ducks on small buttons I had leftover from a previous project. 

I did spend quite a bit of time trying to figure a way to have the animals on the elastic move completely into the ark but then decided that was going overboard (pardon the pun).

I love the message of the story of Noah.  It is important to be obedient and follow the words of our Savior because only He knows the whole picture. 

Plus, it makes sense to use our common sense be prepared for any potential needs. If that makes           sense to you, or if you are just curious, check out my preparedness posts in   What If . . .?

"It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark"

On Halloween you can "Play it Safe with a Corn Syrup Face"

As forerunners to the topic I need want to make two comments:

Earlier this week I was at a fabric craft store and observed a family with three young children purchasing a gaudy and gauzy short dress witch costume, and what I think was witch hair,  for the girl who looked to be about five.  They also had what I'd guess  to be about two yards of a print fabric.  I know it is none of my business but I, admittedly the cheapskate,  was appalled to hear the total price ---- $42. and some change!!!  (I don't know if they used the common percentage off coupons that this store is famous for or not).

Also earlier this week, I was going through some of my files when I happened on the following page torn, literally, from a 1987 women's magazine.  If you are trying to imagine what my files, and stacks- that-haven't- made it-to-files-yet , look like and, if you are a good imagine-r you may be right.

A juxtaposition I couldn't resist!

A creative face paint I must admit I haven't tried!

And directions I am putting  in readable type so you won't have to search for the correct back issue in your stash!

Directions:
Combine 3 Tablespoons corn starch and 1 Tablespoon flour. Gradually stir in 3/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 cups water. Set aside 1/4 cup of mixture. Divide the remaining mixture into small cups adding 1/2 teaspoon food color for each desired color.

1. Apply the untinted mixture to face. Avoid eyelids and the area around eyes.
2. Cover with one-ply white tissue. Apply more untinted mixture. Let dry 15 minutes.
3. Mix red and yellow food color to make orange mixture; paint on cheeks, forehead.
4. Mix red and green to make black. Add tiger markings. Wash off with soap and water

Note: I am copying this exactly as it is printed. It is probably safe to assume that it means
to use soap and water when you are ready to wash it off!!!.

For a devil: Repeat steps 1&2 above. Then use black mixture for a moustache and eyebrows, red for devilish cheeks.

For a clown: Repeat steps 1&2 above. Then pain colorful mouth, cheeks and eyebrows.

In closing:
While this is intriguing, I am not sure even I would feel it's worth the effort. My sister (and probably others behind my back) occasionally often say there is such a thing as me being too cheap.

Still, without being too cheap, I am sure you can find many quite suitable costumes for much less money.

Quiet Book Page 6 --- Open the Barn to Find . . .

Five Farm Animal Finger Puppets and more 


There are many variations of barn pages on the Internet.  I checked several out and adapted what fit my likes and abilities. 

Here is my barn page and a few things I did to make the process easier. 

I'm making 12 of these and am pretty sure  I got some of the windows even!
Hopefully the little users won't notice or won't care ---- and their parents may find it
either charming or . . .  indicative of my declining years and eyesight. 

I found a picture for my laying hen, colored it, and machine stitched a plastic window (cut from a zip lock bag) around it. 

As I have indicated with other pages, I like to add texture and things to feel whenever I can.   

When you "open" the hay you find three eggs.  

I sew my objects on using one of three things: dental floss, fishing line or heavy button thread so there is no chance of anything coming loose that could create a swallowing hazard. 

The eggs are threaded on fishing line. 
The barn door latches are coat hook and eyes, sewn on with button thread.

Catching Rays is not just a suntanning term!

I cut four pieces of fleece and crisscrossed them for the sun's rays.
I overcast the sun, catching the rays at the same time. The unintended pluses were depth to the sun and loose rays that move.

When you open the barn door five farm animals are there 
to greet you.

The chicken is usually in the pen also, but I wanted to show it's details---cut out with
pinking shears, with the stitching following the lines of the body leaving the wings open.

The finger puppet patterns are also found on line---from very simple to very elaborate. Mine are variations of some of them.  For me, the hardest part was deciding on the right size. I didn't know how to make copies of the available free patterns so they came out the correct size so I had to judge the best I could. 

Except for the chicken (who has added wings) all of my puppets are the same shape. All are the same size --- about 1-1/2 inches wide and 2-1/4 inches long.

The cow is cut from a cow print piece of felt (that was on sale for
10 cents and happily was enough for all 12 of my cows!)  If you don't have cow felt you can just sew a couple of spots on white felt. 

The sheep is from a scrap of fleece I had on hand.

I used tiny  beads for most of the eyes and noses. 

The pig's snout is embroidered French knots. 

This vial probably holds close to a zillion beads and cost less than $2.00 at Wal-Mart. 

The biggest sanity and time saver, for me, was creating
one-piece ears for the animals.  Cutting out tiny individual ears and managing to sew them on was way too much for me.  Although my drawings  are rough I hope they will give you the idea of what I did. 

I admit some of my pages are a little lot more elaborate than most of my offerings but sometimes I get carried away.  I know I am going overboard on these future great grand-kid gifts but I am having fun.

Please don't panic and feel that Simply, Gail has abandoned her simplicity and simply gone even more crazy.  I promise I haven't. 

Simple quiet book pages will provide every bit as much fun. Trust me when I say the ones I made for our kids when they were small were very basic. Our future great-grand-kids won't need all this ---- but for some reason, at this time in my life, I do. 

Better to be Safe than Sorry ---

In April I posted an article on the importance of respecting our "gut feelings" ---- even if we feel foolish doing so. Here is an excerpt from that post.

The following is from the book "The Gift of Fear---Survival signals that protect us from violence" by Gavin De Becker.

“...what many others want to dismiss as a coincidence or a gut feeling is in fact a cognitive process, faster than we recognize and far different from the familiar step-by-step thinking we rely on so willingly. We think conscious thought is somehow better, when in fact, intuition is soaring flight compared to the plodding of logic. Nature’s greatest accomplishment, the human brain, is never more efficient or invested than when its host is at risk. Then, intuition is catapulted to another level entirely, a height at which it can accurately be called graceful, even miraculous. 

"Intuition is the journey from A to Z without stopping at any other letter along the way. It is knowing without knowing why. 

“...the root of the word intuition, tuere, means ‘to guard, to protect.’”

You may want to read it or even re-read it.

http://thecreativecheapskate.blogspot.com/search?q=fear

I got to take my own advice last week while we were on a trip.

It was mid-day and we had just made a potty stop at a large travel center. It appeared that I was the only one in the restroom and I went to the last stall --- the furthest from the entry. 

For some reason, sitting there, I glanced down and noticed a pair of black combat-type boots in the stall next to me. They were pointing straight ahead, right in front of that toilet. There were no sounds nor movement.  It didn't feel right although thinking anything else, in a busy place in the middle of the day, seemed crazy.

I decided  it was important I push logic behind and follow my gut feeling.

I carefully prepared for a very quick exit while going through what I hoped sounded like the routine of a regular exit.  I left, almost at a run, and without any stops.

I will never know what might have been but I have no regrets for taking the precautions steps I did. All my senses told me it wasn't a good situation.  

As I went over it, from the safety of our car, the more frightening it seemed.  Wouldn't it be logical, if someone was really in there to use the facility, and was sitting as the boot placement seemed to indicate, there would have been other things showing besides the boots---like a skirt hem or pants?  Unless the person was wearing shorts. I had never seen combat boots worn with shorts before.  

Did you notice I used had rather than have in the above sentence. A few days later, while visiting a tourist attraction, we saw one woman wearing shorts and black combat boots and later, another in brown ones --- again wearing shorts!

Even after seeing those, I don't feel foolish although . . .

I am old enough to think the combat boot/shorts combo looks foolish . .  .

And I will continue to follow any intuition, guidance, gut feeling that comes my way, even if the logical side of me feels embarrassed or foolish.

I am Simply, Gail and I'd rather be safe than sorry; better paranoid than dead!

Goin' Bananas for this Simple Nutty Treat

Peanut Butter, Bananas, and Chocolate ----- these yummy triplets compliment each other in many different concoctions!



If you haven't tried this one, I highly recommend it. It is quicker to make them than it is to read HOW to make them!

•  Slice ripe but still firm bananas in slices about 1/2 inch thick.  Top every other slice with a small glop of peanut butter (plain or chunky---your choice) and top with another slice of banana, pressing down slightly.

• Place each "sandwich" on a cookie sheet covered with a sheet of waxed or parchment paper.

• Freeze.

• Melt chocolate almond bark or other dipping chocolate in a microwave, following package directions. Be very careful to not overheat or get any moisture in the chocolate.

• Drop frozen "sandwiches" one at a time into melted chocolate. Use a fork to turn it until completely covered., Lift it out using the fork and gently tap the fork on the side of the bowl, letting extra chocolate drip back. 

• Return to cookie sheet; sprinkle with a little sea salt or finely chopped peanuts if desired. Repeat. 

• Return filled cookie sheet to freezer. When frozen transfer the treats  to a zip-lock bag, store in freezer, and remove as needed  wanted.

Note:  Have you ever had a problem with socks disappearing in the dryer? I am having the same problem with these little goodies disappearing somewhere, somehow, sometime, between the second freezing and the packaging.

'til we eat again,

     I am Simply, Gail

Bear with Me . . . Pleeeeze

I got a little wrapped up with life and such . . .

the time just flew . . .

and I got a little (okay a lot) behind!

If you ever find yourself in that situation here are a couple of quick, simple and yummy recipes that may bail you out---just like they did me.

Jerk Chicken and Black Beans --- 

 a hearty soup that is ready to eat almost before you are!

Combine one can of Campbell's new Chunky Jammin' Jerk Chicken with Rice and Beans OR their Fajita Soup with Rice and Beans AND one un-drained can S&W Cuban Recipe Black Beans (with onions, peppers and cumin). Heat and then, if there is a little time, allow it to simmer until you are ready for it.

Serve it in bowls and top with coarsely broken tortilla chips and sour cream as desired.

You can also use a can of plain black beans if you choose. These should be drained before adding to the chunky soup.

Leftovers are also good the second day in a flour tortilla. 

Orange Cream --- 

brings back childhood memories of a vanilla ice cream bar encased in orange Popsicle stuff. It is great either as a refreshing salad or a light dessert.

Gently combine one 8 ounce carton of frozen non-dairy topping (thawed) with one 6 or 8 ounce carton vanilla yogurt.  Gently fold in the dry mix from a small( 4-serving size) package* of orange gelatin. You can eat it right away but it is best chilled for a short while in the refrigerator.

The last time I made this, at the suggestion of Barb the friend who gave me the recipe, I only used one-half to 2/3rds (just estimated--didn't measure) of the packet and it was plenty. 

There is obviously no need to point out that Simply, Gail is no Martha Stewart (which I consider a compliment) but when I happened across her site above showing how to creatively wrap singular things up I thought it fit the two separate things I have to wrap up this post. (I apologize for the run-on sentence!)

1.  Time is probably going to continue to fly for the next month or so, so---I will by posting once a week for a while---probably on Fridays.

2.  When I started to write this post, being a little behind took me back 33 years. Our youngest son just started school and I just started to work those same hours outside the home. For the first time ever, I entered a contest. It was December 1980. The rules were how to creatively say, in 30 words or less, why I deserved a $1,000 wardrobe of my choosing from a local dress shop.

I used a long strip of adding machine tape* and using magazine cut-outs I made a telegram** type picture-gram basically explaining how I was returning to the workforce with a full life, a great husband, and six wonderful children but(t) a very bare wardrobe---using the little Miss Coppertone illustration. 

I rolled it up, stuck it in the top of a small Santa boot and mailed it off.

I guess it was pretty risque for it's day and when the winner was announced on the radio, the moderator said that while the entire presentation was clever the closing line/illustration was the deciding factor!!

* a narrow roll of paper, like today's rare but simple (rare as they are) cash register receipt, that printed out the numbers you typed in a machine you worked by pulling a handle, without the benefit of  any batteries, wires, plugs. The original meaning of "wireless" I guess!

** a document sent to deliver an urgent message to someone some distance away. Somehow each word was typed out individually by a special operator on a special machine who somehow sent it over the telephone wires to another special telephone operator (and their special machine) in the area where it was to be delivered. 

A telegram was a miracle means of contact for very important occasions/messages. We received one from New York 50 years ago on our wedding day in California ---not really that long ago in the overall scheme of things, but seeming light years away when trying to describe then with now's  technology.

Next, each word was printed out individually on really, really narrow slips of paper (kind of like the shreds of today, pasted in order on a sheet of paper and given to another person who

 immediately hand-delivered it to the recipient.

According to another long ago ad slogan ---- 

"we've come a long way, baby."