November, a new Tip, and a few pictures

Good morning Y'all!!!    I hope and pray that where ever y'all are, on the face of this planet, that you can say it is great to be a part of this day that God has created just for us to enjoy.    This is the first weekend in November!!!   Can you believe that?   Here we are with another year just about wrapped up!!    I just can't believe it.   I don't know where this year has escaped to.    It has vanished, just like the vapor hanging over a body of water on an early morning when the sun finally reaches it.   It just sort of disappears without making a big deal.   This year has been disappearing without making a big deal too.    I guess it is fair to say that it has been a pretty good year if it can start wrapping up without much of a big deal.   That certainly means I have a lot to be thankful for!!!!   So, for November, I will be thankful and grateful in it.  

God has certainly blessed me in this life of mine and in this year.   I can never thank Him enough for His watch care and protection over me and the ones I love.   I can honestly say that I have never been hungry in my life.   Oh, I've had my tummy growl because a meal was overdue.   But I have never been hungry and not know where my next meal was coming from.   Thank you God!!!!    I have never been without clothes.    Oh, I've never had the best that money could buy.   But I've never had the desire to have the best!!    I just want to be able to cover my nakedness and there has never been a time that I could not do that.   Thank you God!!!   I have had a wonderful life with my husband for the last 39 years.   It has not always been easy, but it has always been right.   For that, I am thankful that God has always been the deciding factor in our marriage.   Thank You God!!!   I have never been without a roof over my head.  There was a time, between selling one house and buying another that we lived in a motel for a short time.   Laying my head on the pillow at night was a little uncomfortable, but that didn't last long.   For that short period of time, I can actually say that I know what it felt like to not have a home to call our own and that was very uncomfortable, but it wasn't a permanent situation.   For that, I can say, Thank you God!!!   I am not the picture of perfect health, but I am also not the picture of someone who is desperately ill and has no hope of every feeling better.    Oh, I have my aches and pains as most people do, but I know that I could be so much worse off than I am.   The last 2 years have actually been good years for me getting a little bit healthier.   So, for that, thank You God!!!!!    Through the years I have lost a lot of people that have meant a lot to me in the process of living and dying.   My life is better for having known them.   With all the losses, I still have some pretty wonderful people in my life that I get to do life with.   Thank you God for those precious people that are my family and my friends.

So, as I look back at what I just wrote, I realize that although this year hasn't been really eventful, it has been a blessed year!!!   And I am so thankful to God for it!!!   I hope and pray that as you evaluate where this year has brought you thus far that you can come away from the evaluation with a "thankful and grateful" heart, and a heart full of praise and adoration for The One who responsible for it, that would be our God!!!   No matter what has come our way this year, we have to know and realize that it could be worse.   God loves His own!!   God never leaves His own!!   God never forsakes His own!!   Now us, on the other hand, we fail to love God, we find it easy to leave God and we find it easy to just forsake and walk away from God.   Even when we do those things, He is still there, waiting for us to come back Him.   I am so thankful to God that He is ever present and never leaves us.   So, for the rest of this month, I plan on finding ways to thank God for all He has done for me and the people in my life.   For those of you who read my blog, I pray that  God will bless you in a mighty way and that you will be thankful for His presence in your life.   Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below!!

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For my tip today, I would like to revisit the wonderful Air Fryer.   I use mine just about every day and love it!!!!    I do have to keep it clean or at least try to.    One tip for helping keep our air fryers clean is "do not spray cooking spray in the basket of the af".     The lecithin in the formulation of the non stick spray actually sticks to and makes the af hard to clean.    Whatever I cook, I always spray the food items before I put it in the af with my non-stick spray or I brush olive oil on it before hand.  But if you do get a build up of oily gunk, run a sink full of hot water with good dish soap and sit the basket in it and let it set there for a while and then use a small brush with a small head on it to scrub lightly around the vents in the basket.   Do that every time you use it and it won't be long till the cooked on gunk will be gone.   If you have an af, use it and enjoy it.

Another tip I will give you is this.   If you haven't got one yet and you are looking at getting one, I would get the largest that my budget will actually afford.   If you don't have the funds right now to get a large one, start putting back a couple of dollars a week or save your pocket change till you can get the largest one possible, without going into debt.   I got a small one and realized that it wasn't large enough.   So I got another one and blessed a friend with the small one.   Now, I really wish I had the largest one on the market!!!   But, I can't afford the largest one now, maybe some day.  I'm saving for it.   So take my advice, and get the largest one you can possibly afford.   You won't regret it.   The next one I want to get is the Paula Deen 8.3 af from Evine.   I think that is the largest on on the market right now.    If it is just you, one person, then the small one may be perfect.   But for 2 or more in a household, larger is better.   Everything you cook in an af is so much better!!!!   My husband and I have got to where we can't eat a lot fried foods away from home.   The grease in it will make us sick.   But food cooked in an air fryer doesn't have much grease if any at all.   The only reason you would want to use any spray or oil at all is just so foods that should be browned, will brown properly.    I recently bought some avocado oil in a pump spray bottle and it is awesome!!!   It is expensive, but I did get to use my Ibotta app and got back a dollar for it.   So look for ways of being able to purchase items that you may not be able to otherwise.   For me, it is by using Ibotta.

Another small tip is this.   Use the Ibotta app!!!   That is a great way to save money!!!   The money that I get back in the Ibotta app is my money to spend on my crafts!!!   Thanks to my sweet husband!!  He said that I earned the money and since he has retired, our finances are pretty tight, but this app makes it possible for me to still be able to craft.   So this is also on my list of "thankful grateful" praise for the month of November!!!   There is always a lot to be thankful for.

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I do have a few pictures I would like to share with y'all and I hope you enjoy them.

This is from a walk on our greenway here in town.  Part of it is actually out in the country.  This is at the place where the old water plant for our town used to be.

This is a close up of the above picture.  We had a lot of rain and the creek was high and some drift wood got caught in the undercurrent of the falling water and it made for a very beautiful scene.

This is a few pictures from our Quilt Show back in October.   It was a huge success and everyone enjoyed it so much!!

Beautiful quilts was all over the place.   Oh my gosh we have talented people that shared their labors of love!!

This is a very intricate quilt to look at.  It almost plays with my vertigo.  hahaha   The movement in it is awesome.   I think it's called a Bargello quilt, not sure about though.

I got to teach a class at Creative Day in an adjoining county in October and this is some of the pins that the ladies made.   Each one was beautiful.

Each one is totally different also.   I really enjoyed doing that and hope that I get to do it again sometime.

 This is a shot of my butternut squash fries that I made in my air fryer.   They were so delicious.

 A close up of them.  Don't drool now, it's not nice.   hahaha

This was Hat Sunday on the last Sunday in October at my Mom's church.  I took an "us-ie" of us before we left.   I love this picture because on the wall behind us is the last family picture that was made while my Dad was still alive.   That picture was made Dec. 25th, 2011 and we laid him to rest on Jan. 25th, 2012.   The picture wasn't planned, but we was happy it turned out like that.

I hope y'all enjoy this little sampling of what I have been up to this Fall.   I do have some craft pictures I want to share also, but they are not on this computer yet, but I will get them on here so I can do that.  I think y'all will like them.

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Well, that's just about it for today.   I hope you enjoyed your visit here today.   I do pray that we will all take this month to reflect on what we have to be thankful for.   Whether you are in the states or not, we all have a LOT to be thankful for and now is as good a time as any to thank God for all His undeserved blessings.   I hope that is you have an air fryer, maybe my tips will be beneficial to you and maybe if you don't have Ibotta on your smartphone, you will check into it.  Everyone can use a few extra "free" dollars.   I hope you have pictures that you can look at to help you remember the blessing of everyday life.  If not, I invite to look at mine.   Tell someone you know that Jesus loves them and that God is the answer to all their problems.   Makes no difference what it is, He can help.   You just got to want to be in relationship with Him through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.   I am so grateful to Christ for all He has done for me!   I know He is waiting to hear from you.   Have a blessed day and just know that God loves y'all!!!  I do too!!   hugs and thankful blessing to you all, patty