Sentiments by Denise

Juicing - on a Regular Basis

Most people enjoy a glass of juice. Fresh-squeezed is usually preferred. How about juice made through a juice machine?

         (the above juice contains carrots, apple, celery, orange & ginger root)

Last year we bought a Waring Pro juicer. It's not the top-of-the-line juicer, but it works for our needs. We try to juice at least twice a week.

I've been trying some new combinations lately, with more vegetables, to get a better balance of nutrients in my diet. For example, this is the juice combination I made this morning:

I combined one Fuji apple, broccoli stems (save those - they are great for juicing and have a slight sweet taste!), 4 carrots, 1 grapefruit, 1/2 cucumber, and some swiss chard.

This is a great little machine - easy to use and easy to clean up (though it is a bit messy, I won't lie!).

Ed helped while I took photos.

Here's my "green juice" with a little tinge of orange! I like the overload of the vegetables, yet it's a taste you have to get use to. I don't particularly care for a sweet juice, as Ed does. His looked like this:

He combined a Golden Delicious apple, Barlett pear, navel orange, and carrots. He prefers his juice to be heavier on the fruit side.

My juicer cleans up easily and goes back to its home above the refrigerator.

If you're thinking that it's just as easy to grab a bottle of juice at your local grocery store, take a few minutes to read this article on what you actually get in those commercial juices.
And if you really want to learn how juicing can benefit your health, there are many resources out there to help - starting with the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (which can be viewed on Netflix).
Knowledge is power. Consider these things when giving attention to your health.

Love my juice!

Thankfulness

Thankfulness has been on my mind a lot these days.

It's easy to think about being thankful during the month of November, when the focus centers around a holiday of Thanksgiving.
It's also easy to have a grateful heart when everything around me is going well.

Several mornings ago, I came across something I had written in my Bible last summer regarding thankfulness:

  "Learn the art of giving thanks in all circumstances. Practice the discipline of thankfulness. A grateful attitude is one of the most effective ways to open the door of communication between me & God. Thankfulness is built on trust and awakens in me an awareness of a multitude of blessings that God has poured out for me and continues to give. It also cushions the impact of trials and hurts when they come my way."  ~7/11 (See: I Thess 5:18)

I remember when Ed was laid off from his job for 15 months - trying to intentionally look for ways to be thankful during that difficult time. It was easier to complain and feel sorry for ourselves. But, gradually, as I found things to thank God for ( and there is always something), my heart began to change. Even being grateful for difficulties or hardships will bring about a change in our attitudes as we watch God pour out His blessings.

And those blessings come in multitudes.

We just have to make sure we're watching for them, waiting for them, and not dismiss them as coincidences or something we've done.

Thankfulness has been a hard discipline for me to learn (and I'm still working on it). I just appreciate God's patience with me and all He is teaching me.

Our Kitchen

It's hard to believe that just a few months ago our house was in a constant state of chaos and shambles, mostly.

We were in the middle of a major remodel project from April of last year through the end of August. It was hard living without the convenience of a fully operational kitchen, but it was all worth it...

See for yourselves:

Our cabinets came from Lowe's, made by Shenadoah: Charleston design. We enjoyed creating more space and implementing more storage area than we had before.

This is what it looked like before:

I like the bold color that the red brings to the room.

The countertop and sinks are Corian - which I like a lot. The color pattern of the countertop is called Maui and we had a good friend make and install it. It was one of the last things to finish up the room. And what a relief to finally have a larger workspace to create meals.

You may have noticed that I do not have an automatic dishwasher. That's by choice - I prefer washing/drying my dishes by hand and it's a chore I really don't mind doing. Here's how it looked about an hour ago:

 

Since I like a neat, clean kitchen - I usually don't leave dirty dishes sitting on the countertop. I especially don't like to go to bed at night with dirty dishes sitting around, as I prefer waking up to this:

You may also notice in the photo above that we have under-cabinet lighting installed. The other lighting in the kitchen is recessed and we installed a dimmer, which is really nice to have.

We didn't replace any applicances (which saved us some significant dollars) because our stove and fridge were both only a couple years old and are holding up well.

The pretty towels were embrodiered by Ed's cousin's wife and are a perfect match to the walls. The pretty red teapot was a surprise from Santa this year!

This space is one of my favorites. Moving the refrigerator to the other side of the room not only allowed us to create more counter workspace and cupboard space in the area vacated by the fridge, but gave us a chance to design a full size pantry cupboard, which I love.
The cabinet over the fridge holds all my small appliances: juicer, crockpot, breadmaker, and food processor. The blender is kept in a cupboard at the end of the counter (below) beside the toaster since we use these appliances almost daily. And, of course, my beloved RED Kitchen Aid sits in its designated spot in the baking corner.

Lastly, I wanted to mention our kitchen table which we had made in Shipshewana IN by the Amish.

It seats four comfortably like this, but as you can see it has wings on both sides that can extend the table to seat up to eight people. However, to make that happen in our still small kitchen would make the space very crowded. We normally have no more than six dine at the table at one time. I love the wood - it's brown maple, which we chose to match the cabinets, although the stain is a bit darker than the cabinets. It doesn't look too far off in real life.

The flooring is ceramic tile and the layout was designed by my husband. We had a great guy that we met in the beginning of our remodeling who did some fantastic work for us (I highly recommend him) - he laid the tile, mounted all the cabinetry, and did all our drywall work, which included building a beam across the ceiling to support the load bearing wall when we tore out part of the wall separating the kitchen and living room.
I made the curtain valances over each of the windows. I knew I didn't want full curtains because I didn't want to hide the light (like the curtains I had before did). I found this fabric at Joann's and it matched perfectly with the paint we picked out. I found the brick red oval braided rug that sits in front of the sink online.

The space we've created makes it easier to entertain, create meals, and enjoy togetherness. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our newly remodeled kitchen.