After Saul (Paul) was converted from Judaism, in which he was a trained priest, to Christianity on the road to Damascus, he spent a few years learning how to be a better person for God's new work in Christ. After God prepared him, Paul started preaching the Good News to people in different cities. One of those cities was Corinth in Greece. When Paul needed to correct - or praise - some teachings of the churches that were established in these cities but couldn't get back to them right away, he would write them letters. One of these letters (often called epistles) is called I Corinthians in the Holy Bible.  The message I want to bring to your attention today is what Paul was telling this church about love. He told them in verse 16:14 to, " Do everything with love. " (NLT) The NKJV read as, " Let all that you do be done with love. " What a difference we could make in the world if we could all follow this beautiful advice.  In the same Book of I Corinthians 13:

Slow down tomato ripening Do you ever wonder why tomatoes are displayed with the top side down at the grocery store or farmer's market? That's because it prevents the tomatoes from ripening too quickly at room temperature. And when you get them home and set them on the countertop with the top side up, you promote faster ripening. That's great if you actually want the tomatoes to ripen faster.  However, if you want to slow ripening for up to 2 weeks, you can actually place the tomatoes in the fridge with the top side down. Remove them from the fridge and place them top side up on your countertop at room temperature for a day or two before you need to actually use them. I just recently did that with one that had been in the fridge for 10 days, and it was perfect 24 hours later when I needed to use it. Image courtesy of Leilani Angel via Unsplash Slow down lettuce rot To slow down lettuce rot, buy a full head instead of packaged lettuce. Packaged lettuce starts turning brown w

We all know how busy life can be. And there seems to always be several interruptions along the way. The most important thing to remember is to just let life happen. Some days, you won't feel like being busy, so take the day off as best as you can. That sounds too simple, but that's the best advice I can give you.  As most of you can attest to as well, I can't count the number of times I've had to put off the plans in my life because something else came up. I'm not a selfish person, and as I will discuss more at some point, that made me feel like I had to be a people pleaser. And I'm not lazy, so I've always felt like I had to be busy doing something. Guess what? Reading a good book is something that I enjoy doing on days I need to give my muscles and/or brain a day off.  God, after all, did give us orders to rest 1 full day each week.  So, I am starting to do that now. That doesn't mean that I don't do anything on that day of rest, but I make our mea

If you have a big job ahead of you, and you really dread it, my secret is to just start small. Work in small areas daily until the chore is completed. For instance, if you have several windows and blind sets to clean in your house, start by cleaning one or two sets of blinds and the windows those blinds cover on day 1. The rest of the blinds and windows can follow in short bursts of progress.  Image courtesy of CDC via Unsplash Another example would be carpet cleaning. What a hard job! It requires lots of energy and time. So, I start by moving a piece of furniture away from the wall and I clean that section on day 1. Then I move another piece of furniture the next day to clean the carpet under it and so on until all of the furniture that can be moved has clean carpet beneath it and behind it. Then I can move to the simple parts - the area where no furniture needs to be moved! Let me stress that not all furniture needs to be moved. And if it's too heavy to move, then don't! Kee

If you're looking for a way out of your stress, hobbies are a great way to release the unpleasantness that comes with stress. Perhaps there's a craft you have always wanted to learn, such as painting, cross stitch, quilting. Or maybe you never learned how to play the piano or the art of photography. Maybe you just want to be at one with nature. Maybe yoga or hiking are activities you would like to work into your life. Perhaps it's a combination of a few of these hobbies. Image courtesy of   Zeynep Sümer  via Unsplash The thing you need to learn about a hobby is to not let it stress you because it isn't moving along as fast as you think it should. Learning is a process in itself that should be calming, and once that hobby is accomplished, it should continue to calm you. A good hobby is something you do that makes you feel relaxed, as though you've been lying around all day. But on the contrary, you accomplished a few brush strokes on a free-style painting, hiked for

I have added some elderly tips  to my Senior Care Memoirs website. We all have a senior in our family, such as a parent or grandparent. Or we see elderly people while we're shopping. They deserve to feel respected and independent. So, I have added these new tips as some helpful advice. Watch for posts to be added to the Senior Care Memoirs site more frequently as new stages evolve in my senior family members' lives.  I hope you enjoy these tips and other upcoming posts. Together, we can figure this out. We're going to fill our blank canvas with helpful information. I won't be posting any future updates to the other site here, so you will want to bookmark it if you're interested in reading this type of information. Thanks for stopping by today. Image courtesy of Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash Blessings, Patricia 

Last weekend, I was using my Instant Pot pressure cooker to make a roast, and that reminded me of a few tips I have wanted to share with you.  Number one, when you're planning a meal to be ready at an exact time, besides any prepping such as defrosting, cutting, and searing, be sure to allow approximately 20 minutes for the pressure cooker to preheat. Although, your meal is in the cooker and the lid is sealed, preheat time is separate from the cook time and will vary a little bit with each setting. And there is probably going to be nothing in a cookbook to tell you how long preheat will take. Second, if instructions call for searing, do that in a skillet instead of the pressure cooker. That way you don't have to take time to clean out the pot before you pressure cook the meal. And third, add an extra 30 minutes to the timer when cooking meat to assure your meat will be tender. For instance, my cookbook instructions for a roast is to cook 20 minutes for every pound. So, if I hav