Welcome Summer!

A lovely day in Bermuda!

Today's the first day of summer and also the longest day of the year! The temperatures have been quite warm these past few days so on Sunday we went swimming for the first time this year with some friends. Swimming is lots of fun --especially when the water is warm! :-) The water around Willowbank is teeming with fish so it's a fun place to snorkel and look around. When it's low tide, we enjoy searching the sand for beautiful seashells and checking out the longtails'(seabird) which prepare their nests in the rocky cliffs. Wading through just a few inches of water is pure fun, and I love the feeling of the gentle waves lapping at my feet. :-) Sometimes we simply relax on one of the beach lounge chairs and watch the sail boats out to sea.

I'm so glad summer is finally here! Hanging out at the beach and simply enjoying God's creation is what I enjoy most about summer. The long days and short nights make it easier to do a lot in one day and spend the evening watching the sunset! Even though the air is sometimes humid, the fresh ocean breezes are refreshing and make me feel very relaxed! :-)

Summer is the perfect time to visit Bermuda too! It would be great if you can spend your vacation here at Willowbank and I can get to meet you! I'm sure you all would love Willowbank because it is a non-denominational, Christian hotel that has two beautiful beaches, a quaint "homey" setting, complete with complimentary English-style tea every afternoon. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with lovely gardens and tall palm trees, with lots of space for children to run and play! Willowbank is the perfect hotel for a Christian family looking for a refreshing summer vacation!  If you would like to get more information about Willowbank, check out the hotel's website here. Hope to see you here in Bermuda soon!

Wishing you all a safe and happy summer,

Mom took this picture during low tide! 

A longtail flew by to see what we were up to!

Another photo of the beach during low tide!
The brown "stuff" you see here is sea grass which is
normally underwater but is visible during some low tides.

My Daddy

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I love you very much! I'm so blessed to have a father like you. May God bless you as you continue serving Him and leading our family!

Dad & Mom

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him."

Psalm 103:13

50 Followers!!

I just signed in to Blogger yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to see that I now have 50 followers! It means a lot to me when people visit my blog and become a follower! I first started blogging to keep my friends updated on what's going on around our home and had no idea that I would meet so many wonderful young ladies that share my values. It's been so much fun blogging and getting to know you all and I'm glad I started my blog!  So to all my followers, I'd like to say thank you so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts.

I'd also like to mention that I'm joining Emily (My Life Belongs To Him) in the Summer With A Purpose challenge to make this summer, well --purposeful. :-) Each Friday, I'll post a summary of the goals I met, and the things I did in the past week! Here are my goals for this summer:

1. Finish the Bible Reading challenge

I started a challenge on January 1st to read the Bible in 6 months

ending on June 30th so I'm working steadily to meet

that goal!

2. Complete some craft projects.

Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of starting projects

and taking a long time to finish them but this summer that will

change. :-) I have several knitting/crocheting projects (including the

 friendship afghan!), and a sewing project that need to be completed.

3. Try new vegan recipes.

I found a great website with lots of vegan recipes

so I'm going to have fun looking through them

for some delicious summer dishes

4. Improve my homemaking skills.

Summer is perfect for working on homemaking skills like

cooking, sewing, and cleaning because

I don't have as much school work to do and tend

to have a lot more free time.

5. Read some edifying books.

I have quite a stash of books that I purchased when the

Logos Hope book ship was here. So once I'm finished

the Bible reading challenge, I plan to start reading some other 

books like Through Gates of Splendor, Project Pearl

Pastor Hsi, and Ships of Mercy.

For this past week and week one of the Summer With A Purpose challenge, I took the GED pre-test and received a great score on each subject so I'm very happy about that. :-) I also did some baking and made bread. Sorry, I didn't get pictures because the bread quickly disappeared! :-)

I hope you all had a blessed week!

If you're a follower and haven't left a comment before, please introduce yourself and let me know what you enjoy reading here. If you stop by now and then and are not a follower yet, feel free to click the "Follow" button near the top of this page! Thanks!

FA: Let's Get Started!

{Picture credit}

Today's the 15th and the starting date for the friendship afghans project! The blue color theme won the vote so we will making twelve 7 inch squares in shades of blue. Since we have six participants, we'll be mailing two of the squares to each participant keeping two for ourselves.  Remember, you can either knit or crochet the squares --whichever craft you prefer. Try different patterns and designs to make your squares unique. Lion Brand has a wonderful Stitch Finder where you can find a wide variety of designs for both knitting and crocheting projects so stop by there for some ideas! However, try to avoid patterns that are lacy or have a lot of holes.

Please visit the Friendship Afghans page to review the guidelines for the project and leave a comment there to update me on your progress!

So get started, and happy crafting!

Healthy Homemade Pizza

Pizza is one of my family's favorite lunches and this week I made six small pizzas for Sunday's lunch. As promised, here's the recipe:

Healthy Homemade Pizza

Makes 6 small pizzas

6 pocket pita loaves
2 1/2 cups of cashew cheese (recipe here)
2 raw tomatoes, quartered
1 orange bell pepper, sliced
1 onion
seasonings of your choice

To make the lunch healthier, I try to avoid cooking/baking the veggies longer than necessary and this recipe is almost raw.

Step 1: Chop up the veggies and set aside.

Step 2: Spread your pita pocket with cheese.

Step 3:  Add the chopped vegetables on top and add seasonings.

Step 4: Place your pita pocket in the oven on 350 degrees for 20 minutes. It
should look something like this when it's finished.

Variations: You can add any of your favorite veggies on top to

make a pizza that you'll enjoy. Pasta sauce also makes a great
pizza topping. :-)

Have a blessed day everyone!

P.S. We have five participants for the Friendship Afghans project and would love to have one more join us to make 6! If you or a friend of yours would like to join, please click here for more information. You can also help spread the word by posting about it on your blog! I've set up a poll in the right sidebar so we can choose a color scheme, so if you are a participant please vote!

Cashew Cheese

Mom has always enjoyed teaching my sisters and I how to cook healthy meals and I've grown to enjoy cooking. My family and I are vegan and we love working with natural foods to make delicious meals. One of my family's favorite recipes is cashew "cheese". It's a cheese substitute that we use quite often in many recipes that call for cheese. We use it for homemade pizza (recipe coming soon), macaroni and "cheese", lasagna casserole, on toast and much more! Yesterday I made pizzas for our family and took pictures while I cooked. Today, I'll share the "cheese" recipe and I'll post the pizza recipe later this week.

Cashew "Cheese"

Makes about 3 1/2 cups of cheese

Here's what you'll need:

6 oz. of cashews (whole or chopped)
1/2 cup of water
2 raw tomatoes, quartered
1 orange bell pepper, sliced
salt (to taste)
seasonings (your favorites)

Step 1: Blend the cashews and water until smooth. Depending

on your blender's speed, you may need to add a little more water.

Step 2: Add the tomatoes and blend again.

Step 3: Next, add the bell pepper, salt, and seasonings making sure

everything is blended smoothly. I usually add garlic, basil or thyme,

and turmeric. A bit of lemon juice is great too.

Step 4: When you're finished it should looking something like this:

Variations: We've used peanuts or almonds instead

of cashews. The flavor is slightly different but

both nuts make a great substitution.

Go ahead and give it a try and let me know how you enjoyed it! Hope you all are having a blessed week!

What is your family's favorite recipe? Share in a comment below!

Blessings,

P.S. I'm still looking for participants for the friendship afghans project which we hope to start on June 15th. If you're interested and would like to read more about it, please click here.

Friendship Afghan: Guidelines

{Photo credit}

To make it easier for all my friends to join me in making friendship afghans, you can either knit or crochet your afghan squares -whichever craft you is easier for you. However, there will be a few guidelines we'll need to follow so that the squares are about the same size. 

GUIDELINES for the FRIENDSHIP AFGHANS

1. You can use any needles or hooks you need to get an 7 inch square. Be creative and try different stitches and patterns for your squares, waves and color blends are a plus! However, try to avoid stitches that are lacy or have a lot of holes.

2. You can use any 100% acrylic, worsted weight yarn. Most acrylic yarns have the same washing instructions and acrylic yarn usually has the widest variety in stores. Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand is one of my favorite yarns and great for afghans so I'll probably use it. They have a wide variety of color choices to choose from; you can see some of the colors available on Lion Brand's Blog. However, feel free to try something new or have fun working with your favorite yarn!

3. It would be a good idea to set a time limit to complete the squares. This should help us to finish the project and add a little incentive to go through with it. We'll be making 12 afghan squares each, and I'd like to have them in the mail in about 4 months. So if we start on the 15th of June, we can complete the squares by mid-October! Once you receive all your squares, you can begin sewing them together and it's up to you how long you take to finish it off! What do you all think? Is four months enough time to make 12 squares or do you think you'll need more time to finish them? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

4. In order to select colors that will match and make beautiful afghans, we'll need to choose a color theme (for example, autumn, pastels, pink and cream, blues). Once I have a complete list of participants, I'll set up a poll so we can vote on a theme! If you have a color scheme you would like to suggest for the poll, please leave a comment below!

I've tried to make the guidelines as flexible as possible so that everyone that's interested can join in. This is going to be lots of fun and I can't wait to start! It's important that I hear back from you if you're interested so I can get a list of participants, and we can start planning together!

Blessings,

P.S. From now on, I'll put "FA" in the blog post titles that are about the friendship afghans.

Friendship Afghan!

Now that my hand is much better, I'm having fun getting back to knitting and crocheting. I thought of a cool idea earlier today! I was wondering if you all would be interested in joining me to make a friendship afghan. Each of us can crochet afghan squares (number of squares made will depend on number of participants) and mail a square to each friend that's participating, keeping one for ourselves. Once we receive squares from participating friends, we can stitch them together to make a friendship afghan and would be a great keepsake to remember our blogger friends by! :-) We can keep everyone updated on the progress of our squares by blogging about it or leaving a comment here.

Before starting, I need to make sure there are enough friends interested to go through with the exchange. I'd like to have 12 participants so we can make 12 squares each. Once I have enough participants signed up for the afghan, we can select a yarn and pattern and begin!

I've been making some progress on the baby throw that I started for the KCA (Knit/Crochet Along) a couple of months ago. Five out of nine squares have been finished so far and it's been a lot of fun to work on this project! The yarn is soft and has an interesting texture making it a pleasure to work with.

Ideally, I'd like to start the friendship afghan squares on the 15th of June so please comment below if you're interested and be sure to tell your friends too!

Blessings,