Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

The blood of Jesus My family came home from the Good Friday Service in our church tonight. The choir rendered a number of songs, in between preaching and reflections on the Seven Last Words of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they have always done every year. They didn't sing this one in particular but the lyrics of the song have been reverberating in my ears for days now.      "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow... I'll wash my garments white  in the blood of Calv'ry's Lamb." The verse below would make a perfect sequel to the lyrics above.   "...And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." ( 1 John 1:7) The powe r to cleanse, indeed, is in His blood. " In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews 9: 22) Such power in the blood that ...

Enjoyed an extra rest day this week, Thursday, having been a holiday in celebration of the Chinese New Year. I've been seeing greetings all over. Kung Hei Fat Choi. Gong Xi Fa Cai. Gong Hey Fat Choi. Whether or not they mean the same, I really couldn't tell. My great maternal grandfather is pure Chinese, making me 1/8 Chinese. Sad to say, I haven't learned any Chinese word since birth although when I was a kid, my parents slightly entertained the idea of putting me in a Chinese school.  Since last week, I've seen Chinese dishes featured on TV. Chinese New Year preparations--- noodles, rice cakes, or anything sticky. Dragon and lion dances, too!  All these brought to mind the Taoist Temple my husband and I visited in Cebu City, one of the oldest cities in my very own country, the Philippines. Located in Beverly Hills, this temple was built in 1972 by the Chinese community in Cebu. Sincethen, this temple, a center of worship for Taoism, has fast become a famous t...

It's back to work today, after five days of rest, something I've been looking forward to. As if the  long Christmas holiday vacation was not enough :) Well, days just seem to fly so fast! Thanks to the additional non-working holidays brought about by the Pope's visit to my country, the Philippines. I had time to relax, stay at home, bond with family and yes, sort picture files in my computer. In between social networking, of course, I cooked for my family. With my husband home, there has to be fish and vegetables on the dining table. There was a bunch of mustasa (mustard) leaves left in the vegetable bin. What could be a better and perfect partner to fried fish than Ensaladang Mustasa (Mustard Salad)? Very simple and easy, here's how I did it. Ingredients: 1 bunch of mustasa leaves Rock salt 2 medium-sized tomatoes, sliced 1 small onion, sliced thinly 3 tbsps vinegar Iodized salt, ground pepper and sugar to taste Steps: 1. Cut mus...

While many of you might have written down a list of resolutions for the new year, here I am, beginning the year with a confession to make.  I haven't done much blogging these days months. I know, I know, I've been missing so much --- craft and recipe ideas from not attending link parties, blog hops and worse, for not regularly checking my own blogger dashboard. Guilty me!!! Well, I realized that when I browsed over my dashboard and saw all my unfinished posts. Let me see if I can count them with my fingers!?? My picture files are a mess! But good that I was able to clear my desktop a few months ago! Good job, eh? Give me a pat on my back!!!  In my previous post, I mentioned about having two days left before going back to work. That simply means I have to hurry and finish all the pending chores... keeping my fingers crossed, though. Now, what do I do next? Hmmm... let me see? First things first--- finish this post! Yeah, good answer, that's right, finish this pos...

How's your second... or first new year day? Depends on which part of the globe you're in ;)  Woke up late again today. Spent most of the day disposing trash from my paper files and bin yesterday. One of those long overdue tasks! Whew! I bet you also spend seconds? minutes deciding which bag to place things eh? Guess what... I checked my daughter's "trash" bag and ended keeping some items I could still use in the office. Yellow pads, calling card holder, and the like. Hmmm... I bet she has already predicted this would happen!  Now, did I just give you a valid excuse? I mean, for getting up late?  Since New Year's Eve, I've been spending some time doing some space management before closing the fridge. So today, before leaving my bed, I knew exactly what to do... here it is! First, the left-over baked potatoes and button mushrooms arranged in a platter with lettuce. Then I added a few pieces of Spanish sardines. But that doesn't ...

As 2014 came to a close, as usual everybody welcomed the new year with a blast. Woke up late today after watching the fireworks with the whole family in front of our house last night. Time for photo ops, of course, with our doggies! Sssshhh... my 90-year-old parents slept soundly, unperturbed by all the noise outside. Welcome 2015 After an hour of fireworks, our part of the world embraced the new year. I wasn't able to resist posting this photo in Instagram four days ago and yesterday in Facebook even before I could feature it here.  "New Life in Christ abundant and free! What glories shine, what joys are mine, What wondrous blessings I see! My past with its sin, the searching and strife, Forever gone -- There's a bright new dawn! For in Christ I have found new life." This photo was taken outside the Fraumunster at Zurich, Switzerland February last year. Well, isn't it a perfect image of new life? As we face another year, we can only cry out ...

This is a re-post. I deleted the original post by mistake! Huhuhu!!! ===== Glad to be back, after quite a while! Today, I would just like to feature a state-of-the-art in nail designing which I learned from Ayana, my eldest daughter. Her latest blog talks about the magnetic nail polish pattern-shaping magnet which creates this kind of look in your nails. Ayana's nails after using the magnetic nail polish pattern-shaping magnet Intrigued at how the nail art magnet technology works? Let me usher you to her tutorial blog.  Click here . I personally never realized there's this kind of technology for the nails! In the past, I've learned about nail swirling and nail marbling (also from Ayana, of course). Now, nail art goes magnetic ehhhh? Would you like to try it? I hope I could try it myself one day. Happy weekend!

I don't usually post about work but the other week, the hospital where I work launched the December holiday festivities. The launching featured a show of streetdancing competition by the three services namely, Administrative, Medical and Nursing. Well, in support of the nursing team, a social obligation, that is, I had to learn a few simple, easy-to-follow steps that required a show of masks both at the start and end of the performance. That's because the theme assigned to us was MassKara Festival (special thanks to Jepoy and the PHC Nursing Service Dancers for patiently teaching us the steps!).

This song was sung during the commencement ceremony of a group of nurses who graduated from a cardiovascular training course yesterday. I love the song and couldn't help reflecting on the lyrics. Come sing along! Blessings by  Laura Story Well, did you like the song? There's no stopping you to sing it over and over again. I would like to believe that the lyrics in the last stanza are very timely as my countrymen in several regions of the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas, are once again facing another threat of Super Typhoon Ruby (Hagupit). May we, indeed, find God's loving hands in the face of the downpour of rain, the strongest of storms and the darkest of nights! Please join me in beseeching the Lord God of heavens and earth, who has all the power and might to calm the winds, the water and the waves, to have mercy on us!

Proud mother! A colleague of mine at work, she is. Who wouldn't be, when her 11-year old son, Miko, was one of the 40 finalists out of 51,000 doodlers who submitted their entries for the first ever Doodle 4 Google event in the Philippines? This was Google Philippines' collaborative effort with the Department of Education and the National Youth Commission. Several weeks ago, I voted in all four age categories. Oh, I didn't find that easy at all! Voting was based on the given criteria of artistic merit (the quality and skill demonstrated in the doodle), creativity (how well the student incorporated the Google logo into his or her illustration, being readable, with unique and creative uses of the letters) and theme ("What can I do for the Philippines?" expressed in both artwork and the written description). I am no painter, neither do I draw from sheer imagination. Oh, yes, I remember coloring my drawing assignments as a kid, but that never prospered to becom...