fLoWeRs!

Flower arranging makes me happy and is a great stress reliever! They are quite cheap here too. Spring is coming and the tulips are now sold in bicycle carts; hopefully I'll get some soon. Even if the sky is overcast here 99% of the time...I can still find some brightness from flowers.

Chengdu is cold to the bones

Unlike most people I meet, I enjoy the colder temperatures. Let me rephrase that...I like colder temperatures because the humidity goes away usually. Chengdu is a different place... The Du is a very humid city in the summer and into the fall and some in the spring. So humid that you just sweat and sweat and air conditioning is rarely used in Chinese facilities. When October hits and then on into November and December the hot/humidity goes away. But a new cold/humidity comes. It sinks into your bones. Some people really struggle living here because of the cold. Heating is really expensive so I resort to a small radiator in my bathroom and heater blankets. I'm sitting on one now as I type. These blankets combined with fleece blankets and 2-3 heavy layers of clothes do the trick for me to stay warm. That and my dog and warm tea help to keep me comfortable from the 'cold to the bones' feeling. A couple weeks ago though...my heater blanket made a loud pop and could have started a fire had I not unplugged it...so I'm hesitant to keep using one...maybe the other one wasn't put together correctly... hope so...because I can't survive without one now! Those of you reading this and in the states - enjoy the snow for me and then enjoy your nicely heated homes... :)

You Never Let Go ~ Matt Redman

A few weeks ago I heard this song at our Sunday place. As soon as I got home, I looked up the lyrics and then bought the song on iTunes. It's been a huge song of encouragement. Check it out!

After a very hard & long 2008-2009 year...I'm finally feeling more at peace after all the grief...thanks to so many close friends and prayer. This song reminds me of my relationship with God and how much He really cares for me no matter what.

Red Velvet Cake -Attempt #1

Last year my Grandma Rollings passed away, and I always remember her liking Red Velvet Cake. With the Chinese New Year holiday and some friends coming over, I thought I'd give it a try. [Just as a warning - this is not an easy recipe!] I made buttermilk easily from scratch using 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Also, the icing is something I've never tried before. First you must heat up milk and flour together (constantly stirring) so that it doesn't burn. Once it's lumpy and solid-like then it is extremely important to let it cool completely. Then you mix the cooled milk/flour mixture with butter, sugar, and vanilla. This makes a poof-y icing that you can smoother the cake with! I made two square pans and one round one for the top. Amazingly the cakes came right out of the pans.

Here are some pictures to show some of the process:

Ready for Vacation!

This week has been really crazy with a huge project at work...wait a minute...I think that sums up my life since last time this year! Seriously though, I like my job. However, I never knew adult life could be so busy.

Speaking of, this break I hope to finish reading the book Boundaries. I started it awhile ago, but couldn't read it because I had just said yes to doing too many things. haha...

Tomorrow's a half day at work and in the AM there is a great big Chinese New Year's production at school. It's always quite entertaining! One year they set off firework sparks in our auditorium...thankfully no fires broke out.

Back to my big project at hand...

"Smells like..."

Tonight I was refilling Lelaina's dog food container - I have to admit this is probably my least favorite part of having a dog - the smell to me is almost unbearable. Haha. Reminds me of the first time I walked into a grocery store in Chengdu. I didn't think I was going to survive as I was overwhelmed with the spices. Interestingly, as I'm living in a country not my own there are just so many smells I could try to describe but you wouldn't understand until you really had them waft through your own nostrils. [Things like hot pot or a crowded bus on a humid summer day (where deodorant doesn't exist)] Then there are smells that bring back memories. My first year in China, I received a package from my parents. As I opened it, I cried as I could smell home in every precious gift. Here's a list of some of the best smells to me: freshly baked bread, clean sheets after drying in the sun, Happy from clinique, men's cologne, Christmas!, the air before it rains, babies after a bath, fresh clean air where the sun is shining and the sky is blue. In a city that is almost always overcast and smoggy I often escape to my apartment filled with plants that seem to help clean the air. Interestingly it was one verse that really impacted me on my first trip to Beijing. The verse talks about being a fragrance that wafts to those around us. There is a huge need for special fragrance here - and I mean that in many more ways than the ones mentioned above!