February 26, 2009

Rethinking About My Diet

Just heard from a lady I know via work about her special diet. She is just about the 3rd trimester of her pregnancy and she has some other health problems before her pregnancy. Her dietian has given her a list of food that she should stay away from and a list that she can eat. With the diet restrictions, her health is getting better and even though she has only barely put on weight with her baby, her baby is of a healthy size. Apparently food with preservatives 200-260 are a definite no-no to eat. After the chat, it makes me want to go back to Coles to shop again (I just did my weekly shopping early this morning).

It also seems that healthier diet means spending more to buy fresh food and cook them yourselves, instead of processed food. This also means that I should cook my own pasta sauce instead of buying the ready-to-cook type. Which also means that I should be cooking my own green curry from scratch with all the spices instead of using the packet of green curry paste! How difficult is that! This requires a mindful change of habits in grocery shopping and my cooking and baking. i.e. no more Doritos, sweet things, ice cream, etc... But I think it is high time for me to think it through, for the sake of my health, hubby's health and the health of people whom I cook/prepare food for.

Our first home grown pak choy :) Nice and fresh!

For a start, I could do with eating veggies grown organically. I usually get my Asian veggies supply from my MIL who grows quite a fair bit in their garden. Hubby and I planted some pak choy seedlings in January and they are finally growing big and strong! Yesterday, we harvested our first pak choy and had them for dinner with our 2 guests :) It felt so good to eat freshly harvested veggies from my own garden. And they were considered organic as I did not add any incesticides to them, other than some waste food into the soil as compost. Next up, truss tomatoes! Prayerfully they will grow well.... (yeah, we really actually pray that our plants will grow and give thanks for them :))


Truss tomatoes: (left) Sperm-like looking but they are seeds with little roots and (right) seedlings grew after 2 weeks


Next up, our Truss tomotoes seedlings. I bought the Truss tomatoes, fresh and cheap from Aldi. As I was finishing them, I figure that I could try to reproduce the tomatoes in my garden. With advice from my SIL, I harvested seeds from the tomotatoes, put them in water for about a week (change water everyday) and roots began to sprout out from the seeds. I planted them in a small tray until they grew into a seedling. They are now ready to be transplanted in the ground! As I have got 15 seedlings in all, I decided to give away some... Really looking forward to the growth and eating home grown healthy truss tomatoes!

February 11, 2009

Mix of Encouragement & Disappointment

First I was thinking of blogging about my little disappointment. But I thought I will be positive and write about the encouragement bit first...

5:17 church finally started last Sunday. There were slightly above 30 people altogether, 10 more than the number that I expected. Amongst us, there were 3.5 non believers (0.5 because we are not sure if he really is or not). Other than the numbers, I am also encouraged by the enthusiasm, devotion and dedication of the brothers and sisters in Christ who are in the core team of pioneering the church.

I am getting more excited to see what God will be doing to His church (people) through this new church service. However I am humbled when I am reminded that it is not mine, not ours but God's ministry, God's people and God in full control. I must not be proud nor leaning on my own strength and capability (if any) to serve God and His people. God wants my contrite heart and humble spirit to serve His people, giving all glory to Him alone.

Amidst this, I was also struck with a bit of disappointment... but I know that this happens often in ministry and will definitely happen because we are Christians (aka sinners) living on this earth. At our first CG meeting last night, only 1 out of 5 persons turned up at our place. I am not blaming anyone for their absence but I cannot help but feel a little discouraged, disappointed to a 'sad' beginning. There I was so excited at the idea of finally being able to open up my home to have people over to study the Bible and fellowship... I baked peach muffins the day before when I was not working and made chrysanthenum tea and pear and cherry crumble while cooking dinner at the same time, to provide desserts and a cooling drink for everyone to enjoy. But at the end, only 1 turned up... :(

Nevertheless, praise God that 3 of us (1 + me + hubby) had a good and productive time of discussion of what we will be doing, etc. At the same time, I am telling myself that I should not let this little bit put me down, but learn to be hospitable, loving, gracious, not looking at men and be disappointed but looking at God for His encouragement. I have been waiting for this day where hubby and I could have our own place and open it up for people as a ministry and being thankful for the home that God provided us with. We are hoping to sell our existing 6-person round dining table to buy a 8-14 persons expandable rectangular dining table so that we can accommodate more people to be seated in our small humble home. Though I am also dreaming to have a larger home so that we are able to have more people over...... Oh well, looks like I also need to learn contentment for everything that God has already given me and learn to trust God to provide things that I need!

February 3, 2009

New Church

Be there this Sunday, 8 Feb 2009, 5pm for a 5:17pm start

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...