“The RoseBouquet”

I’m thinking about time this morning, and how although mostly it seems to march to a steady drumbeat, in the mornings when the alarm goes off, it seems to race ahead. You know what I mean, right?

My bed is right next to my clothes closet, so I roll over in that direction and try to squint at my pants section; which ones shall I wear today? But my eyes aren’t focused, and as I drop my head on the pillow to “think” about my coming day, so I’ll know what to wear, the dream I was having comes back, and I’m thinking, “oh goodie - let me see how this drama ends!”

It feels like only a minute or two has passed, but suddenly I wake with a start, stare at the alarm and see that half an hour has ticked by. How did it do that?!

Mostly though, time keeps trudging onward and does not pause to give laggards a chance to catch up.

Okay, let’s call that a rabbit trail and get back to the present. Or rather this past weekend. I enjoyed the Day of Prayer we had on Saturday at our mission, and just felt badly that more people didn’t come. They missed on on so many blessings.

When I got home at 4:30 I tackled my basic housecleaning agenda, and finished the laundry started in the morning, and then settled down to work at one of my Christmas gift projects all evening.

On Sunday afternoon I dressed Snowflake, my cat, up in Christmas ribbons, and chased him around for some photos. He’s going to be the star of my Christmas story booklet that I make to mail out with my Christmas letter. He wasn’t too keen on playing dress up, but I did get enough photos I think, and have my photo story booklet about half done. I hope I can finish it this next Sunday.

When I first started building websites back in 1999, I learned about the possibility of making money by adding banners and links for affiliate programs and products. The basic premise is that you sign up to be an affiliate for these various companies, and place their ads on your site. If someone who visits your site decides to click on the ad and goes to buy something there, you will get a commission. Well, I was rather naive at that time, and though I caught on quickly enough to the basic principle of this kind of income generation, I didn’t understand enough to make it pay for me. I rarely made any real money.

But now, in the last two years, since I’ve started working with SiteBuildIt! (SBI) I’m getting a much better handle on how to go about it so that it really pays off. Anyone who invests the time to build a solid information site on a particular niche topic, wait until you have at least 30 web pages of content that is shown to be in demand, and then carefully add the ad links for appropriate affiliate products, you can truly make a good income.

(Sigh) yes, I’m slow, because instead of working on just one site at a time, I’m spreading myself very thin, and giving large blocks of time to missions and small ministries, but little by little, I’m creeping at least three sites forward to this point. So in the last week or so I’ve been searching for just the right affiliate programs to sign up with. I’ve found a number of flower companies, and also some gift and hobby sources, and am getting a little excited as I can see where this is going. Still, I want to move carefully so that I do this right, and will really see streams of income from each of these sources.

For the aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com site I’m picking things like Puritans Pride and Yulia Berry’s e-book, Aloe, Your Miracle Doctor, and other natural health remedies books.

For the BouquetofEnterprises.biz site, I’m switching over to things more in line with computers and business needs. like ExcelToner for instance.

For the Ruthes-SecretRoses.com site I’m having fun exploring things like flowers, gifts, writers’ resources, and of course Christian Books.

This stage is going to take me a while, but I hope that it will start paying off next year.

Meantime, I was happy to hear from my friend and subscriber, Barbara in Arkansas, USA. She offered another gift-making idea. I’ve done it before myself, but decided to quickly whip up a small batch of these last night, and take a few photos as I went along. So this time you get some clear how-to pictures with the idea.

from which I’m learning so much about building a “web business” I learned yesterday that there is a special Thanksgiving special on right now. If you’ve looked into it and thought the $299 is too steep for you (and it is easily worth $2000-3000!), Ken Evoy is doing an experiment to see if a monthly subscription fee of $29.99 would make it do-able for some folks.

Personally, when I was not making a regular income at all that would have been a bit scary for me. What if it wouldn’t be there two or three months down the road? For someone with a job and able to set aside $30 a month, this might be just it. You can of course, choose the yearly payment too.

But think of it this way, is it sensible to invest $300/year in something that will eventually make you $1000-3000 or more a year?

On top of all that, a new feature has been added in just the last month (It’s already chock full of valuable features!) that allows you to turn your site into something interactive. Some are reporting that their site is growing by hundreds or thousands of pages a month as a result of that. I’m just starting to try it out.

Anyway, I strongly recommend that you check it out again, and weigh whether this is right for you.

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Barbara Mintle wrote:

I really liked the idea of the chow mein cookies.

I wanted to tell you about a simple and easy gift to make if you sew.

You can make a square or rectangle or make a collar shaped bag with some nice soft material, like flannel or terry. Then fill with rice or corn, and sew it closed.

You can buy corn from a feed store. I find it easier to use rice as you can get a big 2 lb bag at the dollar store for a dollar. Then you can heat the bag in the microwave for a few minutes and put it on your back or neck or wherever it hurts. It stays warm for a long time.

You can also put it in the freezer for a cold pack.

I enjoy your newsletter.

I know you have already had your Thanksgiving but I will wish you a Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

Blessings,
Barbara

Great, Barbara! Thank you! And a very Happy Thanksgiving this Thursday to you and all my American friends.

I’ve done this idea before and was even talking about it at lunch yesterday, not recognizing it right away as a super gift idea.

So I home from the office yesterday, and put off supper by half an hour to make a batch of these gifts.

1. I rummaged in my basement bins of fabric remnants. I like to look for ones with a close, tight weave, so that that don’t burst easily and spill the contents.

2. Then I trimmed them into rectangles (I want to try the collar shaped design, but didn’t take time for that last night).

3. I uncovered my sewing machine and went around them on the open sides, right-sides together, except for a gap of about 2-3 inches. Then I serged them too, to make sure my seams were extra strong. If you don’t sew maybe you can talk someone into doing this step for you. (Hey, Mom!)

4. I pulled them right-side out through the opening I had left.

5. Got a kitchen funnel and poured the old popcorn from the ones Dad had made which had sprung some holes into the bags. I didn’t have enough for all of them, so will have to buy more rice or popcorn to finish the extra three I sewed. (If you are starting with new, take time to roast the rice or corn a bit in the microwave or oven to keep them from sprouting).

6. After supper I stitched the openings closed with tight, close stitches, and went first one way and then the other.

Ready, set, - three for me, and three to give! Today I brought one along for a Board member who was complaining of knee pain yesterday.

For some pains you want them warmed up in the microwave or oven, but for inflammation and swellings, it is better to store them in the freezer, and put them on the painful area cold. I’ve cured many a headache, or neck knots that way.

A distant cousin tracked me down on Thursday last week to tell me of his Dad’s death and the funeral on Saturday. I knew his parents fairly well. John Neudorf was one of my Gr’ma Elisabeth (Friesen)Kroeker’s 89 first cousins on her mother’s side. (She had only 63 first cousins on her father’s side). When I was writing my book, “A Godly Inheritance” to honour my beloved Gr’ma, I made a point of tracing these cousins until I had a fairly extensive genealogy, and of course I made friends with many of that older generation, and I’ve attended quite a few of their funerals.

I hardly felt I had time for one just now with my busy agendas, but Glenn’s only sister died a few years ago, and so I knew this would be a very small funeral, held, not in a church, but in the funeral home’s chapel. A lot of John’s remaining first cousins, (21 if my info is correct, as some may have died in other places and I was not notified), are very elderly and a sudden trip to a funeral on short notice is not always feasible. I did notify a few, but decided to just go myself to make sure someone was there for Glenn. He lives 6 hours away on the other side of Edmonton.

As it turned out he had a number of first cousins from his mother’s side who showed up, and a couple of Neudorf cousins. Glenn was very glad to see me too, and I found myself explaining several times to different people that Glenn’s father, John Neudorf was my Gr’ma’s first cousin, Glenn was my Mom’s second cousin, and I was third cousins with his children. Of those his son, and two daughters were there, and also Glenn’s wife Carolyn. Altogether, I counted about 40-45 people present, so I was pleased for Glenn’s sake.

John’s widow, Helen was there in a wheelchair. I was shocked when I saw her. Although they lived in a nursing home just blocks from my place, I had not seen them in the last year or two, and she had shrivelled up so that it looked like she had only a few inches of back left. She also has some dementia, so that she did not take in that John had died.

At the cemetery she heard the minister (one of her nephews) say that we were laying John Neudorf to rest, and she piped up, “John Neudorf, that’s my husband!” The nieces hovering near her tried to shush her up, but I think that was her first clue that all this was about the fact that her husband was gone. After 66 years of marriage.

There was a small lunch reception afterwards at the Seniors’ centre nearby, and there Helen really became difficult to calm down. I think the whole day had been too unusual and busy for her, and Helen had a “melt-down” as they say. It was time to get her back to her familiar room at the nursing home.

I had committed to being at a fund-raising banquet for one of my ministry clients for which I build and maintain a website, and it was to start at 5 pm. I just took time to get acquainted with one other cousin, Lloyd, the stranger from B.C. I had his name in my database but had never met anyone from his branch. He seemed to appreciate meeting me, and promised to email for more of my data on the larger clan.

There was a photo-op of first cousins, and I lingered with my coat on just long enough to snap a photo there, and then raced off to the banquet. I made it in the nick of time!

A totally different Helen, one of my subscribers to this RoseBouquet, sent some feedback to last week’s question, where I asked about gift-making ideas.

Helen wrote: “Have you ever considered the recipe jars?  You buy mason jars and add ingredients to the jar row by row so it looks pretty ie: flour in the bottom, then chocolate chips, then sugar, then oatmeal etc., then you decorate the mason jar with ribbon and attach the recipe card to it.  (All the person would have to do is add the wet ingredients ie milk, eggs) makes pretty gift.

Thanks for your updates as always sister.”

Well, guess what! It happens that I’m working on a recipe book with exactly such gifts in a jar ideas. I had one friend in mind for this, but when I described it over lunch last week to another friend, she hinted strongly that she’d like such a gift as well. So I may be printing out more copies than I thought.

Anyway, when I asked Helen for her favourite recipe for a gift jar she sent me her favourite.

Hey! New idea! I’ve decided to use the Ruthe’s Roses article space to feature such gift-making ideas for the next few weeks. So our more heavy series on Friendship lessons we can learn from the Bible stories will go on hold. Probably until January. I’m going to feature Helen’s recipe this week, and if anyone else has a good gift-making idea, and if you send it in, it may well get chosen for the next issue of The RoseBouquet. Otherwise I’ll have to come up with some more, and though the ideas come easily enough to me.

As for work activities, these days we’re preparing a booklet of prayer requests for the Day of Prayer here at the mission on Saturday. I may have more to say about that next week. Except, hey, if you love to pray for others, and if you are in driving distance here in Saskatoon, I heartily invite you to come join us this Saturday. It’s always a great day of hearing reports from each dept. of answered prayer and then praying over the new requests. We record them so we can track what God is doing in the mission. The fellowship is sweet too! A pizza lunch is provided, and we are at it from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, but you may come for whatever hours you can spare.

I’m also lining up new affiliate links for this site, Ruthes-SecretRoses.com, but I’ll have more to tell you about that another day.

Oh yes, another feedback note came from Babara in Australia She wrote:
“I think your run down on the two [referring to Esau and Jacob] was very discerning and you must have put in a lot of thought. It is also well balanced in outlook - no one could take offense. Strange to relate, I love to hear about everyday life in Canada.”

Well, Barbara, I love tips like that too. I’ll try to work in more about life in Canada. Thanks for the vote of confidence about the article. Doing Bible studies and sharing my thoughts comes very easy to me. I generally hold myself back quite a bit because I get the sense others are not so keen on it. But listen, I can still put them as web pages on my site and those who like them can find them there.

During the time I’ve been updating my site, Ruthes-SecretRoses.com I’ve come to see that it needs a totally different batch of affiliate links or ads to put on it that are more suitable to the theme of the site. I’m thinking something in the line of roses and gifts and scrapbooking, or things like that. But maybe you have some suggestions that I haven’t thought of at all yet.

What do you think would be appropriate as products to recommend from that site? I’m open to ideas right now.

If you haven’t visited there for a while, hop over to Ruthes-SecretRoses.com and poke around. When you’ve got some suggestions or tips, click on the “Reach Me” link either on the right or at the bottom of the page. Drop me a note in the form, and you’re done.

Well, I just recently worked with the ladies from the church made the recipe jar.  This is the contents.

 
Into the the Jar, put

2 cups of chow mein noodles (the orange crunchy ones you buy a bulk store)
3/4 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of peanuts
12 caramel candies

All the above you neatly pack into the mason jar.  Cover and decorate the jar and attach a recipe card;

On the recipe card you write:

Chocolate Chow Mein Clusters

In a four cup measuring cup, or bowl, combine chocolate chips and caramels with 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter, and 2 Tablespoons of water.

Heat uncovered in microwave on high for two minutes stirring once to blend. Heat till melted.

Add remaining ingredients, stirring gently to coat.  Drop from teaspoon onto wax paper.  Cool till firm.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

And of course, we can also do the same with a soup recipe.  But I don’t have the exact ingredients to tell you at this time.

I do hope you are well and have a blessed Christmas.

Your sister
Helen.

Isn’t that easy? So round up all the jars you can find (they do clutter up the kitchen sometimes, don’t they?) stock up on a larger quantity of chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, peanuts and carmel candies. In a few minutes you can fill a whole row of jars.

Dressing them up can take a bit longer, but you can put in as much effort and creativity as you wish. Then type or print out the recipe cards with the instructions, so the receiver of the gifts will know what to do with these quick-treat-kits.

Blessings & Thanks ever so much, Helen!

Ruth

Saturday, my domestic day was all mine again this past weekend. I managed to cram quite a bit into it.

I was going to dash over one block for a haircut. But when I called the recording said they were closed for lack of employees. So I called Marca, a hairdressing school downtown. Their prices are good but you have to allow more time because the student will stop to get her teacher’s review of her work at various intervals. It ended up taking over an hour.

I left wondering if I’d get everything done on my to-do list. Part of which involved ducking into a couple of stores to see if I could get a good deal on tall, dressy boots for this winter. I did not find any.

When I got home I had a quick lunch and tackled the rest of my list. In the end I got it all done except for the mending. You probably don’t want to know about every detail, but I was able to dig another stretch in my garden. My exercise plan is to spend about 20-30 minutes before sunset, section by section, turning over the garden by spade and burying the plant waste from the summer for compost. I’m over half done! Another 5 or 6 days and I should be ready for winter.

Another thing I did was finally get to sew a flannelette night gown I had cut out way back in spring. That is one treat I was determined to give myself, and I’m enjoying that cosy garment each night. (Sorry, I didn’t get around to taking a photo).

On Sunday I took time to plan my Christmas story/card/letter and gift-making, and trying to block out times when I could actually get these things done. I’m trusting a good plot for my Christmas story will come to me by Sunday. In the rest of the projects though, I have a good idea of what I need to do, and it is mainly a matter of spending the blocks of time I am now preempting for them.

Since tomorrow, Remembrance Day, is a legal holiday I am going to claim it for one of my major projects. With God’s grace I hope to make a great batch of gifts! At least the designing stage.

Yes, I know you may have your Christmas shopping all done. I’m trying hard not to be jealous!

Lynette wrote to say she liked my report on the missions conferences. She recalled the ones we were both at years ago in London, Ontario. That was encouraging.

But now I’d like to be bold enough to ask for feedback on the article series I’ve begun - on friendships that I find in my studies of the Bible. Several people have unsubscribed lately, and though, of course, I am bound by my pledge not to chase after folks and ask for their reason for leaving, I am wondering now if this series of articles is turning people off. - If you have some thoughts, but were too polite to say anything, I invite you to reply and give me your honest thoughts. Gently, of course, right?

Not sure if it matters to you, how I get along with my websites, but this last week I finally got this one, Ruthes-SecretRoses.com completely fixed. All those 404s should be gone now that I was telling you about last week.

I would really like to sign up for some new affiliate programs, I’m thinking more in the line of flowers, especially roses…! However the new project I’m working on needs a boost, so I may just sacrifice my Monday mornings for a while to bring that new idea around to a place where I can start talking about it.

The wonder-geek I was telling you about has been sick with the flu (not sure which one), so he hasn’t come back around yet. But he does intend to come.

Meantime, I can tell you about a different one. There was a computer store just two doors down from the offices here for a long time. We used to dash over to ask Jason for help when we had perplexing computer problems. Well that store moved away to a new location, and I had not bothered to drive out there, so lost touch with Jason.

But on Friday, Joe suddenly came into my office with Jason in tow. Turns out he had left that store and is free-lancing as a computer repair person. It happened that I had Priscilla’s computer open on my table and most of the guts pulled out. She said it had died and I could have it to fix if I wanted. Problem was, I couldn’t figure out how to get the DVD drive out of the way so I could check the RAM and the hard drive. I was under the impression the hard drive might need to be replaced.

But Jason knelt by the table and started taking it apart further, and ran a couple of tests, which determined that it was not the hard drive, but the motherboard gone fooey. That’s the flat piece onto which everything else must be plugged to work. He promised to check around and see if he couldn’t find me a new one for about $50.

Wow! They were over $100 the last time I was checking prices on motherboards.

So now just to wait. Jason did say that he’s just trying to earn enough money to go to the UK, where he wants to join his girlfriend by Christmas. If he does find this motherboard, it will happen between now and his departure date. Otherwise, I can go hunting for a bargain on such a motherboard and try installing it myself.

The Friendship article today may strike you as odd - but as I looked Jacob and Esau I saw a plan for reconciliation between estranged siblings or friends. You may want to think this over in relation to some impossible person in your life.

Again, I’d like to know what you think of this series of articles on Friendships found in the Bible.