Make up gift idea

This make up palette set is a good gift idea. It has clean ingredients. It has eyeshadow and blush. I gifted this to my neice too. There are a lot of eyeshadow colors.

These are the eyeshadow colors this set has. I hope you have a lovely day!

Baking

This is my favorite Christmas quotation!

Pictures of some things I found in a cookbook that I could bake in the upcoming days. Hope you have a lovely day!

Faded Denim Overalls

I liked this outfit a lot. I like the color of faded denim and this baggy style. I found this in dillards.com. The second picture shows the top you can wear with it. It is long sleeved, loose and the neckline is not very high. It is by Jessica Simpson. I hope you have a lovely day!

Some Christmassy kitchen things

I always like to see pretty decorated tables. Here is a picture of a Christmas table from Hobby Lobby.com.

I gathered pictures of christmassy kitchen stuff from hobbylobby.com.

I hope you have a lovely day!

Christmas trees from Walgreens

These Christmas trees are from walgreens.com. I like to decorate with Christmas trees a lot. You can create artistic vignettes around your house with such christmas trees. Here is the picture of a vignette that I found in the internet. I would love to try to make one like this may be next year. The christmas trees in this does not exactly look like the ones from walgreens but you can use your imagination to create vignettes. I hope you have a lovely day!

Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards those upon whom God's favor rests

It is so easy to get caught up in the celebration of Christmas and forget why we actually celebrate.

The very first people to whom the birth announcement of Jesus was made were the shepherds.

Their announcement to the shepherds was as follows --"Glory to God in the highest; Peace on earth and goodwill to those with whom God is pleased."

Here there are two blessings.

Jesus came to bring peace on earth.

Jesus came with goodwill.

If we experience the peace of Jesus it is truly very great.

It is a deep kind of peace.

Jesus came with goodwill.

Goodwill means a friendly and helpful attitude.

Jesus came with goodness.

Towards whom?

Towards the people with whom God is pleased.

Who is God pleased with?

God is pleased with those who obey God.

I so want to be a person God is pleased with.

So I can have that peace and that friendly, and helpful goodwill.

Dress

I like this dress a lot. I found it in Dillards.com. I liked the ruched details and the color. I hope you have a lovely day!

Christmas Songs

I hope your Wednesday is going well. Something I love listening to at Christmas time is Christmas songs. The songs literally transport us to Christmas and give us the Christmas spirit. I wrote an essay on Christmas songs in 2019. Would like to share the essay with you today. Christmas songs I love Christmas songs. Over the years I have liked some more than others. There are Christmas songs that retell the story of Christmas, there are happy Christmas songs, and there are sad Christmas songs. There are songs that capture different aspects of Christmas and there are songs that combine parts of different Christmas songs and stringing them all together. There are Christmas songs that are new and there are old Christmas songs. During Christmas time I love to listen to Christmas songs and immerse myself in the meaning of the words in the songs. There are secular Christmas songs and Christmas songs filled with religious fervor. There are Christmas songs that veer away from Christmas and retell the entire life of Christ and there are Christmas songs from different points of views such as Joseph’s lullaby by mercy me and songs that capture mary’s angst like breath of heaven by amy grant. The most classic sad Christmas song is o come o come emmmanuel. O come o come Emmanuel sees Christmas as the fulfillment of a promise spoken of in the old testament. While living on our house located on eastmoor drive I think I heard O come o come Emmanuel by aaron shust. In the beginning of the song there is lots of eastern and middle eastern sounding rhythms which made me pay attention to the song. The song has dark words like ransom and captive, mourns, exile, it talks about gloomy clouds of night and deaths dark shadows. There is yearning and longing in this song and sees baby Jesus as a promise who will rescue humankind. Although this song has such sad words the message of the song is an invitation to rejoice because there was hope and Jesus is the hope. The refrain of the song after every stanza is to rejoice, and rejoice. The repetition of the refrain rejoice makes it a bittersweet song which is how life sometimes feels and how Christmas is for many of us . Maybe this Aaron Shust, pretty much every contemporary Christian artist has sung this song stamping the song with their individual style. From Aaron Shust, Jeremy Camp, Matt maher, Hannah kerr, Bethany Dillon, and a host of others. I like it sometimes when artists modernizes and adapts a traditional song to make it their own. Thus matt maher’s rendition includes the lines take heart o weary soul soul take heart for help is on its way which is different from the traditional rendition by aaronshust. And Hannah kerr’s rendition is the exact replica of matt maher’s rendition which includes the lines o weary soul take heart for help is on its way. Jeremy camps rendition sticks to the original lyrics without including extra verses and enunciates each word in the song slowly and clearly and singing the rejoice part of the song exultantly and jubilantly and at the end after the song is over when Emmanuel is sung in a crescendo like fashion the song ends and the instrumentals start again in the tune of the song for a while before ending. Mercy Me’s rendition of the song does not sound sad and they include no new lines to the song but a humming that goes ooooa few times in the song. The tune is different from traditional renditions. Francesca battistelli’s rendition is very slow and the background scoere to rejoice is very sad sounding in keeping with the mood of the song. So is lauren daigle’s. when I listened to the rendition of this song by lauren daigle I heard the line that says God will fill this whole world with heaven’s peace. Once while driving around doing errands I heard a song on the radio which sounded like a lesson in geography. The song had names of places in the US scattered in it. It described a man travelling from Tennessee to Pennsylvania during the holidays and described the journey others took from Pennsylvania to the sunny shores of dixie which is the southern united states. It described folks travelling from the atlantic shore to the pacific all just to go home and eat home made pumpkin pie. I imagined people who took jobs far away from the places they were raised who were travelling in cars across the highways crisscrossing the US just to have a slice of home made pumpkin pie where their old parents and siblings and their families would be waiting for them and there would be hugs and lots of visheshams to share. AT work my co worker told me that she did not expect any customers on the day before Christmas because everyone would be travelling. Travelling to go home then is an integral part of Christmas. Scattered parts come home at Christmas. The other song about home that I felt intrigued by is I’ll be home this Christmas by Meghan trainor. I first heard it in the store I worked. I found the tune soulful and could decipher on parts of the lyrics. Whatever I heard I liked. At home, I read the full lyrics and liked the song even more. The lyrics were more than just lyrics. There was poetry. Although I could not fully understand the song I liked the song partly because the song was ununderstandable. The song is about santa claus calling a girl and giving her different messages. Santa tells her to be prepared because winter love was spreading everywhere. Santa tells her that she should pack all her gifts with love and care and santa tells her to call those who are waiting for her that she would be late. The song had lines like winter love is spreading everywhere, summer came and took off with the spring, and that on the way back home the girl would light up every tree and hang stockings for herself and her love on the tree. We usually hang stockings on the mantle or door knobs but on trees? The song says that the wind blew up the snow into the sky. isn’t that how the winter landscape looks like sometimes in Iowa when snow piles up every where and if there is a wind a snowy mist rises up. Another Christmas song that I like is when love came down by point of grace. I usually listen to this song a lot of times during the Christmas season. What if you stay awake on Christmas eve and at 2 am look out the window. Would you see a snowy street? Would you see the homes clothed in white? The song conjures images of Christmas in midwestern America. Snowy streets, and songs sung by candle light. This song is sung by four ladies and their voices have a shimmering quality to it that makes it just right for this song. I love the rendition of It’s the most wonderful time of the year is by barlow girl. It is full of lines that admonish and remind us to be of good cheer, simply because it is the most wonderful time of the year. Mistletoeing and glwing hearts, sharing Christmas stories from the past, happiest season of all because of holiday greetings and gay happy meetings, and parties and toasting marshmallows, ad wonderful stories of christmasses past. Caroling out in the snow How many kings by downhere is another favorite but this is one song that tells the story of christ’s birth but also includes easter in the lyrics. Follow the star to a place unexpected, because everything about Christ is unexpected. This song says that myrhh the gift given to baby Jesus by one of the wise men is a foreshadowing of the cross Christ would suffer later in life. This song talks about Christ’s mission to pour out His heart for the salvation of humankind. The song describes Christ as a newborn savior, not for a moment forgetting that the humble, meek, helpless baby wrapped in his mother’s shawl is truly our savior who loved us in a sacrificial way. Another song that pulls at my heartstrings is Joseph’s lullaby by Mercy Me. If you think of the Christmas story the saddest character has to be Joseph. Mary was visited by the angel and would carry God’s son and would be called blessed by all generations but what about poor Joseph. The angel only visited him in a dream and told him to marry mary who he wanted to abandon. So when baby Jesus was born what might have been Joseph’s emotions? Would he have been able to bond with the baby who was not his own. Joseph’s lullaby tells us that Joseph loved baby Jesus and was fully cognizant of baby Jesus’ purpose but his heart was torn. He wanted baby Jesus to fulfill his purpose but he also wanted just to be a dad to baby Jesus.

Syria: Problems and Prospects

This evening I have agreed to say a speech in Toastmasters club which is a club that helps cultivate your public speaking skills. The topic I am going to speak about is the recent events in Syria. I got interested in the topic one day as I was reading the newspaper. For the past few days I have been working on this speech. Almost all the info in the speech is from WSJ and the internet.Given below is the speech:

Recently Syria was in the news because the Syrian president Bashar al Assad was ousted from power by Syrian Sunni insurgents known as Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.

This move lead to opposition groups in Syria to be in control of large areas in Syria.

Syria, a country in the middle east has as its neighbors Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

The government of Basher Al Assad which has been in power for 14 years was a hereditary dictatorship that curtailed the free press and upheld repressive domestic policies.

There was opposition to this government in various parts of Syria for many years plunging the country into civil war.

In this speech my goal is to throw some light on the various conflicts and tensions between nations and groups in this region that help us understand recent events in Syria.

Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Gaza, West Bank, Israel are nations that are players in the historical conflicts of this part of the world along with terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Although not a close neighbor to Syria, Iran has through their policy of proxy warfare and irregular warfare sought to become influential in the entire region.

Proxy warfare means avoiding direct confrontation yet waging warfare through indirect means.

Iran wages proxy warfare with Israel through Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen, and Iraq.

They along with other allies are known as Iran's axis of resistance in the middle east.

Iran wanted to send supplies for Hezbollah a terror group based on Lebanon through Syria. Only a regime friendly toward Iran would allow supplies for a terrorist organization to be routed through its country.

Iran's support of terror organizations is not recent. Iran succeeded in irregular warfare by creating Hezbollah in 1982. Iran piloted Hezbollah to victorious insurgency against Israel in 1985 and 2000.

After 2008 Iran had undisputed political dominion over Lebanon. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 Iran supported Shiite militias become the dominant political military force in Iraq. Outreach to Hamas via Hezbollah from the early 1990's secured Iran a foothold in the Israel Palestinian conflict.

The 2010 Arab spring, the 2012 destruction of the saleh regime in Yemen, and Iran's rescue of the Assad regime in Syria that same year contributed to Iranian influence across the region.

The ousting of Syrian president is probably connected to the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas which is a terror organization based in Gaza. Hezbollah which is another terror organization based from Lebanon supported Hamas in its fight against Israel. Israel mauled Hezbollah in November prompting the terror group to accept a cease fire with Israel. The decision to accept the ceasefire by Hezbollah was in contrast with Hezbollah's goal when it entered the war in October 2023. Hezbollah's decision for ceasefire with Israel came after Iran's decision to avoid retaliation for Israel's October 26 2024 attacks on targets inside Iran. This reluctance persisted even after Iranian leader said there would be a retaliation. Iran hesitated to retaliate because of the failure of Iraqi and Yemeni proxies to penetrate Israeli air defenses with drones and missiles. Israel continued to fight with Hamas in Gaza. Iran tried to support Hamas in Gaza but now Gaza faces Israel alone.

Russia and Iran long supported the Bashar Al Assad regime of Syria. Syria was the base of Russia's middle east operations. However

Russia and Iran who are allies of Syria were not able to help Syria much due to their preoccupation with other battles. Russia Ukraine Iran conflict in Gaza and Lebanon with Israel.

With the fall of the Assad regime the Russian army has been withdrawing from Syria. All of you would have seen on TV Russian tanks roll down the streets in Syria. Assad's fall would be hailed by millions of syrians as a victory for the nearly 14 year old rebellion against him that began with protests demanding freedom of speech and democracy.

The positive consequences of the fall of the Assad regime are as follows:

A dictatorship which did not allow democracy and free press has fallen.

This may result in the establishment of democratic institutions such as free press, free elections etc.

Syria controlled by Assad became a conduit for support to terror organizations.

A Syria no longer controlled by a dictatorship will not become a conduit for support to terror organizations.

Less terrorism means more democracy, sanity, peace and prosperity.

Less terrorism means the countries of the region can explore peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the middle east.

Iran with nuclear ambitions was doing something very wrong.

They were waging a proxy war on Israel..

They used Hamas, Hezbollah,Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to fight Israel through indirect means.

Somehow the fall of the Assad regime made the proxy system collapse to some extent.

Syria's greatest challenge would be to build on these positive outcomes to establish a democratic nation that brings welfare to all its citizens and radiates peace, justice, prosperity and democracy in the region.

Thank you.

Fabrics

Sometimes I just look at fabrics online. There is so much you can do with fabrics. We can make curtains, pillows, table cloths, and all kinds of things for the home. These are a few fabrics that I found in hobby lobby.com. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sweaters from Walmart

I like this sweater and this style of jeans.

This top is so pretty too.

This style is so comfortable looking.

This cardigan is so pretty too. Since they are from Walmart they are likely to be very inexpensive. I don't know their exact price. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Leggings from Walmart

Yesterday, accidently, I stumbled into these leggings in my phone in Walmart online.

I like both ways of wearing this-- with the top tucked in and with a longer top.

I also stumbled into this outfit in the phone. I liked this coat. I liked this entire outfit.

I like holiday leggings. I found all these in Walmart online. I hope you have a lovely day!

Few more pictures of Christmas decorations!

My goal was to finish decorations by the 15th. I am more or less done with decorations.

Picture of our living room.

In the doorway between the living room and family room I hung this tinsel garland.

I placed this wreath on the top of an ikea shelf.

I placed this wreath on the top of a book shelf in the family room. I may add a few things. When I add these decorations shall share. I hope you have a lovely day!

Christmas decorations

This weekend it was lovely over here. I think, outside it was freezing rain, sleet and foggy conditions but inside our home it was warm and cozy. I listened to the latest christmas music by one of my favorite singers in India called Sreya Jayadeep on my phone and decorated the living room and family room while listening to music. It was so awesome to be just surrounded by decorations. I hung stars over this ledge like space between the family room and dining area. I placed two nutcrackers over the ledge. On the window I hung artificial and tinsel garlands.

I placed all the trees I have collected over the years here.

On this tinsel garland I hung ornaments and hung it over the door leading to the patio. I have a few more pictures to share which I shall share soon.

Paintings of Halfsarees

I like halfsarees so much that I decided to paint them. After I painted I realized the skirt is very large and billowy compared to the top. However, I just enjoyed painting these. I was inspired by an online halfsaree lehenga place. I hope you have a wonderful day!