The week of February that I hate

If it weren't for Lydia's birthday on the 11th, I'd seriously just wish the entire month of February to go away, disappear, just skip straight to March. I'd love to say that I've moved on, but I haven't.  When this time rolls around, I get bitter, emotional, sad, upset, and just flat out angry.
I absolutely can't stand Valentines Day. It ranks right up there with Halloween. I could care less about teddy bears, flowers, and heart candy. Seriously - and this year it only got worse. Everybody's all "date night with the hubby" or "I'm totally loved" blah blah blah.   J and I always boycott. But I also know that when Valentines day comes, the week that lies ahead is only going to get worse.

There are many days in the month of February that I relive so vividly now that I would honestly choose not to have ever experienced.  If you ask me, I can pretty much tell you what I was doing, what I was wearing, what I ate, and where I was on any of those days.  Truth is, it actually starts back in January.  On January 24, 2009, my life started to change drastically. Mom hit one of the lowest points in her illness, and from that day on, declined in her health to her death. She had a stroke, seizure, or something (it was never really determined/clarified).  You can read about everything for yourself at her caringbridge site if you'd like (but grab some kleenex, I can't make any promises for dry eyes!).  Not only are these past weeks so hard to relive, but these next 4-7 days are so bitter for my memory. I get a day like today and think "this was the last day 4 years ago that I heard my mother speak", or a day like tomorrow and think about the sounds of the machines and her moaning from all of the pain, or the split second I literally watched my mother take in her last breath. It was hard to live in those moments, but it's even harder to relive them. While we were in the moment, we all knew what we were up against. We were waiting, patiently, for her departure confidant of the Rest that she would find.  We had already grieved the loss of our mother/wife/nana/friend in the 22 months prior to her death.  But as we relive the days, it's a reminder of the reality that my mother is dead.

Many folks have their opinion of what year is the hardest. Some say the first, others say the 3rd. But so far, for me, it's only proving to get harder. Having Miriam was certainly the biggest life change since mom's death (or ever probably!), and then, of course, the birth of Lydia so close to her death-iversary, and to have my daughters in life with me is sometimes difficult without having my mother around. I just miss her.

Please don't be mistaken, I have full assurance that my mother rests with Jesus. She was healed the moment her heart stopped beating and we were so grateful for God's mercy on her for that. But that doesn't make missing her any easier.  On February 19,2009 at 2:51 p.m. my momma died. I sat by her side, knelled over, I held my mom's left hand and watched her breathe her last breath. She's gone, and I can't bring her back. There is NOTHING easy about that.

I can only hope that the next week passes quickly and in a blur, we'll be moving on...

Recipes you want!

Glad I didn't make a new years resolution to keep the blog updated. Now I don't feel like such a failure...

but I HAVE been back in the kitchen since the holidays and have been thoroughly enjoying expanding my horizons and getting a bit away from cupcakes.  Actually, since Jan 1, I've only made 4 dozen cupcakes, and I'm okay with that, because we've certainly had our share of busy lately.  But on to the desired recipes you all have been wanting.  Most are super easy and you can do them while holding both children, talking on the phone to the hubs, painting your nails and drinking a glass of wine all at the same time.  Enjoy!!

HELLO DOLLY Bars (top picture below)
1.5 c graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1-2 cups of chocolate chips, white morsel, and/or butterscotch chips
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1. Preheat oven to 350.  Stir together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press firmly into an ungreased 9x13 dish.
2. Layer nuts, chips/morsels, and coconut over base. Pour condensed milk over to cover.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown. Cool on rack, then refrigerate before cutting into squares.

Swiss Chicken (bottom picture above)
6-8 chicken breasts(skinless/boneless)

6-8 slices swiss cheese

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup butter melted

3 cups prepared Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing mix

Place chicken breasts in a greased 91/2x15 inch pan. Top each breast with a slice of cheese. Dilute soup with 103/4 oz. water and add wine. Mix well and pour over chicken. Toss butter with stuffing mix and sprinkle over chicken. Bake for 2 hours @ 300. (Or for 45 minutes at 425).

Fresh Crescent rolls (from my friend Pam at BSF)- Her's looked professionally crescented, AND tasted good, but mine just tasted good. and I'm okay with that!

1 cup milk

3 T. butter

2 ¾ to 3 ¼ cups flour (I use half white,  half wheat)

¼ cup sugar (or honey)

1 t. salt

2 ½ tsp active dry yeast

1 egg

1.       In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter until very warm (120° to 130°). 

2.       In large bowl, blend warm liquid, 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, yeast and egg at low speed until moistened.  Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in remaining flour to form a soft dough. 

3.       On floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 2 minutes. 

4.       Place dough in greased bowl, turn greased-side-up.  Cover and let rise in warm place until about doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes. 

5.       Punch dough down.  On floured surface, toss dough lightly until no longer sticky.  Make into rolls.

For crescent rolls:

Roll dough into 15 inch circle.  If you’d like you may brush dough circle with melted butter, but this is not necessary.  Cut into 16 wedges.  Starting with wide end, roll up each wedge toward point.  Place point underneath on greased cookie sheet, curving ends to form crescent shape.

6.       Bake in 400° oven 10-13 minutes or until golden brown and rolls sound hollow when lightly tapped.  Remove from pan and cool. and devour.

I can't wait to try these other recipes I found on Pinterest soon:

Chicken and Cheese lasagna roll ups
Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole
Buffalo Chicken Bites

What are you cooking/baking these days? Please share!!

An Alathea Christmas

When I was a new high school graduate, my mom must have been crazy.  She let me hop in an Isuzu Rodeo with 3 girls and a bunch of instruments and hit the road with way too many destinations in sight.  I traveled with a group called Alathea (Greek for Truth)...a Christian folkish band of all girls and some Tennessian flare.  We drove all over the country, as far north as Chicago, south to Florida, and out west to Texas, then even into Mexico for a week or so.  I had A BLAST (understatement!) playing alongside these sweet girls and getting to know them, and traveling the country. I came back in one piece, kept in touch, and even did some traveling the next summer.  These girls are my favorite.  I can't believe it's been close to 12 years since we first met and SO much has changed: we've lost many many dear loved ones, all gotten married, and some of us have even had babies.  To which I dedicate this post to - Baby Boy Burton Langley, born today, December 18 (shares a birthday with lots of folks like Kimberly (best friend from college), Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes and Stephen Spielberg...wow, lucky boy).


Burton wasn't supposed to join us in the world until 2013, but apparently, if you have any connection to the group Alathea, you tend to have early babies (ALL of our children have been born before their time...). Thankfully, Burton is just happy to be in the world, and to see his momma and daddy's face up close and personal.  But being one with two preemies on my hands,we all know their health and safety can change in an instant, so please join with me as I pray for continued good healthy for Burton and arrival home for Christmas. Claiming that today!


And in honor of him, I'm celebrating by giving YOU a chance to win their Christmas Album released a few years back that is a staple in my Christmas collection.
  I know we're cutting it close to Christmas, but still, it's a wonderful album...and according to my momma who always liked to listen to Christmas music AFTER Thanksgiving up until New Years Day, you can still get it in time to enjoy.  So I can drop it in the mail and share the love.  Then, you can head on over to Alathea's website, order more music (and anticipate their newest album, a Children's CD not just for Kids...coming out as soon as it can), and see if they'll be in your neck of the woods in the Spring or next Summer.

You have until Wednesday at 8 p.m. (EST) to enter by LEAVING A COMMENT telling me your favorite memory of Christmas or Christmas tradition. ** You can earn one more entry by liking their Alathea page on Facebook to keep up with all of the fun stuff (just leave another comment and let me know you liked them).
The winner will be done by random.org drawing.  Aaaand....GO!

Who doesn't love a giveaway?! I LOVE them...

I love all things give away...and let's just say after my super, duper long streak of not winning a single thing,
lately I've stumbled upon some major scores:
1. this Tervis tumbler with dragonflies, scripture, and love - 4 of my favorite things!
(www.tervis.com)
2. this bookmark that I was able to share with an older mentor woman friend of mine (www.dayspring.com)
3. J and I won $500 from a video contest - check out our goofiness here
....
and yes, I'll continue to enter. Partly because I LOVE winning, but then there are some things that I want to win for someone else. Like this time.
My friend (the same one who supplied the winning tervis and bookmark) is hosting another giveaway - for an unreleased new tumbler.  I have just the right friend in mine who I'd love to win it for...so here's to it.
But if I don't win, maybe you will? Check out Multiple Blessings, and enter to win yourself!

PLEASE VOTE!

Let's face it, we're broke.  I mean, when I quit my job to stay home with the girls, we knew it would be tough.  Our days of eating PB&J, rationing bagels, and having applesauce as "dessert" each night have only just begun - and I'm loving it!
Though, who wouldn't like a bit of extra cash?! I have always been a member of our local credit union (a financial institution, but NOT a bank) since I was about 4.  My account number has been preserved, I've been on posters in their marketing department, and I know most of their employees at several branches. That's one reason I love the small town place.  But there, they have a savings account that has literally saved our lives - I was able to use some dividends a few weeks ago to cover Lydia's emergency trip to the hospital! It's called a PayBack savings account and it does just that - pays you back.  It's the BEST option (the ONLY option in my book) for saving my money that I don't necessarily need right this moment, yielding the best percentage of money earned, and it's up for grabs at ANY time (without any penalty).  I just have to meet a list of requirements each month, like having a loan (car and house), using my debit card as "credit" 25 times/month, and using the only banking system...then I get 1-3% earned each month, free activation on VISA gift cards, and a few other perks.  IT'S TOTALLY WORTH IT. I haven't found anything like it.

But what's even better - they're running a contest that ends Monday night.  J and I became goofs late one night when we were up and made a quick video of why we like the account - and posted it. Now we just need votes.  The video with the most votes (currently, we're the only one, but there's potential for more to be posted soon) wins $500 on Tuesday morning. What can I do with that? hmmmmm - car taxes, Christmas gifts, pedicure, give some to you....

So will you help me? Go to this link http://bit.ly/V7wcvY and vote for our video.  You can vote once a day through Monday night. We need your votes!
Thanks!

The only reason I love cold weather...

SOUP! I have been SO excited about today's forecast for a few days now, for one reason and one reason only - I have been CRAVING soup. But I don't like eating soup when it's warm outside. So basically, from April-September I go on a soup aversion.  But once October hits, bring on the candy corn soup!
And since I like to try new recipes, I went searching for a crock pot vegetable minestrone that would work for us - by the mixing of 3 different recipes and a touch of love from my own pantry, I came out with this pot of beauty:

So many of you asked for the recipe, so here it is as best as I can remember it:

Ingredients:

- 1-2 tbsp of olive oil

- 2 stalks of celery, diced

- 10 mini carrots (or 2 reg carrots), sliced 

- 1 small onion, diced

- 2 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 large zucchini, cubed

- 2 cups of your fave spaghetti sauce with 2 cups of water

- 4 cups of chicken stock, plus 2-3 cups (optional)

- 1 can kidney bean, drained

- 1 can stewed tomatoes

- salt, pepper, red pepper, italian seasoning, or whatever else flavor you like in your soup :)

- 1-2 cups torn spinach without stems

- 3-5 handfuls of uncooked pasta (shells, elbows, or whatever is in the pantry)

Directions:

1. Heat frying pan with olive oil and saute celery, carrots, onion, garlic and zucchini until just tender. (you can probably skip this step as it did in all other recipes, but I LOVE sauteed veggies...)

2. Dump veggies in crock pot.  Add 4 cups of chicken stock, the spaghetti sauce with water, tomatoes, and kidney beans.  Add salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste.  (I had a 1/2 packet of italian seasoning for dressing in the pantry so I just poured it in too).

3. Cook on low 7-8 hours (or 10 like mine did). 

4.  Add in spinach and pasta while there's still about 30 minutes left.

5. Add extra stock if too thick (we like our soup a little runny...)

VOILA - yum-o! I use a 5 qt crock pot.  I actually made dinner for another family tonight, so I split the pot with them.  J had 3 huge bowls, I had one and Miriam ate a bowl too. Served with my favorite 3 ingredient sour cream biscuits (2 cups self rising flour, 1.5 sticks of melted butter, 1 cup sour cream - mix and drop spoonfuls in mini muffin pan, bake 20-25 min at 350).  For dessert, we had pumpkin muffins that I made yesterday morning while I was in the baking mode.

And since I'm in the baking mode, I need your help.  I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, and all of my recipes are my favorite.  I have had a bad hankering for some lately, and now sits a bag of unopened chocolate chip morsels in the pantry just waiting to make their appearance in a cookie. So what is your favorite cc cookie recipe?? Since I shared my soup with you, share your cookies with me!

HAPPY FALL!

You're Invited to Cupcake Canvas!

(cupcake compliments of Sandra)

I am so excited about this I can hardly stand it! I want you to join me for some hands-down super fun time, enjoy my cupcakes, and give back to the community! How, you ask? Here's the story:

     So, our church, First ARP, is excitedly in the midst of the HIP (Harvest Is Plentiful) Project - an effort to share Christ's love and our church to friends, family, coworkers, and our local community.  Our congregation has been challenged to invest a sum of money and figure out creative ways to meet others around us and tell them about our church.  Each of us was given "seed money" to get our project started.  Although the measure of our "success" is the number of people who we communicate the gospel to, all funds that are raised from our seed money go directly to our daughter church fund (for those of you not familiar with that terminology, our church has been given the opportunity to start another church in the upcoming year - we've been praying over this and moving in this direction ever since I began my ministry there...that means a new church will need a place to meet (or rent to pay for it), a pastor who needs to have a salary, and tons of miscellaneous needs that require money).   We are excited to see how we can support that effort of a new church, while inviting others to see what First ARP is about.  So my project, CUPCAKE CANVAS!

     Some of you may have been to one of those cute little expensive girls night out parties - you know, where you have an art teacher in front of you giving instructions on how to paint a peacock, beautiful sunset, or scenery all while sipping on a bottle of wine.  While those nights are fun, you probably end up enjoying your wine more than your awkward-doesn't-look-anything-like-it's-supposed-to paintings that you take home.  

Well, cupcake canvas will have a similar idea but with a twist...

     We will gather together for a few hours, eat some of my yummy cupcakes (by the way, did you know I make cupcakes for a partial living now?!:)), and we'll be painting button tree canvases - just google or pinterest "button tree canvas" and you'll see what I'm talking about.  I'll give you a few of my tips/pointers for painting canvases (like I did for this one, this one, and this one), but we'll be painting trees. Simple, two colors needed trees.  Then, we'll add some buttons.  

*PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a break from reading this and go get all of your random missing and extra buttons in your jewelry box and top drawers*

Now, back to reading...if you don't have spare buttons, no need to worry, I'll have some you can use.

Then, we'll eat some more cupcakes, gab a little, then add (in your own handwriting) this sweet simple verse:

 They are like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.  Psalm 1:3

     I'll gather all of our completed canvases and take them over to our local adoption agency, Christian Family Services, for them to be given to birth families and adopting families to serve as sweet reminders and encouragement for their bundles of joy.  On the back of each canvas will be a short note of where the paintings came from, and the information about our church (in the event they are impacted and want to visit someday).

     And get this - it will only cost you $15!!!! All of that is tax-deductible, and it will be a great help in covering costs for supplies, goodies, and even help towards that daughter church fund! Invite friends so that the Cupcake Canvas in itself will be an outreach to other folks (like that girl you work with who is super cool and nice, but you have no clue if she's a believer or if she goes to church or what - PERFECT OPPORTUNITY!!)

So a run-down of the pros:

- cheap cheap cheap girls night/afternoon out

- two different times to paint for your schedule's convenience

- helping the community, especially the adopting community

- enabling God's kingdom to grow through sharing love to others and raising money to help build a new church

- yummy cupcakes at your disposal

- learn the way around free-hand canvas painting 

- enlighten your creative side

and the cons:

- there are none.

The official promo

So if you're interested in this sort of thing, COME JOIN ME! I have 24 canvases that are stark white and need some paint and buttons and TRUTH on them!  And if you can't make it, will you just say a prayer right now for those who will be impacted by this simple ministry? Many many thanks!

Email me, fb register, or call to let me know if you'll join me for one of the nights.  See you there!