When It Rains:

The little people get wet!

The last couple of days it has been raining around here. Ok, not raining. POURING. And our yard floods pretty badly - for instance, when I went to bed last night, you couldn't see any grass in the yard; it was water all the way.

So, this morning the kids wanted to go outside and play. Now, as long as they tell me before they go, I generally have no problem with them going out by themselves (we live in a fairly rural area, back a way from the road); so, when they told me they were going out, the only requirement was that they stay close to (or on) the porch.

After a bit I went to check on them, and apparently the lure of the muddy water was too much for a certain little boy, 'cause this is what I found:

(note: she wasn't 'disobeying' me - she was just 'protecting her brother'. Besides, she had BOOTS on, and when you wear boots in the water you don't get wet. -Her logic, not mine- Of course, that being the case, I guess the inch or so of liquid I poured out of her boots after she took them off wasn't wet? Who knows.)

Unfortunately, he wasn't as well equipped for the water as she - his shoes were soaked (at least they were play shoes), and in some places, the water was nearly up to his knees, so I don't know if boots would have helped or not.

Also, the fire ants were feeling a bit, um, displaced, shall we say, and objected quite fiercely to being sloshed around in the lake - he has bites from his toes to his knees!

Gotta love little boys and their sisters! :)

We Wish You A Merry Christmas...

....And a Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a blessed holiday season!

Five Years?!? Already?

Five years ago today, Brad and I spent a long day at the hospital...we played games, read books, slept, worried (him), crocheted (me)...anything to pass the time.

Finally, at 9:08 that night, our waiting was over and we held our precious baby girl for the first time.

Since that day, that little girl has brought us great amounts of joy, laughter, a few tears of frustration, and yes, even some gray hairs (well, mine at least. I think she might have been the cause of a few of her dad's hairs falling out!).

She began her life with a stubborn streak a mile wide - born a week+ late, and then only after much coercion, and then when she finally decided to come out she did so with a vengeance - and a bit of Curious George in her...this has not changed! In fact, she has only honed and grown these skills.

She began talking before her first birthday and hasn't stopped since, except, occasionally, to sleep for a bit (but not too long!)

Today she is an extremely smart, imaginative, curious, bouncy, and, still, stubborn little girl. But she's also a sweet little girl when she puts her mind to it! (And if she ever tells you she's shy, don't believe it! :D)

And we wouldn't trade her for anything!

And so, to my beautiful, energetic little princess:

Happy 5th Birthday!

Book Review: Couples Who Pray - The Most Intimate Act Between a Man & a Woman

Written by SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, a husband & wife team; 164 pages, plus addendum (surveys for the husband and wife to take on how they feel about different factors in their current relationship). It addresses such subjects as: The Power of Prayer, Forgiveness, Prayer and Money, and 6 Steps to a Happy Marriage, giving real-life examples of couples who have taken the '40-day Prayer Challenge' -a challenge to pray together with your spouse for just 5 minutes out of every day for 40 days - and the outcomes - the differences in the lives of those who made the pledge and kept it.

When picking this book for review, I was very curious to see what the Authors would have to say on the subject. Though I come from a Christian, very church-oriented background, the subject of couples (and/or families) praying together was not widely addressed.

Though I did enjoy reading the book, and found it interesting reading about the 'celebrity' couples, such as actor and film director Denzel Washington & his wife Pauletta, Kathie Lee & Frank Gifford (among others), and their accounts of how implementing daily prayer together changed their lives, if I was looking for a deep, profound revelation of things I had never seen before, I did not find it in this book. In many ways, I found it very simple -not revealing new truths, but merely reiterating things I've known or heard about most of my life. And, while I realize that physical intimacy is a very important aspect of any marriage, in my opinion, there was a little too much emphasis placed on the physical benefits of increased prayer and commitment to God, and not enough on the Spiritual.
Still, I realize that many - possibly most - of the general population has not had the religious upbringing that I have had, and to them this book would be very enlightening. For that reason, I would recommend it to anyone seeking to better their relationship with their spouse, and in the process strengthen their relationship with God.

note: This book was supplied to me free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.

For more information on how you can review books, click on the blue BookSneeze button on the right side of the page.

Food for Fall

The last couple of days, I've had a hankering for some good ol' cornbread.

So, today I was thinking, 'what to fix for supper?', and thought, 'I should make some cornbread'.

And what goes better with cornbread than a nice pot of soup?

Now, I'm not a big fan of fall. Ok, I'm not a fan of fall at all.

But soup is a nice fall food, and we like soup...so soup it was. (Too bad it wasn't a nice fall day! It's not quite as nice when it's 80 degrees outside, but I digress.)

I've never made soup with sausage before (except for gumbo, but that's a little different), but I had a package of polish sausage in the freezer that I had bought a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale for $1.89. So I got to thinking.

And this is what I came up with:

We're not really overly fond of polish sausage, but I thought this turned out really good. Not sure about the hubby, but he ate two bowls, so it must not have been too bad - you'll have to ask him what he thought! By simmering for a while, the potatoes cooked down some and made a nice thick soup.

Ingredients:

12-14 oz polish-style sausage, sliced

1 small onion, chopped

2 T. butter or oil

4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

2-3 T. beef soup base (or powdered boullion)

1 can tomato soup

8 oz. frozen green beans

6 oz. frozen mixed veggies

salt, pepper, garlic, dried parsley,basil and oregano to taste

Heat butter or oil in 4 qt. pot, add onions, saute until translucent and starting to brown on the edges. Add sliced sausage and brown, stirring frequently. Add 2-3 quarts of water and stir to deglaze pan. Add remaining ingredients, and simmer for an hour or so.

(I used approx. 1 t. garlic powder, 1/2 t. dried basil, and 1/4 t. or so oregano. I'm not big on oregano, so you could add more, or less, if you like.)

Could also be put in the crockpot after browning onions and sausage, just be sure to add water to deglaze the pan before you put it in the crockpot, or you'll lose a lot of flavor.

(note: I wouldn't normally use tomato soup, but happened to have a can and wanted to use it up. You can do the same, or a can of tomato sauce would probably be just fine. The soup will give a slightly sweeter flavor to the broth. The goal is not to be a tomato-y soup, just to give the base a little pizazz.)

Serve this with some nice, hot buttered cornbread (NOT the sweet kind. YUCK.), and you have a yummy fall-ish dinner!

Enjoy!

Love...Without Limit

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

(Written by George Matheson)

Let Them Eat Cake! (and look at it, too!)

Friday, my day was spent with sugar. And shortening. And dye. Lots of all of the above!
But, first, we had to make a little trip to Walmart to get a couple of things we needed. While we were there, we stopped by the toy department to find a birthday present for a certain little fellow...in the future, I think that all trips to the toy dept. will be limited to times when the kiddos are NOT with me! Walking down the aisles, Jonathan would see trucks and cars (some from the movie CARS), and he kept looking at me with his little puppy-dog eyes, pointing at the toys and saying (in a pitiful little voice),

"mum, pwease? Dat! Pwease, mum?"

I gave up on the toys, grabbed a Thomas dvd for the present, and headed out.
There's only so much puppy-eyes a mommy can take!!

Anyway, back to the sugar.
Remember the certain little boy I mentioned?
Well, his name is Connor and he just had a birthday - he's 2 years old!
His mommy and daddy wanted him to have a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for his party, and since Bethany (our resident cake-decorator-person) was busy, I got to do it! :-) (She did make the cake- I just added a few minor details on the outside! :D)


4 lbs. of powdered sugar, 2 cups of shortening, and miscellaneous other somewhat good-tasting things later, here's what we came up with:


A work in progress

Almost finished

All done!
(Ju's one request was that she could have a piece of the traintracks at the party! :-) She has now decided that SHE wants a train cake for HER birthday. How very girly! Actually, she informed me that she wants Emily - one of Thomas's friends - on it, and Emily is a girl train, so it's ok.)

...and the side view. Yes, I know it's crooked. This was my first full-decor cake - You didn't expect it to be perfect, did you?

Bubby and the Birthday Boy - they were scooping the sand out of the sand-box and dumping it in the pool. Silly BOYS!


All in all, it was kinda fun. I might do it again - someday.