Bloomin' the Best We Can

I found this pretty surprise as I was going into the workshop (a.k.a. home of all that won't fit in the house) and it was tucked behind another plant, trying its hardest to peek around and get noticed. It was twice as big as any of the other rose blooms, seeming to say, "Winter's right around the corner and I'm giving it all I've got while I can." It's such a pretty red and has a yellow center. Giving it your all can lead to some amazing results.

That leads me into what I wanted to mention to you today. I came across something in a book that I was rereading yesterday morning while I ate breakfast. I hadn't noticed it the first time. (Rereading can also offer pretty, maybe I should say pleasant, surprises.) The issue was women and prayer. Here's the quote from Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy--"...why do we need to lift up our voice in prayer? Because it's not good for women to be silent. We need to get real life off our chests. Get whatever's bedeviling us out into the open, so that we can get on with it. We can't do that when we're stuck, and women do get stuck, in a kind of self-destructive holding pattern, when they're silent...women pray because we need to talk to Someone who's really listening."

It was so true and said in a way that made so much sense. We all know having a prayer life is important, but it always seems to be the greatest struggle. Why is that? Because, it has the potential to be our greatest strength! As women, we are constantly talking things through in our heads. This is what I want to say to...I should have said...I wish I could tell this person...I need to talk to him about... What a valuable resource we are missing out on!

All those things do not have to just rattle around in your brain (with most never seeing the light of day). To get what we so need, to do what we were created to do, we simply need to turn those thoughts into prayers. "Lord, this is what I want to say to (insert person), help me to choose my words correctly and give me the opportunity to speak. I pray that as I do, I would have the opportunity to demonstrate your love in my speech, my tone, and my actions." It can be as simple as "Lord, this is what was said to me. It makes me madder than I don't know what, and you're gonna have to help me sort this out."

We were designed to be talkers. We're just not talking to the right person! Your friends are willing to listen, your kids are forced to, and (bless his poor heart) your husband's trying, but they're the wrong ones. At least until we've gone to the right one first. If we would just do that, we would be amazed at the difference in our lives. I imagine 90% of the things we're just busting at the seams to tell someone would be let go of without uttering a word to anyone but Him. Think of the needless conflict we'd be spared. Prayer is meant to give God our heart, to lay it all out in honest conversation with Him and allow Him to heal us, to help us, to instruct us, so we can get on with the task of living...So maybe we should be like my sweet little rose, let's know our time is limited and put all our effort into having our full impact.

For today's post, I'm linking up with Rednesday. Be sure to visit all the other people too, and especially our sweet host at http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

Bring on the Fall Y'all...and some muffins...and a little something new

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this today. I had to charge my camera battery and then got caught up trying to fix a facebook account for the blog. I managed to get both done. Be sure to add Simple Southern Suburbia to your friends on facebook. Slowly but surely I'm creeping into the technological age.

It's 80 here today. Not exactly what some of you would consider fall weather, but we'll take what we can get. It's so nice to have the windows thrown open. It's not really hot, not really cold, and that's just perfect for me. In the deep south we don't have a lot of changing of the foliage and such. We make our fall known with decorations, the food we eat (but no, I'm not a turnip green kind of girl, even if I am from down here). One way I mark fall is with the smells in my house (no, not the boy kind--although they'd probably be happy to oblige). Some of my favorites are Bath & Body Works' Gourmet Spice Hand Soap and especially their Leaves variety of scented oil. It'll make your house smell so nice. (It's also one of the only ones that doesn't bother my asthma.) Febreeze also makes a nice Cinnamon Sugar & Home scent, for when you do have smells of the boy kind.

One of the other things I've been up to today is making us some muffins. I figured I'd take some pictures along the way to give you a better idea. They're probably my favorite muffins of all time. You can't beat the topping. It'd be great on other muffins as well. Enjoy!

Banana Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 c. butter, melted

Topping:
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In a mixer, combine bananas, egg, and butter; mix well. Add in dry ingredients. Fill greased muffin pan. Combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Yields 1 dozen.

Waxing Philosophical

When I opened up my home page for the internet this morning, I clicked on one of those little "news" blurbs. It was about a political commentator for one of the cable networks who'd been suspended. Now I'm not really interested in having a political blog or engaging in a debate, no, my thoughts are more about the comments that were left regarding the story. There were 247 comments when I looked and scanning down some of them I did not see one that was really anything other than calling names from one side to the other or a profusion of asterisks and pound signs.

Here's my beef...whatever happened to stating an opinion or belief in an intelligent, thought-provoking way? Why can people no longer seem to have differing opinions without treating the opposing side like they are morons? Why do they not realize that when all they can do is scream or use profanity that they simply make their argument appear juvenile and weak?

I think it's mostly television. First, because all that we're offered on television is a bunch of people screaming profanity at each other and drowning in self-esteem. This seems to be how it is, reality shows or political commentators or dramas. I think we've lost "news", real journalism. I would love for someone to offer a source that provided straight facts and assumed we had enough intelligence to decipher information for ourselves and form our own opinion based on facts. Right or left, conservative or liberal, I'm tired of everyone else's opinion. I would love to be able to have my own without being piled into some group and labeled. The other factor that leads to this problem is--us. We don't really want to think for ourselves. We don't want to read more than a blurb or pay attention longer than a sound bite. And we become immune to the attitudes and language that would have left us incredulous a few years earlier.

What's the answer? I don't know. Do I think someone will step up and offer us an alternative? No, not really. Do I think the world's going to change and start acting nice and talkin' sweetly? I'm not counting on it. But I can make choices--to pay attention to what I'm allowing on my television (Is it worthy of my time? Am I really comfortable with the things they are saying or how they are saying them?) and make more of an effort with forming my own opinions and gathering my own information. Enough of my belly-achin'. That just rubbed me the wrong way at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Let's think on something a little more positive--supper. I did manage to make a menu list for this week. I bet you all thought I'd forgotten about those. Here's what we're having at our house this week.

Monday--Roast with Potatoes and Carrots, Biscuits
Tuesday--Potato Soup and BLT Sandwiches
Wednesday--Chicken Casserole, Green Beans, Oatmeal Rolls
Thursday--Fritomale Casserole, Fruit Cups
Friday--French Dip Sandwiches (with the leftover roast), Oven Fries, Carrot Sticks
Saturday--Homemade Pizza
Sunday--Leftovers

Garbage Dump Trophies

This incident happened when my oldest son was much smaller. I wrote it down then so I'd always remember and, for some reason, thought it was the right thing to share with you today on Food for Thought Friday.

Garbage Dump Trophies

My son brought home a treasure from the dump yesterday. Don't worry, that's not where we do all our shopping. Although, if you knew my love of a good bargain, it's understandable. No, he went with my mom to see about some free compost they offer there that she'd heard about in her gardening class.

On the road that leads to the dump, they were behind a truck loaded down with things someone no longer wanted. My little boy spied something on the back of that truck that he thought looked wonderful. It was a box full of trophies.

He was sure it was a mistake. No one would ever get rid of something so beautiful. They followed the truck all the way to the dump. Then, in a move that only a grandmother would make--and no mother would appreciate--my mom stopped and asked the man for the box of trophies.

They called on their way home so excited. He was supposed to spend the night with her, but he wanted to come on home so he could show his treasure to his brother. He showed up with a box full of shiny gold trophies.

Some little boy had been very athletic--there were ones for football, soccer, baseball, and basketball. I can only imagine the number of trips to the ball field,or times his mother had to fix snacks for the team (she has my sympathy and respect). All his agility had now earned my son a box of beauty that, by the way, smelled horribly of mothballs.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he started taking them all out and making a display in our garage. There were so many of them! I was wondering what his dad would say when he got home, and where he would park.

But something occurred to me. We're all like Jack. We catch sight of someone elses treasure. We can't believe how good it looks. We try to figure out how we can get some for ourselves. If we get it, we may even think it's great--for a while. But eventually, we realize it was just baggage they were hauling and then we're stuck with the junk too. Whether it's nicer houses, newer cars, or celebrity bodies, we're apt to be chasing down a box full of trophies.

So we played with the trophies. We threw away the smelly box and made room for Daddy's truck. We'll hold onto this treasure for a bit. There's a great object lesson spread out at my feet. And it'll remind me not to keep looking at other people's "boxes". But I don't think I'll send him to the dump with Granny any time soon.

Kids Craft Ideas for Next Year

Hi there! We are battling the ick at our house. Not the fish kind of ick, just the congestion kind with a serving of stomach virus. Fun times at our house. Now you know why I didn't get to blogging yesterday. The moments I did feel like dragging to the computer, my brain couldn't think of a thing to say! I've got to take one of the kids to the doctor, but I thought I'd stop long enough to show you a few cute things that Meredith brought home from school. They're simple craft ideas to do with your kids. You might want to save them for next fall or adapt them for other uses (like, it'd be easy to turn the cat into a bunny by changing the color of the plates and elongating the ears or using the spider when telling Little Miss Muffett). Have a great (germ-free) day.


Isn't this a cute cat? Just two paper plates hot-glued together with features added.


Handprint bat. You could easily change it around a little and make handprint birds.


A little spider that swings on his web.


And the artist, giving us a pose.


They dressed up last Saturday and visited neighbors. We don't allow anything scary. Meredith wanted to be a princess. She had on another, very elaborate dress that was so pretty, but declared it too itchy and put on this play outfit. The boys are harder to figure out each year as they get older--Ry was a hunter (see the bag I made for his candy) and Jack was a fisherman who collected his candy in a tacklebox.

Squirrel Power

Meredith's class had cupcakes and she brought home these two little squirrel ring toppers that were on them. She gave one to me and I put it on. She reached over with the one she had on, clinked them together, and shouted "Squirrel Power." Is this anything like having my Wonder Twins power activated? I already kind of had the shape of a squirrel, I didn't need more of that. Maybe I'm now able to scurry about or climb trees with ease...or maybe I can dodge traffic in a single bound. Whatever my new powers, I suddenly have the hankering to bury all my pecans in the yard.

I didn't get around to the cookies last night, but I did make the muffins. And they were yummy. I'm calling them Home Ec Muffins--not because I took home ec and got the recipe there, but because the original recipe came from a home ec teacher and is one she uses with her class. I tinkered and modified to work with what I had. The crumbs I used were vanilla wafers because that's what I had a little of in the pantry. I bet it'd taste great with gingersnap crumbs too. If you'd like to try it her way, use graham cracker crumbs instead, use half the amount of nuts and add a 1/2 cup of raisins, and change the nutmeg to allspice.

Home Ec Muffins
These muffins tasted great and were very moist. You could serve them for breakfast or as a substitute for a roll at supper.

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 c. chopped pecans

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Stir in applesauce and vanilla. Combine flour, crumbs, cinnamon, baking soda, and nutmeg; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in pecans. Fill greased or lined muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool for five minutes before removing. Makes 12 muffins. Serve warm.


Don't forget to vote today!!!

A Little Quick Comfort

It's turned into another busy day and I'm behind on my posting. I'll have to get back with you on the menus for the week, but here's a plan for supper tonight--Quick Comforting Chicken, Biscuits, Fried Apples. Also, I'm planning to make some muffins and some cookies today, they're both new recipes. I'll let you know tomorrow how they turn out.

Quick Comforting Chicken

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in strips
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 c. cooked carrots
1/4 c. butter
1 (15 oz.)can of whole potatoes
1 c. whipping cream
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

In a large skillet, cook chicken, onion, and carrots in butter until chicken is browned. Add potatoes. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the cream, parsley, salt, and pepper. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Serves 4.