A Little Late, But I Still Love You

Sorry I am late in wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day. You know I still love you all anyway. On the actual Valentine's Day I was busily decorating 26 little individual cakes for Meredith's class at school and then helping at her party.

Here's a picture of how they turned out.

Since it's a little something pink, I'll share with everyone at Pink Saturday. To check out all their great stuff visit Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Simple Addition

My mom in the hospital +

one with pink eye and sinus infection +

one throwing up +

packing for a field trip =

my Monday

Cupcake Party

For her 7th birthday, my youngest decided on a cupcake party. I would make the cupcakes, the girls would decorate. This was the easiest, happiest party we've ever done! The girls had a great time, they stayed busy the entire time, and everyone got along beautifully. I limited the number of kids to the number of chairs we had around the table--six. That was the perfect number. I think that's going to be my standard rule for kids' parties from here on out.

These are the invitations that we made. I just used some pretty scrapbooking paper in the colors that she liked. I traced around a large lid for circles that I cut in two for the icing, traced around a coke bottle top for the "cherry", and used the hole punch on some trimmings from the scrapbook paper for the sprinkles. We then drew a number seven with a glue stick and added glitter. The party information was on the back.

Hobby Lobby's Christmas ribbon includes lots of colors besides green and red. Check it when they have their after-Christmas markdown and stock up on colors for the year. That's where I got the pink ribbon I added to the back of the chairs.





I found cupcake stickers that I added to plain bags and wrote their names on each one. I added another sticker to each napkin. Snacks were served in mini cupcake wrappers. Also at Hobby Lobby, I picked up these little wooden cupcake ornaments that were in their Valentines Day merchandise for the girls to decorate. I also found kits to make your own candy necklaces.

Here is one of the brooches we made for each girl. She got to design each one. We used large and small cupcake wrappers, old buttons and trim.

The table was set with different types of sprinkles and toppings. We also made cupcake bracelets out of craft foam. Hope this gives you some inspiration for your next party. Super simple makes it super fun.


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Grey Hair

Wanna know why women get grey hair?

They have sons.

Only a son watches a BMX stunt show at school and says to himself, "No problem, I can do that."

But the cuts and bruises from that, and a skateboard fall earlier in the day, weren't enough.

There's always room for more drama when you're a boy's mama.

Only a son has to get his head examined (literally) for running into a metal pole on the playground. Not once. But twice.

At least this time he picked a different playground.

Remember that old commercial where the boy asks the wise old owl how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

At our house, we're asking how many licks can one kid take to his head before his mom starts making him wear a helmet every time he leaves.

If you see a kid in class or at the mall wearing normal clothes and a football helmet...he's mine.

Super Simple Snack Idea

I needed to make something snack-y for lunch boxes this week but was low on eggs. This is what I came up with and it turned out super yummy and was really simple. It's made from a cake mix but tastes like a cookie. Only four ingredients. What more could you want?

Chocolate Chip Bars


1 box butter recipe cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 (11 oz) pkg chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your 13x9 pan. Combine cake mix, eggs and butter until blended. Fold in chips. Press into pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes. Cool then cut into bars.

Add nuts if you want. Make variations as well.
Use chocolate cake mix for double chocolate chip bars or mint chocolate for mint chocolate chip bars. You get the idea.

Committed (No, not to the mental ward)

Although that's probably where some of you suspected I've been...and maybe I should have because sometimes it feels like I need to be.

I've been getting lots of requests lately to get back to blogging and here I am. I knew it'd been a while, but I didn't realize how long until I looked at the date on my last post. I was shocked!

Guess it's been longer than I had remembered. I always have thoughts rumbling around that I want to share with you or ideas or pictures. I just never seem to get that far.

Not today.

Today I get it done.

Together again!

Let's talk about one of those rumbly thoughts--commitment.

The reason for my pondering is Proverbs 16:3
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

In our get rich quick success driven culture, this seems like the perfect verse. Call it God's and it'll be golden. I really don't think it works that way.

I know there's a lot of good, godly people that, as we say in the south, don't have a pot to pee in. For those of you in the rest of the world, that means they are poor. The world definitely wouldn't define them as successful. It must be more than monetary, success equals more than stuff.

There's more to commitment as well.

When I promise myself I'm going to lose weight or I'm going to be more organized or I'm going to....my plans always end up falling apart. Why?

I promised myself. And my self always ends up going back to its old ways. But committing my plans to the Lord, that's a different story.

Numbers 23:19 tells us, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He not speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?"

When God commits to it, it gets done. Instead of making a commitment to myself to do something, I need to commit my plan to Him. What does it mean to commit something?

Dictionary definition of commit: (1) do, perform, or be guilty of; (2) to place in the charge or keeping of another; entrust; (3) to place in confinement or custody; (4) to give over, entrust; (5) to bind or obligate, as by a pledge

Whatever I do, whatever change I want to see, whatever plans I want to make for the future, I have to make a conscious choice. If I want to succeed, I have to (1) make an active decision to (2)place those plans in God's keeping. And then I have to (3) think of them as locked away and not try to take over as soon as God's way of getting me there isn't the way I would have chosen or the easiest way to travel. I have to (4) give over my illusion that I'm smarter than He is when it comes to what's best for me and simply trust. Finally, I have to rest in the knowledge that when I do my part, He'll do His. Because, when I hand over my plans and (5)pledge them to Him, He ALWAYS keeps His promises.

One last thing to note in this verse--the verb tense. "Commit to the Lord whatever you do..." This verse involves action.

We can't just think about it and have success. We have to do. I can dream up a book, a movie, a great business and a mile-long To Do list--all before breakfast. But nothing ever becomes of any of it because the thoughts flit through my mind and that's where I leave them. As thoughts.

I might sometimes go so far as to jot down ideas, but that doesn't cut it either. It is only when we commit to action, when we 'do', that we have any real hope of success. Look up one verse to 16:2 and you'll see, God knows our heart.

There's a big difference between want to and will do.

And the 'will do' is the only thing that will do any good.

What are you committed to today?

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." II Chronicles 16:9

Lessons from a Blackberry Vine

I have a problem with blackberries. Not the yummy ones I put in cobbler, the wild blackberry vine that is trying its best to take over my yard.

It has been a bitter war and there have been casualties, namely my pretty hydrangea. While I've spent countless hours battling my dreaded invader I've had plenty of time to ruminate on something.

Sin is a whole lot like that blackberry vine. Here are some of the similarities I've come up with.

• Trying to get rid of it is painful.


• It doesn't want to go.


• You can easily break off little pieces, but when that's all you do the root remains.


• The thorns get bigger and it's harder to get to as you get closer to the root problem.


• Sometimes the branches that others see look like they've died but down at the bottom and in the roots it's still growing.


• It invades whatever is around it until it choked it out and eventually kills it.


• It can only be stopped by the gardener's intervention.


• It costs the gardener effort, time, and it is a painful process for the gardener.


• Once it's gone, however, it's better for the other plants.


• The children no longer have to look out for its thorns.


• And after the tangled mess is cleared away, you find hidden treasures that were lost.


• And there's room for beautiful new things to blossom.

Hope your garden is weed free!