Sunday Singing

I make no secret about how much I love our church services and family time afterwards.  And really today was extra special because Lynne’ met us at church and we went for breakfast afterwards.  The reason it was so special is that we are now officially empty nest again – and I am so thrilled and proud that she still wants to meet us for church.  Nothing can make a mother’s heart sing more than having her children WANT to be in church.

Our worship songs today were also food to a weary soul.  Some of them I’ve already shared on the blog, but we sang a new to us song that I’ll share below.  The song is called The Stand by Hillsong and the version I found features Michael W. Smith at vocals.  His voice is so beautiful – I could listen to it all day.

May your week ahead be blessed.

 

Honey Bun Cake

I’m finding that my tastes seem to be changing somewhat as time goes by.  Me, once the girl who knew that chocolate could solve any problem, is suddenly finding that vanilla is my flavor of choice.

I saw the recipe for this cake at Home Matters and knew right away that this would be something our family would enjoy.  And since I plan to take this to a friend gathering on Friday night, naturally I needed to do a test run first.

It was so good!  When we tasted it the cake was still slightly warm from the oven.  There is just the right amount of brown sugar and cinnamon to make it perfect.  We had a big glass of cold milk with it, but I really can’t wait for tomorrow morning to have a piece with a perfect cup of coffee.

 

HONEY BUN CAKE

1 yellow cake mix with pudding
8 oz sour cream
4 eggs
2/3 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar

Combine these 5 ingredients and beat for two minutes. Pour half the batter into a 13x9 pan sprayed with Pam.

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 t cinnamon

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half the sugar mixture over the batter. Top with remaining batter, then sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Run through with a knife to create a swirl.

Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

4 T milk
1 cup powdered sugar

Mix milk and powdered sugar together to make a glaze. Pour over the top of the cake as soon as it is removed from the oven.

 

*I’m linking this post to the Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life As Mom and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Brooklyn and Church Yesterday

When I think about the Most Creative Mom contest it makes me think of two women who have a natural vein of creativity running within – my mother and mother-in-law.  I have seriously learned so much from both of these ladies and it’s great to see the things they create.

We got to see one of my mother-in-law’s newest creations at their church on Sunday.  She made two of these quilted wall hangings to hang in the hallway in the nursery area.  There are 60 little lambs with the name of each of the babies in the church, with of course a few extra for future lambs.  So precious!

Speaking of precious, I’m holding Miss Brooklyn in the photo, along with my mother-in-law.  Keith and I were so blessed to take Brooklyn with us up to Oklahoma for the weekend and she was able to spend time with both of her great-grandmas, her great-grandpa, and her aunt and uncle.

 

Here she is bright and early in the morning right before we left for church.  She did get the sillies while I was doing her hair, probably because it took me three times as long as her mama to do it!  It’s been a few years since I’ve done hair on an almost 3 year old.  :)

And this is what we did for a few minutes before service started yesterday morning – we let her run off a bit of her toddler energy!

Friday’s Fave Five #87

See the Friday’s Fave 5 is so comforting today.  After preparing for vacation, being on vacation, and then recovering from vacation it’s nice to have some good routine.  Go by and visit Susanne at Living to Tell The Story for other posts to read.

Since I still haven’t put any of the vacation photos on this blog I decided that today was the perfect day for it!  I give you – 5 things we did on our vacation:

1. The main event for our vacation was a UTV Rally in Moab, UT.  Really I can’t say enough about how gorgeous it is up there.  Constantly I was reminded of the Fingerprints of God song.

This is on the first day riding – we’re all pulled to the side waiting for the police escort to take us through town.  The orange RZR right behind ours is a customized loaner from HCRacing that friends of ours took out.  And look back behind us – just a glimpse of the amazing landscape up there.

And here’s a video of Keith taking our RZR up a rocky hill.  I climbed out so that I could get a video.  Notice all the ponchos – we got rained on a couple of times!

 

2. Arches National Park – We got to Moab a day early so that we could go to this park and I’m so glad we did.  Again, sometimes there truly are not words to describe the beauty that God has created for us.  Down at the bottom of the circle there were some people – which shows the magnificent size of these arches!

 

3. The Durango-Silverton Train

This is the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train - and it's the one we were on.  Our car was the very last one, so when we would go around a corner a perfect photo op would occur.  We were in the parlor car and it was built in 1880 and beautiful inside and out.

In the winter they only run halfway, so we stopped out in the middle of nowhere instead of going all the way to Silverton.  What luck for us!  There's actually a pavilion there to eat lunch, but we opted instead to hike down to an awesome bridge (photos on other camera).  Coolest thing? The train stopped, it's quiet as can be as this spot isn't even accessible by anything but train - and it started snowing!  The snow only lasted long enough for it to seem magical, then it changed to sleet and rain.  Didn't slow us down a bit though.  :)

4. The Cliff Dwellers in Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park was amazing! This is something I've wanted to see for as long as I can remember and was not disappointed.  HOWEVER... the drive up there was terrifying! 20 miles of curvy mountain roads with drop offs that surely lead to certain death. One of the park rangers laughed with us and said the secret us for the rider to sit in back of the driver and it won't be so bad. She was right and the drive down was better. :)

5. Cross Ministries in Groom, TX

I still get chills and tears when I look through these pictures.  The cross itself is 19 stories high and is visible for miles before you get there.  They have 12 stations depicting Christ’s life after He was accused.  It was a sobering place to visit.

Most Creative Mom?

This is the funniest feeling post I think I’ve ever made to a blog.  My daughter-in-law told me to tell y’all that she demanded this post and I was still trying to decide whether to do it or not when I saw that the sneaky thing came in and left a comment with the link!   :)

Mother’s Day for me started on Sunday.  Lynne’ went to Scarborough Fair with some friends and when she came home I got an early gift – a darling crystal and silver angel holding a heart.  I’ll get a picture soon because it really is something I love.  She said when she saw it that it reminded her of me.  :)

Then today I had some lovely flowers on my desk at work from James and Loni!  It really is nice to look at your work computer screen, move your eyes just a tad and see these beautiful blooms and smell the sweet fragrance.

And then I went to my Facebook page and saw that Loni, my sweet daughter-in-law, had nominated me for Michael’s Most Creative Mom contest.  This is the part that feels funny to me and possibly because I’ve never been involved in anything like this before…if you are so inclined you can go to the link at Most Creative Mom and place a vote.  This link is inside of Facebook, so you must be a member there to vote.

But more important than the voting – go and read the sweet thoughts my daughter-in-law wrote.  Her words mean the world to me and winning or losing the contest does not matter – because I have the best family in the world.

DWTS – For the Last Time

One of my absolute favorite things to do with my daughter (24) is to sit on the couch while doing our crochet/knitting and watch Dancing With The Stars.  We started doing this at the beginning of the season and we enjoy so much watching all the dancing and commenting on the wonderful dancing outfits…and the not so wonderful ones.  It’s been a great time to be together.

Tonight was no exception, except that it was a tad bittersweet.  We’ve had the last year together and now Lynne’ is moving out with one of her friends.  The two girls spent the day Saturday looking at apartments and found one that they are giddy about, so she’ll be leaving. 

Really I know it’s the best thing for her, but I sure will miss her.

And tonight after she and her dad laughed at one of my comments I did point out that she won’t have as much fun watching this show with anybody else.  She agreed, still giggling.

Now for some show notes, straight from my daughter and I!

• My classic “DOH” moment tonight was when Evan and Anna danced the Argentine Tango.  I said, foolishly, that dance really didn’t do anything for me….and they got a perfect score.  DOH!
• We adore watching Niecy!  That girl would be the most fun to go to a lunch with and laugh.  And she has come so far in her dancing and looks so sure of herself.
• Then when Pamela Anderson was doing the waltz I mentioned how much I loved her dress and how “flowey” it was as she danced.  Yes, more chuckles from the family on that one.  I promised my daughter that I would text her next week if I saw a great flowey dress.  ;)

Honestly it doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you’re doing it with somebody you love.  Maybe I’ll watch the show next week and shower my daughter with text messages?  Or maybe I’ll let her be and we’ll just chat about the show later.  :)

** An aside – the blanket she’s crocheting above is for one of her friends that is pregnant.  Isn’t it awesome?