Andrew

on Friday Afternoon,

napping, and to me

that image of him is pure sugar.

and later, awake.

Again, to his grandmother 

painfully cute.

Here, he's very apprehensive about what we were doing to his room.

I'm helping Ann with a project.

Stripping and then painting a chest of drawers for 

Luke and Andrew.

Mango Kind of Day

or
The Theme for the Day Was Mangoes
Mary and I went to Huntsville, yesterday, for a "girl" day.
If you don't know who Mary is and want to know,
then go HERE or HERE or HERE
After going by Mr. ATM and the carwash, we headed for Huntsville.
First to Costco so I could finally renew my card.
At Costco Mary found a large jar of this:

and for added interest check out this label and think about how much of it you can eat without guilt

I know, I know, about the chips and how many you shouldn't eat....

Still, if you really like this stuff, one can really load up the chip....and I do.

If Ann is reading this blog - I know she'll think, "Hey!  I found that stuff first."  She did.  She loves it.

I plan to take it to her house this afternoon.  I can only eat so much Peach/Mango Salsa.

(Mary got a jar, so I did, too.  I'm such a copycat - so easily influenced)

Anyway, I'll share mine with Ann

It's not Charlie's cup of tea.....or.... flavor  of salsa.

After Costco it was lunch at Cantina Laredo.

Love that place!!!!

I could eat two bowls of that Guacamole which they make.

They prepare it right at the table for you!

from fresh Avocados. 

But while we waited we ate their salsa and chips

Mary and I split a bowl of Guacamole and their Mango Chicken Salad.

It's new on the menu and I copied and pasted it right here for you.

It's as delicious as it reads.

NEW MANGO CHICKEN SALAD Chicken and mango with jicama, seasoned pumpkin seeds, grapes, mint and queso fresco with a honey vinaigrette 11.99

Those mangoes were big and juicy and generous.

Very good.

Then Mary and I visited the Apple Store.

My little  MacBook needed some attention.  Got that taken care of and walked up and down Bridge Street and enjoyed the mild temps and then Mary spotted a yoghurt place there.

I'd never been - she wanted some, so I did too!

Who's been there?  You serve yourself.  It's priced by the weight.  We selected nonfat Mango frozen Yogurt.  Good grief that was good.  We couldn't get over how delicious it was.

They have very large bowls.  I didn't put much in mine at all - and even asked the nice young man behind the counter if there was a minimum purchase - because I had gotten such a little bit.

There wasn't and I didn't pick any toppings.

Still, mine was $1.92!  Mary got just a pinch more, just a pinch and hers was $2. something.

If you go there, go easy.  It's expensive.

Again the Mango theme and we did NOT plan all of that.  

Who knew we would have such a Mango day.

No Melancholy Today, but a Recipe

I Made this for Community Group on Wednesday Night.  Bit Hit!
Cream Cheese Pound Cake.
3 sticks of butter, room temp.
8 oz package of cream cheese, room temp.
3 cups of sugar
6 eggs
3 cups of flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour tube pan for pound cake.  I lined the bottom of the pan with wax paper and greased and floured it.  


Cream Butter and Cream Cheese.
Add sugar gradually and cream all of that thoroughly.
Add eggs 2 at a time and beat well, very well, after each addition.
Add flour all at once and carefully mix in - avoiding the big cloud of flour that will rise up if you begin too swiftly.  Then add the vanilla.
Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes - but I had to bake an extra 8 - 10 minutes.
Check with toothpick or clean knife to see when either one comes out clean - out of the cooked cake in the oven.
Take out of oven and allow to rest for a bit.  Carefully remove from pan to your beautiful cake stand for a magnificent presentation.   Just select one of those gorgeous cake stands from your collection which you've acquired over the years.  Just kidding - but it's fun to think about.

A Little Melancholy

Last night, at dusk,  I sat on my couch, in my corner - I was grieving.  I grieve better alone.  It was the result of information confirmed regarding a friend.  Because it's the story of a friend, and not my story to disclose, then I can't express myself freely here in the place where I do that.  But I can share what I was staring at as I  shed some pretty hard tears.

Be warned - this isn't a brilliant photograph but it's the best I can offer.

 I took this picture with several settings - this was the best.

Look closely at those tree tops.

In those were the familiar flocks? of blackbirds we see in this area - it was like a dance - a performance - 

which I wasn't conscious of in the intensity of my tears - but as my emotions began to calm -

then I began to be aware of watching them.  

I was mesmerized and one group would fly in perfect formation, settle, then another group, 

then settle, and so forth and so on - it went on for some time 

and I wished for a really good lens and really good photography skills.

Those birds were helping me in my moment, like looking at stars, or an ocean,

or the Sovereignty of God.

The God who has us all in the palm of His hands, when we are His.

He is the creator of the universe, and made those birds to do what they were doing,

perfectly synchronized.

They were settling to me.

I did get up, gather my camera, sit back down as I was before - 

and I took the picture.  

Charlie came in from work - coming up the back porch - slowly - as he does nearly every afternoon - 

and with emotions still raw, I began to tell him things I like about him - but could hardly do that because it started the weepiness again - yet - I needed to tell him because I'm not very demonstrative nor verbal in my love for those I love.  Sad, but true.

After we talked a while I began to look around the room,

surrounded by photographs of my blessings - memories - treasures.

My formative years happened in this small, charming 2 bedroom home

on a very shady street with the greenest of grass and the safest kind of love.

It resonated with Daddy's whistles and happy clicks and rhythms

and with Mother's soft smiles and sometimes heavy sighs, her clean sheets and steady stitches,

and always the best smells of kitchen and cleaning and fresh air.

We collect people and memories and that's one of my favorite parts about living.

But now it's today - 

the sun is out and I'm so glad.

I'm especially glad that God is God and He loves and creates and redeems and heals us.

He Has Delivered Me from the Domain of Darkness and Transferred Me to the Kingdom of His Beloved Son, in Whom I Have Redemption, the Forgiveness of Sins.

Colossians 1: 13

"I am the first and I am the last;

besides me there is no god.

Is there a God besides me?

There is no Rock; I know not any."

Isaiah 44: 6b, 8b

All who fashion idols are nothing,

and the things they delight in do not profit.

Isaiah 44: 9

A deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

Isaiah 44:20

Thus says the Lord, 

your Redeemer,

who formed you from the womb:

"I am the Lord, who made all things,

who alone stretched out the heavens,

who spread out the earth by myself,"

Isaiah 44: 24

I form light and create darkness,

I make well-being and create calamity,

I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45: 7

"I am the Lord and there is no other.

I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; 

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 

'Seek me in vain.' 

I the Lord speak the truth; 

I declare what is right.

Isaiah 45: 18b - 19

They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

Isaiah 45: 20

Who declared it of old?

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other god besides me,

a righteous God and a Savior;

there is none besides me.

Turn to me and be saved,

all the ends of the earth!

For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45: 21-22

Only in the Lord,

it shall be said of Me,

are righteousness and strength;

to Him shall come and be ashamed

all who were incensed against Him.

Isaiah 45: 24

But now thus says the Lord,

He who created you, O Jacob,

He who formed you, O Israel;

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, 

I will be with you;

and through the rivers, 

they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire 

you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43: 1-3a

I WONDER

What I'll Be Doing on February 17, 2012.
I was curious about February 17, 2010.
check it out....
http://elizabethmurphreewilkersonrhodes.blogspot.com/2010/02/john-today.html

Not that anyone cares what I was doing, but isn't it an interesting thing about blogs - to go back and see.
Do you blog?  Do you blog regularly?  It's fascinating to get an overview of how your time is spent.

One year ago, today, I was in McDonough, helping Laura Beth to get John to his one week check at the pediatrician's office.

John then

John now

Ada then

Ada now

Who knew we were so into stripes?

And today, February 17, 2011, I spent the whole afternoon in the yard on this blessed day - unseasonably mild - knowing we'll have more cold weather - but it's been such a gift - such a break - and I love the outdoors - not woods and wilderness - but outdoors as in "my yard".  Grass - Trees - Air - Sunshine - Warmth.  I'm loving the way my bones ache.  I'm not physically fit - so any activity is a workout.  The ache makes me know I moved around a bit.

I'll Put These Masks in My Blog

Before I throw them out.

These have been hanging around, becoming clutter, since last week.

I've been avoiding throwing them out.

Last week Ellie was "doing art" and making her own version of a mask out of regular paper.

Luke, not being very artsy, but wanting a mask, asked me to make him one.

I found some cardboard that was near the back door to be discarded and put a pinch more effort into the mask.  Simple for me, but impressive for a 4 year old.

Luke was so excited about it and told me,

"I'm going to keep it forever!"

Ellie then wanted a mask made by me.  and of course, so did Andrew.

I made Ellie's and Andrew's out of paper plates.

They played with them and enjoyed them but of course put them aside after a while.

Those masks, those faces, they remind me of Luke and Ellie and Andrew in that moment.

But I can't start saving all of those things all over again.  

Today I picked them up to take them to the trash, reluctantly,

and remembered,

"I can save them in my blog!"

So I am.

and now they're in the trash.

But with camera in hand.....

I ventured outside.

I'm planning to work out there here in a minute.

Old Monkey Grass Which Needs Mowing Down.

Always New Daffodils Coming Up.

With Camera in Left Hand,

My right hand pulled and cleared the first tiny area,

and I was hooked.

Want to get outside and work some magic.

Always new buds.  Always.

Here's another always:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;  2 Corinthians 9:8

Important to read a verse in context - this is in the context of giving - yet - we know that in all  which He asks us to do  

God is able to make all grace abound to each of us, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, we may have an abundance for every good deed.

February 14 to February 15.

Ohhh.  gotta get off the Valentine's Theme.  When it's over it's over.  Sugar and Red and Pink and some other stuff to offset it.

As in last night.  I prepared Pork Marsala - recipe given to me by my good friend, Sue.

With it I had polenta, for the Marsala Gravy - and tender crisp green beans.  Yum.  Charlie made a salad.  We had oatmeal bread w/butter - and Mike and Mary to share it with us.  Good end to a good Valentine's Day.  Good food and good friends. Oh! and for dessert?  This:  Go to this link:  THIS LINK

She calls it icebox dessert and I didn't get the idea from this post - my mother made this dessert when I was a little girl.  I think a lot of moms made it in the fifties.  It came off the box of Nabisco Chocolate Wafers - now called Famous Nabisco Chocolate Wafers.  They are hard to find but I have discovered a source - rather than order them off of Amazon.com.  True.  They are so demanded that Amazon.com sells them by the case.  I get them at Publix in Hampton Cove. Not in the cookie section but in the ice cream topping section.  go figure.  Also - if they are so popular, then why so hard to find?  Don't know that answer.

Today is Kate's birthday.  My youngest child is 23.  Gasp.  
I thought about her early this morning when I got up so early.  23 years ago I got up very very early for my scheduled C-Section.  In the wee hours - to be at Huntsville Hospital.  I remember that Ann, who was 7, came and crawled into bed with Charlie and me before I even got out of bed.  She needed some encouragement that all was going to be okay.  She told me she was nervous.  I couldn't believe she was awake.  I think it was about 4 in the morning.

All was very okay.  Kate was a very very healthy beautiful newborn and it was heavenly to have that fourth child in my arms.  The following is copied and pasted here, directly from her most recent blog post, on February 13, 2011.  Go here or just read below

Lord, help me to glorify thee; I am poor; help me to glorify thee by contentment; I am sick; help me to give thee honour by patience; I have talents; help me to extol thee by spending them for thee; I have time; Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve thee; I have a heart to feel; Lord, let that heart feel no love but thine, and glow with no flame but affection for thee; I have a head to think; Lord, help me to think of thee and for thee; thou hast put me in this world for something; Lord, show me what that is, and help me to work out my life-purpose: I cannot do much; but as the widow put in her two mites, which were all her living, so, Lord, I cast my time and eternity too into thy treasury; I am all thine; take me, and enable me to glorify thee now, in all that I say, in all that I do, and with all that I have.
-Spurgeon
Ahhhhh - what more could any of us ask?
Happy Birthday, Kate.  I love you.

Except for Church

I think I've been in the kitchen all day until 7:13 p.m.
but the memories we've made - they're priceless.

Although - at one point - well - Ann and I were working hard to "enjoy the moment".

Wow.

In the midst of the event,  I heard her voice, speaking to Ellie and Luke, as they "cut out cookies", and, well, she sounded like me in those days and I thought, "Oh my gosh, she's become her mother!".  Making memories can get a little stressful, especially if one is five months pregnant.  whoa.  How do you spell exhausted?  M-A-K-E-C-O-O-K-I-E-S-W-I-T-H-T-H-R-E-E-C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N-5-A-N-D-U-N-D-E-R

We did the usual Sunday lunch - that's one thing.  Clean the dishes from lunch - Charlie was a big player in that.  I started doing them - but two phone calls from out of town daughters compelled him to take over the dishes.  He did them - with Ann assisting.

But both Ann and I were determined to finish our V Projects.

I completed my Peppermint Patties and Ann brought her cookie dough to my house  to make V Cookies with the kids.

She'll be posting about that on her blog - http://annrbarber.blogspot.com/

So - I won't do the photos about that ( just a few, though - the ones I don't think she would care to post).

Steve and Charlie both left for a meeting at 4:30 pm so it was Ann, children and myself here doing V cookies and the weather was milder and little bits played outside in between making cookies and decorating them.

All in all, I think we all enjoyed it - still - adults get a bit , ummmm, tired? stressed?  The children were adorable - although a bit hyper at times - if the adults could just get with the program.

Pictures

melting my chocolate for dipping

 They're done and delicious.  All agreed.   

Here's the problem.  They taste JUST LIKE store purchased peppermint patties.

So why not just buy some and eat them?

I probably won't make them again.  I'll just buy some if I want to give them away or eat them.

the kids decorating

Some ate rather than decorated.

but between baking and decorating, with milder temps, we sent them outside and they LOVED it!

Ellie being funny and silly for the camera

hints of life under these cold, wet grounds

aerial view of the mess

and this one?

a broken heart.

awwwww.

dedicated to all the broken hearts who are still beautiful and yummy.