A warning upfront- I'm in a foul mood and this could translate into either a really great sarcastic funny blog or just a bunch of whining. I'll let you know when its over. First off, I just finished reading the final book in the Hunger Games series and it didn't go my way. (That's not why I'm in a bad mood, I'm not that nutty) But, seriously?! what was that girl thinking?? I'll try not to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read them all but I'd like to erase the last 10 pages from my head and come up with my own alternate ending. Okay I'm going to ruin it so if you haven't read it and want to..... well leave now. Okay you missed your chance. How?? How could she choose Peeta over Gale? Yeah, yeah I know it wasn't really a love story, whatever. She's a fighter and she chose the lover not the fighter? I don't get that at all and quite frankly pretty sure Miss Collins got it all wrong.
But that's not what's got me all grouchy and its about as important as the late breaking news on the E channel. Really, I'm in a bad mood about church today. Don't worry I'm not upset with the Pastor and I can't say I was upset by anything he said, because I barely heard a word he said. His children were behaving so badly I doubt anyone heard him!!
I'm so thankful for our little congregation. Among many other things, the pray for us, encourage us, and just plain love us! And they tolerate our very noisy children. Well mostly its just the girls. Caleb is old enough and smart enough to keep quiet and behave properly in church, but the girls seem bent on driving me insane. And its working. Tim pastors at a small country church and there are many Sundays where our kids are the only young ones there so we don't have children's church regularly.
I am determined that they can and will learn to sit in church without causing an uproar but today they provided much evidence to the contrary. If you have noticed any families with small children who at one time came to your church but aren't there anymore, I know why. They are exhausted. Totally drained from trying to keep their small kids in the pew and listen to the pastor. More than once today while holding on to a foot disappearing beneath the pew I thought "it would be so much easier to stay at home".
The girls are waging a war against my sanity and they are winning. I'm pretty sure I've developed a twitch. I cannot personally tell you anything that Tim preached today. Emorie screamed off and on during both morning and evening services and we of course had to leave church once each service for Audrey to use the restroom. And in the end I finally gave up and left both services feeling like we were totally preventing everyone else from focusing. The look on Emorie's little face was sheer triumph! Grrrrrrrrr! I know, this too shall pass. They will grow up and I will survive. Caleb is proof. And I will cling to the knowledge that one day we can sit in peace. I just hope by that time we haven't run everyone else off and find ourselves sitting alone in church :(
Encourage the young parents in your church. Help them when you can, tolerate them when you can't. It would be easier for them to stay at home but that is not where they need to be. Love them even if you don't love the distraction they cause.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Cursing CupCakes
Its 1am and I am in my kitchen covered in flour, powdered sugar, and red food dye. I am not a baker. I am a seamstress. I am a designer. I am a writer. I am many many things. I am not a baker. I am also not perfect and if anyone reading this believes me to be and wishes to retain that image be warned and stop reading now.
Caleb's Razorback party is tomorrow, scratch that it's today, and in an effort to not be rushed I decided to make his cupcakes today. Lately, we've be having cupcakes for birthday parties for a number of reasons. Well let me just number them for you.
1. I'm frugal. There are a couple of bakeries in Fayetteville that I adore but I do not adore their prices. It's cake people! We are going to eat it and then it will be gone. I don't care how cute it is or how much my guests will ooh and ahh over it. It's cake. period
2. My favorite stay at home mom baker made some well earned changes and isn't doing birthday cakes anymore. I would be bitter but I love you anyway :) and believe me I understand like no one else could.
3. Cupcakes are easier to decorate than a whole cake. Well in theory anyway.
4. Did I mention I'm frugal. Cheap, tight, call it whatever you want. I didnt want to spend money on the cake when I've already spend a small fortune on the gifts, food, and party essentials.
5. I am a creative, talented girl, I can make cupcakes- ha!
Okay that's enough numbers. So anyway I found a picture online of some darling Razorback cupcakes and Caleb loved them. I made the cupcakes from store bought cake mix, yeah yeah I know cheating- whatever. I found a recipe online for a simple buttercream icing I thought would work well and then was worried one batch wouldn't be enough so I doubled it :).
I quickly realized I had enough icing to cover Baum Stadium. Oops, oh well I calm down and eat a cupcake using some of the extra icing. One had to be sacrificed for quality control purposes.
So I divided my icing to make red, black, and white. Mix in my red paste....... pink. Mix in more red.....dark pink, hmmmm. I've mixed icing before with this same paste. At this point I probably should have thought a little harder but it was getting late so I calmed down, ate another cupcake and just dumped in the entire new container of red paste.... still sorta pink. Pigs may be pink where you're from but around here they're red- dark red! Curse--- not an actual curse that would be wrong and I would never do that (except in rare skiing accidents and I apologized profusly for that) After taking time to think it through and eating another cupcake (true) I added a little black and came up with a color I could live with but its still not right. At this point my kitchen looked like this and I was thinking very bad thoughts about my cupcake skills.
I'm not even sure why the salad dressing is on the island?? I didn't use it in the frosting, promise :). Its late I'm tired and I realize there is no way these are going to look right. I start slappin icing on cupcakes all the while making plans to make a trip to the bakery in the morning and pay whatever they want for whatever they have.
Calm down eat another cupcake- just kidding. by this point I was about sick and I figured I should save one for breakfast.
I decided I should just put on the base layer and add snouts, tusks, and such tomorrow. But I had to make finish a couple just out of curiousity and I'm pretty darn happy with the final results.
I don't think I'll be getting a job as a cupcake decorator anytime soon but that's okay by me. I think my birthday boy is going to think they are awesome and that is all I need! Well that and maybe some bleach to get all the red off my hands. Come by tomorrow and help us celebrate. I'll send you home with some pink icing :).
Caleb's Razorback party is tomorrow, scratch that it's today, and in an effort to not be rushed I decided to make his cupcakes today. Lately, we've be having cupcakes for birthday parties for a number of reasons. Well let me just number them for you.
1. I'm frugal. There are a couple of bakeries in Fayetteville that I adore but I do not adore their prices. It's cake people! We are going to eat it and then it will be gone. I don't care how cute it is or how much my guests will ooh and ahh over it. It's cake. period
2. My favorite stay at home mom baker made some well earned changes and isn't doing birthday cakes anymore. I would be bitter but I love you anyway :) and believe me I understand like no one else could.
3. Cupcakes are easier to decorate than a whole cake. Well in theory anyway.
4. Did I mention I'm frugal. Cheap, tight, call it whatever you want. I didnt want to spend money on the cake when I've already spend a small fortune on the gifts, food, and party essentials.
5. I am a creative, talented girl, I can make cupcakes- ha!
Okay that's enough numbers. So anyway I found a picture online of some darling Razorback cupcakes and Caleb loved them. I made the cupcakes from store bought cake mix, yeah yeah I know cheating- whatever. I found a recipe online for a simple buttercream icing I thought would work well and then was worried one batch wouldn't be enough so I doubled it :).
I quickly realized I had enough icing to cover Baum Stadium. Oops, oh well I calm down and eat a cupcake using some of the extra icing. One had to be sacrificed for quality control purposes.
So I divided my icing to make red, black, and white. Mix in my red paste....... pink. Mix in more red.....dark pink, hmmmm. I've mixed icing before with this same paste. At this point I probably should have thought a little harder but it was getting late so I calmed down, ate another cupcake and just dumped in the entire new container of red paste.... still sorta pink. Pigs may be pink where you're from but around here they're red- dark red! Curse--- not an actual curse that would be wrong and I would never do that (except in rare skiing accidents and I apologized profusly for that) After taking time to think it through and eating another cupcake (true) I added a little black and came up with a color I could live with but its still not right. At this point my kitchen looked like this and I was thinking very bad thoughts about my cupcake skills.
Calm down eat another cupcake- just kidding. by this point I was about sick and I figured I should save one for breakfast.
I decided I should just put on the base layer and add snouts, tusks, and such tomorrow. But I had to make finish a couple just out of curiousity and I'm pretty darn happy with the final results.
I don't think I'll be getting a job as a cupcake decorator anytime soon but that's okay by me. I think my birthday boy is going to think they are awesome and that is all I need! Well that and maybe some bleach to get all the red off my hands. Come by tomorrow and help us celebrate. I'll send you home with some pink icing :). Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wandering
I am in total disbelief that my sweet freckle faced boy is turning 8 tomorrow! I mean, I knew this day was coming, it is the number that comes after 7 :) but how did it get here so fast??? I honestly still think of myself as an energetic 22 yr old (okay I'm not really that energetic anymore and I sure didn't have these flabby abbys at 22, haha I like that!) Still, I don't feel old enough for him to be 8. Geesh that's half way to 16! I am so not ready for this!
Tim let him mow part of the yard today. He felt really big. I know that's maybe not a huge deal but it made me a little sad. I grew up on a farm so I'm sure by his age I was driving a tractor and raking hay. Just kidding! I still don't do those things,but its not that far off for a country kid. And we are getting him a .22 for his birthday- shhhh! don't tell yet! I can't believe I agreed to that so easily. You'll shoot your eye out!! oh wait that's a BB gun, this is a .22.!!!! So much worse and another sure sign of being a country boy. Don't get me wrong, I want him to grow up. It's just that I feel him slipping through my fingers much too fast and I don't want to waste a single moment.
We've been studying about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness in our adult Sunday School class. This past Sunday I found myself thinking about the mothers who knew they would not enter the Promised Land with their children. I'm sure some of them were bitter or maybe just saddened by this. I feel certain though that some of them must have become very focused by this knowledge. They knew they had no more than 40 years to train their children and grandchildren in the ways of God. To teach them to live a life dependent upon Him. Should have been easy enough, seeing as how they were totally dependent on Him in the wilderness, right?
Anyway it got me to thinking that I should have that same kind of focus with my children. I have such a short amount of time to spend with them while they still think I'm cool and I wonder how much of that time I am wasting. I know I'm a good mom (don't ask my kids today, today they think I'm mean :) but am I really doing what God wants me to do with my kids during this precious time I have with them? Not sure to be honest but its something I am going to give some serious thought to!
On a lighter note we are getting ready for Caleb's Razorback themed birthday party this weekend! I love a good party and its perfect timing for a Hog party! lol! Love my piggies even when the going gets rough. Some days its not so hard to be humble when your an Arkansas Razorback fan :) Proud to be a Hog and always will be (I paid large sums of money to be a Hog- mainly in parking tickets- so I feel some obligation to be a fan, well that and I just love them anyway!)
I am also finally going to update my work list. Spring break came and my normal sewing schedule kind of fell apart! I feel like I've been wandering in the wilderness a bit myself without a real direction. But I'm getting back on track- The new This Little Piggy Booth is up and running at "Back in the Day" Antique Market in Lincoln. It is fabulous and hope everyone has a chance to go check it out. So as soon as I get this Birthday bash finished up I will get back to work! Thank you to my patient customers!! Lots of new cute things this spring and can't wait to get to work on some square dance skirts and dresses. Head full of ideas and sewing room full of fabric- good combination, so stay tuned.
Tim let him mow part of the yard today. He felt really big. I know that's maybe not a huge deal but it made me a little sad. I grew up on a farm so I'm sure by his age I was driving a tractor and raking hay. Just kidding! I still don't do those things,but its not that far off for a country kid. And we are getting him a .22 for his birthday- shhhh! don't tell yet! I can't believe I agreed to that so easily. You'll shoot your eye out!! oh wait that's a BB gun, this is a .22.!!!! So much worse and another sure sign of being a country boy. Don't get me wrong, I want him to grow up. It's just that I feel him slipping through my fingers much too fast and I don't want to waste a single moment.
We've been studying about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness in our adult Sunday School class. This past Sunday I found myself thinking about the mothers who knew they would not enter the Promised Land with their children. I'm sure some of them were bitter or maybe just saddened by this. I feel certain though that some of them must have become very focused by this knowledge. They knew they had no more than 40 years to train their children and grandchildren in the ways of God. To teach them to live a life dependent upon Him. Should have been easy enough, seeing as how they were totally dependent on Him in the wilderness, right?
Anyway it got me to thinking that I should have that same kind of focus with my children. I have such a short amount of time to spend with them while they still think I'm cool and I wonder how much of that time I am wasting. I know I'm a good mom (don't ask my kids today, today they think I'm mean :) but am I really doing what God wants me to do with my kids during this precious time I have with them? Not sure to be honest but its something I am going to give some serious thought to!
On a lighter note we are getting ready for Caleb's Razorback themed birthday party this weekend! I love a good party and its perfect timing for a Hog party! lol! Love my piggies even when the going gets rough. Some days its not so hard to be humble when your an Arkansas Razorback fan :) Proud to be a Hog and always will be (I paid large sums of money to be a Hog- mainly in parking tickets- so I feel some obligation to be a fan, well that and I just love them anyway!)
I am also finally going to update my work list. Spring break came and my normal sewing schedule kind of fell apart! I feel like I've been wandering in the wilderness a bit myself without a real direction. But I'm getting back on track- The new This Little Piggy Booth is up and running at "Back in the Day" Antique Market in Lincoln. It is fabulous and hope everyone has a chance to go check it out. So as soon as I get this Birthday bash finished up I will get back to work! Thank you to my patient customers!! Lots of new cute things this spring and can't wait to get to work on some square dance skirts and dresses. Head full of ideas and sewing room full of fabric- good combination, so stay tuned.
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