My new found love...

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These are phenomenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you tried them?????????

"David's favorite shortcake"

This is the title of my recipe card-  "David's favorite shortcake" written in my mom's handwriting. This is the only shortcake my mom ever made while I was growing up and the only one I ever make to this day! My brother Dave loves it especially, hence the name on the card!  Since it is strawberry season, I'm sure most of you are buying as many cheap strawberries as I am these days!  I made this shortcake last weekend for an appreciation event I was in charge of and thought I'd share it with you. It's super easy, doesn't require many ingredients, and has a wonderful consistency.  Hope you enjoy!

3/4 cup softened stick margarine

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

Mix together with fork into crumb mixture. Set aside 1 cup of this.

To remaining crumb mixture, add 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a 9x13 pan sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour or until it springs back in the center.

Happy belated Mother's Day!!!!

        I am so thankful that I get to be a mom to these special boys! I feel very blessed!

Mother's Day was very hectic (not to mention the rest of the week!). I got to sleep in and go to late church. We have an 8:30 and 10:30 service and normally my morning-person husband makes us get up and go to early church. And now that I work at church I often have to be at church for the first service anyway. We did not have children's church last Sunday so I got to enjoy sitting in the service (after a great night of sleep!!!). We went straight from church out to lunch. I chose Fazoli's. We didn't have a lot of time, and I hadn't been to Fazoli's for a long time. They have all sorts of new pastas on their menu now! It was good! Then we headed straight to the ball park for a double header for Bradley. As soon as that was done, a quick trip to Wal Mart was in order and had to hurry home to tutor from 8-9. Relaxing it wasn't, but they usually aren't. I have spent Mother's Day at the ballpark the last several years. But that's OK. I love spending time watching my boys play ball...

I had to share the card my husband gave me. He is not a scrapbooker, but he can be creative when he wants to be! I do not get bouquets of real flowers anymore. Oreo has a major obsession with flowers and babies breath. If I have a vase of flowers, he simply will not leave it alone. He has knocked over more vases than I can count and spilled water everywhere. So if I get flowers, they have to stay locked in a room when unsupervised. Anyway, the card read something to the effect of, "here are some flowers Oreo won't destroy." He hand cut the flower part out of some scrapbooking scraps I had (velvet paper) and rolled money tightly to make the stems. I thought it was so cute!!

Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with a poem that was in our church bulletin several years ago on Mother's Day. In fact, it was 9 years ago as it was the Mother's Day we had Brennan dedicated at church. It brought tears to my eyes then and still does. It makes me so grateful that God has allowed me to be Bradley and Brennan's angel on earth. What a privilege and the greatest job I could ask for!

Once upon a time, there was a child ready to be born.  So one day, he asked God, "They tell me you are going to send me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

"Among the many angels, I chose one just for you. She will be waiting for you and take care of you."

"But tell me, here in heaven I don't do anything but sing and smile. That is enough for me to be happy. What will I do there?"

"Don't worry. Your angel will sing for you. And she'll smile for you every day too. And you will feel your angel's love and be happy."

"And how am I going to understand when people talk to me if I don't understand the language men speak?"

"Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear. And with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."

"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"

"Your angel will fold your hands together and teach you how to pray."

"I've heard on earth there are bad men. Who will protect me?"

"Your angel will protect you...even if it means risking her life."

"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."

"Your angel will talk to you about me and will teach you the way to be able to come back to me again."

At that moment there was much peace in heaven, but voices from earth could already be heard, and the child, in a hurry, asked in a soft voice, "Oh God, if I am about to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."

"Her name is of no importance to you. You will simply call her, 'Mommy.'"

Busy and Out of Control

This will be a quick post to let you know that I'm still alive! I have lots to tell you, but little spare time these days! Last week was a whirlwind and this week seems to be out of control as well. I'm hoping things will slow down soon?????

Here's just a little recap of our latest events...

1. Bradley finished up his track season last week- we've been going to about 2 track meets per week for the last 4 or 5 weeks. He has been running in the sprint medley, 4x8, 4x2, 4x1, and doing high jump (all of these not on the same nights of course). Their 4x8 team won at several meets, one of their teams (forgot which event) set a school record, and his personal highlight was jumping 5'2" at conference to place 2nd overall and set his personal best record! He was quite excited. Now he gets one day of rest before Jr. High baseball practice starts tomorrow. He's also in the middle of spring league baseball and Jr. League baseball so we're running to ballgames about 3 or 4 times per week.
2. Brennan is playing baseball as well.  He's had several games rained out lately, and this week is looking pretty wet again. It's pouring as I write this. Brennan is working on finishing his AWANA book for the year, and getting ready for a piano recital in a month. He has been spending a lot of time with his best friend and got to stay the night with him the other night.
3. Gary went to the Dr. with a case of what looked like a spreading rash and found out he had poison ivy! Not quite sure where that came from! So he's on prednisone and has a creme for relief. He also took his 2nd CPA test last Thursday. We won't find out if he passed or not for another 4 or 5 weeks. He feels better about this one than the last one though (we did find out he didn't pass his first one so that will have to be retaken). So in between all this other running, he is still trying to get his studying accomplished.
4. We have a "sale pending" sign on our house and are anxiously waiting for the "SOLD" sign to go up! Just waiting for the appraisal. We spent last week at meetings and choosing things for our new house- we are definitely building! Our plans and specs meeting is tomorrow and then they will start digging! We are very excited, and although we know this process may have valleys, we are confident in our decision. Our house will probably be done in early September so the big challenge now is finding temporary housing for a couple of months over the summer. Ugh. Still working on that.
5. Tutoring for me has been crazy busy- trying to schedule around baseball games and track meets has left me working until 9 PM on all of the free nights I have. Plus I have a couple of extra kids helping them make it through the end of the year so time is even more scarce. I've also been subbing a lot more recently as teachers take their personal days, etc. this time of year.
6. I'm on a curriculum deadline for my children's ministry job. We are doing Answers in Genesis curriculum this summer and I am getting it all put together and worked through. It has been a bigger job than I anticipated so I am not nearly as far with it as I had hoped to be by this point.
7. This house is a wreck!! After having to keep it clean for almost 8 months while it was on the market, I've let it go to the dogs- never being home and being busy hasn't helped matters either.
8. So, this is why I haven't blogged for awhile. Hoping I'll get back soon when life settles down a bit!

A blog you must know about

I imagine many of you who read my blatherings are moms just like me... and moms have to cook, like it or not. I do enjoy cooking and baking, I'm a recipe collector (or should I say my recipes collect dust??) and I get excited when I see a new recipe. Well I've been following this blog for quite some time, and today's pudding cup post sent me over the edge! That looks absolutely phenomenal! And to be able to eat the bowl too???? I've died and gone to chocolate heaven!   I love her visual recipes as she takes pictures and posts the recipe often with the step by step- now that speaks to my learning language!!!! Anyway, if you like to bake, or even if you don't!, check this one out!!!

Life is beyond hectic right now for us. Lots of good things going on, but it just seems every aspect of life right now has revved up. Hopefully I'll get to fill ya all in soon!! Thanks for hanging with me!