Parenting Instruction Manual

Although we are never officially handed an instruction manual the day our first child is born, we can take comfort in that a book exists that provides all the answers we will ever need about raising our children. That book of course is the Bible. The only way we can truly exhibit to our children that we are living God's Way is by this verse:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, 

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

Galatians 5:22

Do we show these fruits to our children? Or do our lives reflect any hatred, jealousy, impatience, bitterness.  Children are much more perceptive than we realize!

"Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Wordless Wednesday - Last Reminder of Lazy Summer Days

German Chocolate Creamcheese Cake

My husband has a sweet tooth for German Chocolate Cake. I'll be talking to him at work and he'll say, "Well, I better let you get back to making my German Chocolate Cake". So, I am always on the search for creative and quicker ways to make GCC.  I try to make the completely-from-scratch version near his birthday or our anniversary, but it is kind of a time-consuming dessert! I was very pleased to find a new recipe that was fairly quick and just as scrumptious! It uses GCC box mix but also has a layer of cheesecake in between. Yum! The recipe is listed on pauladeen.com and was submitted by a user on her site.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 package (18 1/4 oz) German Chocolate cake mix

Cream Cheese Filling:
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Frosting:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter, cubed (not margarine)
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups flaked coconut
1-1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Prepare cake batter according to package directions; set aside. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour half of the cake batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Gently pour cream cheese mixture over batter. Gently spoon remaining batter over top; spread to edge of pan. Bake at 325° for 70-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. For frosting, in a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, butter and egg yolks .Cook and stir over medium-low heat until thickened and a thermometer reads 160° or is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla; fold in coconut and pecans. Cool until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cooled cake. Refrigerate leftovers. 




Linked up at:

Photo Challenge!

I captured this photo of son #1 when he was busily working on his train set and stopped for a minute to give a very contemplative look at me.  He has these serious moments when he is lost in thought and I am happy to have a memory to forever cherish of this part of his personality.  I have entered this photo in the Black & White Photo Challenge at Aspire.

Toddler Fall Crafts

To teach my son about the changing of the seasons, we have been working on crafts together that highlight the main aspects of fall.

 This is our apple painting.  We took an apple, cut it in half and then dipped it in paint and then we added the stem with a paintbrush.

This leaf mobile looks delightful outside when there's a nice breeze to blow the leaves.  Super easy to make, just hot glue the craft sticks together and then hot glue strings to each end of the sticks. We used fake leaves of course so the mobile will last!

Finally, we went for a walk to find the few fall leaves that we could muster up, since where we live, we don't have many leaves that change color.  Thankfully, the liquid amber tree produced some pretty leaves for us! To preserve these neat leaves, we placed them on a sheet of construction paper and cut out Con-Tact paper to match the size of the construction paper and placed it over the leaves.

These are just a few simple little projects to engage the little ones in learning activities.  We've also read a couple of books that relate to autumn. Four Seasons by Stan and Jan Berenstain and How Do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro are good toddler reads.

Wordless Wednesday - The Beauty of Autumn

A Few Fun Fall Foodies...

Photo Courtesy of Taste of Home

Whew. That was a tongue twister!  Well, we've started our fall baking and here are a few of the things we've made recently.

Pumpkin and Apple Lollipops - oh boy, did the kids ever think this was neat! They are so incredibly easy to make. Click here for instructions on how to make them.

Pumpkin Apple Butter - I've never made pumpkin butter before, so I thought I would give it a try this year.  I went with Libby's recipe on their website for starters. It wasn't quite as gooey/sticky as I was hoping it would be, so I'll keep looking for more recipes.

Rice Krispies Leaves Treats - Another kid-friendly recipe, which I found on Rice-Krispies' website. I used my leaf cookie cutters and shaped them and then decorated with gel and sprinkles.

And today, I will be trying out this recipe for Apple Cinnamon Turnovers.  A very quick and easy recipe that my toddler can help me with.

Linked up at Tuesdays-at-the-Table

There's Nothing Quite Like...

There's nothing quite like...the crisp fresh air that only belongs to autumn.

There's nothing quite like...the golden afternoon sun hitting low on the changing trees.

There's nothing quite like...the smell of burning leaves.

There's nothing quite like...jumping in a pile of leaves.

There's nothing quite like...the delightful taste of pumpkin.

There's nothing quite like...FALL!!!!!



Welcome to Fall Week!! I'll be sharing with you how we welcome this season into our home through cooking and crafts.  I started out the week so far by bringing out my fall decorations and by making pumpkin-apple butter, which is great on a variety of foods.  I discovered it tastes great on cream-of-wheat yesterday. I have several fall toddler crafts planned too, which I will post pictures of as we complete them.

Home-Grown

"Happiness grows at our own firesides,

and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens."

- Douglas Jerrold

Frugal Friday - Repurposed Box

I had this box that had originally contained scrapbooking accessories and I kept the box because it was so cute and I'd hoped to come up with another life for it. So, finally after about a year, I found the box and decided to turn it into a picture frame.  I used scrapbooking paper and with a few little accessories, I have a cute picture frame that only cost pennies to make!

I can hang it on the wall, or even a door and change out the picture at any time.

Also, there is a great giveaway at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home today for beautiful stencils for your home. There are so classy and provide daily inspiration to your home.

Wordless Wednesday

A Peace Within

Peace from God is not just an emotion that is with you when times are good, when life is calm.  His peace is always in you, even when times are rough.  It's easy to "feel" peaceful when everything is in order in your life.  But not so easy when life brings you challenges.  It's during these times that you need to stop and reflect and ask yourself, "Is the peace of God with me now?"

In my study today, I have been reading A Woman's Walk with God by Elizabeth George and I quote the following passage from her book:

Are you in turmoil, or are you trusting and at peace? Are you running around in circles, or are you resting in the Lord? Are your words revealing a sense of panic and pressure, or are they words that edify and encourage, that minister grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29)? Are your actions reflecting the priorities God would have you set? Is your relationship with Him first, or are you too busy to sit at His feet and enjoy His presence? The woman who wrote the following words knew busyness...until the Lord interrupted.  Let's learn from her.

I'm Busy Lord!

I'm busy Lord. Surely You can see

The thousand things that wait for me!

The dishes still lie in the sink - 

I cannot stop to pray and think.

Lord, I know you understand,

For You gave these children to my hand;

And now they cry and need me so,

Lord, You understand. I'd better go.

Now I've got them all to sleep,

I'd better dust and mop and sweep.

I must thaw out the meat for stew,

And the ironing is long overdue!

And kindly my Lord answered me,

"Why do you from My presence flee?

I have so much for you today.

My child, I want to hear you pray.

"I love you, child, I want you here

To rest and listen-to shed a tear.

What if Paul had stopped to say,

"Lord, I'm too busy to write letters today!"?

"No, my child, I'm what you need,

Through household duties you can speed,

Yet when you're through, there's emptiness

If this quiet time you miss."

Oh, thank You, Lord, for showing me

How much I need to wait on Thee.

For what's an undone dish or two

Compared with sharing time with You?!

May the peace of God be with you today!

A Taste of Fall

I love the fall season. You will probably hear me say it about 50 times over on my blog that I LOVE FALL! We've been enjoying some cooler, fall-ish type weather here so the other night I decided to bring out the pumpkin puree and make a fall dinner. On Fridays, I generally like to make an easier, breakfast-type dinner, so this past Friday I made pumpkin pancakes with turkey sausage, sliced bananas and maple syrup drizzled over.  It probably sounds like a strange combination, but it is really tasty! I modified the pancake recipe to include a little bit of whole wheat.  If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know and I'd be glad to share it.

Project Finished, Surprise Complete

After enjoying a wonderful visit from one of my sisters who lives out-of-town, I am ready to post again! During my sister's visit, we three sisters had what we called a "Sister-Swap", where we gave each other gift baskets with a budget of $25 and having five categories of things to include in the basket - cooking/baking, scrapbooking, reading, jewelry and home decor.  It was a fun challenge to find creative and neat items to put in the baskets all while staying under budget! It was at the time of the swap that I surprised my pregnant sister with the blanket that I finished sewing - using her machine! It was a pre-made 1-yard quilt pattern that I just added batting in the middle and a soft flannel backing. I chose a farm-animal print since she does not know the gender of the baby and sage-green is such a nice neutral and calming color.  Here's how it turned out: