Happy Chaos

Yes, I realize I didn't include any people pictures in my Monday post. Not to worry (I'm talking to you Grandma Grace, Grandma Carol and Alaysha!) as I did indeed take some during Mike's birthday celebration. There was a LOT of chaos, but it was all fun.

Early on Elise decided to spell some words on the fridge.

She's really smart, you know.

 Cordelia was ready for a good time; you can see it in her eyes!

Elise wanted to be a butterfly.

She stuck with that plan until it was time to go home.

There were multiple basset hounds.

 Laura (borrowed family member, as Maria put it) looks

innocent here but she can hold her own with this crazy group.

By the way, click here for some better photographs from the evening.

Maria & Eric got some nice ones of Mike.

Mine of him did not turn out so well,

probably because he put a curse on my camera

or something since I disobeyed him and posted photos of him

against his will.  Whatever.

I am aware this is a poor photo but it captured a fine moment.

While Wii bowling was going on, Sam kept obliging Elise 

as she  requested to fly. A butterfly needs to fly, you know!

This went on long enough for Sam to get a good work-out up 

and down the hall and around and about the upstairs.

Sam is a good sport!

Eric taught Cordelia to Wii Bowl.

Doesn't that just make you want to say, "Aaaah"?

Then there was this...

Elise, once again begging Sam to make her fly.

Admit it.

You couldn't turn that face down, now could you?

And Sam, once again, obliging.

When Sam was exhausted, Laura stepped up to the plate.

Sam got to sit, at least for a bit.

And that, my friends, is another crazy

family night for the record books.

Frosting Inside and Out

Yesterday was not a very spring-like day here. Or maybe it was. Spring often looks like this around here. No matter that we think Spring should be all fresh green and growing things. Well, we do have some of that but yesterday it was covered, frosted with snow.

We had padded seating, complete with good lumbar support, on our deck.

Nevertheless, we had a nice little family celebration last evening in honor of Mike's birthday.  One of the things my husband really likes for his birthday is for me to make cupcakes in ice cream cones. He remembers his Mom making them when they got their first microwave oven. The texture of cake and ice cream cone together is not a big thrill for me but he likes it. So, here is how I made them...

I used an ordinary cake mix but since Maria and Eric and girls are vegan, I needed to avoid the use of the eggs called for in the cake directions. No problem. I keep egg replacement on hand.

 It is easy to use. 

It tells you right on the box how much powder to mix with a small amount of water, 

based on how many eggs you are replacing. Mine called for three eggs.

I mixed the replacer up then added it to the cake mix.

 I put the cones in my mini muffin pan.

They fit just right.

I filled them up, not all the way to the top, though.

I made that mistake before and it makes a big mess!

 Don't tell Mike, but I put them in the oven.

It is tedious to do them one at a time in the microwave

and I don't usually get them quite right.

As you can see they don't really turn out quite

right for me from the oven either.

 That is what frosting and sprinkles are for!

I opted to skip the sprinkles on a few of them and sprinkled on sea salt instead.

THAT was a moment of genius if you ask me!

 When it came time to serve them, 

I decided to carry them to the table while they 

still stood in the muffin tin.

It seemed like a good idea 

but I didn't get more than a few inches 

off the counter before nearly 

every one of them tipped over! 

Some ended up on the floor!

They'd become quite top heavy!

Then, instead of crying, I 

went over the edge, 

meaning I laughed so hard I

could barely breathe!

Eventually, I stuck a candle in one and brought it to my dear man

for the song-singing/candle-blowing/wish-making moment.

It was all good.

Happy Birthday Mike!

It is Mike's birthday!

Yippeeeee!

Wooooo Hooooo!

April 13th is one of the happiest days of the year for me!

Yea, sure, that was the day my beloved was born and all that.

Yep, I'm so very glad he was born.

Here's the deal, though.

For eight M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E weeks

each year, I am older than Mike.

Being the funny guy that he is, he 

reminds me over and over and over 

that I am the elderly one.

That's not a very gentlemanly way for him to behave

but you are likely not too surprised by this if you read

about his obnoxious behavior here.

Mike didn't appreciate that post.

He was downright pouty about it.

After that post he forbade me,

yes,

FORBADE 

me,

from ever mentioning his name or using his photo on my blog again! 

Oopsy!

Anyway...

Let me be serious for just a second...

Mike is thoughtful and caring.

Mike is a man of deep integrity.

Mike has a tender heart.

Mike makes me laugh.

I have a deep respect for this man, my husband, but

when he forbade me from using his photo, I had to go back

through old photos to choose some of my favorites.

Relax.

He'll forgive me; he wears a cross...

 ...and he's so handsome.

My Cup is Overflowing

I was going through old photos again tonight. I came upon this one...

I think I was just trying to get photos of the drops of water hanging on that evergreen tree. They were sparkling and pretty. I didn't get any very good close-ups on those drops so I was disappointed with this photograph. However, looking back now, I really like it. There, in the background, the sun was putting on a pretty good show and I wasn't even paying attention to it! I was just focusing (pun intended) on my disappointment over the little drops photo I'd planned.

I wonder how much else I miss in life, what kind of  beauty do I overlook, just because my plan hasn't always gone perfectly? I have some things in my life that have not gone exactly as I thought they should, but in the background of my life, there is so much beauty, so much abundance. 

One of my goals recently has been simply to live a life of more gratitude. I've been given so much, a loving family, useful work, great friends, more than enough food, a home that surpasses my needs, and so much more. My cup is overflowing.

The Mean Pastor and Our Spray Bottle

Sometimes, when I don't know what I want to blog about, I look through photos to see if I can find something I think you should see. This is one of those times. Let me give you  some background information first.

It started with Bode.

Bode is naughty. Sometimes he is really naughty. Oh sure, he is sweet and lovable and all that, but he can be really, really naughty. My first tendency is to holler at him when he is doing something he should not, like eating plastic things. As it turns out, hollering does not much affect this particular canine.

Then, we were told about the spray bottle. Maria and Eric taught us about use water for discipline purposes, I think. They found it very effective for keeping their bassett hounds from jumping up on them. Apparently we are too cheap to get more bottles so we use the one I keep for ironing clothes. Let'a get real. It doesn't see that much action by the ironing board anyway.

The spray bottle works great on Bode! All I usually have to do is hold it up  for him to see it and he settles right down. However, I often can't remember where we last set it down, but that's another story.

Anyway, this post isn't really about Bode. It is about Mike. My dear, sweet, saintly (ha!) husband uses it more often than he should! And he doesn't just use it on the dog. When I took this photo, he was threatening me with the squirt bottle! That just isn't right, is it? He doesn't just threaten us, either. I have lost count about how many times I've felt the startling cold, streaming bullet as it was aimed at my.....  self. He even shoots his sweet little granddaughters with it! I'm not kidding; he is ruthless!

Maybe you shouldn't mention this to people in our church. It might blow his pastor image!

In a Hurry

I have been rushing around so much lately! Like pretty much everyone else I know, I'm always complaining that I am more busy than I should be. Of course, it is no one's fault but my own. The problem is, there is just soooooo much I want to do!

One thing I've noticed about myself when I get too busy is that I start making silly mistakes. Do you do that?

For instance...

Like I've told you before, I have a job where I am on the phone a lot now. As it so happens, I often have to leave phone messages for patients to return my call. I don't really know why they let me do that job because really, leaving messages is not my best thing. Something about knowing I'm being recorded just kind of puts my brain on hold. Well, one day I was leaving a message and I don't think I was sounding too bad until I left my call back number. All of a sudden I realized I had just given the number for the patient to call back. As I was looking at her paperwork at the time, and instead of giving my number, I asked her to call her OWN number! THEN, I giggled. That always sounds professional, don't you know.

Yesterday I worked a long day, starting with an educational deal-y-o at 6:30 a.m. It was about 5:00 p.m. when I rushed into our house. I needed to cook something for a quick supper as I had a meeting to attend after dinner. I try to have a good plan in place for such instances but last night, I did not. I threw open the fridge door, hoping to find something yummy that perhaps I'd cooked while sleep-walking the night before. No such luck. What I did find, though, made me laugh.

Apparently, when cleaning up the night before, I'd felt our plastic wrap needed to be kept chilled.

Maybe I should slow down just a bit.

Family Time

Sunday at Church

Today was a special day at church.

We had a children's program, which meant there

were a lot of parents there with a lot of cameras.

That also meant I could take photographs freely.

I love Sundays.

I love being at church.

I am there an hour early to 

practice singing

on the worship team. 

It is one of my favorite times of the week!

Our son-in-law, Eric, sings on the Worship Team with me.

I love that.

He also plays bass guitar.

He also plays drums.

Not all at once, but he is certainly one talented guy!

Cordelia was in the program and couldn't have been sweeter. She told us she felt a little scared but she enjoyed it. I loved that she waved to me during the program.

Maria and Elise were enjoying it all.

Apparently Cordelia's star power was blinding to Elise.

 It was easy to take photos of my man.

I made it look like I was just taking pictures of the children.

I'm pretty sneaky that way.

Sam always, always arrives late for church.  Always.

He was pretty surprised when I turned and snapped his photo!

And here she is, our favorite little performer!

That face always makes me smile!

Aaron Shust - My Hope Is In You

My hope is in God. In this life, I know I will face trials. People I love will die. I will die. Someone who is not a Christian may look at this video and have a hard time understanding how it goes with this song about hope. They may think their hope was in vain. I don't think so. I believe their hope is in God, in their faith that this life is only a tiny part of our existence and when we go to be with him, our hope will be fulfilled.



Did you notice the song in the hymn book?  I thought you might like to hear it also. These guys are truly talented and listening to this song really has the power to bring me to a state of peace. Music can do things like that, you know. I hope you will listen all the way through.

My Day

First of all, the results are in. We had a tie on my poll from yesterday. The winning categories were knee highs with dresses and mittens on strings. I'm quite saddened to report that no one, not anyone, voted for socks with sandals. That was my personal favorite but whatever.

Anyway.

Today was a long but nice day. I had a productive and pleasant time at work. I finally started feeling caught up so took a longish lunch with a friend. Mike and I were at a wedding rehearsal at church after I got off work. Technically I guess that means he was still working, doing his pastor thing you know. I, however, just enjoyed watching all the people doing their thing. Then, I got to eat yummy food. It was all good.




The best part of this day, however, came with a buzz.

My phone buzzed, that is.

I had a photo message from Maria that made me smile at the cuteness.




Folks, it just doesn't get any cuter than this!