It Is Good

The beauty around me is endless.

A hummingbird flitters to the feeder outside my kitchen window and drinks.

The female cardinal eats from the nearby bird feeder.

The grass in my lawn grows thick from all of the rain it has received.

The fine, delicate petals of an impatience plant were created for my enjoyment by the Creator-of-All.

Oh yes, God!  What You made is good!  Your lovingkindness amazes me!

Sunday Morning Pancake

There is a restaurant that makes a puffy pancake-like entree that is rushed from the kitchen and brought to the customer's table.  I have found a recipe in an old church cookbook for such a dish.  In this cookbook it is called Sunday Morning Pancake.  Kidlet Three and I enjoyed one the other night for supper.

Sunday Morning Pancake

Heat oven to 425 degrees.
In an ovenproof pan (I use a cast iron skillet), place 4 T. butter.
Place pan in oven while it preheats to melt the butter.  Watch it so it doesn't brown.


In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs with wire whisk

Add 1/2 cup milk

"Pinch" of nutmeg.  I was generous with the pinch because I like nutmeg.

Add 1/2 cup flour

The batter will be lumpy with flour lumps.  That is okay.
Pour into skillet with the melted butter.

Bake for 15 minutes. 
When you remove the pan from the oven you will have a puffy "pancake" and then the air goes out of it and it deflates. 
You could run it over to the table like the restaurant does for it's customers!

We serve ours with maple syrup.  The recipe book states to serve with fruit such as strawberries or peaches.

Sunday Morning Pancake is amazing any day of the week for breakfast or supper!

Funny Baseball

Leaving a baseball field yesterday, I saw this on the back window of a van

 It looked so real I had to get a closer peek...

 It is a decal, peeled off and placed on the window!

Sometimes things aren't what they seem upon closer inspection!

Amazing!

Time

June 15

Already?

Wasn't it just Valentine's Day?

Is time flying for you, too?

This clock was on the wall at a hotel we stayed in recently.

Isn't it a great visual of how life sometimes feels?   Sometimes things feel out of alignment or even wrong.  Or that time is literally flying.

As in this clock.  Yet you can still tell what time it is.  Because the center, the hands, point in the directions we are comfortable with...they point in the direction we know...we can still figure out what time it is.

Somedays I feel like this clock.  All out of sorts.  Chaotic.  Out of alignment.  Yet I continue on with life just like this clock continues to give us the time.  In those wonky times, I continue on and I do it because the very Center of My Life is stable and reliable.  Like the hands of this clock.  God.  He whispers and nudges His love and encouragement to me.  He never quits and continues giving me guidance, direction, peace, self control and so on. 

It is possible to live in this Upside-Down-Sometimes-Chaotic world with an Inner Peace that never quits.

God, thank you for being the Hands-That-Point-Consistently in my life.



Hey, maybe the numbers on this clock are having a great party and just having fun being in different places.

Maybe it is a message that life is too short to stay in one place.  Yes, time is flying by.  And if I get stuck looking at the things that are out of alignment in my life, I could miss out on some fun.  Or some giggles. 

Because this clock makes me giggle. 

And giggling can be amazingly good for the soul.

Time...enjoy it as it flies!

Flower Planting

Usually  by this time each year I have my flower boxes planted.  And usually there are a multitude of clay pots filled with baby plants yearning to spread out and fill the pot with their glory.  The annual flower planting hasn't started yet, however.

My employer doesn't have their plants in the ground yet either.  The other day a big delivery truck unloaded flat after flat after flat of plants just outside of my work door.  See, the people that keep up the gardens have a shop/garage in the back of my building.  And I have the privilege of watching the gardener's activities!  Oh, what a sight this was...all of those flowers waiting to get into the dirt!

There are hundreds of flats sitting there.  Each day as I come and go from work I'm seeing flats disappearing and I know they are getting planted around our grounds.

Which brings me to my measly one flat of plants.  Monday night I quickly ran through WalMart's plant section and picked out one flat of plants.

It was dark when I got home so I settled those beauties on my deck to wait...just like the hundreds of plants waiting at my work.

Tuesday and Wednesday in my part of the Frozen Tundra found temperatures over 100 degrees!  What a phenomenon for us.  One I can't say I really enjoyed.  The humidity and heat index made it hard to breathe outside.  It was too hot to be outside planting flowers after work.

It did cool off last night so I grabbed my gardening gloves, the Miracle Grow and my plants for a night of planting.

My deck has flower boxes built on the outside on three sides.  Here are my plants getting a peek at where they will be living.

And just a short time later, here they are in their new home.

All tucked in and ready to grow, grow, grow.

So pretty and full of joy.

I look forward to many evenings sitting on the deck enjoying my flowers. 

I may have to swing by the garden store on my way home from work tomorrow...spring planting is amazingly fun. 

Joy...Again

Earlier this year I blogged about JOY. 

And the word has continued to pop up here and there.

Like if I hadn't figured out joy yet, I was being given chances over and over again.

We hear that word at Christmas and then it seems to be forgotten.  

No one seems to talk about joy after January 1.

Except it is such a powerful word, we should talk about it.

We should want it.

I see that joy wants to be the ram-rod that holds me up.

Almost like it is my core, the center of who I am. 

If joy was the center of my universe, then nothing that comes at me can shake me.

I know my feelings are valid. 

I am going to have days of disappointments, frustration, betrayal, anger and so on.

But joy can be my strength in the midst of those feelings. 

Because the Joy of the Lord is my Strength.

The Lord is my core, the center of my universe.

The Lord being God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

My Father, My Lord and My Comforter.

Pure JOY is who lives inside of me...at the very core.

Joy.

There is much more to learn about this word.

Joy is amazing....

Alberta's Egg Breakfast

Recently our small group met on a Sunday morning for brunch.  I made two different egg bakes and everyone else brought food items to share.

I love setting my table with cloth napkins and tablecloth.

Brunch tastes so much better by candlelight!

And what amazing food we enjoyed!

Conversation, laughter and even a few tears were also shared that morning.

We've been a small group for over a year and feel comfortable being "honest" and "real" with each other.  After brunch we went to church together.  It was a great way to end our morning.  

The egg bake on the right should have been in a little larger pan! 

 That puffy mass is a recipe my family calls Alberta's Egg Bake. 

I don't even know anyone named Alberta but I sure like this dish!  Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it!

10 1/2 slices white bread
3/8 box Velveeta cheese, diced
1 1/2 cup diced ham
6 eggs
6 T. melted butter
3/4 t. dry mustard
1/2 t. salt
3 cups milk
onion flakes

Grease a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish.  Break bread into small pieces and place in greased pan.  Sprinkle cheese over bread and top with ham.  Sprinkle onion flakes next.  Pour melted butter over mixture.  Beat eggs, add milk, salt, and mustard.  Stir well.  Pour over bread/cheese/ham mixture.  Cover with foil and place in refrigerator over night.  Remove from fridge at least 1 hour before placing in oven.  Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, uncovered.  Warning...watch the last hour that the cheese doesn't get too brown!

It is amazingly good!

Nature from Kidlet Three

On Memorial Day weekend we visited my parents in the North Country.  My dad has a Ranger and took Kidlet Three and his friend out into the woods.

I gave Kidlet Three the camera and encouraged him to take pictures of anything interesting.

Without further ado, "The Woods" by Kidlet Three.  Oh..did I say he is 13?

The last picture was most exciting for the boys as the Ranger got up to almost 30 mph.

Nature views by Kidlet Three!  Amazing!