Cake Pops

Another reason my life has been so hectic lately is because of cake pops! On last Thursday, I made 156 pops! Starting the week before Valentines to now, I think I have made close to 30 dozen! Crazy, but I am so thankful. Because of God's generosity, half of my mission trip is already paid for!!!!

Here are some pics of my latest cake pop adventures.

After creating three dozen heart shaped cake balls as an experiment, I decided I didn't want to advertise these because they took forever. I couldn't of handled all of my Valentine orders as hearts; 15 dozen hearts would have sent me over the edge!! However, I think they would be adorable for a princess or fairy birthday party sprinkled with pink sugar and tied with a cute ribbon. Stars would be cute too. So, if you want a couple dozen for a party, call me :)

The bumblebees were ordered by my sister-in-law for her sister-in-law's baby shower. I thought they turned out really cute considering I had no idea what I was doing. The tricky part was getting the wings right. I finally settled on quartered black candy. You can't tell, but the pops were shaped like bees and even had a stinger on their hiny. I made homemade lemon cake for the bees and the striped pops are chocolate cake.

Something unexpected that has come from this little business is being able to share my faith and the needs of Haiti. People always ask me how I got into making cake pops and this allows me to tell them about MOPS (the moms at my table were my guniea pigs), Haiti, and the goodness of God.

** If you want to order some cake pops, here are the details.**

• All money goes to our Haiti mission trip!!


• Simple round pops are $15 a dozen, custom pops, like characters or shapes, are $20 a dozen (these are very time consuming)


• I make all cakes from scratch, so far flavors are chocolate, vanilla (which is the favorite), and lemon. I'm looking for a good strawberry recipe if you have any suggestions.


• I generally use vanilla frosting unless requested otherwise.


• The pops are dipped in vanilla or chocolate flavored coating.


• Simple pops are sprinkled or drizzled with coordinating colors.

If you want to order some just let me know. Even if you live out of the area, we could probably figure something out.

Busy Busy Busy

That's my new name, busy. I feel like life is flying by at the moment. Is it because the month is short? I'm getting older? Or life is just crazy right now??

Probably all three.

At the beginning of February I started subbing. Hooray! I don't know who is happier: me, Richard, or Matt. Richard is loving the income increase, Matt loves seeing me at his campus, and I just like getting out and using my degree again. Honestly, I thought I was going to just "tolerate" it, but I love subbing.

My biggest obstacle is time management and planning at home. Subbing is so spontaneous. Some days I know ahead of time when I am working and other days, I have been at Wal-Mart and got a call to come in as soon as I could. Needless to say, when I have a day off, I am playing catch up. For example, I just realized this morning that Matt's party is planned for next Sunday and I haven't even thought about invitations! Guess what I spent an hour doing this morning. Now, I have to track down his classmates addresses because you can't send them to school. Boo!

Speaking of Matt, he started t-ball last week. It is amazing how much more mature he is this year at the start of the season. He actually pays attention and doesn't pick the grass, lol. I love watching him and I hope he has a great time this season.

Richard is Richard. He is busy with work. UIL contest coming up and the Spring trip to Disney World is just a couple of weeks away! That is another thing that is sneaking up on us!! Also, Richard is a running fool now. The other day he ran six miles with a friend and he has signed up to run a half marathon at the end of March. It's amazing what running and less caffeine has done for him. He's like a new person.

That's a quick update on our family. I still have a ton of things on my list and need to get to the grocery store. Hope you are all doing well!

Truly Inspiring

Yesterday, while making my blog rounds, I came across a very fascinating post about a female missionary named Dr. Helen Roseveare. Dr. Roseveare was a Christian missionary in the Congo from 1953-1973. Her story is quite inspiring and I encourage you to do a Google search and read up on her.

Here are some points that amaze me:

• She was a single female in the mission field, which was not considered "proper", and was often isolated by the natives and fellow missionaries.
• She set up medical training centers to help African nurses return to their home communities and offer medical care and the gospel.
• She set up her first training center/hospital after only 2 years in the field.
• She was held prisoner by Congolese rebels for 5 months. While in captivity she was beaten and raped repeatedly.
• Once rescued and treated, she returned to Africa for 7 more years of service.
• She is now a speaker and writer for Christian women's missions.

I love this quote by her, “If you think you have come to the mission field because you are a little better than others, or as the cream of your church, or because of your medical degree, or for the service you can render the African church, or even for the souls you may see saved, you will fail. Remember, the Lord has only one purpose ultimately for each one of us, to make us more like Jesus. He is interested in your relationships with Himself. Let Him take you and mould you as He will; all the rest will take its rightful place.”

Finally, a video clip. Isn't she a doll?! She reminds me of my Mawmaw. When you watch it, pay close attention to her conversation about suffering. I have never thought about it the way she describes.

No matter what God handed her, she was His faithful trusting servant. Now that is inspiring to me.

One Thing

God is good!

That's all I am going to say today.

Central Market

I experienced Central Market for the first time today.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

What took me so long?? That store is amazing! It's a lot like Whole Foods, but it might be a little better. Gasp! Hmm, I don't know, that's a pretty strong statement. It's a least on the same playing field as Whole Foods. The thing that I loved the most were the samples. You can pretty much eat your way through the produce section (which is amazing), meat section, bakery, soup counter, olive bar, bulk section, and whatever else you want.

Of course, I ended up with a bizarre mix of groceries: good olive oil, three different kinds of chocolate bars ( including one with caramel and Fleur de Sel), loose tea, coffee, broccoli rabe, and a variety of citrus. The really odd purchase was chocolate covered almonds that look exactly like green olives; these were for Richard. I'm sure everyone has that on their shopping list.

I don't know why, but every time I go to some kind of fancy-smancy grocery store, I always end up buying a bunch of chocolate. So what about you? Have you been to Central Market and what's your fancy store weakness?

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend! Friday was the "ice" day. We did not see any snow at our house, boo! Saturday was spent outside for the majority of the day. We went to a great park about a half hour away, then to the Lego store to redeem a Christmas present from Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Earnie, made a spur of the moment stop at a nature center, and finally back home to a hamburger feast. We spent Sunday evening at our small group's Super Bowl party.


I finally remembered to take pictures this weekend! ( I hear the grandparents cheering.) The pictures ended up posting backwards though.



The sweet volunteers at the nature center garden let him pick a giant radish.

The deer are what led us to stop at the nature center.

Seeing all the deer was making me hungry for chili :)

This is the first live armadillo Richard and I have ever seen.


Great park on the water.

It was too windy to eat outside, so we settled on truck picnic instead.
My two favorite boys!


Another area of the park.

Igloo cake for our "snow" day!!

Snow cookies we passed out to a few of our neighbors.

This Says it All

Brrr

It is COLD! At least down here on the gulf coast, it is cold! Since school is getting out early today and there are whispers of it closing tomorrow, I thought I better get some fun ideas together.

First of all, food! My menu got a little mixed up this week. Tonight we are having a good old fashioned roast with veggies, gravy and homemade bread. Tomorrow I plan on cooking a big pot of potato soup with bacon, croutons, and cheese. Darn, I don't have any green onions!

Matt and I will bake some "snow" cookies in honor of the impending snow. They are actually Mexican wedding cookies but he calls them snow. I baked some last year when it snowed and now he thinks that is when you bake them and what you call them. Maybe we can share the wealth with our neighbors too.

For some more snow fun, I plan on baking this igloo cake with Matt as well

It looks pretty easy to make and I think he will have a blast.

I borrowed a couple of Wii games from our neighbor to expand our game library for the weekend. Thanks Tina, you saved me a $100!

We have a ton of library books to read including Flat Stanley and The Magic Tree House.

I also think there might be a sofa bed fort in the plans for tomorrow. Possibly with a movie and popcorn. Even if school is not canceled, I might have to make that for myself! Just kidding.

So what will you do if you get a snow day? (I know my brother and sister in law are laughing right now because this is the story of their lives for five months out of the year.)

A Father's Love

You might have already seen this video, Richard showed it to me this morning.

Wow.

This gets me on so many levels. It affects me as a parent, special ed. teacher, a new runner, and as a believer in Christ.

I ended up in tears, no surprise. I hope you take a few minutes to watch it, you will be encouraged!