Yesterday we drove out to a assisted living facility for Randy to see a dear friend from our church. He had cancer and was not expected to live but a few more days. This friend was such a blessing to us both but especially to Randy as he always helped Randy up any steps at church, taking randy’s walker (and lately the wheelchair) and then bringing it back to him after church was over! They were quite the pair. Randy couldn’t talk and Gary couldn’t hear! But they knew their friendship was heartfelt! So yesterday our group of friends went and had lunch with Gary’s wife, Rita (at the assisted living facility) and Randy went in to sit by Gary for awhile,, It is such a gift of Christian friends to have around to love and support one another. Cricket brought Chicken Salad Chic for us Chicks, Peggy brought cookies, Micki brought the drinks and Jerry and I, well. we showed up! There was prayer, shared memories, laughter, but most of all, just the bond of friendship that allowed Rita to cry when she needed, laugh when a story or memory was told, and the knowledge that she knew she was not alone to walk this hard road of life.

We all left and began the drive home. As I drove down Preston, Randy told me he needed a coke. so I pulled into Sonic! We got our drinks and proceeded to drive home when all of a sudden the car in front of me swerved and because I was close behind I had no time to avoid the hard plastic Igloo ice chest that lay in the middle of the lane. It became stuck under our car and I kept driving thinking it would come loose but it didn’t. As I drove, trying to get over to pull off the busy street, I was finally able to pull into a parking lot! Seeing some shade from some trees, I thought that would be a great place if I was going to be laying in the concrete parking lot trying to dislodge the igloo. Well,,on my feeble attempt to get down to see if I could reach it, I discovered that not only was it stuck sunder the middle of the car. but I was not strong enough to pull it out. So then trying to get back up from laying on my stomach on flat concrete parking lot must have made people driving by chuckle seeing an old lady trying to get back up to a standing position all the while with one knee replacement and the other knee already swollen from arthritis, well, let’s just say the video of this might have won me big bucks on AFV!

All of a sudden,,I hear “mame are you all right?”. I respond “Yes, but i have an Igloo stuck under my car.” He drops to his knees and looks and says, ” yep you have an igloo stuck under your car.”,

Next thing I know he is yelling as he is walking back to his truck, “mame,,I drove a truck for years, so I am always prepared for things like this.,I’ll be right back.”. As he is walking back towards me, I couldn’t help but notice that i had pulled into a parking lot where’ there was a restaurant that was closed,, a Marble a slab ice cream store and a small health & vitamin shop. What were the odds of a man who was a truck driver being right there? But here he came with straps with clips on them and before i knew it, he directed me to get in the car, turn the wheel to the right and he had the straps around the igloo and pulled it out as i slowly drove the wheels to the right.,,,

As he smiled at us and said, “your ok now,”,I looked at him and said,,”you are a Christian aren’t you?”. and he smiled and said “yes mame, I am.”. I go to The Oaks Church in Mckinney”. Sometimes It’s amazing how someone’s countenance just tells you that the person is a Christian.

What a sweet thing of the Lord to put me in the perfect place where He provided someone who was able to help us. I had just listened to a David Jeremiah that morning preach about angels. Was this young man an angel.,,maybe not, but he was to us.

Lord thank you for Your protection and provision. And your perfect timing.,..

We are so grateful we went to visit with Rita and Gary yesterday.,,The text came this morning at 6:30 am.,,Gary is home with Jesus!

Whipped Boursin with Cranberry Pepper Jelly Sauce

Last Friday, we had a fun dinner celebrating one of our sweet friends birthday and Dena brought this dip! While the 4 men sat in the other room discussing important issues such as football, all the chores they so happily helped do for their wives, and what great husbands they were, we (the wives) stayed in the kitchen devouring this amazing dip with crackers! There was hardly enough to put on the table by the time we sat down to eat! It was truly one of the best appetizer dips!

Do yourself a favor and make some for any gathering or when you just feel like having something to snack on instead of a full fledged dinner! Beware:….it is addicting! Dena had brought pita chips and Ritz crackers to serve along with it! I choose the Ritz because it allowed me to have more of the dip on it than the small little pita chips! The web site she follows is cheesegal.com and where this recipe is found!

“I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭101‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.101.2.ESV

Oh my goodness, this was the scripture that I “accidentally” came upon this morning. How does the Lord know the words we need to read and hear? Well, He is God and hears our words and knows our hearts! How many times do we pray, “search my heart O God” but when He does, do we want the Conviction that the Holy Spirit brings? Of course not. But until I confess and repent the sin that has taken place, it is hard to go on and just pretend that God has showed me that He knows and is trying to change my heart.

As we live our lives, isn’t it so easy to be kind to everyone our paths cross? We smile at strangers, we go the extra mile when it comes to outside the home family members and offer to help and serve our Christian brothers and sisters when needed. But what about the ones living in our same homes? That is where most of us fall short. It’s the daily struggles that we live with, being a caregiver to a spouse or a child, trying to cope with a prodigal teenager, forgiving a family member who continues to keep your home in a state of constant stress.

The scripture that is written above is new to me! I can’t remember seeing it before….”walking with integrity in my home.”. I’ve read through the Psalms many times but that verse has never jumped off the page to me like it did today. Ok Lord, You have my attention and not only do I need to hear it, I need to obey it. Help me today to have a heart like Yours. Help me to see My husband as you see him. Give me a heart that is kind and surrendered to serving him as if I were serving You!

May our hearts point our family members to the Lord, as much as we want friends and strangers to see God in us. That is sometimes the hardest and most challenging. May God help grow us into the people others see, when we are “behind closed doors.”

And it is only in His strength that we can do that.

A few nights ago, we ate a dish of pasta primavera with fettuccine for dinner. The veggies I had sautéed for it was yellow squash, zucchini, celery, onion, green bell pepper and carrots. As the veggies were cooking in olive oil, I added Old World Italian seasoning with garlic, butter and a little chicken broth paste! When they were soft, I added them to the fettuccine (of course cooked it first) and when it was in the serving bowl, sprinkled parmesan over the top. The refrigerated fettuccine is so much better than the dry so I’ve started using that for Italian dishes.

As I was cleaning up, I started trying to think of what I could do with the leftover fettuccine and vegetables that we had not eaten. So I started thinking about how good it would taste in a soup. So the next day I added a can of Italian flavored diced tomatoes with the juice in the crockpot, cut up a little bit more celery, onion and carrots, and added more italian seasoning, garlic, fresh basil and some chicken broth! Let it cook for 4-5 hours, then about 30 minutes before we were ready for dinner, I added the already cooked leftover fettuccine with the other vegetables to the crockpot. We ate the soup with some garlic bread and even had some left over for lunch the next Day!

It has been a while since i posted! Seems like everyday life continues to get busier. Guess I always thought when I got to this age, I’d just sit and crochet, while gossiping with a neighbor, sipping on hot tea while sitting in a rocker on the front porch. Kind of like Aunt Bea on Andy Griffin show! HA . Years ago, seems that was the picture we use to see of old folks on TV, in movies and even personally in our families! But times have changed! No longer do we “old” folks settle for sitting on the sidelines, watching the world go by just because our backs or legs hurt, or just because the strength we use to have is about half, we just keep on going and doing (or at least trying) what we want to do. If we can get up and get dressed, we think we can just about accomplish what our hearts are telling us to try! But some days, it takes more than effort! It takes a lot of discipline and commitment on our part to realize that we need someone to come along side us, to help push us, motivate us and encourage us to finish a task! If you are like me and so many others, I grew up thinking that as I aged, I would just grow old doing the same things i always did but just slower!

This past year, I have been in a text group with some very dear friends who have a lot of hard situations going on in their lives. One couple are dealing with the spouse having serious cancer, two couples are dealing with hard family situations with kids and grsndkids , another with long term health issues and Randy and I with 17 years of Parkinson’s.

Every day, one of the friends sends out a good morning text and song for the 6 of us to hear and begin our day!

It is always a song that reminds us who that person is that will always come along side us, encourage us and strengthen not only our resolve, but our ability to deal with what we are all going through…..that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our help when we are discouraged, our strength when we are weary, our friend when we are lonely or disconnected from the life we use to have when we were able to be involved with activities we no longer can be. He is the one who can show us new purpose when we can no longer continue with the purposes we use to believe we were given.

It’s hard to stay sad or down when you hear and sing, “for all my life You have been faithful, all my life you have been so so good, with every breath that I am able, I will sing of the Goodness of God!”

Help me Lord to always sing to you my thankfulness of what You have done and continue to do for me!”. He is faithful to do more than we can ever imagine, if we just put our trust in Him.

https://youtu.be/Whv–4V6w_8?is=pHambXwy4J4HK7YU

Well after making about 50 cakes the last two weeks for a craft fair held here where we live, I had thought that I would not be baking for a few days to give myself a chance to recoup! But over the weekend the weather was so dreary and rainy and dark it just made me want to continue baking so I made a homemade peach pie yesterday. When I was looking on Facebook as i waited for the peach pie to bake , I found a lady that bakes desserts for a restaurant in Mississippi called Little porky’s barbecue. I watched her make a chocolate marshmallow cake and immediately fell in love with that cake. So knowing I needed to take a dessert to ladies Bible study tonight I thought “what better time to try this new recipe out.” I had enough batter to make a little mini loaf pan with the extra batter. So Randy and I decided to try it out a few minutes ago and all I can say is “a little dab will not do you”. It is absolutely an amazing cake and it does take a little bit of time but it’s easy to do and once you taste it, you’ll know that no matter the time it took, it was worth every minute! Thank you Little Porky Restaurant….And if I don’t quit making and eating this cake, my name will be….Ms Porky!

Italian Soup

last night we had such a great dinner! Yesterday morning I wanted to make soup using some italian sausage ravioli i had in the fridge. Mid morning I got the crockpot out and cut up 1/2 of a green bell pepper, 2 pieces of celery, sliced one large carrot and 1/2 small white onion. Placed these in the crockpot with a 14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of vegetable paste with 2 cups of water.
Added about 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning & garlic powder, pepper and set it on high! after 4 hours I cup up about 2 handfuls of fresh spinach and placed it in crockpot as well. after another hour , I cooked the ravioli according to directions and drained it!
Placed 4 ravioli in each of our bowls and using a soup ladle, poured some of the veggie/soup mixture in each bowl.
served it will garlic bread and we were so Full, all we ate was some candy for dessert instead of our normal cake or pie. was so delicious we can’t wait to have leftovers for lunch!

Every so often a recipe jumps out to me from FB and i just have to make it! this was one of the ones that jumped off the page to me! After seeing. two different ladies post it, I waddled to the kitchen to see if I had the necessary ingredients to make it! With a few substitutions, I set the 4 eggs out to get to room temp and went to work! Because I didn’t have a yellow cake mix, I used the Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix I had and then the french vanilla instant pudding mix instead! and because all my Southern Baptist friends will probably read this, I substituted the wine for water! Well that reason and i didn’t have any wine to use! So what I’m trying to say is that the substitutions didn’t take away any of the amazing flavor of this cake! In fact I probably will always use the french vanilla flavor as yellow cake is not one of my favorites! But with the butter sauce that is poured over it and in it, i think even if it were liver flavored cake mix, it would be good! Super easy cake and even easier glaze that makes you want to eat a slice every time you walk thru the kitchen! And maybe that is why it is called “Crack Cake”. It is addicting! The picture of the recipe was the one I downloaded from Facebook if you cannot read the instructions it just just said to mix up all of the ingredients and pour into a Bundt cake cake pan. Bake at 3:50 until it test done because I had it in two smaller bunk pans I cooked them about 24 minutes before taking them out poked holes with a wooden down and then made the glaze of butter sugar and water
1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water (or white wine if you are Presbyterian)
stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is all melted! Takes about 4-5 minutes. Just before it begins to boil take it off the heat and stirring about a teaspoon of vanilla! After poking holes in the cake pour the syrup over the cake while it’s still hot fresh out of the oven. Invert onto serving plate! If you have any left by dinner time you can serve it with fresh fruit and whipped cream or just plain like it is. it’s delicious!

A sweet friend, Jerry and I have been exchanging recipes for years. A couple of days ago she sent me this recipe I just had to try! When she sent it, I, of course told her that she should have sent it the day before when i was making grocery list to be delivered a couple hours before she sent it so I wouldn’t have to run to the store to buy ricotta in order to make it! She replied with “well I thought for sure that TKBakesalot would have everything needed on hand”! And that is how we communicate all the years we have been friends! it is fun and makes us both laugh at each other! And she has given me lots of great recipes throughout the years! Well, I didnt have to go to the store! a sweet friend that lives here at Avenida, just had some knee surgery and I went to visit her a couple of hours after Jerry sent me the recipe. I took a copy of it to show her and I said ” doesn’t that sound good” ? (She loves to bake as much as I do). I told her that as soon as I bought ricotta, I was going to make us some and I would share with her to which she replied “trudy I have a whole container of ricotta in the refrigerator that I had bought to make ricotta cookies but I never got them made because of the knee surgery please take it home with you and use it.” What angel! So I did just that! I took it home and made two loaves, one for us and one for Jerry! I shared mine with Mary (the ricotta friend) an took Jerry hers so she now owes me big time! It is always fun to have her owe me! Allows me to be able to ask her favors! to be honest I could’ve bite of it when it came out of the oven and I didn’t really think too much about it but as it cooled and instead of wall it was really a good cake it’s a perfect cake to have with a cup of hot tea or a cup of coffee, or in my case, a diet Dr Pepper! I did use almond extract instead of vanilla and added crushed almonds over the top before baking it! sprinkled powdered sugar on top about 15-20,min after taking it from the oven! Directions said 25-30 min but mine took 40 min before testing done. ( i made mine in a loaf pan). Thank you All Recipes and Jerry!! I better get busy making the ricotta cookies now for Mary!