She taught me to put God first in my life! To allow Him to guide me and to live to reflect Him with my life! Did I always do that? Absolutely not! Did I try to make excuses to get out of going to church every time the doors were open? You bet!

Growing up it was always very apparent that my mom had anger issues and discontent with her marriage and her situation! But in so doing she used her time to give of herself to so many others. We always had someone living with us, whether it was a relative or just someone who needed a place to live! She went on mission trips! She cooked at church on Wednesday nights, she and my dad worked with the youth and had many many fellowships in our home! She sang in the choir, made all my clothes until Highschool, constantly took dinners to people who were sick and served at funerals for friends! Maybe she did all these things to not have to think about or deal with her situation, but she loved doing for others! No matter the reason.

As I think back about all of this, it has taught something else about the Lord. He doesn’t use us because we are perfect! None of us are! But He uses us in spite of our weaknesses and flaws! He just wants our hearts and our willingness to be used!

Having spent many years focusing on her faults, I realized a few years ago, that it was time to let all the disappointments I had of her and instead, remember that I am who I am today largely due to her goal of teaching her only child to love God and live a life that shows that! It is taking me a long time to realize that in spite of my flaws and weaknesses, I, like her, can be used by God! I never doubted that my mom loved me Even though some days she should have given up on me! But in her 93 years of life, even through her dementia took away many of her memories, and magnified the anger that she had had, she loved God and shared that Truth with so many others! Including me!

Life’s perspectives constantly change as we live and go through different circumstances and seasons. But I pray that each perspective and each circumstance will grow me closer to live to become more like my Savior!

Happy Birthday Mother! Thank you for your love, support and sacrifices you made to give me life!

This is a casserole we use to serve at the Ministers Wives Luncheons and it always went over so well with Sister Schubert Rolls and a Spinach Salad! Made it tonight for the first time in a while! Was as good as i remembered! Halved the recipe for just us and still had enough to freeze for another meal…and we still have enough to have for lunch tomorrow! It was printed in Princess On The Porch if you still have your

copy of it!

Last week Avenida (our new home Community for us Golden Oldies) had a class for decorating cakes. You don’t have to invite me twice to this fun and yummy class! Little did I know that when I signed up for it, I would be making 10 chocolate cakes for the ladies while one of the sweet ladies on staff here made 10 vanilla cakes!

She told me that she wanted the cakes to be made in the 6” round cake pans so off I went in search of a 6” round cake pan! These little cakes are just so cute and fun to have when “company comes a callin”. (Sorry the country hillbilly comes out ever so often!)

What fun we had gathered around the table downstairs all grabbing the pretty Fall sprinkles, colored sugars and even edible Fall leaves! it is always such a Wonderful way to bond with new friends as you sit and work (or eat) with food. There is just something special about sitting, laughing doing that. ! It is truly a gift from God.

When the class was over, I had 3 cakes left to bring back home. So I covered them and placed them in ziplock bags and into the freezer. FYI…a normal size cake mix makes 3 of these precious little doll cakes. so this morning I pulled one of the cakes to thaw and am taking it when we meet friends for lunch for them to take home!

Since I had some chocolate frosting already made up, I sliced the cake in two layers. Warmed up about 1/4 of the frosting for 14 seconds in the microwave and poured it over the bottom layer! Then pulled out the red raspberry preserves and nuked for about 12 seconds about 1/4 cup and spread over the chocolate frosting! Places the top layer on top and nuked about 1/3 cup more of the chocolate frosting and poured over the top and sprinkled some Fall sprinkles on top.

These are great little cakes to keep in the freezer for hostess gifts or when someone is sick or just to sit and munch on when you are craving something sweet…..like we do very night around 8:00!

Use what sounds good to you: Nutella or whatever goes with the flavor of cake you make! But don’t deny yourself this little baking pan….it will become one of your favorite baking dishes!

This past weekend we have been reminded in several ways that we are always suppose to share Gods wonderful love and acts of grace! We often have these moments when we just think, “ oh weren’t we lucky when they came to our rescue!” Or, “ can you believe that we were just in the right place at the right time?” But as Christians, we do not believe in luck or “coincidence”. Our lives are arranged and planned by Our Creator God.

Every day of my life is orchestrated to allow sometimes trials, sometimes wonderful blessings that can only be explained by God..

Some of you might read this and just think to yourself that our story was no big deal. But to us, I can’t tell you how thankful we were for God seeing us at our point of need.

Friday night we were coming home rather late from helping some dear friends with a medical need. . We now live in an over 55 community where it is pretty much a ghost town after 10 pm. We drove into the parking lot about 11:15 and on our way to the door where we enter the building, Randy fell. I carry a towel in the car for times when he falls in parking lots so his knees have some padding while getting him up from the ground. I got the towel out of the car and folded it and placed it on the concrete walkway! Since there was nothing for him to grab onto except his walker, it was hard to pull him up! After trying for 15 min or so I finally admitted defeat and told him I needed to call 911 to come get him up when I look at the door and see a younger man (when I say younger, he was probably 55-60 which is now younger to us ) coming outside to see if we needed help! I ask him where he came from as there was no one downstairs in the main club room at that time of night. He told us that he decided to go take his dog out for a late night stroll and he had been out back by the pool behind the club house when he looked through two sets of double doors and saw us out in the dark struggling! He and I were then able to get Randy up and on our way into the building to go upstairs to our apartment !

Before the man went on his way I told him that the Lord had sent him to us and could not believe he had come to our rescue. It is times like these that remind us of Gods goodness and protection over us. He is a personal God to each of us, not just some god who lives in the Heavens above looking down on us! We rejoice that He uses people to help and He answers our prayers. Not always in the way we expect and sometimes not in our time frame that we would like, but He does answer and He is a God of love and goodness. If you could see how far the man was away from us being able to see us thru the clubhouse outside to the front, you would be amazed at how kind our Savior and Lord was to us Friday night!