Category: Daily Thoughts

Daily Thoughts

Before & After

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Jodi, our daughter just called and warned us (that was her word, not mine) that her before and after pics would be put on Face Book probably today of her before  and after she began exercising. She said that she hoped it wouldn’t embarrass us to see her on FB dressed in a bathing suit showing off her new body. I told her that the only thing that would embarrass me would be pictures of me in a swimsuit before or even AFTER an exercise program.  When Randy and I saw the pics she sent, it made me begin to think of what my before and after pics would look like right now. Jodi’s looked so good and made me very proud of her for beginning a healthy lifestyle, unlike her mother, who feels like she is having a “healthy” eating day if I have only 1 cupcake and one hamburger in a 24 hour period. When we asked her why her name was not under the picture, she said that she would just say it was Anon, which reminded me of a story that I have to tell about Jodi.

Some years back, when she lived with us as a single mom, she joined us in the mornings for our devotion time, where Randy or I would read one of the devotions out of Our Daily Bread. Jodi began to notice that several of the readings were written by “Anon” and one day she commented that, “my goodness, I wonder who Anon is, he sure wrote a lot of devotions”. We began to laugh, not knowing whether to tell her exactly who “Anon” was or just agree with her. We couldn’t stand it, we finally told her who “Anon” was and so began the joke that when we didn’t know where a saying or a reading came from, we would just say, “I guess Anon wrote it”. It is just one of the many stories that we could tell of those days when we were blessed to have her living with us.

Back to the Before & After story. I ask Jodi if she thought I should post my B & A pics on FB and she began to laugh. She said that I could post pics of me before moving back to Texas from California, where I had lost about 30 lbs. We then began to laugh, thinking of what my “after moving back to Texas a year ago” would look like. The before pics would show me with a lettuce wrap in one hand and a piece of fruit in the other. Because Pasadena didn’t have a fast food joint on every corner, it made loosing weight pretty easy, plus we lived upstairs so climbing up and down burned more calories than I am use to burning. The after picture would show me in a sweat shirt with a Whataburger in one hand and a taco in the other, all the while trying to balance cupcakes on my knees. If you don’t live in Texas, STAY AWAY!!!! moving here makes you fat. It is either too hot in summer to walk or too cold in winter to walk. We just sit inside and eat the fast food that we picked up on the corner.

We won’t be posting any B&A pictures anytime soon. Maybe if we go back to visit friends in California we will take our pictures out there and they would show some improvement in our body weight, than if there were taking now, after being gone from there a year. But if we every need to embarrass our kids, we know just the way to do it now.

Daily Thoughts

A Season of Change

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One year ago today, Randy and I both knew that our time in California was over. We were being called to leave. When his job was alleviated in early December, we began to pray and ask God what He wanted for us. We had no desire to leave California, as it had quickly become such a refuge and we felt totally at home there. We had precious friends that we felt like we had known for years, as they had taken us in as if we had always been a part of their lives. We felt secure, rested and felt that we had been where God placed us 3 1/2 years before that day. But early that morning, Jan 14th, 2014, we got a phone call at 7 a.m. from Jodi, our daughter. She read us a devotion from Streams in the Desert and said that she felt that God had led her to call us and read it to us. As she did, I felt in my heart that maybe this was the Lord’s way of telling us that it was truly time for us to go. But, then again, I did not want to listen to what she was reading. About 3 hours later, the phone rings and it is a friend we attend church with. We hardly see her because of health reasons, she doesn’t get to be there a lot, but she is a real prayer warrior. Her name is Sue and she called and said, “Trudy, the Lord laid upon my heart this devotion this morning and I felt led to call you and read it to you.” As she began to read, I began to cry, as it was the same devotion Jodi had called 3 hours earlier and read. Both Randy and I knew that God was speaking to us through this devotion and that He was taking us back to Dallas. We learned along time ago that being obedient to what God is directing is a lot easier than trying to do life on our own and then having to suffer the consequences of disobedience. His will is always perfect, sometimes not easy, but in the long run, it is always best as He knows and loves us more than we can imagine. So we knew that day, that we would be leaving California and the people that we had become so close to in that short amount of time. Our hearts were torn, but knowing that when you live life with God at the wheel, it is an adventure, never boring and we knew that He had a plan. So we began the adventure of closing that chapter of our lives and on to the next. It is a year ago today that this devotion changed our path, but looking back, we can certainly see God’s Hand over our lives and His continued provision and blessing. Here is the devotion.

“When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them.” John 10:4

Taken from Streams in the Desert

This is intensely difficult work for Him and for us. It is difficult for us to go, but equally difficult for Him to cause us pain. Yet it must be done. It would not be in our best interest to always remain in one happy and comfortable location. Therefore He moves us forward. The shepherd leaves the fold so the sheep will move on to the vitalizing mountain slopes. In the same way, laborers must be driven out into the harvest or else the golden grain would spoil.

But take heart. It could never be better to stay once He determines otherwise; if the loving hand of the Father moves us forward, it must be best. Forward in His name, to green pastures, quiet waters and mountain tops. He goes on ahead of us. So whatever awaits us is encountered first by Him and the eye of faith can always discern His majestic presence out in front. When His presence cannot be seen, it is dangerous to move ahead. Comfort your heart with the fact that The Savior has Himself experienced all the trials He asks you to endure. HE would not ask you to pass through them unless He was sure that the paths were not too difficult or strenuous for you.

This is the blessed life; not anxious to see far down the road, not overly concerned about the next step, not eager to choose the path nor weighted down with the heavy responsibilities of the future, but quietly following the Shepherd…one step at a time.

This is what we pray that we will do; allow Him to lead us, one step at a time, knowing and trusting Him every step of the way.

We are learning that truly, when you cannot see His Hand, we can always trust His Heart.

Daily Thoughts

Mall Walking

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I discovered this week that mall walking is not for me. On Jan 5th we woke up and looked at each other and knew that today was the day, Monday, the first day of our New Years resolution that we had agreed upon 4 days ago. We did our usual chores of laundry and cleaning and knew it could not be put off any longer.  So we got out our tennis shoes, our white tennis socks and made sure that we looked pretty fashionable, just in case we did run into someone we knew. Because it was so cold outside, I ask Randy to please park close so I wouldn’t have to wear a coat and then have to carry it around while we walked. Because we didn’t quite make it before the mall opened to do our walk, (actually we didn’t get there until 3 in the afternoon. It took me that long to talk myself into this new resolution that I knew I wouldn’t keep in the first place. Whose idea was it that we were going to do this 4 times a week? It certainly wasn’t mine. The only thing I do 4 times a week is bake.

We step inside the mall and begin our trek from one end to the other. About half-way down the mall, I reached up to be sure my earring had not fallen off, as I was pretty proud of how fast we were going, when I discovered that HE had let me walk out of the house and into the mall with out earrings. I don’t go to the bathroom without earrings. Southern ladies just don’t do that. I told him that this was going to be a short walk, because what if someone noticed that I was in the mall without my earrings! I just couldn’t take that chance.  We began to look around and noticed that the only ones that were “mall walking” had to be over 70. And they certainly didn’t care if they had earrings on; Tweety Bird t-shirts with matching elastic band pants was apparently the “in” thing to wear mall walking. Each time we passed Dillards or Macy’s I thought of something else that I wanted to show him. Looking back over that day, I think we probably spent more time window shopping than walking, but as I told Randy, “we should really wait until middle of Feb or first of March to start this because you know people are looking at us and thinking that we are some of the old people that make a resolution that the first of the year, we are going to get on an exercise program and their second thought would be “bet they dont’ last 1 week”. So if you start later, at least they might be thinking, “good for them, they are still keeping up their resolution to exercise”. It really does make sense to me. By the time we got in the car I told him that I thought I would just wait until it warmed up a bit and walk outside. I just didn’t feel like we fit in with all the oldies at the mall that always stopped at the food court for their McDonalds 87 cent coffee and $1 apple pies when they were through. Plus, since I had gone to our neighborhood mall without earrings, I just couldn’t stand the thought of going back in there for awhile.

Casseroles · Chicken · Daily Thoughts · Meats · Starches

Chicken Florentine Manicotti Alfredo

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Received my new Southern Lady magazine. I have wiped off the drool from the front cover as it displayed a gorgeous pecan-date pie which is just divine and went quickly pass the desserts in search of a new dinner recipe. This one sounded like it was meant for today, since we woke up to 27 degrees and need something that will “stick to our bones”. Of course during the last 2 months we have found lots of recipes that have “stuck to our bones”. That is why we are shopping this week for new clothes…a size larger. Of course we always say that we are just going mall walking, but in reality, all we do is walk into the stores and see what is on sale. But it sounds great when friends call and ask what we have been up to. “oh just got back from our walking the mall.”

Makes 6-8 servings *This recipe also freezes very well

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach

2 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup firmly chopped green onion

1 teas garlic powder

1 (8 oz) package manicotti, cooked according to package directions

1/4 cup butter

2 tables flour

1/2 teas salt

2 cups whole milk

1/4 teas ground white pepper (I am cheating and using black, do not want to go back to grocery store)

1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 tables Italian seasoning

1/2 teas ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13×9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, spinach, cream cheese, green onion, and garlic powder.

Beat at medium speed until well combined with hand mixer. Spoon chicken mixture into manicotti and place in prepared pan; set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium heat until melted. Add flour, salt and white pepper; cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Gradually add milk, continuing to whisk. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for 4 min, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened.

Remove from heat and add cheese, stirring until cheese melts. Spoon sauce over manicotti and sprinkle evenly with Italian seasoning and pepper.

Bake for 35 to 40 min or until bubbly and heated through.

*To make ahead and freeze you can completely make the casserole and just cover and freeze without baking. When ready to serve, thaw completely and bake in preheated 350 degree oven, uncovered for about 40 minutes or until bubbly hot.

Daily Thoughts

Happy New Years!!!!

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

2014 is almost gone. So many memories, some good some not so good. I don’t like to use the word “bad” because some of the “bad” memories, in the end, allow new and exciting experiences that happen in our lives. This past year brought many changes in our household. Randy retired, we moved from California back to Texas, we have a new granddaughter, Payton, and I completed my first book.

Randy’s retirement, in itself, allowed us to travel from the West coast to the East coast. We visited our kids along the way and ended up marking one thing off my bucket list….going to eat at Paula Deen’s Restaurant, Lady & Son’s. We learned that we can be together 24-7 (or is it 365 days, 518, 400 minutes as it seemed when we were traveling in the car some days).

After 2 months of traveling, we both knew when it was time to put away the suitcase and find someplace to nest. And nest we have. We are so grateful for the time spent on the road and grateful for the new memories that we collected. As we look back over the last 12 months, we are grateful that we were able to live in California for almost 4 years and experience living where we could watch the Rose Parade set up. We learned that there are precious people who touch our hearts, no matter where you live. We learned to love Lebanese food, In & Out Burgers, the mountains, walking along the seashore (and yes, all the while I would be looking to see if anyone famous was walking past). God provided a dear precious friend who told me that she would do the behind the scenes work on the book, if I would complete it…I did and Kathy did as she said…she turned it into book form. I remember kicking and crying as we drove across the desert, back in 2010, when moving to California; never dreaming that it would be while living there that this goal would be accomplished. But God did and He used it to fulfill what He had ask of me.

We are now nested in our new place. We look back with such fondness for the people and experiences that were ours last year…but are looking ahead with excitement for what God has planned for us. We don’t know yet what that is, but we know that we can always trust His heart and whatever that plan is, may we grow in our faith and trust to fulfill what He wants us to accomplish. Living back in Texas has given us an opportunity to get to know the kids who live near us as adults. Looking back over the past year, we had no idea that last year would be the last year we would be living in Pasadena and how God orchestrated Cam, Mandy, Jodi and Eric to come out for the Rose Parade is one of those, “this is such a God story” times.
So here is to 2015…a new year, new memories and new adventures. May Randy & I both look expectantly ahead and allow God to use us as He sees best.
Thanks to each of you who have taken the time to read cbocolatecastles! That blesses my heart that it might be bringing a smile to your heart! Happy New Year to each of you…….
Continue reading “Happy New Years!!!!” →

Daily Thoughts

Christmas Whimps

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2014-12-30 11.33.25Yesterday we found out that putting Christmas décor away is kinda like Thanksgiving dinner. It took days to get it out and put the décor in just the right places, but it only took one day to pack it up. Now mind you, we didn’t intend to do it in one day. I just woke up and thought it would be nice to start boxing up a few things upstairs that decorated the bedrooms. But as the morning went on, I got in “the mood”. You know the one. The mood that will not let you stop until everything is done. So for the next 8 or 9 hours, we hauled boxes in from the garage and hauled them back out. We broke a few things as the day progressed, which in Frosty’s eyes, wasn’t a bad thing as it will be a few less things he has to unpack next Christmas. By 8 p.m. (and a trip to the grocery store, (which was another blunder as I dropped a whole Coke on their floor because I was so thirsty I couldn’t wait until I got in the car) because by now, we were feeling very proud of ourselves. We had worked all day without stopping, even having a healthy Juice Plus shake for lunch, so we thought how swell to finish off the day with just a veggie dinner. We are starting this new year off great and we didn’t even wait until Jan 1st…I’m even thinking of writing to Dr Oz and telling him about how good we are doing.

Well…by 9 p.m. we were done. Once we sat down, we couldn’t get up. Our backs were so sore that we began to play rock, paper,scissors to see who would get up to get refills on tea. I began to wonder how long it would take if I ordered those new cute little Depends from Amazon so I wouldn’t have to get up to go to the bathroom, but Randy knocked me back into reality when he changed my password on Amazon and wouldn’t tell me what it was.  We looked around the house and realized that we had really put it all away, all 5 trees, plus all the “stuff” that my son says, makes our house look like a craft store. But when the Advil began to work and I went in to clean up the kitchen….there on the counter was the kitchen tree that we had overlooked. We just looked at each other and finally Randy says to me, “I can’t do it, I cannot undecorated anything else tonight”. As we climbed upstairs to go to bed, promising ourselves that we will NEVER EVER live anywhere again that you have to climb stairs to go to bed, I remembered the box of Valentine decorations out in the garage.

This morning, the last Christmas tree was turned into a Valentine Tree that allows me to keep a few of the lights that just make me feel peppy and upbeat. At least when Feb is over, we will only have a couple of boxes of items to put away. Maybe  only 1 Advil will do the trick, instead of half a bottle like last night.

We were hoping that when we got on the scales this morning, all of the exercise we got yesterday would pay off. It didn’t. We just rewarded ourselves for working so hard with our own pints of Blue Bell…

Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Skillet Apple Pie

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All I can say is this….it was the best apple pie we had ever had and our friends who share it said the same thing. The brown sugar-butter sauce in the bottom of the skillet under the crust just oozes the best buttery flavor and you just stand there and scrape all that sauce out with a spoon. My sister-in-law had us over for Christmas Eve breakfast, and as we were just standing there talking, she began to make this pie for their dinner, so I helped peel apples and began to read over the recipe. After taking a picture of it to bring home, I decided that afternoon that I was going to make it Christmas day for our dinner. I am so glad I did.

Ingredients:

1 large iron skillet

2 pounds of Granny Smith apples

2 pounds of Braeburn apples

1 tables flour

2 teas cinnamon

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used all light brown)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup firmly brown sugar

1 (14 oz) package refrigerated pie crusts (I used Betty Crocker box pie crust mix that you add water and roll out, I love the flakiness of this brand instead of the refrigerated ones)

2 tables granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Peel apples and cut into 1/2″ slices. Toss apples with cinnamon, flour and the 3/4 cup sugar (be it granulated or brown sugar, your choice, but use the brown, it is so good). Set aside.

Melt butter in a 10″ cast iron over medium heat; add the 1 cup of brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apples onto crust and top with remaining crust. Sprinkle the 2 tables granulated sugar over the piecrust and cut 4 to 5 slits in top pie crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hr and 10 min or until golden brown and bubbly.* (sometimes it might be necessary to place strips of aluminum foil around edges of pie crust to prevent over browning) I placed the skillet on a sheet of aluminum foil before placing in oven to avoid spills going over bottom of oven. Cool on a wire rack for about 30 min before serving with ice cream.

Daily Thoughts

Christmas Crazies

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Sorry Eric, but I have to blog about you. In my son-in-law’s quest to cook for Christmas dinner, he called to ask me about several recipes that he wanted to make. When he informed me that he couldn’t find my recipe for chocolate cream pie that he loved, on the blog, I promised I would post it and I did, immediately. In my haste to post it, apparently, I didn’t use the word, “cook” in it. I just simply gave instructions to use a medium saucepan, and whisk until mixture thickens and bubbles.

I get a frantic phone call yesterday from him. Before answering it, just glancing to see who was calling, I began to think, “hum…this is so cool that my son-in-law (SIL) misses me so much that he is calling again today. This is just the best Christmas ever. Not only do the kids call, but here I’m getting calls from SIL. But the voice at the other end of the line didn’t sound very loving. All I heard when I answered “merry Christmas Eric” was “MIL (mother-in-law), what texture should the liquid be in before pouring it into the pie shell?” When I told him it should be thick and pudding like consistency, he yells, “just a minute” throws down the phone and I sit there wondering what is going on. In a minute he comes back on the line to tell me that he had run to pour the mixture back in the saucepan from the pie shell. Since he didn’t read the word “cook”, he assumed that he just mixed the ingredients in a saucepan and whisked them until all lumps disappeared then poured it in the pie shell. But when it was still just thin like water, he panicked. I told him to cook it this time before pouring it into the pie shell. He did and they had a wonderful chocolate cream pie for dessert.

I thought I was going to make it through the whole Christmas season without a blog story of one of my “oopsies” but on Christmas Eve, when the grocery stores are jammed, I happened to run into Kroger to buy a few things. After I couldn’t find the French Fried Onion Rings, and finally found a young man to help me find them (and yes I made sure he worked there before asking his help), I followed him to aisle 6 where he pointed them out to me. The look he gave me as he was walking off told me that he had lost his Christmas cheer a while ago. As he walked off probably groaning to himself that old people are just so blind and can’t find anything, there was a loud crash. I looked down to realize that it came from my basket. For some unknown reason, instead of putting the blackberry perserves  in the basket where they belong, I had put them in the seat part of the basket and they rolled out and crashed onto the floor of aisle 6. Blackberry preserves and glass were now splattered all over the floor. Let’s just say that the other last minute shoppers didn’t give me a look of Christmas cheer either. They were too busy picking up their baskets to get the wheels out of the glass and stickiness and guess who was sent back to clean up? Yep, the precious young stock boy who led me to that aisle a few minutes before. I just kept apologizing and led my basket away as fast as possible. From  there you could tract my steps from the glass and preserves that the wheels were leaving. I really thought that when we moved back from California, I would get a fresh start and not be banned from as many places, but it looks like my clumsiness followed me and I’m well on my way to having just a handful of places that I will be welcome. Apparently, after the chocolate pie fiasco, my son-in-law’s house is now on the “not welcome here” list, as well as Kroger.

Daily Thoughts

Merry Christmas

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Christmas means so many things to everyone. Whether it conjures up feelings of warmth or loneliness, remember that there is someone who loves you more than you can ever understand.

This is the season we celebrate the Savior’s birth. He came to earth as a tiny baby. He died on the cross for our sins out of the greatest love even known to man. He did it for you and for me. So as we gather around the Christmas tree this morning, take time to remember all that God has done for us. As we  sit around the tree, opening presents, may we remember the tree on which He gave His life to save us from our sin. May today be a day not only for giving and receiving presents to family and friends, but a day that we give our best to Him…our hearts, our surrender and our service to the Christ of Christmas

Merry Christmas from my heart to yours! Trudy

Daily Thoughts

Merry Christmas From an Old Princess Who Now Shops From Her Lazy Girl Chair

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Because most of us are not the Martha Stewarts that have finished shopping, cooking and have everything already wrapped and am sitting by the fire eating bon bons with our feet propped up, I thought this might bring a smile to your face.

My new motto: If Amazon doesn’t have it, give a gift card. My Christmas Spirit is not waning, it is just refocusing. Am spending more time this year baking and sampling…thus: the poem. Thank you Bonnie for passing this on to me…it is great!

Merry Christmas To My Female Friends
>>
>> If I were ol’ Santa, you know what I’d do
>> I’d dump silly gifts that are given to you
>> And deliver some things just inside your front door
>> Things you have lost, but treasured before.
>>
>> I’d give you back all your maidenly vigor,
>> And to go along with it, a neat tiny figure.
>> Then restore the old color that once graced your hair
>> Before rinses and bleaches took residence there.
>>
>> I’d bring back the shape with which you were gifted
>> So things now suspended need not be uplifted.
>> I’d draw in your tummy and smooth down your back
>> Till you’d be a dream in those tight fitting slacks.
>>
>> I’d remove all your wrinkles and leave only one chin
>> So you wouldn’t spend hours rubbing grease on your skin.
>> You’d never have flashes or queer dizzy spells,
>> And you wouldn’t hear noises like ringing of bells.
>>
>> No sore aching feet and no corns on your toes,
>> No searching for spectacles when they’re right on your nose.
>> Not a shot would you take in your arm, hip or fanny,
>> From a doctor who thinks you’re a nervous old granny.
>>
>> You’d never have a headache, so no pills would you take.
>> And no heating pad needed since your muscles won’t ache.
>> Yes, if I were Santa, you’d never look stupid,
>> You’d be a cute little chick with the romance of a cupid.
>>
>> I’d give a lift to your heart when those wolves start to whistle,
>> And the joys of your heart would be light as a thistle.
>> But alas! I’m not Santa. I’m simply just me,
>> The “matronest” of matrons you ever did see.
>>
>> I wish I could tell you all the symptoms I’ve got,
>> But I’m due at my doctor’s for an estrogen shot.
>> Even though we’ve grown older, this wish is sincere,
>> Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

>> Save the Earth; it is the only planet with chocolate
>> Life is a gift . . . unwrap it!