Homemade Yogurt and Blueberry Sauce

There has been a lot of activity in our kitchen lately! Some of it has to do with the recent remodeling projects. (That's another post for another day.) Some of it has been experimenting with a simple way to make yogurt.

"Why?" you ask.

Two reasons:

1. We spend wa-a-a-a-ay too much money on yogurt at the grocery store. (The Bear and I can easily put away 3 cartons a day. Even with coupons and sales we spend at least $2.50 a day or $17.50 a week since he eats 2 cartons of Greek style and I eat at least 1 of whatever style we have available.
2. Neither one of us needs the additional bovine growth hormone that I fear might be in some of the yogurt we consume. He is a man. I am a post-menopausal woman. Enough said. The only ways I know to avoid this hormone are to buy only organic - which would be wa-a-a-a-ay more expensive than what I'm spending now - and I don't want to spend a lot of money on yogurt (see #1 above); or make it myself using non-hormone injected cow's milk. Uh, I choose the latter option.

After a bit of experimentation I have come upon a nice method for making it using equipment and supplies I already had on hand, unless you count the cheese cloth that I bought because I was out of it. Oh, and 1 carton of organic plain yogurt as my starter. (Bought on sale and with a coupon.)

My equipment: a large dutch oven for heating the milk and a pressure cooker/canner for incubating a batch. Also, 2 quart-size mason jars with lids, a funnel, a wooden spoon, cheesecloth, and a candy thermometer.

Steps for making yogurt:

• Pour 8 cups of milk into dutch oven. (That's 1/2 gallon of milk. No matter what price you pay for your milk this method will be a whole lot cheaper than buying 8 cups of yogurt!)
• Heat your milk to 180 degrees while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Use a meat or candy thermometer for accurate measurement. My candy thermometer does a great job helping me make yogurt but it has never helped me make good candy! My holiday fudge always turns into a disaster. Or a nice fudge sauce. Depends on how you market your product. Which is why one of our family traditions includes celebrating Christmas with hot fudge sundaes. :)
• After the milk has reached the desired temperature it needs to be taken off the burner and allowed to cool until it reaches 110 degrees. If you let it sit too long just put it back on the heat until it reaches the desired 110 degree temperature.
• Stir 1/4 cup of cultured organic yogurt into your warm milk. I always use a wooden spoon when making ANYTHING that uses a starter (sourdough bread, friendship bread, etc.). It is probably an unnecessary precaution since the milk is heated in a stainless steel pan, but I do it anyway because somewhere in the back of my mind is the thought that metal kills live cultures. Not sure why that thought is there. Anyway. . .
• Using a clean funnel, pour the warm cultured milk into 2 clean mason jars. Place lids on them. These lids can be reused for each batch because you will not be sealing them to the jars.

• Place the jars on the rack in the pressure cooker/canner. As you can see, my canner holds 5 quarts but that would be a bit too much yogurt, even for The Bear and me. Actually, it would be a bit too much for my refrigerator. Now that I know how to make this quickly 2 quarts at a time is plenty.

• Place water in the canner so that the level is about 1/2 way up the sides of the jars. Heat the water until it reaches 110 degrees. Then turn off the stove.
• Once the proper temperature is reached, put the lid on the pressure cooker but DO NOT add the pressure gauge. The idea is to keep the cultured milk incubating, not cooking!
• Open the pressure cooker every 2 or 3 hours to check on the temperature of the water. If it feels too cool turn the stove on "low" for a short time. DO NOT ALLOW THE WATER TEMPERATURE TO RISE TOO HIGH! If you do, it will kill your cultures. Ask me how I know.
• Go to bed. Really. I start my yogurt about mid-afternoon and I check the water temperature two or three times, the last time being right before I retire for the night.
• Wake up to 2 jars of fresh, creamy yogurt!
• I always take out 1/4 cup of cultured yogurt and place it in a separate container in the refrigerator before I do anything else. This is the starter for the next batch.

Strain some of your yogurt using cheese cloth to make Greek style. The Bear likes the thicker curds of this style of yogurt. I'm not particular. 

Use the milky liquid, the whey, that results from the straining in place of buttermilk in pancake or biscuit recipes. It makes them light and fluffy!

Stir spoonfuls of homemade jam and jelly into your individual yogurt servings. I use strawberry jam, peach jam, and apple jelly. Since The Bear and I are partial to blueberry flavored yogurt I make blueberry sauce and keep it in the refrigerator near the yogurt. (Recipe below!)

Blueberry Sauce

This blueberry sauce is adapted from the Blueberry Pie Deluxe recipe found in The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. (The whole pie is excellent, too!)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or thawed blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the blueberries and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils, thickens, and clears. Remove from heat. Stir in the butter and the lemon juice. Cool. Then refrigerate.

Place about 2 Tablespoons of the filling on top of your regular or Greek homemade yogurt. Delicious!

A Day in Lima

That's Lee-muh and not Lie-muh. I don't want you to think the pictures that follow are from a recent trip to northern Ohio. Nope! We crossed the Equator for the first time to make a visit to South America! We celebrated 35 years of marriage this past summer (at church camp) so we decided a special trip was in order.

In the early afternoon of October 15th Pastor Dad and I flew out of CVG and after a moderate layover in DFW caught a flight to Lima, Peru. We arrived there after midnight their time on the morning of the 16th which was after 1 a.m. at home where Daylight Savings Time was still in effect. It was well after 1 a.m. in Peru when we cleared customs and collected our baggage.

Our missionary friend, Sheridan Stanton, had arrived earlier in the day from his home in Huanaco. He had been able to rent a car, check into the hotel, and get a little rest before driving back to the airport to meet us. It was wonderful to see a familiar face waiting beyond the security barriers!

After a few hours of sleep we prepared to tour the city of Lima by daylight. (The post-midnight drive from the airport to the hotel didn't reveal much.) Daylight also revealed that we were staying near the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ocean as seen from our hotel balcony

We drove to downtown Lima so that we could view the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace at noon.

Just let me interject here that the drivers in Peru must be the worst anywhere. ANYWHERE! I mostly rode in silence because I was afraid that if I opened my mouth Bro. Stanton would be distracted. Believe me, we didn't want him distracted! 

Lanes? Ha! Want to turn left but you're 5 vehicles across (there are only 3 lanes) in the right-hand lane? Don't let that stop you! What's that you say? You're on a motorcycle and you'd need to cross in front of three cars and a double-decker bus? Oh, don't worry about it! They'll see you coming. You can bet your life on it!

(Nope! Not an exaggeration! Worst. Drivers. ANYWHERE! But Bro. Sheridan is an excellent driver. He even managed to return the rental car later that week without a scratch. And that's a miracle pure and simple! A miracle!)

We were told that the changing of the Peruvian Presidential guard isn't as grand as the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace but since we've never witnessed the latter ceremony we really have no way to make a comparison. We were impressed enough with this daily noontime ritual though. There were high kicks, ceremonial music, and plenty of pomp and circumstance. We spent several minutes enjoying the view of the rest of the Plaza de Armas, too.

Changing of the Guard

The Presidential Palace with the Changing of the Guards

Another side of the Plaza

The Archbishop's Palace next to the Cathedral of Lima, located to one side of the plaza

We two tourists on our 1st day in Peru, standing by the historic fountain in the center of the Plaza de Armas with the Presidential Palace behind us

The Cathedral of Lima

The Pastor and the Missionary/"Tour Guide," Brother Stanton

Nearby was the Inquisition Museum. Given that Catholicism is the religion of the country it was a bit surprising to find a museum dedicated to remembering her days of persecution of non-conformists. Also somewhat surprising was the way the history has been revised to make it seem as though just a mere handful were actually tortured and killed. (Here is a link telling about the museum. When you visit that site you will understand why I did not take more pictures.)

This museum is a reminder to us of what it cost some of our forebears for holding to their faith. Let us not forget that there are still many Christians around the world who are enduring persecution. As Jesus warned His disciples, His followers might be put to death by those who think they are actually doing God a big favor. (My paraphrase.)

A model of an infidel

A portrait of the Lima Plaza de Armas showing those convicted of crimes against the Church being led to their deaths

The steps down to the dungeons. Even now there are places were a person could lose their head, or knock herself out, if she is not careful! (The ceilings are extremely low in places and made of jagged rock. )

A couple of dungeon cells. People died inside here, which may have been better than the alternatives!

One part of the Inquisition Museum that is actually very beautiful: the courtyard.

After leaving the downtown Lima area we drove down the coast to an oceanside shopping mall at Miraflores. Enough time had passed since we had left the Inquisition Museum that we had regained our appetites. (And by now I was so tired that I closed my eyes part of the way and totally avoided seeing how close we were to the other vehicles we were trying NOT to hit a la "Bumper Cars" carnival ride.) We had the Executive Lunch at Tony Roma's! Since our Cincinnati restaurant closed a few years ago we now must go a long way to get a taste of these ribs.

Good food. Good prices (in sols; at the time $1 USA = s/.2.75)

The view from the shopping center at Miraflores

A skydiver near the restaurant. Feel up to it after lunch? Yeah, right!

Busy 24 hours + full stomachs = 2 tired tourists

Looking for the Starbucks. Or was it the Italian ice cream? Well, we found the Starbucks but not the ice cream. Since it was nippy outside the warm brew tasted and felt good.

Back to the hotel. The statue of Mary in the Magdalena del Mar neighborhood taken from our hotel window. If she still rotated as she used to do she would look directly into the hotel rooms! Hmm.

Another Grandchild T-shirt Project

Little Miss Lili-ladybug loves Lalaloopsy. I confess that until recently I had no idea who or what that might be! However, anything can be found on the Internet so I was soon educated! I used that new knowledge to produce a t-shirt for her that I thought she might like:

I traced a black line drawing picture of a Lalaloopsy girl that I then painted with fabric markers. I embellished this with black buttons for the eyes, a tied red ribbon in the hair, red embroidery floss for the shoe laces, black embroidery thread stitching for the mouth, and gold embroidery thread for textured hair. Then I attached t-shirt material with fusible web to the inside of the shirt to protect Lili's skin from the knotted threads.

Not knowing the story, I had no certain character in mind when choosing the hair or clothing colors. I don't think it was a problem. Since Lili's third birthday was approaching we bought her this doll, one of two blond but non-identical dolls she received.

The t-shirt was finished a couple of weeks before her birthday party where Lili wore the shirt! A friend held her while I snapped this photo:

If you're keeping track you know that I still have one shirt left to make. That would be for Polly. And given that she is a preteen and the weather is cooling off I'm thinking something long sleeves and chic would be in order. Stay tuned.

Please Stand By...

I promise to get the blog caught up shortly. Here's a couple of pictures to show just one of the places where I was today.

(There's a Bible Conference in the area in which Pastor Dad will be preaching this weekend. Preaching appointment + short vacation = GOOD TIMES.)

And I understand that there have been terrible storms at home. Have I ever mentioned that Pepper is terribly afraid of thunder? Well, I'm telling you now.

I received the following from The Bear just a little while ago:

Yup! That's the cabinet under the kitchen sink.

From Fear to Faith: A Personal Testimony

I have been open about my private physical health problem so let me be just as frank about a private spiritual health problem I recently experienced. This may not be the kind of thing you would expect a pastor's wife to write - after all, aren't we supposed to be super-spiritual or something? - but what follows is true and from my heart.

* * *

One day toward the end of June I was sitting here at the computer typing a Bible Journal entry for the daily blog post.

"You know that this is all an exercise in futility. God is not real and the Bible is fake."

That's the thought that crossed my mind. I immediately stopped, prayed, and tried to dismiss it but it troubled me far longer than I thought possible! I've been a faithful follower of Jesus Christ for almost 40 years now. Recently I had even completed 27 years of providing my children a Christian education through homeschooling. Once that was completed I had turned my focus to personal ministry. After much prayerful consideration, and with Pastor Dad's blessing, I had begun investing additional time and money into helping people with their needs. Specifically, this was to be centered on the following 3 groups of people that God says cannot be expected to repay their benefactor:

• widows
• orphans (or those who are unwanted, or unborn, or from broken homes: all of whom can be similar to orphans)
• foreigners.

You know, those people that God told the Israelites to help when He had Moses write the Pentateuch.

Alumni and Faculty of Karabeth Baptist Homeschool, a division of Gateway Christian Schools, Memphis, TN

Things had been going well. At least they had been until that awful, frightening thought took up residence in my mind ...

A few nights later I had a terrifying nightmare! I had another a few weeks later. Those dreams made me not want to sleep for fear of having another. I began to doubt my salvation and this was not the first time. But when I was a child and doubted it was because I wondered if I had understood, or repented, or trusted Christ, or {fill in the blank}. This was different. This was "There is no God no matter what you believe."  I cannot conceive of a more hopeless thought!

Scriptures tell us that only fools say there is no God, that Jesus is God in the flesh who defeated spiritual and physical death for us, and that if there is no resurrection we are of all men most miserable. That pretty much summarizes my situation. I felt like a miserable fool. Things stayed that way for several weeks but I carried on as well as I could, including typing blog posts despite the troubling thought in my head. My life, and the rest of the summer went on in its course. (That was chronicled in a previous happier post.)

* * *

Then on July 19th I received the following excerpted email from a church friend. It was so timely and so appreciated. 

Just been thinking about you and the Pastor all week....especially yesterday and today.
Mrs. _____ told us that when someone comes to mind and you don't know
why, to just pray for them.

When I read this email I sunk to the floor and cried.  Someone was praying for us! For me!  God, if there truly is a God, had put me on this woman's mind. (She would later tell me that God awoke her in the night several times that week and that was when she prayed.)

Once I regained some composure I typed this reply:

Thank you for your prayers. Mrs. _____ was right. We need them! It has been a very stressful week.

Personally, I have been struggling with doubts. That's probably not the kind of thing you want to hear from your pastor's wife, but it is true. On top of everything else he has had to deal with lately your pastor has had to hold his frightened wife and calmly tell her that the God we say we love and worship really does exist.

I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH and yet I am struggling with it. I have been very open about this with my husband and he has been very patient with me. He thinks that my Bible Journal that I post daily on my blog has earned me oppression and perhaps he is right. It had been my best year of personal Bible study so far and I had been devouring scripture like a starving person grabs food. Then the doubtful thoughts began sweeping over me and I panicked.

I'm still devouring scripture, though, and believe God will make Himself known to me. In fact, I find the thought that He told you to pray for us very comforting. Thank you for telling me.

Her response was simple but profound:

I love you and I want you to know that I never thought you were more than human. 

Okay, we all know I'm only human, but it was comforting to know that others do not hold me to a higher standard than other humans. Evidently ministerial family members do experience doubts and there are spiritual people who pray for them!

I later remembered that being human is what Jesus coming to earth was all about! Yes, He is 100% God but He is also 100% man (and no, I cannot explain this). It is because He is human that He could experience everything we do yet remain sinless and that makes it possible for Him to be our Savior.

* * *

The very next morning, July 20th, I picked up Lisa and Roman at the airport. As I looked at the smile on the face of that happy little cherub in the stroller my heart was pounding. I love that little guy! I do not want to lead him astray! We raised his mommy and her siblings to have faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone as their mediator between their sinful selves and the holy God. It is the same faith that we are presenting to our grandchildren. What if we had misled our children all those years and were continuing to do so? I must find the TRUTH before it is too late! After all, being sincere in a faith isn't enough. It is obvious that many sincere people are sincerely wrong since all views of faith cannot be right. They are mutually exclusive.

* * *

Besides my babysitting responsibilities at church camp I had also been planning to be a counselor. Given what I was going through then it did not seem prudent for me to lead a group of teen-aged girls in spiritual reflection. I attempted to talk to our teen camp director's wife Sunday morning, July 21st, to tell her that I was not going to be able to be a counselor but that didn't work out. I took my place in the choir and tried to get through the song service but that didn't work either. I left the auditorium in tears while we were singing a hymn. I later found myself sobbing in the arms of my surprised pastor-husband during the closing hymn. He asked the congregation to pray for me, as one God-awakened/email-sending member and he himself were already doing. (In the 4 weeks since that service I have had numerous people tell me that God has been awakening them at night and they pray for me. I haven't had any more nightmares so perhaps their intervention - and lack of sleep - has helped me rest.) Telling our congregation about my fear was one of the most humbling things I have ever had to do and yet it was the key to recovery.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  James 5:16 

The next day was our 35th wedding anniversary as well as the first day of camp. It is not unusual for those two things to coincide and actually seems fitting since we have been ministering together since the days we took our vows. But my spiritual peace did not return to me overnight and so instead of being a counselor I worked as support staff which gave me more time to read, study, and pray. It was time well-spent toward examining the Bible, other belief systems, and my own heart.

* * *

I later spoke with my friend, the email buddy, about the things that had been troubling me, one of which is what happens when we die. What if I am wrong about death and there is no God, no Jesus, no Heaven? This wise woman told me that what I am seeking is dying grace and I won't need it until I am dying. Right now I only need the kind of grace necessary to live day by day. It is one thing to make sure that one is on the right path, and indeed, it is what I and my husband have dedicated our lives to help people find, but it is another to fear death.

She was right! It is grace for today that I need and God will take care of all my tomorrows. 

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

If you want me to tell you how I reached my conclusions about God and the Bible I will be glad to do so, but not now. Since most of my readers are believers you may know the path I wandered. My starting point was this: If God is real, then I am a Christian because I believe Jesus paid for my sins. With that in mind, and the prayer, "Lord, help thou my unbelief" I began my research.  And once again I was able to experience the joy of my salvation! The fear is gone and faith has taken its place!

Pastor Dad and I with the 8 blessings that call us "Grandad" and "Gram." We are determined that each of these precious youngsters hear over and over again about the living God who loves them, sent His Son to pay for their sins if they will repent and believe, and desires to live with them throughout eternity! 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 

Another Year of T-shirts for the Grandchildren

It has become a Rite of Spring for me, this making of t-shirts for our grandchildren. Lovingly fingering the thin cotton material while dressed in wool always lifts my spirits knowing that the weather will one day be warm enough for the children to wear them.

 

This year I decided to design my own t-shirts instead of buying already designed iron-on transfers at the craft store. That way each child will have something that fits his or her personality and interests, or at least that is the goal.  :)

 

 

 T-shirt #1

 

I only have 2 completed so far, but thought I would share them.  You can probably guess who is now the owner of the first shirt. (If you need a reminder you can go back a few years to my 4th blog post here to meet the manatee lover.)

 

I've tried unsuccessfully for a long time to find a cross stitch pattern to make a manatee sweatshirt for the manatee lover's autumn birthday but with no success. So when I decided to make her a t-shirt I looked through my pictures to see if I had anything appropriate. None were perfect, but one was chosen because it had at least one complete manatee in it:



 

 

 

 

 

After copying my photo to a Word document I added text and a graphic to the page: 

 

 

 

Using iron-on transfer paper (which I bought as a BOGOF per package sale offer) I printed off the transfer. If you do this, remember to use the mirror-image setting so that the text is properly formatted after ironing.

 

Tigger is now wearing this t-shirt:

 



T-shirt #2

Thanks to current tv options Fen has discovered old cartoons that most of us forgot (and for good reason, I might add). One of the characters has become his hero. Thanks also to old pictures found on the Internet I downloaded a picture of his favorite character:

T-shirts #3-#7

Uh, not even started although Sweet Pea did tell me that she would like one with her favorite animal, a hippo, . . . or a dog . . . specifically, Pepper.

Ok, perhaps you'd like to see pictures of our two latest cuties wearing the Valentine shirts that their Gram bought them instead. (I use the word "bought" loosely. I used bonus points earned from holiday spending to get each shirt for about $1.50 each. Hope that doesn't make me look like Gram-the-Scrooge).

Fen was giving his sister a little Valentine love.  :)

The picture is a little fuzzy but these moving targets were hard to photograph

And here is our newest little love and his Gram, who was privileged to visit him  on Valentine's Day in his home almost 2,000 miles away from her own (which is in an area warmer than her own year round):

I'll post more on shirts 3-7 when I have them.

Decorating the Kitchen Around a Keepsake

(I'm home-bound and phone-watching today so I decided to deviate from the usual post to tell about one of my past diy projects. I needed something to help pass the time)

When we lived in Tennessee our kitchen colors were blue and white but when we moved to this house in Ohio the kitchen was decorated in green and I had to quickly adapt since we moved when October turns to November and the weather can be a mixed bag around here. Turns out that I adapted so well that I ended up making it my own by adding touches inspired by a certain keepsake.

This cookie jar is now 35 years old

When I was a young bride-to-be my grandma gave me this apple cookie jar as a shower gift. I could never bring myself to part with it if for no other reason than it was given to me by the only grandparent that lived long enough to see me walk down the aisle.

Canisters and place settings were the first items to be added in  the apple theme

The real adaptation was on the wall behind the sink. It lacked a backsplash and was covered with marred and dirty checkered green wallpaper. After looking it over and determining that it would take more time and money to get the paper off than we had to spend on a Kitchen Makeover (which is on our list of home remodeling projects under the heading of Someday When Money Is Not An Object) it was determined that an inexpensive, quick fix was needed. We decided faux tile was the answer. I painted this behind my kitchen sink and under the existing light fixture (which will be changed in that "someday" makeover):

Supplies:

• Porter Paint in a semi-gloss finish to match the color we painted the rest of the kitchen (which happened to be a tan color)
• 4 colors of Apple Barrel paint (red, green, white, and a slate color to imitate grout)
• rags, sponges, and mini paintbrush
• painter's masking tape
• a ruler
• self-adhesive decals
• Plaid Clear Acrylic Sealer Gloss (aerosol spray)

It took several days to do this project, mainly because tiles next to each other could not be masked at the same time. One tile had to dry thoroughly before it could be masked over to allow its neighbor to be painted.

First we painted the wall with the Porter Paint and let it dry for several days. It looked so much better already! Next I drew the grid lines with a straight-edged ruler remembering to add space for the "grout."

 The "tiles" are standard 4.25 inch squares bordered by standard-sized edge piece "tiles" (not shown). I masked the first tiles I could paint being careful that they were not tiles next to each other. I used rags and sponges to get the effect I wanted. If I made a mistake I painted over it with the Porter Paint and left that tile unmasked until every other tile was painted (I only messed up one tile). This took several days.

When all of the "tiles" were painted and had thoroughly dried I again masked each tile in order to paint the "grout" between them. Once everything, tiles and grout, was dry I sprayed several coats of sealer over them, allowing plenty of time between coats. This took a couple of days.

The faux tile backsplash works as well as a real one. Splashes and drips wipe up quickly and it still looks nice after several years.

SOMEDAY will eventually come and then we can decide on something more permanent to fill the wall behind the sink, but for now the temporary faux tile continues to function as hoped and coordinates well with the keepsake cookie jar, which will never be changed.

Looking Back at the Birthdays

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the birthdays of 2 granddaughters, sisters that share a birthday week. That would be Miss Tigger and Little Lili Ladybug. It really was Lili's birthday that day, her second.

To honor Lili on her special day, her two oldest sisters composed a poem in her honor. I neglected to get a copy of the poem but there was an illustration to accompany it, as you can clearly see below.

Polly and Tigger reciting

Two girls opening gifts can make for a lot of excitement (and gift wrapping paper!).

Sometimes one of the gift-givers suffers from separation anxiety.  :)

Hey, Mom, did you mean to give this away?

The birthday girls blowing out the candles on their respective birthday cakes.

I include this photo for Mem and Pop. This is what we saw when you called.  :)

I hope she didn't get blue icing on the telephone!

Don't you just want to kiss that sweet little face? Well, maybe after it is washed. 

Big sister, Tiggeriffic, enjoying her birthday treats, too. I think Miss Tigger ended up having a"Birthday Week," which is not a bad way for an eight-year-old to celebrate, right?

Wednesday's Wisdom: A Few Random Thoughts

Getting behind in my posting recently has served as a reminder that neglecting the blog schedule is one thing but neglecting the Bible reading schedule is quite another. My first word of wisdom is that as you reach a busy time in your life, which these days pretty much covers anyone who lives in the northern hemisphere, make your Bible reading and prayer time your top priority. Nothing is more important than spending time with the Lord. Relationships become weak and sickly whenever they are neglected and the same holds true for the spiritual relationship.

Speaking of relationships, it will not be long until we celebrate the day I officially became a mother. I say officially because I cradled my daughter in my womb many months before I cradled her in my arms. Anyway, in honor of the "second anniversary of her 29th birthday" my oldest daughter, Karen, is having a give-away on her blog. The wise person will register to win this fabulous prize. Does that mean I'm going to enter? Of course!

And speaking of birthdays, it was pointed out by my friend, Vicky, that I did not post a link to the recipe I used last week when making strawberry pies for The Bear's birthday. That was probably because I had the recipe written on a piece of paper and not bookmarked on the computer. But that has been corrected now and I am more than happy to share the recipe and give the person that submitted it the credit due them.  You can find the recipe here.

There were a few suggestions under "reviews" that I intend to try (see #5 below the recipe at the link) but the recipe I used was almost exactly like the original at the link. I may cut the sugar back a bit as one reviewer suggested.

And as a final tip, let me suggest that it is wise to shop frugally for the ingredients. I bought store brand pie crusts for the sake of time but homemade crusts would have greatly reduced the price. The same could be said for whipped cream made from heavy cream and piped onto the pies with a tube decorator (I'm a bit snobbish when it comes to whipped cream because I prefer the real thing over the topping in tubs) but a can of the real stuff had to suffice. There was just barely enough in the can to go around the two pies.  The cost of the pies (minus crusts and cream) breaks down as follows:

• 3 quart cartons of strawberries (used 2 1/2 for the pies) = $2.50. Aldi had them for $0.99 per carton;
• 1 package of strawberry gelatin = $0.34 from Aldi
• 3/4 cup of sugar = who knows but not much; I estimate less than $0.25 based upon 11 1/4 cups per 5 lb bag
• candles = recycled from previous birthday parties; rare is the person in this family who gets new candles (and when they do it gets deducted from the cost of their gift. Just kidding).

And if you've read this far perhaps you'd like to see what happened to the leftover strawberries and a few melted chocolate chips:

They don't look as pretty as they would have if moved to a another platter but The Birthday Boy requested them at the last minute.