Cake Class!

Alicia and I finished our first cake decorating class last night. It met for two hours once a week for four weeks. And we learned a lot! It really was an enjoyable class. Two other mothers and their daughters (who were about Alicia's age) made up the rest of the class. And one of those mothers was a good friend of mine in elementary school. So, even though most of the classtime was spent learnin', I enjoyed catching up with her and getting to know her daughter a little bit.

So, what did we learn? We learned how to make a double-layer cake, complete with filling. We learned how to make stars, flowers, roses, shells, rosettes, and leaves. (I'm sure there were a few other things we learned, but I can't remember right off.) Last night we learned and practiced writing. We also decorated our final cake for class. Alicia and I decided to stick with a patriotic theme since this Sunday is the fourth of July. Red frosting is hard to make! It tends to want to come out pink! And pink, white and blue just won't do!

Anyway, here are some pictures of our final cake. And today we're making four dozen cupcakes for church tonight. ~smile~

Thinkin' 'bout camp, camp, camp, camp!!!

I follow the status updates made by the Christian camp that our kids attend, and this past week the status update brought tears to my eyes. Here's the post:

"This morning a mom placed her faith in Christ after hearing about her daughter's salvation at Pine Ridge earlier in the week. What a changed home that will be!"

I think about this family often. I pray that their home will indeed be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.

Website of Interest - Laine's Letters

It's been a number of years since I stumbled across the website www.lainesletters.com. Laine is a Christian wife and mother who started her website before blogging hit the nation like a whirlwind! While there are undoubtedly many other wives and mothers who have blogs that are similar to Laine's, I still find myself going back and rereading her articles.

Laine used to write very faithfully, but she has since cut back on her computer time. Her website is divided into three parts: recipes, letters, and "in my home." The recipes are self-explanatory, but they represent "real" food. You likely won't have to make a trip to the grocery store before trying most of the recipes. The letters are short devotionals about things, and those are very good as well. But it's the "in my home" part that I enjoy the most.

In this part of her website, she lists some of the things that happened in her home during the past week. I realize she hasn't written any updates in a number of years, but most of the things she writes about are pretty timeless: how to save money, how to stick to a budget, how to make your house a home, how to heal with herbs, how to cook, how to clean, etc.

Timeless.

Take a half hour today, and sit down and read some of her stuff. May it inspire you to get ambitious and work a bit more at making your home a refuge from the cares of this world.

Recipe - Peas and Asparagus

The other day I was given a pile of asparagus, and, having never cooked it before, I was a bit intimidated. So, I posted a plea for help on my Facebook status, and I received lots of helpful tidbits. I also searched my favorite cooking website, http://www.allrecipes.com/, to see what I could come up with there. I found lots of recipes that looked good, but the one we tried yesterday coupled asparagus with a veggie my family already enjoys, peas. I can't say the kids were thrilled with asparagus, but only Justin said he didn't like it, and even he ate it without too much complaining. I enjoyed it, and since I still have quite a big pile in the refrigerator, I'm looking to doing a bit more experimenting for lunch today. But here's the recipe as I made it yesterday. Enjoy!

PEAS AND ASPARAGUS
1/2 cup water
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen peas
3/4 pound fresh or frozen asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
Dash pepper

Bring water to a boil. Add peas, asparagus, butter, parsley, garlic salt and pepper. Return to a boil.
2.Reduce heat; cover and simmer until asparagus is crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Drain; serve immediately.