No, We're Not in Hades, It Just Feels Like It

Here's my picture of the day. This is the thermostat in my car. Every time I comment to Jeff what the car thermostat is registering he says, "That's not the real temperature." My question is: "Then why is it on the car, telling me that we are currently residing in a subdivision of Hades?"

According to the weatherman we have several more days of temps above 100 degrees. Is there any relief in sight? Who knows? This I do know...I'm glad heaven is my eternity because the other just doesn't bear thinking about.

Everyone Remain Calm

My sweet friend, Cody, gave me this bookmark a few weeks ago. I have decided to adopt it as my new life philosophy. I cannot think of a better solution to any and all problems or stress: KEEP CALM AND HAVE A CUPCAKE.

I had a little time on my hands a week or so ago and decided to just play around with some different designs on cupcakes. I am fascinated by the show "Cupcake Wars" the way you might be fascinated by watching a spider wrap up a fly he has just netted in his web. I love the way the bakers perform, (how God created creatures to survive) but I am nervous and a little sickish at the stress they go through with a time limit to make so many cupcake designs from scratch. (spiders drinking blood from flies....just in case you were having problems connecting the dots in my analogy.) And now I'm even wondering if it makes sense...oh well, moving right along.

My Creations!

All of my cupcakes are yellow cake with buttercream icing. I just used nuts, sanding sugars and nonpareils to fancy them up a bit. I cannot imagine what the snooty judges on "Cupcake Wars" would say about...heaven forbid...a BOX mix. That, along with my "not impressive at all" presentation would surely send me home in the first round. Thankfully I'm in competition with no one, and I love blessing people with little boxes of cupcakes. After all, shouldn't all of life's little problems come with the tag, "KEEP CALM AND HAVE A CUPCAKE?" It's no solution to world peace, but things would certainly taste a little sweeter!

The Streets of Fort Worth

There's a new driver in town and she's headed your way! I can hardly believe that Rebecca is on the road with her driver's permit. I stress out just thinking about it, but will surely be glad of the day that she can drive herself to school. (although my prayer life will definitely increase) And here you thought it was just the insurance that went up.

Summer Reading List: Edited Version

You know, sometimes book choices just don't work out. I live by the philosophy that life is too short to read boring/bad/fill-in-your-own-word-here books. So, I have deleted Await Your Reply from my list. If it doesn't improve soon, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will go as well. I'm going to give it another 20 or 30 pages to draw me in.

I've also added two series from our church library that are more light-reading, but hey, shouldn't summer reading be fun and light-hearted and whatnot?

A Lowcountry Romance Series by Rachel Hauck

*Sweet Caroline

*Love Starts With Elle (which I've already read and didn't know was part of a series -- boo!)

*Dining With Joy

Defenders of Hope Series by Amy Wallace (new author for me)

*Ransomed Dreams

*Healing Promises

*Enduring Justice

I will say the best book I've read so far this summer is Same Kind of Different As Me. This book is a must read for anyone and in fact, is on Abigail's school reading list. So, so, so good and a true story, and did I say how good it was? Go get this book today!

Adventures in Pickle Making

I don't know where I get the wild ideas that I do. One day I just decided to see if I could make pickles! Must be those memories of childhood, making tomato relish and creamed corn, along with shelling peas. Mmm....can almost taste those things now.

I only dabbled my toe in the shallow pool of refrigerated pickles, not wishing to jump off in to the deep end of canning supplies, sterilizing jars, etc. I had a great time collecting supplies and photographing the entire process. The pickles would take ten days to, well, "Pickle" and then they would be ready to eat. July 4 was my taste my pickles day. Unfortunately I was sick and didn't think they sounded good. More unfortunate was the fact that I really didn't care for the finished product when I did taste them. They were good, but a little too spicy-garlicky for me. So...had a great time, but no thanks?

Supplies

Pickles are surprisingly cheap to make.

Everything was mixed up and sat at room temp for two hours.

Here they are in their jars, looking beautiful.

Aren't the jars pretty? Found them at Dollar General for $2.00 each!