Love this cake...

Warm Winter Lemon Cake

Prep: 15 min. Total time: 1 hour 15 min.

Add 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of lemon zest to the pudding mixture for some extra lemon flavor. You can substitute a chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding.

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
2 cups cold milk
1-1/4 cups water
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

*Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Pour into greased 13x9-inch baking dish; set aside.
*Pour milk and water into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes and granulated sugar. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Pour over batter. Place baking dish on baking sheet to catch any sauce that might bubble over sides of dish as dessert bakes.
*Bake 55 min. to 1 hour or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Check for doneness at 45 minutes. Cool 20 min. (Sauce will thicken slightly as it cools.) Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Spoon into serving dishes to serve warm. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Icy day in Texas...

This day won't mean much to you that live where you often have snow and ice, but to those of us in Texas, this day is not something we have often. In fact, I heard on the news that the last time we had ice like this was in 2003. Today was also our coldest morning of this year...21 degrees! Because it is so rare here of course I had to grab my camera for some shots of the ice.

Love & Marriage...

This morning I attended a breakfast for ladies at our church where we listened to Gary West give us some pointers to help us in our marriage. After breakfast our spouses joined us for another message on marriage. Jim and I will soon celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary but I feel we will always want to learn or be reminded of things that will make our marriage even better and stronger.

One of the scriptures he used was Ephesians 4:23-32. A couple verses that spoke to me were:

v. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

and v. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

We heard how powerful words are and how they determine the direction of our lives. How different marriages would be if we truly obeyed these verses.

Gary also recommended the book

The Five Languages of Apology by Gary Chapman.

It can be purchased at Amazon.com.

I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when he will speak to us once more about marriage!

Parties, Food, Fun...

We have enjoyed having my sister, Stephanie, here from Honduras. She goes back this Saturday and we will miss her. We had a party for her this past Saturday and she was so blessed by her friends!

On Sunday she fixed us some Honduran food. We all liked it...even Ashlynn! Thanks Stephanie for bringing this from Honduras! We all had fun tasting the different things.

I love kids!

Sunday we sang a song by Matt Redman called You Never Let Go.

The chorus starts,

Oh no, You never let go

Through the calm and through the storm

We heard our granddaughter Ashlynn, age 20 mo., singing the song...like this,

Oh no, You never let go

Oh no where did he go?

She sounds so sweet and we can only smile as she sings these words.

I am so glad that Jesus never lets go! Aren't you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other night my sister, Stephanie and I were invited to a friend's home for dinner and play Scrabble Express. While we waited for the meal to finish cooking I decided to teach her 6 & 8 year old how to play. I told the 6 yr. old it was a spelling game and this was our conversation.

Me: What is a word you can spell?

No response.

My friend: You can spell dog.

A smile from the 6 yr. old.

Me: OK, what other word can you spell?

No response.

My friend: You can spell cat.

A BIG smile from the 6 yr. old as she says: I can spell Mesopotamia!

I just love kids!!!

Apples of Gold...

Last week was our first week of Apples of Gold. This is the second group we have had go through this mentoring program. It is a 7 week course where women are mentored in different areas.


They learn some cooking skills from two wonderful mentors. I was especially excited to have my sister help in the kitchen this week.

It is also a time where they learn about kindness, how to love their husbands, love their children, along with other things. We have a wonderful teacher that shares with the women while our cooking mentors are preparing our dinner. And believe me, we have some delicious meals.

The program is taken from Titus 2:3-4

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home; to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God

I am privileged to be the host home as well as a mentor to the ladies. Thought it would be fun to post a few pictures over the next weeks.

Christmas is...

I bought this book this year and it is such a sweet story.

I enjoyed reading it to Colette.

We were so blessed to have Stephanie home from Honduras for Christmas. She received a year of internet service from Stacy and Travis. This is something she has not been able to afford. We are all excited to be able to communicate more often with her when she returns to Honduras.

First day of a new year...

My brother and sister-in-law are here from Arkansas. They brought all the ingredients for a new recipe they recently tried. You could serve it for breakfast, brunch or dinner. We had it for breakfast. They had some delicious smoked salmon a relative brought them from Alaska and it was very good in this recipe. I have included the link if you would like to try it yourself. Dinner Recipes - Smoked Salmon Kedgeree Recipe - Relish

Our family was all together last night. At midnight, after we toasted with our sparkling grape juice, Jim prayed. We were all in a circle and our granddaughter, Ashlynn, happened to be standing in the middle (had been playing) near my brother. As Jim began to pray she raised her little hand up to my brother and he took it. She then stood quietly while Jim prayed, continuing to hold his hand. It was a precious moment.