And again I say REJOICE!

One of my FAVE ;) homeschool friends just emailed asking how I was feeling and I told her:


"Happy to be blogging away, lol, but throat and voice a mess! Feel good though. Earlier today I thought I was done for and on the way to the ER but then I just sort of broke out in this determined JOY and immediately started feeling better! Like an angel just fluttered their wings near me or God just sighed my way, you know? It was totally an amazing feeling. (perhaps someone was praying for me...) So as long as I FEEL ok, then I can live without the voice!"


And I realized that maybe it was a healing of sorts or maybe I just determined to feel better, I am not sure. But I DO know that it was real joy and I am thankful to God RIGHT NOW that I am a naturally joyful person. I like to be happy! I do not want to be a complainer or a negative talker or thinker, I want to talk UP about everything, not down. We must determine to be joyful because we are called to and because we are walking contradictions as Christians if we don't!


Romans 17..."Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

Philippians 4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Chocolate Cake update

Well, here it is...well, almost. I cannot show the finished product because it is being assembled tomorrow at church. No, we DO NOT need two chocolate cakes in as many days in this house. :)

But I altered the recipe and am anxious to see the difference. I used two pans to get the thinner cake, added 4 super-heaping tblsp of cocoa (which probably ended up to be more like 6T)

and added an extra egg. I always end up altering recipes. I don't know why.

I must admit I am anxious to taste! I also think it will be prettier being bigger (longer I mean) and thinner. But I will not take a picture of it at church so you'll just have to take my word for it!

Kate the Great

Ok, so I'm a little biased. But Kate is such a beautiful child. She has just recently broken out of her shell. She will interact with everyone and seems SO sure of herself. She bangs around doing as she pleases totally confident in herself and her surroundings. I love how when we pull back into the driveway after being away, she gets a big smile on her face. "We're home!", she seems to think. Holding her tonight in her room about to lay her down she was holding me tight and resting her head on my shoulder. Nothing new. But I told her, "I love you" again and again not wanting to miss one time saying it...as if tomorrow may not come or there may not be time...Daddy had extra good time with her today and she showed off her skill by letting him teach her to say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! "Such a smartie!" he says. After the pain of the m/c subsided, I began to think that it was perhaps good that we had more time with her as a baby but as she grows and grows and I realize for the fourth time that time stops for no one...not even one as miraculous as her, I realize that if there were always another baby in the house, it still could never be too much.

All is Quiet on the Stephanie Front

My voice and throat are worse this morning. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Is there a cross over line when I should consider a Dr? I am not feeling all that bad but am still running a low grade which is cause for more concern than a higher one...but can still be beaten I am confident.
If I HEAR one more comment on how happy everone must be that I have lost my voice, I am really going to get a complex. (not) Lol

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Well I meant to publish the recipe so here it is! It is SO easy!

Delish Chocolate Cake

Mix together 2 c sugar, 2 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.

Melt together 1 c butter, 4 tblsp cocoa, 1 cup water. Add to dry ingredients

Mix 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. Add to rest of ingredients!

Top with fresh whipped cream. (2 cups heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup sugar- probably less, (I guess, I just did it to taste) and 1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla. Mix cream first with mixer until peaks form then add sugar and v. (chill bowl and attachments)

That's it! This makes a sheet cake or THREE thin layer cakes. Supposed to be thin. Which I now am realizing may be the reason mine was fluffy instead of dense. Her layers may have been thinner. I used a regular rectangular lasagna pan and the cake was a good 1 1/2" thick... I didn't have three equal size pans to make 3 layers. Hmm, I bet that was it. I didn't use a mixer to mix it just gently blended it with a spatula. I did however fall in LOVE with my new Hamilton Beach hand mixer with different attachments and a case so nothing gets lost for a mere 19 bucks at Stuff Mart! Used for my whipped cream which is SO fun to make.

Also, I thought it would only take 20 or so minutes at 350 but when I checked it and thought it only needed 5 more minutes, I forgot about it! 15 minutes or so later, YIKES! THE CAKE!
And it was perfectly done. So if you do a sheet cake it may take as long as 35 minutes. There was no instruction on this part so just keep an eye on it.

I think making two thin sheet cakes would be ok and stack them to get that dense trait. I am going to try that next. I am in for another chocolate cake today as I have this buttermilk and heavy cream I don't know what to do with. If I can make it to church tomorrow, they will be the recipients.
Is buttermilk supposed to smell sour?

Open wide and say Ahhhhhh...

After M brought me a TO DIE FOR piece of her Mom's choc. cake of course I had to give it a go for myself with her delish recipe. Considering all the dry ingredients sat out overnight mixed together it came out the way a cake should. Three piece edible! Not too sweet. Homemade whipped cream topping (ya'll know you'll never go back to Redi-Whip)

Next time I will up the cocoa slightly and leave the 2 cups of sugar in as we cut it and it just needed a little push, I think. We used raw so maybe we'll try regular sugar and leave it cut. I like the less sweet taste. The big thing was that it wasn't as heavy and dense as C's. What up with that? The bigger problem is I forgot it was FRESH whipped cream and shouldn't have frosted the whole cake as we certainly can't EAT a whole cake...can we?

How do you spell relief?

M's-

g-r-e-a-t

SOAP!

I purchased a few bars of M's soap yesterday and the lightest colored one is S's favorite. (vanilla)

M had brought her a bar and she pushed for a shower for most of the night until we later realized it was just so she could use her soap! When she came out, she exclaimed, "This is the best soap in the whole world!" I held up my new batch and said, "Look what I've got..." (hear sing-song voice)

I held out her favorite bar and said, "Here you go", to which she replied completely deadpan, "Are you serious?" She literally snatches the bar out of my hand as if I am going to change my mind and RUNS away with it! I told M, I don't care what you say, that HAS to make you feel good! I guess S is stocking up her own supply...M isn't paying me to say this and will probaby dislike that I posted it but if we like a product we can't help but share it! Once we tried a GreenTree Soap, it was all over!