Mark your calendars – JULY 19th


It’s official – Decemberadio is coming to Galax!
Praisin’ LOUD in the Park will be a community wide youth night JULY 19th 2009!
The best part is – it’s going to be a free concert!

If you want your church to be involved – there will be some benefits for your group! More details coming soon!

Strolling in high style


Now that my youngest is almost five I don’t use a stroller anymore. When my babies were little I LOVED strollers. I would walk around the mall looking at strollers like a 16 year old in a car lot. During our strolling years we had the convertible stroller the car seat docks into, a couple of umbrella strollers, a double stroller with the car seat dock. a double jog stroller, a single jog stroller, a light weight compact stroller for the Disney trip, and a bike trailer (that converts to a stroller). If you add all those together I still don’t think it touches the price of this high-end celebrity style stroller. The picture above is the Stokke Xplory with the forest accessory packeage. Here is where you can check it out if you have a baby on the way and an extra $1200 laying around:) Glad I’ve kicked my stroller habit.

Unleash me

I am taking off this morning for sunny South Carolina with about 20 amazing Cornerstoners to take in the contagious passion of NewSpring Church at Unleash. All that said, watch this video that was put together by some Saddleback guys to see why I really go to conferences . . . yep the hotel!

Time Warp




I am having a little bit of trouble getting used to the time change. The kids had trouble settling in last night and getting up this morning. I love that it is light until 7:30 but waking up in the dark is a little hard to get used to. On top of that I haven’t slept well without Mike by my side – so I’m feeling a little dead in the mornings. As you can see from the picture so are my boys. Emma was a little easier to rouse around this morning but Luke and Drew were dead heads. As you can see Luke had a serious bed-head induced mohawk.

Snow pictures






Since the snow is probably going to be gone today I thought it was time to post some pictures from Sunday. It was the perfect day for playing- the snow was still falling, it wasn’t terribly cold yet and the kids were super excited.

Snow Cream


When I was a little girl my Mama and Granny used to always help my sister and me make snow cream. It brings back good memories of my Granny when I smell the vanilla and sugar. I can even remember the big orange plastic bowl we used when we made snow cream at her house.

Here are pictures of my kids making snow cream and a quick how to if you have never made it.
(PS – if you think it is gross to eat snow you are missing it – live a little – just get the snow from the middle and don’t eat the yellow kind 🙂

First – it has to snow – there is no way to substitute for real snow so you just have to pray for snow – and you probably should pray for several inches so your not eating muddy snow

Second – get a big bowl of snow
(as said above – from the middle – avoiding yellow snow)

The ingredients- pure and simple – milk, sugar and vanilla extract

Find some cute kids to stir it all up – I don’t know how much of each but here is a guess – start with 3/4 cup of milk, 2 capfuls of vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar – add more milk if it needs to be thinner – more sugar if it needs to be sweeter – all depends on how much snow you have

When it’s done it will be like “melty” ice cream

ENJOY!!

Pina Colada Zucchini Bread

This is soooo good. I just ate a warm piece from the oven. Great on a cold snowed-in day.

4 cups of all purpose flour (I used 3 cups regular and 1 cup whole wheat)
3 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Dump all the above in a large bowl

In another smaller bowl
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of oil
1 tsp of vanilla flavoring
1 1/2 tsps of coconut flavoring (probably not something you have already – I had to buy for this recipe – but get some – worth it – it really has a great flavor)

Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moist – it will be thick and stiff – it’s OK

Now fold in
3 cups of shredded zucchini
1 cup of drained crushed pineapple
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans) – I left them out because Drew doesn’t like them

Line the bottom of 3 pans with wax paper and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray. Evenly spoon batter into the pans and bake at 350 for about 35-45 minutes – don’t overcook
Let cool in pans for 10 minutes and then remove from pans, gentely peel away wax paper and let cool completely on wire rack.

Enjoy – be nice and give one loaf away. You’ll make someone’s day.