Life with my sister

I know Easter is over, but this week I have not done much in the kitchen. Here is a recap of our Easter meal. I love to set the table in an overly festive way. I come by it honest. It is in my genes. I also had other great influences in my life like Mama Swords house at the holidays. She was the mother to Daddy's best childhood friend. There are no words for that woman's decor at the holidays...no words! And there is my sweet "Sassy"( Mrs. Carolyn) who could be Mama Sword's sister when it comes to tablescapes . I love thinking of all the women who shaped me into the gawdy tablesetter that I am!! I know they would have loved to have come and sit at my table with me! What is Easter in a child's home without a bunny cake?! Mama always made a bunny cake for Jules and me. Yes, this is my second year to give up my beautiful coconut cake for a bunny. It is worth it to see Henry go bonkers over it. He kept walking up to it and chomping his gums in the air...it wa...

A couple of weeks ago after Sunday morning services Stephen suggested we have a picnic and fly kites. Of course, we were game!! Luckily, the twins had bought kites in hopes that we would fly them one day. Our little town had no kites to be bought. How can that be? Samuel and Anna had to take turns flying D & D's kites. We had sandwiches and snack cakes for lunch. We went to the Veterans Memorial Park to picnic. The park is home to two old army tanks that my kids love to play on. It also has a walking track, a golf range(that we never knew about) and a large open area. It's a great place The park also has an on-site manager. Its an older couple and the day we were there, he was in the little shed-like building, which I believe he is making into his man cave, trying to get his satellite to work. It was a little unnerving. But besides that, we had a great afternoon together! And let me just point out that Anna's shorts and headband match! Yes, she is cool like that! p.s....

I'm not going to give you excuses as to why I don't have pictures in this post. All I'm going to say is my desktop computer doesn't have internet access at this time. I'm sure if I plugged something in to the proper place it would, but I don't even know where to begin to look for the something or the place. So, life goes on. We went to Branson on Thursday of last week to celebrate Daniel, David, and, Anna's birthdays. We (except for Stephen) love Branson . The kids love Silver Dollar City and I do too, the shopping is great there too. It was fun, but then it rained. And rained. Saturday on the way home Daniel began complaining about his stomach hurting. We gave him Pepto and it still hurt. Sunday morning he woke up with the same complaint and asked me to stay home with him instead of leaving him home while I went to church. So I, the preachers wife, missed Easter Sunday services. I also missed the Sunday before Christmas. I'm a preachers wife failure!...

Henry's 2nd Easter was such a fun time. We loved celebrating all week with him. Last year he was too little to even sit up or partake in any of the activities. What a joy it has been to watch this little guy grow over the past year! He is my little bunny. When Samuel was about this age he had an Easter outfit that almost mirrored Henry's. I should have scanned in the photo and compared them for you, but I am a slacker! Julie said she wished she could still put 13 year old Samuel in these little outfits, and I know I will feel the same when Henry is 13. They are so precious looking and short lived. I am soaking it up while I can! Th proverbial Easter morning family photo. This was a self portrait with bad lighting and a camera that is on the brink of death, I fear. Despite the lighting and ill camera, I thought we cleaned up pretty well for Easter Sunday! I love sharing Easter traditions with my sweet boy. Teaching him about Jesus this year with his little toddler Easter CD h...

Luke 24:1-12 ESV (1) But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. (2) And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, (3) but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (4) While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. (5) And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? (6) He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, (7) that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (8) And they remembered his words, (9) and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (10) Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, (11) but these words seemed to them ...

Instead of thinking about food for the belly this week, let's focus on food for the soul as we embark on Easter this Sunday. This song is a great description of Good Friday and what Easter is all about. I used to sing it at our church in Mississippi and I cried every time ... and in turn made everyone else cry. Nothing like the power of Jesus! This song tells the story of Easter so well. Happy Good Friday to you and I hope you, dear blog reader, know that Jesus died for you on that cross. All your mistakes, shortcomings, goof ups, and rebellious ways. What a joy to know that no matter what we do or where we go, we can never be separated from the love of Jesus. I pray that if you do not know Jesus today that this post will stir something in you and that you can have a true reason to celebrate Easter this year! Abby

I've been checking my email junk folder for the last few days looking for a reply to an email I sent someone. And I have come across some interesting emails. I don't normally check the junk folder, I figure it doesn't do me any harm just sitting there. But, I'm pretty sure it would do some damage to my computer if I opened a few of these..... Sender Subject Latino Singles More Amor latino dating info (really?) Walk in Tub be safe during your shower (how old do they think I am) Mr. Lamindo Sanusi Urgent massage to you (an urgent massage? I don't think so) bra shop our selections of bras find me love still single? read this (no thank you, even if I was single) bra find quality brand name bras for less BOX of feelings for you i wanna spend my life with u ( thats exactly how it was written Asian singles online asian dating sites for anyone (even me!) underwear (as if emails from bra weren't enough) find your favorite style of underwear cowboy boots cowboy boot...

We started our Easter week with Daddy home because of all the rain. It is a catch 22 having him home...it is good, and bad. Oh the life of a wife of an agri man, I tell ya! Anyway, he likes to crawl in Henry's bed when he wakes up and surprise him. It about does me in , but it is cute, so I deal. Henry got to experience his first Easter egg hunt this past weekend. He was so cute! I made his hunt bucket and had his shirt made. He is rotten, you know?! It was a windy, windy afternoon but so much fun. Henry was a little unsure while all the other children were running at warp speed, but he soon took off and went after the "balls" and he managed to get 4 of them. We were proud, and even prouder when we found candy and quarters inside the eggs! We had the hunt with some of my friends and Henry loved seeing everyone and playing at the park! His little class had an Easter Sunrise Breakfast this week and I loved being able to go and sit with him. He loved showing me all his li...

It is that time of year again! Birthday week is here!!! Woo- Hoo !!! A week full of birthday cakes, wrapping paper, gifts, streamers and special days. It's my favorite week of the year! Anna will be 7 tomorrow! Her party is today. She has designed her cake and we have decorated the dining room as birthday central for this afternoon . We're excited. And when I saw we I mean just the females of the family. The three boys aren't sure what they're going to do during the party, but they really don't want to be a part of it! HA! Anna, You are a beautiful girl. Your smile melts my heart, your voice makes me smile. You have such a funny personality. This year we've seen you mature. People are commenting that you aren't as shy as you used to be anymore. There are still times you hide behind my back, but the majority of the time you are out front, smiling, and showing everyone the beautiful girl that God blessed us with. I am praying that this year is another year o...

This is an interesting/unique spin on Food Friday. Henry and I have had Strep this week so my kitchen has been closed and honestly the thought of swallowing any type of food has been on the bottom of my list, as you can imagine. So glad to be on the mend now and excited to share this fun egg post with you. Let me start this by saying that Easter is SO much more than eggs and bunnies, it is all about Jesus. Jesus is the reason for Easter. Eggs are so symbolic of the tomb though and I love that. I have been wanting to make some blown eggs but was so intimidated by it. I am part of a club of really neat girls in town and one of them is real artsy and she showed us how to blow out eggs at our club meeting last week. I loved how simple she made it look, so I dove right on in and tried it. My sweet little mama was at my house when I did this and she captured it in photos. I will share only this one because the facial expressions on the others she took are so embarrassing! It was quite the ...

Abby is so diligent about posting Food Friday blogs. But I wanted you to know that I cook too. You knew that already though didn't you? The kids new favorite breakfast is doughnuts. They are terribly easy to make and cheap too! Use cheap biscuits. In Star City we call them " whopp biscuits" because you " whopp " them on the counter to open them. Pinch a hole in the center of each biscuit and place them in hot oil. I use my fry daddy, but you can use a skillet if you need to. The skillet may give them a crispier coating (I don't like that so much). Take them out of the oil when they are slightly brown. You can use any topping you want to coat your do-nuts. We use cinnamon & sugar, you can use powdered sugar or melted chocolate. These are so very good!!! For lunch yesterday I made chicken salad. We were given some left-over fried chicken Sunday night and I knew we weren't going to eat it so I took the chicken off the bone and made chicken salad with i...

We took this little curly headed cutie to the Memphis Zoo the other day. He loved the farm animals a lot. I think because most of his animal toys make farm animal sounds, so he was familiar with them. He called the donkey "mama", but he called the gorilla "daddy", so that made it all better! Henry and his daddy were admiring the ducks in this photo. I am not sure they were admiring them the way the zoo intended....admiring them from a duck hunters prospective, of course. Henry loved taking in all the sights and smells of the zoo while riding the Once Upon A Farm train. Henry loved getting out of the stroller and running his daddy all over the place. It was truly too cute. "moo!" He was looking at the cow and saying, "moo". It was not as cool as we anticipated that day, and this poor little fella got hot in his stroller, but he was a trooper. He loved looking at all the animals and soaking up all the other children around him. We had so m...

The last time I saw my mom she gave me some mementos from my childhood. Pictures, report cards, class pictures. Oh, the memories. She even gave me my baby books. Stephen and I spent the evening looking though everything. He made comments like, " oh, this was a mistake" when he saw pictures of me in typical 1975 attire. I'm so glad he loves me for who I am, not what I look like (or looked like). While reading the baby books I was surprised to see a couple of dates that didn't jive with my memory. I have always thought and told people that I was saved and baptized in the month of April. As it turns out it was October. I have no idea why I thought it was April but I'm just glad that God doesn't care if I can remember the date of my decision. He just cares that I made the decision! I also realized that I broke my thumb and began the school year with a cast in 2 nd grade. I have thought it was 3rd grade, but never could make that work in my mind with other events ...

Yay! Marmie came to see us over the weekend. "Marms" got here in time to go with me to pick up Henry Friday afternoon. He had not seen her in a terribly long time, yet when he saw her at his door he smiled and reached for her. It was the sweetest thing. He loved Showing "Marms" all his tricks and toys. She took pictures of everything he did. I stole most of these off her camera. She is truly a grandma! Henry loved playing in Marmie's room (our guest room) because he is rarely invited in that room for play. He is a mess and she is a mess for encouraging it! We spent a lot of our weekend swinging this little turkey! He loves his tree swing in the front yard and would stay in it all day if it were allowed. We had so much fun with Marmie and loved every minute of our visit. This was a shot Marmie took of Henry eating his kids chicken strips, fries and bbq beans at Couch's BBQ...."nothing fancy, just good food!" Abby

My friend Brittni and her daughter came over to hang out with Henry and me last weekend while Randall was planting. She is a fellow foodie, and I love her for it! She came with Dump Cake ingredients. I failed to take any pictures that night, but luckily found these online. Nothing like a friend who bring 2 sticks of butter to your house....ain't that right?! It tasted heavenly! I had never had it before and I loved it. Super easy and super yummy! There are a gillion and one ways to make it, so google it and find which one you like best. I am loving some sweet potato fries these days. Henry is a big fan too! I found some in the frozen food aisle at our local grocery store and they are super yummy. I bake them and we eat them plan, no salt or any dipping sauce. They are good! Henry has found the love of Sonic through the $1 tater tots. I love that child! I go for my Happy Hour Diet Coke (I am omitting the lime and omitting vanilla these days, and I like it plain much better. Who...