Down in the Quarter

We got ambitious and tried out making Beignets. I was so excited about it I could hardly stand it. It was a fairly easy recipe that involved yeast and that no longer scares me so, we were good to go. But, I believe I made some mistakes in the steps or something.  Because as yummy as these looked....umm....lets just say, you might be able to down one but, only if you were drinking a lot of water! Oh well ( and that's a deep subject)
I won't give up.
I'll try again.
We will eat some delicious beignets from scratch at home one day.

Give Thanks

This week I just want to give my top ten things I am thankful for.

1. Getting to eat chinese food for no particular celebration.

2. Swimming in the pool with good friends.

3. A spend the night party with my # 1 Grandprincess.

4. Eating fish that were caught by my baby son.

5. The rain and how beautiful it made our hydrangea bush.

6. The time to read a book about someones life who loves the Lord.

7.The Lord really speaking to my heart about several things that are heavy on my heart.

8. A nap everyday with the princess.

9. Going to church and hearing my husband teach a Bible Study. 

10. Watching the princess take a bath and hearing her sing...I will search for you and I will find you, I will find you...with all my heart.

Sometimes it's the little things that all add up to the big thing. The big thing is....there are always things to be thankful for.

The other big thing is how much Jesus loves us.

In everything GIVE THANKS for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Little Boy Blue

Today is May the 31st.

On May 31st, 1991, I had a baby boy.

He was too early.

19 1/2 weeks.

He weighed less than a pound.

He was five inches long.

He was our son.

We loved him.

He was already gone.

But, I know the arms of my Savior welcomed him in.

I think of him everyday.

I wonder what he would look like.

Would he have had brown eyes like his Dad and his brothers and sister?

Of would he have had green eyes like me?

Would he be musical and comical like his brothers?

Would he be serious and more sensitive like his sister?

Would he have played sports? Ran for class president?

Would he like to fish?

Would he love coca-cola?

I will never know here on this earth.

But, I know. I know.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day...
we will meet. He is with Jesus.

We will unite one day.

2 Samuel

But, now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but,he shall not return to me.



As Time Goes By

A lot has been going around here the past couple of months.

 I'll share some of it with you if you like.

One thing is for sure....

time is passing by ever so quickly!

Rachel, my daugther and Ray, my husband celebrated another birthday!
She turned 26.
He turned 51.
We call celebrated together with lunch at Whataburger and grilled steaks at
Poppa and Moma Catty's house.

We just have a thing for Whatabuger and even ate there for Mother's Day this year also.

Zac has been doing a lot of bass fishing on the lake and is just catching them like crazy!
He throws them all back so they can get bigger.
Everyone likes to come to our house and fish with Zac.

.

 My daughter in love, Kiera celebrated another birthday also.

 She turned 27.

 We had a nice Italian Dinner here at the house.

 I made her her very own hot pink solo birthday cup.

Oh and I celebrated another birthday.
I turned 46. Wow. I didn't know people lived to be this old.
We celebrated by all eating Chinese food for lunch. ( that's my favorite)
Here are my prodigy!



These are my parents, Lamar and Catty.
We had a delicious dinner over at their house that night.
Everyone spoiled me rotten.
I am so rotten I am stinking.



My Grandprincess had her first dance recital.
She had both sets of Grandparents in the audience watching her along with two Great Grandmothers and one Great Grandfather, 2 aunts and 1 Uncle.
 We were all so proud and she was the most beautiful things!

Everyone brought her so many flowers that she needed help carrying them.

Aren't they just an adorable family?

And then one more birthday and our birthday season is finished for a couple of months.
My son, Michael had a birthday.
He turned 28.
How can that be?
I thought I was only 28.
Oh ouch....I'm 46.

I made a decopauged M with pictures of him when he was a little boy and we put his face on a Pirate Pinata.
He thought it was funny.
 I did too.

We hung it up on the basketball goal and let Miss B swing and swing and she had so much fun.
After a while we got her Daddy to try and finally all the candy came out.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what our family has been doing since March.
Whew.
We need a break from all the birthday cake!

It's Not Easy Being Green

My Mom came over while I was feeling sickly this week and brought 2 things.
Some light green mesh ribbon and some pipe cleaners.
I already had an old grapevine wreath.

She showed me how to make something really beautiful.

First you take the pipe cleaners and space them all around.

I think we used 12 of them and have them tucked behind the grapevines and

evenly spaced them around.

Then she took the mesh and started doing this with it.

And then some of this.

And you go around the wreath making one loop point toward the inside and one loop point toward the outside.

And then you go around the wreath one more time doing the opposite that you did before.

See?

It took her hands and mine to hold it down and she did all the fluffing.

And when it's all completed....

Wala! A beautiful spring wreath for the front door!

With this lime green color all the pollen will just blend right in!

Hope you like it!

It makes me smile when I come in the front door!

Jesus is risen!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

We celebrated another birthday a couple of weeks ago.

My Mother in laws.

I was talking about what to cook and what to do and my sweet Grandaughter said, we should give her a "Dorothy party". Which meant a Wizard of Oz Party. That is one of our all time favorites and since her name is Dorothy. Wala! We had a theme.

We only bought a couple of things because I save all things birthday around here and we had fun trying to make the place look festive.

Green streamers and some homemade signs gave Miss Dorothy a nice birthday welcome when she came in the door.

Rachel really didn't think I would take this picture, let alone publish it. Ha!

I guess birthdays bring out the crazy in her.

We used an old Wizard of Oz calendar and cut photos out of it to decorate the table with and then we used construction paper to cut out "poppies".

The yellow tablecloth was the yellow brick road. The red napkins were for the ruby red slippers and the light blue ribbon on the candle sticks were for Dorothy's dress.

Here was the centerpiece on the buffet.

The green glasses were from the Emerald City.

We had fun finding things around the house to use and we just wanted Grandma Hanselman to feel special for a little while.

She loves mexican food. So we had TinMan Tacos.

And also a delicious Cowardly Lion Chicken Enchilada Casserole.( got the recipe off of Pinterest...very yum!)

Also some Scarecrow Tortilla Soup.

Then for the birthday desert. We called it the Ruby Red Slippers Cake. It had strawberries all in it. It was delicious!

And of course, some birthday gifts for her.

To top off a wonderful family birthday night. Our very own impressionist sang "Somewhere over the rainbow" to all of us about 15 times.

It made all of us cry a little. She wore her "Dorothy" dress, too.

She even acted it out while she sang. It was awesome!

HappHHappy Birthday, Grandma and may you have many many more "Dorothy" birthdays!

Unanswered Prayers

Here I am stepping out and doing a post without photos. Sorry if you only like to look at pictures. I have none.

I want to share a small time this past summer that the Lord send a calm in the midst of a hugh storm for my family.

My youngest son, Zac, graduated from High School in June and he also passed the physical and signed up in the Delayed Entry Program of the US Marines. That meant he would be leaving later for basic training and would train here and work up until that time. All was looking good.

He had a job and then a month later, everything changed on one evening.

We had just gone to bed and turned off everything and he and his friend had just left the house to go "jam" with their guitars at another friends house.

All of a sudden the power went out.

It was July 3rd and it was hot.

So, I just layed there thought about how hot it was going to get with the air not working.Then my cell phone rang. It was Zac. "Mah, I just had a wreck, I think my ankles are broken" I thought he was joking because he had just had a small wreck about a week before.

I told him that wasn't funny. And then I heard that tone in his voice. I asked him where they were and they were still in our neighborhood. I said we would be right there.

Well, it was one of those nights where the moon was MIA and we couldn't see anything. I was dropping things and tripping and trying to hurry and the panick was starting to set in.My daughter, Rachel, lives downstairs and she heard the commotion and came up the stairs with a lit candle. Which was a huge blessing. We were able to get dressed and go up the street.

We found Zac and his friend in the front seat of his car which was completely smashed head on into a giant pine tree.

"Lord, help us".

It was a mess. They had hit a transformer and dragged it under the car and it crushed in the floorboard where Zac's feet were. He had no idea when he walked out of the house that night, that he wouldn't be walking again for three months.

Anyway, it was just a very painful scene and though, I was in a constant prayer and communication with the Lord, there were times, I thought I would lose it. He was hurting so bad and couldn't get out of the car and starting to pass out. The ambulance came, took him to the hospital and we met them there and spent the next five days in the hospital. After all the tests it showed he had both ankles broken. One was fractured and the other was crushed all over. It would need surgery. The swelling was enormous and the pain he was in was unspeakable.

That first night, around two am, they put us in a room and everyone else went home to get some rest. It was he and I and the pain just couldn't be managed and not to ever embarass my brave son, but, he was moaning and crying out. And as his mom, I couldn't do one thing to help him. They had a hard time figuring out which medicine to give him and what strength. It was just horrible.

I was trying to say anything to keep his mind off the pain or to distract him. Nothing was working. We both were crying. I was praying and praying and this went for hours.

Helpless. Scared. Sad. What about the Marines? How can he work now? What if the break is so bad he won't walk? All these things going through my mind. In between these thoughts.

Lord, you are in control.

Lord, you knew this would happen.

Lord, you have allowed this.

Lord, calm his heart.

Lord, help him relax.

Lord, we dedicated him to you as a baby, he's in YOUR HANDS.

Help him, Lord!

So, as he wrestled with this new pain. I just sat there and prayed outloud for hours. Finally around six am. I was so exhausted for him and for me and I wanted him to just sleep and he couldn't and it just felt so desparate. But, the Lord put a song in my heart. Zac probably doesn't even remember it. But, I began to softly sing this song that we used to sing at our church. I changed a few words to fit for Zac.

Here's the song;

QUIET MY MIND, LORD

MAKE ME STILL BEFORE YOU

CALM MY RESTLESS HEART, LORD

MAKE ME MORE LIKE YOU

RAISE UP MY HANDS

THAT ARE HANGING DOWN

STRENGTHEN MY FEEBLE KNEES

MAY YOUR LOVE AND JOY ABOUND

FILL ME WITH YOUR PEACE

I sang...

quiet HIS mind, Lord

make HIM still before You
calm HIS restless heart, Lord

make HIM more like You

raise up HIS hands

that are hanging down

strengthen HIS feeble knees

may Your love and joy abound

fill HIM with Your peace

And after singing it through 20 times or more, he relaxed, he took deeper breaths and he fell asleep. Just like when he was a baby. Music and prayer calmed his restlessness. I cried. I cried a lot over the next few months. Watching your baby suffer and struggle equals crying for me. Watching him struggle through the surgery and the very long recovery was just very difficult. I think watching your kids hurt, really does hurt worse than if it was you.

There were many more times during this summer that the Lord just stepped in and calmed and took care of that it's too much to write now but, I just wanted to share one. Those three months of recovery were not easy. There were very dark days but, with Jesus, Zac overcame. He's walking, running, riding a bike. He has a new job that he loves. But, the Marines is in limbo as he has screws and plates in that ankle. But, like the song...Unanswered Prayers, we have confidence that God is directing Zac's steps.

If God anwers your prayers,

He is increasing your faith

If God delays,

He is increasing your patience

If God doesn't answer,

He has something better for you.

Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.