My Random Thoughts...

As Christmas draws near, I have so much still left to do. Well, not really that much. I do have some final wrapping to finish up and some fudge to make for a friend. Other than that, the rest of my baking for my family will happen on Saturday morning so it is good and fresh when we gather for our Christmas party. To kick off my final few days before Christmas, we all need a good laugh. I blog this cartoon every year and my blogging buddies always love it. 

My children gave me money for my birthday this year so I could get my new mixer I wanted. I saw it every week when I went to Walmart. Then when I got ready to get it, it was out of stock at all 5 Walmarts in my area. I had given up hope of finding in. Monday it was on sale at Sears for $20 off the original price, which made it the same price as Walmart's price. So I got it and I am loving it. 

I broke it in really good by making chocolate cinnamon cake cookies with homemade chocolate frosting, spice cake cookies with salted caramel icing, peanut butter cookies made from scratch and snicker doodles made from a cookie mix. This was just two boxes of them. I had a total of 4 boxes. They were gone in no time. Out of all of them, the chocolate ones were the biggest hit. Even people who don't eat cookies came back for seconds, and thirds and fourths.... 

The peanut butter ones were from Mom's recipe she made when we were little. The kind where you make them from scratch and then refrigerate the dough for about 3 hours. I had to keep a few of those to eat myself that night with a glass of cold milk.

It was so cold yesterday in our office. When I got home, I put on my warmest jammies and fuzzy socks and sat in front of the fireplace just trying to get warm. I just noticed the tablecloth above and the p.j.'s below. I apparently have a thing for red plaid.

Saw this on Joann's online this week. In light of the fact that I want bolder colors in my sewing room and that I need a sewing basket, I think I may need to order this after Christmas.

I have been scouring Thirty-One, Vera Bradley and Donna Sharp sites looking for the perfect bag for work. One that has enough body to set up right without flopping over. One that has enough room for the items I have to carry back and forth every day. One that is stylish and in a pattern that I love. Well, I finally found exactly what I'm looking for. It's from Donna Sharp. I do love her bags and purses. This one has a leather bottom with four little "prongs" to keep if from getting filthy on the floor. This is on my wish list for January. 

It is so roomy inside. Perfect for my needs. We share desks in the call center so we always take our personal folders, notes and notebooks back and forth everyday. This will be exactly what I need. 

One day a few weeks ago, I stopped in at Walmart. Since I will be going to the eye doctor in February or March and I already can tell I need new glasses, I decided to look at what they had. This pair really caught my eye.  

Come spring, I am going antiquing and to yard sales to build my Pyrex inventory back up. I am going to start looking for space savers in the 503 size. I have one in the Town & Country and I have used it for so many different things. 

Have a great day!

Color palettes

I have for years had my office in soft pink, soft blue and butter yellow. I am tired of that. I want pop. I want pizazz. I want bold. So I went to Pinterest for some colors that might go good together. Here were some color schemes I liked. 

Lots of choices out there. But I found a website that I need to check out. I didn't have time this morning, but tonight I believe I will visit www.coolors.co and see how it works.

Busy, busy, busy....

I have a busy day ahead of me. Lots to do still. When I have days like this, I always remember the guy in the Frosty cartoon that says "Busy, busy, busy". That's how I feel. I had a four day weekend so I got a lot done. Just wanted to finish the rest up so I am ready on the 24th for Christmas with the family.

We did our first snow last night. Some surrounding areas did receive a very light dusting. But this is the entirety of all I got at my house....just some in seal of my car window. That was it. But it is Christmas week and that is snow so I'm counting it as my Christmas snow for the year.

The great rearranging of my spare room has begun. I have pulled stuff out of the closet and am deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. I have an entire bedding set and some small spare pillows that I have to find a place to store. After Christmas, I am going to make pillow shams with some beachy material for throw pillows on my bed.

I have a few presents to finish wrapping today but I'm going to wait until tonight and do that while I watch Prancer. Can you guess what else I am going to do today?

That's right. I am going to make some cookies and some fudge for Christmas gifts and for work. A couple of people went in with me to buy all the stuff, but I get the fun of making them today. Then I will bake for the family on Friday or Christmas eve morning so everything will be fresh for our party.

I think the elves are getting excited about the grandkids coming over and turning Frosty on. Frosty has some fresh new batteries waiting for Christmas Eve. The kids love to play him as he dances and sings Frosty the Snowman...over and over and over. One year, Papaw figured out how to muffle the speaker so he isn't as loud. It's just not Christmas without them getting to play Frosty. 

Time to get busy, those cookies aren't going to bake themselves.

Sundays songs....

Time to bake....

It is time to bake. I am going today to look for my mixer. The kids gave me money for my birthday to get the mixer I have been wanting. It has been out of stock so I am going some other places today to get it so I can start tomorrow baking for Christmas gifts.

I will be making my standard chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, plus trying to make some pecan crispies. But I am also going to make some cake mix cookies and frost them as well. They are very inexpensive and not very time consuming at all. You simply disregard the directions on the cake mix. Instead, you mix a package of your favorite cake mix, 2 eggs and 1/2 c. of oil. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. If you want to frost them, let cool about 10 minutes. Lightly frost each cookie. Here is a trick. If you stick the frosted cookie back in the hot oven for 3 seconds, it will dry the icing and make it set up better so you can stack the cookies. These were a Duncan Hines Swiss Cake Mix where I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the cake mix and used Texas Sheet Cake frosting recipe.

Here is the frosting recipe. I sprinkled red and green on the frosting before I stuck them in the oven for the 2-3 minute set-up time.

1/2 c. butter

6 tbsp. milk

4 tbsp. cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

Bring butter, milk and cocoa to rapid boil. Pour ingredients into mixing bowl; add vanilla and powdered sugar; mix well.

I am going to make these, some lemon ones with lemon glaze and some spice with caramel icing. 

Meet my friend...

Meet my friend Stephanie....

Stephanie is a beautiful young lady who is a dear friend of my daughter and I. She has a loving heart and an unshakable faith in God and His power. She has a very devote husband, Andrew, and one precious daughter Lilly. Sounds like a wonderful life, right?

There is just one thing that breaks my heart in her story. Stephanie has Cystic Fybrosis.

God has been with her every step of her journey. When she was diagnosed, they told her she wouldn't live past 16. But she did. She was told she may never be able to have children, but she is so blessed with Lilly. 

She just turned 30 in June and the past couple of years her health has been declining and she has to return to the hospital more and more often. Each time, she seems to take longer to bounce back and her oxygen levels are harder and harder to maintain to the point where they need to be. Not too long ago, she had an extremely bad spell and I know we were all so worried. It seemed this was the worst she had ever been and the horrible numbers on the readings refused to go back where they needed to be. But the next day, she started improving and was up and smiling her usual happy self.

But this last time she went in, the news wasn't as good. This horrible disease has attacked her body for so long and so hard that is at the point that they told her it was time to start talking about a double lung transplant. She has already been to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville a couple of times and has started the long drawn out process of testing, filling out form after form and learning about what all is involved. 

But with true Stephanie spirit, she is clinging to her faith as she goes through this process. There are many things that could go wrong, but there are many more that could go right. She used to just use her oxygen tank very rarely. These days it is a constant companion and she spends most of her time at home staying away from the germs and contamination in the air. Recently, her mom, who is a good friend of mine, posted something on Facebook that touched my heart.....

From Stephanie's Mom...

To Stephanie, with everything you have coming in the near future I knew when I saw this I had to share with you. For 30 years you have lived with and dealt with Cystic Fibrosis and never let it get in your way of your dreams.You are a strong young woman and a wonderful wife mother and most of all fantastic daughter.I admire the courage you have in just your day to day struggles.God has a plan for you and I have always known in my heart you would be a inspiration to others. Our whole family and all our friends are behind you on the decision you have made for the lung transplant. If I can't be with you for the whole journey just know I am there holding your hand the whole way.You will always be my baby girl and I will do whatever you need me to do. God has this I'm certain of that. All my love mom.

I posted this today in hopes that each and every one of you will whisper a prayer on her behalf. She has a long, hard road ahead of her. My heart goes out to her and her family. But with God's mercy and grace, anything can happen if we just place our faith in him. 

After insurance, her out of pocket expenses are expected to be around $75,000.00. Her husband will need to move to Nashville to be with her and money is going to be very tight. Please visit her Go Fund Me page at Go Fund Me-Stephanie Goodall if you feel led to make a donation.

DNA - It's amazing

On my birthday, one of my nieces made my day when she called me her "crazy free spirited fun loving aunt". I've always thought of myself as free spirited and fun loving, but I never realized that others see me that way. (We will ignore the crazy for now, because that is just obvious). She posted it with a picture of me (Left). My sister commented I looked just like my Aunt Elsie. She was Daddy's youngest sister. And I have always thought I looked like her and Daddy told me that a lot as I got older. So I went in search of a pic of her to compare. And OH WOW. I do look like her...even more than I realized. I loved my Aunt Elsie dearly so this thrills me to pieces.

On the other hand, one of Daddy's other sisters, Aunt Tookie, who we also loved dearly always had the prettiest smile. When I came across an old picture of her when looking for Elsie, I thought "Wow, Rachel has Tookie's smile". Check it out. (Rachel -L, Tookie - R)

As I was going through the old pics, I found one of my Great Aunt Myrtle. Her name was actually Chloy but they called her Myrtle. Not sure why. But when that picture popped up I amazed. I have a second cousin Patti who is the spitting image of Myrtle. She passed long before Patti or I was born so we never new her. But isn't it amazing that there is such a resemblance between Patti and Myrtle who would have been Patti's great, great aunt. Just shows that your gene pool can carry on for years to come.