Remmembering my Mother~~My Mentor~My Friend

I am re-posting this post that I wrote a couple of years ago about my Mother. I am so thankful that I had such a great Mom. I miss her!

MOM

My Mother was one of the truest, kindest persons I have known. She was a genuine Southern Bell. It seemed like when I was growing up, there were always people stopping by our house. Mom was always ready with a warm smile, a cold drink, and usually something to eat. Mom was a wonderful cook. When dad was pastoring, we usually had someone for dinner every Sunday. She made it look so effortless and enjoyable.

Mom had the heart of a teacher. She had her Masters in Elementary Education. She taught me the love of reading. many winter nights she would read to us such books as, Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the prairie. She taught me a lot through example. As a young girl,I remember many times looking for her, and finding her in her bedroom praying. What a heritage I have!

Mom was a giver. Many times she would quietly help someone in need, whether it was a meal, money or clothes. I remember more than once her buying somebody a dress, because she wanted them to have something nice too.

Mom was a friend--and she had many!! She made people feel special, and they liked to be around her. She was my shopping buddy, OH how we liked to shop together.

Mom showed good attitudes, and if she was wrong, she was always willing to apologize. She demonstrated grace under fire. Mom suffered with cancer for 9 years. The last two years were extremely painful for her, yet many times I would hear someone ask her how she was feeling, and she would answer,"Well just pretty good." She taught me how a Christian lives AND dies.

Many times growing up , I did not agree with her. Some times I thought she was Crazy! Some rules just didn't make sense to me. But now that I am a mother, I see how wise she was. Many days I think about her and strive to the kind of mother she was. Many days I fall short. If I can be half as good a mother has she was to me, I will have been a success.

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I have been putting this off all week. For one thing I am not the writer that some of you are. But the other reason is because I knew it would make me miss her more. This will be my third Mothers Day without her.

I thank God for my wonderful Mother, and that he has allowed me to be a mother.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

You know it is time to update your blog when your 11 year old tells you that you need to!

I have been wanting to put some vinyl wall art up in my room for a while. I found this on the internet, and I LOVE the final product. I also love my new lamps from IKEA

It came with the 2 sitting birds and 3 flying birds. They added 2 more flying birds for me at no additional cost. I wanted enough birds to represent everyone in the family.

I forgot to take a close up of the picture, but if you enlarge this picture you can see that it is a bird sitting on branches.

I love this candle holder I found on Clarence at Meijer.

Here Is the link to the etsy shop that I bought the wall art from. They were great to work with and I got my order in less than a week.

Family Pictures

Lady Locks

Ingredients

* 1 pound of butter softened
* 1 pound cottage cheese, creamed
* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 cup milk
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cup Crisco
* 3 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/2cup marshmallow creme

Directions

1. Cream together butter, margarine, cottage cheese, salt and 4 cups of flour. Shape into a 4 inch balls, cover and chill overnight.
2. Roll each ball out individually,with powdered sugar, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into strips about 3/4th inch wide. *Keep dough in the frig and only take out what you are working on. It is very hard to work with if it gets warm.
3. Roll over tubes (you can use clothespins or dowel rods covered with aluminum foil). Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) until brown.
4. To make Filling: Cook milk and 4 tablespoons of flour until thick paste forms. Let cool completely. (I usually make this part before I start baking the dough)
5. Beat shortening and confectioner's sugar until fluffy. Add marshmallow cream and vanilla. Then add COLD paste and beat.(I find that sometimes the paste does not mix in well so I usually cream it real well first,then add Crisco and sugar beat well, then add marshmallow cream and vanilla. This filling needs to be beaten a long time until fluffy. I have a kitchen aid stand mixer and I start it and let it run several minutes.
6. Fill tubes with cream filling, using a pastry bag or cake decorator.

I make these kind of small. One batch makes about 100 if you make them small. I tripled the batch and got about 300. These freeze very well. They would be a lot easier if you just made one batch and made them bigger. I like to give goody plates away at Christmas so like them small like a cookie.

On the forms before baking

Before being filled.

9 hours and 300 lady locks later!

It's begining to look alot like Christmas around here.

Christmas tree in our family/game/school room

Entry way

Another view of the entryway

Carolers above my living room closet.

Living room tree

At night with the lights off~ 2,900 lights.

Corner of my kitchen

Girls tree decorated by entirely by them.

Boys "sad" little tree decorated by them.

Gotta love this age!!!

This kid is a climber. And he gets into everything!! But I am still loving this age. So much fun!

He climbed up...

Got the Teddy Bear and threw it down....

And then started to climb down. I guess he wanted the bear.

For you Bethany:-)

My sweet, wonderful cousin Bethany (my one and only faithful reader) keeps bugging me to update my blog. So here you go Bethany...a couple new post for you to read:-)

Bethany finds out in a few days if she has a match for a new kidney. Please help us pray that this is a good match and she can have the surgery and be on the mend before Christmas.

Kroger Deals

This week I made 3 trips to Kroger for their Mega sale(only two trips pictured). They have this sale a couple times a year, and I like to stock up when they do. I got a lot of things for free or almost free. Some things I do not usually buy but got because they were so much cheaper than normal~such as Jose Ole Taquitos. We love these but I almost never by them because they are 5.29 for a box of 15. I got them for 2.00 a box, with sale and coupon. I got a lot of yogurt any where from free to .49. The kids love to have these as a snack. I got extra strength Tylenol for 1.50 and Tylenol PM for .50. I also bought more snacks and chips than usual, but I have put them away to use during the holidays.
So the grand total.....
543.32 worth of groceries for...
184.39 after sales and coupons.
It still sounds like a lot, but it includes 2 packs of diapers. Since my freezer was already pretty stocked with meat from previous sales, I should not have to do much grocery shopping the rest of the month.

Tonight Chris was asking questions about the kids ages and how much older they were than him when he got this shocked, unbelievable look on his face and said "You mean you had 6 Christmas's without me!"

Blessings

I have been needing a new table and chairs for a long time and have been wanting a new table for even longer. The table we have been using is about 30 years old and the chairs have been repaired several times. The other problem was it only sat 6 so if we had company we had to send the kids somewhere else to sit.
With Tim still in school, a new one like I wanted is way out of the budget, so I have been looking on craigslist for several weeks. I prayed that I could find one like I have been wanting. The things I really wanted it to have were a double pedestal, be able to store the leaves under the table and be able to extend to about 96 inches. This one has all of those requirements and is VERY sturdy and well made. The chairs are heavy duty and should last a long time. This set would cost me at least 1,500-2,000 new....I paid $300.

This is without any leaves...42x60...the biggest our old one got.

This is with one leaf in..makes it 42x72

With both leaves it is 42x96(not pictured)

Love the pedestal.

Picture taken September 2006
Even though I am thrilled with my new table and very thankful for it, I am just a wee bit sentimental about the old one going. I grew up eating around this table and have many happy memories with my family growing and with my own kids.