A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

I can't tell you how many times my girl cherub has asked for cookie ice cream sandwiches. Oh, yes I can . . . what I really mean is I don't want to tell you how many times I've failed at the attempt! The first time she asked, I thought, "Sure!  This can't be hard!" It was for her birthday party and we were having a lot of friends and family to celebrate. After I made the beautiful cookie ice cream sandwiches, I stuck them in the freezer. Only to go back hours later and the ice cream had melted into a puddle on the cookie sheet and re-froze. Yes -- that's what happens when your freezer defrosts itself! For that one, I had to use a spatula and cut the ice-cream into squares and scoop the re-frozen melted ice cream and the frozen cookie onto a plate. Real fun. That failure just made me try again. And again I did! Several times! Until I finally thought, "I will win at this!" Here's what I did: made the coo...

We are finally all home, together again, as a family! My boy cherub lived in DC this Summer and was a Page in the U.S. Senate. My girl cherub and I spent time at different camps and on mission trips. The Mr. did a little bit of everything, including a smidge of travel for work. So it's been awhile since we've all been together, under "our" roof. Now that we're back together . . . I really like it! Since my boy cherub was away, I have spent time making him some of his favorites. After his first "home cooked" meal, I made this for dessert. On a whim, we added vanilla ice cream to it; and just like that . . . A new dessert was made! We were kind of sad when we ran out of the fruit mixture! Ok, not really! But we did say we'd need to make this again! I like that it was super easy! Fruit and Cream 1 regular can of sliced peaches, cut into bite-sized pieces 1 regular can of pears, cut into bite-sized pieces 2 bananas, s...

I have no idea where the month of May has gone! But here it is, the week of planning for what will be done on Memorial Day! My cherubs have finished with their school and this is a big accomplishment, as this was their first year of attending a "virtual academy" through the school they attended in Dallas. I've spent the last eleven years "preparing" for my cherubs to be home for the summer. I always took their last week of school and sorted through their closet. Straightened out the drawers. Grocery shopped for "at home" lunches. And did any last minute planning before school would be let out for the summer. But since these cherubs have been doing their education from the comforts of our office, my routine was a wee bit off this year! It has actually been a great year for all of us and I've loved the opportunity for them to educate at home.  Now that summer break is officially here, we've been enjoying a more relaxed ...

We just celebrated Memorial Day! My boy cherub played in a baseball tournament close to home. My girl cherub read a 636 page book. My mom came for a visit. We had dinner with my brother's family . . . and we worked around the house! I did laundry until I could do no more! My boy cherub and the Mr. had borrowed a power washer . . . the testosterone is still high around here! That thing provided hours of fun for them and they are thinking of more things to clean! On Monday evening, we sat down to dinner on the patio. We grilled pork chops and corn on the cob and I made the Mr.'s favorite potato salad. For dessert, I made this easy and cool dessert. I didn't make it up -- I just used the recipe from Kraft! Over our dessert, we contemplated all of the different flavors that could be used! I think the next time I make this, I'll do a lime freeze! Frozen Orange Cream   2 cups   orange sherbet , softened* 1 pkg. (8 oz) cream c...

It's sad. I'm cheap. I kind of feel sorry for my cherubs. For example:  why buy a dip of ice cream from my favorite ice cream store when I can buy a container of ice cream and get way more servings for not that much more money? Sooooo!  Why would I buy chocolate dipped ice cream bars when I can make our own chocolate dipped ice cream bars at home? Is it the same? Uhhhh . . . .kinda! OK -- do you remember the Primo "fragrance?"  The slogan was, "if you like Giorgio, then you'll LOVE Primo!" This is sort of the same situation! Lately, my girl cherub has been interested in buying a "dilly bar" from Dairy Queen. First question to ask:  How does she know about "dilly bars?" Answer:  I have no idea! Here's how the conversation went: "Hey mom, can we go to DQ and get a dilly bar? "Well honey, I think we have ice cream bars at home ." "But mom, it's not a dilly bar!" "Tr...

Imaged used from the Internet We were having friends over for dessert. We hadn't done that in such a long time! It was fun! They were going to be in the area and made it easy for them to drop by and hang out for awhile. Since the cherubs are baking chocolate chip cookies for their March "Treat of the Month" club, I decided that for dessert we would have a chocolate chip sundae bar! Of the 9 who would be eating dessert, 5 of them were kids. "Make your own sundae" is always fun for kids . . . and Karen! Earlier in the day, I made a homemade hot fudge sauce, homemade caramel sauce, bought vanilla ice cream from my favorite dairy store, Braums, pulled out the sprinkles to dash on top, and got the chocolate chip cookies ready. At the very last minute, I thought that a marshmallow sauce would be fun to have too. I've never been one to live or die by marshmallow sauce, but it couldn't be all bad, huh? And it definitely couldn...

Braum's. My favorite ice cream store. Has been since I was big enough to stand up in the front seat, between my parents. Yep, you read that right. That used to be legal! I could spot this sign from a mile away: My mom and dad even got to the point where they wouldn't say the word anymore . . .they'd spell it!   . . .As if!! "Do you want to stop at 'B.R.A.U.M'S?" they'd say. "I do!"  I'd say! Then, I got where I'd say, "Let's go to B.R.A.U.M'S!"  I was a smart kid! Now that I'm older . . .and wearing a seatbelt, I like Braum's for: ice cream milk sausage egg nog sour cream bananas chocolate milk buttermilk bread jalapeno dip There's probably more reasons why I like Braum's -- but I think 10's a good number.  I'm stopping there for now! So, why do I write this? Tonight I made a homemade strawberry sauce, and a mixed berry sauce, and homemade ice...

A thumbs up for the great snow!  We're ready to play in the snow! Our trek to the neighborhood school to sled. What would the boy do -- start a snowball fight! Her little hill was perfect! How fast can he go!  This rocks! After a fun time in the cold umm, I mean snow, we headed back to make snow ice cream.  While I don't have the "snow ice cream bowl" from when we were kids, we still made some of the yummy treat!  This isn't my picture,  but isn't the bowl cute! Snow Ice Cream 1 giant bowl of clean snow sugar vanilla milk, evaporated milk, 1/2 and 1/2, or heave cream Take a smaller bowl, but large enough to stir around in.  Fill smaller bowl about 1/3 full of snow.  Sprinkle in some sugar, maybe 1/2 a cup or so, and a couple of tsp. of vanilla.  Stir until well incorporated.  Add a bit of your milk liquid that you have on hand.  Stir until well mixed.  Taste.  Do you like it...

A few years ago, my friend Sheri Babb asked me to work at Falls Creek in Children's Park.  For dinner, different churches would "adopt" us and feed us our evening meal.  The "city" churches would feed us things like hot dogs, chicken fingers and Sam's brownies.  The "country" churches would feed us homegrown cantelopes, grandma's chicken spaghetti and homemade ice cream! This ice cream was from one of those "country" church dinners!  It was so very hot this particular week and First Baptist Church, Hammon, OK treated us like family!  There were several flavors of ice cream AND cobbler to choose that night, but I went with the "Frozen Passion!"  Maybe I was really missing Greg or maybe it was just the flavor that hit the spot.  Either way, this ice cream has always been so tasty to me!  It's easy and low-fat! Frozen Passion 2 cans Eagle Brand Milk 1 medium sized can crushed pineapple 1 2-liter orange soda pop ...