let them eat cake

Yesterday I made a cake in the flavor she requested. A birthday is coming up. We decided she would have a few girls over today, since we’re having some repairs done to our house for the rest of the week.

Happy spring break to us.

It’s called California Citrus Cake and my mom used to make it all the time.

It’s so good.

So when she asked for lemon, I knew exactly what to make. : )

California Citrus Cake

4 eggs, beaten (I used egg beaters), 1 yellow cake mix, 1 package small lemon instant pudding, 3/4 c. water and 1/2 cup oil (I used canola).

Beat ten minutes. (I used the stand mixer….or I probably wouldn’t even make this cake LOL) Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 350 in a bundt pant. Cool and ice.

Icing:

2 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate and 2 tablespoons orange peel, grated.

Bring to a boil and let cool; drizzle over cake.

This cake is so good. But whaddaya know, I just noticed I didn’t follow the recipe. I forgot to cook the frosting. I guess that’s why it wasn’t very thick.

But it tasted good. And that’s what counts.

I’m not a very patient hunter.

I feel like I’m in a never ending episode of House Hunters. All I need is Suzanne Whang narrating as we go from room to room and house to house.

I’ve seen some pretty houses. And I’ve seen some not so pretty houses. I’ve seen some with good storage. And some with barely any storage.

And I’ve seen a bunch of other stuff too.

People..what are you thinking sometimes???

I’ve seen a house with three back doors. Three! And they were just a few feet from each other.

I’ve seen a house with only one back door…in the master bedroom. Why???

I’m seeing a lot of houses with the master potty just smack dab in the middle of the bathroom. Um..no. Door please!

I’m running into a lot of houses with the hot water heater in a closet in the hallway…or even worse…in the attic. And as my hubby says, everything is fine until it isn’t and then you’ve got a big problem on your hands.

I saw the most amazing house a couple of days ago. It’s in a great location for us. The house is the right size. It has an amazing kitchen…new granite and brand new stainless appliances…just so pretty. Large eat in kitchen, large family room. I walked through those rooms and thought my dreams were about to come true.

And then I went down the hallway and started checking the (what I call) kid rooms. Not a single walk in closet among them. Just little (what I call) flat closets barely deeper than a hanger. I was so bummed. I left that house shaking my head and sad….as I walked past an enormous formal area in the front, that I honestly don’t have a clue what I’d ever do with. Why oh why…can they make some spaces crazy big and then overlook something so basic as a real closet???

Some days I’m encouraged by what I see and then other days I feel like I’m never going to find the right house for us.

But I guess it’s ok that I haven’t found it yet…I’m having my repairs done here next week and I still need to declutter before it even goes on the market.

So! I guess I need to get my hands on some boxes and quit thinking about what I can’t find just yet.  : )

You know you’re addicted to Disneyworld when…

She is doing school work to the theme of Soarin’ one minute…

 

…and The Carousel of Progress the next.

Loved this documentary style piece, by the way. Interesting to watch and includes some music.

You read about somebody else’s trip..more than once..and tear up both times.

You check the weather ‘there’ almost every day. *sigh*

You have a Disney pic for your desktop.

You notice hidden Mickeys around the house.

You check wait times every now and then just for fun.

And then you look down and remember you’re wearing an Orlando tshirt as you type. : )

It probably won’t be Disney this summer. We really need to take a car trip this year. We’ve done airplane trip$ three time$ in a row and it would probably be be$t to u$e the car for a change.

But we can’t decide what sounds fun though..other than Disney. Ideas?

first

*This post is just a hodge-podge of thought that I finally just hit “publish” on.

Put God first. I’ve heard this my whole life.

And thought for a long time that I knew what it meant.

Spend time with God ‘first’.

Do this or that for God ‘first’.

And then…???

I always hear “God first, then family”… or then whatever.

Well, if you ‘do’ God and then move on to something else, then where is God? He can’t be first if you’ve moved on to the next thing. He just lost His place in line.

You might think I’m splitting a silly hair here, but bear with me for a second. Then we can hold up the hairs and inspect them together.

What if…

…we just did God first. Period.

Or maybe what if we said God always. Not first, or second or anywhere else in line?

How do you think that would change things?

Now, I’m not saying to become a monk or anything. What I’m trying to say is what if everything we did were motivated by God and seeking Him? Praying and listening and doing as He pleases about everything? Whether it be spending time with Him as He guides…and pleasing Him in the process. Or spending time with your family or washing dishes as He guides…and pleasing Him in the process. All the needs are met by seeking the One and letting Him move you in the way He wants you to go.

Can you see how the motivation is different too? It’s not “doing this and then doing that”.  It’s pleasing The One…not everybody and everything. This is where we get bogged down sometimes. Doing things for our family because we want to please them..or we want them to please us in return. Or we serve on that committee because we want to make somebody happy, or we feel obligated.

Matthew 6:33
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you

What if keeping the house clean (or not..depending on how He leads)..or taking care of our kids or our family…or serving on that committee were part of the overflow..the “all these things will be added unto you” part?

Could it be that there is a wonderful way God wants to show Himself to you and me if we can seek Him? Only. And then watch what He does when we do?

I hope I didn’t ruffle any feathers here. This is just another one of the ways God has worked in my thinking about another one of the phrases I grew up with. And showed me another way to look at it.  

my rusty radar (updated)

I’m here to tell you something.

When I wake up in the middle of the night to loud-ish whispers of…

“mom…mom…mooooom!”

(and yes, the sweet girl did that for what she said was “about five minutes” before I finally heard her and woke up…my mom radar is getting rusty.)

It’s never followed by anything good.

Ever.

That is all.

It was probably more like “A” minute instead of five, but whatever.

OK…NOW that is all.

Really. : )

ps..she’s not sick or anything...just a bug in her room.

the pink stuff

Strawberry frosting?

Not quite!

Working on the walls in the garage of our really old house so I can make them pretty again. Don’t worry..it dries white. 

I don’t want to think about what’s going to happen to this little cutie…

…and her new little pal on the other wall…

I need to think of something temporary to put in their places.  : )

letting go

We went to Home Depot over the weekend to buy some stuff to start making a few repairs to the house before it goes on the market. I’m excited. And I’m not.

I’m excited about the thought of a new neighborhood. (you have no idea) I’m excited about figuring out where all our stuff goes and the colors on the walls, rugs etc.

We found a house I love (hubs doesn’t even bother to go see them until I give the go ahead..he still hasn’t seen any), but it had a pool. *Not gonna happen. But this house was just perfect. Not too big, not too small.  And pretty much a blank canvas. I think there were only two things hanging on the walls in the whole house. Great layout etc. I’ve been mentally decorating that house even though it’s a firm no-go.

And because of this, the reality of not living in this house is setting in.

After Bub slipped away, we had to decide whether we were going to live in ‘this’ house or buy another. We looked but couldn’t settle on anything. And the bottom line was that we just weren’t ready to part with it. It held lots of memories…some happy and some very very sad..but all fresh. And we just weren’t ready to let go.

So we remodeled and stayed. And I could tuck those memories safely away and not really think about the idea of not being able to ‘see’ them while walking around my house. And now I’m faced with this (hopefully) fact that we will leave here sometime (hopefully) soon and never come back. Never walk down the hallway. Never scrub the kids’ tub. Never put clothes in these closets. And it’s hitting me a little bit.

But I told hubs this morning that I’m kind of looking forward to being in our home office and it not being the room in which Bub breathed his last. I don’t think about that every time I’m in there…if I did, it would be bad. But I do think it. Sometimes. We do carry on normal lives in all the rooms of our house. But those thoughts are there…mostly untouched.

Until now.

I’m learning that I’ll need to work through some more grief to let go and move on.

*I told my realtor the other day that if the perfect house can come along with a pool, then another perfect one can come along without one. : )