Verbal Sunshine

A compliment is verbal sunshine.~ Robert Orben

Someone picked a great month for National Compliment Day. Many are winter-weary and need some extra sunshine today.
We all know an insincere compliment is not helpful and probably use that as an excuse not to compliment people more.

Mark Twain said, "I can live for two months on a good compliment."

So, I have a challenge for you that has two parts. 1) Give a sincere compliment to your spouse today. Maybe relating to something about them that you tend to take for granted. 2) Pay a compliment to someone who's been pushing your buttons lately. This simple exercise can go a along way in mending fences. They may be suspicious but that's not your problem.

If you need a little help jogging your mind to think of something nice to say, here's some thoughts:
YOU
...have a great way with words.
...are a terrific leader.
...make working on a project a joy.
...are very creative.
...are a good provider.
...are fun to be with.
...have a great reputation.
...are clever.
...are a good driver.
...can do anything you set your mind to.
...are capable of accomplishing whatever you believe.
...are a good listener.
...are very cheerful.
...are loyal.

Make it a mission today to give kind words freely, especially to those who least expect it. I've been doing this today and being a sunshine dispenser is fun!

I Have a Dream

Seems to me that a lot of people had today off as my phone and email have been rather quiet for a Monday. I blogged about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream" speech earlier when I could still formulate words so here's your chance to read a coherent blog post.

At the moment, I'm looking at my varied and lengthy list of things to do, none of which I feel like doing. So I went into "fritter away time" mode and laughed at how we do winter in the south. I'm thinking, "I'm completely over winter - the sky is gray, the grass is brown the air is cold" and then I remember I live in Florida. But I'm still over it.

And then I watched this video at Shelly's blog and it really made me laugh about winter in the south and this lady's thoughts on Martin Luther King day... only watch if you have time to laugh.



Hopefully, I'll be back sooner than later with all kinds of interesting things to say. Thanks for stopping by to say "Hi!"

Cinnamon Rolls and Coffee

That thought is intended to bring you comfort on a Monday morning! This is a feel-good post, intended to make you imagine you have on your favorite slippers.

I do believe our household has a new Christmas morning tradition. Sister Schubert -move on over because I now can make the world's best cinnamon rolls. I can thank Uncommon Blonde for doing the test run of Pioneer Woman's recipe because she figured out what to do and what not to do in this messy undertaking she posted as Kitchen Follies. (I stole her photo from that post.) She told me that afternoon that the rolls would have to sprout $100 bills while baking to make them worth the trouble. The next day's report was that the rolls had sprouted. And I can tell you, these are the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life. We had fun making them together and more fun eating them. Our son had to report for work at the fire station on Christmas morning and it made me really happy to start their morning off with these rolls too.

Now to top it all off, I won a give-away over at Shelly's for a free pound of coffee from "I Have a Bean." She tells the fascinating story of this company in this post. A company on a mission to help people by selling great coffee - I'm sold! They impressed me by sending my coffee Fed Ex, arriving just in time to go with my cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.

Ahhhh - the memory is fresh and the coffee is on. What was something new you did for the holidays?

Everything that Money Can't Buy

It's been a rainy New Year's weekend and I spent part of it packing away all the holiday decorations and cleaning up. Now that I'm finished, the sun is out, the air is crisp and I'm anticipating the fresh new year will usher in lots of exciting things.

It struck me this weekend as I looked over the past year and thought about my goals, I already have everything that money can't buy. And for that I'm thankful.

May your year bring gentle winds...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain

The Creatures are Stirring in this House!

I am so excited! I have some more presents to wrap and the grocery shopping to do tomorrow and then everyone starts arriving tomorrow night and Thursday! The best part of all the celebrating is being with family. I am so grateful.

Cupcake came home last weekend (she had to go back to work a few more days) and she scurried around cleaning out closets and such. So funny to me... I wasn't even considering that and she quipped, "you're just out of control with saving things." Ha- she sounds like my mom. And like I do with my mom, I said "have at it, I'll provide the bags for trash and one for Goodwill." It took more than one, trust me.

I doubt if I'll make it back here before Christmas, so just want to share this favorite poem...

'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be The Day!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "It's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and this sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

1993 Bethany Farms, Carrollton, IL
Merry Christmas to All! Love you much.

People are Crazy

I logged onto our local paper's website yesterday afternoon to get an email address to send a community announcement and was stunned to see breaking news that moments before, a gunman had opened fire at a school board meeting and someone was dead.

I'm watching the Today show right now and it's bizarre to see the tape of the incident. It's truly a miracle that none of the board members were shot as the cRaZy opened fire. I have tremendous respect for our superintendent (he was our son's high school principal). I'm simply appalled that it has become commonplace to see this kind of headline in the news. It's surreal for it to happen to people I know, right where I live.

I'm thankful that there's always good news. So I just clicked off the TV and turned my mind to this:

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your Hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast."
Psalm 139: 9,10

People are cRaZy but God is good.

Cookie Recipe Exchange Party

Welcome to the Christmas Cookie Exchange... the only one you'll attend that you won't consume too many sweets...yet. Who could look at all these yummy delights in Sara's link-up and not actually make the cookies? Not me. Let me tell you, the smell of these Ginger cookies baking is almost as good as the taste.

Ginger Chewies

Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- NOTE – I take the spices as an advisement and use whatever I want and I don't like cloves so none of that for me.
- 3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- About ¼ cup granulated sugar (regular sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Recipe says to sift flour, baking soda and spices into a bowl and set aside. I don't do this, I just dump them all in together later.
3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute.
4. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light brown color.
5. Mix in flour mixture on low speed just to incorporate.
6. Roll ¼ cup of dough between the palms of your hands into a 2” ball then roll the ball in granulated sugar (the ones I just made I forgot to roll in sugar).
NOTE – Using ¼ cup of dough is great and gives you perfect giant cookies, but I normally use a small ice cream scoop, this makes reasonably sized cookies that still use the same baking time. They are also more uniform because the scoop is exact and makes a rounded ball with less rolling. Once you have the balls rolled in sugar, freeze them if you want to. If you want to freeze them, do it in a single layer where they aren’t touching until they are quite solid, then you can put them in a bag or Tupperware or whatever and they won’t all mush together. I use the same baking temp and time for frozen ones as for fresh.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm but they are still soft in the center and there are cracks on top, about 14 minutes.
8. Devour and enjoy!


Head on over to Sara's for more recipes.