Sugar Cookies for your Sugar!

I have a double treat today, cookies and a song!First, I want to share a delicious recipe from my "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book". Funny how I never made simple sugar cookies before. I suppose I always thought I needed chocolate chips to make a great cookie but, not anymore!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies! (Title lives up to its name)

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. shortening (**I did not have this, so I used another 1/2 c. butter)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour (with my Kitchen Aid I just beat all of the flour in, easy as pie!).

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. **I pressed them down gently with back of spoon. Bake in 300 degree oven about 15 minutes or until sides are set (do not let edges brown). Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack and let cool. Sprinkle with granulated sugar while still warm. Enjoy!!

Now here's a song my "Sugar" sent me today. Hmmmm, wonder if this is our new song?

Two dogs for sale, cheap.

Upon my arrival home this morning, I found my grand~doggy, Harley, and Isaac's Beagle, Sandy, cowering underneath the desk. Why? Because a certain decorative pillow had the stuffing pulled out of it and was strewn across my living room and hallway only to find its resting place in the backyard. Bad doggies, bad.

Can you see which one looks the most guilty? Hmmmmm.....

Christmas Re~cap (a month or so later)

Pardon my absence. Upon my husband's return to the world of employment, I found myself quite befuddled about what to do with my time. I realized that my husband has become the glue that holds us all together now, and I am like particle board in need of placement. Slowly, I think I am finding my place again in the home. It's hard, my hubby has grown so much in caring for us that I have become tragically spoiled. Alas, time to get myself in gear...
What a glorious Christmas we had! Due to our generous family and a few anonymous dear friends, we had a spectacularly, memorable Holiday! Mostly because we were keenly aware of how much we all mean to each other and how undeserved, yet richly enjoyed, our relationships are. Thank you Father, and thank you family and friends!!
It also wouldn't be a celebration without our son's dog, Harley!
Yea, I'm happy and I love my family.
Love my young men :).
And the oldest ones too :).
I do not deserve this daughter in law. She is definitely the sparkle in our family. Here she is preparing our second annual Christmas breakfast. She made the entire meal herself. Chicken~apple sausage, French toast made with croissants and butter and maple syrup, clementine cuties and fresh orange juice.
Christmas 2009 was a hit! Gratefulness abounding.

still waiting and waiting....

An interesting lesson these past few years has been learned in the waiting. Waiting for news about our home (will we stay, will we go?), waiting for a child to find redemption in Christ, waiting for my husband to acquire employment...

I wonder how I never saw waiting as godliness? Planning, doing, working, they all seem godly to me. I've never put waiting into that category. The more I wait for God, the more I see His infinite power and wisdom...and the less I see of my own. There is a peace in resignation to the fact that I have limitations, He does not.

"Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:30~31

My study Bible defines "wait for the LORD" as: Savoring God's promise by faith until the time of fulfillment.

Yea, I want to grow in waiting.

Why, oh why, do girls like shiny things?

It all began at a little auction a few years ago. My husband came up with the plan of attending an auction with a myriad of items from various estates. When I stopped salivating, I heartily agreed to go. That was when I fell in love with vintage crystals.
My first auction purchase was a box of random crystal pieces taken from an old chandelier, antique volkswagon hubcaps and lights, and a picture. I mistakenly bought more, but the kind auctioneer had pity on my novice bargaining skills (I am sure my face was beet red as I handed back my lofty purchase).
Soooo, it is a thrill to be piecing back together my mother's authentic antique chandelier from her historic Mississippi home. With my hubby back to work, my son studying in his room and one searching for work...I get to sit at the table and put these old pieces together. Can you hear me sighing a happy sigh?
I only hope it turns out the way it should as in the following picture.
Now I just have to figure out how we're going to ship this beauty when I sell it!

music...

We were invited to a "living room concert" of Jon Troast at my nephew and his wife's home a few evenings ago. My husband, Isaac and I thoroughly enjoyed his music. A very gifted song writer, he played for an hour a variety of his original fun, reflective and deeply thoughtful songs. He travels about the country performing in peoples' homes who simply volunteer to host.

The highlight of the evening was a song he wrote about his mother selling her wedding ring so she could adopt a little girl in Bangladesh, all of the women were crying by the end. Isaac wouldn't let us leave without buying a cd (he was so good, we bought 2).

**Jon's the one in the red tennis shoes.

On music, art and nature

Several years ago I had the privilege of attending an exhibition of Rembrandt's art here in Phoenix. I stood within inches of the above masterpiece, no glass to separate me, no ropes, nothing...it took my breath away. Why? Because I was in awe of the artist? No, because of the Creator who gave man such a gift, for our pleasure and for His glory. I marveled at God's kindness, that He would care to give us this enjoyment and I marveled at His majesty and power in bestowing such gifts.

Isn't that the intention of art, of music and nature? To allow us to pause, to ponder deeply the attributes God? I don't want to merely give thanks, but grow in my adoration of Him, to see Him in my momentary pleasures:

"Pleasures are shafts of glory as it strikes our sensibility...But aren't there bad, unlawful pleasures? Certainly there are. But in calling them "bad pleasures" I take it we are using a kind of shorthand. We mean "pleasures snatched by unlawful acts." It is the stealing of apples that is bad, not the sweetness. The sweetness is still a beam from the glory...I have tried since...to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don't mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must of course give thanks, but I meant something different...Gratitude exclaims, very properly, "How good of God to give me this." Adoration says, "What must the quality of that Being whose far~off and momentary coruscations are like this!" One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun...If this is Hedonism, it is also somewhat arduous discipline. But it is worth some labour." C.S. Lewis