Sunday Evening Musings

This was today's sunrise!  Sunday morning glory in the heavens!

My post on Facebook said, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!". (Psalm 150:6)

It was breathtaking, but I still praised the Lord with every breath that I breathed.  Such a beautiful way to start the day!

If you want to sing a happy song along with our choir, join in here below:

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

For God is great and greatly to be praised. God is great and greatly to be praised.

O Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Another great way to start the day!!  (and now that it is evening when I am writing this,  a good way to end the day!)

Today was a lovely day...no rain for a change!  I had kind of hoped to go out to eat after church with a group of our church friends, but they had decided to go to a different place than where we normally go, and it is sometimes crowded and you have to wait in line a while, and we just didn't feel like doing that today, so we came on home. Normally our son Scott comes down on Sunday afternoon for lunch (and does his laundry), but he wasn't coming today, and Rose and Benton weren't coming either because she had to work today, so were kind of at loose ends. However, actually in some ways that was best.  We've had a busy week and frankly I was tired.  

Yesterday we had our church monthly pot-luck "Agape'" luncheon, and I had made my "Taco Lasagna" casserole.  It was good, and I still had a little left over, but I didn't feel like eating that either.  It's not really something that my tummy can handle two days in a row! LOL.  So I made a salad with some ham and cheese on top of the lettuce, etc., and that was plenty good enough. Then we took a nice long nap.

After we woke up hubby said that he wished I'd either bake a cake or make some cookies or something.  Well, at first I kind of balked because I normally don't do stuff like that on Sunday...it's just too busy of a day and I am usually tired. But since we didn't go out to eat and we had such a nice nap, I decided to go ahead and bake some Snickerdoodles!  (Do you know what they are?) I was hungry for something with cinnamon in it, and since hubby wanted cookies that he could snack on throughout the week, that was a good idea.  But I needed some help. Guess who helped me?

Yes, Lily Grace (click that link for a previous time of baking with  Lily Grace)  said she would love to help make Snickerdoodles!  She's trying to earn her cooking badge for the Brownie Scouts, so she needed some experience baking cookies. LOL.  

She especially loved rolling the balls of dough in the cinnamon and sugar!

It's great to have a little helper!

She even helped get them off the cookie sheets when they were done baking!  They sure smelled good!

Snickerdoodles...My Mother's Recipe

Well, of course baking cookies always means they have to be tasted while they are fresh and warm out of the oven.  So it also became an occasion for Lily Grace and Bailey her dog to have a little party:

So I got down the Buster Brown Tea set for them to use:

It's perfect for a tea party with your favorite doggy!    This set belonged to my mother, and she got it from her older sister, my Aunt Margie.  It is dated on the bottom 1910, which is when Aunt Margie might have gotten it when she was a little girl.  My mother remembers playing with it when she was a little girl. My mother is 11 years younger than her sister.  

Anyway,  it is a special family heirloom, so Lily Grace and Bailey had to be very careful.

Then Lily Grace got the idea that she wanted to invite her friend Anne of Green Gables over to have a tea party and share some snickerdoodles with her.  Anne was delighted of course and came right over. We know how much Anne of Green Gables loves tea parties!  Thankfully there was no "Raspberry Cordial" involved in this tea party. If you've read Anne's story, you know about that event! HERE is a link to a previous post about Anne's tea party.

Thankfully they left us some snickerdoodles to enjoy later!

And so that is how I ended up spending my Sunday afternoon.  

Nice little thought for today.  A good reminder, no matter how big or small our "place", we should tend and guard it with care, because it isn't our own place, but "his Who set you there."  And that would be God.  He placed us in our homes and gave us a special place to guard and care for. When you think about your home that way, it takes on a whole new perspective. 

Here's another thought about the home:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the Lord guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain."

Psalm 127:1

And so I think it is time to end this post for tonight. I hope you enjoyed this little tea party time with Lily Grace (and Bailey too!) and also Anne of Green Gables. I know this is a departure from my usual Sunday activities, but sometimes you just need to "play" after a busy week. We had a good time, except I might have eaten too many warm cookies fresh out of the oven, and so I didn't want much for supper! LOL.  I finally ended up eating two stalks of celery with peanut butter on it, and later some yogurt and granola.  That should make up for my lapse in good judgment. LOL.  

Have a restful night my friends, and I'll be stopping by to visit with you in the next few days.  Tomorrow (Monday) is another busy day as we have our Ladies' Bible Study in the afternoon, and hubby has his men's Bible Study.  But I will try to catch up with as soon as I can.  Love to all of you! "Good Night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite!"  LOL.

 

Breakfast With Buster Brown and Teddy

 I woke up this morning with a hunger for Bran Muffins.  Anytime I go to the trouble to mix up fresh homemade muffins for breakfast, the occasion deserves a little fanfare and celebration! I'm sure some of you are saying, "She has too much time on her hands."  "The girl's gone daffy in the head, and she hasn't even had anesthesia yet!" Yes, you are probably right...but if I don't do this now, it will probably be a while before I feel up to baking anything for a while, and besides, today is a good day for a good day!

So, in honor of this great occasion, I decided to use my little "Buster Brown" Tea Set and invite my teddy bear friends for a tea party.(Click HERE for a little more history on this tea set)

This antique child's tea set originally belonged to my mother's oldest sister, my Aunt Margie. My mother remembers playing with this tea set when she was a child, and when my Aunt Margie passed away, my mother was given the set.  My mother knew of my love for having tea parties, and she promised it to me when she passed away, and so now I have it.  I have actually shared a part of the set with my sister so that we both could enjoy it. One of these days I would love for my sister to bring her little cup and saucer and whatever else she has over to my house and we will have a little tea party together like we did as children. (Perhaps when she gets around to retiring one of these days!)

Meanwhile, I will just enjoy this by myself...with the little Teddy Bear friends.

(Remember my "One Word" for 2020 is "joyful" ?  So  this is one way to be "joyful", by "enjoying the little things".)

You may wonder about this picture card that is sitting there beside the tea set. Well, I've had this card for I don't know how many years, but I fell in love with it whenever I found it.  It is called,

"Breakfast with Teddy" 

by:

Jessie Wilcox Smith

1909

I guess I loved it because I could picture myself as that little red-headed girl, enjoying her breakfast with her Teddy Bear watching.

 By the way, the flowers are another bouquet of those lovely "Lady Lupine" flowers that I found while on our walk yesterday.

Just in case you want to have your own little tea party with some fresh homemade Blueberry Bran muffins, here is the recipe:

Recipe for Blueberry Bran Muffins   Servings: 12 small muffins, or 6 large.

Ingredients:
2 Cups Bran Flakes or All-Bran Cereal
1 1/4 Cups Milk
1 egg
1/4 cup oil or 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (my choice)
1 1/4 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
3/4 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 to 1 cup of fresh blueberries (depends on how many blueberries you prefer)

Directions:  Preheat oven to 400℉ Grease Muffin pan for 12 muffins

1.  Combine cereal and milk in mixing bowl. Let stand 1/2 hour, until cereal is well soaked.
Then:
2.  Add egg and oil (or applesauce instead of the oil, which is my preference), mix well.
3.  Add rest of ingredients. Mix just until combined.
4.  Put into muffin pans sprayed with PAM.  (Today I used cupcake papers, but I think the greased muffin pans would have worked better as the muffins really stuck to the paper.)
5.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy the Little Things !!