Red Velvet-Raspberry Squares

   

Fancy, aren't they?

I'm no pastry chef, that's for sure. But when I was planning my sister-in-law's baby shower, I ran across this Duncan Hines dessert recipe in my mother-in-law's copy of Southern Living and decided to give it a go. I thought they turned out deliciously yummy, so I'm sharing the recipe with you!

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1 pkg. red velvet cake mix
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 (16oz.) container cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350*F. Prepare cake batter as directed. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9in. pan.

Bake @ 350*F for 28-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely, about one hour.

Invert cake onto a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut off the rounded top of the cake. Also trim the edges.

Cut cake into 24 squares. Cut each square in half horizontally, and remove the tops.


Stir jam in a small bowl until smooth and spreadable. Spread jam onto each bottom half of cake. Replace the top halves and transfer to a serving platter or cake pedestal.

Remove lid and foil from frosting. Microwave frosting on high 20 seconds, stirring after 10 seconds. Stir until smooth and spreadable. Spoon frosting to a zip-top plastic bag. Snip a tiny corner off of the bag to make a small hole. Pipe frosting onto the top of each square in whatever pattern you desire, allowing it to drip down the sides.

Voila! Pretty, fancy, yummy dessert.
      

Say "Cheese!"

    

Like his mother, Cam has a love for photography.

He's always searching for the perfect shot,

or just waiting to happen upon a fun candid.

 

 He loves it all:

Nature photography

 

Animal Photography

 

And even, umm....

Animated photography

 

 

 You may be next!

Say "Cheese!"

 

      

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome! Are you feeling embarrassed this week that your house was a total disaster when your husband's grandmother dropped in for a visit? Or maybe you opened the washer to find you had washed a Pull-Up along with all of the kids' clothing? Perhaps you're just totally frustrated that your kids never fail to totally soil their bedsheets right after you wash them. No worries! "Not Me!" Monday was written just for you. It frees me up to admit my many imperfections and vent about the absolutely ridiculous things that are my everyday. Enjoy at my expense, and join in the fun by commenting below!

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Do you ever have a week that is so completely ape-baloney that your house looks something like the picture below?

No? Well, thank goodness.

Me neither.

This is a picture of...ahem...someone else's house. Even if my house did look like this, I certainly wouldn't post it on my blog, knowing that my mother and a bunch of folks from church would see it. Geez, I'm smarter than that.

We've visited the concept of healthy eating several times in the past few weeks, so rest assured I have internalized it all. My kids and I eat healthy foods 100% of the time. So when we returned home from four days at my in-laws for Thanksgiving to find the refrigerator empty and the milk spoiled, I loaded everyone up in the car and went grocery shopping immediately, stopping to feed my children a healthy breakfast on the way. I certainly didn't just give up and feed everyone Craisins and animal crackers for breakfast. Nope. Not me!
 
I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law this week. It was not six weeks after her baby was born, and I wasn't running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the better part of a week preparing. It also did not start snowing like crazy the morning of the shower, and I did not get phone call after phone call from folks backing out of coming. This did not really frustrate me, and I was not a bit grumpy because of it all. Not me!

One of the desserts I made for the baby shower were these cute little red velvet-raspberry squares. They were fun to make, but for a fact it wasn't me who was just a little disturbed by the red velvet cake batter. And it's not my kitchen that still hasn't been cleaned up from the baking extravaganza. And because of all of that red velvet cake batter it most definitely does not look like a bloody chicken ran through my kitchen. Just so you know.

As we were frantically packing up the car (in the wet, sloppy, slippery snow) my dear husband was asking which things I needed to take. He was exceedingly helpful, carrying boxes of desserts and asking which serving trays to bring. So when we were finally ready and loading the last things out of the fridge and he asked, "Do we need the chicken?" I surely didn't respond with a sarcastic, "YES, Kyler, it's a desserts and CHICKEN baby shower." Not me!

The baby shower was at 1pm, so our guests could head over after they ate lunch. The problem for our family however, was that we were rushing around preparing things for the shower until 1pm. And I'd been so busy doing things that morning (nursing the baby, feeding the boys, baking desserts, nursing the baby, packing the car, nursing the baby...) that I'd skipped breakfast, too. By the time guests started arriving for the shower, I was not so totally consumed with guarding the table of food from my ravenous children that I still hadn't eaten lunch. And an hour later, after feeding the kids, my first meal of the day most assuredly was not a plate full of desserts.  

Nope. Not me!

I sang on the worship team yesterday at church. Despite my exhaustion from a crazy, busy week, I was mentally totally on top of things. So when it came time for the "meet and greet," I was enjoying myself, walking around greeting friends and giving hugs. After about five minutes, I wondered what the hold-up was. Why hadn't the announcements started? I wandered around a bit longer, waiting for whoever it was to get their act together and get up on the stage. Another two minutes passed, and I approached our worship pastor to ask. Don't worry, when he checked our "same page" to find out, we discovered it wasn't me who was supposed to be on stage five minutes ago to begin the announcements. Thank goodness. I was so tired that morning, if I'd been responsible, I might have forgotten.

As I've said, this week was busy. Super busy. So I guess I'm fortunate that I'm such an incredible manager of time and toddlers, and lucky that my baby understands that when it's time for us to leave for Christmas production rehearsal, he needs to buckle down and drink up. Otherwise, I might find myself in situations where we're heading out the door in a rush, and I discover that the bathroom floor where my three-year-old so efficiently and independently used the bathroom is covered in a huge puddle of urine. Or predicaments like my baby refusing to nurse, so that I'm forced to drive to rehearsal and pump at the same time. Yep. So glad that wasn't me.   

Isn't it funny how your ideas of what is acceptable (as opposed to what is revoltingly disgusting) change when you become a parent? This week while I was checking my e-mail and my husband was holding our baby, I did not hear him exclaim, "DUDE, Callan! Oh....it's just a bunch of spit up. I thought it was poop."

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"Not Me!" Monday is an incredibly fun, blogging carnival started by MckMama. In a nutshell, it's where we all can be open about the ridiculous things that happen in our lives. Join in the "Not Me!" fun and leave a comment about all of the things you didn't do this week!      

Thirsty

Our worship team at church is working on raising $3000 to support the building of a well through Blood:Water Mission. To help raise funds to donate, we've recorded a CD. Our amazing worship pastor donated all of the studio time, as well as the ka-jillion hours he spent mixing/mastering the thing. (Plus, he wrote the last song, and I really like it.) As of now, our initial 200 copies have already sold or been reserved; what a huge praise! We've ordered another 100, and are hoping to sell those and earn more to donate.

Recording my parts for this CD was a little adventure. Since Kyler was out of town on a "Wilderness Weekend" camping trip with the teen guys from church, our worship team pastor's wife graciously offered to watch the big boys while I recorded in their home studio. Oddly enough, recording has never been a simple thing for me. If you've read Cameron's birth story, you know that I recorded parts of our last worship team CD while I was in (what turned out to be) the early stages of labor. Singing and having contractions was...interesting, but the songs turned out well, all things considered.

This time around, the baby was in my arms, not in my belly. It was a little comical, trying to sing and bounce Callan in my arms to keep him quiet long enough to record parts and pieces of a track. Never a dull moment with these kiddos.

To my knowledge, Blogger won't let me upload and embed an audio track in a blog post, so I threw together a little video and posted it on YouTube so I could share my contribution to the CD with you. I included some pertinent information and photos from the blood:water mission website about providing water in sub-Saharan Africa and the work they are doing there.

The song I recorded is one of my favorites: "Beauty of the Lord" (Desperation Band, 2004). I blogged about part of it here. Please afford me a little grace with the video; I'm not terribly video savvy, and I definitely don't have the cutting edge programs for this sort of thing. Hope you enjoy it anyway! I'll be sure to update you on how we do with our worship team's goal to raise enough to build a well and change lives across the world.

(Don't forget, you'll need to pause the audio playlist at the top of the blog before you play the video.)

You Can't Take It With You

      

The other day while we were out for a walk, Cam became quite enamored with a lamppost.

A little odd, I know, but he was smitten.

You have to admit, it's a lovely lamppost, kinda reminiscent of the one in Narnia. Of course, Cameron doesn't know about Narnia - yet - so he didn't even know he could pretend it was magical.

Anyway.

Cam liked the lamppost so much that when it was time for us to head home, he decided he'd like to take the lamppost with him.

I felt for the kid, I did. It was a cool lamppost. But still a lamppost. So, I very sweetly explained to him that he couldn't take it with him. It was much too heavy for him to carry on his own, and besides, he had no need for it at home.

At first, he didn't believe me.

He pushed on it.

He pulled on it.

I think he even tried to will it out of the ground with his best stare.

But as admirable as his determination was, that lamppost wasn't going anywhere.

He couldn't take it with him.

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As with most things we learn as toddlers, we as adults tend to forget the simple lessons. Why we tend to be so driven to attain more and more stuff is baffling to me. Stuff, stuff, stuff. Enormous houses, fancy cars, designer clothes (and shoes and bags and jewelry), status, position, and of course, money.

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. There are plenty of things I want and convince myself I need for whatever ridiculous reason. Sometimes I buy things just because they're on a good sale, never mind whether or not I can actually use them (or...ahem...afford them). And now that I'm a Mommy, I'm worst about buying and "collecting" things for the boys. For example, I think we have about 692 more toys than we actually need (or play with on a regular basis).

Now, I'm not saying that having goals and aspirations, aiming for promotions, or buying things are wrong or that we shouldn't desire them. That's ridiculous. But it's also ridiculous to pursue these things with the expectation that we can somehow take them with us.

And the thing is, the more emphasis we place on attaining things just for the sake of having them, or the more we convince ourselves that we need them (for whatever reason), the greater a burden we carry. We become stuck within a self-imposed expectation to perpetually attain the same level, if not more, of what we already have. The stress and pressure can only continue to grow in a system like this; the burden is huge and heavy.

I do this too, even though as a believer in Christ, I know I can't take it with me.

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where moth and rust do not destroy,

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

When I die, I'm not going to load up a wagon and schlep it all to heaven. And why would I want to? Given the choice between the things of this earth and the treasures in heaven, it's not a difficult decision. Pretty much a no-brainer, isn't it? The things of heaven are beautiful, perfect, and eternal. Earthly things are trash by comparison. All the same, though it's not a difficult decision, we are human after all. Something is often lost between decision and implementation. And there I am, back to collecting earthly treasures as if I can take them all with me.

What foolishness this all is!

At some point, if I believe in Christ and His Word, I have to realize and accept that this world is not my home. Heaven is my home, and I cannot take the things of this world home. Besides, how convicting is it to realize that if I am stuck on the things of this world, so is my heart? (Matt. 6:21) Wow. That, I believe, is the primary point of the whole set of verses, minding the condition of my heart. I want my heart set on heavenly things, not earthly things. Perfect things, not imperfect things. Eternal things, not temporal things. Don't you?

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In the end, Cameron did realize and accept that he couldn't take the lamppost home. And that, of course, turned out to be just fine. He forgot all about it as we journeyed home. It would have been a huge burden anyway.

Name That Photo

Kayden took this photo during a recent extended family photo shoot, and oh my soul, I just can't stop laughing. Are you looking closely? I couldn't have shot it better if I planned it!

  

 

    

What do you think? Can you name this photo?

      

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome! Are you feeling embarrassed this week that your house was a total disaster when your husband's grandmother dropped in for a visit? Or maybe you opened the washer to find you had washed a Pull-Up along with all of the kids' clothing? Perhaps you're just totally frustrated that your kids never fail to totally soil their bedsheets right after you wash them. No worries! "Not Me!" Monday was written just for you. It frees me up to admit my many imperfections and vent about the absolutely ridiculous things that are my everyday. Enjoy at my expense, and join in the fun by commenting below!

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Last week I was miserable. Callan's pediatrician, in an attempt to stall an inevitable trip to the gastroenterologist for his persistent reflux, suggested I cut out all dairy for a week and then give him a call to see if Callan's symptoms improved at all. Turns out I eat a lot of dairy. A lot. I discovered that most of my "go-to" snacks for sustaining myself throughout a busy day are dairy: yogurt, cheese cubes, large glasses of milk, etc. And I was a grumpy mess of a Mommy without them. On top of that, the main dish at our leadership retreat was my favorite: lasagna. And on the last day of the retreat we all went out for lunch at, of course, The Cheesecake Factory. Seriously?! I hadn't been there in like four years. Ugh. After the week was up, I called the pediatrician this past Tuesday, only to find out that he was out the entire rest of the week for Thanksgiving. Seeing as how Callan's reflux or colic hadn't improved in the least with the diet change, I certainly didn't take matters into my own hands and decide to begin eating dairy again without speaking with the pediatrician first. Nope. And I definitely didn't reintroduce it with an enormous midnight binge on a carton of ice cream. No way. Not me!

During the Thanksgiving holidays, I did not catch my son running in circles around his grandmother's house, chasing his brother and cousin, blowing large, slimy, disgusting chunks of snot from his nose as he ran. Nope. Not my child!

I am a total scaredy-cat when it comes to dramatic, tension-filled movies or TV shows. I won't watch horror flicks and literally cover my eyes at intensely violent scenes. So even though I read the synopsis and knew the episode was about a serial killer, and I knew it would freak me out with Kyler away hunting, I did not plop right down in front of the computer and watch NCIS anyway on Wednesday night. (And it didn't keep me up for hours, imagining that every noise was a posse of black-clad ninjas climbing in through the windows to carry us all away....) Not me! 

My mother-in-law's bathroom is now the cleanest in town. Just in case, you know, you had an emergency and needed to stop by. This is not due to the fact that my precious three-year-old, in insisting to stand to urinate like Daddy and in the process discovering some of the mess-making capabilities of his male anatomy, has urinated all over it no less than five times in the past four days. Not my child!

Speaking of bathroom accidents, (isn't that a great way to start a sentence?!) it was not my dear nephew who took matters into his own hands after all of the adults in the house were clearly too dense to pick up on the fact that he needed his diaper changed. I did not walk by the hallway bathroom just in time to find him standing in front of the toilet, poopy diaper around his ankles and its contents spilling all over the floor, with a giant wad of toilet paper stuck up his rear end. Nope. It also was not me who was then, ahem, fortunate enough to be the one to clean up this mess of diaper, toilet tissue, and runaway toddler poop balls (that's right, I said it) while all of the other adults in the house were (or promptly made sure they were) otherwise engaged with Thanksgiving preparations. Not me!

Cameron got into a large canister of bird seed at his grandmother's house this week. (Seriously, the kid is an ox. He weighs 35lbs. and can schlep a 15lb. can of birdseed around the house. Nuts.) After he dumped some of it on the floor, his grandmother made him clean it up with the vacuum. Cam loves vacuuming with their central vac system. But he obeys the rules at all times. So he didn't continue to dump large quantities of birdseed throughout our stay there, just so he could vacuum it up. And during our final night there last night, it wasn't my husband who finally got a clue and made him pick every last seed and kernel up by hand. We are certainly all much faster to catch on to our toddler's schemes.

During a rare family outing to a restaurant for dinner yesterday, my husband did not have to jump up and literally chase Cameron through the restaurant after he "escaped" from our booth. Twice. And Kayden didn't chase after him. And the boys definitely weren't both squealing with glee as they ran. And I most certainly did not just sit there, "attending to the baby," pretending that the rest of my family wasn't running laps around normal families (who don't have to chain their toddlers to their seats after they finish eating). Nope. Not me!

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"Not Me!" Monday is an incredibly fun, blogging carnival started by MckMama. In a nutshell, it's where we all can be open about the ridiculous things that happen in our lives. Join in the "Not Me!" fun and leave a comment about all of the things you didn't do this week!
  

One, Two, Three

      
Counting my Thanksgiving blessings...

...is as easy as one, two, three.