Thank you all!

I am home now and resting comfortably with my family taking good care of me. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Prayer request

I am popping in here quickly just to ask for specific prayers today at 8 am (CST). Thank you all for your kind words and prayers and the peace that those graces have provided!

Grieving

You know, my husband sometimes tells the story of a Franciscan priest he knew who was desperately running to catch a bus. He made it up the steps just before the doors closed shut behind him and plopped down exhausted, proclaiming loudly, "God is good!" A little old lady sitting next to him smiled and said, "Yes... and He would be just as good if you didn't catch the bus!" It's a funny anecdote for a serious subject to follow. Forgive me.

What is it about our fallen human nature that only rejoices in His goodness when things go our way? An unexpected refund arrives in the mail... God is good! A friend shows up with a plate of cookies... God is good!

Cookies or not, God is always good.

Today especially, I will try to remember that God is good. In light of tragedy and sadness, God is good. In light of losing a little one who's face we will not know this side of Heaven. God is good. In light of still carrying that tiny heart that we never once had the pleasure of watching beat. God is good. In light and in shadow, in sunshine and in rain...
in heartbreak...
in sorrow...
in pain...

God is good.

Blessed be God forever.

We beg your prayers as we go through the painful process of letting our little one go.

St. Isidore, pray for us!

Love Me Quiltie

This adult sized Quiltie is for a friend of a friend who turned 50 this year, who loves Elvis and who is a sparkling jewel to those she calls friends. Isn't this fabric awesome?! Wouldn't these colors also be great for a retro baby nursery? Not that I'm planning one.  I'm just sayin'!

Good Shepherd's Garden Party ~ Week 3

As I mentioned before, our week has been a difficult one due to some little illnesses here and there. This is why I am so thankful to Jessica for working with me to come up with these once a week plans because I know that if we were still doing a daily activity, this week would have been a total bust!

I did make one last minute change to make this week's menu plans work better for us. I wish I had thought of it sooner to let you know about it, but alas, my brain is slow these days.

Back when we were looking for ideas and I came across the recipe for Tuoni e Lampi (Thunder and Lightning) it sounded fun to say and looked simple enough to prepare (which Jessica confirmed). But I completely forgot that chickpeas are the same thing as garbanzo beans which my husband can't eat. Ugh! Since it's a recipe I haven't tried before, I didn't want to ruin it by substituting a different bean. So here is what our Week 3 Garden Party looked like instead:

We had...

Sun Pizza

He didn't look that menacing before baking!

Rainbow Kabobs

with Whipped Creamy Clouds

Hail

Your hail might not get this big, but ours sure does!

Rain with Lightning Straws

We used light blue Gatorade.

and Windy Cupcakes

Can't wait to see all of the creative interpretations of this week's symbols over at Catholic Cuisine on Monday!

Happy Feast of St. George!

I wish we were going to slay our dragon with some friends today but alas, a spring cold has knock us back a bit. I like how he turned out, but I must admit that he didn't get the attention he deserved today. First, the weather played havoc with our frosting. Warm and humid is not good for frosting or queasy pregnant women. And don't even get me started about smelling the sweet stench of that frosting. Let's just say that this dragon should count himself lucky to even have skin! Normally, I would take the time to smooth out all the rough spots, but today, he stays rough whether he likes it or not!

 We used Toblerone for the spikes and gave him a little hoard of treasure. Fruit roll-ups made the wings with Kisses for the eyes and nose. Our dragon slayers are working on their swords and can't wait for the Sir Daddy to come home from work. As for me, this beast is going back in the fridge where I can't smell him anymore!

If you have your own dragon waiting to be slain, don't forget to head over to Catholic Cuisine and share your cake with everyone.

Dragon Cake ~ Putting it together

For the visual people...

Here are all of the cut cake pieces put together.

This is with the Ding Dongs added to make the thighs and feet. Now, please know, this is the only time that you will find Ding Dongs in my house. They are not my idea of good cake or even a tasty snack, but the kids are kind of intrigued by them and so we keep using them, once a year, and then, no more!

Here is a picture of the dragon frosted with the first layer of frosting. This is the layer that seals the crumbs in. It isn't going to look pretty! Pop it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes and then add your second layer which should cover all the crumblies trapped in the first layer.

Next post... the finished product!

Dragon Cake Tutorial

I was looking at the first tutorial I posted over at Catholic Cuisine a few years ago and realized that I don't cut my dragon cakes the same way anymore.  I think those first instructions came from an out-of-print party planning book I used to own. When you make the decision to not use cake pieces for the spikes and use candy pieces or cookies, it frees up some extra cake to use to make the head stand up more rather than just lay flat. I kind of prefer that look to the flat head version over at at Family Fun.

Here is an updated example of how I cut my cakes now (although, every year it's a little different). The first round is always cut in half to form the back. That hasn't changed. The second round gets cut like this:

The bottom two pieces are stuck together to make the head. The longer, pointy-ended piece on top is the tail and the other piece can be shaped for the neck. The next step is assembling and frosting which you can read more about on my post called Frosting the Dragon.

Questions and Answers

I've received a few questions recently about my coloring pages, so I'm going to take just a minute to provide some answers.

First, if anyone wants to link directly to my coloring pages, I have one request... please link to them somewhere on my blog instead of directly over at Scribd. The reason for that is really for your benefit, not mine. I don't get paid to blog, or accept ads and it doesn't benefit me at all to try to drive up my traffic. My reasoning is that if I ever move the documents from Scridb, all of those other links will be broken and aren't broken links so frustrating! Should I decide to move the docs to another hosting site for reasons of technical difficulties or just personal preference, you can be sure that the links on my blog will always be up-to-date and accurate. (If you already have links directly to Scribd on your site, please don't feel bad! : )

Also, if you do link to them, please do not post pictures or screen shots of the blank coloring pages in their entirety (although, pictures of your kids getting ready to color them always tickle me!). I am afraid that when this was done in the past, a picture was posted with the copyright removed. When I asked for the pictures of the my coloring pages to be replaced with just links, the site owner decided to remove all of my coloring pages in their entirety. So again, I want to state, I don't mind links, but I don't see the need to provide a "preview" of a coloring page especially when doing so might compromise someone else's hard work.

And lastly, more as a reminder than anything else, everything on my blog is shared freely, especially the coloring pages. They are not to be sold or profited from in any way. You can print as many copies of them as you like and share them with your friends, but if they are sold or even linked to on a site that charges for access to content, I will enforce my copyrights.

Good Shepherd's Garden Party ~ Week 5

The Gardener 
Plants Paradise

This Week’s Good Shepherd’s 
Garden Party Menu

Maple Leaf Cookies
Lemon Creme Flower Cookies
Fresh Fruit
Owl Cupcakes
Olives and/or Rosemary Olive Oil Crackers
Palm Tree Pick in Cheese Cubes
Lily Sandwiches

Decorating Ideas

Roses, Lilies, and/or other flowers
Palm Tree decorations like napkins or plates, etc...

By Jessica at Shower of Roses and Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda

Recipes and Suggestions
*Please feel free to modify and be creative with these plans to suit your family!

29. The Tree of Life's Leaves   Revelation 22: 1-5

Maple Leaf Cookies

30. The Tree of Life's Flowers  Isaiah 55: 12-13

Lemon Creme Flowers

Jessica and I both were able to find these easily at our local stores. We thought they were a great way to keep the plans simple.






31. The Tree of Life's Fruit   Galatians 5: 22-2 

Serve a platter of fresh seasonal fruit!

32. The Owl   Psalm 102: 6-12 

These owl cupcakes are the one item from past years that my kids specifically requested this year!

33. The Olive Tree  Genesis 8: 6-11 

Serve a dish of olives and/or Rosemary Olive Oil crackers.

34. The Palm Tree   John 12:12-17
Initially we were going to suggest coconut milkshakes served in palm tree glasses, but to keep it simple, we opted for Palm Tree Picks in Cheese Cubes. These should be easy to find this time of year at your local party store, but if not, we also created a printable version as another option. Print them out on cardstock and glue or tape to toothpicks.

Palm Tree Picks in Cheese Cubes

35. The Roses and Lilies   Song of Songs 2: 1-7

An easy alternative to the following menu item would be a bouquet of roses and lilies for the table.

Lily Sandwiches

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese
2-3 TBSP milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika
20 slices fresh white bread
green pepper or green onions
carrot

Directions:

Combine cream cheese, milk, salt, and paprika. Beat with a mixer on medium speed until good and creamy. Remove crusts from bread. Roll into cornucopia shape by bringing two straight edges together and letting them overlap slightly. Hold the edges together with a little bit of the cheese mixture, pressing gently. Roll and chill the bread "lilies" before filling. After sandwiches are filled with the cream cheese mixture, insert a thin strip of carrot for a stamen. Cut bell pepper into leaf shapes and attach a leaf to each sandwich with additional cheese or stick a green onion, in the pinched end, as a stem. 

 Cream cheese on the left and peanut butter and banana on the right.

You can download and print all of these ideas and recipes with a shopping list here.

A Mr. Linky will be posted at Catholic Cuisine on May 10th, for anyone who would like to share the pictures from your own Good Shepherd’s Garden Party!

Recipe Blegs

I'm looking for a couple of recipes and would like some that are tried and true so I'm turning to you sweet friends! First, I need a basic pinto bean recipe that can be cooked in the crockpot. By basic, I mean, no jalapenos or other peppers and no meat like ham or bacon. Onions or Mexican spices are fine.

Also, a homemade ginger snap cookie that is more crunchy than chewy, although chewy would be fine too if it is a very spicy ginger cookie.

This has nothing to do with being pregnant. Well, OK... maybe a little. : ) I don't know that I would call them cravings, just a very definite, although sometimes changeable, limit to what kinds of food I can tolerate the thought of without turning green. High protein foods, like beans, seem to help a lot and I know that ginger is a natural remedy that I've tried before. I just don't think I could choke down a giant ginger horse pill right now or live through the after taste either.

Thank you!

Good Shepherd's Garden Party ~ Week 2

This week's menu plans weren't quite enough for a dinner meal, so we had our party as lunch today before heading out the door to confession. Because of our plans, I needed to simplify. Jessica and I both agree that our menu plans are not carved in stone and everyone should feel free to simplify as they need to! Think of them as examples or just suggestions.

Also, someone made the comment that our plans might not be the most healthy of menus. Jessica and I prefer to think of them as party menus. We are trying to celebrate the 50 days of Easter and while every day can't be a party day, we can certainly let some rules of good nutrition slip for one meal. Also, not everyone has to partake of every item. In some cases, these menus can be used for a meal as they are and others might need some alteration. For example, I added cheese and nuts to this week's menu for some extra protein.

So, instead of the beautiful Lamb of God bread, I made some easy 5 minute artisan bread, set out the honey bottle and sliced some fruit. The kids were most looking forward to the ice cream sundaes and I was most looking forward to getting rid of the lingering Easter candy! The girls decorated everyone's chairs with crepe paper streamers and we all sat down to a delightful luncheon party! (Do you see the dancing boy and puppy in the background?)

Artisan Bread

 Strawberries 

~ we decided after reading the meditation for the fruit sticker to just serve strawberries instead of a fruit salad

 Sparkling White Grape Juice

~ Husband put this together for me and I added the swizzle sticks and grapes. Huge hit with the kids!

Sweet trimmings for some ice cream sundaes made with the only ice cream any self respecting Texan will eat (kidding!). Sundaes would be a great way to kick off celebrating Good Shepherd Sunday tomorrow (if you follow the Tridentine calendar) or next week (if you follow the Novus Ordo calendar) even if you aren't hosting a Garden Party of your own!

Can't wait to see everyone's parties over at Catholic Cuisine on Monday!

Coloring Pages

April 17th: I have decided to make all coloring pages public documents so there should be no problems printing or downloading them.

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Just as a reminder, there are a few coloring pages coming up for the end of April.

April 24: St. Mark (You might have fun making these lion cupcakes too!)

April 28: St. Gianna Molla (her maiden name is misspelled. Sorry.)

April 29: St. Catherine of Siena (I would appreciate if you would offer a prayer for my brother if you use this one, his birthday is the 29th.)

Remember, you can find all of my coloring pages listed up at the top by clicking on the tab called Catholic Coloring Pages.

Dragon Cakes Past

I can tell from Sitemeter that it's that time of year when people start looking for Dragon Cake ideas. Here is a round up of posts from past years.

2009:
Happy St. George's Day

with other examples of fiery creativity and a slaying sword

2008:

On our way... with a tutorial here and here.

2007:

Happy St. George's Day!

An after shot with our traditional sword knives which was an idea inspired by an in town friend's question in the combox (who's family participated in our very first St. George's Party). I came up with the "how-to" and the kids have carried it out every year since. It is just as much a part of the celebration as the cake is these days!