Chocolate Then Church

It’s Easter weekend and while most of us celebrate Christmas in a really big way, I always wonder why we don’t put the same emphasis on Easter? After all, to us who are Christians, there could be no Christianity without the sacrifice of Easter. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad it is not a secular commercialization of a Holy day but I hope going forward we really spend time thinking about who and what we are celebrating.
Now when the boys were young it was a very BIG DAY at our house! I mean when else were the kids given tons of candy before 8:00am?? (Yeah, not real sure who came up with that tradition but I am pretty certain they did not have three boys.) Candy in the morning was made even worse by the fact that we then dressed them up and expected them to behave for the next few hours while we all went to church. Again, not much forethought on our part… I mean why on earth did we not give them the baskets AFTER church?!?! Hind sight people. But what I did love was the pure unadulterated joy on the faces of those boys as they ran around hunting eggs, eating candy and celebrating life. They didn’t really understand the holiday for years, but what a reminder to me as a harried, busy, overwhelmed mom of what really mattered. Celebrating new life and the sacrifice of our Savior.
So this year, even though they’ll be no little boys running around here on a sugar high, Tim and I will still be celebrating not only new life, but the selfless sacrifice of our Lord and Savior. And I’m hoping wherever you are, you will be celebrating the same!!

Life Changing

There is no getting around it… the world is divided into two distinct people groups- those that LOVE sweets and those that don’t. I fall into that latter group. Now don’t misunderstand me, it’s not that I don’t like sweets it’s just that I prefer, you know, mashed potatoes or hash brown casserole when it comes to dessert. Well, until recently that is.

Having three boys who stay hungry, I have always kept my freezer stocked with ice cream. They all have their favorites: one tends to like plain, another likes anything coffee flavored and the last one loves mint chocolate chip. These days I try to stock up when they’re going to be home and I try to mix it up for them. On one of my recent trips to stock up, Mayfield was on sale so I tried some of the new flavors. One of them, as I told my Thursday night Bible study group, CHANGED MY LIFE! Oh my y’all, it is ah-maz-ing.

It’s a caramel flavored ice cream with salty caramel and chocolate covered pretzels called oddly enough Crunchy Caramel Pretzel. It is the perfect blend of salty with sweet which I think is why I have fallen in love with it. I mean, I may or may not have eaten a small cup this morning at 9:15 when I pulled the carton out to photograph it. There may have also been a conversation with Tim in which I was a bit short with him because not only did he eat some of what I lovingly call MY ice cream but he put it back in the fridge not the freezer (let’s just say he won’t make that mistake again since I reluctantly agreed to share if he would promise to always put it back in the freezer.) So if you haven’t given up sweets up for Lent, I suggest you head straight to the store to buy some. Be fore warned, this may kill your swimsuit diet but rest assured it will change your life for the better! And yes, you will thank me later.

Winter Storms and Funyuns

So there is a winter storm warning for Augusta starting tomorrow at 11:00am and ending Wednesday at 1:00pm. They’re saying that there is a chance that we will get one to three inches of snow… of course there is also a chance that I will be named Queen of the World and these chances are about the same. Am I the only person who has noticed that when a winter storm is predicted in this area you can be assured of one thing- no winter storm! Oh we’ve had winter storms here but they never come when predicted. Nope, they prefer to sneak up and catch everyone unaware kind of like appendicitis.

For those of you not in the south, I should clue you in to the fact that when a winter storm warning is issued you can be guaranteed of one thing- bread and milk will be sold out in every store within a twenty mile radius. I mean, if there is no power, southerners immediately make plans to fix and eat the age old Milk and Bread casserole…not really but it might be true because I can think of no other reason people would feel the need to run out and by these items. I get it that you can keep your milk cold in a snow storm and you can eat bread in a snow storm but does anyone really plan to consume that much of either one?!?! And why is there no run on the really good stuff you can eat without power when it’s cold like ice cream, chocolate, Funyuns (yeah, I said Funyuns!), chex mix, salami, redi whip, cheese, s’mores… right?? Why eat milk or bread when you can have this stuff?? So, if the storm does hit, y’all get out your snow boots and come on over… cause you can help me eat all of the good stuff I’ve stock piled for just such an occasion.