James has some new office help! Itty, bitty kittens, Max and Ruby, were dumped at the shop, a few weeks ago. The girls LOVE cats, especially Lydia. Unfortunately, I am very allergic to house cats. Max and Ruby live in James’ office and come over to visit and play with the girls each day. This weekend he put a cat door in so they can have full reign of the office and workshop area.

Little Max climbs a tree in our backyard!

They are so cute, I thought I’d share them with you. They are a blessing to the girls. I hope they stay safe. Our sweet Mama cat, that used to live at the shop, disappeared. This happened, of course, after we spent money to get her fixed.

How do you like Lydia’s dixie cup bracelets? She wore them all day! This is Ruby.

“There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.”
T.S. Eliot

James has been craving salad for several weeks now. He requests it nearly everyday. My salad repertoire is really small, so I decided to get on All Recipes and find something new. Everytime I pick a recipe that has a five star rating, it turns out delicious! James is a bacon, salad and mayonnaise lover and a BLT fan. I found a recipe that combined all his faves.

Yesterday, I decided to make this salad recipe for lunch. I gave Anjelia a sippy cup of chocolate milk, to try to satisfy her for a few minutes, so I could get it done. It worked! She ran off, happy as a lark. After a few minutes, she walked back into the kitchen with her shirt covered in chocolate milk. I immediately knew that was a BAD sign. I was right! My entire living room, including my furniture, was covered in chocolate milk spit! Some of the spots were the size of dinner plates!

This is not the first time I’ve had a spitter. Lydia went through this phase and was really good at it! She would have tea parties using juice spit from her sippy cup!

B.L.T. Salad with Basil Mayo Dressing

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 pound bacon
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 slices French bread, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 pound romaine lettuce – rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

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DIRECTIONS:
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside, reserving 2 tablespoons of the drippings.
In a small bowl, whisk together the reserved bacon drippings, mayonnaise, vinegar and basil and let dressing stand, covered, at room temperature.
In a large skillet over medium heat, toss the bread pieces with the salt and pepper. Drizzle with the oil, continue tossing and cook over medium-low heat until golden brown.
In a large bowl mix together the romaine, tomatoes, bacon and croutons. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.

Chocolate Milk Spit

INGREDIENTS:
7 oz. – 1% milk
sippy cup
3 heaping tsp. Ovaltine
toddler

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DIRECTIONS:
In sippy cup, mix milk and Ovaltine. Hand the cup to a spitting toddler. Leave the room.

“My salad days,
When I was green in judgement.”
from the recipe book of Leona Odle Dickey

My auction loving mom picked up a great treasure for me Saturday. Mom and Larry frequent auctions often. It seems it’s one of their favorite things to do together. Some of their finds are amazing and they generally have a great time checking out the loot. Due to their talent for sniffing out the auctions, I now am the proud owner of my first percolator!!!!

Manning Bowman & Co percolator with cream and sugar set. The tray does not match. It was made by Hotpoint. The glass lid says Pyrex!

It appears to be about 85 years old. My clue is the 1925 date on the bottom! It came with a tray, sugar bowl and creamer. When I plugged it in, I anxiously waited for something to happen! Much to my disappointment, it did not work. I had James take a look at it last night. He discovered it needed a new fuse. There was a spare one on the inside of the base! Amazingly, It works now!!!! I need to get the mineral deposits out, but once it’s clean this puppy is going to brew me some coffee!!!

My mom has decided to collect a miniature tea set for each of the girls. Lydia has hers. A gorgeous little set that mom found and purchased for her. Saturday she really made out like a bandit with a beautiful set for Jessica. They were made in Bavaria, Germany. There’s a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and six cups and saucers and six plates!! I need another china cabinet!!! She only paid $15 for this set. It’s a steal. They are in perfect shape and most likely antiques. I need to do some more research.

I am very thankful to have received such fun things this past week. God gives me so much more than I deserve, in so many ways. Thanks for letting me share my treasures with you. I know I can’t take them with me but I want to use my stuff to make fun memories while I’m here. Hopefully my children will love my things so much that they will be tempted to fight over them when I’m gone. (Just tempted!)

“Coffee and love are best when they are hot”German Proverb

I posted about vindication a few weeks ago. I thought this was interesting and timely.

Beloved allow Me to vindicate you. When you try to vindicate yourself, you try to clear yourself by proving and maintaining your innocence. There are times to give an explanation of your testimony to teach others who are hungry. And there are times to remain silent. Where you are misunderstood, where you are falsely accused, where you are misaligned, where you are not believed, lean upon ME to become your defense. If you lean upon your own mastery, it will only prolong your trial.

Dearest, please do not strive with men. Allow them their opinions. If what they think stands in the way of your destiny, I will do exactly what is needed to remove their opinions. Learn to lay low before Me. If you humble yourself, in due time I will raise you up. I am the One Who puts down and exalts another. Lay down your self defense precious one. I know this hurts. I know you only want love and unity. Sometimes the way to love is to remain silent in the midst of enemy accusation. In the mean time I will teach you who is hungry for the truth and who opposes such.

Ps 75:6-7 NKJV
For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.

1 Sam 25:33 AMP
And blessed be your discretion and advice, and blessed be you who have kept me today from bloodguiltiness and from avenging myself with my own hand.

Matt 26:62-63 NKJV
And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent.

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Words to Ponder are summaries of prophetic revelation, punched with the word of wisdom and written under inspiration. [Sandy Warner: swauthor@usa.net / website: www.thequickenedword.com ] Permission given to forward or post with this footer attached.
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A bittersweet thing happened yesterday. I decided to get out by myself for a little while. I got in my Chevy Venture and it took me to the outlet mall, to one of my favorite shops, Mikasa. It was exciting and disappointing when I saw the 75% off signs. Most of the shops have closed down in the ghost town mall and I knew immediately that this was a bad sign. I was correct, they are going out of business in a week.

On occasion, when I have a few bucks of spending cash and I’m in the mood for something pretty to serve with, I stop in to bring home a new prized possession. I have collected the whole set of Roxborough glassware. I love making my favorite punch recipe in my beautiful Roxborough punch bowl. It’s one of my treasures. I use it at all the girls’ birthday parties. I have 24 matching punch cups that go with it and cake plates, relish trays, bowls, yadda yadda yadda.

I have been wanting new everyday dishes for a year. I was down to five plates and four bowls and the pieces that were left were chipped and cracked. This was my chance. I went in with my heart ponding, excited about what I would find. I was overwhelmed and freaked when I found out they were closing in 20 minutes. There was no way I was coming back in the morning with all the kids and I was afraid they’d sell out before I would be able to get back. I had to make a decision fast! I purchased the Italian Mocha set for 75% off!!!!

They are beautiful but now I’m having buyers remorse. I don’t own anything else that is mocha in color! My desire is to have a kitchen decorated coffee house style. These would be perfect- that’s why I picked them, but now I’m having second thoughts. I’m feeling this way because they told me “no refunds or exchanges”. Please tell me they’re perfect and I’m blessed and shut up!

I’m hoping I can talk James into going back with me tonight. I am going to miss this store.

“The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.”
Marcelene Cox

I did it Debbie! I bought THE MOP! I have been using the swiffer wet things that you buy but I realized that they are not very cost efficient. With six of us tracking through the house each day, I need to sweep and mop every other day. So, I finally broke down and bought the Vileda Ultra Max! The pad can be taken off with each use and thrown in the washing machine. Aren’t you proud, Debbie?!

Aww, look at my happy family. Well, James was mad at me! Can you tell?
I know this is ridiculous to be taking pictures at Wal-mart.

I tried it out today and it really is great. The bucket comes with the mop and you just rinse and squeeze out the water with this built in tray. I kept mopping and mopping and the pad kept turning brown. Finally, I gave up! I also bought the dry cloth one just for sweeping with. It worked great on my wood floors, except that it didn’t fit the mop well. I think there must be a different sized one for sweeping with. It must be bigger.

Jessica took the pic. How do you like my apron?

Maybe you have read the comments made here about this mop. If so, maybe you will find this post humorous. It really is a big deal to find things that make housework easier and more enjoyable. Housework is so daily and can become very, very mundane.

Oh, another plug… I bought the clorox toilet wand and the refill sponges. It’s definitely worth the purchase. After each use you push a button and the cleaning pad pops off in the trash. The cleaner is already in the pad. It makes cleaning the toilet kinda fun. Hmmm….that’s an odd statement.

“My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?”
Erma Bombeck

I love garage saling. I don’t enjoy purchasing things at the regular retail prices, there’s just no thrill in it. Yesterday morning, the girls and I found a gem of a garage sale. In a box in the garage was a set of beautiful china!

I have a china set that I absolutely adore. My mom began collecting it when I was just three years old. In the past few years I’ve added several pieces and it has grown into a 95 piece set! I don’t just like for it to sit in the hutch and look pretty, we use it on occasion. On Christmas Eve we set the table with it and had a big, delicious candlelit meal. It was lovely.

My Haviland china, blue garland pattern, made in Bavaria Germany.

With some leftover birthday money and some spending cash James had given me, I purchased the 8 place setting, 65 piece set for $40! When I brought it home, it was like Christmas, as I unwrapped each piece and washed and towel dried it. It is missing the sugar bowl and it has a gravy plate but no gravy boat. The cheapest sugar bowl I could find online was $30. I’ll eventually add these pieces along with some others I want. This is a most excellent start!

I’ve desired to collect four sets, one for each of my girls. Of course, to buy them retail is outside my budget. I feel like God himself reached down from heaven and gave me a special gift! Now I’m excited about the additional sets that I’ll eventually find for my girls.

Teacup sitting on a doily made by my great grandmother.

This is the Rosarito pattern of fine china by Mikasa. I am tickled pink just like the dainty pink flowers!

“It’s a wise husband who will buy his wife such fine china that she won’t trust him to wash the dishes.”

I’ve resisted all week, but I feel a compulsion to post this pic of Jessica. I really adore it. She’s our horse lovin, country music listening, girl. She asked me the other day if the cows with brown spots are the ones that make chocolate milk! She was embarrassed when I giggled but she was so serious about it. It was so cute.

“Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people”
Allan Beck

We had a great weekend. It started Friday night when James and I decided that we MUST get some time alone. (If anyone knows a responsible teenager to babysit occasionally please let me know. We’ve decided we’ve got to get alone together more often!!) We took the kids to my mom’s house at 8:00 and went to a delicious restaurant, Countryside, that specializes in homestyle cooking. We had awesome soup and salad and country fried steak, served with mashed potatos and gravy, green beans with bacon for seasoning, along with hot rolls and real butter. I love soul food!

Saturday morning we did one of my favorite things. We went out and ate breakfast at IHOP!!!! Yummy, country griddle cake combo!

got milk? Anjelia enjoyed drinking half and half at IHOP!

After breakfast, James took me to see several beautiful homes that his company installed cabinets for. I FORGOT to take pictures. (I think I was stressed about Anjelia running around.) They also did most of the countertops. I like them better than the marble one I saw. I fell in love with one of the model homes. It was a California split floor plan named, Clinton. It was absolutely beautiful and perfect for my family. Too bad it cost $250,000! It’s fun to look!

We went back to mom’s to pick up Jessica, who spent the night there. There are so many fun things to take pictures of at mom’s. I wish I could remember how to do the slide show. I have a hard time retaining the information James teaches me.

country butterfly with my great-grandparents old farmhouse in the background

Sunday morning we went to church and out to Janet and Richard’s (Mom and Dad D.) for lunch. After eating, Janet taught the girls how to make ice cream!

I’ll get this recipe and share it! Scrumptious

While the ice cream was chilling, I took A NAP!!!! Woohooo. I was sooo tired feeling. They took the kids outside to play while I slept on the couch. Thank you, I really needed that!

The only downer was while I was eating my ice cream outside a wasp crawled into the bottom back of my t-shirt and stung me twice! Those dang things hurt!

Thank you James for a great weekend. Thanks for recognizing that I really needed to get out!

“You’re never too full for ice cream, it’s for filling in the cracks!” Mary

One year olds, Anjelia and Jaden, relunctantly share a swing in Tom and Karen’s backyard!

“Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.”Anne Frank