Surprise and Decorating

Just wanted to pop in here and say that today my family is decorating for Christmas.  Which is kinda cool except, currently, there is a saw (yes, an actual saw) in my house as we are trying to set up our Christmas tree...fun times.  And I still need to finish Christmas shopping.

In other news, I've officially selected my College for fall 2012.

*Drum Roll*

Belmont Abbey!!!

:D

I'm so excited about this guys! I got into soccer there and I'm pretty psyched.  It's a division 2 Catholic School.

Thanks to all who have been so supportive of me following this dream, especially my parents.  My coaches for travel were also extremely supportive! I couldn't have done this without them.   As soon as I texted one, they started calling me, congratulating me, telling me "I told you," and than sending out an embarrassing email to my whole team.   Today at practice, they made this big announcement.  It was embarrassing to say the least, but I still love them to death and they love "the Hammer".  At before mentioned practice, my coach comes up to me and says, "Give me some," I'm like, "What?" and he's like "Don't you know what that means?" Than he opens his arms and I'm like, "Oh you wanna hug"...haha.  Like I said, they are totally supportive.

So I'm feeling very very happy and totally at peace with this choice.

Merry Christmas!

Robyn

Feel that?

If there is one thing I've learned in my short life it's this: Time is very very precious.  It's not something to be taken for granted.  The relationships you build and the lives you impact with your time portray your character more than words ever can.

"Time is so old and love so brief / Love is pure gold and time a thief" Speak Low ~  Norah Jones and Tony Bennet


Making the most of our time is a struggle each and every day.  It is a good and honorable struggle.  For me, time seems to drag along some days and now, especially during the Christmas season, it seems to fly by.  I just want to take this time to relish in the joy of the season and the fact that God has a plan for each and every one of us to use HIS time in HIS way.

It is a fact - God cares.  He is Love.


Here's to learning how to give our time to God. 


Feel that? It's called peace and it stems from God's Love.  

An Explanation

I don't think I've told ya'll why I like the picture in the header of my blog so much.  I've already said that I am an amateur photographer and this is one of my pictures.  But there is a more specific reason why I chose it for my blog.

First of all, I think it's different.  You see a unique view of the flower that is normally not shown.  In my opinion, the back of the flower is the least attractive part of it. So why did I choose that to be the header, the focus, of my blog? Am I nuts? Why didn't I pick something like these?

Well, The reason why I picked this specific picture is because, in this adventure called life, I feel like sometimes (a lot of times) we are missing the focal point of the bigger picture.   We are forgetting to lift our eyes up to the Lord like the flowers.  We forget to see Him in all the beauty that surrounds us.

In other words, I just think my picture is purty.

Anyway, that's the story behind the picture!
Have a Blessed Advent Season everybody!

XOXO, Robyn

Such a good read!

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2011/06/gentleness-in-the-real-world-1.html

As I was exploring Elizabeth Foss' blog, I happened to read this article.  It is very touching so I just had to share the link with all my girls out there!

XOXO,
Robyn

Bring it on!

Post-Thanksgivng Feast numero uno.

Are you ready for this?
I don't know if you're going to be able to handle it.
It might be too much.

NOTE: If you do not have 3 hours at your leisure to spend in the kitchen I suggest not taking on this challenge.

So yesterday was my sisters birthday.  It was very sweet.  She had her 6 gal pals over and they munched, played, created, and enjoyed a lovely day.  There was home made mac 'n cheese, hot apple cider, cupcake wars, art, glitter, frosting, and lots and lots of giggling.

How does one prepare for such an extravaganza?
Nicole, the mature 9 year old that she was, did most of the planning.  She picked the crafts, made decorations (streamers made out of paper), made the menu and goodie bags.

She also happened to pick out her birthday cake for the evening celebration.  That one included just our immediate family and 1 guest.  Guess what Ms. Smarty Pants picked?  A 3 layer lemon cake, Paula Deen style.

You can get the actual recipe here.

At first I had no objections to the suggestion...who doesn't love cake?  Little did I know...

 It started out simple enough, just creaming some butter (actually lots of butter), sugar, vanilla, and eggs.

 Than, I got to add this special flour OoOo.

 And I had a little helper, who lasted for about 2 min.  But it was so cute because he pulled up his little red chair and wanted to watch me before he went to bed.  I baked from 9-12.

 This is what it looked like when I added the special flour and milk in "stages".

 Oooo la la! Things are finally coming together and getting interesting.  And yes, I did lick that bowl...

 Lemon glaze....I put in something like sugar, 8 egg yolks, butter and lemons!

 This is the meringue topping - SO GOOD!  2 Egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla, water, and sugar.  

 And this is what cooking in a double boiler looks like....

 Umm let's just say that when I tried to do the electric mixer with the lemon glaze it made a huge mess.  Like everywhere.  So I got to work out my biceps and triceps for this part.  Fun times.....not.

 Completed lemon glaze!

 The meringue tasted like marshmallow fluff....I could probs eat that stuff by itself any day any time.

This is what the 3 layers lemon cake looked like when I put it together! The birthday girl let me know she appreciated my present to her...trust me, this cake was DIVINE!

 Oh, and I also had the pleasure of making cupcakes from a box.  After the 3 layer cake, this one was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So do you think you can take on my challenge? Do you have any horrific baking stories about things that went terribly wrong that you wanna tell me? Do you have a picture of a cake that beats mine? Baking Wars are so on!