The Cuteness!

Otis laying around, licking our wood. Don't ask...

Busy Day

Today was a pretty busy day at the Queen's. Hannah had some baking she wanted to do and get pictures while we had some sun. You can see her post here.

I decided to sew Hannah an apron; she is the messiest baker around. It turned out so cute. I used three different coordinating patterns so it has a lot of color. I'll get her to take a picture of it soon.

Sarah practiced her mandolin. William and Hayden went to do a couple of things for our business.

This evening while Sarah finished dinner, Wm. and I ran out to get some stocking stuffers and grab a bite to eat. We ended up a Chick-fil-A (I could eat it seven times a day). There were two girls singing Christmas songs for the customers. Then this large high school basketball group came in. The next thing we knew they were having a sing-a-long! It was a hoot!! It put a smile on my face.

Tomorrow we are building our ginger bread house, always a knee slapper.

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas!!

photography by Hannah Queen

Calvinism is nothing more and nothing less than the simple assertion that salvation is all of grace. God chooses us before we choose Him. It is a Biblical doctrine that, in my thinking, should not carry the name of a man.

Our personal agenda should not be to 'preach' Calvinism or reformed theology; our desire should be to embrace, confess, preach, and teach the truths of God's Word and share the gospel with everyone.

The real issue is not whether John Calvin is your personal theologian, but whether Jesus Christ is your personal Savior.

thoughts taken from Albert Mohler's writings

Craziness In The Kitchen

Today Hannah was making a trial run at this cake that she plans to take to some friends of ours over the holidays. OH MY!

First, she made the batter, no problem. She put the pans in the oven, set the timer and walked away. The timer went off, she opened the oven and it was cold! Someone had turned off the oven; I truly do not know who or how this happened. (that is my story and I am sticking with it) She was trying to work quickly to catch the little sun we have had to take pictures. See, this cake was also going to be a guest post on someone's blog.

She turns the oven on and lets it preheat and gets the cakes in the oven AGAIN. All good. They come out perfect.

She made the ganache for the filling last night and had it in the frig. That goes in the middle and it is time to make the icing...

OH my. It is a 7 minute icing if you have a hand mixer. We don't! So she has to hand mix it over boiling water. She enlists myself and her brother to take turns. It is now called the "15 minute icing' at our house.

Next I am asked to help with the icing of the cake except that the recipe didn't make enough to cover the whole cake. We are professionals here. No problem, we will ice half and she can shoot that side.

Well, that is all well and good except it becomes painfully obvious that she did not temper the chocolate correctly and the ganache is 'melting'. OH GOOD GRIEF!!!! On top of that this '15 minute' icing is getting marshmellowy and will not spread.

We decide to take the icing off and make a different icing. I tell Hannah to get busy with a new icing recipe and I will get the icing from hades off while trying to keep the ganache in!!! I finish and the cake looks like it has been attacked by a rabid baker with ganache oozing out like its life blood leaving it's battered body. (ok, a little dramatic, but you had to be there)

I throw the cake in the frig to try to save the filling. I open the door a couple of times just to taunt Hannah. Mean Mom!! She about falls over. Still no pictures of this lovely cake and the post is due to go to the blogger today.

After Hannah got the new batch of icing whipped up, she decides to take some of ganache from the middle. Can you say crazy??!! She grabs the top layer and the filling is running between her fingers. She is yelling at the dog to stop licking the floor and trying to keep the layer from breaking. Chaos!! But, she manages to pull it off.

The new icing was much better and we got it on the cake! She ran down stairs and got pictures and wrote her post. You can see it on her blog honeyandjam.com after Friday; it has to make is debut as a guest post first.

Here is another picture of the lovely, exhausting, bless our hearts cake!

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth. Martin Luther


It is interesting to me to look at statements made by men of faith many, many years ago. So many of their words have come back to haunt us.

They seemed to be so grounded in the Word that things were more black and white for them. Today people try to reason and justify so much, where these men were absolute in their statements about God's commands and how we should live.

Martin Luther saw the danger in public schooling and made a pronouncement regarding education. Simple and clear.

Maybe we should go back to the Word again and try to see what these men saw.

BOLD

Look at this new ad by Dockers. WOW!!! I am impressed and we need to let them know that we approve!!! Call them today and let them know that you like this ad.

Dockers' Vice President of Global Marketing comments on the new marketing strategy in this interview with Brandweek.

WOW!

Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

Giveaway At MckMama

Go here: My Charming Kids NOW!!!!

MckMama is giving away a HP laptop with 23.5 in. screen!!

A Case Againist Global Warming

The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

²² "As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease."

Scripture tells us that the seasons will remain and never cease as long as the earth remains. Nothing will change the climate so that we no longer have cold and warm, winter and summer.

God promises us climate consistency in His Word. It amazes me how we overlook what is already written in scripture and go off on tangents because Al Gore or some scientist makes a statement about the climate.

Decorations!

We started decorating the outside with some branches from Christmas trees the Boy Scouts are selling. The girls got busy putting them together to put in various places.

I love the rustic, woodsy look. It certainly goes right along with our cabin.

Very Good

Fa La La La La?

Since my last post I have been trying to process all that is going on in my head concerning the holidays. I have discovered that this is not an easy task! There seems to be a lot of stuff going on in the northern most portion of my body.

Feelings of inadequacy have reared their ugly head. You don't decorate enough, you don't bake enough, you don't have 100 yr. old recipes you cook from... bla bla bla.

Then there are the real issues . No church home, no grandparents, no pile of cash, etc. Goodness, I sound pathetic.

So, I am working through these things; sometimes I do pretty good, other times, well, not so good. I want to sit down and have a good cry. I want to wallow in my perceived misery. UGH. So not worth it.

So what I don't live in a Southern Living house, we don't need another cookie, and 100 yr. old recipes aren't that good, we just want them to be.

SO THERE! I am determined to enjoy this season with my family and close friends. I am blessed, we are blessed.

photography by Hannah Queen

Tis The Season?

Hannah says I hate the holidays; she has said this for years. This is not a completely true statement, but there is some truth buried in it.
It is difficult to admit there are some deep issues that make the holiday season less than 'bright' for me.

I do love the greening of the church, which we don't have right now. It was always such a sweet time for me. I also love the last service before Christmas; oh, what a holy, quite time. Being with those you love and thinking about the night our Savior was born is just special.

I love providing gifts for our local crisis center. There are many families in our area that have little and they depend on this center for gifts for their children. To read these kids letters is amazing, many just ask for basic necessities; things we take for granted. It is humbling and heart-warming. Some children will ask for things for their parents and for things for their family.

What I struggle with is not having extended family to be with. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful for my husband and three children. But, my children have not had grandparents, aunts or uncles to see and visit. When everyone else is trying to fit in all their visits and dinners in December, we are not. When people are looking at their calendars trying to see what they have open, I don't have to, mine is free and clear.

I am a family person, but I am an only child. I wanted to have grandparents around to spoil my kids, but that wasn't to be. I wanted aunts and uncles to pick up the slack when we couldn't, that didn't happen either. Everything has rested firmly on our shoulders, no one to help with gifts, dinners, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to spin a sad story to garner sympathy. I am just writing out what I have been trying to deal with the last few days; why my oldest child thinks I hate the holidays and why I find myself wishing they would be over.

I love the lights on the tree, planning special, thoughtful gifts for others. What I miss is someone loving my children like I do; wanting to be with them because they are so special to them. What I hate is them not having family that they can't wait to see.

Now, I have to take all of this and lay it at Jesus' feet; all the self-pity, sadness and disappointment. It ain't about me...

They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing. Psalm 126:5