Mosaic of Grace : finding the masterpiece in the mess

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Prayers for Stellan

This precious boy and his family need prayer....please take a minute to lift them up and ask for God's protection and healing for baby Stellan. And read more about his miraculous life and his wonderful brave momma here

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Friday, October 23, 2009

McKMama's giving it away!

Head on over to my friend McKMama's Blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a $200 gift card to Best Buy! Yep, it's that simple!

http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/10/amazing-best-buy-giveaway.html

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Summer Catch Up..Part 2

Man, if only I could just "decide" to start eating better and excercise and be as succesful sticking to it as I have been "deciding" to stop neglecting my poor blog....oh well, anyhoo.

As I was saying in this post, there was a swirl of activity going on around the McManus household this summer....other than camping and swimming in our glorious blow up pool, we also had a few major milestones...some of them not so much. Let's start with the not so much...

Ok, this may not be a milestone for anyone else in my family but it sho' nuff was for me....a whole 4 days away in the beautiful mountains of Gatlinburg with these wonderful ladies God has placed in my life! I'm talking, no kids, no hubbies, private heated pool, hot tub, prayer time, watching movies in the middle of the day, and more food than Dolly Parton herself could serve at her famous Dixie Stampede! It was an amazing blessing and I am already looking forward to next year!

We also joined up with some fellow church goers and Homeschoolers and hit the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville! I'm still trying to figure out how I grew up here my whole life and never went to this glorious funnel cake filled event! And I'm quite certain that it's the only place on Earth that your nose can experience the aroma of Foot Long Corn Dogs and The Swine Barn all at once! Ooohh.. swine...just that word makes me cringe! I'm glad we did go...it was VERY educational and from what I understand, unless someone intervenes, our Mayor has decided the Fairgrounds could be put to better use so it was the last year of the State Fair. :-(

Yep, that pumpkin is REAL!

Now moving along to the more "Milestone" news....

This guy...

Became....

This guy...

And I am pretty sure I now need to add his mouth to our insurance!

Worth EVERY penny! :-)

And this little guy....

Turned "7" :-)

Where does the time go???? Seriously.

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Chocolate Gravy

I've had a few of you ask about my Chocolate Gravy...and although a Food Blog this will NEVER be (love food...can't cook food)...I simply couldn't resist passing on something as sacred in our family as Chocolate Gravy is. My grandma Margaret (moms mom) would make this for me on a whim...didn't matter what time of day or what she was doing...if I wanted it, she delivered. I know that she did this just for me because she herself, nor my grandpa, even cared for it. They would eat it if it was cooked, but it was nothing she made just for the two of them...which in turn always made me feel extremely loved. When I had flown home here to TN from PA to attend her funeral, I stayed at my Aunt Rita's house (moms sister). She cooked Chocolate Gravy one morning for me...I bet it had been 10 years since I had eaten it (grandma couldn't cook for years due to Alzheimers) and boy did I ever feel 8 years old again! I got the recipe from her that day and it is now what I use to make it for my kids. My kids beg for it...especially in the cooler months...I love when I mention making it and their eyes (even my 13 year olds) light up like it's Christmas morning! Sometimes I even make it for dinner...yep, dinner of Champions! G'ma always made homeade biscuits of course but my kids are just as happy with the refrigerator Grands. Also we love the Pillsbury Frozen Southern Style Grands....they are almost just like eating my G'mas...and a heckofa lot easier to make than the way she did it from scratch! :-)

If you have never made this...I say it's something everyone should try at least once in their lives...kinda like seeing New York City. Who knows...it may just become a tradition around your house like it is at ours.

Warning: This recipe isn't gonna find it's way into a Weight Watchers cookbook anytime soon! :-)

Grandma Margaret/Aunt Rita's Chocolate Gravy

1 &1/2 Cups Sugar (yes you read that right!)
1 &1/2 Cups Water or Milk...(I use Milk)
3 Tbsp. Cocoa
4-7 Tbsp. Self Rising Flour..depending on how think you like it...You could use a little less or more..it took a few times for me to know how I best liked it.
1 Tsp. Vanilla
2 Tbsp. Butter

Mix all ingredients EXCEPT vanilla and butter...cook until desired thickness.

Remove from heat and add Vanilla and Butter...serve over biscuits!

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Monday, October 19, 2009

Not Me! Monday

Head on over to McKMama blog and see what she's "ahem" cooking up this week! :-)

While camping this week I did not find myself at 1 am rationalizing that I needed to eat all three of the "Fun Size" Reese's...for it would make no sense to put the one poor solitary Reese's back in the cabinet alone would it?!?!

I did not go almost 3 entire days without showering while camping...cause that folks would be nasty.

I did not eat pumpkin pie in the camper at 2 am.

My precious baby boy...last of my babies...did NOT in fact learn to ride his bike this week!

I have NOT decided to stay on a whole other week this week camping and schooling with the kids WITHOUT MY HUBBY!!! Especially if it would mean we have to move our camper to a site without water/septic dumps because I am one spoiled camper and would NEVER be caught on such a site! ;-)

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Monday, October 12, 2009

Not Me! Monday

Click on the above link and check out the brains behind this little soul cleansing festivity....McKMama!

Well, first of all, I am surely not shamelessly posting a Not Me! Monday this week with the sole intent of winning that snazzy giveaway prize! :-)
While baking cookies this week with my daughter I did not tell her "no honey, you cannot eat raw sugar cookie dough because we just put a raw egg in there and that can cause botulism"....and then proceed to sneak a couple of bites while I had her rinsing out a bowl at the sink.
I have not washed the same load of laundry 3 times within 24 hours...the second being to get the mildew out from forgetting the first and the third of course from forgetting them the second time!
I am not glued to my bedroom as I type this because said load of laundry is about to finish and I have forbade myself from dare leaving this room till I put them in the dryer!
I did not make chocolate gravy and biscuits twice this week...because to do so would make me a liar since I just recently posted on Facebook that I only make such a sweet treat for my kiddos once every couple of months or so.

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Sunday, October 11, 2009

So It's Been a While....

......3 months to be exact....Can I just say that my hat is off to all of you bloggers that manage to run a home, be wife and mom, AND keep your blogs updated regularly! How do you do it?!?!? I was doing great...then summer came along. That's my ~~lame excuse~~ story and I'm stickin' to it! :-)

Truth be told, I'm eat up with perfectionism. There. I said it. So once my camera started getting bogged down with all of our summer happenings and there was no time to edit and keep my blog updated, in chronological order of course (seriously, what the heck is wrong with me?!?) I just kept putting it off waiting for that day that I was gonna ~~stay up till the wee hours of the morning~~ miraculously have 8 extra hours in my day to get caught up...yep, didn't happen folks.

So here I am....and like any good perfectionist would do....I am gonna start where we left off....3 months ago. Not to worry! I will NOT be doing it all in this post.

SO..................Here we go!

Although we spent the majority of our summer hanging out here, we also spent a few weekends and long weekends in June and July hanging at our favorite spot EVER to go camping....Defeated Creek. What could be so fascinating about spending all that time in the great outdoors you say????