Every Day Should Be Family Day . . .

I allowed myself to feel overwhelmed by how many celebrations there were over the weekend and blew all of them off. Seriously, you would think by the 22nd and 23rd of a month that there wouldn’t be that many things left to celebrate! Sorry – I just didn’t have it in me. My daughter’s wedding is coming up in a week and I spent a good deal of time on Sunday making a practice cake, and it’s a good thing I did.  It’s been awhile since I made ANY cake at all, much less one made with sugar and “real” frosting. There is a certain pressure with making a wedding cake because it is supposed to be beautiful. Because of that I used the occasion as an excuse to go ahead and buy something that has been in my Amazon cart for a long time – a set of Russian frosting tips. Of course, I needed to give them a try before the actual wedding cake, and it’s a good thing I did. These tips need a firmer buttercream than what I usually make to keep them from being oozy. Mine yesterday worked OK, but they weren’t perfect by any means. Hubby liked the cake though, which is good. I’m freezing the rest for future treat days since neither one of us needs to have a cake sitting here. I’m making the cake for the wedding this week and freezing it so it will be ready to ice when I get to my daughter’s house on Friday. The icing will be made ahead of time too and kept in the fridge. I just hope this turns out!

Happy Birthday to my Daughter-in-Law! I love you and hope you have a fantastic day!

Verse of the Day

September 24, 2018

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36

 

Thoughts on the Verse of the Day

There are some tough times that go with living. They’re inescapable. That’s when our confidence in the Lord’s salvation and our relationship with him get tested! It is one thing to sing “it is well with my soul” at the end of a peel the paint worship service, but it is quite another to be able to sing it when they auction your house off at the courthouse steps, you are told you have a long-term debilitating illness, or you lose a child to death. Faith can’t take a holiday when we travel through the suburbs of hell or we’ll never find our way out. So don’t throw it away. Persevere! Keep putting one step in front of the other trusting that God will give you the strength for the next step. No matter how hard it is at the moment, don’t give up to despair. Be like Job or Jeremiah who both argued and complained to God, but never let go of God. Don’t quit. Christ is coming, for you with grace or in glory once and for all, is just around the bend.

www.verseoftheday.com

 

Food for Thought

It’s pretty interesting that not a single one of the women who are coming out and accusing Brett Kavanaugh of improper behavior is a Republican, isn’t it? The Democrats are demanding we march along in lockstep with their accusations. Isn’t it ALSO interesting that when women came out against Bill Clinton for rape – which was proven to have happened – they were ignored, disbelieved and treated horribly while he got away with it. Double standards make me sick.

 

Family Day – To me it seems really sad that there has to be a special day set up for this.  EVERY day should be a day to eat dinner with your kids, spending family time together, talking about the events of the day and bonding over a meal.  When did things get so bad in the family unit that there had to be a day specifically designated to sit down and eat together?  I know that everyone is so over scheduled these days that family members are scattered everywhere, but this time at the end of the day, sharing a meal is SO important.  Please, don’t let this be just an annual event.  Incorporate it into your daily lives as often as humanly possible.  Studies clearly show that families who share this time together have fewer incidences of kids dropping out of school, fewer kids turning to drugs and alcohol, fewer kids getting into trouble with the law and more well-adjusted adults coming out of the families as they grow up.  Please. . . invest this time into your family.  Sit down and have meals together, sharing your life together and LISTENING to each other.  It sets the stage for a beautiful future and future generations.

 

Punctuation Day – Every year on September 24th, we celebrate the correct usage of punctuation and spelling.   Now, I know that this is something that is a pet peeve for me, as is poor grammar.  Today pay attention – perhaps keep a red pen with you and circle the errors you find in the newspaper, in stores on signs, in books you’re reading, in your emails . . . the possibilities are nearly endless! 

 

Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving – Have you ever heard of the Schwenkfelders?  I hadn’t, until a couple of years ago.  The Schwenkfelders are the descendants of a small Protestant sect that sprang up in Germany around the time of the Reformation.  They were followers of Caspar Schwenkfeld (1489 – 1561), a Silesian Reformation theologian who founded the movement called “Reformation by the Middle Way”.   He and those who followed him separated from the orthodox Protestant circles and formed small societies and brotherhoods that still exist today in the United States as the Schwenkfelder Church, or “Confessors of the Glory of Christ”.  In 1733, a handful of their followers arrived in Philadelphia, with a second group emigrating from Germany on September 22, 1734.  On September 24 they expressed their gratitude to God for having delivered them from persecution.  In the Pennsylvania Dutch counties where Schwenfelders still live, this day is observed as a special Thanksgiving Day.  They have been celebrating this day for more than 260 years – the longest continually-celebrated Thanksgiving in the country – yet many of us have never even heard of it!   Of course, the Schwenkfelder churches have a combined membership of less than 3,000 people.  A lot of folks graduate from bigger schools!  It started out a whole lot smaller though.  When they settled here, there were fewer than 200 people in the church.  So, how do they celebrate their holiday?  With a huge meal, roast turkey, pies and cakes?  Nope.  They celebrate with a simple meal of water, bread, butter and apple butter.  This celebration first happened in 1734, just two days after the people arrived in North America – so they didn’t have crops to harvest.  They were so happy that they escaped persecution, being driven from their homes, imprisonment, or even being sold into slavery, that they gave thanks with what they had on hand.

 

  

Food Celebration of the Day –

National Cherries Jubilee – I have always heard about this dessert, but haven’t ever tried it, and honestly wasn’t quite sure what it was!  Well, it sounded delicious!  Juicy fruit, soaked in booze, and topped with ice cream? I did make it a couple of years ago, and it truly was very good.  If you have a bit of time and have some cherries and ice cream on hand, give it a try. It will make a nice surprise dessert for the family!

 

This week is going to fly by for me since by Wednesday afternoon I need to have the house cleaned up and the guest room ready for a friend arriving from out of town, my meals planned – which I should have had done already but don’t – a wedding cake baked and icing made to take to my daughter’s house, and everything ready to take up there to her house with me on Friday. Yikes! That’s a lot! Three days is going to fly by! My friend arrives on Thursday and Friday she and I will head out to do wedding stuff. Let’s hope this week allows time to breathe! In the meantime, it’s off to work I go! God bless you and I’ll see you tomorrow . . . I hope.

 

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Some of my posts will contain links to products that I am an affiliate for. When you make a purchase through that link, I will receive a commission for the sale. I make this known to you so that you are aware of these links.

Celebration list sources:

www.verseoftheday.com   www.brownielocks.com   www.holidayinsights.com   www.thenibble.com   www.foodimentary.com

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