abbie || meet-up no. 2

“Friendship,” said Christopher Robin, “is a very comforting thing to have.”

Well here we are & here summer is, almost at the door. It's been a busy but still wonderful, amazing, & beautiful one. Blogging inspiration has been at an ultimate low lately & all I've really felt like doing is soaking up as much sunshine & as many summer memories as possible. I still can't believe time passed so quickly. It seems like only yesterday it was May & the flowers were just starting to bloom. I guess that's just another one of summer's traits, making time zoom by.

But summer is not quite gone just yet. We're heading to Florida early tomorrow morning & these last two wonderful weeks will be filled with ocean, waves, seashells & sand dollars, road trips, picture taking, ice cream, swimming, laughter, & family. All my very favourite things together. So much excitement!!

It seems like the best was left for last because, besides our Florida vacation, I also got to meet up with one of my favourite people ever last week! Abbie didn't think she could make it down south this summer, but she did & THIS happened. And I'm so, so, so happy it did because I had the best time! It was a day filled with Starbucks (Abbie's first time & she's a die-hard frappuccino fan now), window shopping, photoshoots, a visit to the theater (we saw Sea of Monsters), & of course, ice cream. In one word: AWESOME.

Well here's to family & friends & summer memories. Enjoy the last rays of summer & I will be back soon! :)

hugs,
e

p.s. Abbie, we are SO doing this together next year. For real.

Baking with Memories // Guest Post By Kati

My grandmother, Mommom as she is affectionately called, is a wonderful woman. She loves the Lord. She loved her husband of sixty-six years and still loves him even though he has left her to be with his Lord and Savior. She loves her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She has an excellent memory! She can remember every birthday of every single family member (and that is quite a lot since my dad is one of eight and she has 18 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren plus those who have married into the family.) She can listen to another conversation while taking part in another. She can put her finger on anything she has in her house, one of her children's school picture shirts, a receipt from 20 years ago, birthday cards, party favors, lunchboxes, Easter baskets... Since she lives just three doors down from us, I will occasionally walk down to her house and we will spend an hour, sometimes two, sitting in her living room talking. She can make the best coconut cake, peanut butter cake, and boiled cookies.

Ever since I can remember we have made her recipe for boiled cookies. Dad or my sister Kristin would make them some evening and sometimes we couldn't even wait for them to cool. :) I always think about Mommom when I make boiled cookies. We have made these cookies so many times that the original recipe card that Mommom gave us faded so that we could hardly read the recipe. We copied the recipe over but kept the old card in her handwriting. In our recipe book we have the new copy and the old recipe side by side.

They are so easy to make and so yummy. They use some of the best ingredients out there: chocolate, peanut butter, oats... I mean, what could get better than all those ingredients put together? ;)

  In a medium saucepan put together:

• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick butter

  Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Take off heat.

  Add:

• 3 cups oats
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

  Place tablespoonfuls on waxed paper lined cookie sheet and refrigerate until hardened.

I'm Kati. I am 18, a child of the Heavenly Father, daughter, sister to two sisters and a brother, sister-in-law to two I think of as a brother and a sister, proud aunt to eight, and a homeschool graduate. I like to bake, read, craft, blog and take pictures of anything and everything from my nieces and nephews to my kitties to nature with my trusty friend Nick (my Nikon D3000). We have lots of fun preserving memories together. I look forward to the day when I have my own home and family to take care of. In the meantime I take comfort in this verse, 'For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.' --Jeremiah 29:11

Please take a minute to stop by Kati's Little Corner of the World for a visit. She'd love to have you, I'm sure. :)

Things I Would Like to Do in 2012

It is now officially 2012. A new year... full of numerous surprises and to-dos. I'm excited! There are so many things I would like to do this year, so many areas I want to grow in... and yet I can't even mention one thing without first looking back at 2011. I like to think of it as a well-worn path of memories, accomplishments, and many, many failures, upon which I have learned countless valuable things and which has brought me to the place I am now. I have grown in my photography, a lot, and learned tons of new things about blog designing, and HTML in general (if you're an old follower, you probably know what I'm talking about ;). And 2012 is likewise, a path, yet untrodden, before me. I know that it'll be overgrown with weeds in places, even as it is sprinkled with colourful, sweet smelling flowers in others, but I take comfort in the fact that its Maker set it before me only because He knew I could make it to the end.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

"​For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." ~ Romans 8:28

With these thoughts in mind, I present to you my 2012 things-I-plan-to-do list (in no particular order). :)

2012 To-Do List
 
read 100 books
rewrite my novel, at least halfway
read at least two Jane Austen novels
reread Bryan Davis' Dragons In Our Midst and Oracles of Fire, then finish off with Song of the Ovulum
get a Kindle Touch
read Starlighter
read Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire
read LotR, ALL three parts this time
reread The Hobbit
review a book for a publisher
host a sponsor giveaway on either one of my blogs
get 100 followers on either one of my blogs
design at least 5 blogs, excluding my own
open an etsy shop
sell at least one of my photography prints
see The Hunger Games (March 23)
see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 17)
get a Canon 50mm lens
do all those other things I really want to do but can't think of right now :D

     So... what's on your list?

Those Last Few Moments

The New Year will be upon us in about 2 hours, more or less. You may be taking in this fact with great excitement and anticiaption at the coming of 2012, or maybe with a twinge of sadness at the loss of (wonderfully amazing) 2011, or perhaps with a bit of both. And so, whether you are swimming in a sea of 2011 memories or thinking of the wonders that 2012 may bring, I wanted to take a moment, before my 2011 blog archive closes, to wish you all a Happy New Year filled with many blessings and much happiness! For... 

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." ~ Isaiah 40:8

   Love in Christ,

For My Dad

"The righteous man walks in his integrity; and his children are blessed after him." ~ Proverbs 20:7

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him."
Psalm 103:13

Love you so much dad!!!