Sheila's Motto

"Endeavor to enhance the lives of others through education and encouragement."
Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Poetry & Prose ~~ "Heaven's Delight"

                                            
Sounds and sights of Christmas are everywhere,
          While an array of joyous songs fill the air.
There are decorated cookies and delicious candy canes,
          As Christmas lights twinkle in frosted window panes.

Artfully wrapped presents under the Christmas tree,
          Await Christmas morning for children filled with glee.
The aroma of Christmas dinner fills the air with the fixings to enjoy,
          Our grateful hearts overflow with many reasons to rejoice.

Family, friends and loved ones all gather around,
          Sharing smiles and laughter as love abounds.
Christmas carols and holy Nativity scenes,
          Cause us to remember a Baby born, a Humble King.

Angels gave Glory to God, announcing the Savior’s birth,
          And shepherds heard their joyful praises filling the earth.
Wise men searched for the King following Bethlehem’s Star,
          Bearing gifts, bowing down in worship with all their hearts.

We may not know the exact day that our Savior was born,
          But that does not diminish the truth that He is our Lord.
God's love for all of us was placed on display,
          The Glory of God revealed to us on the first Christmas Day.

Heaven's Gift of Love came to dwell in our midst,
          We open wide our hearts and receive His precious gift.
He fills our hearts with His presence, glory and light,
          Emmanuel, God with us, Heaven’s delight.


Contributed by Lesta of Heartsong Treasures.    

Happy Reading in Poetry's Presence.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Sweet & Savory Wednesday ~~ Cool Cake For A Crowd


Try this recipe the next time you need to bake a cake. It's a guaranteed winner since it's so flavorful, moist, and the frosting is a real surprise!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cake mix, any flavor ~~ I used white cake mix
  • 1 small pkg. Jello, any flavor ~~ I used strawberry
  • 2 small pkgs. instant Jello pudding, any flavor ~~ I used vanilla
  • 1 - 8 oz. container Cool Whip
  • 1 1/2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS:

  • Bake cake according to package directions.
  • 2 minutes before cake is finished baking, dissolve jello using 3/4 cup boiling water and 1/2 cup cold water.
  • Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack.
  • Using a large fork, poke holes all over the cake while it is hot.
  • Pour jello over complete surface of cake.
  • Put in refrigerator to cool.
  • Mix two small packages pudding and Cool Whip with the milk until pudding mixture is serving consistency.
  • Spread over cake.
  • Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.


This recipe is one of our family favorites.  We have also dubbed it "The Earthquake Cake."  When our son was five years old, we planned a surprise birthday party for our friend, Tom.  When it came time to sing Happy Birthday and serve the cake, Matty David offered to carry the cake from the refrigerator in the garage to the dining area.  When doing so, he became so excited and distracted that he ran smack dab into the wall causing the cake pan to flip with the contents landing on the floor!  Yes, it sort of looked like the cake had barely survived a very small earthquake.  :-)

Some of my fellow bakers have used chocolate pudding instead of the vanilla and other flavors of Jello.  This is a great recipe to experiment with different flavors to determine which ones you prefer.

I prepared this cake for our family reunion this past weekend.  It received its normal raving reviews! 

When baking a cake for a crowd, what is your go to recipe?  

Please let me know if you enjoy this one.  Try it.  You'll like it!

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Real Women ~ Real Answers: Celebrating the BIG SIX-ZERO!




           This year will be a really big one for me.  I turn 60.  The big six-zero.  The decade of Social Security and Medicare.  The age of new aches and pains.  I’m not depressed or upset about turning 60. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m now an older woman.  I feel blessed to have lived so long and so well. 
At 60, I can see life’s cycle more clearly.  I was once a girl who watched my mother and grandmother.  Then I was a mother who watched my daughter and my mother.  Now I’m a grandmother who watches my daughter and my grandchildren.  It’s a beautiful system that been going on since the beginning of time.



        

          Although the calendar says I’m 60, it’s not how I feel.  In my mind’s eye, I’m the age my mother should be and my daughter is the age I should be.  Somewhere across the last decade or so, I’ve become an older woman—on the outside at least.  I still feel young on the inside, like I always have.
           In Titus 2, Paul says the “aged women” should teach the younger women to be good wives and mothers.  I know I’m an older woman, but am I already an aged one?  My how time flies!  So I’ll do as I’m expected and pass on wisdom to young women. 
 Since the wisdom of the Preacher is greater than mine, I encourage all young women to read Proverbs 31:10-31 and consider those words. Be a virtuous woman.  Be a woman who puts in the work and effort to make a good life for yourself and your family.  Be a woman who values inward beauty. Let your works and love for your family reveal your inward beauty.  Outward beauty is passing, but inward beauty lasts a lifetime, and I’m glad of that.  My “pretty days” are behind me, but I continue to try to grow more beautiful on the inside.  The real me is living inside this aging shell, unseen by eyes, but seen in my works. The next time you see an elderly woman, remember she’s only old on the outside.  Inside is a beautiful young girl wondering where time went.




          Contributed by Author C.S. Kjar who lives with her long-time first husband in their empty nest. Since retiring from her technical writer/editor job, she and her husband travel quite a bit which gives her time to dream and imagine new stories and worlds.  Her novels fall somewhere between the women's fiction and Christian fiction genres.  Written without obscenities or detailed sex scenes, her stories weave romance, mystery, and suspense in different places and times.  She also writes an occasional children's book. When not writing or daydreaming, she loves to quilt, sew, and read to her grandsons.

          Check out her books The Treasure of Adonis and The Five Grannies Go To The Ball which are available on Amazon.com, and drop in and read her blog at http://cskjar.com/blog.

Happy Reading, and Happy Birthday, Carol!

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Friday, January 22, 2016

Faith Filled Friday: Filling A Prayer Box





How is your faith level these days?  I wanted to share how a little 3.5 x 2.5 inch metal box sent my faith soaring this past Saturday.


Ali Faith’s Faith


What a blessing to be living during the days of the technological boon of Ipads, Iphones, Iclouds, and on ad infinitum.  All of the aforementioned certainly help us to stay connected when our loved ones are far away. 

At 8:55 a.m. on Saturday, January 16th, I received the following text from one of my daughters,

“Good morning momma!   How ru guys?  We are great!  We have about 8 inches of new snow here and snowing now.  There’s a huge praise re pastor saaed!  Check out my FB post!”

I immediately dialed up her Facebook post which read,
“God DOES answer prayer!! So thankful that the 4 imprisoned Americans are free.”

Those of you who know me would agree that I am not always the calmest person on the planet, so when this news registered with my already caffeinated brain and nervous system, I was praising the Lord as loudly as I could. 

Suddenly, I remembered my birthday and Mother's Day gift from my precious granddaughter, Ali Faith.  It felt as though I was walking on air as I entered our bedroom, opened the top drawer to my dresser, and retrieved the little prayer box. 

After opening the lid (or as Ali Faith used to pronounce it, 'lib'), and reading the top prayer request, my eyes welled up with tears which freely flowed down my weathered cheeks.
                               

                                        





Implementing my trusty Iphone, I propped the little prayer box next to my ceramic coffee cone, snapped a few pictures to achieve the full effect, and texted them back to my daughter who shared them with her family.  Ali Faith and her younger brother were in awe of how God had answered a specific prayer that she had uttered so many times.  She attended the Prayer Rally for Pastor Saeed on the steps of our great state capitol building along with many other people.  In addition, during the summer months, Ali would round up some of the younger children in her neighborhood and invite them to her little tree house.  After making a lunch of sorts, she would read to them from the Bible, after which they would pray for Pastor Saeed. Yes, these would appear to be very early signs of an evangelistic anointing arising which is music to this grandmother’s ears.

On Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, He came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan River.

“Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.’  And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.”  [Mark 10:13-16.]

Children portray a profound sincerity of heart, trust, exuberance, child like faith, and total dependence on their parents.  The kingdom of God is comprised of those who respond to Him with that same type of trust that a young child renders to a parent.

While there have been a multitude of sermons preached on the subject of faith and libraries full of books regarding the same, there’s just nothing like first-hand experience that increases our faith and compels us to testify.

I would encourage you to read this blog post to your children and grandchildren and comment below with their responses.  Who knows?  Perhaps they might like to start a little prayer box of their own as they grow in their child like faith.  And I can only imagine how happy Pastor Saeed’s children and family members are to have him back home after 1,000 days!

Here's a freebie regarding the number 1,000: in a Biblical sense it is symbolic of divine completeness and the glory of God.

Are we giving glory to God for the release of Pastor Saeed along with the other three Americans?  You better know we are!

Happy Reading and Keep the Faith!


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