Sarah's New Outfit

This is Sarah's new outfit from our shopping trip yesterday. Isn't she a cutie?

Love,

Elizabeth

A Thrift Store Find

Yesterday, Sarah and went to our favorite thrift store. Look what we found - an almost brand new wok! It works really well, too. This was a great deal for $5! Isn't it great?

Love,

Elizabeth

Girls Together

I haven't written much in the past two days, because an unexpected pleasure happened. My dear husband, Mark, and sweet son, Robert, went on a Fathers & Sons campout with the men of our church and that left my Sarah and I alone together. What a rare treat to just be girlies!

We had so much fun. We brought home take-in and watched a favorite show yesterday. Today, we slept in and then went shopping. We love to window shop, but this time we came away with a few cute things for Sarah's wardrobe (I am sure she will be modeling them for you). We went thrifting and made some wonderful finds. We ate lunch out and went to see a movie. We talked and talked and giggled and talked. What a marvelous opportunity.

We are both tired now and the boys are home (we missed them). But what a lovely time we had, holding hands and going from adventure to adventure.

I am a happy mother!

Love,

Elizabeth

Wonderfully Clean!

(Fixed the picture probem on June 28th)

So, you are wondering, "Why is this woman showing me upside down pictures of the inside of her refridgerator?" The answer is 1) I don't know how to turn these pictures right side up and 2) I spent the better part of the day clearing it out and cleaning it up.

I am getting ready for my grocery shopping trip on Thursday. It feels so good to get this job done! I'm proud of myself. :)

Good night!

Elizabeth

Our Baby Dove Update

Here is our little sweetie once again. He can fly some and will follow his mother up into the big pine tree, but he prefers to sit and rest in the safe surroundings of our garden. His mother is still feeding him. She is very vigilant with his care.

Wish we could keep him forever. He is such a cutie!

Love,
Elizabeth

Our Baby Dove

Here is a picture of our new little friend. This baby dove fell out of our neighbor's pine tree into our backyard. On Midsummer's Eve, he shielded himself under our sweet apple tree. He was very friendly and let us get quite close to him to take pictures and to coo endearments to him. His mother, ever vigilante, watched him from the roof of our house. Eventually, she was brave enough to hop down into our vegetable garden and to call encouragements to him to join her. We watched her feed him and teach him to fly a little, but he still enjoys sitting under our apple tree.

Isn't he precious?

Love,

Elizabeth

Delicious Chocolate Cake

Hello!!

Here is a wonderful chocolate cake recipe that is very moist and difficult to mess up. I made it for our Mid-Summer's Eve celebration which we had in our backyard on Saturday. I was very happy with the way it turned out and thought that you might like to try it for yourselves!

DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients:

1/2 c margarine (we use Smart Balance)

2 c white sugar

1 c water

2 eggs

2(1oz) squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 t. salt

2 c all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 c sour milk

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease 2 round cake pans. Microwave chocolate, Smart Balance and water until melted. Stir until all is smooth. Cool to room temp.

Mix together flour, sugar, salt and soda. Pour in milk and eggs. Pour in cooled chocolate mixture to batter. Blend until smooth. Pour into pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Frost.

BASIC CHOCOLATE FROSTING

Ingredients:

1/4 c margarine

1/3 c milk

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. vanilla

3 1/2 c powdered sugar

Beat margarine and cocoa together until smooth. Add milk and vanilla, beat until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar until thick and creamy.

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We decorated our cake with fresh flowers. Enjoy!!

Love,

Elizabeth

Life is Like a Game of Golf

This past Father's Day, as usual, I let my husband choose what he'd like to do. I figured that his plans would include a good meal and a long nap, so I was not a little surprised when he wanted to watch the U.S Open Golf Tournament.

We never watch golf. Ever. Plus, we usually keep the TV off on Sundays. Besides, to be perfectly honest, I've always thought that watching competitive golf was a little bit like watching competitive sleeping. For someone like me who prefers football and basketball, golf always seems, well, boring. So, imagine how surprised I was to find that, once I got to know the game a little, it was actually quite engrossing.

For those of you who do not follow professional golf, this competition featured, among many other players, the great Tiger Woods. However, it became quite apparent from the outset that Tiger was not on his game. He was suffering pain from a recent operation to repair a torn ligament in his right knee. Days later, we would find out that he also had two stress fractures in that same leg and had been advised by his doctor not to play. Every time that Tiger Woods swung his club, he had to torque his right knee, re-injuring himself. The pain was so great that he would grimace and, at times, audibly cry out. No wonder Tiger began the game several strokes over par.

My husband wanted to stop watching the tournament right then and there, because he felt that Tiger would never be able to make it through all 18 holes without his game falling apart and Mark can't stand to see that sort of thing happen. But by then, I was hooked and convinced him to wait and see. I'm glad we did.

Watching Tiger Woods slowly gain ground over the course of the game, while enduring both physical pain and the frustration of getting off some uncharacteristically poor shots, was significant. Most people would have become completely demoralized by what he was going through, but he kept plugging along, concentrating on each shot. It wasn't long into this game that I began watching it with two sets of eyes: one towards the game of golf and the other towards the game of life. I couldn't help thinking, as I watched Tiger Woods struggle, how we all have experiences that seem tougher than we are. When people wouldn't blame us for giving up and walking off the course. Sometimes, in look far ahead and taking in all in that is in front of us, we can become so overwhelmed by it that we want to throw in the towel.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," Christ said. It is enough to focus on the problems of the day, without swallowing whole everything that lies ahead. In effect, we should take life one "hole" at a time.

Tiger Woods ended up tying for First Place with Rocco Mediate. He won the next day's playoff during a dead heat. He played, in total, 91 holes of golf over the four day tournament, meaning that he torqued his painful right knee at least 300 times in order to win. Due to his injuries, the U.S. Open was not the best game of golf he ever played, but he is saying now that it was his most important accomplishment. I agree.

I was deeply moved by Tiger Wood's persistence and determination, his belief in himself and his refusal to give up. It has inspired me to take my life one step at a time, to focus on what's right in front of me, to always try to do my best, and to never, ever give up!

Love,

Elizabeth