Texas Toast

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned a couple of times recently (here and here) Texas Toast, and Lynn asked me what it was.

It’s really just regular bread cut thicker than usual, called Texas Toast, I suppose, because of the cliche that everything is bigger in Texas. Ours is almost gone, as you can tell.

Here I laid it beside regular bread to compare. I’ve only seen it as white bread, never whole wheat or lite or any other of the myriad varieties of regular bread. It’s usually not on the racks with the other breads but either on a table near there or in the grocery bakery.

Melli said she had only seen it with garlic butter on it. I’ve seen it that way, too, but usually laid out on a tray. Zaxby’s serves it as toast (with just the right amount of butter and toasting. Scrumptious!) And I think Sonic’s serves it as the bread in their toaster sandwiches, but I’ve never tried one. Unfortunately we don’t have a Sonic’s near here (but I want one!!)

It makes for really good cinnamon toast!

The strayingest of thoughts…

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The other day I was in the grocery store and kept hearing a mother telling her little son, “Walker, don’t touch that,” “Walker, come here,” etc. Finally I heard her say, “Walker, don’t run!” I thought, “That must be why she named him Walker.” Heh, heh.

It’s cold this morning! I turned on the furnace for the first time this season.

If you want to see some really intriguing pictures, go see ivman. Some are probably “doctored,” but many just happened to catch the right angle at the right moment. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Jesse made the JV basketball teaming for the first time after trying out three years in a row. I guess I have to go to basketball games now. 🙂 We used to go all the time just for something to do — but I have plenty to do these days! I’m happy for him. He’s thrilled. We talked a little bit last night about expectations: soreness and hard work at practice (even though he’s skinny he’s not really in shape, and he knows that and knows to expect work on that) and the fact that, though athletics can teach a lot of good life lessons, they can also get people riled up and not to take it personally if someone seems harsh or even yells.

Cinnamon toast made with Texas toast is really good.

I woke up feeling not so great this morning — not good because I have a busy week ahead! After getting Jesse off to school I lazed around for a little while and just got up again to try and eat something a little while ago..

I go back tomorrow to get the root canal finished. I was thinking that since the dentist drilled everything out last time, all he’d have to do this time is fill it back in, so it should be pretty simple. But he put temporary filling in last time, so I guess he will have to drill all that back out. Augh! Well, anyway, after this is over with I shouldn’t have to see him for a long time. I hope.

I guess dentists probably need to feel pretty secure about themselves to go into a profession where no one really likes coming to see them! It’s not a good profession for anyone with an inferiority complex.

I’m off to read a few blogs and then dig in to my work for the day. Have a good day!

Book Review: Summer Breeze

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Summer Breeze by Catherine Palmer and Gary Chapman is the second in the Seasons of Marriage series based on Gary Chapman’s teachings on that subject. A lot of the same characters appear with a couple of new additions, but the focus is on Kim Finley. She divorced an abusive husband and has ten-year-old twins, one of whom was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the last book. She is a believer but married an unsaved man, though he is far different from her first husband. Their financial situation won’t allow her to stay home while the twins are out of school for the summer, so her husband, Derek, calls his mother to come and help out.

Derek’s mother is critical and vocal and into a conglomerate of Eastern and New Age religions. She and Kim clash on various levels and Derek is caught in the middle. But instead of talking through the problems, Derek would rather ignore it all and hope it will all go away.

With differing communication styles and love languages and the pressure of Derek’s mother and Kim’s son’s diabetes, tensions continue to build until Derek and Kim’s marriage is in serious trouble.

Once again I enjoyed the back-and-forth points of view, seeing how the same situation can look totally different to two different people. And I appreciated the advice they were given and how they applied it, especially the need to truly listen to the other person rather than just promoting one’s own agenda. All in all this was a valuable book, and I enjoyed it even more than the first one. I am looking forward to the next two.

This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday book reviews.

Saturday Scavenger Photo Hunt: Scary

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Scary| Become a Photo Hunter

This little guy is trying his best to look scary.

This is an old picture. We discovered several years ago that a possum family was using a rubber drainage tube from our patio down to a lower part of the back yard as their subway. This baby got separated from his family, and, if I remember correctly, was roaming around the patio. My husband and boys caught him in a bucket to try to take him where we thought the others were, but he wasn’t very happy about it…probably because we looked pretty scary to him!

You can find more photo interpretations of “scary” at TN Chick‘s on Saturday.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

So here are a few favorite things from my week:

1. 50% off coupons and gifts cards — in general! — but especially when with them I got:

2. These clear stamps for free:

You just peel them off and put them on the clear block, stamp, wash it off and put it back. I love the idea of being able to see exactly where you are putting the stamp — the old ones were on wooden blocks and sometimes it would take several tries to get it straight and exactly where I wanted it. I haven’t tried these yet but I am itching to.

The gift card was to Michael’s from Jesse for my birthday — can you believe I’d had it since August and hadn’t used it yet? But I am glad I saved it for now.

3. This stuff:

My two older sons love the Sticky Fingers restaurant in the town where they commute to school, but the rest of us had never been there — there is not one in our town. We finally did go over there and eat a few weeks ago, and I LOVED this sauce. And they sell it in some grocery stores!

I have a couple of baked dishes with barbecue sauce, and it didn’t really work well for that — we liked our regular Kraft BBQ sauce better. But as a condiment it is out of this world.

I made a new recipe (to me) called Saucy Pork Chops in the crock pot last Sunday, and it was just ok to me. It seemed to be missing something, though the rest of the family liked it. But we had more pork chops than I had thought were in the package, so I pulled the meat off the bones of the rest of it and Monday got some onion rolls for sandwiches, and with the Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet sauce — oh my — mouth bliss!!!

4. Texas Toast. I had seen this in the stores for ages but just had never gotten any. But I got some this week because in the store I couldn’t decide between the onion rolls or Texas Toast for the BBQ sandwiches. Then I made French toast with them one morning for breakfast. I haven’t made French toast in ages, but now I am planning on making it for the family this weekend. More mouth bliss!!

5. One of my favorite moments this past week occurred last night. Often the messages from the BJU chapel service come on the radio around the time I am cleaning up the kitchen, and I enjoy listening to it while I am working there, but usually when I am done I turn off the radio and leave the room. Last night, though, the message was on a passage I had just read that morning (from Eph. 4 about grieving the Holy Spirit), and it was really speaking to my heart, so I stayed in the kitchen while it was on. While I was listening I decided to do some of those “extra” kitchen jobs like cleaning out the microwave and cleaning the crumbs from the bottom of the toaster oven, etc. Cleaning is not my favorite thing, but I do enjoy the results, and listening to something profitable while my hands are busy enhances the time. In fact…in some ways I listen better when my hands are busy. If I am just sitting I tend to get drowsy or distracted or fidgety. I know of mission churches in primitive areas where the people had no concept of any kind of public meeting with one speaker, much less church, and the idea of sitting still and listening when they had so much to do was preposterous to them, so they brought their basket-making or rope-making or net-mending or carving or whatever along with them to church. I’ve thought that’s really not a bad idea! But I can’t see our American churches going that way, and I don’t think I would really be ready for them to.

I’m digressing, but that whole time was a blessing not only in getting some things done that aren’t part of my daily routine (I so enjoyed using my gleaming microwave this morning!), but even more than that I enjoyed a message that really spoke it my heart in a way that it hadn’t been spoken to in a long time and opened up the passage a little more for me. I have still been thinking about it this morning.

Then earlier I caught a brief clip of a message while in the kitchen for a few minutes that has also stayed with me, about the fact that King Darius’s eyes were opened to see that “the God of Daniel…is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end” (Daniel 5:26) primarily through an unfair situation — the “set-up” that landed Daniel in the lion’s den. It really gives a new perspective that the Lord may have us in situations like that not only to teach us something, but to manifest something of Himself through us. Paul and Silas singing while in jail would be another example — an unfair situation that led to the salvation of the jailer and others. And Joseph’s life. I wonder how many opportunities like that I miss because I am inwardly grousing over the unfairness and injustice of it all instead of trusting the Lord to work in the situation.

So…it looks like it was a good week for being fed — spiritually, creatively, mentally, and spiritually.

Paper Crafting Thursday: Thank you cards

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts Paper-Crafting Thursday where we can show cards, bookmarks, etc. that we have worked on. She has some really cute caramel apple cards up this week!

I needed to write some thank you notes and wanted to make the cards for them. A few weeks ago I had found these neat raised stickers at Michael’s in their sales bin for a dollar or two.

I used one on this card:

Many places that sell card crafting supplies sell what a friend of mine calls “cheater cards” — cards with a decorative background so all you have to do is add embellishments. That’s what the one above started from.

I had wanted to use some new stamps to stamp a “Thank you” that I could then cut out and use, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. So I typed “Thank you” in a couple of different fonts on the computer and cut out a piece of card stock 4″ x 6″ and placed it in the photo tray of our printer and printed the “thank yous” out on that — worked just fine! You could also write them out by hand if you have nice writing or printing — I’m sorry to say I don’t.

Then, to get them into a shape, you could either cut or punch the shape out first and write in the center or try to arrange a stamp centrally. Or you could take a paper punch like this…

…and then turn it upside down and center the words in the opening like this:

It takes a bit more pressure to punch it out upside down, but I like being able to center words or a design like that. You could also cut them out freehand…but I don’t really have a good eye or a steady hand for that, so I rely on tools.

I used that paper punched thank you here:

I apologize for the blurriness! I thought it came out clearer, but I have already sent it out, so I can’t retake the picture.

And finally this one uses already cut-out leaves with a thank you glued in the center along with a couple of stickers from the above package.

I enjoyed making these! I hope the recipients enjoy them, too.

You can find more card ideas at Kelli’s.

Booking Through Thursday: Coupling

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Monica suggested this one:

Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest:

“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

I have a feeling this question is going to keep bringing possibilities to mind all through the day. But probably at the top of the list would be Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. Though they got together in rather an odd way, there is much I admire about their relationship. One of my favorite quotes about marriage comes near the end of the book:

To be together is for us to be at once as free as solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking.

Other favorite couples would be:

Emma and Mr. Knightly from Jane Austen’s Emma.

Ma and Pa Ingalls from the Little House series.

David Copperfield and Agnes Wickfield.

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables series.

Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette from A Tale of Two Cities — even though they were not an actual couple, his demonstration of love is one of the greatest in literature.

Father Tim and Cynthia in Jan Karon’s Mitford series.

In all of these relationships there is depth and maturity. Their romances are not just starry-eyed infatuation. They’ve come out on the other end of serious struggles with a greater, deeper love than what they started with.

You can find more answers or link to your own at Booking Through Thursday.

A short one (for me, anyway)

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Well, I survived the root canal. 😀 It’s not too bad once they actually get started. While the drilling is going on I keep my eyes closed (because once a piece of something that was being drilled got between my eyelid and eyeball — very painful! And I don’t really want to see the instruments) and think through hymns. It’s the anticipation all morning that gets to me most. No matter how much I remind myself that the Lord has everything under control and everything will be ok, my body still reacts nervously. But look what the Lord gave me in Daily Light this morning:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3.

I had forgotten this was a 2-part procedure, though. I have to go back next week for the permanent filling. But I think that should be easy.

The left side of my face is still numb — great fun when drinking something! I think I’ll go rustle up some soup for lunch.

I wanted to share this cute video of clay stop motion chess that I saw over at The Common Room. This was especially fun for us because Jesse is currently working on this music in his piano practice. Stay with it — it gets more and more interesting as it goes along.

(If you have trouble seeing the video, you can find it here.)

Odds and ends

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned in my Fall Into Reading Challenge post that I had been wanting to reread Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. What I failed to mention is that I have been wanting to read an unabridged version. I’ve read two different abridged versions, and I wanted to read the whole thing. I ordered it from Amazon.com and got it a few days ago. It is a thick book!

1,463 pages! So this will keep me busy for a long while.

If you prefer listening to books rather than reading them, Focus on the Family Radio Theater has an excellent version here. It has been a long time since I heard it, but as I recall it was very moving. There is a brief sound clip there.

There has been some really good reading around the blogosphere lately:

Chats With an “Old Lady” writes about the stalker in her house — and ours.
Dana at Are We There Yet? tells how she stopped yelling at her kids — good advice for overcoming any bad habit — or habitual sin.
Jill Stanek asserts that Obama Lied in the third presidential debate about his stance on infants who survive abortion.
Michelle at As4Me had a good series about banned books and censorship. A couple of posts in that series are More on Good Censorship and When Christian Children Should Read the Bad Books.
Lizzie at A Dusty Frame had 55 Ways To Use Leftovers.
I don’t remember where I saw this link, but if you, like me, have trouble decorating cakes, you might want to try these tips for stenciling them and some of these free patterns for cake and cupcake stencils.

Finally, Carolyn at Talk to Grams passed on to me this sweet award, which of which the originator says:

Many of you have touched my heart and life in ways that have changed me eternally! I thank you for being a faithful servant and being obedient to the upward calling every time you share a piece of His heart living out in you! I pray that you will share this award with others who have touched your heart by sowing seeds of love into your life! They will know we are His by how we love one another! Let us sow seeds of love throughout the blogging world and touch the hearts of those who come to read what we all share! To HIM be all the glory forever and ever! AMEN!

And Alice gave me the I Love Your Blog Award (a while back — forgive me for taking so long to acknowledge it!)

And also just today this Butterfly award:

Thank you so much, Alice and Carolyn!

Now here is my dilemma. Many people to whom I would love to pass these on just don’t “do” awards on their blogs. And so it ends up that I seem to pass awards on to the same people all the time, though that’s ok. And I am always afraid of leaving someone out or hurting feelings. So let’s just say if you read and comment here, please take the Faithful Servant award, because you are a blessing to me in that way. And I try to comment regularly, or at least occasionally, on the blogs I read, so if you have seen my comments on your blog, feel free to take the other two as well. I enjoy it or else I wouldn’t keep reading and commenting. 🙂

And the final finally: the dreaded root canal is tomorrow. I feel much better than I did a week ago — praise the Lord for antibiotics!! I am looking forward to getting it over with.

Have a good day!!

Blue Monday

Posted on October 20, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Smiling Sally hosts a Blue Monday in which we can post about anything blue.

I thought I’d show a few more things in my kitchen, this time relating to bears. I used to collect a lot of bear-related things, but nowadays I have narrowed it down to Boyd’s Bear figurines. But these are a few non-Boyd’s bears that I love.