I have blogged before about how the Lord has taken me on a serious spiritual journey the last few months and the things he has shown has blown me away - I wish I could tell each and every one of you all about this Jesus that I love so much and the fact that I can finally say that. Took me twenty-nine years but I love Jesus! But now that he is bringing me out of the desert and into the promised land I am feeling him asking me to now step out in faith and begin practicing what he has been writing on my heart.

The biggest hurdle I am facing at this point is Him asking me to lay anything & everything before him so we can decide if it’s what he desires for my life. For the first time ever I am happy to do this because I know my heart can not be trusted - that has been made painfully clear. I have chased selfishly & crazily after things that I thought would bring me satisfaction but ultimately it hasn’t. What it has brought me is captivity and an ache for something more, something true, for what I didn’t know was I was chasing an idol image. And like Isaiah says when he talks about those who were making and worshiping the idols, I was gripping it so tightly in my hands that I didn’t even know what I was doing - I didn’t know that what I was holding onto was a lie. He has since shown me that anything I grip to bring me wholeness and satisfaction, that is not him, is a lie. It’s the worst kind of cheater. And suddenly I realize just how many things I was holding fast to that were not him.

One day in particular as I was praying about how to let this go, he very gently asked me to just offer everything to him. To relinquish all control over to him & together we would sort it out. There’s a song that we sing at our church called “All for Jesus” & it’s been one of those songs that I find myself singing without even realizing it. Which is great, because in and of itself it’s a wonderful prayer:

Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have, and ever hope to be…
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into your hands

A short time later I started telling Tim all that the Lord was doing in my heart, but that I was having such difficulty with it. One of the things that he was asking of me was to surrender completely and trust him with my desire for affirmation from my peers, and making a name for myself. I don’t realize how much I do that, how much I genuinely want it and this blog is exactly where I do it the most. I tearfully asked Tim if I was going to be okay if at the end of my life the only thing that Christ ever asked of me was to just be a wife and a mother. Not a successful entreprenuer. Not an acclaimed author. Not the owner of a really cute and fun blog. Just plain old me, a face in a sea of people, but being exactly where Jesus wants me. I know he will give me a greater joy than my heart would ever find chasing these dreams, but my temporal mind wrestles with this and it breaks my heart. Handing my dreams over to Christ is the easy part, but letting him hang onto them indefinitely? And what if he never gives them back? I know that God is good and he can be trusted and if he takes these things away for good it’s only because he desires the best for me. So…how can I argue, really?

I don’t want to ramble…I guess I just wanted to let you know why I will no longer be blogging. Part of me thinks I will go down this road again (because I love it so much and have met some amazing people through it), but the other part of me is excited at how the Lord will work in this area of my heart now that there is more space for him to move around. Thank you so much to those of you who have followed this blog and hopped around from domain name to domain name with me. I would still love to hear from you and this blog will stay put for reference or if you want to get in touch with me.

Many blessings to you,

Candace

Okay, Easter. My family gets together for the major holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Every now and then other holidays will be sprinkled into the mix but those are the constant and while that means a lot of people that also means it’s pretty fun. And because our family is big and because our family is southern, that means if you have no where to be or no where to go on said holiday then you are invited! This is a good thing, makes everyone behave since we have “visitors”. Here are some of my favorites of the day (warning : lots of pictures!)

Max practicing his skillz

When they get older I’m totally going to make them hold hands just like this when they fight

Easter Egg Hunting Time

This boys cheeks kill me!

Handsome big brother

Me and Max

Checkin’ out the goods - his expressions are priceless

Conner’s a hand-talker like his mama

Melting - love these guys

My dad

My brother and his new baby girl, Addison

Time for the four-wheelers - it wouldn’t be a holiday without them

My dad and Max, who wasn’t so sure about the four-wheeler at first but loved just sitting on it

Aunt Gwen’s turn - this is completely hysterical if you know her. She’s a cross between Truvy and Ouiser in Steel Magnolias. Love her!

Nana and Papa on the four-wheeler

Melting, again

It was definitely a long day, so Papa had the right idea!

Hope your Easter was sweet and filled with fun!

While I still think fall will trump any of the seasons (for me), spring still holds a soft spot in my heart. New season, new beginnings and everything is alive again. While I love the season itself, I usually opt out of Easter-type crafts since they tend to be a little too much on the cutesy side. However when I stumbled across this idea from Duncan Hines I scribbled down all the ingredients onto my shopping list and resolved that no matter how cutesy I just had to do them. So cute!! And so much fun, I might add. The best part? No-bake cookies - those are cut and decorated graham crackers you see. When I tweeted I was doing this, I got a few people asking how can you cut a graham cracker without breaking the whole thing? I thought the same thing but I am here to tell you that it can be done! Just be gentle and don’t use low-fat grahams (they’re harder to cut than the regular version). So if you’re interested in tackling some of these super-cute treats, I’ve outlined all the steps I took below. Please let me know if you give them a try!!

Easter Eggs Cupcakes

Cutting the graham crackers: It really is as easy as it looks. You can use a template or freestyle it. If you do use a template, you can take the tip of your serrated knife and drag it across the surface of the cracker, creating a traceable outline.

Then with gentle pressure begin cutting (or chipping away, really) the cracker.

It took me about 30 minutes to cut an entire box of graham crackers, all while my children ate breakfast. Easy!

Decorating the grahams: The original recipe says to use canned frosting that has been tinted, however that stuff takes forever to dry. And not to mention you make a mess tinting everything. So I picked up some bags of molding candy…

…microwaved them per the instructions on the bag…

…spooned a little onto the cracker…

…and then smoothed it over the surface.

While the candy was still wet I gave Conner some jumbo sprinkles and let him have at it.

Such a handsome assistant I have. Note to self: need to work on his “cheese” face…

And if you’re feeling really adventurous you can nuke some more candy, pour into a small sandwich bag, snip the tip and pipe more designs on the top.

After about a half-hour of decorating and another half-hour of sitting, my eggs were dry. It was so incredibly easy and clean up was a cinch! I will definitely be keeping this idea for the future. Then it was time to ice my cuppies (which I had baked the night before). This is when I say I love making things from scratch. I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and satisfaction baking this way, however. HOWEVER. Sandra Lee is also one of my favorites and if there are short cuts to be had, take them! Especially when you’re putting more effort into one area (cutting grahams into egg-shapes to decorate) and slacking off in another (enter boxed cake mix and canned frosting). Okay, so back to the icing. I tinted it green - which I didn’t have the right shade of green but didn’t have time to run back out so had to make-do with what I had - snipped the end of a freezer bag and slipped a #12 Wilton tip into the end. Then filled the bag with icing and began piping dots…

…and more dots…

…and more dots…

…until you are all set and there is your grass.

Now just place your egg in the center of the iced cuppie and voila! Super cute, easy and fun Easter dessert.

If all of that is too daunting, you can top your cuppies with robin egg candy or buy premade egg-shaped cookies.

Aside from the shade of green that I had to use, I love how they turned out! And they really were so easy and so much fun to do. Can I say that one more time? FUN!!

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Easter!

I’ve been looking around for some Easter crafts that both my four year old and my not-quite two year old could do together. Conner, my older son, does great with crafts, stays focused until the job is done. Max, my baby….eh…doesn’t. Even when I found this easy craft of tracing an egg shape onto construction paper and “decorating” the egg with colored marshmallows dipped in elmers glue, he did about two, then thought the bowl of glue was waaaayyyy more fun than I had made it out to be. So he proceeded to submerge the same two marshmallows over and over (for 15 minutes) in the glue. Conner, on the other hand, did a beautiful job decorating his egg.

He follows instruction so well. Normally. Nine times out of ten. On a good day. Anyways, I over anticipated just how many bags of marshmallows I would need for this craft and had two packages sitting in our pantry. We’re not a family that loves our marshmallows but I also hate throwing perfectly good food away so I thought I would whip up some rice krispie treats for the holiday weekend (altho no where near as cool or as fun as Amanda’s krispie treat challenge).

And I had gotten the super-fun fruity and colorful marshmallows so how pretty would they be? Perfect for Easter right? I’ve never really enjoyed making rice krispie treats because mine always got so dry and hard. And you know I love my rice krispie treats (Kellogg’s did me a solid by making them for me). So I scoured the interwebz to figure out why mine come out so dry and I think I have it figured out. Actually, I know I have it figured out now since they are so soft and so chewy. Well, according to my fingers and the fact that Max devoured his and he’s not normally a fan of chewy stuff. Oh, and it’s only three ingredients so another reason that I will love this recipe forever and ever. Amen.

Rice Krispie Treats

(1) stick of butter
(1) 16oz bag mini marshmallows
(11.5) cups rice krispies cereal (a 12oz box is enough with maybe a cup leftover)

Okay, first you’re going to melt your butter in a large sauce pan SLOWLY. By slowly I mean kick your burner back on low (2 or 3) and let it melt without it turning brown at all. Apparently this is what makes your treats hard and dry. Who knew? I surely did not.

When your butter is melted take your marshmallows…(so pretty)

…and dump them in, stirring to coat them in butter. Keep burner on low and continue to slowly melt them, stirring occasionally. This will take about 10-15 minutes.

Remember when I got so excited that my treats would be springy and pretty since the marshmallows were? Yeah, I didn’t factor in the melting process would turn from the above to the below. Oh well. Oh, and while your marshmallows are melting, line a 9×13-inch baking dish in wax paper (read: easy cleanup) and coat paper with cooking spray.

Once your marshmallows are about 80-85% melted (I like a few chunks of marshmallows in my treats), pour half of your rice krispies into the saucepan and combine. Then add the other half and combine the mixture until all the rice krispies are coated.

Pour entire mixture into your baking dish lined with wax paper and spread it around evenly and then pressing it down firmly into your dish, either with your spoon or with your hands (I wait until it’s cooled and set-up a little bit before I roll up my sleeves and pack it down with my hands).

Once cooled (about 30-45 minutes), cut into squares, set on plates and remind your children why you are the best. mom. ever.

Max, my official taste-tester. What’d'ya think?

Thumbs up!!

Enjoy!

Top Ten Sugary Snacks I Dream About

1) Animal crackers & cream cheese frosting If you’ve never had this snack you must try it today. And don’t over-think it - get the basic 2lb Stauffer’s animal crackers from Walmart (for like $1.98), get a can of cream cheese frosting, and let your taste-buds do the talking. So good. And good is quite the understatement. This snack helped me through many all-nighters in college…and all-nighters with the babies.

2) Graham Crackers & cream cheese frosting Another good alternative, especially when you make a cream cheese frosting and graham cracker sandwich. yum. o.

3) A big spoon with cream cheese frosting Sometimes there is no time for scrambling. Grab can. Grab spoon. Go for it.

4) Golden Oreos I would love to say I can stop myself at just a few…or even a row. But sadly I can not. These are one of my favorite and every time I think about cutting out sugar I will say “but what about my golden oreos??” And then when they came out with Double-Stuffed? Forget about it.

5) Fruity Pebbles A throw-back to my childhood. This was before all the studies and reports linked excessive sugar to child-hood obesity. Back then our parents knew it probably wasn’t good for us and we knew it too but we wanted it so we nagged and we begged and we pleaded until that colorful box made it’s way into mom’s shopping cart. One of my favorite after school snacks and still one of my favorite cereals (and ice-cream toppings as well) still.

6) White Chocolate Covered Pretzels Flipz or homemade, this mixes salty and sweet beautifully. When Sam’s started carrying the big box of them, I’m pretty sure I skipped up to checkout with that bad boy and made sure our club membership stayed current. Love these.

7) Pumpkin Pie Blizzard This is a seasonal item at Dairy Queen, which I understand but I also think is a travesty since this blizzard is a.maz.ing. Dairy Queen softserve flavored with pumpkin pie spice blended with chunks of shortbread “crusts”…I’m salivating. Truly. So if you haven’t tried it you must!! So get your calendar. Flip to the month of October. Write in really big letter “GET PUMPKIN PIE BLIZZARD!!” & then stamp “URGENT!” underneath. *nodding* you’ll thank me later.

8) Rice Krispie Treats Who doesn’t love them, really??

9) PopTarts Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Night Cap - there is always a good time for a poptart. Lumme some poptarts - I even made a pie showcasing it. Frosted strawberry is my favorite, apple cinnamon a close second.

10) Vanilla cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting Easy-peasy. I have yet to be faced with these while I’ve started my journey but I know if I do I will walk away either sobbing silently to myself or shaking from the desire to pound a few dozen. oh. mama.

1. sakura : cherry blossoms, 2. Bubbles in the Grass, 3. Spring Trifle, 4. crocheted flowers, 5. summer love, 6. Easter Tree Hangers, 7. Peony L.O.V.E, 8. Babies!, 9. picnic, 10. Faux chocolate bunnies!, 11. Carlsbad Flower Field March 2007-DSC_3575, 12. summer quilts-ready for a picnic, 13. Orange and Blue Spring Cupcakes, 14. Pera Picnic Basket, 15. Pink Peony Macro 001, 16. Yummy yarn

Quesadilla Omelette

1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 orange pepper, chopped
1 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup frozen corn (you can use canned I just prefer frozen since it’s crunchy and canned corn is rather soggy)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried cilantro
3 eggs (or 2 whole and 1 egg white; 1 whole and 3 egg whites), beaten lightly
salt & pepper to taste
a little butter or olive oil for sauteing

Grease a frying pan with butter or olive oil and saute peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro until slightly tender (on med-high heat for about 5-7 mins). Add beans and corn and saute for another 3-5 minutes. Set aside.

Clean frying pan or use another and add a light layer of butter or olive oil. Pour egg into frying pan and cook on medium heat until the egg starts to gel (about 5-7 minutes).

It shouldn’t wiggle when the pan is jiggled (wiggle and jiggled - these are technical terms people)

When egg has set, add half of the cheese to half of the cooked egg…

…then add about 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup of your quesadilla filling (however much you want - I like lots of veggies in mine)…

…and then the rest of the cheese

Now this is the part where I tend to say very adult words because it can rip easily. Take your spatula and gently slide it under, in an up and down motion to release the egg from the pan. We have a great Martha Stewart non-stick pan but inevitably from time to time it will stick. And I like my food to be pretty - that’s more than half the fun for me.

So once you get that side released from the pan, fold it on top of the cheese and quesadilla mix and let cook for another minute longer, letting the cheese melt.

Once again give that bottom a gentle sweep with your spatula and slide off onto a plate.

And there you have a delicious and beautiful quesadilla omelette. It is so good you guys. And what’s even better, you have plenty left over to make about three or four more, or throw inside some tortillas for a quick lunch. Deeeeeelish.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44

Today at our church, one of our speakers introduced a passage of scripture I had never read before. I’m finding that the more I study scripture and get comfortable doing so (it’s really hard for me. I’m not dumb, I just have a lot of trouble with reading comprehension), the passages I grew up reading (and reading and reading and reading) have lost their meaning, so to speak. So when my eyes fall on a new passage and one that seems to leap from the page, smack me in the face and then dive straight into my heart, I am truly delighted. Truly.

The passage came from Revelation 2: 4-7 and the question that was presented in this passage was “Why have you turned from your first love?” And then followed up with an even more bold “…remember how far He has brought you.” The speaker led us through a couple exercises as we mediated on this passage and when he asked us to spend a few moments remembering when we accepted Christ into our hearts, it began to hit home. He asked us to remember what that felt like. Remember the burden that had been lifted. Remember what we did after we accepted him. My eyes were shut so tightly but the images, the feelings, even the sounds of that time in my life kept coming. A sick feeling resided in my gut as I realized how much I had forgotten. How much I had and continue to take for granted. How much I had forsaken.

The truth is I do love Jesus. With everything I am and everything I have. Or at least, I want to love him with everything. I want Jesus to be my treasure in a field. I want to forsake everything else and in joy, not because I have to but because I get to, sell everything I have to buy it. I am in this season of my life where the Lord is calling me to die to myself over and over and the more he asks the more I want to stomp my foot and shout “Enough! Enough already!” I want to start my business (did I ever tell you I started a business. It’s so great…I hope to share it with you soon), I want to simplify my life so I have more time to myself to persue personal things, I want organize and compartmentalize my life so things will be easier. I want to do all these things for me, not because I am entirely selfish but because I don’t know what it’s like to be self-less. And the Lord is graciously teaching me how to be that way and gently asking me to lay those things down and return to him. Life has gotten so busy and couple that with the ways I have been broken and bruised along the way and I begin to realize that I have forsaken my first love.

I don’t know what to do at this point except keep asking him to increase my joy, to continue bringing me back to his side. The best part of this deal is there is no condemnation. I return to him and let him gently heal the places that sin has torn. I can not guarantee that I will never forsake him again, but all I know right now is I want Jesus. I want him to be my treasure so badly, no matter the cost. I want Jesus and I want to go get him in joy. It’s just some days I don’t know how.

1) Vintage Paper Parade I just love this etsy shop. Super simple but super cute stationery - I can not narrow down which is my favorite, love it all! (and Pepper Design Blog is doing a giveaway so head on over to score some adorable and f-r-e-e goods)

2) Red & Teal Wedding While perusing the archives of one of my favorite photography blogs, I found this little gem and it blew me away. I would love to say I have the cahoonah’s to do such a bright color scheme for my wedding but isn’t it gorgeous?! And the cake, did you see the cake? OhMyGoshIJustLoveIt. LOVE. IT. *swoon* *drool* *sigh*

3) Best Easter Baskets Easter is one of my favorite holidays but sometimes the “cutesyness” of it overwhelms me. However, I am always a sucker for a beautifully designed and executed Easter basket. My favorite? The dyed Easter basket. So incredibly simple but so lovely.

4) Beautiful Cherry Blossom Cookies Aren’t these cookies amazing?? I don’t think I could bring myself to eat one! Wait, who are we kidding - of course I could. But I would take tons of pictures first.

5) DIY Ruffles and Lace Tank Top Sewing can be such a fussy process, one that irritates and bores me but I think I will blow the dust off of my sewing machine to make one of these - pink puffy *heart* this.

6) Only the best cake ever Today. (cuz we all know I will change my mind when I find another one tomorrow) but still, so stunning (Brandi, I think you should have this cake for Bug’s 2nd birthday party. Just a thought *wink*).

7) Macaron pops Love me some macarons. Love me some lolli’s. Love me some Bakerella.

8) Shauna Younge I am a huge Amy Atlas fan and love seeing what her genius-mind comes up with but I found another pro in the dessert bar field and I can’t get enough of her stuff either! Her “LOVE” dessert table knocked my socks off - so sweet and I am totally digging the silhouette’s.

9) Pentunia Pickle Bottom Cosmopolitan Carryall I mean, the name is just fabulous on it’s own (Petunia…so lovely). But then the description makes my eyelids flutter “Sapphire blue and Ocean Mist vintage inspired floral European cut velvet with coordinating sapphire blue wool tweed and sapphire blue water resistant lining” What does it all mean? I don’t care. All I know is she takes my breath away.

10) Simple yet Adorable Cuppie Today kicked my butt, especially between the hours of 3pm to 7pm, so to stumble upon this little gem really brought a sense of peace and tranquility to my mind. Is it weird that food does that? No? Good. A little yummy topped with sweetness on a backdrop of happiness. I know it’s weird but I’m 10% auditory, 90% visual so it just happens that way. But man, isn’t it a beauty.

Hubby went out of town this past weekend to Austin, TX to attend SXSW. Seeing that he and his crazy diet were going with him, I decided to break out one of my favorite (and super duper easy!!) breakfast recipes, chocked full of processed, buttered and sugary goodness to cook up for us to enjoy. This is one of those recipes that makes the words “comfort food” come to my mind. I remember my mom making this for us on Sunday mornings before we went to church. It is so amazingly delicious and smells just as good when it is baking that it would quite literally wake us from our Sunday morning sleeping. When I tweeted that I was going to devour my weight in monkey bread I received three twitter responses of “What is monkey bread?” and I just about fainted. Only because I am so sad that these women have lived for so many years without ever tasting it. And actually, you might have had it as a child only called it something else. I can not for the life of me understand why they call it monkey bread, but whatever I don’t care. It is so good. And I drop my voice as low as I can when I say gooooooooood. So here it is, my beloveds: the monkey bread recipe.

Monkey Bread

3 cans of refrigerated biscuits (regular size - we get the 4-pack)
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups confectionery sugar
1 to 3 tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9″ or 10″ bundt pan (or tube pan, as some call them, altho I like calling it a bundt pan mainly because I love the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the grooms mom brings the bundt cake to the family dinner and the mother of the bride can not pronounce “bundt” but then turns to her family, totally confused and says “This cake has a hole in it.” *snort*). Pour the sugar and cinnamon in a ziplock freezer bag, seal the bag and then mix it together until evenly combined. Quarter the refrigerated biscuits, pull them a part…

…and then place in the bag with the cinnamon-sugar.

Seal the bag tightly (and make extra sure it is closed or else you will have a big ol’ mess on your hands. and you can trust me on that one.) and then toss the bag around in your hands to make sure all that dough gets coated in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Take the cinnamon-sugar coated dough chunks and place them evenly around the greased bundt pan.

Combine the melted butter and the remainder of the cinnamon-sugar mix and drizzle on top of the dough. Place in the oven, bake 30-35 minutes. Once done, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Invert onto a plate or cake stand. In a small-medium sized bowl combine the confectionery sugar and water, adding a tablespoon at a time and whisk until all lumps are gone and icing consistency is achieved (in between runny and sludgy. or sludgey. is that even a word?). Drizzle on top of warm monkey bread.

Pull a part and be ready to eat so much you will make yourself sick. But in one of the best ways possible!

*You could also add raisins or nuts before you put it in the oven, if you so desire.