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| My Uncle George and Aunt Dot at a Relay for Life event |
I'm not exactly fantastic at keeping up with my blogging...and my deepest apologies. I have really no excuses this time, only determination to consistently become better at it :) The more
I become interested in food and baking, the more I follow and learn from other bloggers. One of my favorites has got to be Deb from smitten kitchen. So basically, I hope to be posting more frequently in the future. I also hope to be sharing some recipes, or at least links to recipes along with adaptations and tips that I used when baking them. For instance, for my sister in law's 30th birthday I made her a pink lady cake, which I made from a recipe on smitten kitchen. Unfortunately, my cake baking began at 11:30 p.m. and didn't end until about 3:00 a.m. and somewhere in the middle I ran out of baking powder...what's a girl to do? So I obviously decided to Google subsitutes for said baking powder and came up with this. I woke up the next morning before church to frost it only to find out that my sister in law and brother couldn't make it to our house for dinner. My aunt had passed away the afternoon before so we brought the cake along with us when we went to visit my uncle and family. The afternoon passed by filled with laughter and tears, full of memories of Aunt Dot,
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| My Grandma Swogger |
Grandma and Grandpa Swogger, and my cousins childhood memories. It's been a long time since I have had a Sunday that I've enjoyed so much, and to top it off the cake was a hit. I try to look for lessons in my baking or cooking, as well as in stories, because I believe that things just don't happen. God gave me the Holy Spirit to lead me and teach me, and like Jesus illustrated spiritual principles through natural examples, so does the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ is supposed to be like that tight knit community of baking bloggers. It seems like a silly example, but as brothers and sisters in Christ we are commanded to love one another, just as Christ loved us.
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| Aunt Dot at her 80th birthday party |
We are supposed to be there when one of our brothers or sisters needs a helping hand, prayer, wise council, or even just a shoulder to cry one. And I have to admit, at first I was disappointed that we couldn't have the fun festive celebration for my sister in law, but my seed was still sown, and the somber cloud that could have hung over our family in this hour of mourning melded into joyful remembrances as we reminisced about times past over warm home cooked food, fruit, and dessert that family had brought. We celebrated the life of a woman who was a fighter, beating cancer numerous times, a mother who raised a family in love and devotion, a wife who had an inseparable bond with her husband. Galatians 6:9 comes to a new light as it states, " And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint." Don't lose, heart...never give up or quit on your seed; act nobly; do right. In the APPOINTED season we WILL reap...IF we do not loosen and relax our courage. I know my Aunt Dot didn't, and now she reaps the ultimate reward of spending eternity with her Lord and Savior Christ. Everyday we have the option of seeing what is good and wholesome and sowing good seed, or focusing on the negative and downcast and sowing and reaping curses. Your choice...like Galatians 6:9 says, will you fight or faint?
