Archives for August 2012

Isn’t hope an unusual thing?  I find it peculiar in so many ways and also absolutely necessary to survive.  Life is just bumpy and wild and sometimes completely unpredictable.  And when you think life is hard, sometimes something comes along and you think…maybe life wasn’t that hard before.  Loosing my mom was crazy hard…still is.  It’s a constant battle and I know everyone heals and deals in their own way, but for me it’s been a battle.  I choose to fight daily on behalf of myself and my joy and my family.  I tell myself a lot…be brave Laura…just be brave.

I have a new obsession with boats and ships and vessels…or whatever you would like to call them…and hearts.  Two weeks from today our family will venture out into more uncharted waters.  Amon will be having open heart surgery to try and repair a rare heart defect he has.  The surgery is estimated at 6 hours long and he’ll be in the hospital around 2 weeks for recovery.  I hope you’re ready for some blog posts about hospital food.  At this point the doctors have no clue if this will be the only surgery or if there will be more to come…like I said, uncharted waters.

A while back The Reinard Family emailed me and asked if they could send me one of their adoption tees.  I do love a good t-shirt, so I was super thrilled about the offer.  I had completely forgotten about it until Friday when a package showed up in our mailbox.  I was actually pulling out of our driveway and I jumped out to check the mail.  I got back in the van and opened the package immediately…I love mail and am pretty impatient when it comes to mail with my name on it 🙂  I sat right there in our van and had a good hard cry.  I love this shirt.  I love the verse and the hope that is embedded in the words and I love the little heart balloon.  He IS doing a new thing…He IS making a way.

So I am a bit on the nervous side, but I know God went before us throughout our entire process to Amon and I am holding onto BIG hope that He’s just not quite done yet.  Sometimes I do want to curl up in the fetal position and cry and rock myself back & forth, but I quickly realize…what good will that do myself, Amon or anyone.  So instead we’re taking great joy in the fact that Amon is home and that we have access to amazingly amazing doctors who are going to do their best for our boy.  That is truly something to celebrate.  And we’re holding onto hope…big, big hope.  And if you wouldn’t mind praying just a bit more for Amon, oh how we would so appreciate it.

So two weeks from today we will be starting a new journey…heading out into some new unknowns and braving the high seas, but I feel like our boat is pretty darn strong…and our captain, well, He commands the waves.

Today is definitely a hopeful heart kind of giveaway and up for grabs is this 11×14 Hold Onto Hope canvas and one of the Reinard family tees…winner can choose their shirt size and the canvas and tee will be mailed directly to you.

Here’s how you enter:

Please leave a separate comment on this post for each entry.

Entry #1 Head over to the Reinard’s Family blog…take a look around, leave a message of encouragement, buy a tee or just make a donation.  The tees are so very rad…I highly suggest you purchase one.

Entry #2  Leave a comment…any ole’ hopeful comment will do.  Maybe something you are holding onto hope for or a time when you were…or even a hopeful scripture.  Surprise me…I love to hear your stories.

Entry #3 Subscribe to PPA to receive posts by email.  Check out the right side bar and enter your email address under Email Subscription

Entry #4 Share the giveaway on your personal Facebook status or become a fan of PPA on Facebook HERE

Again, please leave a separate comment on this post for each entry.

Giveaway will end this Friday, August 31st at midnight and I will announce the winner on Saturday.  Goodies will be mailed directly to the winner.

Thank you again for all your love and encouragement you have showed our little family.  And even more, thank you for the prayers you have prayed on behalf of Amon…”Thank You” really just seems so inadequate.

Happy Wednesday!

Well it’s Monday.  It’s funny how Monday always shows up after the weekends…right on time.  We were so busy this weekend, but it was a good busy.  All day Saturday we were at a big fundraiser for our Ngungwane carepoint in Swaziland.  I helped with the bake sale and was super happy at the end of the day when the bake sale alone made over $800.  I LOVE BAKE SALES!!!  Baked goods can totally change the world.  Go bake something today and share it!

Along with the bake sale there was also lots of other fun to enjoy and the wee Kelleys LIVED.IT.UP.

Hot Dogs.  Check.

Rock wall.  Check.

Carnival games.  Check.

Giant sized pixie sticks.  AKA spit sticks.  Check.

I’m telling you, some serious fun was had.  And Amon rocked his napping skills.

We also got in probably our last swim of the summer.  They all swim like little fish now and just love to be in the water.  It is so fun to watch.

I finally snapped a picture of only my boys…all three of them.  That made my heart a twinge happy…even just to type it.  All THREE of my boys.  Yah!

I finally looked up this scripture Josh wrote on our chalkboard.

I like Josh because he writes encouraging scripture and quotes on our chalkboard for me & for him.  Sometimes it takes me a bit to finally look them up, but when I do, I am so glad I finally did.  The Year of the Lord’s Favor.

And maybe the most exciting part of the weekend was when Amon got his real estate license.  He already has some prime locations listed and ready to sale.  I’d buy just about anything from that face.  After bath baby hair is sooooo fun.  Harper declared, “It looks like he’s ready to go to work.”  Babies with crazy long hair are awesome.

So how was your weekend?  I hope it was grand…grand like “baby hair being parted” grand 🙂

And just a heads up…giveaway this week.  Wednesday.

Happy Monday!

Well I’m happy to report that by the end of the day yesterday my To-Make Bake Sale list looked like this

That is a good bake day…for sure.  And I had such a good little baking partner.  All the big kids were at school and MDO, so it was just me and Amon for a few hours yesterday.

I said I would share all the recipes, so here we go.  Most of them are located on my Recipe Pinterest board, but I’ve also linked all of them.  I’m also happy to report that there were zero whammies.  Everything was super delicious…I did quite a bit of taste testing.  I was also rather surprised by my favorite from the day…you’ll see.  So away we go…

Snickerdoodles:  This is my cousin Rebecca’s recipe from our family cookbook.  A friend described these as “like biting into a cloud.”  And it seriously is…the best snickerdoodles ever.  And only bake them for 8 minutes…stop there…and thank me later.

Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar:  I cheated on the recipe and used break & bake cookie dough instead of the homemade.  I’ve done the homemade version as well, but I was trying to be super fast yesterday.  The cheat version is just as delicious.

Gooey Butter Cake:  The best dessert ever.  For reals!  This is my Mawmaw’s recipe from our family cookbook.  Can’t begin to even tell you how many times I’ve eaten this dessert.  It’s bad.

Rice Krispy Treats:  I had to do the typical bake sale item.  If I could sell these straight from a bowl I would.  That is the only way my mom made them.  She would stir up a big batch and then divvy it out into smaller bowls and we would eat them with a spoon.  Can a taste remind you of someone because when I took a little nibble from a spoon big tears immediately came.  These may be a little salty…I may have had a good cry making these 🙂

Easy Whoopie Pies:  LOVE!  These actually rival my Mawmaw’s homemade version.

Easy Blonde Brownies:  So so simple and super yummy.

Reeses Peanut Butter Bark:  Incredibly simple and really, really, like really good.

Andes Mint Cookies:  Easy and sweet.  I am a big fan of mint and these are awesome.

Nutter Butter Balls:  These were almost my favorite…almost.  And per my cousin Rebecca’s recommendation I dipped these in white chocolate instead of regular chocolate.  Major thumbs up.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark:  Someone describe this as “crack bark” and I now know why.  Amazingly good.

This was also my favorite thing to set up.  Look at how the pretzels lined up perfectly in my pan…be still my OCD heart.

And I did botch part of this.  I had the eye on the oven on from making the caramel part.  You then pour the caramel over the pretzels and put it in the oven for a few minutes.  I completely forgot to turn the eye off, so when I took the pan out of the oven and on top of the stove top, I noticed just one area of the caramel was smoking and turning way too dark.  Too late, I realized the eye was still on and burning the caramel in that area.  Bummed.  At least it was easy to tell which part was burned from the bottom.

Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies:  Need I really say more.  Anything that has the word “Funfetti” in it has to be awesome.  It just has to.  And definitely the prettiest thing I made yesterday.

Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars:  I made these one other time and wasn’t very impressed, but I overcooked them a bit last time.  So this time I watched very carefully…25 minutes was my max…and they are perfect.

I also cheated on this recipe too.  Instead of making the homemade cookie dough part, I just bought this giant roll of pre-made and cut it in half…half for the bottom, half for the top, cheesecake middle…superb.

Peanut Butter “Buckeye” Pretzel Bites:  I’m just not sure if you can really go wrong with combining peanut butter and chocolate.

And my shockingly, most favorite thing I made yesterday was…Snickerdoodle Popcorn Chex Mix.  I’m a big popcorn fan and this stuff is killer.  And I can never find chocolate Chex, so I just used Cocoa Puffs cereal instead.  Works perfectly.

Tomorrow is our big fundraiser day and I will also have key fobs for sale for $5 each.  And I am making an art piece today for the silent auction.

So there you have it.  It was quite the day, but I am ready to make some money for our Ngungwane carepoint.  If you are local, come out and see us Saturday.  READ DETAILS HERE.  Lots and lots of fun will be had.  And let’s face it, who doesn’t need some baked goods…especially for an amazing cause.

Happy Friday.

Our little family is all over the place currently.  Life is just nuts sometimes and I feel like I am scattered in a million different places, but this little dude is home, so I’m good 🙂

PS: He is about to be 5-months-old

I’m still a little beside myself with the fact that I sit in a car rider line now…I CANNOT have a child old enough to be in school…no way…I have a major hate/hate relationship with Time right now.

Harper’s first day was pretty awesome.  She had the best day and I pestered the fire out of her to hear every last little detail.  My favorite Harper quote about her day was, “We all had to wear name tags, but none of us can read.”  This perplexed her 🙂

Best.Grocery.Cart.Ever.  All of this…

is going to turn into all of this.

I’ve declared tomorrow a full on all day bake day.  We’re having a big Block Party/Motorcycle Ride & Car Show at our church Saturday to help raise money for our carepoint, Ngungwane, in Swaziland.  The bake sale is going to be killer.  There will also be a silent auction, free food and lots of family fun.  If you’re local come out and see us on Saturday.  CLICK HERE for more details.

Legos are in full swing at our house.  We’re talking hours of entertainment here.

Harper spends the majority of her days on the floor right beside Amon.  I keep wondering if her wondrous baby love will where off.  I actually think it won’t.

I’m really hoping to re-open for orders soon.  I miss taking orders.  I made this 8×8 canvas for a friend’s daughter who was recently baptized.  I love pieces like this.

It was surreal being at church on Sunday with Amon.  All those Sundays praying for him and begging God to bring him home and there we were…with him sitting right in our laps.  Sweetness & goodness on so many levels.  God is good.

Speaking of sweetness. <3

Now I’m off to take on the day…another big day!

Happy Wednesday!