Biscuit Bread

This recipe came about as a "mistake" and soon became one of our favorites!  It's great when you want a quick bread to go with a meal.  We also like to have it with sausage gravy!

• 2 C self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 C milk
• 1/4 C oil
• 1 egg
• 2 T sugar

Heat oven to 425*.  Spray 8x8 pan with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients together and pour into pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Recipe can be doubled and put into 9x13 pan.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

This recipe is definitely one of our family favorites.  It also makes 2 {9x13} pans.

1 C. oil
1 3/4 C. sugar
4 eggs
2/3 C. water
2 C. pumpkin puree
3 1/2 C. Self-rising flour
2 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate chips {enough to sprinkle on top}
1 C chopped nuts {optional}

Mix oil and sugar. Add eggs, water, and pumpkin and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients. Pour into two 9x13 pans.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts. Bake for 30 minutes or until done.

O Christmas Tree

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  God truly is good, even amidst our failures and shortcomings.  Even when we seem to overlook the many things He blesses us with each and every day.  Why are we so prone to take our MANY blessings for granted?  We don't deserve His mercy and grace.  But that is one of the many things that makes our God an AWESOME God!  "His mercy endureth forever."

With Thanksgiving past, the wonderful, joyous season of Christmas is here!  I LOVE Christmas!  We were able to put a real tree up this year, a Leyland Cypress!  Thanks to our good friends {who have good connections}.  It is beautiful!  We make a big to do about putting the ornaments on the tree, so it takes quite a while to get it all done.  Everyone gets involved.  I also like to make a new ornament every year for each of us and this year we used the age-old shrinky dinks!  We had a lot of fun making them, especially watching them shrink!  I got a little carried away and made a few more, but they turned out great!

Liberty also had fun playing around with garland and ornaments.  She thought she was a little angel. 

After all was said and done, we turned off the lights, had devotions, and sat there for a while, just looking at the tree.  Isn't Christmas wonderful?

Just around the corner!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is almost here?  I cannot.  It seems it sneaks up on me every single year... a little faster each time, and every single year I say the same thing..."Can you believe that Thanksgiving is almost here?"  And in another week I'll be saying, "Can you believe it's only 1 month till Christmas?"  So it goes.

Anyway, now that Thanksgiving is almost here, we are preparing 2 Thanksgiving dinners; one on Sunday and the traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner on Thursday.  I am looking so forward to it!  And then there will be so much anticipation for Christmas.  We all love Christmas time around our house.  Not one Scrooge among us.  I think we are getting a real tree this year too, I love having a real tree!  It makes it that much more special to me.  The kids have already been 'secretly' listening to Christmas music in their rooms.  They know I don't like to have it going all through the house until AFTER Thanksgiving, {I know, I'm peculiar that way} but they are anxious to listen to it at the beginning of November.  

We are officially off of school now for a whole week!  We like to take a week long break for Thanksgiving and 2 weeks for Christmas.  So everyone is all excited today!  Clara said she would like to take off for 4 years.... ahem, I don't think that is going to happen.  But she can dream.  Poor girl...still has at least 10 years of school left.

We also started up an Etsy shop {Away Down South} this week, and it's going great!  We've already made 2 online sales and 2 offline sales.  All of our items are on sale from now until Thanksgiving, so head on over and see if there is anything you might like.  If you'd like a custom order, just send me an email and we'll see what we can do.  You'll never know till you ask!

I hope and pray y'all have a blessed and joyous Thanksgiving.  May all of our hearts be turned to the One who has given us so much to be thankful for.  HE is our life and our salvation, our God!

Faith, Family, and Friends

Wow. It's been a while.

We've had a lot going on over the past couple of weeks.... and yes, I know, it's been more like 3 weeks since I last posted.  But never fear, I'm back again!

We had a wonderful visit with family - my mom, sister and her family two weeks ago.  But of course, it seemed like it was over before it began.  We enjoyed each others company, went shopping, and topped it off with some good ole' Tim Hawkins!  A visit isn't complete without Tim Hawkins.  He is funny with a capital "F". 

Our church also celebrated our 1 year anniversary and Reformation Day.  It was a grand occasion.  It was a blast dressing up and "trying" to play games and such just like they did back then!  We are looking forward to next year already!  You can view more Reformation Celebration pictures on our Church website.

My husband also spoke at a Pre-Election Prayer Rally.  He did a wonderful job, {be sure to watch}.  Before we will ever see any results of God's blessing on our land, we must first humble ourselves and pray and repent.  God is still full of mercy, and His arm is not too short that it cannot save.

Lastly, we had a great time of fellowship with some dear friends last night, where we also got to meet a whole host of new friends!  It was such a blessing!  After the food and fun, we were able to enjoy an evening of singing and music.  God has truly blessed our dear hostess with the gift of hospitality.  She is such a delight to be around.  Her son is starring in a new film to be released in December called Jimmy Valiant: Scions of Danger.  It was nice meeting him and the crew that are dedicated to making films that bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ.  We were blessed by meeting several new families and bits of families :)  God is Good!