I didn’t do one of these little gems two weeks ago because it was Christmas day – and last Friday found us on another holiday – New Year’s Day.

But I think I’ll proceed as planned today.

 

 

FUNNY

 

My funny seldom comes from the internet.  (But I want to laugh more so if you know some internet funny that would crack me up – I’m listening.)

But my funny comes a lot from my kids and that’s pretty acceptable to me.

Probably my favorite Christmas gift this year was made for me by London.

You know how sometimes you just hear some songs wrong and then the wrong way that you hear it becomes so funny to you and yours that you just keep laughing about it and the phrase finds its way into every day conversations?

There’s one moving song that whispers – “peace, be still” – and in our car we giggle like the immature gang that we are every time it comes on because all we can hear now is “beef, beef stew”!

This year when I unwrapped my flat, rectangular gift from Scout one of our funnier misquoted lyrics was all presented for me, just as we pretend to hear the lyrics when they are sung —–

 

 

FASHIONABLE

 

This is such an easy one for me this week.

You know I love bracelets, right?  (I mean, I mentioned it here before so if you were paying attention, you’d know it to be true.)

And you know I love words?

These beautiful bracelets are the perfect combination of both!

You can wear words!  That’s my favorite!

 

 

My lovely friend hand stamps these and the whole idea for them was born from a project to teach her daughter about entrepreneurship and to help empower her daughter to raise money for a school trip she wanted to attend.

Now the whole fantastic family is involved and I guess if there is something I love more than bracelets, it is an entire family tag-teaming some awesome together.

There are several fonts to choose from – and several bracelet choices in silver or bronze or gold.  And.  Of course the word options are gloriously unlimited!

 

 

Stamping your word for the year is a perfect idea.  (I actually already own this one above – it was a gift last year and I love it!)

You could do kids’ names or family slogans.  Last year each kid received a bracelet with our Charlotte Mason school motto on it – “I am. I can. I ought. I will.”

(She has a thicker bracelet for boys – or girls really.)

You can order your bracelets from A Gilded Line on etsy.

(I think I sense a giveaway partnership idea coming up on the blog — I’ll get back to you on that one!)

 

 

FLAVORFUL

The first time I had this cake I was in seventh grade.

My friend Sara brought a leftover piece in her lunch at school and I fell in love with that chocolate cake right there wearing my black Chuck Taylors and my neon shirt and some ridiculous-looking skirt with long johns poking out from the bottom and a shameful looking hairstyle on my foolish little head.

All of that fashion was embarrassing, but that cake — well, it has become the chocolate cake of our family.

 

 

Mosely requests it every year for her birthday (along with spaghetti – twelve years running).

I love the frosting that accompanies it – although I seldom use the Crisco any longer.  (Goodness but my momma loved her some Crisco in recipes.  There was always a giant blue tub of it in the pantry – with a paper towel all folded square and small resting inside for greasing her pans.)

We’ve tried lots of other frostings with this though – and one particular favorite among exactly half of us is a peanut butter frosting that makes a perfect combo.

(For the salad oil called for in the recipe I us sunflower seed oil.  I think most any oil variation would work fine.)

 

FAITHFUL

 

Sometimes it feels like Jesus hits these home runs in my life and sometimes it feels like he just slides into home plate barely in the nick of time.

It’s probably a foolish idea for me to even try to attempt a sports analogy here.  I mean – I’m not a Go Team kind of gal.

But I do know this: He is working.  He is good.

And there are plenty and piles of days and moments when that truth feels like an idea on a shelf, but I know that He has indeed given me a Godly heritage in my own mother and my own father and in their lives and in their legacies to me and I stand grateful for the foundation He started placing under my squirrely feet since I was a literal babe in arms.

I think that bedrock is holding firm today because of their guidance and my heart hopes and prays that the foundation being laid and built for my children will prove to be as solid.

 

FEELS

 

The good feelings are all coming from the kids this week – and the past couple of holiday weeks, in fact.

The manner in which my children teamed together and made a really delicious batch of potato soup.  The ways in which they were brave and kind and helpful.

The breakfast in bed card that Bergen made for me and then followed through with – a truly tasty omelette and a grin as he delivered it.

It’s these fellas as they served as judges for the Cake Decorating Contest Mosely celebrated her birthday with.

 

 

It’s all over all of their faces more days than not – crinkly laughing eyes and hand holding and back patting and just being alive in the same space together.

They’re good folk, they are.

 

___________________________________