Cinnamon and Sugar Cake

I love to share recipes that I have successfully made.

This Cinnamon and Sugar Cake Recipe is very tasty and was hit with family and friends.

CINNAMON & SUGAR CAKE

Ingredients For the Cake

  1 Pkg. of white cake mix
  1 cup of milk
  1/2 cup of sour cream
  6 Tbl. butter, melted
  3 eggs
  2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Ingredients for the Frosting

  1/2 cup butter, softened
  2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  2 Tbl. milk
  1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  1 tsp. vanilla extract
  1 Tbl. cinnamon-sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.

For the cake---

In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; beat on low speed for 30 seconds and then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Transfer cake batter into greased and floured pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Note-  I used a Pampered Chef Stoneware Bundt Pan and had to bake it for 35 minutes.  If you use a metal pan, you will have to adjust the time.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.


For the frosting---

In a large bowl, beat the butter until fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon and vanilla.  Whip until smooth.

After your cake has cooled, spread the frosting on it and then sprinkle it with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Note- I had to add a little extra milk to get my frosting to the consistency I liked.  Play around with it!



Link to Original Recipe from Taste of Home

Not Living In the Moment

Did I get your attention?

I just contradicted what we are told to do and I meant it.

I'm talking about motherhood and the fear that comes with it.

Fear that my child will need therapy because I yelled on Christmas morning.

Fear that my child won't be able to function as an adult because I didn't give him enough responsibility.

Fear that I only have a certain amount of time to spend with them before they are grown and leave our home.

I should live in the moment and I should make every moment last.

You just never know when your last moment with your child may be.

We lost our first born child, William, to SIDS.

He was only eight days old when it happened.

I have been blessed with two more children.  Happy, healthy and energetic boys.

I want to live in the moment!  I want to make every moment beautiful!

I am so very thankful for our children and I should show my gratitude by

LIVING IN THE MOMENT.


Then, reality hits.

The double ear infection, bronchitis and croup hits.

The million times of explaining why he can't watch Mine Craft videos without direct supervision hits.

The bills hit.

The dirty dishes hit.

The, if I don't get this load of laundry done I will have to go naked, hits.

The long line at the grocery store hits.


Reality comes along with mass amounts of mom guilt.




Here is what I am going to challenge myself to do this month.

I am going to let go of living in the moment.

Instead, I am going to be GRATEFUL for every moment.

Grateful for the opportunity to explain to my son that I love him and I don't want him listening to videos that have bad words in them.

I will be grateful for the time out I give my three year old for hitting his brother and refusing to apologize for it.

I am going to thank God that I had a chance to apologize to my children for yelling at them.




I don't need to be super mom to share my love, my passion, my wisdom, my faith and my experience with them.

I just need to be grateful for every moment I get to.

January 2014 Goals- 1/12/14

I prayed about the goals I should set in honor of the new year. 

   

2014 Goals

In order to work toward the 2014 goals, here are my goals for the month of January.

A LOVING FAMILY

Love notes to Chuck.

Have daily screen free periods of time.

Specifically pray for peace, gratitude and contentment in our home.

A PEACEFUL HOME

Organize the boy's room, our bedroom and the van.

Implement clean up before moving on rule.

A HEALTHIER PERSON

Memorize Isaiah 41:10

Drink 8 glasses of water daily.

Substitute a minimum of 4 lunches with a salad.

I went ahead and printed out the verse I'm trying to memorize and put it in the two spots where I will stand still the longest and the most frequently.

The Kitchen

The Bathroom

ON TRACK WITH FINANCES

Pay bills on time.

Get certified for Simply Fun's MOPS Presentation

Make new business contacts weekly.  Minimum of 2.

Plan a GAME NIGHT EVENT.

GIVING OF OURSELVES

Send a card to two friends that I don't see very often.

Invite a family to join us for a meal.

Under the heading "A Peaceful Home", you will find the goal of the clean it up before you move on rule.  My desire is to not be constantly tripping on toys and in a constant state of frenzy.  When things are a disaster (as they often are with two young boys), I feel the need to clean.  I WOULD BE CLEANING ALL DAY!  But, here's something unexpected that happened with this new rule.  My house stayed clean enough to have people over and not be embarrassed.  I was not running around (like a chicken with her head cut off) cleaning until our friends arrived.  I even sat down and crocheted while we waited.

Another unexpected thing came from opening our home and sharing the experience with the boys.  Matthew, who is 7 1/2, really got into the hosting aspect.  He wanted to use the good dishes and help with things.  He specifically chose things to make our guests feel special.

Matthew helping to set the table.

The cake I made for our guests.  Again, something my mother would have done.

I think that hostessing is a dying art.  I wonder if we have all gotten too busy or if we care too much what others think to open our homes and our lives to others.


I want to open up our home and share the gift of friendship, comfort, and food.  Kind of like my mom used to do.  :-)

January 2014 Goals

I prayed about the goals I should set in honor of the new year. 

   

2014 Goals

In order to work toward the 2014 goals, here are my goals for the month of January.

A LOVING FAMILY

Love notes to Chuck.

Have daily screen free periods of time.

Specifically pray for peace, gratitude and contentment in our home.

A PEACEFUL HOME

Organize the boy's room, our bedroom and the van.

Implement clean up before moving on rule.

A HEALTHIER PERSON

Memorize Isaiah 41:10

Drink 8 glasses of water daily.

Substitute a minimum of 4 lunches with a salad.

ON TRACK WITH FINANCES

Pay bills on time.

Get certified for Simply Fun's MOPS Presentation

Make new business contacts weekly.  Minimum of 2.

Plan a GAME NIGHT EVENT.

GIVING OF OURSELVES

Send a card to two friends that I don't see very often.

Invite a family to join us for a meal.

Changing My Destiny

I had heard people talk about belief systems before, I even remember studying what a belief system was in college.


"A belief system is a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs of any such system can be classified as religious, philosophical, ideological, or a combination of these. Philosopher Jonathan Glover says that beliefs are always part of a belief system, and that belief systems are difficult to completely revise."


I've been seeing a counselor to help me work through the depression I often struggle with and she brought up the subject of belief systems at my last session. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to quote her word for word, but this is basically what she said.


Everyone has a belief system. Your belief's turn into your choices. Choices become your habits, habits become your character and your character becomes your destiny.


She was talking to me about the spending freeze my husband and I had done and how amazing it was that we had changed our habits and stuck with it.  The main point of the spending freeze was to fix my husbands credit so that we could get a mortgage for a home. We did. We made different choices and although the process is not complete yet, we hopefully changed our future.


I've spent the last month going over what she said about the belief system and how it becomes your destiny. I guess I had always thought that my belief system was about the bigger things. I hadn't realized that my belief system affects my every day choices.


But it does and so, I have been examining lots of things that I do and questioning why I do them.




With God leading me down the path, I can and will change my destiny.




One choice at a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_system

A Woman Who Fears the Lord #14

 The Woman Who Fears the Lord

A Study of Proverbs 31

Verse 23

"Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land."

To put it into 21st century terms...

Mrs. Proverbs' hubby is a popular guy who hangs out with guys who are super smart and make decisions that effect the community.

Out of the twenty-one verses that describe our friend, Mrs. Proverbs, there are two that specifically mention her husband.
(The other one is Proverbs 31:11, "The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.")

What we do as wives, directly affects the lives of our husbands.

Well, that seems pretty obvious but let's see if we can dig a little deeper.

Our roles as women, wives, mothers, employees, students, friends, daughters, etc. shape and change our husbands.

No pressure, ladies!

We can help make our husbands successful in life.

(Please, note that I wrote the word help and did not write that we are the deciding factor on whether or not our husband is successful.  We can only do our best with God has given us, spend time in prayer and search for opportunities to learn and grow as women.)

My husband recently interviewed for a different position at work.  It would have been better pay, better hours and less stress.  Dream job!

I prayed for him.  I prayed for the job.  I prayed that if it was where God wanted him, that he would get it and if it wasn't that we would be able to be at peace with that.

He didn't get the position and I am totally at peace with it.

I told him how proud I was that he put himself out there.  How I am thankful that he still has an awesome job that provides for us.  I talked about the doors that could open because he applied for the position and how much he learned from a difficult interview.

I was strong enough to set a peaceful, supportive and loving tone because of my relationship with God and what I have learned from scripture.

I think our friend Mrs. Proverbs would have been pleased.

A link to my study on Proverbs 31.

2013, A Year In Review

Here is my year in review...

I learned how to knit and crochet.

I sang multiple times on our Church's worship team.

I auditioned to sing the National Anthem at The Cove.

I went on a nine day trip to San Antonio for work.

I sang the National Anthem at The Cove.

I started a blog.

I made our own laundry soap and haven't had to buy pre-made laundry soap since February.

My husband and I celebrated being married twelve years.

I lead the worship service for our church twice.

I went back to work full time.

I auditioned for a local singing contest, and made it to the first round.

My husband and I tried purchasing a home.

I ended a

Our financing fell through three days before closing.

We looked long and hard at our financial choices and decided to go on a two month spending freeze.

I sought help for my depression.

We successfully completed the spending freeze.

We potty trained our youngest.

I started a photography business.

I joined Simply Fun as an Independent Consultant.

We reapplied for a mortgage and got the pre-approval.

I made new friends, re-connected with friends from my past and felt a sense of community within our church.

2013 has passed and I'm excited to see what 2014 has to bring.