Put a taste of fall in your mouth

Molasses Cookies

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix the melted butter with the sugar and molasses. Lightly beat the egg and add to the butter mixture. Blend well. In a separate bowl, sift the flower with the spices, salt and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. The batter will be wet.


Lay a sheet of foil on a cookie sheet. Drop batter by tablespoons on foil, leaving about 3 inches between the cookies. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookies start to darken, but are still soft. Let cookies cool on the foil.

My friend KimT made these and they are fabulous. Enjoy

For a friend we are missing

Lisa! We hope your 21st Birthday is fantastic. We love you and we miss you.

Lisa is a friend of ours that moved with her family to NC this past summer. Today is her birthday and Marisa wanted to do something special for her. Hope you enjoy

It's a holiday!

In these earlier posts You found out that I love poetry.Poem in your pocket day and Poems from my friends.

I saw from Twitter this morning that Today is National Poetry Day!

Here is another of my favorites

The Worm by Ralph Bergengren

When the earth is turned in spring

The worms are fat as anything,

And birds come flying all around

To eat the worms right off the ground.

They like worms just as much as I

Like bread and milk and apple pie.

And once, when I was very young

I put a worm right on my tongue,

I didn't like the taste a bit,

And so I didn't swallow it.

But oh, it makes my mother squirm

Because she thinks I ate the worm!

And here is one that Kaitlin has always loved

Singing-Time by Rose Fyleman

I wake in the morning early

And always, the very first thing,

I poke out my head and I sit up in bed

And I sing and I sing and I sing.

Do you have a favorite poem?

I do like AUBURN but you can like your team and I am ok with that

At the end of my post from my first Bible Study I mentioned that I'd like God to show me GENTLY my sin.

The study last week was on meekness. One of the characteristics of a meek person is that they don't answer back. I am laughing at God and His sense of humor for the timing of meekness.

This week is the AUBURN/ arkansas football game. I don't do well with folks getting in my face and yelling at me. I really don't do well with folks getting in my face and yelling about something that I have had nothing to do with. When this week rolls around each year, I just have to get my game face on and turn the other cheek. In years past I have had arkansas fans call and leave pig snorting noises on my answering machine, rabid fans stick their tongues out at me at church after an AUBURN win, yell at me for a call a referee made during a game that went AUBURN'S way, etc. Are you getting this picture?

Another thing that bothers me is, if you are going to trash talk me, know what you are talking about. Don't ask me about the game when you know my team lost and you don't even know the score. I know the score is the determining factor in whether AUBURN wins or not but don't tell me that your team ran all over my team when the game was closer than the score indicates.

I thought this year would be great, I'd just fly under the radar. Wrong.

I went to Physical Therapy for the first time in 3 months last week. My PT was working with someone, I hesitate to say a 'Lady' because my mama would say her behavior was not very ladylike. My, PT, Michael is a wonderful sports fan. He is even an arkansas fan but he can talk about the game without just saying, "You lost!" Michael and I began immediately talking College football. Would Tebow start against LSU? Is alabama really that good? Is Mustain every going to play? Is Urban Meyer going to leave Florida for Notre Dame? We talked a little about the hogs. Above said 'lady' then jumped in and added her 2 cents about how much she loves the hogs. Great, I have no problem with loving your team. She then said those fateful words " So, are you a hog fan?" I just smiled and didn't plan to say a word. I was just going to mind my business. My former friend and PT, Michael, threw me under the bus. "No, she is an AUBURN fan." He said with a big smile on his face. The woman came up off the machine that she was exercising on and got in my face and said "GO HOGS!" I was stunned but not surprised. I just kept smiling and thought to myself 'I don't want to show up when this person is here again.'

I went to PT again today.

So did she.

I was barely in the door when she jumped off the machine she was on and again got in my face with her " Go Hogs!" This time she even stunned Michael with her fervency. He gently told her to get back to her exercising.

Oh well. I am trying to work on my meekness Lord! Or rather , He is working on my meekness by allowing me get in situations where I just need to smile and nod and not defend myself or my team.

Go Team!

He who is already down, cannot fall

The Bible Study lecture this week was taught by KatieM. The topic was meekness.

Katie taught us that as we study The Beatitudes by John Stott we must remember that these verses build on each other. As we are poor in spirit, we will mourn our sins. As we mourn our sins then we will be meek in our dealings with others.

We started our study with the dictionary definition of meek. It is 1) humbly patient or docile, as under provocation of others. 2) overly submissive or compliant; spiritless ; tame. 3) obsolete; gentle ; kind.

What does our society exalt? Power, self assurance, aggressiveness, and proud, self promoters. Meekness is synonymous with weakness, cowardice, shyness and limpness.

GK Chesterton said "What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert- himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt -the Divine Reason...We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table" GK Chesterton died in 1936. What would he think today?

A Biblical definition of meekness is one that begins and ends with God. You can't say 'Today I am going to be meek'

A meek person:

Trusts God-Psalm 37:3

Commits her way to God-Psalm 37:5

Waits for God-Psalm 37:7a and I Peter 5:7-6

Doesn't fret over the wicked- Psalm 37:7b and Psalm 147:6

Has power to absorb adversity and criticism without lashing back- Numbers 12:1-9

Is teachable and slow to anger Psalm 25:9

Handles conflict with love and speaks with a deep awareness that she is fallible and susceptible to sin and with her utter dependence on the grace of God- II Timothy 2:23-25

Is bold to assert God's rule and proclaim God's word- Proverbs 28:1

A Biblical definition of meekness is synonymous with wisdom.

Two men in the Bible are called meek. Jesus and Moses. The Numbers 12 passage tells about Moses and his meekness

The Ultimate Example is Christ

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls Matthew 11:29

NOW There is a promise with this beatitude - They shall inherit the earth. blessings now and in the future. A person that is truly meek is satisfied and content. The meek hope in what is to come- This gives them strength to continue in meekness when our natural inclination is to defend ourselves or become angry.

FUTURE The meek don't need the vain pleasures of one-up-manship, because God has already made them heirs of the world

After Katie lectured we broke up into our groups. Sonya led our group. I was struck with the study we did from Psalm 37. What impacted me was that three times in that Psalm, verses 1, 7, and 8 we are commanded to FRET NOT. This is not a suggestion but we are commanded. Wow. I hate to admit it but I enjoy fretting.

Thanks KatieM, God really spoke to me through your teaching.

I spy with my little eye...

Why is there a picture of a bottle of water? Is that what you are asking? Well, I love DaSani water. That is my beverage of choice. When we take a car trip I usually get a case of it for the journey. I ran out of my water after a few days in Valdosta so Andrew got me some at Walmart. I didn't finish it all there so some came home with me.

Carl stacked the water when we got home by the water we already had. The next day I grabbed a bottle on my way out the door to go somewhere with Kaitlin and Marisa. Kaitlin immediately asked where I got the water. What? I had in my hand a bottle of Dasani. What did she mean? She asked again where I got the water. I told her I was not understanding. She then said "Don't you see how the bottles are different?" Huh. Then she got a bottle from each case of water and showed me the difference. Until I saw them side by side, I never saw the difference

She saw the difference immediately. I was very impressed with her powers of observation. I think that makes her a great photography. She notices the little things. The top bottle is from Valdosta and the second one is from Little Rock. Who knew?

Did you notice a difference before you saw them side by side?

October Fools Day!

I love October! It is my favorite month. I love the crisp weather, college football, pumpkins, beautiful, colorful leaves, no more snakes in the yard, and crisp fall weather, oh, I said that already!

I love these mellowcream pumpkins and so does my precious Taylor.

Here is my fun soap that I use during October.

I enjoy seasonal kitchen towels
and how about my AUBURN ones fitting right in
fancy salt and pepper shakers
my washing machine- I have heard that other people don't have car magnets for their school on theirs and I don't know what to do with that knowledge

This pumpkin is a part of my childhood. My daddy loved to decorate for Halloween and Christmas. I remember this pumpkin as a part of the decorations in my home when I was a little girl.

The arachnid is new this year. (My mama hated, loathed, couldn't stand, spiders and never even said the word. We all learned to say arachnid instead.) I think she is cute. KimT has a matching one. KimT did you put it out?
What is your favorite month?