1 tub of low-fat cottage cheese
1 tub of cool whip lite
2 small jello *sugar free or 1 large jello any flavor
1 can sugar free fruit.
Follow directions on how to make the jello and add the other ingredient, drain the fruit, mix all ingredients and refrigerate.
The little things.
I took in the recyclables this morning. At my new house, I’ve been mainly throwing them in the recycle bin but at my significant other’s house I recycle. And, take it into the recycle center.
It’s been a minute since I have done so, but it was fun to get back into a routine of sorts.
So as I was leaving the recycle center, I realized I was one quarter away from the $3.00 I needed in order to do the $3.00 car wash, without breaking a $10.00 or a $50.00 bill.
So I decided I’d go to the Dollar Store and get a couple of things to break my $10.00.
Once I was ready to return to the Car Wash, I chose the only open spot to wash my car.
I walked up to the machine to turn my dollar bills into quarters to use the car wash.
As I got ready to put the quarters in the machine, I noticed that the previous user left 6 quarters, a pay it forward of sorts.
Or perhaps forgotten quarters?
Whatever the reason, I smiled and was overjoyed to know that I didn’t need to worry about having enough quarters. I paid it forward and left a few quarters as well.
If the devil wear Prada, then God must wear Gucci was a random thought that I had. As a serial entrepeurner, I love combining food with fashion and anything in mode. Here are a few recipes that you can sink your teeth into.
Easy Red Velvet Cake
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 ounce liquid red food coloring
3/4 cup water
1 yellow cake mix, with pudding in the mix
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter
4 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Directions: Preheat oven to 325°. In a large bowl, mix cocoa powder, red food coloring, and part of the water to form a paste. Next, add all of the other ingredients except the white vinegar. Blend for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes with a mixer on medium speed. Then add the vinegar and mix with a spatula. Pour the batter into a bunt or round cake pan, and bake for approximately 35 minutes. This recipe can be made into cupcakes as well.
Strawberry Blonde Cake
1 box of white cake mix
1 box, 3 ounces of strawberry gelatin
1 cup of oil
½ cup of milk
4 eggs
1 cup of strawberries, mashed sweetened, not drained
Frosting
1 stick of butter, softened, unsalted, ½ cup
1 box (1 pound) of powdered sugar
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all cake ingredients together and pour into a 9 x 11 inch pan or two smaller pans, the batter should not fill pans to the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Frosting: Cream butter and sugar together, add mashed strawberries until frosting is of spreadable consistency. Mix together frosting ingredients. If it is too thick, please add strawberries until it is the right consistency. You may also purchase strawberry frosting if you don’t want to prepare it.
The Empty Nest
By Gina Meyers
This morning, on my walk around the lake, I saw a dove on the fence. It was perched for an instant and then did a little dance and fluttered away. As I started to pick up the pace after reflecting for a moment, enjoying the doves dance, I saw a fluffy ball on the ground by a tree, I knelt down to pick up the brown, lighter than air ball. There was a covering made out of twigs, fluffy material and I picked it up. I immediately recognized that this was an empty bird's nest and as I peered inside, seeing the white feathers inside this bird’s nest left behind, no longer needed. There was no shell, but there was a distinct feeling that what was once in this bird's nest no longer needed its nest.
In my mind, it was no longer a tragedy, that some dog had eaten a baby bird, or some squirrel tossed the nest out of the tree, its’ safe harbor.
It was a new thought that I had never had before, maybe from a grateful, yet slightly bruised heart.
The metaphor “empty nest” makes its way into my life as a familiar tome.
And memories from the past, flooding my present reality with the cruel reality that some baby birds never make it, and that their wings never get to see the light of day, a morning dewy morning, slightly foggy like the one I was experiencing this morning.
It also made me better not bitter for not fully seeing the baby birds struggles and how for some the journey towards flight isn’t always smooth sailing.
We focus way too much on “the empty nest” just like as we are entering the forty days of lent and we focus on “the empty tomb.”
But the message of the empty tomb is one of hope in the end.
In Matthew 28: 1-10 The guards were afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. An angel said to the woman, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified, he is not here; he has risen, just as he said he would. Come and see the place where he lay.”
As silly as it sounds, the empty bird's nest brought me great comfort. I was able to ascertain any story I surmised about the future of the baby bird. But I was not concerned in the least for the mama bird or the daddy bird and their nurturing, what they were up to or where they had flown to.
The empty tomb conceptualizes the profound meaning of being victorious over death and the living resurrection of Jesus, his promise to us for eternal life.
So maybe the empty nest can symbolize new hope and validate that some of those baby birds will grow up to build their own nests someday, the triumph of hope, power to believe in new beginnings and a redemptive spirit for all who believe.
