Words from St. Alcuin

I have received the Christian Quotation of the Day via e-mail for a number of years. As with any devotional, some entries speak to me more than others. Here’s one from last week that I especially liked.

O Lord our God,
Who has called us to serve You,
In the midst of the world's affairs,
When we stumble, hold us;
When we fall, lift us up;
When we are hard pressed with evil, deliver us;
When we turn from what is good, turn us back;
And bring us at last to Your glory.
... St. Alcuin (c. 735-804)

Dream Coffee Cake

Our younger daughter left this afternoon to head back to college. She spent the first part of her Spring Break in San Diego, so we didn’t have her here for long. She use to always want me to prepare her favorite dishes when she was home. Now that she lives in an apartment and can cook for herself, she likes for us to eat out at her favorite restaurants instead.

Since I didn’t get to cook any meals for her, I baked bread for her to carry back to school and tried a new coffee cake recipe. It appeared in our newspaper supplement last week and looked quick and easy to make. It definitely lived up to its name!

Dream Coffee Cake
Submitted by Laverne Koivisto, Ashtabula, OH

1 (18 oz.) package yellow cake mix
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ¾ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. Combine cake mix, vegetable oil, eggs and sour cream in a large bowl. Beat 2 minutes with a mixer at low speed, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Mix sugar, cinnamon and walnuts in a medium bowl. Spread half the batter in pan. Sprinkle half the walnut mixture over top. Repeat with remaining batter and walnut mixture. Bake 40 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serves 20.

Carolyn's Mission Pie

This past weekend we had a “Talent Show, Pie Social & Silent Auction” at our church. The purpose of the event, which was hosted by the 2009 mission team, was to raise funds for school scholarships for children in Rio Bravo, Mexico and to purchase equipment for the construction program at Manos Juntas Mexico.

The evening was loads of fun and very much a success, including the delicious pie served during intermission. The recipe came from an earlier mission trip to Rio Bravo. Even folks who don’t particularly like coconut thought it was yummy!

Carolyn’s Mission Pie

3 graham cracker crusts
1 jar caramel sauce
1 large Cool Whip
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can Eagle Brand milk
1 cup (can) coconut
1 stick margarine
1 cup pecan pieces

Brown nuts and coconut in margarine. Mix softened cream cheese, milk, and Cool Whip together. Layer cream cheese mixture, caramel, and nut mix in crust. Repeat. Top with drizzled caramel sauce. Freeze and serve. Makes 3 pies.

I used the 16 oz. Cool Whip, substituted butter for margarine and made them in 8 oz. pie crusts. In addition to the jar of caramel sauce, I got a squeeze bottle of caramel to drizzle over the top. As for condensed milk and cream cheese, I always use the fat –free milk and the 1/3 fat cheese.

Outer Dimensions

You know you’re competitive when the conversation goes like this:

Her: “Well, I’d better get out and start scooping poop. I’ve got two weeks worth to scoop.”

Me: “Oh, I’ve found I have to do it most every day.”

Her: “I’m scooping for four dogs, too.”

Me: “Yeah, but mine are bigger.”

Her: “That should make it easier. Bigger piles are more visible.”

Me: “Not necessarily. Depends on how high the grass is.”

Her: “Maybe so….”

It actually got a little more detailed than that, LOL, but I’ll spare you the rest!



I finally completed the puzzle I began shortly after Christmas. This is the third “3D Motion Puzzle” I’ve done. They are fun, but a little hard on the eyes due to their depth. For the same reason they just don’t photograph well. Puzzle time has been limited since we took in the new puppies. I’ll have to remedy that. I need my sanity breaks!

Alice is a star!

What a surprise to find that Alice is the featured puppy on The Daily Puppy website today!! Check it out here! I sent in submissions for both her and Mabel recently and hoped they would use one or both of them.

One of our outside girlies, Bella, was featured on the “grown-up” page in December of 07. She was less than six months old at the time, but they felt her photos didn’t look “puppy” enough for the puppy page.

Who knows… maybe they’ll feature Mabel soon, too!

Mabel, are you able?

Since Alice got special recognition in a recent post I thought it was only fair to give Mabel her own moment in the spotlight. No clever little poems for her, just that question my husband likes to ask: Mabel, are you able?

Mabel is more photogenic than Alice… perhaps because she can actually be still for more than 30 seconds at a time?? Soft and cuddly, I like to scoop her up for comforting hugs. She’s around 30 pounds now, so I’d better grab her up often while I still can! Mabel might look innocent, but she’s just stealthier than Alice. She’s been a climber since day one and I often catch her standing in the windowsill or other places she doesn’t belong.

It’s been raining here for two days and supposed to continue into the weekend. Imagine four housedogs and a wet, muddy backyard. Add to that the fact one of those dogs isn’t very housebroken and two of them haven’t gotten use to the idea of being toweled off from head to tail (including paws) when they’re nasty.

*sigh* I’m feeling the need for a hug.

Mabel, are you able??

Andy Thomas

I received an e-mail today featuring this painting, “Grand Ol” Gang”, to which someone had added their own caption. The artwork was credited to an artist named Andy Thomas and included a link to his website. Fascinated by the painting in the e-mail, I checked out the site and was equally captivated by a corresponding work entitled “True Blues”.

Thomas’ artwork is primarily Western and Civil War based, but includes a few other interesting subjects. One in particular caught my attention. Check out the Pirate Party Prints!! Most of his work is available for purchase in various formats including a few as jigsaw puzzles.

I’m very tempted….

Alice, where are you going?

Every time I call out to Alice as she’s leaving the room it reminds me of a little ditty my mother use to sing to me at bathtime when I was a child. I “googled” the opening line and found several versions. Most of them are similar, but the version I remember is just a little different. Here’s the way I sang it to my kids:

Alice, where are you going?
Upstairs to take a bath.
Alice, you are so skinny
you look like a giraffe!
Alice, pull out the stopper
and let the water flow.
Goodness gracious, save my soul,
there goes Alice down that hole!!!

Despite having the coloring and markings of a Rottweiler, Alice is growing up to be long and lean… more like a German Shepherd Dog. Definitely the more affectionate of the two pups, Alice is a "people dog". That may be her saving grace since she's also the naughtiest!

Early March Ramblings

Alice and Mabel have been in the house with us for two months now. I’m happy to say we’re finally seeing some progress! (I don’t think I’ve ever had this much trouble housebreaking a dog!!) Alice still has nights that she wets her box, but more often than not she doesn’t. I still watch them closely during the day, but even those incidents are fewer and farther between. With this increase in positive behavior has come an increase in time they are allowed to be in the living areas with us rather than closed off on the sun porch. Never having been denied access, the pups get on and off the living room sofas as they please. I guess this finally registered with Esther. With one swift leap she recently settled herself on the couch next to me. I was so surprised I just laughed instead of scolding her. That gave her all the reinforcement she needed to make it into a regular occurrence. My only complaint is that Esther and Betty both shed horribly, which so far the puppies don’t seem to do. Oh well…. At nine she’s getting to be a “mature woman” so I guess I’ll let her continue.

I have been having a heck of a time trying to read Marion’s blog lately!!! For some reason my browser does not like it. The rare times I can get into it, I can’t leave a comment. I can still read it from my phone, but can’t comment from there. So, Marion…. even if I’m not leaving comments, please know I’m still reading!

I heard a song on the radio this morning that brought back a rush of memories. Does anyone else remember Convoy by C.W. McCall? The song was already in progress when I flipped it to the 70s station and I recognized it in an instant. I left for college not many years after the song was released and (get ready to laugh) joined in many a conversation with truckers on my own CB radio while traveling the interstate. In this era of cell phones and OnStar, there doesn’t seem to be a need for things like CB radios, but at the time it gave me a sense of comfort and safety… even if the slang was a little cheesy!

Moving from music to movies… When our kids were young we rarely went to the movie theater. Some years the summer Disney release would be our only visit. That progressed to maybe twice a year, one in the summer then perhaps a holiday release. Here it is the first of March and I’ve already seen two movies in the theater! In January we saw Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Excessive foul language in a move often turns me off, but this one didn’t bother me at all. I love Eastwood and feel this might have been one of his best performances ever! In February we went to see Taken starring Liam Neeson. Great action-packed movie!!! Hmmm. Wonder what I should go see this month?

Sunny Seed Drops at the Mousehouse

Driving through Wisconsin last weekend we passed a place called the Mousehouse. Of course we decided to stop. Not surprisingly, there was the usual assortment of t-shirts, shot glasses, and other tourist trap stuff. They had a nice selection of Wisconsin cheeses and after sampling the “Havarti with pesto”, I purchased some to bring home.

While checking out I noticed Lori and Jenny had each grabbed a package of “Sunny Seed Drops”. I had never seen any before, but they both assured me they were wonderful. They weren’t kidding… I loved them!!! I noticed there was a website listed on the package label and found, to my delight, that I could order them online. Including the S&H they still cost less than the ones I got at the Mousehouse. If you don’t have them in your area and want to check them out, go to the sunflowerfoodcompany website.

Here are a couple of silly pictures of Jenny and me at the Mousehouse.