Triple Chocolate Mint Cake — By Sarah, Troop 1291

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Valerie
(Makes 9 servings)

1 package of chocolate brownie mix (eggs, oil, water)

1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream (need 15 scoops)

15 Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies

1/4 tsp mint extract

1 bottle Magic Shell Chocolate Topping

Fresh mint leaves (optional)

Make a batch of chocolate brownies using a 9×9 pan. Follow package instructions. Instead of greasing the pan put down parchment paper that hangs over the sides a little bit. Let the brownies cool for 30 minutes. Then put the brownies in the freezer for another 30 minutes. Crush 10 Thin Mint cookies into small chunks. Get 15 scoops of vanilla ice cream and put it in a medium size mixing bowl. Gently fold in the cookie chunks. Add 1/4 tsp of mint extract and fold in. Pour the ice cream mixture on top of the brownies and smooth out. Cover the pan in saran wrap (so that the saran wrap touches the ice cream). Then put in the freezer for at least 2 hours (or until the ice cream is hardened). Using a swirling motion (or any preferred design) pour the Magic Shell Chocolate Topping on the frozen cake. You can use as much or as little chocolate as you like. Lift the cake out of the pan using the parchment paper. Slice the cake into 9 squares. Garnish each square with a sprig of mint (optional), and half of a Thin Mint cookie.

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Yoga!

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Valerie

Yoga starts back today! I am nervous and excited all at the same time! I haven’t done one productive thing for my body since the last day of Yoga before Christmas break! This is either gonna feel very good or very bad!

On a happy note, Kayla got me yoga socks for Christmas -FUN!

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The Special Mother

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Valerie

by Erma Bombeck

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.

This year nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

“Armstrong, Beth; son. Patron saint…give her Gerard. He’s used to profanity.”

“Forrest, Marjorie; daughter. Patron saint, Cecelia.”

“Rutledge, Carrie; twins. Patron saint, Matthew.”

Finally He passes a name to an angel and smiles, “Give her a handicapped child.”

The angel is curious. “Why this one God? She’s so happy.”

“Exactly,” smiles God, “Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel.”

“But has she patience?” asks the angel.

“I don’t want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she’ll handle it.”

“I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I’m going to give her has her own world. She has to make her live in her world and that’s not going to be easy.”

“But, Lord, I don’t think she even believes in you.” God smiles, “No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect – she has just enough selfishness.” The angel gasps – “selfishness? is that a virtue?”

God nods. “If she can’t separate herself from the child occasionally, she’ll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a ‘spoken word'”. She will never consider a “step” ordinary. When her child says ‘Momma’ for the first time, she will be present at a miracle, and will know it!”

“I will permit her to see clearly the things I see…ignorance, cruelty, prejudice….and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing My work as surely as if she is here by My side”.

“And what about her Patron saint?” asks the angel, his pen poised in mid-air.

God smiles, “A mirror will suffice”.

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My favorite!

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Valerie

I LOVE M&Ms!

This is my secret naptime snack!  Please keep my secret!

Any other hidden addicts out there?

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A very Merry Christmas

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Valerie

I hope you had a happy end to the year 2010. I clearly remember sitting in church on the first Sunday of 2010 listening to people try to decide if they were going to call the year “twenty-ten” or ” two thousand and ten”. Now here we are another year later already!

My prayer for our family this year is that:

*we walk closer to the Lord in our journey of life.
*we spend quiet time together.
*we honor God with our thoughts, words, and actions.

What a blessing it is to be surrounded by loved ones every day!

May the Lord bless you in 2011!

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The magic of Santa

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Valerie

We are off to a great start for our Christmas day. We
travelled over 880 miles to get to NJ to spend the week with my
In-Law family. They are very gracious to host us here even though
they all have very busy schedules and lots of other
responsibilities. Kayla was concerned on our way up here though.
She could not remember if Nana and Poppa had a chimney. She has
seen lots of Christmas movies and all of them show that in order to
enter a house, Santa must have a chimney to slide down. We assured
her that they did have one and things were fine after that. It is
funny to watch Kayla’s belief in santa develop. She is 5 this
Christmas and has always believed, but this year it is different.
She knows better than to believe in a jolly old fat man that
magically arrives in your living room by transporting through the
chimney. A man who brings you whatever you heart desires and all he
asks in return is for you to be “good”. But, on the other hand
there is something so magical and dreamy about Santa that you just
cant help but believe! Last night as we were saying our prayers we
were talking about Santa one last time. I asked her if she thought
Santa might be scared of the dog and get scared away. She said “Oh
no, that would never happen!”. She then said “I can’t wait for my
unicorn pillow pet and jellybeans (yep, she asked santa to bring
her jellybeans!).” She had absolute faith that Santa was going to
bring her exactly what she has been asking for since Thanksgiving
weekend. She didn’t say “I wonder if he’s bringing it”, or “I hope
he brings it!” Well, I hear some rustling around in the back of the
house, so I had better wrap this up. I do think that I want to
explore the faith of a child a little more.

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French Toast Muffins

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Valerie

This is a terrific option!

I got the egg mixture from Betty Crocker. 3 eggs, 3/4 C milk, 1 T sugar, 1 t salt, and vanilla. They call for 8 pieces of bread…I used 4 hot dog buns and 2 bread ends. =)

Just heat your oven to 475. Spray your pan. Make your egg mixture however you like it. Break up your bread pieces into the egg mixture and then fill your muffin cups. Pour any egg left into the cups. Watch them to see when they are done. They turned out perfect! Crispy on the outside and soft inside! We do butter and powdered sugar. I did add colored sprinkles to a few for Kayla =).

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Christmas Carol Trivia

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Valerie

1 Oh, member of the round table with missing areas.

2 Boulder of tinkling metal spheres.

3 Vehicular homicide committed on dad’s mom by a precipitous darling.

4 Wanted in December: top forward incisors.

5 The apartment of two psychiatrists.

6 The lad is a diminutive percussionist.

7 Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.

8 Decorate the entryways.

9 Cup shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element.

10 Small Israel urban center.

11 Far off in a hay bin.

12 We are Kong, Lear and Nat Cole.

13 Duodecimal enumeration of the passage of the yuletide season.

14 Leave and broadcast from an elevation.

15 Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season.

16 Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully.

17 As the guardians of the woolly animals protect their charges in the darkness.

18 I behold a trio of nautical vessels moving in this direction.

19 Jubilation to the entire terrestrial globe.

20 Do you perceive the same vibrations which stimulate my auditory sensory organ?

21 A joyful song of reverence relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck.

22 Parent was observed osculating a red coated unshaven teamster.

23 May Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to male humans.

24 Rose colored uncouth Olf is aware of the nature of precipitation, darling.

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There is a Santa Claus!

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Valerie

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’sSun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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I am in amazement!

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Valerie

How in the world did I get so lucky?!?

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