The child, she is honest... ;-)

"Angel" came to visit me yesterday. She had her little closing program from pre-school. It was very cute, and her Mom even managed to get her into a dress rather than a Spiderman shirt and jeans. :-) She was so precious singing her little song about the months of the year and something about a marching dinosaur. :-)

She asked her mom if she could go to Aunt Wendy's house for a little while. So, she came over and ate lunch. She then begged to help me make some cookies.

OK, so she actually begged to get on the computer to play "WOW WOW Wubbzie", which I suspect is the whole reason she wanted to visit. :-) After about 30 minutes on the computer I decided she had enough and I quickly came up with the idea of making cookies to distract her.

When in doubt, bake. :-)

I pulled out my recipe book and looked for the recipe that had a lot of ingredients she could put in. I decided on "Ranger Cookies", because a lot of the measurements do not have to be EXACT, and what child would not want to crunch up Corn Flakes in a Ziploc bag? :-)

I pulled out all of the ingredients and asked "Angel" if she would do me a big favor and come crush the cereal for me. She was very happy to oblige. She then helped put all of the other inside, tasting the cereal and coconut before putting it in. She really liked the coconut. :-)

She also liked the dough, because it is one of those that you have to mix with your hands after a while, and then roll into balls.

After the first batch came out we tried our cookies and she exclaimed happily, "Aunt Wendy, you make the bestest cookies and cakes in the whole wide world. I love your cookies!"

Man, did that make me feel good! :-) I know I'm not the best baker in the world, but it is nice to have someone think so. Even if they are 4 years old.

As we all know a 4 year old will tell you truth, whether you want to hear or not. ;-)

I did tell her that she was also a very good cookie baker, because she helped make those cookies. You should have seen her little face beam. :-) I love when children get that "beam" after being told they did a good job. :-) Little Mark still gets that beam too. :-)

So, we bagged up a few for her take home to share with the family, and tell them all how she made the best cookies in the world.

Here is the recipe, just in case you and the kiddos would like to bake some this weekend. :-)

RANGER COOKIES

1/2 C Shortening
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C Cornflakes (crushed)
1/2 C coconut or pecans
1 egg (beaten)
1 t vanilla
1 C flour (sifted)
1t baking powder
1 C Quick Oats

Cream together shortening and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add a little at a time to the wet mixture, mixing well between each addition. Add the oats and coconut (or pecans). The dough will be very dry. (This is the part where we mixed with our hands.)

Roll dough into balls and press to flatten a little. Press onto a greased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper) and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. ENJOY!

Love,
Wendy Darling

Soldier's Angels needs help...

I know that I have posted about Soldier's Angels before, but I wanted to mention them again today. Right now there are almost 1000 soldiers waiting to be adopted through this organization.

I know that times are tight for everyone right now, but these are the people who put their life on the line for us everyday. If you can adopt even one soldier that will help them so much. All they want are letters, and occasionally packages. They just want to know that we still care. Hearing their name called at mail call boosts their moral so much.

If you can help, please visit this website http://www.soldiersangelsforum.com and sign up. You will be so glad that you did. :-)

And, this weekend let's remember all of the men and women who gave their lives so that we are free today. Have a safe weekend everyone.

Love,
Wendy Darling

We are praying for them...

This was taken directly from the Steven Curtis Chapman website.


MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

Love,
Wendy Darling

Prince Caspian Review...(may contain spoilers)

I will try very hard to not contain any spoilers for those of you who want to see the movie. :-)
Also, please keep in mind that this is MY opinion. I am not a "professional" movie reviewer; I just know what I like...

Unfortunately, I didn't like this movie; which is sad because I looked forward to it for so long. "Little Mark" and I are reading the books together, and we so enjoyed "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that I had high hopes for "Prince Caspian."

First, if you have read the book then you will notice A LOT of changes in the movie. A LOT.
Because of these changes I found the movie 1) rushed in parts, 2) totally resenting the "conflict" they created between Peter and Caspian, and 3) most of the symbolism from the book was totally cut out/lost in the movie. 4) A lot that the book explained was completely left out of the movie, therefore causing a lot of confusion, 5) they added so MUCH that was not in the book that it totally changed the story for me, and not in a good way. :-(

Although I liked the acting. The actors portraying the Pevensie children did a great job; just as they did in the first one. Ben Barnes did a great job portraying Prince Caspian and Peter Dinklage made a great Trumpkin.

I also could have done without the whole "romance thing" they tried to create between Susan and Caspian. There was many more changes that I didn't like, but I am restraining myself from listing them here, because I do not want to add anymore "spoilers" for those who have not seen the movie.

I promised "Little Mark" I would take him to see it, since we did read the book. However, we will need to have a talk about "creative licensing", and then I will let him form his own opinion. I look forward to hearing what he has to say.

We are planning to take the nephews to the drive-in to see it next weekend. If nothing else, they will get the drive-in movie experience. :-)

SO, did you see the movie? What did you think? I would love to read your opinions in the comment section.

Love,
Wendy Darling

Guess what I am going to see tomorrow night? :-)



I'll give you my review after I see it.
Love,
Wendy Darling

I am back/and a recipe

Hello friends. :-) I know I have not been posting regularly, I am sorry. The short, vague explanation is that the "crisis that tested our families faith to the very core" mentioned in this post is FINALLY over. I would also like to report that God was indeed glorified, and we are all stronger in our faith for having gone through it. PRAISE HIM!!

Perhaps one day I may give you the whole story and share how God was glorified, but it is not just MY STORY to tell, so I will have to wait until most parties involved are OK with me sharing it.

NOW, the recipe.

I don't usually participate in "Saturday Stirrings" but since I needed something to blog about I thought I would share this wonderful recipe with you. :-)

We got this from the "Kraft: Food and Family Magazine" last month. If you are not familiar with this magazine please visit them here, and sign up to receive this free magazine. They really are full of great recipes y'all.

Anyway, on with the recipe. This is an awesome recipe. Little Mark LOVED them. He ate 4 that night at dinner. FOUR! Even after he declared "that looks nasty; I'm not eating it." Yeah, bud, try saying that with your mouth full of tuna cake. :-) Before posting the recipe let me just say that when we made it we doubled the recipe and only made half of the recipe for dinner that night, and then the rest at lunch the next day. It worked wonderfully. :-)

TUNA CAKES
prep time: 10 minutes Total: 26 minutes, including refrigerating.

2 cans (6 oz each) of light tuna in water, drained and flaked
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top stuffing mix for chicken. (we used the "off-brand" cornbread stuffing and it worked just fine.)
1 C Kraft shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/2 C shredded carrots
1/3 C Kraft Mayo Real Mayonnaise
2 Tbl. Sweet Pickle Relish
3/4 C water

Mix the tuna, stuffing mix, cheese, carrots, dressing, relish and water in a bowl. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Heat a large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium heat. Scoop tuna mixture, using about 1/3 C for each cake, into skillet in batches. Try using an ice cream scoop to make evenly portion batches. (We did and it worked great!)
Gently flatten cakes using a spatula. Cook 3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown on both sides, turning cakes over carefully. Makes 6 servings, 2 tuna cakes each.

I am sorry that there aren't any photos this time, but believe me when I tell you that these are AMAZING, and healthy. :-) Enjoy!

Love,
Wendy Darling

Acappella...

Back in '93 Acappella did a concert at our college. They were, in a word, AWESOME. :-)
I know that these are not the same guys that performed back then, but it is the same group, and they stills sound AWESOME! :-) This is a song that they performed at that concert.

Enjoy!!




Love,
Wendy Darling