I'm Candi! I'm a stay at home reformed Christian Mom to 4 kids and a wife to a husband of 11 years. We homeschool 3 out of our 4 children and love every minute of it.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

We had a great time of fellowship yesterday. Christian and Esther are preparing for baby Juday to arrive and I feel honored to be a part of celebrating with them! We had lots of help from ladies from church. The party was fabulous! Here are some of the awesome details photographed by my friend Audra.

This is a blessing/prayer tree. We asked people to write a blessing, prayer or word of advice for the new parents on a leaf made from bible pages. Loved this! I'm thinking of doing a Thanksgiving one.

The lights in the background turned out super cute. Just string lights with cupcake wrappers. Cheap and cute!


Our friend Jessica made this awesome diaper cake!!!! And we made lion and elephant cupcakes to match the rest of the party. Toppers made out of Marshmallow fondant.

If anyone has seen the sandpaper t shirt art on pinterest. It works really well. We did that on onesies.


It was a great day!!! Can't wait to meet you baby Judah!

Candi

Monday, August 16, 2010

Homemade Almond Flour


First you have to make almond milk, you do this by taking whole organic almonds and soaking them over night in water, the next day rinse them well. Then put them in a blender with a little water, you can put as much or as little as you like. The more you put the thinner it will be, the less you put it will be creamier etc. Blend then push through a fine mesh strainer or a nut bag. Then to make the flour you put your pulp in the dehydrator. Let it dehydrate until dry, it will look clumpy. After dry, put in a coffee grinder and grind. And its done! You can use it in replace of flour. Way better for you.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Upcoming CSN review

I just love CSN. This will be my second review for them and i can't say enough good things about this company. They sell anything you could need. One thing i was surprised to find there is a huge selection of educational supplies. Including my favorite Learning resources.

CSN Stores carries just about anything and everything you need! CSN Stores has over 200 different stores to choose from and over 1 million items, including beautiful dining room tables, and cookware. They offer competitive pricing that you can't find on other retail online stores.


Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for a new review sponsored by CSN Stores

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Red Velvet Cheesecake with wipped Cream Almond Topping



This cake is so good! I first had it at Cheesecake Factory and knew it could be created at home. And it can, for a fraction of the price!

Ingredients:

Cheesecake:

3 8-oz pkgs cream cheese - room temperature

1-1/3 cups sugar

3 Tbs cornstarch

1 Tbs vanilla

3 eggs

2/3 cup heavy cream


Red Velvet Cake

2 Tbs butter - softened

2 Tbs shortening

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz red food coloring (a small bottle)

1 cup + 2 Tbs flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla


Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz pkg cream cheese - softened

3-1/2 to 4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt


Directions:


Spray two 9” round cake pans generously with PAM. Trace bottoms of pans onto parchment paper, cut out, and place in bottom of pans. Set aside.


For the cheesecake: Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch with mixer. Add eggs and vanilla - beating until smooth. Add cream & beat in just until combined - don’t overmix. Pour into one of prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes - watching closely near end of baking time. Cool at room temperature, then place in refrigerator for about 2 hours. Run knife around outer edge, tapping pan to remove cheesecake onto the palm of your hand. Set in refrigerator until cold.


For the cake: Cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Add egg, then mix in cocoa and food coloring. Scrape bowl with a COLORED spatula (as you can see, I used RED so it wouldn’t stain) Add flour and salt, then buttermilk - beating well. Sprinkle baking soda over batter, then pour vinegar and vanilla over the top. You’ll see it foam slightly. Fold into batter until well mixed. Pour batter into the other prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until it tests done. Cool, then remove cake from pan. Using large serrated knife, cut this layer in half when cold.


For the frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Add sugar and salt, then cream & vanilla. Continue to beat until smooth and it forms peaks. Set aside.


To assemble cake:

Place first half of cake layer onto serving plate (be sure to remove parchment paper from the bottom!) Protect outer edges with waxed paper if desired. Spread generously with a layer of frosting. Carefully slice cheesecake in half in the same way as the red velvet layer, placing one half on top of red velvet cake & frosting. Add another layer of frosting. Repeat layers. Spread frosting carefully around outer edge of cake - being careful not to ‘drag’ red velvet crumbs with the knife (as you can see, I wasn’t careful enough...) Now frost top of cake. Using remaining frosting, place in pastry bag with decorative tip. Pipe edge on top and bottom. *Note: This frosting contains butter, which can soften and melt in your warm little hand (as you can see from my handiwork below...) Work quickly, or it can make the frosting start to droop. Store in refrigerator & serve with a dollop of cream if desired.

Thank You For posting this amazing recipe!!!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

You have to make this salad!

OK i wish i would have taken a pic of this salad, but i didn't have time i was too busy scarfing it down! That's a pretty picture isn't it?! Any way i found the recipe on this blog, so i can't take credit for it. Seriously people try it, it is so so good! Here's the recipe

Ingredients:
hearts of romaine ( I used iceberg, because that's what my husband brought back for me)
1 can corn ( I used frozen and put it under the broiler to roast it a little)
1 can black beans
15 grape tomatoes, halved
2-3 cooked chicken breasts, cubed or shredded ( i put my chicken in the crock pot w/ the bbq sauce and when it was done put it in the fridge to cool. I also have some picky eaters who do not eat salads so i served the chicken on buns for them and they loved it.

favorite BBQ sauce (I used famous daves sweet and sassy)
mozzarella cheese
I also added avacado

1 packet prepared Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (1 cup mayo/ 1 cup milk)
½ bunch chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of 1 lime, or 2 Tbsp.

Directions:
Place lettuce in a serving bowl. Layer with corn, black beans, and tomatoes. Mix cooked chicken in BBQ sauce and top over salad. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top.
Place ranch dressing, cilantro, lime juice and minced garlic in a blender or food processor and mix well. Drizzle over salad.

Monday, June 28, 2010

So much to say, but can't.....

So i haven't been blogging lately. Actually i hate it. I've just realized this. I think i hate it because really i have a lot i want to say, but in the position I'm in i can't. Thing's have been irratating me lately. People, things, places, stuff. People remember to pray for your Pastor's, their wives, elder's. It can be a lonely calling. People think you have it all together.......guess what WE don't. We are just like you. We get our feeling's hurt, we sin. We pray and need prayer. Mark Driscoll says it well..............

Leadership Is Lonely (Part 1)


Mark Driscoll

Preaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church

Leadership Is Lonely series: Click | View Series

Leadership is lonely. Anyone who disagrees is likely not a leader.

By definition, a leader is out ahead of his or her team, seeing, experiencing, and learning things before everyone else. On one hand, this causes great excitement and enthusiasm because the opportunity to learn and pioneer is incredibly invigorating. On the other hand, however, the distance between a leader and his or her team is incredibly lonely, even to the point of becoming debilitating.

The more successful a leader becomes, the more extreme the joys and sorrows of leadership become. In extreme cases, the results are akin to being bipolar, with intense mood swings when stress and pressure turn the cracks in our character into fault lines.

For those who are leaders, the question is, what should we do when we find ourselves out ahead of our team? Recently, God has convicted me of sin in my own life and leadership. Specifically, he has graciously revealed to me ways in which I have patterns of sinful response to the feeling of loneliness that accompanies leadership. I am sharing this in hopes of helping other leaders and the people they lead.

For leaders and those who love them and can help them see their own sin, especially their spouse, the following self-assessment statements may prove helpful in diagnosing sinful responses to the loneliness of leadership:

  1. I feel that God has abandoned me to an impossible task and have begun to question his goodness.
  2. I become annoyed by my team because they do not understand me or the difficulties I face as their leader.
  3. I wish someone would just tell me what to do, give me permission to not do so much, and sort out the complexity of my life.
  4. I am annoyed by others because I believe they are stupid, lazy, slowing me down, and simply unwilling and/or unable to keep up with me and all the work I have to do.
  5. I question if anyone really loves me and secretly think that almost everyone is simply using me.

Does this sound familiar? Many leaders, in an effort to appear more spiritual than they are, think these things in their mind and feel them in their heart even if they don’t say them with their mouth. Is there hope? Yes, and we’ll explore that in the next blog post.

What should leaders do when they find themselves out ahead of their team, in over their head, and lonely, tired, frustrated, and bewildered?

I am coming out of a season covered by this exact cloud and, as a result of time in Scripture, prayer, and coaching from an older Christian business leader whom God has used on more than one occasion to speak wisdom into my life, I am finding the following steps to be invaluable to lonely leaders.

1. Accept that leadership is lonely.

There will never be a time when there is not distance between you and those you lead. We find that many of God’s leaders, including Jesus himself, spent much time in lonely places and living lonely lives. Even leaders surrounded by crowds need to accept that leadership is lonely because those crowds usually include fans and foes but few friends. Because leaders build community, oftentimes they find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to having true peers and true community.

2. Use silence and solitude to write down what you need.

Rather than being frustrated because no one understands you, knows your needs, looks out for you, or helps you, use your energy to write down exactly what you need. You are truly the only person who really knows what you need. Personally, I carry a Moleskine with me at all times and make note of things I need in order to be healthier and more productive. This can include anything from a good place to Sabbath, a decent vacation, and the right technology, to staff help, exercise, dietary changes, and so on. Too often leaders do not practice sufficient times of silence and solitude when such times can be invaluable to working on their life rather than staying at the office and continue working in it until they become angry, unhealthy, depressed, and burned out.

3. Pray for God to go before you act.

Most leaders are doers and pushers. This means our first instinct when an opportunity or an obstacle arises is to do more and push our team to do more. Instead, the first thing we should do is pray. The past few days I have decided to write down the list of things I need to do, people I need to meet with, and situations I need to involve myself in. Rather than picking up the phone, sending an email, or taking action, I have decided to wait twenty-four hours on any non-emergency issue and sincerely and specifically pray for God to go before me to move other people to meet the need or for God to take care of it himself. I have been able to check more than half of the items off my to do list by doing nothing but praying, as God has faithfully revealed himself to care more about my ministry than I do.

4. Emotionally wait for your team to catch up.

Don’t default to other-centered contempt and assume everyone else is stupid, lazy, unspiritual, unloving, selfish, and incompetent (though admittedly some may be). Don’t default to self-centered contempt and assume that you have failed as a leader because you are lonely and wallow in the bottomless pit of introspection and self-condemnation. Instead, prayerfully and patiently wait for your team to catch up. Give them time to see what you see, feel what you feel, and know what you know.

5. Teach your team.

Don’t verbally process your feelings out loud with your team, lash out in anger, or cry out in despair. Instead, use your times of silence and solitude to jot down your thoughts and needs as an act of journaling to God, get your heart lined up with God in prayer, and then lovingly pastor your team by teaching them to see what you see, feel what you feel, and know what you know so that together you can do what you need to do by being who you need to be.

6. As a last resort, use a sanctified shove.

Sometimes, when the previous five steps have been followed, there simply needs to be a sanctified shove to get people focused on their task and faithful to it.

I can assure you from much personal experience that doing this process in reverse does not work in any way or for anyone.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Winner of Tiffin Giveaway!

#20 was rachel!!!!! She one my last giveaway.....seriously I want her luck with winning things! I think she may pay random.org......LOL