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Miss Chompy’s Little Man

Sometimes, little people have a strange adjustment to having a new little baby just appearing in the middle of their world. But not our Miss Chompy. Oh, my– how she loves her new baby brother.

She loves to watch his face and touch his toes and feel his hair with her chin and let his tiny fingers wrap around her oh-so-much-bigger ones.

Even when he’s fussy she seems to have figured out that it’s just what babies do sometimes. She pats him and says, “It’s going to be all right, little man.”

I’d say…better than all right.

It’s going to be perfect.

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{ The Perfect Mother }

 

“There is no one perfect way to be a good mother… Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children… What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard

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Grandma Love

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

― Maya Angelou

Happy Birthday Grama!

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Cinnamon Ripple Banana Bread

The other day, I was looking through my enormous recipe notebook–you know, the notebook full of “things to try.” The idea was to find something that just screamed Easter. Well, I found plenty and the only real trouble I ended up with was picking which adorable Eastery thing to make.

Then, without realizing what I was actually doing– I found myself completely and utterly fixated on this particular recipe. I don’t personally believe there is anything about Cinnamon Ripple Banana Bread that even whispers Easter…nevermind screaming it. But there it was in the mixer and I continued on like a woman possessed.

I intended to take some charming photos of the loaf out of the pan, intact and cooling on a pretty little rack, maybe with a few carefully placed cinnamon sticks. Alas,  once it was out of the oven– the bread knife had a mind of it’s own as well. Then, somebody started nibbling and before I knew it…there were only a couple of slices left.

Not. My. Fault.

Cinnamon Ripple Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas–thoroughly mashed

1/3 cup softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1-1/2 cups flour

For the Ripple:

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large loaf pan evenly. Shake about a tablespoon of the  cinnamon sugar mixture into the buttered pan…

and tip the pan around until all the sides and the bottom are well coated.

Pour the excess back in with the mixture set aside for the ripple.

Mix bananas, butter , sugar, egg, vanilla, soda, cinnamon and salt together. Pour about one half of mixture in loaf pan. Sprinkle most of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top.

Add the rest of the bread batter over the cinnamon layer. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture on the top. Bake for about 60 minutes or until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Serve with cream cheese or by itself. Either way is fine by me. It’s wonderful, and if you can force yourself to save a piece till tomorrow, it is even somehow miraculously…

better. Yeah, didn’t see that coming either. Oh, and as for the Easter recipe…

there’s always next week.

4.5 from 2 reviews
Cinnamon Ripple Banana Bread
 
Print
Ingredients
  • 3 very ripe bananas--thoroughly mashed
  • ⅓ cup softened butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • For the Ripple:
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Butter a large loaf pan evenly.
  3. Shake about a tablespoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture into the buttered pan and tip the pan around until all the sides and the bottom are well coated. Pour the excess back in with the mixture set aside for the ripple.
  4. Mix bananas, butter , sugar, egg, vanilla, soda, cinnamon and salt together.
  5. Pour about one half of mixture in loaf pan.
  6. Sprinkle most of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top.
  7. Add the rest of the bread batter over the cinnamon layer.
  8. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture on the top.
  9. Bake for about 60 minutes or until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.
  10. Serve with cream cheese or by itself.

Hunger Games Prize Bag

WINNERS!!

Shelly
Nat
Dot

Congratulations you guys!! You’ve won a prize bag from our Hunger Games Movie Premier. Next best thing to being there.    :}

Thanks for entering everyone!

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Soap Chip Sack

Yeah…say that 3 times fast. Heh, heh.

Remember a few months back, when I shared the pattern for a sweet little soap sack–you know, to keep the soap from sitting in water and getting all…ummm…disgusting?

Since then, this little do-dad has really been earning it’s keep and is, as we speak, hanging out in the shower window keeping a very lovely hand made bar of spice soap safe from all known evils.

Well, I’d like to introduce you to Soap Bag’s baby brother…Chip.

 You know all those soap ends that are too small to do anything but be aggravating and yet, for some goofy reason still feel wrong and wasteful to throw out?

Well, here’s the answer! Just pile all those little pieces into this new bag–with a tighter mesh, and smaller holes, cinch the top and TA-DA…

you have a whole new soft, scrubbie with never ending suds! Ok, well, maybe not the never ending part, but you get what I’m saying. It’s like having a whole new bar of soap come from out of nowhere. And how green is that?

I’ll be putting a ton of these in my Gracious Rain Shop in the next few days, but if you’d rather make a couple yourself–I’d be happy to post the pattern.

Let me know. I’m glad to oblige–especially for such a noble cause. Because you know~being resourceful feels soooo good.

:}