Welcome 2012

Here we are its the 2nd day of the new year and the first thing that I wanted to do when I got home from my beach vacation was BLOG!

As you know my family and I just moved back to South Africa from the United States after living there for 5 years. The change has not been easy on us adults, however the kids are really doing just fine! Spending this week at on the South Coast has really made me understand that it doesn't matter where we are as long as we are together! I know that sounds so cliche......... but it's true. I had the opportunity to read the book "The Alchemist" while away on vacation and boy did this book just open my eyes! I have no idea where to begin.

I don't know how it happened but that book has stirred something up inside of me that is not easily explainable! I  need to listen to my heart a little more I think those screams that I think are distracting me or clouding my judgements is really my heart just guiding me to do what needs to be done! However sad it is to admit this, I must confess, while away on vacation my blackberry just would not get a good signal and my first  2 days of vacation I spent grumpy because I couldn't socially network! How stupid! Eventually when I gave up on the 3rd day and just enjoyed my family the beach the ocean and the togetherness I was a completely different person! I stole moments on the beach to read my book and take pictures of my gorgeous family and didn't even realise that I had great signal every time I got to the beach LOL!

So this is my promise not my resolution but my promise, I will listen closer to my heart and less to the PING of my blackberry! I will listen a little closer to my heart when it shows me an opportunity to build relationships with those I love, and a little less to the NOTIFICATION jingle of my facebook!

Thank you technology for sucking just long enough for me to learn an important life lesson! I so hope that technology sucks long enough for all of you to look up long enough from your Blackberry's, Laptops, facebook, bbm etc. to capture those irreplaceable moments in life!

Here's to 2012

So here we are.......

I was sitting at my computer trying to work but was absolutely mesmerized by these little yellow things flying by my window! Then it hit me.......It's Fall Y'all. From past posts on my blog you will know that fall is my absolute favorite time of year, the temps are perfect, the ground is covered by natures quilt of leaves and the trees...oh boy....the trees changing colors are soooo beautiful. When you blink it is Halloween and then Thanksgiving and all of a sudden it is Christmas!

I am looking forward to Christmas this year as I will be home in South Africa with my family and I will get to meet my little niece Shannon for the very first time. However it is bitter sweet as we are moving back permanently and I will miss every single one of my wonderful friends that I have made here in the USA. I feel blessed to have them in my life and thanks to Facebook, I will be able to keep intouch with them on a daily basis.

So for now I am looking around the house and see piles of stuff ready for a garage sale and pictures that need to be packed and memories that need to be locked away safely. Wonderful are those who come into your life, and wonderful are those who stay in your life.

The baking will continue and the blogging even more so. I am coming home SA, I hope you are ready for me!

HOT HOT HOT

I kind of realized yesterday why it is that I spend so little time in the kitchen lately.........it's HOT! Yip who wants to spend a day in front of the oven or stove when its 90+ degrees outside!! Bleh, however football season has started in my house and then I am barely home to do anything in the kitchen!

My new quest for this week is to find some easy meals that can stand and await to be eaten that do not require me to stand in front of any hot stove or oven and that will give me the freedom to come and go as I please! With that being said, yesterday was the first day for football really and my oldest son was at football camp and proceeded to break his hand! Now I know that these things happen and cannot be avoided and certainly do not happen on purpose, but man does it mess with a summer schedule!!! hehehehe

I do not wish to wish this summer away at all, but I am looking forward to those wonderful fall days when I can open the windows and doors and have that fragrant fresh air blowing through the house, while enjoying the silence while the children are at school.

Anyway before we know it Halloween will be on the door step with Thanksgiving chomping at the bit to be next, and Christmas will be waiting in the wings to make its Grand Red and Green entrance. Yip you guessed it my favorite time of the year is right around the corner.

Enjoy the HOT HOT HOT summer because my sweet smelling, costume making, pie baking, present wrapping season will be here shortly.

Jacki

To List or NOT to List, this is the question?

Okay so on the very 1st of June I promised that I would certainly blog more..............well clearly that has not worked out so well for me!

I am struggling to find content to blog about. I know a man who makes lists about everything, I am serious about EVERYthing! So I guess this is the root that I will have to follow from now on. I am just not getting around to everything that I need to be getting around to and I have certainly needed to put out some fires because of that! So lists it will be!

I just have to find the right system that will work for me, do I list the things that I need to do around the house first and then list what I should prep for dinner and then what area of my real job I will be attending to and then make a list of how I will entertain the kids for the last month of their summer vacation? Whew pretty soon I will be making a list to tell me which list to tackle first! However I still think that the list thing is for me.

Maybe if I start with a basic list............1. wake up...........2. eat.................3. shower.............4. eat.................5. shower....................6. go to sleep! Yeah maybe that's a little tooo basic!

I think that I will start by splitting my day in 3. I am just one of those people who can't  do anything until the house is clean, so I think that I will start with that in the first part of my day and then dedicate the second part of my day to doing my real job and save the last part of my day for odds and ends with the kids and folding that laundry that I never go through in the morning. Yeah, that's a plan I think I will try that for a week and get back to you on how that has all worked out for me!

Let me know who of you list and don't list.
Jacki

The most amazing cookies I have ever seen!!!!

http://sweetsugarbelle.blogspot.com/

I just had to share these with you, I follow this blog and this woman has the most creative ideas when it comes to cookies!!!!! I love to bake and would give my left.........well arm wouldn't do cause then I couldn't bake.........okay left eyebrow to be able to do cookies like these!!!

The skill and patience is beyond me and don't know if I could even eat a cookie that looked this amazing!!

To see art like this inspires me and just humbles me to the gifts that God so freely hands out!

Its wonderful to see someone share their talents. I am a huge fan and in absolute awe!

And as you have guessed it I am going to try my hand at these cookies, I will post the results, good or bad!!!!

Thanks Sugarbelle for the inspiration!!!

signing off to go make a batch of cookie dough
Jacki

I wanna hold your hand!

My Niece Jessie turned very sweet 16 on May 3rd and every year since I have started baking cakes she has put in a birthday cake request!!! Since I have had ZERO training on making cakes and everything I know is self taught, this girl has FAITH, because every year it gets more difficult and more difficult! The theme for this year was The Beatles, the instructions that I got were "please put a Union Jack on the cake with a yellow submarine and the silhouettes from Abbey road, and could it please be Rainbow cake inside!!!" Considering I have never made a rainbow cake in my life before, I looked at her sweet face and said "Sure No Problem" with my lips and inside my head the little man who reminds you that you are cashing checks with your mouth that your body can't cover was running around like a crazed lunatic screaming "why did you say that why"! Well, I put on my brave face and this is what the end result was!

The Batter for the Rainbow cake!

The Batter in the pan going into the oven!

what it looked like out of the oven,

A view from the top after I had cut off the crust to level the cake, yip you see the whole and think What, a cake with a hole in the middle, don't worry if you look at the pictures going into the oven the silver flute thingy-ma-jig has cake batter inside and that acts as a plug!

Tad ah................

And that's what the inside looked like!

All in all I think it turned out pretty great, Jessie loved it and her friends thought it was awesome, so all is well that ended well!!! Oh by the way that cake tasted like you were biting into a rainbow it was moist and soft and sweet and yummy and made you feel good!!!

So we will see what next year brings......................thank goodness its a whole year away!!!

Yip I went AWOL again!!!

Man I have been so busy and just could not find time to blog a little and I miss it so much! You know this is where I get to display my creative talents (yeah thats me blowing my on horn), vent about my kids good and bad!!

I have done a few cakes and cupcakes since I last blogged and I need to just get them on here, when I have the time. However I am currently busy with a Beatles themed "Sweet 16" cake for my niece. I am very excited about this cake. A little nervous to because the inside has to be rainbow cake!!!! Yeah you read right RAINBOW! The base of this cake is 14" so pray for me!!!

Anyway will check back soon and post lots of pictures to that we can all catch up!

Your baking buddy
Jacki