For Miss Lily's first Easter we wanted to start a new tradition...an Easter egg tree! What a beautiful teaching tool the egg is...representing New Life! It is our desire to teach her even now that she can Praise her Heavenly Father who sent His son Jesus to pay the debt that none of us could pay through His death, burial, and resurrection. By His Grace you and I don't have to be trapped in "darkness" like an unhatched baby chick surrounded by the shell of it's egg, but instead we can "break free" and live in the "light" of our Savior! "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a New Creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
A little egg side note: if you are looking for decorative eggs, then check Marshall's and TJMaxx out. These stores are great for fun things like this! For all you WF sisters, my personal favorite is the Marshall's across from Triangle Town Mall! I seem to never walk out empty handed...badness, I know honey! If you've never been, it's a must!
I am constantly getting questions from my girlfriends of where I get my
decorative sticks for my arrangements. Well, I'll tell you where I get them from it's a bargain of all bargains, because the "store" is called The Outside Nature Store By: God! Yep!...they're real and just snipped from a tree outside...gotta love God creation! I'm going to share with you the secret of the ones below. The Crape Myrtle tree is great to catch right as the flowers are budding in the spring. The buds are a really pretty sage green color and the color is preserved even after they dry.
April 15
th, was a Hallelujah day in the Lewis household...last day of tax season.....
whoo hoo!!! So we celebrated with Michael's favorite, strawberry shortcake! Guess what the the words are written in?...icing!?....nope! I actually used food coloring to dye the extra cool whip I had left over (something I have never dyed before). It was so easy to work with and so fun to write with...try it out sometime!
I
thoughtI would put a little "plug" out for my Pampered Chef friends and say how wonderful this cake decorating
gadget is...no mess and easy clean-up!
So we're trying to eat healthier in the Lewis house, so I've been getting a lot of recipes offline. One of my favorite websites is:
http://www.allrecipes.com/! One of our new favorites is Black Bean Burgers! I doctor them up a bit more than the recipe calls for. Some other things I've added are: guacamole and cheese. Happy Healthy Eating!
Black Bean Veggie Burgers: 1 (16 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed, 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces, 1/2 onion, cut into wedges, 3 cloves garlic pealed, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon chilli powder, 1 tablespoon cumin (I don't like it and leave it out) 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce, 1/2 cup bread crumbs
Directions: If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
Finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
In small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and hold togeher.
Bows...we don't go anywhere without them...we're girls! I do have to say that Easter day I was super sad that Lily was bowless for our pictures simply because the bow I grabbed kept slidding out of her hair, so we put a fix to that! My friend Tracy gave me some cabinet liner. You simply cut a small strip the size of your clip and hot glue it on the backside of the clip...whaaa laaa, an easy solution to having no slip bows!