Sometimes you just wonder ...

I've been in a few minor accidents.  I've known people that have been in fairly major accidents. As I watch cars on the road,  I often wonder "What happened there? "

I need to admit that I often drive a little more cautiously around a car that is driving around with huge dents. I interpret that to mean they didn't have insurance coverage to fix it or that they have so many accidents they don't want to turn it in for repairs.

When I saw this red car drive by me I was definitely intrigued.  It didn't take long to see it was crumpled on every side. I could tell that because the car weaved back and forth between the traffic almost cutting a few people off. My mind had no problem filling in some details with creative license.

Stereotype of a Red Car - Fact or Fiction?

I figured they were driving wild on bad roads and rolled their vehicle.  I am not sure how else the outer shell could get crumpled on every side.  There wasn't any of the normal accident damage.  Lights were all intact, etc.

Am I being influenced by the stereotype of the "red car"? Maybe but their weaving  was the nail in the coffin.  If the shoe fits! ...

A test for the faithful

I am a volunteer treasurer for a small church.  The church conference has a residential high school.  There are work projects for the students to help pay for their tuition.

Our church members also agree to give $1,000 per student which is matched by the church.  The total is matched at the school.  So for the first $1,000 given the students are blessed four times over.

We received a call that the students were in need of extra financing.  One member was moved to pledge $200. It was stepping out in faith and waiting on the Lord. Before all of the pledges were collected, I received a call that the student earned more than anticipated and no more money was going to be needed. 

When the check came in, I privately gave it back to the donor.  It was an Abraham/Isaac challenge.  It was money that was being given out of great sacrifice.  God had tested and the donor was found to be faithful!

It made me wonder if there were times that I was tested and failed.  Or times that I didn't realize that I had been tested and passed?  I shared a while ago about stopping to give light to someone changing a tire about sunset.  It was something out of my comfort zone.  But because I stopped the tire was changed by the time the sleet and snow began falling.

We serve best out of our comfort zones.

Low Carb Fudgesicles

I built on the whipped chocolate recipe that I have shared before.  This time I added coconut milk and cherries and froze it.


2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Tablespoons Cocoa powder (I used Dark Special)
2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
30 drops Liquid Stevia (vanilla)
1 teaspoon Vanilla


Whipped Chocolate

I whipped that together until it formed a soft peak. The next group of ingredients are:

1 can Coconut Milk

1 cup fresh/freshly frozen cherries

Coconut Milk and Cherries

I blended until smooth. Now this is something that I'm going to do differently next time.  I am going to take 1/4 cup fruit and blend with the coconut milk.  Then finely chop 3/4 cup fruit to be folded into whipped cream.



Folding ingredients together

This was the hard part. It is a challenge to fold a liquid into whipped cream and keep the proper texture. I don't have much experience folding ingredients so I hope that I did this correct.


Served up in 3 ounce servings

I have an excessive amount of 3 ounce Dixie cups.  So I decided to use them in this recipe.  When I placed the popsicle stick into the cup, It stood without my help.  To me that meant I had the consistency correct.  I placed sticks into most of the rest of the cups.  


Fudgesicle

The next day, I pulled one out of the freezer.  I separated the cup at the seam and it easily rolled off.  The bottom of the cup needed to be taken off in a different step.  It is a strange shape but it ate the same as any fudgesicle. It tasted good too.    

This recipe made 20 small fudgesicles at 90 calories each, 87% Fat, 1.5g net carbs and 0.6g Protein.
If you used 6 oz cups you would make 10 at 180 cal, still 87% fat,, 3.0g net carbs and 1.2b protein.

Oh, that was good  :^)

The little things

Many little blooms

Many days we fail to slow down enough to look at the tiny things.  We don't stop to smell the roses and at the same time we sweat the small stuff. 

Delicate Delights

There was a lull in the rain today as I got off from work so I took the girls to the park by the lake.  I walked by these brushes at least three times before saw the pretty blooms.  That was when I knew that I was winding down from my work day.

Low Carb Delicious meal

Alan brought in some garden fresh leaf lettuce from the garden earlier in the day.  Last night I fried some bacon. So I thought,  "why not? I will make some wilted lettuce. " (Lettuce cooked in bacon grease.) I needed to add some protein to the main meal of the day so I used canned chicken.

It looked a bit plain sight I added whipped cream cheese, half slice of bacon,  crumbles and 4 black olives.  I will try anything once but I won't be afraid to try this again.  I am learning to be more creative cooking high fat and later I will share my low carb fudgesicles.

An upside-down day

There are just some days that flip upside-down and go topsy-turvy.  Today was one of those days.  Yesterday I had a bit of writers block.

Today my work day started slow.  I had a meeting early in the morning that got reschedule several times in the day until it was finally the last meeting in the day.

I took the girls out for a run late in the morning but earlier than my normal lunch to accommodate the rescheduled meeting.  Dale called.  He looked at his schedule wrong and he was supposed to be working days. He was one  the way into work.

My lunch break was wasted. My afternoon was full of meetings.  The dogs would only get let out between meetings. 

Dale had promised to mow two lawns this afternoon.  So when he got off at 5 he went straight to mow the lawns. I took the dogs out to the lake.  By the time that I got back, I was starting to shake.  So I ate my salad for supper. I had just finished when Dale walked in. His day had been as mixed up as my day.

Lord,  make it a better day tomorrow!

 

Where did Spring go?

Okay so I am just whining.  A cold front blew in with a strong cold wind. Although you can't see the wind itself, the effects of the wind are pretty visible. 

Bog Blowing across Clear Lake

I was surprised how quickly the bog moved across the lake.  It was fascinating.  There were 6-8 other clumps of bog floating across the lake.

For a minute I though it was going to catch the dock

Vroom! There is goes.  It is across the end of the loading/unloading dock and heading towards the shore.

But the bog kept moving

When we arrived, it was just past the end of the fishing dock and slightly to the left.  I didn't realize at the time that it was moving.  By the time I noticed, it was already to the right of the dock and was moving fast.  

Clear Lake Park's Dock

I named this picture the temporary resting place because as the wind changes direction, as long as the roots haven't set, it will float out and make it's way to another part of the lake.

The temporary resting place for the bog

The wind was causing huge waves across the lake. It was funny watching Misty Blue trying to take a drink in the lake.  She would get her nose down by the water and the wave would hit her snout and her head would fly up splashing water everywhere.  She can be so very cunning and smart.  But she can also be so very silly.

Even Misty Blue fought the waves

Congratulations Graduate

It is that time of year again.  The graduations parties have begun.  Congratulations all of those High School and College students that have graduated and are now ready to begin the next phase of their lives.  (I have blocked out the faces of the people in the crowd for their safety.)




A time to Celebrate!

That is a sad concept isn't it?  That an innocent photo of friends and relatives posted onto the internet could potentially cause problems for someone in the photo. But that is the age that we are in.  I like this photo and what it represents.  A large crowd of people joining together to celebrate: young, old, tall, short, overweight and thin. The celebrations include: a table of food set up inside the garage, coolers with age appropriate drinks, tables inside and outside, and yard games for entertainment.


It is a fun but exhausting time of year.  It doesn't seem to matter how old I get, there are always graduation announcements in the mail.  Congratulations Graduates! Have a fun celebration and Good-luck in the future!