Crazy Good!!

Made some chocolate zucchini bread today. It's really kinda like cake...but you MUST make this! If you are a fan of the original zucchini bread you will so love this! Really it's kinda addictive..just a warning..

Here's the recipe

Cream:
1/2 c. soft margarine
1/2 c. oil
1 3/4 c. sugar

Add then beat with mixer:
1/2 c sour milk (to make add 1 tsp. of lemon juice to 1/2 cup of milk and let sit for 5 min.)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

In a separate bowl:
4 tblsp. cocoa powder
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 salt

Add to wet ingredience and mix well

Add:
1/4 cup chocolate chips (add just a bit of flour to the chips and toss. this keeps the chips from sinking to the bottom of the batter while baking.)
2 c. finely shredded zucchini

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan or 2 bread pans. Bake at 325 for 45-50 min.

**This is something I tried. Turned out great! You can make muffins out of these too. Grease muffin pan and fill 3/4 of the way full. Bake these for 20-25 min.

Killing Time

Okay...I didn't know John took this picture. Just glad he didn't get my jelly coated tummy. First I should say that other than a little fluid around her heart Anna is super. The doctors don't know why it's there, but they are monitoring it. Nothing serious is wrong! Thank you Jesus!

After my appointment the nurse told us the cardiologist was in conference with surgeons so we had some time of kill in downtown Little Rock. We decided since the capitol was a couple blocks away that we would pay our state government a visit.

Homemade Laundry Soap

This is most domestic thing I have done since I became a stay-at-home-mom. My friend Rachel gave me a super simple recipe for laundry soap. With just a few ingredience and a 5 gallon bucket I will have enough soap to last a year. Okay, I did the math on this...I spend about $16 a month on laundry soap. If you take that times 12 months out of the year that almost $200 savings over a year. Holy cow! That's budget friendly!

Laundry Soap

1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap
1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soap
1/2 cup Borax
4 cups water
5 gal bucket w/ lid

Grate or finely chop bar of soap and add to sauce pan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 5 gal. bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soap, and borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. After laundry soap has sit overnight, stir and fill in a clean laundry soap dispenser 1/2 w/ soap and then fill the rest of the way with water. Shake before each use. Optional: Can add 10-15 drops of essential oils. (like lavender)

Top load washer: 5/8 cup per load
Front load washer: 1/4 cup per load

Happy laundry soap making!

Super Saturday!

First of all, how about the weather on Saturday. It was amazing! The day was perfect. It was a great day to be at SDC and we really enjoyed our time with Josh, Elizabeth, and kids! Come back soon!

A Rainy Monday

This morning I woke up to thunder and rain. Also for some reason I was dreaming about Hawiian pancakes from IHOP. Don't ask... We needed the rain SOOOO bad our yard and plants were screaming for some! Couldn't sleep last night..I hate that! I did that when I was pregnant with Olivia. I don't like that part of pregnancy. Wish I could have slept longer, but Livy came and got in bed with me and she doesn't sleep when she get in my bed...she wants to play.

Some great Olivia news...(well for her Momma and Daddy). She is potty trained!!! I'm so happy! She tells me! I love it! She will even go and crawl up on the stool herself. Although, she gets off immediately with pee dripping and runs to me and says "I so proud!" It's precious. Just not the pee dripping part. I found her crawling around on her Dora couch with no panties on after going potty. I thought "well she's wiped now.." We are still working on that part, but hey as long as she goes in the stool this Momma is SOOOO happy!! She was #2 trained long before #1. I have talked to a lot of my momma friends who said there child was that way. I'm just thrilled I don't have to buy diapers for Anna and an abundance of pull-ups for Livy. Although she still wears pull-ups for nap and bedtime just in case.

Been feeling Anna around lately. Love feeling that again! We can't wait to meet her Dec 1st or before that, or after that. Who knows! I'm also super thrilled for my friend Meredith that is having twin boys, Calder and Christian! Oh heavens, two boys at the same time! You are still in my prayers girl. They will be precious and we can't wait to meet them too! Wish I could be available to help you out.

A Woman of God: Anna the Prophetess

As I have said before we are mainly naming Anna after my mother and other family members past, but I found a woman named Anna in the Bible that served God and was devoted to waiting for the messiah, Jesus. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be dedicated (giving their child back to God) there was a man named Simeon who was waiting to see the Lord. He was certain that he would see the Messiah before he died. Another person was with him waiting, her name was Anna (she was another regular at the temple). Anna waited and prayed and believed that the Messiah would come. After she saw the Lord she spent her last eighty-four years serving as a prophetess. Anna discovered that God can make every passage of life meaningful and useful. Even after Simeon died, she had another way to serve even through her widow years. You can read about Anna in Luke 2:21-28

I love that! Yet another great reason to name her Anna. John and I pray that our Anna will open her heart to the gospel one day and be saved. We also pray that she will have a servant's heart just as Anna in the Bible did. Wholly devoted to serving God.

A Hiking We Will Go!

Sunday, while our girls were napping at Papa and Nana's; Jason, Buffy, John, and myself went down to Greer Spring and hiked the trail down to the spring area. It was beautiful! Plus, the weather was unseasonably cool so we couldn't of asked for a better hike!

Sugar, Spice, and Everything NICE!

It's a girl! (Dang, we'd better start saving for those weddings! For some reason that is all I could think about the other day when the tech told me we were having a girl.) Her name is Anna Marie after my momma, Deanna Marie. I found out that is a family name. My Grandpa Bearce's(Mom's Dad) sister was named Leanna Marie, so Grandma and Grandpa named mom after her. I'm naming Anna after my mom. That's cool!

Okay I think John's phone had a bit of a delay so it really doesn't show the "girl part" just other baby parts, but we know it's a girl.

Pray for Anna. Our doctor gave us a precaution yesterday. Baby has a hole in her diaphram that is causing fluid to go into her chest cavity. We have an appointment in Little Rock on the 23rd at an OB specialist to have a super duper strong ultrasound so they will be able to see how big the hole is. If it's not big then has she continues to form it will heal on it's own, but if it's big then they will monitor her throughout my pregnancy and when she is born she will need surgery to repair it. Of course we are praying that the hole will be small enough that it will heal on it's own and be no big deal. We are trusting that God WILL take care of our Anna no matter what happens! Please pray for her (and her Momma and Daddy).