Huckabee speaking at the American Quarter Horse Association in Amarillo, TX
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Chuck for Huck
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Charleigh made this sign for Mike Huckabee

I missed the picture of her giving it to him, but here he is with the sign in hand, telling her thank you. She’s the one behind the sign . . .

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This man is one of the friendliest I’ve met. Look at the shine in his eyes! We didn’t get his name but I witnessed him give his seat up at least 10 times untill finally there were no seats left. He ended standing up in the balcony wearing the same smile. His joy blessed many strangers.

Christian: One of Kaleb’s very favorite people

My Nephew: Another of Joshua’s favorite people.

I’ve had to take Charleigh’s Testimony down for a while. After many an email I re-read what I wrote so long ago and realized I had been much too brief and left a lot of details out. This was the cause of a few misunderstandings, which was never my intention. When I quickly wrote the post on Charleigh’s healing it was meant for the close friends and family that were at that time reading my meager blog. Since then much traffic has been directed here. In light of the new readers I’ve taken the 3 posts down until I have time to properly sit down and fill in the gaps. If you are looking for her story or some of the comments please let me know.

Meanwhile here is a link to the audio of Kurt and my testimony of Charleigh’s healing. Up till now I’ve kept from linking to it because. . .well. . . I’m self conscious. I finally decided if I was taking Charleigh’s written story down for now I better at least post the audio.

Download Charleigh’s Story

note: thanks to our extremely slow dial-up I’m unable to check and make sure the above link works. If it doesn’t please let me know.

Morgan: One of Joshua’s favorite people.

Waiting for his hamburger and fries.

Charleigh and I put our heads together and with a few pointers from Joshua we came up with this delicious cream sauce.
We grilled up some chicken breast seasoned with an Italian blend then tossed it all together with DreamFields spaghetti. Yummy! We ran out after each of the kids had 3rds. There were no left overs.

Dairy Free- Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
1 bulb roasted garlic (smooshed up) If you need tips on how to roast garlic first look towards the end of this post
2 TB Olive Oil (or non-dairy butter substitute)
4 TB flour
1 can chicken broth (14 oz)
4 oz Tofutti brand imitation cream cheese.
1 TB freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

In a sauce pan, heat oil or melt butter with flour over low heat. Stir rapidly and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Gradually stir in chicken broth while stirring. Bring to boil and cook for 2 minutes. Continue whisking.
Cook till mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Thoroughly mix in the “smooshed up” garlic.
Stir in imitation cream cheese one spoon at a time till melted and smooth.
Add Nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Enjoy.

This sauce is so basic you could use it a hundred different ways. It would be easy to double or triple.

With the advice of Joshua we included roasted garlic but you could customize and tweak it anyway you want.

A dash of red pepper flakes would liven in up. Some fresh basil and thyme would be great. Maybe even a combo of sage and mint could come in handy. For the tex-mex inclined I’d throw in some thyme, cumin, and green chilies for a great enchilada sauce maybe I’d even throw in some Tofutti Sour Supreme

If you want a thicker sauce just let it cook a while longer before you add the “cheese”. If you want it thinner, add more liquid.

Oh, and for the vegan out there, just replace the chicken broth with some veggie broth or maybe some soy or rice milk.

For you regular folks, go ahead and replace everything with the real stuff if you feel so inclined.
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How to roast garlic:

Remove papery outer skin from garlic bulb (do not peel or separate cloves).
Cut top off bulb; brush with 1/2 teaspoon oil.
Wrap in heavy-duty foil.
Bake at 425 for 20 minutes
When garlic cools remove from papery skin and enjoy.
You can spread this on toast, mix it into potatoes, stir into dips and sauces or just eat it straight like Joshua does.

Roast up a bunch and store it in a jar covered with olive oil. It’s alway good to have some sweet garlic in the fridge.

milk allergy, dairy free

I’ve been kicking around the idea for this great new series in which I share all the things I wanted to say but didn’t.
I’ve got a pretty hillarious list; an instant hit I’m sure.

I have a few things holding me back from publishing it.

The first being if I had good cause to hold my tongue the first time the cause probably still holds true here as well.

The second reason to keep quiet would be that you my dear friends could possibly be the ones to whom I didn’t say what I wanted to say. That may prove uncomfortable for the both of us.

The third: “If you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all”

That last one seems to be the clencher.

But know this:
It would have been great fun!
It’s true; I have many a sarcastic remark and believe it or not I sometime hold them in. I guess on the occasion the Spirit clamps my mouth shut I should keep it shut.

If I can find a redeeming factor in my fun new theme I’ll go ahead a post. As of yet I’ve not found it.

Sue fowarded me an email containing Heather’s testimony of what happened in the Union University tornado. I did some research and found more about her story on the Baptist Press News. This is a must read!

Union student’s reflections: ‘My experience in the tornado’
By Heather Martin
Feb 14, 2008
Baptist Press News

A Mother’s Life
Remember when. . .

January 25, 2006

Tucking Charleigh into bed, pulling the pastel striped sheets up over her shoulders I appreciate the sweet moment of another day coming to an end. All is well in the house, only 8pm and I’ve got two kids in the tub and one squeeky clean brown haired girl already half asleep. With my husband in OKC I decided to put the kids to bed early and spend the remainder of the evening in quite aloneness. The aloneness that mommies rarely get. I’ve looked forward to this all day!

My plans of peace are shattered as a bubble covered 3 year old enters the room. (Please Read on …)