Good morning!

Good day, eve, and what not!

I was out of half n half this morning and my coffee cup was in tears (better it than me, you must agree) and remembered seeing creamer recipes on a blog. I typed the closest thing I could remember and found the site right away!

The recipes called for coconut milk and I just used a partial can for yesterday's Summertime Corn & Zucchini soup so the rest was in the fridge.  There were a few flavors to choose from and I opted for the Cinnamon Streusel since I LOVE cinnamon and there are so many lovely healthy benefits to it.

 I made the date paste used for sweetener (so easy) by following the directions to add one cup of dates (de-seeded) to one cup of water in a blender. Mixed that together with one cup of coconut cream and added a teaspoon of cinnamon (more than the recipe called for) and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
So, if you see the recipe, you'll notice that I veered off of it but I do that from time to time.

The first sip or two were not pleasant for my personal taste buds. I added a packet of Stevia in the Raw and sipped a couple more times and found it quite nice. So, I am half way through my "make it work when I don't have creamer" coffee. I am a bit delirious over using the keyboard for it has been far too long since I used it other than flinging a sentence or two out between cooking, cleaning and catching the many spinning plates of summer.

School is back and so are nicer routines and better bedtimes and the bliss of it all is just a smile! It allows for entire blocks of time to clean and breaks in noise levels to make thinking up food ideas possible. I mean, we ate over the summer, of course but by the end of it... what a flurry of forgotten meal plans, lost shopping lists and thrown together dishes.

Now, I am back to getting up by 4:30 am or 5:00 am to get my husband a cup of coffee to drink right away, a thermos full to take to work, a smoothie to drink on the way to work and a thermos of oatmeal for once he settles down at work!
After this, the last of our five beautiful children is in school. How can we hold them up for neck kisses and spend entire portions of a day changing diapers and wake up to have them holding their own babies so quickly? No time for tears (well, there is time but I'm not in the mood for crying) so back to breakfast talk ---
A quick emptying of the dishwasher, laundry started, my own coffee in hand and I have time to read my Bible and pray! Love, love.
I time this so I can finish up about five minutes before our over energetic, happy, sad, mad, loud, striving always to control everything and everyone and HUGE hearted boy who drives me to my knees for prayer more than anyone has in my entire LIFE... is roused out of slumber. He gets to choose between smoothie or breakfast of the day (whatever I chose for the day at large) and we pull his lunch from the freezer and fridge together. I pack the room temperature things the night before.
After the basic dressing, teeth brushing, and back pack grabbing, we head out and pray on the way to school.
Once home, I clean a bit and either hop on the computer (it has been too long!) or share a cup of coffee with one of my darling loved ones or write. Sometimes, I do all and more.
Either way, it's okay, I wake up with myself.
Sorry, I simply love Billy Joel songs and always have and have heard them so often that sometimes they show up in my speech... or writing.
This morning, I decided to make a juice later and something with more substance for breakfast. I drained a can of white tuna and put half of it on a piece of whole grain bread. I put a 60 calorie slice of Gouda cheese on top and broiled until bubble and starting to have golden brown places on the cheese. I threw a grand hand full of organic spring lettuce mix on top and drizzled with 1 T. of Bolthouse Farms Caesar Parmigiano yogurt salad dressing. It is only 45 calories for 2 tablespoons!
SO good and filling.

If there is someone out there reading this (and I would not blame the world for not since I haven't shown up in such a long time) ... I hope you have a day overflowing and flowing of God's blessings. They surround us, follow us, find us and keep us all the day long and they ride on wings of endless love for us. How much we have to praise and thank Him for...