Serendipity

A New Love Affair

2011-11-26T13:26:00.002-05:00

I have been MIA (Missing In Action) for several months now for several reasons. The biggest reason is I have found a love affair that I absolutely can not pull myself away from most of the time. The attraction is so strong...I know nothing last forever, but our chemistry is not fading. It is true love...it is Pintrest!

Stefanie, over at Abby Maddy Inspired, introduced me to Pintrest and I have been totally swept off my feet! Thanks Stef!
I have been consumed in 'pinning' and organizing my boards. I have so many projects 'pinned' that I could never have enough time to complete even a fraction of them...but just the process of sifting through thousands of such creative and unique ideas from magazines, blogs and websites is pure bliss in my world. I feel creative after spending a couple of hours on Pintrest, even though I did nothing except 're-pin' or 'like' random ideas. It is complete satisfaction!

Pintrest has been a source of inspiration for me and an escape from reality. I was struggling with being in limbo as far a job, if we are moving to Kingsport and going through a healing process. I can honestly say that I feel like I am coming out of my sand pit and starting to feel like my life it starting to be pieced back together. Pintrest did not do that, God has been with me every step of the way. He has allowed me to grieve, question and revive during the past eight months. He has listened and guided me, at times just being still with His arm around me. Pintrest has just been an outlet for me to tap into some of my desires and talents that I have shoved to the wayside over the years. Not understanding what direction God wants me to go or how to use my talents has burdened me for sometime now. The past 3+ years have not gone well for me personally, but as I say that I have to rethink that and remember all the blessings I have received in the midst of all the chaos. Oh how I have been blessed with my family growing and jewels of friends. God did not create chaos and the devil dances when I get swept up in all the drama and fear. My head is becoming clearer and I am longing to be closer to Him.

I have a few others addicted and those friends always 'get me', we are always sharing ideas and dreaming up our next project. Others feel like they should like it more than they do, but I realize it isn't for everyone. One either gets it or they don't. However, I think it is the best invention since the air conditioner!

Find me on Pintrest under Traci Camper and follow me!
Happy Pinning!

In His Perfect Timing

2011-08-21T23:54:00.000-04:00

Things have been a little busy around the Camper homestead lately, but today was refreshing relaxing. We were all at home together ALL day, which never happens for us.
My husband works 24 hour shifts as an EMT-IV Tech and once he leaves a shift, he goes straight to mowing and landscaping. Then you add him being a Captain at the Fire hall and teaching the Junior firefighters and pulling his over-night duty there...we hardly get to see him. Did I mention the hour drive he has from our house to work each way...shew!
I recently started a new position as the teacher for the 1 year old classroom for Mom's Day Out at First Baptist. Mya gets to be in my class, I am ecstatic about this! What a blessing to combine my love of children, teaching, to be with my daughter and with my church friends. It isn't full time obviously, so there is still the need to find something that works with my husbands erratic schedule to help provide for our family.
I have been applying for over four months now for a variety of positions that I feel I am qualified for and it is tough times out there! Out of all the jobs (and it is a lot) I have applied for, only ONE had the decency to even acknowledge that I had applied for it. It was a very polite 'you are not a candidate' letter, but it was something.
I do have one resume packet out there that all my hopes and prayers are still on. I will tell you about it in another post. It is unusual, but delightfully right up my alley! I would be able to have my daughter with me most of the time and we would be 10 minutes from my parents and my grandmother. I know that God is in control of all things and His timing is perfect. I am confident it will all work out how it is supposed to because my prayer has been for His will to be done. He will close the doors on the positions I have applied for that I am not supposed to have and He will make a way for the one that I am to accept...in His perfect time.

Easy Peach Cobbler

2011-08-11T04:00:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to make a peach cobbler for awhile now and couldn't decide which recipe to use. The past couple of times I have made one, it just didn't taste as fabulous as I thought it should have. After searching several recipes, I decided to try this recipe that I found on myrecipes.com that originally came from Southern Living. It turned out better than I could have hoped for! It may be the best cobbler I have ever had and I have been a tasting judge for many of contest. It was simple and I had all the ingredients already. The breading was perfect, not too doughy or dry. My husband declared it a definite do over! He wants to try the recipe with apples next.

I used the recipe exactly the way it reads, but I noticed afterwards in the comments that several made it with half the sugar. (1/2 cup for the dry mixture and 1/2 cup for the peach mixture) I do think I will try that next time to see if it compromises the taste too much.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

Easy Peach Cobbler

Photo: Tina Cornett

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
4 cups fresh peach slices
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Preparation

Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).
Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.
Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool.

Southern Living
JUNE 1997

Keeping Berries Beautiful Longer

2011-08-09T02:01:00.000-04:00

foodlushblog.com

TIP FOR KEEPING BERRIES FROM GOING MOLDY!!
When you get your berries home, prepare a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider probably work best) and ten parts water. Dump the berries into the mixture and swirl around. Drain, rinse if you want (though the mixture is so diluted I find you can't taste the vinegar,) and pop in the fridge. The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit, and voila! Raspberries will last a week or more, and strawberries go almost two weeks without getting moldy and soft.

I Choose to be Positive

2011-08-06T02:52:00.000-04:00

Things I Love found on DaySpring.com

2011-07-02T01:18:00.000-04:00

Redeemed

Scripture Reference:
I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
Isaiah 43:1

By Grace Alone

Scripture Reference:
By the grace of God, I am what I am.
I Corinthians 15:10

DaySpring offers Exclusive Jewelry by Lisa Leonard at DaySpring.com

To find out more about Lisa Leonard visit www.lisaleonardonline.com.

Guilty Pleasures

2011-07-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

I have been craving chocolate all.day.long. Everything I have ate today has just not satisfied my craving, not even being aware of what that craving even was. But, as I was organizing the baked goods cabinet...there it was!
A bag of Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Dips. Yum!
I can only find these around the Christmas holiday and tend to buy a bag of each flavor each time I go to Wal-mart or the grocery store. My favorite is the Hershey Dark Chocolate, but still love the Hershey Milk Chocolate and the White Chocolate ones too. I found this to be a HOT topic to debate this past holiday season...Which is your favorite?
I am still not sure how this lovely little bag of chocolate covered pretzels got lost, but I am so appreciative that it happened. It is after midnight and I don't have to share this bliss with anyone. I don't feel guilty, I wouldn't dare wake anyone for anything so frivolous as this. It isn't my fault that they only make them in a itty bitty 7oz bag and my craving is stronger than that for sure. I have no idea why they only are available around the Christmas season, but I will go ahead and celebrate July 4th with this bag...and my honey's birthday since it past midnight it is officially here. Bless his heart, he is still at work on his 24 hour shift and won't be home until later in the morning. I can't promise that they will last that long, so I will have to bake him a cake instead...which is why I was digging/organizing the cabinet in the first place.
This craving has officially been satisfied. *smile*
I wonder how well these freeze so I can make them last through out the year when I stock up again this fall? Hum?

My Love for my New Garden Gloves

2011-06-30T16:08:00.001-04:00

I am in love with my new garden gloves! Is that possible??? Yes! I love them! They were a little more than the average garden gloves, but they are worth it. We purchased them at Evergreen in Colonial Heights for $7.99 each pair.When they claim to 'fit like a glove'...they absolutely do. I can feel what I am doing when I work in the yard now. I have always just borrowed my dad's bulky gloves or had ones that were too thin with a lack of protection. These Atlas Glove's Nitrile Touch are fabulous and do fit like a second skin. They are made with a tough Nitrile coating and breathable Nylon lining. While being tough, they are soft, flexible,comfortable, knit without seams, extremely durable, and machine washable. What more could you want from garden gloves? I appreciate the grip that they have as well. I chose the purple ones and my sweet 86 year old grandmother got the pink pair. We will be weeding in durable fashion!
I am not doing a review of this product, I simply like to shout it to the world when I find something that I love and is useful. All opinions are my own and my Nan Nan's. *smile*

Kick-Off Summer with Frozen Lemonade Cupcakes

2011-06-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

Posted by thenaptimechef

My mom loves lemon flavored desserts, so when I saw this on Babble I thought I have to try it for sure. It sounds clean and fresh for summer, but the butter cream icing is what really sold me. I love recipes that call for a cake mix, it makes it easy. This recipe is extra easy with it calling for a frozen lemonade concentrate, you could use yellow or pink lemonade.

Frozen Lemonade Cupcakes
Adapted from Wilton
1 (9 oz) can frozen Lemonade Concentrate, thawed
White cake mix
3 egg whites
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Buttercream Icing
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoons lemon juice
food coloring (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. In an electric mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, and lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for about 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for 90 seconds. It is okay if the batter is still lumpy.
3. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and spray each liner with some non-stick spray. Fill each cup about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before icing.
4. To make the icing, cream the butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt and lemon juice in a stand mixer until completely combined. Add a few drops of food coloring if desired. Beat the icing again until light and fluffy. Spread on the tops of the cupcakes and serve.

Reflecting on a Fabulous Weekend

2011-06-01T14:45:00.006-04:00

Well, I ended my fabulous holiday weekend with being sick. I was so aggravated! It didn't happen until Sunday night, so only Monday was a wash...only I'm still sick. I ended up with strep throat and it doesn't go away on its own, so I should start to turn around now that I dealt with it instead of waiting to see if it would just go away. Mommies aren't supposed to get sick!

What this down time has done for me is let me reflect on all the wonderful times we crammed in this weekend. My work-a-holic husband took the entire four day weekend off and we had my step-son with us the whole time, that never happens! It was wonderful! Michael cooked several amazing meals, he loves to cook and I don't deny him of the privilege. We love his cooking, especially on the grill! The chicken and steak kabobs were fabulous on the grill and then he did hamburgers and hot dogs. He made breakfast every morning, but his buttermilk pancakes are what stand out the most. YUM! We were at our pool a lot through out the weekend and it was so nice, not too hot. Saturday we took off to Dollywood to surprise Christopher and it worked, he was so excited. He got to ride his first roller coaster and his first train, his favorite was the water rides...the wetter he got the more he liked it. Mya was too little for the majority of the rides, so she and I enjoyed strolling around the park laughing at the boys and taking pictures. On our drive home that night we saw Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson tribute singing in a parking lot in Pigeon Forge and right down from there was Elvis himself dressed it the full white stand up collar singing in another parking lot with a crowd around him. And I ain't even kidding! Just when you think you've see it all.

Chicken and Steak Kabobs

Christopher helping flip daddy's buttermilk pancakes

The Happy Campers

Mya's view of Dollywood

We got to have our neighbors over for a cookout and we made s'mores over the copper fire pit, it was so much fun. Kim had her first s'more at age 42, she can mark that off her bucket list now. We got to telling stories and laughing, somehow we got the kids scared of the dark while they were catching fire flies. We didn't really tell scary stories, just of the crazy storms we have been having lately. Even the adults were wishing we had left more lights on. We got to go to some friends house to do more swimming, cooking out and had homemade ice cream. I'll have to get Ben to share that recipe for sure!

It was a grand holiday weekend, I just need a vacation to rest up from it now.

Favorite Memories of Cooking Out

2011-05-29T12:59:00.001-04:00

I just entered for the Bush Bean's Grilling Set at Wenderly's blog. All I had to do was answer the question of what my favorite memory of grilling out was.

My very favorite memories of cooking out is my dad pitching the tent in our backyard for it to dry out after a camping trip we had just returned from. My parents would let me invite my friends over to have our own backyard slumber party. They would have a bonfire to let us roast our own hot dogs and s'mores. Life was simple then. I look forward to enjoying these same summer time events with our children.

I can smell the wood burning now and imagine the gooey marshmallow melting the Hershey chocolate...we may be headed to Food City after the pool today.

Happy Memorial Day y'all!

A Fun Memorial Day Treat

2011-05-27T21:02:00.009-04:00

I have always loved the idea of gifts in a jar, what a great presentation for a homemade gift. Here is an idea from Babble of just serving dessert in a jar for a festive table decoration too. You could also do the angle food cake layered with pudding and berries in a jar to be patriotic and healthier.
Babble has a custom-made treat just for the Memorial Day weekend.
While many cakes can be baked in jars, this one is baked in a large pan then crumbled into place in mason jars, thus allowing the final product to look as bright, colorful, and perfectly layered as the photo you see above.

Cake-In-A-Jar

1 white cake mix
1 tub vanilla frosting
red and blue food coloring

Mix cake mix according to package directions. Separate 1 1/2 cups of the cake mix into a separate bowl. Tint on of the bowls bright red and one bright blue with your food coloring. Pour each batter into it’s own greased 8″ round pan and bake according to package directions. Cool cakes completely.
To assemble jars, crumble cake into large pieces. Fill the bottom 1/3 of the jar with blue cake. Top with a thin layer of frosting. Add a layer of crumbled red cake on top of that, then finish off your jars with a final layer of frosting. Add sprinkles, if desired.
Twist caps onto the top of your jars. Store at room temperature for up to 24 hours, and in the fridge for up to three days. Because you aren’t sealing the cakes into the jars, this treat is best when not mailed via snail mail.
Makes 3 medium-sized cakes-in-jars (shown in picture) or 6 small, cupcake-sized cakes-in-jars.

Be safe this holiday and have fun sharing good food with family and friends!

A Family Recipe Was the Answer All Along

2011-05-16T01:16:00.003-04:00

I have tried several meatball recipes in hopes of freezing them in meal portions to make life easier when I return to work. I was disappointed with failed attempts, so I decided to try my grandmothers recipe for meatloaf that we love. BINGO! Why didn't I think of that first? Nothing was wrong with the other attempt, its just I don't like my meatloaf too dense or dry. My grandmother's recipe is moisten with tomato sauce instead of milk and the cornbread adds a just the right flavor instead of bread crumbs, crackers, etc.

Mamaw's Meatloaf/Meatballs
2lbs hamburger
2 eggs
1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
1 medium green pepper (chopped)
1/2 skillet of cornbread (mom always used the Jiffy box, so do I...turns out great every time)
8oz of tomato sauce (1/2 of a 16oz can, so you can use the other 1/2 for the topping)

In a large bowl, mix hamburger, eggs, onion, green pepper with finely crumbled cornbread until everything is mixed well.
For meatballs: shape into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
For meatloaf muffin cups: press mixture into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
For mini loaves: shape mixture into small loaves and place in a casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
For a large loaf: shape mixture in a loaf in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.
*I shape the loaves that the sides are showing and not touching the dish, so that when basting the sauce on it will have more surface area for it to stick to. We love lots of sauce, so much we usually double the recipe*

Sauce for topping the Meatloaf
8 oz of tomato sauce (the other 1/2 of the can)
3oz of brown sugar
3 oz of mustard
3 oz of apple cider vinegar
Baste sauce onto loaf until completely covered about 15 minutes before it is done baking.

Enjoy!

I will add pictures later...

I will praise You in this storm

2011-04-28T15:35:00.000-04:00

Last night Mya and I had a camp out in our living room/den. Sounds fun right? Well, Michael was working his 24 hr shift for EMS and we were under severe tornado warnings, so it was out of necessity to be on the lower level. I gather supplies for baby girl and myself: food, water, candles, flashlight/batteries, etc. I slept on the couch and I pulled Mya's pack n play away from the french doors for her to sleep in. I wasn't too nervous, just trying to be proactive...just in case.
Michael texted me at 5 something this morning letting me know he was out in Camp Creek doing search and rescue for the tornado that hit there last night about 10pm. What??? That is only 20 mins away from our house. I had no idea! I had went to sleep peacefully (except for the most uncomfortable couch ever, so I ended up on the floor) and had no clue of the devastation around me. He said they had found 9 bodies and 105 were still unaccounted for. He was cold and wet, had been working all night in pitch dark to find survivors.
I laid there in the floor in disbelief and concern, then I started thanking Him. I thanked Him for keeping us safe, our home he has provided, and all the many other blessing in my life. I thanked Him for my husband to have the passion and ability to do the kind of selfless work that he does everyday.
I was taken back by how many friends of ours checked on us that heard about it. I never want to take what He has blessed me with for granted. My heart aches for those who lost loved ones and their homes. We will continue to pray for them and the community. I realize when I get down and think of how unsure things are in our lives that many have it much worse than us. I missed the birds singing today, the quietness seems eerie.
Thank you to all the emergency workers and volunteers that are in the rubble right now helping.

I choose to praise Him in this storm.

A Work in Progress

2011-04-27T04:08:00.000-04:00

As I have been spring cleaning lately, it seems I make a bigger mess at times. I have tried to consolidate and organize all my projects and materials along the way, but it is a work in progress. I have ventured up into the attic to survey all my treasures that my dear husband (dh) doesn't appreciate the same way I do. What I call Shabby Chic, he calls old and dilapidated. It has been fun to rediscover things I had forgotten about once life got more complicated.
I have been mindful of childproofing during this time and it makes me sad to retire (temporarily) some of my favorite pieces of decor. Safety is far more important of coarse, as Mya learns to walk. Her clothes are hard enough to keep up with since babies grow so fast that first year. I think we have done a good job of not going overboard with toys, stuffed animals and movies for the kids...yet! lol
I have been filing recipes, with good intentions of making most of them in my lifetime. It is amazing all the napkins and small scraps of paper I have found that I documented my important ideas on. Pieced together, all the notes to self are like a mosaic of my life that I could journal. From the trail of paper, one can see that my mind is always actively dreaming up ideas to try or songs to download, etc. I hope that once I do get organized I can stay on top of it, it seems that being organized will always be something I strive for.