MEMORIES OF SUMMERS PAST
Donna remembers...Summer FreedomSummers were always too short when I was a kid. As school time got closer in August, I would get sad. No more long lazy days. No more freedom to do whatever took my fancy. No more time to read what I like and not my school assignments. After I got out of college, then started working, summers didn’t stand out as much. Another day at work is just another day at work, only hotter during the summer. I have always missed having those (In my time) almost three months off. Employers just don’t let you do that. The end of summer was also marked by the state or county fairs. I enjoyed going to both. We didn’t go every year, but I always wandered through the various events including the 4H ones. I had cousins who entered their projects and won ribbons. Those were simpler days to me, and I made a lot of good memories. I hope your summer was full of family, good friends and great memories. | ||||
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Bernadette's weekends and...The Potato Salad BowlGrowing up my dad loved to fish. We were living in Nebraska at the time, so when he got off work on Friday we would pack-up the old station wagon, three coolers, the little grill, and head up to the dam in Yankton. We’d camp on the shore and fish all weekend. I had an older brother who would scout out the girls at the park, and my baby brother who would stay close to me. I remember laying on the bank at night, the stars were so bright and clear and I would spin tales in my head and dream. I was responsible for getting the food together and making the potato salad we always took. Dad had this big yellow bowl that we used for everything: casseroles in the oven (his famous tuna and noodles) homemade bread set to rise. The bowl would be full of potato salad. The kind with potatoes, salad onions, eggs, mustard and mayonnaise (never miracle whip!). I still have that bowl. Now it’s filled with memories. | ||||
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Cheryl loved those...
Hot and Lazy Days at Home
When my four kids were young, summer was my favorite season, and I looked forward to it. Weeks and weeks of a break from getting them up early for school, keeping track of lunch accounts and gym clothes, finding homework, and adhering to a schedule. When summer arrived, the kids and I could sleep in a little later, enjoy lazy mornings, go to the park with friends, visit the library and read on the porch in the afternoons.
My children jumped and splashed in our pool in the sun, attracting the neighborhood kids while I read on the deck. I used to re-read The Stand every summer. We picnicked in the shade in our backyard, wearing wet bathing suits and towels. There were always swim suits and towels on our clothesline. Often we ate a cold supper or grilled hamburgers. They played outside until dusk and then came in for baths. Even as teenagers they had their friends over for sleepovers, pool time, and lots of late movie nights.
We have plenty of photos of us at Adventureland, on trips to stay with grandparents and cousins, camping near lakes and fishing, which were all great times we shared--but when I think of summer, it's those hot lazy days at home with my kids that I remember most fondly.
(This photo is my mom, nephew, and daughter Kristin.)
*lizzie knew when it's summer...The Cousins are Coming!Until I started school, my mom and I lived with my grandparents in a big old farmhouse. Grampa worked for the soil conservation service and did some farming on the side. But I returned there every summer (until Grampa's position changed and he moved to town). And that meant all the cousins would be there, too. We had so much fun walking down to the cow pond to wade (that makes me shudder now...), playing horses on the roof of a low barn, seeing how many of us could fit on the poor patient horse, Cyclops, and pretending to be adventurers on a road grader boat. We had circuses and put on made up plays on the wide front porch. A couple of times we even charged admission to our events. This photo is of all the cousins except my sister. She was only a few months old. Which cousin is me? I'm standing right behind my baby bro--the littlest one there. | ||||
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I’ve been testing pound cakes. I’m actually a Bundt cake fanatic, so this is a side road for me. I made a 10 egg pound cake for Easter, and it was huge! Thankfully there was family to take slices home. This one is more manageable.
KEY LIME POUND CAKE
1 ½ cup (3 sticks) butter, softened
1 (8-oz) block cream cheese
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
3 Tbsp lime juice (I get Rose’s in the liquor dept)
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
pinch of Celtic sea salt
zest of 1 lime
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine butter and cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy. Mix in sugar, then gradually add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low until combined.
Mix in lime juice, then add flour.
Fold in lime zest.
Grease and flour a Bundt pan or 4 mini loaf pans and pour in cake batter until each one is about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
Bundt pan takes about 70 minutes
Mini-loaves take about 45 minutes.
Cool on rack for 15 minutes and turn out onto cake plate.
Glaze:
1 tsp lime juice
2 Tbsp water
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
zest of 1 lime
Whisk together powdered sugar, lime juice, water and vanilla. If the glaze is too thick, add extra water, about a teaspoon at a time. Drizzle over cooled pound cake. Sprinkle with lime zest.
WHERE TO FIND ME
Visit her on the web: http://www.cherylstjohn.net/
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Harlequin Special Releases
December 1, 2013
ASIN: B0092MTFTE
Charlie McGraw never should have bought the angel book for his precocious daughter. Because then Meredith wouldn't be convinced that getting a new mommy was as simple as having an "angel" sprinkle him with her "miracle dust." And she never would have believed the beautiful blond-haired woman who drove a truck called the "Silver Angel" was some treetop angel come to life.
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Love Inspired Historical 2-in-1
January 1, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0373829484
ASIN: B009NEEV1I
If Violet Kristofferson had known that her new employer was the town undertaker, she might never have come to Carson Springs as his cook. Yet she needs a fresh start away from scandal. And Ben Charles’s unflinching faith could be her path to something truly precious—a new family.
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The Irish Brides trilogy was so much fun to work on, with authors Renee Ryan and Winnie Griggs. Our assignment was to tell the tales of three sisters coming to America to discover the secret of a mysterious inheritance. Follow them from Castleville, Ireland as they make their journey to Boston Harbor and the coastal village where they hope to unravel the mystery of the man who loved their mother. We enjoyed working together on this project, and our first glimpses of these covers took our breath away.
THE WEDDING JOURNEY
Flynn Gallagher may have his pick of ladies, but only one cares as he does for the sick and poor. Flynn vowed never to marry another woman who would break his heart. With Maeve, has his heart found safe harbor at last?
Free! Read the prequel to the Irish Brides trilogy
In 1850 Ireland, Darcy Keegan secretly plans to escape the drudgery of the prison where her father is warden to start a life elsewhere. Her plans are thwarted by a young boy who's been imprisoned and whom she can't bring herself to leave until she knows he will be safe.
Vaughn Donnelly has recently returned to Castleville to add a wing to the penitentiary, and is captivated by the young lass he observes in the prison yard. His job prevents him from staying, so love and marriage are out of the question--or are they? When he intervenes on behalf of a lad being mistreated, he wins the admiration of the Irish lass he admires.
Their shared concern for the laddie quickly turns into something more--read the entire FREE story on the Page Tab!
and talking about the Irish Brides, about writing, about heirlooms, about this and that.
Pink Heart Society http://pinkheartsociety.blogspot.com/
Calico Trails http://www.calicotrails.blogspot.com/
Novel Rocket http://www.novelrocket.com/
Petticoats and Pistols http://petticoatsandpistols.com/
Margaret Daley's Blog http://www.margaretdaley.com/margarets-blog/
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Any Pinterest junkies out there? Here are my boards: CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW ME
For a self-made man with political aspirations, love is trivial in a paper marriage. Nathan Lantry needs a wife to secure his election and manage his rowdy little boys. Yet he can't stop wanting more from his irresistible new bride. Then her secrets start to unravel….
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