On June 18, we finally laid
your sweet body to rest.
It was so special, Sarah.
All of your Great-Grandmas
and the one Great-Grandpa who isn’t already in heaven with you, they all
came. They all came to say goodbye.
So did your Grandma and
Grandpa, your Nana and Papa, your Uncles. And of course me and Daddy and your
brothers.
Sarah, you were so
loved. Only a couple of us got to hold
you and you were already gone by then.
Only I got to feel you move,
when you were still within me.
We all miss you so much. Especially your big brothers. They’re so young and it’s so confusing to
them.
Spud, he’s three, he doesn’t
understand. He asked if we were going to
take you from heaven so we could bury you.
Still, a week later, he’s confused.
He doesn’t understand how your body can be here, but your soul with out
heavenly Father. No three year old should have to go through this.
Dude is doing better. He was a pallbearer at your burial, along
with your uncles. He was so proud to
help and to carry you, just once. He’s
only six, but he understands a bit more.
Thank God for Catholic school.
Even so, he broke down into tears today, because he misses you so much.
I know you know all this
Sarah, because you’re watching out for us.
I know because of my faith and because you gave me the most beautiful
sign.
My peony, with its hundreds
of buds was on the cusp of blooming for days, but none opened. That is, until the day of your burial. That morning, one, just one bud opened. Thank you Sarah, it was such a beautiful
gift.
I cut that first bloom and it
was the first flower that was laid on your tiny little coffin. Did you know it’s barely larger than a show
box? I think my boots came in a larger box,
Sarah.
I was at a Pampered Chef
party over the winter and the consultant made the most delicious linguini
dish. It was probably all the bacon,
because bacon makes everything wonderful.
I knew I wanted to make the
same dish for my family, but I really wanted to amp it up as a main dish, so I
added chicken.
This is a new favorite in our
house! It’s delicious, easy, and only
dirties one pot!! Yum!
But before I get to the
yumminess, let me tell you about the blog!
This month, I was assigned
Shelley’s blog, C Mom Cook! Shelley is a
stay at home mom of two little kiddos.
Her goal is to share her love of food and cooking with her children. Shelley also has many great dairy-free recipes, including the S’mores Cupcakes below (I adapted the recipe using
dairy, since I didn’t have the dairy free ingredients on hand, but for a
wonderful DF cupcake – check out the original!)
Let’s get back to those
cupcakes, shall we?
I chose S’more Cupcakes
because they just scream summer!! I just
love S’mores! I have even made (and
shared) a s’mores cupcake in the past, but that one was made from pre-made or
boxed ingredients. This one is 100% from
scratch! Even the marshmallow topping!
They. Were. Phenomenal!
If you’re going to take the
time to make a s’mores cupcake, take the time to make it from scratch – you
won’t regret it!
You know that moment when you
walk into a restaurant and you have every intention of being strong and
ordering a salad or something off the “lite” menu, but then something amazing
and fattening catches your eyes and you MUST HAVE IT!
Then you eat like a
barbarian, barely breathing between bites, and every at your table pretends
like they don’t know you and everyone at the surrounding tables stare with
their mouths gaping open at your savagery and the waiter is all like “Oh the
humanity!”
Ok, well, it might now have
been quite that bad, but I did lack the willpower and I’m pretty sure I had the
thing eaten in no time flat.
Things have been so crazy
& hectic, that I had to give Angel Wings a little break.
First was Dude’s last week of
Kindergarten. My oldest growing up,
coupled with being sick AND two huge cake orders made for one tired and grumpy
and a little heavy hearted lady.
Then, last week, it was all
fun in the sun and more cakes!!
But now I’m back and God has given me such a beautiful gift in that time.
This year has been one of
great loss. I miss our daughter every
day. But this year, God blessed us with
an unexpected sign of life.
A nest!
Hi Mama Bird!
After losing our sweet Sarah
Catherine, this nest of eggs was truly a blessing and a gift.
After watching Mama bird on
the nest for a week or maybe two and being careful not to scare her too much
(if you can’t tell from the pictures, she built her nest low, on top of a hose
caddy that's mounted to the house – we didn’t use that hose, but it was by a main
walkway to our backyard), we had three babies!!
At first we just saw some
little beaks. But every once in a while,
a little head would pop out of the nest looking for Mama.
At this time, the Mama bird
in me came out as we were diving bombed by who I can only assume was Daddy bird
every time we came within 10 feet of the nest.
Yikes! Thankfully, I was the one
who got buzzed the most and it was only ever a flap of wings near my hair. Still spooky though.
After a weekend out of town
(can I tell you how hard it was to leave “my” babies?) the babies had grown
much bigger and opened their eyes!
And grew their adult feathers.
Here’s my last picture of the
siblings together, because shortly after this, one at a time, they began to
leave the nest.
Here’s the last baby. I spooked him with my camera.
He stepped out of the nest.
And flew away.
I feel so very blessed and so
happy that I was able to watch this little family, if it was only for a little
under 2 weeks. It reminds me that life
goes on. And there is still such joy.
I also felt it was so special
that I got to see the last baby leave the nest.
Baby #3, just like our Sarah Catherine.
Hubs was at work and the boys
were in the house and it’s like that moment was meant especially for me.
It’s also so incredibly
fitting that the communion song at church last weekend was another one of my
favorites, “Fly Like a Bird”
Awhile back, I made some
delicious bourbon cherries for a SRC assignment. As much as I loved sneaking bourbon cherries
out of the fridge in the middle of the day…I mean…what?
Right, so I felt like I
should probably cook something with those cherries so I wasn’t the drunken mom
at kindergarten pick up!
I thought about making a pie,
but Hubs isn’t huge on cherry pie and I wasn’t about to eat and entire pie all
by myself.
So, knowing that fruity sauces
go beautifully with pork chops, I decided to make a cherry bourbon sauce for
pork chops.
Need I say more? It was delicious. And oh so highly recommended. Plus then you’ll have an excuse to sneak some
bourbon cherries!
