Banana Nut Bread

Lately I had a hankering for banana nut bread! Yum! So I went to my handy dandy and most cherished cook book - Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, the red plaid cover. If you yourself have been fortunate enough to this book then you'll be even more delighted that you're just a few pages away from sheer joy. If you open to the Bread section, you'll notice the Favorite Banana Bread recipe on page 130. This is the recipe I used for my banana nut bread.

I realize that not everyone may have this cookbook so I'll share with you this particular recipe:
Prep Time: 25 minutes        Bake Time: 55 minutes
Oven Setting: 350 degrees Fahrenheit  
Makes: 1 loaf (16 slices)
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (5 medium)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cooking oil or melted butter or margarine



Lumpy Banana Nut Bread Batter

• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Steps:

1.  Preheat the over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan; set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs, mashed bananas, sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just enough until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan. (See photo)
3. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center come out clean (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning). Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on rack. Wrap, store overnight before slicing. 

Yeah I didn't follow that last part. As soon as it cooled down from the oven, I sliced and lathered on with butter a piece for me and a piece for my father-in-law. Wholly goodness. Yum. Try it!

Pets

Woodrow

Winnie

I promise I won't go on and on about how awesome my cats are, psh..it's not like I'm some crazy old lady surrounded by 'em or anything....but seriously how awesome are they?! I'm writing this post with the realization that 1) you may possibly hate cats 2) had a horrible experience with them and/or 3) had a bad experience with one at some point in your life and have allowed that one experience to ruin a possible infatuation for this animal. And let me admit, I am also a dog lover, we just don't happen to have one right now because my husband isn't overjoyed with the idea of having one so close to a busy road and I can't say I blame him. So what's the point I'm getting at? Well when I moved out on my own (before Adam and I got married) it was ooberly nice to have those felines around to keep me company and not freak out over every little noise that woke me up in the middle of the night. Not only did I feel a tiny bit safer, but I also enjoyed getting to know their personalities.Our three cats are Woodrow (as featured above to the left), Winnie (yes she actually climbed up and got up on that curtain all by herself!) and last but not least is Pippin, whom I don't have a recent picture of, but I have added a  ridiculous video of hi. He is the oldest of the three, this was taken this past summer when Adam and I noticed he had a strange inkling to get his paws on something smooth.... maybe he thought he was on a treadmill or something?! My favorite part is when he looks up at the very end!

It was an itsy bitsy thing called a virus...

Adam is was sick today yesterday. Like really sick. I will spare you the details as to what was going on with his body, but it's the first time he's truly been so sick, which meant, yep a visit to the doctor. The men in Adam's family, are pretty adamant about not going to the doctor, because it's frowned upon, like you're a wimp or something. Needless to say, when you're hovered over a trashcan or toilet and your body is wrenching from the pain, a visit to the doctor doesn't seem so bad.

Well obviously at this point Adam did concede and go to the doctor, and thankfully the nurse took a swab in his nose and discovered that the swab tested negative for the flu--praise God! She did however say that he does have a viral infection, she's just not sure which strand since our area alone has seen six different kinds over the past 6-8 weeks. And that the one she has seen most recently take people 4-6 days to get over, yikes! Thankfully, and boy do I mean thankfully, despite the fact that I work in the public school system, I have yet to get sick--knock on wood--and it's been a blessing! I will continue to keep good hygiene practices in my classroom and make sure that wherever you are, do the same. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly with warm/hot soapy water for 20-30s and sanitize anything that carries a higher risk of spreading germs!

Now did you really think I'd end this post without updating you on Adam's progress?! Adam's doing much better and his fever broke a couple of hours ago! He's keeping liquid and food down. He still feels weak and probably won't go in to work tomorrow, but praise the Lord he didn't suffer from dehydration and is well on his way to getting back to his old wonderful self!

Knock Knock

Knock knock! "Hi, it's me, Mr. Opportunity knocking at your door. Aren't you gonna open the door and let me in?"

Lately Adam and I have been discussing where God's leading us. We're not exactly sure. Due to our financial situation, it would be such a relief if I could get in a job in what the Southside Tobacco Forgivenss Loan considers to be "southside" Virginia. If we moved to one of the 24 localities it considers, then the money I borrowed against for three and a half years, to help pay for school, would be forgiven for the same amount of time put back into the system. It's really a great opportunity: borrow money from people who are willing to give it to you and then go back to help encourage and build up that region/area. However, due to the economy and budget cuts, schools aren't exactly hiring because teachers are staying put so they have an income, and I can't say I blame 'em! However.....

My experience at Charles City High School has been a bumpy ride. I've grown a lot and have learned ten times what I thought I knew. However, I'm ready for a change. I feel that my time here is coming to a close. I feel that God is leading Adam and I somewhere else. The only problem is, where? You see, Adam graduated from high school, but never enrolled in a college/university. He did enroll in an electrician apprenticeship but discovered that that was not for him. When I met him he had just left the apprenticeship and was offered a job at a local hardware store that paid him decently and offered benefits - no complaints there. When we married though, he moved to be with me and had to leave that job behind, which brings me to the present. After job hunting for 9 months, he finally got a job working for a small business...can you guess what in......yep! electricity! I thought, huh it's funny that this is the opportunity God brought to you.

I call electricity an opportunity because literally you are turning on the lights for people. Remember what Matthew 5:16 says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." What an opportunity it is that we get to serve the Lord, that He so loved us to go die on a cross and we can live out His precious will for our lives today?! Never ever take that opportunity for granted!

So to sum it all up, we're not sure where we're headed....maybe I'll be teaching in another district, maybe I won't. Maybe Adam will stay in electricity, or maybe he'll enroll in a college or serve his country in the AirForce....those are just some of the possibilities we're entertaining. Whatever we end up doing, we know it's because that's where God wants us to be, and He'll keep and place you right where you're meant to be, until knock knock, Mr. Opportunity is at your door!

Love: Relationships

Lately I have been discussing love. Now grant it is five days after Valentine's Day, but LOVE really does matter all year long. I realized that I had never written how Adam and I met. We met in the Fall of 2007 when Adam and his family came to visit Luke for his birthday at Bluefield College. Adam and his family were hanging out in one of the cottages and Luke asked me, Jennifer, and Hazel to come meet his family. Neither one of us remember much about that first meeting, other than the fact that we were playing games and had a good time.

It wasn't until graduation in May of 2008 that we saw each other again. There was a graduation party at the Clarke house and we first caught up there, but didn't really hang. It wasn't until after graduation that we went to Bellacino's together with some other people for lunch. After lunch Adam went back to Mathews and went back to the college because I was the summer RA for the girl's dorm that year.

Because Luke and I were such good friends we kept in touch via Facebook and AOL instant messenger. Throughout that summer (and the previous one) Luke kept asking me to come down to visit him and his family in Mathews. Well as the Lord would have it I was asked to go to YEC that summer in Richmond to help represent the school and speak last minute. After YEC ended Luke invited me, Jacob, and Marcus back to his house to hang out for the weekend.So of course we went! Our short weekend in Mathews was amazing! We rode the jet ski, met the grandparents, strolled around the farm, swam, sang hymns/played hymns on the piano, played lots of games and hung out on the dock.

After we left I went back to Bluefield with  Jacob and Marcus. However, a week later, Marcus was called back for an interview with Harmony Grove Baptist Church so I ended up tagging along for the ride and got to hang out with the Davis family for a few days. At the end of that trip Adam decided to come back with Marcus & I to Bluefield. He ended up posing as a college student for a little over a week and when he left to go back to Mathews he kept in touch with me and the rest is history!

I have left a lot of details out, but that is the long and short of it. Adam is an incredible man and I could not imagine my life without him! He truly is my better half and I love that he's the first person I see when I wake up in the mornings and the last I look at at night. He treats me the way every woman should be treated. I often look back and can't believe that God truly gave me the desires of my heart. He is so good and I do not deserve any of this, heck none of us do! So whether you're married, in a relationship, or single just remember to remain patient and know that His plan is better than any of us could plan or imagine and remember, all you need is love!

Love: Family

I apologize that this is a day late, and that tomorrow's post will be two day's late. It seems that Sunday got away from me, what with the Lord saying to rest on the seventh day and all. This week has been fairly busy as well, what with yesterday being Valentine's Day and today involving the end of a professional development class, a vet appointment, and running errands with Adam this evening.

However, despite my busyness, today, or rather this evening, I'd like to reflect on the blessing and love of a family. I cannot say that all have been blessed to have the amazing families that Adam and I have, but I can say that God has a purpose for each. For whatever reason, He allowed us to share the closest connection possible with these people that according to Webster's dictionary are (a) a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head and/or (b) a group of persons of common ancestry. I feel my own definition would read family--a group of people whose lives have been so woven as to share love, heartache, pain, joy, and fellowship. Yeah, that sounds about right.

None know us better than our families do. Families seem to make or break us. After all, they know the good and the bad. Families work through the good and bad. They remember to pick one another up and dust the dirt off our feet and clothes. Our families are usually the only group of people lucky enough to stand back and say yes, I'll walk through this life with you and am willing to share in the memories we'll make along the way. What better time than Valentine's Day (or the day after) to tell your loved ones what they mean to you?! So to my immediate, extended, and church family, I love you all dearly and I am grateful that God has orchestrated my life that I am blessed to know each of you.

Love: Friendship

When February rolls around we all think about Valentine's Day and love. Over the next few days I'd like to look at love from different angles. The first being that of friendship.  I have been truly blessed to have some of the best friends anyone could ask for. I hope to blog about each and every one of them as the year goes on. I simply decided to choose my friend Kelly whom I just got off the phone with about an hour ago.

I first met Kelly in the fall of 2005 when I started my freshman year at Bluefield College. She was the RHD of my dorm. I remember my father (being too friendly) and sharing the story of how he hurt his back (as well as proceeding to show her his scar--sorry Kel) and would she help us with whatever it was we were doing or putting together. And being Kelly, she jumped right in and offered to help. Kelly is the kind of friend that when you really need someone to be there for you, there she'll be. She's quick to offer advice and especially a listening ear.  She'll watch endless hours of a TV show on DVD just to catch you up, she'll let you wear her apron and run around shooting water guns at each other, she'll help you pull pranks on guys,she'll pray for you at a moment's notice, she'll forgive you for being late, she'll endure a bike ride session with a Jewish boy pushing you to your last ounce of patience, but she'll keep you encouraged and will live room for you if you're in the neighborhood. Kelly has truly been a light in my life and I am so thankful that God allowed her to be in mine.

So this Valentine's Day, remember to be thankful for the love of friendship and remember: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:13