Since it’s Fathers Day weekend and Mickey loves blueberries, I decided to make him some blueberry muffins today. In looking through Wondertime magazine recently, I noticed a recipe which is appropriately called “The Best Blueberry Muffins.” That’s the recipe I used today and - WOW - they’re right…these are the best!! I halved the recipe to only make 12 muffins, but I think next time I’ll go all out and make the whole recipe because these are great just to have on hand or in the freezer for later. YUM! Try them, I know you’ll like them too!!

The Best Blueberry Muffins
From Wondertime magazine

Makes 24

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
16 ounces sour cream
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)
2 tablespoons sugar

Heat oven to 375.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with muffin-cup liners. This recipe won’t work without them. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with sour cream until thoroughly combined. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt together butter and brown sugar, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then beat this mixture into egg mixture. Stir in oats.

Fold in flour mixture and then — very gently — fold in berries. Fill muffin cups about three-quarters full. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar onto the top of each muffin.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until edges are medium brown and tops are firm.

Cool for 5 minutes, then remove muffins (in their papers) and finish cooling on rack.

As I stated in yesterday’s post, Macey is going to afternoon VBS at our church this week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the kids are encouraged to bring in various donated items for several charitable organizations in our area. On Tuesday they brought in hygiene products, Wednesday was non-perishable grocery goods and today is baby related items. Well, if you’ve ever read my blog or know me, you know I love a bargain. I definitely wanted to send Macey in with donations every day because this is a great way for her to learn about giving to others, etc. So, I clipped coupons, shopped sales and went to a wholesale club for our donated items. Check this out…

For right around $30, these are the items we donated this week:

3 tubes of toothpaste
3 toothbrushes (2 of them were in with the toothpaste tubes)
1 bottle of men’s hair and body wash
2 regular size bottles of shampoo
3 cans spaghetti sauce
2 boxes spaghetti noodles
1 bag rice
2 bags instant mashed potatoes
1 big box that contained several packages of baby wipes

Isn’t that cool?! Please understand that I am not posting this to brag in any way about our giving. Not at all. What I want to show is that giving can be done on any budget. There is so much good that can be done without breaking the bank. Clipping and using coupons plus shopping sales is a great way to make grocery dollars go a longer way. Shopping wholesale clubs is a great way to stock up on various items that are commonly used around the house as well. Remember, too, that there are always organizations that could use donations. If you ever run across great deals and you feel like donating, there is always a need. You don’t have to have big bucks to do good things, just a big heart. We can all do something and I feel blessed that we have been able to help in some small way through VBS this week.

I don’t know who originated the phrase about the “lazy days of summer”, but I’m guessing they didn’t have young children. Summer is here and it’s anything but lazy. It’s GO time. We GO to the pool…GO to VBS…GO shopping…GO to the park…GO out to play…GO to the zoo…GO GO GO!!  And, honestly, it’s wonderful. We are enjoying summer so much already and it’s only just begun.

Around here, we tend to have our mornings at home and then the afternoons turn busy. But, that is all subject to whatever plans come up, of course. This week Macey has Beach Party VBS at our church from 12:30-3:30 each afternoon, so the house is really still and quiet during that time because Mariana also naps. That’s when I try to catch some Mama time if possible. Macey is loving VBS and it’s been such a blessing to hear her come home singing the songs, telling us about her day, etc. She’ll be going to the morning session in July and I’ll be teaching her class, so that will be fun too. Mariana’s not quite old enough for VBS yet, so she’ll go to the nursery and have her fun there.

It’s been HOT here lately too. That makes for great pool days. The pool water is really pretty perfect right now. We enjoy going down there as much as we can since it’s so near to our home.

I need to find time to blog because I want to keep this site active and alive. Please bear with me as I try to find time to blog in these crazy fun days of summer.

Blessings,
Kelly

Calm, Cool & Adjusted, Spa Girls Series #3 By Kristin Billerbeck / Thomas Nelson Best friends since Johnny Depp wore scissors for hands, “The Spa Girls” live very separate lives, but stay in touch with routine visits to California’s Spa Del Mar. The third novel in the Spa Girls Series focuses on Silicon Valley chiropractor Poppy Clayton, who is as calm, cool and adjusted as they come. ..Or is she? Known for her bad fashion sense, a love for all things natural and the inability to get a second date, Poppy is beginning to wonder if she might be misaligned herself. Her route to self discovery will be an unnatural one–a plastic surgeon, a house in Santa Cruz and a wedding date from the dark side. It’s all enough to send a girland her gal palsrunning for the spa.

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Kelly’s Review

This is the third and final installment in Kristin Billerbeck’s Spa Girls series. I enjoyed the first two books in the series and looked forward to reading this one and getting to know more about Poppy, the lead character in this novel. Throughout the first two novels, I had become intrigued with Poppy’s character , but this novel came up short for me. I wanted to like it more than I did.

Cool, Calm and Adjusted felt rushed to me. It seemed to me that this was the last book in the series, so Poppy’s story was rushed. At least once in the novel I found editorial mistakes regarding the characters where one character was referred to, but it was supposed to have been another character that was named. Poppy’s character development was okay for me, but not superb. I would like to have known more. Towards the end of the novel she comes to terms with a deep-seeded family issue from her past and I would have liked to have seen her deal with that in more depth. I would have also like to have seen her love interests developed better. Like I said, it just all seemed rushed to me.

That being said, it was a decent read. Not as great as the first two, but I’d still rather read a piece of Christian fiction like this than most secular works any day. It wasn’t the best book of the series and I felt that quite a few details were left untold. It leaves me somewhat wishing that there will be a next installment in this series, but if there is I hope it steps back up to the original quality I found in the first two novels of the Spa Girls series.
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Spa Girls Series, Vols 1-3 By Kristin Billerbeck / Thomas Nelson

Donna, whose blog can be found at Wedowee Words, is the winner of my Book Giveaway!!

Donna will receive a copy of The Shack compliments of Follow Faithfully!!

Congrats, Donna!!!