Marie's Sunday Six

Welcome to my Sunday Six Smile Makers Post. I just love Sundays. Sundays is the day we get to go to church and renew our covenants with the Lord and Sundays is the day I get to share all mt blessings with each of you!! From where I'm sitting this is a win/win situation. I hope you think so too! This week I thought I would tell you about six things around my house that bring a smile to my face!



Its not a mansion in the sky, nor a cottage tucked away in the countryside. It's only a pokey little terraced house on a Housing Estate, but my home makes me smile. It is a reminder to me of miracles and the goodness of my Heavenly Father. 7 months ago when I lost my job and we lost our home we had no idea of what we were going to do, or where we were going to go. As always, Heavenly Father provided for us and led us here. We were so blessed that this house was available and empty just at the time we needed it. God is good and faithful. Being able to live here reminds me of that goodness daily.



He's not Brad Pitt, and then again, I'm no Angelina Jolie . . . but he's my Mr Darcy and I'm his Elizabeth Bennet. I love this special man so very much. Each day I am busy living my Happily Ever After with him. I waited almost a lifetime to find this special man and every day together brings a smile to my face and my heart. No, we do not always get along. We are human, afterall . . . we have the odd argument or disagreement. He makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes, and I know I make him want to pull his out at times as well (especially when I am telling him how to drive!) . . . but all in all, he is a special blessing in my life and I am so thankful for his presence in it. Just when I had given up hope of ever finding anyone that was worthy of spending my life with . . . he showed up. No, it was not on a white charger . . . but he did rescue me from having to spend my life alone. Each day he brings me joy. I love him and he loves me. That makes me smile.



Our bedroom makes me smile. We don't have anything fancy like a four poster bed and mahogany furniture. We have white furniture from Ikea that we built together, and it is ours . . . all ours. In our last home almost all the furniture we had belonged to someone else, including the bed. Finally we have a bed to call our own and furniture to call our own and we had the pleasure of having built most of it ourselves. I know Todd might not think so . . . and I was a bit of a pain in the arse when we were building it (my pedantic side showed really strongly, but then again, being organized helped the process to go a lot smoother), but I have some very fond memories of us building it and working together. My ex husband was never easy to work with. He used to curse and swear and shout his way through everything. Doing anything with him was a nightmare. Todd is the exact opposite. Very calm and gentle. He does not get fluffed or curse and swear. Doing things with him is a joy in comparison and that makes me smile.



It's small and it's puny but my stove does make me smile. I fell in love with it's little gold knobs and handles and that sweet little grill over top as soon as I saw it. It's days are numbered however . . . as the oven is really much too small for what I need . . . but until I am able to afford one the proper size this little stove does make me smile. If it only had a larger oven I would be happy to live with it the rest of my days . . . truly I would!



Having my very own craft/sewing/painting room makes me smile. I have always wanted to have my own craft room and now I do. It is not large and I could use a lot more storage space but what a blessing it is to have a room all my own where I can go and create to my hearts content! It truly makes me smile!



This little lady makes me smile from the minute I see her in the morning until the minute I go to bed at night. Her little personalty shows through more and more each day that passes. She is a moxy little dear and so very happy. Full of life and energy, with so much love to give I could quite happily just sit and watch her and play with her all the day through. When we lost Jess I didn't think that I could ever bear having another dog in my life . . . my heart ached so, and it still does. Jess was a very special animal and a friend. We loved her so. Mitzie is a reminder again of God's goodness and love, and has taught us that our hearts are big enough to hold more than one special animal and friend. We are making new memories with her and growing with her as well. It is a real treat to have a puppy around. Neither one of us had ever had a puppy before, so we are learning too! We are so very blessed!

And there you have it, my Sunday Six for this week! I hope that some of them brought a smile to your face too!

When I was home to my mom's in July I spent some time going through some of her old recipes that she had clipped and written out and collected through the years. I always spend some time doing that. There are real treasures in that old book of hers. I was very excited to find this recipe. It is her pancake recipe and is very good. It was clipped from the old Star Weekly magazine, which was pretty much a Canadian Institution back in the 1960's. Delivered to the door once a week it was filled with articles and recipes etc. These are the pancakes I grew up with! It's a good, solid, basic pancake recipe. No surprises here, just plain old fashioned goodness.



*Sweet Milk Pancakes*
Serves 3 to 4
Printable Recipe

Nice fluffy and delicious pancakes. A good all rounder. See below for some other variations.

1 1/4 cup sifted flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 TBS sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup sweet milk (I think this just means not sour)
3 TBS butter, melted

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl. Whisk together. Whisk the egg, milk and butter together in a beaker. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and whisk together quickly until smooth.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Brush with a bit of oil. Scooping out 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, drop each measure into the heated and greased skillet and cook without disturbing until the surface of each pancake is covered with little bubbles. Turn over with an egg flipper and brown on the other side. Keep warm in a very slow oven whilst you cook the remaining pancakes in the same way. Serve hot with butter for spreading and some maple syrup, or pancake syrup, or golden syrup, or even molasses!



Variations:
Apple - Add 1 large apple, peeled and thinly sliced.

Banana - Add 1 large banana, peeled and thinly sliced

Blueberry - Add 3/4 cup of blueberries. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.



In The English Kitchen today is a good old fashioned Rice Pudding. Delicious!