A Father's Day Sunday Six

Welcome to my Sunday Six post for June 19th, 2011! Today we celebrate and honor all the Father's in our lives and I thought it would be quite appropriate to speak about six of the special dad's in my own life! Fatherhood is an eternal principle and these special men embody all that is wonderful about this very special calling!!!



First of all I honor and revere my Heavenly Father. He is very special to me and I know in my heart that I am very special to Him. I have always known that He was there, even if I have not always known that He cared about me and the things in my life. For many years I did not feel as if I was important enough for Him to care, or that my problems in life were important enough to matter to Him. The Gospel has taught me that I am one of His special Daughters, and that He loves and cares for me very much, so much so that even the hairs on my head are counted and known to Him. This earthly life is a beautiful gift from Him and will help me to return back into His presence one day, where I hope He will say to me, Well done my faithful daughter . . . I may not always please Him, but I know He loves me anyways, and that He knows that I am doing my best. He comforts me when I am sad, uplifts me when I am down and carries me when I think I can't walk any further. His love is not a crutch or a burden. It is empowering and gives me the freedom to be the very best that I can be. I love my Heavenly Father with all of my heart.



This is my Dad! I am told that I look just like him! (albeit a lot younger!) I love my Dad very much. It is from him that I got my great love of the written word. When I was a young child, we were inseparable. He took me everywhere with him and he read to me every night. I can still hear his voice reading my favourite stories to me in my head and it warms my heart. He has a wonderful sense of humour and is very easy going. I like to think that I inherited those same qualities from him. He always calls me the "Apple of his eye." For all I know, he calls my brother and sister that same thing, but it doesn't matter because when he says it to me, I feel like the only one! He has always been loyal to me and I know he is proud of me. That means everything to me. Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you with all of my heart!



He is not my dad. He is my husband, but he is the man I would have chosen to be the father of my children had I known him way back when. I wish so much that we could have had a family together. He is patient and kind and tender and true. He would have been a wonderful father to our children, and I just adore him. The Toddster is very special to me and he is a great stepfather to my children. They all love and respect him. He is the voice of reason to me when I am going a bit nuts. He is the yin to my yang!



This is not my dad either, but my eldest son, Anthony. He is a wonderful father to his children, Gabriel and Luke. He spends time with them and loves them with all of his heart. I am very proud of who he is and the man he has become. He may not always have agreed with my choices or actions in life, but he has always supported my right to choose and loved and respected me even when I have fallen flat on my face! He is very special to me.



This is my son Doug, with his wife Kayla and two of their sons, Jon and Josh, shortly after Josh was born. They have a third son now, Jacob, but I don't have a picture of them all together, not yet anyways. I will have to do some scooping around facebook I think!! Doug is my gentle giant. Soft spoken and kind. He is a wonderful father to his three lovely sons. He, too, spends a lot of time with his boys. These past six months or so he has been a stay at home dad, having taken Paternity leave to be with his boys. He is going back to work soon and I know he is going to miss them, and they are going to miss having him around! I love my son very much, as I love all my sons, and I am proud of who he has become and all that he is too!!



This is my son in law Tom. I could not have picked a better father for my only granddaughter or husband for my daughter Amanda. He is patient and kind and has always been very nice to me, and to my family. He is a Godly man, as are my two sons. I don't really know him all that well, but his actions and the way he treats my daughter and the way he has always been towards me have spoken volumes to me about the man that he is.



I don't know what else to say. I am grateful to all these wonderful examples of kind and righteous men in my life and for the love that we share with each other, and for my Heavenly Father who sets the standard of all that men can and should strive to be. On this day I would like to wish each and every one of them a very Happy Father's Day, and to tell them each how very important and special they are to me!

This is man food here today. I don't know a man alive that doesn't like meatloaf, at least not the men I know at any rate!! This is a deliciously spicy version that I know my sons would love. My own father always loved it when my mom made meatloaf for supper. Meatloaf just says "DAD" to me!



*Taco Meatloaf*
Makes 18 slices
Printable Recipe

Moist and tender Meatloaf with a delicious Southwestern flavour! Spicy and oh so good!

2 pounds of lean ground beef
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup of fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup of finely crushed nacho chips
1 TBS chili powder
2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded, deribbed, and finely chopped (wear gloves)
2 large free range eggs, beaten
1/2 cup of chunky salsa
8 ounces medium cheddar, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup of soft light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup of chili sauce
1 TBS prepared mustard

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf tin.

Place the meat into a bowl. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeno, bread crumbs, nacho chip crumbs, chili powder, eggs, salsa and cheddar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix together using your hands until well combined. Pack into the loaf tin, smoothing over the top.

Stir together the brown sugar, chili sauce and mustard. Spread this mixture evenly over top.

Bake for about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, until the meat is cooked all the way through. Drain off any fat and allow to sit for about 10 minutes, before cutting into slices to serve. Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator. (They make great sandwiches! You can also freeze to use another day.)

Todd likes this with mashed potatoes and peas and carrots.



Baking in The English Kitchen today, some delicious Cheese Filled Cornmeal Scones!