My Queen of Hearts Tea Party!

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"Do you care for tea?"

As many of you know, I - along with a few ladies among my family & friends rotate monthly hosting tea parties!  It was 3 or 4 years ago I hosted my first Valentine tea for my Mother and Sister that has since been a lovely tradition to look forward to and grown in attendence.  Every year I usually host 2-3 months out of the year and February is one of them.  This year though, I knew that I wanted to do something a little different than the usual Valentine theme but what to do since my house is already decorated for it?  Last December I happen to be watching TV and saw an early trailer for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie (UGH - I am sooooo NOT happy how they have turned into into another gothic looking movie - Icko) but it did give me an idea to incorporate the heart theme of my decorations into a Queen of Hearts tea party! 

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Now don't be late for this very important date!  Hop down Janeen's Rabbit Hole at 12:00pm wearing your Wonderland best!

Yes, that's me as the Cheshire Cat!

I decorated in red, white and black colors using ideas from the story.

The Queen must have her Army of Cards in attendence right?!

I set out the tea service on my coffee table...

Recently my lovely Mother-in-Law gave me this pink candy dish and I was thrilled to be able to display it today filled with treats!

Guests are arriving!  Yeah!

On tea party days, usually none of us have breakfast because we know of the feast that awaits us and today I didn't disappoint my guests either...

Dreamy Creamy Scones with Lemon Curd

Topsy Turvey Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Queen of Hearts Deviled Eggs

Cheshire Cat Open Faced Sandwiches

Wonderland Berry Medley

Mad Hatter Cake

(It will make you a little bigger no matter which side you eat it from)

Your teacups are bottomless so drink all you want,

prefer Pink Champagne then I'll call you a cab!

After we ate our delicious lunch, we settled into a card game called Spoons!  It is VERY easy to learn and we laughed for a good hour from all the fun!

Jenifer was the first person to get all 4 Queens and the winning spoon!

Next it was time for the Hostess Gifts!  In our early days, we mainly gifted each other small items that would help eachother build up our entertaining cabinet of dishes and acessories.  Some of us are well established now but it's still fun to carry on the tradition because we continue to see fun things throughout the year that remind of eachother and buy them up waiting with anticipation to bless them!

Look at this Queenly bag! 

I SQUEALED with delight at this Crowned Knife!  Makes me think of Pate on Toast when I see it for some reason.  ha ha

Look what else was in the bag!  HOMEMADE Petit Four treats in Raspberry and Chocolate Ganache and decorated Sugar Cubes!  (Sigh.... I lurve looking at this picture!)

Victoria got me these YUMMY and BEAUTIFUL Marzipan hearts dipped in Chocolate to go with a gift card to Starbucks!  A little chocolate to go with my coffee... lurve the combination.

My lovely Mom got me this BEAUTIFUL glass pendant necklace.  This picture doesn't do the colors justice but trust me you'd LURVE it!

Ann got me my very own Toasting Glass!  Whenever we have gatherings I like to say a "toast" to something because there is always something or someone to be celebrated.  Notice how the picture on the glass resembles ME!  Complete with bangs that are swept over perfection! ha ha 

Hours later it was time to say good bye and I quickly remembered to take a picture of who hadn't left yet with their little party favor!

I wrapped up a deck of cards in honor of teaching most everybody a new card game and now they could take home a brand new set of cards to enjoy with their families!  I enjoy keeping the tradition alive of family game time!

Then I began the task of getting the house back into order and washing all the dishes.  As I look at this picture I can tell you that except for a few items, EVERYTHING was a gift to me at some point through the years.  I am SO BLESSED!

Then I put those lovely decorated Sugar Cubes away in their special box that I keep them in, ready for the next occassion for tea!

Then... one final treat for the night... another cup of tea and some of those handmade Petit Fours!

Such great memories!  I hope you enjoyed the party along with us!  Next month my Mom is hosting ~ perhaps she will be dressed as a  Leprechaun?  Mmmm, a yummy stew sounds good right now!

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Pantry Challenge for dinner

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Hmmm, what to make for dinner?  I read somewhere here in bloggyland that January is Pantry Challenge month and it's been fun to peruse and see the clever things that people come up with to make using only the ingredients they have at home... no cheating making a run to the store.  Although for many of you experiencing such a record snowfall this year, it's probably not possible most days.

I thought I would share with you where I get some of my ideas.

Betty Crocker

has a feature on their main page, towards the bottom right, where you can choose 3 items you already have in the "pantry" and it will quickly search recipes using those ingredients!  It's pretty fun!

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Recap of week 4 for BF

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Hello ladies!  Attendence was down this week ~ remember don't think you can't come because you haven't completed or are behind in your homework.  We miss you!  Beth was right, week 4 is the hardest out of all our homework for the series.  It dealt with our "ancient ruins" ~ hence our family tree.

I noticed I was continually distracted doing each days lesson and my distraction was more physical than emotional. (non-emotional - no big surprise there!) For some ladies the physical feeling can be just down right anger or sadness or you start clenching your teeth or your stomach is getting into knots or your feeling like your getting nauseous and you just want to go and vomit! It really surprised me because I actually felt the physical response to want to eat. It didn’t matter that that I wasn’t hungry because I had just literally finished breakfast or dinner but I found myself standing in the kitchen and momentarily forgot why I came in there. I set my workbook down to come in the kitchen to get something. Well it hit me that I may just be in the kitchen to fill in the large gaps of answers I didn’t know in my family’s Maternal and Paternal chart with FOOD. Can anybody else relate? This was pretty big for me because I make it no secret that I lurve food, I’m not a picky eater. I can’t wait to see what you all bring for snack every week. So it’s not like I have a diversion to food. That was just day 1 of our homework and can I just tell you how it repeated itself over and over and over again throughout the week. Ladies, if you are struggling in this area, you are not alone! And now I am praying daily for this because I know that is not a healthy behavior. Being unable to fill in many of the blanks of the chart, it made me think of how I spent the Thanksgiving/ Christmas holidays with my “ancient ruins” and even more recently at a baby shower when only the women of my “ancient ruins” were there. It also reminded me of who wasn’t there. Do you see how this week’s chapter on rebuilding our own ancient ruins seems to be the basis of this bible entire study now?

 

Then I got an idea! I have this game called Jenga that is made up of wooden blocks and starts as a solid tower.  The object of the game is keep the tower from falling down while each player removes a wooden block from it and then places it on top of the tower, hence the tower continues to get higher while the stability of it gets shaky because the foundation has all these holes in it. Well I got it out and started playing it with my kids, building the tower higher and higher, and ooohing and awwwwwing at how high it would get each time before it finally fell and it looked just like an ancient ruin. To put my idea to the test, while we played I asked the kids to imagine that the blocks were things in our family and if we took them out one by one, what would we be left with. Their answers were things like people in our family and the material possessions we had. Then just to see their reaction I asked them, “What if Jesus wasn’t part of our family?” They both just looked at me and at each other. And then they started saying “Oh man, that would be baaaaaaaad. No Jesus?” I smiled ~ because to them Jesus has always been a party of their life, they haven’t experienced it any other way. Ladies, we are here to become the generational link in our family line, breaking generational strongholds that can only be rebuilt by God himself. No doubt the chains we are wearing are going to be different for each of us. Sue, my co-leader for the Thursday morning group and I pray that you will allow God to reconstruct your past. But resist the urge to run away or run to family members and literally hurl your insults/hurts at them.  Unfortunately we can't take this on in our teaching group each week, but if what is being revealed in you causes you to recognize a need, please seek proper help from a pastor, Christian based counselors or support groups if necessary.

My prayer to you all this week... Jesus, teach us to walk in your presence daily through prayer and bible study. Reveal to our children and grandchildren our passionate and devoted love to you. Reveal to us any Jenga pieces that represent strongholds in our ancient ruins that only you can rebuild because the tower has come tumbling down in our lives. God you are the master architect of our lives and Jesus is the only cornerstone piece that can rebuild us from the ground up! Amen

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Perhaps today...

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Perhaps today...

After I finish my bible study...

 I will learn how to do this with my coffee... (still not perfected yet)

Then I will do this...

Then I will decorate the house ...

For my Queen of Hearts themed tea party this weekend...

Would really lurve to fnd a blouse like this to wear for my tea party...

Then I'll gather some spoons...

and a few decks of cards...So we can play Spoons!

Then we'll have our family reading time ...

Then the kids will help me make dinner...

Then we'll have an early dinner when my Man get's home since he had to work this holiday.

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Recap of week 3 for BF

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What a difference a week can make!

Things have gone from good to OH MY STARS LORD

and unfortunately, I'm not talking about it taking a turn for the better either.

Everyone has their requests from time to time to ask of their bloggy friends for different things and this week it's mine to humbly ask if you feel led, to please join me in praying for my relatives who are going through life changing circumstances and need God's covenant prayers over them as they walk through this. I thank you so much!

To Recap week 3 of our Breaking Free study..

So last week we learned about five primary benefits from our relationship with God. This week we learned about obstacles in our path to freedom and those were Unbelief, Pride, Idols, Prayerlessness and Legalism. The biggest impact for me this week was Idols and I’m not talking about the ones in the Old Testament.

I want to share with you that I did all my homework in 1-day last Saturday, the timing presented itself that I had about 6 hours to myself and I did a marathon run thinking, cool – this is great! However, I DO NOT recommend it! Ha ha

Yes I did get the homework done in 1 day but when I was done I felt like a train wreck and just wanted to lay on my face because I was learning about all these obstacles and how I am affected by each of them. Not good…. not good to Break Free in 6 hours because you literally can’t digest everything. For several days afterward, I had to review my answers again and make some revisions because then I had time to process it and “not just give an answer to get my homework done.” And Ladies, we aren’t going to Break Free from anything if that’s all were doing… striving to meet a deadline to get our homework done. We need to really take each question slowly, listening to what God is telling us when Beth instructs us to write down reasons why we have issues with our obstacles. Those revelation answers are going to set us free when we choose to commit ourselves to changing our behavior.

We learned an idol is any person, object or activity you give a higher priority in your life than a relationship with God. An idol can be your home, your job, a vehicle, a relationship, or even your family. An idol can be a pet, a computer, or what you look at on that computer. An idol can be any sin. An idol can be the work you do for the Lord that consumes all your energy and time. God says He’s a jealous God. He wants our time and attention.

I spend nearly 6 hours a day on a computer at work, followed by another hour or more at home and that’s not even my PC computer, it’s my iPhone – best little hand held computer around. I’m reading the news because I don’t get a newspaper, I rarely watch television news and I’m also checking email and my blog. If you’re someone who does Facebook or Twitter a lot you can probably relate. We email instead of talk. We Facebook instead of talk. We Twitter instead of talk. We leave updates about what we are doing but the point is that MY time spent on the Internet interferes with quiet time I should be having on a daily basis with Jesus.

Another revelation was that not only am I not spending nearly enough time with Him but I’m also having more electronic relationships instead of face-to-face conversations. And I NEED my girlfriends! I NEED my Women’s Ministry! I NEED you Ladies! I NEED my tea parties!

Now I’m not pointing my finger, I’m as guilty as anyone is. But if you can relate to any of that and recall what Beth said our very first week of being accountable to our friends when they get in our business… Ladies, I need to be accountable to YOU in that I am going to deal with my idol! So get in my business and ask me how I’m am doing each week, okay!?

UPDATE!! Today was a day off from work (Yahoo to have a Friday!) so I spent the morning in study for you ladies and then spent hours with a dear old friend enjoying lunch together and then... surprised my kids by picking them up early from school! They were sugared up from their Valentine parties - oh the memories that take me back to exchanging valentines and eating conversation hearts! So all that to say... I got to do what I set out to do this week and that was have face-to-face conversation and it was wonderful to see expressions instead of imagining them!

Willing to admit any idols you have?

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Getting ready...

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Today the kids are playing with friends while my Man and I prepare the house...

for our relatives to come over...

and watch some football...

We also happen to have 2 people with birthdays and to celebrate I am baking them a cake! Mmmm, the house smells like chocolate!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Recap for week 2 of Breaking Free

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Oh my tired eyes! Lack of sleep this week caused by a kitten who continually wakes up at o-dark-thirty (3:30 am) to play. This morning his toy of choice was a crinkly thing that made a lot of fun noise... if your a cat! So I've been compensating for it with coffee... wonderful coffee! My Man always brings me my first cup of coffee in the morning (aaaaah sweet, I know) and today when I was putting on my make-up, I was thinking there just isn't enough cream in a jar for my tired eyes.

So how are you doing after our 2^nd week? Feel like the honeymoon is over already and the questions are getting tough and personal now? Did any of you come up with some Nancy Drew coded answers?

I was surprised when we started the homework that right away she dealt with our salvation. I don’t recall her doing that before in previous studies or if she has I don’t recall it being right at the get go. But as the days of homework went on, for me, I think I understood why she did deal with it and invited us to do that prayer. And I think it’s because accepting Jesus as our Savior is the key to our freedom. Obviously it’s more than that, it has eternal value but do you see how it can relate in other ways such as if you seek freedom from eating, you find yourself captive to your eating habits. Or if you seek freedom from other people… like your spouse, parents, friends, children, you find yourself captive to pleasing them. People, food, money, sex, alcohol, drugs, shopping – do NOT set you free, they keep you in a pit of captivity. But the Son – Jesus - sets us free! Does that make sense? Do you agree? Okay if we know that Jesus sets us free, what are we doing to spend more time in intimacy with God? Are we ready to be set free OR are we comfortable in our bondage because we’re afraid of what’s going to happen if we release it to him. Is he going to expose us? What’s it going to look like? He’s invisible but everybody can see us and our stuff, right? Ladies, God wants us to KNOW and Trust in him and that’s why we are here, to break free from our stuff, right? And whatever that stuff is, to be truly grateful that God has chosen to discipline us, rather than allow us to continue on a path He didn’t want us on to begin with. If you attend Cornerstone on a regular basis, you will know that Pastor Larry says a similar message…. God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. Amen! I want that!

Father, I’m asking that you make yourself fully available to all the women participating in this study. That each us know you and believe you with all our heart, mind, soul, body and strength. I ask that you would give us supernatural understanding when we read the scriptures of our homework, that each of us would experience a “light bulb” moment where you reveal something to us that we may have read 20 times before, but this week, it falls afresh on us with excitement because it has new meaning and understanding. Fill our hearts with your wisdom and your words. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

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Hot Lunch!

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Remember the home made bread I made this weekend? Well we ate it up in a flash, so when I was making lunches yesterday morning, I discovered we again had no bread. Yikes - what to make in a HURRY for their main meal? So I opened the cupboards and perused the shelves... an idea came to me .... Hot lunch!

I quickly cooked up some Top Ramen Chicken Noodles and preheated their thermos' and by the time my curlers were ready to come out of my hair, lunch was ready! I packed up their backpacks and we were off!

When I picked them up from school, before I could even ask how their day was, they both said their thermos lunch was delicious and could they have it again! A lot of kids were asking about their thermos' and it started discussions as to all the things they could put in it! The kids were very creative in their ideas too! Who would have thought a thermos could spark such lively conversation?!

Our thermos' do look like this and in permanent maker I write their names on them and send along a plastic spoon for them to use cause we all KNOW that a real spoon just don't seem to make it back home. ha ha

What is your favorite hot lunch?

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