Had A Bad Day...

I've been waiting for Daniel Powter to appear from a cloud and start singing...two days and counting. Where is he??? Well, I decided to add him myself.
Where is the moment we needed the most? My blue skies have faded to grey, my passion has definitely gone away; of course I'm carrying on; Unfortunately I'm just in one bad mood...

Lyrics...Sing aloud if you will ;-)
BAD DAY (blues)
Where is the moment we needed the most???
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
You tell me your blue skies fade to grey
You tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carryin' on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces everytime
And I don't need no carryin' on

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on

You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day

(Oh.. Holiday..)

Sometimes the system goes on the blink
And the whole thing turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know
That you could be well oh that strong
And I'm not wrong (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeeeah)

So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
You've seen what you like
And how does it feel for one more time
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

(Oh, yeah, yeaaah, yeah)
Had a bad day
(Oh, had a bad day)
Had a bad day
(Oh, yeah, yeah, yeeeeah)
Had a bad day
(Oh, had a bad day)
Had a bad day...
Had a bad day...

The Greatest Love Story Of All...

So I've rambled about Lent and a keg at the Episcopal Mardi Gras, talked a little about mimosas, cupcakes, and fabulousity. I wasn't planning to write again today until it struck me while I was sitting at the Praise Service at First United Methodist tonight that the Episcopalians have nothing on us and for Methodists we were almost evangelical this evening at our February "Praise and Graze" where Promise, our almost famous rock-style band sang things from "Givin It Up for His Love, Everything, I'm giving it up for His love right now" (in honor of Lent, of course) to a Christian remix of "Love Train". We ate everything from ribs & other comfort food to dandelion dip and chocolate desserts. Our praise service usually moves me but tonight was particularly powerful as I am in this phase of reflection. The theme was 'Taste and See' and as Sterling Boykin read our scripture lesson from Psalms and John, I realized as I was invited to do this, I was hearing the Greatest Love Story Ever Told in a completely different way. I'm sure countless true Biblical scholars have called referred to it this way but tonight my heart (that has felt a bit empty and broken as I spent another Valentine's as a single person)is overflowing and overwhelmed by the thought of God's love for us and me specifically.

As a small child I memorized John 3:16 but heard it tonight in a completely different context for some reason. Tonight as I listened to everything we were singing, saying, praising, worshiping, thinking and praying I understood this Valentine's season that God's love for me was not just 'love' (a word I haven't liked very much over the last few years for other reasons). Not an empty "I love you" politely said just because. God's love for us is indeed a LOVE STORY, a romance, a passion for His children. It is a love thats "Deeper than my view of grace, Higher than this worldly place, Longer than this road I travel, Wider than the gap You filled..." (jami smith) to quote another song. It is amazing and beyond my understanding but a love that will fill me up and never let me fall.

The passion of our Lord is told throughout the Bible. It can be found in the story of Christ's birth, death & resurrection. It is backed up in the Old Testament by the way we can see God's plan as told by the prophets. Everything unfolds from start to finish and one day will be wrapped up as when the Bridegroom returns to earth. In a passage that I've heard all of my life I find the greatest gift and greatest love of all. What Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:11-17 sums it all up.

"I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven- the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him."

If that didn't have me thinking enough, Promise shared a Bob Dylan classic earlier. I've heard Dylan, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel and others sing it but again I've never heard it quite like Adam Jones and the band sang "To Make You Feel My Love" tonight. I remember them singing this last year but again, I was hearing with new ears and listening with a whole heart. They said when thinking about Valentine's Day and that as we lift our songs of worship up to God that they wondered what song GOD might sing to us, his children of today. "To Make You Feel My Love" was perfect. Tonight I allowed the Great Physician to heal my heart from some earthly wounds that I've been holding onto for a few years, I have felt His love tonight on an even higher level. Thanks be to God!

When you read the lyrics below I encourage you to feel them as though our heavenly father is saying, yes singing this song for you, gently reminding you what He has done, what He will do, that He gave His life FOR US TO FEEL HIS LOVE...

TO MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on the rollin' sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain't seen nothing like me yet

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
To make you feel my love

Time Out Of Mind
-Bob Dylan

*I dedicate this post to my parents...Thank you for your love and Christian foundation and for always believing in me; to my Mother who is with my heavenly Father and to my Daddy- I love you!

The Cupcake of Life...

It's funny how life speaks to you...
Someone told me they read this and laughed, made fun if you will, especially "From the girl who has her very own cupcake". I laughed with her and honestly expect no less and was happy someone actually read it. I started this and named it Ramblings because I hope it's funny and enjoyable. My profile says "I don't take myself or life too seriously." However, that hasn't always been the case and perhaps it isn't the entire truth. I've had some pretty significant, serious things happen in my life that have changed my whole outlook. Some I'll share, some I won't... Today I am prompted to share my heart.

The truth is my life/health has been dire several times and has hung from the balance due to an extreme illness I was diagnosed with when I was 22 yrs old, just starting to "live life". MY life plan was altered considerably and because of many painful experiences at one point I became miserable, bitter and bedridden by 29. I was told my disease was so severe I wouldn't live to be thirty. Somehow I overcame that hurdle but was later told I had less than 12 months to live when I was 32. Thanks to GOD, a wonderful supporting family, friends & loved ones who cared for me physically and emotionally, getting out of a terrible marriage that had left me with no will to live, and a special thanks to the Dept of Immunology/Stem Cell Study at Northwestern University in Chicago (God used them to play a huge role in saving my life), ...I turn 37 in July.

When I use the term "from the girl who has everything" I mean it but in a totally different way others might think. Financially I've been blessed. My family means more to me than I think they will ever know. I have been given some of the best friends who have come for "Seasons, Reasons & Lifetimes". Though I don't have a "significant other" at this time and often feel very lonely in that aspect, I trust God will provide that when my heart is ready. I've gone through one bad marriage and that's enough to show me you cannot count on another person to make you happy. God has filled my life with many wonderful people.

Do I have every THING in the world, heavens no! Sometimes I wonder how I make it through the day with my airheadedness but I always do somehow. I often wonder how I'm going to scrape up enough cash to pay my taxes. My hips, leg and Crohns have been killing me lately but I try to smile and say thank you God for letting me be here to feel the pain...and thank you for darvocet and lomotil to ease it a little. The guy I've been hoping to go out with cancelled on me (twice). I struggle with rejection, lonliness and all sorts of self esteem issues. Sometimes I think I can't scare up a date but can chronically perpetually be everybody's friend. My wonderful family is quite dysFUNctional!!! I miss my Mila everyday. But when I look at how far I've come and think of all the REAL problems in the world, I have it all. I am rich because God gave me life...not once, not twice but he has brought me back several times and through those experiences in the bigger picture, I have it all. So many times a day I ask if some things really matter. It's best now just to live, FORGIVE, be happy, have JOY, receive the good with the bad and thank God for ALL He gives. Because at this point in my life, THE REST IS GRAVY! I didn't expect to make it here!

I can have my cupcake and eat it too because it has taken 35+ years to realize that it's God that makes this possible. I might be one of the world's most compulsive shoppers but I have learned that all the stuff I buy is not what fills me up. Money is not what makes a person rich. A Mercedes Convertible is not a soulmate, it won't give you a goodnight kiss, a hug or a Valentine. But God IS GOOD! He allows me to look at life in such a different perspective. Granted, it has taken some pretty rough times to show me this but He has certainly shown me that HE will fill me up and HE WILL CARRY ME THROUGH.

Right now I feel that I'm being called out of my comfort zone. I'm a bit scared but quite frankly I am ready to take the challenge and "Get Busy Living" (thanks J.A.M.) because it looks like He's keeping me here for a reason and it's my honor to keep my eyes & heart open to find out why and how I may use all this to glorify Him.
As usual I'm starting to ramble...but I wanted others to know why I feel so blessed. At this time in my life it is ALL because of the gifts that God has given and for the chance to glorify Him here in some way before eventually He does call me to be with Him.

*And Thanks Val, I dedicate this to you, for being the most wonderful sister and for your gift of friendship! And to you & Mike for allowing me the priviledge, the most precious gift of sharing in the experience of all that is Maddy. That has given me the something I needed to start living again, I will never be able to thank you enough!

I conclude with a poem that many of you know. It reminds me of my grandmother Edith; she had it framed beside her bed and she passed it along to me. I didn't know when I was a junior in high school what a role it would play in my life.

Footprints In The Sand

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was
walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the
sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he
noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one
belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. When
the last scene of his life flashed before him, he
looked back at the footprints in the sand. He
noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed
that it happened at the very lowest and saddest
times in his life. This really bothered him and he
questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that
once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all
the way. But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life, there is only one set
of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed
you most you would leave me." The Lord replied,
"My son, My precious child, I love you and I would
never leave you. During your times of trial and
suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it
was then that I Carried You." -Mary Stevenson

Honorable Mention

I would like to dedicate my new blog FABULOUSITY to a handfull of people who've encouraged me. JT, JCW, Thad& Matt- My Atlata Boys-whose fabululousity goes without saying. ECH-you are always encouraging me to write, no matter what. KathiKing- thanks for finding this somewhat entertaining. Allen, Jeff & Paula, my fellow bloggers, I appreciate your guidance; coups for harassing me (not really) about starting a Blog ;-). Oohlah for my cupcake- I'm still relatively speechless :). Prettyboy Brady and the Patriots, what can I say??? The Manning Brothers win two years in a row! Their Mississippi football camps will be full by tomorrow's end but Brady, you're still the best looking in my book anyday! And a faraway someone who always encourages me with his kindness. Quite frankly fabulous...Now that's a wrap.

Groundhog Day: Facts And Fictions

Do we brace ourselves for six more weeks of wintry weather or do we spring ahead this year?

Once again it's a battle between the North and South. Do we rely on Punxsutawney Phil or side with General Beauregard Lee? According to the top-hat and tuxedo wearing Punxsutawney Groundhog Club of Pennsylvania, our rodent-friend Phil saw his shadow today. Each year, thousands decend on this small Pennsylvania town of approximately 6,100 to celebrate what is essentially a German superstition. The tradition is that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on February 2nd- the Christian holiday of Candlemas- winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says, spring will come early.

General Beauregard Lee is Punxsutawney Phil's counterpart in Lilburn, Ga. Beau did not see his shadow on Saturday morning. MSN says "this marks the third year that the groundhogs have had different predictions. " However groundhog.org (the official site of punxsutawney phil) and Wikipedia both state that in 2007 they both predicted an early spring but differed in 2005 and 2006.

Apparently General Beauregard Lee is not the only groundhog who disagrees with forecaster Phil this year. Balzac Billy (Balzac Alberta), Jimmy the Groundhog (Sun Prarie WI), Sir Walter Wally (Raleigh NC), Wiarton Willie (Wiarton Ontario), Malverne Mel (Malvern NY), Shubenacadie Sam (Shubenacadie Nova Scotia), and Staten Island Chuck (NYC NY) all agree with the southern springseeker. West Indies Wilbur is the only other groundhog who predicts six more weeks of winter in 2008. All this lends me to the words of Hank Williams, Jr "If the South would have won, we'd of had it made!" No protest, just go with General Lee and Spring has sprung!

Groundhog Day proponents state that the rodents' forecasts are accurate 75% to 90%. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, a study for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37%. Also, the National Climatic Data Center reports that the overall predictions accuracy rate is around 39% (petloveshack.com).

The groundhog itself is a member of the rodent family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels. It seems the earliest account of Groundhog Day in America can be found at the Historical Society of Berks County in Reading Pennsylvania. The first reference was made in storekeeper Jame Morris' diary on February 4,1841. It has been claimed that Groundhog Day is a widely celebrated event in Middlesbrough, England since the turn of the millennium and continues to grow within the surrounding area. This however seems rather unlikely given that groundhogs are limited to North America (Mammal Species of the World, Wilson&Reeder).

In the United States the tradition derives from a Scottish poem:
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and snow
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop

It will be interesting to see which groundhog is right this year. Southerness aside, my personal hope lies with Beau as I'm anxious to see our beautiful Spring. However, if Phil is the one who is correct, I'll have another six weeks to diet & exercise before I even have to think of putting on a swimsuit. I guess either way, according to legend, it's a Win-Win(ter) situation :)

Mardi Gras, Mimosas & Me

Considering that I don't live in Mobile, AL, or N'Oleans, LA, I have certainly had my share Mardi Gras festivities this year. It started with our annual Thalian Ball and will end with a "Fat Tuesday" dinner of some sort, perhaps a Pancake Supper in honor of Shrove Day. I attended a Mardi Gras Festival at our local Episcopal Church on Friday evening; wonderful food, fun and fellowship; a keg and wine in the fellowship hall complete with jambalaya and dancing. All the hoop-la has caused me to ask questions and seek answers regarding Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Lent and its place in the Christian Church.

At Brunch, while sipping my mimosa, I was quizzed on my knowledge or in this case lack of knowledge of Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Lent & the Lenten Season. Often we see the party-fest associated with the Mardi Gras season and have no idea that it has Christian origin. When asked "why give up something for Lent?" "How does giving up something honor what Christ did for us on the cross?" I stumbled for answers. The latter question and the thought of "trivializing" Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the cross urged me to dig deeper and find out why we celebrate this time and what correlation it has with Easter. This is some of the information I acquired...

Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday & Carnival
Wikipedia states: Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and is also called "Fasching", "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day". Mardi Gras is the final day of Carnival, though the term is often used incorrectly to describe the days and weeks preceding Fat Tuesday. Carnival begins 12 days after Christmas, or Twelfth Night, on January 6 and ends on Mardi Gras, which always falls exactly 47 days before Easter. Perhaps the cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations include New Orleans, Louisiana; Venice, Italy; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well. Carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe, except in the United Kingdom where pancakes are the tradition, and also in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

My home, Dothan, AL, however, is not known for its elaborate Mardi Gras Celebration. We do have the Thalian Mardi Gras Society (a band party at country club women ages 29-50) and "BIG GIRL MARDI GRAS" (for lack of better words, women 45+ another country club party). The Episcopal Mardi Gras Celebration Supper as well as a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper and the Catholic, Episcopal, & Methodist denominations hold Ash Wednesday Church Services. Dothan might be more infamous or notorious for our Mardi Gras parties than anything.

Today Carnival or Mardi Gras it is celebrated in many places with parades, costumes, dancing, and music. Many Christians’ discomfort with Lent originates with a distaste for Mardi Gras. In some cultures, especially the Portuguese culture of Brazil, the French culture of Louisiana, and some of the Caribbean cultures such as Trinidad, it has tended to take on the excesses of wild and drunken revelry. There has been some attempt in recent years to change this aspect of the season, such as using Brazilian Carnival parades to focus on national and cultural history. Many churches now observe Mardi Gras with a church pancake breakfast or other church meal, eating together as a community before the symbolic fasting of Lent begins (crivoice.org).

Another term used is 'Shrove Tuesday' (aka Fat Tuesday-in French, Mardi= Tuesday; gras= fat, as in "pate de foie gras", which is liver paste and very fatty), because on that day a thrifty housewife uses up the fats that she has kept around (the can of bacon drippings, or whatever) for cooking, but that she will not be using during Lent. Since pancakes are a standard way of using up fat, the day is also called Pancake Tuesday. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom. To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English is to hear his acknowledgement of his sins, to assure him of God's forgiveness, and to give him appropriate spiritual advice. Shrove Tuesday is considered a day when many Christians make a special point of self-examination, of considering what wrongs they need to repent, and what amendments of life or areas of spiritual growth in which they especially need to ask God's guidance.

Ash Wednesday
According to the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days before Easter. It falls on different dates from year to year, according to the date of Easter; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10. At worship services on this day, ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful. The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross, which the worshiper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown.
This tradition comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers’ heads or foreheads as a sign of humility before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. It not only prefigures the mourning at the death of Jesus, but also places the worshipper in a position to realize the consequences of sin. Ash Wednesday is a somber day of reflection on what needs to change in our lives if we are to be fully Christian and a time for repentence. Biblical passages that show examples of using ashes to express penitence are found in Job 42:3-6, Numbers 19:9, 17, Hebrews 9:13, Jonah 3:6, Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13.

Some Christians do not celebrate Ash Wednesday and say that the practice is not consistent with Scripture. They usually cite Matthew 6:16–18, where Jesus gave prescriptions for fasting: "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites...Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (NRSV) These groups argue that Jesus warned against fasting to gain favor from other people and that he also warned his followers that they should fast in private, not letting others know they were fasting. For these reasons, some Christian denominations do not endorse the practice. Others, however, point out that this very passage is the one, not coincidentally, that is appointed by the Revised Common Lectionary to be read on Ash Wednesday.

Lent
Lent, in most Christian denominations, is the forty-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, where he endured temptation by Satan. Different churches calculate the forty days differently. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Western Christianity, Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a "mini-Easter", a celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death. In those churches which follow the Byzantine tradition (e.g. Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics), the forty days of Lent are calculated differently: the fast begins on Clean Monday, Sundays are included in the count, and it ends on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The days of Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week are considered a distinct period of fasting.

During my quest for answers I came across a website, crivoice.org/cylent; what Dennis Bratcher wrote on The Season of Lent spoke to me and explains best the answers to many questions I had and was asked about The Journey of Lent:

Reflections on Lent
We enjoy celebrating Palm Sunday and we all love Easter Sunday! It is a happy time, with flowers, new clothes, and the expectation of Spring in the air. BUT, it is too easy and promotes too cheap a grace to focus only on the high points of Palm Sunday and Easter without walking with Jesus through the darkness of Good Friday, a journey that begins on Ash Wednesday. Lent is a way to place ourselves before God humbled, bringing in our hands no price whereby we can ourselves purchase our salvation. It is a way to confess our total inadequacy before God, to strip ourselves bare of all pretenses to righteousness, to come before God in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from seeing ourselves as needy creatures, of our "perfectionist" tendencies that blind us to the beam in our own eyes.

Through prayer, we seek to open ourselves up before God, and to hear anew the call "Come unto me!" We seek to recognize and respond afresh to God’s presence in our lives and in our world. We seek to place our needs, our fears, our failures, our hopes, our very lives in God’s hands, again. And we seek by abandoning ourselves in Jesus’ death to recognize again who God is, to allow His transforming grace to work in us once more, and to come to worship Him on Easter Sunday with a fresh victory and hope that goes beyond the new clothes, the Spring flowers, the happy music.

But it begins in ashes and it journeys though darkness. It is a spiritual pilgrimage that I am convinced we must make one way or the other for genuine spiritual renewal to come. I have heard the passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted a lot: ". . .if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." This usually is quoted in the context of wanting revival or renewal in the church, and the prayer is interpreted as intercessory prayer for others. But a careful reading of the passage will reveal that the prayer that is called for here is not intercessory prayer for others; it is penitential prayer for the faith community, for us. It is not to call for others to repent; it is a call for us, God’s people, to repent. It is our land that needs healed, it is our wicked ways from which we need to turn, we are the ones who need to seek God’s face.

Perhaps during the Lenten season we should stop praying for others as if we were virtuous enough to do so. Perhaps we should take off our righteous robes just long enough during these 40 days to put ashes on our own heads, to come before God with a new humility that is willing to confess, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." Maybe we should be willing to prostrate ourselves before God and plead, "Lord, in my hand no price I bring; simply to the cross I cling." That might put us in a position to hear God in ways that we have not heard Him in a long time. And it may be the beginning of a healing for which we have so longed.

O Lord, begin with me. Here. Now."

Researching this has been an eye-opening experience for me. I will go into this Easter Season with an attitude of renewal, humbly bowing before God and thanking him for my salvation. When I 'give up something for Lent' I will do it with an entirely different attitude, knowing that nothing I give up will come close to Jesus' giving his life for my sins. I will acknowledge this symbol of my commitment to Christ and use this period of self-denial and prayer to prepare and remind me of Christ's death on the cross and ultimately His ressurection at Easter, knowing that He lives.

I must confess that Easter has brought mixed emotions for me for the last 8 years. In 2000, my mother Mila died on Maundy Thursday and we buried her on the Saturday before Easter. Thursday-Saturday of Easter is a painful time for me. My heart is heavy, I miss my mother and feel an even stronger emptiness than I do throughout the year. Yet every year, on Easter God has given me peace & a sense of rejoicing like I haven't known in earlier years. I feel His presence even stronger. I know that His death was to save me from sin...my own. It is like the heavy black cloak on the cross is lifted and beautiful blue skies lie ahead, for He Has Risen! I can rest assured in the Lord that one day I will see my mother again..."I Can Only Imagine!"

In an attempt to conclude my ramblings on a lighter note- this is a Season of Celebration; a time to reflect, repent and praise the Lord for sending His Son.

I always enjoy a good party...So to kick things off I have chosen a basic pancake recipe that one might use to celebrate "Fat/Shrove Tuesday". It's a staple, of course. I have also added some variations on my favorite cocktail, The Mimosa.

Many Blessings and ENJOY!

Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday Basic Pancake Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred or sifted before measuring
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
PREPARATION:
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine egg and milk; add to flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Blend in melted butter. Cook on a hot, greased griddle, using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until brown on one side and around edge; turn and brown the other side. Recipe for pancakes serves 4.

To add a little sparkle to your pancakes, I've included the basic Mimosa recipe and several variations that you might consider trying. Once you do, you may no longer be happy with the standard version, although it is very good, too.

A Mimosa is a cocktail recipe having two parts of thoroughly chilled orange juice combined with three parts champagne. It's just that simple, easy and delicious!
The basic Mimosa recipe was first created at a hotel in France about 1925. I do not know who invented it or even what the occasion was. It may have been the bartender was just experimenting.

Often the drink is served in a tall champagne flute, but I think you will want to use a large wine glass if you like ice in the drink (like I do) or if you are making the delicious Mama Mimosa (aka "Big Mama").
Traditional Mimosa
Ingredients:
Champagne
2 ounces of cold orange juice (fresh orange juice is a special treat)
Crushed ice (optional)

Instructions:
Pour champagne into a champagne flute
Add champage to fill the glass

*Garnish with a slice of orange or a strawberry if using a glass other than a flute
Occasionally I use crushed in wine glass and pour 3 parts of champage in the glass and then add 2 parts orange juice.

Variations of the Basic Mimosa Recipe
Add a tablespoon of Grand Marnier and you'll have created a Grand Mimosa...
Use cranberry juice instead of orange juice and you have created a Hibiscus or a Poinsettia
Use pink grapefruit instead of orange juice and enjoy a Lilosa
**My Personal Favorite is the PomPom or Pomosa...
Fill half of an 8 oz. champagne flute with Champagne and add another 4 oz of Pomegranate juice.
Garnish with a strawberry, orange or lime twist for a finishing touch.
Remember Pomegranate is a wonderful antioxidant...there's nothing like a little bubbly for your health ;-)

For a Mimosa with FLARE...
Take your traditional Mimosa recipe and add a delicate splash of an orange liquer topped with crushed raspberry ice - the MamaMosa or Big Mama

INGREDIENTS:
Champagne (1 Bottle)
Orange Juice (1 Bottle)
Orange Liquer
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
PREPARATION:
Fill half of an 8oz. glass with chilled champagne and add another 4 oz. of chilled orange juice, gently stir. Next add 1-2 tablespoons of orange liquer and mix thoroughly. For the final touch, add raspberry ice (for directions, see below) just before serving.
* Raspberry ice - crumble fresh raspberries and place the crumbles into ice cube trays, fill with water and freeze. Adds a very nice touch to any Mimosa!

**NOTE: I prefer using Prosecco(Italian sparkling)instead of champage for its sweeter, lighter flavor in all variations. You don't have to use an expensive champagne, Cristalino ($9), Cava ($12) or Zardetto ($14) make excellent mixers.