Refreshing Sorbet

I finally had time to sit down and read this month's


The cover was covered in cherries.  We like cherries around my house.  They had a recipe for a cherry sorbet.  It sounded simple

Frozen cherries and a simple syrup

On my last grocery run I picked up a couple of bags of frozen tart cherries.  It was as easy as making a simple syrup and mixing it up with the frozen cherries in the blender

Once blended we put the mixture into a glass casserole dish and put it in the freezer overnight.  It was really light and rich and delicious.  The next day we used a ice cream scoop and dished out individual servings.

A great finish to a hot day!

Hope you are staying cool and enjoying some great summer desserts too!

Have a wonderful weekend.

The July Gift Guide

Hey, do you need a gift this month?  Or maybe you are getting ahead on that Christmas shopping.  Listen, if this quarantine has taught us nothing else, it surely has shown us to not leave things to the last minute.  I have been so thankful that I purchased, addressed and stamped all my birthday cards for the year back in January.  It has been wonderful to pull out the cards and pop them in my curbside mailbox.  And, yes, we are gearing up for our annual Christmas gift wrapping on July 25th.  We have no idea if we will be mobile or not come December (praying we will) regardless, we will be ready.

I am little proud of my minor hoarding.  I have been able to celebrate 3 family birthdays, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day primarily with stuff I had in this house.  My little great nephew is taking some online camps and I've been able to pull out glue, popsicle sticks, paint and all manner of things around here.....no need to go to the store.....I have it in a bin.

Anyway, back to gift ideas.  Many of you have mentioned wanting to diversify your retail endeavors, shop locally owned, small businesses and give some other folks some financial love.  So this month's gift ideas is full of minority, locally owned options for you......let's get started.

For the Beauty Lover on your lists check out Mented.  I tried this lipstick

Matte Pretty in Pink

and this lip gloss

Mauve Over Lip Gloss

Their products are not just for women of color, but for all women. They have a really nice feature on the website called the Shade Finder.

Now if you need a gift for a Guy on your list check out Hot Sauce Shero

Summer 5-Pack

This set allows the experience of all five flavors.  Individual bottles are also available if he doesn't need a whole hot sauce assortment. But don't most people need a hot sauce assortment?

I think your Gal Pal (or you) would like these

Macaron Variety Pack

Aren't these the prettiest little macarons you ever did see?  They are from Tier Couture Bakery in Georgia.  She has such fun varieties including wine infused macarons and even carrot cake macarons.  This would be such a fun gift for someone.

If you need a Home gift for a family or housewarming check out Stewart Town Coffee.  

Coffee

They sell all kinds of coffee in whole beans, ground and K-cups.  Brighten up some family's morning with some of this delicious coffee.

And lastly a little something for the Kids on your list 

Sulwe

Every Little Thing

I am Magnificent

Hope you find some things you love.

See you back on Friday!

June Book Review

Welcome to this month's book review.  I have four books to share with you this month. I liked them all but I really loved a couple.  Here we go....

First up,



The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I like Jodi Picoult books.  I like this book.  But literally when I finished it, I went back and read the description to see if I had missed what this book was really about.  Um, no.  The description is very vague and, dare I say, slightly misleading.  Again, the book is good, but I wasn't mentally prepared for the subject matter.  So let me warn you. It is about the holocaust....and not just a mention of it, or a survivor's tale.  It is very detailed, very in depth, very descriptive.  I have read lots of stories around this subject matter and it is important to understand and important these stories be told.  All I am saying is I just wasn't quite aware or ready when the story took this turn.  So it is a good story, well written but I would not recommend as a beach read.

Next up



Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. I really enjoyed this book.  It revolves around a female fire fighter who is battling some things from her past.  She faces a job transfer and has to prove herself in an all male station that does not welcome women.  Of course, all manners of things go on around the story.....family dynamics, love interests, personal challenges.  It is wonderfully, well written.  I totally bonded with the main character and cheered her on through the whole book.  Every now and then I need just a good basic story with sane people....and this was it.

Then I read



Dear Carolina by Kristy Woodson Harvey.
This is a sweet story of a baby who is adopted and all the people in her life who love her.  It is not life changing and won't stick with me for weeks.  It was just enjoyable and entertaining....and that is quite okay.  The end wraps up nicely and that is always a good thing.

I ended with a suspenseful book





Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey.  An unsuspecting woman is handed a baby on the subway platform and then the mom jumps to her death.  The rest of the book gets us up to speed on how and why all the players got to the fateful day.  I always like to warn people of potential triggers so you can decide if this is a book for you.  This book has postpartum depression and suicide.  It is a well developed story that kept me interested.  I have to say about two zillion times I found myself saying to the characters, "why would you do that?"...but they were not listening to me.  This is not a book about wise decision making, but kept engaged.

Well that's what I read. Be sure and give me any recommendations you have.

Have a wonderful week!

July - Worship Focus

Welcome to July and our opportunity to Focus on a fresh perspective of Worship.

Here is our inspiration verse for the month of July

Printable click here

I was trying recently to help someone who was mentally in a bad place understand how much God loves them.  It can be difficult.  Not because He has not shown us over and over again.  Not because His mercies, grace, kindness, provision, generosity, protection, forgiveness and so much more are not enough.  No, it really came down to feeling unworthy. And this person just kept saying but I don't deserve any of those things....I don't deserve this love.  I had to agree with them, none of us deserves that kind of love.  But the mere fact that we know, we realize, we accept that we don't deserve it is the perfect opportunity, time and place to open our hearts and accept it.

I hope no matter where you are and what you are going through that you feel loved by God today.

I hope that you will speak words to glorify Him today.

I hope that this month will be filled with opportunity after opportunity to lift your hands in praise.

Here's to July......a month of hand raising, praise speaking, love accepting!!!

If you have 4 minutes and 56 seconds enjoy Love on the Line by Hillsong Music

Also, I have a Worship bracelet for one of you subscribers......this month the winner is 

vwam.....@gmail.com

I will message you and get your bracelet to you.

Have a wonderful month of worship!