When I was growing up, nothing said loving like something from the oven.  It was three home cooked meals a day plus some yummy just right out of the oven "snack"! Eating out was done on Sunday after church! And for a real treat some friday nights we would go eat pizza.  Now a days it is nothing like that for my house.  After working 8-10 hours a day and coming home to work somemore, who wants to be cooking all night?  So monday through friday we generally eat quick and easy foods.  Frozen pizzas, sandwiches, tacos...etc...But on Sundays us Willoughby's like to fix up a spread! Sunday night dinners are my favorite night of the week.  The night that I am blessed to sit down and be with my children and hubby together at the table enjoying a feast! Times have changed.  As a family we used to eat dinner every night at the table...together! Now I am so blessed the time we do have as a family even with the cell phones going off, the text messages being sent etc...at least we are together!

When I think back on my childhood the main thing I remember was there was no rushing to go here or get there...Once school was out you were home.  You had hours on end to read a book, play a game (not electronic ones at that time) but a real game! I remember many softball games with all the cousins playing in the barn lot.  Basketball games which consisted of an old bent rim propped on the outside of the little shed but we loved it! Things were so much simpler then.  So, I start planning my sunday meal on friday.  Even the hubby is totally into making Sunday nights special! I love to fix my kids the things I know they love! Whether it be potato salad for Coty, Chels' green beans or pintos and Corys green beans and some yummy dessert.  So even though I am in the kitchen for hours on sunday's with my music on and trying to think of what would be special for my family...that is when it dawns on me..."Nothing says loving like something from the oven!Now I Can't wait for the time when I can add more chairs to the table and find out what my grandbabies favorite dishes are! :)  But for now I will recipe hunt for just the right thing to get my group home and laughing at the table together...

The non-crafty crafter...

Crafty, I am not.  Now my great-grandmother was "crafty".  That woman could make, bake or grow anything.  My mom, she could give Martha Stewart a run for her money!  The "craft" gene seemed to skip generations in our family.  I have always said that I hope my daughter is blessed with the gift of craftiness!  But...recently I have found that I do have a small ability to do a lil' crafting! Of course PINTEREST is a huge help!  I saw this easter arrangement on the site and loved it!  A quick run to the Dollar Tree and three dollars later...wooolaa! I already had the glass jar and happened to have a small glass candle holder that fit perfectly in the center.  I then put the peeps in around the candle holder, clipped the flowers off the stems and stuck my peeps in the middle!  How simple and cut is that!

I started with crafting fever a couple years ago.  My daughter had just moved out (for about the fifth time) and my son was a senior in high school.  I was having empty nest syndrome in a bad way.  I have been a mother since I was 19 years old.  All I had ever known was taking care of my kids.  Whether it was taking them to school, sporting events, helping with homework, etc...And then it happened...they were no longer in need of my "services".  I actually had time on my hands and nowhere to go.  The house was quiet, way too quiet! It wasn't much of a change for my sweet hubby who throughout the years was still able to keep up with his "hobbies" throughout the years of raising children.  But me on the other hand had no "hobbies".  Unless you consider cleaning and doing laundry a hobby!  So, I slowly started working on little projects.  The first accomplishment was my daughter's 21st birthday present.  I started it about nine months before her birthday and every night after all my "chores" were done I would have "my" time and work on my first project which was a scrapbook cookbook.  My mom had made me one for my 30th birthday and it is still to this day one of my most treasured things! After this, I was hooked! I have a long way to go and there are many things I would still love to learn but  hey it's a start! 

Grace of the Willow...

Ok, I have to admit it...I have a love for anything with a tree on it.  A picture, a piece of jewerly, a book you name... it I love it.  I love to look on Pinterest at the many different tree pictures.  I have also been known to burst into tears at the site of a beautiful tree.  To me there is something so graceful about a tree.  Whatever the season, the tree stands strong. It continues to grow and endure.  My family has a "thing" for Willow trees.  Maybe because our last name is Willoughby or maybe it is because my daughter says her future daughter will be named "Willow".  Whatever the reason, it is one of my favorites.  I never knew that the Willow tree was known as the tree of "dreaming and enchantment".  In reading about Willow trees I came across the following:  "we have been taught to regard our intution as unreliable but we know that isn't true and we must use it more in order to develop our ability to use it to the full."  This made me love the Willow tree even more!
There is a reason behind my love for trees...my precious grandmother.  She was the strongest woman I have ever or will ever know.  She endured many storms.  She fought the battle of ovarian cancer and continued to stand and endure.  That strength and endurance was tested when she unexpectedly lost her husband of 54 years due to a heart attack.  A couple months after my grandfather died, she told me of a dream she had.  All she could remember was a huge golden tree but the dream of that tree gave her peace. She told me that the "grace of God was all over her" after the dream.  We lost her five months after losing our grandfather.  It will soon be eight years ago that we lost her.  But I still see her in every image of a beautiful tree. And in the fall, when the leaves have changed golden, I can still feel her presence and her grace...