Cowboy Boot Birthday Cake

This cake was a lot of fun to make. This is a birthday cake I made for a friend of mine for her son. The boot is one cake and the fenced in yard is another cake. All the icing is buttermilk icing. The boot icing is chocolate. I made it chocolate with cocoa. This caused the icing to dry out so I had to make sure I added more water/milk to the icing. The light brown is also chocolate, but I added Nesquik instead. The cactus is made out of fondant and I used a toothpick to make it stand up in place. When I was done my husband suggested the crumbled graham crackers for a dirt look. I think it looks pretty good! If you have any questions just post a comment.

Classroom Cake

This is the cake I made for our Wednesday night class. I taught the kids in grades 3-6. They were a great group of kids. The fish and bread in the basket represents the favorite lesson we did. Everyone brought something to eat (fish crackers, bread, basket, outside games, blanket to sit on). We went outside and read the Bible story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and 2 fish. The chain represents a paper chain we had made in the classroom. Every time we met they would tell me something they did that week that reflected what they had learned. By the time we were done with the semester our chain (fondant) stretch from one end of the room to the other. They were very excited to see what they had accomplished! Finally I put the names of the three teachers on the basket and the students names on the blue part of the cake. I used the big pretzels to make the basket 3D. I laid them down and covered them in chocolate icing. I was a tastey mix of sweet and salty!

I hope I sparked your creativity today!

First Cakes I Made

So I noticed that I don't actually have many cakes on here so here are the beginning cakes that I have made. These first two are during my cake decorating class.

This cupcake one was done for our daughter when she turned four. I really found I enjoyed doing cakes like this. I used butter icing. To get the shape of the cupcake I used piping gel to trace the shape onto wax paper then gently pressed it onto the cake. The dots and writing are also done in pipping gel.

This cake is the second one I did. It was for our son. These flowers look beautiful. I think that flowers are fun, but they are time consuming and I don't really feel as creative as I do with unique cakes.

I hope you enjoy these birthday cakes. My writing gets better with time. I made the flowers with butter icing. Medium thickness. They writing was thing and so was the icing of the cake.

To make the icing of the cake smooth I used facing material. Place the smooth side down on the cake and gently smooth with hand or angled spatula.

More cakes to come, wedding shower, birthday cakes, and a baby one too!


www.mytradesofhope.com/amyjosims

Decisions and Hope

Last night my husband and I put the kids to bed and sat down to read some Scripture. We haven't really made the time these last couple of weeks. We have been spending some wonderful time with family. It was great having them over for Christmas and New Years. It seems that every year my mom and and I make a plan to do something with our walk with Christ together. This year we are memorizing certain Psalms in order of prayer, recognition of God, and praise. Our first one to memorize is Psalm 1. This is what I was reading last night. This is the first verse, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!" There is a reference here to Proverbs 4:14, so I flipped over there to read it. This talks about how important it is to listen to instructions and keeping your feet from evil. I prayed this for my kids. My mom prays for her grand kids so I think I may suggest this to her to pray over my kids and nieces and nephew.

After I had finished praying I realized something about our own situation. We do not stand in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. Yes we sin, we also have Christ's sacrifice that we have accepted so that we have forgiveness. We are blessed. Right now we have many decisions to make and set backs to consider. This makes it hard to remember we are blessed regardless. Currently, my husbands classes for his Masters did not work out this semester. We need to decided if he is going to declare another degree program or change the one he has been working on. This impacts us financially. He did get a job online, blessed. Another decision is that a church in Minnesota has reached out to my husband and wants to get to know him for a job. After all we have been through in our last ministry position we have many things to consider about getting back into paid ministry. The nice thing about this one is that it appears he would be doing what he loves and would not be the senior minister. Here the elders are the shepherds and share the load of leading the church. If this is really how it is set up I think it would work out. We are going to have a call conference in the future to learn more about them and they about us. Even with all of this chaos going on, we are blessed. Regardless of what we decided we will be blessed.

This is what I think of when I think of blessed. I think of Job who was blessed physically after his trails. I think of Paul who had everything taken but still praised the Lord, He was blessed spiritually. I think of myself and my list of things I have seen God do in my life. I have things listed in the physical and spiritual sense.
I was given the power to forgive (previous posts)
My mission trips as a teen: money raised, safety, lessons learned
Perfectly timed gift of $10 from a professor's wife in college
My husbands mission to Uganda: pens (story in itself), articles he now writes, safety, and money raised
Boxes of food that would appear in our kitchen during ministry
Always had a place to live
Safety during a youth group trip to Colorado
Jobs have been provided just when we needed them
Redeemed relationships with my parents (story for another time)
Mother in law did not die due to recent medical issues, in fact she is back to work and doing better
My daughter was provided a new coat
Found doctors that has helped my husband with his medical issues
I have grown a great deal spiritually because of a dear friend of mine
Our daughter fell off a bike close to home, busted her chin. Husband carried her home. A friend drove by just then and helped me take the bikes home.
Have had great gardens
I have started a business with Trades of Hope
Our daughter mimicks me with Bible reading, copying of Scripture, and memorizing
Our son has the most adorable honest prayers, and he wants to pray
My husband found Scripture in Hebrews that provided hope to him and us during this time of transition
I am learning about depression, to better help and understand my husband
My husband has found it theraputic to write about what he has learned
He has also found it theraputic to do mathematics
He has an article that will be published
He passed the first half of his teaching certificate
Groceries always seem to be on sale just when we need to save a penny or two
I did not get fired when I did something pretty dumb at work
Our daughter sent a picture to her Kindergarten teacher, she got a letter back
Current teacher for our daughter is helping her with math
My husband and I communicate and listen to each other
We still see our adopted son and son to be wife, even though we moved
Our van still works with no major needs
Discovered in time that my current degree is not what I wanted
My husband cooks and clean while I work (he is a great cook, too)
Discount for our son's daycare
Our kids do listen to us (even if it doesn't seem like it)
Moments of joy with my kids and husband

The list is endless, but this is what I have written down from a while ago. Some of these came by other people. You can be the other person. Leave a bigger than normal tip, hold the door open, help someone find product in Wal-mart (we all know how are this can be), watch someone kid for free, volunteer at a center. There are so many ways to impact others. I have been impacting others close to me and now I get to impact others around the world by working with Trades of Hope. You can too. You can host an online party, join us in selling, or shop! All these ways help women and their families stand on their own.

www.mytradesofhope.com/amyjosims

Have a great and blessed day. Until next time!

Transitions

So our lives have been going through many transitions. Until recently our family was in full time ministry. My husband was a full time minister and I was involved with the children's ministry. Ministry is in our lives and we love helping people. However, our time came to an end after seven years of service. After many months of discussion and prayer we came to the difficult decision to step away from ministry. We came to this decision because of the combinations of my husbands illnesses, stress of ministry, and my mother in law became very ill. We made a 13 hour emergency trip to Oklahoma to help care for her. This need to be closer to care for our family and the need to step away from the stress of ministry (which influenced my husbands illnesses) confirmed the need to make some changes.

In order to make a career change we needed to move closer to the university my husband has been attending to complete his master's degree. We are hoping that when he finishes in the next few months he will be hired as a professor. At the same time he is working on being teacher certified for 8th-12th grade math. So, to recap my husband went from solely working to solely studying in order to find a job so that we can move closer to family.

I went from a stay at home mom to a working/learning mom. I now work at a day care and attend online classes to become and Early Childhood Education. However, I recently found out that the current degree I am pursuing will not get me into the public school systems. It is only for day cares. This is not something I am interested in. While I was procrastinating my homework, I was on facebook and saw that a friend of mine became a Compassion Entrepreneur for Trades of Hope. I had seen many of her posts and could tell that she was selling handmade items that other people had made. I asked her what it was all about. She explained to me that the company is a part of the Fair Trades Act. Trades of Hope makes it possible for women and their families to sell their items in order to make a living. This enables them to be free from slavery (of many different kinds), provides for their communities (clean drinking water, schools, medical needs), and provides a way for them to provide for their family and keep their family together (otherwise many children are given up for adoption or slavery because they cannot feed them).

I have a website up and running... www.mytradesofhope.com/amyjosims
Hopefully I will be able to have contests and doorprizes in the future that I will share with you. When we are finally in Oklahoma I hope to go to trades shows, have home parties, and have others host parties to support these women supporting their families.

Well this is the start of my journey to starting my own business and supporting others around the world! I am supper excited about this and can't wait to this going. I hope to post my journey with you as I learn and set goals. This will help keep me on track and will also encourage you to take the chance and support something bigger than yourself. Join me on this journey!

Guess that Parable!

The last parable is found in Matthew 20:1-16. If you guessed The Laborers in the Vineyard you guessed right! We learned on Wednesday that it is a good thing that God is not fair. Just like the vineyard owner who paid all his workers the same (those who worked all day and those who didn't get hired till the last hour) He gives salvation to all of us, no matter when we ask or in what condition we are in when we ask. If he treated us fairly...who would get to heaven?

Here is this weeks parable:

Jamie was a leader at his school. He didn't lead normal things like band, football, or a club. Instead, Jamie was the one who other students looked to for guidance  They treated others the way he treated them. They wore similar clothes that he wore. You were a part of the "in" crowd when you followed Jame and many students did. Mainly because he would have you beat up of you didn't. 
Tami is a new student today and at lunch was trying to find a place to sit. Tami has red hair and Jamie's group didn't like this feature for some reason. By placing books, bags, or saying that the open seat was being saved they kept her from sitting them. Their "group" took up most of the lunch room, and by the time Tami found a seat she didn't have much time to eat. Jamie's group was relentless in their taunting and wouldn't give her a break. It went from teasing, to cruel put downs, to beating her up. It started with Tami having read hair to picking on anything about her appearance or personality. The day they had beaten her up Rosa, who is a part of Jamie's group, went home that night ashamed for what she had down and for what Jamie's "friends" had done. She had felt this way for a while but finally made a decision about it. The next day Rosa, with all her courage, broke away from Jamie's group and went to Tami's house to check on her and to apologize. Since Tami is now home-schooled, Rosa visits her everyday even at her own risk of being hurt.

Have fun guessing! 

Responding instead of Reacting

I feel like it's been a while, but I have really been tired at night this week. The new glasses have put a bit of a strain on my eyes. I feel okay tonight. 

Every Thursday a dear friend and I get together. We are building a discipleship relationship, so we dig deep in the Bible and also talk of life. This Thursday I was telling her of something that had happened to me on Tuesday that I would have normally reacted to. Now, if you have been reading my posts you know this but if not then I will give you a run down... I have a short fuse and have been working to respond rather than react and that this dear friend and I came together in circumstances that I can only call "A God Thing". When I was done she said I should talk about that on my blog so I am...

On Tuesday I set out to make apple pie bars as well has bread (which makes three loaves). I have an adorable three year old son who helped. Before I even get our oldest out the door to school I dump over our son's milk. He put a straw in his cup, which I asked him not to for this very reason (except I thought it'd be him spilling it not me!). Later as I was washing something I needed my elbow hit a cup of O.J. So I had the opportunity to clean my kitchen floor! Then our son dumped all the apple skins I had been pealing for the apple pie bars! He was very helpful in cleaning up his mess thankfully. Normally I would have said some very "put down" type things to myself and to our son. Working with my friend closely to "Be still and know that He is God" has really, really helped me a lot. I have learned and have been practicing much I have learned from her and others around me. 

Who are you thankful for in your life? Someone who has taught, guided, listened, or play with? Think about it, then thank God for them and let them know what they mean to you!