Year 2017

Mexican Rice – Recipe

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After years of cooking this up, I think I got it just right. This rice is quick and doesn’t require chopping onions or garlic. If you want fresh ingredients, go right ahead, just put in a little less of the garlic and onion powder. If adding tomato, corn, or peas to this rice, you do not have to change the recipe, just add them after you add the spices. If you are going to use chicken stock instead of the bouillon,  add a little more of the spices.

Serves 8 as a hearty side dish

Ingredients:

2.5 scant cups of white rice (don’t fill all the way to the top)

2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

8 oz. of Red Gold tomato sauce

5 cups of water

2 large cubes of Knorr bouillon

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of dried diced onion (If using onion powder, use a very scant 1/4 teaspoon)

1/4 scant teaspoon of garlic powder.

1/8 scant teaspoon of black pepper

1/8 teaspoon dashes of paprika

Direction:

  1. Pour in the vegetable oil and saute uncooked rice until you begin to smell the nuttiness of the rice. Make sure your heat is on medium. You do not want the rice to burn. This is an important step because this does add taste to your rice and allows the rice to keep its texture better. This takes about 7 to 9 minutes. You will notice the rice turn from white to a cream color. Some grains of rice may turn brown, that’s okay
  2. After sauteing, turn down your heat to low and then pour in your tomato sauce. The tomato sauce will sizzle for a little while. Constantly stir for about 2 minutes allowing all the grains of rice to be cooked in the tomato sauce.
  3. Pour in your water one cup at a time and mixing in a little in between. Make sure you use the same measuring cup for the water that you used for measuring out your rice. Also make sure the water isn’t scant, but filled to the actual cup line.
  4. Break up your bouillon into smaller pieces and mix in.
  5. Add all the spices and mix.
  6. Bring your heat up to medium and heat rice to a low boil, cover and then lower the heat to low. Cook for about 20-25 minutes. Do not ever cook rice without a lid. Don’t constantly peek. The time may be different based on how hot your stove gets on these settings.
  7. After 20 minutes peek under the lid and when you see little vent holes around your rice, and the rice looks set, your rice is done. Uncover your rice and let it rest for a couple of minutes and then fluff with a fork.

Troubleshooting: If your rice is mushy, your rice measurings were too scant, just add a little more rice next time. If your rice is too hard, just add a little more water (about 2 Tablespoons at a time) and mix it in and cover again. Bring heat to low and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.

Adjust spices according to your taste.

Some people add a couple of dashes of cumin to their rice, I don’t like it too much.

Mexican rice is flavorful and sometimes is just eaten on its own. If you have left over ground beef or chicken  you can mix it in. I love to eat my rice with leafy greens and a little bit of ranch on top. And just like beans, Mexican rice tastes better the next day.

 

 

Magpie Murders – Book Review

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Summary: The last book Susan Reynold is set to publish changes her life forever in this classic British whodunnit mystery novel. Magpie Murders is a mystery book within another mystery. This book covers the mystery of what happened to the missing pages of a detective novel written by Alan Conway – Ms. Reynold’s most famous client.  And within this is the actual manuscript of Mr. Conway’s latest novel which is left incomplete. The endings of both the manuscript and the book are stupendous! I kept guessing until  the end!

I got this as an audio book and both readers did a magnificent job in portraying the characters, but when I saw this book available at my local library and we had an 11 hour road trip coming up, I decided to get the book and finish it by reading it myself. Anthony Horrowitz is a tremendous author. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that he also is a writer for ITV’s Midsommer Mysteries and Foyle’s War. I love both those series! And like these series, the manuscript part of the book doesn’t have any obscenities. The actual book part does though. The author of the manuscript – Alan Conway – is gay and there is a brief interview with his live in boyfriend that does get a little informative, but not much. Besides that brief interview, there is no other sexual content.

If you like classic mysteries, you will truly enjoy this book. The two stories are very well developed and they both left me guessing until the very end. For a moment I thought that I would never know what happened at the end of the manuscript because it leaves the reader hanging for about 200 pages, but thankfully the end was revealed. I read through that last part voraciously – my patience had waned!

The book is almost 500 pages because of the two stories in it. Because of its length and some adult themes I would only let my older teens read it.

You can buy the book here

 

 

A Comforting Force

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Twitter, short quips of what people are thinking. If you are not careful who you follow, it can be a cesspool of some of the vilest utterances imaginable. If anything is happening or if I want to somewhat know what is going on, I look at my twitter feed and rest assured, there are dozens of people already talking about any event I am interested in.

Rolling Stone yesterday sent out a twitter about “Professional Cuddling” and how grown adults have to resort to hiring out a professional cuddler to cope with their difficult lives. If you would like to check out the tweet click here.

There are several problems that came to mind when I read this tweet and I will try to explain what they are:

Suffering is belittled. Jesus said we would have many troubles in this world. (John 16:33) Remember he said this as His people were occupied by the Romans. They were a conquered people and succumbed to all kinds of suffering. After the ascension of Jesus, the Christians faced some of the most physical sufferings imaginable. Having to hire out a cuddler because President Trump is crass and a bully downgrades the true trials and sufferings of other people. Also, as Christians our sufferings are different. We may be suffering because we are hated (John 15:18), grieving over sin (2 Corinthians 7:10), being disciplined by God (Hebrews 12:7-8), or just feeling the pangs of this world but we do all these things with hope.(I Thess. 4:13) We freely cling to God and His truths, not paid strangers.

This brings me to the sadness I felt reading this tweet. Regardless of how dainty I think the reason for their suffering is, these young adults are still feeling it. And it saddens me that they have to pay someone to listen and hug them. They are paying for physical displays of affection. Where are their mothers, their fathers, their friends, their church?

As Christians we should be the masters of comforting those who are suffering, regardless of how petty we believe the cause is. (I can’t even count how many times I held teenage girls as they sobbed because they couldn’t get the prom dress they wanted, they didn’t make the cheerleading squad, their friend is moving to varsity and she’s still in JV, the boy they like likes another girl, their cell phone was taken away, the list is endless!) What better time and place to hug, console, comfort and once they feel “safe” help them see a different Godly perspective? 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. This is why we are master comforters because we have been comforted by the only True Comforter.

This made me reflect on how I treat my fellow saint. Paul several times mentions greeting each other with a holy kiss (Romans 16:16, 2 Corinthians 13:12). In Acts 20:37 we see a beautiful display of affection where they weep, kiss and hug each other as brothers in Christ as they say goodbye to Paul.  Many times God describes his comfort to us as being under his wings, close to His heart, embraced by Him. (Psalm 91:4, Psalm 17:8, Psalm 36:7)

Also, let us love on the children in our church. There is an interesting paradox in our society. We commit constant idolatry when it comes to their wants, but we also hate them. In one hand we spend thousands a year getting them the stuff they don’t need, and on the other hand we are outright hateful when we are inconvenienced at restaurants, airplanes, movie theaters etc. by fussy children. (Matthew 19:13) We throw elaborate gender reveal parties, but are silent at the slaughter of babies in the womb. Saying this, we need to love the children of our church. We should encourage them, ask them questions about their day, hug them, play with them, and love on them . Let the church be a place where they know they are loved, not put up with. Let it not only be the nursery workers that interact with the next generation of American Christians.

My dear Christian, let us be comforters. Let us be nice and lovable. Let us truly mourn with and miss our brothers and rejoice when we see each other. If you do not feel that way about your church, let me encourage you to pick out one member of your church and make them miss you when you are not around and rejoice when they see you. Invite just one person to your home and listen to them. Seek out the elderly in your church and ask them about their day, ask them if anything is hurting them, I promise most have something to say. 😉 Buy some gum and hand them out to the kids. Baking for anyone for any reason is always a good idea. Always! Write a short note to your Pastor and let him know you are praying for him. Be sweet dear Christian.  Be a comforting force, just as our God is!

May John 13:35 ring true of us that “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”

Dark Places – Book Review

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This book is about a little girl (Libby Day) who survives her family being slaughtered  by her brother. After 25 years she finds herself without money, without friends and still battling the demons of her past. In order to get some much needed money, she teams up with a group of lay true crime enthusiasts called the Kill Club. The people from this group are eerily obsessed with what happened to Libby, her family and specifically to her brother – Ben Day.  Ben was found guilty based on the testimony given by Libby and is now going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Because Libby is the only other survivor, the Kill Club decides she can find out more about what happened 25 years ago and hopefully get Ben out of prison. Libby is sure that Ben is her family’s killer but soon vacillates back and forth as she investigates.

This book is dark. The author – Gillian Flynn – does a wonderful job developing some of the most worthless characters I have ever read about. I hated most of them, including Libby, but that’s not really a bad thing. The characters in this book were flawed and broken. The depravity of humanity and the emotional and financial struggles of life was very real in this book.

Saying this, the book does contain a lot of profanity. There are sex scenes and they are short, tenderless and thankfully not violent. This book delves into the cesspool of humanity. And the dignity given to them by God, is practically snuffed out by their degradation.

As a Christian, I forget that there are people like this. I try hard to get out into the world and be a light in dark places, but admittedly I am surrounded mostly be people like me. Although, I don’t grimace when people who aren’t saved cuss or act like unbelievers. It’s the “saved” Christians that make me cringe when they unrepentantly act like the world. – Don’t worry, I also cringe at myself. I don’t often read these kinds of books because my mind sometimes feels assaulted, but the whole time I was reading about Libby’s struggles I just wanted her to know the true freedom found in Christ. I wanted that for all of these unfortunate characters. They were very real and very hopeless.

This book is for adults only. All the cussing aside, the book is very well written and the unfolding of the mystery of who killed the Day family is thrilling. When I got to the end of the book and the true crime was revealed, it was perfect! Mrs. Flynn had given the reader a hint and I failed to see it and put it together. It was excellent! I recommend this book to the person who likes dark thrillers.

 

 

War for the Planet of the Apes

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Summary:

War for the Planet of the Apes is the third installment of this phenomenal movie franchise. Humans have banded together and their forces are strong again, but it seems the Simian virus has mutated and is now affecting humans in a different way. Caesar and his troop have made the decision to move farther away from the humans and this decision has dire consequences. Along the way, they meet several different characters and the end is sad and satisfying.

My take:

I just can’t get over how detailed the CG was! It is shocking at just how real these apes look! There is a particular scene where Maurice (the orangutan) is trying to communicate with a human and the close up is amazing! For lack of a better word, the CG is beautiful. Overall the story line was okay. The title is a bit misleading – I would have considered Dawn of the Planet of the Apes more worthy of “war” in the title than this one. War of the Planet of the Apes was more of “Escape” of the Planet of the Apes.  The movie does explain more about the devolution of the humans and has hints of a continuation with the introduction of Nova.  There are several humorous scenes that my younger children enjoyed. The movie is not graphically gory, but a lot of apes are killed.  There is a lot of gunfire, arrows shooting and explosions. There are no flagrant bad words in the movie. The movie is moving and Caesar the suffering leader continues to suffer. Andy Serkins, who plays Caesar, does an incredible job as an animated actor. The scenes where Caesar is in emotional pain deserve recognition.

Recommendations:

If you haven’t seen the first two movies I would recommend that you see them first before watching this movie. If you liked the first two movies, you will also like this one. I personally liked the 2nd one more, but all my children preferred this one more. My two 8 year olds were entertained throughout the movie, my older boys (12, 14, 19) loved it! I don’t think tween girls would really like this type of movie, mine (11 years old) didn’t care much for it.

Going Deeper:

Throughout the movie I had an underlying thought about what if this was real, how would I react to these apes? More and more science is crossing over into areas like human DNA manipulation, cloning, IVF, gene manufacturing, and other areas quicker than I can form opinions. Then encompassing all this, our country is becoming less religious and more opinionated. Everyone has something to say about what is right and wrong and most have no moral standard except for their own thoughts and opinions. My hope though is when I come upon something scientifically new, that I may test it and hold on to the good and detest was is evil (Romans 12:9)

 

The Woman in Black – Book Review

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I don’t ever want to see a movie first and then read the book. Ever!

This book is about a young attorney who has to travel to a marshy castle to put in order some legal paperwork from a recent death. There, he encounters some very spooky and frightening sounds and sights.  And also some very sad news about the deceased and its other “residents”. The ending is different from the movie and I just can’t believe the movie strayed so far away from the book!

The book is beautifully written and dark, but not in a gory way, but more in a sad way. The moments of brightness or light-hardheartedness are enveloped by the overall sadness of Mr. Kipp. When I finished the book, I closed it and almost cried. Not because of the last scene, but more because of the abrupt ending of the book. But it was perfect. The author was able to pull me into Kipp’s world and it took me a while to come back to my happy cheery self. I love it when books can do that. When words draw out emotions and thoughts. Like I always tell my children, “Words are very important”.

Susan Hill is an extraordinary author. I was surprised that the book was written in 1983. She does an excellent job in capturing the feel of the late 1800’s early 1900’s. It is only about 140 pages and can be read in one sitting.

I recommend this book to Gothic romance readers. If you like the Bronte sisters, you will love this book. The book is not sensual, but there are some adult themes like children being born out of wedlock and the consequences of that. The book is also scary and chilling, and because of this I would only let my teenagers read it. This would be a great read for high school English class and I do hope it becomes a classic if it isn’t already.

Warning: If you have seen the movie, you will be annoyed at how they butchered the book.

 

What is the Gospel? – Book Review

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The Gospel has been proclaimed for over 2000 years and still we get it wrong sometimes. The author, Greg Gilbert, does a great job in this little book to describe exactly what the Gospel is and what it isn’t. He uses great examples and analogies to further describe exactly what he is trying to say. I read the book in three sittings and highlighted a bunch of great quotes from the book.

This book also included several stories in the Bible I wasn’t very familiar with. I was grateful for this. This just proved even more to me that the Bible is so profound that we will never truly know everything about it.

Here is a quote in the book that I just loved:

You see, nobody wants a God who declines to deal with evil. They just want a God who declines to deal with their evil.

This is just so true. Above all, I think hypocrisy is the sin that kills the church’s effectiveness the quickest. Mr. Gilbert has a whole chapter dedicated to this. As Christians saved by the work of the cross through no merit of our own, we should the least hypocritical.

I recommend this book to the Christian who loves the Gospel and still gets excited to hear about how Jesus saves. I also would recommend this book to a non-believer who is open to understanding why exactly Christianity is so different than other religions.

The book is not expensive at all and you can buy this book here.

 

Lost Gods – Book Review

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It was the cover of this book that intrigued me. The creature looked like some kind of a sphinx Queen. I wanted to know more about her and when I opened the book I was pleased to see that Brom (the author and artist) had included more paintings of these lost gods he was writing about. They were incredible creatures. All of them were impressive.

brom 3

The book is about a young man (Chet) who is viciously killed and ends up in Purgatory. He is given a mission to save the ones he loves from a similar feat and the epic journey begins and is incredible. Brom “paints” another world for us to venture in. It is a cruel world, a dark world. In it’s own way it is magnificent. Unlike Dante, Chet is not just a spectator, he endures the pains of Purgatory and a hero rises from the torment. The deeper I got into the book, the better the story became. Plenty of times the story was frightening especially towards the end. My heart raced as I cheered on for Chet to triumph. Brom is not only a great artist, he is also a great story teller.

brom

In Brom’s Purgatory you see that there are all kinds of gods in this realm. I didn’t research any of them to see if they truly were ancient gods, long forgotten, but nevertheless their personalities were very well developed.

Brom tastefully includes all religions in his Purgatory and I found the Christian undertones he incorporated to be very entertaining.

The ending of the book was the most frightful and left me mourning that I had finished the book. What an incredible ending!

The book does have some frightful scenes and there are a lot of big cuss words – remember these guys didn’t make it to Heaven – they’re not exactly saints. Chet is marked for Hell (which is an ongoing fear because frankly I don’t want anyone to go there), but miraculously avoids it due to the mission he was given. Not all the souls have this mark, Chet was a special kind of scoundrel on Earth I suppose.

As a Christian, this book really brought to my mind the reality of Hell. Yes, this book is a total fantasy. I don’t even believe in Purgatory, but the hopelessness Chet feels and those around him, was just overwhelming sometimes for me. None of those souls wanted to be there, none of those souls could change their fate. Many sobbed as they realized where they were. The rich, the poor, the abused and the privileged all were in the same circumstance. As Chet said, “Earth is paradise”. Compared to the horrors and the darkness of the place, Earth is a paradise we take for granted. As I said before, I don’t believe in purgatory, but I do believe in Hell. And Brom captures very well the utter shock of the unexpected souls. What a horrible place to be at and not be able to go back to change things. Even Chet regretted not listening to his religious aunt who annoyed him so much on Earth.

brom 2

I completely recommend this book to any one who likes to read non-fiction. Even a boring soul like me who tends to stick with fiction really enjoyed it! Because of the cuss words I would let only my older teens read this book. There is only one scene that sticks out that is sexually explicit, but it is about five sentences and is about a man remembering his abuse in prison.

In the end, I was grateful for my salvation.

Norse

I am not familiar with Norse mythology at all. Anything I do know is from the Marvel movie Thor I saw several years ago.

“Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman is a collection of stories that tells the history of how the Norse gods (Thor, Odin, Loki, Freyja) came to be and how they handled all kinds of situations in their realm. I found the stories in this book to be so much fun to read. Most were outright funny and they all gave a lot of insight into the cultures of these Northern lands – that culture involving mostly feasting, keenness, and seeing who could take the most amount of pain without grimacing.

Like all mythology, some natural wonders like the tides and earthquakes were explained away by something the gods did or did not do.

As a Christian, it was a little odd at how limited the gods were. For example, their immortality is sustained by another goddess whose apples they needed to eat to stay young. They can be tricked. They can lose limbs or even die and stay dead. Their power is also limited and they can be imprisoned or chained. They can be maimed and hurt. They tire, they can get drunk or overindulge. All these things were new to me and I found the stories quiet entertaining – funny even.

Thor was hilarious and his masculine predictability I found to be endearing. Loki was more cunning than evil, although, towards the end he did get a little nasty. The giants were funny and brutish. Odin, I found to not be that impressive. The goddesses mentioned were all beautiful.

The ending surprised me and brought about sadness. I felt bad that for the Norse, after Valhalla there is a sense of hopelessness. For such a cheery crowd, the end for the gods is grim.

The book does contain some love scenes but they are not graphic. Unless you find a sentence like “and they made love again” graphic. There is some crude humor. There is some gore and of course fighting and killing. There is lots of drunkenness.

Overall, I found the book enjoyable and witty.

I recommend this book to those who like mythology, fables, adventures, or fairy tales. I also recommend this book for anyone looking for a fun and easy read. The names can get a little daunting though. This book would also be a good book to read out loud, but maybe to an older audience. I would let my high schooler read this book, but no younger.

 

Norse Mythology – Book Review

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Morality vs Holiness

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“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ~ C.S. Lewis

We’ve all done it. Christmas is over and New Years is upon us. The challenge to read  our Bible in one year creeps into our minds and we are resolved to do it this year! January comes and you get through Genesis and Exodus, but then you get to Leviticus. A detailed book of ceremonial, moral and civil laws. The rules that God expected of His people. The laws priest meticulously abided by. At the end of that book, I remembered just craving the New Testament where Jesus summed up all the law to this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22: 38-39).

It is human nature to find loopholes in laws or rules. This is why we have 60,000 page health insurance plans. Even with children we say: “Don’t hit your sister”. Brother then touches her and annoys her, “Don’t touch your sister”. Brother then holds his finger before her eyes and gets as close he can to her skin. “Don’t hold your finger so close to her”. Brother then begins to touch his own eyeball making the girl scream in disgust. “But, I’m touching myself!” he yells out in triumph. He found the loophole. We all do it. When making a U-turn, when figuring out where to park, when sitting at a restaurant, we make decisions based on signs (rules) or lack thereof. It doesn’t say I can’t do this or that, so I’ll do it. It says I can, so I will. It says I can’t so I wont. Some rules we obey because they make sense, others we obey out of fear – paying taxes is one of them for me.

As Americans we love rules! And structure is a good thing, but what does that look like when we act out our faith?

The professing Christian cannot live like this. Yes, we shouldn’t commit adultery and it is a sin, but Jesus expounds on that and says, “love one another”. Am I loving my brother in Christ if I look at him with lust? Am I loving my husband, if I dream he were different or sigh after actors or read books that excite me sexually? Does the Bible then have to specifically say: Do not lust after men. Do not lust after younger men. Do not think of leaving your husband. Do not watch movies that make you think badly about your husband. Do not read books that are sexually explicit. Do not look at magazines where men show off their toned abs. Do not stare at men exercising. Do not compare your husband? The list can go on and on!! Is that what we are saying when we pompously exclaim: “well where does it say that I can’t do that in the Bible?”. Is this what we truly want? More rules.

This is where we clearly see the difference between morality and holiness. Morality demands rules. It needs details. It commands specifics. It is a slavemaster. Holiness, on the other hand, is a way of life. It does not need specifics. It is a life picture. It frees expression. It is a liberator.

The moralist hates the rules, because he wants to enjoy his own pleasure. The saint loves God for He is his highest pleasure.

I am not unaware that in the New Testament there are ways we should live and things that are forbidden and things that are not. But these rules are not there to feed our Pharisaical tendencies. They are there to allow more freedom. Let me explain with an analogy that I give all the time to teens. There are two playgrounds on a mountainside. Both are close to the edge and if you fall from any of them you will die. But one playground has grass around it and a fence all the way around. Where will you have more freedom? The answer: where the fenced one is. Now some of the teens ask: “well can we play on the fence?” and that is the wrong question because you have a WHOLE PLAYGROUND, why do you want to play on the fence? The saint enjoys the playground, swings high and low, runs and bounds, laughs and squeals. She may fall, she may scrape a knee, but she will not die. That is what these boundaries are in the New Testament, they allow for so much more freedom.

We shouldn’t have to ask “where does it say that in the Bible” in regards to rules. Ask yourself, “Am I loving God with my heart, mind and soul” when I do this or think this? And “am I loving this person as myself” when I treat them this way?

Christianity is so much more than a list of do’s and don’ts. It is a way of life that exists on a completely different plane. We are odd because we get excited when God reveals more of himself to us through His Word. We are weird because we love on the ugly, the mean, the depressed, the annoying in very unique and individual ways. We are not normal because we still fawn over our spouses and love being married. We are crazy because we are quick to forgiven and even quicker to ask for forgiveness. We live in a different world. We don’t have the same problems as others. We follow the beat of a completely different and heavenly drum. We feed strangers, we hang out with prisoners, we go to places all over the world, we smile more, we cry more, we laugh more. Our money is spent on others, on Godly knowledge, and on the furthering of His Kingdom. Our family tree consists of people of all tribes and nations, of children abandoned by their biological parents, or widows and of criminals and the insane! We have tons of stories of what God is doing in our lives. Good things, wild things, frightening things! We almost die and laugh at his salvation. We then die and rejoice! Our hope is not in our money, in our children or even in ourselves. It is on the work of what Christ did, it is on Heaven!

You see then how all this is muted if we then ask, “Well where in the Bible does it say I can’t read ’50 Shades of Grey'”. My dear Christian, go ahead and read that filth if you want. I will be over here going to a garage sale with my kids (3 of whom are foster kids), as they buy me 25 cent coffee mugs that say I am a #1 mom. I will be planning out a surprise party for a dear saint. I will be thinking of a way on how to love on a sad friend. I will be memorizing some new verses to help battle temptations. I will be shopping for decorations for a new Crisis Pregnancy clinic. I will be on the floor overwhelmed by the realization of my salvation. I will be peeing in the jungle with a fellow sister in Christ. I will be going to a fun movie and having great conversations with teenagers who struggle to fit in. I will be listening to a great pod cast that provokes me to love God on a higher level. I will be meditating on a delicious verse about God’s love for me. I will be holding the hand of my husband, leaning my head on his shoulder as we listen to our Pastor preach. I will be enjoying the prayers of my daughter as she lays her worries on a very big and awesome God.

Go ahead and play with the mud pies. I will be over here enjoying the sea.

mug

This is a picture of the mug one my foster kids gave me for Mother’s Day last week. He is 8 and his mother has basically abandoned him. Yes, I cried. Yes, he is a darling! And Yes, it was $.25 at a garage sale we went to. 🙂