Homemade pancake syrup

My husband LOVES pancakes!!! One morning I woke up early to fix my husband his favorite breakfast- like a good little wife- but, I discovered that there was only a drip of syrup left in the container.  Major letdown.  Then I remembered my favorite source - the Internet.  Sure enough, there was a recipe for homemade pancake syrup!  Praise the Lord!!!...I think.  After I made this my husband said he never wanted the store bought kind again.

Recipe:

1 1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)

3/4 c. water
1 tbsp. butter
Dash of salt (opt.)
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp Cinnamon  or maple flavoring (I prefer the cinnamon)
1/2-1 tsp vanilla (opt.)


Mix brown sugar, water, butter and salt in saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon. Serve warm.  Extra will keep for about 2 weeks in the refrig.

Enjoy!!!

Unclog your drains...

Ever run out of draino? Well here is a do it yourself recipe for unclogging even the most stubborn drains.   I have used this recipe in my kitchen and in my bathroom.  (Most recently my shower...it took three applications; but it worked.)

Recipe:

1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup vinegar
1 gallon boiling water

Carefully siphon all the baking soda down the drain. Pour in 1/2 of the vinegar, covering the hole so the fizz is forced down, not up (omit this for toilets, please!). Add the second half of the vinegar, following the same procedure. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so, and then flush with an entire gallon of boiling water.

Just like with the homemade Oxyclean, the power is in the fizz caused by the reaction of the vinegar with the baking soda.  You might even do this once a month or so just to keep the gunk from building up.

Enjoy!!!

Weeks One and Two in Newport

Now that you have read about our trip to Newport, here are a few highlights about our first two weeks.

 - Raymond has preached six sevices.
 - One soul has been saved on Saturday visitation!!!
 - We have enjoyed meeting many new people in Newport as well as Jacksonville.
 - We have unloaded and almost completely unpacked everything.
 - Aaliyah has enjoyed meeting new friends in the nursery in Jacksonville as well as Newport.
 - I have met one natural sista in transition (saved and a member of JBT) and am looking forward to  meeting many more at the meet up in August.
 - I FINALLY got to blog!

What a Trip!!!

Somehow we managed to make a 16 hour drive turn into a three day trip!

Our plan was to leave NC Friday evening and arrive in Jacksonville sometime around 3:00 p. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. We were still unloading things from the house - to put on the curb - late into the night. Raymond ran a quick errand to Lowe's and when he returned he noticed the fan on the van was still running to cool the engine down long after the had shut the motor off. Finally, it did turn off and we were glad until we found out why it turned off. We got in the car and turned the key....nothing! The battery had died. Well, our landlord made it clear that if we stayed one day longer we would have to pay another months rent, so we decided to stay in the van until we could get a jump the next day. Praise the Lord our neighbor had worked late that evening and around three in the morning he came home and Raymond flagged him down. It took about two hours; but we got the batter fully charged and officially headed out on Saturday morning around six. We gassed up and noticed the temperature signal come on in the van - it was about to overheat. Raymond removed the sensor - and everything was fine for a while (45 minutes) until we reached the Raleigh area and it started to overheat again. We made a pit stop and Raymond worked on the van for a few hours until we got everything fixed and the vehicle was again trip ready (or so we thought). ( I didn't mind because we got to go eat at a great Thai restaurant and I got to go shopping at Trader Joes:)


By this time it was late and we were tired, so we booked a hotel - that allowed pets - and headed out again next morning after church. All was well until we heard a loud BOOM! - a tire on the trailor blew. Time for another pit stop. Raymond put on the spare, then we went to the next town we saw and shopped around until we could find a place that carried the right size tire for our trailor.

On the road again, no more vehicle incidents (unless you include the top blowing off our trailor in the mountains of NC during a rainstorm!); but once we reached Nashville, Tennessee we learned that the Wolfe river had overflown its banks. We - along with hundreds of other travelors - spent the night on the side of the road hoping it would be safe to travel I-40 sometime early the next day. It wasn't. We had to take an 8 hour detour through Kentucky and down to Arkansas.

We finally made it to Jacksonville sometime around 10:00p.m. Monday evening!

What a trip!!!