Lifestyle

It’s inevitable. I buy cookie making supplies in bulk. I have cutters for all occasions. I have cheap sets of food dyes and way too pricey ones, too. I typically have extra flour and sugar in my pantry, many times over. I stockpile powders – both the sugar and meringue versions. There’s enough butter in my fridge to make you think I churn it myself. I get the eggs straight from my sister-in-law’s hobby farm. I love to make sugar cookies, the complicated ones with pretty color palettes and bouquets of piped royal icing roses. I’ve gotten to be a decent cookier over the last decade. Why is it that, when my timeline is tighter than a pair of 80s jeans, I always get to the vanilla part and realize I am completely out? You need 2 different vanillas when you make cookies. Only real extract will do for the cookie part of the equation. But, when you mix the icing, real vanilla will absolutely ruin the color. Icing calls for clear imitation vanilla so your blues won’t veer toward green, and your pinks will ring true. That is how I found myself on an afternoon vanilla run a few months ago. The grocery store is only 4 turns from my driveway. Turn #1 is where I saw her. She was sitting in the ditch, her dark brown legs shining in the late afternoon sun. She was disheveled, sure. Her white cotton skirt was a filthy brown in many places. I was out of my car faster than my dachshund when he hears the treat jar shake. I looked at her hard. I could save her; I was pretty sure. Still, there was only one way to know. I had to smell her. Expecting the worse, I took a deep breath and went in with gusto, touching my nose to her seat. Sandalwood? Was that a hint of clove? Definitely lavender. I was relieved. She was filthy but smelled like an angel. This dirty little Chesterfield loveseat with the mahogany turned legs was coming home with me. I love free stuff. I love old stuff. I love the thrill of the hunt and the unexpected success of reinvention.

Point, focus, shoot! In honor of its 100-year birthday celebration, Texas State Parks is hosting a photo contest throughout 2023 with the chance to win park passes, H-E-B gift cards and even a curated state park experience.

Mesquite Parks and Recreation Department will host the 2023 Masquerade themed Daddy Daughter Dance on Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Mesquite Convention Center, 1700 Rodeo Drive. Participants will share a special evening together in a formal setting with opportunities to dance, enter contests, and take pictures. Light refreshments will be served. Attendees will also be entered into a drawing to win an American Girl doll.

Writing is hard. I find myself in a constant battle of wills with my own psyche. That sounds too judgy. That makes zero sense. That will set off a cataclysmic avalanche of yawns. Yet, 2023 is turning out to be my “year of the higher power.” I have committed to grow in a relationship with God. In doing so, I find myself praying on purpose. Rather than waiting until my molehill of issues reaches Vesuvius despair, I am making prayer a common occurrence, even, or especially, when things are good. The thing about God is, He tends to respond. I am finding out that the response is seldom going to result in anything easy and breezy. My higher power asks me to do difficult things. Today, the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death, I would rather stay in bed and watch the raindrops fall from the leaf clogged roof gutters than face the world. But, I asked Him what to do with all of these big feelings today. The answer felt less like a gentle wind and more like a gut punch. I need to write about my mom today. So, here we go.

Christians can love one another “by saying thank you to each other,” says James, 7.

Make a Left

The Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking-only footpath in the world. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the trail stretches across 14 states from Maine to Georgia. The total length of the trail is 2,192 miles. Millions of visitors traverse all or a portion of the trail every year. Many thru-hikers attempt to hike the entirety of the trail in a single season, beginning either at the trail head at Springer Mountain, GA or Mount Katahdin, ME. Those who have hiked the trail estimate it typically takes five to seven months to do so in its entirety. Most hikers can average about three miles an hour and will travel between 12 to 24 miles a day. The highest elevation of the trail can be found at Clingmans Dome on the Tennessee/North Carolina Border. The lowest point on the trail snakes through Bear Mountain State Park in New York. Although the AP trail is a very long hiking trail, many day hikers do portions of it only and still can respectfully say they’ve hiked the AP trail.

Nearly 8,000 participants shattered the previous attendance record New Year’s Day by ringing in Texas State Parks’ 100th birthday with a First Day Hike. Texans across the state traveled to one of the 83 participating parks and hiked, biked and paddled a combined 17,190 miles.

More than 500,000 spring-blooming flowers celebrate spring from Feb. 25 to Apr. 16

My friend’s mother, Miss Sylvia, is making cornbread. Her house is alive with the smell. The seventy-two-year old woman cooks cornbread the old-fashioned way. An iron skillet in the oven. Lots of butter.

The following students were named to the Fall 2022 Dean’s List at LeTourneau University. The Dean’s List recognizes students who have achieved a grade point average between

LeTourneau University held fall 2022 commencement services recently for around 200 graduates who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Among them were: Whitney Bridwell, Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies Nolan Danziger, Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management-Professional Flight

Mercer University recently announced the President’s List and Dean’s List for the fall 2022 semester. Inclusion on these lists requires students to meet rigorous GPA standards specific to the college or school within the University.