I found the original recipe for this cake in a magazine clipping, which my dear Mother had found, stored and forgotten about….. I “healthified” it up a bit,( although it still has powdered sugar in it,) and it is now one of our favorite cake recipes.

The frosting is poured on while the cake is still warm, allowing it to seep into the cake a bit. If you want, you could add more cocoa powder to make it more dark chocolatey-ish. Not overly sweet.

Texas Chocolate Cake

Combine:

2 cups flour (I use whole wheat pastry)

2 cups sucanat

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

In a small saucepan, combine:

¾ cup water

½ cup butter or coconut oil

¼ cup cocoa powder

bring to a boil, stirring often. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture. Beat with a mixer at medium speed till well blended. Add:

½ cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Pour batter into greased and floured 15×10* and bake at 375 for 17* minutes.

Icing

Mix, in saucepan:

6 Tbsp. Butter

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup cocoa powder

bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gradually stir in:

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

Spread on top of hot cake. Can add ¼ cup pecans.

*can be baked in 9×13 at 375 for 22 min.

Looking back at my posts, I’ve realized that, although there are a lot of pictures of Caleb, I have not posted much about him.  So, here are just a few random facts from the last few days. Or months,  as the case may be.  About him, of course.

He loves anything capable of making noise.  This includes blenders, vacuum cleaners, cd players, etc.  And pencil sharpeners.  This afternoon, he spent about an hour sharpening pencils on our new electric one. (read: noisy)And he tried to sharpen a pen too.

He also loves thing with cords. Anything with a cord. In fact, if the cord detaches from the appliance, he will simply drag the cord around.  His brother, Stephen used to drag a hand mixer around by the cord too.

He is fascinated with any gadget with buttons.  Cameras, Computers, etc.  The problem is that he will search for and “use” the buttons as well.  Just a few days ago he managed to open up and print one of the documents saved on our computer.

When we come to foods…well, lets just say that he often eats about as much as I do. Yikes.

And of course, I simply must add that as far as we can tell, he is left handed. 

Time for me to go make supper……

Hannah Jane

for Mrs. Sono Harris (wife to Gregg Harris and mother to 7 – including Joshua, Alex and Brett). She was diagnosed with colon cancer, but before……read more here and/or here

Why Christians Should Be Appalled at the Dating System

and

The Dating Game

Erin from Farm Kids in Crocs has tagged me!

1. High heels or boots? Boots please, as long as they don’t have heels. I do not need any height added to my 5′71/2″, thankyouverymuch.

2. What time did you get up this morning? About 6:45.

3. What was the last movie you saw in the cinema? The Mysterious Islands.

4. What is your name? Hannah.

5. What is your favorite TV show? Umm….we don’t have a working TV right now….and before that we hardly ever watched TV….soooo, my favorite “old” show would be….Andy Griffeth, I guess.

6. What do you usually have for breakfast? Food.

7.What is your middle name? Jane

8.What food do you dislike? Seafood.

9.What is your favorite CD at the moment? Sorry….I can’t just pick one!

10.What characteristic do you despise? Of our culture? The anti-family characteristic.

11.Favorite clothing? Skirts.  Other than that…..depends on when you ask me.

12.Anywhere in the world on vacation? Israel.

13. Are you organized? Sometimes.

14. Where would you retire to? Heaven.

15. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Not sure about that one……

16. What are you going to do when you finish? Laundry. 

17. What is your birthstone? Emerald.

18.Person you expect to publish this first? ????

19. When is your birthday? May the 7th, 1994

20. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person.  My brain likes to click on at about the time I’m supposed to be getting sleepy.

21. What is your shoe size? Depends on the brand.  Anywhere from an 8 to an 11.

22. Do you own any animals? Our family has one dog….

23. Any news you’d like to share? Ummm….Oh!  One of my best friends (we’ve known each other since age 4!) and her family will be coming over for a few days later this month.  We live quite a ways apart, so we have not seen each other for about two years. 

24. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? Artist.

25. What is your favorite flower? Lets see….Lily, Sunflower, Morning Glory, Rose, Daffadil, Crocus, Forget-Me-Not, Apple Blossom, Daisy, Black Eyed Susan, etc, etc.  (Nope, I’m not going to give you just one!!)

26.What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Sometime this month when I get to see a friend. (see #23)  As well as the masquerade ball.

27. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue.  The shade would depend on my mood.

28. How is the weather right now? Warming up way to fast.

29. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Dad.

30. Favorite drink? Water!

31.Favorite restaurant? Anything with a salad bar.

32. Hair color? Either very light brown or rather dark blond, depending on who you ask.

33. What was your favorite toy as a child? My doll, Abigail. Now I have a real, live sister with the same name!!!

34. Summer or winter? Fall and Spring.

35. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate, of course. What a question.

36. Coffee or tea? No thank you.

37. Wish you were still young? Didn’t know I was old.

38. Do you want your friends to publish this? ???

39. When was the last time you cried? Not telling. 

40. What is under your bed? Books.

41.What did you do last night? Sleep.

42.What are you afraid of? Things that are scary.

43.Salty or sweet? Depends.

44.Best quality you have?

45.How many years at your current job? As daughter? almost 16. As Sister? 14.

46.Favorite day of the week? Sunday – the Sabbath!

47.What four people will you tag? errrr….Jo March, Rebecca, India, and the Cowgirls

Inspired by Jo March.  These are in no real order other than the first 2.

God’s Holy Word – The Bible

My Family

A good book

Sewing Machines

Music

Men (and Women) such as Patrick Henry, Ruth & Naomi, Isaiah, “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther, Hannah, Moses, Paul, Isaac Watts, Stephen, and many, many others who stand up to us as role models and Heroes.

Chocolate

The knowledge that God is in control of everything that ever happens

Snow/un-hot weather

Long, flowy dresses

Artwork

Hebrew

Flowers

Liberty

Cute, Sweet, Adorable, Cuddly Babies!!!

And many, many other things

Right now I’m sitting in Daddy’s office, watching my Caleb kidnap some of our toothbrushes. Including mine, in case your wondering. Now I’m sitting with 4 toothbushes in front of the keybaord.

In case you cannot tell, this is going to be a random post.

Last night I resolved to put a worthwhile post up here.  This morning, we watch a video talking about internet censorship. Great, I think.  Now I’ll have something to post about. So then, right after breakfast, what does my dear brother do but steal my post. Of course, I suppose I could rant write some more on the subject, such as how I sometimes feel as though I am living in communist china or something like that rather than the US of A,  but I’m not in the mood for that anyway.  Besides, its rather hard to write something that serious when you gave to keep stopping in order to get cookies out of the oven or take toothbrushes away from your baby brother.

Lately I’ve been working on a baby doll quilt for my sister’s birthday. (sshhh….)(hopefully I’ll be able to get some pictures up later) As well as toying with the idea of setting up an Etsy shop. And of course, making cookies. I often finish with the queer feeling that the recipe makes less and less each time, even though I now triple it.  We also took a spontaneous trip to Florida in late January, got a down a bunch of springish clothing, come back to AL, and get the heaviest snowfall (2″) we’ve ever gotten in the 8 years of being down here.  I’ve also been studying Hebrew and doing more sketching.

A couple weeks ago I found a charming old crochet book and I’ve had the funnest time going through it.  Most of the clothing patterns are useable, although most would require some sort of altering,  And there are a huge amount of lace and doily patterns, some of which nearly have me drooling.  It has also shown me once again how much times have changed (it is copyright 1946)….from the beginning of one of the chapters…:

“…a woman with that talent for gracious living will take the trouble and find great pleasure in adding small personal touches to her household linen.  She will initial her sheets, add a graceful handmade edging to her pillow slips and her linen towels. The shelving in her linen closet will be exquisitely edged…..”

I’m not sure I want to go quite so far as that……

Anyway, as I need to go now, I shall end this random post.

End

I finally got the followers gadget up!

And to those of you who followed my old blog, www.walkingingrace-hannah.blogspot.com, you might want to “unfollow” it. I still have about 18 people over there.  : P

Tagging….Anyone who wishes to be.

The little old Woman had only one blanket for her bed. It was a nice red flannel blanket, but it was full of holes.

…..said the Little Old Woman….”Maybe if I cut holes out of the red blanket, it will be warm enough for me.” But when she fetched her scissors and cut the holes out of the red blanket, the holes were still there. In fact, they were bigger than ever.   ~The Little Old Woman Who Used Her Head

Does this remind anyone else of the way too many stimulus packages that are being passed?   (of course, in my opinion one is way too many….)

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.  ~Galatians 5:1

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

~John 14:27

Sorry for the blurred look here – he was tugging the camera strap

Sorry for not getting to this post sooner…..I can’t believe it was almost a month ago that I last posted. Hopefully I will be more consistent in the future. Anyway, here are some photos from the last week or so.

Flowers

Joseph bouncing on our trampoline (I’m not sure why the stick is on there…)

Caleb “playing” the piano

Applauding himself

More flowers

I was planning on including a short video clip of Caleb’s new achievement, walking, but Wordpress isn’t letting me do that right now.  Maybe I’ll try again tommorrow, but I’m getting sick of fighting the computer right now. : )

…..is walking.

Videos to follow.

As of yesterday, my baby brother Caleb is 11 months old. *sniff*
Just thought you might want to know that.

(this one is quite faint)

Please excuse any odd looking things around here as I am still tweaking my blog around.

Thanks!

~Hannah

On September 10, 2001, around 3 thousand innocent Americans were murdered. They had absolutely no say over the matter.  Our nation lost 3 thousand people that day – people who may have found a cure for cancer, or become war heroes or just become one of the ordinary people that make our country what it is. They could have been so much.

But they were murdered on that day, exactly 8 years ago.

Tomorrow, almost everyone in our nation will recount 9/11 – the death of almost 3 thousand Americans. Adult Americans, that is.

What happened on 9/11 was a tragedy.

But why do we not grieve the innocent babies that are, through abortion, murdered every single day.

The number is the same.

The victims are even more helpless then the victims in the twin towers were.

Since when do those out of the womb matter more then those inside?

(In case you can’t tell, its a baby blanket.)

Last Tuesday  some of my family and I had a opportunity to hear the Republican Alabama Gubernatorial Candidat……

Go to my brothers blog to read the rest.

Just a test.