Cookie mountain....

I have been so absent updating my blog and I apologize for that. I have been baking like a mad-woman these past couple of weeks. The Mina Project that I am doing through my church-- where they give you $10 in seed money and it is your job to use your talents to build that $10 into more, then release the money back into the community for needy families--has been very active since I started before Thanksgiving, but even more so right now. I have been baking breads and charging $10 for each loaf. So far I have raised $350--35 loaves! Now the Christmas rush starts and on Friday and Saturday alone, I have 11 loaves due. The beauty is that it's another $110 dollars. That puts my total Mina money raised up to $460. I am soooo proud and sooo grateful to my neighbors and teachers at Cassie's school and friends who have ordered! I think that I may make this a yearly event to raise money for someone who is in need. My Mina money, btw, is going to Interact of Wake County, a charity Sal & I have long supported.

The loaves are in addition to other orders that have come in over the past few weeks. It has been a very lucrative holiday for the Heavenly Scents Bakery, for sure! The past few days I have filled orders for not only Mina bread, but a large 250 Christmas cookie order, another platter of 30 cookies, 3-50 piece dessert trays, not to mention the weekly Sunday breakfast I do for 200. It's been very busy.

Through all of this, I give my thanks to God. Re-building this business since the move back to NC has been what I have prayed for ALOT over the past year and the clients are coming. Just like the Field of Dreams "If you build it they will come", I prayed for it and it has come and it still is. I am soooooo thankful! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!

Red Leaf....

....this little guy is holding on for dear life as all his buddies have all but fallen to the ground. I don't think this years' Fall was as brilliant and colorful as ones in the past, but it was lovely, none the less. There are stretches of twisty country road back here that have been my favorite routes to travel lately only because of the tunnel of colors I could fly through. Beautiful.

Later today, I will plant the rest of my daffodil and tulip bulbs as I already prep for next spring. Since this is a new house, the planting and landscaping is pretty much a blank-slate right now. The builders landscaper was very kind to plant a few daylilies around the property instead of his usual foundation plantings. I've added numerous ones to them, thanks to Broadwells Nursery out in Angier, which has the bestbestbest selection for next to nothin' prices. But I gotta get these bulbs in. I love daffodils and have already planted about 300 bulbs with another 300 to go in the dirt. Told ya! I love my front and back yards to be a sea of those little yellow cups in the Spring. I don't plant them formally, just scatter them about. I don't normally plant tulips because my squirrels end up eating all the bulbs before they get to bloom the first time. Maybe in this new location the squirrels won't have such high-end appetites? Probably not, but we'll see.

I'm also kicking off a Mina project through my church today and am counting on my neighbors to help me. This is all about taking your blessings and gifts, multiplying them and releasing them back into the community to help others. THAT is what loving one another is all about, right? I am taking orders for my holiday breads that I will 'sell' for $10 with all the money going to Interact of Wake County, one of my favorite charities. Cassie will be my runner today and deliver little fliers out to all their mailboxes. I hope I get orders for more than I can handle! I'll keep you up to date on how it goes. In the meantime, have a great weekend!