January 30, 2017

recipe // cream cheese filled rollups

 

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Have you ever gotten in the mood to just bake something? I did on Friday. So I looked at my saved recipes on pinterest and this one really stuck out to me. They looked so good. So I decided to give it a try.

This recipe is super easy and they taste wonderful. My family and I ate them all in one sitting.

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Ingredients:

  • 10 slices of bread

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

  • 1 egg yolk

  • 3/4 powdered sugar

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

  • 3/4 cup melted butter


Instructions:

Remove the crust from the bread slices

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Flatten individual bread slices with a rolling pin.

 

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Mix cream cheese, egg yolk, and powdered sugar.

 

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Combine sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

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Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture on each slice of bread

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Roll up

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Dip in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon mixture

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Place on ungreased baking sheet

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Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown

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These are absolutely delicious! And they are super easy.

I hope y'all enjoyed the recipe!

maddy

January 27, 2017

a trip to stratford hall // mini photo shoot

My family and I took a trip to Stratford Hall last week. We met Jason, Katy, and the girls up there. We had a lot of fun.
We had a picnic down by the water consisting of turkey and ham rollups, BBQ potato chips, and pickles. Oh, it was good!!!!
We ended up eating in our van since it was very cold, but we still had a good time. After eating, Ben and I went down to the beach and searched for sea shells and sharks teeth. We couldn't  find any though :( One lady there had found around five or six sharks teeth. She must have taken them all :)
I borrowed an SD card from Kristen. She warned me that it didn't always work but I used it anyway. I snapped a ton of pictures, and I was so excited to get home, download them on my computer and do a blog post about it, but then I realized that my computer wasn't reading the SD card. So, all of those pictures are gone now. I was so disappointed :(
Ben got a few pictures on his camera though.


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Pictured above is Stratford Hall

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A picture of the lovely sheep
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Stratford Hall Mill

I've been taking quite a few pictures with my camera lately. I did a mini photo shoot with Ben on Wednesday before heading for church.

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These were my two favorites, but I'm not really happy how any of the pictures turned out. I need to work on my angles, posing, and lighting, but I guess with practice, I'll get better.

maddy

January 23, 2017

My Nikon D3000

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I finally got one!!!!!! A Nikon D3000 camera!!! I'm so excited :)
I have been wanting and saving up for a camera for a long time.
I had asked Jason and Katy to keep a look out for nice used camera's on the internet. They showed me a few in the past, but they were always too expensive. So, they finally showed me this one, and it was perfect and was such a good deal too. Jason said it was a great starter camera. I prayed about it and the Lord worked it out for me to get it!
I've been snapping pictures like crazy! It's so much fun. I have been blessed with a brother-in-law who is very talented with photography and has a photography business. And since I want to improve my photography skills, Jason is going to be helping me out a lot.

The camera came with two chargers (one doesn't work :( ), a light box, an 18-55 mm lens, a remote, and a mini tripod (it's so cute)

I'm now going to be saving up for a camera bag, a camera strap (I might just make myself one of those cute scarf straps that you see on Pinterest), and a lens cap.

 

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Now that I have a nice camera, I should have nicer quality pictures on my blog! I'm so happy! :)

I'll try and keep y'all posted on my little photography adventures!

maddy

Are you interested in photography?
What kind of camera do you use?

January 20, 2017

Book Review // The Lazarus Trap

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I just recently read the book The Lazarus Trap, and I enjoyed it. A lot. Kristen bought it for me for Christmas and I started on it a couple days after Christmas. It took me about two days to read it, and I loved it from the beginning to the very end! I didn't want to stop for a second.

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I thought this would be a lovely book for my first book review!

The Lazarus Trap
Author: Davis Bunn
Pages: 288
Summary: A man wakes up in a jail cell, with no memory of his past. He is told he tried to assault a police officer. His ID says his name is Jeffrey Adams. He slowly starts to remember everything, piece by piece. His name is Val Haines, and the world thinks he's dead.
He knows people are after him. People he doesn't even know. But who can he run to for help, if he doesn't know who the enemy is?
With his past behind him, he'll do anything to claim a new life for himself. Or die trying.

 

Right when I heard about this book, I said, "I've gotta read this."  I couldn't find it at our local library, so I wrote it down on my Christmas list.
Kristen said she bought it off of Amazon.

This is a good clean read and I can honestly say I enjoyed every bit of it!

maddy

Do you like suspense novels?
Have you ever heard of Davis Bunn?

January 16, 2017

Meet My Family Part II

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Hello guys! Today you get to meet the other part of my family!

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This is Gideon, our almost six-year-old Bullmastiff. We got him when he was a few months old. We actually had him flown to us! It was love at first sight when we saw his wrinkled face for the first time at the airport!

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Gideon is extremely stubborn. Like, really really stubborn! Once he gets something on his mind, it's like impossible to get him to listen to anything.
Gideon weighs about 140 lbs. and all of him is one big baby. He's kind of like a large potato. He loves to be made over, gets his feelings hurt very easily, and is very protective over his family. In doing some research, we found out that Bullmastiffs are the top guard dogs! Though they won't attack the enemy, they will pounce on them and hold them there until their master gives them the go ahead! :)
Gideon loves: eating, his bed, eating, playing, eating, chewing on his bone, eating, being with his family, and eating. As you can tell he likes eating, and eating everything, except for his dog food that is. :D

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Next is Thomas, our furry yellow cat. He is around three years old. We got him from my piano teacher when he was a few weeks old. We believe he was the runt of the litter and was abandoned by his mother. So, we rescued him!

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This picture was taken the day after we brought him home. Wasn't he the cutest kitten ever???

Thomas is bipolar. One minute he's snuggly and cuddly and purring, and then the next minute he's purring and in attack mode. :)
He is a very indecisive cat and has a hard time making up his mind. He's in and out of the house constantly.
He loves sleeping, attacking, and, yeah, that's pretty much it.

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We have six chickens. Two Buff Orpingtons and four Rhode Island Reds. We like to call them our ladies. We named them all, (and yes we can tell them all apart) which probably wasn't a very good idea since Daddy said we're going to be having chicken for dinner when they stop laying. :( It might be hard to believe a chicken having a personality, but some of ours actually do.Theodosia is very laid back and easy going. She doesn't seem to have a care in the world.
Maud is a completely different story. She is psycho. Ben has just recently been able to get close enough to her to hold her. Maud is always the last chicken out of the coop. She's not very sociable.
Miranda is the sweetest one, and also the prettiest.

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Maxine, Prissy, and Polly make up the other half of the chickens. They are all pretty much the same.
The ladies enjoy eating and being let out of their coop to free range.
Our chickens lay whopper eggs. Like HUGE. We once got a three yolker! That was awesome! :)

So that wraps it up. You met my family.
I hope you enjoyed reading these posts. I really had a lot of fun writing about my family!

maddy

Do you have a lot of animals?
What kinds?

January 13, 2017

Meet My Family Part I

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Hello Y'all. Today I want to introduce you to my wonderful family. They are a crazy bunch, and I'm so thankful God has blessed me with them! Each of us have our own personalities, and we are all completely different in the way we do things. Yes, we do get on each others nerves at times, we're not perfect, but we love each other and are always there for each other. I wouldn't trade them for anything else in the world.

First up, my Daddy. He is the pastor of an independent Baptist church. He's been preaching there for almost fifteen years now. He loves: crossword puzzles, spicy food (especially hot wings), Baptist History, graveyards (inside joke), and old cars (The Henry J 51 is his favorite). He has brainwashed all of us kids into thinking that the Henry J is the best car in the history of cars. And it is! :)
He is the smartest man I know. He's like a walking encyclopedia. Literally!

Next, my Mama. She is a stay-at-home Mom, and has been homeschooling my siblings and I for twenty-three years. She loves: antiques, Ebay (she actually has her own Ebay business), cooking, thrifting, chocolate, and creating things.
She is also the owner of a booth in an antique mall.
She keeps a stash of chocolate in her dresser drawer for emergencies, which she tries to keep a secret! :)
Mama has a knack for decorating and making our house a home.
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Mama, Me, and Kristen

I have three siblings. Our ages our extremely far apart. For instance, there are only four of us kids and there is almost seventeen years between the oldest and the youngest.

My oldest sister, Katy, is happily married to the love of her life, Jason. They have been married, going on eight years. They have three beautiful girls, Chloe (5), Bella (3), and Emma (1). It's so funny how three sisters can be so very different. Chloe is very outgoing. She can start a conversation with a complete stranger. Bella, she is a ball of giggles. She always has a smile on her face (well, most of the time), and she loves giving hugs. Emma is very different. She is a loner and is very serious. But every so often she'll crawl up in your lap and give you a big smile and a hug! They are all so precious!
Katy and Jason's family loves: cooking, eating, spontaneous adventures, Indian food (well, actually any kind of food really!), having fun, and music.
Jason can sing, play the bass, piano, guitar, cello, and harmonica.
Katy sings, and plays the piano. And I am currently teaching Chloe the piano. Jason, Katy, Chloe, and Bella also do little specials at our church together. So yep, you could say they are a musical family!
Katy homeshools Chloe (she's in the 1st grade), and will be starting Bella with Pre K this upcoming year.
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Jason and Katy

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Daddy (Papa, as his Granddaughters call him), Chloe, Bella, and Emma

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Emma and Me

Kristen, my second oldest sister, is twenty-two. She is currently in college, and is taking Christian Education through correspondence. She is patiently waiting for her Isaac. She loves: Coca-Cola, wildflowers, simple things, cooking, bluegrass, animals (if she could, she would bring home every animal she ever saw!), and playing her fiddle/violin and guitar.

Benjamin (Ben), my little bro, is thirteen-years-old. Kristen and I call him Bub all of the time (don't ask me where it came from). He loves: cars (can you guess which one is his favorite? :) ), buying food, eating food, building things, playing his guitar, singing (all through the day he's either singing or humming), and having fun.
Right now, he wants to be a Mechanical Engineer. He's actually wanted to be that for a few years now. But he is really good at building things, so who knows what the future holds.
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Ben, Kristen, and Me

Well, that's it. That's the clan.
I hope you enjoyed meeting my family. I know this was kind of a long post, but it was a lot of fun writing it!

In part II of Meet My Family, I will be introducing you to our furry and feathery family members.

maddy

What's your family like?

January 9, 2017

My Thoughts On Friendship

So I have this friend, her name is Abigail, and she is my best friend. I met her, going on four years ago at a camp meeting at our church. We both hit it off, like right after we met. We have a lot in common. We're both pastors daughters, we love to read, and a lot of other things. Before I met her, I didn't have a best friend. So I prayed that God would send me one. I prayed that for a long time. He finally did. I'm so glad that I have a friend like Abigail!

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So I've been thinking, I want to be the best friend I can be. So here are some things that I, and you, can do to be the very best friend's we can be.

1. Pray For Them Everyday
Try to pray for them every, single day. Pray that God would take them and mold them into the godly person they need to be. And that if there is anything going on in their lives, pray that God would just use it to make them grow closer to Him. Remember, the best kind of friend is a praying friend.

2. Listen
I think for a good friendship, each person has to be good at listening. Nobody likes to listen to somebody talk all of the time, so you have to take turns. Don't hog the conversation.

3. Help Their Faith Grow
A Christian friend wont try to make their friends be more worldly. I think a true friend will try to help their friends faith grow stronger in Jesus Christ. Do not make them do anything, that would make them stumble on their walk with the Lord.

4. Always Be There For Them
No matter what happens, always be there for them. Be ready to give them a hug when they are down or when they are having a hard time. Sometimes a hug is better than a thousand words. Be ready to listen to them. (See #2.)

I hope these have helped you! And remember, ask the Lord to help you be the best friend you can be.

maddy

Do you have a best friend?
How did y'all meet?


 

 

January 7, 2017

Welcome

Hello. Welcome to little bit of sunshine. I am so excited (and maybe just a wee bit nervous) about starting this blog.
I started this blog to help other teenage girls with their walk with the Lord. I pray that the Lord will use this blog to bring honor and glory to Him!

I will be posting about a ton of stuff. Just a few things:
Book Reviews
Modesty
Friendship
Recipes
What I Wore
Music

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I came up with the name little bit of sunshine, because my Dad calls me Madelyn Sunshine (pronounced Madeline Sunshine)!

I hope when you read this blog it will bring a little bit of sunshine in your life!

Thank you so much for looking at my blog!

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