A sweet friend and aspiring blogger once asked me to guest write on her fledgling blog. I was happy to do so, as I was trying to get my own blogging endeavor off the ground and thought exposure to someone else’s audience might be helpful. As we all know, life doesn’t always follow our plans. God had other plans. My friend’s life filled up with the other good things God had planned for her life, and the blogging endeavor went by the wayside.
I almost deleted the article I wrote as a guest, because it remained unpublished in my draft folder for years. Before hitting “delete,” I re-read it and decided to hit “publish” before another year passes. It is my hope that this post will encourage another caregiver. I hope they find that no matter where life leads us, with God’s assistance, we can live by God’s grace and for His glory.
If you are a caregiver for a loved one with dementia (or some other form of life-altering illness), there may come a day when you realize you need to consider other options for providing the best care. Perhaps the post that follows will be helpful as you wrestle with that important decision.
Feeling more than a little bit under the weather right now. Whatever my husband has hit me hard yesterday. I tried my best not to get sick, but the monster cough caught me.
Wayne feels horrible about sharing whatever this is with me, but we are now sporting his and her bottles of cough syrup.
I typically bake at BeeHive Assisted Living and Memory Care on Mondays and Thursdays. I don’t like tantalizing people with the aroma of fresh baked goods and then saying, “Sorry, that’s for tomorrow.” So, Monday is my coffee cake day and Thursday is the day for fresh from the oven baked cookies.
I have developed a general 4-week plan, so many desserts repeat every 4 weeks, rarely repeating a particular dessert during that time. It’s SO fun. Today, I’m going to share the recipe for Brown Sugar Crumb Cake.
My copy of the recipe — my scribbles and all.
I’d like to give a shoutout and huge word of thanks to Shelly Jaronsky. I found Shelly’s recipe via Pinterest on her sweet website Cookies and Cups. I encourage you to check out the other yummy recipes on her site too. If you’d like to print your own copy of this brown sugar amazingness, just click here.
Shelly’s recipe description of this cake says it all:
The ULTIMATE Crumb Cake Recipe!! Brown Sugar Crumb Cake is a brown sugar twist on your usual coffee cake! It’s a rich and soft brown sugar cake topped with a thick layer of brown sugar crumbs AND a brown sugar icing!
Coffee cake batter
I’m baking for 32 people, so make two 9×13″ pans of this recipe. I double the cake batter recipe, substituting sour cream for the Greek yogurt. I generally use light brown sugar; but, if I happen to have dark brown sugar, I use half dark and half light. I’m also very generous with vanilla extract, adding an extra teaspoon. A big scoop helps me distribute the double batch of batter evenly between the two pans.
Brown Sugar Streusel
A double recipe of this brown sugar streusel deliciousness would be amazing, but a single recipe will amply cover both coffee cakes with crumbs. For the best crumb, make sure your butter is cold. I use a bench scraper to slice each stick lengthwise, then cut into small cubes. A pastry cutter works beautifully in the task of cutting the butter into the sugar/flour mixture. It’s ready when you can lightly squeeze a handful of the crumbs and they hold together.
Bake these at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until it tests done. It might need a few extra minutes, but be careful you don’t overbake it. While it’s baking, make up a batch of the Caramel Topping.
Caramel Topping
You can go ahead and make a double batch, but as with the streusel, I find that a single batch of the caramel topping is enough to generously drizzle over both cakes while they are still warm.
It’s always a good sign when it gets real quiet in our dining room when dessert is served. That means the dessert is being enjoyed. There are smiles all around and a few thumbs up from happy diners.
I walked alongside my mother in the part of her life where Alzheimer’s dementia was her daily companion. I’m grateful for that time spent with her and learned so much as we traveled those years together.
She’s been enjoying heaven for three years now —freed from the bondage of failing mind and body. In these three years, I’m gradually learning to enjoy the freedom to spend moments (more like hours) of joy playing in the dirt in my garden.
If you were to visit my garden (and I hope you will), you might notice little splashes of purple objects d’art sprinkled throughout the flowerbeds. Second-hand curtain and drapery rods, trellises, and various chairs have all taken on a coat or two of purple spray paint.
Why purple? It’s both in memory of my mother (who loved that color), and also my quiet nod to Alzheimer’s awareness.
Joining my friends at Six on Saturday for some garden-related photos and fun. There’s not a whole lot going on my December garden–nothing that merits taking photos, anyway. There’s not even a trace of snow to photograph. Rather than bore you with photos of brown stuff, I thought I’d finish up a post I started way back in April, but never posted.
That’s true, although, it helped that we flew this time. But spending time with Melinda, my fellow gardener and friend, is always a treat and well worth the miles.
One fine day in October, I took a lovely morning stroll with Melinda through LSU Ag Center gardens. Proven Winners (my favorite purveyors of all things growing) has trial gardens here. Weather in Louisiana this summer sure put the flowers to the ultimate test of heat and “exceptional drought” conditions. Summer in October was waning, but the heat still packed a punch that day with temps flirting with 90°F by early afternoon.
‘Blue My Mind’ is a dwarf morning glory in an intense shade of blue, which looked exceptionally lovely as a front of the border ground cover.
Oh how I hope this Celosia becomes available in Zone 5! Such pretty purples!
The extreme drought conditions in the south were definitely the ultimate challenge. There were a few places throughout the numerous flowerbeds where I noticed that their drip irrigation system was not functioning properly. Plants in those gardens suffered accordingly, as was proven by plant tags with crispy plants, or no plants at all. But this bed of “Louisiana Super Plants” fared well and looked gorgeous.
We were anticipating the possibility of a frost when our Mandevilla vine was just hitting its stride. I needed to make a decision about bringing it in for the winter. I had tried bringing my Mandevilla in last year and wrote about it in my post “Mandevilla: Bringing the Outside In.” My goal had been to keep it as a houseplant, but it dropped leaves like crazy and looked mostly dead, so I composted it. I have since read up a little bit more on how to overwinter this plant and think I may have given up too soon. I didn’t realize it was normal for the plant to go into dormancy.
The Advent traditions in the church are beautiful. One of my favorite moments in my church is when a child walks down the aisle holding a candle. Each step of the way, the light of their candle reflected in their eyes as they slowly walk to the front of the sanctuary where they will carefully light the next Advent candle. While they walk, someone is reading an Advent selection to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Today, I want to thank Lindy Thompson for sharing the candle of Joy in such a beautiful way.
My new doctor sat in the corner listening as she typed information into my medical record. It wasn’t really a physical exam, as much as an information gathering and getting to know you session. My initial impression of her was favorable. She seemed to be a good listener, asked good questions, and didn’t make me feel rushed.
Barefoot Lily Lady 