I know July has come and gone, but a promise is a promise. One of the goals on my Project 52 list was to make an awesome flag cake.
I've always wanted to make a flag dessert for the 4th of July. Usually, my ideas have consisted of using blueberries and strawberries to make stripes on top of a cake. Until I found this cake on Pinterest:
Wow! How cool is that? I decided that I was up for the challenge. I started a few days ahead so I could freeze the layers. It was a little tricky, I won't deny it.
This is how my cake turned out. Not quite Martha Stewart quality, but, not bad for my first attempt. I thought I had cut my slices much more evenly, but the evenness (or in my case, unevenness) was hard to tell until everything was all sliced, iced, and stacked.
Here is how to make this little ditty:
Opps! My center layers were a little too high. I just took off the top layer, and may have eaten it while working on the rest of the cake.
(Admittedly, I felt like draping my cake in black as we had just received the stab in the back from Supreme Court Justice Roberts about Obamacare, on June 30. However, I just might feel like baking my cake again after tomorrow night.)
Hopefully, you have made an educated decision on which candidate you want to vote for to be the next President of the United States. It is our privilege and responsibility as citizens of a free country to be informed. Remember, men and women have died to preserve our freedom. Vote!
May God bless the United States of America!
Until next time,
Have you heard the story about the elementary school in Massachusetts who tried to cave in to political correctness? (That is a terrible beginning sentence, but I'm not fully awake yet.)
Yes, these wonderful fourth grade students studied hard to learn all about the 50 states of America, and had planned to present a patriotic musical program showing off their newly found wisdom. Oh my! The finale (I assume) was to be the Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the USA". But, political correctness dictates that we must offend NO ONE (Christians don't count, of course), so a brilliant liberal (again, I'm assuming, since they are so adamant on political correctness) just changed the words to "We love the USA". The parents did not like this solution, so the school decided to just cancel the program. Great idea. Who cares about all the hard work the students put into their program.
Thankfully, the parents and students were enraged at this development, and the school relented, and the children can sing (or not sing, if they choose) the word "God". I am very encouraged, not to mention, shocked, that in Massachusetts "Common Sense" won out, even though there is always the opportunity to "opt out" of something deemed potentionally offensive. Finally. I hope it starts a trend, and people start standing up to the liberal censorship that is being forced upon us.
I also hope that those children sing their loudest at the chorus: GOD bless the USA!
How did we get to this point? It started back in the 1960's when atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair won the case to have prayer removed from the schools. (If you want to get technical about it, it started back in 1913 under the leadership of Progressive president Woodrow Wilson.) Why are atheists so intolerant? Why should symbols or words that mean nothing to them offend them? Because in this day and age of political correctness, they can scream offense and get away with it, and because those in power are anxious to get rid of anything "Christian". People wonder why we are having so many school shootings? Really? The answer is very simple. There is no moral authority anymore. Heaven forbid that anyone displays the 10 Commandments anywhere. People have become their own gods (wouldn't that be considered a religion?), and we have been told for so long that "if it feels good, do it", so it's no wonder that people are going around killing others because they are angry about one thing or another. If a society wants to take God out of every aspect of their lives, they had better be prepared for the consequences.
I could give you a big, long list of quotes from our Founding Fathers about God and government, but I'll save that for another post. Our Founding Fathers knew that a country that did not recognize God was doomed to failure.
If freedom loving people do not make their voices heard and start yelling "ENOUGH!" then there will be no more freedoms to defend.
Source
Today I am linking up with Theme Thursday, and the topic is "treasure". There are a lot of things I treasure, but most of them are not things! (I'm also trying to see how many "t" words I can use! teehee)
My first treasure comes from Colossians 2:2 & 3 - My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know they mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
My second treasure is freedom. I'm not talking about the freedom from responsibility to do whatever I want, whenever I want, at the expense of other's freedoms, such as is being proclaimed by the Occupy Wall Street bunch. I am talking about the God-given freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The freedom to pursue my dreams, and risk failure, or success. And the freedom of not having to pay for the failure of others, or others having to pay for my failures.
My fourth treasure (at least right now) would be my voice. Now, don't jump to the conclusion that I have a great voice, because I don't. But, right now, I have no voice at all. It has flown the coop. Bye bye. Gone. It left Tuesday, and I have not heard a peep from it since then. I wouldn't be freaking out about it, except for the fact that my community choral union has a concert on Friday, yep, tomorrow night. The way things look, or rather, sound, I will not be participating in that concert. Our next concert is December 2, so, hopefully, things will be back to normal by then. In the meantime, I've been drinking lots of herbal teas with honey, and sometimes a little whiskey, hoping for results. If you happen to know of any miracle cures, please feel free to share!
What do you treasure? Link up and join the fun!
First, I want to wish my firstborn a Happy Birthday.
He's 31. I had him when I was 13, so, I'm not as old as you might think! (I guess, L could also be for Liar! I didn't plan that one out very good.)
Liberty! The state of being free!
All people, from the beginning of time, yearn to be free. Enslaved or oppressed people will fight to the death for a chance at liberty.
The state of New Hampshire has the motto: Live free or die. Those words were written by a general in the Revolutionary War, John Stark in 1809. The rest of his quote was "Death is not the worst of evils."
We are also familiar with Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death." Here is the quote in context: "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
These two men, (among the millions who have fought and died for liberty), knew what they were talking about. Who wants to live a life that is enslaved? Our American Constitution has guaranteed its citizens with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our Founding Fathers recognized that these rights are given through God. They tried something that had never been done before in the history of the world. Our Founding Fathers fought to make sure Americans would have certain rights that the Government could never take away from them. (True liberty is found in Jesus Christ, and life will never be "fair" for everyone until He is reigning for eternity.)
But, there are many who are trying to distort the basic rights of our Constitution. They say that those rights mean that we all have the right to a nice house, drive a nice car, healthcare, a good job, the list goes on and on.
This poses a problem for me. Who will determine how nice my house should be? If it's my "right" to have a $60,000 house, why not, $70,000? or $85,000? or $150,000? The next question is, how am I going to get this wonderful house that is owed to me by rights? Who or what is going to make sure I get the house I should have? If the Government is telling me that it's my "right" , how might they accomplish this? But wait. What if you are living in a house that's $225,000, and I'm stuck in some $85,000 dump, well, that just doesn't seem "fair". What's to be done????
Do we still have liberty as our Founding Fathers thought of it?
Are our children free to pack a lunch from home and take it to school? Not everywhere. They might be bringing unhealthy foods to school. We can't have that! Only the Government knows what's best for our children. Every day, it seems the Government is trying to invade a new aspect of our lives, either by taxation or regulation.
Do we have liberty when we are paying $4.00/gal. for gas, and our "Leaders" are saying we should expect to be paying $5.00?
Do we have liberty when we are not allowed to drill here, and the coal mines are closed, so that "prices will necessarily quadruple"? (I heard those words come out of President Obama's mouth.) He has also endorsed Brazil to drill for oil, and said that the U.S. would become their best customer. Now, why is it OK for Brazil to drill for oil, but we can't? We have so much oil in this country, that gas should be cheap. But, then, the Government can't "encourage" us to buy smaller cars, and get rid of our big gas guzzlers.
Do we have liberty when we are 14 Trillion dollars in debt?
Do we have liberty if half of our paychecks go to pay taxes? (Local, state, federal, to name the top three.)
Do we truly have liberty?
I will close with a few quotes from some great Americans.
"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And, how do you tell and anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." - Ronald Reagan
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, not your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands that feed you; May your chains and set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams (Yeah, I know I've used this one before, but isn't it a good one?)
Are you awake?
What will you do without freedom?
This question was asked by William Wallace in the the movie, Braveheart. He was addressing his army before going into battle with the English.
(To be read with a Scottish accent)
"I see a whole army of my countrymen, here, in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men, you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?"
"Fight against that? (the much larger English army) NO. We will run, and we will live."
"Aye. Fight and you may die. Run. You'll live. At least for a while. And, dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!"
I love the movie "Braveheart." That speech always gives me chills. Yes, I realize that William Wallace was not one of our founding fathers, but he was a Scottish freedom fighter.
So, what would you do without freedom? How much freedom are you willing to give up for "security"? For "health"? For "saving the environment"? For "safety"?
Our government is systematically taking away our freedoms, slowly but surely. But, rest assured, it is all for our own good.
Here's a list of 52 taxes that Americans did not pay 100 years ago. And,if we allow it, our elected officials will continue to take more and more. They will never have enough of our hard-earned money.
Here are a few words of wisdom from some of our Founding Fathers.
Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the Tranquility of servitude better than the Animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1,1776
"
A constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost, is lost forever." - John Adams
I hope that more Americans will become aware of what is happening, and we will preserve and defend the freedoms that have made this nation great.
Have you ever heard of Constitution Day? Neither have I. I mean, I started hearing people mentioning it, but didn't realize it was an official holiday. Apparently, it's been around for quite some time in one form or another.
The purpose of Constitution Day is to celebrate the ratification of our Constitution, which was signed on September 17, 1787, by 39 men who had spent the previous three months writing, debating, hashing out differences, and finally agreeing on our Constitution. This day also recognizes all who were born in the United States, or by naturalization, have become citizens.
The celebration came about due to William Randolph Hearst working toward the creation of a holiday to celebrate citizenship in 1939. The following year, Congress designated the third Monday in May as "I am an American Day". But, on February 29, 1952, Congress renamed it "Citizenship Day", and changed the date to September 17.
So, whether you want to call it Citizenship Day or Constitution Day, celebrate your citizenship by reading the United States Constitution. You might be surprised by what it says (or doesn't say.)
"WE THE PEOPLE, of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." If you're intriqued enough to continue, click here.
And, while I'm on the subject of our Constitution, have you ever considered reading your State Constitution? I confess that I had never even thought about it until very recently, and it's on my list of things to do. There may be some interesting things in there.
I'll close with a quote on why our Constitution is so special..."I had a copy of the Soviet Constitution and I read it with great interest. And I saw all kinds of terms in there that sound just exactly like our own: 'freedom of assembly' and 'freedom of speech' and so forth. Of course, they don't allow them to have those things, but they're in there in the consitution. But, I began to wonder about the other constitutions--everyone has one--and our own, and why so much emphasis is on ours. And then I found out, and the answer was very simple--that's why you didn't notice it at first. But it is so great that it tells the entire difference. All those other constitutions are documents that say, "We the government, allow the people the following rights", and our Constitution says, "We the People, allow the government the following privileges and rights." We give our permission to government to do the things that it does. And that's the whole story of the difference--why we're unique in the world and why no matter what our troubles may be, we're going to overcome."--Ronald Reagan
