My Voice, My Heart, My Life

What can be more delicious than a soft pillow of dough crisped at the edges then bathed in sweet dark maple syrup? Nothing! Pancakes are one of my favorite foods, note not just breakfast food, I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is just something about this food that makes my mouth salivate. The beauty of a pancake is the way you can change it up. The flavor of syrup can be changed, growing up I loved them with Smucker's Boysenberry syrup. You can add different fruit compotes, my favorite is blueberries, the combination of the sweet and tart blueberries brings the pancake to a different dimension. You can add fresh fruit, bacon (YUM), nuts and chocolate to make it special. You can also make these delicious hot cakes into different shapes. You may get a few throw aways but once you get the hang of it its fun for the whole family. You can double duty cookie cutters if freestyle is not your thing. Not only can you add all these different things inside the batter

 Oscar night was really fun! I always look forward to this award show. The biggest night for Hollywood is all sparkle and glam. All the beautiful gowns, all these actors past and present coming together to celebrate the year's accomplishments. It's always fun to watch when you have a favorite and you're hoping they take home the gold, literally. Last night Billy Crystal returned to host this prestigious event. After many years of low ratings and complaints from critics and public they felt the need to bring out the big gun, Billy Crystal. Though he was reluctant at first but ultimately he couldn't say no. Thank goodness he didn't. He was entertaining, funny and had a great opening number. His jazz medley of the 9 Best Picture Nominees was great! The presenter where all in good form. Each having there own little skits, I especially liked Robert Downey, Jr. & Gwyneth Paltrow's exchange and loved Emma Stone's perky first time presenting piece. Melissa M

Today would have marked Steve Jobs 57th birthday. The world lost this creative mogul last October to cancer. Steve Jobs was an innovator, visionary and a force to be reckoned with. Beginning in a humble garage he worked to create something that was never seen before. He was an unconventional thinker.  His hard work and perserverence introduced the world to products that changed the way we view and use music, phones and social media. His vision soon became the vision of millions of others. The word Apple no longer defines a fruit but a company and a man who tirelessly sought out different ways to communicate, gather information and proceed into the future. Though he is no longer here, the spirit of this man still lives. Apple has upheld it's creator's vision and kept his legacy intact. Though it has only been a few months since his passing, Apple have shown great respect at honoring the man who started it all. So while you play games with your iPhone, iPad and iPod, or are

Today is National Almond Day! For years this nut has been on top of the "good for you" health train. Full of  manganese, vitmain E, magnesium, tryptophan, copper, vitamin B all necessary for the body. Almonds are said to reduce your risk of heart disease, lower LDL Cholesterol, provide protection against Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, helps in weight loss, prevents gallstones and gives you energy. All good things so it's no surprise that it is considered a superfood. The beautifully teardrop shape almond in fact is not a nut but the fruit of a seed from the almond tree. Almonds are native to the Middle East. It was spread through ancient times along the shores of the Mediterranean into northern Africa and southern Europe and more recently transported to other parts of the world, notably California. Yay California! It's interesting to note that a wild form of domesticated almond that grows in parts of the Levant (Palestine territory, Jordan,

Today marks the anniversary of Disney's Cinderella opening nation wide in theaters. This would be Walt Disney's sixth animation film. I'm a BIG Disney fan. I grew up with Disney. My family would make an annual pilgrimage to Disney.  It's such a marvelous and magical place. It takes you out of your everyday life and embraces you into a world full of magic, mystery, laughter, fun and creativity. I love Cinderella. I love the talking mice, especially Gus Gus (cute little chubby mouse) and the Fairy Godmother. The story is so beautiful and told lovingly. Originally the Brothers Grimm version was chosen because of the similarities to Snow White. However the immediate source was Charles Perrault's French version, which tells the story of a young girl whose father dies leaving her at the mercy of her wicked stepmother and two selfish stepsisters. Taking this foundation Disney made a few modification. Cinderella gets help from a few friends, musical a

There was a time when I thought Valentine's was a holiday invented to sell cards and chocolate. The truth is that like most holidays commercialism has taken over and the origin has been lost. There are different accounts of how Valentine's came to be, but there is one that is favored. So let's revisit why we celebrate Valentine's Day. The story begins in 3rd century Rome when Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage, thinking that single solider made better fighters than married ones. Valentine was a minister who saw this new law as an injustice. Defying Claudius, Valentine continue to perform marriages in the cloak of darkness. He was found out and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he meet a woman named Julia, the blind daughter of the prison warden. Her duty was to bring prisoners their food. Valentine spoke with her every time he had a chance. They soon found themselves in love with each other. It was said that Valentine wrote Julia a love lette

With the news of Whitney Houston's death many remembered her beautiful voice but most lamented what brought her to this point. They have completed the autopsy but wouldn't know exactly what killed her but they will say that they found medicinal drugs and alcohol. The common assumption is that she overdosed, purposefully or accidentally that we'll never know. She is one of many celebrities that have lost their life in this manner.    Anytime I hear news of someone who we think "has it all" has died and drugs are the culprit I can't help but feel so sadden. With all their fame and wealth they still felt in need. I'm never taken drugs so I can't say from experience what it feels like, but people I've spoken with say that they feel relaxed, calm, free. All their worries have gone away. It's an escape. An escape from life. There are so many things we don't know about people and what truly lies beneath the surface. What drives them to take dru

Today 53 years ago rising stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson where lost forever in the fields of Iowa. Their chartered three passenger Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Mooreheag, Minnesota. The crash was blamed on bad weather and pilot error. Buddy Holly and his band just hit No.1 with "That'll Be The Day." After mechanical difficulties with their tour bus, Holly chartered a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance Party Tour. Richardson had the flu and convinced Waylon Jennings, Holly's band mate, to give up his seat and Valens won a coin toss for the other seat. Buddy Holly (Charles Holley) was born in Lubbock, Texas. He began singing country music with his high school friends before crossing over to rock and roll. He opened for various performers, including Elvis Presley. By the mid-1950s, Holly and his band had a regula

Being that it's Groundhog Day I thought I would do a repeat with a twist. Yesterday we celebrated the signing of 13th Amendment making slavery illegal. Which in turn freed many men. women and children. They now had a say about their life. No longer was their life in the hands of someone else. For many it was the first time that they would experience freedom. How sweet and liberating it must of been to step out of the plantation knowing that they didn't have to go back. That life saving freedom. As amazing as that freedom is, there is a greater freedom that waits to be granted. The freedom of life with Jesus. Most of the time when people hear about Jesus they tune out and think that religion has too many rules, its so cumbersome, I'd feel trapped, imprisoned. When in reality the life they are living is a prison. A prison of sin and separation from God. Many know that there is a God and life has a greater purpose than just existing. It's evident by all the differen

Happy National Freedom Day! I'm sure that most of you probably didn't even know what today was and to be honest I didn't either until I saw it on the calendar. So what does this day mean? When did it come into existence? Why should it matter to us? February 1st is the day set aside to honor the signing of Abraham Lincoln and a joint House and Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865, although it was not ratified by the states until later. Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr, a former slave, believed that there should be a day when freedom for all Americans is celebrated. While spending his final years in Philadelphia he invited local and national leaders to organize a movement to commemorate Lincoln's signing of the 13th Amendment and make it a national holiday.  As a result this new National Freedom Association proposed to highlight a day that recog