Butter Cookie Banana Pudding

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I don’t use Vanilla Wafers in my banana pudding.  If you are a Southerner, take a few deep breaths…I promise it’ll be okay.  I add an unexpected ingredient also.  We’ll get to that soon…after you recover from the cookie revelation.  My swap out from the traditional favorite came from necessity.  After becoming a stay at home mommy, I became a deal seeker in an effort to keep my new gig.  I also had more time to fuel my love of cooking.  So when I discovered my husband’s aunt’s banana pudding recipe in her church cook book, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  It’s a staple dessert found each year at the Fourth of July cookout.  So I made my list, clipped my coupons, loaded up my munchkin and headed off to the grocery store.  I picked out a bunch of bananas, cool whip, sour cream (yep, sour cream) and rounded the corner to the cookie aisle.  Much to my dismay the “Nilla Wafers” were nearly four bucks a box! I scanned the row for a sale price, something to rescue me and my banana pudding.  That’s when this frugal momma made a dessert-altering decision.  I found the Sunday School cookies.  You know, the little round butter cookies that you can put on the end of your finger.  I tossed the package in the cart with optimism and haven’t looked back since.

Butter Cookie Banana Pudding

1 large package vanilla instant pudding
2 ½ cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces sour cream
8 ounces Cool Whip
4 bananas
1 package of butter or shortbread cookies

Whisk pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract for about two minutes until thickened.  Stir in sour cream and then gently fold in Cool Whip.  In a large bowl, layer cookies, bananas, and pudding mixture.  Top with crumbled cookies.

Reign on Me

“The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”   Psalm 97:1

“Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
My boys really need to go
Outside to play.”

If I’ve learned anything over the past few weeks as we’ve been soaked with rain, it’s that this family does not need to move to Seattle, England, or the Tropical Rain Forest in the foreseeable future.  These boys really don’t need to be cooped up in the house and mama really doesn’t need them to be either.  Even after surviving the pent-up energy levels, there’s the mud to deal with.  Whoever designed my kids’ shoes with all of their crevices for holding dirt, mud, and rocks, must have had enough money to hire a maid.  Now don’t get me wrong, I like the rain.  Rain that fits into the day’s plans.  Rain that doesn’t ruin a picnic or parade. There’s nothing like a nice shower to cool a hot day.  Or a steady rain when you can curl up with a blanket and a bowl of soup.  It’s the times when you’re out trying to do life and the drizzles turn into downpours that get to me.  When you’re holding a toddler’s hand, pushing a shopping cart, and attempting to load up the week’s groceries.  The times when the flat iron has made it out of the cabinet and through your hair and of course, the umbrella is no where to be found.  Or when you’ve gone out on a limb and mopped the floors and the children run through the backdoor with a vengeance (see above reference to mud.)  Rain that muddies life.

“Reign, Reign, go away
Come again another day
This girl really wants her own way.”

Then there are those times when the skies are clear and we've got it all together.  Things are nice and neat, just the way we want.  Jobs seem secure, relationships feel comfortable, someone agrees to try spinach at dinner.  Life is sunny.  Then the drip drops gently descend or the bottom falls out and life is no longer the way we’ve planned.  We stomp our feet in the puddles and demand life go the way we desire forgetting that the One who creates the rain is reigning.

“Reign, Reign, come today.
Rule my life in every way.
This girl really wants You to stay.”