#285 Nomad Diary. 4-10 April 2026. Full Week at Flower Mound, Texas House Sit. Friendly House Cat Gets Her Affection. Walks Near the Lake. Spring Flowers. Birthdays. Best Cake Ever Recipe!

 

I Think That Lainey Knows I was a Massage Therapist in my Past! lol.

Cooking Andrew's 40th Birthday Desserts with Lainey Helping

Me, Andrew, Cyndy, Mom, Darrell and Kylie at Our House Sit Celebrating Andrew's 40th

Saturday. 4. We hosted our nephew Andrew’s 40th birthday party at our Flower Mound house sitting house. Our hosts have given us full use of their house and told us that we can host others here. This is an amazing benefit at this property and this housesit. Darrell and I discussed how rarely this kind of sharing and openness has been extended during our many house sits that we’ve done since 2022. We even asked Jeremy and Andrea about their house sit agreements and the permissions granted within those. Our family came for a lunch party celebration. We planned a Mexican food buffet. Cyndy brought chicken enchiladas. We fixed our standard black beans, spiced beef, and fresh salad toppings. For dessert I made a blackberry mandarin galette with vanilla ice cream. It was a very nice meal and visit. Andrew brought along some of his extensive and unique board game collection. Four of us played a game new to us, Between Two Cities, with his expert guidance. We all enjoyed learning and playing the game.

Video Call with Our Son Jeremy and Grandson Quinn (age 5 1/2)

Love This Picture of Quinn! lol.

Sunday. 5. Went to morning worship in Denton with family. Enjoyed being with the church here that we feel quite a part of and very welcomed in as we’ve been visiting here for the past 15 years! Our family went out to Cracker Barrel for lunch at Mom’s request. Darrell and I haven’t been to one for a while and we were pleasantly surprised with the new menu and the quality of our meals. We had a call with Jeremy’s family today. They are leaving for Moscow on Wednesday. 

Lainey Getting Attention

Tummy Time Rubs.

Our Housesit Patio Where We Eat a Meal as Often as We Can. The Spring Weather is Near Perfect.

Monday. 6. I talked to my sister Linda who is traveling to Florida with her husband and daughter on Wednesday. Darrell and I went and got several things at Cyndy’s house for distributing to various recyclers around the area. We took used glasses to Walmart, odds and ends to a thrift store, old cell phones to Best Buy and some metal wheels and other various metals from her garage to a buyer where we were paid $75! More than Cyndy or we expected! We went back for dinner with the family at Cyndy’s. Asked my friend Laura if she would come to Alaska and stay with us for a couple weeks in one of our airbnb’s. She’s considering it and it makes me very happy!

Walking Beside the Lake Below Our Housesit in Flower Mound, Texas

Me Taking Pictures of Flowers

Spring Texas Flowers

Tiny Flower Shown Very Big!

Tiny Spring Field Flowers

Tiny Flowers Close Up

Small Spring Field Flower Enlarged

Call with Grandson Owen (age 4 1/2)

Call with Granddaughter Esther (age 2 yrs 8 mos)

Tuesday. 7. Today is both my sister Annette’s (66) and Darrell’s sister Cyndy’s (60) birthdays. I baked a cake for dinner tonight at Cyndy’s house for her birthday. She’s an elementary teacher and is working hard all day with first graders. She’s counting her days until summer break. We’re spending the morning at our house. Afternoon online Bible class with the English church group we have known since 2022. Everyone enjoyed the cake I made for dinner. (recipe below) Cyndy said it was probably her all time favorite cake ever! That’s saying a lot for a lifetime of cake experience! Lol. It is a super-delicious cake combo. 

Lainey the Cat. Our Host at Our House Sit in Flower Mound, Texas.

Wednesday. 8. Up between 6 and 7am. Morning exercises. Delicious and regular pancake breakfast. Cat care, laundry, cooking black beans, toasting walnuts, making an eye appointment, some whatsapp conversation with Jeremy and Andrea (they leave tonight for Russia), enjoying coffee on our patio, planning our next few days. Night time Bible study at Denton church.

Thursday. 9. Cyndy wasn’t totally well today having some cold-like symptoms, she went to work anyway. Darrell and I visited Mom and took her out for lunch. Darrell straightened out some of Cyndy’s single garage and I helped a very little bit. We began to see what we thought we might be able to do to help Cyndy in some way at her house. We went back to our house for dinner.

Friday. 10. This morning Darrell had a plan on how to organize and begin cleaning some of Cyndy’s garage. We got over to her house with his plan, and got busy! He put a big tarp in the floor of the garage and we each took a section of wall in the garage. He had the back wall with shelves. I had the wall with the entry door that also has a refrigerator, chest freezer and some hanging yard tools. We began taking things out of their places, wiping off the cobwebs, washing off a lot of mud dobber nests and sweeping out. I used the hose in the driveway to spray down the shelves and other items that I could. We placed the cleaned items onto the tarp to see what all was there. As we filled the tarp, Mom came out and sat and watched. We knew Cyndy would be able to go through her items and decide what to do with them once she got home from working all day. She got home and was very happy to see that we had begun cleaning her garage for her and got so far too. We all went inside for dinner and some down time before we headed back to our house. We all talked about her next steps with the items that we had discovered. She had many multiples of tools taken on through the years from her former years living on a Missouri farm, and inherited items from her parents, and other things like sports equipment from her grown and flown kids. She was ready to start listing her excess on Facebook Marketplace, and embrace her newly cleaned garage with a huge smile!!

Nomad Notes.

My weight has come down 2-3 pounds, and is fairly stable rather than bouncing up drastically. I’ve rededicated myself to taking good care of myself with good protein-fiber-good fat macros, and low sugar diet for my age. 

I’m looking forward to Alaska. I’m enjoying this house in Flower Mound, Texas. It’s 17 miles from Cyndy’s house. That’s quite a distance for a daily visit, but it is through horse farms and mostly rural. I’ve enjoyed the ride back and forth. I also like that our bedroom is upstairs separate from where the cat stays all night in the master suite. We open the window that overlooks trees and a large lake. The night air is fresh and cool, dipping into the 50’s. I’m quite happy with the quietness, the cool air, and the view.

Best Birthday Cake Frosting Recipe:

I learned a similar recipe last year on You Tube, and made an adorable decorated cake for Esther’s 2nd birthday in August. Everyone at the party except Owen enjoyed the frosting and mostly ate it. With buttercream frosting, it is overly sweet and mostly scraped off to eat the cake alone. The frosting is essentially a stabilized and pipeable heavy whipping cream. It is very low sugar especially when compared to buttercream frosting. 

“Best Cake Ever” Named This by Darrell's Sister Cyndy.

Whipped Cream Frosting

Lightly Sweet and Pipeable for Decorating.

For one layer of cake. Serves 6-8 people.

1 pint of Heavy Whipping Cream

3 teaspoons Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix

2 teaspoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a deep mixing bowl (chilled, if possible) put heavy whipping cream, 2 teaspoons instant pudding and 2 teaspoons powdered sugar. Mix with either a stand mixer with whisk attachment, hand mixer on high, or immersion blender held down to the bottom to prevent splatter. 

I used an immersion blender and this was whipped within 2-3 minutes. Do a taste test for desired sweetness level. I added a 3rd teaspoon of pudding mix and a teaspoon of vanilla then blended it in and used this combination for lightly sweet. 

I had about 3 cups of fresh sliced strawberries.

For these berries, I would happily use mixed berries!

I had made an 8 inch layer cake (and 6 cupcakes) from an Aldi Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix.

I plated my single cooled cake layer. I sliced it in half to make it two thin layers. I topped the bottom about half with half the cream frosting and half of the fresh berries. Then I tried to spread a little frosting on top of the berries as a barrier to the cake. Then I put the top layer on and added the rest of the frosting and berries on top. 

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve within the day.

There were 6 of us that each got a good sized piece. Darrell ate a second piece. And we put a piece away for Cyndy to have later. The 6 cupcakes were extra.

With these great family reviews, I will likely make this my ‘go-to’ cake from now on.

More cake flavor ideas:

Use instant lemon pudding along with lemon zest in the pudding. Use Blueberries as the fruit that goes so well with lemon!

Get some fresh Haskap berries in Alaska or British Columbia and make them center stage with lemon flavored cream!

Banana, Chocolate and Peanut Butter

Lime and Raspberry

Orange and Mandarins

Cookies and Cream