The house that Grandpa built

When I was a girl my Dad made a doll house for me.  Mom and I then decorated it with bits of carpet and linoleum.  We even made curtains.  Fast forward a bunch of years.  The old flooring has been removed and the house has been repainted.  I intended to paint etc., but haven't gotten around to it yet and it doesn't seem to matter to My Girl one bit.  She likes to "decorate" the house and refers to it as "the house that Grandpa built for me".  She's only a generation off, but that's OK.  The house has gotten a lot of use lately.  These aren't the dolls I had as a girl, I honestly can't remember which dolls I used with the house.

The birds perch on top and the people tend to congregate on the terrace above the stable/garage.

There's a kitchen, a store, a very large bathroom with a fuzzy pink rug, and the baby's room.  The baby, I am told, likes to sleep in the hay.  I think that's a little hold over from Christmas.

The horses and unicorns are comfy in the stable/garage and also have a nice outdoor space they share with the pigs.

There's even a pond nearby for the mermaid and her baby.

We made a special trip to the fabric store for the field.  Luckily we found the perfect thing.

Malva Pudding

On Christmas Eve my sister in law brought dessert, malva pudding.  Yummmm.  I'd had it once before at her house, but I didn't know what it was called.  Now I know and my dessert world may never be the same.  It is a pudding in the British sense of the word, a very moist dense cake-like dessert.  This one is extremely rich with a nice crust on top, especially in the corners.  It is baked half way then you pour a mixture of cream, sugar, and butter over it and continue to bake.  The cream mixture bakes into carmel.  It's like a cake saturated in carmel sauce and crisped up on top like a toasted marshmallow.  Are you drooling yet?  I needed vanilla ice cream to cut the richness.  My husband smiled and said don't ever make that again as he ate every last crumb.   I didn't take any pictures.  It doesn't look very exciting, rather plain and brown, but it is really really good.  Just don't count the calories.
Here is the recipe I used.  There are many others online.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam (or preserves, chopped very finely)
• 5 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter (a generous tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/3 cup milk

• 3/4 cup fresh cream
• 3 1/2 ounces butter
• 5 ounces sugar
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat or whip the sugar and eggs, preferably in a food processor, until thick and lemon colored. Then, add the apricot jelly (or jam) and mix thoroughly.

Sieve together the flour, soda and salt. Melt the butter (do not boil!) and add the vinegar. Add this mixture, as well as the milk, to the egg mixture in the processor, alternately with the flour. Beat well.

Pour into an oven-proof dish, (8 x 8 inch square) and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. In a pot, melt together the ingredients for the sauce. When the cake is halfway baked, take it out of oven. Make holes in cake and pour the sauce over the pudding. Return to the oven.

 

Don't carpe diem

After writing about my word of the year yesterday I read an article by Glennon Melton titled Don't Carpe Diem, a mom who had been told one to many times to enjoy every moment.  I can definitely relate.  There is definitely a sense that time flies and I should be fully enjoying every minute of it, every single moment, especially every second with my adorable and perfect children.  Except that there are moments, hours, days when it just isn't all that fun. 


Ms. Melton talked about chronos and kairos, both Greek words for time, but vastly different in meaning.  Chronos is the time measured by the clock, the minutes and hours that mark the day.  Five minutes late for school, one hour until dinner, two hours until bedtime.  Kairos is the right or opportune moment.  As she put it, "Kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them."

Gordon B. Hinkley quoted Jenkins Lloyd Jones.  The reference was to marriage, but I think it applies to family life in general as well.

“Anyone who imagines that bliss [in marriage] is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.

“[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride”

So in my intent to enjoy this year, it isn't about filling every moment with something exciting or splendid.  It's more about more kairos, taking time to look up and enjoy the journey.

Organization

Tonight I went to a RS activity for the women at church.  Since it was January the theme was on organization, organizing finances, organizing your home, organizing yourself spiritually.  It wasn't quite what I had expected, but I really liked what I heard.
The bishop's wife is a CPA and was asked to talk about organizing your finances.  Instead of talking about how to pinch every penny until it screams or how to audit your grocery receipts, she talked about provident living.  There is a lot of emphasis on this in the church.  In fact there is a whole website dedicated to the idea.  The way she defined it was "joyfully living within your means".  I liked that.  If you are doing it grudgingly it won't stick.  You have to live.  What that "requires" is different for everyone, but you have to at least meet basic needs and be able to sustain it for the long haul.  Within implies that there are constraints.  Even if incomes are high there are still limits.  Some people with very high incomes also have very high debts.  It is YOUR means, not someone else's.  You have to do what works for your family and keep your family circumstances as the guide for what you do. 

She also talked about the idea of the Lord's storehouse.  In areas where there are a lot of members there is a Bishop's storehouse that provides food and clothing to members in need.  The Lord's storehouse is something quite different, a principle rather than a physical place.  "The Lord's storehouse includes the time, talents, skills, compassion, consecrated material, and financial means of faithful Church members."  Then she applied this to our families and the idea of living within your means.  Means is not just money, but also time, talents, compassion, etc.  It reminded me of conversations I have had recently about social capital.  Social capital includes our relationships, and our educational and social resources.  So much of what we become in life if because of the social capital we have, the connections to others around us.  We not only need to be good stewards of our financial capital, but of our social capital as well, to come to the point that we can have a surplus to share with others.

Another woman from the ward was asked to talk about organizing our homes.  She didn't tell us that we needed to alphabetize our picture books or set up a rotating schedule for cleaning our homes.  Instead she talked about wisdom.  It relates, really it does.  Wisdom is her word for the year.  When we are wise about that we bring in to our homes and our lives and also wise about what we get rid of we can reduce a lot of the chaos that is a natural part of life.  Entropy is a powerful natural force at all levels.  A friend once referred to his kids as little entropy engines.  I agree.  It takes a lot of energy to resist the tendency to disorder.  Some days I do better than others.

I guess this brings somehow me to my word for the year, Enjoy.  For the past two years my word has been engage.  I felt the need to make an effort to be more engaged with the kids and family, to engage in good work.  This year I don't feel that urgency.  I feel like I need to take the time to enjoy where I am.  I have great kids and a wonderful husband.  I need to take the time to enjoy them, play dolls, read more books with them, talk to them, listen to them.  (The doll thing is a tough one for me, but I've found if I just sit there with her I don't really need to do much.)  Just enjoy them and include them in the things that I enjoy as well. 

Good News

Finally, some good news.  Not bad news or good bad news, just good.  I had my post-op appointment today and learned the pathology results for the lymph nodes that were removed last week.  All six of the lymph nodes removed were clean.  I've been smiling ever since then. 

The next step is to meet with the oncologist.  I still have radiation therapy and probably anti-hormone medication ahead, but no chemotherapy.  I haven't exactly enjoyed surgery, but chemotherapy is an entirely different level of unpleasantness.  I'm SO glad I don't have to do that.

I'm eating a dark chocolate cashew turtle in celebration.

Thank you for your prayers, your thoughts and kindness.  It helps to have friends.

Dark Alley

I must be feeling a bit better after my surgery last week since I pulled out the paints yesterday.  This is my last painting from the wetcanvas.com tutorial.  The tutorial ended before Christmas, but I've been a little slow getting to it.

When I white balanced the photo I increased the contrast a little bit as well.  It looks better.  My actual painting is a bit more washed out.  This isn't as colorful as some of the others I've done lately but it fits the mood.  I wanted to create a cool dark alley with warm light at the end.  The original photo had red flowers, which were very pretty, but I thought they would stick out too much since there isn't any red anywere else in the painting.  I wanted to keep it to the golden yellow and the blue-violet.  The green is actually a mix of the blue and yellow ochre I was using.  The blue is a mix of indigo, cobalt, and rose madder.  It was fun.  A different color scheme than I've used before.

p.s.  I'm feeling pretty well, still a little sore and oddly numb in a few spots.  I have my post op follow up appointment on Tuesday.  I'll probably find out the results of the lymph node pathology tests then.

New Year's Eve

If you live where it is cold and snowy, or just plain cold, I'm sorry.  There is an up side to not having a snowy climate.  Unfortunately, we didn't bring swim suits.  We did however bring extra clothes.

Buddy Boy played in the surf.

My Girl preferred the rocks and dirt.

Before you get too jealous, I'll let you know that December at the beach is often warmer and sunnier than June or July when it is cold and foggy, but that also has it's advantages when it is hot on our side of the hill.

So this is how we spent our New Year's Eve day.  Wishing you a happy New Year.  I hope we can look back and remember how we have grown and what we have accomplished and look forward to a bright new year full of promise.