In Search

Look what we found...

 

 

No, it's not the seagulls, though we did indeed find them.  And we would have liked to do a happy dance like theirs at our discovery.

 

It's not driftwood, though Young Warrior sure had fun making himself a fort among the rocks.

 

It's not crabs, though the children enjoyed watching the "fishermen" on the bay casting their crab-catching cages and reeling in these amazing creatures.

 

It's not seashells, though we love to find them and search for treasures in the sand.

 

 

Do you see the hints of it?  The gleaming water?  The shadows?  That certain sparkle?

 

 

 

There it is again, framing this surfer, of which there were many out on this day.

 

 

Surely the blue sky gives it away now!  Oh, it really is GLORIOUS when you haven't seen it for a good couple of weeks.  It's particularly glorious in THIS place!

 

 

And best of all, it's GLORIOUS when it illumines the ones you love engulfed in their own little bit of mirth.  Lips are indeed funny things.

 

Surely by now you've guessed?  Why, it's the SUN of course!  We've been missing it around here, stuck in a freezing fog.  We took a family day to find it and it was so worth finding.  Yes, we're still wrapped in coats at winter's brisk air, but it's ever so much better when sharing walks at the seaside with loved ones and feeling the warmth of that long-lost friend shining down on our faces.

 

So many wonders in God's creation to enjoy.  It was a perfect day to stay awake to it all.

Stay Awake

 

"This is what all the great artists and thinkers do--they stay awake to the wonder of God's world.  Great thinkers are the grateful thankers."
 

~Ann Voskamp
 

"There just isn't any need to complain, because whatever circumstances God sends--rain and snow, sickness, and trouble of various kinds--he sends in order to bless us.  But it is impossible to keep an eye out for God's blessings while harboring a complaining spirit.  Grumbling about hard things blocks our expectation of good things, and if we are not looking for good things, we may fail to see them when they come.  That's part of why thankfulness is so important.  Offering thanks to God, no matter what is going on in our lives, is a way of acknowledging that he knows exactly what he is doing and that we can trust him."
 

~Lydia Brownback, "Joy"
 

"And so I have to say that another of the golden threads is gratitude.

All through that bad time, when Virgil's absence was wearing into us, when "missing" kept renaming itself more and more insistently as "dead" and "lost forever," I was yet grateful.  Sometimes I was grateful because I knew I ought to be, sometimes because I wanted to be, and sometimes a sweet thankfulness came to me on its own, like a singing from somewhere out in the dark.

I was grateful because I knew, even in my fear and grief, that my life had been filled with gifts."
 

~Wendell Berry, "Hannah Coulter"
 

"I am not made for perilous quests," cried Frodo.  "I wish I had never seen the Ring!  Why did it come to me?  Why was I chosen?"

"Such questions cannot be answered," said Gandalf.  "You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not posess; not for power or wisdom, at any rate.  But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have."
 

~J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Fellowship of the Ring"
 

"It is an extraordinary and beautiful thing that God, in creation, uses precisely the same tools and rules as the artist; he works with the beauty of matter; the reality of things; the discoveries of the senses, all five of them; so that we, in turn, may hear the grass growing; see a face springing to life in love and laughter; feel another human hand or the velvet of a puppy's ear; taste food prepared and offered in love; smell--oh, so many things:  food, sewers, each other, flowers, books, new-mown grass, dirt...

Here, in the offerings of creation, the oblations of story and song, are our glimpses of truth."
 

~Madeleine L'Engle, "Glimpses of Grace"

Thoughts I want to take to heart in a new year.  A year for me I hope will be characterized by more "quiet" and better "habit"; not meaning, of course, that I expect my life or surroundings to be "quiet" always.  Just that I want to stay awake to these words and to the work of God in me, in those I love, and in His great and glorious creation around me.

I'm off to get out of "the fog" that is characteristic of our climate this time of year, and find some sunshine.  Off to be awake to the wonder of God's world around me and to stir up some beauty and creativity.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
 

~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

My Top Twelve Books of 2012

As 2012 closes out, I enjoy looking over the list of books I have read this year.  I am happy to be keeping my average of at least 40 books in a year.  Mind you, this does not include the MANY picture books I read to my children, but is a compilation of personal reads mixed with chapter books or read-alouds with my children.

Here are my favorite 12 of 2012 (not in any ranking order...that would be just a little too hard, but I do honestly have a few that stand out here).  This is probably more of a chronological list of when they were finished.



1.  "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic---a humorous and insightful little book to inspire me in the love and care of my littles.  Will certainly go on my re-read list.







2.  "Keeping House" by Margaret Kim Peterson---I really loved this book for its theological underpinnings about something that might seem so mundane to us homekeepers.  It gave me fresh vision on home duties at a time where I felt bogged down in the everyday, and less-than-inspired.  I promptly finished this book and handed it to my teen daughters, who also enjoyed lessons in the "whys" of what we do.




 3.  "Hans Brinker of the Silver Skates" by Mary Mapes Dodge---This one is one of my treasures from my grandmother's book shelf. I've had it on the "to-read" list for quite some time.  We read this aloud in mid-winter, which was perfect with the Holland setting and talk of (ice) skating.  We enjoyed this classic literature piece, which was a heartwarming story.







4.  "Raising Real Men" by Hal and Melanie Young---I reviewed this book here.  Definitely a must-read if you have boys.  My favorite practical book on raising boys!





5.  "The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Romance" by Heidi St. John---I also reviewed this one.  Loved her humorous and very real writing style on a topic that is of great necessity to home-educating mothers.  I also read her "Guide to Daylight" on time management, which is also excellent (and hence, I squeeze in another favorite book without actually listing it!)










6.  "Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey"---a fun biographical read to encounter in my month of British "library-books-on-hold-that-all-arrived-at-the-same-time."  A fascinating read, which I discussed a bit more here.


 7.  "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom---our Bible Bee studies this year served as a catalyst to also get us back into missionary biographies and stories of great heroes of the faith.  Since this had also been a book I wanted to read aloud for some time, this was the year.  We appreciated it deeply for all of the reasons that make it a great in Christian history.  It was brought to life all the more because we actually had opportunity to visit the Ten Boom museum in Holland when my now-big- girls were small.  One of our favorite picture memories of that trip was a photo of them standing in that hiding place.  Powerful and stirring.


8.  "Almost Amish" by Nancy Sleeth---I checked this book out from the library and it was a stirring read for me.  Though I do not subscribe to romanticizing the Amish or their way of life, I did appreciate some of the lessons this woman gleaned from their lifestyle that can be very thought-provoking.  Mostly this book had me thinking about community and simple living.  I really liked hearing how this woman and her family mades some drastic changes in their lifestyle and how they were benefiting from it.  I thought long and hard about this book and it's one that had staying power with me.


9.  "A Woman's Wisdom" by Lydia Brownback---This book came by high recommendation of a very trusted friend and fellow-reader.  In fact, a few of my top 12 books did.  When it comes to this genre of books in particular, I usually know that if she has high recommendations I am going to feel the same way.  And I was right!  I had some of Brownback's books "marked" for a someday read, but when I saw this one, I jumped at the giveaway (and won!).  I'm so glad I did.  This is a certain re-read.  This book is greatly convicting and was very needful for me, personally.  I add my highest recommendation to this one!



10.  "The Homestead Blessings Cookbook"---by the West Ladies.  Well, it is a cookbook.  Which means it isn't necessarily a reading book, though there are several vignettes to read in it.  But I like this little gem for me and my homestead-loving daughters.  It's been fun to try a whole lot of these recipes.  We still want an outdoor kitchen someday.




11. "The Thunder" by Douglas Bond---We have read many books aloud by Douglas Bond.  I think the Mr. Pipes books are our favorites.  The "Crown and Covenant" series are interesting and we do need to know about the sacrifices and difficult circumstances our Scottish ancestors lived through for the cause of Christ, but the graphic descriptions are often hard for my feminine side to stomach (so I sometimes edit while reading aloud).  While "The Thunder" certainly does not sugar-coat anything, it was a bit less graphic and I just appreciated the whole story about one of our heroes of the faith, John Knox.  My older children constantly asked for me to read another chapter.



12.  "The Fruitful Wife" by Hayley DiMarco---Oh.  my.  What can I possibly say about this book, except that it should be read by every Christian wife who is serious about growing in the fruit of the spirit (which should be all of us).  I liked DiMarco's honest reflections (and I said "ouch" just a few too many times because I have a feeling her personality is a bit like mine)--they add credibility to her writing without detracting from her message and focusing too much on her self.  This book is hard-hitting, yet encouraging and I will be revisiting this book again in the near future.

Now I'm off to start pondering my reads for 2013!  Looking forward to more biographies, more read-alouds (the best time of every day), a couple of classics, more stirring reads, some fun reads, and how it all will (hopefully) grow and change me and the ones I love!  Happy New Year!

Homemade Marshmallows (without corn syrup!)

 

Truth be told...I am not a big marshmallow fan.  I do like to roast them over a good campfire and melt them into a s'more.  But in general, I don't like how sweet they are.  My children, however, love them.  Every time we go to the store and pass by that aisle, they ask.

 

 

"Please, can we get marshmallows for......(fruit salad, hot chocolate...anything?)?"

 

Mama:  "Noooooo," (as she picks up the bag and reads the label to her self just one more time just to prove she knows why she is saying no), "we don't need them."  (And quietly she says something about how much "junk" is in the ingredient list and wonders what these really are anyway...her health-conscious girls nodding in agreement, but sighing still over not having any in said fruit salad or hot chocolate).

 

 

Well, if you are thinking that I never eat anything unhealthy, you would be wrong.  But I am very mindful, particularly about artificial ingredients and colorings, and my motto is, "If you can make it yourself, you ought to."  (Most of the time, anyway).  And marshmallows....well, their ingredient list always makes me squirm.

 

Last year, we tried making our own for the first time.  They were peppermint ones and were definitely tasty.  But they made a large batch, and we got tired of the candy-cane flavor in everything.  So this year, we wanted to do it again.  I put it in the schedule of fun things to do during Advent.

Then I got out the recipes to prepare.  And made a discovery we didn't like...there was corn syrup in the recipe!  This would not do.  So, after some more research we found a recipe without corn syrup, but it still needed tweaking.  We improvised and created our own tasty results.  There's no way of getting around the sugar.  But at least we can make the sugar as natural as possible and without all of the artificial flavors and colors.   It's really very easy to do!  Ready to try it yourself?

Get out your ingredients.  There aren't too many.  We like this sugar (we buy it from Costco).

 

Here you can somewhat see how fluffy it looks when it has doubled in volume.  When we first poured in the syrup, we thought for sure our marshmallows were going to be light brown because our sugar is not bleached white and contains its natural coloring.  To our surprise, they turned out white and look like regular marshmallows!  And all without the use of blue food coloring.  Why do they do all that stuff to packaged food?

 

 

You could also dust them or roll them in toasted coconut.  You may want to dust

them with extra powdered sugar (or coconut) on the sides so that they do not stick to each other in storage.

 

 

And since we had our first snow yesterday (Hurray!), we got to try them out in our hot chocolate or eggnog lattes.  I think they were the perfect touch.  Even for one who doesn't normally go for marshmallows.  I think this will become a regular staple in the house for those occasional touches to fruit salad, hot drinks in the winter, and maybe even the candy cane fudge the girls are wanting to make for Christmas.

****My apologies that the recipe is hard to read.  I am experimenting with some things and always learning ( I have a LOT to learn!).  I hope to try to fix that very soon.

 

 

 



An Extra-Special First Sunday of Advent

If you are a Christian, you are already aware that today marks the first Sunday of Advent.  It is perhaps our favorite time of the year.  So what makes this one "extra-special?" 

Today marks the anniversary of the day my Tender Warrior proposed to me, 22 years ago.  What is more, it was a Sunday.  And it was the first Sunday of Advent then too.  Young college students that we were and starting to talk about a future life together, we had heard a stirring message about celebrating Advent in the home on the week prior.    That first Sunday of Advent was full of surprises, but I will never forget starting this tradition on that night as we sat looking out over Lake Washington, candle and book in hand.

We did not have any photos of the glorious event.  Back then, I think our lame cameras wouldn't have handled it--the candle lighting the darkness.  Beautiful, but hard to capture on a Kodak Disc or whatever other camera we might have had.  We didn't have any staged friends, hiding in the bushes, to capture photographs like some of our friends do now.  Here, however, is a photo of my Tender Warrior and I a couple of years ago.  We wanted to find the spot and the special bench and show it to our children.  So this was the 20th anniversary picture, I suppose you could say.

This morning, I heard this song on Pandora.  (I love the instrumentals available on Pandora!)  It was mixed in among many beautiful and stirring hymns.  Sometimes Pandora strikes me a little funny in that I wonder how it chooses certain songs when they don't seem to fit the rest of the genre.  However, this song was played.  And I believe the Lord knew it was one I needed for this day and this time.  We have had a bit of a health trial in our home lately, which is why I have been more absent than usual from the blogosphere.  It has demanded just about every ounce of extra energy, time and devotion I could have.  Sometimes it threatens to defeat me. 

So, hearing this....just what I needed. 



I devote this song to my Tender Warrior today.  Thank you for choosing a life with me and for the years of Advent celebrations we have shared together from the very beginning of our marriage and as our family has grown.  May this bless you today as you are working your "warrior" job.  I am so grateful that every year when this day comes, it is marked with an extra special beauty.

Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Cupcake's Tale (A Story of Forgiveness)

Being a day of celebration, the Lady of the House set about making a special treat, as is her custom.  She settled upon a cupcake recipe.  I felt delighted to be chosen because the Lady of the House does not consider herself a "cupcake" sort of lady.  Something about not yet being able to create something scrumptious enough and that most of hers seem too bland or just plain "cake-ish".  But, she had them in her mind.  And all because she had a gourmet cupcake at, of all events, a poultry swap!  This lady (at the poultry swap) was a true cupcake gourmet and after perusing her menu, The Lady of the House settled upon an Autumn Cupcake.  She shared it with her poultry-loving daughters who were in attendance with her.  And all agreed, it was indeed a scrumptious cupcake.

So, this being the perfect occasion, she settled upon a recipe and made some twists of her own to try to replicate something similar.  The piece de resistance?  A Chai Carrot Cupcake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting.  Just saying the name made her a little bit giddy.  For she really wanted to bless her family with such a treat.

Off to the kitchen she went, busy with measuring, mixing, grating, blending spices, and baking.  Oh, how good they smelled in the oven.  And they looked so lovely and rounded, sitting in those nice fall paper-lined baking cups.  She set them carefully on the cooling rack.  She prepared the frosting and refrigerated it during dinner, so that it could retain a nice shape while being artistically swirled upon the top of the finished cupcakes.

The Lady of the House and the Man of the House talked of them during dinner, among other conversations of the day.  The Man of the House told of a multi-car pileup accident on the highway as he rode the bus into work in the morning.  We noted that it wasn't even foggy, so we wondered how such a thing happened.  The Man of the House suggested a wonderful idea--to share cupcakes with neighbors as a gesture of kindness and light-bearing on an otherwise dark night.  The children were all excited to deliver and so they set about finishing the cupcakes when dinner was finished.

The daughters wanted to help decorate because pastry bags full of frosting are hard to resist when one is creative and artistic at heart.  Pastry bags were soon loaded.  The Lady of the House, being bent toward perfectionism (and not liking that aspect of her character too much, but struggling with it just the same), sought to make them look as beautiful as the cupcake gourmet's.  They were indeed lovely, even if not as pretty as the cupcake gourmet made them.

And here is where my tale starts to get more personal.  I was thrilled to be topped with such lovely decoration and to be turned from something somewhat plain looking, to something fancy.  Perhaps the Lady of the House was like my fairy godmother?  Regardless, we all were finished and sat awaiting the basket to be carried to neighbors.  Some were set aside for them and some were set aside for her family when they concluded their gift-giving and reconvened for their own family time, looking forward to hot cider and some more of their Reformation story.

Upon their return, they set about preparing cupcakes for the table.  They thought the cupcake tree would be just right for a centerpiece.  The Daughter of the House carefully put the first cupcake on (which was me).  And then it happened.  Off I toppled, landing in a puddle of cream cheese, turned upside down on the floor.  This upset her greatly.  The Lady of the House was also rather frustrated and did not respond kindly to her daughter's accident.  Along came the Man of the House and being just a little annoyed at his daughter's drama, he too toppled a cupcake.  This upset the Lady of the House even more.  There we were...a pileup, as it were, of a few cupcakes.  And a pileup of fragile emotions and tears.

The Lady of the House was discouraged at her own failures and was no longer in a happy, celebratory mood because she was so irritated with her own sin.  Her daughters were heavy-hearted because their Mama was heavy hearted.  The Man of the House, being a steady man who is quite adept at calming the sometimes dramatic emotions of his wife and daughters, sought to turn the attentions of his household to brighter thoughts.

It being late, the Lady of the House had plenty of work ahead to prepare her household for bedtime.  But first she sought out her two daughters, one at a time, to seek forgiveness.  Such moments are always bittersweet; bitter for the sin that caused the offenses, and sweet for the power forgiveness has to cleanse and make anew.

As she embraced one of her girls, she remembered the story that the Man of the House shared at dinner; the one about the six-car pileup.  She said to her daughter that she thought that this was a picture of what just happened in her own household and how one person's frustration feeds another's until there is left an accidental pileup--one that needs a gentle hand to come in and untangle all of the mess that was made to set it all right again.

After settling little ones to bed, the Lady of the House began to breathe deeply at the calm that comes upon a household at bedtime.  Though still in agony over her own failures, she was beginning to see above them.  As one little daughter climbed out of bed to have her skin treated for mysterious, persistent itchiness, the Lady of the House gently rubbed the salve upon her then accompanied her back to bed.   As she did, she smelled a familiar smell still lingering in the air and said to herself, "It smells like cupcakes in here."  The thought made her smile, as she remembered a quote from Lark Rise to Candleford that she had heard only the night before: 

It is only by making mistakes and hurting one another that we learn the greatest of human joys:  forgiving and being forgiven.
 

That oh-so-pleasant, lingering aroma--the one left by us cupcakes--served as a poignant reminder that forgiveness is indeed sweet.  The Lady of the House is ever grateful for such a kindness from her Savior.

 

 
 

 

   

Reformation Day in our Home

 

Today concludes our annual month of Reformation study.  That just means we spend the month of October each year with a focus in our literature on an aspect or hero of the Reformation.  Don't know what this "Reformation Day" is all about?  There are many resources on the internet, but you can visit this one for a brief description.  In short (very short), October 31, 1517 was the date that Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Hall and was a huge catalyst to the Protestant Reformation in Europe.  Luther tends to be what people think of when they think "Reformation," but the scope of people and events all over Europe is so much broader and fascinating!

So what, or who, have we been keeping company with this month?  We chose John Knox.  We have read some books on him in the past, so this year we chose this historical fiction book by Douglas Bond.

And since we are focused on John Knox, it's the perfect time to learn more about Scotland!  So we checked out some resources from the library on Scotland--books, travel videos, and music, of course.  I have yet to try out some simple recipes, but you can be sure I'm not going to have haggis on my menu!  This study has been very fun and I have learned a lot.  We thought maybe we should trace our family lineage to Scotland so we could have an excuse to have a family tartan and Tender Warrior might just wear a kilt (not likely), but any lineage to Scotland would come through my side not his.  The children decided after one of our travel videos, that Mama should be able to play the bagpipes since I play the Irish tinwhistle and the bagpipes are much like a recorder with some air blown in a bag.  Alas, while I think it would be fun to try and I do enjoy listening to them for a little while at parades, I suppose it doesn't fit me too well.  I like strings and harps and flutes and the piano.  Now we are all ready to visit Scotland someday (maybe when I get to England, hmmmmm?)

For my own personal reading time, I chose this book from the library:

This is the first "adult" book I have read by Liz Curtis Higgs.  I have to say my all-time favorites of hers are her children's Parable series books.  I have not read any of her Christian fiction....it's just not my genre.  She does have a series based on Scotland.  And she admits she has fallen in love with Scotland in all of her travels and studies for her books.  So this book reads like you are her travel companion.  It's kind of an interesting way of writing a book.  I enjoyed it and her humorous style of communication.

 

As for children's videos, there aren't too many out there yet, and I haven't seen one on John Knox yet (or Martin Luther) that would appeal to me.  But here is a series on Heroes of the Faith called Torchlighters that we learned about through Bible Bee.  It is produced by Voice of the Martyrs and I think it is very well done for a children's series.  To date, there are just 10 titles.  We've enjoyed a few of them throughout our Bible Bee studies.  As for the Reformation, the one on William Tyndale would be most suitable.

 

 

We do love fall and the beauty and bounty that God has provided for us.  We also love history and appreciate the history of the church.  We think it's important to spend this month and this day celebrating these things and shining a light in the darkness that surrounds us.  That has meant we have tried different approaches over the years to do this.  Some have been successful and others.....well, we thought we could have done better, but we trusted that the Lord used it anyway.
 

So, we will wrap up the month with some cozy apple cider and pumpkin recipes (maybe I'll get to those Scottish recipes yet, but perhaps not today) and some good stories in the evening.  My littles still like carving pumpkins (no scary faces or evil symbols here!) and I do realize some Christians don't agree.  We just use the opportunity to go through the "Pumpkin Patch Parable" book and use the pumpkin to tell the story of salvation.  Just one way we seek to redeem the day...because all things were created for His glory.  And we are always learning, always reforming.  "Sola Reformanda" is our theme.  Not only for this Reformation-themed month, but for every day of our lives for His glory.

 

 

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