Hot Chocolate

I like hot chocolate. I make it in my Magic Bullet - a marriage of economy and decadence. My cup'a chocolate is way better-tasting than, say, this.

(In my humble opinion). Yes. As fast as I can say do you want hot chocolate and grab Kent's Swiss Miss out of the pantry for him, I can be pulling powders off the shelf for my own cup of water and standing next to him at the microwave ready to heat it. Two minutes max: in a tall cup on the Bullet I whirl my ingredients then pour the chocolate into a mug. One minute in the microwave; stir as steam rises. Add marshmallows. Sometimes I don't add marshmallows as I'm in a hurry to sip! There's froth, and it gets on my lip.

I'm a lucky girl.

Nat's Favorite Hot Chocolate, one mug
2 Tbsp. powdered milk
2 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer, any flavor
1 or 2 Tbsp. powdered sugar, optional
3/4 Tbsp. malted milk powder
1 1/2 Tbsp. Special Dark Hershey's Cocoa, Dutch-processed
2 Tbsp. NesQuik Chocolate Flavor or, lately, Walden Farms Zero-Calorie chocolate syrup
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cinnamon to taste
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of fine sea salt
8 oz. water

Little Things that Make Me Feel Festive 2009

Tonight I worked on the computer pulling images from the Internet for a Christmas page I wanted to do. I love what I found. Happy! I'd written a list to go by before I started looking, so I knew generally what I wanted - things that make me feel festive. Here are some of these, not in a particular order:

Christmas aprons
cinnamon sticks
lit candles
pretty wrapping paper
vintage Santas
pink cheeks and bright eyes

I DID Google "pink cheeks and bright eyes." One image that came up was a baby's bare bottom! Oh well, I love the cheeks I got (below).  I had way more things on the list because to complete a page like I did last year, I needed 17 pictures. They came to me - it was so fun. Click and see.

A little Christmas story

Last year Mom and Dad drove to Dallas to spend Christmas with my brother Chris and sister-in-law Karen and their boys, and my Jenny. My grown up, beautiful girl. My Christmas elf - Jen - picked all the red M&Ms out of a big bag of Christmas M&Ms and put them in a smallish jar and put that under the tree for my mom for her Christmas present.

I thought of this when I saw red and green M&Ms today.

Felties

I never buy digital scrap supplies from online merchants. Never. It's a hard rule to keep, considering the very high quality of products these days. Designers really know their stuff - digital supplies are eye-popping! Gorgeous! So for me in three years digital shopping has really been digital window shopping. When the designer is kind he or she will hand off a sample, a freebie on their blog, and I snag it; and when they're ultra-generous, a mini-kit - never do I end up with all the parts.

It's calculated -

1. It spares the family $$$.

2. It spares the computer hard drive.

3. It spares my time for better things.

This morning I forewent this strictest rule ever when . . . I saw these.



There's an angel and a star too! I handed over my money. (Never say never.) I figure this is very specific and seasonal a thing, right? Timely in a time of gift giving and getting. I used my excuses and my credit card.

Christmas is near

Is it amazing the year is almost gone? We had a great Thanksgiving, the two of us working together in the morning then our neighbor coming over for a couple of hours to eat with us. Kent's dressing was outstanding, and what I most craved on my plate. It's always that way - when the turkey comes out of the oven we each grab a fork and pick at bits of dressing right from the bird! Anyway, we've had a couple of rounds of turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie since that good dinner yesterday - tomorrow it would seem right to get Christmas music playing around here and get decorations out. I'm dragging my feet - it can't be, can't be Christmas is here! I'm not quite to where I was when I posted this a couple of years ago.
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Hales, 2008


I made a recipe of quick bread today with carrot pulp from my morning juice: 3 carrots, 2 Granny Smith apples and one stalk of celery. SO good! The carrot pulp only is what I put in the bread recipe, and because it's moist I reduced the amount of boiling water. The apple pulp I'll put in French Toast batter tomorrow for breakfast with egg and milk and cinnamon. [Oh no, she's going to carry on about juicing and pulping vegetables, and who cares. Easy, Nat.]

CRANBERRY CARROT BREAD



1½ cups grated carrots
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (I used left over whole-berry cranberry for part.)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 cup boiling water
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

In large bowl, beat together oil and egg. Stir in carrots, cranberries, brown sugar, lemon juice, and soda. Pour on boiling water and let rest.

In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients. When carrot mixture has rested at least 10 minutes, add flour mixture and stir just until moistened.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 F for 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.

*Note: I always have an uncooked middle when I put all this batter into one loaf pan; so I like to divide it into two loaf pans, or one larger shallower pan - it cooks more evenly.  :)

Autumn

"Walked for half an hour in the garden. A fine rain was falling, and the landscape was that of autumn. The sky was hung with various shades of gray, and mists hovered about the distant mountains - a melancholy nature. The leaves were falling on all sides like the last illusions of youth under the tears of irremediable grief. A brood of chattering birds were chasing each other through the shrubberies, and playing games among the branches, like a knot of hiding schoolboys. Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail." - Henri Frederic Amiel

Isn't this beautiful prose! Sometimes I go online looking at stories and poetry and saw tonight this category: The Month of November - Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms, Lore. I like poetry, and prefer rhyme to rambling. Prose, I mean. I think it's rambling unless it's as nicely crafted as this. Don't you love the word brood in November . . .  :)
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Garrett in the leaves at the park

The Champion

Six months ago when we were at Kent's parents' house I listened to his mom tell me about their new juicer. I want one, I thought! I think things like this sometimes, off the cuff. This thought though was prescient.

pre•sci•ent (adjective) - having or showing knowledge of actions or events before they take place

We talked about it, Kent and I, in May. We're supposed to eat fiber, he stated. We'd drink the juice, then have a glycemic spike, followed by a low. The pulp (the fiber, right, the good stuff) we'd throw away. Why not eat the vegetable or fruit?

Left Brain: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts
Right Brain: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes

I listened. (I wanted a juicer.) (I could see us with a juicer.) I nodded (and saw my juicer on the kitchen counter). I didn't disagree, and I didn't know everything there was to know. And my thought was not idle.

Nor have the heavens been, clearly. Three months ago A, an adorable, amazing, affable friend bought my services (at Relief Society Meeting) to organize her pantry. I was delighted to be shown this pantry in September, and we started - in the garage clearing a corner for plastic-ware to be kept; a shelf for sodas and bottled water; a cabinet for glass vases, jars, and pitchers. Back to the pantry where we routed cleaning supplies and miscellaneous, relegating them to the insides of three newly emptied cupboards over the washer and dryer. Continued in October in her spice cupboard, purging, merging, throwing and sorting, and cleaning the three-tiered Lazy Susan for what went back in (after twelve years) - all the while back and forth to the spice wall at the back of the pantry, decluttering. Now only what she will use to replenish her spice cupboard resides in the pantry. No more "spices in two places."

Just this past week we truly overhauled the pantry. It took two days. We hauled out tins, Tupperware, glass and all but the kitchen sink, all filled with one food item or another; crockery, pottery, stoneware, ceramic, zip-lock bags; and she made decisions about it all. Worked like nobody's business. I created a baking section in the pantry and sectioned off every other thing like vegetables and fruits and dressings; oh you name it, it has a home. Chocolate chips, bread and butter pickles, beanie-weenies.

It's a long skinny closet, shelves on both walls and a spice rack at the back, and I didn't get to the back corner bottom shelf until at the last... and wouldn't you know.

Next to a mammoth George Foreman grill and jars and jars of preserved figs, The Champion Juicer: Worlds Finest, Plastaket Mfg. Co., Inc., Lodi, California. Like the Foreman, unused for years.

A sold it to me. I've collapsed time and come straight to the point - it's on my counter. I went online for the instruction and recipes manual yesterday: the pulp Kent thought we'd have to throw away, well it's used in Moist Apple Cake, Cranberry Muffins, Cheesy Broccoli Soup and the like (the recipes section says). Apparently this juicer homogenizes. (Haven't read far enough to even know about this.) One recipe says to homogenize the strawberries in the Champion, add other ingredients and beat well to make Strawberry Ice Cream. Okay, yum! It's mastication I'm sure - this is important. The manual verifies.

Well, I'm happy. Thoughts are things and trigger in their own way unknown to me the heavens to work for our good - to bring what's best into our lives. Even if these things are not critically necessary. And when they are. I've seen it too often - I should by now be used to what I wish for materializing. I don't doubt the power and tangibility of my thoughts. It's an unwieldy power, teaching me to be frugal with them, good and cautious.

Thank you A, for my juicer! Thank you Heavenly Father for it! Thanks Kent for this cool Christmas gift. I'll be exploring today, plugging it in and having carrot apple juice very shortly. And I'll have a string cheese so I don't have a sugar spike.

Family Foreverness

Love this beautiful photo of the kids the day of Grandad's funeral. It reminds me we want family foreverness. I do.

Against the odds

So our tomatoes are still producing here, against the odds. One other year we had tomatoes, pretty good ones, til December 10th. Kent went out to work in the yard this morning and soon I heard the back door opened. Then pulled shut, and when I got to the window to see what was up he was in the yard. He must’ve gotten a drink or something? I thought. No, I spotted a red tomato inside the door on the kitchen floor - and have picked it up and it's cold! Red, and very cold. How did it do that? Tomatoes need heat and long western exposure to ripen, not this tepid stuff, cold at nights and cool, waning afternoons.
It makes me think what else thrives and ripens against the odds? Okay well that’s a question whose answer is scientific or natural – the call of the wild and all that; I’m not psychoanalyzing life while I wash my tomato.

It was just a thought.

It passes, and I’m on to cleaning out my choir book bucket.

It just is weird to see tomatoes in November.

Blog Backup

I figured out how to back up a blog to a file which can be opened as a document in WORD. The document will need formatting but could definitely become a great printed record of the blog short of Blog2Book transforming it ($$$) into a hard-bound book. The document includes the blog photos which are of course low resolution. I understand from reading a blog post by Camie (a sweet friend of ours) about this experiment that the pictures print grainy - they're low-res; the good thing is, though, they're there. Another good thing is this file (Firefox file) when clicked naturally opens the blog online.

Here's how to back it up and open it in Word, following instructions from from Kookosity and with my notes at the end:

1. Scroll through the list of dates in your blog archive sidebar until you reach the year in which you began posting, and click that. Look at the URL in the address bar: minus the spaces which have been inserted to trigger word wrapping your address bar will look like this:

http://nholbrook02.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=18

2. The URL instructs Blogger to display all the posts created between the first day of 2007 (bold, above) and the first day of 2008 (bold, above). See?

3. If you now extend the updated-max date to reflect the date of your most recent post, or just set it way into the future (like I did with the year 2015-01-01, below), and boost the max-results limit to include all your entries (999 in bold, below), you prepare Blogger to force every post onto one web page. ONE! The URL will look like this after you make the changes:

http://nholbrook02.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=999

3. Make your adjustments and press return. Then go to Save Page As and save the output (all-in-one page) in "web page, complete" format (showing at the bottom of the dialogue box) to a safe place on your hard drive. It will be saved as a Firefox file wherever you designate it in your hard drive along with another file, a directory of jpgs.

4. When you click on the file from your hard drive to open it, your blog will open online.

5. To open it in Word, select the file on your hard drive, right click, choose Open With. Select Microsoft Office Word. I have Microsoft Office Word 2007. The file will open in Web Layout View. Look for Print Layout View in your Word menu. Click that to change views; the document will fuss around some then it should open to a bona fide Word document, pics and all.

6. It will need to be formatted to become your online journal or to be printed economically should you decide to print and bind it.

Notes: I had trouble knowing where to go for Print Layout View once the file opened up the first time in Web Layout View. But I did find it, clicked it, and waited while the blog data sorted and became readable.

This file is 1.39 MB.

My blog is two years old exactly. It is 614 pages long the way it opened in Word. Text is Ariel, font size 12 (title font is larger), it looks to be double spaced, or 1 1/2 spacing, and the images take up a lot of space vertically on the page along with editing icons and titles, etc, between blog posts. I could pare these pages down by at least half I think.

With this file is one other file, a directory which contains all the pictures on your blog. It is chock full of jpgs. This folder is 16.5 MB - all low-res images.There's a file included within this directory titled nav-bar data, unopenable in Word. I guess don't mess with it.

Every week or so I'll be backing up this blog, keeping a Firefox file and jpg directory on the hard drive. This is because right now I don't want to print my blog in book form - too costly and I don't have the control over that process I want. Also, in case Blogger crashes my content is safe. Cross your fingers and toes!
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p.s. I deleted my jpg file to see what would happen. After that when I clicked on the Firefox file it opened as my blog, but without the pictures.  Clearly the one file needs the other to make the whole web page. So if you do this back up thing, don't delete the jpg directory. It is big, and will be bigger each time you back up (of course you're replacing the two old files with the new back up files each time) because you'll have more stuff on your blog to back up as time goes by. No matter, the jpgs've got to be on the hard drive - they're important, and anyway I do like them. :)

p.s.s. ooooh, okay, now I just deleted the jpg file again on purpose to test something else and the Firefox file went WITH it!  To the Recycle Bin, where I immediately have gone and restored it. New trick. Did it twice and it acted the same way both times - had to fish the files out of Recycle.

Playing Around

I've come to my blog it seems like a hundred times today and every time it opens I'm happy. So!

After just a few days with the other one, I was fidgeting. Thought I loved the wacky font and title and ajax sidebar (which I outfitted myself thanks so much with Look Here) and loved to hover over and make open and shut, but I didn't in my insides. The picture in this header on this template I don't know anything about, still I'm soothed by it, and by the plainness of this whole page. There's no clutter! There's big letters. There's cool tones. I'm feelin' the flow, eh?

So I am, and that's an indicator I want this to stay a while. Don't know how it'll look odd times when you open it; it may be under construction (like my sewing room is about to be) and you'll see code scrawled all over, or nothing - like right now my whole Blog Roll called Family and Friends is gone because I sent it away (erm, Katy, not accidentally) when I re-uploaded this template after kind of an html debacle; this all just means I'm behind the scenes like the little-man Wizard of Oz pulling levers and pushing buttons and being generally a nuisance in this lovely place. Be kind. I'm having fun. [Insert little sigh of happiness.]

False gods, true worship

We've been reading in 1 Kings where King David finishes building the temple in Jerusalem. After it is done the LORD comes to him and covenants  - recovenants - with him that if he and his people will walk in his ways "in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments; then..."

Here it is - the "if - then" I teach in Seminary. I see it all through the scriptures: the prototype, the template if you will, for covenant-making.

If he and his people will walk in His ways. . .


"then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, there shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and  worship them . . ."

See what's coming?

". . .  then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people."

We read more; the LORD warns that people will pass by the city and observing it, will hiss and ask why he has done this to this city. "And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshiped them, and served them."

We read to the end of the chapter and the next whole chapter learning how Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches. And for wisdom. Because he did walk before the LORD. Imagine how delighted Jehovah was to richly regard Solomon as he promised. The Queen of Sheba, when she had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built, well - there was no more spirit in her. We read to the end of the chapter and I was stunned and amazed at the power Israel amassed because of righteous Solomon.

We finished, closed the book, but not before my eye caught the heading in chapter 11: Solomon marries outside Israel and his wives turn his heart to the worship of false gods. Verse 6: And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD. Like a balloon with a pinhole in it my elation fizzles. I do know the story, I'm not surprised. Deflated I am though, yes.

So what? Well I've just been thinking. About worship and the commandment to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength. To have no other gods before him. It's good to read about persons in the scriptures with whom Christ (Jehovah) covenanted and meant to fully reward for faithfulness. Integrity of heart. I want to be one of those in our day. In the literal sense I am as I've taken upon me Christ's  name. My job in the bargain is to remain faithful.

Weekend

Kent and I took everything out of the sewing room today to get it ready for demolition next week, and repair and repaint. We discovered we've had termites; so a termite barrier was installed by a termite control company; an inspector was called in to sound out the structure, and two repair companies have done walk-throughs and will give us a quote to repair the damage and, by the way, three roof leaks. Oh, and improper insulation in the fireplace. That's a little thing. The office cupboard is in the entry. My tall skinny open-backed book shelf's in the dining room with Seminary. An entirely huge table is collapsed and standing on end behind the guest bedroom door - everything else is right in the guest bedroom. The outlet and switch plates are off the walls.

I made Oatmeal Scotchies and Chocolate Mint Brownie cookies this afternoon. Yup. Mint chocolate chips in chocolate cookies. I got a new bowl for my mixer and tried it out. I've done relatively little since I got up, and the sun's already heading down - Kent mowed, so it's going down on a clean yard.

Scotcheroos or Scotchies
Nestle Chocolate Recipe

1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 2/3 cup (11-oz. pkg.) Butterscotch-flavored chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto greased baking sheets. Bake 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies, 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen.

Pan Cookie variation: Grease a 10" x 15" jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until very lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies
Nestle Toll House recipe
•1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, divided (I used 3/4 cup chocolate, 3/4 cup mint)
•1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
•1/2 cup granulated sugar
•1/4 cup packed brown sugar
•1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (used mint extract)
•1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•2 large eggs
•3/4 cup chopped nuts

MELT 3/4 cup chocolate morsels in small, heavy saucepan over lowest possible heat. When morsels begin to melt, remove from heat; stir. Return to heat for a few seconds at a time, stirring until smooth. (I did this in the microwave.) Cool to room temperature.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, peppermint extract and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in remaining morsels and nuts. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE in preheated 350° F. oven for 8 to 12 minutes or until sides are set but centers are still soft. Let stand 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
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High school friend

I got an e-mail on Sunday from a high school friend, Jennifer. It's been 35 years since I've seen her, and about four since I talked to her on the phone last. This is what it said: "I'm driving to McAllen. Billy has liver/bile duct cancer. Doesn't look like he will be with us much longer. Thought you'd want to know. Jen."

She e-mailed me because she knew I hadn't known that Billy, one of our best friends from high school, was ill and passing away. I hadn't known. I was stunned.

Billy and I talked on the phone four years ago, reconnected 31 years after graduation. It was weird and good to hear his voice - he was well and happy; children, a happy marriage, a Deacon in his church, excited about some things, sober about others; you know how it is to be almost 50. It was weird and good, and I didn't think he'd be dying this year. So I've put off calling him back - like I have all the time in the world to be his friend.

We were close friends in high school. He and me and Donny and Jen hung part of our senior year. I was lucky to have this close knit group of good, good friends. I admire Billy's family and him, liked being around them and was happy when he married; happy he has children. Ridiculously happy to reconnect and hear about him since last we saw one another. I admire him.

I just opened my e-mail this morning.

From Jen: "Went to heaven this morning at 3. Funeral plans pending. Love you, Jen."

Billy is gone.

3 C Bread

Here I am baking again. Most every November I make 3C bread.



1/2 cup oil
3 beaten eggs
1/2 cup orange juice or milk
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups shredded carrot
1 1/2 cup flaked coconut (32oz. pkg.)
1/2 cup snipped maraschino cherries, with juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine beaten eggs, oil and milk or juice. In large bowl sift together flour, sugars, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Add egg mixture and mix just until thoroughly combined. Stir in carrot, coconut, cherries, raisins and pecans. Turn onto four well greased and floured 16 oz. fruit or vegetable cans, or one large loaf pan. For fruit cans, bake 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from cans and cool thoroughly. Wrap and refrigerate overnight or until used. (Makes 12 mini loaves, if desired).
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Found this recipe in my childhood (for heaven's sake I was a child when I was being the mother of five little children) and make it every year now around Thanksgiving. The kids might remember. Jen and Erin are going eeewww. I put the recipe in the book I gave the kids for Christmas a couple of years ago - so I got that off my shelf and propped it on the counter and have baked. I used pinto beans (mashed) for the oil and only a little oil, a tablespoon - no more. This is a true experiment: I've heard of putting pinto beans in place of the oil in chocolate cake; and heard a friend say one day with an icky-really-bad look on her face, ugh! So with this in mind I used pinto bean paste I had in the freezer from when I last make Mexican food. In my 3 C bread. Three C's: carrot, cherry (maraschino) and coconut. Three birds with one stone: prove the bean-for-oil theory, prove my friend wrong for taste, and use up frozen smashed pintos in my freezer.

Ah, and this is the right thing to take to the women I visit teach this month. I wish I was rustic enough to bake these in vegetable cans, but I used my modern mini-loaf pan. Pan - many mini's in ONE. I bought TWO on a whim one year, one for Laura for her birthday; wrapped it and mailed it, and I think it's resting at the bottom of her pan drawer with cupboard gunkies in it. This pan is just right for baking for visiting teach-ees. The can thing I might try yet, though.

My loaves are looking and smelling amazing. They're resting on one of those things you put a hot pan on, a wire thing that allows ventilation around something right out of the oven; they're resting on that lined up like little soldiers. They're fat: I put double the chopped pecans in them and added all the raisins the recipe calls for; and snipped the maraschinos so cherry doesn't overpower one bite. Don't like fruit cake AT ALL, and a clumpy clingy cherry could put a bite of bread right into that category and in the trash. I used yogurt in place of milk and the bean paste and all the other stuff to make them good and, well, they are.

Rainy day thoughts

You should hear rain on the house! It started last night and was heavy by Seminary time this morning. I opened the garage door at 6:00 a.m. and water and leaves and a child or two streamed in. Only two came to class today actually. We’re studying the end of Mosiah, how Alma after all his wickedness and persecuting of saints becomes righteous. We were going to talk a lot about him but veered off onto Zedekiah, last of the Jerusalem kings before that city was destroyed. Alex started with a question and we ended up instead of in the Book of Mormon in 2 Kings 24 and 25 and 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah, all which tell about Zedekiah being captured and his sons killed. What it doesn’t tell is that one of his sons, Mulek, was not killed; doesn’t allude to how or when Mulek was led to America from Jerusalem. We had an excellent adventure today looking at the footnotes in the Bible and wending our way back to the Book of Mormon coming to understand how Zarahemla, the city Alma and his friends lived in spoken of in Mosiah, was originally established by the Mulekites; Mulek and those who came with him to the American continent from Jerusalem. And was added to by the Nephites, Lehi’s posterity. All these people eventually came under the heading or name of Nephites; all who would make a covenant to follow Christ – we learned this, and did finish reading about Alma’s spectacular conversion. We’ll start after Veteran’s Day learning how Alma and his young men friends change lives when they become missionaries.

The rain is incessant. It’s due to end tomorrow about noon. There’s sheets of water wherever I look: Pouring off the downspout, standing in the garden and dippy places in the back yard; hanging over the house like a curtain. The mix of golden trees and silvery rain is beautiful.

On blogging

I fiddled around this afternoon with my blog, kind of out of my element but thinking I'll keep this layout as I work with it. I had to read a lot and follow steps to edit the html for the template. I do like it, and clearly there's more to do.

It's been two years since I started blogging. Just about as I've decided to stop this month I'm thinking I'm okay to keep going. I can copy and paste my entries into my regular journal and that's important. I haven't been doing it and have been worrying pretty much about saving my blog posts; this weekend I copied and pasted blog entries (of course minus pictures; only text) for all of 2009 into my regular journal. I'd already done some of that this year, but mostly I don't have my blog and journal put together. And I want it this way. I keep thinking Blogger could crash, taking my blog with it and, boom - two years gone! Before November of 2007 I kept everything in my journal on my hard drive and I like having the last two years there too.

I could do Blog 2 Book; that would save my posts and my pictures. But for now it's not as good or immediate as keeping the posts copied into my journal. When I pass away I want my family to have my writings in chronological order all in one place. They'll be without pictures from the blog and links to sites I love: web sites with good recipes and fab photos and spiritual thoughts and tips and tricks for life! We operate online having so many images and links available it's as though the basic journal may be obsolete - I'm going to help myself remember (pushing into a third year of blogging for a while longer, and copying and pasting) that it's not necessarily.

It's been amazing reading through my entries from this year. "Our lives pass as it were a dream," or something like that quoted someone I read recently.  Have to go remember who - I think it's one of the early church apostles. Maybe not; (oh, it was Jacob in the Book of Mormon!) and that comes to me at the moment thinking how quickly this year has gone. Yes, like a dream.

Another Week Done

Another week done.

Another set of days walking in the morning.

Seminary studied for and taught.

Dinners cooked and cleaned up after.

A week for talking to my children.

And parents. And sibs.

A week of organizing.

Of getting over being sick. 

It's the weekend and I'm happy.

Tests and appointments

I talked to Mom and Dad yesterday about their visits to their doctors recently. Mom's had a couple of X-rays for a sore back and a very sore foot. They had blood drawn for labs. Dad has a painful knee and now has an appointment in a week to see a surgeon - he may be heading for a knee operation. No big deal, he says. He's had orthoscopic surgery twice - knows what to expect, how recovery will go. He'll have to sit around for a while.

Mom has appointments for routine things. I asked when (!), hearing they are scheduled for December.

I'll be there Dad! I can go with her.

One's a mammogram. 

The 2nd, he said.  

 (Darn. Too soon.)

I'll go with her, he said. 

I can squeeze it in.

Going a little nuts

I played Scattergories with the Seminary kids Monday on Abinadi and wicked king Noah. They each got to roll the die, call out the letter, and everyone at the table would come up with an adjective for each man starting with that letter. P = prideful for instance. O, obstreperous. There were lots of smirks as they wrote. You know the rules: when you share your answers if you say a word someone else wrote exactly, mas o menos, it's a scratch. They smirked and they shared, then they scratched. It was fun. Every time someone announced a smart adjective for the letter category, I awarded brownies. ("Obstreperous" got double brownies.) At the end they added their points and their (expected) brownies and wrote love notes to me at the bottom of their papers thanking me for being awesome and for brownies tomorrow.

Which was today.

I made them first thing yesterday - my favorite, double chocolate with nuts - and they were cooled and packed and set on the table to wait for morning. Only Kyle and Alex and Tania showed up today. Kyle doesn't eat sugar - he just knows going in he can't, won't, doesn't (they're icky) do brownies. Tania lit up like a Christmas tree when I pulled the lid off, and Alex reached excitedly into the container. Then took her hand back and looked SO, so pained. "There's nuts in 'em?" she said. (Sadly). She sat rigid in her chair while I made suggestions regarding these nuts.

No, she wouldn't pick them out. She wouldn't have a bite. She wouldn't have these brownies. Lots of reasons - the nuts get in her teeth and are slimy and . . . whatever . . .  "me and nuts don't have that good a relationship." She remained postured in that chair as Tania helped herself. (To about five.)

I took pity. Told her I'd bake her plain ones. She relaxed. She smiled. (See, she got practically the most right at Scattergories, her paper left overnight marked by an enormous 16.) She deserves BROWNIES!!!

I made an 8 x 8 pan of plain brownies this afternoon.  Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies - her recipe calls for coffee granules; I used Postum. Don't worry.  I've already snitched a bite out of the corner of the pan and they taste wonderlicious. This'll be a good thing.
--- :)

Valerie and Grandma, 2005