New uses for waffle blocks

Please don't look closely at where the tub needs re-caulking. Hey! That's something I can do! I'll add "caulk the tub" to the list!

Yesterday's biggest accomplishment was figuring out how to take a shower. I was lying in bed trying to envision any sort of waterproof seat in the house. Too impatient to wait for one of those bath seats from the medical supply place. We had one for our dad and I recently gave it to a friend for her 90-year-old mom, who is getting to be slightly unsteady in the bath.

Then it came to me: Waffle blocks! Brilliant! We use them for seating the kids around the coffee table for craft projects and snacks. As long as they prove sturdy enough to hold me, we'd be golden. Lizz listened patiently to my plan and agreed to help me set up a dry run.

After the dry run, I was ready to go solo. Just sat on the edge of the tub, wrapped my leg in a garbage bag, tied it snugly above the knee and swung around so the bag-covered leg stretched in front of me. Perfecto.

Oh, my shower was heavenly. I wanted to stay there forever.

Gee - I wonder what shiny new discovery I'll make today?!

Simple joys

Baking cookies with kids is one of the most chaotic, yet simply joyful, experiences you can have.

When Ashton and Sammy showed up for cookie baking on Saturday, they were ready for action. Thankfully, so were we. Mostly. The table was covered with brown paper and rolling stations were set up for each. The dough was already made, and all the necessary equipment was strategically placed on the table.

The boys mastered the techniques of flouring, rolling, cutting, re-rolling (after limbs were inadvertently cut off by improperly positioned cutters or too-thin cookies that broke during their transfer to the waiting cookie sheets) and spatulating. Not too surprisingly, they were best at the eating part. We'd planned to make blue and purple frosting (at Ashton's request) but got distracted doing other things and before we knew it, realized more than half of the unadorned cookies had vanished. Oops. Well, there's always Valentine's Day.

Kay's Butter Cookies
This is simply the best recipe for cutout cookies, in my opinion. Only a few ingredients and no chilling required. (Although the dough can be made in advance and chilled until ready to roll, if desired.) This recipe is so versatile ... and the dough is perfectly suited for baking with kids since it's easy to work with and can be rolled, re-rolled and re-rolled multiple times. The results are always delicious. My dear friend Kay shared the recipe with me when our kids were small, and I've relied on it for baking thousands of (often last-minute) cookies for school, church, Girl Scouts and holiday events over the years.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp real vanilla or almond extract
2-1/3 cups unbleached flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla or almond extract. Stir in flour until well combined. Roll out on floured surface and cut with floured cookie cutters. Bake at 350F for about 8-10 minutes or until ever-so-slightly browned at the edges.

Frost cooled cookies with favorite frosting. We like buttercream (there's usually a recipe on the back of the powdered sugar bag/box). Drizzling with or dunking in melted chocolate is also yummy.

Essential hardware for healing

I know this photo doesn't seem to exactly match the headline. It's an antique ornament from my grandmother's house. After Mama Darkey (our special name for her) passed away, the ornaments were divided up among the children and grandchildren. I love the unique, delicate shape of this one. Its fragility. Its subtle coloring. The mingling of shiny and dull. The rubbed off bits and the slightly corroded hook at the pointy end.


I wonder whose it was originally and how old it is exactly. I pull out this ornament and the other I received and imagine Christmas celebrations of long ago reflected in their surfaces.


This minor setback has given me lots of time for reflection. Steel plates and screws in my ankle will stabilize my foot and my walking eventually. More time spent with loved ones will strengthen essential relationships. More attention to those nagging to-do projects (the ones I can do from bed anyway) will build a firmer foundation in some critical areas of responsibility. More rest and exercise will help me physically, emotionally and intellectually ... and more time spent in prayer and in the Word will reinforce my faith life and my continued walk with Jesus. 


So friends ... I need your comments more than ever now. Please share your thoughts on "essential hardware" and/or an experience where good things came from less-than-ideal circumstances. Use the comment section below or send me an e-mail. Happy Tuesday! 

On the second day of Christmas ...

... my true love gave to me: Two turtle doves, la la la la la la la la la la ...

The day after Christmas was a good day ... mostly. And part way through it the working title for the post was along the lines of "Cookie baking as contact sport." The short tale of baking cookies with Ashton and Sammy with the later addition of Molly for a wintry trip to the zoo and dinner at Mickey D's was sweet and largely devoid of drama. High on energy, for sure, but surprisingly drama-free.

After Molly was delivered to her parents and Sammy and Ashton to Lizz for tucking into bed (she was babysitting them) and after cleaning up the remains of the plate of cookies Dooley ate ... I zipped home to take the neighbor's son's dog out for a walk.

My dear neighbor, C, had knee surgery a few weeks back and she was dog-sitting while son and husband had gone off to Ohio for two days. My job was to help with outdoor doggie duty so C wouldn't risk slipping on the ice.

Oh ... we had a lovely walk! First a full tour through the neighborhood. Then, as I passed our houses I decided we needed to a bit more - perhaps past the court house and its pretty lights before circling back home. So we trotted up the street, meandered past the displays in front of the court house - up and over the steps (pausing at the top to look at the Christopher Columbus statue and ponder why it was in Saginaw) and at the same time marveling at the beauty of the evening and making an early New Years resolution to find a way to take nighttime walks with the dog more often ...

What happened next sort of changed the plans for the evening and also the next few months. So let's focus on the positive, shall we? Beautiful day with some of my favorite small and medium-sized people.  A lovely walk. Good deeds exhibiting God's love. Quality time with my sister ...

I'll give you a hint: Go on over to today's post on Tuna on Wheatley to see why I've been benched for the season.

A very merry Christmas!

As usual, I'm up way past my bedtime on Christmas Eve. Lizz commented that I've been uncommonly calm. And my state of unpreparedness is, well, amazing even for me.

But we enjoyed baking today. And creating a few surprises. The sticky buns are rising for our traditional family brunch. I'm looking forward to spending time with family and friends these next few days.

A very merry Christmas to all!

Grandma Wahl's Butter Balls and other important traditions

I remember Grandma Wahl always made pineapple sticks – in large quantities – for every occasion. Graduation? “I made the pineapple sticks! Forty seven dozen are in the freezer!” Family reunion? Happy Easter Esther? Christmas? First communion? Wedding reception? Yep, those pineapple sticks were baked and stashed away. Because Grandma Wahl planned ahead.

But pineapple sticks doesn't rhyme. And those butter balls were a Christmas tradition for many years. When I came across the recipe in my big tin box last night I knew it had to be the headline for something.

You'll be happy to know I finally made the gingerbread cookie dough. Yesterday evening I searched for over an hour for the cloves I'd just purchased. Almost broke down and used allspice and then found the new container of cloves still in the bag in the closet. Oh yeah. I'm a planner, I am.

Every year we look at all the possible cookie recipes ... so many cookies, so little time. But for me, the gingerbread people are essential. We have to get that smell into the walls of our house. Just doing it a bit late this year.

What are your essential Christmas traditions? Care to share? Oh geez. There go the bells.

Sereni-tea Wednesday

I just can't make myself do it. Get into the Christmas-urgency mode, that is.

Why is that? Why this year more than any other in my crazy life?

I typically avoid the mall (shudder) during this season. Well, any time of year. Don't get me wrong: I love love love to buy people presents. I'd just prefer to do it in the comfort of my home, in my monkey pants. And this year I'm not even doing that. I'd like to, to be sure, but resources (funds and time) are particularly limited.

And I'm uncommonly calm.

You know what I should do - not today, because I have to go get ready for work - but perhaps this weekend ...? List all the things I'd buy/do for the people in my life if I could. If I had all the money in the world (which I clearly don't). That's sort of the complete opposite of the point of today's post, but it might be a fun exercise.

The point for today? I'm seeking serenity in the midst of chaos - and wishing it for all of you in this busy season. May you find a place in these next few days to breathe. Enjoy a cup of tea - or other serenity-inducing beverage. Inhale. Exhale. Ahhhhhh.....

Tuneful Tuesday II

So it's certainly POSSIBLE that an elephant could have been at Jesus' birth, right? You don't usually hear about the pachyderms right over there next to the ox and ass. Though this elephant looks kind of fancy. Maybe he/she transported one of the Wise Persons.


I love crèches. I love the variety of interpretations of all those likely to have been there to welcome the savior of the world. My sister and two of my nieces have fairly elaborate crèches that depict not only the key players but also all of the others who may have been nearby. Like maybe an elephant - there to trumpet the Good News.


Doris is the winner of the Muzyka CD - last week's Tuneful Tuesday offer. I've been pondering what to offer this week ... and have to go get ready for work now so will have to post the plan tonight.


Happy Tuesday!

Jingle bells

The bells are a tad late today. It's 7:46 as I begin writing this and the bells usually start at 7:30. Wonder what's up with that.

How do you like my festive avocado plant? Isn't it purty? I watered it soon after snapping the photo. I think it really needs fertilizer or something. This one is the oldest and healthiest looking of the three I sprouted.

OK, now I've just gone off on at least a dozen tangents in the last 30 minutes - all part of the behind-the-scenes activity of the writing process, I guess. I had to go look up fun facts about Jingle Bells and fertilizing avocado plants and guacamole, and now I really need to get ready for church. And now the bells are ringing again. Different ones. Maybe it has something to do with a special service today, the last Sunday of Advent.

Looking out my window, I don't think there will be too much dashing through the snow here in mid-Michigan, but wherever you are, I hope you're taking time to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of the season.

Brown paper packages ...

hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm ... these are a few of my favorite things!

I've decided I'm going to use sentence case for all my post titles here on out. I know all of you are angsting over the fact that I keep flip-flopping between title case and sentence case. When I look at a list of posts, I get a little itchy when it bounces back and forth. I'm sure it's making Annnnnnonymous itchy, too. It might be a little over the top, though, to go back and correct all the past titles. So I won't do that. Today.

So back to the brown paper packages. I hung out with the boys the other night. And next to hockey, baseball, football, SpongeBob, Batman, Spider-Man, the excitement of Dooley eating candles (and needing to go out 47 times to eliminate them) and playing house ... Christmas preparations were the hot topic of the evening. I do not know how we squished so much into about two hours, but we did. I think M. Beteh must have used her magic shoehorn wand. Oh yeah, we also played Chutes and Ladders. And read bedtime stories. And had a snack. And certain people were almost nestled in their beds somewhere reasonably close to their prescribed bedtimes.

So the packages. Ashton decided it was very important that we wrap presents. So we rounded up several items and found some brown paper and wrapped. And wrapped some more. And of course Sammy wanted to help when he had finished playing hockey, football and baseball. We practiced the finer points of wrapping - like covering odd shapes and trying to disguise the shape of the item. And using as much tape as possible. That's important. And decorating with stickers. And inserting as much love and thought into each teeny-tiny item as is possible. I think that is the most focused I've seen those two ... ever.

Oh yeah, Sammy is absolutely CONVINCED he's getting a drum set on Friday morning. Just thought Santa should be really completely clear on this.

It's all under control

Thank goodness Claudette has this decorating thing under control. 

She has properly tested the lights. Y'know, for safety and stuff.

And has fully investigated the ornaments. They've all been found to be adequately shiny.

Ta da.

Star Girls

Some of you may remember the year Lizz and I were the Crazy Star Girls. I'm not exactly sure why we started the star thing. I think it had to do with coming up with an e-mail address. But still ... why?

Anyway, let's see, this would have been in about 2004. We decided that to earn extra dough we'd create all sorts of shiny star-themed things. Dad taught me how to use the scroll saw and the jigsaw on his Shopsmith MARK V.  (That's for you, D and K!) I made all kinds of stars out of nifty scraps of wood I found in his shop - bits of walnut and cherry and some wood species I'd never heard of that he got as samples over the years. We drilled holes in the "arms" of the stars and I made hangers out of wire onto which I'd threaded pretty beads. You can kind of sort of see some of them hanging there on the left. I also made swirly beaded bookmarks with heavy-gauge wire, plus some with gauzy ribbon, copper wire and beads. I made stars out of recycled cardstock to hang the earrings Lizz crafted. Those are on the right. I think I was into mass production and she mastered the detail work. Oh, and I made some bigger stars for tree toppers that I spray-painted gold.

Then we displayed our pretty things at the church bazaar. It wasn't a profitable money-making scheme, but it was fun. And many dear friends, family members and co-workers supported our endeavor (and some also were gifted with our handiwork that year).

I came across some of the doo-dads from our star-thing activities this week when I was attempting to decorate (bad bad tree with defective lights) and enjoyed the memory. And was reminded that my Star Girl is coming home for break tomorrow. Hooray!

Tuneful Tuesday

The birds are at it again. I just read on my neighbor's Facebook page (?!!!!) that they're crows and have been alighting around here every year about this time for many years.

But those aren't the sort of tunes I'm thinking of.

Hi, everyone, did you miss me the last few days? I got out of my daily habit. I may bore you with the details in the next few days, but not today. Because it's Tuesday! Today I want to invite you to go on over and listen to Muzyka, my favorite local music group composed of some of my favorite people. They never fail to lift my spirits.

I finally sent Annette her Lobster Butter Love from Roos Roast ... she should be getting that in the next couple of days. Maybe Annnnnonymous and I can bake a pie this weekend? That'll catch me up on my commenter awards so I can announce the next one: I'd like to gift a lucky commenter with Enter In, Muzyka's new CD of folk and gospel classics. So ... let me know you're out there, drop me a line, tell me what's happening in your life, share an Advent/Christmas thought or three ... Let's see - I guess the deadline will be Sunday night (Dec. 20). Sound good?

Happy Tuesday! (Oh, there go the church bells - yikes! Gotta get ready for work.)

Christmas Present

I met my sister for dinner last night ... one of my favorite things to do any time of the year. Our lives are so busy - especially in this season, it seems - it's tough to squeeze in those moments.

But those moments - the ones we spend with the ones we love - are the ones that carry us through our days.

For me, the best Christmas present is not something wrapped up in a box (although I do love shiny paper and sparkly bows and surprises - who wouldn't?) ... it's experiencing that feeling of Christmas in the present moment.

Not the hustle and bustle. Not the scurry and flurry. Not the buying the right thing. But the moments. The memories imprinting on my soul.

How about you?

Always follow directions

... even if they don't quite make sense?

Another photo from our jaunt to Traverse City a few years back. I remember the sign made us laugh. Partly because it was so ... seasonal (we were there in August) but also ... slopes? Adjacent to the highway? Really? Although it's possible every slanted surface offers ski potential up there.

Hey, why don't "they" make those tennis shoes with the pop-out wheels for grownups? I want a pair of those so I can roller skate when the mood strikes.

Years ago, when I worked at the health department, a group of us used to meet to roller blade at lunch. One day, I decided to just put my blades on in the office, surreptitiously skate the dozen feet or so to the elevator and then the dozen or so feet to the back door ... figured nobody would notice and I would save time and wouldn't have to carry my shoes. My plan worked perfectly ... except ... wouldn't you know? The safety director was on the elevator on the return trip, and was quite concerned about the hazard I posed. So if there's now a specific safety policy over there, I guess we know who to blame. 

It snew!

Slushy mushy gushy snew spew from the sky.



Stay warm and dry today ...

A matter of balance

Was just going through photos from my trip to Barcelona in early 2005, seeking inspiration for this morning's post. I'm not sure why this one spoke to me ... or why I cannot remember the name of the sculptor! But this is a rather famous sculpture, installed at the beautiful monastary of Montserrat.

I'm seeking balance today. It's only Tuesday and I'm already feeling ... a bit off center.

What helps to center you? Please share in the comments section or send an e-mail to me at javamama42@gmail dot com. I'll share all centering thoughts here next Tuesday.

Keeping things in perspective

Good morning, friends! Is everyone looking forward to Monday and the week ahead?

I found this photo among a batch from our trip to Traverse City right after our exchange student, Midori, arrived a few years ago. Midori, who initially seemed rather shy, was immediately thrown into our lives and survived with flying colors. We decided to go "up north," but hadn't exactly chosen a destination. I remember her being a little bit concerned about that uncertainty. By then end of the weekend, she was fully initiated into our ways.

When I came upon this image last night, I was struck by the patterns and textures and the order of it. Doesn't it look like all the elements have just been placed there, just so?

You know, the photographer could just as easily have angled her camera this way:

The elements are all still present - just angled upward, putting a different slant on things, so to speak.

Isn't if funny how we say things like, "it's all downhill from here" (meaning the "uphill battle," or tough part, is done and the rest is easy) and things are "looking up" (meaning the future isn't so bleak after all)? I guess the lesson is that life is full of ups and downs. And keeping it all in perspective is key to how we handle those ups and downs.

Happy Monday ... and here's to looking up at a week full of good things!

---
The commenter who won last week's special offer is Annette, to whom I'm sending a pound of calorie-free Lobster Butter Love from Roos Roast in Ann Arbor. (Don't worry, it's not lobster-flavored coffee.) I first discovered this roast in the fall of 2008 at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on one of my visits to see Lizz. I was about a "quart low," having run short on my coffee supply at home and was feeling blurry. After sampling a cup of the brew, I stocked up on a few bags ... and then re-stocked for self and others when we were at the market again just before Christmas last year. Even the artwork on the bags is fun - hand-inked by the artist and his fellow roasters.

Online ordering is easy at www.roosroast.com.

Birds and Church Bells

Those are the sounds I heard upon awakening today.

A ginormous convention of some bird species was engaged in very loud debate about something before flying off ... most likely in a southern direction. (I wonder if they'll go as far south as this
Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, the last of M. Beteh's vacation photos I've been sharing this week.)

Moments after my feathered friends departed, the church bells began chiming. There are, lemme see, six churches within a few blocks of our house. Seven days a week, the Lutheran church across the street, which is attached to an elementary school, chimes at 7:30. In four years I've not figured out which of the other churches join in at various times on Sunday - it's now 8:45 and a slightly more distant one just chimed. But one of these days I'm going to figure it out.

In any event, both are pretty nice sounds to hear.

I had thought I'd reflect some on birds of peace today, and wondered if herons, like doves and certain cranes, have been associated with peace. In my shiny wanderings, I came across a new treasure - the Tiny Aviary, one of the nesting places of Chicago illustrator Diana Sudyka. Both destinations are delightful.

With that discovery, I decided to cut short my own reflection ... and invite you to share your thoughts on symbols of peace. And may you experience peace in abundance on this Sabbath day and always.

And now for something completely wrandom

Why do we have a silent w in "write" but not in wrandom? Do you think it used to be there and just fell off as part of the normal evolution of language?

M. Beteh also shared this photo from her Sanibel trip with me. She told me the story behind the pretty little display with delicate flowers entirely made of shells - these and others like them were created for servicemen during the war. I'm not sure which war that was ... I was guessing WWII since the song was first published in 1924 and I was thinking was probably very popular in the early 1940s. I just did a wrapid (that one could have lost its w too, wright?) scan on Wikipedia and didn't see Frank Sinatra's name on the list of recordings until the 1970s. Wreally? I always associated that song with him.

But my point - seemingly wrandom as my wramblings are, I usually get to one eventually (and it truly is often a surprise even to me) - is to share the incredible hopefulness in this artwork. Whether WWII or Vietnam or Afghanistan ... this represents the hopeful anticipation, even expectation, of a loved one's return to peace from a place of discord. And whether that discord is on the other side of the world, or closer to home or even in our own spirits, there is always reason to hope.

May you find many sources of hope in your lives today, dear friends.

Baking Memories

There is a benefit to having some photos on hand where you can't quite see faces, but you KNOW the subjects and situation clearly.

I cannot believe this first one was taken almost three years ago. Our budding hockey player was about 2-1/2 and I'd decided he needed an apron for Christmas so we could bake together. He seemed the right age to learn the basics of rolling, cutting, decorating ... Baking with my mom was such a favorite Christmas-time memory for me. The day after Christmas, he arrived at our back door wearing his apron and oven mitts, ready for action.

Here we are again this summer, baking a cake in between dips in the pool (not my kitchen). I love how Mr. "I'm gonna check you into da boards" is so serious about his work ... and how Dooley is right in the middle of the action down there in the left of the photo.

This year, I'll need to plan for three baking apprentices. Whoaa ... better go get ready.

Introducing Carol the Christmas Croc

Look! I decorated!

This is our new friend, Carol the Christmas Croc. And I keep finding new shiny things in the photo, specially enhanced by my dear friend M. Beteh, who met Carol when she was vacationing in Florida. I was going to wait to introduce her but I was so excited, I couldn't wait one more minute! Please forgive the jumbo size of the photo in the header today. I hope to have that fixed by tonight or tomorrow.

So I thought perhaps we could talk about Carol and how she's celebrating Advent and preparing her heart for Christmas.

No? What about what's on her wish list? If she's been naughty or nice? Tips on how she keeps her teeth so white? M. Beteh told me that you can tell she's a crocodile (and not an alligator) because of the way her fangs go up and down, instead of all in one direction. I did not know that. I always thought it was something to do with their noses. I guess that's part of it too.

But all fun with Carol aside, I would be interested to know how you are celebrating Advent and preparing your heart for Christmas. Can we talk about that over the next 21 days?


P.S.: You may have noticed some things missing on the site. I can't really talk about it here, but I hope everyone will continue to visit and keep me company. Just post a comment now and then or send me an e-mail or smoke signals to let me know you stopped by.

Important Work

"Mowli, what are you making?"

"I'm dwawing a beeeg punkin, Samwi! Butwe gotta hurryup cuz we gotta go to da park and ride in da wagon and jump up and down and eat lotsandlots of CAKE!"

Oh, don't I wish that was next on my agenda today? I'll just think of the proposal and four site maps I'm finishing as cake. With lots of frosting.

Oh yeah. Frosting. It's supposed to snow tomorrow.

She sees seashells at the seashore

About a million years ago, when I was in college (the first time), I went to Fort Myers and Sanibel Island on Spring Break. I traveled with one of my housemates (yes, Julie, from that house with the macaroni on the kitchen ceiling). A dear friend just returned from Sanibel and shared this photo with me, which brought up the old memory.

We had had a really rough two trimesters - MSU was on trimesters then - and looked forward to a very atypical college student experience. My friend's grandparents were our hosts in Fort Myers for a couple of days before they left to go on a cruise. But it was rainy in those first days of our visit, so her grandfather taught me how to knit. I know! Comme c'est bizarre! He had had a stroke earlier in the year and knitting was one of his therapies. As I have had the habit of doing pretty much my whole life, I made great plans for this newfound hobby. I was going to make sweaters and socks and afghans and scarves. I bought some really pretty yarn. By the end of the trip I was really good at knitting, purling and unknitting and unpurling ... I found that yarn recently with the needles still in it.

Oh hey. Not my point.

Shells! I really love shells. I have little displays of them all over - in the bathroom, library, the counter around the funny little sink in my bedroom ... on the wood-burning stove in the basement, in the kitchen, in my office, even in the car. They're my little piece of the ocean in my Michigander world. When I'm at the beach, I can wander for hours picking up shells and inspecting each and every one. Marveling in the perfect symmetry of some or the perfect way others have weathered various types of damage. And I'm continually astounded at the infinite variety I find in these calcified protective coverings for sea creatures.

Interesting. It's not completely unlike the infinite variety of our individual faith experiences, is it?