Family Life

Cinnamon Raisin Bread~Inspiration

/ Lee Reynolds

“Deep quiet encircles, covering us in a soft blanket of endless peace and warmth, but underneath, something is stirring, inspiration is growing and soon it will shine it’s light.”              ~Lee Reynolds~

January is still very much with us, with it’s endless cold days and drifts of snow covering our world. We are out almost daily. Work, school, after school activities, grocery shopping, all do not stop, even though my inner voice says to be quiet, still, restore myself, and listen from within. Yesterday, I heeded that call, and thankfully, it was Saturday and the day was completely ours.

There was food in the house, no birthday parties to attend, no Saturday skating lessons, no basketball practice, and my husband David was out of town on business, and not beckoning the kids to ski with him. Besides, a few of the kids have had an annoying cough that lingers and lingers. I had kept Will home from grade one on Thursday and Friday to see if he would recover faster. A day relaxing, doing whatever our heart desires was appealing. And so we all went with it.

After Harrison”s successful bread making session the previous week, and our children’s quick consumption of said bread, I decided it was my turn to create some comfort food. I didn’t want to make plain  ‘ole bread again though. I wanted something even more memorable. That is when my eyes found the cinnamon in the spice cupboard.

.      “The spirit of delight comes in small ways” 
                                                                                                            ~Robert Louis Stevenson~

Memories of  Christmas holidays past flooded through me as I recalled baking cinnamon buns with our oldest daughter Alyssa, who for the last 2 years has been in London on her grand adventure. Ever since she was a year old and still small enough to fit in my kitchen sink, we have been baking cinnamon buns together on Christmas eve. Watching her delightful smile as she bit into the first mouthful of bun, made the day long baking effort worthwhile. When I think of her, I think of books, cats and cinnamon.

My mom Ethel was a lover of cinnamon too. I can remember as a teenager,  mom taking plain old bread, spreading butter on top, sprinkling sugar and cinnamon and toasting the pieces in the oven until the house was rich with a spicy aroma. She would cut the bread in strips and I would dunk pieces of cinnamon toast into decadent hot cocoa. Those were the days we lived in a century old home in the Creston Valley. Some of my favourite childhood memories were from my days living in the Kootenays.

From experience, I know it’s those simple things that create a memorable childhood. Something I desire to create for my children. And so, while we don’t live in an historic house, just a 25 year old California rancher, that has been renovated to appear “old school” inside, we can make lasting memories.

I know we can still create that feeling with food, music, candles lit at dinner time, and old fashion entertainment, like playing cards, telling stories, curled up in bed reading books and something my kids did all day yesterday afternoon as I baked….building with blocks.

If you want to join me in making 3 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, scroll down, but before we start to bake I wanted to share a few exciting events that have come across my path in the last week.

Moments of Inspiration

While at the little girls “Strong Start,” program last week, I was talking to the teacher and was asking her what she had planned for the upcoming Spring. One of the things she was excited about was a program called, “Hatch a Chick.” With funding money, she has arranged for fertile eggs to be brought into the class where they will stay warm in a table top incubator. The eggs remain in the class for 21 days, until they hatch. Once the chicks have hatched, they are put into a brooder box with a heat lamp and they remain in the classroom for 5 days to allow the kids to observe them. At that time, the farm from where they originate, takes them back. I had heard about this program last fall and I have been hinting, STRONGLY, that this is something I wanted to do. (our local Teach and Learn store provides these kits)

Later that same day, I went in to pick up William from school and I started chatting with his grade one teacher. During the conversation I happened to ask if she knew about the, “Hatch a Chick” program and she became very excited and motioned me over to her laptop computer. On the screen was a sticky note that said, “order chicks.” I had to laugh over the timing. It never fails to surprise me when the Universe presents an opportunity that will bring a dream of mine to fruition.

I went home and asked David if we could purchase the program for the grade one class (saving Will’s teacher from having to ask for funding and maybe being turned down) AND if we could keep the chicks for our urban homestead once hatched. He was not thrilled. Sadly, he doesn’t share the same urban homesteading dream that I do. Yes, he likes the idea of growing more of our own food, he likes helping our environment by using less water, less non-renewable energy resources, he likes us composted our garden and kitchen wastes and recycling materials. He likes when we really think about our needs from our wants and consume accordingly. But when it comes to living animals….he is a reluctant urban farmer. It’s true the kids want pets but they aren’t thrilled about cleaning kitty litters or feeding their animals.We don’t have a dog but I’m sure it would be a fight to get them to walk one. When I assured him that I would be responsible for the chickens, he agreed. Sometimes your inspiration may effect other people and you have to figure out what they need to make it work for them.

So dear blog readers….I am excited to say, we are going to finally move a bit closer to becoming even more sustainable by having chickens in our urban backyard. FINALLY! Our subdivision is actually in a rural part of our larger city and the motto is, “rural living at it’s best.” I don’t exactly know what that means. Bigger lots perhaps, more privacy maybe, but for me it’s going to mean space to have some CHICKENS.

I will blog about it more of course as we are now talking about chicken coops and appropriate chicken runs, cool automatic watering systems and feeders. I have about 50 books on hold right now at our local library and I’m excited to plow through them all. I had no idea there were that many books even written about urban chicken keeping. The chicks are due to arrive around the end of April to the first of May…hopefully plenty of time to get a  home built for them.

Another moment of Inspiration

The other thing that came up last week, is a writing workshop that I read about in our local paper. Right away, I was intrigued and knew I had to attend. When I read the facilitator is from Hope, B.C. (where I was born) and her writing has been inspired from that locale, that clinched it for me. The current book I’m working on was inspired by my time living in HOPE. Literally and figuratively.

In addition, the premise for the workshop will assist me in getting down and finishing my novel. But you know in your gut when things are right and everything is lining up don’t you? I felt little bubbles of joy bursting forth as I read the day of the workshop is on the day when the little girls schedule is free. For 4 year olds they are very busy. Swimming, skating, ballet, kindermusik and usually a morning at their Strong Start program as well.

Now all I needed to arrange was someone to care for them. I forwarded the workshop information to my husband and when he came home from work that night, he had not only booked off work so I could attend the workshop, but he had signed me as well.

Then there was a hiccup and I thought it wasn’t going to work for a bit.  I received an email saying I was on the wait list. The promoters had apparently received more interest than they had planned so they finally decided to run a second session but the day I was interested in was totally booked up. I was sad but hopeful and finally, I received word that one participant had decided to move to the other day, freeing up room for me. I was JUBULIANT! Things work out when they are meant to be.

Then there was one more moment when I knew everything was perfect. Why I still need this sign I don’t know but David and I had gone to Harrison’s basketball game mid week. We had dropped him off early and we had a 1/2 hour to kill before the game. I suggested we drive over to a local coffee place and pick up a coffee for him and a latte for me. Now, this may not be a big deal for most people but we don’t treat ourselves normally. I was thinking how we could better spend the money. It all adds up. I was thinking about the deposit I had put on the chicken program, on my writing workshop and frankly I was concerned about money.

With these thoughts swirling in my brain, David and I returned to the high school gym and looked for a place to sit on the bleachers. The first section was already full when we arrived, so I motioned where we could go with my latte cup in hand. We climbed to the top of the bleachers so I could sit against the hanging gym mats and that is when I noticed something silver and shiny, sparkling behind my seat. It was a dime. Of course!

For those of you who don’t know me or who haven’t read my blog,  I  have to tell you that when I was de-cluttering and on my minimalism path last spring, I was finding dimes, EVERYWHERE. I took them a sign from my angels that we were moving in the right direction and money was always flowing into our lives. When I picked up this dime and showed it to David he just smiled. The next day David found out that he would have to go out of town for work on the weekend and of course, that would mean extra money coming into our home. Again, I am never surprised by how the Universe is ALWAYS working for the greater good, sending me inspiration and signs along the way that I am on the right path.

 

Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.
                                                                                                               ~Dr. Wayne Dyer~

 

 

Interestingly enough, I have been reading a book that my sister C had recommended last year. It finally came available from our local library and again, I couldn’t be more surprised over the timing. The book is called, “Big Magic,” and is written by Elizabeth Gilbert, who you may remember is the author of  the popular best selling book, “Eat, Pray, Love.”

                         
Image result for images of the book Big Magic by elizabeth gilbert

I loved that book. Recently, listening to CBC, I heard that some people thought it was too “navel gazing” which I thought was interesting. Maybe I’m not such an intellectual reader, as I thought it was uplifting and a sweet story.It made me want to cook authentic Italian food, and  learn to speak the language, it made me want to meditate for long stretches and practice my yoga, it made me want to appreciate the love of my life a little bit more because, unlike Elizabeth who had to travel to Bali to find her love, mine has been walking closely beside me for most of my life. Sometimes we have to look into another person’s life to see what is in our own backyard.

Anyway, like “Eat, Pray, Love,” I am enjoying, “Big Magic”…..creative living beyond fear.” What is most timely about this book is that I’m currently reading it while  living in the deep peace of winter, quiet and calm, but open to any and all opportunities the Universe is sending my way. Inspiration is always at my doorstep. Always knocking, asking, do you want this, experience that, adventure there? It’s up to me to be grateful for these opportunities and remember to always be thankful. To graciously say, “No, that isn’t for me,” or “yes, yes, YES, I wish to do or have that.”

I believe we are souls first, living an earthly experience. We have free will to make choices but if we stay connected to our soul, and shut out our ego, we are able to tap into the most creative part of ourselves while following life’s inspirations. We can be our best selves and live our greatest life.It’s all up to us.

                             Living IN SPIRIT is the true magic. 

And now, it’s time to bake. Years ago, we had a bread maker which I thought was the cat’s meow….does that expression date me? It was great when we had a family of 4 but now that we have a family double that size and more, one tiny loaf of bread doesn’t go far. I gave our bread maker away years ago, as it was just sitting in my cupboard. I have learned to make homemade pizzas, homemade dinner buns,  and over the years I would occasionally bake some bread, but I never found the perfect recipe, UNTIL recently. I have now moved into the realm of baking bread ever since Harrison made it last week for our family. Those four loaves of bread went faster than Will sledding down our driveway. .See my post called, “Sledding Soup and Homemade bread.” for the recipe.

Yesterday, I made something that I know will become a family favourite. I found the recipe on Foods.com website. When it was called the best Cinnamon Raisin Bread and received 5 stars, I thought that is exactly what I have been looking for. I was not disappointed……..here’s the link, “World’s Best Cinnamon Raisin Bread.”

I’ve written out the recipe on my blog with pictures so you can easily follow along….if you haven’t baked bread yet and want to make something that will surely be a winter comfort food, I hope you try this recipe….BE INSPIRED!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients Nutrition

  • 1 1⁄2 cups milk
  • 1 cup warm water (must be between 110-115 degrees)
  • 2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1⁄2 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 8 cups all purpose flour…I used 6 cups of white to 2 cups of whole wheat)
  • 2 tablespoons  milk
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted (approx.)

 

 

 

Directions

  1. Warm the milk in a small sauce pan on the stove until it just starts to bubble, stirring occasionally.
  2. Remove from heat.
  3. Let cool until lukewarm, about 120-125 degrees.

4. Dissolve the yeast in warm water with 1 tbsp of sugar…..yeast doesn’t activate without sugar) and set aside in a warm place until the yeast is frothy, about 10 minutes.

  1.  

    5. Then mix in eggs, sugar, butter, salt, raisins, and add the cooled milk slowly so you don’t cook the eggs.
    6. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough.
    7. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, until the dough is smooth…a bit glossy
    8. Place in a LARGE, buttered mixing bowl and turn it to grease the surface of all sides of the dough.
    9. Cover with a damp dish cloth and let rise in a place without drafts. I allow mine to rise on the counter next to our stove…under our upper cabinet lighting….they give off a warm glow….allow to rise for 11/2 hours until the dough doubles

    10. Once it has risen…..roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a large rectangle, 1/2 inch thick.

    11. Moisten the dough with 2 tbsp of milk and rub all over the dough with your hands.

    12. Mix 1 cup of sugar and 3 tbsp of cinnamon and sprinkle mixture evenly over the top of the moistened dough.

    13. Roll up tightly,…the long way.

    14. The roll should be about 3 inches in diameter.

    15. Cut into thirds, and tuck ends under and pinch bottom together tightly.

    16. Place the 3 loaves into well greased pans…9×5 size and lightly grease tops of the loaves…..you can use Crisco or butter to grease the pans and grease the tops

    17. Let rise in a warm place, uncovered, again for about an hour (This recipe can make 4 loaves as well….I just baked another batch and rolled it out a bit longer and cut the dough into 4 sections….it made 4 nice size loaves…great…..as it gets eaten REALLY fast)

    18. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (the original recipe called for a 45 time but my new oven is efficient and did the bread perfectly in 30 mins….WATCH CLOSELY…if I had waited for 45 minutes my bread would have been really dry) or until loaves are lightly browned and sound hollow when tapped.

     

    19. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack

    20. Melt butter and spread on the tops of the loaves with a brush.

    21. After about 20 minutes, lay the loaves on their sides and remove from pans.

    22. Allow to cool completely before slicing….one loaf was almost gone by the time I remembered to take a picture for my blog…..these loaves go fast! and 22 steps is WORTH IT!

    My older son said this bread reminded him of our cinnamon buns…..so I think we found a winner. As I write this, we are down to our last loaf….and the kids are looking forward to having cinnamon raisin toast for breakfast tomorrow morning. Wish you were here for breakfast!

    Want future inspiration? Over Christmas I stumbled across a cool couple who are living with their family of 5 off grid. Recently, the homestead wife, Esther, made bread and you can watch her on their Youtube channel. Their site is called, “Fouch-o-matic Off Grid.” I’d love to introduce you to this lovely couple who make me happy and inspired whenever I watch one of their videos. Check them out and help support them by subscribing to their channel.

    If you can’t see their Youtube video below, click on this hyper-link…..

    The Homestead Wife makes bread

    Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

    Blessings from Hope

Homemade Bread, Soup and Sledding

/ Lee Reynolds

Oh sweet January. In past years, I haven’t embraced it as fully as I am doing this year. Each month seems bittersweet and the days are flying by all too fast for me. I thought I would slow things down a bit and say yes more.

Yes, to staying in bed on Saturday mornings, luxuriating in the slow pace that I have created. Yes, to curling up in my favourite chair, sinking into a good book, while my little ones are engrossed in playing a game of their choosing. Yes, to letting all the kids head outside for one more play in the snow, even though they “should” be practicing cello, piano or doing home work.

I can hear them laughing and shrieking with glee as they slide down our driveway. It’s snowing too hard to stay on top of shoveling it.  I can nest inside, making a pot of aromatic chicken and wild rice soup….and maybe there is still a loaf of homemade bread to accompany it.

This feels so good, savouring another winter month and experiencing all the senses of the season. Shorter days, full of white and dark. Magical moments watching the snow gently fall, feeling the excitement bubbling from our little ones as I bundle them up for another adventure making snow forts, snowman, and of course, their favourite, sledding in our yard. Does life get any better than this?

 

No matter where you live in the world, you can choose to make the days richer. Slow them down by saying yes to what you love.

Today, I made the most delicious chicken and wild rice soup. It was amazing. Now I make a lot of soups. Almost every week in the winter I make at least one big pot and lately, I have been experimenting with whatever we have in the house, THAT, is what goes in the pot. This makes for some interesting combinations. Today, since a few of our family members have had a persistent cough, I thought what we needed was an old fashion chicken and rice soup. Easy on the tummy and apparently, chicken soup is good for colds.

It was just what we all needed. I pulled out the last loaf of bread Harrison made on the weekend. He had made 4 loaves and there is one loaf left…. it’s only Monday. Then I threw together a green salad and voila…dinner was served. So say yes to sledding….or whatever you do in your part of the world and say yes to making a big pot of heart warming soup with homemade bread. It’s really that easy.

Hope’s Chicken and Wild Rice/quinoa Soup

Ingredients

*1/4 of extra virgin oil
* 3 chopped garlic cloves
*1 finely chopped onion
*1/2 cup chopped celery
*1 cup sliced carrots
*3/4 cups all purpose flour
*10 cups of chicken broth
*3 cups of wild rice/quinoa
*1 cup of cooked and cut up chicken
*1/2 tsp chili powder
*1/2 tsp cumin powder
*1/2 tsp mustard powder
*1 tsp dried parsley
*1 tsp dried basil
*Sea salt…to taste
*Ground pepper to taste
*2 cups of milk
 Optional….I used what I had in the house….but had I had some fresh mushrooms and broccoli….I would have chopped them and put them in….use what you have……what you LOVE.

Directions

1. Throw one chicken breast into the oven and cook for 45 minutes at 400 degrees

2. Cook 1 cup of wild rice/quinoa…equates to 3 cups once cooked 



3. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot, stir in garlic, onion, celery, and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes until onions are translucent. (If you have mushrooms….add them next…saute for another few minutes. 

4. Add flour to the pot and stir well. Gradually add the 10 cups of chicken broth. 

5. Heat well, bringing almost to a boil…reduce heat and simmer while the chicken and rice and quinoa is cooked.

6. Add the cooked wild rice and quinoa, along with the chili powder, cumin, mustard powder, parsley, basil, pepper and salt. 



6. Once the chicken is cooked, cut up into small pieces and add to the soup pot.

7. Add 2 cups of milk and heat through…simmer until you are ready to eat. 

 

And now for the recipe for the bread that my 17 year old made on the weekend…..he is taking Foods 11 on line and this was his first foray into bread making….the loaves turned out beautifully!

Harrison’s Homemade Bread

Ingredients

Lots of flour….roughly 5 cups of white….1 cup of whole wheat…keep mixing until it’s the right consistency
5 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup of sugar
4 cups of lukewarm water

Directions: (note these are Harrison’s directions)

Add 4 cups of lukewarm water to bowl, add ½ cup of sugar.  After mixing water and sugar together add 4 tbsp. of yeast.  Let proof for 10 minutes. 

Once yeast is bubbly and frothy… add 1 tbsp. of salt, 5 tbsp. oil, stir, then add flour 1 cup at a time, until you reach the desired consistency of dough you are looking for. 

Now turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until you get a smooth ball of dough that is not sticking to the table at all.

Next, grab your second bowl, lightly coat it in oil, and place your ball of dough into it.  Cover, and let rise for 1 hour.  You are looking for your dough to at least double in size.  After the dough has risen, you will punch it down, and turn it out onto a floured surface again.  This time we are going to divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll them into a log shape to fit in the bread pans. 

 Grease your bread pans with butter, place your dough in the pans, cover them and let rise for half an hour.  Then put your bread in the over at 375F for 25 minutes.  Flip them out of their pans, and apply a very light coat of butter to the crust of the bread. This is to keep it soft, and to not dry out.

 

The little ones came in from sledding and had their hot cocoa with Harrison’s homemade bread….January is SWEET!
Our oldest son said this was one of his fav soups…high praise!
While the soup was simmering, I made a batch of oatmeal/raisin cookies, full of spices. The house smelled marvelous!

Sledding in new snow, baking bread and making soup……..
 

 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Homemade Eggnog and Miracles

/ Lee Reynolds

 

“Allow Miracles to Happen”

Happy New Year dearest friends and family. Today is a new day. Today is the beginning of a new year of endless possibilities. It’s thrilling to contemplate, especially if one is of the mindset of feeling limitless. What is that quote by Goethe? “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” That is the place I choose to reside and the perspective I choose to take in life.

If you are interested in the Homemade Eggnog portion of my blog, scroll down to the bottom, but if you are interested in reading about receiving miracles in life, read on. Of course, I believe each moment we are on earth is a miracle but we are living a human experience and that often gets in the way of viewing our life as a sacred journey. We get caught up in the world and listen far too much to our ego. Dr. Wayne Dyer used to say our ego is our “earth guide only,” or our way to “edge God out.” Day to day, it’s easy to get sucked into what we think is reality and we forget the expansiveness the Universe provides. We just need to tap in.

Even though I live in a state of gratitude and have observed miracles happening all the time in my life, I still was amazed when another one happened on Christmas Eve. We have been having problems with our stove since our Canadian Thanksgiving in October. This is a big deal for our family, since we rely solely on homemade meals. It is a rarity that we bring in a pizza or go out to eat. So when an error code kept coming up and my oven was shutting down, or over heating whenever I would cook, it was a big concern. David googled the problem and thought he had solved the sensor detection issue and for at least the last 2 months, my oven has been working pretty well. Then I started to do my last minute Christmas baking. 

On the night before Christmas eve, with a fridge full of sugar cookie and gingerbread dough, and right in the middle of baking a batch, my oven started to emit that loud annoying beep, and on the stove top panel, a familiar error code was flashing in red again. I wasn’t so concerned about my cookies, as we could live without them. What was a bigger issue, was early the next morning I would have to decide whether to take the turkey out of the freezer to thaw for our Christmas day dinner. I didn’t want to be in the middle of cooking the bird and have my oven shut down, or worse over heat. 

Throughout the evening of the 23rd, Grace and I put batch after batch of cookies in the oven. Some came out under cooked and then as I continued to bake, the remainder came out well done. At the end, as I opened the oven, a flood of smoke filled the kitchen, setting off our piercing smoke alarm. Then the oven didn’t cool down, even though I had turned it off. Our sweet daughter Grace, who is 13, told me later that she thought our house was going to burn down. She also told me that she was sending forth prayers for all to be well.

Our sweet daughter Grace, who is learning a lot about faith this year

                                                                    Image result for praying hands

David, who had been doing our last bit of grocery shopping, came home to the chaos and said the sensor panel would probably need to be replaced. Who in the world had that part and would be able to install it on Christmas eve? We went to bed with heavy hearts the night before Christmas eve. We had worked so hard getting ready for Christmas. David had gone out of town the month before on two separate occasions, which meant long days and no breaks, as both times he worked 10 day stints. The extra money was making Christmas possible for our family but there wasn’t any extra.

We were almost there. In the last month, I had bought a few gifts and done some baking that would be sent with my sister J, who was going to the U.K. for Christmas and had generously agreed to take them to our oldest daughter in London. We had celebrated 3 of our children’s December birthdays with thoughtful gifts and special dinners for each. The kids had participated in donations to the local food bank after raiding my lazy susan, and had also happily put together shoe boxes for children less fortunate in other countries. We had dropped money into our local Salvation Army kettle at our grocery store for local families. Finally, the children had participated in all the year end Christmas concerts, recitals and parties, of which there were many and of course, something was always brought as a contribution, usually my baking, and a small gift for each teacher.

A few nights before the stove incident, David and I had spent the whole evening wrapping and labeling the gifts we had squirreled away for our children. I had spent a lot of time looking at their wish lists, reading the flyers in the local paper and doing on line comparison shopping. David and I had battled the shopping crowds on several occasions to select  the perfect gift with equal fairness in mind for each child. Then there was the grocery shopping which seemed endless. I was done. But happily done. The only thing left to do was a bit more baking for our family and attend our church’s candlelight service on Christmas eve. But what to do about our oven.

With my venture towards minimalism, a desire to live a more sustainable life, and move in the direction of eating mostly vegetarian meals, I thought it was interesting that a broken stove was in front of me. I felt blessed to have a working microwave, and although I personally try not to use it to heat food, much preferring the slower stove top method, it WAS in our kitchen. Also, if we filled our propane tank, we had a working barbecue, although David didn’t think it would be an effective way to cook a turkey with our plummeting outside temperatures. Still, we had options and I wanted to focus on that. Also, maybe this holiday we could eat a plant based diet. All these thoughts and ideas swirled around as I went to sleep that night but my final thoughts were, I put it in your hands God. 

Now, some of you may have wondered why we didn’t just go and buy a new stove, but with two children in University and others to care for, this isn’t an easy option for us. Also, we haven’t used our one credit card in years…I don’t even have one in my wallet any longer. We save it for life emergencies only and a broken oven doesn’t factor in that category. This is where the miracle comes into play though, because if we had been able to just go to the store and throw down our plastic or even had the cash, God/the Universe/, whatever feels comfortable to your ears, wouldn’t have been able to show his hand.

The next morning, David got up early as he had a number of projects to complete at the office. I awoke to our younger ones, excited for Christmas voices. We had breakfast and then we got dressed. After that I decided to call David to see if he had come up with a solution. He told me to leave it with him a bit longer. A short time later, he called back and asked me to take the turkey out of the freezer and also if I could meet him at Parnell’s Appliance store, which is a small appliance retail outlet in our little town. I hurriedly asked our older children to get up and get dressed so they could watch the little ones and I flew out of the house with expectation.

When I arrived David was already talking ovens with a salesman. He had a big smile on his face and as he greeted me, I sensed a lightness about his shoulders. We talked about the various benefits each stove featured and finally, I settled on the one that really excited me. It had a convection oven, which meant I could cook on all three racks at the same time and there was also a warming tray. Another bonus, was the moveable griddle that could cook pancakes, etc on the stove top. Our old electric griddle was ready to pack it in. Another bonus, was all the stoves were marked down with boxing day special prices. When Brad, the salesman, went to see if this stove was in stock, I whispered to David, “but how are we going to pay for it?” And that is when he smiled, telling me he had been given a bonus at the office that morning. It would cover the cost of the stove.

We weren’t expecting any bonus since the company had just started a program which would reward  staff members with accumulated safety points and various products could be purchased with the redeemed points. Safety, is a big theme right now in all industries but especially the electrical industry where David works. In past Christmases, the company had thoughtfully given gift cards from Walmart, the Super Store, Boston Pizza, the Movie theatre, etc. but with the new safety bonus program, we thought that would be it for Christmas. What makes me believe in miracles is that this bonus was totally unexpected and it couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. 

                                     Miracle!

What is an even bigger miracle, is Brad came out of the back room to say, they not only had the stove I wanted in stock….but they could deliver it a few hours later. Wow! 

                                     Merry Christmas!

We called home to tell the older boys to clear the drive way as we had had another snow fall throughout the night and flakes were still softly falling off and on. When I got home they had cleared the drive way and the steps going down to our house too.

 

The boys have shoveled a lot of snow this holiday season….Christmas eve was a big dump

I came into the house and everyone was so excited. A new stove would be arriving soon and we would be eating our turkey with huge gratitude.

Saying a sad goodbye to my old oven…all the memories of past Christmases, birthday cakes, soups, pizzas travel with it.

A few hours later, two delivery men wearing Santa hats arrived at our door. Nothing was sweeter than seeing our new stove.

The delivery mat was still in place and I had to capture the moment….joy filled

And while this oven is very much of this earth, it represents a tangible miracle this Christmas.

                         

 
I couldn’t have been given a better gift this Christmas. It came first as a miracle wrapped in a much needed stove but continued after that with my eyes wide open. Later, when our family filled a whole church pew and I looked down to see them all singing,”Silent Night,” with candles glowing in their hands, I was over whelmed with the miracle of the season. When the clocked struck midnight on Christmas eve and I was able to connect, via Skype, with our London based daughter, again the feeling flooded through me. Even though we are so far apart, I could wish her a Happy Christmas, see her beautiful face, listen to her voice. Someone had to dream BIG to be able to make it possible for us to connect in such a way.

As my pumpkin pie cooked on Christmas Eve, David read the book I have had since I was small, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” to our little ones but our big ones were listening too.

It’s not Christmas without my classic pumpkin pie….I use the recipe on the “Libby’s” Pumpkin pie can…and use the Tenderflake pastry recipe for the crust…the star is my personal touch…of HOPE
David with the book, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”….it was given to me on my 2nd Christmas.
Harrison and our Siamese cat Ryuuki listen to the classic Christmas Eve story…..this after hearing the one about baby Jesus at church an hour before

Then a few hours later, I was up early, preparing the dressing and stuffing the turkey. This year I was in a state of pure gratitude for the turkey and for the oven that would roast him. For everything that fell into place perfectly.

It’s going to be a beautiful Christmas day!

 

Christmas morning….me up early getting the turkey in….I used all my dried baby’s breath on the tree this year…simply beautiful and even though last spring I did a mass declutter in the name of minimalism,  I cut our holiday decorations in half….we really didn’t miss anything….some greenery, some fairy lights, a few memorable tree decorations….oh and a poinsettia…the house was lovely

Then, holding the little ones back no further, they stopped for a picture and rushed to see what Santa had left them in their stockings and under the tree.

After my stove was delivered, everything was just as bonus and it got me thinking about life and how I walk my path. Over the holidays as time allowed, I was able to connect with some of my cyber friends, some whom, are still trying to have their first baby, or to complete their family. One of them said something really impressive to me, considering all she has endured on her path. She said, “One of my mantra’s I hold close is ” my life is none of my business” I try to remember to just show up and let life just take care.”
 
I loved that because I think we get too caught up in what seems like the BIG things in life and we try to control too much. In doing so, we block the flow of miracles into our life. If we just remember to show up, that is all we really need to do…..and if we show up with gratitude, I think that is the key in living a miraculous life.

So we are at the beginning of a new year. A time when dreams are fresh and our heart is strong. If we listen to our heart, and trust it is life’s rudder, we can’t go wrong. I don’t know about you but I have big dreams, and little dreams. My little ones are by becoming more sustainable and also environmentally conscious. I want to use less packaging and rely less on other people to make what I love. One thing I love at Christmas time is eggnog. I have always wanted to learn how and this year my dream came true. I didn’t buy one eggnog latte while out shopping…..instead, I learned to make eggnog from scratch and made my own lattes. 

It was so easy and delicious. I don’t know why I haven’t made it before. I  learned to make eggnog latte’s last year, which accompanied my cranberry bliss bars (inspired from a trip to Starbucks) but this year, I’m happy to say, that I made everything from scratch and while it is more expensive to make the homemade variety…the taste is well worth it. Absolutely no comparison, so if eggnog is your thing….maybe try making a batch.

Chances are you already have everything you need in your home…. all you may need to buy is some “whopped” (our little girl Kathryn calls it that) cream, and some sweetened condensed milk.

So grab a pot, an apron and come join me in the kitchen…….for

                                    Hope’s Homestead Eggnog

“Eggnog may have originated in East Anglia, England; or it may have simply developed from posset, a medieval European beverage made with hot milk; eggs were added to some posset recipes. The “nog” part of its name may stem from the word noggin, a Middle English term for a small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol.|”

 

Here’s what you need to make egg nog…behind my cinnamon is the “whopped cream”

 

Non-Alcoholic Eggnog
Ingredients
4 cups of milk
1/2 tsp of cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
 1/2 cup sweetened, condensed milk…I use the light one if I can
8 egg yolks…the fresher the better
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 cups of whipping cream….full strength, the heavy stuff
2  tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of nutmeg…plus more for garnish
 
Opt: 1 can of whipped cream…and a few cinnamon sticks for stirring….kind of old fashioned too

 

Instructions
1. In a large sauce pan heat milk, cloves, cinnamon, and the condensed milk over low heat. Slowly increase heat until mixture is just about to boil….be careful not to boil.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the 8 eggs with the 2 cups of sugar, then using an electric mixer, combine mixture until it’s light and fluff….it will have a lovely soft yellow colour.
3. Slowly add the hot milk mixture, 1 spoonful at a time to the sugar and eggs……(I ladled the last little bit)..once about 1/2 of the hot mixture is introduced and it has tempered, add it all back to the sauce pan and cook over medium heat for about 3 to 5 minutes. When the mixture thickens it is done.
3. At this point, slowly add the 2 cups of whipping cream, nutmeg and vanilla and heat through. do not bring this to a boil. You are getting close now to tasting a delicious, thick, nog…yummy! I really love being able to choose how much spice to add as well.
4. At this point, you can either use the mixture to make eggnog lattes, or you can find a jar with a sealed lid…..I put my eggnog into several mason jars with screwed lids and cool well before serving.

We made lattes when the eggnog was still hot. Use some canned whipping cream and sprinkle some nutmeg on top for a garnish…serve with a cinnamon stick.

 

This batch of eggnog made enough to make four eggnog lattes and 4 cups of plain nog for the kids

 

I don’t mind if I do

  

When I called, “eggnog is ready,” everyone came for a taste test

 

 

I was so engrossed with making my eggnog and then drinking it that I never noticed my Santa apron was inside out….as David said is doesn’t matter, either way, it says, “the holidays are here.”

 

 

 

 

As 2016 unfolds for you and your family, I hope you allow miracles to happen.

 

 

 

 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope

 

Fruitcake~Hope is a Star

/ Lee Reynolds

I’d like to share a story I wrote several years ago. This is the 50th Christmas since my Dad left the earth and it seems like a fitting tribute. This is for you Dad, my shining star and for my mother, who has now joined him and also guides me on my journey.

Hope is a Star

The Christmas I remember most poignantly, was wrapped in deep sorrow and sadness. It was December 1965 and I had just turned 6 years old. My family and I lived in the small town of Hope, B.C., on the west coast of Canada. My three older sisters had been heard to say our little town was, “beyond hope, as there wasn’t a lot for children and teenagers to do. Still, I loved our quaint little town, nestled next to tall, forested mountains and I felt safe and happy in the white clapboard house that my father, (and mother) had built for us, adding on piece by piece over the years as our family grew. It glowed with the happy hum of a loving family. But that Christmas lay quiet and dark.

My father, Marvyn Clark, had been killed in an Esso company, truck accident on the Hope Princeton highway the September before. He had left my mother alone, struggling to care for myself and my three older sisters. Since I was young, I didn’t comprehend the depths of despair or grief but I felt it. It lay heavy on me, like when I would burrow under a pile of fake fur and wool coats thrown on my parent’s bed when company arrived. I couldn’t breathe.

Wonderful smells of cinnamon and ginger didn’t waft from the kitchen and there weren’t sounds of tissue rustling or my mother’s sewing machine creating magic into the wee hours of the night. There was no trip to the mountains to choose the most perfectly shaped and fragrant fir tree, nor was there any adult laughter or music coming from our living room after I had been tucked away for the night. When my dad was alive, I would often fall asleep listening to him tapping away on his typewriter, or playing his violin and oh, the deep comforting smell of his presence; rich pungent with a hint of pipe tobacco and gasoline, I missed that the most.

A friend of my mother’s took my sister, J and I, to the big city to see Santa. While it was an adventure to leave our small town, and the sweet peppermint candy cane I received after sitting on Santa’s lap was delicious, a piece of me had been shattered and knew, not even Santa could bring what I longed for most. My Dad.

J and I visiting Santa the Christmas after Dad was killed, 1965

That Christmas Eve stands out as a pivotal shift among the stillness of the season. I wore a red, hand me down dress with scratchy crinoline and white tights, that annoyingly needed to be pulled up every few moments. We attended our family’s United Church candlelight service and listened to the story of how God’s love illuminated the world with a star and a baby.

As we walked home in the crisp, cold evening, our boots crunched on the newly fallen snow. I looked up into the black velvet sky to see the brightest star. It seemed to follow us on our path home and no matter which way we turned, it hovered over head. Finally, we arrived at our darkened home and my mother and sisters stepped into our little front porch, stamping the snow off of their boots but I hung back. I hesitated to look up for fear the star had vanished but then, a sense of peace poured through me as I scanned the sky once more, only to find it still shimmering with brilliant light right above my head. I was sure it was glowing, just for me.

At last, I could bear the bone chilling air no longer, I took one last look and joined my family. Warm light was spilling out our front door and I could hear the hum of voices within.

~The End~

Merry Christmas!

I have held HOPE in my heart ever since that Christmas and like that special star, it never wavers. I KNOW we are loved and cared for. We may not understand why life has to be so hard at times but we need to just trust and let go, knowing, all shall be well.

Please join me in going down memory lane with some photos from Christmases in Hope

MY Dad, Marvyn and my mom Ethel Clark
Here, I am as a little one, Debra Lee…aka Hope
A typical Christmas morning while my dad was still alive…Dad, my sister J and myself in the kerchief…pin curls in my hair
While we were not well off, we were wealthy in so many ways…rich in hard work, integrity, honesty and love

 

My sister C was a teenager when Dad passed away…this was from a happier Christmas
The Four Clark girls, that’s me on the left, then my oldest sister B, then J and finally my second oldest sister, C

 

My family…the Clark’s

 

I love this picture of my parents…Dad looks so happy and notice my mom touching his hand…they loved each other so much

 

My Dad and my sisters and I with the snowman we made in front of our house…I think this was the last winter before Dad died

Well dearest blog family, I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me and I hope that you remember, the real Christmas magic, is holding hope in your heart. It lights us up, allowing us to live a richer life full of meaning and most important of all, and what God gave us so many Christmases ago,…………………………………………………………. LOVE   

Before I go and get my family ready for our family pictures today, I wanted to share with you my own fruitcake recipe. After we come home from our candlelight service on Christmas eve, we light a single white candle on the cake and we sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. It helps to keep the true meaning of Christmas foremost in our minds before the gift giving portion the following morning. Maybe, if you share the same sort of belief as I, you can add it as one of your family traditions. There is something about mixing a big bowl of fruitcake that takes me right back to Christmases with my mom….and my Dad and helps me keep our house humming.

Hope’s Baby Jesus Fruitcake

Ingredients

1/4 lb of sliced almonds
1/2 lb (about 11/2 cups) of dark raisins
1/2 lb mixed peel or glazed fruit
1/4 cups glazed or well drained maraschino cherries..sliced
2-1/2 cups pre-sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
4 eggs 
(cooking oil to grease pans)

Directions

Grease and line cake tins with 3 layers of heavy waxed paper or 2 layers of brown paper. Grease each piece of paper with cooking oil. Blanche and halve the almonds; then toast in moderate oven. Combine in large bowl with raisins, peel and sliced cherries

Measure 1/2 cup flour without sifting and add to fruit, stirring until fruit is well coated. Measure remaining 2 cups flour without sifting, add baking powder and salt and stir thoroughly to blend

Cream butter until fluffy, gradually add sugar, mixing until creamy. Add flavouring and then the eggs; one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in dry ingredients until well combined. Blend in fruit and nuts. Fill Cake tins 2/3.

Bake at 325 F for 1 1/2 to 2 hours….when toothpick comes out clean. Happy Birthday Jesus!
 

Yummy!….but then I’m kind of old fashioned.

As I leave you, I am singing the lovely hymn our United church sings every Christmas eve. If you can’t see the YouTube link below…click on the hyper link to hear, “Hope is a Star.” (it’s really catchy and you may find yourself humming it over the holidays)

 

1. Hope is a star that shines in the night,
leading us on till the morning is bright.

Refrain:
When God is a child there’s joy in our song.
The last shall be first and the weak shall be strong,
and none shall be afraid.

2. Peace is a ribbon that circles the earth,
giving a promise of safety and worth.

3. Joy is a song that welcomes the dawn,
telling the world that the Saviour is born.

4. Love is a flame that burns in our heart.
Jesus has come and will never depart.
I hope your holiday is filled with the magic of the season and you hold the true meaning of Christmas in your heart for the whole year through.

The little reindeer on our mantle is a treasure from my childhood…as long as I can remember it was in our home


Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope





 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies~The Love of Books

/ Lee Reynolds

The last month has been busy around the homestead, or rather off the homestead. The little girls had their watching week at ballet.

And then there was their first foray on the ice with skating lessons twice a week and I mean literally, on the ice, as that is where they spent the first few lessons. Then I started taking them out in between lessons and even joined them on ice during lesson time and they are now starting to glide. Little children learn so fast!

Yesterday was their last skating lesson before the holidays begin and they have really come a long way. Sorry, no pictures of how that looks as I was on the ice with them.

Victoria on ice…Kate up for a moment…first skating lesson

Will also started introductory hockey lessons which went really well from all accounts. David was taking him to those lessons, as they conflicted with the girl’s skating. I did see him briefly for one lesson and he was skating really well and had a good handle of the game….even got a few goals. In the new year I have all the little kids booked for figure skating lessons.

Harrison started basketball really late in the season, as they didn’t have a coach. Finally, one brave parent, who knows something about basketball, stepped forward and they now have had two games, of which they have been soundly beaten. No pictures of those moments either….too depressing, however after each game, I always remind Harrison that we learn far more from our failures than our successes. And in that light, is losing really a failure? (he says, yes!…hmmmm)

Grace was busy with her music theory, piano and her voice lessons. On her birthday weekend she had her voice recital and her choir concert. Then a few hours later was climbing the walls with her friends, celebrating her 13th birthday.  Happy Birthday my early Holiday baby. (She was due to be born on the 18th…can you imagine….I would have had her on the 18th, Harrison’s birthday on the 19th and Clark’s on the 20th…I’m glad she decided to come early in December)

Grace at home before leaving for the voice recital

 

Grace at our local climbing gym, celebrating her 13th birthday with friends…over the next few years, I hope I don’t feel like climbing the walls raising another teenage daughter

Then there were all those Christmas parties to attend, Will’s gingerbread house making party at school of which I didn’t get a picture, as I was up to my wrists in icing, as he was pasting the candies on the house. Then there was the little girl’s party at Kindermusik.

My sugar cookies and gingerbread…our offering for our Kindermusik class
The little girls at home before the first party….which at the last minute got cancelled and I had to bake another batch of cookies the next week…because you know…the first batch didn’t last long in our house

 

The girls in the loft at the music school with their teacher Jennifer

 

Jennifer, their teacher always goes all out…these are the cute snow people they made during Kindermusik class…sticky sock snow people is what the girls call them
One day the girls just wanted to dress up at home…..no reason…just because and I thought I would snap a few pictures….they are growing up too fast but boy is Christmas magically this year as they are always whispering about what Santa might bring them…..we have talked a lot about the spirit of giving this year…and sharing with others.
Grace and Will off to school holding the Christmas shoe boxes they will donate via Sarmitan’s Purse….they enjoyed collecting things for children less fortunate this holiday season

In the rare moments when we were home, I was madly throwing laundry into machines, loading or unloading the dishwasher, putting together whatever meal was needed and trying to decorate our house for the holidays. I did take a few moments to do some crafts with the little girls and set up their favourite activity of all. Playing tea party.

 

This is the sweetest Beatrix Potter tea set that Grace was given years ago

 

I think Victoria is all about the cookies
And Kathryn likes the Christmas mint tea I brew for them

Then yesterday my sweet son, Harrison Drew turned 17 years old. Watch out drivers in Vernon because he is now able to get his classified “N” driver’s license. Happy Birthday Harrison!

Here is David out barbequing burgers on our little camping grill as we had run out of propane on our large barbeque
After a dinner of burgers, fries, salad, (this is my kid that likes meat) Harrison is ready to blow out his candles…..”mom do we have to take so many pictures?” Me….yes!

So after a flurry of activities in the past month, I’m finally able to slow down a bit. Whew. It’s Sunday morning and all is quiet, well sort of. Not really. In a house with 6 children still residing, 3 of whom are still young, is it ever quiet? But it’s peaceful enough for me to write a few lines in my blog before the day gets going. Also, when I padded into the kitchen to get my morning cup of water and lemon, I noticed out the kitchen window that it’s snowing. REALLY snowing. Wait, I’ll go and capture a picture….okay, so it has slowed down a bit but this is how our view has changed:

 

This only a few weeks ago….

 

And now this today…Dec 20th 2015. You can’t really tell but it’s lightly snowing in the picture…when I was up earlier it was really dumping…I like to share these pictures for those blog viewers who live in warmer climates….snow is really magical!

Although I love to curl up with a good book any time of the year, there is something special about hibernating inside on a snowy day, brewing a  cup of spicy tea, sitting in our big, comfy chair in the corner of our living room  and opening up a book, savouring each word written within. If you are like me, or are looking for a last minute Christmas gift for a book lover, check out the following books. This is my year end list of favourite books.

Here they are: Some classics that I may have written about before but if you are interested in growing your own food and becoming sustainable these are entertaining reads.

“The Dirty Life” by Kristin Kimball….which I found to be a sweet love story

And then there is “Farm City” by Novella Carpenter….which is a delightfully funny and entertaining story of a gutsy woman, farming in the roughest neighbourhood in Oakland, California…(hey my mom was born in Oakland)

And then a compelling read that is both tragic and yet heart warming. I couldn’t put this book down one weekend. “This Life is in Your Hands,” is written by the daughter of Eliot Coleman, who was trying to live and raise his young family in a totally sustainable life with mentors such as Scott and Helen Nearing. They had written the book,”A Good Life,” and were a couple who lived a totally sustainable life last century and inspired many young people to adopt their lifestyle. Eliot Coleman and his wife were one of those couples and this book is written from their daughter’s perspective. It made me want to get my hands dirty and bake bread…..but with thoughts towards how it impacts the next generation.

“This Life is in Your Hands~one dream, sixty acres, and a family undone” by Melissa Coleman

and then for a shift in genres ….as this year ends and I think about a New Year approaching, I read a wonderful soul FULL book, recommended by my sister C. I loved it so much, that I took up valuable space in my sister J’s luggage this winter, in order for her to take the book to my daughter in London for Christmas. As long as I can remember, our oldest daughter Alyssa has had at least one book under the tree, and often many. For this Christmas I thought this was the best book I could send her. It was thought provoking and has lingered with me as I live THIS lifetime. This book will come into your life when you ready to read the message.

“One Great Year” by Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio

And out of all the books that I read with my Soul Circle group, these are a few that I really cherished.

One was, “The Untethered Soul” by Michael A. Singer. If I were to recommend only one book to help you on your soul’s journey, this book would be IT!

and the other was sweet and held an interesting concept that I totally embrace. Such an inspiring story written by a sister….and her brother who has left this earth school. Read it with an open mind.

“The Afterlife of Billy Fingers,” by Annie Kagan

Then switching genres AGAIN, because I have such diverse interests, since I ventured into the realm of minimalism this past year, here are a few books that I would recommend, if you are wanting to live a richer life.

“Minimalism, live a meaningful life,” by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus

This is a modern day classic for those of us who want more


and then THE CLASSIC….
“Walden” by Henry D. Thoreau, who was the ultimate minimalist and has captured my heart with his lyrical text.

Another shift…..I found Mimi Kirk this year and would LOVE to introduce her to you as well. Although I’m not living a totally raw lifestyle, eating a large, plant based diet is my focus for my health and well being as I age. If you are interested in this way of living, eating, being, check out one of her AMAZING books. It’s not just about what we put in  mouths, but what we put in our minds. THIS lovely woman exudes health, joy, peace and love. I want what she has! Check her out and try a few of her wonderful recipes.

“Live Raw” by Mimi Kirk

And finally before I move onto what I like to eat while I’m reading….my pumpkin spice cookies, (yes, while not raw….are restorative for my soul as they are homey) I wanted to share a few books the little kids and I have been reading this fall.

The first is exquisite!

“Winter’s Gift,” by Jane Monroe Donovan, who is not only the author but the illustrator of this stunning book. If you love horses and have experienced loss, this story will touch your heart. My children were enchanted by the hauntingly beautiful pictures and story.                                                      

and then a book that makes me cry EVERY time I read it to my children, “The Shine Man,” by Mary Quattlebaum and Illustrations by Tim Ladwig. If you want to read a story about what Christmas is all about…pure love….this is a moving and touching story.


As you can tell, I love beautifully illustrated books for my children.

And finally, a chapter book that I’m reading to my 6 year old and my 4 year old twins. After years of reading books with pictures, I’m trying to read chapter books to them so they can make pictures in their heads. They are all extremely engaged with this story that takes place in Paris, about three small children who are homeless at Christmas time and a hobo, who puts them under his wing…and his heart.

After bath time each night, we cuddle together under my silky, down comforter and open this lovely book, allowing the story to unfold, chapter by chapter. It’s been a highlight in our day and has opened many discussions about children less fortunate all over the world.

“The Family Under the Bridge.” by Natalie Savage Carlson is an endearing book for the holidays

Over the holidays, I have a book that I can’t wait to sink into…it’s called, “The Long Road Home,” by Mary Alice Monroe. I bought it during one of our library book fairs (do you have these in your area?…as it’s a GREAT way to buy some books) and finally, FINALLY, I have some time to read it.

What are you reading this time of year! Whatever it is……

Happy Reading! I hope there is something on my list that will inspire you to make a cup of tea and open a book this holiday season.

Hopefully, you will also try making my absolutely, yummy, pumpkin spice cookies. But warning…. they go fast…really fast! You may want to double the recipe.

I’m really glad to get this recipe on my blog at long last as well, since the paper it’s written on is getting hard to read. Now I can refer to it quickly when I need to whip up an easy, fairly healthy cookie, perfect for those snowy days when you just want to stay in doors, sip tea and read a good book.

Hope’s Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Ingredients

11/4 cup of sugar (brown of course)
1/2 cup of margarine or butter…I prefer the later
2 eggs
1 tsp real vanilla
1 cup of canned pumpkin (I buy the 15 ounce can and often double this recipe as it goes fast)
2 cups of flour….your choice but I like to use whole wheat flour
4 tsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg,
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
Dusting of icing sugar
(optional 1 cup of chocolate chips….but personally and in my son’s Harrison’s opinion…stick with the plain pumpkin which is perfect….and since it was his birthday yesterday that is what I recommend…healthier too….but if you like chocolate…you can add as a variation)

Here’s the easy part….you mix it all together in a big bowl…make sure you whip your sugar into your butter really well and add your eggs one at a time to get a creamy consistency and then add all your dry ingredients. It’s so easy…then you get a big spoon and drop the cookie dough onto an ungreased pan, and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let them cool on the pan for about 5 minutes and then take off, dusting them with some icing sugar and put them on a cookie rack to cool completely. “Oh la la!” as the tramp in the book, “The Family Under the Bridge,” would say, these cookies are melt in your mouth delicious.

My pumpkin spice cookies and a pot of chai tea…perfect together…all I need now is a comfy chair and my book

 

Please take a cookie……
Before they are all GONE!

If you are like me during the holidays, you are multi-tasking. I like to bake, while watching a Christmas movie….this movie, (below) happens to be a favourite of mine….and one my mother liked very much as well. It of course, is based on a book…aren’t the best movies from books?

The author, Donna Van Liere, has written several lovely, sweet Christmas stories that are easy to start but hard to put down until they are finished.

Another is called, The Christmas Hope…..which I must admit, being partial to Hope….is a nice title. ANYWAY…..as you can tell, books are a passion of mine…and movies which are made from books.

Have you seen the “Christmas Shoes?” If not, I’m sure it will become a classic for your family as well. Other than “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Christmas Vacation,” oh my, I guess I need to write another blog post all about my fav Christmas movies, this is one I like to watch each season So if you have an evening when you are baking….start it up but have a hankie nearby.

If you can’t see the link below, click on the hyper-link to the “Christmas Shoes.”

and enjoy…IN JOY!

Well, I’m off to get some celebration things ready for my oldest son, Clark’s birthday. I can’t believe he is 23 today. I have been given so many memorable holidays with Christmas babies in our house. No babies this year but then I wouldn’t be able to write to you on my blog….what is that quote?

May your season be full of peace, joy and love…and great books.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes/Chocolate Mocha Icing~The Gift~

/ Lee Reynolds

“Life is a gift”~William Reynolds

I love the mysteries in life. I also love the magic that occurs when everything falls perfectly into place and the mystery is revealed and it is NEVER as I thought it would be.

At the end of November my sister C had a birthday.  Since she lives a long car drive away from my home, a card, a phone call or an email message is usually all I manage to acknowledge her special day. But this year, I noticed that her birthday fell on a Friday and this year, my oldest son Clark, who is going to University, has had Fridays off. With inspiration, I asked if he would be willing to care for the little girls so I could go up and surprise my sister on her birthday. He agreed. (Thanks Clark) What made it even better though, was my other sister J, who lives close to me, was also free and willing to drive us to C’s home. I thought it was wonderful how everything fell into place beautifully and we could share in our sister’s birthday celebration.

J called our brother in law, D and asked him to help us surprise C.  Making sure C was ready to go out to lunch on Friday when we arrived. D isn’t the best at keeping secrets from our sister, so the fact  he didn’t spill the beans and was able to come up with a plausible excuse for her to get up early on her birthday, was a feat unto itself. (Thanks D!)

The week leading up to my sister’s birthday was busy around our house. My husband David was going out of town on business, again, for another week and he was leaving the Thursday before C’s birthday. We try to get groceries in the house, gas in the cars, and the house cleaned, so things are smoother for me while he is away. I was just flying around trying to get everything done and also get a few little gifts put together for my sister.

At the last minute, I decided to make some cupcakes so we had something to put a candle on and sing Happy Birthday after lunch. Thankfully, I was able to find a healthy cupcake recipe at Lee’s “Fit Foodie Finds,” blog.  (Thanks Lee) I followed her cupcake recipe to a tee, except, I didn’t add the chocolate chips to the batter, wanting to make them even healthier. Although I can’t take any credit for the recipe, they turned out really great and I wanted to share them here with you.  I’ll put a link to the recipe below so you can try them out the next time you want to surprise someone. The chocolate mocha icing was light and fluffy and the perfect topper as well.

On Friday morning I raced around like crazy, driving our three school age children to their respective schools, and then I got the little girls ready so Clark could take them to their Kindermusik class later in the morning, complete with  bird costumes I had made earlier in the week. J showed up promptly and we were on our way, light with anticipation of our time with our sister.

As we were almost there, we got a call from D who asked where we were, as he couldn’t hold the surprise much longer. Thankfully, we were just down the road. When we arrived and our sister saw J’s car, she was bubbling over with joy. Her face was alight with happiness and she was thrilled we had come to take her out to lunch. Then later……

As we settled in at the restaurant, our time together floated on a cloud of bliss. It settled over me like a brilliant scarf and I felt connected to my sisters by a shimmering cord of silver. We had a lovely lunch, updating each other on our lives and then we sang Happy Birthday to C, who sat glowing radiantly. As she opened our gifts, she was full of delight and well being.

Happy Birthday C! Isn’t she radiant!
J, C and myself…..in bliss that we had a moment together
J and C….sisters are gifts

 

I think this picture captures the joy of the day
C’s soul energy is shining so brightly….it’s nice when you know you are LOVED

It was hard to part after lunch. A piece of me wanted to remain with her and keep celebrating but I knew the kids would be coming home from school and I needed to get back to my life. C had taken her car to the downtown restaurant, so after lunch she led us to the highway. As she started to take the turn to her home, she rolled down her window and waved a cheerful goodbye. I could feel the joy flowing towards us. I looked at J and said, “I think she enjoyed our surprise visit,” and J smilingly nodded, yes.

We drove home along the countryside and chatted about our visit and about sister things. When we came to an old house that I had marveled over on our drive out and said, I would love to take a picture of it, J hadn’t forgotten. As we approached the house, J slowed the car to a stop beside the highway, so I could get out and take a few photos. I walked along the dirty snow edged highway  and snapped a few pictures with the new camera David had given me for my birthday in November.

As I was perusing all the photographs later in the day, I realized I often don’t recognize the beauty of something, until the moment is gone. Or perhaps I do but I am so busy, living in the moment, that I don’t have a chance to savour how breathtaking it truly is.

This beautiful house in Westwold, B.C. was glowing in the late winter afternoon sun….reminded me of how glowing my sister was as we parted

Then later C graciously sent an email thanking me for the surprise visit and all the gifts. I responded to her that the biggest gift was one that she gave to J and I. Seeing her so happy and joy filled was the best part of the day and truly the best gift.

This morning as the day was lightening and our house hold was slowly waking up, Will was chatting to me as I poured his breakfast cereal and cut some fruit into his bowl. For some reason he comes up with the most profound thoughts early in the morning and this day was no exception. As I cut his bananas, he asked me, “mom, why am I here?” I knew exactly what he meant. I told him that only he knew the answer to that question and he would find the answer in his heart. He asked me why he didn’t remember it easily and I told him that if we all remembered why we had come to earth, we would do what we needed to do and then we would find a way to leave. He said, “you mean kill ourselves?” I said, “yes, we would want to return to our Source.” “Hmmm”, he said, but mom, “Life is a gift.”

I didn’t have time to really think about his words until later in the morning as I had a household to get rolling but now that I have my cup of tea by my side and the little girls are happily playing, I do recognize the wisdom in his words. The true gift is our life. We can choose to open it quickly and see what’s inside, or we can savour the moments of anticipation, of wonder, of joy, in being here surrounded by all the beauty of the earth. Celebrating our loved ones. As I sip my tea, I peer over my lap top and see a brilliantly wrapped present.

And now, since part of living a beautiful life means enjoying food, would you like a delicious AND healthy chocolate cupcake recipe?

Okay, get ready to be amazed!

 Chocolate Cupcakes and Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Icing

(This recipe came from Lee’s Fit Foodie Finds blog)

Ingredients
  • 1 cup nonfat/low fat/nondairy milk…I used vanilla almond milk
  • 1 egg, large
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Then, lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Whisk. In a medium size bowl, combine wet ingredients. Mix.
  3. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry, combining with a mixer or wooden spoon, until all lumps are gone.
  4. Fill each cupcake about ~3/4 of the way with the batter.
  5. Bake for 18 minutes or until set. Test cupcape with a toothpick (it shouldn’t have anything on it). Let cool completely before applying the frosting. I suggest at least 30 minutes!

Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Icing

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups of powdered sugar
3 tbsps of cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsps of heated almond milk and then dissolve
1 tbsp of instant coffee in the milk

In a blender, cream butter and slowly add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, alternating with the wet ingredients, until you have a lovely whipped icing consistency. Spread on cooled cupcakes and top with a chunk of chocolate

The best things in life are topped with chocolate, don’t you think?

And before I close, I have to share something else with you….after C’s birthday and D was away on business, I watched a touching, inspirational movie on Netflix called, “Boychoir.” Check out the link to the trailer. I’m never surprised when life layers so many connections in a short time.

I think it’s a good ending to this blog post about gifts….if you need something to lift you up…check it out. and now for a link to the song from this movie, it’s Josh Groban singing, “The Mystery of your Gift.”          

And with a smile, I wave goodbye to you. Thank you for coming today.

Until we are together again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Pumpkin Muffins~Living the Sweet Life

/ Lee Reynolds


“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”
~Henry David Thoreau, quote from Walden~ 

I’m one of those writers that needs to totally immerse herself in life to have anything worthwhile to say. Only in doing that, do I come back to myself. Henry David Thoreau needed to escape to Walden’s pond and connect with the simple rhythm of the world in order to find himself. I on the other hand, need to be enveloped in chaos, before enlightenment captures my soul.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here. You know you have found your passion in life, when time is meaningless when you are doing what you love, or when you are where you desire to be. For me, when I’m with my busy family, deep in the garden or sitting on my yoga mat, I am inspired. What is your passion…when are you on kairos (heaven’s) time?

When there is so much to say, the words fly off my keys and my heart sings. It’s been such a busy fall, helping the kids transition back into school, and adjust to their extra curricular activities. I have hardly had a moment to contemplate life. In living it, the richness rushes forth. This is really two blogs in one since so much has occurred. Is it REALLY the middle of November already? Well, if you have a few minutes and want to catch up on life around here, grab a cup of tea and join me. First, here are some images that encapsulate fall 2015.

 

Grace and Will off to catch the bus in October…thankfully it stops at the bottom of our property!

 

The little girls started ballet this fall and they love to dance…everywhere! Victoria who couldn’t skip when she started worked so hard and in slow motion she went around the house, knee up, hop on straight leg, foot down, lift other knee up, hop, foot down….finally she got it and now skips all the time.

 

Will started cello lessons this fall and this time, I’m learning with him on Mitchell’s cello…we are working on hot cross buns and twinkle twinkle right now
We celebrated David’s birthday just before our Canadian thanksgiving weekend
Found this car wash in Surrey B.C. when we went to the coast to do some shopping….we call Harrison, “Harry.” I made David go around the block to capture this picture of our Harry and “Good Clean Fun!”…if you knew what a great sense of humour our 16 year old has….you would totally understand…plus he’s a great kid!
While we did take the kids to the coast to do some back to school shopping…yes I KNOW we were late for that…but anyway, the little kids hated shopping and the only redeeming thing was finding this dog mannequin at the Old Navy store.They could care less about clothes…hence you see them wearing the same dresses and leggings in this picture that they always wear, ….but you know, kids really get it….you don’t need a ton of clothes, just fun experiences in life.

 

The best part of the trip was going to Stanley Park in Vancouver to see these beautifully carved and painted totems
The really sweet things in life….making memories with family
David savoring being at the edge of the ocean…..our life’s happy place…this is English Bay in Vancouver
A moment before capturing this picture, Grace was at the edge of the beach and a rogue wave covered her feet, drenching her in cold water. She recovered nicely enough to smile for this picture

 

Harrison and Will were finding rocks to skip

 

A highlight of being at English Bay for the little kids was meeting a dog named, “Gracie May.” She wanted to play ball with them but she was very strategic regarding when she would drop the ball. They loved her and her owner was kind to let the children play with her….she said Gracie May enjoyed them very much too by the smile on her face and wag of her tail..
Our last day at the coast and this picture outside of our hotel which also happened to be the same one we came to in the summer when I had my eye surgery….I love Holiday Express for families…..the kids loved the breakfast room and the pool

 

On our drive home we stopped at Hope, where they have the cheapest gas, and also happens to be where I was born and lived for the first 6 years of my life…..do you like the name of the restaurant? That’s sometimes how I feel about my kitchen back at home….drive in and out. ….I love the mountains behind the building…something about mountains and trees is very comforting…we are like Salmon…we return to the home where we are born!

Well, those are a few pictures of moments from fall 2015.

For the last two weeks, blog inspirations have been pouring into my brain, however life endlessly over shadows my ability to sit down and write. Finally, it’s a somewhat quiet Saturday morning. Ha! The kids have been fed. Not by me, but by David, who had to get up early to have the winter tires put on our van. This is one of those chores that are in the guy realm as far as I’m concerned. Not that I don’t know how to change a tire, thanks to my brother in law J, who taught me by making me rotate the tires on my first car many years ago. It’s just that I would prefer not to sit around a drafty tire dealership on a Saturday morning and for some reason this doesn’t bother David.

Anyway, the little kids are still in their jammies playing, and by the sounds of it are having a rousing card game of “Fish,” in the family room. As I type, this is what I can hear, Will: “Do you have any 8’s?” Girls: “Go Fish!” Will: “Kate, you do SO have an 8 because I just saw one.” Kate; “Ohhhhh okay,” and then silence. The little girls are just four but they have known their numbers since they were 2….I would highly recommend introducing the leapfrog “Numberland” DVD to your little ones if they are interested in learning numeracy. Kids naturally like to count things, their collection of rocks, their teddies, their cars….Anyway.

Where was I? oh yes, after a lovely bath, where I was able to linger for a decadent 10 minute soak before guilt enveloped me, I thought I’d better get dressed. I gathered my thick, white spa like robe if you will, around me and was planning to get dressed but entering our bedroom, the ruffled and comfy looking bed covers called to me. I plunked down on our yet unmade bed, pulled my laptop out form underneath, where I had left it the night before after doing my 21 day mediation with Deepak and Oprah who are with me, each night before going to sleep. (check out the link…this month it’s on….become what you believe)

 

What we believe about life and ourselves has tremendous power…believe life is sweet and you will receive only that…a sweet life

Once I had the laptop turned on I madly start to type, my fingers flying on the keyboard. There is so much to share and so little time.

My son Harrison just passed my room and asked, “blog?” and I uttered ahum….hopefully he will entertain his brother and sisters with some more card games, while he eats his breakfast and I can get this written. It can’t wait another day.

First, since it’s been so long since I wrote, and this is a “homestead blog,” I wanted to share with you something that has saved me a lot of time putting my garden to bed this fall. When the nights became too cold and my plants were obviously not producing any longer, (end of Oct here) I harvested what I could salvage. I picked the last of the tomatoes, peppers, brought in my spaghetti squash and pumpkins, dried as many herbs as I could; parsley, rosemary, oregano, basil, lemon balm, peppermint, sage etc. and picked the last of my kale, spinach, swiss chard. Which in short order, will turn to mush otherwise and I want to have my “own” organic greens for my fall smoothies. I also was mindful to save more seeds, like my beans, pumpkin, squash, and flower seeds that I wanted to grow again next year. Both marigolds and nasturtium are easy to direct sow in spring. This sounds like a lot but in actuality, I went out for an hour or so each day and accomplished a lot in 2 weeks.

Careful to save some pumpkin and squash seeds to plant next year

 

I put my surplus pumpkin seeds in a large bowl, added some olive oil, garlic powder, cumin and a bit of real chili peppers….see peppers also drying to the right and dried them for 8 hours….what a yummy snack full of fibre! Next year I’m going to double the spices though….more garlic…but then I like more garlic on everything…maybe some nutritional yeast would be a nice cheesy taste too.

(Check out this blog for the benefits of eating pumpkin seeds…The Sprouting Seed)

After this final harvest and gathering, I cut down my plants and let them sit and begin the decomposition process for about a week. Once they withered to 1/2 their size, I transferred the remains to my compost bin. All of our pumpkins also went into the compost bin….it’s AMAZING how much a square bin can hold. I finally ran out of room though so rather than bagging it and sending it off to our landfill, I waited until the remaining crops had decomposed a bit more and gently dug a few holes in my garden and  raked everything remaining into the hole. Then covered it up with dirt. (none of these plants were diseased)

leaves on top of our many pumpkins…this will make such great soil for next year’s garden

I also mowed my lawn as late as I could, catching the grass clippings and also the leaves that had fallen, which saved a lot of raking. These mulched down nicely and again, I  gently dug a few holes. This time into the part of my garden that needed more amendment. The denser soil with rockier aspects would really benefit from this mulch. When I started my garden several years ago, it was hard to find a worm, but over the years by using this method each fall and also adding grass mulch around the plants throughout the growing season, I found that my soil is now rich with earth worms.

The black plastic compost bin that we use for composting kitchen scraps was also full, so I decided to also dig a few extra holes and over the last few weeks, I have been putting my kitchen scraps along with some raked leaves in the holes and also covering them with soil. This process is called, “trench composting.”  and is very effective.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to drop a bucket full of kitchen scraps; egg shells, potato and carrot peelings, the core of apples and pears, banana peels, David’s coffee grounds. It puts a smile on my face because not only am I feeding my worms and all the various other organisms in the soil but I’m saving my landfill from needless waste. To think of planting my next year seeds and started plants into rich, fluffy soil is thrilling to me. Am I weird?

I want to also thank my sons Harrison and Will for digging in the last of the garden waste. I had left many of the tomato plants for them to dig into the ground and it was really lovely watching them work together in the garden. Sometimes it’s good not to do it all yourself!

Anyway, if you are wanting to save yourself some time this fall, think about how you are putting your garden to bed and cleaning up your yard. Make it easy for yourself and follow Mother Natures lead….let in lie where it falls.
Image result for fall leaves blanketing the ground

So when I wasn’t out doing fall chores, I was in the house doing some fall clean up and de-cluttering. As you know I did our big sweep towards minimalism last Spring but with 8 of us currently living in the home, I have to be diligent, as all sorts of things creep into our house. Plus, the kids grow out of  clothes and I like them to be passed on to others. Several times I took a big bag of clothes to the goodwill and also to some friends who have younger children than ours. It’s always a nice feeling to clear house and know things aren’t going to waste sitting in a box somewhere.

What else was going on this fall, oh yes, Halloween. This year, I was really wanting to keep the expense down but the little girls didn’t want to wear anything in our dress up trunk, even though I tried valiantly to persuade them into being princesses, AGAIN. Thankfully, Gymboree had all their costumes on 50% off and we picked up a cute garden fairy and butterfly costume for something that I felt was reasonable. Plus, the upside is they can wear them for dress up all year and then hopefully switch costumes that the other didn’t wear next year.

I wished I had had better lighting…my old camera had broken early this fall and most of my fall pictures are not great….but you get the sense of their costumes etc….Kate is the butterfly and Victoria the Garden Fairy

Will was harder to convince. He didn’t want to be a knight, a pirate, a king, a ninja, or a wizard, all costumes we had in stock. When we took him to the store he couldn’t find anything he was remotely interested in until one day, driving by the 7 Eleven, he asked yet again if he could have one last Slurpee before winter arrived. I uttered the words he knew were coming, “sorry NO,” but suddenly a light went off and I uttered these words, “Will,….. would you like it if I made you a Slurpee costume for Halloween?”

His face lit up immediately and said excitedly, “Yes, that would be GREAT!” Then, as I continued to drive, I wondered  how in the heck was I going to pull this one off. Thank heavens for “Google,” and the fact that I was not the only parent in the world who had the same idea.

Here is one picture I found that gave me the inspiration to use a pool noodle for the straw and tulle netting material for the Slurpee frothing out of the top of the cup…. I used the Medium size Slurpee cup as the model for Will’s cup design

Although ours turned out nothing like anything I saw, nor were the materials the same. Our costume cost less than $10.00. We used two full sheets of blue poster board, inserted some white paper on the sides to give the cup some shape, rolled white paper and taped it at the top to resemble the cup lip.  I then hand drew and cut the cup’s design from construction paper we had on hand and printed off and glued the 7 eleven logo on the cup. It looked really authentic.

Sorry again about the light in this picture…did I tell you for my birthday I got a new camera?…but sadly I have missed capturing some great shots of Will’s Slurpee costume….but this one does give you the idea

(As much as my little guy loves a good slush drink….here’s the down low on them, sugar is the least of the negatives…7 Reasons to never drink Slurpees)

The final touches were adding the red tulle netting coming out the top of the cup and yellow straw (pool noodle). Finishing it all off, I painted the words, “so Chill,” on Will’s cheeks and the costume was complete. He wore it to his school’s costume parade on the Friday before Halloween and had many compliments. I think I accomplished my goal of keeping some of the costs down for our kids, to celebrate what they have come to think of as the most fun “holiday” of the year.

 

Sadly, this is the best picture I have of Will….of course he was just hopping around here before going out on Halloween…it’s hard to capture a Slurpee blur even with the best camera.

I’m not so crazy about Halloween. It’s not the idea of it being spooky or anything like that. Some parents I spoke to before the event said they didn’t approve of it for religious reasons. Another, said she didn’t like the idea of kids going around begging for candy…although it doesn’t have to be candy is what I told her…it can be a pencil, some stickers, a bag of healthy popcorn. I remember as a child loving to dress up in something that dragged along the ground appearing older than I was, in disguise if you like. Also, it was just plain fun being out when it was dark, the air crisp and cold with the pungent smell of burning pumpkin in the air.

The day before Halloween I decorated our front door with pumpkin lights, a new black spider (made from a black garbage bag stuffed with newspaper….the legs are strips of garbage bag and are really scary as they blow around at night) and some cobwebs…oh and of course we had pumpkins scattered every where in our front yard. We are also one of those houses that play scary music…..sounds like the soundtrack to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

As a parent, I’m just not a fan of the sugary treats. Now I know that is part of the allure for children. It was for me too as a child, although my bag was usually full of apples, peanuts in the shell and those stick in your teeth caramel kisses. I’m dating myself. Of course apples would get thrown out now for fear of razor blades and peanuts are a complete no, no, due to nut allergies being so prolific. But there has to be a middle ground right?

Although as a parent, we can all choose how to handle the candy once received. One parent I know buys the candy, in exchange for a toy. Another set of parents I know, put all the candy into a communal pot and only pull it out once a week on their family movie night. And yet another parent told me that she lets her kids have totally autonomy over their treats. She felt that taking away sugar would only create a hyper desire for it and it would be good for them to learn how it feels to overdose on it. She was using it as a teaching moment….by the way, she is a health care nurse.

All these ideas were interesting. What we have chosen to do over the years is talk to our children about what we love about Halloween and what we don’t. Teach them about the downsides to sugary treats and how it adversely affects our bodies even though it tastes good. My mother lived a good long life and I like her motto…”everything in moderation.” Upon coming home from trick or treating, we let our children sort through the treats and then we help them choose a few treats they could eat during our fireworks display which is held at the beach below our house. Since we live in the sub-division right above the beach, we have first class seats for this affair. It’s the highlight of the evening in my books.

It’s also been our tradition to make my classic sugar cookies, sometimes a pumpkin pie or carrot cake. If we know we are having friends over we  make a big bowl of homemade popcorn and invite them to join us for the viewing. This year Grace had a friend sleepover since it was a Saturday night. After the fireworks, they had a hot tub and then went down to our Hobbit’s hollow media room to watch a scary movie.

 

My classic pumpkin sugar cookies….and the little ghost Will had made in his grade one class
This year Grace made up her own costume, she was dressed up like a scary Victorian doll…although her ringlets had already dropped in this picture….she is on the left if you don’t recognize her. Apparently she wasn’t scary enough as several of our neighbours told us that they saw her when we came around with the little kids

Well, that was our Halloween….but getting back to the sugar, it seems like the smaller the child is, the more our neighbours heap upon them. They get extra if they have a great costume too. So our little ones ended up with a lot of treats. After they emptied their treat bags, I put the candy into a large basket for each of them and after dinner each evening, instead of having our usual dessert of fruit, or baked goods, they got to choose 2 candies. What I liked about this was right after eating their candy, they had their bath and their teeth were brushed before bedtime story time.

What I didn’t like about it was that our son Will, who seems to react quickly to any onslaught of sugar, was a bit wild during bath and teeth brushing time. Thankfully, by the time we all pile into bed for story time he had settled down but David and I always steeled ourselves with tons of patience for what we knew was coming after the consumption of sugar.

Then this past week, yes 10 days to 14 days after Halloween 3 of our youngest 4 came down with colds/flues despite the fact that I had started giving them their fall/winter dose of cod liver oil. Each year it arrives like clockwork. When I went to the school this past Thursday to pick up Will after he had thrown up, (apparently he had coughed so deeply that this had occurred) I came upon our school Principal who was cleaning up the aftermath, (the janitors don’t work during the day apparently) and I told him that I was so sorry but it always seems to occur 10 to 14 days after the start of the big consumption of Halloween sugar. He agreed that the sugar doesn’t help the immune system one bit.

Yesterday Grace stayed home from school. A child that normally has perfect attendance and last night after reading stories, Kate promptly threw up on my bedroom floor as she was heading off to bed (thank heavens we have wood floors!) By the sounds of the kids this morning, everyone seems to have recovered nicely. Will still has his cough but they are all making enough noise to assume they are well. Isn’t it amazing how fast kids start to feel better. They have their usual BIG energy back which makes me happy but it has inspired me to write a post about sugar….it’s merits and it’s downside. It’s really NOT the sweet part of life but our food industry makes us think it’s nothing.

Before the kids had even gotten sick I was doing some research on the topic and found a great documentary produced by our CBC’s Fifth Estate. A production called, “The Secret of Sugar.” It was so well done they even won an international Emmy award for the documentary. Although I knew that sugar wasn’t good for our bodies, or our brains for that matter, after watching this documentary it was truly alarming that our food industry is being so insidious and has no conscience with regards to our children or human kind as a whole. It’s all about money isn’t it?

If you haven’t watched this, I would encourage you to do so and with our mass buying power we can perhaps influence food production and the ingredients that go into our food.

Here’s the link..it’s fascinating. (See the hyper link above if you can’t click on the link below) to see “The Secret of Sugar.”

Now after this eye opening documentary, I thought I would share a link to an article on the best sugar alternatives. Some people don’t realize there are other choices to sugar other than perhaps honey. You can choose to use agave nectar, black strap molasses (which most of our grandparents used) or maple syrup and then there is also raw cane sugar which is not as refined a white sugar but still not any better for you. Something I know my oldest daughter would approve us is dates to sweeten anything….one of her fav treats are dates. Personally, the closer to nature our food is is the healthiest choice and then perhaps reducing the amount we use and getting accustom to a less sugary taste.

I have to laugh after saying this, because on Remembrance Day this past week, I made a big dinner and then baked pies for dessert. Something my family hardly ever gets. I paid a lot of attention to making the apple pie because I haven’t made many apple pies in my life, but when it came to the pumpkin, I kind of threw it together as I have made dozens of these over the years. I am kind of known for my excellent pumpkin pies, sorry if that sounds kind of braggy…the key was using more pumpkin pie filling and less sugar in my books.

Anyway, I was so proud of these pies and after dinner many decided they were going to have a piece of each but when my family dug into the pumpkin they all made a face. I had chosen to have just a piece of apple so I didn’t know what they were talking about until I took a little taste and then I flashed back to my pumpkin mixture and realized, I had totally forgotten the sugar. It wasn’t bad per say….just, well, really pumpkiny and not what you would expect. Me laughing, remembering Grace’s face after taking a big bite.

So the point of all this is it’s nice to make some of our food taste a bit sweeter for a treat, but each of us has to decide how sweet and what we are going to sweeten our food with. If I had had enough maple syrup on hand, I think I would have added that to my pie for a change and I’m sure it would have enhanced the flavour beautifully.

Here’s the link to Best Sugar Alternatives article and I’m prefacing it here before I give you my pumpkin muffin recipe so you can choose what you want to put in your muffins…maybe a healthier choice than sugar.

And now, if I haven’t spooked you into baking, I’m going to share my pumpkin muffin recipe. I made it for my children’s pajama day at their Kindermusik class. I wanted something that was breakfasty as their class is later in the morning and also something that said, “this is autumn time.”  It was the day before Halloween and the little girls were getting really excited about dressing up in their new costumes.

Victoria is all dressed for jammy day and ready to go to her music class…she is an admirer of muffins
The girls eating the muffins later in the morning at the music school’s Kindermusik class

My kids are starting to look a bit orange as they have been eating a lot of pumpkin, squash and carrots this fall…..maybe they would have gotten even sicker had they not be pumped with so many great foods. (not to even mention all the green drinks we consume) I guess what it all comes down to in life is balance. Healthy foods and always making choices to move towards a better option, not just for our health but for the benefits of our children’s growing bodies.

 

 

 

If you want to try a really great harvest type comfort food…try these moist muffins.

Hope’s Pumpkin Muffins

Serves: 12

 

 

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour….use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white
1 cup sugar….refer to sugar alternatives link above….this recipe would be great with honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
1/4 cloves
2 eggs or egg alternatives
1- 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin
1/2 cup of vegetable oil….my sister J would probably love using coconut with this recipe 
1 tsp of vanilla or maple flavouring extract
handful of walnuts to garnish the muffins….omit if serving to people with nut allergies

 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Lightly spray 12 muffin tins or place 12 paper liners….if I’m serving my family, I omit the liner to save a tree…okay a branch but it all counts…I line if taking outside the home
1.  In a large bowl, add dry ingredients; flour, sugar, (if using honey or other wet sweetner…add this to the wet) baking soda, salt and spices and mix really well.
2.  In a medium bowl mix the eggs to a froth and then add pumpkin, oil and flavouring extracts….add the honey or maple syrup etc. if choosing to not use refined sugars.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir well without over mixing. For light, airy muffins stir until everything is just combined.
 
4. With a large spoon fill 3/4 of each muffin cup. Place a whole walnut on top
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick…I use a turkey skewer (again to save that tree) comes out clean.

Once done, let the muffins sit and cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then gently remove muffins from each tin….let cool on a rack. Serve warm with hot tea or cider…..nothing says harvest like a delicious pumpkin muffin.

They are so easy to make….good thing as they don’t last long
My number 1 food critic, thumbs up for the muffins

Well harvest time is over, Halloween is over. It’s time to settle in and get ready for longer nights. Time to reflect on the year and the abundance of sweet memories.. Our family is already on the mend and hopefully we are wiser and will continue to make better food choices. Maybe this is something we can all work towards. For the good of our health, our family’s and for the world.

Each Halloween David carves a pumpkin for each child….this year we had one extra!!!…don’t get excited we are not pregnant….we had an extra pumpkin given to us…the more the merrier I always say

Before I end this blog, this is a very special day in our family since my brother in law D has a birthday today…so….Happy Birthday D!. You bring sweet music to our family.

 

My sister C and my brother in law D…..Happy Birthday!


“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
~Henry David Thoreau~ Walden

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and most of all…healthy.

Blessings from Hope

Kale Salad~Life is a Tapestry

/ Lee Reynolds

When I was a little girl, I dreamed I was going to be someone really important someday. I didn’t know if I was going to compose music, write a prize winning novel or teach something meaningful, but the sense of being really special shone within me. As I approach yet another birthday, and also reflect on the passing of a few acquaintances who have left the earth in the last 6 months, I’ve been thinking about my legacy. I still haven’t finished my book, although now I have several on the go but nothing completed. And although I have taken my children to countless music lessons and they are very accomplished musicians in their own right, I haven’t mastered an instrument myself, let alone composed anything memorable.

As far as teaching, well nothing comes to mind that is either original, unique or even meaningful. It seems like others are teaching me far more than anything I could impart upon this earth. And yet, that feeling that a piece of greatness resides in me.

Thinking about my life, reminds me of a story I heard during one of my life’s darkest moments. Have you heard the one about the little boy sitting underneath his mother’s piece of needlework? As he looked up at the underside of the fabric, all he could see was a jumble of threads, some dark and others brilliant. There were knots with frayed ends and loops here and there. Nothing made sense and when he asked his mother why it was so messy, his mother told him that he was looking at the wrong side of the fabric. He had to look at the finished side to see the completed picture. Only then would all the threads make sense and the picture be apparent.

Similarly, as we are in the midst of creating our life, we often forget to look at the bigger picture, We only see chaos and the various tragedies, instead of the beauty of our design. And we may never know the significance of all the threads moving in and out of our lives. When I step back and observe my life’s embroidery, I do recognize my legacy now and it is my family. No novel, or music composition could ever compare to the creation of our children. In them, my greatness lies.

 

 

 

Harrison on a beach in Vancouver (near Stanley Park) during Thanksgiving 2015

 

Kathryn and Victoria marvel over some squash and pumpkins from our garden…stay tuned for my spaghetti squash recipe

 

 

A few minutes before this Grace was sitting on a rock on the beach and a wayward wave came in and filled her shoes with water…..and yet she was still smiling for this picture….Thanksgiving 2015…Vancouver, B.C.

 

 

Kathryn and Victoria sitting on the pumpkins they chose while at our local pumpkin patch

 

Will at the pumpkin patch shining brightly
Harrison, Grace, Will, Kate and Victoria at Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C….the totems were so beautiful! Each one so different and tells it’s own story

 

My oldest, Alyssa, who is constantly reminding me to hold fast to my dreams as I watch her reach her’s as she works and travels in the U.K.

 

My son Mitchell from last Christmas…..we just booked his flight home and I can’t wait for Christmas this year.  I’m so proud that he is living his dream and enjoying his University experience

 

The three older boys at our summer family get together

 

My oldest son Clark is in his last year of University. He is deeply woven into our daily life and is a great mentor for his younger siblings.We feel really blessed to have the experience of children leaving the nest…it’s then you realize what’s really important and how fast their childhood flies by

 

A rich, and glorious tapestry and each person is a shining thread

Although I’m sure my mother felt the same. I’m perfect just as I am. And so are you.

 

My mom, Ethel, left a masterpiece in her tapestry

As I move closer to my next birthday I’m feeling joy filled. Life is endlessly interesting and although it’s not always easy, nor make sense at times, isn’t that the point?

Also life is delicious~ can you believe that we are still eating each day from our garden? Today I went out to pick kale, tomatoes, carrots, beans, red cabbage and I even found a cucumber. Woohoo! Before I headed inside, I also picked some oregano, basil, and some green onions who have self seeded themselves. This is the longest we have ever gone growing produce and eating from our garden and it’s been amazing.

I brought everything in and made what I;m calling Hope’s Tapestry Salad. It’s basically everything that is still growing in our garden, along with an avocado, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, nuts and seeds. Try making a tapestry salad with everything you love…throw it all together and watch the magic happen.

Hope’s Tapestry Salad

Ingredients

4 large kale leaves
1 cup of grated red cabbage
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup cut up carrots
1/2 cup green beans
1 cucumber cut into large pieces
1 cup of Cherry tomatoes
Green onions…or red onions are great too
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup of feta cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
handful of nuts and seeds…..I used walnuts and sunflower seeds
(My daughters and I love dried cranberries in this salad but if I want the boys to eat it…I omit them. If you love cranberries….add a large handful to this salad)
1 tbsp of lemon juice

Cut up all the vegetables/avocado to bite sized pieces and throw into large bowl, then sprinkle lemon juice on top. Mix up and add the parmesan cheese, feta cheese, nuts and seeds

Dressing

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Splash of Braggs soy sauce
3 minced garlic cloves
basil and oregano leaves…I used fresh and cut them up but dried herbs work great too
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper 

Mix all ingredients together and add to the salad. The key with kale, is to ensure the dressing is massaged into all the leaves really well. Unlike most salads, a kale salad will only get better after you have added the dressing. I made this large salad for our lunch and it only got better by dinner time. Rawlicious as well! I’m going to miss my garden but I’m already dreaming about growing even more food next season.

Most of our children enjoy veggies but Victoria is our green baby…she hasn’t met one that she doesn’t like yet.

My raw food friend, Mimi Kirk, would be so proud. Check out her “chop chop salad” youtube video for more salad inspiration.

As the days get shorter and we have more time in the evenings to rest our bodies, I hope you have time to restore your soul, rejuvenate your spirit and continue to stay vibrantly healthy by eating lots of fresh veggies and fruit.

Let a tapestry of colours fill you with joy, peace and most of all……………………..love.

And before I close I wanted to share a song I have on my IPod that always reminds me how marvelous this life is and how quickly time flies. If you can’t see the video below check on the hyper link to Carole King’s song Tapestry. 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Havesting Wisdom~oops I meant Potatoes(potato wedges)

/ Lee Reynolds

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
                                                                                                         ~Robert Louis Stevenson~

It’s harvest time on my homestead. A few weeks ago, we harvested the potato crop I almost didn’t plant for lack of room. Late in May, I was running out of garden space but when I saw the Yukon Gold seed potatoes at my garden centre, I couldn’t resist.

I dug deep holes at the edge of my garden and planted several prepared seed potatoes in each hole. I didn’t have much hope for them since my cucumber, squash and zucchini plants were also planted close by but you know, if you don’t plant it, nothing will grow.

After a few weeks, the first green shoots appeared and I quickly covered them with dirt and grass mulch from our newly mowed lawn. We had a hot, dry summer and I wanted to keep them nice and moist. By the end of August I had huge potato plants growing in mounded soil, all along the edge of my garden. The squash, cucumbers and zucchinis didn’t seem to mind sharing their space and everyone was doing their own thing.

Potatoes are the easiest thing to grow and amaze me every time I harvest them. You know they are ready to harvest, when the plant has withered and literally died back down to the earth. That’s when  you can get a shovel or fork and carefully dig down to see what has been growing underground.

From the looks of the garden, you wouldn’t think anything worthwhile is under the ground

I was not disappointed. Hole after hole was abundant with potatoes. The little girls helped me dig them up and were so excited each time they had a potato in hand, you would think they had found gold. Well, in a way they had found a treasure. Although we have a diverse agriculture industry in the Okanagan Valley, in the winter we rely a lot on crops from California. The continued drought there has meant higher prices at the market, making produce very expensive. Being sustainable at least part of the year, is such a gift…..but it takes time and energy.

I didn’t have to dig far before I found our first potatoes…..nice sizes too

As I watched the little girls dig in the garden, where moments before there had been old, decaying potato plants, I was thinking often in life the best treasures come to those who either have gone through darkness and come out the other side with their hearts full, or it occurs naturally as we age. Our wrinkles start appearing, our hair thins and goes grey, but inside, with a life time of living, our soul blossoms into a beautiful, compassionate and loving spirit.  We learn so much about life from nature.

Kate loves to dig in the ground…it feels so good and when you find food….WOW!
I love it too!
Treasures!

 

Victoria and Kathryn, didn’t want to stop for pictures…they were having so much fun digging up potatoes.

Since I’m an older mom to young children, I’d like to think that this is one of the spin offs for parenting later in life. Although I don’t believe that I personally have less energy than I did parenting our first children, I know that I’m aging, from my reaction to the precious moments in life, like witnessing little people digging for treasure and being thrilled by the smallest things in life….like potatoes. I don’t take these moments lightly anymore.

My sister C, said something really profound to me in one of her emails last week and it really spoke to me about harvesting wisdom. She wrote, “Mourning really turns a life around doesn’t it? The beauty is when, even though our hearts are broken open, they start to mend and everything feels renewed. You can reset and re-balance life in the new direction you’ve grown into.”

Yes, yes, YES! Kind of like how potato plants grow in the dark. When the plant finally dies and looks its bleakest, there is something beautiful left that can nourish and sustain us. And that is why, in my darkest moments, I know in the end everything is worthwhile. We just need to keep laying seeds and experiencing the deliciousness of life…..full of treasures. 

Last night, was one of those moments. We had a harvest moon party at our homestead. The kids were beyond thrilled, as while eating a yummy stir fry with lots of produce from our garden, we told them all about the harvest moon (also called a blood moon) that would be occurring later in the evening. After dinner, they were bubbling with excitement as they played in our hot tub. (a great way to save water….I can’t tell you how many times we have forgone a bath for a hot tub soak instead) Once they were little prunes, they dressed quickly into warm pajamas and gathered in the family room where I had popcorn ready and a Netflixs movie all ready to go. They watched a cute animated movie called, “The Croods,” about a prehistoric family, while we waited for darkness to drop her curtain. (I thought it was an appropriate movie since the family in the movie knew little about the world they lived in, yet they knew what was important)

The timing was perfect because once the movie was over, it was nearing 8 pm and was already dark in our part of the world. As we ushered our family outside, you could see the moon rising over the mountain, full and red. The children were in awe as they whispered, “this is better than Halloween!” 

We watched the sky for quite awhile and it took me right back to another eclipse when our oldest daughter was about 7 years old, her brothers were 4 and 1. I remember piling all the kids into the van and driving up the mountain, which hadn’t been developed yet. We got out of the car and stood in a field where we could see the expansive sky. Our baby at the time, Mitchell, was happily bundled in a backpack and his older brother Clark, just a preschooler, was bursting with questions about eclipses, the moon, our sun, and our solar system. It was one of those moments in time that you just know you are planting something deep into your child and fueling a passion.

As I was going down memory lane, our oldest son Clark drove down the drive way after being out with friends for the evening. He’s all grown up but still loves looking into the sky and learning about astronomy. As I watched his tall figure stand with his younger siblings, looking at the moon, I was overcome with joy that we were all together experiencing the wonders of living on earth. 

What are you harvesting this fall? With wisdom we use our energy to plant the seeds we want to witness growing. It’s rather EXCITING isn’t it? What do you want to grow?

Well, of course with our size of family, our potatoes haven’t cured long in the garage, and we are already enjoying them in meals. As I move our family closer to being fully vegetarian, with a strong movement towards eating raw foods, I help our older children transition smoothly into this way of eating by including their favourite…..which is yes, potatoes, for many of our evening meals.

Our oldest son Clark hasn’t ever met a potato he hasn’t liked…helping me with our potato harvest….it seems like a blink of an eye ago when he was a little blonde boy looking with excitement at a lunar eclipse

Recently, I made some lentil burgers, a salad, and of course my famous potato wedges. 

My wedges and lentil burgers…all ready for a harvest dinner

Hope’s Potato Wedges

Ingredients

8-10 cut up, quartered potatoes…with skins left on
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of rosemary (I cut up some fresh from the garden)
Sea salt and fresh pepper to taste. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Mix all ingredients really well, into a baking pan and put in oven for 30 minutes. Turn every 10 minutes to ensure they get well browned…we like them crispy.

Serve with homemade ketchup.…or delicious plain too.

My lentil burger, with homemade buns, salad and treasured pototoe wedges



Next year I plan to make a dedicated area for growing potatoes and want to grow enough to keep us going for a good portion of winter. How about you, do you have a place to grow one of the many varieties for your family?


As I close this post, I just wanted to share a song I love by Neil Young…. (if you can’t see the video below click on the hyper link)   Neil Young, called, “Harvest Moon.” I hope you have the time to listen to it as it’s dreamy and fills me with so much love for this time of year…and for my family and friends. Thanks for coming and being a part of my life. Together we are “Helping Our Planet Earth….aka being hope”

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Black Bean Quesadillas~Summer’s End

/ Lee Reynolds

All summer long I have had a mantra. “With Grace and Ease” let summer unfold.” Now here we are nearing the end and I’m not ready to say good bye. Is it just me, or is saying goodbye hard for you too?                

Along our life’s path, our moments of letting go are numerous and I often feel that if I could just get this surrender thing down pat, then I would be ready to truly live in the moment. This easy, free flowing process eludes me, although I think I do a pretty good job based on how I feel. Happy and content most of the time. Tremendously grateful always. And yet, saying goodbye, or transitioning into another phase of life is tough for me.

Looking back, this past summer held so many lovely memories that I will hold close to my heart. A few highlights are the following……

Mitchell brought his guitar out when we went camping in July

 

Kate, Tori and Will, taking in the lake

 

This week was the hottest week of the whole summer…and of course we are camping!

 

Grace and Harrison are chilling but in the evening they are competitive scrabble players….lots of great words!

 

David and I on the rock behind our campsite

 

My best friend T comes to visit in July…I took her up the mountain behind our house and we snapped a selfie

 

My sister’s C and J, explore the lavender gardens after a morning of making lavender wreaths

 

I got some great ideas for garden design at the lavender farm….don’t you love this iron work?

 

Here’s the wreath I made…it smells great in our guest bath

 

While everyone isn’t looking in this picture (namely Will and Grace) I loved the picture of Sunny, my sister’s dog

 

My sister C and brother in law D, and their sweet dog, Sunny

 

 

The kids were endlessly bringing up great produce from our garden…I’d turn our whole yard into edible space but having a bit of lawn is a great source of mulch to retain the moisture in the ground

 

Our oldest Daughter Alysa came home for a brief time this summer as her best friend was getting married. We walked down to the lake one day and the smoke from forest fires was so thick that you couldn’t see all of the beach I think she was happy to return to London where she will spend another year teaching and experiencing life in the U.K.

 

Mitchell showing me his green transportation that he will use when he returns to University….I asked him if he was going to use a helmet and this is the look I got…..”Mom!”

 

When kids grow up, who knows when they will be together again? Alyssa and Mitchell the day before Alyssa returns to London

 

My sister C and I at our family’s goodbye party for Alyssa and Mitchell

 

A final, early morning huddle before Mitchell leaves for University….Alyssa flies out later the same day…BOO-HOO!

 

A final goodbye….have a great year at school Mitchell!

 

My first baby getting ready for the big trip back to the U.K. on August 31st….If you can go to London….you can do ANYTHING!

 

If I wasn’t reading about eating raw…I was reading about being a minimalist

 

Here comes a massive cucumber….looks like we are eating a Greek Salad tonight
Victoria and Dugan…..Aunti B and Uncle J’s new puppy…Victoria would love to KEEP HIM!….Below, Uncle J and Doogie….this puppy is so easy and laid back

 

 

My sister B and I on the morning that they are leaving…we were watching the owl in our birch tree
Will puts down his binoculars to say cheese with his beloved auntie, B

 

It’s hard to say Goodbye

 

Can you see the owl in our birch tree? He spent the whole day sleeping in our tree

 

 

At the end of the day, he left the tree and spent about an hour sitting on our roof…he was screeching like crazy every few minutes……really surreal! to see something so wild, so close.

 

Here are all the kids looking at the owl. D brought out his computer and matched up the owls vocals with a computer web site….looks like this is a great horned owl

We have had evening visits over the years with owls but we have never had one linger for the whole day around our house. It was a bit strange and then even more strange when I looked up the symbology of owls.  

If an owl has visited you, an incredible gift has been bestowed.

On the day of our owl visit, I dug up some potatoes and had Clark carry them up, since he LOVES them.

So many great moments. How was your summer? Will it be hard for you to say goodbye to it too?

I have glimpses of what the next season will hold. Our little girls started their first ballet class last week and they are beyond excited to be dancing at long last.

 

As I was sitting in the ballet school’s waiting room the other day, it occurred to me that this was the LAST, first day of ballet, I will ever experience. All of our daughters attended this ballet school and it was bittersweet thinking that the first day will never come again……and so is the nature of life.

There are firsts and lasts and it’s up to us to decide how we want to experience it all.

This month is the 50th anniversary of my Dad, Marvyne Derwent Clark’s death. I’m now older than he was when he passed away and in a way I feel I’m already living on borrowed time. When you live to an age beyond the age your parent(s) lived, there is a sense at any time, you could also be leaving the earth. We just never know, do we?

My mom Ethel and my dad Marvyne Clark

 

I remember my dad smiling always, and in the evenings I would fall asleep hearing him tapping away on his typewriter or playing his voilin.

 

My 3 sisters with mom and dad…I’m in Dad’s lap

 

Little did we know that Dad would only be with us for only a few years more

This weekend, since the weather was warm we heated the pool and the kids swam, albeit in rather cold water, in what I told them probably is the last swim of the season.

After a barbeque dinner, we roasted marmellows and ate s’mores, since the campfire ban had been lifted. We laid on the trampoline, bundled in blankets and under a star filled sky, we counted shooting stars and made wish after wish. Today, as David painted the window frames, (a job needing to be done before winter arrives) Harrison and I made “his” famous dish, “Black bean Quesadillas.

Earlier this summer he made them for the first time and they were outstanding. Today, he taught me how to make them and they did not disappoint. As our family moves towards eating mostly vegetarian meals, (me having dreams of being a raw vegan) this is definitely a favourite. It’s easy to make and economical, not to mention a healthy meal.

Join us in the kitchen and we will make it together.

Along with Physics, Pre Calc, and French, Harrison is taking “Foods” on line this term, I’m looking forward to LOTS of great meals this fall…..he’s such a natural in the kitchen

Harrison’s Black Bean Quesadillas

Ingredients

2-4 tbsp of Vegetable Oil
3 cloves of garlic 
1 red or yellow pepper
1 hot pepper (we used jalapeno)
1 onion (we used 1/2 white and 1/2 red)

1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp red hot pepper flakes
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper

2- 19 ounce cans of black beans
1-1/2 cups of salsa
8 whole wheat tortillas
2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

Directions

In a saucepan, heat oil and then saute the garlic, peppers, and onion. Add the seasonings and cook until onions are translucent.  Add the cans of well drained beans, and the salsa. Heat well and cook for 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat.

 

Lay a tortilla on a plate and add the bean mixture to one side. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and fold over.

Cut in half and place on a lightly sprayed cooking pan. Place in pre-heated (425 degree) oven for 10 minutes. Carefully flip the tortillas and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with sour cream and top with grated cheddar cheese. This recipe serves 8-12 people. If you have left overs, this meal is perfect for freezing.

We served our quesadillas with basmati brown rice, a kale/Greek salad, and organic taco chips. You can choose the level of spice based on the salsas….we used a medium since we were serving them to our little kids, but our older kids like their food HOT AND SPICY.

D takes a break from painting…..and enjoy’s Harrison’s Quesadillas

 

I don’t know who likes eating outside, me or the kids….I like not having to sweep up rice, etc from the ground…they like being able to lay down when their tummy gets full

 

Kate, who can be a bit fussy about what she eats…loves these black bean quesadillas

Tomorrow will be the start of the last week of summer. As I spend this week, fondly remembering all the moments with my family and friends, I will also be thinking of my Dad, knowing that even though he hasn’t been physically with me for almost all of my life, he is right here in my heart. I wonder if the owl that came to visit us last week, wasn’t his spirit coming to remind me to enjoy the moments fully and let go with ease and grace.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope
Image result for google images and quotes about winnie the pooh, keep me in your heart

What is Family?

/ Lee Reynolds

 

The problem with the world is that we draw our family circle too small. ~ Mother Teresa~

 

On Monday, Aug 31st, we got up early to say goodbye to our son Mitchell….off to University in Victoria

 

Who are your people? Wars and terrible atrocities have shadowed the world since the beginning of time and currently, we are still living with this question unanswered. It’s not surprising however since, we have been conditioned from an early age to stay close and loyal to our tribe. No matter where there is a child in the world, there is a parent chiding, “stay close, for there is danger out there.”

We grow up being fearful of anyone different from us. We grow up believing that only those like us are the right people. We are wary and skeptical that anyone, other than our immediate family are good people, worthy of our intimacy. If you have read any of my blog post, you know I’m a huge believer in the power of attraction. This Universal law brings us exactly what we are expecting. Unless, you shout down fear and embrace the idea that we are all connected, you will attract what you are putting out there. Let’s join together and sing, “we are all family.”

Over the last few days, several really sad events came to my attention. On Tuesday night, while checking my Facebook, I read that Dr. Wayne Dyer passed away on August 29th. The news hit me really hard. Although I didn’t know Wayne Dyer personally, nor did I even have the pleasure of hearing him speak in person, I felt like he was always personally coaching me over the last 10 years.

While trying to conceive, what I thought would be our last baby, (and ended up being our last 3 children….talk about dreams REALLY coming true) I read many of his books. “The Power of Intention,” was one of my favourites. I felt empowered knowing that whatever I focused on in life would manifest. If I didn’t have my nose in one of his books, I was listening to his audio collections, while driving the older children around to their after school activities. My husband D, even took Wayne’s audio collection on many work related road trips and would come back with little, inspiring catch phrases that Wayne would use. One of his favourites is,…….

It was while listening to Wayne that I knew, if I held onto my vision of growing our family, it would manifest. I didn’t know how, or when, or even what it would look like. I held onto the belief that when we are in a state of allowing, when our heart is open and trusting, what we desire most in the world will come to be. Sometimes it comes with even more than we ever imagined.

In my quest to complete our family, I looked into adoption and even fostering and it was then I turned another corner on my road. A child from my heart, I realized, was just as much mine as a child from my body. I had no idea on my journey to completing our family that I would embrace the idea that every child was mine.

I started looking at my children’s friends when they came to visit, differently. As though they were one of ours. When I would help out at our children’s school or preschool, (as Grace was still tiny then) I felt an encompassing love for all the children I engaged with. I even thought for awhile, maybe this was what my trying to conceive journey was creating……the realization that we don’t have to bring our children onto the earth, but they are already here for us to care for. Things flowed quickly once I opened up to these ideas and William, his sisters, Kathryn and Victoria, quickly followed. (A memoir has to be written about their coming to earth, for the lessons learned along that path were profound)

The point is, the world suddenly got very small for me and my love for all grew immensely. I also felt worthy to be here. For once in my life, I felt like I too was an important part of the world family and I wanted to inspire others to open their eyes, open their hearts to this reality.

And so having to say goodbye to Dr. Wayne Dyer, was a bit like saying goodbye to part of my family. An uncle, or older brother perhaps. His illuminated way of looking at life will be missed. What makes it bearable though, is another idea he helped to reinforce, and that is we all come from Source energy and return to Source once our body stops working. A place of love. May you rest in peace Wayne.

Then last night on the CBC “National” news there was yet another story of the Syrian refugees trying to escape from terrorism. This time, drowned victims had washed up on a Turkish beach. Suddenly, the camera showed a tiny boy’s body, wearing a little red t-shirt, laying face down in the water. “Oh NO!” I moaned. For some reason that scene was just too much for me and pain hit my gut. As the news story showed the little boy being picked up and being carried away, I watched in horror as the person, carrying him was holding him at a distance and I  called out while watching the scene, “oh, hold the baby close.”

I went to bed last night not knowing the full story, but knowing somewhere in the world there were people in great distress and grief. I was feeling it.

Tonight on the news it turned out that I wasn’t the only one horrified to see that tiny boy’s body laying so still. People all over Canada (the world) reacted strongly to that news story. Maybe, oh my gosh, I hope, the world will realize that we need to become united. That baby was everyone’s baby. Tonight on the news we heard more about the 3 year old boy, Alan Kurdi, who lost his life, along with his 5 year old brother and their mom, trying to find a peaceful country to live. His Dad survived but has horrible memories of having to say goodbye to his family. Here’s the CBC news story but warning….this is graphic.

I don’t know why but I feel as though this horrible tragedy may be a turning point in our world. Little Alan’s loss of life is not in vain. The suffering that he and his people are enduring is touching the world and we are remembering that we are ALL connected. We are brothers and sisters. Compassion and love unites us.

What can we do to change the world? We can love the people in our immediate circle. We can bring our friends and neighbours in closer and look for opportunities to help and support them. We can look within our own communities for opportunities to help those less fortunate. The ripple of our circle can extend beyond our limits and touch the world.

We can let our Country’s leaders know that we will only vote for those who are compassionate and moving in the direction of dealing with this world crisis, helping the refugees find a safe and peaceful home to raise their families.

And finally, we can hold the vision of what we want our world to evolve into. As I go to sleep each night, I say a prayer for all those suffering in the world and hold the vision of light and love circling the globe.

Please join me in listening to this following You tube song, “A Song of Peace.”  In memory of Dr. Wayne Dyer and also little Alan Kurdi, his older brother and their mom. (If you can’t see this video click on the hyper-link above)

Beautiful isn’t it? Music connects us like nothing else.

And if you have any additional time today and wish to hear Dr. Wayne Dyer’s friend and another of my mentors, Dr. Deepak Chopra, speak to the World Peace Orchestra about art and music, touching the world, check out the video below. Thank you Deepak!

Thank you for coming and visiting. Remember….you are my family and I love you!

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Kale Chips~Clear Vision

/ Lee Reynolds

I’m a big list maker. Ever since I can remember, I have made lists. Everything from the daily chores I want to accomplish, the books I want to read, places I want to travel and things I want to experience. Having laser eye surgery has been on my wish list for years now.

Each January, I update my master list. As I look over my previous year’s dreams, I’m always in awe over the things I have manifested. In the last 25 years, D and I have created a comfortable home and a beautiful family. It hasn’t always been easy, as most of our married life we have lived on one income and our last 4 children took a long time to come. Finally, after years of  “holding my vision,” followed by tremendous intent, focus and action, our family is complete.

As a mom to 8 children, our family’s needs are always at the top of my wish list. Making sure our kids have a comfortable place to call their own, space to dream and activities that feed their soul, has always been a top priority. Hence, doing some sort of renovation to our home each year or buying a new musical instrument, as well as saving for our children’s extra curricular activities, to accommodate their wishes, has been my prime focus..

 

Will starts cello lessons this fall

 

Our latest reno job…the new stairs to a room over the garage for Harrison to have his own space

Last January, priorities shifted slightly, after visiting my optometrist.

My already degraded vision had worsened once again and my Dr. had also discovered several small cysts on one of my eyes. These were most likely caused by wearing my rigid gas permeable contact lens, (RGP’S in the optical bus) too long each day. As I left his office, the health of my eyes was paramount to me. As D and I discussed the options later that evening, the idea to investigate laser eye surgery suddenly seemed to be the prudent thing to do. After all, if I were to purchase a new pair of
glasses as well as another set of RGPs with my latest prescription, that amount alone would pay for a good portion of my eye surgery.

On a referral from my optometrist’s office, I went to an eye clinic in Kelowna. (our nearby BIG city) The ophthalmologist who operates the clinic is well respected and the clinic itself has a good reputation.  After the eye exam, they told me that, YES, I would be a candidate for laser eye surgery. I was jubilant, until they told me the cost of the procedure. Bummer! On top of that, they mentioned that it may be a good idea to consider having my lens replaced due to my age. A large percentage of older folks develop cataracts and this procedure would circumvent this condition from occurring even though currently my eyes were in perfect health. (I didn’t mention that I live sustainably and throwing out perfectly good things, or lens in this case, wasn’t my idea of a good idea) Still, this was yet another thing to consider.

On the drive home, D and I were both quiet. How could we manage to come up with this amount
with an already stretched budget.

If I have learned anything in my years of manifesting dreams, it’s that you have to have the vision FIRST, before it can come to you. And so, I held onto the vision of having laser eye surgery.

Just holding the “intent” of having the surgery was enough at the time. I moved in the direction of having the surgery by taking the action of converting over to soft contact lens. Since wearing my RGP’S affects my cornea shape, I needed to allow the cornea to re-adjust and stabilize before surgery could even be scheduled. They said, I would have to be out of my RGP’s at least a month for each decade of wear. Since I have been wearing contacts for at least 3 decades, that gave me at least 3 months to come up with the means to pay for the surgery.

Shortly after having the consult in Kelowna, my boss from the Garden Centre called to ask me officially if I would be able to work for them in the Spring. This was another thing I wanted to do but I really didn’t see how it would be possible. The little girls were still small and still needed me at home full time. Again, I trusted things would work and told my boss that I would love to come in at least part time. I could work around D’s hours at home. Being available weekends, holidays and working the afternoon, early evening shift, would at least cover some of my eye surgery expense and allow me to experience getting back into the paid workforce which I desired.

My babies with their babies…before I know it they will be all grown up

It’s really a wonder how things fall into place when you make a commitment. After I told my bos that I would love to come back for another gardening season,  I ask my family for some support. I asked my oldest sister if she could time her spring visit around my work, so if we were falling apart, she could provide added assistance. Also, both of our older sons, who were attending University, agreed to help out where they could until their summer jobs started.

 

When my sister B comes to visit she never puts her feet up….except if we are looking at furniture

 

 

She is hands on
Clark starting his 3rd summer back at the Science Centre but he helped me work 2 full time weeks before his job started. Thanks Clark! Part of allowing a dream to come true is to trust that there will be people who step forward to assist it its manifestation.

 

 

  
One day after work I came to pick up Clark from his job at the Science Centre and I had to snap this picture. Here is my Environmental Science son sitting on a garbage can that asks, “Think, What can you do?” If we keep our eyes open, the Universe is always giving us assistance and offering the questions we need to ask ourselves.

 

 
Grace and Harrison were instrumental in allowing me to work this spring and helping my dream  come true…Thank you…have I told you what great kids YOU ARE!
I was elated. If I could make at least 1/2 of the cost of the procedure, maybe D, could come up with a creative way of finding the other 1/2. Somehow, I just kept moving in the direction. Believing that things would work out. I would wake up each morning and look out our bedroom window, imagining  someday seeing the beauty of the outdoors clearly without having to put my RGP’s or my glasses on
These are the flowers outside my bedroom door to our backyard.
.

Things were falling into place really well in the Spring and somehow my family all helped me juggle and balance the family’s needs so I could work at the garden centre.The only thing was that D still hadn’t come up with a creative way for us to find the other 1/2 of the money necessary for the procedure. It just wasn’t there with all of our expenses and the kid’s  current needs..

 

Me working with the kale at my gardening gig…note the stylish glasses

Then one day my sister J, came for a visit. She knew I had been looking into having the surgery and I updated her on my progress, without telling her that finding 1/2 of the fee hadn’t materialized. That is when she told me that her oldest son E, who lives in Vancouver, had had laser eye surgery recently and it had cost 1/2 of the amount that I had been quoted at the Kelowna clinic. I was amazed and then a bit skeptical. Surely, there must be a catch. Perhaps his eyes didn’t require as much correction. Did he have astigmatism as well?

This was too good to be true but you know when a door opens, you have to walk through it. The next day D called the Vancouver office to book an appointment for me. Since he would have to drive me, I needed it to work around his work schedule.

He came home that night and said, “Great news. You can have your consult in Kelowna.” Apparently, once a month, a few of their staff come to Kelowna to conduct consults and attend to their patients who live in the Okanagan and need post surgery check ups. Things were starting to fall into place.

After meeting with M and J at their satellite office and hearing that yes, they would be able to do the PRK laser eye surgery on my eyes, I knew this was the direction I wanted to take. Everything had just fallen into place to allow my dream to come to fruition. First my spring job, my family stepping forward to assist and recently my sister offering another option that would allow me to afford the procedure. I would have to pay $300.00 dollars more than my nephew E paid. I would require something called, tissue sparing, where they use a finer laser. What I found most interesting was that the final package fee worked out to be exactly 1/2 of the cost that the Kelowna clinic had quoted.

When I had my first quote, I can remember saying to D that if it were 1/2 the amount, I could do it but the amount they wanted was just too much. That is why I never question my dreams now….when I put them out into the Universe, energy is always working behind the scenes to allow my dream to come through. As in this case, the Vancouver office does volume business and therefore can offer the service for less. When you have a dream you just have to hang on and keep believing that it WILL come true. Dream BIG!

After that, things moved quickly. They suggested I stop wearing my soft contact lenes and get a pair of cheap glasses and come back for a check up the following month. I haven’t worn glasses, other than my sunglasses for years and this was really hard to adjust to, especially at the garden centre. I would have to switch from my distance glasses to my reading glasses depending on my duties which was awkward. Somehow, I got through the season. At the end of June, I met with M and J again. They were both happy to see my eyes had stabilized and it was a go to book my laser eye surgery.

At last, my dream would be coming true. Little did I know I would experience more than corrected eye sight. A life altering epiphany was part of the package.

If you have read this far into my blog…wow! I know it’s long but there is a bigger story than just my laser eye surgery. Little did I know at the time but in two days, my eyes would see more than I had ever imagined. So grab a glass of ice tea and share in the rest of the story.

My surgery was scheduled for Thursday, July 30th. We had decided we would leave home first thing in the morning, which would give us sufficient time to arrive in Vancouver with enough buffer if the traffic was heavy. My surgery was booked for late in the day but we would have to stay over night since they wanted to check my eyes the following morning. Friday, July 31st was our anniversary.

The weather was beautiful Thursday. Blue skies and warm weather followed us as we drove out of our valley and headed to the West coast. I tried not to think of the actual surgery or all the waivers I would have to sign later in the day. I held the vision that everything would be great and go well.

I had made us a lunch and other than stopping for one quick bathroom break along the highway, we drove right into Vancouver. It was early afternoon and traffic was light. As D maneuvered our family van along the highway and over bridges, I reminded myself to enjoy the experience. The last time I was at the coast, was almost 3 years ago, when we were interning my mom’s remains. She was resting next to her mom and dad in the Aberdeen cemetary, close to where she grew up. Returning to the coast always feels like I was going home. I’m a Salmon in reverse,.going out to the sea, breathing deeply, feeling the oxygen fill my lungs and letting the flow guide me.

I hadn’t been into downtown Vancouver for a number of years and as we drove closer to the centre of town, the strangeness of everything took over. D finally found Hastings street which is where the clinic was situated but we would have to drive along East Hastings first before we got to West end where the office building was located. The traffic was thicker now. There were cars cutting in front of us, large buses pulling in and away from the curb. People were everywhere; on bikes, walking on the sidewalks, wearing all manner of clothing and carrying all sorts of gear; brief cases, yoga mats,  cloth grocery bags. Taxis were zipping in and out of traffic. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and then.  I realized I really needed to pee. Really bad. I’m surprised I hadn’t the urgency before now as I had been drinking a lot of water all day, wanting to be well hydrated.

I asked D to find a place where I could use the bathroom and up ahead he saw a Starbucks coffee shop. They are practically on every other corner in Vancouver, Like an old time big city driver, he quickly changed lanes and pulled around the back of the building where they had advertised parking. Parking is not easy to find in the city and it’s not cheap but happily we parked in Starbucks small parking lot and we went into the coffee shop. As I went to the bathroom, he grabbed a Pike’s Place coffee with the coffee card my best friend, T had given him for driving the girls home from summer camp.

As I came out, smelling the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee, D was there with a huge smile and waving his cup towards me.He loves coffee. I don’t. I’m more of a tea gal, although I appreciate the joy it gives D.

Image result for the joy of coffee

 

We left the building and it was then, finally with my bladder empty, I felt like i could focus once again. I was able to look around. A few shops down, there was a beautiful community garden which made me feel so happy. It was nice to see veggies growing amongst sunflowers. D put his coffee in the car and we toured around.

After I felt restored by growing things in the middle of the city, we got back in the car, D with his coffee and me feeling a bit more balanced.

We hadn’t gone far and things changed. Drastically. Some of the store fronts were boarded over and others had graffiti painted on the walls. Once beautiful hotels, were falling apart and there was this grimy, unkempt air to everything. Then, I noticed the people. They weren’t walking in a purposeful fashion but were just singularly standing around, or in small groups talking, sitting on the sidewalk, laying on blankets, slowly pushing shopping carts. Probably loaded with all their worldly belongings. Then as we stopped for a light, I glanced down an alley way and saw a person stabbing their arm with a needle.

As quickly as we came upon this district, we moved through it and when I asked D where we were, he said we were now in the West Hastings district. Suddenly, the building fronts changed. There were high end shops, fancy restaurants and the office buildings were built of polished stone and glass. Each person seemed to be a fashion statement unto themselves. All were well dressed, perfectly coiffed, and carrying designer labelled shopping bags, leather brief cases or expensive purses. The cars around us as well, seemed to change and we were surrounded by shiny black Mercedes, BMW’s and Land Rovers.

Then the energy changed again as we drove by a sign that said, “filming in progress.” A further block down, a large, shiny bus turned towards us and on the side was a massive picture of the singer, Taylor Swift

D was checking addresses by this time and finally, he recognized the number for the Coal Harbour Eye Centre. It was located at the top of the building. The 27th floor. We drove a few blocks further until we found a place to park in front of large, well kept townhouses. Since we had made good time and were early, we decided to take our lunch and go for a walk. The Harbour was close, with lovely, tree lined walking trails and park benches scattered everywhere, beckoning us to come and sit..

I’m sure, to those of you who live in a city, this is not uncommon to observe. The contrasts of living conditions that is. We even have a few seedier parts of town within our own small community. Perhaps, I had lived too long in conservative, middle class luxury. I don’t know but my head was reeling. We walked for a bit and finally found a nice place to settle, where we could eat the salad I had made earlier in the day. It was filled with veggie’s from our garden and chunks of avocado and almonds from the market. It was blissful and yet, I couldn’t get over the scenes I had just experienced. The extremes of life teaming in the streets was overwhelming to me. I felt a bit nauseous.

Here I was about to have my eye surgery, pay several thousand dollars for the service, and there were people just a few blocks away who didn’t have food to eat or a safe place to live. As D and I talked about my feelings, which he too shared, we watched large yachts come and go out of the harbour.  A steady stream of people poured past us,, some walking and chatting easily, all nicely dressed, some jogging and wearing expensive running shoes. There were young women carrying little puppies in their purses and middle aged, well dressed woman pushing high end baby strollers. In the park bench over from us, an older man snoozed under a newspaper. Possibly a resident from East Hastings area, who had made his way up the street. I was on over load.

As we got up to leave, it was then that I saw a couple of sweet houseboat moored among large yachts on the dock. It made me so happy that I had to take a picture. (you know I’m into tiny houses) All of a sudden, Vancouver seemed to be a microcosm of the world at large and although there was a disparaging difference in social status and stations in life, everything suddenly had a place and fit.

I just fell in love with the houseboats in the middle of the dock full of large yachts….they made a great statement about how we as a society live our life…what do you see?

The rest of the afternoon flew by as an efficient group of professionals took care of my eyes. There were a few moments of anxiety but I would remind myself that this surgery is second nature to Dr. Kirzner and I was going to enjoy each moment. When they were actually doing the laser surgery, and I was laying on this high tech table, trying to stay perfectly still, I had this sense of being outside my body. I knew my body was on the table, under the laser as I could smell burning tissue, but I was flying amidst brilliant light filled energy and was at peace.

Having that experience alone, was worth it all but then as I was resting in the recovery chair
less than 15 minutes after having the surgery, I opened my eyes and for the first time ever, I could see clearly. The pictures on the walls, the doors down the hall, and even D who had come in to join me in the recovery room. Then the surgical assistant walked by and whispered, “rest your eyes.” That moment was something I will never forget. It was a moment that I had had before.  In my dreams.

I was the second last patient of the day and by the time we got out to the car, rush hour was upon us. As D drove us to our hotel, I just closed my eyes behind the sunglasses they had given me. Once at the hotel, for some reason I was exhausted. There were quite a few eye drops I had to use at regular intervals but between those, I rested. Falling asleep easily. Finally, at 8 pm I woke up starving and we decided to venture out and get some dinner. We didn’t travel far and found the Ole Spaghetti Factory.

It was absolutely a delight being waited on. Not having to make dinner, clean up or wash the dishes. You could have given me anything to eat and I would have appreciated it but my Thai Pasta was truly delish. Being with D was new again. We are so used to having our children around us 24/7, that it’s quiet and empty when it’s just the two of us. We talked about our life, the trip and our dreams for the future.

Day 2 after my eye surgery…..coming out of our hotel and the day is gorgeous

 

Trying to do a selfie with my 6’2″ husband…33 great years!

My appointment the next day went well. Without a hitch. My contacts hadn’t moved. They are like bandages and cover the eyes until the outer surface, called the epithelium, grows back.Although it would have been exciting to spend the rest of the day in Vancouver, since there was going to be fireworks and music in the evening, I didn’t know how I would be feeling later and so we drove home.

Before leaving the coast though, we stopped in at the Aberdeen cemetery to sprinkle some dried lavender on my mom and both sets of grandparents graves. Then we continued through the Fraser Valley, heading east towards home.

As we were driving into my old hometown, I had to take a picture of this sign which really is how I live my life……

As we left the highway I quickly snapped this picture heading into the place I was born

David and I decided to stop for lunch in Hope and visit my Dad’s grave. I found it easily, as there is a little pinwheel next to his marker. As I said Hi to Dad and shook the remaining dried lavender blossoms on his grave, the wind suddenly picked up even though it had been still only a moment before. It whooshed in and the little buzzing bee pinwheel spun and spun. I could  feel Dad smiling and felt love all around.

My Dad, Marvyne Derwent Clark…born in April of 1920 and died in Sept of 1965

After visiting mom who was laid to rest next to her mom and dad and seeing Dad’s parent’s together, I felt kind of sad that Dad was all alone. Then I noticed all the babies buried around him.I had lost my Dad when I was small, and many parents had lost their babies all too soon as well but my Dad and their babies were together. Reminded me that we are all connected on this earth. Coming in and going out. But while we are alive, do we remember our connection?

The trip had been filled with so many insights.

The kids were so happy to have us home as we seldom leave them for more than a few hours but they took care of each other and did really well while we were away. My eyes have been healing really fast and when I went in for a check up on the following Tuesday morning, my Dr. was able to remove my contact lens/bandages. Since then, my eye sight has been getting better and better.

The images I saw when driving from East to West Hastings didn’t leave me. As well as visiting my parents and grandparents graves. I am very aware that life is brief. We only have a blink of an eye to do what we need to do on earth, see what we need to see, and to make a difference. As my vision healed, I have been asking myself what I can do. What kind of difference can I make in the world. How can I remind the world that we are one. Then I had another revelation. I’m already well on my way.

I have been drinking my green drink each morning. I go out each morning with my little ones in tow. We collect kale, swiss chard, parsley, carrots, spinach, cucumbers and add an apple from the fridge. I juice it and then pour my green juice into a blender which has crushed ice, some almond milk, a few tbsps of ground flax seed, a banana, some yogurt and finally a few scoops of my “All Greens” powder. I blend it and sit somewhere peaceful and drink it. Our little kids love it so much and get really excited when they hear my juicer start. Our skin is all glowing.

Tori was so happy to have her mommy home and asks all the time how my eyes are doing….don’t you LOVE the glasses…the boys say they remind them of the wrestler (Randy Savage) who used to wear something similar

 

Tori giving Kate a “squeezes hug”…she is very touchy feely and loves to get close

Sometime throughout the morning, I sit and meditate on my yoga mat and then I do some sun salutations, work on my plank, my bridge, a shoulder stand and finally a balancing pose. The little kids sometimes join me in doing a downward dog and cat stretches. They like animal poses.

I have been working in my garden, harvesting herbs and setting them up to dry. I have picked our hot peppers and dried them in the food dehydrator (see me using it for my Kale chips below)

Looking back over the whole experience to repair my vision, I realized that I’m not just seeing things clearer with my eyes but with my heart as well.

My beautiful sunflowers…bees just love them!

 

The kids all help me pick beans….isn’t my garden lush…but the grass sadly is so dry. My next vision is less grass and more food…an edible oasis for a backyard

 

Will often eats more than he puts in his bowl

 

Taking a break to have a drink of water and thinking how lovely my cultivator looked lying still…sometimes we have to just be to really see

 

I’ve run out of room in my laundry room drying rack and moved my peppermint out to the garage…oh fragrant tea!

While it makes me sad that we live in a world with such diversity with regards to wealth, I realized that if I want things to change, I have to hold the vision of how I want the world to become. I would love for everyone to be able to have clear vision if that is their desire. Why should anyone have blurry vision when there is the technology to improve eye sight? Why should anyone go hungry, when there is food enough in the world but often it’s just a distribution issue. Surely, this is something we can solve. Why should anyone be homeless when so many of us have more rooms than we need? Why should there be medicine and yet some people are not able to access it? This list goes on.

Our world is changing though. I can see it and feel that things are moving from polarity into a unified energy field. We are coming around to the idea that we are one. That every action on earth as a reaction.

Then it also occurred to me that before I can heal the world, I have to start by healing myself.

I AM taking those steps by having my eye surgery and caring for my own health, eating as healthy as I can, practicing my yoga, staying connected to spirit with my meditation, working in the garden with my plants and my little people. And now taking time to blog about the journey, and all the people who have touched my life, are touching my life. Hopefully, making me more loving and compassionate. .

It starts with a vision.

What is your vision?

As you contemplate that question and think about your dreams, perhaps you’d like to make the following Kale Chip recipe and listen to the following song. I’ve been singing it a lot lately. Humming it under my breath, I can see clearly now.

Check it out…if you can’t see the video below, click on the hyper-link. Thanks for coming and visiting…I hope to see you soon. Here is the video of Johnny Nash’s song called, “I can see clearly now.” I hope you enjoy it…

It’s going to be a sun shiny day!

Before I went on our trip, I discovered a great Kale Chip recipe. It comes from the book called, “Live Raw” by Mimi Kirk. The recipe is below but check out her You tube video where she makes the chips. I love her! If you want further inspiration, check out her marvelous web site.

Each time I watch her, videos, her energy resonates with me and more and more, I’m eating raw. If you have some Kale and are wondering what to do with it, try making these crispy chips.Thanks Mimi…your vision to spread love and wisdom for healthy living is coming through loud and clear. Also, I have been thinking that when we eat raw, we vibrate with light filled energy…and that is a great state in which to manifest our dreams. Enjoy!

Mimi Kirk’s Kale Chip Recipe

Ingredients

1-2 bunches of curly or dino kale
For one bunch use the following measurements, for 2 bunched double the recipe.
5-6 tablespoons virgin olive oil
4-5 tablespoons gluten free tamari, depending how salty tasting you like them

Nutritional yeast, I just pour on top and mix with tongs until leaves are coated. It’s your choice how cheesy you like them. I like them cheesy.
Sprinkle in seasonings of choice, example; cumin, curry, pizza seasoning, or none if you prefer, it’s good just with the nutritional yeast.

Directions.

Remove stem from kale and place in a bowl. Try to obtain large pieces as the kale shrinks in the dehydrator.
Pour the olive oil on top and mix with tongs until leaves are coated. Add the tamari and mix again. Lastly, add nutritional yeast and any seasonings you choose, and mix again. Nutritional yeast get thick when damp, so make sure to scrape sides of the bowl to incorporate.
Place on mesh screen of dehydrator tray and spread out somewhat. One bunch of kale will usually make 3 trays. Dehydrate 3 or more hours at 105–110 degrees until crispy like a potato chip.

Fresh kale from the garden…after juicing and making salads with it…I love to make Mimi’s kale chips…

 

My kids love it too and now I wish I had planted more Kale!

 

The dehydrator makes really crispy kale chips and is a really useful appliance if eating raw food is your thing

 

Even Harry likes it and that is telling you something

 

Thanks again for hanging in there and reading this whole blog post. I know it was L o n g….I appreciate you visiting so much and helping me ….”Heal Our Planet Earth”….let Hope be our vision.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

For the Love of Cats~Saying Goodbye to May Ling

/ Lee Reynolds / 1 Comment

 

 

Anatole France

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~Anatole France~

Do you ever wonder about the amazing gifts our pets bestow upon us? I have been pondering this ever since our 13 year old cat, May Ling disappeared 10 days ago. One day she was very much a part of our lives, always meowing for attention and jumping on anyone who sat for more than a minute, and the next moment she had vanished.Not a trace of her anywhere. I don’t know what is worse, not knowing where she is, or what become of her, or my guilt over feeling that I didn’t love her enough.

May Ling (the light cat) and Ryuuki on our window seat

Oh, I know that sounds wicked. I mean who wouldn’t love a cuddly, sweet, adorable cat? The only thing she ever wanted to do ever since she arrived on our doorstep was to love and be loved. Unconditionally. But I just couldn’t open my heart wide enough to embrace her fully. You see, the fall that she was born, (Oct 28, 2001) I had finally become pregnant with our Soulbaby. A baby that we had tried a long time to conceive. We got pregnant right after the September 11th terrorist attack. Although it was an unbelievable dark time in the world, getting pregnant at last, was a tiny bright spot full of hope in our lives.

Our first beloved Siamese cat named, Ninja, had died at the ripe old age of 16 the year before, and once we became pregnant with Soulbaby, D and I thought it would be a good time to give our children a new cat. In early November, we met a local breeder of Siamese cats. Her female had just had kittens and D and I went to meet the kittens. I fell in love with a little male AND his sister who were both Seal point Siamese, which was Ninja’s colouring. Although we planned to get only one cat, we left the breeder’s home with a sales agreement for the little male and the female.

Sadly, at the end of November, I miscarried Soulbaby. It had been a really difficult experience, as I went in to check on baby at 10 weeks and baby’s heart beat had just stopped based on the ultra sound dating. Since I was still in the 1st trimester, my Doctor thought I should just let things happen naturally. I waited and waited but nothing happened. Finally, at almost 12 weeks, I went in for a check up only to discover my uterus had continued to grow, as if it wasn’t ready to say good bye. Due to the risk of infection, at 12 weeks, I went in to the hospital for an induced miscarriage.

Even though we were grieving over the loss of Soulbaby, we decided that we would move ahead with the purchase of the kittens. Just before Christmas, we picked up little Samurai and Misumi. They were so tiny and sweet, little creamy white balls of fur. The female, Misumi, adjusted to life in our busy home easily, eating and racing around with her little grey tail flying in the air. Sammy was quiet and seemed to enjoy sleeping on the velvet pillow I placed in front of our gas fireplace. He didn’t seem to be thriving so we decided to take him into our vet for a check up. We were sent home with special kitten food and formula with little bottles for him to take in a bit more nourishment.
Image result for google images siamese kittens
While D and the kids went up skiing over Christmas, I carried Sammy around in my arms, feeding him and telling him to fight and live up to his Samurai, warrior name. He grew weaker and weaker though and after several more days we took him back to the vet who told us that they believed the kitten had some abnormality with his digestive system.They agreed to take him in and try to get him to rally but he never did. After 2 more days the vet suggested we put him to sleep. He was 10 weeks old when we watched him close his eyes for the last time. I had lost my Soulbaby at 10 weeks and now little Sammy at 10 weeks.

We wrapped him in a little fur blanket and he was gently put in a little box. We carried him, light as a feather, home and D, dug a grave next to where Ninja was buried. D made a heart shaped plaque with his name and age and we said a tearful goodbye. I never knew I could cry so hard for a kitten but the tears poured out of me. I cried for the loss of our baby and now for this tiny innocent life. Had I done enough to keep him alive? .

I was really mad at the breeder too because I felt she had let the kittens be weaned too soon. If he had had a bit more time with his mother, I felt he would have had a good chance but she had said that the mom hadn’t been very strong after the birth of the kittens and weaning early seemed like the best thing to do. As compensation for Samurai’s loss, (could there be any?) she said that she had one female left. She was the runt of the litter and the breeder had been giving her extra attention to make sure she survived. She was a blue lynx point, taking after the father, and the breeder said she was very sweet-natured.

Although, I had really wanted a brother, sister set, we agreed to take the female and the moment we met her we could see that she was a lovely kitten. She had been babied though and she was used to LOTS of attention. That was great for our kids who just loved the two sisters. We were so focused on ensuring the new kitten, who we named, May Ling grew. We gave her lots of special kitten food and she quickly developed a fat tummy which prompted the kids to affectionately call her, “Wide Load.”

She was a sweet kitten and the two sisters were such a joy to have in our home but I never spent too much time cuddling them or giving them too much attention. I was still grieving for Soulbaby and reeling over the loss of Sammy. I couldn’t keep my baby or the tiny kitten alive and I can remember feeling so inadequate as a mother. I was in a fog.

By the time Spring came and the sun with it, our oldest daughter Alyssa and May Ling were connected. As soon as Alyssa came home from school, May Ling would be by her side.
Misumi, who grew into an adventurous, fearless cat, was beloved by our boys. With the warm days of spring, I found joy emerging and before March ended I discovered I was pregnant once again. Our 5th child, Grace Elizabeth, arrived the following December. She was born one year and a week after we said a final goodbye to Soulbaby.

Christmas 2002 was happy in our house with a healthy baby girl and our kittens had grown into mischievous cats. With 5 children ranging in age from 12 to newborn, I of course was focused on keeping the kids healthy and happy. My vision of a great marriage, beautiful children and 2 cats in the yard had come true.

May Ling was always wanting to be in every picture and family celebration

During the 2008 summer, Misumi went missing. We were all so devastated and May Ling went around crying for her sister. As a result of posters we had put up in the neighbourhood, one of our neighbours called to say that he had found her and taken her remains to the SPCA. She had been hit by a car. Even though we had contacted the SPCA, they never told us of the dead Siamese that had been brought in. We all cried and cried but another piece of me grew even more distant from May Ling. I also felt so guilty that Misumi had been killed by a car…something that we should have prevented by keeping her in the house. I was more mindful after that, ensuring May Ling was in the house but that wasn’t ever a problem as she was a homebody.

May Ling always liked being in all the action…if I was in the kitchen…she was either sleeping near by or watching what I was making

It was hard on May Ling when Alyssa went off to University that fall. She would go around meowing miserably for her girl. When I got pregnant with Will that fall we decided to go ahead and get another Siamese, more for May Ling than anyone else. Ryuuki, (which means little dragon) came into our home a tiny but rowdy little scruff of fur. Even though May Ling had been on the scene first, he quickly showed her that he was in charge even though he was 1/2 her size. She seemed to be okay with that as long as he let her sleep next to him.

 

Our little dragon, Ryuui became May Ling’s cat companion after her sister Misumi died

 

Alyssa was home from University last summer…May Ling was always in her lap

This last Spring, I knew in my heart that May Ling wasn’t going to be with us much longer. I didn’t know how much longer we had with her but she seemed to be wasting away. All of our Siamese cats get very sleek and trim in the summer so perhaps the loss of her weight wasn’t so much a concern but it was the look she gave me that told me the end was coming. Every time I would sit down too she was right there wanting attention and she would look up into my eyes with such love. She seemed to be getting around well, although occasionally, it appeared she had sore joints. She would still follow me out and around the garden and she was certainly eating with her usual delicate appetite…no longer the wide load of her youth.

After Alyssa left home, Clark was always good for a good sit

On the day that she went missing, I had spent it with my sisters at a lavender farm, where we learned to make wreaths. When I arrived home later in the afternoon, I don’t recall seeing May Ling. I hurriedly made a couple pizzas, one to take to my sister’s home as she had invited us out for the evening and one to leave with the kids who would stay home. We spent the evening visiting my sisters and their husbands and when we returned late in the evening, the last thing I was thinking about were our cats. It had been a long, delightful day and besides, Grace had been taking care of the cats. She was responsible for feeding them twice a day.I feel bad now, not knowing exactly when our sweet girl may have gone missing.

Enjoy the beauty of life…a picture from the lavender farm…July 22nd when May Ling went missing

When she didn’t show up the next day, I knew something was wrong. As I got the little kids ready for swimming lessons in the morning, May Ling wasn’t meowing for her breakfast which often annoyed me as I had so many mouths to feed. I would yell to Grace, “feed the cats!” as I would race out the door with the little kids but that morning even Ryuuki wasn’t around. He often sleeps in though so that wasn’t my concern….not seeing May Ling worried me, Already my gut was telling me something wasn’t right.

Image result for pictures of cat food bowls

Well we did the usual. Called the SPCA. I whistled and called her name. We walked and drove around the neighbourhood but there wasn’t any sign of her. For the last week we have left the doors open, just in case she should walk back home. I have been haunted by her beautiful blue eyes though. They follow me everywhere, during my wakeful hours and in my sleep. Several nights after she disappeared, I had a dream of my mother holding her gently in her arms, telling me that she was okay and she would love her now. (My mother passed away 3 years ago but always loved our cats)

Since then I have had to let go to a degree for the sake of my well being, but still, she is in my conscious thoughts. Here is what she has taught me, or perhaps the better word would be reminded me.

Our fur friends remind us that life is short.

To be loving, both giving and graciously receiving, while we are here.

Be at peace, have lots of naps and look for fun things to do whenever we can.

They are gifts that come for a brief part of our lifetime and for us to really learn from them, we need to love them well, with all our hearts and with full abandon. They give us far more than we can EVER give them in return.

In hindsight, I wished I had loved her better. I wished I had taken a bit more time to rest and let her sleep in my lap. I wished I had told her what a wonderfully lovable cat she was and how thankful I was to have her in our family.

I know that I wasn’t the best cat mom to her but I have learned my lesson. Ryuuki is getting all of the attention right now and lapping it up. He doesn’t seem to be distraught over her disappearance. He is just living his life and enjoying his family. Perhaps he is teaching me another valuable lesson.

“Love the one your with|”

Wherever you are May Ling…you were a GREAT cat. Thank you!….we will love you forever!

 

If you can’t see the above video…here’s a hyper-link to listen to “Love the One Your With/”

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Cherry Squares~Summer Delight

/ Lee Reynolds

A life without love is like a year without summer. ~Swedish Proverb

Spring literally flew by for me with hardly a moment to think, let alone time to reflect and write a blog post. I missed you all though.

I started working at my gardening gig on Earth’s day, April 22nd. An appropriate day to start working with plants and helping our customers plan their garden don’t you think? 

Here’s a shot of the north end of our garden centre

 

Inside our greenhouse

 

My favourite place….the veggie section

 

I was blessed to have some GREAT co-workers who made coming to work FUN!

 

Another amazing co-worker…making life in the veggie section even better
When you would pay your boss to work, you know you have found the right job….more beautiful co-workers
The garden is the perfect place to transform……here’s a butterfly on our marigolds

 

And marvel over endless beauty

 

So yeah Spring flew by immersed in Kale and Flowers….check out my glasses…more about that later

 When I wasn’t working at the garden centre, I was trying hard to be a good mom but gosh is it ever a balancing act. I think the kids kind of like me though, as they gave me some thoughtful Mother’s Day gifts in May; handprints, flowers, poems, a gift certificates good for chores like lawn mowing and more. Did I mention that I have great kids?


 The rest of May flew by in a blur, with a 4th birthday party for our twin daughters at the end of the month. The theme was “Bugs and Butterflies” which was a big hit with Kathryn and Victoria.

 

This butterfly cake was super easy to make…just ask me about it.
Victoria is trying to hit the ladybug pinata I made for the party…now that would have been a blog post unto itself!



After the girl’s 4th birthday on May 20th, it was a quick slide into June with a mad dash to plant my own veggie garden. It was quite a challenge keeping it weed free though….I did eventually spend an afternoon and weeded it and promptly put freshly mowed grass clippings around the plants to keep them moist but also weed free. Stay tuned for a more updated picture of the garden in posts to come.

I REALLY like the location of all the plants this year….I did LOTS of research into companion planting this year…note e basil next to the carrots and tomatoes….the onions and marigolds are all around the outside of the garden which hopefully will create a barrier for insects

I was blessed to have my oldest sister visit. I love it as she knows exactly how to help….she always heads straight to my laundry room when she arrives…AND since she is a master at organizing and decluttering, she always brings me hand-me downs.

Ta Da….new hoodie and shoes!!!….don’t you just love hand me downs?

 

My generous sister B with Victoria and Kathryn

  June arrived and flew by in a flurry of piano and voice concerts, a piano exam, soccer games, final school exams, year end parties and beach days and our traditional music school Country Fair. It ended with Will’s 6th birthday party at the Science Centre. I can’t believe our little guy is 6 years old!

Will’s rocket ship birthday cake that I made for him for his Science Centre party

 

Who knows what his future will be? When asked recently what he wanted to do when he grows up he said, “An engineer and a chef.” ….maybe he will be both


Will’s actual birthday, June 25th fell on the kid’s last day of school. We celebrated the beginning of summer with a slurpee. Yes, our family is healthy, we drink green drinks, eat lots of veggies and stay active, but we all enjoy a slurpee now and then too.

Welcome Summer!

Summer arrived and we headed to Okanagan lake for a week of camping. What a week! We experienced thunder showers, epic high temperatures (39 celsuis…and yes there are people in the world who think Canada is COLD!), in which Katie was sick with heat stroke, most of us came down with swimmer’s itch and finally there was a camp fire ban since the temperatures were extreme and our Province is so dry. Boo! as our one of our favourite things each day is to have a crackling fire in the evening in which we can toast our s’mores! So Yummy!

Here are a few pics of the highlights…

Oh Bliss….the water was the perfect temp

 

Will took part in a “learn to fish” program put on at our campground

 

Happy Campers

 

Mitchell came out for the first weekend and brought his guitar….he’s so talented

 

Hiking up the beach trail and taking a moment to snap a picture

 

Harrison went into town each day for a basketball camp so was only with for short amounts of time….but enough time to enjoy the experience of being in the great outdoors and appreciate a real bed.

 

Grace balancing on the paddle board. She took lessons and is a natural1

  

David and I behind our campsite….see the lake in the background. Gorgeous!

 

Now you know why I didn’t have much time to blog this spring and early summer.  Life has been full of work, milestones memories and wonderful experiences. 

Another highlight, was when the little kids and I picked our first big harvest of cherries from our two trees in our backyard. The trees (a Lapin and a Lambert) were loaded and we even had enough to share with others this year. That is always a nice feeling when you grow food.

I have so many memories when I pick cherries. My first is when I was a teenager living in the Creston Valley, known for its productive fruit trees. I made a nice sum of money picking cherries one summer and got a really good tan…back in the days when a tan was something to be coveted.

Another memory was when I was 25 and my step father had just passed away in April, leaving my mom with a large house and property to maintain. My sisters and brother in laws got together one weekend in June and picked cherries from her mini orchard. I thought I would never look at another cherry again but it was really nice to be able to hand mom a bit of money from the cherry sales at the local farmer’s market.

I hope my kids have a few nice cherry picking memories. For many years we picked the cherries hanging over the fence from our neighbour’s tree (they gave us permission and they never picked any cherries) We would get enough cherries from our side of the fence to be able to freeze a nice lot of cherries and we always made my mom’s cherry square dessert each year. Now that we have our own trees, I hope our little ones create their own memories.

I am trusting that summer will continue to unfold with grace and ease. Picking cherries and taking the time to make my mom’s Cherry Square recipe was a nice start. If you are looking for a lovely, easy cherry dessert this is it. Add a dollop of ice cream or whipping cream and you have something really special to serve your family. Here’s one of our family’s summer dessert recipes….

My Mom, Ethel’s Cherry Square Dessert

Filling Ingredients

5 cups of fresh pitted cherries (this is the only time consuming part of this recipe)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Put the above ingredients into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Mash a bit and then add

a mixture of 1/4 cup cornstarch with a bit of water...enough until you have made a paste.
Add the cornstarch paste to the cherry mixture. Stir it in well.

Simmer a bit more until mixture is clear

Let cool

In a large bowl add:

1-3/4 cup rolled oats
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour…I use 3/4 cup of whole wheat and 3/4 of white flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup of brown sugar or sweetening ingredient of your choice
 Optional: 1 tsp cinnamon

Cut  into this mixture,
3/4 cup of cold butter or margarine

Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish….I used a 9×13 but the squares were not as deep

Press 1/2 of the rolled oat/ flour/butter mixture into the baking dish

Spread cooled cherry filling over the first layer

Press the remainder of the oat/flour/butter mixture on top of the cherry filling

Place in pre-heated oven 375 degrees for 35 minutes

Serve warm with a dollop of whip cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Absolutely great cold too! This dessert doesn’t last long around here.

 

 

A piece of my mom’s cherry square dessert on her “Forget Me Not” china…..love you mom!

I hope this blog post brings you up to date on life around Lakelin Reach (our urban homestead) and your summer also unfolds beautifully.

Recently my sisters and I visited a lavender farm…more about that in future posts and this was a quote that was in the garden….if I were a tree, I think I would be a cherry tree. 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope




Minimalism~Lentil balls~Hope is a Feather

/ Lee Reynolds

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

~By Emily Dickinson~

Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

 

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

Image result for feather

   I know it may seem that I have dropped off the face of the earth by my lack of blogging of late but that WOULD NOT  be the case. I am very much alive and well, living fully, experiencing life to the max with no time to even stop to connect with my friends and family.

   At times on my path, life is so intense that I don’t even have time to stop and recognize the signs along the way. The signs that guide me on my path and give me the courage to keep going. I have written before about finding feathers and how I believe they are my sign posts that I am on the right path. Lately, I have been seeing them everywhere. They are on the wood floor when I wake in the morning and are in front of me as I move through the day. They keep me going and keeping hope alive in my heart.
    Since I last wrote so much has transpired. We hosted our garage sale which was really successful. We even sold our 6 foot fake pre-lit Christmas tree, which my boys bet wouldn’t sell in April…but it did. What we didn’t sell, we donated to a few charity groups the following week and now there are only a few loose ends to tie up after our mass spring de-cluttering project. Here are a few pictures from our garage sale.
Grace selling popcorn, cookies and lemonade

 

Harrison giving me thumbs up on our Earth day garage sale

 

Just a sampling of things we no longer need….sad to see our little Tykes car go but the little boy that got it was thrilled

 

David strung up a clothes line onto Harrison’s basketball pole/net

 

Here is monkey and my baby bear in a suitcase I have had since I was small. This is a good sample of something I have been carrying with me through life but it wasn’t serving me any longer. A man came along and said the bear was exactly like his baby bear he had had as a child and was so happy to take suitcase and all. Seeing his smile as he picked these old lovies up made me happy.

All in all our Earth Day garage sale was a big hit. Right after the garage sale, David went to pick up our son Mitchell from the University of Victoria, where he has been going to school this year. It was a long weekend for David to help me with the garage sale on Saturday morning and then to drive out and back to the coast over the weekend. It was so good to hug my son and welcome him home after his first year away at University.  Seven of our Eight chicks are back in the nest for summer.

I started working at the Garden Center on Earth day and I have been juggling work, home and family since then. It’s tough. I’m trying to make healthy meals for our family while keeping all the balls in the air. We are trying to make so many big changes in our life right now and it stretches me to my limits but the feathers keep me going. They remind me that it’s all worth it. We all needs these kind of signs on our path. What are you finding to keep you going?

Before I close this post though, I thought I would include another recipe that we have added to our repertoire of fav, quick vegetarian meals. Since I kind of feel like a juggler with all the activities as balls in the air, how appropriate to share a lentil ball recipe. I threw it together so fast that I didn’t even have time to take any photos, although I took a quick photo as I pulled the lentil balls out of the oven.

And another one before I ate leftovers the following day.

The photo above, is a picture of the left over lentil balls on my pasta for lunch the next day. I also served it with a great salad which I also didn’t take a picture of. Everything gets consumed too fast here and well, taking pictures for my blog is not at the top of my list….feeding my family is the priority.

I wanted to give you the dressing recipe I used for our salad though as it was delicious. My mother in law Doreen, used to make the most amazing ranch dressing and I always used to ask her how she made it. She never gave me the exact measurements, probably because she had made it for her family for so long and didn’t need to measure it any longer. Anyway, I always was trying to make it and I think I finally have it down. (does this sound right Doreen?)

So here is my recipe for lentil balls…perfect on top of the pasta of your choice….and Buttermilk/dill dressing for a yummy green salad to accompany your lentil balls.

Hope’s Lentil Balls

Ingredients

1 cup of dry lentils (I used green but you could use brown or green and brown)
21/2 cups of water or vegetable broth
3 tbsp of ground flaxseed
1/3 cup water
2 tbsp olive oil
3  minced garlic cloves
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper diced really fine…although this is opt
1 carrot finely grated
1 celery stalk, finely diced
3/4 cup of oats
1/2 cup of finely ground oats
1 tsp of dried thyme
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 ground chipotle pepper
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse lentils. In large pot add 2 1/2 cups water with lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

 

 

In small bowl combine flax seed with 1/3 cup water, set aside for at least 10 minutes, preferably in the refrigerator. This will act as a binder and will thicken nicely upon sitting.

 

 

 

Prepare vegetables. In saute pan heat oil or water over medium heat. Saute garlic, onion, bell pepper, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes. Add spices mixing well to incorporate. Set aside to cool.

 

 

 

 Blend the lentils in a food processor until they form a paste.

 

 

 

Combine sauteed vegetables with the lentils, oats, oat flour and flax, mix well. Taste, adding salt and pepper as needed, or any other herb or spice you might like. Form small balls and place in a baking dish, spray or line with tin foil (sprayed). Cook for 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees. 
Eat them on top of pasta or on their own. This mixture can also be formed into lentil burgers….or even as a loaf. Make a pot of rice, toss a salad and you have a really quick and healthy meal.

Here’s the recipe for Buttermilk/dill dressing that we made for our salad….I love it and may never go back to my Hidden Valley dressing again. I love making food from scratch and cutting down on packaged foods.

As close to Doreen’s

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk (I just use 1/2 cup of milk and add 2 tbsp lemon juice)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 pepper
1 1/2 tsp of dried dill
1/4 cup freshly chopped chives….starting to bloom in my garden now
2 tsp of lemon juice
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl. This dressing will keep well in the fridge up to 3 or 4 days. Great for dips. My kids were dipping their crazy bread before dinner.

I don’t know what’s going on in your life but if you are having a tough time, or life is throwing a lot of challenges your way, I hope you remember that you don’t have to hold your head up higher than your heart. I pray that the feathers are abundant for you and when you see them you know you are on the right path. You ARE LOVED!

If you need any musical inspiration before we say goodbye, I’ve included a really cool song by Jack Johnson called, “Hope”….of course hey

If you can’t see the link below since you are using an apple product…click on the hyper link above.

I love the following quote….the BEST part is actually what comes next……

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope 

We Learned It All In Kindergarten

/ Lee Reynolds
Will contemplating life above the world

As I was helping Will get ready for kindergarten this morning, he was sharing a lot of his wisdom with me. He was telling me about what some of the kids in kindergarten believe regarding where they go after they die. When they have time to talk about such deep stuff in kindergarten, I don’t know. He seemed to have a good handle on their thoughts and ideas.

I asked him what he believed and he said, that was easy. After his earth body stops working, he will go back to be part of the Universe with all the stars and planets. He said he was looking forward to flying around the milk-way again. (I didn’t even know he knew about the milky-way!) As I was combing his curly hair at the time, he turned his face up towards me and gave me a brilliant smile. In that second, I knew it was simple and he understood it all.

Christmas day 2014…Will had three wishes for Christmas…the first was a telescope…maybe to go home for a bit each night

I was thinking…..”maybe I have all the answers too”

Later, this morning as I was catching up on my email and face book messages, I came across a you tube video by my Wild Divine group (an online meditation support group) based on Robert Fulghum’s poem called, “We learned it all in kindergarten.” I watched the video and was rather stunned at the coincidence of having this conversation with my little 5 year old and then watching and listening to this lovely message. Right away I wanted to share it with you.

I think the part I liked best about the video/poem were the words, “stick together and hold hands.” When I think about what I really want to do on my blog it is just that; make connections, inspire, and spread good messages like this one. We do have it all inside of us. It was there WAY before we came to earth but it is reinforced in many ways during our kindergarten year. Why we lose that wisdom I don’t know, except I think maybe we wouldn’t learn as much on this earth school if we lived our lives constantly remembering this simple message. (although the world would be a better place if we remembered)

Will summed it up casually as he was brushing his teeth. He was all foamed up and through his mouth full of toothpaste I heard it clearly, “it’s all about love Mom.” Yeah, right kiddo. Of course, it’s that simple.

And so as I have been talking all about minimalism lately, I thought this message was probably the MOST important thing to remember…to impart. It’s all about love. Love.

                               LOVE 

                 What a simple message!

Will grabbed his backpack and his coat and told me that it’s okay that his friends all have their own ideas and thoughts about what happens after they die. We all have our own beliefs and create our own reality, but what REALLY matters is being loving while we are here. 

As I drove my little wise man to kindergarten this morning I thought deeply about his words, his shining smile. I thought if these kinds of ideas were in our world leader’s thought process, we would be healing our planet and living in peace.

Then when I saw this video, I knew I had to pass it along, because if each of us remembers what we knew when we came to earth…or even what we learned in Kindergarten, we can change the world sticking together and holding hands.

~We are the ones, we have been waiting for~Alice Walker
                    

 

Here is the video that I just found by Wild Divine called, “Keep it Simple.”  
(Click on the hyper-link above if you can’t see the video below)

Based on the poem by Robert Fulghum called, “We learned it all in Kindergarten.”

I hope you like it and it inspires you to look inside today, maybe when you are eating your cookies this afternoon, before you take a nap.

Before Will came to earth I used to sit on this rock and meditate. Letting go and trusting that good things were flowing into my life. I had no idea that a wise teacher would be coming in the form of a little boy.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope 

Energy Bars and Quick Declutter Tips

/ Lee Reynolds

Welcome!

Spring is here and our de-cluttering project is still in full swing. We have a garage piled with things slated for our upcoming garage sale. If anyone were to drive by when our garage door is open they would think we were hoarders! We still have a few areas to comb through; our camping equipment, my gardening shelves and D’s workbench. Hopefully, during our upcoming long Easter weekend, we can complete these tasks and then prepare for our garage sale the next weekend.

We are coming into our busiest season of the year, continuing with the children’s year long activities but in the spring we add non-stop soccer, a voice festival, and a piano exam. In addition, our 16 year will be refereeing soccer once again which adds more trips to the playing fields. Also, in a few weeks we will go and collect our University son and bring him home for the summer. Both of our older boys will be working hard throughout the summer at their respective jobs, so we will be doing lots of transportation juggling as well.

And as if that weren’t enough, I have agreed to work at the garden center, where I started working last year, which will start at the end of April and go for a few months. I loved it, but juggling our large family commitments is not an easy task. So I thought I would make some energy bars the other day to start gearing up. I’ve started lifting weights again and the added protein will help me recover faster.

These energy bars went as quickly as it took to make them, so I thought this was something I wanted to share with my blog friends. My older sons aren’t crazy about dried fruit in their bars and although my last recipe (I blogged about it last year) called for dried cranberry, (which I personally love) these do not have any fruit, hence they went fast

The next time you have a busy week and  need some quick, nutritious snacks, make a batch and put them in a tin for your special people. Celebrate Spring~

Quick Ready for Spring Energy Bars

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 tbsp of protein powder (I used unflavoured whey powder I bought at our local bulk store)
2 tbsp of cocoa
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter (just peanuts)

Directions

Add the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, protein powder and cocoa into a large mixing bowl and combine well.

Kate and Victoria enjoyed mixing all the dry ingredients


Stir in the honey and the peanut butter and mix really well, until it is well combined.

Now for the peanut butter and honey, yummy!


Press into an 8×8 glass baking pan…Layer it first with parchment paper for easy removal

Put it in the fridge to set up…a few hours

Cut into bars, the size of your choice. Eat and get energized

Once cut and put on a plate they flew into my kid’s mouths. I was lucky to take a final shot of the end product

 

And now with that extra energy, you can join me in continuing the de-cluttering process.
Recently, when a friend of mine heard about our move towards minimalism and our big de-cluttering project, she sighed and said, she didn’t know where to start. Like me, she is busy with her family and she has years of stuff accumulated from her children. While they are older, she is dealing with lots of childhood memorabilia. I was thinking of what I have learned and thought I would share FOUR quick de-cluttering steps that got me going, even BEFORE I started going drawer by drawer and closet by closet, which may help you if you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. These are not just steps to build the momentum you need to then move to drawers and closets but a good practice to maintain all the time so things don’t get out of hand.
Four Quick steps to assist you towards de-cluttering your home
1. Keep the kitchen sink clean
Further to number 1: Go through your house as you would normally and do a regular clean. Start in the kitchen first and make sure all the dishes are washed, cleaned and put away. Years ago, I found the flylady website, which teaches systematic cleaning and organizing. Although, I’m highly organized already, I didn’t need help in that area but as we added more children to our family, it took more time for me to get through my daily cleaning routine and I needed some help.
What flylady recommends is to make sure your kitchen sink is always clean because that is a pivotal place of power in any home. If things are not clean at that station, then the energy just doesn’t flow well anywhere. When my kids were babies, sometimes just having a clean sink was my goal. (and getting dressed everyday)
2. Pick Up All Loose Garbage
Further to number 2: As you move through your house, clear out all garbage cans and pick up any loose garbage lying around. I don’t know about you but in our house there always seems to be empty bags from stores even though we are consciously moving in the direction of zero waste by not bringing any extra packaging or bags into our house. For instance, before Spring break, Will came home from kindergarten with a plastic bag abundant with art projects from his kindergarten teacher.. These things just migrate into our home and multiply like the dust bunnies under our beds.
Another area that is quick work in filling your recycling bin, is at the kitchen desk (or wherever your family drops things when coming in from outside the home; keys, mail, etc.  Even though, as a society we are moving towards using less paper, it arrives silently and lands on my desk. Flyers advertising various camps and activities for the kids, notices from school that aren’t emailed, little things I clip from our local newspaper. Lately,  job ads for my University son. (am I ever becoming my mother!!! She always collected little pieces of information she had found in the newspaper or  magazine for us girls) Anyway, you get the picture. Get it out to the recycling bin and clear up the paper trail in your home. Then try to be mindful about not bringing it home. Keep this landing spot cleared of clutter.
3. Get Rid of Duplicate Household Items
Further to number 3: As you  are putting things in order, look for any items that are duplicates. Recently, I noticed that I have many duplicates of things, not just in my kitchen but in my bathroom. I found a second punch bowl for instance and it was a no brainer to let the second one go into our garage sale pile. (Set up a donation box somewhere in your house and when it’s full decide where the contents are going to go)
For a second, my thought process was that one punch bowl could be filled with punch and the other one would look great filled with popcorn, a big snack fav in our house but then I said, “oh Hope, when was the last time you did that?…you need help!” and I let the second one go into the garage sale pile.
As I was blow drying my hair, I realized I had a second curling iron that I must have been keeping in case the first one breaks. I don’t even curl my hair and the few times I curl Grace’s hair, I certainly don’t need two irons. (and really do I need even one?) Don’t even ask me about how many cookie sheets and muffin tins I have. These are easy things to clear out as you are putting away your regularly used pieces. This added space in your drawers and cupboards will allow you to put the things you really need away or retrieve easily. Get rid of your duplicates.
4. Remove Any empty Bottles/toiletries in Your Home
Further to number 4: We are notorious for purchasing new shampoo, soap and lotion before we have completed our current bottle. I’d like to share a shampoo recipe with you so you don’t have to buy any bottles but that will have to be a future blog. That is ideally the direction to take but if you are like me, we do occasionally buy toiletries at the store and at any given time an array of nearly empty bottles are in our bathroom. Do a clean sweep.(ha) Pull the almost empty bottles out and use the product and then recycle the bottle. (Better yet, fill it with homemade shampoo or lotion and don’t buy another….I’ll do a blog about making our own toiletries soon)
I’ve been really good at clearing out our bathroom but when I did a sweep recently, I was surprised to find an abundance of almost finished products or expired items. (do you have old mascara bottles for instance?) I had been keeping several empty bottles for the kids to play with in the bathtub but really, how many do they need!Actually, none and instead I trade that for old funnels and beach buckets that we use in the summer and can use in the bath. (Also, although they don’t play with their little Fisher Price people on a day to day basis, when I let them have them in the tub, all of a sudden they are fun again.)
The kids also went to the dentist recently and received new toothbrushes but instead of throwing out the brushes they have been using since Christmas, I noticed everyone now had two brushes.  Their old, well worn one and their new one. Before both look like the former, I went through and threw out all of the old brushes. Yuck hey! When you have 6 kids, currently in the house, that is a lot of brushes! Get rid of them! Remove your empty bottles and toiletries.         
Well, those are some quick tips for moving things out quickly. It’s funny how papers/newspapers, bottles, plastic bags and extra items that are just duplicates of what we already own, come into our home. Well that is life. It’s a continuous process of acquiring and letting go but to make our life simpler, start asking yourself, before your purchase, “do I need this item?”
Recently my husband D’s coffee grinder went kaput. In the past, we wouldn’t have given it a second thought. We would have added buying a new one to our list the next time we were out but instead, he started thinking about how he might grind his beans .We tried our blender and if it were a Vitamix, it might have fit the bill nicely but it’s just a regular blender. Great for smoothies but not much else. He was going to try my new food processor and see if it would work but in the meantime. when we were at Costco a week ago, he found a bag of already ground, Seattle’s Best coffee, and happily he bought that. He was really happy!          
For now, we have deferred the purchase and the next time my processor is on the counter, we will have to try the last of the beans to see if it will work and hopefully we won’t need to purchase a coffee grinder. Except, it does an awesome job at grinding my flax seed, so time will tell but at least we are really conscious about our consumption. The energy it takes to earn the money to buy another coffee grinder and the energy it takes from our earth to make another one for our home, plus having to recycle the one we had…well it’s all energy isn’t it?
Well that’s my blog for today. I’m heading out to enjoy some of the sunshine and assess my garden before the kids come home from school. My sister was saying she has things planted already and she lives just 20 minutes away from us, where winter lasts a bit longer, so I’d better get going if we want any kale, lettuce, arugula, spinach, carrots, turnips, potatoes, beets, onions, sweet peas, etc.
When we plant our seeds they produce abundantly, as do the visions we have for our lives.
What are you planting in your life?
                                                         
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope

 

Ultimate Brownies~Becoming a Mom

/ Lee Reynolds

What does being a mom and brownies have in common? They are both SWEET!

Today is my first born daughter’s birthday. Her 25th Birthday to be exact. Happy Birthday Alyssa Rae!

25 Years ago I became a mom.

Image result for quotes on becoming a mother

Alyssa Rae at 6 months….pull out the camera and she smiles

The road to motherhood started out rocky for me because after an almost perfect pregnancy, with only first trimester nausea to mar the experience, the weeks before our baby’s birth was full of uncertainty, which would shadow her first year on earth.

In week 34 of my pregnancy, I was having some cramping and didn’t feel well. My doctor sent me to the hospital where they did some fetal testing along with an ultrasound. In those days, (1990)  having more than two ultrasounds performed during a pregnancy was unusual, so I was a bit concerned. That concern blew into anxiety when the ultrasound tech had a look of deep concentration on her face. Also, she took much longer than what I felt was a normal time frame to check on our baby’s growth and well being.

The next day my Dr’s office called and asked if I could come in. At that moment, what had been an idyllic pregnancy, turned into a nightmare. My Dr. told me that our baby had dilated ventricles in her brain but that was all she could say at that point. She didn’t want to speculate on the cause or how it may impact our child, until there was further testing done. She had arranged for us to see a fetal diagnostic specialist at Grace Hospital (Now called the B.C. Woman’s Hospital) in Vancouver.

We had the weekend to digest what this could mean. The first thing I did after talking to my Dr. was  visit the library. Remember, this way in the day when you couldn’t just Google information. At the library, I discovered that babies born with dilated ventricles in the brain often had conditions like hydrocephalus.

“Hydrocephalus is one of the most common congenital anomalies affecting the nervous system, occurring with an incidence of 0.3 to 2.5 per 1,000 live births. Traditionally, hydrocephalus is detected and treated after birth with a shunting procedure. However, with the advent of high quality prenatal ultrasonography, ventricular enlargement is now routinely diagnosed in-utero. This knowledge has facilitated obstetric care but presents a source of uncertainty for families and a challenge for the team counselling parents regarding a prognosis for the fetus.”

I drove home crying. How had this happened to our baby? I was young and in perfect health and my pregnancy had been text book. I was also anxious that every moment we waited to see a specialist, meant irreparable damage to our baby’s brain could be occurring.

My husband and I clung to each other over the weekend and after I told my mom about having to go to Vancouver for testing, (which was a BIG deal in those days) I grew more concerned. She contacted her church and had our baby placed on their prayer list. To be put on a prayer list to me, meant things were really serious. You know when you are living a nightmare it’s almost surreal but other people’s reaction to your life often puts things into perspective.

This is a little angel in our house that reminds me of this time.

Our 8 hour car trip to Vancouver (before the connector was built) was uneventful and quiet although occasionally I would break the silence by asking David, “it’s going to be okay, right?” When we arrived at Grace hospital, we sat in the waiting room filled with other couples. Woman at varying stages of pregnancy sat everywhere. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t alone with my fears for the health of our baby. This was a Universal connection. It was the first time being pregnant I realized I was on the precipice of joining a selective group of women.

Moms!

The head of the neonatal testing and diagnostic department, Dr. D. F. Farquharson,, met with us and put us at ease right away. We knew we were in good hands as he carefully communicated what we were facing and what they would be looking for. I tried to relax and even thought, heck, he teaches at the University of B.C. so he probably sees situations like ours all the time. After an extensive ultrasound, he guided us to see other specialist. We met with a genetics counselor, we had blood drawn. Finally, late in the day we met with a Neurosurgeon who was amazing. I’ll never forget Dr. Cochrane asking us what level of education we had, presumably so he knew how to pitch the situation. Although, that may sound condescending, he wasn’t at all. The whole team wrapped us gently in care during our time at Grace Hospital.

At the end of the day, there was no conclusive diagnoses. Our baby was too large, at 34 weeks to be able to be seen clearly via ultrasound and  to determine what was causing the dilated ventricles. They thought they had ruled out spina bifida however, since her spine appeared in tact. It was suggested that we do an amniocentesis to determine if our baby’s lungs were mature. If they were, it was advised to induce labour early and deliver her, at which time the team could diagnose properly and treat her condition. We agreed to the amnio, which was performed by our Dr. F with great compassion and ease. Although we were still scared, we had a team caring for us and there was comfort in that.

Since it was going to take a few days to get the results we drove back to the Okanagan to wait. The next week was excruciating. I spent many hours just praying for the health of our baby. It was decided that I would officially start my maternity leave from work. If I had continued to work, I wouldn’t have been able to focus anyway. Interestingly, for many years I had been working as an Insurance Agent, processing many types of unemployment insurance claims. A good percentage of them being, maternity UI claims. It felt strange to apply for my own claim several weeks earlier than I had planned.

Several days later, we got a call from Grace Hospital. Our baby’s lungs were mature. They wanted to induce on Monday. We also were asked if we wanted to know our baby’s gender and of course we said yes. We felt really privileged to know ahead of the birth. This was not the standard for the day. Apparently, one couple had been told a certain gender during an ultrasound and it turned out to be wrong. They sued the hospital. So at the time, the policy in our Province was to not divulge gender prior to birth.

As we packed for our trip, the thoughts that our baby was a “girl” suddenly made her more real. Although, we had thought for sure we were having a boy and had even painted the nursery mostly pale blue with fluffy clouds and sweet teddy bears, I had purchased a few tiny gender neutral sleepers and those were the ones I packed. On the trip to the coast, I flipped through a baby name book as David drove and we tried out every girl name in the book. We finally had settled on either Ashley or Alyssa.

I liked Alyssa. It was Greek which said, ancient to me and the meaning was perfect. In the book we were using, Alyssa, meant, “a woman who thinks and rationalizes for herself.” We liked the idea of a strong brain. Also, Alyssa sounded great with our last name, “Reynolds.” Something about the “s’s flowed. We chose Rae for her middle name after my step-dad, John (Bud) who had been a wonderful second father to me and sadly had died when I was 25. His middle name was Ray, but we were thinking of giving her the feminine version. Rae. Alyssa Rae Reynolds…A. R. Reynolds….the more we said it it sounded right.

Although, I haven’t been able to find the same meaning to her name anywhere else since then, this name was meant for our daughter. Here is something I just Googled and I had to laugh as it describes our Alyssa perfectly.

 

What Does Name “Alyssa” Mean

Powerful and complete. You are good intellectually and require several outlets for your energies. You are not a builder but a planner, and you want others to carry out your plans. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.You are seeking freedom, opportunities to enjoy life: to make love, to go places and to do things. You are very adventurous and willing to take risk to achieve your objectives. New ways and new experiences can’t satisfy your restless nature. One adventure leads you to another. You are honest and fair, because you know that this is the only way to receive justice and honesty from other people. But your personal growth is vital for your, and it is difficult to be tied down by rules and obligations. Your restless spirit might best controlled by choosing the field of work that meet your demand for action and adventure.

 Yup, that’s our baby!

Okay, back to her birth. We arrived at Grace Hospital late on Sunday with touches of sun on our faces. The drive to the coast had been lovely. A perfect Spring day at the end of March. There was Hope in our hearts that day. As we settled into our room, everyone made us feel at peace. Hearing our story and then finding out who our Doctor was, EVERYONE reassured us, telling us we were in the best of hands. The Doctor who had been the head of prenatal diagnostics, Dr. Duncan Finlay Farquharson, had agreed to also deliver our baby. Little did we know but he was a beloved Doctor at Grace Hospital.
Early on Monday morning, we were taken down to the labour and delivery floor. I was so nervous. This was the week back home when we had planned to join our prenatal group, tour the hospital and practise breathing techniques for birth. And here I was, going to be induced. I didn’t know what to expect and I certainly didn’t know anything about labour breathing etc since this was our first baby. Everyone reassured us that there was nothing like the real show to learn the ropes of birthing.
As the induction progressed and it became more difficult for me, during one of Dr. F’s visit’s into the room, after examination, he took off his gloves and said to me, “you were made for having babies.” And with a smile he left. After that, I just trusted my body and I did what came naturally. Right around midnight on the 26th….about to become the 27th, things felt like they were moving fast. All of a sudden, in the dim light of the room a team appeared not just for me, but for our baby as well. After a long day in induced labour, things were progressing quickly.
My body took over and was suddenly powerful. Even though Alyssa was just our first baby, within 20 minutes of pushing, she was out in the world. She was lifted up, the cord was cut, she was wrapped in a warm blanket and as she was lifted over to the warm isolette, the pediatrician said something I will never forget, “she’s a keeper!” And in that moment, David, squeezed my hand and I knew somehow our baby would be okay.
Everyone in the room said I had done fantastic for a first time mom and our baby was BEAUTIFUL!
We were glowing as Alyssa was finally given to David for his first close look and cuddle, and then passed to me. As I looked into her wise eyes, centuries passed. As I marvelled at her tiny fingers, I thought “piano fingers.” She looked like a perfectly formed doll. I don’t know what I expected but her head was tiny, in lovely proportion for her, 6 lb 3 oz—18 inch long body. She looked like a “normal” baby.
After our first nursing session, which went surprisingly well considering she was a month premature, I was transferred to a wheel chair and clutching our precious baby, we were moved out of the dim room and into the bright hallway, Alyssa lifted her little arm from the blanket to shield her eyes from the bright hall. David and I looked at each other and smiled. She was already thinking.

Over the course of the next day she was tested and monitored and finally, we were told why her ventricles were dilated. It was because her corpus callosum was missing causing the ventricles to have more fluid. We met again with Dr. Cochrane, the Neurosurgeon. Again he was great but sadly, since there were no continuous studies being done on children with Alyssa’s condition, he said he couldn’t offer much in the way of future expectations. He told us that she was in perfect health and meeting all newborn criteria for normal behavior. He did want to see her again when she was one year old.

We didn’t know what to think, until we talked to Dr. Farquharson, who reaffirmed what Dr. Cochrane said,  our baby was healthy. One of the last things he said to us before discharge, 4 days later was, “take your baby home, enjoy her, treat her normally.”

As we were packing up, one of the nurses came in to make sure we were okay and we expressed our thanks and told her what an amazing experience we had had during our stay at Grace Hospital. She went on to tell us we couldn’t have had a better Doctor in Dr Farquharson.  Sadly, he and his wife had lost a baby son to SIDS only a few months prior. I have often thought of him and his baby son. I was determined to be the best mother I could be for our daughter.

So we took her home. We loved her. We enjoyed her. But we didn’t treat her normally. Something profound had changed us and we knew there was no going back. We felt lucky to have a healthy child but we also knew that since there was a brain abnormality present, we had to do everything we could to stimulate her brain, make neuron connections and help her thrive.

And so started the journey of stimulating our little daughter’s brain as much as we were able. Of course, I chose to breast feed which offered our child the perfect formula for her growing brain and body. And then, I took the training I had as a fitness instructor and set up “stations” around our home.

In the early days of her life, she would move from a station on the floor with a tripod of bright coloured hanging toys over head, to a blanket for her “tummy time,” so she could look at all the books that I had set up around her. She would lift up her little head to see all the pictures and then fall down with exhaustion. I would move her to the next station.

Then she had another station sitting in a reclining chair with a tray with a few toys and I would play all sorts of classical and baroque music. We also got into the habit of bathing her in the morning and the evening as she seemed to love water and even though babies don’t get overly dirty, the idea of water as being a therapy made sense.

We would do physical therapy as I would sing to her, telling her what a smart and beautiful baby she was. I would pump her little legs, singing to row, row, row, your boat, and cross her little arms too. She seemed to enjoy moving her body. I think her favourite station was just being on the floor with our Siamese cat, Ninja, laying close by. She loved to reach for his whiskers and he was always gentle with her.

Each day, I would pack her up in a Snugli (a baby carrier) and we would go for long walks in the neighbourhood. She would be awake looking at the sky and the trees but within minutes, her eyes would get heavy and she would fall asleep to the swaying of my steps with her head against my chest.

As she got older, (6 months) we enrolled her in aquatic classes and as a toddler, I put her in classes at our local recreation center where she would crawl under and over things, play on mats with other children and of course we would sing songs in a circle group setting.

At her one year check up with Dr. Cochrane, at the Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, he felt she was doing great. Although she wasn’t walking she was in the range of normal development. I was very concerned about her not walking but now that I look back, she only weighed 18 pounds at a year and also her temperment was such, that she wasn’t going to do anything, until she could do it perfectly. I had no idea that this was going to be her personality.

Alyssa at 1 year of age

Over the years we saw that time and time again.

We continued to expose her to music and swimming. In addition, she took art classes in the summer, was involved in Science camps and also played a bit of soccer. She loved to visit the library and plowed through endless stacks of books. When she wasn’t reading, or drawing, she was sitting at our dining room table putting large puzzels together. Something she and my mom loved to do together.

Three generations, Me, Alyssa’s grandma, “Umma” and Alyse as a toddler

Playing piano and swimming are both right and left brain activities and they very well may have helped to rewire her brain so it was functioning at a high level. I’ll never forget in her first year of ballet when she was just 5, she wanted to quit because she couldn’t skip. I told her that if she knew how to skip or do any ballet poses, she wouldn’t need to go to classes. Further, that the purpose of taking lessons was to learn these things. Almost by the next class she started skipping and also learned to persevere when things weren’t always easy.

When she was only 8, we took her to see Riverdance in Vancouver and she was mesmerized by the soft dancers with their high kicks and the clicking heels making music. As soon as we heard of an Irish Dance teacher coming to our community, we signed Alyssa up for lessons. For about 8 years, she enjoyed dancing to lyrical Irish tunes and with her bouncing ringlets competed in many Feis. (Irish Dance competitions)

By the time Alyssa was in Grade 12, she was an excellent student, an accomplished pianist, completing her grade 10 Royal Conservatory requirements in just one year, played flute in the school band and had played in the Youth Symphony, was an Irish dancer, she had become a lifeguard and later would become a swimming instructor. She was passionate about literature and history. One of the earliest pictures we have of her is surrounded by books while listening to classical music. These were all the strong foundations in her life.

June 14, 2008….High School Grad

And now, here she is 25 years old. She has achieved her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, minoring in Greek and Roman studies and last year she completed her Bachelor of Education degree. She has taught piano, swimming and now is over in the U.K. teaching teenagers, “English,” of all things. Her love is creative writing and I’m sure, with a bit of time, a novel is only a breath away and when it comes it it will be as unique as she is and hopefully well received. After all, she has an interesting way of detaching herself from life and observing it through a magical lens. She lives an authentic life and follows her heart.

Alyssa finally living her dream…traveling to historic places…adventuring

What is that saying about the teacher appearing when the student is ready? Well, whether I was ready or not, she arrived exactly when she was meant. She has taught me that life isn’t always easy, we don’t always get a fair shake but it’s what we make of it that really matters. Life is endlessly interesting.

The other night, David and I were watching the biography of Glenn Gould, who was an extremely talented pianist born in 1932. He became quite famous for his unique style of playing. During his early years he was told to sing while playing his pieces. Also, one of his instructors taught him to hit the piano keys in a way that allowed his brain to process them individually. His playing was clear and precise. Another thing that was rather quirky was that he carried a rather low set chair, which he insisted on using at all concerts, although it looked awkward.

How was his brain wired?

What created this genius?

Whose to say what is normal?

Our daughter, has exceeded all of our expectations for her. She has talents and abilities that take people a lifetime to achieve. Also, many people spend their lifetime trying to fit in and please others but she has learned that to be truly successful in life means, being true to yourself. She is showing me what an authentic life looks like. She does classify herself as an introvert (like Glenn Gould) and is quick to point out, it’s a good thing.

After all, it’s the introverts that create magic, music and great literature.

She’s a KEEPER!
I’m glad we didn’t take her home and treat her normally.
She was……..IS

limitless.

She is a unique, talented, beautiful, gifted, brilliant young woman. We are so glad you chose us to be your parents Alyssa. Thank you……….and
                                        Happy Birthday!

 

 

If you are interested in reading more about people with missing corpus callosums check out this hyperlink. It’s fascinating!

And what is a birthday without a dessert?
I know if Alyssa were here, I would be making her a carrot cake.
But since I have already blogged about my carrot cake recipe, I will share her second choice for dessert and that is, our Ultimate Brownie recipe.

We use chunks of dark chocolate with almonds in this recipe and it’s decadent.

Here’s my Ultimate Brownie Recipe…dedicated to my Ultimate daughter
Ingredients 
 
3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate pieces
1/2 cup chopped nuts (opt)
1 recipe of mocha chocolate drizzle
 
Mocha Chocolate Drizzle;
 
In small bowl, stir together, 1/2 cup of sifted powder sugar, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1 1/2 hot tsp milk, and spoonful of instant coffee. Stir in additional milk until icing is drizzling consistency.
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coarsely chop unsweetened chocolate.
In saucepan melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat, cool.
Line 8x8x2 inch baking pan with foil. 
Spray with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.
 
Stir sugar into melted chocolate mixture until sugar dissolved.
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating with wooden spoon until just combined.
Stir in vanilla.
In bowl stir together flour and baking soda.
 
Add flour mixture (flour/soda) to chocolate mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in dark chocolate pieces and nuts. Spread batter in prepared pan.
Bake 35 minutes or until edges are set and begin to pull away from sides of pan. cool on wire rack. Spoon chocolate drizzle across top.
 

Serve alone, or with whipped cream….or with ice cream.

                                     Image result for brownies

 
We have been known to make a ice cream Sunday with this brownie as the bottom….yum!

LET YOUR IMAGINATION BE YOUR GUIDE.

Before I close I wanted to share a Youtube video of Glenn Gould playing the Italian Concerto.

Now when I think of my daughter Alyssa, many different music pieces come to mind. A lot of Debussy and Mozart, which I used to play for her as she was drifting off to sleep as a baby and a child.

Then there is her Irish music that she used to dance to, and finally there is the Soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings, …in particular, “In Dreams” which she and her brother Clark used to play together.

To end this post though, I thought I would include the Bach’s Italian Concerto which she played as one of her pieces during her ARCT (Royal Conservatory Exam)

As I would work in the kitchen, listening to her perfecting this piece for hours at a time, I would think, it just doesn’t get any better than this. I hope you enjoy this recording of Glen Gould playing it.
If you can’t see the above, check out this hyperlink, (Glenn Gould, playing Bach’s Italian Concerto)and while you are making the Ultimate Brownie recipe let brilliance wash over you.
You are brilliant!
If you want to read some of Alyssa’s writing and her photography, check out her blog, “The Introvert in the Corner.” The link is also in my fav blog list…of course!
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful
Blessings from Hope

 

Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake~Dimes from Heaven

/ Lee Reynolds

Have you ever found a penny or a dime and felt that it was a sign just for you? If you have read my blog, you know that I have a thing for feathers. At least I used to find feathers all the time when I was on the journey to having our children. Every time I found a feather, and I used to find a lot of them, the feeling in my heart was that my dream would come true. Just hang on and trust. I’m now abundantly blessed with a large family.

This week, I have not been finding feathers…but something totally different and very unexpected. I live in Canada where we have several coins for our  lowest currency.. We have pennies (1 cent) of course but last year the government discontinued them since they were costing too much to produce. However, there are still pennies everywhere. Then we nickles (5 cents), dimes (10 cents), quarters (25 cents) a loonie (one dollar value) and finally, a toonie (2 dollar value).

As I tell you my story, keep in mind that while we have many different kinds of coins in our country, finding them in our home is a rare thing. We aren’t one of families who has loose change just lying around. The kids are always asking for change for fundraisers at school, or a bit of spending money if they are out with friends. I’m also looking for quarters and loonies to park in our downtown core which is all metered parking. Also, in the era of using debit cards, we hardly ever use cash in our day to day transactions, so finding ANY coins is actually rare in our home.

This week though, a very mysterious event has been occurring. I have been finding dimes. Not just one or two but dozen of them!!!

At first, when I would come upon one, I just thought cool, a dime and I’d pop it in jean pocket. But then, it happened again and again. I would be going through a box and at the bottom of the box, I would find a dime. When I moved a piece of furniture, since I’m not just de-cluttering but I’m trying to do some deep cleaning as I go along, I find a dime. Or for instance today, as I was moving my son’s bunk bed in order to vacuum underneath, I found lots of stuff. Several missing socks, some used kleenex, I know, gross, and you guessed it, another dime.

The weirdest moment, was when I was down in our crawl space (where there is NO money) and I was going through our daughter Alyssa’s stored boxes. She is teaching in the U.K. for the next two years but she will be home for 10 days this summer to attend her best friend’s wedding. I know she will not have a lot of time so I thought I would sort through her clothes, wash them all, iron them and pack them away, organized in season so she could find her summer clothes easily. As I was lifting up one of her boxes, I heard something clink on the concrete. As I looked under the box, yep, there was another dime shining in the dim light.

That night after dinner, as everyone was finishing up, I told my family what I had been experiencing. The kids were teasing me but my husband thought it was interesting and asked what I thought it meant. I told him that I thought, just like with my feathers, it was a sign from my angels.

In my heart what I hear is, “Hope, everything is okay, money is coming.”

As the kids filtered out of the kitchen all laughing at how weird their mom was for believing dimes were a sign from heaven, David Googled what dimes mean and guess what he found? Here is the link but basically, I was RIGHT ON. Dimes are signs from heaven that our angels and loved ones who have passed on, support us on our journey and want us to know that they are here for us cheering us on.

Are you interesting in reading more about coins being a way for a spiritual connection? Check out this hyperlink….Finding Dimes and Pennies. It’s amazing!

It gives me shivers thinking about how many dimes I have now found in the last 2 weeks. I have a little silver basket full of them now but here is a picture of a few that I have found over the course of only a few days.

What do you think? It is kind of whoo, whoo!

Last weekend, my sister invited us over for dinner and since it had been her birthday only a few days before, I brought her a chocolate mocha cheesecake to celebrate. Something to put the birthday candles on, something she can wish upon as she blows them out. In her card, I had given her one of my dimes, but in hindsight, I wished I had wrapped a few of the dimes in tin foil and put them in the cheesecake. My mom used to do that with her plum pudding at Christmas time and whoever got a coin got a wish.

I think in the future, I’m going to call my chocolate mocha cheesecake, my angel cheesecake and put some dimes inside. Maybe it can be a fun tradition and memory for my family. We can tell the story of the time mom was getting direct messages from her angels. Maybe it will open my children up to the mysteries of our connection with our loved ones who have passed on and our angels. At least our older children because the younger ones, especially Will, totally get this stuff.

I think my mom is really excited for me as I de-clutter and she wants me to know how happy she is that I am letting go of stuff in favour of a richer life. And at the very least, it will be a fun story to tell as we eat this cheesecake. It has already brought some light and fun into our house as we continued to do more work this morning Harrison yelled out, “Hey mom, I just found a quarter. Guess that’s my coin from the angels.”

Anyway, back to the cheesecake. It worked really well with the dinner J and B made the other night. Thanks J and B for the delicious salmon and scallop dinner. The asparagus, roasted carrots, potatoes and your garlic spread on the french bread was divine. EVERYTHING was so delicious! And J, your  wishes and dreams are already coming true.

I hope you will try out my cheesecake recipe. It’s so easy and tastes like you have slaved away. A perfect light dessert after a spring dinner.

Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake or….Angel Cheesecake recipe

Crust Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa (fryers)


Mix all really well, reserve 1/2 cup for topping and press the rest into 9″ spring form pan

Filling

8 ounce cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup chocolate syrup
1 tbsp instant coffee (mixed with 1 tsp hot water)
1 cup whipped cream

Beat cream cheese til fluffy, add can of sweetened condensed milk, 2/3 cup chocolate syrup, 1 tbsp of instant coffee in 1 tsp of hot water.
Whip 1 cup of whipping cream and fold into the rest of the filling ingredients.
As you fold in the whipping cream, put a few dimes wrapped in tinfoil for your family to find. Whoever finds a dime can make a wish and put it in their pocket for luck.

Pour into spring form pan and top with remaining crumbs. 
Decorate with pecan pieces…I also used bits of Scor pieces with the remaining crumbs…giving it a slight toffee taste.
Freeze over night.

Pull out 1/2 hour before serving, cut and serve.

If you want to hear more about Dimes and signs from our angels and our loved ones, check out Ada May Brown’s Youtube message.

Keep your heart open. Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope       

Minimalism Journey

/ Lee Reynolds

For the last two weeks I have been swimming through the muck and mire of our worldly possessions. Some days, I felt like I was drowning and other times, as I found my stroke, the waves parted and I could see the white shores of home. As I write this though, I’m finally over the hump and I wanted to share a part of the journey with you. .

The title of this blog came from my daughter, Grace, who along with my son Harrison, has been helping me de-cluttering over Spring Break. They helped me keep the fires burning, so I could climb the mountain of baby and childhood memorabilia. BOXES and boxes of them.

My idea originally, was that each child would have a Rubbermaid box with all their baby keepsakes. You know the outfit they came home the from hospital in, their first stuffed lovie, their favourite blanket, the outfit they wore as they had their first formal portrait, their first shoes, well, you get the picture.

Then there was another Rubbermaid box for their childhood memories. All their certificates, little trophies, awards, ribbons, their report cards, their school pictures. The older children had two full boxes since they are out of both phases now and even have graduation caps and gowns.

When we had just two and three children, the storage required for these boxes wasn’t a big deal but with 8 children now, the boxes of memorabilia is a big deal. Also, and probably a bigger issue was when I went through my own memorabilia box and let go of everything recently, even my wedding dress. It was then, that I realized keeping our past in a box wasn’t necessary.

The memories weren’t in the box. They weren’t in the things stored away. They were and always will be in my heart.

What kind of gift was I giving my children by keeping these things? Also, most of this were things they didn’t even have a memory of themselves.

Keeping the things meant I had to find a place to store the items and then take the time occasionally to sift through the stuff or move it around. In my case, I can’t even count how many times I have moved this stuff as we moved again and again over the years. It took time out of my life to pick it up, pack it away and then move it. Why was I moving around stuff from my past?

That brings me to “Humpty Dumpty.”

Humpty Dumpty was given to my mother as a vase for some flowers she received after my birth.

It’s OLD!

When I got married and we bought our first house my mom gave me Humpty Dumpty. She must have been relieved to say good bye to him. Ever since then, he has been in the vase cupboard in my kitchen. Have I ever used him? No! Does he bring joy to me when I look at him. Ummm, not really.

Part of the reason I kept him all these years was that my mother kept him for 20 something years and I can’t even count how many household moves she experienced to keep him in the family and for some strange reason, I felt like I had to keep the tradition going as well.

As you may know, my mom passed away 3 years ago. When she left, I hung onto many things of her’s and also memories from my childhood were really important to me. I think I have a glimpse into why other people may become hoarders…because they are in a state of grief and can’t let go.

I’m happy to say that is not me. I smiled at Humpty one last time and took him out to the garage where he will go into a pile of things that others may see the value in.  Old crap. He is after all a 1/2 century old and the glaze and paint on him are unique to that time. Maybe someone will love him. He is missing his gloved hand though. Still I have to give him a chance don’t I? Another home…but if no one wants him after the garage sale, I won’t have any problem saying good bye.

It’s time. And with that, I’m over the “hump.” As I realized this, I was telling Grace and Harrison that I had finally gotten over a really important step in the de-cluttering process and Grace looked at me holding Humpty and said, “Mom, you are over the hump!” We all had a good laugh. Maybe she should be writing my blog because I thought that was a good play on words and the perfect title for this blog post.

After that, I pulled up Will’s old high chair from storage, which I had been saving for a someday grand baby. Along with that came the cute pack ‘n play that we bought for the twin’s early days home from the hospital.

And after that, I had the children who were home help me pick the things that were special to them and guess what?

None of them wanted their version of the Humpty Dumpty in their baby boxes. Whew!

Smart kids! I have been reading a lot about moving towards minimalism and it’s not always an easy thing to do when you share a home with other people. What is recommended though is to inspire others by example. It hasn’t taken long, as the kids and even my husband are on board, Well, okay, maybe not my University son, living at home, but hey, he’s right in the middle of mid term exams etc and says he can’t even think about the stuff around him. Fair enough. In the meantime, we are being good examples…and smiling.

After that other memorabilia really flew.

David let go of many of his trophies years ago but we had kept the ones that held the best memories.

This week we snapped a picture of him with the remaining trophies. (he used to play baseball and was also a championship skeet shooter in his late teens) Those memories and aspects of himself are not in the trophies, but inside himself. Also, I think when the kids saw him letting go of these physical recognition awards, they realized, we aren’t those things. We are successful without accolades. Success and happiness are inside of each of us.

After the Humpty insight, I felt lighter and happier. Like how one feels after climbing an long and arduous climb and the view on the other side is breathtaking. If you hadn’t endured the climb, you would have missed out on another amazing experience.

Here is a snap shot of one of the piles in our garage. You don’t even want to see what is in our recycling and garbage pile!

 

Interestingly enough, this is a picture our University son, Clark took when he went for a hike this week. He didn’t have time to de-clutter, but he is balanced enough to know that the hike is what life is really about. …a shot above Kalamalka Lake

So what is your Humpty Dumpty in your life?

When I found this frame with our family picture it kind of said it all.

“Keep fond memories in your heart…for they will last a lifetime.”

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Irish Stew, Irish Soda Bread and Apple Sauce Cake

/ Lee Reynolds

 

“Hence I cannot be silent, and indeed I ought not to be, about the many blessings and the great grace the Lord has deigned to bestow on me.” ~Saint Patrick~

And oh, like St. Patrick’s quote above, “I’ve been surely blessed!”

Stepping away from de-cluttering for a moment, to celebrate the up and coming St. Patrick’s Day, I also take a moment to remember my grandmother, (my Dad’s mom, Flossie,) who was born in Canada to Irish Immigrants. They had left Ireland to find new opportunities for themselves and their children. The Kilfoyle family, raised 6 children in their new land and I’m here, their great granddaughter, a century later to remember them and my heritage.

I’m singing in the kitchen because David came home from his trip out of town late last night and one of the first things he did for me today was to repair my dryer. Yeah! I couldn’t be happier. Isn’t it funny how things you normally take for granted, all of a sudden become a big deal when you don’t have them any longer? I’ve missed my dryer AND my husband this week. (I am blessed~thank you~)

Hanging our laundry on our deck and on our standing drying rack all week, really took me back to a simpler time. A time when laundry was hard work. I certainly felt a connection to my great grandmother Kilfoyle, who with 6 children must have done her fair share of laundry.

So as I’m humming happily this afternoon, I’m gathering the ingredients for my version of Irish Stew, some Irish soda bread, and for “bessert,” (little Victoria’s term for a treat) I’m making apple sauce cake from an old recipe that I have. It compliments the meal nicely.

 

The day is blustery and the lake is filled with white caps. As the little ones play outside this afternoon, (it’s Spring Break) please join me in making a delicious Irish Stew.

Okay, let’s start chopping for that is the most consuming thing about making Irish Stew. Do you want a cup of tea? ….now I’m using beef and not a lot today as you know I’m on the road to being a vegetarian but also a minimalist, ha. The traditional Irish stew would use lamb and I understand from my daughter Alyssa, who is in the U.K. teaching, that there are sheep everywhere. For this Canadian, beef is more readily available and besides I just couldn’t eat lamb anyway. (no judgement for lamb eaters out there)

Hope’s Irish Stew

Ingredients

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 pounds of beef..(I used a sirloin cut…add more if you want it really meaty)
2 medium white onions
2 stalks of celery
4 large carrots, chop into round bites
1/2 of a large turnip chopped into bite size pieces
10 medium sized potatoes..chopped into nice chunks
2 cups of stewed tomatoes
4 ounces of tomato paste
1/2 cup flour
4 cups of beef broth
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce (I use Lea and Perrins)
1 tbsp rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic
fresh parsley for garnish…it’s just starting to grow in the garden now

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large stockpot. Add beef chunks and cook until brown. Season with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a saucepan, add onions, celery and garlic. Cut until translucent. Add flour and mix well. 

 

 
3. Add tomatoes to the browned beef, along with all seasoning and worcestershire sauce. Finally, add.the onion, celery, garlic and flour mixture.
4. Add beef broth and tomato paste to the above
5. Add potatoes
6. Add carrots and turnips
7. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer on low for 2 hours or until the veggies are cooked
8. Serve hot with a sprig of fresh parsley on top.

While the stew is cooking, you can make the Apple Sauce cake and the Irish Soda bread.

Start the Apple Sauce cake first, since it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour to cook and it needs to cool before icing. That is, if you choose to ice it, as it’s very moist and lovely plain.

Apple Sauce Cake

This recipe came from my Robin Hood flour (no sift) baking book that is falling apart since I use it all the time. It’s packed with great recipes. This recipe book was given to me by my mom…..thanks MOM!

Ingredients

1-1/4  cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup chopped walnuts (can also use raisins which I would love but my kids would not enjoy as much as nuts…your choice…what does your family prefer?)
1/2 cup soft margarine…part butter
3/4 cup brown sugar…use 1 cup if making your own homemade applesauce
1 egg
1 cup applesauce (it takes about 3 medium apples to make 1 cup of applesauce)

Directions

1. Grease and flour an 8″ inch square pan
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F…or 325 if using a glass pan
3. Measure and stir thoroughly all dry ingredients. Add nuts or raisins
4. Cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar gradually. Beating well after each addition. Add egg and beat well.
5. Add the dry ingredients alternatively with the applesauce until well combined.
6. Turn into prepared cake pan, spread evenly
7. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the your toothpick comes clean. This can vary depending on the moisture in your applesauce. Cool really well and serve plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or whipping cream or you can ice it with a butter icing. 

I iced the cake and replaced some of the milk and the vanilla extract with Baily’s Irish Cream liquor (we buy little bottles for just this occasion)…yummy and perfect for St. Paddy’s Day

While the cake is cooking, make the Irish Soda Bread.

Remembering the Kilfoyle’s,  Irish Soda Bread

This bread goes really fast in my house as it’s has a lovely texture. Consider making two loaves.

Ingredients for one loaf

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp  white sugar
4 tbsp unsalted cold butter
1-1/2 cups buttermilk….if you don’t have buttermilk, here’s how to make it at home
1 large egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour an 81/2 round cake pan
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
3. Cut the butter into the flour very gently until it resembles oatmeal
4. In a small bowl, gently beat the egg and then add the buttermilk, stir to combine thoroughly
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and then pour in the buttermilk-egg mixture. Combine the two mixtures, stirring very gently with a wooden spoon until it forms into dough. It will be wet and sticky. 
6. Turn dough onto a well-floured surface and generously dust it with flour…you may want to have a cup of flour close by to dust your hands and slowly work it in to this dough. Very gently form the dough into a ball and then transfer it into the prepared cake pan.
7. Lightly press the dough so that it spreads to the edges of the pan. With a sharp knife, cut an “X”  into the top of the dough. 
Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven when the toothpick comes out clean
Enjoy warm with a bowl of Irish Stew

 

It’s DINNER!

Mad rush to the kitchen as everyone has worked up a great appetite today. Thanks for joining me this afternoon.

And here is what it looks when it’s all pulled together.

The photo is of my great grandparents, The Kilfoyle’s and their 6 children

And it wouldn’t be a great Irish meal without a glass of ale…sorry no Guinness here but we do have a good glass of stout beer….

 

“Slainte Chugat!” which is cheers and good health wishes from my husband David to you. He really needs a good strong ale since he he has been working 12 hour days for a week now and yesterday he put in a whopping 17 hours as he worked all day and then drove home from up north, Just in time to fix our dryer, declutter his dresser and closet (that is what he was doing when I was cooking today) |and now when I’m writing my blog, he is putting the little people to bed. Do I love this man!

What are you going to do on St. Patrick’s Day! Wear green, (so you don’t get pinched) and maybe you will make a big pot of Irish Stew. Irish blessings and……

And before I close, I thought I would share a great you tube video I found of some very talented fiddlers. You know I have a soft spot for strings. My son Clark said he’s going to play some Irish fiddler tunes for me on St. Paddy’s day, but until then, I hope you enjoy this video. If you can’t click on the video below….click on this hyperlink. Traditional Irish Music, Lilla Akademien’s violin ensemble

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…the three R’s

/ Lee Reynolds

Three’s…. a Magic Number!

Three isn’t just a magic number when it comes to children (although, I like the number 8 too) but it’s also the magic number when it comes to the three R’s. The R’s that stand for, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

With earth day only a month away on April 22, 2015, I’m really thinking how important these three little words are for our environment. Ever since I was little, it was always important to me to keep the earth clean but it wasn’t until we added these last three children to the world that I really started to realize the impact each one of us has on our planet. Also, how much of a difference, each of us can do to heal it as well. We are powerful.

I’ve been talking a lot about de-cluttering lately on my blog but I forgot to mention that there is a specific intent with regards to this action. And that brings me to the thought of intention.

Intention is the starting point for any action. If we aren’t clear about where we are going, how we want our lives to look, how in the heck will we ever accomplish our goal. I suppose I’m taking a few steps backwards but after writing an email to my sister this morning, it occurred to me that I hadn’t been clear about sharing the idea that the first tip towards Minimalism, is INTENTION.

You have to decide what you want before you can move forward and it’s the thing that will keep you going on your darkest days. I know this from my years of trying to conceive these last three beautiful children . I knew that if they were to manifest in my life, that I had to become clear on what I wanted. What was most important to me and have laser focus with that regard.

Everything I did in the 5-7 years it took to bring these little people to “being,” moved in the direction of my intended result. And voila…although it wasn’t as easy as ever saying that lovely, easy french word for, TA DA! they are with me at last.

Just as is my desire to make this world a better place. For me to heal my part of the planet by taking care of the earth. Taking care of my family and ensuring they are nourished, loved and raised connected to nature. That is a BIG goal, I know, that is my intention… but the baby steps to get there are to attend to the three R’s.

And that is where reduce comes in this month. I’m reducing our footprint like crazy. Putting anything that we don’t LOVE, and we aren’t USING, out into our garage. I’ve already started to make piles of things that we will sell and anything that doesn’t sell, we will donate. That ensures others can reuse what we deem not necessary in our lives any longer.

The second big pile that is accumulating, is my recycling pile. Things like an old computer keyboard, a computer monitor, glass jars, cardboard boxes that we have been storing things, that we never look at in,….well you get the picture. These items can be recycled and turned into new products for others to enjoy.

These are the steps I’m taking and the long term vision is becoming clearer and clearer as I remove needless belongings from my sight lines. How does one downsize when you have a large family? As I wrote to my sister this morning, you can’t  downsize the kids, although since our family ranges in age from 24 down to 3 year old twins, I can see that in a short amount of time our family will be a lot smaller. Already our oldest is out of the nest and living and working overseas. Our oldest son is on his last legs studying Environmental Science and our third oldest, is starting his out of the nest venture with his first year of University almost under his wings.

In time, we will have a smaller family living under our roof on a day to day basis so there is still time for me to create a simpler family life. Do we need 3000 square feet of space, plus our Hobbit’s hollow (developed crawlspace) any longer? I’m leaning in the direction of No being the answer.  I want our life to have a sustainable back bone, supporting  creativity, where more peace and fulfilment flourishes. I’ve set a goal of completing our de-cluttering project by the end of  March. I know kind of  optimistic of me, but hey, it’s spring break for the next 2 weeks and that means no driving kids everywhere., and gee, maybe do you think they can assist me?  By the time earth day is upon us, I will have accomplished my three R’s with regards to our earthly possessions.

And then WHAT? My intention is to use another R word. The fourth R stands for the word, RENOVATE the Reynolds family. I want to renovate my life. Changing and reworking where we live, how we spend our time, what we eat, who we share our life with and what we think……or not…as that is also my intention.

Do you want a RICHER life too? Do you think the seeds for that are in living with less? Have you joined me on the road to minimalism? Of course, that could look very different to you. It could mean that you are selling your beach house or your second car. It could mean that you are reducing the hours that you are working each week, or even if you are able, dropping down to a one income family. You could be choosing to buy all your kid’s spring and summer clothes at the local thrift shop, instead of at the mall this year, choosing to reuse instead of purchasing new.  There are so many ways that we can live the three R’s to live rich. I hope to talk about that more in the weeks to come as these insights appear.

If you are starting to revamp your life and doing the three R dance, please share in the comments below….or supply any inspiring words to support me on my path.

Before I say goodbye,  I wanted to share this great You tube video that will get you up and dancing. The little girls and I put our “Jack Johnson CD ” this morning (we found it when we were decluttering our CD’s and DVD’s yesterday and we LOVE IT)  as I was airing the laundry out to dry. Did I tell you that my dryer broke down? Yes, again. They don’t make appliances like they used to and I’m ready to chuck my fancy red LG set, except that for 4 months of the year it’s snowy and cold here. Today though, it’s  a nice, breezy, spring day and doing the three R dance feels GOOD!  Knowing that I’m helping the earth just a bit today by letting my clothes air dry makes me happy….and the earth is helping me too. There is lots to dance about isn’t there!

 

If you can’t see the above, click on this hyperlink, Jack Johnson’s The three R song“The 3 R’s”

Three it’s a magic number
Yes it is, it’s a magic number
Because two times three is six
And three times six is eighteen
And the eighteenth letter in the alphabet is R
We’ve got three R’s we’re going to talk about today
We’ve got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
If you’re going to the market to buy some juice
You’ve got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste
And if your brother or your sister’s got some cool clothes
You could try them on before you buy some more of those
Reuse, we’ve got to learn to reuse
And if the first two R’s don’t work out
And if you’ve got to make some trash
Don’t throw it out
Recycle, we’ve got to learn to recycle,
We’ve got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Because three it’s a magic number
Yes it is, it’s a magic number
3, 3, 3
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36
33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and
3, it’s a magic number

And dance around your living room, singing with your kids, your dog, or just grooving on your own two feet.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Strawberry Mango Smoothie~Keeping it Simple

/ Lee Reynolds



                                                                                                               
Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always, sings.” ~  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Have you ever noticed that when you are on a certain path all sorts of affirmations meet you at the exact time that you need inspiration.

Well, I have been receiving messages almost daily and not surprisingly, they are ALL directed towards walking a simple path. They are inspiring me to keep going even though some days it feels like I’m moving through mud.

The first one that I received, was during my book club meeting at the end of February. It was early days into starting my path towards a minimalistic life. After a stimulating discussion of Hermann Hesse’s book, “Siddhartha,” I passed around my little green affirmation cards to my sacred sisters. I held mine quietly, not even peeking at the message within, until each of my sisters had had a moment to relay what was on her card and how it spoke to her. When it came my turn to read my card, I was rather stunned at how significant the message was. It read;

“Keep it simple. Simplicity is the key to Brilliance.”

Wow!

Since I had just started the journey, it was like a signal that I was on the right road. I have found in my life, that when I need some direction, the Universe never fails to send me a symbol or sign that I’m on the right road and here it was in a sweet message.

Last week, I was finding it really hard to make time in my day to tackle a specific area to de-clutter. Something always came up or someone needed to be picked up or taken some where, which broke the rhythm in my days. It was difficult enough to get my regular work done, not to mention any de-cluttering projects handled. You know, cleaning the kitchen from breakfast, making the beds, picking up the laundry and throwing loads in the washer, moving it to the dryer and then folding it and putting it back in everyone’s rooms, sigh! seemed to be all that I could manage. Forget, trying to accomplish anything.

Then I remembered the message on my card and I decided that the only way I was going to get anything done was to tackle the smallest projects at a time. And that is what I did. Although, I had basically done most of the kitchen, there was one drawer that I hadn’t touched. It’s the drawer with the most memories for me in the kitchen. It’s the drawer where I keep all of my cookie cutters, my cake decorating items. and my canning accessories.

As I opened the drawer, memories of Christmas’s past flooded my mind, as I recalled making sugar cookies with my mom as a young teen for the first time. She basically gave me the dough and said, “go to town.” That Christmas, I made my first Christmas trees, hearts, candy canes, angels, and oh my, nothing tasted so good as those chewy, soft, sugar cookies with a hint of nutmeg and topped with mint flavoured icing.

As I looked lovingly at the various shaped cutters, I thought of the first Christmas I let my own daughter, Alyssa handle the sugar cookie project. That was a big deal since I had been making them for 30 years without any help. Then there was the time that we invited her friends over for a sugar cookie icing party. Images of those giggling pre-teens with braces and pony tails made me smile. Those same girls would all be turning 25 years old soon. Where had the time gone?

The drawer I had been resisting de-cluttering as it holds so many memories

As I looked at this drawer though, I realized it represented the chaos in my life and if I was ever to create and capture more of these moments, I had to quit holding onto the past and move forward with dreams for the future. I still had Grace, Will, Kathryn and Victoria to make cookie memories with. If I continued to keep the extra clutter in this drawer, it would take precious moments away from me spending time with our younger children. If left alone, this single drawer would suck time from my life, as I dug around looking for the special cookie cutters for any future project. With that thought in mind, I quickly was able to toss more than 50% of the drawers contents.

These are a few things that I got rid of…some I took to the little girl’s preschool for their Playdoh station and their teacher was happy to have a Shamrock cookie cutter to add to this month’s special occasions.

 

Goodbye needless clutter

And here is the drawer now. In the tin to the right are my beloved cookie cutters. Now, it’s a breeze to see exactly what I have and where it is which will enable me more time to gather my sugar cookie cutters and make memories with our kids…and maybe someday, our grandchildren.

Hello new memories

If you are on this minimalism path with me, you may have discovered this already but if not, I’d like to share some de-cluttering wisdom. Start small. If you don’t have a lot of time in your day then break down what you can do in say, 15 minutes. Tackle one drawer at a time, one closet, one counter top. Also, try to start with a spot that doesn’t hold a lot of emotional attachments. Our memories cling to our belongings and the energy lingers heavily which makes it hard to hear the music amongst the mud and scum of things. It’s liberating to clear the space and hear and feel the harmony.

After finishing this last drawer in the kitchen, I moved onto the kid’s craft closet and gee, I wished I had taken a picture of it before I cleared it out. There were games stacked on top of other games. Had our children tried to take something out they would have been seriously hurt if something had fallen on top of them. In addition, when I went to clear out the paint, crayon and felt pen supplies, I realized we had a lot of duplicates and that was wasteful.

Another message that I was walking the right path came when I found a basket of polished rocks hidden in the craft closet. Wrapped around each rock was a little piece of paper. I remembered now taking quotes from the book, “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho and giving a rock to my sacred sisters during the last time I hosted our book club meeting. I decided for fun to unwrap one of the messages and guess what was within?

“It’s the Simple Things in life that are the most extra-ordinary, only wise men are able to understand them.” ~excerpt from Coelho’s book, “The Alchemist.”

I had to sit down after reading this message. I held the rock, rubbing it’s smooth surface and thought about all the guidance I had been receiving with regards to creating a simpler life for myself and our family. I whispered, “thank you God.” I knew that I was on the right path even though little fearful thoughts had been creeping in as I cleared away our stuff. Thankfully, that voice was growing more distant as I grew stronger in my resolve to let go.

So that brings me to another point in this whole process, and that is really the nuts and bolts about clearing out clutter. I really should have addressed it before now but as I was doing this all myself I realized that one needs a place to put all the stuff that you are accumulating. A staging area if you will. Also, it really helps if you pull out everything in your closet, or drawer, whatever you are sorting through, so you can see what you have to work with. It will quickly be apparent what you do or don’t want to keep. Eliminate the easy stuff first.

Then put back only what you use and what you love. The Minimalist guys say that another method is packing up absolutely everything in your home and then pulling only the things you need out of the boxes. After 3 months, or 6 months, whatever you decide is the time frame for you, whatever you haven’t used, you get rid of. That’s too extreme for me and too hard with 6 kids living in our house at the moment. It would be chaos while we were getting ready in the morning for instance.

If you are doing a big de-clutter as I am, (our whole house…all 3000 square feet of it…more if you count our Hobbit’s hollow, aka the crawl space), you probably need a large place to put all the stuff you are parting with. Also, I have read that some minimalists set up boxes labelled, “donate,” “sell,” “not sure,” and “garbage/recycle” but I have found it easiest just to have a garbage bag/recycle bag as I move from place to place. I put all the stuff that doesn’t fit into that category, out to my staging place, which happens to be our garage. It would be most efficient not to have to touch the stuff more than once but in my case, I think whatever we don’t throw out or recycle, will go into a garage sale to be held in April. THE MONTH..of the beginning of garage sales in our little town.

I’ll let our little kids make and sell popcorn and lemonade. I’ll have our older ones help sell our discarded items, and anything left at that point will be donated to our local thrift stores.

In the meantime, I’m (we’re) going to be living amongst this clutter and chaos for at least several more weeks. My husband is out of town this week and I will be trying to make some headway while maintaining our daily family commitments.

I have also enlisted the help of our children. The little ones helped me go through their drawers and the belongings they keep in their bedrooms this weekend. It was very productive and fun as they had a little fashion show and tried on all sorts of clothes. As we made decisions about what fit and what didn’t, what toys were played with and what weren’t beloved any longer, we talked about children all over the world and I reminded them of a saying a very wise man shared with the world,

        “Live Simply So Others May Simply Live,” Gandhi

 

I knew I was planting little seeds of generosity, love and peace as we cleared out their rooms.
Hey, and another wonderful side benefit to this was how fast Will and the little girls were able to pick out their outfit for today. It was easy and pain free. And the best part was that it saved time so we had more time to have some fun.

 

Above are the two drawers the little girls share. Most of their clothes are matching which makes it easier for me to buy and plan their outfits. I stack them one on top of each other so when they pull out one top, they hand their sister the other top. Most of their outfits are the same but they do have some in different colours and they are very definite about who gets what colour. From the time they were really little they had distinct preferences. Kate is the pink girl and Tori is the blue girl. Makes it really simple….and as you know I’m all about that.
I try not to read too much about twin literature and probably dressing them alike will end once they start school but they seem to really enjoy wearing the same style of clothes although Tori really LOVES her leggins and Kate likes the days when she wears jeans. They both love their dresses and skirts. Anyway, like usual, I got sidetracked….the point was that getting the little people involved is helping them to see that less is more in so many ways and by consuming less, we have more resources to help others.
Here’s a picture of Grace helping de-clutter our Playmobile collection. Do we REALLY need 100 pirates and castle people?  Harrison passed by the Den as Grace and I talked about downsizing the people and he remarked that having lots of people was the fun part about playing Playmobile. Hmmmm….do you think he thinks this about our large family too?
It’s these little comments though that makes me pause and wonder what is really fun for our children. Clearly, we have too many toy/people when you have to sort for 5-10 minutes to find your fav pirate/king/queen. The one you really want to play with, that’s too long in my books.
Here’s the quote I wrote on our black board this week. When I got stuck in all the mud and scum, it helped me remember whey I’m doing this.
For the people who are important to me in my life. My children, my husband, my sisters and their families and the friends who I never seem to have even time to have tea with lately, (sorry B…we will get together soon)

And before I close I just wanted to share my Strawberry/Mango Fruit Smoothie Recipe with you. As we de-clutter our lives with our stuff, we need to make sure we are staying energized and remembering that clearing the toxins from our body is just as important. Little steps will take us eventually to the destination of a healthy body and home.

Remembering that while we are on the road to less, we are still living fully. It would be very easy to get caught up in the whole process of de-cluttering, after all who are we kidding, we live on earth and there is all sorts of clutter and chaos here. It’s easy to let even the act of de-cluttering prevent us from living fully.

As long as we don’t lose sight of why we are clearing and reducing the stuff in our life. Let’s continue to consciously clear what isn’t working in our lives and fill the spaces with more beauty, love and peace. That’s my wish for everyone on earth. We are all deserving of this.
Okay, here’s my Smoothie recipe…share a cup with your beloved or take it out in nature and drink it in….. Spring is almost here.
Hope’s Strawberry and Mango Smoothie recipe
 
2 big people servings…or enough for one big person and three little people
 
1/2 grapefruit
1 orange

 

1 banana
10 frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen mango or yellow fruit of your choice…pineapples are yummy for instance
1/2 cup of crushed ice cubes
I had mostly fresh fruit but I used frozen mango and pineapple too

 

Here’s the tough part….peel the grapefruit/orange and banana…place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend. Pour into glasses for your beloved and In JOY!
Before I go I wanted to share a book that I have been reading called, “The Simple Living Handbook,” ….discover the joy of a de-cluttered life….by Lorilee Lippincott
It’s a refreshingly simple and delightful book so if you are interesting in moving in this direction, I would highly recommend reading it. It may be the sign or symbol that you are on the right path and she certainly inspired me. Her web site is great too.

Here’s a You tube video interview with Lorilee on the Midway Simplicity show…love this guy. (click on the hyperlink if you can’t see the video below)

As I embark on another week towards minimalism, join me in listening to one of my fav cello pieces. I thought this was an appropriate ending as I started my post with a stunning picture of a woman playing cello amongst the clutter of life.

My son Mitchell plays this piece on his cello, beautifully and EVERY time I hear it, I always think how J.S. Bach was the supreme musical guru in simplicity. Please join me in listening to the “Unaccompanied Bach, prelude in G Major” played my Yo Yo Ma……..love this (click on the hyperlink if you can’t see the video below)

 

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope 
 

Matrimonial Cake~’Tis a Gift to Be Simple

/ Lee Reynolds

‘Tis the gift to be simple,
’tis the gift to be free,
’tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
’twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
to bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,
to turn, turn, will be our delight
till by turning, turning we come round right.

Words: Shaker song, eighteenth century  

  
Hellooo!

I’m emerging from the depths of decluttering, to say Hi and to share a few thoughts. First, de-cluttering is hard. At least, that’s what it feels like as I move room to room, paring down our stuff, while humming the above Shaker song and also continuing to keep all the balls of normal life up in the air. Continuing to be there for our kids; feeding them, keeping them in clean clothes, making sure they are on top of their homework and all the upcoming events that are in line, from a swimming competition this weekend to yet another basketball tournament, an upcoming piano and voice festival and finally a music exam.

Tonight when my 12 year old daughter asked, “Mom, when are you going to change my sheets?…it’s been like 3 weeks!” Well, first it hasn’t been three weeks, two at the most and I replied, “don’t you go to bed clean every night after your nightly bath?” Just saying. It’s hard keeping the train rolling, while taking time to chuck off certain items to lighten our load.

I’m happy to say, that this week I took a car load of “stuff” to our local charity organization and another load to the dump, While 90% of the dump load was garden waste from debris I couldn’t cram into my compost bins, it was still letting go of stuff. Believe me, I had thoughts of hoarding those wonderful bags of leaves and garden waste, etc. but one can only keep so many bags of decomposing debris without neighbours starting to look at your stock pile with wonder. Besides, our district chips up all the garden waste and turns it into mulch, so that trip made me feel okay. Still, there are heaps of things to go through and spring is flying by.  I just came in from outside and noticed that there are little buds on the forsythia tree and that is the first sign of spring in our area.

Image result for forsythia
Spring is here when the forsythia tree next to our House blooms…it will be early this year

Another thing that has been preoccupying my time this week is finishing reading, or rather re-reading the book, “Siddhartha,” by Hermann Hesse. It’s my turn to host our sacred circle book club this month. To be precise tomorrow night.  I have already read this sweet, little classic book that was written decades ago about the life of Siddhartha, aka, Buddha but I wanted to go over it one more time since it was my selection.

I’m so proud that this month, I found an e book AND an audio book on line, so I didn’t have to purchase a new book and then decide what to do with it. Even though this is a great read, it’s one that I don’t think I would want to own and I certainly don’t need another book to sort through. Being frugal, sustainable, and with a minimalistic mindset makes me so thrilled. It’s these little steps I’m taking, that keep me believing it’s possible for us to downsize, enjoying more life with less stuff.

I thought the message from the book was also timely, as the story of Buddha’s life reinforces my minimalistic path and the belief that everything we need to be happy is within us at all times. Part of the suffering we experience on this earth has to do with material possessions, wanting to own them, taking care of them, letting go of them, etc. Why do we put ourselves through that?

When I think about how diverse this blog post already is it makes me laugh. First, I start my post with a picture of a farm house which to me says, “peaceful times.” Anyone that has a tire swing in their yard knows how to enjoy the sweetness of just swinging through life. Then I have the lyrics to the Shaker’s little hymnal, “Tis a Gift to be Simple.” Finally, I bring in thoughts about Buddha. But you know what? All life is tied together. Everything is connected. We have fought wars on this earth because of differences in beliefs, opinions and the ludicrously is, we are all talking the same truth but get caught up in semantics.

But that is a philosophical discussion for another time, however some of the ideas that Buddha presented, is certainly appropriate for my minimalistic mindset towards simplicity. As you know, I’ve been talking about de-cluttering and I have to tell you how my husband and I are approaching the task is totally different. It’s interesting really, since he is a very focused, get one job at a time done person and I am used to multi-tasking. Wars have not been fought thankfully because, we are after all moving in the same direction but we have had to discuss how that is going to look.

For instance, my husband wants to go into a room and get rid all the superfluous items. He feels that would be the most efficient approach. HOWEVER, I want to go into a room and sort through our stuff, while cleaning the items that are to be kept, along with doing any repairs to the room itself. ie; paint inside the cupboards in our family room before putting the toys, CD’s back (although I’m still debating on whether we even need CD’s any longer now that we have our i Pods and download any music we want) but you get the idea.

What we have decided to do for now is divide and conquer.  He has tackled the garage and the den so far and I have done our laundry room and kitchen….well, I’m still working in the kitchen. I was listening to the audio book of Siddhartha while I was cleaning the drawers last night. Did you know you could listen to a piece of classic literature or even learn a whole new language while cleaning and de-cluttering. Amazing!

It can be done!

We are making some headway though and a few thoughts have come to light which I wanted to share with you if you are starting on this journey too. It’s one thing to get down to sifting through the stuff and deciding what is going to be kept, donated, recycled or thrown away…but it’s the stuff with emotions where it really gets hard.

If you have a partner, discuss how de-cluttering looks to them. How do they want to tackle the task and what is the time frame they see as being appropriate for such a feat. You have to set limits and really limits are what minimalism is all about isn’t it? In all aspects of our life, how much stuff you need around you, how many commitments you are willing to take on, how much food you want to eat, how much exercise. Well, it’s all a decision of what feels right for you so that you can maximize your enjoyment of life.

Some compromises may be required.

This takes me back to a story my mom used to lament over. It was a time when my Dad took a load of stuff to the dump without her consideration. There were things he threw out that bothered her for a long time.

One, was a beautiful wicker, antique doll buggy. She loved it and sadly Dad didn’t think of it as special or antique. He just saw it as clutter and old when he took it to the dump. (now since I wasn’t ever able to check that out with my dad that is just an assumption from what my mother relayed to me)

In my childhood memory banks, I recall fondly wearing long dresses and cast off, high heeled shoes and pushing my babies around the yard in this buggy. Maybe, since I was her youngest, holding onto this buggy represented holding onto having babies and young children.

This story touched me so deeply that when our oldest daughter was little, I started looking for a wicker buggy to give her. I finally found one and sewed bedding for the buggy and found the perfect baby doll to put inside. The Christmas that Alyssa was 2 3/4 years old, not only did she receive this new buggy and baby doll, but 5 days before Christmas her new baby brother, Clark arrived. When he was newborn we used to put him in the wicker buggy and push him around.

Here’s the wicker doll buggy that I bought for Alyssa’s Christmas present 22 years ago. She was also a new big sister that Christmas to her baby brother, Clark. We were shocked when we heard, “It’s a Boy.” (in those days they didn’t tell you the gender before birth) and we had to scramble for a bit to find a perfect name for our new son. He carries my maiden name, “Clark”…since my Dad had passed away and had had only daughters. (as if that isn’t enough but in those days carrying a name forward was important…in some cultures it may still be that way.) We thought it would be a tribute to give our first son, my Dad’s surname. ANYWAY….the name we had chosen for our planned second daughter was given to Alyssa’s doll, who is still in the buggy to this day….”Chelsea Anne.”

 

 

Guess what? 22 years later, we still have this buggy…but now I have to decide what to do with it. Do I keep it for Alyssa who has assured me that children are not in her future. She never was the baby doll type of person anyway and although she liked her brother just fine, she really wasn’t impressed with his baby years…or the 6 other siblings that followed afterwards. The little girls are currently playing with the buggy and love to push Chelsea Anne around but there will come a time when we have to decide….”what do we do with the buggy?”

Anyway,  I digress AGAIN, the point is, I now understand why Dad took that old buggy to the dump and I’m sure it wasn’t in the kind of condition that our wicker buggy is currently in. It takes a lot of energy to decide what to do with our belongings, when we do decide to let them go….maybe the dump wasn’t the best place for that old buggy, but Dad didn’t have tons of time to carefully weigh the options and in those days there weren’t the places there are today to recycle and appreciate old things. Everyone in those days had old stuff. He did what he needed to do to create more space in our small home so that we could live a richer life. Thanks Dad for teaching me that lesson by example.

It wasn’t long after this, that my Dad was killed in a truck accident and a year after he passed away, my mom moved us out of our hometown of Hope, leaving my 2 oldest sisters to stay in our home until it sold. (One sister had graduated and had started working at the local bank and the other sister was left to finish high school in the town she had grown up in) I was too young to remember how mom moved us but she had to deal with all our stuff somehow. She remained a bit of a collector all her life, although I won’t say she was a hoarder because she kept everything looking very nice but in some circles, they would say she had problems with letting go of  material things. I think that was quite common when you came from the depression era though. Books were one since she loved to read. Sentimental items were another. Tough stuff.

I know how I view our belongings is shadowed by how my parents dealt with their stuff. With this in mind, I was VERY conscious of how I approached my twin daughters the other day when I asked them to come and look at a basket, over flowing with stuffed animals. I talked to them about how they had so many lovies in the basket that you couldn’t even see them all. We talked about how they didn’t play with most of them and I told them about other children in the world, who didn’t have any lovies at all. I asked them if they felt they could part with any of them. “Which ones are your absolute favourites?” I asked.

Of course, since they are three, four in May, every single lovie was special. I was very careful in helping them choose their favourites. We took time to eliminate the ones they didn’t have a connection with.  I asked them if they thought they could say good bye to the ones that weren’t as special and we could give them to other children to love. They nodded their heads solemnly. We kept the bunnies, since the girls were born in the year of the rabbit (Chinese zodiac) and bunnies happen to not only be a favourite of their’s but I know if my mom were alive, she would have said, “oh keep the bunnies.”

And that brings me to another story from my mother’s childhood. She was a child during the depression but her family was fortunate to live on a farm and they had chickens and rabbits. She loved the bunnies and for a long time, didn’t make the connection that often after having a delicious Sunday dinner of “chicken,” one of her bunnies would coincidentally go missing. I think one of her older brothers finally clued her in…boys!

So we kept the bunnies in the basket but several other non-describt lovies made it to the give a way box. After a final farewell, I moved them quickly out to the garage since I knew if the girls saw them again, they would suddenly feel they would HAVE to sleep with one or all of them that night.

So with another week almost behind me on my minimalism journey, I have a few more tips to share.

Be considerate with your spouse regarding how they are letting go of their possessions. We all have a past and it’s good to be gentle and give others space to let go in their own time. That the truth for them is the same truth for you, but it may just look different. Compromise with compassion. (this from Buddha’s teachings…the compassion part and a reminder that we are all connected….and perfect just as we are)

And if you have children, get them involved and help them to see that letting go isn’t painful but can be enlightening. Can be filled with joy. Hopefully, they can carry some wonderful childhood memories down the road to pass on to their children and it will look like this; People, not things are important. Happiness is within, memories are not in our belongings. They are in our hearts.

Well, I will close but I wanted to share my recipe for Date Squares before I say good night….for yes, it is now evening.

This is  my mom’s recipe. I have tried to make it exactly how she did over the years but it never tastes exactly the same. I don’t know what she did differently…maybe it was just the love she put into each pan. You know how things always taste better when they are made just for you? Maybe it was in the actual tin pan that she cooked her squares in (old, dark and well used) and I use a glass pan? Maybe the quality of ingredients is different but it’s still an amazing recipe.

So Mom and Dad, this is for you. “I’m laying up my treasures in heaven” and all that but until then, I’m making date squares and remembering you both with love.

Ethel’s Date Squares
or what she liked to call her Matrimonial Cake


Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour…for a great texture use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon (this is my addition…my mom didn’t use this)
pinch of salt

Filling
1 pound of dates
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of orange juice….or do what I do and juice a whole orange
pinch of salt
orange rind…about 1 tbsp

Directions

Put all the filling ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes and then take a potato masher and break the dates so the mixture is smooth and thick. Turn off the heat and let the filling thicken while you are making the bottom and top layer.

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients. Add cut up butter (best if the butter is cold) then with a pastry mixer or two knives, continue to cut the butter into the mixture until it’s all well combined.

Press 1/2 of the flour/butter mixture into a 13×9 lightly greased pan. Add and spread all of the filling mixture and finally top it with the other 1/2 of the flour/butter mixture. Pat with a fork.

Bake in an oven 325 degrees if using a glass pan or 350 degrees if using a metal pan. Bake for 30 minutes until the edge is lightly brown.

Let it cool and set and then cut into squares. I usually put 1/2 of these squares into the freezer or they will be gone within the day…..they are really great for book club night meetings too.

For instance, I made this today for my book club meeting and it’s almost gone….but oh so good. If you love dates, I hope you will try this recipe and think of my mom who loved bunnies, babies, books, her family…and my Dad. This coming Saturday, will be the 3rd anniversary since Mom passed away. Another reminder how fleeting this earth journey is, and how stuff just isn’t important.

My mom and Dad and my Dad’s fav squares…..served on my mom’s Forget Me Not china
What do you do with old recipes written out in your mother’s writing? As you can see, I’ve loved this recipe for years but the recipe card is not my mom…she is in my heart and every time I make this recipe she is telling me the story of how much my Dad loved these squares……they are delicious!


So as I leave you, with maybe a recipe to try out, or an inspiration to clear out the clutter in your kitchen, (do you really need five spring form pans, as my dear friend K just mentioned she discovered in her kitchen recently?) maybe you can set up your computer in your kitchen and listen to the audio version of the book, “Siddhartha,” by Hermann Hesse. Here’s the link, if you are interested in listening and remembering that what you think, you become. We all have the seeds of Buddha inside of us. We are all perfect, even as we sit amongst all our stuff. It is a good way to practise the art of letting go gracefully.

I wrote this quote on our chalk board for our Siddhartha meeting tomorrow night….”what we think, we become.”

If you can’t see the link to the Siddhartha audio book below, click this hyperlink.


 Wish you could join me during our sacred circle book club tomorrow night but maybe you can listen to the story and tell me what you think of this classic little book about Buddha’s life.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

A final youtube video….the song, “Tis a gift to be simple” by Yo Yo Ma and Alison Krause…..love, LOVE the cello and Alison’s voice is beautiful………good night dear blog friends

 

 

Minimalist Journey, TIP 1 & 2, and Spicy Bran Muffins

/ Lee Reynolds

Thanks for popping in as I’m excited to share a few tips I have discovered on my early “moments” towards minimalism. The first one became very apparent to me yesterday when I woke up bleary eyed from a brief four hours of sleep the night before.  (I had been writing my first blog about minimalism and finally posted it at 3 am)

Some people have asked me where I find time to write with our busy life with currently 6 kids in our home and two others that I try to stay connected to outside the home. Well…..

Like anything that is important, I find the time. I love to write and although for most of my life as a mom, I have put my needs at the bottom of the list, over the last decade I have learned that this doesn’t have to be the case.In fact, having this mindset is actually detrimental to our family as I get crabby when my needs haven’t been met. I’ve put myself last for so long however that even a tiny bit of “me time” can fill my bucket to over flowing.

I have found time over the years to go to my yoga classes, take a few evening courses, and even have the occasional long walk all alone.  On days when the kids and house needed more attention, even doing a few yoga poses or sun salutations perked me up. My writing though is something that I really have to make a concerted effort to create time for daily/weekly, in order to release all the ideas and thoughts ready to erupt from my brain.

I paid the price yesterday though when I was surviving, yes that is an appropriate word for yesterday on only four hours of sleep. And like any day around here, it was jam packed and I needed to really be in the game.

Have you ever noticed that when you don’t get enough sleep, nothing seems to go right for you. Life is full of obstacles and shadowed with difficult moments, almost like the fog that clouds your brain. Things that you normally find solutions to in milli-seconds takes minutes, or longer.

Therefore, my TIP # 1 for beginning a minimalist journey is to NOT be minimal with regards to your sleep. This is one area that you need a huge amount. A bit ironic, that on the path to being a minimalist, you NEED something big in your life. But yes, sleep is one of them.

As I whipped through the house while the girls were at preschool and perhaps “whipped” isn’t the best verb to describe the way I cleaned the house yesterday morning, I took a large basket with me so I could gather up things on my path that I knew for SURE we didn’t need any longer. I noticed that my decisions for those things were slower than I believe I could have been, had I been well rested. Plus, my pace was definitely slower than my usual speedy, efficient self.

As a previous, fitness instructor, I have a mind set that my house cleaning can be a form of work out. As I bend down to reach for something, I do a squat, as I travel up the stairs, I run, sometimes taking two steps to really work my legs and give me a burst of cardio. When I’m making beds, I lift the sheets way up high, shaking them to air them out but also working my arms and shoulders. Okay, you get the idea and often people have said to me, after hearing I have 8 kids, “wow, you’re in great shape.” I don’t really know what they expect a mom with many kids to look like, but I often reply with a laugh, “my kids are my personal trainers and having a large family requires more work so that may explain why I may appear fit.”

I digress, the point is, that optimum sleep is paramount, if one is to be an efficient minimalist.

The other thing I also noticed was that I wasn’t eating the best. The morning started with me just grabbing an apple as I headed out the door taking Clark to the University bus, then back home to gather up the others, taking Harrison to high school and then Grace and Will to elementary school (yes, I know not very environmentally conscious/green, all that driving, but Grace was downhill skiing with her class yesterday and she had a lot of gear to take to school) and finally I had to take the little two to preschool. Upon returning home, AT LAST, since I was moving slower than usual, I didn’t stop for a good breakfast but plowed right into the work. Cleaning the kitchen, gathering up laundry, making beds. Yes, not eating… is not the best idea.

Since Will had invited a friend over after school, I made special oatmeal cookies, loaded with trail mix type filling. I also made a large snack plate to be brought out of the fridge when they arrived home later in the day. It had cut up veggies and fruit, some crackers and cheese and of course several of these large cookies on the plate. It was close to 11 am so I raced back to preschool.

After collecting the little girls, we went to the recycling center to drop off all the bottles we had accumulated and then the library where many of the books on minimalism were on on hold for me.  Can I say enough about our library? I LOVE IT!….and although I love books, I can see that as long as I’m close to a library, I can let go of my books.

Here’s what I picked up;

Yeah!.. the book above will be an easy read and down below is a link to one of this author’s youtube videos.

The book above was written by the two guys I wrote about in my last post….although they don’t share the same lifestyle that I have (with a large family) I really like them. They remind me of my nephew, E, who lives in Vancouver in Yale town and enjoys a lovely very urban lifestyle. (he also has a minimalistic approach since he has a studio apartment.


The book above is written by a woman who is a mom like me….I listened to an interview she gave on the web and she had such a down to earth manner that I really resonated with….I’m looking forward to reading her book….

and because I knew that part of my quest for minimalism had to do with my diet, I also picked up these books as well.
  AND

I love Deepak….as you know I participate in all the group meditations that he and Oprah put on….there is one coming up again in March and the focus will be on “success.” Check out the Chopra’s center to sign up.

After lunch (I fed the little girls but didn’t stop to eat) we went to pick up our University son and brought him home as he was going to greet Will and his friend V, after school, while I picked up Harrison from high school, collect Grace and all her ski stuff and then take her to her swim club session. To keep me going, as I was in and out of the house driving kids around, I grabbed a few of the cookies I made and a little bowl of fruit and veggies.

When I finally came home, as I was making dinner, I ate another cookies, okay, maybe two. Then, since I was still starving, I basically inhaled dinner not really “aware” of what was going in my mouth as I chewed and as we all hurriedly talked about  the things each of us had on our plate for the evening.

After dinner as I was cleaning up, I knew I still had a full evening ahead with bathing the little kids, telling stories, working with Will on his reading, checking in with Grace on her homework, tucking in little people, making lunches, you get the picture and since I was running out of steam, I opened the box of chocolates that D had given me for Valentines as I was cleaning up the kitchen….I ate one chocolate and then two and finally three!!!

I said goodbye to Harrison, with a mouthful of chocolate. He was off to play another basketball game and since I had attended the one the night before, I let David see last night’s game. Then after the game, Harrison had asked if he could go to the February Valentine’s dance at school. Thank heavens I didn’t have to get him to those activities but since my number one helper, “my husband” was out for the evening, it was up to me to pick up the slack. So to keep going, my body ate another chocolate as I yelled for Will to start the bath water running.

That brings me to TIP #2 beginning the minimalism journey. After reading everything I just wrote, you probably are thinking tip #2should be ridding ourselves of activities….but no…that will have to be something we consider down the road. In these early days, my tip # 2 is, prepare healthy meals, eat slowly, savour your food and even if you have a busy day like I had yesterday, be mindful of the moments when you are eating.

On this journey, I want minimalism to create fuller, richer moments in every aspect of my life and getting sufficient sleep and eating consciously, with joy for I do love food, these must be the foundation for my life to flourish.

No matter your lifestyle, I would think this would be the base for a good life but in addition to North Americans having a lot of stuff cluttering up their homes, I think it’s safe to say that we as a society don’t get enough sleep. We certainly don’t have the best eating habits. (what do you think?)

After I put the little ones to bed, I quickly performed all the evening chores I needed to do in order to allow our morning to flow smoother. Then exhausted, I went to bed. Even though I was very tired, I started reading the new book I had picked up from the library, “Clutterfree with Kids,” by Joshua Becker. While it was very interesting, by 9:15 my eyes were really heavy. I set the book down, sprayed some lavender mist on my pillow that my sister C had given me, put some peppermint drops from Saje that my other sister B had given to me (because I used to be addicted to Vicks under my nose at bedtime….a story for another day about clearing up our addictions) and I dropped off to a blissful, deep sleep. Oh sweet dreams.

Image result for sweet dreams on a pillow

I woke up this morning refreshed and ready and excited to start a new day. The first thing I did today was take my green powder drink, make some oatmeal/quinoa cereal and I brewed a pot of Mother’s Helper tea from David’s Tea and while I sipped my first cup, I made some bran muffins. The cookie jar is still packed with the cookies I made yesterday but today, I ‘m going to have a good bran muffin as a conscious, well deserved snack before we do the piano and voice lessons, the basketball practise etc. (yes we do have to do something about the activities)

As I write this blog, it’s later in the morning, I’ve done my morning chores and while the girls play with their dollhouse, I thought I would pass on these two tips to you.

      Get enough sleep and eat healthy meals and snacks

Well I’m off to do some deeper cleaning with a large basket under my arm. My intention is to start my deep cleaning with the thought, “do I need this and do I love it?” foremost in my brain. Wish me luck!

Image result for do i need it, do i love itImage result for do i need it, do i love itImage result for do i need it, do i love it

Hey and before I close I thought I would share the bran muffin recipe I have been using for years. It was the first muffin recipe that I ever made as a newly married woman. I hope you like it too and in a way, it’s kind of appropriate for the minimalism path since it clears out your colon REALLY well. Nothing like the feeling of cleaned out inside too right?…okay maybe too much information but hey…..when we start talking about paring down, shouldn’t we also be thinking of what is inside us as well?

Pumpkin Bran Muffin Recipe

Hope’s Minimalism Bran Muffins

11/4 cup of flour….I use 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of white flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/4 salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 ground nutmeg
1/4 all spice
11/4 cup milk…..almond, rice, cow…whatever you prefer…I like almond
1/4 vegetable oil….or coconut is great too
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 raisins
11/2 cup of a bran type cereal……I have used All Bran and that is I believe where I got this recipe years ago….of the cereal box

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together

2. In a large bowl, combine cereal and milk. Let stand 4 minutes or until cereal is softened. Add oil, molasses and egg. Beat well. Stir in raisins.

3. Add flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Portion batter evenly into 12 lightly greased muffin-pan cups.

4. Bake at 400°F about 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean

Image result for bran muffins in a country kitchen

 

These muffins will help keep things moving…..I also like to sprinkle some ground flax on top of the muffins before they go into the oven and that really helps me stay regular.

Oh….and one final tip as it goes with helping things in your colon get flushed out….drink water~as you are working through your stuff. In fact, often during the clean up, you may reach for food as a distraction, but instead, drink a full glass of water, nice and slow and appreciate how far you have already come. Be SIMPLY GRATEFUL.

If you want some more minimalist inspiration, check out this youtube video by Joshua Becker (more joy on owning less) who wrote the book that I’m currently reading, “Clutterfree with Kids”. He has a typical American family with 2 kids and is now a minimalist. (Note: he does talk about his spirituality in the longer video above…click on the hyperlink above to see it. When he references God etc, it may be interesting to watch your reaction. For me…..I think the road to minimalism can create more time for us to contemplate our connection to Source and our soul’s journey….unless you don’t want to that is….as my older son says…..becoming minimalist can allow more time for no reflection at all…..just being)
Well, I’m off to tackle my spice cupboard….what are you working on?
 
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope