Desserts

A Spring Inspired White Cake with Lemon Filling

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Happy May, my dear blogging friends and family. If Spring has arrived in your part of the world, I hope nature is doing her thing and providing a restorative balance for you. Ahhhh, there’s nothing like the feeling of warm sunshine on our faces, fresh air in our lungs and being surrounded by Spring’s beauty. It makes my heart sing and I have to confess to a few tears too, over the wonder of it all.

We are experiencing a lovely spring here and that saying;

has held true this 2022 spring season. That thrills me, as we live in an arid climate, which requires lots of moisture in the ground before we head into our usual, hot summer season. (But who knows with climate change what will come this summer) Last week was glorious though and I gleefully wandered through our yard snapping pictures of some of the blooms.

First I went down to our fruit orchard and snapped a few pictures of our larger cherry trees. I was absolutely delighted to see so many bees happily buzzing from blossom to blossom. Oh the joy of seeing bees is another glorious spring sign! The plum tree to the right in the above picture is also about to erupt in bloom,. In the forefront, you can see my newly conditioned strawberry beds. There are little white flowers blooming in that bed too so hopefully we get lots of luscious strawberries…that is if they make it into the house!

Then I strolled up the west side of our house to capture the last blossoms of our neighbour’s gorgeous Star Magnolia tree. Sadly I missed it’s peak of bloom as you can see from the petals lying on their garden shed roof, but it’s still a stunning sight in the spring time.

Another beautiful sight are the baby pink blossoms on our Flowering Plum tree. I pruned it back a bit last year as I wanted it to eventually have branches arching over our gate. You can’t really see from this angle but if you come from the other side you see that it’s starting to happen. In our summer climate it’s nice to have trees near our house to keep things cooler.

I snapped a few pictures of some flowers blooming too….

The pool is not open yet but the brilliant perennial, “Alyssum,” is brightening up our rock wall beds. We planted these three summers ago now.

Another eye catching perennial on display in our garden next to the bunnies is the gorgeous purple “Abrecia.” This is so easy to split and move…which is another reason I love perennials so much.

Are you looking for an early blooming Clematis? Check out our, “Niobe,” which has just given us two beautiful, fuchsia pink blooms to enjoy early this May.

Our lawn is looking great too and while some people are removing their lawns, since we still have kids that love to run, we still have a bit of lawn in our backyard. Also, I use the lawn clippings to mulch our garden in the summer which improves the soil and keeps the plants cool in the summer.

Yesterday we had a torrential rain storm. It felt so good after several days of sunny weather. Later in the afternoon, just after my sister J came for a quick visit, it really started to pour. As I looked out into the garden you could just see all the green plants shining with happiness as they danced in the showers. I even danced a bit when I went out briefly to plant some Lovage and Catnip in my herb bed. Our cat Ryuuki is going to love the Catnip. I plan to dry it and stuff a little fuzzy mouse toy with it next fall. He doesn’t catch the real things anymore!

Ryuuki is enjoying the beautiful Spring days too and after he does a tour through the garden, he often can be found on Grace’s bed full of furry blankets. Just like our garden helps to restore our energy, Yuuki reminds us to take little cat naps throughout our day.

“And hope, if it had a scent, would smell like spring, like rain, like something new and alive.” ~Jennifer Rush~

Well, I could chat on and on about plants, gardening and pets, but what I really intended to do was share a recipe with you. Since Mother’s Day is quickly approaching, I thought I’d share my latest fav cake recipe. And, (hint, hint) if you know anyone who might want to surprise their mother, or special woman in their life, this is the perfect dessert to do that.

It’s light, lemony, and speaks of all things blooming.

Before I jot down the recipe, I thought I’d share a few pictures of the cakes I’ve made this spring. The first one I made was for my sister J’s birthday in March. She and my mom used to share March birthdays together. (mom’s been gone 10 years now)

Mom used to say that my sister J’s arrival was the best birthday present she was ever given as she was born the day before our mom’s birthday on March 20th….the first day of spring. Also, whenever I see ladybugs (long story) it reminds me of our mom, so when I found a lady bug kitchen timer, I had to put it on J’s cake to remind her that mom was right there singing Happy Birthday to her too.

I used three layers to make this cake and filled it with lemon….it was so yummy! Also, I used a bit of yellow icing on the cake as J has recently renovated her kitchen and cozy living room and while I haven’t seen it in person due to Covid, I know she has splashes of yellow accents in her newly renovated house. Yellow is the perfect spring colour!!!

And then I made the cake again at Easter. My mom made Bunny cakes every year at Easter and I have continued the tradition. I made the same recipe above but split all the icing into two cake pans instead of three. Below you can see how you cut the cake up for the bunnies, head, ears and bow.

Kate, Will and Tori had such fun decorating this year’s Easter bunny cake. I’m glad I got a picture of it as that bunny was eaten in record time!!!

I hope these pictures inspire you to create your own Spring white cake and share it with your loved ones. Maybe take it outside to the garden and have a little tea party. Here’s the recipe that I used and hopefully it will become another of our family favourite recipes.

White Spring Cake with Lemon Filling

Ingredients

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon cake flour

3 ½ cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ¾ cups sugar

¼ cup softened butter

1 ½ tablespoons sunflower/ or vegetable oil of your choice

2 large egg whites

1 ⅔ cups milk

½ cup plain fat-free yogurt…I used vanilla yogurt and it was lovely

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract/ 1 tbsp lemon zest

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Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray 3 or 2 round cake pans with cooking spray and then dust with 1 tbsp of flour (some people like to use parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of the pan….you choose what you would prefer)

Combine sifted flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in one bowl. Mix well!

I used no name cake flour and it turned out great…flour is getting really expensive right now so watch for the sales and stock up.

In a large mixing bowl combine, sugar, butter, and oil and using an electric mixer; beat at medium speed for around 5 minutes. Add egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine milk and yogurt and place in a small bowl.

Now alternating between the flour mixture and milk mixture, add these to the sugar/butter and eggs. Do this alternating method until everything is combined really well. Finally, stir in the vanilla and lemon zest.

When everything is combined well, pour cake batter evenly into prepared pans. Give the pans a sharp tap on the counter to remove any bubbles.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the wooden pick inserted in the middle of each cake comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks; remove from pans.

Cool completely on wire racks.

Just a thought as I’m looking at the two layers I cooked above….if your oven is hot like mine, a large cookie sheet on the bottom oven rack may prevent the cake from getting too hot and it will be a lighter brown on the bottom. We all have different ovens but I’m finding that this is helping my baked items come out a bit more golden brown. It really helps if you know your oven!

And now the fun part. Filling and Icing. While your cake bakes, you can make the lemon filling. (Doubling the recipe is a good idea if you want some on the top too. Also, if you are like me, you can eat spoonfuls of the stuff…. my mom used to put it on toast!)

Lemon Filling Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1 egg, beaten

1 cup water

1⁄2 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)

1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated (from the fresh lemon)

1 tablespoon butter (no substitutions)

Directions

Mix sugar and cornstarch together thoroughly

Combine the beaten egg, water, lemon juice and rind, add to the dry ingredients.

Cook in a double boiler about 15 minutes on medium high, stirring constantly…in that old figure 8 configuration we learned in high school foods class.

Take it off the burner when it looks like it’s thickening and then add the butter. Mix it in well and then cool completely before you spread it between the cake layers.

Make sure the cake and the filling are well cooled before you put them together. I often pop my cake layers in the freezer for 20 minutes before I start to put everything together. When the cake and the lemon filling are cooling this is a great time to make the frosting. What kind do you want on your cake??? I think a lemon, buttercream frosting is perfect for this cake personally. Layering the lemon is a bit like layering a favourite scent….perfectly luscious!!!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter

4 to 5 cups of icing sugar (depending on how you want it to spread….firmer allows you to use it for piping decoration)

1 tbsp lemon zest

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

A drop of yellow food colouring, depending on the appearance you want for your cake. While I used predominately white icing to make J’s ladybug and the Easter bunny cake, I did do some yellow icing to decorate J’s cake to make it look a bit more spring like.

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Directions

  1. In a mixer, add the butter and the lemon juice.
  2. Cream together on low speed until they are completely combined.
  3. Add the icing sugar, one cup at a time and continue to beat on medium speed until the frosting is creamy.
  4. Add the lemon zest and 1 small drop of yellow food colouring (if desired)
  5. Continue to mix.
  6. Tip…I like to add the icing sugar slowly… 1/2 cup at a time until it reaches the consistency I want for my cake

Now for the BEST part…put your bottom cake layer on your cake plate and decorate the bottom layer’s sides. Spread the top with some lemon filling, then add another cake layer. Do the same as above until you finally have the top layer on the cake. You can ice all of the top with buttercream icing but if you have any lemon filling left you can spread some of it in the middle of the top layer. I did that with J’s ladybug cake. This is where you can be as creative as you like. I put sweetened flaked coconut on the bunny cake and it was yummy! Look at the one I found below on Pintrest….that can’t be too hard to ice right?

Well that’s it my dear people. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing this spring, I hope you take some time to get out in nature and let it fill your soul with all things beautiful. With all the crazy stuff happening in our world right now we need to do whatever we can to keep our spirits peaceful. And if you take a bit of cake out into the garden with a cup of tea I think you will find that all the sweeter.

Fruit Pizza and Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic

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What is the right way to Eat Fruits ?

Welcome to my blog and Hope’s Homestead. It’s nice to see you. If you are new here, yah! If you haven’t been here in a while, you’re not alone as neither have I. Ha! You’d think that with the current state of the world, (everyone isolating at home due to the COVID-19 global pandemic) I’d have nothing better to do than write on my blog, but if you know me at all, that’s not the case.

We are b*u*s*y around here doing things we love. Home is where it’s at people.

What do you think? How are you weathering these times?

At first, I felt rather guilty when the whole pandemic started; as if my wish had caused it. You see all winter the mantra flowing out of my being went something like this; “we need to slow down, something needs to let up, life is going too fast.” It’s the craziest thing to think that the whole world came to a screeching halt just for me, but those were my thoughts in mid March.

The only downside was that our seventeen year old daughter, Grace’s spring break, school trip to the U.K. was cancelled at the last minute. She had worked so hard last summer to earn the money for the trip. In addition, she was taking an English course that totally revolved around all the sights they were planning to see, and all the assignments were geared to the trip.

At this point, although the trip has been delayed until later this summer, we obviously don’t know if international travel will open up. Only time will tell how life will unfold in the coming months but any sadness we felt over the loss of that trip, or not being with our oldest daughter as she celebrated a milestone birthday at the end of March, have been quieted over the news of so many deaths reported around the world. It always surprises me how grief and lose reminds us of what’s truly important.

It was one big wake up call for the earth in my opinion.

11 simple ways to care for each other during the COVID-19 ...

I could have become a dweller of dark places in the last two months but thankfully, I remembered why I sign off as “Hope,” at the end of my blog. I remembered my true nature and quickly chose to move towards the light. My oldest sister B says, “there is a silver lining in all of this.” My oldest daughter Alyssa, an English major, teacher and writer says, “it’s like a Dystopia novel!”

Whatever it is….

The silver lining for us, is that in the last ten years our family has been moving in the direction of becoming more sustainable in our day to day life. Last night at dinner our ten year old son, William, observed, “we make just about everything from scratch, except ketchup.” (Watch out Will, if we have a good tomato crop this summer, ketchup’s on the bucket list) Having learned to reuse, make do, grow our own food, cook from the basics, and live more simply, has conditioned us to thrive in a time when so many people are falling apart.

It’s been two months now since the world stopped spinning so fast and our family has a lovely, at home learning groove happen’in, our back forty is newly planted, and it’s time for me to come back to my blog, share a story, a recipe and maybe a bit of hope. If that’s what you are seeking, let this be a place of refuge. Also, I have to share a secret for our contentment and what’s helping our family handle this social isolating gig so well.

The secret can be found in:

Books

We are surviving and I’d like to believe thriving too, because we all love to read.

Well, almost all of us. It’s a process.

Ironically, the month before the kids were out on spring break, their school had a book competition. It’s a yearly tradition at their school to encourage as many children to read as possible. When our older children went to school. they were involved in something called, “The Battle of the Books.” It was a school district affair, where each school prepared teams, representing the various grades. Throughout the spring, there would be zone competitions to see who knew their books the best. Finally, the teams winning at the zones, would move onto the final district competition, which was open to the public at our local performing arts centre. It was quite an affair and a prestigious event to win.

Our son Clark’s Battle of the Book’s Coldstream team (Clark is the one in blue on the left…wish it was a better picture)

Our older children were “Battle of the Books,” champs. Alyssa’s team won the district award two years in a row and Clark’s team won it one year. We were so proud of their accomplishments. In those days, their school, “Coldstream Elementary,” was considered the school to beat. Then a few parents started to make waves. Their children had competed to earn a spot on the team but didn’t qualify, and they were annoyed. We personally didn’t understand their reasoning, since our school also competes in athletics, such as track and field, and only the best move on to compete in the zones and districts in that area. It’s the same if you ask me but they didn’t view it that way, so our participation in the local Battle of the Books ended and our school started an in house competition. Originally, it was called, “Gypsy Breath and Longstocking,” but over time it has been shortened to be just, “Gypsy Breath.”

At first, when our school stopped competing at the Battle of the Books, I was angry, as that was a place where our children who were book savvy, could shine. I didn’t encourage our next in line children to join the competition, which was watered down in my opinion, but then our daughter Grace joined one year without any encouragement from me. I watched her happily fly through the book selections for that year. When she came home with the first place award, I realized it it wasn’t about competition at all.

It was about reading.

Now, I’m all over anything to get kids hooked on reading.

So when…..

Our younger kids came home from school one day to say that they were all going to be on the same Gypsy Breath team, I was thrilled. They called themselves, “The Survivors.” That’s the ironic part; I feel like we are surviving this social isolating pandemic, partly due to our love of literature. When you can enter a book and become lost in another world, you can escape anything. What a gift. Also, while our family has quite an extensive library, we are also living in a time when we have access to any book written on the planet, within a tap on our computers.

It’s mind blowing.

Our children read some pretty incredible books since Christmas in preparation for the Gypsy Breath competition. Kathryn read the most. She read all, but one of the grade 6/7 books (Refugee) and of course she didn’t read the two adult selections. Victoria wasn’t far behind her; reading all the grade 3, grade 4 and almost all the grade 5 books. She also read a couple of the grade 6/7 books.

I was most proud of William though, first to join the team, bringing two of his (non reading) friends along to experience the event, but mainly watching him methodically working through book after book, that I know he wouldn’t have touched otherwise. This for a boy who loves to be active; bouncing on the the trampoline, swimming in the pool, or even playing his cello. To watch him sit quietly in our big, comfy chair in the living room, turning page after page, was a sight to see.

There is hope!

8 Quotes for the Ultimate Book Lover | Reading quotes, Book quotes

I’m also proud to say that the kid’s “Survivor,” team tied for second place on the night of the competition, out of at least ten or twelve teams. I never counted but the gym was full of kids dressed up in wacky costumes, all joining together with their teachers, to answer the questions that were posed by the “Book Wizard.”

I know you are probably here for the fruit pizza recipe but I want to share the Gypsy Breath book selections with you first, as in addition to great food, it’s the books that are getting us through this difficult moment in time. A time when we are sheltered in place, in order to beat this virus. If you REALLY want the food, (like my son William, who is growing crazy, fast lately) scroll to the bottom. If you can hold off, here are the 2020 Gypsy Breath Books, many of which our family read this spring.

You may have read some of them with your kids or when you were a child:

The Grade 3 Books

Image result for images of the book the mouse and the motorcycle

The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary

When the Soldiers Were Gone: Vera W. Propp: 9780698118812: Amazon ...

When the Soldiers Were Gone, by Vera W. Propp

A Boy Named Bat, by Elana K. Arnold

The Grade Four Books

The Lemonade War, by Jacqueline Davies

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, by Rita Williams-Garcia

The Chocolate Touch, by Patrick Skene Catling

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 (I Survived #9): Tarshis ...

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, by Lauren Tarshis

The Grade Five Books

The following book, “The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle,” was my children’s all round favourite! They even encouraged me to read it. The main character, Mason, is an endearing child who shined a light on the colour of feelings and inspired me to try to be my best self. It’s a beautifully written book in Mason’s unique, sweet voice.

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle: Connor, Leslie: 9780062491435 ...

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, by Leslie Connor

Bud, Not Buddy: Curtis, Christopher Paul: 9780439402002: Books ...

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul-Curtis

The Night Diary: Hiranandani, Veera: 9780735228511: Books - Amazon.ca

The Night Diary, by Veera Hiranandani (Victoria loved this book but then she loves writing in her diary/journal too)

Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk: Sage, Angie, Zug, Mark ...

Magyk, by Angie Sage (My older sons read this book…well the whole series actually, and if you are into fantasy, then this book is for you!)

The Grade 6/7 Books

The following book, “Save Me a Seat,” was William’s fav book. He said he could relate to the book’s main characters, Joe and Ravi, as he, like them , has been bullied at school too. As a mom this made me cry. I want to protect my children from these sorts of experiences. It’s when I hear this that I want to homeschool them full time when we get through to the other side of this isolation.

Except, I know it’s often the toughest things we go through in life that develops our character. No amount of reading or virtual experiences can teach us to be strong people. We need to step out of our comfort zones, become vulnerable, and learn how to relate to others. We need to build our own voice and our inner resilience muscle, to become confident individuals. That’s why, after this whole pandemic is over, I’m pretty sure I will encourage our children to return to school, whatever that looks like. I’d like to believe it will be a gentler place and my children will be beacons of kindness and compassion towards their classmates.

William made tons of connections while reading this book and told me that the ending was “fantastic.”

Will gives this book a *****stars rating and two thumbs up!

Save Me a Seat – Children's Book Council

Save Me a Seat, by Sarah Weeks

Firegirl: Abbott, Tony: 9780316011709: Books - Amazon.ca

Firegirl, by Tony Abbott

The following book, “Bridge to Terabithia,” has been around for awhile. I read it with my older children and it was a Battle of the Books selection during one of their competitions. We read it to our younger children, as a family, last summer and I would highly recommend it for the 8 to 12 year old set….and beyond.

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

The final book for the children was “Refugee.” It’s on our “to be read list” but it sounds incredible and inspiring.

Refugee - Alan Gratz

Refugee, by Alan Gratz

The Adult Books

I loved the following book. The main character Susan’s view of the world was witty and refreshing. Also, after my daughter, Alyssa, spent two years living and working in London, with me vicariously living with her, I loved the whole English vibe, in this Debut novel by Sarah Haywood. I laughed all the way through this hilarious book, which is saying something for me.

Fiction Book Review: The Cactus by Sarah Haywood. Park Row, $26.99 ...

The Cactus, by Sarah Haywood

I read a lot, so when I say the following book, “We Were the Lucky Ones,” is the best book I have read all year, that’s really saying something. The book follows one Jewish Family’s experiences during the Second World War years. Even though I read this book months ago now, it’s helped me put this global pandemic into perspective.

It could always be worse, is my thinking, and this family and the Jewish people’s plight during the middle of the last century, has lifted me up and given me hope. If you only read one book this year read this. Don’t let the premise scare you….pick it up, allow yourself to be submersed into history and enveloped in great writing. You are one of the lucky ones, if you take the time to read this book!

We Were the Lucky Ones, by Georgia Hunter

I guess you now see the theme of this year’s Gypsy Breath book selection was all around war and diversity. I’m never failed to be amazed at how life prepares us for every eventuality. Reading these books, in the months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, helped us shift into the mentality of believing we can overcome anything. If the characters in these books, (some of them based on true stories) could overcome life most difficult challenges, we know we can do it too.

Together.

All we have been asked to do is shelter in place. How hard is that with a good book? If you aren’t into reading, then watch a movie based on a book. Last night, we watched part one, of the movie, “Stranded,” based on the book called, “The Swiss Family Robinson.” That book was written by Johann David Wyss, which was first published over two hundred years ago in 1812. Our kids can’t wait to watch the second part and are intrigued over a family shipwrecked on an island. I was telling them that in a way, we are that family now.

Here’s the link to part one if you are interested in watching it too.

Well, enough about books, isolation and even movies, now onto the part that you may be waiting for and the part that is also my son William’s favourite: yummy recipes. The next time you are in the grocery store stock up on fresh fruit and some cream cheese and you can make a……

Fruit Pizza

Fruit Pizza Recipe - Pinch of Yum

I actually can’t take total credit for this recipe as it was originally my brother in law D’s recipe. He’s been making fruit pizza for years, long before it became fashionable in the food world. That’s my brother in law D and sister C; they are always ahead of the rest of us. Earlier this year, we got together for dinner and the topic of fruit pizza came up. I knew I wanted to make something special for the Gypsy Breath snack table and thought D’s recipe might just be the thing.

I first tested it out at our kid’s group orchestra, snack table, one week, and it was inhaled in a flash. Those are kids who know good food, and by the way, it flew off the table and into their mouths, with sighs, I might add. I knew we were onto something that would work for book aficionados as well. Okay, so that’s the back story. Now let’s create this divine dessert, in celebration of books, movies, or whatever you are passionate about….anything to survive and stay well.

Fruit Pizza: easy to make & so gorgeous! -Baking a Moment

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup butter

2 ounces cream cheese

11/2 cups sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups of flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Spread

12 -16 ounces of cream cheese

1/2 to 1 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 – 2 tsp vanilla

(The ingredients range depending on the amount of spread you want on your pizza)

Glaze

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp lemon juice

Fresh Fruit

Anything goes but some ideas are:

Kiwi (the bright green is lovely)

Blueberries

Strawberries

Pineapple

Raspberries

Blackberries

Grapes

Instructions

Make the crust by mixing the butter, cream cheese and sugar. (An electric mixer works best) Add the egg and vanilla and combine well. Add the flour, baking powder and the salt.

Basically, you are making one big batch of cookie dough. Once mixed, let dough cool in bowl with a cloth over top for 1/2 hour in the fridge.

Use cooking spray and grease a large pizza pan or a cookie sheet (it doesn’t have to be round)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bring dough out of the fridge and spread it evenly on the pan using fingers or you can use a rolling pin. I find flattening it with fingers and then rolling it with a pin works best. Bake for 12 minutes, (350 degrees) but watch closely as you don’t want the cookie base to over cook…a light golden brown is perfect.

We made enough for 1 large pizza and one small one which the kids enjoyed when they returned from their evening event…they were celebrating coming in second…and reading a pile of great books…that was the real success!!!

Once out of the oven, allow pizza crust to completely cool. I place it in the freezer for 30 minutes before spreading on the cream cheese mixture.

While your pizza is cooling in the freezer, cut up the fruit into small pieces, thinly slice the kiwi and strawberries. Cut up your pineapple, unless they are already in slices. Think about the design you want to create. If you are making it for a special event, you may be able to make a word with fruit for instance. ( Later, I thought I could have written “Books” with blueberries .)

Once the pizza has cooled and the cream cheese has been spread, you can add your fruit. Any combination tastes great, but this is where the artist in you can flourish.

Once the pizza has been topped with fruit, drizzle the glaze around for the final touch of yummy. Here’s how our pizza turned out for the Gypsy Breath event.

P.S. Serve soon after topping with fruit and glaze, although it’s still yummy the next day, albeit the crust is a bit soft.

Our Gypsy Breath pizza

Every time I make this pizza it turns out different but it’s always amazing!!! Here are some other pictures from our kid’s Gypsy Breath night.. Remember their team was called, “The Survivors.” We had ordered a bunch of buffs for the kids to wear for the event, which turned out to be great masks for them to wear in the early days of this pandemic, when we were just out for a walk in our neighbourhood in case they came across other people.

Their buffs and dirty looking and ripped t shirts completed their Survivor costume.

This is their team’s poster with their team name…showing pictures from the various books
The top three winning teams got to take books home. Here are Kathryn and Victoria looking at all the books to choose from.


Kathryn and Victoria with their teacher, Ms. Brianne Martin
Inspirational Quotes About Books Reading. QuotesGram

And so we may be sheltering at home right now, but we are not alone. We are all in this together and if we have books, then we have the world at our feet. Let literature take you wherever you want to go. Fly if you want to.

Thank you for coming to visit today. I hope, not to be a stranger here in the coming weeks. Since we just planted our vegetable garden this week, I do have some images and some gardening stories I’d like to share as well as thoughts on guiding our children at home with their learning.

Stay tuned, stay safe.

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

Blessings from Hope

Cinnamon Buns~Happy New Year!

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“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.”~ T.S. Eliot~

I started this post at the beginning of January but, alas, did not get around to finishing or posting it. Before I knew it. Chinese New Year had arrived, and once again, I lingered over the keys, trying to get this first post off the ground. Again, life swept me up and away. It’s not like I had nothing to say. I have been bursting with things to share, but until today, it felt like every moment was spoken for.

Finally, today, as fluffy, white flakes, fall gently on our still wintry landscape, the day feels peaceful. It feels empty. The perfect environment to write a blog post. As I type, I can hear the kid’s muffled laughter. After lunch they asked, “can we shovel the drive way?” I can just imagine what it looks like now; here and there cleared areas and crunched footprints of snow everywhere. My husband, David will smile when he arrives home.

I love Pro D days, when the teachers are in class, and I’m home with our children. I daydream about what it would be like to keep them home full time. We spent the morning doing more math, writing, reading and music, than they do at school in a whole week. Yet I know, for our children, school is an important part of their learning. Did you know that I started working as a lunch time, school supervisor last fall? Yep, that’s my new gig. It’s also one of the reason I haven’t had time to write. I’m needed, smack in the middle of my day. It cuts any hope of my creativity in half. But it’s been good.

I watch children during lunch hour and realize school is far more than teaching academics. I observe children making and keeping friends, thinking up games and negotiating rules, treading sometimes roughly on other’s feelings, and I help them consider their words and guide them towards saying a humble, “I’m sorry.” I’m there to advocate for those who need help speaking up and watch as they smile, with an obvious sense of accomplishment, when they have been heard. Who knew one hour a day would allow me to see our future, or what it could look like.

Kids are good!

And while I often have wondered if we should be homeschooling our children, (everyone has to find what is right for their children) I see that our children learn far more being out in the world, than I could teach them at home. But that is a blog post for another time. For now, this precious day allows me to have time to be creative, and for our children, to have time to delight in an endless, wintry day.

Bonus: our drive way is partly shoveled.

No, today isn’t on writing about the merits of school, teaching social skills, but about the New Year.

Happy New Year!

Is it still a New Year? Maybe not according to Western dates but based on the Chinese New Year date, it’s still relatively a new year. And According to the Chinese,

THIS IS MY YEAR!

It’s the year of the PIG!

Yep, that’s me! I was born in the year of the pig and I’m proud of it. Many of the traits a pig supposedly holds, resembles me.

” People with Chinese zodiac Pig sign are considerate, responsible, independent and optimistic. They always show generousness and mercy to endure other people’s mistakes, which help them gain harmonious interpersonal relationships. However, sometimes they will behave lazy and lack actions. In addition, pure hearts would let them be cheated easily in daily life.”

Hmmmm…….

  • Strengths
    Warm-hearted, good-tempered, loyal, honest, gentle
  • Weaknesses
    Naive, gullible, sluggish, short-tempered
  • Hopeful!

Okay, I added that last one, but I would say that describes me almost to a tee, especially the sluggish part, which sadly, describes my writing of late.

OINK!

Also, one of the pig’s lucky numbers is “8.” Since we have eight children, I’d say that is a very lucky number indeed. At least for me. Many would say two is good. And many these days would say zero is their number!

Whatever your number is, rejoice!

Eight is my number and without it, I wouldn’t have as much to blog about. So here I am, back to my blog, even though the New Year is well tarnished and my New Year’s resolution, “to write more,” is rather rusty. It is, however, still relatively early in 2019 and there is much to accomplish and experience this year. And so today is the beginning of a new year, and a new day.

And so it is.

What is your Chinese sign? Check out the link to this site.

And that is how I am going to navigate my days….all 312 Days — or — 44 Weeks and 4 Days until the end of this year.

Who’s counting?

Each one is a hope, filled, gift.

Speaking of gifts, before I plow any further into this year, I want to glance back to the last time I wrote, which was the end of 2018. I wanted to share a peek into our holidays, and also share with you the highlighted recipe of our Christmas season. Cinnamon Buns!

The first batch of the season!

Ever since our oldest daughter Alyssa was a baby, making Cinnamon buns has been a holiday tradition. I’ll never forget that first Christmas, when I plunked her into one of our double sinks, layered with a thick warm towel and gave her some sweet dough to play with. As I stood beside her, kneading the dough, Christmas music wafting from the stereo and the warmth of the kitchen surrounding us, little did I know as a young mom, I was creating a tradition that would continue for many years. It seems appropriate to share that tradition now and also the recipe for future generations to enjoy.

I felt really blessed this past Christmas, to have seven of our eight children at home for the holidays. So much so, that I made not one, but two batches of “sticky buns,” as my mom used to call them. Now I know these aren’t the healthiest thing in the world to eat, but another thing that I’m conscious of as I grow older, and that is, I’m not going to live forever and there are some things in life that are worth making and eating. Cinnamon buns are that for me. Besides, I’m going to be writing about making Buddha bowls next, and if you eat 90% healthy, and drink lots of water, then I figure some cinnamon buns are more than okay.

Here are a few snap memories of our holidays and my cinnamon bun recipe. I have to thank my mother in law, Doreen, whose been gone for over a decade now, for she gave my husband this cook book when he left home. This book, “Five Roses Guide to Good Cooking,” is well loved and ratty and has been a staple in my cook book collection for years now.

This book has been in my recipe drawer for years now and is always my go to book for those old classic home cooked meals…thanks Grandma Doreen
Merry and Bright was the theme for our holidays
  • Our Siamese cat Ryuuki waits and waits for his people to arrive
  • Thankfully the weather stays nice until everyone is safely home
The little girls read to pass the time until the big brothers and sister arrive home
Cards arrive and I start to decorate
And I decorate….our skimpy trees that we got from the mountains are BEAUTIFUL!

The angels bring everyone home safely…thank you Tamara for my newest Angel holding the Christmas wreath…she is called, “Magnolia,” and she brings a “gathering of blessings.” Thank you Tamara, for you are one of those blessings.

And then they start coming home….

Clark arrives home on his birthday, Dec 20th, in time to blow out the candles on his cake (2+6)= 2 decades and six years… and then we are off to attend little girl’s String Christmas concert…Clark even plays when the whole group gathers to play the classic Christmas songs.
And we get the attic ready for the next kids to arrive
Then more of our children return home; Alyssa from Victoria where she has been teaching and writing

And with Alyssa, Harrison arrives home. A belated birthday celebration kicks off the holidays. Harry turned 20 on the 19th of Dec. We are so happy to have you home Harrison!

The garage, aka, “Santa’s workshop” was non admissible ….but Finally it was Christmas Eve and time to pull out the ancient book that I’ve had since my childhood….yes now an antique! ha…and time for the tradition of opening up jammies on Christmas eve and reading, “The Night Before Christmas.” Take it away David!
And always, my parents are with me
I’d like to say the stockings were hung, but in our case they have to lie down as there are so many of us! Yes, I’m a minimalist…but in the stockings are underwear, new socks, tea, coffee, and a few toys for the little ones…oh and chocolate…can’t forget the sweets
And the little girls find what Santa was working on in his workshop. Santa made a fireplace too, and a kitchen island, and beds. Mrs. Claus made stockings for the fireplace and bedding for all the beds. There are hearts on the stockings and on the bedding. Two new little Chelsie dolls are wrapped under the tree, ready to be placed in the doll house.
Two Chelsie dolls, one with a puppy and one with a kitten, were wrapped for the girls under the Christmas tree…perfect for their new house!
Another Santa work shop project was.a new shelf unit so Alyssa can keep her writing organized….Alyssa, now you can put something you aren’t using out on the curb!
And we eat….thank you Mr. Turkey!


And the kids put on a Christmas concert
And we eat…..
And we play games…Harrison liked our new Monopoly Ultimate banking game…right down his alley as he’s studying business
And Eat!!!

The girls played and played with their new dollhouse
And played more Ultimate banking~~~
And we have friends over..Clark with his school friends, J and D…maybe someday they will have a law practice together?
And finally the snow arrived…and we were enveloped in peaceful white
Alyssa, always a resourceful photographer, pulled out the ladder and started our 2018 holiday shoot….of course outside, brrrrr! but it was fun!
Victoria Hope, is our youngest, but she would tell you only by 5 minutes but her twin Kathryn, would remind her that they were 5 LONG MINUTES!

Kathryn Mira was asking for her two front teeth for Christmas
If there was another name for Joy, it wold be William…our Will lights up the world with his smile and hugs
A few days before Christmas our just turned 16 year old, Grace Elizabeth said, “cut off my hair mom”…and that’s what I did. As sad as I was to see her long chestnut locks drop to the kitchen floor, I have to say, “Grace you are growing up more beautiful every day…inside and out!”
Harrison,”we miss you, we miss you, we miss you”….but we know you are loving being away from home and rocking it at University
Clark, what I just wrote above under Harry’s pic, ditto for you. We miss you! We are so proud of all you are accomplishing at U of A.
Alyssa is our oldest and ultimate creator in so many ways. Check out her latest blogs and videos on her own site. ARReynolds~writer~photographer~artist
Note: all the pictures here were from my camera, but I must ask Alyssa for her copies as she is a true photographer. Here she is working her magic.
There we are…the Reynolds gang. Although our son Mitchell is missing…..he is however next to my heart. For the holidays he remained in Victoria, where he was working and saving money for his upcoming trip to Australia. Merry Christmas Everyone!
Bringing up the rear in this photo shoot and protesting, “you don’t want to see my face!”, is my husband David…you are, the ultimate Santa!
And then there is me Hope/aka Lee…..I’m all about plaid this year and I dragged out this old scarf from the days we lived in “Hope,”…did it belong to one of my older sisters? If any of you are watching or reading the “Outlander series, you know why I’m mad for plaid. Sisters… how much Scottish do we have in our ancestors?

And that, in a nutshell of picture memories, was a bit of our Christmas 2018. When I think about it now, I feel warm. The love in our home, the memory of the laughter, the joy on the faces of our little girls, seeing their dollhouse for the first time, the smell of cinnamon drifting from the kitchen, the magic felt when cello and violins come together to play endearing Christmas music, eggnog latte’s….I want to thank my family for the best gift of all….staying connected!

And now without further ado, the recipe that I want to share to all who read my blog. My recipe for:

Doesn’t this one look heart shaped!

Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients for the sweet dough

2 packages of active dry yeast (each pkg is a little less than 1 tbsp….so if you use bulk yeast like I do…just under 2 tbsps)

1 cup of lukewarm water

2 tsp sugar

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

6 cups of Five roses All purpose flour (or whatever you use)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp grated lemon rind

Opt: 1 cup of raisins or currants…we opt out as some of the kids don’t like them

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Instruction

Sprinkle yeast into lukewarm water, add 2 tsp sugar; let stand for 10 minutes, then stir.

Scald milk; add butter, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm and add softened yeast; mix together.

Add half the flour, 3 cups, to make a thick batter, add the 2 tsp of cinnamon and if you are using the raisins, you add 1 cup at this time. Add eggs and lemon rind and beat well.

Stir the remaining flour, using only enough to make a soft dough that does not stick to hands or bowl. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and satiny~about 10 minutes.

Me kneading for 10 minutes…really hard on the hands
But well after Christmas the kids still wanted to have their sticky buns with some hot cocoa when friends came for a play date

Place the ball into a greased bowl; turning it over to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. About 11/2 hours.

Thank you to my niece T and my older sister B for the tea towel you brought me last summer….”we must all RISE to the Occasion”

Punch down and knead lightly. Shape with a rolling pin into long rectangular pieces. (I find I can get two long rectangles with this recipe) Brush tops with the melted butter and sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon.

The little girls like doing the sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon…next year I’m getting them to knead!

Starting at the long side, tightly roll up, pinching the seam to seal. Then with a serrated knife, cut 11/2 inch pieces and lay them on a prepared pan. (I lightly spray with cooking oil) Brush melted butter over the buns and cover and let rise in a warm place for another hour or until they double in size.

The little girls top the buns with butter before they start their second rise

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 10 minutes and then lower to 350 degrees, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. My oven is hot and I find that I need to watch the buns closely. I bring them out when they are golden brown.

I frost them while they are warm using a cream cheese icing and sprinkle them with chopped pecans, walnuts or as we did at Christmas time, crushed peppermint canes.

And our kids enjoyed them so much at Christmas time, that I’ve been making them every couple of weeks since then…once when they had friends over after school and you would think I was a genius as their friends told them, “your mom is an amazing” I’ll take that!

Nothing says Christmas to me more than Cinnamon Buns…the gooier the better. One final note, years ago, I made these with my hands but now I use my kitchen aid mixer for most of the dough mixing, although the 10 minutes of kneading is all me. The next time I make them, I’m handing that task off to my younger kids and get them into the art of making this sweet dough. It’s a new day after all.

The little girls head off to school after Christmas break with their new scarves I made them for Christmas….they turned out not bad for a rookie knitter….watch out…everyone is getting a scarf!

Well dear ones, that is my long, held post and I can’t tell you how glad I am that it’s now written and ready to publish. So much has been going on at the homestead since the holidays. I started into New Year decluttering big time, inspired by Marie Kondo’s Netflix show on that subject. Then once we started to declutter, I realized our walls were really, REALLY beige.

I think this picture shows the clear definition of beige and graceful grey…I love the new grey…in some lights it looks almost greeny and then in other’s bluey….whatever, it reminds me of the lake colours in the winter.

Alyssa’s been telling me that for years. Funny, I didn’t see it, but suddenly, “Naturally Calm,” was driving me crazy. I asked Santa to take off his red hat and replace it with a painters cap. The next time he visited Home Depot, he brought me Behr’s palette of greys. As I type, Santa, aka, David is in the process of painting our interior. “Graceful Grey,” for the most part…don’t you love the name?

Stay tuned!

Also, I want to tell you about my latest discovery, “Buddha Bowls.” Yes, I know, I know, those of you who are hip and urban say, old news, but hey, we’ve been doing them all along and I want to blog about it. Who knew something we’ve been doing for years now would be so cool! They are the one stop meal for all your daily nutrition and when you are a busy mom, you need one stop and few dishes. I will be blogging about it soon, so I hope you come by for another visit. As your New Year unfolds, one joyous day at a time, may it be full of peace and love.

And to close my post, here is Will.I.Am singing, “It’s a new day.” Even though this video was from 10 years ago and our political environment is much different, I believe with a positive attitude and holding the vision for how we want our world to look, we can change much. It starts with you and me, teaching our children well…all of us together. So come on and start singing with me, “it’s a new year…it’s a new day!”

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

Blessings from Hope

Triple Berry No Sugar Muffins and Five Easy Things to Help Our Planet

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Have you ever noticed when you do one thing, several other things fall into place at the same time? It’s kind of like the above quote, “A Manifesto for a Simple Life;” when we stress less for instance, we laugh more.  Recently, it occurred to me that by becoming a more sustainable family;  growing our own food, making our own meals from scratch, concocting our own cleaning and household supplies, that we are naturally moving in the direction of becoming a zero waste family too.  And going in the direction of zero waste, melds perfectly with a vegetarian lifestyle and minimalism. And all of these things naturally move us in the direction  of supporting our earth.

Now I don’t want to give you the wrong impression; we are still far away from where Bea Johnson’s  family, is at, check out her book called, “Zero Waste Home,. But we have come a long way from the days of ordering two large pizzas every Saturday night and putting out two cans of garbage each week. (P.S. even though those pizza boxes went into the recycling, you know darn well, that anything with cheese stuck to the lid is going to end up in the landfill.)

If you are reading this blog, you  are probably like- minded and jive with what we are doing and like us, have stopped using plastic water bottles long ago, in favour of reusable ones. You probably have invested in a good quality hot beverage cup, and  even take it when you visit your favourite coffee shop; ’cause most places give you a discount when you bring your own cup now. You probably bring cloth bags when you shop and have ditched the tetra juice containers for your kids too. They were never the healthiest choice anyway. But I’m wondering if you have taken your zero waste to the next  level? (I know some of you have,  as I spied my sister C’s bamboo toothbrush on a weekend retreat last fall. She has always flowed in the green stream)

I thought I would share a few things that our family has chosen to do, which are not drastic steps but easy- peasy ones that anyone can incorporate. You may already be doing them. Bravo! They do make a big difference in our garbage output.

Five Easy Things to Help Our Planet Earth

Stop using paper towels. Instead, cut up old bath towels and kitchen clothes and turn them into rags to clean with. I use old socks that have lost their partner, (if you are a large family, you can relate) to dust with and I have some great micro fiber clothes my  sister B gave me. You just wet them, wring them out and clean; only elbow grease is required.

My little yellow plastic stacking set up for my cleaning rags. (This stacking bin was my mom’s and is ages old) As my oldest son Clark says, if you have things that are plastic, just use them! Notice the black socks…great for dusting and remind me that I should do it more often~

 

Get rid of the kleenex boxes. We use homemade handkerchiefs instead. I actually feel so pampered when I have a runny nose and use one of my beloved hankies to blow my nose with; like I’m a princess. It’s such a relief on the pocket book and the recycling bin, not to fill it with empty kleenex boxes. Remember, just because something is recycled, doesn’t mean it’s the greenest way to go.

Beloved hankies make me feel like a princess.

Paper Napkins are a thing of the past. We only use cloth napkins now, or as my eight year old says, “my sleeve works great too!” This was an easy first elimination and several years ago, my sister J, gave me some lovely cloth napkins that we use all the time, but you can easily make some from fabric scraps.

Paper lunch bags and Plastic Sandwich wraps. Again, this was an early change for us. Each family member has a reusable lunch bag, and when I have old sheets, I whip up a new batch of snack/sandwich bags. In the old days, or so I have been told, a hard boiled egg,  or baked potato etc, would be wrapped up in a cloth napkin and tied and that would be lunch. When I help out at my children’s school, I’m always so surprised to see so much packaging; granola bars, goldfish crackers in little bags; and don’t even get me started about the packaging involved with the lunchables! We can do better, all it takes is some planning and some reusable containers/bags.

Made out of an old cotton sheet, little bags make great sandwich and snack bags

Like an assembly line, the children all have their own thermos, water bottle and sandwich holders. The cotton bags keep their wraps from getting mushy next to their veggies.

No more plastic garbage bags; You know those white ones that we put in our household garbage cans? I don’t know what your set up is, but we have a black   garbage bin attached to the cupboard under our kitchen sink. When I open the door, it swings out and I dropped my garbage inside.

 

I know too easy and eventually I want it gone/empty, but until then, just getting rid of the plastic white bag is an easy first step in eliminating some plastic. Every day I just dump the contents into our main garbage can in the garage and put the pail back under the sink. Did you hear about the story of the young sperm whale that washed up off the coast of Spain in February? The whale was found to have 64 pounds of garbage in his digestive system; including plastic trash bags. If we all just stopped using plastic bags in the world that would be a huge step in saving our planet…and the animals we share it with.

As EARTH DAY approaches (April 22nd), join me in thinking about five more things that we can give up in favour of a healthier life, a healthier planet and a richer experience on earth. On this journey, I’ve discovered that I still have far to go before I’m living the life that I have imagined, however living mindfully inspires me to do more.  I feel empowered knowing that we all vote with our consumer dollars and I’m consciously aware that change happens only when we start using those dollars wisely.

And before I close I wanted to share a recipe that I made recently for a healthy, triple berry muffin, without SUGAR! Talk about doing something and then there being another spin off. I love baking for my family but I’m passionate about eliminating crack , oops, sugar from our diet. I think we can do one thing and allow something even bigger to come into our lives. Good health! Happy Children! a Blessed Planet!

Triple Berry, No Sugar Muffins

2 1/4 cups flour…I like to use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp orange rind grated

1 cup mixed frozen berries

2/3 cup butter melted

2/3 cup liquid honey

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk…I use almond milk

Directions

In a small bowl mix the berries with the cinnamon.Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients, along with the grated orange rind. 

In a medium bowl, mix the butter and the honey. Add the slightly beaten eggs and the milk. 

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture.

Now fold in the cinnamon and berries.

Remember to only mix until combined…muffins do not turn out well when over mixed

Spray muffin tin…and for regular sized muffins, spoon the batter filling each tin about 3/4’s. ….however I like mine bigger.

Finally, if you want a bit more of something….try a sprinkle of cut up walnuts…a healthy addition too.

Bake in preheated oven 400 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes

Although this recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins…I like them big so I double the recipe and it makes 18 muffins for our family….but oh, they go fast so get ready to make another batch soon.

I used the triple berries from Super Store and some honey that I’ve had in the cupboard for ages….what a hit!

I made these muffins last Thursday, on wear a sports jersey to school day, in memory of the Humboldt Bronco’s. The kid’s didn’t bat an eye when I told them they were no sugar muffins….”can you make more?” is all I heard.

Since I will start work later this week at  my seasonal gardening gig,  and this will be my last blog post for the week, I thought I would share a YouTube video called, “Earth Day.” I hope it inspires you to  take a moment and look around your part of the world…and bless it. This is our home, let’s take good care of it, if not for ourselves, for our children and their children, and all the creatures great and small who we share the world with.

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

Blessings from Hope

Shepherd’s Pie, Cornmeal Muffins, Berry Coffee Cake

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Does this post’s title make you hungry?

I know it’s a lot of food all in one place but we need serious comfort food around here.

It snowed last night.

Again!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate living in a climate where there are four seasons, but this year, I’ve had enough snow. I’m done with winter.  I want the snow to melt, for the sun to warm the air,  and for some buds to start forming on our trees.

Anyone that isn’t buying into global warming, and the fact that we may have gone too far damaging our Mother Earth, isn’t living my reality. Nor are they recognizing what’s going on all over our planet; sea levels are rising, there’s unusual flooding, the glaciers are melting, storms are raging, and then there are the droughts. In my part of the world winter is going on and on.  We are ALL experiencing extreme weather conditions.

At least where we live, we only have to deal with snow storms and icy conditions in the winter, flooding in the spring, forest fires in the summer and then comes fall. That’s the season where we  pull up our socks, so we can do it all over again.

Yeah, it’s much worse in other parts of the world so I shouldn’t complain. But watching this winter go on and on, when in the past I would be doing my spring garden clean up,  just gets me thinking about how fast things are changing climate wise.

As I popped another chew-able Vitamin D, I picked up our  local newspaper. Reading the article on the front page, made me smile and brought a tear to my eye.

I love living in a small community where the big story is “Men brave icy waters to save deer.” As it turned out a group of Okanagan men jumped into action just in time, to ensure a deer didn’t meet her demise in the icy waters of Okanagan Lake.

That story warmed my heart and while I’m still annoyed at the lingering winter weather, I’m happy that I live in a little town where first, a story like this makes front page, and second, there are good citizens who will risk their own lives to save a helpless animal.

I think I can endure winter a bit longer. Maybe this is yet another letting go moment. I mean there isn’t anything I can do about the weather conditions. I can either be grumpy about it, or find something good about it and today, I’m going to smile. It may be winter but there is goodness here.

With that perspective,  I looked out at the snow gently falling, like soft angel feathers and I felt sheltered. I took a deep breath and relaxed a bit more into this season; a bit more into this moment.

Besides shifting my perspective, I  also am choosing to make our family a warm meal so when they come home tonight we have some comfort food. Since it’s Friday, there’s not a lot in the fridge but with some creativity I can come up with something. (Lately, I like to stretch as far as I can before going shopping;  to see how inventive I can become with what we have in our fridge and cupboards and you know what?–there is always something to make to feed our family.

Tonight,  in an effort to eat Vegetarian, which helps our planet , I’m spinning our normal meat based, “Shepherd’s Pie,” and using some “Yves Veggie Ground Round.” This is a hamburger- like product and is a good source of protein and low in fat. It’s also really cheap compared to hamburger. I buy a large package, which has four small packages inside. We get three or four dinners for a total of ($10.00) which is amazing. The big news is that eating vegetarian meals helps our planet…see link above.  It’s also been known to fool meat loving individuals in our family. When they have to ask me, “is this meat, or your soy thingy,” then you know it’s good.

If you are looking to drop hamburger from your family’s repertoire, but want to ease gently into a plant based, I’d recommend trying the Veggie Ground round.

Come on into my kitchen and we can whip up dinner tonight. I’m thinking the menu will be “Shepherds Pie, a spinach salad, and some cornbread muffins. And for dessert, a mixed berry coffee cake. My sister J brought a bag of frozen raspberries from her harvest last summer, and I have a few blueberries still in the freezer. Making comfort food in the winter, makes me happy.

Let’s get cooking….

Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

2 packages of Veggie Ground (The package I buy has four small packs and I use two small packs)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion chopped

4 tbsp of flour

1 cup of beef broth, (you can substitute this with a vegetable broth…I buy the organic jars from Costco)

11/2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables

Ground pepper

3 cups of mashed potatoes, (I make mine with lots of garlic and some dill)

Garnish with paprika

Directions

(Peel potatoes, cook them and mash them)

In an large iron skillet, sauté the onions in olive oil until lightly brown, add the veggie ground and break it up, cooking it well. You can season here with pepper and a bit of salt.

Add the flour and mix well, cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Add the beef broth, frozen vegetables and season again with ground pepper.

If your potatoes are mashed, don’t forget to add a nice seasoning…we like to add some dill or garlic to our potatoes.

Now fill a large casserole dish with the veggie ground round mixture and top with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbling hot.

This recipe feeds 4 to 6 people but when I add salad, and cornbread it feeds eight. If our older kids are home, I would just add a bit more ground round and mashed potatoes.

Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients and Directions

Mix 3/4 cup cornmeal with 1 cup of milk and set aside

Sift together, 11/4 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar, set aside

Stir into the cornmeal/milk mixture, 2 beaten eggs, and ½ cup of melted butter(cooled) or vegetable oil and 2 tbsp of liquid honey. Now add the liquid to dry ingredients.

Don’t over mix, it’s okay if there are a few lumps.

Fill prepared muffin pan, filling each cup to ¾’s

Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges

Eat immediately with some butter….yum….or later with some jam.

And now for dessert:

Berry Coffee Cake…this is a recipe that I’ve made for years and it’s always great but lately, I’ve been making it with coconut oil and I’ve noticed there are never any leftovers. It is a bit more dense but worth the flavour.

Ingredients

1 cup of frozen berries….blueberries or raspberries work best

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup butter…or coconut oil

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

11/2 tsp vanilla…or you can use some coconut extract and some vanilla…it’s great together

11/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2/3 cup milk…I used some almond milk and it turned out great

Directions

Toss Blueberries with cinnamon and set aside

Mix coconut oil or butter with sugar until creamy, add eggs one at a time.

Mix dry ingredients

Add alternatively the milk and the dry ingredients to the oil and sugar mixture, then fold in the berries

Put in a prepared bundt pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden and toothpick comes out clean

Cool in the pan to allow the berries to set before removing from pan

Once cooled, flip the bundt pan onto a rack and allow it to cool further.

Finally, place it on a serving dish and sprinkle with some icing sugar, or a lemon glaze.

On Friday nights we like to watch “Planet Earth” episodes with our kids on Netflix but I’m thinking they might like to see the following video first. We can make a difference on this planet by the choices we make every day. Today, I’m choosing to settle into the season a bit deeper, to make a vegetarian meal for my family and to get our family talking about the ways we can walk the earth a bit more gently.

Check out the video below. Maybe you can share it with your family and it will generate some meaningful discussion.

Here’s the link to the video,  “The diet that helps fight climate change.”

Until Spring comes, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Lemon Meringue Pie and Just Smile

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My mom loved to smile. Even though she was a child who lived through the tough depression years, even though she was a young woman during World War Two,  even though she became a widow at  39, and was left to care for her daughters,  she learned the art of smiling.

Random Fact:

If you smile, even if you’re in a bad mood, it will immediately improve your mood, because the simple action of thinking about smiling and using the muscles is enough to trigger happy chemicals in the brain.

As a child, if I woke up grumpy and wandered out of my bedroom with a frown on my face, my mom would tell me to go back to bed and get out the other side with a smile on my face. At the time, it often made me grumpier; I felt like my real feelings were being ignored. In time, I learned the wisdom of this advice.

(Above: My mom, dad, and three older sisters…I’m in mom’s lap)

After my Dad was killed in a truck accident when I was five, my mom moved our family away from our small town of Hope, (yep, I was born in Hope. I like to say literally and figuratively) and moved us to the nearby big city of Chilliwack. People there did not know our story. As a single parent and sole provider, mom took a typing course and got a job as a front desk clerk/receptionist, at one of the larger hotels in Chilliwack.

Mom greeted all the guests with a friendly face and would smile at everyone she met. All this cheerfulness however annoyed one of mom’s co-workers. She apparently hated mom’s  smiling countenance, and snarled her negative feelings of mom’s attitude to another co-worker saying, “what does she have to be so happy about?” This other co-worker knew a tiny bit of mom’s history and took a moment to share this with the  annoyed co-worker. Nothing further was said, until one day that angry woman approached mom and said, “I know a bit of your story, but what I don’t understand is why you smile so much.”

Mom looked at her seriously and said, “If I don’t smile, I will cry.”

After that, this co-worker became a friend and even she was found smiling from time to time.  Also, years later, mom’s brilliant smile and warmth, attracted a man who came to the hotel one day. That man became my step father, “Bud,” and for many years my mom smiled and laughed until Bud had a heart attack and passed away. Mom was just 59 years old. Despite being widowed once again, after grieving another loss, she showed us all how to spread joy with her generous smile.

 

A Happy Birthday moment…mom would light up the room with her laughter

She taught me much about smiling

It’s been a tough winter for me. As you may know from previous posts I’ve written recently, I’m trying to find a new groove in my life. Our family is changing and I’ve never been great with change. Three of our eight children have left home and  each time one of them leaves, it feels like an earth quake has shaken our home.  My heart quivers with after shocks for months afterwards. Our oldest son, Clark will be next,  as he’s heading off to law school in the fall. Even our youngest, our six year old twins, Kathryn and Victoria, don’t seem to be need me  quite as much now that they are BIG grade ones.

Then there is the fact that I don’t do well in the winter. At least not where we live. I think I suffer from “SAD”, (seasonal affective disorder)The Okanagan Valley, in the southern part of British Columbia, Canada, is known for these great inversions. The winter clouds roll in sometime in November and we rarely see any sun until March. Oh, and then there is the bitter cold, and dumps of endless snow. I think I could bare both, if they were accompanied now and then with some sun. Snow is truly magical and I do love this season of bundling up and hibernating, but it’s the sun that gives me the daily lift to feel happy and hopeful.

(Above is a picture from my kitchen window…a break in the clouds finally)

But today, I’m thinking about my mom, thinking about her smile, and also about winter, and this day; February 28th. Six years ago today, my mom had a massive stroke and died. We knew she was declining but I had hoped she would be with us longer. Once we moved her into an extended care home, after a hospital stay, I think she said to herself, “I’m outta here!” Thankfully the weekend before she passed away,  (Februrary 28, 2012) there were many golden moments where her light shone.

I brought our twin daughters, who were just starting to crawl over to her new home. As they explored under and around her bed, she smiled at them.

(Above are Victoria and Kathryn, our twins…they made mom laugh with their antics during our last visit with her)

My sister C and her husband D, brought their beautiful golden retriever, “Sunny,” for a visit. As Sunny rested her head on the edge of mom’s bed, looking up at her with compassionate brown eyes, mom smiled.

And when mom would wake from one of her drifting dreams, she would smile gently, saying she had been at the beach with her brother Dick, who had moved on beyond this mortal veil.

When I think of my mom, I smile. I’m thankful I had her for so many years. I’m thankful that I still feel her presence in my life now. Even on my darkest days this winter, she has been close, whispering into my  ear, “find something to smile about.”

Something to be grateful for.

And that brings me to the point of this post. So many people in the world, seem to be searching for simple joy and certainly something to smile about. With the recent school shooting at the  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the bombing continuing in Syria, even though the UN has tried desperately to get a cease fire, there isn’t much to smile about in the world.

And yet, I think of mom. I think about all those who aren’t here on earth any longer. If they could come back for one day,  what would they say to us? Maybe, “be thankful to be alive? “Be thankful to have the choice to smile.” “Maybe, try to make a difference in this world.” Mother Teresa isn’t here any longer either, but her acts of kindness and her words live on……

Yes, let us  meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. And I think peace too. And don’t we need that in the world right now?

And so today, I force the corners of my mouth to go up, instead of down. I think of ways that I can help those who are dealing with serious issues and I ask myself, “what can I do today for them?”

I can smile.

And what else can I do?….well, I can bake a pie and share a family recipe.

Thinking about my mom, makes me think about lemon meringue pies.

OOOOLALA….Delish!

She loved them. Well, she loved anything lemon and so do I. Especially at the end of winter; when I need something tart and zesty to lighten my palate and remind myself that spring is just around the corner.

So I think a good closer for this blog post is to share my recipe for lemon meringue pie, and the homemade crust recipe as well. I made two of these recently and my family inhaled them, literally in two sittings. They must have inherited my mom’s love for lemons. And they too must be starved for sunshine.

So on yet another snowy winter day, please join me in my kitchen and we will start to make the crust which is soooo easy, you won’t believe it. I’ll do the crust and you can start cracking some eggs, separating the yolks from the whites. And we can chat about other ways to help change the world….starting from our own home.

LET’S BEGIN with the…..

Pie Crust Recipe... I can’t take the credit; this is the Tenderflake recipe which is perfect every time!!! Who wants to mess with perfection?

Note: The recipe below makes 6 crusts…which is a lot for most families but I freeze the extra pie crusts and use it for other pies or  for my chicken pot pie recipe, which I have to blog about…coming soon… I promise.

Ingredients for Pie Crust

  • 5½ cups or 850g of all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp or 10 g salt
  • 1 pound or 465 grams Tenderflake® lard , rendered lard, or 1/2 lard and 1/2 butter, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon or 15 grams vinegar
  • 1 egg , lightly beaten
  • Ice Water

Instructions to make pie crust

  1. Whisk flour and salt; cut in ice cold fat until it is pea sized or looks like slow cooking raw oats
  2. In a 1 cup liquid measure, combine vinegar and egg; add ice water to make 1 cup
  3. Gradually pour liquid around the edges of the mixture, mixing by hand, adding only enough for dough to cling together
  4. Form gently into a ball; divide into 6 equal portions on counter

  1. Wrap and label portions
  2. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes if you are using right away, or
  3. Freeze for future use by placing wrapped pastry dough in container, tightly sealed
  4. When ready to use, roll out each portion on lightly floured surface; If pastry dough is sticking, chill for another hour or two
  5. Transfer rolled pastry dough to pie plate
  6. Trim and flute shells or crusts and bake according to your pie recipe

When making crust for lemon meringue pies, you just use ONE bottom crust,  , use a fork to prick the sides and the bottom of the pastry crust and place it in the oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes or until it looks golden. (watch closely)

When done, set it aside to cool on a rack

Lemon Meringue Pie Filling….this is where you will use the separated eggs!

Ingredients/Filling

1-1/4 cups sugar

6 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups boiling water

5 egg yolks, beaten (set aside the egg whites to sit at room temperature)

2 tbsp of butter

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp grated lemon rind

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt, mixing well. Stir in boiling water. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, translucent and just starting to bubble. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir for 1 minute more. Remove from heat. Whisk a little of hot mixture into beaten egg yolks; whisk back into the pan with half of the butter. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add remaining butter, lemon juice, rind and vanilla; stir until uniformly thick and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside, partially covered.

Ingredients for the Meringue

5 egg whites at room temperature

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

Directions for Meringue

In a bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. (I use my electric beater) Add lemon juice, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Combine 1 tbsp of the sugar with cornstarch; set aside. Beat in remaining sugar 1 tbsp at a time, then cornstarch mixture. Beat until stiff and glossy, about 2 minutes. Pour filling into pie shell. Spread merigue over hot filling right to the edge of the crust; swirl into peaks. Bake in 325 degree oven for 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Let cool for at least 2 hours for a clean slice.

Smile and Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn’t that easy?

And before I close, in memory of mom today, I wanted to share a video link to Jimmy Durante singing, “Smile.” I love you mom!

If we can do nothing else, let us smile.

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

Blessings from Hope

 

Pumpkin Cake Roll and a New Year, a New Day, a New Chapter

/ Lee Reynolds

“New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today, carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.”            
                                                                                                           ~Sarah Ban Breathnach~

Happy New Year!

It’s taking me a bit of time to get rolling this year. Our holiday celebrations took a toll on me. I thought I was doing amazing. The house was sparkling, (and decluttered!!!) the tree and Christmas decorations were up, most of my baking was done, and all the presents were wrapped and hidden safely away from curious little ones asking questions like, “is Santa real?” and “how does he get through the glass that covers our gas fireplace?”

I was pretty proud of myself. We got this Grand Fir and the huge poinsettia that’s in the living room with points from the  Super Store. Little things like that really helped so we could stretch our dollars at Christmas time.

Then on the Thursday before Christmas, during our twin daughter’s violin recital, I started to feel hot and dizzy. That was the beginning. Even though I pushed through the few next days, buying a horde of groceries on Friday and then on Saturday doing all the final things to ready our house for our returning, out of town children, I knew some kind of virus was taken me hostage.

 

Victoria before the December recital
Kathryn a bit before the recital…the recital when I started to feel ill…..but the concert was GREAT!

And sure enough, as Christmas loomed, a roaring headache took hold, my body was feverish and I started to cough. I had contracted a respiratory flu virus. I think I could even trace the moment it flew into my mouth. The weeks before Christmas, our three youngest took turns being sick and one evening, as I was reading with Victoria, she turned to me and coughed right in my face. In slow motion, I could feel the invisible virus laughing and jeering at me. I think I may have staved off the illness too as my immune system has been really strong but in December I was burning the candle pretty low, and it pushed myself beyond even my limits.

And those limits are far.

I have built a strong endurance muscle over the years. I think a lot of women with large families have this muscle. It’s called, “if you don’t do it, it won’t get done.”

Since I have three Christmas babies, (Clark born on Dec 20th, Harrison born on the 19th, and Grace was born on Dec 5th. She was actually due on the 18th. Can you imagine having children’s birthday’s on the 18th, 19th, and 20th and then doing Christmas!!! Thankfully she arrived a few weeks early. Suffice it to say, I have had a few holiday seasons were I was nursing a newborn, throwing birthday parties, caring for older children, buying and wrapping presents and then stuffing and cooking the turkey; WITHOUT ANY HELP..

Yeah so my limits and ability to get through difficult times are tremendous.

But this year, that virus really took the edge off things.

Being sick while trying to push through teaches valuable lessons. That there are times in life when you have to really listen to your body, slow down and do just what needs doing.And sometimes you have to ask for help.

Hmmmm, imagine that….asking for help.

There is a certain sense of strength that comes after pushing through a tough time and finding yourself on the other side. But being able to ask for help teaches us to be humble enough to realize that we can’t always do it all.

And it’s okay.

Somehow I made it through the holidays. On Dec 23rd, I had to ask my oldest son to cook the rib roast and pull together dinner and he did an amazing job. On Dec 24th, Alyssa and Grace iced the dozens of gingerbread and sugar cookies I had made. Even Will trudged through the deep snow and fed the chickens a few times.

As Alyssa was combing through her books and belongings and deciding what to take back to her new home, she tossed me a book that she had already read.

Guess what it’s called?

“The Art of Asking.” by Amanda Palmer

And while I have not read this book…yet…. I thought it was pretty remarkable that our oldest daughter, who is just in her 20’s, has already contemplated something that I have taken a lifetime to learn. Maybe we do build our own endurance muscles when we do it ourselves. I know Alyssa certainly has since she picked herself up and flew off to London to teach for two years without hardly knowing a soul. She had to move several times, schlepping her suitcases onto buses and trains and got herself all over London on various teaching assignments.

There are times in our life when we push our limits and build our muscles and there are times when we hit a wall and have to ask for help. She learned that when she was over on the other side of the world she could rely on herself but she also knew that having a support system of friends in place was crucial if she needed to ask for her. I remember in one instance, her apartment flooded and she needed to find a place to stay and her friends were there for her.

Anyway, aren’t our children sometimes our BEST teachers?

The holidays glittered in so many ways.

We made wonderful memories. We had a lot of laughs. We had some delicious food and drinks. With our children growing older, I realize that they can help and have strong muscles too. If you never ask, you will never receive and so part of the joy of this holiday was receiving. Our older ones were more than happy to help me and even our younger ones, built a bit of muscle too. We realized that being a family means helping each other, especially when times are tough.

When mom is sick.

William is learning to play chess at school and got a chess set for Christmas….not this one….his new one is in a lovely wooden box and actually has other games included with it.

 

On Christmas night the kid’s put on a Christmas concert for us. William literally lights our family up with joy….I’m so glad that we pursued having our last four children. It wasn’t easy, and we certainly didn’t have support of our family and friends. Our society also doesn’t value large families and certainly having them later in life is frowned upon.  But when you are writing your own story, you need to listen from within and follow your heart. JOY COMES…and in our case, it came in the form of a beautiful boy named Will. And before him we were given a piece of Grace when our daughter Grace Eliabeth arrived in time for Christmas 2002. Then in 2011 we were given a miracle and a reminder that hope is the key when Kathryn Mira and Victoria Hope were born. So Grace, Joy, Miracle and Hope are present each holiday now.
This is our son Harrison’s 1st plate of food on Christmas…..hey, where’s the ambrosia? Each one of the kids were in charge of a certain part of dinner….it was a family affair.

That was the real magic in the air this year….along with my barking cough.

Alyssa took some wonderful pictures with the old Canon camera we gave her many Christmases ago…….and here are just a few of our Christmas memories.

 

Kathryn and Victoria are 6 this holiday and always have each other’s back. They are the BEST of friends

 

Grace just turned 15 and has been one busy girl this year. She is working on her grade 9 RCM piano level, working on her grade 7 in voice, sings in the school choir, andt completed her bronze cross in swimming. For some reason she didn’t think she was busy enough so she signed up for Junior girls basketball team. As I type this she is leaving for a tournament out of town.She laughs when she hears about what most teenagers are flipping out about….boys, or social stuff. The typical teenage drama doesn’t faze her. She recently told me that she thinks focusing on her extra curricular activities and getting straight A’s in school is keeping it real.
Alyssa and Grace are almost 13 years apart, like my oldest sister and I, and like B and I, they too are the best of friends. They share many of the same interests. Piano, swimming, and over Christmas they enjoyed just hanging out, baking, icing cookies, and they even spent a bit of time in our Hobbit’s hollow crawl space where they caught up on a few of their fav Netflix shows….”Stranger Things,” being one of them.

 

Harrison was happy to be home and eat food this Christmas. He says the food at the University is not always the greatest….and he really missed his friends as well and spent a lot of time catching up and, ahem….partying…but hey, he just turned 19 he’s legal to drink now. One of the gifts he got for his birthday before Christmas was a small bar fridge for his residence room. Hopefully now he can get a few healthy snacks to supplement those cafeteria meals.

 

Mitchell is going to be finishing his Science (Psychology major) degree in a few months. I found it rather funny that considering he works part time at the downtown Victoria, “Serious Coffee,” that he wasn’t sick of the stuff….but over Christmas he could often be found with a mug in his hand. He’s such a cool guy and so fun to be with. He tells the greatest stories too and has a very interesting perspective on life….an old soul for sure!

 

Our oldest son Clark just turned 25 before Christmas and really enjoyed hanging out with the family and seeing friends over the holidays.He can always be counted on to shovel the drive=way, help out with the little ones and amazingly….he learned to make a wicked rib roast dinner…the BEST I’ve ever tasted and I’m not much of a beef eater.
The little kids love hanging out with their big brother. Clark helps the little girls with their violin, and he sometimes reads in animated voices to William…..I loved hearing him read Harry Potter to him before Christmas. The BEST is when he comes home with treats after a day that he has worked at the Science Centre. The one sad thing about having a large family is often the older kids are out of the door while the little ones are growing up but it’s been nice that Clark could attend University in the Okanagan and continue to share in his little siblings daily life. What a great bond and many memories they have shared together. After Clark’s personal pictures were taken, I asked the kids if they wanted a picture with their big bro and they flew to be at his side with big smiles on their faces.

 

 

Alyssa told me that when she returned to Victoria after Christmas, a remarkable thing happened. It felt like she was going home. After years of traveling back and forth to University, and then her two years teaching and adventuring in the U.K. she is happy to settle down and find a cool groove where she can teach and write….and yes travel. Sometimes you have to leave home and experience elsewhere to realize REAL home feels like to you. We are so glad you found your place by the sea Alyse….and now we can visit!!!

 

Honestly, I felt like death warmed over in this picture but somehow David and I pulled off another Christmas with our family

 

And I give you the Reynolds family Christmas 2017….thanks for pulling the pictures together Alyssa!

My husband David was his usual super dad self. He drove to the coast and back on the 23rd, picking up the kids from the Vancouver Island ferry terminal. He swung by Ikea to pick up a new mattress for the attic we have been renovating. Then to top things off, over the Christmas holiday, he made our oldest daughter a few furniture pieces for her new digs by the ocean in Victoria. And finally, he took the kids back on New Year’s day. Driving them home all the way to Vancouver Island in one day. Getting them food at Costco the next day and returning back to the Okanagan in time to return to work on Jan 3rd!

Alyssa was given an espresso machine and coffee maker for Christmas but of course now David had to make her a beverage table for her new appliances. He used this cool grey barn wood for the top and the lower shelf and painted the legs etc all black….it was so amazing! I WANT ONE! (what a trooper ’cause the garage was FREEZING!!!)
Alyssa took a ton of books back with her and of course, if you give a mouse a cookie…she needs a bookcase to go with all those books…here is her new bookcase in calla lilly white with a beadboard backing…very old school and perfect for her blue, white and grey decor at her oceanside place in Victoria
Okay and if the beverage table and the bookcase weren’t enough, our birch tree is dying so David used some of the old wood to make her a lamp for her bedroom. This birch tree was planted when Alyssa was just a little girl so there is some history there and a nice piece to take back to Victoria…..I’m going to get David to make more of these lamps for the other kids….I think it’s neat for them to have something off the our property….and a memory from Lakelin Reach, our homestead

AMAZING Man!

 

And woodwork talent must run in the family since William, Kathryn and Victoria, made these cute barn board snow men for their Christmas gifts for us….these are keepers!!! Thank you to their wonderful school teachers. They are so blessed to have the BEST teachers in the world.

 

And just so we don’t forget, Christmas 2017 was very snowy. Thanks to our three strong sons, they kept the driveway clear

So Alyssa, our oldest is back to her high school English gig in Victoria, our son’s Mitchell and Harrison are back to the University of Victoria, and all the younger ones are back to school. Clark our oldest son did his second LSAT before Christmas and he just found out that he did extremely well. He received a 166, which is in the 93rd percentile, so Whoo hoo! a little celebration happy dance happening here. I know he would tell me to knock on wood, but hopefully he will be accepted to law school next fall, and as his best friend who is already in his 2nd year of law said, he would be absolutely shocked if he didn’t get in with that kind of score. Time will tell but that is exciting news for the new year. Maybe all those debates we had will finally pay off! Great work Clark!

So life is humming along here to a degree. Although if I’m being truly honest, I’m a bit bummed. Today my writing group started a new workshop session and I will not be attending.

BUMMER!

I knew it might me iffy, since despite being really careful and choosing the best, most useful gifts for our children at Christmas, we did go a bit overboard. Then there was the expense of bringing them all home and getting them back with food in their cupboards.

And to top it off, during the trip to he Island, even though David was driving extremely carefully in the snowy, winter conditions, a car flew by them and a large rock flew up and shattered our sun roof on our van. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Well, thank heavens no one was hurt and the impact didn’t startle David to lose control of the van and crash, but well, in the end that was an expense we hadn’t counted on. Interestingly enough the deductible we have to pay is exactly the same amount as my writing workshop fee.

Isn’t it interesting how that works out!

How life gives you choices and you have to pick a path.

Hence,  I’m at home writing, instead of sequestered with my writing mentor and buds this morning.

BUMMER!

I was really looking forward to digging deeper with my group and getting some meaningful writing accomplished in the next three months. As I was straightening up the house after the kids went to school this morning, I was kind of depressed that I wasn’t getting ready to head off to join the group. How in the heck am I going to get my book finished if I don’t have the guidance and support of my group of cohorts.

And then I gave myself a kick in the butt.

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”                                                              ~Helen Keller~

Or wrote a book!

And with that quote in mind, I realized that as marvelous as my writing group is, as inspiring as my mentor L is, nothing can prevent me from writing what is often bursting from my soul. Unless I allow depression and pessimism to take hold.

This is a new year, a new chapter in my life and I can write whatever I want in my book. And damn, by the rich smell of my life’s compost, this will be a fertile year. Not just for my writing, but for us finishing up the attic renovation, the second wall above the pool, and more garden space built in the back forty.

“When you lay the seeds of your dreams in the rich hummus of optimism, abundance grows.” ~Lee Reynolds~

We are due to have another dump of snow in the next day or so and while we are still hibernating indoors to a large degree. This is a good time to get some words written, some borscht soup made, and print out the goals I want to accomplish this year.

 How about you? Have you written the first few lines of your new chapter? 

This is my latest mantra. A mantra that my Traditional Chinese Medical doctor used to say to me before my acupuncture sessions years ago, when I was trying to till the fertile soil of my body so we could conceive another baby…..as it turns out….our William….. And that mantra is: 

“This is a new day!”

 How do you want to live it?

Maybe reading a book, or making my Pumpkin Roll cake below. If you are spending a lot of time tucked under a quilt like me this winter, I’d love to share a whimsical novel I read over the holidays. If you enjoy a bit of fantasy, you are a homesteading fan, and love children or yearn for them, (and if you are a reader of my blog, I imagine some of that interests you) then you probably will enjoy this beautifully, lyrical book.

My winter, must read recommendation is: “Snow Child,” by Eowyn Ivey.  

 
 I hope you love it as much as I did.

And now for my sister B’s recipe for:

Auntie Bonnie’s Pumpkin Roll Cake

She gave this to me years ago and my kids love it. It’s super easy too so I don’t know why we don’t make it more often. Okay
 without further ado, here it is.

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 cup of granulated sugar
2/3 of a cup of canned pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Filling Ingredients

6 ounces of cream cheese
1 cup powdered icing sugar
4 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Beat 3 eggs on high speed of mixer for 5 minutes; gradually beat in 1 cup of granulated sugar. Stir 2/3 cup canned pumpkin and 1 tsp lemon juice. Stir together 3/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp salt. Fold into pumpkin mixture

Spread on greased and floured 15x10x1 inch pan. Top with 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts

Bake at 375 F degrees for 15 minutes. Turn onto a towel that is sprinkled with powdered sugar. Starting at the narrow end, roll the towel and cake together; Cool

Unroll. for filling combine 1 cup of powdered sugar, 6 ounces of creamed cheese, 4 tbsp of butter, or margarine, and 1/2 tsp vanilla; beat until smooth. Spread evenly over the cake; Roll; chill; slice and serve…..makes enough for a large family of 10….US! Perfect!

I whipped this up while I was still feeling very under the weather but boy was it good!


This is a lovely, light dessert, absolutely perfect after a winter dinner….or even after a light soup, salad and bun dinner. The spices are yummy and so warming. Absolutely perfect to take and share during a winter potluck.

Enjoy!!!

As the new year unfolds, I hope you open to the idea of writing the first pages of your 2018 book with optimism and joy. Let it be one that you can look back, turn the pages and smile.

Write it well.

And remember, today is a new day and anything is possible.

If you can’t see the link above, check out the Celine Dion song, “A New Day.” I remember hearing that this song meant a lot to her as she went through a lot of pain and struggle to have her first son. When he finally born, it felt like a new day had come. I can relate as you know, that was a mantra that I used when we were trying to conceive and it gave me hope daily that each day holds new possibilities in our life.

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

Blessings from Hope
 

Rich Chocolate Cake~*~Happy Valentine’s Day!

/ Lee Reynolds

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browing 1806-1861

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Before this day of love flies by, I did want to stop, wave hi, wish you much love and share a delicious chocolate cake recipe. You may have a homemade classic that you love, but I have to say THIS cake recipe never fails to be rich and delicious. Even today, when I ran out of cocoa, and used Baker’s unsweetened melted squares in my cake mix AND my frosting…it turned out so GOOD!

It’s all in a good base.

And since it was Valentine’s day today, I decorated it with a little red heart made out of sprinkles. The kids loved it. I’ve never been a HUGE cake eater…and my family will tell you that chocolate cake was never my fav either. I know,

CRAZY!!!

but I had a bad experience when I was a child and was off chocolate cake for years.

Every year on my birthday I looked longingly towards having a vanilla or lemon cake and each year my mom would present me with a beautiful cake…but it would be chocolate. I know, that seems so rude, and so unappreciative, but hey, it was MY birthday. I know there are four girls in my family and maybe she really couldn’t remember who liked what kind of cake best but I think, when she went to buy my cake, because SHE loved chocolate soooo much, she just couldn’t understand why I didn’t and she ended up bringing me home what she liked.

….until I think I was 40, she finally clued in and you know what…by then, I had grown to appreciate chocolate and you know what, at the end of her days, she liked a light vanilla or lemon cake.

Go figure!

Judging by how fast this cake disappears…I mean the day I make it, it’s gone, I know this is a good recipe to share with you.

If you are looking for a rich, moist, delicious cake…a chocolate cake, then try this recipe…and there will be no going back to french vanilla again,

Well, until Easter anyway.

In the next month I’m going to perfect a homemade white cake, ’cause my mom’s bunny cake was ALWAYS a white cake and gee, that’s only a month away.

Once Valentine’s day comes and goes, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump before we are to spring. But, for now, I’m going to share this with you, make a pot of tea and go and see if there is one more slice left before the day is over.

Will (above) and our twins, Victoria and Kathryn, working on their Valentine’s day cards (thanks for the stickers Auntie B)

Let me know what you think…I would love to hear a comment. Is anyone reading my blog???

I made this cake last week and I didn’t even decorate the top…it was inhaled!

Rich and Moist Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 cup all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
11/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp of instant coffee powder
1 cup milk (I used an unsweetened vanilla almond milk and it was yum)
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil….and if you have coconut oil that would be AMAZING
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup of boiling water 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Mix dry ingredients on low speed, until everything is well combined.

Slowly add the milk, oil, eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Boil 1 cup of water and add 1 tbsp of instant coffee powder to the water until it’s dissolved. On low speed, slowly add the boiling water to the mix, gradually increasing the speed until it’s on high for one minute.

Note: This mixture will be very thin and runny, after adding the water but don’t worry, that is the correct consistency and your cake will turn out to be rich and set beautifully.

Distribute the batter evenly, into two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes on middle rack in your oven. When toothpick comes out clean it’s done.

Let cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing the cakes, cool on a wire rack. Before icing, chill cake in the fridge for an hour or until well cooled.

Now the part my kids love the best, ’cause they love to lick the bowl,my spatula, the beaters, and hope there is a bit left…there always is a bit  in the bowl just for them.

Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Icing

1 cup of butter softened
3 cups of powdered sugar
4 tbsp of cocoa powder or 2 ounces of bakers unsweetened chocolate squares, melted
2 tsp of vanilla extract
2-4 tbsp of heated milk and 2 tbsp of instant coffee dissolved in it

Whip butter in a mixer, add 2 cups of powdered sugar until creamy
Add the cocoa or the melted chocolate squares
Add vanilla extract
Add the heated milk with instant coffee
Add remainder of icing sugar until your icing reaches the consistency you desire to spread.

I whip it on high until the icing is light and fluffy

With butter knife, frost cooled cake and decorate with coconut, nuts, sprinkles, or as I did a few days ago when I was in the hurry…nothing. My family inhales this cake.

If you knew how little time I had to frost this cake and pull Valentine’s day together….but it can be done and you know what…it gets eaten so fast that it doesn’t have to look perfect….but boy did it taste delish!

And before I say a final goodbye, I just wanted to share something that has been going on around here…it’s always something.

In the last 2 weeks, our family dynamic has changed again. I’m going to write a blog post about our oldest daughter Alyssa leaving home, again well, in truth, she was only home for a long visit this last time but she is off on another life adventure. Working and living on Vancouver Island. 

Our oldest daughter Alyssa up early to get going on her latest adventure…teaching and living on Vancouver Island

And our son Mitchell is also no longer at home, having chosen his University town to be his chosen place to call home.

Our number 2 son, Mitchell…home at Christmas time….love you wherever you are and whatever you are doing

 

 As our family changes and shifts, I’m thinking a lot about love and letting go this year and I wanted to share a wonderful video by Dr. Maya Angelou on loving and letting go.

She shares a special message and reminds us that it doesn’t matter where your loved ones are, the message for them is…..”I love you…” 

And this Valentine’s day….it’s dedicated to my children, Mitchell and Alyssa…. I love you! 

If you can’t see below, click on the hyper-link to see Dr. Maya Angelou on loving and letting go



What a beautiful message.  What a beautiful person Maya Angelou was.

1 Corinthians 13:13
~And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.~

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

Blessings from Hope
 

Raspberry Crumble ~Winter Chicken Care

/ Lee Reynolds

“How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!”                                                                                      ~Thomas Wentworth Higginsons~

That quote was written by a man who was a minister, author, abolitionist and soldier. He lived from December 22, 1823 until May 9, 1911 and spent much of his life, devoted to fighting for the rights of freed slaves, women and other disfranchised people in America. (My kind of guy!!!)

Since he was almost 88 years old when he died, he experienced many winters struggling for the freedom and liberation of what were then, second class citizens of his era. He understood and recognized, without the hardships in our life, we are unable to experience the beauty of this world. What a profound metaphor winter is and don’t you agree that our seasons shine clarity on our life?

Living in our valley, in the interior of B.C., I have been blessed to experience the distinct variety of Mother Nature’s four seasons. On the hottest summer day, when I’m sweltering and limp with sweat, all I have to do is reflect that in a few short months, I will be curled up under a blanket, with a hot cup of tea, trying to keep warm as the temperature plummet and snow lays deep around me. I think this is the lesson of faith and is also what Thomas Wentworth Higginsons was talking about above.

When we draw on the changing seasons,

faith grows,

we grow.

We learn to be grateful for each chapter in our life.

This morning we woke up yet again to another frigid morning. As I snuggled deeper under the comforter, keeping my eyes shut tight, willing the night to extend, my husband David, always first to get up, went around like a quiet alarm clock, gently knocking on bedroom doors saying, “wake up kids and dress as warm as you can today. It’s 19 below F degrees this morning.”

Brrrrr!

I had the little ones skip their baths, wanting to keep heads as warm as possible and we were ready in record time, despite all the layers they loaded on before heading out the door.

I’m now home from doing my morning school drop offs and sitting with a cup of steaming chai tea in my hand, looking down at my snow covered chicken coop. I wonder how my hens are doing this morning. I’ve been promising to talk about winter chicken care for a while now, so I think today is the day.

Our chicken coop is in the far right corner of our yard

As you probably know this is my first winter caring for chickens (a long held dream come true) and before the first snow fell or the temperature dropped below 10 degrees Celsius, I had a plan; to keep my four beautiful girls dry and warm this winter and ensure they were comfortable, well fed and healthy.

To accomplish that goal, last fall  I asked my handyman husband to close in their 4 x 12 foot run with plywood, outside of the hardware cloth walls. This way they would be out of the wind and have a warmer place to hang out during the day. Their smaller coop was already all closed in but the only time they are in this cozy spot, is when they are laying their daily eggs. They also have another small run area,  3 x 4 feet that is under their coop but is open to the elements but on a sunny day they can get their Vitamin C.

To keep the bigger run warm, I took the stainless steel heat lamp we had used for their brooder box and I placed a 100 watt, red light bulb, the kind that you may see in a reptile cage. (chickens ancestors were dinosaurs after all)

In this picture you can see their heat lamp and also their electric water font….and a strong of lights outside their run/coop

I also found a large water font that had a heated bottom that would ensure their water didn’t freeze throughout the winter. (I purchased this at Buckerfields) Finally, at our local livestock feed store, I found a large feed container that I was able to hang so their food can stay clean and dry. I was set. Two of our four hens are Rhode Island Reds and two are Easter Eggers. Both varieties have a small comb on their head and are known to be able to handle cold winters. Now I just needed to see how they endured their first winter.

It’s been a breeze, (a cold one) caring for them all winter and they have done really well despite the really frosty weather we have had. While they have their chicken pellets (Hi pro form, natural harvest, 16% golden layer pellets) always on tap in their large feed container, which I only have to top up once a week, each day I visit them, make sure they have fresh water and I take down a tray of food.

I have two trays I use for their daily feed and each day I bring down a new, clean tray and bring up the other one to clean it…this way they always are eating from a sterilized tray…above is their white tupperware tray

They love pasta and salad and appreciate any of our left overs from the night before. Some days, I don’t have any leftovers in the fridge, hey which happens in a house  full of kids, so I whip up some special grub for them mid morning. My kids will often come in as I’m cutting up vegetables, making rice or pasta, and ask if I’m making soup for them, or is the food for the CHICKENS? They really don’t get it when I boil an egg for them….but hey…chickens needs protein too.  I know they are spoiled! If I top the tray with sunflowers and raisins they are ecstatic.

I visit them for about 10 minutes each day and give them their special tray of food. Every other day I take down a bucket of fresh water, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in it (for their digestion) and check on their grit (needed to help grind their food since chickens don’t have teeth) and I also give them oyster shells (which provides the calcium they need to make nice hard egg shells) and then I collect their eggs.

About once a week, when I’m topping up their big food container with chicken layer pellets, I will also spread another layer of pine shavings. This is called the deep litter method of chicken coop care. In the spring, I will rake out all their winter bedding and drop it in the compost bin and in short order I will have rich compost for my garden. This was the reason I really wanted chickens.  Have you bought good compost lately? It costs a fortune, plus it comes in plastic bags that you can’t recycle so knowing my chickens will produce gorgeous compost for my garden was the big draw.

The eggs are an incredible bonus and I never really thought I would find chickens to be like pets, but you know, I was wrong. They like to be picked up and have the softest feathers. Each has her own unique personality and likes and dislikes. All of them are beyond thrilled to see me coming with their red tray full of goodies each day and having such gratitude is heart warming.

This is the last part of the path to my chickens, you can see them waiting for me under under their coop

Delightful is a good word to describe being a chicken mom. (Remember 2 of my hens came when they were just days old, so I feel very connected to them)

 

Although it;s cold, the sunshine is glorious…for chickens and kids….(you can see the coop run to the right)
I never thought chickens would be so soft and sweet…but they are great pets WITH benefits

There have only been a few days this winter when the weather was unbearably cold and it was hard to do what needed to be done On those days, unplugging their water heater, to fill up their heated water font was difficult as my fingers froze in the process, and just opening the metal bolt latch to their various runs was difficult.

Then I thought of those prairie homesteaders, who had a rope tied to their house and one tied to the livestock barn and they would follow it along during a blizzard so they wouldn’t get lost in a snow drift and freeze to death. That shift in perspective made me appreciate the short 40 foot path I had to take to get down to our chicken coop each day. Perspective is everything!

It teaches me yet again to enjoy each season, for there is always something good in it and it reminds me to have faith that tomorrow will be a new day. If you have been thinking of opening up your home to chickens, I’d say what’s stopping you? It’s February and the perfect time to line up your order for a few sweet chicks this spring. (Just make sure they are female…or get 6 month pullets)

While I was caring for the chickens this morning, our cat sat observed from the hot tub….I think he likes them too but doesn’t get too close to them…..their feathers are as soft as our cat Ryuuki’s furry coat
Before going in to the house, I snapped a picture of the lake from our lower level…beautiful but COLD!

That’s my winter experience caring for chickens….pretty easy.

And as I often do, I was thinking it would be great to share making a raspberry crumble dessert for dinner tonight with you. I’m making a lentil loaf, with mashed pototoes, cooked veggies and fresh salad for dinner. I know a few of my kids are not thrilled with lentil loaf. After all, it’s the vegetarian version of the old meatloaf and my kids never liked that either when we were big meat eaters, so I thought raspberry crumble will be a good incentive for my little ones to EAT UP…..and

Also raspberries are good for everyone’s gut bacteria and don’t we need that in the winter time. So I’m off to head into our freezing garage to dig out some raspberries from the freezer.

Whoa….it’s cold out there!

Did you know the health benefits of raspberries are abundant? They are loaded with antioxidants and their high polyphenol content reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by preventing platelet buildup and reducing blood pressure via anti-inflammatory mechanisms.There are numerous studies on other benefits as well since the powerful antioxidants and high potassium levels work against free radicals that cause cancer, and reduce inflammation.

One really hot day last July, my sister J, called to ask if I wanted any raspberries. She and her husband B, were caring for their neighbour’s new German Shepherd puppies while they were away and their  neighbours encouraged them to pick from the raspberries patch which were ripening each day.

We have a tiny raspberry patch down by the compost bin and it’s only enough to put fresh berries on our cereal in the morning and really nothing much to freeze. Although it was hot that day and I didn’t really feel like picking, I did want to visit my sister and brother in law, so I called my two best workers still at home, my daughter Grace and son Harrison, grabbed some buckets and we went for a visit.

I’m so glad we did as we had a lovely visit and picked a TON of raspberries for our freezer. All winter we have been enjoying berries; in our smoothies, on top of ice cream and of course when I make a family favourite, this raspberry crumble recipe. If you don’t have any on hand, you can use any berries; blueberries, strawberries, blackberries….a combination would be really nice, but you know there is something so tart and deliciously simple about raspberries in this dessert.

(My chickens love raspberries in the summer time…. they know what is healthy!)

You can adjust this recipe to your size of family…but if you make less…you will wish for more!


Hope’s Raspberry Crumble

5 cups of raspberries
(1/2 cup water with 1 tbsp of lemon juice….if using frozen raspberries)
2-3 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch
1 cup of sugar (I like my raspberries tart…if you want them sweeter, add more sugar)
Dash of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1 cup of quick oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of butter
optional: walnuts or pecans 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F


1. If using frozen raspberries, as I was doing today, pour frozen raspberries into large saucepan. Add sugar, corn starch, salt, water and dash of lemon juice. Cook raspberries until hot, and mixture thickens. Bring off heat and mix in vanilla. Set aside

In a large separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, oatmeal, salt and nuts, if using. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or pulse everything in food processor) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add berry mixture to a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Sprinkle the flour mixture on top and bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Serve hot with a dollop of ice cream or whipping cream…..even REALLY good with greek vanilla yogurt! 

 

Oh, baby it’s cold outside! But it’s warm in our house…especially if we appreciate the beauty of each season of our life.

If you are trying this delicious dessert, maybe play this youtube video while you are cooking up your rapsberries….”Bing Crosby with Doris Day….Baby, it’s Cold Outside”

Thanks for coming to visit….stay warm.

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

Blessings from Hope

Homemade Ice-cream~What I AM

/ Lee Reynolds

    For there is no friend like a sister in calm and stormy weather. To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray. To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands ~Christina Rossetti~

 

The above piece was written by an English poet, who lived during the Victorian era in London. Christina Rossetti was ahead of her time, being born almost 200 hundred years ago, she became a leading feminist, as she was able to support herself with her craft, when class and gender bias was rampant. When I read about women such as this, it inspires me to keep going. It’s not always easy to be a mom to a large family. It’s not always easy to be an older mom to young children. People have such huge judgments about what is right, ethical and proper. If she could overcome society’s ingrained beliefs back then, then I can keep going in the 21 century, trying my best to open people’s eyes to our true nature.

We aren’t our gender, our colour, our religion, our class, our marital status, our sexual preference, our religion, our political party membership, or our  age. We aren’t the house we live in, the car we drive,  what we do for a living or how much money we earn. We are, what is deep inside each of us. And for each of us, the journey within can take a lifetime. Some never discover their true self.  

 

Summer was flying along on the wings of butterflies and was carrying me breezily through my days. The children were busy going to camp, taking tennis and swimming lessons, and I was happily in the garden, digging in the dirt, laying mulch and tending to our new chicken flock. Every spare moment was gloriously full. I lose myself outdoors, in the garden, in a forest, on the beach or in the country. Being close to nature keeps me grounded and connected to all things. It feeds my soul, allows my heart to sing and makes me feel peaceful.  

 

 

My lazy summer reverie was shattered two weeks ago.

After having a busy week at home, I stopped in for a visit at my cyber parenting board and discovered a horrendous tragedy had happened to my dear board bud and her family. I have been fortunate to share my parenting path with a group of wise and intelligent women for several years now and I never thought anything negative would occur being actively on the internet. Yes, naive on my part but the need to connect with other women who are walking a similar path, was a strong pull. 

 

 

Don’t we all feel more comfortable when we find “our people.” You know a bosom buddy who just gets us. Someone who shares many of the same things in life and understands how rocky and wonderful the path can be at times. Living in the 21 century affords us the technological luxury to connect quickly to like-minded friends all over the world. It’s such a blessing and now I also see the negative side as well.

I am not going to go into the tragic event that occurred, as it’s not my story to tell. What I want to share is what happened to me and my other board buds who were shocked and grieving for our friend and her family. This is the side tragedy that often accompanies painful events. Anger is one of the first emotions that rises up after a horrific loss and the reaction often is “who can I blame.”

 We had unwelcome guests coming on our board (which has always felt like our safe, private living room) spewing hate and horrible judgments towards our board friend and us as well. It shook me to the core, as I have not experienced that level of hatred and abuse in my life. I always look for the best in others but sadly, I see that there are those who do consciously choose to harm with intent. The fact that they feel their judgment is the righteous one, does not make their hateful remarks justified or above reproach.  

These people lurk in the shadow of anonymity and must derive some sort of satisfaction from stirring up controversy. It gives them a sense of power, perhaps and also feeds their ego when they create havoc. “Sick, and perverse,” is all I can say about this kind of behavior. All the things that they “claim” are wrong about everyone else, is something they should recognize in themselves.

 

I am not going to get caught up in this drama though, since I have a life to live and I have children to lead. At the end of my days, I hope I can look back on my life and say, I didn’t waste any moments by being negative or intentional mean. What is gained when we travel that path? There are going to be great times of grief, that is part of life, but knowing how to observe the feelings without reacting is a powerful tool and then flowing through the emotions with the least amount of resistance is key to healing. Yes, things will never be the same again, but with each experience we grow wiser.

What prompted this blog post today was watching nature and realizing it has much to teach me. Recently, we had a summer storm. The sky became dark and the clouds opened up, spilling torrential rain, like the tears I’ve shed for my cyber-friend and her children. Winds whipped up, filling our house with penetrating cold air. 

 

The kids were transfixed, sitting safely on our window seat in the kitchen watching the changing sky, and the swirling lake below our home. They watched as buckets of water rolled off our decks to the gardens below. It occurred to me they were still young enough to have not experienced this kind of extreme weather pattern in their life. Certainly not too many summer storms since first, they have only lived a few summers and 2, we don’t experience this kind of weather disturbance in the summer in our valley.

Suddenly, I heard them get excited and as they opened the french door and raced out to our deck, I followed them. There they were, ooohing and ahhhing over the double rainbow in the sky.

 

  Mother nature is always teaching me how to walk this earth and my children are reminding me to live in the moment, to enjoy the experience and always, ALWAYS look for beauty and joy. 

This morning I woke up to another beautiful summer day. The sky couldn’t have been more blue. I’m still grieving for my friend and her family, I still feel tremendous pain and hurt from the recent personal attacks towards my board buds and myself, but I’m not going to spend precious life moments being concerned about what others think of me or my friends.

 

I know judgments are largely fear based and if you know anything about me, I try really hard not to live in that place. It’s too dark and it’s also only a matter of perspective. What we don’t understand, what we have been taught to believe, we are scared of. It’s human nature. I think about Christina Rossetti, the poet who lived in a time when women didn’t choose to remain single and work for a living, doing what they were most passionate about. What did her peers say during that time?

 

With the advent of the latest tragedy, and the attacks on the internet, instead of breaking me down, I have been inspired to rise up and be the best “me” that I can be. Can ANY of us ask anything more from ourselves? or others in our lives?

And so today is a day of healing. A day to move forward, for even though I’m grieving, (and some days grief is continuous on this earth don’t ya think?) I need to help all my children continue to stay in a place of being conscious and in the moment. I don’t want them to lose this gift from childhood. It’s a choice…I will keep getting stronger, despite grief and sadness and I will follow my children’s lead and look for the beauty in our world. And perhaps I can help others move through life always with hope in their hearts.

                  

  And what do children love more than fun….it’s when it’s fun and SWEET. Join us in making some old fashion ice cream. It’s easy and delicious.

Our oldest son has worked at the local Science Centre throughout his University years. (he recently received his Science degree) He was originally hired as a summer student to plan science programs for kids but they kept him on throughout the year and he’s been making ice cream, flubber, mento rockets, etc  off and on for 4 years during Saturday Serious fun at the centre. Our younger kids are so lucky to have this Science geek big brother as he LOVES teaching and experimenting with his younger siblings.  It’s the joy of having kids all sorts of ages in our house.

 

Here’s what you need to make Homemade Ice-cream

 

The kids with ice, cream, salt, cocoa, freezer bags….oops where is the vanilla?

 

Ingredients and Supplies

1. 1 Large Freezer Bag

2. 1 Medium Freezer Bag

3. 1 cup of half and half/whipping cream (or even whole milk works)

4. 1/2 cup of salt

5. 2 tbsp of sugar

6. 1 tsp of vanilla

(to make chocolate use 2 tbsp of cocoa)

7. Big bag of ice

Directions:

Add the half and half, the sugar, vanilla and the cocoa into the medium freezer bag. Zip well, making sure most of the air has been removed

Put the medium freezer bag into the large one and surround it with ice and salt. Zip the bigger bag, again removing excess air.

 Now the fun begins and you can pass the large freezer bag around, shaking and turning the larger bag while pressing the medium bag around inside of it. Keep checking the bag with the cream until it becomes the consistency you want your ice cream.

 

Here’s Clark checking to make sure the excess air is out of the bag

 

 

While the kids were taking turns making the ice cream, I was finding toppings…..the skies the limit but we used raspberries, chocolate chips and crumbled chocolate cookies we had made the day before for our toppings. This was just simple fun and again taught another sustainable lesson. Now we just need the cow!

 

On my journey to growing our family and becoming an older mother, I had lots of moments to think about who I am and what I can offer my children. It was while I was sitting in quiet contemplation when most of the insights came to me. Sitting on my yoga mat and thinking, “Be Still And Know I AM.” 

If you are experiencing a tough time right now, or everything in your life is dark, take a moment, sit quietly and just BE Still. Stay present with your breath, allowing it to move in and out, in and out. In time, you will discover you are a piece of everything; loving, limitless, ageless fearless. And peace will come.

  As the last days of summer close, join me in singing a song my kid’s (especially my William (Will I AM) loves to sing in his clear, sweet voice.) Click the hyperlink if you can’t get to the video below. Here’s Will i am, singing, “What I am.” 

 

Want to sing along with us? Here are the lyrics….keep on reaching high!

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

Blessings from Hope


“What I Am”
If what I am is what’s in me
Then I’ll stay strong – that’s who I’ll be
And I will always be the best
“me” that I can be.
There’s only one me, I am it
Have a dream I’ll follow it
It’s up to me to try.
Oh! I’m a keep my head up high
Keep on reaching high
Never gonna quit
I’ll be getting stronger.
And nothing’s gonna bring me down (no!)
Never gonna stop, gotta go.
Because I know
I’ll keep getting stronger.
And what I am is thoughtful
What I am is musical
What I am is smart
And what I am is brave
What I am is helpful
What I am is special
There’s nothing I can’t achieve.
Because in myself I believe in oh…
Gonna keep our heads up high
Keep on reaching high
Never gonna quit
Just keep getting stronger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands. Christina Rossetti
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/christinar165077.html?src=t_weather

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble~Hello New Chickens

/ Lee Reynolds

https://wordwaltzer.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/images-7.jpeg                                        ~There is always enough, when love is present~

The long, lazy days of summer are still with us but our roosters are not. It was a sad day when we had to say goodbye to our three roos. Knowing they were going to a good home in the country made us feel marginally better.

Our two remaining hens, Sadie, (aka, Sweet Girl) and Cocoa seemed to breathe an audible sigh of relief as the three rambunctious boys left the coop. I thought they would be sad to see their brothers go. I felt so bad, so on the following day of saying goodbye to the boys, I finally let them out of their coop/run to free range our yard for the first time. If they felt any sadness, it was soon forgotten as they explored the yard, nibbling on fresh kale and jumping at butterflies.

 

We happily watched them become brave adventurers. Each day they ventured farther afield, to the playground, under the trampoline, up the stairs to our kitchen garden where sweet herbs and a few lettuces were trying valiantly to grow despite the mass families of quail visiting our yard this year. I had to laugh one day when our sweet Sadie chased some quail out of our yard. As she ran with her wings straight back, she seemed to say, get out of MY yard. (There really is enough growing for all)

Sadie and Cocoa check out the playhouse

And that got me thinking about adding a few more hen friends. One of the reasons for adding to our flock was that chickens are social creatures and they do well in groups of at least three. In fact, I don’t think you can say you have a flock of chickens unless you have three. Also, even though the nights are balmy now, I know in the not too distant future, it’s going to get very cold in our part of the world and we are going to need several chickens huddling together in the coop to stay warm through the winter.

It took a week for us to find new sisters for our girls. I put the word out on Facebook with a chicken loving friend who is also into sustainable living. Also, we tried to contact a local hatchery but after several phone calls and even an email, our request for two hens must not have been enough to warrant a call back. Finally, I found a Kijiji ad offering 6 month old Rhode Island Red hens for sale.

Perfect!

I contacted the owner and he was happy to sell two hens to us. I gathered together my laundry basket and D secured some hardware cloth to the top and we headed out to the country. A lovely flock of 10 Rhode Island Hens were happily scratching and clucking in a shady run. How does one go about finding two hens from a group of constantly moving chickens?

I told the owner, we would like hens who are in the middle of the pecking order so we don’t bring home two bossy boots. Also, I was hoping to get the darkest red hens I could find as I LOVE this breed of chicken and I thought they would fit in nicely with our girls. Our beautiful girls are both a rusty dark red and although I’m not a chicken expert, since they both came from greeny blue eggs, they are what is called Easter Eggers. This is a mixed breed with one parent carrying the coloured egg gene.

I’d like to say we chose our two new girls, but really I think destiny chose them. We took the first one I picked up and the owner’s daughter, Haley chose the other one. I would have loved to have brought all 10 hens home, as I knew the owner was moving and needed to find homes for them all but two was a good number for us and our urban setting. It’s a good idea, if you are introducing new hens to bring at least 2 from the same flock so they have a friend as they adjust to their new surroundings and new coop mates.

David carrying our new hens into our backyard and the kids are beyond excited

So here is what I have learned about introducing new chickens to an existing flock. 

You can’t just let them run loose with your existing birds, due to potential health issues and also of course the whole pecking order has to be rearranged in a controlled situation. Thankfully, we have a hardware cloth door that can be closed to create two runs and we let the new girls have the larger run. There is a nice roost in this run and I put a pet carrier inside for their nesting box since the new chickens are laying eggs. (Yipee)

After three days we had 1/2 dozen eggs from our new hens

Our girls, who were free ranging when we brought their new sisters home came running over to see what we had in the laundry basket. They were very interested and excited but I’m glad we had them separated as the new girls were larger and I was worried about our 15 week babies/adolescent birds. After all, these new girls were used to being in a larger flock and dealing with the pecking order, and our girls had put up with 3 big brothers but no big bossy hens. Another tip, in introducing new chickens to the flock is to make sure they are all about the same size as the smaller ones will get picked on for sure.

 

Here are the new girls moving into the run for the first time.

 

In the first week, I made sure they had a lot of greens and lovely things to eat to make them feel welcome

After a week of keeping the new girls, who we finally named, Clara and Annie, in their run/coop, one beautiful afternoon, I let them out to join Sadie and Cocoa. Since there was lots of space to explore, there was no confrontation, although both sets were wary of each other. That night I separated them in the coop/run again but the next day I let them out and they have been free ranging and sleeping in the run/coop without any barrier. The new girls did stay on the run roost each night up to now but tonight when they were all starting to settle into their respective places, I picked the new girls up and moved them into the coop with our younger girls. There was some unrest but then they settled down obviously too tired to worry about who was sleeping where. I will get up nice and early and let them out to avoid any issues.

I have heard that there can be vicious attacks but so far, there has only been a move towards a peck, which has been avoided since there has been the space for all to roam. I think that is the key with adjusting new chickens into an existing flock; to give them space so they don’t feel stressed. If there is no stress for food, or roost space, or places to scratch and move, then there really is no issue. They can easily transition into a comfortable pecking order without any violence.

Reminds me a bit of bringing home a new baby  to join an older brother, sister, or more. If the existing child, or children feel that they are not losing anything, just gaining a sweet brother or sister, then the adjustment is easier. In fact, our children all felt we had given them something very special instead of  anything being taking away. That shocked me as I had never thought of it that way. I was worried they would feel as though they were losing a bit of their relationship with their mom and dad and then I realized, they were being given a new relationship that WE were not a part of in any way. I’ll never forget our oldest daughter oohing and ahhhing over her baby brother the first time she met him.”My baby brudder,” she said as she held him in her tiny arms.

Here’s  our daughter Grace feeding one of her twin baby sisters. She was so excited to finally have not just one baby sister but TWO
Here’s Clara, one of our new hens exploring her new yard..so far she is the BIG SISTER and realizes there is enough to go around for all the hens, food, room to explore, attention, and companionship
Victoria getting to know the new girls, Clara in front and Annie in the back
There is a lot of room for the hens to roam on our 1/3 acre urban lot, here you can see the two separate runs/coops we have set up. The one on the right is the one our older girls lived in as we adjusted our new hens to their surroundings. The new girls lived in the run on the left. There is a nice roost and a nest box in that run. Hopefully, after tonight they will all sleep together in the little coop space in the upper run

All of this has been going on at our homestead while we were also saying goodbye to our oldest son, who left for London mid July to spend the summer with his sister traveling around the U.K. The same sister who taught me there is always enough love to go, when we introduced HER baby brother to her. Now they are all grown up and are traveling partners in life.

Before Clark left though we harvested our strawberries and our rhubarb and made a delicious crumble. I’ve been  waiting to write a blog and share this recipe with you but it’s been a really busy summer. Are you finding it’s flying by too? Our second big crop of rhubarb is about ready to harvest again.

Btw, the crumble is the British term for the American crisp, which I thought was appropriate as our son headed off for Britain. Here’s my recipe for a Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (adjust the sugar depending on how sweet you would want it)

Hope’s Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients

3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or toasted almonds
3 cups of cut up strawberries
2 cups of chopped rhubarb
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Directions

Combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix in with a pastry cutter. Add nuts and mix with a fork. Set aside this topping for the crumble.

Mix the strawberries, rhubarb, white sugar, and vanilla and place in the bottom of an 8×11 inch pan. 

Sprinkle the topping on top of fruit mixture. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes 

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream on top…delicious

Although this crumble went fast in our house…it’s easy to make so there is always enough!

 

Saying goodbye to our oldest as he heads off for his summer adventure to the U.K.

 

 
 
                           ~There is no lack. There is always enough~

I hope to see you again soon,

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

Blessings from Hope


P.S. The girls slept together well last night and seemed to be even closer this morning as they roamed around the yard together rather in two separate groups. Also, BIG News, there was the usual two eggs, one in the coop area they slept in last night and one in the old nesting box which is still in the run. The BIG news though is that I found two shelless eggs which means our younger girls, Sadie and Cocoa are revving to lay REAL eggs soon. Exciting day and a big step towards having a harmonious flock.

Lemon Squares~Raising Chicks

/ Lee Reynolds

       

Before you were born I carried you under my heart. From the moment you arrived in this world until the moment I leave it, I will always carry you in my heart. ~Mandy Harrison

What devoted blog readers you are to come and visit today.

Thank you!

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much this spring and early summer. As you may know, if you are a follower, I was blessed again to be rehired back at my gardening gig for 8 weeks this spring. Between work and my mom/homestead duties, my days have been blissfully, abundantly full.

As much as I enjoyed every single moment of my time at the gardens, (I have amazing work buds, waving “Hi”if any of you are reading today) it’s nice to take a moment to contemplate life, my dreams and the summer ahead. Before another season flies by though, I wanted to take a moment and tell you about our baby chicks.

News Flash! Chickens grow up REALLY fast.

They are not sweet, fluffy ‘lil chicks any longer. Nope! But they are sweet big pullets and cockerels. Yes, that’s right, it looks like we have cockerels, as in roosters. I was pretty sure a few were turning boyish, as they were growing alarmingly fast and getting red combs and wattles. Also, having raised 8 kids myself, I know the chance of having boys is usually a 50/50 chance. In my case, for many years an 75/25 chance, until Grace and our twin daughters evened things out. Anyway, we took the risk that we may have a few roosters, as we did the “hatch a chick program” at my son’s grade 1 class. As far as I know there isn’t a way to determine the gender before the egg has hatched.

The inevitable happened this past Monday morning. I was half asleep, pouring breakfast cereal for my three little ones when, “Cock a doodle Doo” floated in loudly from our open kitchen window. Now, this wasn’t an adolescent learning to crow. Oh no, this was a full blown doodle. For a moment I smiled as this is what I would love to hear IF, I were living in the country but no, the reality is that I don’t live in the country. I live in an urban type yard and I needed to muzzle that sound or we would quickly be discovered as having chickens. Even hens are not a welcome backyard pet in our area….yet.

Ahhhh! I quickly, pulled together an enticing tray of yummy food for our chickens; rolled oats, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, some left over brown rice from our dinner the night before and then as I flew down to the coop wearing nothing but my nightie. I gathered a few strawberries along the way and some herbs; parsley, lemon balm, oregano, thyme and finally sweeping by my lower garden gathered up some of their fav grub; kale leaves. I was figuring a chicken eatin’, ain’t a chicken talking. When I arrived at the coop all in a flap, my 5 chickens were all gathered at the door, looking innocent. No one particular was fessing up over calling the alarm for breakfast. Every day since, our roos voices are growing stronger, thankfully never at the same time. Sadly, it looks like we are going to have to say goodbye to our three beautiful boys. I will not be able to keep them in our urban backyard much longer. (Thankfully, I may have a country gal willing to take them)

Bittersweet really.

I have wanted chickens for so long. I’ve read everything I could get my hands on regarding their care, that I thought I would enjoy the experience but I had no idea, I would LOVE just being close to them. They are meditative of sorts and funny to watch as they have big personalities in their little feathered bodies. It’s interesting as they go about their day eating, socializing, scratching, being curious about the world and what is going on around them.

The little dark one we called Coco Chanel and it looks like she is going to be one of our hens

 

Aren’t they the cutest! Here they are all 5 of them, spending some morning time with the kids in the family room…they are getting their little feathers

 

Will just loves holding them and it has been interesting to see how the various fluff balls matured over the last 3 months. They really do grow up FAST! Those aren’t droppings on the paper towels, just little pieces of parsley.

Our little fluffy feathered babies remind me why I love being a mom to little kids so much ’cause little ones are the same in so many ways. They love to experience eating new foods, socializing, making new friends, and are curious and interested in everything happening around them. Watching babies grow is like discovering the world for the first time through their eyes. Magical!

Here they are at last out of the house and into their new home. It’s been such a ride. They lived in our laundry room in the brooder box for about a month as it was cold outside when they came to us at the end of April. Then we moved their brooder box into the garage for another couple of weeks and finally at 6 weeks old we moved them out to the coop. They were fully feathered and getting really big at this point.

Here’s a picture of the two roosters enjoying their new coop with the cool birch branch roost my husband D made for them…the white one we called, “Pearl” but it looks like she is Captain Pearl now.
Here’s the new coop and run. Since our yard is sloped we had to build it in two sections. The first section holds their coop which is really cool and has some easy to clean features. This was put in place first and then D built the run to the left. For those of you who are interested, I am going to do a post soon ALL about the construction of the coop, as when I was in my quest for chickens, where to put them was a biggie You can see how big they are now

 

As our chicks turned a month old, our twin daughters, Kathryn Mira and Victoria Hope turned 5 years old on May 20th (The Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada). As I write this they are 5 years and 2 months old yesterday. I’ve been meaning to write this blog for 2 months! I can’t believe my babies are growing up and will be off to kindergarten in the fall. It just seems like the other day I was carrying them around in each arm.

Sadly, I’ve lost a lot of baby pictures of the girls (on a flash stick somewhere) but here is one sweet picture. Victoria is on the left and Kathryn is on the right…back then they were almost identical

 

Here’s Victoria still snuggling into her twin. Kate is on the left here and Tori on the right 5 years old

 

Kathryn and Victoria on their birthday….a kitty for Kate and a puppy for Tori are in their new bike baskets

So this blog is really about how fast our chicks grow up, enjoying the journey and celebrating the moments.

When my family celebrates an occasion we usually do so with a dessert and I thought this was the PERFECT time to share my lemon square recipe. I started making this years ago when our older kids were in our local Carriage house string Orchestra. The moms would take turns bringing snacks for their “break bread” and socialize aspect of their practice.  When it was my turn to feed the 20 something group of kids, I always brought healthy veggies, hummus, fruit, taco chips and various dips but the big hit was always when I brought my delish brownies (stay tuned as I don’t think I have posted this recipe) AND these lemon squares.

I’ve had so many people over the years ask for this recipe so I thought I would finally include it in this blog, even though it’s not the healthiest of desserts. Sometimes dessert is just SWEET. Summer time is also THE perfect time for lemon desserts don’t you think? Light and tart….goes great with Greek type food. If you are looking for an easy dessert square for a special occasion, check this recipe out.

Lemon Squares

(This recipe is from the Company’s Coming Cookbook by Jean Pare)



Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated Sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine

2 eggs
3 tbsp of lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coconut
1/4 tsp salt

First layer: Crumble first 3 ingredients until mealy. Press into un-greased 9×9 pan Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes

Second Layer: Beat eggs slightly. Stir in remaining 6 ingredients. Spread over first layer. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until set in the center and light brown in colour. Cool and frost.

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp butter
4 tsp lemon juice and if you like you can add some real lemon zest



Directions:
Combine all together in small bowl Beat well, adding more lemon juice a bit at a time as needed for easy spreading. Spread over cooled bars. Allow to set. Cut 36 small squares.







Thanks so much for coming by for a visit. Before I close though, I wanted to share a song/vid that I have loved for years now. 

WAY back before our daughter Grace was born, I wanted another baby. Hopefully another daughter. We had our oldest, a daughter and then were blessed with 3 beautiful boys. Our oldest daughter asked for a baby sister for every birthday and holiday. It was a LONG journey though, as I was over 40 at that point and my fertility had taken a nose dive. We lost a baby along that journey and after that loss, I realized ANY baby would be welcome, not just a daughter. So many people have preferences over gender and having a loss made me realize that boy or girl, it doesn’t matter. Our babies are precious gifts and teach us so much about life. (And I guess that is why I love my Roosters so much too) I just wanted to be pregnant again and hold another baby in my arms. When I heard this song by Leanne Womack before we finally got pregnant with Grace,  I cried and cried.  I was surrendering my dream of having anymore children and yet the Universe had other plans.

Now I am the blessed mom to 8 children. Four beautiful boys and four lovely girls and all I want for them is to live fully and experience all this world has to offer them. I want them to dance.

Our girls dancing together through life

 

 

The girls had their very first ballet performance in June. The theme was circus and they were dancing ponies

 

 I hope the experience I went through losing a baby, trying to conceive for years, also influences all of our children. They know they were wanted long before they ever came to earth. Hopefully, that energy flows from me and feel deeply loved and wanted.

So before you close my post, check out Leanne Womack’s video, “I hope you Dance.” If your dream is to have chickens, get chickens….best experience EVER. And if your dream is to have a child but you are facing infertility, hold your vision and move in the direction of your dream, staying positive and trusting the Universe to show you the way. WHATEVER your dream, “allow miracles to happen,” move in that direction and most of all, I hope you dance. That is what I wish for you today. (if you can’t see the video below, check out the hyper link above)

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

Blessings from Hope

Raspberry Yogurt Pie~Grandma and the Faeries

/ Lee Reynolds

The light is changing in my part of the world. The days are getting longer, warmer and I am opening gently, like the first blossoming flowers in spring. I’ve watched the changing seasons for many years now, the lines on my face etched like a wrinkled road map, showing all the places I’ve traveled, but it never gets old. There is something magical about the in between times.

 

And as I dream and plan about my garden, and dream and plan about my life, I remember another time, when the smell of lavender evoked memories long buried. Memories now lifted, like the new earth in my compost bins and ready to be laid creating a rich and fertile life.


Summer mornings are my favourite time to be out in the garden, as the air is fresh and moist, after waking from slumbering under a blanket of cool darkness all night long. My flowers are heavenly scented, with a sweet romantic perfume, their heads a profusion of vibrant colours and drops of  glistening dew lay peacefully on their verdant leaves. As they see me, with watering can in hand, they joyfully nod in anticipation of receiving their first drink of the day. I brush against my blooming English lavender and the calming, woodsy scent fills the air, taking me back in time.

 

It was the summer after my dad died and I was 6 years old. I went to visit my Grandma Clark, for a few days. Grandma was my Dad’s mom. I felt very special, since I had never been alone with her before, as my 3 older sisters and hordes of cousins were always at her house when we visited.

 

Grandma came out from the porch when our car pulled up, her arms out stretched towards me, long before finally sweeping me into a warm embrace, smelling of clean linen and fresh lavender. After mom bid us goodbye, thanking grandma, making me feel even more special, since I was the object of all that gratitude, Grandma smiled at me, her blue eyes twinkling and asked, “Do you want to help  pick some raspberries for our dessert tonight?.”

 

 I nodded shyly, forgetting the correct response but I knew “you bet, ‘cause I love dessert,” wasn’t right. Grandmother had been a school teacher and I had heard mom say, she liked to hear the Queen’s English, whatever that was. Mom had reminded me before dropping me off, to remember my P’s and Q’s, so I felt stilted, the words, like fluff in my mouth, and my brain all fuzzy, searching for the most polite response.

 

Grandma and I walked quietly side by side, her carrying a small bucket and me trying hard to resist the urge to skip. My sister J, a real ballet dancer, had recently taught me this joy filled way of moving but I suppressed it and we continued to plod along.

 

I stopped dead still, forgetting all about dessert, engulfed by a floral potpourri aroma, lifting me into an euphoric state. Grandma’s perennial garden was a profusion of jewel toned colours and rich textures. The array of blooms was overwhelming, but the smell was transcendent, taking me delightfully back to another place and time, long forgotten. 
                                                  

 

“Debbie, would you like to meet a faerie?,” my grandma asked as she knelt next to the edge of the garden. Wide eyed, I dropped down to the ground and watched as she gently picked a happy looking, purple flower with a bright yellow center. “This is a pansy and is the home of garden faeries,” she said, as she slowly picked off the petals and put them into my hand. When the last petal had been lifted, she held the stem towards me and said, “Faerie, I’d like to introduce you to Debbie.” Mesmerized, I marveled over the tiniest little girl, wearing a crimson red bonnet and a soft yellow flowing dress. Tentatively I said, “Hello?”

 

Grandma, the faerie and I sat peacefully for a long time, rocked gently by the hum of the earth. Beneath the sweet scent of flowers, we were enveloped by wisps of freshly mowed grass and pungent, decomposing matter, giving birth to new dirt. Butterflies lightly danced on the stage of rose petals and birds swoops to join the performance, gleefully chirping their songs, while the insects clicked and buzzed to the beat. The whole world was filled with the rhythm of life.  A magic I had forgotten.

 

“Mom, can we pick some raspberries?” I turn from my reverie, to see my three youngest children, still dressed in their summer cotton jammies, holding bowls expectantly, looking like bright eyed faeries, and said, “ Sure I’ll race you to the patch.”   

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..


 That is a glimpse into my time capsule, which I recently unearthed of my grandmother, teaching me to love the world again after the death of my Dad. Reminding me that magic is everywhere and often unseen by those who don’t take the time to look. 

 

My Grandfather Robert and Grandmother, Florence Clark in their garden

The next time you are in the garden, gently pick the petals off a pansy, and if you are attune to magic, you too will meet a garden faerie. 
                                               

And no memory is complete without the sense of taste to accompany it. Raspberries also remind me of my Grandma Clark, and so I thought I would share my recipe for Raspberry Yogurt Pie. I found this recipe YEARS ago from the La Leche League’s, “Whole Foods for the Whole Family,” cookbook when I was involved with our local LLL chapter. I hope you like it and add it to your repertoire of desserts.

                      Image result for whole foods for the whold family cookbook by la leche league

Raspberry Yogurt Pie

Ingredients

1 cup cream cheese, softened
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup honey
1 recipe of graham cracker crust…recipe below

Directions

Blend cream cheese and yogurt in a bowl. Add dry milk powder and honey; mix well. Spoon into pie shell. freeze until firm. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before servicing. May top with 1 cup of raspberries. This is a very quick and easy dessert.

Yields: 8 servings
Note: Any berries can be substituted…or mix them up using a strawberry yogurt and top with blueberries.

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cups wheat germ
1/4 dry milk powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 tbsp of molasses

Directions

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Stir in melted butter. Add molasses, mix well. Press firmly over the bottom and sides of a greased 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 300 degrees F for 10 minutes. cool before filling. May substitute honey for molasses. Yields 8 servings

Take a piece out into your garden and in joy!

                    

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

Blessings from Hope
                                     

Lemon Pound Cake~Mothership

/ Lee Reynolds

We all experience pivotal moments in our lives. Moments we cross the threshold of believing a certain way, and suddenly an event occurs in our lives and we are inexplicably changed forever. One such event occurred in my life, four years ago today, on February 28, 2012.

I was at my son Harrison’s grade 7 basketball game, cheering loudly, when my cell phone rang. My 16 year old son, Mitchell said, “Mom, I’m so sorry, but Auntie J just called to say, Umma has passed away.” This was the moment I had dreaded my whole life, ever since my Dad had been killed when I was 5 years old, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop; losing my mom. My heart was hurtled through the abyss of no return and yet, like any preordained destiny, I continued through that black hole towards inevitable pain.

On the drive to my mother’s new care home, where she had been moved only 4 days prior, after being in the hospital for 2 weeks due to a fall, memories of her, like the vintage 8 mm family movies my Dad would play on his clicking Kodak projector, ran through my mind.

On the screen, Mom was the star, moving faster than real life time. The scenes flashed, showing a beautiful woman with a slim body and long legs dancing and laughing, then another, was of her, surrounded by children, smiling proudly, like a mother hen all puffed up over how smart her baby chicks were at finding juicy worms. In all the pictures she moved gracefully,  even when she was peeling potatoes. She was stunning, with soft, wavy brown hair circling her head, her eyes were hypnotic green cat’s eyes and her face had hints of Slavic ancestry, from the invading Mongols centuries before. Her smile was gentle and kind but often sad, as she moved on a trajectory of grief, loss and struggle.

 

 

 

My mother was raised, smothered in fear by her parents,, who had lost two babies before she was born. They hovered over their princess, Ethel May, and panicked each time she uttered a cough or had a fever. As a result, she came to view herself as delicate, perhaps she was, I’ll never truly know, but that shadowed her whole life and mine too. She was encouraged to play quietly, developing a rich, creative dream life, cutting out whole families from the Sears Roebuck catalogue and spending hours reading books. She loved animals and told stories of her pet bunnies disappearing, coincidentally around the same time the family had enjoyed a Sunday night Chicken dinner. Sadly, her childhood was layered with scarcity during the Great Depression and as a young woman, she perfected the art of worry and anxiety, while living through the Second World War.

Her face remained unlined for years, despite becoming a widow with four daughters at age 39 and then again at age 59. Even though hardship and depression had been her companions in life, she strove to be happy and looked for opportunities to help others with a kind word, or encouraging smile. She was  generous and loving to all who knew her, and you never left her house empty handed.

Finally arriving at the Care home, I drew closer to the looming precipice of my existence, tightly wrapped in that of my mother’s, and consciously noticed my senses were heightened, as the automatic doors to the Creekside Extended Care Home whooshed open and I entered a building, quiet as cotton batting in the ears and smelling of stale air.

When I walked into mom’s room, she was lying peacefully in her bed, her arms crossed over her stomach, her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed. She appeared to be lost in a deep sleep, however, I knew my Mothership was empty. The vessel I had arrived on earth in, was broken and I would have to find a new way to return home.

My sisters were standing, like protective sentinels next to her bed. They turned to greet me with  sad smiles, and I joined them, standing next to my mother’s left shoulder. As my sister J, who had been with mom when she had taken her last breath, started quietly sharing mom’s final afternoon, I began stroking the hair off mom’s forehead.

J told how mom had been on her way to thank someone for a kindness, so like her, when she had suffered a massive stroke in the hallway and died suddenly.

As I had been listening to this story, my senses were acute, every fibre of my being alert, as I knew I was experiencing something that would alter me forever. J finished the story of mom’s exit scene but I said, “She is still with us. Come and feel her head.” Light, tingling waves of energy emanated, haloing her head and I was in awe, swept up in the current of her ultimate vibrating message, “I am still here and I love you.” She had waited to say goodbye.

Instead of falling off the cliff that day, my mom birthed a new belief in me. I woke and started to really live for the first time in my life being freed by so many fears and earthly concerns. Feeling her energy in that moment gave me the realization that death is not the end, it is simply the casting off of a beloved overcoat that has served its purpose, allowing us to move onto the next stage of existence. I had dreaded this moment my whole life and although yes, I was sad to know I would never hear her gentle voice again, I was also buoyant with joy and gratitude. I was so proud over how regally, like a queen, she had traveled the last bit of her life on earth, giving us time to settle into the idea that the end may be near, and also the easy and graceful way she left.

If there ever was a life lesson she taught, and she taught me many through the years, about over coming difficulties with dignity and integrity, this had to be the most illuminating lesson. She had released me from an old way of being, of thinking about life and dying and who we truly are.

That was a turning point for me in so many ways, with regards to my spirituality and my life goals. It really was the moment when I knew I had to start writing too; something I had put off, thinking I was too busy raising our family.  This blog is just one way that I’m living my new life.

But back to the story and my last memory of mom.

Since I knew mom was still very much with us, she gave me one final gift and that was the chance to whisper, “goodbye and, I love you too.”

                                             

Join me in hearing the song “Smile” by Nat King Cole.…my mom loved music, she loved to dance but most of all she loved to smile and make people feel happy.

 

 

And before I leave you, hopefully uplifted because you know, there is no such thing as dying…which seems to be everyone’s worst fear…so funny really….what we should be most fearful about, is not really…. living. Being creative beings full of love in this lifetime.

Part of living is eating, and boy my mom loved anything lemon, so today, in honour her I thought I would make my lemon pound cake that she enjoyed when she came to visit. It’s easy…which she would appreciate, never wanting to make work for anyone.

And so delicious.

It’s perfect to take to any event, or when you have loved ones coming for tea. So without further ado….here is my Lemon Pound Cake recipe, dedicated to my mom, Ethel May Herrling, Clark, Finch. A wonderful mom, a beautiful person, and a delightful spirit.

  Hope’s Lemon Pound Cake
 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup oil
2 tsp lemon extract, or concentrated lemon juice and grate some lemon zest 
4 eggs

Glaze 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Directions

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan. In a large bowl, combine all cake ingredients. Bend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Pour batter into greased and floured pan.

Bake at 325 F. for 40 to 50 minutes or until the toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Remove cake from oven. With a long tined fork, poke deep holes every inch. In a small bowl, blend glaze ingredients until smooth. Spoon half of the glaze over the hot cake in the pan. Let stand upright in pan for 10 minutes; invert onto serving plate. Spoon remaining glaze over the cake. Cool completely, and serve.

 

 

And enjoy!

I’m so happy you came to visit today….life is so good and I’m thankful I have been able to record some of my life stories on this blog and also share some of our family’s recipes with you.

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





 

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

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




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       

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

 

 

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

 

 

Carrot Cake~A Hero’s Journey

/ Lee Reynolds

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
 
As you may or may not know, I’m a HUGE Lord of the Ring fan. Well, maybe not as massive a fan as my daughter Alyssa, who could probably teach a University level course on Tolkien’s writing and Middle Earth history. She has been known to speak Elvish and when she performed her Irish Dance steps as a child/teen, I could almost see the Elves and Hobbits dancing beside her as her curls bounced to the lilting Celtic music.

When she and her brother Clark, (she on piano and Clark on violin) used to play one of the songs from the movie, “In Dreams,” I used to weep in sadness that we did not live in such a world or a time as is portrayed in Tolkien’s literature. It was a time and place of innocence and magic. I’d like to think I did play a bit part in creating her passion for this literature, since I introduced her to Tolkien when she was around 11 or 12. My mom and I also kept her belief in faeries/elves and the like alive by surrounding her with faerie stories and music.

(If you are unable to see the video below, click on this hyperlink which will take you to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, “In Dreams.”….for inspiration to journey starts there)

I think of our dear daughter now, over in the U.K. teaching English to the English and I have to smile for she is finally living in a country steeped in history. A country where Tolkien was inspired to write his Middle Earth tales, she is starting her epic journey.

Teaching isn’t the easiest thing to do when one is more comfortable behind the piano, behind a book, behind the camera, sitting in the corner observing.

She pushes her comfort zone each day as she faces things that are hard and difficult. It may be modern times but courage and determination are needed. I think if Gandalf were really alive and well he would say, “Well done, Alyssa! Stay with the quest.”

And when I look at another of our children, Mitchell, who was just home from University for part of his February reading week, my heart goes out to him as he often struggles trying to find his authentic self and the path that he must walk. I try to share mother wisdom with him but all the wisdom in my heart will not help him on his journey. Only he knows the way and it’s my job to trust and let go that he will listen well to his heart and follow where it bids him to travel. I have lived long enough to know that it will turn out right.

In my own life, when my friends and family questioned many of my life choices; to leave a comfortable career, to have more children later in life than society deems prudent; to leave the city and move out to the country, I had to shut out those voices and go inward. I had to find my own path and keep following the signs along the way, encouraging me to stay true to myself. My life is now rich with what I love to do, care for my family, write, garden, and while many would not think this is a worthy life purpose, I know it is the way that I will grow as a soul.

What about you? Do you question your life’s path? It’s really simple to follow the road signs if you recognize the symbols along the way although they aren’t always easy to discern. I remember trying to decide about a certain life choice years ago. The two doors were open wide but I just couldn’t decide which one to walk through. I was praying for guidance daily. Minute to minute uttering the words, “help me with the direction to take,” as my mantra.

Then one day as I was driving our children to their after school activities and of course we were in a hurry as usual, hoping that we wouldn’t be late but of course we got behind a slow moving vehicle. I had to step on the brakes, take a deep breath and when I did, I realized the car in front of me had a bumper sticker in the rear that read, “Trust Comes First.”

As soon as I read those words, I got shivers as if my guardian angel were sitting right beside me whispering the message directly into my ear. I knew what I had to do in that second. I let go of any fear that I had been holding onto and knew which door to walk through. I wanted to follow that car and when the driver finally stopped to say, “Thank you, as you have no idea how much your bumper sticker helped me today.” Do you ever wonder why certain people or things are put on your path at a precise time? There are no coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason but we aren’t often listening or watching for guidance.

And so, while I continue on my hero’s journey, a part of that is trusting that goodness will always prevail. That my children will be okay and that the messages that Tolkien wrote about in the Lord of the Rings and his other books have reached them. Every Christmas we have a tradition now of watching the movies together, often we are quoting the lines at the same time, they are entrenched in our memory.

(If unable to see the above, check this hyperlink to the Youtube video of Gandalf …”All you need to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

While there are many lines from the book/movie that are profound, the above has to be my favourite, as it helps me to remember to live fully and never let fear take over.

And before I leave today, I wanted to share my Carrot Cake recipe with you, my dear readers because, well, at the end of a journey, one needs to find nourishment and comfort. Also, carrot cake happens to be one of my daughter Alyssa’s favourite desserts. This recipe was given to me by my sister C, years ago and I have made hundreds of carrot cakes since then. Do we ever really realize how the smallest things we contribute and share can change the world? This simple, easy recipe has created moments for our family to stop on our path, celebrate life, restore ourselves and have the energy to carry on….like lembas bread.

Thank you C  for this recipe. I hope it becomes a family fav for you too.

Hope’s Carrot Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour (1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat flour)
2 cups sugar  (1 cup white, 1 cup brown sugar)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup rapeseed oil or any light oil of your choice
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all-spice
4 eggs
3 cups finely grated carrots (I don’t use my food processor…I like grating by hand for this recipe)

Directions

1. Sift dry ingredients
2. Add oil to dry and stir really well…this is a thick mixture
3. Add eggs, one at a time until well combined
4. Add carrots and ensure blended well

5. Pour mixture into a lightly greased pan of your choice. (I use a bundt pan or a 9×13 pan)

Bake for 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes…if using a glass pan….bake at 325 degrees

Cream Cheese frosting
1- 4 ounce package or 1/2 of the large 8 ounce package
3 tsp milk
11/2 tsp sugar
8 tbsp of icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
Blend cheese and milk then slowly add the additional ingredients until smooth

Adjust the amounts depending on whether you want a glaze or a thick icing on your cake

When the cake is cooled, ice with the above and sprinkle walnuts on top….Journey’s End

I’m serving the cake on my mother’s “Forget Me Not” china tea set….we all make such a difference in each other’s lives

 

 

 

My beautiful son Mitchell, home for reading week…now back on his path

 

My darling daughter Alyssa, on her Hero’s journey….this pic from.her day trip to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge

The next time you are wondering about your life purpose or whether you are on the right path,, all you have to do is trust that everything will become clear in time, let go…and  ENJOY.

YOU are the hero in your own journey!

(If you can’t see the Youtube video above…click here for the video of “Into the West” from Lord of the Rings)

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

Gandalf and Pippin from the Return of the King….”The Journey Does Not End Here.”

Blessings from Hope

Cranberry Bliss Bars and Eggnog Lattés~Happy Holidays

/ Lee Reynolds

I had many creative ideas and things I wanted to share with all of you over the holidays but once December came, an avalanche of birthday parties, Christmas affairs, concerts and basketball games over took me. There really wasn’t even time for me to do my usual monumental baking fest. All I was able to squeeze in, were a few evenings of baking some sugar and shortbread cookies to take to the various parties, Christmas fundraisers and holiday events.

One morning I had the little girls do a photo shoot..this is Victoria Hope with Mr. Nutcracker
And Kathryn Mira…she was trying on several dresses as you will see

Also, I spent most of December in a shadow of gloom which causes writer’s block for me.  Even if I had time or energy to write, I didn’t have any spirit to do so.

It all started with the things that had been breaking down in our household (zippers, dryers, furnaces…see previous blog) in the fall and then just as December started to unfold, I broke one of my back molars eating popcorn. I was hoping our dentist could repair my tooth but the first words out of his mouth after looking into mine were, “you are going to need a crown.” Which I knew meant, anything we had squirreled away to give the children an awesome Christmas was going to be residing in my mouth. At least I would be  able to eat turkey dinner.

 

I’m so glad that I saved a few of Grace’s fancy dresses as the little girls had fun dressing up on this photo shoot

As upbeat and hopeful as I am, most of the time, I have my moments of sadness and often the holidays trigger my lack of faith in the greater good. This year, I was recalling the dream I held close to my heart last Christmas. We had just toured a beautiful Christmas tree farm for sale and D had said, as soon as the New Year began, we would work really hard to get our house on the market so we could sell it and purchase “my” dream home/acreage. But, things didn’t work out that way. For one reason or another, by the time we did have our house ready for the market, the Christmas tree farm had finally sold.

I was sad that my life wasn’t where I had imagined it to be this holiday season. I really do believe, that when we put our attention and focus on ANYTHING, that is what will manifest in our life. It’s after all, the Universal law of attraction.  And yet, this Christmas my faith was shaken. How could I feel hopeful about the future when  my dream from this past year had not come true? And now, as I write these words, it is so obvious that what continued to show up for me once I started feeling blue, was more feelings of lack. A lack of faith, trust and belief.

All these feelings, despite the fact that this BELIEVE sign sits above me daily in my kitchen…why I didn’t look up a bit more during the holiday, I don’t know. We should all keep our head up!

One night when D and I were on our way to the mall with a bundle of Christmas Wish letters stuffed in my purse from our children, I broke down. I let my sorrow pour out, telling him that I felt so bad about my tooth and wondered aloud how we were going to make everyone’s dreams come true on our budget. (not to mention my lack of faith) He didn’t have a solution but reminded me that  Christmas wasn’t about commercial gifts. (I should have known that!) Around this time, I spoke with a dear friend one day after we had each dropped our little ones off at preschool. We go back quite a ways and have both experienced the sadness of infertility…and now here we are with our daughters in preschool together. (that should have been miracle enough!….hello!)

I was feeling really bad that we may not be able to contribute to the preschool’s fundraiser and their December donation request for contributions as of yet and further to that, Harrison’s band teacher had just made a rude comment about the small poinsettia order we had placed for the jazz band’s fundraiser. I was feeling really stretched and vulnerable.

It was my dear friend, whose own husband has had a precarious work situation all fall, who inspired me to look at the bigger picture. She said, “at least we aren’t sitting helplessly beside our sick child at the Children’s hospital and we certainly weren’t homeless.” As I left her to go to the mall to find stocking items, I pondered her words. She was so right. We had a warm home, food to eat and I was grateful that all our children were  healthy.

We were blessed this Christmas to be able to send a few shoe boxes filled with gifts via Samaritan’s purse…I wish we could have watched the children’s faces as they opened the things Grace and Will carefully selected for them.

 

Amongst the flurry of activities in December, there were moments of pure bliss. And not surprising, they had NOTHING to do with the whole commercialized aspect of the holidays. One moment, was sitting through a basketball tournament where our son Harrison’s team did not win any games. They came close but didn’t win once. They never gave up heart though and played with all they could to the bitter end. When our son accepted the tournament’s all star award for his team, I couldn’t have been prouder than if their team had come first place. It wasn’t about winning or losing, it truly was about how they played the game. That buoyed my spirits.

They were boosted further when Clark got a call from the Science Centre, where he works through the school year, to say that he had won a turkey. Hmmm, we didn’t even know we were in the running.

Then there was the moment I was sitting in the front row of the audience and watching our daughter, Grace perform the lead acting and singing role in her school’s Christmas concert. The play was called, “The Holly and the Ivy,” and she played Holly Day. Holly, wanted to be a deputy Santa, with the hopes of being the REAL Santa one day. In the play, she experienced gender discrimination and fought to teach others to accept differences and recognize everyone’s mutual strengths. Her voice was clear and strong as she sang, “A heart full of love.” In that moment, with tears in my eyes, I thought the Christmas message doesn’t get any clearer than that…it’s about treating others with love and kindness, being accepting and having eternal hope. At moments like this, I wondered if the whole play had been orchestrated and my daughter chosen to play the lead, just so I got the message.

Grace before her piano concert…she was our Christmas baby in 2002..reminding me to believe in dreams

Then D and I shared a magical afternoon as we headed up to the mountains to search for our family’s Christmas tree. We were unable to take the family this year since we don’t have a roof rack on our new van and there was no way to put a tree in the back portion of the van since the little ones have their car seats safely fastened in the rear. We decided to drive our new little Honda Fit  up the mountains one Sunday afternoon before Christmas. The kids were contentedly watching a Christmas movie and besides, I think a “real” tree was more my thing than theirs.  After all, we did have several artificial trees throughout our house, all various sizes and the little ones had helped me decorate a few of the trees earlier in December.

So D and I headed up the valley, and turned onto a road that eventually becomes a forest service road, where it is legal to remove Christmas trees. D was a bit reluctant, since he had traveled to Vancouver and back the day before, picking up our son, Mitchell, from the Vancouver Island ferry as his first University term was finally over. D had traveled 900 kilometres in one day, so being back behind the wheel wasn’t really how he wanted to spend the rest of his weekend. Not to mention, the last time we went tree hunting in the forest he seemed to remember sparse trees so he wasn’t very optimistic that we would find anything. On top of that, was the fact that our little Honda Fit wasn’t exactly the front wheel drive sleigh we were driving during our last visit to the woods. I, on the other hand, was adamant I would not purchase a real Christmas tree since my dream to have a Christmas tree farm had not come true this past year. I wanted to cut my own tree and not spend any money doing it. We worked our way up the mountain with our little car, the air growing colder every mile. In the valley we hadn’t had more than a skiff of snow but as we climbed higher the snow lay deeper and the trees glistened with heavy blankets of white.

It seemed like forever before we came to the forest service sign and snow started to softly fall. Other than a few four wheel drive vehicles, it felt like we were all alone in the forest. Since we had left quite late in the afternoon, the sky was darkening. I had visions of being stuck on the side of the road and I regretted not packing a thermos of hot cocoa, some snacks and a blanket…until we turned a corner in the road and then I saw it. Like that moment in the movie, “Christmas Vacation,” when the Griswold family comes upon their tree for the first time and it’s lit up and angels are singing, I knew our tree had been found.


There wasn’t a break in the clouds and music playing but the tree appeared illuminated nonetheless. Even D saw it. Since it was on the opposite side to where we were driving, D slowly did a U turn further up the road and as we started to move back in the direction of the tree, we jumped as a loud blast broke through the forest silence and we were further shocked to see a sanding truck thundering towards us. It was scary how quickly that truck came upon us.

For a moment I had visions of us on the evening news with the headlines,”Local couple and parents to 8 children, who were up in the mountains looking for a Christmas tree, were killed by a sanding truck.” I know, morbid hey? Thankfully, D’s reactions were quick. He put on his right signal light, and easily pulled over to the edge of the narrow road just as the truck barreled past us, making our little car shake. D put on the hazard lights, grabbed his saw and jumped out of the car. I was still in shock over how close we had come to having an accident. It felt mystical how we were spared. By the time I opened my door, D had climbed up the slight incline, moving through the snow and was already assessing the tree. I joined him still wondering how he could just move on from that close call. I felt like something amazing had just occurred and as I looked around, everything seemed more intense and heightened. The air was crisper, the silence deeper, the forest around us felt sacred.

The tree was enchanting. It was the perfect height for our family room and nicely full. I could just imagine it in our house decorated with the children’s homemade ornaments and popcorn strings. I had saved some dried baby’s breath from my garden and thought that would give it a whimsical look as the white lights twinkled. As I got closer to the tree though and actually felt the branches, I had a moment where I just wanted to turn around and go home, leaving it to grow another year in the forest. I knew that if we cut it down, it would not be a home for birds, or a refuge for little animals on the coldest of days. It’s beauty would be enjoyed only for a few weeks, camouflaged beneath our ornaments. Then D asked me if this was the one and I just nodded and said,  “it’s perfect!”

The next thing I knew, we were lifting it into the back of the little Honda Fit and the top of it was

Our beautiful tree 2014

hanging out of the car at least 4 feet. As we slowly drove down the mountain, the snow glowed white as the skies drew a dark purple curtain over the valley below.  The one benefit of the sanding truck was that he had started to spread dirt as soon as he passed us, so our drive down the mountain wasn’t as precarious as D feared as the road was getting icier. As we drove along the country road in our bright red Honda sleigh, I thought we must be a sight for sore eyes with our tree hanging out the back of the car. Inside, both D who had been chatty on the drive up the hill, were suddenly quiet, immersed in our own thoughts. The smell of fresh fir filled our nostrils and for the first time it felt like Christmas. When the kids heard us come home, they piled out of the house to see our new tree and I was just so happy to see their beautiful faces.

The final magical thing that happened this Christmas was that somehow we were able to give our children everything they had asked for on their wish list. As I was telling my sister J, and brother-in-law B, who popped in this afternoon for a New Year’s Eve visit, Christmas ended up being a bit like Jesus’s loaves and fishes story. There was enough for everyone.  Enough for our children, enough for the places we wanted to donate, and even bigger dreams came true when D came home with a small bonus from his office. Why did I ever doubt? Have I not been blessed, time and time again? There is ALWAYS, always, ENOUGH!!!

Of course the Christmas story is the BIG one this time of year (and Will loved to remind his little sisters that Santa isn’t in the word, Christmas…(I should have been listening to him!)

 

This is the manger, my Dad made over 50 years ago…this Christmas it sat on the dresser in my bedroom…reminding me of what the season is about…..gifts of love.

….but for me this year…the loaves and fishes story was also huge….in case you have forgotten, here’s how it goes, …

 

Matthew 14:13-21New International Version (NIV)

 

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

After setting up our real Christmas tree in the family room that Sunday night before Christmas and decorating it with the kids the following day, (and not even saying anything when they only decorated the top three feet of the tree and often put a dozen ornaments on the same branch) I started seeing clearly all the goodness in my life.

Our fishes and loaves stretched beautifully. Again and again little miracles kept happening. As I looked down the pew, where our family sat enjoying our church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service, I felt an enormous sense of peace and bliss. The season of love and light was upon me and I realized that just like the first Christmas when Jesus was born in a simple stable, it was the smallest things that held the most joy for me this season. Sitting together with all of my family in one place and knowing, Alyssa was also being cared for in the U.K. by a dear, kind cousin J (my Dad’s first cousin) and her generous family, well what more could I ask for than that?  I was filled with peace and bliss

And now I will share a few Christmas moments with you….bliss abounds.

On Christmas morning, to allow the older kids to blissfully sleep in longer, we got the little ones bathed and ready for the day…hence all dressed up…it was hard to drag out the morning as they were so excited to see what was in their stockings

 

Finally, they are in the family room….Harrison and Grace are still in their Christmas Eve  P.J’s
I’m showing this picture as our cats were lingering in the back,looking for their share of the fishes and loaves…yes even miracles stretch for kitties and they received treats too. The little girls had asked for dolls as well as a kitty for Kate, and Victoria had asked for a puppy. When I found these dolls holding a kitty and a puppy, I thought I had struck gold! This is what I mean about everything working out perfectly.
Harrison’s basketball team are called the Lakers…since we live near a lake I guess…he was thrilled when we found this hat for him

 

Grace desperately needed socks this Christmas and she was very blessed because even her Auntie must have mysteriously got a hold of the wish list…she is laughing as she opens a second package with socks…warm feet, warm heart!
Mitchell is just happy to be home from University…there is nothing like moving away from home to make you appreciate the littlest things
Clark’s boots got a hole in them right before Christmas…we were not going to get him new boots but when we found these on a “deal”….like they were meant for him…we bought them and they fit perfectly..he was overjoyed!
Will asked for a telescope, a watch and a yo yo this Christmas….he was thrilled to be looking at the heavens

 

Here’s Clark, our oldest son setting up Will’s telescope late in the day on Christmas and giving the kids some astronomy tips
I stopped between mashing potatoes and making gravy to snap this picture on Christmas day…it was blissful

Another magic moment came when it started to snow after Christmas.  It has been an unseasonably warm fall and early winter and it’s almost unheard of in these parts not to get a good dump of snow by Christmas. Then, it started to fall gently, enveloping our little town with a white, peaceful blanket and a few days after Christmas we had enough for the kids to go sledding and making forts in our yard.Will was thrilled since he received a new sled for Christmas.

Here’s a picture of the kids outside today…on New Year’s Eve 2014
And what’s great about going outside…coming in for hot cocoa and watching the movie, “Frozen”

 

And so those were a few of my Christmas 2014 memories. Last Christmas, when D and I were out doing a marathon holiday shopping fest, I was absolutely exhausted and desperately needed to eat and drink something. Unlike most people, over the holidays I usually lose 5 or so pounds since I’m so busy. I swear that having a bunch of kids is a weight loss program, especially at Christmas, (who knew, maybe more people will have a large family now) so I probably hadn’t eaten much on that day. We were in my favourite store, “Chapters,” where there is also a Starbucks located inside.

I’m not a coffee drinker. Never have been and was planning to steer myself through a lifetime of “not” getting addicted to the brown stuff but that night, I needed something and the deep, rich smell of coffee was enticing. I was going to order a herbal tea but then I was lured by the lovely sounds of an eggnog latte. In addition, since they were about to close up the store, they offered some free cranberry bliss bars on the house. Well, normally I don’t indulge in too many sweets but I was starving and needed a serious sugar boost, so we gratefully accepted the free bars and took our drinks.

Well I should have been more wary of becoming a coffee addict since my mother LOVED it and I know most of the world also enjoys it. I thought I was strong enough to have one cup and then return to my tea habit but nope. It turns out that if there is eggnog AND coffee in the house, I will be drinking it…and lots of it. I still mainly drink tea but at Thanksgiving time, I’m all about pumpkin spice lattes and during the Christmas holiday season, it’s all about eggnog lattes…..

Also, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I’m also an absolute steadfast fan of Cranberry Bliss bars. If you have not tried these….oh for heaven sakes, you haven’t known bliss.

So even though our family has a recipe book full of our Christmas favourites, I want to share my recipe for Cranberry Bliss bars and Eggnog lattes with you. Last year I tried various recipes and this is my favourite……I hope it will become a family favourite for you too.

Now, when I get up in the morning, the first thing I ask D to do, is make a full coffee pot, so I can drink them all day. Yes, I will have to start doing my green drinks and my juicing in the New Year….but for now, I’m going to enjoy what I call, holiday bliss, I hope you will join me.

Oh, Alyssa, I wish you were here this Christmas…you LOVE CRANBERRIES….this is for you dear daughter and for all my blog buddies who haven’t tried these…YET!

Here’s what you need for some bliss….

Cranberry Bliss Bars

 

 

 

 

Ingredients
Cake Base:
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1¼ C brown sugar, packed
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp ground powder ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1½ C flour
  • ¼ C minced dried cranberries
  • ¼ C quality white chocolate. I used a Lindt white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
  • ¼ C minced candied ginger
Frosting:
  • 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1½ C powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp grated orange rind
Drizzle:
  • 2 Tbsp minced dried cranberries
  • ⅓ C white chocolate, melted

 

Instructions

 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 pan
  2. Beat together butter and sugar and then add eggs and vanilla beating until light and fluffy
  3. Add flour, powdered ginger and salt
  4. Beat well
  5. Fold in the cranberries, chocolate chunks and minced candied ginger
  6. Spread batter in pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown
  7. After cake cools, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread over top of cake
  8. Sprinkle with minced cranberries
  9. Use a cake decorating bag of melted chocolate with a small round decorating tip to drizzle the chocolate over the cake
  10. Cut into triangles…or bars…your choice but I like the look of triangles

 

 

I like to cut them into triangles but warning these are really rich…oh I love the ginger in them, yummy!

And to accompany the perfect Christmas treat….an eggnog latte

Holiday Eggnog Latte

 

Ingredients
  • 2 shots espresso OR ½ cup of double/triple concentrated coffee
  • ⅔ cup eggnog
  • ⅓ cup milk
  • sugar…to taste
  • optional whipped cream and nutmeg
  • Variation: If you want to make this as an evening cocktail, add a shot of rum.

 

Instructions

 

  1. Pour espresso/concentrated coffee into a mug and add steamed eggnog/milk mixture.
  2. If you prefer your eggnog latte sweeter, add a little sugar.
  3. Top off with whipped cream and a pinch of nutmeg.
  4. *If you don’t have an espresso machine, do what I do most often. Just warm your eggnog/milk mixture in the microwave. Cook times may vary but I prefer heating mine for 2 minutes.
I love Starbucks Christmas blend…but any medium roast coffee is great for your latte

 

This is bliss in my house….happy holidays!

Another special moment…once Mitchell came home for Christmas we had our annual photo shoot at our local Super Store….this year we got out in record time and everyone was smiling…gotta love that!
Here is a picture of the twins, “they always have each other’s back” wearing their beautiful plaid dresses
Although this picture didn’t turn out..I had to show it to you…this was the holiday cards we sent out..note the Christmas tree on the card…very meaningful this year

So that is a wrap dear blog friends and family. If I have learned ANYTHING at all this year…it is to believe in magic and miracles…because again and again they keep appearing in my life. I hope your upcoming year is full of what your heart desires.

Bliss at the very least.

 

Here’s an appropriate song for the occasion, “The Last Goodbye” sung by Billy Boyd, from the third Hobbit movie, (we went last night and I thought it was the perfect song as we say goodbye to 2014)

Good bye 2014

And…..

May all your wishes and dreams come true.

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

Blessing from Hope

 

Homemade Ice Cream Cake~ Bath Salts

/ Lee Reynolds

Welcome December and my busiest month of the year.

Welcome to The Spa at Orchard Ridge

As if this month isn’t busy enough, we have three children
who all have birthdays in the next couple of weeks. We eat a lot of cake this month. Clark our oldest son, will turn 22 on December 20th and Harrison, will be sweet 16 on December 19th. I’ll never forget when I went into labour with Harry, the day before his older brother was about to turn 6 years old. It was getting close to midnight and I told
my Doctor to break my water to move things along, as
I wanted our oldest son to have his “own” birthday.  As it turned out, Harrison was born before midnight and when we told Clark he wouldn’t have to share his birthday, he replied quite graciously, that he wouldn’t have minded sharing his birthday and having Harrison was the best birthday present he would ever receive.

When we found out we were expecting Grace, we were just so
thrilled that we hardly blinked when we found out her due date was December 18th. I actually thought it would be really cool
to have three children’s birthdays in a row but she had other ideas and arrived 2 weeks early on December 5th. She will turn 12 this coming Friday but last weekend, we celebrated by giving her a Spa Getaway party.

I had so much fun planning her birthday and that is also why I wasn’t blogging last week. Sadly, I didn’t take enough pictures to share today. I wasn’t really thinking “blog opportunity” when planning and throwing my daughter her birthday. However, I did take some pictures of the Ice Cream Cake I made and a few pictures of the Bath Salts that the girls made on the morning after the sleepover. I thought you may like to see them and have the recipes. The Bath Salts are easy, fun to make and I personally think they would make great gifts for teachers this holiday season.

The night before the party, we took Grace to her voice recital where she sang a cute Hawaiian Christmas song which set the perfect mood for returning home to make an ice cream cake.

The cake takes about 15 minutes to make. Max. When I think of all the years we used to buy our children their frozen cakes in the past I cringe. The last cake we had, was ridiculously expensive and had freezer burn so I’m glad to have found a great recipe to share with you now. Okay, maybe being totally sustainable means you have your own cow and you can make your OWN ice cream, etc, but hey, making things yourself is rewarding and does make you feel independent of others in many ways. Plus it’s just plain delicious. I know from past experiences, children who visit us and taste our own homemade Ice Cream cakes are amazed, asking several times, “and you made THIS?”

Hope’s Ice Cream Cake

1 box of oreo type cookies
1/4 cup melted butter
1 carton of ice cream
possibly two if you want two flavours or colours
Whipping Cream
Anything you want to garnish the cake with

 

The first thing you need to do is set out your ice cream of choice and let it sit and soften while you are preparing the crust. Grace really likes mint, so we purchased Breyers Mint Chocolate chip Ice Cream. I find that a large container is enough, although as you will see later, I often use a small amount of vanilla or chocolate to bring the ice cream to the top of the cake pan.

To make the crust you need a box of cookies. Typically, we use Oreo type cookies but our local Super Store has a store brand this time of year with candy cane filling in the middle. It’s perfect for the season and goes delightfully with our mint ice cream.

Set aside several cookies, which can later be split apart or broken up to garnish your cake. Then grind the rest of the cookies with a food processor, or you can put them into a freezer bag and break them up into fine crumbs with a rolling pin.

Put the crumbs into a mixing bowl and add 1/4 cup of melted, cooled, butter. Mix really well until well combined.

 

Press the cookie mixture into a spring form pan. I find there is a fine line over how hard to press the crumb mixture down. If you press too hard it can be really difficult to cut later, so press just enough to spread on the pan evenly.

 

Put all of the softened ice cream into a bowl and mix until creamy. If your ice cream is still quite hard, just let it soften a bit more.

Take the creamy, softened ice cream and spread it on top of your cookie crust in your spring form pan

My mint chocolate chip ice cream only went 3/4s of the way up the pan, so I put the cake in the freezer to let the first layer harden as I softened some vanilla ice cream. Once softened, I put a few drops of red food colouring in and stirred it really well. I thought this was a nice touch for a spa cake, calm green and soft pink always comes to mind when I think of relaxation and girls.

During this next step, you can get as creative as you like when making your cake. In the past, I have made strawberry ice cream cakes with the top being chocolate ice cream and then garnishing the whole cake with strawberries and cookies. I have also made a chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cake…you can also sprinkle cookie crumbs between layers.

For this cake though, I thought the light pink was a lovely finishing touch.

 

Once the cake pan is topped with the softened ice cream of your choice, cover it and place it in the freezer. For a good set, leave it 24 hours.

About an hour before the party, I brought out the cake and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then I carefully unlatched the lock on the spring form pan and lifted it up off the cake. I transferred the cake onto a crystal cake dish and brought out the items that I was going to decorate the cake with. For this cake I chose some red and green sprinkles, left over cookies split in half, some crushed candy canes and of course whipping cream.

 

You can whip your own cream but I find buying the kind in a can the easiest for a nice decorative touch.

This is my favourite part as I love to decorate; houses, packages, and in this this case, a cake. It’s like beautifying and putting your own touch on things. I didn’t have more than 5 minutes though, since I was doing last minute cleaning, cooking, spa prep. And that is the true beauty of this cake…it takes no time to make it look sensational.
And here it is, a few cookies around the sides, some along the top and I used the whipping cream and sprinkles/crushed candy canes, to do the rest. I didn’t take a picture of it after it was cut since I was the spa coordinator along with the cook, baker and bottle washer. It was beautiful though, with the chocolate crust, then the light green ice cream and finally the soft pink as the top….it almost looked like icing. Oh and it was yummy too. ( Hint..if you ever do a spa party for your child….ask a friend/sister/neighbour, etc to help out….so you can take pictures)

As I was busy getting things ready in the afternoon I DID snap a picture of our chalk board and all the things we had planned for the evening. When the girls arrived, I had spa music playing, candles lit and I used lots of aromatherapy to make the house smell relaxing.

 

This was the “waiting room”…I had a salt crystal light, candles, and a water feature tinkling at our front door…of course I Googled some great spa music and it was playing on my computer all night…oh and the smell in the house…lovely scents from the store “Saje”

Once everyone had arrived and settled in, we served dinner. I thought the appropriate dinner selection would be one less spicy but our daughter loves butter chicken, vegetable samosa’s etc, and ceasar salad so that was our menu.

After dinner, each girl was asked to find a comfy chair in our living room, where I had placed a white plastic bucket filled with hot water at the foot. In the water, I had poured a mixture of sea salts, epsom salts and some lavender essential oil….and of course a touch of blue food colouring. The girls settled in comfortably, chatting easily, as the spa music filled the room. It didn’t hurt that we had already decorated our house with greenery and white lights everywhere, which really set a peaceful mood.

As they were soaking their feet, I went from girl to girl and placed the honey facial mask that I had made ahead of time.

Hope’s Facial Mask

1 egg,
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 cup of flour
Lavender Essential oil…(I also put in a few drops of vanilla)

After they all had their facial masks on, I placed a “cold” cucumber slices over their eyes. Each girl went “awwww,” as they felt the refreshing cucumber go on their eyes. As they relaxed, I went around from girl to girl and massaged their feet using an exfoliating product I had purchased at the “Body Shop” but I  had read that a homemade product of sugar and honey works great too.

This would have worked a lot better had I had some help, as I was really moving from girl to girl and in and out of the kitchen with fresh hot water to add to the their foot baths. They didn’t seem to notice though since they were all really quiet (amazing for 11 year old chatty girls!) as they had their heads back, just enjoying the treatment.

After about 20 minutes with the mask on their face, I heated up some wet wash clothes, with lavender sprinkled on them, in the microwave. Once heated, I gently placed it over each of their faces, with just their noses exposed. Each of them, audiably sighed, and as they relaxed further into this warmth, I went around the room and took their feet out of the foot bath. I gave each of them one final foot massage rubbing in some lovely rich “Satsumi,” body butter from from the store, The Body Shop. The smell is absolutely lovely.

Once all the girls had their feet massaged. I gave them a new round of warm wash clothes to wipe off their honey masks. I then brought in lovely red towels for them to dry their faces (we really needed new towels and these were on sale at The Bay recently…I thought they looked rather festive and although one thinks of WHITE for spa towels…I thought these were warm and rich looking and lovely with the white lights and candles and all the greenery. (For some of the greenery, D went out just before the party and pruned some of our pine bushes) I put the towels in their laps and brought each of them a small bucket of warm water, in which I had placed a light vanilla scented soap, some epsom salts and dried peppermint leaves from our garden. Oh this was lovely, and the girls seemed to really enjoy soaking not just their fingers but immersed their whole hands into the warm water. After about another 15 minutes, I brought clean warm water and they rinsed off their hands. Then, I gave them all some of the Satsumi body butter for their hands. Finally, I gave them all an emery board and asked that they file their toe nails and finger nails.

It was time to play the Nail game. I pushed everything out of the way and laid down on the floor a warm fleece blanket that I had just heated in the dryer. The girls sat down forming a circle and I  explained the game.

We had a selection of 5 nail colours plus a clear colour set aside. Each girl threw dice to see who would go first…the highest throw started the game. The first girl chose a nail polish bottle of her choice and spun it. The person the bottle pointed to when it stopped spinning was instructed to roll the dice. The number it landed on would then determine how many toe nails she had to paint the selected colour. She would then paint her nails, which ever toe nail she chose, and then she selected the next colour and spun the bottle and the game continued for a long time. Choruses of laughter spilled from the living room. When all their toes were painted, the game was over. The girls had such a great time and in the end, everyone seemed really happy with the results of their pedicure. (Note…if you are doing this make sure to put down a blanket that is not near and dear to you…in case some nail polish gets spilled.) Also, before they started painting their nails, I gave them nail painting instructions 101 so they spread the polish with ease. (One stroke down the middle…then sides…finishing with a Q tip with nail polish remover to take away any overages)

 

After their pedicure, the girls painted their finger nails the colour of their choice.(It helped that I bought Sally Hanson, fast dry nail polish) After that, the girls went out to the hot tub, where I could hear them laughing and giggling. When they came in they were all prunes but they said it was wonderful, luxuriating in the hot water with the cold winter air on their faces. It was perfect as I was able to clean up from the spa part of our evening and set out the cake, popcorn, punch, pop, licorice for the movie/sleepover portion of the party.

The next morning, after D’s delicious pancakes (he really knows how to make a great breakfast!) I had the girls make Lavender Bath Salts to take home. It was really fun watching them turn some basic ingredients into a lovely gift and I was thinking, hmmmm….I should include this in my blog in case you are looking for a homemade gift to give to someone special this holiday season.

Hope’s Bath Salts

A glass container
Epsom Salts
Sea Salts 
Food Colouring
Essential Oil of your choice….we used Lavender 
Ribbon of your choice…we used raffia ribbon for a cottage look

Mix 1 part epsom salts with 1 part sea salts. Add the food colouring of your choice. You have to really mix the colouring in well until you get a nice consistency. The girls used blue and a bit of red for a lovely blue. Finally, add and stir in the essential oil of your choice.

Ideally, you would let it sit and dry overnight but we had to pour with a funnel into the girls glass containers and added a label and the raffia ribbon. You can do different colours and layer it as you desire or have it all the same colour. One Christmas our girls made peppermint bath salts and did one layer of green, then pink, alternating layers right to the top of the jar…fixing a bow and attaching a candy cane beneath it…the sky is the limit regarding your choice of scent and colours..and jars. Canning jars would be really cool with the raffia ribbon!

I wished I had taken pictures of the girl’s thank you bags but you know how busy things get at parties….but here’s what I did in case you are wanting to throw your daughter a spa party. I went to the dollar store and found really pretty glitzy clutch purses. The make up bags that they had were kind of tacky and weren’t big enough for what I wanted to put in them.

Inside these bright pink, glittery bags, (like evening bags) I placed a bar of lavender soap, nail polish remover (in case the parents weren’t thrilled over the girls manicures/pedicures) a few emery boards, some cotton squares(put into t little bag to keep them sterile) and a bottle of nice nail polish (I didn’t get these at the dollar store but bought a good quality bottle of nail polish) Finally, when you are 11, turning 12, you still like candy, so I threw a handful of wrapped candy….holiday variety, since she is my December baby. I wrapped the whole purse with raffia ribbon as it was bulging full. In addition to their bath salts, it was a nice way to say thank you for coming. Grace is really blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Well, that’s one birthday down, two more to go….the next one is a SWEET SIXTEEN for my quickly growing sweet boy, uummm, young man,  Harrison…stay tuned. Although celebrating each of our children’s birthdays is very special, remembering the journey to Grace, reminds me how special this time of year truly is. It’s the season of light. The season of miracles. The season of love.

Before I close I thought an appropriate YouTube video was, (click here if you can’t see below) Joe Cocker’s song, “You ARE so Beautiful.” because although this blog post was all about Grace’s spa beauty party, she reminds me all the time what beauty is all about.

 

     Happy Birthday Grace. Your soul shines!

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

Blessings from Hope