FOR TODAY, December 18th, 2012...
Outside My Window...
It's dark and cold and wet, wet, wet.
I am thinking...
“When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be. ”
~Thomas S Monson
I got an e-mail recently from my Bishop saying the same thing basically. We have to look at others and see their potential, not their weaknesses. Every being on earth has the potential to be something great and wonderful. We must allow them the opportunity to do so . . . and how can they if we don't show them who they really are and what they can become? Love is the key that can unlock a marvelous future for anyone.
I am thankful for...
From the kitchen...
Well . . . I didn't cook anything yesterday. I was going to but then I decided to make space for a Christmas Tree. I almost have Scrooge convinced that we need a real one this year. I decided to be like Kevin Costner in that film about the Baseball field, "Field of Dreams." If you build it it will come . . . well I made a space for the tree, and am hoping it will come. ☺
I am wearing...
Pink and grey jim jams, robe, slippers. It's cool in here, but I don't feel as if I have to put any heat on yet this morning, so that's good.
I am creating...
This is my first finished illustration for the children's book. I quite like how it has turned out. I have decided to do them all in watercolor because I like the way they look. I bought a new set of watercolor pencils to take with me to Canada yesterday. I will take them along with me and work when I can while I am there. Perhaps I can get some work done on my Illustrated Cookbook as well. We shall see what happens.
Thinking these are really cute, although it's far too late for me to do something like this. Perhaps for next year.
And, isn't this totally adorable?? I think it's so sweet. I have a real thing for snowmen, gingerbread men and angels.
So sweet . . .
I am going...
I have an appointment for a haircut on Wednesday afternoon and a Dentist appointment on Thursday morning. I have to pop in to town at some point to pay a bill and pick up the veg for Christmas Dinner, although I am leaving that until as close to the big day as possible. Other than those things, my calendar is blissfully free.
Borrowed Light, by Carla Kelly
Julia Darling never expected to cook for some cowboys in Wyoming, but when she breaks off her engagement in Salt Lake City, it's the perfect opportunity for her to escape. Determined to stick the job out, Julia faces her biggest challenge yet - letting go of borrowed light to find her own testimony. Set in the early 1900s.
I am really enjoying this book! It is a historical romance, but without the smut, and very entertaining. The characters are very real and the main character is a cook! Absolutely loving this. It's refreshing and funny and interesting! The characters are sweet, loveable and believable. The perfect escape. I really love this writer! Her writing in refreshing and inspiring.
Jesus, a novel, by Walter Wangerin Jr
With eloquence and beauty, the award-winning author of Book of the Dun Cow, The Book of God, and Paul: A Novel turns his pen to history’s most compelling figure: Jesus of Nazareth. In vibrant language, Walter Wangerin Jr. sweeps away centuries of tradition and reveals a man of flesh-and-heart immediacy. Passionate, intelligent, and irresistibly real, this is a Jesus pulsing with life who will captivate you as thoroughly as he did the men and women who walked with him across Galilee’s golden countryside.
Days of centuries past become today, lit with bright colors of the imagination. Wangerin shows you Jesus through the eyes of the two people who were with him at very the foot of the cross, the two who knew and loved him best: John the apostle, and Jesus’ beloved mother, Mary. . . .
I am reading this one on my Kindle. I've read it before, but wanted to read it again. It's a fab book. He is a brilliant writer. I've also read his "Book of God." Another fab read! He brings the scriptures to life in a wonderful way.
I have added a new one . . . My Berlin Kitchen, by Luisa Weiss.
Along the way to adulthood, I acquired one six-inch chef’s knife, a dark-green glazed cast-iron pot, and the growing realization that baking and cooking were not just a sure way to end up with a pan of warm brownies or a kitchen full of the fragrance of beef stew. Busying myself in the kitchen was how I conjured the people and places I loved the most in the steam rising off the pots on the stove. And when I came down with a rare and chronic illness known as perpetual homesickness, I knew the kitchen would be my remedy.
I am in love with this book. How could you not be. It's an autobiography but with food and recipes. I am totally smitten with it.
I am hoping...
I am hoping that I won't find it too cold when I am in Canada in January. I suppose if I can do Idaho in February, I can do Canada in January. Thinking about that week I spent with Lura at Sun Valley Idaho when we went there to watch Eileen compete in the Special Olympic Winter Games and how cold it was. We coped somehow. I will always be grateful to Lura for that time we had together. Bless her Californian heart. I know she was soooooo cold. I don't think she had ever experienced cold like that. Grateful also to my friends Lenis and Dick who took us up there and then stayed with us the whole time. I am truly blessed in life to have such good people and friends in it. Yes, I pinch myself every day.
I am hearing...
Nothing new really. Mitzie gives an exaggerated sigh every few minutes as if to say . . . come on already. It's time for you to cuddle ME!!
Around the house...
I just love this vintage style, retro 50's kitchen. I would love to have a chrome table set and all that space.
Love this too . . . a gal can dream can't she???
I have always loved Paper Dolls. When I was about 7, a neighbor gave me a cardboard box full of her daughters old paper dolls. They were so wonderful. I adored each and every one of them. My very first paper doll was a HUGE one, who was almost as big as I was. She was made of heavy card and she had lips that blew a kiss if you tilted her just the right way. I wonder what ever happened to all of them. I never had a real Tressy, or Chatty Cathy doll . . . but I had paper ones and they were just fab. I liked to draw and colour new clothes for them to wear. I guess I had the art bug even then!
I hate my eyebrows. They are almost non-existant. I thank God for eye brow pencils. I only started using them this past year and I find myself wondering how on earth it took so long for me to discover them!! With a bit of skill I am able to shape my eyebrows into the eyebrows I have always wanted. Fabulous!!!
Now, if only I could fix my waistline that easily. I'd have it made!! I wouldn't mind a new nose either.
One of my guilty pleasures ...
This time of year, it has to be the Mince Pies . . .
Stollen Bites . . .
and yes . . . fruitcake. I love fruitcake. My mom always made the most fabulous War Cake every year at Christmas. I think I may make one myself this year. Todd would love it.
Pet Peeves...
I get really annoyed at the packaging of Aluminum Foil and Plastic Cling Film. You always end up having at least six inches of it that you can't use. The Aluminum foil is always taped together at the start of it . . . which is so hard to remove without tearing the foil (there goes the first three inches) . . . and then they also glue the final bits of it onto the carboard roll, so there is another useless 3 or so inches of it. I know I can't change it . . . but it annoys me every time!! Oh and the cling film . . . I always end up with it going awry, and having to waste tons of it in trying to get it to go right again. Sigh . . . ok, maybe not tons of it . . . but some of it anyways.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...
"Life is long if it is full."
~Seneca
Fill your hearts with the good in each day . . . and there is some good in each and every day, even on what we may think of as our very worst days.
As a closing thought I would like to leave you with this:
“You need never be discouraged or afraid. The way through difficulties has always been prepared for you, and you will find it if you exercise faith.”
~Henry B Eyring
And there you have it . . . my day book for this week. Don't forget to hop on over to the Simple Woman to check out the other day book entries! (Or better yet, do a simple day book entry yourself! It's not that hard and I am betting you would enjoy it!
In The English Kitchen today . . . Whipped Shortbread Biscuits.
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