My favourite things . . .

 

I know I normally do this on a Thursday, but I will be at the cancer hospital tomorrow so I thought I would do it today.  A few of my favourite things  . . .

 

 I like my dreams.  Most of the time.  I dream a lot about my children and in my dreams I solve all of the problems with I don't seem to be able to solve in real life.  We talk things over.  All the conversations I have never had the opportunity to have in reality get spoken and hashed out in my dreams.  For instance last night I was with my youngest daughter and her two babies were there and we were talking as if there was nothing wrong and as if there was no wall between us.  There was a wall, but it was a planning wall and I had all these things written on the wall and we were hashing it out.   I woke up feeling positive and good about things.  The reality is far different from that and I have come to the point now where I recognise that I will probably never see a solution to whatever is wrong between us in this lifetime, or between her younger brother and I either . . .  and I have become reconciled to that fact.  It is what it is, but in my dreams no walls or barriers exist.  Perhaps these are glimpses of Heaven.  I like to believe that they are.  Little glimpses of Heaven are another favourite thing.   

 

I hope this doesn't seem like I am bragging and forgive me if it does, but I just can't help but mark this occasion here on my blog where I put all of my thoughts, failures and successes.   About a year or so ago, a gentleman named Coleman Andrews wrote me an e-mail telling me he was writing a new cookbook on British cooking and he was keen to include my Apple Dumplings recipe.  He said that it was the best one he had tried.  I said yes, sure he could.  He promised to give me credit for it.   You can't get much better than that really and lo and behold he did.   Here it is!  Being mentioned in a cookbook written by a best selling author who is also a winner of not one but eight James Beard Awards has to be one of my favourite things ever!  I think the phrase "Tickled Pink" covers it.  And to be honest, it really is one of my favourite recipes ever . . . 

Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings.   Another one of my favourite things.  Why?  Because they are like a little apple pie just for you and a lot easier to make than an apple pie actually.  All you have to do is peel and apple, roll it in lemon juice and cinnamon sugar and plunk it on a square of pastry, fillit with butter and brown sugar and pull the pastry up to cover it.   You don't even have to make it look pretty like I did, just cover the apple.  Then you pour over a delicious sauce and bake.   Scrumptious doesn't begin to cover it.  Apple Dumplings with some cream.   Another one of my favourite things, for what is ice cream, but  . . .  frozen cream.  ☺

I just love my Susan Branch Calendars.  I have this one and the little planner one and in the past I have had the desk blotter.   I have to say that Susan Branch is one of my favorite things, and yes I know she is a person and not a thing.   I fell in love with Susan's work back in the 1980's when she used to have an illustrated recipe in Country Living magazine every month.  And then I bought her first book,  Heart of the Home.  Loved it.   I bought her little books, cards, etc.   Whenever I found something of hers I bought it because I just loved everything she produced with her wealth of talent.   Then came the internet and I discovered her Blog/webpage and I fell in love with her all over again.  If you have never read her blog you really need to.  It is delightful.  I often go back and read her posts over and over again.  Why do I love her so much?  Why is she one of my favourite things?  Because she is real, she is genuine,  and she is just like one of us.  The way she writes, they are words I could have written.  She pens my thoughts and draws my pictures.  I just think she is the real deal and I love her to bits for it and for sharing herself so generously with the world.  She has a gift, a true gift and she is not selfish with it.  That's what gifts are for.  To share.

I love our little fish tank.  I could sit and watch the fish in it for hours.   I never thought that fish could have individual personalities, but they do.  They play and they have their quiet moments.  They have their energy rushes and their lulls.   I think swimming in water like they do must be akin to being able to fly.  They soar through the tank the same way that birds soar through the sky.  Oh to soar . . .  if I could soar that would also be one of my favourite things.  The closest I have ever come to is is to fly on a loaf of bread in a dream, and we all know now that my dreams are  . . .  favourite things.

 I love looking at house plans and dreaming about the kind of house I would have if only, if only  . . . I think this one is called Crabapple Cottage.  And quite the cottage it is.  I think it is quite gorgeous.  Not too big and not too small.  With a bit of a porch that you could sit on in your rocking chair  and enjoy on warm summer days along with your ice cold glass of lemonade having conversations with Todd . . .  and watching the world walk by, Mitzie laying by our feet.

There's that dreaming again!!

 I got this little book for 2017.  It is a daily book, filled with thoughts on the atonement and I am just getting so much from it.   I love books like this.  For instance here was the thought for yesterday . . .

"A true faith in Christ is more than just knowing about Him or even believing He is divine.  It is knowing that His Atonement is real, that its purpose is to transform us, snd that it will be available as long as that perfecting process takes.  We have a Saviour who covers us, a Reedemer who changes us,  and a Good Shepherd who is willing to go in search of us again and again . . . continuously."
~Brad Wilcox

Being able to start each day with an inspiring thought about the Saviour's atonement is one of my favourite things. 

 

I am not a Catholic by faith but my father is.  When we were in Lourdes a few years back I bought him a rosary.   I recently bought myself a rosary also.  I love my rosary.  I hold it in my hands sometimes when I am praying and run my fingers over the cross holding the Saviour.   The pearls start off cold but then warm up as I pray, the cross helping me to focus and to commune with the Saviour in a very meaningful way.  That is not to say that my prayers without the rosary in my hands are not meaningful . . .  God hears all of our prayers and they all mean something to Him, and He is always listening . . .  I only mean to say that I feel a sense of special comfort in my prayers when I am holding it.  I am not sure where this comfort comes from.  Perhaps it is in knowing that generations and generations of my family have prayed in the same way and perhaps I can feel the power of all of those prayers gliding up towards the heavens, towards our Heavenly Home.  Perhaps it helps me to feel a part of something that is eternal and familial all at the same time.  The Gospel is about the family and the eternal aspect of belonging to one.  Perhaps the sense of comfort I get from holding this rosary is the sense of family that I get when I am holding it in my hands  . . .

  

And with that I will leave you with a thought for today  . . . 

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.° ˛°. . 
˛*Love grows best in little houses, with fewer walls to separate.

            Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can't help but communicate.

                  And if we had more room between us, think 

                         of all we would miss . . . •。★★ 。* 。.° * 。

 Spiritual Enlightenment

 

 In The English Kitchen today . . .  Bacon BBQ Chicken.  This is so simple that even a child can make it.  No kidding!  And to top it off its also mightly delicious!

 May the day ahead be filled with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and a few of YOUR favourite things.  Don't forget!


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And I do too!