"We are time for go" ~Tiny

Can't you hear a NASA ground crew member saying that? 
I can every time I hear her and I want to say, "Go Flight"

That's the state we're in for the next several days:  company coming and going, things to participate in etc.

So we'll see you next week.

So all my best laid plans fell flat yesterday.  I learned once again that I really don't pay attention very well.  As I prepared to make Baklava I discovered that I had purchased puff pastry and not Philo dough--which is what I needed.  There is no Philo dough in our town.  So we made a dinner quiche instead, which filled up my skeptical husband (along with salad and french bread). 

Then we made a three layer peppermint bark that is making a believer out of me.  I don't like white chocolate.  This recipe is amazing.  It's from Orangette (a food blog).  The recipe is here toward the bottom of the post.  

My kids helped me coarsed chop the peppermint by smashing the candies with cans (it was fun and they didn't quit until I made them).  Then I spread each layer.  Mowg unwrapped 17, 1 ounce squares of chocolate--we're going to use the wrappers for snowflakes.  The kids helped sprinkle the peppermint on the 2 layers it went on.  They would have been a little more involved, but they were busy playing hide-n-seek with Dad.  The tiny girl gives a big thumbs up.  Mowg doesn't mind the peppermint candy.  Dad thinks it's quite good as well.  If I can find more white chocolate we'll make another batch.  I bought out the only store that had any white chocolate with cocoa butter in it.  I only bought 3 packages.  So I'm not hopeful.

Now for recommendations.   As I was gathering our Christmas Books to put in a basket (I've never done that before, but it's working pretty well).  I noticed a strong trend in secular books there and a pretty miserable offering with regard to religious ones.  This is in my own library mind you.  That's not to say there were none, just that there weren't many.  Part of this is that I have my favorite telling of the birth of the Savior in picture book form already. My dearest gave me Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki last year.  I love the ethereal nature of the water colors in it.  I have a few others that I like, but I want a few more that focus on things of a little more strongly religious nature.  I wondered what kind of story to look for.   Then it dawned on my that 2 of my favorite Christmas carols would make wonderful books.  So I started looking and it was slow going.  I did find 2 that I can say I really like.  The Friendly Beasts with illustrations by Tomie dePaola.  Normally I am not a big Tomie dePaola fan.  I just don't like his illustration style that much.  I love this book.  This illustrations are simple.  The text was hand lettered by the artist.  The beasts (do you know the carol?  "I said that Donkey, shaggy and brown...") have expressive faces.  I love the layout of the book.  Each animal has it's own two page spread where it's verse is written.  Almost as if it really is telling you what it did for the the baby Jesus.  Then you turn the page and the next 2 page spread the animal is doing what it just told you...or providing what it said it did.  No words.  Just the pictures.  I also love that that babe's presence is implied by Mary and Joseph and the manger rather than his face until the last 2 pages of the book.  It's wonderful!

The other one is Good King Wenceslas.    There are several versions out there and I just took a wild stab at this one: Good King Wenceslas.  Since Amazon has no pictures of this one here are a few from my book: 

A 2 page spread:

 Detail

 I love the bleakness of the landscape and the contrast between the building interior and exteriors.

 You can't really see the "forest fence" in my picture of this, but it looks really cool in the book.

 Closer in...same as above.

Do you have any suggestions of favorite Christmas books?

Sometimes I think the word "Mommy" sounds more like a cuss word on the lips of my beautiful children, than a title or even a name.  I don't know how to explain it other than the end of the day that overused word is just used up.  It is used to summon me from all kinds of tasks to all kinds of tasks.  Some days it just knocks me down.  Then things happen like my dearest friend comes and puts his arms around me as I sit on the couch staring out the window. 

Sometimes it's a book I read to my kids, like An Alcott Family  Christmas by Alexandra Wallner.  It reminded me of the importance of giving to others, even when you don't have a lot like the Alcott Family did giving their whole Christmas dinner away and having a regular every day meal instead.  It also brought up a question (and this from one of those little cussers I was just telling you about) "Can you read the poem the Dad wrote?"  Mr. Alcott had written a poem and he read it to the girls as part of their Christmas celebration.  It wasn't in the book, but it made me curious.  So I went looking for poems by Mr. Bronson Alcott.  I found some, but none that I was ready to share with this little boy of mine.  I did however find this little quote and I love it:

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent that is to triumph over old age ~Bronson Alcott.  That's something to strive for.

Then I'm introduced to this blog:  Chookooloonks.  It's written by Karen Walrond and she's just released a book:  The Beauty of Different.  I'm very intrigued by the book and loved what I read and saw on her blog.  When asked by Brene' Brown what she would like put on a t-shirt she said, "Wildly convinced you're uncommonly beautiful."  How does that make you feel?  Uncommonly beautiful?  Wouldn't it be cool if everyone could read that and think it?  Even better believe it?!

The other thing she shared on her blog that I love came from a talk by Brene' Brown. 

"Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" ~  Mary Anne Radmacher

Sometimes (lots of times) I need that kind of courage.

Finally as I was working on something I got a "Mommy" request for crayons.  I never turn that down.  So they went to work coloring and a few minutes later Mowg says, "Mom, we have a present for you."  I turned to look and he had something behind his back.  I tried to encourage him to save it until Christmas.  "No, we need to give it to you right now."  So they did.  They each handed me a piece of paper and said, "Look a rainbow!"  Here are my lovely rainbows:

Maybe "Mom's" not a cuss word after all.  Certainly not all of the time.

In holiday news I finally got some Pickled Mexican Carrots (recipe available here) going yesterday.  Three more days until we taste them.  It's going to be part of the gift we're giving folks.   Next up is Baklava.  We chopped nuts tonight, so tommorrow we might get truffle centers made as well.  We'll see.  There's also that pesky house cleaning that needs doing and more "settling in."  I'll let you know tommorrow, along with a few book recommendations for Christmas.

I have a friend I met just before my second college experience.  I still consider her one of my dearest friends, although it's been a long time since I've seen her and we don't talk or write often.  She had a huge influence on my life at that time.  Her name is Gwen To'omalatai.  She's an artist and I still have fond memories of running up to her upstairs studio and seeing what she was working on and afternoons of visiting and discussing philosophies.  I love her way of seeing and searching for purpose and understanding.  Below is one of my favorite pieces of her work.  I hope one day to have it hanging on my walls.    The focus of her work is color and light.  She looks to the natural world around her for inspiration and has a deep spiritual connection to it.   She paints our journey in this world as an attempt to reach another realm.  The spiritual is what draws me to her paintings.  I believe they embue them with--I'm not sure how to describe it--a peaceful uplifting feeling.

I have two posters hanging in my home at the moment that I love.  This is telling as I haven't hung much on my walls at this point in my new home.  One is this one:  Eternal Rest

My computer makes this image look a quite a bit more red than the actual print (the reds don't take over in real life).  However, every time I see it no matter what my mental state it helps me take a step back and I'm suddenly calmer.  That's good artwork for me to have on my walls.  I'm also grateful that she has affordable posters so that they can grace my walls.  The painting technique she uses is that of the Old Masters:  layering glazes.  She adds glazes and sands them away to acheive beauty. This process she says, "represents life, a refining process to reach the beauty that exsists in each of us." The paintings are most effective (as are we in life) when light enters into them and reflects or refracts back out of them.

I wish I could somehow share Gwen's soul with you.  She is a strong woman, determined and ever seeking.  She has met with sadness in her life.  Her sweet Husband, Ben, died in a car accident when she was expecting their 2nd son.  I have seen this experience intensify her quest for light and an eventual return to Heavenly Father and a reunion with Ben.  It is reflected in her paintings.  This deep sorrow has added the shadow under the light that allows it to shine all the more brilliantly.  Gwen is now raising her two sons, helping her Mom care for her Dad and continuing to paint.  She has also created some interesting wall hangings here's one that is hanging on my kitchen wall:

She uses the same technique she does in painting of layering glazes.  This gives the color behind the words a "moodiness" as it changes depending on the light.  Again the digital image shows very little of the true color.  The browns and greens are much prettier and more light filled in real life.  Gwen has two etsy shops.  One for her art, Gwen's Art, and another for boards, blocks and clocks like the one above  at Beaver Tail Boards.   Go and take a look she has some great things!

Sometimes it's the everyday that is worth keeping.

Here is a Tiny girl that loves a tea party.  She regularly sets it up herself.  Pulls the silverware out of the drawer, and if she can find a plate (or procure one from one of the taller folks around) She's all set.

"I a tea party"

She pauses to say a prayer.

Our new kitchen is pretty small, but she's found a spot that is hers.

Another daily occurence is playing games with Dad on the computer

Pool, hunting and some kind of color thing that has the Tiny Girl walking around saying,

"I yellow" As yellow is always her first choice. 

Mowg can't wait for the game playing time.  Is it time to play a game yet?

It's pretty serious stuff.

I love those little things that happen all the time.

We had "Fun Friday" yesterday and I was the teacher (as Mowg calls it). 

We made Sea Glass Candy--really just hard candy that you shatter and then paint with powdered sugar.  We also made shrinky-dinks.  The fun part for the grown-ups was we also learned some of the science behind those things. 

Did you know that table sugar crystals are made up fructose and glucose (those are molecules)?  When you apply heat they interfere with their bond and the crystal disappears.  Now fructose and glucose still want to get back together pretty bad so as soon as heat steps out of the picture, they're back together.  Unless....you can find something else to interfere.  (In steps corn syrup). 

I had each of the kids hold a paper on a stick that was one of those four things:  fructose, glucose, heat, and corn syrup.  We acted out the process.   To kids held their glucose and fructose together and then heat pushed them apart and kept them apart.  When we back heat off we had corn syrup step in to keep those other two from forming their crystal.

Then we put 1 Cup Sugar, 1/3 Cup Corn Syrup and 6 tablespoons of water in a pot and mixed them together.  We added our friend heat to see what would happened to those sugar crystals.  They melted! 
We had to let it boil until it reached 300 degrees on the Candy Thermometer...or the hard crack stage.  At 250 we added the food coloring.  We let each kid put in a couple of drops.  At this point there's no stirring or that agitation will encourage fructose and glucose to get back together (reforming crystals).    The boiling process distributes the color and it's pretty cool to watch.  You also have to watch out for "seed crystals" clinging to the side as they add to the encouragement of the our crystallizing molecules (Fructose and Glucose in case you forgot.  I would have by now.).  So you brush them down with a wet pastry brush.   Once the candy reaches the hard crack stage (which is cool to check by putting a small amount into some cold water where it will go immediately from a liquid into a hard candy that cracks loudly.  This also allowed for some sampling.)  We took it off the heat and added 1 teaspoon of blackberry extract.  If you have flavoring oils they work much better.  We're going to try again with 1 tablespoon of extract as I couldn't tell that we'd added any flavoring and oils are pretty hard to come by in our neck of the woods.  Then we poured it onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.  It made a huge circle.  We left it to cool.

While it was cooling we learned a little bit about polystyrene or Recycle 6 plastic and what happens to it when you apply heat.  Apparently when they make it they heat it up, roll it into thin sheets and then cool it quickly.  The polystyrene molecules naturally are a bunchy up, randomly clumped crew (or polymer chain if you prefer) and this process straightens them out some.  They want nothing more than to get back to their original state so when heat is re-applied as with shrinky-dinks they attempt it.  This is what causes them to curl.  One of my nieces said as she went into the other room to hang her shrinky-dink ornament on the tree, "Molecules are fun."  I agree.

One last thing Amorphous Solids.  What do glass and hard sugar candy have in common?  Their molecules are randomly linked together, not in an orderly consistent structure.   (which sounds like me) This makes them easy to break.  (Hmm I'm seeing some parallels here) I asked the kids the above question and my 5 year old niece said, "They both break easy."  I was impressed.  This also means they fall into the group called Amorphous Solids.   Everyone then got a chance to shatter the candy and paint and sample it.  Some Amophous Solids taste good!

Happy Fun Friday!  I didn't get any pictures, but it was very fun.

I wasn't sure what to write today, so I almost didn't. 

Then we got a visit from this lovely lady:

This is right out our kitchen window

 The pictures aren't very good, but I had to try.  She and I made several minute long eye contact.

It was cool and these pictures don't do her justice.  (Isn't  that just like a camera. :))

It has reminded us how hard it is for the animals this time of year.

When we opened the door to try and sneak a carrot out. She went up the tiers of the back yard

  To give you an idea here's a picture of the tiers from the other day.  She didn't scramble.  It was more of a ramble.   Just moving on to other places.

Then a certain little excited boy called out, "Deer come back for a snack!  Here's a carrot."  For some reason she just moved on at a slightly more hurried pace.  But not before our Dad (who was the one who alerted us to her presence) got this picture.

Have you ever read the Night Tree by Eve Bunting?

It's a great story of a family tradition of going out to the edge of town and decorating a tree with food for the animals.  I think we might have our own Night Sagebrush here sometime soon.  There is a small herd of deer that hang out around here and they're certainly hungry if they're willing to come up to our back porch.  Especially considering our back porch consists of one small step.  I'll let you know if we follow through on that though.  What a magical way to start the day!