Little Shadow Dancer

Everyone had gone to the truck, except Riley and myself. We seem to always be the last two in the car. There are a host of reasons, from finding a lost shoe to re-packing an understocked diaper bag. We've recently added "Load Rye's purse" to that list. That was one of the reasons we were lagging on this day.

We took the elevator down one whole flight...18 steps worth of space... to the parking lot ; not because it is faster, rather because it is a safer means of travel for those of us with both hands and a foot full.
As we exited the elevator, Riley spied her shadow in a shaft of sunlight. She and her newfound friend commenced a dance promptly.

Reagan & Riley

A short clip of Reagan & Riley dancing in the hotel lobby before Grandpaw's funeral. When she watched the clip, Rye said with a smile " There's my cousin!"

In other recent news, Reagan was inviting another cousin to his make-believe party, even though...GASP... she's a girl!

So cool to see these cousins learning about their family connection and develop a friendship around it.

Princess Fan Technique

Riley is a 'Sophia the First' fan. One episode featured a Princess Test. The Princesses-In-Training were practicing proper fan technique in hopes of passing the test. That is where Rye came up with the steps: "First I fan, then I laugh...heeheehee"

Enjoy our own little princess as she practices her fan technique...and excuse the background noise...it's bound to happen in this house :) 

Minerals and Cookie Mining

We've been learning about minerals in Earth Science. 

Yesterday, we learned about identifying minerals with the various tests that scientists use. For us, testing involved a hammer, a small pillow case and a handful of rock samples purchased in a kit for just this section of the book. Everyone was disappointed that mom refused to share the hammer.

Identifying Minerals Project

Today's lesson  was about Native Minerals and the way they are harvested~specifically mining. 

(from MiddleEarth~ha! Yes, we did tie a small conversation about The Hobbit into our lesson...Snow White and her Dwarves too) 

 Our project was to 'harvest' chocolate chips and then clean up the environment behind our efforts.

 (ie; lick the plate) 

CLICK HERE for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

The 'Dwarves' adopted Hobbit Names in a fine Miner Mash-Up. Find your own Hobbit name HERE.

"Bungo Burrows"

"Myrtle Burrows"

"Bulbo Burrows"

Mining Mission Complete. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip  Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the 1977 Betty Crocker cookbook my mom gave me when I married. It is older than I am and like many things with more age than me, it is full of wisdom to be gleaned.

• 2/3 cup Butter
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 ts Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 ts Salt
• 1 ts Baking Soda
• Chocolate Chips
• Other mix-ins as desired

Cream together 2/3 cup of softened butter with 1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Brown Sugar and two eggs
(I used half salted, half unsalted butter).

 Add 2 ts Vanilla (I filled my second ts 2/3 full and filled the remaining space with almond extract).

Blend in 3 cups All Purpose Flour (I used 1 cup White Whole Wheat/2 Cups regular ), Salt & Soda.

Toss in Chocolate Chips & Stir.

Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap and scoop dough onto wrap. Wrap dough into a long cylinder, seal well and refrigerate. (As you form the cylinder, think about the size of the cookies you are making... this should inform your cylinder's size... think 'slices')

This is the last third of my dough in cylinder form. I didn't think to take pictures until the cookie making was almost over. 

Place cookie sheet(s) in freezer.

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees.

Busy yourself with something else while you wait...perhaps those dishes that you used to make the dough. Trust me, you are going to enjoy the cookies far more if the kitchen is already clean.

When the oven is ready, pull the trays from the freezer, the dough from the fridge. Cut cookie sized slices and arrange on chilled trays.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Allow to firm on tray for approximately 1 minute.

Remove to cooling racks or large plate. Avoid stacking cookies on top of one another until they are set well.

Place cookie sheets back in freezer, dough back in fridge. Resist the urge to 'accidentally' break a cookie for sampling. Everyone knows the first batch is for giving... (unless they burn.)

Busy yourself for a few more minutes- perhaps you'll want to start a cup of coffee or go process the next phase in your laundry cycle.

When the cookie sheet and dough are cooled/chilled, repeat baking steps.

Repeat baking and cooling steps until all dough is used or you have enough cookies to enjoy with your coffee as well as share with your neighbors.

This recipe said it made about 2 dozen cookies,  however, the instructions called for dropping rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Using the sliced cookie method, we had at least 3 dozen, possibly a little more than that.

 We baked cookies as part of today's science lesson on minerals and mining. Like most things, homeschool life has its challenges. Eating cookies for Earth Science was not one of them.

(NOT eating all the cookies before we were ready for the lesson however...)

Sleepy Cat~ A Tiny Friend

Sleepy Cat (needs a nap)

 Start with a clean candy tin. We used a miniature one. 

 The pillow and blanket are made from ribbon. 

 Sleepy Cat is two pieces of felt, hand stitched together; wide awake wiggly eyes on one side, snoozy sleeping eyes on the other.

 Snoozer is Sleepy Cat's teddy-mouse. Smaller felt scraps stitched together, again with differing eyes to denote asleep/alertness.

 A small story book and a ball of yarn for playtime. 

All put together...

 ...and portable...

GUILT

It is funny how a little thing like blogging can start out as mild interest and then, in time, somehow turn into an obligation of sorts. Funnier still, I am only obligated to me; it is I alone dissapointed by my inability to speak these days.



I don't think it is so much a need for attention, the blogging. I mean, sure it is swell when "Aunt Suzie" (not her real name) lauds me as a talented scribe but I could take up professional

plate spinning and I am pretty certain she'd still have kind words to lavish upon me. In fact, I rather despise the "look at me! look at me!" aspect associated with blogging.



Neither does blogging solve loneliness or provide anymore solace than that of a paper journal, at least not for me. Less hand cramps, maybe.



I have no delusions of joining the ranks of today's super women BlogHers. I am pretty certain I wouldn't want that many eyes on me anyway.



I think, instead, my desire to have a public conversation amongst myself is to contribute something: of value, or interest or just something new and/or unique to the landscape.



Perhaps a little psychoanalysis would prove it is a desire to share a little bit of myself with-- well, anyone. (that should probably be clarified, but I'm just gonna leave it for Freud to dissect)



Cynical Me says " There is Nothing New Under the Sun"-- what can be contributed that Dave Barry or Lewis Grizzard haven't already covered? This is a favorite vice of late-- something akin to what my dad once diagnosed a bunch of church members with --- "Eeyorism" (ie; "woe is me" "what's the use" "we're all gonna die anyhow" "the sky is falling" , et al)



This Eeyore disease leads to feelings of " I have nothing NEW to say". I have tried those little daily guides, "Treasure Tuesdays", "Works For Me Wednesdays" and the like-- which only proved to irritate me in the same way that most trends and bandwagon scenarios do. ( I refuse to wear a bluetooth device in my ear, I don't own a pair of Crocs ( I didn't say I don't like 'em-I just can't wear them on principle)



Low Self Esteem Me says " Who are you and what gave you the idea that anyone besides yourself wants to hear that story ?" ((This me usually goes on to say "Shut Up!" and proceeds to hurl profanities and insults my way as well ))



This furthers my plight to nothing new or INTERESTING to say.



So, despite having no good reason for doing so, here goes one more go at the old blogging pony-- and though she be a dead horse, she will be a dead horse well beat.

Little Shopper

She said she was hungry. 

Clever what they stock those lower shelves with, no?

Eating Apples: You're Doing It Wrong

Watched this video on BuzzFeed awhile back. 

Decided to gave it a go. 

In fact, I bought apples just to try it.

It works. 

(and I did eat the seeds too... because someone once told me too...they're kind of 'almond-y')

DIY Laundry Detergent

DIY Laundry Detergent

"It's better, cheaper & smells fantastic...MAYBE" 

Basically, one of everything pictured(below):

Washing Soda

Borax

Baking Soda

Grated Pink Zote Soap (or FelzNaptha)

Epsom Salts & Scent (or scented softening crystals) (2 boxes equals proper amount)

Oxygenated Stain Remover

DIY Laundry Detergent Ingredients

I will start by saying that my results may be different than the glowing review of the recipe I followed because I used varied ingredients. I am not convinced that any one substitution made would change my overall experience with the results. The substitutions are as follows: 

1 Bar of Zote Soap instead of 2. The package looked like 2 bars in one wrapper, so we didn't bring enough home. I don't believe there would be a major difference even if the second bar was added because it seems that this soap doesn't dissolve very well before the washer has started- there are always chunks of it still floating about. 

Epsom Salts & Scent in place of softening crystals ~per another DIY recipe. Mixing essential oils with epsom salt was a prescribed substitute for using less chemical product and making the total price lower. No dramatic softening can be detected.  Any noticeable scent is from the Pink Zote soap. 

Competing brand of Oxygenated Stain Remover in place of OxiClean brand- for lower cost. 

One warning that I did not read anywhere was that the Zote soap would get so dangerously hot. 

Be Warned! 

 The recipe I've linked says heat it for a minute to dry it out... it took much more time than that. I would heat it and flake off the dry parts once it had cooled enough to touch, then heat again & repeat the crumbling process. 

Zote Soap Not Cotton Candy 

It cost a few cents less than $20  to follow an online recipe and give this fad a try.

According to the prescribed measurements, the cost came out to about $.07 per scoop. It is cheaper if you use only one scoop, but one scoop has not seemed to be in some of our loads.
Perhaps our water type has something to do with this.

At this point, my results have not been more remarkable than pr-emade detergents, even Value Brand powdered soaps, which if bought on sale comes out to roughly the same cost per load...  I have not come to the conclusion that it is both cheaper AND better  concurrently. Maybe cheaper but not better. Or better but not cheaper. Only, not both at the same time.

 We are still evaluating it on various types of laundry. Chandler believes it is a miracle concoction, as his baseball pants got pretty clean. The baby clothes with food stains weren't as easily cleaned. Before I give up on making it again, I am experimenting with water temp and scoop sizes. I will have to discover something dramatically different to warrant grating anymore Zote soap.

5 Gallon Container of DIY Detergent

Marzipan Cookies

Betty Crocker Marzipan Cookie Recipe 

Once upon a time, in the far away Land of Kentucky, under the floor beams of a Wesleyan church, in a magical place called the Night Kitchen (of Fellowship Hall),  Brother Ben and I worked long into the wee hours making miniature marzipan vegetables.

 Sir Chandler was turning 3 and had requested a "LarryBoy" cake... I'll leave the remaining dots for you to connect :) 

Marzipan VeggieTales & Larry Boy Cake

Marzipan candies call for Almond Paste, but Barren County, KY was barren of this ingredient...amongst many other things. 

So we bought almonds and made a rustic paste of our own. 

In a blender.

Hours of buzzing and blending and mulching and molding later... we had crafted several marzipan VeggieTales. 

It was a LOT of work for little vegetables. 

Sometimes, the experience of making an item is as much the reason for undertaking an endeavor as the anticipated joy of using or eating the item in question.

 In this case, I decided the  decorative nature of marzipan was its only redeeming value. I did not care for the taste. I was not a big fan of almonds in general- whole, crushed or as flavoring. And while it was an experience to be sure, it was not one I was eager to repeat. 

 I chose all future cake decorating projects to exclude a need for tiny marzipan anythings.

Join me now a decade later...

Sir Chandler is now 13,  I have grown to love almonds in all forms... and almond paste is readily available in all the grocery stores I frequent. 

I found this adapted recipe for marzipan cookies in my favorite Betty Crocker cookbook. I have known it was there for a long time... I cannot explain what compelled me to succumb to it yesterday. 

I just did. 

I think it all started with the 'fortune cookies' that we made earlier in the year... I only needed 1 Tbs of almond extract for those. I've been using up the remainder of the bottle ever since. As I was looking for something to make that only used a few ingredients, I noticed the recipe for these mini fruits did not require almond paste- only almond extract. 

The dough recipe is pretty simple.  

Marzipan Cookie Dough

The shaping of the fruit requires a little patience. 

Marzipan Cookie Fruits 

Because we had errands to run and baseball practice and because I didn't have colored sugar and spent even more time making a batch of each color, a great deal of time elapsed from the time I started making the cookies and the time I finished. 

Making colored sugar turns out to be incredibly easy.

  It was with a wry grin that I switched the oven off in the wee hours of the morning... leaving the cookies in the oven to finish and cool til the arrival of a more decent hour. 

"Good Morning, Cookies. I shall eat you with coffee after my nap."

No matter how much some things change, other things never do :) 

**The marzipan cookies spread a little during baking. A longer chill may have prevented this. 

MARZIPAN COOKIES

1 Cup Butter, softened

1/2 c Sugar

2.5 c All Purpose Flour

1 ts almond extract

Food Coloring

Cream butter & sugar

Add Flour & extract

Divide into 3 or 4 parts

Add food coloring

Form fruit shapes

Roll in colored sugar & paint with additional food coloring as desired

Chill 

Bake @ 300 degrees for about 30 minutes~ until set but not browned. 

*The book calls for cloves and cinnamon sticks for the stems and fruit accents- I used pecan slivers for lack of the prior

**Only after dividing the dough did I realize I had accidentally used half the amount of butter called for. To make up for it, I drizzled in coconut oil. This may account for more of the spreading in the oven. 

For The Championship

No one in the stands last night bothered with the whole bleacher. We only required the edge of our seats to keep a sharp eye on the field, the coaches, and especially those umps.

Each team had scored  dramatic wins in the previous week, bringing them to this third, tie-breaking match for the season championship. Those of us holding our breath were blue by the time a score finally blinked onto the scoreboard in the fifth inning.

As we neared the end of seventh inning, the score had climbed in such a way (6-1) that the fans for the opposing team began to quietly celebrate their (inevitable) win behind me. In all fairness, their optimism was understandable.

At this age, they only get seven regular innings.

It was all but over. Only the technicality of one last  'at-bat' for our team remained before the other team could get on with celebrating their win.

With gloves of resignation on their heads and the threat of tears in some eyes, our boys made the switch.

I'm not very keen on offering a good play by play; technical sporting terms escape me. All I know is, pretty soon, the bases were loaded and the score was tied.

It was Chandler's turn to bat.

No pressure there, right?

Here's where it gets beautiful. His coach is also his dad. I heard Clay calling encouragement to our boy, using words that between them are kindling... In that moment, my heart swelled over them both. Regardless of how the next few minutes unfolded, I knew I was going home with champions either way. All heart & passion & emotion those guys of mine :)

Still, the inning had to be wrapped up: 

It was awesome.

(Thanks to Luke for the video)

Grandpaw's Long Good-Bye

General Jackson Carnes

There has always been a small, unofficial tradition that accompanied visits to my grandparents' home. Whenever it was time to leave, generally after many, many false starts that resulted in visiting just a little longer, they would walk us out, give one last round of good bye hugs and kisses, and then they would stand in the drive way, smiling and waving until our car was out of sight.



I have noticed this tradition spill over into visits with my parents. And on those rare but wonderful mornings where Clay and I are able to steal a little porch time together before he heads out to work, I find myself remaining on the porch, where I see him off in much the same way...even when he is past the point of seeing me, I stand waving (or flicking the porch light), watching until he fades from view.



It is really a way of saying "I love you so, I hate to see you go..."



During my grandfather's funeral, I remarked to a few people that I saw a similarity in the way we had been asked to say farewell to him. Disease had demanded we all watch him slowly disappear,  his burial was that final moment of invisibility.



Over the last handful of years the disease that started out by slowly robbing from him one word or memory at a time began to rapidly snatch armloads without apology. He was left bankrupt of speech, mobility and a million other little things that you take for granted as permanent fixtures until they turn up missing, like eye twinkles.



By the time he left us completely last week, all that remained was a frail human frame and an ironclad legacy.



Much like standing in the driveway waving and waving and waving~ over the last few years we have been quietly waving and waving and waving goodbye- until we just couldn't see him anymore.

~*~

Some of us had conversations or interactions with Grandpa before the diagnosis was made that only later could we look back on as evidence of change.

"I really should be going now"

And then there was the diagnosis - but it had been declared over a strong and resilient old man. Nothing changed drastically at first. So, we poured another cup of coffee and enjoyed our visiting a little longer.

• New and never before heard stories. 


• Really, really listening to the old ones. 


• Thinking of questions we may someday want answered. 

"I've got to be going now... for real this time." 

Then, the changes did happen~a little too fast. Realization of the "Impending Irreversible" setting in as if he stood, jangling his keys and walking towards the door.

• Confused words. 


• Wrong names and mistaken identities


• Shuffle, Shuffle, Step.

"It's getting late, best hit the road before it gets dark."

With a sudden slam, like a car door, a shift into Reverse.

• A phone call about a  fall. 


• His broken neck nailing the basement shut


• Hospital Waiting Room Reunions

"It was good to see you all- and all together, too!" 

And then, it was all downhill. Time spent waving, and waving and waiting. 

• A sky blue hearse. 


• A life commemorated in slideshow. 


• Family gathered once more from all four corners. 

"I'll see you all again real soon !"

  I believe God turned that slow dissolve into a mercy, allowing us to come gently to a place in time where *General Jackson Carnes  no longer lives here on this old, fallen Earth.



We each gleaned a spirit of wanderlust and adventure from GJC... and as a result, we all live, well,  EVERYWHERE, really. Time afforded us all the opportunity to make necessary travel plans, to sit at his side and say good bye in our own special ways.



We are a large family, so this was no small mercy. Everyone was afforded ample time for a visit of their own. To obtain any needed closure or counsel.



Time also afforded us many lessons: lessons about what a life well-used looks like, lessons about dying gracefully and kindness and the wealth of leaving a truly good legacy.  We learned lessons about family and faith and service to one another, about what it means to touch lives. We all learned so much from this one life... and from the way this one life ended.

He was a teachable man.

He was also a willing teacher. 

~*~

During a visit before his decline in communication, Grandpaw shared a story that I had never heard before. As he told the story, it was the first time in my life hearing that he ever drank anything harder than Apple Cider Vinegar.



 Grandpaw was very careful with stories. He knew their powerful potential and the way they can be twisted into something other than what was intended. He never wanted us to use stories of his past to justify wrong choices for our present; he had lived a pretty adventurous life.



There were many stories that we were not permitted to hear because he loved us; he wanted to protect from inspiring folly.



And yet, when one of us had already waded into folly neck deep, those same stories were brought out of the vault, out of the self same love and protection. He would share his own journey humbly, not glorifying the folly, instead encouraging that 'the road is never to  narrow to turn around'.



As he shared with us that story, about putting an emptied whiskey bottle up on the mantle piece in his home- out of resolve **'no longer to linger' , he solidified for me that the redemption he had found in Christ was worth full abandonment of all the folly he had ever found before. He shared the story from that same resolved place where he drew the line all those decades ago. I could see for myself that he had never recanted. He never went back for a new bottle. He didn't make excuses.  He was well studied in the Scriptures and though he could have easily built an argument on Christian liberty, he didn't look for loopholes... for him, what he found in Christ quenched every kind of thirst.

He loved us and wanted the best for each of us.  He believed the best we could do was to know Christ. 

Grandpaw's life affirmed that desire and demonstrated Christ's love- in word & deed. 



Regardless of how grievous our mistakes, or how strongly he disagreed with some path or choice we may have made, he continued to love us, to be kind. He demonstrated the willingness to help, to come alongside, to simply be present.



Because his life directly informed mine, I know that he lived his life for the very prize of dying. I know that there was no greater joy than for this man to hear his children are walking in truth.



I am the granddaughter of General Jackson Carnes. A man who no longer lives on this earth but who lived out his faith and love for Christ in such a way that I know I will see him again.

*(a small entry I wrote about his diagnosis back in 2007)

** Featuring an autoharp

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