Recap of the week

It is just about bedtime, but before I call it a day, I am enjoying the silence of my house, the smell of my imported Vanilla Caramel Yankee Candle, and a few moments to reflect on the week gone by. I've had many meetings this week with various girls from our community, which have been a good chance for me to re-connect with them on a heart level. I have certainly been challenged, encouraged, mystified, and forced to lean into the great Leader of the ages for a new sense of wisdom, strength, creative ideas, clarity, and discernment. That's not always an easy place to be in, but I know enough to know that it's a good place to be in.

The other aspects of my week have been good, too. Taylor has done amazing at pre-school! I think it's safe to say that we're well past the stage of 'tears when saying goodbye', which is absolutely wonderful. She's adjusted well, really enjoys it, speaks positively about it at home and is eager to go in the mornings. I can already see such growth in her confidence, especially when it comes to making friends. She has really fit in well, and it seems to be a good bunch of little girls for her to be building relationships with. Speaking of building relationships, I have really enjoyed getting to know the other moms in the 'drop off' and 'pick up' times. There are already a few coffee dates/play dates that have been discussed, which I am really looking forward to. I guess on the front end I was a little unsure what that dimension of the 'pre-school experience' would be like, but I have genuinely enjoyed the brief conversations I've had with so many of the moms, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better. I think I'm discovering that it's nice to have a circle of friends in which I relate not as a "leader", but just as a normal person and another mom. Not to mention the fact that many of these girls will be Taylor's peers throughout the coming years of her school experience, so it's nice to begin establishing relationships with their moms now; relationships that very well may carry on for the years to come.

And in between all that, I even managed to go running a couple times (oh, I still do miss going up the mount!), enjoy great times with Taylor, keep up on the laundry and grocery shopping and such, and find a little "me" time, as well. If I can manage a bit of time for ironing, vacuuming, and a quick tidy of the house tomorrow, I think I'll be off to a good start for the week.

Too late to worry about all that now. Time for bed. 'Night!

City girl turned country

That's exactly how I felt about myself as I leaned over the fence watching the late afternoon sun disappear behind the silouette of a farmhouse and the red-brushed trees lining the paddock where Josie the horse was grazing. Did I mention that this was in my back yard? It was at that moment that I felt miles away from my familiar suburbia/city upbringing.

Taylor and her little friend/neighbor, Abigail, enjoyed a long run-around in the big field next to our house this afternoon, while all us adults (Abigail's Grandma, mom, dad, Nana and Grandad Walsh, and I) leaned against the fence watching the girls and chatting about nothing really in particular. Bek (Abigail's mom) acutely pointed out that this was the New Zealand version of "porching". (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, " Porchin' " is American slang for sitting on your front porch, sipping a glass of ice tea, serenely watching the world go by). It was kinda one of those moments where I felt more noticably the extreme difference of environment and lifestyle that I live now, compared with the life I once knew in America.

Not that every day is filled with lazily leaning against fences shooting the breeze watching my 4 year old princess run and dance and freely enjoy the sunshine and cool air of fall. Actually, those 45 minutes felt much more like the exception rather than a rule, so much so that many times I was interrupted from my own reverie wondering what I was supposed to be doing that I was forgetting, only to remember that there was actually nothing else beckoning me; and in fact that this was the most important thing I could be doing: enjoying watching my daughter enjoying life.

Perhaps I need to make an effort to be deliberate in putting aside all the "important" things which must be done and stop for a minute to enjoy. To quote the song from the movie Mr. Holland's Opus, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans..."

The start of yet another week

Does anyone else feel like time in just whizzing by? Seriously, how in the world is it already the 25th of May?!

This week promises to be full and quiet all at the same time. I already have 3 one-on-ones lined up with various ladies from our community, a night out at another friend's house....and not to mention the usual schedule at the prayer room. And it's only Sunday night. Who knows what the rest of the week will bring. As for the "quiet" part of the week, I'm looking forward to many long evenings with candles lit and commentaries out and the opportunity for some good, solid Bible study. With so much travel last month and then Taylor starting pre-school, having a birthday, etc. etc. etc. , life has gotten away from me and I've had to re-establish my routine of spending consistent time with the Lord. Either I'm turing into a heathen and my human weakness is showing itself more, or I am simply growing more honest with myself, but as the months and years go by, I'm more and more amazed how apparent it is when I don't spend consistent time in the Word and in prayer (and also how quickly my capacity for Him shrinks). I suppose that only goes to show how completely barren we are and how utterly helpless we are to live the way He desires us to, in our own strength. Good thing He doesn't ask us to.

My beloved mount, I bid thee farewell....

The season in which I enjoyed the luxury of going up the mount 2-3 times a week has come to a definite end. Granted, at the time, I never would have considered going up the mount to be a luxury....it was more of a (sometimes) enjoyable chore. But it's funny how rosy life looks in hindsight. (Hmm. Let's pause for a moment to allow that statement to sink in. Next time I am tempted to complain about how hard life is now, it may do good to remember that in a few years ~ or months~ from now, I may look back on this season and realize just how easy and glorious it was 'way back then').

Anyways, back to my original point. With gas nearing the $2/litre mark, spending at least $10 round trip to go to the mount, multiplied by a few times a week, is not exactly fitting in the budget any longer (for my American readers who may be a bit rusty on your english-metric conversions, there are approx. 4 litres in a gallon. Now do the math......). For about a week, I was wondering if my well-established exercise routine had also come to a grinding halt. It was at that point that I made a surprising discovery. I actually really missed working out. I felt lazy and sluggish without it. I may even go so far as to say that my psyche and self-esteem were affected slightly. So, I decided that something was better than nothing, and it would do me well to go for a 30-minute jog around our neighborhood a few times a week. It's certainly not half as good of a workout as ascending the mount (and not even near as mentally appealing as the mount), but it still keeps me in the routine of excercise. And, as long as we're on the topic of appreciating what we actually do have instead of moaning about what we don't, I really couldn't ask for a better neighborhood to run in. It's beautiful, safe, has tons of cute houses, and even a hill or two to remind me of the mount.

Apple Butter Time

Well, I finally got around to making my apple butter, and my efforts were rewarded this morning with a nice piece of toast richly slathered with a thick layer of the delicacy. Here's the original recipe as written, complete with my own notes of what I did and what worked for me.

Put 3 quarts of (homemade) apple sauce in a sauce pot. Cook on low with cover off for about 24 hours. Then add:

1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. allspice

Cook slowly, stirring frequently until think and mixture sheets from spoon ~ about 1 hour.

So this is what I did: I used about 7 lbs. of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced them, and put them in a pot with a bit of water. I cooked the apples until they were the consistency of applesauce ~ about a couple hours. This yielded 1.5 quarts of applesauce. So I continued to cook the applesauce until it reduced quite significantly and became darker brown in color. I found that this process only took about 6 additional hours of cooking time, not 24 ~ maybe due to the fact I was cooking a much smaller quantity? Or maybe my impatience? Not too sure. Anyways, at that point I added half the sugar and spices (since I started with only 1.5 quarts, not 3), and then let it cook for an additional 30 minutes or so. At this point, I declared it done, and poured it into a jar and stuck it in the fridge. (Didn't make enough of it to have to worry about canning it. Nevermind the fact I've never canned before and don't have a clue how to do it). I probably ended up with about 2-3 cups total.

It sure tasted good to me this morning ~ perhaps the closest I've come yet to the 'real stuff' of my memories. Still don't know if I have the right consistency, but by the time it's on the toast, it's hard to tell otherwise. And it tastes great!

Dad, as the master chef, do you have any comments you'd like to add? I know it's been a while since you've made it, but seeing as how I was 4 when our family made it, I think you'd remember quite a bit more than I do! :-)

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

My apple butter project (and posts) have been put on hold for a much more important occasion: yesterday Taylor celebrated her 4th birthday! We had a wonderful day celebrating the life of our beautiful little princess. She went to pre-school and had a little celebration there, and then we had a small family party at home in the evening. Here's some photos of the festivities:

Taylor and Nana decorating cupcakes to bring to pre-school


Cupcakes decorated and ready for the morning!

Celebrating Taylor's birthday at pre-school

Butterfly birthday cake

Opening presents. Notice the Snow White costume......

one of her favorite gifts

Strike a pose with the new panda unbrella!

Apple Butter

Some words, when spoken or thought, immediately trigger memories and emotions, often having nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word itself; but in the heart of the individual, the emotion is so closely tied to the word, the two might as well be inseparable.

And so it is for me whenever the words "Apple Butter" are mentioned. I have very vivid memories of my mother's homemade apple butter. I only remember her making it once ~ maybe twice ~ when I was quite young, but I can still taste it, richly slathered on a thick slice of homemade bread. It was a big family project when we made it ~ who knows how many jars of the stuff we canned that year ~ but it was "all hands on deck" all day in the kitchen as we peeled, cored, chopped, and cooked the apples we previously picked together. I can still feel the chilly fall New England air, see the frosty condensation of the kitchen windows, and smell the aroma of cinnamon and allspice through the house. And so to me, "apple butter" means warmth and family, affection and longing, returning to my roots, and most of all, memories of my mother and of my childhood.

I guess it goes without saying that whenever fall rolls around, I usually start to crave it. Several years back, the craving was particularily intense, so I set off to see if I could find her recipe somewhere, but to no avail. My apple butter craving was left unsatisfied....until a couple years ago, when somehow Dad found the original recipe buried deep in the recesses of some box hidden away somewhere. Miracle! The only problem is that Dad didn't just find a recipe. He found recipes: an old newspaper article with various recipes on it, a couple pages of mom's hand-written notes, and an index card upon which mom had written a recipe ~ of course, every single one of them being different. And of course I don't have a clue which one is the "right" one. I've only made it a couple times since discovering the gold mine of the original recipes, and unfortunately I haven't been able to reproduce that which I remember. I've gotten close, but not exactly close enough. (Which, I must confess, probably has something to do with the few shortcuts I took to cut back on time, and also my lack of all the necessary equipment needed to make proper apple sauce and apple butter).

So, in response to the requests for my apple butter recipe, when I dig them out of my recipe box in the next couple of days, I'll try to make enough sense of it all so that I can post a recipe that won't be too confusing ~ and more importantly, one that will yield apple butter worthy of the memory which inspired the project (and this post!) in the first place.

Living off the land

One of the great things about this time of year in New Zealand ~ especially Tauranga ~ is the abundance of fresh fruit that abounds in our and our neighbor's back yards. Currently in our kitchen I have four grocery bags full of fresh fruit ~ apples (picked by a friend from an orchard in Hawke's Bay), fijoas, kiwifruit, and avocados (the latter 3 from our/a neighbor's back yard). Some days I open up our pantry and begin to think that we could easily eat nothing but fruit and be completely satisfied for weeks on end. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. On a more realistic note, I was thinking today that it's probably about time to whip up a small batch of apple butter. After all, I need to find something to do with the bag of apples in our pantry!

First Day at Pre-School

Taylor's day was a grande success. Of course, it does help that mom stayed with her for most of the morning to help her adjust to the new environment, people, and routine. But, by the time I did manage to leave, Taylor was happy to let me go, and completely un-impressed with my return at the end of the day (which, by the way, is a very good thing!). She even confidently announced to me that she wasn't ready to go home. I'd say that's a great sign! As it turned out, she knew one of the little girls in her group from a play center that we occasionally attended several months ago, and one of the girls she met when we visited the pre-school was also there, so it was nice for her to recognize a few familiar faces. No pre-school on Wednesdays, so tomorrow we get the morning at home; we'll see how things go Thursday and Friday.

Here's her "first day of pre-school picture", my little baby, all grown up. For some reason, she wanted her ball in the picture with her, even though we left it at home. Silly girl! :-)

Home from Camp

We've made it back from camp safe and sound, and I've just about recovered from the typical sleep deprivation that always accompanies a week away at camp. It was a fantastic week, though definitely intense as the Lord was doing a deep work in many of the girl's lives. The spritual battle around us was real as many issues were brought to the surface and we were fighting for the freedom and liberty and wholeness of this generation. Never before have I realized the great honor that it is to stand before a generation of young women and call them forth into who God created them to be, and to fight for them in the place of prayer that they would not draw back from the high calling on their lives to be lovers of God and lovers of people. It really was a great week.

The leaders doing a dance on the first night

Taylor and her little friend all dressed up for the banquet

And now we are back just in time to prepare for the next season of life which is abruptly upon us tomorrow ~ Taylor starts pre-school! Where, oh, where have four years gone? Our little baby is growing up and ready to take her first big step of independence. I am trying not to ask all the philosophical questions ("Is she ready?", "Are we ready?", "Have we equipped her well enough for this next season of her life?", etc. etc. etc.), though sometimes it's hard not to. I seriously couldn't ask for a better pre-school to send her to; I just hope the adjustment won't be too hard on her. I guess we'll be finding that out soon! Watch this space for continued reports of Taylor's new adventures.