Hasta Luego

Today finally (finally! a month behind schedule!) feels like spring.
Here is our backyard, with grass struggling to green up.
The last vestiges of snow pile along the edges of our property and beneath our big pine trees.
It's been a long winter.
And last week felt like a total loss, with several snowfalls and plenty of other griefs.
Some weeks are just like that.

Somehow we survived another winter.
I do wonder why our ancestors settled in Minnesota.
They didn't have LL Bean, or central heating, or proper coffee.
They had to use outhouses.
And milk cows.
And do without a hundred little conveniences that I take for granted.

However, they did take pleasure in reading.
Above are the latest books I got out for Malachi.
He can't be allowed to hold them, because he would rip them to pieces and then chew up the shreds.

From top left, clockwise:
Who's A Friend of the Water-Spurting Whale. I like it because it doesn't have too many words, and they are well-chosen passages from Job.
 Down by the Bay. This one has a great tune and pretty good rhymes.
Nose, Toes, Antlers, Tail. A favorite, full of silly animals and very fun to read. Several pages are missing so I need to order a new one.
Rosie's Walk (El Paseo de Rosie). It's important to read to the baby in Spanish as much as possible. And it's good for my Spanish.
You Are Special. A classic by Max Lucado. I still can't get through it without tearing up.

 Basket made by my Great-Great Grandmother Magdalena,

mended with a shoelace by my Great-Grandfather Herbold. 

(He was a thorough Bible scholar, but was also remembered for creative repairs such as this one).

 

The strange thing is, my forefathers probably had very few children's books.
And their kids were somewhat brilliant.
Go figure.

We don't just pass the time reading.
Sometimes we listen to a few tunes.
Remember this old toy?
I got it a few summers ago at a garage sale, little suspecting that -Boom!- I'd wind up having a little guy who would play with it.

Happy spring, everyone.
We welcome it with joy.



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Perfect Pie Crust || Baby's First Pie

Nine inches of snow fell yesterday, and we are stuck inside again.
Today I decided to make a pie for my son.
It's coconut cream, because that's the recipe my friend Jackie requested.
(Sorry Dad. The one pie you won't eat).

Perfect Pie Crust
(adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

One-crust pie (10- inch)

Heat oven to 475 degrees F.

1/2 cup shortening (I use half butter-flavor Crisco and half lard)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 Tb. cold water (place ice in the water, plus 1-2 tsp. vinegar)

Cut shortening into flour and salt until fine and crumbly (a pastry blender works best). 
Sprinkle in ice water, 1 Tb. at a time, until dough starts to come together.
Don't forget the vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar), as this is what makes the pastry so flaky.
Gather pastry into a ball, place on plastic wrap.
Form into a hockey-puck shape, wrap the plastic tightly around pastry, freeze for about 1/2 hour.

Remove pastry from freezer, unwrap.
Place dough on well-floured surface.
Roll to desired thickness. I like my crust very thin, but you'll see what happens to it.....
Roll the pastry around your rolling pin.
Transfer to pie plate (Glass pie plates produce the best crusts. Cheap at thrift stores!).
Smooth into place, and form an edge to flute as you like.
If making a baked pie crust, poke bottom of crust with fork (about 10 times) to release steam.
(If filling and baking a raw crust, do not poke crust).

If you have a nine-inch pie plate, you'll have quite a bit of dough left over. You can either make a tiny pie, or just place the rolled scraps on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar, and bake them. They will be done in about five minutes.

Bake pie shell for 8-10 minutes on top rack.

Cool on cooling rack for best results

 Malachi makes sure I measure out the ice water perfectly.

 It's easy to get a perfect hockey puck if you use the plastic wrap to help form the dough.

 Time out for a hug! 

 I use lots of flour, but still the crust gets a little weird sometimes.

 This rolling pin is only $10 at Crate & Barrel. What a deal.

 I made two crusts today, and the first one turned out perfectly.

The second one stuck to the rolling pin.

Don't re-roll your pastry.

Just patch it in, it will still be the best pie crust you've ever tasted.

 Patched!

Fill your pie with your favorite recipe for pie filling.

Our all-time fave is fresh raspberry, from berries we pick that day, but peanut butter is great too.

Here's the recipe for Coconut Cream Filling: 

2/3 cup sugar

5 T. corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups milk

4 eggs yolks, slightly beaten, in a large bowl 

2 T. butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 cup shredded coconut (or flaked, if you prefer to chew your coconut)

1 cup whipped cream, slightly sweetened

Mix sugar, corn starch and salt in a medium saucepan.

Whisk in milk, stir constantly over medium heat.

Bring to boil, boil one minute.

Ladle half of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, pouring it in slowly and stirring or whisking till blended.

Stir the egg mixture back into the mixture in the saucepan.

Bring to boil, stir one minute, remove from heat.

Stir in butter, vanilla, and 1 cup of coconut.

Pour into pie shell.

Cover with plastic wrap so filling doesn't form a crust.

Chill at least 2 hours.

When ready to serve, remove plastic wrap, top with whipped cream, sprinkle with coconut.

(I toasted the coconut first in a skillet).

 He very much wanted to grab the pie.

 Look how flaky that crust is. Hard to catch the tender deliciousness in a photograph. 

 My little photog got the first piece!

Malachi is ready with his two spoons.  
   

Yum.

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This World Is Not My Home

We hope and pray
for that glorious day,
our tears will vanish,
wiped away.
On the saints this day already shines,
on the saints this day already shines.
Hallelujah.
(Newsboys)

"Think of friends or family members who loved Jesus and reside with him now. Picture them with you, walking together in this place. All of you have powerful bodies, stronger than those of an Olympic decathlete. You are laughing, playing, talking and reminiscing. You reach up to a tree to pick an apple or orange. You take a bite. It's so sweet that it's startling. You've never tasted anything so good.

Now you see someone coming toward you. It's Jesus, with a big smile on his face. You fall to your knees in worship. He pulls you up and embraces you. At last, you're with the person you were made for, in the place you were made to be. Everywhere you go there will be new people and places to enjoy, new things to discover. What's that you smell? A feast. A party's ahead. And you're invited. There's exploration and work to be done - and you can't wait to get started."
(Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 18)

I am so thankful for the promise of heaven.

Eighteen

Here they are,
my oldest daughter
and my youngest son.
She can't get over how great babies are.
As for me, I can't believe how wonderful it is to have an infant
when there are two big girls to help me.
Today they both happen to be gone,
so the baby is crying, I'm missing the Tracy Anderson workout,
the kitchen is messy, and I am a little bit lonely.
(Which is odd for me, since I am never lonely as long as I have a good book to read).

Julia just turned eighteen.
Eighteen!
Somehow that is a watershed number.

She'll have two little parties.
Here is the first party, with her high school friends.

Two of these girls are quiet, two are lively.
Can you guess which ones are quiet?
I love them all.
While they were here, I kept trying to give them advice, which probably bored them to pieces.
I don't usually do that, but since I was fresh off my own high-school reunion,
I had plenty of thoughts on the matter.

When Julia was little, she wanted to do all my crafts with me,
including complicated beading.
It got to the point where I tried to make jewelry when she wasn't around,
because she clamored to do everything I did.

Now she has found a craft she loves, leather work,
and the things she makes are far beyond my skill set (you can see her creations on Etsy).
She's going to college next year,
but she'd rather be home, pounding out beautiful leather pieces.
I'm going to miss her terribly.
I keep telling her that college is priceless, that she will love it,
but I sorrow at the thought of our house without Julia in it.

My girl and her friends are at the brink.
From the promise of eighteen,
the wonder of life is an open field in front of them.
I wish them joy.

"Before calling has anything to do with doing, it has everything to do with being, that essence of yourself that God knew before the foundations of the earth, that God called into being and that God alone truly knows. It is the call to be who we are and at the same time to become more than we can yet envision....it encompasses everything that makes us who we are: our genetics, innate orientations and capacities, our personality, heredity and life-shaping experiences, and the time and place into which we were born." (Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership).

(Julia also sells her pieces at Krista Artista Gallery in Anoka, Minnesota).