A couple of my favorite pictures from 2008

Fresh Bread

I have no talent for making bread.

So I set out a store bought loaf of frozen dough to thaw (cheating, and not at all the real thing, I know!), thinking to have a "decent" loaf of baked bread for my parents while they were visiting. I set it out in the morning before running to the dealership to pick up my car from inspection and service (ouch!), and then we ran to town for an all day shopping excursion through the usual stores that we hit when they come to town. Marshall's (my fave!) JoAnn's (my other fave). Lunch at Buca's. Costco's on the way to Barnes and Noble (my other, other fave!!) then to Half Price Books (need I say it. my o-o-other fave...). These just happen to coincide with the 'rents fave stores as well, so we had a rather pleasant long day (and more ouch!).

But when we got back, it was still miserably flat. I forgot to set it near the warmth of the stove, which since it wasn't on, wasn't really warm anyway.

Well, they were planning on heading home after supper, except the snow kicked up and the temps went down, and reports remained steady -not good out. So they stayed and I baked the bread later. Then it came out of the oven, but not out of the pan. Silly me, I forgot to grease the pan before hand! Well, needless to say it was a bit mangled in the process.

Made me think of sharing bread. We can make bread for ourselves and it can be a beautiful loaf, but to enjoy the fruits of our labors and to share it with others, we need to have greased the pan beforehand, or if we're not careful, it may come out a mangled mess... So here's a prayer set "loosely" to hymn 213/235.

We love the tender way of God
And in all Thy will abide
We love Thy gracious gentle hand
That thru each new day will guide

Grant us the wisdom of Thy Son
That we His image may bear
We Thy infinite mercy seek
To show us His tender care

Although a narrow path we walk
Help us to find the words to speak
That our words and actions meld
To answer in Spirit meek

Grant us the patience to be kind
Even when the world would not
A life was paid for our name
In patience our souls He bought

When all the world around us rage
Mold our spirit to Thy Will
That we may find Thee in peace
Help us Father to be still.

A.E. Eaker 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving! I've always loved Thanksgiving, probably more so than any other holiday. There's something relaxing about going home to all the good smells and anticipation of roasted turkey with stuffing (my fave as long as mom doesn't slip in any oysters!) mashed potatoes and homemade pies... oh the pies! This year I think we had more pies than main dishes. Let's see, there was an apple pie, sweet potato, mince, a couple orange cheescakes, I have no idea how many pumpkin pies, raisin cream. And we never got to the pecan pie that I know is in the freezer. I guess that one's waiting for the descending family on Christmas! And we must've been so hungry we started going after the empty dishes too! Nah, I just owe my sister a new baking dish! She could hardly believe that I broke her good dish with a spoon...

We also decided to round out our turkey leftovers (of which there wasn't too much left) with a duck. I'd never had duck before and thought it would be fun to try it out. There was just one little problem. My niece is raising a few ducks and is pretty attached to them so we didn't want her or the others turning their noses up at it or bursting into tears. It was difficult trying to say "fowl-poultry" all the time! But the duck was out of the bag, when their dad let it slip. After the meal of course. Eyes went wide and Sheryl asked, "Did you check your ducks this morning?"

As for relaxing on Thanksgiving, we had our dinner in the evening as schedules varied quite a bit, but we all managed to be there on time. I even managed an extra day off as clinics and patients canceled on us for Wednesday.

So I decided, to come up a day early and surprise mom and dad and anyone else who happened to be at the house. I was to stay with my sister down the road so I let her know I was coming early and checked to see the road conditions as there was some snow coming down. Snow's always worse up there.

Well I got on my way and things were going fine, until I decided to use my windshield wipers. I wasn't in desperate need of them but it would've been kinda nice if they'd worked. But no, the driver side wiper made a half hearted effort while the passenger side wiped merrily away.
"You couldn't have switched sides? You couldn't wait til tomorrow?" I griped the whole way up. No way to turn around, and of course the snow was getting thicker. But without light reflecting on the windsheild and having switched to RainX, the water slid right off and I never had a problem. I wouldn't suggest this as a usual mode of travel however. Not highly recommended.
So I was very thankful for my arrival! It had an unusual side effect that caused my car to travel much slower than normal.

Well, I finally made it and dropped a few things off before heading out to my sister's as my final destination. Ooops! Lo and behold, I was stuck in the driveway. I was not going to get to her place after all. I think I left a few rocks on the driveway.

So I got to spend the night with the little kiddos! Oh and the adults too of course! Becca and Ben insisted on a night time snow ball fight with their Aunt. They now think I have bad aim and make a good target for great big lumps of cold wet snow . Which is true...