Marshmallow Truffles

C loves to help cook. I'm not sure if she loves it because there's always the possibility of getting messy, or because she loves food and realizes that helping usually means sampling. For C's class Valentine's party, we made marshmallow truffles. I came across this really simple recipe on the Kraft website and knew it would be the perfect thing for us to make. Nuts are not allowed in the school, so we improvised and tested out some other options. Sprinkles, coloured sugar, Oreo cookie crumbs and drizzled pink chocolate (which ended up looking more like candle wax than chocolate). We also experimented and used mint chocolate chips instead of bitter-sweet to coat some of the marshmallows. These ones were really yummy, but the chocolate didn't coat the marshmallow as nicely as the bitter sweet chocolate. Next time we make them, (and we don't have to be concerned about nut allergies) we'll probably try some coconut and chopped nuts. Any other suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday - Cousins

Dear Jesus, please put a rainbow in the sky...

Here's a story from my pre-blogging days (Spring 2006) that I thought I would share here.

C has become quite fascinated with rainbows.

On Saturday night we drove to the lake. Saturday had been a cloudy and rainy day, but as we got closer to the lake...we got closer to being out from under the cloud cover and we could see the sun shining. Perfect conditions for seeing a rainbow. So I said to C...

"It's raining and the sun is shining...we might be able to see a rainbow."

So we watched out the car windows, searching for a rainbow. It was during this time that I over heard C praying quietly as she looked out her window.

"Dear Jesus....please put a rainbow in the sky...amen."

Then she announced quite loudly and confidently...

"Jesus is going to put a rainbow in the sky!"

I searched the skies harder. After hearing her prayer, I really wanted her to see a rainbow. Within a few minutes I spotted a rainbow out C's window and yelled at hubby to stop. We pulled into a parking lot so that we could point the rainbow out to C. She was so excited to see her first rainbow. As we left the parking lot, I heard C say...

"Thank-you Jesus for putting a rainbow in the sky".

It is so neat to see that God cares about the prayers of a 4 year old who wants to see a rainbow. And to see Him answer her prayers with an awesome rainbow. A rainbow that was vibrant and arched high in the sky, unobstructed by clouds or buildings. You could see the entire rainbow from one end to the other. It was beautiful.

C's Life Plan

"I'm going to move in with H and S (two friends from school) when I'm 20. We're going to live on a farm with a cow, 3 dogs, 13 pigs and 100 cats. H wants to have 90,000 babies. I don't want to have any babies or get married...just have a boyfriend."

"Why don't you want to get married?"

"I don't want to have my stomach stapled. Will you live with me?"

"...Sure."

For some reason she associates babies (stomach stapled) with getting married...to the point where she's seen a bride in a park getting pictures done and asked if that's the girl having a baby.

Another Look at 2008

To start the new year off, I thought I would post a few pictures and stories from 2008 that I never got around to blogging about during the year.

In February, hubby was invited to speak at a Father and Daughter Banquet at a local church. I thought I was going to have a nice quiet evening at home, but about 15 minutes after they left, hubby called home. He had forgotten his shoes and asked if I would bring them to him. Not such a hard task except...it was snowing quite hard out and I was driving a vehicle I wasn't accustomed to (my in-law's truck which was on loan to us while they were on vacation). I had to drive though the country...following the car tracks in front of me because the road was covered in snow. I slid a few times and was quite frazzled by the time I arrived at the church with hubby's shoes. I told him he owed me.

I found a really neat book at Winners about how to make different types of puppets as well as a puppet theatre. I taped a couple of cardboard boxes together and covered them with tissue paper. C and her friend had a blast painting the theatre and sticking stickers to it. The book showed curtains made out of tissue paper but I figured I could string a cord across the top of the box and hang some real material curtains. I found some scrap material and set about sewing the curtains on C's toy sewing machine. I became a little too zealous on the sewing machine and ran over a pin which broke the machine. The curtain project was put on hold...and the theatre boxes ended up being used for everything besides a puppet theatre...eventually ending up in the garbage.

A highlight for C during our regular hospital visits where the nights that the Therapy Dogs visited my mom's floor. The owners would ask for C when they arrived and she would follow them around...wanting to pet the dog, hold them, or feed them treats. I think the requests for a pet became much more persistent after getting exposed to these dogs.



For C's birthday, we made a pinata. I know I could have purchased a pinata, but I figured that C would enjoy making one since she loves getting her hands messy. What I didn't factor in was that she also likes getting her legs, feet, arms and face messy too. After the first layer of mache was applied, I was starting to regret the idea. There was glue everywhere...including all over C, who for reasons unknown to me, rubbed it all over her arms and legs.

Our church has started a kids club program that runs on Wednesday nights and I've been coordinating activities, as well as running some of the craft nights. In addition to making garden stones, painting T-shirts, puppet making, and cooking, the kids also practiced for a number of weeks and performed their first drama. I was very impressed. I've enjoyed running the craft nights with the kids and I learn things every night. I've learned which kids are the tactile kids and must be monitored during painting activities. I've learned that it's not obvious to everyone that glass should not be put into a garden stone sticking straight up. But most of all, I've learned that kids love the freedom to be able to express themselves artistically the way they want to...even if it means drawing a knight inside a Christmas card, or painting around dots.

C lost her first tooth in July, and has lost 2 others since then. She was so excited to lose her first tooth...an event she had been talking about for months leading up to the day it finally came out. She asked me straight out if the tooth fairy was real and I told her "No"...but she didn't believe me and wouldn't put her teeth under the pillow in case the tooth fairy took them.

I loved Little House on the Prairie when I was young. I've seen every episode of the TV show multiple times and have read and own all the books. This fall, C has fallen in love with Little House on the Prairie too and after watching a couple of shows, brought the book home from the library (she didn't know I had them already) for us to read to her. It's a nice change of pace from reading her picture books all the time.

In November, we went to baby Faith's 1st Birthday Party. A party to celebrate a miracle as a year ago, Faith was on life support, her body organs shutting down and the doctors giving her no chance of survival. Read these links (here, here and here) for an amazing miracle story. C insisted that she had to make Faith a blanket for her birthday...which ended up turning into a pillow after she stitched the sides together and filled it with fiberfil. She was so proud of it and couldn't wait to give to Faith. This is the second home-made present she's made recently...the first being a 2x3 foot "picture frame" she made out of twigs taped together for a 16th birthday party.

I finished C's stocking about a month before Christmas. She loved it and was so excited to have a fancy stocking with her name on it. I found the kit last year after Christmas and started working on it during my hospital visits but it got shelved half done when C and I started making cards.





For Christmas this year, C gave hubby a race track (so they can race cars together) and a "#1 DAD" key chain with a basketball and net engraved on the back (Basketball is hubby's favourite sport). Chloe was so excited that she said she didn't think she could keep it a surprise until Christmas. She loved the key chain and I thought I might be getting a key chain too after she asked me...Can you take Daddy and I back to that store and then leave for an hour?

Remembering Christmas Past

This was our first Christmas without my mom.

Over the last few days, I've found myself thinking a lot about Christmases in the past...and mom. Mentally reliving different Christmas memories over and over again and wondering...if only we had known then what we know now.

I remember the Christmas that my dad presented my mom with a really large box. We all wondered what could possibly be in such a large box and thought it was very exciting that the large box contained another box...and another box....and another box....I do not remember how many boxes (to a kid, it seemed like a lot) there were, but I remember the new ring my mom found in the smallest box and was very excited about.

I remember the Christmas when I found out who Santa Clause really was. Santa had brought Lego to my siblings and I...regular Lego for the older kids...and big Lego for my younger sister. My sister had no interest in the big Lego...but wanted to play with the regular Lego. I over heard my mom telling my dad in the kitchen that they should have gotten my sister the regular Lego. Aha! Now I knew who Santa really was.

I remember Christmas mornings when my siblings and I would race back and forth between the living room and my parents connecting bedroom to tell them what Santa had brought us...squealing with excitement. We did this even in the years after we knew who Santa was.

I remember Christmas mornings when after all the presents were unwrapped, dad would bring out his presents for mom. Showering her with perfume, clothing, and jewellery. She would be excited about each one...just as my siblings and I were excited to see what gifts dad had hidden from her.

I remember the last Christmas before mom got sick. My sister and I (with families) stayed over night on Christmas Eve. After all the kids went to bed, my sister and I started to fill stockings. Mom got out her bag of toys and stocking stuffers...excited to be able to play Santa with her grandchildren.

These memories may not be that interesting, but they allow me to visual and remember my mom as if she was still with us today.

Gingerbread Village

Last week, C and I made a gingerbread village. I’m not sure what I was thinking when we chose the village kit over the single house kit. I certainly wasn’t thinking that 5 tiny houses would be a lot harder than one large house. The packaging was deceiving. The picture on the outside of the box made the house look larger than the tiny pieces of gingerbread that were included in the box.

Assembling the ginger bread house didn’t start out on the right foot…I broke part of the church roof. I didn't realize the gingerbread pieces would snap apart easily and I had tried to use a knife to split them apart.

After assembling the houses it was time for C to go to bed...we would have to wait a few days before we would have time to decorate them. I followed the instructions and covered the unused icing with a damp cloth. Over the next few days I would dampen the cloth whenever I noticed it was bone dry not realizing that all the moisture in the damp cloth was seeping into the icing. By the time we were ready to decorate, the icing was quite runny. I had to add lots of icing sugar to try to get it back to the proper consistency. Now we were ready to decorate.

We had only been decorating for a few minutes when...the icing bag blew the tip out...I must have cut the hole too big. The kit did not come with extra icing bags...just a bag for each of the 3 colours. So...I tried to improvise with a dollar store zip lock bag by cutting a hole in the corner, inserting tip and then filling the bag with icing. All that work for nothing, the bag blew a hole on the first squeeze. With no other options left, I had to use the icing bag reserved for another colour. This time, I made sure to cut the hole smaller.

This is the third year that C and I have made a gingerbread house, and we have never had issues with the icing bags. So, I was quite shocked when after only a few minutes of decorating...the 2nd icing bag blew a hole in it. GRRRR. Now what? I didn't want to use my last bag for the white icing. So...I resorted to duct tape. Hubby was skeptical but humoured me anyway and retrieved the duct tape for me. I taped around the bag where the hole was....and away I went. The tape held for the entire time I needed to use the white icing. It also held the green icing bag together when it too blew a hole. I now have a whole new appreciate for duct tape.

Homesick

A couple of weeks after my mom's funeral, I came across the song Homesick by Mercy Me on one of my CDs. The words really spoke to me as they summed up really well how I felt about losing my mom. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



In case you wonder, here's a link to the story behind the song.

Wordless Wednesday - Pillow Improvisation

Mom's Eulogy

October 12, 1947, my mom was born en route to the hospital delivery room. She was the third of four daughters born to a milk truck company owner and his wife. As a child she loved to entertain family, friends and neighbours with her stories, spinning tales for anyone that would listen...often getting into trouble for telling stories that were not true. She had a strange desire to eat interesting things and was known to eat egg shells, wall plaster, crayons and cabbage salad mixed with scrambled eggs. She also had an interesting sleeping arrangement with her younger sister. She would put a board down the middle of the bed and tell her sister to not cross the board and to face the other way so that she wouldn't breath on her.


In December of 1969, my dad spotted my mom at a fellowship after church. After tracking down who she was, he invited her to a church Christmas banquet. Mom got all dressed up in her pink graduation dress complete with a corsage and off they went to the banquet...only to discover that my dad had the wrong date and the banquet was the following weekend. Instead they went out to a fancy restaurant. After a few months of dating they became engaged and were married in July of 1970. Together they had four children of their own.


In Proverbs 18:22 it says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing. And dad found a good thing. Mom was dad's best friend...his princess. She was the centre piece of the family and a Proverbs 31 women.

In the early years of their marriage, mom babysit a number of cousins and neighbourhood kids. She would make up silly names for different meals...just to be funny or to get our cousin to eat foods that weren't orange, or were different than what he ate at home. Mac and cheese was referred to as Noodle Scroodle from Bim Bom Boodle.


Mom was very creative...we had some of the best trick or treating costumes in the neighbourhood...often winning awards at school for the best costume. Some of the costumes she came up with were...a hobo, an apple, Little Bo Peep and Little Miss Moffitt.

Licorice allsorts, black licorice, chocolate, house coat, slippers, rose bushes, popcorn, snakes, broom and dust pan, clean socks and giggles. These are a few things that will always remind us of mom.

For many years, mom worked part time along side dad in the tree service business and in 1992, mom became a full time partner and was known as the "ground crew". She was a hard worker and did everything from axing wood, dragging brush, to meticulous clean up...building some serious muscle. She wasn't afraid to flex her muscles to her future son-in-laws to let them know that she might be tiny...but she was mighty.

Mom loved her grand kids. Mom adored her grand kids...all 10 of them. At family gatherings there was at least one grandchild attached to her...if not multiples. She would entertain them by reading stories or making interesting animal noises. Her favourite was pretending to be a gorilla...our daughter loved it.


When mom became sick, she was really sad that she couldn't be the grandma she wanted to be. But that didn't bother the kids, they still adored her and wanted to climb on her or push her wheelchair. They would come with us on our regular visits and fill the room with life...and a few squabbles too. They would make mom artwork...lots of artwork. Her room was full of artwork. The nurses would comment that they had never seen a room as decorated as much as mom's was. The grand kids would sing to mom, pick out special ornaments, blow kisses, pray for her and out of the blue...tell her they loved her.


Mom was a special women. I've heard so much praise from family, friends, and customers over the last few days. I was told...dad was a lucky man...your mom was such a beautiful women...faithful to her Lord.

A favourite memory of my mom was always hearing her pray for us before we left the house for school. If the hectic rush to get out the door caused this daily routine to be forgotten, we would run back inside and say..."You Forgot To Pray!". We knew everything would be OK if mom prayed for us.

She prayed protection over her kids. Even as grown adults, before we left for home after a hospital visit. She would tell my dad to pray and then say...Drive carefully...or Drive wisely...Watch out for deer. And God answered her prayer many times including last night as we drove back home. We hit a deer going 95km an hour. There was no time to react. The deer was launched away from the windshield. The damage to the front was extensive, but praise God, no one was injured.

So many people over the last few days have said to me...You look just like your mom....You sound just like your mom. I hear these words and I want to put my head a little higher and stand a little taller as that is such a wonderful, awesome complement...to be compared to a beautiful, classy, faithful, loving women.