2009 December | Heather’s Blog

Archive for December, 2009

New Year’s Resolutions

Date: 2009.12.30 | Category: personal | Response: 1

My first job had me setting goals. I worked for a sales company and I was the main receptionist. I had to write out 5 goals every week. I should have put down, 1-5. answer phone 6. talk to Maggie and Jill. But I knew they wanted me to accomplish more than that, so every week I had to come up with someway to be productive. 1. answer phone, 2-5. mail samples. Then the following week I had to say whether I’d done it or not. It was a good growing process for me.

So, I’m here to report on 2009 and my goals for 2010. Here is the 2009 List. And below is a yes or a no as to whether I accomplished it or not.

1. no 2. yes 3. yes 4. yes 5. no 6. yes 7. no 8. no 9. yes 10. no 11. no 12. yes 13. no 14. yes 15. no

I scored 7/15 yeses. But #5 doesn’t count as a real no because it was tied to number 4.

If you’re contemplating whether or not to write New Year’s Resolutions or goals, I would encourage you to at least write them down and post it on the wall near your work space. At some point during the year (if you’re at all like me) you’ll find yourself wandering aimlessly around and you’ll say, “I’m supposed to be doing something. Not just wasting my time wandering around or browsing facebook or this blog.” So then you can look at your list and say, Oh yes, I totally did want to do that. And maybe, just maybe you’ll start something.

For 2010, I would like to accomplish the following

1. Stay involved in a weekly Bible study or switch to a mentoring/accountability relationship.

2. continue exercising 2x per week

3. practice piano regularly so I can play for the wedding

4. investigate craft shows

5. continue to save 68% at the grocery store using sales and coupons.

6. replace kitchen/family room flooring

7. increase insulation in basement

8. veggie garden under power lines

9. Volunteer at my church with the Women’s Ministry

10. incorporate chores as part of daily routine, so there’s less hassle when it’s time to do it.

11. work on my tone. be happier. Be something like a “Julia Poppins”

12. do a better job planning monthly spending. I’ve already budgeted how to spend the tax return.

13. Register children for kindergarten and closely monitor their “progress” once school starts so I can know whether or not to continue home schooling. (Will there really be any measurable difference accomplished in kindergarten??)

14. take pictures. plan outings. document.

15. Be consistent with Marriage Family Monday entries. My goal is 2x per month.

Edited to add

16. New family room furniture. preferably a pair of leather recliner from world market, and a leather sofa from someplace else…
Marriage and Family Mondays

Date: 2009.12.28 | Category: MFM | Response: 0

I’m going to start a new series for the year called “Marriage and Family Mondays.” I’m doing it on Mondays because Rob is around to play with the children while I write. Titles will be “MFM:….” and tagged MFM.

I’m dedicating this series to my cousins and to my “other children” who were in our years of youth ministry.

I’m not claiming to have the corner on a perfect marriage and family. I’m simply going to share some thoughts which will hopefully provoke some of your own thoughts as you build your own family. I have several ideas for topics to discuss; and if you have ideas, I welcome them — whether you are my cousin or not. Please contact me.
Cake Pictures

Date: 2009.12.14 | Category: Holidays, Recipe | Response: 0

I wanted to create a separate post for pictures and explanation of my Jesus Birthday Cake.

Here is the finished cake. This is really the first successful decorated cake I’ve ever made, and it still looks like a newbie did it. . .

Here are photos of my assembling the cooked layers of cake.

I made a simple devil’s food cake from scratch. I put half the batter in one pan, and the other half of the batter I tinted red with food coloring, then put it in the other pan. I made a recipe of “Busy Day Cake” flavored with almond extract and colored with green food coloring for the top layer. I probably could have added more green to get the layer a brighter green. I made a buttercream frosting and crumb coated the cake yesterday.

I made marshmallow fondant which was surprisingly easy. I found the recipe and directions on this site. I watch videos of others making it on youtube. I let the fondant rest overnight in the fridge, then I rolled it out this morning.

Applying the 30″ long piece to the side of the cake was surprisingly simple. I should have just rolled one large circle and draped it over the whole cake, but I was afraid of creating pleats in the sheet of frosting. I also think I may have rolled my fondant too thin. I have quite a bit left. You’ll notice the stars at the upper edge of the cake — I’m hiding the seam. Here’s some photos of applying the fondant.

Working with the fondant was easy. It does stretch. I love the smooth finish, and now will probably frost all my special event cakes with fondant. The girls enjoyed kneading it, eating it, making roses, and cutting out hearts. Both Alexis and Rachel are naturals in the kitchen.
Jesus’ Birthday Cake

Date: 2009.12.12 | Category: Holidays, Preschool, Recipe, Twins | Response: 0

Jesus’ Birthday Cake is a round three layer cake with frosting and decorations, each of which has special symbolic meaning. I received this recipe from “SF,” one of my mentors from PGCC.

MEANINGS
1. Shape: The shape is round to represent the World into which Jesus is born.
2. Bottom layer: The bottom layer is black (chocolate) representing the fact that all men have sinned. This is why Jesus came to earth.
3. Middle layer: Red. Add red food coloring to remaining chocolate batter, or use a strawberry or cherry flavored cake with red food coloring. This layer symbolizes Jesus’ blood that was shed for our sin.
4. Top layer: Green (use food coloring). Symbolizes the new life that we have in Jesus Christ after our sins have been washed away. (typically I will make a sponge cake recipe (single layer) for this layer. If you use a cake mix, you could make cupcakes with the leftover batter. )
5. Frosting: Pure White, symbolizing the righteousness and purity of Jesus Christ.
6. Decorations: A border of hearts around the side of the cake reminds us of Brothers and sisters united in Christ, circling the earth as his witness. (use frosting hearts. or use heart shaped “redhots”. at valentine’s day, you can use candy hears, with messages put toward the frosting).
7. On top of the cake is a Gold/Yellow star — like the start that shone heralding his Birth and lighting the way to the stable. (This should be the siz pointed star of David. Six is the number of man and shows that the grace of God includes us all — not only the Jewish people whose Messiah is our Saviour.)
8. A single large Red candle in the center represents Jesus Christ who came into the dark world to bring it light and truth.
Celebration: gather around the cake. Explain the significance/symbolism associated with each part of the cake/decor.

If celebrating Christmas:
- Read the Christmas story from Luke.
- Light the Big Red Candle, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
- Give each person a smaller green candle.
- One by one, have everyone light their small green candle from the large red candle. then put their green candle around the edge of the top of the cake, to represent that we are to be the light of the world to others.
- Sing Silent Night.
- Pray and thank God for sending His son into the world to forgive our sins.
- Blow out the candles and proceed with your family/group traditions for Christmas.
If celbrating God’s love for us (at Valentine’s Day):
- Read 1 John 4
- Light the Big Red Candle.
- Give each person a smaller green candle.
- One by one, have everyone light their small green candle from the large red candle. then put their green candle around the edge of the top of the cake, to represent that we are to be the light of the world to others.
- Pray and thank God for loving us so much and sending His son into the world to forgive our sins.
I’ll be trying this out for the first time this year.
Love

Date: 2009.12.12 | Category: Twins | Response: 0

A: Mommy, I love you SO-oooo much! Not so much as Jesus, just the normal “so much.”
Theory: Life is a normal curve

Date: 2009.12.11 | Category: personal | Response: 1

In college I majored in elementary education. I remember sitting in the education building on campus, in the largest lecture hall available, sitting on the 3rd row left wing, and learning about the normal curve. I applied the information strictly to the classroom scenario. It was a freeing moment my first year of teaching when my grades fell into “the curve.” I had a low percentage of Failing grades and a low percentage of Above Average grades. The majority of the students fell into the middle. I felt no guilt in giving Graham an F. Poor kid just fell at the wrong end of the curve, even after I curved the grades. The normal curve is real, people; it’s not just some mathematical picture of an ideal that doesn’t exist. Don’t get me started on the implications of the normal curve.

I left the normal curve in my education files until this year. Now I want to extrapolate it to apply it to the course of life itself. As I have watched the girls grow and develop, I see their life now as a reflection of what their life will be like after I’m gone. You know, after I’m dead and gone and crossed over to the other side into the arms of Jesus.

My theory of “Life is a normal curve” has not been diminished by the media. Recently, Rob and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The move is based on a story by Fitzgerald. Read the review here. Basically Benjamin Button is born disfigured like an old man, and dies looking like a baby. The story touches on the theme of mortality and how to live life. Watching the movie evoked more thoughts on “life is a normal curve.”

The infancy and preschool years do confound me. I remember in Rhinelander sitting in my low blue upholstered rocker next to my piano holding my tiny babies, and wondering What is God’s plan for this child? What is her purpose in this world? What will she be like when she is old? How ever in the world am I going to guide her? “For such a time as this, God brought you here.” As I continued wondering, I wondered most about my daughters as elderly women. I am assuming that the Lord will allow me to live out my days to an elderly woman, and that I will get to see my grandchildren. I assume that I will precede my children in death. So I wonder about the part of their life here on earth that I will not be a part of. If life is like a normal curve, then the behaviors they exhibit now may also be exhibited again when they are old.

One child has continual bathroom problems and I see her as an elderly bed-ridden person in diapers in the nursing home. Today she said, “I need to walk slowly so I don’t hurt myself again.” I had a flash-forward. I suddenly saw her gimping along with cane or walker in hand, shuffling along the corridor in her pink Isotoner bow slippers muttering ‘Easy does it.’ My other child has a propensity for accidents, bumps, and falls. She will probably be the one wearing the life alert pendant, saying, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” I want to write a letter to their children, explaining what I have dealt with for the last 4 years, so that when my grandchildren have to put their mother in an assisted living or nursing facility, they will know what to expect. They can say, “Granny warned us it would be so.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have been a distant observer of the aging matriarchs of both sides of the family. I have listened to my mother and my mother-in-law recount the conversations with their mothers. I have spoken with my grandmother about the difficulty of growing older. It’s not like you necessarily all of a sudden wake up needing help. This “old age” is a gradual thing that sneaks up on you, and after you’ve fought to receive your place in this world and maintain your independence for so long, it’s difficult to see it slipping away, whether gradually like sand through your fingers or suddenly like a fish flopping back into the lake just before you throw it into the live well for keeps. I see the respectable hard-working matriarchs of the family no longer able to care for themselves like they could when I was in high school and it grieves me. I see that their need for supervision is equivalent to the supervision I provide for my girls each day. I hear reports that they are not motivated to eat — similar to the little people I try to coax along at the table. The round-robin catch-22 style conversations reported to me remind me of the exasperating, unlimited “Why?” questions I attempt to answer all day long here. All the while, the sands of independence and responsibility are slipping out of the matriarchs’ hands. They are slowly realizing that their days are numbered, and they’re trying to figure out how live out their “second childhood.” The ones at the middle of the curve are trying our best to navigate the end of the bell curve with dignity and respect. And I don’t want to watch. I don’t want to watch that last grain of sand get dusted off the palm of her hand and see the enthusiasm for life diminish in her eyes.
I’m in the mood to write… are you in the mood to read?

Date: 2009.12.11 | Category: personal | Response: 0

I’m sitting here tonight with about a million — no a hundred — no, realistically maybe a dozen posts running thru my head. I want to post about Thanksgiving, Halloween, the process of aging, the process of growing, my grandmother, ballet, money, Christmas, and my house. I can’t decide if I should just make one jigh-norm-ous post, or post as much as I can in separate little posts and have a sudden influx of posts which only the top one will get read. Or do I draft them all out, and then slowly, one by one, post them? and who, besides the robots and the worms and the dedicated few indicated on my networked blog window, is reading anyways?

I think I just decided to make separate posts. . ..