Counting the minutes and hours.....

 

and not in that good way that you do when you have something exciting happening.

I mean more in the sense of cherishing every second of every day until hubby leaves for his TDY.  Ugh, I think it's one part, or THE part of military life that you never quite get used to.

It's pretty quiet here today, would you believe me if I told you I forgot it was a long weekend?  Ha!

Until last night, that is.  We were sitting on the couch getting ready to watch Jericho (hubby and I found it on Netflix and have been enjoying it), and hubby turned to me and said "we could stay up all night and watch all the seasons".

I turned to him with this look on my face and asked if he wasn't working today and he just shook his head and laughed.  "Remember it's Memorial Day Weekend?"  LOL

So yeah, I felt like a doofus.

Now let me tell you what I've been doing.  I am wanting to turn my blog into a book, I have been to a few websites online and they are quite pricey and for the size of my blog, it's going to take a lot of books to get it all on paper.  But it's something I'm determined to do nonetheless, I think it would be an amazing memento to have.  To be able to sit down and read through all my entries from the very first post. 

Yesterday, I spent almost every spare moment I had, in between housework, cooking etc...going through my blog from that very first post I mentioned above.

What a journey.

I will say that I feel like the Lord did this knowing full well that I needed it.  Really needed it at this point in my life.

I have said many times on my blog that I apologize for not posting more.  I have also stated just as many times that I would change it, that I would try really hard to go back to the way I used to blog, but the problem is that I didn't do it, and I think the reason being that I wasn't ready to, my heart wasn't there.

It's easy to have your mind state something, but quite different to have it in sync with your heart.

Yesterday, was an eye opener for me.

It started as simply a plan to go through each post quickly and fix any broken links or missing images that may have disappeared after all these years.  I didn't want broken pictures showing up in the Blog Book.  But as I started bringing up each post, I found myself reading every single word, following along, and literally watching myself grow in the pages before me.

I cried, I laughed and I yearned for what I had.

The truth is that I had completely forgotten who I was.  In this attempt to keep up with the times, to become like everyone else, to fit into what is deemed the *right way to blog*, I found myself losing who I was, and I think the Lord saw that I needed to be reminded of it all and led me to what I did yesterday.

I only got through the year of 2006, but what a joy.

My children, so little.....
My posts, so full of faith.....
My struggles through the first few years of marriage......
My role as a mother, as a wife, as a homemaker.......

I blogged with so much happiness, so much determination.  I shared myself freely, and talked about everything and anything, oh I remember posts like The Designated Willy Shaker, 100 Things About Me,  Uncluttered Faith and Guilty as Charged.

I want THAT Sandra back.  That was my first thought after reading some of these posts.  I honestly got to a point where I had to step away from the laptop and gather myself.  It touched me and affected me that much.  But I got it.

Thank you Lord.  I finally GOT.IT!

That Sandra didn't disappear, she's right here, she's been here all along, but she's been somewhat masked, somewhat absent.

I think she's been hiding for far too long, I shouldn't change who I am as I get older, I should just learn to add more layers to what already exists.  I consider myself a pot of clay in the making, I'm not quite there yet, I'm simply in the potter's wheel, being molded, being worked, being strengthened.

I want all my posts to continue reflecting who I am, who my family is, I want to share my children's going ons, what I'm doing, where I went, what I am eating, watching, enjoying etc.

For a while I started thinking that I needed to change that about my posts because no one would want to read it.  And there in itself was my biggest mistake.  I write for me.  I write to have a record of our lives, of everything we've done and where we've been, where we're going.

I want to be able to sit down one day and open up a book and read about our family.

Yes, that's what I'm going to do.  Sandra is back in the house and I have missed her like crazy :)

And now that I've babbled on for so long, I'm going to end this post with something I used to do many years ago, and something which I'll be doing again at the end of every post from today onward.  I'm sure some of my old blog readers will remember it :)





We went out to breakfast this morning and it was packed, so we headed to Sam's Club first for a few things, then by the time we made it back to the Black Bear Diner for breakfast it was closer to lunch.  We had really yummy stuff but I'm so full that I couldn't think of eating until much much later, so for tonight, I'm making some sandwiches, just keeping it simple :)




General Hospital on ABC

Jericho Season 2 on Netflix
The Dead Files on the Travel Channel

 


Two loads of laundry
Watering the veggie garden
Emptying the pool and cleaning it out, going to put it away for now

Everyday Contentment - #1

Take a moment to embrace contentment, to learn to love the everyday things that we tend to overlook or take for granted. 

I'm not referring to big things, or expensive things.

I'm talking about the nitty gritty, those everyday tasks, objects, thoughts that make our lives what they are.

So every Friday I'm going to be talking about my Everyday Contentment.

You are more than welcome to join me, to take a step back and to appreciate the small things.



Fresh Homemade Bread.  You may find it a daunting task but it really is an everyday contentment for me.  

Something as simple as dough rising on the counter

Or the aroma of fresh rolls straight out of the oven

So, take a moment, remember the small things around you, the memories it conjures up, and embrace it.

If anyone wants to join up let me know and I'll put up a Mr Linky :)

Spring Reading Thing 2012

So, the last time I participated in Katrina's reading challenges was back in 2006.  Wow, long long time ago.

But I have never stopped reading and right now I have a huge pile of books from the library as well as for reviews, and sitting in my Kindle.

I think it's time to join back in with Katrina at Callapidder Days for the Spring Reading Thing 2012.

If you want to join in as well, just go here and add your own link :)

I'm going to try and narrow it down to the books that I absolutely would love to finish in the next month, though it will be hard because there are so many good ones.


Kindle:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Tuppence to Tooley Street by Harry Bowling
Ironmonger's Daughter by Harry Bowling
Her restless heart by Barbara Cameron (almost finished)


Fiction:

Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell (almost finished)
A man of his word by Kathleen Fuller
I still dream about you by Fannie Flagg
London 1945 by Maureen Waller



Non-Fiction:

The Amish Cook's Baking Book by Lovina Eicher
A woman who trusts God by Debbie Alsdorf




For reviews:

An unmarked grave by Charles Todd
A bitter truth by Charles Todd


And there you have it.  Looking at the book list I actually have a lot of interesting books to go through, I like that it's not just all fiction or non, there seem to be quite a bit of differing genres to entertain me.

If you do decide to join in as well, let me know so I can come and look at your book list, I would love to see what others are reading :)

Cooking Thursday

Well good morning, here's hoping everyone is having a good week so far. 

I have to apologize, because I totally forgot, or rather didn't realize that today was Thursday.  So here I was about to start on a different post when I saw the day and went *GASP*.  Ha!

Better late than never right?

If you want to use the picture, just click here for the original.

So for today's recipe, I'm sharing my husband's favorite thing on earth.  Lemon Bars.

I mentioned them on the Happy Homemaker Monday and quite a few of you wanted the recipe, so here you go ;)

Lemon and Orange Bars

For the base:
250gr of flour (2 cups)
85gr of powdered sugar (3/4 cup)
175gr of butter, cut into small pieces (3/4 cup)
For the topping:
2 lemons and 1 large orange
4 large eggs
400gr sugar (I think that’s too much, I only used 1 cup)
50gr flour (1/2 cup)


Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 9 x 12 inch pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In your standing mixer, beat together the flour, sugar and butter until it forms crumbs. (I beat mine a little longer because I got distracted with a kid, so mine came out more bound like a dough, still good though)

Press into the prepared pan. Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes until pale golden.
Finely grate the zest from the lemons and the orange.

Then squeeze out all the juice into a cup. You will need the juice from both lemons and the orange.

Whisk together the eggs and sugar, then add the zest and the juice, add the flour and mix well.

Pour over the base and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, just until the topping has set. Remove from oven and let cool completely in the pan.
When cool, lift the parchment paper out, and then dust heavily with powdered sugar.

Perla by Carolina de Robertis - TLC Book Tour

Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires with a polished yet aloof mother and a straight-laced Naval officer father, whose profession she learned early not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Although Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, her love for her Papá is unconditional. But when she is startled by an uninvited visitor, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has long suppressed, and make a wrenching decision about who she is, and will become.

*****************************

 If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be TOUCHING.

One of my reasons for reading is not only to be taken into another world, to distract myself with the everyday happenings, but it's to be touched deeply by a book.

Very few have done that, but then again very few are written with such intensity as this one is.

Perla is this amazing young girl who finds herself struggling between loving and hating her parents for the part they played during the "Dirty War" of the late 1970's and early 1980's in which her own father, was a Captain in the Navy. 

The story starts taking shape, the minute that a man, naked, shows up at her door while her parents are away.  She begins to take care of her, and it's through these conversations and these flashbacks to her childhood, that Perla begins putting together the pieces, so to speak.

The author does an amazing job of taking us back to a tumultuous time, when over 30 000 people disappeared.   It's a tough pill to swallow as she begins to understand and realize how her father was involved in these horrific acts, and how her mother seemed to turn a blind eye.

I can't even imagine living my life believing things happened a certain way, and then slowly beginning to realize that nothing is what it seems.

The very first sentence in the book is:   Some things are impossible for the mind to hold alone.

And for this book, for this character, it rings unbelievably true.

What a fascinating book to read.   The author was brilliant in her execution of the story, in the vivid details and the hold she had on me.  I couldn't look away, she had my full attention from the beginning until the end.

Again, one word:  TOUCHING!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy.