A New Year's Eve Hike with Love, Joy, Peace & Hope. . .

Love!

Sunshine and reflections.

I put word out to some friends around 10:30a.m today..."Anyone want to take a live and in person hike at 2p.m. today?" I got a few takers, yaya! The sun came out about a half hour before meet up, perfect! Especially because yesterday, full grey day, I had no, zero, zilch plans all day until 5:30p.m. and man oh man...I watched the clock finally get to 3:20p.m., that was after waking up from a nap (what the what??!!) and I was like, what is this kind of life, it is moving sooooooo slllloooowwwwlllyyyy...then the clock finally hit 4:18p.m....I filled the bird feeder...hahaha!  Finally, 5:15p.m. time to take off for my pre-registered swim, yay!  Arrive to find out...no swimming, pool covering won't roll back off the water. Ummmm, scuse me? Do you know I have literally watched water boil to get to this moment of my day?

So...yes, this morning, I put out word for human contact and activity! (-:

Joy!

I can say that today was the first hike ever happening upon a carved mushroom, cool!

Peace!

Hope!

See that, bottom left? I can say today was also the first time I ever saw a Christmas Tree in the middle of the woods on a hike. (-:

Love, Joy, Peace, Hope!

I mean really, can that not be the best message ever to wrap up this year we've all endured? 

Let's all turn the calendar tomorrow keeping close to heart the knowledge of how and where we can find each of those all the time. Thank you to our Dear and Loving Heavenly Father for giving us His beloved son, born to us on Christmas Day and then brought to death and resurrection for us and our promise of eternal salvation. In this we find all Love, Joy, Peace and Hope always!

Sweet Yuletide Treat, my Parade "cookbook" once again! . . .

Well, once again, Parade Magazine scores a recipe winner. This was a delicious little cinnamon/brown sugar filled bread for us all to snack on this weekend and into this week. It absolutely improved when it spent a little time in the fridge, Oooooo, that cream cheese frosting chilled...wow! There were only three reviews and two of them had issues with the bread dough, but I followed the recipe to a T and had no issues besides that fact that I've never rolled a doughy, filled, bread and I thought I was rolling not as tightly as the recipe asked for. But it came out great, maybe not the most perfectly photogenic, but Dee-Lish-Ous!

Try It!

https://parade.com/1136626/alison-ashton/cinnamon-bun-quick-bread-recipe/

 Cinnamon-Bun Quick Bread

By CHRISTINA TOSI

• SERVES

  12

 

• ACTIVE TIME

  30 min.

 

• TOTAL TIME

  1 hr. 30 min.

• PRINT

INGREDIENTS

• baking spray

Cinnamon Swirl Filling:

• 1½ cups light brown sugar
• ¾ stick (6 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp kosher salt

Dough:

• 2½ cups flour, plus more for dusting
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 large egg
• ½ stick (4 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• ½ stick (4 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ⅛ tsp kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with baking spray.

2. To prepare filling: In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.

3. To prepare dough: In a large bowl, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together milk and egg. Use a wooden spoon to stir egg mixture into dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in butter. Finish off mixing with your hands, pinching and squeezing to form a dough.

4. Lightly dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll dough into a 15-by-9-inch rectangle. Spread filling evenly over dough, leaving a ½-inch border at each edge. Starting at short end, roll dough up tightly; place in prepared pan, seam side down. Bake 50–55 minutes or until top is a deep golden brown and filling bubbles up around edges. Transfer to a wire rack; cool completely in pan.

5. To prepare frosting: In a medium bowl, use a wooden spoon to mix cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar. Add vanilla and salt; stir with a whisk 2 minutes or until fluffy and white.

6. Turn cooled loaf out of pan; place on a serving plate. Frost. Refrigerate in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Serves 12.

Score 2 for Uncle D! . . .

 My brother, D, has great stories of people, areas and biking adventures in and all around Detroit. He entrances us all as he recounts this or that experience and this last time, his food recommendations. Hooked us right in. William requested we follow through on both of them, a favorite place for pizza on Inkster Rd and a taco truck right down in Detroit. Here are some outtakes...

And the first one doesn't even directly relate to either food place. Hahaha!

I spotted this great design Saturday night on a building on the way to pick up food experience #1, pizza. My brother E's family down in Texas loves to find and receive Vernors as it's not always available where they live. This year we even got a text about their dearth of this beloved drink and if anyone could get some down to them. I asked about shipping soda at the post office...it's a No-Go! (-: So, anyway, I sent the pic down to them and let them know I'm available to take a family photo for them next time they're up for a visit.

Oh...yes...the food, hahaha, LOVED the pizza, it had a great, light but fluffy crust and the sauce was divine with brilliant flavor, a sweetness yet a yummy complexity. Score #1 for D!

This afternoon was Taco Fiesta in Detroit...and let me tell you...An Absolute Gem!  Their marinated pork especially made everything it was wrapped in or set on top of incredible. I ordered almost everything on the menu, yum!

Couple photos with nearby trucks while they worked their magic in the taco truck.

Our socially distanced eating area, haha!

They did have a table outside under a tent, but the 30-some degrees had us quite comfortable in the car. (-:

And while I was eating what I declared the Best Burrito I've Ever Had (Fiesta burrito with the marinated pork as the meat choice), I discovered this little packet of goodness. Upon opening I was a little stumped, is this for inside my burrito? Do I squeeze the lime on the burrito or on the radishes? Well...fortunately, I squeezed the lime on the radishes and took a big ol' bite. What is this so simply lovely??!! I might be changing my mind about never growing radishes in the garden! (-: Score #2 for Uncle D.

Big cheers for great food adventures and Big cheers for Uncle D!

Happy Sunday . . . December Garden Update!! . . .

The Garlic is up!

I'm sorry but this about as exciting as it gets for a gardner I think.

On December 27th in a northern, mid-west state...to be able to see green things growing in their yard.

Whoo-hoo!

That sneaky pup has heard a few times this late fall/winter..."Alli, stay out of that garlic!" (-: I'm also excited for next season to see how my new lavender plants do. I've never grown lavender but they were on a great fall sale at one of the garden stands I love so...got four in the ground right now. Don't blink, gardening season will be here before ya know it!

I brought Aggravation up from the basement.

It's the most fun I've ever had being Aggravated! (-:

Check out me, red, and Livia, blue...both needing to roll a one first to win. At this point in the afternoon, I'd won two or three games in a row. Check the video below to see how this turns out! (-:

You know, I think it's actually possible that I've never played this game before, though I've certainly heard of it. I really have no recollection of it and we played Sorry all the time growing up, which I've come to realize is quite similar to this. BUT, I like this a lot more with the additions of the short cut circles. Lots of laughs had playing this the last few days.

The Winner!

(-:

May God richly bless your week to come. Look up the Twelve Days of Christmas if that's unfamiliar to you (not the song (-:) in that it's not widely recognized in the U.S. very much. Interesting Christian history.

"Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!" . . . Christmas Recap . . .

All decked out and loaded up approximately 4:15a.m. Christmas morning.

Thought I heard someone creeping around as I was about to come up much, much earlier with the stockings, so I decided to wait them out by dozing on the downstairs couch for a while. I told myself I'd wake up eventually because, while it's a nice, wide, comfy couch...it's a couch. Woke up at 4a.m. (-:

Love the happy gift-receiving faces.

They're the best!

I might be a year or two late on the usefulness of a coffee gift for Lara since she just graduated college this semester (wait!!! what?? Yep...no ceremony at all, not even anything online so, alas, no pictures, but, SUPER proud of her Bachelor's in Aviation that's for sure!), it's still fun to get a variety of "the expensive stuff" when you're a recent grad. (-:

We are all SUPER excited about my last minute Nextdoor App find of a brand new Klask game. Not even kidding. I never heard of it before but I saw, "New, In Box," looked it up online, saw that it's a great mix of air-hockey and foosball (two things I've always liked to have around to play, hahaha...but really, for real (-:) and that it was compact...unlike foosball and air-hockey. THEN...I saw they have international championships and I was hooked, bought it then and there. We really have played it quite a bit, both Livia and William like it a lot.  Here's a link to the 2018 International Championship in Finland...find a slow day and watch all one hour and fifty-five minutes...I challenge you! (-:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kNhACNLQb4

I recalled Lara's desire to make Eggs Benedict for our Christmas breakfast last year and decided to reprise it, especially since one of my piano students had the most gorgeous honey-baked ham shipped to my house! If you like this dish at all, I think I did in fact find the "best eggs benedict" recipe out there. The hollandaise sauce is absolutely divine having been whipped up in the blender. I needed to add a bit more lemon juice than they called for but also, the sauce kept very well for leftovers today. Plus...who knew poaching eggs was just so darn easy and tasty. Doing that more, without the sauce. (-:

I've been a fan of making big batches of Randalls Turkey and White Bean chili for my sibs over the past few Christmases. I love to put them in these big, 64 oz canning jars. The Randalls recipe is already posted over on the right side bar.

This year though, my Randall's White Bean jar wished me some good times...that's fun, I thought that night. Then, out of the blue a couple days later it hit me..."Tootin!!" A "Rootin, Tootin' good time the bean makers just wished me!!" Hahahaha...couldn't have been a better gift for my brothers all this time, who woulda thought! You know how many "tootin" jokes, stories and tall tales I grew up with regarding this topic??!! 😂

Finally...what a delight it was to wake up Christmas morning to a fresh, clean covering of snow. We hadn't had any snow for a few weeks now and hadn't expected any until hearing news on Christmas Eve of the coming nighttime snow. Perfect!

So, those are some of my happy outtakes.

Aren't they just lovely and special and filled with warmth and beauty and fun?

I really do think they are, I'm not being funny here.

But...

Even with all that,

In this special little online place that I adore posting these joys,

Please just know there is real life going on here to.

The Merry

&

The Messy

Heart achingly Messy Sometimes.

I'll open that door just a crack again as I do very occasionally...

Can you even imagine that SP's clouded lens, heart & mind has convinced himself that I have "emotionally abused" even one, let alone all of my dear children? Do you know he tells our children and professionals who are in care of one really hurting child that that is part of his story? I mean, people...that rips the door right off the hinges here doesn't it? Of course, he is the only one with that lens, and he has never cited even one instance where that's happened, but it surely twists and turns the kids to have a parent doing that and watching the fallout on them is hard to bear.

Why did I crack that open here, today?

Well...I love posting all the beauty and joy and happiness I find in my family and the world cause, that's just what I'm drawn to do. But at the same time, there is no "always beautiful, always joyful, always happy," there is real life everywhere too, for everyone. Sometimes I just feel like there needs to be an online balancing act so we all know we're in this together during both the Merry & the Messy!

I am grateful to have been blessed with a heart that longs to hear, read and know God's truths which help me leave the Messy at the foot of the cross and cling to the Merry as best as possible. Join me! 

💜

Christmas Eve Visitors! . . .

We're not the visitors, hahaha!

Still . . . not the visitors!

Here are the visitors!!

Wow, Kumo and Vega (named after some stars) arrived home with Lara tonight.

Kumo and Vega were adopted by Lara and one of her roommates this past Monday on their recent road trip through the southwest.

😮

Why no, as a matter of fact we don't have any pictures with Alli, Kumo and Vega, hahaha! They did pretty well with their initial hellos, all dogs sniffing and wondering what was going on and while nothing ever went terribly awry as everyone loosened up some barking was picking up and I just decided it might be time for Alli to go relax in the bedroom. (-:

Kumo.

I think the last hour or so now has been spent trying to convince Kumo and Vega to go downstairs to Lara's room. Kumo went down once, Vega, not having any part of the steps. Alli and I...quietly relaxing now on my bed and Lara's figuring out what to do next....and at 11:49p.m...I am quite elated that all I have left to do is wake up in the middle of the night and NOT wrap presents! Yah-hoo!!

Shhhh...for the first time in 21 years...

 The gifts are all wrapped before 2am. on Christmas Eve!

In fact...before Christmas Eve altogether, that is an incredible first for me!

shhhhhhhh...(-:

And 90% of the stocking goodies are ready to go too!

Whoa, what??!! (-:

This is stunning, amazing and what a relief, yah-hoo!

On top of all that, you might remember a few posts back that Liv and I had a picture book night which included cookie making. I've got a sec to post some outtakes. We made enough sugar cookie dough that cookie rolling and decorating actually happened three different nights, loads of fun 'cause she loved doing it. 💜

Fifteen seconds before this shot I believe the quote was, "Hey mom, I'm gonna use these sprinkles up tonight," and then the top fell off the bottle. Yep, Liv...ya sure are! (-:

Night one decorations

Night two decorations

Night three decorations was remaining frosting and completely undecorated cookies, we may have been fading by then, haha! Night three also saw Livia doing a beautiful frosting and sprinkles decorating job on this one Christmas tree cookie and then realizing..."Wait...these haven't been baked yet!" We deliberated for a while about baking it all frosted and decorated but didn't risk our hypothesis of it seeping all over the other cookies.

Treasures of Time.

Happy Sunday . . . A Day Late . . .

Last year I took such delight in traipsing around various churches, seeing all the Christmas "decking of the halls" and listening to the beautiful music:

http://pierceadventures.blogspot.com/2019/12/decking-halls-heart-mind-spirit.html

I sang my annual Messiah and then saw all these ornaments on my travels:

http://pierceadventures.blogspot.com/2019/12/messiah.html

But I'll tell you what.

The picture I posted today is from my very own church.

Not in a big, fancy town.

Not with arches, carved doors, colorful displays and six different Christmas trees.

Not with a choir or any soloists.

Not an instrument but the organ to be found.

But wow-wee-wow-wow...

What an absolute joy to be able to leave my house and "go to church."

Whew!

Perspective.

(-:

Today (yesterday) I really enjoyed hearing this:

25 now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that as kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith--27 to the only wise God be glory forever more through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Romans 16:25-27

Soli Deo Gloria, 

SDG, 

Paul wrote that at the end of his letter,

To God alone be the Glory!

So yeah, everything is happening differently this year. Yep.

And yet...

God deserves glory just the same, always!

Perspective.

(-:

 

Outside the pastor's garage near the old Lutheran church down the road . . .

I love my neighborhood!

I went "garaging" today kinda . . .

And bought some vintage (1940's/50's) Christmas tablecloths!

Do you know what "garaging" is?

When I was, what six, seven, somewhere in there, I sure did.

And I loved it!

It meant that I was going garage saling with my grandma and grandpa.

We might be driving through various Detroit & Redford neighborhoods with a newspaper full of circled addresses or set in one spot as they manned a table of their own wares at a flea market. Either way worked for me. Neighborhood driving meant seeing a lot of cool neighborhoods and people (some even became familiar faces, with nicknames they'd get from my brother or cousin Karen and I) and the flea markets meant I got to practice roller skating in the big parking lots. I'm sure I wrote about this somewhere in the last 12 years of this blog, but buying the vintage cloths today during my few hours with no teaching was a memory lane kinda day. 

Anyway, these days I "go garaging" on my Nextdoor App with both great success and what I believe, reasonable buying control, haha! I emphasized that a few times to Sue, the table cloth seller today so I may need to take a look at how the purchasing is going as it sounded like I was trying to convince myself I'm not going overboard here. Oy! For the record, Sue had about 12 vintage cloths, I only bought two. (-:

Anyway, these little beauties bring a fun and nostalgic pop of Christmas cheer into the room and have been declared my official Christmas gifts to myself!

 For further reference:

When one pokes around the internet looking for the definition of "garaging" one will find references to where to park cars and this...

garaging

the act of plundering beer, vodka, any alcohol possible from a random open garage. most often accomplished at night.

"dude, we need some beer."

"no worries, we'll just go garaging."

HAHAHAHA! Just remembering all the times we went "garaging!" HAHAHAHAHA!

For even further reference:

What is Garage Saling (Or Is It Garage Sailing)?

First things first we need to define the term “garage saling” because (as we all know) the word “saling” spelled this way is not a real word.

So how come we can say it?

Here are three reasons we say garage sailing even though it’s not a word

1. According to the Urban Dictionary it’s something called wordbining. Haha. What a funny word. Words. Combined. Wordbined. You know how Americans love to combine words to make a new word? Like “Brangelina” and “Frockets” and stuff and junk (Stunk?)? Well, I like it. It’s such a time saver. Anyway, since it’s so much easier to just say “I’m going garage saling” instead of “I’m going to a bunch of garage sales,” it has caught on.
2. It’s something called a colloquialism—something used commonly in conversations, but not really anywhere that would be considered “academic.”
3. Words over time are used in different ways. At first we use them as two words, as in “Garage Sale.” Then, after a while people start to try to verbalize (make something a verb, not say it out loud) the words, as in “Garage Sale-ing” so we add a dash. Then over time (when the dash becomes annoying) the verbalized dashed term becomes one single word. AKA “garage saling.” Et voila.

Anyway, the term “garage saling” is really only in North America and it refers to people who frequent garage sales.

Here are some other common terms for garage saling

• Garage Sale
• Yard Sale
• Rummage Sale
• Tag Sale
• Attic Sale
• Moving Sale
• Junk Sale
• Block Sale
• Multi-Family Sale

Any questions?

By Robyn Roste out in the interwebs in 2011

The Kids . . .

Sometimes I am just stopped stunned at how grown she is.

Yes, yes...(-: she's standing on a chair...that's not exactly how big she is, hahaha...but man, when you round up how grown she is, you definitely round more toward teen than little girl. 

Stopped stunned I tell you.

But last night, just a lovely picture book night that you just sometimes can't imagine actually happens. One where you have the Christmas music playing, rolling and decorating sugar cookies together with out loud laughs and putting ornaments up on the tree. Together, easy and fun. In my case, wow, those moments are my "beach house," "my travels to Europe," "my fancy sports cars..." those moments are what dreams are made of 💜 in my world.

And, while every year I do love hanging their kindergarten, school-made claypot angel ornaments, typically together as their three brothers group, I am still stopped stunned sometimes at how this all turned out. Just stopped stunned. 💔

 

And . . . of course THIS is the light, this is the "sun" that we want to SHINE IN from that post on the 10th.

Perfect timing bible app!

(-:

 

Happy Sunday . . . Whether Merry or Messy! . . .

Today, Liv and I said at almost the same time,  "That kinda looks like, Have yourself a messy little Christmas" and it sure does, doesn't it?

All in the angle again, eh? (-:

And ya know..."Christmas Time," the hub-bub, the family stuff, the pandemic, the decorating, shopping, finances, to travel or not, those things...sure can be Messy sometimes.

Sure can.

But the Merry Christmas comes just the same. Mess and all, our Lord and Savior's birth will be celebrated once again. We can rejoice with gladness despite the absence of choirs and concerts, despite any of the messiness of life...we can still shout from the rooftops...

"Joy to the World, the Lord is come!"

That...

Is my Happy Sunday thought for this week!

(-:

So, let's start another week here, it'll likely be messy at times, but let's just keep that Merry close to heart. 💜