This is a very busy week for me at work. Very busy.
So I think I am just going to take a short little bloggy vacation this week to take off any self imposed stress.
I probably won't be around to tweet much either.
Unless, of course, the Aggies actually show up to their game this weekend. At which time you will definitely hear from me.
Most definitely.
Have a good one and I'll see you next week.
Some people really love the changing of the seasons from summer to fall. Honestly, being a Texas girl, I rarely notice much of a difference in the weather until its February and there is ice all over the road.
Whatever.
I have just never been one to ooh and aaah over the turning of summer to fall. Yes the colors on the trees are pretty, IF they actually turn colors and not just a dull shade of brown before dropping to the ground like women's dresses in a James Bond movie.
I'm not one that puts bails of hay and a scarecrow out on her front porch to decorate for the season. This is the extent of my fall decorations that I pulled out the other day.
Yeah. Pathetic, huh.
But one thing I do love about this season is that apples are in season. And my favorites are Honeycrisp.
The name says it all, no?
Honeycrisp.
Amen.
This post could end right there, but it won't because I have a new recipe to share with you. However, since Honeycrisp apples are just so good raw and since Granny Smiths are so good in baked goods, we'll be using Granny Smiths for our recipe. M'Kay?
The thing that I love about baking is that I can take these...
and this...
and throw it together, stick it in the oven, and kind of like Aaron and the Israelites as they waited for Moses and that golden calf just popped out of their fire, out pops this...
Apple Muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, cool room temperature
1 cup buttermilk cool room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ - 2 cups coarsely chopped peeled Granny Smith apples
2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar
1 tablespoon butter
Method:
Sprinkle 2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar with coarsely chopped apples and toss to lightly coat. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in small sauté pan over medium high heat. Once the butter is fully melted and bubbling in the middle, add apples and allow them to cook just until they start to sizzle while stirring periodically. This will only take a few minutes (approximately 3 minutes). Once they have cooked down a little (released some of their juice) and look nice and sticky, remove from heat, return to the bowl you used to toss them in the cinnamon sugar and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Work room temperature butter into dry ingredients using fingers until it makes various sized “pebbles”. Form a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add buttermilk and vanilla. Gently begin folding wet and dry ingredients together and gently fold in apple chunks at the same time. Do not over-mix as the dough should remain rather lumpy. Spoon into 12-15 muffin cups and bake at 425 F for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for at least 5-10 minutes or so before removing to a wire rack to continue cooling.
So hop on over to the recipe blog, whip you up a batch of Apple Muffins, grab you a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and sit down and enjoy one of my favorite times of the year...
The apple time of year.
If you didn't know, my parents have been on mission in South Asia for nearly two years. This picture was taken just in July of this year when they came back state-side to look for a house.
But today, they arrive back here for good...
Or until the next adventure that the Lord leads them on.
It's good to have y'all home!
I had never been involved in a car wreck that had to involve the police before.
That is... not before Monday night.
My little man and I were making a Target run while Dad and sister were at their BSF class on Monday evening. We were on our way home at about 8 pm and honestly, everything happened so fast that I'm not entirely sure of what happened at all.
All I know is that all of the sudden, the car in front of me was stopped and I needed to stop as well. And, being just a two lane narrow little road with no shoulder, there was no swerving. The only option was to get on the brakes fast and hard.
Thankfully, my man had just purchased new tires for my car last week. Because they gripped the slightly wet and slick road and my brakes worked great (even though they also need to be replaced). I stopped in time.
However the car behind me did not.
We felt a bump, but it did not feel bad at all. I pulled on up and turned on to the side street just to get out of the way. I didn't realize that it didn't much matter.
I turned and checked on the little man and he was just fine and so was I. I got out and saw what hit me. That car was not just fine.
The people that live in the house on the corner came out because they heard the crash. I asked them to check on the other driver because I couldn't leave my son. Within a minute or so, an SUV pulled up behind me on the side street. It took a minute for me to understand who it was, but it was the person that had been driving the car that hit me. Her husband had been following her and she got in his car and pulled up behind me.
I had texted Mike immediately when it happened but had yet to hear back from him. So I texted him again. Then, when the woman's husband was cursing and dropping the f-bomb all over the place, I texted him again. Then I called him. And texted... and called... you get the idea.
My text history looks something like this:
"Wreck"
"Are you there? We just got rear ended."
"This guy is cursing."
"Can you come?!?!?"
"A little help?"
"HELLOOOOOO!?!?!?"
Just to be clear, the guy was not cursing at me. He was just mad and cursing at the situation as he called the police and the wrecker and looked at their car that was spewing steam everywhere. But still. It made me nervous to be by myself. I'm sure you understand.
Finally the police showed up and I felt much better. At first it was just one squad car and he needed to direct traffic because her car was not moving without a wrecker. Finally another officer showed up which allowed the other one to come over and begin writing the report as we continued to wait for the tow truck. Which, by the way, was totally exciting to my little man.
The guy had calmed down quite a bit and we began looking over my car. By just looking at it, it was not immediately obvious that I had been in a wreck. The only visible damage was that the bumper (a big black piece of plastic) was cracked. From the looks of her car, which had gone up underneath mine, my car should have looked much worse.
And of course, since I did have a 4 year old little boy with me, he realized all of the sudden, in the middle of talking with the police, that he needed to go to the bathroom, "REALLY BAD!" So, we went and knocked on the door of the corner house where the people had come from to check on things when it all first happened. Those sweet people let us come in and use their bathroom.
I love Texas hospitality.
Finally, as we were finishing up about an hour later, Mike called and was on his way from Bible study. Apparently the vibrate feature of his phone is not working and he never knew I was trying to get in touch with him. As I was on the phone with him I realized that our two police cars had turned into about five. Apparently not much was going on in our city that night.
He arrived and shortly thereafter we realized that this other couple's night was just getting worse.
The wife, who was driving the car that hit us, had outstanding warrants for unpaid tickets and was all of the sudden being hand-cuffed and seated in the squad car.
Ouch.
We were just about to get ready to leave when the tow truck finally arrived so we had to stay and watch that. It was what Nathan had been looking forward to and asking about constantly this whole time. We couldn't miss it.
We were really hoping that, for the other couple's sake, the damage was little enough that we could avoid messing with insurance. However, upon further inspection in the daylight today, Mike discovered enough damage that we're going to have to take it somewhere. In fact, he was up under the car looking around for a while when he finally realized that my spare tire was gone. Completely missing.
We still have no idea where it ended up.
So I experienced several firsts on Monday night. I was in a wreck with one of my children in the car. I was in a wreck that was bad enough to warrant police involvement. I was in a wreck that was bad enough that one of the cars was not leaving the scene under its own power. And I had someone cuffed and arrested right in front of me.
You would think that with a father that worked in law enforcement all of his career that I would have experienced that last one before. But, no.
And there definitely is a first time for everything.
I am reminded periodically by circumstances and conversations that I have, in fact, a little boy. And that he is 100%, grade A, B-O-Y.
Which I do believe is something to be bragged about. Because, you see, I originally wanted another girl.
There. I said it.
But now I realize what I would be missing if I just had two girls and no boy to bring his own perspective to the family. In fact, I feel bad in a way for my friends who only have all girls or all boys. I know God has blessed them with that for one reason or the other, but I LOVE that I get to experience both genders as a mother. And this story is just one reason I love my 100% boy.
The kids had an early release day from school one Friday after a fundraiser Fun Run that the grammar school kids did. So, we thought a nice relaxing trip to the zoo was in order. Everyone else in public school would still be in school so it shouldn't be crowded. And, it was one of those rare August days when it is below 105 F.
The day did not fail us. It was gorgeous. Mike took the kids right after lunch and then I joined them at about 4 pm after I left work. After I got there, we went to see the elephants, giraffes and the hippopotamus.
We got us a show, too. While we were standing there, some of the elephant keepers came out and began giving each of the elephants a shower. One by one, the elephants would lie down and get sprayed for a while. Then they'd stand up, turn around, lift up each of their legs... it looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
And then the hippopotamus, who is usually just sedentary at the bottom of the pool was swimming around and one of them shot up out of the water and splashed around a bit. Definitely something you don't see every day.
So then, as we were leaving the hippopotamus and giraffe behind, this conversation occurred between my son and I:
Me: "What do you want to go see next?"
Son: "The rhinoceros!"
Me: "What does a rhinoceros look like? Describe him to me."
Son: "He's big and he has horns and..."
Me: "Where are his horns? On his back?"
Son: "No. On his nose. And he shoots fire out of them."
Me: "Um, I don't think that's accurate. I don't think they shoot fire out of them."
Son: "Yes they do."
(A little while later while looking at the rhinoceros....)
Son: "Dad, does the rhinoceros shoot fire out of its horn?"
(Since apparently mom's word wasn't good enough for him.)
Dad: "No. No, I believe the rhinoceros does NOT shoot fire out of it's horn. As cool as that would be, there is no fire coming out of that animal."
Me: "I told ya!!"
(Yeah, I'm real mature.)
I can't imagine that many girls would come up with a rhinoceros shooting fire out of his horns. Maybe some would, but that's just not a conversation I remember ever having with my daughter. And I LOVE that I get to have these conversations.
So that I can laugh like crazy.
And show my own maturity.
And enjoy my 100% boy.
This summer, my friend Keal and I went through Beth Moore's Esther Bible study. And when I say that we did it this summer, I mean we goofed around most of the summer and finally started it in late July and then pushed through and got it done before we started BSF in mid-September.
But the important thing is that we did it, right? Right.
I'll tell you. If you are a woman and you haven't done this study yet, you need to find you a group that's doing it and get 'er done. 'Cuz it is GOOO-OOOD!
If you have done this study, you know that in every video session Mrs. Beth reads from what she calls "The RED Book." It is a compilation of the responses that over 400 women gave on the LPM Blog in this post back in July, 2007 to the question, "For you, what are the three toughest things about being a woman?"
Well, I was not blogging nor did I read the LPM blog at the time that this question was asked back in July, 2007. So I didn’t get to answer.
There. I said it. None of the answers that she read were mine.
But being one that never wants to be left out of giving her own opinion, I decided that I’d make you all suffer through let you all enjoy my answers to “What are the three toughest things about being a woman?”
~~~~
1). Living in light of the “superwoman myth / syndrome.” Buying into the idea that we can do/have it all and have it perfectly: a beautiful family, well behaved children, an advancing career, quality time to ourselves and, as a Christian, a vibrant and growing relationship with the Lord.
There is a huge blow to the psyche that feeds feelings of inadequacy and insecurity when you figure out that you are human and that, just like every other human on planet earth, you have only 24 hours in a day and cannot be two (or three or four) places at once.
Choices must be made. We must choose good over bad and best over good; not only for ourselves, but in many cases for our children and for our families in general. And that is a huge responsibility to have placed on us.
2). When age sets in and our body does not respond as quickly as we’d like… except when it is gaining weight. We have an image, partially driven by the media, of what we ought to look like and it is unattainable. And yet, we feel inadequate when we cannot attain that level of thinness and beauty. We are goaded into buying products and services that, we are told, “will make it happen” with little to no effort on our part.
3). Dealing with the expectations that are placed on us by our women-friends. I’m one of those women who was mostly friends with guys during my school years. However, now being married, my best friend is my husband and I do not allow myself to have close friendly relationships with men, even though I find them much easier to get along with. I am baffled by many women-friend things and sometimes have difficulty with how I am supposed to act in a given social situation and wonder why I am so uncomfortable around many large groups of women.
~~~~
I learned so much and the study of this Biblical character who was singled out for God’s purposes for “such a time as this,” spoke so clearly to where I have been in my own life lately.
It was especially encouraging for me to realize that many Biblical figures were called to corporate crisis in the midst of their own personal crises. Esther, for instance, was called to deal with the crisis that was facing her people corporately while seemingly in the midst of a personal marriage crisis since her husband had not called for her or requested her presence in an entire month. And if it happened to those in scripture, then certainly God may call us to serve in times of corporate crisis when we are in the midst of dealing with personal crisis. That was extremely encouraging to me.
You see, I have been called to serve in a way that I never thought would be asked of me. I have been called to serve our corporate church on a team as we search for a new Children’s Pastor. And yet, I have been in a season where the Lord has taken my involvement in so many things away as we have been dealing with our own family’s difficulty in our financial situation while we have not had the full income to which we had become accustomed. I was very conflicted on whether or not to accept this position, but did. And this study encouraged me that God was calling me to serve in dealing with a corporate crisis in the midst of our own personal crisis at home.
There were many other things, principles and truths sprinkled throughout this study that spoke to me and encouraged me in my walk, but this is the one, as simple as it is, that stands out the most.
I also want to add that given the last point listed above, you might find it laughable that I have become friends with several women on the Internet that are all readers of the Living Proof Ministries blog. We are called Siestas. (It’s a story that is explained over on the LPM Blog.) And I am going to meet several of them for the first time when I go to Memphis on Friday for a Living Proof Live event. But, given this last point, you should not be surprised for me to say that I have been dealing with thoughts of insecurity about not fitting in with some of them just like I have never felt that I really fit in with big groups of girls my whole life.
“But trust reverses the detours of adversity into the highways of destiny.” (Beth Moore, Esther) And I trust that it will be an incredible weekend and that God has a special Word just for me that will bring me that much closer to fulfilling my destiny in Him.
I plan to have a ton to tell you next week about the awesome things that God has done through this trip to Memphis.
Mike had been told that everything would be shut down all day on both that Friday and Saturday. Can you imagine being in Beijing, China for what is likely the only time you will ever be there in your life and not be able to go see any of the important sites? He was terribly frustrated over it.
He did go see the Olympic Village that we all got to know so well last summer. 
As it turned out, Mike and his business partner woke up on Saturday morning and decided to get on the subway and head to the Forbidden City just to see what they could see.
And it was open. They got to spend about 1 ½ hour there with a guide seeing some of the highlights.
Their guide even took them to a room where the nephew of “The Last Emperor” still comes to on Saturdays to do calligraphy. And he met him.
Wow.
While he was there, he also made a trip to the silk market where he picked up a little something for each of us.
Sorry. You don't get to see mine. :)
I was so excited for him that he got to see at least a little bit of the historical part of China.
One thing that he learned from his trip, though, is that even though it was a place that was not really on his list of places he wanted to go, he now wants to go back.
So, China, look out. We might someday be headed your way.
I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend. My new commrade. My new baking buddy.
Isn't she just beautiful? I haven't named her yet, so if you have any suggestions for names, please leave them in the comments.
If you're not familiar with who she is, she is a bigger, heftier, more powerful version of the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer I have had for a long time. She is the Professional 620. I. Love. Her. And I have my birthday to thank for her.
The first chance I got to use her was for my French Bread Baguettes that I made way back over Labor Day weekend.
Mr. Reinhart's formula calls for 3 cups (16 ounces) of what is called pâte fermentée which is a pre-fermented dough. However, I had enough sourdough starter on hand that I had made a little thicker than normal that I was able to use it instead of making a separate pre-ferment.
I mixed all the flour (a mixture of bread flour and all purpose flour this time), salt, yeast and starter with my new baking buddy. She made pretty quick work of mixing and kneading the dough.
Look at the stretch I got from this dough.
I was impressed.
But one of the funnest things to me with the baguettes was shaping them. I had the time as the kids were staying with Nanny that day so I set my camera up on the tripod and took a ton of pictures. I’m going to limit my commentary and just let the pictures do the talking for me this time.
The one thing I did want to point out was that I do not have a “couche” per se for my loaves to proof in. I have an older flour sack dish towel that I got some dough on a while back and I have used it as a couche ever since. I sprayed it with oil and floured it and it has worked great.
And the finished product?
I was so stinkin’ proud of how these turned out. Just look at those holes. And the texture. And the crust.
I have succeeded at making baguettes. I feel like a real life baker now!
You want to know one of my favorite ways to enjoy this kind of bread?
Here, have a bite.
We changed our normal menu for the week to include a dish that would accommodate the soppin’ up properties of the baguette. I fixed this lamb chop dish that ends up with a nice sauce perfect for soppin’.
Overall Impressions:
This was really not as hard as I thought it would be. The high amount of pre-ferment I think aids in the gluten development and lends a really good sweet flavor to the bread.
Would I make it again? Heck yeah.
I picked Nathan up from school the other day and he came out with a package of Skittles in hand. The boy loves his Skittles and they were open and being consumed in no time flat.
As we pulled away I suggested that he might want to save some to share with his sister. She has, after all, purchased whole bags of candy for him using the stickers she accumulates with good behavior in class. She is usually so excited to share things like that with him. So using my oh so gentle (NOT) techniques, I was urging him to save some to share with her.
But, no. He was more than willing to save some to share with Biscuit, but his sister? Nope. Not happening.
We went by home so that I could change clothes before picking Sarah up and I remembered that she had stashed a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the refrigerator recently. I pulled those out and explained to him that they were hers and that I was not going to make her share with him since he didn’t share with her.
He understood and off we went to pick her up from school.
She got in the car and I gave her a choice of treats between the Reese’s and some Ritz Bits crackers. Clearly the child is a genius since she chose the Reese’s.
As she opened them, she began to ask Nathan if he wanted one. I kind of interrupted her to tell her that she didn’t have to share and explained what happened earlier with the Skittles.
Can you tell I am the type of person that wants justice?
And you know what that little girl did? She went ahead and asked Nathan if he wanted one. And like a good child o’ mine he said, “Sure.” She handed it over and he thanked her and told her that she was kind.
In a rare moment of lucidness for me, I realized the teaching opportunity that I had at that moment.
“Sarah, you just showed a great amount of grace toward your brother. Nathan, do you realize that Sarah just showed grace to you? You didn’t deserve that Reese’s because you didn’t share with her, and yet she shared with you anyways. Just like we didn’t deserve what Jesus did for us. We didn’t deserve for him to come to earth to dwell among us and die on the cross for our sins. He knew we didn’t deserve it. But he did it anyways. Do y’all know why?”
And Sarah said, “Because he loves us. And I shared because I love Nathan and because he is my brother.”
“And that is grace. God giving us what we don’t deserve just like you giving Nathan that candy when he didn’t really deserve it.”
After a short pause, caused by chocolate and peanut butter consumption I’m sure, Sarah responded again saying, “You know what? His middle name should be Grace. Because he just shows us grace over and over all the time.”
Yes, dear one. And His middle name pretty much IS Grace because HE IS GRACE.
Grace over justice.
Oh the lessons we learn from our children.
~~~
Edited to add:
I linked this up for "Your Life Your Blog" at Real Life.
Last Friday, the entire 3rd grade at my daughter's school participated in their own Greek Olympics and Greek Feast to compliment their study of Greek history this year. They did the whole bit.
First was the opening ceremony and a parade around the school yard following a real Olympic Torch that was loaned to us by a parent who had carried it for one of the recent games.
The games were modified, but very similar to what they would have done in Greece. There was javelin (um, can you say "SCARY" with 3rd graders throwing a pointy stick), discus, long jump, and of course, the 'howeverlong' dash.
Yeah, it was hard to do in a toga, I imagine.
But the best part of the morning came after I had to leave to go to work. And that was the Greek Feast. Parents all brought different types of Greek food from pitas to baklava. One thing that I noticed was missing from the list was Greek Celebration Bread (or Artos) which I made a while back for my Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge. So, in typical Donna-style, I added it to the list and decided to make some.
And this is the reaction it brought.
I have added the recipe for Greek Celebration Bread over on my Recipe Blog. Enjoy!
Or I guess I should say...
OPA!
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