Sunshine (in a jar)

At least once a year it is my goal to put something homemade here on Hilyology.  Homemade and cheery is even better!  Since I've been writing a lot about trials, I hope it is a welcome break from the usual downer as of late here in my little corner of the web. 

The title of this post is a little ironic because untypically of the Arizona weather, today's desert sky is rather dark, gloomy, cloudy, dreary and ominious. I'm loving it!  Saying that, I still need some cheering up and here's something yellow, bright and zesty. 

I've been meaning to share this with my friend Lyndsay for about a month so figured I'd go ahead and make it into a post and share it with everyone else too.  

What is it, you may be asking?  

It is lemon curd. 

Yum

What is lemon curd???  "It sounds disgusting," my American friends may be saying to themselves.  Quite the contrary.  It's a delicious discovery I made while living in England.  It's healthy treat and my kids love it; basically it's an alternative to a jam or jelly. 

You can spread it on toast, put it on shortbread cookies or spread it on warm scones alongside a nice cup o' herbal tea.  You can also use it in pies/tarts or in between layers of a sponge cake. It's super easy to make and au natural, much better for you than the stuff at the stores filled with chemicals and preservatives!

I'm going to make some today and maybe jar some up to give out as homemade Christmas gifts. 

Here's the recipe:

Traditional British Lemon Curd

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into bits

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan.

Stir in butter and cook over moderately low to low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and the first bubble appears on surface, about 6 minutes.

Strain.

Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 1 hour.

Pour while warm into warmed jars and the lid should vacuum seal itself. 
Once opened can be stored chilled for up to one week.

Enjoy....hope it adds a spot of sunshine to a cold December day for you (unless you live in Australia where it's toasty as I type this)!  If you make any, let me know if you like it!

Thanksgiving....

It came and went like a flash but I hope all of you (American or not) had a beautiful Thanksgiving.  I love having a day where we can reflect on our blessings, even during times of strife there are things to be grateful for.  The most basic things in life are the things that bind those of us spread all over the world to one another.....love, friendship, family, good health and humanity.  This year my daughter Ramey prepared our turkey.  She was so proud of herself and I was in awe of how quickly she is growing into a young woman right before my eyes.  She has a real talent for cooking, as the smile on her face shows.  She also has a real talent for helping me, and as a delicious as her turkey was, her loving ways are worth more to me than any feast. 

  Ramey and her bird

Miss you Tingles....

Another long absence, my apologies!  It's hard to believe time has gone so swiftly since my last hello.  As usual I honestly do have a good reason for not writing (I've missed it)!  Since late September it seems like the floodgates opened and life decided to throw me one challenge after another.  But with rain comes growth, so I am remembering to love every moment of this life even when it's not a bed of roses.

The biggest trial?

My Grandma Tingles passing away. 

Her name was Geneva, like the Swiss capital.  But she was known as Tingles, her family nickname.  When she was a child, she adored playing with Dolly Dingles dolls but couldn't say her "d's" when she was very small so she called them "Tingles".  Her mother found it endearing and so did everyone else the rest of her life.

My grandma was really like a mother to me so losing her has made me feel for the first time like I am kind of all alone in this big world.  Missing her is an understatment.

I named my firstborn daughter Ramey after my grandmother's maternal line (as a nod to her French/Scotch-Irish lineage). 

We had many similarities and many differences...I always wished I was more like her.  She was fiesty, gutsy, opinionated and adventurous (all things I lack).  But she also was full of warmth, extremely generous and always put others before herself.  Every time I took a friend up to her farm to visit she would find a gift to present them with.

With her passing, she has passed a torch of love and generosity to me.  I will do my best to carry on some of her ways throughout the rest of my life.  It's the best way we can honor those that we love, by doing the things that they cannot do anymore.  For me that will mean baking cookies with my kids in her kitchen, donating clothes rather than selling them on Ebay, sending a Texas pecan pie to her last remaining sister (my great aunt) at Thanksgiving time, saving money and sending a Christmas honey baked ham to the man who bought her health food store (Ginny's Vitamin Village in Wickenburg) from her but whom lovingly kept the store's name the same in her honor.  These are all the things that she'd expect me to carry on for her.   

I just wanted to honor her here on my family blog since she was a huge part of person I am and an even bigger inspiration for the person I want to become. 

I have alredy felt her spirit around me and know she has been reunited with her mother, father and all her siblings up in above.  I bet they'll be having a heavenly version of a big ol' Texas BBQ. 

I am grateful for my belief of eternity and families being forever.  Here's to a life very well lived.  I miss and love you, Grandma.

As an 18 year old just out of high school in her first job i.d. (she was a telephone operator)

As a young wife in Phoenix, later in the 1940's

With my daughter Lily, her great-grandbaby who inherited her beautiful eyes on 1 Oct 2009 (about a month before passing away)

Quickly...

This has definitely been one of those weeks...I am still sick and pretty much in my famous zombie mode today.  But I still have a thought in my head and wanted to share it.

There is a popular quote floating around that I have seen so many times as of late that it's now permanently marked in the forefront of my mind. 

It is:

"Come what may...and love it." - Joseph B. Wirthlin (attributed to his mother)

That seems very fitting to my life right now and really is something I'm going to apply to the rest of my days.  No matter what comes, or what may lurk around the corner, whether it be good or bad, I am going to love it.

Just wanted to share another reminder to love this life for what it is even when it's not the way we would have ideally have it.  

I hope you are having a good day wherever you are reading from...go out and enjoy your little corner of the world!  I plan to do just that (as soon as I get better anyway)!  

:-)
 

"Ancient" Wisdom and Beauty

It's the Sabbath day today and as such, I'm reflecting (of course lately when am I not reflecting?)!  Last night after another long day of feeling like a truck hit me from this cold virus, we decided to just pick up Chinese food for dinner from Shangri-La (not the mythical place of legand and lore, but the restaurant).

Shangri-La is in my old neighborhood.  I drove past my high school on the way to pick it up and I was immediately taken back to my first year of high school at age 16.  I was probably what one would have called a walking contradiction back then. 

As a teenager, most of the time I looked totally opposite as to what I felt inside.  I dressed in black, a lot of it, and wore Doc Marten boots.  If people didn't know me I am certain they thought I was a depressed, suicidal teen.  I wasn't....I just really liked the style and the music that went along with it.  Flash forward to my senior year and I had relaxed a bit...I morphed more into the "granola" look which was probably a more natural fit for a girl who hails from California who would rather live on the beach and be barefoot all the time.  I haven't changed much since then.  That was June of 1994 (yes, part of me refuses to grow up). 

I got stuck back in the mid 1990's for a while until we got home and sat down to eat.  I should say I tried to eat but wasn't all that hungry since I cannot smell anything for the life of me which kills my appetite (not that it'll hurt me to skip a meal).  After dinner, Mimi and I went for the fortune cookies (which she loves to just smash to death and throw away...the other kids tried to eat the crumbs).  I found it interesting that the fortune that I got in my fortune cookie ended up reading the following:

"The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances."

After I read that I had to laugh to myself about the time I had just spent remembering all those high school insecurities.  I started thinking about what looks and appearances actually mean.  Are they important?  Sure.  Would I like to look better at times?  Of course.  But does how I look make me who I am or make you who you are?  I spent so much time in high school wondering what people thought of me based on what I wore or how skinny I was, or wasn't.  Even today, as a mom at age 33 I have a lot of those same insecurities.  I have many girls who are my friends and who are in my family who I think of as supermodels (in fact, one actually is a supermodel)!  But to me, what makes them beautiful is how loving they are, how much they care about me and are there for me. 

I stopped and wondered why I can judge these girls on their outer beauty as well as their inner beauty but when it comes to myself, I only look at what is outside.  I was reading Nie Nie Dialogues the other day and it dawned on me what real beauty is.  It's so much more than skin deep, it is what radiates from one's soul. 

When you got married, did you ever ask yourself if your spouse would still adore you if in an accident and didn't "look" like the person they were marrying?  I neglected to spend a lot of time on that before I got married.  More importantly than would your spouse still love you if your looks were gone may be the question of would you be able to see yourself as beautiful even without looks or fashion, or money to support it?  

For my children, nothing is more important to me than developing their spirits.  I want my girls to know that while beauty is fun and plays a role, it's not what should be the source of their happiness.  For my son, I want him to learn that when he chooses a wife, to think about the kind of mother she will make, not just what he and his friends think about her looks.  While I teach them these things I need to try to remind myself to practice what I preach. 

Sunday's are so good for this kind of thing don't you think?  Praying and pondering is good for the soul.  I feel that it's only when the beauty inside matches or surpasses the beauty on the outside that one feels whole.  I have a long way to go, but by the time I'm 35 I want to actually believe that my spirit is beautiful from within, regardless of how I look on the outside.  

Anyone else with me? 

Breathe

I'm trying to keep breathing in all sorts of ways.  Both literally and figuratively....but the topic I'll focus on here is in the literal sense of the meaning.

All of this week I've been sick with a horrible cold and respiratory virus- so have the kids. I can barely breath...my chest is tight and my nose is completely clogged. Right now I'm very drowsy on my various cold medicines and they (the kids) get out of school early today so I'm trying to keep myself from falling asleep.  Writing always does the trick to help keep me awake so thought I'd just write down some various thoughts I've been having this morning. 

I've been thinking about the minor miracles of life the past few days.  One of which is over-the-counter medicine, especially fever reducers.  Mimi woke up with a high fever of nearly 103 the other night and I myself have been running just as hot.  Without this medication we would not be able to cope. I cannot say that my sinus medication, cough suppresant or anything else has worked, but the fever reducer has.  Thank goodness! 

The tought about modern day medicines led me to think about mothers of days gone by and how they must have felt when their children were ill like this- without anything to help them other than prayer and the passage of time.  I think of the mothers on The Mayflower who must have been beside themselves as their small children grew ill aboard the boat for months on end.  And all the Pioneer mothers who trekked from the east to the western side of the U.S. who had to take their small children with them- often times losing them to illness.  These women must have experienced such worry and heartache.  I am so grateful that when my babies wake up sick, I can just reach for a bottle of children's Tylenol. 

Small miracles....something to be grateful for indeed.  Here's to a healthy flu season for all (I'm hoping we are getting it out of the way early and will not experience it again until next year)!  
:-)

Journeys

The past month or so has been full of unexpected gifts, and as usual trials. Namely my beloved grandmother has taken a turn for the worst and will likely leave this world soon for the next one. I thought it would already happen, but we've been blessed with the gift of extra time.

The only comfort that I have concerning the situation is that I believe I will be with her again someday, in addition to the rest of my family. In my heart I believe families are forever.

The thing that scares me is that following her passing, I know my own life will change on many levels, some of which are probably unfathomable right now.

I found a quote today that I thought could apply to her journey along her way and my journey that I will have to take without her when she leaves me behind.

"One's destination is neer a place but rather a new way of looking at things." - Henry Miller

I know that when she's gone, she really won't be. I'll just have to look at it differently as in she will physically just not be here. And as for me and where I end up....that will take a new way of looking at things as well. I just hope I can continue to make her proud even from the great beyond.

Remember to hug your loved ones, life is always too short, even when you make it to your mid 80's.