• Hide and seek…

    March 1, 2013 / 4 Comments

    When it’s cold and windy outside with a blanket of deep white covering the ground, one must be creative…especially when playing with grandchildren inside.  One must also have a very good sense of humor!  😉

    It is a challenge trying to win at “hide and seek” when Kiana (the Hungarian Vizla) is a dead-give-away!

    Me (whispering):   “Go away, Kiana!!!  I’m trying to hide!”

    Kiana:  Slurp.  Slurp.  Kiss.  Kiss.  “Aw, Grandmom, let me in here with you!”

      My eight year old granddaughter:  “Found you, Grandmom!  *laughter*  You’re too big to fit in the cathedral room (the tent under the table…evidently, the sun shines through the different colors of blankets and looks like stained glass)!  Your bottom sticks out!” 

    At this point, my daughter and I cracked up in laughter!

    Actually, I think it was Kiana’s bottom that was sticking out from the tent!  😉

     

  • The prayers of a four year old…

    February 28, 2013 / 6 Comments

    At my daughter’s house before each meal, they hold hands and each person prays.  If you have never heard the prayers of a four year old, you have missed an amazing moment.  They are so totally real.  Completely open and honest.  There is no “filter” in the mind of a four year old – the filter that you and I have developed over the years.  So, he tells God just how he feels and what he thinks.  He asks for something in the simplest language possible.  I confess sometimes it is hard not to break out in the joy of laughter.  I don’t though.  I just sneek a peek at this precious child and my daughter trying not to laugh, squeeze my daughter’s hand and we both fight it.

    Our Heavenly Father must love it when a child prays, and I promise you that a child has His undivided attention.  I can also promise you that God has a sense of humor.  Don’t doubt it for a moment!

    Just a few excerpts from the prayers of my precious four year old grandson:

    Dear Lord (Lord sounds very Southern here – like Law-ward – I love it),

    Thank you so much for today.

    I got to go to school today.  I was the star.  I brought snacks.

    We couldn’t play on the playground because there was too much snow!

    Thank you for swim lessons and that my swim lessons went well.  (He has heard the expression about something “going well” from his older siblings.)

    Thank you that no one crashed in the race today (Daytona)!

    Please help my lego league to go well.  (His big brother and sister are in the lego league but he thinks he is too.)

    Thank you for the football game on television where you go up and down with the ball.

    Thank you for my mommy, daddy, sisters, brother and my grandmommy (and then he goes on to thank God for each one of our birthdays individually!)

    Thank you that grandmommy got to come over to play with me today.

    Please let Kiana (the dog) feel better soon.

    Please let me stay in this group.  (He meant family, of course, and that one just about broke everybody up!  I think he probably heard the word “group” at preschool).

    The photo above was taken over three years ago on the night they arrived home from Ethiopia with my grandson.  They were instructed by the adoption agency that for the first few weeks, only his Mom and Dad were to hold him to promote bonding.  So, as soon as he would fall asleep, my daughter would hand him to me.  I’d talk softly to him as he slept.  We were bonding even though he was asleep!  Now, of course, we are totally bonded.  He loves his Grandmommy and I love him…

  • Snowy day scones…

    February 26, 2013 / 8 Comments

    It has snowed all day long…a beautiful blanket of white.  My daughter, who is accustomed to driving in this after almost 15 years in Iowa, said that it was icy and treacherous driving and admonished me to stay home!  I did.

    I put on a CD by Norah Jones and headed to the kitchen – something that I rarely do now for the purpose of “cooking for one”.  Obviously, I need to get over that and cook for myself.  I must get over it.  I’m working on it.

    There were two fresh juicy lemons in the fruit bowl, and I decided to make my favorite lemon raisin Scottish scones.  Scotland…  I’ve held on to a small account for years that I’ve called my “U.K. account”.  I haven’t used it to travel yet and hope I don’t have to use it for my “old age”.  I picture myself in England or Ireland or Wales…but, most especially, I picture myself in Scotland enjoying tea and scones in a quaint little tea shoppe.  I have a vivid imagination.

     

     

     When the scones came out of the oven, I glazed them with the juice of one-half lemon and enough powdered sugar for the right consistency.  Then I enjoyed a delicious warm scone with a cup of Constant Comment tea and watched the snow fall…

    Dianne’s Raisin Lemon Scones

    2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

    3/4 cup sugar

    4 teaspoons baking powder

    pinch of salt

    6 tablespoons butter

    1 cup raisins

    1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

    2 beaten eggs

    1 teaspoon lemon extract or lemon juice

    zest of one fresh, washed lemon

    Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet or stoneware pan with cooking spray.

    Whisk together dry ingredients + lemon zest.  Cut the butter in gently until mixture resembles “crumbs”.  Combine the yogurt and beaten eggs and add to ingredients.  Add the raisins.  You may need to add 2 – 3 tablespoons of milk to make it a dough you can work with.  Gently work the dough adding a little flour if needed.  Form a circle and pat it down on your stoneware pan or cookie sheet.  Use a pizza cutter to score the dough.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 – 15 minutes (depending on oven) or until golden.  Glaze the scones while still warm.  Enjoy!

  • A promise of Spring…

    February 25, 2013 / 4 Comments

    There may be snow on the ground – and evidently more in the forecast – but there is a promise of Spring on my table, a sweet gift from my precious daughter.   These are Long Life tulips from Bloomaker.  They will be a gorgeous shade of pink and I am looking forward to seeing them bloom!

    My daughter purchased one for me and one for herself as she, too, looks forward to Spring and planting all 32 varieties of vegetables and herbs that she has ordered!  Her plans are to rent two large gardening plots in a local gardening co-op.  My beautiful, artistic, athletic daughter has turned into a homesteading, cooking-everything-from-scratch goumet cook!  She would love a farm on ten acres or more!  Maybe that will be in the not too distant future.

    In the meantime, we’ll watch our tulips grow and wait for Spring in the midst of an Iowa Winter…

  • Cooking lessons…

    February 17, 2013 / 18 Comments

    On Thursday, my eight year old granddaughter came over to spend the day and enjoy her very first “sleepover” at Grandmom’s apartment.  We had such fun!  First of all, she learned to bake a chocolate chess pie – with her doing most of it!  (We enjoyed a couple of slices of it and took the remainder of it home the next day for her to share with everyone).

     

     

    She came bearing all sorts of toys for us to enjoy – especially her little Polly dolls.  We used my decorator boxes for their homes and let our imaginations create a story for them.

    It was Valentine’s Day, so she wanted to surprise my neighbors (even a few I don’t know ;-)) with special Valentines we created!  She brings joy to her world that’s for sure and the Valentines were a hit.

    We popped popcorn and watched the movie Sarah, Plain and Tall (which is actually based on a children’s book) starring Glenn Close.  When it was her bedtime, she was so tired I think she was asleep a minute after her head hit the pillow in the big guestroom bed!

     

     

    The next morning, we watched part of Anne of Green Gables and then we got ready to return her home for her morning school work!

    On Saturday, my daughter, my thirteen-year-old granddaughter and my two grandsons came over.  (My eight-year-old granddaughter and her dad had driven to Iowa City for the long day of a USA swim meet in her age group).  While my oldest grandson stayed at my apartment to study, the rest of us headed out for a couple hours of “shopping”.  First, it was to Michael’s for a few art supplies and soft, wonderful yarn for a new baby blanket.

    Then my granddaughter and I headed to the pet store a few stores down the walkway.  After enjoying a visit with the pets in the Animal Rescue League section of the store (my granddaughter wants to be a vet when she grows up), we joined my daughter and little grandson in the department store next to Michael’s.

    After lunch, my daughter and two grandsons returned home while my granddaughter stayed to spend the day with me and enjoy her cooking lesson!  With very little help from me, she made a cherry latticed pie.  We snacked on a couple of slices that afternoon then took the rest home with her to share.  It was delicious!

     

     

    She is very artistic and we enjoyed drawing together.  We used her new watercolor pencils and turned our drawings into a watercolor with just a few strokes of water…that was fun!  All too soon, it was time to return her home and I stayed for a delicious dinner of lasagna, french bread and cherry pie!

     

    I will look forward to more cooking lessons in the future.  Maybe next time, we will try some Southern homemade fried apple and peach pies…

  • The books on my bedside table…

    February 13, 2013 / 10 Comments

    If you have followed my blogs for a while, then you know that I love to read.  Granted, these days I do watch more television than I have in the past, but I still read a lot too.  My television viewing consists mostly of FBI mysteries (Criminal Minds, Cold Case Files and Law & Order:  Criminal Intent).  I’m a big fan of Vincent D’Onofrio.  At one point in my life, I looked into the FBI (seriously), only to discover that I was too old!  Stop laughing.  My daughter said just last week that I should have been a detective.  I’m really good at solving mysteries.

    My bedside table always has a stack of books.  Always.  In the past, that stack of books often included cookbooks.  (My daughter’s does now.)  Not anymore.

    In the photo above, you’ll see just a few of my favorite authors represented:  Karen White, Irene Hannon, Karen Harper, Mindy Starns Clark and Randy Singer.  Usually when I find an author that I really like, I read everything he or she has written.  I’m seldom disappointed.

    When I finish my stack of books, I check out my personal library for something I have yet to read or head to the local library.  All the libraries here are excellent and I have a card for each one!

    My living room “library”…

    Resting on the books on my bedside table in the top photo, you will see my little bluebird of happiness…an adorable McCarty pottery bluebird and a precious gift from my late sister, Gerry.  It’s one of my treasures.