Two life lessons

Two things my mother taught me that I'm still learning and I hope to eventually get.

1. Life's not about you. It's about what you can do for others.

2. Life = work. All good things will require hard work. You will mainly work in life. Play and relaxation that require no work what-so-ever are rare occurrences that need to be treated as such.

Of course, I could expound on these and list all kinds of scripture references that would further prove their accuracy, but I'm going to k.i.s.s. (keep it simple, stupid), in hopes that it will be easier for me to learn.

Food = fond memories

This, of course, is our first Christmas without Mom and it's been an interesting time. We're dealing with the ups and downs of grief and figuring out communication and responsibility distribution along with the extra hullabaloo that Christmas brings. We've still had fun with the holiday, but it does bring up memories and it's been difficult with such a huge, obvious vacancy in the family and preparations.

Anyways, while trying to plan some of our plans.... :-) I thought it might be nice to make the breakfast casserole that she would often cook for Christmas breakfast. I'm sure there's a million other recipes out there like it and it's not that uncommon of a dish (it's pretty much a glorified egg bake), but this casserole was delicious and pretty much a Christmas tradition. So, after checking to see that there weren't any other breakfast plans that I would be disturbing if I made this, I determined to find the recipe and have it for tomorrow's breakfast! Well... I didn't realize exactly how well loved the cookbook that contained the recipe was until I finally located it and had to pull it out of the cupboard in sections. It had once been a very nice spiral-bound book, but after much use the binding had broken, reducing it into a bunch of loose pages of which now some were missing. Including most of the index. :-p Well, I was determined. So I spread the pages across the table, sorted them into numerical order, and started flipping through them one by one by one...... Hmmmhmmmhmmmm.......... And eventually found it!!! I was so happy I had to share it. :-) Well, I also put it in a document for easier access in the future, so it was easy to put up on my blog.

So, with no further ado, here is the breakfast casserole made famous by Jeanne Hazleton (and submitted to the cookbook by a Martha from Muskogee, Oklahoma) :-)

1 lb sausage
8 slices bread, cubed
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (we occasionally omitted these)
3/4 cup half and half
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard
5 eggs, slightly beaten
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown sausage in skillet, stirring until crumbly; drain. Sprinkle bread cubes in an oiled 9x13-inch baking pan. Layer sausage, cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, and mushrooms over bread. Combine half and half, milk, eggs, salt and pepper in bowl; mix well. Pour over layers. Chill overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes or until set.
Yeild: 15 servings

Works very well to prepare Christmas Eve then throw in the oven before stockings on Christmas morning (we usually do stockings, breakfast and cleanup, the presants). It makes an easy, filling, warm breakfast with practically no prep on the actual day.

Guess I'm too old

What can I say, I just don't get chat and text lingo!!!!!

*To assist any readers that are over the age of 25, I've included the full meanings.
l0l (laughing out loud) - What happened to "haha", "that's funny"..... besides, how many people are actually laughing out loud when they type that. They're usually silently chuckling! Liars!
rofl (rolling on the floor laughing) - Ooooh, let's expound on lol!
brb (be right back) - I was informed that it's practically a common verb!!
nm (never mind) - It probably takes me a full minute to realize it's not a typo.
np (no problem) - I always think it's supposed to be "no".
whatev - So, now we're so lazy we can't even say "er".

There's of course a gazillion more, these are just the most common ones I run into. I just don't understand why it's necessary to shorten our words that much in an effort to speed up our conversations. What happened to good old-fashioned letters! (My sister will be rolling her eyes and groaning at this point.) There is hope for me yet, though. I've slowly been adapting to these rapidly changing times and have actually started recognizing these "words" when the pop up. I've even used a few in their proper context! Now if I could actually write a text in less than five minutes. Oh well, baby steps.

Wise words

I found this little instructional years ago (I've no idea where) and thought this was one of the best things ever. Sarah just now unearthed it while she was digging through piano music that we haven't touched in probably ten years. Reading over it again, I found a few truths missing, but on the whole, it's a pretty cute, accurate little verse.

Preserving A Husband

Be very careful in your selection. Do not choose one too young and take only such varieties as have been raised in a good moral atmosphere. When decided upon and selected, let that part remain forever settled, then give your entire attention to preparation for domestic use. Some wives insist on keeping them in a pickle, while others are constantly getting them in hot water; but this only makes them sour and hard and sometimes bitter. Even poor varieties may be made tender and sweet and good by garnishing them with patience, well sweetened with smiles, and flavored with kisses to taste; then wrap in a mantle of charity, keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream. When they are prepared this way, they will keep for years and improve with age.
Author Unknown

Recent highlights...

So many fun things have occurred within the last week and there's really no way to do them justice in a blog post (you probably wouldn't want to read it all either). So, I will attempt to condense them into a few sentences each and give you a quick overview on the recent happy happenings in my life. :-) (FYI, these are not in chronological order)

~ SNOW!!!!!!!!!! Ice, dangerous roads, school closures, power outages, not enough snow gear, but lots of pretty white fluff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ We got our Christmas tree! It triggered many bittersweet memories of similar outings of past years and it was rather rainy which led to having to cover the cameras that were brought along. But, a lovely tree was picked out rather quickly. It was adventurously packed into the back end of the van (we opted to give this method a go before trying to tie it onto the very high roof of afore mentioned vehicle).... fortunately, it was a pretty flexible tree, didn't break, and was only slightly bent when we unloaded it at home. It now stands straight and tall in our living room looking very festive.

~ I learned how to "install" chains! We decided to be adventurous and actually drive in these icy conditions, but I didn't want to drive far without the extra safety of chains. In a very small effort to be a semi-sufficient woman, I opted to go to Les Schwab and have them install them for me. The logic here: a) it would be faster to have an "expert" do it. b) I could look on and learn how it was done. And c) it would relieve my father of one more time-taking, help-your-helpless-daughter task (He takes such good care of me! I often wake up to my car completely scraped off and ready to go on winter days. I really didn't want to ask him to do one more thing.) After pulling up in Les Schwab, waiting in line for ten minutes, only to discover that it would cost $11 and there'd be a 2 1/2 hour wait !!!!! , I decided to try and to it myself. Well, my 15 year old sister had watched a video on how to install them in drivers ed and was willing to help, so it was a joint effort. We found a large, empty spot in the Winco parking lot, fumbled through the tangled mess and not-so-clear directions, and (after miserably getting onto our knees in the snow, covering our mittens in rust, and trying to read the directions through the hair that would never blow away from my face) we got them on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have now been very securely in place for three days and lent to much safe transportation to and from various events. Sarah and I are two very proud woman. :-)

~ We had a snow day! The entire chain dilemma can be blamed on a few friends that had the gumption to invite us over for snow fun and lunch. ;-) I won't go into all the details, but we decided to brave Highland in order to get to their house (they were really desperate for social interactions, so we risked the treacherous journey for their sake). We got there with no issues (thanks to the chains) and enjoyed several hours of playing in the snow, eating a really yummy, warm lunch, Taboo, and many, many laughs. It was incredibly fun and in an absolutely gorgeous setting (log house in the woods. Oh yeah).

~ We had a power outage! Woohoo! It was just long enough to get us worried and just short enough to be fun (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours). It flicked off in the evening, putting our cheerily lit street into utter darkness. Daniel went around the house trying each light switch saying "Oh no! Won't work!" He was terribly worried. We filled the house with candles, were very relieved that we have a wood stove, took a silly, slippery walk to scope out the extent of the outage, got ready for bed, and it came back on.


Well, that was a lot longer than I intended it to be. So much for condensing. Oh well.
Merry Christmas!

To share or not to share....

Last Sunday I (along with a few of my family members) attended a "Dealing with loss over the Holidays" class. Oh joy. I actually did want to attend and was interested in seeing how helpful it would be, but the minute we pulled up, I wanted to turn around and go home. My skepticism and apprehension flew through the roof when, the minute we were out of the van, we were greeted by the "welcoming committee" who cheerily informed us which building the class was in, that there were goodies awaiting, and that he was very glad we came. A sentiment I certainly didn't return. (No I wasn't rude, I just didn't share his cheeriness.) When we actually entered the house, we were greeted by smiling, organized sign-up tables and name tags (two things I rather dislike). After signing up and leaving every check box blank, to ensure I didn't receive any newsletters, I scooted over to the most inviting looking thing in the room: brownies and coffee. While loading myself up, and discreetly surveying the territory, two friends of the familys, caught my eye and we exchanged pleasant how-do-you-do's. Oddly enough, seeing them there (along with two other friends I saw while signing up) was somehow comforting and helped me feel more at ease. Maybe it's because there's strength in numbers, or perhaps it's just because misery loves company. Either way, it reminded me that we were certainly not alone in all this and we're not the only ones who may have a cruddy Christmas.

Feeling not quite as annoyed with the whole setup, I made my way over to our seats and settled in for the introduction and "educational" movie. In the introduction we were informed that there were tissue boxes scattered throughout the rows of chairs, and that we would be watching the movie, then breaking up into small sharing groups. "Okay," I thought, "I can do this. Watch the video, take notes, then go sit with a group and sip my coffee instead of opening up. There's absolutely no way I'm sharing with a bunch of strangers." And so was the attitude I entered into the the evening with.

The movie was terrible. Almost entertaining in it's impersonal, superficial, instructional manner. Well, I'm generalizing. The testimonials were informative, sometimes humorous, and encouraging. The host and hostess of the movie were horrible. So sad. At that point I was wondering if the share time might be the easy part. The movie finally finished and we were told to break out into small groups. Now we had to choose which group we wanted to get stuck with. Fortunately, two female friends of ours went to one group, so, to evade as much awkwardness as possible, we joined that group. As everyone was getting settled in, the "leader" started going around and moving people to different groups to even them out. Because a few of us wanted to stay together, our group ended up being just us Hazletons and our friends. The facilitator was a stranger to all four of us, but it was comforting being at least acquaintances with the other ladies.

Then started the questions. You're not supposed to feel pressured to share, and you can remain silent the whole time if you so desire, but such was not the case. We basically went around the circle with each question, "allowing" everyone a chance to share they're answer. A very awkward silence, accompanied by anticipating stares, would great you after each question. My resolve to be silent didn't quite work out. In fact, I practically did the opposite. Perhaps it was the slight familiarity with the other ladies, or the opportunity to talk without being interrupted, or the assurance of confidentiality for the evening. Or an intoxicating mix of all three. Whatever the reason, the result was an adequate, heartfelt answer to every question put to the group. I was a bit shocked. Also encouraged. I was able to let off a little steam, learn a bit from the other ladies (including the facilitator), and my own issues were put in perspective (some shouldn't have been as huge, others were justified).

To wrap this up before it becomes a three volume fiction novel, I'll just say that I was encouraged with how the evening went after I let go of my prejudices and decided to make the best of it. Yes, it was still rather lame at parts and I don't recommend it for everyone. But I gleaned some out of it (for instance: the first year is sometimes the easiest, it's often the next few that are the most painful). It helped springboard some discussions at home. It also helped us make sure we were all on the same page. Could I have managed just fine without it, probably. But, again, I learned a bit from it and I believe the things I did hear will help me cope through the next several Christmases and holidays as well, as the one that's just around the corner. All in all, I'm glad I went, if for no other reason, to be a support for my family that also attended and enforce that fact that we are a family, we're in this together, and we're going to support each other through this, as long as we're all here.

And that's that.

Merry Christmas!

My latest "new thing"

Popcorn Cake!
It sounds bizarre, but after watching it being made by Emeril himself on Good Morning America (who knew it would get such recognition), I realized it was really just a popcorn version of my one of my favorite treats, Rice Crispy Treats. Yum!
Of course, it's probably one of those things that I happen to stumble upon and think is great, novel, and exciting, only to discover everybody knows about it and I must have been in a cave for the last 80 years to not know about it. :-) Either way, I thought it was fun, it's super easy to make, and gets a 9 for display/looks in my book.

Popcorn Cake
Ingredients
2 teaspoons plus 1/4 cup vegetable oil
12 cups popped popcorn (plain, unsalted and unbuttered)
2 cups M & M candies *I used Christmas M&M's to make it more festive. It looked really cute with the white, red, and green*
1 cup lightly salted cocktail peanuts
1 stick unsalted butter
1 pound marshmallows

Directions
Grease a large tube or bundt cake pan with 2 teaspoons of the oil, and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the popped corn with the M & M candies and the peanuts. *Actually, don't mix in the M&M's yet, first mix the popcorn and the marshallow mixture most of the way, then add the M&Ms and finish combining. Otherwise the chocolate will get soft and they'll break and smear throughout the cake*
In a small saucepan, melt the butter, remaining 1/4 cup of oil, and marshmallows over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When melted, pour over the popcorn mixture, and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared cake pan, pressing down to fit. Cover with aluminum foil to keep moist and let rest until firm, 3 to 4 hours.
To serve, invert the cake pan onto a large cake plate or platter. Shake gently to release. Serve at room temperature.

Wild thing, nah nah na nah nah!

Yes, that is me. :-) Our church's youth group did a high school girls overnighter and one of the activities was for six of us leaders to put on disguises and "hide" in stores at the Timberhill shopping center and make the girls find us. I'd decided to do a mild, punk rocker look, but when I actually went to Special Occasions to get a wig, I couldn't decide between two. So, I went ahead and bought both (at $15 each, it wasn't a fortune to put down for some fun). My outfit (mostly pictured above) consisted of a "Vote for Pedro" shirt, my sisters black Converse shoes, navy pants -with my key chain hanging off the pocket, large watch and other colorful wrist accessories, teal nail polish, dark eyeliner, and the black wig pulled into a loose side ponytail with a black newsboy cap. I don't actually have a photo of that whole get up. Ah well. But, after the game was over, we returned to the church and I figured there was no reason why we couldn't get use out of both wigs in one night/event. So I switched to the pink one, and my friend, Joni, put on the black wig (that had actually come as an Ugly Betty wig, complete with glasses and fake braces, but the braces were unusable). Some of the girls didn't even recognize Joni with the whole get up. It was incredibly fun and we played it up for the camera and laughs. It was such a hit that a few of the leaders decided we had to wear them again for the whole youth group, with outfits to play them up. :-) So far, it's a go and we're going to do it. Soon. I'm sure I'l be letting you know how it goes.

I'm having second thoughts about my natural hair color now, though. What do you think, should I switch to pink???

\m/ >.< \m/

A Martha Stewart Thanksgiving

A little ways back, I put in my facebook status that I was finding inspiration for my Thanksgiving brunch from marthastewart.com. It became a bit of a joke between me and a few of my friends. While I do not support everything Martha does, I do (unfortunately) think she has some good ideas and I did get just what I wanted from her site.

Thanksgiving was a bit interesting (and we were very apprehensive about how it would go over) this year. It took awhile to figure out what we wanted to do and even longer to actually plan on what we would do. We ended up settling on a brunch with Nicole and Christopher (as they were invited to their "other" family's for dinner), hang out at home, then do a family dinner. I took charge of the brunch and Dad handled the dinner (as it involved the turkey which is a more manly dish he's always enjoyed preparing). I honestly didn't have the slightest idea what to expect from myself (or any of us) emotionally or physically. Even though she did a very good job training us kids in the ways of the kitchen and even very much involved us in cooking holiday meals, Mom always headed up and planned everything. We would lend creativity, ideas, and help where needed or directed. Because we now had to figure out who was doing what and what we wanted to do all over again, we all pretty much set our expectations to zero so that whatever we did, there would be no disappointment. We also allowed ourselves lots of leeway and flexibility to do whatever activities we wanted (a.k.a. we didn't plan anything) so if someone needed to crash, they could crash, and if someone wanted to party like it was their birthday, they could crash. ;-) Just kidding.

Anyways, I think we all ended up pleasantly surprised with how well the day went. Instead of becoming a basket case every time I went into the kitchen, like I was expecting, I had a very convenient and long burst of enthusiasm and energy and was able to turn out a really nice brunch (with help!!!! Dad was an angel in the kitchen and did all my dishes!) It was so fun. The menu I had chosen was filled with all kinds of fancy sounding dishes, but it ended up coming together very quickly and easily, and, with the additions that Nicole and Christopher assisted with -hot cider, grapes, and fruit salad- we were blessed with a very large, very delicious spread!

*Quick note: The point of all this is in no way to brag or show off! I was very encouraged by the fact that we were able to have such an enjoyable Thanksgiving and I just wanted to share that with you. If I'm coming across as a show off, give me a good smack next time you see me. ;-)

Sarah took some photos of the day, and while most are goofy ones of tired looking people relaxing in their home which I'm not going to share with you, she got some good ones of spread in the morning which I put below. We didn't end up with much to show for the dinner as we were all tired and very full at that point and didn't have the energy to pull out the camera for more shots.
The dinner menu (which, again, was all Dad) consisted of:
The essential (and very tasty) Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce (which Nicole actually made for us)
Green Beans
Sparkling Cider (always a must)
Pumpkin Pie and whipped cream
Pumpkin Souffle

It was quite tasty.

(Those were some flowers I found at Fred's to help with the decor. I really liked them. :-))

The brunch menu was a bit more complex sounding:
Hot Cider (compliments of Nicole)
Coffee (mostly drunk by me)
Pomegranate-Orange Juice
Popovers - mini and regular (for fun and variation)
Cranberry Butter
Grapes
Fruit Salad (both also thanks to Nicole)
Broccoli Cheddar Quiches
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Sausage

The highlight of the menu, personally, was the pumpkin bread pudding. The pudding itself had absolutely nothing to do with pumpkin, but you actually hollowed out a pumpkin to bake the pudding in, so you end up with a really fun presentation! You can kind of see it in the picture below:


The individual set up:

The mini popovers. :-) They were as tasty as they were cute.

The bubbly.
It turned out to be a really fun, relaxing day. Maybe our Thanksgiving was a bit more Martha Stewart this year (which I really don't think it was), but who knows, maybe next year we'll go for a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feel.
:-)

Complaints and thanks ;-)

Since this is a private blog, if you're reading this, you know me well enough to know that my mom passed away on March 27th, and you've probably heard an earful or two about how I've/we've been since then.

First, I'd like to thank you for sticking around and listening when I do vent and try to figure out how to "move on" from here. A few of you have been through similar experiences, so you have a pretty first hand idea of what it's like. As you can I'm sure relate, it's difficult to know how much venting will help, who you can open up too, how much you should open up, what you need to keep quiet about and work though on your own, etc. etc. etc. And, even if you haven't lost a mother, everyone has been touched by some tragedy or hardship at one point or another -they've had to work through it, lean on God, trust Him- and they've used everything they learned through that experience to help me (and I'm sure others) grow through this. So, to all those who have listened, encouraged, prayed, help shuttle, played and laughed (terribly important!), been there to do whatever, whenever, ...THANK YOU! Thank you. Thank you! Thank you! :-) We've been blessed with many incredible friends and acquaintances and I'm so thankful for all of you!!!!

Now, no, I'm not a Pollyanna, and not everyone has been amazing.

*This is my complaint part. You've been warned. ;-)

People aren't perfect and everyone I know happens to be human (though, some still have me wondering). It seems there's always a certain balance of good and bad in life, and that is no less true with people. Sometimes people just don't get that you don't have any emotional energy to lavish on them and they continue to demand it. Some will grieve "with" you, when all they're really doing is grieving on you (I've had a woman literally cry on my shoulder. Not cool). Others seem to think that talking about how hard it's been for them to live without Mom will in some way console me. (Umm, yeah. If I'm having a hard time as her daughter, I'm not going to be able to listen to how hard a friend of hers has it. Totally different ballpark as far as grief goes. And, yes, the loss of mom has made me rather selfish on issues such as these, but I've also been told that that's to be expected and quite okay. I certainly hope it is.) It's not that I don't like to talk about Mom or have her talked about. We talk about her all the time. Sometimes with tears, sometimes with laughs, sometimes quite normally. And we usually don't mind hearing her talked up. ;-) There's just a very solid reason I'm occasionally see a counselor/friend to talk through things: so that my friends don't have to hear all my troubles! I sometimes wish that people would show the same sort of consideration to me and my family.

It's been an interesting time to get through.

All that said, I do feel blessed to be surrounded by so many good friends and thoughtful people. Einstein said "Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the first." While I very much agree with this saying, I think there should be one more thing on there: God's grace and love (okay, that's two). Every time I start to hit bottom, God always pulls through in some way, and it's usually through a friend or acquaintance. It's encouraging to witness how much he cares about us through His daily proof. Yes, it's been hard and I still wonder why it had to happen to her and in this time frame, but I know that it breaks His heart to see us grieve and He comforts us as much as He can and as we let Him. I'm very grateful for the comfort that He's sent my way. :-)