Larnelle Harris had a song some years ago entitled , “I Choose Joy”.

It had a really cute video that went with it, where he goes through his day, is hijacked, forced to run from the police and ends up in a car wreck and manages to smile (and sing) through this whole ordeal! 

My life hasn’t been that bad- but sometimes I feel like I’m being hijacked and forced to go and do things I don’t want to- and I very rarely smile or sing my way through the episode.  Mostly I grumble,  sometimes I shout ( and not for joy, either).  But I’ve decided I’m GOING to CHOOSE Joy even if it kills me.

Today I took some pictures of small joys in my day.

Like farm fresh brown eggs….

Christmas beverage napkins…..

An orange Rex Begonia given me by a friend….

An orange mirrored ball that hangs on my deck

and reflects the sunshine into my kitchen…….

Wind chimes that sound like tinkling water…..

And my sister who came over for toast, marmalade and tea!

I love my family.

Even when we disagree, it is fun.

There is a wry sense of humor and wit that underlies the “discussions” that culminate from our different points of view and understanding.

And there are so many areas that we are in perfect agreement that we can skip the other without too much of a fuss.

Anyway-here are some picture highlights from the past week that I wanted to share.  I hope you all had a wonderful family time- or a least a memorable time with friends and loved ones for the holiday.

My handsome sons collaborated on the Chincoteague Oysters we had for lunch on Thanksgiving day.  Luke brought the oysters and cleaned and prepared them.

At the last moment, I discovered we had no horseradish in the house, so Jordan was dispatched to pick up some essential items at the grocery store.

To my surprise, he brought back a root of horseradish and laid it on the table next to my plate.  Both Willow and I looked at it for a moment before it dawned on us what he had placed on the table.

What a wonderful treat!  I had never used fresh horseradish before- but I will never use anything else ever again!  I peeled it and cut it into chunks an put it into the food processor and ground it up.  DO NOT BREATHE DEEPLY whilst doing this.  Your sinuses may never recover from this experience.

Then I added white balsalmic vinegar to the ground horseradish and we put 1/4 tsp on each oyster  ( and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice) before slurping them down.  They were delicious.  AND  I now have a jar of freshly ground horseradish to play with in my fridge.  Anyone have recipes that include horseradish to share?

And then Friday morning we had snow.  And a photo shoot at Donzell’s Garden Center.

It was a great time spent with our children, I’m sorry Frank had to leave – but he had a chance to visit with his relatives and to pay respect to his older sister at her funeral.   This is the first time he’s been back to Canada in 10 years, so it was good that he went.

Tomorrow is his birthday- then on to Christmas in Chincoteague this year.

Time is fleeting, it is best spent with those we love doing things that bring us closer together and honor our Lord in the doing.

That is my goal for the rest of this year.

So many lessons can be learned from children. 

They are born learners and mimics.

Whenever my life gets confused and out of focus, I spend time with children and pay close attention.  They repeat everything over and over until they remember what they have said.  ( I try to do the same thing with new words or people’s names so that I can remember them.)

Children are also task oriented.  They will do repetitious  movements until they become automatic.  And they spend lots of time working with things hands-on.

Ally and Aiden and I went to Mansfield for a visit with Elizabeth today.

We had a great time talking and playing with Thomas the Train and enjoyed lunch. 

But when it was time to go, Aiden noticed Elizabeth’s sweater.

It has BIG buttons on it.

BIG BUTTONS!

And many of them were unbuttoned!

So, Aiden decided to help her with them.

He buttoned,

and buttoned,

AND Buttoned some more.

( He was getting very heavy and

Allyson  couldn’t hold him anymore.)

But that was all right with him,

Because he was real busy-

buttoning.

And we weren’t going anywhere until Aiden finished his task.

Buttoning Elizabeth up tight in that sweater!

I go through my days giving things a lick and a promise.  Not quite finishing up any of my chores, or rushing through them in a haphazard way- wandering from this task to the next.  And watching Aiden work so diligently at those buttons made me aware of my lack of diligence. 

And made me think of the jobs I need to do well.

Aidan and Willow and I had some Halloween fun already.  She made the wonderful banner in the picture above.  We copied the paper cut out pumpkin from the toymaker’s blog- Marilyn Scott-Waters is a generous and talented artist/illustrator who shares her paper toys on her blog.  I have her on my side bar, but you can find her here.  And I cut them out and put them onto the banner.

Later, Aidan and I carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds.

It was a pie pumpkin, so there wasn’t much room for a face- but we gave him eyes and a smile! Eye!

Smile.:)

And then I put a candle inside and lit it.  There were no small candles and it was a small pumpkin, so I put it in a bowl and added some space between the flame and the top.

Aidan liked the flame flickering inside.

But when Aidan went to sleep for the night, I cut the pumpkin into pieces and roasted him so that Willow could make pumpkin muffins from him.

It was after all- a cooking pumpkin- and we figured we could get double duty out of him.

But… no one asked Aidan if that was all right with him.  And it wasn’t.  He looked all over for that pumpkin the next day.  I showed him the pictures on my camera, but that wasn’t good enough.

We talked about how yummy the pumpkin muffins would be…

but he still kept walking about asking and looking, even calling for “Pumpa”.

So the next day, we used a bigger pumpkin and carved out a cat’s face.

And we promised not to cook him.

We soaked him in a mixture of bleach water and put him outside so he would keep better.  Hopefully he won’t wander off in the night!

I bought a tickle me Elmo for my husband several years ago!

Do you remember when they were all the rage for kids, and there were commercials on right before Christmas?

Every time he saw a commercial, he said “I want a tickle me Elmo!”  Later on he said that he was just kidding.  But he said it so often, that I bought him one for Christmas that year. 

The following year Aidan was born and so he justified having Elmo as a toy to share with his grandson. 

So far, our Aidan is not having anything to do with the battery operated and very loud Elmo.  He likes him if he is turned off and sitting quietly next to him on the couch, but he doesn’t like Elmo’s antics.

Last night we babysat for Ally and Chad’s Aiden, and Frank thought he’d give Elmo another try.  Honestly, Frank really does like Elmo- he laughs right along with him and enjoys the frenetic lurching and wiggling. 

At first Aiden wasn’t really sure if he liked Elmo, either.

He watched him and listened to his lively ranting.

When Elmo laid on the ground and started kicking his feet, well, Aiden decided that this little red furry guy was all right.

And he sat down and enjoyed the show.

(Notice Frank isn’t far from sitting down and enjoying the show, himself!)

I don’t want to make this into yet another Elmo commercial- so here is another activity we indulged in last night.-

After dinner dancing.

They make a cute couple, don’t they?

Because I have forgotten that I’m supposed to be walking and not playing in the garden.

I’ve forgotten that I’m on a journey WITH someone.

You know- the whole walking with my maker thing?

I just went out and bought a huge bag of rocks.

I bought an arborvidae that is about 2 and 1/4 feet tall.

And I have a wonderful stash of cookie cutters to go through before Wednesday.

Because Aidan is coming to spend some time with Jordan and Gramps and me and I wanted

our time together to be very special.

Rocks are about strength and foundations.

And Aidan loves to sort and carry and stack them.

The tree is about growth and life and reaching heavenward.

We are going to be making bread and cookies and they are about savoring the goodness in life

and recognizing the Giver of life.

So we will sort and stack and plant and dig and shape and bake and eat.

Sounds like a great time to me!

Somehow this seems so familiar- like a recurring theme in our lives.

If I can get a hold of a camera, I’ll post some pictures.

Current ones.

Our picnic patio at Kingwood.

Little "en" and I at the table, sharing a nectarine.

The Aiden/Aidan’s getting ready for adventure!

It was a really fun party.  The boys were congenial if not friends, yet, and it was beautiful day with dear family.

Now for the FARE_

What good cooks we all are!

A picnic with these ladies is a gastronomical delight.

We had – Picnic Chicken

             -Baba ghanoush with Ajvar and Pita bread

             -Israeli Couscous Salad

             -Black Bean and Corn Salsa

             -Pasta salad with Artichokes and Olives

             -Tomato and Chevre Tart

             -Sour Cherry Cake

             – Fruit and Dark Chocolate

Here is the recipe for the tart.

Ingredients:

Fillo dough sheets

1/2 cup melted butter

3 TBS olive oil

2 onions, sliced thin

1/2 tsp sugar

Goat cheese-3oz.

2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced thin and seeded

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

Method:

Sautee onions in olive oil until transparent- then add 1/2 tsp sugar and continue to sautee until they turn golden.

Thaw Fillo in refrigerator over night and take out about 10 sheets, keep them covered with damp paper towels so they don’t dry out.

On parchment paper, place one sheet of Fillo and brush with melted butter- place second sheet in opposite direction and again brush with butter.

Keep doing this , sheet by sheet, until you have a rounded base of buttery dough.  Place onions in the center of your round of Fillo and dot with

the goat cheese.  Place tomatoes – overlapping- in a circle on top of onions and cheese and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle basil over the top

and then carefully fold the top of the Fillo sheets over the tart.  Use the butter to keep the Fillo flexible.

Then bake the entire tart (Place parchment directly onto baking stone or on a large cookie sheet) in a 375 degree F oven until golden brown- about 35-45 minutes- keep an eye on it because baking temperatures differ from oven to oven.

This is really delicious and worth the effort.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures- my camera is non-functional and we started eating before Ally could get any pictures!

Let me know if you want any of the other recipes and I’ll try to get them for you!

Bon appetit!

Well, there has just been “this feeling” since I set Heidi up with her new site.  I can only describe it as not quite good enough. Something has been lacking, both in terms of visual style and in ease of use.  So, why not try something new and build her a site using WordPress?  After all, it is one of the most popular blogging platforms out there, and you can plug right into it using Window Live Writer, or other blogging tools for that matter.

She doesn’t know it yet, so if you find this page… keep it a secret.  🙂