No More Leaving

No More Leaving

At

Some point

Your relationship

With God

Will

Become like this:

Next time you meet Him in the forest

Or on a crowded city street

There won't be anymore

"Leaving."

That is,

God will climb into

Your pocket.

You will simply just take

Yourself

Along!

From: 'The Gift'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

And Just Like That...

He goes from babe to man. He even lit his own birthday candles...

It is so easy when they have favorites. Boy likes cheesecake. Girl likes cherry pie. Husbandly likes, well anything.

This is the easiest cheesecake recipe in the world. Really.

Two packs softened cream cheese

One can sweetened condensed milk

8oz sour cream

1cup whipping cream

A bit of lemon zest and a few squeezes of lemon juice

Vanilla, Cardamon or Saffron can be added for flavor(or whatever you like)

Mix until smooth in mixer

Crust

1.5 packs of graham crackers, pulsed in food processor until it resembles sand

Handful of nuts, your choice pulsed with crackers

Enough butter to wet graham cracker/nut mixture(it should look like wet sand)

Add a good shot of Almond Extract(or anything you prefer)

Pat evenly into pan, cook at 325 for 15 minutes

Pour cream cheese filling into crust

Cook at 350 for 45 mins, or until center is somewhat firm

I like to add a saffron whipped cream on top if I didn't use it to flavor the cheesecake. Saffron Whipped Cream is Amazing. Really. Crumble a few strands of Saffron into the cream, with a bit of sugar.

For the birthday boy, I just used cherries and vanilla whipped cream, because that is what he likes.

Jeanne Oliver Designs-Be Still My Heart

These designs are so sweet and lovely!!! I think the floral tapestry bag should be mine. Now. Yesterday. Thank you very much.

Jeanne Oliver Shop-sigh...

Jeanne Oliver Designs-sigh...

Tulip Farm

We spent May Day surrounded by bobbing tulip heads, cool sunshine and the true shift that spring is finally here. Oh, to stand amid a field of tulips...what a completely refreshing way to pass some time on this lovely earth.

This is where we were.

She Is The First Thing I See When I Open My Eyes

The winter has been cold and grey and soppy. There has been snow, ice, sleet, hail, freezing temperatures and endless drops of rain. There were days when the sky seemed so heavy and dark, that I could hardly breathe. My chest felt heavy and I longed for spring deeply and with great melancholy.

She sat in the dark earth through all of this. She protected her beauty and fragile petals inside her thick brown coat. Her tenacity is admirable. It took a very long time for her to finally open to the cold, grey sky, for the ground is still very cold, despite what the calendar states. I debated about whether I should pluck her, but there are many brothers and sisters, so I brought her inside. In the pre-dawn, she appears to me as a lotus blossom. She takes me back, to the night on a train in Central India. I awoke to fussy babe, as we settled into our nursing rhythm, I glanced out at the rapidly moving night. The moon had illuminated endless watery fields of lotus blossoms, white, red and pink. As far as I could see, in the dark and lighted night, lotus blossoms bobbed on the horizon.

This tulip, this sweet, tenacious tulip worked all winter, guarding her gifts, tending her soft core, to bring this beautiful, haunting memory back to me. Thank you, sweet girl.

Spring Felting

There is nothing like the potential of an egg to make one stop and think, "Am I living on this planet enough? Am I birthing anything new and alive into the world?"

The Incredible Egg.

These were crafted with wee six and seven year old fingers.

Lovely.

The Egg.

Some Thrifting And Thrifty Baking

The cute granny napkin is so darling. Plus, I like when there is a little black in the work. You do not usually see much black, so it is a treat to me. Two thumbtacks and Voila! Instant, handmade art for spring. The tulips are coming! The tulips are coming!

The cake looks good, no? This was made with my thrifty heart in mind. We had a couple of eggs, a box of vanilla cake mix from Trader Joe's, a wee bit of whipping cream and the dregs of two Bonne Maman jam jars. Blackberry and Raspberry, I think. I added the last of the whiskey into the cake batter, plus a bit more vanilla. For the whipped cream, I scraped two nearly empty jars of jam into the already whipped cream with a large dash of Almond Extract. No sugar needed. I chopped a few almonds for crunch. After the cake cooled a bit, I turned it onto a plate and stuck into the freezer for a bit. This way, I could frost it, but when I served it, the center part was still a bit warm. Very nice.

There is tons more thrifty goodness. Stay tuned.