Turkey...It's a Good Thing

We are going to Seaworld early tomorrow morning. To save some money I am packing lunch. I seared the seasoned turkey breast in butter and oil and then browned some aromatic vegetable in the turkey fat with S&P and a little sprinkle of sugar. Put it all back in the pot, threw in some fresh thyme sprigs and water and let it simmer for a while. I chopped the turkey up and put it on bread rolls with cranberry relish (Thanks to Natalie for making that). It took us only a few minutes to prepare (minus the cooking time).This should make for a tasty lunch! I put the turkey bone back into the water to let it simmer and make a stock for soup on Sunday.
I'll use the leftover turkey I didn't need and maybe I'll add dumplings.

Cookie Molds

I spent a good hour on this website today drooling over these gorgeous molds, especially this one. So beautiful!

On Punctuation

One time I read this book called Commas Are Our Friends. I think I took it too literally. My blog posts are strewn with random, unnecessary commas. My punctuation is pathetic. It's really rather embarrassing. A Beka Grammar & Composition, you failed failed me most miserably.

The View from Baskerville Hall

I felt the need earlier this week to find a painting of a foggy marshland, something that reminded me of The Hound of the Baskervilles. I googled, and this is what I found. I think the only thing that would make this painting more divine would be if there was a shadow of an eery mansion in the background, cloaked in fog. I wish I could "Skadoo" into this picture like they do on "Blue's Clues". It's just so dreamy.

Two of My Favorite C.S. Lewis Quotes

“There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else….It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work….All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it.”
~C.S. Lewis The Problem of Pain

“It was when I was happiest that I longed most….The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing…to find the place where all the beauty came from.”
~C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”

This one is.


Do you remember the first real book you ever read, oh non-existent readers? I don't mean Dick and Jane or the like. I mean the first book with a plot, characters that felt like your friends, descriptive wording that made you feel like you were living the story.

I remember being read to when I was little. I loved it. Mom would read either Mythology, The Little House books, Swiss Family Robinson, or some other delightful tale to Natalie and me. I also remember first learning to read. I hated it. My comprehension, as is the case with many children, was far more advanced than my ability to sound out words. Oh how frustrating it was to struggle over the most basic of words, when all I wanted to was to feast on a actual chapter book with a storyline! Hop on Pop and Rod & Staff readers are not exactly rich literature. It was quite discouraging. I saw how much Natalie loved to read, and I thought something was wrong with me. I wanted so badly to love it as much as she did, but I just didn't. One day, we went to the library, and Mom picked out a book for me. On the front cover was a little girl surrounded by sweet-faced little animals all staring with wide eyes at tiny spider hanging from the title, Charlotte's Web. I'll never forget opening that book for the first time. I was instantly absorbed into the story. For the first time everything made perfect sense. The letters formed into words, which formed into sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters. I was reading with ease...it came so naturally to me. Reading is a beautiful thing. Every time I think of this book, I feel the same excitement and get goosebumps just like I did back then. This is my favorite book. It was the first taste of the bliss reading offers. Charlotte's Web taught me the word gullible, it made me cry, it made me laugh, It made my imagination blossom. I distinctly remember this portion of the book being my favorite:

“Mr. Zuckerman had the best swing in the county. It was a single long piece of heavy rope tied to the beam over the north doorway. At the bottom end of the rope was a fat knot to sit on. It was arranged so that you could swing without being pushed. you climbed a ladder to the hayloft. Then, holding the rope, you stood at the edge and looked down, and were scared and dizzy. Then you straddled the knot, so that it acted as a seat. Then you got up all your nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped. For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor far below, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you and you would sail through the barn door going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair. Then you would zoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds, and the rope would twist and you would twist and turn with the rope. Then you would drop down, down, down, out of the sky and come sailing back into the barn almost into the hayloft, then sail out again (not quite so far this time), then in again (not quite so high), then out again, then in again, then out, then in; and then you’d jump off and fall down and let somebody else try it...When he (Avery jumped off he threw the swing up to his sister. She shut her eyes and jumped. She felt the dizzy drop, then the supporting lift of the swing. When she opened her eyes she was looking up into the blue sky and was about to fly back through the door. ”

“I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.” --C.S. Lewis And, so I picked up one of my copies again this morning (I tend to buy multiples of my favorite books-- I have at least five Narnia series and 4 Lord of the Rings...I think it's a sickness) and began reading. It's just as good as I remember.

Umpteenth Time's the Charm.

I'm going to attempt blogging once again. I believe that this is at least my 5th blog. I've stuck with some for a few months, maybe even a year or two, and then I'll go back and read my posts only to be horrified at what a shallow person I am. I'm not exactly pleased with my writing style either. I go back and read and say to myself that If I came across this blog I would not want to be this girls friend, and then I delete the blog in a sort of ceremonious "destroying all memory of the old, inferior self to allow this new found pursuit of maturity to take wing". Anyways, I am going to make one more feeble attempt at blogging and we shall see how it goes. I think I'll keep this one private for a while, and then if I prove to be somewhat faithful in updating, then I shall reveal it the world. That way people won't find me to be quite so fickle.

I created this blog a year ago. I visited the Jakobitz family (dear friends) and during my time there I was inspired to blog once again. I remember Auntie saying that blogging can be a form of praise. It's making the conscious decision to take a moment during the day, no matter how stressful you are and notice one of God's blessings. Sometimes, or should I say most of the time I will focus on all the negatives. The truth is I spend far too much time and energy "Alas-ing" and "Woe-is-me-ing" and hardly any time noticing and thanking God for the big and small beauties surrounding me. With a blog I could train myself to have a more grateful heart. What she said made quite an impact on me. I was so convicted and upon my return home, I started "The Linden Tree Isle". I stuck with it for two posts. Impressive? Yes, I know. But, although I may have not become a blog addict, it did change my perspective. I don't post it online, but I do take more time to take little mental snapshots that bring me joy. Instead of focusing on the traffic rushing past, and smell the stink of our polluted suburban air as I walk out the library, I try and notice the little spot of grass with those braided, entangled roots that brings my imagination to the Shire. Maybe this is where Frodo would sit and read a book.
So, all this to say, thank you, Auntie M. I don't think you had any idea when you made that passing comment about blogs you made my mind go into a whirlwind of thoughts, convictions, intense self hate, and once I calmed down and talked myself through this, I had the resolve and the excitement to pursue not only contentment, but joy in my life. I still fail miserably, but I'm trying.

All that to say, I am going to try once more to not only have this mindset, but to also publish it via the blogosphere. So that if I ever lose sight and forget this importance, I can go back and be reminded. And, hopefully, since this blog is meant to have a more serious tone, I will not in a rash moment delete it.