Grandmother Wren

SCRIPTURE CAKE

Behold there was a cake baken. I-Kings, 19:6

> ½ cup butter
Judges, 5:25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

>2 cups flour
I-Kings, 4:22 And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour…

>½ tsp. salt
Leviticus, 2:13 …with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

> 1 cup figs
I-Samuel, 30:12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him…

>1½ cups sugar
Jeremiah, 6:20…the sweet cane from a far country…

> 2 tsp. baking powder
Luke, 13:21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened

> ½ cup water
Genesis, 24:11 And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.

>1 cup raisins
I-Samuel, 30:12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him…

> 3 eggs
Isaiah, 10:14 …and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth…

> Cinnamon, mace, cloves
I-Kings, 10:10 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones…

> 1 tblsp. honey
Proverbs, 24:13 My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste

> ½ cup almonds
Genesis, 43:11 … a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds

Blend butter, sugar, spices and salt. Beat egg yolks and add. Sift in baking powder and flour, then add the water and honey. Put fruit and nuts thru food chopper and flour well. Follow Solomon’s advice for making good boys—1st clause of Proverbs, 23:14-Thou shalt beat him with the rod. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake for 1 hour in 375-f oven.

Enjoy more of Vintage Recipe Thursday - Visit Joy at Joy of Desserts

(and please don’t beat boys with rods to make them good… I’m quite certain this is much better advice for making good cakes -  The  contemporary English translation of this verse is Don’t fail to correct your children…
Grandmother Wren  )

It’s International Snow Sculpture Week – get inspired by tours of amazing snow and ice creations, then get out there and create one of your own !

1. Amazing Snow Sculptures From Around The World

Amazing Snow Sculptures – The best bloopers are here

2. Winter Wonderland – 12 Awe Inspiring Snow Sculpture Themes

3. Highlights For Children Snow Sculpture Picture Gallery

4. Fantastic and Frigid Sculptures of Snow

5. Team Snowtastic – Professional Snow Sculptures

6. Snow and Ice Sculpting Videos from Microsoft Videos.com

7. The Snow Castle in Kemi, Finland (check out the beautiful chapel!)

8. Beautiful Wilson Bentley Snowflake Images (public domain – print, frame, enjoy!)

9. National Snow and Ice Data Center Snow Gallery

10. You Can Make A Snow Sculpture! Here’s How

11. Photos From The 2010 Snow Sculpture Festival in Breckenridge CO.

12. The Arctic’s Snow Village Vacation Destination ( if you think that’s a fun idea….)

13. This Year’s Ice Festival In Harbin, China – breathtaking!

Visit More Thursday 13ers – Click Here

Still working on that same theme – what works for me in our new, lovely, smaller space?
Last week, it was those really neat storage “hackusses”. We’re still loving those.

This week we started taking a look at what we want for the bedroom. One thing we want a lot less of is furniture. There is just not enough space for a wardrobe, two bookcases, my desk, the bed, the desk chair… we need all of these pieces – just not in the bedroom.

In the kitchen is a microwave cart not doing much of anything other than holding up the microwave and providing a small drawer beneath it. The cart is located in a space wide enough to fit one of the bookcases nicely. But… it’s under the kitchen window. I don’t want to put a bookcase in front of a window. It will look awful from the outside (and probably violate some senior housing authority rule about fire safety – they’re big on fire safety here) and it will block the light coming into the kitchen.

But hey…
if we take the back off the bookcase we can still use the shelves-
the light can still come through -
and the bookcase will fall down.
I guess I’m not that well versed in the construction of bookcases. (you need the back to support the frame. )

How about if we cut off half of the back of the bookcase? The half that covers the window? We could leave the bottom half of the back on for support. (Grampy sort of frowned and muttered a half-hearted “we can try that if you want to…)

Yes!
Here is the bookcase in the its new location, providing a whole bunch of space – both on its shelves and in the place it vacated in the bedroom – and letting the light shine in.

I suppose we may still be violating some sort of fire exit rule but we’ll worry about that when someone mentions it. Until then – works great for me!

Enjoy more of Works For Me Wednesday – Visit Kristen at We Are That Family

I’m a little late in getting my blog posts up for today.
I began well – lunch was done, Maya off to an afternoon of kindergarten. I made a cup of tea, decided to bring along a handful of pretzels to munch on, settled down at the keyboard to work.

A handful of crunchy pretzels.
Not a chewy granola bar. Not pieces of saltwater taffy.
Pretzels.

And then I was missing a front tooth.

This sort of mishap was not all that uncommon before I had dentures. (that is why I have dentures). But now? I didn’t know this was even possible. The tooth was not broken, the socket (or whatever it’s called in a denture) was not broken – the tooth had simply removed itself neatly from its position in my mouth.

Okay.
No need to panic.
I called the dentist. Surely there is an adhesive that they apply? It looks like there must have been an adhesive holding the tooth in place to begin with?
There is.
But they don’t do that at the dentist’s office. (of course not).
I would need to bring the denture in to the office, they will send it to the lab for repair and I’ll have it back in a week.

I don’t think so….

Or…
there is a dental adhesive at the pharmacy that can be used for temporary repairs. It will hold the tooth in place permanently (more or less, I would now suppose) but they refer to it as “temporary” because surely a day will come when I will want to send my teeth away for a week and wander about toothless waiting for them to be returned to me.

Right.

I went to the pharmacy.
Everything is back to where it should be.
I am feeling ever so much better now.

We’ve been crafting.
Tired of the white of winter, we went to the dollar store and bought supplies to make a Valentine’s Day wreath for our front door.

Color and fresh scents.
That’s what we’re needing to make our home sing with the promise that winter will end.
We’re starting some potpourri and pomander projects too.
Today we made a blossom from fresh orange peels.

I’ll be adding some recipes and tutorials for herb and spice scented projects in my Thrifty Creativity blog throughout this week.
If I can keep my teeth in my head.

Enjoy more of Making Your Home Sing Monday - visit Nan at Mom’s The Word

Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

Each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,the National Audubon Society , and Bird Studies Canada learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds—all at the same time,” said Audubon Education Vice President, Judy Braus. “Even if you can only identify a few species you can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities.”

Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at http://www.birdcount.org/. One 2009 participant said, “Thank you for the opportunity to participate in citizen science. I have had my eyes opened to a whole new interest and I love it!”

“The GBBC is a perfect first step towards the sort of intensive monitoring needed to discover how birds are responding to environmental change,” said Janis Dickinson, the director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab. “Winter is such a vulnerable period for birds, so winter bird distributions are likely to be very sensitive to change. There is only one way—citizen science—to gather data on private lands where people live and GBBC has been doing this across the continent for many years. GBBC has enormous potential both as an early warning system and in capturing and engaging people in more intensive sampling of birds across the landscape.”

Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2009 GBBC data highlighted a huge southern invasion of Pine Siskins across much of the eastern United States. Participants counted 279,469 Pine Siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops farther north caused the siskins to move south to find their favorite food.

On the http://www.birdcount.org/, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special materials for educators. Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC website’s photo gallery. All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CDs, and many other great birding products.

In 2010, Bird Studies Canada (BSC) joins the GBBC as the program’s Canadian partner. “Bird Studies Canada is delighted to be the Canadian partner for this extremely valuable program,” said George Finney, President of BSC. “Participating in the GBBC is an excellent way for Canadians to reconnect with their love of nature and birds.”

For more information about the GBBC, visit the website at http://www.birdcount.org/. Or contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473, gbbc@cornell.edu, or Audubon at (202) 861-2242 ext 3050, citizenscience@audubon.org. In Canada, participants may contact Bird Studies Canada at 1- (888)- 448-2473 ext. 134 or gbbc@birdscanada.org.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible, in part, by generous support from Wild Birds Unlimited.