"You know it's nothing new, bad news never had good timing..."- John Mayer
My boys.
There may be radio silence on my blog for a few days. I got the
news this morning that my Grandpa Lee unexpectedly passed away overnight, just
one day before he was set to be given a clean bill of health and discharged
entirely from the hospital.
We are all in shock and struggling to process the
turn of events. Two weeks ago we were preparing for this exact news, but after
his swift recovery we let our guards down and are therefore even more
heartbroken at the loss.
Today has been a frenzy of making arrangements.
Changing flights. Booking car rentals. Making reservations for the dogs. Flying
home in an emergency situation is an expat’s worst nightmare. I just want to be
home and never has that felt more far away. As much as modern technology helps
us stay connected, nothing can substitute for the comfort of a hug or just the peace of being in the presence of those who feel your pain.
I’ll be
bringing my computer to the States as I visit for the next 3 weeks, and I will
try to update as often as I can. For now, I’d really appreciate any prayers
that you can spare for our grieving family, and for smooth travel as we all
make our way to Missouri in the next few days. Thank you, friends.
Whenever we don’t have plans, our usual nighttime ritual is
to eat dinner and then watch TV for a few hours before putting the dogs to bed
and reading a bit before our own bedtime. We are firm believers in kennel
training which means that our dogs eat and sleep in their own designated space.
However, we aren’t always so consistent with the ‘not sleeping in the bed with
us’ aspect, which is why, every night after potty time, Bailey runs straight to
her kennel but Samson sits by my side of the bed flashing me the most pitiful puppy
eyes on earth.
He stays right there, staring me down, the entire time I’m washing
my face and brushing my teeth. It’s so heartbreaking that Jonathan and I
usually rock/paper/scissors about who has to be the mean parent who actually
commands him to go to bed.
Last night was my turn, and I thought I’d capture
the puppy eyes on video for your viewing pleasure. Because he doesn’t stop
trying after we’ve given him the ’go to bed’ command...
His motto is ‘never give
up’ and he flashed me those sad brown eyes no less than 5 times in the 10 feet from our
bedroom to his kennel, as if to ask, “Are you sure Mom? How could you do this
to me? I promise I will snuggle your feet all night and I’ll try to keep the
snoring to a minimum”.
At which point I turned to Jonathan and asked “Are you sure
he can’t sleep with us? How could you do this to him? All he does is keep your
feet warm and occasionally snore like a dragon”. Parenting is hard y’all.
Samson isn’t the only pitiful pup in the family. Bailey got a 6 mile snow run
yesterday which meant she was pretty tuckered out afterward. While we watched Raising Hope she slept like a baby…or perhaps an
adult woman.
Yep, this is my exact sleeping position. We couldn’t stop
laughing, which woke her up for about 6 seconds before she promptly fell back
asleep in this position:
We couldn’t stop laughing, which woke her up for about
6 seconds before she promptly fell back asleep in this position:
We couldn’t
stop laughing, which woke her up for about 6 seconds before she promptly fell
back asleep in this position:
We couldn’t stop laughing, which she took as her
cue to come over to our couch and crawl into her Daddy’s lap for a snooze.
Such
a sweet sweet pitiful girl. Parenting is hard, but it has its rewards.
One of my favorite things about our weekly Mahjong meetings
is that everyone pitches in to bring a sweet or salty snack. It’s the perfect
opportunity to practice my baking without having 2 dozen cookies leftover at my personal
disposal. Since this week falls in the middle of
all the Burns Dinner festivities (more on that little tradition later…), our
hostess Vicki is making a traditional Scottish lunch. She asked us all to pitch
in by bringing something typically Scottish.
I signed up for the dessert column
and got to brainstorming. I immediately settled on shortbread. I had a
successful go at millionaire shortbread for our Scottish themed book club back
in July and thought I might try again. However, as I was skimming pinterest for
other ideas I spotted this recipe for Pumpkin Shortbread.
Usually I am stingy
with my canned pumpkin, but I feel a bit more secure since we have a trip back
to the States next week where I can pick up a few replacement cans.
I decided
to experiment with the recipe, but bought a few boxes of Marks and Spencer
Millionaire Shortbread just in case it didn’t work out so well. When it comes
to baking, I always have a back up plan!
I had to alter the recipe a bit
because:
1) it called for the use of a tart tray and the cutting of finished shortbread
into slices. I’m not neurotic about too many things, but I tend to prefer my
shortbread cut into squares. I figured it wasn’t too big of a deal to switch up
the shape of my cooking instrument and final presentation.
And 2) We don’t have
access to pumpkin pie spice here in the UK, so I just threw in some cinnamon,
ginger, and nutmeg and called it a day. Ideally, it would have been nice to have
some cloves on hand, but hello it is snowing buckets and it simply isn’t worth
getting out on those roads when the recipe calls for 1/100 of a teaspoon of the
stuff. And plus, I needed something to place the blame on in case it turned disastrous.
The fact that I was missing 1/100 of a teaspoon of cloves could be my perfect
excuse. I’m telling you, when it comes
to baking, I’ve got my bases covered.
First let’s start with a little
vocabulary lesson. When an American recipe calls for ‘powdered’ sugar, what you’re
looking for in the UK is ‘icing’ sugar...I think. That was my best educated guess
anyway, and it looks like the same thing. And when it calls for corn starch,
you can find that in the box labeled ‘corn flour’.
Moving on….
First you mix
the dry ingredients together (flour, pumpkin pie spice, corn starch, and salt)
and set them aside. Easy peasy. Then using a hand mixer, mix the room
temperature butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Now, this was my first time
working with powdered sugar. You have probably not come this far in life
without using it in a recipe, but if you have….might I suggest manually mixing
the ingredients together a smidge before setting a hand mixer to them.
Powdered
sugar everywhere. Good thing I cleaned the whole house earlier today…Once I re-adjusted for the amount of sugar lost in the tragedy, I tried mixing the two ingredients again
before adding in a ½ cup of pumpkin.
Once this concoction was mixed, I added in the dry ingredients little by little until everything was combined. Then I smoothed the mixture into a greased SQUARE pan and baked it for 63 minutes at 300 degree
F/150 degrees C.
And then came the hardest part. The waiting. I had a sinking
feeling those store bought millionaire shortbreads were going to come in handy…
Then about 30 minutes into cooking, the most pleasant smell that had ever
passed through my nostrils started wafting through the house. It was like a
perfect autumn scented candle. I started
hoping against hope that perhaps my mahjong treat wouldn’t just be edible, but
possibly even delicious.
When it was time to pull the shortbread from the oven,
it was golden but not quite ‘firm’ like the recipe foretold. I let it cool in the
pan for a few minutes before panicking and went to work making the icing.
The
icing consists of two ingredients: milk and super messy powdered sugar. At this
point I began questioning the logic behind re-cleaning the kitchen before the
icing was made. Poor decision making on my part. Luckily the process of making
icing just involves manually mixing together powdered sugar and milk so the
mess was contained to a small spot on the kitchen island.
Hey, I’ve already
cleaned the kitchen countertops twice today, what’s one more time?
Once it was
all mixed together and the shortbread had a chance to cool down and firm up, I glazed
the homemade icing over the top.
And I thought powdered sugar was messy…
After
letting it set for about 15 minutes, I cut my shortbread into squares, just how
I like it. I performed a taste test, and even though they aren’t the most
beautiful things on earth, they sure do taste pretty.
The recipe recommends
serving the shortbread immediately, but instead I made it the night before,
stored it in an airtight container and served it up the next morning. Which
might be my perfect excuse for why it’s terrible if it turns inedible
overnight. I’m crossing my fingers that’s not necessary, but I gotta have an
excuse ready at my disposal just in case…
If you are interested, you can view the full recipe here.
Despite another coating of snow this morning, today is back
to business as usual in Aberdeen. Sam has been walked, and Bailey has been
jogged. Bailey has also used her backyard time as an opportunity to sneak into
the neighbor’s garden.
Such a prankster!
The roads are still pretty treacherous
out there so it’s still considered a ‘snow day’ in my book. However, today I
have donned my pajamas and traded up for yoga clothes and instead of lounging
by the fire I am hoping to get 90% of my weekly chores done by the time Jonathan
gets home. My favorite ‘chore’ is blogging, so let’s get going so I can scratch
something off of my to-do list.
One of the pitfalls of snow days is that I don’t
gather any interesting information or experiences to blog about. Since I don’t
want this to be blog post # 5 about how magical it is to watch the snow spiral
down to the ground while I sip my hot cuppa tea, I figured I’d revisit the ‘snapshot’
idea and give you a quick glimpse into our lives right now.
Reading: I just
finished Book 2 of the Game of Thrones series.
I feel like when you finish a
1000 page novel, you should be given a medal. I can’t believe there are 5 of
those bad boys left.
Yesterday I started The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.
Wowza. I’m
only about 75 pages in, but it is so stinkin good. I’m actually praying for
more snow days so that I have an excuse to read for hours on end. Gosh I love when I fall head over heels for a book like this!
The premise
is a couple who live alone on an isolated island off the coast of Australia who are
unable to have children. One day a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a
live infant. The novel follows their decision to keep the baby and the implications
of that back on the mainland. Not only is the plot gripping, but the prose is
absolutely gut-wrenchingly beautiful.
Watching: ‘Breaking Bad’ season 2, which
is a bit dark, so when it all gets a bit too heavy we lighten up the mood with
episodes of ‘Raising Hope’. Have you seen this show?
It always looked a bit
goofy to me but it is slap-your-knee hilarious. Yes, the characters are a bit
extreme, but it is such a cute show and perfect for a bit of comic relief.
Listening
to: Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors. Good old Southern folk music is getting
me pumped up for my upcoming travels to the US. This song is probably the best song ever
written in the history of ever. And if you replace the word ‘Tennessee’ with ‘Louisiana’,
it could be my expat anthem.
“No matter how far I roam, I always belong.” Love!
Loathing: Being cold inside my house. Heating is ridiculously expensive in
Scotland. Like 250 bucks a month, and that’s only if you run your heating for a
few hours a day. Since all of the homes run off of radiator heat, it’s not the
most efficient warming mechanism. So basically we are paying out the wazoo and
yet we are still freezing cold and have to supplement with space heaters and
our fireplace. Brrrr.
Loving: Afternoon tea time. It’s tradition that Brits
take a time out from their day around 3 pm to have a cuppa tea and a light
snack, usually consisting of biscuits (cookies). I have been diligently
following this social custom and welcome that comforting landmark in my day.
Plus I just discovered Chai tea and am questioning how I've lived this long without it. Brew it up in some piping hot milk and suddenly hot cocoa has some competition for my go-to comfort beverage. Seriously yummy!
Missing: Warm weather. I never thought I’d be
homesick for Houston, but there is something to be said for mild winters.
Of
course, I’d still take a mild summer/harsh winter over a mild winter/harsh
summer anyday. Luckily I will be out of Scotland for 2 weeks in February and
then again in March, so I’ve only got about 4 weeks of winter left to endure
before springtime shows up.
Craving: King Cake. I can’t wait to have some of
this Mardi Gras treat while I’m in Louisiana! I sure would love a chocolate
filled one from Meches (*** hint, hint Mom and Dad***).
Praying: For my grandpa
Lee as he continues his recovery. He’s doing really well and looks like his old
self again. My dad sent me this picture of him using a smartphone to catch up
on my blog.
Thank you for all of your prayers!
Studying: I’m still studying the
book of James through Beth Moore’s Mercy Triumphs study. It’s mega convicting
and is reminding me that faith is not enough. I need to act out my Christianity
by serving others. I feel like sometimes I live such a small life without much
of an influence outside of my inner circle. As a chronically shy introvert, it’s
a bit intimidating to try to live outside of that very comfortable social net.
I’m slowly coming around though and have been doing some research and praying
hard for God to reveal a calling for me that helps me to live out my faith more
actively. The whole second Chapter of James is mighty convicting, but the story of Abraham always speaks to my heart:
James 2:21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend.24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
Learning: The British rules of the road. The UK is full of detailed driving
laws that are going to take an awful long time to memorize. I’m supposed to
pass my driving test by May 6. I’ve got a lot of learning to do before then!
Snacking: On Border’s Biscuits (cookies). It’s my go-to teatime snack. And overall I’m not snacking as much as I am
drinking hot tea all day long. I probably have 10 different varieties that I
sample throughout the day. It helps to keep me warm in my chilly house.
Planning:
My trip back home. Right now the plan is to spend a few days in Houston
shopping and taking care of doctors/dentists/beautician appointments, before
heading to Louisiana to visit family and friends. It just so happens that our trip falls
over Mardi Gras, which adds a bit of fun but also complicates the whole ‘driving
to New Orleans to visit friends’ plan I had in my head. It’s just a quick two
week trip and will hopefully be a bit more laid back than our October homecoming
last year.
When we moved to Scotland, we
planned to return to the States once a year. However, Jonathan’s job is giving
him opportunities to travel back quite a bit. Since I’m not working and have no
kiddos, it seems silly for me not to tag along on these work trips. But it
stresses me out to have to encroach on others' hospitality, especially when I’m
shopping like a maniac and have my stuff scattered everywhere. We’ve talked
about investing in a place in Houston, but we just aren’t ready to take the
plunge. If we move to a hardship location, we will probably move forward in
this direction, but for now we are bunking up with friends and family, crashing
on couches and borrowing cars. First world problems...
Well that’s a snapshot of my life lately. What’s
going on with you? I’d love to hear what you're reading, listening to, and
dreaming of!
